8 Years

This past Tuesday Joel and I celebrated 8 years of marriage. I can't believe it's been that long all ready. For better or worse, I'm glad to be Joel's wife.

We didn't do anything too exciting on our actual Anniversary. Joel came home feeling miserable after working a half day. He had a nasty cold. I did pick up Dinner for 2 for $15.99 at Whole Foods (which actually ended up being enough for the 4 of us, plus leftovers.) We had turkey, mashed potatoes with gravy, cranberry compote, stuffing, and green beans. And sparkling cider of course.A couple weeks ago, we celebrated our Anniversary early by staying a night at the Atwood House. I have always wanted to stay at a Bed & Breakfast and am SO glad we finally got the chance! Larry (the owner) showed us around the gigantic home-decked out in Christmas decorations, upon our arrival. He pointed out the goodies in the kitchen and fridge stocked with sodas and water-free for the taking. Then he led us to our room. Up the spiral staircase, past the gigantic Christmas tree with sparkling white lights, and into our suite. Oh my! I almost cried tears of joy when he showed us our room. Incredible.The Bed & Breakfast had a gigantic movie library with around 700 different titles. (No we didn't count, I read that somewhere, ha!) We enjoyed watching a movie in this cozy setting.
We sprang for the "Romance Package" so we got a dozen roses in our room, rose petals & candles around the jetted tub, chocolate dipped strawberries, sparkling non-alcoholic champagne, and Godiva chocolates. This is definitely the most lavish place we've ever stayed. What a treat!!!
This is a working phone that was in our bedroom! I was shocked to pick up the receiver and hear a dial tone. How neat! :)
Chocolate-dipped strawberries. These were so yummy. I ate way too many. But fruit dipped in chocolate, right? At least there's something good for you under that sugar. :)
Breakfast the following morning was incredible. I felt so spoiled. I think the most exciting part for me was that around 6am, they brought a piping hot coffee pot upstairs and set it just outside our door. There were a variety of creamers and I had fun being a barista. We loved the Atwood House and hope to return one day.

Delightful Christmas Eats

I've been in baking mode lately. The other night I had to bring treats to Bible study so I made Cranberry Bliss Bars and Cookie Dough Truffles. They were a big hit!
I had fun decorating this batch of cookie dough balls. I didn't get that creative on the ones I took to study. The light brown sprinkles are caramel/cinnamon chip sprinkles...yum!I also made sugar cookies the other day. {Ok, I actually cheated and used a mix. The fun part is decorating!} P-man and H (a little girl I was babysitting) helped decorate. I especially like this one that P-man did...He said it's me, in a red dress! Of course. :)

Celebrating 6...Angry Birds Style!

Tomorrow my "little" boy will turn 6. It's crazy for me to think how much he's grown and changed in this past year. He's learned a lot but still says things at times that leave me wondering, "What in the world?!" P-man makes me laugh. He also makes me angry. (And he has taught me patience.) There are times that he melts my heart. Who knew kids could push your buttons one minute and then pull on your heart strings the next?! Not me...Until I became a mama.

We had a party last Saturday night, to celebrate P-man turning 6, and my nephew Nathan-turning 3. It was a snowy night, but guests still came. It was a fun evening of fellowship and celebration. Both Nathan and P-man are pretty crazy about Angry Birds, so that was the theme we went with. :)

I made cupcakes, and my Sister made a super creative cake.

A few of the gifts:

My little girl is sick again. It hasn't even been TWO whole weeks since she last had the nasty cold crud. I'm really wondering what I can do to boost her immune system! Kenzie gets sick about every month, sometimes every couple weeks!! This has been happening since she was about 4 months old. She's been a bear again the last couple days. I hate seeing her like this. :( I give her cod-liver oil and today I got some gummy Immune Support vitamins with echinacea and zinc. I also got some spirulina that I ground into a powder. I think I'll also try to get her into the chiropractor. I read that suggestion on a forum last night as I was researching why some kids get sick so much. If she keeps catching every little thing, this will be a very long winter.

Crafty Things

On Saturday we ate breakfast out with my parents. I now remember why we don't eat breakfast out anymore. It's very tricky with little ones. Kenzie was not a fan of being whisked out of the house first thing in the a.m. :) She was totally fussy until we left the restaurant. But I did get to enjoy the most wonderful breakfast crepes I've ever had. They were amazing!

Next, my Mom and I went to a craft fair here in town. Wow! My senses were overloaded with so many wonderful things. Sparkly art. Aromatic potpourri. Fleece hats and mittens that were way too adorable. And there were prints from the artist I've recently discovered: Marla Anders. LOVE her work! She's my type designing hero. I can hear the graphic designer inside me {deep inside} wanting to get out. I bought two prints. One was from a different booth, but still a Marla Rae (her art name) and it has a black frame. This is the print:

Image from Penny Lane Publishing.

I adore this print. And it is now hanging in my living room. I also got one from Marla's booth that says, "Keep Calm and Carry On." And it has Romans 8:28 at the bottom. LOVE.

Cookie Review

I've been a BzzAgent for 2 years now. I love receiving full-sized products and coupons in the mail. I've gotten packages with goodies such as Covergirl NatureLuxe makeup (my personal favorite), Children's Claritin Chewables, and Tom's of Maine toothpaste. As a BzzAgent, you get to review the products you receive. The package I got yesterday contained the Kroger Truly Awesome homestyle chocolate chip cookies.

I was excited to try these. Along with 5 $1/off coupons, I received 2 boxes of cookies. Mr. P was pretty pumped when I told him I'd gotten the cookies for FREE in the mail. It was not love at first bite, for me. I thought they tasted like boxed cookies should. The natural ingredients lured me in, and yes...they do have good buttery flavor and chocolate chips are the number one ingredient, but homestyle? I think not. When I think of homestyle cookies, I think of fresh from the oven chewy, chocolatey cookies. The Kroger Truly Awesome cookies are crunchy. However, Mr. P loved them, and asked for more. He's not picky when it comes to chocolate!

Micellaneous Musings

I thought I'd try out a Miscellany Monday post. This is actually my preferred writing style: random, miscellaneous musings. It's the way my brain works. Click here to join in the fun!

1) I found my keys!! I was about ready to go crazy. Every morning for nearly a week, I'd wake up and think: "KEYS. Where are they?!" I discovered them in Joel's sweatshirt pocket which I'd forgotten that I slipped on the night I ran out to get the mail and lost them. *Reunited, and it feels so good!*

2) We went to the pumpkin patch again, as a family this time. I loved it, although Kenzie had reached her limit by the end of our 2 hours spent there. This pic of Mr. P cracks me up!

3) Mr. P dressed up as Superman, and Kenzie had a cute little ladybug costume this year. We handed out candy and Halloween tracks that I picked up at Parables last Monday night. Before I put Kenzie to bed at 8pm, I had 34 trick-or-treaters. I enjoy seeing the little ones in their costumes. One little boy (maybe 2 years old) had on the cutest little camo outfit and hat. His Dad had on camo pants and wore dogtags around his neck. I loved their costumes!

Random Thoughts

1) Today I ordered toilet paper on Amazon.com. That was a first! I love Amazon's Subscribe & Save program. And since I'm a member of Amazon Mom {for free} I get free shipping. After "clipping" the virtual coupon on their site and signing up for the Subscribe & Save (which I can cancel at any time) my total was $23.51 for 40 {double} rolls of toilet paper. That's 59 cents per roll. Shipped to my house. Not too shabby, eh?

I love Amazon's Subscribe & Save program! I have ordered diapers, laundry detergent, dried cherries, peanut butter, and more with this convenient, money-saving program. Sure, we still go out and about and shop in actual stores, but with homeschooling, occasionally babysitting, and Kenzie's nap schedule, I have discovered how convenient shopping online can be! :)

2) This week I taught Mr. P to play Old Maid. We have fun with that game. And he keeps asking to play "the Grandma game"...haha!

3) Kenzie got a new hairbow in the mail today. I love it! She took it off after about 15 minutes. :) And she no longer cooperates for photos, so I didn't get any fabulous pics, but at least you can get the idea:


4) Last Friday night I lost my keys. That may not sound like much, but my key ring has one of those key fob things on it that opens the doors and locks/unlocks our van. Joel says those are expensive to replace. :( It also has our {one and only} mail key on it. Not to mention my many store savings cards and library card. Ahh! I have searched high and low. Retraced my steps. Looked in drawers and toy boxes. Looked underneath my stove and cleaned out my drawer of pots and pans. WHERE in the world could they be?! When {and if!} I find them, I think I'll do one big happy dance!

5) Kindergarten is going well. Mr. P has been learning a lot through his phonics lessons and is even learning to write cursive. I didn't learn cursive until third grade!

6) Tomorrow is Friday...hooray! The In-Laws are coming over for dinner. We're going to have Chicken Florentine Lasagna (in the crockpot), lettuce salad, orange cottage-jello salad, Garlic Knots, and Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Cheesecake, oh my! :)

Fall Things

Oh my! It's been a while since I've blogged...

...We've done some fun fall things since I last wrote. We took a day to celebrate my Birthday as a family. A little late...but better late than never, eh? We went to the outlet mall, Cabela's, and Cracker Barrel, to look around. Joel got some new duds at the Outlets - his wardrobe was severely lacking. Kenzie tried out a couple of rocking chairs. They're so cute, but pricey!

We also went to the pumpkin patch! This is an annual thing for us. I got a GOOD deal on tickets this year, but we had to use the tickets pretty quickly and since Joel wasn't able to go - a friend came along with her kids. We had a great time! Too much fun! :)
I also made pumpkin scones. They're so yummy! Last year, I made them with partial whole wheat flour and they were still good, but this time all I had was the regular unbleached...I think they were even better.

Happy Fall, ya'll!

Spa Night

I turned another year older and celebrated with friends and family at a relaxing spa night. My friend Shelley sells Beauticontrol and we spent the evening at her house getting mini facials, sampling lotions & potions, and enjoying homemade chocolate cake and strawberries. Can it get much better than that? I think not. :)
The masked group!
Me with my sweet Sister-in-Law Annette.
Happy feet! My friend Noelle rubbed lotion on my feet for me while I held my Sister's baby. Wow, that's a real friend!
Chocolate goodness. Yum!! My Mom makes AmAzInG cake!!!

I'm thankful for another year that God has given me. This past year held blessings and trials and while I still have a long way to go (and much more to learn), I feel like the Lord taught me a lot this past year. I love how He continues to show me new things through His Word, the study of it, and good friends. Here's to another year and more learning & growing! And thank you to each of you who were able to make it out for the evening.

Garage Sale FAIL

We had a garage sale last weekend. We went through the finding and pricing of items. And the organizing and advertising our sale. And after paying for my portion of the ad that ran in Saturday's paper...I cleared $3.60. I'm trying to decide what to do with my earnings. I may start investing. Anyone have any good stock tips? Or perhaps I should split this amount and stash it away for my kids' college funds. Hmm...The possibilities are endless, really.

It wasn't a waste of time though because I got to spend quality time with my Mom and Sister. And that is PRICELESS. Also, my Mom brought homemade zucchini bread one day and blueberry muffins the next. Those are not to be taken for granted.

This coming weekend, we will try again! This time the sale will take place at my Mom's house. Surely, our sale can't flop twice in a row, right? This will be a multi-family sale, with lots of items that are priced to sell! And sell they shall! I'm trying to be positive.

Since we had some times on our hands...This is some of what went on:
Reading and lounging.
Kenzie liked the stickers. And we had free time, what can I say?
Mr. P enjoyed playing Xbox in the garage, with his cousins!

Playdate

I took these pics the other day at the little playground in our neighborhood. It's nice to have somewhere to walk where the kids can play and have fun.

Lately

We had a wonderful weekend. Friday night, Joel and I had a date. It was perfect. We had dinner at a new to us Mexican restaurant (with free salsa, yay!) and then we walked around Border's and spent too much money because they are having some crazy discounts right now, since their stores are closing!

Saturday afternoon and evening, we spent some time with friends. So. Wonderful. The guys had some R&R while us gals took off shopping. We hit up a couple Goodwill stores and I got a few cute things. I think I have a new favorite clothing store...It's hard to buy things at other stores when Goodwill is about half the price of SALE prices elsewhere! They even have their "color of the day" stickers...where if you're lucky enough to find something you like with that color, it's only 99 cents. We also got pizza and played games and stayed up late because our kids were staying overnight at my parents'!

Kenzie did great at Grandma & Grandpa's house, but Mr. P was naughty and so he has to suffer the consequences. One such consequence was having several favorite toys taken away. I told him he'd get them back at the end of the week if he had a good attitude this week. He was like, "Ugh...I know I'll NEVER get them back!!" Hmm...At least he's honest, ha! So far he's done pretty well at obeying so he just might earn them back by the end of the week, we'll see!

On Labor Day, we had a restful day...Got some things done and enjoyed time together. In the evening, we had my Sister and her family over and we grilled out. Good times!

We started homeschooling this week! I officially have a Kindergartner...crazy! So far, Mr. P is doing well and really enjoying it. Excited to begin Kindergarten!

Day 2 of Kindergarten...working hard. :)

Blue-eyed girl!

Summer Supper

Simple, fresh, and tasty. This is a meal I grew up with. Last Summer I was nursing a newborn that did NOT like it when I ate tomato products. So I missed out on the Summer treat of fresh garden tomatoes. Yum!! My Dad is an amazing gardener and he supplies us with fresh produce this time of year. We had this for supper the other night:
Toasted bread layered with fresh tomatoes, onions, and bits of bacon. THEN...comes the good part.Creamy cheese sauce poured over top, sprinkled with paprika...Yum!

Here's the recipe for the cheese sauce:
2 Tbsp. butter
2 Tbsp. flour
1 C. milk
1 C. Velveeta, grated

Melt butter in heavy saucepan. Blend in flour until smooth. Add milk slowly, stirring rapidly to prevent lumping. Bring mixture to a boil, stirring constantly. Reduce heat and cook 1 minute until it thickens. Add cheese. Remove from heat & stir well to blend. Enjoy!