Gardening and New Toy

We are excited to garden this year and try some new greens like kale and other leafy greens. Mainly because with the money from the garage sale and from returning our blendtec we bought a Vitamix. We liked the blendtec but it didn't seem as durable as the vita-mix and the jar seal broke both times we tried to do dry grains. We even used the grain jar. So that was disappointing. And the jar would hop around when we did any kind of blending. My mom has had a Vita-mix for a while and I have used it several times and know how it feels when used and so far we are very pleased with our purchase. So anyway, we want to grow some things that we will be putting in our smoothies that we usually buy at the store, this way there will be optimum chance of nutrients in the smoothie if it is freshly picked. So next weekend maybe we will work on getting our garden started. I'm so excited! It is so fun watching new plants grow!

9 Month Stats for Carly

Carly is now 9 months old. She is so close to crawling but not quite there yet. Her pediatrician says not to worry until about a year old. I'm in no rush for her to crawl but it is so fun to see your own children grow and develop and reach another milestone. She is very bubbly and loud and giggly. She loves life and makes me appreciate life more everyday. She is no where near standing either. Her little jello legs don't enjoy standing but she will bounce if I try to stand her up. She says, baba, dada, mama, fe fe, ge, nana, and aaaaaaah! Her stats at her well-baby visit were as follows: Weight- 14 lb 8 oz which is the 1st percentile, Height- 27 inches which is the 32nd percentile, and Head Circumference- 42.8 cm which is 18th percentile. Although she is small she is following her own curve so that is all that really matters. However, I no longer nurse her because I wasn't producing enough milk. I never thought I produced much because when I missed a feeding and pumped I produced 3 oz on one side and 1-2 oz on the other side which seemed so small. Then I stopped feeding her at night because she was sleeping all night and that made my milk supply really plummet. Then I thought maybe I probably wasn't producing enough because she nursed for only 3 minutes, even when it had been a while and decided to feed her a bottle after she indicated that she was done nursing and she drank 4-6 oz whenever we did that so that really showed me that she definitely wasn't getting much from me. So since I'm inadequate and she is almost a year old I thought we would just formula feed her until a year and then see what the pediatrician recommends after that. So anyway, it makes things really convenient as far as my independence and Carly doesn't seem to mind.  I feed her about every other day from myself and will slowly reduce the rest of my milk supply.  She has been mostly formula fed for a whole week and I feel like just in that short time she has chunked up a ton. I'm so happy we made that decision because I don't think she was starving because she ate a ton of solid food, but she might have been getting a little dehydrated and not receiving enough nutrients from me or from just the solids she's been having.

Check out all these cute facial expressions!

Bikes

Every time we go to Wal-mart Grant wants to ride the little bikes with training wheels. I gave him 5 minutes each time. Eventually he seemed to get the hang of it so I was convinced that he was ready for a bike. Also it helped that he would say, "Mommy I want a bike". I know little kids sometimes think parents can produce toys and such out of thin air. So I explained to him that we didn't have enough money so we needed to make some money to get a bike. Fortunately  a person from freecycle gave us a girly purple bike for free. Now all we needed was training wheels and we were set! So I super spring cleaned our house kind of like how this spring has been, (a really long winter and all of a sudden we are snapping into the 80s? degrees that is after only 2 weeks straight with out snow!), and went through everything we owned! I mean everything in 2 days. Had a great garage sale on Saturday and convinced Grant to sell some of his toys so that we could earn money to buy training wheels. I thought it would be good for him to learn that we have to work for the money to buy things. Also I got all that expendable income to be a thrifty shopper. I'm so grateful my mom instilled in me a sense of frugality and not needing the newest everything and finding really great quality and like new items at garage sales and thrift stores. It is so gratifying finding awesome deals.

Easter 2013

This year, the week right before Easter was marvelous. The weather was sunny and we played outside all week. I love being outside! I found online a couple Easter egg hunts we could attend that the community put on. Grant, Carly, and I went to a hunt at around 5pm on the Thursday before Easter and Grant did a hunt, and then each age group after did one and the adults even got to do one. I told Grant to stay right next to Carly while I did mine, which lasted a total of 10 seconds. Anyway, it was fun. The Saturday morning we were going to go to one at 9am but we were late and didn't make it. Luckily we were invited to another hunt at 10am. So since I got to do the hunt with Grant on Thursday I stayed home with Carly while she napped as Perry and Grant went to the hunt. Grant definitely got his fill of candy no doubt. Next year we might not do any hunts except for our own. And we will fill the eggs with his favorite berries like raspberries, blackberries, and blue berries. I think that will be equally exciting  for him to receive and a little candy in his easter basket. We definitely tried to emphasize the purpose of Easter and why we celebrate it and how eggs correlate with that theme. So of course we celebrate easter to commemorate Jesus Christ's resurrection. And Grant learned that Easter is also about rebirth of plants and animals during the spring season, which represents also Christ being reborn in a sense into his immortal body.

Anyway so we did Easter baskets, where Grant got 2 pieces of candy and a book about Jesus' life. We did a little Easter egg hunt again with the unopened eggs from the previous hunts because its so fun to watch him hop around and get all the eggs. Then we colored eggs with food coloring mixed with vinegar. So much easier not to worry about buying an egg dying kit each year. Then we had church, which had an excellent Easter program, including the ward choir singing 2 numbers, which I am a part of. I like ward choir because its helping to strengthen and rehabilitate my voice from when it was lost when Grant was born. Perry suggested I do it and I love it. Then we came home and had Eater dinner and the next day we had Easter FHE. We did resurrection bread and Grant really learned the events and preparation of the Savior's death and resurrection after repeating the process over and over again when you make the bread.

So below are recent pictures of Carly and pictures of Easter and the week before Easter.  Also pictured is the dress I sewed for Carly. It took me about 3 full days in all but like 3 weeks of time to complete you know because I can't just devote all my time and energy sewing. I have kids. So it was hard and fun and we used our Easter budget money for Carly on the dress. So that was her present this year. She will probably be able to wear it at least for another year.

Carly has also been progressing in leaps and bounds lately. She has 2 new bottom teeth that came in at the same time. She learned that she can say "da-da" and "ba-ba" and so on. She can sit without falling over, and rolls all over the place. She is just so fun. Oh and she has figured out how to feed herself using the pincer grasp. So she can be occupied for a while with little snacks while I'm cooking dinner. Its great and definitely easier to be  mom now that Grant isn't pestering her while I make dinner because she is with me in her high chair.

Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese frosting