1st 4th

Israel spent his first fourth of July with us at his Aunt Melanie & Uncle Kevin's house. It was a beautiful hot day and he spent most of it in his diaper in his Aunties arms :-) Oh how he loves her!

Not feeling so hot!

So last week sweet little Izzy had to have his first dose of antibiotics :-( He got a bacterial skin infection. It started off as just a few spots...but it continued to spread over the next week and I decided to get him seen for it. It didn't seem to bother him much, which I am thankful for. But I'm sad that at only 4 months old he needed antibiotics. Good news is, his rash is now completely gone and now we know he isn't allergic to it! Plus...we know he has a sweet tooth...because he loved taking his medicine, and actually cried when it was gone each time!

Loving the cloth!

So we have been using our Gro Baby cloth diapers for a while now and are still totally in love with them! I don't know why we didn't do this sooner!

But I have a question for you...does anyone out there use natural/organic laundry soap? Honestly I had never really given my laundry soap much thought, until I started using cloth diapers. Tiny Bubbles is one brand I am looking in to but I'm wondering if anyone has any suggestions, advise or comments for me? Thanks for your help! I always love hearing what you have to say :-)

God is good, all the time!

I have a huge PRAISE to share with you all! A while back...well right here to be exact...I posted about Israel getting approved for Medicaid. That was a big praise in and of itself...but it's even bigger now! I requested that his service date go back to his date of birth, as opposed to the date I called to apply him. This is because before he was even born I called to get him going on Medicaid, but they told me I couldn't do anything until he was his own person with his own social security number. I understand...but you would think there should be some exception to the rule when it is a condition you know your unborn child is going to have from the beginning. Well...enough with this business...the praise is It got approved! They are going to change his date of service to his date of birth. Which means any existing bills we currently owe on for him will be completely taken care of! And...even more...they are going to retro pay...meaning pay the bills IN FULL...even what we have all ready paid, and we will get our money back! PRAISE GOD! He truly is good ALL THE TIME! Thanks to all of you who have and are continuing to lift our family up in prayer! God is answering them!

4 Months Old

(Sorry I'm a bit late at getting this out...life's been a little busy around here!)


Hey Israel! You're 4 months old now!

What are you up to these days?

You weigh 11 lbs 2 oz!

Well, you still wear size 1 diapers...when you wear disposable ones. But since getting your Gro Baby diapers you rarely wear them.

You still fit into almost all of your 0-3 months clothes...but can now fit into a few 3-6 month things as well.

You are still an amazing sleeper and take 3 to 4 naps a day which range from 1 to 3 hours each.

You love your play gym and spend lots of time under it each day. You are very smart and have learned how to kick and hit the toys to get a reaction from them.

You discovered your legs! You kick them up high and touch them with your arms.


You nap in your big boy crib, but Mommy isn't quite ready for you to be in there all night long...she still wants to hang onto her baby for a little bit longer.

You now smile all the time and at just about anyone! It's amazing how much joy your smile brings to people!

You have started jabbering a lot lately and it's just adorable! (And I swear you say Mama when you cry!)

You have had your first road trip/vacation and you did wonderful!

You are the light of our life and a joy to the world. We love you!

Big Boy Bed!

So maybe it isn't a big boy bed...but at least it's a big boy crib. He is quickly outgrowing his bassinet and I figured it was time to start having him sleep in his crib. He just sleeps in there for naps right now...until Israel (Or Mommy!) is ready. We haven been doing this for about a week, and so far so good! I'm sure once his head is hitting the top of the bassinet I might be ready...lol :-) Since this is most likely my last baby, I don't want to rush things. I want to savor and enjoy every last baby minute I get with him!

Who needs a thumb anyway?

Israel just discovered that he can stick his arm in his mouth...and that it tastes quite goos as well! It's so cute, when he is hungry or tired he sicks his arm in his mouth and sucks on it...just like a thumb. Such a smart little baby he is!

Going Organic

Ok...so slowly we have been going "Organic" and "Green". I'm not going crazy with it, but just taking it a step at a time. About two years ago is when we began to really start thinking about the things we were putting in and on our body. Foods, body products etc. I starting educating myself and just realizing the truth about all these things. We eat mostly natural organic whole foods (With exceptions sometimes of course for things like pizza and coffee!) with as little artificial products in them as possible. We also use natural products for our face and body, such as shampoo, soap, face wash etc. But the newest step in our going organic process has been the use of cloth diapers. This is something that I spent many many hours researching and educating myself on and asking tons of questions about them. It took a while to convince Jon (Because he has some not-so-fond memories of his dad spending hours over the toilet scrubbing out diapers, and he was not about to do that!). But once I showed him all the research I had done and the benefits (For baby, for our world, and for our pocket book!) he agreed that it would be a good idea too. The ones we have chosen to use are called GroBaby. I love them for so many reasons, but here are just a few of them. 1. They are a one-size diaper, which means they "Grow" with your baby so you don't have to continue to buy different sizes as baby grows...which is totally awesome in my opinion! 2. The shells are 100% leak proof! 3. The diapers snap in so there is no shifting or moving around inside the shell. 4. You can use the same shell multiple times in a row without washing! 5. They are SO stinking CUTE! :-) So here we are...taking one more step into the "green" :-)

A few firsts

It seems as though Izzy has been experiencing a lot of "firsts" lately. It has been a lot of fun to watch him learn and discover new things. He has been noticing his arms and legs a lot more. He moves them around and just watches them. It seems so fascinating to him that. It's the whole "cause and effect" thing. He does something...and it makes something happen! Often I will look at him and he will just be staring at his arm as he waves it back and forth.

Another first involves movement! He isn't rolling over yet (Which I don't expect him to do anytime too soon...Rachel and Jaxon were both late on every gross motor development thing) but he has learned how to scoot himself around. I honestly don't even quite know how he does it, but he spins himself around in a circle or moves forward or backward, all while he is laying on his back! At first I though one of the kids had moved him (Even though they told me it wasn't them) But then when he did it while they were gone one day...I knew they were telling the truth. He loves looking out the front window, so often times I will lay him down so he can see out. But the other day I came back in the room to find this! Apparently he wanted a better view! (Note the location of the blanket. When I left him he was laying parallel with the window completely on the blanket!) Funny boy :-)

He is also wanting to hold his own bottle! Umm, excuse me...I think you are growing up a bit to fast! Izzy gets one bottle a day, in the evening before bedtime. We do this so 1. He will continue to take a bottle if need be...like when Mommy needs some girl time. 2.So that Jon and the kids can enjoy this bonding time with him too. Well the other day I was feeding him and he kept holding onto his bottle. So I let go, and he held it! It was just too cute I had to get a picture.

Recovering from our vacation

Well, we made it home from our vacation, safe and sound. I apologize for not updating sooner...things have been a little hectic around here wince we got back. The trip went wonderfully. Our 16 hour car ride wasn't nearly as hard as I expected. We left in the evening so all the kiddos would fall asleep. And they did! They all went to sleep around 9:00 and didn't wake up until 6:00 the next morning! It was wonderful. From that time until we got there, we made various stops for nursing, potty breaks and other various things. We did the same thing on our trip back and it went just as well. Thank you Lord for such well behaved children (Oh...and in-car DVD players too!)

We all enjoyed California, visiting with family, going to the beach, and going to Sea World. We are so blessed that Israel is such an amazing baby! He transitions so well from one thing to the next without any problem. He will nap anywhere which makes traveling do much nicer! In fact, her spent most of his time while we were out, just sleeping in the sling :-) Here are a few pictures from our trip.

Israel and his cousin Amanda (who is 4 months older then him). She thought he was wonderful! He wasn't so sure what he thought of her...lol :-)

Israel's first time in the sand. He really couldn't care less about it to be honest. He just kind of stared at it and hung out.

Israel's first time in the pool...well, he didn't exactly get in it...but he touched it :-)

Enjoying the fish at Sea World. (It was so cute...this was the only thing he seemed to be interested in while we were there. I love the intense stare!)

Israel David with his very special Uncle David...whom he was named after.