I'm a Little Sad :(

Today we usually write about cloth diapers, but even though I started an awesome post about using cloth wipes, I have no desire to finish it.

It's been a difficult few days in my house. I am in the process of weaning a my little girl; who really loves to nurse. I mean, she loves it so much she giggles before latching on.

We have been very lucky in the nursing department. She latched right on in the hospital and besides from a little scare the night we brought her home (that landed us in the children's hospital for a few nights) it's been pretty easy.

coming home :)

I always had the mindset that I would nurse for as long as I could, but I never intended to go past Liza's first birthday. Over the past year I lost both my grandparents and my hubby traveled a lot for work. Time just got away from us.

Ever since she turned one, I have used the "Don't offer. Don't refuse" method of weaning. It didn't work for Liza. She loves it too much. It is the only thing she has for comfort. I've tried to get her attached to blankets, lovies, stuffed animals, dolls, you name it. It's like she knows what I am doing. She has never fallen for it. Smart cookie :) I should also mention that she stopped taking a binky around 4 months old and would never take a bottle. She has her own mind, that's for sure.

napping in her Dora bed

A few weeks ago, I started implementing Dr. Jay Gordon's night weaning plan. Yep, she still nursed at night. We have always bed shared (now she sleeps half the night in her big girl bed) and I would nurse her in my sleep. I think she would nurse while sleeping. It is a great plan. It's not super easy and there is some crying involved, but it worked. You can find more information about it here. The sessions before nap and bedtime have been harder to cut out.

We made a countdown on the calendar and though Liza doesn't totally get it, it has been good for me to have. I decided that today would be the last day that she nurses. So, we are stopping those last two nursing sessions cold turkey. It sucks, but I think it's the way it needs to happen. She isn't going to let go of one session and keep another. Know what I mean?

I am so sad. As much as I want to be done nursing, I know that this is the end of Liza being a baby. If you have ever nursed than you know how bonding it can be. It's difficult to explain. I'd keep nursing until she self-weaned, but we'd really like to have another baby sooner rather than later and nursing has done a very good job of being birth control. After talking with my doctor, I am pretty sure I need to wean in order to get things going inside :) This is probably why.

Now I'm all teary and stuff.

I know she is ready. I know I am ready. It's just hard to let go. It's hard to take away something that she loves. That comforts her. That puts her to sleep :)

I'll let you know how it goes. Hopefully I stick to my guns and don't give into her incredibly cute voice asking/crying to, "nurse."

Wish me luck!

XOXO Sarah

DIY Photography Indoor background

Hello there!!

I would like to share from time to time some photography tips and tricks I have learned.
First, let me start with a short disclaimer. I am by no means a professional photographer. I call myself a photography enthusiast. I have taken two photography courses which have taught me to take a better than average photo, and to be creative while utilizing the tools around me.  My goal when I started out was to learn how to use my fancy DSLR camera in a different mode other than auto, and to take better pictures of my children. I believe as a mother (or father), you are your child's best photographer!!

You already know I have a fancy camera, but I also have a canon powershot! I love my canon powershot, especially because it is so compact and takes awesome pictures! I love that I can carry it in my purse and take it out at any moment! Sometimes I find my fancy camera to be rather bulky.

My DIY background can be done with either camera. I had to do an assignment for my class, so what better way than take this opportunity to photograph my Jacob. I began to contemplate what I could do in the house, because it was too cold outside. I remembered I had bought a twin size black sheet a few months ago and this was the perfect time to utilize it. I went into Jacob's bedroom and tucked the sheet into his crib, draping it over the rail, and onto the floor. I placed Jacob on the floor on top of the sheet, then I propped myself onto the floor to his eye level and started snapping pictures.

His sister was entertaining him next to me, making him laugh which was an added bonus. I find taking pictures when the children are having fun is key to getting great photos!

You can  definitely do this with any color sheet or blanket. Duct taping it to a wall is also another option. Just let your creativity flow! :)

I found this blog to be great for tips on creating your own at home mini studio. You really do not have to spend a lot of money & it can be so much fun for little ones who love to dress up!

Do you have a photography tip or trick you would like to share with us? We would love to hear from you! 

Cheers,

Katey

Do You Get Bored?

Hello!

Here is a somewhat random post to start off your week...

Being at stay-at-home mom is both the most difficult and most wonderful thing that I have ever done in my life. I am sure that you have heard others say the same thing. There is a constant push and pull that happens. You have to have your game face turned on at all hours of the day. Sometimes I count down until it's nap time and then when it comes, I find missing her. It's crazy.

We try to keep busy. Liza goes to gymnastics and music class. She loves both of them.We blow bubbles, have tea parties, jump on the bed, turn the music up and have dance parties (we always dance while Ellen is on!), and practice forward rolls for "nastics" class.

Practicing pouring & transferring water from one container to another.

We clean the house. It takes a lot longer with my little helper, but it is much more fun!

I really need a bed skirt :)

 I hate cleaning the house. Living in a tiny house means that it gets easily cluttered and can turn into a gigantic mess in seconds. Nap time isn't super long so I like to get a few minutes to myself. You know, wasting time on Facebook and Pinterest, and catching up on the DVR'd shows that I know the hubs does not want to watch with me. Why he doesn't like My Fair Wedding, I will never know.

And sometimes, we get bored. I hate when it happens. Usually this is when I pull out some sort of activity or go to the library (she always seems to poop there!), or Target. 

How do you combat the boredom? Do you have a cleaning routine that you follow? I'm thinking about starting a little weekly cleaning challenge on the blog. What do you think? I'm hoping that it will keep me motivated and on top of my messy house.

Happy Monday! 

XOXO Sarah

10 Things That the Husbands are Smiling About :)

Get your mind out of the gutter! That is not what we are talking about! We just thought it would be fun to share a little more about our husbands and what they are loving right now.

You already met Katey's husband, Matt, when he cooked up some yummy Mango Salsa. Katey and Matt have been married for 6 years!

Choptimus Prime

Here are the top five things Matt is enjoying these days.

1. Cliff Mojo Bars are sweet and salty trail mix bars that help Matt curve his appetite a bit in between meals. They are so yummy, not to mention healthy!

2.  The Words with Friends iphone app. He has been playing religiously for months. It can be very addicting but tons of fun! Best of all this app is free!! ( as long as you don't mind ad in between word plays)

3. He loves his bright orange Mario Batali Crocs. He only wears them around the house, and likes them for cooking in the kitchen because they have a slip resistant sole.

4. Matt is the cook in our house as you might have already guessed! He uses Barberian's Steak Seasoning, and finds it to be a versatile spice. It is also good on chicken, fish, and vegetables! Next time he will purchase it in bulk!

5. In our house we love red wine, in fact we buy it by the case! Matt loves to drink red wine out of our Crate and Barrel stemless wine glasses. They are light weight and easy to store, and very modern!

Meet Sarah's hubby, Guillermo! They have been married for 5 1/2 years and have known each other since they were in the First grade.

He is very excited to share with you some of the things he is into these days!

1. The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari has been very inspiring to Guillermo. This book tells the story of a big-time lawyer who becomes a Monk after a major heart attack. It is a great reminder of how important it is to take the time to discover what it is you really love to do in life.

2. The 90 Day Challenge by Visalus has helped him to lose 25 pounds in the past 4 months by replacing his breakfast and lunch with yummy shakes (I've taste-tested!). He has been super busy with work and getting to the gym hasn't been possible. It's amazing how easy it has been for him to stick with this program. I honestly didn't think he would be faithful to it since he loves food so much! Check it out.

3. Even as a die hard Celtics fan, Guillermo can't help but root for Jeremy Lin. He is a sucker for a good underdog story and basketball runs through his veins. 

4. Guillermo insists that Balvenie is the best single malt whiskey that you can buy for under $50. Before my grandfather passed away, there were many hours that they spent sipping and discussing whiskey. They even read books about it. Apparently it is very interesting. Balvenie is also the go-to gift for any of the men in my family. 

5. Guillermo loves food. He loves eating it, cooking it, and shopping for it! Whole Foods can sometimes be a little more expensive, but for some reason, it is just so much more fun to shop there. He has told me more than once that it's all about the, "experience of picking out our food." Crazy boy :)

We hope you enjoyed getting to know our favorite guys a little bit more. What are your guys loving right now?

XOXO Katey & Sarah

Following the Toddler

Good Morning!

Today I wanted to share how I have changed up Liza's sensory table. She was losing interest in her Valentine's set up and I was growing tired of having pink rice throughout the house. It's still a little too early for me to create a St. Patrick's day table, so I decided to throw some cotton balls and a few Arctic animals and trucks in to hold us over a few days.

She's had some fun with it and we've had a few snowball fights, but the other day while shopping, Liza spotted some plastic Easter Eggs and really, really wanted me to buy her the "circles." I bought them and figured she would soon forget about them and they could sit in my closet until closer to Easter. Well, she found them and insisted that we open them. She is just too cute sometimes. We dumped them into the sensory table and added a mini muffin pan.

She's been busy ever since. Just goes to show how important it is for us as moms to give up control sometimes and follow the lead of our kiddos interests.

It makes me super excited to see her start sorting, counting, and talking about colors. I am so surprised that she is into it right now. I didn't expect it for a while. I'll be honest, it makes my teacher self a little giddy. 

I think in a few days I will add some colors to the bottom of the muffin tin and see what she does with it. Maybe she'll match up the eggs to the colors, maybe she won't. I'm just curious to see what happens. I'll probably add some little pom poms to the table so she can put them inside the eggs.

We have also done some stamping and painting with shaving cream in the past few days. If you have a kiddo that likes to eat the paint, you coud use whipped cream or pudding! Add food coloring or glitter for even more fun!

It's school vacation week, which means I have a house full of Liza's cousins. We should have an exciting day!

Have you done anything with your kiddos? I'd love to hear about it and maybe steal your ideas :)

XOXO Sarah

4 Random Thoughts About Cloth Diapering

Hi friends! It's Cloth Diaper Wednesday!

We are so excited to have Melissa Durango as a guest blogger today.  She knows a lot about cloth diapering! She is a mother of two cute little boys ages 2 1/2 and 9 months, and is Katey's little sis! Not to mention Sarah has known her since she was a little girl in elementary school. Today Melissa is going to share tidbits of information that she has found useful in her cloth diapering journey! Enjoy!!!

Lissy's Two Cents!

A lot of time is invested when shopping for diapers.

Even after months of cloth diapering religiously, it still took me days and days to decide on which diapers I would like to purchase and where to purchase them from. I thought that maybe it was just this way in the beginning when deciding on which type of diaper was the biggest decision, but I have been proven wrong. It doesn’t help that whenever I have money to spend on new diapers I have to make sure I get the BEST deal for the most diapers. It is actually rather pathetic. I hear a voice telling me JUST BUY IT but I can’t! What if there is a better deal somewhere else?! What if they are not what I expect?! I admit that I have never in my life spent the amount of time shopping for items like I do for cloth diapers or any related must have (like BabyLegs!).

Not everyone accepts your decision.

More often than not most people are respectful when they become aware of your decision to use cloth diapers. I usually get a “good for you!” or “that’s great!” But this is not always the case. I have run into a fair share of people who are downright disgusted, and they even have the guts tell me this to my face like I am some sort of nutcase. This is usually because they are close-minded and clueless to how clean and easy it is to use cloth diapers.  Given at how rude they are, I secretly wish to start a fight about it, but I refrain from a public outburst that might land me in big trouble. You do your thing, I will do mine. Thank you very much.

You will know when you need to strip diapers.

If you cloth diaper or have been contemplating using cloth diapers, then you probably have come across the process known as stripping. This is done once in a while (every few months for me) usually to rid the diapers of detergent build up. When I first began, I kept wondering if it was time to strip and I learned that I was not alone. I read various forums and articles online and found out that others were often worried about the same thing. With my oldest I began to notice a funny smell when he wet his diaper, then one day I was changing him and it was like a bomb of lethal substances was thrown right in my face. Ammonia = uncontrollable tears...worse than the onion slicing ones.  From then on I never worried about it…if I notice that same odor then I knew it was time.

Diaper sprayers are a convenient mess.

Before I had a diaper sprayer I got rid of the poop on the diapers the gross way, scraping, dunking, whatever I could do to get it semi clean. Diaper sprayers are known to be one of the best cloth diapering accessories I was tired of dealing with mush poop and decided to get one. Although I am grateful (soooo grateful!) at how much easier dealing with yucky diapers, it still is messy. When you spray the diaper, the water ricochets off of it on to the toilet and anything close by. No one told me this. Lowering the water pressure helps, but doesn’t do anything to get the yuckies off. Needless to say, each time I spray a diaper the potty gets cleaned.

That pretty much sums it up. For the moment anyway, since there is so much that can be said (thought too) about the loveliness that is cloth diapers!

Love, Melissa

Oh! and pretty please don't forget to follow me and my two cents!

Old Frames a New Way

Hey There :)

I have been bit by the DIY bug this week. I go through these stages where I get crafty, but then need a break from it. Does this ever happen to you?

I have had these frames laying around the house since Liza's first birthday party, and I finally did something about them.

Here they are at the birthday party...

here they are being spray painted in my garage...

and here they are now...

Ignore that mess.

They hang on the empty wall space between Liza's bed and door. 

I didn't try too hard on these frames since they are so cheap. I lightly sanded them and then spray painted them pink. I used 3M Command Strips to hang them on the wall. They are not perfect, but I'm just happy that they finally found a home! I used things that I already had in Liza's room to fill the frames. A few pictures, her ruby slippers, a card from my baby shower, the note card from her little crib at the hospital, and a letter L that my aunt made.

Not too bad, right? Do you want to see some other pictures of her room? It's my favorite room in my house because it's the only one that is even close to being "done." 

Here is the mural that my mom painted for her before she was born. I love it. Don't mind the cute little girl that wanted to be in all the pictures. 

You're also getting a peak at her big girl bed. Around here we call it the Princess Dora bed. Underneath that pretty comforter this bed looks like Dora pimped it out :) She loves Dora, Princesses, and Minnie Mouse and I love that I can add them into her room without them taking it over. Hopefully, I will be DIYing a little soft headboard for her so it looks a little less like a mattress & box spring sitting on the floor. I'll wait until she is a little bigger before putting them on a frame.

Here is the view from her door.

Liza was coloring right before I took this.  That's what is on the middle of the floor.

The infamous Ikea spice racks turned book shelves.

When she was younger and less wiggly, we used the dresser as her changing table. There is no room in this house for any extra furniture! I still keep her diapers and wipes there.

The frame under the shelves on the right has no glass. I plan to add a little clip to it so I can change out her art work. It's currently framing he last finger-painting that I taped to the wall. The two circle frames are plastic. Saftey first people :)

I still have some things left to do in here, but I love it! I'm so glad that I did not give her a themed nursery, because I really think this room will be able to grow with her. The only thing that has changed since she was born is her bed.

Well, that's it! The grand tour. Thanks for looking and I hope you enjoyed it.

XOXO Sarah

Mango Salsa by Matt

Hello, I hope y'all enjoyed your weekend! I hope you are lucky enough to have the Holiday off.

My husband, Matt, enjoys cooking and trying new recipes. Over the weekend he made a yummy mango salsa recipe from Simply Recipes . Today I am going to share this great recipe with you!

Chef Matt

Ingredients:

1 ripe mango, peeled.pitted, and diced ( about 1 1/2 cups)
1/2 medium red onion ( if you do not like onion, subsitute with a red bell pepper), finely chopped
1 Jalapeno chile, minced ( don't worry its not spicy, unless you want to include the seeds and ribs)
1 small cucumber
3 Tbsp fresh cilantro leaves
3 Tbsp lime juice
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Below are the steps on how to cut a mango.

The Mango has a pit in the middle, so you have to cut along the sides of pit separating the flesh from the pit. When that is done proceed with the below steps

Take the mango and cut horizontally and vertically without cutting through the peel

You end up with block sized pieces of mango in the peel

Take your knife and slide under the blocks of mango to peel them from the skin
and whala you have diced mango!

Repeats steps for the other half of the mango

The recipe calls for 1 mango but you may need more like 1 1/2 mangos. We saved the other half of the second mango to use in our homemade baby food, or you can eat it of course!! :)

Next is finely chopping the red onion ( or if you prefer red bell pepper)





Dice one Jalepeno chile ( seeded and ribs taken out unless you would like a spicy salsa)

Matt had already cut it up before I got the chance to take the picture

Peel and Chop up one small cucumber 

Chop three tablespoons of Cilantro leaves ( you can really just eyeball this)

Combine all ingredients in a bowl 

Add lime juice 

For the lime juice you can roll one lime on cutting board and slice in half and squeeze into mixture

Add salt and pepper to taste

Mix ingredients together with lime juice and salt and pepper

This is what you get!

You can serve it with tortilla chips, or put it in tacos! Or eat it alone! 

It is refreshingly yummy!

Enjoy!

Have a recipe you would like to share with us? Please email us at simplymommies@gmail.com or comment below! We love trying new recipes! 

Happy cooking,

Katey