Wanna Save Some Money?

A while ago in Relief Society our Preparedness Leader got up and started talking about making your own laundry detergent. I was like, "There is no way I am doing that!" I was only half listening,  grabbed the recipe and shoved it in my bag.
I found it in there a couple of weeks ago and looked at it more thoroughly. I couldn't believe the savings.  I am totally a Tide girl. That is all I ever use, but let's face it, with 2 kiddos I do a ton of laundry, and the huge bottle doesn't last very long. So I decided to put this homemade soap to the test. I bought all the ingredients, made a batch, and did 6 loads with it. I think it works really well. I did a little research and since there is no sudsing agent I can even use it in my front load HE machine. And it is supposed to be great for babies and those with sensitive skin since there are no additives or perfumes.

Here is what you need:

• 20 Mule Team Borax
• Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda
• Felsnaptha Soap  ( I LOVE this stuff and have been using it since Nathan was born. It is wonderful at getting out stains!)
• 5 gallon bucket
• Gamma Lid- you can use a regular lid, but this is way easier to open, and comes in lots of colors!

Here is what I spent:

Mule Team Borax = $2.99 @ Target (runs about $4.99 @ grocery stores) 

• This will make 24 batches.              
•  Price/ Batch $0.12

Super Washing Soda=$3.19 @ Smith's

• This will make 6 batches.              
•  Price/Batch $0.53

Fels-Naptha= $1.59 @ Smith's

• This will make 1 batch.              
• Price/ Batch $1.59

This comes out to $2.24 per batch, with 1 Batch being 5 gallons or 200 loads!

Bucket= $3.88 @ WalMart

Gamma Lid= $5.99 @ WalMart

None of the ingredients were carried at my Walmart, and they didn't have everything at my Target- just the Borax. I know they carry all the ingredients at Smith's, Lin's, and Harmon's. (I have also bought Felsnaptha online before)The lids may be sold at a preparedness store and are sold online if you can't find them near you.

Ok I hope that wasn't overwhelming. Here is how you make the soap.

You will need:

1/2 cup of Borax

1 cup Super Washing Soda

1 Bar of Felsnaptha 

5 gallon Bucket

Grate the Felsnaptha.I just used a regular cheese grater. (Ava thought these were noodles)

In a large saucepan bring 4 cups of water to a boil.

Add the soap a little at a time, stirring constantly until completely dissolved. This stuff almost bubbled over every time I blinked- so keep a good eye on it!

Fill your bucket about 1/3 of the way with hot tap water. Add 1/2 cup of Borax and 1 cup of Washing Soda. Stir well, until dissolved. Add in Felsnaptha mixture, and stir some more. Fill the bucket almost to the top with hot tap water, stir well and cover. LET SIT OVERNIGHT.

This was after all the ingredients were mixed together. I probably should have put more water, but I didn't. It will just be more concentrated this way...

When I went to check on it in the morning the consistency had changed quite a bit and it looked like egg drop  soup(pictured below) and was thick! I gave it a good stir before using it.

Some of ladies using this just pour the mix into old detergent bottles so they can shake them up and pour out the correct amount a little easier. Just use the same amount you usually do, use a cap from one of your old bottles. If you use have an HE machine use the cap from an HE bottle.

Remember there is NO SUDSING agent in this. It was a little difficult for me- I NEED those bubbles. Anyway, I did a load that had some filthy socks of Ava's and they came out so clean, I didn't even pre-treat them!

Now just to compare. The last bottle of Tide I bought was about $14 (Walmart) for 100 fl. oz. which does 64 loads. I had a coupon so let's say it came out to $12 for 64 loads. That equals $0.19 per load. 

The soap I made was $2.24 for 200 loads which equals $0.01 per load! 

This soap was so easy to make. I was intimidated at first, but it was not bad at all. I hope you try it! Let me know if you have any questions or need help! Start enjoying the extra money! Oh and I am still sticking with my Downy or Snuggle softener, if you were wondering....

December

OK, I know I am a horrible blogger. The month of December has been a crazy one!

We started off the month with Maria and Shay having their first baby~ Emery Nielson.  She is such a treat. Seriously, so gorgeous. The kids adore her, and Ava thinks Emery is hers.  We have been able to babysit her, and the kids just sat next to the car seat watching her sleep and begging to hold her the entire time.

I got to take the kids to see the live Nativity out at Tuachan with my Achievement Days girls(Tyler had to work). The kiddos thought it was so fun. It got kind of ruined for me by some losers who were swearing and talking really loud about nasty stuff, then almost picking a fight with the other leader when she asked them to lower their voices.

Ava was refusing to be by Santa.

And since there wasn't enough going on, Ava decided to face plant into the concrete while falling off her little bike. One super loose tooth, another one chipped,a torn frenum, lots of blood and tears, and a trip to the dentist....We  are just so glad she was ok!

Christmas was awesome! This was the first year that Nathan really understood the whole Santa thing. And whatever Nathan loves, Ava loves, so they were just so excited. It was so fun to watch them. We did all our usual traditions- Making and decorating sugar cookies, Mexican food on Christmas Eve followed by reading from the scriptures and watching Mr Kruger.... It was such a fun Christmas. And umm yeah, we only took like 3 still shots, we mostly did video this year.

The kids SURPRISE! They had no idea!

It has been so fun to have Tyler and Nathan home! Tyler gets most of the school holidays off...I have loved having his help!

ps Don't feel left out if you didn't get a Christmas card from us~ I didn't get around to making/sending them out this year(we got our pics back later then I hoped)...hopefully I will get them done next year!

We hope you had a Merry Christmas!

Possible Christmas Card

Kaleidoscope Stars Christmas Card

Shop Shutterfly.com for elegant Christmas photo cards.

View the entire collection of cards.

I saw on on a friend's blog that you can get a $25 credit from Shutterfly just for putting one of these on  your blog! You just create a photocard, and do a post about it, then they add a $25 credit to your account- just for helping spread the word! I am super excited!!! Click HERE for the instructions!

More.

We have so many talented photographer friends and family members, so it was really hard to decide what to do this year. We were in desperate need of some pictures.  We found out that Sammi was going to be in town, and I knew if she had a spot open that we would have to take it. Tyler said OK, and that was that.

Sammi grew up next door to Tyler's family, and has been his sister Maria's best bud FOREVER! She is so amazing, and was so sweet to put up with us....it was super cold and Ava was not happy about the entire situation. We love the touch she gives her pics. I so wish I could take pictures.  I am still waiting to get my copy of all the pictures, but here are some I borrowed from her blog. To see more of her awesome work go HERE

Tease

I am DYING to see the rest, now you can all wait with me...

Halloween!

I feel like I am posting this sooo late!

Our Halloween was really fun and lasted 4 days!

We started it off by painting our pumpkins. We like to paint them so I can cook them down when we are done with them and make yummy treats (pumpkin chocolate chip bread is on the menu for today!Mmmm!)

Nathan's Masterpiece

On Friday Nathan had his school parade. He decided to be a Clone Trooper that day. Ava went up for the parade and ended up staying to help with his class party. The kids had so much fun and ate SO MUCH junk food. I was glad I was there to at least make sure Nathan didn't eat too much (I know, mean Mom).  Nathan thought it was awesome that there was no learning that day, just playing...

Saturday we had our community carnival, and chili/pie cook off.  It was frigid that day. Up where we live the wind comes off the mountain, and it is super cold this time of year. It was supposed to rain but luckily the wind blew it all away. Nathan was a Jedi  this day, and Aunt Lori made his awesome costume for his birthday.  Ava was a fairy. I had so much fun making her tutu, and she loves to twirl in it! Lori is so talented and decided to make Ava a leotard to go with it!

 The kids had a good time at the party but only got a tiny amount of candy. We weren't sure if we were going to take them trick or treating, then I was asking a friend in the ward if the trick or treating was any good up where we are, and she invited us to go with them.  It was probably the best trick or treating I have ever done. They have a huge flatbed trailer, so they loaded it up with folding chairs and blankets and her hubby drove us all over (there were about 20 kids and 7 adults). The houses up here are really spread out, so this is the best way to do it. We were out for 2 hours! It was so much fun to see Nathan running around with his friends and he just looked so big. I got a work out getting in and out of the trailer with Ava, but it was worth it- she had so much fun too. They got TONS of candy, Aunt Melissa made them the cutest Halloween bags, and they were stuffed by the time we were done.  They have pretty much forgotten about the candy, so Tyler and I get to enjoy it once they are in bed! Haha!

I can't believe it is November already! I hope this month goes a little slower then October did!

Student of the Month!

Nathan received a Student of the Month Award for his "Great Learning Attitude" today. When the school called yesterday to invite me to the assembly I was so excited, I am pretty sure I even teared up a little. We didn't tell him anything about it. I got to his school a few minutes before the kids came in. He didn't even notice me there, so it was kind of fun to see how he acted. He is such a treat. Some of the kids were goofing off and being loud, but he just sat there with his arms folded, talking to his friends.

The principal started with the 5th graders and worked his way down through the grades. When he finally got to the Kindergarteners, Nathan's name was the second one to be called, and he was so excited. I went up to him at the end to give him hugs and take some pictures. He was so surprised that Ava and I came, and that we didn't tell him about it.

We are so proud of him! He really does have a great attitude towards learning, and we hope it stays with him.

Happy Birthday Ava!

Today Ava is 2!!! I can't believe it, where does the time go?  She is so full of personality. She is spunky, sweet, and so smart too. She loves to snuggle and tells us a thousand times a day, "I love you so much" and is always giving hugs. Nathan is her best buddy, and it has been hard for her to have him at school half of the day. Whenever it is time to get him she gets so excited. She has also started potty training and it was her own decision, not mine! We are taking it slow, but she has been doing a great job!

Saturday we had a day full of partying! Maria had her baby shower in the morning, and we had Ava's party right after.  It was way more low key then Nathan's party, which was fine, and everything went really well. The weather was beautiful and the rain stayed away long enough for us to do our thing.  Since she is 2 we decided to just have a family party. She loves butterflies, so I made her a cute cake, and all the girls got little wings with their goody bags. She got so many fun gifts and seriously loves everything she got. Thanks everyone!

Today we celebrated by having Daddy and Nathan home with us all day (it is UEA, and Tyler gets most school holidays off!!!), going to McDonald's (Thanks for coming Grammy Carolyn!), having pizza for dinner, her choice of ice cream & cookies, followed by more presents. Here are a few pics from today:

We love you so much Ava! Happy Birthday!

Look How Cute!

Nathan finally got his school pictures back. This is how the conversation went on the way home from the bus:

Nathan: Mommy I have something to show you when we get home.
Me: Ok. Did you get your pictures back yet?
Nathan: Yes, but I think they messed up.
Me:What do you mean they messed up? Did you smile funny? Are the pictures of YOU?
Nathan: I smiled like we practiced, and the pictures are of me but look. There are SO many. (As he pulls out the full sheet of wallet sized pics)

He thought it was so funny that there was a whole page of little pics of him. This isn't exactly how we practiced his smile- we all know he loves to cheese it so we were trying to get him to tone it down a little. I think they turned out so cute. We sure love this kid!

Ava, Miss Ava

I. Am. Tired. 

Ava has been keeping us up. I feel kind of dumb because I recently gave some friends sleeping advice for their babies (they asked). Ava has always been a wonderful sleeper. We would lie her in bed, swaddled, and awake and she would be out in minutes. Then we switched her to the big girl bed. She falls asleep there on her own and WAS sleeping well through the night. She would nap in the playpen, and did great, until about a week ago. I am not sure what happened. Now she won't nap in the playpen- she discovered how to climb out of it. With no nap she is so not nice by 4pm.  7pm rolls around and she can hardly keep her eyes open. She falls asleep instantly after our bed time routine. Sounds good, right? WRONG! She has been waking up multiple times a night on the days she doesn't nap. She won't let us hold her, and wants to go back in her room, and wake Nathan up to turn on the light, at 2, 4, and 6 in the morning. I look like a zombie, and almost fell asleep driving today.

When she naps, she sleeps so much better!  I am going to have to work way harder on getting her to nap, even if it means driving around the block until she falls asleep. That isn't really what I want to do, so we will have to see if I can figure out some other way to get her to nap. Any suggestions? I am really hoping all these sleep issues just have to do with the fact she is getting her 2 year molars.

Not only has she been keeping me up this way, she has also had me worried, thus no sleep.

About a month ago we noticed she was limping. We would watch her walk and see if we could tell which leg was hurting.  It was bothering me, but she wasn't acting like she was in pain. Every time we would get in the car, or the get anywhere she would immediately take off her shoes. Then last week she was walking so weird. She would curl her toes under her foot and run on the outside of her foot. I got really worried. Her one leg was turning way in every time she would walk too. I finally called the doc. 

I videoed her running because I knew she would be nervous at the Doctor's office. We got there and she was poked and prodded, and then he sent us for some x- rays- she was scared to death. He couldn't see anything on the x-rays, but was worried that if she kept favoring it it could cause damage in the future. So he referred us to an Orthopedist. I worried some more, I figured it was either nothing, or something crazy and serious. 

Well the day on Wednesday she started walking more normally (for the first time in weeks). Figures. We went to the Orthopedist yesterday, and he said she looked fine now.  He isn't sure what was going on either, and said to just watch her. He thinks she may have bruised the bone or something.  She is walking even better today. I am so glad that nothing is wrong. Maybe I will be able to sleep better tonight.

Wouldn't you be worried if your cutie started walking like this? (It is her right leg that was acting up)

News...

So a few posts ago I mentioned Tyler got a job. When they gave him the job offer, they didn't say how many hours he would be working, but in previous conversations we thought we understood that it would be full time. Training time came around and then he received the schedule- 9 HOURS A WEEK! Are you kidding me? Yeah, we were super bummed.

Then about a week ago we got an email from Tyler's mom. She had been checking the school district's job board and sent word along about a job as a Purchasing Technician. Tyler applied the day it was set to close. They called him the next afternoon, and wanted him to come interview the next working day. He went to his interview and thought it went really well, they called him the next day and wanted him to come in again. I got a  little discouraged because of some of the questions they had, but they called him shortly after the second interview and offered him the job! He started the very next day, and is still able to do his tutoring job in the evenings.

We are so excited, and feel so blessed. We have been on the hunt for almost a year, and got turned down for being over qualified, and lame reasons like that. These district jobs are really hard to come by because they have such awesome benefits and stuff, so I joke with Tyler that he is never allowed to quit!

He has been working for about a week there, and today is his last day with the trainer. Once he knows what exactly he will be doing, I will have him post about it.

Nasty...

Yesterday I went to take my parent's dog out. I had flip flops on, the dog (on a leash) in one hand, and was hold Ava (who was barefoot), in my arms. The dog goes nuts when we take him out, and loves chasing lizards and other things. As we are walking back to the house Ava starts giggling and saying "Look, Lizard!" pointing towards the garden gate. And the dog is pulling me so hard to go over and eat it.  I look over and it is not a lizard, but is a HUGE scorpion! I have never seen one this big. I pick up some big rocks and chuck them at the thing. I hit it a few times but it just wasn't dying. Then it runs right in front of us and hides under a rock.

I ran and put Ava and the dog back in the house, grabbed a pick axe and head back out. I told Tyler it was huge, but he probably thought I was exaggerating...

Anyway I saw which rock it went under so I used the pick to flip it over. There it was in defense mode. I used the flat part of the axe to cut it in half then hit it again to make sure it was dead. I knew the guys wouldn't believe me about how big it was so I used the axe to scoop it up and lay it out on the concrete. I had to measure it too...yeah it was 4 inches long. So gross.

Ahhh, desert living...

Big Girl Bed

In a previous post I mentioned Ava was in a big girl bed. Well, here it is! We are pretty boring with the white sheets, but hey they clean easily and everything matches them.

For about a week she has fallen asleep in her bed without me barricading her in, so we are making progress. Once we get that down I am hoping she will start napping in her bed so I can put the play pen away for good.

The kids currently share a room, and this bed fits the space perfectly. We really like it alot. We especially like that we didn't have to buy it~so a special thanks to my aunt for buying really nice baby stuff to hand down to us....

Riding The Bus

(Nathan's Cute School)

Nathan made it through the 1st week of school! Woo Hoo!
Here are some more pics from his first day:

So Tyler & I have had the Kris Kross song, "I Missed The Bus" in our heads for the past few days. I know you guys know the song.  I feel so old.

Anyway the reason behind the song being stuck in our heads is that Nathan decided he wanted to ride the bus to and from school. We took him the first day, and said he could try it out for this first week. He LOVES riding the bus. The driver is really nice and saved the front seat for him and a friend in his class- they ride with all the big kids in the morning so I was a little nervous.

I got all choked up as I watched him get on the bus this morning (Tyler took him yesterday because I was running late). It was just so weird to see my baby going off into the world without me. They grow up too fast.

First Day of School!

Today was Nathan's first day of school....I felt like it was mine- I couldn't sleep last night, and I was so nervous this morning I wanted to throw up. Luckily Nathan didn't have any jitters. He got up a little early and wanted to get going. We got all ready and he looked so grown up, then he turned around and his backpack looked so huge on him, and that made me feel better.

When I took him outside for some pictures this was the first thing he did:

His teacher told all the parents to write the child's name on the outside of the backpacks and coats. I was like - I am not taking a Sharpie to his brand new backpack (or coat), so I made this instead:

I think it turned out really cute.

We got to school just as the first bell rang, and he ran to line up by the other kids. He got a little teary eyed as they started walking in, and I almost lost it. He gave me a hug, and kept waving and saying "Bye, Daddy. Bye Mommy." I can't believe he is in school right now! Tyler was tall enough to peek in the window and said he was sitting on the rug with the other kids when we left. I sure hope he has fun.


I am so anxious to hear how it went. I think I will go make him some cookies while we wait...

Nathan's Birthday!

On Sunday our little buddy, Nathan turned 5! I still remember being pregnant with him, and the shock we were in when they put him on the scale (9 lbs 3 oz), but I mostly remember how happy I was. He brings me so much joy. He is such an amazing boy. Not only is is so smart and funny, and outgoing, he is also such a good example, so polite, and sweet, and well behaved. We are so lucky!

He has been wanting a Star Wars party since his birthday last year. I wanted to be sure and go all out. He said to me, on Saturday while I was getting things ready," Mommy, it was a good idea to have my party on Saturday so we can keep the Sabbath Day holy." So cute.

I made a Death Star pinata like a month ago. My mom has made a few pinatas, and I wanted to make sure she would be here in case I messed up. It went really well. I was up to my elbows in paper mache a few nights but to see his face when it was done was so worth it.

He invited his entire primary class and his favorite cousins. We had pizza and "galaxy" fruit, games, TIE fighter cupcakes, the pinata, presents galore (THANK YOU SO MUCH EVERYONE!), AND Darth Vader even came by and let all the jedis lightsaber him. This was a big hit. They were all thinking he was coming out the back door and were looking through the glass (I started the theme song and most of the kids knew what it meant), Tyler- I mean Vader, tricked them all by coming up from the outside basement stairs. The kids raced over, Nathan grabbed his lightsaber and went to town. Tyler did an amazing job, and I was so glad he was willing to dress up- he was awesome, and luckily he didn't get injured too badly.

On Sunday (his real Bday) he could not wait to go to Primary to be sung to. He got to start his morning with chocolate chip pancakes, and loved them. We also had special lunch and dinner. When I asked him what he wanted for dessert a while ago he said Duncan Hines (brownies), and mint ice cream. He has been brain washed by TV and thinks that Duncan Hines are the only way to go. Personally, not my fav, but that is what he wanted!

We love you Nathan!