Thursday, July 12, 2012

Little Man's First Birthday!!


We had the most amazing time at Little Man's birthday party last weekend! On Sunday, July 8th, seventeen of our family members came over to our house to celebrate our sweet baby (who's hardly a baby anymore!). 

Be prepared for a serious amount of pictures!

all images courtesy of Liz Power Photography
all the yummy food

I made cupcakes with mini Oreos as Mickey Mouse ears! So easy and so adorable!
(idea from: here)

All Little Man's monthly photos, printed out to see the progression. What a big boy!!

Dum-Dum "topiary" shaped like Mickey ears and a simply painted pot - easy and festive! 
(basic idea from: here)

Mickey Mouse!!

Daddy, Mommy, Baby & Mickey





The whole crowd!

Now, look at the birthday boy!!


Time for a CUPCAKE!!!!








one of my favorites






Ooooooh... books!

What a PERFECT day!! 

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Cloth Diapering Essentials

We have been using cloth diapers with Little Man for almost a whole year now! We started about 4-6 weeks after he was born, when we ran out of newborn sized disposables and didn't want to buy more. It took a little while to get our routine down, but once we did, it has been smooth sailing ever since!
I have been pretty loyal to the bumGenius brand of cloth diapers and have NOT been disappointed! I will explain more about our specific choices in an FAQs post coming up, but for now...

Here's a list of MY cloth diapering essentials:
  • 24 "changes" of diapers - you can get 24 one-size diapers, or a combination of one-size, all-in-ones, and cover & inserts diapers so that you have enough diapers for 24 "changes"; of course you can buy fewer if you want to do laundry more often, but I find this is a great number for doing laundry every 2-3 days (I will explain more about our laundry routine in a future post)
  • Extras for nighttime diapering - your baby will probably need something extra at night to avoid leaking - it takes a little trial and error to figure out what works best for you (I put 1 hemp liner and 1 doubler under a Flip stay-dry insert at night)
  • Place to put dirty diapers
    • 2 Planet Wise diaper pail liners ($16.50 ea/$33 total) - I like having 2 pail liners so that as soon as I take the one with dirties in it out, I can put a new one in, so I'm not stuck later with a dirty diaper and no liner in the pail!
    • 1 Planet Wise wet/dry bag ($21) - this is perfect for on the go and for the nursery at church
Bonus:
  • 1 bumGenius diaper sprayer ($45) - some people would say this is an essential, but we have not used ours as much as I originally thought we would
  • 1 Planet Wise large wet bag ($19) - when Little Man stays with my mom, I send 4-6 pre-stuffed diapers and this large wet bag for her to put dirties in, instead of having a separate pail at their house
So for a little less than $450, you have a complete cloth diaper system! Sound like a lot? It is an investment, that's for sure. But if you think about the fact that a baby will wear diapers for 2-3 years, and on average you would be spending $72/mo on disposables, you would spend $1,700-2,600 on disposables for one child. With cloth, you are making a sizable initial investment, but then you'd break even at about 6 months, PLUS you'd be able to use your cloth diapers for future kiddos! WOW!! (This is the main reason that we decided to do CDs - we are cheap.)

Having changed a bazillion diapers over the last 10+ months, I feel that I am somewhat of an expert on the subject (at least that's what I tell Little Man). Please feel free to ask any questions and I will add those to my FAQs post about cloth diapering.

Next time with CDs - Our Laundry Routine!

Thursday, June 21, 2012

Our Home: Before

Let's take a stroll down memory lane, shall we? Well, it's memory lane for me - for you, it may be the first time you're seeing our little 'ol place!

I wanted you all to get a feel for how our house looked 3+ years ago when Big Man and I (pre-engagement) did a walk-through and fell in love. I mean, we fell in love with ALL THIS!

So join me as we look back, and then in the coming weeks, I'll show you what each room looks like today!

the Living Room
This place had carpet, carpet, and mooooore carpet!

the Kitchen
All I could think when I walked in the kitchen was "It's all the same color!"
Walls, cabinets, ceiling, fixtures... carpet... all an orangey wood color.


Nice curtains, right? Just you wait...

the "Horse Room"
aka Little Man's room
Patchwork carpet and horse curtains - every little boy's dream!

the "Rainbow Room"
aka the Office/Guest Room
Psychedelic rainbow carpet - for your inner hippie.
(Actually I really liked this carpet, and saved a square of it for posterity.)

the Master Bedroom
 Blue walls, blue carpet, blue-ish drapes...


the Master Bathroom
...blue tile, blue carpet - wait, blue carpet in the bathroom?!

the Hall Bathroom
Ahhh, nothing says peace and tranquility quite like peachy-pink tile with dusty rose accents.

So, what do you think? Are you wondering if we made the right decision?

Well, we did. :)

Sunday, June 10, 2012

Hello World!

Why hello world!! Welcome to Always Newlyweds! Let me tell you a little bit about MY world.

Our Family
I'm Sarah, aka Mommy.

This is Big Man...

And this is Little Man!
...which leads me to:

Our Baby
Little Man is just the greatest thing since DVR, and we love looking back and seeing how much he's grown and all he has learned over his first year of life! From his birth story, to his obsession with Puffs, to our LOVE affair with cloth diapers, I will share all things Little Man. 

Our Home
We live in a lovely little 1960s rancher that we have fixed up room by room over the last 3 years. In the coming weeks, I will share our "Before and After" pictures (because house tours and B&A pictures are my FAVORITE things about a blog!). 

A may post a recipe here and there, I just might tell you what the Lord has been teaching me lately, and I'm sure I will talk about our travels. I may even get all sappy and talk about how wonderful it has been to be married to the Big Man for almost 3 years now! 

All in all, you will find random posts about the normalcy and exquisiteness of daily life for the 
Always Newlyweds. 

No matter how long it's been since the wedding... we're Always Newlyweds.