Busy busy busy

Okay. I guess it's time for an update. We've been really busy lately! Between house hunting, getting everything ready for the baby (only three weeks until the due date!) and trying to keep my apartment clean and my little family fed and happy (increasingly difficult due to swollen feet and aching spine) things have seemed kind of crazy around here. It seems that the second Adam gets home from work we're rushing off somewhere. Hopefully everything will calm down soon.

Anyway.

Our Fourth of July weekend was really great. My dad, my sister Evie and my niece Ashley were all born on the fourth, so it's always a pretty festive weekend for us. Adam had the fourth off, so we were able to sleep in a little (yay!) and then we headed out to my parents house for lunch. After lunch we made zucchini bread, cheesecake and brownies and watched a movie. Then we moved the party outside and let the younger kids break open a piñata, spent an hour filling and tying water balloons, and then had a five minute water fight. (It was totally worth it.)
We had a delicious BBQ chicken dinner, and then headed out to see the fireworks. Nobody felt like driving into St. George for the fireworks, so we just went and lay out on some blankets at the Leeds park. (Leeds does their own fireworks now, how crazy is that?) It was actually a pretty good show, and so relaxing to lay out under the stars instead of sitting uncomfortably on some cliff in St. George. And Sienna, Kaycee and Anicka had a great time playing with some glow sticks that we bought for them(The kind that you can make necklaces and bracelets out of).

I had my camera with me all weekend, but I was having so much fun that I forgot to take any pictures!

After the fireworks we went over to Shane and Dusty's. We spent the night there to avoid spending any more money on gas than was absolutely necessary. I tried to get some pictures of their kids playing with sparklers, but my camera doesn't have a fireworks setting, so most of them came out pretty funky. Here are a couple that turned out kind of cool.



I tried to get a picture of Ashley, since she was the birthday girl and all, but somehow her face always ended up being covered.













Saturday we had a great time playing board games (Settlers of Catan! Best game ever!) and chillin with Shane and Dusty and Dusty's parents, Kevin and Lana. That afternoon my mom and sisters picked me up and we went out to shop the sales at JoAnne's. I got some really great fabric to make those babyslings, and Evie got some crazy patterns and funky fabric so that she can make herself some Evie-ish dresses. She has such a unique style, I love it. Then it was back to Leeds and dinner at Dusty's place. We didn't leave there until almost midnight. Luckily they have a bed that Anicka can sleep on when we're there, so she always goes to bed on time.
Sunday we were back out in Leeds for our usual Sunday Dinner ritual. We watched Spiderwick, which was kind of a cute movie, and got about a million apricots from my parents. Last night we made about half of those into Apricot-Pineapple Jam, my favorite! I've never made Jam before, and it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be, just time consuming. We got seven jars of jam out of the batch we made. Don't they look scrumptious? I had some on my toast this morning, it was fantastic. Mmmm, homemade jam. Now I just need to make some bread to go with it.


Like I said, we only used about half of the apricots, so tonight I'm going to make an apricot pie that I found on-line, and then cut up and freeze whatever is left to use in smoothies and such. Delicious.
Well. I spent entirely too long writing this, and I have a million things to do. So.
Hope everybody else had an awesome holiday!

Babywearing

Have you seen those mothers who walk around wearing their babies in slings all of the time? I've always wanted to try that, but do you know how much those slings cost? Anywhere from 30 - 60 dollars, and not much cheaper on Ebay.
I just don't have that much money to spend.
Anyway, I started researching patterns on the internet, thinking that maybe my mom could help me sew one (because I, sadly, have absolutely no luck when it comes to sewing anything. I'm completely hopeless.) and as it turns out, I don't have to sew a thing if I want just a simple wrap. I tried it out yesterday using just a bed sheet, and i was able to carry Anicka around without a problem. She sat quite comfortably strapped to my hip, and the bed sheet distributed the weight across my back and shoulders. My arms were completely free. Awesome!
Here's what I did, in case you want to try it:
Take a flat bed sheet ( I used a queen size ) and fold it in half lengthwise. Then fold it lengthwise again. Find the middle of the length and place it on your hip with the thickest fold facing down. Bring the back end of the folded sheet up diagonally across your back and sling it over the opposite shoulder. Bring the front end of the sheet up to the same shoulder and tie the two ends together in a knot, leaving the fabric draped loosely across your stomach. The knot should be between your shoulder and your breast, sort of where a corsage would go. Make a 'pouch' out of the material that's hanging across your belly by separating two of the layers of material. Hold the pouch open with one hand, and slide the baby in with the other hand. Tiny babies kind of curl up against your breasts, older kids can sit up against your hip with their legs hanging out. You can then tighten or loosen the knot at your shoulder to keep the baby as secure as possible. Spread the fabric out to cover as much of your shoulder and back as possible, so that the weight will be distributed evenly.
This is just one method. There are dozens. To make the sling easier to adjust you can buy some rings to secure the fabric with instead of tying a knot. Here's a great video to show you how that works:


You can also sew the rings into the fabric if you want, and then you have only one tail to adjust, instead of two. Here are some instructions that I found for doing that, just in case you're as craft challenged as I am: www.sleepingbaby.net/jan/Baby/sling.html

If you're going to use rings, make sure you buy weight bearing rings, not craft store rings. Here's a place online that sells rings made specifically for baby slings: sling rings

Here is a site that has instructions on various different carries using a ring sling:
http://www.sleepingbaby.net/wearing/index.php

And here are a couple of general, all purpose websites with tons of useful information on them:
www.thebabywearer.com
www.mamatoto.org

I hope somebody finds all of this useful. :)
I'm just excited.