Weekend fun!

Noah and Rebekah were sick for a few days last week and were miserable. We were so happy when they finally started to feel better. Friday Sean texted me and did he wanted to do something fun with the kids when he gets home from work. We decided to go have a picnic in the park for dinner. We invited Grandma Howell to go with us. We all had such a fun time. We went to Freestone Park. It's one of my favorite. There is a little carnival there that has always been closed when I've been but it was opened that day! We fed the ducks bread, ate dinner, played on the playground and then went to the carnival area. Noah had been on a log ride last year when we went to the wild life zoo with my family so this was his second time going on a ride. It was Rebekah's first time going on a ride. I was surprised how much they both loved it! The ski jet ride went pretty quickly but neither of them got scared. Noah kept yelling out to me "I'm not scared mommy! I'm not even scared!" Rebkeah kept pushing the handles wanting to to go faster. Haha. I teared up a little watching them. They are so big! They also rode in the carousel and the train that goes around the entire park. 

Saturday morning I took the kids to the Phoenix Zoo with my friend Jessica and her son Sam. The weather was perfect for a day at the zoo. Jessica is officially my favorite person to go to the zoo with. She is like me with not caring what we see. We just followed the kids and walked casually around. I loved not feeling rushed or having to see certain things. We walked around for about two hours and had lunch then went home. Noah's favorite part of the zoo was the baboons. He thought their butts were so funny and he didn't want to leave. Rebekah's favorite was the lion. She roared at the lion and kept pointing at it wanting it to roar back.  Sam loved the lion too. I enjoyed watching their reactions to the animals. They are growing up so much. I actually just let them walk around most of the time. The stroller mostly just served as a carrier for my diaper bag and lunch. They were so good with staying close by and listening. Afterward Jessica came home with us and we hung out til the evening when her husband picked her up. 

I'm so glad we got to have such a fun weekend with them before Abigail comes. It was nice being able to give them so much one on one attention. Their little personalities are growing and they are such sweet children. They make me so happy. I'm so blessed to be their mom :) 

I've been a bad blogger

Wow it has been months since I have updated my blog. I've missed thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years and many pregnancy updates and stories about the kids. I keep meaning to write lately but I feel overwhelmed needing to write about all of those things. It's so much!! So instead I'm just going to give the readers digest version of most of it and do a lot of Instagram blogging. 

Thanksgiving/ Onda visit - Ondalynn came in town for a week for thanksgiving! It was one of the best weeks of the year! I love my tiny Onda sister. I have missed her so much since she moved to New York. Noah and Rebekah just love her! She was melting at all the sweet things they do. Thanksgiving day Sean had to work but he got off at 2pm. He went and picked up Onda from the airport. Me and the kids spent the morning at Elizabeth's house. Then Elizabeth, Scott me and the kids and Nele went on a hike up superstition mountain. The weather was perfect! Noah was so interested in all the plants. Scott told him all the names of the plants and a little about them. Rebekah just wanted to walk around and touch everything. Jim came into town too! He has been in Idaho for school. Since Nele and Constinte (German exchange students staying with Elizabeth and Scott) hadn't ever had turkey we made three different types! We had a roasted, fire pit and grilled. It was all delicious.  The rest of the week was spent hanging out with Onda! We went to the park, played outside and just enjoyed our time together. 

Christmas- We had a great day! Sean had to work Christmas Eve from 2pm-10pm so I took the kids out to Robyn's in laws house. We had a fun night. Noah and Rebekah just love Robyn. They unwrapped the gifts they got from Grandpa Mitch and Joan and from our neighbors. Then Christmas morning Sean and I watched them unwrap the gifts from us. We also did Google video chat with Sean's whole family. Seth got to call from his mission in Hong Kong. After he had to go we chatted more with Jason and Melissa and their family. Elizabeth (Seans mom) was in Maryland visiting them. We miss those kids so much! Rachel Alden and Noelle are so big now! I hope we get to see them sometime this year. Later that morning we went to Amanda's new house and did breakfast with my family. Carlos and Robyn made a fun game for us to play too. They wrapped a gift inside a box, covered it with boxing tape, then put that box in a box with a gift and a bunch of tissue paper and did it with three layers. Then everyone sat in a circle and took turns rolling two dice. When they got doubles they got to put socks on their hands and beat the box to try to get it to open until someone else got doubles. After we all opened gifts we went home for the kids to nap. That evening we had dinner at Scott's (Elizabeth's boyfriend) house with Seans brothers and Scott's daughter and her family. I love how easy going the day was. We didn't have any particular time we had to be anywhere so we didn't feel rushed and we got to just enjoy the day. Noah and Rebekah loved their gifts and had such a fun time seeing everyone. 

New Years- It was basically another night haha. Sean and I stayed home and watched tv while the kids slept. We were in bed by 9:30pm. I woke up when I heard the fireworks and they woke up Rebekah. I'm not a fan of fireworks when I'm sleeping haha. 

Pregnancy Instagram updates/ my midwife rocks- 

I can't believe the last time I blogged I was 27 weeks! I'm now 35 weeks tomorrow! I'm almost to full term :) Little Abigail will be here soon ! I'm feeling pretty good. I have been feeling more Braxton hicks but the heartburn isn't as bad. Little miss has been head down at every prenatal appointment I have had lately. It's always a good sign. I had my home visit with Stepahine my midwife and her assistant Amy and the other I have invited to be at my birth. My mom, Adriana (photos), Myrna ( video) and Tawna and Emily. And of course Sean! It was such a great appointment. I showed her the house. Which took like one minute since it's so tiny haha.  The kids played with Sean while Stephaine talked with me and everyone. My favorite part was when she did the normal prenatal check part. I laid in bed and everyone came into the room and got to listen to Abigail's heartbeat. Noah even got to hold the Doppler wand which he thought was so cool. Rebekah laid her head on my belly and kissed it. Then when Stephanie told me where Abigail was positioned Noah got excited and started to pat her butt. Since then everyday Noah loves patting my belly and saying hi to her. 

These are two memes I created. 

How goes this Pregnancy

RI'm not doing so great on updates on the blog. It's a busy life when you have two children and one borrowed child during the day and all else that goes on in life. I do want to keep a good record for each of of my sweet children though so I will try to do better. I think the last pregnacy update was about the gender reveal which was months ago! My morning sickness finally went away around 18 or so weeks I believe. It has been replaced with heart burn instead. I much prefer that though as it's not as bad. Abigail is a lively soul who moves around with great force. Haha. I think she will have a lot of energy when she comes earth side. Rebekah still loves pulling up my shirt and poking my belly. Noah enjoys telling Abigail stories and making sure she is coming with us when we go places. Haha not sure where else she would go. I love that the kids love her so much already. They are going to be so good to her when she comes. She is a lucky little girl. I'm almost to the third and final trimester! I will be 27 weeks on Wednesday. We have everything ready for her arrival. The birth pool is rented, placenta encapsulator is picked and the birth kit has arrived and everything else we need for the birth and all of her things are set up and ready. Now we just get to wait patiently until it is time for her to come.

I'm kind of sad because the student midwife who had been at all of my parental appointments with my midwife Stephanie has decided to not work for her anymore. She has other plans and needs and opportunities which I'm sure will be best for her but she will be missed. She still goes to the bellies group every other week so it's great to see her there. That is something that I really am enjoying with this pregnancy is the home birth community. I love the group and the facebook group online and the support we all give one another in all aspects of life not just homebirth topics. Being a mom and wife can be trying sometimes and it's so wonderful to have people who understand and can give advice and love and support. I am excited for the new assistant Stephanie will have now. Her name is Amy Roberts. She is actually the one I am renting the birth pool from and she is going to be encapsulating my placenta. Im so happy she will be there to help with my birth. Sean loves that I have this group as well. He says that not only is a it a great support and outlet for me but also its best for networking. He is happy I found someone to rent the tub from for so cheap. Also I'm trading a massage for the placenta pills. He is really supportive of me doing the pills too. He said anything that helps me be me and heal after the baby he is in support of.

Stephaine is an amazing midwife. She is so empowering and kind and nonjudgmental. I like her hands off approach. Im excited to habe her there for me when I have Abigail.

So here are some belly pictures. I think it's basically the same as the other two pregnancies. I make cookie cutter babies haha.

Back to Cloth Diapers

As you may remember we had a bad experience with cloth diapering with Noah and never tried it with Rebekah. It started out ok with Noah but he started to get rashes all the time and also we just got tired of carrying a bag around that smelled like pee. Also they leaked all the freaking time!

This time has been a different experience so far. We tried out a few different brands and asked around to a lot of friends what they liked best. We decided on using Flip diaper covers and bamboo inserts as well as bumgenius all in one diapers. We are careful to not use anything with microfiber that touches baby's skin. We are pretty sure that's what caused all the smell and rashes with Noah. Also we have decided we will only do cloth when we are at home and short trips. If we are going to be out of the house all day or on a bug trip like the zoo or something we will just do disposables to be convenient. Sean is happy with our choice in diaper brands as well. He likes the simplicity of the covers and how trim they are. We used a different brand before that was really bulky and made his butt looks huge. These ones we have now are nice and slim and look like a disposable. Rebekah doesn't really notice a difference. It will be so great to be back to saving money and not buying disposables every month and basically throwing money in the trash.

Sleep makes for a better mom

As a mom I guess I should just be used to not sleeping very much but the past few months were ridiculous! Rebekah was waking up twice a night crying and moving around and making noise and Noah was waking up four or five times a night needing me to put him back in bed. Most of the time Noah was insisting I sing and cuddle him back to sleep. It's one thing to have an infant or young baby waking up at night needing to be feed or have a diaper change but when your children are 3yrs and 1yr you expect them to sleep better at night. I was so sleep deprived I was irritable all the time and not having the best patience with my sweet littles. It turned out Rebekah is just teething and needs some Tylenol and extra cuddles before bed. Noah however was more tough to figure out. Sean wanted to help out but Noah wouldn't have it. As much as Noah loves his daddy a little child just wants mommy when they need comfort. We tired so many things to help him sleep through the night. We put lavender on his feet, tried a warm bath, two night lights, sound machine, nothing was working. My sister in law Melissa called me one morning after a particularly hard night and gave me some great advice and support. She said there is nothing wrong with letting them cry it out and learn to self soothe. I know there are so many parenting methods and everyone thinks theirs is the correct one. I just think that each method works for different parents, children and families.

Sean and I basically did a mix of methods. We hate locking the door and listening to our kids cry. We just feel horrible. (Not that it's a horrible thing to do. It works great for some people and the children learn to sleep and are better for it) So we warned Noah that if he got out of his bed then we would have to lock the door and he wouldn't be let out until the next morning at six zero zero. He has a clock in his room and a sign that says 6:00 so he knows when its time to get up. We ended up having to lock the door three nights in a row and listening to him cry and scream the whole night on and off. He would finally fall asleep for a few hours and then wake up and realize he is still locked in and start crying again. Then after the three days he asked us to please not lock the door and he wouldn't get out of bed. We left the door open and he stayed in bed! He knows the consequences if he gets out of bed for a reason other than 1. bad dream and needs comfort, 2. needs to use the potty. He has been doing great ever since! We are loving being able to sleep more. Now just wait a few months til Abigail comes and we wont be sleeping again haha.

Oh well, such is life as a parent. We are exhausted but its so worth it. :)

Noah: King of the Potty

  Noah is officially potty trained! What a struggle, adventure , time of learning , patience growing experience that was for the both of us haha. Once it clicked though it was smooth sailing. I think what helped the most was two things; letting him just stay in underwear no matter how many accidents he had and having him experience accidents and rushing to the potty, and lots and lots of cheers and excitement for his attempts and successes. The first day in underwear went OK. He had a few accidents but also made it to the potty a few times. The second and third day were so hard and frustrating. He had more accidents than success and many fights to get on the potty. I explained to him at the end of the day that if he wants to be a big boy and stay in big boy underwear he needs to let me know when he needs to go potty and that even if he has an accident its ok but that he needs to tell me right away so we can get to the potty. If he can't do that then we will have to go back to diapers. That was a big shock for him. He was absolutely against the idea of diapers. He told me that he wasn't a baby anymore and that since he is a big boy he needs to be in underwear. The next day was way better! He let me know right away that he needed to go and had few accidents. Even when he had an accident it was just a little bit before he made it to the potty. Sean and I are so proud of him! By the end of the week he was going potty on his own. He would rush to the bathroom and if we followed he would tell us "its ok. Go away please. I can do it without you. Haha. Such an independent boy when he wants to be.  

Sept 16 (Tuesday)
This handsome boy has been in underwear since Sunday. He had many accidents the first day, even more yesterday and today only 2! He has made it to the potty 5 times today and woke up from nap completely dry. Its been a good potty training day. ‪#‎upsanddowns‬ ‪#‎growingup‬ ‪#‎heisstartingtogetit‬‪#‎nomorediapers‬ 

Sept 18 
Noah has been dry all morning so far. He is doing pretty great. Still no poo on the potty yet but I'm so proud of him. If he stays dry for a whole day we are having a potty party for him 

Sept 20 2014
Noah has peed in the potty three times today and had two accidents (one big and one small) before peeing in the potty. If only he would learn how to hold the pee or stop the stream til he got to the potty

This was my instagram post from Sept 23 2014
I'm so proud of this handsome child of mine. He is officially POTTY TRAINED! Well for the day time anyway. He woke up mostly dry this morning so on to night time training! He went potty all by him self twice today and told me "its OK I don't need you. I can do it myself because I'm big" He went potty by himself most of the day yesterday too and has had little to no accidents for the last 3 days. I'm sure there will still be accidents sometimes but I'm so happy to be done with diapers for one child haha. He also gets himself dressed in the mornings now too! ‪#‎nomorediapers‬ ‪#‎timetoparty‬

Today is October 7th and Noah is still doing great with the potty. He poops and pees in the potty and rarely has accidents. He sometimes does get his underwear a little wet when he is playing and forgets to go but when he feels that he is wet he runs to the potty. He isn't night time trained yet but he is getting close. He usually wakes up with a damp diaper but not very wet. We just got him back to sleeping through the night so I don't want to mess with that with talk of getting up and going potty when he needs to. Haha. Its just not worth it to us right now. So for now he is in diapers at night still. Then first thing in the morning he declares "I'm a big boy. I need my underwear!"

Potty training is a huge pain in the butt. Even so you have to do it sometime and its easier when you let the child tell you when he/she is ready.

Yay for no more diapers. . . for one kid at least. Maybe Rebekah will be ready soon too?! (wishful thinking)

Sewing Projects: the new adventure

I bought a sewing machine months ago and I have rarely used it since. Until recently! I decided that I wanted to cultivate new talents and hobbies and sewing was going to be one. So far I have made window curtains, pillow cases and a skirt. The skirt ended up big so I gave it to a friend. My friend Melissa Lowe and I are going to be making some maxi skirts soon for pregnancy. I am so excited to make something that I get to wear all the time!

It's pretty fun figuring out how to get the projects done. My mom is amazingly talented with sewing and making her own patterns. If I can be half as good as she is some day then I will be happy. I love all the quilts, dresses, skirts and other things she as made for me growing up and now. I hope to be able to give that to my children someday.