Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Lately

So excited about what God is doing lately!  He is always faithful.  Always on time.  He has really been encouraging me lately about our Photography business.  And yesterday I even hit one of my goals way early.....

I just finished making my very 1st website.  Woot Woot!  (I'm a bit excited, and more than a smidge proud of myself).  Up till this point I have only done blogs.  So this was a ginormous step form me....tech speaking :) lol.   I used Wix.com.  Found a starting point from another wix layout, then ended up changing just about everything about it.  Even though I had a pre layout it was still extremely time consuming.  I had to delete all the content, add my own....and did many other changes.  Last night I thought I was good to go, got a little over zealous, published it, even shared on FB.....then my wonderful husband did some proofing and reviewing for me and found some little typo's, and also a BIG error on my part.  I didn't realize that a couple elements on one page still linked to another page (showing info and pics of the original site.....fashion photography with a couple interesting pics and some writing I couldn't read b/c it was in French!)  How thankful am I that my husband knows that when checking you need to try and click on EVERYTHING. Bahahaha.....oh my.  Needless to say I removed the link from FB and Twitter.  Then once I fixed it all I re-posted it this morning.  It literally took me 8 hours to complete.  Mind you I do have three 3 year olds to parent while doing this.  So thankful for my wonderful kiddos who were so good during this time. 

My goal is within the next 6-8 mos to have my own domain name.  It costs $ to do that.  Baby steps.  If you would like to take a look at what I have currently (I'm sure I will keepadding and revising a bit to get it perfect before I get my domain, also need to add a Client page) here is the OpenOurEyes Photography Website!  Exciting!

Please Please Please, give me some feedback on it!

Again, thank you Jesus for your faithfulness and leading me one baby step at a time.
 "Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin" Zechariah 4:10a

In other news....
I have revised my recipe for making laundry soap from the original I got.  Each person has a different washer and probably has to revise a bit for their washing needs.  I used the original recipe I was given a couple times.  Liked it, but thought it needed to be a bit more soapy and could use more washing power.  If you are interested in making your own Laundry Soap, it is super easy and crazy inexpensive.  It has saved us about $60 these past 4 mos or so that we have been using it.  And it really does a great job cleaning our clothes and doesn't have a strong smell or any ingredients that would cause allergies....unless your allergic to any of the below ingredients :)

Ingredients.....
1 Naptha Soap Bar
1 1/2 cups Borax
1 1/2 cups Super Washing Soda
1 5gal bucket

Grate soap and put it in a saucepan.  Add 12 cups of water and heat until the soap completely melts.
Add the washing soda and Borax and stir until it is dissolved.
Remove from heat.
Pour 8 cups of water into your 5gal bucket
Add soap mixture and stir.
Then add 2 Gal of water plus 6 cups and stir
Cover bucket tightly with lid and let sit at least 24hrs.
After it has sat, open it and stir before each use. (it's gelish and just a bit sludgy)
use 1/2 cup to 1 cup per load - depending on size of load

That's it!
**picture below is b4 it sets.....**



Our kiddos have been doing good lately.  It's been so crazy hot outside though.  I usually LOVE summer, but this year it seems especially hot and humid.  We have had to really limit our time outside, especially if they are not playing in water.  So we have been doing more indoor activities.....painting, coloring, playing a bingo board game, trains, follow the leader, movies.....and did I mention they absolutely LOVE washing dishes.  It's crazy!  And I love it!  Trinity will ask all day long, "Mommy, can I wash dishes?"  lol   They have done them twice this week already.


And here are some more random phone pics.....

makin' some cake
 On a walk
 Teamwork!!
 sleepy little panda
 She loves this kitty
 At Amber and Matt's wedding! 

 My sexy stud of a husband
 She's going through a cowgirl phase....I think it really looks cute on her!!!

 decorating some cookies!
 Playin' outside
Fun times!  I love my life!  Thanks Jesus for your crazy awesome blessings!

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Family, Fireworks, and just hangin' out (4th of July weekend)!

This was the BEST 4th of July weekend!  We had so much fun and lots of family time, and some time with friends.  The kiddos really liked having Daddy home.  Chris took Friday and Tuesday off, so he had a 5 day weekend, and it was wonderful.  We chilled at the house, went and got ice cream, walked the 'Nade and got some Lemonade from Antie Anne's.  Monday evening we headed over to Orchard's Park for the fireworks show.  I was so happy....we didn't get there till like 745pm, and we got a close parking space AND a great place to sit!  Holler!  Here are some pics....the kids LOVED the fireworks.  Gabriel literally clapped at every firework that went off....so he clapped a lot!



 
 Below is the baby frog that visited us on our blanket at the park...




Then on Tuesday we had another fun filled day....back to Orchard's park to see the ducks, toss rocks, and climb around!
After this we went to the cool gas station for lunch.  Also found out that you can have peanut butter made their.....you do it yourself.  It's the coolest thing!  They have this machine with a whole bunch of peanuts.  You press a lever, and the peanuts turn into fresh PB!  It's awesome.  We will def be trying that when we run out of what we have!  For some reason we had never seen it b4.  

Then we headed to Downtown Rogers and visited "Toby" :)


 And stopped by Meridienne (dessert salon/cafe) for some ice tea and a snack...ALL their desserts are totally fab.  The kids had some of our Lemon Tarte and some homemade Chocolate Marshmallows.  They make everything there fresh....and it's YUM

Then finished out our day and weekend playing some Tennis on the new courts out at Memorial Park!  Chris and I played several games, let the kids get the balls (they loved that!).  Then Chris gave the kids their 1st Tennis lesson!  They had SOOOO much fun.  And today (Wed) they have been constantly asking "more tennis mama?!!!!" lol!  Now we know how much they will enjoy it, and will need to grab them some kid rackets! FUN times....and don't they look so cute?!  It's like we have our own little Tennis club....