Merry Christmas!

Santa made it to the Faulkner residence and you can see from the mound of presents under the tree. Katya sure had fun opening presents and has lots of great new toys to play with. Her play kitchen is proving a great storage spot for toys! We drove home yesterday and are enjoying be back in our own beds. I slept 12 hours last night which I really needed.

The snow is melting fast here since temperatures have been well above freezing and it has been raining. The residential roads were a mess yesterday but have gotten a lot better over night. Our grass is peeking through in the front yard and with more rain on the way I am sure the snow will be completely gone very soon.

Katya learned several new words over the weekend. She is saying "spoon," "Daisy" (Doug and Sharon's dog), "Addi" and "Baba" in reference to the Grandpa's. She also says "baba" as bottle but started pointing to Doug and saying "Baba" too. When she saw Grandpa T's picture she also pointed and said "Baba." I was impressed that she has made that connection on her own because it was not something I have worked a ton with her on. She also started saying "Addi" without much prompting. She is so smart! She got a fork, spoon and bowl set for Christmas and is learning to use the spoon. The bowl suctions to her high chair tray and the spoon has a nice big grip. She is doing pretty well at scoping but usually turns the spoon upside down by the time she gets it to her mouth. I am sure she will have it down in no time. Love, Brenda

Merry Christmas Eve

It is truley a winter wonderland here in Duvall, WA. They have about 19 inches and have gotten about an inch more today. We are praying for the safe travels of Allen, Eryn, Addison and Grandma and Grandpa as they drive up from Portland. It is snowing pretty much all down the I-5 coridor and so it will be slow going for them. We are glad we were able to drive up on Monday when conditions were better.

We are heading over to Don and Joan's later today which is about 30 minutes away. Tomorrow the festivities are here which will be nice. We are going to 9am Mass and then will work on the mound of presents accumulating under the tree. Katya has slept well since we have been here and is in good sorts. She is still a bit snotty but seems to be getting over her cold.

Love, Brenda

Early Chirstmas Present!

We gave Katya her awesome Christmas present from Grandma Dana and Baba this morning. Craig and I set it up last night and this morning I covered it with a sheet and let her pull it off. She LOVES it! I love it too, it is the cutest play kitchen ever. She is going to be able to enjoy this toy for years to come (Reagan will too). She loves putting things in the doors and turning the oven dials. She discovered quickly that you can remove the sink and she likes to pull it out and put things into the space beneath. This was definitely too big to transport to Duvall so we gave it to her early. We could have brought it disassembled but it is the type of thing you put together once and leave together. It took us about a hour and a half and it went well with the two of us working on it. The kitchen is wood and is really nice quality. I like it so much better then the plastic kitchens, which are fun but adults tend to get tired of looking at after a while:0) Katya is still to short to reach the microwave and sink but I put my exercises step in front of it for a stool. This is working great.

Merry Christmas to all! Love, Brenda

Last Sunday of Advent

Today we attended the shortest Mass I think I have ever been too. We went to 8am Mass because Katya woke up early (we usually go to 10am) and we got there about 5-10mins late (we forgot we had to switch the car seat from the Saturn back to the Jeep). Father John was finishing up the Gospel reading when we arrived! Oops. There were about 8 other people, then a couple more showed up after us. Father John did a solo service (no helpers, not even a person to serve the wine) and it was a total of 30mins long. We noticed when we left that the only people who came all arrived in 4-wheel drive vehicles. We ran to Fred Myer after church to get bread and milk since we were already out. The Jeep did great with cautious driving; it was fun getting to really use our vehicles capabilities. Craig drove on the way there and I drove home to share the fun:0)

We got 8 inches of snow yesterday! That is a lot for us here and it sure is pretty. A layer of snow did freeze on top last night but it was pretty easy to break through. There was a little bit of freezing rain this morning and possibly more on the way. It looks like our drive to Seattle is going to be a bit treacherous. Keep us in your prayers! Craig got called off his lunch shift today as well and there is a chance he won't work tomorrow night either. We are tempted to leave tomorrow for Seattle if that is the case but we shall see. Craig does have some work to do at the lab before we leave town. More about an early Christmas present for Katya later today...

Snow Day!

Craig got called off his lunch shift today because of the weather. Yeah! We are enjoying a snow day and took Katya out a little bit ago. She LOVED it and did not want to come back in. We have gotten almost 2inches here and it is super dry snow. What a treat for us!

Sick baby = tired mama

Katya has had a cold this week but seems to be feeling a bit better today. Between the cold, the teething and just a stage she is going through she has been SUPER needy. She wants full attention at all times, wants to be held a ton and does not like it when one of us leaves the room. She had a really bad night sleep on Tuesday but has slept good the last few nights. On Wed she took two naps for a total of almost 4hrs which was great. I am still trying to recover from the poor sleep and I am very tired today. I hope to get caught up before we leave for Duvall. The weather continues to be bad and I have been home for the last few days so Craig could drive the safer vehicle. I did pull the car seat out today so I can go out in the Saturn if the roads look good. This weekend is suppose to bring another big storm so today might be my last chance to finishing shopping before we leave on Tuesday.

I have been feeling fine since recovering from Monday's morning sickness. It seems to be totally random and although it may last through out the pregnancy, I am thankful that it is so infrequent now. Baby Reagan has days were she is really quite and I get nervous not feeling her much but then she will have a few days of lots of kicks. Those are my favorite days! The kicks are not strong enough yet to be painful or annoying although I am sure they will be in the end:0)

Diapers: Disposible vs. Cloth

So I had a bright idea last week when I was shopping for a plastic diaper cover for Katya. She soaks through her diapers almost every night so I am trying a cover to keep it in; it is working some nights and not others. Anyways, my bright idea was to consider cloth diapers for baby Reagan to save money. I started to get excited about the idea and felt good about the creating less garbage side of it too (it is crazy the amount of diapers one kid goes through and thinking about those sitting in landfills for eons is a little disturbing). Then I started to do some research....
DAMN! It is really not cheaper!

I got some great tips and info from Anige including which brand of cloth diapers works best for them. The Fuzzi Bunz brand she likes sounds awesome and I really do feel that if I go cloth, I am going to want what works best and not just want is cheap. They are 17-18$ a pop! There are 3 sizes and you want about 3 dozen at a time so that equals 900$ just to buy the darn things. Then you have to factor in having disposables on hand for vacations and for night time when they are older (cloth just does not hold a kid who sleeps through the night) and the extra money it costs in water and electricity or gas to launder them. I figured out by switching Katya to cloth (which then Reagan would use when she is that size) and Reagan in cloth would be about the same expense, if not a little more than disposables. And this is with laudering myself, no diaper service.

There are other brands, including one that is suppose to grow with baby therefore you end up buying less (they are still about 17$/diaper). Angie has not had great luck with these (lots of leaks, not that good of a fit) so I am hesitant to try them. They would be more like 400$ to buy which would mean we would save a few hundred bucks over the few years K and R are in diapers. Of course, if we have a thrid baby we would already have the diapers so that would save 900-1200$ over the 2.5-3yrs that baby is diapered no matter what. I hope to have 3 kids but we are not positive we will.

I am bummed! My whole idea was to save money, which I might or might not. But once I got the idea in my head I started liking the enviornmental benefits more and more. There are arguments against this, (extra energy usage and chemicals used to wash) but I think that it is still probablly better then pilling up the plastics in landfills (plus there are chemicals in disposables to help them absorb more). I am going to try out a few types that Anige has and maybe I will find a cheaper option that works for me.

We shall see...