WIC Wednesday #: Chicken Broth

I find that a lot of recipes call for chicken broth. We used to buy a 32oz carton of chicken broth from Wal-Mart for about $2.00. Now that we're cutting back, I figured it was a great time to add chicken broth to the list of things to make at home. Making chicken broth at home will eliminate the unneeded salt and preservatives we consume since we will be controlling what goes into the broth. It's a really easy recipe that makes the house smell super yummy.

To make about 20-25 cups of broth, we spent about $9 on the food: $6 on a whole chicken and $3 on bay leaves. We were also left with extra bay leaves, enough for another 2 batches I think. We got the veggies from WIC. Even if you don't have WIC, these veggies are super inexpensive. I think we would've paid about $2-3 for all of it.

I used mason jars to store my broth. You don't have to get the fancy mason jars if it's not in your budget to. I had a couple left over from a previous shopping trip. I bought a couple more at the dollar store that work just as well! Or for an even better budget friendly idea, use leftover pasta jars! Just clean them out really well ;)

Tools:
Large Stock Pot (The one I have holds 8 qts)
Long ladle
Strainer or Colander
Large bowl (larger and deeper than your strainer or colander, I used my crock pot bowl)
Large bowl (to hold cooked chicken and veggies)
(optional) Cheese cloth. I use a cheese cloth to further strain the liquids for a more clear broth
Mason Jars

Ingredients:
1 whole young chicken, broken down
1 large yellow onion (think fist sized or larger)*
1 bundle celery (about 10-13 stalks)*
1 bag carrots (about 5-7 pieces)*
3-7 Bay Leaves
1/2 cup salt
28 cups of water
*WIC

Steps
1. Break down your chicken. It'll get messy and ugly but patience is key. I learned from my dad that kitchen shears really help break down those pieces with the thick bones. (like the back and breast!)
2. Wash and cut your celery and carrots into 2-3 inch pieces. Peeling the carrots are totally optional.
3. Quarter the onion and separate the pieces.
4. Pour 28 cups of water into your stock pot and stir in the salt.
5. Turn the stove onto high heat and start adding in all of your ingredients.
6. Bring the broth to a boil for about 30-45 mins. (Just keep the lid off and check on it occasionally incase it boils over. I didn't have that problem, but it's better to check anyways)
7. Lower the heat to a med-low and set the timer for 2-3 hours. The longer you cook it, the more flavored it will be. Check on your pot every half hour or so, clean off any foam gunk that rises to the top and oil, and give it a quick stir.
8. When the timer's done, turn the heat off. Scoop out the chicken and cooked veggies into one bowl. The veggies will be too soft to eat, but you can take the meat off the bones and shred it use it in other recipes or even freeze for quick meal prep. (Eventually, I will post some of the recipes I have made using this chicken meat.) I got about 9 cups of shredded chicken.
9. Line the strainer or colander with cheese cloth. Place in your large container. Carefully pour the liquids though.
10. Throw the gunk and cheese cloth away. Let the liquids cool enough to handle, about 30-45 mins. Pour into your mason jars. You can freeze the broth as well to make it last longer. Just leave about 2 inches from the top for expansion. Take the jar out a day or two before you plan on using it, so it has time to totally defrost.

For about 5 hours of non-intensive cooking, that was some delicious broth. We use it for everything from boiling pasta (we do a half water, half broth mix) to soups. This recipe can always be altered to add flavors you like, or even changed to different meats to make different meat stocks.

Enjoy!

WIC Wednesday #7: Skillet Beef Tamales (Freezer Friendly!)

Time is precious as a new mom. Hate to say it, but trying to cook food just doesn't make the cut sometimes. However, eating the same 'ld meals over and over can get really boring. I found this recipe in a cookbook that looked fairly easy to convert into a freezer meal. Hubby LOVED it :)

 

Ingredients:

1lb ground beef

1/3 cup chopped sweet red pepper

1/2 cup chopped green pepper

2 cups salsa

3/4 cup frozen corn

2 TBSP water

6 corn tortillas (6in diameter) cut into 1/2 in thick strips

3/4 cup shredded cheese

5 tsp sour cream

1 freezer gallon bag

2 freezer quart bags

 

Directions:

1. Label the gallon bag as skillet beef tamales. Underneath, write the cooking instructions:

 

Warm beef & peppers

Combine all

Stir in tortilla strips

Garnish with cheese and sour cream

 

2.  Label one of the quart bags beef & peppers and the other one salsa & corn.

3. Combine the salsa, corn and water into the appropriate bag. Squeeze out all the air and seal shut.

4. Prep the meat by browning & draining it. Wait for it to cool (can be speed up by placing it in the freezer for 20-30 minutes) and place it in the other bag with the peppers. Don't cook the peppers ahead of time so they won't get soggy upon reheating.

5. Place both bags in the gallon bag.

 

Wic Wednesday #6: Thai Peanut Noodles (Freezer Friendly!)

Eating on a budget doesn't have to mean PB sandwiches or ramen noodles. I used my WIC check to get the majority of the ingredients for this vegetarian meal. Having a meal without meat in it is one way to save money. Since meat can get pretty pricy, cutting back at least once a week can make a difference. I found this One Pot Pasta Thai Peanut Butter Noodles recipe from Top Ate on Your Plate. To make this freezer friendly, I prepped all the veggies and added all the ingredients except the pasta and noodles. You can easily skip the whole freezer part and just throw everything into the pot.

 

Ingredients:

8oz spaghetti, uncooked, rinsed in cold water until the starch is gone

2 cups chicken broth

1/4 cup rice vinegar

3 TBSP soy sauce

1 TSBP fish sauce

1/4 cup peanut butter*

1 TBSP ginger, grated*

1 clove garlic, minced*

1 1/2 cup broccoli floret*

1 cup sliced mushrooms*

1 cup carrots, sliced*

1/2 onion, sliced*

 

Garnish

Cilantro

1 TBSP sesame seeds

*WIC

Directions:
1. Label the bag as Thai Peanut Butter Noodles. Underneath, write the cooking instructions:

 

Defrost overnight

Add 2 cups chicken broth

Add spaghetti, rinsed in cold water (uncooked)

Bring to boil, boil for 10 mins

(if pasta is still too al dente, add 1/4 cup water or broth and boil for extra 3-5 mins)

Garnish

 

2. In the zip lock bag, combine everthing except the spaghetti, broth and garnish

3. Close the bag, trying to squeeze out as much air as possible.

4. Freeze flat.

To cook:
1. Defrost overnight
2. Add the contents of the bag, chicken broth and spaghetti to a pot
3. Boil until pasta is al dente
4. Garnish

Craft Alert! DIY Elephant Mobile

Baby Turtle recently graduated from the bassinet to her crib. We never intended for her to sleep in it until she was a bit older, but she was out growing the bassinet way too fast. I didn't get her a mobile for the crib for that reason. I wanted to be able to find the "perfect" one and buy it. So doing some research, the "perfect" one was crazy expensive! Like $40 to $90+ expensive. So with the help of some Pinterest, I decided to make my own for half the price. I used three pins combined to create my own piece. One for the layout, pattern, and structure. 

 

I didn't get a chance to sit down and knock this project out in a few hours. Baby Turtle wouldn't have it. I ended up fitting this project in between naps and after Baby Turtle went to bed over the span of a week. The only thing I waited for Hubby to be able to watch her for was the parts that involved the hot glue gun. I didn't want to risk a) accidently leaving it on if she were to have woken up b) get halfway though a hoop and have her wake up c) hot glue and babies don't mix! I think if I were to total all the time I spent, it would be about 8-10 hours. Maybe? I stopped and started a lot since Baby Turtle doesn't have a real set nap schedule yet. Naps last anywhere from 15 mins to 3 hours, depending on her mood.

 

This DIY project is fairly low cost compared to the customizable ones you find on Etsy. I pictured the materials I purchased (all for about $13) and the non-pictured items I list are things I had at home.

 

Materials:

 

2 Embroidery Hoops. I used a 12" and a 7". You will only need the solid wood part, not the part with the hardware on it. (Keep it though! I plan on testing out another DIY with that part so money and materials aren't wasted)

Embroidery Floss, use colors that coordinate with the felt. I got pink, grey and cream.

1/3 yard each of pink, grey and white felt. (I got mine at Jo-Ann)
*If you can, get felt sheets instead. I learned that 1/3 yd of felt was just excessive and I only used about 1/8 of each sheet*

Matching Yarn (I used pink) and white thread

(Optional) elephant hole punch, I borrowed this from a friend

 You will also need the following:
Cardstock
Sharpie
Tape
Hot glue gun & sticks
Large needle
(optional) Stuffing
(optional) grey cardstock

Directions:

-part one-
1. Make your stencils. I free-handed my shapes, cut them out and taped the flap closed. You'll need the elephant shape, ears, and clouds.

you can tell I was quite indecisive about my shape :)

To save paper and get a good proportion for the ears, I used the elephant cut out as the stencil

Ta-Da!

I decided to make 3 different cloud shapes to add some dimension to the overall look 

2. Trace out your shapes onto the felt and cut them out. You will need 6 pink elephants, 10 pink hearts, 6 grey elephants, 10 grey hearts, and 20 clouds (make sure you have an even number of shapes if you use multiple ones). Also make sure that you trace an even number on each side of the stencil, so you don't see the marker on one side.



Note how I traced elephants and hearts facing one way and vice versa?

 

This was the moment that I realized 1/3 yd felt was WAY too much. This took up *maybe* 1/8 of the whole strip of fabric.  

Even though I had made 3 different clouds in my stencil, I decided that the two larger ones would look better than all three. Get creative!

3. Sew the hearts onto the elephants using the embroidery floss that is the color of the elephant. I alternated the colors (grey elephant with pink heart, pink elephant with grey heart). Make sure that for every two pieces of elephant, you sew the heart on the opposite side. (they will eventually get sewn together and you want the hearts facing outwards.) Use the same colored thread to make the eyes. I made a simple X, but you can be as creative or non-creative as you want :)

 

I used scissors to stuff my ears. Totally optional, but I think it adds more dimension to the overall piece.

Close up of the finishing stiches

 

This is what the back side of one side of the elephant looks like.

4. Sew the elephants together. I had leftover stuffing from a pillow I made, so I used it to give my elephants some dimension. I laid some stuffing inside before starting to sew. At the end, before I closed it up, I checked the stuffing and added as needed.

 

Finished elephant nose on

Finished elephant side view

 

5. Sew the hearts together using the same colored embroidery floss. Stuffing is optional.

6. Sew the clouds together using the cream embroidery floss. Stuffing is optional.

7. Now you should have 3 pink elephants, 3 grey elephants, 2 pink hearts, 2 grey hearts and 10 clouds. Set these aside.

-part two-
1. Take the embroidery hoops and separate the pieces. You only need the solid wood pieces.

2. Carefully put some hot glue on the inner rim and start wrapping the yarn around. Take your time, wrapping the yard very tightly. Also be careful, the hot glue is, well, hot. :)

3. Wrap both hoops in yarn.

-part three (optional)-
1. Cut out lots of elephant shapes using grey paper. I would use pink and grey, but the hoops are already pink. I didn't want it to be overkill on the pink. I just cut as many as I could on one 8"x11" piece of grey paper. I punched around the entire border of the paper, cut the outlines out and continued on until there was no more paper.

I hope this shows what I mean in the instructions :)

Elephants!!


-part four-
1. String some thread through the felt shapes. Tie knots at the top and bottom of each shape to keep them in place. Be as creative as you want with where you want the shapes to be :)

2. Tie them onto the hoop. You can get a ruler and measure it, but I just eye-balled it with no problems. I put the elephants on the larger ring and the hearts on the smaller ring.

3. I used some yarn and tied the two hoops together, keeping the smaller hoop slight lower.

 

4. Use more yarn to tie on the larger hoop to use as the hanger.

I took 4 equal pieces and tied them all together in a knot on top

5. If you did part three, use a small dab of glue and place them on the hoops.

6. ALL DONE! Hang and enjoy!

The Finished Product!

The Finished Product!

this is what baby turtle will see lol. should've made them more 3-D



WIC Wednesday #5: Split Pea Soup (Freezer Friendly!)

Hubby has been bugging me to make split pea soup. I've personally never had it, but he claims its the best thing ever. So I decided to be nice and search for a good recipe. This Split Pea Soup Recipe by Five Heart Home looked really easy and simple to make. Something I did differently from the recipe that I think helped with the "freezer shelf life" of this recipe is prepare the potatoes. Trial And Error Homemaking had this amazingly potato prep tutorial that kept the potatoes looking nice and white. This recipe became Hubby approved, and he's already requested I make this during the Christmas season when his family comes to visit.

Ingredients:

16oz dried split peas, rinsed and drained*

2 cups diced ham

2 cups diced potatoes

2 cups diced carrots*

2 TBSP minced garlic*

8 cups chicken broth

1-2 bay leaves

2 TBSP dried parsley

*WIC

Directions:
1. Label the bag as split pea soup. Underneath, write the cooking instructions: 

 

Add dried peas (you can make a note to rinse and drain them if you'll forget otherwise)

Add 8 cups chicken broth

Combine all

low 8-10hrs, high 4-5hrs.

2. Prep the potatoes. I just threw mine in boiling water for 5 minutes and stuck them in the freezer to cool off faster. Try to leave them in the freezer for at least 30-45 minutes, or until cool to touch.

3.  In the zip lock bag, put in the ham, potatoes, carrots, garlic, bay leaves and parsley.
4. Close the bag, trying to squeeze out as much air as possible.
5. Freeze flat. 

To cook:
1. Put in crockpot and follow instructions. Defrosting is not necessary :)

 

 

WIC Wednesday #4: Chicken Broccoli Alfredo (Freezer Friendly!)

Pasta is always an easy fall back plan when we don't feel like cooking. However, cooking pasta sauce in the crock pot brings easy cooking to a whole new level! Thank you to marking our marx for finding this easy chicken broccoli alfredo recipe!

Ingredients:
1 bag 16oz frozen broccoli
1 large green bell pepper, cut into large chunks
2 16 oz jars Alfredo sauce

Directions:
1. Label the bag as chicken broccoli alfredo. Underneath, write the cooking instructions: low 4-6hrs.
2.  Mix all ingredients together in freezer gallon zip-lock bag
3. Close the bag, trying to squeeze out as much air as possible.
4. Freeze flat.

 

To cook:
1. Defrost in fridge the night before. (this is so there isn't a giant clump, this step can easily be skipped if you forgot)
2. Put in crock pot and heat on low for 4hrs, or until the chicken is cooked.
3. Cook pasta of your choice 30 mins before serving and enjoy!

 

Wic Wednesdays #3: Teriyaki Chicken (Freezer Friendly!)

This teriyaki chicken recipe is super easy to prep and even easier to cook! I got this recipe from Kojo Designs but I altered the recipe a little. Her teriyaki chicken only calls for broccoli and I added green peppers to the mix. I also reduced it down to 3 chicken breast because our grocery stores sell them in groups of 3 not 4. Be careful when you place in the freezer that you don't place anything too heavy on top or it will puncture the foil. That's why I used two pieces of foil.

 

Ingredients:

3 Chicken Breast
1 green pepper, chopped*
1 head broccoli, chopped*
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup water
2 tsp ground ginger
2 tsp garlic, minced
1 foil pan
foil

Directions:
1. Lay chicken breast, bell peppers and broccoli on the pan
2. Mix the honey, soy sauce, water, ground ginger and garlic together.
3. Pour mixture over ingredients in pan.
4. Cut 2 pieces of foil out to fit over the pan. On one of them, in the center, write: Bake at 350* F for 20-30 minutes covered. Uncover and bake for 20-30 more minutes.**

To cook:
1. Defrost in the fridge the night before.
2. Bake as directed. Cut into the chicken before serving to make sure it's thoroughly cooked. Pink is bad!

Some things I would do differently:
**This recipe was a half success. The chicken was cooked amazingly. But I had to bake it for an extra 30 mins uncovered. SO, I would change the instructions to uncover & bake for 1 hr.
Another thing I would do is not use the same veggies. The green bell pepper turned out to be really bitter/sour and the broccoli kinda just soaked in all that taste. So the chicken was amazing, but the veggies...not so much. I would steam them on the side or put them in fresh the day of. I think freezing them like that did a number to the poor things.

WIC Wednesdays #2: Pineapple Chicken (Freezer Friendly!)

So this recipe has a funny story to it. I was testing out and prepping some freezer friendly recipes for the crock pot and used the wrong meat. It was supposed to be pineapple PORK and I threw the CHICKEN instead. Luckily, this is one of those mix ups that ended up being amazingly delicious. Like using nutella on toast instead of peanut butter. (not that I eat peanut butter, but I feel like it would be way better to eat nutella lol) This recipe is inspired by Kojo Design's Pineapple Pork

Ingredients:
3 Chicken Breast, cubed
3/4 cup apple juice*
2 red bell peppers, chopped*
1/2 onion, chopped*
3 Tbsp cornstarch
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 freezer gallon zip-lock bag
*WIC

Directions:
1. Label the bag as pineapple chicken. Underneath, write the cooking instructions: High 4-6hrs or Low 7-9hrs.
2.  Mix all ingredients together in freezer gallon zip-lock bag
3. Close the bag, trying to squeeze out as much air as possible.
4. Freeze flat.

To cook:
1. Defrost in fridge the night before. (this is so there isn't a giant clump, this step can easily be skipped if you forgot)
2. Put in crock pot and heat for either high for 4hrs or low for 7hrs, or until the chicken is cooked. (My bag says otherwise, but that dried out the chicken and made it stringy. I forgot these times were for pork. I plea the mommy scatterbrain!)

 

WIC Wednesday #1: Introduction

WIC is a government program that promotes a healthy eating lifestyle by providing nutritious foods, information on healthy eating, and breastfeeding/infant formula advice to low income mothers (pregnant, postpartum and breastfeeding), infants and children (up to age 5). That's where the name comes from: Women Infant Children. Depending on the state, the food you get can differ slightly. To qualify for this program, you need to make below a certain income. To find out if your family qualifies, please check on the WIC website.

Living in Arizona, this is currently what we get each month, divided into 4 checks:

36 oz of cereal (About 2 boxes)
1 lb dry beans or 64 oz canned beans
3 lb cheese
2 dozen eggs
30 oz canned tuna or salmon
2 64oz containers of juice or 3 12oz frozen juice
9 half gallons of soymilk (you can opt to get cow milk as well)
16 oz grains (bread, brown rice or tortilla)
18 oz peanut butter
$10 worth of any combination of fruits or veggies (fresh or frozen)

Trying to save money and eat healthy, this program has really helped our family out. I found that while looking for recipes, it's really hard to find a gathered place that has delicious recipes that you can make using WIC items. Hence, I have decided to start WIC Wednesdays. Every Wednesday, I'll post a tried and approved recipe that I made. These recipes will not be entirely based on WIC food products only. That's not the point of the program. These recipes will be based of how using WIC food can be used in creative ways to make healthy eating fun and delicious.

Directory:
Pineapple Chicken (Freezer Friendly)

Toy Review! Infantino Grow-with-me Activity Gym and Ball Pit

We recently received the Infantino Grow-with-me Activity Gym and Ball Pit as a gift from one of Hubby's uncles. Might I say, coolest toy ever!

picture from Amazon.com

Baby Turtle is 2.5 months old. She fits across the diameter of the play mat perfectly right now. She absolutely loves the hanging sea creatures, especially the red crab and orange fish. We even do tummy time on this mat and she loves to look at the colorful animals printed. Every single time she's played with it so far has resulted in her sleeping out of exhaustion! A guaranteed hour of nap time, leaving me time to run around the house doing chores or relax.

I like this activity mat because of how colorful and full of patterns it is. Baby Turtle is never bored playing with it. There's always a new pattern to look at. Even the animals have different features. The crab has a baby mirror on one side and a tummy pattern on the other. The orange fish has crinkly fins and a textured loop beneath it. The purple octopus doubles as a rattle and has colorful ribbon tentacles. Lastly, the starfish is made of a crinkly material and has a hanging blue plastic star.

I try and rotate the animals so that she's not looking at the same one all the time. She loves grabbing the starfish toy. I wish there was another toy that had a dangling piece for her to grab, so I could put them on both sides of her.

Overall, this play mat is a great toy to have. At this stage (laying down and tummy time) there is plenty for Baby Turtle to look at. I will definitely have to add an update once she can sit and use the ball pit!

Passed out Baby Turtle

Passed out Baby Turtle and Hubby

Book Review! Parent Love Letters

While baby turtle was still baking, hubby and I found these two books at Sam's Club that looked really cute: Love From My Heart To A Precious Little Girl and You're My Little Love Bug! by Heidi R. Werner. The ones we bought are just board books and don't have the music box attached to them.

There are quite a few things that I like about these books.The artwork is really colorful. Right now, baby turtle is 10 weeks old and is starting to notice colors a lot more. When I read this book to her, she loves looking at the pictures. Sometimes I have to wait a pretty minute for her to finish looking at a page! The text is also really simple to read aloud. I can see myself ready this over and over to her as she grows older without getting too tired. (confession: I already know almost half the words already!)

The content is simple and emphasizes a parent's love for their child. Both books end with a tidbit with how your child is a blessing from God. Love from My Heart is about how complete your little girl makes your life. My favorite lines are: "If you weren't my little girl, there'd be a big hole in my heart! A piece would be gone! I just couldn't go on! My heart would be searching for YOU!". (There's also a Love From My Heart book for little boys. If baby turtle 2.0 is a boy, we will definitely get that!!) You're My Little Love Bug! is just a cute book with different ways to give someone a loving pet name. My favorite lines are "You're my ice cream sandwich, my watermelon gum. My soda pop, my lollipop, my yummy yummy yum!". (note: I added commas and periods to show where I would pause and stop if reading this out loud.)

All in all, I highly recommend these two books!

Baby Turtle's Room Tour!

**NOTE: This was written before I had baby turtle. I have since then edited the room to function for us, which should be upcoming in a post at some point. Time is pretty valuable right now, story of a new mom's life**

Welcome to Baby Turtle's Room! It took me about 6 weeks to actually get it to this point. Thank goodness for nesting lol. I blame any time delays on bladder breaks and munchies breaks! My idea for this room was pink and grey chevrons with elephants. HOWEVER: I did not realize that baby stuff is ~expensive~. So my next resort was to buys bits and pieces and hope they all match ;)


View from the door

I have a toy box that I want to put under the window but it needs some major TLC. I want to paint it a solid white and somehow get baby turtle's name on the top. But this will be a post-partum project. Just like the baby furniture. I wanted to paint the baby furniture white with pink accents. Like on the bars of the crib, top of the changing table and insides of the drawers of the changing table. But being 8 months preggo at the time I decided this, I knew it wasn't going to happen. And Hubs works all day. Sad face.

Left Wall

This is the action wall. Fashion, diapers and hampers. All in one central location. The main reason the big gorilla box is there is to act as a stand for the diaper champ and hamper. I bought the diaper champ off of someone and didn't realize how short it was. (It maybe hits my hips on the ground. No one has time to wrestle a baby and dirty diaper at the same time!) And the hamper is from Target's Dollar Spot. I figured, with as little as baby clothing is, this could easily accommodate baby turtle's laundry. *fingers crossed for preggo logic working*

Mini Station #1: Small trashcan, Diaper Champ, Hamper all on
top of a gorilla box full of stuffed animals. (Confession: they're
all my stuffed animals that I'm "giving" to baby turtle. Here's to
hoping she wont destroy all of them lol)

I made both the bow holder and headband holder long before I even contemplated making this blog. But in all seriousness, it took me like 5 minutes to make the bow holder and 10 minutes to make the headband holder, only because I had to  individually glue on the clothespins! If life allows me, I'll recreate these projects and post about them :)

The wall of hair~! Most of the headbands were a gift at our baby
shower. The bows were purchased from Hold The Confetti and
the flower clips are from Miss Maddies Closet. The other random
ones are *confession* mine that I've passed to Baby Turtle.

We didn't buy too many NB sized clothes. Figuring that newborns grow up in a blink of an eye, more of the purchasing focus has been on 3+ month sized clothing. This drawer pretty much contains all of her NB clothes, minus the few that are in her diaper baskets in the living room, our bedroom, and hospital/diaper bag. And we're in Arizona. The chances of her needing to go outside and actually wear clothes are very limited. Like doctor visits and possible a visit to work to show off her cuteness once. If I don't want to be in the heat, I'm pretty sure she won't want to be either!

Drawer #1: Clothes!

Drawer #2: Accessories? The left side contains baby leggings.
There are always coupons/promos going on that site! That's why
I have so many!The right side mainly has burp cloths and bibs.
I stuffed her hats there too  

Drawer #3: Blankets!

Hubs and I are going to try our hand at cloth diapering. Since newborns are so small but grow so quickly, we got mainly prefolds and covers to last her. I got my covers and prefolds at Kelly's Closet. They are always having some sort of coupon/promo that makes it even harder NOT to buy cloth diapers! I also bought a couple of NB pockets, mainly because the store I stumbled upon was having a closing shop sale. $7 for a NB pocket diaper with insert? Heck yes! Her diaper baskets in the living room and our room look pretty much like this but about half the size plus a few outfits for the inevitable spit up.

Drawer #4: Diapers! These are some of her prefolds, covers,
NB sized pockets and fitteds. And the random Snappi that's just
chilling on top of it all.

We also plan on using cloth wipes, but not until we finish all the Honest Company wipes that I had already bought and the Huggies wipes that we got at our baby shower. Why waste them?

Drawer #5: Wipes! We got these wipes at our baby shower :)

My "First Aide Station" has all of my aiding needs. Medicine dispensers, 4-in-1thermometer, nose sucker, etc. It also has my extra baby supplies at the bottom. I stuck all the things I plan on using on top for easy access. My fluff stash (aka diaper stash) is relatively small compared to most. The top two shelves are diapers. The top is for non-pocket diaper types (A1O, A12, fitteds) and the bulk of the stash is pocket diapers. I bought most of mine off of Zulily whenever they would have cloth diaper sales. The third shelf has extra inserts that I've bought or been given. Don't mind the little egg shaped thing that's just chilling there. It's a dehumidifier, to suck out moisture around the inserts so they don't get all mildew-ey or moldy. And funny enough, right below that is an actual humidifier.

(Right)The First Aide Station: A lot of it is
comprised of Honest Company products.
(Left) The Fluff Stash! This will need it's own
post lol. So much fluff!

Her crib. We don't plan on letting her sleep in the crib overnight for a while, but it's all set up and ready to go. For the meantime, I stuck her extra stuffed animals in there to fill the empty void.

Her crib corner :)

Close Up of the Art Work from Sweet Melody Designs
I had to get this set from her! The picture in the top left corner
was the inspiration for the whole theme of the room:
Pink, Grey, and Elephants <3



Close Up of the Art Work from Around the Block AZ
I had this customized with the pink and grey chevrons in the
background. I love this quote!
 

Some special stuffed animals. The large elephant, Hubert, was a
gift from my dad when I left for the Air Force. The teddy bear
was the first plushie Hubs won me when we were dating,
affectionately named Teddy Bear lol. The big turtle is baby
turtle's first gift from her uncle in NC. The little turtle
and the yellow spotted dog are a gift from her grandma in NC.

Her closet is more so a place of storage.


Baby turtle's closet! Most of it's stuff that
she'll be too small for or mommy tools :)

Her book collection!