My baby is 3 months old!!

My little baby turned 3 months old about 5 days ago and I am just now getting around to taking her pictures. With the older two starting school, we have had a hard time getting into a schedule that doesn't leave her cranky. We did finally snap a few good ones! Here is my little girl.

Cute little smirk!!

My aunt knitted this beautiful peach dress and I found the headband and cute ballet shoes to match. I just love the color scheme. So sweet...!

LITTLE SHOES!

Moving

We were just notified about a week ago that we got a house! We can finally move into a larger house! I have been packing, organizing, getting rid of stuff, and cleaning. I am so tired and I have so much more to do.  Most of my crafts and supplies have been packed away (and we don't even get the house until oct)..so my time and energy will have to be focused on fun/clever ways to make this old house perfect and brand new.

The latest cleaning technique I tried was cleaning my top loading washing machine.  The instructions are fill with hot water and add a quart of bleach-that much kinda scared me so i used what i had left in the bottle. Turns out it was about a cup. Let it sit for an hour then finish the cycle. Then do the same thing with a quart of vinegar. Again I only used about a cup even though it is much safer than bleach. My only complaint is I really wanted some salt and vinegar chips after that, haha. Before you finish the cycle with the vinegar check out that water! NASTY! Hard to believe something that washes something else could be so gross and unclean. Well now my washer is so pretty and shiny clean :)

Too bad I forgot to take pictures. Maybe next time.


Next project: Denim travel roads for C's hot wheels. I WILL take pictures for that post :) Night everyone...

Crock Pot Freezer Meals

I am exhausted! I made a trip to the grocery store today with three kids and a list of things I needed to get to feed us for three weeks. I was very ambitious...We no longer walked in the door and we get a call from the housing office that they had a house for us! This was a welcome interruption. We leave and go check out the house, sign for it and head back to the grocery. I get the baby in her wrap all tucked in to me and she start screaming her head off right in front of the berry section. I fumble around in her diaper bag for a bottle...realizing I packed everything EXCEPT a water bottle. I manage to make a bottle using tap water (yuck) and feed her in the wrap---onward we go piling things in the cart. I was on a roll, but I guess not quick enough because the older two started getting antsy and acting up and whining. I could not concentrate. By this time my husband was getting off work. I called and begged him to come help me...I was in way over my head... He came to our rescue and we were out of the store in a half an hour...

$212.78 later I had a car full of groceries to feed my wonderful family for almost a month! That's a record for me. I used to easily pay double that for just 1-2 weeks of groceries.

TIP: MAKE A LIST!

-Make a list of meals
-then make a list of ingredients you need for each
-add on to the list other things you may need for snacks, lunches, etc.
-I even go so far as writing the approximate price next to each item on the list-rounding up to the nearest dollar.
-Add up how much and you can get an idea of what you're spending so you know if you need to take off or if you have it in your budget to add on.
-I always get a nice surprise at the register-Less than what I predicted I would spend.

TIP: If you're making meals;make enough for two or three of the same meal. You are buying all the ingredients and putting it all together anyway, might as well make more for later. It may be a few dollars more then, but worth it later. You're saving time and energy. It may not even be a few dollars more. You buy a sack of potatoes or onions because one recipe calls for some, why not double or triple the recipe. You get more meals out of the food you were already purchasing.

I freeze the extra dinners. Or all of them if I have bought so far in advance that the food would go bad if I didn't freeze them.

TIP: Freeze the same dinner in multiple bags. Just because the recipe calls for 4 chicken breasts does not mean you have to make all 4 at the same time. Just freeze into smaller portions. Unless you like leftovers. Our family does not eat leftovers.

flatten your frozen dinners to freeze. Once they are frozen you can stack them the way they are frozen or stand them up on their side, whichever if more space efficient for your freezer. Mine will probably stay this way.

So far I am liking this new system. It is very tiring, but it will save me time later that I can spend with my family in the evenings.

Like mother~Like daughter

My beautiful baby girl looks JUST like her daddy. I see myself in her at certain times. The older she gets she starts looking more and more like me. I was looking at her sleeping in her crib the other night and thought she looked just like I did in an old photo of me that I had in my scrapbook. I snapped a photo of it and put them side by side...

I am the baby on the bottom; my daughter in on top at around 3 months old. 

We also share one feature that can not be denied...our hair!

It defies gravity :)

I am on the left and she is on the right...her hair is longer than mine at that age, but it all sticks straight out in all directions, lol

Teriyaki Chicken

There is an awesome Chinese restaurant in the next town that serves teriyaki chicken that is so delicious. I have never made it at home so I thought I would try since it is a family favorite. Eating out is far too expensive to do all the time. :( After some pinteresting (Is that even a word???) I found a keeper.  It is simply called, "Crock Pot Teriyaki Chicken."

Just so I don't have to type it all out, here is a link to the website that I got it from.

Crock Pot Teriyaki Chicken

Here is how mine turned out...

It is so easy and so TASTY, and there is plenty for leftovers :)

Reused Always Infinity Pads boxes

I accidentally bought 4 different boxes of pads thinking I had not bought any-can you imagine where my mind must have been-haha  Anyway, I had a few extra boxes that I had not already thrown in the recycle bin that I thought were the perfect size to hold my baby girls lotions and body washes. 

They were the perfect height and width. I did not care for the big "Always" logo on the front so I covered them in plain, heavy scrapbook paper. They are fine for now, but I am still thinking of what I can add to give them a little more character. Maybe rhinestones, lol. 

You could cover just about any box with even more interesting scrapbook paper, but I thought the infinity boxes were very sturdy-and like I said, just the right size :)

There is even a tiny little oval window in the box that you could cut out with an exacto knife if you choose to go all out ;P

Wrapping for Little ones

I know this idea is not very eco-friendly, but you can always reuse the tissue paper like I know you're gonna do anyway. 

Either way it is a ton of fun for the little ones to unwrap. Just take a ton of tissue paper and gather the tissue paper at the center of each sheet and stick to the outside of a package. I went ahead and wrapped it in wrapping paper first so it was all covered in case you could see through some of the tissue. You can use double sided tape or you can fold a piece of tissue paper in half and tape across it to the package instead. That's what I did with this one. If you use enough you can't tell. 

You could also use this technique to cover other things. Maybe a storage container in a little girls room to give it a ruffled look...??