How Kehan See's Mom: Age 6

1. What is something your mom always says to you?  Be good.


2. What makes your mom happy? Don't be Naughty


3. What makes your mom sad? Doing something very, very, very, naughty.

4. How does your mom make you laugh? Tickling me.

5. What was your mom like as a child? I don't know.


6. How old is your mom? 15

7. How tall is your mom? 14 feet

8. What is her favorite thing to do? Cook


9. What does your mom do when you're not around? Go to the grocery store.


10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for? A famous "cooker". (I guess I should be on Hell's Kitchen next, huh?)

11. What is your mom good at? Cooking


12. What is your mom not very good at? Driving a pick up. (He is right about that! I don't like driving the pick up!)


13. What does your mom do for a job? Umm, cook.


14.What is your moms favorite food? Spinach


15.What makes you proud of your mom? Because she is a great cooker.


16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be? Super Man


17. What do you and your mom do together? Pick up my room.


18. How are you and your mom the same? We have the same jeans. (color)
19. How are you and your mom different? We have different shirts on.
20. How do you know your mom loves you? Because sheh says I love you to me.

21. What does your mom like most about your dad? Because he works to get money.

How Ashlyn sees Mom: Age 4

1. What is something your mom always says to you? Don't play with her stuff.



2. What makes your mom happy? Don't be Naughty





3. What makes your mom sad? Playing with her stuff






4. How does your mom make you laugh? Tickle me






5. What was your mom like as a child? Helped her mom with the dishes






6. How old is your mom? 16






7. How tall is your mom? 8919 feet






8. What is her favorite thing to do? Do the dishes. (Umm, not true)






9. What does your mom do when you're not around? Work doing dishes and stuff






10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for?doing laundry and stuff






11. What is your mom good at? Dishes and stuff






12. What is your mom not very good at? Yoyos







13. What does your mom do for a job? The dishes





14.What is your moms favorite food? Tomatoes






15.What makes you proud of your mom? She is proud of me.






16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be? Dora






17. What do you and your mom do together?play puzzles and just doing stuff.






18. How are you and your mom the same? because we are just the same






19. How are you and your mom different? Mom doesn't suck her thumb






20. How do you know your mom loves you? Because  I give her kisses and hugs






21. What does your mom like most about your dad? Because she hugs and kisses him

Mom through the eyes of Kjerstin 5.5 years old and at 7.5 years old

I realized the other day I had not posted much about my children lately except the twins. That seems a bit biased so over the next few days I am going to post about my older children. Here is a set of 21 questions I asked Kjerstin when she was 5.5 years old. It is amazing how some answers are pretty much the same as they were 2 years ago. At least I must be consistent with my parenting style! Enjoy, some of these are pretty funny.

KJERSTIN 5.5 YEARS OLD
1. What is something your mom always says to you? “No, you can’t eat Daddy’s treats.” (She had just been told that)


2. What makes your mom happy? “Always be good”



3. What makes your mom sad? “when I am not good”



4. How does your mom make you laugh? Silly faces



5. What was your mom like as a child? Loved to watch tv



6. How old is your mom? “15”



7. How tall is your mom? 8 feet



8. What is her favorite thing to do? Be by herself



9. What does your mom do when you're not around? Clean and watch tv (we don’t have tv anymore)



10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for? Because you have children



11. What is your mom good at? Cleaning ( you’d imagine my house being spotless, but it is usually a disaster! I wish I was as good as she keeps saying!)



12. What is your mom not very good at? Yoyos



13. What does your mom do for a job? Clean the kitchen and shovel the snow (can you tell we just had a blizzard?)



14.What is your moms favorite food? Meat and rice and mashed potatoes with gravy on top.



15.What makes you proud of your mom? Staying home with me and Kehan and Ashlyn



16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be? Silver mist fairy



17. What do you and your mom do together? Clean the floor



18. How are you and your mom the same? Our mouths are the same



19. How are you and your mom different? Our hair is different



20. How do you know your mom loves you? Because my heart tells me



21. What does your mom like most about your dad? Sleeping in bed with him (LOL)
 
 
 
  KJERSTIN 7.5 YEARS OLD
 
1. What is something your mom always says to you?
"Listen to Mom."

2. What makes your mom happy? When I be good.


3. What makes your mom sad? Not listening


4. How does your mom make you laugh? Tickling me


5. What was your mom like as a child? Liked to pick wild honeysuckle


6. How old is your mom? “30”



7. How tall is your mom? 10 feet


8. What is her favorite thing to do? help us pick strawberries


9. What does your mom do when you're not around? works around the house


10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for? For taking good care of your children


11. What is your mom good at? Good at cooking

12. What is your mom not very good at? art


13. What does your mom do for a job? Do the church bulletin


14.What is your moms favorite food? Lasagna


15.What makes you proud of your mom? Raising me good.


16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be? Jasmine


17. What do you and your mom do together?Read books


18. How are you and your mom the same? We both have straight hair.


19. How are you and your mom different? She has brown eyes and I have blue.

20. How do you know your mom loves you? Because she tells me she loves me. Helping me out with my chores.


21. What does your mom like most about your dad? That he is nice.

AppleCheeks Diaper Liners VS. Bummis BioSoft Diaper Liners

The diaper liner is a well known tool for most cloth diapering families. It is though one that is often forgotten in my house because at 19 months Eli and Ellie are wiggly and just want to run and play so the diaper has to go on quick and the liner is sometimes an after thought. But when remembered it is GREATLY appreciated!

For those of you reading this and wondering, "What the heck is a diaper liner?" It is a piece of fleece cloth or other flushable material that you lay on top of the diaper to catch the messy diapers so you can just pick up the liner and either rinse it in the toilet (fleece cloth) or just flush it down the toilet with the flushable ones. The liners help keep stains off cloth diapers and make cleaning up those really messy diapers SO much easier!

Bummis flushable liners are 100% viscose rayon, a cellulosic fibre derived from natural sources, and are made to their specifications in England.


AppleCheeks flushable liners are also 100% Viscose but, made in China.
Here is what I found comparing both of the liners:
BioSoft liners come in two sizes.
      Size 1 is 5" x 12"
      Size 2 is 7.5" x 12"
AppleCheeksliners come in one size and are 6.5" x 11"
The BioSoft liners are not quite as soft as AppleCheeks liners but still soft.
Both liners come in rolls of 100.
Both liners do exactly what they say and catch the mess so you can just pick it up and flush.

For me I prefer the AppleCheeks because of my petite babies. The Size 2 BioSoft liners are just too wide and I end up folding them in a little and the Size 1s are too narrow now, but as infants they sure worked well! So AppleCheeks fits the gap for us coming in a little wider than the Size 1s but narrower than the size 2s.

You can purchase BioSoft liners here at My Baby Pumpkin.
You can purchase AppleCheek Liners here at Sweetbottoms Baby Boutique.

Both AppleCheeks 2 Sized Washable Diaper System and the Bummis line of cloth diapers are Canadian companies that proudly manufacture all their diapers in Canada.

I have had personal contact from each company. Ilana and Amy at AppleCheeks are two of the funnest people I have "met." I say "met" as I have only corresponded through email and watching their live Ustream chat during the release of their two prints. I can say they are quite a pair and I am sad I may never know them in person because they seem so fun! Definately people who would brighten a dark day! 

I have been in email contact with Shirley at Bummis in the past also by doing testing of new products for them. I have had the honor of participating in two different testing rounds for different products. While I cannot discuss the items I have tested besides their news cover the SuperLite, which you can see here, I can say that they are really out to find the newest cloth diaper hit. It is a long process getting through testing so I have been patiently waiting to see what or when they bring some of the products I have tested to the market.

I have enjoyed both companies and can say they both strive to help their customers be happy and succeed with their cloth diapering choices. I highly recommend both companies to those searching around for the right cloth diaper.

Family Wedding Weekend

This past weekend my husband's brother married a wonderful girl. Our oldest two daughters were asked to be flower girls and our oldest son was a ringbearer. It was a beautiful wedding and we are very happy to have a new member in the family. Our kids really enjoy calling her Auntie too!

Our family. This was the best shot of our family quickly taken after the ceremony on Saturday. Hey at least everyone is looking at the camera and no one is crying right? I would have liked a few more smiles but over all it is a pretty good picture. I love my family!

Family Life Triage {How moms of many, multiples, or both do it}

For many months,well, let's be honest since the twins were born nearly 18 months ago I have been asked several times "How do you do it?" I could never quite figure out how to answer other than, "By the Grace of God." or "Honestly I don't really know, you just do." Tonight as I was carrying the first of the twins ready for bed up the stairs to her crib it came to me! I finally know how to explain how it is done!

FAMILY LIFE TRIAGE is what I thought of as I was climbing those stairs with Ellie. What a catching name too! Here is how a seniro just might play out.

After a full day of activity, well who am I kidding, it could happen any day or at any time, you find yourself with 2-5 kids crying all at the same time. So, what do you do except sit down and cry with them? TRIAGE! Here is the way I like to run down the cryers as well as the rest of the gang.
In order of who gets moms help or attention first.

1. Youngest child or if hurt the child with the greatest injury.
2. After #1 is taken care of it goes up to the next oldest child in need. Again according to age and or injury.  Example: Our 7 year old may trump one of our 17 month olds if she is injured badly enough.

This continues until all crying stops. If, I am lucky enough a few stop crying on their own and realize they can cope with life without needing Mom they way they thought they did. Somtimes though more join in on the crying and the number in TRIAGE goes up. Then I just stop and cry! Haha. Oh, one more important thing to remember, enlist the help of older non crying children! My older children can often comfort a smaller sibling or help them while I tend to those in the most dire need. Side note: I can't say how many times my "big" kids help me with the twins or even Ashlyn! They are probably the reason I have not gone insane yet! haha "big" kids ROCK!

Some out there may think I am ignoring my other children who need me, but in reality I believe I am teaching them good life skills on how to handle their emotions, conflicts with siblings, or "small" hurts on their own knowing help is comming if they still need it in a few minutes. In the end every child gets checked on, tucked in bed, hugged, kissed, and told they are loved. But, TRIAGE is the way we handle multiple meltdowns that occur at the same time.

I also TRIAGE house work. Most important first and so on. There are times when an item on the list sits at the bottom of the list for days.

I want to state that I am NO supermom. I regularly have days when nothing gets done because I don't want to do anything, my kids go to sleep in their clothes and have not brushed their teeth, the twins eat food off the floor and not single dish gets washed or put away, this is just how I make it through each day.

Now you have an answer to "I just don't know how you do it!"

Took a Time Out Today

This morning after I had put our 3 older children on the bus and the Twins woke up for the morning and had their breakfast I sat back and just enjoyed the hours of the morning with them. I am very thankful that I did. I was able to witness some pretty special moments of twin bonding between Eli and Ellie.

To start off the morning they showed me just  how much they love each other. There we were just sitting and playing on floor and I was just enjoying the moment and drinking in how special each of them are and they stood up and started hugging each other! Eli was even giving Ellie kisses! This went on for at least 2 minutes. They would hug let go look at each other a giggle a little then hug again, until finally Eli was done and pushed Ellie away. To me that was such a special moment. Through out the morning they would play often apart but one would always get and check on what the other was doing. Usually they just turned around and went back to what they were doing but, it was like they were checking up on each just to see if they were OK.

One day not that long ago I was taking another moment to take in the uniqueness of each of the twins and I asked them, "Which one of you decided you just couldn't do this on your own and asked for a partner to take on the world with?" Well Eli started the hugging and from the first ultrasound at 6 weeks he always measured a day farther along than Ellie. I have decided Eli needed a hand to hold and I am ever grateful that God saw fit to give him a hand to hold.

Today showed me that in the busyness of life it is important to stop and hit pause. The world is just spinning so fast for everyone that the little things get lost. Today I found a few of those things watching our twins. I hope anyone reading this takes a moment and hits pause today to just take in the world around them and enjoy the beauty we pass by everyday without thought.