Tue Sept 30

It's 8:43 and I am finally sitting down for the evening and it feels wonderful.

The rain is POURING outside, I finally get to have my doors open for it (because Maxson is not awake), listening to all the water on the pavement, feeling a slight breeze through my home and just enjoying rain. Oh how I love the rain. I wish it was warm rain like in Arizona that you could play in though, both Casey and I wanted to let Maxson go play in the rain but we were just worried he'd catch a cold because there was a slight chill in the air.

This morning I had a goal to count how many times Maxson said "No" in one day. From 7:30-9:45ish I counted approximately 175 "no's". I KID YOU NOT. The night before when I told Casey I wanted to try counting it I thought he may get up to 100-200 in the whole day, not 175 in just over 2 hours. I was flabbergasted. Is this only my child? And during this 2 hours time I didn't really say no to him because I was concentrated on counting. Oh my gosh CHILD!

Had a doctor's appt today. Baby B has now turned breech so hopefully next week he will be back to head down. I think she said twins can rotate positions until 34 or 36 weeks. the can deliver the second baby breech though, it's just important baby A stays head down!

I took a wonderful nap this afternoon. Oh how I love naps! I think I will strongly try for all 3 to nap together during Maxson's nap each day. It may keep my sanity.

Thank you everyone on your input about the cloth diapers vs disposable. You guys helped me realize that IT'S OK IF I DON'T ONLY CLOTH DIAPER. So I think I'll always use disposables with the twins and if I just feel like it now and again I can pull out the cloth diapers to rotate through with them.

Had the missionaries over for dinner tonight. We actually have 2 sets of missionaries in our ward, sisters and elders. So I feel like I feed the missionaries ALL THE TIME. I used to feed missionaries every week rotating between the two. It's gotten really hard for me so now I rotate every 3 weeks: sisters one week, elders the next week, then a by week. So 3 out of 4 weeks of the month we have the missionaries over for dinner. It really is good for our home to have them over so often.

So that was our day today: counting No's, Dr appt, nap, dinner with missionaries, rain.

What was your day like?

To cloth diaper or not to cloth diaper, that is the question.

Well, we are weeks away from having two more babies join our family. One question I get asked a ton is "So are you going to do cloth diapers?"

Here's the honest truth.

I don't know. I want to, but I do want to make life easy as dang possible on myself.

I'm a firm believer in not cloth diapering for at least the first 6 weeks, you just need to settle into motherhood/a new baby first. But after that I strongly support cloth diapering the first year if/when you are nursing, it's just SOOOOOOOO easy! It really is. So many pros: less expensive, little to no blowouts, soft cushion when they land on their bums, not continually forking out money on diapers. I really did love it with Maxson

On the other hand, I only had one child doing cloth diapers. I didn't have anyone else to worry about really. Max was my main concern, it was just so easy and made sense.

When Max was about 13 months old he began having weird reactions to the cloth diapers. It was really strange, I hadn't switched up my washing routine, the only thing that changed was that he stopped breast feeding. He began going through less diapers/day too. I soon after started to feel pretty yucky because I was pregnant and little excuses like this just kept coming up. So we stopped cloth diapering Maxson and it was fine. I didn't feel a pull to keep cloth diapering him. Once I began feeling better I started thinking about going back to cloth again with Max, but then I learned I was having twins and I was just too overwhelmed with the thought of that to start back up with Max. And then we went on vacation, and then I began having lots of contractions with too much activity, and then I got to be huge pregnant, and then and then and then. So that's cloth diapers with Maxson.

Again, we really loved that first year and wanted to do it again with our next. But then it was twins which would mean I'd have to buy practically a whole new stash of diapers to double my amount for two which would cancel out the awesome benefit that diapering my second child for the first year would be next to free. PLUS it's twins. I'm going to be spending so much time nursing and taking care of them and playing with Maxson and doing many more daily things for my family I think to myself "Do I want to have that one more item of needing to diaper laundry every couple days? If my laundry machine were on my level it may be different. But it's downstairs in the basement and I have to go all the way downstairs to just push a button to put it on the next wash session. I know, sounds lazy but it takes effort! (or maybe just because I'm SO pregnant right now I think it takes too much effort, ha)

So here's where I am.

Do I buy more cloth diapers and go for it with the twins? I'll be saving a lot of money that first year (I will need to fork out $200+ for 12 more diapers and new inserts for the diapers I already have used [inserts lose their absorbency after about 18 months] and soap for these diapers)

Do I sell what I have, cut my losses and just go full out disposable? I just don't want to deal with blowouts! But I completely admit, sometimes disposables are really convenient: you slap it on and when you take it off it's just thrown away never to be thought about again. I'll be spending anywhere from $75-$100 a month on diapers I bet though and there will be 3 of them in diapers for I don't know how long.

Do I do a little of half and half? It'll still save me some money, I won't have to commit to one way or the other. But will I resent the cloth diapers? Will I resent spending the money on disposables when I use those? Sometimes when you do things you just can't go halfsies, ya know?


Blah, I just can't decide.

I have decided that if I do end up doing cloth diapers I won't start until we get back from our Christmas vacation which will be mid January, so if you feel so inclined to donate to the Cutler twin cause size 1 diapers would be greatly appreciated wink wink ;)

Any opinions out there?

picturas de iFono

a. Some couples eat ice cream together at night, we eat chocolate cereal. Usually always cocoa pebbles, but on this occasion casey bought the chocolate  marshmallow matey's for himself.

b. Waking up from naps with books in hand

c. Gearing up for the ice bucket challenge. 

d. Park play.

a.-c. Children's Museum

d. Having a blast at Toys r Us

 a.-b. We found this bounce house at a garage sale for $50 and couldn't resist. Maxson has a BLAST on it as well as all the neighborhood kids. $50 well spent in our books

c. Child locks = parenting VICTORY

d. Table playing

 a.-b. Switched off temple sessions while watching Maxson at the Winter Quarter's temple.

c. Toddler bed completely FINISHED with all my wanted little details.

d. Playing ring around the rosie in the empty pool.

 a. Labor Day BBQ with friends, Casey played with the kids the whole time

b. SWIMMING! It was finally hot enough when we got back from our summer trips, we were very happy!

c. Lucky Casey always gets the rare occasions for Maxson to fall asleep on him.

d. Celebrating our little friend's birthday while playing with his new toys, ha.

 a.-d. Daddy came to the Children's Museum with us! (And pushed just as many buttons as Max did) They had a blast together (while I tried to sit a lot and watch)

 a. King of the bed.

b. Tractor watching.

c. tip: I don't make very many freezer meals but when I do, I line the bottom with tin foil so once it's frozen I can take the pan away and keep using my dish again.

d. mess maker (eggs)

 a. Baby boy bow ties!

b. Family guacamole party

c. Maxson is always very interested in my sewing

d. Trying to reach far lost toys

 a. More tractors, he LOVES watching these tractors. Sadly, they're not working by our house anymore

b.-c. Hot cocoa sharing

d. This cartoon has stayed up somewhere in all of our homes since 2010. Usually in the kitchen

 a.-d. We got to go to the Omaha zoo with our friends a couple weeks ago. It was so very fun! We nay saw a few exhibits because I can't last very long walking and little children's attention spans can't last long either. 

 a.-b. enchanted by the monkeys

d. Max took a 40 minute nap on the way home from the zoo and was wide awake but the time we got back. I on the other hand was DOG TIRED exhausted and dying for a nap. Frozen kept his attention for 15 minutes, enough time for me to at least get a quick power nap.

 a. Frozen peas for lunch

b. Proud momma to see this, HE finally put all the ducks in the pond himself!

c. Dental BBQ (annual lamb roast) that I didn't get to go to because I was sick.

d. The view of watching him struggle carrying the watering can to the garden will only be lasting a little bit longer sadly. It's so stinking cute though

 a. My to-do list is slowly disappearing, YAY!

b. September is/was busy for us. This probably doesn't look very busy compared to other families but for this family 3 and a very pregnant momma we've been ultra busy.

c. Lincoln biker gang

d. The Halloween aisle captivates Maxson

 a. He lugs the milk into the house torus after grocery shopping and it's hilarious.

b. I'm starting to eat A LOT of food these days. 2 sandwiches please.

c. Insisting he sit at the table to eat a meal for the second time in a row

d. one of the babies crawled under the car and ALL the children were very eager to watch.

 My pregnant belly table.

Applejack festival 2014

We made it out to the applejack festival once again this year and had a blast (remember how much fun we had last year?). When we got there in the morning it was raining cats and dogs and seemed like it may not let up. But we along with the friends we were with decided to brave the weather and just go for it knowing that the rain would make a fun memory right? Plus we had our umbrellas and had already driven the hour away, we were not going to be deterred. Also our really cool friend brought Apple Jacks to snack on for the car ride there which was excellent!

After looking around the barns for a good 30 minutes admiring the amazing fruit concotions of butters, syrups, sauces, and spices, it completely stopped raining, cleared up to some great blue skies and we went and had a grand old time!

 The first thing we insisted on doing once we got there was to pick up a box of these amazing apple cinnamon donuts. OH MY HECK. They are definitely on my list of all time favorite donuts. Casey made sure to pick up 8 or more different boxes to find the hottest one available. The were so dang scrumptious. I think there were nay 3 left in the box by the time we left and it was only Casey and I eating that dozen… I don't regret my decision one bit.

 We were brilliant this year in that we carried Maxson around in the ergo this year! We all loved it so very much for so many different reasons for this trip.

 Apple picking we go!
Well actually Casey and max along with our friends went apple picking because that was too much walking for me…

this picture was texted to me while they were apple picking. cat nap.

It wasn't until after probably almost 2 hours Max came out of that backpack and as soon as he did he began running down the apple aisle slipping in the mud, too funny. He just hung out there for a good 2 minutes for some reason.

 Both Casey and our friend, Ross, got some good arm/shoulder workouts holding up that 30+ pound child trying to get him to pick the perfect apple, ha.

 Max was real proud every time he got an apple down.

 Our friend decided to climb the tree himself to pick a huge batch of awesome apples, we were all laughing.

 Because of all the rain, the parking lot was a BEAST. (We got there early enough where we got to park IN the real parking lot, ha). These awesome volunteers were so muddy by the time we left helping push cars that were stuck out.

 Posed picture time :)

 You guys, my belly is huge. 31.5 weeks here.

It's obvious I love Maxi dresses while pregnant but sometimes they're length just gets TOO hot! Does anyone else knot them up?

 And these are our new friends, Ross and Aly. They are some pretty cool cats. We love new cougar friends.

The end.

family pictures 2014

Hiring out family pictures this year just didn't really work for us. But that was not going to stop me from getting something this fall. Sporadically last Saturday I told Casey, ok, hurry and get ready, we're going to to go take pictures! I was already in this dress and my hair had been done earlier in the day, it didn't look like it much anymore but I didn't care too much. I told what to go dress Maxson in and then I said to Casey "Ok, now go wear something that would look good with us." He amazed me and put himself together in a jiffy and we tromped out to the area! You see, family pictures don't have to be too stressful!

Casey has become such a gem when it comes time for pictures, I swear  he never complains, he totally knows exactly what I want from him in pictures, he's not shy in front of the camera, he plays with Max, he gives me different facial expressions, he's not always looking straight at the camera, he interacts with me and Max, he's just so great, I got a good one to be a photographer's husband.

Although these are blurry I like that because it reminds me of how much Max is constantly on the MOVE. Jumping or running, it never ends,

I love Casey's playful smile right here.

FYI- if you're wondering how we did these, for the ones with just myself or Max and myself I explicitly told Casey how I wanted photos: what I wanted the focus to be on, how to frame it, to give me options of being in the middle, on the side, cut off, zoom in/out/both he'd take about 15-20, I'd look through them and critique them if they weren't quite what I wanted and then we'd keep going and he'd keep being my photographer without a single complaint, oh man he was great. 

The ones of just him and Max, well those are easy, they just be themselves and I capture it while guiding Casey to turn this way or that for me to get a better picture, sometimes I give them prompts or suggestions but mostly that's just them. Between all these when Maxson wasn't cooperating is actually when we took his individual pictures surprisingly. He'd either be running around himself, me shooting away, being chased by Casey which made him so happy, or we'd convince him to sit or stand somewhere and Casey would stand behind me and do goofy things to get him to smile and laugh, and then he'd get up after about 10 pictures and start running around again. We were constantly changing up what we did to keep him entertained and occupied. 

For the ones of the 3 of us, I used my tripod and used the self timer to take 10 pictures at a time, try to frame it the best I could thinking of how I'd get in there, and just run in. The strange object (tripod) with the camera on it kept Maxson's attention enough for some of the pictures, we just made it work! I probably did that 5-6 times or so, all I was looking for was really 1-2 good ones and it worked! Yay for capturing pictures of our family of 3+2 on the way!