Oh A Day In The Life!

Well life is nothing but eventful here at the Hardesty House. We've been making some big changes.
Tristan will be 5 (ACK!) in 4 weeks. I can't believe this beautiful little boy is getting so not little. :) He is 42 inches tall, 41 pounds. He is hilarious, he lights up every aspect of my life, even if I want to whip him sometimes. He is by far the most interactive, friendly, loving, sweet, hilarious, Jesus loving little boy on the planet. I think sometimes we are too hard on him. He is so good and so smart that we forget he is only 5. We expect more from him. I'm working on that. Not on lowering my standards but giving more grace when he acts like a 5 year old. Giving him grace like he gives me when I am unfair with him. For instance the other day, I was trying to get Piper to sleep and he for the 8 millionth time ran a truck into the wall and startled her awake, I swatted his arm and made him go sit in his room. After about 20 seconds I went in there and told him I was sorry for over reacting that I shouldn't have swatted his arm and he said, "it's ok mommy, nobody's perfect." I mean seriously. How stinking precious is he. Recently he earned a new belt in Tae Kwon Do.




Miss Piper, is somewhere around 11 pounds and 22 inches long. She is so sweet, still sleeps a TON, nurses like a champion and screams like a girl. She has a sad cry that comes with a protruding lip, a needy cry that is just sweet sounding and a pissed of girly scream that is just entertaining...unless you're in the car. She loves her swing, and loves her changing table! She is even starting to enjoy her baths! She smiles the most when she is in her room on her changing table. She melts my heart daily!



Tris is in love with her, he kisses her when he thinks I am not watching, calms her down when she is "screaming like a rooster" (as he says), gives her her binky when he thinks it will help (or when it is interrupting his TV time) and always kisses her goodnight. Such an amazing big brother!




I'm excited that the kids are having their Fall Photos done on Monday by Angie Oxenrider of AJ's Photography. I can't wait to post photos!

We've started using cloth diapers with Piper. I'm becoming quite natural....strange, yet I love it. I decided to do it initially for the cost and now we only use disposables at night, and to see how much less waste we create is really cool. We use 1-3 'sposies a day in comparison to 10 or 12 a day. We now use 30-90 diapers a month instead of 300-360 a month. I made my own cloth wipes and got an awesome recipe for cloth wipe solution from my friend Amanda Fowler. It has baby wash, water and tea tree oil in it! It smells awesome! I started making my own laundry detergent thanks to my stellar cousin Tina Weeks, and it cleans awesome, smells good and ends up being like a penny a load! ROCK ON! We're making changes, b/c it is good for our family and it is good for the environment.

Above are the diapers we normally use. They are prefolded cloth diapers with diaper covers, we end up changing them 10-12 times a day. We still use 'sposies at night, mainly b/c I'm not confident enough in my cloth diapering abilities yet. My goal is in the next few weeks to not be using any disposables at all.

Above is the homemade cloth wipes (http://www.turtlesrus.etsy.com/) and homemade wipe spray. I just keep the spray in her room on her changing table and spray a couple of sprays on a wipe before I use it and we're good to go. You can also put the wipes in an old wipe container and put the wipe solution in there, but you have to change it and wash the unused (and used!) wipes every couple of days. It just seems easier to keep the spray bottle in there. Here's how you make them:
•2 TBSP Baby Wash
•2 TBSP Olive Oil or 1 TBSP Calendula Oil
•2 Drops Tea Tree Oil
•2 Cups Water
It smells amazing!


Above is some bottom balm by Earth Mama. I found it at New Seasons and had a $3.00 off coupon! Cloth diapered babies aren't supposed to get diaper rash, but if they do, this is a great bottom balm (and it smells awesome).

Above are the ingredients I use to make my own laundry detergent (Thanks Tina!) It's super simple and is great at cleaning. In fact the other night my hubby got a bloody nose at midnight (gross) and I washed the sheets (all white sheets) in the wash in the morning and it came out spotless! It's not real fragrant, but the thing is, I think we've convinced ourselves that if something smells fragrant then it must be clean. I don't think that is necessarily true. Here is how you make your own detergent!
2 cups finely grated soap (your fave soap)
1 cup washing soda
1 cup borax
**Mix well and store in an airtight plastic container.**


Above is the final product! Just 2tbsp per full load and it ends up being just about a penny a load! You can get all the ingredients for under $10 at Fred Meyers!

Health wise, Piper seems to be in the clear. I'm no longer panicking on a daily basis, well not about her health anyway.

John, oh sweet John, was put on a job in McMinnville. Poor, sweet, hardworking hubby. He gets up at 4:30am and normally isn't home until 5:45pm. Which means he misses Tae-Kwon-Do on Tues & Thurs and barely gets home in time for worship practice on Thursdays, which means on Thursdays he is gone from 4:30am-9pm. He rarely gets time with the kids. Not cool. We are so grateful for his job, but he may be asking for a change of venue, which realistically could mean unemployment. Kind of a bummer, but at least he'd be home for a bit. Hopefully in Jan he'll be taking the lead on a job at MHCC, which is just a few miles from home. Maybe that will make sticking it out in McMinnville worth it. Who knows!

Take a peak at all the new photos! The kids are getting big and life is so full and wonderful!

(this is life at our house!!!)