Which child do you think is cuter?

Happy Memorial Day!

In light of my last post where I compared my children, I thought this sweet conversation I had with my 5 year old nephew last night was perfect.  It was just precious.

My nephew, Jake, (in all earnestness and sweet curiosity) started talking to me as I was holding Asher.

Jake: So, don't you just think he's cuter?  Since he's littler...
Me:  Well, he is awfully cute, but Judah's really cute too because he's can do lots of fun things since he's bigger...
~ Jake pauses a second to contemplate the many mysteries of the universe.  He finally replies once he's sorted them out.
Jake: Oh, so Asher's the cute one and Judah's the fun one.
Me:  Sure!

*Just a disclaimer, I really do think my children are equally cute and fun, they're just different.*

How cute is that, it was just so black and white to him.  Just loved it!

      

The fun one....  

                                                                     The cute one...

Kendall

Oh Brother!

I thought it would be fun to share some of the similarities and differences between the boys.  They are such a joy, and are turning out to have pretty different personalities.  You know what they say, variety is the spice of life!

I really think the only thing better than having one little boy around....

                                                

 is having two!

                                     

For starters, they both completely adore each other, but in different ways.  Judah is always watching out for "Asssshh."  He's such a helper.

 You'll notice that Asher has big bird and Judah's blankie piled on him. He was fussing a little bit so Judah wanted to make him feel better, what a sweetheart!  And let me tell you, Judah LOVES his blankie, so sharing it is big stuff...

Sometimes he's a little too much of a helper for Asher... :)

Asher loves Judah, seriously.  If Judah's in the room, good luck getting Asher's attention.  Asher just smiles and talks to Judah, he really looks up to him!

If Judah does some light reading, Asher wants in on the action too!

Judah's okay with that.

Both boys look great in daddy's hat.:

Although it actually fits Judah.  He has a huge head, bless his little heart.  He gets it from Joshua... :)

 

Asher has a little head, he takes after me that way.  In general, Judah has Joshua's body type and Asher has mine.  BUT, Judah has more my face and Asher has Joshua's.  It's like one of those kid's puzzles where you can put different faces on different bodies...

 Both boys love their food...

Look how big Asher is getting.  I guess there's another similarity, they're both the size of toddlers... :)  When we stand Asher up he comes to Judah's nose.  He's so tall!

They are both mama's boys...

And daddy's boys...

It is actually kind of weird, neither of them really prefers one of us over the other.  Apparently we're equally cool.  I'm okay with that.  Although both boys agree that Joshua is more handsome.  (Me too!)

Judah's getting to that age where he's really trying to be involved in everything.  It's fun to see more of his little personality (or big personality as it turns out!) through this.  He has such an amazing attention span, longer than mine for sure.  He has to finish a task before moving on to the next one.  He has a helpful heart.  Here he is putting ALL the clean clothes into Asher's drawer.  You can see Joshua's pants and our towels. Like I said, a helpful heart... ;)

Judah loves animals...

Asher loves hands... 

Asher is our daredevil already.  He loves being bounced and tossed around.  Judah on the other hand...

Yes, this is Judah using his hands to be able to step up on this inch tall tree stump...

Worst part?  He totally gets that from me!

They are both super curious and interested in the world around them.

Pepper grinders are the bomb!

Trying desperately to get a spot on our wood floor so he can munch it.  Good luck little buddy! :)

They both make hilarious faces:

 They call me bubba...

 And super sweet faces:

In conclusion, I love my boys.  They're both so different and so similar and most of all, such a precious blessing!

Giveaway Winner and Coconut post #3

First first of all, I have been working on this post for over a week now. Every time I start it, it seems one of my children wakes up.  I apologize, I was not trying to keep up the suspense, I was simply chasing around 2 little men. :)

Second first of all, I want to thank everyone that commented on the last post.  You all are the sweetest and best ever!  Now, for the winner of the deodorant giveaway.  I just want you to know first that I did it completely non-biased-like and picked my favorite person.  Just kidding.  Here's how it went down: I gave each person a number and did a random number generator on random.org.  Yes, I just copied this method from other people, this should not surprise you.  (I did, however, go rogue and give a bonus point to Jess for using the word "poop" in her comment, but that just evened out the negative point for being late :) So, with much ado and without further ado the winner of the super duper first giveaway is: Contestant #1 - Jordan!  Jordan was my roommate in college and she really is the most encouraging and sweetest person ever.  So I'm so happy to send her the ingredients to maker her own deodorant. I just received the coconut oil in the mail, so I'm going to try and ship it out soon to you!

And now for Coconut Oil use #3: Diaper Rash/Whatever's ailing you Ointment

No, it's not your imagination. Yes, this blog is going downhill fast.  First we talk about pits, now bums. I apologize.  But if you try these things, those pits and bums will thank me. Coconut oil works on diaper rash really fast, every time.  I have a little container I keep by our diapering supplies and just put a little bit on whenever I think of it. It's also good for eczema or just as a general lotion.  I heard somewhere that it's the only natural oil that has the ability to be absorbed into your skin, so maybe that explains the amazing-ness.  And, of course, it's big bird approved...  Try it, you'll love it.

Making Our Own Deodorant

So, use number 2 for coconut oil is probably my favorite one.  We went regular deodorant free a couple months ago and have been loving it.  I was really worried at first, because I tried a couple years ago and it irritated my underarms.  I guess I'm just a sensitive kind of person...

This time I found another recipe that didn't use cornstarch, because I suspected that was the culprit.  I must have been right (yes, it does happen every once in a while), because this time it hasn't irritated my delicate baby smooth skin at all.

Now, the question you've all been asking in your heads:  Do you smell?  I'm not going to take too much offense, because if you have to ask it means I don't reek bad enough for you to smell it from where you're sitting.  Score. Joshua and I both have been using it and neither of us have had any complaints.  I work out each night at Farrell's and I told the lady beside me to tell me if I smelled because I was testing a new deodorant.  Yes, I asked a lady to smell me just so I could report back.  Pretty legit, hey?  And I didn't smell.  After working out so hard I almost dropped dead there on the spot, I still didn't smell.  That's good enough for me!  Joshua hasn't smelled either, according to me.  He's not brave enough to ask the people at his work if he smells. I guess that's why I'm the one with the wildly popular blog and he's not.  Wait...  Just kidding.  If I had a wildly popular blog I'd have to do things like post regularly and proof read and think before I say things. Anyway, there you have it, you can use this and not smell it's amazing!  The only thing that's different is I noticed I do sweat a little more.  But I think our bodies are supposed to sweat and it's not excessive or noticeable, so I don't sweat it. See, if I had a big blog, I wouldn't get to say ridiculously corny things like that and I feel like that would be a disservice to the world.  Or not.  Can't decide.

So, now for the recipe! I got it/modified it from Organized Simplicity by Tsh Oxenreider. Which is a fantastic book that I would recommend for any family.  Seriously helped us sit down and figure out our family mission and then encouraged us to simplify our lives so that everything was working to accomplish that mission.  How awesome is that.  I'd never before thought about simplicity being in things we do as well as things we own.

Homemade Deodorant
1/4 c. baking soda
1/4 c. Arrowroot Powder
5 Tbsp. Coconut oil
A few drops of the essential oil of your choice (I did tea tree for it's antibacterial properties)

Mix the dry ingredients, add the coconut oil a little bit at a time.  Add the drops of essential oil.  Then you can just spoon it into an old deodorant container. Easy Peasy.  Or you can just keep in a jar and apply it with your fingers.

So, I've never done this before and it might be a flop.  But I'd love to help someone try this for themselves, so I'm going to try doing a give away.  If you comment on this (it's just the only way I know you're interested), I will do a drawing for a give away.  I'll give or mail the winner a jar of coconut oil and the ingredients for the deodorant, that way you can try it yourself! I'll make Monday the cut off date, so comment before then and you'll be entered! :)

Well, Judah's been counting the slats on his crib for the whole 20 minutes he's been in there.  I should probably go get him before his brain explodes.  He only knows 1 and 2, after that he just makes stuff up.  1, 2, no, do, ba, la, mo....  I guess I need to have him watch more Sesame Street. Hmmm....

Kendall

Happy May!

Hi, my name is Kendall, and it's been 13 days since my last post.  Now is when everyone affirmingly says "hi Kendall."  Now that I feel warm and fuzzy, I'll share a little of what's been going on at our hizz-house.  (Yes, this will probably be one of those posts where it is overwhelmingly obvious I need more sleep. I'll try to limit commentary... :)

Lots of snuggling.

 Sushi with Auntie Bethany.  Judah was so brave.  I think this picture makes him look like a Dr. Seuss Character?  Any ideas for names?  I can't think of anything but Judah-loo-who.

 We loved having Bethany come visit us.  There was lots of playing, talking, and cuddling to be had! 

 Asher wasn't as big a fan of the sushi, so here he's dreaming of milk... :) 

Little man is growing like a weed I tell you!  He's already on level 2 for the jumperoo. I picked this picture because he is Joshua's clone.  

Daddy and Asher 

No wonder I think Asher is so cute! :)

 Brother to Brother Conversations...

 

Asher totally loves Judah.  It's going to be so fun when they can play together!

 Judah has become determined to take pictures too.  I usually can get about 5 pictures in until I surrender the camera.  This is how Judah sees Asher apparently...

My little finger chewer. Um num!

And I really will post about making our own deodorant.  I was going to do it, honest, but then I got side-tracked by cute pictures...  So the next post will be the pits.  Sorry, that was bad, but now I've said it, it's done with, and we can all move on, phew!

Kendall  

Happy Friday!

Well, hello!  Somehow as of yesterday my boys decided to sync nap schedules during the day (cue hallelujah chorus!).  It's weird.  Do you know what that does to my day?  I put them both down for a nap and just look around my clean house and wonder what I'm to do with myself.  Odd.  And when I say clean, I of course mean my floor and counters are semi-visible.  Hence this blog less than a month after the last one, woohoo!

We're pretty excited around here because Joshua's sister, Bethany, is coming into town tonight.  So, I should probably go scrub something here in not too long, but wanted to take advantage of this time to share a couple pictures to brighten your Friday!

 Cleaning little bro with a Q-tip... 

 (Luckily he doesn't know they go in the ears yet, phew!)

 Mr. Tummy Time 

(Ignore the drool spot, that's just how we roll...)

The neighborhood watch group...

 Brotherly smothering love...

Gasp!  A good picture of both of them, this was like take 80/100,000,000,000

Caution: Don't leave baby for one second unattended with bathroom door ajar...

 Um, buddy, you have some toilet paper attached to your foot... 

(He was actually on his way to go wipe Asher (poor guy) who was on the couch)

He LOVES waving to his shadow!

It's so funny to smell your feet than say "Peeeeee-yew!"

Sweet boy!

In. Love.

Mama's little love bug. *sigh*

Isn't God good!  We are so blessed with our two sweet babies.  It's amazing how God gives good gifts, every second with these boys is a gift!

Kendall