Picture of the Day 02-09

Spring is just around the corner! There are bulbs pushing their way up all over our yard. I'm even getting the spring cleaning bug and have begun the process of unpacking more boxes we've been "storing" in the garage. I've found lots of goodies in there, some of which I'll share tomorrow.

Fabulous Food Friday

Old Fashioned Sugar Cookies

2 c sugar
1c shortening
1/2 c milk
3 eggs
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla
Flour

Cream sugar & shortening. Add eggs & beat well. Add milk & vanilla. Sift together dry ingredients w/1 c flour. Stir into creamed mixture. Add enough flour to make a soft dough. (about 6-7 cups) Roll dough to 1/4 in thick (or however thick you would like your cookie, but 1/4 in is a good thickness) & cut. Bake at 375 until set or edges BEGIN to turn a light golden. My oven bakes hot and took about 7 minutes.

Decorator Icing

2 boxes (or 2 lbs) powdered sugar
1 1/2 cups Crisco (either regular or butter flavored. Butter will turn it off white)1/2 cup HOT water
1/2 tsp salt
1-2 tsp vanilla (I use 2)
1/2 tsp almond extract (optional)

Combine powdered sugar & salt in large mixer bowl. Beat on slow with wire whip attachment until smooth (no more clumps) Add crisco 1/4 cup at a time until mixed. Add hot water, beat until almost fluffy. Add vanilla & almond flavoring. Beat on high 5-10 min until volume has increased & frosting has stiffer/fluffy consistency.

Note: This is the frosting the kids used yesterday to decorate their cookies, However I didn't use this frosting for the cookies pictured above. Instead, I used Royal icing from Wilton. It comes in a container similar to white glue. Then to dress it up, I generously sprinkled food grade glitter on top (it was just like doing a craft!)

To see how I packaged these cookies all up, go to my Paper Capers blog.

Valentine Cookie Decorating Party

I was in the mood for a party so I threw together a Valentine's party and invited the neighbor girls and a friend from Natalie's class. I've always thought it would be fun to have a Christmas cookie decorating day and invite lots of friends to come. However with as much as we have going on in December, it probably won't happen any time soon. Since Valentine's day is next week, I decided to jump on it and so we had ourselves a little Valentine party. (click on the photos to enlarge)


While we were waiting for everyone to arrive the kiddos decorated Valentine hearts with lots of stickers. They also had fun with heart shaped magic scratch paper. It starts out black and when you scratch it, rainbow colors show through. It was a big hit.

I made all the cookies ahead of time, so when everyone was ready I gave
each kid their own bowl of frosting (trying to reduce spredding germs).
They also added candy to the top and as you can see they did a great job.

Natlalie and Zander's Valentine Cookies...Yummers

You DON'T have mail!

As soon as I got down to the mailboxes this afternoon, my gut told me something was wrong. Our neighbor's mailbox was left open. This may not seem strange unless you know that theirs can only be opened with a key...or a crow bar. Immediately, I checked our mail box and once I saw there was no mail in ours, I knew it was stolen. Yup! we are now victims of mail theft. Oh boy, now some yahoo has our mail and because we have no idea what was stolen, we have to call our bank, credit card companies and probably utilities tomorrow to give them the heads up. I hope all they got was a big pile of junk mail.

I called the P.O., but they were less than helpful. Then I called the Clackamas County Sheriff's dept and was on hold for 25 minutes...I didn't have all day to wait, so I just hung up. Man, I am starting to miss Multnomah county where the police/sheriff dept actually answer the phone when you call. I finally got on the Clackamas County website and searched around a bit until I found a criminal report form which I will need to fill out and send in tomorrow. I called some more neighbors and found out that they didn't get their mail either, so I'm guessing our whole road got hit. I hope those lame-Os get caught. I'm sure they are looking to steal someone's identity so they can get some sweet moola to make/buy meth with...nice hu!

Picture of the Day 2-03

Even Superheros need their sleep!

Fabulous Food Friday

Homemade Alfredo Sauce
1-2 T butter
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
1 pint cream
1 cup parmesan

Melt butter in a small saucepan, saute garlic for about 5 minutes. Add cream and simmer for 10 minutes. Add parmesan (I use the grated kind in the shaker container. The fresh parm tends to get gloppy). Cook until cheese is blended. Season with freshly ground pepper and nutmeg. Serve over pasta or vegetables.

Since I am trying my best to practice proper food combining, I don't eat pasta with cheese, so instead I use this sauce over lots of steamed broccoli. It is really good and I don't even miss the pasta.

Old Shoes, New Shoes

I remember the last time I got a pair of new running shoes like it was yesterday. I had just spent a girl's only weekend at my friend Bekki's beach house near Canon Beach. At the time three of our friends had new babies along for the weekend and I was feeling a little bummed out. It seemed like all my friends were having babies, some on their second already. I felt left out and it really hit home that weekend being surrounded by my friends and their babies. On the way back to Porland, we all stopped at the outlet mall in Seaside and I got a pair of Nikes at the Nike outlet. I loved how they fit and they were quite stylish too. (Even back then I knew a good shopping trip could cheer me up!)

Later that night I took a pregnancy test and that is when I learned I was pregnant with Natalie! Those shoes are now 7 years old and so today I decided it was time to get a new pair. Dan and I dropped Natalie and Zander off at a playdate and then drove to north Portland to the Nike outlet. I fell in love with a very cute pair of pink, grey and silver running shoes, but there was not one shoe in my size. I tried on 4 other pair and finally thought the black pair fit the best so I got them...I changed them up a bit by adding pink laces! Cute, don't ya think?

Picture of the Day 01-29

In case you missed it...

...here was tonight's sunset!

You deserve a break today...

At least that's what my husband thought!!!
Ever since we moved, I have felt somewhat isolated. As nice as my neighbors are, they are not close enough to just pop in on. If I am lucky enough to be in town getting my errands done without kids, I always feel rushed to get back home because Dan is usually watching the kids. So my social life is pretty non-existent except for the 5-10 minutes of rushed conversation I get with the other moms when we are dropping off or picking up our kids from school. I don't really know anyone at they gym, so I workout alone too.

Except for my blog and emails I don't get much adult interaction. Sooooo, I decided to have a Girls Night Out at my house last Saturday. Dan was so thoughtful. He planned to take all 3 kids to his sister Katy's house overnight, so we could scrapbook all night uninterrupted!

There were six of us (Tami, Bekki, Debbie, Katie, Sophie and myself). Turns out Tami and Sophie used to go to high school together. It was the PERFECT mix of people. We all got along great and had so much fun talking about crafts, mommy-hood, birthday parties and funny stuff our kids do.

I pre-planned and cut out 4 cute Valentines projects for the "girls" to make (some are posted on Paper Capers) and everyone seemed to have fun being crafty! After everyone was done with their projects, we had planned to scrapbook all night, but instead we stayed up until almost 1 a.m. just talking. It was great. I think we all needed it; girl time...adult conversation. I am already starting to plan for our next Girls Night Out.

The next day I slept in. No one woke me up wanting breakfast, so it was nice to relax in the morning. I walked downstairs and admired how clean everything looked. Imagine that I spent ALL day cleaning, and it is still clean the next day. Very strange...very nice! I had a leisurely breakfast and was still beaming thinking about all the fun we had. I did manage to squeeze in a few scrapbook pages in the afternoon.

Dan hadn't brought the kids back yet and I needed to go to the store. Then it dawned on me...Hey, I can go to the store now...without kids...so I quickly got myself together and left.

All in all it was just what I needed. I hope to make this a regular event cause it was so great!

Field Trip to the Library!

Today was library day at Zander's preschool. I went along to help out and to take pictures. They all heard three fun rhyming stories and sung songs too. You can see Zander in the back row of the second photo. They were singing "If you're happy and you know it shout hooray!" Well, he just couldn't contain himself, so he jumped up and shouted "HOORAY!" The last photo is of his class (both 3 year classes went on the trip).

Science Fair Night

Due to the snow last week, the science fair was re- scheduled for tonight. Natalie's project got a lot of good response. Everyone thought it was so clever and of course they loved the photos of her hair sticking up. Here she is proudly explaining her project to her principal. Natalie got a certificate for participating as well as a blue ribbon and a coupon for fries at McDonald's.

Zander is such a hands on kid. He loves to get in on all the action...and is not shy about it! Here he is holding a bubble filled with carbon dioxide, when it pops, it turns to smoke (dry ice). He loved this part and we had to pull him away so other kids could have a turn.
He also liked to see how some of the other kids' experiments worked. Here he is completing the circuit to make the light turn on. If tonight was any indication of what's to come, I think he will love science.

Picture of the Day 1-24

Not much to report lately. I've been doing a lot of housework and reorganizing lately. Here's a cute photo of Hayden after his bath last night. He loves to play peek-a-boo with his hoody bath towel.

New Year's Goals: Update

Haven't posted on this blog for a few days...I guess I've been busy. I have several new posts on my Paper Capers blog if you are interested. I just posted about how I got started with scrapbooking.

Anyway, we are almost through the month of January and I am trying my best to keep up with my goals, but I'm really discovering that I can't possibly do all of them simultaneously. If I work out more at the gym, inevitably I will be less energetic to get other things done. If I scrapbook more, I neglect other things, like housework, so then our bedroom starts to get cluttered up with laundry. Trying to keep the house clean and fit scrapbooking in after the kids are in bed makes for a very late night and as a result I can hardly get up to get Natalie to school. So only one month into my year and already I am overwhelmed.

On a good note, I have gone out with my friend Anne to see a movie (the Pursuit of Happiness — a great movie, by the way.) I have been spending more time doing activities my kids choose (games, stories, playing outside together) and I have made it to they gym quite a bit. In fact, today I worked out for 50 minutes (cardio) and burnt 420 calories...which should just about take care of that "Bloomin' Onion" Dan and I shared when we went out last night for dinner sans kids.

Fabulous Food Friday

Pumpkin Bake
This is the pumpkin recipe shown in last weeks Fabulous Food Friday...

Once when I was recovering from surgery to blast my kidney stones a friend of mine made me this delish dish. I asked for the recipe and now I will share it with you. Don't laugh, but this is one of those quick recipes using a cake mix!

1 yellow cake mix
2 sticks butter
1 can pumpkin pie mix (not just plain pumpkin)

Blend butter and cake mix with pastry blender until small crumbs form. Knead with hands and press half in a casserole dish (or press 1/4 into 2 pie plates). Top with pumpkin pie mix, then add the remaining cake mix to the top. Bake at 375 for 1 hour. See I told you it was easy!

When I made the pumpkin bake, I used a large can of pumpkin pie mix and had about 1/2 cup left over, so I added it to the following recipe for my moist banana bread.

Alyssa's Moist Banana Bread
I made up this recipe when I was first married. A lot of the butter is replaced with applesauce which makes it moist and yummy.

1 1/2 cups flour
2/3 cups sugar
2 t baking powder
2 t baking soda
1 t salt
3 mashed ripe bananas
4 T applesauce
2 T butter
2 T milk
1 T vanilla
2 eggs
dash of cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves

Mix wet ingredients and dry ingredients separately, then mix everything together until combined. Add nuts if you like. Pour into a greased loaf pan and bake in a 350 degree oven for 55 to 60 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

*When I asked Zander if he wanted some banana bread he said "it wooks kind of gross, but I'll try some anyway." After tasting it, he kept asking for more!

I'm gonna toot my own horn!

It's not often that I feel like I actually accomplished something in a day, but today I really did. Not only did I vacuum the upstairs hall, I vacuumed the steps, the family room, rescued a Barbie shoe from the vacuum bag, swept and moped the kitchen, entry and bathroom, cleaned the guest bathroom (even the toilet), polished the kitchen appliances, took out the garbage and recycling, washed 2 loads of laundry, made cookies, emptied, filled and ran the dishwasher, read my kids a story, made a good dinner with all the food groups, cleared the table, and I did all the dishes again! Wow, it was quite a productive day.
It's amazing what I can do when Dan is at the college all day, I don't have to run the kids back and forth to school and Hayden takes two naps.

In the meadow we can build a snowman...

...or two or three!

Today the snow was just perfect for building a snow family, so that's just what we did. Half way through, the kids got cold, so they went inside while Dan and I finished up. Dan and I also had several impromptu snowball fights. We had so much fun playing in the snow today...Later we all warmed up with hot cocoa. Mmmm!

More fun with "Smokey"

Even though we didn't get any new snow, there was still enough on the ground for another sled ride. Smokey took the kids on an adventure in the pasture and then gave them a ride all the way home.

As they pass through the gate, you can see our house in the distance, just beyond the snow topped out building.


Wow! I never thought I would ever see the day where there was a horse in my front yard.

Picture of the Day 01-16

Snow Cone

For those of you with snow, here is a "snow cone" recipe that a friend sent to me. It just kills me that we are all out of milk and I can't even try this one...if you try it, let me know how it turns out.

SNOW CREAM

12 cups of CLEAN snow (no yellow snow!)
8 TBSP. milk
1 cup sugar
4 tsp. vanilla

Mix this all together (I had to do half of it in my mixer, then add the other half--it beats down)...add more sugar & vanilla as desired to taste...also, I had to add a couple extra tablespoons of milk to make our snow creamy enough (it's real powdery snow). Add food coloring to make it pretty! Put in an airtight container and place in the freezer to set up.

Enjoy!

Walkin' in a winter wonderland

It didn't start out as a snow day, but by the time 7:30 am rolled around , it was clear that school would be cancelled. I am on the phone-tree committee to call people when school closes. Because the decision to close the school came in late, I was on the phone a bit making sure parents got the message.

After breakfast I got the kids all bundled up to go play in the snow. I can't remember too many times where we have had this much snow that actually stuck around long enough to have much fun in, so we really weren't prepared with sleds and such. However, that didn't stop us from
having fun. Here Dan has created a makeshift sled out of a rubbermaid storage container, a hula-hoop and some rope.

After a while, Dan gave Hayden a ride in the recylcling bin.

Zander is always ready for a good snowball fight. Unfortunately,
today's powdery snow didn't hold together very easily.

Here I am with my little snow baby.

After eating cold snow, Zander was more than ready for hot cocoa.

Natalie liked catching snow on her tongue.

My little Snow Angel!

Oh what fun it is to ride in a one horse open sled...

Late in the afternoon, our neighbors stopped by with their horse Smokey and asked if the kids wanted to go on a horse drawn sled ride. Natalie was ready to go, Zander had just been out playing and was cold, but we talked him in to staying out a little longer. Smokey is 20 years old and is great with the kids.
This is a more accurate picture (taken without a flash) of the time of day we were out. However, due to the fact that there was a lot of motion (riding on sleds) I had to use my flash which ironically, made everything look darker.

And they're off. The boy in the back is one of the neighbors.

After a while, Dan came out with Hayden so he could join in the fun!

Zander was a trooper and even though he was cold, he hopped up on Smokey and let Hayden ride in the sled for a while.

Weee! They don't look very excited do they?...I think they were paying more attention to the horse in front.