Happy Birthday-Month to Brody!

We had a great April celebrating our 2-year old and Christ’s resurrection among other bits of fun. Here’s a look…

April, Part 1

April, Part 2

I decided that this blog is gradually morphing. Since most of you either live locally and know what’s going on or are connected to us thru social media like Facebook or Instagram (@simplehomemade), I’m not going to be giving detailed updates anymore.

I’m going to simply post photos, videos, and any super-important updates here and keep track of our family history in a simple handwritten journal at home.

So for those of you not connected to us locally or virtually (talkin’ to you, Mrs. Dear), can I please convince you to join FB or IG? Otherwise, more frequent Skype dates can also be procured.

I also finally updated my severely out-of-date list of links. I still have more current faves to add in the future.

Without further adieu, here are our photo slideshows from March.

Spring Training Trip

The rest of March

I had a lovely birthday. Here are the photos from that day along with the rest of February.

In case you can’t view the slideshow, you can click over to flickr to do so.

So here I am, a month and a half behind in blogging again! I will get caught up eventually, but in the meantime here’s a little glimpse at what Brody learned on his own- we didn’t teach him this, but rather he just picked it up. Most likely from Gigi, and/or the rest of the family.

He’s 2, and so very clever!

Brody counting, age 2 from Nicole Bennett on Vimeo.

Brody’s hair is starting to grow so fast! I guess it’s been almost 2 months since his last trim, but he’s already ready again. Here are some cute photos from his last haircut on the porch.

He’s a modern kid alright.

Hallee usually takes a shower with me, but sometimes she gets in the tub. It’s a bit chaotic when all three are in there, but not too bad when there’s just 2.

Buns!!

As for Gigi…

We started doing some reading lessons together! When she doesn’t get frustrated, she does fabulous. We’ve done I think 12 out of 100, so still a ways to go.

SuperB owl Party!

We had a really fun party for the big game with David’s parents and our Community Group friends. We are really loving getting to know our group.

We had tons of good food!

Lots of kids = lots of chaotic fun!! (Thank you, Lord, for our playroom!)

Mandy & Ben

Sarah & Rob

David and Jeff watching the game.

Hallee teething on my beer bottle.

Getting tired.

Bedtime!

A bit more…

Gigi did a fun craft that I blogged about on Simple Organic.

I also did a 10 on 10 for February on Gidget Goes Home.

More January Photos Here

More Early February Photos Here

More February to come!

I want to get up to date here on our family happenings, but I wanted to also give a quick update on my own health.

About 6 months ago I borrowed a ring sling for carrying Hallee. I had never used one before because of all the back issues I’ve had in the past– had always stuck to more symmetrical baby carriers– but this time around the sling was so helpful the way I could just whip it on and have so much freedom to make dinner and use my hands, without wrapping, tying or clipping.

Whenever I used it for a long time, my shoulder would get a little sore afterwards, but nothing major. About a month ago, I realized the pain was bothering even when I wasn’t babywearing. So I stopped using the slings and doing pushups. A couple weeks passed and the pain was not improving, but rather worsening, especially because I can’t exactly rest it– Brody can’t stay in his crib all day after all–someone has to pick him up.

I finally saw a holistic orthopedic MD today, and am now feeling rather positive about the whole thing. She said I have a strained supraspinatus muscle and possible subacromial burstitis. Not exactly sure what all that means– need to study some shoulder anatomy or maybe call my brother-in-law– but basically it is muscular inflammation.

I’m going to do PT, add some anti-inflammatories to my diet, use an anti-inflammatory cream, and also possibly do some laser treatment at her office. The laser therapy is interesting. I had a treatment done today. Basically it sends light and heat into the tissue to accelerate healing by biostimulating tissue repair and growth. It’s more sore now because it does create a bit of inflammation to signal the body to start healing that area, but hopefully it will help if I go back for more.

The doctor is a mother of three so she gets what I’m dealing with and she even gave me some babywearing advice. I’m going to stick to the Ergo for now and look into getting an Ellaroo wrap which is made of a woven (not stretchy) material.

That’s probably more than most of you wanted to know but there you have it! Prayers would be great as I’m still in a pretty good amount of pain as I go about my regular daily life.

I don’t regret babywearing. Realistically, it was sort of a necessity in the early days to get through the day with 3 under 5 in my care, and I love the closeness it has given me with my babies. But I guess my intuition was right, previously, in assuming the sling idea wasn’t ideal for my body. Maybe I can blame it on the years of gymnastics?!

artwork from my dr’s office

P.S. on a more fun note, we got an iPad 3 today!!!

This year we took a break from the annual Bunko party tradition and enjoyed a quiet New Year’s Eve with my parents. We spent the weekend with them again and enjoyed abalone for dinner, Settlers (Seafarers edition!), The Holiday, watching the ball drop, church on Sunday, a beautiful day outside, and the Rose Parade and football on the 2nd.

Early January has been pretty quiet so far, which was just what this little family needed after such a busy December. We’ve had friends over for homemade ice cream (lemon cherry cheesecake swirl!) and football (Go Niners!) and Gigi has enjoyed going back to school.

The community group we host at our house each week has exploded, too, which is exciting! We’ve gone from an intimate group of four to over ten adults and a room full of kids. We are excited to get to know the new friends in our group and really become a community with them.

Our big goal for the year is simplification. We are streamlining and downsizing toys and everything else and working on getting into a good daily rhythm. I wrote a little bit about this on my other blog and plan to write on it more in the future.

We hope 2012 is off to a good start for you, wherever you may be!

We had such a fun Christmas with the family. We feel so blessed to get to spend so much time with our extended family. Our kids don’t know how good they have it being able to spend the holiday with both sets of grandparents and one of their aunts/uncles.

Christmas eve tradition: breakfast at Swami’s and a walk by the beach.

I’m going to post just a few favorite photos here and then post a slideshow of the rest.

We decided to have a formal Christmas dinner, just for fun. Alex took as many photos as our cranky kids would allow.

You can view his photos from Christmas here, and here’s a fun video Alex made of Christmas day.

christmas day ’11 from Alexander T. Pavone on Vimeo.

Now if only I could finish my Christmas cards. They’ve officially become “New Year’s cards” by now I guess…

{Link to Christmas album – in case you couldn’t view slideshow}

We love making gifts whenever possible. Here are some of the fun things we created.

This year David decided to make the kids a climbing wall.

Framing.

It’s 8 feet tall. The kids loved it!

Gift cards in homemade pouches for Gigi’s teachers.

Hoop art for Angelina…

and David’s mom.

A basket full of goodies for my mom.

Spanikopita for my dad.

You’ll probably get a glimpse of a few more homemade gifts when I post about Christmas.

Oh, and this wasn’t a gift, but David successfully installed our new, working, FREE dishwasher. Yay for DIYing!

And to view ALL the December photos, you can click here.

Monday mornings are for Moonlight Beach with friends (local? come join us. we are just starting up this casual playdate time.)

Hallee and friend Hannah are less than 2 weeks apart in age.

***

Peanut Butter Balls.

The healthy version.

The not-so-healthy version.
Both are delicious.

Dad at work.

***

We went to check out the Botanical Gardens holiday lights. It was less-than-worth-it. But we had a really fun time with friends.

Gigi and friends.

***

We found a neighborhood near our house with fantastic lights. We’ll go there again for sure.

***

Hallee took a bottle a couple of times this month. David and I even got to go out on a date (!!) to his company Christmas party, which was so fun.