My Little Girl is now 3!!!!

Once again time has seemed to have gotten away from me.  I can't believe how fast my kids are growing, it feels like just the other day they were small enough for me to cradle in my arms *sigh*.  My latest reminder of how fast my kids are growing was on May 5th when my little girl turned 3.  It's interesting how fast they grow up and how their interests change as they get older.  Last year when Jean turned 2 she was all about Mickey and Minnie Mouse, and now she's into princess's.  I can't wait to see what she likes next year.

For Jean's 3rd birthday we had a Princess themed party for her.  We had a princess cake, and she even wore her princess dress (Sleeping Beauty).  I also want to take this opportunity to thank everyone (on Jean's behalf) for all her birthday gifts.  She loves all of her new clothes and toys. 

For those who may not have seen Jean in her "Princess" dress I included a scrapbook page I created using an amazing Disney themed kit from Trixie Scarps Designs. 



Trixie Scraps Designs:
 Just One Kiss: Page Kit
Just One Kiss: Glitter Paper
Just One Kiss: Word Art
Star Struck Vol. 15: Template Set (Slightly Modified)

Not to leave Charlie out of this post I also took quite of few photos of him on Jean's birthday.  He is so big!  Just last year he wasn't even walking, heck he wasn't even a year old, and now look at him!  Lately he's been big into playing in the dirt.  When we are outside he'll bring me chunks of dirt, I am not looking forward to the day he starts bring me spiders or anyother creepy crawly things. 



Seatrout Scraps:Wavy Navy Template
Jenn Barrette Designs: Explore Page Kit

 The next couple of months promise to be busy for me and my family.  Now that summer is here we have graduation parties to attend, vacations and day trips to take, and a ton of outdoor yard work to finish. 

Unit Next Time...

Finally some photos to share!!!

Alright as promised earlier this week I have some photos to share.

First up is a scrapbook page I made of my daughter on Easter Morning

I used "Gear Up" Template by Seatrout Scraps and "Beautiful Girl" Kit by Armina Designs

Next is also my daughter, this is from St. Patrick's day where she really Rocked it on as set of drums at my friends Kris and Tina's house

I used "Cheyanne Spring" Tempate by Seatrout Scraps and "This Chick Can Rock" & "This Dude Can Rock" kits from Inspired Designs

Finally a page using my son!  This was taken a couple of days before Easter when it was time for Mommy to clean house.  I snapped this photo of my little man when he was "helping" his Mommy dust!  What a wonderful little helper I have!

I used "Cheyanne spring" Template by Seatrout Scraps and "A Perfect Mess" Kit by Kristen Aagard Designs

That's all I have for now, but stay tuned for Monday.  If I have time (while I'm out of town for work) I will post a few more pages that I have. 

Until Next Time...

Where has the Time Gone?

Okay, so it's been forever since I've updated my blog. 
Never fear I have not disappeared from the face of the world.  I am still here!

Over the past couple of months (well since about January), my family has been very busy.  Between working, sickness, housework, cooking, and kids my husband and I have been stretched to the max.  Here’s a little run down of what’s been going on.

January:
The month flew by, between taking down Christmas decorations, and a houseful of sickies not much really happened.  Jean and Charlie both got sick, and so did Bill.  I luckily stayed healthy, but didn’t have much time to do anything other than take care of the sickies!  On the digital scrapbooking front I was asked in January to join “Seatrout Scraps” Creative Team (CT) as a guest (January-March).  

February:
More sickness in the house.  Bill was still sick (on and off) we think he had the flu.  It was my turn to get sick, not sure what I came down with, but I did learn that a human can sleep for nearly 24 hours at one time.  We had a wonderful Valentine’s Day, the kids each made Bill and I beautiful Valentine’s Day cards.  Oh, and Bill got me 2 new charms for my Pandora bracelet.  One was a glass bead that is blue with flowers; the second was a green glass bead with shamrocks on it.  He didn’t realize it at the time but they are the colors of Jean and Charlie’s birthstones (it was so sweet).

March:
I guess this brings us to March!  This was a busy, however fun month!  In the beginning of the month I was out of town for work for a week.  This left Bill (now healthy) to fend for himself with the kids; he did a great job (like always)!  Later on in the month Jean’s daycare class had a field trip to the Circus!  I took the day off of work and joined in on the fun.  Jean had a blast in the tent with the petting farm and loved seeing elephants (in person) for the 1^st time.  She petted the goats, camels, and even a Kangaroo!  March also brought with it St. Patrick’s Day.  The kids dressed up in their green to visit friend of ours (Kris and Tina) for a fun afternoon.  While there we discovered Jean loves playing the drums, our friends son has a small drum set that Jean just fell in love with.  As if we haven’t done enough in March Bill took me up to Traverse City for a weekend to get away.  My parents (thank you guys so much) watched the kids while we were gone.  The kids loved spending time with Grandma and Grandpa!  Finally to round out the month we had Easter.  We visited Bill’s parents with the kids the day before Easter.  Here Jean helped Grandma Guertin make “Bubble Bread” (Recipe to be posted in the next blog entry).  She was such a good helper, and after naps the kids dyed Easter Eggs.  Once again we had 1 egg casualty, and so the tradition of breaking an egg continues.  Easter Sunday was spent with my family, and after a trip to the ER for my dad (thank God he is okay and was able to re-join the party) the kids opened their Easter baskets and had an Egg Hunt.  Also on the side of digital scrapbooking I was asked to re-join “Seatrout Scraps” Creative Team (CT) as a guest for another 3 months! 

Okay so I know where are all the pictures????  All this stuff going on and I haven’t posted a single scrapbook page or picture or anything.  I can promise you they are coming.  I haven’t had a chance to download my photos until just a week ago!  I will be posting a couple of new scrapbooking pages with UPDATED photos of my kids very shortly (maybe Friday)!!!  I have a few pages I created with the templates from my CT for Seatrout Scraps, but I have to wait until the templates are out in stores on Friday to post them.

Unit next time!!

Merry Christmas

Wow,

It's been awhile since I made a post.  Life has been good for my family and I.  Thanksgiving time has come and gone, and now Christmas is just one short week away.  Where has the time gone?  While I've been away from my Blog I've been taking pictures like crazy of my little ones, and working on my scrapbook pages for 2012.  I have posted a couple of these pages here for you enjoyment.

The day before Thanksgiving the kids had a "Thanksgiving Parade" at daycare.  Jean's class was the "band" in the parade they were all dressed up like animals (Jean was a Lion *roar*).  Charlie's class took the theme of Charlie Brown and were all Snoopy dogs.  They even turned on of the cribs into a dog house!  It was adorable.

Using Thankful from Adorable Pixels
http://twinmomscraps.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=33&products_id=677

The kids also met Santa Claus early in December.  While Jean wasn't too sure of the jolly old man last year she was so excited this year to sit on his lap.  Charlie wasn't really sure about Santa, but we were still able to get him on Santa's lap for a picture or two.

Using Holiday Sweetness from Twin Mom Scraps
http://twinmomscraps.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=33&products_id=677

The next couple of weeks promise to be busy weeks, with Christmas parties to go to, gifts left to buy and gifts left to wrap.  I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Merry Christmas and God Bless

Pick of the Patch

October is nearly halfway over with, where has the time gone?  Like most weekends my family had a lot going on.  First off it was the weekend Bill and I had planned to go out for our joint birthday dinner, we also had some house cleaning to do, a toilet to install, dinners to cook, and last but not least pumpkins to pick.

Saturday morning the family loaded into the family-mobile and headed up towards Romeo to pick that very special Halloween pumpkin (or two).  While the rain was not falling when we left the house that wasn't the case by the time we arrive at our destination.  Plan A was to actually go out in a pumpkin patch to pick our Halloween pumpkins, Plan B (and what we ultimately did) was to find somewhere that had pumpkins inside.  Luckily we found a nice little produce stand that had a greenhouse complete with pumpkins, gourds, and bails of hay.  Another positive to going out to get pumpkins on a cold rainy day was there weren't many other people out, so we basically had the place to ourselves.

This was Charlie's first year looking for his very own pumpkin, last year he was just too little to go out. He was all smiles as he walked around the giant pumpkins that were bigger than him.  Jean found some pint sized pumpkins that she thought were neat, we took 3 of those home with us.  At the end of the outing we had picked our perfect pumpkins, and now we are looking forward to carving them.

Here is a scrapbook page layout I created for our pumpkin outing.  I used Twin Mom Scraps "Hooty Owl" Page Kit and Armina Designs Double Page Set 15 as my template.  There was a woman at the greenhouse who was sweet enough to ask if we wanted a family picture, I was so happy to see how well the family photo turned out, (even if Jean wasn't looking).  I think it was the perfect photo!

Twin Mom Scraps "Hooty Owl" Kit
Armina Designs Double Page Set 15 Template

 The next few weeks look to be pretty busy ones for my family.  Next week I go to D.C. for a few days for meetings, then the following week I'm in PA for a couple of days, and finally I round out the end of the month going to Kalkaska for a few days.  In between trips for work I get to go on a girls only weekend with my mom and sister, then there is a Halloween Parade in Williamston, we need to find time to carve our pumpkins and of course there is Halloween!!  I can't believe we can fit so much into only a two and a half week time span.  Lucky for my my husband is wonderful with the kids when I'm away, and we have everything scheduled out on the calendar.

Until Next Time....

Fall is in the Air

Well here in Michigan the weather is getting cooler, and the leaves are changing colors, these are all signs of Fall.  It won't be too long now until the trees are bare and the snow is covered in a nice blanket of that white fluffy stuff (yes I'm going to say it snow).  For now I'm okay with the cooler temperatures, maybe not so okay with the thoughts of snow and freezing weather, but there is still another month or so before that comes.

No new photos of the kid-o's again this week, but there will be some real soon, I promise.  Next weekend the plan is to go pumpkin picking, (huge photo op.) and then after that it will be the Halloween parade and trick or treating in Williamston with my sister and her family, then pumpkin carving and finally the big event HALLOWEEN!  So more photos to come very soon!!!!

October is a great month, to me it's the start of some real good fall comfort cooking.  With the hot summer weather it's hard for me to want to turn the oven on, but now the thought of warming the house up with the oven and the smells of something good cooking makes me smile.  Tonight's dinner is makes me want it to be Fall all year round.  For my family I made some great Sausage Stuffed Squash!  It was yummy!!!!  The house still has a faint smell of sausage, squash and baking apples wafting through it.  Once again this is not only a great meal full of rich flavors, but it also a budget friendly mean as well.  I didn't price it out, but I think you could get by making a nice dinner for 4 for under 15-20 dollars.  I love cooking using seasonal veggies, not only is it tasty but it's also cheaper.  Okay so enough talking about how great dinner was, I know get to the recipe, right!!!  Okay well here it is, (by the way, this is a recipe my mother in law gave to me, not sure where she got it from).

Sausage Stuffed Squash (pic taken by me)

Sausage Stuffed Squash (pic taken by ME)

Sausage Stuffed Squash
Time from start to finish apx. 1 hour 30 minutes (about 30 minutes hand on)

What you need (serving size 4) (1/2 squash per serving):
-2 medium sized acorn squash
-1 lb bulk pork sausage
-1 cup chopped celery (optional)
-4 Tbps. chopped onion
-1 cup chopped & peeled tart apples (I used Granny Smith)
-2 tsp. flour
-2 eggs lightly beaten
-1/2 cup sour cream
-1/4 tsp. salt

Here's how you make it:
1. Cut squash in half & remove seeds
2. Place squash (cut side down) in a greased 13x9x2" baking dish (add about 1/2 to 3/4" of water in the bottom of the baking dish)
3. Cover and bake squash at 350 degrees F for 50-60 minutes or until the squash is very tender (my husband likes his squash extra mushy so I normally cook it for 40 minutes)
4. While the squash is in the oven it's time to make the stuffing.  In a medium sized skillet cook the sausage, celery, and onion, (cook until sausage is no longer pink).
5. Add apples and cook for 2 more minutes.
6. Drain fat from sausage mixture.
7. In a bowl combine the flour, eggs and sour cream and mix until smooth, stir into cooked sausage mixture.
8. Now with the cooked squash, remove water from baking dish, turn squash over (so now the cut side is up) & sprinkle squash with salt.
9. Stuff the squash with the sausage mixture, and bake uncovered for 15-20 minutes (until heated through) at 350 degrees F.
10. Serve, eat and enjoy!!!

I hope you like this recipe as much as my family does.

Okay well that's about it for now, thanks for checking in.

Until Next Time...

On My Own

Wow I really am missing my husband.  It's a lot of work taking care of two kids alone.  Now I know what he has been going through while I've been traveling for work, (poor guy).  I really can't complain at all about my kids, both are behaving very well while their Daddy is away for work.  Jean has had her moments, but I don't know of any 2 year old who hasn't had their moments from time to time.  Charlie is doing remarkable well considering he is starting to get some more teeth.  Poor guy was a wreck on Sunday night, since then he has been a real trooper.

With Bill out of town this week I'm haven't had a lot of time to do any scrapbooking, so no new photos of the kids in this issue, (sorry)  I'll make it up next time.  Over the next few weeks a couple of the designers I create layouts for are releasing some new kits, so that means more photos of the kid-o's.  (Although these photos will probably all be from last Halloween since these kits are Fall/Halloween themed and it's just too darn early to go pumpkin picking.)  I promise that I will update this blog with new photos soon.  If it's a good weekend I think I might go and take the kids to the park or something like that (perfect photo op!)

I will have to say I really love the Fall!  I love how the nights get cooler, and I love the colors.  It's such a beautiful time of the year.  I can't wait to take the kids out to pick their pumpkins.  Charlie had to sit it out last year since he was only a couple of months old, but Jean really enjoyed it.  She really loves the little gourds (Bill and I normally have to buy a couple of them for her to take home and play with).  I am also all geeked up to take the kids out "Trick-or-Treating".  I know they are still pretty young, but I think it's so much fun to dress them up.  As I mentioned in my previous post the kids are going as Mickey and Minnie Mouse.  I do have one fear, and that is with Jean.  She's so hung up about Mickey I'm scared she won't want to dress up like Minnie.  Case in point, I took Jean and Charlie out shopping with me and Bill's mom and sister on Saturday.  While at Kohl's Jean took note of a pair of Minnie Mouse PJ's.  My mother-in-law held them up for her (to see if she wanted them), and all Jean could say was "Mickey".  We left the store with a pair of Mickey Mouse pajamas for her (yes they were boy PJs) I only hope Charlie is a Mickey Mouse fan, at least that will be one set of pajamas we can use for both kids.

Until Next Time...