Goings On

I have not been on here in forever!  Please forgive me for my vaca.  It has been a very busy, sick month.

-Our first face of braces has happened.  Brennan was attacked last week and while he's whiny, it's fun to see his face/mouth change.  Jared and I do not have dental/orthodontic insurance and are so thankful to Bulliegh Orthodontics for being so incredibly flexible and helpful.  It means a lot to me that we show love in this way to our kids.  While it's definitely not a necessity, I always wished I had had better dental care and I don't want them to have the same insecurities. 

Cannot believe how fast he's becoming a man

-I have been making my own laundry soap for a while now, something I swore I would never do.  I have always made the liquid form.  It's crazy cheap and effective, very important with the shear amount of laundry we do.  I have found, thank you Alisa, a recipe that I far prefer.  It's dry, only takes a tablespoon and $20 last 9/10 months.  You read that right!  We got the recipe from over at How Does She.  The first batch I made I did not include the scented crystals.  I really kinda miss the Gain scent that I was obsessed with so I decided to go ahead and throw them in this go round.  OH MY WORD!!!  I love love love it.  My whole house smells amazing and it works wonders on stinky boy clothes.  I used some bar soap that I happened to have on hand and I am just in love with the smell combo.

I highly recommend following How Does She's recipe and use this bar soap and these crystals.  It's awesome!!  Also I highly recommend dumping all the ingredients into a large trash bag to mix.  There's a lot of fine powder that wafts around the room otherwise.

-It snowed.  A lot.  Then it snowed some more.  I am the snow grinch.  While I love it and think it's pretty, I would rather drink bleach than let my kids go out in it.  The clean up is soo not worth it when they refuse to be out there more than 3 minutes.  The other day Brennan and Tanner were out front shoveling the drive so I went out back with the younger three and the dogs.  It's shocking how much longer they are willing to be out there when Brennan is not "accidentally hurting" them (seriously a blog worthy topic on it's own).  They played for over a hour!  Our kids love Funniest Home Videos and we watch it every week, that's why I asked Anneliese to introduce the host.

-We have been blessed with "Baby Gage" This week.  He is a doll and keeps us giggling.  He parrots everything you say.  We've had him saying, "Hey babe!  Okie Dokie Smokie, Hellllooooo Boyz!!!!!"  He thinks I'm hilarious, who doesn't love that?!  He tells me constantly that I'm "so funny!"  You cannot deny this kids' adorable factor.

-With all this sickness I acquired my very first sinus infection.  To those of you who have dealt with these on any kind of regular basis my heart breaks for you.  The misery is unmatched.  I seriously would rather go through labor and delivery again drug free than have another sinus infection.  The days and days of inescapable pain matched with fatigue, yet the inability to sleep, is just cruel and unusual punishment.  I am 4 days in with an antibiotic.  While I am not 100% just yet, I am so much better that I don't mind the lingering nasal congestion.  I have at least one nostril clear and functioning, that's like Christmas!