Addition to the Family!!

No I am not pregnant-we got a dog!!! My bro-in-laws parents were looking for a good home for one of their mini dachshunds over the holidays and we jumped at the chance. I always thought that I would like to get a puppy so that we could watch it grow. Not anymore-biscuit (that's the dogs name, I tried to get Olivia to change it, but she threw a major fit so the name is staying) is the coolest dog ever!!! He is already house trained and so calm. He has fit into our family so well. He does great with Owen and the girls, Owen chases him around the living room laughing so hard. Alex claims that he must be half-cat because all he wants to do is snuggle. He will climb right onto your lap and fall asleep. We are so happy to have this little dog in our family!!

Homemade Laundry Soap

Right before Christmas I realized that I was out of laundry soap. I hate hate hate buying things like this. There are so many things that I would rather spend my money on. That very same day I found a recipe online for laundry soap on this blog http://cuegly.blogspot.com/. I went right to the store and bought all the stuff-which only cost me around $6 total. It was so easy, I will never buy the store stuff again. It actually worked better than the soap I had been using and it smells really great. I was worried about my kids skin getting irritated, but I have been using it for over a month now and have not noticed anything different. Here is the recipe if anyone else wants to try it. I got all the stuff from my Frys Marketplace.

1 Fels-Naptha soap bar
1 cup washing soda
½ cup Borax
*
Grate soap or break into pieces and process in a food processor until powdered. Mix all ingredients. For light load, use one tablespoon. For heavy or heavily soiled load, use 2 tablespoons.
*
Yields: three cups detergent (approximately 40 loads).

I even made me a cute little container to hold it in. It makes doing the laundry just a little better (very little, but every bit helps right!!).

Christmas

We had such a great Christmas this year. I made the girls some Christmas dresses and Owen a tie to wear for our Family pictures. I seriously had to take about 100 pictures for a decent one of all the kids-here is the best one.

On Christmas Eve, Santa came and filled the stockings and left some fun presents.

Olivia woke up first and waited in our room until she was practically crying because she couldn't wait any longer. So we woke up Abby and Owen and went to open presents. Owens favorite part was the dum-dums in his stocking. He loved them!!!

Abby was just so cute opening her presents. She got so excited for every one. Olivia was more excited to watch Abby open her presents then opening her own.

It is so fun being the Mom now that my kids are old enough to "get" Christmas, but still young enough to really enjoy the spirit of Christmas. We had a great Christmas this year!!