Alva Baby Cloth Diaper Review

Today, I am doing a review of our Alva Baby Cloth diapers- and although I may receive some free merchandise for doing this review... all thoughts and opinions are my own :) 

Alva Baby offers a variety of cloth diapers. The diapers I tried fall into the category of a "pocket diaper" meaning you stuff an insert (or two) in the back pocket of the diaper.

I admit, I was skeptical at first. Alva Baby cloth diapers are only about $6 each (that's $15+ cheaper than any other cloth diaper I have ever purchased). I was worried that they would leak or give my babies rashes. However, I have been pleasantly surprised! We have not encountered any leaks or rashes with our Alvas. Plus, they are super cute!

My favorite thing about Alva Baby cloth diapers (besides the price) is how trim fitting they are! Here is a picture comparison between Alva and a different brand of cloth diapers. Each cloth diaper pictured has one insert in. Alva baby is the blue diaper, the green is the other brand.

The Alvas, also adjust bigger and smaller than my other brand- with the adjustable size snapping. 

They fit babies from 8-35 pounds.

Here are the diapers adjusted on their largest setting. Again, Alva is the blue diaper. 

...and here are the diapers on their smallest settings. The leg holes on the Alva's get smaller too, for those tiny newborn legs.

We are currently using ours on the medium snap rise, and I love the fit!

They look so comfy! I want this to be as honest as a review as possible, and the only Con I can think of is that the fabric isn't as luxurious as our others- but if your baby is just going to poop in it, I guess that doesn't matter- plus for the price I really can't complain. Cloth diapers totally count as pants in our house. I love snuggling and watching them crawl around in them.

Another product of Alva Baby that I have been trying out are their diaper liners. You place one on top of the diaper. When your baby poops you simply hold it over the toilet and the liner (and all the poo) falls into the toilet, and you flush! Then, you simply throw the diaper in the washer. You guys, it's SO easy and not messy! If you cloth diaper, you need to be using these. You will thank me.

Say what?! Cloth diapering is easy!

Another thing I love about our Alva's is that the material makes it easy to stuff with inserts. 

Overall, we LOVE our Alva Baby cloth diapers and would definitely recommend them! You can find them here: http://www.alvababy.com

Comment below if you liked this post, or have any questions, and I would be happy to answer them!

10 month old Twins and Mount Olympus

The twins are 10 months old- we're getting close to a year! Lyla is still bigger than Ryan, although I feel like he is catching up quickly! Both are pulling themselves up to standing, but won't take any steps- even if we hold their hands. Both say "mama, dada, and baba -but not on demand. Still no teeth!

The hike up to where we took these rocky pictures was steep. (but no where near mount Olympus which I'll talk about later) it was just hard carrying the twins up!

I love Ryan's face in this one:

Kyler had his first sleep over at our house last week- His little cousins- they were so cute together!

He also had his first dentist appointment today, and did so good!

The twins met my granny and grandpa Schramm for the first time last week:

I love that we live close to so much family now! We also hung out with Meredith at T-point:

Kyler, Lyla, and Jared all got hit with a stomach bug a few weeks ago, it was so sad! but I loved the extra Lyla snuggles:

What pre-General Conference with kids looks like:

Jared and I are always having competitions with the twins. Who can change the diaper the fastest, who's twin can drink a bottle the fastest- You name it! In church we play who can get their baby to fall asleep the fastest:

I was curious what the twins would do if we put them in the same crib again. They mostly played. Then fell asleep probably 15 minutes later than normal. I kept going in to take pictures of them, because they kept moving around and they always looked so cute!

These were my favorite 2. Lyla snuggling with Ryan's leg:

and then they just looked like twins here: hah

Halloween jammies:

 We've been going to the gym every week day for a month now! It feels good to be back in a routine. I left my headphones in the car one time and when I was walking back in the building, 4 little eyes were staring at me- I just thought it was funny.

Speaking of working out. We hiked Mount Olympus last Saturday, and I was nowhere near prepared for it- but somehow made it up! Jared had been wanting to hike it for a while...because he stares at it out of his office building window:

So me, Jared, my bro in-law and my niece decided to do it- spur of the moment. I think it took us about 7 hours round trip. It was intense!

 Almost to the top:

 ...I was sore for dayssss after the hike, but it was worth it!

The last 20 minutes of the hike were crazy! You have to scramble up these huge boulders:

Standing on a cliff: 9,500+ feet

Such a beautiful sunset on the way down!

Utah so far, and switching to formula

Utah has been great so far! It is definitely a change of scenery, but I like it! I thought I would miss all of the NC greenery and trees everywhere, but I kind of don't. Don't get me wrong, NC is beautiful! ...but this is a nice change. I love being able to see the big open sky and these gorgeous sunsets every day beat those Charlotte ones hands down every time... the mountains are beautiful too- everyday they look different depending on the weather. Some days they look blue, others they are crystal clear or super foggy, sometimes they're in the clouds, and other times the sun just shines on them differently and they sparkle--- okay now I sound like a weirdo.

Okay, you get the point. They always look different!

 We've been hanging out with old friends that I haven't seen in years, and have been discovering tons of cool new parks! I still get homesick for Charlotte, my old friends, and my parents, but the longer we live here, the more Utah is starting to feel like home :)

We found a nice park we can walk to from our house, and we go there several times a week! Sometimes to tire the kids out before bed, and other days we'll go first thing in the morning and eat breakfast at the park. Kyler is really big into "picnics" these days.

It's been nice living close to so much family, I met Jared's Aunt Linda for the first time, and she gifted the twins with these blankets/bears

Kyler loves having so many cousins to play with, and we always have nieces/nephews that want to hold the babies:

We've been on several date nights, thanks to our older nieces for babysitting. Last week we went to the temple!

We also got to see our niece, Rachel, get baptized! How cute is that grin?! 

The twins are 9.5 months old, and we just completely switched to formula! Breastfeeding them was wonderful- I miss our quiet bonding time-just us three snuggled all close together, but I was ready to be done, and they were ready to be done too! Every time I would nurse them they seemed uninterested and kept trying to roll off the pillow and crawl away to go play. They love their bottles now, and we are all happy. It's so nice not having to plan our outings around when they need to nurse- I just bring bottles!

...but I don't ever want to forget the way Lyla used to fall asleep with her hand like this while nursing:

Or the way Ryan's eyes used to roll back in his head like nursing was the best thing in the world. I never took a picture of that, but I also always want to remember how he loved to fall asleep with his face pressed up to skin:

Lyla falls asleep while playing with her hands, and we used to find her sleeping like this all the time:

and while I'm posting old pictures, (I've come to realize that pictures just get lost and disappear forever unless I put them here on my blog) so I'm going to post an old picture of some baby booties. (sorry jared) "Now they can never become president" like you always say when I post baby bum pics :p

Look how tiny!

...and here was last weeks...

Speaking of baby booties, My mom's friend from Chile made these little booties for the twins:

I was feeding the twins breakfast last week, when I decided to pull out the fancy camera and snap a few pictures of them... I was rushing the morning routine so we could make it to an appointment on time, but then I just couldn't help but pause and soak up how little and cute they still are....so we had a mini photo shoot- and I still made it to my appointment on time. BAM. They're actually eating in all of these pictures- that's how I got them to hold so still ;p I literally picked them up out of their highchairs and put them on this blanket. They have been eating in just diapers lately because they get so messy! Lyla was already holding that airplane she had found prior to breakfast. I do admit that I pulled a cheerio off that was stuck to Ryan's stomach, and threw a headband on Lyla- she usually doesn't eat in those because, again, messy. Other than that, this was spur of the moment haha, and these types of photo shoots are always my favorite!

Kyler was helping by making them smile:

Ryan stuffing food in his mouth haha:

...and then here is a "real life" one- they let me know when they are done with pictures!

...and Ryan sneezing, this one is my fav. Food coming out of Ryan's mouth, and Lyla's face cracks me up:

These are all Charlie Banana Cloth diapers pictured here. Read THAT review HERE. Gosh I love these babies!

...and my BIG baby too ;) who is too cool and refuses to put up with my photo shoots: