Vaccine Awareness Week: Nov 1st-6th

DISCLAIMER DISCLAIMER DISCLAIMER (PLEASE READ BEFORE YOU READ ON!):
I am in NO way judging other people who decide to vaccinate their children. I am simply going off of the research that I have found, and I have SO many friends of mine who do vaccinate and feel 100% peace about that decision. This is an extremely personal thing, and since this is my PERSONAL blog, and it's awareness week, I thought I'd put in my 2 cents. So please, no hateful comments. Know that this is where I stand, and I respect where YOU stand. Heck, if you decided to write a post on being PRO-vaccine, I would give you a high five! I like when people say what's on their mind.


The National Vaccine Information Center is dedicating the first week in November to Vaccine Awareness. This is something that is SO close to my heart. I have stayed up very LATE many many times, reading books, looking up articles, reading ingredient lists for vaccines & their effects, in order to figure what to do with this important decision.


My oh my is this a controversial thing! I'm a little nervous to even write it on my blog and make it a public thing, but the truth is, I really am passionate about it. You know how you just have to share a good thing when you know about it?- Kinda like sharing the Gospel to unbelievers?


Well, sadly I think that the effects that vaccines can cause to our children is an issue that gets swept under the rug, and that people think you are a TOTAL weirdo for not just doing it. For me though, I just haven't seen anything out there that has convinced me that I SHOULD vaccinate. As I read ingredients lists, and what each of those things can do to our children's bodies, and the MINIMAL, I mean MINIMAL research done to prove that these things are not harmful or cannot forever damage our children, it scares me to death. There is WAY more money going towards the promotion of vaccines, rather than the RESEARCH to make sure that they are safe. And in most cases, symptoms and side effects that children DO have from the vaccines, go unreported- doctors attribute these symptoms to other possible illnesses rather than a side effect. SCARY again. For now, we have decided to not vaccinate our kids. A few people have told me before, that chances are Ellie won't get anything anyways because she will just be "piggy-backing" off other kids who are vaccinated. Well, this isn't true either, because if you look at REAL medical reports, in some cases up to 75% of children WHO HAVE BEEN VACCINATED get the disease. So no, I don't think that I'm "protected by the herd" or "piggy-backing", I think I'm going off of my principles that I wouldn't let Ellie drink toxic chemicals right out of a cup, and likewise, I won't allow that to enter into her body in the form of a shot.


But don't take my word on all of this- I'm not a medical researcher, nor am I a doctor. But I have read lots of things from people who are, credible people, that have opened my mind up. If you want to know anymore about this, here are a few resources:


Go to Mercola.com- He is a naturopathic doctor that has an incredible website with SO many resources for finding out the real 411 on vaccines.


Also, "Shots in the Dark"- this is a documentary and you can find it on You Tube for FREE just by typing that into the title line. It's over an hour and FULL of information to help you see what is in the vaccines that is so harmful, and REAL life stories of people who have been harmed or had their lives taken by vaccines.


If you are reader, I would suggest, "Childhood Vaccinations" by Lauren Feder. A really good FACTUAL book including each and every vaccine, each ingredient in the vaccines, and the side effects of each. She is a nationally recognized physician who specializes in wholistic health.


One quote from her book that I will leave you with, that I think is so right on, is this:


" In light of the current vaccine controversy, the goal of this guide was to provide you with a well-rounded view on vaccinations. Because most of us were raised with the mainstream pro-vaccine point of view, I feel it is important to become knowledgable about both sides of the story."

Only in Arizona...

Can you play outside, just a few days shy of November, in your swimsuits! May seem crazy, but I DID use warm water and the girls thought it was great!

Ellie & Scarlett

Sweet girls :) Look at both of their blue eyes!

After almost 5 yrs...I have a headboard!

Adam and I have never had a headboard our entire marriage. Our room ALWAYS got the short end of the stick- not too many decorations, and it always had our randomness from other parts of the house that we didn't know what to do with! We would really like our room to be somewhere we like hanging out...besides to sleep of course! So, we decided to slowly re-do it as cost effectively as possible!

Operation Bedroom Phase 1: Make a headboard!

Materials: Wood, Staple Gun, Electric Drill, Screws, sturdy Board, Upholstery Batting, Fabric

Total Cost: $19 Wood
$8 Staple Gun
$4 Batting
$0 Fabric- We already had it on hand
= $31!!!

BeforeFrame is done!

Covered it with a sturdy board: Not pictured is me putting tape down the middle so there was no gap.

Staple gun the batting over the front, and then staple the fabric (We used an old comforter that we had)

After

I am really pleased with the way everything turned out! For a $30 project, it makes a HUGE difference in our room. We may end up covering it with something else down the road, but this will do for now :) We have so many more cheap home renovations to share with you! Can't wait...

-Krystle

Nursery Fun

I am getting SO excited to start adding (well enclosing) our room for little Claire! I think I have the color scheme I want to work with, and I'm really gonna have to get creative because she is going to have a small room! It's like a 6 x 6 foot space....tiny! But, she is a baby, and it'll be perfect for her. I'm not super high tech & don't have a scanner to scan in our ultrasound pictures, but I wanted to post a picture of the picture (he he!) so you all could see our sweet little girl!

Claire (Enter Middle Name) Porter :)

Alright, so onto the nursery. Here is what I have come up with so far...there is still time to completely change the whole scheme, but I think I'm pretty set. Ellie's room is painted a really pretty purple and is very colorfully decorated...I'll post pictures of her room once it's clean!....so I wanted a different color for Claire and I'm SO LOVING yellow right now:

I'm pretty decided on pink and yellow. Very girly, and not purple like her sister :) Since it's a small space, I was thinking that I lighter color on the walls would really make it feel more open. Yellow here I come! With the husbands approval of course :) And I like accenting with the rich pink (is rich pink even considered an acceptable term?!?! ha ha! It is now...) I love it love it love it!

And once i saw this awesome wall decor, I was sold! I like it that the flowers pop out, and it's not just a wall sticker. I also think that it could add some nice character to the room...make it feel like less of a tiny box.

And now to the circle crib. The reason I am thinking of going this route is that it seems much more space efficient. Cribs are stinkin big and take up a lot of space in the room! So, I thought of this as a good alternative. Set this baby in the corner of the room, and not only will you have more space to walk around, but maybe I could even put an extra piece of furniture in the room now!

More ideas & photos of our space to come!.....til next time....

-K

Phoenix Children Museum- Family Time!

A few weeks ago we went to the Phoenix Children's Museum :) We had SO much fun taking Ellie around and letting her explore. She would've never left! It's $9 a person, but worth every penny! I think that's actually pretty reasonable considering you can be there the entire day. Here are some pictures of our trip:

Ellie in the split pea scooping section of the little grocery store :)
Ellie & Daddy playing with the cool colored sand!

Making paper leaves in the art room...

Climbing down the crazy contraption they just built! Boy is that hard to do when your'e not 2 feet tall!

All 3 of us at the top (did you notice we are all looking & smiling?!)

It's another one of these!!!....

Yep, we're having another GIRL!!! I am soooooooooo excited :) I knew that I wanted a girl all along but couldn't bring myself to admit it in the case that it was a boy because I didn't want to feel disappointed...not that having a boy is less exciting AT ALL- it would probably be even more so because it would be new to me- BUT I just wanted Ellie to have a little sister :)

We are pretty decided that her first name will be Claire. Don't ask what her middle name will be...completely stumped! Any good suggestions that flow with Claire??? I just texted Adam a couple I though of, to which he responded, " I don't like either of them, keep trying." Bummer! So, help a girl out!

I am 20 weeks along as of Monday, and feeling great! I feel like this pregnancy is FLYING by. Which is a good thing :) I'm not the most patient person I know, and I'm already getting so anxious to meet my new little girl. I wonder all the time what she will be like, look like, how she will be different from Ellie,...all of that good stuff.

On another note, we decided to go with a Birthing Center this time around instead of the home birth route. Not because I feel uncomfortable doing it at home- one of the BEST ways to give birth if you are low-risk in my opinion- but because or insurance covers it! Woop woop! We paid all out of pocket last time, and that was quite the penny, so we are looking forward to just having this baby and not worrying about saving up a ton and stressing ourselves out :)

I would HIGHLY (did I say highly????.....ok, HIGHLY suggest you check out this birth center! It's so exciting that we finally have a birth center in the valley again, and I couldn't believe in the people that are working there any more than I already do. Not to mention it has all sorts of birthing classes, yoga, pregnancy message, ...all things pregnancy. So cool. It's called Blossom Birth Center and it's right across the street from Phoenix Children's Hospital- to appease those of you who start to hyperventilate at the thought of not giving birth at or near a hospital ;)

Well, once again, I am SO SO SO behind on posting. We have been doing ALL SORTS of home renovation, and are about to start adding on the extra room to our condo to make Claire's nursery :) Not to mention, Adam and I both had our birthday's recently, and my child is growing and changing SO much every day. I'm also doing a study called Mending the Soul, which is very intense & HARD to say the least, but I'm dying to write about things I'm learning and how God is working. He is so Good! Until next time friends....

2010 Camping Trip! FINALLY!!

This was our campsite! Beautiful, eh?! We went to the same exact spot last year & loved it, so we thought it fitting to give it another go around :) We even had the tarp to keep us dry in case it rained- it didn't, but it's always a lot of fun to watch the guys struggle to put it up- he he!

We had a bit of a smaller group this year- just 4 couples. But it was nice :) This is the guys before going on their traiditional Man Hike- guns, walking sticks & all! They had a good time as usual and even got to shoot their guns a few times.

Ellie hanging out by our inflatable boat we took out on the lake. Adam and I went on a little "date" for about 5-10 minutes trying to explore the lake on this thing- unfortunately, we had to come back after those 10 minutes because little ol' me wasn't feeling too hot- pregnancy woes! But we tried!

Ellie taking a bath in the wilderness! This was her, happy...before she experienced the cold water and hated it! Poor thing! She also ended up getting an ear infection while we were there- and we were pretty camped out- so we packed up early and went home :) So did everyone else though, so we didn't have to be the party poopers! P.S. It was definitely quite as challenging to have a toddler camping as I anticipated! Naps were non-existent, it was warm, and she was EVERYWHERE! I'm sure next year will be a little better- I hope!

The only picture we took of all of us! I love my family :) I have so so so so much life to catch you up on! This trip was the first weekend in September, and tons has happened since then. One of the MOST EXCITING things is happening tomorrow since we are finding out if our little baby is a boy or girl! To say "I can't wait!" is simply an understatement!!! It's 23 hours away!!!!!!!!

Love,