8 months old.

I honestly can't believe Jack is already 8 months old. Matt left for Cuba this time last year. I remember him leaving like it was yesterday. This year has really flown by and so much has changed.

We moved down here last march, I had Jack in June, Matt came back to the states and we moved back up to Washington, now Jack and I are back down here staying with my dad because we are trying to buy a house. It's been a wonderful year.

I'm so excited to be buying a home, To be settled and not have to move again. We have moved 8 times in the last 2 1/2 years (including staying with our parents between moves.) thankfully for 3 of the moves the navy has helped us and packed everything up, but it is still so stressful moving so often! I'm excited to finally have a permanent place to call home!

baby led weaning

When I was pregnant, I KNEW I wasn't going to feed Jack store bought baby food. It has a shelf life of around 3 years, and you don't really know what goes into it. Manufactures legally don't have to put all ingredients on the packaging, plus it is stinking expensive!

What I didn't know, is that we would be doing baby led weaning. What is baby led weaning? Baby led weaning is the act of letting your child feed themselves from the very beginning!

Basically, we have just been giving Jack pieces of whatever we are eating! Jack LOVES IT! He does great with it, especially since he has 8 teeth already. The only down side is that he gets extremely messy!

It's pretty motivating to be eating healthier though! I'm very committed to teaching Jack about nutrition from the very start! Maybe I'm a mean, but I'm really pushing green veggies more than anything, and so far, Jack loves them, especially broccoli!


It's funny. You go into parenthood thinking you are going to do things a certain way, and it doesn't happen that way at all :)

Matt, Jack, and I had a wonderful Christmas! We went down to Oregon for the holiday! The weekend was full of laughter, family, and fun. Jack was beyond blessed with presents, he has so much family that loves him (not that presents= love, but you get what I'm saying)!

Port Gamble.& Poulsbo.

We spent last weekend exploring Port Gmable (One of my FAVORITE places in Washington), and Poulsbo (another awesome little place!) We drank mayan hot chocolate, ate carmel corn, and finished up the day at Tizsley Euro pub! I'm thankful that I can take Jack out for the day and he doesn't get fussy! Well, not yet at least ;)

a little late...

We were able to make it down to Oregon for the weekend! Jack had a great "1st" thanksgiving. We were able to spend time with family, and some close friends. unfortunately we didn't get to see everyone we wanted to, but hopefully we will for christmas :)

5 months have come and gone!

Jack is 5 months old today! I can't believe how quickly time has gone by. It is definitely bittersweet. I have enjoyed every minute I've been blessed to have with him. He has been such a blessing and a joy.

He is a very sweet boy, cuddly and he laughs SO MUCH! His favorite thing to laugh at is Riley. He just laughs and smiles and wants to talk to her all the time. I hope we catch him laughing at her on video, we haven't yet, but I'm sure we will soon!

Jack takes after Matt and I already. We like routine. No, we love routine, and Jack is no different. Is that normal for a baby? He has put himself on a very predictable schedule. He wakes up between 7-9, then naps every two hours for about 30+ minutes. Then we give him a bath between 7-7:30, and he is out by 8. then he usually sleep until 2-3 and then wakes up every 3 hours, and when he "wakes up" he doesn't even open his eyes, he is just waking up to eat. I'm hoping this lasts, I know it will probably change, but I would be one happy mama if he stayed on his self made schedule :)




look at how big (and bald) he is now!!!! I can't believe how much he looks like a little boy already and less like a baby! Happy 5 month birthday Jack, WE LOVE YOU!

I'm nervous about this post, but I thought is was time to share my news with the world. Please, don't judge me. It sounds disgusting, but I promise it's not!

In the past two weeks I have only washed my hair once. Okay, that's not entirely true. I've used shampoo only once.

A few months ago, actually right after having Jack, I came across a a blog called Sorta Crunchy. <--(this link will take you to the post I'm talking about.)


On her blog, I came found a post about no poo. What is no poo? No poo (no shampoo) is a collective term for methods of washing hair with no commercial shampoo.

The method I have been using is baking soda and apple cider vinegar. First, you make a paste out of the baking soda and water. Massage your head with the paste, let it sit a few minutes, then rinse it out. After rinsing out the paste, mix the acv with water I do a 1:3 ratio. I then dip my ends into the acv and then pour the rest over my scalp.

I know, it sounds gross and smelly, but I promise, after rinsing out the acv you can't smell it at all.

As a wife and mother, it is important to me to save my family money, as well as make our home a happy and healthy place. Commercial shampoo can be expensive, and it is full of harmful chemicals. I personally, have a very dry scalp and store bought shampoo just makes this problem worse (even "dandruff" shampoo doesn't help.)

The reason I first wanted to try a 'poo free lifestyle was because scented shampoo was making me sick! Since getting pregnant and having Jack scented lotions/shampoos/perfumes/and soaps (including laundry soap) make me really nauseous for some reason.

I'm really happy with this method thus far. I use it as often as needed, about 2-3x a week, and my hair feels nice and healthy. I didn't think it would work because my hair normally gets really oily but I haven't had any problems at all :)

The next "crunchy" venture I'm going to take is washing my face with oil! You can ready more about no 'poo ,and the oil cleansing method(washing face with oil) at SortaCrunchy!