Bye Bye TV

We cancelled our dish mid November. It was a tad difficult for all of us at first. Nate and I aren't big TV heads by any stretch of the imagination, but we found we did like it to unwind at night after the kids were in bed. The kids were another story. The reasons we got rid of the dish include:

1. Kids were addicted and would watch it 3-4 hours a day if we let them and when we didn't, they threw tantrums.
2. $$$, Nate's pay cut meant we wanted to weed out unnecessary stuff from our lives. TV made the cut
3. Kids were not able to be creative when it was turned off because they were dependant on it for entertainment.

The things we found out from having it gone over a month are:

1. We go literally DAYS without the TV running at all now(channels 2,3,4,5,7,9,11 and 13 are BORING) less electricity going means lower bills all around:0)
2. The kids are reading, playing mind boggling games and learning at a really rapid rate that otherwise wasn't happening.
3. The kids are way more creative, inventive and fight 10X less.
4. Nate and I's marriage has benefited in several areas ie; intimacy(not watching TV at night) and our own reading has benefited, which benefits the kids because they see it as completely normal for adults to sit around reading on a rainy day instead of watching TV.
5. An unexpected surprise: our house is actually CLEANER because the kids aren't as lazy and seem to be cleaning up after themselves more??? Never would have guessed this one.

My disclaimer is that we do still have a TV and have no intentions to get rid of it, but we have no dish and the kids don't watch basic channels so the only TV time that really happens is the occasional movie, which has become a rainy day or maybe once a week treat. We actually watched A Christmas Carol the other day to wrap up our reading since we read the book this month for Christmas and the kids really enjoyed seeing the movie after reading the book, but it was such a treat that they all sat perfectly intent and watched it(where normally a book/movie, I would have to try to keep them still to watch it because they were too used to watching Spongebob all day). Its been a great thing for our family though and I don't foresee us restarting dish.

Merry Christmas

Christmas was perfect. We were blessed enough to give our children everything we hoped we could and it was a wonderful day. The weather was super dreary and rainy which is actually quite a treat in Southern California so we just enjoyed the Christmassy Christmas day.

The night before Christmas and all through the house

Christmas eve PJ presents!
Kenna's BIG gift!

The BIG kid's BIG gifts

What they woke up to

Kenna LOVING her Rose Petal Cottage

Tanner so excited

Look at all those new bikes

Kenna in her new chair

Playing with her magnets that came in her stocking

Everett opening his bedding

Wyatt with his cool NBA sweatband, just like the pro Basketball players

Tanner unwrapping

Kenna tearing open her pony

Tanner on his new bike with matching helmet

Kayla in her new bedding and her new outfit

Everett trying out his new car bedding

Tanner's new dino bedding

Wyatt's awesome sports bedding*(he's way into basketball)

Dont get your eyes checked lol, that's my 3 year old riding his new spiderman bike with NO training wheels(they have been off the old bike about a month now)

Because I Can.....

The handsome boys!
The beautiful girls

I love Kenna's dress

Tanner and mama(23 weeks preggs), doesn't he look like me most of all the kiddos?

Everyone:0)

Everyone was dressed in their Christmas Church best and I couldn't help but take a plethora of pictures of them:0) I love seeing them dressed in their best with combed hair and clean faces.

A Word About Extended Nursing

There are so many misconceptions out there that I felt this post may help. I have received a lot of questions/comments about still nursing through pregnancy and beyond.

• Contrary to what many believe, nursing will not affect a healthy new pregnancy in a negative way.
• There is no reason to wean if your toddler and you are still happy with nursing.
• Nursing a new baby while continuing with your toddler can reduce sibling rivalry/anxiety.
• Milk may get a tad on the dry side at some point during pregnancy, but even still, if your toddler is still happy, there is no reason to stop.
• The WHO recommends nursing 2 years or beyond.
• Most countries around the world nurse their children until they are 3, 4 or even 5.
• Extended nursing provides antibodies to your child for that much longer.
• It takes away the need for whole milk which can be harsh to immature systems or any system at that.
• Kellymom.com (http://www.kellymom.com/bf/bfextended/ebf-benefits.html) says that the benefits to toddlers include: Good nutrition, fewer allergies, socially well adjusted, intelligent and mothers also benefit.
• For the mother, benefits include: lowered risk or breast, endometrial, ovarian, and uterine cancers, lowered risk of osteoporosis, insulin requirements, arthritis and being overweight.

So all in all, its a win win situation! I look forward to nursing my girls together.

Mommy and Kenna(14.5 months)

Cloth Diapers Galore

All the new stuff. Look at the size difference of Kenna's stuff on the left and Maddy's on the right. I can't beleive my Maddy will have a booty that tiny!
Madelynn's covers on the right and her prefolds on the right, they are soooo teeeeny tiny.

Kenna's pretty new covers

So after buying tons of different brands and things with mediums, we KNOW what we like now! We love the unbleached(so soft) Chinese prefolds and proraps and Thirsties covers. I also enjoy the Bumkins covers because they are so cute. I bought 2 dozen large and 2 dozen newborn prefolds. I also bought a few new girlie colored snappies, 6 large and 6 newborn Prorap covers, 2 newborn Thirsty covers, 1 large Thirsty and 1 large Bumkins cover. Oh and of course, I bought a new stash of 30 soft new wipeys. I am all set for Kenna's larges and Maddy's newborn diapers now, YAY! Besides a few more clothes, we are all ready for baby Maddy who will be making her debut in 13 weeks. Its getting close.

Knott's Merry Farm

Each year Knotts does an annual Free month for police and fire personnel and 1 family member and then up to 6 extra people for $15 a person. This was our second year and we plan to make it tradition to go each year during this season. Its so much fun and a very inexpensive day for us.

The whole gang
The train ride
Sibling love

aw I love this one

The whole family on the camp snoopy train

Flying a plane

Eeep look out

My boys

Now this ride was fun!

Kenna loved it!

weeeeee

A ride on the bus

Everett

Bumper cars

3 inches of Snow in Socal Say What?

Wednesday night
It downed part of our Lilac tree
Thursday morning after some melting had already started

Gorgeous snow

The backyard

The wash, the stream was frozen over

So pretty

Well there you have it. It rained for almost a week straight with huge, gloomy clouds and then in moved the snow Wednesday evening through Thursday morning. Its Saturday now and the snow still isn't completely melted off. Its been unseasonably cold, but so Christmassy. The weather is calling for more Snow Monday, Tuesday and Christmas day!! Can you imagine how awesome a white Christmas in SoCal would be? I am praying:0)