Three boys and a dog

More ball

2010-07-14T22:09:00.000-05:00

I thought I would put up a picture of C from baseball since I missed doing that this year. This was his 5th year which is the minor league. Luckily, he got to be on the Cubs since they are his favorite baseball team.

Play Ball

2010-07-13T21:49:00.004-05:00

I love this picture of AD that my hubby took. This is his first year in baseball (t ball). I love watching little kids sports before they become competitive; when all you do is cheer everybody on and every game ends in a tie.

Thinking, thinking, thinking

2010-07-12T22:16:00.003-05:00

I thought I was busy when I stayed at home, life is a frenzy now that I am working full-time again. I haven't had time to sit down and write anything on this blog for over a month. Then today I got some inspiration. I was reading one of my favorite blogs, Walk Slowly, Live Wildly and she was talking about how she always feels like she has to write out this long post but that now she is going to start just posting small snippets on her blog.

That really resonated with me because that is EXACTLY how I feel. I don't want to give up on blogging but I barely have time to do dishes and the laundry. So until my life calms down (if it ever calms down) I will probably just put up pictures and random short stories mixed in with a long post here and there.

So to start things off here is a picture that I took while we were in Colorado for the 4th of July. I just love the flag against the blue sky with the mountains in the background.

Graduation party decor

2010-06-05T19:28:00.011-05:00

So, I apparently promised 4 days ago to put up the decorations we used for R's party but since I was busy planning C's birthday party I completely spaced it off. So, it is a few days but late but here we go....

I am a simple person so I like simple decorations and I also am not much of a balloon bouquet person so you won't find those at any party I throw.

Here is a snapshot of what our decorations looked like..

I loved the little buckets. We found them at the dollar store and decorated them. We decided to use them to hold drinks on the tables, eliminating the need for a lot of coolers.

We also used the Class of 2010 punches as cupcake toppers for the cupcakes and for detail on baskets and the napkin/silverware holder.

We did find a banner that you could personalize because I am also not a fan of the stuff that says "Congrats Graduate" and we had his memory board set up on a table with photo albums with his pictures.

Like I stated, the decor was very simple and worked out great for a casual party at the park.

Graduation party planning- location and time

2010-06-01T00:00:00.000-05:00

I will be honest, I started working on R's graduation party last year. I went to some parties that our friend's had and paid close attention to details. One of the things that I noticed was that most of the graduates had their parties on Saturday evening or Sunday after the ceremony so they couldn't go to their friends' parties or left their own parties to attend their friends' parties. Another thing I noticed was that if you had it at your house there was just way more to do. Besides getting the decorations, invites, food, etc. together you also had to make sure you house was immaculate.

So knowing that I wanted to put my energy into the actual graduation and party that weekend and not into cleaning my house, we chose to have R's party at our local park. I really think this venue was a great idea because there are a lot of little children in our family and they could play on the playground equipment just steps from the shelter house.

AD on the slide at the park.

We also had R's party on Saturday (the day before the ceremony) from 11 am- 2 pm so he could attend all the other parties that he was invited to attend. This really seemed to work out great and the weekend seemed to flow at an easy pace.

Tomorrow: the decorations.

Graduation

2010-05-29T10:32:00.003-05:00

R's graduation has come and gone. It was a wonderful weekend. His party was a hit and I am about as proud as a momma could be. Here is a picture of me, R, and my hubby at graduation.

Congratulations R! We love you and are so proud of you.

My first attempt at coupons

2010-05-01T22:28:00.003-05:00

Our first month with me back to work has just flown by. It has been an adjustment to say the least. The thing that was affected the most was our meal plan or I should lack of one. Even when I attempted a meal plan something would invariably happen and the meal plan went out the window.

With that being said, it basically means that we ate out A LOT. We probably spent more on eating out this month than we did groceries. So this week I need to get some groceries but not very many because we have food, I just need to cook it.

Earlier this month I signed up for The Grocery Game. It is a site that matches up coupons with your local grocery store and gives you a list of what is on sale and tells you the percentage off. It shows you which items are free and which ones you should purchase or wait on.

I am not a coupon user normal but I have been wanting to give it a try and even though I didn't purchase a lot I still saved 33% of what I spent. My total was $44.00 and I end up paying $29.00 but I didn't use coupons on everything. I saved 52% on the things that I used coupons on. So maybe coupon clipping isn't so bad after all.

And in case you might be wondering, here is a picture of what I purchased.

It will be interesting to see how much I save when I do an actual regular week of grocery shopping but even if I only save $15 a week that is still $60 a month and that isn't too bad. Not bad at all.

This post is linked to Super Savings Saturday.

The beginning of the end

2010-04-28T00:00:00.000-05:00

Well, we have about one month left until R graduates. There is so much to do and not enough time to do it. Last weekend was prom. Here is a picture of R looking all dapper in his tux.

R was also crowned Prom King. Here he is dancing with the Queen.

He doesn't really like being the center of attention which explains the "deer in the head lights look" he has right here or it might have been the complete and utter shock at having his mom taking his picture at prom. I am just not quite sure which one.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes

2010-04-27T18:21:00.005-05:00

One of my favorite food blogs is Annie's Eats. I drool over it regularly. If you have never visited it you should; here is just one reason why....

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes.

The cupcake is a chocolate chip brown sugar cupcake with a cookie dough filling and cookie dough butter cream.

I made these for my first day at my new job and they were delicious. Of course, they do have 6 1/2 sticks of butter in them but they are so worth it. They were so good that one of the girls I work with went home and made them that weekend.

So if you haven't already go check out Annie's Eats. You will not regret it.

Soo......

2010-04-10T18:12:00.002-05:00

I understand now why most bloggers are either stay at home moms or people that blog for a living (well, I guess they could also be combination of the two :) Since starting my new job I have had pretty much ZERO time for anything. I feel like if I even stop to have a simple conversation it throws off my entire evening.

The last two weeks of my life have consisted of me getting up, getting the kids ready, going to work, coming home, making dinner, doing a couple loads of laundry and going to bed.

Mainly though I feel like I need to call and apologize to all my friends that work full-time. I imagine all those times I called them up to talk for an hour that they probably had so many other things they could have been doing. Well I would apologize to them, if I had a chance to call anybody which I obviously now don't.

I think maybe this blog will come in handy to update our family members. It may be the only way they get to keep in touch with us anymore. :)

Parmesan Crusted Tilapia

2010-03-30T00:00:00.000-05:00

I have been trying to incorporate more fish into our diet. Last Friday I decided to try Tilapia. This recipe was wonderful and 2 out of our 3 boys ate it without protest. (That is a pretty decent number at our house.)

Parmesan Crusted Tilapia

6 Tilapia Filets
2 eggs beaten
1 TBS water
1/4 cup butter, melted
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 cup break crumbs
1/4 cup shredded parmesan

Preheat oven to 375. Rinse, and dry fish. Mix 2 eggs with water in a bowl. Combine the butter, bread crumbs, parmesan cheese, and paprika. Dip the fillets in the egg and then lightly coat with the crumb mixture.

Place in a greased pan and cook at 375 for 12-15 minutes or until flaky.

Menu Plan Monday

2010-03-29T00:00:00.001-05:00

Today is my first day back to work full-time in 3 years. It is also the first time I have had to get in my car and drive to work in 6 years because I worked from home for 3 years. So I want to make sure that I stay on top of menu planning otherwise our evenings will eventually turn into total chaos. I went ahead and planned the next two weeks of menus because that is how I often I will be going grocery shopping and I think it will be easier for me to do it this way.

On Monday nights I have class and so my husband is in charge of dinner.

Monday-Mac n cheese and hot dogs
Tuesday-Tacos
Wednesday-Chicken Pot Pie
Thursday-Grilled cheese and soup
Friday-Salmon and mashed potatoes
Saturday-Pizza
Sunday-Easter dinner at my mother-in-law's
Monday-Mac n cheese and hot dogs
Tuesday-Sausage skillet
Wednesday-Pepperoni Pizza Pie
Thursday-Taco soup
Friday- breakfast for dinner

I am trying to keep the menu pretty simple at first and then as we tweak our routine we can move up to some better dinner options. It will be interesting to see how our family adjusts to our new situation.

This post is linked to Menu Plan Mondays.

2010 Goals

2010-03-27T09:02:00.002-05:00

I thought it would be a great idea to revisit my goals for 2010 and see how I am doing so far.

My goals for our home....

Be more consistent in my cleaning routine- Not doing too well
Be more consistent in my menu planning- I am doing better
Work on home improvement projects- This will kick into gear more now that it is Spring
decluttering- need to work on
finish boy's room remodel- Accomplished! Yeah! The boys are in their room.
paint kitchen cabinets- Spring or summer project
redo laundry space- spring project
paint our bedroom- spring project
gravel driveway- spring project
landscape yard- spring project
finish garage- We are hiring this out
remodel another bedroom upstairs- fall project

Financial goals....

Finish Dave Ramsey program- Need to do
Work a budget- Need to do
Save for a car- Working on
Pay off credit cards- need to do
Save for major remodels- need to do

Family goals

Be consistent in date night with hubby- biweekly- We have been going out quite a bit as a couple so far this year.
Be consistent in child rearing- need to work on
Have a once a month family outing- We are doing good so far.

Personal goals

Be consistent in my devotional time- Need to work on
Finish medical transcription certificate and billing/coding certificate- Transcription certificate will be done in May and Billing/coding will be done in the fall.
Find a part-time job that doesn't conflict with out family time- Done. Except it is full-time.
Blog 3 times a week- January I accomplished this goal but did not in February. I will be a post or two shy in March but I am getting better.
Work on older son's scrapbook (he is graduating in May)- I really need to work on this one. Yikes!

So, I have accomplished a few of my goals. Some of them we will be working on now that it is Spring and some I really need to kick it into gear on.

How are you doing with your goals?

Graduation party planning

2010-03-17T11:02:00.003-05:00

photo credit: LCPhotography

Our son is graduating in two months. So with that being said, I am starting to freak out just a little bit about everything that has to be done. It seemed like we had all year and now we are down to just a few months, a few months that I am sure are going to fly by.

We have prom, more college visits, not to mention that full-time job I decided to get. I need to spring clean the house, we have baseball for C, and some home improvements.

Yep, starting to freak out. I do have a general idea of what we will be doing. I have the location reserved and a basic menu planned. Our son also wants personalized m&ms. I am beginning to feel like we are planning a wedding. :)

But I think the real reason I am getting nervous is because I am making the cupcakes. Just me, and I think there might be a lot of people at the party which means I will be baking A LOT of cupcakes.

It will be interesting to see if I pull this off. I mean I have to right? Otherwise there won't be any cake and the thought of not having cake....well, that just isn't possible.

I will update the blog with any wonderful graduation party ideas that I come across in the next couple of months.

A look at the bright side, if I engulf myself with the planning maybe I will do less crying.

Heading in a new direction

2010-03-11T14:27:00.004-06:00

The snow is finally thawed and we can now see the grass, somehow that grass is still green. I am amazed because our grass was under snow for at least two entire months, possibly three.

So now that Spring is finally here we are preparing for all kinds of fun stuff. I am the team mom for C's baseball team. R will be graduating from high school in 2 months and AD will be graduating from preschool. We also have a family vacation coming up in June.

But I guess I just didn't feel like I had enough going on because I decided to get a job. There were several deciding factors in this because I don't have to get a job, I don't really need to get a job. I just wanted to get a job.

The boys are now in school from 8:00-3:30 every day to make up for snow days. They will also have the same schedule in the fall because our school is trying out an hours format instead of a days format. Also, I am almost done with my classes. One of my certificates will be done this May. Really, I am at home by myself most of the time.

Now I would love to tell you that I am working on cleaning the house or even organizing it but I am not. Because I need a schedule. I need a routine and since I am home every day there is always tomorrow to put things off until. I need to be able to tell myself I need to do it now because I won't have time later.

So based on this information last Wednesday I decided to start looking for a job. A job where I bring home a paycheck. I would love to earn some money for two reasons. The first is that I want to be able to give. Give to our church, give to those in need, give to our children (when in need). The second reason is debt. I would love to be able to pay off some of our debt. We don't have a lot but none is better than some.

Now, I am actually getting to the job search part of the story. Whew....

I put in some applications and contacted some people for references last Wednesday. On Friday I had an interview with a company's HR department. On Monday they called to tell me all the positions were filled. Then on Tuesday they called to tell me that something had fallen through and they had a position open and would I like to continue interviewing. I said yes and I had an interview on Wednesday morning and Wednesday afternoon I was extended a job offer.

Quite honestly, I would love to tell you that I am just that good at what I do that I would be offered a job (in this economy) a week after I started looking even though I haven't worked for 3 years. But I know I am not. I am sure there are lots of people that can do what I can do. I truly believe this is the hand of God in our lives. I don't even necessarily think it is for monetary reasons. I think that God wants me there for a reason I probably don't even know yet.

I am still planning to try to keep my blog schedule. I don't blog daily so I am sure it won't be an issue. I am also planning to continue to read blogs because I love all the wonderful people, ideas, recipes, etc.

I am excited for this new chapter in our lives. So what new and exciting adventures are happening in your lives?

Monkey Bread

2010-03-07T19:35:00.003-06:00

I find it hard to believe that I have never made monkey bread before and now that I have, I have a feeling that I will be making it a lot. My family loved this and it is just so easy.

On the slim chance that somebody out there is like me and has never made monkey bread before here is the recipe...

1/3 c. sugar
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
2 sticks butter
4 cans biscuits
3/4 c. sugar
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon

Melt the first three ingredients and boil for 2 minutes. Cut each biscuit into 4 pieces. Roll each piece in last 2 ingredients. Layer in greased bundt pan. Pour boiled mixture over it. Bake at 350 degrees for 1/2 hour. Cool in pan for 15 minutes then turn out on plate and serve while still warm.

Also, if you feed it to a bunch of little boys they might call it "fried monkey brains." But whatever you call it, it is delicious.

I know it's not Monday

2010-03-03T10:31:00.003-06:00

Most menu planning out in the blogosphere is done on Mondays; however, I was at the mechanic on Monday so I didn't really have a chance to sit down and plan anything out.

We have a couple of family dinners and I have a conference for two days so my hubby will be in charge of cooking those two days. So this is our current plan for the next two weeks.

W- Tacos
Th- Soup and grilled cheese
F- Battered fish and fries
S- Roast, carrots, and potatoes
S- Family dinner for March birthdays
M- French toast
T- chicken pot pie
W- Meatloaf and mashed potatoes
Th- Taco soup
F- Pizza (hubby)
S- Mac n cheese and hot dogs (hubby)
S- Out to eat for my birthday
M- pancakes
T- BBQ chicken sandwiches

I love menu planning because it just makes things so much easier than trying to figure out something last minute.

Bedroom Reveal

2010-02-25T20:46:00.009-06:00

This room is not finished. I have long list of things that I still need to do but it was far enough along that we could move the kids and their stuff back in. This project has taken far too long and I really needed my living room back.

So as a reminder, this is the before photo.

Here are some after photos.

We put in a new window, sanded the walls (because they were texturized), ripped up the old carpet, sanded the floor, painted, put up trim, painted, painted, and painted. There was more painting than there should have been in this room and that is completely my fault. But lessons were learned so next time it won't take us 6 months to finish a room.

We still need to touch up the paint (yes, more painting), organize the closet, and I need to figure out what I am going to do with their furniture and what color I want the furniture to be. We need to buy a desk for C and, at the very least, I need to remove the dinosaur stickers from their dressers. I love Goo Gone.

I like it. I think it looks "farm housey" which is good since we live in an old farm house.

I can finally reclaim my living room

2010-02-24T16:16:00.004-06:00

We have been working on remodeling our sons' bedroom for about six months now.

It took a lot longer than I thought it would but we learned a lot while we were redoing this room. The room is not entirely finished now but it is far enough along to move their belongings back in.

I hope to put up some pictures tomorrow of what it looks like now but until then this is what it looked like before.

Don't you just love it when the kids help decorate?

2010-02-17T08:40:00.001-06:00

So glad I have some Goo Gone.

Happy Valentine's Weekend?

2010-02-14T15:31:00.004-06:00

I am not sure about anybody else but I feel like we have been celebrating Valentine's Day all weekend long, probably even longer than that.

Our youngest son, AD, is in preschool and since they don't have school on Fridays they had their Valentine party on Thursday.

Then our middle son, C, was supposed to have his party on Friday but due to a really bad headache he stayed home. Luckily, his teacher collected all of his Valentine's for him and he got to open them that day. He also got 2nd place in the class Valentine Box contest.

Here he is holding up his prize.

Then on Saturday we had a very busy day. We went to a Valentine's party with some Hip Mamas. The boys got to do crafts, exchange Valentine's and swim.

Saturday evening my in-law's volunteered to watch the kids so that we could have some alone time. Not only did they offer to watch our kids they offered to watch ALL the grandkids and that is A LOT of kids. They are quite brave.

My hubby and I went out to eat and walked around the nearby mall. Of course, while we were doing this it started to SNOW. Because you know we couldn't go a week without snow. (No, I am not being sarcastic. Really, I'm not. Right.)

I probably should also mention that while hubby and I looked around the mall I got my Valentine's gift. While I am not really that into chocolates or diamonds I am a sucker for a kitchen gadget or appliance. Since I have really been in to making waffles lately we upgraded my $7 waffle maker to this....

and I LOOOVVVEE it.

Since it was snowing quite a bit and it was a long drive home we ended up staying at my in-laws for the night and I got to use my wonderful gift this morning to make everyone some of these yummy chocolate waffles. They are just sooo good. It was nice to be able to do something for my in-laws since they do so much for us even if it was just breakfast.

And now it is actually Valentine's Day but we are really just too tired to celebrate it anymore. The kids and hubby are on the couch watching a movie and I am zoned out in front of the computer.

Hopefully the rest of you have more energy than me and I hope you and your family are having a wonderful Valentine's Day!

Why I am a horrible mama

2010-02-11T00:00:00.002-06:00

Right now I am probably not a favorite in our house. At least not with our children anyway because I cancelled out Spring Break trip. Yeah, I told you, mean mama.

Last year we went to Breckenridge, Colorado and we had intended to do the same this year.

But I started thinking about the cost of the trip, and quite frankly, there are other places I would rather spend our money; like on a new white subway tile backsplash in our kitchen.

Picture: Pacific Sun Construction

So pretty.

I also love the white cabinets. So now our plan for Spring Break is to paint the kitchen walls and paint the kitchen cabinets. Then we can hire someone to install the subway tile back splash and also tile our kitchen floor.

I am sure we can find someplace to take them in the area so they at least feel like they got to do something over Spring Break. Well, maybe hubby can. I might be at home admiring the tile.

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

2010-02-09T12:06:00.002-06:00

I made these muffins for the boys the other day and they were delicious.

Ingredients
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1-1/2 cups mashed ripe bananas (about 3 large)
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons baking soda
1 cup (6 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips

Directions
In a bowl, cream butter and sugars. Beat in eggs, bananas and vanilla. Combine flour and baking soda; add to creamed mixture just until combined. Stir in the walnuts and chocolate chips. Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups half full.
Bake at 350° for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks. Yield: 2 dozen.

Recipe adapted from Taste of Home

Valentine's Day Box

2010-02-03T15:15:00.003-06:00

There seems to be a recurrent theme at our house. Care to guess what it is?

Baby Shower Cupcakes

2010-01-29T09:35:00.000-06:00

I am going to a baby shower on Saturday for one of my husband's relatives. I was trying to decide what would be a cute gift to take.

I had seen Diaper Cakes before but I had never made one for anybody. I decide that since I am known more for cupcakes than cakes that I would see if I could make some Diaper Cupcakes.

After looking at various options I decided to still make the cupcakes but without the diapers. I used onesies and baby washclothes.

This is what I came up with....

Then I just added a bow and VOILA!

Not too bad for my first attempt. Next time I am going to try baby socks, wash clothes, and bibs and see how that looks.

Happy Birthday hubby!

2010-01-28T09:48:00.002-06:00

Sometimes it is okay to not act your age!

Monday Monday

2010-01-21T13:01:00.004-06:00

Monday was a fabulous day. I took the boys to school and came home and cleaned the house. The dishes were done and the laundry was caught up.

Then Tuesday came and things went downhill from there. I caught a 24 hour flu bug so needless to say all the work I had done on the house on Monday was completely undone by Tuesday evening. My hubby did go to the store after he got off work and got some snacks for me and spaghetti sauce so he could make spaghetti for dinner.

Wednesday our state was hit with an ice storm so my hubby didn't go to work and the kids were home from school. I was pretty much over my bug so the hubby and I decided to paint a coat of primer on the trim in the boys' room. Sometimes I think this room will never be done. One more coat of white and touch ups on the walls and floors.

My menu plan for the week had pretty much been thrown out the window and so I really wanted something easy to make for dinner. I had intended to make Pepperoni Pizza Pie but I wanted to make it with homemade crust and I was NOT feeling up to making homemade crust. So I made some Pepperoni Paninis.

We don't have a Panini maker so I used my indoor grill and I didn't have big crusty bread so I used sandwich bread but my family loved them and they were easy. Yeah for me!

By Wednesday evening C and AD had caught my flu bug so today has been catch up on housework day again.

Luckily it is a fast moving bug and they are back to their normal selves. Hopefully tomorrow we will be back to school since we are on our 6TH snow day.

I wonder what I am going to do with all those summer days while my kids are in school....hmmmm.....

Teenage Birthday Cake

2010-01-19T14:56:00.003-06:00

Once our older son hit his teenage years it seems like it has been a lot harder to find a cake "theme" for his birthday. So for the first few years I left them plain. Then last year I decided to start making cakes of things that he likes or things he enjoys doing. Of course, most of those things are electronic gadgets of some variety.

Last year I made him an Ipod Shuffle Cake because he loves his.

This year I decided to make him a Wii Remote.

I think I could have done a better job but I threw this together rather quickly. I cut the edges off of a 9 x 13 cake then cut the cake in half lengthwise. I frosted and stacked them and then covered the cake with white marshmallow fondant. I made my own. It is so much easier to make than people realize. Then I cut all the buttons out of fondant, attached them, and wrote on it with edible marker.

We didn't have a big get together for him. He just had a few friends over for pizza and cake but the party and the cake were a big hit with him.

Menu Plan Monday and Pantry Challenge

2010-01-18T08:59:00.003-06:00

Last week we did a good job of eating from the pantry. We got through all of our meals but one. I am going to add that one to our menu for this week. I did go to the grocery store on this weekend. I spent about $63.00 which puts us at about $145 for the month. It is more than I wanted to spend but hopefully we can go the rest of the month without spending too much more.

I think the most interesting day of our pantry challenge was Friday. My husbands car wouldn't start so he had my van and I had no eggs, bread, or milk. That was a creative day but I made it through. We had oatmeal for breakfast, homemade macaroni and cheese for lunch and Pulled BBQ chicken on english muffins with homemade potato fries for dinner.

Our menu for this week is:

Monday- Hamburger gravy over mashed potatoes
Tuesday- Pepperoni pizza pie
Wednesday- Cheesy potato soup
Thursday- Salmon, potatoes, and a veggie
Friday- Homemade pizza
Saturday- Roast, carrots, and potatoes
Sunday- Chicken and Dumplings

You can find other menus at I'm an Organizing Junkie and more Eating from the Pantry Challenge at Life As Mom.

18

2010-01-16T13:37:00.003-06:00

Today this child of mine is 18.

Photo by LCPhotography

It is so hard to believe. I know in the eyes of everyone else he is now a man but in my eyes he is always going to be my baby.

Happy Birthday R! We love you so very much!

B-B-B-Batman

2010-01-12T00:00:00.000-06:00

Since AD is in preschool this year he had his very first birthday party with friends on Saturday.

We went with a Batman theme for a couple different reasons. The first reason is that he got the Imaginext Batcave last year for Christmas and it is one of his favorite toys. The second reason is that I was given some free Batman napkins. Yep, I planned the boy's birthday around some free napkins.

AD and I went to the store to find some invitations to send out for his birthday. The Batman invites were $3.99 for 8. We were inviting his entire class so we would have needed 3 packages for a total of $11.97 + tax. I felt that was a little steep so we made our own.

I freehanded a bat symbol, traced it and cut them out of card stock we already had.

Cost of invites = free.

When I was trying to come up with some games to play a couple different friends suggested capes and one of them suggested decorating masks. I printed out a Batman mask template and traced and cut out the masks on white cardstock so that they could decorate them. I did buy new cardstock because I didn't have white on hand. I also got some elastic to attach to the masks.

Cost of cardstock and elastic = $4.30.

For the capes I bought some fleece blankets that were $2 a piece. I originally thought I would be able to get 3 capes out of a blanket but since these are 4 and 5 year olds I was able to get 6 capes out of blanket. I had a hard time figuring out how to close the capes and finally I decided to just sew on some ribbon.

Cost of capes = $4.50.

For activities we decorated the masks, played Batman, Batman, Robin (Duck, Duck, Goose), and Pin the Bat-a-rang on Batman. I had a hard time finding a Batman poster but I did find some Batman color pages. I had our 8 year old color on in and that is what we used for our poster.

Cost for the activities = $3.00.

We had the party at lunch time. We feed them hot dogs in the crockpot, chips, and applesauce. I also made the cupcakes using some Batman confetti that I had found. I taped the images on to toothpicks and stuck them in the cupcakes. We had lemonade to drink.

Total cost for food = $14.50.

The paper products we bought at the dollar store. I actually bought more than I needed. So total cost for what we needed for the party = $5.00.

Goodie Bags

I know we could have used the capes and masks and their "prizes" but I wanted to get them a bag with stuff to take home. We put fruit gushers, straws, stickers, and candy in them.

Total for goodie bags = $13.50.

So the total for our Batman birthday party was $44.80. All of my information is based on 12 children which brings my total per child to $3.75. I am sure there are odds and ends that I forgot so it is probably more around $4.00 a child.

I am sure that if I had tried I could have done it cheaper but I think for 12 children it was pretty cost effective. Plus we had one happy Batguy.

MPM and Eating from the Pantry Challenge

2010-01-10T22:38:00.004-06:00

Well, I don't know that we did too good of a job last week. I did get through 4 of our meals but we still have 3 that we didn't eat. We had AD's birthday party on Saturday and so we had leftovers from that on Saturday night. Today we had lunch at Costco and dinner at my father-in-laws.

One of my main goals was basically just to reduce the amount we spent on groceries this month. I was hoping to stay at around $100 for the month but we are getting pretty close to that. We are right around $80 so that only leaves about $20 for the rest of the month and I am not quite sure if that will happen or not. Even reducing our grocery bill by $50 will be okay.

So here is the menu plan for this week (with the 3 meals from last week).

Monday- Hubby makes dinner. (probably mac n cheese)
Tuesday- Chicken tacos
Wednesday- Chicken pot pie
Thursday- roast, carrots, and potatoes
Friday- Pancakes
Saturday- Out to eat (This is our son's 18th birthday)
Sunday- Family dinner

More menu plans can be found at Menu Plan Monday.
Other Eating from the Pantry Challenge results can be found at Money Saving Mom.

Happy Birthday AD!

2010-01-07T19:52:00.002-06:00

Today this sweet little boy of ours turned 5. I can hardly believe it. It has gone by so fast.

Happy Birthday AD! We love you so much!

Eating from the pantry challenge

2010-01-03T19:30:00.004-06:00

I am going to be participating in the Eat from the Pantry Challenge hosted by Life as Mom and Money Saving Mom.

I have quite a bit of meat in our freezers and I need to use some of it up. I already know that I have a bunch of vegetables that I will need to pitch because they are way too old.

So my goals for this challenge are really just 1) use up the food that is getting old and 2) reduce our grocery bill. I would like to stay around $100 for the month but we will see how that goes.

I am going to go week by week on my menus so that I can use up the oldest food first. So here is my menu for this week.

Monday- (breakfast for dinner) breakfast casserole
Tuesday- Ham and potatoes
Wednesday- Ham and Beans
Thursday- Meatloaf and mashed potatoes
Friday- Chicken Tacos
Saturday- Chicken Pot Pie
Sunday- Roast, carrots and potatoes

Goals for 2010

2010-01-01T14:50:00.004-06:00

Photo courtesy of my hubby

My hubby and I sat down today and went over our goals for 2010. Our goals are both similar and at the same time some are vastly different. We went through and merged them together to come up with our family goals for this year.

I am going to list my goals here along with some of our joint household goals.

My goals for our home....

Be more consistent in my cleaning routine
Be more consistent in my menu planning
Work on home improvement projects

decluttering
finish boy's room remodel
paint kitchen cabinets
redo laundry space
paint our bedroom
gravel driveway
landscape yard
finish garage
remodel another bedroom upstairs

Financial goals....

Finish Dave Ramsey program
Work a budget
Save for a car
Pay off credit cards
Save for major remodels

Family goals

Be consistent in date night with hubby- biweekly
Be consistent in child rearing
Have a once a month family outing

Personal goals

Be consistent in my devotional time
Finish medical transcription certificate and billing/coding certificate
Find a part-time job that doesn't conflict with out family time
Blog 3 times a week
Work on older son's scrapbook (he is graduating in May).

I am looking forward to doing all of these things in 2010. You can view more goals over at The Happy Housewife.

Christmas Brunch

2009-12-23T09:24:00.002-06:00

Sometimes I think I should rename my blog "Feeding my Three Boys and a Dog" because I think all I blog about is food. Of course, I am not going to rename my blog but I am going to talk about food. :)

We will spending a leisurely day at home on Christmas. No family gatherings that day. Just us staying home. It will be so nice.

I am planning on making brunch for our family. These are my big plans.

Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls

Cinnamon Bread

Breakfast Casserole

I am also going to make a chocolate fondue for us to dip fruit, marshmallows, and cookies in.

I hope everyone has a very Merry (and delicious) Christmas!

Cookie Exchange

2009-12-17T14:14:00.005-06:00

This morning I went to a cookie exchange. I took lots of pictures but sadly have none to share because my SD card has given out on me and I can not get the pictures off of it. Luckily, I was able to take a picture of the cookies with my hubby's camera before I ate them all.

Do you want to guess which of the cookies I made? I would love to tell you that I made the sugar cut outs or the really yummy chocolate ones with chocolate filling but I can't. I was in a major rush this morning and drastically behind so I made Chocolate No Bake Cookies. Luckily, they all love No Bake Cookies. I have great friends.

So just in case you have never made No Bake Cookies and don't have this delightful, super quick and easy recipe I thought I would share it with you.

½ cup (1 stick) butter
2 cups granulated sugar
½ cup milk
4 tablespoons cocoa powder
½ cup peanut butter
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups quick-cooking oats

1. Add the first four ingredients (through the cocoa powder) to a 4-quart saucepan.
2. Bring to a rolling boil and let boil for 1 minute.
3. Remove from heat.
4. Stir in the peanut butter and vanilla until smooth, then stir in the oats.
5. Drop by heaping tablespoons onto wax paper-lined baking sheets.
6. Let cool until set.

Source: The Brown Eyed Baker

I literally made them in 5 minutes and put them on the waxed paper to cool while I took my kids to school. Then I came home and put them in a container and left. It was probably 30 minutes total. Yep, quick and easy.

Winter Wonderland

2009-12-11T08:54:00.008-06:00

We have been snowed in for the last 2.5 days. Today is the first day back to school for the boys.

I would love to show you some pictures of our kids outside playing but I don't have any. Instead I went outside and brought some snow in. I figured they could play in the snow but not freeze.

But don't worry, I did take a few pictures from our porch.

There was no way I was going out in that snow but my husband and two of the boys did go out to shovel the walkway and get our cars out of the drifts.

I stayed inside. I was in charge of the cocoa.

They didn't seem to mind.

I hope all of you that were snowed in enjoyed your time at home and those of you that weren't enjoyed your freedom.

Yummy Blueberry Coffee Cake

2009-12-09T12:03:00.003-06:00

Last week I did something I have honestly never done before, I bought fresh blueberries. I have made a lot of blueberry muffins in my time but they were usually from a mix and not from scratch.

AD our youngest always asks me to buy blueberries. I love his eating habits. Well most of them, I don't like the one where he eats all the cheese in the fridge.

Anyway, I saw some blueberries on sale so I decided to finally make our little guy happy. Then came the hard decision; what to make with them. I finally decided upon a blueberry coffee cake. Everyone loved it. I couldn't believe all my kids ate it. I have now discovered how to get them to eat fruits and vegetables. I just need to put them into baked goods. Hopefully you will try this recipe, it was delicious.

Blueberry Sour Cream Coffee Cake

3/4 cup butter, softened
1-1/2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup sour cream

FILLING:
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries

GLAZE:
1 cup confectioners' sugar
2 to 3 tablespoons milk

Directions:
In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla. Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt; add to creamed mixture alternately with sour cream, beating well after each addition.
Spoon a third of the batter into a greased and floured 10-in. tube pan. Combine brown sugar, flour and cinnamon; sprinkle half over batter. Top with half of the berries. Repeat layers. Top with remaining batter.
Bake at 350° for 55-65 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack to cool completely. Combine glaze ingredients; drizzle over cake. Yield: 10-12 servings.

Recipe from Taste of Home

Menu Plan Monday

2009-12-06T22:00:00.002-06:00

I am completely aware that blogging has not been my forte this year. Maybe I will make that a New Year's Resolution. We will see.....

I have noticed several other bloggers that plan their menus by the month. I thought I would give this a shot because I really feel like our family existed on pasta last month. I need to be better organized in this. I decided that in general Mondays will be breakfast for dinner, Tuesdays will be soup, and Thursdays will be chicken, and Fridays will be pizza (obviously I am not making pizza on Christmas, though.) So here is my menu plan for the remainder of December.

December
7-Eggs, sausage, and toast
8-Taco Soup
9-Hamburger gravy over mashed potatoes
10-Chicken legs and potato fries
11-Pizza
12-Pork Chops with stuffing and mashed potatoes
13-Roast, carrots, and potatoes
14-Snickerdoodle French Toast
15-Grilled cheese and tomato soup
16-BBQ ribs and cornbread
17-Chicken Pot Pie
18-Pizza
19-Tacos
20-Sausage skillet
21-Dutch baby pancake
22-Family dinner
23-Pepperoni pie
24-Family dinner
25-Ham and mashed potatoes
26-Family dinner
27-Ham and beans
28-Cinnamon Apple Pancakes
29-Chili
30-Spaghetti
31-Snack food

This is going to make my December a lot less stressful. I might start doing this every month.

This post is linked to Menu Plan Monday

It's baking day again!

2009-11-03T10:18:00.002-06:00

I love Baking Day! Today and tomorrow it is being hosted by Money Saving Mom and Life as Mom. There are 200+ people participating. How exciting! Bonding over our love of food. :)

My list for the next two days looks like this...

Chocolate/cream cheese muffins
Pumpkin chocolate chip muffins
Gingerbread muffins
Citrus muffins
Pumpkin bread
Pumpkin pancakes
Waffles
Mashed potatoes
Lazy granola
Pizza crust- I am not going to freeze this. We are having pizza for dinner.

Last time I participated in baking day it went over very well with my family. Especially our 8 year old, every morning he asked for pumpkin chocolate chip muffins for breakfast. Actually, I think he asked for them for every meal. :)

I hope you are going to be joining us. What is on your baking day list?

Menu Plan Monday

2009-10-19T11:44:00.002-05:00

Last week was pretty hectic because I had a lot to get done for midterms at school. This week is looking a lot more peaceful. I am thinking about having another baking day this week because my family has eaten almost everything I made on my last baking day. We have a few waffles and a loaf of pumpkin bread left. Of course, it will be a lot easier since I can pick from any of these great pumpkin recipes at Amy's Finer Things.

Our dinner menu for the week looks like this...

Monday- Breakfast casserole
Tuesday- Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo
Wednesday- Dad's night to cook
Thursday- Ham and mashed potatoes
Friday- Cheese pizza
Saturday- Taco Soup

You can look at other menu's at I'm an Organizing Junkie.

The winners....

2009-10-13T09:53:00.002-05:00

The winners of the Got Chocolate milk gift packs are...

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

5 15

Timestamp: 2009-10-13 14:53:51 UTC

#5
MKB said...
I would love to win this! Kbroderi@msn.com

#15
Anonymous said...
YUM! I would love to win this one. I don't like white milk so much. Harder for me to drink, but I won't pass up a good glass of Chocolate Milk!!! Gotta love it :)
email is motherlove243@yahoo.com and my name is Laura

Congratulations!

Baking Marathon

2009-10-09T08:23:00.006-05:00

When I heard that Crystal at Money Saving Mom was going to do a baking day on Wednesday, I thought it would be something good to try. Unfortunately, I already had prior engagements on Wednesday so I decided to do mine on Thursday.

I found that one of the best things to do is make sure you have dinner already taken care of, that way you don't have to worry about it too much during the day. I had soaked some beans the night before and in the morning put them in the crockpot with some ham and water.

My list for Baking Day consisted of....

Black bottom muffins
Pumpkin chocolate chip muffins
Waffles
Cornbread muffins
Pumpkin bread
Pumpkin dump cake
Lazy granola

I got through everything on my list but the waffles. I will be making those today. The purpose of the black bottom muffins wasn't necessarily to freeze but to keep my boys from eating the pumpkin chocolate chip muffins that I did plan to freeze. They didn't eat them all so I did end up freezing a dozen black bottom muffins.

The cornbread muffins and pumpkin dump cake were part of our dinner but my husband has been sick and has not had too much of an appetite lately so I ended up freezing some of the cornbread muffins. The dump cake is more of a pumpkin pie type of dessert with a crumb topping. Our older son loves pumpkin pie and really liked this cake but it was not much of a favorite for the rest of them.

After dinner I made two loaves of pumpkin bread and mixed up the lazy granola. Next time I will make sure I have all my ingredients on hand because instead of 7 cups of oats I only had 4 but I still went ahead and made it.

So for my first baking day I ended up freezing 3 1/2 dozen breakfast muffins, 1/2 dozen cornbread muffins, 4 bowls of ham and bean soup, and 2 loaves of pumpkin bread. We also have a pumpkin dump cake and some lazy granola that we will be eating this weekend.

Hopefully I will get my waffles made and froze today and I might even throw in some pancakes.

You can see how other people did on their baking day at Money Saving Mom.

I {heart} chocolate milk.

2009-10-05T11:05:00.004-05:00

Chocolate milk is honestly my absolute favorite drink. I would rather drink chocolate milk than anything else so when I was contacted about going to the Got Chocolate Milk Halloween Tour I, of course, said yes.

The Des Moines leg of the tour is this Wednesday and you can get all the details of this fun, free event over at Iowa Geek Online.

So to celebrate this fun happening I have some Got Chocolate Milk goodies to give away.

I will be giving these gifts packs away to two different winners. Each pack includes an adult t-shirt, a child's t-shirt, Got Milk straw, and either a Got Milk Frisbie or a some fun milk mustache stickers.

To enter just leave a comment on my blog. The contest will be open until 3 p.m. on Friday.

You can also check out some great snack ideas on Whymilk.com and check out their profile on twitter @MilkMustache.

I am loving Fall

2009-09-14T09:16:00.004-05:00

I love Back to School and I love fall. We have had a lot going on around here lately and I am not sure quite where to start.

First off, we got our internet hooked back up. Well, it has actually been on for a while but our computer was upstairs and we had a wireless router. In order to get the new service connected I had to bring the computer downstairs. So that happened last night and I can finally get moving on my online class.

Secondly but probably the most exciting, is that our son, who is a Senior this year, has been accepted into two colleges as of today. He (we) applied to four and are waiting on responses from the other two. Of course, one of the colleges we are waiting to hear from is the the college he really wants to go to.

Thirdly, momma got a new washer and dryer. Our old set was seriously on it's last leg. Not to mention that it wasn't agitating, a very vital part of the process for top loaders. I am very pleased with the pair we got. It is a nice middle of the road set.

They are LG front loaders and I will be honest, I did not realize how much they would make me LOVE doing laundry. I walk around the house looking for things to wash. I have read several reviews and I know that A) I need to wipe the seal and leave the door open so the drum can dry otherwise it will start to smell and B) I need to drain the washer once a month. Other than these two things I have read great reviews on the set.

Lastly, I have been branching out from Hot Chocolate to flavored coffee drinks. Because, you know, I really needed to increase my caffeine intake. :)

I am so excited to be back, to be able to post more, and to get to other blogs more often. But right now I really need to get to my homework.

Back to School Breakfast Week- Day 5

2009-08-21T17:09:00.003-05:00

Today's breakfast is Cinnamon Bread. It can be made the night before and is also an easy recipe. This is so good it is gone within minutes.

* 2 cups all-purpose flour
* 1-1/2 cups sugar, divided
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1 cup buttermilk
* 1 egg
* 1/4 cup canola oil
* 3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
* GLAZE:
* 1/4 cup confectioners' sugar
* 1-1/2 to 2 teaspoons milk

Directions:
In a large bowl, combine the flour, 1 cup sugar, baking soda and salt. Combine buttermilk, egg and oil; stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. In a small bowl, combine cinnamon and remaining sugar.
Grease the bottom only of a 9-in. x 5-in. loaf pan. Pour half of the batter into pan; sprinkle with half of the cinnamon-sugar. Carefully spread with remaining batter and sprinkle with remaining cinnamon-sugar; cut through batter with a knife to swirl.
Bake at 350° for 45-50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack to cool completely. Combine confectioners' sugar and enough milk to reach desired consistency; drizzle over loaf.

Recipe: Taste of Home

I hope you have gotten some quick and easy breakfast ideas that will make your school mornings run a lot smoother.

Back to School Breakfast Week- Day 4

2009-08-20T08:38:00.000-05:00

I don't know if this really even classifies as a recipe but I thought I would put it on here anyway. It is our families basic breakfast casserole.

I have made this so many different ways it is so versatile.

I put potato rounds or hashbrowns on the bottom of a 9 x 13 pan. Also, preheat your oven for the temperature on the package.

We brown some sausage or bacon and put it on top of the potatoes.

That is topped with a dozen beaten eggs and then baked for the time alloted on the potatoes.

Lastly, I put a layer of cheese on the top and bake it for an additional 5 minutes. My entire family loves this and we rarely have any leftovers.

Back to School Breakfast Week- Day 3

2009-08-19T08:26:00.002-05:00

I have never baked oatmeal before but decided to when I found this recipe for Peanut Butter Baked Oatmeal. We cut it into squares or crumble it into a bowl. You can eat it with milk or plain.

I came across the recipe on another blog, Lynn's Kitchen Adventures. Lynn has a wonderful blog with a lot of great recipes.

If you have never visited her blog I highly recommend you do. Your family will thank you for it.

Back To School

2009-08-18T10:46:00.002-05:00

Today I am not going to be posting a breakfast. I am busy getting everything ready for my kids to go back to school before they leave for grandma's tomorrow.

They will be gone for 5 days while my hubby and I demolish their room. We are going to be sanding walls and pulling up carpet. Next month I hope to get some bead board on the walls and paint.

One of the fun things I get to do for back to school is have my son try on all his hand-me-downs. We are fortunate that my son has 3 older boy cousins that give us their clothes. Today C had to try on about 20 pairs of jeans. He wasn't loving it. Then I divided them up between me and another sister-in-law whose son is a year younger than C but about the same size. Really, I don't have the space to store that many jeans and I do laundry every day so 10 pairs of pants is enough.

We have all the school supplies so all that is really left are haircuts and today is looking like the perfect day for it.

Are you ready for back to school?

Back to School Breakfast Week- Day 2

2009-08-17T11:11:00.001-05:00

This is a repeat. I have posted this breakfast before but I still LOVE it. It is so easy to make. It is the Dutch Baby Pancake.

I found this super easy recipe at Making Food. Eating Food. Did I mention it was so easy? And the kids love it, which is always great.

We top it with melted butter, powdered sugar, and maple syrup. You can also top it with fresh fruit. Yummy!

Back to School- Breakfast Week

2009-08-16T06:00:00.000-05:00

This is the last week the boys are home before heading back to school. Last year we existed on breakfasts that consisted of either peanut butter toast or frozen waffles. This summer I have been trying to actually cook breakfast for them because we have been going through a loaf of bread a day, possibly more, if we have toast for breakfast.

I thought I would share five of my favorite breakfasts this week. They are quick and several of them can be made in advance or put in the fridge overnight to be baked in the morning.

The recipe for today can be made ahead because quite honestly I think they taste better cold rather than hot and they are yummy: Jumbo S'more Muffins. I have had quite the craving for s'mores this summer and I was so excited when I found this recipe. I doubled this when I made it so we had a dozen muffins.

Ingredients

* 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
* 1/2 cup graham cracker crumbs (about 8 squares)
* 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1 egg
* 1-1/2 cups buttermilk
* 1/4 cup canola oil
* 3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
* 1-1/4 cups miniature marshmallows, divided

Directions:
In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients. Combine egg, buttermilk and oil; mix well. Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. Fold in chocolate chips and 1 cup marshmallows.
Fill greased jumbo muffin cups three-fourths full. Sprinkle with remaining marshmallows. Bake at 375° for 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack. Serve warm. Yield: 6 muffins.

**Recipe from Taste of Home

Blue and Brown Swap

2009-08-16T00:00:00.000-05:00

For the Blue and Brown Swap I was partnered with Emma. This is what I received from her.

I got a cute picture frame, scrapbooking paper, ribbon, magnets, an adorable notepad, notecards and some muffin mix in a cute drawstring bag.

This is what I sent her...

A notebook, "Faith, Family, and Friends" picture, ribbon, a scrapbooking marker, some scrapbooking buttons and brads, some tea light holders, a fingernail file, a Vanilla Soap bar, an acrylic scrapbook album, and a Family magnet.

I had a great time participating in this swap. To see more swap goodies go to Sarah's Blue Castle.

I think I have crossed the line

2009-07-31T16:05:00.002-05:00

The line where I am no longer sad that summer will be ending and my children will be returning to school in the fall. Our youngest will be in preschool four full-time days a week. That leaves me with a lot of time on my hands.

I am hoping to start organizing our home. I feel like our home has just been a wreck all summer long. It gets picked up and an hour later it is a mess.

I am going to be taking a couple classes. I have about 3 left for my Medical Transcriptionist certificate. I also want to a get a Medical Biller/Coder certificate which is only 3 additional classes to what I have already taken.

I might also get a part-time job; who knows, time will tell.

I know I will be sad on the first day of school because our oldest son will be entering his Senior year and I will be sad when AD is gone all day.

But right now I am not there.

Are you sad or excited for school to start?

Menu Plan Monday

2009-07-13T11:14:00.002-05:00

I continue to read the Back To Basics over at Simple Mom. Today is about menu planning. I have to admit that I haven't been doing that great of a job on this lately. I have been flying by the seat of my pants. We have been eating out of our pantry/freezer but I have not been very organized about it.

So today I sat down and made our menu plan for the week.

Monday- Chicken tacos
Tuesday- Pork roast/mashed potatoes
Wednesday- Corn chowder with cornbread muffins
Thursday- Chicken legs and potato fries
Friday- Homemade cheese pizza

You can see more menu plans at Organized Junkie and you can also go over to Simple Mom and read a great post on menu planning.

Peace...

2009-07-08T10:45:00.005-05:00

I have recently begun reading a blog called Simple Mom (I know, many of you have probably been reading this one for a while).

Yesterday they started a series called Back to the Basics. The first post was about developing a family mission statement.

She had a list of questions to ask yourselves to get started on your statement. One of the questions was Name three adjectives we would like people to use to describe our home environment.

The first adjective that came to my mind was peaceful. I would like our home to be peaceful. I would like it to be relaxing, calm, and peaceful.

I find our house to be loud and chaotic. I would love some serenity.

I shared this information with my husband last night when he got home. So now instead of asking our children to "quit that" or "leave your brother alone" we are going to ask them if they are being peaceful. Quite honestly, it seemed to work.

We ask them this, we don't yell it at them; well, because that wouldn't be peaceful would it?

I can't wait to get started on the rest of our family mission statement.

2009-07-03T10:30:00.001-05:00

Sarah and I are co-hosting another swap.

Here are the details:

1. To participate, we ask that you are either a reader and frequent commenter on one of our blogs or you have participated in our Pink&Green Swap.

2. You may sign up by leaving a comment here or on Sarah's blog.

3. The swap will remain open for 1 week (closing on 6 July 2009) or until we have filled our quota of 15 swappers.

4. After the swap is closed, we will pair you up with another swapper and send you an email with information so you can contact and get to know your swap partner.

5. You will have 2 weeks to put together a swap box filled with various items that you think your swap partner will enjoy. This may include, but is not limited to: handmade items and thrifted items. We recommend a value of about $10-$15 for your box.

6. Your box will have to be mailed NO LATER than Tuesday 21 July 2009.

7. If, at any time, and for any reason, you are not able to complete the swap, you must contact your swap partner and also let us know so I can make other arrangements.

8. International swappers are welcome, as long as we can match you up with a swap partner who is willing to ship internationally. If you are not in the continental United States, please note that in your comment and we will do my best to make sure you are able to join the swap. Also, if you are willing to swap with an international partner, please let me know in your comment.

9. Once the swap is completed, we will be hosting a link-up party on Sarah's blog for everyone to "show and tell" about your boxes.

By leaving a comment on this post and signing up for this swap, you are agreeing to the above "rules".

Let the swap begin!

I am the best mom EVER!

2009-06-11T14:53:00.003-05:00

We had C's birthday party at the local ballpark and he got to throw out one of the first pitches. That makes me a candidate for the best mom ever award.

Here is a picture of him on the pitcher's mound.

Wordless Wednesday- Vacation

2009-06-10T14:38:00.000-05:00

New Blog Design

2009-06-09T10:06:00.003-05:00

I have a new blog design. If you are starring at this page wondering what is different; well, nothing. My new blog design is on my cupcake blog, Delightful Cupcakes.

It was done by Sarah at Blue Castle.

Go on over and check it out and if you want, you can grab the button for your own blog.

Wow

2009-06-01T11:29:00.002-05:00

I can't believe it has been about three weeks since I posted last. We have been pretty busy with graduations, baseball games, a trip over Memorial Day weekend, scrapbooking, and a lot of cupcake making.

I definitely need to work on that blogging schedule, huh?

And what did you do last weekend?

2009-05-11T14:05:00.002-05:00

Last weekend I agreed to make 2 dozen soccer cupcakes for my friend's daughter's birthday party. I was trying to decide between frosting and fondant and I decided frosting would probably be easier.

Apparently, I was wrong. It took me 6 HOURS to decorate 24 CUPCAKES. Yes, I had to individually draw, outline, and color in 24 cupcakes. My friend is now the only person on earth who will ever receive a frosted soccer ball cupcake from me.

I am still trying to figure out a more efficient way to make them because I am sure I will need some soccer balls in my future.

In the meantime head on over to my other blog, Delightful Cupcakes, for a look at my wonderful creations.

Pink & Green Swap

2009-05-08T00:00:00.000-05:00

Sarah asked me if I wanted to co-host a swap with her on her blog. I, of course, answered yes. She had a great idea to do a color theme swap. This time it was Pink & Green.

My swap partner was Heather and I love the stuff she sent me.

She got me some boxes for cupcakes, cupcake liners, a cupcake writing pad, a cupcake stamp, notecards, pretty ribbon, a bookmark, a coupon holder, a daisy cookie cutter, a cute wooden "Home", and she made me a cool bookmark and pad of paper.

Thanks Heather for being my swap partner and thanks Sarah for hosting this wonderful swap!

Take me out to the ball game

2009-05-07T00:00:00.000-05:00

The local minor league team in our area is having Dollar Days this year. There are 7 different games where it is just $1 for a general admission ticket.

Because we are ~~cheap~~ frugal, these are more than likely the games we will be attending this year.

So on Monday evening hubby and I headed to the ball park with the C and AD. It was a wonderful night. We stayed until about 8 because you know those boys need to go to bed. But I wasn't worried about not staying for the entire game, I mean we did only pay $1 each to get in.

The boys had a great time and we only ran off a couple of guys at the end of our row. Apparently they got tired of us having to go the bathroom every two minutes.

Mom's Nite Out

2009-05-05T00:00:00.000-05:00

This Thursday May 7th is National Mom's Nite Out. Jody and Paula are hosting the one for the Des Moines area. It is going to be at AllPlay in downtown Des Moines.

It is from 7-10 pm and there will be prizes and lots of fun things to do. Hope to see you there.

Spring is finally here

2009-05-04T14:20:00.003-05:00

We had a beautiful weekend. The sun was shining and the temperature was in the 70's.

Hubby decided to get out and plant some flowers. The kids wanted to join in. Even the neighbor kids wanted to help. We had so much help we ran out of regular shovels.

Why can't they be that enthusiastic about cleaning their room?

Happy May Day!

2009-05-01T11:22:00.004-05:00

These are the May Day baskets that I made for the teachers (just a few days early) for Teacher Appreciation Week and for a woman that works with my husband (because she really wanted my cupcakes).

Don't worry, Teacher Appreciation Week is next week so you still have time to make some for your teachers. :)

In my world cupcakes are DEFINITELY a Finer Thing.

It has just been one of those weeks

2009-05-01T00:00:00.001-05:00

Wednesday was just not a great day in our house. First my husband called from work to let me know that the overtime he usually works is being cut. Not necessarily an issue except that right after that I went to pick up our car from the mechanic.

He informed me that my husband was not allowed to drive the car out of town and we need $1000.00 worth of work. That was not something I wanted to hear after being told our monthly income will be lower.

After stressing out about it for the day I think we have things in a better perspective now. We have been here before when I lost my job in 2007. That was a major budget redo, this will just be a slight budget redo.

We still have areas where we overspend and we can cut that out. Also, I am already working on lowering the bills.

There are a lot of inexpensive things we can do with the boys this summer and I discovered on our vacation that they don't care how expensive it is. Family time is so much more important than electronic gadgets they don't need anyway.

The reason we failed TV week

2009-04-30T00:00:00.000-05:00

We started off TV week doing pretty well but a few days into tv week I decide we pay way too much for our cable and internet service. I contacted our provider to see if we could get a lower rate.

They wouldn't give us one. Apparently, after you have had it a couple of years you are just out of luck and have to pay the astronomical price which they will not lower to keep you.

So after discussing it with my husband we decided to cancel our tv and internet. We decided since we would only have it for another week that we would let the boys enjoy it for the rest of the week. That is why we "failed".

I ordered the converter box coupons for the tv and contacted the local phone provider about getting dsl service.

The total we were paying for cable/internet and cell service every month is $300. We can get a home telephone and dsl for $67 a month. This would then allow us to lower our cell plan and we can save money on that also.

If I can get it down to about half of what we were paying before I will be happy. As for the cable, I am not sure if that is coming back or not. We can add it to the phone/dsl bundle for an additional $30 a month but after reading this post, I am not sure I want it back.

Luckily our library is about 4 blocks away so I will be able to use their internet until we get our new stuff up and running.

Prom 2009

2009-04-29T05:11:00.004-05:00

Here is a picture of our handsome son from Prom.

It was a lot of fun but a pretty long day. Our son does not have his license so my husband was the chauffeur for our son and his date. After pictures at 3 pm, we drove to Des Moines for them to go out to eat then came back for "Walk-in". Walk-in is where the entire town sits in the bleachers, the couples walk-in and are introduced and then they head to the dance. After the dance was after prom, for which I volunteered. I did a pretty good job of staying up until 5 am if I do say so myself.

Sadly, I think I may have had more fun at my son's prom than I had at my own.

In case you were wondering

2009-04-22T16:29:00.002-05:00

I failed miserably but more about that later. :)

Have a great Earth Day.

Turning off the tv

2009-04-20T09:45:00.001-05:00

My family is going to be participating in the National No Screen Week. It runs from today through the 26th.

Obviously, I am getting a slow start on it. To be quite honest I do so much on the computer that I don't think I can completely cut it out. I will still be checking my email and bank account online but otherwise I will not be blogging, reading blogs, twittering, or facebooking. Whew....this week might be rough.

I have a lot of ideas and plans for what me and my family can do this week. Tune back in next week and I will give you a list of what we did/accomplished.

Have a great week!

Frugal Vacation Part IV

2009-04-16T09:11:00.005-05:00

This is the last post in my vacation series and I am going to talk about eating on your vacation.

Since we stayed in a condo we took a lot of food to make ourselves while we were there. This cut our food costs tremendously because eating out for a family of 5 is usually between $20-$60 at reasonably priced establishments. If we had eaten out all week long it would have cost us hundreds of dollars. We probably spent about $50-75 for the food that we took with us.

We did eat out a couple times. I, of course, googled "Cheap places to eat" before we went. Also, looking in the visitor's guide for the area you are going is helpful.

A few mornings I went and bought donuts at Daylight Donuts. They were pretty comparable to donut places at home and the kids loved their donuts.

On our last day there we went to a pizza/arcade restaurant called Downstairs At Eric's. It had a fun kid-friendly atmosphere with parent-friendly prices.

Of course, I kids loved playing at the arcade.

That is the end of our vacation. I hope you have gotten some ideas for finding fun and frugal things to do on your own vacation.

Frugal Vacation Part III

2009-04-14T09:18:00.010-05:00

Besides the wonderful free things to do where we stayed, we also found some free or reasonably priced things to do around town. Before we went I googled "Cheap things to do in Breckenridge" and I got a lot of ideas.

On Monday we walked around the main street in town and browsed in the shops. The downtown was so quaint. I loved it. This can be as frugal as you want it to be depending on how much you spend.

On Tuesday, while my husband was skiing, the younger boys and I went to the Children's Museum in town. They charged $7 per child and $5 for adults so it cost less than $20 and the boys loved it.

On Wednesday hubby and I took the boys to the town library for story hour. They got to hear 3 stories and make a craft. They really enjoyed this because we don't get to go to many story hours at home.

Finally, on Thursday we went skiing at Carter Park. We brought our own sled with us so this was free also.

So, other than the cost of skiing for my husband, the total spent for four days of activities was $19 and our kids had a blast.

With a little bit of research you can find some really fun, cheap things to do on vacation.

Frugal Vacation Part II

2009-04-09T08:59:00.005-05:00

Since we had to repair our transmission in February we didn't have a lot of money to do some of the things that we had wanted to do. Since this was the case I was looking for cheap things to do in the area.

There were several fun things to do just at the place we stayed. The kids loved the Jacuzzi tub and the tv in their room. We don't have either of those at home.

They also enjoyed the swimming pool.

One of the big attractions for them was the hot tub. It seemed like we went to the hot tub every night. They loved it so much.

Of course, hubby and I did also.

Finally, there was an arcade for the children and a lounge with a foosball table, pool table, chess, and board games.

So when you are planning your vacation I would definitely pay attention to the ammenities offered where you are staying. They provided hours of free entertainment for our family, especially the kids.

Frugal Vacation Part I

2009-04-08T08:41:00.010-05:00

I am not travel blogger (Jody is though so go check her out) but I thought I would do a couple of posts on our recent vacation.

We went to Breckenridge, Colorado for Spring Break. While we were there it snowed about 32". It was amazingly beautiful. We walked around while it snowed and really enjoyed the atmosphere of this ski town.

We did not have to pay for our lodging but after doing some research I discovered you can get some good ski deals in early winter. Also, if you don't ski then this would be a great place to go in the summer and fall because their lodging prices drop tremendously.

Another way our family saved money was by driving. Because we are only 12 hours away and gas is reasonable right now we probably spent approximately $150 roundtrip in gas.

We arrived in the evening on our first day there but if at all possible I would recommend trying to arrive during daylight. Otherwise you could miss views like this...

and you wouldn't want that to happen.

Guess who I had lunch with?

2009-04-06T15:23:00.003-05:00

Well, here is a picture of us.

Do you know now? It is Kellyn and Paula.

Kellyn and I are coincidentally going to the same concert tonight. So we all met up for lunch. It definitely did not feel like the a first time meeting (well, second with Paula). I felt like I have known them forever.

Now, on to the show. :)

Vacation

2009-03-30T09:14:00.003-05:00

Spring Break for our kids was last week and we went on a family vacation to Colorado. I would love to share about all the things we did but I have a lot of things to do around the house.

In the meantime, here is a picture of our family that we took on our last night there.

I am not sure but

2009-03-19T21:09:00.002-05:00

does anybody else's child sleep with their scooter?

Yeah.

I didn't think so.

Just in case

2009-03-16T14:50:00.002-05:00

On the off chance that somebody, somewhere might possibly wonder what has happened to me I just haven't been in a bloggy mood lately. I am not taking time away, seriously, you can ask Facebook. It is not that I have nothing to blog about because those boys certainly give me plenty of material.

Just haven't been in the mood. I am just out livin' my life and having an awesome time. :)

Yesterday was my birthday. I turned 36. I am not quite sure what happened to my 20's or the beginning half of my 30's because the last time I looked I was 18. But don't worry because I know you are only as old as you feel and I feel like I am 18. Okay, maybe I just act like I am 18, whatever. :)

I promise to post some this week but until then I hope you are out having a great time because things are finally starting to thaw and Spring will be here in just a few days.

MPM

2009-03-09T10:47:00.003-05:00

Well, it was a busy weekend as usual at our house so I am spending the day getting organized again, or attempting to get organized.

This is our menu for the week.

Monday: wrestling banquet; I am planning on making some Red Hot Applesauce Jello and some deviled eggs for side dishes.

Tuesday: Beef Stroganoff

Wednesday: Chicken & penne pasta

Thursday: Chicken nuggets & homemade french fries

Friday: Chicken & dumplings

Saturday: Going out for my birthday, homemade pizza for the boys.

Check out more menus at I'm an Organized Junkie.

TA DA!

2009-03-06T12:58:00.003-06:00

So, my sink is fixed. I am so excited about that. I am currently working on getting the Mount Everest of dishes done but I thought I would take a moment and share my finished project with you.....

It is a magnetic chalkboard that I painted on our dining room wall. I actually decided to erase the calender and think I will just have a list of upcoming events instead. I think it is so cute and it was easy too.

Time does fly when you are having fun

2009-03-02T09:18:00.002-06:00

Well.... the last week just flew by. I really didn't spend much time here because I was busy writing my kitchen posts for Happy To Be At Home.

You know, I had lots of big plans for what I was going to make for dinner but almost every single one of them fell through. So much for plans huh?

Friday my sink decided it was going to stop working. We did put some drano in it and that didn't work so tonight my husband is going to replace the garbage disposal. I like to use that a lot so ours goes out a lot.

Saturday we went on a road trip to see our school's wrestling team compete at State Team Duals. Our school had never made it before so it was a great thing to see. That evening we stayed at my sister-in-law's house. She made us lots of goodies. I really enjoy staying with her. The kids had so much fun.

Sunday we raced home and went to church and then to a family dinner in the afternoon.

Needless to say we are all pretty tired for the beginning of our week and it is going to be a busy one. I have a fun project planned for this week and I can't wait to start it.

Crazy Lady in the Parking Lot

2009-02-25T09:19:00.005-06:00

Yesterday I went and did our grocery shopping. That in itself is always a fun experience but yesterday it was even better. When I left the store, with my cart piled high with groceries, I was accosted by two bees. They would NOT leave me alone. They kept buzzing around my cart and trying to get into my grocery sacks.

Now I am going to need you to use your imagination on this one but please try to envision this: I am standing alone next to my van putting my groceries away. While I am putting my groceries into the van I am saying in a fairly loud voice, "GET AWAY FROM MY VAN", "LEAVE ME ALONE", "GO AWAY".

I, of course, was talking to the bees because I didn't want them hitching a ride home with me or dining on our food in the sacks.

I can only imagine what the other customers in the parking lot were thinking.

Menu Plan Monday

2009-02-23T12:00:00.000-06:00

This is week two of living off a very tight budget. I decided to make a coffee cake for breakfast on Saturday and when I looked in the fridge I found out that our sour cream was expired and since I had already started to make it I then had to go buy some sour cream. Yesterday we also bought some yeast so I can make bread but those were the only food purchases.

Our menu for this week is...

Monday: Taco Soup
Tuesday: chicken and homemade noodles
Wednesday: Hamburger gravy over mashed potatoes
Thursday: Chicken and Dumplings
Friday: Meatloaf and mashed potatoes
Saturday: Dinner at my sister-in-law's

The Cold Bug has attacked

2009-02-21T12:57:00.002-06:00

Not much has gone on this week. We have all been fighting colds and haven't really ventured out. Not to mention it has been freezing here. I can not wait for Spring.

Tuesday, on the one day I actually left the house, C had a dance at school. Yep, you heard that right, a dance. The dance was for K-5th graders. Of course, I took C and stayed the entire time and I wouldn't really say it was a dance. They did have music playing but there were crafts, games, and food. It cost $5 per kid and lasted about 3 hours. Some of the cheapest babysitting you can get in my opinion.

I did a pretty good job of sticking to our meal plan for the week. I did have to switch Thursday and Friday around since the chicken wasn't thawed out.

Next week I am sure will be more interesting. Tonight we have a dinner for my husband's work. I get to leave the house and somebody else is providing dinner. YEAH!

I am also going to be Kitchen Of The Week at Happy To Be At Home starting on Sunday. I love reading their Kitchen Of The Week so I am glad to be featured.

Menu Plan Monday

2009-02-16T08:58:00.003-06:00

Since our van seems to be consuming most of our money lately we have been trying to cut back as much as possible in other areas. So I went through our freezer, pantry, and fridge and came up with a menu for the next two weeks based on what we had. I did need to buy a few things and so last night before our FPU class hubby and I went to the store and spent $14 for the two weeks. This is our menu plan for this week.

Monday: Beef Stroganoff

Tuesday: Pork loin, mashed potatoes and broccoli

Wednesday: Grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup

Thursday: Roasted chicken and mashed potatoes (We have about 15 lbs of frozen mashed potatoes in our freezer than we need to use.)

Friday: BBQ ribs and cornbread

Saturday: Cheese pizza for the kids. Hubby and I have a work dinner to go to.

Sunday: Pumpkin pancakes (Sunday night is now designated as breakfast for dinner night.)

Yesterday I wanted to make pancakes to freeze for easy breakfasts but I didn't get that accomplished so hopefully I can get that done today.

View more ideas and enter for a giveaway at I'm an Organizing Junkie.

Busy, busy, busy

2009-02-16T08:32:00.004-06:00

Last few days really flew by. Thursday I went and got our taxes done and ran some errands. Friday I had more errands to run but our van was acting up AGAIN so I had to leave it at the shop. Then of course we had a wonderful snow storm on Friday afternoon so all the snow that recently melted is back again.

I have been so frustrated because of our van lately. It seems that I get it back and there is something else wrong with it when it is returned. Apparently we need a new battery and new brakes. Neither of these are a surprise to me. Of course, it was making a really weird noise that it is not making now after they looked at it. It just makes me wonder if they didn't get something hooked back up correctly when they did our transmission.

Saturday didn't start out too great but it got better in the evening when we went to a party at some friends house. Our school's wrestling team and the sons of some of our friends all made it to state this year. It is pretty exciting. Our school has never gone to state as a team EVER.

Sunday we went to church in the morning and hubby and I went to our FPU class at church in the evening. We did a quickie budget on paper which looks fabulous on paper. Of course, we don't usually have to replace the transmission every month. :)

I do believe on of the highlights of the weekend for our sons was the PS2. We thought it was broken. In fact, we haven't played it for almost an entire year. It turns out that it isn't broken so there was and still is a lot of game playing going on in our house right now. It was the Valentine's present that didn't cost a thing. :)

And one last thing....HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!

Valentine's Gifts for Teachers

2009-02-11T15:23:00.009-06:00

I found this cute idea for soap and hand sanitizer bottles over at Just A Girl and I thought I would make them for the boys' teachers.

These were for AD's teachers and we had to take the pictures as we rushed out the door because his party was today.

These are the ones we made for C's teacher. I thought I would do a soap and a sanitizer. I also thought I would try one with a school theme and I really like it.

Total for all four it cost $6.97 or $1.74 each, not too bad if I say so myself.

I was going to show the entertainment center

2009-02-10T13:59:00.004-06:00

But instead I will show you a picture of my ottoman. A picture of the ottoman with PENCIL HOLES that AD punched into it while I was making muffins this morning.

I think I can probably just use black shoe polish on the scratches. The holes they are a different story.

I got the ottoman last year for my birthday. We put it by the front door so the kids could sit down and take off their shoes. I guess my mistake was putting it in the living room. It has maybe been in there for 5 days.

This is exactly why I do not buy new furniture.

Week (end) Recap

2009-02-09T11:20:00.006-06:00

Our weekend went by rather quickly. Friday we just stayed home because my hubby was really tired. Saturday during the day I went scrapbooking with my friend and got quite a bit done. Saturday night my friend and I went out to eat and then we went and saw the movie He's Just Not That Into You. I hadn't really heard much about this movie and was skeptical of whether I would like it but it was HILARIOUS not to mention it had some great actors.

Oh, and that Ben Affleck? He just never gets ugly. I would recommend seeing it. Of course, I wouldn't recommend taking your children. It is PG-13 (Parents Strongly Cautioned) and I would say, don't take them. After I got home I joined my hubby over at some friends house and we got home pretty late.

On Sunday we went to church in the morning and in the evening we started our Financial Peace University class. This week we do the budget. That will be fun and interesting considering I am in charge of the finances and my husband has no idea. I am glad we are taking these classes and so glad this will finally be a team effort on our part. YEAH!!

In between church and our class we moved our tv (that broke on Friday) out of our living room. We moved our old entertainment center out of R's room into the living room and moved one of our last tv's (we are down to 2) into the living room.

This morning I moved our bookshelves over by the entertainment center. I look at pictures from when we had it like this before and I just love them. I am hoping to post some pictures of it this week.

I am still following along at Biblical Womanhood with the Spring Cleaning for Normal People. This week is the kitchen. That should be interesting.

Uneventful

2009-02-06T08:55:00.002-06:00

Our week has been pretty uneventful. After getting the living room in order it was trashed again by Wednesday, naturally.

Yesterday I peeled, boiled, mashed, and froze about 15 lbs of potatoes. It took a lot longer than I thought it would. Mainly because I had to mash them in groups. I don't have a stand mixer so I had to use my hand mixer. I put them in plastic freezer bags and laid them flat. You would think that would be a lot of side dishes but I only made 4 bags of them. My family loves mashed potatoes and I have to make a lot when we have them.

We don't have a lot of big plans for the day either. My van may get done today. Yeah!!! Transportation!

I am going to try to work on decluttering some other areas in our house. Mainly our dining room area. Good times.

I hope you all have a wonderful day. :)

Spring Cleaning for Normal People

2009-02-04T11:08:00.007-06:00

Yesterday I started working on our living room which is the assignment for week 2.

Here are my before pictures. Please try to overlook the fact that we have no curtains and our trim needs painted. After painting a suede finish on my walls (which was a wallpaper over plaster) our son wrote all over them. Magic eraser doesn't get that out. So now we are going to knock down the walls and put up drywall. Just not sure exactly when that will be happening. Okay enough about that, here the pictures.

Everything for our boys' room seems to make its way downstairs, including them, which is why their bedding is on the loveseat.

This is the place that most stuff seems to accumulate.

Here are the after pictures.

Basically I just took all the boys' stuff and put it back in their room.

This didn't take too long. Glad it is done. You can follow along over at Biblical Womanhood.

Recovering

2009-02-03T16:07:00.002-06:00

We had a very busy weekend. Part of it was due to the fact that I did not have a car all week last week. (I also will not have a car all week this week.) We had so many things going on last weekend that we decided to pick up a rental van on Thursday night. That allowed me to run some errands I had not gotten to do all week. That is also pretty much how I spent Friday and Saturday also.

We had a late birthday party for AD, R, and hubby at AllPlay for our family and friends on Sunday afternoon. It was a lot of fun, pretty noisy, but fun. We did have a little problem with the bowling lanes not working but they gave us some cards for free game play because of it.

After the party hubby headed home with the boys to watch the Superbowl and I went scrapbooking. It was a lot of fun.

I am still trying to work along with Crystal at Biblical Womanhood in her Spring Cleaning for Normal People series. This week is the living room. Today I basically went through everything and got rid of the stuff that didn't belong in there and also put some things in my give away box.

Tomorrow I plan to clean it and hopefully post the before and after pictures. I suppose that is one nice thing about not having a car. There isn't much to do except clean. :)

My newest creation

2009-01-29T00:00:00.000-06:00

Since I have a love for cake, mainly cupcakes, I decided to create a cupcake blog. It will be a place where I can share my cupcakes, my love of cupcakes, and occasionally a regular cake or two.

Please come visit me at Delightful Cupcakes.

Happy Birthday hubby!

2009-01-28T00:00:00.000-06:00

I love you!! Thank you for all the wonderful things you do for me and the boys.

We don't have a shoe problem at our house

2009-01-27T12:21:00.002-06:00

Seriously, we don't.

FYI, most of these belong to C, the 7 year old.

Spirit renewed

2009-01-25T22:11:00.003-06:00

After a really frustrating time last week I had a really enjoyable weekend.

On Friday evening I went a women's event at our church called Clearing the Clutter. We had two wonderful speakers. She was one of them. It really got me motivated to want to work on decluttering our home. To be quite honest it is a real source of embarrassment for me. I have one room (the first room that people see when they walk in) that I can never seem to get under control. So I have decided to join Crystal at Biblical Womanhood as she goes through Spring Cleaning for Normal People. It starts tomorrow in case you want to join also.

On Saturday night R and I went to an amazing concert. It was so much fun to get to spend time with him and we had a great conversation on the way home.

On Sunday morning we headed to church. After church on the way home our van started acting strangely. We got gas and when we left the gas station the transmission didn't seem to want to go. We drove it up an incline and pulled into a parking lot. I am not quite sure what is wrong with it because we were really not having problems with the transmission at all. It is really quite odd. My father-in-law came and drove us home. I called my cousin and he is going to check it tomorrow and see if he might be able to fix it. If not I will probably have it towed back to our town and have it looked at.

On Sunday evening I went back to church by myself for our church's annual Vision Desert. They talk about the goals for year and we eat dessert. Yum! It is really exciting all the plans the leadership has for this year.

After church I went to the grocery store to buy food for 16 wrestlers for tomorrow night. I think bought what I would buy to feed my family for a week. :)

So it was actually a really great weekend despite the car incident. The funny thing is that people have told me today that I have an optimistic attitude about it. I really think that has come from getting to spend so much time at church and around so many wonderful people this weekend.

Things definitely may not be perfect in our life but we have so much to be thankful for.

Innocence Lost

2009-01-23T15:46:00.004-06:00

Maybe innocence isn't the word I really want, maybe arrogance is. Yep, arrogance lost, that sounds better.

The last three days have been hard on me. I mean HARD. Our computer wasn't working and I couldn't fix it.

I have taken A LOT of computer classes. Programming, networking, software.... (I know Jody might find that hard to believe since she had to help me set up my domain name :) but I have taken more than my fair share.

Usually I can fix whatever is wrong with our computer but his time I could not. I literally was banging my head on the desk for two days.

I contacted Microsoft to help me and nobody could seem to do that. They kept asking me to run a scan and then call them back. Well, whatever crazy virus had control of my computer would not let me run the scan. So, finally after a day and a half I called Microsoft back. The girl asked if it was my first time calling. I told her no that I had called and called but that NOBODY WOULD HELP ME.

**Now in case you are wondering how I got this virus, when I was taking classes one of my home programs wouldn't work when I had the anti-virus running so I disabled it. Then I never enabled it when I was done.**

Finally, she put me through to somebody and he seemed to fix the surface issues.

The computer was still slow and I still couldn't get my system restore or defrag to work. So today I ran the scan because the computer finally let me. Then I called back to Microsoft and my computer froze up so the 2.5 hours I spent running the scan were wasted.

However, the person I spoke to this time seemed to know what they were doing and fixed the problem. Now that my computer is back running at its optimal level I have done a few things..

1. Backed up 3000 pictures
2. Created a system restore point and
3. Created System Recovery DVD's

Now I can securely re-enter the blog world. Yeah!

It's no Ace of Cakes....

2009-01-19T00:00:00.003-06:00

but I think I did a pretty good job.

This is my first fondant cake. I made two batches of marshmallow fondant. It is so easy.

Marshmallow fondant

16 oz bag of marshmallows
2 1/2 Tbsp of water
2 lbs of C&H powdered sugar
Lots of Crisco

Put the marshmallows in a bowl and add the water on top. Microwave and stir in 30 second intervals until the marshmallows are melted and smooth. Put a lot of crisco down on your kneading surface. Pour the melted marshmallows on to your surface. Dump the powdered sugar on top of the marshmallows. Grease your hands well with the Crisco and knead together. It takes about 5 mins to get it all kneaded together. When it is all kneaded together, pat it into a ball, coat it in Crisco, wrap it in saran wrap, and refrigerate for at least three hours.

When you are ready to use it, microwave for 20-30 seconds and roll it out.

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