February is a busy month

and for a month that is already short in days, how can so much be jammed packed into it? This past week Dennis had to work out of town. He was gone from Wednesday and back around 7pm on Saturday. It seems strange to me that it is almost easier without him here-as much as I miss him- the meals are less work, I run my own schedule, and I know it is just me, where if he is home and something is going on with the kids, or supper, or whatever he isn't usually quick to help/respond so that adds to my stress level and makes me grumpy. I can't fault him too much as he works hard and when he comes home he is tired, I get that, but oh I wish I had the quick to help, and do things (when they needed to be done) kinda of guy. Here is an example, right now, Kael's light bulb in his room is burnt out and has been since Friday. I asked Dennis to change it when he got home on Sat...it is still burnt out...I keep you posted on when that gets changed. :)
This layout is of Kael (Wuza) of when he was just a little guy. Jacie hung him with that nickname (wuh-zah) and I just love it. So we all still call him that. The layout design for Wuza and Us Girls came from the Pencil Lines blog and Stampede Fun was just one that I came up with on my own. It is too bad the Stampede Fun came out a little blurry, as the girl in the bottom right picture is hilarious. Mom was taking the picture of the kids and my dad and this girl (who we don't know) is smiling and waving at her as she must know she is going to be in the picture...I just couldn't crop her out...I would have regretted it as I would have told the story to people who looked at this page and would have said 'I wish I didn't crop her out'. So I didn't!

Here is a layout of me and Jacie. Look at my cheekbones! I wonder if I will ever get those back! HA
Every weekend is booked now till March! It is a nice feeling actually as it is booked up with date nights, friends and a birthday night out with the girls-dinner and a movie..I wonder what Pam will pick to see?! Us girls (there is about 6 of us) have been on a bad movie cycle for a long time now...I hope we actually pick a good one this time. :)
Last night I made a turkey with all the fixings...with homemade perogies. YUM!

Sitter is coming tonight

so that Dennis and I can go to the trailer show (in peace) and then for a late supper afterwards (with friends). This is so exciting. We have two babysitters that live close to us and they really like babysitting!! How awesome is that?! S-weet!
The Perfect Day and So Young are the two layouts I did at the same time. I am trying to use up the rest of the birthday pictures of Travis' 4th birthday party, which if I could truly pick the perfect day, that one would be it. We just celebrated his birthday with just us. No friends, etc. We got up, went to church, then headed to Okotoks, got some subs at Quizno's and had a picnic lunch by the river and spent the whole afternoon there. I was pregnant with Danika at the time, and Kael just loved sitting in the river chewing on rocks! HA The kids had a blast playing in the river and we were almost the last to leave there. We came home and Travis opened his gifts and then it was bedtime. It was just a great family day! All three of these layouts were from sketches over at the Pencil Lines Blog.
Look how young Den and I were. No kids...just us. I don't even know if we bought our first house yet or not here. I have NO idea how old we are here!
I had a lot of fun with this layout, using paint, Glimmermist, stamps, ripping paper, etc.

Well baby is sleeping, so I am going to go start another layout and then get ready for date night! YEEHAW!

Finally a layout

was completed and here it is. I used a stamp from Stampin' Up (the long grass) which I just love. I can think of endless possibilities for that one!
I started two layouts today which I have never done before. Usually I complete one layout before I start another one, but because I used paint on one, I had to let it dry, so I started another one!! Woohoo.

Tonight I made a new recipe called Chicken Cordon Bleu 11 from All Recipes. It is a keeper as it has this great creamy wine sauce that is to die for. I made pasta with it and put the sauce over that too. I know the chicken is buried in sauce so you can't really see it, but oh man was it good. The kids ate it all up as well.

***Avatar***
We went to the movie Avatar on Saturday night with our two oldest kids and friends of ours and their kids. It was playing in 3D. This movie is the best movie I have ever seen and I am telling you to go out and not miss this experience. The movie theater is the best place to see this movie and it must also be seen in 3D! The technology is AMAZING! This is a movie experience you don't want to miss. It is just that good. PLEASE please go see it!! I am hoping to go and see it again at the Imax! I just can't say enough great things about it! How about you? Have you seen it? What did you think?

The end of the cookbook testing

for Art Smith is here and I had three chicken breasts to use up, so I made Red Pepper Jelly Chicken breasts. The Red Pepper Jelly is from Epicure and is very tasty with pork as well-especially ribs! It makes a sticky glaze over the meat and is very good. BUT in this case I over cooked the chicken and it was very dry...I can't stand it when I do this. What a waste. The kids ate all of theirs, which was nice, and we ate about 3/4 of ours. That was too bad. We had it with macaroni and cheese and corn.

I also made buns for the very first time and after supper Jacie and I finished making them. I started them too late to have for supper, which was maddening, but at least I could pack them in the kids lunches for Friday. I pulled the recipe off of my friends blog http://www.kneadygirl.blogspot.com/. She has recipes that have step by step instructions and pictures to go along with it. The buns were very good and will try to make them every couple of weeks. YUM

With some of the dough I made cinnamon buns because I wasn't thrilled with the first batch. Dennis liked the first batch better, but I liked these better as I don't care for the caramel glaze the other ones had...so I will keep trying new recipes for cinnamon buns.

Friday, Carrie came over and we made homemade perogies. It was my second time and I was a little intimidated, but with her help we pumped out many dozen...I didn't count exactly how many, but maybe 8-10 dozen? Not sure...We had them for supper with fried onions and farmer sausage. SOOO GOOD! Kael alone eats at least 6. Danika doesn't like them yet...same with bananas...it is a texture thing.

To sum up the cookbook, I think it is a great cookbook that offers wholesome, pretty easy recipes, and uses ingredients that you can find at your local grocery store-which is super important when you have a busy household (and a large family) when one stop shopping is ideal.

Last night

we had Chinese Curried Noodles with Chicken and Vegetables. It turned out really well. I didn't have egg noodles, but did have Angle Hair pasta, so I used that instead. When I make this again I will add an onion along with the green onions. I also didn't have celery that it called for. The whole family ate this one up.

Here is the finished supper. Yum.

During the afternoon I got an urge to make Cinnamon Buns for the first time. This recipe was from All Recipes and it is called Ooey-Gooey Cinnamon Buns. They turned out okay for me. My husband ate 4 last night and just loves them. I think for me it isn't the recipe of my FAV cinnamon buns, so I will keep exploring...but for a first attempt, can't complain.

Now, what to make for lunch? Still haven't gotten around to figuring that out yet...the weekly lunch menu.

After supper, I put on the tunes while the kids and I cleaned up supper. Music soothes the soul and gets me in a better mood to tackle any clean up. I don't know about you but I loath cleaning... so anything to help ease that pain is much appreciated...and music does that!

One of these days I am going to get back to my other love...scrapbooking. :)

Okay a day late!

Last night we packed up the kids and went to Swiss Chalet for supper. This is the first venture out with all of us in a family restaurant in about a year. We brought both of our booster chairs for Danika and Kael and got a big booth and strapped them in and prayed for the best. Over all it went very well and so glad we did it. It was great to get out as a family and enjoy a sit down meal. Swiss Chalet is so good too as they have a great kids menu and really good meals for the whole family. I recommend it to everyone. YUM!

Tonight I finally made the Flank Steak with Red Wine Butter Sauce. I really really like this cookbook. I like how you just have a few ingredients and the recipes are straightforward and easy to do, with so far good results (the parsnips was my fault as I guess on the bigger ones there is a bitter core that needs to be cut out-lesson learned!). This recipe was good but I screwed up the sauce, as the flank steak was pretty rare so I put it back in the sauce to cook a bit more, but the juices made the sauce watery again after I had a nice reduction...oh well it still tasted good.

Here is a side called Creamed Spinach. This one had mixed results and Danika ate it up like crazy, Kael had about 4 good size bites, Jacie gagged (with her nose plugged) but got it down with a piece of steak to mask it and Travis gagged about 4 times and with teary eyes I said he could spit it in the garbage. Oh man I laughed at him after. I know, nice mom eh?! But they all have to try it no matter what! I also made Two Potato Mash with Yams and Yukon potatoes. This was VERY good and will be made a lot. It is by far the best side I have made in a long time! 5 out of 5 here!! Here is the final product.

Lastely, this afternoon I made Carrotcake Muffins with a creamcheese icing. The kids got to eat them after supper and they liked them, so they are a hit! YEAH!!

I am off to watch some TV as I have been in the kitchen from 2pm and finished cleaning up supper after 7:30pm. My feet are throbbing!

Rummoli anyone?

Yesterday I was feeling blah all day and feeling sorry for myself, as Dennis was at work, yet again on a Saturday-and as much as I should be thankful that he is busy still in this economy, I was down because I miss him. He worked late quite a bit over the last two weeks, which just sucks for him and us. At the end of this month, he is going to be gone a full week working out of town, so it is all just building up. The kids miss him when he is gone; so do I-which is a good thing, as if I didn't I would be writing on a whole different topic. So missing him and my stomach bothering me (I have a doctors appointment on Monday morning), there has been a lot on my mind.
Anyway, when Den finally got home I wanted to go out for supper, so as we were getting ready I turned on the music and I immediately phoned our friends-who conveniently live across the street-and invited them over for a games night instead. The music got me pumped for company! We had a great time. It was what I needed to pull me out of the dumps. The game we played was Rummoli, which is a great great game! I think we quit playing around 2:30am??? and then we chatted until 4:30ish.
Tonight I will post again as I am making 3 new recipes for supper.