Well I didn't realize it's really been almost a month since I updated.........again. Oops.
The day after I updated we headed to Hot Springs to visit my brothers since we hadn't seen them in a while....like Christmas?
Anyways, so we drove half way one night and then got to the track the next day right after the first race went off. Parking is always a nightmare at that track. Anyways, Novaley was excited to see her uncles! It's a miracle they were both at the same track at the same time...hopefully this summer they will both be at Canterbury as well. :)
Alex:
Patrick:
Hanging out at Patrick's house.
View off of the balcony....
The boys made us some Peruvian food....it was soooooo good!!!
The next day we went to the Waffle House for breakfast lol...there was no orange juice throwing crazy lady this time...
After the races we stopped at Applebee's for a quick dinner before we had to leave....
Novaley got this stuffed animal at the gift shop where 2 horses were hugging each other lol.
This is 3/16 and you can see how much hair she already has at 7.5 months...........
We got home and the next day it was St. Patrick's day!! Also it would have been my cousin Lindsey's 27th birthday..I wish she was still here to celebrate. :'(
Where you can usually find Novaley........
3/20/2013
Or behind here......
I hung a few of the canvas's we had made with some of our favorite pictures...
The first time she pulled herself up to stand......yeah I can't believe I got this picture either.
haha
We were in the car and she had my phone and decided to take a picture of her foot....haha I honestly have no idea how she did this!
One night we made vegetable pizza with purple cauliflower...and a funfetti cake.
Her new hobby.
Standing everywhere and anywhere.
On the 25th my mom and brother steven stopped by for a few days.
They weren't planning on coming since my dad couldn't get off work, but at the last minute they decided to come...first they visited the boys for a few days and then came and watched novaley while i went to an advisor meeting and class on monday......i also had a module due at midnight so i was busy till about 10:45.
While my mom was here she helped me organize novaley's closet..pack up the clothes she's already worn and hang bigger sizes. and stuff about 203982309 pocket diapers.
They left on Thursday morning after I left for my observation since Isaac was able to babysit for us again, and headed back to Hot Springs for the Easter weekend with my brothers.
A few hours later Joe's parents and grandma Jane were in town! We went to Texas Roadhouse
They picked up these balls I had made for Novaley from Urbandale.......love, love, love. I want to get a million more of the small size to make Novaley a "ball" pit in her play room.
A few days later it was Easter! We went to mass and then came home and had a late dinner.....We still have NOT taken Novaley's Easter pictures so hopefully tomorrow or Thursday I'll be able to do that...yeah we really have been THAT busy.
She was really excited about her Easter baskets..........
Drinking from her new straw cup
With Dan and Deb
and Grandma Jane
love this new lace diaper!
hiding...she's always playing with the door stopper behind the doors
joe thinks this shirt is so cool because of SOA...............
the carseat joe's parents bought for her came a few days later..she loves it! But we won't be installing it in our car for a while.
a few stickers..........................
"I'm just a cupcake looking for my stud muffin"
love these...who doesn't love baby yoga pants???
her favorite place
the other night joe and i made arroz con pollo......it was really good
DON'T MAKE ME MAD!!
at kroger
when we got home this friendly stray followed us from the parking lot all the way up three flights of stairs to our apartment......we didn't let him in though :(
On Sunday we went to the annual Earth Day Festival at Discovery Green in downtown......it was super hot and I got sunburn.....
yesterday
this morning
So what's been going on in our lives? Well, I am in the last few weeks of the semester so I have been even busier than usual with projects, modules, observations, testing, etc. All fun stuff!
Novaley has been walking around the furniture and with her walker for a few weeks now. She says "dada" and "mama" although most of the time I'm pretty sure it's unintentional. She also says "babe babe baby" about a million times a day haha. She enjoys picking up anything and everything she finds on the floor and putting it into her mouth even if it's not food. She actually starts crawling away from Joe or me really fast if she has something in her mouth that she knows she's not supposed to. She pulls her hair clips out of her hair by herself and slobbers all over them. So her hair is always in her face now, but no I'm not cutting her bangs even though they're down to her mouth. She tried ham for the first time tonight and LOVED it.....just like her mom. No teeth yet, but I read that if babies get them later on then they are generally stronger and straighter....which thank god for that because I'm really hoping she gets my straight teeth and doesn't need braces. That's about all that's happened recently.
We finally bought a house!! Next Friday is the closing so hopefully everything works out and we can move in the weekend before all my finals and projects are due....ahhhhhh. I don't know why that always happens to me. Everything stressful packed into 2 or 3 days.
We have been cloth diapering for almost 2 months now and its so much easier than I thought it would be...and they are all so cute! Joe actually told me the other day that he likes cloth diapering better.....*gasp*
Novaley now has a crib, mattress, and dresser for her room....all non-toxic and/or organic. I literally spent days researching everything. Ultimately we ended up going with the Mercer crib, the Hudson dresser/changing table, and the Natural Mat Coco mattress. We still have to get a wool crib pad and cotton pad to ensure that the mattress is completely waterproof without using any plastics, but after looking at about 2039483049 websites, its coming in at about $200 more dollars so we are going to wait until we are in our new home to purchase those 2 things. Oh, I also was able to get her 3 sets of PERUVIAN organic cotton crib sheets!!!! How exciting!
For her play room we had a custom oak swing and rocker made by this really sweet guy on Etsy....we're probably going to paint it white....with non-toxic paint obviously.
As for continuing our mission of going green and eliminating plastics we now have unpaper towels, cloth napkins, glass straws, all glass mixing bowls and pans, and we have phased out all paper kitchen products like paper plates, plastic silverware, tupperware, etc. I also have about a $200 order of life factory bottles on the way which will last with Novaley and any other future babies (which, no we're not planning on having any more babies anytime soon....we'd both like to have all our student loans and debt paid off before even thinking about having another baby..plus I have a year left of my masters/certification program--anyways that's all another story)..........
We haven't gotten rid of novaley's plastic toys yet, but we are planning on doing that soon. Either selling them all on CL or donating them. We also have a ton of Johnson and Johnson's baby lotions, shampoos, etc. that have been sitting in our bathroom for months ever since we read that their products contain carcinogens. If you think I'm making this up, google it. They have until 2015 to get rid of them. If you really want them I'll send them to you for free, otherwise I'm dumping them out before we move. California Baby is a good alternative, although it's more expensive. Technically babies don't even need to use soap unless they are full of poop or something. Why do you think people have all these weird skin conditions these days.......yeah...think about it. Personally everyone always says that I have such "nice/soft skin" and I'll tell you why. It's because when I was younger and still to this day I didn't spend hours coating make up, lotions, skin care products, etc on my face or body.
So, my mom thinks that I am "turning into a hippie" because of all this stuff I have been reading about and researching. But it all makes sense! If people actually took the time to research or read a book maybe they would understand where I'm coming from. I'm not going to go off on some soapbox about all this but seriously, people are just so lazy these days and just follow these trends of convenience and then wonder why their kids have ADHD, strange health conditions, are obese, etc. That's all I'm going to say about that.
If you want any info on how to be more eco-friendly, chemical or plastic-free, I would be more than happy to teach you about it or refer you to different sources where you can do your own research.
I can't say that we are anywhere near our goal of being completely eco-friendly or chemical and plastic-free, unfortunately. Unless you're a millionaire it's not going to happen over night. We'd eventually like to get organic mattresses, furniture, solar panels, ceramic pans, have all energy star appliances, hybrid cars, etc. We are working on getting a whole house Aquasana water filtration system or maybe just a Berkey water filter and shower systems. Houston has the 6th worst (most contaminated) water in the country so this is one of our most urgent things to buy. If any of you readers want to gift that to us as a house warming gift, hey, you are more than welcome! ;)
It literally took me the entire day to update this, between naps, play time, story time, dinner time, bath time and bed time for Novaley. I'm sure you were all thoroughly amused with this post.
Hopefully next time I will be updating from our new house!
Until then...here is a cute video from March 24th with Novaley saying "mama" at the end...it almost sounds like she yells "Ashley" as well.........i'll let you be the judge. ;)
