Busy

Oh my goodness I am not a very attentive blogger!  Things have been crazy!  We are moving. Which is a big yeah!  We are super excited and blessed to be getting into a wonderful house that is just right for our family.  Maya and Jasperlyn are busy with ballet. Mason has been busy with wrestling and now piano. He seems to be a natural at both. Elise has been just plain busy!

There is so much to say and so little time, hopefully once we move everything will get more organized and less a mess!  And no I am not talking about our house but everything!

Until then. I will post pictures of the new home and all. Talk to you soon!

Why we trick or treat...

Long time no see!  I have been crazy busy!  Between a booming baby item business, 4 children, working part-time at the Macon County Health Department as a Peer Breastfeeding Counselor for the WIC office, babysitting a slew of kids in our home with Paul’s Help, you could say I am stretched a bit thin…  But we are trucking on.  Hoping that all this craziness will pay off for our family in the long run!  Last night we made our annual trip to Boo at the Zoo.  This is always a huge highlight of our kid’s year.  Thought I would share some pictures of our event. We did this on the spur so more pictures to come when they get all fully dolled up for Halloween.

Here is a couple from before we left....

This one they posed for and asked to have a picture taken.  Captain America is protecting Rapunzel.

This is after we got home, my sleepy little lamb after her first trip to Boo at the Zoo.

Many people ask why we do the whole Halloween thing, when we do not do the whole Santa Claus thing.  So here's the deal Halloween originated in the 8th century.  Pope Gregory III made Nov. 1 a day to honor all the saints and martyrs, they call the day All Saints' Day.  The day before became known as All Hallows' Eve. Eventually it became a community event for children and families to come together for fun activities.  So for us a family fun holiday is all in good fun, we don't dress up as evil things, we let the kids pick their costumes and we have a ton of fun together as a family.  And then the kids get to keep the costumes for dress up play year around.  Now as for the whole Santa Claus thing.... We chose not to take Jesus' Birthday celebration and turn it into a Naughty or Nice, Cole or Presents event.  We still have presents but they are from us, not Santa.  our children hear about Jesus and not Santa.  And we try super hard to explain to our kids that it is not their place to tell other children that there is no Santa.  We have explained the history of Santa and Saint Nicholas. And our children still love to watch the Santa movies and even pretend to be Santa at times.   But that story is for another blog.  :P

Until next time.......  

CH CH CH CHanges.....

Lots and lots of changes in our lives right now.  From when Paul quit working at Wilbert Burial Vault were he worked for nearly 11 years to rearranging our home.  Thanks are changing.  Having 3 children all so close in age has them very close to one another emotionally as well.  They have not been sleeping in their own rooms, let alone their own beds!  LOL  So we moved Mason into the girls room.  I realize eventually we will have to separate them, but for now in our little house this works.  So there is a bunk bed in the kids room his has Mason's bed on top, girls bed on bottom.  The girls have nearly always slept together.  Jasperlyn will not sleep alone so it's always been either with us or Maya and most day she ends up in our bed any way.  Now Mason is in love with his bed.  He says it's no girls allowed.  LOL

Mason's room is not our "TV room" or Family room.  We don't have an official name for it yet.  But the best news of all. We have a dining room!  That's right folks a real dining room table to eat our meals together at.  We have been eating on TV trays because there was no place for our table.  But now with the TV and other items from the living room in the new Family room, we have a living room/dining room!  It is great for meals and for homeschooling.  We love it!  The house is getting bigger it seems.  It's like a new house, in fact the kids keep saying "We're making a new house right mom!  I love our new house!"  LOL  So pictures..... first off you should know, my house is never clean.  ever.....

The Family Room pictures

 Living Room Picture 1

 Living Room Picture 2

We are also trying to find a new place where we can worship God and serve him.  And now Paul and myself are in college through different online colleges.  Paul is attending Lincoln Christian again, but this time through their online program.  I am at Ashford University.  If you wanna compare online schools ask me I've done them all.  University of Phoenix is a JOKE, Kaplan is a good one, Ashford is still too new for me to give a good opinion.  :)

The girls started Ballet at Richland this year.  It is much cheaper and by much cheaper I mean WAY cheaper, and I have them in a Liturgical class which means all Christian music.  Yay!

Of course as you can see there is Jasperlyn in the glasses, then Maya behind, then Brooklynn and Kadence Boyd.  All love their teacher Miss Leanna.

We also recently tried the Papa Murphy's Lil Murph's pizza you take them home and the kids get to put it together just like the workers do with mom and dad's pizza.  The kids were so proud of their pizza's here is a before oven picture.

Here's some from our most recent Photo Shoot with our favorite photographer Grandma Barb (Barbara Harp)

Of course I have to share some of the monkey.... Who just turned 9 months old!

Memories

In honor of breastfeeding week, I wanted to share some old pictures of nursing my now 5 year old twins.

Here Mason is getting Burped and Maya is still eating.

Here they are holding hands while nursing.  Mason on the left and Maya on the right.

Caution using Cloth diapers can very well lead to....

Other things!  Well I use cloth on my baby so I also use cloth wipes.  Because it makes since to not dig out disposable wipes to throw in the garbage prior to throwing the cloth diapers into the dirty diaper bin.  What else can using cloth diapers lead to.  I use cloth on my baby so I also use cloth on myself.  Yes that is right people cloth menstrual pads.  Reusable, soft, comfortable cloth menstrual pads.  I paid about as much as it costs for 2-4 months worth of disposable pads and got my cloth that will last 7 years or more depending on its hold up.
And what do these marvelous creations look like?

There are 3 sizes.  I have mainly one size, but I also have 3 extra large over night ones and 2 smaller ones for the rare light day.  As you can see they have snaps so that they secure into place.

Little Bee Creations is who I bought for http://stores.ebay.com/Little-Bee-Creations?_trksid=p4340.l2563

She makes them super fast! You can pick your own designs or you can let her decide which is what I did.  I said I love pink and what ever you wanna send is fine, and this is what I got.  I'm totally happy with them!  m

So caution people, using cloth diapers can lead to all kinds of cloth changes!  

Bedsharing....Again

Warning:  The pictures in this blog include sleeping children and nursing babies, if that offends you..... don't read.


Last night the whole family slept together.  The twins asked to sleep upstairs too.  Which I thought was cute, Paul thought was not as cute.  LOL  None the less.  Here is a picture of the set up.  I was over with the red, black, grey blanket.  and though you can't see her that is where Elise is as well.

Sorry the pic quality aint great.  I was trying to get a quick snap shot without waking any of the sleeping LO's!  But so from left to right.  It was Me, Elise, Paul.  Then from top to bottom it was Maya, Jasperlyn, Mason.  :)  And everyone slept great. 

We need to rearrange up there to  get things better situated.  But all in all I like the set up.  I do think now we should move to a cheaper smaller place if we are all gonna be in one room!  J/K  LOL  The twins normally do sleep seperate.  But they are still fairly young, so you gotta cut them some slack.  The night before last there was a  lot of nightmares.  Sleeping this way gives them a lot of comfort.

Here is a picture of Elise from the other night.  The reason its so easy to sleep well with a Breastfeeding infant is that the buffet is right next door.  I just roll over and she helps her self.  LOL

What you can't see in the picture is that she has my hair in her other hand and is whipping it back and forth and cuddling it.  While her eyes are closed.  LOL

Bed-Sharing vs Co-Sleeping

Recently I was told that co-sleeping is sharing a room, but not a bed. And bed sharing was as it says, sharing a bed.  Recently we became a bed-sharing family.  Well not all of us, but most of us.  LOL  The twins do not sleep in our bed, but everyone else does.  We have two full size beds mashed up together.  And I won't say who sleeps where, because we don't really have "spots".  But Jasperlyn used to sleep in the same room as Maya, but she was always sneaking into our bed and then crying hysterically when we would move her back into her bed.  So traumatic for her and me!  So I decided that she could just sleep with us.  Elise does.  And last night everyone laid down for bed and all were happy.  And though it may be a step backwards of sorts it is a step forward in taking back our sleep! 


Now for those of you with dirty minds who are already wondering were the "adult time" is gonna happen.  The answer is easy.  Obviously not in the bed!  LOL  Here is a favorite article I read of Mayim Bialik's (you may know her as Blossom).  Aside from being an actress she is also a Neuroscientist and a holistic parent. Here is what she says about bed-sharing.

"Mayim Bialik: Why we let our children sleep in our bed
Two kids, no cribs... no problem? Sharing a bed with your kids isn't the norm in the U.S., but former "Blossom" actress Mayim Bialik explains how it works for her family -- and why she doesn't think it's so weird.

Denise Herrick Borchert

By Mayim Bialik, Ph.D., TODAY Moms contributor

We sleep with our two kids. They are 5 and 2, and I have never owned a crib or a bassinet. Our family bed consists of two futons on the floor side by side: one with black sheets, the other adorned with knights, castles and dragons. We don’t co-sleep, which means sleeping in the same room; we sleep in the same bed. That’s called bed-sharing.

I know some of you think it’s unsafe. I know some of you think it’s unhealthy. I know some of you think my spoiled, coddled kids will never outgrow it. And let’s just be brutally honest: I know you think it’s weird.

Unsafe. Sleeping with your children is not unsafe. It’s actually really safe and really smart: you know the condition of your child at any time at an arm’s length. There are well-established guidelines for how to sleep safely with your baby. When you sleep with your baby, you know if they are coughing, congested, starting to fuss, or if they’re too cold or too hot. A mother’s body is designed to adjust to help her newborn achieve optimal body temperature; talk about smart! Rolling onto a baby is an exaggerated fear that is not based on any research. It is not hard to make a bed safe for a baby. Either put it on the floor or get a bed rail to keep your little one from rolling out. So it looks ugly? Sorry. So does my tummy after two kids.

Unhealthy. Sleeping with your baby facilitates easier and less stressful breast-feeding, which is the healthiest thing you can do for your child in the first year of life. Sleeping with your baby stimulates hormones that encourage bonding, reduce anxiety and depression, and increase the chances that you will establish a strong supply of breast milk. The vigilance a new mother has for her baby is programmed into our DNA. Mammals sleep with other mammals; we are supposed to do it. You don’t sleep alone, why should babies and children?

Outgrowing it. Do you know any 18-year-olds sleeping with their parents? Nursing? Using a pacifier? Wearing a diaper? I didn’t think so. Early dependence on our parents for comfort, warmth, safety, and love at night, as well as in the day, is natural and normal. Children outgrow the “need” when they are developmentally ready to do so. There is no evidence that children who sleep with their parents are whiny, clingy, spoiled, or less able to become productive, sensitive and caring adults. On the contrary, families who sleep together report feelings of security, closeness and trust that I think our society could use more of.

advertisement

Weird. There is nothing inherently weird or wrong about sleeping with your children. It feels good to cuddle, doesn’t it? Babies and kids think so, too. It’s NORMAL. Worried about your fantastic sex life taking a hit? Find other places to have sex besides your bed. End of story. If your kid kicks, get a bed attachment like the Arm's Reach co-sleeper. If you are such a light sleeper that you feel homicidal every morning, I am not going to tell you that you have to sleep with your kid. Do I sleep as well with my kids in our bed as I would without? No. But it will be over soon, and it’s not weird to want to be close to your children when their physiological and psychological development dictates that they need to be held close.

The Lowdown. We used to have one futon for me, my husband and baby No. 1. Then I got pregnant and we added the “big brother” futon where my husband and the soon-to-be “big brother” started sleeping. Invariably, when baby No. 2 arrived, I slept with both boys. The family bed is the great unifier: It’s the place we are all equal. Even when our first son’s role in the family shifted because of the newborn, when the sun went down, we were all equal in our one big bed. These days (and nights), my husband sleeps in the knights and castles bed with our older son, and I sleep with our younger son. A few nights a week, our older son bounces over to “my bed” and returns to my husband for morning cuddles as I nurse our younger son into the new day.

The moments we share in the dawn I would not give up for anything: the whispers, the giggles, the just-awakening dreams and musings of a very small person who is happy and safe in my arms. “Mama, I’m going to sleep with you even when I’m a teenager” was whispered to me before my eyes even popped open last week. I simply laughed; little does he know how undesirable that would be for all involved!

The moments we share after we recite the Jewish blessings of nighttime are also precious to us -- watching our boys go from awake and fiery to restful and angelic: asleep at last. I find myself gazing at those faces many times a night; a reminder that although my husband and I may not be perfect, the boys who carry our names might just be. And that’s a reminder that gives us comfort -- all night long.

REference: http://moms.today.com/_news/2011/03/07/6212018-mayim-bialik-why-we-let-our-children-sleep-in-our-bed , Retrieved 7/26/2011

Mayim Bialik starred in the early-1990s television show “Blossom” and currently appears on the CBS sitcom “The Big Bang Theory.” She earned a Ph.D. in neuroscience from UCLA in 2007, and wrote her thesis on Prader-Willi syndrome. The spokesperson for the Holistic Moms Network and a certified lactation educator, Bialik is writing a book about attachment parenting, and she has two sons, Miles, 5, and Frederick, 2. She blogs regularly at TODAYMoms.com."