It started with just rose bushes

This is part of the front of our 1920 house...

See those nasty green bushes under our dining room window?  I really, really, really dislike those bushes.  It doesn't matter whose house they're at.  Those types of bushes are ugly and I think date a house and make it look ugly too.  Not to mention they are spider traps, as some people call them.  Thank heavens I haven't seen too many in there!  

My dream is to have those bushes gone and to replace them with some knockout rosebushes!  It will look so pretty and be so fragrant.  

My dream is coming true today!

Todd rented a digger to pull these bushes and some others on the right side of our house.  We are also jack hammering all the concrete out of our backyard (it currently looks like a very large kennel) so we can have some grass and do a little planting and purtying up back there.  

That's our friend Ken giving Todd, who is in the digger, the sign to start pulling.  Adios, bush!

Rosie and I watched from the dining room window as one by one the nasty bushes were ripped up.  

Then they were loaded on the big flat bed to be hauled to the dump in exchange for some mulch.

Then, the next thing I know, the front of our house looks like this...

Now, we are replacing those little windows that look in to the large guest room downstairs with new windows.  Oh, and we're tarring the foundation to help protect it from cracking and leaking.  Our house was built in 1920, after all.

There is, well, now was, a little sidewalk to the left of the house that didn't really make sense.  Todd wanted it gone, so he, Ken and another friend Joe jack hammered it out and loaded all the concrete on the flat bed too.  

That's Ken jack hammering.  That's Todd's gloved hand explaining to me what's going to happen.  You can kind of see where the old sidewalk was to the right of the lilac bushes.  Where Ken is jack hammering we are also now putting an egress window to the guest bedroom, which has two little windows on the side where Ken is standing.

This is Joe.  See those scrawny bushes lying there?  We were just going to yank those too, because one is dead and the other is part dead and they make me nuts.  This is the right side of our house under the sunroom. I want to put big, blue hydrangeas around this corner of the house.  In fact, there are two already there that I planted last summer.  Todd's plan is to now dig out that whole corner and fix a few cracks as well as tar the foundation here, too.     

Our house is going to look so good when it's all done, both inside and out!  I can't wait to have pretty flowers versus dead or nasty bushes.  I seriously can't wait for grass in the back yard either!  

This is how an old house works.  You want one project done and get four more to boot.  In the end, though, this house will be a neighborhood contender.  

Sew, sew

You don't have to know me too well to know I don't sew.  

There was a time, when I was very young, that I had an interest in sewing.  I made beds and pillows for my Barbies.  I tried making them clothes.  All of this was by hand and not with a machine.  My interest in sewing ended abruptly when I was in fifth grade the night before the 4-H fair.  

My mom, who was our 4-H leader, and I decided a good project would be to take apart an "Amish" quilt square I had made for my Indiana history segment.  (We are originally from there.)  

The stress of doing the project the night before, trying to "tighten" up my poor stitches, getting the gol durn thread through the eye of the needle (to this day that makes me antsy; I will not be cross stitching any time soon.) all lead to a massive melt down where I stormed away from the project.  I never looked back on sewing again.

In recent years, a desire to wear some original clothing and not look like a department store clone made me wish I wanted to sew.  Not enough to do anything about it, though.  

When I was pregnant, I think the nesting urge really reared sewing's head inside me.  I wanted a multi-tiered ruffled crib skirt, but the prices for those things on Etsy are appalling!  Come on...$300+ for a crib skirt?  Can't I make my own?  While that story is one within itself, the answer was yes, I could; and I partially did (with the help of two other girls who know what they're doing).  

 I also made Rosie's name on a banner for above her bed.  I was quite pleased with myself.  To have someone on Etsy do personalized banners is, again, ridiculously priced.  

We are also renovating our 1920 home, as many know, and we need curtains and pillows.  My mom made our dining room curtains, but I feel this is something I should be able to work on after Rosie goes to bed and we're watching The Voice.  

What has really pushed the sewing urge over the edge is the Boden Kids catalog.  Their clothing is sooooo cute, and sooooo overpriced for a child!  I can NOT justify $35 for a romper my daughter will be out of in three months.  She would have to wear it nearly every day for me to feel like I got my money's worth.

Boden's kids clothes are pretty simple, actually.  It's the material and the patterns and how they pair things that makes their stuff so crazy cute.  I flip through their catalog and think, "How difficult can that be to make?!"

Take these shirts on the left that I love!  They're so simple looking, yet, $34?!

So, here I find myself, roughly 25 years after walking away from sewing, about to sign up for a sewing class with a new sewing machine waiting to be used!  

I can't wait!  I hope it goes smoothly and that I like it.  I have visions of Rosie being the cutest dressed toddler on the playground due to her mama's handy work.  

The alternative is she'll look like a ragamuffin.  In which case, I'll start seriously perusing Boden's clearance page.  

Baby crack

Baby crack is what Todd and I call these fruit and veggie pouches...

We call them that because Rosie can't get enough.  She wants them.  She neeeeeds them.  She has to have them!  

The first time I saw these things, my friend's daughter was drinking one.  I thought, why not just give your daughter a bite of whatever fruit was in the pouch?  She was old enough to eat bites of food, after all.  It sounds like I said that comment to myself in a snarky way.  I really don't think I did.  I just wondered at the purpose of the pouch.

It turns out, my friend is having trouble getting their daughter to eat veggies.   That's all these pouches are: blended fruit and veggie purees.  You can get them with yogurt, grains, and some are even like meals.  We haven't gone the meal route.  We have done the yogurt pouches though, especially since Rosie isn't taking bottles during the day anymore.  I figure they are a good source of calcium.  

I can't even begin to guess how much money we have dropped on these things since we've discovered them.  Rosemary will freak out for one.  She will throw a fit in the pouch aisle at the store if she's shopping with me and I have to replenish our stock.  

And you know what?  I willingly toss one her way.  Because she's freaking out for fruits and vegetables!  Not candy, or cookies, or other sweets.  I'll let her eat us out of house and home with these things.  

And she basically is.  

Just Beet It

I hate beets.

I loathe them.

Thankfully, so does Todd!  We're pretty much on the same page when it comes to our likes and dislikes with food.  Except he doesn't like yellow mustard and I don't know what planet he comes from. 

Beets, ESPECIALLY the pickled kind, are gross!  Blood mixed in dirt.  That is what I feel I may as well be eating when I taste a beet - which does not happen often.

What I do like is Red Velvet Cake.  I just don't like the red food coloring in it.  For a long, long time I have contemplated using a recipe for Red Velvet Cake that calls for beets as the coloring.  I have been very hesitant because the thought of chocolatey tasting beets is even more gross than a regular beet; but last week I took the bull by the horns. 

Since it was Valentine's Day last week, it was the perfect excuse for baking up Red Velvet Cake.  I wanted to make cupcakes for Rosie to take to daycare for their little party.  

I opened up the recipe for an all natural Red Velvet Cake I had pinned.  

I bought beets.  

This was only the second time I have ever bought them.  The first time was at a farmers market because I wanted to see if I liked the greens roasted and tossed with blue cheese, a recipe I found in a magazine some time ago.

I do not.  

The only redeeming thing beets have going for them is their color.  It is gorgeous.  

I roasted the beets per the recipe, then pureed them and mixed them up.  

THIS is what happened to the batter!

It's perfectly red!  I was completely thrilled!

Now, the batter did have a very slight essence of beet, but it wasn't super terrible.  I wonder if I noticed it because I knew it was in there?  

Interestingly, the baked cupcake had even less of a beet essence, but it was still there.  In the finished cupcake, the cream cheese frosting largely masked it, but I could still taste it and I decided, after going back and forth between liking them and not liking them, that I didn't like them.

Todd tasted the frosted cupcake and said he really couldn't taste it until the end.  That confirmed my  decision to keep searching for a natural Red Velvet Cake recipe.  Who wants the finishing taste of a bite of cake to be beet-ish?

All in all, I am impressed with the color and how magically red it was.  It was perfect.  

I'm sure most people may not mind the taste, but I ultimately couldn't hack it.  It's not BAD.  Just not to MY liking.  I would recommend the cake to others who aren't as grossed out by beets as I am.  

   

Everything But the Hummingbird

My friend Jonna got me this fun cookbook called "sugar, sugar" where every recipe has a story.

They are all old fashioned recipes - things your grandma would make to take to a church picnic or fix when company was coming.

I haven't made many things from it yet, but there is one cake I've made twice - and will likely keep making given the response I've received from it.

It's called Hummingbird Cake.  Nobody seems to know how it came to be called that, but the Joy of Baking online speculates, "it does seem plausible that it may have something to do with how sugary rich this cake is - just like the nectar that Hummingbirds love to feed on."

Sugary rich is the best way to describe it.  It's too much for me to have more than a bite, but it has received rave reviews from others who have eaten one or more large slices.  My friend Linda all but cussed me out at church once after I gave her family half of the cake, of which she swears she ate most of and accused me of ruining her diet. haha!  On top of that, I just recently had a total stranger at a BB-Q tell me it was the best cake he's ever had!

This is what's left after the BB-Q.  It makes one three-layer cake.  It's quite the looker (though not quite so much anymore after being hacked into at a BB-Q)!

CAKE (ingredients only slightly altered to reflect Bakerella's recipe)
3 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla
8 oz. can of crushed pineapple, liquid included
2 cups chopped ripe bananas
2 cups  pecans, chopped and toasted (I omit these because I don't like nuts in sweet things.)

FROSTING
16 oz cream cheese
1 cup butter
2 teaspoons vanilla
32 oz.  confectioner's sugar

Instructions
To make the cake: Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease and flour 3 9-inch cake pans.

If using nuts: Prepare toasted pecans. Chop pecans in small pieces and place on a parchment covered baking sheet. Bake for 5 minutes and keeping your eye on them so they don't burn. Set aside and let cool.

Whisk together flour, soda, salt, sugar and cinnamon in a large bowl.

Place the sugar and oil in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment.  Mix on low speed for about 1 minute, until blended.

Add eggs, one at a time, on low speed, blending well before the next egg.

Add the vanilla and blend.

Add the flour mixture one half at a time, mixing on low speed until the dry ingredients are moistened.

Add the pineapple, nuts (optional), and the bananas and stir with a spatula or wooden spoon until just combined.

Spread batter evenly among cake pans and bake for 22-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Remove and let cool.

For the frosting: In a mixer, beat butter and cream cheese until smooth and creamy. Add vanilla and beat until incorporated. Add confectioner's sugar. Scrape down the sides of the mixer bowl often.

To assemble: Place first layer rounded-side down and spread frosting on top with an offset spatula. Continue with the remaining two layers and then frost the sides. Store in fridge.

Hidden horrors exposed

Before I was a mom, I used to look at the highchairs of friends' children in bewilderment.

It looked mostly clean, but there were always dried bits of food clinging to the pad and crumbs jammed in the nooks and crannies.  It looked like a slightly less than appetizing, let alone healthy, place to eat.  

"I don't understand!" I would cry internally.  "These are clean people!  How is that chair not clean??"    

Now that I have my own little solid-food eater, I get it. 

It is just not possible - or reasonable - to wash that pad after each feeding.  What it is, is inevitable that the pad is going to get dirty.  Really dirty.

We wash her tray clean after each meal and that's what really counts.  That's what food meant for her mouth is going to touch before going in, so I take care to wash it well.  

The crumbs on the seat will get brushed off, but likely not until the end of the day.  This means I only have to do that activity once versus three times a day.  

My old before-motherhood self would ask, how hard is it to brush crumbs off after each meal?  You wouldn't think too difficult, right?  But consider: Rosie eats, then gets cleaned up in the chair, then gets picked up out of the chair (which means my hands are full) and taken to play or many times to go down for a nap.  At that point I get back to my full-time job, or if it's the weekend, to the 1.1 million things I have on my to do list.  

Brushing off crumbs is low on the totem pole until the end of the day when I'm finishing tidying up.

So, I get it now.  And I apologize to all my friend and family moms who I silently judged for not having a sparkling place for their kids to eat.  

   

So much

So much, soooooo much has happened since my last post!

Here's a synopsis:

We went to my old stomping grounds, Washington, D.C.!  Here are some highlights:

My favorite monument...

Sitting with mama in her old chair.  Might we have a future press secretary in the works...?

Sitting in my old boss, Sen. Enzi's chair...

On a tour of the Capitol building.  Here we are in the Rotunda...

Highlight number 2?  We bought a new couch!  FINALLY!  The couch I bought after moving back from D.C., was in pretty shabby shape.  I hadn't anticipated a husband, two black labs and a baby when I purchased it.  Now we have the couch we want: leather, nail heads, sophisticated, not shabby...

Doesn't it look like it's always belonged here?  I was sad to see the old couch go, I admit.  It was a sleeper and I firmly believe we need one of those with the visitors we get.  But Todd didn't want to try to jam it downstairs, and let's face it, it was in poor condition, so to the dump it went.

We went to Wisconsin!  And Rosie and her cousins in Omaha got to meet for the first time!

But first, we hung out with Great Grandma Kittel and Grandma Kittel...

Rosie ate in a high chair at a restaurant for the first time...

We ate lunch with Paul Bunyon and Babe...

Met Great Aunt Barbara...

And second cousin Kim...

Then on to the cousins!  Tess, Owen and Judd meeting Rosie for the first time...

Hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa Sears...

We cheered Raymond on at his all-star baseball game...

All the cousins together!

There's more, but this gives you a pretty good idea.

Sunshine and sunbonnets

We have been sooooo cooped up...

But no more!  Nice weather is here and I think it's here to stay!

What a gorgeous weekend we had!  Finally, finally, we have been able to spend some real, solid time outside.  Sure, there have been walks, runs, a handful of nice days here and there, but this weekend was the start to some serious outdoor time.

I made sure Rosie spent basically as much time outside as I did.  Since her arrival in November, I can pretty confidently say she knows exactly what each of the rooms in our house is like.  She's seen it all!  It's time she started learning about the great outdoors.

I found her a couple cute new sun hats over the weekend and Saturday afternoon she donned one of them and helped me plant some flowers...

Are you familiar with Sunbonnet Sue?  The old quilt pattern?  I have a Sunbonnet Sue quilt from when I was a little girl.  I think Rosie looks like a Sunbonnet Sue in the photo above.  Compare Rosie to the pattern here...

I also think it's quite appropriate that Rosie is playing with her giant ladybug while helping her mama garden!

Here she is modeling her new, cute hat...

We didn't spend as much time outside today.  She did, however, get some experience with lying in the grass.  She seemed to really love it.  She stayed very still and relaxed for quite some time.  I love how loung-y she looks...

Her legs, which are ALWAYS moving, were still - for several minutes...

Todd said I needed to move her around so she could mow the yard...

The poor dogs have been particularly cooped up.  They've done a number on our yard - brown spots, dead spots, bald spots - and Todd has worked hard to try to fix it.  This means the dogs have been quarantined to the house or the back "yard" which they hate.  Yard is in quotes because in its current state it can hardly be considered a yard.  It's just concrete.  No wonder they hate going back there and love to lounge like this instead.  Oh, Lulu...

Not to be outdone, here's Rigby posing for his lounge lizard shot...

Everyone is enjoying our nice weather!  

Big girl food

Rosie is getting to be such a big girl!

We've started experimenting with something more than formula and oatmeal.

First up on the menu...peaches!

I loved watching Rosie's first tastes of the food.  You could just see the wheels turning, taking note of the taste, texture and overall experience of something different.  She sits in her bouncy chair while I'm in the kitchen cooking and I will bring foods to her nose to smell.  She has always stopped what she's doing to really smell what I put in front of her.  I'm hoping this will somehow make her an open-minded eater!  

I've read when starting new foods you should only offer one kind for at least three days to see how your baby does with it.  In three days we successfully finished one container of peaches and she started to act like she really loved them.  Yesterday, she began taking my hand with the spoon in it and directing it toward her mouth.  Today, with daddy, she had a death grip on the spoon, not wanting him to take it out of her mouth long enough to get another scoop!  

Next up are sweet potatoes.  If liking a food is at all based on what the baby's mom ate while pregnant, then Rosie should go bonkers for sweet potatoes.  I couldn't seem to get enough of them when I was pregnant!  

For these first experimental bites I've used the go-to Gerber foods.  In the future, however, I have aspirations of making a lot of Rosie's baby food myself and have already read through one yummy sounding cookbook we received as a baby gift.  It doesn't seem that difficult, but we'll see!  

Cloth diapering adventures have officially begun!

Our cloth diapers arrived Saturday!

I know in my previous post about our cloth diaper trial period we were quite decided on the hybrid style of diaper.  After much research on the different styles and brands we thought we really had it boiled down.

I was about to make the call to the store in Colorado to place our order when a friend told me to check out a Wyoming cloth diaper company.  I had no idea one even existed!

Out of curiosity, I looked up Baby Beduga in Pinedale, Wyo.  The company is owned by Crystal, a stay-at-home mom who believes strongly in cloth diapering and wants to make it affordable for other families to do so too.

Hers are a pocket style diaper and are one of the styles we had initially decided against.  The absorbent pad slides down the pocket in the back of the diaper.  We had opted against this style for no other reason, really, than we ultimately thought hybrids would be easier and cheaper.

We thought that until we saw her prices.  They are crazy low!  And by that I mean they are half the price of other popular brands.  Example: Rumparooz, a mainstream pocket diaper, sells for about $25/diaper and includes one insert.  Baby Beduga? Plain colored diapers are $7.99 and printed ones are $9.10!  They also include an insert.

My eyes about popped out of my head when I saw those numbers!

The low price automatically made me think they must be of lesser quality, so I did some Googling.  They have been reviewed on several "mommy blogs" and the consensus is nothing short of rave.

We ordered one to see for ourselves and discovered we really liked it! The snaps seem to be spaced appropriately for easy adjustment as Rosie grows.

The material is good quality as is the stitching.

Rosie christened the trial diaper with a big poo right off the bat, so we got to see right away how they clean up.  The diaper rinsed easily and didn't stain.  A good sign.

While it wasn't the style we wanted we were willing to go a different direction for the price.  Not to mention she is a Wyoming company and I like to patronize local small businesses.

We bought an assortment of solid colored and printed diapers.  Crystal has some diapers made of a minky material, which I was on the fence about, leaning toward not wanting them.  After talking about it on the phone she surprised us by nicely throwing in the cow print minky diaper for us to try.  It's really, really soft and I see Rosie wearing it mostly during days around the house where she won't have something on over a diaper.

I did buy one white solid colored one, which seems daring for a cloth diaper, right?  The thought was, it would be nice to have for under dresses when we might not want a bright diaper showing.

Here are the cute printed diapers we ordered.  Aren't they ADORABLE??

We got all of this - 19 diapers (we already had the one trial), 20 additional inserts, one wet bag for the nursery (the orange-y yellow bag), and one wet bag for the diaper bag (the pink bag) - all for slightly less than half of what we would have paid for the hybrid brand we were going to order.

Amazing.

To be fair, all of my initial assessments are based on a couple wears and washes.  I'll update a little later on how things are going and holding up.  I have confidence, though, that we made a great and economical decision and so far would recommend Baby Beduga to others!