Meet the Shaneyfelts

Archives for January 2024

Banks is ONE!!!!

It is hard to even believe that Banks is turning ONE today! I feel like it was just the other day that we were flying home from Dallas so excited to introduce Banks to his big brother, Harrison. (If you want to read our story, click here!)

Banks brings so much joy to our family. He is the happiest baby who is also happiest when he’s on the move. He loves eating, putting all of his toys in his mouth, closing any open door, dancing (his dancing moves right now are clapping and moving his arms), playing with his big brother, playing with his stuffed puppy Jellycat, and eating (did I say eating already?! LOL).

His favorite word to say right now is Momma (which makes my heart swell), but he also says Dada, bubba, uh oh, bye bye, night night, and Babs (my mom). And you better watch out if you answer a phone call around Banks or Facetime someone because Banks thinks it’s his turn to talk and he will babble loudly.

Banks, I love you more than anything and am beyond grateful to the Lord that He saw fit to make me your Momma. I don’t take that role lightly. I hope you know how much you were prayed for and loved before you were even born. Your Momma loves you Banksie Boo!

Friday Favorites!

Happy Friday! Looking back at last week’s post, we were out of school for bad weather (it ended up just raining with some strong wind gusts) and then we haven’t gone back to school since! We were supposed to get 3-5″ of snow on Monday and instead, we got ICE……THE WORST!!! And we’ve had such low temps that it’s quite literally stuck around all week long. So now looking to start fresh on Monday at school…..hopefully ha!

See all of that beautiful white that looks like it might be snow? Nope! Thick ice that covered EVERYTHING. Snow is great….ice is not.

Now, onto my list of FAVORITES!!

ONE

I’m not going to get into all of the details until we get some further testing done, but I’m thinking Banks has an allergy to dairy and not just milk protein. Until we get testing done, I’ve cut out as much diary from his diet as I can (and wow, is it in everything). I found these yogurt pouches at Kroger and bought a few for him to try. He loved it! There are two other flavors–wild berry and mango–and so far these are the yogurts that Banks is eating for breakfast with his eggs.

TWO

I shared a podcast last week from The Doctor’s Farmacy, and this week, I highly suggest listening to this Just Ingredients podcast episode with Dr. Josh Redd about how inflammatory foods are affecting your child’s brain. There are some inflammatory foods they talk about that I already knew about and don’t keep at our house (like food dyes) but the most interesting part to me was the section on gluten and how it’s affecting our kids. Just like my own journey with gluten and my reasons for going gluten free (although now I’m finding that my reactions to eating gluten are getting worse), Dr. Redd says that he’s seen lots of kids at his clinic diagnosed with ADHD go gluten free and completely reverse their previous behaviors AND get off of their medicine. This is so fascinating to me. He also talks about why so many people have issues with gluten now versus 30 years ago.

THREE

This is a picture of our week…..staying in pjs and playing (or not pictured: lots of tv watching). While it’s never fun to be stuck at home against your will, I’m thankful for the time off of school and time just to be at home with the boys (Dustin when he’s not at work) and for very sloooooow days!

FOUR

If you need a good movie to watch, I highly recommend The Covenant on Prime Video! Dustin and I watched it one night earlier this week and we both stayed awake the entire time….that’s saying a lot right now haha! It was such a good movie–great storyline and great acting. I even looked to see if it was based on a true story because it was that good! (It’s not….more of a compilation of different true stories put together….the text shown at the end explains it.). Seriously such a great movie!

FIVE

I’ve got this sweater in my Amazon cart right now because I think that it will be perfect for these last two months of pregnancy, but it will also be great to wear when not pregnant. It comes in lots of colors, but this color combo is my favorite.

That’s it for today! Banks’s first birthday party was scheduled for tomorrow, but I’ve had to move it to Sunday afternoon because of ice still on the roads. Now I just have to scramble to get everything together!

2024 Goals + a Look Back at 2023 Goals

Happy COLD Tuesday, friends! It’s currently 11 degrees outside right now, but instead of a beautiful snow day….we’re dealing with ice…yuck. I told Dustin this reminded me of what happened to us almost a year ago with Banks when we were stuck in Dallas a few extra days because of their crazy ice storm.

Anyway, today I wanted to revisit my 2023 goals (which I actually did complete some!) and make new goals for this year.

2023 Goals

1. Finish BBG 1.0

I actually made it to week 10 out of 12 and then I got sick and had to take a couple of days off. I realized how much I did NOT enjoy BBG, so I decided not to go back and finish it once I was over my sickness. I sweat a ton when I do a heavy workout, which requires a hair washing, and I was tired of doing that 3x a week at least. I didn’t quit working out but just moved onto something different!

2. Swap to a clean deodorant and body lotion.

Shortly after this post, I reached out on social media about clean body lotion since that’s a topic I never hear people talk about. So many people recommended Beautycounter’s body lotion. They just so happen to be having a huge sale on their lotion, so I bought a bottle (I think it was on sale for $10 from $28). It came in the mail and was SO MUCH SMALLER THAN I EXPECTED. For a bottle that’s typically $28, it was insane. I ended up using the entire bottle and really really liked it, but I could not justify the price for lotion that I would be using frequently and a lot of.

As for deodorant, I kept putting it off and then just never tried one last year. I think the stories of detox and what that was like just kept me from pursuing it. I especially didn’t want to deal with it with a new baby, either.

3. Get rid of plastic food containers and move to all glass.

YES!!! I can happily say we did this in our home in 2023 and are very happy about it. I have heard on podcasts and read so much about the endocrine disruptors found in plastic containers. We threw all of our plastic away and bought multiple sets of the glass storage containers from Costco. We have enjoyed the glass so much better. The boys even take their breakfast and lunch leftovers in the glass containers and we’ve never had a complaint.

4. Eat gluten free more often.

LOLOLOLOL. This one makes me laugh because I started cutting out gluten as soon as school was out last May, but I would still have one thing a day that had gluten in it. I totally cut it out mid-June after having a cycle that I felt like about killed me, and well, we all know how that ended. Because of that, I’m a huge advocate for the harmful affects food can have on your body….but also the positive affects! Gluten is extremely inflammatory (I just listened to another podcast on it that I’m going to share on Friday), and there are so many health issues you may have that going gluten free might clear up.

5. Mail 3 notes a month

I did this for January, but then we left for Dallas to meet Banks and bring him home and I just ran out of steam. A new baby will do that to you 🙂

Okay, now onto my very realistic 2024 goals….

2024 Goals

1. Have a baby.

Merritt is due in March, and so my goal is to literally just have a baby. While I prefer a vaginal birth, I will do whatever it takes to get her here safely. Dustin and I have laughed this entire pregnancy that we know what to do once we have a newborn, but it’s the whole getting to that newborn part that we’re clueless on LOL since we’ve never done that part before!

2. Work out again.

I cannot wait to do some sort of physical activity again. I know I could be working out right now, but the fatigue is real….especially now that I’m also taking iron because I’m anemic. Where I would usually head to the gym after Dustin gets home from work, now I’m struggling to keep my eyes open. I’m giving myself lots of grace right now and will resume working out when I can.

3. Find a natural deodorant to start using.

I’m keeping this on here because I really do what to make the swap, so maybe this summer I can finally do that. I know I want to try Primally Pure first before I try anything else.

4. Read 15 books this year.

I started actually keeping up with my Goodreads account last January when I saw everyone start posting their 2022 year in review with reading. I set my goal low (12 books) because we were in the adoption process and I was very hopeful we would be adopting a baby in 2023. I didn’t realize I would read more books at home on my maternity leave with Banks than I did the rest of the year haha!!! So I’ve upped it this year to 15 in hopes that I can exceed that like I did last year’s goal! I’m already done with 1 book….just 14 more to go!

5. Try making sourdough bread.

This one I’m not holding myself to, but it’s something I really want to try out maybe this summer when I have a little more flexibility in my schedule. I know people started making sourdough in 2020 when everyone was forced home from the pandemic, but I’ve read how homemade sourdough is better for people with gluten intolerances because of the way it’s made? Anyway, there’s even a particular flour I want to order and try it with simply because it’s so much lower in gluten.

Okay, I think that’s it! I’m keeping this year easy and realistic and even making that last goal a maybe :). If you make goals for yourself for the year, I’d like to hear what those are!