Family Traditions....

Our precious full of life Tru fills our hearts with so much love and joy. He gave me the best job in the world and makes me a better person, like his daddy. I'm beyond blessed to be his mommy. 

As the holidays are here I have been brainstorming on what family traditions I want to incorporate with our family. We had some fun family traditions growing up and those traditions made the holidays more special and meaningful. 

So I ask you to comment on this post on some of your favorite family traditions. I'm still trying to think of the best things to start with ours and I'd love to hear yours.....

Grow Your Own Food = Yummy Baby Food

This is our first year doing a garden and we've been so happy with the results. It's so worth it and I can't wait to do it next year and expand our garden. We kept everything organic, even our fertilizer. It's also worked out great for making baby food. Tru loves our homegrown green beans, zucchini, crookneck squash and corn! I received our baby cook as a baby shower gift and I use it ALL the time! It's amazing. It steams and purees'. I have several different baby food containers (as you can see in the pictures). The food pouches are by 'nourish with style' and they are reusable baby food pouches that seal on the bottom, So it's easy to fill and clean out. I use different 2oz food containers and I also do the basic ice cube trays. After they're are frozen I will pop them out of the trays and freeze a couple cubes in smal freezer baggies and defrost as needed. Each night before I go to bed I defrost Tru's food for the next day. If I know I'm going to be out then I defrost a pouch.

So here are some ideas for baby food combinations
Zucchini and crookneck squash (I add pear every once in a while)
Spinach and yams
Yams and pear
Carrots and apple
Blueberries and pear
Blueberries and banana
Banana and peach
Banana and pumpkin
Peas and corn

It does take a lot of time but it's worth every second.

Step 4 of Going Natural

Step 4: homemade toothpaste!

I challenge you to go to your bathroom and read the caution on your toothpaste tube. Well if you don't want to get up and read it I'll tell you what the majority of them say: "If more than used for brushing is accidentally swallowed, get medical help or contact a Poison Control Center right away." Isn't that just crazy. Well, I decided to make my own and it's......

Super easy

Super cheap

And healthy. 

No junk added in it

Why not try it?

Here's the recipe.....
2 tbsp coconut oil
6 tbsp baking soda
10 drops peppermint oil
1/2 tsp unrefined salt
Mix all the ingredients together and put in a container. It doesn't taste amazing but it does the job and it whitens your teeth!

Step 3 of becoming more natural.....Powdered Homemamde Laundry Detergent

So I know my last post was Step 1 & 2, which included the liquid laundry detergent, but I recently made this powdered laundry detergent and love it! It's easier than the liquid one and not messy. I made it in just 10 minutes. The most time consuming part was grating the three blocks of fels naptha soap bars. I had to keep switching hands. The pictures below shows all the ingredients you need: a 5 gallon bucket, borax, baking soda (4lbs), 3 fels naptha soap bars, oxi clean and arm and hammer washing soda. I used a cheese grader for the soap bars and the rest you just pour in the bucket (the entire box of each item). Then you need to make sure you really shake the bucket, roll it around and get all the ingredients mixed very well. Then I used the container of the oxi clean to hold the detergent. You only need about 3 tbsp per load. I use my liquid fabric softener with it and our clothes come out very clean and smelling great! You should try it!

Going Natural...Step 1 & 2

I'm learning that many of the things we buy are not healthy for us. So I've decided to share some of the things I've slowly been implementing into our lives. This week is step 1 & 2 of going natural and I will post a few more easy things that will benefit you and your health. At times I get overwhelmed, especially now that I'm a mom, because I want to try 10 different things all at once but it's too much and causes me to stress out. So step 1 & 2 are easy to make, inexpensive and natural: Homemade fabric softener and laundry detergent. Chet, Tru and I all have very sensitive skin and the store bought softener caused Tru to break out in a horrible rash.
I found both recipes on Pinterest and have to give credit to the women who made them. I'm just grateful to have found the recipes. On April 25th I posted the fabric softener so you can click the link below step 1 to check it out.

Step 1: Homemade Fabric Softener

http://smalltowncitygirls.blogspot.com/2014/04/homemade-fabric-softener.html

Step 2: Homemade laundry detergent
I've been making homemade laundry detergent for a couple years now. I started doing it at the bed and breakfast because it's drastically cheaper. This is a liquid laundry soap that can be messy at times, but I love it.

http://www.icanteachmychild.com/make-it-homemade-liquid-laundry-soap-1/

A note about my pregnancy!

Court here. The past few months have been truly amazing. I am overjoyed that the Lord has blessed us with a baby growing quickly inside my belly. It is such an amazing experience that I hope every woman (who wants to) can experience some day!

It has been such a relief and joy to tell family and friends our exciting news. We kept it quiet for 13 weeks, which was really tough for me.

Here is how we told my Mom and Ron the news, we sent them this picture. For those of you who do not know, they have a special relationship with Shiloh (on the left) because she is their dog Chloe's baby. My mom pretty much raised Shiloh for the first 12 weeks! 

So this picture seemed appropriate. 

Now that the news is out, I get random texts from family and friends, like this from my dad. I love it! Thanks dad, we will need to remember this. 

Here is our little baby at 12 weeks 1 day. We love him/her already!

Oh and I cried at my first ultrasound. It was an amazing experience and weird. So weird. It's happening.

Right now I am 15 weeks and the baby is the size of a large naval orange. Wow! Its crazy that there is something growing inside of me, the size of an orange and I cannot feel it. Pants have just begun to feel a little snug around the waist, but most everything still fits. I am excited to have a cute belly to show off, but until then I just have this little pudge. But it's a cute pudge.

So how has my pregnancy been so far?
Overall I would say pretty good. I am sooooo thankful that I have not had much morning sickness. There were a few weeks (weeks 8-11) where food sounded gross and I was nauseous in the evening, but nothing terrible.

I continue to workout and do even more yoga now, which has been helpful with some back pain. I'm trying to eat healthy, but vegetables just hardly ever sound good. But I eat them anyway, because I know how good they are for me and baby. Plus, we are starting to harvest lots of veggies from our garden (that will be another post soon).

I'm tired and I love my sleep. I'm just trying to get as much in as possible before December arrives.

Cravings so far include sour gummy candy -- great for you, right?

Nick has been amazing and supportive. He is always looking out for me, making sure I am resting and he taking care of things around the house I cannot do (like poison the weeds -- I hate weeds). I love when he rubs my belly and prays over the baby.

A bit overwhelming. 
This past week I started looking at nursery furniture, strollers, monitors, etc. And WOW! It is overwhelming. There is so much stuff out there and the prices vary soooooo much. I wonder if the more expensive car seat is safer or is it just some fancy brand that drives the price up?!?!?  There is so much to figure out, but I know that I have tons of friends with kiddos who have already gone through this process, so that is reassuring.

Lastly, our little Shiloh is no longer going to be the baby in the family. Here is a picture of her with Nick. Shiloh was convinced that there was a tennis ball sitting on top of a speaker so Nick had to lift her up to prove there was nothing there. It was quite comical.

I hope you enjoyed my update!
~Court

Ok yum...pasta salad to feed an army!

This pasta salad is amazing. Delicious. Ridiculous. I eat this for several days in a row when I make it.
The credit for this recipe goes to my momma.

This above picture is not how much the recipe makes. There is a huge container of it in my fridge to go along with what is shown here.

It takes a little bit of time to make this pasta salad, but is well worth the efforts. Plus it makes a ton. Once you've had this, you will crave it like I do. Its a great side dish for BBQ's, any summer parties you might be going to or on its own as a meal with some chicken added.

By the way, there are tortellinis in this salad. Yum!

So here it is, Christi's Pasta Salad

Ingredients

• 1⁄2 red onion, chopped
• 2 cans artichokes, chopped
• 4 chopped tomatoes
• Fresh parmesan (or feta)
• 1 head broccoli
• 1 box round tri-color noodles
• 1 box cheese tortellini
• 3 prepared packages of good seasons italian dressing (make this with balsamic vinegar and olive oil)
*start by adding two packages on the dressing to the salad, then add more to taste

Directions

Cook pasta according to directions on box and let cool, toss with olive oil so it does not stick together. Make good seasons italian dressing with balsamic vinegar and olive oil according to directions on package. Chop all veggies.  Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl. Chill in fried. Add cooked chicken if desired.

And look at this picture you can see the bits of tomato, broccoli, onion and artichoke hearts. Delicious!

I hope you enjoy!
~Court