Merry Christmas!

Tucker and Bo doing a great job keeping the new family member a secret

Being one of the most difficult secrets to keep, our dogs did a great job during Christmas when we went home. I took this photo because I plan on doing the weekly chalkboard photos and thought a great way to start our pregnancy off is to make the secret announcement from the excited big brothers Tucker and Bo. They are They are a little unsure of how it is going to work with mom and dad giving all the attention to a little baby, but I'm sure we can figure out how to make our family of four grow into a family of five!

As a side note, it was hilarious to have people actually ask if I was pregnant while we were home or how cute I looked holding a baby. The best one was when we showed a baby outfit to my grandma and she was like is there something your not telling me? My dad rubbed my stomach and said oh didn't you see on Facebook Amy's pregnant. Jeff and I about lost it laughing. We had to explain that the outfit was for Jeff's cousin who just had a baby and we would let her know before anything was posted on the interwebs.

Me and my little sister on Christmas Eve at our  PJ Party!

Me and my hubby keeping our Christmas Present a secret!

Guess What???

We're expecting!

After being about a week late I decided to use the one test I had in the house on December 18th and see if my dream of being a mom was about to come true. Almost instantly I knew we had a winner. At that point I did a little hmm is this really happening? Am I ready for this...well it's too late it's happening. How do I tell my hubby? What is he going to say? Do I do something cute and tell him or... Oh let's just go tell him! So I quietly walked into our bedroom with the lights still off where he was still sleeping, crawled into bed and said hey so umm we're pregnant. He said congrats and I knew he needed some time to process everything so I got up and continued to do my morning routine of getting ready for work. When he came upstairs after his shower and I was like well we did it and he responded with my favorite line ever I'm A Man!

Now the part about keeping this pregnancy a secret is going to be tough. I called our doctors office hoping to get an appointment, you can't get in until 8 weeks ugh seriously? So if you remember we found out on December 18...right before Christmas. So now the hard part is do we tell our parents or wait? It could be the best Christmas present ever, but being worried that something could happen we decided to keep it to ourselves until we get to see this little bundle of joy and get confirmation from our doctor that everything is ok and we are in the clear.

We are so excited for this next chapter in our lives. Stay tuned for updates on our little one!

9 Months of Laundry Soap? Yes, Please!

So I've been noticing all the pins on Pinterest for homemade laundry soap and after my friend and bridesmaid, Megan said it was amazing, I went out and bought the ingredients to make it. She said she added the Downy Unstopables to make it smell even better and have the fabric softener. Here is what I used tonight to make it... it took me a little over an hour to make it because I kept running in the living room to watch the CMA's.


Supplies:

• A mop bucket or large container
  
• Plastic bag to line the bucket
  
• Grader
  
• 4lb box of Borax (12 oz)
  
• 4 lbs of Arm & Hammer Baking Soda
  
• Oxi Clean 4lbs (I bought the 5lb tub and have 1 lb left over)
  
• 3lb 7 oz box of Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda
  
• 3 bars of Fels-Naptha
  
• 2 (13.2 oz) containers of Downy Unstopables (I used Fresh Scent-teal lid)
  

I found everything in the laundry section except the baking soda, I had to go to the baking aisle for that and bought 2 2lb boxes
Line your bucket with plastic bag

Open up the Fels-Naptha bars and grate them in a large bowl, it will look like shredded cheese. I cut them in half to grate easier, note to self buy a grater. I had to use the grater on my salad spinner :) Don't even bother trying a blender FAIL! I saw some people used food processors to grate the Fels-Naptha, but I don't have one of those.

Layer all ingredients in the bucket and mix as you go. This helped keep the ingredients proportioned properly. (I used one container of Downy Unstopables during this first mix)

I bought the large apothecary jar at Walmart for $10 and a 2 tablespoon coffee scoop for $1.67, however you could use the cap from the Downy Unstopables.

I mixed and transferred the mix from the bucket into my jar, I added my second container of Downy Unstopables as it went into to the jar.

They say you only need to use 2 tablespoons per load. We went with 4 tablespoons to be on the safe and clean side.

Here is my final product, I had chalk and chalk labels left over from the wedding so I added it to the front and wrote Soap on it. Jeff is in there doing laundry now...yes, my husband does laundry! I'm a lucky lady ;) I'll let you know how it works!

Cost from Walmart:

• Borax $3.38
  
• Arm & Hammer Baking Soda $2.48
  
• Oxi Clean $9.47
  
• Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda $3.24
  
• Fels-Naptha (3 bars @ .97 each) $2.91
  
• 2 Downy Unstopables ($6.97 each) $13.94
  
• Total Cost without coupons: $35.42
  

*UPDATE- We have been using it and actually used 2 scoops (4 tbs) because we weren't sure the 2 tbs would cut it and I must admit the laundry smells really good and looks the same as it did before when we did laundry...clean! The fresh smell actually went through our house and it was like an instant air freshener. I think we will be doing laundry a lot to keep our house smelling so fresh and good. Happy Laundry Day!

My hanger and a few choice words

I have made all the hangers for the gifts except for mine. I had every hopes of it saying Mrs. Earl...however no matter how many times I tried I couldn't get the E to look right so after scratching myself up, throwing wire on the ground and muttering a few choice words I was about to give up until I decided to write Mrs. Squirrel. Good thing my husband to be has a nickname, because I now have a hanger!





*photos courtesy of our fabulous photograher Stephen's Photography

Wedding Party Gifts

After weeks of rolling fabric and burlap into roses, bending wire into names and gluing everything together, the bridesmaids gifts are complete. I had my mom embroider everyone's names onto a tote bag which held their hanger and clutch. I made these for all 10 bridesmaids, my 2 flower girls, my mom, mother-in-law and myself.


We ordered initial belt buckles for the guys through Larry's Boots in Columbia, MO. We ordered them for our 10 groomsman, 2 ushers, my dad, 2 grandpa's, uncle and officiant. I forgot to take a picture of them before Jeff wrapped them up along with a plain white handkerchief to help with the heat.

For the flower girls I found these cute Barbie bags to put their coloring books and crayons, Barbie toothbrush, snack container, mirror, brush and embroidered bag with the personalized hanger.

For the ring bearer we gave him his belt, vest, coloring book, crayons, little trucks and an army guy.

I had handkerchiefs embroidered for my mom, dad, Jeff's mom and Jeff. Designs by Gloria on Etsy was wonderful to work with, she even shipped me a handkerchief with my name and wedding date in blue so I would have one. I'm planning on framing mine and Jeff's after the wedding. Here are my proofs... I didn't get to take pictures before wrapping these either. I did Jeff and my dad's in brown wording with pink design and for my mom and Fran's I did pink wording with brown design.