I wanted to share some of our favorites with you all because its always a risk to try something new without knowing the end result– this way you know at least we thought the recipes were amazing!

Baked Potato Soup! (This soooo very good and is done in the crockpot!)

Fried Egg and avocado sandwich (Very good for dinner or lunch!)

Coffee Cake In a MUG! (So easy and made me feel better about indulging in a treat because I was only making a single serving and not an entire cake!)

Cheesy Vegetable Chowder (SO GOOD and meatless, so very budget friendly.)

Crockpot Italian Chicken (This has very quickly become a family favorite, so easy too! We serve it over noodles instead of rice.)

No Bake Peanut Butter Bars (I made these for neighbors for Christmas– YUM!)

Poppy Seed Pancakes (We LOVED these! We made our topping with raspberries from our bush frozen from the summer and it was mind blowing.)

I also tried the tip on Pinterest to boil chicken and then shred it using your kitchen aid, it works sooo well! I have four meals worth of shredded chicken in the freezer right now!

HOpe you enjoy these recipes as much as we have! Which Pinterest recipes have you loved?

I wanted to skip the whole toddler bed thing. Toddler beds only last so long before they need to be replaced with a twin. We decided to start with a twin with a guard rail and then remove the rail as she got older.

With all that searching, I found nothing. Nada. NO appropriate, affordable twin bed frames.

UNTIL…

A friend of mine who rents from a wonderful lady who happens to be the mother of one of my dearest high school friends called me up one day at the end of the summer. She said her land lord was in town and was cleaning out her storage unit. She had two pink twin bed frames and a mattress set and wanted to know if I wanted them. WHAT?? YES!!!!!

I knew at that point that we were hoping for baby #2, though no one else did yet. I kind of got giddy at the fact that if this next one was a girl, I would have two pink matching beds! (But it wasn’t meant to be, and that’s okay! We are excited to have a son!)

I picked up the bed, cleaned it up a bit and had Nate set it up a few weeks later. I used a twin quilt that I used in college, just with the plain white side up to match Molly’s room more. I don’t love the guard rail, but it keeps her safe.

I also don’t love the little flower garland just hanging there. It looks unfinished. I used to have an adorable hand made quilt hanging up there:

But the pinks of the quilt clashed with the pinks of the bed and curtains.I also had plans to put new artwork up there, but when we found out for sure that we were pregnant, I decided to wait on more projects until we knew the gender. SO glad I did that!

Now that Molly has this totally free bed, I am trying to decide what I should do with it in a shared gender room. Paint it? But what if I have a third baby and its a girl and the two of them share a room? Wouldn’t it be fun to have them both be pink?

The other issue I have is that the baby comes at the end of April, which means good outdoor painting weather will not have come yet. SO I will not be able to paint it until May or June. I kind of want that room 100% done before baby– I will sleep better that way.

I kind of have some ideas floating around in my head about what I could do… we will see what ends up happening. For now? I am pleased as punch to have  free twin for my growing little girl and from such an awesome family too!

I found two sets of tab top, pink curtains at a yard this last summer. $3 for all. I had some cute valances up on Molly’s window, but they weren’t doing much to keep out that early morning summer sun. (4 am wake up times are so not cool.)

The process was truly simple. All I did was take a seam ripper to each tab and rip it off. There was already a pocket seam there that was large enough for our smaller curtain rods.

When I hung them up, I didn’t love them. They are WAY too pink! Its like Pepto Bismol puked all over her windows! But, its what I have and they do block out the morning light. I will take ugly pink over less sleep!

Simple, cheap project.

Now I need to replace these with something more gender neutral. (Read here if you missed our announcement!)

We’ll see what I come up with.

Tell yourself repeatedly to calm down and take deep breaths. Get Dawn dish soap on a wet rag right away. (Shout would have worked too, but I didn’t have any at the time.) Take deep breaths and calmly put the child in time out while you scrub like crazy on your chair.

Relax when it all comes out and it actually looks cleaner than it did before.

Revisit child in time out and calmly explain that pens are for paper only while they cry and tell you sorry over and over. (She could tell I was very upset; maybe it was because I started crying as soon as I saw the damage.)

Put a “no pens for Molly until your 13″ rule in place to further protect your home from damage.

All is well.

I have yet to ever show you all pictures of our basement because its just that hideous. We live on the main floor of our house, so we’ve never had the need to update down there. We’ve been focusing our energies and renovation dollars on the more “live-able” spaces in our house. AKA everywhere else but the basement!

When we first moved in, the carpets in the two bedrooms down there were moldy. We removed them and bleached the floors. We didn’t remove the carpet on the stairs because…. I don’t know why. It wasn’t moldy and we were running out of steam.

For my birthday, my hubbie attacked those stairs and ripped up that ugly green shag for me! I was hoping the stairs underneath would be paintable– but they are in not great shape so we will most likely need to recover with new carpet when the time comes.

I thought it’d be super cute to do something like this!

(Photo source)

In the mean time, I’m glad that dirty, ugly carpet is out of my house!

(But the kitchen carpet is still there! Ew. We have plans for that this summer!)

Nate said it cost him less than $3 to take the old carpet to the dump, so this was a very frugal and very refreshing project for us. The next step, recovering them, won’t be as cheap, but I’m grateful for the lack of shag in my house now.

Oh, and I can’t forget my hubbie’s super cute “helper!” She had “tools” (a spatula) and was hammering away in the kitchen while daddy worked on the stairs. It was stinkin’ adorable!

My stash has increased greatly since my initial Econobums purchase in November. I bought two Econobums when they were on sale buy one get one for $9.95 from sweetbottomsbaby.com. I went ahead and did this deal again and bought two more at the end of November giving me 4 covers and 4 prefold inserts in addition to my Gerber prefolds I had from a shower gift when I was pregnant with Molly. Because the covers are reusable, I was able to wipe them clean and just use an additional prefold while letting the one I just wiped air dry out. If the cover got soiled by a BM, I would wash it before using again.

Using my Gerber prefolds as stand bys, I was able to diaper Molly during the day using just one and sometimes no disposables. I still used disposables at night because I didn’t have a great night time diaper. I was needing to wash diapers EVERY night though. With very few diapers, this was no fun.

In December, I purchased an Imagine diaper from Nickisdiapers.com. These diapers are $9.95 and are a pocket diaper with an insert. I actually really like this diaper! Its bulky on Molly, but works great for her at night!

Then mid December, my mom blew me away by letting me know that she purchased 12 Fuzzibunz one size diapers and 10 BumGenius newborn diapers for me for Christmas! I kind of couldn’t believe it. Still can’t.

I’ve been using the Fuzzibunz on Molly– they are actually already on the largest setting and fitting a bit snug. I’m really hoping she potty trains soon!

After her bath this evening, I was hoping to take a picture of her in her diaper, but she wanted to run around the house and be silly! Thus the crazy pics!

The back of them say “cloth is cool.”

Some of the ones my mom got me say, “Does this diaper make my butt look big?” Too funny!

I’m still learning so much about this whole process. I still have some things I need to purchase to make the process easier; especially if Molly isn’t potty trained by the time baby comes! I need a diaper pail upstairs and down stairs by our laundry. I need a wet bag, cloth diaper safe diaper rash cream, more cloth wipes, and I’d LOVE a diaper sprayer, but have been surviving without one.

I also need to add more diapers to my stash. I have enough for Molly right now, but if she outgrows the Fuzzibunz before she’s potty trained, I will need to find more that are larger.

And the more research I do about newborns, the more I realize I do not have a realistic stash for him. Most diapering moms say that you need at least 24 diapers for newborns. I have 10 newborn diapers, plus the one size Fuzzibunz– which again most mamas have said that one size diapers usually don’t fit baby until they are around 10 pounds. Molly didn’t weigh that much for weeks… so I think I need some more extra small diapers.

Once baby reaches 10 plus pounds– I have enough. Until they outgrow the newborn diapers, and then I will need more again.

If I think about it too much, it gets overwhelming!

I’m choosing to tackle my diapering needs one by one as the budget allows. I know God will meet our needs and has blessed us so abundantly with so many so far– and I’ve only spent about $30!

I’m hoping to be able to nab some great deals at the Just Between Friends sale in Spokane in March as I’ve heard they sell LOTS of cloth diapers and supplies! I also regularly sign up for giveaways and check sales on websites. We will get to a full stash eventually.

All in all, I am excited about this journey and love that I’m saving my family money, throwing less trash away, and keeping away the skin irritations Molly has from disposables! Its worth it!

I was grateful that over the yard sale season, I had been thinking ahead and purchased Molly some things for extremely cheap! We also wanted to keep gifts small this year as soon we are going to need to fit TWO little people in a tiny room and have very little space for loads of toys.

I found this really fun Sesame Street felt board book at a yard sale for $2.50 back in June and set it aside for Christmas. All the little characters can be moved around from page to page; Molly loves it!

For stocking stuffers, I found these like new Dr. Suess books for $.50 each and again, she loves them! I also bought her a jump rope at the Dollar Tree and a chocolate Santa, and that was her stocking! Very little in it, but does a two year old need much more?

So in total on Molly, I spent $6.50! And she is so happy with her presents.

Why am I sharing this now after Christmas? Because I wanted to share how simple gifts can somehow mean the most. How less can truly be meaningful and memorable.

As you are picking up little items here and there on sale or at yard sales, I just thought it would be helpful to keep in mind the simple joy of a simple gift. Living contentedly with less is something to strive for year round, and not just at the holidays– a lesson I very much want to pass on to my little ones.

Tons of toys do not make you happy whether you are 45 or 5! Am I right?

Happy year round deal hunting!

One of my favorite things about this time of year is the opportunity to refocus– set goals, think about where I want to direct my energy and time, and challenge myself to do more.

Because we have a major life change coming just around the corner, (baby #2!) I’m keeping things simple this year.

Home and Family:

1. Potty train Molly.

2. Take a family vacation.

3. Take a kid free getaway with hubbie.

4. Have a baby. (Obvious, but a good goal!)

5. Try some new green living/diy ideas like homemade cleaners.

6. Intentionally schedule preschool for Molly once we’ve adjusted to baby.

Ministry:

1. Meet with my team 4-6 times this year to hang out and encourage one another.

2. Read through a book or two with my accountability group. (I’m hoping to read Grace for the Good Girl and Reshaping It All!)

3. Pray every Wednesday for additional help in our team.

Self:

1. Run a race of some sort. (After baby of course.) I’m not being picky about length of race; I have always wanted to run in a race and got so very close to this before I found out we were expecting.

2. Garden! Again, I don’t care in what capacity I pull this off. I must start somewhere!

3. Love my hubbie and kiddos intentionally. Enjoy the moments instead of cleaning and thinking about what’s next. Life is not a to-do list!

I think that’s it. I have a short list of diy projects I’d like to try like making detangler for Molly, toilet bowl cleaner, and detergent, but I’m not going to put pressure on myself to get those done– they will happen if I have the energy and time!

Here’s to a meaningful and full 2012!!

The pitter patter of little feet!

Molly showing off the outfit she picked for her BROTHER!

Counting the robots on brother’s shirt!

We are very excited to be welcoming a baby boy into our family! Yay!

I had to stop myself from panicking about the fact that Molly’s room is VERY pink and these two will be sharing a room. It can be overwhelming when gender neutral stuff isn’t common; all my blankets, burp rags, everything are pink! I think if I had purchased all our baby things, I would have tried to go gender neutral, but we were given almost everything as gifts or hand me downs!

I believe God will provide and I’ve already been planning out some simple changes to make the nursery more neutral, which I of course will share with you all.

As overwhelming as it is at first to learn that you have to re-do everything– I am way excited to have a FABULOUS reason to redecorate!!

If I don’t get back on here before Christmas, I wish you all a very MERRY CHRISTMAS! Blessings to you all!

Here she is in the first cloth diaper I put her in. She was actually pretty excited about it!

At this point, I have two Econobum diaper covers and inserts, and half a dozen Gerber prefolds, which I don’t really care for. I use them because they are what I have. I am really looking forward to two more Econobums arriving sometime this week!

I realize I am going to need WAY more than 4 covers and prefolds to diaper Molly through the week. As it stands, I am using cloth for a day, giving myself a day to wash and dry them, and then cloth diapering the next day. So I am able to use cloth every 2-3 days.

I figure I have reduced our disposable dependence by about 1/3. I’m okay with that at this point.

Last night, I was scouring the web looking for helpful reviews on diapers, and came across this website called allaboutclothdiapers.com. I was super pumped to read that she is having 12 days of Her Favorite Things Giveaways! Of course I will be entering for all the remaining days and hoping to win some free cloth diapers! I could SO use some more!

If you cloth diaper or are interested in what products other moms recommend, check out her posts!