This and That

• I'm reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. This book tells the story of the author and her family's one year commitment to eating locally. Ms. Kingsolver and her family farm, trade with neighbors who farm, as well as, rely on the Farmer's Market to sustain them. While I'm not ready to become a farmer, the following statistic really made me at research my local options: "If every US citizen ate just one meal a week composed of locally and organically raised meats and produce, we would reduce our country's oil consumption by over 1.1 million barrels of oil every week." That's remarkable to me considering the crisis we are facing at the pump.


• Budgets, budgets, budgets. Always great in theory but so hard to live out. I have no shame in saying if I have to cut back, I want to do it where I don't feel it. I don't want to sacrifice quality and I don't want to cook every meal I eat. SO I am saving BIG on diapers. Ok - my diaper must-haves: no leaks, no explosions, no contact rash/burn. I'd say I am a fairly picky mom and have found that White Cloud diapers (found at Wal-Mart - a place I very much dislike but am learning to deal with) work well. I only tried these on recommendation from a few friends - always irritated if I waste money trying to save money. For Lila's size they are about 19 cents a diaper compared to the 25 - 28 cents a diaper I was paying for Pampers Cruisers. I am trying them on Andrew this week. With two in diapers, this could amount to a lot of pennies saved! **Update 6/6 - White Cloud has increased the number of diapers in each box which now computes to 17 cents a diaper!


• Antibiotics. I have a hard time remembering whether or not I have given my kids their 2x daily dose that usually stretches 10-14 days. Lila just finished up a round and this time I took a sticky note and wrote down each dose that needed to be administered (Mon AM, Mon PM). As I gave the meds, I just checked it off. Worked like a charm!

Hold on Tight!

Deacon and Andrew singing "Hold on Tight"by the Backyardigans.

Our week at the beach

We arrived in Rosemary Beach on May 9th. Shortly after we arrived, Lee (my sister-in-law) and I went grocery shopping while Drew, Todd (his brother), and mom checked out this beach with the kids.

My dad teaching Benjamin how to play pool (that's a pretty full mustache for a 7 year old!).

Lila playing after a morning on the beach.

Like father like son...What do you think? Drew loved Benji's mustaches.

Andrew running through one of Rosemary's many green spaces with his cousins.
Drew and Andrew at the beach Lila and her Nana at the pool. The house we stayed in is in the background on the left.

Andrew playing on a kayak

When we were on the beach, I kept hearing the lyrics to "My Redeemer Lives" when it says, "And who told the ocean you can only come this far?" As the waves crashed in, Andrew would yell, "Wait! Stop!"

We truly enjoyed spending time with our families that we only see a hand full of times a year. Vacationing with two little bitties was totally different than we expected...gone are the days of sitting in a chair on the beach and reading a book. But those times will come again and when they do I know we will ask ourselves, "Where did the time go?" I'm glad we made lots of fun memories in Rosemary Beach.

Lila's 6 month update

Today we went for Lila's 6 month "well" visit. It turned out she has a double ear infection!

Otherwise, she is very healthy as you can tell by those cute, chubby cheeks.

She weighs 20 pounds, 5 ounces (97%).

She measures 26 inches long (75%).

Lila has 4 teeth that she loves to show off. She is sitting up, army crawling, squealing, and she loves to jump in her Jumperoo. She is very much like Andrew in that as long as she is feeling well she can entertain herself. God has truly blessed us with this sweet little girl.

Andrew's update

Wow...it's been a busy couple of months, but hopefully the lazy days of summer (not to mention heat) have arrived. Andrew turned 2 on the 9th. We arrived in Rosemary Beach, Florida on his birthday. Here's a pic from his third round of birthday celebrations. He loves cupcakes. (More vacation pics to come.)

He's definitely turning into a little boy. He likes to ride his scooter like the big boys on our street. Yesterday I sneezed and he said, "Bless you!" My heart just melted. He's finally giving Lila attention. When she coughs, he pats her on the back and says, "OK?" No doubt his favorite things have wheels. He likes to sing "itsy bitsy spider" and "Jesus loves me". He is very tender-hearted and loves to give his friends hugs.

Andrew weighs 31 pounds, 12 ounces (90%) and is 3 feet tall (75%). (Everyone always wants to know how much he weighs, but we are quite used to our solid little boy.) He's reached all those fun two-year milestones of stringing words into sentences, jumping, stacking, and when the nurse asked,"Does he want his own way?" she actually laughed, and so did I. On a more serious note, he has had some recurring fever we are trying to get to the bottom of so keep him in your prayers.

Same age pics

I've been wanting to look pictures of Andrew to see if Lila looks like he did when he was an infant. So here they are...eating, of course. Everyone tells me that they both look just like me which is funny because looking at these pictures side by side, I just don't see a lot of similarities between the two. How about you?

Lila at 5 1/2 months.
Andrew at 5 1/2 months