cougar love

we found this byu headband today in my hair stuff and were stoked when maxson let us put it on him.

stud or what?

ps- that 2nd picture is totally the epitome of my child: cute, but a little disheveled all around, belly sticking out, stains on shirt, thick looking (not fat, just dense-musclely looking, ha), and ROSEY cheeks!

go cougars!

picturas de iFono

a. bringing the snow into play. after 1 minute he looked at me in confusion and started crying hard…i think his hands were cold, ha
b. playing in the snow outside!
c. our week of freezingness
d. beginning to climb, and as of this morning he can crawl up onto the couch himself.

a. don't let spatulas fall to the bottom of your dishwasher. they will melt and your house will reek
b. we went to the mall to let the kids play on the little play place they have, all maxson wanted to do was play on the cars you have to pay quarters for to make move
c. tub time
d. lunch n play with friends

a. casey's birthday! at firehouse for his free sub
b. we went to the children's museum with a friend and maxson was in love with it all. if it had a steering wheel, you could bet your bum he wanted to be in that seat
c. mini ambulance
d. block building

a. he lounged on this chair on the stage for a good 15 minutes
b. our children's museum buddies
c. mesmerized by the marble contraption
d. how we spent valentine's (because i was questionable that day). feet up, socks on, olympics watching. so romantic ;)

a. the day after valentines i felt much better and we made heart shaped pancakes for breakfast
b. casey's first patient! we were both a little nervous, but casey did marvelous.
c. & d. maxson played with our cute neighbors while i was at my long 4 hour dentist appointment with casey

a. - d. it was CRAZY warm 1 day this week, it was utterly amazing, 60 degrees!!!!! we went to the park with friends and had a blast. i can't believe how independent maxson has become on the playground in a few months time, he is definitely a toddler.

a. - d. more park. side note: on our way to the park there was a news guy interviewing people on the trail, he asked me what i thought of the oddly warm weather (which i freaking loved). and that night i was on the news, i'm practically famous you guys.


and you guys, al i have left is december in the 2013 photo album, woot woot!

2014 SnapShot 1

so i'm kinda into blogging. i am on year SIX of blogging, crazy or what??? And in the past 6 years i average 15 posts a month, always, isn't that crazy? through years i find new fun, inspiring blogs to follow but i also go back through blogs i follow and ask myself "is this blog really inspiring me, is this blog valuable of my time?" sounds bratty, but it's true. kimber time is limited so i want it to be as high quality as i can get.

one of my all time favorite blogs i follow right now is 71toes. her life seems so different than mine right now, yet i know i'll be there in just a few years. mom of 5 tween-teenagers, living in arizona, renovating a new house, so crazy and active and busy outside of the home. but amidst all of that, she values motherhood and family life to the utmost priority, i just love it. i totally want to be her someday.

one of her recent posts was a "snapshot" of the year as of right now, she does it every year. i wish i had started this idea when i started my blog, but alas i did not. better to start late than never. i know i'm going to love looking back at these snapshots through all my future years just like she does hers! i also am going to do a mid year/summer snapshot since its so different then too. so here we go!:

I spend 90% of my time at home playing with maxson. that sentence sounds really boring but it's our stage right now and i love it, plus it's almost always FREEZING outside.

maxson is the most sporadic sleeper. never wakes up at the same time but always goes to bed around 8:30-9 in hopes that will give momma some opportunity to sleep in. sleep-in to me is 8 am. i do not function before 8 am with the utmost reason. so if max wakes up before 8 i try to send him downstairs with casey while he eats/gets ready in the morning. and then at 8 am casey calls to me to say he's leaving and that i should probably come down and supervise our child, or max comes back upstairs to my bed to terrorize me.

for breakfast max always eats a banana with either mini wheats/pancakes/waffles/oatmeal. i try to change it up. i'll make a big batch of pancakes/waffles and freeze them to use during the next month, i really like doing that instead of buying them pre-frozen. my breakfast varies from cereal to protein smoothies. 

sometimes i muster enough energy to work out in the mornings right after breakfast. if i put my work out clothes on right when i wake up this is often accomplished more easily. the days i workout i surprisingly have more energy to go through my day and accomplish more, it's great. it's just finding that energy in the first place sometimes. max is a trooper when i workout, seriously. he just watches me and smiles/laughs at my exercises, or walks around aimlessly around me, or kinda chases my feet while i move around, or if i'm on the ground doing push-ups/abs he gets on me to add resistance, we make a good team.

then usually i'll go bout cleaning the house. ideally i'd like the house spic and span clean every night, but more often than not we just don't do it. i don't completely mind waking up to tons of dishes to do though since the mornings is when i have my most energy to do house work anyways. so we clean up the house real good in the morning for it to last until lunch and i lose all my energy again. it's like the pride cycle but should be called the housework cycle.

most days casey is at school from 8-5 with a 1 hour lunch break at home at 12, i LOVE that lunch break, it usually recharges me and gets me through my day. sometimes he comes home earlier than 5 which is marvelous. he rides his bike to school in sun, rain, or snow or even with a boot on 1 foot. and since his 2 bikes were stolen last year, he bought the cheapest bike he could find that worked on craigslist, which turned out to be not a full sized adult bike, ha, he kinda looks massive on that bike. 

i think his feelings on school at this point are mixed. there's still lots of tests and quizzes at school which is taxing and difficult to go through multiple times every single darn week. but he also doing more hands-on actual dental work which is fun but also rough because at this point he feels inadequate. i know he'll be a great dentist in time, and it's just the learning process of learning a new skill. soon enough he'll be a champ at it.

the floor has to be swept about a thousand times a day and i've never vacuumed the carpet so much as i have now with a 1 year old.

i've been a cub scout leader for our church since we've moved here, which has been a great challenge. 9 year old boys are so strange, ha. it's a funny stage, but i've had fun planning activities for them. just last month i was called to be the 2nd counselor in the primary presidency (the children's organization) in our ward which has been so fun. i work with all the cute, funny, innocent, sweet kids in  our church, i also work along side some really stellar women i love. it is for sure going to be a fun ride. 

casey serves as the elder's quorum president in our ward and does such a wonderful job magnifying his calling. i don't think i ever understood that meaning until i watch him in this calling. it's awe-inspiring to watch what the priesthood does for families.

maxson eats so much food. he fully lives the law of consecration when it comes to food, actually he just wants you to live it. if you're eating food he practically demands that you share it, ha. he rules the roost for sure.

we've decided maxson has a really high pain tolerance. when you think he's going to flip out after slightly getting hurt he never does. when you think he's going to flip out after getting seriously hurt, he makes a sad face and cried for 5 seconds and is back for more action. yay for a tough child.

dishes are a never ending plague. one day children will help, right?

we get together with friends on the street pretty often, so lucky to be surrounded by quality people everywhere.

i should add pictures but i'm just lucky to get this posted!!!

mess maker

this was last week.

i came down stairs to find him covered in nesquick chocolate milk mix, covered.
i took it away asap to prevent  bigger mess but i should have left it for the picture, ha.

when he saw me his eyes got really big and he began shoving the powder into his mouth.

he was also trying to get his hand in the honey bottle that the lid had somehow come off of.

he brings joy to my heart.



on another note i made it through october of our 2013 photo album,
wahoooooooooooo!
i didn't work on it for a month but i'm determined to finish it by the time the olympics are over.

life chat

casey's darling cousin, brooke, is the host of utah's daytime show called studio 5 on ksl.

she just did a segment on their grandma and it was the cutest thing.

wish i had gotten to know this wonderful lady a little more, i was lucky enough to meet her a couple times.

it was fun learning more about her.
if you look real close you can spy some familiar faces in family photos!

team USA

can we all agree that slopestyle is the coolest event in the olympics?

men's. women's. snowboarding. skiing.

it's all sweet.

it's just trick after trick after trick.

huge air, big speed, high risk, no downtime,

it's a recipe for awesomeness

and it's a pretty cool sight to see 3 americans on the podium!

we get pretty into the olympics around here. 

if it's available online or on tv, you can bet it's on at our house.

we've had a couple of nights now that we've happened to have a crowd over while watching the olympics and it makes it super fun.

we realized this will be the only olympics we watch while here in nebraska.

and this is definitely a once in a lifetime feel for the olympics.

example: wednesday was casey's birthday (happy birthday my love!).

at 7 pm i texted everyone on our street to come over in 30 min to sing happy birthday and eat oreo cheesecake bites.

30 min later we had this crowd who ended up watching a bunch of the olympics too.

i don't think there will ever be another time in our life where i can text 8 other families on our street to come over and have 6 families show up kids and all on a weeknight.

these are the days to be remembered.

****

it's valentine's today!

our decorations have been up for a month now.

we've had lots of cute little valentines-y treats and activities thus far.

but sadly our day and evening will be spent at home due to a sick momma in this house recovering from last night.

glad it was me and not my baby boy.

i think our evening will include saltine crackers, sprite, olympics, snuggles, and maybe a chick flick in there.

happy valentine's day to you!

dear mom of 6

today we went to the children's museum. you went too with your 6 kids ages 2-10. we happened to pull up to the museum at the same time and park right next to each other. i followed your family to the front doors. i saw that the 3 older children all held hands in a line behind you. you had the 2 year old on your hip, and the other 2 children were holding hands and the 2 year old's foot to stay all connected. you 7 walked across 2 cross walks without you nagging the children to do this or that. from the looks of it, i think you were enjoying yourself.

we chatted on multiple occasions while inside the museum, maxson bumped into your kids and may have accidentally destroyed a few of their creations. your kids didn't get mad at him, and you didn't have to tell your kids how they should or should not behave. your kids didn't fight with each other or others. they didn't run off, all 6 kind of stayed in the same areas as they played. all your kids seemed like they were having so much fun. you looked like you were having so much fun too, unstressed.

how.

how do you do this?

how do you get from the point of mother of 1 needing to watch their every move to make sure they don't stick trash in their mouth, fight over toys, behave appropriately, not run off, and share toys to the point of leisurely watching 6 run around?

how do you teach them to behave so well? how do you stay patient? how do you teach them to be so kind? how do you enjoy activities unstressed? how do you find time to make sure they each feel deeply loved by you? how do you raise such well behaved, happy boys and girls all while keeping your cool?

i admire you mom of 6. i admire your parenting. i admire the fact that you home school. i admire your determination to provide fun learning opportunities for your kids. i admire your joy in raising 6 children. i admire your energy. i admire that you take care of yourself while taking care of them. i admire you.

dear mom of 6,

whatever you're doing don't stop. you are inspiring moms of 1 all around you.

an update on cloth diapers

last time i talked about cloth diapers, we had been using cloth diapers only about 1 month and were exclusively breast feeding.
here is an update!

**this first section was written back in october but never posted**

we have about 8 months of cloth diaper experience under our belts and here's what we've learned

1. for about a month i was really struggling with leaks during the day and the diaper had a really strong ammonia smell in them after he peed. stripping the diapers was the answer and worked pretty well. i put 1 tablespoon of blue original dawn dishsoap into a load of clean diapers and wash 1 full cycle, then i'll do 2-3 more rinse cycles to get all the extra soap out. i have to do this about once a month but it keeps the diapers absorbing really well and not smelly

2. cloth diapers DO leak and they CAN have blowouts. blowouts were far and few between and only minor though, seriously, nothing that was utterly awful and it only happened a handful of times probably due to poor diaper putting on skills. overall they're still way better than disposable i'd say because when we did travel and use disposable i definitely had more blowouts on those weeks. for leaks, if i change him every 3 hours i don't get leaks and we are set. there is only a set amount of liquid those inserts can absorb and once it reaches that point it will squeeze out when weight is applied, not cool so you gotta stay up on changing and stuff.

3. for a couple of months i definitely had problems and frustrations with a night time solution. no cloth stuff would work and he'd pee out of disposables even at night time. very very frustrating. once he stopped randomly waking up in the night time though, i think there was a little less pee and i was able to use 1 hemp insert wrapped in 1 thirsties pre fold. it seemed REALLY bulky at first but did the job and he wakes up dry now without a disposable, yay! i have 3 sets.

4. i don't know if it's because it's summer time and more hot in the rooms, but sometimes when we go in there the diapers in the diaper bag have that ammonia smell you get a wiff of just walking into the room. i think i may look into buying a trash can that has a lid i can that my diaper bag will attach into somehow so the smell will stay  a little more contained. our solution thus far has been to use air freshner, we bought one of those automatic ones from airwick and it actually has worked really well so when we go into his room it smells all freshy!

5. on the poop side. we haven't dealt with it much because we run maxson over to poop on the toilet when we can tell it's happening. he's a pretty consistent with his poop schedule so i don't usually use liners. if his schedule gets a little off and i'm not sure when he'll poop i do put a liner in the diaper just in case i don't catch his cues. if there's a liner in the diaper  the poop hits it correctly, it comes off so clean and there is honestly little to no effort involved, it's great. if there's not a liner on there it just depends, sometimes the poop comes off with no work involved, sometimes there's a little more work invoveld and to be honest, no it's not my favorite thing, but it could be worse

***NOW we have done cloth diapers for 1 solid year. he's 14 months old and doesn't breast feed at all. here are my thoughts***

1. sometimes i thought i'd do cloth diapers just the first year  because it would be harder after that, not the case. they are just as awesome now as they were the first year.

2. i have put 5 diapers away and only use 13 to rotate through still 3 night time usually because i do laundry at night. since he goes through less diapers a day, waiting that long to wash through them was making them stink more, with 13 diapers i wash like every 2 days or so and the smell doesn't get bad, we don't have to use air freshener in his room to cover smells

3. my first problem in the post above dealt with leaks during the day and trouble shooting them. i learned that all i had to do was double stuff the diapers during the day. so i put 1 med/large insert in and 1 small insert, both microfiber charlie bananas i got when i originally bought them. works like a charm and i RARELY get leaks and change him as normal as i do with disposable. i don't strip the diapers with the dawn dish soap on a regular basis anymore.

4. night times are bomb in cloth diapers now with my inserts. as i said earlier i use this insert wrapped up in this insert. i have 3 sets of night time inserts i can rotate through. they were definitely a little pricey to buy but they were MAGIC and can hold SOOOOO much pee, he leaked out of disposables all the time during christmas break but still hasn't in these. the 1 thing about hemp/bamboo inserts is they tend to strongly smell ammonia-y after night times.  i hear that's just the nature of natural fibers, once they're in the diaper laundry bag you don't smell them.

5. i do use diaper liners now. around 9-10 months he started getting mad when we'd put him on the toilet to go #2, so we stopped. the liners catch the poop pretty perfectly most of the time. he still poops on a consistent schedule so i just use 1 insert a day. i cut the inserts in half. we have started putting him on the toilet again every once and awhile for funnies and he's fine with it now so maybe we'll start doing that again! we've not gone through even half of the liner pack we originally bought.

6. i definitely have felt like i need a break from cloth diapers every 3 months or so and about every 3 months we go on vacation which makes us use diposable and yes it's a nice break, but after that week or so i'm always ready to get back to my cloth diapers. i love them for so many reasons.

7. i do put 1/2-1 cup of vinegar in the washes to combat the ammonia build up, it DEFINITELY helps tons doing this. i still use the same detergent as before. my wash cycles always vary depending on the load but for the most part i do 1-2 pre rinses in HOT water. 1 full wash cycle in HOT/COLD water with detergent and vinegar. 1 full wash cycle on HOT/COLD without any detergents. i then put all the inserts in the dryer and hang dry the outer shells. it's been working great.

8. in the past year maxson has gotten little to no diaper rashes. seriously it's been great. one time his little boy area got an infection due to little boys just being too curious and grabby down there, we switched to disposable for a week to help it go away with the special ointment given to us. pretty much what i've learned when it comes to ointments/creams and cloth diapers (for boys): if it's in the bum area cream it up, put a liner between the skin and diaper and you're good. if it's in the front area it's best to use a disposable for a day or two to help it go away completely (we always have a couple on hand due to trips). the liner in the front area doesn't allow it to heal enough.

9. when it comes to poop, it pretty much always stays contained, so that's great. the liner still does WONDERS in the diapers, seriously it makes clean up snazzy fast and un yucky 99% of the time. if ever for some reason the diaper is a messier clean up than usual i'll usually hold the diaper with the outside fabric touching (making sure my finger tips don't touch any yuckies) and kinda just dip the diaper in and out of the toilet until it all comes off. sometimes it only takes a few dunks, other times it takes more than a few, but it's really not bad. it is a cloth diaper after all...

10. IN SUMMARY. cloth diapers are still working grrrrreat for us still!

you can email or comments with any questions anytime!

triumphs of a 1 year old

finding that moms phone and the computer are in reachable distance and unused by momma

left: showing your friend people you see out the window
right: balancing in high places

left: looking borderline homeless as lunch is eaten
right: learning a new function on a toy you've had for almost a year

getting moms attention while she's cooking/doing dishes
(his new method of getting my attention is squeezing himself between my legs and the cabinet and then pushing with all his might for me to move away see picture on the left. he's surprisingly strong.)

getting the trumpet to make noises finally!
you have to blow while simultaneously pushhing down one of the buttons on top, pretty complicated i tell ya.

this isn't a triumph, more of a challenge.
but trying to keep your toy while stealing your friend's…

others to note:

finding your belly button.

taking baths

finding the locked cabinet left open by mom when she's not watching

a little bit of life lately

this week is bone chilling FREEZING. 

freezing as in when i look at my phone and it says 7 degrees i'm like "hey! look how warm it is!"

but last week there was a day that reached somewhere in the 30's i think with no wind in sight.

maxson and i went out and played and it was just so fun.

i miss just playing outside freely like that.
(his facial expression was the same in 99% of the pictures i took this day, ha)

look at those lashes in the second picture, oh my baby

i say "here, hold my hand" a lot because man oh man this boy is HEAVY!
now he reaches for my hand all the time

but then this week we got a big huge fun snow storm finally!
with that snow storm brought the oh so freezing weather though, it's so cold you don't even want to go play in the snow :(
first we brought the snow in to play with for a little bit.
then we ventured out!

do you see casey's trash bag to cover up his boot?
ha, i was laughing so hard at that.

our friends joined us during the storm too!
we have the tiniest and shortest of hills on one side of our building and used that to go down with the sled!

i made some delicious orange rolls last week with this recipe

and we're still making lots of pretzels these days!

Soft Pretzel Recipe
1 cup water
3 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 T sugar
2 T oil
1 package yeast (or 2 1/4 tsp)

put all the above ingredients in a bread machine in that order.
once complete, divide dough into 8 pieces.
roll out each piece long and skinny, about 16-18 inches maybe.
(i use only the smallest amount of flour when rolling these out, they don't really need it)
twist like the following:

dip top of pretzel in a small bowl of 1/2 cup water + 1/2 T baking soda.
season with coarse salt, let rise 20 min.
bake at 450 or 425 for 7-8 min (different temperatures almost give different types of pretzels).
onc they come out of the oven, take a cold stick of butter and "paint" the top of each pretzel.
enjoy with whatever pretzel dippings you like.

the more i've made them the easier they've gotten for sure!

ps- a friend shared this article on Facebook about reconsidering sleepovers.

what do you think about sleepovers for kids?

my thoughts and views on sleepovers has changed a lot within the last year.

picturas de iFono

a. messy baby
b. the most outer 6 inches of our table have to be clear of anything because maxson will snatch it right off. such a curious little boy.
c. cheerio mess…mmeh. i put this picture on IG with some sort of caption that said i wish i had a dog. most people commented with some sort of "silly maxson" comment. funny thing is, casey was the one who knocked the box off the fridge but internally i DID blame maxson for the mess, ha.
d. breakfast

a. laundry helper
b. serious faced boy stuffed in his carseat
c. made artichoke in the crockpot on sunday, turned out great!
d. finally had some orange colored juice instead of green (this one is 5 carrots, 1 orange, 8 clementines, 1 lemon)

a. his and hers pizza
b. casey is loving these electric scooters at stores lately, it's so funny. and maxson LOVES them too. he literally yells in retaliation reaching for the scooter when we take him off (did i mention casey has 2 fractures on his foot with his ligament stretched to the max and has to wear a boot for 6 weeks?)
c. cuddly baby
d. grocery shopping in the scooter, can't believe we fit it all in that basket! maxson apparently got bored of the scooter somehow

a & b. super bowl watching with friends
c. i showed maxson what the sewing machine does. it was fun to show him something new, but now he insists on being in my lap whenever i'm sewing, ha
d. that time maxson took an amazing long nap on my bed when i was sick

a. with casey's foot being in a boot for 6 weeks, i'm the main car driver now (he drives 99% of the time when we're together because i'm lazy). i often fall asleep on long car rides, now i know how he feels when i do that
b. men's priesthood/church meeting meant girl/child time at my house with some neighbors
c. a double yoke!
d. toymagedon/bookagedon.

today my throat still hurts but the rest of my body is overall feeling better thankfully.
it's been snowing since we got up so we shall see how long it lasts!
happy tuesday folks!

under the weather.

today i really wish maxson would focus/be distracted by a movie.

i woke up with a sore throat that's just been getting worse and worse. my lymph nodes are oober swollen, it'a hard to swallow and hurts, my body is overall a little achey, i have a borderline head ache, and by entire body feels like the energy is just depleted out of it. fun stuff, eh?

maxson hasn't been that needy today (probably because i'm not standing doing dishes/making food, ha). i've played with him a little here and there, i'm hoping he's not feeling the same way. through some tender mercy casey had a 2 hour break at lunch and during that time i soaked in a bath which helped a ton, he put maxson down for a nap at a 11:35 and i promptly began sleeping when i got out of the bath. i napped from about 12-1 where upon i was awakened by a maxson cry, i went in promptly to get him to find a snuggly baby who then slept beside me on my bed for another 2 hours. huge tender mercy there because a) he never naps that long (last night's lack of sleep on his part probably attributed to this) b) he never goes back to sleep after we've gotten him c) i don't remember the last time he fell asleep next to me on my bed. tender mercy of the lord i tell you. too bad i couldn't get anything productive done because a) his feet were dangling off the bed the whole time and i was afraid he'd fall off b) i was so timid laying next to him attempting to move, the last thing i wanted to happen was ME wake him up from moving. nonetheless, it was wonderful.

and now i'm sitting here on the couch feeling worse by the minute, counting down the minutes until casey gets home from school (we live a 3 minute bike ride away, it's wonderful), also waiting upon my saintly neighbor to return from the store with milk, bananas, and soup (and maybe some medicine if she finds any).

send good thoughts my way.

i shall leave you with pictures of a delectable fruit pizza i made a couple weeks ago at a baby shower. i used this recipe for the crust and this recipe for the frosting. i also dipped the bananas in lemon water so they wouldn't brown. it was delicious.