First haircuts!!

Yesterday as I was doing H's hair I decided she needed a haircut.  Her hair grows long in the middle and the back but the sides stay short!  So I decided to give her some bangs- it is so cute!!  It was a little different with V- she didn't have any hair until she was a year and a half and when it grew- it was tons of curls.  I loved it!

These are what my days are made up of- little things that may not seem like much but to me, they are priceless memories that I will always treasure.  There is nothing sweeter and more precious to me than being a mother and I am so thankful to the Lord that I am able to stay home and have my days filled with messes and crafts, reading books together, playing dolls and sharing hugs and kisses.  Oh, there is much more than that but this is what stands out to me.
Then I get to pick up V from school and watch my precious girls run around the house laughing, playing and sometimes fighting!  Then it's time to make dinner and afterwards we get to enjoy family time together around the table.  Oh, the joys of a family are such a gift from God.

This morning after we dropped V off at school we came home and I gave H a bath and cut her hair.  She was not very patient nor tolerant of me repeatedly combing her hair and trying to figure what to cut but in the end it did get done!

This is the before picture-notice her wild and long hair.

  

This is the after!  Doesn't she just look sooo cute!

I put a pony tail in her hair and she wasn't so sure about it!

 She looks so cute with her new little "hairstyle"!

 I found this little envelope in my scrapbooking supplies and thought it was

 perfect for her hair from her first haircut! And of course I had to write all the details so I wouldn't forget!

These are the pictures from when V got her first hair cut!!  December 3, 2002-  she was almost 2 1/2 years old!  H got her first haircut before she is 2 and since H's hair isn't growing curly like V's, I think I am going to have to trim hers a little more.  With curly hair, you can just let it go and it still looks cute!

 Doesn't she look sooo cute?  And I can't believe how much her and H look alike!

 And yes, I kept her first curls also! 

Onto the second part of our morning- craft time!!

Today's craft was painting with foam stamps!

  I would put the stamps on the paper and H would push them down.  She was having a great time and really got into showing me where to put the stamps!  I love seeing her enthusiasm during craft time!

The finished product!  A masterpiece!



Dinner and a playdate!

What a blessed day filled with little blessings and big blessings! :)

It started out with Hannah sleeping all through the night.  Woo hoo!!  For the most part she does but there are some nights where she wakes up and in my sleeping stupor I just bring her to bed with us.  That means I do not sleep very well because I only have enough room to sleep on my side and she kicks with a fury when the covers are over her legs!  She likes to be ON TOP of the covers.  :) 

Then H and I dropped V off at school and made a quick run to Wal-Mart, all the while enjoying the 45 degree weather complete with a warm breeze.  Ahhhh, this is what winter should always be like!!  Then we came home, had breakfast, watched the Today Show and I made myself some delicious GF scones.  Mmmm, they were soooo good!  During my baking, H was unusually quiet and occupied so I went in search of her and found her by the trail she left! 

I first looked in the dining room and found the spoons.  Then I went in the family room where I found the crayons and polly pockets ALL over the floor!  She is a busy girl who keeps me busy and laughing. 

Oh, and her new favorite thing is climbing on top of the table.  What's up with this girl???

Around lunch time we went to Panera to meet a friend and had a wonderful time!  And H was a busy busy girl there too. Sigh.  We had to leave a little early because it was past her nap time.  She fell asleep when we were almost home so I put her right in her bed and she never woke up!  Love it!  I knew she wasn't going to wake up in time to get V from school because she went to bed late so I called a friend and had them bring V home.    I was soooo thankful for their help- thanks Jim and Alyssa!  I really really appreciated it!  And H didn't wake until 4:30 pm- she had a 3 1/2 hour nap, something that is unheard of for her!!

While she was sleeping I took advantage of that time and spent some time with V.  We had a snack together and laughed a lot.  I am so blessed to have her as my daughter.  She is so kind, thoughtful, fun, smart and beautiful!!!  Thank You Lord!

I have to add talented to that list too!  Ok, her snack isn't the healthiest but she had fun trying to catch cheese balls in her mouth!  FYI- my snack was quite a bit healthier and the important thing here was the time we spent together.  :)

While I was making dinner the girls were playing in V's room.  It was sooo precious watching them because it was the first time they played together with V's toys and they looked like they were having fun.  Ohhh, my heart just melted and of course I had to take some pictures.

This was view from my kitchen.  Please tell me this is how it's always going to be.  Don't ruin it for me!! :)

Would you like a delicious and simple idea for dinner??  I got this from my mom and my family absolutely LOVES it!!  I wished I knew where she got this idea from.  It is a twist on the chicken ceasar salad- make a chicken ceasar salad but add cooked pasta to it.  Wow, you are saying!  I know, I can just hear you now!!  So simple but so YUMMY. 

All you need is romaine lettuce, chicken, shredded parmasean cheese, ceasar salad dressing and pasta.  I used spiral pasta last night but my mom has used spaghetti in the past.  When she made it I honestly thought she forgot she was making it for the salad.  Spaghetti noodles and salad??  But let me tell you, it was soooo good!  So, I think it's safe to say any kind will work.

Enjoy!!!



A new way to create a fun card for someone special!

Today was a big picture ordering day!  Trying to use my time wisely while H naps and today was no exception!!  I also ordered a card for my brother and would love to share it with you.  Here is a link to the card- I encourage you to go to Shutterfly.com and try creating one also!  It's really fun to make and I know whomever you send it to will absolutely love a "homemade" card!  :)

Picture More Noir 5x7 folded card

Unique party invitations and announcements by Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

Let me know what you think!!

Today is a random mix of musings!

Hello ya'll!  I'm writing my blog today from my "new room"!  Yesterday I took down the queen size air mattress in the spare bedroom/my room after having 3 sets of family visit us since the middle of December! It was such a blessing to have family here and we made so many fun memories that we will cherish forever. 

Anyhoo, the bedroom has now been cleaned up, bed put away and rearranged so it's more appealing to me as I use it as my workout room/blogging room/picture room, etc.  Pretty much, a room for me to do "my fun stuff"and not have to put it away if I am in the middle of something!  Another one of my goals this year is to get caught up on developing my pics that are downloaded to the computer and put them in photo albums.  What a long process that has been!!  Since I take so many pictures I have tons and tons and it's easy to get behind.  I think my albums are caught up to 2009- GULP!  I have over a year and a half to do!

Part of my problem is not knowing what to do with pictures of my two girls- it was easy when I only took pics of  V because all the pictures went into 1 album.  Now that I have 2 precious girls, I don't know whether to put them in 2 albums which means I have to make 2 of each picture or just put them in 1 and when they are older, they can share them.  What do I do??  Any suggestions out there?  For those of you who have more than 1 child, how did you solve this?  Help me!!!  :)

Here is a pic of me blogging for the first time in my newly done room and my next step is to decorate the walls.  I want to add my personality- if Chad would let me, I would paint the walls yellow or orange, put some fun colored pictures up and really make it say "Sheri"!  But since all the walls in our house were professionally painted in 2 colors- Howard (a chocolate plum) or Cathedral grey (a green/grey)- I don't think that is going to be happening!!  Oh well, I will have to come up with something else. 

Wow, when I look at this table- I really have to fix this tablecloth- it's really crooked! Oh well.  :) 

Here is another random musing- my living room needs help.  Lots of help.  I am asking all of you out there to give me some ideas!  Here is a a few pics of my living room and as you can see, I have a huge wall that has blue tape on it.  No, that's not my problem.  :)  Chad and I put that up there because we were thinking of putting up black shelves and putting a few picture frames on each shelf but we can't decide how to arrange the shelves.  We thought of 2 on one side and 1 on the other, then we came up with one big shelf on the top and 2 small ones underneath.  We are just stuck.  Or, is there another idea for that wall???  Good grief, it's been over 6 months and I can't look at that empty wall any longer!  The previous owners had 3 huge pictures on it and so the anchors are still in the wall! 
In fact, here are a few pics of the living room before we moved in- just a little different style going on!!  Wow!

These people has some expensive taste!  Ours is just a tad ..."boring"?!?

Ok, now for the updated pics of our "boring" room.

Hard to belive it's the same room!!  :)

Can you handle one more random musing??  Here are a few pictures of 2 craft days with H.  Yesterday we made a valentine craft and today was a "cop out"- playing with the animal sounds farm!!  We were just too busy today to bring out all the craft stuff and clean it up so we declared it craft/play time!  I'm sure she thinks it is not as exciting as the real crafts though!  :)

This girl LOVES crafts!!

Picking the glitter and glue off her fingers.





The most precious gift from Heaven above,

Is the gift of a daughter for a mother to love.  

-Dana Roberts Clark

 Please leave a comment with your suggestions!!  When we are done with the rooms I will post the updated pics- I bet you can't hardly wait!  :)

My first cooking blog for 2011!

Well, here it is- my first cooking blog for 2011!!

Today was V's 2nd snow day- how different for us!  It snowed 4-1/4 inches on Sunday night and she had monday and tuesday off of school.  Wow!  In MN we had to have had a huge blizzard going on for a snow day.  Well, V loves it and I had a blast having her home.  Tomorrow she goes back and she is not too happy!

For dinner I made another recipe from my favorite book- The Pioneer Woman!!!  For those of you who have the book- it's on page 188.  H and I totally loved it, V's opinion was that she only wanted the shrimp and not the sauce or pasta and Chad said it wasn't his favorite!  Oh well, can't please everyone! 

Penne Alla Betsy


As you can see, I had a little helper while making dinner!!



















Doesn't it look so good? I encourage you to try it and let me know what you think!

 

Penne Alla Betsy

1 lb. penne pasta

1 lb. large shrimp

2 T. butter

2 T. olive oil

1 small onion, finely chopped

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1/2 c. dry white wine (optional)

One 14.5 oz. can tomato sauce

1 c. heavy cream

1/4 c. chopped flat leaf parsley

6 basil leaves, chopped

salt, freshly ground pepper

Bring a pot of lightly salted water to a boil.  Cook the penne until al dente.  Drain and set aside.

Begin by peeling and deveining the shrimp and rinsing them under cold water.  In a small skillet, over med-high heat, add 1 T. butter and 1 T. olive oil.

When the pan is hot, add the shrimp.  Stir and cook on both sides until it is just starting to turn opaque, about 2 minutes.  Remove to a plate and allow to cool slightly. 

Next, finely chop the onion.  In a large skillet over medium heat, add the remaining 1 T. butter and 1 T. olive oil,  the garlic and onion.  Stir to combine and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion is translucent, about 3 minutes.

Pour the wine into the pan.  Stir and allow it to evaporate, about 45 seconds.  Pour in the tomato sauce and stir to combine.  Reduce the heat to low.  Pour in the cream and stir well to combine  Reduce the heat to simmer.  Now remove the tails from the shrimp and chop it into medium size pieces.  Add to the sauce and gently stir.  Next, dump in the herbs and stir, then add the cooked, drained pasta.  Stir gently to coat.  If the sauce is too thick, splash in a little milk to get it to the right consistency.  Add salt and freshly ground pepper.  Be sure to taste the seasonings at the end, adjusting if necessary.  Serve directly out of the skillet or pour the contents of the skillet into a pretty serving bowl.  Enjoy!!!

For dessert, V and I made Glazed Mint Brownies.  She picked this out and I told her she was  bad bad daughter.  She was a little puzzled until told her it was because she picked something mint and I had horrible self control with mint desserts!!  She was relieved when that was all it was.  :)  I LOVE mint and chocolate.  I LOVE these brownies.  Not good.  Not good.  Whose house can I send these to??  Any takers?  :)

Glazed Mint Brownies

(First, don't pick a dessert you can't say no to!)

In a heavy saucepan or microwave, melt the
unsweetened chocolate and butter. Cool slightly.

In a mixing bowl beat the eggs, sugar and flour.

Stir in the chocolate mixture.
Pour into a greased 8 in. square pan.
Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until toothpick
 inserted near center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack.
 

 
 












In a mixing bowl, combine the filling ingredients
 and beat until creamy.
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Spread over brownie.
For glaze, melt chocolate chips and butter; stir until
filling is smooth. Spread over filling.  Refrigerate until
filling and glaze are set.
(Umm, but only if you can wait that long!) 

Glazed Mint Brownies

2 squares (1 oz each) unsweetened chocolate

1/2 c. butter

2 eggs

1 c. sugar

1/2 c. flour

FILLING:

3 T. butter, softened

1-1/2 c. powdered sugar

2 T. milk

3/4 t. peppermint extract

3-4 drops food coloring, optional

GLAZE:

1/2 c. semisweet chocolate chips

2 T. butter

In a heavy saucepan or microwave, melt the unsweetened choc. and butter.  Cool slightly.

In a mixing bowl, beat the eggs, sugar and flour.  Stir in the chocolate mixture.  Pour into a greased 8 inch pan.  Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.  Cool on a wire rack.

In a mixing bowl, combine the filling ingredients; beat until creamy.  Spread over brownies.  For glaze, melt the chocolate chips and butter; stir until smooth.  Spread over filling.  Refrigerate until filling and glaze are set.

Enjoy!!!



Just a few pics of V out in the snow and enjoying 2 days off school!!
Someone might look at these and think we moved back to MN!!!