Gettin' fixed...

My sweet Rinnah had to have surgery several weeks ago, but it was for the best.  She has been having trouble sleeping from sleep apnea, and had very recently began having hearing issues.  I noticed one day that I was constantly repeating myself to her and having to speak very loudly for her to hear me.
So, she had tonsils and adenoids removed, and tubes put in her ears.
The difference now is like night and day.  She can hear perfectly, says the audiologist.  And I can't hear her choking herself to breath at night while we all try to sleep.
The whole process was a little hard.  Especially when she was coming out of the anesthesia.  So sad.
I just wanted to cry but knew that wouldn't help anything. 
All she kept saying was "I don't want this thing, take it off!" in reference to the IV.  I would be saying the same thing, so I really couldn't blame her.
But what a treat it was, to have so much wonderful care there from people we know at church!  I think it made me feel so much more comfortable just knowing that the ones taking care of my girl were faithful followers of God.
And another nice treat for Rinnah!?  She has had a diet full of Popsicles and ice cream!

Mama J was there to help Rinnah sit up after the goofy juice.

Finally resting after being fighting mad after the surgery.

First popsicle!  Yummmmmm.

A visit from daddy and sisters.

They were so worried about her.

I love how strong this little girl is already.  Later that afternoon, she just couldn't sit in that bed anymore and started to climb down.  My mom and I jumped up not wanting her to pull her IV out or anything.  She said she wanted to go for a walk. Haha, okay...
The nurse said sure!  So we unplug the IV machine and go for a little walk down the hall!  She bounced back so well and is feeling great  two weeks later.

On to First!

It's been a few months, but Selah graduated from Kindergarten and is on her way to 1st grade in the fall!  We had a great time at the graduation.  They sang a cute little song, then were called up one at a time and given their awards.  Selah received 2 awards: Ready Reader & Star Personality.
So proud of my baby girl, who's really not a baby anymore.
So sad.

Selah's Special Day!!

Free picture collage made with Smilebox

Rinnah's Special Day!!

This digital collage made with Smilebox

Rinn Rinn is 3!!!

Rinnah, sweet Rinnah, you are 3!!!  You are such a precious soul, and the most faithful loving little girl.  I love how you randomly come up to give me a hug and tell me that you love me.  Your sense of humor is wonderful and silly.  You don't want to be the star of the show, just make people happy.  I am so proud of how wonderful of a big sister you are.  But you also want to do everything that your big sister does... so hard being the middle child, lol.
You have a tendency to think you are older than you really are.  For example, for your birthday you wanted to invite your teachers from school because they were your best friends.  You make me laugh, but I do love you with all my heart.

Rinnah's "haircut"

Rinnah sleeping as a newborn.

Rinnah sleeping last night in her "big girl bed".

Selah is 6!!!

Six years.  I can't even believe that it's been 6 years. Look how big you've gotten!  And such a little lady you are becoming.  I am so proud of you and how you are learning to make good decisions, loving school, and making friends at school.  You're heart is so sweet and innocent, and you have such a fun personality.  I love your sense of humor!  It makes me laugh when you laugh.  And you laugh at your own jokes.  I love that too, because I do that.  I see more of myself in you everyday.
I pray that God would help me be a good example for you, so that you would continue to grow in the Lord.
Happy Birthday sweet Selah.

My (easy) chicken pot pie

I have one recipe, one meal, that I have made it a habit of making when I take a meal to a family.  It's the easiest but yummiest chicken pot pie.  I have made a quadruple recipe before when I had several families to prepare for.  It is also fairly inexpensive.
So here it is.....
Ingredients-
frozen chicken breast (how many depends on your taste, the more chicken you want in your pie the more you should cook.) use a kitchen knife and cute your chicken into cubes.
bag of frozen mixed vegetables
can of cream of chicken soup
chicken stock or bouillon cubes
8 oz. sour cream
2 frozen pie shells (they come 2 per package)
flour (this is for thickening, so I just sprinkle until it's where I like it)

1. In your crock pot cook your chicken, soup, vegetables, and stock.  I like to put this on in the morning, on low, and it's usually done early in the afternoon.
2. Turn the crock pot on warm and add the sour cream.  Once that is mixed in begin to add flour a little at a time until the sauce is thickened.
3.  Add the filling into the bottom pie shell, top with the second pie shell.  Pinch the edges all the way around, and piece a few holes in the top.  Bake according to directions for the pie shell, maybe adding a few minutes.

Tada!!! Enjoy yourself a nice dinner that even the kids will love.  I like to pair this dinner with brownies from scratch.  Makes a yummy combination!

Going natural...

I have spent the last several months making some changes in our home.  I made these changes for a few reasons, but mostly to reduce cost.  Most of the ingredients are inexpensive, naturally occurring products.  The start up cost of all this has been less than $20.
This website says you only need 3 products to clean your whole house!  I have found several more "recipes" that require other ingredients, but this is a great place to start.
I created a pinterest board and named it "saver" where I have been saving all my recipes.


















One of the first cleaners I made was the all purpose cleaner.  It is very simple, but cleans well and has lasted quite a while, although I did double it for my bottle.

1 teaspoon liquid dish soap

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

2 tablespoons white vinegar

2 cups water

Then I made the dish detergent, but still haven't decided if I like it.  If any of you have tried another or have any good tips, please leave a comment.  I do like that I don't have to spend $4 on the store bought version though!
The next product I tried is AMAZING!!!!  I used it on my shower door once and haven't had to clean it again in about 3 weeks.  I let it sit for about an hour before I rinsed it off and it came off with little "scrubbing".  Please, if you don't try any of these other cleaners, try this one!  It is wonderful!





The last product I have switched is my laundry detergent.  I was very hesitant to do so because of Selah's eczema.  I wasn't sure how her sensitive skin would react.  So far, so good, but I will update soon, after I'm sure.
I used Michelle Duggar's recipe, although I'm sure it's not her original, but I got it out of her book (thanks PJ!).
This is the one that spent most of my $20 because of the 5 gallon bucket and container to dispense the soap.  I took about a week to find the exact one I wanted, found it at Walmart (good ol' WM).

But I haven't been limited to cleaning products in my natural switch.  I really began in late December when I started using olive oil as a facial cleanser and moisturizer.  I tried after reading a friends blog and thinking it would be worth a try.

The other care product I switched recently is shampoo!  I never thought I would try it, but that is one of the things I really hate spending money on.  So I started with the basic, baking soda shampooing but the other day I ran across this post that I found to have so much information and things I might like to try.


I am writing this post thinking that you probably will not even care about what products I use in my home, but I am so pleased with how it's going so far.  And I am on the verge of meeting my monthly grocery budget  for the first time in so long.  I do, however, hope this post interests you enough for you to begin some research on your own.  It's worth it!

*photos are not mine, but borrowed from corresponding website.

My sweet girls

 Selah had a package of toy clay and had a lot of fun creating different things.  I had to take a picture of this creation though.  Can you tell what she used to make the head?

Selah's giraffe eating from the top of a tree.

We recently went on a quick trip to visit some family, and it was late and in the middle of nowhere when Rinnah said she had to go potty.  Even though we had already put her pull up on since they were going to be falling asleep soon, she wanted us to stop.  There wasn't a bathroom in the near future, so we found a safe place on the side of the road and.........

She had a hard time at first.

This is Millah's favorite thing to do lately.  She will pull everything out of the cabinet and then climb in.  She's so little that she can slide all the way to the back and then can hardly be seen.

I just love that silly smile.

Happy Easter!

Praise God, that we serve a living Savior!

Hope you all had a blessed Easter, here are some pics from ours.

Horrified....

That describes my feeling when I opened the dryer at 8:30 pm the night before Millah's dedication at church.  Her dress was in there, it was the perfect dress.  There were also 3 white cardigans for the girls.
There was also a purple and orange crayon in the dryer....
Everywhere!!!
Have you ever seen a mom freak out!  I was freaking out!  Thank God that my best friend Jenna was there to calm me down and jump on google for some help.  She also kept me from attacking my child!
It was also very good that our men were already in town running some errands.  She found a solution online that didn't hurt to try.  Got the boys to pick up a few items.
Then the race was on.  How quickly can we get this to work out... or just call it a loss.
The main trick was a product called LA's Totally Awesome.  And let me tell you, it was totally awesome!
I just dumped half the bottle in very hot water in the washing machine and let the dress and cardigans soak for about 30 minutes.  I did a little bit of pretreating with the LA's before soaking it though (spray a bit and do small circles with an old tooth brush).
Then I washed the stuff in the LA's, then did an extra wash and rinse with detergent.  Then pulled it out to dry and the crayon was............
GONE!!!
Yay!  Finally at about midnight I put the dress and cardigans into the dryer and went to bed.
Millah was beautiful the next day for her special dedication back to the Lord, and I found my new favorite product in the world.
Then, about a week later, I had the energy to attack the whole entire load of crayon streaked clothes.

whistle while you work....

We have some child labor going on in our house these days.  I'm not ashamed to admit it.  It's not for free!  I feed them well, give them nice clothes to wear and a warm bed to sleep in.  Don't hate me...
My kids will learn to be responsible and grateful to their provider.  They will learn that we must be good stewards of what He has blessed us with.  One way is for them to learn to help around the house.  I found this idea on Pinterest, of course.  I modified it to work for us and the girls actually think it's fun! The girls have their chore jar, with two chores on each stick.  Mom and Dad have a jar each as well.  Then there is a discipline jar with things like "Uh, oh, 2 extra chores", or "Relax, no chores at all."  This last type is a great lesson in grace and mercy.  When the girls are misbehaving and needed discipline they pick from that jar and do what it says.  Selah chose a "grace" stick and I was able to share how her behavior warranted much more than the punishment she was receiving.  Love those life lesson moments.

Here Rinnah is doing her chore, sweep under kitchen table... see, not too hard, but they learn that it has to get cleaned up if you drop it, so maybe they will learn to put the food in their mouth more carefully!!!

Sweet things

Dr. Seuss day was a few weeks back, and we kind of had some fun with it this year.  I dressed #2 and #3 up as Thing 2 and Thing 3!  Selah was so upset that she didn't get to dress up so I couldn't steal her thunder as my Thing 1.  The picture really doesn't do them justice, they were so stinkin cute!  Millah thought it was so funny when I was spraying Rinnah's hair, until I got to hers.  It freaked her out a bit I think.

And speaking of things!!! This CRAZY thing decided it would be a great idea to cut her own hair.  It took all I had within me not to......

                                   .....bust out laughing when I saw it.  This crazy kid.  I love her to death.

The gift that keeps on giving

Last summer we received the most wonderful gift from a very special woman (Aunt Liz)!!  She gave us a family membership to the zoo.  We have been several times, and the girls have loved every moment of it.
 The really neat part is that we can take friends along for the fun too.  Once we took our best friends little girl.  Mercy and Rinnah are the same age and had a great time running around looking at all the animals.
This trip was extra special since we took three people with us!  Aunt Ash, Aunt Emi, and cousin Faith met us there and we jumped in with all 16 feet!
We didn't get to see all the animals, but got to ride the monorail and the carousel.  The girls all had a blast.  And they are already asking to go back.

Millah turns 1

Oh, sweet, little Millah Sue!  I can't believe you are one year old already.  This year has gone so fast, I wish I had taken more time to record every moment of it!  That first smile, those sleepless nights, when you learned to sit up.  It was all so special, just like you!  We celebrated your birthday this weekend with family and close friends.  It was so fun!
The theme was "tiny" ( just like you!) and everything was rainbow colors.  I loved that because a rainbow signifies the promises of God.  God made a promise to me many years ago, so it just worked.
If you want to know more about His promise in my life you can read this post and this one.
Back to the birthday girl....

You have gotten such a personality, even in the past few weeks.  The faces you make just crack me up.  And it's like you know if and do them just to get a reaction.

Party favors- rainbow colored homemade play-doh.

Your sisters love you so much and you love them too.  You miss them when they are away, and look for them each morning to give them your sweet smile.

Teeth- you have about 6 now, they started coming in when you were about 6 or 7 months.  You sure do know how to use them too! 

Your first words: bye-bye, dada, mama. But you sure do make lots of noises, squeals, and love to blow raspberries. 

One very funny (or embarrassing) fact is that you do everything with your middle finger, instead of your pointer finger.  And I think you may be left handed.

We are so thankful that God gave you to us.  What would we do without you in our lives?  I love watching you learn and grow.  Right now you are only days away from running a marathon... okay, not really.  But you will take 2 or 3 steps on your own before you ease your way back down to the floor.
And for being such a tiny thing, you sure can eat!  If you are awake, you want to be eating.  It's just not right.
We love you baby girl!  Can't wait to see what you learn next!