Mirror Christmas Ornament Giveaway!

Jaime made these amazing mirror ornaments...

and she's giving some away!

Head over to Everyday Art to see if you can snag some for yourself.

Trick or Treat!

I know it's a little sad, but on the last day of Halloween, (I swear it lasts a week here), we finally cornered David and took and a picture of him in his costume. Dave LOVED being Peter Pan. And I thought he looked rather adorable.
His favorite part of the costume of course.. the sword. Mom's favorite part, it doesn't get much easier or cheeper than cutting the edge of t-shirt and making a felt hat.

Dave designed his own jack-o-lantern this year. He drew the face, Jason scooped the guts (I tried to get Dave to but he thought it was 'not a good idea', and I tried to cut the face as exactly as possible.

Pretty cute if you ask me.

Happy Halloween!

Someone is 3!

David had his 3rd birthday! Yeah! (and scary for me, that's just too big). He had a monster birthday party complete with monster cupcakes. What a crazy kid... I don't know if I've ever seen him so wild. (Well, except when he's wrestling with Dad). Happy Brithday DAVID!!!

the Pumpkin Patch

We visited the pumpkin patch with friends again this year and had a great time. We literally spent the whole day there. We went on tractor rides, picked a pumpkin, Dave played in the corn pit, pet the goats (always a favorite of his), tried out a corn maze, had a peddal go-cart race, and totally enjoyed a beautiful day outside.

A New Blog!

Ever since my sister-in-law Jaime moved away (we've lived a few doors down for the last couple years), we've been in serious need of a good way to share ideas again. Soooo we decided to start a blog and thought you might like to see some of our ideas too. The blog is Everyday Art and we're starting out with a sort of fall theme. There might be decorating ideas like this....

and pictures like this..

and recipes for yummy things like this...

You'll just have to look and see to find out!

Apple Orchard

This year our family went to a near by apple orchard. The weather was perfect. It was so fun! David LOVED picking the apples (and getting pulled in the wagon of course). And I loved the apple pie that came a couple days later- yum.

Idaho

We spent a couple of weeks in Idaho this summer. They were full of garndparents, camping, waterfights, and cousins. I think David was in heaven with all that room to run and cousins to play with.

a little taste

So David has a few favorite things he will eat (he is getting better).... spaghetti is one of them and ALWAYS has been. I let him 'help' stir the sauce the other day. Trying to be a good mom right? Don't worry the oven was not on. I turn around for one minute and this is what happens. "I needed a little taste Mom." Uh -huh. I think he would have eaten the whole pot if I let him. What a cute kid.

tagged

The other day I was reading my friend Courtney's blog and she tagged me to write about the 10th picture in my 1st picture file on my computer. I have to admit that I have been tagged several times before and never done it, but I was curious. Turns out it was my recipe file and this was the picture. So I decided I better share the recipe since these really are the best blueberry muffins ever! (not the best for you, but I really don't care.) So try out the recipe and if you like it, thank Court!

Blueberry Muffins

3 cups flour

1 Tbsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

10 Tbsp butter (1 1/4 sticks) softened

1 cup sugar

2 large eggs

1 1/2 cups plain yogurt

1 tsp grated lemon peel

1 1/2 cups blueberries

1 Tbsp flour (if using defrosted berries)

Adjust the oven rack to the middle-lower part of the oven. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Whisk the flour, baking powder, soda, and salt. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar, beating until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating until incorporated after each one. Beat in the lemon peal.

Beat in one half of the dry ingredients until just incorporated. Beat in 1/3 of the yogurt. Beat in half of the remaining dry ingredients then the second third of the yogurt. Beat in remaining dry then remaining yogurt. Do not over beat. Fold in berries. If you are using defrosted berries, coat them in flour first.

Use a standart 12 muffin pan with paper liners. Distribute the batter evenly among cups. (Batter will heap over the top) Bake until muffins are golden brown and toothpick comes out clean, about 25 to 30 minutes Set on wire rack to cool for 5 minutes. Remove from pan and serve warm.

You should probably believe...

You should probably believe your mom when she tells you not to sit on your sidewalk chalk drawings...

You should probably believe your kid when he tells you he's faster...

You should probably belive your mom when she tells you that coating your snacks in sand and trying-out the new flavor won't be pleasant (check out their faces, true story)...

You should probably believe you kid when he tells you that there are bugs... everywhere (and if they weren't there at first, he'll look and dig and wait til there are. Then he's never wrong)...

MOST IMPORTANTLY you should probably believe your dad when he tells you that easter egg dye tablets are NOT CANDY!!! (good thing we caught that one pretty quick. I can only imagine.)

Second Year... Un-officially Over

Jason has un-officially finished his second year of med school. Yeah!!!! This means that they've had the right of passage ceremony but he technically still has a few more weeks of class. So we'll celebrate when he really is done with class and then we'll celebrate MORE when he passes his boards in early July! (See how happy we already are about no more classes?) I have such a wonderful, brilliant, handsome husband!!!

Easter Egg Hunt #1

Yeah for Easter! We have the best friends here, and thanks to everyone's help we also had the best EASTER EGG HUNT! All the moms and kids met at a park brought eggs to donate to the cause and a few minutes later the hunt was on. Its a good thing it only took a few minutes too, because the rain really started falling. We were just in time! Thanks again to everyone who came and hope you had a great time too.

the REAL reason

It has been a while since I put up new pictures of David, and let's admit, thats the real reason I even have a blog! So here he is.....

Lately Dave thinks its cool to 'hide' under all his animals and wait for someone to come find him. He thinks he's hillarious!

The other day David wanted to play in the cupboard, a few minutes later I opened it up and this is what I found. He played in there FOREVER! It seemed kind of wrong to let my kid sit in a cupboard with the door closed for so long, but I didn't want to be the one to ruin the fun and making dinner was sure easy!

David loves to play with 'sand'. You can see how much by the smile. Sadly he doesn't get to as much as he would like, because really, that stuff gets everywhere! Sometimes I'm a good mom though and let him.

the Gala

So, I keep opening this blog hoping that it will have magically been updated. It never is. I guess it's about time I did it myself. Jason and I went on a REAL date! Yeah for the DMU Gala! Jason calls it the medical school prom. Its a set day, time, place, all we have to do is show up... hense us actually going out. This year though I decided to make a dress, which added a bit more stress. Luckily I finished at 4 that afternoon.. still time to eat dinner, get ready and go. We had a great time. (thanks to Ty and Jaime for babysitting). There was music (of sorts), dancing (why some people think it is okay to dance with a full glass/bottle of alcohol in hand is beyond me), and food (which I think is Jason's favorite part). He tries to be adventurous and try all the strange cheese. Goat cheese is still bad. I'm a little less brave and stick to things WITHOUT mold on them. (you can call it 'aged' all you want, its moldy). Anyway, we had a great time!

Be My Valentine

Happy Valentines Day! I hope you all had a wonderful day. I made these valentines of David and thought they turned out so cute... so I'm sharing. Isn't he handsome! (he gets that from his Dad)