Crunchy Body Swap!

Everything from the Body Swap!

What happens when you get 25 crunchy moms together for a swap? You get some pretty awesome stuff! I like participating in swaps and have attended several over the past few years: toddler busy bag swap 1, toddler busy bag swap 2, 4 and 5 year old busy bag swap,  and a toy exchange but never a body swap. The rules were only 25 women could participate. If you get more than that, it ends up costing everyone a lot more time and money. Sadly, one didn't show up at the last minute. So we each ended up with 24 things, which is fine. The way it worked was that everyone posted in the group what they were going to make and made 25 of them. Then we all got together and swapped items and went home with some pretty cool natural body stuff! We met at a park so we could all bring our kids and they could play while we swapped natural products with one another. I'll post links to how some of these things were made.

Here's what I got and made!

Natural Hair Detangler/leave in conditioner, this is what I made

Hot/Cold Rice Pad

Organic Caffeine Eye Serum

Shower Discs

Black Head Remover Scrub

Massage Oil

Grapefruit Bath Salts

Detox Bath Salts

Lavender Bath Fizzies

Bug Spray

Bug Bite Salve

Whipped Organic Beeswax Lotion

Headband

Wild Orange Deodorant Spray

Himalayan Sea Salt Body Spray

Coffee Scrub

Honey Facial Mask

Orange/Brown Sugar Honey Scrub

Make Up Remover

All Purpose Salve

Dry Shampoo

Citrus Chocolate Bentonite Mask

Milk and Clay Mask Mix

Grace is 18 months!!

Squeezing out lime juice

Dear Grace,

You are now 18 months old! Everyday you bring smiles to our faces and fill our home with love and joy. You are a very happy girl, love to learn, funny, love to dance, and enjoy playing with Caden as well as taking things from him and running away!

You 18 month check-up went very well. You are ahead intellectually and physically. You don't have any signs of learning problems which is a big blessing. You can almost jump on both feet from the ground. You enjoy climbing on things and rocking. You are getting faster at running. And now you like me fixing your hair in pig tails. Also when we get a camera out to take your picture, you immediately smile! You always look so cute!

Here are your biometrics: 

32 inches long

23 lbs, 9 oz weight

47 cm head

You are in the 50-75% for height and weight. Just perfect!

You love books and we read to you often and you have picked up on lots of letters. The other morning we were sitting at the table in the kitchen and a box of LIFE cereal was on the table. You pointed to the "I" and said, "i!" I said that's right. Then you pointed to the "e" and said, "e." Then pointed to the other letters. I asked you where the F was and the L was and you pointed to the correct letter. Although you are unable to say all of the letter sounds perfectly yet, you know a very good amount. You love playing with your Little People Zoo and can match all of the animals with their beginning letters. You also love baby dolls and like to pretend to feed them and give them drinks. You love animals and being outside. We have some bunnies that live in the backyard and you love to call them "bop bop bunnies." At night when we read as a family, after Caden reads a book, you sometimes will insist on reading a book too. You'll grab one and babble along as if you're really reading it. It is so cute! You also love to wave to animals in life and in books and say in the sweetest voice ever, "hi!" You'll also point to things in books and say, "hold, hold." Meaning you want to hold the thing pictured and you'll hold your hands out to hold it. It's adorable! You are a excellent eater and love eating a wide variety of things. You also still nurse 1-3 days a day. You are super healthy and very loved! You are going to make a great big sister!

One more story. You love music and dancing. You have several toys that play songs. You love pushing the buttons to play a song and will dance around the room to the music. If I'm in the room, you'll come grab my hand to dance with you. It is so precious!

Love,
Mom

Favorite Little People Zoo Animal Game/Toy

You love your big brother!

Reading together

Seeing what inside an ambulance looks like

Sitting in big brother's chair in the van

Kiwi Crate Review

I have wanted to try Kiwi Crate for the past few years but honestly didn't want to spend the money on a monthly subscription and enjoy searching Pinterest and finding our own creative projects. Recently I caved and decided to try it. Our first box arrived about two weeks ago and had two activities to go along with the theme, Spheres and Their Peers. We made 3D bubbles and a Tangram game. A few things I really loved about the box was, (1) everything was truly included; and (2) Caden could do everything pretty much by himself with some supervision from me. He's six and has done a lot of crafts and experiments so he's familiar with making things. 

Here's what we got in the box.

This is a picture of everything in the box!

The first activity we did was make the 3D bubbles. There was a book about spheres and their peers we read. Then he took the pipe cleaners and straws and made some 3D bubble wands. He mixed the solution in a big bowl and we took it outside to blow bubbles. Gracie helped as well and loved dipping the wands in the bubble mixture. It didn't work as well as we had hoped. We also found out the smaller wands worked better than the bigger ones. It took about 20 minutes to put together and they played with it about 5 minutes before getting frustrated that the mixture wasn't great. Although he did have fun putting it together. We also left the bubble solution outside for a week and Caden would pick it up and try and blow bubbles every time he went outside. So it wasn't that he wasn't interested in it, it was just frustrating to get it to work how we had hoped.

What was included in the 3D bubble shapes

Making some bubble wands

Mixing the solution

Blowing bubbles!

We also made sculptures with marshmallows and toothpicks. I have wanted to do this activity for a while as well but never got around to it. When I saw the theme of our Kiwi Crate I decided it would be fun to do around snack time. This was not included in the Kiwi Crate box but was simple to do, buy some marshmallows and toothpicks and have your kids create things.

Marshmallow sculptures

The other project in the Kiwi Crate was making your own Tangram game. He's been doing tangram puzzles since he was two so I thought he'd like this project. It included some paper to cut out two 3D shapes and wooden shapes to color and dye to make a game. 

Caden liked cutting the shapes out and making the cube and pyramid as well as coloring and dying the wooden shapes but he didn't really care to play the game much. I'll probably keep it a little longer and see if he gains any interest in it before tossing it.

Tangram Game

Cutting out the 3D shapes

Making designs with the white crayon before dying them

Dying the first few shapes blue

Colored Tangram shapes

Overall the kit was cute and we'll probably get a few more. It makes doing a craft with your child(ren) very easy. Caden also loved getting a box in the mail just for him!

32 weeks, 5 days!

My pregnancy is moving right along. Our sweet baby will be here before we know it! I had an appointment this morning along with a sonogram. I'm most likely going to have sonograms every visit from here on out, which basically I've been having every visit since I was early on. Nothing wrong with keeping an internal eye on my sweet growing baby. Today was exciting because we got a really great look at his sweet face!


We've been working really hard getting his room ready for his arrival. His room will be our old guest room which sadly had become somewhat of a dumping ground so there is a lot to move out and get rid of. We gave away our queen bed, have moved three out of 4 bookshelves, and gotten rid of lots and lots of boxes of books and other things. There's still more to go but hopefully we'll wrap everything up within the next few weeks.

Sweet baby boy is still growing ahead of schedule, measuring about 2 weeks ahead. His approximate size is 5 lbs, 4 oz, 34 weeks, 2 days. I'm 32 weeks, 5 days. He is also now breached. There's a chance he'll turn on his own but my doctor recommended going to a chiropractor who works with pregnant women. She said a chiropractor could help align my body and help the baby turn. She also told me a few ways to lay to try and get him to turn. The bigger he gets, the harder it will be on me when and if he turns. It seems like he's consistently growing about 1/2 a pound every week. If you know me, I'm a huge fan of natural childbirth. However, I am also an even bigger fan of having a healthy baby and mama! So I'm not going to worry about it too much one way or another. I'll pray for peace and that God helps him come the best way.

How far along? 32 weeks, 5 days

Baby’s size? 5 lbs, 5 oz, measuring 34 weeks, 2 days

Total weight gain/loss: I have gained 26 lbs! I now weigh 2 lbs more than I did when I had Caden 6 years ago.

Maternity clothes? Yes! Frankly, I'm getting kind of tired of them. ;)

Stretch marks? No new ones for this pregnancy that I can see.

Sleep: Not great. I'm getting to the very uncomfortable stage but am so tired I usually fall asleep pretty fast. Although I have to get up to go to the restroom at least once. 

Best moment this week: Seeing my baby's sweet face in the sonogram!
 
Miss Anything? Sleep and my pre-pregnancy body. 

Movement: He moves constantly.

Food cravings: Nothing particularly, just hungry and I honestly get kind of tired of eating now.

Anything making you queasy or sick: No.

Gender: Boy!!

Labor Signs: I've started having some contractions.

Symptoms: Fatigue, big belly, baby movements, and early contractions.

Belly Button in or out? In but will poke out if I cough or laugh.

Wedding rings on or off? On!

Happy or Moody most of the time: Happy and blessed!

Looking forward to: Meeting my son.

Please pray for: A healthy baby and pregnancy.

Happy Independence Day!!

This past weekend was our country's birthday. It's also mine and Collin's half wedding anniversary. We've now been married 11.5 years! We were invited to a few events and planned to take the kids to see some fireworks. Grace has been going to bed way later than she should be so we knew she'd be awake to see them. She also took a 3.5 hour nap earlier. This was her first year to watch them and Caden's second. He used to be in bed before the show happened.

We started our evening at my brother and sister-in-law's house. Collin and Caden went swimming before dinner. My brother and dad cooked out. I stayed inside most of the time since this heat is getting hard on me.

After spending several hours with family we went to a new church friend's house in the country where they shoot off fireworks every year. They said they have a party every 4th of July and so we might make it a tradition. Visiting them and seeing their property made Collin and I want to really move to the country. The kids had so much fun running around, watching the fireworks, holding sparklers, and playing. 

We didn't get home until 11pm and we still managed to make it to first service Sunday morning. Happy 4th of July everyone! 

Here are a few pictures. it's hard to get a good picture of everyone. You can see my growing belly!