Birchbox

This post was requested by my brother Derek, so here you go. My brother told me about a company called Birchbox a while back. It's a company that you sign up for and then they mail you samples, some trial size, some full size, for a certain dollar amount. There are certain boxes, one for males and one for females. Well when I was little I loved buying those grab bags at the fair b/c you just didn't know what you were going to get. Well I thought this would be fun but I just couldn't afford it so my sweet brother said he would get one for me:) Yippee!!! and today I got it...happy day. It was super fun to open and see what was in store. There were five samples inside, designer bobby pins, body lotion, leave in conditioner spray, a make up sample, and a body creme. It was all wrapped in tissue paper and brought a smile to my face:) Thanks Derek!!!

Homemaking Time

I don't do it often enough but when I make something from scratch I feel so awesome!! I had the opportunity to learn how to make strawberry jam last week by a great teacher, Big T! I made 3 batches of freezer jam, and then a batch of regular jam but we ended up doubleing the recipe. Then the two younger boys and I made homemade laundry soap. After my dishwashing soap is gone I have a recipe for homemade dishwasher soap that I am going to try and a recipe for fabric softener. *Going back to the dishwasher detergent...I was highly impressed when I found out after I make the initial purchase of the Washing Soda and the Borax, my price, per load will almost be .04 cents! Yep, that's right....4 CENTS! When you are pinching pennies everything helps and I am super excited about this one.

Independance Day 2013

Obviously it's a tad bit past the fourth of July but life has been too crazy for me to blog as much as I'd like. It was a really fun gig though and despite getting a sunburn after only 5 minutes of sun- the boys loved to see their daddy perform. I went up front to take a few pictures and Brandon followed me up there. Brandon was standing by Aunt Juliet and Chanelle and some lady grabbed Brandon's hands and started dancing with him. The look on Brandon's face was priceless as he was like "Who Is This...Help Me!" We stayed for the fireworks afterwards and got home a little after midnight. Usually we hear the fireworks after we get home for a while but didn't really notice to many going off around us this year (I'm not complaining!)

Fireworks

Dallas bought a few fireworks to do at home so we lit them off on Wednesday night. The boys had lots of fun watching the fireworks, smoke bombs, fountains, and sparklers.

Larry

Cody has a goal of not cutting his hair this summer. So far he is succedding in his goal. Sometimes Cody will even blow dry his hair up for maximum volume:) When he blows it and brushes it backwards, he reminds me of Larry from Three's Company. It's pretty fun to watch him hang his head outside the window and enjoy the breeze as it blows his hair back.

Time to Build

I mentioned earlier about how the boys have enjoyed building forts and sleeping in them lately. Well just to update, Elijah has slept in his fort every night so far. I took a picture of the first fort but we have since reconstructed the fort in the dining room and even made it "bigger." The new fort even has a shelf in it so it's a great improvement. 1st Fort-

2nd Fort-

July 1st

The first day of July. They say the weather around here is more summer like after the fourth of July but this year, I think it came a little earlier. The high inside our house has been saying 88 degrees on the thermostat. Kind of warm. We bought a little, square fan to put in the younger boys room upstairs. I can't believe the difference even that little fan makes. It is usually cooler downstairs so we find ourselves down there quite a bit the past few days. Last night we went out to the driveway and set up our bean bag toss game Mike got a couple years ago for Fathers day. We split into teams and had quite a bit of fun. It felt really good outside once the sun set. I didn't get many pictures or blogs up since school got out. My batteries died and I couldn't get any new ones for a while. Well Dallas and Cody helped Mike work at grandpa and grandma Stones a few times building fence. They decided they wanted to get some pets with their money. Dallas got a hamster that he named Ashley, yep she's a girl! He loves her and got a penthouse to pamper her. Dallas has lots of fun putting her in the moveable hamster ball and watching her crazy antics. Cody on the other hand got a fish tank (that we scored at a yard sale w/a stand) with a Beta, 5 neon fish, 2 snails and 2 water frogs. He keeps busy looking at the fish but would like to also invest in a lid with a light so he can watch them in bed. We are looking forward to the 4th and going to see Mike perform again this year with Idol Eyez at their big firework show in Belluvue.