Homemade Baby Wipes

Ok. For those of you who do not care about baby wipes STOP reading now! This will be completely boring and make me sound like a crazy mom. For the rest of you, join me in my madness and in the fun of diapering with this recipe I got from my friend Sheleena on how to make your own homemade wipes.


Here is what you need:
1/2 Roll- Bounty paper towel
2 C. Warm water
2 Tbs. Baby soap
1 1/2 Tbs. Baby oil
Plastic Container with a lid

What you do:
Mix the warm water, soap, and oil in a plastic container. Prepare your paper towel 1 of two ways.
1- Cut the roll in half and take out the middle cardboard. Place the roll into your water, shut the lid, and flip the container upside down. Let it sit for 10 minutes. You're done. (Pro- super easy and fast. Con- sometimes you can loose the beginning of the next wipe)
2- Tear off every sheet from a roll of paper towel (It sounds like a lot of effort, but it is not). Cut the sheets into four squares. Place squares in the prepared water mixture, shut the lid, and flip the container upside down. Let rest 10 minutes. (Pro- each sheet is already at a perfect size and you never have to find the end of the roll. Con- this method does take a little more time.)

Note: After experimenting a little while, I have pretty much stuck with the second method. It just works better for the type of container I bought (CD Storage Container). Also, if the wipes at the bottom seem a little too wet, I just add a couple more wipes in and they soak up the extra water.

Here is a little breakdown of savings in making your own wipes.

$15.77 for 16 pack or 98 cents for a roll.
Each roll gives you roughly 208 wipes (using method #2 above). That is 208 wipes for about $1.00!
You do have to factor in the baby oil and soap, but you use so little that it doesn't change the figures much. They are not as large as regular wipes, but many diapers don't need a full-sized, regular wipe in my opinion.
In comparison, you can buy a pack of 528 Parent's Choice diapers for 9.97 at WalMart. They are not as soft and you can already tell how much you are saving.

Probably the only better option (which I am not dedicated to diapering enough to do yet) would be to make homemade cloth wipes and wash them with your cloth diapers. My amazing friend, Carlie, introduced me to this option along with cloth diapering. Someday...

Wow! I just wrote a novel on diaper wipes. Never thought that would happen. Hope you enjoy this. Signing off.

Never Too Late for Valentines Cake

Only a couple hours left of Valentines. It definitely is not my favorite holiday (no cool costumes and too much pressure to buy unnecessary presents) so I make up for it by making yummy treats. Here is another quick idea to add to your heart-shaped recipe section and to your hips.

Spray a 1 inch tall pan and then put parchment paper down. Prepare a white cake mix (I did funfetti cause its Ryan's favorite) according to box and pour into the pan. Bake it until toothpick comes out clean. Flip it over onto a large cutting board, take off the parchment paper and use your cookie cutters to cut out the heart shapes. Transfer the hearts to a cooling rack with parchment paper under them. Once they are completely cooled, make a runny, powdered-sugar frosting and drizzle it over them. If your frosting is really thin, do two layers. Add some sprinkles and some love and Voila! You have the most incredible Valentines ever (hopefully)!

P.S. Notice the beautiful flowers I got from my hubby... ok, so I really like that part of Valentines!

Valentines Fudge

Happy Valentines! Well, almost! I just thought I would pass along this easy (yet thoughtful...of course) gift that you can make for your sweetie. Or maybe you can whip up a batch for yourself to show you how much you care. I got the recipe from a cooking class for beginners so it is practically a no-fail recipe!

Zip-Lock Bag - Fudge (1 ½ C.)

(Amounts in parentheses make a single serving in a sandwich bag.)

2 oz. cream cheese - (1 T.) 1/4 C. margarine - (1T.)

3 C. powdered sugar - (3/4 C.) 1/4 C. cocoa - (1T.)

1. Measure ingredients in a 1 gallon freezer zip-lock bag. Push the air out of the bag and seal well.

2. Squish the mixture to mix well. It will be dry at first, but will soon become fudge. It will take about 20 minutes of work.

3. Slit the sides of the zip-lock bag and roll the fudge between the plastic of the zip-lock bag to ½ inch (the thickness of a DVD case) and cut into squares for easy serving.

4. You may press in chopped nuts or coconut.

Here is the picture of the one I made for Ryan. This is the size of the single-serving recipe which you probably shouldn't eat in one serving. I sprinkled it with nuts and coconut and, of course, made it into the shape of a heart...clever, right?

Introducing Solid Foods

At his four-month appointment, Liam's doctor said that he was big enough to start solids and boy is Liam happy about joining the family for dinnertime.

DIY Lampshade

For Christmas Rosa Lee got me an awesome lamp base from D.I. for $3. It's a tabletop lamp with a swivel arm so that I can have enough light to do some of my drafting assignments at home. It is an awesome lamp in excellent condition. To buy a brand new lamp just like it would cost around $90... so we got a steal.

The only defect was that the finial had broken off and it's not a lamp that you can simply replace the harp and be done with it. With the help of Rosa Lee's brother, Daniel, we welded a new finial on top. Then we began the hunt for a shade...

We searched everywhere. Walmart, RC Willey, D.I. several times, Kmart, Bed Bath and Beyond... but no luck. Nothing in the size we needed had the right fitting. So... we made our own.

Here's how.

We bought two hoops from the craft store to create the form.
Then, we attached three wires to a washer in the center of one hoop. The wire is 19 gauge. I would recommend a more rigid wire, though. Also, a soldering gun would have been helpful.




Next, we cut an 8" strip of posterboard.







We cut a strip of fabric 9" wide.







We laid the posterboard on the fabric then hot-glued the edges of the fabric over the posterboard.






We rolled the re-enforced fabric around the rings to get the shape then hot-glued the end piece.






We hot-glued the rings securely inside.











And there you have it. An awesome, one of a kind lamp. And all for only $13.63!










So sexy...

Want to buy some boonedoggle?

When you live only 45 minutes away from the place where Napoleon Dynamite was filmed, you have to make a road trip. So we did! Last Saturday, we loaded Liam in the car and headed up to Preston. We made a quick stop at the Pepperidge Farm discount store (Tim Tam's $1.05 a package) and continued on to our destination.

Not that the town is big, but we decided to stop at the local DI and ask for directions to the high school. Plus, we had to buy something from the place where Napoleon shopped! No, we did not buy an dance video!!






Proof we made it!










Oh yeah, the best part was that there was a junior basketball game going so the door was open.











I couldn't miss my opportunity for a gross side ponytail picture.






The only additions that could have made this trip better would be some tater tots and some chapstick... my lips hurt real bad! Gosh!

Christmas Break

Here are a few quick looks at Liam's first Christmas.








Liam wearing one of Ryan's outfits from when he was a baby.

















Cousin Kaylee with Liam at Grandma Wilkey's Christmas party. After the nativity was finished, she just sat there staring at him.
















Santa on Santa












Jolly, young St. Nick













Christmas morning. "Why are we up this early?"












Liam loves his presents












Liam stayed up to watch the ball drop. His New Years resolution is to gain even more weight.












Promise Rock in Cannonville

















Hiking near Bryce Canyon with a view of Powell Point













Sleeping in Uncle Nate's arms















Uncle Daniel teaching Liam piano