Thursday, September 29, 2011

Goodbye 6-9, Hello 9-12

So Scott's mid-term was due last night, which he got done by about 8 o'clock! Hopefully he did good on it, I checked it for him and I think he'll get at least a B on it, but who knows for sure. Now I have a huge Marketing assignment due tonight, which now I have 29% of part 1 done, so only 71% left of part 1 and all of part 2 to do..........ugh! It might be a long night....... guess I wont get a chance to watch my Thursday night shows tonight.

So yesterday I decided it was time to pack away all of Savannah's 6-9 month clothing, and bring out all the 9-12 month clothing. A lot of brands don't actually have 9 month clothing, so we're pretty limited, but it should be enough to get us by until her 1st birthday. She probably could have stayed in 6 month clothing a little longer, but we really didn't have many warm clothes for her to wear and with the temperatures staying in the 60's and even down in the 50's, it was time to bust out some warmer clothes!

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Bittersweet

So it's officially, in exactly 2 weeks Savannah got 4 teeth. That means 15 days ago she only had 1 tooth, and now she has 5. Poor Girl! There is still 1 more than she will get soon, then I hope we have a nice long break before she gets anymore. Between all these teeth and the damn cold she's had for almost 3 weeks, it's been a pretty miserable month!

So the other day I finished book #22 of the year - Bittersweet by Danielle Steel. It wasn't my favorite Danielle Steel book, but I did enjoy it. I really like when the ending turns out the way that I want, even though it's completely unrealistic and I doubt that it would end that way in real life.......maybe I'm just a pessimist......The story is about a mom of 4 who decides she wants to go back to work, but her husband is completely against it. This is her story about what happens to them and her struggle to do what is right for her. Now onto reading "Nanny Returns", I got it for like 50 cents at Borders while it was closing, and since I read the first one I figured I'd read the sequel even if it ends up being crappy at least it was cheap!

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Zesty Salsa

Sitting here watching some football, even though I don't really want to..... I honestly don't care if the Packer's win or not. Trying to decide if I really want to make dinner or if we should just kind of wing it and make whatever. It's almost 6 so I guess we should decide soon......

So yesterday was the big salsa day with Jessica! We followed the same recipe as last year (except we had a different mixture of hot peppers). We quadrupled the recipe, and we were suppose to get about 24 pints, but ended up getting 28! Which is awesome, because if it's anywhere near as good as last year I'll be glad to have those couple extra. Last year I gave away all the salsa except 1 jar, which I wanted to kick myself for after I tried it. I will not be making the same mistake this year, we'll be keeping almost all of it for ourselves! The recipe called for 24 pounds of tomatoes, 6 pounds of onions, 8 pounds of green peppers, 4 pounds of hot peppers, 12 cloves of garlic, some cilantro, some apple cider vinegar & a little hot sauce. Can't wait to try it! I really hope it's close to as good as last year!

Bacon Cheddar Deviled Eggs

Sitting here catching up on Survivor. Thinking about what to do today. Scott is going to head over to his sisters for the Dolphins game, but I think I'm going to stay home and just chill by myself for awhile (well, Savannah will be home probably too, but maybe we can take a nap together).

So last week we had a pot luck at work. I made Zucchini Bars for myself to bring, and then I made Bacon Cheddar Deviled Eggs for Scott to bring. This is the first time I made Deviled Eggs, and I think for a first time they were amazing. They were kind of a pain in the butt to make, and I didn't realize how much work they took, but it was worth it. I'm not a big fan of mayo or mustard, and sometimes Deviled Eggs are way over powdered by those ingredients, but this recipe was perfect for me. I really enjoyed them and if I ever make Deviled Eggs again I'll probably use this recipe.

Thursday, September 22, 2011

Pumpkin Puree

So we're 2 weeks into our new schedule and the good news is Connor no longer cries when I drop him off at school! He just gives me a kiss, smiles at me,and goes in! YAY! My baby is growing up so fast!! Also, Savannah has 3 teeth with 3 more about to come in, and I swear she's going to crawl any day now......but I guess I keep saying that, but it's true........she's so close.........she just needs to go! One of these times she will, it could be today, it could be 2 months from now.......especially if she's going to be stubborn like her brother!

So after planting our garden (that at times looked like it was on steroids, lol) months ago, we finally have orange pumpkins!! We're keeping 4 of them to carve right before Halloween, and the rest of them I'm going to turn into pumpkin pies. Have you ever made a pumpkin pie from a pumpkin out of your own garden? Well I sure haven't! But I found this recipe online to make them from ordinary jack-o-lantern pumpkins, so I figured I'd have to give it a try. As I'm not in the need for a pumpkin pie right now and 2 of my pumpkins were ready I just turned it into pumpkin puree and put it in the freezer for now. My 2 pumpkins made a hearty 4 cups of puree, which will be enough for 2 pies later on. I ended up cooking the pumpkin 2 different ways, 1 in the microwave and 1 in a steamer basket, I couldn't fit all of it into just one way, and I didn't want it to take all night. Can't wait to actually make the pie out of it, I sure hope it tastes good!

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Habanero Jelly

It's Tuesday, and there's lots to do today! After dropping Connor off at school I cleaned up the kitchen, cleaned pumpkin seeds (going to roost them tonight), cleaned the kids room a little and folded some laundry, and read some of my Employment Law Textbook. After work tonight I have to roast the seeds, make zucchini bars for work tomorrow & deviled eggs (pot luck at work!), plus Scott has homework to do and I'll have to take my 1st Employment Law test.......should be fun I guess, lol.

So Sunday Jessica came over and we did some canning. We decided to make some Habanero Jelly - this was her idea, and I loved the idea, so I jumped on the bandwagon! I got the Habanero's from Gary (in-laws neighbor) - 8 of them to be exact - but they were pretty large in size. We didn't even actually measure how much we had, we just used them all, since the recipe called for 1/2 cup cut up. Thankfully Jessica brought over her food processor, so we didn't have to sit there and chop everything! The recipe made 11 of the 1/4 pint jars (didn't even know that size existed until that day). I think this will be the perfect size to use the jelly. I'm really looking forward to putting it on cream cheese and eating it with crackers! Since it was Jessica's idea to make the jelly she got 6 jars and I got 5 - and I gave 1 of them to Gary since he provided the Habaneros. Can't wait to eat it! Yumm!

Monday, September 19, 2011

Fluffy French Toast

Another week has begun. Connor insisted that he didn't want to go to school today, so I thought dropping him off was going to be a pain, and that he would cry.......but nope! He surprised me, he gave me a kiss, smiled at me, and I left, no tears, no clingyness, nothing! Almost wants to make me cry!

So yesterday I decided to make French Toast for breakfast. (Which I've never actually done before)Scott usually makes our breakfast when we do something big, but for some reason he's been having a problem with French Toast and always makes it soggy..........So I went to my wonderful recipe website, allrecipes.com and found the recipe Fluffy French Toast. Yummy! I followed the recipe exactly and made them alongside some sausage links. They had a great flavor to them and they weren't soggy at all. Of course Scott had to ask me how I didn't get them soggy.......come to find out, he was holding the bread in the bowl.......yeah........can't do that! A little dip is all it needs. Everyone loved them and the four of us devoured it all.

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Rio

So Jessica should be here pretty soon to start working on our Habanaro Jelly (will post more on that later)! We just finished up cleaning up from breakfast and Scott cleaned up the living room from when the girls were over here yesterday. Now Scott & Connor are trying to figure out what movie to watch..........probably some dumb boy movie, lol!

So after Ella's Birthday party yesterday Scott started bowling for John (while he recovers from his surgery that he'll have on Monday)so we all went to watch. While there, John & Carol gave us the movie Rio. So of course we had to watch it right away when we got home last night, but it was a little late so we didn't end up finishing it. So first thing this morning Connor had to watch it. It's really a super cute movie, and I had actually put it on Connor's Christmas List for this year (I'll have to cross that off!). I think any little kid would enjoy watching this and any adult who enjoys a good kids movie every once and awhile.

Ella Turns 1

Sunday morning and about to make some breakfast, but for now I'm being a little lazy and playing on the computer. I'm trying to ignore the huge mess in my living room........we had 4 kids 4 and under here yesterday which = HUGE mess..........guess you all know what I'll be doing tomorrow morning when Connor is at school. At least it was really nice to see Heather & the girls!

So Friday was my goddaughters 1st Birthday, and yesterday was her party. They had a zoo type theme and it was out in their huge garage. I think everything turned out pretty nice. She got some wonderful presents (we got her an outfit, some bubble bath & a wash cloth, a shopping cart & a precious moment letter "e") she also got an awesome barbie jeep (hoping for same-a-like for Savannah's birthday) and a super cute chair. And also her cake was really cute! I hope she had a wonderful birthday! Happy 1st Birthday Ella!

Saturday, September 17, 2011

Zucchini Cake

Just got home from the bowling ally, Scott will be bowling every other Saturday night for awhile while John recovers from his surgery that he will have this Monday. At least he'll get to do it for awhile. Last year he got to bowl every Tuesday night on a Men's League out in DeForest, but we just can't afford it this year with me going part-time.

This past Sunday I decided to make a Zucchini Cake to take over to Matt & Chrissy's Monday night for the first Dolphins game of the year. I followed the recipe exactly except that it did not take 80 minutes to cook, only 55 minutes using a Pampered Chef Stone. I do think I ended up drizzling the frosting to soon because it ended up absorbing into the cake. Oh well though, it didn't matter, because it was WONDERFUL! I will definitely be making this again soon, and actually have everything I need to do so, just need an occasion.

Thursday, September 15, 2011

She's My Little Peanut

It's Thursday night. Connor's 1st full week of school is almost complete. Every day it seems to be worse dropping him off, but supposedly he does fine after I leave. He almost made it the whole day today without asking "when is it time to go home", his teacher said he almost made it and asked in a funny way. Connor:Are you ready? Teacher:Am I ready for what? Connor: Are you ready to tell me it's time to go inside and then it's time to go home? LOL!

So Monday night was Savannah's 9 month check up. And she's still my little peanut! At her 6 month check up she was 14.5 lbs and 27 inches, and 3 months later she comes in at 17lbs (15.17%) and 27.5 inches (42.89%). To compare my children, Connor at his 9 month check up was 20lbs and 29 inches. - it should be interesting to see if Savannah continues on this growth chart or if she shoots up soon. Her 1 year appointment is schedule for December 5th.

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Cheese Sauce

So today was Connor's 4th day of school.........and he cried.....and didn't want me to leave him.........does it get easier?? Thankfully there was another teacher watching so she came in and took his hand and said lets go give Mrs. Hewitt (his teacher) a good morning hug, so he reluctantly went with her and Savannah and I quickly snuck out the door. I really hope he starts liking school. I want him to be more successful than Scott & I are, which means he NEEDS school!

This past Sunday we were suppose to go to Aunt Missy's for dinner, but she text me and canceled. Therefore it was up to me to make dinner......something I wasn't looking forward to. Well Scott had 1/2 of his squash left, we made some garlic toast, potatoes & carrots cut up into little squares(with 2 cloves of garlic and some Onion Onion - tastefully simple) and I also made some broccoli & cheese sauce to go over it. Scott does not like broccoli but he said if I make this cheese sauce he'll eat it every day of the week. He liked it that much! I really liked it to and it reminded me of the cheese sauce my step-dad made when I was a kid, not sure how close the recipe is but I'm assuming its pretty darn close.

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Sweetened Spaghetti Squash

So like always the weekend has gone by way to fast and it is already Sunday night! Yesterday we had a 50th anniversary party to go to and then Connor decided he wanted to spend the night at Grandma & Grandpa's (he hasn't done that since the beginning of July) so last night was pretty quiet in the house. Now we're making some dinner and then probably going to watch a movie.

So today I decided finally I was going to make the spaghetti squash that I picked from our garden. So I went to my trustee website allrecipes.com and found the recipe Sweetened Spaghetti Squash. Obviously I did not try it, because I do NOT like squash, but Scott ate it. He said it was awesome & was even better than the kind his mom made (I guess she doesn't put enough brown sugar on it). This was the first time he's had spaghetti squash but he said it did taste a lot like the acorn squash that he is use to. So as the squash continues to ripen in the garden this is something I'll probably make again fairly soon for him. (I think even Connor took a bite and said he liked it!!!) Oh, and the only difference between ours and the recipe is Scott just ate it right out of it instead of putting it into a bowl.

Friday, September 9, 2011

Heaven Is For Real

So we're on Connors 2nd day of school, which means my first day all by myself doing the routine. I think I have a good system in order, hopefully it'll stick. 6:45 wake up, food for Connor & me, play on the computer, get both of us dressed, wake Savannah get her dressed & fed then out the door by 8:00. Get home with Savannah at 8:20, feed (food), clean until 9:30, rock Savannah to sleep, 9:40-10 homework, 10:00-10:15 play on computer then get lunch ready for work, wake Savannah & feed, then out the door at 10:40. Then I'll drop the kids off at grandmas get to work before noon and have an early lunch with Scott before I work 12-5.

So this past weekend I had saw on Chrissy's facebook page that she had read a book called "Heaven Is For Real" by Todd Burpo. I looked it up on my shelfari account and thought it would be a good book to read, so Chrissy let me borrow it. Wow. That pretty much sums up the book! It's a real story about a 4 year old boy who goes to heaven. There are things that are hard for me to believe, but you have to believe this story. Why? The things that he remembers seeing and tells his family is straight out of the bible. Things that there is no way that a 4 year old would know without really seeing it. If you are at all curious about this book I totally recommend it, it will amaze you in ways you didn't even know were possible. Now onto one of my many Danielle Steel books I have sitting in Savannah's room to read.

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Off To School He Goes

So I'm happy to report Savannah had a new "1st" tonight! She pulled up to standing all by herself at Grandmas house - twice! Chrissy was a witness to this, so I'm not crazy, even if she doesn't do it again for awhile, we know she can! It's just a matter of time now before we have another "1st" - crawling! She's so ridiculously close it really could happen any day now, but if she's like her brother it'll still be awhile.....only time will tell!

So Connor had his 1st day of school today! Exciting and sad at the same time! Exciting that my little boy is going to be learning and making new friends, but sad that he's growing up way to fast! Scott & I both had the day off to celebrate the occasion. We made him breakfast, got him dressed and out the door we went. He's going to school at Play Haven, which is one of the day cares in the area, and he goes from 8:15-10:50. The bus was just getting there when we got there, so we waited for all of those kids to go inside, then we went inside and walked him downstairs to the 4k hallway. He has his own cubby where he put his backpack then we went into his room where all the kids wash their hands first. After that we looked around a little bit, had him find his picture on the wall and "check" in (putting his picture in the "whose at school today" column on the wall). Then we gave him a hug and we left. There were a few tears in his eyes and ours as well but we tried not to show them but other than that he did amazing. I was expecting him to throw a fit and refuse to let us leave, but that didn't happen. While he was at school Scott & I went and I donated blood then we went to pick him up. I'm happy to report that Connor was a good helper (do I see a brown nosier in the future??) and he did really well, about 5-10 minutes before it was time to leave he did go up to his teacher and hugged her legs and said I'm ready for my mommy now. So a good first day. I really hope he enjoys school and makes lots of friends - he has no choice, he's going to college! He's not going to still be in college when he's 50 (which will more than likely happen with me, lol)

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Baked Kale Chips

So today was my last day working full-time! Which is exciting because I get to spend more time with my kids and sad because that means Connor is starting school tomorrow! Connor goes to school 8:15-10:50, so I will be dropping him off & picking him up, then dropping both kids off at grandmas & then working 12-5.

So in part of Jessica & Justin's farm share that we picked up last week was Red Kale. What is red kale? Well I honestly didn't know what it was so I googled it before we picked it up. Still not really sure what to expect with it we decided to look up a recipe for Kale Chips (suggested by the lady at the farm share place). So on allrecipes.com I found a recipe for Baked Kale Chips. I only used up 1/2 of the Kale that we got, I used Garlic Pepper (tastefully simple) and after reading some of the comments I only baked them for 8 minutes. Well they tasted interesting.......most of them are still sitting on the table......and I probably will never try this recipe again.......but maybe I just don't like Kale? I'm not sure.....I think someone who enjoys or has actually had Kale before should try this recipe because I can't give a very good review on it.

Monday, September 5, 2011

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

So this weekend allergies seem to kick into full gear and I'm completely miserable! I've used almost a 1/2 a roll of toilet paper just to keep up with my nose, and yes I've taken allergy medicine.........and it doesn't seem to have helped at all! Savannah also slept like crap last night plus the times I just woke up to blow my noise...........hopefully tonight is a better tonight, otherwise these last 2 full days of work are going to suck!

Saturday I finished reading the book The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. If you didn't know it already it's part of a 3 book series that has Swedish (I believe) movies already made and they are working on making them in America. The first 50-80 pages I thought were incredibly boring and I didn't know what all the hype was about....... The middle 500 pages were amazing! It kept me guessing and wondering and I didn't want to put the book down. After they solved the mystery though, the last 50-75 pages again I didn't really find interesting......So, the first second was boring, the middle was amazing and the ending was okay.........so overall I enjoyed the book and I will be putting the other 2 books on my Christmas list this year so hopefully I can read them next year!

Sunday, September 4, 2011

BBQ Sauce

Today might be another lazy day around the house...........we've managed to eat breakfast, clean up a little of the kitchen/living room, but that's about it........and i'ts almost noon......hm........we should probably get outside sometime this weekend, but this is like the first weekend we've had nothing really going on, so it's kind of nice to be a bunch of bums....

So yesterday I decided to use some of the tomatoes in my freezer and make BBQ sauce. Normally I wait until Jessica can come over before doing any canning, but my freezer was getting pretty full, and it'll be a few more weeks before we can make salsa or spaghetti sauce, so I had to do something. So I took out 20 pounds of tomatoes, peeled them (put frozen tomatoes in a bucket of warm water for a little bit and the skins will just fall out), then I cut them in half, squeezed them & put them in a large pot. After that I got all the seasonings together and mixed that in. I followed the recipe pretty closely, just used a little bit more of the hot sauce & cayenne pepper to make it more spicy. After that you let it simmer for awhile (I did it for about an hour), then you run it through a food mill (thanks Carol for letting me use yours). According to the recipe you can put it in a crock pot for about 2 hours to cook it down....I did it for over 4.5 hours and it still seemed a little to thin..... but after starting it at about noon, and it was already past 9 o'clock I decided to just process the jars anyways. I'm hoping after they sit for awhile they will thicken up a little bit more......only time will tell I guess. I normally love the website that I got this recipe from, but I think they need to proof-read this one again..........it's pretty contradictory...........in one spot it says 15 pounds, in another it says 25 pounds.........so I used 20 (I was using quit a few Roma tomatoes which are thicker anyways). Also in one spot it says 4 pint jars, but in another it says 7.............I ended up getting 9.5 pints..... I think if I do this again, I'll let it sit in the crock pot over night to hopefully get a little more thick. I'll let you know in a couple of weeks when we try it what my final judgement of this recipe is.


Saturday, September 3, 2011

Christian's 15th Birthday

Long weekend..........didn't really accomplish to much today.......finished a book, made some BBQ (both which I'll post more about later), but other than that we've been pretty lazy......ordered some Pizza Hut for dinner (wings, pizone & some cheese bread). Now both kids are passed out, Savannah in her swing, and Connor in Scott's lap while watching football.

So yesterday Christian turned 15 years old, crazy! I remember going with Aunt Missy to one of his Dr. appointments when he was a baby, and now he's like a foot taller than me! You don't realize how quickly time goes by and how quickly people change unless they're younger than you. Last Sunday we celebrated his birthday at Aunt Missy's where I made a Cherry Chip cake(in the shape of a 15) with butter cream frosting & gave him a gift card to Best Buy. I hope he had a great birthday even with having to start high school this week!

Thursday, September 1, 2011

3/4 of a Year

So it's already September, crazy, right? After work I ran out to Jessica & Justin's house and picked a bunch of tomatoes & jalapenos. After that I went home, ate quickly then we headed out to pick up their farm share since they aren't in town to get it themselves. We got some red kale, beans, broccoli, tomatoes, jalapenos, green peppers, garlic, a squash & 2 chickens. Unfortunately 2 tomatoes didn't make it since Scott put the broccoli on top of them so the got smushed.........grrr! Now I'm up to 53 pounds of tomatoes in the freezer and .75 pounds of hot peppers (habanaros, jalapenos and some other kind of peppers mixed)!

So Miss. Savannah is 9 months old today, can you believe it? I can't! The last month has been fun. She learned to clap within the last week, she does this popping sound with her mouth now, she got her 1st tooth about 2.5 weeks ago and loves playing with it with her tongue. She also got stung by her first bee up at Devils Lake and she tried a bunch of new food that she loved: black olives, fish, chicken & Gerber Puffs. She is also so close to crawling (when she does it'll be from a sitting position not from laying on her stomach), but even though she can't she sure can get into things! For about a week this month she was only get up once at night, but this week has been horrible (3-4 times a night), I read online that there is a thing as a 9 month sleep regression....so I'm pretty sure that is what we're dealing with right now.............ugh!