Goodreads: February 2012

Check out the books I read in January.  You can also follow along with my reading progress on Goodreads.

Here are the books I read in February:

10.  Forever in Blue, the Fourth Summer of the Sisterhood -- Ann Brashares

11.  Beauty Shop For Rent... Fully Equipped, Inquire Within -- Laura Bowers

12.  Sisterhood Everlasting -- Ann Brashares 


13.  Changing Diapers: The Hip Mom's Guide to Modern Cloth Diapering -- Kelly Wels


14.  The Princess Diaries -- Meg Cabot


15.  Princess in the Spotlight -- Meg Cabot


16.  Princess in Love -- Meg Cabot


17.  Valentine Princess -- Meg Cabot


18.  Princess in Waiting -- Meg Cabot


19.  Princess in Pink -- Meg Cabot


20.  201 Organic Baby Purees -- Tamika Gardner


21.  Princess in Training -- Meg Cabot


22.  Party Princess -- Meg Cabot


23.  Princess on the Brink -- Meg Cabot


24.  Princess Mia -- Meg Cabot


25.  Forever Princess -- Meg Cabot

Monthly Total: 16
2012 Total: 25

Color Code:

Red = 5 Stars

Orange = 4 Stars

Yellow = 3 Stars

Green = 2 Stars

Blue = 1 Star

Fur Babies

If you've been reading for a while, you know that we have three chihuahuas -- Re-Pete, Penelope, and Wally.  Before Gene arrived, they were spoiled.  They were like four-legged children.

Once the baby was born, things changed.  I was feeling overwhelmed.  I was trying to take care of this tiny person and myself while recovering from surgery.  I was struggling to try and cook dinner or even do laundry.

Add three, yappy, shedding dogs to the equation.

It seemed like every single day, without fail, the dogs would start barking the minute I put Gene down for a nap, thus waking him up.  I became quite angry.  I'd had enough.  I went so far as to post ads on Craigslist and sent e-mails to friends a family, desperately trying to get rid of the beasts who stood between my son and naps.

Then suddenly this week things changed.

Gene realized we had dogs.

I'm sure he's noticed them before, but now he tries to interact with them.  Whenever he's sitting on my lap he looks around for them.  When they come up to us he smiles, waves his arms, and "talks" to them.

He likes the dogs.

So all plans to get rid of the dogs have gone out the window.  Because seriously, how could we get rid of something that makes our little man happy?

Paaaaarty!

Gene attended his very first birthday party over the weekend.  His buddy, Max, turned 3 years old and had a pirate-themed bash.  It was very exciting.  The decor was great.  Max's mama even made him a pirate ship birthday cake.

A pirate ship.

Seriously.  It was awesome.  Seeing the expression on Max's face when he saw it was priceless.  It was like he was thinking, 'is that for ME?'

The last time I was at a birthday party for a little kid I was still a child.  The energy of small children is exhausting.  I was ready for a nap when I got home and all I did was hold Gene!

Speaking of my little love bug, how'd he do?  He was a champ!  He ended up napping for nearly an hour in the baby swing (all of J's friends have just had babies, so she got some of her gear out) in the noisy living room.  I can't get him to nap at home, but he will sleep in a room full of screaming toddlers?  What gives?  I think we're going to move in with J! haha...

Review: Clipix

Last June the hubs gave in to my request to use cloth diapers once Gene was born.  Once he agreed I began doing research.  I spent hours pouring over information on dozens of websites in an effort to understand what exactly it was we were getting ourselves in to.  There were so many different types of cloth diapers and I quickly began to get overwhelmed (the hormones didn't help either).

All of my notes were scribbled haphazardly on post-it notes, envelopes, and scraps of paper.  There was no rhyme or reason to the way I had them organized (or didn't, rather).  I would often misplace or accidentally throw away my notes.  If only I had had a better way of keeping all of my information together!

Clipix.com would have saved me from the huge headache that cloth diaper research had become.  With one click of the 'Clip' button in my toolbar, the valuable information would have been saved to a clipboard for me to look at later rather than written down on the back of my water bill.

Had I known about clipix before, I might have settled on a brand of cloth diaper much sooner than I did!

Clipix has many other useful uses as well.  You could use it to organize your Christmas list or to gather ideas for your toddler's upcoming birthday party.  There is also a free iPhone app so that you can continue to Clip ideas even when you are out running errands or sitting in the waiting room at the dentist.

The best part about Clipix?  You can keep your clipboards completely private!  Your mom won't be able to see your cake ideas for her upcoming retirement party.  Keeping information away from prying eyes is always a plus!

Head on over to clipix and start clipping today!

What are YOU going to clip?

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Mall Dates

Gene and I have gone on a couple of dates lately with our friends Mary and Connor.  We put the boys in their strollers, walk laps around the mall, and eventually have lunch.

Oh, and sometimes we shop, though hubs would prefer that I refrain from doing so...

"I love riding in the stroller!"

Anywho... Gene and I have really enjoyed our little mall dates.  It's great to get out of the house and have a bit of adult interaction, especially with another woman.  I love my husband, but there are just some conversations that are better had with another female.

Am I right?

Our mall is pretty lame.  In fact, it is so lame that Old Navy closed a couple of years ago.  In its place is a store full of unattractive, overpriced furniture.  One day we walked by and a small chair by the doorway caught my eye.

It had 'Michael' written all over it.

So we stopped.  I unbuckled Gene from the stroller, sat him in the chair and snapped a picture.

"Can you see me?"

We had a good laugh.  I sent the picture to the hubs and made it clear that this was never coming to our house.

I think he was sad they didn't have a daddy-sized chair for him.

Family Historian

As a mom, I feel like it is my responsibility to record our memories.  I do this by taking photographs.

But what then?  What do I do with the photos?

I have a couple of photo albums with printed 4X6 pictures.  It starts with my pictures from high school and continues on in chronological order.

For Gene, however, I wanted to do something special.  I wanted to create something that he could take with him when he leaves the nest and starts a family of his own a hundred years from now.  I didn't want to simply print out 4X6 pictures and toss them in an album.  I wanted something special.

Unfortunately, I don't have the patience for scrapbooking.  I tried once and didn't get very far before giving it up.

I finally settled on creating a digital scrapbook and having the pages printed out and put in an album.  I am making 8X10 scrapbook pages using Photoshop Elements.  I have only made a few pages so far, but I really like them.

Click to enlarge

Click to enlarge

Click to enlarge

One of the nice things about this project is that it has forced me to finally learn how to use PSE, which I begged the hubs to buy for me and then rarely used.  I've always been somewhat intimidated by the software, but am finding that it isn't as bad as I thought.

I have four months of pages to create.  Hopefully I can continue at my current pace (1-2 pages per day) and will be caught up soon!

How do you archive your family memories?

Wordless Wednesday (Almost)

My favorite time of the day... snuggling with my sweet baby early in the morning ♥