We're having a baby BOY!!!

I posted on here a while ago about how we were going to find out the sex of baby #2.
We were planning to have a party with our family and close friends, eat some food, have everyone guess boy or girl, and then cut into a cake that was either filled blue or pink.

The hubby couldn't wait..lol
After our last ultrasound he asked if he could go back into the room and ask the technician what it was.  I said yes, he is the Daddy, but I said yes in those ways where you say it, but hope they can read your mind and that you meant the opposite...hahaha

I thought for sure he would give it away, but he didn't.  He's great at keeping secrets, which is a bad thing, and a good thing?

Because he knew the sex, he got to call ahead to Sweet Art by Elizabeth and order our cake.  This way we could have out party earlier without having to wait to our next midwife appointment to get them to either email, call, or put it in an envelope for us to give to her.

Our due date for baby boy is September 23rd 2011.  That means every Friday we get 1 week closer to becoming a family of 4.  Tomorrow Friday May 20th will mark us being 22 weeks pregnant.  This pregnancy is going way faster than I expected, which is exciting and scary at the same time.  Our daughter Jayla just turned 3 about a month ago.  I can't believe how fast she is growing up, and can't wait to see the big sister she will become.


P.S...
We're looking at any suggestions to boy names.  We seem to love almost all girl names, but not so much in the boy name department...lol
We're hoping to find something original and unique like Jayla's name, so he can just go by his 1st name in class and and in life.  Jayla will more than likely just be "Jayla" in class, no need to add her last name or initial to know which Jayla they are talking to.  We're looking for the same for our tiny nugget on the way.

Thanks for letting me share our news with you :-)
Watch for a review on Sweet Art by Elizabeth to follow.

A picture that I loved from facebook, and would love to spread this around even more

Looking for ideas for our sex finding out party...to be renamed...LOL

Hey everyone :-)  That's our baby #2 up above at 14 weeks and 1 day.
I thought I'd ask my readers for some cute ideas.
We're going for our 2nd ultrasound May 7th 2011, and at this one we can hopefully be able to tell if our daughter J will have a little brother or sister.
We've decided that since we did everything so private with J that we wanted to make this pregnancy a more family and friends friendly event.  When we go on the 7th, we're hoping to have the ultrasound tech write on a paper the sex of nugget #2, or we'll wait for our midwife appointment the week after to have her write it down.  Neither myself or the hubby will know the sex, we wanted to have our family and close friends find out the same time we do.
To do this we were planning on having a sex finding out party, but need a better name to call it...lol
We're going to invite our family and close friends over to the house, where we'll have some snacks and drinks, get to hang out, and all together find out what's growing inside this big giant belly.
After we got the sex written down, we'll find someone to make us a cake, who is great at keeping secrets! lol and either fill it blue or pink.

I'm looking for your ideas.

-If you have a cute name to call this party

-What kind of snacks do you think would fit into this theme

-Any cake flavours that would go great with the colour choices, so it's not just a vanilla cake

-Any fun games or activities we could play while passing the time with anticipation

-There will be nuggets running around as well, so anything fun we can do with them

I'm hoping to either make a chart, or a pictures, and have everyone put their name on something letting us all know who thinks it's a boy or a girl, maybe turn it into a fun bet of some sorts.

I have pregnant brain all of the time, so where I used to be creative is now filled with thoughts that I forget before I've even completed them...lol

I would love to hear if anyone else has done a party like this before, what they did, any suggestions/ideas, anything at all.

Feel free to comment on here or on the post on facebook.
We thank you guys so much!

Where the hell have I been lately?!?!?

hahaha so anyone that has joined my blog who actually pays attention to it has probably wondered what happened to me lately.  I have totally been missing in action lately, and not letting anyone know about any good deals or local events.  I am so sorry.

As you may know, I just co hosted my 1st mom to mom sale March 12th.  We did great!  We had some awesome sponsors contribute to our amazing grab bags, and had 100 of them.  Before the line up was even done we had already given out our last grab bag, we were super impressed, but sad that not everyone who waited in line got a little something extra to take home.  We got to meet some super friendly shoppers, families manning their tables, and vendors. It was a great experience, and Carly and I really appreciate everyone that helped us out the day of, that joined us for our 1st ever sale, that contributed to our door prizes and grab bags, and just for the support of everyone.  Feel free to browse the pictures from the day .  To anyone that was a shopper at the sale we will be posting a survey for you to take.  We'd love to know your opinions of us :-)  Plus we have one that we'll be sending out to the wonderful vendors and mom/dads that grabbed a table at the sale.  Can't wait to do it all over again!

Pretty much right after the sale, starting Monday, my sweet little nugget J got super sick.  She must have caught the flu or something at the sale.  She was our little helper for almost the whole day!  Along with my hubby :-P  She couldn't keep anything in her tiny little body, was having a super hard time getting any liquids into her, let alone food.  I actually had to put diapers on her for a couple of the days because she had no control over anything.  This was her 1st "real" sickness, and it made me super sad since we just stopped breastfeeding just a couple of weeks before this.  I somehow felt like this was my fault, because she has been breastfed for almost 3 years and has been one healthy little girl.  Then all of the sudden super sick.  It last a week exactly, and she is now back to her super loud and overly hyper and active self.

While all of this was going on, the hubby and I had a secret that we wanted so bad to share with everyone, but knew it wouldn't be smart of us based on our previous situations.  We're pregnant!!!! We had our 1st midwife appointment on March 17th and got to hear it's sweet little heart beat!!  I had expected we were 12 weeks along by that time, but the midwife said my uterus was measuring a bit bigger than that, probably 14 or 15 weeks at that time.  She said this could be due to the fact that I already have had a full pregnancy, and this will be our 4th pregnancy so it could just be my uterus saying lets get this show on the road.  We go for our 1st ultrasound on Saturday, so keep your fingers crossed everything goes well, that we have a nice and talkative tech who shows us things, lets the hubby come in, and fingers crossed we can come home to post a picture.

Well I think that pretty much sums everything up :-)  I know I had more to say but the hubby just called from work and totally made me  loose my train of though, which isn't hard at all to do lately :-P

Thanks to everyone for being so patient with me, and my crappy job of keeping up with my blog lately.

We got a dog!

Toby

Anyone who has known us knows we love animals.  We have 4 cats right now and a fish tank.  We've been wanting a dog pretty much since the hubby and I moved out.  On New Year's Eve we got one.  We drove quite a few hours with my Father in Law and J to pick out a puppy.  They had just turned 8 weeks old the day before.  There were 2 boys left to pick from.  We picked ours out and made the long drive home.  

His name is Toby.  He's a boston terrier and just turned 9 weeks old, he was born November 11th 2010.  I can't believe how fast he's growing, kind of reminds me of having a baby all over again.  Also makes it feel like I have 2 toddlers running around, taring up even more stuff, even faster.  It's fun, and also super stressful lol.

J loves him as you an see.  She was also extremely jealous, w hich I didn't even think would happen.  She slept in his bed, took his toys away, directs him where to walk, look, or when to eat.  She carries him everywhere, and always has to know where he is.  Half of that is due to the huge amount of love she has for him, the other half is because he's stealing her thunder....lol

Either way we're all happy he's home, and that we now have a dog that we've wanted for so long.  Let the "potty" training begin.  This is going to be harder than I thought.  The cats and him have not made friends yet, although Sylvester is showing a genuine interest.  Our cat's names are Kitty, Annabelle, Sylvester, and Shellie.  I hope for them all to be one big happy famil, running and playing in the house.  A girl can dream, can't she?  

2 Moms on a Mission Mom to Mom Sale March 12th 9am - 2pm

My fellow blogger friend Carly and myself have come together as 2 Moms on a Mission...

Our first endeavorer is hosting our very 1st Mom to Mom sale March 12th 9am - 2pm at Holy Rosary Hall located in Thorold Ontario.  

Since we are new our table prices are super well priced.  

Moms are $25 for 1 table or 2 for $40

Businesses are $35 for 1 or 2 for $60

Admission : $ 1.00 OR a Canned good for Local Community Care or Pet Food for Niagara Action for Animals.

Date & Time: Saturday March 12th 2011 9am - 2pm

Location:  21 Queen St. South Thorold (Holy Rosary Hall)

Who says kids have to cost you a million!

Questions or reservations?


Email us! 2momsonamissioncanada@gmail.com

or call us!


Avery 905-680-9378

Carly 289-362-3377

Check us out facebook

How to let a blog you follow feel the love :-) especially us just starting out

1.  Leave Comments – bloggers love comments.  We love to hear that you are enjoying what we have to say.  We actually love to connect with you personally and many of us use some of the input that you leave in your comments.

2.  Send an Email. Let them know that you appreciate what they are doing.  Bloggers do not make lots of money off their blogs – if we did it for the money, most of us would quit.  (Trust me!)  An email can brighten a blogger’s day and make their job feel as a blogger worth it to them.

3.  Have Patience. If you sent a blogger an email and they do not respond right away, please don’t leave comments on their Facebook pages or send multiple emails.  A blogger can receive over 300 emails a day with people demanding their attention.  When a blogger can, she will email you.  Sometimes she has to work behind the scenes to come up with the answer to your question.  If you haven’t heard from them after a week, send another one.  Check to see if they received your email but do it politely.  Please.

4.  Enter Their Giveaways.  Bloggers are judged by how many entries they have in their giveaways.  I wouldn’t enter everything they have because you might not be able to use it all but if you can, please enter.  It is encouraging to see a huge listing.

5.  Fan Their Facebook pages and suggest them to your friends. If you like a blogger and enjoy reading them, chances are – you have friends and family that might enjoy them too.  Use your simple “suggest” button Facebook and suggest your favourite blogger’s Facebook page to your friends.

6.  Re-Tweet out their comments. If you are on Twitter, retweet your blogger’s favourite posts so that others can see them and possibly follow them and read their posts.

7.  Have a favourite company on Facebook? Suggest your favourite blogger to that company.  Companies have really begun to appreciate social media but they don’t always know who is out there.  You as the reader can influence a company to do a giveaway on your favourite blogger’s blog just by letting them know that they exist.  It’s as simple as leaving a Facebook comment or sending an email with the blogger’s web address.

8.  Make suggestions to your favorite blogger of things you would love to see.Bloggers love to add content that their readers want to see.  Make sure before suggesting it that it fits that blogger’s blog because some things may not be a great fit but others will be.

9.  Offer to Guest Post. Bloggers have down days.  Days when they are sick, days when they don’t have anything to say, days when their world’s are crazy busy, and days when nothing is going right.  Those days are days when either we don’t write or we love to share someone else’s thoughts.  You might be an expert in something or have something you would like to share.  Chances are very high that your blogger will love it and use it!  Ask them first before you put all the time into it.

Bloggers love their readers and all the support that we can get makes our days and writing easier.  For every blog that is started daily, at least a few quit.  Why do they quit?  They don’t have the support that they need.  If you have a favourite blogger, let them know and send a smile their way!

I'm a cloth diapering momma

I'm a cloth diapering momma

We made the big switch to cloth when our daughter was about 4 months old.  I think it the was best decision we could of made for our family, and thought about it for a while before we actually looked into it.  I remember the day, I had boxes of disposable diapers and wipes and one day just sold them all to use that money towards cloth.  


MY hubby and I were so overwhelmed with all the choices.  Let me tell you, cloth diapers are not the same as they were years ago.  My mom seen the diapers we got and was super shocked at how easy they actually were.  I mean you can still get your back in the day style cloth diapers-prefolds.  BUT the majority is pretty much a dispossoable but in cloth form.  Let's break it down.

Our daughter when she was about 6-7 months old

Our main stash of diapers consists of bumGenius-one size pockets. These are waterproof shells that come with 2 inserts, you can adjust the absorbency but taking an insert out, or by adding more to absorb. We add a hemp or bamboo insert and use these for night. We love love these diapers, Never had poop blow out , I like one size for if we ever have any more babies plus they resell much better. The only thing that sucks is they are velcro, the kids learn to pull them off pretty fast, they get stuck on things (when I'm carrying my daughter to put her to bed if she has no pants on she gets stuck to my cloths and the diaper rips off when I put her down...ugh) plus velcro scratches their cute tummys. They are a bit expensive, about $25 each.

FuzziBunz also makes up a huge chunk of our stash. There are 2 kinds, the sized ones (small,medium,large,x large) or one size pocket diapers. Same concept-waterproof shell, you add your own inserts. I really like the new FuzziBunz Onesize-they come with 2 meaty inserts, so you can use them for night by adding a little more(if you need to) or use them as is, or take one out and use them during the day. These are also around $25

Both of those diapers are pretty much the best you can get for cloth diapering right now. (In my opinions)

A little bit of money, but they usually have a very high resale value, are high quality so if you ever have any more kids you will not need to re buy,unless you want to. It is always said that there are 2 ways of being convenient. While diapering, or while washing. These are super convenient, just like disposables while diapering. For washing you will need to pull out the insets and tuck the velcro on the sides so they don't all get tangled up.

The cheapest and easiest to wash, although the hardest to diaper with are prefolds. Just like the cloth diapers you were picturing from back in the day. Flat diapers that are "prefolded" in the middle to add absorbency. You need to fold these to fit your little nugget, we started out with these. I had more poop blow outs than I would like to admit, a lot of it from me not knowing entirely what I was doing, and some from it not being the best diaper at holding poop back. These are very very easy to wash, but much more work to put on a wiggling baby, they also take a long time to dry. These I think are around $4 each, not much of a resale value and don't hold up as well for baby number 2. You will need to buy covers separately as these are not waterproof.


There are also fitted diapers, which are diapers that are not waterproof. We do have a large amount of these, I got them off the internet, I love these diapers but am no longer buying from this lady or helping her out with business because of how she handles things. BUT you can find fitteds in every cloth diaper/natural parenting store , so cute but you will need to buy a cover. They are usually $15 to $25 I think.



I know it is a lot of money to spend, trust me, been there done that, almost lost my mind! hahah. I always tell people that yes it's quite a bit of money to start up, BUT no one has ever bought all the disposables they will need for their child's whole diapering time in one go. People do with cloth, or break it up into 2 or 3 buying chunks, that does seem like a lot of money, but it would be expensive for all the disposables as well. I did buy a lot more than I needed to, but have also resold some to pay for new ones and so on. We have so many that they all get evenly used and are still in great condition. The less you have the more they will be washed and worn, the more they wear down, the more you have the less they are worn and washed the better the hold up.


I just want to say to stay away from the ones in walmart, zellers, all those stores. Stick to cloth diapering stores. You really do get what you pay for.


Good luck with everything! If you need anything just let me know  I'm always up for chatting about cloth. I'm sorry if I missed anything or made a million typos.




Do you have a favourite?  Any comments you wanna make, or something you want to ask?  Feel free to post below.  




These are my personal views on the above products, in which I picked out and paid for on my own terms.  
If you make cloth diapers and would like a review, just let me know :-)

A little about this blogger, and my plans for this site

My name is Avery, yes like the paper company.  I'm a stay at home mom to a beautiful and awesome 2 1/2 year  old girl., and proud of it! I'm married to my best friend, and share our house with cute little animals.
I had decided, and started a blog a while back.  I guess I wasn't really focused and never made much of it.  I am going to make an effort to succeed this time around.  This will be my time, where I can go to express my thoughts of the day and anything I think might be of interest to someone else.

I am into 'crunchy' parenting stuff, such as breastfeeding {yes my daughter Jayla is still breastfeeding, and I am proud to say so}, cloth diapering, making my own cleaners,  bed sharing, using the no cry it out method, among other things but this is what 1st popped into my head.

I have reasons for why I like the things that I like if anyone feels the need to judge or challenge me.  Each family, parent, PERSON has things that works for them.  No one can tell you what will work for you, it's up to you to  figure that out on your own, and trust me you will.  I think it's time we all try to be a little more understanding of one another.  I'm sure we're all more alike than we thought, since everything has a stigma attached to it.

I love coupons, sales and deals, and freebies.  I am looking forward to be able to pass those things to you, since they make my day.  Since we are a 1 income family, and not the richest out of those, we try to make our pennies cover a lot.

Me and the hubby have been together for some time, we have had our ups and our downs just like any other couple out there.  We have worked hard at things, and other times barely tried and got along great.  I would of course like to bring to the blog.

I will be posting product reviews of things I have tried.  Honest reviews.

I know it will take time to get everything up and running the way I am hoping for.

Thanks so much for taking the time out of your day to read my blog.