Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Ryan's first time in a swing

Just wanted to share this picture of my little man on the swing set for the first time! He doesn't look to thrilled!  And of course Addison as well!

Monday, April 23, 2012

I love slow cooker meals 1- Chicken Dinner

Today we are forecasted to have a freak spring snow storm here in the Buffalo area, so I thought a nice hearty winter meal was in order.  I love any meal I can make in the slow cooker, during the colder months I am known to use it 3 or even 4 times a week, in the summer a little less because I use the grill more and I want lighter meals then and I want to keep all heat out of the kitchen!

Today with Addison's help we made slow cooker Chicken Dinner

You need

4 split chicken breasts
1 10 1/2 oz can cream of chicken soup
1 box to stuffing mix
1/3 cup milk
1 2/3 cup water


Place the chicken in the slow cooker


Mix the cream of chicken soup and milk



Addison likes to help me do that!


Pour over the chicken


Mix together the stuffing mix and the water.


Spoon that over the chicken and soup


Let cook on low for 8 to 10 hours


I like to serve it over mashed potatoes!

Saturday, April 21, 2012

I think my daughter needs a haircut


Our daughter was born with about 2 inches of thick hair on her head! She is almost 3 1/2 years old and we have never had her hair cut, I think it may be time though. Its starting to get very unruly and she hates having her hair brushed. But I know I will cry like a baby when it is cut! What do you think?



You can see Ryan behind her in the pack and play trying to escape!

Friday, April 20, 2012

Repurposing Formula Cans

Lately I have been on a crafting, organizing, decorating kick, basically my house has been driving me nuts!  My daughters art supplies are one of the things that bugs me the most! I had been looking for a cute way to store her things.  One day as I was taking out the recycling I realized that every week I am tossing out formula cans, they are the perfect size for all her markers, pens, crayons and some of my crafty stuff to! So the following is what I came up with. 

First you need a formula can (even a Quaker Oats, coffee or a similar can would work as well).


Then I take the label off, you don't have to but it gave Addison something to help mommy with!



Then you need to gather your supplies, I use 12 x 12 scrapbook paper, my paper cutter,
 and a glue gun.


Cut the paper to the size that you need, mine was about 7 1/4 inches.  So my first cut was 7 1/4" x 12.  I used a line of hot glue to secure it to the can, you could use any type of adhesive that you perfer, just make sure it holds strong.


That does not make it all the way around, so I use the remaining to cut the size
that I need to fill in the gap.  Glue that on and you're done!




The next part is optional, I like to add a strip of solid colored matching paper to it, that way I can label it with what its contents are, as you can see on some of the cans in the last picture.



Here's my lovely collection so far, I didn't get started till our son was 6 months old, I hate that I wasted so many formula cans before I came up with this!  The small one on the top is a coffee can.


I may try doing some with modge podge next time!




Thursday, April 19, 2012

Children conspiring against you?

Can a three year old and a 6 month old conspire against you?  It seems like mine just might be!! On pretty regular basis as soon as I get Addison down for a nap, within 5 minutes Ryan wakes up!

They look so innocent don't they?!

Beauty of Spring


One of the sure signs of spring here in Western New York are the blossoms on the trees! We happen to have a beautiful weeping cherry tree in our front yard.  It blossomed very early this year because of record breaking temps here in mid-March, we were worried we would not have any blossoms because we had a few freezes after it started to have buds.  But here it is, in all its beauty!  I will try and get another picture of it in the morning, when it looks even more beautiful!

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Getting Ready for our Garden

Last year was our first attempt at a vegetable garden, and it for the most part was a success! Actually it overwhelmed us a bit! Didn't help that I was very pregnant last summer and hated being out in the heat!  Our garden last year was 8ft  by 8 ft, in the fall we decided to expand it to 24 ft by 8 ft! This may be a great thing or a complete disaster! We will see what happens, either way we are very excited! 

So today the kids and I started our seeds for our herb garden inside, so they would  be ready to plant when its time!   

We started out with a seed starting kit and 6 different types of herbs.


This is what the little dirt pellets looke like when you open the kit,  6 cups of water later and they look like....


this!


Heres Addison planting the seeds.


All done!


Here she is with the kit we got her for Easter!  Has flowers and tomatoes in it.

Decorating it with stickers


And here is baby Ryan who was supervising!

New to this blogging thing!

I have been thinking about starting a blog to document all the adventures of raising kids, crafting, cooking, canning, gardening and other everyday adventures around our home! So this is my first post of what I hope will be many more!

I love looking at other blogs and of course pinterest so alot of this will be about my attempts at doing things from those sites that inspire me! In time I hope I will get better at this and have more interesting posts! Enjoy!

First I wanted to show you who my inspiration in life is, my kids!