2010

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Happy New Year from our family to yours!!! This year we have no exciting plans and just decided to stay home, which was fine with us. Craig worked until 5 and has a cold and isn't feeling the best anyways. My mom and I made some fun appetizers for supper and we've just been hanging out.

We made Sweet and Sour Meatballs -


1 pound frozen meatballs or pre-made meatballs
3/4 jar chili sauce
1/3 cup of brown sugar
1 tbs cornstarch whisked into 1/2 cup water
2 1/2 tbs apple cider vinegar
2 tbs Worcestershire sauce

Put meatballs in pan, pour/mix in all ingredient's, heat until hot and serve! SUPER EASY and so good!

We also made Cheesey Spinach Artichoke dip -


1 14 oz. jar of artichoke hearts -drained and chopped
1 10 oz. pkg of chopped spinach thawed and drained
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
3/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
3/4 cup light mayonnaise
1/2 tsp. garlic powder

Heat oven to 350. Mix all ingredient's -spoon into 9-inch quiche dish or pie plate. Bake 20 min or until heated through. Serve with tortilla chips. Again super good and super easy!!!

Then we made Velveeta Spicy Cheeseburger Dip -


1lb velveeta cheese cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1 can 10 oz. Rotel diced tomatoes and green chilies, undrained
1 cup shredded low-moisture part-skim mozzarella cheese
1/2 lb. ground beef, cooked and drained

Mix all ingredients in a microwaveable bowl. Microwave on high 5 min or until velveeta is melted, stirring after 3 min. Mix well and serve with tortilla chips. Once again super good and super easy, my kind of food ha ha!

Salami Roll-Ups -

Sliced deli summer sausage or salami (hard salami)
cream cheese
dill pickle spears

Place 1/2-1 teaspoon cream cheese in the middle of a piece of salami. Add a slice of dill pickle to top of cream cheese. Roll up and place a toothpick in the center to hold together. Quick, easy and soooooo good!

My grannybug also came over and ate with us. She has been sick and off of work with a bad sinus infection :( She got 3 shots in 3 days and is finally starting to feel half way decent again! We hope you feel better granny, not a good way to start the new year!!!


The boys actually played with each other tonight. That is a 1st ever! Usually they are fighting and beating each other up. Jace was giving Grady pony rides and it was so funny to watch them. Grady LOVED it! Jace actually stayed up until the ball dropped. Him and I were dancing to all of the music on tv. He has some moves and grooves unlike his momma lol..I don't have rhythm at all!! No coordination what-so-evah here :( You don't see me dancin' in public very often..it's quite embarrassing ha! Just ask my husband...he thinks it's hillarious when we are somewhere and everyone is clapping their hands together..um i'm always the opposite...I just can't keep the beat, yeah pathetic I know!

Well I am off to bed now! I hope you ALL have a happy 2010!

THIS AND THAT FROM CHRISTMAS 2009

CHRISTMAS 2009

I'm back! Wow can you believe the hustle and bustle is all over? It has came and went so fast once again. It's hard to believe that it is almost 2010!!! It's like you anticipate Christmas for so long and then boom, it's over so fast!

We had Christmas with my mom's family at my Aunt Dawn's this year. We always have a gift exchange and this year we played a new game. Everyone brought a $25 gift and then you took your gift and wrapped it in several layers of paper. We drew numbers and and whoever got #1 picked a gift and the unwrapping began with them. Whoever was the last person to unwrap the last layer of paper got to keep the gift. It ended up being a lot of fun and gave us something to do as well! I ended up with a $25 gift card to Banana Republic so I was excited about that!

Just look how much fun everyone was having lol, they will kill me for this picture ha ha!

The boys were super excited about Christmas this year. Jace got up and the living room was filled with presents (No those are not all for the boys, they are to and from everyone one, but hey he thought Santa brought them all!!!.)


The elf on the shelf was sitting on top of them with a letter from Santa. He thought that was pretty cool!


I have so many pictures from our different get togethers so I am just going to post some random shots of my family members for you all to enjoy!!!

Jace opening one of his trains.

Craig concentrating while playing with Jace's Bendaroos..hmmm should I have bought him some?

My cousins Kaitlin and I...she came and stayed with us for a few days over Christmas Break.

My niece Emme checking out her new foo foo's and I was trying her new clothes on her, so fun!

Grady playing on his new jumping turtle that he LOVES, thanks Dawn and Jeff...and playing with his new drumstick's that he also LOVES, thanks Doug and Kay!

Grady checking out his new book, he loves when we read to him!

Me opening my new camera lens that I was so excited to get! Thanks to my husband and in-laws!
Grady and Aunt Dawn


My cousin Paige and Grannybug


My dad and brother, I don't think they know what they are doing ha!

One last thing - Last night we took Jace to see the Chimpmunks Sqeakquel! If you haven't seen it you should go. It's a super cute movie. Jace really liked it and Craig and I laughed too! He is really into watching movies right now and Josh and Sara bought him movie tickets for Christmas, what a great gift thanks guys! Jace never takes good pictures with us so I thought I better post this one...I just wish Grady would have been in it because it's half decent of all of us!


Well I hope you all have a Happy New Year and I hope 2010 brings you all great things :) One of my resolutions is going to be trying to blog on a more regular basis for all of you! I don't know how some of you do it everyday, it seems like it takes me forever...maybe I do something wrong lol! I will try though!!!

CHRISTMAS GOODIES

Who feels fat this time of year? I DO, I DO!!! Oh my goodness, I love Christmas and the holidays and I also love all of the food that comes along with it. However I feel like I have gained so much weight - no I know I have gained so much weight! I have an OBGYN appointment on January 7th and I am already dreading getting on the scale, maybe I'll refuse, hmmm not a bad idea!

People give us candy, and cookies and all kinds of Christmas goodies and who just has to eat them lol! Then just like today I read this blog and there was a recipe for Cinnamon Honey butter. This girl got it from another girls blog and she proclaimed it was the "best stuff ever." So of course I made it and um yes it is AWESOME!

So I know you want the recipe.....you will die when you hear what's in it. It is fatter than the word fat, ha!

CINNAMON HONEY BUTTER

-2 STICKS BUTTER (YES THAT'S CORRECT, NOT JUST 1 STICK BUT 2!)
-1 CUP OF POWDERED SUGAR
-1 CUP OF HONEY (OH HOW I FEEL IT STICKING TO MY INSIDES RIGHT ABOUT NOW!) -2 TABLE SPOONS OF CINNAMON


Whip the (room temp) butter! Then add the powdered sugar, whip really well. Add the honey and whip again really well. Then add the cinnamon and continue whipping until well blended! Oh my goodness talk about yummy! Like the one blogger said there should be a warning that comes with it that reads "may cause excessive consumption of carbohydrates" because you will put it on everything! Bread, biscuits, pancakes, muffins, toast or just eat it right off of the spoon lol!!! Oh yes you could eat this by the spoonful it's that good!


Well I did run 1.25 miles this morning, but I'm pretty sure it didn't help one bit!!! So how many of you will be "cutting" back after the holidays? I know that I am and I am hoping to use that gym membership that we just got a few months ago a WHOLE LOT more than I do now!!! Easier said that done that is for sure. Why is it when I run for like 20 minutes it feels like forever, but when I sit on my butt for 20 minutes it goes by soooooo fast! HA!!!

Well I am so excited for Christmas! The boys just can't wait. I think they are going to be really into it this year. Last year Grady was pretty little still, but this year I think he is going to go CRAZY! Can't wait to share our pictures with you all!

Merry Christmas Everyone,

CHRISTMAS

Saturday we had our 1st family Christmas at my brothers house. We were so excited to see everyone. Jace was especially excited to see his cousin Cody. They are both 4 and always have fun when together!

Grady had to get in on the action too!

Here is a picture of me and my siblings! My sister Jenny & her husband Chad - my brother Josh and his wife Sara- and then Craig and I. As you can tell my sister is expecting her 2nd baby in January and we are so excited for them!!!

Someone grabbed Sara's butt in this picture lol... they thought it was so funny...

Awww my brother and sissy... wow he makes us look so short! He is ONLY 6'7"

Jenny, me, my momma, Sara and my niece Emme and Granny-bug

We didn't get a group shot with my dad, but I didn't want to look back on my blog and be like where was he. So it's not the best picture, but at least I know he was there ha ha! He looks very amused, doesn't he?

So this is what our Christmas looks like while opening presents. Talk about mass chaos! We try to have the garbage bag handy and pick up as we go but obviously it's still a mess, ha! Do you guys have an organized gift giving circle or how do you do it?

Well I have a few more gifts to pick up and then I am finished. Are you all done with your shopping? Only 9 days left! It's coming so fast. I still need to get my Christmas cards out tomorrow and finish my wrapping. I am seriously the world's WORST gift wrapper :( I am so sloppy and the paper is always crinkled. I really do try, but I just stink at it ha! Besides you are just going to rip it off and throw it away, so what does it matter, right? I'll just keep telling myself that!

THE ELF ON THE SHELF


Have you ever seen or heard about the the book "THE ELF ON THE SHELF?" If you haven't, you really need to check it out! Last year we ordered this and started a family tradition at Christmas, and the boys love it!


The story was born by Carol Aebersold regarding her families traditions beginning back in the 1970's. This cute book explains that Santa knows who is naughty or nice because he sends a scout elf to every home. The elf watches the children's behavior and then reports it back to Santa each night! By morning the elf returns to it's assigned home and hides in a different location, allowing your child to play a fun hide-and-seek game each day. Every set comes with their very own ELF ON THE SHELF story book and their very own elf doll that your child/children came name themselves.


Jace named our elf "Jolly" and looks forward to finding him everyday. It's so fun to find a new hiding spot for him and to watch Jace get so excited when he finds him! If he's bad I'll tell him that Jolly is watching and he better go tell him that he is sorry or he'll report back to Santa..hehe! He will also tell Jolly what he wants and so forth. We love to sit down and read the book together too.

If your looking for a new tradition to start in your family then you should go out and get this box set. It really is so much fun for the kids to do, and to see them get so excited everyday when they find their little elf friend hiding in a new lookout spot! You can order this online from several places, like Amazon and Barnes & Noble. They do have a website, I'm not sure if you can order it through them directly or not but you can check it out here.

ENTERTRAINMENT JUNCTION

This past weekend Craig and I took the boy's and spent the night in West Chester, Ohio. My grandma had a free room to use up by December 26 that we had accumulated on our vacation this past summer and knew she wouldn't be going anywhere so she told us we could use it! Thanks Granny-bug :)

There's your car "Granny-bug" Jace had to have a picture of it just for you!

There is a fairly new train place there called Entertrainment Junction. Jace and Grady both LOVE trains so we thought what a perfect place to take them. It has the world's largest 25,000 sq. ft. train display! It has a huge play area themed around Thomas the Tank Engine which has a jungle gym, train tables, a mini train track that the boy's could press buttons and make the trains go, a big model train that they could shovel coal and climb through.


They have different themed area's certain times of the year. Right now you can walk through "The North Pole" and see Santa Claus and have your picture taken with him. In the kitchen you could meet Mrs.Claus who gave the boys coloring sheets and cookies. They loved her and she just thought they were so cute!



Then you walk through the "Christmas Carol" and there were just two actors and us. It was a little crazy. It was two guys playing the scrooge and his grandson. They did a great job, and were very theatrical, but it was super personal ha ha! Check out my husband playing a part. They asked Jace to and he didn't want to, so they volunteered Craig ha ha!.. So not my husband, but he did a GREAT job :)

They also had a mirror maze that was so fun! It was so hard to tell what was a mirror and what really was a walk-way! Then they had one of those optical illusion bridges that you walk across and you feel like you are swaying from side to side...ughhhh were we so dizzy! Jace wanted to do it over and over- I thought i was going to fall down!!!


We got to the hotel late on Friday because we stopped at a mall and there was a huge Wal-Mart right there. So we decided to go get some snacks before heading to bed. Craig was getting Grady ready and had just changed his pants and was pulling them up and Grady flipped forward and cut his head on the dresser! OMG, blood was gushing! We were both freaking out and didn't know how bad it was. We rushed down to the front desk to ask where an urgent care was and the guy was so helpful and got us another towel and the 1st aid kit. We finally got it to stop bleeding and decided not to go to urgent care. There was a young guy checking in as we were cleaning him up, and blood was all over the towels, it must have looked so bad! I apologized to him and told him it really wasn't as bad as it must have looked! Only us!!!


Before going home we made a trip to IKEA. Have you ever heard of it or been there? It's the biggest home furnishing store I've ever been in. They have actual room's set up so you can see what you like before you buy the products. They have everything from kitchen utensils, to flooring, to bathroom fixtures, to living room furniture. It's so cool. If you've never been to an IKEA then you need to go if there is one near you. You can also shop online if there isn't one near you, and the prices are awesome!