Top Five Baby Must Haves

When I was pregnant with Jonah I remember walking into Babies R Us to register and feeling so overwhelmed.  I had no idea what I would need.  I felt like I need to test drive each item with a real live baby before committing with the scanner.  (Of course, Danny had the scanner and he just loved to hear it beep, so who knows what we actually registered for.)  Well, some bright Babies R Us worker must have realized that most first time mommies have this problem.  They have a list of everything you could ever need.  All you have to do is walk down the aisles and scan the items on the list.  Easy enough, right?  Except, for example, the list says "baby lotion" and there are 15,000 different types of lotion.  How was I suppose to know which one would make my babies skin adequately moisturized and which one I could stand to smell for the next year?

I don't have the Ultimate List of Must Haves (Who needs to be told they need a car seat, stroller, or diapers?) but I do have a few items that I would buy five times over!  Here they are!

1. Pack n' Play - We used ours in our bedroom and then moved it into the nursery when the time came.  With Jonah we borrowed a bassinet, but babies get so big so fast and outgrow them before you might want the in a room of their own.  Play n' Plays also provide you with a bed that can be taken to hotel rooms, camping, and when you go visiting and the babe needs to nap.  Ours has a changing table attached and little pockets for holding diapers, cream, etc.  Don't even worry about a crib.  In Benaiah's case, the Pack n' Play also provides a safe place to play while I shower or cook.  No big brothers allowed!  :D

2. Woombie - I had never heard of these until Benaiah.  With Jonah I used a blanket. (Yes, there was only one that would swaddle tight enough to keep him in.)  With Huck and Eli I used the ready made swaddles with Velcro.  Then came Benaiah. . . he loved being swaddled and I loved that it helped him sleep, but by one month he was busting out of the Velcro swaddles.  I was at a loss.  I needed sleep!  Then, from Afghanistan came the woombie.  My knight in shining armor to the rescue again.  The woombie zips up from the top and bottom so you don't have to unwrap to change diapers.  There are no arm holes to fiddle with or snaps to line up in the wee hours of the morning.  My only recommendation would be to get two because they can't be dried.

3. Booster Seat - Once we had the twins we were hard pressed to find room for two highchairs.  I felt like I was always rolling one out of the way just to find another one in my path.  Our solution?  Booster seats with trays.  It was a smooth transition to sitting at the table.  All we had to do was take the tray off and scoot them on up!  The trays make clean up easy and the chairs are totally plastic so there are not any fabric wrinkles for food to get caught in like with the highchair we had.  With Benaiah we started him in a booster from his first day with solids.  No more highchairs in MY way!

4. Sunday School Class Stroller - I know this item doesn't apply to everyone, but if anyone out there is in a situation like ours then I would consider this investment.  A lot of sweet church members at Northlake generously gifted us the funds to purchase this lifesaver.  It seats four.  The back seats recline to allow a baby to ride.  There are slings underneath to carry bags and sun shades.  Ours has gone at least 500 miles!  It is a beast to load in the car but worth it.  We can keep everyone contained and safe.  It allows us to go on walks  - actually walk anywhere - the playground, mall, zoo, etc.  Love it!  On a similar note . . . if you are planning on having children close in age don't even get a single stroller.  Go for the double and save yourself some money in the long run.

5. A Good Camera - They are only little once.  Get a camera that takes the picture when you push the button, not seconds later.  I think this one is pretty self-explanatory.

Now you can go figure out which baby lotion you really want. :D

Christmas Traditions I Love Love Love!

Christmas this year was so different from every Christmas in the past.  I have never stayed home all day on the holiday.  Even when I was young we visited grandparents, but this year we were at good old 55 London ALL DAY . . . and it was SO MUCH FUN!  Then again, how could it not be with my four boys!

Here are some of our holiday traditions that helped us celebrate the season!

Jesse Tree ~

We used Jesse Tree for our nightly family devotions.  The book gives you a song to sing (which Huck loved), a Bible passage and devotion, questions to see if they were listening ;) and a prayer.  The devotions start in Genesis and work their way to the birth of Christ.  However, each story points towards Christ.  Then at the end of each devotion there was a coordinating ornament to hang on their tree.  This turned into a bit of an argument some nights, but nothing hanging the ornament three times couldn't fix. :D

Tree Skirt ~

Okay, so this tradition just makes me smile because I am the mommy.  Each year I have the boys put their hand prints on the tree skirt.  Isn't Benaiah's sweet chubby hand print just adorable?  Oh, how their hands have grown!  How dare they do that!

Making Christmas Last All Day Long ~

I cut out 20 stars and wrote activities on the back of each one.  Then I hung them in a place the boys could reach.  Too bad Benaiah could reach them too!  Some of them were a bit slobbery.  On Christmas we started by turning over number one "Make cinnamon rolls".  The stars lasted all day long.  We sang carols, made snowman pizza, played play dough, made Christmas tree quesadillas, took naps in Christmas pjs, had an indoor snowball fight, and opened presents, of course!  I loved how it made the holiday last all day long!

Happy Birthday Jesus Cake ~

Danny's family made a cake for baby Jesus when he was younger, and he wanted to continue this tradition with our boys.  So, we have made a cake every year and won't stop any time soon.  I had a wonderful kitchen crew who helped stir, decorate, and lick the spoons!  Jonah wanted to know how we were going to get he cake to Jesus ;)  Sweet boy!  He even made us leave a piece for him.

And it was delicious!

It is safe to say we had a wonderful Christmas.  We took down the decorations and the boys almost cried!  I told them that we would have Christmas again next year.  A few days later I told them that it would be a new year in a few days.  Jonah quickly exclaimed, "Then we can have Christmas again!"  Yes, Jonah.  Christmas again . . . in 350 something days :D

Out Of The Mouths . . .

My sweet Eli has started talking and never stops.  Here are a few of his highlights this week!


Eli: Me need a cold rag.  (He meant wet.) Naiah snodered on my book!

Me: What?  What is on your book?

Eli: Snod!




While camping . . .

Danny: What are you going to sleep in tonight?

Eli: My . . . my . . . (still trying to think of the word "sleeping bag") . . . red bed!

Yay for red sleeping bags!

Out Of The Mouths . . .

Jonah has discovered the art of being a first born.  He had been telling Huck to retrieve certain items and bring them to him . . . or pick them up from right in front of him.

"Huck, you are such a good helper!  Sometimes another word for helper is slave."

Ha ha ha!

Out Of The Mouths . . .

Jonah was learning about Josiah and finding the scroll in Children's Church . . .

Me: Jonah, what did you learn about Josiah today?

Jonah: He was king and his temple fell down.  They went to fix it and the cook found the thing like a Bible?

Me: A scroll?

Jonah: Yes, and Josiah was so sad that he torn his clothes (hee hee).  He didn't tear his shirt.  He tore his pants and his underwear!

Me: (Trying to reign him in) Why did he do that?

Jonah: He tore his pants and his underwear and his pants and his underwear!

No use trying!  Boys and their underwear!

On The Road Again . . .

to Georgia!!!

We spent Veteran's Day weekend visiting family and had the most wonderful time!  While six hours in a car with four little boys is no cake walk, it was definitely worth it!  We went full speed and had loads of fun!

Just a note: The first five hours IS a cake walk.  It is that last hour that gets me every time.  All the boys drop every blanket, book, sippy cup, and toy and cry about it until we stop and get it.  Any tips are appreciated! :D

Friday:  We woke up after a late arrival the night before.  Danny and I were able to go on a run together.  Jessica, Maila, and Kristin came over and Grandpa, Grandma, Jason, and all of our crew went for a walk around the lake at a nearby park.  It was a 2 mile walk and only took 2 hours!  Not bad for two-year old legs and stopping to throw rocks.

We refueled at Chick-fil-a.  Then, Danny and I left the boys napping with Grandma while we went to the mall for sneakers.  We finished off the day with dinner with Jonathan and Maila!  I love watching her play with the boys.  She doesn't let them push her around!

Saturday:  On to the Georgia Aquarium!  We had gone while Danny was gone and he was jealous, so we had to take him to see the dolphin show.  Hee hee!  It really is impressive!

Here are the big boys.  Jonah was are navigator with his handy dandy map!

Cleaning day!  The boys were more interested in the scuba diver than the fish!

Huck loves his fish!

Sunday:  Probably my favorite day of them all!  We were up bright and early to head to Northlake.  Danny preached at the Veteran's Day services while I got to catch up with friends.  So good to see the people that helped us get where we are and are praying for us still.

After church we went to see Ree Ree and Uncle Sean's new house!!!  It is the cutest thing I have ever seen.  She already has it more decorated than mine and every item in it is a conversation piece.  She has a large backyard perfect for chasing the cat (poor cat) and wrestling with Bubba!  My whole family was there to celebrate fall birthdays - and just to be together!

Benaiah loved being held by the beautiful birthday girl!

Another picture of Benaiah just because he is too cute!

He also likes being held by handsome uncles!

. . . And sweet aunts!

Hillary baked it, but Jonah decorated it.  Lovely, huh?

Maw got lots of help blowing out the candles!

So did Hannah!

Eli just loved the Birthday Song - woooohoooo!

Eli loves boots - especially Bubba's!

Oh, the joy of new boots!  Thanks, Maw!

So Bubba had to try on Eli's too . . . 

I was sad to see Sunday end. . .  :(

Monday: Danny took the van to get it fixed - brakes are a good thing to have on a road trip - and after some lunch we took off down the road again.  We stopped for a free Veteran's Day meal at the most crowded Golden Corral I have ever seen, but did I mention FREE?  The boys thought it was amazing because they had a marching band outside while we waited for a seat.  We marched to stay warm!

Well, that is our weekend in a nutshell - or a blog post.  Gotta love family time!  Can't wait to do it again on Thanksgiving!

Out Of The Mouths . . .

My boys have been cracking me up lately.  Here are two from today . . .

Eli: I like yours head.  It looks like a soccer ball!

Like my mom said, at least he didn't say football!


Huck:  I love my baby brother for a long, long time.

That boys is too sweet!

Shhhhh!

I have noticed recently that motherhood has made me a little quirky.  Okay, maybe a lot quirky and maybe it has been going on for quite some time and no one has bothered to tell me.

I don't know about every one's kiddos but mine are deep sleepers. Once I had a living room full of teenage girls banging hammers on cans and Jonah slept right through it!  BUT there are the few minutes right before they wake up that are crucial to the day.  If they sleep them out they are so sweet and wake up with a smile.  If they get startled from that precious sleep they are cranky, "hold-me-forever-until-your-arm-falls-off" little boys.  Sadly, the deep sleep that I can usually vacuum through vanishes during this time.  I sneak around like Santa hoping they won't hear me.

And so . . .

My Ten Quirks During The Magical Sleeping Time

1. Don't flush the toilet!  I don't care how you handle this, but the water through the pipes is sure to wake them.

2. Hurdle the safety gate at the top of the steps.  The squeak is another sure fire way to wake them up.  I realize there is a flight of steps on the other side and I might fall down them and break my neck, but at least I will have happy boys :)

3. Go all natural with the hair.  No blow dryer!!!

4. Leave the dishes in the sink.  The clanking and banging will sneak into their dreams and "BANG" they're up!

5. Skip the next to bottom step on the second flight of stairs.  It squeaks - enough said.

6. Stop the microwave on 1 second.  Our microwave sings a little song when the time runs out, but I am sure it would be just as bad with the beeping. Think of it like a bomb . . . don't let it go off!

7. Leave doors open the night before to rooms you might need to access before they wake up.  Minimal noise in case the door decides to squeak on that one occasion.

8. Do workout videos without any sound.  Who needs the big muscle man for motivation?  I better move it before it is time to make oatmeal and fill the sippy cups!

9. Feed the baby.  Yes, he might have eaten an hour ago.  Yes, he might be waking up for some other reason.  However, feeding him will make him be quiet until you can get him far away from the "quiet zone".

10. Use the quiet time to have a quiet time!  Okay, so this one is not so quirky, but it is just as essential to a smooth, pleasant day.  Once I have spent time with the Lord I know my day is going to be great even if the going gets a little rough because I can view it for what it is - a gift!  I can be the mom my kids need me to be, and I can rest easy knowing I have turned everything over to the Lord.

Ten quirks after only three years of being a mom!  I am sure to be extra weird once they are teenagers :D

Pumpkin Pie!

Pumpkin, pumpkin, pumpkin!  I feel like everyone goes pumpkin crazy this time of year.  Everything is pumpkin spice this and pumpkin flavored that.  I don't really see what is so wonderful about it.  I have a recipe for pumpkin spice muffins that is really good but that is about all the pumpkin we do.

Well, after visiting a local pumpkin farm we came home with EIGHT pie pumpkins. (They gave out free pumpkins to every hayride rider.)  Jonah got in his mind that we were going to make a pumpkin pie.  So, we did!  Jonah and I did a little nap time cooking that turned out to be delicious!

He is going to tell you all about it, so I am going to let him take it from here. . .

First, we had to get the seeds out and put the in a bowl.  It felt gooey!

I baked it.  It was brown.  I stirred it.

Then, we had to make the crust.  We mixed salt, sugar, and flour.

I stirred it.  Oh, and oil.

We pushed it.  We crushed it!

We mixed the pumpkin.  Then, I drank lemon juice.  We didn't put any egg because Eli can't have egg.

We poured it into the pie crust.  We baked it for ten minutes.

Mommy got it out because it was too hot.

It smelled like vanilla.

We ATE it!!!

Huck ate it from the top because he liked it.

I ate it!

It tasted like vanilla.  It was the best!

Well, off Jonah goes to play.  Blogging is not in his future.  Not too interested, but at least you have the idea of how we finally made his pumpkin pie!  Yum!

Aloha!

Since Danny returned home in July, the closest thing we had had to a date was going running and buying running shoes while visiting my mom.  Not that I don't like new shoes, but we really needed some time alone (away from the boxes I left for us to unpack together) to process some things.  So, when Danny came home and asked if I would like an inexpensive trip to Hawaii I said, "Absolutely not!"  Just kidding!  I said, "Sign me up!"  Many people who travel to Hawaii start planning the trip months in advance.  Not us.  I hardly had time to pack! We found out about this trip ten days before the plane left the ground.  Thanks to my wonderful husband and sweet, sweet family we were able to make the trip a reality.

Technically, Danny had a chaplain training on marriage enrichment by Dr. Gary Chapman.  Perfect topic, huh?  The training ran Sunday to Wednesday, but found that flights were cheaper if we added a day on each end.  Don't mind if I do!  So, we rode to Georgia, dropped the three big boys off with family, loaded up Benaiah, and away we flew!  Oh, and just in case you were interested - Kauai, Hawaii has a Walmart!  How else would we get enough diapers?

While I am sure you are much more interested in the conference material, I am going to share with you the adventures we had during our free time.

Friday: 4am we left for the airport.  Silly me thought that Benaiah would sleep the eleven hours to Hawaii.  Nope.  Two cat naps totaling an hour and he would only stay quiet in Mommy's lap.  By the time we got to Kauai I was too tired to even say Aloha!  We found some fish tacos and forced ourselves to stay up until at least 9.

Saturday:  I was up by 3am.  Lucky me.  Even Benaiah caught on to island time faster than me.  After an amazing bread pudding for breakfast, we headed to the Napali Coast.  Benaiah had never hiked for any length before so we started with a four mile hike to see a beach.  Unfortunately, the view was beautiful but the ground was covered in ants.  Benaiah got hungry, but I couldn't sit down to feed him in the middle of all those creepy crawlies!

We made it to the beach, and I fed him with this view.

After the hike, we visited the oldest calm-shaped lighthouse.  It is also on a wildlife preserve.  The only wildlife there were four types of birds.  Funny enough, apart from some crusty frogs, a small lizard, and a million roaming chickens, that was the only wildlife we saw during our entire trip.

Sunday: This time we headed southwest to the Waimea Canyon.  On the way we saw the remains of a Russian fort.  Danny insisted on climbing a tree and taking a picture to show the boys.

Then, we started the slow climb up to see the canyon.  Saying that I panicked would be an understatement.  I do not like heights, and I felt like I could fall off the edge with a slight turn of the wheel.  Danny was a patient soul.  We made it to the lookout, finally.  It really was beautiful!

Thumbs up for the view!

Once we made it down (Whew!) we had fresh mangoes from a roadside stand.  My favorite fruit!  So delicious!  Danny also snagged some mandarin oranges - not canned mind you.  Just take my advice and never try them.  They are like lemons on steroids.  No wonder we package them in sugar water!

Then, we stopped for a tour of the Kauia Coffee Plantation.  Neither of us drink coffee, but the tour was very interesting.  We also thought that maybe fresh, local coffee would taste better.  Not so.  Still needs tons of cream and sugar . . . and basically not taste like coffee for me to drink it.  :D

Our next stop was my favorite hike of all.  We hiked the Lithified Cliffs trail.  It starts at Shipwreck Beach and goes along the tops of cliffs.  At this point, I was very glad I wasn't watching three little boys while on this hike.  It was hard enough to keep Danny away from the edge!

How cool is this little find?

On our way back to the hotel, we drove through a tree tunnel, stopped to see a waterfall, hiked a short section of a trail closer to the hotel, and walked/ran on a beach walk.  Whew!

Here are some pics of my cute boy before we went for dinner ;)

Monday: We NAPPED!  All the activity had worn us all out!

Then we went to the beach to let Benaiah put his feet in the Pacific.  The beaches on Kauai are quite rough, so we stayed on the shore and watched the surfers.

Right before he let us know what he thought about it!

Tuesday: We went for a morning run on the beach walk we had found.  It was a beautiful morning running right by the ocean.  Shortly after starting our run, we passed a man with an umbrella in his back pocket.  I made a comment about how silly that was seeing that the sun was coming up beautifully.  Not two minutes later it started raining on us!  That man must have been a local.  Kauai is also the wettest place on earth - we found out later.  Then, two more minutes and the rain stopped!  We got a beautiful rainbow to finish out our run!

That afternoon we went back at it hiking the Sleeping Giant trail.  It reminded us so much of the Georgia mountains.

Best napping spot!

Stopped at the top to enjoy the view!

After hiking we took a swim in the pool.  Benaiah even learned how to kick! :D  Too cute!

Wednesday: We decided to go back to the canyon.  This time I read aloud to Danny to keep my mind off the edge-of-the-cliff ride.  We hiked to a waterfall and then ate more mangoes.  It was amazing to hike through a forest that at times looked like a jungle, at other times looked like a desert, and at other times looked like the forests of Dahlonega.

My puddle jumpers! :D

Hiked all that way for this waterfall :/

Why did the tree choose this spot?

For dinner we found a small outdoor diner run by one cook and one waitress.  It was delicious local grub.  Yum!

Thursday: Our flight was not until 10pm but checkout was much earlier that day.  So, we spent the morning swimming and sliding down the water slide.  Danny and I raced.  One would watch Benaiah sleep and run the stop watch while the other tried to speed slide!

Sleeping Handsome!

After checking out, we found more mangoes (Have I mentioned they are delicious?) and shopped for souvenirs.

Our flight went so smoothly.  Benaiah slept the whole way home!!!  He won best baby award on the plane!  The only bad part is that a baby sleeping on you means you can't get up, barely can move, and you get very hot!  I'll take it over a screaming baby.

It was a wonderful, relaxing, fun-filled trip with my biggest and littlest boys.  However, I was super excited to see my three amigos.  Now, I am refreshed and ready to take on . . . well, at least another week.  :D