A Wild Weekend

The month of November has F-L-O-W-N!!!! Is it just me!? I don't think it is.

Hubs asked me last night while I was writing thank you cards to my Jamberry customers why I hadn't blogged and I said I guess I'm just not inspired enough to write right now.

He said "If this week wasn't something to blog about...then I don't know what is." Let me recap:

Thursday night: LW woke at 8:45 vomiting kielbasa EVERYWHERE. Hubs and I rush in, I handle LW, Hubs handles bedding/vomit/carpet and within 25 minutes, LW is back to sleep and Hubs and I can go downstairs.
9:30 Princess starts whining and acting up...sniffing ferociously at the basement door. I said "She has something....no....there is something ALIVE under that door that she has trapped there". Hubs goes to investigate. A mouse starts hopping down the stairs. Hubs gets his "mouse catcher" (a box from new blinds and a broom) and escorts the mouse to the far side of our property.
9:35 Princess still losing her mind... I say "Can you just go down there with her and see if there are more...?" Hubs opens the door and P runs to the bottom of the stairs and into LW's play area. Where Hubs finds another mouse. This time dead, and exploded...all over LW's toys. ACK. Hubs cleans up.
9:45 Princess AGAIN losing her mind and I'm about to lose mine. She's following something that appears to be in the ceiling and as I'm sufficiently getting more and more creeped out I look, and there is a wasp on the wall – what she was following. A wasp. In Chicago. In NOVEMBER. ?!!?! Hubs kills and disposes of wasp.
11:30 Hubs and I are finally nestling into bed, drifting off to sleep and I hear that horrible, terrible, awful sound, as clear as day. LW puking. Again. Repeat steps from earlier, this time even FASTER since we were expecting it. Clean up, bathe toddler, new jammies, clean sheets, scrub carpet, new blankets, rock, rock, snuggle snuggle, out like a light. 15 minutes. Can I just reiterate how horrible the smell of vomited kielbasa is? UGH. Really horrible.

Finally, we were able to go to sleep Thursday evening. Friday Hubs was off work so he ran all of our family errands while I worked. Friday evening we moved a family heirloom from my in-laws over to our house. A 1915 Victrola. We don't have many things in our new house yet, but we are acquiring cool things!

Friday night we designed and ordered our Christmas card. CHRISTMAS!! My FAVORITE TIME OF YEAR! Some of my friends have referred to me as a "real life Buddy the Elf" because I love Santa so much. And Christmas. And snow. I can't wait to share our card with you! But, it's no fair showing you before it mails ;) Plus, it's not even Thanksgiving. I have some respect, you know.

Saturday morning I woke up feeling like it was Christmas because it was the Old Navy cardholders Black Friday Sale. WAHOO!!!! I spent way more than I planned (shocker) but I FINALLY got some real pants that fit LW and I bought myself the most comfortable PJ pants on the planet. I've asked for 150 more pairs of them for Christmas.

I learned this weekend that Old Navy toddler 18-24m pants aren't as long as the "baby" 18-24 month pants. However, the toddler 18-24m pants have the zipper and button like real jeans, which helps TREMENDOUSLY in getting pants over a cloth booty. Plus, the toddler jeans come in skinny and WOW are they cute. We love Project Pomona pants but for $8/pair at Old Navy, I couldn't resist giving their jeans a shot to try with his cloth bottom.

Saturday evening we had a church pot luck and worship rather than having worship on Sunday morning so I made our favorite brisket recipe.

I usually must let it slow cook 8-10 hours because this time I only did 6 and it wasn't as tender as I like. BUT, the brisket was gone in a flash and I used the leftover BBQ sauce to make sloppy joe's on Sunday. YUM! Waste not, want not :)

For Christmas this year we have already finished our shopping for LW because he is getting the most tremendous Christmas gift ever. A SWING SET! He'll have things to "open" also, but a family member of a close friend offered us a deal we couldn't refuse on this beauty. It may not look like much now, but I can't wait to look out the window and see LW and his pals playing on it for years to come.

Finally, Sunday. We didn't have church in the morning so the plan was to "sleep in". Which, originally we laughed at the thought. "Sleep in" with an 18 month old?! HA! Well.... we've recently moved LW into a toddler bed and the beauty of that is that instead of crying when he wakes up, he gets out of bed and (typically) knocks on his door to let us know he's awake. Sunday morning he unplugged his monitor and proceeded to cruise his room. For I'm not sure how long....Hubs and I lazily opened our eyes and started chatting at 8:45am and looked at the clock. "OH NO IT'S ALMOST NINE". I leapt out of bed and ran to LW's room to make sure he was okay and sure enough, he was twirling and dancing around his room, jolly as you please. He looked up at me like, "Oh, hey! You're up!"

LW and I had a 2nd birthday party in the afternoon for a friend from the old neighborhood at this SUPER fun play spot very close to our house. If you're in the NW burbs - check out Kids Club Party & Fun! Apparently they have Groupons often and it was a FUNNNNN two hours!!

I love giving gifts that aren't toys and take a little creativity to construct. For our birthday boy friend, I built a gift basket full of all organic and gluten-free snacks! Birthday Boy's mom has Celiac's so I know diet is really important to her for her son. I had a BLAST constructing it and with a World Market coupon, it kept the gift totally within my "birthday gift" budget.

For some people on our lists that seem to have "everything", a gift basket full of treats they may not splurge on normally is a really fun and inventive gift. Hubs and I love giving baskets full of wine, cheese, crackers and sausage to his dad for Christmas every year. And every year we have such a great time building them! Then all year long when we visit, we munch on the little treats from the basket.

What's your favorite creative gift to give?

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New Parents Care Package

Whenever close friends or relatives have babies I like to deliver a simple meal the family can enjoy for a few days. When the new family isn't close enough to drop off a meal, a friend of mine gave me the idea to send a care package for the new family.

Most recently I became an aunt and my niece lives in Arizona! Obviously I couldn't ship a crock pot meal or stack of pancakes that far, so I sent a simple care package the whole family would enjoy.

1) For Mommy & Daddy: Pink Norwex EnviroCloth I clean almost exclusively with Norwex products, and every parent needs at least one EnviroCloth to have on hand. A damp EC can clean every mess - ESPECIALLY high chair messes!
2) For Mommy: Aromatherapy Mineral Bath when you're a new mom it's so hard to take time for yourself, but after what your body just went through in giving birth it is so important to take that time to heal! I love aromatherapy baths.
3) For Baby: California Baby Calming Cream Everyone has their own idea of what "baby" smells like and to me, it's "Calming" by Cali Baby.
4) For Daddy (or Mommy): Dark Chocolate A little sweetness goes a long way to help me step back for a minute and remember life is wonderful. Early parenthood can be so stressful and overwhelming,  a square of this is a nice little reminder that life is sweet :)
5) For Doggie: Squeak Toy Don't forget the pets! If the new parents you're sending a package to have a four-legged friend or two, be sure to include something for them in the package. Their lives just changed dramatically too, you know!

What do you send or give to new parents?

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GIVEAWAY 7: Norwex

Happy Earth Day! How fitting to offer some free environmentally friendly cleaning supplies on a day like today? Meet Lauren. 

Hello, I'm Lauren and I'm an Independent Norwex Consultant. 

I'm so grateful that Jess has given me the opportunity share with you my knowledge of how you can radically reduce the use of chemicals in your home and personal care. Norwex has given me everything I need to create a truly healthy home for my family while saving me time and money. In today's busy world, it has been proven that Norwex products can reduce your cleaning time by 75% or more. Save you money by reducing the use of chemicals and cleaning supplies up to 90%. With Norwex you will improve your over all health. You don't breathe, touch, or ingest harmful chemicals. Dirt and dust are removed from your surfaces instead of just being spread around. You will have a cleaner indoor climate, which reduces allergies too. You will also enjoy the satisfaction of knowing you are doing your part to preserve the environment for future generations. 

So let's talk about microfiber and the Enviro Cloth, or as I like to call it the "everything" cloth. What's the big deal? Technically to be called a microfiber the fiber must be 1/6th of a human hair. Norwex microfiber is 1/200th of a human hair and the fibers are embedded with microsilver making them naturally 99.9% antibacterial! 

When used dry, static electricity attracts dust to the cloth. When used damp, those super fine fibers suck up all the contaminants on your surface and trap them deep inside the cloth and will not release them until you wash it out with hot water. So you can wipe up raw chicken juice, then the kitchen table, and wipe your kids messy hands with out any cross contamination! 

When you are done rinse out the cloth and hang it to dry. Then the silver goes to work and the germs inside the cloth die. You can use it multiple times before having to launder it saving you time and energy costs. 

I use my Enviro cloth for everything! I got 20 years of grease off a kitchen shelf with little effort after store bought de-greasers failed. I get pet stains and red wine out of my carpet by rubbing them with a damp Enviro cloth. Sticky syrup all over after breakfast is gone in a flash. Use the Enviro cloth to clean anything you normally would with store bought cleaners. I can't imagine my life with out this amazing cloth so I will be giving one away to one of you so you can start reducing the use of chemicals in your home too!

 You can find chemical free solutions to all your cleaning and personal care needs on my website www.LaurenGuss.norwex.biz . If you love what you see you can purchase online with this direct link http://www.norwex.biz/publicstore/event/372575/default.aspx to Jess' online party. If you love the products, but want to save money then you can host your own party (my average hostess gets $250+ in free products!). If you love the products and want them all, then join my team and become an independent Norwex Consultant!

Ready to win your own Enviro Cloth? 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Lactation Cookies

Breastfeeding is a lot harder than I thought. Why does no one tell you these things? How about when your friends or someone you know gets pregnant don't warn them about getting fat or delivering their baby or use drugs or don't use drugs. Tell them that breastfeeding is the hardest, most exhausting thing they will ever do in their lives. Tell them that no matter how many books they read and classes they attend, nothing will prepare them for it. Then tell them every single second they spend breastfeeding will be the most rewarding moment in their lives. Because it is. 

I mean, really. My body makes everything for Billy to live. How amazing is that?! And the moment your child first opens their eyes and looks up at you while they nurse? heart swell. Absolutely amazing. Best feeling in the world. 

Billy's current favorite thing (other than swimming) is smiling at me when he nurses. He will be eating away, lock eyes with me, and just break the latch and smiiiiiiiile a big, toothless grin at me. Nothing in the history of the universe is cuter than your baby smiling at you. Especially when his mouth is dripping with milk that your body created for him. Unbelievable feeling.

Now that I have my gush about my adorable baby out of my system (sorry, I'm not sorry), please read through how I made lactation cookies :) I got the recipe from a friend and I think it's worth sharing! Hubs has even had a few and gave them the thumbs up! 

1 cup butter

1 cup sugar

1 cup firmly packed brown sugar

4 Tablespoons water

2 Tablespoons flax seed meal

2 eggs

1 tsp vailla

2 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

3 cups oats

1 cup chocolate chips

2-4 Tablespoons brewer’s yeast 

Mix flaxseed meal and water and let sit for 3-5 minutes.

Beat butter, sugar, and brown sugar well.

 Add eggs and mix well.

 Add flaxseed mix and vanilla and mix.

 Sift together flour (I used whole wheat), brewer’s yeast, baking soda, and salt.

 Add dry ingredients to butter mix.

 Stir in oats and chips.

Right as I was about to scoop and bake*...someone woke up from their nap and someone else needed attention. I had to take a photo because this is seriously the snapshot of my life. I am always wearing Billy when I do chores around the house and Princess is always right at my heels. Thank you, Baby K'Tan! You let me clean my house and keep my baby happy at the same time.

The view if you looked over my shoulder today while I scooped cookie dough. 

 Okay, sorry, back to the recipe: Scoop onto baking sheet and bake for approximately 12 minutes. Let set a couple minutes on the sheet then remove to cool.

Of course I won't be selfish, my fellow nursing mamas need a taste too! I found some adorable treat bags at the Wilton Tent Sale and scored a stash of new washi tape last week on Pick Your Plum! I combined the two to make simple and cute little treat baggies. 

I was skeptical about the cookies, but I snacked on them all day today and after feeding Billy tonight I was leaking within the hour. WHOA!

I also pumped and got more milk than ever before. Hopefully now I can have enough to start building a stash!

*I do not wear Billy when I work on anything on the stove or in the oven. He was safely in his Rock N' Play when I put the cookies in the oven. 

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Garden 2.0

Remember how we were going to start a garden and grow all of our produce for the summer? Well, the cats had other plans.... They ate of our sprouts. All of them.

So, we've been rebuilding our inventory slowly as we figure out which plants we REALLY want and which we can live without. This afternoon while I was hanging the diapers to dry I thought I'd snap a few photos so you can get a glimpse at what's happening in our backyard.

Diaper laundry! Almost every day now. Thank goodness for sun - the stains just disappear like magic :)

 Our little garden!! I couldn't tell you all the things growing in there... celery, peppers, beans....who knows what else?! I guess I'll find out when it's time to start picking!

The vines on the fence are grapes! They are so itty bitty right now I couldn't even get a photo of them. Tiny.

 Herbs! Every herb you could imagine. We LOVE to cook with herbs so we grow a lot of them!!

 Bill bought me a peone bush for Mother's Day and we've been acquiring lilies - before we knew it we had a full blown lily garden! I love going out on the deck with Billy and looking down at the lilies every morning.

 Princess is ready to play. All. The. Time.

 Strawberries! You can BARELY see the teeny little berries inside the leaves next to the stems. Bill has already eaten two full berries from this plant! We have three berry plants total.

 It's not summer without home grown tomatoes – we have four planters with tomato plants! Hopefully we will get some tasty 'maters soon!

Weather on days like today is so divine – the breeze blows through our home, it smells like fresh grass, my girlfriends and I go on a nice walk with our babies... Mmm. It's summertime and I'm loving it!! I can't wait to start cooking with all these tasty treats from our garden 2.0.

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Photography Practice

With Billy only a few weeks away, I wanted to practice my photography skills on a moving object this weekend.

While Hubs worked on a project for the little dude's room (I'll share, I promise), I took photos of our darling Princess enjoying the sunshine and her Crinkit (best dog toy ever).

Basking in the sun 

"Mom? Are you gunna throw it?!"

My. Toy. 

"Seriously....if you take it, you better throw it!"

Things are starting to warm up here - it's so nice to enjoy the sunshine!! I hope it's getting warm where you are.

6 more weeks. 

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Winner, Winner

I've emailed the winner for the Kindle Case Giveaway, so if your name starts with an "H" - check your email!!

Congrats to the winner and thanks to all for entering. Keep your eyes peeled for another super fun giveaway coming soon!!

I'm in the "can't sit, stand, walk or lay down comfortably" stage now and it's really a drag! The one thing keeping me going is knowing this is the home stretch....

That's some serious belly...

 All of the animals have started flocking to my belly every night, it's getting weird. Princess just longingly stares at me like she's asking, "HOW MUCH LONGER UNTIL I CAN MEET MY LITTLE BILLY?!"

And Sam is starting to do what I have been fearing....loving Billy a little too much. I have a (potentially irrational..?) fear that Sam will love Billy to death, and just smother him in his sleep. It's starting:

Sam says, "My baby."

 The chair has also reached it's final destination: the nursery. Things are starting to get serious around here!!

We even have our first stash of newborn dipes!!

I feel like things are starting to slow down now, and it's the calm before the storm.... 7ish more weeks.....

Have a wonderful Wednesday :) 

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A Snowy Evening

Yesterday a big 'ole snowstorm rumbled through Chicagoland. The YMCA sent out a notice that classes were cancelled for the night, so I prepared myself to sit in the car for hours in my commute home, without a prenatal swim class to scamper off to.

Before leaving the office I packed my purse full of snacks and refilled my water bottle to the brim, just in case the dinner hour came and went while I sat in traffic.

Much to my delight, the roads were clear despite the snowstorm and I think everyone must have panicked and left their offices early so I was just about the only one on the road! I got home at the same time I normally would, ran inside and grabbed my camera.

My photography skills are still seeking improvement, but it's so fun to have a camera to just snap bits of our lives to share with you.

Our house looks so peaceful in the snow, even from the back it just seems like the perfect place to call home.

I can't imagine a better way to spend a snowy night than playing in the snow with Princess, then snuggling on the couch with a big, bubbly bowl of chili-mac. Finish the night with some sponge cake and you've got yourself one perfect evening.

Welcome Home :) 

View from our deck

Hubs going out to snow blow!

Princess showing her best "play with me" face. 

"LOOK HOW FAST I AM"

Aren't you coming back out to play with me, Mom?!

I love when snow collects on the windows.

I hadn't planned on cooking anything "new" this week since we had so many birthday leftovers, but this snowy night just begged for chili-mac. 

I don't normally make dishes with pre-packaged seasonings, but I have pouches of chili seasoning on hand and until I make my own round of chili seasoning I'm just appreciating the ease of these pouches from our pantry. Go ahead, judge me. 

Our chili recipe couldn't be more simple... and I love it. 1.5lb ground turkey, 2 cloves of garlic, 1 onion, 2 cans of chili beans, 1 large can of whole tomatoes and 2 packages of chili seasoning. Yummmmm.

Time to make some chili!

Something about macaroni is so fun and comforting.

Top it with greek yogurt, jalapenos & shredded cheese. 

Who said I had to eat healthy ALL the time? 

I admit, while taking a moment to myself last night I sent up a prayer thanking God for getting us home safely, giving us a warm place to call home and a delicious meal to eat. I never get sick of comfort food and sometimes you just have to send up a big, fat "Thank You" for having the chance to enjoy it.

What's your favorite way to spend a quiet night in? 

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