Cousins

Griffin with "Fenry".

me: Huh, Huh, Henry
Griffin: Huh, Huh, Fenry

Classic!

She loves her sweet little cousin.

I know...they're so cute it's ridiculous!

First time holding baby Henry. Oldest and youngest grandchildren.

This picture is just awesome. For those of you who know Cameron in real life, he is a pretty scrawny little guy. Not big at all. However, he looks like a giant compared to Henry. It's amazing what 3 months will do! These guys are going to have a great time growing up together.

Christmas 2011

One picture...that's all I got. Good thing it's a cute one. Minus the fact that it was taken at 6:00 in the morning and is missing Cameron because he was still asleep.

We did Christmas a little different this year. I want to share our experience, but I want to make sure to mention that it was really made possible by the fact that our children have such wonderful grandparents and great-grandparents. We are truly blessed in the family department!

This Christmas season we have really tried to focus on giving and sharing. The kids all say their favorite thing we did was that instead of Ryan and I buying the kids presents, we donated that money to an orphan in the Ukraine. They talk about her (and the little boy we donated to also) all the time. For some reason it really made an impact on them and I am so glad. We also had several other opportunities to give to other and I was so proud of the kindness and generosity of our children.

Then we decided that maybe we hadn't done enough. We really wanted our children to learn a lesson, and to feel like they were sacrificing something. We talked to the kids about how there are other children all over the world who have never received presents. As a family, we decided that we would write Santa a letter asking him to please skip bringing presents to our house this year and give them to children who really needed them. The kids were pretty excited about this and so was I.

On Christmas Eve we set out the kids stocking and filled them with a few cool things that my Dad had gotten them, and some candy. (They knew that Ryan and I were doing stocking and not Santa.) Then, I wrote a note from Santa to the kids about how proud he was of them and how kind they were, and left it on top of a game that he brought for the kids to share. I had a little moment of panic and wondered if this was really okay and if it would scar my kids for life :)

Christmas morning wasn't big and flashy, but it was wonderful. It was truly the best Christmas we have ever had. The kids came downstairs and read the note. They were thrilled that Santa had come and had left them a game, and they were also thrilled that somewhere, some children were receiving "their" presents.

Then we had a great time opening all the presents under our tree from Mimi and Bear, Nana Blair, and Mok and Pok. We have such wonderful family! They got everything on their wish lists and more.

They have already asked if we can do the same things again next year. I think I breathed a sigh of relief that things went so well. I have been blessed with the most wonderful, caring, generous children that I could ever imagine. We have been so blessed this year!

Mom, Dad, Josh, Jess, and Henry all stopped by around lunch time to visit and see the kids new toys. This is the first picture of Mom and Dad with all SIX of their grandchildren.

We Love Babies!

I think it is possible that Sunny loves babies as much as her mother!

We both especially love little Henry. He is precious and looks very much like his Dad...well, there might be a smidgen of his Mom in him too :)

And...we had no Internet yesterday and it has been in and out today. So, if it works well enough, you can look forward to a blog post with several more adorable pictures like the one above. (Except Joshy photo shopped that one, so mine won't look that good...whatever :)

Snow Day

Arghhh! My pictures posted all out of order again. I cannot figure out what is up with Blogger. So, the first picture is supposed to be Sunny, Lila and Griffin playing on the computer.

On the Wednesday before school got out, Sunny woke up complaining of a stomach ache (a magically disappearing stomach ache at that :) so I let her stay home from school. For awhile she played with the little kids while it snowed outside. I could tell they were starting to get bored, so I asked if they wanted to play in the snow.

YES, YES, YES!

Griffin only played in the snow once last year, and obviously he was so young he doesn't remember. He thought it was wonderful. I love the look of joy on his face. I think Ryan might have a little snowboarding buddy on his hands.

The three amigos. I really wish I would've kept Jackson home too. The roads were so bad it took me 3 times as long as it normally does to get him to school and he had to miss all the fun.

Obviously the "before" snow picture. Still cute, but the computer just can't compare to fresh falling snow.

Snow Angels

Play Time

My three littles were having such a fun time playing with the race car track last week. I wish you could see Cam's face better because he was smiling and giggling like crazy!

Lila just loves to play. She is always begging people to play with her. She reminds me very much of Uncle B.J. when he was little.

I have no idea how this picture got mixed in here, but it's cute, so I'll let it stay. I think was a couple weeks ago. Probably 3 months old exactly.

Cameron was seriously fascinated by the cars, and Griffin was fascinated by Cam's reaction to them. I love my little boys!

Another Post About Cloth Diapers

It's been awhile since I've done a cloth diaper post, and I've got a ton of sweet pictures of Cam wearing his, so I figured it was time for me to write about them again. I also get asked questions about them all the time, so maybe this will help someone who is interested in cloth diapering their own child. This will be mostly pictures, because I know I am always interested in seeing different brands and kinds of diapers on an actual baby.

First picture is brand new Cam (maybe 2 or 3 days old) in an xs bumgenius.

Brand new again in a newborn prefold and Thirsties xs cover

Prefolds and covers are really a cheap and easy way to go when diapering a newborn to 3-4 month old baby. They are all I used with Griffin. I didn't really use them with Cameron b/c I splurged and got several pockets and aio's just for newborns. They were fun and cute, but totally not necessary. The prefolds and covers work great...even though they look a little old school.

I'm going to guess Cam is around 4 weeks in the white diaper picture. It is a FuzziBunz one size (meaning it shrinks down to fit a small baby and then you make it larger to fit a bigger child). I actually don't like these very much. It is super bulky and and just not very cute.

BumGenius 4.0 one size diaper. Same idea as with the FuzziBunz, but I like these a whole lot better. I actually bought 20 of these just for Cam. They are kind of boring looking, but they really work great. They fit from 8-35 pounds. This is Cam at about 10 pounds. They are still bulky, but they don't leak. I love a baby with a fluffy bum.

GroVia Newborn All-in-One. These fit him great from very early on. Ignore his red belly. We had a belly button incident and I had to keep it covered and the bandaid left yucky marks on him.

Extra-small fuzzibunz. Love these! I had three and they were great. It's nice to have something that fits really well when they are tiny.

This is a small fuzzibunz. Super cute!

This is a one-size pocket diaper that I bought from a work-at-home mom. Her store is called Pixie Fluff. This diaper is just as good as the name brand diapers and I love to support wahm's instead of big companies.

A one-size GroVia all-in-one. Super cute and works really well. It is also the trimmest diaper I have found. Very comparable to a disposable.

And finally, a prefold under a Thirsties Duo Wrap. I don't use prefolds much with Cameron, but I really love this cover so I do sometimes whip out the prefolds for the day.

So, I've been cloth diapering for about 3 1/2 years. Ever since Lila was a little babe. I cannot tell you enough how much I love it, and how easy it is. I have tried just about everything there is to try and really have a good system going. Ryan even knows how it all works and what goes where, and how to wash it all.

People ask me all the time what they should get for their baby. It really is hard to say, as there are many excellent products and several ways to do it. It really just comes down to trial and error and individual preference. But, if I had to tell you I would give you two options.

#1 Buy 18-24 Bumgenius 4.0 one-size diapers with snaps. They won't fit great at first so you could just use disposables until they do. They fit really well from about 10 pounds to 35 pounds and are all you would need if you take good care of them.

#2 If you want a newborn stash, invest in 24 prefolds and about 4-6 covers. Probably around $150.00. Obviously more worth it if you use it for multiple children (which is what we did). Then also buy the 18-24 Bumgenius diapers for when the baby is 3 months or so.

The basics of it, for those who don't know is this: I keep the diapers in a basket. I also have a basket of wipes. When it is time to change a diaper, I grab one out of the basket and I grab a wipe (or I make the kids go do it :). I just go run my wipes under the tap to get them wet (though you can you special wipes solution...which I have, but don't find necessary). After I change the diaper I throw the dirty diaper and wipe in my bucket. There are lots of different ways to store the dirty diapers, but I've been using a trash can with no liner the whole time I've cloth diapered. It is super easy and doesn't smell at all.

Once the bucket is full I dump all the diapers and wipes in the wash and do a cold rinse. Then I do a hot wash with just a little bit of detergent. Then I do an extra rinse at the end. The pocket shells get hung up to dry and the inserts go in the dryer. Once they are all dry, I spend about 10 minutes stuffing the inserts back in the shell and putting them back in the basket.

For going out, I have a couple of "wet bags'. You just change the baby and stuff the diaper in the bag and zip it up. Then you dump it in your bucket when you get home.

It really is that easy, and it can be as cheap or as expensive as you make it. I think having a decent sized diaper stash is important b/c it just makes the whole process easier. Right now, I have enough diapers to go about 4 days (though I usually wash every 2 or 3 because the bucket will be overflowing by that point).

You really should try it :)

Oh, here is a link to the first blog post

http://www.ryanandsarahblair.blogspot.com/2008/09/cloth-diapers.html

I wrote about cloth diapering. It was looking back over it and had to laugh...I don't even have any of the stuff that was in those pictures anymore. Funny how things change. There is still some good info in it though, so have a look.

Christmas P.J.'s

Nana Blair gave the kids super cute Christmas jammies. Cameron liked his so much he had to wear them to Pack Meeting last week (where Jack earned his Wolf badge...go Jack).