Happy Birthday Grandma

Happy Birthday Grandma!!!

We hope you have a wonderful day.  

Wish we could be together but know that we are thinking of you and sending lots of hugs your way!

Love,

Jacob, Jennifer & Jerry

Freezer Paper Stenciling

I've seen this done on several blogs and wanted to try it out.  I saw a shirt like this when I was pregnant and thought it was so cute but I wouldn't buy it because it was $30.00.  I just couldn't spend that much on something that would only be worn for a few months.  So now, almost 3 years later, I made the shirt. Well I bought the shirt at Wal-Mart, for only $3.50 (that price I can live with) and I put the design on it.

Notice I put stitches on the shoulders:)

Here's how I did it:

* I printed out what I wanted on the shirt on regular printer paper and then put the freezer paper over it   

   (shiny side down) and traced the design onto it.  

* Then you have to cut out the design.  

* Next you get your iron and ironing board and you put the shiny side down onto the shirt and you iron  

   over then freezer paper until it is stuck to the shirt.  

   (Don't forget to save the little pieces, like the inner parts to the letters - those have to be ironed on too  

   or it won't look right) 

* I sponged Tulip soft fabric paint in matte over the stencil, let it dry then peeled the paper off.

I hope this makes sense. I can't wait to find some cheap short sleeve shirts to put more designs on.  

You might notice that Jerry is standing on the table - this is the only way I could get him to let me take pictures of him in the shirt.  In the first picture he is saying cheese.

More Snow!

I am so ready for spring.  I'm tired of the white stuff and shoveling our drive way.  It hasn't even been the good snow for building a snowman and the wind makes it no fun to be outside in so I would like to be done with it and the warm days to be here soon, please.  Jerry's favorite thing about the snow is eating it and Max loves to put his bone in the snow and the dig for it, which is really funny to watch.  So in some ways it has been fun.

So since it's -15 degrees out I decided to make my favorite soup,  

Smoked Sausage, Butternut Squash and Wild Rice Soup

I found this recipe on The Food Network courtesy of Emeril Lagasse and I love it (Jacob even likes it).

I thought I would share the recipe, which I modified a little and I also cut the recipe in 1/2.

Smoked Sausage, Butternut Squash and Wild Rice Soup

Ingredients

• 2 medium butternut squash, about 3 to 4 pounds, peeled, seeded, and cut into 1-inch chunks
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• Salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 12 cups chicken stock
• 2 1/2 cups chopped onions
• 1 cup wild rice
• 3/4 pound smoked sausage, such as kielbasa, cut into 1/4-inch
• 2 cups fresh corn kernels
• 1 1/2 cups half-and-half
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley leaves
• *curry powder to taste - this is optional, I added this to the recipe

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Season the squash with 1 tablespoon of the oil, salt and pepper. Place on a baking sheet and roast for 45 minutes to 1 hour or until tender. Remove from the oven and cool completely. In a blender or food processor, puree the squash with 2 cups of the chicken stock. Puree until smooth and set aside.

In a saucepan, over medium heat, bring 4 cups of the stock and 1/2 cup of the chopped onions to a simmer. Stir in the rice and cook until the rice is tender and the liquid is absorbed, about 1 hour, stirring occasionally with a fork. Remove the rice from the pan and cool. In a large saucepan, over medium heat, add the remaining tablespoon of oil. When the oil is hot, add the sausage and brown for 3 minutes. Add the remaining 2 cups of onions and corn. Season with salt and pepper. Saute for 3 minutes. Add the remaining 6 cups of stock and squash puree. Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low, cover and simmer for 20 minutes.Skim off any fat that rises to the surface. Stir in the rice and continue to cook for 10 minutes. Remove from the heat, stir in the half-and-half and season with salt and pepper. Stir in the parsley and serve.

*I add curry powder when adding the rice and added less chicken stock because I wanted it thicker.

I'm a BIG boy!!!

Yay, look who is potty trained!  Actually, he has been trained since we got back from Christmas.  We've been working on this for a long time, since last spring.  He showed a lot of interest when we first started then decided he wanted nothing to do with it.  After reading a lot about it I decided to stop pushing the subject for awhile but would always take him to the potty when he wanted to go and of course praise him and make a big deal about it.  Then came the holidays and travel and I figured I would really start working with him again once we got home and things were back to normal.  I didn't have to do anything, he came home and decided on his own he was ready.  Wow, that was easy!  Do you know how much money we are going to save now that we don't have to buy diapers.  I have a few diapers left and we use them only at night but once we are out there's no buying more until we have another baby in the house.  He's only had a few accidents at night but mostly wakes up with a dry diaper and usually wakes up saying potty.  

He is such a BIG boy.  Now we just need to get his bed converted to a full size bed and we're done with the baby stuff for awhile (hopefully not too long though).

Happy Anniversary Mom & Dad!

Here is to 34 years of memories together.

You are amazing people and we love you 

very much.  We wish you another 34 years

of more happiness, love and great times!

Happy Anniversary Mom & Dad!!!

We love you!

Playtime

Photos by STELLAR Photography

Jerry has been going on play dates with his friend 

Jackson on Fridays.  Jackson is Tennille's son, a 

friend of ours who also works with Jacob. 

 Her mom watches Jackson on Fridays and has 

offered to have Jerry over to play.  Jerry has 

absolutely loved going over there.  He has gone 

the last two Fridays for a few hours and it's been 

great for both him and me.  I now have some time

 for me.  I'm not always sure what to do with that

 time.  I know what I want to do but then there is 

always all that other stuff that I know needs done 

and would get done a lot easier without the little

 guy, like grocery shopping (yuck!).  

Tennille's younger sister has her own photography

 business and was there when Jerry was playing

 with Jackson and took these pictures.

Jenna's Birthday Weekend

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Let it Snow

 We finally got some snow and we're loving it.  Jerry was so excited to play in it.  He helped me shovel the driveway and sidewalks.  Our neighbor was out doing his and he came over and helped us finish ours.  We're lucky to have great neighbors.  Jerry loves snowmen so I thought it would be fun to build one with him.  The snow was a little powdery so he ended up being a little one, much smaller than Jerry even.  Jerry didn't quite get the concept of building it.  I would start rolling the balls of snow then Jerry would take over and then kick the ball.  I guess that made sense to him, but it took us a few times to finally get it done.  He still didn't get that it was a snowman until we put the face on him, then he understood. The little snowman should be around for awhile because it is freezing cold here.  Tomorrow is supposed to be a nice day, a high of 30 degrees.  Maybe we will venture back out to build a bigger snowman.

Christmas 2010

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Our Weekend in Kansas City

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Cowboy Christmas

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It's looking more like Christmas

The tree is up and there's even a couple of gifts under it.  I decided to put the tree upstairs this year since we have Max in the basement and this way I can keep a better eye on Jerry.  So far, he has left all of the decorations alone.  I started putting pheasant feathers in the tree and all of the greenery.  It fits Jacob's style a little more and I really like it.  All of the feathers are from birds that he and Max have gotten.  I also put burlap garland in the tree that I love!  It's my favorite part.  I did put some lights on the house that I have yet to get pictures of...they will be coming soon.

Fun Outside

The weather was beautiful yesterday so we spent most of the day playing outside. We put up some Christmas greenery and lights around the doorway and cleaned up the yard.  Jerry thought it was fun playing in all of the leaves that we just raked into a pile.

He loves all of the Christmas lights.  We drove around Thursday night and looked at lights.  We found one neighborhood that every house looked like the house on Christmas vacation.  They called the neighborhood Candy Cane Lane.  It was really impressive how much they decorated.  We also found a house that had it's lights connected to music so the lights flashed and turned on/off with the songs - we turned our radio to the station it was connected with. It was my favorite house.  I don't think I explained that very good but it was neat. 

Fall Days

We love fall.  Our backyard is beautiful with all of the trees changing color.  Jacob and the neighbor cleared out more brush around some of the trees so we went out yesterday and took some pictures.  Jerry loves sticks so he was having a lot of fun.  I never did get his 2 year pictures taken (sorry to all of the grandparents) so I tried to get some good shots but it is really hard with this little boy.  So out of about 50 pictures I got about 4 good ones. 

The only downside to fall is shorter days and Jerry hasn't adapted well to the time change.  He now wakes up around 6:30...yuck.  I know that isn't very early but it would be nice to have that extra hour of sleep.  So as usual we have learned to adapt around Jerry's schedule.

Happy Halloween

Jerry helped me hand out candy last night.  He loved seeing all of the kids come to the door.  

He had to go outside and see all of the kids dressed up and he even got a few hugs from some of the little monsters.  He would wait by the door until the next ones came.  

My mom gave me these pumpkin stands.  Jerry loved playing with them.