I'm back with the big reveal!

I have been a little absent from blogging lately, but I'm back (for now) and finally ready to reveal my Baby Boy's nursery! Yep, he's 8 months old already, but better late than never right :)

So here it is...Our Fire Truck Nursery! (Sorry for the poor Iphone photography!)

This is our Baby Boy's Nursery! And here is where you can find some of these items:

Crib: Babies R Us, Babi Italia (was purchased in 2009 and was my daughter's furniture)

Canvas: Etsy custom painting (not linking to the seller because we had some major issues with them!)

Bedding: Nojo Engine 27 We purchased it at Bed Bath and Beyond, but it is available elsewhere 

We hope to center the shelf on the wall at some point, but for now it is holding our video monitor , so we had to have it that close to the crib.

Ladder: Was my Grandfathers, whom my son also gets his middle name from <3 We left it pretty much as is other then buffing up a few spots and cleaning it a bit.  

Shelf: Pottery Barn Kids Outlet

Lamp: Nojo Engine 27 Lamp from Kohls (and no we DID NOT pay the price it is listed for now, nor would I recommend paying that much for it)

Antique Fire Truck: Was my Dad's, found it in my Mom's basement <3

Glider: Hand me down from my sister, we haven't been motivated enough to paint/stain it to match the rest of the furniture!

Nightstand: Marshalls 

Lamp: Was a gift, but I believe it was purchased at Hobby Lobby

Dresser: Babies R Us Babi Italia

Hamper: Nojo Engine 27 Hamper from Kohls

Shelves: Target, but they were wedding gifts and I can no longer find them on their website

 We are still in search of a few odds and ends/antiques to finish off the room.  We may find those things by the time he turns 18 :)

Cyber Monday 2

Well apparently today is Cyber Monday 2, which means more great deals online! And since I have only purchased 2 Christmas gifts actually at the store, I love this news!

I am just about done shopping, so I haven't searched through all the deals, but I did find some great deals on Living Social.

**UPDATE: Use Promo Code ELLEN at checkout to get 10% off Living Social Deals. Can only use the code one time!

If you are local and have kids, these are just a few of the great deals:

$5 monkey Joe's pass
$25 for 8 weeks of music classes
$35 for a family 4 pack to the zoo

And of course Ebates is offering 4% cash back at Living Social! And if you have other shopping to do they have double cash back at over 500 stores! Follow this link to sign up and tell them I sent you!

Happy shopping! And Happy Holidays!


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Cyber Monday at Kohls and Ebates!

Since online shopping is pretty much the only way I shop anymore, I spent some time this weekend scoping out the Cyber Monday deals.  I found that Kohls started their Cyber Monday sales today! Which of course led to me spending way to much time on their website picking out Christmas gifts! And of course plenty for myself.  But they have some great deals for Cyber Monday, their prices weren't super low on big ticket items, but they had great prices on some of the things that I needed and some other ways to save...

Get 20% at Kohls.com using code CYBER20
Get 15% off slippers using code SLIPPER15

You also earn $15 in Kohls cash for every $50 you spend.

And of course I buy just about all my online purchases through Ebates, and they are offering 6% cash back at Kohls!

Not familiar with Ebates, I suggest you check it out! I am so thankful for my friend Christina's blog and her introduction to Ebates! Love getting my ebate's checks in the mail!

Drugstore.com Review

I made my 3rd purchase from Drugstore.comyesterday and I have to say, I was a little skeptical with each one. The prices seemed just to good to be true. I was scammed on another website last Christmas, so I was a little nervous about ordering.
The first 2 orders were successful, great deals, free shipping, and arrived within 2 days!
Once again I am completely impressed! I ordered my new ErgoBaby Carrier (woohoo! more on that later) at 2:00 pm on a Thursday and it was on my doorstep Friday at 3:00! They even sent a few little free samples in the box! I am completely impressed at how fast they process and ship their orders! Makes me wonder what takes other companies so long sometimes!!
I also was able to use my 15% off rebate they had sent me via email after my previous order, so I got an AMAZING deal on the Ergo!
I definitely recommend Drugstore.com!! They have so many different products to choose from (not at all what its name implies) and fabulous prices. They also offer drugstore dollars for most purchases that you can use on future orders!
Check it out!
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Halloween Fun with your Preschooler!

As I mentioned in my post about the Letter of the Week, we are taking a break from the alphabet this week and have a week of fun Halloween activities planned! And it seems to be perfect timing, since we will be stuck in the house for a few days thanks to Hurricane Sandy!

I wanted to share some of the activities with you in case you are interested in doing any of them with your kiddos too! I can't really take credit for any of them, I found most of the ideas on pinterest, through internet searches, and in magazines.  But here are some links to some of the crafts, games, and learning activities we will work on this week!

You can check out my Pinterest Boards for some other Halloween and Fall activities. But here are a few that we hope to complete this week:

Rip and Glue Pumpkin Craft

Surprise Pumpkin

Candy Corn Counting

Roll A Pumpkin Game

Swab Skeletons - From FamilyFun Magazine October 2012

Coloring Pages (We will probably use paint too)

Dress Up Jack-o -Lanterns (Found a prepared Foam dress up craft at Wal-mart)

H Is for Halloween Packet (this is an AMAZING especially if you have a toddler!!! I will probably pick and choose a few activities from here if we have time)

Halloween Pre-K Pack (another AMAZING resource, this one geared toward preschoolers, might pick a few from this pack as well)


Just a few ideas if you need some indoor activities this week! Please Link up if you have any fabulous Fall/Halloween activities! I am sure we will all be looking for something to keep our kiddos busy this week!

Letter of the Week: UPDATE

A few months back I shared this info about the "Letter of the Week" program I planned to start with my preschooler!

So here is a brief update on how it's going!

I started the program with her at the beginning of October, the same week she started preschool.  She only goes to school 2 days a week for an hour, so I decided to do some more work with her at home (and I secretly love doing this stuff, it's the one part of being a teacher I miss, TEACHING!)

We have almost made it through all the vowels so far and she is really enjoying it! She loves the excitement of finding what new activities are in her bin each day. And she has completely amazed me with how well she can do some of the activities.  Here she is enjoying a few of the Letter A activities:

Cutting Practice
Check out www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com to print 

Do a Dot Letter A

Eating Apples while matching Capital and Lowercase letters

Letter A craft at the end of the week

I will admit, I wish I had a little bit more time to sit down and really work with her on some things.  But I have been trying to keep it fun for her, and well frankly, keep myself sane.  I usually have time to talk about the weather, review our Bible verse and Day of the week, explain to her what is in the bin each day, get her started, and then I'm usually off feeding the baby, making breakfast/lunch, or finishing up another chore.

It has been fun so far, and yes its a little bit of work and planning on my part, but since I had most of the materials prepared (up to letter F anyway, still have to work on the rest), I usually spend about 30 minutes on a Sunday night prepping all the bins for the week and there really isn't much work to do during the week (besides catch up on preparing materials for the rest of the alphabet).

If you have any questions about the materials or how we do "Letter of the Week", feel free to email me!

Most of the materials seen in the pictures along with more info about letter of the week can be found at www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com

We are taking a break next week and we will be doing "Halloween Week" with Fall/Halloween Activities in our bins! Stay tuned as I hope to share some of the activities with you this weekend if you are interested in doing any of them with your kiddos next week!

Recipe of the Week: Cauliflower and Sweet Potato Soup

Need a great fall soup? This one is fabulous! After fighting colds for 5 days, when I finally had energy to cook I thought soup would be a great idea! And I actually had all the ingredients for this one in the house.  I found the "idea" for this recipe on pinterest, but it seemed a little to plain for our family. After a google search I found this great recipe on www.tastykitchen.com

Cauliflower and Sweet Potato Soup 

The full recipe can be found here. I used a slightly modified version.  

Ingredients 

• 1 Tablespoon Olive Oil


• 1 whole Small Onion Chopped


• 2 cloves Garlic, Minced


• 1 pound Sweet Potato, Peeled And Chopped


• 4 cups Chicken Stock


• 1 cup Water


• 1 head Cauliflower, Cut Into Florets


• 4 Tablespoons Cream Cheese 


• 1 1/2 cups Shredded Cheddar Cheese


• Salt And Pepper, to taste

Directions: 

Heat oil in large soup pan over medium-high heat. Add onion and a sprinkle of salt and sauté until onion is fragrant and translucent, 3-5 minutes. Add minced garlic, chopped sweet potato, and sauté an additional 2-3 minutes, stirring frequently.

Add chicken stock, 1 cup water, and chopped cauliflower and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 15-20 minutes, until vegetables are tender.

Remove from heat, add cream cheese, and purée with an immersion blender or in batches in a regular blender. (If you want to keep some chunks, reserve 1 cup of the cooked cauliflower before puréeing the rest of the soup). (I pureed everything) 

Return soup to heat, add cheddar cheese, and stir until cheese is melted and soup is heated through, 2-3 minutes.

Season with salt and pepper to taste, garnish as desired, and serve.

I thought this soup was delicious! I used less chicken stock then the original recipe and subbed a little water since I only had 4 cups of stock. But I am glad I did because I like thicker soup.  I also added a little more cheese, which I do to almost every recipe.  Not great for the waistline, but our family loves our cheese! :) It could maybe use a few spices, but overall was creamy and yummy!  

Corona and Lime

So as I'm cutting up lime to make Garlic Lime Fajitas in a completely quiet kitchen (both kids are sleeping at the same time!!!) I start to daydream about drinking a corona and lime at the beach listening to the waves crash at my feet....

(kind of like this OBX vacation 2011)

when all of a sudden.....BEEEEEEPPPPPP!!!!!!!!!...... Laundry's done! And I'm sure that awful noise just woke at least one of my children!

Just another day in the life...

Pantry Perk Up

A few weeks ago I decided our messy pantry needed a little TLC. I am definitely not a very organized person and tend to just throw things in cabinets and close the door before they fall off the shelves! So, as a result, this is what our pantry looked like...




With the purchase of a few bins and shelves from Walmart and some stick on tiles from Lowes it now looks a little bit better...








Still could use some work...anyone have any suggestions for more storage solutions? Especially for bags of chips/pretzels?
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Remembering...

Daddy,
   I love you and miss you.  As this day comes and goes, I hope not to dwell on the events that happened on it 8 years ago, but rather to remember the words you once wrote to me,

Cadi,  
   I'll be with you in heaven- just in case you ever wonder!

I will always love you, 
Daddy 


I am so thankful to have those words to read and always remember. I don't think you knew how much meaning they would have and how much peace they would bring for years after you wrote them. Need that reminder today, and everyday!

Thinking of you today and always,
Cadi

True Blue

Breaking News: My hubby and I went on a date!!!! Yup a whole HOUR without kids, eating a meal at the same time, while its still hot, and could actually talk for a whole hour without being interrupted, feeding kids, or changing diapers?!?!
True story, this actually happened! First "date" since March! We had to deliver a bed to my Mom's, so while we were visiting, we asked if she'd stay with the kids for an hour and we went to a cute little restaurant for lunch.
We intended on going to a little deli, but walked past True Blue Mediterranean Cafe and it looked perfect (and smelled amazing). We had a latte, some really yummy gyros, and amazing hummus!




Perfect little hour together! Hopefully we can do it again soon!
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Recipe of the week: Pumpkin Cream Cheese Bars

I love finding awesome Pinterest recipes right as I am walking out the door to the grocery store! Got to try This one right away!

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Bars

Here's what you'll need:
Angel Food Cake Box mix
Cream cheese
Water
Pumpkin purée
Cinnamon

Here's what you get when you mix all that together and bake!




Pretty much that easy! These turned out fabulous! I maybe should have baked them a few minutes longer and not covered them so soon, they got a bit mushy. But overall, I'd recommend them! Perfect for a cold, rainy Fall day!
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"You gotta see this!"

A phrase that can be so innocent, unless it's coming from a 3 year old who has had the run of the house for 10 minutes while you were feeding the baby!

My cute, wonderful little 3 year old came running to me as I walked out of the baby's room yelling "Mommy, you gotta see this!!" I held my breath and many thoughts flashed through my head...nail polish, soap, flour, paint, what could she have done in 10 minutes?

This is what I just HAD to see...



Her counting bears organized PERFECTLY! :)

Why do I have a feeling my son will not be organizing counting bears in his free time?


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1st Day Jitters!

Yesterday was my baby girl's 1st Day of Preschool!! And 1st time away from Mommy when she wasn't at home or with family! She did great at the Meet and Greet we had last week, so I went in feeling pretty optimistic!

Of course she woke up really grumpy (I think we all did, it was a miserable REALLY rainy day!) and as I tried to get her excited about going to school she says "but Mommy, I never did this without you before!"

As if the day wasn't hard enough for me already, I almost broke down in tears thinking "it's been a really long time since I've done this without you either"

Despite BOTH of us having 1st day jitters, I knew I needed to stay positive for her! So we got dressed, packed her backpack, and tried to talk about all the great things about school and ignore the fact that Mommy wasn't going to stay there.

Although drop off in the pouring rain was a little chaotic, the 1st day went well, she walked right in and didnt even look back. I didn't know if I should be happy that she adjusted so easily or sad that she wasn't clinging to Mommy. But we made it through with no tears from either of us :) and she keeps asking to go back!

My baby girl is growing up :(



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Photo Book

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Recipe of the Week: Asian Turkey Lettuce Wraps

My Brother-in-law, Dr. Ben Lerner, along with other great chiropractors and nutritionists, has created some great healthy living books as well as cookbooks.  While we were visiting my sister and family in Florida we tasted one of the great recipes from one of their cookbooks, Maximized Living Nutrition Plan.
My sister had some leftover Asian Turkey Lettuce Wraps when we got to FL. And well after traveling with 2 kids from PA to FL, we were starving. I am not going to lie, I ate 5, yes 5, of these wraps when we got to my sister's house. So of course the first meal I made when we finally got home, you bet ya, Asian Turkey Lettuce Wraps.

Ingredients:



1/2 cup water
3 tablespoons organic almond butter
1 lb. ground turkey
1 tablespoon sesame oil (I used olive oil)
1 cup shiitake Mushroom caps, chopped
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
1 (8 oz.) can water chestnuts, drained and chopped
3 cloves garlic
2 tablespoons fresh ginger(I used 1 tablespoon ground ginger)
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup green onions (optional) (I used 1/4 cup)
1 head lettuce, separated into leaves

Directions:
Cook Turkey in skillet with oil about 5 minutes, stirring until turkey crumbles and is no longer pink.  Add mushrooms, and next 5 ingredients.  Increase heat to medium-high, and cook, stirring constantly, 4 minutes.  Add green onions if desired, water, and almond butter and cook stirring constantly, 1 minute.  Spoon mixture evenly onto lettuce leaves; roll up.  Serve with extra soy sauce if desired. 

Tips: You can replace the lettuce with all natural whole wheat tortillas as well.

Source: Maximized Living Nutrition Plans By: Dr. Ben Lerner, Dr. B.J. Hardick, and Kimberly Roberto

Doesn't look fabulous, but if you could smell it you'd want to eat it! 

These, IMO, are AMAZING! We ate ours on flour tortillas with some spring mix on top.  But I have had them served in romaine lettuce and they are just as amazing that way! I could literally eat these for every meal of the day!




I actually bought everything to double the recipe and freeze 1/2 of it for later, leave it to me to open the second can of water chestnuts to realize they are bamboo shoots (cans look exactly the same). So hopefully I will get the second batch made tonight!

Scavenger Hunt

We've been staying with my mom for the past week since the hubby is back in FL for work. We've been having a great time visiting with family and relaxing a little.

Since the weather is GORGEOUS today we decided to take a little walk downtown and also go on a scavenger hunt!

Last minute plans led to a quick search on the Internet for a printable scavenger hunt page! Most of them I found were for long trips in the car, but I found one that worked out great for our little walk.




As you can see, I found this one at Momsminivan.com

We packed a snack, loaded up baby brother, got her a marker to fill out her paper, and we were off.

Made the short walk to CVS meaningful and kept her busy. We would never have been able to use this scavenger hunt at our house, we'd pretty much be searching for houses, trees, and maybe a bird there. I have to say I enjoyed walking in the busy little town today and REALLY miss being able to walk to the grocery store on a beautiful day!

If we ever use this again, I will probably add/remove a few things depending on where we are! Would love to make a color, letter, number hunt which would have been fun too!

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The Children's Place Sale!

We were so busy this weekend, I completely missed the 25% off email for The Children's Place. Just in case you did too, you can still get 20% off your order online and free shipping! Use the promo code SHOP20 for the discount. I am pretty sure the shipping is automatically deducted!


Hurry, promo code expires tomorrow, Monday, August 27th!


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Recipe of the Week: Peach-a-Berry Pie

This week was "peach week" at read and pick storytime. So after a long morning of peach picking with a 3 month old and an almost 3 year old (Fun!) we were left with this...




So I began a search for a good, but easy peach recipe. Found Peach-a-Berry Pie on www.allrecipes.com. Looked simple and yummy and had good reviews.

Not being much of a baker, especially pies, I bought some frozen pie crusts and fresh raspberries to get started.

That brought me to peeling and cutting all the peaches... After trying one I realized it was not like cutting and peeling apples and I had no clue what I was doing. (I have since googled the easy way to do this!) So I recruited some help, my wonderful husband to peel all the peaches while I fed baby boy, who conveniently decided he was hungry as I was starting this task! :)


He's the best! After letting the fruit dry out for a few minutes, you simply had to mix sugar, flour, and cinnamon and then toss the fruit in!



Pour this in the pie crust, put a few pieces of butter on top and cover with another pie crust!

Make sure to place the pie on a cooking sheet while baking, mine leaked like crazy(as you can see)!!!



Not the prettiest thing in the world, but it tastes amazing, especially with a little whipped cream on top!


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A Sunday of Pinterest!

Since I spend alot of time everyday breastfeeding, I usually "pin" while nursing! I have been pinning so many great things lately, but haven't had a whole lot of time to actually try any of it. So today was designated as a Pinterest Project day.

Of course after very little sleep, I got a late start and decided to do a quick shopping trip before starting any projects.  Headed out with my baby boy, while baby girl went grocery shopping with Daddy.  

First stop...Marshalls! Pretty uneventful trip, other than my baby screaming the whole time and of course parking right next to Kate Gosselin and her twins! Not sure why that was so exciting, but for me it was. I happen to love Kate! :)


Sent a very detailed shopping list with my husband so that I could prep some crock pot meals for dinners the next few days/weeks.  I found the 1 hour, 1 mess = 5 Crock Pot meals on Pinterest. I loved that the recipes had natural ingredients and didn't use a whole lot of canned soups and other packaged stuff.  And they all sounded fabulous! And now we have 5 meals ready to throw in the crock pot! I will admit it took me more than an hour to prep everything.  I didn't have everything real organized when I started and was also not familiar with the recipes, so I had to keep rereading everything to make sure it got into the right bag. I think it will be easier the next time around.  But I now have, Garlic Honey Chicken, Beef Burritos, Chicken Fajitas, Hawaiian Chicken, and Teriyaki Pork chops in the freezer!

While I was prepping these dinners, I decided it was time to clean out our top loading washer.  So using another Pinterest Find, I got to work on that.  Pretty much just use bleach and vinegar. Let the bleach soak in hot water for an hour, then run a cycle.  Then let the vinegar soak for an hour, and run a cycle. Not sure how great it worked, but it definitely needed to be cleaned!

In between all this work, I also found some time for a good laugh! Roller skating with a 3 year old! :)


And we also had fun dancing in a small summer shower that passed through!



And after dinner we made our last Pinterest find, Hawaiian Blizzard. I had some pineapple leftover from the dinner prep, so we created these for dessert:

They were pretty good, but of course I thought they could have been a little sweeter :)

Find me on Pinterest to find these recipes and all the other great ideas I have pinned!