Saturday, February 22, 2014

Bandz Coming Out My Ears!

We survived a bad thunderstorm the other night, but that is what to expect in early Spring. It's just amazing, it was just last week we were digging ourselves out of 6 inches of snow and ice and the past few days have been such a delight with upper 60s and 70 degree weather. It was so nice on Tuesday that Colton and I had a picnic. He wanted to stay outside and play, but his tummy was rumbling. We went in the house and got our lunch boxes and packed us up a nice lunch. He didn't know what to think. All smiles, he put in his bag of chips and cookies. I was actually shocked that he wanted to try my peanut butter sandwich. He is very picky and never would try peanut butter because it looked weird. Well, he likes it now. He still has his favorites, but he will take a bite or two of a peanut butter sandwich with nothing else on it. I told him how I love honey on my peanut butter and he wrinkled up his nose. Little stinker! I told him where the picnic blanket was and here he came down the hallway with this big ole' quilt. "Is this it mom?" he said gasping for breath. He was so excited that we were actually going to eat outside. He insisted on taking his shoes off before getting on the blanket. Then, he would waller around on the blanket as he ate his sandwich. He never stays still for a second. When we were finished, he informed me that he liked our picnic and that we should do it again. LOL! 

Do you have Bandz obsessed children? My daughter recently got involved in Bandz and making bracelets. She complains because the loom I purchased isn't made the same way as the girls on the instruction videos on YouTube. We've found out the hard way that the pegs are not laid out the exact way the instructions tell us and I've tried to modify, but it's doesn't work. We don't have a Michaels close by, but I promised Katie the next time, I'm close to a Michaels that I will pick up the loom her cousin uses. Well my child has developed this obsession with her bands. Every time I turn around she is making bracelets and I didn't even know that there was a level. She is ecstatic that she made it to level 4. I'm like, what doesn't that mean exactly? She explained to me that each level is based on what type of bracelet you can make. She knows how to make 4 different types of bracelets. My response is "Wow! Well okay." I've had to threaten to take away the bands a couple of times because she doesn't consider it priority to clean her room or taking a bath before designing her next creation. There are times where all I want to do is pull out my hair. What can I say? She's 8 and good at it. She has requested more bands because she is running out. The rainbow bracelets require a lot of them apparently. I finally asked "what are you planning on doing with all of these bracelets once you have finished?" After roller her eyes and thinking a bit, she said "keep them." I suggested that she give them away to friends or something. I mean, she loves making them. Put them to better use. Something for heaven sakes. If she had enough of them, I wonder if the local hospital would allow you to distribute them to sick kids. Wouldn't that make a nice "get well" present? I think it would brighten those little kid's day to receive something like that. I'll have to do my research and talk with Katie about it. 

I really haven't cooked anything new lately. It's been the same old same old. Because of the bad Winter, we've been eating a lot of comfort foods: soup, casseroles, hearty-fattening stuff. Trust me, you can tell that I'm packin' it. LOL! It's still a little cool to be eating salads and grilled foods, but I'm all ears. What do you recommend? After preparing my children for school in the mornings, there are times that I completely forget to eat breakfast. Well, I found a recipe that I might try out. It's Nutella Breakfast bars. Made with coconut milk, baby food prunes, oats and nutella. I know . . . PRUNES! Right? However, it does sound pretty good and if I make a big cookie sheet of this stuff, I could cut it up in sections and carry it with me on those busy mornings.

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I've been wanting to post this, but continued to forget about it. We discovered The Shed Beef Blaster marinade for our steaks and it is AWESOME!! No need for steak sauce during consumption. It is that GOOD! We've also tried the Southern Sweet for pork barbecue and it's good as well. Just try the Beef Blaster the next time you grill out steaks. I put our steaks in a marinade bath for at least half a day. Delicious! 



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While watching one of the millions of reality shows that are out on the network right now, we noticed one of the guys seasoning a chicken with "Slap Ya Mama" seasoning. On the show, he said it was the best seasoning on the market. That's all it took, we had to try it out. We've only had an opportunity to cook with it once and it's pretty good. You might like it as well. 

Happy Grillin' Y'all!


  Mirya

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

2014 Valentine Treats & Crafts

I know this is a little late, but maybe you could use the idea for next year. On Pinterest there were a few cool website with tutorials and printables for the kids to do for Valentines. Katie recently fell in love with owls. I have to admit that I think they are pretty cute.

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Well, I just fell in love with these sweet sweet love owls on Pinterest.  I knew that Katie would love them just as much as I.  I couldn't wait to make these cuties.  I got a little carried away because I knew that I wanted each piece to be different, so I picked out a few different sheets of paper.  I could fit 4 owls to one large piece of scrapbook paper this is because I wanted the design from the paper to go a specific way.  Next thing I knew, I ended up making about 20 of these.  Thankfully, I attended a bridal craft day at my sister's house and gave them away with Blow Pops as a treat.  
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I got the idea and template from A Creative Cookie Blog.

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Again, I found these free printables on Pinterest and thought of Katie.  Of course, she LOVED them and couldn't wait to pass them out to her friends at school.  I would like to thank Artsy Fartsy Mama for the free printables, they turned out precious.

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I printed them on card stock and cut little slits to stick suckers through them and I secured them with a little tape on the back of the card.

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Colton has a fascination with a song "What Does The Fox Say?" When I showed him these Valentines, he had to have them.  U-Create Crafts has free printables.  I just taped the suckers onto the card stock paper.

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Colton wanted to put stickers on his Valentine box.  He found these robots at Hobby Lobby and decided that he wanted them on his box.  After his Valentine party, he told me that his buddy brought a monster box. Next year, he wants me to make him a monster Valentine box because it was so cool.

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Katie wanted to go with the owls again.  They are cute! "Owl Always Love You"


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I got this idea from It's Written On The Walls .  I put the teachers Hershey's Kisses in a heart shaped bag and tied the tag to the bag.  I created the tag on Mac Pages with a teacher clipart from the internet; printed it on red card stock; cut a bigger circle of scrapbook paper and glued the printed piece to the scrapbook.  I think they turned out cute.

  Mirya

Monday, February 17, 2014

Fabulous Fun February!

We have had such a blessed month.  We started off by celebrating my mother's 77th birthday.  Doug grilled up some thick cut smoked pork chops and sides and finished off with a slice of mom's birthday cake.  It was delicious!  
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Doesn't she look Fabulous at 77? 

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Katie made her grandma a special bands ring

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I love Colton's face, while mom is reading her card.

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I've been taking Photoshop classes this past month.  I thought I would practice creating matte designs with cut outs.

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We've had a lot of snow this month with two pretty big snow systems for us.  One day we had 2.5 inches of snow and within a couple of days, we received a total 6 inches.  Some areas received much more than we did.  We had a lot of fun in the snow and the school was dismissed for a few days.  Fortunately for us parents, our governor declared a state of emergency; thus, we don't have to make up the days we missed.  Yay! 

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Our sweet and lethal kitty

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While the kids warming up in the house with their daddy, I decided to go on a nice long walk and took lots of pictures.  I found these icicles on this bluff. It was so serene walking, listening and witnessing God's hand in creation.  I feel so blessed to experience it.  

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I'm seriously thinking about using this for our Christmas card this year. 

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Just beautiful!

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Colton had a field trip with his class to the Fun Zone.  This is the first time, he has been there.  He absolutely loved it!  Those kids were nothing but a blur, running wild, going here and there.  
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Colton wants to go here for his birthday party.  I've done this for Katie's birthday one year and those little girls had a blast.  I think we can fit The Kids Zone in for his birthday party.  

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Big Buddies!! 

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Classmates and Good Friends

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Here was our second and last Winter Storm

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Several people had some trees and tree limbs to fall because there was so much snow on them.  When trees and limbs fall, people lost power as well.  We were fortunate because we didn't lose power the entire time.  
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Snow Ball FIGHT!! 

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HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!  
The kids all dressed up and ready to go to their Valentine's party at school.  They brought back so much candy.  Oh me! 

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Every year their grandparents bring the kids balloons for Valentine's Day along with another little surprise. 
I'll have to show you the Valentines we made to pass out to all of our friends at another time because as you can tell, I have just a little too much to blog about. 

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Katie missed a day of school due to snow last month.  Our school system was approved to use the Flexible Learning Class.  In other words, she has to accomplish several extra hours of academic and physical education at home.  She did a few extra minutes after school to make up this time.  We got all of it done and all that was left is 3 hours of museum or special academic outing.  She mentioned a couple of places that she wanted to visit, but I got online and went researching.  I came across a great deal from the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville.  They've had a DaVinci exhibit for at least a few days.  The deal was this weekend only to bring in a drawing of an invention or colored Mona Lisa and the kid gets in free.  The kids had a good time.  The DaVinci exhibit was interesting to me and it had several hands on invention models for the kids to play on.  

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Our little kiddos ate a little brave breakfast this morning because they wanted to go on the G-Force ride, the space simulator and climb the rock wall.  Katie saw the Space Shot and absolutely wanted to try it out.  I couldn't hardly believe it, but I didn't hold her back.  I was glad daddy went with her though.  

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There they went

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Momma's future astronauts in training

Our February has been filled with fun and laughter and the month isn't over yet.  What will the rest of the month hold for us?  Check back later.

Mirya