Enter to Win a Free Playset and Garden!

With our Mr. Jack's 2nd birthday quickly approaching we have decided to get him a swingset this spring! So I was really excited when I stumbled across this Backyard Discovery Giveaway!

Enter to Win!

Go to the Backyard Discovery Blog and follow the link to the….

Backyard Discovery Facebook Page and like them.

Click on the “Double Fun Sweepstakes” wording in the left hand sidebar.

Fill out the form.

That’s it! You’ll be entered to win. Sweepstakes run from January 18 until March 16, 2012.

Haluski

One day at the grocery store I was rushing around and accidently bought a head green cabbage instead of lettuce. I couldn't think of what to do with it until someone mentioned Haluski. I love Haluski!! After reading many internet recipes I decided to make up my own since none were exactly how I remember it.

1 lb pork chops
12 ounces of egg noodles
1 head cabbage
1 large sweet onion
1 stick butter
olive oil
garlic salt

1. Cook pork chops in large skillet in oil.
2. Remove pork chops leaving drippings still in skillet.
3. Add pieces of cabbage and sliced onion to skillet with half stick of butter.
4. Boil egg noodles according to package, drain, and add the other half stick of butter.
5. Once cabbage and onions are cooked mix in egg noodles and garlic salt to taste.
6. Serve with pork chops!

Not the healthiest meal but very tasty!!

Nursery

I have been very busy designing the nursery lately. I think I have a final design and am going to start making the DIY items on my list. It's going to be very custom and handmade! Hopefully this nesting stage stays for a while so I can complete all of the projects on my list. So far there are nine project:
1. t-shirt latch hook rug
2. bird mobile
3. crib skirt
4. curtains
5. crib bumper
6. wall butterflies
7. pouf seat
8. yellow dresser
9. button monogram

So I guess this blog will have a lot of DIY instructions now too! Here is the link to my board on polyvore showing all the details of where everything in the picture came from.

American Spaghetti

Like the Greek Chicken Soup, this is another recipe I got from my stepmom Mary Ann. It is so simple but Craig absolutely loves it and will eat it cold for days. He even helped me make it yesterday when we were making the Greek Chicken Soup :)

Recipe:
1.5 lbs ground beef
2- 15 ounce cans of stewed tomatoes (I use Hunt's)
1/3 onion diced
1 lb spaghetti
1/2 stick butter

Brown beef in a large skillet and drain. Set beef aside. Put undrained stewed tomatoes and diced onion in skillet. Cut up stewed tomatoes into bite sized pieces. Add beef back into skillet. Cook on medium heat until onions are transparent. In the meantime boil water for spaghetti and cook spaghetti as directed on package. Drain and mix with butter. Pour sauce over spaghetti when ready and it is complete.

Update and Greek Chicken Soup

So this weekend was a bit of a fail. All I got done were the pictures of his party package which did not turn out as good as I had hoped. I really need to take a photography class to learn how to use light to my advantage. I have come to really dislike the flash and want limit it's use as much as possible. Then when I try to use natural light with no flash I get a glare. Lighting is very frustrating!





Anyway, the reason I didn't get that much accomplished was that I got a cold. The best cure for the cold in our house is Greek Chicken Soup! I am so excited Craig offered to help me make it tonight because I know after eating it I will instantly feel better. Something with the lemon and egg really makes you sweat.

Recipe:
4 lb Whole Chicken
Salt
1 cup chopped Carrots (optional)
1 cup chopped Celery (optional)
Chicken Broth (optional)
4 Eggs
4 Lemons
1 cup Orzo

Put a whole chicken in a pot and cover it with water and salt to taste. Boil 45 min until cooked. Remove chicken and let cool. Add carrots and celery to broth. Boil until carrots are cooked. (You can add more chicken broth if you want here) In a mixing bowl beat eggs with juice from 3-4 lemons. Gradually beat in broth until mixture is hot then add to pot. Be careful not to do it too quickly or the egg will cook. Now that chicken has cooled break off bite size pieces and put them in pot. Add orzo, let boil 7 more minutes and it's done. Serve with lemons, salt and pepper. Takes about 2 hours to make but it's worth it!

(Photo from Real Simple)

Since I am going to the store to get the ingredients to make American Spaghetti, Pot Roast, something with chicken and Chili. Recipes to come :)

Ready for the weekend...

If I have enough time and energy this weekend I would like to-

1. Complete the party package for Jack's Birthday Party


2. Put a scrapbook together of the last couple years on Picaboo


3. Start organizing basement, then continue upward through all the closets and finally office then nursery


4. Make my own maternity pants


5. EXERCISE!

Saturday, we have my nephew and Godson Brody's birthday party this weekend and my uncles suprise party then Craig and I are going to take some much needed time for ourselves afterwords to shop or go see a movie. So all that will have to happen tonight, Saturday morning and Sunday. I'm thinking 1, 2, and 5 is tonight and tomorrow morning. Then 3, possibly 4, and definitely 5. These are all more like goals, not plans but we'll see how they go.

On another note, my fancy new camera messanger bag came in last night. It's the Kelly Moore- Kelly Boy Bag in grey. Bigger than I thought but it will definitely fit everything we need to carry around Disney and I can use it for a lot of things after. I also ordered my first pair of Birkenstock Gizeh shoes. I needed something comfy to wear walking around Disney and really didn't want to get tennis shoes. Only 23 days until we're at the most magical place on earth! Can't wait to see Jack's face light up, he's going to love it! :)

Gender Reveal

Of course I had to make a big deal about revealing the gender to our families. We found out Monday and it has been so hard not to tell everyone but I wanted to wait until I could get a majority of them together before spilling the news. Last night, my sister Holly returned from Germany so I asked my other sisters to come to my dads house to welcome her home. Unfortunately they saw right through my plan and asked if we knew the babies gender. I didn't answer my sisters questions so they knew we were going to find out something.

My friend and Jack's babysitter Chelsea stayed after I got home from work and helped me make the cake. So glad she did because I would have totally failed without her help! Once everyone got to my dads I set up the video camera, brought out the cake and and we cut in to find a pink cake! IT'S A GIRL!!! I made a cupcake with pink icing inside to share the news with my mom and a gluten free cake for my in laws. I get to take my mom to work today so she'll find out then and my in laws are coming over for dinner tonight so all the family will know by this evening.

We are really excited to have a little girl expecially since she will have a big brother to protect her. Jack is going to be a great big brother too :) Now let the nursery decorating begin! I was originally planning a yellow and grey "you are my sunshine" theme but I might have to throw some pink in there now. I'm sure I'll post my ideas soon....

Jack's 22 months!

Boy time sure does fly! My baby is such a little man now. I can't believe his birthday is only two months away! Time to start party planning :) even though we are just going to have a small get together at our house I still want to make it a really cute party for him. He's really into a lot of things but I decided on a tractor/farm animal party. Here are my ideas so far-

Love this cake-

and these cupcakes-

these plates and napkins-

and this photo prop is so cute!

New Year, New Blog!

My new found addiction to Pinterest has reconnected my interests and the web. There are so many new and wonderful things I want to share so I never forget that instead of making a blog for each I thought I would just make one for all my lovelies. :)

First off is family. I have a wonderful supportive husband Craig and rambunctious sweet little man Jack. They are on the top of my love list and we are going to become a family of four with a another baby due in June. We are very fortunate to live close to our parents and have a great relationship with all.

Living near family brings lots of opportunities for get togethers and another one of my favorites- party planning! I absolutely love planning get togethers. One of my goals is to become an excellent host that throws fabulous parties. I am still learning but I do enjoy any excuse to get together with family and friends.

Since my memory is know to not be the greatest, getting people together must be accompanied by taking pictures. For larger occasions, I try to hire my favorite photographer Kalyn with coco.laine photography but I got a great new camera and am learning how to capture special moments myself. I joined Rock the Shot community of photographers and plan to take some photography lessons. I am hoping these things will help take my skills to the next level. Then all I will have to do is spend time documenting all the photos I take!

I also love food, reading my Kindle and decorating our beautiful new home. All I need now is to hit the lottery so I can spend more time with all of my lovelies!