New Things

Guess what!? We got an apartment! Yay! Are you excited for us or what?! We are moving on the 1st of November. Thats 2 1/2 days away. We are so grateful for our dear friends Jessica and Kenny Owens for opening their home to us the past 10 months. They have been so great. It has been fun to get to spend more time with them and the cheap rent was a wonderful bonus :) It was because of them we were able to get our car paid off so soon. Yay for no debt! (we aren't going to talk about school loans debit haha) The things I am most excited for with the move are:
1. Noah gets his own room with a door! This means we don't have to worry so much about being extra quite during nap time.
2. We have our own bathroom in our room! No more not flushing the toilet at night because Noah's bed is just on the other side of the wall and it will wake him up.
3. Our own fridge. We can fit more of our food in there. Its hard having two different meal plans, diets and everything in one fridge.
4. No more house mates. I can go to the kitchen in the middle of the night with no bra, sometimes no pants haha and not worry about others seeing me.
5. The feeling of being self efficient. Its just nice to be on our own again and feel like grown ups. Not that living with others makes you less of a grown up. It just feels more grown up. I hope that makes sense.
6. I get to go furniture shopping! When we moved we had to sell most of our big stuff since we didn't have room or money to store it. Now I get to start over. We are only buying used thrifted items but I'm sure we will get some pretty things.

I will post pictures of our new place and the moving action later :)

Noah and the Kangaroo

Noah fell and hit his face on the table and his tooth went through his bottom lip.
It scared Sean and I so much. It was bleeding so much and wouldn't stop. So we took him to his doctors office who then sent us to a branch of the Phx hospital in Mesa. They decided to stitch it up. It was so hard to watch. They couldn't sedate him so he was just swaddled really tight and we held him down while the doctor stitched him up. He had to get 3 of them. He screamed the whole time. I was crying so hard too that I had to leave the room. It was the hardest thing in my life to hear his distressed cries and not be able to do anything to take the pain away. Sean stayed there with him though. He is a lot stronger than I am. I'm glad Sean was there to hold our little Noah during it. I came back in towards the end when they were doing the last stitch. Poor Noah was so upset and screaming. They said that it would leave a small scar but might be gone by the time he is a teenager or adult. Sean and I just held Noah and gave him loves and kisses. He was so sweaty and shaking from the experience. I'm glad he is young enough he wont remember it. By the time we were in the car Noah was laughing and smiling again. We have such a tough little guy! Oh and the doctor was so awesome. They let us chose from a huge box of toys for him. Noah now has a large plush kangaroo which he calls "baby" and hugs.

Farewell Cloth Diapers

I am sad to say good bye to our cloth diaper journey with Noah. As I posted earlier he was getting really bad rashes from using them. As suggested by a friend, Adriana, we used all cotton inserts in hopes that they would be more gentle on Noah's bum. Sean and I had high hopes. Then the morning after having Noah in cloth diapers those hopes were crushed. The rash was back from just one day in cloth even with the cotton inserts! This is really baffeling since I thought cloth was supposed to be great especially for sensitive skin. Appareently Noah only likes the expensive fake diapers. Well it worked out for the first months of Noah's life quite well and saved us lots of money when we really needed it. So it was a nice journey while it lasted. We are going to keep the cloth and use them for the next baby though. As long as he/she doesn't have the same reaction as Noah. Thanks Adriana for letting us use her cotton inserts so we didn't spend money to try them out first.

LOVE YOU

Noah said words I've been waiting to hear yesterday. After work I went to my parents house to pick up Noah. He saw me at the door and toddled towards me saying "puppy puppy puppy" He loves to say puppy! Everything is puppy to him. haha. It is the funniest thing. He says it in a cute high pitched voice too. Sean and I smile and says yes puppies are nice but thats a ____ fill in blank for whatever it is Noah is acutally pointing or looking at.

So as he walks towards me I scoop him up and squeeze him saying "love you sweetheart. I love you" And thats when Noah made my mama heart melt. He said "love you" and he put his arms around my neck. That is the best feeling in the world right there. Having your child say love you and hugging you. He is such a cuddler lately and Sean and I love it! Every morning he goes back and forth between the two of us giving hugs and kisses. He is trying to talk more and more and he is getting better at it. I know Sean is just so looking forward to when Noah says love you to him too. He hasn't said it since, but I'm sure it will be coming more soon enough. We have a home and family full of loves.

I heart Conference Weekend

I loved this weekend. Every 6 months the LDS church have a conference where general authorities speak to us about what The Lord feels we need to hear about. Its amazing how they are able to touch peoples hearts and spirits from all over the world with their word, Gods words. None of the people talking are given topics. They each pray fervently about what Heavenly Father wants them to talk about and recieve revelation of what their topic should be.

Every one can pray and recieve answers from these conferences. Its as if heaven opens its doors and just pours out the spirit and answers to everyone that is prayerful listening. This year I watched all four sessions at my mother in law's house. Sean had to work all day saturday so he miss it all that day. We are going to watch one or two talks every Sunday so he can catch up on them. Sean was able to watch on Sunday though.

Sean's mom made yummy breakfasts both days. Our spirit and bellies were full! My favorite talks were Elder Utchdorf here  Elder Perry here  Elder Holland here  Elder Bednar here  and President Monson here


I know the Church is true. I know that my Heavenly Father knows and loves me. I am so grateful for the Holy Ghost and for the comfort it brings to me and for the true that is brought to be from it. I know that Jesus Christ is my Savior and died for me so that I can repent and return to my Father in Heaven. I'm grateful for latter day revelation and I know that God still speaks to us. If you are interested in learning more you can go to lds.org I hope you had a great weekend too!

Prayers for Grandpa

My Grandpa Rolland is sick. He was admitted into the hospital Monday the 1st. He was coughing up blood so my grandma called my mom who came over and took them to the hospital. My sister Amanda went with them and texted everyone to let them know what was going on. Over the last couple days we have learned that he has pneumonia and a mass that is 7cm on his right lung that is cancerous. The doctors don't know what stage it is because his body is too weak to undergo a biopsy. Even if they knew what stage it is in there isn't much they can do for him because again his body is too weak to survive surgery to remove the cancer. They say he has 4 months to a year to live. Amanda, Corey, their daughter Cortney, Andrea, Sean and I and Noah met my mom at the hospital last night to see grandpa and grandma and give them our love. He actually didn't look that sick. He mostly looked tired. We all chatted and took pictures of Grandpa with the babies. At first they wanted nothing to do with him because of all the machines around him I'm sure he looked scary. But I sat on his bed with Noah in my arms and then Noah became more interested in him. That made gpa smile. He said that he is fine and not really in pain. Amanda was telling him that he needs to hang on and stay strong because she needs him in the blessing cirlce for her baby. He just nodded and said ok. That made Andrea cry and have to leave the room. Its hard for her. She was able to compose herself and come back in after a couple minutes. Mom is trying to stay positive and strong for grandma. She is really scared. Its her daddy. He is 82 years old. Thats old but not old enough for thoughts of him dying. I'm named after him. Roland Dean Ellsworth. I'm glad that we have the Gospel and know what comes next. When he does pass he gets to go to heaven and we will see him again. We are an eternal family sealed together forever. Its comforting. But still death is hard in this life. We are all hoping that he passes the year maximum the doctors have given him. For now Grandpa is in the hospital but should be leaving today. He has stopped coughing up blood and the doctors think he is strong enough to go home. From there he will just keep living life and we will make him as comfortable as possible and keep him happy and smiling. He is a silly man. We love how sweet and funny he is. Amanda asked him if he is scared. He responded "no I'm passed that stage." While at the hospital he told me he missed his tv at home.

Can I ask that you pray for my grandpa? And my family to be at peace with whatever the Lord decides is right for him? I just want my grandpa for as long as he can be here. I have more memories I'd like to make with him. I want him to be there for my other children. I also don't want my grandma left alone. Maybe there will be a miracle and he will surpass to 2 or 3 or 5 more years.

Cloth Diaper Hiatus

We are on a cloth diaper hiatus right now. I posted a couple weeks ago about stripping our diapers and how they were so clean and great now. Guess that didn't work. Noah's rash came back with a vendetta or something. It was so bad it was open sores and red all over. He even had blisters on his penis. It happened over night! We were really worried so I took him to the doctor last Saturday the 28th. I took him at 8pm so it was a different doctor there. She said that it looked like MRSA which really freaked me out. But then after poking and squeezing and prodding it she determined that it was just a really really really bad diaper rash. She said that MRSA would be firm and puss would be coming out of the sores. So little blessings it wasn't anything really serious. She said that Noah must have really acidic urine and that the cloth diapers don't breathe so the ammonia gets stronger. Then the urine eats away at Noah's little bum and boy parts. Poor guy! I feel so bad, like I'm to blame for it. I was so set on using cloth diapers and that’s what is causing him to have such a bad rash. The doctor said to wash the diapers in vinegar and that we can try again to use them still. But she said if the rash comes back that we should stop using them all together. She said that cloth diapers are great but that Noah might have too sensitive skin for them. That’s kind of crazy because you think that disposables would be worse for sensitive skin. I guess that’s not the case for Noah though because as soon as we put him in disposables the rash starts to clear up. It was really bad so its still not completely cleared up yet but its almost there. There are no longer sores just little pink spots where it is still healing. So once it heals up and we strip the cloth diapers (AGAIN) this time with vinegar we will go back to cloth.

I'm hoping that cleaning them with the vinegar works. Sean doesn't like the cloth because of the extra work and the smell of the dirty diapers when putting them in the washer. But he loves the savings and he thinks they are super cute on Noah. I love the savings and think the are super cute too and I don't even mind the washing anymore. I would be so sad to have to stop using them! I love that i am a cloth diapering mom. I feel proud that I am doing something to better the environment. Also I like that I have stuck with something even though others think its hard. I'm part of this cool club of cloth diapering moms. Whenever I meet someone who cloth diapers I automatically have a friend. haha. But, Noah is my top priority and I don't want him to be in pain. When his rash was really bad he would cry every time he peed because it would burn his bum. He is totally fine now that it has mostly cleared up. Even when it was bad it would only bother him when he peed so that was another blessing. He was still his usual happy silly self.

So I will keep you updated on the diaper situation. He is in disposables for now until the rash is gone and then when we go back to cloth I will update on how that goes. Wish us luck!

ASCC= Free Car Seat!

I don't know if I posted about the class Sean, my mom and I took about 2 months ago. We took a Car Seat Safety Class put on by the organization Association for Supportive Child Care. They have many classes to help parents and child care givers with resources and learning how to properly care for children. They classes include CPR Certification, First Aid, Crib Safety Class, Home Safety and others I can't remember right now. All of the classes are FREE.You should look them up online! They are an amazing organization and are non profit.

So in the car seat class we learned so much! There was a lot of information so I don't want to write it all down. Basically you should just take the class even if you don't need a car seat. Its just good to know for the safety of your child. We learned that its safest for children under two to be rear facing. We learned how to properly buckle them into the car seat (like the harness should be at or below their shoulders, the clip should be at level with their armpits), what size and age they should move to a different car seat. They told us that studies show 7 out of 10 car seats are installed improperly. Thats so scary to think about those poor kids in those car seat. And those poor parents that probably don't know the right way. I'm glad I'm now an informed parent.

So after the class we called and left our names, numbers and the number of car seats we are in need of. Then they call you back between 6 to 8 weeks and schedule a slot for you in the event that week. Sean wasn't able to do it last minute because the events are only on saturday and he works all day saturdays. So the nice lady that scheduled me actually let Sean sign up for the next event in two weeks. They normally don't do that but since Sean's case was special they let us.

Any way, My mom and I and my dad went to the event today. We had to bring the babies with us so they could be weighed and measured to be sure we got the correct seat for each child. The car seats are brand new! In the class they said to never buy or even accept for free a car seat because you never know the story behind that car seat. If it was in an accident it could be dangerous to use. Also car seats expire. Did you know that? I sure didn't til I took the class. I'm glad I know now. The plastic or parts and ware and then not be effective in case of an accident.

Mom and I are so happy with our car seats. They are so cute! You get as many car seats as children you have or care for that will fit in your car. So I got one for Noah and my mom got one for Noah and one for Cortney. Here is the car seat I got for Noah. Its a convertible car seat. ASCC doesn't give our infant car seats because they don't last as long. The convertible ones are cooler anyway because they can be used for infants up to 3 years or 40 pounds.

Mason Jar Madness

Having a healthy and tasty lunch is a pretty hard feat. I try to make sure Sean and I eat well but on a tight budget its really difficult. Mostly because it requires a lot of planning and preparation. Its so easy to just buy those pre packaged super unhealthy, preservatives packed lunches. Well we are saying good bye to those days! I have discovered the amazingness of mason jar lunches. My best friend and roommate is an avid mason jar user. They litter her kitchen and I have to say they look quite sheik. So other than the prettyness factor here are some other great things about mason jars. They keep greens fresher than fresh, they don't stain, they are BPA free, you can put them in the microwave and dishwasher! Also They don't leak are reusable and travel really effortlessly. Yep I am a mason jar convert and never going back. Ready to start an awesome new chapter with your lunches with me? Here we go! I know its going to take some preparation but I am so willing to do it since it doesn't look to hard. I am going to plan lunch and dinner for the month and then go shopping every saturday to get the fresh foods (produce and parasiables,) and once a month for things that can be frozen. Then every Sunday I will spend an hour or so and prepare as much as I can for the dinners and pack the mason jar lunches. Then when Sean and I are hurrying out the door in the morning we can just grab our jars and go. No work or extra thoughts on what to bring for lunch that day. I picked up some mason jars at walmart for $8 for a 12 pack. I want some other sizes so I will go back and get some for other things like the dip and smaller portion meals. I have 20 recipes I want to try out but for now I had to work with the ingredients I already had at the house.  So, Here are the meals I made last night. There are much more to come too!

The meals are: Poppyseed and chicken salad, cobb salad, honey mustard and cucumber salad, bbq rice and chicken, noodles and itailian dressing with cheese, ceasar salad, won tons, and another cobb salad. 

Walking Noah

Noah is an official walker! He is a pro at it too. haha ok well almost, but he is darn good at it. We are so proud of our little guy. Last Sunday he started taking a couple steps again and then Monday after  I got off work he walked straight towards me! By the next Sunday, yesterday Sept 30th, he was walking all over the place. Everyone has been so excited to see him walking. Sean and I have been such proud parents showing off his new stepping skills to everyone we can.



**Funny Story Time**
Saturday I was having Noah show off his skills to Andrea at my parents house. I was sitting on the couch with Noah standing at my feet. Andrea was sitting on the floor 3 feet from me. She was calling Noah to come to her and he was acting shy. Then he took three steps towards her, shook his head and quickly turned around and walked back to me laughing. Andrea just laughed and said "hey! you tricked me!" That just made Noah laugh even more! haha It was so funny.

He loves his new found freedom. He can now get to all the things he was looking at for all these months. He also can catch the kitties at our house. He lays on them and rubs his face on their soft fur. I can't believe they just let him. He is so gentle with them. . . until he isn't. haha At first he is super sweet with them and rubs his hand on them and then he gets excited and tries to bite them or grab their fur too hard. Thats when the run away. He then just laughs and tries to catch them again. Gosh I love him! He loves making people excited and happy. When he walks every one claps so naturally he loves walking. He shakes his head and giggles and turns away from who ever is calling him. Such a cutie pie.

He also has added more words to his vocabulary. He says puppy, play, and attempts to say grandma, he says gggmamama. He mimics sounds after someone talkes to him. He is getting really good. He is a cuddly lovey boy too. Noah wraps his arms around our necks and squeezes us when ever we scoop him up.

We are so blessed to have Noah in our life.