Two down, one to go!

Today I finished the 2nd sleep sack. This one actually is for my nephew, the youngest one. I love the pattern...baseball! :) It looks sort of misshapen in the last picture but it is awesome! I am still fixing some minor kinks in my lack of sewing skills, but I think they look pretty good!

PS The first one is for Kelly! Well, actually Sophia! Surprise!

My sleep sacks...

As previously posted, I have decided to be crafty. The sleep sack project has been interesting, to say the least! And due to my sister's pestering, I am uploading a less than pefect finished product. I do not have a sewing room or any place that I can put my machine, so I take over the kitchen, much to Josh's frusturation!This was immediately after sewing my FIRST zipper! I was SO proud!

This the is the "final" product. Don't worry, there is a reason I am far away from the top of the garment. The neck and sleeves were MUCH harder to sew than I had expected. I guess I didn't really think of how hard it was going to be to sew a rounded edge. It was, like I love to say, out of my skill level!
I have 3 nephews...any guesses why this is pink? :)

Happy Birthday to Me!

Happy birthday to me...happy birthday to me... happy birth...day...to...ME! Happy Birthday to ME! For my birthday, Josh planned an awesome weekend! On Friday, we ate at my favorite type of restuarant...Japanese Steakhouse! Angie, Randy, Matt and Jana met us there and we had an awesome meal! Matt was the STUD who caught all of the shrimp at the end...very inspirational!

Saturday we did the typical softball tournament and went to bed early...I love sleep!

Sunday, we woke up and went to Panera (our typical Sunday routine) and then Josh took me to the Kansas City Zoo! I LOVE ZOOs! Josh hadn't been for years and I had never been to the KC Zoo. They are currently building a Polar Bear exhibit (my favorite animal)! We saw lots of fun things, like tree kangaroos, langors (with hard-ons!), petting zoos, and Victor the awesome Sea Lion! It was a blast!

Then Sunday night, we ended it with dinner, games, and ice cream cake with Josh's family! Perfect weekend!

Sleep Sacks

My new goal in life: make the perfect sleep sack.

You may be asking, "What in the world is a sleep sack?" Well, the answer is this:

This is a genious idea that creates a "safe" blanket for babies to sleep in. It has been shown that babies who sleep in a swaddle or with a blanket have a higher risk of SIDS (sudden infant death sydrome). The babies often wake up and find the swaddle or blanket has come lose and is over their face. Luckily, the majority of these cases, the baby is fine and the mother thinks nothing of it. However, a fantastic company called "Halo Sleep Sacks" has manufactured the sleep sack. It is basically like a sleeping bag that is attached to a tank top...a wearable sleeping bag! A Sleep Sack!

Unfortunately, for the normal folks, the company is VERY proud of their product. A simple cotton sleep sack is $25...not including shipping. WHEW!

So, being the amazing sister that I am, I am going to put my sewing skills to use. I am convinced I could make this device for much MUCH cheaper than that. So, off to Hobby Lobby I go and I will post pictures as I go (unless it turns out as a disaster...)!

A card and an ice cream cake...

A good friend (wink, wink) once said that for her birthday all she wants is a card and an ice cream cake...sounds brilliant! I would have been happy with or without the card!

Monday is my birthday...the big 2 7! And all I want is a card and a Dairy Queen ice cream cake and a white Titleist hat and perfume and ...

Happy Birthday to you...

Happy Birthday to you...happy birthday to you... happy birthday dear Ronan, Kendell, Mom, Bella and Dakota... happy birthday to you!

We had to get up early Saturday for Josh to go to a meeting and I baked a doggie cake for my sweet puppies' birthdays! We then headed off to Salina to see my parents who drove up to see us for our birthdays (mine is not for another week) and to see my ADORABLE little nephew.

Saturday was a birthday day... Bella turned 2 and Dakota turned 1 (yep, same day!). It just so happened to be my other nephews birthday Saturday too. Ronan is the "Big 1" too!

I am crazy so I made Bella and Dakota a birthday cake to celebrate with their cousins while we were in Salina.

Yummy, carrot peanut butter cake! Delish!

"Recipe of the Month"

So I started a "Recipe of the Month" entry over to the right (you have to scroll down a little bit). Do not expect a change every single month, or even if I change it multiple times a month (doubthful!). I loved the Blueberry Buckle! It was DELICIOUS! However, I used wheat flour which Josh decided he was not a fan of. So, I suggest keeping the all purpose flour.

I am also making Bella and Dakota a birthday cake. Bella is turning 2 on August 15th and Dakota is turning 1 on August 15th! My girls are so big! Just as a preview as to what I will be making:

Peanut Butter Carrot Cake:

1 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 cup shredded carrots
1 tsp. vanilla
1/3 cup honey
1 egg

Mix flour and baking soda. Add remaining ingredients. Pour into greased 8" round cake pan and bake at 350° for 30 minutes. Let cool. Puree cottage cheese in blender for icing. Decorate with more peanut butter and carrots.

Ahh, Blueberry Buckle...

So if you recall, the Whale Watching trip that we went on in Seattle boasted this delicious "cake" called Blueberry Buckle. It may have been the deciding factor on which tour we went on. Well, it was absolutely fantastic! Seriously, I thought, "big deal, its coffee cake", but this was so much more. It was a blueberry party in your mouth! AND it was $1.25 per piece! PUNKS! Since I'm home alone today, I decided to give that Blueberry Buckle a try. I searched high and low for the perfect recipe (one with pictures, not too many ingredients, and fairly easy). After gathering the ingredients, I headed towards Jana's to bake (I'm house sitting).

Super easy to mix, but I was concerned with the consistency of the batter. It was not "creamy" at all. So I googled it and found that coffee cakes are generally a more flaky batter. So I moved on... Next I had to "carefully, fold in the blueberries". I probably broke about 1/3rd of them during this step. No big deal... I placed the yummy batter (yes, I am a batter taster) in the pan and topped it with a homemade cinnamon crumble. Looks good...so I toss it into the oven. 45 minutes later, I open up the over to an awesome smell!

The final product, after drizzling a powdered sugar, vanilla combination on top. It looks awesome! I am saving the tasting until Josh gets back from his softball tournament. Keep your fingers crossed...and wipe that drool from the corner of your mouth! :)

Just a fun picture...

It is hard to even get an accurate picture of how HUGE this dog is! The Weir's had us over for dinner Friday night (Sara was in town!) and we got to meet Hobbs for the first time. He is the most mild-mannered, sweet dog EVER! Seriously, he's adorable!

This is Scott with his baby...that weighs more than him!

Sara and Randy give him a pet on their way by as they step over him. Can you believe the size of him? Don't worry though, Randy still has him beat in the weight category!

Wedding Day Jewelry - Thanks Millie!

My step mom has started a blog! I am so happy and proud of her! Anyway, she is blogging about her amazing jewelry making! She has a beautiful picture of my pearl necklace that I wore for my wedding day, but she didn't have any posted of the earrings or the intricate bracelet. This was the closest picture that I could find, but I had to post something to brag on her! They were perfect!

PS How cute is this photo?

The best husband ever...

As previously stated, we have up and changed our computer room to a 2nd guest room. Well since none of our bedding matched the paint or furniture, we decided to do an overhaul.

First, we bought new bedding and a curtain for the yellow room. We loved the paint color so we matched the bedding. It is a light metallic blue with brown and yellow accents. It's adorable.

Josh was reluctant to let me shop for bedding since we still have a huge desk in that room and all of our degrees on the wall. We will be moving the desk and the hangings, but for now, the bedding looks really good!

So today, my amazing husband did a ton of things for our home. First, he organized a little watering plan for our new landscaping area. It works great!

Second, he repainted our downstairs bathroom. For some reason it almost looks like our bathroom sweats. It has water streaks on it. So...he repainted it!

Third, he snagged some very nuetral paint and repainted the ugly blue guest room. Sometimes lovingly referred to as the "Antique Room". It still has quite a bit of work but at least the colors match and don't look too tacky. We have now officially moved the red bedding into this room along with a red and tan curtain. Looks good, what do you think?

What a sweet husband!?!?!

More yard work...

So our big project for our backyard (besides the stairs, patio, and garage door) is to build a barrier between our back fence (that opens up to a fairly busy street) and our stinking dogs. Never before had we had a problem with Bella digging...enter Dakota. She is such a bad dog! She has decided that she loves to dig, loves cayenne pepper, and the "Bitter Apple" discouraging spray from PetSmart. Stinker!

So our decision was to build up with landscaping timbers and then plant inside of it. HOWEVER, another surprise we had in our yard was that the back edge of the yard looks like roller coaster. Up, down, up down...(no one told us to look for that when home shopping!)

So our landscaping timbers are like 9 deep on one side and about 4 deep on the other side with only being about 2 deep in the middle. Don't worry, its all level!

After trying to kill all of the grass behind the timbers, Josh filled the area with dirt. He ended up getting 3 truck loads and having to remove the back fence, backing his truck up to it, and shoveling it off into the area. What a man!?!?! :)

Finally, this weekend we decided to do the big job...planting (and paying for) the plants! We chose 2 plants: Boxwood Wintergems and Double Knockout Roses. The roses are very hardy and as the guy at Surburban says, are very hard to kill. I am pretty sure I can kill them. I suck at plants, flowers, herbs... :( The Boxwood Wintergems, once they get started and make it through the summer and beginning of the fall, are meant to continue growing all year round (YEAH!) and always be green. They top out at about 3' high and wide. The roses are about the same height. Anyway, we went Rose, Boxwood, Boxwood, Rose, Boxwood, Boxwood, Rose, etc.

So this is me trying to get Josh excited...

And then Josh trying to convince me to do this another day!

Finally, we get to work. First things first, measure out where we want everything. Starting on the left and moving right...

5 feet left alone to eventually plant a tree *unknown type*

every 4 feet Knockout Rose or Boxwood

3 feet left alone on the right to eventually place a birdbath (can't plant due to cable lines)

Above is it all placed out to make sure we like it.

We do...

Finished product. Total time = 3 hours (shopping plus planting)

TOTAL SUCCESS!