A little late Jessica.....

So my friend Jessica posted a while back about posting your fav cleaning product and recipe, so here goes.

Cleaning Product - I have to say Melaleuca Tub and Tile, it's the best stuff ever! It's the BEST for getting soap scum off shower doors and tubs, I love love love it. It's too bad you need a membership to get it, but if you know someone, maybe they could get it for you.

Taco Soup one of my fav recipes - well this is an easy one, so yummy. Chris won't touch it cause I put corn in it, so if your family is that way, just take it out.
1 can corn
1 can Nalley Chili (I use turkey, it's better for you and you CAN'T tell the diff.)
1/2 pack taco seasoning, (this is really to taste)
1 can chopped tomatoes, I use the mexican seasoned tomatoes

Mix together in a saucepan and heat on med for about 20 min or so.

Serve with shredded cheese, sour cream, onions, corn chips. Very Easy!

Jake Post

Well it seems like Jake has had a lot going on lately so I wanted to update everyone. Well he cut his second tooth on the bottom, and I was finally able to catch this pic of it - if you can see it !



Also, this week he's had a horrible case of hives, I don't know if he's allergic to something or it's just a virus, but it seems to be going away thankfully. We were getting a little bit nervous because his hands, feet, and face were swelling up and he looked so pathetic. He's always been sensitive to food so we're not sure if that's it or what.
Poor boy!



Finally, he can CRAWL!!!
He's been scooting around and army crawling forever, but never been able to do the full hands and knees. Well I was thinking about how he's always wearing pants and I wondered if it was getting in his way. So I took them off and sure enough! Okay so he's only done it a little bit, but I think he's finally on to something! The funny part is he loves to get up on his hands and feet, like Moglie in Jungle book, it's pretty cute.



He's also been helping mom with the laundry - he's such a good boy!
He's growing so fast....

Signs your child has seen Nacho Libre too many times!

1. She can sing the "Encarnacion" song
2. She dives off the couch, while making a farting noise
3. She slaps you and says "look alive"


We're not going to be watching Nacho for a while.

Recycled Glass

I just noticed at Target they've got lots of different things that are made out of recycled glass. Soap dishes, decor, glassware. Cute!

PS - It's on Sale!!

Birthday Party

So I think it went well, it's amazing how time flies when you have 6 kids in your house at the same time. Claire got lots of new toys and had a ball wearing her new princess dress. We played games ate cupcakes and opened presents. Fun!

Happy Birthday Claire!

Wow, I can't believe she's three!!
She's our little girl and we're so glad to have her in our family, she makes everything girly:)
For her birthday we went to the library for story time and got her hair cut. THen she watched Nacho Libre - her fav movie right now, I know weird. Then we went to Leo's Place for pizza and playing. Besides falling down the stairs and slipping on the ice a couple of times, I think she had a pretty good day. She got some awesome gifts from the Snedakers and Knightons which she was wearing/playing with this morning at like 7!
I can't believe my baby is so old.
Her party is tomorrow so I'm sure I'll have a few more photos to post - if I haven't gone crazy by then!
Happy Birthday Claire - We love you!

Haircut

Here's the new me.

Grass

Claire: What's that in your nose?
Chris: What? There's nothing in my nose.
Claire:(with a funny look) What's in your nose? Is that grass?
Chris: No that's not grass, it's hair.
Claire: Oh, hair.
Chris: You have hair in your nose too.
Claire: No, I don't have hair in my nose, just boogers.

A few minutes later....

Chris takes a shower and Claire comes in and sees him without his shirt on. She gives him another funny look.

Claire: AHHHH! A monster!
She comes running out to me.
Claire: Mom, there's a monster in the bathroom.
Me: No, there's no monster, that's just daddy.
Claire: Oh ya, dad.

Thanks!

Just wanted to thank everyone for the well wishes on my birthday. I had a GREAT day yesterday. Unfortunately, I was having so much fun I didn't take any pictures. I went and got my haircut - about 5 inches, it's something I've been needing to do for a long time and I love how it turned out. I'll have to post a picture. Chris got me photoshop to go along with my camera and a cheesecake along with the SWEETEST card. He took me to dinner and a movie and took half the day off so I could go get my hair done. I have the BEST husband. I really had a good day and I'm thinking 25 is going to be even better than 24! Thanks again everyone for the texts, cards, calls. It's good to know I'm surrounded by such great people.

My baby

I guess he's not so little any more, my baby cut his first tooth! Tear. Why do babies have to get bigger?

Giveaway!

Hey everyone, I'm doing a giveaway on my GREEN blog, so check it out and get entered!!

Thanks,
N

GIVEAWAY !!

Okay to get a little traffic, I thought I would do GREENGOERS very first giveaway! So remember that stainless steel water bottle I posted about? It could be yours! All you have to do is leave a comment on the blog. If you mention my giveaway on YOUR blog I'll give you two entries - isn't that great? PLUS, if your friend happens to win and he/she saw it on YOUR blog you'll get one too! So hurry up and get entered and tell all your friends. I will draw on January 31st so make sure you look back to see if you won.

Gazelle.com

Thanks to my brother I found an awesome website that will help you recycle your old electronics for cash. If they can't offer you any money they will at least send you a box with postage to ensure your item gets recycled properly. Now that's a green conscious website. My brother said it took him 10 minutes to set up. No excuses now!
You can even donate the money to charity.

Stainless Steel Water Bottle

I just saw on Slickdeals that AMAZON has got a stainless steel water bottle on sale for about $5 before shipping. It's eco-friendly and there's no BPA (see my previous post about BPA) in it! Check it out here.

New Year's Resolutions

Well it's that time of year again. As I look back on the year and remember my resolutions I made for 2008 I realize I didn't finish ANY of them! But I did work on all of them and did my best, so I'm really not feeling too bad, kind of just laughing about it. So for this year one of my BIGGEST resolutions is to actually finish my new year's resolutions! Haha... Okay so here they are.

1. Be a better person, I guess the details of this are personal (and more measurable)things I need to work on that I'm sure you don't want to hear about, but as long as I am making PROGRESS and look back on the year and feel like I'm better than I was 12 months ago, I'll be happy.

2. Get in shape - this means playing the WII and not having to recover for two days afterward! I know..sad huh. Okay the real goal: working myself up to at LEAST a half marathon - that is definitely doable.

3.Well there are a couple of things I'd like to put on the list from last year, that I kind of want to be a surprise(if i can ever get them finished!) so you'll just have to wait.

4. Doing more "Green" things. I don't know if anyone actually follows my green blog, but eventually I'd like to go completely organic (with food that is) it's pretty expensive so for right now just doing as much as I can.

5.Getting in the groove of following a specific family budget. I've never been good at that. This is the year!


Well that's that. What are your resolutions? Okay does anyone remember the line from dead poets society?- I dunno, something about siezing the day!

Bleach

So I guess I never realized that bleach was harmful. I mean I knew it was harmful if you swallowed it or got it in your eyes, but I didn't really know the effect it has on the enviroment. Doing a little research I found out that Chlorine bleach is a toxin and linked to carcinogens which we KNOW aren't healthy for us, and it hurts the ozone layer.

For an easy alternative that actually keeps your whites looking white - White Vinegar or hydrogen peroxide.
Easy enough, oh and vinegar is actually better on your fabrics too!

Cookie Magazine

Being a mom I like a little advise now and again about running a household. I found a great new magazine that also includes quite a bit of green solutions as well for the "everyday" mom like myself. They have lots of great ideas for easy solutions to your green problems.

Envirokidz

I've been trying to buy organic food for my family when I can find it on sale or when the price difference isn't too bad. Yesterday while I was doing my grocery shopping I found an organic kids cereal - Envirokidz Organic that was a really great price, about $2/box. That's definitely doable! It's USDA certified organic and they have lots of different kinds to choose from with cute animal pics on the front. I bought a box to try out and after reading through the material on the box I was really impressed. There are no preservatives, it's gluten free, and has low sodium. They also donate 1% of there sales to endangered species, which just feels good, and to top it all off, they reduce their packaging size by 10% which is not only good for the environment (saves 1.3 mil gallons of water, 940,000 KWh of energy, and 144 tons of paperboard) but there isn't that wasted space in the box like most cereals so you actually know what you are paying for.
The big test: Does it taste good? ---- My three year old daughter loved it!
Go Envirokidz!

I read somewhere that organic food prices are based on supply and demand. If we buy it more, the prices will go down, so do what you can to buy Organic. Sometimes you can even find coupons which will make the prices equivalent if not cheaper than its non-organic competitor.

BPA

Bisphenol-A is a chemical used in the plastic and epoxy of formula cans and is also present in some baby bottles. There have been concerns that BPA could cause health risks to infants, though the FDA has assured us that the levels are not high enough to do so. However, Gerber along with other companies have started making BPA-free products which now can be found in most stores. The first kind I saw were the drop-ins by playtex, but now you can buy the cheap gerber bottles, BPA-free for about a dollar. Though there may not be any apparent health risks, I tend to wonder why Gerber has decided to make all of their products BPA-free, whatever the reason, It's good to know that there are cheap alternatives for going BPA-free.

Just for information, BPA is present in much of our food packaging NOT just baby bottles and some researchers say high amounts have been linked to causing cancers, obesity, autism and other hormonal and developmental problems.

For some really great information on the issue go to this reputable sight.