GENIUS

I know every parent thinks their kid is the smartest, and I am no exception. My son loves puzzles, he loves the challenge, he loves figuring out how the pieces work together and he loves making something from where there was nothing. I love this about him. And I love his excitement when he is done and says "Mommy, I did it".

Yesterday I was at Walmart and happened to see this HUGE lightning McQueen puzzle. It is 3x2 feet and has twice as many pieces as what he is used to building. I bought it and Tim and I decided we should save it for Christmas. I put it away upstairs where I thought he would not find it.

This morning I am in bed and I hear this little voice "Mommy, Maqueen dappos" (dappos is how dean says puzzle). I look over and he is holding the new puzzle in his little hands. Way too cute. So yeah, I let him open it. What is a mother to do.

Immediately he started putting the pieces together and 15 minutes later I hear "Mommy, I did it". What a wonderful way to start the day.

Halloween

This Halloween was very simple but very fun. We waited until halloween eve to carve the pumpkins. The plan was to carve a big one all together as a family, but Dean found this little pumpkin he wanted to do himself.


Then he proceded to decorate it by putting sticks into the opening. I dont know, dont ask me. Tim carved the big pumpkin and was so proud of his ghost. The next day Dean found daddy's pumpkin and decided to recarve it, taking off the ghosts head.

We also made some homemade candied apples.

On halloween day, Dean and I went treak or treating, funny thing is he pretends he doesnt know how to talk, but miraculously that day he learned how to put together 3 words in one sentence.

He quickly understood that he could go up to people, say "tit o tick" and he would get candy. We didnt treak or treat for long, because I was exhausted and did not feel like walking all night, so I didnt take a bag with me and Dean just stuffed his pockets full of candy. The little stinker did not want to dress up or let me paint his face, so I have no pictures of him.

Tim and I dressed up and went to help out at the Andazola's haunted house. I was a ghostly pregnant woman and Tim was the lumberjack. It was funny the look on Dean's face when he saw me, he just looked at me and asked "mommy?". The pumpkin however scared the crap out of him. Poor little guy.

Remodel Update

The living room has gone from this

To this

To now this

And still more changes to come, but probably not till next year because we are tired.

I love our little cabin, its so cute. I am so grateful for Tim, he has been putting so much work into making this place really cozy. I never new he was such a handyman when we met and he amazes me more and more. He has done absolutely everything in this cabin, from the electrical to the plumbing, the framing, the drywall, the tiling. I mean everything.

Homemade Laundry Detergent

With today's economy and the insane price of laundry detergent it does not hurt to learn a few tricks on how to save a few bucks.

This is very good soap if you have sensitive skin.

The Cast of Characters

• 1 bar of soap (all I had today was Dove, but a soap without moisturizer will actually work best and will be even less expensive)*


• Borax (you can get this at the grocery store or at Walmart, I paid like $3 for the box)


• Arm and Hammer Washing Soda (again, grocery store or walmart, paid like $3 for the box, you can also use regular baking soda but must be careful when combining it with the borax, you need to do it very slowly or it will react and spill out of your pan and leave your stove super super clean and shiny).


• Water

So overall I have spent like $7 and will have enough supplies to make this recipe for well over a year (depending how much laundry you do).

THE STEPS

Grate the soap ( if you are lazy like me you can just stick it in a bag and pound it with the hammer).

In a large pot add 6 cups of water and turn the heat on to low,

Add the grated (pounded) soap to the water and let the soap dissolve. This could take a while, no need to sit and watch, just let it be and come check on it every once in a while to see if the soap has completely dissolved in the water. Do not heat on high because the water will boil.

When the soap has dissolved measure 3/4 cup of Borax and add it to the pot. Then measure 3/4 cup of the Arm & Hammer and add it to the pot. Mix the ingredients around and wait for them to dissolve, this process is pretty quick as you are mixing powders this time. You can already start to feel the mixture thicken a little.

Now get a large bucket. If you have one of those 5 gallon buckets with a lid it would be perfect. Perhaps an older detergent bucket from Costco. If not, just get something like this and add 4 cups of hot water to the bucket. No need to heat the water up, just use tap water but make sure its as hot as you can get it.

Then add the contents of the pot to the water in the bucket and stir.

Now add 1.5 gallons (24 cups) of tap water to the bucket and stir.

At this point if you want to add any essential oils to the detergent then go for it, perhaps you want a lavender scent or whatever floats your boat. I could care less about what my clothes smell like so I am skiping this step.

If you added your contents to a 5 gallon bucket with a lid as I suggested then you are done. Just cover the bucket and let it sit overnight.

If you dont have such a bucket or perhaps are still doing your laundry outside of your home and do not want to haul a 5 gallon bucket around with you, then do as I did and empty out the contents of the bucket into individual containers. I had some juice containers I washed out and then poured the contents into them. It took 5 containers total.

If doing this it would be easier to funnel the contents into the container, if you dont have a funnel then just an old milk jug and use that.

Let it sit over night.

BEFORE USING

You can check on your detergent the next day, expect separation and make sure to shake well before using.

You will need to use an average of 1/2 cup per wash load.

*if you are making soap for a baby you will need to use a bar of castile soap. The baby's skin is really sensitive to regular soaps.

Remodel Update

Ok so the images I just upload are not the most recent so I just went and took some snapshots.

This image shows the new ceiling, we removed the dropdown and added drywall. It also shows where the new stove will go. We have also removed some of the wood paneling and added drywall and removed the door to what used to be Dean's room and expanded it into a big opening as this will be part of the living room. Its so hard to show everything here.


This is the stove room from the outside.


This is an image from the entryway. We removed the door that went to our old bedroom and then opened the hallway. The hallway provides access to the laundry room on the right, and the bathroom on the left. You cant see the bathroom yet because we have to knock down the wall.

Ok, thats it for now. Will update once the new stove is in.

Remodel Phase 2 BEGINS

Phase 2 of our cabin remodel includes....

1. The addition of the new wood stove. In order to add the new stove a new room needs to be added that will hold the stove so from the inside it will look more like a fireplace and not take up so much of the living room.

2. Converting our old master bedroom into a laundry room, hallway and expanded bathroom. Below Tim demonstrate how to change the windows.

I AM SO EXCITED

A very proud mother

Today I am a very proud mother and cant believe how blessed I have been.

We finally finished Dean's new bedroom over the weekend. Last night we said goodbye to his old room, his crib and all his old stuff. He is now officially a big boy.

His first words when he saw his new room "Its Bu" (its blue)

It was his first night in the big boy bed and we were a little concerned about what our night would be like. Well, we underestimated our boy, he is so good. We put him in his new bed at 7pm. By 7:11pm he was asleep. We did not hear from him all night, he slept just fine in his new bed. At 8am Tim heard a little noise in his room and went up to check on him. He was sitting on his bed waiting for someone to come and get him (as he used to do when he was in his crib).

I am so proud of my big boy, he is now ready to be a big brother.

Now for the news you have all been waiting for.......

We had our first ultrasound today and found out we would be parents to another BOY!

What a surprise. Its like I immediately bonded with my new baby boy. Two boys!

We got his first pictures today, he was laying with his hands on his head (just like his big brother) and had a big smile on his face. He had his leg wide open not at all embarassed to show the world his boyhood.

Any ideas for names are welcomed.