Valentines Day House

Mom gave me a plastic gingerbread house for christmas and it is one that you can decorate, clean, and redecorate for any holiday or to match anything in your house.  with valentines day coming up and the boys gone to the basketball game, it was the PERFECT opportunity for holly and me to roll up our sleeves and decorate it!  i bought a lot of candy at walmart, and cereal.  hot tamales, red hots, candy corn, sweet tarts, another kind of hearts (that taste horrible), strawberry mini wheats, twizzlers (which holly said tasted like poop), strawberry wafer cookies, pink marshmallows, pink heart gummies, vanilla frosting, and green sprinkles.

the way it went was... she did half and i did half.  you'll see...
but she ended up with a lot less frosting that she started with.

i was done and my hands were washed... she's still work on it here... but i remembered to get my camera.

 

her final product - she was very proud!  isn't it beautiful!!!???

all in the details!!! (and the spikes across the top are "my side")

 note how the frosting is missing...

 i think this is supposed to be a flower!

birds eye view...

  isn't it just adorable?

ok, here is mine.  it looked more like the picture that came in the brochure with the house - clearly more of a pattern than holly's (she is only 3!)

 

 i can't wait to make an easter one!

tickle tickle!

in honor of this week's paper mama challenge (category: feet), i am posting this photo!  what a lovely collection of piggies!

skipping days (stomach bug)

thursday night, our heater had this awful smell coming from it and no heat to boot. so, the kids and i packed up and went to mom and dad's house. nathaniel stayed behind to clean out the attic and find out model numbers, etc. for our HVAC man. 

it was a little after 8 when we were driving to moms.  i remember thinking "i guess i will be late to work tomorrow!" - the kids bedtime is 8 and no way could they go straight to bed at mamaw's house.  too many things to do. one thing i was NOT doing was stressing about how much it was gonna cost because we have our dave ramsey emergency fund for times like this!

like, break your glasses.  yup.  not really broken, exactly, but i was back in the bedroom and kendal brought me his glasses and said "here mommy!"  one lens was missing.  FRANTIC SEARCH!  found it.  no screw.  crap.  guess this REALLY means i'll be late as the glasses place doesn't open until 8.

at mamaws house, the kids have a routine of who sleeps where - and i just messed it all up.  kendal and holly BOTH wanted to sleep with me (rather than one with mamaw and one with granddaddy) - so we started that way.  not for long, though, holly wanted out because kendal wouldn't scoot over.    holly and mamaw bunked up at that point. 

around 12, kendal woke up screaming because his legs hurt.  after forcing advil down his throat, he finally wanted mamaw (to calm him down) and so mamaw and i switched places in bed.

for almost 2 hours i tossed and turned because i couldn't get comfortable.  for some weird reason, i kept feeling nauseated.  especially if i laid on my left side.  i tried and tried to get situated - but finally i got up thinking "i'll just go try to use the bathroom."  that didn't end so pleasant.  i woke everyone in the house up vomiting (i didn't see it coming either...).

so for the next 12 hours, my stomach felt like someone punched me in it.  because i have migraines, dehydration is VERY important to NOT GET otherwise i'll end up in the hospital.  dehydration causes migraines causes more vomiting causes more dehydration... vicious circle.  i took phenegrin to help after the 2nd round of puking my guts out.  luckily, i timed it right and it helped. 

the next 24 hours were very painful because i had a fever too - and along with the regular discomfort of fever (achy joints, hurting skin), my backbone hurt like MAD!  it felt like i had spikes out each vertebra and i had a hard time moving (because of pain).  tylenol and advil hardly helped with it.  i thought it was hard to sleep but, at the same time, i did a lot of sleeping. i was quarantined to a back bedroom with no heat (which was fine by me) and no tv or music or sound and several blankets to pull on and off as needed (as fever fluctuated).  mom came in ever couple of hours (?could have been every 5 minutes for all i know!) and left me drink (or to make sure i was drinking).

so, i missed a whole day of my life.  it is totally gone (and frankly, i don't want it back!) 

the part i found so interesting is that, in the middle of all my fever and pain, all i could think about was how happy i was to have my mama taking care of me (not that nathaniel couldn't have done it..., but his hands were full with the kids)!  if it wasn't for our heater going out, i would have never been there. i hope this was a Godly Intervention (Miracle?) to keep my husband and babies from getting this bug.  my mom and dad have likely already had it (in missouri).  i sorta feel like it is a miracle i'm still alive.

suppose time will tell on the contagious part.

valentines day card!

again, not to spoil everyone's card - BUT, i love the prospect of a $10 off to shutterfly. 

Photo Card

View the entire collection of cards.

First Nail Polish EVER!

not only is this the first nail polish for 2012, it is the first nail polish holly (age 3) has ever had (i've offered it many times to her gentle decline)!  she chose a turquoise blue for her first one.  she wanted it on the fingers and the toes!  my nails were the same as hers.  it looked so good on us both! SHE did really good, too, not one of her nails had a smudge or needed to be redone (which is more than i could say for myself).

kendalism - spinners

a while back (maybe 2 years ago), nathaniel bought me an atari game system.  yup, one compatable with today's TVs - suppose it just looks like the old one, with joysticks and all.  it was fun playing (beating him) in maze craze over and over.  but, it really just sits there.  i'm not much of a gamer.

kendal discovered it about a month ago and fell in love with two of the games.  he askes EVERY DAY If he can play a game in front of the tv.  i try to put him off until the weekend and usually i do (successfully) but this weekend, he forgot to ask - or we were too busy/gone. 

today he asked.  nathaniel got out the atari, and kendal asked for the shooting game (something with airplanes).  next, he asked for the spinners.  spinners?  we had no idea what he was talking about.

 remember these bad boys?  when you shoot them, they spin.  yea.  spinners.  (i hated combat when i was little.)

he also loves maze craze.  and "the boy shooter" (some aqua game where a scuba diver shoots fish).  anyway, his attention span is about 30 minutes, and holly's about 2. 

"orange boy" is outlaw - very similar to combat, just with people.  i never remember most of the games on this system.  maze craze was the ONLY reason he bought it for me!  he didn't believe i was the supremo champion of all time!

Hot Toddy (tastes like Russian Tea)

1 48-ounce bottle or 6 cups cranberry juice (i used the Lowes Foods Brand of cranberry juice)3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice, reserve peel (i.e. juice from one lemon)1/4 cup sugar 2 cups filtered water 12 strips lemon peel, 1-inch long (from one lemon, avoid the "white")2 cinnamon sticks, broken into 4-inch pieces 1 teaspoon whole cloves 1 teaspoon dried allspice 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg 1/3 cup bourbon 1. In a large saucepan, combine cranberry juice, lemon juice, sugar, and water. 2. In the center of two 6-inch squares of cotton cheesecloth, place lemon peel strips, cinnamon sticks, cloves, allspice, and nutmeg. With cotton string, tie cheesecloths tightly into spice bags. 3. In a medium saucepan, add spice bags and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, covered, for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and discard spice bags (if you don't, the toddy starts to get bitter). Add bourbon (or not). 4. Transfer to heatproof pitcher, or simply ladle beverage directly from saucepan into serving cups. This stuff is awesome and tastes just like the instant russian tea mom used to make!

chocolate nutella cookies - recipe from vegetarian times

Chocolate Nutella Cookies
 from Vegetarian Times recipe and with my comments!!!

 1 3/4 cup unbleached all purpose flour i used organic
 1/4 cocoa powder plain old hershey's powder!
 1/2 tsp of baking soda
 1/4 tsp of salt i used fine grained salt (i have cse grained salt that i use from time to time, that is why i specify)
 1 cup Nutella i didn't actually have 1 cup of nutella, so i used what i had - about 1/2 cup, and then used almond butter to fill in the rest.  they still turned out great and tasted like nutella.
 4 oz/1stick unsalted butter real butter, not margarine.
 3/4 cup of sugar i used cane sugar, organic, not bleach white processed sugar though i'm sure that is fine too.
 1 large egg farm raised organic!
 1/2 tsp of hazelnut extract didn't have this. used vanilla instead!

1. Sift together flour,cocoa powder salt and 1/4 tsp of salt and set aside does anyone ever do this step?
2. Beat Nutella and butter till smooth (I used an electric hand blender) i used an electric hand mixer, and this was after i put the butter in the microwave for 30 seconds to soften.  it was straight out of the fridge.  mutella and almond butter didn't go in the microwave though.
3. Add the egg and sugar to the above mixture and beat till well combined still used the hand mixer.
 4. Now slowly add the flour and in low speed incorporate into the wet mixture till dough forms.  i just put all the dry ingredients on top of the wet and then used a large fork to incorporate.  it wasn't hard.
5. Transfer the dough into a plastic wrap and shape into a 2inch diameter log and refrigerate for a minimum of 2 hours.  looked like a big poop.  kinda gross.  but, it was really tasty (i ate some yes!!!).  i stuck it in the freezer for about 30 minutes.  it was cold enough after that.
6. Heat oven to 375F.  um, i missed the 375 part.  i cooked them at 350
7. Cut log to 1/4 inch thick rounds and place on a cookie sheet.
8. Bake for 9 minutes and remove from the oven and let cool for 30-45 minutes.  since mine started on a cold stone, it took about 15 minutes.  i put both stones in the oven at the same time on two different shelves - never done that before - but they cooked well together.  and, it only took them about 15 minutes to cool off.

these cookes are AWESOME!!!