Do you see it? Because now it’s all I See.

While shower curtain shopping I came across a few that I really liked and got a decent amount of messages asking where specific ones were so I wanted to share it all in one spot!

1. Project 62 Colorblock Woven Shower Curtain in Light Gold
2. Stitch Stripe Shower Curtain
3. Threshold Embroidered Gray Shower Curtain
4. Farmhouse Tassel Shower Curtain (This was the fan favorite!!)
5. Striped Fringe Shower Curtain Off White
6. Project 62 Green/White Colorblock Shower Curtain

I’m also going to throw in this option because a friend sent it to me and I thought it fit the vibe of the ones I shared!

+ Boho Chic Shower Curtain

And if you liked 5, you might like this one even more, I know I do!

+ Hearth & Hand Embroidered Shower Curtain Railroad Gray

Now it’s finally time for me to say goodbye to Cookie Monster and hello to a shower curtain I can actually stand the sight of!

The post Shower Curtain Favorites appeared first on Little Us.

Every year I wrap up 23 books to serve as as our Christmas Advent and on Christmas Eve they each get a brand new book to open and read! I’m still in the process of choosing this year’s new books so I wanted to share some of my favorite finds with you in case you’re doing the same thing!

We’ve already picked up Pick a Pine and Dasher for this year from last’s year’s Christmas picks. Okay–on to my favorites for this year!

Home Alone 2: Lost in NY

It’s not Christmas without a viewing of Home Alone and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York! We already have the first Home Alone book so adding the second to our collection is a no brainer! Follow Kevin as he spends Christmas alone, AGAIN, in NYC where he AGAIN has the job of stopping pesky burglars from runing Christmas!

Last Stop on the Reindeer Express

Christmas is coming but Mia has no time to send the card she made to Grandpa, who lives far away. But when she stumbles across a magical mailbox, Mia finds herself inside the Reindeer Express and is whisked away on an exciting voyage over many exotic lands, reaching Grandpa just in time. 

In a time when holidays may look different than usual the idea of getting to hop on a reindeer to visit relatives might be the magic families need right now!

Tough Cookie: A Christmas Story

Poor Cookie! It turns our he doesn’t taste good! What’s a cookie to do when he finds out that he’s NOT a sweet and delicious treat like he should be? This twist on a classic helps to celebrate the joy of being accepted for who we are.

The Snowman’s Song

In this story a snowman just wants a voice so he can sing Christmas carols like the children around him. A cardinal and a little girl help make his dreams come true!

Elf

Families who love this Christmas classic will be happy to see it in book form! We own quite a few of these “pop classic” books and have been happy with the movie to book renditions!

All the Colors of Christmas

This is a sweet new book that celebrates Christmas scenes and the festive colors that come along with them from brown to gold!

A World of Cookies for Santa

This book explores the different cookies that kids around the world leave out for Santa on Christmas Eve AND you even get the recipes! This is a great book to break out every year and try something new!

The Tree That’s Meant To Be

A little and not so perfect fir tree is left alone and unchosen by families to be a Christmas Tree when forest animals gather around it to cheer it up and celebrate the season. A book about kindness, generosity and the true meaning of Christmas that is needed right now!

The Little Reindeer

This holiday tales follows a little girl on a holiday adventure with a lost reindeer. It gets rave reviews for beautiful illustrations and a sweet story.

Little Red Sleigh

In the Little Red Sleigh you’ll follow the journey of a little sleigh who very much wants to be Santa’s sleigh despite being too small, too young and not able to fly! With the help of friends she’s determined to do the impossible!

Another year with SO many great choices aka another year where I feel like I need to have a few more kids so I have a good excuse to buy more than just four books! Right now, Little Red Sleigh, The Little Reindeer, Home Alone 2 and The Tree That’s Meant to Be are all contenders for our last two books of the year!

Which holiday books are on your list this year?

For more Christmas Book Lists:

2019 Christmas Book Picks

2016 Christmas Book Picks

2015 Christmas Book Picks

2014 Christmas Book Picks

The post 10 Christmas Books for Kids appeared first on Little Us.

After playing a couple of rounds, they kept talking to me about it and asked me to play with them and I not so happily obliged! After a few rounds, I was so glad I took a deeper look into it.

Before I get into the details let’s start with the most basic question you may have.

What IS Among Us?

Among Us is an online multi-player game. You can play on a computer or via the app on your phone. You can create public or private rooms so you’re able to play with complete strangers OR create a private room and give the code to friends and family. You play with 4-10 ten players and upon start you are either assigned “Crewmate” or “Imposter”. Crewmates run around the ship doing tasks whereas the Imposter runs around sabotaging and killing the Crewmates.

Throughout the game, bodies will be found and “reported”. Once reported or when an emergency meeting is called players enter a chat area where they can discuss who they think the Imposter is and subsequently vote them off. The Imposter wins when all Crewmates have been killed. The Crewmates win by either figuring out who the Imposter is and voting them off or completeling all the tasks assigned to them before the Imposter kills them all.

Things I Love About Among Us

As an adult, I really enjoy playing this game and will play while the kids are asleep or while I’m putting the littest down for a nap. It’s fun to try and figure out who the Imposter is and even to be the Imposter. I most enjoy being a Crewmate because it’s fun to be on a team, working together to figure out who the Imposter is.

I have so much fun playing with my sisters and the kids and it’s easy to see it being a great way to for kids across the country to connect with friends near and far during a time when they’re seeing less and less of each other.

Areas of Concern

For me there are two areas of concern and this first one I’m going to talk about is really parental preference and not a safety issue, in my opinion.

While the characters are animated, the Imposter’s job is to kill the Crewmates. When you’re a Crewmate (which is what your kids will be most of the time) when/if they are killed an animation of that kill pops up.

Here they are:

Knife in the Back

Tongue through eye

Neck Snap

I saved the most problematic for me since it involves a gun.

So obviously, while there’s no blood, there’s still a gun and the animation clearly shows the head not being there anymore. Which is a YIKES for me. And might be one for you too.

Earlier I mentioned “reporting a body” so I wanted to show you a picture of that so you get an idea of what it looks like–it reminds me of a ham bone, nothing too scary.

The final and biggest issue for me is the chat aspect. The chat is necessary for the game, if you tell your kids that they can’t go into the chat, it’s likely they’ll get voted out early and often making it less fun.

BUT often it’s inappropriate. Censored chat IS an option but kids aren’t stupid and neither are grown ups. They can easily say things in a way that make it so they can still “curse” by using abbreviations. It’s also not hard to figure out what “**** you” is.

In addition to that, chat isn’t the only place you can see inappropriate things. While most usernames are totally fine some aren’t. I’ve seen “horny girl” and things like “bigpeen”.

In chat rooms I’ve also seen people ask questions like “are you single” and saying vulgar sexual comments and I’ve also seen racist comments.

So obviously the chat is a HUGE problem.

So Why and How do I let my kids play still?!

Okay so the graphics aren’t a deal breaker for me. They might be for you, but they’re not for me. What IS a deal breaker for me is the inappopriate chat in the chatroom.

So how do I get around that?

My kids are only allowed to play WITH me or with trusted friends and family. When we play together I make sure that I’m the host, or near by whoever is the host so I can ban people who are inappropriate though a lot of times that isn’t even necessary because between myself, the big two, my siblings and friends we can usually get a full game or close to a full game without inviting strangers in.

Over the last couple of weeks we’ve found it to be a wonderful way to bond with one another, we laugh SO HARD over it.

In the end, the decision is up to you! I think you can have a lot of fun with it with trusted family and friends but I don’t think it should be something that’s done completely unsupervised.

If you have any other questions or if you want some playing partners for yourself or your kids–shoot me a message on Instagram.

The post Among Us Review: From a Parent Who Has Actually Played appeared first on Little Us.

I had ZERO clue what I was doing, I got the opprotunity to do it, thought it would be fun and just jumped right in. It’s times like these that I realize that yup, I’m an optimist, though I never would describe myself as such.

If this post doesn’t answer your questions–feel free to ask me!

How did you get eggs to hatch? Where did they come from? Did you buy the equipment?

We were super fortunate to have a connection to our local 4H club through a friend. They provided us with everything we needed. A binder filled with step by step instructions, 12 fertile eggs, an incubator with automatic egg rotator, starter feed, pine shavings for the bedding, a brooder (aka a place to put the chicks once they hatch) and a heat source (chicks need to be kept at around 95F their first week of life). We did end up buying more pine shavings.

Where do I get everything I need if I have to buy it on my own?

We plan to hatch chicks again so this is something I’ve been looking into. If you can’t borrow an incuabotr from someone who already has one (try local Facebook groups, especially if you live near farm country).

You can buy fertilized eggs online–just search “Fertilized eggs, Hatchery”. You can also check in with local farmers–if they have roosters, it’s likely their eggs are fertilized so you can ask to purchase eggs from them to hatch.

You’ll also need:

• Incubator/Automatic Egg Turner <–This isn’t the one we used, I linked the one we used above. But this is the one I want due to how big the viewing window is.
• Brooder
• Heat Source, don’t forget the bulb!
• Chick Feed, if you plan to keep the chicks, I would buy a larger bag, it will be cheaper that way!
• Feeder
• Water Holder –I suggest elevating this slightly to avoid the chicks making it messy with pine shavings.
• Something to line the brooder with, I suggest puppy training pads for easy clean up!
• Pine Shavings, this is to layer the brooder with. So puppy training pad, paper towels or newspaper then pine shavings!

As you can see, this can get a little pricey! If you are doing this as an educational experience with your kids, be sure to check out free options especially if you don’t plan to do this again anytime soon.

Where did you get the other 11 eggs from?

In addition to the 12 fertile eggs we got, we also took 4 eggs from our refridgerator and got another 7 from the woman we get our eggs from.

Did you just say from your fridge? Are the eggs I get fertilized? Is it possible I can crack open a chick?

Yes! I did! I know that sounds wild but as I mentioned above, we get our eggs from a farm and I felt confident that most of the eggs we get are fertilized aka the farm has roosters. If you get your eggs from a farm that has roosters, it’s likely that your eggs are fertilized as well. If you get your eggs from a grocery store it is HIGHLY unlikely that you’re eating fertilized eggs, meaning you couldn’t hatch a chick from an egg in your refridgerator. On top of that, even if by some chance the eggs were fertilized the refridgeration halts any and all development.

Of the four eggs from your fridgerator, how many hatched?

We candled our eggs on day 7, 10, 14 and 18. On Day 7 we discovered that one of the eggs was infertile (or never got very far in the development process) and another developed further along but was clearly not viable which we knew via the blood ring aka “ring of death”. On Day 18 we had two of our fridge eggs left. During the hatching time, one took FOREVER to hatch after it “pipped” but is alive and well. We named her Elsa. The other never hatched.

What’s a blood ring?

It’s a little ring of blood that signifies the chick stopped developing. Here’s what it looked like in one of our eggs

What does “pip” mean?

Pip is the first break in the shell that chicks make, it can take 12-24 hours and sometimes more after they pip for the chicks to hatch. Here’s a picture from our hatching:

Once the chicks hatched what do you do with them?

Due to the weather and our house, we kept the chicks in our bedroom. It was a smelly experience. It wouldn’t be my first choice, but since it was my only choice, it worked!

Was it time consuming?

Overall I would say no. It took minutes per day to take care of the eggs, we had an automatic egg turner in our incubator which was helpful. We just checked the temperture twice per day and filled the basin with water for humidity purproses. Once the chicks hatched, I would say it took me an hour per day to take care of them. I changed the bedding twice per day and checked/filled their food and water twice per day as well. Don’t expect to do much of anything on hatching day. It’s too exciting not to watch them hatch all day!

Where’s your coop?

Sadly, we don’t have one! We were never planning to keep these chicks though I not so secretly wished that maybe we would. All 12 chicks will go to live with my friend.

What kind of chickens are they?

This is the information I have on the black/yellow chickens. ” All hens are brown egg layer mixes. We have a polish rooster and an Americana rooster”. The yellow chicks are “broilers” which is a generic term for meat birds.

Meat birds?! Will you eat these chicks?

All 11 of the yellow birds will be eaten at some point, not necessarily by me but by their new owner. It’s odd because in just one week we have gotten attached to them but we also know that they will provide nurishment in uncertain times and until then, they will be loved on!

Have your kids said anything about eating eggs or chicken?

The kids were taken aback when we said that they yellow chicks would be food eventually. They were a little horrified but quickly got over it. One time Emilia (4), was eating chicken wings and spit it out and said she wouldn’t eat it anymore because it was chicken but then quickly got over it. They haven’t said anything about eatings eggs at this point though we did discuss that we were eating mostly fertilized eggs and if we should or shouldn’t!

I hope this was helpful for anyone who was curious or is thinking about hatching chicks! If you have any more questions, I’m happy to answer them! I’m still living on the chick hatching high, it was such a fun experience!

The post Hatching Chicks appeared first on Little Us.

This isn’t like summer break, 1) it’s not nearly as warm and 2) we can’t exactly go out and run around town like we normally do so all of these resources and ideas are things to do either in your house or in your own yard if you have one.

I’m going to break this down into categories to make it easy and will probably add to it. Most of these options are FREE. Some do require a payment and some are free for a limited amount of time. There is something for everyone on this list. ALL are things that I have seen/used personally OR were reccomended by someone who has.

Art

Drawing Doodles with Mo Willems

Step by Step on how to draw various things found in nature.

Cooking with Kids

Raddish Kids–Suddenly Homescholing

Fun recipes to do with children!

General Education

ABC Mouse

ABCmouse.com Early Learning Academy is a subscription-based digital education program for children ages 2–8. Subjects covered include reading and language arts, math, science, health, social studies,

Adventure Academy (one free month)

AdventureAcademy is an educational product that combines an Elementary School curriculum with an interactive 3D world.

Brainpop (free during closure)

Animated Educational Site for Kids – Science, Social Studies, English, Math, Arts & Music, Health, and Technology.

Khan Academy

Khan Academy offers practice exercises, instructional videos, and a personalized learning dashboard that empower learners to study at their own pace in and outside of the classroom. We tackle math, science, computer programming, history, art history, economics, and more.

Meaningful Menus (Free with kids ATHOME)

Meaningful Menus are a resource for parents and educators looking for an open-and-go way to foster connection with kids through poetry, songs, and more. 

Whether snuggled together on the couch, around the kitchen table, or in the classroom, Meaningful Menus make it easy to enjoy the closeness that comes from reading and singing together.

MiaAcademy ($1.99 per month)

Miacademy offers hundreds of lessons in math, language arts, science, and social studies, covering all of K-8. In addition to the core subjects, Miacademy has a variety of electives from introductions to several languages to life skills.

OutSchool

Live online classes for ages 3-18. Spark your child’s curiosity with access to 10,000 small group video chat classes—created and taught by inspiring teachers. Start learning for as low as $5/class.

Scholastic Learn At Home

This free resource provides your children with 20* days of exciting articles and stories, videos, and fun learning challenges. Children can complete them anytime, in any order. They can work on their own or together with you and your family.

Handwriting

• Alphabet Writing Practice Printables
• Alphabet Craft Printables
• Lowercase Do a Dot Printables
• Uppercase Do a Dot Printables

Math

Prodigy Math (Free)

Easily motivate 1st to 8th grade students to learn and practice math. This is something we personally use in our home and my kids love it!

XtraMath

XtraMath® is a Seattle 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to math achievement for all. Our goal is to develop effective, efficient, adaptive, and intrinsically rewarding supplemental math activities.

Movement

This one is easy! Get outside if you can but if you can’t here are some at home options.

• Cosmic Kids Yoga
• Martial Arts with Blue Heron Healing Arts

Music

My MusicBox Plays

Musical Playtime Classes for babies and preschoolers. Classes have been previously recorded.

Virtual Tours

• 12 Musuems that offer virtual tours
• Over 30 Virtual Field Trips

Reading

Shark Story Hour

Science

Mystery Science

Lessons are arranged by length and grade and all free.

Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Gardens Live Safari

Join the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Gardens live every day for a Home Safari Facebook Live each weekday at 3pm EDT where we will highlight one of our amazing animals and include an activity you can do from home. Don’t have access to social media? No worries! All videos will be posted on their website and to our YouTube channel shortly after the Facebook Live ends.

Weather with Doug Kammerer

Join weatherman Doug Kammerer every day at 2pm to talk and learn about all things weather!

Additional Resources

I also wanted to include two websites listing all of the websites offering free educational services during this time. This one and this one.

While I can’t vouch for any of the websites listed, it’s still a good resource to have!

I hope you find this list of resources helpful. If you have something you would reccomend or would like me to add just comment or shoot me a message!

The post Resources for Homeschooling and Entertaining Your Kids appeared first on Little Us.

Around 3:45am I woke up with a contraction and switched to the kids twin sized bed. I tried sleeping through them but it wasn’t as easy anymore. So I woke up and called my midwife and then went and woke Bly up. I let him know that things were picking up, and that I was going to set up the tub. So he got up, and started to help me. We were worried about our fairly newish floors so we set up plastic sheeting, it looked like an episode of Dexter but it did the job.

By 5:30 I wasn’t able to talk through some of my contractions and they were coming much closer together. I was starting to think that maybe people need to be headed my way but I didn’t want to say so and be wrong.

We set the hose up to the water heater and started filling the tub and the water was coming out lukewarm which was a little more of a nightmare for me becuase this whole time I’ve been concerned about 1) Not filling the tub in time and 2) the water being cold because we filled it up too soon. We started to get some water in pots and on the stove but B thought if we started to fill it with hot water too soon that it would end up cold.

Finally around 6ish I told B that we needed to get the tub filled and the hot water going because I needed to be in the water. It was time and the only reason I wasn’t in the water yet was because no one was there and I didn’t want to deliver this baby alone!

At some point I texted my midwife’s assistant who is also a friend and asked her if she was going to be here soon. My contractions were getting to the point where I couldn’t talk through them, they felt incredibly different and way more powerful. I descibed them as “F*ck, f*ck, f*ck” contractions. Don’t judge me.

My midwife’s assistant arrived first and immediately got to work helping B fill up the water and before I knew it, it was ready.

At 7:55 the birth photographer arrived and not long after that the midwife arrived as well. All we were waiting on was my mom. As soon as everyone got there I got in the tub.

This was it I was going to have my baby, or so I thought.

With my girls, once I was having the Eff word contractions and once I got in the tub, it was baby time. I was ready to push and get that baby out. But this time it didn’t quite happen like that.

I spent a lot of time in my head, not being ready to push, not ready for what I knew was coming. I felt so many of the same emotions that I felt with my other kids. That I couldn’t do it. That I wasn’t ready. That I didn’t want too.

I was in my head and I couldn’t get out and I was confused. How come my very strong contractions weren’t causing my baby to come? At some point I was huffing peppermint to keep the nausea at bay and sniffering Joy to keep contractions going and my head in the game.

But the peppermint couldn’t completely stop transition nausea. It wasn’t long before I vomited and I KNEW transition was happening, I KNEW things were getting closer. I still wasn’t ready.

At some point my midwife told me that she thought I should labor a bit on the toilet. I really didn’t want too, and I told her that. No thanks. I’m good right here in the tub where things aren’t exactly progressing but they’re not terrible either. I was fighting this baby and my body so hard.

Eventually (not sure how long it actually took to get me out of that tub) I got out. I took a step and had a major contraction. Once it finished I kindly stopped and said to my midwife, my midwife’s assistant and the photographer standing in front of me (who really had nothing to do with making me get out of the tub). “I just really feel like I have to tell you all that I really don’t like any of you right now”.

(But still I walked, heavily supported to the bathroom and had some strong and productive contractions on the toilet. Here’s the thing about me in labor that has become super clear.

I don’t like when people talk to me during contractions.

I’m not a big fan of people touching me when I’m in labor unless you’re doing counter pressure.

I also don’t like being left alone.

So even though I don’t want you to talk to to me or touch me, I want you to pay attention to me.

I have a hard time formulating sentences OUT LOUD. I can say them in my head but it feels like a struggle to say it out loud.

I can hear and understand what’s going on around me, even though I seem oblivious to it.

Okay, now that we got that squared away let’s jump back to me having some massively productive contractions on the toilet.

With the last contraction before going back to the tub I knew something had shifted. I felt it. At the same time I heard my mom discussing going to see my sisters who were next door. I heard my kids saying that they wanted to go with her. I heard my mom getting permission to take them from B. I heard my mom being worried that she was going to leave and miss it. I heard my photographer say she should be fine and that I wasn’t going to have a baby in the time she is gone.

In my head, I knew baby was close. I wondered why my midwife wasn’t telling her to stay. I wanted to say “If you don’t want to miss it, you shouldn’t leave and most certainly don’t take my kids” but I couldn’t say it out loud. So instead I walked back towards the tub and slipped in.

I saw Kyla’s pink coat exit out the door and the door close and right at that moment I had a massive contraction and could feel baby moving down, ready to be born.

I managed a sound “it’s coming”. B ran out the door to summon my mom and the kids back and they ran back over. I saw Kyla come in the door and race up to the tub to see what was happening.

And while all that was happening our baby was trying to rush into the world. So much so that I knew I had to brace myself. Baby felt hard to push out. And I knew that if things went to fast that I could tear so, I let baby come down, and then stopped baby from barreling out.

I remember my midwife asking if she could touch me and listen to the baby’s heartbeat. I said no. The thought of her touching me during this time felt awful. I wish I had said yes, especially the second time. At some point she asked “can you see if you can feel baby’s head”. I said “OF COURSE! I’ve been feeling the baby’s head, it’s right here.” She grabbed the mirror and put it in the tub to see what was going on.

I kept pushing, baby’s head was out. At this point one more push and baby should just come right on out, but baby didn’t.

I head my midwife say in a firm voice “I need you to get into a lounge position”. I’ve read and heard enough birth stories to know that if your hands off midwife is asking you to switch positions, you should do it. So I did it “Like this?” I asked.

It felt oddly effortless. I always thought that if I was asked to switch positions while mid pushing I would never be able to do it. But I did. Easily.

It was at that point I could hear my midwife asking if Mason wanted to catch the baby and if it was okay with me, I could barely speak, but in my head I was saying yes. But at the last minute he decided not too. The baby’s shoulders were a little sticky, I think “stuck” would be too big of a word for what was happening. Meredith asked me if I wanted to get the baby out myself. At this point I wasn’t certain I could and I just wanted the baby out. I was worried that I had been pushing with baby halfway in between worlds for too long.

So in true Christa fashion I screamed “just get it out of me” or something along those lines. I pushed hard. Shoulders came out. I pushed hard again and with a little help the butt and legs came out too.

I pulled the baby to my chest.

And while I was focused on baby, everyone else was reacting around me.

It didn’t take long for me to check to see who this little person was.

“It’s a girl”.

I held her close to me, and told her I loved her.

Mason ran up to his room, disappointed that yet again he was given a little sister.

The room was silent and Emilia said what apparently everyone but me, B and my midwife were thinking “Is she dead?!”. I heard my sister panic, scream “EMI!” and rush out of the room with her.

I knew she wasn’t dead, I had just held her in my arms, I had just felt her moving as she was coming out. But looking at her I thought “oh man her coloring does look a little off and she looks a little limp”. So I asked Meredith “is she okay”? Meredith took her from my arms.

She looked her over, said she’s fine and sure enough, not long after she was perking up and in my arms again.

In the end, pushing took less than 10 minutes from when my midwife noted that she was crowning to when she was actually born, even with sticky shoulders AND a sticky butt. Her little face was pretty brusied which is why her coloring was so off.

Between check ups, everyone wanting to hold her and me fixing myself up a little it took some time for her to nurse but when she did she latched like a dream! No issues at all. We spent the entire rest of the day upstairs cozy in my bed.

There are so many pictures I didn’t share here but want to share, so I’ll be coming back with me. I want to share how sweet my girls were, standing near and loving on me. The way the kids, my mom and sisters loved on my precious baby from the moment she was born. The moments after, once I was out of the tub, the check up. I want to share it all!

We of course, didn’t name her for about six days. So, without further ado.

World, meet Magnolia June.

Born 11/16/2019

9:45am

8lbs 14oz

21.5 inches long

We love you. We are so glad you are ours.

The post The Birth Story of BG5 {Part 2} appeared first on Little Us.

When I told her so–she got very emotional. One of the reasons it’s been so hard for us to cut dairy and wheat from her diet completely is because it’s such a huge adjustment and it’s hard on her and the entire family. I don’t love denying her something that she wants so when she started to cry I knew that I had to make my baby some homemade dairy gree and gluten free chocolate granola. Luckily we typically have all the ingredients needed to make homemade granola so we got to it!

I was able to throw it together in less than 10 minutes and it took about 15 minutes in our air fryer on the bake setting to cook. But don’t worry, you don’t need an air fryer to make this recipe.

I’ve gotten pretty good at making granola so even though we didn’t have all the ingredients for the recipe I found, I was able to take it, make it our own and come up with a granola that worked for our family.

So without further ado, I give you, homemade gluten free and dairy free chocolate granola.

Print

Gluten Free and Dairy Free Chocolate Granola

Homemade gluten free and dairy free chocolate granola to satisy everyone’s need for delicious granola. 

Ingredients

• 3 cups gluten free rolled oats
• 3/4 cup almonds sliced
• 1/2 cup pecans chopped
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 3 tbsp ground flaxseed
• 3/4 tsp Himalayan salt
• 1/2 cup maple syrup
• 3/4 cup coconut oil melted
• 1/2 tbsp vanilla extract
• 2/3 cup enjoy life chocolate chips (or any chocolate chips that are dairy and wheat free)

Instructions

• Preheat your oven to 325F
• In a large bowl, combine oats, sliced almonds, chopped pecans, cocoa powder, ground flaxseed and himalayan salt.
• Pour maple syrup, melted coconut oil and vanilla extract over your oat mixture and stir until dry ingredients are wet.
• Spread on large baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes or until granola is fragrant and doesn’t look very wet. Be sure to stir halfway through. 
• Once finished remove from oven, let cool slightly, then stir in chocolate chips and mix. The chips will melt but once it completely cools it will harden back up and create little granola chunks. 
• Enjoy!

Next time we make this we will 100% double (maybe even triple) the batch! I also plan to experiment with this recipe by making it Chocolate Peanut Butter granola because who doesn’t love that combo!?

The post Gluten Free and Dairy Free Chocolate Granola appeared first on Little Us.

Every year when I share about the Book Advent I get some questions. So I want to start with some frequently asked questions and then I’m going to share my picks for this year!

Are they all Christmas Books?

They’re all Christmas or winter themed books now but when we first started doing it we wrapped all sorts of books. Over the years I have grown our collection.

Are they all brand new?

The only books that are brand new are the ones they get on Christmas Eve. This part is totally optional but I choose to do this because one day I would like to give each child at least 12 books (think 12 days of Christmas) when they have their first child so they can keep doing the tradition with their child/children.

Christmas Book Picks 

I swear book publishing companies are on to these Book Advents because I keep seeing more and more options every single year when it comes to books we can add to our collection. This year there were quite a few books I had my eyes on. The options get cuter and cuter each year!

This is the one we picked up for Magnolia. Christmas Cookie Day is a board book that walks through one of our favorite holiday traditions, baking cookies! It’s also a great book for Kyla and Emilia and helps our book stack look like a tree!

This is another book we picked up this year but I have no idea if I’m giving it to Mason or Kyla because I know they’ll both love it so much! The Crayon series is one of their favorites so I had to pick up The Crayons’ Christmas. This book has enevlopes to help make the book interactive.

I know they say not to judege a book by its cover but I’m a sucker for a good cover and this one drew me in. Dasher is all about an adventurous young reindeer named Dasher who eventually sets out on her own where she eventually meets a guy in a red suit! You’ll never guess who!

Mr. Willowby’s Christmas Tree is all about a tree that was too tall for Mr. Willowby’s parlor. He cuts the top off so it will fit and the top of the tree gets passed along again and again to bring holiday cheer!

Another book that caught my eye thanks to the beautiful colors and illustrations. I love how whimsical it is. Pick a Pine Tree goes through the process of picking the perfect tree and decorating it with love! One of our favorite traditions is picking the perfect Christmas Tree!

Looking for more Christmas book suggestions?

More Christmas Book Picks

10 Christmas Book Picks for Preschoolers 

10 More Christmas Books

What are some of your favorite Christmas and Winter books? 

Pin for Later: 

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On Thursday I hit 41 weeks, a milestone I had never hit *without* already being in labor. With Mason I woke up exactly 41 weeks pregnant and my water had broke, a small leak, but still, it was clear, I was going to have a baby soon. With Emilia, I woke up with very consistent contractions after losing my mucus plug the very day before.

*Side Note* I remember looking at this picture and thinking I looked different. That I looked like I was ready to go, especially in comparison to my previous pictures. I just didn’t look as vibrant. I looked hot, sweaty, swollen and ready to go.

I guess I should start with the letter. The day I hit 41 weeks and I wasn’t in labor I decided it was time for me to write this baby a letter. I was starting to think that the reason I wasn’t in labor was not because baby wasn’t ready, but because I wasn’t ready.

I spent a good portion of this pregnancy thinking I was having a girl, switching to boy and then towards the end girl again, and I knew that Mason would be disappointed and I feared finally knowing. So I held on.

My letter explained to baby, and perhaps myself, that no matter what we loved this baby and this was who was meant to be in our family.

The next morning I woke up–still not in labor! As B walked out the door to go to work, I told him I was going to write another letter. How could I not be in labor yet?! I wrote the letter dang it, I let all my emotions out. WHY wasn’t I in labor yet?

While I wasn’t in full blown labor, I was noting some stronger than usual Braxton Hicks and they were coming fairly often. Often enough that I started to time them. Some were mild, some were hardly anything and some felt strong. I did say anything to anyone though, because I didn’t want to get anyone’s hopes up.

They were fairly consistent for a while but nothing that stopped me from carrying on with my day. So my morning looked like this: I got the big kids ready for school, I dropped them off, I got Emilia ready and dropped her off at preschool. Shortly after a good friend messaged me offering to take Emilia so I could go get a pedicure. I took her up on it. The closer I got to picking up Emilia from preschool the further apart they got. After picking Emilia up from preschool I brought her to my friend’s house and got a pedicure. It was nice to just sit and relax, but any contractions I thought I was having had completely stopped at that point.

I headed back to my friend’s house around 2:30 we chatted a little about the letter I wrote to the baby and how I thought I was the one holding things up. We also talked about how maybe I just needed the kids to be out of school in order to get things going.

It wasn’t long before I was going to pick them up. At some point shortly before I left I had a stronger than usual contraction but I chalked it up to needing to go to the bathroom so I did. It was then that I noticed a little brown spotting, so little I questioned if it was anything at all. But as someone who had been obessively checking for any sign of labor, I knew it had to be something.

I gave my friend the update (we’re close like that) and told her “I’m having a baby this weekend”.

And then I was out the door and to the pick up line. Before picking up the kids I gave B a call to give him an update. I told him he didn’t need to rush home, but we were probably having a baby within the next 24 hours. I broke the news to the kids that we’d probably be missing skate night because I was pretty sure I was in early labor. They were so excited, but made me promise we’d go to Funky’s another night.

Once home it was clear that the Braxton Hicks I was having were less Braxton Hicks and more contractions. Around 8:10pm I went to the bathroom and started to lose chunks of my mucus plug. I came out of the bathroom and told B that “yup, this is most likely early labor as I’m losing my mucus plug” and he looked at me like “DUH”.

I decided at that point to let my mom and sisters know what was going on. I also decided it was time to lay down and get some rest inbetween contractions. At first I tried to lay down with the kids watchind Disney+ but they quickly made it certain I couldn’t do that because they were fighting over me. So intead I went upstairs and laid in bed. I was in and out of sleep.

At some point all three kids climbed into bed with me, B kept trying to get them to go into their own bed but honestly, I wanted them with me. I knew that this would be the last time that me and my three babies coslept. I knew that by the next night we’d have grown by one.

I only wish I had, had B grab a picture so you could see all four of us in the bed instead of just a blurry bump, Mason and Kyla!

To be continued…When things start to pick up!

The post The Birth Story of BG5 {Part 1} appeared first on Little Us.

Boy or girl: Team Green

Currently craving: Nothing that I can really think of. Pasta always hits the spot though! I’ve been feeling pretty full, pretty quickly lately.

Currently Avoiding: Heartburn hasn’t been as badly lately which has enabled me to eat tomato based stuff again which has been nice. If I do end up getting it, it’s typically not as bad.

Weight: I haven’t weighed myself in probably two weeks. With Halloween and giving into that Lasagna craving, I think I’ll pass.

Belly button status: In, always!

Sleep grade: Good sleep seems to come and go, sometimes it’s great and sometimes it’s awful but I would say that overall it’s been pretty good. I’m not even waking up crazy sore or anything which is nice!

Recent Crazy Dream: I’ve been dreaming more often lately but not about anything I want to dream about. I really wanted another dream about what I’m having but so far I’ve got nothing. “Just” those 2-3 dreams/incidents from previous months. The main thing I remember dreaming about recently was breaking a glass bowl. When you google glass breaking it’s all pretty ominuous. Shortly after that dream I broke a glass so maybe it was more of a predicition than a bad sign.

Evidence of pregnancy brain: I’ve had plenty of incidents of pregnancy brain but of course I can’t remember them all at this point. One was totally forgetting a meeting that I had scheduled.

Symptoms?: Heartburn hasn’t been as bad lately. My main symptoms have been being tired and lots and lots of Braxton Hicks especially once I hit 39 weeks. I even had one incident where I called my midwife because I was having so many I thought hmmmm could this be it?! But it turns out I just realllly needed to drink some water. Once I hydrated the braxton hicks stopped.

Health/Appointments: I’ve been having my appointments weekly at this point with my last one being on 11/7 aka the day I hit 40 weeks. Baby sounded great. Baby also wasn’t engaged at all and instead its head was pressing into my right hip which makes sense when I think of what I’ve been feeling.

I know that later babies tend to not get engaged until labor begins but I was still surprised that baby wasn’t engaged since I’ve been feeling a ton of pressure and way more Braxton Hicks contractions than usual.

Movement: Baby’s movements have been different and slower for sure. It seems like I’m noticing more shifting than actually punches/kicks. Whenever I get nervous and do kick counts baby quickly responds which is always reassuring. I did have one incident before I hit 40 weeks where I felt such a huge movement that it caused me to yelp! It actually hurt a little when it typically doesn’t.

Names: We’re still no where on the name game. I guess we’re just going to see if baby is a boy or a girl and then aruge, I mean, decide from there

Any baby related purchases? Seedlings Baby Wipes! We had none and I needed some!

In Other News

Weeks ago I mentioned going to Jamestown, VA on a field trip with Mason and most people thinking I’m absolutely crazy for going but guess what?! I went, and it was AMAZING and I’m so glad we got to make the memories that we did. It wasn’t until the end of the trip that I started to feel more pressure than usual but by the time I got home and we went Trick or Treating I was totally fine!

Other Updates

As far as the homebirth goes we are 100% ready. My main concerns are getting the tub filled in time and making sure that it’s warm! It’s suppose to be cold this week so that’s a little concerning too. We’ll have to crank the heat up in the house and possibily get the space heater down and crank the heat up on the water tank. I think it will all work out!

We are still purging whenever possible and also trying to keep the house clean and tidy. I’m 40 Weeks and 2 days today. Feeling good and planning to do a sweep/mop of the floors daily from here on out. It’s crazy to think about how labor can start at any minute and also that I could technically go another 2 weeks with no concerns!

It’s just a waiting game at this point! I’m so excited to see how everything goes down and who this baby will be!

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