Family Binder - printable pages

The pdf formats for Our Family Binder!! (I did it finally after much research!!)

Personal Information

Personal Medical Information

Work History

Medical History

Prescriptions

Immunizations

Dental History



Rub and Dub Tub

Megan loves her baths and we needed to find something new and fun to do for her. So we took the same recipe that we used for the finger paint and took it to the tub!

Learning Our ABC's

Megan is very good at singing her ABC's but now it's time for her to recognize them so we're going to be having a letter of the week with different things to do with and different letter each week! I'm really excited for this and to see how much she learns!

Let's start with A today!

A is for...
Apple
Alligator
Ant

With the picture above I'll have her color in (or stamp) all the lower case and then the upper case with a different color!

Chicken, Ham & Cheese

This was a great quick chicken recipe that my mom use to make all the time...yummy! We had it with some friends over and it turned out great...

6 chicken breast
6 slices of ham
6 slices of cheese (I use provolone)
1/2 cup crackers smashed - I used saltines
water

Trim chicken of any fat. Place chicken in water and then coat with crackers. Cook at 275 for 1 hour (mine only took about 45 minutes). Place ham and then cheese slice on top of each chicken, place back in oven until cheese is melted. It goes great with mayo and mustard dip! (1 cup mayo 1/3 cup mustard)

Candy Bouquet

I wanted to share how cute my candy bouquet turned out for my husband!! It's much cheaper to do it yourself and quite easy! All I did was grab a vase that we had laying around put one of those styrofoam balls/cone (mine was a cone but a ball would work as well) in it. Then I taped the candy to kabob sticks and stuck them in the styrofoam...as easy as that!

A Date over Hot Chocolate

I'm so excited cause me and my husband get to have a date tomorrow with no kids!! That doesn't happen often enough but we're grateful for the times we do get it. I have planned (since we're poor) to go to Mimi's Cafe where they have my favorite hot chocolate and go through this list of 50 questions I found. I loved the questions they have on here cause it's ones that are great to know even after you've been married for sometime, and we all know that our favorites change all the time (at least mine does when it comes to food). Some of the questions are very personal, I hope they don't offend you but I thought they were really important things to ask your spouse if you don't know the answer already!!

1. What are your 5 favorite foods, with the most favorite first?
2. What are your 5 favorite kinds of meals, with the most favorite first?
3. What are your 5 favorite desserts, with the most favorite first?
4. What are your 5 favorite restaurants, with the most favorite first?
5. What is your favorite color?
6. What are your 5 favorite hobbies, with the most favorite first?
7. What are your 5 favorite recreations, with the most favorite first?
8. What are your 5 favorite sources of reading, with the most favorite first?
9. What gifts do you like?
10. What is your favorite books(s) of the Bible? Why?
11. What is your favorite verse(s) of the Bible? Why?
12. What is your favorite song?
13. What makes you the most fulfilled or happiest as a woman/man?
14. What makes you the most fulfilled or happiest as a wife/husband?
15. What makes you the most fulfilled or happiest as a mother/father?
16. What makes you saddest as a woman/man?
17. What makes you saddest as a wife/husband?
18. What makes you saddest as a mother/father?
19. What do you fear the most?
20. What other fears do you have?
21. What do you look forward to the most?
22. How much sleep do you need?
23. What do you consider to be your skills?
24. What do you believe to be your spiritual gifts?
25. What are your weaknesses?
26. To ask wife: What things (personal, home, car, etc.) need repairing?
To ask husband: What things around the home need to be cleaned?
27. To ask wife: With what chores and responsibilities do you like my help?
To ask husband: How can I make it easier for you to lead our family?
28. What caresses do you enjoy the most?
29. What caresses do you enjoy the least?
30. What action of mine provides you the greatest sexual pleasure?
31. What other things stimulate you sexually?
32. At what times do you need assurance of my love the most?
33. How can that love be shown?
34. What can I do that will make it easier to discuss and work on areas or problems that are uncomfortable to you?
35. What concerns do you have that I do not seem interested in?
36. What things do I do that irritate you?
37. What desires do you have that we haven’t discussed?
38. What do you enjoy doing with me, with the most enjoyable first?
39. What things can I do that show my appreciation of you?
40. What varying desires (spiritual, physical, emotional, intellectual, social, worth,
appreciations, recreational, security, etc.) would you like me to provide?
41. To ask wife: In what ways would you like me to protect you (physically, spiritually, socially, emotionally)?
To ask husband: In what ways would you like me to respect and reverence you?
42. In what ways would you like me to sacrifice for you?
43. What things do you see by my actions that I place first in my life?
44. What implied or unspoken desires and wishes of yours would you like for me to
fulfill?
45. What concerns and interests of yours would you like me to support?
46. How much time would be good for us to spend together each day?
47. In helping family members to use their skills and develop their abilities, what
motivating factors would be helpful for me to use?
48. What can I do that provides the greatest comfort and encouragement for you when
you are hurt, fearful, anxious or worried?
49. What personal habits do I have that you would like changed?
50. What ways demonstrate to you that you are a very important person who is as important or more important than I am?

(Thanks http://zachterry.wordpress.com for some of these great questions!)

Family Binder

So I'm excited to show you all my family binder. It's the most important thing that I'd grab in case of an emergency. It has all our information in it and includes copies (or will include copies once I'm done) of all our safe documents so if our home is ever broken into and our safe stolen I'll know all the information they took. It also includes everything in our wallet with CC numbers written down so if my purse or husbands wallet is ever stolen I know all the contact numbers to block cards and report to the police everything that was in the wallet/purse. I'm going to be starting with one section at a time so you can follow along and get your binder put together as well. I'll post a new section every Wednesday and hope to have it all wrapped up in one month!!

First thing you're going to need is a binder, dividers, and sheet protectors.

 Here's what the inside looks like. I have a label for each family member, home, keys, numbers, purse/wallet, safe copies

The first thing in the binder is a sheet protector with the front cut in half to make it easy to slip papers into. I use this for those moments when I'm to busy to write the information down but it needs to go into the binder, that way it stays in the binder and when I have a spare moment I write everything down.

Then after each persons name are these 6-7 pages - Personal Information, Personal Medical Information, Work History (for me and my husband), Medical History, Prescriptions, Immunizations, Dental History

I'd really like to make these so that you can just print them off from here but until I figure that out I'll give you a list of what's on each pages (and if you know how I can do that please let me know:) )

Personal -

Name, Dress size, waist, length, shirt size, neck, sleeve, pant size, inseam, sock size, shoe size, preferred colors, preferred brands, important dates to remember, school/work schedule, school/work address/phone #, wish list

   I can't tell you how many times I refer to this page for Christmas and Birthdays! It's great information to have on hand and then they have no idea:)

Personal Medical Information -

Name, Address, Doctor, Phone # (doc), Insurance co, account # (insurance), Hospital, religious preference, dentist, phone # (dentist), in emergency notify, birth date, height, weight, eyes, hair, blood type, blood pressure, past medical problems, allergies, medications presently taken, surgeries, other, updated

Work History -

For this one I have the same information repeated 5 times on a page (I printed a few pages). You wouldn't believe how helpful this was in filling out applications when my husband was looking for work.

Dates, Employer, position title, address, phone #, supervisor, hours per week, salary

Medical History -

This is what I use to write down each time we go in to see the doctor so it's 3 columns and at the top there's Date, Doctor, Description (the doctor part has really come in hand especially when I find a doctor I don't prefer I know to stay away next time if our regular doctor is unavailable)

Prescriptions -

This is like the doctor one with the columns, there are 5 - date, doctor, number, reason, type/amount/dosage

Immunizations -

The same as Medical History and Prescriptions with 3 columns labeled, Type, Date, Place

Dental History -

3 columns with date, dentist, description

So there you have the first section of the book. This is the biggest part and takes the most time and effort keeping up with it but it's so handy to have and will come to great use in case of an emergency or if someone else needs to take your child to the doctor!! I'd also add in a family pictures (make sure to update) so that you have a resent picture of everyone in case of emergency!

 

Happy Valentine's Day

I hope you all enjoy your day today no matter what your plans may be! I just wanted to share a few fun things to do with your kiddos today!

~ yummy treats that everyone will love, check out a few of these ideas (maybe for daddy when he comes home from work)

Peanut Butter Heart Shaped Cookies

Marbled Red-Velvet Cheesecake Brownies

Marshmallow's Dipped in Chocolate

You could as well make brownies and use a heart shape cookie cutter to make a cute treat or even do it with rice crispy treats.

~ There's always the idea of a coupon book (love this idea). I love how cute these ones are! (thanks to Tatertotsandjello)

Heart Bookmark - You could really do any type of bookmarks, I just thought these were cute. I think we'll be making these for Grandma!

I hope these give you a few ideas to enjoy the day together with the kids! Remember to check out the freebie I posted earlier that had some cute ideas for crafts with the kids as well!

The Best Treats!!

So first off you have to know I'm a sucker for peanut butter, it's a good thing I'm not allergic and I'm truly sorry for those who are. These are the most delicious treat ever! I had some Cheerios laying around since my first was a wee little thing and I decided I needed to get them used up, I don't like wasting food and it's amazing what you can come up with just from things that have been sitting around.

These are simply called "Cheerio Treats"

1 c. Sugar

1 c. Corn Syrup

1 c. peanut butter

1 tsp. vanilla

5 c. Cheerios

Combine sugar and corn syrup in a large sauce pan over medium heat (so you don't burn the sugar). Bring to a boil for 1 minute, remove from heat. Add peanut butter and vanilla and stir until smooth. Add in cheerios. Stir until coated evenly. Drop spoonfuls onto wax paper and allow to cool. Enjoy your yummy treat!

Winners!

Congrats to #4 and #5 for winning (that's Haley N. and Nicole P.)! You have until Sunday night (midnight) to contact me and claim your prize!! CONGRATS!! (winners were randomly selected by random.org) (e-mail me at heather.ewell13@hotmail.com)

Sensitive skin...

Update: so I've been using this for my girls for about 2 months now and it seems to be working just great for their sensitive skin!!! I'm so excited, I first only made half of what it called for in case it didn't work, I'm going to be making up the rest of it for sure!!!
The Zote bar was very hard for me to find...I ended up having Fresh Market order me some, they were amazing and it only cost me 50 cents for 1 bar and they got it in the next day!!!

Laundry is such a chore at our house and with my girls sensitive skin we have to be extra careful what we use as laundry detergent. I've been thinking for some time now that I should try making my own and see how they do with it (cause theirs is so expensive). So TODAY I'm running to the store to grab everything I need to make our own laundry detergent and the "better then shout" ingredients that I don't have on hand!

I've looked at a few laundry detergent recipes and have found one that looks the best to me. For the laundry detergent you'll need:

(my zote bar took me a long time to find so I didn't get a picture of it with the rest of the ingredients)

1 (4lb 12oz) box of Borax (in the detergent aisle)

1 (3lb 7oz) Box of Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda (in the detergent aisle)

1 (3lb) Container of OxyClean (in detergent aisle - this is optional)

2 (14.1oz) Bars of Zote Soap (in detergent aisle)

1 (2lb) Boxes of Arm & Hammer Baking Soda (on the cooking aisle)

1-2 (55oz) Bottle of Purex Crystals Fabric Softener (in the detergent aisle - this is also optional but it's what's going to help it to smell good and soften your clothes/towels)

Supposeably this makes quiet a bit so I'm first going to cut it in half to make sure it works with my girls skin...if not I can certainly use it for my husbands and my clothes. To make, just grate the bars of soap and mix everything together...easy as that (the best part!). Then all you need to add to your wash is 1-2 Tbsp to your load depending on if it's a small or large load. Can you imagine how long that's going to last!?! 1.

Volunteer for a date?!?

I thought this was an interesting idea...volunteer as a date. But then I got thinking about it, what a great idea. I can see it now bringing the two of us closer together. Just picture your loved one sitting across the room chatting it up with someone from the nursing home, that really would just make my heart skip a beat!

So I have had this plan of making mini cakes for Valentine's Day for the battered woman's shelter and now...I think I'm going to be getting my husband involved. We get to cook together and serve together! There are tons of place you can find that would love a helping hand. Try finding one in you're area this weekend (you could even take the kids along if you had too. Some of the grandparents at the retirement centers love kids!)

(Here's a site for Ogden-Salt Lake area volunteer ideas)
(Here's the Utah State Volunteer web site)

Here's the Utah Food Bank site
Check out the Red Cross (although my husband would never consider this)


Update: Check out our fun cakes we made for the battered woman's shelter!! We had a great time together!

Getting Crafty!

A few weeks ago I pulled out the Valentines decor and realized, I hardly have any! So I started look around for something to make but it needed to be with things I had on hand, money is tight as it is with a lot of us so I'm not able to spend money on the extra fun stuff I'd like to do, but that's ok it just means I have to get creative which isn't a bad thing! I found the perfect thing to make...flower balls! I thought they were so cute and easy to make.

Start with about 24inches of tissue paper (the streamer kind). I did 24 inches because it works with the size of flowers that I wanted, you can do more or less for the look that you'd like.

Roll one end of the tissue paper up tight, then you're going to fold it in half so that the rolled sides are together...does that make since? (so from the picture above you'd fold towards you)

Then you're just going to twist and turn. So twist, place against the flower and turn. Do you see the twist in the picture and the line that it creates? That's what you want.

Keep going around until you have the size of flower that you'd like.

Leave just enough tissue paper to glue the end to the back. I used my hot glue gun...it seemed to work the best.

Now I have to let you in on a secret, I didn't have any round foam balls that most people use so I compromised and used...plastic eggs:) Yes I know they aren't round but I just went with it and it worked great! And we all know we get tons of extra eggs from all the Easter egg hunts our children do, so I put them to good use. One tip if you're going to use the eggs, wrap some tissue paper around the egg especially if it's a bright on. If you look closely you can see in between the flowers so just cover it up so it's not so obvious!

Tada!! All Done!

Daring...

Update: WE DID IT! I survived the mess and she had a blast! Apparently she's just like her mother and only wanted to dip one finger in:) she stayed pretty clean but I still had the tub ready to go just in case!
So I have a confession, I've denied my daughter of doing anything messy cause I don't like messes...but today we're going for it! I've decided I can't deny her anymore!! So I'm pulling out the cover and letting her have fun with... FINGER PAINT!!!

Here is a simple recipe I found online that we'll be whipping up! All you need is to grab two cups of flour, add water until it makes a smooth paste free of clumps. Then slowly add HOT water until it makes the consistence you'd like. Remember if you're making it for finger paint you're going to want it a little thicker so don't add to much of the hot water. Split up the mixture into separate containers of however many colors you're going to be making. Add the food coloring and you're done! Easy easy easy...and it's toddler safe, so those little hands can go into their mouth as many times as they'd like (which I'm thinking isn't going to happen more then once:) ) It only last about 24 hrs before going hard so only make as much as you're going to be using right then and there!

Superbowl Treats!

I hope you all enjoyed your weekend, I sure did and all the yummy food:) (the best part of the Superbowl besides the commercials!). I wanted to share this recipe that I tried out. I'm trying to find the perfect Artichoke dip recipe and so over the weekend I whipped one up. Although I'm not sure why this is the one recipe I'm trying to find the perfect one seeing how it landed me in the hospital back in November (gallbladder problems). I just can't stay away from yummy food, someday I'll learn but for now here you go!!

Parmesan Artichoke Dip

8 oz cream cheese
12 oz mozzarella cheese
1 cup mayonnaise
1 cup parmesan cheese (fresh grated)
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
2 cloves garlic minced
2 - 12oz cans artichoke hearts drained and chopped

Combine all ingredients and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until hot and bubbly!

Money, Money, Money!

So are you all ready for this!?!? I'm excited to have a giveaway for you guys, and who doesn't just love money? So here's how it's going to go...I have 2 gift cards to give out for Amazon and guess what, if you already "like" NewMommy101 on facebook you're already entered in. For a better chance of winning refer all your friends and family to NewMommy101's facebook page, for every person you refer you get entered in again! Just have them write who referred them on NewMommy101's wall and the extra entry is yours!!

So start spreading the word!
(winners announced on Friday!)

Shout Substitute

So I ended up having to run to the store the other day just to get some shout to clean out my girls clothes (cause kids have a tendency to get everything dirty). Then I saw this awesome idea on Pinterest (my new addiction) to make your own "Better then Shout" stain remover. I'm hoping it lives up to its name! I'll be whipping up a batch today and don't worry I have plenty of laundry to try it out on :)

Check out how to make you're own "shout" here!

Factory Tours for Date Night

If you haven't check out the factory tours in Utah it might be a great date night idea and on top of that...most of them are FREE! Up in Cache Valley they have the Pepperide Farms which are a lot of fun (or so I hear, haven't been up there myself but I'm thinking that's going to be our date night:) ) Here is a list of some in Utah and with all the Chocolate Factories it's perfect for Valentine's Day!

Sweet Candy - Salt Lake City
Mrs. Fields Factory - Salt Lake City
Mrs. Cavanaugh's - Salt Lake City (cost $1)
True Blue Cheese Tour -  Cache Valley
Rockhill Creamery - Richmond - Cache Valley
Cache Valley Food tours - Not all these places offer tours but have windows you can watch from, they're all in the same area so if you're going to make the drive there you might want to check them all out!
   - Gossner Foods (cheese)
   - Alvey's Candies (chocolates)
   - Caffe Ibis (coffee)
   - Pepperide Farm (cookies)
   - Weeks Berries of Paradise (Fruit)
   - Cox Honeyland and Gifts (Honey)
   - Aggie Ice Cream - Cache Valley (cost $3/includes free scoop of ice cream)
   - Casper's Ice Cream (Ice Cream)
   - Heart to Heart Foods ( Ice Cream)

Progress!

So I've made some progress with my big project but not as much as I'd like too. As we all know dealing with sick kids isn't the easiest! The whining, crying and constant cuddling takes up most my day, but it's ok for the most part, I don't mind (the cuddling that is). Here's a little update!!

 

 So were it's mostly clean is where the computer deck will be going (a new one! not the upstairs one). As for the shelving in there...I'm going to put up a curtain rod to cover it after it's all organized and pretty to make it feel clean and organized in there! I'm excited I've made it this far and as you can see I could now make it into the room to take a pictures from the other side, yeah!!!