The Countdown Is On

We are going to Disneyworld in a few weeks and Kaylee couldn't be more excited!! She has been a few times but the last time she went she was only about 1 1/2 and Kyle was only a couple months so neither of them remember anything!! We have been talking to Kaylee about it for a while and she asks everyday if today is the day we are going...so we created a countdown jar!! I cut up small pieces of paper and drew mickey mouse on them and we put one in the jar for everyday we have left before we go!! I told her everymorning when she gets up we can take one out and when they are all gone it will be time to go!! She got up thismorning and asked to get the jar and she took one out and then came back a few minutes later and said "Mom can I go ahead and take all of them out because I am really ready to go to Disney now" haha!! These few weeks are going to drap by for her lol

Pick Up Scheduled

I posted a while ago about a blog I am in love with called iheartorganizing.blogspot.com I havent visited the site in a while and last night I came across it again and got inspired. We have a small house and a ton of stuff so simplifying is a MUST!! I have been saying I need to call for a donation pick-up but wanted to wait until I had gone through everything before I called. I decided to go ahead and schedule it for TOMORROW so that I would have no choice but to get everything cleaned out TODAY!! The kids room was going to be my biggest task. They have so much toys and a lot of small things that are broken or have pieces missing..so we tackeled their room and got rid of 4 bags of clothes and toys that they no longer use!! WOW..they are going to have so much more room and hopefully wont have as hard of a time keeping it clean! I am now moving on to the rest of the house while they are playing with all the toys they had forgotten they had that were at the bottom of the toy box!! Hope I can keep my motivation :)

2 Years Old

I am a week behind on this post and probably would be later than that if I didnt have a 3 hour nap today and now I'm wide awake with nothing to do haha!! Our sweet boy turned two last week!! We were going to have a party for him last week but ended up postponing it until yesterday because of the weather. Last Sunday on his actual birthday John had to work so the kids and I went to church and went to lunch with my family to celebrate..that night John's parents came over and brought a cookie cake and his big birthday present from them...a bike!! It was actually pretty sad because Kaylee has been begging for a bike and we keep telling her she has to wait until Christmas!! When she saw the bike she was so excited but was quickly dissappointed when she realized that it was for Kyle and that he wasn't even going to let her near it haha!! That night she told John "Daddy I sure did want a bike too"!! It was so sad..John's parents thought she already had a bike and felt so bad so they went and got her a pink one to match the next day!! She is one happy little girl :)

Yesterday we had his little party at Sunny Acres park and it was HOT but we all had a great time! It was mostly just a family and out sweet friends the Slegers. Everyone was very generous and Kyle got lots of new toys and clothes. He LOVES and kind of cars and trucks and thats what we told everyone to get him. He was in heaven with all his new cars!! When we got home and I brought all his stuff in and took it out of the bags he started laughing so hard he had tears in his eyes haha. I guess he couldnt believe all that was for him!!

Kyle continues to be such a sweet laid back little guy! He is his daddys boy, his mommas baby and his sisters best friend :) He is perfectly happy playing by himself but he cannot be left alone for a second haha. He is in to EVERYTHING!! He will unload a cabinent or take something apart in a matter of seconds if you arent watching him haha! He is starting to finally talk more but would prefer for Kaylee to just do the talking for him! He is still a great eater and doesnt turn down much. He loves to be outside and his favorite passtime is riding with papa on his mini-bike :) We are so thankful for these last two great years with our boy and can't wait to see what is in store for his future!Chillin in Mommy and Daddys bed on his birthday morningCan you tell she is EXCITEDThis just melts my heart :)Enjoying a cupcake at his party

Some of his new stuff he got at his party!!

Pretty Please Designs

I have been making Kaylee's hairbows since she was really small and I have always thought about having a little side buisness selling them. I figured that I was going to make them for her anyhow so I might as well try to make a little money!! I never really got around to doing it until last week. I got a bunch of new ribbon just planning to make some new stuff for Kaylee and they turned out really cute. I showed them to John and he said that I really should think about making a facebook fanpage to try and get my name out there..so I can up with a name "Pretty Please Designs" and started the fanpage. Within 2 days of starting the page I had over a 100 people like the page and even had a few orders. I am so excited about this!! I know this is not something that will make me millioms ;) But its something I really enjoy doing. If your interested in seeing some of my items for sale you can check out www.facebook.com/prettypleasedesignslk

School: Week 2

So we have finished week 2 of school and Kaylee is loving it!! We worked on the letter B and Number 2 this week. The first week we did a lot of worksheets and although she enjoyed it I thought she was bored with it. So this week I got a lot of ideas from pinterest and we did much more than just worksheets, she seemed to learn more and enjoy it more also! We went to the library and got books that talked about the letter B and number 2 and also a few others she wanted. Every day we had reading time and her and Kyle both enjoyed that. I found a neat website that gives you a bible verse for each letter of the alphabet and this week was Acts 16:31 "Believe in the Lord Jeses" she can recite the verse but not the reference quite yet. We also played some games using popsicle sticks and that is really helping her learn and recognize her letters and numbers. I decided Fridays would be our funday and we would do some kind of fun craft or game and today we made homemade playdough. She loved it and it turned our great but it was such a sticky, messy process. I think we will just stick with the store bought stuff!! Next week we are working on the letter C so I got the Hungry Little Caterpillar book from the library and have planned a bunch of neat stuff to go along with that!! More on that next week :)

From Pillowcase to Accessories

Instead of doing something productive yesterday we had a craft day..while the kids did their own little crafts I decided to try out some things I had seen on pinterest and other websites. I needed old fabric scraps but the only ones I really had were Christmas ones and that wasn't what I was looking for so I decided to use an old pillowcase. I made flower bows and a headband and even rings and earrings for Kaylee and I. I couldnt believe how cute the stuff turned out and now I can't wait to get more fabric to make much more stuff!! Here is some of what we made :)

iheartorganizing.blogspot.com

I came across this blog a few days ago and I am in love with it!! She has some awesome ideas for organizing and I can't wait to get started organizing!! I have never seen a house as organized as hers...she even has everything in her fridge and freezer organized and labeled!! Now that is AWESOME. I'm not sure I will ever be that organized but hey a girl can dream right :) Stay tuned for before and after pictures..I'm going to pick one spot per day to work on until the whole house has been done (at least thats my goal anyway..may change my mind once I get started lol)!!

Schedules and School

Since I became a stay at home mom about a year and a half ago we really havent followed much of a schedule..we wake up when we want, eat when we want, clean when we want and sleep when we want!! I was getting a little frusterated with how our days were going and how the kids were acting so John suggested that getting the kids into some kind of routine may help their behavior and make me a little less stressed, so last week I wrote out a schedule that I thought may work for us and decided that we would start yesterday since it was also the first day of the new school year. I also started K-3 yesterday with Kaylee. We have been practicing "school" for a while now but never really anything that was organized, I would just print worksheets off the computer and she would do them. So I sat down and wrote out a calendar of exactly what we would work on each week from now until the end of the year and we had a successful "school day". I put a little desk and workstation for Kaylee right beside my desk and she loves that she has her own place to do her school. The kids and I had such a great day and I think that we will have much better days if we can stick to this!! Kaylees new school spot :)Computer time...we just discovered pbskids.org (thanks to my cousin Kristin) and we love the educational games they have!!Just thought I'd share with everyone just how crazy cute this little guy is..he dumped his beans out all over the table and put the bowl on his head, I walked in the kitched and said "why son" and he pointed at his head and said "hat" lol Oh and yes, of course there was bean juice still all in the bowl which got all in his hair and down his neck!!! LOVE HIM :)

Monkey Boy

This child is seriously a monkey...he climbs on everything all the time!! From the time he wakes up until the time he goes to bed he is nothing but a ball of energy lol. This is what he was up to thismorning. Oh how I love this boy :) And by the way..one month from today this boy will be 2!!!

Hairbow Frame

I saw this cute idea on Pinterest and I had to try it out for all of Kaylees bows that are always all over the place..I LOVE how it turned out and it was super. All you have to do it take everything out of an old picture frame until all thats left is the outside frame. Then hot glue pieces of ribbon from one side of the frame to the other and when its dry clip on the hairbows!!! I love things that are cute and functional :)

Johns 26th Birthday

Yesterday was Johns 26th birthday and since he has been wanting to go to Clarks Fish Camp thats where we went for dinner. It was John, Kaylee, Kyle and I and his parents and brother and Mamie and Papa. Its been a long time since we had been there and neither of the kids have ever gone. I forgot how much I love that resturant. Its a really cool place. They have just added on to the building and have added a lot more animals since I had left been there. There is also a new turtle and alligator exhibit that they are working on right now. Kaylee loves animals so she was in heaven looking at everything. The food was delicious and after we ate we all stood around on the dock for a while feeding the fish, alligators and turtles!! We all had such a great time. I am so blessed to have such an amazing husband that works so hard for me and our family. Happy Birthday Babe...WE LOVE YOU!!

B is for Bouncy Ball

I have started working on preschool at home with Kaylee. I really want to homeschool and I thought it wouldnt hurt us to get started now. We both LOVE it!! I have been printing out tons of worksheets for her to do and made us a schedule of what we are going to work on. Each week we will focus on a letter and a number and also try to memorize a bible verse. We already learned the fruits of the spirit but I found cute little worksheets to go along with that so we are going over one again each week!! I love teaching her new things and she really loves to learn. She begs every day to do school and always wants to do more than I have planned for her. I am trying to cherish this time that she begs to do schoolwork because i know it wont last forever.

This week we are working on the letter B. I found a little project on pinterest that I thought would be perfect for this week...Homemade bouncy balls!! I had everything we needed except cornstarch so we picked some of that up at walmart and yesterday we made our bouncy balls. It was really easy and Kaylee was so proud that she had made her own ball.

All you need is 2 cups, 1/2 tsp of borax, 2 tbsp of glue, 1 tbsp cornstarch, 2 tbsp of water.

Mix water and borax together in a cup. Pour glue and cornstarch into the other cup but do not stir..then pour 1/2 tsp of the borox mixture over the glue and cornstarch. Let them react on their own for 15-20 seconds then stir them until they wont stir anymore. Knead the mixture into a ball shape. You can add food coloring if you like but I just left ours white. The ball will bounce better on the carpet and you have to put it in a ziploc bag or it will dry out!!

Homemade Laundry Soap

About the time I started making my own baby wipes I also found a recipe for homemade laundry soap. If your anything like our family then you know how expensive laundry soap is. Especially when you leave the clothes in the washer for to long and have to re-wash them like I am known for doing lol. Anyways there are a lot of laundry soap recipes online but I chose to use the one that the Duggar family uses. I figured they probably wash nore clothes than any other family so they should have a pretty good recipe lol. I was a little hesitant at first that the clothes wouldnt get clean, or wouldnt smell good but they really do. John has very sensitive skin so he was worried that he may break out or something but we have been using it for about 2 months now and its going great. When I calculated how much we were saving in one year just from making it ourself I was shocked. You can buy all the stuff you need at walmart for under $7.00 and if my calculations are correct then you should have enough to make soap for one whole year before you need to buy the supplies again. $7 per year as opposed to $12 every 2 weeks....can't beat that!! I had to make my second batch of soap yesterday so I thought I would document it for anyone who wants to save money and make their own soap.

What you will need:

-5 Gallon Bucket w/ lid

-Hot Tap Water

-1 cup of Arm and Hammer Super Washing Powder (you have to use the washing powder..baking soda will not work)

-1 bar of soap (I use Ivory because I got a bunch of it free from couponing)

-1/2 cup of borax

Directions:

-Grate bar of soap

-Add 4 cups of hot tap water and grated soap in a small pot and cook over medium heat until all soap is melted. You really need to stir it the entire time.

-Fill your 5 gallon bucket half way full with hot tap water

-Add in melted soap, borax and super washing powder to your 5 gallon bucket. Stir until all powder is disolved.

-Fill bucket to the top with more hot water

-Cover the 5 gallon bucket and let sit overnight to settle.

I saved a few old laundry soap containers and I go ahead and fill them up when the soap is ready. If you want you can add some lavendar oil while you are melting the soap if you want your soap to have a stronger smell. I just use fabric softener and to me they smell great :)

Homemade Baby Wipes

I love the Duggar family and a few months ago I was reading on there website that they make their own baby wipes to save money. I figured I would give them a shot and I ended up LOVING them. There are much cheaper than store bought baby wipes and in my opinion they work better. I thought I would post the recipe for those of you who wanted to try!!

You cut one roll of papertowels in half so that you have two toilet paper sized rolls. I have tried a couple different brands of pepertowels but found that Bounty works best.

Mix 2 cups of water, 1 tablespoon of rubbing alcohol and 2 tablespoons of baby oil together

Put 1 of the papertowel halves in a large bowl and drizzle the mixture over them.

Let them soak for 30 minutes then remove cardboard from the center

After the 30 minutes I go ahead and tear them all apart and put them in an old baby wipe case so they will stay moist.

They smell and work great and I LOVE that I made them myself. I no longer have to rush to the store to get wipes before the next dirty diaper lol..I can just make some more :)

22 Months

Can you believe this precious boy is 22 months old today?? I know I sure can't!! How in the world is my BABY going to be 2 in just 2 short months??? Time is flying!! This sweet boy brings us so much joy. He is his daddys boy, his mommys baby, and his sisters best friend. He is just such a happy kid. He loves life and is always in a good mood. We are so happy God chose us to be his parents!!

Thumper

I don't know how in all my catching up I forgot to mention our rabbit thumper...or "Thumpter" as Kaylee calls her. Kaylee really loves animals and we wanted to get her something that wouldnt be too much work (although the rabbit is a little more work than I would have liked). We got her about a month ago from a lady on craigslist who was giving her away. She came with a nice big cage and everything she needed to get her started at her new home. We decided that we would give it a trial run and if it just didnt work out we could give her away and we wouldnt be out any money. The kids both adore her so much that even if I wanted to I wouldnt be able to give her away lol. I dont absolutly love having her around...but its not that bad. The first night we got her I didnt realize just how fast they are and I let her down in the living room and Kyle scared her and she ran up under the couch LOL. So now we only let her run around on the porch so that there is nothing she can get into. She loves Kaylee and will let her pick her up and hold her and she loves John and will cuddle up in his lap. Kyle and I on the other hand she is not so crazy about. She is terrified of Kyle and runs from him and she always seems so uneasy when I am handeling her. It usually takes me about 15 minutes to catch her to get her back into her cage every time we take her out which is SUPER annoying haha....Oh the things we do for our kids :)

Pinterest

www.pinterest.com I strongly suggest everyone go and check out this website. I saw a few people talking about it on facebook but had no clue what it was so I decided last night to check it out and I am obsessed. Basically people go on and "pin" different things they like, pictures, quotes, articles, products, tutorials and all kinds of other stuff and when you click on the pictures it will take you to a website that goes more into detail about that "pin". Like if someone pinned a picture of a cake, you can click on the picture of the cake and it will take you to the website that will show you the recipe of the cake. You can then "re-pin" different things you like and save them into categories so you can go back to them later. I found so many recipes, crafts, and kids activities that I can't wait to try.

Dora Bed

When Kyle got his new Thomas bed we realized that Kaylee didnt really need her big full size bed and that it was just taking up extra space in there room so we decided to move her back to a toddler bed. She really wanted a small bed like Kyles so it worked out perfectly. A few days ago Mamie and Pa got Kaylee a new Dora toddler bed and she LOVES it. I put it together in the living room as soon as we brought it home and she laid in it until John came home because she was so excited to show him lol. We decided to leave her "Big Bed" in her room for the first night just in case she didnt like it as much as we thought but she begged us to move it out. We moved it out the next day and she was so excited. She loves the dora bed and sleeps great in it. I'm so glad we moved her back because now there room is so much more open and we don't have to worry about Kyle jumping on her big bed anymore haha!!

Frog Potty

Isn't he so adorable in his little undies??? We got him the smallest size they had and they still are huge on him lol. I can't believe he is even old enough to begin potty training. We started a few weeks ago just introducing the potty and he is doing great. I usually keep him in underwear throughout the day if we are going to be home and he hasnt had any accidents yet. I wouldnt have started potty training him yet but he was getting to the point where every time he would pee in his diaper he would take it off..so I thought he might be getting ready!! He still doesnt talk much so I wasn't sure how he was going to tell me he needed to go but I have just just been setting a timer for every 30 minutes and as soon as I take his undies off he knows to go sit on the potty and he will clap whenever he goes pee lol. I can't believe that we will only be buying diapers for just a little while longer. I thought we would never get past diapers haha. My babies are growing up so fast!!!

You smell like a.....

CRAB!!! Yep, thats what my sweet little angel told some old lady today in the walmart bathroom. She waited until the last minute to tell me that she needed to go to the bathroom and she was about to go in her pants so off we went running. Of course when we get in there all the stalls are full and there is a line. An older lady came out of a stall and it was finally out turn so we ran in behind her...before I could get the door closed Kaylee says (in her extremly loud voice) "ewww mom that lady smells like a crab!!" I was so embarassed and everyone in the bathroom laughed. I quietly asked her to hush and do her buisness but of course she kept elaborating and saying "did you smell that mom", "she did smell like a crab didn't she" lol...Thats the innocence of a child for ya haha!!