mmmm... Fresh Baked Bread

You can smell that scent around the Schader Household often. We have stopped buying store breads. They are filled with preservatives to have a longer shelf life. Plus they cost anywhere from $2.50- $5.00 a loaf. We started making our own bread in the bread machine to save money and not eat as much "pre-prepared" foods. Of course Homemade bread tastes SO much better than store bought as well.

Try making your own bread, It doesn't take long to throw some ingredients into a bread machine and turn it on. A couple of hours later you have warm bread. Our machine even has a timer setting so I can put the ingredients in in the morning and set it to start 2 hours before dinner is ready so if I'm not home it will start itself.

I just follow the recipe that came in the booklet of my breadmachine, plus I add 4 tsp. of Wheat Gluten to the recipe to make my bread softer and not as heavy and dense.

Smooth as a Baby's Bottom

As with any baby you will always have the inevitable diaper rash. We were buying expensive tubes of name brand baby rash ointment that were $4.00 plus a little tube. And they weren't always working or were taking several days to clear up my baby's bottom. Well, we were at my mom's house and had forgotten the rash ointment and Annaliese was getting a bad rash. My sister recommended Cornstarch. We used it then and by the next morning her rash was all gone!! We have never used anything since. It works fast and is not a bunch of chemicals, it's an natural diaper rash fix. Plus it's cheaper at 2 boxes for $3.00 its a steal. I keep a little bowl of it on the changing table at all times.

What's for breakfast?

I was at my mother's house a few weeks ago and looking through her magazines. I found a recipe for Swedish Pancakes. I made a copy and forgot about it. Well, I found it a week later and decided to try them. We fell in love with them. I like them because they are quick and don't have much sugar in them. They are not normal pancakes they are thin and light and you don't put syrup on them you put your favorite jam or jelly. Here is the recipe:

2 cups milk
4 eggs
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups flour
3 tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
dash of vanilla

Combine in blender
Heat a lightly greased 8 in nonstick skillet
Pour 1/4 cup of batter into the center of the skillet
Lift and tilt pan to evenly coat the bottom
Cook until the top appears dry
Turn and cook 15-20 seconds longer

Fold pancakes into quarters and serve with your favorite Jam, Jelly, or Preserves on top and Enjoy :-)

Continually working on the house

Sorry this was the best "BEFORE" pic I had

This past week I decided to do a little project during the day while Josh was at work. We have a built in cabinet in our hallway that we used for towels, linens and to hide all that stuff you don't know where to put (you know you have that place in your house :-) hehe) Well, it had not yet been painted from when we moved in so I finally got around to painting it. It was hard work but fun. However, during the painting I decided the bottom cabinet would be a good toy nook, as Annaliese's toys were in the floor behind the couch. So I left the doors off of it and made her little place to put her toys.

Are you on the Up&Up on diapers??

As a mom I am always on the search for good cheap diapers. I think every mom understands this. Well, as much as I would like to cloth diaper it was just not possible to do with Annaliese, maybe with the next one. Well, for a long while we were able to use diapers that were given to us as shower gifts and/or buy diapers with gift cards given as shower gifts. The last several months however we have had to buy our own. Even after using coupons and searching out the cheapest stores we were spending $30-$40 a month on diapers, and diapers come out of our grocery budget.

We were in target this past month because they were having a sale on a name brand that I had a coupon for, however, my husband happened to look over at the Target Brand "Up&UP" diapers and for a box of 96 size 3 diapers it is $13.49. This is around $4.00 cheaper than the next leading brand. So, we bought a small bag to try. I didn't wanna end up with a box of bad leaky diapers. I found that they are AWESOME!!!!

They work just as well as any leading brand I have ever used and I have used them all. I also like that they don't have cartoon characters on them. They have a cute dot print.

The pictures show a Target size 3 diaper compared to a Huggies size 4 (some that were gifts but she isn't in size 4 yet). As you can see, they are made basically the same. They are the same thickness and of basically the same quality.

I just wanted to share this so even if you don't have little ones in diapers you can pass this on to others you may now. It has been a great savings tip for our family!!

1st Birthday Fun

Playing her Piano on her birthdayOpening Gifts

GOOD CAKE!!

Birthday "Smash" Cake I made for her

Here around our house we have recently been running around like crazy with the 1st birthday fun!! Annaliese turned one on July 6th. We had her party at the church on the 5th. She had alot of fun, received a bunch of VERY nice gifts (Thank You Everyone!), and ate a big cake :-) I thought it turned out very nice and though she won't remember it, it was a very big deal. Anyways, All in All it was a great day. The next day (on her birthday) we went to the doctor for her check up. She is a very tall and skinny baby girl! She only weighed 18 lbs. 3 oz., but she is a very healthy happy girl. The doctor was impressed for her vocabulary at 1 year old. She says and recognizes mama, dada, Amy, Josh (our names), dog, duck, ball, bye bye, nay nay (nursing), and others that I can't think of at the moment ;-) She also sings the Bible Book Bop song. We are very excited to have had 1 year with our wonderful little girl who is the light in our life.