Giveaway: Sweet Baby Things

Baby got his/her first baby present the other day!  :)  My friend Monica just added the most adorable baby toys to her shop, Sweet Baby Things.  All of the proceeds from her shop go toward their adoption of two babies from Africa.  Her family has already adopted two children and now they are raising funds for two baby boys that they have been matched with and hope to bring home soon.

I love that these baby toys are made of smooth unfinished wood (no chemicals or plastics!).  Her prices are super low as well.  Not to mention that she uses the trendiest fabrics!  I'm in love with this little baby toy and think these would make perfect baby shower gifts.  Check out their shop for baby booties, journal covers, dresses, and more.

Sweet Baby Things is giving away one wooden ring baby toy of your choice (any style)!  To win, check out Monica's website and let me know what your favorite item is that she sells.  For a second entry, leave another comment letting me know that you shared about the giveaway on Facebook, Twitter, or your blog.  Be sure to leave your email address so that I have a way to contact you.  I'll close the giveaway Saturday, October 8 at midnight.  Of course if you can't wait until then... go shop!  :)

*Giveaway now closed!*

Crock-pot Chicken

This is the easiest, tenderest, juciest, best chicken recipe ever!

Chop an onion and place in the bottom of the crock-pot.  Mix together the following spices and rub over a whole chicken.  I also loosen some of the chicken skin and rub the spices right on the meat.

4 tsp salt
2 tsp paprika
1 tsp cayenne pepper (Sometimes I leave this out; its great, but too spicy for the kids.)
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp black pepper

Set your spiced chicken on top of the onion and cook on low 4-8 hours.  The chicken will be tender and very easy to pull off of the bone when done.

I usually remove the meat and throw all of the bones back in the crock-pot with some water to cook overnight and make stock.  One chicken gives us enough meat for a meal, leftover chicken to add to one or two casseroles or soups, plus several containers of stock!  Try it and let me know what you think.  :)

Newborn Stash?

What's your favorite newborn diaper?  

I just got a few new diapers for the baby.  Bumgenius are on sale buy 5 - get 1 free, so after selling some misc. cloth diapers on Craigslist, I was able to buy these.  

I also had a $10 credit to Diapers.com and found this adorable little FuzziBunz XS on sale for $11.16 (sold out now).  Its soo tiny!

I haven't decided what to use as newborn diapers yet.  I like the idea of prefolds or fitteds, I just hate a soggy wet diaper being against baby's skin.  My first two babies were terrible sleepers and I dared not add in another factor that may wake them (a wet feeling diaper).  FuzziBunz sized pocket diapers are definitely my favorite.  If it were practical, I'd love to have a complete stash of them in XS, S, and M.  I just don't think baby will be in XS long enough to justify buying a whole set.  The Bumgenius one size or FB smalls don't fit right away though.  Should I just go with disposables in the beginning, or something else?  Hm....

Heartbeat

Last week we got to hear the baby's heartbeat for the first time!  I took all three girls along to my midwife appointment, and they were very excited.  All morning before we went, there was plenty of chatter about "the baby's heartbeat".  I had to laugh at one point when I looked over and saw Esther doing this:

Smart little girl!
linked to Gratituesday

Making A Worm Bin

Sometimes Mom gets crazy ideas and decides to run with them.  

I've been reading about worm composting bins for a while now and finally made up my mind to give it a try.  We followed these directions to make our bin, and it was actually fairly simple.  The conversation I had with my father-in-law was pretty funny though: 

Me: "Can I borrow your drill?"

Him:  pause... "You want to borrow my power drill?" 

Me: "Yeah, I'm making a worm bin."

Him:  another pause... "Ok..."

The girls were excited when I told them we were getting some new pets and would have to make them a home.  I figured if nothing else it will be a fun school experiment.  The worms are staying in our garage for now, and if they survive a few months and don't stink too much we'll bring them into the basement for the winter.

We are starting out with just a few worms from someone else's worm bin, so I can't feed them too much yet.  Supposedly they multiply fairly quickly, so we'll see what happens.  Right now I just give them some veggie scraps once a week and be sure their bedding is still damp.

Stay tuned for an update in a couple months!  You can read more about worm bins here if you're interested.

It works for me.  At least I think it does...

Labor Day

I just saw this cute post (here) and had to share it in honor of labor day, even if I am a bit late!

The hardest work I've ever done:

How long were your labors?

1. 8 hours
2. 3 hours
3. 1 1/2 hours - yes, total!

How did you know you were in labor?

1. my water broke and flooded all over the place the day after my due date
2. my water broke and flooded all over the place, this time 2 weeks early
3. contractions came hard and fast and my water broke shortly after!

Where did you deliver?

1. the hospital
2. the hospital
3. home

Drugs?

1. Stadol (made my loopy) and then an epidural
2. no drugs! (Yay, Bradley classes!)
3. no drugs!  :)

C-sections?


   No, thank goodness.

Who delivered?

1. my OB
2. an OB I had never met but who was on call.  I was in hard fast labor and trying to explain to this guy that we wanted to wait to cut the cord, etc.  He was ok with it all though and it ended up being great.
3. my husband!  the midwife arrived 5 minutes later

How about you?  

Curious about my birth stories?  You can read them here, here, and here.

Sneaky Carrots

One of my children in particular is a very picky eater.  It is nearly impossible to get her to eat any veggies... except when she doesn't know she is eating them.  ;)

Whenever we have macaroni and cheese for lunch, I add two cubes of pureed carrots and no one can taste the difference.  To make the cubes:

- Peel, chop, and steam a big bag of carrots.
- Puree them in a blender with a bit of water.
- Freeze in ice cube trays and store in a plastic bag in the freezer.

Add to cooked drained macaroni along with the butter, milk and cheese as usual.  The hot noodles melt the cubes fairly quickly, and I think the carrots even make the macaroni taste creamier.  You can also add the carrot cubes to spaghetti sauce and whatever else you can think of.

Do you have any tricks that you use on a picky eater?  

linked to Kitchen Tip Tuesdays

Sisters

Want to see a couple pictures of my adorable girls?  :)

They wanted to match, all wearing their birthday shirts, and then wanted me to take a picture.  Esther is trying to put her arm around Julia's neck just like the other girls.  :)

playing iPod

I love my sweet girls!  They play together very nicely most of the time and are so much fun to be around.  Do you think we'll be adding another girl to the mix, or a boy???!