Carpet Cleaning Tips!!!

There's nothing better than getting a stain out of your carpet that you thought would never come out. Hopefully some of the following tips will give you hope. Okay so here are my cleaning tips for carpets-or rather the things that I have found that worked for me.

Stain removal:

My #1 product this year that I use--drum roll please.....ammonia. I know so basic, yet effective. I mix up my own windex mixture of ammonia (lemon scented) and water minus the blue food coloring and use it for almost everything. The best thing I use it for is spots on the carpet or on my couches. It eliminates odors and gets almost anything out-without bleaching (so important)-chocoalate comes out so easily-.

Another method that has saved my carpet lately: Good old clothes iron. If you have ever had koolaid or anything with red dye #??? in it land on your carpet--you know what frustration is and heaven help the child who is responsible. Well fear no more-just place a damp towel(white or light colored one) over the stain and steam iron over it until the red gets sucked out of the carpet and into the towel like magic. You may add dawn liquid dishsoap if water alone isn't cutting it. Be patient it takes a few minutes of ironing for this to work-sometimes at least twenty but the result is worth it. The sooner you do this after the stain is made the better for you to get the best result. --I wish I knew about this one alot sooner than I did!!!

Always let playdough dry before trying to clean it off carpet.

If you get something sticky on your carpet like maple syrup...pour boiling water on it, then soak it up with a towel. Repeat until all the sticky residue comes up. It's very important to allow this area to completely dry without any traffic going through it.

And finally here are some deodorizing tricks:
Sprinkle some baking soda mixed with your favorite laundry detergent (not the liquid kind) on your carpet, let sit for about five minutes or longer if you feel it necessary, then vacuum it up. It leaves your entire house smellng so fresh.

You can also mix some fabric softener with water and spray it around the house like febreeze.

And do try to steam clean your carpets at least once a year and if possible, wear socks around your house.

Well I hope you like my tips and that you find them helpful with you housecleaning-or carpet cleaning.

Grosgrain: Reversible Bird Seed Skirt GIVEAWAY!!!!

Grosgrain: Reversible Bird Seed Skirt GIVEAWAY!!!!

Giveaway!!!.

I like posting giveaways that I come across-and this one is from a very neat site called Scribble It. A wonderful source of Vinyl Lettering and Wall Art that can make any area go from bland to glam in an instant. Go here to enter:
http://scribbleitonline.blogspot.com/2008/06/enter-our-july-giveaway.html
(copy and paste address into your address bar)
and don't forget to check out the rest of this website.

She learned more today than just to ride her bike...

Okay so Whitney has about mastered her bike!! Yes!! But What she hasn't mastered is the whole turn your head only and not the rest of your body when looking behind you. Yep that's just what she did and she ran smack into another biker, who was riding cautiously behind her to the left. But at the speed of both bikers and the reaction time given-brakes didn't help too much in preventing the crash. From that she learned exactly how important it was to wear her helmet, as she went flying foward and down on her own bike. Through this She learned that not only can you hurt yourself-if you don't ride correctly, but you can also hurt your bike or in this case, another person's bike. She then learned to wait while other Biker got transportation in working condition again and proceeded to escort young biker back home--of course riding in front this time around. I am sure this will not be the last of things learned while riding a bike this summer. I will have to post up pictures of her successful bike riding skills-as she does a good job and at times-she really likes to go fast-I mean she passes me sometimes on my bigger bike. "...the need for speed!!" Heaven help us all when she gets her drivers license. LOL.

A little nice family time

Since Joe has been home all day these days we have been able to have a lot of family time to share. We have bought a kiddie pool which we have attached the kids' little tykes slide to to create a water slide, plus a sprinkler, plus a slip in slide. Needless to say our kids shouldn't be bored. It's nice to have Joe be home when the kids get to do fun stuff like that. Especially on teaching Whitney how to ride her bike without training wheels..she still is a little scared of falling down, and hasn't stayed upright on her bike long enough to even call it close. Hopefully before summer is through she will have the hang of it. Its funny to see mine and Joe's different approaches to coaching her through the balancing art of it. Joe pretty much tells her to toughen up and stands back and watches her--I try to explain it in detail-maybe too much detail how it should feel..etc, then hold the back of the bike while she pedals and then I let go. So it's no wonder the poor kid is taking forever-she is probably so confused because of US!!!

Grosgrain: Train Stop Shirt Dress GIVEAWAY!!!!

Grosgrain: Train Stop Shirt Dress GIVEAWAY!!!!

So you think you can dance--so far favorites

Okay so I don't often take time to discuss dance too much on my blog-but c'mon it's one of my favorite passions in this life and when So you think you can dance comes around every summer-it takes a lot to keep me away from the T.V. So far through the competition I have my favorites: Chelsea and Mark--just love them, they danced my favorite routine thus far of the season: Bleeding Love- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waSa7TXWgLYThey give me chills whenever I watch it. I haven't seen a routine they've done yet that I don't like and they really connect with eachother, their characters in the dance, and the audience.
Next favorite couple is a toss up between Kerrington/Twitch and Gev/Courtney-just think they are fabulous to watch.
Individually I like Will and Thayne-but really wish Thayne had better partners. I am not a big fan of Comfort or Josh-they just don't reach out to me with their dancing. It will be exciting to see the partner changing next week and who gets eliminated tonight.

Independence Day!!!

For the 4th of July we took the girls to the evening parade downtown where they were loaded down with candy, got each other wet and enjoyed popsycles at the end. Afterwards we grabbed some hamburgers for dinner and set up our little family tailgate party to watch fireworks from the usual spot-a huge parking lot across the street from the fireworks show. Amber was a little fearful of the noises the fireworks made but grew accustomed to it in short order and finally enjoyed them. Whitney had a harder time containing her excitement about them-as you can hear her in the video. Here are a few patriotic pictures:

Trip to Salt Lake City

Here are some pictures from our trip to Salt Lake last weekend. We had our family reunion and thankfully everyone was able to be there. We took the kids the zoo and to the dinosaur museum. Whitney really liked the tiger and bird shows and amber got to have a bird peck a dollar bill out of her hand-she didn't so much like the dinosaur museum as it was full of "scary monsters"-practically had to drag her through it to the end. All in all it was nice to see everybody together-even though it was hot, hot, hot. Can't wait until we are all together again-maybe we will be able to get more time with eachother. Anyway now I gotta get busy getting the rest of the house unpacked. Enjoy the pictures.


Brookie and grandpa

quick family picture at the visitors center