Gettin' Crafty---DIY Candy Wreath

Rustin's out of town for the next few days so I'm going to take advantage of the empty house to do a little crafting. I used to make this as birthday gifts for my girl friends back in high school/college. I'd completely forgotten about it until today. I was trying to come up with a homemade gift for my Sunshine sister at work. So I ran through my favorite store (Dollar Tree) on my way home from school today.
Here's what I picked up:



*3 bags of individually wrapped bubble gum (any candy will work- jolly ranchers, tootsie rolls, whatever candy fits your color scheme as long as it has an end you can tie your ribbon to)

*1 roll of curling ribbon in a coordinating color (300 ft.- who knows if I'll use it all but just in case)

*1 iron ring (I had to run next door to hobby lobby for this- they have a few different sizes so pick your poision...just make sure you have more candy the bigger you go)


All you do now is cut pieces of ribbon about 3 inches long. Tie one end of the ribbon to the candy.



Then tie the ribbon to the ring.



Curly the ribbon that's sticking off the ring.



Repeat until you can no longer see the ring. I hope the pictures make this a little easier to follow so you can make your own.



I was thinking of using the pink/ pale blue tootise rolls for a baby shower wreath or maybe using regular tootsie rolls with red ribbon as a Good Luck present for Ashley's next soccer game. What candy are you going to use??

Week 26

How far along? 26 weeks
Size of Baby: cucumber 14 inches 1.75 lbs
Total weight gain/loss: 17 lbs
Maternity clothes? yes
Stretch marks? not yet
Sleep: not so great...think its more the allergies than the peanut
What I miss: being able to get dressed without having to try on 8 different outfits every morning...
Movement: lots and lots
Cravings: PBJ
Symptoms: nothin' new
Showing: for sure
Gender: baby girl Mahan
Mood: awesome! Her room looks great...still having some name issues... I'm still curious about those who feel like it's a good idea to call a pregnant lady "tubby".





Heartbeat

Hope the sound clip from the visit today works.

Spreading Some Sunshine

To help spread a little cheer throughout our school we drew names, Sunshine Sister/Mister, and leave little bits of Sunshine,a note or small gift, in their mailbox each week. This week I'm leaving these in my sister's box. I found this recipe in a Hannah Swensen Mystery about 5 years ago and LOVE LOVE LOVE to make them. Sometimes I pick more than one ingredient from each group but that's part of the fun. Everytime you make them you can try something new. This time I'm using Graham Cracker crumbs, marshmallows, raisins and chocolate chips. I don't think she has a nut allergy but I'm not sure so I'm going to leave out the D group and choose 2 from the B group. I only have white chocolate chips on hand so that's what I'm going to use. Give it a try let me know what combo you used.




Multiple--Choice Bar Cookies
½ cup butter
1 can sweetened condensed milk (14 ounces)


Group A: 1 ½ cups
Graham cracker crumbs
Nilla Wafer crumbs
Oreo Cookie crumbs
Animal cracker crumbs
Sugar cookie crumbs


Group B: 2 cups
Chocolate chips
Butterscotch chips
Peanut butter chips
Raisins (regular or golden)
M & M’s (no nuts)


Group C: 2 cups
Flaked coconut (5 ounces)
Rice Krispies
Miniature marshmallows (use 2 ½ cups)
Frosted cornflakes, crumbled


Group D: 1 cup
Chopped walnuts
Chopped pecans
Chopped peanuts
Chopped cashews


Melt the butter and pour it into a 9 x 13-inch cake pan. Tip the pan
to coat the bottom. Evenly sprinkle one ingredient from Group A over
the melted butter. Drizzle sweetened condensed milk over the crumbs.
Evenly sprinkle one ingredient from Group B on top.
Evenly sprinkle one ingredient from Group C on top of that.



Evenly sprinkle one ingredient from Group D over the very top. (leave out if you have a nut allergy)

Press everything down with the palms of your hands.
Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.



Cool thoroughly and cut into brownie-size bars. Or use your fancy brownie pan if you have one.

Eggcellent Easter

My family had alot to be thankful for this Easter; my Uncle Steve (my mom's brother) survived his brain surgery on Friday. They removed the 2 golf ball sized tumors and are going to be able to start treatment soon. Prayers answered!

On Easter Sunday Rustin and I had a yummy breakfast and then went to Mass at St. Anthony's but it was so full we ended up having to stand in the hallway. After almost an hour my feet couldn't take the standing and Rustin couldn't take the woman screaming at her son in Spanish. So we drove out to Uncle Wayne's in Helotes. Everyone came out (including a HUGE snake...I'm not sure how big/what kind but a snake none the less)and we had a great time with lots of yummy food, including smoked beer bread (the oven wasn't working so I decided to bake the bread in the smoker) and the little ones got a chance to hunt eggs.

On the drive home we realized that this time next year we'll be celebrating the life and death of Jesus and sharing family traditions with our little one. What a blessing!

More baby prep

I feel like all I did on my long weekend was baby prep and I'm kinda okay with it :)

First I put together a list of all the dinners that we eat on a regular basis. Then I sorted through to see how many I could make ahead of time and freeze. Thanks to Homemade Gourmet there were quite a few. I put together my grocery list of ingredients and headed off to the store. After a two hour trip here's what finally made it to the kitchen.



My goal was to turn this stuff plus the 6 bags of meat into 44 dinners that Rustin could grill or I could just toss into the crock pot. It only took 2 hours but I did it.

Menu
Baked Ziti
Pot Roast
Chicken Tetrizini
Mexican Beef Spaghetti
BLT Sausage (2)
Turkey w/ gravy
Chicken Enchilada Soup (2)
Baked Potato Soup (2)
Margarita Chicken
Cilantro Citrus Chicken
Turkey Turnovers
Roasted Tomato Chicken
Shredded Chicken Toastadas (2)
Dijon Chicken
Mequite Chicken
Queso Chicken
Beef Stew
Chicken Pot Pie
Beef Pepper Steak
Chicken Fajitas
Beef Fajitas
Chipotle Chicken and Noodles
Pepperoni Pizza
Beef Tips
Enchilada Pot Roast
Spaghetti w/ Meat Sauce
Grilled Sausage
Taco Soup
Bacon Cheese Burgers
Chinese Chicken
Italian Chicken Skillet
Chicken and Egg Noodles
Mexican Pork Tacos
Beef Stroganoff (2)
Pulled Beef BBQ sandwiches
Brisket
Cheese Pizza
Hotdogs
Stuffed Burritos

After checking both receipts and doing a little math I found that each meal came out to be only $4 each. We can't even go to Whataburger for that!!! All in all...super productive baby prep weekend

Nursery Update

I came home to a touched up room with finished trim and an assembled changing table. I couldn't have been more excited.




First we took on what we thought would be the most difficult job, the crib, but it wasn't. We got it done in about 45 minutes.




After that we got the floors vacuumed and put out the rug. Which was an seemed to be an open invitation for the dogs to make themselves at home. (Especially Grace, who can already see over the crib rail)




My parents and my nanny & papa dropped by with the glider about an hour later which went together even quicker than the crib.



The curtains weren't quite long enough so those need to be exchanged. But all in all the room is coming together and I couldn't be more thankful for my wonderful husband. Rustin's going to be a great daddy!

Project Nursery

4 Rolls of Blue Painters Tape ...$24
2 gallons of paint ...$10 (Thanks Lowe's!!)
Paint Supplies...$13
Crown Moulding...$40
Seeing the nursery finished....priceless


It all started about a month ago when we picked out her bedding and furniture. We dealt with a few minor bumps (everything we picked got discontinued...thanks a lot Babies R us) But we picked out some new stuff and as it all started being delivered I started to get a little anxious about the fact that I hadn't totally cleared out the office/nursery. Once it was completely empty I felt much better and the make-over began. Here was our color scheme based off her bedding...



This past saturday I hit up the Lowe's for paint supplies. I took one of her hooded towels to color match and let me just say Misty in the paint department at Lowe's is AWESOME! First I asked her to mix both the pink and green but as I walked away I spotted the perfect color pink already mixed and on the clearance shelf for $5! She lightened it up just a bit and then mixed up the green, which came out a little too dark. She worked some of her paint department magic and got the perfect shade. Then got out her handy dandy sharpie and marked it down to $5 too for not being right the first time! SCORE!!!

I just happened to wander down the clearance isle at Wal-Mart latter that day and found the perfect curtains for her room so I scooped those up for half price too. All in all the process was going quite smoothly.

The night before Rustin had spent 3 hour three long hours in the empty room. A pizza and a few Coors Lights later and he had the nursery perfectly taped off.



Sunday morning I woke up and put on my painting clothes and got to work on the first coat of pink. Which only took me about 2 hours.



When Rustin got home we put on a second coat of pink and got to work on the green.





We did some touching up and then waited for it to dry before pulling off the tape.



Add some crown moulding and it's finished.



Now all that's left is to put the furniture together. Final pictures coming soon!

Week 25

How far along? 25 weeks
Size of Baby: rutabaga
Total weight gain/loss: 17 lbs
Maternity clothes? yes I've found some that aren't hideous so that's nice.
Stretch marks? not yet
Sleep: weird dreams are back but thats about all
What I miss: bending over without throwing up in my mouth (sorry for the over share)
Movement: lots and lots
Cravings: rice krispy treats
Symptoms: stomach's been sore and I dont think it's from my workouts
Showing: for sure
Gender: baby girl Mahan
Mood: great! still wrapping my mind around the fact that we'll be parents soon. Contemplating buying t-shirt that says dont touch....I think people forget that my belly is attached to me

Week 24

How far along? 24 weeks
Size of Baby: ear of corn
Total weight gain/loss: 16 lbs
Maternity clothes? yes and most of them are still ugly
Stretch marks? not yet
Sleep: great
What I miss: feeling pretty
Movement: lots and lots
Cravings: queso completo
Symptoms:
Showing: for sure
Gender: baby girl Mahan
Mood: pretty good overall...little stressed but that's mostly work stuff...PS telling a pregnant lady "OMG you're HUGE!...probably not the way to go"

Week 23

How far along? 23 weeks
Size of Baby: large mango
Total weight gain/loss: 14 lbs
Maternity clothes? yep and I/ve decided most of them are ugly
Stretch marks? nope
Sleep: really bad dreams
What I miss: my old clothes
Movement: About 9:30 every night and 4 pm every afternoon
Cravings: nothing crazy this week
Symptoms: no new ones
Showing: yep! Which is nice that I look pregnant instead of fat
Gender: baby girl Mahan
Mood: I wish people would ask before touching my belly other than that I'm getting really excited!