Perfect Touch

  I found this cute little touch on Dawn's blog last The Feathered Nest.  You really should go look at Dawn's!  They are gorgeous! 

The first step is to send your child out into the blizzard with a scissors.

Annie made one too ( a little bit of a hack job on the greens, but hey, she is only 5 :).

Annie's

I was going to make one for each cupboard but after making two I counted...I have 20 upper cupboards!  So that plan changed quickly & we only made four :)

But aren't they just the perfect touch!

Thanks Dawn for the idea!

Foiled Again

   It is actually my birthday today...I am NOT big into my birthday...I surprised even myself by doing this post.  But my little sister Rachael is nuts about birthdays and always tries to make my day special.  Here is my lil' sis & me & our 2nd babes.

   Every year I hear, "Why is your birthday so terrible every year!"  I usually get that phone call by my birthday night...today it came at 8a.m.

   I always tell her, " What are you talking about...it is always nice!"

  And then she remeinds me, "What about the year that you went to the new Copeland's and after you waited an hour for your food they came back & told you that the guy who has the key to the freezer took it home with him & they couldn't get your food out of the freezer." 

   "Oh yeah, that one sucked."  I agree.

   "What about when you drove across town, dropped off your kids, and were all excited to go out for sushi at the Kubuki house with reservations for a special backroom just for you & Kel .  Then when you were about to go in he said, 'Wait, where is my wallet?' So you had to skip it."

   "Oh yeah, that was really a bummer."

   "Or the year before that when we all had to drive well over an hour in the snow storm to drive 10 miles away & all the husbands were supper crabby."

   "Yeah, you are right Rach...my birthdays do suck!"  I fianlly agree.

   "And when it was your big 30th birthday & Kelly was in China...."

   Really I think she goes on for quite awhile.  But the year Kelly was in China sucked too :)  Before he got on the plane I said, "Next time you see me I will be out of my 20s!  I will be an Old woman!"

  And I was.  Here is how I picked him up at the airport:

Yes, he did think I was a nut job.  I am.  It runs in our family.  I always tell my kids, "You are weird...good thing I like weird."

   Anyway!  Today it has begun, Rachael had planned to drive across town & celebrate the day with me.  Blizzard!  She is not coming & I will not get one bite of that cake she made me & I already have received my first gift from Bo.  He cleaned my spice drawer!

   And when I asked him to fix my feathered Christmas tree that he ripped apart while I was doing this post he looked at me excitedly and said, "With my hammer?"

  

   Now I have him (& Annie) playing safely under this computer desk & a screaming baby on my lap as I try to hit PUBLISH POST.

   So, it has begun...my birthday.

 But, I do think a Snow Day off of school for my Annie is a good gift.  Happy Birthday to me :)

I always like to measure the snow by how high it is out my back window.

It is Rocco high today.

Hope you have a good day!  I am planning to too!

What are you serving the Reindeer?

   My mom took some of the grandkids (don't worry, not Bo)  to a Santa Breakfast.  They came home with very full goody bags but their favorite thing was a sack of reindeer food!  They made it themselves, Annie was very proud.

Here is an up close look:

   There was some straw, bird seed, rabbit pellets & the best ingredient of all was Christmas cookie sprinkles!  Wouldn't your kids have a fun time whipping up a batch of this for Santa's reindeer?  Just look in your pantry & I bet you have just what you need:  oatmeal, granola, raisins, dried fruit, even pick a little grass!  Just don't forget the Christmas Cookie Sprinkles! 

You could even give them a recipe to follow!

Here are the directions you might need for Christmas Eve:

Thanks Nanna for the fun day!

Not So Funny Kid 7

I am sure no one is surprised to see Bo's face here again after you read the title.

   Today we were invited over to my Father-in-law's cousin's house.  Wonderful woman!   Invites the whole family over a few times a year.  I was worried about bringing Bo since he is quite the Curious George (to put it nicely....sounds much cuter than monster). 

   Kelly (hubby) stationed himself downstairs & I was upstairs, that way we wouldn't have to chase Bo all over...we were set.   I turned to my SIL & said, "It doesn't really matter how well we try to watch him...Something bad WILL happen today."  She laughed.

   After half an hour I hear from downstairs, "Does crayon come off of wallpaper?"  I was down the stairs in a flash.  There was about a 2x2 foot huge scribbling in dark green crayon on her pretty pink wallpaper.  No!  So after we show Kelly's "Aunt" the wall & she is all sweet about it I ask to see her cleaning supplies.   It wasn't looking so good,  so I say, "I am going to Target quick"  I got magic earsers & KABOOM!  I love whoever invented Kaboom & I think Mr. Clean is very hot because it came off!  Totally off!  But as I walk in the door from Target I hear-"Hope you got a carpet cleaner."  He had dumped a cousin's Coke all over her pink carpet!

   As we were getting ready to eat his "Aunt" says, make sure you wash Bo's hands really good.  Someone put little piles of kitty litter on the table downstairs.  But don't worry we had time to change the tablecloth."

   After everything was cleaned I watched Bo like a hawk!!!!  I stayed an inch away for a LOOOOOOONNNNNGGGG time & then I said, "Honey, I am going to go change Rocco's diaper for the car ride home, we need to go before Bo does anything else.  Can you watch Bo?"  So I change the diaper & come back & say, "WHERE IS BO?" 

   Kel went down to look for him.  He comes up laughing VERY HARD carrying Bo with soaking wet pants.  He was laughing so hard he could barely talk.  Turns out Bo was chasing the cat around the laundry room with A FEW jugs of laundry detergent, trying to wash the cat.  I am NOT laughing.  At all.

   I turned & looked at his aunt as we surveyed the damage & I said, "I know this sounds terrible but....would you mind if I took a picture of this for my blog, they will never believe me.  She said sure.  I should have taken better pics to get the whole damage scene but I felt really bad for asking at all.

We cleaned it up & left right away.  I am mailing her a gift card tomorrow.

And of course he vomited on the car ride home.

The cat luckily was fast & did not get a drop of soap on her...poor Sophie.

I had a cute post I was going to do tonight but I just thought I would post this first.  :)

My Snow Angel

   It is snowing today.  It might be the snow that sticks around.  These pictures were Rocco's FIRST SNOW EVER pictures taken back in October.  I hadn't started blogging yet so I thought I would post them in honor of today's beautiful falling snow.

Whoops!  I had only turned around for a second.

Hey, I had my camera in my hand~I couldn't resist. 

My neighbor thought I was a nut for snapping a picture before scooping him up.

Good thing you can't hear the little guy screaming.

So you see...Rocco is not too happy that it is snowing again today.

Holushkawhat?

    I love family recipes!  I am not the best cook but I do love the tradition of passing down recipes from generation to generation.  Out of the 3 girls in my family I am the one who enjoys making Holushki.  Mostly because the other 2 don't like to eat it.  But I love it!  And this year I taught my daughter how to make it.  We always make it for Christmas Eve at my mom's. 

Holushki is a Slovak dish.  It is bacon, saurkraut, and potato dumplings.  I am sure I lost a lot of you with the word saurkraut.  But, if you do like saurkraut then you should really try this one.  (Husbands love it :)

First cut the bacon strips into fourths and fry them up.  It is much better soft (not crunchy) in this recipe.

While that is frying we use potatoes, flour, & milk to make the dumplings.

Annie shredded the potatoes.

(Get them into the milk fast so they don't turn brown)

Then add the flour, it is really lumpy!

Then you are ready to drop them into a big pot of boiling water.

I use a wooden spoon & cut them into the pot.

The smaller the dumplings the better.

Let them boil for 5 minutes.

Pull them out and rinse them with cold water.

Dump them into the bacon pan (I like to a little of the bacon grease & some butter)

Add the drained saurkraut.

Stir & enjoy!

It is even better a few hours later when the flavors have all soaked in!

I keep all my family recipes in this little photo album a friend gave me for my wedding.  (Thanks Pam)

This recipe book would be a great Christmas presents for daughters!   You don't have to fill it all up...just include a few & they can add to it as the years go by!  Even little girls would like their own recipe books!  I might just have to start one for Annie this year & put her first recipe as Holushki, she loves it too!

1lb. bacon
2 medium potatoes
1 small can saurkraut
1 C milk
2 1/2 C flour
butter

Fry the bacon up soft.
Boil water.
Shred potatoes.
Mix potatoes, milk & flour to make dumplings.
Quickly cut the dumplings into the boiling water.
Boil 5 minutes.
Drain & rinse dumplings in cold water.
Dump bacon, drained saurkraut, & dumplings together, stir in some butter (1/2 a stick or so)
Done!

A New Place to Play

Thanks to my friend at Polka Dot Daze my kids have a new place to play!  After she put up this picture I was inspired to make one of my own!

I actually finished it about 2 weeks ago.  I really should have ironed it for you so please excuse all the wrinkles...

The first morning the whole family was in there.  The kids play in it eveyday (usually Dad does too).  They love to have picnics in there!

One of my favorite things about it is listening to their conversations.  They say the funniest things!

And in the spirit of Christmas:

Childhood...will never be the same.

You Just Might Need a Pair of These Babies

   I LOVE Christmas lights.  As I was taking this picture Thanksgiving night out of my mom's front window, she ran to grab these little glasses she had bought for the grandkids to all wear on their rides home.

I should warn you, when you put them on you will look silly like these little guys.

But now when you look at this:

You see this:

Or this!

   It is really much cooler when you have them on!  Can you see the snowmen and snowflakes?  Your kids and grandkids will be ooooohing and ahhhhhing all night!  It was a very fun ride home, Thanks Grandma!  Hope you find some where you live!

Find the glasses sold online here :)