Nicki's Diapers: Babysitters and Cloth Diapers

I have a guest post at Nicki's Diapers: Babysitters and Cloth Diapers: "When I first started cloth diapering my daughter over a year ago, I thought that I might be the only person willing to change her diapers. ..."

'Tis the Season...

It's been busy around here.  I've been finishing up a few gifts that I'm making for Christmas.  The kids are helping me bake cookies.  They love wearing the aprons Mamaw made.  Lydia wore hers for days straight, actually.  It is really cute; it reminds me of an old-fashioned pinafore.  Nathaniel is off until the new year, so we've been enjoying his company.  Unfortunately, he's had to spend quite a bit of time dealing with our heater.  It's broken.  We hope the repairmen call back tomorrow to set up the appointment to fix it.  In the meantime, we do have heat, but it's not functioning right and will cost a lot more on our electric bill.  All of this is pretty minor, though, when I've been thinking about a dear friend whose son has a heart condition.  It's one of those things that you wish you could just fix for them.  So we're just hoping and praying that his heart and lungs don't get any worse.  

Ranch Potato Salad

This is so yummy!  My parents have been talking about this different potato salad that they get at the lake, made with bacon and sour cream and some ranch flavors instead of mayo.  Well, I decided to try and make some, and it was a huge hit with Nathaniel and me.  Here's what I did:
6-8 pieces of bacon, cooked and diced
4 baked potatoes, cubed (I took about 1/2 of the skins off, but left half on)
1/2 c cheddar cheese (plus another 1/2 c, optional)
1 recipe of my garlic ranch dressing (see http://barefootkentuckymama.blogspot.com/2010/07/garlic-ranch-dressing.html)

Combine all ingredients in a 2 quart baking dish.  Now it is great just cold like that.  But then you can add the additional 1/2 c or so of cheese to the top and stick it in the oven for about 15 minutes.  And then it's really heavenly.

First Sled Ride

It snowed last night and all morning, so we decided to introduce Lydia to snow and sledding.  She loved it, of course.  She really likes to walk in the snow.  She finds it fascinating.  Our neighbors are nice enough to let us use their hill, which is perfect for kids' sleds.  Here's a shot of the hill:

Here is where Nathaniel hangs out at the bottom of the hill, to make sure our kids don't wind up in the road or in front of the few cars that could come by.  (None did.)

Doesn't Lydia look cute in her snow suit?  I think we bought it for Malachi at a yard sale or something, but then we moved to Texas, and it never got used.  Well, today it saw snow, and she stayed dry underneath, so it was a perfect suit for her! 

Here they are before sledding.

It was tons of fun.  I haven't been on a sled in years.  I took Lydia in after only about 15 minutes (she is only 1), but the boys stayed out for quite a while.  It was perfect play-in-the-snow weather, right around 31 degrees.  Unfortunately, later in the afternoon Lydia got sick, and now she is sleeping in her footies in her crib.  I guess if we get more snow tomorrow, the boys will have to enjoy it without her.  :(  They willl have a busy day, though.  They are singing and doing their puppets at the nursing home tomorrow after church. 

Leaves and Spanish storytime

This picture is a couple of weeks old now, as you can guess since it's way too cold and wet now to be playing in the leaves, but I thought it was a fun action shot.  My kids and nieces were helping Pa and I rake at my parents' house.  OK, mostly, they were playing, but we did get some help out of them.  It was a lot of fun.  My siblings joined in, too, and all three of us were taking multiple pictures. 

Does anyone else have trouble putting more than one picture in a blog entry?  Sometimes I have no trouble, and other times it just won't let me browse for more.

I just printed up the fliers for my next project: a Spanish storytime.  My church asked if I could do something with moms and kids, and we came up with a storytime format.  It will be in Spanish and English.  The idea is to slowly introduce English to Spanish-speaking toddlers/preschoolers and their stay-at-home mamas.  I start in January.  I am nervous, but very excited.  (Missy, I will be asking for help with felt farm animals!)  This is really all me, because no one else at church speaks Spanish, but they are eager to reach out and start some type of ESL program.  This is the beginning of something that will hopefully expand later on...

After Thanksgiving

Yes, I've been gone a while.  We went to Nathaniel's parents' for Thanksgiving, and that went well.  We took the boys bowling for the first time.  I wish you could all see Malachi's happy dance.  It is so cute, and he did it after EVERY single frame!  Both boys had a blast, and my ordinarily super-competitive father-in-law just sat back and enjoyed watching them bowl, which was awesome.  (And my boys thought the bowling shoes were cool! :)
Now we are just trying to get back in the swing of things and get ready for Christmas.  My poor baby had a stomach bug Monday, but she's fine now and we're hoping no one else gets it.