Blog Under Construction

Hey you all, this is Jamie's friend Rissa.. Just wanted to warn you all the next couple days i'm gonna be doing some work on the blog for Jamie..SO.. Please bear with me as i work out the details & the little errors i'm running into..

May God Bless you all!

Hope you all are having a Very Merry Christmas!

Wordless Wednesday

The boys playing in the snow before it turned into 16 inches.

After that it was almost up to Gages waist and he couldn't walk in it!

Santa or no Santa?

Do you 'do' Santa Claus at your house?

This is a question I have thought about since having my first child. Gavin is getting big enough now to start doing the Santa thing.

My sisters kids do believe in Santa and I think that's perfectly fine. It is a really good bribe. I don't know how many times I've heard her say, "Stop that or Santa's not going to give you any presents." But I think really that's all it is... a good bribe. I have decided not to press the Santa issue. My brother has decided to do the same thing. I thought my husband would think I was crazy but he actually agreed completely! I think we will put more emphasis on the fact that we are celebrating Jesus' birth. I've told the boys that the reason we get presents at Christmas is because Jesus loves us and we love each other so we give gifts at Christmas time.

On the other hand, when they start school, I don't want them to kill some poor kids hopes and tell them there's no Santa. That would just be mean. So I think I've came up with a plan that does both:

1. The reason we have Christmas is that it is the time we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ.

2. Turn it into a history lesson, There once was a man who lived a long time ago named Saint Nicholas who gave out presents to little boys and girls at Christmas time. (Here's a good website that explains the different versions of the story.)

3. Christmas is a time for giving and a time to spend with family and love each other.

There is one tiny little problem though. All over TV there is stories of Santa Claus and everytime we go out, everybody asks Gavin, what's Santa going to bring you? So Gavin comes up to me one day and says Santa is going to bring me presents and come down the chimney. Even though I haven't told him any of that, he still figured it out. I'm not going to make a big deal out of it though. I'm not going to put a lot of emphasis on Santa, but I'm not going to necessarily tell him there's not one either... does that make sense? I'm just not going to use it as a bribe or make a big deal out of Santa coming and leaving presents or anything. I'll let them use their imagingations without taking away the real reason we celebrate Christmas.

We have been teaching them about all the other ways people celebrate Christmas too. Gavin was actually singing the Dreidel song the other day, he was eating Doritos and said, mama, what's a Dorito? I said, you know what a Dorito is, you're eating one honey. And he says, No it's a game, like you spin. Then he starts singing, 'Dorito, Dorito, Dorito...' I laughed so hard at my little guy! I said, No Gavin, It's Dreidel, dreidel, dreidel... He still can't say it right! I want both my boys to know that different people believe different things and that's ok. I want them to be able to understand the different cultures and how they celebrate the holidays.

How do you and your families celebrate Christmas? Do you do the Santa thing, or something else?

 

Gages first (real) haircut

Gage got his first real haircut a few weeks ago. I meant to post this right after I did it, but just havent had time so here it is...

I'd given him a couple haircuts before. A little off the back, a trim around the ears, that sort of thing. But he'd never had 'the little boy' haircut.

When I did Gavins (who had a ton of beautiful little curls), I wasn't that upset. I guess it was because I was pregnant with Gage at the time and knew I'd have another baby with cute curls. We actually stopped at the barber shop on the way to have the ultrasound done to find out that Gage was a boy!

Gage's hair had some curls but nowhere near as many as Gavins and it was getting that wild, frizzy look to it so I knew it was time.

It started out OK. I was attempting to do it by myself. I do Gavins so I thought no problem right? Wrong.

I was trying to leave it a litttle long. To cut just enough off so people would stop calling him a girl but keep the baby look. I started cutting and at first all was going well. Then he broke bad.

He started crying and let me tell you, this little guy has a temper so there's always screaming when he's mad.

I keep at it and realize there is gaps all over this poor boys head. So I enlist some help from my husband.His sole job was to hold Gage and keep him from squirming.It's not working.

I got this far and thought, this looks so terrible! I can't keep torturing him like this so... I have to get the clippers. I didn't want to. I reeaally didn't want to but I couldn't leave it looking like this so I get them out. While I was getting them out of the box, I had a meltdown. I started bawling! I come back and hubby says are you ok? I said in a pitiful tearful voice, no. He, of course laughs at me and says now let me take a picture of you crying like Gage is to put on your blog. I tell him to shut up and started shaving all my babys precious hair off.

  Here's all his baby hair :(

                                                 

I cried the entire time I was  cutting. Like eyes swelling, hiccuping, sobbing kind of crying. I wondered why was I taking this so hard? I didn't act like this when we done Gavins, and he had a lot more curls than Gage. Then it hit me, this might be the last first haircut I do. We're not sure if we want to try for a third and I realized now he's going to look like a little boy. He's not going to look like my little baby anymore. It's tramatic when you come to that realization.

Anyway, I finished his haircut and hated it. I really hated it. I cried everytime I looked at him. He didn't look like my baby anymore. I hated it for the first week. Then it started to slowly grow on me. Now I think he's cute as a button! So does everyone else but it did take a lot of getting used to. Now I think I might want to try for a third so I might have a girl and not ever have to cut her hair that short!

Here's the before and after pictures so you can see why I freaked out having him change that much in a matter of minutes!

It was so hard to do but I guess it had to be done eventually. He'll always be my baby boy no matter how big he gets.

Gross lil boys and one tough mama

I knew having 2 boys meant seeing some gross stuff. I mean having a baby or kid in general comes with its own share of disgusting things. Motherhood is definitely not for the faint of heart or those with weak stomachs. It just seems that little boys do more gross things than girls.

Tonight for example, I had just finished making dinner. The boys had pizza and I made gorditas for me & hubby. The boys' food finished first so I went ahead and fed them. Gavin didn't eat much, as usual, a few bites and then got down to play.Gage soon followed.

I finish making our dinner and sit down to eat when I have to get back up to make the boys some chocolate milk. Then I sit back down to try to eat again when they start fighting over something random. I get back up to deal with whatever it was they were fighting over (I can't even remember now what it was). I complain that I never get to eat while the foods warm. NEVER! I take about 3 bites of food when I hear coughing behind me. I didn't think anything of it, hubby's got a cold and both boys have had a runny nose for a day or two. It didn't sound like a bad cough so I ignore it. All of a sudden I hear a strange noise and then hubby, 'Gavin, are you OK? Gavin, are you going to puke?' He didn't even get off the couch but that's another story.

I turn around in time to see Gavin gag. Hubby is done eating by the way. I jump up and say 'Go to the bathroo...' Too late. Hunks of pizza mixed with chocolate milk go shooting across the living room floor. I put my hand over my face, hubby looks at me (still on the couch mind you), I look back at my uneaten dinner and sigh. I get the towels and the mop and go at it like a pro. I clean it all up, wash my hands and go right back to eating. I don't care what anybody says, Mommys are tough. I did just finish the one though. For some reason I didn't really feel like seconds after that ;)

I'd say not even an hour later after that, the boys were playing in my bedroom. Then they got into the bathroom and started making a mess. I ran them out and noticed as Gage passed by, he had something black on his back. (He wasn't wearing a shirt. Another thing about boys- they love to be naked) I thought they'd gotten into a candle in the bathroom. You know, when you blow it out and the tip of the wick turns black. Anyway, I didn't give it a second thought, I let them go play and I would just clean them up later. About 20 minutes go by without incident when Gage walks over to play with hubs. Hubby says 'Uh, honey, look at this.' I'm not even going to go into why I had to look when he was right there. I say,what? He says 'what's that on Gages back?' I said 'I dunno it was there when he come out of the bathroom' he turns Gage around and I see more black than was there before and realize it's coming from his diaper. I say 'Oh nooo.'

That's still not the bad part I promise!

I get a diaper and wipes to change him. When I come back, Gage has his hand down his diaper. I yell "NO" and run to get him. He has jet black poo all over his hands. Up his back. The weirdest thing is... My first thought wasn't eww, it was why is his poop so black? I wasn't as concerned with the mess as the color. Another thing only a mom can do I guess!

I set about the task of cleaning up poop. I start with the hands and oh my goodness. It's all over him. Its even under his fingernails. It's more than halfway up his back. I have no idea how it got that far up. I cleaned him up, changed his clothes, washed my hands (again) and went about my business.

Oh, that entire time, hubby was still on the couch. I do give him credit, in between Gavin throwing up and Gage pooping everywhere, he did move from sitting on one couch to laying on another! Bless him, I really don't expect him to do much. He works third shift and has to try to sleep during the day with the boys running wild but I do find it a little annoying, um, endearing that both of these times, he says go to mama. I really don't mind it though, that's what mommys are for! It's a really good thing I'm not easily grossed out. I guess you could say I'm one tough mama! I'm kinda proud of that. :)

By the way, I realized that the black poo was probably from the Welch's grape juice he'd been drinking. I don't think I'll be buying that again for awhile!

Do you think boys do more gross things than girls or is it all kids? Do you have a gross or funny story? I'd love to hear about it!

Best newborn coth diaper?

So my best friend is pregnant and she's due in Feb. I have been trying to talk her in to cloth diapering. She wants to give it a try but her fiance isn't warming up to the idea!

I am so honored that she has asked me to babysit her baby girl once she goes back to work. So even if she's not going to use cloth at home, she is very excited that I said I'd use cloth on her while she's at my house. I'm going to order her some girly cloth diapers to give to her at the baby shower though (once he sees how cute they are, maybe he'll change his mind!) All I have is boyish ones. I'm so thrilled I'll have a little girl to dress up!

I need some help on deciding which brand to get her though. I didn't start cloth diapering until Gage was 15 months so I have no idea which diapers are best for newborns. I know Bumgenius is good for newborns. I have one and it's NEVER leaked but I don't use it much for Gage b/c of the aplix which obviously wont be a problem for a little one.  My other fave is Fuzzibunz. Plus they have the fower print that is ADORABLE! I also have 1 softbums w/ 4 inserts that would work well for her. It shrinks up so tiny!

I'm asking all the veteran cloth diapering moms to give me some ideas on what to buy, how many I'll need... so on. Almost all of Gages is one-size and she can use those but I do want at least a few pretty ones ;)

Oh speaking of which, is one-size suitable for a new born or are they still too big? I am so clueless when it comes to diapering a newborn, I'll need all the advice I can get!

Thanks!

Edit:

 Sooo... as soon as I hit the button to publish this post, my friend called and said I have some news.

She went for her 4D ultrasound today and found out the baby girl I'm supposed to be keeping & buying

the sweet lil girly diapers for isn't a girl after all!

The 18 week ultrasound was so clear, It was a girl.Well, guess not.She's having a boy!!! So ignore all the stuff above about girly stuff but I still need to know which brands are best for newborns. I guess my boyish diapers will come in handy after all :)

Ahhh, I really shouldn't be laughing this hard but it's so funny! Anyway, he'll be loved just as much and I know I can handle a boy. That's what I'm good at. Aaand on another positive note, She wont have to bring clothes for him, I've got plenty of really cute boy clothes that Gage outgrew before he could even wear them. I just have to give all the girl stuff I bought to my cousin who's also having a girl.

Somebody's in trouble...

Thank goodness for Magic Erasers!

Tasty Tuesday

I haven't posted a Tasty Tuesday in awhile. I've been so busy I've been neglecting  my poor blog.

I had bought 3 pumpkins for Halloween 1 Jack-O-Lantern and 2 pie pumpkins. I let the kids paint the pie pumpkins. Last year I didn't know what to do with the pumpkins after Halloween so I just threw them away.

This year I decided to try making something with them. I HATE to waste anything so I figured I'd give it a try. I havent done anything w/ the Jack-O-Lantern yet but I got online and figured out how to cook up the pie pumpkins.

Now, something you all should know, I am a terrible baker! I can cook almost anything but when it comes to baking, I burn brownies out of the box. I just can't do it.

In this post I'll show you how to cook the pumpkin to get it ready to use in any recipe and then I'll give you the recipe for the pumpkin roll I made last night. I'm making a pumking pie tonight, then pumpkin bread, then pumpkin cake...Lets just say we'll be tired of eating pumpkin by the end of the week! But I will have good recipes for a months worth of Tasty Tuesdays!

So I took pictures of each step to show you exactly how it looks. I'm a picture kind of person. It's easier to understand if there's pics :)

Cooking the pumpkin:

I used Gages pumpkin first. Don't mind the marks all over it! He colored it :)

First you cut the top off the pumpkin, cut in in half and pull out all the gunk. (Save the seeds, I have directions on how to roast them. email me if you want it)

I took a little bit of butter and rubbed on the inside.

I couldn't tell you if it made a difference though.

 I wasn't able to tell.

This is what it looked like when it came out of the oven:

Place the pumpkin halves skin side up in a pan with about a half

inch of water in the bottom. (So the pumpkin stays moist and doesn't burn)

Bake at 350 for about 45 minutes or until you can pierce the skin with a fork.

Let the pumpkin halves cool a bit and scoop out the middle with

a spoon or an ice cream scoop.

Puree it in a blender. Mine is broke so I had to use a mixer. It looked a little thicker but it turned out fine.

(this would make a great baby food by the way!)

You can either refrigerate or freeze the pumpkin puree until you're ready to

use it.

Pumpkin Roll recipe:

3 eggs

2/3 cups pumpkin

1 cup sugar

1tsp. cinnamon

3/4 cups plain flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 cup nuts (I used pecans)

1 (8oz) cream cheese

1 cup powdered sugar

1T. vanilla

2T. butter

Mix eggs, sugar, pumpkin, cinnamon, flour, and baking soda together.

Put dough mix in a pan (I used a baking sheet)

Chop up the nuts and sprinkle them on top of the dough.

Bake at 350 degrees about 12 to 15 minutes. When it comes out it'll look like this:

After it's out of the oven, flip it out of the pan onto a dish towel that is sprinkled with powdered sugar.

Roll up and cool for 2 hours.

Mix the cream cheese, powdered sugar, vanilla, and butter. Unroll bread,spread the cheese mixture on the bread. I sprinkled a little powdered sugar on top just to make it pretty. It wasn't in the recipe!

Roll back up. Cover with foil and refrigerate.

As bad as I am at baking I thought this would be a disaster. I thought it would be hard to make but it was so simple. Cooking the pumpkin was the hardest part. Honestly, if I can make this, anyone can. I was suprised at how yummy it was! I've had it before but I knew I'd mess something up. It turned out perfect! I'm kinda proud of myself :)

Winner of Rockin Green Giveaway is...

Comment #40 Fancygrlnancy

Congratulations!

I'll shoot you an email and hope you enjoy

your Rockin Green.

If I do not get a response within 48 hours

I'll choose another winner.

Thanks to everyone that entered and a very special thanks to

Kim at Rockin Green for sponsoring the giveaway!

Winner!

The winner of the Gadbaby diaper giveaway is comment #68,  Rebecca1217

Mommy to adorable little Leo. Go check out her blog

Bellydance, Bagpipes, and my Boys

Congratulations!

You have 48 hours to respond or I'll have to choose

another winner.

I hope you enjoy your Gadbaby diaper, we love ours :)

Ready for Halloween!

We're all ready for Halloween! I've got the treat bags made, decorations up, and costumes bought! I painted a big pumpkin, the kids painted their own little pumpkins. We paint pumpkins here. Carving is waay too messy and too much of a hassle for a 1yo and 3yo. I'll wait till they're a little older for that. They colored little Halloween pictures and we taped them up on the door. I downsized a lot from last year though. We've been so busy moving and stuff that I didn't really even think about Halloween until a couple weeks ago. Most of the decorating was done just this past week!

Gavin's going to be a cowboy and Gage is a monkey (which is his nickname so it fits perfectly!)

 We're actually doing our trick or treating tomorrow. I go back to the town where I grew up (the rest of my family still lives there) and all the businesses downtown set up tables and give out candy. The Church, Sheriffs dept, and the courthouse gives the best ;) There's even a shop that gives out dog bones. Every year I tell them I don't have a dog, and every year they throw one in with the kids candy anyway! Kinda gross but a nice thought :)

Usually they do it on Halloween and since it's on Saturday this year I thought it would be perfect so hubby could go help me with the boys but for some strange reason, they're doing it on Friday. He has to work so I guess it's just me, my 2 boys, My sis, her 3 kids, PLUS her 3 foster kids! Whew it's gonna be a handful. My SIL sometimes goes with us, I'm not sure yet if she will this year.


I guess it's kinda good they're doing it on Friday, that means we can dress up again and go back out Saturday. Or stay here and give out candy to all the other kids. I'm sure Gavin would love to see other kids come to his house and say 'Trick or Treat!' They get way too much candy anyway. My mom,sis, and sis-in-law all make treat bags. As does my aunt. Then they get a load from the shops downtown. Usually the bags are overflowing by the time we're done. We take and extra bag to dump it in when the kids gets too full.


Last year they had so much, plus Christmas candy right after that, I just threw the rest away around Easter this year! My kids actually don't like candy all that much. They must get it from me. I don't like sweets too much. It's a good thing but we waste most of the Halloween candy.


I always half my kids candy with my dad! He has a major sweet tooth so it cuts down on how much my kids get and it gives my daddy something to munch on!

Have a very safe and

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Rockin Green Giveaway

I've used Rockin Green detergent and I think it is wonderful for not only cloth diapers but regular laundry as well. Rockin Green is completely safe for cloth diapers and for the environment too which is always a good thing!

I also really love the fact that you can order samples before you buy a big bag of it. I've already tried the Baby Powder & the Monkey Snacks and I really liked them both.

The Monkey Snacks smells like banana Laffy Taffy but it's not a real strong scent. The baby powder is a bit stronger and it smells... well, like baby powder! It smelled like a sweet lil babies bum :)

When they came in the mail, the entire mail box smelled sooo yummy! I was sniffing the mailing bag all the way back to the house!

Here are the scents that you can choose from:

Unscented

Fresh Linen- Blend of Lily and Jasmine. Comparable to Bath & Body Works Fresh Linen.
Baby Powder- smells like freshly powdered baby.
Cherry Almond- yummy cherries mixed with almonds. Best Seller!
Vanilla Lavender- a soft fragrance of yummy vanilla and lavender.
Monkey Snacks- A tropical blend of Banana, Coconut, Lime, Orange, Grapefruit, Bergamot, and Clove. Smells like Banana Laffy Taffy! Best Seller!
Cherry Lemonade- Blend of Cherry, Lemon, and Berry. Reminds me of a Cherry Limeade from Sonic!
Vanilla Buttercream- it’s like a cupcake without the calorie guilt! Best Seller!
Mango Sorbet
Grape Soda- reminds me of summers as a kid

There's also 2 brand new scents to try out:

Peppermint Cocoa- This one sounds so yummy!
Pumpkin Crunch- I can't wait to try this one, I love anything pumpkin!

Another great thing about it is as yummy as the scents are, when the diapers come out of the wash, there's no scent at all. It gets rid of the stink with no lingering detergent smell.

Kim @ Rockin Green has generously offered one lucky reader a 45/90 bag of Rockin Green detergent. Trust me, once you try this stuff, you'll be hooked!

 

 

 

Buy it:

Head on over to Rockingreensoap.com and get yourself a bag.

Or just give it a try with a couple samples.

Samples cost just $2.50

A 45/90 bag costs $13.95

A 90/180 bag costs $22.95

Win it:

To enter to win a 45/90 bag of Rockin Green, go to Rockingreensoap.com

and tell me what scent you'd choose if you won.

You must do this before you can get extra entries.

If you don't, the other entries will not count.

Extra Entries:

Follow me (@mysillyboys) and @RockinGreenSoap on twitter

and tweet about this giveaway. Leave a comment with the permalink of your tweet.

You can tweet up to 3 times a day.

Feel free to copy and paste this tweet:

RT @MySillyBoys Enter to win a 45/90 bag of @RockinGreenSoap http://bit.ly/2zr21i #clothdiapers #Giveaway

Publicly follow my blog and comment that you do. If you already follow my blog, leave me a comment letting me know that you do.

Subscribe to my blog via email and comment that you do.

Grab my button and leave me the URL of where I can find it.

Leave a comment on another non-giveaway post and tell me which post it was.

Blog about this giveaway (2 entries) and leave the URL where I can find the post.

(Leave 2 comments if you do this. You can say Blog entry #1, and #2)

I will draw a winner on Sunday, November 8th

at around midnight.

I will announce and email the winner on Monday.

I highly recommend leaving your email address in EVERY comment so I can email you if you win.

If you do not do this, you will be responsible for checking back here to see if you won.

If I do not get a response within 48 hrs, I will draw another winner.

Good luck!

GAD Baby Diaper Review/Giveaway

Kim from Green Acre Designs recently sent me a Gad Baby diaper with a hemp insert to try out. I was secretly hoping for a black one so I was thrilled to find a black one with red micro fleece inner layer in the mail box! I've been wanting a black diaper ever since I saw these on Gad Babys website.

I love,love, love this diaper! I love the side snaps so Gage can't take it off (he really enjoys running around stark naked). I love the color selection. I really like that you can get a different colored inner than outer. Most diapers just have white inners or are the same color as the outer. I love how trim they are. They aren't bulky at all. Gage can actually wear pants over it. Usually I have to put a pair of Gavins size 3's to go over my other cloth diapers. I also really love the prices. Gad diapers are very affordable compared to most other brands. Most of the diapers are $15.95.

I was a little bit nervous trying the hemp insert. I had never used hemp before and knew that you have to prep it before you can use it. I got a lot of tips from wonderful mamas that had experience with hemp so I washed it 4 times and put it on Gage. I did actually have a leak the first time I put the diaper on him but thinking back, I think I miscounted and had only washed it 3 times! After that, I washed and dried it again and haven't had a leak since.

Here's some pictures of Gage wearing his GAD Baby diaper...

Buy it:

If you can't wait to win it,

head on over to GADBabys site and pick out a few.

You can choose between an organic bamboo velour inner

or a microfleece inner. They're the same price either way.

Win it:

To enter to win a GadBaby diaper, go to Gadbaby.com, pick out which

color diaper you would choose if you won and leave it in a comment.

You must do this before you can get extra entries.

If you don't, the other entries will not count.

Extra Entries:

Follow me and GadBaby on twitter & tweet about this giveaway.

Leave a comment with the permalink of your tweet.

You can tweet up to 3 times a day.

Publicly follow my blog and comment that you do.

If you already follow my blog, leave me a comment letting me know that you do.

Subscribe to my blog via email and comment that you do.

Grab my button and leave me the URL of where I can find it.

Leave a comment on another non-giveaway post and tell me which post it was.

Blog about this giveaway (2 entries) and leave the URL where I can find the post.

(Leave 2 comments if you do this. You can say Blog entry #1, and  #2)

I will draw a winner on Friday, November 6th

 at around midnight.

I will announce and email the winner on Saturday. 

I highly recommend leaving your email address in

 EVERY comment so I can email you if you win.

If you do not do this, you will be responsible

for checking back here to see if you won.

If I do not get a response within 48 hrs,

 I will draw another winner.

Good luck!