Fun with the Bardwell Cousins

After a 6.75 hour car drive that should have taken only 3 hours, we were happy to spend some quality time with the Bardwells! Micah and Eli have so much fun with their cousins. Here's Micah with his posse: Jessi, Natalie, and Kaleb.

Josiah taught Eli a thing or two about gaming:

Guess which foot is Josiah's and which one is Eli's??

Mmmm, Jordan, this sweatshirt is yummy!

Not all of Xmas was bad, for the record

In an effort to try to beat the impending bad weather, Santa came a night early to fill our stockings.

Really, Santa? New toothbrushes?

Micah is happy to share his new Thomas book. As long as Eli keep his hands off. . .

We quickly packed up and drove to my parents' house. Unfortunately, my sister and brother and families couldn't make it, so we've had to reschedule. Micah and Eli were all too happy to have undivided grandparent attention. Micah loved to help Nana G make cookies.

Silly Eli.


Such happy boys!

Christmas, this is where you and I part ways

We anticipated that this Christmas was going to be difficult. Unfortunately we underestimated.

After 5 days and 14 1/2 hours in the car, driving past drifts that were 5 ft taller than our car, we managed to have only one of the two planned family Christmas get togethers.

My boys haven't been bathed since last Thursday.

We have no food in the refrigerator.

Eli is upstairs asleep with a pacifier that has not been cleaned in over a week.

BUT, we are home safely and plan to stay here. Christmas, to you, I say, Sayonara. New Year, bring it on.

The Mute has become The Babbler

Blue (eyed) Christmas

My experiments with homemade baby food

I am frugal. OK, a better word is cheap. In an attempt to save money, I thought I'd try my hand at making some of Eli's baby food. My ONLY motive for making it by hand was to save money. I don't care about the supposed nutritional benefits; just saving money. I know. I'm bad.

My expectations were that I'd be able to save money on some of the cheaper veggies (sweet potatoes, carrots) but not as much, if any, on the fruits (peaches, pears). I used the cheapest ingredients I could find and compared it to the cheapest baby food I could find--Del Monte brand at WalMart, which for runs 46 cents for a 4 oz jar. Here are my very unscientific results:

CARROTS
Difficulty level: medium
Savings: 4 cents/oz; 16 cents/jar
Verdict: Even after food processing, the texture was not as smooth as jarred. But still, I'd give it a PROBABLY WORTH IT.

SWEET POTATOES
Difficulty level: easy
Savings: 7 cents/oz; 28 cents/jar
Verdict: I scored some super cheap sweet potatoes. Both Eli and Micah love mashed sweet potatoes, so we use them all the time. DEFINITELY WORTH IT.

ACORN SQUASH/BUTTERNUT SQUASH
Difficulty level: easy
Savings: 5 cents/oz; 20 cents/jar
Verdict: DEFINITELY WORTH IT. We all eat squashed squash!

GREEN BEANS
Difficulty level: medium to hard
Savings: 3 cents/oz; 12 cents/jar
Verdict: The texture is grainy no matter how much I blend them, and Eli won't eat them. NOT WORTH IT.

PEARS
Difficulty: easy
Savings: 1 cent/oz; 4 cents/jar
Verdict: NOT WORTH IT

APPLESAUCE
I sometimes make this from apples given to me (definitely worth it obviously). Usually, though, I buy a big jar of the unsweetened applesauce in the canned fruits section.
Savings: 7 cents/oz; 28 cents/jar
Verdict with jar of applesauce: DEFINITELY WORTH IT

BANANAS
Difficulty: super easy
Savings: I have not calculated the savings of just mashing a banana, but I guess it to be significant.
Verdict: Sadly, Eli doesn't like the texture. We haven't tried the jarred because i keep hoping he'll come around. But for Micah as a baby, it was DEFINITELY WORTH IT.

APPLES AND BLUEBERRIES
Eli loves the HyVee brand of this flavor, which is 50 cents/jar. It is tricky to know what the ratio is of apples to blueberries, so it's difficult to know if you're saving money. Supposing the ratio is half and half. . .
Difficulty: medium--and very messy
Savings: If the jar is half blueberries, I am losing money making it myself. If it's less than that, I would break even or maybe save a couple cents per oz.
Verdict: NOT WORTH IT.

So my suspicions for the most part were confirmed. It helped that we had a small food processor. I did spend $1 on ice cube trays to freeze the food. If you have to buy a bunch of equipment to get started, that may negate any money you end up saving. I know several of you readers have made baby food yourselves, so please feel free to share your own experiences!

I'm 8 months old!

I really am a joy to be around! I am sleeping well at night and usually take 3 naps a day. I love to eat! Solid foods are great, except for peas and bananas. I usually eat around 4 jars a day, in addition to nursing 5-6 times. I still don’t have any teeth but chew on my hands (and toys) a lot. I am going to be a slow talker. I am not babbling much and don’t make many consonant sounds. I am army crawling everywhere! I am finally sitting up well – but I much prefer to be on my belly. Daddy calls me Godz-Eli because I slowly crawl over to my brother’s train tracks and destroy them! I am always missing at least one sock (see picture). My skin is really sensitive and I usually have a rash around my mouth from all that drooling I do. I am picking up and manipulating my toys better, but mostly I am on the go! I love to crawl to the Christmas tree and try to touch the ornaments. I also love chasing the cat!

Something really wonderful happened to me yesterday!

Seven and a half (almost eight) years ago, I splurged and bought a Columbia winter coat, seen here in our recent snowstorm. It was on sale for $115, but I am really frugal and remember thinking that I was crazy to spend this much on a coat. My friends assured me a Columbia coat would last me forever. Well, it has been a great coat, but last spring, the zipper pull tab broke off. I tried everything I could think of in its place (paperclip, craft wire, ribbon, fishing line) but nothing worked for longer than a week or two. Recently, friends told me to take the coat to Scheels, where I purchased it, and they would fix it since it's a Columbia coat. After some online research and calling Scheels, I confirmed that this coat has a lifetime warranty on zippers etc, and Scheels would send it to Columbia to fix it for me. Great news; I really love this coat and it has plenty of wear left.

So yesterday I took the coat to Scheels and asked the nice customer service woman there to mail the coat to Columbia for me. You can imagine my surprise when she told me that I could pick out a BRAND NEW coat and she'd just do an exchange! Seriously? Yes - she even checked with a manager. I didn't even need my receipt (they didn't ask how old the coat was, and I didn't volunteer that info :) SO. . . I entered the store with a 7 1/2 year old coat with a broken zipper pull, and left the store with a brand new (regular price $260, on sale for $180) coat!!

All I want for Christmas is. . .

. . . A SNOWBLOWER! We've gotten 15+ inches of snow here and are under a blizzard warning all day. The wind has created drifts in our driveway at least 2 feet high. After all this scooping, we'll probably be visiting the chiropractor tomorrow.

You should be seeing our driveway in this pic; instead, a solid snow mass.

Want to get out the front door? Think again!

Want to get IN the front door? Think again!

Here's the drift from our garage door.

Want come over for a visit? Bring a shovel and head on over! :)

Playing outside the box

Now that Eli is scooting around, guess where he likes to crawl?




He even got his brother in on the act!

This is a Test

What comes to mind when viewing our neighbor's Christmas lights?

The correct answer will be posted in the comments in a few days. Feel free to make as many guesses as you'd like. All correct entries submitted will be rewarded! OK, that's a total lie, but please make your guesses anyway.