Natalie's Baby Dedication

Today was such a special day for our family. We dedicated our baby girl to the Lord. We promised before God and our church to do everything in our power to raise her in a Christian home and show her the love of God daily. WOW...what a huge responsibility!! And not one that we take lightly...which is why we did what we did today.

 

I truly believe children are a gift from the Lord. No one can explain to you the love you will have for a child before you have one of your own. It is the most unbelievable love out there. I think God gives us children so we can see a glimpse of the love he has for us...which is crazy because I can't imagine someone loving someone else more than I do my child...but God does. He loves us a billion times what we love our children. So today we gave her back to the Lord and our prayer for the days to come is that she will grow to love the Lord and accept Him into her life. I want to share what a special day we had with our family!!

 

Mommy, Daddy and Natalie!

 

 Natalie with her Pop and GiGi! (my Parents)

 



 Grandmother and Mimi with Natalie! (Nathan's Grandmother and Mom)

 Natalie did so good during the Dedication! She didn't cry at all!! :) Such a great baby!!

 

We were so proud!

 

Natalie in her beautiful dress!!

She is always such a happy girl!!

 

 Yummy cake!!

 

Princess!!

 

Natalie with her Pop!

 We haven't taken family pictures since Natalie was born so we decided to end the day with a little family photo shoot!! Here are just a few we got in our 30 minutes session :)

 

 

 God Bless,

Kelsey

 



Pancakes!

Anyone who knows me knows that I LOVE breakfast food!! Especially breakfast sweets! So it is no surprise that I love pancakes. When I went on my dairy free soy free diet I realized that there were not a lot of easy breakfast items to choose from. No more eggos, muffins, cinnamon rolls, or pancakes :( But with lots of research I was able to adjust a pancake recipe my mom gave me...and it is FABULOUS! I am going to give the original recipe and then the adjusted recipe...that way everyone can enjoy!

 

 

Original

2 Eggs

1 cup Milk

2 tablespoons Vegetable Oil

3 tablespoons Butter, melted

1 1/4 cup Flour

3 rounded teaspoons Baking Powder

3 teaspoons Sugar

1/4 teaspoon Salt

 

Beat eggs until light, add milk, oil, and butter. Sift together dry ingredients and beat into liquid ingredients. Cook on greaseless griddle. Heat griddle very hot then turn to low and let cool to low temperature before cooking.

 

 

Altered

2 tablespoons Ground Flax Seeds + 6 tablespoons Water (this replaces 2 eggs - you can find it in the health sections of most grocery stores)

1 cup Rice Milk (you could also replace with almond milk...however rice milk is a little sweeter)

2 tablespoons Canola Oil

3 tablespoons Dairy & Soy Free Butter, melted (our health food store carries Earth's Balance...it is great!)

1 1/4 cup Flout

3 tablespoons Baking Powder

3 teaspoons Sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

 

Mix together the ground flax seed and water. Add in milk, oil and butter. Sift together dry ingredients and beat into liquid ingredients. Cook on a greaseless griddle. Heat griddle very hot then turn to low and let cool to low temperature before cooking.

 

 

I recently found a brand that makes dairy & soy free chocolate chips!!! I can't wait to get my hands on some to put into my pancakes!!! Check out the Enjoy Life website for all their other products! They make great cookies that are free of the top 8 allergies!! And they are the best cookies ever!! :)

 

 

Add in chocolate chips or blueberries,

top with your favorite syrup and

ENJOY!

 

~Kelsey~

 

 

 

 

 

 



Life Here Lately

Life has been so crazy around here lately! And when I say crazy I talking about crazy GOOD!! Life with a baby is unbelievably wonderful! I cant even begin to describe it. Every time I look at Natalie I can't help but smile :) Even through the rough times (and yes, there are a lot of them...sleepless nights I mean) she bring so much joy into my life! But I must say...she has taken a lot of time away from blogging. Her daddy is holder her right now so I thought I would just catch up on everything that has been going on! And we have lots!

 

One of the most exciting things is we are about to get started on is our vegetable garden! I wanted to do one last year but just didn't get around to it in time because of our kitchen renovation. But I made a promise to myself that I would do one this year!! And we have already started working on it! In fact, we plan on planting our onions this weekend! I hope to do a whole section on our garden so everyone can see how it goes. Here is a picture of Nathan working on the beds!

 

 

I have also been doing a lot of purging!! I have decided that it is time to live life a little more simply. I think I get so caught up in things that I haven't always enjoyed the little things in life...and I want to do more of that! So I started with my closet! I have four huge boxes for sale (if anyone is interested)!! And there will probably be more to come...I add to them almost every day! And I haven't even gotten to shoes yet :) After I finish my closet I am going to be moving on to the rest of the house. YARD SALE COMING SOON!!! I have always been a pack rat and have a hard time getting rid of things so this has been tough for me...wish me luck! Look at ALL these clothes ;)

 

 

Our spare bedroom is going to get a make over AGAIN! Not that we finished it the first time (you may remember the post I did about the makeover...so you would also remember that I never posted a reveal). I just never was able to fix it exactly how I imagined it. Anyways, it is now going to become a spare bedroom/playroom for Natalie! And I have big plans for it!! This time I really will finish it and show a reveal!! So stayed tuned :) I would show you a picture now...but there isn't much to see.

 

For about a month now I have also been learning how to COOK & EAT dairy, soy, and egg free! Natalie is allergic to dairy and soy so therefore I have had to make a lot of changes to my diet. And I am going to be honest...it has been one of the hardest things I have ever done! Anyone that knows me well knows how much I LOVE LOVE LOVE chocolate...and well, I cant have it anymore :( I can't have a lot of things anymore...but it is totally worth it. For several weeks all my sweet baby would do is cry and scream. I knew something wasn't right and finally narrowed it down to a food allergy and reflux. Since my diet change she has been a completely different baby! So as hard as it is...I wouldn't even think about cheating. I also hope to share my experience as I continue with this diet. Here is a picture of a chicken salad I made yesterday! I will share the recipe soon...it was scrumptious!  

 

 

For those of you waiting to hear about our Cloth Diaper Experience...I haven't forgotten!! We are STILL in newborn diapers!!! Natalie is so tiny! She weighed in at about 9 1/2 pounds at 3 months! She is as healthy as she can be...she is just a little baby. So we haven't started them yet. I hope to start using them by the time she is 4 months...which will be here before we know it!!

 

I have also spent a lot of time taking pictures!! Of Natalie of course!! :) I love photography and she has been so much fun to practice on! Here she is taking a break during one of our 3 month sessions to love on her kitty! She gets tired of pictures after a while. Look at those little bitty legs!!

 

 

Stay tuned for LOTS of updates to come!!! Exciting things are happening at our house and I hope to do a better job of sharing them in the future!!

 

XOXO,

Kelsey

 

Christmas 2013

Christmas Day was the day I looked forward to all of last year because it was Natalie's due date! I have always loved Christmas :) The excitement, traditions, and time with family has always been very important to me! This year was super special because my sweet girl was here, healthy and 3 weeks old! I thought I would share some pictures of our fun day with our sweet girl!

 

Santa came to see Natalie! (Her daddy requested the Alabama football stuff!)

 

Natalie slept 5 hours straight and woke up so happy!! So did mommy!!

 

Headed over to Pop and GiGi's...she was so tiny!!!

 

 Santa also left some things at Pop and GiGi's house!! He is too kind!!

 

Nathan didn't want to participate in Christmas Jammies this year :(...what a dud!

 

Natalie with Pop and GiGi...they love her SO much!

 

I love my little family!

 

Opening Natalie's stocking :)

 

Natalie and I both got lots of new clothes :)

 

Nathan's favorite gifts were hunting decoys!

 My favorite Christmas present!

 

Eating Christmas lunch with my grandparents! Mom always cooks a huge lunch on Christmas Day! It is making me hungry just thinking about it!

 

Natalie hung out in her bassinet while we ate...just kidding!! She only let me take her picture in it...I had to hold her while I ate :) Of course, I didn't mind one bit!!

 

The amazing cook!!

 

 Family Photo Time!

 

Four Generations!

 

I love my Grandparents!

 

Me and my sweet little girl!!

Nathan and Natalie!!

 

Natalie loves sitting with Pop just as much as he loves holding her!

Best Christmas Ever!!



 

I hope everyone had as wonderful of a Christmas as we did!!

Kelsey

Our Cloth Diaper Experience

I think almost everyone has asked me how cloth diapering is going!! I think they secretly want me to hate it :) just kidding! But because of all the interest in our cloth diapering I am going to try to blog about with the most detail as possible! I will continue to update this page...and you can find a link to it under Natalie's tab at the top of my blog! You can read all about my decision to cloth diaper Here!

 

January 29: Natalie is 8 weeks old today and weighs right at 9lbs. I bought the BumGenius Freetime diapers. They are one size and adjust nicely with a snap system. You can start these as early as 8lbs but I feel like it really depends on the baby. Although Natalie is over 8lbs her waist is still so tiny...we are still in newborn size disposable diapers. I feel like once the newborns are too small we will be able to move into our cloth diapers. Which I am really excited about!!! They are all washed and ready to go :)
Just to give you a visual this is the size difference between our one size cloth diapers (shown at smallest size) and our newborn size disposable!

 



Natalie Week by Week

Natalie did fairly well for this photo shoot! I was actually able to get several good pictures! In case you didn't know...photographing a baby is really really hard!!

This is our only good 2 week shot! And I mean only!! She was really fussy and did NOT want her picture taken :)


 Week 3 was even worse than week 2!!! We were at my parents house for Christmas and she was not having it!! Sadly, this is the "best" picture! ;)

 
  This was taken the 4th week but not on the day she turned 4 weeks old. Nathan was sick with the stomach virus so Natalie and I had to stay at my parents house. My camera was at my house so I didn't get to take any until we returned home.


Natalie at 5 Weeks!! Look at that adorable profile! I love her little cheeks! :)

 

6 Weeks! She is looking so grown up! It is getting a little easier to take her pictures now that I can prop her up.