Moving

Moving...yep, that's what we are doing this weekend. Of course that means packing, packing, packing. Anyone want to come pack up the rest of our rooms? :)

Major Sale

Have you been wanting to buy scrapbooking products/try out digi-scrapping...well this weekend is the time to buy! Scrap Orchard has a $1 sale going on. Go check it out!

Seriously! $1.00!! Check out Tracie Stroud's stuff...she's my favorite there. Suzy Q, Amanda Heimann and Wild Dandelion are all great too. 

13 Months

I know...I'm a few days late. I want to record a couple of things Isabelle is doing right now in her life though. So, here are somethings about Isabelle now:

• She doesn't really like the high chair anymore. We have to show her there is food she wants enough to get in the high chair. 
• She brings us books for us to read to her. She turns the pages though so she doesn't usually get the whole story before she turns the page.
• When she is walking and she gets to a step down in her path or a door way, she always gets down on her hands and crawls backwards over it just like she does when going down the stairs.
• Saying she loves or adores dogs is an understatement. She thinks they hung the moon. 
• She loves her Toy Story toys. She will even sit an watch Toy Story now. She gets distracted quite a bit, but she always comes back and watches it.
• She loves watching the old Kid Songs episodes on youTube...circa 1987. The songs get stuck in your head....BAD!
• I swear she says, "What's that?" I sounds just like it and she says it at the right time.
• She doesn't like the bath anymore. It is like torture to her.
• She's consistently taking two naps a day again. She is however getting up between 6:30 and 7:15... I wish it was 8:00. :)
• She loves to play in the dirt...and eat it too.
• She hates getting dressed...until you get to her shoes. Then she is happy to let you put them on.
• She can FINALLY hold her sippy cup and her bottle. However, she doesn't hold her bottle. 
• She loves to give her animals and the pictures in her books kisses. 
• We taught her the word "soft" by softly petting her cheeks or belly. She loves when we do this to her and she does it to things when she say, "Soft."
• She loves her belly button. If she's wearing a dress, she'll lift it up to find it and show people.

Mommy Moment

Today Isabelle and I had a wonderful day. One of those days that make you wonder, "Why can't you be this good everyday?" Some where in the middle of the day I had one of those "I'm so glad I'm your Mommy" moments. I have to admit, these moments don't come very often lately... However today while Isabelle was playing she discovered she can crawl under the end tables in the living room. This was quite exciting for her, however at the same time it was a little scary since she couldn't quite sit up completely and she kept bonking her head along all the edges. So I got down on my knees next to the table and kept telling her to be careful. She thought me being down on my knees right in front of her with my head under the table with her was pretty fun and kept talking and laughing and smiling at me. Then all of the sudden she leaned forward and kissed me...over and over and over again and smiling in between at me. We don't get to experience too many of these "tender" moments with Isabelle much...she too busy to slow down and she almost NEVER cuddles (much to my dislike). It brought tears to my eyes and made my day all that much better...

New Words

Isabelle has a couple new words to add to her repertoire. She now says, "Button," "Jesus," "Dada," "Thank You" and she says, "Pretty" again. She still says, "Baby" a ton. She's also getting better and better at saying, "Bow Wow." My question is...why is she saying these big words? Whatever happened to "Mama" or "More?"

Little Bit of Randomness

Since I haven't blogged in a while and I'm not really motivated to do so, here is a little bit of everything:

• Today is Curt's and my two year anniversary. We really wanted to eat out at La Hacienda Ranch last night, but we couldn't justify spending the money. Sad...
• Isabelle is a leaky faucet. Her eyes and nose won't stop leaking. It's so much that I think it is worse than it's ever been. It is all clear though, so no infection...yet. I'm hoping it is just teething, but I'm afraid it might be allergies. She's getting a pretty bad cough with all the drainage though...she only took a thirty minute nap because of it. It may be a LONG day...
• I made a new Creative Team in the scrapbooking world. I'm super stoked about it. 
• Remember my HUGE project of doing a picture-a-day scrapbook for Isabelle's first year. We are down to the editing people! I can't even tell you how sick I am of it though. I'm afraid once I print it, I'll look at it once and never look at it again. My goal is to have it ordered by tomorrow though. It is almost half edited and half uploaded to the printing Web site...so that goal is attainable.
• Plane tickets are NOT CHEAP!!! Ugh!
• I bought fabric for curtains for our new apartment on Friday. I LOVE the fabric and it was 50 percent off! YAY!! I've cut all the fabric and started sewing last night. I cannot wait to see them hanging in my dinning room and living room!
• I haven't cut my hair in almost a year. Yikes...
• I've been getting really bad headaches a lot lately. 
• I had Isabelle's pictures done recently and they turned out super cute. I'm quite tickled about them. In one picture she's in the bluebonnets and another she's in a tutu. I love having a girl!
• I'm making fettucine alfredo, Parmesan chicken, French bread and asparagus for dinner. Okay...my mom is doing the bread...but I'm super excited for it. It's going to be yummy. It's my cheap present to my husband for our anniversary. He loves homemade alfredo sauce. 
• Settlers of Catan: Cities and Knights is the best game ever. 
• Curt watched Isabelle almost the entire day yesterday and I got SOOOO much done. When I finally went to bed I felt like I hadn't taken a break all day. 
• Just under two weeks until we move! Unfortunately it is just about the worst day to move. Curt has school in the morning, we have a wedding that evening and adult session of Stake Conference that night. I think we are going to have to rent a moving van just to get it done with the little amount of time we have to do it in. 

Green?!?

So, I changed Isabelle's poopy diaper this morning... I was totally shocked when I opened up the diaper and her poop was bright green. Literally! My first thought was, "Where did she get play dough to eat?!?" Seriously! What makes someone's poop BRIGHT green?

Playing Outside

Remember how I've mentioned a couple of times that we've been really blessed? Well, one of those ways is that we have been given so many things for Isabelle. In the past year we've been given everything from a bassinet, to hundreds of dollars in Little People toys and most recently outdoor toys. While hanging out with my aunt's family, Isabelle was given a wagon, a car, a slide and a house in exchange for me doing some digital scrabooking for them. Saying Isabelle loves her new toys is quite the understatement. She adores them. We can't take her out of her house before she is ready or she throws a tantrum. That is quite annoying...

Can you believe that I didn't think she'd like the house? When Aimee asked if I wanted it, I really didn't think it would be worth taking. Thank goodness Emily took her out to see if she would. She immediately loved it. Doesn't it make you want to come over and play?

Cloth Diapers...I'm Not Insane

So, as you will probably remember a little over a month ago, I blogged that I was switching Isabelle to cloth diapers. I have been asked a lot about how we like it and have even had requests for me to blog about it. So, like my friend Andi who introduced me to them, I'll do a little review. Honestly, for us, I am so glad I made the switch. There are two main reasons why: money and the fit. Before I even tell you anything more, I want to say this: it doesn't matter what the cons are, for those two reasons we switched, we love them and we would never go back.
Some of you are probably thinking the exact same thing I thought when my friend told me she was using cloth diapers. "That's insane!" or "I would never do that!" or how about "That is so nasty!" However after I saw them, got a little demonstration, read a lot of reviews, thought about it for two weeks or so, I realized it really isn't bad. I will say though, I am so glad it worked out. (If it hadn't though, they do have a 30 money back guarantee!)
Okay, without further ado...
We use BumGenius 3.0 cloth diapers:

They are one size and fit babies from newborn to 35 pounds. Once again, this appealed to us because the diaper grows with Isabelle...eliminating extra costs. They have a snap system on the shell of the diaper and the inserts so it literally grows with the baby. Hopefully all will go according to plan and they will last through multiple children too. When you buy a diaper, it comes with the shell and two inserts to stuff into the diaper. One is the standard insert and another is the newborn insert. I use them both though. Isabelle's a pretty heavy wetter, so that's what works for us. Amazingly even after 12 hours during the night with no changes, the diaper still doesn't leak. Plus, even if she wakes up and immediately poops, it still doesn't leak. (That would be a total disaster for a disposable on Isabelle.) In disposables, we would either change her diaper in the middle of the night or she would wake up with her entire belly wet from the leaking out the top of the diaper. Poor baby.
How do you handle to poop? Well, I'm glad you asked. (It's the number 1 question I get.) Well, let me introduce you to this.

I really don't think I could use cloth diapers without this sprayer. It is $44.95, but if you are going to buy cloth diapers, you have to also buy this. You use this sprayer to spray the poop into the toilet and Voila! Poop is gone...and I didn't touch it!
There is also the whole washing of the diapers. I do have to do a load every other day...but I wouldn't want to wait any longer. Eww... Anyway, you do have to use certain detergents that have no fragrances or dyes in it. They will actually harm your diapers. However it calls for 1/4 the detergent than the bottle calls for. Once we move and have a line to do so, I think I will actually try out line drying the diapers.
Did I miss anything about how they work? I don't know...leave me a comment with your question if I did.

Pros:
1. They are so much cheaper in the long run. BumGenius diapers are $17.95 a piece. I currently have 9, but will expand to 12 before me move out. You don't have to pay for shipping either. Yay! By the time I have 12, I will have spent about $225. It is estimated that to have your child in diapers until they are 3 years old, you will spend at least $1,500. I don't know about you, but we literally can't afford to buy diapers each month (once we move out).
2. I LOVE the way they fit. Isabelle leaked ALL THE TIME in disposables. From week 2 or so until the day before I switched. I couldn't go a week, or even a few days without her leaking out the legs of the diaper. I haven't had a single leak with the BumGenius diapers.
3. I don't have to touch poop. Remember how she leaked all the time? Well, I had to clean it up. Out of the Bumbo, swing, bassinet, crib, clothes, etc. I don't know about you but I would rather spray poop into the toilet than stick my whole hand and wrist into her poop covered pant legs to turn them inside out so I can clean the poop out in the sink or tub. I know this seems ironic...I have to touch poop with disposables and not cloth? It's true though. I promise.

4. I think they are adorable. I mean, look at this cute baby! :)

5. Isabelle has her father's skin. Even though she wasn't allergic to disposable diapers, once she got a diaper rash, it was all but impossible to get rid of it. I don't know if it was the disposable or not...but I do know that I don't want to irritate her skin any more than it already is. Just me thinking I'm helping her skin makes me feel better. Besides, just because Isabelle wasn't allergic doesn't mean my other kids won't be.
6. I have an amazing/awesome/incredible husband that helps out. Okay...so maybe that isn't a pro for the diaper, but it is for the process of the whole thing in our house. He helps stuff them, clean them, wash them etc. He supports me in my efforts to save money and doesn't complain or call me crazy.

Okay...so I would be lying if I said there weren't any down sides to the diaper...
Cons:
1. It does add time to your diaper changing routine. If she's just wet the diaper, it isn't really much of a change at all, but when she poops... Well, after all is said and done, it adds about 2 or 3 minutes to clean it off.
2. It adds a little, okay a lot, of junk in the trunk. There is a definite difference between the size of her bootie in a cloth diaper and a disposable diaper. The down side to this is I have to hear my family call her J Lo or ghetto bootie all the time. We also had to take back all of her new 12 month shorts and exchange them for 18 months. Other than that...it's just cute.
3. Almost the entire cost is upfront: the diapers. It can be really hard to come up with $200 - $300 to spend on diapers all at once. We still had to do it in sets of 6, 3 and then 3 again to afford them. Remember though, shipping is free! :)
4. I don't really like stuffing them...but that's just because I get bored with it. It kind of goes back to the whole, "I don't mind washing clothes, but I hate folding them" theory that I have. As soon as they are dry though, we stuff them, because if you wait until Isabelle's on the changing table, it's too late. She hates getting her diaper changed and wants to flip over as soon as her back hits the table. Therefore we have to stuff them before we need them.

So those are the pros and cons that I can think of. Here are a few tips that I've learned about getting a little bit of cost off the price of the diapers. If you sign up for the newsletter on CottonBabies.com, they will send you a 5 percent off coupon. Of course you have to spend $100 first... Diapers.com also carries BumGenius diapers. If you purchase $50 of products, you don't have to pay for shipping there either. However, on your first purchase you can get $10 off a purchase of $50 or more in diapers. The coupon codes don't automatically apply to cloth diapers though. However, if you email the customer service department about it, they will credit the $10 to your account. (Super nice and YAY!) Do the math...unless you spend $200 at CottonBabies.com, it is worth doing Diapers.com... If you do purchase anything at Diapers.com, use the referral code TryDiapers for me, k? :)
Like I said at the beginning. We do love our BumGenius diapers. I'm so lucky that I do, because really the only way for us to live anywhere but at my parent's house we couldn't afford diapers. However, even if we can afford disposables on subsequent children, I don't know if I would switch back. I really do love them. You should make the switch too.
I'm totally amazed that you read the whole thing and made it to the end, by the way! :)

Day at the Zoo...Again

Yesterday Isabelle and I went to the zoo with my sister-in-law Lacey and her two kiddos. The weather was so perfect...well except about the ten minutes of rain, but it was worth it. When it started to rain we were right by the lions...and guess what the rain caused the lion to do? Roar! A LOT!! I couldn't believe it! After about half way through the lion's roar-a-thon, I realized I had brought the small camera with video capabilities too. So, I pulled it out and caught the end. It was so cool. Yeah...Isabelle totally ignored the whole thing and didn't even think twice about the noise, but Lacey and I loved it. (Sorry about the annoying kids who think it is cooler to hear them mimic the lion than to actually hear the lion...)

It wasn't just the lions who were super active either. The zebras were biting each other and seemed to be fighting...but I guess it could have been flirting...

Isabelle seemed to look at a lot more animals this time. She watched the gorilla, the white tiger (it walked by right in front of us, which she liked), the zebras and of course the birds again (we fed them this time too).

I thought this was pretty cool too:

Scrapbooking News

Okay, so a lot of this news is old, so some of you may have heard this, but for a lot of my blog friends/family, you probably haven't so this is for you. A while ago, someone asked me how many hours a day I spend on the computer. I said about two... Well, since answering that question, I've paid more attention...and I lied. Sorry, Mary. Yeah...I don't even want to admit how much I am on the computer. Almost every hour I'm awake and she's asleep and then a couple. I can't help it...I'm totally addicted. I love to scrapbook. I started at 14, and I've loved it ever since. However, I totally shifted gears after college and now I don't even consider going back to paper scrapbooking. I love my undo button too much. That and things can be perfect on a computer. I hat that a cropper doesn't actually cut a straight line. It seriously bothers me! Anyway...the point of this post is to let everyone know that I applied to a creative team (CT) for a digital scrapbook designer. It is pretty much the industry standard that every designer has a creative team of about 12 to 15 people who get the kits (for free!) before they are released to the public. The CT has the assignment to use the kit and make a layout before the release day so the designer can use the layouts as examples of what can be done with the kit. Think of it as advertising. CT members also have to post their layouts in galleries separate from where the designer uses the layouts (such as the designer's blog, newsletter, etc.) I have LOVED the past month or so that I've been on the team. I've worked with three kits now and lots of already released/old stuff. I can't get enough. I had already worked with Leslie's (of GG Digital Designs) products before...a lot. I love her stuff, but I can't afford everything...so having full access to her entire store has been a bit like Christmas to me. Whenever we don't have a specific assignment, I still find myself scrapbooking using her stuff so I can advertise more for her. Being on this CT has only made me want to be on more. I love being in contact with awesome fellow scrapbookers, getting to see products before they are released...and well getting FREE stuff. Check me out here on her Web site (at the bottom...I'm new). And I have a layout featured on this blog post. If you're a scrapbooker...read the blog post and participate in the challenge!

Other news...Remember that layout I requested everyone to vote on? I ended up with third place. Thanks to everyone who voted.

I also competed in a month-long competition. The competition was modeled after March Madness and used brackets. There were 80 original competitors. The Web site didn't do eliminations though. Out of the four rounds, I won every round. However in the end, because there were about nine competitors that won all four bouts, they had to pick the winners (the top 4) by how many votes you received. I ended up in sixth place. In my defense (and to get on my soap box) only one of the competitors that beat me had someone to go up against every round. Meaning, some of the people who entered the competition, didn't actually submit a layout causing the person who went up against them in the bout to get all of the points. So...I really should have been higher than sixth place. :) I'm just happy I won all four rounds.  Here are my layouts I submitted:
Round 1 (The only words on the page had to be from a song...)

Round 2 (Scrapbook your biggest pet peeve. Okay, so Isabelle being sick isn't my actual biggest pet peeve, but how do you scrapbook being ignored?)

Round 3 (The only word on the page could be "Glee.")

Round 4 (Scrapbook 25 (your age) things you love.)

Okay, now that I've bored most of you...I'll stop. :)

Easter Basket

On Sunday, Isabelle woke up from her nap to see that she had an Easter basket. She is so silly! She LOVES books...so she got so excited about them. At the same time though, she doesn't like anything in her baskets. Since the books were new and exciting it took her a little while before she had to throw everything out, but she still did. Anyway...here are pictures of her and her Easter basket (that was my Easter basket...and my mom made it!).

We hope all y'all had a wonderful Easter!

Day at the Zoo

On Tuesday we went to the zoo with some families from the ward. While Isabelle had more of a reaction than she did when we went last September in Idaho, she still doesn't really appreciate much of anything there. She does like the waterfalls and she did seem to notice the gorillas and zebras, but what she really loved was the birds. We went inside the bird house where all the birds fly around and she loved it. She would complain and start to cry everytime I moved her...even if it was just one place to the next within the bird house. I didn't take many pictures of the day...and almost all of them weren't very good, but enjoy!

Easter Egg Hunt

Saturday evening Curt, Isabelle and I went to Curt's parent's house for dinner and an Easter egg hunt. (Birthday party #3 never happened, so that blog post will no longer be forth coming...I do plan on eventually getting around to Birthday party #1 though...fyi for my avid blog readers...) We didn't really think she would go after the eggs or anything, but the scrapbooker in me had to try. She was pretty cute though, if I do say so myself. She loved her Easter basket and carrying it around. She didn't, however, like having anything in her basket...paper grass or eggs. She threw both out. She loved carrying it around, walking around with it in the crook of her elbow and pointing to and touching the wild dandelions.

Eventually she did want an egg. However, it had to be an empty egg that was broken open, but the two halves had to be connected. Otherwise she wasn't happy with it. Weird.

After the Easter egg hunt we played outside. Brigham and Isabelle were completely entertained by watching Abby jump on the trampoline.

Those last two pictures are so funny. Brigham and Isabelle had been sitting by each other for a while. It finally dawned on Isabelle that she was sitting next to Brigham and she snuggled right up next to him and leaned on him. It was so adorable.