10 on 10

Linking up tonight with Rebekah for 10 pictures from our 10th day of December...

6ish

Tree lights are always the first lights on.

7ish

I will never grow tired of these pudgy hands!

9ish

Story hour craft by Ellen.

11AM 

New library books (and books on tape and DVDs) for all to enjoy.

Noon

Lunchtime!

2 or so...

A lovely gift from friends in the afternoon sunshine.

3PM

Sunshine in office - real life still life.  

5PM 

Love the quote for February on this gift-to-be calendar that arrived today.

  

6 PM 

Bubbles for the baby while Mommy washes dinner dishes.  

7 PM 

Sister snuggle under the Christmas quilt.

Hope you had a wonderful day!

9 Months

Michael turned 9 months old on Saturday!  

Bathtime = splashtime!

Teeth: Has 5, working on #6

Says: 

"Da-da" = Daddy

"Juuuuuuuu" = Jude

"Na-na" = Wants to nurse and go to bed

New Foods: puffs in any flavor, but especially likes banana ones...and has enjoyed vanilla wafers!

Mobility: Army crawls on his belly, pushing off with his right toe.

New Look: Growing (a little bit of) hair.  He's a blondie.  

Size: Anywhere from 6 month - 24 months.

Loves: Jude

Tolerates: Ellen as a playmate, especially if that means being in any "hideout" with her.

We love our Bubbs!

Broccoli Cheddar Soup

I love finding good soup recipes to enjoy during the fall.  This is one of my favorite soups to make, but since Ryan has no love for broccoli, I don't get to enjoy it very often!  I recently made this for friends and kept a few bowls for myself.    

Ingredients:

3/4 cup chopped onion

3 tablespoons margarine

6 cups water

6-8 bouillon cubes

8 oz. egg noodles

2 - 10 oz. package of frozen broccoli

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

6 cups milk

1 lb. cubed velveeta cheese

To make:

Saute together onion and margarine.  Add water and bouillon cubes and bring to a boil.  Add noodles, cook 3 minutes.  Then add broccoli, cook until tender.  Stir in garlic powder, milk, and velveeta.  Heat until cheese melts.  

Enjoy!  

Thanksgiving Long Weekend In Review

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!  

Both Clare and Jude donned Native American apparel for their respective Thanksgiving play and Thanksgiving feast to start off the long weekend.  

We put our Christmas tree up on Friday, but not before cutting out all 1000 lights on our pre-lit tree. That was an all-day event in itself.  As we were nearing the end of that ordeal I began to wonder if the time we had "saved" by the ease of the pre-lits in years past was catching up to us in the time we spent cutting out the lights...   

We have our hay and manger out for Advent.  (Ellen is especially excited about this and has already put ALL of the hay in the manger several times.)

And she was very pleased with her seasonal Sunday best yesterday and asked Ryan, "Just how gorgeous do I look!?"  (She also wanted to show her puffy slip to the man and son behind us at Mass.  Thankfully she asked me first and was told no.)  

Happy December!

Happy Advent!

5 Favoritas

Linking up with Hallie today for some favorites...

1. New-ish jeans.  

I got my sewing machine out last week and made easy alterations on 2 pairs of jeans, hemming one piar and taking in another.  This tutorial by Refashion Mama on hemming jeans, and keeping the original "jean" hem was great - I'm going to keep it in mind the next time I'm shopping for my short self.  

And this tutorial by Freshly Picked on altering jeans by taking them in on the sides was very helpful. Glad I took the plunge on both of these are have been loving having 2 "new" pairs of jeans to wear!  

The only picture I have of my work was of me in the mirror, standing on the toilet in my altered jeans for my fashion grad sister...not worthy to post.  But she did approve!  

2.  Cartwheel by Target.  

Have you heard about this???  It's a free app that lets you choose deals/coupons (5-50% off!) to use at Target.  Just select which deals to add to your cart and then present your phone when you check out to be scanned.  So easy!  Love me some good dealz!

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3.  Clementines.  

They're herrrrrrrrrre!  

And I love that Clare loves them so much.    

4.  The color fossil grey by Glidden.  

Color matched in Sherwin Williams cashmere paint.  And purchased during their 40% sale.  

Win - win - win.  And currently being rolled out by my husband.  :) 

5.  Crock pot soups!  

The Cheese Tortellini Soup I shared yesterday is a current favorite here.  But I also love making Potato Soup (and I know you do, too, Kathleen!) and Chicken & Wild Rice Soup is another one of my very favorites!  Delicious, hot, easy dinner - check! 

  

{Crockpot} Cheese Tortellini Soup

I love a good crock pot recipe, especially one for soup this time of the year.  This recipe came from a recipe exchange I did this spring and we finally tried it out for the first time a month or so ago when the fall temperatures hit.  Ryan, Jude, and I especially love it!  (Jude keeps telling me that "spinach in soup is really really good!")  

Cheese Tortellini Soup 

1 bag frozen tortellini (approximately 12 oz. - I use cheese, but meat would work, too.) 

1 small bag of fresh spinach

2 cans of Italian style diced tomatoes

1 box or 4 cups of chicken broth

1 block of cream cheese

1 pound of roll sausage (optional) 

1. Brown sausage and drain (if using).

2. Chunk up cream cheese.

3. Put all ingredients into the crock pot.  (You can put tortellini in now or later.)

4. Cook on low for 4 - 6 hours.

5. If you didn't add tortellini in with other ingredients, add it an hour or so before serving.

I've only made it without the sausage and just using cheese tortellini - we are fans.  

Here are the leftovers I enjoyed for lunch the next day - yum.  

Tree of Thanks

Last year around this time our pastor gave a talk that has stuck with me.  In it he mentioned that "if you are not teaching your children to be thankful, you are teaching them to ask for more."

So in that spirit and with the upcoming holiday, we made a Thanksgiving tree of sorts over the weekend.  I simply stuck a large tree branch in a pot with rocks and we were good to go.  (Of course Michael has become interested in those rocks...thankfully they are too big to do any damage!)  I printed out tags for everyone to write out what they are thankful for.  Simple.  And the kids are really enjoying it!  And I love seeing what they have come up with over the past few days.

Ellen's grateful heart.  

Funny because we don't own any!

He really does love them!

8 Months!?!?!

Our sweet Michael turns 8 months old today.  

8 MONTHS OLD!  He is getting too old too fast!  

Nickname: Bubbs.

Eats: Still nurses, but eats solids like no other baby I have ever had!  He especially likes peas, green beans, and bananas.  

Latest achievement: Mastering the army crawl!  He made his way into the kids' bathroom the other day and tipped over the trash for the first time.  

Newest talent: Clapping!  

Teeth: 4 - 2 on top and 2 on bottom.

Says: "Da-da" and "Juuu" (I'm pretty sure that means Jude!)

Diaper size: Yes, that's a 4.  

Dinner for New Mom

Some friends of our's recently joined the 4 kids club and welcomed their new addition almost 3 weeks ago.  I brought them dinner the other night - one of the perks of having a newborn!  I always feel like you get a lot of casseroles with the addition of a new baby, so dinner for our friends included...

Chicken Packets, Macaroni and Cheese, Green Beans, and Snickerdoodles.  

(Ryan says snickerdoodles are his favorite, so I shared the love.)  

In disposable pans = no dishes = more time to love on that newborn baby!

Life of a Kindergartener

Yesterday was the first day back to school after a nice relaxing week off for fall break.  (I look forward to not packing lunches for 5 glorious days!)

Jude, who his teacher described as a "sponge" during his parent-teacher conference, was soaking it all up again today and was a wealth of knowledge for me after school...

With a real meteor he found in our yard.

"This kindergartener girl found a feather at recess and she told me that when she finds a feather she checks to see if it has rabies by licking it."  (gag)

"The secret at my table is that Mrs. 'G' (classroom aide) dances with gorillas."

Teether Necklace

Michael is at an age where wearing a necklace (and having him ignore it) is nearly impossible.  In fact, he recently broke one of my favorites right off my neck.  Thankfully (?) it broke all over my kitchen floor and I was able to collect all of the beads and fix it.  

I actually saw this idea for a "teether necklace" on pinterest and made one for myself (before he broke my beads). 

To make your own you need a scrap piece of fabric (I didn't measure before I started...mine was probably 4 inches wide and about 48 inches long tops...depends on how long you want it and how large the beads are) and large wooden beads (I used 6). 

I took the piece of scrap fabric (of course I'm not daring at all and stuck with off white!) and sewed it, making a tube that would fit snug around my beads.   

I made a knot in the very center of the fabric, then added a bead, then made a knot.  I added 3 beads and 3 knots on each side of the original knot.  (This was just so I knew I had centered everything.)  When I was finished, I sewed the 2 ends of the necklace together.    

I tried my finished necklace on for size...and Michael immediately loved it!  

Here's the (blurry) finished product.  

No fear of him breaking this one!  

Linking here.  

Happy Halloween!

From the Dynamic Duo!

Hope your's was safe and happy!!

Orange

Linking up today with Cari for Theme Thursday, which is "Orange." 

I'm sharing oldies but goodies of Miss Clare (and myself) right around her 3rd birthday...  

So sweet.  Of course it seems like we took these last week and not 5 years ago! 

Love my mini-me!

On an Island

Once upon a time I saw this idea on pinterest of how I could bling-out our island by adding some inexpensive beadboard.  Fast forward to having a carpenter in the house when we did our floors.  And nicely asking if he could cut the beadboard and trim I bought for $40 and put them up for us...(because he would know what he was doing and it would take him all of 10 minutes to do so). 

The island was only covered in a plain white laminate before...  

(And this is before I switched out the handles.)

    

After about $45 worth of beadboard and pieces of trim, some caulk and paint, here it is now...  

I love how it turned out!