Baby Lucy

Lucy Vera

7lb. 3 oz.

I'm a new Aunt, Mark and Ruth had their beautiful baby on Thursday morning. Mom and baby are doing well, and Lucy is just adorable. Her big sister Sophia is doing great, but was surprised at how small her sister is, and wishes she could talk to her on the phone.

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday to the best brother and sister I could ask for. Mark's birthday was Monday and Kathy's is Tuesday-today. I hope you both had a great birthday.
Mark is the master debater(wow don't say that to fast or drunk) and very loyal and sweet. Kathy is the glue that holds our family together, she is sweet and caring. Her friend wrote 10 things I like about Kathy on her blog, it's a perfect short story of her. I can't even compete with that writing, So all I can say is I love you both Tons!!!

Homemade bath products

For our MOPS craft this week we made homemade bath products. We made lip balm that is all natural with no petroleum. I'm excited to see if it really makes my lip softer. Here is the recipe we used.

Lip Gloss

this makes about 16 jars/sticks

1/2 cup sweet almond oil

3 Tablespoons bee's wax

Melt in microwave, I used a mini crock pot so it would stay warm.

Add 2 teaspoons candy flavoring

1/4 teaspoons vit. E oil

These are homemade bath salts, I found that the Epsom salt are cheaper at Costco and I thought it Had a better consistency than others I've used, one more reason why I love Costco. I got the tins for .33 cents at For every body.

Bath Salts

1/2 cup Epsom salt

4-5 drops of color

3 drops of essential oil

Blend color well

Bath Tea Bags

3 Tablespoons bath salt or Epsom salt

3 Tablespoons dried lavender or Chamomile

1 tablespoons oats

10 in circle fabric(muslin, organza, cheesecloth)

small piece of ribbon

Elastic band

Spoon mix into the center of fabric, gather the fabric up to form a bundle around the mix. Secure with elastic band, and tie with ribbon.

To use: simply drop the bath bag into the water and allow the hot water to run over it. Gently squeeze to allow mix to strain through.

I've also read that you can substitute the salt for powered milk.

HGTV Dream home

I get excited about the dream home each year. I love the floor plan of this home, it's pretty close the my dream floor plan. All the bedrooms are upstairs together with the laundry room, I have no idea why they always put the bedrooms up and laundry down. This home has two islands, I thought it was kind of odd at first, but then I started thinking of all the possibility's. Kids at one bar, me at the other preparing dinner. For dinner party's it would be great, I'm always putting the food out on the bar, but then you can't sit at the bar. I love the location, it's not far from my family that live in Northern California. I think wine country is beautiful, and wine itself is a beautiful thing, and it comes with plenty to share, all my friends and family are invited if I win.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

This is my all time favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe, they are soft and not flat. I usually half this recipe, it makes a lot. I like to substitute the chocolate chips sometimes for broken up pieces of candy bars, or mini andies mints.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 C. Margarine
2 C. brown sugar
2 C. Sugar
4 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
7 1/4 c. flour
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 pkgs chocolate chips

Mix all ingredients. Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes.

Steam Blaster

This is my new toy, and I've been having so much fun cleaning my house with it. This was my Christmas present from my sweet hubby. I know most people say never give your wife a kitchen appliance or vacuum as a Christmas gift, but I'm a practical girl.

I wanted to get this to see if it would help with Devin sensitive skin issues. I also really like the idea of it blasting dirt out of hard to reach areas. it uses no cleaners, just plain water. The water in our area is so hard that it does recommend using another water source. The commercials say throw away all your cleaners and never use them again. That is just totally unrealistic, (are you really going to get out the shark to wipe down your counter each time)but I knew this before I purchased it. It says on the box that it's 50 minutes of cleaning power per fill, I get about 30

minutes, but maybe I'm just a super fast cleaner, not. The water heats up and gives about minute worth of cleaning before it needs to heat up again. This is usually great because you need to wipe away mess, but it does get a little annoying when I have the floor attachment on and I'm cleaning the tile. The brush attachment is OK, the bristles don't seem like they are going to hold up to a lot of scrubbing, but I don't use it much. The steam blaster works great at cleaning baseboards, just enough blast to dust and clean at the same time. It also works great on sticky mess that I don't seem to find until they are harded, it just melts them away. I've also used it on my couch cushion after the kids got something gross on them. I also had just washed my comforter and put it back on my bed and the kids got peanut butter and jam on it, I steamed it way, no need to rewash. I also had a old toothpaste stain in my carpet(I swear my kids are animals) It worked great and I had tried to remove the stain many times. I was surprised at how it chipped away my hard water in some places, it really chipped away like paint, so cool. I was hoping it would do miracles with my glass shower doors, but it just worked OK.

I'm not really sure if this is a faster way of cleaning some things, but it is a lot more fun. Jim paid 79.99 and got it at Lowes, I have been looking to replace my hoover mop anyway which is about the same price. The hoover mop got little gross because it's sucking everything up into a compartment that has to be cleaned and there were brushes on the bottom that would get dirty. I knew it was cleaning my floors, but I wasn't sure they were really clean. So, my Shark steam blaster is my new cleaning friend and although it doesn't do everything the commercial says it can, I'm still happy with it.

Bitter Sweet

So, tomorrow Christmas break is officially over. I've had so much fun lounging in my Pj's and having nothing to do. Jim had some time off for the Christmas and New years and it was fun to have him around. I have enjoyed playing late night games of sorry with Desi and hubby, and sleeping in while Desi feeds the babies their morning cereal. I'm not ready to get back to my regular schedule, I know I'm a stay at home mom, how busy could my life really be right. You would be surprised at how quickly my calender fills up with school, dance, church, mops, mops meeting, bible study, and the list could go on. I enjoy all the things that fill up my calender, but it was a much needed break. The babies will miss having sister around during the day, but I won't miss all the added mess, and extra fights that occur.

Welcome 2009!!

Let me start by saying I'm not a superstitious person, but for New years I am. I know it's really dumb, and I have no idea where I picked it up. I base how my year will be, with how my day turns out on New years day. Jim is always really good about it and tries to make my day special he calls it my day. Today though we are both so tired, we have done nothing. New Years Eve we went and saw the ute basketball game then after we let the kids stay up with us for new years and we played games and had snacks. I really thought the kids would crash, but none of them did and at midnight we did our annual pan banging to bring in the new year. The kids didn't sleep in and I'm super tired and the day is just blah! So my new year will be filled with cranky kids and sleep deprivation and laundry that I don't feel like doing.

This year my New Years resolution is to stop procrastinating. I know it sounds really canned, but this really affects my health. I wait until I have to go into crisis mode and I about have a panic attack. I wait until the last minute with stupid stuff that could have done a lot earlier. Some of the things I procrastinate on are out of my control, but this year I'm really going to try to get them under my control. So hears is to a new year, No procrastinating and let go of dumb superstitions.