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It's been a while...

I haven't updated in what feels like forever. The last time I posted, we were getting ready for our move back to NC.

It's been fun so far! I love our new house and I am pretty sure the kids do too. If I were to ever build a place, it would be just like this, but with more square footage and an extra bedroom. We are just a short walk to the water, unfortunately all of the access is privately owned, but it still makes for a nice walk. We've been to the beaches, the aquarium, and done lots of shopping. I love being so close to it all, but still far enough away to be able to see the stars and night and listen to the sound of the ocean. You have to listen carefully to hear the ocean, but you can, and sometimes you can hear the low whistle of a buoy out there on the water.

Us? Well, were doing fine. W works.....a lot. He will be heading to Afghanistan later on this year. We just had a 4 day weekend together though and it was nice. A wonderful time for the family.

I'm just walking through life right now. Learning how to take it easy and enjoy the little stuff. Of course, I have a few crafty projects that I want to get done, but I'll get to them eventually. I did learn how to knit in the round, but have yet to finish the hat that I started. It's going to be quite wonky since I somehow got my work turned and really don't want start all over. I may try ripping down to where it started out wrong, but I'm afraid I'll really mess it up. Oh well, the first one can't be perfect. :)

Abigayle is doing wonderfully in her new school. She only has 6 school days left after today! On all of her EOG tests, she came out on a 5th grade level! A very smart girl I've got on my hands. It takes a lot to keep her occupied because of it. I'm currently trying to figure out how to keep her busy this summer.

Henry...ahhh my sweet Henry. First of all, he is 2 years old TODAY!!! It is so hard to believe that the years have gone by that quickly. But they have and I'm proud of every moment that I've had with him. He teaches me so much. Recently, he was diagnosed with Autism. He sits somewhere between "moderate and severe" on the spectrum, but with therapy he is coming a long way and doing it fast! We have a psychologist that comes to the house, a speech therapist that we see twice a week in her office, and will be throwing some occupational therapy in there too as soon as the approvals go through with our insurance. All in all though, he's fine just the way he is. My sweet, bright, funny, rambunctious, glowing, happy, little boy. Oh how I love him so!!!!

Avaleigh is a nut. Haha! She is just a few days shy of 9 months, going on 16 years. Quite the temper, a killer grin, a sweet laugh, an almost bald head, and those chunky leg rolls that are just to die for!! She is figuring out the art of cruising, but she isn't so great at it yet. We have had quite a few face plants and run-ins with the table. She also can't figure out how to get back to the floor once she gets up with something, but I have a feeling that within a couple of months, she will be walking.

And that's us and how were doing! Not too interesting is it? Just your normal, everyday family.....living the good life.

Product Review: Green Sprouts Eco-Friendly Freezer Tray

I was lucky enough to be able to try out the Green Sprouts Eco-Friendly Freezer Tray by iPlay recently and want to post about it. I loved this thing! You can find them here on Amazon.

They look like this....

What is that and why are you posting about it?

It's a simple, silicone tray, sort of like an ice tray (and I suppose you might could use it for one, but I didn't try) that is typically used for making homemade baby food. Is there really any other kind of baby food?! Not around here. ;0)

I like that the trays are an actual square, as opposed to using a traditional plastic ice try. This makes the baby food a lot easier to store because it stacks better. There are no curved edges like there would normally be when you pop your baby food out.

Of course the best feature of the product is the fact that it is BPA free. BPA (Bisphenol A) is a chemical make up in a lot of plastic products that can be harmful to our babies. Now we don't want that do we? It can be harmful to the development of children and studies also show that it can be harmful to the development of a developing fetus. (Lots o' "development" in there huh?) Do your research! Educate yourself for the safety of your little ones!

Ok...back to the tray. There was no twisting and turning like a normal ice tray. That also means no rogue cubes of baby food deciding to escape. I really despise when I lose half of them to the floor. Twist the tray, out they pop, and away they go...Like they're making a break for it Man! With the Green Sprouts tray, I had to push the cubes out of the bottom. This concept took me a second to grasp (call it Mommy Brain). The easiest way I found was to just turn the tray upside down on a plate and use my fingers to pop them out.

The One and Only Con that I found:

The ONLY thing I would change about this product is to perhaps make it bigger, or for iPlay to offer a bigger size. I don't know about most people, but when I make baby food, I normally make enough for at least a couple of weeks. And I don't know about most babies, but mine usually eat 2 cubes at a sitting. Of course, anyone who knows my kids also knows that they are gargantuan and eat like small adults.

This is certainly one I would recommend to friends with children! And you guys know how picky I am! It takes a lot for me to call someone up and go "I love this thing!" and I did that after I finished using this product.

Disclaimer: This product was provided to me free of charge, in order for me to review it. All reviews posted on my blog are honest, and of my own opinion. I was not compensated for writing this review.

Life around the house this week...

It's still crazy, that's for sure! We came home after Christmas, sans A (she decided to stay a week with her Nanny) and went right back into our "normal". One of these days I'm going to have time to relax for like an hour.

Now pace yourself folks, this is going to be at least a 2 part post.

Today is COLD. By most people's standards, this is normal winter (or maybe even Autumn) weather. I'm in Charleston...it's supposed to be semi-warm year round! By noon we had hit 35 degrees. I've been working on building a fire. Trying, that's about all it's amounting too. It roars for a bit and then goes out. H has been a mischievous little guy trying to get at it. He finally settled for sitting beside the fireplace while playing with his car.

Now that I see this picture, I see that H is actually playing with his car carrier, belt loop, cool thingy.

AJ has just about had it with her mommy trying to have a lazy day. The princess herself is in the room and not quite feeling being put down for 10 minutes. I learned that if I bounce her with my foot in the bouncy seat though, I can use my hands for something else.....like flipping the remote to some kiarn (is that how it's spelled?) for a few minutes. Nope. It's spelled "KYARN" and it IS a real word afterall!!! It's a southern derivative of the word Carrion. I'll let you look up the word Carrion yourself...eww.

So away from that little ramble, A is happy as a lark now. Her sissy is home and homework is done. They are now next to each other watching Snow White.

A doing some homework. Yes, my table is a mess after a little experiment this morning. 

Woah Lady! I'm watching a movie here!

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 Earlier this week I did find the time to work on a little craft project of mine. My starburst, George Nelson fashioned mirror is finally finished. I found a tutorial over at Ashley's Thrity Living and fell in love. I was unable to find any coffee sticks at our Dollar Tree though. So I used a pack of straws. I LOVE how it turned out! It may not survive the move, but it won't be hard to replicate once we get settled in at the new place.

Check out the cool reflection of a reflection.

I also picked up some used furniture last night from a friend who is moving. Apparently when you move you should minimize....which would be the opposite of what I am finding myself doing. Ooops!

First are these amazingly beautiful chairs that will just get a touch up of white paint.

Then there's this awesome desk! I plan to use it for my sewing machine to sit on. I will do SOMETHING to it, but I'm not sure what. I'm thinking of giving it the Pottery Barn look.

 

And that's that! Piling more and more projects up and making a bigger mess, as usual. :)

Love to all!

The giant Christmas post!

Everyone that has a blog has a big post after Christmas...right?

We had quite the busy Christmas this year, but I loved it. We celebrated at home on the night of the 17th. A was thrilled to get even more Littlest Pet Shop toys, except for the fact that she had to start counting all over again. I have no clue how many of those things she has now. Last count was close to 50, but that was before opening any gifts. She also did surprisingly well with the iQuest games. She knew answers to 5th grade questions like she had known them all her life!

H wasn't so keen on opening gifts this night. He was pretty ticked that we kept taking off the pretty paper and he kept trying to put the bows back on them. He did love his drum set though!

AJ slept through it all. Once she crashes, she's out for a while. Here are some pictures of our first night of Christmas.

PS: for mamaw: If you click on the pictures, they'll pop up in original size. Love you!

 

 

Then, on the morning of the 18th we hit the road for Mamaw and Papaw's house!! Daddy hasn't been home for Christmas in a long time, so it was more than his turn. :) It was a loooong ride, but it ended well and that's what matters. We arrived safe and sound.

We were met by this fire breathing guy along the way. I always see it, but never pay much attention. After sitting in that one spot for over an hour though, he was starting to look sort of creepy. Like he had his reign over the interstate and traffic wasn't moving until he said so.

While at Will's parents, H, A, and AJ got to see lots of family and do lots of things. I apparently, am still horrible at taking enough pictures. :( I don't have many, but my wonderful mother-in-law (aka: MOM) has a CD put together for me. She's the best! Here are the few that I do have that came out ok.

I love my husband's family. There's so much love and caring between them and I've always felt right at home with them. Most people complain about their in-laws, but I have never once had a reason to do that.

So after a week there, we moved on to my Grandmother's house in North Carolina. It was a quick stop, getting there Saturday evening and leaving Monday morning. Christmas came on so fast when we got there that I didn't even have the time to get my camera out of the van. :( Hopefully my mom will have some pictures to share with me. A decided to spend the rest of the week there and she will be home on Friday. Sure do miss having my girl around the house. It's too quiet (with the exception of AJ's fits) and I keep waiting for her to get off the bus in the afternoons.

All In a day's Laundry

As I have mentioned to a few of you in person, I finally caved and tried out the new Tide Stain Release. Of course, I was waiting around for a coupon deal, but that never came along. Instead, I took my $1.50 coupon and bought the product from that big, mass retailer. ;0) The price wasn't outrageous with the coupon. The price came out to be about $2.50 after savings for a 10 pack of the "Duo-Paks". Not too shabby if it can save this busy mama some time by eliminating the need to scrub stains with a toothbrush.

I tried out the Tide Stain Release on several items.

1) Set in spit-up stain (AJ's onesie)

1) New ketchup (A's sweater complete with wearable school lunch)

1) Pair of socks (A's socks that she frequently wears outdoors with no shoes)

1) Pair of socks with new (not set in) spit-up stain (yes, she even gets her feet with this reflux!)

1) Shirt with mystery stain

The short of it:

Overall, yes I would buy this product. I wouldn't use it in every load of laundry, but would certainly use it in the baby's laundry and if I knew that A's laundry had something that need to be cleaned a little better, I would throw one in. The product was easy to use. Simply toss one in with your detergent while the washer is filling. Sort of defeats the purpose of using the Country Save for the purposes of having a healthier laundry detergent, but that's another story (I have yet to find a green stain remover that works).

The long of it:

So how did it work?

#1- The set in spit-up on A's onesie

Result: AWESOME! 

I have been trying for months to get this stain out. So long in fact, that AJ has outgrown the thing. It worked the first time, just like the slogan says.

#2 - The ketchup stain

Result: Worked well

I can't say for sure the Stain Release is what got the ketchup out because it wasn't set-in. It had been on the sweater for a few hours though.

#3 - Abbie's socks

Result: Didn't work

Don't worry. I didn't expect it to, but I was praying for a miracle. Nothing works on a pre-teen's socks.

#4 -New spit-up

Result: Awesome

Couldn't even tell it was there to begin with. Just like I like it. :)

#5- The Mystery Stain

Result: I'm surprised

While the stain isn't completely gone, it is faded quite considerably. This is something red and I have no clue what it is, but of course whatever it was had to land on a beautiful white shirt. I'm actually excited about throwing it in with the next Stain Release duo-pack to see if it fades even more.

Easy knit baby headband

If you're new to knitting (or want to learn), you know that finding true "beginner" patterns can be tough! Aside from knitting a thousand dishcloths, I have had a hard time finding something else functional and easy to knit up. I also like patterns that don't take a lot of time because I am an instant-gratification kind of girl.

I've been wanting to make something for baby A for a while now, but couldn't find anything easy enough. You see...I'm a beginner and because I only get about 2 seconds to myself a day, I'll probably be a beginner for all of my life. I came across this really cute knit baby headband pattern the other day over at HipKnitIzed and decided it was simple enough for me to give it a go! I had it finished in a couple of hours...shouldn't have taken that long, but it did. I'm also dying to try out those shortbread snowballs on the home page of her blog!

The directions are easy:

Get yarn. Ok..that's a given, but I need all the direction I can get some days. I chose to use Shepard Shades 100% wool in Shrimp because I just have a love for animal fibers. I'm guessing you could use just about anything with such a simple pattern.

 Man, my ottoman needs a new fabric!

Use size 5US needles and cast on 70 stitches

You then knit 5 rows, bind off, and sew the ends together! DONE!

I don't have a picture of my headband sewn together, but that part is extremely simple. I was too busy playing with little A, who really enjoys watching her mommy knit from her bouncy. I also made the fabulous felted flower from the Michael's website and I'm trying to figure out if I want to attach it or just make it a clip on.

Here is little A watching mommy make her a headband.

My headband came out just a teensy bit too big for little A. I'm guessing it's because I used a different type of yarn. Next time I'll just cast on fewer stitches.

If you are just learning how to knit, watching videos is way better than one of those books that you buy at craft stores. You can check some out here and here.

I am officially in love with the Shepard's Shades yarn. It doesn't split like other wool yarns that I have used. Also, it's a very smooth knitting yarn.  All in all, this is a great pattern for beginners. I have already sent a few friends over to HipKnitized to get started on their first knitting projects.