Camping at Ririe Lake

This past weekend, we went with Jake's family to Ririe Lake. We got there Friday night and set up camp. While we were eating dinner, it started sprinkling, but didn't start downpouring until we had put Tean to sleep. It got pretty cold, and all I brought for Tean was a sweatshirt. He was shivering while eating dinner, so I went looking for something to put on him, but all I found was a shirt that I had brought. It was huge on him, but he stopped shivering. After dinner, we went down to the lake and fished a little bit from the dock. We didn't have any luck catching anything.

We got to the campsite and there were no sites available, but the guy in charge was really nice and let us camp on this grassy area that was by the bathrooms. Well, there was a light there that was on ALL night and shined into our tent, so our tent didn't get very dark. I was worried that Tean might not go to sleep, but he only cried for about 5 minutes or so and then quieted down and jabbered for a little bit and then went to sleep. In the middle of the night he woke up and was starting to cry and whine a bit and I looked over at him and saw him standing up in his pack and play so I got him out, thinking it was around 6 or 7 in the morning. He was wide awake and was walking around our tent. I finally looked at my phone and saw that it was 3 AM! He walked around our tent, poked us in the eye saying "eye," looked at the dog, and would lay down every once in a while for a few minutes and then get back up and walk around. Finally about 5:30 I got him to lay still long enough to go to sleep for a couple of more hours. He still woke up earlier than he normally does. No one was very happy with him waking up in the middle of the night, and Jake's mom heard him saying "eye" and was wondering why I was quizzing Tean on his body parts in the middle of the night. Before we had breakfast, we went out in the boat and went fishing. Again we didn't have any luck. Getu did get a bite, but the fish got away.
Jake cooked everyone an awesome breakfast of pancakes and eggs!

After breakfast and packing up the camp, we went out in the boat. Jake and Mezi rode on the tube. Jake decided to try water skiing. On about the second time trying to get up, the rope broke on him. The boat started having problems (surprise, surprise!) around that time, so we loaded up the boat and headed home. We had a great time, even though it rained on us and Tean didn't let us sleep much!

Happy Birthday Jake!

Today is Jake's Birthday! He turned 27. We had a pretty relaxing day. We went out to eat this afternoon at Golden Corral. Being the cheapskates that we are, we went there at 3:45 to get the lunch price, but the dinner food (because they change to their dinner menu at 4:00). After that we went to the Bannock County fair and walked around. There weren't very many people there, so it was kind of nice we didn't have to fight the crowds. Then we came home and just chilled for the rest of the night.

I'm so glad that I married Jake. He works so hard for our family. I'm so glad that he supports me and I am able to stay home and take care of Tean. I'm glad that Jake makes me laugh all the time. He is such a great support to me, especially during these last few weeks. He's the best husband. I love him so much! Happy Birthday, Jake!

How To Make Homemade Laundry Soap

and save yourself a lot of money!

I saw that one of my friends made her own laundry soap and that it was super cheap, so I decided to try. I used the recipe that is shown here. It is really easy and I found most of the ingredients in Walmart (except the washing soda)Ingredients:
1 1/2 c. 20 Mule Team Borax
1 1/2 c. Washing Soda
Bar Soap
*note washing soda is NOT baking soda. I couldn't find washing soda in walmart. I wasn't sure where to get it, but looked online and found that you can buy it at your local swimming pool supply store. I got mine at Brady's here in Pocatello. It is also known as Soda Ash. When I asked about it, the guy at the store asked me what it was for and I told him I was going to make laundry soap, and he thought I was a little crazy. All they had is a 50 lb bag of it, which is a lot when all I needed was 1 1/2 cups, so if anyone in Pocatello wants to try to make it and doesn't want to buy 50 pounds of it, I can sell them some of it. With the bar soap, I used Zote. It is a bar laundry soap that is cheap, I got it for 97 cents. Another popular soap to use is Fels-Naptha bar soap. You can use any kind of bar soap you want. That is what your clothes will smell like.

1. Grate the soap into 18 c. of water. Heat the water on the stove until the soap is melted.
2. Add the washing soda. Stir until dissolved.

3. Add the borax. Sir until dissolved.
4. In a 5 gallon bucket, add 3 gallons of water. In the video, the recipe says to add 4 gallons and 2 cups, but when I added the 3 gallons (it might have been 3 1/2 gallons) and then the soap mixture, my 5 gallon bucket was pretty full.

5. Stir the mixture and then put a lid on and let set for 24 hours. After 24 hours, it will be a gel like watery mixture. Mix well, and then it is ready to use. Use 1/2 c. for top load washers and 1/4 c. for front load washers. This laundry soap is supposedly comparable to Tide. Tide costs about 20 cents per load. This laundry soap costs about 2.5 cents per load. A HUGE savings. I did one load, and it seemed to work fine. I'll know if it really works great tomorrow when I do all of my laundry.

Playing Outside

Tean loves being outside. He's not big on being in the water, but he sure does love to play with water. And, yes our lawn is full of weeds and mostly dead. We've pretty much neglected our lawn this year, mainly because our sprinkler system broke, but it is now fixed, and we are trying to get a decent looking lawn again.

Our Loss

I debated on whether or not to put this on here, but then I decided it might be good for me to write it down, and this will be a good thing for me to keep.

Yesterday we lost our baby. I had been spotting off and on since I was 13 weeks. It wasn't ever very much. On the 24th it got worse, so I called my midwife and she wanted me to come into the hospital and have an ultrasound done. When the tech was doing it, I knew something was wrong, because I couldn't see the baby moving on the screen. The tech wouldn't tell us anything. The midwife then told us that we lost our baby and our baby stopped growing a little after 12 weeks. I was 16 weeks 3 days at that time. She said we could stay and have the baby then, come in the next morning and have the baby, or wait for it to go naturally at home. We opted to have the baby the next morning. We came home and Jake was great and went and got us some ice cream. While he was gone, he was thinking what he would want if this were happening to him and he thought food, so he went to get some chicken at KFC, but they were closed, so we went and got some hamburgers and fries. He also got me some chocolate. We were nervous, because we didn't know what to expect. No one really talks about what happens with miscarriages. We thought that the next day was going to be an awful day.

The next morning we got ready, took Tean to Jake's parent's house for the day, and went up to the hospital. A little side note. When I met our nurse she looked really familiar, and her voice sounded very familiar. I mentioned it to Jake and was trying to remember from what. I then remembered from what. She looked and sounded just like the lady on this prenatal yoga video that I had. When she came back Jake told her that I thought she looked famous. She just said, that she wasn't. I told her that she looked like a lady on a yoga video that I had. She said that it was her on it! Crazy! Anyway, they put some pills in me to start labor and we just waited. About 4 hours later, the midwife came back to put some more pills in me and I asked for some pain medicine. Before they put the pills in me, my water broke and the baby came right away. I got some pain medication and slept off and on for a bit. I wasn't sure if I wanted to see the baby, but after the baby was born, Jake and I decided it would be a good idea, so we saw the baby. It was a little boy. They had a nurse there who specializes in grief, and she came and talked to us and told us what she would do with the baby. We were given the option of burying the baby, which would cost us a lot, have a mortuary in town cremate the baby (they did this service for us for free), or we could have the hospital cremate the baby with anything else they were burning that day. We opted for the mortuary and they told us they would let us know if there were any remains and they had little lockets that we could put the ashes in. The nurse took the baby, took pictures of the baby, measured and weighed him, and put him in a little gown, wrapped him in a blanket and brought him back so we could hold him. We were given the gown he was put in, his blanket, a stuffed animal, a ring, the pictures and a box to put them all in. I will not put the pictures they gave us of our baby, but if you would like to see them, we are willing to show them to you, just ask us. I know anyone can read this and I don't want to share them with the whole world. We were also given a card with his birth weight and length and his little foot prints on it. He was 3 inches and weighed 14 grams. We were encouraged to name him, so we named him Nephi Chandler. Having all that really made the experience a lot better than expected. It turned out that it wasn't an awful experience. Our midwife and nurses made it as positive an experience as could be expected in the situation given. Today I feel surprisingly well.

We are very sad about this loss. We thank everyone for their well wishes and prayers given in our behalf and everything everyone has done for us. We are doing good. I know I will still get emotional at times, but I am thankful for the gospel and the comfort it gives us in our lives. We are glad that we have Tean. He is a joy in our lives and makes us laugh. We look forward to having more children when the time comes.

24th of July

For the 24th of July, we went to the parade they had here in Pocatello and then we went to the activities at the fairgrounds. I think Tean's favorite part of the parade was the candy. Here's Tean, trying to find some candy. He found some! He had so much of it! He enjoyed looking at the cars too. This was cool. The remote control car was pulling this little wagon. This was my favorite float. Captain Moroni with soldiers today with the Title of Liberty on the back of the float. I also enjoyed this one of Jonah and the Whale.

After the parade, we headed to the activities at the fairgrounds. I took Tean down the bouncy slide. He was nervous at first, but I think that he really enjoyed it. Tean also loved playing with the goats. He moo-ed at them and also barked at them. It was pretty funny. His favorite part of the whole thing, though, was being able to push his stroller around. He pushed it back and forth in the grass and had a great time doing so! He was mad when we put him back in to go home.

Cool Dude!

Quiet Book

3 years ago, when we lived in Boise, I started working on a quiet book. This past week, I finally finished it! There is one more page that I did, but for some reason it didn't show up on my camera.

Jake's Foot

When we went to Bear Lake, Jake went out on some waverunners. He put sunscreen everywhere but on the tops of his feet. He got burnt really bad. On Monday, we went up to his parents for a barbeque. Since we would be outside, he thought he should put some shoes and socks on. When he came home and took his sock off, half of the skin on the top of his foot came off. It hurt him really bad. He is just barely able to wobble around ok now. It still hurts him a lot. Here is a picture of his foot about a week after it happened.

Moon Family Reunion

We went up to Bear Lake this past weekend for the annual Moon family campout. We had a great time! On Thursday, we went to the pool they have up there. I put Tean in there, but it was too cold for him. He hated it, but had a great time just playing around the pool. That night we went to a park close by and had family home evening. There were balloons there and Tean loved playing with them. We also did sparklers and Tean thought they were pretty neat, but didn't want to hold one.
On Friday, we went to the beach. It was SO windy! Jake rode the jet skis and said it was the most fun he has ever had on jet skis because the waves were so big. Tean didn't want to go in the water, but had a great time walking around the beach and looking at the seagulls and quacking at them. While there, Tean was standing on his little camp chair, and I was getting ready to get him off, when he tipped over and bonked his head. He got a huge goose egg on his head. I was surprised how fast it showed up. Here are all the grandkids that were up there minus Sheldon's kids (they had left already).
On Saturday, we went to Bloomington Lake and hiked up to the lake. Jake jumped into the lake. There was still snow around the lake. A few people swung on the rope and came back without jumping off. Rett did that once and on his second time out, his feet hit the water and then he fell in! It was crazy. We had a fun time, but didn't stay long because it was pretty cold outside.