Dance Recital 2011

Entegra performed in her first real dance recital.  She was absolutely adorable in her costumes.  She was kind of shy during her tap dance but still did her best at following.  Apparently, for the story line, she was suppose to be the shy one and one of the girls was supposed to keep grabbing her hand and leading Entegra, but she forgot.

 For her ballet routine, she did wonderful. She played a firefly and green princess.

Sorry about all the shaking in the videos.  We had Bracken and Inara at the recital as well and they made life interesting.

left to right:  Entegra, Samantha, Lucy

We celebrated by going out to ice cream after her tap performance on Friday night.  Let me just say ballerinas are such drama queens!

We love you, Entegra!  We're so proud of all the hard work you did practicing and memorizing your steps.
-Mom

Entegra is second green from the left

Bracken's 6 month old milestones

My baby Bracken is now 6 months old.  Just a day before we finalized the papers on our house.
He is so advanced, or at least I think so.  I'm very full of myself when it comes to my children's accomplishments.

Bracken is sitting up, rolling crazy like all over the floor, eating baby food, he has his two bottom front teeth, and he's practically crawling.  He loves to give hugs, that rip the skin off our necks, and kisses, which involve a lot of baby slobber.  He is my super cute boy.

I Love you Bracken!

-Mom

My Mother's Day 2011

Goodness I have a lot to say this month. : )

This year for Mother's Day Entegra was super excited to give me her gifts that she made.  She made an Entegra-flower-in-the-pot at preschool and a booklet describing me.  Saturday, Entegra and Inara both made a heart flower vase at Lowes.  They loved being allowed to use a hammer.

We had a great day.  I opened presents, we went to our new ward, and I was able to take a nap!!!  After dinner we went for a nice walk around our neighborhood and it was so peaceful.  We love our neighborhood.  Entegra was able to ride her scooter, and Inara rode her tricycle.  I carried Bracken in one of those frontal carrying units.  They all loved it.

Happy Mother's Day!
Love you Mom!
-Taryn

Our New Home

We are now, officially, home owners.  We just finished getting the last things out of the apartment and everything is all cleaned up.  It has taken us a little over a week to get everything out and cleaned.  It was a long and exhausting experience.
I packed, practically, everything myself and Benjamin took, practically, everything down to the truck all by himself, nearly busted his knee in the process.  My amazing Man must've got up and down those 3 flights of stairs 200 times.  I helped when I could and with some of the big things.  The kids did a great job at not getting in the way and not being too needy, that first day. They really were impressive.

We did eventually get help this last Thursday (Thank you SO MUCH, I don't know what we would've done with out your help!)

As with all newly acquired things there is always something that officially breaks it in and makes it your own.  Our story goes like this.  I was making pancakes in the kitchen while Benjamin comforted an upset baby Bracken.  Entegra was playing at the table with some toys and Inara...well, Inara was trying to help unpack.  There was an open box in the dinning room we were slowly unpacking.  Inara came into the kitchen and told me, "I burn, I burn."  She showed me her finger which looked fine and I didn't see how she could've burnt herself on the stove since I had been there the whole time and hadn't turned around at all.  However, I did smell something burning, but brushed it off as the pancakes (which tells you how often I burn pancakes.)  Ben walked into the dinning room and let out a huge "AAAHHHHHHHH!!"
As you can guess, Inara found matches in that one box and somehow managed to light one.  She dropped it on our new carpet which melted and now we have a 1 inch burnt/melted carpet spot to always remember our first week in our first home.
It could have been a lot worst.  There was the box she got the matches out of that had newspaper that could've burst into flames.  Or the pile of cardboard and newspapers two feet in the other direction.  I guess thankfully it was just on the carpet.  By the way, her finger is fine.

It is now the end of our first week in our new house and we've had many lovely experiences.  Inara lighting the carpet on fire, children screaming bloody murder because of a moth (Oh, I didn't tell you that one?  I will later), Benjamin pulverizing our front yard (that one too), and the killing of 4 freakishly large ants, 3 spiders, and 1 wasp.  But we love this house.  Walking down the hallway feels, right.  Our neighborhood is beautiful and serene.  The kids can actually ride their bikes.

It's great.  : )
-Taryn

The Great Cloth Diaper Change (for our family)

Thanks to thinking about it for a couple years and the information from a couple of friends, we decided to change to cloth diapers!  I know, I know...most of you are probably thinking "gross" or "eeeh" or maybe even "good for you".  Well, I agree with all.  To all the "eeeh" and "gross" peoples you should know cloth diapering isn't the way it was 20 years ago.  There are so many different types and things to make it easier...and the cutest covers.  Basically, it's WAY better for the environment, and better on the budget.

Did you know that techincally the "doo-doo" is supposed to be put in the toilet even with disposable diapers?!  Plus, it can take up to 500 years for a disposable diaper to decompose.  I just feel so bad about that type of stuff and there was a turning point that finally made it worth it.  It's called...a diaper sprayer.  Oh, and we have  well water so I can wash the diapers everyday, if I want, and it isn't going to cost me anything extra.

I'm now going to go on explaining how we (currently just me, Ben's still a little unsure) make it work.  So, if you already know or don't care, feel free to skip this part.

We use prefolds with snappis (the safer version of a diaper pin) and covers.  It was the cheapest option and that was the goal for now.  However, I would definatly suggest the all-in-ones.  They are soooo much easier.  Almost as easy as a disposable...almost.  The prefolds are a bit of a hassle and mess to deal with but thank goodness for that diaper sprayer.

So, I fold the prefold around the baby, fasten it with a snappi, and wrap on the cover.  It did take a couple of days for Bracken to get used to it, and for me since he keeps trying to scoot away.  And his butt was suddenly huge!  He doesn't fit the best into the size clothes he should be wearing.  

This is the diaper sprayer.  It's basically a kitchen
sink sprayer, but attached to the toilet.

This is the diaper cover.  The snaps are for adjusting the size.
Bracken can wear these from 6 months to 3 years old.

This is a pre-fold cloth diaper before it's
folded again to fit baby.

The snappi is on top of the pre-fold.  It has teeth that holds onto the fabric.

At night time I use a fleece inner liner to help it feel more dry and a hemp under liner to soak up the extra wetness.  He just wasn't sleeping very well the other way, it got too wet and uncomfortable.  He woke up way too many times and I was going nuts.  

Wet bags are also a great thing.  When going to the store and needing to change a diaper, I just put the wet or dirty one in the wet bag and take care of it a.s.a.p. after I get home, not a big deal.  I don't use a pail, I use a wet bag that hangs.  There is currently no smell in my house, which is very important.  It isn't worth it if it stinks.

Well, that's all for now.  Let me know if you have any questions.

-Taryn