Packing... (BLAH!)

We're leaving tonight to go out of town for a few days.  We're going with my in-laws to Hilton Head.  They have a timeshare week that they had to use and ended up getting a big unit and asked us (and my BIL and his fam) if we wanted to come - "Ummmm... Heck YES!!!"  Don't have to ask me twice.  I love traveling, going out of town, seeing new places and I've always wanted to go to Hilton Head. :)  With that said... all the work that goes into the prep and packing to get there... I could do with out!  Packing for 6 people... well 5 1/2 people is alot of work.  I say 5 1/2 for a reason... Nathan picks out about 1/2 of his stuff... after having kids well buddy your on your own!  I try to pack for him and remember everything... but everytime... its inevitable I forget something of Nathan's.... socks, deodarant... underwear... yes I have forgotten them.  I feel bad when I do but well... then pack yourself!  I love you I do... but I've got enough to remember... speaking of I forgot to pack socks for Nathan URGH!!!!  Got to remember to pack socks... pack socks Jessica...

Ok anywho.... It is a huge task to pack for all of us.  We are only leaving for a few days but with kids you have to pack atleast 1 extra outfit.  It all starts a week before the trip with ..... LAUNDRY!!!!  I have successfully washed all the dirty clothes in this house.  There is not ONE dirty anything! yay me!!! :)  Don't you worry though I will return with plenty of dirty clothes... lol  So anywho... here is just a glimpse of our load that we are taking with us.... I do have to say my husband is THE MASTER PACKER... I am convinced that he can fit anything in our van.  I don't even worry about it... I just say baby here this is what we are bringing and he makes it happen - its truly a talent and he is very good at it.  On our honeymoon we bought a wicker chest (size of an ottoman) and a wicker laundry basket (size of an ottoman) AFTER we purchased them... we got outside and realized... Oh oops we only have a Honda Civic.  They barely fit to get back to our hotel much less all our luggage that we had for the trip home!  Yes he did it... he fit it all in the Honda and everything made it home - see I tell you I'm convinced he can do it!  Ok... Ok on to the picture!!!! I'll stop rambling... :)

Just a little bit of our load... Here is what it takes for a Fam of 6 to take a trip...

2 HUGE suitcases....  1 big one for kids and 1 big one for Mama & Daddy (yes we all share)
3 sleep mats for the girls to sleep on
5 pillows yes we have to take our own pillows
3 sleeping bags for the girls to use
3 backpacks full of toys
1 bag of randomness
1 pack and play for the baby
4 blankies b/c our babies are blankie babies
1 pack of pull ups
1 pack of diapers
2 tubs of wipes
1 toiletry bag for all of us
1 bag of crayons, paper, colorbooks and books
1 bag of all our shoes (I actually limited it 2 pairs per person this trip except for me lol I'm bringing 3)
boppy
pacies can't forget the pacies!!!
diaper bag
camera
purse
Oh and US! :)
FOOD lots of FOOD we usually don't pack so much food but this trip money is low and we plan to eat most of our meals at the timeshare and bring what we have from home.

I'm sure we will have tons of pics coming up from our trip!  I'm so excited!!!! :)

He is crawling...

Well it is official... Jackson is a crawler!  (2/2/11) He is so cute doing it.  He is moving slow.  He goes for a little bit and then sits back up and looks around in amazment of how he just got there.  So sweet.  Yesterday he pulled himself up on the fireplace hearth (is that how you spell that?)  I was freaking out... more b/c he was on the fireplace... but he is more mobile now... :)  I will hopefully get pics today!

10 Years

WOW!  I can not believe it.... mostly because time has gone by so fast.  Nathan and I have been together for 10 years. (married for 8 in May)  We started dating 10 years ago??? really??? Where did the time go?  I couldn't have been more blessed.  God truly gave me my soul mate.  Nathan is such an amazing, man, husband and father.  Nathan truly puts my needs firsts. (moving us back to Jacksonville is a great example of that) These 10 years have been wonderful, full of fun, love, long talks, laughter, arguments, disagrements, forgiveness and friendship.  I am thrilled to be where we are today and celebrating... I am excited to see what the years to come bring us.  Now we need a date night! ;)

Laundry Soap

Laundry is a daunting task for any large family... and can get quite expensive too.  I have seen recipes and heard of making your own soap and how easy and inexpensive it was... I have been wanting try this for a long time.  I have put off trying it even longer... b/c I had to make it and wasn't sure what I was in for. Well I finally jumped on the bandwagon!  After seeing a friend post it on facebook and she included pictures (I'm visual) it gave me the UMPH that I needed!

It really was easy peasy!  And CHEAP!  It cost around $6.00 for all the supplies and I have plenty of Borax and Washing Soda to make tons more.  This recipe is to make enough soap for 40 loads.  I will probably triple the batch the next time I make it.  I got the recipe from here http://duggarfamily.com/recipes.html  but I will also show you the steps. They also have a recipe for liquid detergent if you prefer that and for fabric softener (SIDE NOTE : Love the Duggars, I'm an avid watcher of their show!  We love their Tater Tot casserole, its a regular in the Fields house but I add shredded cheese to mine :) - try that too!)

Grab your supplies.  (Ivory bar soap, Borax and Washing Soda. It was hard to find the washing soda, finally found it at Publix!)

                                                 Give the baby a snack so he is happy :)

                                                                Grab a cute helper or two...

                                                       Keep Pooh and Piglet out of the soap.

                                                           Measure all ingredients.

          
                                                                           Add to soap.

                                                                           And stir.

Yes it is that easy!  You grind up one bar of soap on the fine part of the grater. (it was really easy to grind I thought it was going to be hard)  Add 1/2 cup of Borax and 1 cup of Washing Soda.  Mix well and that is it!  Use 1 tablespoon for a regular wash and 2 tablespoons for a heavy soiled wash.  I've done several loads so far and I am impressed!  They smell is very clean and light. All the clothes are clean and colors are great! TRY IT and save some money!!!!! :)

For people with little babies... I think that this detergent is probably safe for babies.  So no more buying expensive baby detergent.  Since I used ivory soap the smell is really light and I don't think it would irritate the baby's skin. 

Another helpful tip... On the back of the Borax box was all sort of cleaning tips you can use Borax for... from stains to toilets... I haven't tried it yet... but Borax is really cheap (like $3) and worth a shot!

Jackson 8 months old

I need to update on my little man!  He is such a good baby!  I know I've said that a ton of times but he really is!  He is 8 months old (on December 29th) and such a cutie!  He is still rolling all over the place, very purposeful to get what he wants.  He gets a hold of the girls food alot too.  I have had to take away a chocolate covered pretzel, which the chocolate was mostly gone.  A chicken nugget... Payton had taken it away from the table when she wasn't suppose to and guess who found it!  He is eating all sorts of baby food and we started the "puffs" he loves them.  He just grabbed them like he had been eating them forever and gets them in his mouth without a problem.  Jackson babbles all the time and does raspberries.  He loves his sissies...  and the love him.  Taylor and Addison are all over him.  And are a huge help and make him laugh anytime that he gets fussy.

I don't think that I posted this but at Jackson's 6 month appointment (he was actually 7 months old we are a month behind b/c of our move) the DR that we went to was really concerned about his size being he was in the 3rd percentile in height and weight.  She was a bit extreme in my opinion.  I struggled with the comments that she had and things that she wanted to do b/c he was small. I didn't like some of the things that she said, she was quite rude and something else that happened.  I finally decided to go to another DR b/c if she going to freak out over everything I take them to the doctor for that would just get old real quick and drive me nuts.  So the new DR wasn't as concerned.  He had a couple of good points that Jackson is very alert and his stomach isnt sucken in you can't see his ribs... so more than likely he is just going to be a little guy.  He did say you never know though b/c every baby is different and grow differently.  I felt much more comfortable with what he said.  And was completely at ease about Jackson being "small" with all that said.  Exactly one week from the second appointment we had.  Jackson gained almost a pound and grew about an inch! I do have to admit that I wanted to contact the 1st "freak out DR" and say take that! lol  Don't mess with a Mama! (at least not this Mama)  I am very excited about Jackson's growth!

A little sprucing...

You know I can't leave well enough alone...  I finally broke out the vinyl on my cricut and LOVE it! :)

We needed some accessories for the master bath and since they are so expensive and we needed two of them (we have 2 sinks) I was waiting for a bargain!  Well I saw these cuties at the Dollar Store, yes plain white toothbrush holders but I liked that they had a bigger holder for the toothpaste too.  I fell in love and saw more! SCORE!

                                                      A litte bit of vinyl, so much cuter!

Nathan really likes them.  He thought that I bought them and they were like $10-$15 a piece.  PAH-LEESE! I would never spend that much on a toothbrush holder! Anywho... I told him where I got them and what I did.  He was impressed! :)

So having the cricut out and vinyl I couldn't stop... I always wanted to add something to this red plate that we have.  So it got a little sprucing too.

                                                                         So pretty...

Say Goodbye to the Gray...

I've mentioned before that we are blessed to now be living in my in-laws house, the house that Nathan grew up in.  It is a big house and very nice.  We love it :)!!!!  We are excited to put our "stamp" on it.  Everyone has different taste and with that said... my in-laws had all the trim work and doors in the house gray... just a look that they liked when they built the house.  We want to have color on the walls and want white trim.  I have been so anxious to paint.  Nathan HATES painting with a passion!  I have been bugging him about buying paint and he kept putting it off and didn't want to.  Well today he surprised me with a gallon of white paint!!! :) I was so excited... seriously the best present! So of course I started painting today, who could wait, not me! I was squealing while painting... I was so excited!  I started in the foyer... and man this is going to be some serious work! (LOL)  I cleaned the trim and then started painting... the gray was a pretty dark gray and it is going to take about 3 coats of white paint to cover good.  I'm thinking we might go get some primer... and then paint for other rooms.  (Yes the whole house has gray trim and doors)  My plan (don't you just love how I plan!) is to paint the trim in a room and then do the walls in that room.  So one room is finished and there is a sense of accomplishment.  Gotta keep the motivation up!

I did not get finished with the foyer today but I coat 2 coats done and 1 coat on the closet door.  Like I said I had a peek into the realization of this project today... going to be some serious work.  Good think I don't sit still for long ;) 

So here are some pics of the progress....

Foyer Before

(already moved furniture to the middle of the room)

Foyer Before

                                                             During... gray going away.

                                  
                                                           after... 2 coats needs 1 more

                                                                   after 2 coats... 1 to go!