Next!

Okay, so Halloween has officially come and gone. I was such a slacker with the Halloween and fall decorations. (The true reason being is that the hubby didn't get the decorations out of the attic. We really need to get some stairs to the attic and then I can handle it myself-until then, I have to rely on him!)
I've been working on some gifts for the holidays already so I am definitely in Christmas mode. I can't share too many details just yet, but boy is my brain over-loaded with ideas! The pic shows just a taste of what I've been working on...

Uneventful Halloween...

Halloween was very uneventful for us this year. Our middle child was the only one to go trick or treating. He's techinically got one more year after this year. Our youngest has never truly had a love for Halloween. We tried to encourage him to go to just a few houses, but we couldn't convince him. Instead, he stayed home with his older sister and her boyfriend to help out the candy. This is what my house looked like that night~no tricks or treats here!

Fun Halloween Craft Tutorial

I saw this really cute craft idea on this blog that I found recently(it's called eighteen25) and thought I would give it a try. This is my first attempt at a turtorial so it may not be so pretty!

Supplies you will need:

Wood letters
Foam brush
Glue
Glitter
Acrylic paint (choose a color close to the glitter color)
Decorative paper
Frame (I used an 8.5x11 frame for this project)

I found these fabulous wood type letters at Michael's for another project I've done recently so I went back and found these letters today. I dug and dug through the bin and I'm pretty sure that I got the last "e's" they had.



I painted around the edges of the letters a semi-matching color since I didn't plan on trying to get the glitter on the sides of them. I have the patience of a two-year old at times so I let them dry for all of two minutes before I began to spread the glue on the front of the letter.


After spreading the glue I sprinkled glitter all over the letter and let it sit for a few minutes and then shook the glitter off the letter.



While I was waiting for the glue/glitter to dry I took the frame I bought at the dollar store and cut some scrapbook paper to fit the size of the frame. The paper is black and it had very pale purple spiderwebs on it, but it is hard to see in the picture.
The next step was to glue the letters to the frame. I will finish the frame with a cute halloween ribbon and hang it on the wall.
Hope you enjoyed!

Does This Even Count as a Recipe for Chicken Enchiladas???

So I was asked to post the recipe for chicken enchiladas after I bragged about being a "devoted wife" and made them for the hubby's work guys. The truth is that I really don't follow a true recipe and I tend to make it a little differently each time.

Since I'm a total slacker and take short cuts, here's what I do:

Ingredients:
Chicken
2 cans cream of chicken soup
sour cream
milk
small can green chilies
flour tortillas
cheese (cheddar, pepper jack, or any mexican flavored-whichever you'd like, but lots of it!)
seasonings (sometimes I use chili powder, garlic, cumin, but again, use what seasonings you like.)


I take one whole rotiserrie chicken (already cooked)and take all of the meat off of it, shred it, and put it into a large mixing bowl.
I then put a can of cream of chicken soup, half a container of sour cream, green chiles, and some cheese into the bowl. Mix well. At this point I will put some seasoning in, that is if I remember to!
Once that's done I take my casserole dish and get it ready. In a smaller bowl I take another can of the cream of chicken soup, the rest of the sour cream, and mix it together. I use the milk to thin out the soup/sour cream mixture to make it more of a sauce. Once mixed, I take several spoonfuls and spread it on the bottom of the casserole dish.
Now to roll the enchiladas. I place a few spoonfuls of chicken mixture on the tortilla and roll it up. My enchiladas look more like mini burritos by the time I've rolled them, but do whatever you like.
Once they're rolled and put into the casserole dish I take the remaining "sauce" and spread it over the top. Load it up with oodles of cheese and bake at 350 degrees until nice and bubbly. Yumm-O! (I so stole that from Rachael Ray!)

Old Glory...

I had an idea last weekend as the "hubs" was working on deck project...

With some help from the middle kiddo, we turned this....





Into this...


The old owners of our home had a hot tub and they took it out so my hubby had to fill in the nice hole in the deck with new boards. I thought of a picture I saw a while ago that used different boards to make a wall picture. Being that it was Memorial Day weekend how better to celebrate other than making an American Flag! Things didn't go exactly as planned at first with the colors of the stain so we ended up using some paint on top of the stain. Overall I am pretty pleased with how it turned out. It makes me feel like summer is here!

Strawberry Whipped Sensation Recipe

Today we headed to a cookout for Memorial Day courtesy of family members. It was nice to get together with everyone and eat some yummy food! I love trying new recipes and today we scored with another winner. I found this recipe in the Kraft Foods "Food & Family Cookbook" magazine. It was super easy and my youngest kiddo helped me make it. Actually, he did most of the work!

What you need:

4 cups fresh strawberries, divided
1 can(14 oz) sweetened condensed milk
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 tub (8 oz) Cool Whip, thawed and divided
8 Oreo cookies, finely chopped
1 Tbsp. butter, melted

To make it:

Line a 9x5 loaf pan with foil, with ends of foil extending over sides. Mash 2 cups berries in large bowl. Add milk, juice and 2 cups cool whip; mix well. Pour into prepared pan.

Mix chopped cookies and butter. Spoon over cool whip mixture. Cover with ends of foil; gently press cookie mixture into cool whip mixture. Freeze 6 hours or until firm.

Invert dessert onto plate when ready to serve; remove pan and foil. Frost with remaining cool whip. Slice remaining berries; use to garnish dessert. Freeze leftovers.


Like I said, it was super yummy. I think it would be great with blueberries or even with mixed berries as an option. Enjoy!

Those Darn Critters..

The youngest recently went to the allergist. We've had three episodes since January of pretty impressive facial swelling and the last episode we landed in the Emergency Room as his lips were swelling and he complained of tongue and throat tingling. Anywho, we did some allergy testing recently and wouldn't you know it, he came back positive for dust mites. So nothing major, no answer to the explosion of swelling on the face, but the guinea pigs are safe (no new home for them). It's never an easy answer when it comes to my children. BUT, on the way home I had a genious idea! As we were talking about dust mites and I was explaining what they were and what we needed to do to help keep them at bay, I decided I would use this to my full advantage. I told him he had to keep his room super clean-no clothes on the floor, carpet has to remain clean and vaccuumed all the time since these little suckers could jump on his clothes, etc. He looked at me like I was crazy, but I intend to make sure he's compliant if ya know what I mean (wink, wink)...

Yummy Salsa!

Last night hubby and I went to grab some dinner at Chipotle while two of the kids were at Yuck E. Cheese's (aka Chuck E. Cheese). The oldest was hanging out with our adorable nieces for the evening. I've never been to Chipotle, but the kids any hubby have several months ago. They kept saying how yummy it was. Let me tell you-they were right. Super yummy! I, of course, ate entirely too much and felt like I could not walk upright for at least 15 minutes afterwards. I fell in love with one of their salsas. It was the Tomatillo-green chile salsa. Yumm-o! (Geez, I sound like Rachael Ray now.)
Anywho, today I decided I would try and replicate the salsa so here's my recipe...
(I just made it up as I went so the ingredient amounts are not exact.)

1 can whole tomatillos, drained
1 small to medium white onion
2 large tomatoes
2 large cloves garlic
1 small can green chiles
fresh cilantro

Throw everything in a food processor and pulse until well blended. Let sit in refridgerator for about an hour to let the flavors blend.
I think it turned out pretty good. I forgot to add the green chiles and it still tasted great. I hope you enjoy!

The Holidays are Over....

It's officially 2010 and now the holidays have come to an end. The tree came down today along with the rest of the decorations. I've been thinking about my resolutions for the new year for some time now and I don't know why I'm so bent on making them work this year. I've never really done that before.
My main resolutions are to focus on family and myself. I'd like to have us do more things together as a family. How I'm going to do achieve that? I haven't quite figured that one out yet. I also need to make taking care of me a priority too. I've gone too long and pushed that to the back-burner and focused on other things. Of course, there's the exercise resolution, which I do have to say I've been okay with working on since latter 2009, but I definitely want to step it up. I'd love to have even a 2-pack or 4-pack of abs if I can't have 6. :)
There are a few other resolutions, but I won't bore anyone with those details...

In other news, I have to say that I am incredibly excited about reconnecting with an old friend. This friend and I were super close in middle school. She was the type of person that you knew would be your BFF for life. Unfortunately she had to move at the end of 8th grade as her parents were missionaries. I remember being so sad when she moved. Of course in 8th grade you don't keep in touch like you say you're going to. However, I did think of her many times and tried to find her in a few different ways over the years. She gave me this siberian husky ornament (she was from Alaska) and I still hang it on my tree to this very day. Anywhooo, as I logged onto facebook this afternoon I see I have a message in my inbox. It's asking if I was the person she went to middle school with. I was so excited~it's been, ummmm, 20+ years. (Ewww, I just really dated myself there.)I hope to at least reconnect and see how she's doing. It definitely made me smile...

So, here's to a new year and new resolutions!