Snowman Stamping!

Last weekend my husband was away and it did snow a little on Saturday so we decided to spend the weekend in the house, just my baby girl and I!

I have to say, if I don't do another craft for a few weeks, that would be ok with me! Most of the crafts we did were pretty simple, stickers, markers, scissors, make Valentine's.  But when she got bored of them, we decided to paint a little!

Since I am not creative at all, I of course used the internet to find a cute craft for us to do. Busybeekidscrafts.com had this great Snowman Stamping craft idea. So we tried it...we had fun, but they definitely didn't turn out like the pretty picture from the website!

Didn't have any white paint so we improvised and used finger paint

We let the paint dry and added all the snowman accessories with marker the next day!

Alissa's Snowmen

Mommy's snowman

I love FREE stuff!

Just got this Melissa and Doug Stacking Train for FREE! 

Thanks to the Enjoy the Ride Rewards Program from Huggies! For more info on how you can earn points towards free stuff, check out this blog post! 

A Valentine's Day to remember....

Valentine's Day 2012...one I probably won't forget for awhile... :) And I made sure to take many pictures so that I really won't forget it!

After being alone with a 2 1/2 year old 24/7 for the past 6 days as well as being 28 weeks pregnant., The only gift I really wanted for Valentine's day was one night of not doing dishes after dinner and not having to read bedtime stories. (Don't get me wrong, I love reading with and putting my baby girl to bed, but sometimes you just need a break, and she needs to get used to Daddy putting her to bed since very soon Mommy won't always be able to.)  I did get both of those things for Valentine's Day...but my husband (and daughter) had a few other surprises in store for me. 

It was great to have an extra 2 hours with the hubby in the morning. Since he didn't get home until 2 AM he stayed home with us for a little in the morning.  We exchanged our Valentine's and Daddy attempted heart shaped pancakes, somewhat unsuccessfully before he left for work.    

My first big surprise came when I took my daughter to story time at the library... 

I have been blessed with a fairly well behaved little girl and we usually make it through story time without incident. (well except for her not being able to sit still very long and walking all around the other kids) Today, however, I experienced what was really one of the first big meltdowns I had to deal with in public.  Of course the meltdown occurred because she wasn't allowed to pick her own shaky eggs from the bag she got whatever shaky eggs the teacher gave her.  (yep that's my little girl).  We got through it, but it was the first time I was really not able to calm her/redirect her quickly and easily.  

My next surprise was my surprise dinner....

I had planned on cooking for the hubby, but never made it to the grocery store cause baby girl took an early nap.  So I decided to have him pick up Chinese Food on the way home.  I called in my very specific order (prego's are a little picky with food :) )  But told him to double check when he got there cause I wasn't sure they understood me.  And apparently they did not.

I ordered Shrimp Chow Mein and I got some kind of Garlic Chicken and cabbage dish??  So my loving husband shared his Chicken and broccoli with me!

The third surprise...
A few days ago I had mentioned to the hubby not to buy me flowers, if he wanted to surprise me with something I really wanted chocolate covered strawberries :)  Well he had already ordered my flowers so I got some beautiful roses, but he decided since he couldn't find chocolate covered strawberries last minute, he would make some for me....And after ALOT of time/work on his part, this is what I got...

Love you honey! :) We didn't have all the necessary instruments/ingredients to make them...but they still tasted good and of course I ate all these and then some!

We will laugh about this day for awhile! But I was so thankful to spend the night with my two loves! (3 if you count the kicks, flips, and pokes coming from the baby boy in this belly).

28 weeks! 

My sweet baby girl enjoyed her Valentine gift and she must have said "thank you mommy, I love my new scooter" about 100 times while she scooted around the house.

Hope you were all surrounded by love and good times this Valentine's Day! 

Gift Review: Hot Dots Jr.

Another great gift my daughter received for Christmas was the Hot Dots Jr. Card and Pen set.  I ordered them from Toys to Grown On Website.  I got her the complete set, with 4 sets of cards, and she absolutely loves them.  The number and alphabet cards are still a bit hard for her, (recommended for ages 3-7), but she has mastered the shapes and colors.

You simply read the directions on the card, find the answer and press the corresponding black circle with the dog pen.  The dog responds by telling you if you are correct or incorrect in various ways (barking, "that's great", vibrating). They now also make other pens! It's really amazing how the cards work.

They are fun, a great "calm down" activity, and educational! I hope to get her some of the other sets of cards as she gets older.  These would also be great for the classroom (if I decide to go back there one day :) )

Hot Dots cards are made by Educational Insights.  They make some really great educational games and toys great for home and the classroom! Check out their website for other great products!

Recipe of the week: Pan-Roasted Chicken with Lemon-garlic green beans

I actually didn't find this one on Pinterest...but it showed up there a few days after I did a google search for it! I had some green beans to use up and didn't want to make my usual olive oil and garlic green beans so I decided to look for something else.  I used this recipe from Real Simple, with a few modifications based on the reviews.

Ingredients

• 6 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 lemons, 1 thinly sliced, 1 juiced (I only used one lemon)
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 3/4 pound trimmed green beans
• 8 small red potatoes, quartered
• 4 chicken breasts (bones left in, with skin, about 3 1/4 pounds) (I used 3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts cause that was what I had)
• 
  
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Check out the link above for what to do with these things! I also added a little Rosemary to mine cause I like that with my potatoes! But after very little work, this is how it turned out! 

 I thought it was a bit to lemony, but my husband liked it.  I would probably just use a little lemon juice in the mix to toss the green beans and chicken and not put the lemons on the bottom of the pan.  The green beans also got a little soggy from all the juice.  But overall, easy to make, and pretty good.  

Another Christmas Gift Review: Leapster 2!

This is a little belated, but I figured people were probably not looking for new toys/gifts right after Christmas.  With Valentine's Day and Easter approaching, I thought I would share some more of the great products that Santa blessed us with this Christmas! You can read about Sneaky, Snacky Squirrel here.

The "Pocono Santa" brought Alissa a Leapster 2!

She absolutely loves it! When she first opened it, I was afraid she was going to become addicted to it because she would not put it down. Although, she still loves it, she is thankfully not "addicted"! We have only tried out 2 games so far Pet Pals and one of the shape game downloads. I have been meaning to download a different game onto it for her, but just haven't done it yet.  Plus my husband set it up for her the first time around and I am not exactly sure how he did that! It came with one FREE game download and Santa brought Pet Pals too. She is still learning how to use it (as am I) and some of the activities are a bit difficult for her still.  The Leapster is meant for ages 4-8 so that makes sense. But I love that she enjoys the games, challenges herself with it, and spends time figuring out how to play it on her own.  She actually amazes me with how she can use technology all by herself. I usually take it with us when we go shopping and it keeps her entertained (at least until she sees a toy on the shelf that she wants to look at instead).  The cartridge games are a little expensive, but I have heard you can use them on the Leap Pad also when they get a little older.