Carpet cleaner

Since bringing Jacob home from the hospital, our 2 dogs have gotten revenge on us by way of urinating on the carpet. Brand new carpet to be precise. SO frustrating and disgusting, especially now that Jacob is almost crawling and exploring all areas of the house.

I recently found a new homemade GREEN carpet cleaner that I swear by! I've also used the same formula to clean baby vomit. Yum.

Anyways, here it is...!

Step 1: Mix 1 part white vinegar with 1 part water in a squirt bottle and liberally cover the urine (or barf)
Step 2: Scrub the area thoroughly to get the vinegar mixture into the carpet fibers. The vinegar neutralizes the ammonia in the pee, which will hopefully eliminate the odor and keep the dogs from continuing to pee in the same area.
Step 3: Use paper towels to absorb excess vinegar mixture. Don't skimp on this step. I usually go through an entire roll of paper towels.
Step 4: Once the area is almost dry, shake a healthy amount of baking soda over the entire thing.
Step 5: Mix 1 cup hydrogen peroxide (no more than 3%- otherwise it'll bleach your carpet!) with 1 tsp dish soap (I got a white Dawn soap with Oil of Olay for soft hands- it smells good and it's white so it won't stain my carpet). Drizzle the peroxide mixture over the baking soda and massage into the carpet with your hands. It should sud up a bit. Get it in there real good.
Step 6: Once the area is completely dry, vacuum dried baking soda.

Voila!! That's it!!! It usually takes me a full day to get through all the steps, so don't do this right before company arrives or anything.

Jacob's baptism

Jacob is officially a child of God. He was baptized on Sunday and I couldn't have dreamt of a more perfect day for him!

He took a great long nap before church, sat in my lap through the entire hour-long service (munching on yogurt melts the whole time), let Reverend Don hold him during the ceremony, and was such a gracious host for lunch afterwards with family!

My love for this little boy grows every day and I'm so thankful to the good Lord for his healthy and happiness. What a blessing he is to our entire family!

We be walkin'

Although they aren't "recommended", I thought Jacob would enjoy a walker. He's always walking around with our help, chasing the dogs and just standing around. I found one for $5 and decided to give it a whirl. He absolutely LOVES it. He can literally run in that thing!! The dogs are terrified though. Haha! Here's a few pictures of him getting into trouble in it.

Jacob - 7 months

Age: 7 months
Height:
Weight:
Milestones: Jacob is a rolling fool these days! Its crazy how all of the sudden, out of the blue, he just started rolling all over the place!  He gets on his belly and army crawls backwards...he hasn't figured out how to go forward yet.  He's started making farting noises with his mouth, I know that's not what he's trying to do, but its the best way to describe it. :)
Sleep: After being sick, he's not been sleeping quite as well as he had been. We're currently going through another round of sleep training though.
Eating: He's still mostly breastfed.  He loooves breakfast of either pears or apples and oatmeal, but he haaates dinner of vegetables.  That's our current battle.
Clothes size: 9 and 12 month, but I think we're about to move to 12 month exclusively soon (mama needs to go shopping first).
Diaper size: Size 4
Best Moment: Watching his eyes light up when we opened all his presents on Christmas.  He got so excited about everything, especially the wrapping paper and bows!
Worst Moment: When he got sick.  I was a nervous wreck, especially when his temperature got so high, and I felt like I didn't know what to do!
Favorite toy: All his new Christmas toys have kept him super busy lately! He seems to really love his shape sorter, stacking rings, remote and I just got him a walker that he loves.
Teeth: No teeth, and no teething!
Looking forward to: His baptism on January 13. Can't wait!

Jacob's first Christmas

Christmas came and went without a single blog from me. Wow!!! Josh, Jacob and I have all been sick, so we've been laying pretty low trying to recover. Thankfully, I think I'm finally 100%.

Lets see...Christmas Eve, we traveled to Cleburne (Josh's hometown) to celebrate his G-ma's birthday and Christmas with his mom, sister and her husband. Aside from Josh puking his guts out (eww), it was a great visit. Jacob spent most of his time licking and eating the wrapping paper, and I spent most of my time wrestling it out of his mouth. Haha!

We had my parents, my sister and her fiancé, and Josh's dad over Christmas Day and we had a fun time! Jacob got so many presents, we had to break it up into 2 opening sessions so he could nap. We decided to nix the big traditional Christmas dinner this year, and opted for a pizza dinner. Josh's dream come true! It was ok. Jacob's big present was a red wagon from my parents. Unfortunately its been so cold out, we haven't really gotten to use it, but we do cruise around the house.

And, to top everything off - it snowed for like 4 hours on Christmas! Jacob's first Christmas was white! How perfect!! I honestly don't think I've ever witnessed a white Christmas in Texas.  We took him out a couple times to check it out; he seemed indifferent.