SlingRider & Wendy Bellissimo Baby Slings Recall - Product Recalls - Parents.com

Yes, I own one of these. It's a pretty black toile one. I bought it on Ebay.

I only used it *one* time. I felt like I was smothering Ava. She was cocooned in there toooo much. It's been sitting in her bedroom closet on a hook for almost 3 years. I kept saying it was a waste of money. I was going to re-gift it to someone, but then I thought....duh...if Ava was too squished, why would I hand it over to someone else?

They are offering replacement products. Tie carriers (these are really cute), shopping cart covers (I already have a black toile one of those and totally love it), and an activity gym. Ava is too old for the gym and carrier. So I guess I'm ordering the gym anyway and giving it as a gift.

I was also looking at the Infantino website and saw that they had several other things that have been recalled over the years. I'm wondering if Infantino is a good company to buy things for our precious children! They obviously don't do enough research before putting our children at risk.


SlingRider & Wendy Bellissimo Baby Slings Recall - Product Recalls - Parents.com

Snow Much *{FUN}*

Since it's starting to look like spring is upon us, I thought I had better squeeze in a little post about *sNoW.

 
Ava was kind of small to be out in the snow last year, so this year was super fun for her.  She had a new coat, boots, snowpants, gloves etc. 

She looked the part!

So off she went to play with Molly.....

....and Jillian.

But soon it was getting too cold & dark, so it was time to come in.

But Ava didn't want to of course.

How did she go so quickly from this.....

To this??!!!

*sigh*

Something To Think About Saturday

Missing my sweet son.

5 Things

I totally love Megan's frames! Thanks Megan!

There are so many things I am thankful for that there wouldn't be enough shabby frames to cover them all! So I've decided to just narrow it down to 5 (but squeezing my family of 7 into 3) and then maybe, just maybe add more and occasionally post them.

For now, my 5 are (not in any order at all since I love all of my family equally of course...)

1. My beautiful girls
2. My cute as can be son
3. My patient, loving, hardworking hubby
4. The blessings that the Temple gives me. Because without that and the Gospel, I wouldn't be able to keep #1,2 and 3 forever.

And a random #5. I have really been soaking up the beauty of nature this past year. I've been trying to take time to appreciate all that Heavenly Father has given me to view, smell and feel in each of the seasons. One of my greatest pleasures is to look up at the night sky and enjoy each star. Another is to breathe in the smells of nature and concentrate on the smallest things that are so intricate and complicated, yet to some, so insignificant. Have you ever just sat and looked at a spider web? I can't get enough of a beautiful sunset or a rainbow. Sappy and cheesy? Maybe. But now that I'm older, I guess something is telling me to dig deep and really pay attention to the world that Heavenly Father has given me. I'll never know when He might just call me home and I want to have appreciated as best I can, what He has given me today.

I Heart This

My daughter, Jillian, left this comment on the Nauvoo Temple Facebook page.




Jill Weihl >>>Nauvoo Temple: Our stake went to Nauvoo for our Youth Conference..I went already twice before..but this time was soo much more spiritual.We got to go into the temple, as our "familes"--youth and a married couple.For being Sixteen, i never felt a more spirtual experience, it was like I was in the jail while the prophet was murdered..I love being a member, although I have trials, I know that pioneers made the temple for a reason..-Jillian. Muskegon,MI.
Yesterday at 11:04pm · Comment · Like

Sometimes I really heart Facebook.

Macie had hernia surgery this week (July 8th). She did great! She was quite groggy coming out and felt a little light-headed. But she recovered just fine. She has been resting and enjoying her down time since the surgery. I'm proud of her for going into this with a positive attitude. After the surgery she still had a great attitude. :)

~Addicted~

I just can't stay away from the digi-scrappin'! Scrappin' has gotten in the way of Try It Tuesdays, cleaning my house and kissing my husband. What am I to do?! I need an intervention or something.

I love me some Jillian!

I'm having a really bad day, so I have decided to do what makes me happy. I made a layout using photos of my much-loved daughter Jillian :)

Boy, digiscrappin' is FUN!

Baaad Mama....again!

Dumb....da dumb dumb. I did it again!

This time I receive my own, "Bad Mom" award because I have a big mouth.

Our small, irritating dog, Minnie likes to yipe at everyone and everything. It's annoying so I find myself yelling at her all the time. Not at the top of my lungs or anything, but nevertheless I scold her frequently.

So of course one day I was annoyed at her barking and told her to, "shut up". So now...every time Minnie barks too much, guess who tells her to, "shut up"?? Yep. 23 month old Ava.

I'm such a baaaaad Mama. -sigh-

Molly's First Temple Trip

I just had to share how excited I am that Molly was able to go on her first Temple trip last Saturday!

She turned 12 in January. This was the first scheduled Temple trip that the youth of our Ward went on to the Detroit Temple. She was thrilled to be able to baptize those who have gone on before us. It was a fabulous experience for her and I'm really proud that she chose to go.

She is my third daughter to go on Temple trips with the youth. Brycen is turning 11 tomorrow, so one more year and I'll have 4 kids in YM/YW! Wow. When they all go on the same day, it will be a lot of baptisms that my family performs for others. Around 40 in one day. What a blessing.

Jillian didn't take her camera, so this photo was taken with her cell phone. I'm just glad we have a little something to document the special moment.

My Dirty Face Valentine

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

Mercury in corn syrup?? Should we worry?

I received this in my inbox today from Ittybits. I'm wondering if this is just hype or should I really worry?

I've thought about giving Ava corn syrup for constipation. Luckily, I don't believe I ever did it. I thought I had, but didn't. Is the media going overboard? Meaning- would it take a large amount of corn syrup with mercury to actually do harm? I know other things have mercury in them, but they are legal to consume and aren't supposed to cause any risk. What do you think? Am I not being cautious enough? Or should I boycott anything with corn syrup in it?

February 3, 2009

Alert: Mercury in Corn Syrup

Today we'll be short and sweet (but with no corn syrup sweetener, of course!) Last Wednesday, the Washington Post published an article about a very recent study stating that nearly 50% of commercial high-fructose corn syrup samples contained Mercury. Mercury is toxic in all forms, and as a parent, this is a big concern because corn syrup seems to be in just about everything (just look at the ingredients in your bread or apple sauce - you may be surprised.) It has been central to the controversial debate linking childhood vaccines to autism, but who knew it was in our food, too? If you have a Whole Foods nearby, you are in luck, because they have committed to selling foods without this ingredient. If you don't, you may find yourselves reading labels a bit more closely than you have in the past. Thanks to one of our subscribers for alerting us to this information. You know who you are!
Link to the Washington Post Article.

Jillian and her posse

I haven't posted anything about my family lately, so I thought I'd post a little something about Jillian. As soon as I get my camera fixed, I can start documenting our family outings again!

Jillian went to the New Year's Eve party at our friend the Kempf's house. Most of the kids were from church, but there are a couple that I don't recognize in the photo below (Hello?? long hair guy??). Maybe they were friends of Cameron Laws from school. Cameron and his family came to visit from Mississippi for the holidays. Cameron is in the black and orange shirt.

Yes, there were other girls at this party besides Jillian. *sigh*

She is Guitar Hero queen at our house.

Peace on earth dudes.

This last photo was funny to me considering Jillian has been soooo afraid of anything dead on a wall. Now she is all grown up and seems to handle it well. hee hee. Now I just need to get her to inch closer to Chuck E Cheese instead of hiding under the table. ;)

Macie's a teenager now!

What am I going to do with ~*2*~ teenagers now?! Yikes!

My sweet little Macie Boosies is now an official teenager having turned 13 today. She has grown up a lot in the last 6 months. She does NOT like Hannah Montana any longer. Oh no, she is beyond her. Now she is into top 40 music and IM'ing with her friends. No more cartoons...just bring on the telephone. -sigh-

I'll miss my little girl, but I'll now enjoy the young woman she is becoming.

*~*~Happy Birthday Macie~*~*

EDIT***One more thing I forgot to add about Macie turning 13....she is super excited that she can now sit in the FRONT SEAT of our van! She is old enough and weighs 2 pounds over the recommended weight. Weeeeeee!

New Nephew!

I have a new nephew!

Denver William Bertram was born last Wednesday, December 10th. Isn't he just adorable? He is my brother Kim and his wife Amber's 3rd child. Kim also has 3 other fabulous older children including this handsome guy.

Denver was born on my grandmother's birthday. She has been gone since 1991. For some reason, I thought about her all day on Wednesday. I guess she didn't want me to forget that the new baby was going to share her birthday. She would be 102!

Having Denver here is awesome, but it's also a little sad knowing he will be the last niece or nephew on my side to be born. Sure, there will be plenty more great-nieces and nephews, but no more kids from me or any of my 7 siblings. We are all old and so I guess it's time to be finished with our procreation. :)

Yes on 8

Prop8voterinfo

Ava turned ~ONE~

I wasn't going to post about Ava's birthday until I digiscrapped some photos, but if I wait for that to happen, you'll never see a birthday post. My scrapbook software is super duper slowwww. I need something nicer, but the funds won't allow right now. So anyway, here are some random photos from the party we had for Ava. We invited several family members and we ate some grilled hamburgers and hot dogs etc. My camera has a mysterious error message on it (note to self: don't lend out the camera to any of hubby's friends again!), so most of the pictures were taken by Jillian with her Canon. Jillian loves to snap photos of everything. My low disc space is a testament to that.


The cake I made for Ava looks eerily similar to one that I had made in March for Jillian! My girls really liked the polka dot cake, so I made one for Ava.


I made a separate cake for Ava to eat all by herself. I have done that for each of my kids. Of course I made a yellow one with white frosting. No chocolate here. I'm not stooopid. The one I had for Brycen when he turned one was sooo messy. It had blue frosting which he got up his nose. I had to make holes in each nostril so he could breathe. Too funny. Ava is a much "cleaner" cake eater.


Here is the birthday princess waiting for her cake.


I don't usually do video and this one isn't really much to look at, but it's still cute that at first Ava wasn't sure what to do. She sure didn't want or need the spoon that Molly was trying to give her!


After she caught on, she did a pretty good job demolishing the cake!


Getting tired of the excitement.


And now she was done with it all. Done. Done. Done.


Later, she opened her presents and the excitement was back on!

<
I'd say her favorite present was the Monkey book given by Uncle Lee and Aunt Linda. Her 2nd favorite was simple plastic barnyard animals from her cousin Christi and family.


Men don't really get into baby birthday parties, so they play Guitar Hero instead. Haha. Here is my nephew Michael, who was visiting from Mississippi, playing for the first time. He rocked the house.


Here is my great-niece Alayna wearing Ava's princess crown. She is so shy most the time, but quite the princess herself :)


And last, but not least, we used some birthday money to finally buy Ava a big girl car seat. She grew so fast that I had to get one asap. We both love it. Ava can see me in the mirror now and also see what's ahead. I like it because it can recline, has an EZ off cover for washing, and has a no-thread tightening harness. All I have to do is roll the knob to tighten and also loosen when needed. I love convenience. Not to mention the fact that I've heard is a nice safe seat.

All in all, Ava had a great birthday that we all enjoyed. I'm a bit misty about it though since they only turn 1 once and this is the last of my babies to enjoy that moment. I'm not too sad though. At least I get to look forward to the fun and exciting things that all 5 of them will be doing in the future such as graduating and getting married. There will be plenty of memories to be made right?

Baaaad Mama

First off...I'm sorry that I missed Try it Tuesday this week. I've been really busy/stressed with a YW event plus all the kids things that come at the end of the school year. Which brings me to the purpose of this post. Ugh.

Have you ever felt like a complete and utter failure as a parent? Ever done and said the wrong things to your kids? Of course not you say! It's just meeeeeee.

Here's how it went down:

This morning I woke up after the kids. That was mistake #1. But heck, I was tired and don't I deserve a little sleeping in-age once in awhile? Anyway, I got up and went into the kitchen to get a drink. I saw a huge mess & it hit me the wrong way today. The last straw was seeing a package of hot dogs opened and it seemed like the person that opened them felt like they just didn't have the energy or care to put them away. So Mama was on the war path. I asked each kid (minus Ava of course) if they had left them out. "No". "No." "No" and "No". Enter Monster Mom. I lost it (not completely, but enough to have them all looking at me like I was a Mom from H-E double hockey sticks). This seemed like a re-run of a problem that has happened before. Not with hot dogs, but with something else just as annoying. No one would own up to the fact they they were too "busy" to put the item away. So I put each of them in ground-age mode until the guilty party came forward. It worked. Molly came forward after a bit and confessed. She apologized to everyone and cleaned up her mess. I thought she learned her lesson on that one, but here we were in the same boat again.

Molly insisted that SHE wasn't the culprit of leaving out the spoiling hot dog package. "It's not me this time! Honest!", she exclaimed. After some fit throwing (by all of us), I made them all sit at the dining room table until someone decided to own up to their "forgetfulness". They sat and sat with some more fit throwing and stomping of feet. I just couldn't believe we were back to this again!

Enter Dad. He was still sleeping until he heard all the commotion. He gets the low-down on the problem and sheepishly walks into the kitchen asking if the hot dog package was the one right by the toaster. Mom silently starts to feel the fire moving to the top of her head ready to explode. DAD left the hot dog package out the previous night just before he went to bed. He explained that he was too tired and forgot to put them away. GRRRR.

I really earned the Bad Mom award today. It's just like my kids to eat hot dogs in the morning. It's just like my kids to leave out the package until I remind them to put them away. But Mom is the one who really did the wrong thing by throwing my little fit. Dad left the stinky little things out and did apologize to all of us, but I needed to apologize to the kids now. I had a "quiet" talk with Dad about setting a good example all the while knowing that I was the one who needed to set a better example!

I also learned a lesson about not following through with teaching the kids to clean up after themselves in the first place. I lack in that area. Mostly, I do have them take responsibility, but I still find myself cleaning up after them sometimes instead of making them clean it up themselves. It just seems easier to do it myself at times. Wrong-o. I just made it harder on myself in the long run right?

You would think I would have learned from all those Love & Logic classes that I took this year.

I'm off to repent now.

Have a good weekend!

I love spring!

I love this flowering crab apple tree in our front yard, so Jillian took a picture of it. I want to remember how it looks each spring. It's not like I would frame it or anything, but I thought I'd post a picture. That's what the blog is for right? To write about anything that is important to us. I know it's just a tree, but it's a beautiful sight that gets me excited for springtime. I also love that I can see a reflection of pink on my office wall from this tree. Hard to explain exactly how it looks, but it's neat to see.

Little Miss Ava is having her 1st birthday this Friday. Here is a sneak peek photo of her in her princess crown. I used some of this photo to make digi scrap invitations for my family to come enjoy the big event. Her t-shirt says, "Princess in Training".

The Grass is Greener

Ava has been outside plenty of times, but last week was the first time she actually encountered the flowers in our yard. She loved the grass and bark too. And yes, it's time to mow for the first time this season!