3 products i love:

i am REALLY not a good homemaker.
i'd rather blog than clean.
i'd rather go out to eat than make/clean up after dinner.
the list goes on...
so if i can find products that may not be thrifty, but at least allow me to enjoy the process/make the process a little easier, i am all for it.

first of all: purex 3 in 1.

i love just throwing a sheet in instead of moving the huge laundry detergent down (which i would buy to try to save money) and then repeat with fabric softener. these things are SO easy. and if you go to: http://www.purex.com/ they will send you 2 sheets for free. i just got some in the mail yesterday though i was already an avid user. 2 free loads of laundry.... yes please!



along the same lines, i love these little gel packs for the dishwasher.
besides selling pest control over the summers, this is our first house with a dishwasher.
it used to be SO exciting to fill it and unload it, the charm has worn off a bit- i don't LOVE doing the dishes anymore, but i definately don't hate it like i used to. And just to clear the slate- i no longer have hidden dishes waiting for me on top of the dryer like i did at our old house. these gel packs do such a great job and never leave anything to try to scrape off the next morning (GROSS) so i love them.


and finally... if you know me well at all you'll know i have super oily skin and hair. i hate it but my mom said she had oily skin and now she doesn't and she doesn't have many wrinkles so maybe one day i'll be grateful. (when i'm in my 60's apparently)
so i have to wash my hair everyday and i'm jealous of the girls who are like: oh, i wash mine like once every few days. no can do with my hair, i've tried.
until i saw this commercial for tresemme's new fresh start line.
i bought the dry shampoo and i'm currently loving my unwashed hair today! i didn't really believe that adding MORE product could help, but it does and i love it. so, there's your endorsement, go buy it.

sorry if i sound like a commercial but i always find it helpful to read real-life reviews from friends (so post them, friends) so there's my list of 3 must haves to make your life a little easier!

everyday daphne #9

i wonder if anyone even likes these posts-
but, i guess i do so that's why i keep doing them :)


today is the last nice day of the week. the rest of the week will require busting back out our long sleeve shirts, jackets and pants. oh no.

even though today isn't going to be super warm- it will be just warm enough (also it's laundry day)
daph is wearing:

checked black and white shirt, old navy
army green shorts, thrifted $1.
white cardigan, thrifted $3
red gap shoes, thrifted $2
headband by Kendra $2.50 (i think.. :)


OFF TOPIC: We need some parenting advice. we think it's time for daphne to give up her binky obsession. she's nearly 16 months and she's starting to talk more and more everyday (not usually understandable, but she's trying) we've tried just leaving her binks in the crib for sleeping but she just whines and cries until we get them. we were thinking about going cold turkey last week but she had immunizations, got 2 molars and both nic and i had food poisoning so she spent the night with Grammy.

but, is there EVER a good time or should we just do it? for those of you who have been through this... please leave us your advice!

colorado spring break

we spent the week in colorado between semesters.
my parents came for my graduation and then we drove back with them and then our friends courtney, talmage, jarom and chase drove our volvo to CO and met us wednesday night.
we went to the zoo, had lunch with friends, ate cupcakes at the shoppe, made sack lunches, toured apartments and neighborhoods, went shopping, hung out with my parents and siblings, went to paris on the platte, visited our favorite so. broadway shops, went to belmar, talked to several bums (this was not my favorite part of the trip) went to a yummy dinner and an awesome park in stapleton, went to garden of the gods and manitou springs, found a new neighborhood we love (alamo placita) and basically made our friends fall in love with denver. (well, we hope so :)
my parents were so nice to let us all invade their house and my mom watched daphne pretty much every day- it was so nice. we can't wait to move there in december! here are some shots of daphne and her new favorite toy- the cars in my parent's backyard & her at the zoo with friend emmry.


(this was daphne most of the time at the zoo- completely unamused. but, when she was face to face with animals (a peacock that just walks around the zoo and a crane that was behind glass) she was terrified and tried to climb up our legs)
this was the one time she was excited- at the aquarium. she loves fish.

bountiful baskets

this week was my first week doing bountiful baskets- a produce co-op and i'm OBSESSED! I'm about to go make myself a yummy lunch using my goods right now! if you live in utah, idaho,wyoming or az you should definitely do it! (by the way- i think that this the FIRST TIME i've ever spelled definitely right, i CANNOT spell that word. wow. little victory) for $15 we got:
1 stalk of celery
10 bananas
7 tomatoes
18 red potatoes (this IS idaho- and reds are my favorite)
a head of romaine a head of spinach
13 apples
1 pineapple
6 oz of blackberries
1 bag of mini carrots
1 head of swiss chard (any suggestions for this? I've never used it before and don't even know how to cook it or if you cook it :)
and finally, 1 cantaloupe

it filled up an entire laundry basket and i'll need to buy just a few items of produce at the store this week. plus, it was REALLY fun- i love community things like this. i am going to volunteer next week and i'm really excited. PS- if you live in the area they said they are in dire need of site directors. I thought about volunteering for that, but we'll be camping in the bus a lot very soon so i'm sure i'll be gone on some saturdays... but i wish i could do it, it looks so fun/rewarding. if you don't live locally look up a food co-op! i'm sure if SE idaho has it, pretty much everywhere does :)

*thanks to stephanie for telling me about this! i'm hooked :)

love letters

our friend Seth Lucas did his BFA project on objects that show our love and asked if he could include us and all the letters we wrote to each other as missionaries. we were apart for 30 months and wrote a letter to each other every day (but mailed them every week so we would get like 12 page letters from each other every week) we actually threw our mission letters away after these pics were taken... we didn't have room in our new place for 2 huge garbage bags and the letters were really.... personal :) we didn't really want anyone to find them and read them! but, these pictures by Maddy Lucas are the PERFECT way to keep the letters alive :)

(this one is my favorite)

update!

i know everyone cannot believe we threw the letters away! it is kind of sad but i'm totally OK with it and hope i always will be. :) We had a few reasons:
- we wrote some really personal stuff in our letters and we wouldn't want just anyone (i mean... we wouldn't want ANYONE) reading them :)
- we moved from a 3 bedroom house to a 1 bedroom + den (daph's room) apartment and literally had NO room for them. Our storage room on our porch is filled to the brim with furniture that can't fit in this place and baby stuff that we don't want to have to buy again when we have another baby.
- we always want to live in a small place. no more than 1000 SF, probably more like 600-800. we have lots of reasons for this too but because of this, we have to edit everything! we got rid of a lot of things we didn't absolutely LOVE from our old house when we moved here. things that just took up space or preformed a function but that we didn't love. i think its awesome to be surrounded by only stuff you love- not just STUFF that fills up your house. that means your house is too big :) after downsizing by a few hundred feet i'm ready to go even smaller. i love living small.

it is finished.

yay.
today, i was proud.
it felt good.