Rambling Mom

Essentials Lotion and Creme Winner!

2012-01-27T23:17:00.003-07:00

The winner of the Essentials All Purpose Creme and Feet TreatMint Foot Lotion is...

#1 is Adrianne! Congratulations Adrianne, I will be contacting you about your prize!

Thank you to everyone who entered. I will be having another contest coming up hopefully in the next few weeks.

Time to pin

2012-01-24T21:28:00.002-07:00

I know I haven't posted pictures from Thanksgiving, Christmas, or the babies' first birthday yet, but tonight it's not going to happen. Too tired to go through pictures to find them. Before I know it Valentine's Day will be over too and I'll need to post pictures of that as well. We don't normally do much for V-Day, but I've seen some cute ideas on pinterest that I may try out. You can find everything from valentines day gifts for gfs to meal ideas to cute decorations on there. I'm really loving that site, but need to stop letting it suck away at my time lol. It's really easy to go to it for just a minute and 2 hours later realize you have more important things to do. :)

Calculus gives me headaches

2012-01-24T21:20:00.002-07:00

I'm taking calculus this semester. I still don't know why it is required for my major, but it is. And it is much harder than I remember it being in high school. It's amazing how much of that you forget in 10 years. Most of the other students in the class seem to understand it a lot easier, and I'm sure it's because they've taken the prerequisite classes a lot more recently than I have. It makes me feel so old, like I should start looking for Housing for seniors already. I think if my brain wasn't so tired from getting up with babies I'd have an easier time understanding it, so hopefully they will start sleeping better soon. Caleb sleeps good some nights, Isaac not so much. I've been getting all A's since going back to school, and would love to keep it up, but I don't know if I'll be able to in this class. I'm hoping that I can pass it at all.

Quick and Easy Chocolate Banana Shake in a Jar

2012-01-23T13:20:00.002-07:00

I love making my own shakes at home. Cheaper than buying one, plus I don't have to drive somewhere. And I can choose exactly what I want in it. I had some leftover vanilla ice cream from the twins' birthday party (I actually completely forgot to serve the ice cream at the party, so I had plenty leftover!) so I have been using it to make myself yummy shakes. My favorite lately is chocolate banana, though I did almost make it with Oreo's today. Mmmm.

Anyway, I read somewhere (a blog? pinterest? Facebook?) that a regular canning jar can fit on a regular blender. What?! Who would have thunk it? I decided to give it a try because then I wouldn't have to dirty up my whole blender for one little shake, plus the jar would double as my serving cup. Less dishes is always good!

First, choose what you want in your shake. Mine has vanilla ice cream (about a cup), Nesquik (2 big spoonfuls, mixed with a little milk so the powder wouldn't stick to the sides of the jar, learned from last time), and about half of a banana, sliced up.

Put all your ingredients in the jar. I would advise you not to put the ice cream in first, it can stick to the bottom of the jar and not want to go down and blend as smoothly, in my experience.
Then screw the mixer part of the blender on like a lid, and put it on the blender base like normal.
Mix on low until all blended and to desired consistency. That's it! Remove from blender, carefully take off mixer blades, grab a spoon and enjoy!

Silly Me

2012-01-23T09:49:00.002-07:00

So, for the last few months I noticed that I had a significant drop in blog visitors. I went from about 20 a day to maybe 4 a week. Or so I thought. Evidently when I changed my template a few months ago I somehow deleted the tracking codes that kept track of my visitors and so they weren't showing up. Or so I hope was the problem lol. I reinstalled the tracking codes so hopefully I'll see a jump in my stats and not feel like such a loser. :)

Essentials by Stanley Home Products: Review and GIVEAWAY!

2012-01-20T10:15:00.003-07:00

Stanley Home Products has been providing quality cleaning, home, and personal care products for 70 years. I have had a chance to review some of their great cleaning products (more reviews posted soon for that!) but I hadn't heard about their personal care products until I got the chance to sample some of their Essentials line.

Essentials All Purpose Creme with beeswax is a wonderful blend of emollients and moisturizers that seals in moisture for soft, smooth skin. As someone with psoriasis, I am always excited to try new moisturizers because keeping my skin moisturized helps my psoriasis stay in check. The All Purpose Creme is like a body butter cream, not a lotion, and has a mild natural scent. I love putting it on right after a shower and feeling like it is keeping the moisture in. After just a few uses my skin felt so soft. I also like to use it on my 3-year old's eczema spots too keep the skin from cracking and make him less itchy.

Essentials Foot TreatMint Foot Lotion is amazing. Seriously, I love this stuff! It's like giving your feet a spa treatment at home. It smells so good, with it's mixture of peppermint, camphor, and menthol, and is silky smooth, going on like massage oil. I love to just sit and massage it into my feet and feel the tension melt away. I am home barefoot most of the day so my feet get rough and calloused and dry; this lotion helps to soften that rough skin and makes me feel pampered. I've even used it to massage Hubby's back when it was achey after he spent a few hours helping someone move, and it worked really well.

GIVEAWAY

Would you like a chance to win both the Essentials All Purpose Creme and Essentials Feet TreatMint Foot Lotion? Just leave a comment telling me what you like to do to pamper yourself. Make sure there is a way for me to contact you in your comment or profile.

This contest will end January 27, 2012 at 10pm Mountain Time. Winner will be chosen using random.org. Contest open to U.S. residents only.

*Disclosure: I received one of each of these products to review, and an extra of each to giveaway, in exchange for my review. Opinions on the products are my own.*

Catching up- Nathan's Birthday

2012-01-18T07:45:00.005-07:00

So I haven't posted any Christmas pictures yet. I should have gotten caught up over winter break but we spent the time just relaxing and enjoying having nothing to do. Dont think I posted Thanksgiving pics either? In fact, I don't think I've posted pics since Halloween! Yikes! So let's see where to start. Oh, Nathan's 3rd birthday! And evidentely I don't have a lot of pics from it. :P Here's a few of him opening presents.

We got him some new pants, which he really needed. No Firstgear Kathmandu Jacket since he already has a coat. I think his favorite present was the ABC game grandma gave him. That kid loves his ABCs! And here's a video of him blowing out his candle, which did nto want to go out. It was not a trick candle or anything, but it took a while to get out.And so my little boy is 3 now!

Mild winter

2012-01-18T07:38:00.002-07:00

I have been loving the mild winter we've had so far. We've only gotten snow a couple times and it hasn't been as cold as normal. Bright sunny days have been great, though I wish I had some nice ray ban sunglasses while driving cuz my eyes are sensitive to light and the bright days make it hard to drive. I always forget to grab a pair of my Hubby's sunglasses. We did get some snow this week. Not too much, and since I had nowhere to go I didn't mind lol. We are supposed to get more snow this week, though. I need to plan to take the boys sledding while the snow is here. The school across the road has the perfect tiny hill for little kids. I haven't gone sledding myself since we moved from Idaho 4 years ago, I'm so lame lol. It was just so much easier when we had our own personal hill in the backyard.

Another semester coming up

2012-01-08T21:24:00.002-07:00

So, a new semester begins tomorrow. I'm taking two computer classes and calculus. Sooo not excited about calculus. I haven't taken a math class in 8 years, and calculus was 10 years ago in high school. Hopefully I'll do okay. I'm glad I only have class 2 days a week this semester, and no Saturday morning class! One of the classes is online, and since I have 1.5hrs between my two classes on Monday and Wednesday I'm planning to work on that class during that time. And we have a vacation planned right after this semester gets over in May, which will be really nice. I'd love to be able to take more vacations with the family. I've thought that it would be nice to have an RV to take on trips, but then you have to pay for the gas and rv insurance and monthly payment, and the idea is a little less appealing lol, but maybe one day. We should at least plan some camping trips, we haven't gone camping in a long time. And it's just fun to get away from it all once in a while.

The year is ending

2011-12-29T16:08:00.003-07:00

Boy this year went by fast didn't it?! Almost 2012 already, which means it's almost the twins' first birthday! And we are getting past the crazy holiday months into the slower cold months, so hopefully life will go a bit slower. Don't need to worry about gift ideas for weddings, Christmas, or birthdays (besides the babies, which will be easy) for a while, though next year I plan to get started on Christmas a lot earlier than I did this year! But for now I'm not even going to think about it, just going to enjoy a break from major holidays.

Crunchmaster Winner!

2011-12-21T08:56:00.005-07:00

Thank you to those who entered the giveaway for the Crunchmaster White Cheddar Multi-Grain Crackers. Using random.org the winner is...

#1 Blair! Congrats Blair, I will be contacting you to get your information to send your prize.

Thank you all and stayed tuned for some upcoming giveaways!

Getting close

2011-12-21T08:46:00.002-07:00

4 days until Christmas!!! You can tell by the piles of wrapped presents in my room, the tree with the lights and garland pulled off the bottom branches and the tree skirt all askew, and the empty bank account. Yep, Christmas is definitely close! I'm excited for the kids mostly, it's just so much fun watching them enjoy Christmas morning. I'm also interested to see what Hubby got me. He's been working on something in the garage, pretty sure it's not amish furniture, and there are a few other boxes with my name on them that I have no idea what they are. I'm not completely ready though. Waiting on a package so I can finish up some family gift baskets and I need to make the boys' PJ pants. Other than that I think we are done. :)

Crunchmasters Multi-grain Crackers Review and Giveaway!

2011-12-16T16:49:00.004-07:00

I had the great opportunity to review some nutritious, healthy crackers by Crunchmaster, provided courtesy of Moms Meet.

The Crunchmaster Multi-Grain Crackers come in 3 delicious flavors: Sea Salt, White Cheddar, and Roasted Vegetable. Now, I must say I am not really a cracker person. Especially the healthy ones, haha. The never have liked the texture of wheat crackers, or the flavor. I was thinking these crackers would be similar. But the first thing I noticed is they lacked that wheat-y texture because, ta-da: no wheat! That's right, these crackers are wheat- and gluten-free. Great for people who want healthy, tasty crackers but can't eat gluten. Instead they are made from a blend of pure, California brown rice, stone-ground corn, oat fiber, and a four seed blend (they also made a Multi-Seed Cracker you may want to check out). Also, they didn't crumble wheatily (not a word? oh well!) which is nice. Instead these oven baked crackers are very crisp and solid, a bit harder than I expected; they don't leave tons of tiny crumbs with every bite.

Now for the taste. For starters, I did not even try the White Cheddar flavor. I just have never liked cheese flavored products, especially cheese crackers, yuck! So I left those to the kids, who had no problem with being my taste-testers. My two older boys ate some and thought they were too hard, but my 3-year old loved them. For the next few days I kept finding him smuggling a bag of crackers into the family room to snack on while watching cartoons. Hubby also tried them and said they were about the same as any other healthy cracker to him, good but nothing exciting. I headed first for the Roasted Vegetable. These crackers have some major taste, a lot more flavorful than I was thinking they would be. In my opinion it was actually a bit much, but I bet they would be amazing with a nice cream cheese spread or dip, which I sadly did not have on hand to try them with. Then I tried the Sea Salt. This was more to my taste; not as much flavor to deal with (guess I'm a wimp when it comes to strong flavor lol). They tasted kind of like healthy, crunchier tortilla chips. I love a nice salty snack, like popcorn or chips, so these are something I could actually see myself snacking on. They would also probably taste good with a spread or maybe cheese and meat on top.

I also shared some bags of crackers with ladies in my twin moms group, and they were so excited to try them out.

Crunchmaster Multi-Grain Crackers are a great source of fiber and whole grains, use natural ingredients, and are free from cholesterol and saturated fats. A nice healthy snack that you can enjoy as is or with a tasty spread or dip. You can learn more about them at the Crunchmaster website and Facebook page. You can buy them at many major retailers, including WalMart, Kroger, Meijer, and many more.

Would you like a chance to win a case (12 bags) of Crunchmaster White Cheddar Multi-Grain Crackers? Well, one lucky reader will!

To enter simply visit the Crunchmaster website and comment here to let me know what other product they have that you think sounds good.

This contest will end Tuesday December 20th at 10pm EST. Contest open only to U.S. residents. Make sure there is a way to contact you from your profile or leave your email in the comment.

*Disclaimer: I received this product for free from the sponsor of the Moms MeetSM program, May Media Group LLC, who received it directly from the manufacturer. As a Moms MeetSM blogger, I agreed to use this product and post my opinion on my blog. My
opinions do not necessarily reflect the opinions of May Media Group LLC or the manufacturer of the product.*

New look

2011-12-06T09:19:00.002-07:00

Anyone notice the changes to my blog? A few weeks ago evidently the host for my previous blog template stopped doing them so I had to find a new one. If I had time I would just make my own, but for now I'll go with whatever free cute templates I can find. Thought this one was fun and girly. The more boys I have the more I feel like surrounding myself with girly things to counteract it lol. :D

Put a ring on it

2011-12-06T09:11:00.003-07:00

A few days ago, one of my Facebook friends was asking if anyone else would be sad if they had to get a new wedding ring because it wasn't the original one they put on when married. I said I would be sad. I love my ring and even if I got an exact copy of it, it wouldn't have the same meaning as the one I've been wearing for over 8 years. I'm not sure if my Hubby feels the same. He doesn't have a fancy ring like the triton wedding bands, it's a simple band but I had it engraved on the inside and I still like to see it. :) I've never seen the reason to buy new rings for anniversaries and such, my wedding ring is perfect to me. Of course, I'm not really that into jewelry so it's pretty much the only jewelry I wear regularly. I only take it off if I'm kneading bread or making meatloaf or other stuff with lots of raw meat, and then my hand feels so weird not to have my ring on. I'm hoping this ring lasts a nice long time.

Gardening

2011-12-06T08:54:00.003-07:00

Brr, it's getting cold! I wish we could just bypass winter and head straight into spring. Though it's nice not to have to worry about the garden for a few months. It got a little neglected this year due to the babies, though we did get more tomatoes than usual. I should have gotten the area all cleaned out and composted and stuff before it got cold, but now it's too cold for me to want to go out, so it'll have to wait until it warms up again. I would love to have a rotating composter to put our leaves and stuff in to use for the garden. I have a compost box but it's a pain. I think next year I'll probably stick to mostly tomatoes again. I don't have much luck with anything else lol. I hardly even got any peas this year, which I normally don't have a problem with. I'm really not that great with gardens lol, but it's worth it if I at least get a few fresh tomatoes. :)

Halloween!

2011-11-08T13:45:00.004-07:00

Thought it was about time to put up some cute pictures. So here we go with Halloween! We had a great Halloween. The 28th we went to Hubby's work party where the boys got to trick or treat around the office. The 29th we had a Halloween party and trunk or treat with my moms of twins club. And then Halloween the boys had their school costume parades and Hubby took the older 3 trick or treating that night while I stayed home with the babies to hand out candy. A fun weekend, but way too much candy! I actually made some of the costumes this year because I didn't want to go buy any and Jason and Jakey wanted to be something we didn't already have costumes for. Jason was a wizard, I let him pick out the material. Jakey was a ghost. Nathan was excited to wear one of the older boys' old Mario costume. And the babies were gnomes. I just made their hats and belts, the rest was just clothes we had.

At Hubby's work party. Nathan would not stop looking at the talking butler thing lol.

The school costume parade.

We carved pumpkins the Friday before. Hubby's has Idaho and #1, mine is the stack of pumpkins with BOO and a ghost, we let Jason and Jakey design what they wanted theirs to look like so Jason's is the 4-eyed, 2-nosed pumpkin, and Jakey's funny shaped pumpkin got 2 faces. Nathan's had a Blue's Clues pawprint, and for the babies we just did I and C.

LOL I just realized I posted the pumpkins a few posts down already. Seriously my memory stinks!

Adjustments needed

2011-10-30T21:17:00.002-06:00

My back has been killing me lately. I often get ribs out of place which sends shooting pain through my back. It sucks when I'm holding babies and suddenly feel like I'm being stabbed. It wasn't so bad when we had chiropractors covered by insurance, but our new insurance doesn't cover it. It's not bad enough to need laser back surgery or anything, but an occasional adjustment would be nice. I also get migraines when my neck gets out of place, and having 2 babies to hold and nurse makes that happen more from the extra pressure and strain across my upper back. I always love getting into my nice soft bed at night and stretching out, feels so good. I sleep pretty good too (besides waking to feed babies) because my bed is so comfortable and relaxing after a day with the kids.

Getting educated

2011-10-30T21:04:00.002-06:00

I'm so glad I have such a wonderful husband. He has always been extremely helpful with the house and kids, but since I started school he has taken on even more. He's willing to work harder taking care of things at home so that I can finish my education so that if I ever need to work I'll have more available to me than fast food, call centers, or Baggage Porter Jobs. Not that those are bad, I've done a few of those jobs to supplement our income at times, but if my husband ever was unable to get work we'd need something that pays more than minimum wage. Which will hopefully never be an issue *knock on wood*. In a year and a half I should be done with my Associate's degree, and 2 years from that I could have my Bachelor's.

Pumpkins

2011-10-30T21:03:00.001-06:00

This year we had a lot of pumpkins to carve. First, our family grew by two members and we like to have pumpkins even for the babies, and second we got 2 free pumpkins at a party last week. So 9 pumpkins and since we don't trust the kids with knives that meant that Hubby and I had to carve all those pumpkins. Jason and Jakey were in charge of cleaning out the guts and separating the seeds so I could try roasting them. Hubby did the most carving. I wish we had some actual pumpkin carving tools, or maybe box cutters would work better than steak knives. Both of us had sore hands by the time we were done but they turned out good. We let Jason and Jakey design the faces on their pumpkins. Nathan's is a Blue's Clue's pawprint because he loves that show. The babies' just have I and C. Hubby's is the great Idaho #1 one and mine is the BOO tower with a ghost on one side.

Finding time to sew

2011-10-30T09:08:00.003-06:00

I've been busy the last week, like always lol. But I finally had to get out my sewing machine again to make some costumes for my boys. I don't get a lot of chance to sew lately, but I didn't want to go spend money on costumes this year. Jason wanted to be a wizard, Jakey wanted to be a ghost, Nathan is luckily to young to really care what he is so he got to wear a Mario costume we already had, and I made the babies garden gnomes. So cute. I'll have to get a good pic of all of them together when they are dressed up tomorrow. I have a bunch of other projects on my sewing list but I don't see myself getting the time to do them any time soon. I do need to make a baby shower gift for a friend before Wednesday. Hopefully I can find time for that. I normally buy baby shower gifts, and these ones from berries.com look so cute, because I normally run out of time to make something. We'll see what I have time for this week!

MyMemories Winner!

2011-10-18T08:04:00.003-06:00

Thank you to those who entered the MyMemories Suite scrapbook software giveaway! We have a lucky winner chosen by random.org...

#5 is Tiffany H! Congratulations! I will be contacting you on how to redeem your prize.

If you didn't win you can still order this software and get $10 off using the code STMMMS6534, which also gives you $10 off anything else at mymemories.com.

Are you ready for some football?

2011-10-16T20:07:00.002-06:00

I don't watch a lot of TV. For one, usually if it's on the kids have cartoons on, and secondly, I just have other things to do with my time. But now that it's football time that's what is on our TV every Sunday. We don't have cable or satellite but we have one of those digital antennas for tv and so we watch the regular broadcast games. We are Patriots fans and they've been doing good so far this year. I never really cared for watching football before I met Hubby but now I love it. :)

Fall break is not nearly long enough

2011-10-16T19:49:00.002-06:00

The weekends go by way too quickly these days. Last weekend, Thursday through Saturday, was Fall Break from school for me so I didn't have class Thursday or Saturday and it went by so fast. This week I have a couple papers to get done for my culture class Thursday so I need to get those done. I've been feeling a bit overwhelmed lately with school and appointments and life. When I get a day off I like to just lounge around and do nothing. I'd love some comfy nursing scrubs to relax in, I don't really have a lot of lounging clothes. But being lazy doesn't help because then the housework piles up. I think I'd be able to handle everything better if I was able to sleep all night and feel rested, but the babies still wake up often. But I know that won't last forever so I just live with it. And I don't mind some nights, sitting there in the dark nursing Isaac, or having Caleb cuddled up next to me, I know I will miss this time when they are so cute and little and dependent on me.

MyMemories Suite Scrapbooking Software Review and GIVEAWAY!!!

2011-10-11T11:53:00.008-06:00

I've never been much of a scrapbooker, I just don't have the time or will to come up with all the cute little layouts myself. Plus I never print out pictures, which makes it a little harder lol. But I do think digital scrapbooking is cool. I love creating photo gifts, like calendars and photo books, for the grandparents for Christmas. I know a few of you readers are into the digital scrapbooking also, so I'm sure you'll be interesting in what I'm about to say.

I was asked to review the MyMemories Suite scrapbooking software, award winning digital scrapbook software rated #1 by Amazon. I was so excited to get it and see what cool things it could do. I was not disappointed. My favorite part is how many cute layouts they have available for free to use with the software. Since design is not really my area of expertise, I rely on other people to be creative for me lol. They have templates for boys, girls, holidays, birthdays, outdoors, babies, and more.

The next best thing is how easy it is to pop in your pictures. Just click the add picture button, upload your picture, and drop it where you want it. You can also change around the picture and text elements if you want, adding shapes, word art, embellishments, etc. So you are able to personalize the pre-made templates as much or as little as you want.

Once you are done creating an album you can choose to display it as a calendar, video, photo album, and more. You have the option to upload it online and order a printed version of what you want, share the album, or you can print it out yourself.

I am loving the MyMemories Suite software and hopefully I will be able to get some time to create some more fun albums and try out all the cool little features they offer.

As a special for all of my readers, you can use this code to receive a $10 discount off the purchase of the MyMemories Suite Scrapbook software and a $10 coupon for the MyMemories.com store - $20 value! Just enter STMMMS4082 when ordering.

GIVEAWAY!!!
One lucky reader will win the MyMemories Suite scrapbook software! Simply go to MyMemories.com and come back and comment on which digital scrapbooking kit is your favorite.

Extra Entries: (leave a comment for each entry)
-Like MyMemories on Facebook
-Follow MyMemories on Twitter

Giveaway will end Monday, October 17th at 10pm MST. Winner will be determined using Random.org.

*I received a free copy of the MyMemories Suite software to review and give my own honest opinion.

And the winner is...

2011-10-10T15:27:00.002-06:00

I almost forgot to post a winner for last week's giveaway for the Grime Guard Foaming Glass Cleaner! Better late than never!

Congratulations Melissa! I will be contacting you about getting your prize to you!

Upcycled Dress!

2011-10-07T12:50:00.004-06:00

My youngest brother is getting married today! And that means I had to find a dress to wear. Not normally a problem except their colors were baby blue and pastel pink, and I don't happen to have anything in either color lol. But I then remembered I have a hand-me-down maternity dress that would work. Well, sorta. The color was about right, but it was quite obviously a maternity dress. So, taking some inspirations from New Dress a Day, I decided to upcycle the dress into a cute non-maternity dress! I even went so far as to make it something I could nurse in. The hardest part was finding time to make all the alterations. It's not perfect, but actually came out pretty much like I'd hoped. If I'd had more time I could have made a few more adjustments, but it will do. There is a bit of greenish stain on the shoulders (baby spit up is my guess, and Oxiclean didn't help), but considering I didn't notice them until the 3rd time I put it on, hopefully nobody else will either lol. So here we go:

I shortened the length, added some elastic and darts to bring it in around the middle, trimmed with some lace for the ties, and made it so the top front can be moved up and an elastic-y chest flap can be moved to nurse.

Also, my 5-yr old Jakey is the ring bearer and since I don't know if they had a tie or anything for him to match the wedding party, I whipped up this cute little blue bow tie.

Stanley Home Products Review and GIVEAWAY!!!

2011-10-03T11:42:00.005-06:00

I was given the opportunity to review some cleaning products from Stanley Home Products, their Glass Cleaner Foaming Spray and Degreaser. Stanley Home has been providing quality cleaners for 70 years. They provide great products at affordable prices, as well as offer home-based jobs for Customer Representatives who want the freedom to work at home for a good company.

Grime Guard Glass Cleaner Foaming Spray

From their site: "GrimeGuard™ provides an invisible shield to guard against accumulated dirt and repel water spot build-up. This protective shield keeps surfaces cleaner longer and makes on-going cleaning, quick, and easy. Plus, the foaming spray is non-streaking and quick drying!"

I tested the glass cleaner out on my main floor bathroom. Since this is the bathroom my children use (and abuse) the most it gets pretty dirty. The mirror was streaked with a soapy mess and the faucet was covered in soap, fingerprints, and water spots. I sprayed on the cleaner and was amazed at how easily it wiped all of it right off. With my normal cleaner I usually need a bit more scrubbing and occasionally a reapplication of cleaner, but the Foaming Spray worked with very little effort for a spotless mirror and shiny faucet.

Degreaser Concentrate
"Concentrated to work hard: Dissolves grease in seconds on cookware, countertops, broilers, dishes, tools, and walls - wherever grease build-up is a problem."

I was really excited to try out the degreaser. From working fast-food years ago I know how important a good degreaser is. I knew exactly what I was going to try it on first- my stove top. My poor stove does not get cleaned as often as it should, and so it had quite the buildup of caked on food and grease. I even decided I should tackle the stove hood while I was at it. I hate the greasy dust that builds up on that thing.

So I took off the burner spider cover things (hm, wonder what they are actually called?) and soaked them in some of the degreaser and hot water. Then I put a few tsps of Degreaser in a bowl of hot water and wiped down the whole stove top with it then let it sit for 5 minutes, or it was supposed to be 5 minutes but the babies woke up and needed fed and eventually I got back to my stove about an hour later lol. Once I got some fresh hot water and degreaser I took my sponge and wiped down the hood. Now typically when I clean the hood it take a lot of work and frustration. But this time most of the greasy dust came right up, then I just had to go over it a few more times to scrub the really set in stuff.

The stove took a bit more work because of how dirty I'd let it get. I don't think the degreaser made the job much easier or quicker than how I normally do it with dishsoap, but it worked pretty well. And the burner covers cleaned up really well after soaking. My stove looks so much better, which is great because I have a group of ladies coming to my house to do some cooking Saturday and it would have been embarrassing for them to see it as it was.

Overall, I am extremely happy with both products, especially the glass cleaner. And now for the fun part- a GIVEAWAY!!!

GIVEAWAY
One lucky reader can win a can of the Grime Guard Glass Cleaner Foaming Spray! Simply comment below telling me what your least favorite household chore is to enter. For an extra entry, go to the Stanley Home Products website and tell me which product other than these two you could use the most. This contest will end Saturday, October 8th, 2011 at 8pm MST. Open to U.S. residents.

*I received a bottle of each product, and an extra bottle of glass cleaner, free of charge to review and giveaway. All opinions given are my own honest opinions of the products.*

Stop the train...

2011-09-30T20:59:00.003-06:00

...I want to get off! I seriously feel like life is going by too fast to keep up. My house is a mess, I can barely keep things straight with the boys' school, college, appointments, kids, etc, and I'm just exhausted because I haven't had a good night's rest in who knows how long. I love my life and my kids, and actually enjoy my college classes, but I just need everything to freeze for a few days so I can catch my breath! We went out to eat tonight, and after dinner I noticed Jason's shorts were inside out. His blue plaid shorts that he was wearing with a tan and orange striped shirt. Oh yeah, he's the height of fashion! I've given up on caring if they're wearing carhartt pants with a long sleeve shirt in 80* weather, or if anything matches, or if they've been wearing the same outfit for 3 days (ok, maybe not that last one, I try to notice if they haven't changed their clothes when I tell them to lol). As long as everyone is fed, dressed, gets to bed before midnight and is reasonably clean I count it a successful day.
I know this crazy time won't last forever. Eventually I will be done with school. Eventually the babies will sleep through the night. And eventually I will get around to the million chores I'm slacking at. But for now I'm in triage, taking care of what needs to be done most first. My kids are loved, the babies are happy and healthy, and the boys and I are doing well in school. When I have a free minute I prefer to spend it relaxing with my boys instead of making the house spotless. And I'm lucky to have an amazing husband who helps me with the house and kids, picking up my slack. One day I'll have an empty clean house and wish for the days when I had a full messy house. :)
"Quiet down cobwebs, dust go to sleep. I'm rocking my baby, and babies don't keep."

Plagiocephaly Helmet

2011-09-18T08:58:00.003-06:00

I don't know if I've mentioned Isaac's helmet on here? About a month ago he got a helmet to improve his plagiocephaly, a flat spot on the back right side of his head. It has already made a big difference and he should only need it for a few months.

Isn't he just a cute little guy? It doesn't really bother him either. It does get pretty sweaty and stinky though, so when he gets to have it off for an hour a day we wipe down his head and the helmet. And luckily our insurance covered it as durable medical equipment, I've heard a lot of people who had to pay out of pocket, and those things are expensive! I'm so used to seeing him with it on that he looks so different when he has it off and you can see his hair better and everything. It'll be nice when he's all done with it, but I'm glad we were able to get it for him so he wouldn't have a misshapen head the rest of his life.

Babyproof

2011-09-18T08:51:00.002-06:00

I'm on a few messageboards with women who have babies the age of my twins and now that our babies are all around 7-8 months old and getting mobile there have been many discussions about babyproofing. I've gone through 3 other kids so we have the outlet covers, baby gates, and cabinet locks pretty well covered. One thing I mentioned to some of those first time moms is something I think gets overlooked a lot- securing furniture. TVs that don't have tv mounts on the wall like ours should be connected to the wall, I know you can buy safety straps that connect the TV to the wall. Also dressers, entertainment centers, book cases, curio cabinets, etc should all be secured to the wall at a stud. Once those babies start pulling up on things you want what they are grabbing to be as sturdy as possible with no chance of it falling on them. Cords should be out of the way too so they can't pull lamps, candle warmers, CD players, etc down on them. My boys are now army crawling around the house so it's time for me to make sure things are safe by getting some cords tucked away, replacing a few outlet covers, and getting out the gates.

At your fingertips

2011-09-18T08:42:00.002-06:00

I often think about what the Internet was like when I first started using it back when I was like 12. The main browser was Netscape Navigator, and you had to pay for it because Internet Explorer at the time sucked (at the time? doesn't it still? lol). There wasn't a whole lot of information on everything out there, it took forever to find stuff because of the slow dial up connection, and there were not many social networking sites. Nowadays everything is on the Internet. You want a new outfit? Look up wet seal coupons. Need help with your homework? Look it up! (I've been doing that lately with my HTML class). Movie times, local news, random tidbits of information. It's all on the Internet, along with all the people you want to talk with. Pretty cool for someone who remembers life without it.

Shop Class

2011-09-18T08:36:00.002-06:00

One of my favorite classes in junior high was shop. I totally loved working with tools and making stuff. I still do like to make stuff, and I'm pretty much the handy one around here, except when it comes to power saws. In junior high I wasn't afraid of band saw blades or circular saws or anything. It was so cool to get to use them. But now I've gotten wimpy lol. I let Hubby handle the sharp stuff. I think having kids has made me soft, plus I worry about them getting hurt by anything. And I think part of it is not having a designated "shop" area, it doesn't feel like I have a safe place to use those kind of tools. We have a work bench in the garage but it's pretty messy and I wish we had some nice strong clamps for when we need to saw stuff, usually I'm acting as a human clamp while Hubby saws lol.

Poor little bloggy

2011-09-18T08:30:00.003-06:00

So, I started Fall semester of school about a month ago and things have gotten even more sporadic for my poor blog. It's been so neglected. I would love to post more about the cute things my kids do, pictures of them, and about life in general, but I'm just exhausted these days. The babies still don't sleep well at night, I feel like I'm getting more behind on housework every day, and having school 3 nights and 1 morning a week is messing with when I can schedule and do other things. I don't mind school, in fact I really am enjoying my classes (and if you've been reading this blog for a while you know that normally I HATE school), I've just had to let less important things slide for a bit, like my little blog here. Poor thing, I want to pet it and say, "It's okay little bloggy, I still love you." But that would be weird.

Slim These Days

2011-09-15T19:40:00.003-06:00

I hear every day that jobs are hard to come by. People in our neighborhood have been laid off and it seems everyone is scrambling for any job they can get. I'm not sure what they define as a job. There are jobs like Convention Services/Events Staff Jobs, which are good for paying bills, but I'm not sure how permanent they are. Then there are jobs that require degrees. These jobs seem to be in bigger supply. When I think of a job, I think of something that can be permanent and steady. We need more of these jobs.

First Day of School

2011-09-01T23:01:00.002-06:00

Arg, one of these days life will slow down right?! No? Yeah, didn't think so. :P

OK, so first day of school pictures! Jason started first grade this year and Jakey started Kindergarten. At first it was so weird having Jason gone all day. He was so thrilled to get to take lunch with him. We didn't do much back to school shopping. They didn't really need a lot. They have enough clothes (though come colder weather we may have to buy some more pants) and they didn't have any supply lists to buy. Jason needed some new shoes so we got him some cheap sandals. When it gets cooler we will need to get some easy spirit sneakers or something cuz I think his tennis shoes are getting snug. We also got him a lunch box and a few basic school supplies. Jakey didn't need anything, though he might also need some new shoes by the time it's cold out. Anyway, enough chatter, here's my cuties on their first day of school.

Jason

Jacob

Oopsie

2011-08-25T08:36:00.002-06:00

Oops, guess I lied in my last post. Said I'd be back soon with pics and stuff and here it is 3 weeks later. At least I'm not letting anybody down since hardly anybody even reads my blog lol, don't have to worry to much about my traffic like sites such as www.wholesaleinsurance.net do. I do have pictures of the boys' first days of school, and I will try to get them posted in a little while. I have 2 fussy babies who need to go down for naps, then I should have time for a few updates.

Be back soon, maybe

2011-08-04T22:23:00.002-06:00

Yikes, keep getting behind! Days are flying by and before I know it weeks have passed since I last blogged. I think I need a time advance, like those cash advances, borrow some extra time now to get caught up in life. Of course I don't know how you could pay back borrowed time lol. Anyway, it's late but I promise to get some new pics up of Jason and Jakey's first days of school and Isaac's new helmet.

Protection Needed

2011-07-27T23:01:00.003-06:00

Too many times, I see motorcyclists on the road with no helmets. The common reason the riders give is they don't want to mess up their hair. I suppose a messed up face after a crash is better. I'm not sure why the disdain for helmets when there are stylish ones out there, like bell helmets. I've even seen my own father riding around without a helmet on. Please, I would like you all to keep riding the motorcycles you love. Just do it with a helmet on.

That reminds me of a story I read a month or so ago about a biker at a rally to protest a law making it illegal to ride without a helmet. He ended up crashing during the rally and died. Officials said he probably would have survived if he'd been wearing a helmet. So sad.

BBQ Bacon Meatloaf sandwich

2011-07-23T18:00:00.002-06:00

Yep, that's right. Barbecue sauce, bacon, and meatloaf all together to make a tasty, juicy sandwich fit for any meat lover.

First, start off with your meatloaf. Any kind will do. Cut off a nice inch-thick slice of the meatloaf. Then take a slice (or 2, or 3, it's bacon, the more the merrier!) and wrap it around your meatloaf. I only used 1 slice of bacon. Do at least 2 slices, 1 was not enough bacon-y goodness.

Now fry that sucker up. (See what I mean about needing more bacon? In my excitement I kind of forgot that the bacon would shrink when cooked. Needs more bacon!)

Now take your bun, a hot dog bun was about perfect size for mine but any kind will do, and put a generous drizzle of bbq sauce on both sides and place the juicy bacon meatloaf burger in.

Enjoy!

Bear Lake

2011-07-10T21:09:00.003-06:00

Here's some pictures from our Bear Lake vacation.
Yummy shakes

Babies first times in swings

The slide at the pool was a huge hit, especially with Nathan

Ice cream!

Playing at the playground

Mini golf

This was what is normally the beach. Typically the sand extends past where those boats are.

This post took forever because my computer is acting stupid :P Lately it's been acting up on me, probably from a little 2.5yr old pressing buttons when he shouldn't lol. A couple days ago every time it came out of sleep mode it would pop up that computer network cable unplugged warning and I'd have to turn off the wireless adapter button thing and turn it back on to get my Internet to work again. Luckily it was fine again the next day. Today it just keeps freezing up. Probably because it's been sitting on the couch so getting too hot.

Lagoon!

2011-07-10T20:48:00.002-06:00

I was so excited about Hubby's work Lagoon day this year because for the last 3 years I have not been able to ride any roller coasters (1- pregnant, 2- rain, 3- pregnant again) but this year I could! And the weather was just perfect the whole day too. Jason was thrilled that he was tall enough for some of the bigger roller coasters, so I got to go with him to ride his first real roller coasters. It's amazing how much stuff you need to pack for a day out with 5 little kids lol. We brought both strollers, snacks and drinks, and swimming stuff. We almost need a yakima bike rack at cracksandracks.com now to tie on extra gear anytime we travel lol. Nathan loved Lagoon-A Beach, the water was super freezing but he just kept wanting to go down the little slides over and over. His whole body was shaking from the cold but he did not want to leave lol. It was fun seeing him get to go on rides this year. All the boys love the bumper cars and we let then go on those many many times. Nate's family came down and went with us and it was nice to have the help so he and I could ride some rides. We let the boys play in the water fountain before we left and they got drenched, but had a blast. It was an exhausting but good day.

Sunny days

2011-07-10T20:44:00.002-06:00

I decided to make the babies sunhats (following this tutorial at Prudent Baby). They have come in so handy! They wear them anytime we go outside and I like that in the car they don't have to cry from the sun being in their eyes since we don't have shades on the windows. And of course they look adorable!

Jakey's 5th Birthday

2011-07-10T20:35:00.002-06:00

Yeah, this is a little late, but oh well lol. Jakey turned 5 on June 1. We had his birthday party the Saturday after and it was good times. Just a small bbq at home with family. He got some gifts that he really enjoyed. It's nice that he's still young enough that buying a ton of stuff from the Target $1 section makes him happy lol. We usually get one or 2 bigger gifts (Megamind this time) then just a bunch of filler gifts like crayons and stuff. When he's a teen asking for a cell phone, michael kors watch, laptop, etc we'll be in trouble! I went with cupcakes instead of a cake because it's just much easier to serve and cuts down on cleanup. We enjoyed having family come celebrate with us.

Take-along car/crayon pouch

2011-07-10T20:13:00.003-06:00

I made these little car/crayon holders for the boys a few months ago. I figured they would be perfect for traveling and church. The boys love them. I do need to modify the design a bit the next time I make them though, the car and crayons kept falling out so they need some king of flap or pocket or something to keep each side closed while the other is in use.

I've been trying to think of stuff I can start making for Christmas presents this year. Most of the suggestions I see are stuff like pot holders, carrying bags for yoga mats, placemats, etc. Those are nice but I want something a little more special. Maybe dresses or cute outfits for the nieces and a crayon roll for my nephew. I saw a tutorial for a really cute quilted tree skirt, but not sure if that's something people need (though I may make one for myself!). At least I still have a few months to think on it lol.

Canyons and lakes

2011-07-09T22:09:00.002-06:00

Last month when we went to Bear Lake we took my youngest sister. It was fun to have someone to talk with on the trip since I was driving alone with the boys and Hubby was coming up after work. Part of the trip is through a long winding canyon. It's beautiful, but not for weak stomachs. I remember going through it when I was pregnant with Jacob and I had to keep my eyes closed and breathe slowly the whole way to keep from throwing up, that was awful. But when you come around that final curve of the mountains and see the beautiful blue lake spread out below it's amazing. And I love the tiny town of Garden City and how slow and peaceful it seems. I wouldn't want to live there though. The winters get very cold and snowy and that canyon often gets closed, even if you have snow chains for trucks you would have to take the long way around up through Idaho. But it's a great place to visit in the summer. The lake was super high this year, the beach was completely submerged, so we didn't get to play in the lake but enjoyed the playground, pool, mini golf, and everything else at the condo. The weather was just perfect too.

Growing up

2011-07-09T22:02:00.002-06:00

I can't believe Jason will be starting 1st Grade this month. He just barely finished Kindergarten, but thanks to our year-round school schedule he has just a 4 week break before the new school year starts. He is so excited, especially because he gets to bring a lunchbox lol. It's going to be so weird having him in school all day. Hopefully they get us his school supply list soon. He's getting so big. He'll be 7 in September. He starting to try riding his bike without training wheels. He can read and it's amazing just how quickly they grow up. I told Hubby that it's weird that next year he will be baptized (we do baptism at age 8) and we'll have to think about Baptism invitations and stuff for the big day. It's bitter-sweet seeing my little boy turn into a big boy.

Time flies when you have twins!

2011-07-09T22:00:00.003-06:00

Seriously, how does time keep getting away from me?! Things have slowed down a bit at least. May-June was just so crazy busy. I really need to upload pictures to my computer from the last little while and post. Especially the babies, they are 6 months tomorrow! With vacation and the 4th of July and everything I have lots of pictures I haven't even had a chance to look at yet. Maybe tomorrow. :) Hopefully the babies will let me get some sleep tonight, then I'll have some energy.

Mt. Laundry

2011-06-26T17:39:00.002-06:00

Normally I am really good at keeping caught up on the laundry, but this month it has just been pushed to the back burner. We had such a busy month and traveled a bunch so I hardly get around to putting clothes away before they have to be worn or packed. Now that our busy month is over with no big plans for a while I should be able to get caught up again. I never bother sorting the dirty laundry into whites, towels, rocawear jeans, etc. I just throw it all in together on cold. I found I didn't hate doing laundry as much when I cut out that step. I also don't fold any of the boys clothes since it just gets unfolded the first time they go to find something to wear. I think I have 4 loads I need to put away and a couple to wash to get caught up, then if I do a load a day I can usually stay on top of it.

Things

2011-06-22T21:38:00.002-06:00

A few days ago I was down in our storage room just kind of checking out what we have there. I wanted to see how much baby gear and diapers and stuff we still have in there. I'm going to be getting the high chairs out soon, once I finish some new covers I want to make for them. I also need to get out the other exersaucer since the boys are getting big enough to use them. Then I have a ton of boxes of diapers in our stockpile still and a big bag of baby cereal that a neighbor gave us. We have shelves full of toys we took from the boys toy room cuz they can't keep it clean. And we have a big race track set we got Jason for Christmas a few years ago that I wish we used more. No rc trucks electric stuff but just tons of their toys that don't get used because they can't take care of them. Hopefully as they get older they will learn to take better care of their things. Oh, I have a baby calling for attention, better go take care of him. :)

Maybe just a little vain

2011-06-22T21:11:00.004-06:00

I've always been very self-conscious about my looks. Part of it stems from the fact that I've had psoriasis for as long as I can remember. I've always worried about what people think of my skin when I have flare-ups. Another thing that makes me self-conscious is that after each of my children my chest has gotten flatter and flatter while my butt and thighs have gotten bigger. I used to be a dancer in high school and nicely fit, so seeing my spreading rear end really annoys me. Luckily I have a wonderful Hubby that thinks I look great, even if I'll never wear sexy garterbelts.

But strangely having the twins has helped my body image. Probably because I expected the babies to really destroy what figure I had left. All of the twin moms I talked to said they were left with "twin skin", the big floppy stretchy bulge of belly fat that never goes away. Amazingly I didn't get too many more stretch marks than I already had and surprisingly my baby belly went down very quickly after they were born. I was in my regular pants in less than two weeks. So, I may not be back to my pre-baby figure, but considering I had twins just 5.5 months ago, I'm pretty proud of how I look. (Oh, and ignore my crappy editing in the bottom left, I had to crop out my bra hanging on the door lol. Oops!)

No time

2011-06-22T21:08:00.002-06:00

It's amazing how quickly time goes. I keep waiting for things to slow down so I can catch up on things but it never happens. We are on vacation in Bear Lake and I thought I'd have time to update more here, but vacation with 5 little boys doesn't really leave extra time for anything lol. I go so long without posting here that I forget what I have posted.

Visiting

2011-05-28T12:55:00.003-06:00

Nate's little sister graduated from high school on Wednesday so we decided to come see her and spend the rest of the week/weekend in Idaho. It's been 6 months since we have been able to come see his family so we've been driving all over the place the last few days to visit family and friends. It's been fun, but my kids are definitely getting sick of the van lol. I'm getting a nice little workout lugging the babies around in their seats though, no need for the best creatine supplements. The babies and Nathan have gotten their naps all messed up too, so they've been kind of fussy. But now we've visited most of the people we wanted to see so we can relax for a few days before we head home Monday. Now I better go change a stinky bum and help Hubby with tired babies.

Not ready

2011-05-28T12:45:00.002-06:00

So I'm running a 5k in 2 weeks and am not at all ready. With the yucky Utah Spring weather and then getting sick, I hardly ever get a chance to go running. The race I'm running took me 37 minutes the last time I did it 2 years ago (there is a huge hill to go up) and my goal this time was to do it in 35 minutes or less, but I really do not think I will be able to. I wish I could just take a workout supplement, but then I read stuff like nitrix reviews and realize that good old exercise is better for me lol. It would be much easier if I had a treadmill to run on at home. I'm going to have to really get my butt moving these next 2 weeks now that I'm feeling better.

More projects

2011-05-19T19:54:00.002-06:00

These are a few of my recent projects. I made them for my cutie nephew for his second birthday. The first is a Superman cape with his initial. My boys love capes so I hope he enjoys it.

The other gift is a mini car roll. It was fun and easy and he really liked it. It's the perfect size to keep in the diaper bag for trips and church.

My boys have all requested car rolls lol. And I plan to make some, as soon as I get some time. This last week has been hard with a nice little cold passing through the family. The babies have been all stuffy and fussy, and sleeping worse than normal. So I don't have a lot of free time during the day and not a lot of time after Hubby gets home since then we need to work on housework and yardwork and stuff. We finally got the garden planted and Hubby gets to mow the lawn regularly (he loves yard work. If we had a bigger yard a great gift would be one of those riding toro mowers). So hobby stuff has been pushed aside for a bit. Hopefully now that the boys are out of school, and once everyone is well again, I can get those made.

Graduate

2011-05-19T19:42:00.002-06:00

Jakey graduated from preschool today. It was really cute. They sang some songs and then got their little certificate and they all were given a Build-a-Bear. Jakey is so excited to be starting Kindergarten in a few months. He is such a small kid it's hard to think of him actually going to real school soon. I'm glad they love school so far though. It would be nice if they always loved it, but I'm guessing they'll start to get tired of it like most kids do at some point. I don't know when I started hating school but I know I definitely do not like it now. I recently registered for my classes for next semester and am not really looking forward to it. At least I didn't decide to go to medical assistant school or legal school or something. Don't think my tired mommy brain could handle stuff like that. I'm just hoping to do well in my classes so that I don't have to retake any and take longer.

Screen time

2011-05-19T19:28:00.002-06:00

We have really been enjoying Netflix. We don't go to movies at the theater very often so we always have to wait for them to come out on DVD to watch them, and with Netflix we can get to see all those movies we've been waiting for. Right now we are watching Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 1. So we get to see all these newer movies that we've been waiting for and decide if it's something we'd like to own. Plus the boys love finding stuff to watch using our Wii. They've discovered Sesame Street and Nathan loves it. I was hoping they had Mr. Rogers Neighborhood on there but they don't. I started watching Lost, but stopped in the middle of Season 4 cuz I just don't have a lot of time for TV. I need to finish watching before I forget everything. And now back to Harry Potter. :)

Soccer

2011-05-19T19:14:00.002-06:00

I can't remember if I posted a picture of my little soccer players? Don't they look ready to go run around scoring goals? Unfortunately most of the games are spent with us yelling for them to look at the ball, run after the ball, kick the ball, pay attention, etc. They don't really seem to care about actually playing. Jakey especially. He just wanders around or sits on the field or comes and sits with us. Hubby gets so frustrated with him not even trying, he'd end up with stress acne and need accutane if soccer went on much longer, but luckily they only have one game left. Hopefully when they are older they will want to play more. Or they could just take after me and have no sports skills whatsoever lol.

Jason's First Field Trip

2011-05-19T19:03:00.002-06:00

Jason had his very first school field trip last week. They went to the zoo. Hubby took the day off so he could go with them, since I can't with all the other little kids. He was excited to get to ride the school bus and even though it was a cold day they had a good time. I think the last time I went to the zoo was when I was pregnant with Nathan. I remember it was quite the workout, no need for usp labs pink magic weightloss, pushing a stroller while pg around a zoo for hours is tiring. So I was kind of happy not to go and push a double stroller around in the cold, but I should plan to take the kids their sometime this summer.

Be Jealous

2011-05-19T18:33:00.002-06:00

Yep, these adorable cuties are all mine! Seriously, could they be any cuter?! Isaac has recently started grabbing Caleb's hand whenever they are laying by each other and it's just so sweet. He always looks happy when he finds that hand to hold as well. Caleb doesn't seem to care either way lol, but Isaac loves holding hands. I wish we still had a photo printer so I could print out pictures like this to put around the house. I can't even do full color printing on our printer cuz we only have black ink lol. That reminds me, I need to update the SD card for our digital picture frame, hasn't been done since Nathan was a baby.

Catching up

2011-05-19T18:23:00.002-06:00

I really need to get caught up on some pictures. Time is going way too fast and I just always forget to put up the new pictures. Can you believe the babies are already 4 months old?! How did that happen?!?! And Jakey had preschool graduation today and Jason is almost done with Kindergarten. Before I know it they are all going to be moving out and starting their own lives lol. I keep waiting for time to slow down so I can catch up on life, but it just gets faster. That's why I like Facebook, I can post a quick note, see what everyone is up to, and share pics directly from my phone. But the blog is nice because I can write more and look back at it easier.

Alright, just finished uploading the latest camera pics so let's see what we have!

To file or not to file

2011-05-13T11:41:00.004-06:00

The other day we had to go through a bunch of EOBs and hospital bills from when we had the twins to see why we were being billed for something that should have already been paid and I was surprised at how many thre were! Seriously, having 2 babies makes lots of bills lol. And I never know whether it's ok to throw out stuff like that or not. I know my insurance has our claims online so those would be ok to throw out I guess, but how long should you keep hospital and doctor bills that are already taken care of? I wish I had one of those document management system things that has a scanner that copies important papers and saves them to your computer so you can shred them and get rid of all the clutter. We do have a scanner but it is soooo slow. Typically my filing goes like this: sort mail, put important stuff on counter, when the pile is overwhelming sort again and put stuff to keep in mail holder on desk, when that gets too full sort again and take the remaining stuff down to the office where it sits until the pile gets overwhelming and Hubby shreds or files stuff. Not very efficient.

So my brain is really tired and it's taken me a while to post this and I completely forgot if I was actually going anywhere with this post so I'm going to end it before it gets incoherent lol. Need sleep!

The Bi-yearly Clothing Switch

2011-05-13T11:25:00.002-06:00

Now that the weather has warmed up I guess it's time to start switching out the boys' winter clothes for summer stuff. It's a good thing I sorted out some of the clothes a few months ago into bins, but I never got to the bigger sizes so I will have to do that while I'm switching stuff around. It would be nice if everything had a barcode and I could just take a barcode scanner to it that uploads all the info on how many shirts, pants, shorts, etc I have in each size. I'm pretty sure they have plenty of shorts since they wear through the knees on pants so fast and I just turn them into shorts. And I think Jakey and Nathan will have enough shirts, I just never know if Jason will since we don't have a lot of hand-downs for him lol. I also need to finish moving the 3T stuff from Jakey to Nathan and getting out the rest of the 4T for Jakey (yes, he is almost 5 and still in 4T, my kids are small lol). But not today, I'm tired. :)

Almost vacation time!

2011-05-13T11:15:00.002-06:00

I'm so so excited that the weather is getting nice finally! I've been able to go running more and let the boys play outside. Next month is our vacation to Bear Lake which I am really looking forward to. It would be nice to get to go camping or something more often, but honestly with twin infants camping does not sound very fun lol. Maybe if we had a motor home. Of course then we'd need to pay for one plus the stuff needed for it and motor home repairs and all that. And we have camping stuff already which is cheaper lol. Probably won't do any really camping for a long time. I think the last time we actually went camping was 4 years ago when we lived up in Idaho. Since then it's just been our yearly stay at the condo in Bear Lake, which is just so much nicer haha.

Swaddler Tutorial

2011-05-01T22:49:00.006-06:00

I've never done a tutorial and the pictures I have are not very good. The next time I make one of these I will try to get better pictures. And hopefully I can explain how to do this without too much confusion.

I'm going to show you how I took this ugly old gigantic maternity shirt:
And made a swaddler:

I used my Miracle Blanket as a template, and then made a few changes. You can use a large shirt for this or probably about a yard of fabric. The length is 62" so if you want to make it without a seam across the length you will need a longer piece of fabric. First I will show you how I did it, then I will give you a pattern at the end for it. Here are the basic measurements.

First I cut along one side seam of the shirt and around the sleeve to open it up:At this point you can remove the sleeves, which will be used to make the inner arm flaps of the swaddler.

Then I laid out my swaddler and traced around it. Because I planned to use bias tape instead of hemming I didn't add any extra around the edge, but if you want to hem the edges add about 1/2" around the pattern. I wanted the pouch to be longer so when I got to the curved edge I added a few inches.You can see my shirt wasn't long enough for the whole length, so I then traced out the end flap onto the shirt to add on.

For the pouch I folded in the extra material on top of it so I could trace around the pouch, again adding the extra length. After cutting I put this piece on top of the main body and made sure the length matched up (which I was surprised it was pretty close since I free-handed it lol).
The last pieces were the inner arm flaps. I used the shirts sleeves and traced around the flaps, using the sleeve hem as the straight side. They came out shorter than the original flaps but still a good length. You will make 2 of these.
Cut out all pieces. (Yes, I am using little kid scissors. Sadly those are the sharpest scissors in the house. I really need some sewing shears!) You will have the long piece for the main body (including any extra length to stitch on), one pouch piece, and two arm flaps.I added bias tape around the edge of the arm flaps (the straight edge was already a finished hem, if not using a sleeve hem go ahead and just hem that side under) and along the top edge of the pouch. You can see the measurements here for the flaps and pouch. Also, my pouch narrowed towards the top, but I think it will work better if you just make it straight like the lines. Also optional is just hemming the top of the pouch under to allow it to stretch as needed, or making your own bias tape that allows for stretch. The store-bought stuff doesn't stretch and it makes it hard to get baby into the pouch.
I sewed the additional length I needed on now (yep, it's a bit wonky, I accidentally traced it on the wrong side so I had to flip it and try to get it to match up ok lol).
I then added the pouch by pinning the curved edges together to match up wrong sides together. You can go ahead and stitch along the curved edge but since I was adding bias tape around I just pinned it and stitched it together while adding the bias tape. If you are not using bias tape you will need to put the pieces together right sides together and stitch, then turn right side out. I went around (most of) the whole thing with bias tape. I ran out so I didn't get the top done, but luckily that was already the finished edge of the shirt so it's ok until I can get more so that it matches and the top isn't so much stretchier. Then I folded the raw sides of the pouch under and stitched them to the body.
Now it's time for the arm flaps. The bottom of each flap will fit just inside the pouch and the top will come almost to the top edge of the body. (my pouch was also a little wonky so the flap on one side went farther into it.) Just sew each straight edge down. I did two lines of stitching just for a little extra strength.
And you are done!

This was actually very quick and easy to put together. I had a few little mistakes and some pieces were wonky (and I love saying wonky!) but it works just fine. I'm sure my next one will come out much nicer. To wrap up baby, place baby in middle of pouch/flap area. One arm at a time, take each arm flap and tuck it over the arm and under baby's back snugly. Tuck baby's legs into the pouch. Bring short end of body piece over baby, then wrap long end around baby until all wrapped. You can also look up videos on youtube on how to do it.

And now for a pattern for those of you who want one: Swaddler
I have not used this pattern, it's just what I came up with according to the basic measurements, so anyone who tries it out let me know how it works!

Gift for a tired mommy

2011-05-01T09:08:00.002-06:00

Mother's Day is next week. I don't really need much for it, the best gift is my adorable little boys. And I don't wear a lot of jewelry so I don't need any diamonds international jewelry. Hubby usually gets me some flowers and chocolate and a card, and that's really enough. What would be great is to sleep in lol. These days I'm running low on sleep so if Hubby could take the babies downstairs in the morning and keep the kids quiet, and maybe make breakfast in bed for me, then I would be in heaven!

Easter

2011-05-01T09:01:00.002-06:00

Saturday the 23rd we went to an event set up by my local mom of twins group, a Multiple Birth Awareness Stroller Walk, with breakfast and an egg hunt. It was really fun and we had a great time. The weather was even nice enough not to dump the forecasted rain on us.

As we walked around the park:
The boys with their egg hunt spoils:
That night we dyed eggs:
And hid them in the front yard for the boys and their little cousin:
Easter morning they got to search the house for their Easter baskets:
We had a really nice Easter, even though it felt like we were on the go the whole weekend and Nathan got sick.

Interrupted

2011-05-01T08:56:00.002-06:00

We rarely actually watch real TV now that we have Netflix. In fact I hardly watch even the Netflix myself, it's usually something for the kids. But if we want to watch something like the latest episode of The Office (so going to miss Michael Scott! Bye Steve Carell!) then we have to switch it over to the broadcast TV. I'm always surprised when we start watching because I'm not used to seeing commercials anymore. Yummy fast food commercials (why do they always run those late at night to make me hungry?!), lawyers for mesothelioma symptoms, car dealerships, etc. It was interesting to see what new commercials have come out since I stopped watching TV as much lol.

Biz

2011-05-01T08:51:00.002-06:00

I used to think it would be cool to own our own business, or even a franchise of a chain business. But I have a friend whose family owns a business and as a part-owner she is responsible for a lot of work. She has to spend a lot of hours at work, plus a busy church calling, then all the activities for her kids. She's a supermom for sure being able to juggle all that! So I decided that I'd rather not have us own a business and be responsible for how much work it take to run one, at least not while we have small children.

Be a quitter

2011-05-01T08:46:00.002-06:00

Some ladies from one of the messageboards I read were talking about those electronic cigarettes to help quit smoking. I'd seen commercials for those and wondered exactly how they work, but never looked into it (since of course I don't smoke lol). They posted a link to electronic cigarette wholesale sites so I finally checked it out to see how it works. Basically it looks like a real cigarette but there's no tar and junk like a cigarette, just nicotine inserts that they can decrease over time so they lessen their addiction to it without having to try to cut the "smoking" habit cold turkey, plus since it doesn't have all the chemicals and stuff as cigarettes it's not as unhealthy for them and those around them. I think it's a pretty cool idea for those trying to quit.

Sew cute

2011-05-01T08:39:00.004-06:00

Here's a few more crafty things I have recently made. The first is a cute little purse I made for my little sister for her birthday.It turned out really well and was easier than it looks, even with adding piping. I want to make a bigger one for myself now.

And then I used our Miracle Blanket swaddler to make a similar blanket. It was super easy to make, though I ran out of bias tape so I need to get more for the top edge.I made it longer than the original Miracle Blanket, and the arm flaps a little shorter. I actually used an ugly old maternity shirt for the material. My mother-in-law brought me some material this weekend and I think I will make another from some of that.

Taxed

2011-05-01T08:35:00.002-06:00

I'm always relieved at tax time that we don't have more difficult taxes to prepare, and am so thankful for computer software to fill it all out. I looked at our tax form to see how many papers would have been included for a full paper return and it was over 100! There's all those forms for self-employment income (from my childcare last year and stuff), student info, info about the kids, etc. And the more things you have like social security disability income, family members in the military, business expenses, etc all add a bunch more to the tax papers. It's a huge relief not to have to print out all those papers and mail them in. And I'm sure whoever at the IRS processes the returns is glad they don't have as many paper returns to comb through. Hurray for software!

Teeth

2011-05-01T08:30:00.002-06:00

Jason is getting close to losing his 4th tooth. He's going to have such a silly little smile when that one falls out lol. It's fun getting to play tooth fairy with him. I had wanted to buy gold coins, the dollar ones, for him so it would seem extra special, but after the first one he asked the tooth fairy for "a cash", aka paper money lol. Silly boy. I remember when I was a kid I was lucky if I even got a quarter! Half the time I literally lost the tooth and never got anything from the tooth fairy for it. Now I just have to figure out what to do with Jason's teeth after they are out. Do I keep them? Seems kind of gross. But I have a hard time just throwing them away. What do other people do??

Dark eyes

2011-05-01T08:24:00.002-06:00

The other day I was at my mom's house and both my mom and brother asked me if I had a black eye. Luckily I do not lol. I just have dark circles under my eyes from needing sleep, plus I wash wearing eyeshadow that day which really irritates my eyes so I kept rubbing it, adding to the black eye look. I no longer need to figure out how to remove pimples, but I do need some new concealer to get rid of these under-eye circles so people don't think I got beat up lol.

Mother's Day Giveaway at 5M4M

2011-04-28T08:36:00.003-06:00

5 Minutes for Mom is doing another round of great giveaways, this time for Mother's Day. Just click on the button above to learn how you can enter to win some fabulous prizes like an HP notebook or flowers!

Being crafty

2011-04-15T11:06:00.002-06:00

I joined a crafty sewing mom messageboard a few weeks ago and it has me wanting to make so many cute things. Unfortunately it's mostly cute girl stuff and I don't have any girls! Fortunately my SIL is having a baby girl next month so I got to try out some cute dresses.

This one is a pinafore with ruffle butt bloomers. The pattern was pretty simple, though it took me awhile to get the ribbon ruffle figured out. The straps are a little longer than I would do again, but overall it turned out really cute. I think it'll probably be about a 6 month size (I tried it on Caleb and it was big, and no I didn't get any pictures of that lol). And if I do bloomers again I'd make them a little bigger in the back, they aren't quite high enough.

And this little dress was so fun to make because it is just so cute, and the directions were very clear. It was my first time using piping and bias tape and it turned out so adorable. But tiny. I can only hope her little girl is as small as her first was and maybe it'll fit for a little bit. If I ever make another of these I'd probably put buttons or a zipper in back to make it easier to put on and use the bigger pattern size.

I've been wanting to make these tie onesies for awhile and I finally did. They were very cute like this but I had to add stitching around the edges because the iron on stuff looses it's effectiveness after washing and I didn't want it peeling and fraying. Unfortunately the stitching didn't go so well because the iron on stuff kept gumming up the needle. Good thing the cute babies make up for the poor stitching (this pic is before adding the stitching).

There are so many more things I want to make, but I just don't have the fabric! I want to make a boppy cover and a cover for my EZ2nurse pillow first, I just need to find some cute materials to use.

Toothless

2011-04-15T10:14:00.002-06:00

Jason has lost 3 teeth now, and another is loose. The first tooth we got him one of those dollar gold coins (or was it silver, I can't remember) but for the next one he told me to ask the tooth fairy for "a cash", aka a paper dollar. For his third tooth the tooth fairy gave him another "cash" but then he was disappointed that it wasn't a quarter. I had to explain that a dollar was worth 4 quarters. He's so funny. Oh, and his last tooth was bleeding a little before it came out and he got upset. I told him it was normal and that I could pull it for him so he wouldn't have to wait for it to fall out but he was not going for it. Instead he bravely yanked it out all by himself.

To-do

2011-04-15T10:07:00.002-06:00

On my to-do list today is cleaning my fridge. It's been in desperate need of a good scrub for awhile now and so today I'm going to tackle it. Not my favorite chore, but it always looks so nice when I'm done. I also need to call my dermatologist cuz I keep forgetting (plus everytime I call I end up having to leave a message, seems like with their small business phone system they would be able to answer occasionally lol), and at least sweep the kitchen floor. I do really good keeping up with laundry and dishes, but everything else ends up getting done only when it's too messy to ignore anymore lol. Next month when Jason goes off-track and Jakey is done with preschool I hope to have more time to keep up with the house since I won't have the extra trips during the day.

Personal Creations

2011-04-15T10:00:00.002-06:00

I've mentioned before that I'm really not good at picking out gifts, especially for Hubby. I usually have to ask him what he wants, which takes away any surprise. But I would love to get him some of Personal Creations birthday gifts for men. They have a fun Dad clock that I could put the kids' names on, or a bunch of different personalized mugs, and even personalized hammers. Perhaps I will have to check out something from there the next time I'm clueless for a gift for Hubby. :) I know there's things he'd like in their grilling and golf sections. Ooh, I just saw the anniversary gifts section and there are so many cute ideas!

All wrapped up

2011-04-15T09:57:00.001-06:00

Cuz sometimes you just need two available hands and a baby wants to be held too. :) (Oh, and don't worry, I made sure not to get him too close to the stove!)

Parent's Days

2011-04-15T09:52:00.003-06:00

So Mother's Day is coming up. We never really do much for it. Hubby always gets me flowers and a card. He doesn't get the best Mother's Day flowers delivered, he just gets them at the store, but that's fine because our cats try to eat them anyway so I'd rather he not spend a lot on them lol. Oh, and he always gets me some chocolate too. :D He definitely knows the way to my heart! For Father's Day I usually buy him something he's been wanting like DVDs. We don't really go all out for those holidays, they are pretty much like any other day.

Sunshine

2011-04-15T09:47:00.002-06:00

I have had sensitive eyes ever since I was little. I used to have to wear those tinted glasses. Let me tell you, in 7th grade with boy-short hair and those large-framed tinted glass I sure was hot. Not. Luckily my eyes aren't quite as sensitive these days. I can wear regular contacts. But I'd still love some nice glacier sunglasses for when I'm driving. Some days the intensity of the suns rays makes it hard for me to see while I'm driving. Even if it's not really that bright outside, I guess the light rays are sometimes at just the right wavelength to hurt my eyes. I had a pair of cute sunglasses but they were that light blue tint and they really didn't do more than make everything look blue lol. It's about time I bought some new ones.

Out of sight

2011-04-15T09:42:00.003-06:00

I love having our big flat screen TV mounted on the wall, but what I don't like is the look of the wires running down the wall. There's the plus and then cords for the DVD player, VHS player (yes, we still have one of those lol), and Wii. It's a mess. We once had some cheap wire concealer thing but it didn't work to well and kept coming off the wall. I'd love to get some nice surface raceways, the little tubing things that hide and protect cords. It would be great behind our computer desk too because that is just a whole mess of cords.

White

2011-04-15T09:39:00.001-06:00

I realized that I never posted a picture of the babies from their blessing day. Here they are in their cute little outfits with their blankets that Grandma Cindy made. They were so adorable :)

Getting outside

2011-04-15T09:35:00.002-06:00

I can't believe Jakey is going to be 5 in less than 2 months! He is so excited to start Kindergarten this year. I put him and Jason in soccer this Spring and his first game is Tuesday. I thought of doing T-ball but I didn't know what kind of equipment we'd need to get them. Maybe for his birthday I can get him some baseball gifts and put him in T-ball in the fall. I want them to enjoy being outside playing sports. They spend so much time inside during the winter that I want them outside as much as possible when it's warm, I think it's good for them. I remember as a kid we'd spend the whole summer outside plying with siblings and cousins, playing games and sports, and just generally being kids. These days so many kids just stay inside watching TV and playing video games.

Projects

2011-04-15T09:27:00.003-06:00

A friend of mine has recently started some remodeling of her home. It makes me have an itch to fix up stuff at our house. Last year we got new carpet and tile, which I love, and next year we are planning to redo our kitchen floor and countertops. We were going to this year, but then we needed the money for the babies lol. We'd also love to fix up the backyard by tearing up half the cement and putting more grass in, we only have a tiny strip of grass back there. The nice thing about being a homeowner is that if you want to install smart home systems, remodel, paint, or anything like that, then you can. :) And Hubby likes taking care of the house and yard and always trying to make it better.

Spring in Utah

2011-04-15T09:23:00.002-06:00

I'm getting so tired of this Utah Spring weather. It does it every year, switching back and forth from warm to cold. We can have sunny 60* weather one week and snow the next. Grr. Wish it would just stay warm already! I want to be able to let the kids play outside more and go for runs more. It should be time to lay by a pool in ray-ban sunglasses getting a tan. But no, we get April snowstorms :P I hate being cold and these teasing weather is just not nice, getting my hopes up then dashing them to pieces.

That time again

2011-04-03T17:15:00.002-06:00

I just realized that now that it's April I need to start thinking about Fall semester of school. Sigh. I'm not ready to go back! But registration is this month and scholarship applications are due end of the month/beginning of next. Time is going way too fast. Wish I could just not go, but then I'd be pretty stuck if I ended up needing a job. My job experience includes fast food, collections for payday advance loans, fast food, temp job at a mail sorting facility, and fast food. So to give myself better job opportunities if I had to work I will continue to go to school. Cuz being an adult means we sometimes choose to do things we don't want to do lol.

My little superheroes

2011-04-03T17:11:00.002-06:00

Last month I joined a local twin moms group. It's been fun and nice to interact with other moms of twins. About a week ago we had a mother-son activity with a superhero theme. I whipped up some capes for the older 3 to wear. Nathan loves them the most. Sorry the pics are blurry, I took them with my phone and the kids kept moving lol. You can see Jason has the Superman pose down. :)

The Junk Cupboards

2011-03-30T09:52:00.004-06:00

So, in addition to my junk drawer we also have some cupboards above the desk and microwave that collect clutter. There was a little bit of organization in that I knew where stuff was supposed to go, but it was way too full and stuff was just getting shoved in. It actually took me a few minutes to find my camera in the mess to take these pictures.

Before:
I took a bunch of stuff down to the storage room and office where they needed to be. Office supplies went into the newly organized junk drawer. Tools and stuff out to the garage. Then I had plenty of room to put everything back all organized.

After:

There's a basket for batteries, a basket for card games, a spot for gadgets like our external hard drive and camera and ipad accessories if we had one, and areas for our church papers and scriptures. Then there's the shelf that houses the kids stuff that I hate (play doh, markers, bubbles) so the kids don't get to it without permission, and I took medications upstairs to the medicine cabinet where they belonged and left vitamins and a few meds that are used often like Nathan's eczema cream. And of course we have our collection of souvenir cups on a top shelf lol. Not sure where else to put them.

It took a few hours to tackle the cupboards and junk drawer, but it was so worth it to be able to find what I need without sifting through junk or worrying about something falling on me. I even found a place for everything that was on top of the microwave. So nice to have an organized space!

The Junk Drawer

2011-03-30T09:41:00.003-06:00

So, I know everyone has one. That one (or 2) drawer in the house where random stuff collects. The Junk Drawer. It gets filled up with everything from old birthday cards to teflon hose to pens that don't work anymore. Why do we hold onto pens that don't work anyway?! It's not like they are going to suddenly start working again when we are on the phone scrambling for something, anything, to leave a message with, clicking through the pens trying to find one that works.

Anyway, so yesterday I did it. I tackled my junk drawer. I've been meaning to for a while but it's one of those things that just always fell to the bottom of my to do list. Instead of everything else on my to do list yesterday I decided to bump it up to the top.

I started by taking everything out and putting them in piles. Useless junk went straight to the garbage can. There were probably 20 pens in there, and amazingly about 15 of them still worked! I took a bunch of craft stuff down to the storage room and a bunch of random nails, screws, and hardware out to the workbench in the garage. Then I reorganized the drawer with a bunch of boxes to sort stuff and put stuff away.

Before:
After:

Isn't that so much better?! I can actually find stuff in there! And I moved a bunch of stuff from the cupboard above to the drawer where it's easier to access.

Worth it

2011-03-30T09:35:00.002-06:00

Pregnancy sure messes with a person's body. Even once it's over you have to deal with your hormones getting back to normal. I have a waist again and the acne is clearing up so I don't have to worry about how to get rid of blackheads on nose, but my joints are still loose and making my knees hurt, the night sweats are luckily ending, and I've started into the major hair loss. And I completely forgot where I was going with this because I was hit by a wave of exhaustion lol.

I Heart Them

2011-03-30T09:33:00.000-06:00

All together now: Aaaaaw!

Blessed

2011-03-06T18:03:00.002-07:00

Today we had our babies blessed. In our church we bless newborn babies, giving them their name and a blessing specifically for them. It was fun to do it with the twins and have to pass one off for the other lol. We had tons of family and friends come for it which was wonderful. After the meeting we came home and had a luncheon for everyone. There were around 40 people here and we had just enough food. So great to get to visit with everyone. It does get a little warm inside when so many people are here, though it wasn't hot enough to need monte carlo fans or anything. I think enough people were going in and out that the cold air from outside kept it cool enough. Everyone has left now (except my little sis who's spending the night) and it's so quiet. I'll get some pics posted of the babies in their cute little blessing suits, they are adorable.

Point and shoot

2011-03-05T21:11:00.002-07:00

I'm definitely not a professional photographer, but I love taking pics of my babies. Sometimes I look at professional baby pictures and try to recreate the type of setups and stuff. Not really the best without all the right equipment but it's fun. These were from a photo shoot I did with them this week.

"OK, mom, what are you up to?"

"This is pretty comfy"

"I will NOT curl up all cute!"

"All right, laying here isn't so bad."

"He's touching me!"

"No more pictures!"

The pictures might not look too professional, but the babies are still adorable!

March

2011-03-05T21:02:00.002-07:00

One thing I love about this time of year is that we don't have any birthdays or present holidays for a while. I am not good at picking out gifts. I'm always reading those articles about the best fathers day gift ideas and stuff to hopefully give me an idea. Kids are easy, just get them any toy or art supply and they are good. Adults are much harder. At least for me. Hubby always seems to be able to pick out gifts for me easily.

Blank mind

2011-03-05T20:53:00.003-07:00

Holy cow, I keep meaning to post and then other things get in the way. Like nursing, preschool, nursing, cooking, nursing, cleaning, nursing... I don't mind the nursing, but as soon as I'm about to do something one of the babies gets hungry and by the time I'm done nursing I forget whatever it was lol. Of course I've never had the greatest memory as it is, and having kids and the sleep deprivation that comes with it has made it worse. My brain just stops functioning when I'm tired. The other day Nate was telling me something and I was looking right at him and he could have been saying he bought padron cigars online and I wouldn't have known. I didn't register a single word he'd said, just smiled and nodded and then told him I hadn't heard a thing he said. I wasn't even thinking of anything else. My mind just was blank and I think I may have took a split-second nap with my eyes open lol.

Old school GPS

2011-02-19T22:36:00.002-07:00

This is my GPS. Sticky note with a scribbled map and address. Our van isn't new and cool enough to have stuff like built in DVD players, GPS and power sliding doors (a girl can dream) and I don't see the point in getting portables DVD, GPS, etc when it would probably just distract me. Of course having my sticky note fall off and land under my feet is kind of distracting too so...yeah.

Little artists

2011-02-19T22:06:00.003-07:00

I usually don't let the boys cover the table with art stuff because they leave it all over and getting them to clean up the mess is as fun as fenphedrine reviews but some days it's worth it. The boys got some new Crayola color wonder and glow coloring stuff and the actually spent about 2 hours peacefully coloring with it. No TV wasting their brains, no fighting, no messing up the playroom. Just cute little boys sitting nicely and coloring.

Brain too full, stuff getting lost

2011-02-19T21:28:00.003-07:00

I feel bad that I don't take a lot of pictures of my older boys these days. I have a bunch of the babies but only a couple of my other boys. This cute pic was taken this week when I was dropping Jakey off at school. Besides his adorable brown eyes what do you notice? Messy hair. Evidently I have too much going through my mind (diapers, feeding kids, remembering to feed myself, fore factor reviews to get in shape, laundry, dishes, etc) that I forget important stuff like that. Good thing he's so cute so he can get away with a little messy hair. At least I didn't forget to make sure he had shoes on like one day last week. (And, yes, I sent him in without his shoes, wasn't going to take 20mins to go home and back for them.)