Easter 2009

Delaney and Saydi searching for eggs. I should've gotten more pics of the adults, but we did the hunt after dinner, so I forgot to get the camera until we started hiding eggs.

Jordyn Enjoying her finds.

Lloyd helping Soph find her eggs.

Saydi's 2nd hunt of the day, she had a blast!

Delaney and Jordyn finding eggs. We had a lot of great food and good fun with everyone that came this year to Wellsville for Easter.

We had such beautiful weather and a fun day with Family and Friends.

Jordyn, Jade and Saydi posing on the tramp, sweet static hair.

Eggs hidden on the tractor.

Sophie was good at it, even though Gma hid them easy.

On an Easter Egg Hunt at Gma Linda's before we went to Wellsville.

Soph was excited to color eggs!

Daddy showing Saydi how to get started.

Too much splashing, so Daddy needed to help get it out.

Sophie was so proud she could color eggs like big sis.

Waiting for the Pink to get darker...

Baby Calves

My Sister-In-Law LaRae was out of town and asked us to feed the baby calves. The girls were so excited, even though it was pretty cold.

Saydi loved her little calf 'Oscar' who has since died.

Here's Saydi petting 'Zeke' and little 'Cheech' is next to him. Saydi Named Oscar, and LaRae and her girls named the others.

Saydi liked to bottle feed them, she had fun. There were 4 calves and now we're down to 2. I've gone down and fed the calves several times for LaRae and I find that I quite like it. Even when the calves are being little stinkers and trying to climb out of their pen.

Sophie was kinda upset and cold, we were waiting for Daddy to get the car so we wouldn't have to walk through the mud again. The fun things we get to do living out in the country.

Homemade Laundry Soap

I made some homemade laundry soap the other day and I really like it! I thought I would share the recipe with everyone, it's easy and you should try it! It does work, our laundry is clean! No complaints here! And at $.01 per load (at least they say how much it is, I'm going to keep track of my loads I get out of it and see how much it really comes to.) It's definitly worth a try!

The Recipe
1 full bar of soap (Fels Naptha, Ivory, or Zote)

1 C Arm & Hammer Washing Soda/Sodium Carbonate/Soda Ash (this is NOT baking soda - can be found in laundry section or on Amazon)

1 C 20 Mule Team Borax/Sodium Borate powder

1/2 oz. Essential Oil, if desired, any scent you like!

water

2 gallon bucket for mixing and storage


Grate the soap and add to a sauce pan with 6 cups water and heat it until the soap melts. Add the washing soda and the borax and stir until it is dissolved. Remove from heat. Pour 4 cups hot water into the bucket. Now add your soap mixture and stir. Now add 1 gallon plus 6 cups of water and stir. Let the soap sit for about 24 hours and it will gel. The gel will be the consistency of egg noodle soup. You use ½ cup per load, or more if you think you need it.

While Melting the Soap.

This was before it had time to set up.


This soap is described as low sudsing. It also gels in a very odd way. It is not a smooth gel, but a watery one, it's also pretty clumpy. If it gels at all, you're fine. If it does not gel at all, you are to increase the amount of bar soap you use. Too much and it's too firm. The bottom line is to play around a bit with the mixture. At $0.1 per load, you can afford to try until you get it right. I also want to note that as I was reading through the original recipe I made some changes in my batch based on recommendations there. For example, I do not have "normal soil" on my laundry. I have children! I need a bit more power in my laundry soap, so I increased the soda and Borax from 3/4 cup to 1 cup.
I keep an old wooden spoon in the bucket to stir it before I measure it out for my laundry. Mine turned out GREAT! I like the smell how it is, Lloyd is allergic to scents and I'm not sure how the essential oils would do with his skin ( I know he's allergic to some of those too), So We're used to the free and clear stuff that has no scent, and this has a little from the Fels Naptha. If he's allergic to the Fels Naptha soap (we haven't found out yet) Then we'll use Dove (I saw another recipe that said to use whichever soap you want, but the Fels Naptha is a soap used for stains on laundry).
I found all of my items at Broulims (grocery store) in Soda Springs on the Laundry aisle all within 2 feet of each other on the shelf.

This is what my detergent looks like, kinda clumpy and watery.

New House

This is the reason I haven't posted since Thanksgiving! We've had a lot going on. We bought this house and have been fixing it up, it took a lot longer than we anticipated to close on the house and get it ready for us to move in. We were so excited to find a house up here, it took us 2 1/2 years to find one, and now it's OURS!

Here is our New House! Last Fall
This is the Side Door that I think most everyone will use

Lloyd put in this beautiful Flooring in our Kitchen and two Entrys

Before and After of our Living Room. We still need to put up decorations.

Before and After of our Bedroom We still have a lot of things to find homes for, we're used to a large walk-in closet, but we're adjusting.

Before and After of the Playroom

Before and After of the Girls' Room

We'll have more room once Sophie is out of the crib.We did lavender walls with white beadboard we're still not finished we have to do a trim at the top of the beadboard.

Sophie Loves our new house! I was worried about her, but she's adjusted fine!




Before and after of the Bathroom. There was no shower and so we put one in and tiled. We're not finished with the bathroom, we still have a lot to do in there, but it's liveable.