Cloth Diaper Revolution

It looks like the Union of Bell just rallied an impressive retaliation against the Confederate Forces of Poop in the great and messy Civil War.  Liken to the Battle of Gettysburg if you will... the turning point...

Besides the obvious perks of  

• SAVING TONS OF MONEY,  
• REDUCING HEINOUS BLOWOUTS, 
• and getting the warm fuzzies from "SAVING THE PLANET"...  

These little geniuses are also SO ADORABLE. 

Before you are too overimpressed, console yourself with the fact that I only use them about 50% of the time.  We still use good old Huggies for going out and at night.  Still, a 50% reduction in diapers is something to shout about around here.

P.S. Thank you Wikipedia for refreshing my American History knowledge base.  We will be taking a trip to Washington DC so I have been studying up.  Gotta be able to talk the talk if you know what I'm sayin'.

Before I was a Mom...

This is a poem I received in an email.
Author unknown.
But I loved it, and wanted to share its sweetness.

Before I was a Mom,
I never tripped over toys
or forgot words to a lullaby.
I didn't worry whether or not
my plants were poisonous.
I never thought about immunizations.

Before I was a Mom,
I had never been puked on.
Pooped on.
Chewed on.
Peed on.
I had complete control of my mind
and my thoughts.
I slept all night.

Before I was a Mom,
I never held down a screaming child
so doctors could do tests.
Or give shots.
I never looked into teary eyes and cried.
I never got gloriously happy over a simple grin.
I never sat up late hours at night
watching a baby sleep.

Before I was a Mom,
I never held a sleeping baby just because
I didn't want to put her down.
I never felt my heart break into a million pieces
when I couldn't stop the hurt.
I never knew that something so small
could affect my life so much.
I never knew that I could love someone so much.
I never knew I would love being a Mom.


Before I was a Mom,
I didn't know the feeling of
having my heart outside my body..
I didn't know how special it could feel
to feed a hungry baby.
I didn't know that bond
between a mother and her child.
I didn't know that something so small
could make me feel so important and happy.

Before I was a Mom,
I had never gotten up in the middle of the night
every 10 minutes to make sure all was okay.
I had never known the warmth,
the joy,
the love,
the heartache,
the wonderment
or the satisfaction of being a Mom.
I didn't know I was capable of feeling so much,
before I was a Mom.

EASTER 2010 - Part 1

We enjoyed Easter celebration 1 of 3 this weekend. So much fun.

It started out with my best friends coming up and having a cookie/egg/pizza extravaganza. Tripling the cookie recipe was a little too much. At first we were all really creative, then we were over it and just slapped frosting on the rest of them. Dying the eggs was fun for those of us who stayed awake that late.

Then Sunday we had such a great time at my family Easter dinner. Great food, even better company. Isla did pretty good with her first egg hunt. She especially liked to shake the eggs filled with jelly beans and eat the pink grass in her bucket. Ahhh the simply joys - wish it could stay that way.

Isla and her sweet cousin Kiri.

Isla found a special egg that was filled with this fabulous bead necklace that used to belong to her Great Great Grandma Quma.

Cute cousins eyeing their goodies.

My precious darling.

Aaron eating chocolate cheesecake.

Have I ever mentioned my mom should be a professional chef? Mmmm she makes the most wonderful carrot cake ever. It is by far my most favorite dessert she makes. Masterpiece. Not to mention its organic ranch grown carrots and hand-ground flour. She is wonderwoman.

This is Isla's Great Grammy that she is named after. We sure love her.

We are so lucky to have the best family in the world. Our day couldn't have been any better. Stay tuned for Easter Parts 2 and 3.....

Banana Money

In our house there is something called "Banana Money".

Banana Money is the money that I earn at my second job, Banana Republic. The wonderful thing about Banana Money is that it is 100% responsibility free. I take my paychecks to the bank and hide the cash until I see something that I really want but usually isn't justified. Sometimes Banana Money buys gifts for Aaron, sometimes awesome household items like overpriced vacuums, or luxuries like fancy running shoes.

Before I get too far, let me clarify one thing... Banana Money is never going to make me rich. It's simply a silly little side job mainly for the discount. At 3-4 hours a week on you can imagine the retail cashier hourly rate - I REALLY have to save for things.

So after my last Banana Money splurge, I came up with a new goal... a bedroom set. Our current set is great and I am so grateful for it, but the bed sort of reminds me of a 12 year old girl (oh yes, because it was a gift for my 12th birthday). And a not-so-matching dresser. My goal is to buy a new bedroom set by the time Isla is out of her crib and ready for a big girl bed, then I'll just had our stuff down to her.

I know, she is only 7 1/2 months old. But like I said, it takes a LONG time to save up those wages.

Did I mention the best part about Banana Money? I get total control of Banana Money purchases. No one can say I don't like that color, or that is ugly! It could even be considered a form of therapy.

And without further ado, here it is in all it's glory. My new dream. The only problem... by the time I save enough money to buy it (about 3X what I was anticipating saving) I don't know if it will even be in production anymore. :(

I hate you Restoration Hardware. No, I don't, I love you. Someday.

Feeding Frenzy

When Isla hit the 6 month mark a couple of weeks ago, we decided it was time to start introducing her to baby food. Like any new parents - this was quite the occasion for us.

High chair - check.
Video camera - check.
Perfect lazy Sunday morning to dedicate to "baby's first feeding" - check.
Organic fancy rice cereal* - check.
*by the way, I am totally not into the whole organic thing usually. well, unless you count shooting your own meat from the mtn range "organic" and growing your own veggies in a garden and canning/bottling them. anyway, it's funny how you get sucked in to feeling like your baby needs organic.

And so it began. We put that adorable little silver spoon up to her mouth and in went a delicious bite of mush. Anticipation builds. And back out it came. Not only did the cereal shoot back out with a force of disgust, but this was followed by the most heartfelt look of horror. She looked at us like "why would you do something like that to me?" It almost broke my heart. Almost.


Thankfully the pediatrician* said this might happen. And to just give it a few days, she will come around.
*by the way, I have an intellectual crush on my pediatrician. he's A.MAZE.ING. funny i used to have harmless crushes on people like pro snowboarder Jeremy Jones or Mark Wahlberg or Jeremy Piven. oh how life changes.

So we tried the next day. Only this time we try to trick her by making the airplane noises and slurping noises and what not. It didn't help. She didn't want to eat. But she did feel like laughing.

Turn up the volume to hear the full giggling effect. Oh, and if you are patient enough to make it to the end, that's the best laughing and a great ending squeal.


When the rice cereal failed its week trial, I decided to try something different. It has always been my dream to be the perfect little mom that makes perfect homemade baby food from the preserved fruits and veggies from my garden. So out came the stock from the freezer. Mooshed up carrots - nope. Pureed sweet potatoes - nope. Whipped squash - nope. Hopeless. She didn't want rice, and she didn't appreciate the intensive labor I had put into her homemade babyfood. We gave in and finally went to the grocery store and bought a plethera of delicous sounding baby foods. Bananas, squash, sweet peas, pears... and so far we haven't tried everything, but she is still not having anything to do with eating. Not only does she not want to try, but she has learned how to clench her jaws closed so you can't even pry the spoon in there. You can't even trick her into smiling and shoving the spoon in anymore, she figured that one out too.

I suppose we will just keep trying and eventually she will have to like something, right? We love this little person!


And these guys too.

Baby It's Cold Outside

This winter has been odd.

The snow has been sparse, the temperatures will go from -11 to 46 in the same week, and then there's the baby factor. All of this has altered our usually predictable winter season habits. We haven't been snowmobiling and skiing as much as we are used to. But it's okay, we find ways to still enjoy the outdoors and mountains.

Enter SNOWSHOEING. Boo. Yes I said boo. Yes I did it, and yes I will continue to do it. But hear me out on this. We own snowmobiles - why on earth would I want to WALK through DEEP snow to get to the top of a mountain that I could ride to in 3 minutes on my snowmobile...? Let me remind you that watching me walk with snowshoes is like watching a really awkward pregnant chick walk on the Hawaii beach in flippers. (Oh wait, that was me last May.) Still, in a pinch snowshoeing will suffice to get us out of the house and into the beautiful trails that surround us. So I give in.

Isla LOVES being outside. Here she is all bundled up ready to go in her backpack.

This is my best friend Ashley and her boyfriend Casey. Casey is unusually large. And by large I mean TALL. And he broke his walking poles.

This pic does NOT do the hike justice. It was SOOOO steep. And Aaron did the whole thing carrying Isla on his back. He only fell over once - on the way down. Isla thought that was pretty funny.

This is overlooking the Heber Valley. Pay no attention to Isla sitting at a 45 degree angle.

Told you I was uncoordinated. At least I am smiling.

Other outdoor adventures occupying our time include JIBFEST. This is where all our friends come up - we snowmobile them in to an undisclosed mountainous location - build stuff in the woods - and jib. For all the population out there that don't speak this language (myself included) this means haul in rails that Aaron spent all summer making, lumber to build quarter pipes, tools, hatchets, jumps, I don't really know where all this is going. Basically these guys are like little boys in a candy shop. Add lighting a tree on fire and burning up some hot dogs and you have yourself jibfest.











Then there are the Midway Ice Castles. Don't get your tiaras out just yet folks. I was sadly disappointed to learn that these so-called advertised "ice castles" were not like, um, castles. They were just really pretty ice sculpture things. Still fun to check out and take some pics with friends nonetheless. I just have to save my Cinderella costume for another day I suppose.

Starting the ice castle stroll.

My two best friends Ashley and Whit.

This one is really blurry of me doing the Lion King presenting Simba pose - but I thought it was a really pretty view of the ice not-castle.

The ice tunnel. Isla is a very tactile learner. Oops.

All-in-alll we are alive. We have been busy working and playing. We are hoping for a big late winter! Please give us more snow!

Old Friends

Yesterday I realized that there are few things in life better than simply getting together with your childhood best friends whom you haven't seen in years. Nothing fancy needed. Just a big supply of your favorite beverage, some munchies, and comfy stools to sit around laughing for hours.

My mom once told me you will know a best friend because you can go for a long time without seeing each other and when you do finally reunite, you can seamlessly pick up right where you left off.