February

February seemed to drag on and on for some reason. It's probably because of the crummy weather that we have been having. But I am so excited to be updating our blog. I have decided to only update it once a month because my goal has been to spend less time on the computer. So I'll sum up the month and do a little thing about each kid.

This month for our family outing we went to Albuquerque and saw the temple and also went to the zoo. It was such a fantastic trip.

The temple reminded me a lot of the Sacramento Temple.

 

I haven't been to the zoo in forever! It started out to be a pretty nice day but by the end of it, it started to snow on us. Can you believe it, SNOW! Anyways, Walker loved it. He is like the perfect age for it. He walked the whole thing and Julian just kicked it in the stroller. It was so worth the drive.

 

 

 

WALKER

     We'll where should I start. Let's just say that he is developing quit well into a normal 2 year old. He gets into everything, and loves to help.

     #1Just the other day he dumped out a brand new can of formula into our water pitcher and when I asked what he was doing, all he kept on saying was " Juice, Juice" (that's what he call Julian). But here's a picture of what he likes to do with his toys.

 

     #2 Today his elephant went "poo poo" so I said go get a diaper and this is what happened...

     #3 We have been working on numbers lately and he knows #'s 1-5

     #4 He was outside the other day and opened our little storage closet and got out the lighter fluid and charcoals, and he was ready to dump out the coals before I saw what he was doing.

 

 

JULIAN

     I can't believe it but he is 6 months today. He is starting to change more quickly now and I'm pretty excited about it. This is about the age I really start to enjoy them.

 

     #1 He rolled over for the first time Feb 9th and didn't do it again until recently, and now he hasn't stopped doing it.

     #2 He really, really likes to eat his cereal! Cries between bites.

     # He loves Walker, he loves to lay by him and touch him, but Walker doesn't like the touching.

 





 



Trying to Remember

I read this somewhere the other day...

"If you want your children to grow up calm, cool and collected than keep that in your head at all times. What you say to your children becomes what they hear in their heads"

I have been trying to remember this because I want Walker to be thinking how awesome and smart he is. But it's so hard to stay calm with a 2 year old and a 6 month old. I have been telling Walker "no" a lot lately because he has been getting into everything. So I am working on re-wording what I say and being more specific. For example instead of saying "no" to keep his hands off of something, I will tell him "please keep you fingers off of the_____." I hear him sometimes saying "no, no, no" in his pretend play and that made me sad, so in just a few days of working on this I have noticed that he is changing.

The other day I was noticing that some of my negativity has been rubbing off on him. It really bothered me so I am trying my hardest to try to change things. I know I am not perfect and I will have my moments but that's ok.

I challenge you guys to do this with me. We can all work on this.

Homemade Dishwasher Detergent

If any of you make the homemade laundry detergent you are going to love this. Because if you have those ingredients all you need is Citric Acid and Kosher Salt to make this!

Since living in Las Cruces our glasses went from being perfectly clear, to being cloudy and ugly. We have really bad hard water. It grossed me out to look at it. I have always wanted to try making my own detergent for the dishwasher but couldn't find a recipe that I liked, especially to handle the hard water. I know that stores sell things you can add to your dishwasher but I didn't want to spend the money on it or use all those chemicals. So finally, I found one that I liked. We tried it, and we love it.

 

DIRECTIONS

2 cups Washing Soda

2 cups Borax

1 lb Citric Acid

1 cup Kosher Salt

use 1 tbsp per load

 

**once you have made this stir it and let it sit out for a few days (still stirring it at least once a day) so it will not clump together before you put it in a container**

 



I use vinegar as a rise agent, that I add in a container in the top rack of the dishwasher. Read this article to find out why I do this.

Ok, now if you are wondering about price break down here it is...

To buy the supply

Washing Soda $2.70

Borax $3.56

1 lb Citric Acid-$13

Morton Kosher Salt $4

Total cost for supplies: $23.26
 

Total cost break down

Washing Soda .78 cents

Borax .80 cents

Citric Acid $13

Kosher Salt $4

*Which equals 7 cups of detergent for $16.58 and you get 112 tbsp for 7 cups!!!!!!

*That means that it equals .15 cents per load!!!!

 

We've always bought the cheap brand of detergent. So I am not sure about price compairson when it comes to cost per load. To be honest it might equal the same but this is natural and it works with hard water stains!

Just from using the new detergent a few times our glasses are getting CLEAR again!!!! WAHOOO!!!! I don't think I'll ever buy store detergent again!