the beginning...

this morning my first born stepped onto the bus for her first day of kindergarten. i always vowed i would never be one of "those moms" that cries when their kid goes off to school.

but don't worry, i totally did.

let's chalk it up to pregnancy hormones, m'kay?

world's cutest baby...

... in the world's ugliest pajamas

happy birthday elli bells!

she's our little 'devil in disguise' and she's three today!

we had a little backyard movie party last night and it turned out really fun!

the birthday girl:








the group:









the spread:











thanks to everyone who came and brought such nice gifts!

(and thanks to jenny who took all the pictures for us!)

laundry tip

okay i've been meaning to do this post for awhile and finally remembered to take pictures while i was doing the laundry.

i don't know about some of you, but my babies onesies basically get TRASHED every time they wear them. between feedings and blowouts they seem to get stained really fast.

 see example below:

i tried every kind of stain remover out there until my mom recommended this awesome trick.

( NOTE: i DO NOT recommend doing this to anything that's not completely white! i mostly do this for onesies, washrags and any clothing that's totally white. please don't hate me if you try this and ruin something nice!)

so the first step is to put your laundry into a big GLASS bowl and fill it with water until it's almost covering everything.



then you need to put in some bleach (i eyeball it but it usually ends up being about 1-2 cups) and some dishwashing detergent (again i eyeball it but it's probably about 1-2 cups). it should be the dry kind not the liquid.



mix it all around with a wooden spoon and let it sit for about a half an hour to an hour. then dump the whole thing into your washing machine, add any other white laundry you need to wash and do a load of laundry like you normally would (including any laundry soap you might use).

your whites will come out looking sparkly clean!

prade

{ prade } definition: the way utahn's say "parade"

we went to the one in herriman yesterday and it was great fun!





until the fire trucks turned on their sirens. then it wasn't so fun anymore...



and my mom's fun car even made an appearance!