1st Birthday Parrrrrtayy!

Welp the craziness has ensued and we are finally getting back to our normal, boring routine post-party.

I think I did a pretty good job if I don't say so myself! And my parents helped out tremendously by hosting it at their house so we could have more room.

We went with Mickey Mouse theme since that's the only show Drew really will watch for longer than 1 minute. I ordered balloons (because babies/kids love balloons DUH) and set up a bunch of toddler stuff since we were expecting about 10! And happy kids=happy parents. Well and alcohol of course.

Here's some of the ideas I used thanks to Pinterest.
We did a sensory pool complete w/ spaghetti and noodles that I dyed red..the kids were like "what is this!" That's the point!

Also did some DIY Chalk paint and put it in Restaurant squeeze bottles (less mess).

I also had some construction paper and big fatty crayons.

At each "station" I put down a big quilt so the kids could sit down and play with the items. I also filled up Drews old bathtub which was a huge rubber ducky where I put some juiceboxes in it so they could reach it. And Drew ended up getting in that by the end of the party because he thought it was bath time?

Along with the "adult" food I put in squeeze packets of applesauce and bags of goldfish crackers for the kiddies.
I made these little dudes for the centerpieces which hopefully I can sell now since I have no use for them, and I glued actual buttons on the pots because it looked nicer :)

I was so proud of Drew since he was up from 11:15am until 5:30pm without a nap! You go Drew! He had the best time ever seeing everyone and all the kids, it was a HIT!

Next year won't be this elaborate but you have to go big for the 1st birthday...because Yah he is still alive!!

My Generation: Shit for Free

The wonderful bonuses of the Internets...Posting stuff you need or want to sell at the drop of a hat, no longer having to wait for that yearly garage sale where you have to go through and price all your shit, wait for a nice day, set up all your shit, sit outside w/ your shit all day, and odds are; pack up most of your shit that didn't sell. Man I'm tired just thinking about it.

Well we all know I am in for a bargain, especially when it comes to children's stuff because they grow out of it so quickly, use it a few times and get bored with it and to top it all off anything that is tied to a kid in any way is always like 20% more $$...just because the world is an evil place.

I am frugal, I am a minimalist, Matt is always getting mad at me for throwing stuff out or selling stuff..I HATE STUFF. Not to mention going from a 2500 sq. ft. house to a 1400 sq. ft. house you have to give up some shit that you haven't even touched in years!

I am ITCHING to sell baby stuff, but I need to hold my horses. Even if I think I don't need 20 Newborn onesies I probably will curse myself if I sell any and the next baby ends up having 20 diaper blowouts.

So I joined a few Facebook sale pages that cater to kids stuff so at least I can get some toys for maybe half the price since he is just going to get sick of them any way or even worse not even like it! Also I can prepare for the future (Toddler bed in the garage) haha!

The thing that I am most noticing about these pages is people In Search Of (ISO) stuff. It always starts off like "ISO cake decorator to make a Frozen cake for my daughters blah blah birthday" And ALWAYS ends in "for a reasonable price". This is the problem with my Generation, we have Walmarts, we have Dollar Stores, we have so many people/companies doing the same thing that they are willing to low-ball each other to get the job. And then we have the "customers" who don't really care about quality, they only care about price.

Yes you can buy decorations at the Dollar Store..they will also end up almost immediately in a Landfill since they are so crappy and cheap they might not even MAKE it to the party, or you open it up and it's like the smallest thing ever; you wonder why the HELL did you pay any amount of money for it!

I understand people don't have money, but that's not it, people don't want to SPEND money. We sort of have been programmed that why should we spend this amount of money when I can go here and get something for half that price, no one really thinks twice about what they are getting for their money. That's my problem, you have all this money and you want to spend $20 on a fondant Frozen cake...Like Really?! And whoever is making this $20 Fondant cake...are they really going to do the job that you want them to do or are you going to be pissed when you pick it up and they spelled Frozen wrong?!

People, you can't expect something for nothing, you can't expect a quality product to have a cheap price tag, the cheap price tags are for the cheap shit! If you only have $20 bucks to spend on a cake go to Walmart, and stop begging people on the Sale pages to do it for nothing. Or don't expect you can get something grand for your $20.

I am trying to be better about this, I have always despised Walmart but having Drew 95% of the time I need to get shopping done I am sometimes forced to go there so I don't have to go to 3 other places. Especially for his bday party which I will try to post about this week. This summer has been crazy with vacations, parties, friends, families, babies...I apologize! Feel free to contact me on topics you want me to write about, sometimes I get writers block and then I am in the shower going through my Master List of all I need to do that day and think " I should blog about that!"  haha

Here's little man w/ his new haircut, I will not show you the back ;)

1st Year Blues...

Well if someone hasn't told you already you will hear this over and over again "Time Flies!" And it's true, how much you don't believe it, especially those nights when your Lovely is up every 2 hours it does. All of a sudden they are 4 months old, then 6, then 1 year and besides the bags underneath your eyes, your nails, toes, and hair that need to be "did" and that flappy lower belly you feel like you did not know where the time went. Weren't you JUST pregnant? Weren't we JUST looking at baby stuff for the registry? Didn't we JUST get married? That is probably all true but whether you like it or not everyone just keeps getting older including you.

Now instead of loathing your friends who still don't have kids (maybe you aren't?) You will start reminiscing on all the great things that have happened in that last year. Well at least I am anyway, I started planning Drew's 1yr Bday party and starting crying at the same time..He ALREADY doesn't want to snuggle as often and next week he will probably ALREADY be embarrassed of me in front of his friends! So I sit in my corner and have a ball-a-thon while Matt laughs at me..Whatever....Where's a Mousekatool when you need one!

And along with alot of my friends we start thinking about building our family...should we give it a go or should we just say enough abuse is enough? :) I am a "let's get it over with" girl and Matt is a "let's wait and see" guy. Soooo we have been talking about adding on or not. Well mostly it's been me trying to convince him and him shooting me down for 6months. BUT I am happy to say I have finally convinced him (I'll take the credit) or something convinced him to give it a go. So we will see if we are blessed w/ some more luck of being parents again. Although I am scared shitless I kind of have a little knack for it this time around (hopefully). And maybe I will even try to relax a little during the first few weeks...WHO AM I KIDDING. I will probably just hire a housekeeper and call it even :)

It's going to be a rough few years but that's ok, when the kids get a little older we will have more freedom to catch a movie or get dinner and everything will be alright...well that's what I keep telling Matt anyway :)

~Candace
#1styearblues #baby#2 #timeflies

DIY Week-Laundry Detergent and Diaper Rash Cream!

I know how excited everyone is over DIY stuff especially my Stay-at-home-mamas! So this week I am compiling some shiznat I have made in the last few weeks so I can tell you the pros and cons of it all!

First was Laundry Detergent: I can't tell you how much my blood boils when I have to spend $$ on soap to clean my clothes with, and not like a little $$ but ALOT of $$, then top it off with the huge jugs that the stuff comes in it's ridic. And I know they make the super-concentrated crap but we do SOO much laundry since having a little one and I am not buying one every week, that is what Costco is for.

Looked at a few sites, I was looking for something easy but yet will do the job esp with dirty food bibs and my Husbands extremely smelly socks that I work next to everyday :)

Found this one on a site called DIY Natural LINK He's got some good stuff on here, I esp liked that he made a powder soap, since Liquid is kind of the same cost-wise and Powder I feel is less messy. I totally forgot that there is a health foods store right down the street from me and I went to Walmart to find a Laundry Bar but you can find them at Specialty Foods stores if you have one close by. I could only find the Omega Zote bars so I tripled this recipe and it made a Gallon of Detergent. (I spent a little under $10 for all of it and still have some borax and washing soda left and 1 zote bar) But Each batch below makes 32 ounces or 32-64 Loads of laundry depending on how many Tbsp you use for soiled clothes. Now QUICK, Gather your Ingredients!

• 1 bar (or 4.5 ounces) of shaved bar soap (a homemade laundry bar, Dr. Bronner’s, Ivory, ZOTE, or Fels-Naptha)
• 1 cup of borax
• 1 cup of washing soda

Shave your soap just using a cheese grater, after grated just mix in the other powders. If you want a finer powder you can pop it into your Food Processor which I was Demanded NOT TO by my Husband :)

Now just pop a Handy Dandy Tablespoon scoop and you got it. Normal loads you can just use 1Tbsp, for soiled use 2-3Tbsp. No residue on clothes, gets out stains and smells just clean, not perfumy.

Total Cost-Under $10 for 192 Loads of laundry...BEAT THAT And No plastic jugs to end up in landfills

Now onto Diaper Rash cream, using Cloth Diapers it is a known fact that Diaper Rash Creams are a NO-NO! A cloth diaper fairy will come to your house and smack you on the head if she catches you! No for real, they just build up on the diapers so that's the reason. And Drew is constantly battling rashes from food allergies (good ole bananas that I keep trying) and teething which is GRAND! Here's the one I found that I am trying! You can find the complete article HERE

And again I found alot of these ingredients at the Specialty food store, the Coconut Oil they had a giant jug of it at Costco so I got that there, the rest of the items I spent $16 on and will have enough Vegetable Glycerin for a lifetime along w/ Cononut Oil and another time of beeswax. (I doubled this recipe)
Now Get your Ingredients!!

Each Batch

• 1/2 C. Shea Butter (stay away from Golden if you can)
• 1/4 C. Coconut Oil
• 1 Tbsp. Beeswax
• 2 Tbsp. Vegetable Glycerin

Melt first 3 ingredients in Saucepan, when incorporated take off heat and add Vegetable Glycerin, then whip it up using a handmixer like forever...it will get creamy I promise! And pour into jars, it will harden a little when it cools and a little goes a long way.

Finished Product:

Bonus****I used babyfood jars for the diaper rash cream and old Wedding Candy Bar jars for the Detergent!

Total Cost-I would say $10 for 16.74oz. Since I have so much of the other stuff leftover. AND it's way better than your baby absorbing Zinc Oxide into it's skin :)

I hope this motivated you to use your brains and what Mother Earth has provided us for alternate solutions to everyday convenient but not always the best products for your family.

Cheers!

Is your water safe for Baby?

When I think about how long I have been drinking tap water I honestly cannot remember when it first started. And when I brought Drew home the thought didn't even cross my mind that maybe our water has too many contaminants for his little belly to digest right off the bat.

Truthfully since breastfeeding was a no-go the first bottle I made him was w/ Tap water (where was that in the baby books) And I found out pretty quickly that he couldn't handle it as he vomited it back up shortly after.

Not sure where Matt was at the time but I texted him asking "is there some sort of special baby water I'm supposed to be giving him"...he's still alive tho so that's good. When do I ever go down the water aisle at the grocery store? Hmmm we have a filter on our fridge like most of the population so NEVER. So I never saw the baby water or maybe just wasn't paying attention.

I know bad mom right?! After buying jug after jug of this "special water" I looked into other sources, could I just use the fridge filtered water? I was scared. Then one day I came across this bad boy and all my prayers were answered.

No more buying jugs and jugs and filling up the landfill w/ their plastic holyness. And no more contaminating my little one. Or being afraid I was going to.

 And it wasn't hella expensive either, you just screw it on to your faucet and Viola! Mine lasts for a good few months with making bottles after bottles so I feel like the cost is low since I was buying about 4 jugs of baby water a week, that's $1 on sale a jug, $16 a month, this baby costs $30 which actually there is one on Clearance right now at Babies R Us for $17.48, So in 1 month you make up the cost and you are saving some precious seal from getting it's snout caught in one of the jugs, well that's what I like to think anyways :)

**knock knock** Your Groceries are here!

So if you knew me at all you would know that I LOVE to try new things...well aside from like Drugs or weird food stuff..that's why I cannot go shopping because anything on the endcap that is "New and Improved" gets me every time!

I used to love grocery shopping and partly because I LOVE to cook. I would make up my list while perusing recipes and decide what our meals would be for the week...Well that was all fine and dandy until I had a small child. Now getting together a meal plan is so half-assed I'm embarrassed by it and weekly shopping trips seem nonexistent. Now I am running in to get essentials and out of there so we can eat or it's time for a nap....not for me..sad face.

But it stinks because the days that I have extra time to throw a meal together we don't have any food! What's a gal to do?!

One day while taking Drew for a walk I saw a Peapod truck go by...they deliver groceries if you have been living under a rock. And a lightbulb went off, I had to try it! I looked up their website and prices and delivery charges and they were not that bad at all! Since I'm in the grocery store so often I know what items cost so that helped my research. You can order how much or little you want, and you have until midnight the previous night to make any changes. O Crap I forgot....yup just log into the app on your phone or the website and add away!

The items were normal, name brands and sizes and came nicely packed, I was actually home so the dude unpacked it all and handed me the bags! Otherwise you can have them leave it on your front step, back door, whatever and it comes in boxes w/ cooler packs so your shizz stays oh so fresh!

I highly recommend this for someone who may be already in front of a computer and doesn't have the time or energy to physically go to the store. Also if you are already looking at recipes online you can add the items right there to your cart.

I hear they have locations where you can just order all your food and pick it up and it's ready to go. I have yet to see where or try those out but that would be a good option too! Especially if you are picking up your child from Grandma/Grandpa's and need to get some food.

#peapod #groceries

Relaxxxxx.it's just a BABY!

Ha! I love it when people tell me that. Ummm hello I didn't take any classes in school to prepare me for this, in fact all of the classes in school just tell you to NOT have sex or Get Pregnant....EVER. I am here to tell you however that please don't get so caught up in your day-to-day lives that you miss out on the little things.

The first 8 weeks with my little man I had NO IDEA what I was doing..which is pretty typical I hear since while you are at the hospital the nurses are changing him and tell you when to feed him and ordering your food; that when you get home you are like "where's my help?!".

I seriously struggled with breastfeeding, I ABSOLUTELY HATED IT! I did not feel any sort of bond, I didn't feel like I was loving him enough...I felt like all I did was pump, feed, sleep over and over again. I never looked at him longingly as he drank my milk, I never enjoyed it or had that "feeling" that some moms claim to have. So on top of me hating it I was not producing enough for this little chunker. So on top of getting what I could out of me I had to add formula in there.

After 8 weeks I said ENOUGH! I am not enjoying this little miracle in my life whatsoever. I decided to go all on formula and give up pumping. Which was the BEST DECISION I have ever made. Not only did I have so much more energy for my little one, I didn't have to figure out a good time to pump in between his feedings, or if he woke up in the middle of me pumping and started crying...talk about unnecessary stressors! It was so great to make his bottles and be able to hold him while they heat up...not having to wash all the pumping equipment and spend time with him while he is up. I seriously felt like I was in jail and I was let free!

So any mom that is having a difficult time with it I don't say "DON'T GIVE UP" I say "DO WHAT MAKES YOU HAPPY!" Formula has come such a long way and is totally fine if not better since Drew has milk sensitivities so he has been on Soy which would be extremely hard for me since I would have to give up all dairy to be able to breastfeed him. And No offense but seriously sometimes I only had time to grab a string cheese, or chug some milk to be able to function.

So please enjoy the little things and leave the big ones by the wayside, there is only so much in your control and every kid is different so what works on this one might not work for you. I highly recommend reaching out to your friends/family if they have kids around the same age and if not join a support group in your area because the baby books only tell so much and it's nice to hear other opinions or that your are doing a good job as a parent!

And those stupid papers you get at the Doctors office about the developmental stuff could drive you insane...Just be in the moment, Enjoy every little victory even if it's not on the those stupid papers. These are some of the ones I LOVED
1. bouncing on his knees reaching up for me
2. Waving
3. Blabbing
4. Grabbing the dogs face and chasing the dogs
5. Laughing
6. Smiling
7. Pointing where he wants to go while I hold him

Even if the TV is on, the dogs are barking, someone is ringing the doorbell and the tornado sirens are going off I am watching him, trying not to miss anything, enjoying him just sitting there looking at his books. Those are the things that keep me going, that make the sleepless nights so worth it. That keep me from getting down on my flabby belly and keep me wanting another one. Enjoy it because it goes by in a heartbeat and you never get this time back, and some people aren't able to get any of this so remember you are one lucky soul; having someone to call you "mama".

~Candace