totally geeking out over cloth diapers and swaddle blankets

lol I don't think I've ever been so excited to receive a package! I got my order from Cotton Babies today and it's full of fluffy stuff for my babies bottom!! I got a bunch of Indian Prefold Diapers, some Flip diapers with organic cotton inserts, some Hemp Babies inserts, Bummis snap diapers, and I can't wait to order more!! lol and I don't even have a baby yet to put them on! Also while at Target today I went in the baby section and found they carry Aden + Anais Swaddleplus blankets!! OMG!! I almost did  a jig right there in the store. They are made out of 100% Cotton Muslin. They are so soft and airy (which is a big deal here in Texas). They were only $30 for a package of 4!! I bought some other cute outfits too that they had! My husband thinks I've lost my mind with how completely giddy these few items have made me!! lol I probably have lost some of my sense from lack of sleep but I'll take this warm dopey feeling I got right now for a bit of sanity!! Just thought I'd share my joy!!

Gary's Birthday Celebration

We ate at Bucca di Peppo it was so much fun and super yummy

Happy Birthday GARY!!

<3 <3 <3 <3

Gary's Birthday Dessert

it was eatten so fast this was all that was left by the time I got my camera out!! 

Hormonal Upheaval

So this is what's been bothering me lately a lot.
 Like most people who have kids or are planning to I want to be the best parent I can be. It's not like when you think about it anyone goes yeah I'm ok with just being an O.K. parent or I'm fine with not putting in the effort or time to make this little person the best they can be (or at least I hope people don't think that way). Normally most days I find it easy to be at my best but some days it is a struggle (we all have those days). That being said this pregnancy has played havoc on my hormones and I've not felt well most days. I was nauseous 24-7 for nearly 4 months and have been having hormone headaches almost daily since I got pregnant. Not feeling well and trying to parent at the same time is hard. It's manageable in small bursts like when you have a cold but this has been 5 months. Not feeling well and not sleeping well has made me extremely irritable which ends up causing me to snap at my kids.
Brandon seems to kinda understand that this is just something we have to get through but Danika and Lucas just don't get it. Don't get me wrong I am so thrilled to be pregnant again and can't wait to meet my new baby, but I am so ready for him to be born just so I can be me again. All of my other pregnancies have been symptom free so they were easy to go through this one I feel like invasions of the body snatchers has happened lol and I just want my body back! ;-)
I feel so bad for the way I treat my family lately but it doesn't seem to be under my control. I try really hard to not get frustrated or angry at the little things but everything just irks me. Parenting has been a strange balancing act for me lately. It's been me snapping at my children followed by me trying to show them I love them. It's like I'm constantly trying to play catch up. All the while trying to make them all 3 still feel as important as the new baby is.
I really am trying to keep things even I always have between the 3 kids trying to not treat the oldest different than the youngest but treat them what's appropriate for their age and keeping the same rules for them all. I know once the baby is born that they might feel, I don't know, replaced but I'm trying my hardest to make it not that way. We are going to make an huge effort to still get one on one time with each kid so no one gets lost in the shuffle!
I just wish it didn't seem most days to be such a struggle to get through but I do know it wont always be this way and I will get back to being the fun loving strictish parent I used to be :-) not the grumpy old lady who crawls out her cave to growl at everyone every day!

Baby Cardigan

So while at Jo-Ann fabric & craft store I touched this yarn and decided I just had to make something with this!!! Oh my gosh if you've never used this stuff it feels sooooooo soft like halfway melted butter soft! It's 30% silk 70% viscose from bamboo!

Here is a pic of the cardigan I'm going to make with the yarn.

 Except the two blues they used I'm using the brown in place of and the white will be the green yarn (and I'm not putting the anchor on the cardigan). I'm ready to get started on this new project :-) I think it might take me a week, two at tops to complete! We'll  see!

Just another frustrating day...

Ugh allergies suck! Thankfully the wind has died down now so maybe by tomorrow this headache will be gone. The more annoying thing is the fact that I'm supposed to be watching my niece mon-fri and I haven't watched her in 2 1/2 weeks. This is such a pain since I'm stuck waiting around because I don't know if my sister is going to bring her around or not. I have to schedule appointments around when I'm supposed to get her but it all seems pointless since more times than not I don't even get her, but I still must be available for the days that Traci manages to be I don't know ready on time, feel like going to school or not hung over. It's so very frustrating to be put in this position every single day. Probably the most frustrating part is that Traci doesn't care either that this effects my day every day. I don't know if she's going to school or not but I'm so fed up with it but the only thing I can do is tell my dad but I HATE the fact that I'm always the one to "tattle tail" on her. I know this all seems so silly or small but this is just on going and it's been this way since August it's just getting old.  I can only think of twice where she has managed to bring Lily for 2 weeks straight. It seems like she has no care about her life or future and can just keep retaking classes or stay in college for ever. Well she can but she's going to have to put Lily in daycare because I didn't sign up to watch her daughter for the rest of my life!! or sit around waiting every day for her to never show up or bother to text or call to say hey I'm not bringing her at all today go ahead and do whatever you wont or hey I'm not going to bother at all this whole week! ugh!! And and and ugh I feel like I'm whining away over something that shouldn't even be bothering me but it does. She also got ANOTHER dog!! Really she needs another dog whatever. I'm sure my dad wont be to happy with it she's like well maybe I'll give dad and Iza Buddy and then he'll be ok with it. No he's not going to be ok with it she never takes the dogs to the vet and she barely has the money to feed the 2 she already has!
*sigh* I guess I'm just feeling very unappreciated and worthless in her eyes today but I'm done now with her today I've gotten this all out of my system and now I can smile and sing and dance around my house while I do laundry :-)

Wool Dryer Balls




So I went to my local Jo-Ann Fabric and bought 8 skeins of



 Patons Classic Wool.

I opted for this one mainly because of the way it felt. I personally know nothing about wool but it said it felts up and that's what I needed it to do :-) It was also a step up in price from LionBrand Fisherman Wool but like I said it felt nicer. Also there were these signs that said buy 5 skeins of Patons yarn get a free Patons tote :-) These totes are actually pretty nice and will be awesome for carrying around projects in!!



So let the wrapping begin! I started winding up the balls like the instructions said and let me tell you by the second one I was 1. bored and 2. while the ball was small had major issues with my hand cramping!! :-( I hung in there and wound up 6 balls in total! Here's where I changed things instead of tucking in the ends with a crochet hook (because if I'm going to go to that much trouble the least I could do was really anchor those ends) I threaded the end through a blunt needle and wound it back and forth about 6 times through the ball so I'm hoping it never unravels ;-)



I don't own a pair of pantyhose :-O so I used a pair of leg warmers and some old shoe string to tie up the balls to wash them and then dry them!

Then back to more wrapping!! I'll be ok if I never have to wrap yarn again ;-) or at least for a while! After finishing wrapping all 6 there is very little of the 8 skein left so I'm glad I did buy what I thought would be to much. Then back to the washer and I guess we'll end with the dryer and see how these bad boys work out once set loose on a load in the dryer :-) I've got my fingers crossed that all goes well and they work like they are supposed to!

Ok so I finished with the second wash and dry and here's the crappy part. I have like a bionic sniffer right now because of my pregnancy. Well the directions said just wash them with a load of laundry so I washed them with a load of my tops. Yeah my tops smell like a wet sheep now. I'm hoping once they cool down they'll not smell as bad (they smell fine now) because I really don't want to wash them again. So I'm going to toss the balls back into the wash once more but this time with somethings I wont be wearing :-) to give them another wash and see how they smell once they are all dry this time around.

(my finished dryer balls)

So far I can't really tell if they are helping cut down on dry time since my dryer has a sensor that shuts off once the clothes get dry so it's always a different time when my dryer shuts off but so far they are keeping everything soft and no static. So, so far I'm happy with the wool dryer balls I made but only time will tell. 

Excited about Cloth Diapering

Well since I seem to be stuck in a rut of doing nothing but sitting on my butt which is expanding and my husband lovingly laughed at when i pointed out the new dimples (hey at least someone finds it funny) and watching tv I thought maybe I'd try blogging again. I love writing but prefer paper and pen but you know what when my daughter picked it up and said what does f-u-c-k spell I figured it's probably better to not write on paper that's left around my house! So here we go.

So since our new baby is due in March I've been doing lots of research on which cloth diapers to buy. (which has lead to many weird vivid dreams involving cloth diapers i mean I'm dreaming about reading about cloth diapers and buying them and it's just stupid but it wakes me up and i don't feel rested bleh) So after much debate I've decided to finally start buying them thanks to info from my sister Tara who uses cloth diapers and my many hours of reading. Granted I'm going to have to buy a few every month to get all that I want and think I need (and some I don't need but just want to try :-D). I placed my first order last night! I'm super excited and can't wait to get them (I know I have nothing to use them on yet but I'm still excited to get them) I'm buying them off http://www.cottonbabies.com/ since they carry the ones I'm interested in and they have FREE shipping! Woohoo! So here's what I ordered yesterday:

1. 1 Flip Organic Day Pack $59.95 it comes with 2 one-size diaper covers (i got the Bubble color) and 6 organic inserts. It also comes with 1 free package of flip disposable inserts
2. 18 Indian Prefold Cloth Diapers in Infant size $27.00
3. 3 Flip Covers in Moonbeam $29.85 (these were listed in their seconds/clearance section)
4. 2 Bummis Super Snap in Small $23.90
5. 3 Hemp Babies Diaper Doublers $9.00 size large they are 55% Hemp, 45% Certified Organic Cotton

This is only a portion of what I plan to buy because I also want to use the Bummis wraps so I'll be buying their Organic Kit they put together next time around. I love the fact that Cotton Babies is the company who actually makes one of the brands, BumGenius (Flip diapers), that I think will be a great diaper. So I had no problem with buying the 3 covers from their site that were "seconds" and the reviews from people who bought them said the "flaws" were undetectable. I hope this is true since I bought 3 of them ;-) I love to read and learn and have found that Autumn Beck's blog http://allaboutclothdiapers.com/ is full of tons of info and her readers are also great about sharing their experiences. I have also been reading up on some sites on how to make cloth diapers yourself (since 1. I know how to sew and 2. I got a kick-butt sewing machine 2 years ago and have used it 3 times) but I'll need to do quite a bit more reading before I jump into that but am really interested in it.
Speaking of projects I really need to get back to making and doing things. I've been so bored lately and now that we know for sure we are having a boy I need to get busy making things for him!! but I found my first project last night while reading on Bummis blog. http://blog.bummis.com/2010/10/make-your-own-felted-wool-dryer-balls.html So this is going to be my project for this week making Wool Dryer Balls. I'll also try to remember to post how these dryer balls work out for me. Hopefully this gets me back into the swing of things, and through out this week I'm going to hit up my huge collection of crochet patterns for baby stuff to start making. Because while dimples are cute on your face they aren't so cute on your butt!!