Family Time

My first baby, Toby, has been sick lately and it makes me very sad to see such a sweet, old friend feel so badly. He got treated about a week ago and is feeling so much better. Here he is yesterday giving me a loving glance! I just LOVE that little boy! :) Although prayer is still needed for his weight gain. He has always been a tiny boy, but he is pretty underweight right now at 4.5 pounds. You can feel every bone in his body. He needs to bulk up!! He ate almost a whole can of food yesterday which is great!

On a different note, Lexi has started giving TONS more kisses. Both girls have given us kisses since they were pretty little, but Lexi just learned how to pucker up and make the smacking sound that Mommy makes. ;) So she practices every chance she gets. I took pictures of her kissing baby Jesus over and over in her little Bible yesterday. :) That makes me smile BIG!!

It wasn't the best angle, but here she is bending over Sneezy so she can give him a big wet one right on his nose. She is also obsessed with noses right now.
Lexi in pigtails!
Oh, Mommy, not again with the hair up!
Lilly being curious and thankfully not noticing her hair yet. Gotta love that face!

More of my little Lilly!

Just being adorable and cranky at the same time...can you blame the girl? She has 3 teeth popping in right now!

Lexi clapping with me since she had just put a hair bow on her lamb's ear. :) Notice the orange bow at the bottom of the pic. :)
Lexi, can you pucker up and give Daddy a kiss? Sweet girl!
Here we have Mommy and Lilly snuggling while Lexi smooches Daddy!

Cleaning the Floors

Remember my post on natural cleaning with vinegar? Well I am still working on figuring out even more super convenient ways to do this. Eric, or as I like to call him, Mr. Brilliant, had a great idea.

We have a Clorox Ready Mop that we were using to clean the floors. I wasn't excited about crawling around on my knees with this squirt bottle wiping up the floors with vinegar, and I hate regular, dirty mops.

Eric suggested emptying the Clorox solution out of the bottle and after a thorough cleaning of the bottle, adding my own vinegar solution. GENIUS!!!!

Here is my handy-dandy squirt bottle of 50/50 vinegar and water that I use to clean tons of stuff. Not great for floors. :(

So I did this instead...First, I swept my floors. They don't look too dirty. :)
Next, I filled up and labeled my container. I made this about 60-65% vinegar since we have lots of little feet (aka...the muddy dog paws that ran across the floor this morning) scurrying around my house. Feel free to draw a cute little flower too ;) I'm silly that way!
Put the Clorox bottle filled with the vinegar solution back into the mop and set it up just like you did before, cleaning pad and all.

Get to cleaning!! I tried not to be biased, but I have to say that it cleaned the floors super well. It got up some spots that I wasn't sure it would...nice! See the pad afterwards? Yea!! Bye, bye dirt!

Just make sure that you clean out the container REALLY well before adding the vinegar. Vinegar reacts with certain other chemicals and the last thing you want is to create harmful fumes when you are trying to clean naturally to avoid fumes. :)

I rinsed the bottle out several times over a week or so. Then I made sure to flush the lines well and let the bottle dry completely to ensure that all the Clorox was gone and evaporated away.

Happy cleaning!

Broken Cell Phones...

So my cell phone met an untimely demise...thanks to a little girl's donation of drool! Let's hope the cell phone company doesn't charge me for this new one. :) But I have had this phone since the twins were 2 months old. I had tons of pictures on it and was forced to pick the best ones to save. I sent Eric the ones I couldn't live without and wanted to share. Some of them are so stinkin' cute and have not ever been seen by very many people....such a shame! :) :)

Lexi...

Lilly...
Lexi is closer...this was around 9 am. I would get the girls up and feed them. Then play with them on my bed until they fell asleep. Then I would usually lay there and watch them sleep. :) Great memories!
Lilly...
Lexi then Lilly...passed out with Daddy on the bed!
In the bright fall sunlight...Lexi then Lilly!
The first trip to Petco...Lilly slept through it and here is Lexi discovering birds!
Lexi...I miss those chubby cheeks!

Crazy-haired Lexi
Lilly in the car...

From June...the first wagon ride! (Lexi)
Summer girls...Lilly then Lexi
The first trip in front-facing car seats....Miss Lilly!

Thanks for visiting! :)

Wordless Wednesday

Go Crusaders!!

My darling Eric is now officially a "Crusader For Life!!" He participated in Welcome Week this past week, while taking a 3 day break to be sick. He was in the group with other transfer students and was by far the oldest one..he he he! It's okay, honey, I love you...and if it makes you feel better, I am 11 hours older than you! :)

Last night was the UMHB tradition called, "The Dubbing Ceremony". Our mascot is the Crusader Knight, so the president of the school, "dubs" all the incoming students as "Crusaders For Life". I was involved in this same ceremony back in 1998, and it was sooooo cool to see Eric go through the same ceremony!

We are now both Crusaders For Life!! Yea!! Here are some pictures I took...it's kind of hard to take pictures at dusk and in the dark, but I gave it a shot.

Eric sitting with his group....

The group of new students sitting in front of the Luther Memorial...
Eric and his group lighting their candles...
New UMHB students waiting to become "Crusaders For Life!!" It was so fun to watch all their happy faces as most of them began their freshmen year of college. I remember that feeling! :)
My sweet husband getting dubbed...I was proud to get this picture. I practiced on several people before him and all the pictures were incredibly blurry and bad. I was psyched to get this one of Eric, when it really mattered!
On a side note, it was soooooo funny to me to watch these sweet kids....and THEN to hug my husband and go back home to pay the babysitter! He he he...wow, life is different now, and it seems like it was just yesterday that I was getting dubbed. :) Gotta love it!