It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas - #WW

This Sunday we decorated for Christmas. I love Christmas decorations, Christmas music, Christmas cookies, and all things of this wonderful time of year. I am the kind of person that doesn't believe Christmas is over until the Church says it's over...which is in January, so you can believe Christmas decorations/music/food are here to stay in our home until then. Hooray :-) I don't usually like to decorate this early, but with an early Advent season, I couldn't wait to do so. Baby G didn't know what to think at first, with all the festive activities going on! She desperately wanted to help though! She also really likes Christmas music--especially Jingle Bells and when I sing Hark, the Herald Angels Sing.

 Baby G likes to be "helpful"

Advent Goals

As I've mentioned before, we are Catholic. This past Sunday marked the 'new year' for Catholics, with the start of Advent. Advent is also recognized as a liturgical season by various other Christian denominations. I don't want to get "preachy" on you, as this is a 'mom blog,' but I do want to share a little bit about my faith.

Advent Facts:

Advent is a season of preparing ourselves to celebrate Christ's birthday at Christmas, while at the same time reminding us to be ready for His final coming--either at our death or the end of the present world. It gets it's name from the Latin word meaning 'coming.'

The readings at mass are mostly about preparing our souls to be worthy of Christ & Heaven.

There are four Sundays in Advent (although this was not always the case, and in Eastern Churches it is still 6 weeks). Because Christmas falls on a Sunday this year, Advent started as early as possible (11/27) and will be as long as possible (28 days).

Menu Plan Monday

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!! I took last week off from posting my meal plan, but I still had one:

Thirsties WINNER!

Thank you to EVERYONE who entered the largest giveaway Letters from Momma has ever hosted! There were 2221 entries (over 100 people)! I'm so pleased with the success of this review. The winner will receive a Thirsties Duo Fab Fitted, Duo Wrap, & two hemp inserts.

The winner is:

She had 22 entries-- including many daily tweets!

Thank you to all who entered!

A special thanks to Tanya for a great comment on 11/15/11:

"I have yet to try Thirsties diapers since my LO isn't set to arrive for a few more weeks but I do have six duo wraps that I bought second hand and a new duo diaper that I can't wait to try! The fitted is next on my list to get :) Great review by the way! It made me want to go stock up on Thirsties brand items :)"

Ps. Have you seen the Eco Sprout Cloth Diaper Detergent review & giveaway? Enter to win until 12/5 11 pm central time. 

Recipe: White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake

White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake

adapted from Allrecipes.com

Puppies, Baking, Family... I'm back from my break!

She got some potatoes and turkey!

You probably noticed that I didn't post anything yesterday or on Thanksgiving either. I suppose I could have scheduled posts ahead of time, but I really just wanted my blog take a break from posting too. I've been spending a LOT of time on my blog / promoting giveaways / designing elements and just wanted to take a time out to be thankful for the gift of my little family. Kind of like a moment of silence, if you will. I hope you all were able to spend some quality time with loved ones, too.

Do you like my blog?

I've been building this blog for about 3 months now, and I hope you like it. I've posted pretty much everyday since August about everything from cloth diapering to sleep training to breastfeeding to stay-at-home-mom issues. If you do like my blog, I'd love to hear from you!

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Our anniversary - kind of #WW

Yesterday was our third wedding anniversary. It was our first anniversary as parents. It was 11/22/11. It was also G's 9 month "birthday." It was a BIG day. Thankfully, my husband's cousin and his wife came to babysit so that we could go out. We are so appreciative of them!!

I'd like to share the card that I got for my husband. I usually spend at least 10 minutes in the card aisle trying to pick the perfect one. (I will home make cards for our 'dating' anniversary and sometimes other holidays, but for our wedding anniversary...I buy one. always.) This year I walked away from the card aisle after 1 minute, with the first card I picked up. Not because I was in a hurry or anything, but because the first card I read was the most perfect card in the world. (I did read a few more to be sure, but they didn't come close). I couldn't believe my luck! Here it is:

Baby G at 9 months old

My bitty baby is NINE months old today! I think nine months old is a big deal. It's 3/4 of a year and major milestones have been reached.

She is right on track for development, and is growing in personality every second. She smiles all.the.time. G is seriously the happiest baby I have ever seen.

Her home measurements are:
28.25" height
17.8 lbs weight
2 bottm teeth and the top right tooth is cutting through

Eco Sprout Cloth Diaper Detergent Review and Giveaway

Since my last post about cloth diaper laundry, some pretty important things in our routine have changed. I've altered the detergent we are using and consequently lowered the amount of rinses we have to do to rid our diapers of detergent residue. Therefore, our total wash time is down. I also haven't had to stand over the washer and skim off excess soap bubbles, as with previous detergents. This is making me a much happier cloth diaper momma. I can still appreciate the old cloth diaper detergent we were using, because it got the job done, but it took a lot more time and energy. Easy-to-use and time-saving are two very important qualities in any product, so I prefer our new detergent much more. Because cloth diaper laundry routines are a somewhat personal balance, what works for one family may not work for another...but I am here to tell you about the cloth diaper detergent that has saved my sanity.