Our Monthly Projects

Over the last month we have been working on a few projects. I should have really taken the before pictures but I didn't think about it till half way through tearing up the carpet but let me paint you a picture... we had tan yes not sand but TAN Light tan flat carpet in the girls rooms which were gross no matter how many times you shampooed them and I hated them! Then we had bubble gum pink walls... it was suppose to have been "dreamland pink"... but we ended up with the bubble gum and I thought ehh who cares but that quickly got the best of me and I have just been itching for a reason to paint it again. Well the reason came. We had bunk beds but Eliza(on the top bed) liked to scratch the popcorn ceiling off and every morning poor little Leah(on the bottom bed) would wake up with it all over her face and bed. So I had a yard sale and SOLD those beds.

 Now to what we have been working on. We painted the walls a toasted oatmeal color with white pearls trim. We tore up the carpet and stain the concrete floors a Desert tan and Earth Brown Mix. Then finally today we got at least one of the beds done. This bed was a beast.. its definitely not perfect but what is? At least the girls have a decent place to sleep now :) Hopefully bed #2 will be done on Monday.

Snail Mail

Today Elaine recieved two cute little books in the mail but we dont know who or where they came from so if they came from you then Thank You.. I know Elaine will enjoy them.

When life gives you citrus make...

We are very blessed with having fresh lemons and oranges available to us. Eliza helped me pick the last of our oranges for the season off our trees and all of the ripe lemons. I squeezed all of the oranges and it gave us just enough for breakfast tomorrow. I found a link on pintrest that talks about making a vinegar with orange peels concoction and using it for any hard surface cleaner and works really well on soap scum. So I thought ehh why not. I am loving the make it your self items. I kept one of the containers from the cotton candy for Elaines Birthday cake. It holds 1 1/2quarts=6 cups of vinegar then I filled it with scraped orange peels till it reached the rim. Closed it and put it away. The recipe calls for 2 quarts=8 cups of vinegar and orange peels. In a closed container for two weeks. Then strain cleaner and when ready to use dilute it 1:1 1 cup concoction and 1 cup water.  I am going to squeeze the three bags of lemons and freeze the juice for those hot summer day that are soon to come. I will do an update in two weeks on how well I like it.

*side note I just barely cracked open the second tub of laundry detergent I made so one tub lasted me about three months or so!

Family Pictures

Snap Crackle Pop (Warning If you have a weak stomach skip pics)

Leah our little two year old dare devil was jumping around the living room and fell cracking herself on the fireplace. We have an adobe style round fireplace with Brick on it which she hit. She came to me and of course I gave her the little sympathy hug but when I brought my hand up it was covered in blood so I turned her around and she had blood pouring down her back. Poor little Eliza was screaming "I don't want her to die! I don't want her to die!" We left Eliza and Elaine with my mom and it took us 15 mins to get to the Childrens Emergency Hospital and by time we got there she had hair full of blood, a bloody back, blood on her face, down her arms, and down one leg to her foot. I had blood going down both arms. It LOOKED really bad and I held pressure on it the entire time and got it to stop bleeding before we got there. She had no shoes on so I had to carry her while holding the back of her head. It kind looked like a scene out of ER. haha They took us right back and she got meds, numbing medicine and ONE whole staple. Head wounds are bleeders!! We brought her in so quick they were able to determine if she had a concussion so we have to monitor for the next 24 hours. After she goes to sleep tonight we need to wake her every two hours to check for swelling, bruising, and bleeding. Right now the medicine is kicking in so she is happy as can be. We unfortunately had to miss my brother Anthony receiving his Priesthood today but we are thankful he was able to assist My brother Isaac and Matt with a blessing for Leah.

I tried to get as much blood as I could out of her hair because we cant rinse or wash it for 24hours

Its blurry(phone camera) but I was trying to get a shot of the whole before staples and she kept moving.

Her cool Headband holding the numbing medicine on the Back of her head.

The medicine kicked it and she was being so dang cute.

The staple.

Chicken Fajitas

At the new year our church changed its meeting time and we now meet at 1:30pm by time we get home it is close 5:00pm and no one is really in the mood to start cooking dinner. I decided every Sunday we are going to have a Crock Pot dinner. That way I can just prep it the night before and turn it on in the morning. I went to Desert Book and got two of the little books they had for crock pot cooking and this is one of the recipes that was in it.

4-6 Chicken Breast (I used four and we still had leftovers)
2 1/2cups of Chunky Salsa
Two Bell Peppers thinly sliced(I used the baby sweet ones because I had it
already so I used as many as I thought would equal two)

Add all ingredients to a greased 4-6qt slow cooker. Cover and cook on high heat 5-6 hrs or low 10-12hrs. Just before serving shred chicken. (I actually like to shred my chicken 30 mins before its ends just to marinated the other parts)

We served ours in Whole Wheat Pita bread with Mexican Rice on the side. It was absolutely delicious. Definitely a keep recipe!