Love is Contagious

Words can't explain the love in our home! So here are some pictures to show you! :)

Kynnlie Jean McCabe

Welcomed on November 20, 2010 @ 9:34 am and weighing in at 7 pounds 9 ounces.

Miss Kynnlie is home and everyone is doing wonderful. Labor was pretty fast compared to the other two kiddos we went into the hospital at 11:00 Friday night and they let us stay at "hotel" patience since living 60 miles from the hospital they didn't want to send me home but we weren't sure if I was actually in labor. At 3:00 am they admitted me as a patient and by 9:34 that morning she was here!

Rylie and Jackson are very much in awe of her and fighting for her attention. Mommy barely gets a good morning kiss, its all about sister.

Here are a few pictures and many more to follow as I try to catch up with loading them :)

Kynnlie just born!

This is one of my favs :) Just born and nursing and already holding onto my finger...

Kynnlie only a couple hours old
Rylie and Jackson meeting sister. They both have coughs so they had to wear the silly little masks :) But they are very happy! Jackson ran up to me and said "baby sister, out!"

Rylie holding Kynnlie. She has informed me this is her favorite part of being a big sister.

And now there are five!Kynnlie going home at 10 hours old!

Ry lost her first tooth!

What a milestone! I wasn't ready for her to lose her teeth and never saw the day coming :) It just makes Rylie that much older! :(
So, go back a couple weeks, Rylie and I are driving to piano lessons and she says, "mom this tooth is wierd. It kind of leans forward." I look in the rear view mirror and tell her I think its lose. "The excitement in her little eyes was worth 1000 words! Last year with the homeschool group she watched as all the kindergartners were losing their teeth and couldn't wait for her turn! Now, it was going to happen.
So, she played with the tooth and pushed it harder. She would be in the middle of her soccer game and run up to her coach to show him how lose her tooth was getting.
That tooth was barely hanging on and last night when Rob went to help her with it, it took a little nudge and popped right out! I have never seen Rylie fall asleep so fast, knowing that the "tooth fairy" was on its way!

Rylie Starts Soccer!

Rylie started soccer this year and LOVES it! We had our first game Wednesday night and she hasn't stopped talking about it.
She is so funny out on the field, even though she is a little girly girl she was in the crowd with the ball the WHOLE game. I wish I could get a video of her so you could all hear her when she plays. She laughed the entire game! Running and kicking the ball is her favorite part. At one point she was on the defensive side down by the goal and took the ball all the way up field passed the half way line on the field. I was a proud momma watching her out there! :)
About half time the rain started to really come down so the camera was put away, but I will have lots more chances to get some pictures and hopefully a video to put up here.

Jack's First day of "School"

My little Jackson started a pre-school group on Tuesday mornings! It is a wonderful thing for him to get to do and he is really loving it!
I get to go in and help out with the 2-3 year olds and it is a blast. Jack is so out going and really gets into what the teacher says to do. They line up to move rooms quite a bit and they act like a choo-choo and Jackson is one of the loudest making the "CHOO-CHOO" right along with the teacher.
He goes on Tuesdays from 10:00-12:30 so he packs a lunch and gets to eat with his friends! Here are a few pictures from his first day of school, and sister there supporting him out the door :)

BusyB Photography is LIVE

My site is LIVE and going! I am so excited about this new adventure. My website is www.busybphotos.com
This will hopefully lead to some wonderful opportunities for our family, including me continuing to stay home with the kids.
Thank you friends and family for all your continued support and your encouraging words. Your help has really pushed me into these last few steps.
Love you all!!!

Camping!

Finally, the end of July and our family got our rears in gear and got out to camp. Granted we knew we had a rainy weekend ahead, but the next three weekends are booked and then school starts. So, I was over the waiting and said we were going anyways!

We had a fabulous time, the rain rained at perfect times. It added to our enjoyment and made us "stuck" inside the camper together trying to figure out what to do. But, that's the joy of camping, away from life stresses and able to just enjoy each other.

Here is what rain brought us the first day we were there. I have to say though we got some great laughs watching them slip and slip. Yes, they were covered, and Colorado mud is RED. I am still spot treating Jacksons jeans!

Day two brought awesome weather for us to hike down to some hot springs and play in the water. This hike is 2 miles in down hill and two miles out all up hill. It is quite the hike out but Rylie is a trooper, she was even stung by two bees at the same time, and still made it out!

We headed out early thinking we were going to get afternoon rain again, but we were blessed. The rain held out till 7:00 and gave us a wonderful evening. Rob has been wanting to take the time to teach Rylie about guns and let her shoot and we had perfect weather for this! This was her first time shooting, and she did great. (And, she was "lectured" about the safety of guns also).

Look closely at the last one. This was her target a TINY water bottle. There are four holes two are from Rob, but the other two are from Rylie! She was pretty proud of herself!

Our Cloth Diaper Adventures

As I have mentioned the McCabes will be defeating many adventures this year. This will be a huge year of change for our family but Rob and I are both very ready for everything coming at us. I will start with our cloth diaper adventure! Who would have thought I would cloth diaper. If you know me, you know, that I HATE with a passion changing poopy diapers. Poor Rob, he had become the "official" poopy diaper changer when he was home, and I love that he has taken it on so willingly. :)

Well, when money gets tight and I start crunching numbers I realize that I don't have much of a choice but that I need to get use to the poop. So, I am in Florida, and I call my hubby and give him the figures and the core of cloth diapering. He agrees (like always)... here are some facts to share with you :

Lets just look at Jackson for now. We switched him over at 23 months but in a size 5 diaper those cost approx 0.40/per diaper at $2.77 per day! Just diapers. So if he is in diapers for the next 6 months (lets hope no longer than that) just his diapers for the next 6 months will cost our family close to $500.00! So, those numbers alone were enough for us to see that we needed to take this step.

So, here I am researching and eating, sleeping, dreaming, reading about cloth diapers for days. I realize pretty quickly that I can make them for cheaper :) So, what do I do... head out and start researching materials and fabrics and calling on my buddy Ash to help me along the way. So far I have spent $200 for Jackson's ENTIRE stash and some of the baby's stash. And can I tell you I have SOOO much fabric left that I will be able to make many more diapers. So, just say that $200 was only for Jackson I have already saved our family $300 on diapers for the next 6 months. Not counting that baby will be able to wear these diapers also from 12 months on. Which, since I am on a number kick, is $1,400 savings from 12-30 months old.

Here is Jackson stash of diapers. For the most part I am finished making his diapers unless I find something that is a must have. Right now I do a small load of laundry every three days. So, I am not adding much more when it comes to washing clothes.

These three lower diapers are for baby. I have no idea how big to make them so I am just playing around with a few different sizes and types. I don't want to make all one size and have them not work or fit her. So the above one is a fleece cover that will just go over a prefold diaper. This is supposed to be very newborn. The crab diaper is in between a small and medium. I am hoping it will fit her by two months and should fit for a while. I have added snaps so the sizing is versatile. Then the skirt is a diaper cover that is just too darn cute! I made this one hopefully big enough for her to fit in by spring :)

So, when you are wondering what in the world I am doing cloth diapering my kiddos, this is the number one reason! I am not hating it, I am actually really enjoying this journey.

Jackson LOVES them! I have tried to put plastic diapers on him for night time and he yanks and yells, so he is now wearing cloth diapers all the time (except for the times he is running around here nude and peeing outside :)

Last part of this cloth journey, are the wipes. I know I know.... cloth wipes too! Yes. This is kind of out of my laziness :) I didn't want to have to throw wipes in a trash can and have a separate place for diapers and wipes. I also didn't want to have to dig through the diaper bin to make sure there were no wipes, solution... cloth wipes! I made all these with recycled flannel receiving blankets and terry towels. I have yet to make the solution yet for the wipes but it is as simple as water, baby soap, and tea tree oil.

So, there you have it! One of our many journeys that we will be adventuring through!

Little Birdie Secrets

No, I don't have any little secrets but it is one of my most favorite blogs that I follow. I have gotten so many wonderful craft ideas, I hate to admit that I am addicted :)
Anyways, they are giving away this awesome silhouette machine! I never enter to win anything but wouldn't it be awesome if I did win!
Here is her blog for all those curious.
http://littlebirdiesecrets.blogspot.com

Family Update!

Alright, I posted a couple weeks ago saying I would get better at this, and here is a start! So, now lets update everyone!!!
School has come to an end and summer has begun. For us it means I am at home with kiddos and Rob is out of town working 4-10s. He comes home Thursday nights and leaves back on Monday mornings. I love him for his devotion to continue finding jobs to support us!
Rylie is growing and growing fast. At five years old, we are VERY proud of her. Her newest accomplishments are reading at a first grade level, and riding her two wheeler. She is already outsmarting us, and it is quite scary!
Jack on the other hand is 100% boy and I love him for that!!!!! He has no fear and will do anything and everything (that I don't want him to do). I have found that his no fear has made him a great swimmer. He loves to jump off the wall of a swimming pool and for you NOT to catch him. Yes, thats right he jumps in goes WAY under and swims to the top for his resuce. He turns two on Saturday and I love that he is just a typical little boy!!!!
Rob, is working summers back at electrical work. As school approaches has also had a teaching change for next year. He not only will be coaching junior high and high school wrestling teams but he will also be a coach for junior high football. His love for these kids is pretty amazing, and its great to see all these boys look up to him. Besides adding to his coaching load he will be teaching PE and Health next year. With all the budget cuts we are so fortunate to say he still has a job, and he is looking forward to this change.
And for me. I was asked to continue on our homeschooling journey by a couple of parents for next year and it was a huge decision for our family. Teaching from home was an amazing experiance, and I loved having a close connection with the 8 kids. There were many challenges but the positive out weighed those challenges. So, why am I not continuing on in this journey of my own little school, well, we are expecting our third baby in November! This came as a huge suprise but a VERY welcomed suprise. I have ALWAYS wanted to be a stay at home mom and I can't really teach and have a child in the middle of the year. So, it has helped us figure out how to make us a one income family.
This next year I am excited to share our journey of living with three kids and one hard working hubby! I will be cutting many corners and I am thrilled to share and hear all the money saving tips.
We have a lot to look forward to this coming year and lots of love to share!
With lots of love,
The McCabes!

New Goal!

I haven't forgotten about this blog! I really haven't :) After reading one of my friends blogs and seeing how well she does with it, it has inspired me to write more. Now, as we all know I have LOTS of inspirations and goals and it seems like my life as a mom comes in the way. So, I am going to try LOTS harder to post updates weekly.
I have so much to write about and so many updates to fill you in on, so they will come. As I type I am sitting in Florida with a teething Jackson on my lap. So, no update tonight just promises that I hope to fulfill!
Updates to come, but I want everyone to know that I haven't forgotten you and to look forward to many posts to come!

First Hair Cut!

Getting ready for our first hair cut! Jackson is 21 months old and FINALLY getting his first hair cut. Mommy wasn't wanting to get rid of his baby curls.

Look how long his hair was on top!

The place we went to was awesome! He chose a little fire engine to sit in and got to watch "Cars".

Hold on tight! He wasn't so sure about the blow dryer, but not once did he fuss about.

Look at my little stud! All grow up now!

Memo: Check out 365 Blog

I wanted to share with everyone that I have started a new blog. I will continue to try to update this blog but I have a feeling it might get a little lonely over here. My goal this year to take a picture and post it everyday this year. WOW, you say! That is what I am thinking too, but just imagine the journals I will have if I can follow through with this. So I am on day six and I have 5 journal entries with pictures up. So far I have taken a picture every day!
See you over at the other blog!
Love you all!
~B

http://brandies365journey.blogspot.com