Goodbye Cider and Donuts

Well cider season is coming to an end. Yes, I know I CAN get cider anytime of year if I just drive the .5 miles to Meijer. However, little compares to fresh from the mill cider and hot from the oven donuts. I took a lovely trip out to BFE Plymouth to meet some friends at Plymouth Orchards (the things I do for my bestie :) It was definitely worth it though. It was the last day this particular cider mill was open and it couldn't have been a more beautiful day. We ate, laughed, and walked the petting farm. Perfect Sunday.... well almost perfect, I could have gone to Yates.

Off to enjoy Sunday night with my three favorite men, Mikey, Dexter, and Nucky.

Lazy Saturday

My daughter continues to scare the heck out of me. In the blink of an eye she made it half way up the stairs. We usually have it blocked off and I swear its like she always has one eye on them and the second it is open she books it! I will be installing one of those permanent baby gates tomorrow, the kind that screw into the wall and swing open like a door. The child needs to be stopped!

In other Tiny news bath time this evening was a blast... sort of. I am not sure what happened over the last few days but when I put her in the tub she had a serious freak out. She usually loves the water and most nights I can just sit on the floor next to the tub and read a magazine while she splashes and plays. Not tonight. I have to admit I was laughing hysterically because while my daughter was getting tortured by the bubble bath she was grasping on to me with all her might. She wouldn't let go and it was honestly the cutest thing ever.

In craft updates I finally painted my $7 chair I purchased at a garage sale. It was in awful condition, the wood needed some glue and the cushions were torn and needed to be repaired. The price and look of the chair was perfect though, low to the ground so I figured it would be a good chair for Tiny's room. Well I fixed the chair, primed it, and today got the paint taken care of. I had "reupholstered" the cushions about a week or so ago with some great clearance fabric I found. I use quotes because I didn't really reupholster them, more just made some finished off pillow cases. They turned out perfect so I'm not complaining! Pictures to come tomorrow when it is finally finished!

Not a lot on the table for tonight. I rented Get Him to the Greek because we had heard some good things about it, plus I got it in blue-ray from the redbox so that makes it even better.

Just for fun here is a nice picture of Tiny I took yesterday. She has pretty much free reign in the basement and of course of all the toys in the world this is where she ends up...

Be Thankful

No matter what the ups and downs of life are, I have so much to be thankful for! As the Halloween decorations came down the other day I found myself a little bummed that I didn't have anything to put up! Its way to early for Christmas decorations (although I did think about it for a moment.) I was determined to find something Thanksgiving related. I found this project and thought it would be perfect!

This was a great one day project, it only took me a couple hours (including the numerous breaks for playtime with Tiny) Sorry for the crafters that like step-by-step tutorials on how to do projects, but I don't have them! Its more to share the idea because you can take the concept and really make it your own. Mine looks nothing like the inspiration for it, but it does have words and a string with pictures.

I found this great finished board at Hobby Lobby for $3 that even had the wall hanging fixtures on the back. The wooden letters were .50 each but total worth it. I love how loopy they are and that the heights are all different. I bought the cheapest acrylic paint they had that was .66 and it worked perfect. I had the scrapbook paper on hand, as well as mod podge and some foam brushes.

I painted the letters which was much more difficult than I had anticipated. The curls on the letters were a hassle to paint! I suggest waiting about 20 min. and then doing another coat because this wood really absorbs the paint and gives it a dull color. After painting I added a thin layer of mod podge just to give it a finished gloss look. Plus it really smoothes out the feel of the painted wood.

While letting the letters dry I took my board and used a wood stapler to attach my thin blue twine. You can pretty much figure out any way to attach the twine it isn't going to need to hold much weight.

Next I cut my scrapbook paper and mod podged it on the board. After that all you have to do is attach the letters, I used some tacky glue I had lying around.

Thats it! You can use anything you want to attach the pictures, I think I'm going to go back and paint the mini clothespins but you could even use colored paper clips if you wanted.

I am going to pick out some cute pictures to use, I am thankful for more than my baby and cat. To be honest that isn't even my favorite cat, let alone my favorite pet :)

Well I am off to enjoy my exciting Friday night full relaxing on the couch with the hubs!

White Bean Chicken Chili

This is NOT a food blog. I do not pretend to know what I am doing in the kitchen. God so kindly blessed me with a husband that will literally eat anything and everything that I give him so I keep cooking around my house very simple.

I mentioned Monday I was going to make this... well something came up. Then I was convinced I was going to make this Tuesday... then something came up. So I was determined to make this recipe today. It could not be any easier and I knew many of my friends could benefit from a nice easy dinner recipe! (This is also a great meal to make on Sunday that will taste just as good reheated during the week when you might not have time to cook :)

3 Main Ingredients - Rotisserie Chicken, Jar of Salsa, Jar of Beans (I use Randall)

Dump the whole jar of beans, and the whole jar of salsa right into a large pot. Take your rotisserie chicken and just shred the meat right off the bones. I use my hands, and the hardest part is trying to not snack on the delicious skin while disposing of it along with the bones. Add 1 tsp of Cumin, and 1 tsp of Chili powder and let simmer for 2 hours on low. Thats it. No joke.

I choose to use a Thick and Chunky style salsa, this way we get some onions, tomatoes, peppers mixed in. If you like a really high volume of veggies you could always add more. Mike is a fan of corn and I have debated adding a can of corn, but I'm not a fan... so I don't.

Tiny was hanging out next to me while I was shredding the chicken at the stove. She could not have been more entertained with herself as she realized how to open and close the cabinets. I am really regretting the numerous hours I spent trying to uninstall all the childproofing fixtures 3 years ago when we first moved in...

Right before serving I like to melt in about a cup of monterey jack cheese. Definitely a personal taste thing. I serve this with sour cream and tortillas. Ta-da!

On a side note - for the thrifty ladies this is a great meal that feeds a family for very little. The total cost for the chicken, salsa, beans, sour cream, tortillas, and cheese was $12. My mom always made this recipe for a family of 5 and when I make it we have plenty of leftovers!

Enjoy!

Ikea Trip

Such a great couple days. Life is never boring and rarely slows down around here. For three days I have been craving White Bean Chicken Chili and due to things popping up we haven't even had dinner at home the last couple days. Hopefully tonight I will be able to get back in the kitchen!

Also on a food related note, yesterday I went out to Ikea and had a great find in the way of Christmas presents for Tiny! They have these great felt food sets that are so reasonably priced I couldn't pass them up! I have been thinking about making some of my own and have found some really good tutorials but in the end when you factor in felt, thread(sounds silly but they all have to match to get a really good look) and then the time and trial and error factor of making them for the first time you will understand why I went with these.

The fruit and vegetable sets were 7.99, while the breakfast set was only 4.99! They are the perfect size for her little hands without being any kind of choking hazard.

Today I have a trip to target and meijer on the to-do list and then some cleaning, very exciting!

Happy Halloween!

Clara celebrated her first Halloween today, sadly with little fan fare. I can't say I am a huge fan of taking a baby trick or treating just for the sake of doing it. I know how annoyed I get when someone carries their baby that can't walk or talk to my door and asks for candy... we both know your kid who can barely eat cheerios is not going to consume the candy.

Even so, I put Clara in her costume and we visited our neighbors who basically just wanted us to come say hi. Mike went to the Lions game today and came home just in time for the trick or treaters. Growing up he seemed to really enjoy getting full sized candy bars so for whatever reason he feels it is important that he passes them out. We had about 350 kids this year and all were quite impressed with the candy spread.

Mike and I have different opinions about good candy. He enjoys his chocolate candy bars (snickers, kit kats, etc) while I have always been a fan of chewy/fruity candy (airheads, laffy taffy) Well last year we just gave out full size candy bars, one to each kid and that was that. This year we had a candy store of options available to the kids, and just for fun we threw in the local favorite Better Made chips in TWO flavors. When kids came up they got their choice of one of whatever they would like. Believe it or not at least 75 kids choose a bag of chips! We love checking out all the kids in their costumes (and Mike likes making comments to the teens who don't even bother to dress up!)

Next year I look forward to stepping up the trick or treating and maybe taking Clara out and doing our whole street!

Take Two

Here we go again... I am going to try and breath some life back into my blog! I deleted some of my old posts because they just seemed very random and surprisingly personal regarding some of the ups and downs I went through during pregnancy. I left the one that included Clara's ultrasound picture because it is so unbelievable to me that my baby was this little peanut growing inside me!

Coincidently enough part of my inspiration to blog again (besides my lovely cousin :) was something Mikey said to me today. I thought, "I really want to share this story but there is just not enough space on Facebook!" So hopefully others will be just as entertained by my family, craft projects, and crazy life in general!

Story Time!

So while sitting in the kitchen Clara was at her highchair with her adorable little baby feet dangling down (sock-less because they just don't stay on) and I turned to Mike and said, "Can you believe I grew these little feet inside my belly!" to which he replied, "No you didn't, God did." I laughed and Mike conceded and said ok you helped, what do you think the split is? I said 60/40 God, he gave me the ability to grow her. AND THEN... Mike says, "Like Enterprise Rent-a-Car."

OMG I literally choked on my drink and started laughing hysterically. Now I understand some people may not get why such a stupid comment would be so funny to me... maybe this will help.

"They give you the tools to be your own boss."

Step Brothers is one of those movies we would never say, "Hey lets put that movie in and watch it." But I swear every single time its on we have to watch it till the end!

Never a dull minute.