Diaper Style AppleCheeks Giveaway!

I've just gotten started on the semi-annual Great Cloth Diaper Hunt and I found a great diaper website with some cool new diapers!

The website is called Diaper Style. They have cloth diapers and accessories, babywearing products, baby products, mom products, breastfeeding supplies and skin care products. They really have a great selection of items!

Diaper Style is having a giveaway of the AppleCheeks diapers starter kit. It includes:
* 3 AppleCheeks™ Envelope Covers, in either size 1 OR size 2, in pre-determined, gender-neutral color assortment.
* 9 One-size inserts, in either hemp OR bamboo.
* 1 Storage Sac, size 1.
* 3 super plush bamboo terry wipes.
* 1 BONUS hemp booster.
* Printed care instructions.
* Our amazing tutorial video on DVD.
* Our gorgeous, full-colour, durable and reusable box!

The colors are cute, the diaper looks REALLY trim and they are definitely diapers that I am going to try.

To enter the giveaway, simply visit the Diaper Style blog and follow the easy instructions to enter up to 4 different ways.

I Beat It!!!

I finally got all 120 stars as Mario on Super Mario Galaxy! I think this is an awesome video game. Definitely challenging, but also very fun. Its hard to find that balance in video games. I've always liked Super Mario games, but the only other one I've ever beaten was the first Super Mario Brothers on the original Nintendo Entertainment System. I've never played the Gamecube or N64, but I'd like to play Mario 64 on the Wii. You can download old game system games for a pretty decent price on the Wii. We just need to either get some old Gamecube remotes or get some Wii Classic remotes so that we can play some of those older games that we've never tried.

I definitely think that the hardest levels are the Boulderguist Daredevil Run, the Luigi's Purple Coins and Dreadnaught's Purple coins.

Now I get to play it as Luigi. What fun!

...And A Partridge in a Pear Tree

Oh, my goodness! Am I tired! I spent 13 hours on my feet in the kitchen today, baking. I don't like to bake - I don't like the mess and I don't like that once the food is in the oven I can't tweak it if necessary. Its like the point of no return. So, when I bake, I bake a LOT.

I got up at 7:30 today and fed the baby. I got up again at 8:00 and changed her diaper and fed all the kids and started making batter. I made sugar cookies, thumbprints, peanut butter blossoms, chocolate chip, white chocolate chip and chocolate raspberry chip cookies. The first 3 required refrigeration for 1-3 hours before baking, so I made those first. Then I started on all the chip cookies, nursed the baby and laid her down for her morning nap, made lunch for the kids, made some more cookies, made lunch for myself, made more cookies, nursed the baby and laid her down for her afternoon nap, and finally finished up the cookies.

Then I took a shower, at 4:30 pm, got out and reheated leftovers for dinner. After dinner, I cleaned up, gave the kids a bath, played crazy eights and started tomorrow's dinner - lasagna. While that was simmering, the kids and I watched the Grinch Who Stole Christmas (animated) and I nursed the baby and put her down to bed. Then I assembled the lasagna and here I am watching the last episode of Friends, Season 7 and blogging. As soon as the episode is over, I'm going to switch the disk, make some popcorn and PUT MY FEET UP!

Back to the cookies, I made what must be about 1,000 cookies (only a slight exaggeration). I used 21 eggs, almost 5 pounds of butter, 6 pounds of flour and about 5 pounds of sugar. It was a lot of fun making the sugar cookies with the kids. I was much smarter than I was last year, when I let the kids decorate in the (carpeted) dining room. They used so much colored sugar that my carpet was red and green and took more than 3 swipes with the vacuum to get it all out. This year, I had them decorating in the kitchen. Still lots of sugar used, but MUCH easier to clean up.

Now I've got to figure out how I'm going to get everything done that I need to get done tomorrow: sweeping, mopping, vacuuming, heating up dinner, dropping off cookies to my brother- and sister-in-law's house, taking care of all the kids plus my nephew and dropping him off before getting to church at 7pm; all while being lazy and relaxing. Something tells me that the being lazy part isn't going to happen. Especially with the forecasted 10 inches of snow that we are going to get making the roads all nasty.

I love Christmas!!!

Christmas "Break"

So, we had ourselves another busy weekend this past weekend. My son was a reader in the Church Christmas Program. He had a practice on Saturday at 3pm, while he was practicing, we went to Meijer down the street to get some groceries. The place was an absolute madhouse! Every single checkout lane was open and had at least a 15 minute wait. By the time we got done shopping and got back to the church, we had about 20 minutes to pass before the first performance, which took place at the 5pm service. We left as soon as the performance was done - we had to feed our dog and get the kids home, fed, bathed and in bed at a decent time. As it was, my oldest daughter fell asleep in church and didn't wake up until we got home.

The kids were in bed by 8pm and asleep by 9. I went to bed at midnight, well, I attempted to anyways. The baby woke up just as I was laying down, wanting to nurse. I had to get up at 6:30 the next morning. I got up at 6:30 and got myself ready, then woke up the rest of the clan at 7am to get dressed and out the door. Did I mention that it was blizzard conditions that morning? Being that there were 40mph winds, I let the van warm up for 30 minutes rather than my usual 10 or 15. The roads were nasty and visibility was worse. I had to drive the whole way with my hazards on, because there is a fuse out or a loose connection causing my tail lights not to light.

We got to church by 8am. I nursed the baby and got her dressed while my wonderful husband got the breads that I brought ready for the breakfast after the program at the 8:30 service. The kids performed, had breakfast and then went to Sunday school. I went to the nursery to feed the baby some Cheerios and crackers. And to change her clothes 2 more times because she managed to pee through 2 diapers within one hour. Then we went in for the 11am service and performance. We left as soon as the kids were done with that one. We were all tired and had had enough. We went to Meijer to pick up a few things that we had forgotten on Saturday and we bought our "big" family Christmas gift - a Wii. Yay!

We went home, had lunch and the kids watched a movie while Mom, Dad and baby napped. We were beat!

The Holiday Craziness Isn't So Crazy This Year!

This past weekend, however, WAS crazy. Since 1999, my Decembers have been a flurry of activity, being double and triple booked for Christmas parties each of the 4 or 5 weekends of the month. Both my wonderful husband and I come from divorced (and mostly remarried) parents. With all that dysfunction comes a lot of holiday expectations. There's always the party with my Mom and Step-father, the party with my Step-father's family (who are all great), with my Mom's side of the family, with my Dad and Step-mother (which has recently been eliminated - their decision, not ours), with my Dad's side of the family, with my wonderful husband's Dad and Step-mother, and my former employer had a party and we each threw parties at our respective restaurants. And then, there's the Christmas Eve service at church and, starting last year, the children's musical at church. Finally, there's Christmas day, which we ALWAYS spend at home, because its no fun to open all the presents and then leave.

This year, we only have/had a few parties: with my Dad's side of the family, with my Mom's side of the family, with my Mom and Step-father and siblings and, eventually one with my wonderful husband's family - that still isn't set.

Over Thanksgiving, my wonderful husband's brother asked him to help him clean up and and make his desktop and laptop computers more efficient. They live in Sterling Heights and we live in Grand Rapids. My wonderful husband thought it would be easiest to go there and do what needed to be done. My sister-in-law insisted that our whole family come over to their house so that the kids could play together. Then, all of us were invited to a birthday party of a different nephew, who lives in Holly. And, there was an extra practice scheduled for the musical at church on Saturday morning.

So, Friday night, my husband has to work the closing shift - until 4am. I spent Friday evening packing and making a fruit salad and cutting vegetables. Saturday, I had to get up at 7:30, to get everything else ready that couldn't be done the night before. I let my wonderful husband sleep for as long as possible. So, we all loaded up (including the dog) and went to my mother-in-law's house to drop off the dog, the husband and the girls. Then I took my son to church for practice, went to Meijer to pick up some baby food and juice and dropped my chopped veggies off to my brother's house so he could bring them to the party for me. Then I went back to my mother-in-law's house so that my wonderful husband could go deliver the rest of the popcorn from the Boy Scout's popcorn sale.

Then we made the 2 1/2 hour drive to Holly and did the birthday party thing. It was a nice party, but very busy. My baby just started the separation anxiety thing (I've never had to deal with that before!) and with that, she had 2 offended Grandparents. Can she help that they've only seen her twice? After we left the party that ended late, we drove another hour to brother and sister-in-law's house for dinner and computer stuff. I got the kids ready and in bed by 9:30. My son fell asleep by about 10, which wasn't bad, since he was sleeping on an air mattress with 2 of his other cousins and another cousin was in the bed. My oldest daughter fell asleep around 1:00am and the baby never slept for more than 1 hour at a time.

She cried all night long. As a result, I only got a cumulative 3 hours of sleep. Then we went to church, where my wonderful husband proceeded to fall asleep about 1,000 times. Then we went back to the house, where my husband worked on finishing up computer stuff until 1:30. At which time, we said our good-byes and made the 3 1/2 hour drive to Greenville. We had to stop 3 times! My oldest daughter slept for about 3 hours, which was definitely necessary.

We had a good time at the Christmas party and left at 7:00pm, at which time, my daughter had already had at least 2 meltdowns and the baby had already offended almost every adult there with her mommy clingy-ness. We drove 45 minutes to my mother-in-law's house to pick up the dog and then another 20 minutes home.

We got home, got the kids in bed, unpacked and crashed. The baby slept all night, until 5:00am and we were back to business as usual Monday morning, with a 2 hour school delay.

Yeah, not so crazy...Yet.

12 Days of Christmas

As performed by Straight No Chaser





I LOVE this video!

Griffins game with the Cub Scouts

Oh, my gosh! We had so much fun last night. My family, minus the baby, went to a Griffins hockey game with the Cub Scouts. The kids had such a good time. We went about a year ago with my brother-in-law and sister-in-law and their kids and my kids got very bored and restless right away. This year was completely opposite of that. My daughter was reading the numbers on the jerseys and was cheering for them. "GO FIVE! GO FIVE!!!" (I just had to remind her that we were cheering for the guys in the white jerseys!) and my son had fun watching, because they have been playing indoor hockey in his gym class.

Sadly, we had to leave at the beginning of the third period, because it was already 10pm and we had church today. Because it was already 2 hours past my kids' bedtime and they were having so much fun, this caused quite the commotion. "I don't WANNA go!" I didn't want to go either - I love hockey. But I knew that by the time we left and picked up baby from mother-in-law's house and finally got home, it would be 11pm. If we stayed till the end of the game, we wouldn't have gotten home until midnight. No thanks! Sure enough, as soon as the car was moving, my daughter was asleep. My son fell asleep as soon as we got to Grandma's house.

I went in and grabbed the baby and all of my other daughter's things from her overnight. It turns out that the baby cried (screamed), inconsolably for 2 1/2 hours. This is exactly what she did the night before. All night long. I felt terrible. Luckily, my mother-in-law doesn't let crying bother her as easily. Sometimes there's just nothing you can do about it besides just holding her. Needless to say, I am exhausted. Of the past 3 weeks, she has only slept more than 3 hours at a stretch about 3 nights. I ended up not going to church because I couldn't drag my butt out of bed this morning. We think the antibiotics are making her have an upset tummy. She has had just nasty diapers and a little bit of throw up too. I can't wait till her meds are done!

All in all, we had a terrific time last night. I am so glad that my kids are getting old enough that we can do things that the adults like, instead of always going to the playplace in the mall, or the Children's Museum or Chuck E. Cheeses. Which are all good places, but its nice to do adult-y things too!

Frustration...

I never cease to be amazed at how much money people spend on their kid's birthday parties. My son has been invited to 4 birthday parties of his classmate's. The thing is, the invitations are handed out to the entire class! I would not, even in my craziest moments, invite sixteen 6 and 7 year old kids to a party. Can we say insanity? And these aren't little at home, cake and ice cream parties...they are huge, all out parties: The first one was a joint party, 2 brothers a year apart, parents welcome too. There were no less than 40 kids there. They had a cookout and a huge Bonzai slide for the kids to play on, plus games, pinata, bounce thingies, etc. The second was a Chuck E. Cheese party. The third was a Bounce Party. The fourth one, today, was a party at a Martial Arts studio.

The invitations were sent out a month ago, which, to me seemed a bit early for birthday party invites to go out. Anyways, they said meet at the studio, the party goes from 3-5. Then, this week, my son brings home a note saying that there will be pizza, so maybe just give your kid a snack for lunch. We arrived at 2:50, they arrived at 3:10 and said that the party had been changed to 4-6pm, didn't I get the note? Ummmm, no. That's why I was waiting here at 2:50! So, I told birthday boy's mom that we would be by to pick up my son a little early because we had dinner plans with my mother-in-law.

I told my son that he should only eat 1 or 2 slices of pizza and only 1 piece of cake, so that he would be able to eat dinner with my M-I-L. She is the type of person that has an opinion about everything, including portion size and what kind of food is eaten. We get there and, of course, my son tells Grandma ALL about his exciting day and the fun at the party. And he says, "I had 2 pieces of pizza, so I'm not going to eat a lot of dinner." To which she replies, "I know, I'm very dissappointed." I can't fault him, he's a 6 year old, brutally honest kid. She on the other hand could have exercised some tact. She is never completely satisfied with anything.

He did eat his entire dinner.

But I digress.

On a happier, more wallet-damaging note...I found a couple things while Diaper Hunting that I simply MUST order. GoGo Natural, Hiney Lineys, Blue House Soaps all have terrifically tempting websites.

The Great Cloth Diaper Hunt

WOW! I never knew that there were SO many cloth diaper, natural wear, organic, BPA-free websites! I have recently been introduced to the Great Cloth Diaper Hunt and have been having so much fun trying to find the little owl/diaper icon. And I've been finding lots of other neat stuff along the way! (Too bad my favorite CD store, Pinstripes and Polkadots isn't involved) Almost all the sponsors involved even offer discounts to GCDH hunters. I actually force myself not to look too closely, otherwise, I'd be a broke mommy by now.

I have actually been, secretly, toying with the idea of starting my own Internet business (of some type) for quite a while now. I just don't know if it is something that I would be very good at or if I would actually make any money. It just seems like something that would be fun. I guess my previous stint with MK has me a little gun-shy to even do the research.
Maybe I'll take the time now.