The Magic of Oxiclean

I'm not a great blogger but I just had to share my experience with Oxiclean. The pictures were taken with my cell phone so they aren't that great, but you'll still get the idea.  I have to admit I have only had to throw away one outfit since my first daughter was born 2 1/2 years ago.  If  you haven't discovered this yet then you have truely been missing out and I'm sorry you have had to waste your money on new clothes.  The following steps work on almost anything.  I have cleaned out baby poop, Cool Aide, red dye from feathers on white lace, soda, grass stains and ketchup.   The most important thing to remember is to clean the garment imediately for the best results.  I have gotten old stains out but not completely. 

So, if you are ready to be wow'ed then listen up. 

My morning started with me waking up to the sound of an explosion coming from my 4 month old.  you know the kind where you hear it and imediately realize you're about to discover something unnatural?  I started to change my girls diaper on the white bedspread when I realized that she had poop going all the way up her back.  I had the basinet next to the bed so I was trapped.  luckily my hubby works down stairs and he was able to come upstairs and help with the situaltion.   He held her up while I cleaned her off.

Here's how the magic works.

Step 1:  Gather all your supplies.  Basin for soaking, oxiclean detergent, oxiclean stain remover spray, scrub brush.

Step 2: Rinse and scrub out as much of the stain as possible.

Step 3: spray with Oxiclean stain remover and let soak for a few hours.

Step 4: fill a basin with water and a scoop of Oxiclean detergent. I use the scoop from an old Enfamil container. Allow to soak all day or over night.  

step 5: wash as usual. but don't tumble dry until you are certain the stain is out.
If the stain is not completely out spray with the oxi stain remover and scrub, then soak again.

Ta-Da You're done!

Here is another sample of an explosion of poo that I got out with Oxiclean.

Avery's 2nd Birthday Party

Now that August is over and we are almost more than halfway through September, I am finally getting around to blogging Avery's birthday.  This summer has flown by so fast that I have barely had time to breath and now that I am 9 months pregnant I literally can't breath.  July came and went with family in town for the Aspen Grove reunion and me working as much as possible to earn some extra cash before this baby is born.  I hardly had time to get ready for Avery's birthday which I swore I would not go overboard on this year but failed at keeping that promise. 

For Avery's 2nd birthday, I thought it would be fun to do a bubble themed party at our pavillion so the bazillion kids that came would be entertained while the adults could socialize. I had a vision of this elaborate bubble extravaganza  with different stations but literally had no time to prepare so was a little bummed that it didn't turn out like I had planned. I also didn't get many pictures including the decorations and the soda bar.  But you can just imagine that it looked great, right?

I had food set up on one side of the pavillion which consisted of chicken salad sandwiches, fruit, vegges and chips.  To drink, I had water and set up a soda bar which sadly I didn't get a picture of.  The food was home made by my mother-in-law, Diane and was absolutely fabulous as usual. 

 

My dad with his Italian Soda.

On the other side of the Pavillion, I set up a dessert station that consisted of the birthday cake made by my sister-in-law Brooke (amazingly yummy!) and candy that consisted of "Things that Pop" like pop rocks, popcorn, rice krispy pops, lolly and lemon pops, cream puffs to pop in your mouth and gum balls.

Some of the decorations

The party started with me running back to the house to get Avery up from a nap so we were late. Once we got to the party we ate yummy food. While we ate the kids played in the bubbles and then we sang Happey Birthday. We have been talking about Avery's "Happy Birthday" coming up on August 4th and singing Happy Birthday for weeks leading up to this day so Avery was pretty excited.

Instead of having different bubble stations, I ended up having one area for bubbles.  I made a human sized bubble with a pool of bubble solution we made and a hoola hoop.  My dad had fun and the kids loved it.  I think every kid played in the soapy pool and about 3 kids fell in, including Avery.  I now know that if you add glycerin to the bubble solution it will work better.

 My Nephew Tanner, Niece Finley and Avery playin with the bubbles

My dad playing with the human bubble making the little kiddo's laugh.

 Yvonne with her kids, Anthony and Ellianna

 Avery playing with McKenzie

 Kara Williamson. what a little poser

The Allen boy.  He was actually really good at making big bubbles.

Finley

Avery Allen or is this Riley?  I can't keep them straight.

This is the 1 minute Avery acted interested in opening presents. she just wanted to run around a play. Thank you everyone for the great gifts and for coming to Avery's birthday.

 

 

Brielle Williamson sporting the birthday crown.

The kids chasing each other.

Jace Burrup

After cake and Ice cream we opened presents and everyone went over to the pool to swim.  I think the party turned out great and the kids had fun and that is all that matters.

I had bubbles to give to the kiddos as a party favor. We forgot to give them out so Chris took them over to the pool and I think people who weren't part of the party took some because they were gone in seconds and I should have had some left over. Oh well some kid will be happy. Thanks to everyone who came and supported Avery and me on her special day. I can't believe two years has gone by. Kids really do grow up fast. 

And the grand finale to the birthday bash, Avery wouldn't put her clothes back on after swimming.  All she wanted to do was play with her balloons and bubbles in the nude.  That's the spirit!

Bi-annual Update

Okay I admit I am a horrible blogger so here is our update in in 60 seconds...

I am currently working in the Emergency Room as a nurse at American Fork Hospital. I hate leaving my family but I love my job. Chris still works for Hewlett-Packard in his home office downstairs. I can't say he loves his j

ob as much as I do but he has more perks. Avery's loves her job as a kid and she is really good at it. She has to be the smartest little girl I have e

ver met. She isn't even 2 years old yet and she can sing her ABC's all the way through, count to 13 (not 10 but 13), she sings full songs and talks like an adult.

She is extremely active and loves to climb on everything and chase Maggie so she can give her hugs. Ask her to give you a smooch and she will pucker up and give you a slobbery kiss. Seriously I love that kid! She makes us smile every day.

Here are some of her favorite things:

People: Mom, Dad, "Grrrraaampaaa" (said in a low growl)

Place: "Davie's house" and Nursery

TV shows: Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Super Why, Elmo, and Einstein

Food: "Fry Fry" (French fries) and surprisingly vegetables.

Phrase: "Hi Mom" or "Dad" said over and over and over again.

Secret: "I wuv You"

article of clothes: Shoes

accessory: Purse, sunglasses, Mommy's jewelry. She loves them all just like a true Diva.

Room in the house: bathroom specifically under the sink where she likes to hide and the bathtub.

Toy: Baby doll and stuffed dogs

color: Blue

Book: I see Me (Thanks Ginger)

favorite thing to play with outside: Rocks (we get a new pile in the house every day)

Favorite illegal act: driving the truck (for pretenzies)

Songs: child of God, twinkle twinkle, Popcorn popping, and ABC's. We are working on a potty time song.

I don't know what we are going to do with another little girl. How is she going to measure up to Avery's cuteness? Oh, if you didn't already know we are pregnant with our second girl. she is due to greet us October 9th which isn't

very convenient for the hunting season. Speaking of hunting, Chris got an elk tag this year. We are both super excited! Now we just need to figure out how I can go with him after having a baby.

In addition to working and playing with Avery, I keep busy with many projects. I have made a couple journal books, a ruffle bag, apron, hat for Avery, painted Avery's room and am now working on a quilt for Avery. I have a gazillion more projects on my list. As soon as the dang weather warms up and stops raining I can work on them. Here are some of my latest projects:

Avery's Christmas Stocking

Ruffle Bag

Avery's Room

Halloween Festivities

I just love Halloween maybe because I love eating candy and Fall is my favorite season. I also love getting dressed up, decorating the house and making spooky goodies.

After 8 years of marriage and trying to get Chris more excited about Halloween, I finally figured out that all I needed to do is have a child. Kids make holidays so much more fun and now that Avery is old enough to interact and be cute it will be even more fun.

To start the season off Chris and I took Avery and the neighbor kids to Hee Haw farms. Everyone was so grumpy but we went and had fun.

They had a ton of fun activities on was a huge slide. Avery wasn't so sure about it.

There were animals roaming around that the kids chased and pet.

Nevaeh, Zach, Angie, Avery, Chris

That night we had the annual ward chili cook off. I made pumpkin bites and came in second by two votes for the desert contest. I was so proud of myself for coming so close to beating the famous Heidi Riboldi cinnamon rolls.

We were invited to a Halloween party with some friends in the area. We were sitting in the living room watching T.V. when the doorbell rang and all that was at the door was note with a picture of our friend Cami tied up and gagged. The note said to go to a YouTube site where it showed Cami getting electrocuted and a garbled voice saying "If you ever want to see your friend alive, come to the Wycherly's house at 7". So creative.

we got to the party, Troy (Cami's husband) came in dressed like a crazy police officer to give us instructions to find Cami.

Officer Troy told us to find a pumpkin hidden in the house with our names on it. We had to smash it to find the clue inside telling us what team we were on.

Once the teams were determined we were each given a costume to put on for the scavenger hunt to find Cami. I was cat woman and Chris was Dog the bounty hunter. There were some funny seriously funny costumes.

The scavenger hunt consisted of some creative tasks one of them involved two people paddling across the marina.

Chris chugging root beer. To make the night even better, it was foggy. I'm am certain that they planned it for the party.

We also went to Smith's, a pumpkin patch. At the end Cami came out with her captor and we all ate yummy food. It was so much fun and so creative.

The Burrup's are so good about finding fun things to do for free. We went to the UVU Halloween party for little kids. they had a various stations like donut eating, foods that feel like yucky things, pumpkins and a photo station. They even had a little hallway for trick or treating.

this is a picture of our little Unicarn and Jayce as Bam Bam.

The week of Halloween, I wanted to get a cute picture of Avery in her costume at a pumpkin patch. we drove to Orem to find out that the pumpkin patch was already closed for the season!!! I was shocked and very disappointed. Instead we went to winco and got some gigantic pumpkins for extremely cheap. Not as cute but so much better on the wallet. I finally talked Chris into carving pumpkins with me. Here are the results of our labors.

Thursday before Halloween I was so fortunate to be on call so we went to the "Nightmare Express" which is a haunted train ride for kids. The train goes through a block of 6 different yards that consists of one family. we went through a bunch of spooky tunnels it was so cool and the best part is that it was totally free but they except for donations for various charities. We went during the daylight hours which was less scary for the little kids. I can't believe this family does this every year. They also do a Polar Express and one in the spring which we totally plan on attending.

While we waited to get on the train they played a movie and had cute decorations to entertain us. Here is a pic of the whole group in front of one of the areas.

The conductor

The Carn's

Some of the cool stuff on the train ride.

I thought I would start a new tradition of taking a picture with a witch like you do with Santa. Avery didn't like the idea very much.

Since we live in Utah Halloween was celebrated on Saturday and unfortunate for us it rained all night. I was so bummed out. I was so excited to take Avery out sporting her Unicarn costume and getting me some yummy candy but do to the awful rain we went to only one house the Gushard's where I scored a full size baby Ruth, yummmm my favorite!

We went to the annual neighborhood party for some treats and fun. I was wearing some large wings so it was really difficult to huddle in the garage with everyone.

Avery was a Uni"Carn", I was an Angel"a", and Chris was a boring hunter.

This is a cute little girl who followed me everywhere the entire night. The funny thing is, I have no idea who she is. I'm guessing she liked my costume because it was similar to hers.

After a few minutes we left and went to crash the Burrup's family party.

We came home in time to hand out candy. Chris had put up some black plastic covering our entryway, played spooky music and sounds with a strobe light. He stood in the entryway in his camo scaring the kids when they came up to the door. Avery was so wound up that I eventually sat out there with Chris instead of putting her to bed.