Month in Review

February came and went without telling anyone!  Lots of days were spent at home, but I did try to make an attempt to get the younger ones out to do playful type of stuff since they are stuck playing mostly by themselves on home school days.  We started meeting some friends at the bosque one day a week to walk (exercise) and talk... The kids have fun too!  No pictures of those outings, but here is a picture tour of what I found on my camera for the month of February. 



Book readings at the library... It is funny how different it is taking these two, they walk right up to the front and sit without looking back at me.  Big J would have never done that!



 Lots and Lots of rock hunting and collecting.  We have many piles of interesting rocks inside our house (and in our car and on our back patio and on the breakfast bar and on the kitchen table and on each of their dressers, etc, etc!!!) right now.

 Block building everywhere!  Legos, Trios, Tinker Toys... apparently they can all be turned into Transformers!  Do you notice the sound effects?!

Grandpa Barker won tickets to the circus, we enjoyed a day out with 2 oldest! 

 And of course we got a lot of love from Carter, ahhhhh!

 When something is learned by J at school, it is definitely brought home and fully lived out by all of them... These costumes were completely created by them after Josh got a "Lego Ninja" valentine card from a friend at school!  They did a good job on color coordination!

 It would be a lie if I just included the sweet little lined up picture of them pretending to be Ninjas, here is the real 'act out'!

Now I am ready for warmer weather, bring it on March!



Can I have some of your 'Chaptstip'?

Yes, you read that correctly... That is exactly what we hear every time Mike walks into the room. 

"Daddy, Can I have some of your Chaptstip?".

I think all of our kids were crazy over chapstick at some point in their toddler years, but little J seems extra content on protecting his whole face lips! 

With all the chapstick on, don't think that we get extra kisses from him... If you attempt to steal a kiss from him, he will grumble that "You don't take my chaptstip off!".   XOXO

1 year ago...

...We became a family of six!  It has been a fun filled year with our little happy guy :).  His little joyful self lights up the room as soon as he walks in with his confident posture.  It is sad to think how especially quick this year went, I suppose the years will fly the busier we get.  It seems that we were anticipating his arrival for what seemed to a long month, and now here we are 1 year later with a walking, smiling, communicating, hug giving little boy! 

To celebrate we incorperated a book by a popular kid's book author, Eric Carle- The Very Hungry Caterpillar.  Carter is our 'very hungry little guy' lately, so what better theme?  We own several of Carle's books and many of them have spent their time on the favorite list...  Happy Birthday Carter!

One year old birthdays are all about the cake aren't they?!

 Pre-party entertainment... Grandma brought her book over to share.  I think Carter enjoyed it!

 My last minute attempt at making some festive decorations... Can you tell that it is supposed to be a caterpillar? 

 Party table- Josh and Kyle helped with the place mats & decor and do you see how the 1 year old crown was enhanced to fit the theme?

 We all ate like the Hungry Little Caterpillar...

 Fruit salad to match the fruits that he ate through.

 Party playtime!

 Time to sing...

 And blow the candle out!

  What is this stuff that won't come off my hand?!

 Humm...

 Yay!

 I think he likes it!

 Then he figures out that he can pick up the whole cake... I thought for sure he was going to launch it like he does a lot these days.

 The cake cracks open, brother gives him birthday love and he forgets his plan to launch...

 Got to have ice cream to go along with the cake!

 I think he enjoyed himself, what do you think? 

 He loved having everyone's attention on him!

 Present time.

 He got his own board book version of The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

 Some stacking blocks that were taller then him!  You can imagine what happened next.

 A few days before his b-day, he got his very own package in the mail from his cousins... Needless to say he was very proud of it :). 

We love you little Cart-Man-Do!

Four Generation Celebration

Mike's great aunt has recently received a new addition to her family... A little baby girl!  That made her a Great Grandma.  We had a family gathering to celebrate this past weekend. 

Baby girls are rare in this family!  She is a sweetie pie.

First time Grandma... You can't tell that she is proud, can you?

All the ladies gathered to take turns holding baby V!

The boys kept themselves busy!

K had a blast learning music from great uncle Trance.

They both had fun providing the entertainment music.  

Grandma Barker and K.

Grand Dee Dee & C.

Auntie Lauri and little J.  She used to stroke Mike's face the same way when he was a toddler :). 

 Generational picture, can you believe the mama just had a baby 6 weeks ago?!  She is glowing!

Lovely Ladies!

Homemade powder laundry detergent

Laundry, it constantly piles up, growing bigger by the day and then explodes every Monday during laundry day.  The explosion consists of dirty, stinky soiled clothes that need to be sorted, washed, dried, folded and put away or else the laundry monster will come and take over my house.  The laundry monster is a frequent visitor to our house...  Well at least the folding and put away monster is always lurking in the corners of our house.  It seems that I can never be fully done (even for a day!) with this chore.   

A friend recently shared a potentially time and money saver in this department... Homemade powder laundry detergent.  I haven't actually done the math myself, but it is supposed to only cost a couple of pennies per load!  I bought the ingredients and have had them on hand for awhile and I was grateful I did because last week, I ran out of detergent in the middle of washing my pile!  I whipped it together in a just a few minutes... Too bad it doesn't put the folded clothes away for me! 

Super simple- 1 cup Washing Soda, 1 cup Borax and 1 bar of laundry soup shredded up.

I used a cheese grater, it grated like hard cheese- The scent is refreshing!

Just to make it finer, I stuck it in the blender for a few seconds.

Combine all the ingredients and place it in a storage jar. 

1-3 Tablespoons per load (depending on how soiled the clothes are!). 

My friend also had homemade dishwasher soap... I just might have to ask her about that too!