January

play dough :)

Don't miss seeing our new cute purple glasses. They spend most of this month lost, but hey - they keep turning up. We lost the first ones permanently (while running errands) in just 2 weeks. She likes that they're purple!

Tyler built a new computer - it's working great!! Link to the computer post

Playing in the snow (we got lots of snow this year... for Salem)

Another cool computer pic

Coleman helping make laundry soap - grating the Felsnaptha

Brookie's helping make soap too. She's stirring the pot to dissolve the soap, Borax and washing soda

We've been using this soap for a couple of years and it's saved us loads of money. We don't have to make it very often, but when we do, the kids really enjoy helping. Here's the recipe if anyone's interested:

1 c Borax
1 c washing soda
1 bar Felsnaptha soap, grated

Fill a large pot about half full of water. Bring water to a boil and add grated Felsnaptha. Keep water hot (but it's easier if it's not boiling - too many bubbles). Stir continuously until soap dissolves. Add Borax and washing soda. Stir until dissolved.  Pour soap into 5 gallon bucket and fill the bucket with hot water until the mixture is a full 5 gallons.  Stir. Cover and let stand. Soap will gel up a little and be ready to use in your washing machine by the next day. We use about 1/4 to 1/2 c of soap per load in our front loader HE washing machine. The soap doesn't foam up much, so it's safe for all washing machines.  It gets our clothes really clean. They smell good. And the best part is, the whole 5 gallons costs less than $3 to make. :) Happy laundry-ing! Let us know if you try it out. :) Here's the link to the website where we originally found it. It has great step by step instructions - even pictures. :)

Playing outside. This is what most of our winter was like.

Coleman loves his  "green bike"

This is also what most of our winter was like. Brookie has stopped taking official naps (sad). She likes to play in her room during quiet rest time. She makes quite a mess most of the time. This time she must  have worked extra hard at mess-making because she fell asleep in the middle of it. :) Love this girl!