Things that make you say....huh?

Since we moved into this house 3 years ago, we've changed a lot of things. There isn't a single room in the entire house that hasn't seen some sort of change through wall paper removal, new paint, flooring, etc. It looks a million times better.

(*probably should clarify that this is just my personal opinion - nothing against the previous occupants, I just didn't share their vision for the place*)

(Let me just interrupt at this point to say that I just went back and reread through what I've written so far and noticed that I started the last sentence by saying "I looks a million times better." And that is a false statement. The house looks a million times better. I look 3 years older and 2 babies chubbier. :) ha)

Ok so back to the house...
We've updated and changed a lot of things, but there are still pa-lenty that we haven't touched yet. We've been busy (read: two babies in three years) and we've been living on a budget (read: no money for home improvement projects). Some of the things in this house just make me laugh and wonder "what were they thinking?" And I've been wanting to share them with you so we can laugh together. So here you go.

Things that make you say...huh?

1. We live in a really old farmhouse. But it has an addition (kitchen and dining room) that was built in the 90s. So the 90s weren't that long ago but somehow THIS was viewed as a good idea.

It's an accordian style door that you can pull out to close off the kitchen from the rest of house. Need a closer look? Because not only is it a weird idea (why would you need to close off the kitchen?) but it's also hideous. Like brassy, gold accordian ugliness.

Huh??

2. Then there's this little treasure on my countertop.

Not the Cuties. Pan right until you stumble across a built in metal thing. Huh?? 

From what I understand, those two little handle things come out and you could sit your blender right on those things and it would work. It hasn't worked since we've been here so I couldn't really tell you. And really...is it that hard to just plug the blender into the wall? 

3. What do you do when there's a crack in the ceiling?

How about...... SCOTCH TAPE! Let's zoom in for a closer look...

I mean, I'm honestly curious about this one. What is the purpose the scotch tape? I'm pretty sure it's not holding the ceiling together because, well, it's scotch tape....the baby of all kinds of tape. But just in case, we haven't taken it off because we wouldn't want the ceiling to fall down.

And to top it all off, I'll leave you with this little nugget to ponder..

Why do we drive on a parkway and park on a driveway?

Huh?? :)

Tiny Prints Christmas Cards!

You may remember that last year around this time, I shared about Shutterly and their 2010 line of Christmas Cards. They offered 50 free cards to anyone who blogged about their products. It was a huge blessing to get great cards for free! This year I am EVEN MORE excited because Tiny Prints is offering the same deal. We used Tiny Prints when we created Emma's birth announcement and their quality and cute-ness was unbelievable. I am SO excited to create our family Christmas card through them!

The past two years we've done more formal looking cards so this year I'm leaning more towards a fun, playful card - maybe with more than one picture. Here's a few options I'm thinking about...

Check them out for yourself. There are endless awesome options!

Now that we've celebrated Thanksgiving, I'm ready for all things Christmas - especially getting all of our friends' cards in the mail. For a few years I taped them all up on the fridge and that was really fun to see them all. (Actually I loved looking at them so much that I left them up all year. Some time around June Jarred asked when I was planning on taking them down! haha) This past year I kept them all in a basket on our kitchen counter. It was definitely a more organized option, but we didn't get to see them all the time. I've seen some cute clothespin wreath ideas on Pinterest too that might be fun. Do any of you have fun ways to display your cards?

Looking forward to seeing all of your cards!! :) 

Thankful Thoughts

“Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.” Psalm 100:4-5 NIV

I really love Thanksgiving. In fact, I think it may be my favorite holiday. 

There's not a whole lot of commercialism hype (aside from the Black Friday craziness that tries to take over the week). It's just all about being thankful and.....when you combine that with comfort food - perfection! 

This year I'm thankful for:

a deepening, enjoyable relationship with Jesus, my husband who makes me laugh and our marriage that challenges me to grow and seek God's face, two healthy beautiful adorable children, the privilege of having a comfortable home, stocked freezers and full shelves, amazing friends, our church family, a stable job for Jarred to provide for us and the opportunity to be at home with my children.

Happy Thanksgiving Friends!

Big Girl

I was planning on starting "chores" with Emma around the time she turned three. I didn't really have a reason why I picked that age, but I guess I was just thinking that by that time she'd be old enough to do some simple things around the house. I also wanted to start pretty young so that she learns early on what we expect around the house.

For those of you who don't spend much time with my girl, she is incredibly compulsive and likes things to be clean and organized. So the other day as I started to unload the dishwasher and racked my brain for something to occupy her while I worked, I thought, I bet she would enjoy putting away the clean silverware! I'm not sure why I didn't think of it sooner! It was great for her to work on matching the different types of silverware and putting them in the correct spot.

I also gave her another "trim" aka cutting off that darn rat tail that continues to want to grow. Heaven help me...the poor girl has the absolute slowest growing hair except for that silly rat tail! Here's the before. Usually all of those wispy long strands come together into one rat tail curl right in the middle. I had spread them out for the sake of cutting it evenly.

and the after....

Can you even tell the difference? :) I actually think it looks pretty cute in this picture but I'm well aware that's probably just a mother's love. I know it's definitely still a mullet. Oh well....some day we'll have beautiful long locks. Maybe by 3rd grade....

Fun Day Trips

A few days ago, Jarred asked if we would be interested in going with him to Cabela's. He was meeting someone there who had a part for his truck and he didn't want to drive that far without his family. So yesterday afternoon, we packed up the kids and headed off. Emma was in amiyal (animal) heaven!

Colson enjoyed himself too.

We had a great time looking at all of the animals! If it wasn't such a drive, I think I'd bring the kids here all the time. They loved it!

I even embarrassed Jarred by asking somebody to take a picture for us. He'll appreciate it some day! :) And I was impressed all four of us are looking at the camera too!

Then we stopped at Red Robin for dinner before heading home. It was our first time at a restaurant with both kids. Colson was mesmerized by all the lights and action...

...and Daddy taught Emma some good tricks. :)

It was such a fun spontaneous trip! Jarred and I were able to have lots of time to talk on the drive and the kids had a blast!

Today my parents have relatives visiting so we joined them this morning on a quick trip to Wilbers Chocolate. Yum....

It's been so fun to get out and take the kids to new places. I'm thinking of starting a list of things to do and places to see to keep us busy this winter. I love being a homemaker, but sometimes these cold winter days can make us all a little stir crazy. Any fun suggestions?

Random :)

Colson turns 7 months old today! 

Thankfully, his croup has settled down and he just has a cold at this point. A cold isn't fun either, but it's definitely much better than croup!

Would you believe I JUST got around to putting out some Fall decorations? 

I just decorated the top of our TV cabinet because: A) I don't have a whole lot of Fall decor so this is about it. B) They won't be out long so I didn't want to put a whole lot out only to have to take it down soon. C) They kids can't reach anything up here.  We don't have a lot of Christmas/Winter decorations either but I'm hoping to make a few cute things I've seen on Pinterest. I'll keep you posted if I end up making anything!

Speaking of making things, our church is awesome and the women provide 3 meals a week for a month to families after they have a baby.  I can't tell you what a blessing that is! A sweet family in my bible study just adopted a baby and yesterday I was able to bring them a meal. Baked spaghetti, homemade crescent rolls, salad, pumpkin roll, and chocolate chip banana bread for breakfast the next day. 

Sick computers and kids

I have been trying to be a little more intentional about blogging more regularly, but I'm not sure how great my follow through is going to be on that ambition.

Our laptop is on it's last leg. No kidding - it's on its 10th life and it's reeeeeally struggling to stay alive. We've been talking about cleaning it up and selling it for parts and then getting something new. Hopefully it won't die on me before then because I really don't like blogging from my iPhone.

Both kiddos are sick and my sweet boy is having a tough time with it. Emma started with a raspy voice and loose cough and a few days later I could hear Colson's chest tightening up. He woke up this morning really struggling to breath and doing the stereotypical "croup cough." We did all of the at-home remedies (steamy bathroom, cool mist humidifier, lots of nursing and snuggles, etc) but he was still struggling mid-morning so we made the decision to take him in to the pediatrician. Of course (of course!) as I walked into the office he sounded perfectly fine. Isn't that always the case? But his noisy breathing and croup cough did come back while we were there and the doctor confirmed that he's got croup. Poor guy. It's definitely a scary illness for parents because it sounds so awful. But he's got a steroid in him and some tylenol for the fever so hopefully we're on the mend.

So if you don't hear from me for a few days...I'm probably just trying to revive our little old laptop or snuggling my little lovies. :)

Homemade Hot Pockets, Anyone?

When Jarred and I first got married, I was a silly naive girl. (seems as though not much has changed huh?) I knew his Momma was a great cook and she always had treats in the house. So I would go crazy in the grocery store because I wanted my hubby to think I was a cool wife. Anybody relating?

One of the things I used to buy him for lunch was hot pockets. Don't get me wrong, they are really good, but there's only like 2 or 4 in the pack. I forget how many it is exactly, but for my big hungry man...they only lasted about 3 hours. And paying big bucks for something that wasn't going to last wasn't reasonable. Sooo I quickly learned my lesson, surrendered my pride and started buying sensible things. And we all lived happily ever after because it turns out he thinks a budget conscious wife is a cool wife! :)

A few weeks ago I stumbled across a recipe for homemade hot  pockets on Pinterest, I knew he'd be game for giving them a try. So yesterday for lunch we gave them a try. Granted, it's a little more involved and time consuming then my usual leftovers or sandwiches but he loved them and they made TWELVE hot pockets. Enough for yesterday's lunch and we froze the rest for future lunches or dinners.

So basically, all you do is make the dough...

1 1/2 cups warm milk
1 teaspoon yeast
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
4 cups all-purpose flour

In a large bowl, combine warm milk with yeast and sugar. Let sit for five minutes. Add salt, vegetable oil, and egg. Stir in flour until the dough is stiff enough to knead. (Add flour a little at a time. Four cups flour is approximate; exact amount may vary. I ended up using about 4 1/2 cups) Knead dough until smooth and elastic–a few minutes. Place dough in a greased bowl; cover. Let rise until doubled.

Now it's time to start making those hot pockets! Divide the dough in half.

Note: this isn't rolled out yet. It needs to be MUCH flatter than this. I just got started rolling and then realized I wanted a dough picture. :)

Use a pizza cutter to divide the dough into 6 sections and add your desired filling ingredients. The sky is the limit (or perhaps your creativity is the limit). I did 6 ham and cheese and 6 pork bbq and cheese because that's what we had on hand. The website has lots of yummy suggestions.

Pull the dough up around the ingredients and pinch together to seal. It doesn't have to be pretty...

Flip them over and place them on a baking sheet. I put foil down because I'm all about not having to wash dishes after I'm done. 

Pop them in the oven and bake at 350F for 25 minutes. In the meantime, distract yourselves with cute children.

Let them cool on a wire cookie rack and resist the urge to eat them right away. The roof of my mouth sends a warning your way....premature indulgence isn't worth it. Ouch...

I wanted to have a shot of one opened up so you could see the cooked, yummy, cheesy, melty goodness but we ate them up too fast and didn't stop to think of picture taking. Enjoy!! (Original recipe link here)

Anybody else have trouble coming up with witty, fitting blog post titles?

I love love love the TV series Parenthood. But seriously? Could they cut a tired momma a break and air a liiiittle bit earlier. Staying up until 10pm to watch an hour long show is TOUGH. It's 9:30pm and I'm popping chocolate chips and writing a blog post to pass the time until it comes on.

So....it's been awhile! :) how are you guys?

We've been....well I don't know how to sum it up in one word. Living, I guess?

Emma had her first real fever this past week. I know, I know...the girl is 2 but no lie, she's never had a fever over 99F. She spiked a relatively high fever Thursday evening and she stayed feverish through Friday. On a hunch, I finally checked her mouth and discovered she's cutting a big ol' molar. The fever went away and now she's coming down with some sort of cold. My poor girl has a rattly chest and I'm praying for speedy healing.

I've been baking a lot recently. I should really try to post a few recipes for you guys. Homemade crescent rolls are a BIG hit around here and they really are super easy. This was my first attempt and I didn't roll the dough flat enough so I ended up with mega rolls. They looked so funny, I had to take a picture. Seriously you guys? Delicious just doesn't do it justice.....

Colson experienced snow for the first time in his sweet little life. I told Jarred (my real-life Ebenezer who doesn't allow Christmas in this house before Dec. 15th) that he should count his blessings that we don't live in an area where snow in October is the norm. That freak snow storm tempted to send me right into full on Christmas mode. I was ready for the music, decorating and thinking of gift ideas! :)

Isn't he so sweet? Every day with him is such a blessing. He is such an easy, content little guy. Emma has come a long way with the snow. Here she was last year....

Not loving snow so much....

and....this year!

She threw snowballs with Daddy and her cousin and they built a snowman. She only came in because her little hands were frozen!

Jarred's been working long and hard as usual. In his "spare time" he's been fixing up an old old Jeep that the family uses up at the cabin. (It's fondly referred to as "Jasper") This thing is so beloved in this family. Seriously, I'm not kidding when I say engagement pictures have been taken with Jasper. ha. So today while the weather was gorgeous, I snapped a few pictures of the kids enjoying Jasper. 

Told ya it was old! :) No door and all! The first time I rode in this thing, we hopped in our seats and a mouse jumped out of the dashboard at us. haha

Well, it's almost 10pm and I'm out of pictures and updates so that's all for tonight. I'll try to pop back in sooner rather than later. 

And on a totally unrelated note - I've been watching the Duggars in the background and wow, 20? I can't even imagine! All I know is that the Lord definitely gives abundant grace to what He calls us to!