Zoo time!

I woke up to the beautiful sunshine streaming into my bedroom. So the second I heard the kids were awake, I ran into their room and asked, "Who wants to go to the ZOO?!?!"

Molly instantly jumped up in her crib and reached her arms up for me to get her out! And Cohen shouted, "the Zoo!? YEAH!!!!!"

So we rushed through our morning routine to get to the zoo.

First stop as usual: The sea lions. These are our favorite! Maybe it's because they are always putting on a great show!

It was so fun having the polar bear right up against the window! Molly had a hard time seeing it from where she was in the stroller, and I didn't want to take her out because she was so cold. But when I told her to wave at the polar bear, I KID you NOT... The polar bear sat up, looked right at her, then rolled over! It was hilarious! There was a lady next to us laughing so hard, and she said, "I bet you wish you had that recorded!" Yes, yes I do.

On the right, Cohen's favorite: The Orangutans! They were right up against the window! Super cool.

While running to go see the Elephants, Molly tripped and fell right on her precious little face. It scraped up her little nose. :( So sad...

After I took Cohen's picture here in the cave, Cohen said, "your turn!!" So he took the camera, and told me to go sit. It was so funny. So the picture on the right is Cohen's work as a photographer! :)

Cohen reaching as tall as the giraffe.

.we love the zoo.

Welcome home to me!

So for the past week I've been in Sacramento, California visiting my dearest friend Courtney Roskelley! She had a baby 3 weeks ago, so I wanted to go see her, the cute little Sam, and help her with things around the house while she recuperates. It was such a fun trip. I was able to stay up late with him, and have him sleep next to me to let Courtney and Blake sleep, and it was awesome! He's such a sweet little baby!

Well this post isn't about my trip.. maybe I'll get to that one day... :/ This is about my homecoming........

So yes, I was gone 6 days. Leaving Jeff to everything. What an angel. Well, with the help of a few friends, a couple of sisters, and my mother. I missed Cohen and Molly so much. SOOO much. I have NEVER been away from Molly for more than a night... so that was especially hard for me.

When I landed in Portland, I BOLTED through the terminal. With a huge smile on my face the whole way. I walk by security, and I see Jeff with Molly on his shoulders, and Cohen's head. And then, it comes....

"MOMMY!!!!!!! It's Mommy!!!!" And Cohen ran through the crowd and jumped in my arms. I instantly started crying. Then he says, "I missed you Mama!" Everyone around us is oooohing and awwwing. Molly was a little high for me wrap her in my arms, but her face was priceless. Smiling, and laughing! It was just perfect. I couldn't have dreamt up a better homecoming.

And it was one I never want to forget.

Sweet prayer, from a sweet boy

Tonight while putting the kids to bed, Cohen wasn't cooperating very well during story time, song, and then prayer due to the fact that he couldn't find his Francesco mini car (from the movie Cars 2). Finally, since he wasn't giving up on it, I told him to ask Heavenly Father in his prayer, to help him find his Francesco car. I explained all that to him. Then he said, "Oh, Ok!" So we knelt at his bed, and usually he fights me on who says the prayer, so I told him that he had to say it, since he wanted to ask Heavenly Father for help. He then begins his prayer....

"Dear Heavenly Father, Where's Francesco??"

It was just so sweet. And sadly, we did not find his little teeny tiny car. Hopefully in the morning We'll have better luck.

Oh I love him.

Good golly, Miss Molly

Today I took Molly to her 18 month check-up (a little late...) And while walking back to the room, her nurse says, "Now Molly's just about 20 months, right?" And I said, "well, in a little while.... wait! In FOUR days!?" And the nurse said, "time flies...."

Ummmm DUH.

Her stats at {almost} 20 months

Height: 32 3/4 inches - 70%

Weight: 22 lbs 7 oz - 15%

She is shocking me more and more each day with things she does/says/learns. Maybe it's shocking me because I still feel like she's my little baby, and she shouldn't be doing certain things yet. But no, she's right on track... maybe I should jump on that track too!

She is such a funny little girl. She really knows how to tease Cohen, and get him all riled up! :) They are quickly becoming very good friends, which is so fun to watch. It seems like everyday she has a new word she says. My favorite thing she says is "gup" which is yep, or yes. And she recently has taken an interest in potty training! I'm not pushing it, but I'll ask her if she wants to go periodically, and she says, "gup", and walks to the bathroom. She's only 'gone' a couple times, but she seems to enjoy the thought of it!

She loves to dance, sing, play with her tea set, play with cars/trucks/trains, she loves to wear jewelery, and she's now helping me bake! :)

We love this little girl so much. She is constantly making us laugh. We're so grateful she's OUR little Mollykins!

{doing what she does best -- dancing}

Homemade laundry detergent

Well I've had these items in my closet for the past... oh maybe a year... I've read and heard from a lot of people about making your own laundry soap. It always intrigued me. Knowing it's more natural than regular detergent, without any chemicals, and also the fact that it's insanely cheap to do! So I bought everything to make it, but never did, cause I guess I was little weary of it. So finally, the other day I did it! I made SIX batches of this stuff! Let me break it down:

1 box of Arm & Hammer - $3.18

1 box of Borax - 3.49

5 Fels-Naptha bars - .98 each - 4.90

$11.57

I read on a website that each batch is about 40 loads.

1 cup each of the washing soda, and borax. One bar of the Fels-Naptha (shredded in a cheese grader) per batch

1 tbsp per small load

2 tbsp per regular load

3 per extra large load

6 batches = about 240 loads for $11.57?????? YES PLEASE!

AND it works!

A lot of people I talked to were concerned about the smell. The smell of the detergent itself smells sooo good, very citrus. Once you run it through the dryer, the clothes don't have any smell. But I usually run the dryer with a dryer sheet, so it just comes out smelling like that.

All in all it washed my clothes (kids clothes, towels, my clothes, jeans, anything...) just the same as any other detergent I've ever used. If I have a deep stain, I still have to tend to it like usual. I'm definitely never buying regular detergent again.

p.s. I read on several different blogs different ratios of the bar of soap to the washing powder. All of them said 1 cup of the powder... but some said a full bar of the bar of soap, some 2/3 bar. So that's why I only did 5 bars to 6 cups of everything else. I didn't think I'd be able to get 6 batched out of all that. And I still have a 1/4 of the box left of borax!