how to keep your house cool in the summer

 Step #1:  Turn your AC to the desired temperature.  (When it's super hot outside, we set ours to a nice 81, [or not so nice, depending on your preference] or 83, depending on the time of day, and crank up the fans.)

Step #2:  Remove the faulty air filter from the AC vent.  (When I bought this filter I didn't realize that it was going to filter so well that even air wouldn't get through.)

Step #3:  Make sure the doors are closed.   Not open.

Last Sunday I nearly blew a gasket in my brain, and it was going to be ugly.  It was really hot outside, and was getting hotter.  It was also warm in our house.  85 degrees warm, and it kept getting warmer and our AC kept running, and running, and running.  After about two hours of the AC running and it not cooling our house down I decided there was a problem.  I couldn't figure out why our house wasn't getting cooler, and it was making me nuts.  I started to worry that our AC had gone out and we were going to bake to death in our house.   It didn't help that the power kept going out that day because of some silly wind gusts.  But I whipped out my gumshoe skills and set to work.

The first thing I did was realize that there wasn't much air coming out of the vents in the ceiling.  Bummer.  So I took the air filter out, realizing that it really wasn't letting any air through.  Once that was out, the air was flowing nicely.

I thought all was well, but it was still really warm in our house, especially in the kitchen, where the AC usually blows most of the cold air.  I may or may not have driven Matt nuts while I was pacing, probably rambling concerns and worst-case-scenarios of how we were going to have to get a whole new AC, because, after all, our neighbor next door just did.

But then I saw what may have been causing the problem.  The door was open.  The sliding glass door.  It was open about six inches, and the curtain was covering up the opening.  Hot air was pouring into our house, or the cold air was pouring out of our house, however you want to look at it.  So I closed the door.

One point for the gumshoe.

And, if you are wondering, our house is nice and cool right now.

stroller organizer

We have an umbrella stroller for Graham that's nice and compact, but it doesn't have a basket.  I saw some stroller organizers at Babies-r-us, but they weren't very colorful, so I decided to make one.  It doesn't hold a whole lot but it's been pretty handy so far.

a little book

I saw this really cute quiet book on another craft blog, and I thought I'd make one of my own.  I kind of think mine turned out better.  : )

Instead of using name badge holders (the craft blog, Brown Paper Packages, used them), I found these picture laminating squares at Walmart.  I got the pictures at Deseret Book, but had to trim them down to fit in the laminate squares.  I printed some words of songs from the Children's songbook to go with the pictures, and ta da!  It was pretty quick and easy.  I did, however, destroy my hole punch trying to punch the layers of laminate, pictures, and cardstock.  The laminate is pretty hard, which I was glad about, but it did a number on that poor hole punch.  

Picture malfunction.  Why does blogger think that it knows which way my pictures should go?  I tried uploading this one a bunch of different times and it was still always sideways.  Oh well.

no captions needed: just look at that face

the teeny boy...

 unwinds mommy's ribbon,

plays on his tummy,

and sits in the grass.

homegrown

Lately I've been putting my food processor to work and making baby food for Graham.  It's kind of a lot of work, but it's cheaper than buying baby food, and I think Graham likes the food...some more than others.  : )  Saturday was peach day, so we pureed the peaches...

and piped the puree into ice cube trays.  Once they are frozen, I put the cubes in freezer bags and we'll take out a few each time we eat.  The only downside is that we don't have a really big freezer, so our freezer is quickly being taken over by baby food.  : )

We also picked the first corn from our garden, and sadly, it wasn't great.  : (  We couldn't figure out if we picked it too early or too late.  We're trying to figure it out.

i can do it all by myself

Sometimes Graham wants us to feed him.  Sometimes he wants to feed himself.

He's quite handy with the spoon, we just need to work on some accuracy.  : )

One day all Graham's bibs were dirty so we resorted to the old dish towel.  Time for lunch!  Or maybe time for a haircut?  He kind of looks like he's ready for the baby barber.  A little off the top, please!

Swimming @ the Bushman's!

Excuse me, sir?  Your belly is hanging out of your shirt.  But you look awfully comfortable.

Happy Birthday, Matt!

Yesterday was Matt's Birthday!  He big 2-7.   Sounds old, right?  : )  Not really.  I think Matt had a good day, but to celebrate Matt got breakfast in bed, a Serafine family tradition.  I made a cake and took it up to the school during lunch for him and his study-buddies.  After he came home we had some salmon and shrimp--or I should say Matt ate the shrimp.  Sick.  But then we had a few gifts.  Now, please note that our son doesn't spend much time in just his diaper.  We fed him some squash and he got it all over himself so we took his shirt off so he could take a bath.  Anyway, Graham got his daddy that lantern.  Nice job picking out a lantern, Graham!  To finish off the day Matt played in our ward's basketball championship game and their team won!  Too bad they don't get any shirts or a trophy.  I offered to make them some shirts but I don't know if a bunch of twenty-something to middle-aged men would appreciate puff-paints.

Graham and I are so blessed to have Matt as a daddy and husband.  He is the such a great person...we couldn't live without him!  He puts so much work into his schooling, family, and calling, and does so with ease.  We love you, Matt and hope you had a good birthday!