a MUST try recipe

Okay, You have to try this recipe...I made this for dinner last night...got it off of the pioneer woman blog...you can find it in my favorite links...but follow the link below to go to her other blog "the pioneer woman cooks"....Do it, I promise you will not be dissapointed! I only made 4 sandwhiches thinking Brian would eat 2, I would eat one, and the kids would split one. Brian gobbled up 2 and could have eaten another, andrew inhaled his half and said it was the best sandwich he has had in his life and I certainly could have eaten another one! Here is a picture of it below, this is not one of the one's I made, it is from the PW blog....you have to check out her cooking site to see how she does each recipe, it is SO great! I won't put pictures from her site on here again, cuz I don't want to use pictures without permission, but I wanted to whet your appetite to lure you to check out her site....DO IT!! The page this link takes you to will have other recipes as well....this one is the second one down. I have the brisket, the chicken spaghetti, the lasagna and the olive bread on my menu for the next 2 weeks so I will tell you how they are!
http://www.thepioneerwomancooks.com/the_pioneer_woman_cooks/dinner/index.html

When my kids drive me crazy!!

You know you have said it..."My kids are driving me crazy!!" Well I said it several times today! I have found that when I get that way, the best thing for me to do is take them outside and take some pictures of them...So that is what I did today! When I come in and review the pictures, it always makes me so thankful for my precious kids and even thankful for the craziness that comes with being a mom! Here are a few of the shots from today!

Andrew and Kelli discovered an ant hill right in front of where I had them sit...the pictures of them looking at the ants turned out much better than the posed ones!

This next one is my favorite!! Makes me smile!!

Happy Fathers Day!!

More stains removed!

I tried the first formula (with the regular clorox) on the 4 outfits that had stains remaining after using the second formula with clorox 2...The outfits were 2 yellow sleepers. a white shirt with tan trim and a cute baby blue, white and dark chocolate brown stripped outfit. All four are now stain free....there were a few side effects however...I now have 2 yellow sleepers, a white shirt with yellow trim and a cute baby blue, white and very light milk chocolate stripped outfit! But all would have gone in the garabage because of the stains and are now perfectly wearable!! =) So make a note of these magic solutions!! In the first batch of clothes there was a white tshirt of Andrews that straight out of the washer looked like it was dirty (it was his favorite grubby shirt). Now it looks almost brand new!! I wish I would have thought to take before and after pictures to show you the results! Also...the cascade I used was powder not liquid. Don't know if that would make a difference! Happy Stain Removing!

Magic Stain Removing Solution

Okay so recently my mom and I undertook the daunting task of organinzing all of the kids clothes that we have. Over the last 6 years I have managed to collect 12 huge bins of clothing from size newborn to size 8 for both boys and girls. Because I have collected these at random times from garage sales and alot of hand-me-downs, I have just been throwing them into bins with no strategic organization whatsoever! So with a new baby soon to arrive I felt it was the time to strategically organize them! So mom and I last Monday (after commendeering my dad to carry all 12 bins up from the basement) tackled the project! We labeled each piece of furniture in the living room as well as two tables in the dining room with age ranges and genders and emptied all 12 bins into their appropraite piles and then went through each pile and weeded out all clothes with stains or that I just didn't like anymore. It was rather embarrassing to see all of these clothes! I could have clothed a small nation's population of children I am sure! We got it down to 9 bins all labled and put back into the basement in only about 8 hours!! It was a long day, but oh what a good feeling!! All this to say that I found several of my favorite newborn clothes had spitup and other stains on them and really was not wanting to throw them away. My mom mentioned that my Aunt Madeline had this magic solution for getting stains out. So I got the solution from her and tried it out and I was SO pleased with the results! 24 out of 28 newborn outfits came out looking brand new!!!! Because of these great results I thought I would share the solution with all of you! So here is the Magic Solution!! She originally got it from a school newsletter...

Football moms: Here's the annual "magic recipe" for those outfits your son wears on those grassy, muddy football fields (It works for stains on everyones clothes)

NYLON WHITENER
1/4 cup Cascade
1/2 cup chlorine bleach
1 gal hot water
Soak 30 minutes. Rinse in clear water. Rinse in vinegar and water. Then put through regular wash cycle.

******************************

Another one I have is:
1 c Cascade
1 c Clorox 2
1 gallon hot water
Soak overnite.

I was afraid to use the first one because most of the outfits were colors, so I did the 2nd one. I am going to try the first one on the 4 outfits that still had stains left and I will be sure and let you know!

Confessions of a Pioneer Woman!!

Okay...I just added to my favorite links....I got this off of another blog and have quickly become addicted! The blog is posted by a gorgeous 30 something woman who lived in LA and who was swept off her feet by a cowboy who she is now married to and has 4 children with. He moved her to his families working cattle ranch and she journals her daily life and has a huge following! She also has several "side" blogs including one called The Pioneer Woman Cooks...where she features recipes and takes amazing pictures of her preparing them! It is a great site and she is hysterical!! Warning that she also can use an occasional curse word...

The Joys of Pregnancy

The only thing that I think is wrong with this picture is that I think they left a "B" off in front of one of the words on the right! =) And if it was a picture of me she would certainly have something to eat in her hands!! I will try to get an actual prego picture of me on soon. I don't know why some of you want to see that...just picture me how you know me to usually look, with a beer belly! =)

More Fun in the Pool!!

We got the big pool (10feet across, 3feet deep) set up and have been loving it!! Last week it was pretty rainy, so we just left the solar cover on it and didn't get to swim....well yesterday Brian took the cover back to see how the temp was and what the water was looking like...lets just say close to pea soup!! We had not put any chemicals in it yet and also didn't get new filters until this week...It was totally gross but over night it was all cleared up! Amazing what 10 oz of chlorine, a little algae killer and running the filter will do!! So the kids had to settle to play in the little kiddie pool yesterday...lucky mom got to get in the pea soup and stir stuff up so it would circulate through the filter!! The things we do for our kids! Also we found this "family" of ants right outside our back door. I was inside comforting Kelli who had just fallen down some stairs and Andrew came running in to say that he found a "cake of ants". Brian from a distance thought that it was dirt/an ant hill...but no, it was thousands of little ants!! Thank goodness they didn't get in the house! And again, thank goodness for chemicals!! =) This picture below just doesn't do it justice! But it gives an idea!

The Graduate

Andrew has attended a wonderful Christian pre K program this year and has really loved it! He has also done exceptionally well! I think it will be a great help as he gets ready to transition to kindergarten in the fall! Brian and I agree that it is totally ridiculous to have a graduation, but of course it sure makes for cute pic's, a 5 year old in a cap and gown!!

Enjoying the great outdoors!

I asked the kids if they would please let me take a couple quick pictures of them before they got to their play ~ Thought these were adorable!
Brian has been working with Andrew on his catching skills...he seems to be a natural at it! Andrew loves to teach Kelli things, so he decided to pass along some instructions to his aprehensive little sister!!
Catch one....successful!
Catch two...unsuccessful!