mini me....mini sister

for those you know my sister and i, this picture looks just like us as kids....except one is my daughter laine and the other is her daughter......i came across this today and it made me smile, it was crazy hair day at school this fall. love those fun cousins!

favorite fall picture

so sorry friends and family....it has been a really long time....someone who reads my blog brought it to my attention. thank you for doing that....i needed a little kick start. this picture is my favorite fall picture. laine is taking ballet classes....she also thinks her glasses (3D movie glasses with the lens popped out) make her look cool. she was ready for class one night and had a little extra free time. so she decided to play outside and ride her bike. because i am picking my battle, this wasn't one of them. she is so unique, confident, and wore the glasses to class that night. i didn't even try to explain it to anyone....I'll post more soon. she lost her front two teeth.....so cute!

Making my own laundry detergent

After hearing of others making their own laundry detergent....and also seen it with the Duggar family on '19 Kids and counting', I decided to make my own. My friends have asked how I did it, so here is how. I kinda combined a few recipes to come up with with worked for me. The Duggar family heated and combined theirs to make a liquid detergent. I found that the powder kind was much easier to make and store and doesn't require any other pans or anything unlike the liquid recipe.

First- Buy the ingredients

Borax

Arm and Hammer Super Washing soda (different than baking soda)

Bar soap (can use Fels Naptha, Ivory, or I bought Goat Milk Stuff laundry bar soap

Container- Any will work, (ie. Tupperware, plastic container, up cycled food container)

Take the bar soap and grate it. I used fine grate. Pour in your container

Second measure 1 1/2 cups of Borax and Washing soda each into your container and stir well. If you like you can add a few drops of essential oil like lavender or lemon but I left my plain.

That my friends is it! Add 1-2 Tablespoons to your laundry depending on how soiled it is. Your boxes of Borax and Washing soda will make many batches you just buy a Bar soap of your choice when ready to make another.

The big laundry detergent companies would like you to think your clothes smelling good is a good thing....it is actually a bunch of leftover chemicals sitting on your clothes and those touch your skin. Freshly clean clothes should be smell free........

summer vacation 2011....

Hi friends....sorry for the long absence. We were so busy with end of school year activities and Girls On the Run (Paige and I ran together a 5 K race in early June), Piano lessons for Paige and all the other spring things the girls are involved in. Oh yeah and I work two 12 hour days a week so that keep me busy and Jeff too. But I am blessed with a great job and love being a nurse. We love Northern Michigan area and spend time here each summer. Here are some recent pictures of our trip. We make so many memories and have fun too.

Strawberry Hemangioma

Laine Age 5 1/2 Hemangioma.....gone

Now for the beginning of the story

Many people have asked us about Laine's Strawberry Hemangioma. I would welcome any questions by families whose child has been born with one of these tumors. She had nothing more than very slight redness at birth. Even at one week old we were told it was a stork bite and would go away in a few weeks or months. Each day it got bigger, redder and the next morning I would see a change over night.

Laine at one month It grew fast the first months and we were referred to a Pediatric Dermatologist, Ophthalmologist and Hematologist. Laines tumor was considered Cavernous because it also invaded her eye cavity and was pushing on her eye changing its shape. We were seen every 2-3 months by the Ophthalmologist to make sure she didn't loss eye function. The Dermatologist wanted us to wait as most of these will go away on their own. It was hard to see her like that and not demand something be done but we trusted our doctors.

Laine at 2 months

We got many stares but that didn't stop us from going places. At story time every week I would end up feeling bad for the mommies whose child pointed at Laine and would ask if she had play dough or a pepperoni on her eye. Other mommies felt terrible about what their child was saying. My older daughter who was 4 years old would tell. me "mom people are staring at my sister" I think she has a gift of compassion because of it now. The comments from little ones didn't bother me. I would just tell them it was a birthmark. The rude comments from adults were the worst. I actually had adults say "what is wrong with your baby" Almost like they were disgusted from looking at her.

Laine at 8 months it keep growing

Laine at 9 months it peaked in the growth and stayed the same for a couple months

Laine at 1 year We saw signs of it getting smaller and less red. We were so excited.

Laine now at 3 years old. As the Hemangioma has healed her eye shape is back closer to normal. She will not need glasses at this time. She has a little bit of skin puckering that maybe someday we could have laser surgery. Her doctors are very happy with all the progress. She looks at pictures of when she was a baby and asks about the boo boo on her eye. When we ask her what happened she says "Jesus healed it". For that we are so thankful.

me and the girls

Think Spring

vacation 2011....grand cayman, and cozumel....

we had such a great time relaxing and spending the week in the sun. our cruise had stops in grand cayman and cozumel where we did a little shopping, eating , snorkeling, and enjoying the different culture. we missed the girls and they missed us , but they had a great with their grandmas. it was so nice to have time with jeff and enjoy time together. can't believe we had 70's and 80's last week and now we have had a blizzard and no school for the last two days. dreaming about the vacation.

packing

sorry for no posts lately but i have been packing!!!!.....hubby and i are going on a cruise in another week. no kids. just us. we are so excited. western caribbean. will so miss the girls. but they will forgive us when they are spoiled by grandma. we love grandmas. both the girls grandmas are helping. we are so thankful and blessed.

christmas day

we had such a good Christmas morning....I made the girls wait until 700 to open presents but they could look in their stockings any time. about 4 or 5 in the morning i heard them sneak into the living room and go back to paiges room to compare what treasures were in the stockings. my sister and i did the same thing growing up and it was sweet memories ....i made a overnight baked french toast which was yummy. paige got the DSi that she really wanted and laine got the doll she wanted and they got lots of other toys on their wish list too. we invited our family and some friends to our house for dinner. we ate ham and the traditional Christmas dinner foods. it was so good. we played some games and had a great family day. it was a prefect day!

christmas jammies