Happy Halloween

We've had way more than our share of rain this year. I was really hoping that the weather would be NICE for Trick or Treating. It rained most of the morning, but stopped just after lunch. It was really looking like we had a chance, then about 5:30, it started to rain. It rained & rained & rained for a LONG time. We usually go out to Trick or Treat around 7 pm. Hubby put his coat on & went out into the road to see how bad the rain was out from underneath the trees. He came in soaked after about 3 minutes and told the kids the unpleasant news....it was raining too hard to go.

Marissa & Melanie were especially devastated. We told them to keep their costumes on & we would see. Hubby & I talked about possible alternatives, but it was already almost 7:30 & our van is STILL not working, so we really didn't have any option other than waiting to see if the rain would clear. Hubby pulled up the weather Doppler on the local news website & checked to see what the storm was doing. For a while it looked as if there was no hope, then at about 8:20 a hole started to develop on the map. Marissa came to whine about not getting to Trick or Treat & I told her that Daddy was working on it. She went to Daddy to see & he told her "I'm trying" She came running back to me all excited to let me know that HER Daddy was going to make it stop raining! It really was the cutest thing. A few minutes later, I took the kids out onto the porch to get pictures of them in their costumes. We looked up & down the street, there weren't any kids out trick or treating & there were barely any lights on. Just then, Hubby came out & told the kids it was TIME to Go!! They were thrilled.

We went up the hill outside our house instead of our usual down & quickly found a few houses with lights on. As soon as Marissa received her first piece of candy her face lit up & she came running to tell me all about it. We spent about 45 minutes going to all the houses in our neighborhood with lights on. We didn't see any other kids the entire time. While we were in the cul de sac behind our house, it started to pour again. The kids didn't seem to care. It took us another 15 minutes to make it home, and even then Melanie was NOT ready to be done.

Leg Hugger Review

Leg Huggers are leg warmers for babies. Melanie received this style in the mail for review. They are made of bamboo and are super soft & as you can see super adorable. Melanie couldn't wait for me to get them out of the package. I put them on her around lunch time & was very surprised to see she was still wearing them at dinner time. Melanie really isn't big on wearing clothes most of the time, but she LOVES these. When it was time for bed, she cried when I tried to take them off. I decided to let her sleep in them. Melanie wears a 3T in pants, the Leg Huggers are just long enough to reach from the top of her thigh to her ankles. They are one size fits all. The fit is snug at the thigh, but not tight. The pattern is adorable. They keep her legs warm while still letting her show off her adorable cloth diapers & the BIG thing, she LOVES them!

Leg Huggers come in a ton of cute patterns & are reasonably priced at just $10 per pair. They have free shipping for orders of $50 or more. Check out their Facebook page for special promotions!

More Halloween 2007--Friday Photo Flashback

Melanie was almost 6 months old for her first Halloween. She didn't mind being in a costume in the house.
Marissa had just turned 2 & was very excited, this was the first year she understood what Trick or Treating was about. Maggie was a fairy.
Morgan was Harry Potter
Melanie was unsure about being in her costume in the stroller.
She quickly decided that she did NOT like Trick or Treating.

Bon Bon Cupcake Review--Things I LOVE Thursday

I was recently sent a pair of Bon Bon Cupcake microfiber ruffle leggings to review. I had fallen in love with them the first time I visited the webpage. They are the epitome of ADORABLE! One of the things that I missed the most when I only had boys was ruffles & fancy dresses....I LOVE ruffles & fortunately for me all three of my girls are girly girls!

When they arrived, they were packaged in a clear box, inside was what looked like a fancy cupcake sitting on a spotted tissue paper tray. I tried to take a picture, but it didn't come out well. When I showed it to Marissa she squealed with joy! Marissa is 4 and the pair we received are a 2T-4T, they fit her with a bit of room to grow. They come in sizes from newborn up to 8 yrs old, Maggie very disappointed they don't make her size. The legging material feels very durable, yet silky. We've now washed them several times & they still look new, unlike most of the tights that Marissa has worn. As you can tell, from this picture, Marissa LOVES them. This type is called Double Layer leggings, there are actually two different types of ribbon in the ruffle. The legging itself is a pale pink. These retail on their website for $22, which originally seemed kind of expensive to me. The quality & durability has actually swayed me & I'm considering buying Marissa & Melanie each a pair to match their Christmas dresses....I think the white on white basic leggings would look fabulous with their red dresses!


If you are in LOVE with ruffles, I highly recommend checking out the Bon Bon Cupcake website & don't forget to take a look at their sales....I saw some pretty good deals!

I really want one of these!!!

Kim from Dirty Diaper Laundry is having a giveaway right now for a Baby Behinds Minky Magic All....this is an All in One diaper that is minky on the outside. Minky is my favorite fabric and to top it off, these diapers have snaps!

Aren't these colors gorgeous!

Wouldn't it be nice to WIN a Christmas present or two?

That is my hope for the next couple months. I'll probably be entering a lot of toy related giveaways in hopes of winning a few things for the kids Christmas gifts. I'm also really watching the sales & specials of both online stores & brick & mortar stores.....if I can't find it on sale I probably won't be buying it.

Baby GoodBuys is giving away a Little Tikes Picnic Table! Check out All ChildrensFurniture.com for your favorite brands like Little Tikes, KidKraft , and more!

How I first learned about cloth diapers....Cloth Diaper Bloggers Carnival #4

This post is part of the Cloth Diapering Bloggers and Dirty Diaper Laundry hosted Cloth Diaper Carnival that is held every month. Many bloggers get together and write about the same topic. This month is “Where did you first hear about/ see cloth diapers?”

When I was a tween, I remember my Stepmother using cloth diapers on my baby sister. They were big rectangles of cloth, put on with pins & covered with a pair of crinkly rubber pants. They smelled bad & the laundry area where she kept the bucket to soak them smelled even worse. When I was pregnant with my first (1987), I didn't even consider using cloth diapers. Money was tight, but I decided I would cut our costs by exclusively breastfeeding....if I didn't have to buy formula, I would have enough money to buy disposables! Breastfeeding worked out for us very well & I never felt an ounce of guilt for using disposables.

A few years later, my best friend had her first baby (1990). She lived in Los Angeles & knew about all the new trends. She showed me this really cool "wrap" that replaced diaper pins & plastic pants....I was intrigued, but my baby was 9 months old & there wasn't any place locally that I could buy these magical wraps. When my friend's baby outgrew his wraps, she gave me one & I packed it away with all my baby gear. Over the years we ended up using disposables on 4 more babies.

In July of 2008, I was trying to get our budget slimmed down in preparation for Christmas expenditures. One of the money saving ideas I found online was switching to cloth diapers. I looked at a LOT of websites and quickly became overwhelmed. Most of the forums I found were geared to expectant parents planning to use cloth diapers on their newborn...my baby was 14 months old. While looking at one of the sites, I clicked on a link for retailers & was THRILLED to discover that there was a local cloth diaper STORE, where I could look & touch & ask questions. My biggest fear was that I was going to spend a bunch of money & end up with something I didn't like. Before going to the store, I did some more research & narrowed down what I thought I wanted and could afford. I knew as soon as I held my first truly modern cloth diaper that I was going to LOVE using them on my baby!

Let me know if you use blogger & need the code to get MckLinky to work on your post!

Last Halloween--Take Me Back Tuesday

It amazes me how much all three of them have changed in just a year! Of course Mason has a full head of hair again now, but he is living in the dorm at college and will likely not be home for Halloween. Marissa & Melanie have really grown & changed so much!

Music Monday--Hubby took me to a Concert for my Birthday!!!

Thursday was my birthday. I'm not really all that into celebrating my birthday now that I'm so OLD, but Hubby got tickets for us to a concert in Chattanooga for Saturday night. My Mom stayed with the kids & we drove down in a friend's car because our van is STILL not running. We had a nice dinner in a Tapas wine bar. We'd never had Tapas, so that was a neat new experience. We ordered Greek salad, tequila shrimp, blackened pork tenderloin, mozzarella bruscetta & a LARGE glass each of a yummy Pinot Noir. We shared all the food & really enjoyed ourselves. We saw Celtic Woman at the Memorial Auditorium. This first video is a compilation from the current tour. I LOVE their new dresses!!!

This is their newest song...Isle of Hope, Isle of Tears, the tour is named for this song. This is an intensely emotional song & I was in tears before it was over, even Hubby shed a tear or two. This isn't the best quality video, but the audio is pretty good. I'll definitely be buying the DVD of this tour as soon as its available!

This is one of my favorite songs. Some of the women in this video are different than we saw, but it was still fabulous!

This is another of my favorites. The drums and the fiddle player are spectacular. Hubby couldn't help humming along to this one & I had to keep poking him.

I LOVE this Cartoon!

I saw this for the first time this afternoon on Facebook. Melanie watched it with me and she was enthralled, then Marissa started watching, she LOVED it too! Even the big kids thought it was cute when they watched it after school.

Giveaways I'm entering this week!!

Check out this list of Cloth Diaper giveaways....
Win 2 Prairie Tails pocket diapers & a wet bag at Happily Domestic
Win a Nifty Nappy OS Diaper in your choice of fabric (comes with organic hemp/bamboo Lay In Insert), a Woolie Wrap and a lanolin to care for your wool at Happily Domestic
Win a $25 Monkey Snuggles gift certificate from Newlywed Newly Bred
Win one Nubunz and one SweetDollBaby diaper from Newly Wed Newly Bred
Win 6 Bummis Organic Prefolds, 1 Superbrite cover, and 1 Whisper Wrap cover on 1st Time Around's Fluff Butt Event
Win a Banana Bottoms fitted diaper and a Fundawears cover from the Artfire Cloth Diaper (Addicts) Guild

Not a clothdiaper, but Moma Lovebug is having a giveaway for an organic Sleepy Wrap. (Baby Sling)

Check back I'll be updating this post over the next couple days....there are currently LOTS of great giveaways going on!

Melanie's First Halloween--Take Me Back Tuesday

This was Halloween 2007, Melanie is 5 months old and already well on her way to being as big as Marissa.

Win a Jeep Jogging Stroller from The Mommy Homemaker

It's Eco Week at The Mommy Homemaker and this is one of the giveaways! Melanie would LOVE this Kolcraft Jeep Jogging Stroller. We could have a lot of fun on the trails at the park with this & I could definitely use the exercise!!! The Eco Week event ends on Oct 25th, so hurry over to enter all the giveaways!

Music Monday--Time Stand Still

Rush is the kind of band who's lyrics mean more each time you listen. I'm always shocked when I meet people who say they don't like Rush....all I can think is that they haven't really listened to the words, or maybe they didn't understand what they were hearing. My birthday is this week & I'm really feeling this song. I don't have a problem with getting older, but I wish things would just SLOW down so that I could enjoy right now. The line that gets me every time in this particular song is "Children growing up, old friends getting older" it touched me the very first time I heard this song & it is so TRUE of my life.

Blog Awards!!!

I have recently been given The Best Blog Award THREE times!!! Big THANKS to Emi from The Cloth Diaper Report, Nicholle from Babee Love and Katie from thinkPINK for choosing me, I'm very honored.

The Best Blog Award rules are:
To accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person who gave it to you and his/her link. Pass it on to 15 other blogs you have recently discovered and think are great! Remember to contact the blogs you choose!

1. Good Mourning, Glory!
2. Paisley and Pretties
3. Christie's Thoughts
4. Momedy
5. Life in Focus
6. Sanity Sold Separately
7. Happily Domestic
8. The Adventures of Supermom
9. A Day with Two
10. More Than Words
11. It's a Cubs World and We Just Live In It...
    
12. A Giveaway Addicted Mommy
13. My Kid Centered Life
14. From Our Front Porch Looking In
15. Monkeys on the Bed
    

KN Karen Neuburger Designer Breast Cancer Awareness PJ winners!!!!

The Karen Neuburger Breast Cancer Awareness giveaway has 3 winners....Random.org has chosen #15, #97 & #52

Katie said... 15

I follow you on Twitter @EllisFan14

October 7, 2009 10:15 PM

~ April ~ EnchantedDandelions said... 97

The nighties look so comfy!

October 17, 2009 4:26 PM

zealandsmom said... 52

follow your blog

October 11, 2009 6:56 PM

The first winner (#15) will receive a pair of matching socks with the pajamas. I'm sending out e-mails to the winners & they will have 48 hours to reply. If I don't get a response I will choose new winners on Tuesday morning.

Have you HEARD about the new GroBaby Bio Soaker Intro Pack?

Earlier this month The Natural Baby Company introduced the Bio Soaker for their one size GroBaby shells. The Bio Soaker is a disposable pad with adhesive tabs that can be attached to the inside of a GroBaby shell. These shells are already designed to be used multiple times between washes, so this disposable soaker makes the system even more versatile.
I haven't tried the Bio Soaker yet, but should be receiving some in the mail anyday from a Twitter friend. The Bio Soakers come in a box of 50 for $19.99. They come in 2 sizes and appear to have elastic like gathers along the sides. Just this week, GroBaby also started selling an Introductory Package that includes the box of 50 inserts and one vanilla shell. The introductory package is available for $34.95.

GroBaby is giving bloggers the opportunity to receive a FREE Introductory Package in exchange for writing a detailed blog post. I am hoping to receive one of those packages in exchange for this post. If you have a blog & would like a chance to participate in this giveaway visit GroBaby's Facebook page.

Etsy Addiction....Pink Saturday

Happy Pink Saturday!!! Be sure to stop by How Sweet the Sound to check out all the links for Pink Saturday & say Hi to Beverly, our lovely host. Today is the final day to enter to win one of 3 pairs of KN Karen Neuburger designer Breast Cancer Awareness PJs. Click the giveaway link below my header & leave a comment on last weeks Pink Saturday post to be entered to win. I'll be choosing the winners tomorrow using Random.org

Several months ago I won a giveaway on Sweet Cuddle Cakes blog for 4 chenille wipes from Henry Weston Kids on Etsy. I LOVE the pinks she chose for me & the other side is super soft chenille. These are so perfect for washing dirty little faces!

I've added Henry Weston Kids to my Etsy favorites and am really wishing I could afford to buy myself this Hot Pink Bag Gotta Love PINK for my upcoming birthday! It amazes me that she MAKES a purse like this with her own two hands and a sewing machine.

The fabulous quality of the wipes I won started my new addiction with Etsy. I knew about Etsy before, but I had never ordered anything. Shortly after receiving my wipes, I decided that Melanie really needed a couple of fleece covers for her cloth diapers. Fleece is great for a breathable cover over a fitted cloth diaper. I did a search on Etsy for fleece diaper covers and quite a few came up. One in particular caught my eye, so I decided to check out her site. Wild Child for Babies just celebrated their one year anniversary on Etsy & the prices are fabulous! I ended up doing a custom order to get the size & patterns I wanted. I was so impressed with how quickly I received my covers. Because they are fleece, the fabric does pill some, but on the prints I chose I think it just makes them that much cuter. Melanie LOVES her fleece covers. I chose the side snapping rather than a traditional soaker to make clean up easier if she has a poop accident.

I have since bought several more things from Etsy, I'll be talking about them soon! Do you have a favorite Etsy seller? I'm thinking about purchasing as many Christmas gifts as possible from sites like Etsy & Art Fire and would LOVE recommendations.

Cloth Diaper Swap....I GOT my package!!!

At the beginning of September I signed up to participate in Newly Wed, Newly Bred's Diaper Swap. The budget for the swap was $25 before shipping. I had a ton of fun shopping for my partner and had no idea who was shopping for Melanie.

Last Friday, we mailed the package to our partner. On Tuesday, our package came. We received a Happy Heinys one size snap diaper with the cutest ever bear print! This diaper came with 2 microfiber inserts that are super thick feeling. We also received a bottle of Satsuma Twist Fluff Dust, made by knickernappies, a Better Butt (er) Cream sample & an All Natural Diaper Rash salve sample, both made by Northern Essence. Our package was sent by Sarah who owns an online cloth diaper store called Sugar Dipes, I've now browsed her store & will add it to my list of places to check when I'm in the market for more Fluff!


We've never tried Happy Heinys before. The print is adorable, the PUL is very thick & the snaps are super sturdy. These run quite a bit bigger than the other one size diapers we have, I tried it on Melanie at the biggest setting & it was droopy looking, kind of like her large Fuzzibunz. I snapped it down to the medium setting & crossed the waist snaps over at the waist & it fits her perfectly! I doubt she's going to grow much before she potty trains, but it is really nice to have that much growth room in a one size diaper. I'm thinking this is going to be a GREAT overnight diaper! The Fluff Dust has a citrus scent, can't wait to try it in our diaper pail!

This is the fit on the medium setting
Very trim across the bottom, even with both inserts in. Melanie's jeans will easily fit over this diaper.
Action shot! It was obviously very comfortable, Melanie LOVED it from the second we first tried it on. The Peace Bears are a great neutral print and the background is a soft pale green.


Thank you Sara!!! And Thank you Megan for hosting! Head over to Newly Wed, Newly Bred for links to what all the other participants received.

Fluff Talk Thursday...Fluff pictures!

While getting organized to create this post I came to a realization. Although Melanie wears cloth diapers all day every day, I don't really have many pictures of her in her diapers. The pictures I do have, the diaper is the only thing she is wearing. Of my three girls, she is definitely the least fond of clothing anyway, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised.

Large Berry Plus AI2 (we LOVE minky)

Having a nap in another Large Berry Plush A12

Crawling away in a pinned prefold

Sleeping in her Blueberry OS Minky (she calls it blue cow)

Size 2 Bamboozle, she's 25 lbs & it's almost too small

Medium Thirsties Fab Fitted

Orchid Thirsties Duo Wrap over medium Fab fitted

Sleeping in medium Thirsties Fab fitted & medium Thirsties cover

Medium Bummis Frog cover over fitted

Large Fuzzibunz super stuff with prefolds for Fluffiest butt contest

Cow print Blueberry OS coverall over pinned prefold

Large Organic Cotton Fundawear Fitted

Things I LOVE Thursday...Tweetdeck

Several months ago I joined twitter. Why did I join? Well, my main reason was for the extra entries in cloth diaper giveaways. Once I joined, I wasn't impressed. The basic twitter.com page does not auto update & there is no way to see if someone has replied to a tweet you sent. Even worse, there is no notification that you've received a direct message. I didn't see the point of it & since I don't use a cell phone (gasp, I know I'm so weird), twitter really didn't appeal to me. Then I heard about Tweetdeck.

Tweetdeck is an application that I downloaded for free onto my computer. It runs separately from my browsers & has multiple columns. It auto updates several times per minute. You can customize what columns you want to have & it can run in the background. I have mine set up with 5 columns.
1.All Friends (everyone I'm following)
2.Mentions (replies to my tweets or somebody talking about me)
3.Search #clothdiapers (this is my main addiction on twitter, official chat is Monday nights, but there is almost always cloth diaper chatter going on 24/7)
4.Direct Messages (private messages sent only to me)
5. Facebook Full News Feed (shows status updates for my Facebook friends)

I can reply to specific messages easily & retweet messages with almost no effort. I could publish all my tweets to my Facebook status with Tweetdeck too, but I think my relatives on Facebook would be overloaded.

I can add additional search columns when I want to follow a hashtag (#) topic & simply close it when I'm done. Tweetdeck turns Twitter into a chatroom. Do you need a new addiction? Go to Tweetdeck.com to download it for your computer. I think there is a version for fancy cell phones too that lets you publish your text messages directly to twitter.

Check out TheDiaper Diaries for more Things I LOVE Thursday. Click on the Giveaway link under my header to enter my current giveaway...it ends Saturday night & will have 3 winners!

Works for Me Wednesday...Breast Cancer Awareness

I don't know if this week is a theme week for Works for Me Wednesday or not, but The Diaper Diaries inspired me to write about Breast Cancer Awareness today.

I will be 43 next week and I have not yet had a baseline mammogram, I know that I was supposed to get one when I turned 40, but I couldn't, I was pregnant. The next year, I didn't get one because I was still breastfeeding. This year, I'm thinking I should make that appointment. For years I've read about the benefits of breast feeding for prevention of cancer. I've spent 13 of the last 22 years breastfeeding, so I'm really counting on the protection. Fortunately, there also doesn't seem to be any history of breast cancer in my family.

I'm currently running a giveaway for 3 pairs of Karen Neuburger designer breast cancer awareness pajamas, I've gotten some great comments about what others are doing to commemorate Breast Cancer Awareness month.

Remember to do your monthly breast self exam & remind all your friends...and Hubby too, it isn't as common, but men do get breast cancer. Check out We Are That Family to see more Works for Me Wednesday!

Diaper Rash & Cloth Diapers...Diaper Tip Tuesday

Diaper Tip Tuesday is sponsored by The Cloth Diaper Report and this weeks theme is diaper rash. Diaper rash was a regular occurrence for Melanie when she was in sposies. I always kept a big tube of Boudreaux's Butt Paste handy. For the first 6 months after switching to cloth diapers she had no diaper rash at all, then she started cutting her 2 yr molars.

I was in a panic to figure out what to use on her rash because Butt Paste isn't safe for the synthetic fibers in most of her cloth diapers. We tried a sample of Angel Baby Bottom Balm and it helped, but we couldn't buy it locally so I had to keep looking. Next we tried Aveeno soothing diaper rash cream, I was able to buy it at Baby's R Us locally & while it does have zinc, it has less than a lot of the popular brands.

To protect my diapers, I also bought fleece liners at my local cloth diaper store. The liners protect the diaper from the rash cream & also make cleaning up poopy diapers easier. The rash cream will stain the liners, but better a piece of fleece than my precious diapers! I've tried Bummis disposable liners, but had a lot of trouble with them bunching up when wet. Since then, I've also cut up some old fleece and used it as a liner when I need to use rash cream. There are rash creams available that are totally safe for cloth diapers, but the zinc type seems to work the fastest for Melanie.

In disposable diapers Melanie had diaper rash at least once a week & had to have rash cream on overnight every night to keep from waking up with a red bottom. Now, diaper rash is a rare occurrence & clears up quickly with a couple applications of rash cream and a fleece liner in her cloth diapers.

Do you have a diaper rash story? What worked for you? What didn't work? Blog about your diaper tip and link to The Cloth Diaper Report so we can all learn from each other! Diaper Tip MckLinkys will be open for one week, or until the next Diaper Tip Tuesday Meme.