Money Savy or Hippie?

Lately I have been toying with the idea of using cloth diapers rather than disposables. Actually I think I will use a combination of the two. No, not two diapers at a time! I mean I will use cloth diapers unless I am traveling, which is where the disposables would be much more convenient and practical.

What prompted this train of thought? I found this great blog The Cloth Diaper Whisperer and have also read great things on a few other blogs. I really would rather spend $300-$500 on cloth diapers and the stuff that goes with them and be able to use those for every one of my children, than spend $2500-$3000 on disposable diapers for each child! I go back and forth between really wanting to just do disposable, and not worry about the hassle of learning how to use cloth, and really wanting to use cloth because it will save SO much money!
**for all the pictures, just click on them to enlarge them a bit!**

After just a couple weeks of looking around, I really like the bumGenius cloth diapers.


This is their newest diaper with snaps that adjust the diaper to fit the child for quite a while!

This is their all-in-one diaper, which doesn't require absorbent inserts like the one above....but you have to buy more as the baby grows


They also sell flannel wipes, that you wash and re-use! That will save a bunch of money as well!


And they come in all these cute colors!

A couple other brands that I like so far are:

Rock Mountain one-size

Gro Baby One-size (I really like these ones, and hope I can find them for sale soon!)

The Dream-Eze all in one - Here is another one that comes in progressive sizes.

To my surprise, these diapers are cheaper than I thought they were going to be! I was imagining us paying $25-$30 per diaper, but the most expensive one above is just $19! I know that sounds like a lot for 1 diaper, but I could feasibly get by for my child's whole life with roughly dozen of them total! Hopefully I can decide to stick with the cloth ones once they get all gross and I am having to clean them. I figure it is all part of life, and I can probably get used to it. Lol, we shall see!

Spring Photos

Everything is so warm here today! The boys have been outside a lot today with me, so I decided to take some pictures.

Patriot, forever looking for apples on the ground

Hobbs chewing a stick and playing with his ball at the same time

He was racing around with bark and sticks in his mouth.....


Here is a close-up of his scary face!

Basking in the sun.....how did he get so grey?!?


He really doesn't appreciate close-up pictures!

Hobbs' version of "basking" in the sun

Almost daily I find myself wondering what I did to deserve the best two dogs in the world. It makes me sad that Patriot is slowing down and getting older. They are practically perfect all the time.....except when the doorbell rings. I am nervous that they are going to be neglected when little Kaylee gets here. I hope we find a way to make some time for them, so they don't feel left out. I really hope Hobbs doesn't hate the "horrible screaming monster" that is going to live in his house permanently....lol he is just going to have to get over his.....umm, strong dislike.....of screaming children.

She is really in there!!

So after waiting to feel my little one for the past 9 weeks, she decided to let me know she really is in there! Last night around probably 9:30, I was sitting with my laptop kind of resting on my lap, but one edge of it was pressing into by belly. I felt a little flick on my left side, just below and to the left of my belly button. I waited to see if it was gas, but then there were three or four "flicks" in roughly the same place. They were kind of a mix between the flick of a finger on the inside, and a muscle twitch. I am so hoping it really was our little girl, and not just an actual muscle twitch. I can't wait to feel her all the time!

As for her name, it looks like for now we are going with Kaylee Ann Ricks! Thanks to everyone who voted on the poll.

Reward and Weaves

Hobbs is officially signed up for his very first agility seminar! I found an affordable one that is just one day, and covers rewards and motivating your dog as well as weave poles. The seminar/workshop is in Nunn Colorado, so it will be quite the drive but Robert wants to come with us if he is home. It is in April so it will be a bit warmer than it is now. I figure that by then I wont be too huge and even if I am, there shouldn't be too much running.

I am really excited about both, because sometimes Hobbs is hard to motivate without food. His weaves are good in my weave-a-matics, but he usually gets intimidated by the upright weaves and shuts down. That is one thing I don't want to have to worry about when we start trialing. I want a dog who loves to weave and is good at it! Pretty soon I will have a weaving monster!!

Another one down!

As of today, I am 1 week away from my halfway point! I am also about 16 days away from getting to see my little girl again! I have been feeling good lately. I am almost 100% sure I felt her move last night, but it was just one little bump. I can't wait to feel her all the time! Last week I got my first pair of maternity jeans, and they are amazing!! I really need to go get some more, along with a few shirts and sunday clothes. My mom gave me a small stack of little dresses that I wore as a baby including my blessing dress! Hopefully our little girl fits into it! She also gave me a couple little blankets that I remember having when we were little children. It was wonderful going through the memories of all her baby stuff. She gave me my baby memory book, and I am planning to go buy a similar one (if I can find one) for our little girl.

• Weight: 162.4
• Waist: 37"
• TP square measurement: 9 3/4 sq
• Bra size: Maternity Large
• Sleeping Schedule: Go to Bed @ 10:00-10:30pm and wake up @ 7:00-7:30am
• Exercise Schedule: 60 minute walk with the dogs 2-3 days, 2 mile walk on treadmill 2 days, 2 hour hike with the dogs 1 days, strength/balance exercises on fitness ball 3 days
  

Week 19

Robert has been gone lately doing jobs in Wyoming. It has been hard having him gone so much, but I have to get used to it for when he is in Alaska for two weeks at a time. We still haven't heard what exact days he is going to be there, but hopefully they give us a few days notice rather than just springing it on us.I am glad that i have been feeling so good lately. Well besides yesterday and today when I was sick. I hear of so many expecting moms who are miserable for one reason or another. Luckly I am not one of them!

Back on Track

Well, after half a day of work, I think I have all of my old links and some new ones! If you know that I was linked to your blog, and don't see it listed on the side of my blog please let me know!

As for the boys, they are getting restless because we are having some warm weather. I am pretty sure they have spring fever just as badly as I do! Maybe they don't, and they are just picking up on my spring fever. I was very happy that it wasn't pouring rain this morning and was going to bundle up and walk them. Little did I know that I would wake up on the verge of getting a cold. Now I am debating whether or not I should go walk, or rest. I really feel bad for the boys when they can't go out on a nice warm day, but I don't want to over exert myself and end up sick as a dog tomorrow. So we may play some Agility and learn some tricks to try to get some of their energy out. I really wish there was an open dog park near by to take them to then I could just sit and be sick while they play....but the one here doesn't open until April 1st :(

WHAT DID I JUST DO?!?!?!?!

So I changed my blog address.......and blogger chose to erase ALL OF MY BLOG LINKS!!!! Any blog that I wasn't actually "following" I have to go track down again!! I am beyond angry, and really, really, really, really, REALLY am not looking forward to completely re compiling my list of blogs. AGH, so if I was reading and commenting on your blog on a regular basis and have suddenly stopped, its because I don't have the link anymore!

I have a tiny little hope that blogger is just being retarded, and all my links will be there tomorrow......but I am not hopeful.

Temple Visit

Robert and I went down to Draper last night to meet up with my family. We all went through the Draper temple open house, which was wonderful!

For any non LDS people who read my blog, here is a little explanation of what a temple open house is. LDS Temples are very sacred and the only people allowed to go in are those who are spiritually worthy, and have been approved by a leader of the church. When a new temple is built, the church has a period, after completion and before it is dedicated, where anyone who wants to can basically go on a guided walk-through. This "open house" is so people can feel the spirit of the temple, and learn a little bit about temples. After the open house, the Temple is dedicated by the president of the church as a sacred building.

The Draper temple seems to be a little smaller than the other two temples in the valley, but I may have just been imagining it. It was a LONG walk through some heated tents before we got into the temple. It was nice though because we got to talk to family, before we had to be basically silent while walking through the temple. There were a ton of people going through at the same time which got a bit claustrophobic at some points. The rooms were all so beautiful! Here are some pictures.

The baptismal font

The Sealing Room

The Celestial Room

The ceiling in the Celestial Room

After we were through the temple we all went to ColdStone for ice cream. It was really good to be around my family, and my sister's new fiance! They are really cute together, and are getting married in May!

New Blog Name

For a while now, ok sense Hobbs was CC'd, I have needed to change the title of this blog. I can't seem to come up with anything cute though. So I am going to ask for some ideas! It doesn't have to have anything to do with CC'd dogs in the title, but I do want something about labs in it. Please make some suggestions! The only thing I can come up with is "Lovin Labs" which isn't very creative lol!

I may also be changing the actual site address as well, but everyone will know where to go when/if that happens.

Only 150 Days Left!

I just thought I would point out that our little girl (see the poll on the right) will be here in roughly 150 days!!! And in 19 days, I get to see her again! I am going to ask the ultrasound tech to check to see if it is still a girl, because I still feel like it is a boy!

I found this blog where this woman was told by the doctor that she was having a little girl, and then lo and behold she had a little boy!! Just click on the THIS in the first post. In her blog she says that she always had a nagging feeling it wasn't really a girl, and it turns out it wasn't! Craziness!!

I went to visit my friend Kalynne last night and got to hold her little girl Reagan! I can't believe how tiny a two week old baby is! I don't have very much.....well any experience with newborns, so it was nice to hold one without being afraid I was going to break it! I can't wait the 20 weeks I have left until I have one of my own!!

Girly Clothes!!

Ok, I am not allowed to go back to Babies R Us until after I have gone through all the baby clothes from the grandparents!While I was running errands today, I stopped in just to look at a few things I have heard about. I wanted to see if Babies R Us had them. Well it didn't stop there! I ended up buying new baby clothes, and they are adorable! But I have to admit that we are going to go broke if we buy all new clothes. Anyways here are the cute little girly things I bought:

These two are for after three months, but I figure if I have a big baby none of the newborn stuff would fit anyways!

This one is my favorite!!

I also got a stack of little newborn onesies that are just about the cutest things ever! Lol, I am such a girl!

Pictures

I got the boys a knuckle bone the other day when it was once again blizzarding so we couldn't go out to walk. Needless to say they loved it!




I love Hobbs' paw holding onto the end of his bone!

Then FINALLY today, we got to go up the mountain for a hike. Lets just say it was a workout!! The trail was only as wide as a set of skis and wasn't packed down very well. Off the trail was really deep and the top was crusted, but underneath was soft. I fell off the trail once, and thought I would have to stay there forever!! **Update: I didn't really fall off the trail, I stepped too far to one side and sunk up to my knee, then tried to pivot on the leg to pull it back out and basically sat down in the deep snow. No dangerous fall I promise!**




I feel bad because Patriot kept going off the trail and getting stuck in the snow clear up to his shoulders and then he had to struggle back to "solid" ground. I know he is going to be super sore tomorrow :(

Hobbs went off the trail too, but he is much more agile and didn't weigh enough usually to sink in the snow.

Just to show how tired they both are. They had been sleeping sense we got home at noon, and we went into the baby's room at 7pm and they were asleep within the 5 minutes I was in there! As I predicted, Patriot is already really sore, but I gave him some extra joint stuff to help him out. If he is really uncomfortable tomorrow I will give him some doggy asprin.

IT FELL OFF!!!!

I have been anxiously watching the ups tracker on the new baby bedding, and have been on pins and needles all day today. The site finally said that it was out for delivery, and I just figured that it would get here sometime in the morning or at the latest the afternoon! But NOOOOO, I swear the UPS guy saved it for very last because it got here at 10 to 6pm!! I didn't even know they delivered things that late in the day!

Anyways, I tore open the box and smashed all the little boy bedding back in its package. I couldn't get the bedding out of its package fast enough! I laid it all out in the room and took a few pictures to show just how cute it really is. I am SO excited to have a little girly room!


My little girl's room!!

The crib Quilt!!

I absolutely LOVE the little elephant on the quilt!

The sheet and dust ruffle

The diaper stacker

The window valance and pillows

The bumper

The toy bag

The wall decorations

I really wish that one of the wall things was another elephant, but I guess it can't be totally perfect!