Field Trip to the Pumpkin Patch

This boy!

I just love him. Isn't he cute? But that is besides the point..  his class, along with the whole first grade went on a field trip to Grandpa Glen's pumpkin patch.

Little Lizzy

I'm slowly working on a scrapbook for Lizzy! After 5 weeks, I'm already behind. Here are some pages I've done recently! Its so fun to see how much she is already growing :)

First Day of School!

Yesterday was the first day of school for our bunch!

Below is the scrapbook page I put together. Its kinda wild, but so is the school year!

August 25, 2014 brought us another school year! Estefan went off to Middle School, leaving Allie and Mark to rule 3rd and 1st grade. They rode their bikes with their dad and met up with the Dalley kids. Allie is in Mrs. Mortensen class and Mark has Mrs. Brooks. We’re looking forward to a great year! 

Making Room for Baby

Yesterday we gave Allie's room a little make-over, to get ready for baby sister!

This is the baby corner. I took the old mirror that was attached to the top of the dresser and added a changing pad instead. To replace the mirror, I scoured Hobby Lobby and found the perfect one in the perfect shade of red to hang on the wall.

On either side of the mirror are Sarah Jane illustrations!

Near the changing pad is this little rocking horse Dustin made Allie a couple Christmas' ago..

Salsa (Revisited)

I originally posted this recipe (tutorial) back in 2009 and thought it was time to revisit it. June is our big spring garden harvest. Depending on the size of our garden I usually spend about every other day to about once a week canning tomato soup, salsa or spaghetti sauce. 

Since our kitchen remodel coincided with canning season this year, my mom graciously let me use her kitchen for most this year's canning! Canning with family is much more fun! 

But now my kitchen is mostly done, and I broke it in making salsa!

Tomatoes never looked so good as they do in new sinks!

Now onto the salsa...

Canning Spaghetti Sauce (Large Recipe)

Spaghetti Sauce

10 cup finely chopped onion

20 cloves garlic, minced

20 tbs cooking oil

20 lbs tomatoes, peeled and cup up

or 10 28 oz can of tomatoes

10 6 ounce can tomato paste

20 tsp instant beef bouillon granules

10 tsp dried oregano, crushed

5 tsp dried basil, crushed

10 tsp sugar

5 tsp salt

10 tsp pepper

10 cup water

10 large bay leaf

1. Prepare tomatoes- scald and peel.

2. In a very large saucepan (the one I use is 16qts) saute the onion and garlic in oil

3. Add tomatoes, tomato paste, sugar, bouillon granules, oregano, basil, bay leaf, salt, pepper and stir in water.

4. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer uncovered for about 2 hours. (Until you are happy with the consistency) Stirring occasionally.

5. At about this time I put my jars in the dishwasher to clean and sanitize them.
You'll need about 25 quarts for this recipe.

6. Remove Bay leaves and simmer for 15-30 more minutes.

7. Prep the lids by putting them in hot (but not boiling water) to activate the adhesive on the back.
Lay a towel down on your counter top, line up your squeaky clean bottles on the towel and get ready to fill them.

8. Pour your sauce into the jars
9. Add 1 tbs lemon juice or vinegar to pints jars
or 2 tbs lemon juice or vinegar to quarts jars

10. Wipe off the tops with a clean rag.
This will ensure a tight seal, also its a good time to check your jars for cracks.

11. Seal the jars. Put your jars on top of the rack, making sure none of them are touching. Place the big canning lid on top of your base. When you see steam coming out the little hole on the side of the lid, set your timer for 15 minutes.
12. After 15 minutes, carefully remove the processed bottles from the rack.
You should hear popping noises when your cans are fully sealed!

Once your bottles have cooled label them with the year and what is inside!

Happy canning!

100 Chapter Books for Kids

According to this website, these are the best 100 children's chapter books. I've heard of most, some not at all, and I've read plenty myself. I'm happy to be able to say we've read a lot of them as a family. I've decided to post this list here for our family, so we can cross them off as we read. We hope to read at least one a week this summer!

Charlotte’s Web

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

A Wrinkle In Time

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

The Phantom Tollbooth

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Holes

The Giver

From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler

The Hobbit

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Anne of Green Gables

The Mysterious Benedict Society

The Tale of Despereaux

The Velveteen Rabbit

Hatchet

The Little Prince

Because of Winn-Dixie

Alice in Wonderland

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

The Invention of Hugo Cabret

The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane

Tuck Everlasting

Bridge to Terabithia

Where The Red Fern Grows

Winnie the Pooh

James and the Giant Peach

Artemis Fowl

Island of the Blue Dolphins

The Golden Compass

The Bad Beginning

Number The Stars

Harriet the Spy

Maniac Magee

Coraline

The Lightning Thief

Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH

Black Beauty

Julie of the Wolves

Ella Enchanted

Shiloh

The Graveyard Book

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

Matilda

Little House on the Prairie

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Little Women

Wonderstruck

The Lost Hero

Sideways Stories From Wayside School

The Neverending Story

The Wind in the Willows

Fablehaven

Stone Fox

Inkheart

The Witch of Blackbird Pond

The Watsons Go To Birmingham, 1963

The Westing Game

Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Roll Of Thunder, Hear My Cry

When You Reach Me

The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz

Bud Not Buddy

Ramona The Pest

The Penderwicks

Diary of a Wimpy Kid

Frindle

The BFG

Stuart Little

Sarah, Plain and Tall

The Boxcar Children

The Secret of the Old Clock

A Long Way From Chicago

The Book of Three

Walk Two Moons

Redwall

The Borrowers

The Witches

The Thief Lord

The Maze of Bones

My Side of the Mountain

City of Ember

Judy Moody

Mary Poppins

Love That Dog

Out of the Dust

Johnny Tremain

Where the Mountains Meet the Moon

Peter Pan

The View From Saturday

Beezus and Ramona

Caddie Woodlawn

The Indian in the Cupboard

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

The Little White Horse

Pippi Longstocking

Fantastic Mr. Fox:

Kitchen SEMI-Reveal!

Things are starting to wrap up on our kitchen remodel!!

I can't believe we went almost a month with no sink and a whole week without a washer and dryer and stove! But its been well worth the wait.

Here are a couple BEFORE shots:

and a couple of my cute boys, right after the tile was installed!

We still have some finish work that needs to be done: light switch covers to update, install baseboard, a couple cabinet doors need to be changed (due to a simple oversight), the window needs to be reframed, RO installed, and I need to decide on a backsplash.. I'm sure this will be an ongoing project for life, but its mostly done!!

AFTER

Stainless under-mount sink and granite counter tops

I'm dreaming of a new stove.. someday!

The dining and hutch area. (Dreaming of a new fridge too!)

I loooooove the hutch! Its definitely the cherry on top of the remodel!

The beautiful floors

Up close of the countertop

Having the tile run throughout the whole back of the house (pantry and mud area), along with the kitchen helps the space look much larger! I'm loving everything!!!

More AFTER pictures to come :)

Kitchen DEMO!!!

We're in demo mode today!

Ripping up the floor..

Wood and nails everywhere...

My handsome workin' men!

Empty walls...

Pullin' down the old cabinets...

Pots and pans and plates and junk all over the living room...

Its crazy, but it will be so worth it!
Can't wait to post some after pictures!

Nesting

Nesting instinct refers to an instinct or urge in pregnant animals to prepare a home for the upcoming newborn(s). It is found in a variety of animals (both mammals and birds) including humans.^[1][2]

  Its seems to me that my nesting instinct has hit and is in full swing. I'm 24 weeks along and feeling good. I'm not too big to be miserable and I'm not sick. Heck I haven't even been exhausted for a while! I'm in the perfect mood to clean the closets, bathrooms, pantry... oh wait.. no! I'm in the perfect mood to decorate and rearrange things! I'm dying for the kitchen remodel to take off. We've schedule a day for tile to be laid but cabinets take a while to build.. and I just want to buy appliances and cute stuff and get going on the fun part.

To take my mind off of the kitchen.. I've been playing around on Pinterest (surprise, surprise) and have been pinning all kinds of things for Baby Sister and Allie's room.

A friend just introduced me to Sarah Jane and I've fallen in love with her Wee Wanders line. The quilt picture above is made with her fabric designs as well as the horse and deer prints. Sarah Jane studios is having a 20% sale this weekend and I'm dying to "buy all the things"! I would love to see Allie and Baby Sister's room become something like the board I've put together. Fun quotes, color, whimsy, lovely, bright and horses or course.

For now, I will go clean a bathroom and dust something!

Scrap Page Catch Up

My New Year's Resolution last year went really well! I only had a couple pages to catch up on at the beginning of this year before I was able to make our 2013 book. So of course this year I made the same resolution, but am totally slacking! I just can't get in the groove. I sit down to scrap and end up on Pinterest! Oh well.. here are some pages I'm trying to catch up on from January til now.

Back in January we celebrated Luke's birthday! He was so excited to open his presents. Crazy how he is just turning into a little man!

Also back in January, Johnny turned 18 months. He starting going to nursery, at church, and hated it! Now he loves it.. most days. But he does love playing outside and helping daddy work on stuff.

 

One morning in March, Mark came up to me while getting ready for school and said, "mom there is a steer head on my nose!" He scrunches his little nose up and sure enough the outline of a steer head shows up! I decided to scrap this memory and call it "Born a Cowboy" .. cows are in his DNA!

 

And in April we went to the fair! We love the fair! The food, the rides, the rodeo, the food.. oh wait I already said that! We had a blast!

 

These next two scrap pages are the more recent memories. ^^Mother's Day! Me and the kiddos :)^^

 

and Allie's Spring Violin recital. The recital was only two days ago, so 10 points for me for not procrastinating! Allie did great. She is loving violin and we plan to add the piano this Summer to switch things up.

Whew! Now I need to scrap Mark's birthday, May Day and lots of camping and canoeing trips!!

Kitchen Remodel

Last Summer, we started tackling the kitchen remodel. The first thing we did was knock out the old chimney and fill in the door that led to the adjoining bedroom.

Now there is no more door, chimney or any cupboards next to the fridge.
Leaving us with much more room around the table.

Now we're ready to tackle this half of the kitchen!
As well as adding a built in hutch to the corner area in the above photo^^

My Kitchen Pin Board on Pinterest has been my constant companion these many months! I've been pinning and pinning things that I love and dream about as well as things that are actually practical and could happen ;)

These are our final materials. We've decided on white cabinets with oil rubbed bronze knobs and pulls as well as faucet. The counter tops with be Giallo Ornamental granite and the flooring will be Natural Timber Cinnamon tile. It looks like just like wood! And a bead board back splash will finish it off.

Our cabinet guy is busy building and we're are finalizing details with the counter top and tile guys. I can't wait to start ripping those old cabinets out! I'm a little bit excited!

Its a GIRL!!

Back in January, when I found out we were expecting, I thought for sure we'd have another boy. After having three boys in a row, I didn't even let my mind think girl.

Since this is my fifth pregnancy, I decided to wait a while before I went in for my first doctor visit. That ended up being when I was 12 weeks along and I had my first trimester ultrasound at 14 weeks. At 14 weeks, the ultrasound technician said, "It looks like a girl, but we could have a late bloomer. So don't set your hopes on it yet." I was so surprised to hear that, that I still didn't let myself think, girl!

When I went back for my next regular check up, I was about 17 weeks. After measuring my stomach, the doctor proceeded to check the baby's heart beat. But nothing was coming up on the doppler and my doctor had a concerned look on her face. I hesitantly asked if everything was okay. My doctor said she couldn't find the baby's heart beat right away. But that it was okay, just that the baby was just moving a lot!

The baby was moving so much that every time my doctor had found the heart beat the baby would move again right away. Instead of chasing the baby around, she brought in a portable ultrasound machine, to see the heart instead of trying to guess. My doctor found the heartbeat right away and said everything looked great! Then she asked me if I wanted to take a peek at the gender. I told her heck yes!! And she said, "It sure looks like a girl to me!"

But still I didn't get my hopes up! I knew it would be a few more weeks until my full ultrasound screening, so I tried not to think of pink or ponies or ribbons! 

Then today, at my 20 week ultrasound and check up, we were thrilled to hear “it’s a girl!”

We can’t wait for little sister to meet us in September!!