The Johnston's

Saturday, January 28, 2012

{DIY Heat/cold pack}

This is a "craft" {I guess you could call it that} that i have done for many years. We always had these in our house when i was younger. Its a pretty easy project! & ours are starting to get old>>

& the colors aren't all that fun. Sooo its time to make new ones! yay!

{DIY Hot/Cold Packs}

You will need:

Fabric

Sewing machine

pins

Rice

Lavender or tea leaves

{Rice has a really.. rice smell.. when heated in the microwave, the tea or lavender cover up the smell}

Pick out some fun fabric. Cut 2 pieces to the same size. I cut mine 16x8

Turn the matching pieces so that the colorful side is facing in. Pin the edges together.

Sew the edges with your machine.

When you sew the edges, make sure to leave a gap unsewn {Shown above}

turn your fabric right side out now, through the gap.

Draw lines on your sewn fabric to section it off.

Using your machine, sew where you drew each line, making sure to leave a gap at the end of each line, so that when you pour in the rice, it goes into each sectioned off piece.

Prepare your rice& tea bags, {or lavender}.

Pour your rice into the sewn fabric, pushing it down into each section as you pour.

& You're done!!

For a heat pack: place in microwave for up to 2 minutes

For a cold pack: Leave it in your freezer

They make great gifts too!

See? Easy peasy :)

In other news..

I have a Cute & Happy baby today!

Happy Saturday!

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

{Yummy Fish tacos}

One of our favorite meals to make is Fish tacos! They are so easy & sooo delicious.

Here is our easy recipe!

{Fish Tacos}

I like to start with the salsa.

You will need to chop up:

about 2-3 mangos

3 small tomatoes

a cucumber

half a red onion

salt & pepper

*This salsa is not spicy at all, as you may have noticed, the flavors just compliment the fish very well!

You can add jalapenos or habaneros to the mixture if you would like for an extra kick!

Mix all ingredients until they look like a chunky salsa. mmmmm

For the fish, we like to use Tilapia.

Cut your fish into strips and mix them in a bowl with your favorite spices and olive oil.

*we use salt, pepper, garlic salt, seasoning salt, pico de gallo, & cayenne pepper.

Broil your Fish on high for about 5 minutes then turn and broil another 3-5 minutes.

Keep an eye on your fish! You dont want to burn it!

Once your fish is done, pile it onto white corn tortillas with your mango salsa, some cabbage, cheese, sour cream, guacamole, & a little squeeze of lime. Yum!

Poor G, no fish tacos for her! But she got lots of hugs & kisses in the process, so i think that makes it even.

Happy Wednesday :)

Monday, January 23, 2012

{Cloth diaper or not?}

Many of you have been emailing my personal email lately asking me about how cloth diapering is going & asking for advice. {I love hearing from you guys :) }

Truth be told, we haven't been able to cloth diaper our little girl for a couple of reasons.

She is still pretty darn tiny. We are still using the Newborn size pampers on her and i think she will be in that size for a little while longer.

Also, her little hips are so narrow, and her legs are so straight {because she was breech} its almost impossible to get even the disposable diaper on her! Everything is so clunky. We tried using our fuzzibunz diapers on her, and quickly realized that brand is just not for her!

*Advice: wait to purchase your cloth diapers until you actually meet your little one. Every baby is different!

Sooooo, we are going to resell our Fuzzibunz to try & get some of the money back so we can invest into something else

{If you are interested let me know! seriously! I have all of my receipts and extra elastics and liners & everything. All Unused email me!}

We have been doing our research & have decided to test out G diapers, for our little G :)

Have you heard of them? They're pretty neat. They are a "Hybrid" cloth diaper. Meaning they can be fully cloth, or partial... meaning you can have throw away inserts or cloth.... Does that make any sense?

Here is a link to their site, they explain it a little better than i do :)

This is a G diaper.

They are more narrow then most cloth diapers so were hoping they will fit our little one.

We ordered one to try out a couple of days ago, once we try it out we will let you know what we thought!

If they do work out, we will be using cloth inserts at home & throw away ones on the go! The diaper cover will still need to be washed, of course.

Well, G turned 5 weeks today, so crazy. She is getting so big! She sleeps so well at night {Only wakes up twice!} she has been wonderful. William and i are really enjoying being parents :)