Wordless Wednesday- My new favorites

Online purchase review-Banana Peels Diapers

Since I have become a cloth diapering mama, I have been trying to find as many great places to buy fluff that I can. I always need to get a good deal since the hubby is very money conscious. I had a recent opportunity to use http://bananapeelsdiapers.com/ . I needed to buy some new covers because littleJ, the chunk, has outgrown his covers I bought 2 weeks ago. Crazy huh? So I decided to give Banana Peels a go since they had the covers I needed and I also wanted to get some extra hemp doublers for nights.

So I placed my order of 3 thirsties covers and a few hemp doublers. Perhaps 30 minutes later while checking my email I see I have 2 emails from Heather at Banana Peels. I assumed one was my order summary and didn't know what the other one was. Turns out that my hemp doublers were out of stock from the manufacturer and she was emailing me to ask whether I wanted to wait until they come in or get a refund. This happened maybe 30 minutes after I placed my order. Before I could email her back she sent another email explaining that she had already shipped my other items. WOW.. that was super fast!

I emailed her back to find out how long the wait would be and she advised me that she had emailed the company to see when they would be back in stock. Luckily it was only 2 weeks so I can wait 2 weeks- no big deal at all. But the customer service at Banana Peels was so great! Above and beyond! And super quick. I would recommend this company to anyone looking for cloth diapering needs. Thanks to Heather at Banana Peels Diapers http://bananapeelsdiapers.com/

Jan-Feb updates

January was busy! We were unpacking those first few weeks. Since we were displaced through Christmas we decided to have our family Christmas with bigJ in January complete with tree and gifts! We decorated the tree and acted like it was Christmas morning one Sunday morning. It was a lot of fun. bigJ didn't seem to know any different.

February was just as busy as January, but with a few rather large differences. I was travelling back and forth to Roanoke for Dr. appointments. I didn't want to start with a new OB and new hospital in Richmond so I knew I had to do some travelling and go back to Roanoke to stay around 36 weeks just in case.

The hubby and I took a babymoon to Williamsburg for a long weekend. It would be the last time we would be alone together for quite a while and we knew it. We had a pretty nice time. We did some outlet shopping, eating, siteseeing, eating, relaxing and did I mention eating. I think that the innkeepers where we stayed were afraid I was going to go into labor but alas no baby yet.

When we got home from the babymoon, there was no rest for the weary. I had to pack bigJ, the baby in the bellyand my stuff up to move back in with the IL's for the last 4 weeks of my pregnancy. After the first appointment, we had a bit of a scare that this baby would be here sooner rather than later. I started doing some serious last minute shopping with my mother in law- baby bedding, diapers, swing, boppy, etc. But things calmed back down and we settled into a kind of routine in Roanoke. We spent a little time in Martinsville as well but we accidentally got snowed in there! It was bigJ's first real snow but we were not prepared. We hhad no snow clothes or gloves or boots, but we made do.

It would have been absolutely perfect if the snow hadn't completely stopped us from getting to Roanoke and me being about 37 weeks pregnant. The snow did eventually melt and we made it back just in time to finalize details for bigJ's birthday!

More on the birthday tomorrow.

Recipe - vegetable soup

So around this place, lunch is whenever or whatever you can find to eat. Well thanks to my mama I don't have to worry about that this week. My moms recipe for vegetable soup with noodles is wonderful and oh so easy. But it makes quite a lot of food so be prepared to eat it all week long!

Ingredients:

Can of tomato soup

Can of water, stock or broth

2 cans of Veg-all

1 large can crushed tomatoes

1/4 box of elbow macaroni

salt

pepper

italian seasoning



Open all cans and place in large pot. Season to taste. Bring to a boil. Pour in macaroni. Turn down heat and simmer until pasta gets tender 10-15 minutes. Enjoy.

This recipe makes around 60-70 oz. of soup. Now you can tweak this to make this to suit your family. You can use fresh veggies, only certain veggies, whatever seasonings you want, you could add meat, use a different pasta and it still works.

When I store this it tends to thicken up on me. So i just add a little tomato paste and chicken broth to the bowl before I add my soup. It just makes it a little more soupy and less stewy.

Enjoy!!

Wordless Wednesday-Thanks for the idea Stephanie

I got this idea from Stephanie over at http://www.greenkiddos.com/ Hope you enjoy my boys and trying to figure out which is which!

Yeah I know... my kids look a whole lot alike!!

The past year..

It is crazy how different my life is now than it was 1 year ago.

One year ago ( probably to the day), I was trying to get over the SHOCK of being pregnant again. Shock you ask...yes we were quite shocked. We were not quite ready just yet. But that is OK- everything happens for a reason. And littleJ has been a wonderful surprise addition to our family.

Last September, the Hubby started getting recruited by a company in Richmond VA. He wasn't looking but wasn't going to turn anything away. Staying at home with the kids was my ultimate goal and it was something he wanted too. This new job would afford that opportunity. So in October he accepted the job and started living in Richmond. He would come home when he could to spend time with the family. We also travelled up to Richmond to try and find a home. Luckily we found a great house, close to family, in the right schools and that we could afford.

We bought the house in November, sold our house around the same time and we considered ourselves very lucky considering the housing market.

In December, I had my last day of work and the closing and moving of our house. I had to stay in Roanoke during this time with my in laws. Lucky for my ever rounding belly, the Hubby's new company relocated us complete with movers to pack our crap. And oh the crap we had and still have.

We spent Christmas homeless. We were with my in laws, my parents and then finally in Richmond with my aunt and uncle.
Crazy times!! But we closed and moved into our new house on Decemeber 31st. Talk about last minute of the year!! Thankfully we have a wonderful family and they helped us move in and get settled.

January-March9 thurs.

Why this blog will be different...

First, I created a new blog because I felt soooooooo bad that we have another kid and he wasn't included on the last blogs name. I have to have things equal for the kiddos ( or at least try to).

Second, I had not updated in almost a year. Now in my defense.... oh my goodness what a year it was. When I looked back I saw my last blog post was in September- Basically that is when my whole world turned upside down. Not in a bad way so don't worry but in a way that made internet time scarce. I can give a thorough rundown tomorrow.

Third, I have big ideas... really big ideas this time around. I read enough blogs to get some good ideas. A few new ideas Wordless Wednesday ( thanks Steph), internet shopping reviews ( I shop enough online that this should be easy) and of course keeping up with the kiddos.

Hope you enjoy the new and improved blog!!