It's been 163 days since my last post....

Sorry! I do have some pretty good reasons :) This should pretty much get us all up to speed.

We are expecting #3!

Max turned 3!

My sweet Sophia graduated from preschool. :(

We purchased a new home in May and moved. Stay tuned there will be lots of adventures with the new house. Some I've already started.

Me at 20 weeks. Today I am 23 week.

Meet "Tiger" 9 weeks old, who showed up in our back yard and needed a home. He has stolen all of our hearts.

Newest news. We were not going to find out the sex, but during the ultrasound a little someone decided to move and showed us what the are.

I' a BOY!

That should about do it. We have been busy to say the least. I'm looking forward to being back in blog land and sharing with you our new adventures.

Simple Pad Thai

This recipe is for you Tiana. Last night I made Pad Thia for dinner and was asked to share the recipe. Please forgive the bad photo as I used my phone.

PAD THAI

You will need:

 2-3 chicken breast

Julienne cut carrots

Broccoli florets

Udon noodles

Sliced limes and chopped peanuts (if you would like)

SAUCE:
1 1/2 c. chicken broth
5 Tbsp. creamy peanut butter
1 tsp. crushed red pepper -- more or less depending on how hot you like it
3 Tbsp. honey
5 Tbsp. soy sauce
3 Tbsp. fresh minced ginger or 1 Tbsp. dried ginger
4 cloves garlic, pressed or minced

Start a stock pot of water for the noodles, bring to a boil. In a large skillet, saute the chicken in olive oil and season with salt & pepper. While chicken is cooking, you can make the peanut sauce. Combine all of the ingredients  in a small saucepan over medium-low heat until sauce becomes smooth.

 After the chicken is finished remove from the heat and slice in to strips. Re-oil the skillet and lightly saute the vegetables (I like mine to still have a crunch).  While the vegetables saute add the noodles to the boiling water, they only take about 4-5 minutes to cook.  

Drain the noodles and add to a large serving bowl.  Next add the sauted vegetables and then the chicken strips.  Pour the sauce over the whole dish and garnish with peanuts and limes (if you would like).

DIY Snowflake Hurricanes

                                                                                

I got my Martha on today!  We are off all week due to Thanksgiving, so I'm enjoying some free time to scratch the surfface on my craft list.


I came upon this project in the Martha Stewart 2011 Holiday Handbook. She did a beautiful winter wonderlad sceen, but I wanted something a little more simple.

Here is what you will need.

glue with a fine point

glass hurricans

templet of desired design

tape and glitter

Cut out your template and tape to the inside of the glass.

Next trace with gule and sprinke on the glitter liberally.

Move the templet around and make as many snowflakes as you would like. I did three, but you could go the whole way around.

Continue on with the others. After all three are done, they will need to sit and dry for a few hours.

As you can see there are a few spots where the glue lines were not so clean. Here is a tip: If you let it dry all the way you can just use an x-acto knife or a sharp thin edge to gently clean it up.

Dust off the remaing glitter and your done. I LOVE the way they came out!

Three Simple and Free Place Card Ideas for Thanksgiving

I rounded up some items from around the house and outside to come up with three simple and free place card holders for the up and coming holidays.

The first is one of my favorites. They can be used for wine tastings, dinner parties or Thanksgiving dinner. Easy as saving a few corks for the bottles.

Cute little pine cones. Give a nice earthy feel to the table.

Nothing says fall like apples! I gathered a few colorful leaves and wrote the names on them in

gold pen. 

Oven Pancake

This is a great one for those of you who like breakfast for dinner. It's called Oven Pancake. It's simple, fast, and super addicting! I use strawberries tonight, but it is great with raspberries and blue berries too.

Oven Pancake

¼ cup raspberries
¼ cup blueberries
3 tbls. Butter
3 eggs
½ cup milk
½ cup flour
¼ tsp. salt
½ tbls. Vanilla (optional)

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees

Melt butter in a glass 9 in. pan round or square. In a medium mixing bowl combined eggs, milk, flour, salt and vanilla. Whisk together till smooth. Pour in pan with melted butter and add fruit of your choice. I love mine with fresh raspberries and blueberries.

Bake for 20 min.

Cut and serve with a little maple syrup and enjoy!

Fall Love

Fall has officially made it's way to our home.

What kind of pumpkins do you tend to gravitate to?

I love the big dark bumpy ones!

BTW I'm totally loving my antique urn!

Estate Sale Finds

Oh man do I love a good estate sale! I totally scored at one over the weekend with Sophia. Isn't she gorgeous? I can't wait to dress it up for fall. Stay tuned! Oh yes, I paid a whopping $7.

40th Birthday Toilet Cake

September is our busy month for birthdays. We have seven in our family. My dear husband Keith's birthday was last week (Sept. 9th). He turned 40 (total old man)! Anyway, the kids and I threw him a surprise party. It stayed a surprise till that morning, when sweet Sophia thought that because daddy opened his gift, it was okay to talk about what time everyone was coming over. I just looked at him and he gave me a big grin. "Surprise!" You're getting a surprise party.

It was a great time and he loved his cake! Which he had no clue I was making. Yes, total gross factor, but so my husbands humor. All the kids could not stop talking about the potty cake.  I on the other hand, am waiting for Sophia's pre-k teachers to pull me a side due to her telling everyone about her daddy's crap you're old cake.

My birthday is next. September 24th.  The big "30!" I'm not freaking too much....yet. :)

Hello Kitty Birthday Centerpieces

Sophia is turning 5! Her birthday is coming up this Saturday. I have been busy with lots of planning and preparation for her special day. She has had her theme picked out for the last year, Hello Kitty.

Every trip to Target consists of having to walk by the bakery, were she proceeds to tell me each time "Mommy that's the cake I want!" Then we head to the sticker section and then to the makeup, were they have a whole section of just Hello Kitty stuff. She could spend hours just combing over Target for Hello Kitty stuff. I have no clue were she gets it? :)

Her party will be at our local gymnastics center. After the kids run and tumble for an hour they come back to the party area, which is really a blank room with tables and chairs. So it's needs of some real warming up.

Here are the centerpieces that I created for each table. I was dead set on not spending any more money (my husband thanks me for that). So I challenged myself to use items and supplies that I already on hand.

I knew I wanted to make something with Hello Kitty's face. So I did a search for coloring pages and found this one. I printed off eight (one for each side of the centerpiece). I then colored the bows and nose in the colors used on the invitations.

I sprayed each face with spray glue and then dusted them with clear rainbow glitter. After they dried I cut out each one. I used scrapbook paper folded in half and glued together for. This made for a nice stiff  background. Then I just spray glued each face onto the paper.

For the base of the centerpiece, I used a party cup turned upside down with a slit cut in the middle.

Done! Cost: NOTHING!

July 4th Countdown

Do you have one going in you house too?  The kids (and adults) are so excited this year.  Everyone in our house is finally old enough to celebrate and head to the fireworks.

We have been reading up on our Olivia. This time of year Olivia Forms a Band  by Ian Falconer is Sophia and Maxon's top pick. Olivia's family is celebrating July 4th also. We always enjoy Olivia's spunky personality and wild imagination.

Staying in true fashion, I made Sophia a 4th of July skirt. I found this great vintage looking  navy, red, and white fabric on ebay. I love that it is not your traditional stars and stripes and can be worn more than once.  I did not use a pattern, as skirts are pretty basic. I am however planning on creating a tutorial for it. So stay tuned!

I wish all of you a safe and HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!

Simple Summer Time Dress

It's getting hot, hot, hot outside! With warm weather come sun dresses. I just love little girls in pretty dresses. Don't you?

After weeding through Sophia's closet, she only has two other dresses for summer that fit. So not enough. Everything in her world is about dresses, tights, and leggings right now.  Let's hope she gets over tights fast with how hot it is now.

I've had this fabric by Amy Butler for over a year now. I feel in love with it the first time I saw it.  Problem is, it just does not go with anything but white. Hence why it has not been used yet. Lucky for Sophia it made a gorgeous dress!

I did three rows of sheering at the top and one row about 4 inches lower.  This created the empire waist. In the back I made one large box pleat. This gives the dress more detail and flow. The straps are simple ties, made from the same fabric.

Always being silly.

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Memorial Day/ USA Door Hanging Tutorial Re-post

Hope you are enjoying your Memorial Day and time with family today.

In honor of this holiday, I'm re-posting my tutorial for the USA door hanging. I made this for July 4th last year. Enjoy!

 

What you need:

Cardboard Box

Print out of U S A at 500 font size

Patriotic Ribbon

Moss

Glue Gun

Cardboard Star

String or Floss

Start by cutting out the printed U S A and use them as a template

Trace the letters on to the cardboard and cut out.

Glue and cover the letters with the moss.

Grab the string and cut a piece about 4 in.

Stretch and glue to both side like so. This will keep the letter upright and prevent it from falling forward while hanging.

Paint your star and set aside to dry.

Grab your ribbon and cut a 24 inch strip. Glue and fold 4inchs over creating a loop on both ends.

Make a large bow and glue under loop. Then adhere the star.

Add the U and glue in to place. Then take a 8 inch piece of ribbon and create one more loop.

Slip the S through the bottom loop. Then add the A.

Your done! Hang it and enjoy!