Baked Cotton Balls

White Dress

I've been on a dress making kick as of late. I think in the last couple weeks I've made four dresses, a bonnet, a tank top, and a romper.

This dress is my favorite.

Sneaky girl...

Our First House

I'm very excited and nervous right now because we are about to close on our first house!!! It's crazy to think about how much our lives have changed in such a short period of time!!! Two years ago at about this time we were living in a tent in my grandmother's backyard! It was a very large very nice tent, in which we had a bed, a side table, a desk with a 42 inch tv, three dressers, a place for our dogs to sleep, and a play area for Jacks. There was still enough room for us to comfortably move around and everything. It was still a tent. 

Sorry these are the best pictures I have of the tent!

In September 2011 we moved into our first apartment and stayed there until the end of December 2012 when we moved to our current apartment to be closer to Shayne's job. 

Anyway for my birthday we decided to go find out where we stood in regards to being able to buy a house. Honestly we didn't expect to much, but what the heck, there's no harm in just checking right? We were approved for a USDA loan and found a house that met most of our needs right away! The best part is we'll barely be paying more than we are now to rent!!! I can't wait until we know for sure the house is ours and finally get to be in a house with a fenced yard! We'll have more space and I might even be able to set up a classroom for Jacks since he's pretty much ready to start doing some more formal pre-schooling now.

Moral of the story: if you want something, ask for it! 

Water Play

Am I the only parent that thinks its totally cool to go play in water on a cold day? In all fairness it was warm water.

Please excuse Ari's crazy outfit...

Sponges rock!

I guess he was thirsty.

Trying to coax leaves off the trees for his sink/ float experiments. 

His trike is always cornered in snails! Somehow he never seems to notice. I bought him a cool book about turtles and snails to try to get him interested. 

Pompoms

If you want to entertain a two year old try pompoms! Jackson sat through almost two CDs contently playing with his poms. Oh and the only reason he's in his highchair is to protect him and the pompoms from Ari.

I Made A Doll

I made a doll, I hate the doll, the kids love her.

We've nicknamed her brown baby. In all fairness our only other baby is yellow baby.

And yes that is Will Riker in the background...

Pea Update

Jackson and his peas

Kettle Corn

I should not try new things. I'm not bad at making up recipes, but I'm no good at following them. I wanted to make kettle corn and I failed miserably. I burnt it and set off the alarms and made my house stink like mad.

 Any-who I still wanted kettle corn so I air popped some pop corn and melted 1/4 cup of salted butter and 1/3 cup sugar together on the stove(we don't own a microwave!) until it was syrupy and then drizzled the sugar mixture over the popcorn and tossed it all with a touch more salt. It was delicious!

Ari's Face

We were having such a nice time playing outside.

Until Ari decided to jump face first into some dirt...

I brushed her off quite a bit, but she's still a mess.

Ouch!

Brittany's Famous Chicken Soup

I love chicken soup, it is my absolute go to meal. Shayne thinks it's about the only thing I can cook well, and, I'll be honest, he's probably right! Anyway I thought I'd share my "recipe" (if you can even call it that, it's more like guide lines) with you.

Ok here are the basic ingredients:

•chicken breast - I usually use two

•1 can of cream of chicken soup - you can sub a healthier homemade version if you like

•8oz of milk - I use whole, but I doubt it matters

•1 32oz box of broth - chicken or vegetable, I use whatever I have on hand and even make homemade vegetable broth from time to time

•two sticks of celery chopped into half inch pieces - I don't always have celery on hand so I don't always use it

•two large carrots peeled and chopped into bite size pieces - depending on the amount of other vegetables I have on hand I might use three

•three medium or large potatoes peeled and chopped into bite size pieces - again this depends on what else I have

•one large parsnip peeled and chopped - I don't always add this

•two turnips peeled and chopped - another of those if I happen to have it veggies

•one can of green beans drained and rinsed

•four cloves of garlic peeled, chopped, and crushed - I love garlic you can add as much or as little as you like

•garlic powder to taste - like I said I LOVE GARLIC

•onion powder to taste

•pepper to taste

• one or two bay leaves

•if I happen to have some onion I'd throw that in

•a couple spears of pepper - the color isn't important I buy one at a time slice it up and freeze most of it, when you need some you just pull out a spear and break it or cut it into whatever length you want

Ok so get your self a big pot and throw everything but the green beans and celery in. Simmer for like an hour and a half, take out the chicken, and shred it. If it needs more liquid add milk. Toss in the chicken, beans, and celery. If you want you can make some dumplings or add some gnocchi. You can eat it whenever you're ready. I recommend serving it with these bread sticks.