My Top 10 Baby Items

It's been exactly 8 months since we've welcomed our sweet little Kylie into our lives. It's hard to believe how much she's grown!

We've learned a lot over the past 8 month and we are continuing to learn more as she grows. I have a lot of friends who are expecting (they seem to come in waves don't they?) and I think about all of the cool products that are out there for mommies. I thought it would be fun to put together my top 10 list of awesome products that we have enjoyed. Everyone is going to have their own opinions on these things, but for anyone not knowing about them or wanting to try something out these are the things we suggest. (Click on each name to follow the link to the product webpage).

1. My Brest Friend Nursing Pillow. I tried the Boppy at first, and even had the fancy two-sided one with straps. It doesn't even compare! The MyBrestFriend stays in place, is firm but soft, and Kylie didn't fall into the gap between my stomach and the pillow. Breastfeeding was a tricky thing to learn, and the MyBreastFriend helped SO much. Dare I say it made it easy? They look pricey, but if it doesn't weird you out too much you can find them on Craigslit. I think I payed $5 for mine and you can totally wash the cover. Best money I think I've ever spent on a baby item. I could go on and on and on about this one. Seriously love it! 

2. Muslin Swaddling Blankets. They don't even have to be this specific brand. They are awesome! It was summer when Kylie was born and very hot (no A/C in our place). I don't even think we put clothes on her for the first few weeks. We just swaddled her at night. She grew out of the "swaddle" part pretty quickly as she loved having her arms out and it didn't really put her to sleep to have them in. But we are still using them today. They make great burp cloths (common, whose kid actually spits up in the area of those tiny rectangle cloths? Not mine!), boogie and drool wipes, blankets, and nursing covers. 

3. UnderCover Mama. I'm more on the modest side of things when it comes to breastfeeding. That's why I love these! It's like a tank top that attaches to your nursing bra. So when you lift up your shirt, you are still totally covered around your waist. How cool is that?! Brilliant! I don't care for the price tag, but if you get a couple in some neutral colors you could rotate them pretty easily.

4. Soothie Pacifier. I totally understand this is different for everyone. But we tried two other pacifiers and Kylie wouldn't take them. She would gag for some reason. This was the only one that was able to stick, and therefore we loved it! Now she only does her sucking on the thumb, but this has turned into a great teething toy. She can put the whole thing in her mouth (as one of the comments on the webpage had mentioned), but I guess it didn't worry me too much knowing that it was definitely too big to get stuck in her throat. 

5. Graco Click Connect. We were given an infant car seat that was almost new. We loved the idea of the Click Connect! (I'm sure other brands have their own versions of this too, we just ended up with the Graco). It was so easy to grab the infant car seat out of the car (and put it back in) and then click it into the stroller. We ended up going with a Graco jogging stroller later which was awesome because we could still fit her infant car seat onto it, even though she wasn't quite ready to sit on her own in the actual stroller. Now that she's older and has grown out of her infant seat it's not that big of a deal, but it made all the difference when she was in that infant seat! Loved the convenience!

6. BabyWearing San Diego. This group is so neat! They meet monthly at a local park and you can just show up and get free information about baby wearing. They have a HUGE pile of as many types of carriers as you could think of that you can try on for free and lots of mommies with TONS of free and very helpful information if you're trying to figure out how to wear or what kind you want. If that's not enough, you can sign up for their lending library. All you pay is $30 for the entire year and you can "check out" a different carrier each month. Do you guys even understand how much these carriers cost usually? $150 is the low end, they go way up from there. And you can get an entire year of all of them for only $30. So fantastic! I highly recommend it for first time mommies and babywearers because 1) you get to try before you buy (and not just in the store, but for the entire month when you really can feel how it wears on your back) and 2) babies grow so fast that it will save you money since a lot of carriers have specific size/weight limits and this way you can keep changing carriers are your baby grows. Unless you really plan to wear your child after the first year, this may be all you need. If you don't live in San Diego, you should definitely look into something similar in your area.

7. Nosefrida Snotsucker. Okay okay, this seems really gross. Some people are super germaphobes and I get it if you can't handle this. I'll admit it was strange and weird to use. But in my book it works so much better than those silly bulb syringes that you always see. First off, you don't actually stick this in baby's nose, just along the outside. I always hated sticking the bulb in Kylie's nose and felt like I was going to accidentally give her a lobotomy. Secondly, I've heard a lot recently about the mold that can grow inside of those bulbs. Maybe it's true, maybe not, but you'll never know unless you cut it open. I love that you can see through this, and you can wash it and actually see that it's clean! Lastly, that stupid bulb never really sucked anything. It gave one tiny puff/suck of air and then I had to keep going back and back. Poor Kylie. With the SnotSucker I can control how much suction AND it's continuous (or at least as long as I can breathe in for). 5-10 seconds and I'm done. That's it! Easy! Kylie still doesn't love it, but it is easier for both of us to get it over quicker.

8. Boogie Wipes. I didn't realize I needed them until Kylie's first really bad cold. Her snot would dry and get all crusty around her nose in the mornings. This really helped to clean that off gently. And honestly, everyone hates when their nose gets raw from tissue over-exposure when you're sick. This totally helped prevent that. We had a berry scented one at first that was a gift. I personally thought it was too strong of a smell and wouldn't have wanted it in my nose, so I've opted for the unscented ones. Now they are are staple for our  house. And a small pack for my diaper bag too!

9. Fisher Price Space Saver High Chair. This was a hand-me-down that we didn't realize we'd love at first. It's best selling points: it can recline so you can put a fairly new infant in there to sit with you at the table, even if they can't hold their head up yet. It's portable. We have a family road trip coming up and I'm pretty sure this is coming with us. Kylie is now eating solids but it is extremely difficult to feed her in our laps since she's also very squirmy. And, we didn't even realize this until looking at the product online just recently, but you can actually take the back off once they get older so it's more like a booster. Ummm cool!!!

10. Foscam Wireless Camera. This only barely made the list. I'm still not 100% sold on it, but I do think it works okay so far. In short, it's a baby camera (or at least that's what we're using it for). I wanted a video baby monitor, so my nerdy husband put in his two sense and said he wanted it to be a wireless one (i.e. one that works over wireless internet). Ultimately, I do think this is neat for a few reasons: I can watch on my computer/laptop. So if I'm working on stuff online, I can also watch her while she naps. I don't think he has, but since it uses internet, nerdy husband could watch from his computer at work. I can also watch from my phone via a simple free app. I use this option at night since my phone charges next to my bed. We purchased it from Amazon.com and at the time it was only about $65. The video monitors that I had been looking at here upwards of $150 or more! And those are specifically just baby monitors. At least with this one, when we're done we can turn it into something else like a cool surveillance monitor or something ninja-like (right?). I don't know. Again, I'm not totally sold, but so far it's been nice.

Well guys that's about it. I could come up with a bunch of other things that have been cool, but these were at the top of my list. I hope you've enjoyed a peek into our world and what we love. I'd love to hear about your favorite products. A lot of these things were just from hearing them from my friends. The more we share the more we know, and I'm all about knowing what's out there!

Happy Love Month

Happy Love Month everybody! Here at the Warren home we believe that love should be shown everyday all year, and don't really buy into the whole Valentine's Day thing. Danny and I were married and sealed for all eternity on February 25th, so we see that as more of a reason to celebrate this month anyways. 

Here are a few of our most favorite wedding photos:

I love weddings! I always thought I would "get over" them once I had my own. Nope. If anything I think I like them better. They are such happy days. I love to see the style and creativity of other people and how they plan their weddings. I love to see family members and friends gathered together. I love to see how happy the bride and groom are. And above all, I love to remember back to our special day and the immense feelings that were burned onto my heart. They always come roaring back and have turned me into "one of those women who always cry at weddings". I cry because the emotions I feel and remember are so precious and pure, and the joy is just too much for my body to bear.

I am so grateful for a loving husband. I too often take him for granted. He does so much for me, for us, and for our family. He tolerates my monthly grumpiness, my sarcastic responses, my crabby attitude when I go too long without food, and my frequent need (nagging) for being places early and being a little bit of a control-my-environment freak. Despite all of that (and more) he still kisses me after every single prayer and when we say goodbye, wants to cuddle me at night before falling asleep, and believes it's his duty to make me smile and be happy every single day.

He is an amazing father and I often take that for granted also. He willingly changes diapers and does his best to make her laugh. He actually wants to do these things. He wants to take her on walks. He wants to be there when I introduce a new food. He wants to come to her important doctors appointments. He wants to go grocery shopping together as a family each week. How amazing is that?!

I am so grateful for my loving husband. I'm grateful for the 3 beautiful years of marriage we are celebrating this month, and for his amazing love for me. Happy Anniversary my dear! Thank you for everything you give me (so much better than chocolates and flowers!).

PS: Here are some happy Kylie pictures. Because, well.... she's a big part of our love too!

I can't decide which one I like best, so you get both:

Smiling Kylie with a diaper helmet

 and smiling Kylie with an adorable poncho!

Chocolate Cake

I'll be honest. Sharing this recipe feels a little like giving away my soul. Call me selfish, but I feel a little pride in knowing (or at least thinking) that I have the best chocolate cake recipe out there. In reality I know I've seen it floating around before and I know I'm not the only one who has this. But it does feel like I have the best kept secret when it comes to homemade chocolate cake.

I've never been (and still am not) a big cake fan. It's good, but not usually my dessert of choice. But growing up when it came to be my birthday and my Mom asked what kind of cake I wanted it was never an ice cream cake, funfetti, or even fancy ones like Costco (yes, I considered that fancy cake as a kid). It was always Mom's chocolate cake that I wanted for my birthday. I think I've asked her once where she got the recipe, and I'm pretty sure she said she just found it in a magazine, but it's always been a family favorite.

I will never forget the night when Mom didn't want to make dinner. Tired, I'm sure of wrangling four pesky children, with a husband who had been at work all day and was still out doing full-time school. When the age-old question was asked, "What's for dinner?" her reply was simply "I'm going to make cake." And she did just that. And I tell you... as a little kid it was a dream come true! She earned some major cool points that night! Sometimes I wonder if that's the reason (until recently) I found it completely acceptable to eat ice cream for lunch, or leftover brownies for breakfast. Don't misunderstand, this wasn't a usual thing in our house. But I think it eventually taught me that sometimes (especially as an adult), you just do things because, well.... you can.

I'm sure you don't need anymore convincing, but here are some reasons why I love this cake:

1. It's chocolate.. duh!
2. There are no eggs in the recipe. YUP! That means licking the spoon and bowl and not feeling guilty about it.
3. The frosting! I really don't like regular cake frosting, but this isn't really frosting. It's more of a chocolate companion to help make the cake extra fudgy (fudgey?) and bring just the perfect amount of extra moisture. Because we all know, the best cakes are moist cakes, right?
4. And I've recently found it's easy to substitute ingredients to make it dairy-free and soy-free to accommodate my new diet. It's also fat free and sugar free! (hahahaha ya right!)

Enough with the blah blah blah already... gimme some cake!

The recipe I've included is for an 8x8 pan, but by all means feel free to double that baby up into a 9x13 and have more to share! (or maybe just have more for breakfast and dinner) :)


Mom's Chocolate Cake

1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup white sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
3 Tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

1/3 cup vegetable oil (or substitute same amount of coconut oil for soy-free option)
1 Tablespoon white vinegar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup cold water

Mix dry ingredients in bowl
Form a well in the middle of the bowl (I've never really understood why this is necessary, other than making it look cool when adding the wet ingredients, nevertheless I follow the family directions)
Mix well
Pour into 8x8 pan (ungreased works fine, but feel free to grease if you'd like).
Bake at 350 degrees for about 25 minutes

*I say about 25 minutes because as we all know, oven temperatures may vary and also your preference of mushy-ness will differ. I prefer a more mushy (read: moist) cake and so may take it out a few minutes before the timer goes off. Others who want a good solid (possibly dry) cake may want to wait longer. If you are cooking in a 9x13 pan my directions say cook for 35 minutes. But read the following paragraph to see my feelings on that.

**On an extra side note: Danny makes fun of me because I often won't use a timer when I cook. I just don't feel like they can be trusted. It's done when it's done, not when x amount of minutes have passed. I'll come check when I feel it's right, and adjust my "time" accordingly. He also needs exact measurements and I usually just eyeball it on lots of things (but not this cake). So obviously, do what works for you, as I'm sure you would.


Now comes the frosting/chocolate companion. Oh man, I really like that... chocolate companion. My recipe calls it icing, which I guess is a better description than frosting. But I still like chocolate companion better. (Again, this is to cover a 8x8 pan, please double if necessary).

Combine the following ingredients in a saucepan
1/2 cup white sugar
1 1/2 Tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
1 1/2 Tablespoons cornstarch

Add 1/2 cup boiling water

Stir constantly to avoid lumps
Boil, stir until thick*
Remove from heat
Add 3/4 Tablespoon butter (or dairy-free/soy-free option if so inclined- I use Earths Balance DF/SF)
Add 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

*When it says stir until thick, remember this is not Costco frosting. Icing really is a better word. It's not going to get crazy thick. It will be pouring consistency. Somewhere between hot fudge sauce and a thick hot chocolate.

That's it!! May I suggest waiting only a few minutes for it to "cool". Of course this is all personal preference, but I'd rather burn my mouth from eating it too hot than eat it too cold. Even with leftovers I always microwave my piece to get it piping hot again just to enjoy it better.

If you are a dairy eater this would pair perfectly with your favorite vanilla ice cream. In my book, however, nothing beats a giant glass of freezing cold milk (if I could) to go with it.


I know I'm not a professional food photographer, so forgive my amateurism, but I couldn't post without a picture

A New Year, a New Lifestyle

The new year has ushered in many new changes for us already, and the month isn't even over yet!

Danny was called to be Scoutmaster in our ward's boy scout troop. He is so excited about it! I am super excited as well since I get to be "in the loop" of the scouting world again. He's already really looking forward to scout camp this summer and is really dedicated to his new responsibilities. I was able to pull out my sewing machine and put it to good use to sew his patches on his uniform and hem his pants. They definitely weren't perfect, but I did a pretty good job for not having touched a machine since college. It was a good warm up for the sewing projects I'd like to do in the near future. I know it was pretty simple, but I was really proud of myself!

We also figured out where we'll be moving next month! What a weight off my shoulders! We are SO excited about moving! We are amazingly blessed to have a friend who owns a condo in Oceanside (just a mile down the street) and has offered to rent his place at a price that is within our budget. Not only is it bigger, but it's more than DOUBLE the size of the place we have now and has pretty much everything we could want at this stage of life. It has 3 bedrooms and 2 baths. So not only will we be able to finally put Kylie in her own nursery (and not in the living room where she is now), but Danny will be able to have an office where he can work and not feel like he's restricted because of noise or keeping Kylie awake. And it has what I think is the biggest perk: a washer and dryer!! I can finally do laundry during the day without waiting for Danny to come home, and we don't have to leave the house! I'm so excited I've already started planning the layout of the rooms, color combinations for our extra bathroom and where we're going to put everything. Maybe I'll even post pictures after we get all settled in!

One of our biggest changes that has occurred just within the last couple of days is the change in our diet. I've been eating dairy-free for the last two months because Kylie has had some issues and dairy was believed to be the culprit. Unfortunately, she hasn't completely gotten better yet, so the doctor is thinking she may also have a soy issue. Because of this, I've also completely eliminated soy from my diet. I was never really a label checker in the past but had to recently because of the dairy thing. I thought avoiding dairy was bad, soy is in EVERYTHING! Like.....everything! 

But you want to know something funny? As much as I had thought "oh man, I don't know what I would do if I have to cut out soy", I'm actually really excited about it. It means eating healthier and being more conscious of what and how I am eating. Yes, it means I have to find a new list of recipes I had never looked into before, but it's been a fun adventure so far! There's a whole new world of fresh and healthy eating I've never experienced and I'm looking forward to experimenting. The substitutions and education has been a little tricky, but I haven't been disappointed by anything I've tasted yet! Just yesterday, Danny and I went to our local farmers market to check out options and found a whole scene of soy-free dairy-free products, as well as super fresh organic produce. Eating organic isn't necessarily an issue, but all of this has raised a better understanding and awareness for me.

I am so excited for this new change! It's going to continue to be tricky and challenging but I am determined to find a way to make it work. I am going to find the joy in it! I'm not doing it for myself. I'm doing this all for my beautiful daughter, and in return she is blessing me with a new outlook on my diet and a healthy lifestyle that I know is going to bless us in the future.

I can only imagine what the next 11 months are going to bring.....