Shred Chicken in less than a minute.

I hate to shred chicken, which is why I usually ask Steve to do it if he is around. I read about this online here and decided to try in last night with the chicken in our fajitas. Throw your hot chicken in the kitchen aid and watch it instantly fall apart.

Takes less than a minute! Got to love the kitchen aid!

A party for Kaylee

This afternoon we went to a birthday party for Hailey's cousin Kaylee who turned 1.

Guess who ate all the Doritos?

Look who loves the swings!

Yep, still munching on Doritos 2 hours later. (Doritos don't exist in our house.)

A birthday kiss for the birthday girl.

Steve wanted me to go see the Hunger Games movie with him even though he knew I had no interest in seeing it. The reality is when you get married, if you want to stay married you have to do these types of things for the sake of the relationship. So this morning we went to the movies.

Steve wanted to read the books and so we bought them, and because we had them I read them too. Personally, there was nothing about the books I liked. I find the idea of pitting children against other children to kill each other in brutal violence disgusting, sick, and wrong. It makes my stomach curl the way it did in college classes when we studied child abuse. Needless to say I hated the books.

And then I had to sit through the movie. Steve liked the movie. I disliked the movie more than the books. Now when I think of the Hunger Games I instantly think of seeing that kid smash some others child's brain out with a brick. I am saddened by how desensitized people have become. Isn't there enough violence and hate without this type of behavior? When we left the movie theater I told Steve he could give our Hunger Games books away or I was going to throw them in the trash. I never ever throw books out, but this is the exception. I value my time, the quality and material of what I read, which is why those books have to go. It won't take me long before they are replaced with something much better.

Trip to the Zoo

Since Steve doesn't start his new job until Monday we decided it was time for a trip to the zoo.

Hailey loves watching the little chipmunks run around.

Hailey just loves to climb. It takes both of us to keep her in check.

Trying to get a better look at the prarie dogs.

At first Hailey was a little nervous at the petting zoo but she really liked getting to pet the sheep.

Hey there Fluffy.

Just riding a giant lizard outside the new reptile house.

Oooh!

When we passed the concession stand, Hailey kept running up to the counter and telling Steve "please."

She was so excited to have a treat.

It's so neat to show Hailey the animals that she usually only sees in her books.

Just lying on the ground... having a treat... nothing to see here...

Did I mention she loved her cotton candy?

Household Cleaners

I used to have a different bottle of cleaner for everything in our house. We had a lot of bottles. I really began to dislike the chemically smells they gave off. Sometimes they would give me headaches. I did not like how much space they took up. I despised the childproof lock on my bathroom cabinet that I had to keep on because I read all the fine print warnings on the cleaning bottles. So one day I just threw them all in the trash, along with the childproof lock. We went to Costo and bought a large bag of baking soda and 5 litres of vinegar. Essential oils get rid of the vinegary smell. Cleaning has become much easier and no, I don't miss any of those commercial cleaners. It really is true that many times, less is more. Here is a link with recipes to try.

I read about people making their own laundry detergent. It seemed pretty simple and I like simple. My large Costo supply of laundry detergent just ran out so it was time to give it a try. We followed a recipe off of here.

We put our soap in the microwave just long enough to dry it out so it would crumble before putting it in the food processor.

Our Zote soap after a run through the food processor. After that we just mixed it with Borax and Washing Soda. I did spend an extra 2 minutes running it through my food processor one last time because I wanted it to be super fine. Easy peasy.

Of course Steve was interested in doing the math:

Total cost for 96 loads of detergent : $5.35

Cost per load : $0.06

(It would be fair to say the cost varies depending on how much you pay for your supplies.)

We also picked some lavender and lemons out of our garden that we are going to soak for 6 weeks to use to make linen spray and scent our vinegar cleaning solution.

St Patricks Day at the Farm

The plan for today was to go down to the Irish Festival down in Costa Mesa.

After an hour drive down we found out the festival was cancelled due to rain. BOO!!!

They did have a home remodeling event that we wandered through for about half an hour. But Hailey was only interested in the garden fountains.

Across the street was a public community farm.

It was fun for Hailey because in Los Angeles the only animals you will ever see live in the zoo.

The farm was empty except for us and the animals.

They also had an impressive produce garden in full bloom.

There were quite a few new baby animals that were born at the begining of the year.

They are cuter when they are little.

See the tiny black baby hiding behind its mom.

The baby goats wanted to head butt each other... it was quite entertaining.

Hailey missed the sign that said "Animals bite, don't get too close or touch."

Just a quick touch while no one is looking.

Recently we attended a free screening for The Lorax in Hollywood at the Mann Chinese Theater. Hollywood is gross and dirty, but at least the movie was exciting. Hailey just got 4 molars and we had 10 days of non-stop crying so it was nice to do something fun.

2 Years of Daily Photos

I took daily photos of Hailey for her first 2 years. It was much easier when she was little and would stay put. After 2 years of taking her picture I figured it was time to stop and make this video. It's neat to see how she changed from a newborn baby into a little girl.

LEGO Trains

Look what finally came in the mail!

There's been a lot of Lego building at our house lately.

I really like the Hogwarts Express; it's such a cool Lego train

It goes around the tracks so quickly and smoothly

And since we were getting one train we decided to get another one while we were at it

This is our Enlighten train, all decked out for Christmas

The engine and first passenger car are a Christmas set

We picked the other 2 passenger cars to add onto it and I think they look great together

I'm really looking forward to motorizing them and seeing them go around the Christmas tree