Paint, anyone!?

I love to do home improvement projects around the house.  In fact, I'm a DIY network junkie.  I LOVE that station!  And my 2nd favorite?  HGTV :)  My boys both know and love the "Man Store" and refer to our local home improvement stores by either the "Blue Man Store" or the "Orange Man Store".  Their favorite thing to do?  Ride the tractors (aka lawn mowers).

So, my most recent project has been a 4' x 4' wall hanging for in our living room.  I decided to change out a quilt I had made and hung in the living room almost 5 years ago.  Definitely time for a change.  (Photos and instructions to come on that project in a later post...it's not quite finished yet!)

Anyway, I had purchased the 4' x 4' picture frame on Craigslist and there were a couple of scratches on the frame.  It was a black frame and I didn't have any black paint, so I decided that a sharpie marker would do the trick.  It worked great and I don't think anyone would notice it (though now, if you come over to my house, you will probably inspect it and see where I touched up!).

Anyway, after touching up the frame, I sat the marker down on the steps from our garage going into the house.  What was I thinking?  Did I have a moment of pregnancy brain and forget about the 2 mischievous little boys in my house?  Definitely.  Because a couple hours later, I went upstairs to check my email really quick and my 23 month old found the marker and decided to "color".  The hardest part of the ordeal?  He was so proud of his coloring and it made it hard to be mad.

Since I caught it right away, I thought I might be able to scrub it off with some all purpose cleaner or a Magic Eraser.  Neither worked, so I guess I have another painting project in my future!  For now, Ryan's artwork remains on the wall near the entrance to our house.

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Chicken Taquitos

This is a super easy, fast recipe. It is great for freezing too. My husband actually likes this one, so it must be good. I could eat Mexican food every day of the week, so I really wear him out on it. If I weren't pale to the point of translucency I would swear I had Mexican ancestry! But he loves this one.

3 oz cream cheese, softened (i use reduced fat)

1/4 cup salsa (the fresh kind is best)

1 Tbsp lime juice

1 tsp chili powder

1/2 tsp cumin

2 cloves garlic, minced

3 Tbsp chopped cilantro

1-2 green onions, chopped

2 cups shredded cooked chicken

1 cup shredded cheese (mexican, cheddar, pepper jack, whatever you have)

10-12 6-inch flour tortillas

Preheat oven to 425. Line baking sheet with foil and grease it. Combine all the filling ingredients in a bowl and mix until well combined. Put 2-3 tablespoons of filling down the middle of a tortilla and roll up tightly. Place seam side down on the baking sheet. Spray the tops of tortillas lightly with cooking spray. Bake 15-20 mins.

To freeze, assemble as above and put on baking sheet. Freeze on the baking sheet and them transfer to a ziploc bag. Add a few minutes to baking time for frozen taquitos.

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Easy Dessert Recipes

I recently went to a picnic for my MOMS Club.  I had signed up to bring cookies, but the night before I wasn't feeling all that great (pregnancy related stuff, not a contagious type of sick) and didn't really want to stand around in the kitchen with the hot oven going taking cookies in and out.  So, I decided to find a cookie-bar recipe that would be easy but yet good for a picnic setting and with lots of kids.

I have an awesome book with easy recipes that I got years ago.  It's called "Kids Cake Mix Fun and More".

I chose 2 new recipes from it and was very happy with the results.  The first recipe I tried was the Granola Raisin Bars.  I figured that the adults might like these.  Also, it was really hot out the day we had the picnic, so I tried to choose recipes without chocolate!

Granola Raisin Bars - Makes approx. 15 bars

1 package yellow cake mix, divided

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine, melted, divided

1 egg

4 cups granola with raisins

1. Preheat oven to 350.  Lightly spray 9x13 pan with non-stick spray.  Reserve 1/2 cup cake mix; set aside.

2.  Combine remaining cake mix, 4 T melted butter and egg in a large bowl. Stir until well blended.  Batter will be thick and sticky.  Spoon batter into prepared pan.  Use either plastic wrap or the wrapper from the butter to smooth out the batter in the pan.  Batter should be spread evenly.

3.  Bake cake mixture for 8 minutes.  Meanwhile, mix reserved 1/2 cup cake mix, 4 T melted butter and granola in a bowl until well blended.  Spread mixture over partially baked bars.

4.  Return pan to the oven and bake for 15-20 minutes until lightly browned.  Cool completely on wire rack.  Cut and enjoy.

The second recipe I made was the Mini Doughnut Cupcakes.  These were also very easy to make!

Mini Doughnut Cupcakes - makes 24 mini cupcakes

1 cup sugar

1.5 t cinnamon

1 package yellow or white cake mix, plus ingredients to prepare mix

1 T ground nutmeg

1.  Preheat oven to 350.  Grease and flour 24 mini cupcake pan cups.  Combine sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl; set aside.

2.  Prepare cake mix according to directions on the box.  Add nutmeg to the mix and stir until combined.  Fill muffin cups 1/2 - 2/3 full.  

3.  Bake approx. 12 minutes or until lightly browned and the centers are set.

4.  Remove cupcakes from pan; roll immediately in the sugar & cinnamon mixture.  Repeat with 2nd pan.  Serve warm or cooled.  

Now, I completely forgot to take photos of the desserts prior to the picnic.  And the Mini Doughnut Cupcakes were a huge hit with the kids and were all gone!  The granola bars were also a hit, but there were a few left over, so I snapped a couple photos when I got home.  For the granola, I used about 2/3 of a  package of  Bear N*ked (R) organic granola with raisins that I found at Big Lots on clearance for around $2.50.

Yum!  And the best part?  They both had easy cleanup :)

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Soap, anyone?!

I'm a rule-follower.  I always have been.  I'm an oldest child and while I can be stubborn, I typically don't challenge rules that make sense.  If they don't make sense and/or the consequences aren't bad, then I will consider breaking the rules.  But I always carefully evaluate the consequences of breaking the rules first.

On that note, my oldest child is NOT a rule-follower.  He is only 3 1/2, but he constantly questions authority and tries to push his bounds.  I realize that this is not abnormal, but it definitely isn't something I was prepared for as a mom.

Case-in-point: bad words.  Somewhere, somehow, Tyler heard someone saying something that is not appropriate for a 3 year old to repeat.  For the past month, we have been dealing with trying to get him to stop saying, "Oh, dan".  He uses it in the correct context of how the phrase is typically used, but obviously mispronounces it just slightly.  But close enough that anyone walking past us in a store would hear it differently.

This battle started about a month ago.  I'm not sure exactly where he picked it up as neither my husband or I use that kind of language normally, let alone around the kids.  We've been pretty careful about the types of TV that we watch when the kids are around, so I don't think he picked it up there.  He obviously heard it somewhere, though.

The first time I heard him say it, I did a double-take and asked him to repeat it and then gave him a 30-second lecture about how we don't use "bad words."  I figured he would forget about it and move on and maybe have to re-address it when he turned 10.  But no, he is a boundary pusher!  He said it on the way to my husband's softball game a few weeks ago, and after several warnings and him repeating it several times, we made him stay in the car for about 45 minutes when we got there as a punishment (I was in there most of the time with him, but then within hearing/sight range when I got out).  That definitely got his attention as one of his favorite things is to watch and play sports.

But was it enough?  Of course not.  Last week, he said it again several times, so I ended up washing his mouth out with soap.  But I really wasn't prepared for it.  I had never gotten my mouth washed out as a child, so really didn't know how to administer this type of punishment.  Poor kid.  I took him to our bathroom and pumped a squirt of "Cucumber Melon" liquid hand soap into my palm, lathered up and put it on his tongue.  He spit and he gagged and said it was yucky.  We went along with our day and he kept saying to me, "Mom, we don't say bad words."

But was that enough?  Of course not.  Since then, I found a bar of soap that I had taken from a hotel years ago and stuck in our overnight bag.  He has tried that soap twice already and I'm sure another soap session is coming soon.  He was playing with his brother yesterday while I was doing some cleaning, and I heard him saying, "Ryan, say bad words."  Ryan is almost 2 and didn't understand and just kept repeating, "bad words". Tyler kept prompting him, but he didn't say the "Oh, dan" phrase again, so he was spared this time.

Evidently I need to get some worse tasting soap.

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Father's Day Gift Idea

I am a huge fan of digital scrapbooking. I prefer it to paper for so many reasons... it's easier to start a page or book and then put it aside, you don't need all the physical supplies, it's faster, and in my opinion the product is more likely to hold up over time.

I just finished making books for my husband, dad, and father-in-law for Father's Day. I'm not going to show all the steps here, more the idea. I use Photoshop Elements, which I highly recommend buying. For $70 it is amazing. I use this software to edit pictures, make my scrapbooks, create party invitations, the list goes on and on. It does require some time to learn, but there are lots of free tutorials on the web, and this is my favorite book to learn photo editing.

I create my books in Elements by first deciding what size I want my book to be and then downloading a template from the company I'll be using to print. I am not loyal to one company because I try to find the best deals. Shutterfly is probably my favorite, but I've used Picaboo and Blurb too. If there are no templates, I just make my page size a little bigger than the book size - for an 8x8 book I would make the page 8.25 by 8.25. That's what I did for this project, and then I bought some templates to start with which made things much faster. You could also modify this idea to create a book using the company's software. For that, I think Shutterfly is the best. They have a new "custom path" option which is really nice.

For this book, I then asked my kids "why do you love daddy, what things about daddy do you like" for all 3 of the guys I was making a book for. Their answers were pretty interesting. Like my 3 year old's "I love daddy because he saves me when the police come", as if the police regularly come after us. Or my 7 year old's "I love daddy because he grills our dinner" when I do 97% of the cooking.

I went through all my pictures and found 10 to use and then tried to match up to their answers if possible. I ordered three 8x8 books from Shutterfly for $48 (I had one free email coupon and they were running a free shipping promo and 20% off books promo). With the templates my total cost was $63, $21 per gift.

The pages above are some random layouts from the books. 10 Reasons is the cover, the #1 reason is the first page on the right as you open the book, and the rest are double page spreads. You can still order in time for Father's Day. Email me if you have any questions and I'd be happy to help you through it!

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Top 5 Baby Items for Baby #3!

As I have mentioned before, I am currently pregnant with baby #3!  After my second son was born, I just had a feeling that our family just wasn't totally complete yet.  But my husband insisted that 2 children was more than enough to handle and that we should stop there.  I agreed that having 2 was at times more than I can handle, but for some reason had a desire for a third.

Anyway, we typically have a garage sale each year.  I pile up all the items throughout the year that I think *might* be worth a little money in a certain spot in the basement.  This makes garage sale time a little easier.  I still go through the house and declutter in the month or so before the sale, but at least I already have a start!  Bigger money items, I will typically post on Craigslist.com so I don't have them taking up space and I've found that you can usually make more money on Craigslist than at a garage sale.

Anyway, prior to last year's garage sale, I asked my husband what I should do about all of the baby stuff.  I hated to get rid of it, but some of the items were huge and if we weren't having another baby then there was no point in holding on to it.  He said to sell it, so I did.  I kept a few of the smaller items and several outfits that were "sentimental", but most of the other things went out in the driveway!  I was able to sell my pump (which was great when I was working after baby #1 was born, but didn't use it much for baby #2 since I stayed home), some of my baby clothes, bottles, bumbo seat, baby carrier, etc!  It felt good, but it was also really sad at the same time!

Fast forward to about 6 months later...surprise (not as much for me as for him)!  Baby #3!  I had a lot of problems in the beginning of this pregnancy and for a while thought we were going to lose the baby.  But at the 20 week ultrasound, we saw that everything looked perfect and that we were having a GIRL!  I was so excited (and relieved) because now I could go re-buy things that I actually would use this time and get them in girl colors!

I also lucked out because a couple of friends gave me some of their girl clothes (garage sale leftovers!!) and another one of my friends recently had a boy so I traded my baby boy clothes for some of her 3 year old daughter's clothes (SCORE for both of us!)!

Besides clothes and a crib, I found that there really aren't that many baby items that are necessary.  When I was pregnant with baby #1, I know I was COMPLETELY overwhelmed just walking down the baby aisle.  After having 2 kids, I realized that while some of these items might be nice, most aren't necessary and take up lots of space.  But these are my top 5 "must-haves" for baby #3:

1) A good Stroller. I have gone through several strollers with my kids.  So much so that my dad says that I belong to a "stroller of the month" club because I'm constantly buying and selling strollers thru craigslist!  My favorite single stroller is the Baby Trend Expedition Jogger.  It's super easy to push, you can jog with it, and the infant seat attaches very easily (I've always used the Baby Trend Flex-Loc Infant Car Seats - LOVE THEM).  

  

My favorite double stroller has been the BABY TREND Sit N Stand Double Stroller.  It's great because you can have the infant seat in the front or back seat space.  My kids are on the smaller side, so we are going to be able to put the baby in the front seat space and the two boys can sit/stand on the second seat space (with the seat removed there is a little platform that they can use).  By the way, I HIGHLY recommend purchasing strollers at garage sales or through craigslist!  You'll save lots of money...just make sure it has all the parts/pieces that it's supposed to have!

2) A Bumbo Baby Seat.  This thing is amazing!  It helps your child sit on their own, but the best feature is that you can use it in the bathtub!  Once your baby is too big for the infant bathtub (or sink or whatever you use to bathe your tiny baby), but not quite ready to sit up on their own, you can use the Bumbo!  I just typically try to "burp" the air out of the bottom and it sticks to the tub quite nicely.  It also makes it so big brother can't push little brother over...not that my kids would ever attempt that :)

3)  A Babybjorn Baby Carrier.  I'm not really a person that cares too much about having the best, most expensive name-brand items, but I LOVE this brand.  Honestly, I haven't really tried any of the other brands because I received mine as a shower gift, but this one was so comfortable!  I didn't use it as much with baby #1, but used it almost daily with baby #2!  When my older son wanted to go outside and swing or go to the park, I honestly don't know how I would have survived without it!

4) LeapFrog My Pal Violet.  This was the one thing that I actually purchased for baby #2 and it's been so great that baby #3 is going to get one in the purple color!  It comes with a cable that you can hook up to the computer and customize with your child's name and some of their favorite things.  The feature we use the most is the bottom blue paw...it plays either 2, 5 or 10 minutes of "bedtime music".  When you hit the paw, it says "Goodnight, Ryan (or whatever name you select)".  If you press it once, it will play 2 minutes, twice and it will play 5 minutes and three times it will play for 10 minutes.  Most of the time, Ryan is asleep before the 10 minutes is finished playing.  We've used this in his crib almost from day one and have had much fewer sleep issues than with baby #1 (who didn't have one of these)!

5)  A good high chair.  I received a high chair for a baby shower.  While it was functional and easy to clean, I hated the amount of floor space it took up.  Our house isn't huge, and I felt like it was taking up more space that it should.  It was also on wheels, which was fine with only 1 child but not so nice with 2 children!  After seeing a high chair at a friends house, I did some investigation and purchased a Scandinavian Child Anka Convertible High Chair in Honey.  So far, I love it!  I've had it for about 4 months now and it's been super!  It scoots right up to the table for my almost 2-year-old to use without the tray.  I also didn't put the bottom horizontal feet on it, and it takes up even less floor space that way (but still super-sturdy).  It's also adjustable so we can use it with a tray, without a tray, remove the bar between the legs and raise and lower the foot rest.  I'm super-happy with the purchase!

Anyway, these are my top 5 things that I will have for baby #3!  What are your top must-have baby items?

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Sheep Cupcakes

I made these for Easter, but they would be cute for a birthday party too. My version is really pathetic compared to the original here. I was trying to use what I had for the most part, but the heart sprinkles for the nose would be a huge improvement. Googly eye sprinkles would also be better and I got too much icing on the chocolate chips on this one. Visit the link for step by step directions. The body is a mini powdered sugar donut, legs are pretzel sticks, ears are chocolate chips, and faces are mini oreos. I used icing and black gel for the eyes and some leftover Christmas green sprinkles for the grass. You could also color your icing green and pipe it on with a grass tip.

I used this icing from Tasty Kitchen, which is pretty much my favorite icing.

• 5 Tablespoons Flour
• 1 cup Milk
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla
• 1 cup Butter
• 1 cup Granulated Sugar (not Powdered Sugar!)

In a small saucepan, whisk flour into milk and heat, stirring constantly, until it thickens. You want it to be very thick, thicker than cake mix, more like a brownie mix is. Remove from heat and let it cool to room temperature. It must be completely cool before you use it in the next step. Stir in vanilla.

While the mixture is cooling, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. You don’t want any sugar graininess left. Then add the completely cooled milk/flour/vanilla mixture and beat the living daylights out of it. If it looks separated, you haven’t beaten it enough! Beat it until it all combines and resembles whipped cream.

Sounds strange, but I personally prefer this to buttercream. It's very light.

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