Finger Painting Fun ;)

Today, instead of going outside and suffering in the heat we decided to be creative indoors. Here are a few pictures of our finger painting session. :)

Question? How do you keep your toddler from eating the paint? 

"cheese" face!

Rowen preferred a paintbrush over fingers. He's always been the kind to stay on the "clean" side when it comes to crafts.

Addy kept trying to paint her brother.

Mi Familia ;)

The best part. My living room looks so much better now!

Homemade cloth diapers? YES!

Over the weekend I realized that the huge box of diapers (180 exactly) that Chris's mom sent for Addison's birthday was nearly gone. That was roughly 3 weeks ago. 180 diapers in 3 weeks??? HOLY BEJESUS. Granted, she had the whole diarrhea/virus thing going on so she was going through more than usual... but still. 
So I got onto my favorite websites of all time to help me to make my own cloth diapers. Pinterest and Youtube of course.;) 
There are all kinds of tutorials and information on what material, size, notions, blah blah blah. I'm pretty well educated on cloth diapering now. Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of money to put into cloth diapering. So I was on a mission to find the cheapest materials that are still effective at keeping leaks out. 
Over the last 24 hours I have made 3 cloth diapers.
My first diaper was made out of a torn hand towel and a pair of fleece pajama pants that were in my Goodwill pile in the closet. 
Since I was completely free handing my pattern and everything, I didn't want to use any of my good fabrics. Ya know... In case I screwed up. ;)

It turned out to be pretty stinking cute. However, it was newborn sized. Definitely not going to fit my 1 year old. I will be receiving a newborn from the flying stork here in about 6 weeks... but the colors don't exactly suit him well. ;) This one will be gifted to my sister, who is expecting a girl in October ;)


My second diaper was just as cute. This one was made of terry cloth and cotton fabric. The crotch area is quite bulky from sewing in a pad of about 5 layers of terry cloth. The diaper would have been effective if i had made my tab's a bit longer. If she had attempted to bend over, those suckers would have popped right off. 

 

                                                

Then I attempted another diaper. One with longer tabs. Unfortunately, they are a tad bit too long. But it's still fully functional. I opted to just sew the print fabric to the terry cloth and leave the 5 layer pad out. No one likes a bulky bum.

                                                 

                                                     It's pretty stinking cute.

See how the tabs are kind of overlapping and sticking out? I just need to make them a wee bit smaller.

 I'm planning on buying a supply of the microfiber inserts online here soon. Until then, I'm just using a folded up washcloth and it seems to be working. 

<3

Here are a couple randoms.

Also a first- I clipped Beasts claws. I wrapped him in a towel thinking it was going to be a nightmare. He really just did not give a damn. He just laid there all limp and purring while I trimmed every claw. 

Here he is mushing on Rowen, pain free.

This one cracks me up. We just got done grocery shopping  and she fell asleep in the car on the way home. I brought her in all limp in my arms and set her on the floor hoping she would wake up because it was still way to early for bedtime. I went back outside to grab groceries and this is how I found her. ;)

As I'm typing this, at the kitchen table... I see that my four year old is a messy eater and i'm thinking of making place mats. ;) 

Rash Relief...FINALLY!

Addison's rash is FINALLY going away... just a little redness left. She has only gotten up once in the middle of the night with a dirty diaper over the last week. She's finally able to get some good solid sleep... and so have the rest of us! She's back to her happy normal self instead of walking around whining and being cranky 24/7!
Over the last month I have limited pretty much everything with high sugar or anything acidic. She has only had milk and gatorade/pedialyte and water to drink. I fed her toast almost every morning and attempted with the yogurt... but that didn't go so well with her. I limited her fruit intake quite a bit as well.
Needless to say, we are both happy that her boring diet is over. The only thing I haven't given to her is juice... I don't think we're quite ready for that. 
Although all of this dieting helped, I think the main culprit to her rashy bottom was a stomach bug/virus that has been making it's rounds. It started with Addy and it just stuck around with her longer than anyone else.  


Addison brushed her teeth for the first time this last week. Now that she has so many of those little buggers, I'm hoping I can make it part of her bedtime routine. I put a little toothpaste on her toothbrush and she just kind of sucks on it a bit... All hell breaks loose when I take it away from her to actually attempt to brush her teeth myself. Oh well... she'll get it eventually. 


Addison learned a new word today. She now says "cheese" when you point the camera at her. She makes a very angry face and says "cheese" really fast and then turns away laughing. It's pretty stinking cute.


Rowen got a haircut a couple of days ago. The sweat dripping from his head made me hot just looking at him so I buzzed all of his hair off! He looks handsome. I find him checking himself out in the mirror rubbing his head often. At least he's staying cool. ;)



We spent the evening at Camoey's house with Momo and Kaiden and DJ. Momo rolled the boys up in blanket burritos and let Addy and DJ terrorize them. 

DJ slobbering on the boys' heads.

Addy checking out pictures of herself. What a ham.

Addison kept kissing DJ on the head. 

This is one of Addy laughing as she turned away from the camera after saying 'cheese'

Baby DJ. ;)

Our week with the Spitz's!

One of our compromises that Chris and I made to each other in order to make things work was for me and the kiddos to visit him in Illinois instead of him always coming down to Columbia on his days off. So we spent this week in Illinois with Chris and had a great time! We spent lots of time with our BEST friends the Spitzenberger's. Although it was UNGODLY HOT outside, we all stayed cool in the water. ;)

Dog pile on Chris! Rowen is squished in there somewhere. ;)

Chloe pouring water on Chris and Rowen drinking the pool water ;( yuck!

Addison coming to join the fun!

Rowen and Addy playing in the pool together.

Rockin' her blingin' shades!

Addison staying well hydrated ;)

Addison and Chloe playing together ;)

A random picture of Rowen being terrorized by Chris.... 

Rowen's future wife ;)

Chloe making a 'Howard' face.

Shaley, Rowen, and Chloe taking a break from the heat with a little reading time.

Another random of Rowen being terrorized.... He looks a little pooped in this one.

The babes.

Shaley and Chloe cheezing for the camera.

little stinker 

On our way back from the werewolf party! Addison LOVED the wagon!

I really need to do a better job of taking pictures of all of us. Not just the kids....

Oh well. NEXT TIME!