Before and After Part I

I'm so excited that I get to post the first before and after pictures of our renovations that have started at our house.  These are of the yard.  We had sprinkler systems put in the front and back along with all new sod.

BEFORE

Notice the amounts of dirt under both trees.  This is why we had to go with fescue because of all the shade.  Heck, notice the dirt all throughout the yard!

DURING

AFTER

No more dirt!!!!!

Spencer literally would stand in the backyard and just fall back! The grass is that thick and lush! He just rolled and rolled around in it!

Cheesin' while scoping out our new yard!

Disney Family Fun - September

Oh this month was a good one and it was mainly good due to the amount of great recipes I found.  I'll tell you one thing, I CANNOT wait for next month's issue because it will be the Halloween issue!!!!  These are my two sweet recipes from the issue...

Rockin' S'more Bars

Yowsers is all I can say!  I will be making these on the weekend!

Apple Pie Bars

Or should I make these??

I also thought this was a good idea because I can so see Spencer riding his bike with all his action figures in one hand and trying to steer with the other!  He already does this while riding his firetruck at home and usually ends up putting some of the things in his mouth to free up his hands! HA!

They didn't put this one online, so I'll do my best to explain it.  It's just a Bike Tube made out of a Pringle's can.  The can is covered with contact paper of your choice (or your kiddo's choice).

For the straps to attach it to the handle bars of the bike, use Velcro One-Wrap.  Insert a paper fastener (metal brad) through each strap and into the can, then open the arms (ends of the fasteners) and secure them inside the can with duct tape.  Wrap the straps around the handlebars and WALL-AAA your kiddo will have a compartment to store their ever so important stuff while riding their bike!

Here's the page scanned out of the magazine so you can better visualize it:

Let me know if you try any of these things and I'll do the same!

Down to the End

...end of the summer, that is.  It's never hit me this hard.  I'm not ready to start school Monday and I don't see that changing anytime this weekend.  I do know that it will change with time and I'll be in full school mode, but I just can't make myself get ready.  I've never been like this in my 10 years of teaching.  I am by no means a stay-at-home mom, nor do I want to be one, but I need a little extension of my summer.  I love teaching and I will always work doing something with education.  I'm fortunate to have a great job that I do have summers off, but that's just it.  I didn't have a complete summer off (because of things I agreed to do).  I told Rick to not let me do that again next summer.  I really think he'll hold me to that.  I love getting to see Rick in the middle of the day when he comes home from work.  I love doing fun things with Spencer that he didn't like to do last summer, like swimming. 

Something that I've started to HATE here lately is waking Spencer up so he can scarf down breakfast and get ready to go to school.  Walking in his room seeing him sleeping like an angel is so nice.  Last year at this time, he woke up around 6 and that was pretty good for us.  This morning really pulled on my heart strings because he decided he was going to sit up in our bed and watch Mickey Mouse (like he usually does in the morning, but in the the living room).  Then I hear him hollering for his Daddy and Rick went in there and when he came back to the kitchen I asked him what he wanted.  Rick said he wanted our pillows behind his back so he could kick back and lounge while watching Mickey and eating his pop tart.  This is what it looked like when I peeked in...

 

Oh how I love that sweet, little boy!  Happy Friday everyone!

Life as we know it...

One more week until school starts and I'm still dragging my feet.  I'm not ready at all, but better get that way.  We have so many things going on at the house every day with all the renovations and it's like the only time we have to even sit down for 15 minutes straight is on the weekend.  Spencer has been doing great at school since he's full time again now.  We are just so thankful to have him in the best place.  He's beginning to eat more of a variety of foods these days which we are so thankful for!  He still doesn't drink milk, but this has been wonderful for making sure he gets his dairy...

Just poke a bendy straw in the top of the "drinkable" yoplait yogurts and there you go!  He's really to the point where he can drink it without the straw, but the straw helps prevent some messes.

Here's some pictures from our trip to the park Saturday morning.  Spencer LOVES the park, especially sliding and swinging.  He fed the ducks from his wagon on our way there and had a great time with that. 

I just love his hair in these.  It has grown out a lot in the past month and you can see here it just flies all over the place!

And I just have to share these last two with you...man, are we blessed!!

Eating his mini-cupcake from Cake after his nap

Pure sweetness!

Cathie's Brownies

Who is Cathie you might ask?  Ummm, a sweetheart would be one of the many words I could use to describe her but she's also my best friend's mom.  I love me some Cathie and try to get over to see them (Mike & Cathie) whenever they are here.  Well, Angie had a party a week ago and made these brownies.  OMG!!!!!!!  Delicious!!  And you're going to die when you see how easy they are.  Thank you Cathie for the awesome recipe and thank you Angie for making them!!

Ingredients

Boxed brownie mix (and eggs, oil, water or whatever the box calls for)

4 normal sized Symphony bars or 3 giant Symphony bars

Make the mix just as the brownie box says.  Pour half of the batter into a 13" x 9" pan.  On top of that batter, lay down the the symphony bars so that it covers all the batter.  Do not crumble the bars up.  Pour the remaining batter on top of the Symphony bars.  Bake according to the instructions on the box.

Easy peezy, right?  These are sooooooooo good!  If you give the recipe to anyone, make sure you call them Cathie's Brownies!  ;o)  Let me know if you make them!!

Fun Friday

Friday was a busy and hectic day.  Hectic because we had electricity "issues" at our house and was without electricity for most of the day and we had a party to go to at 3:00.  No electricity = no hot water.  So, I trucked all my stuff over to Angie's to take a shower.  Went and got Spencer and headed back to Angie's for her Thirty-One party.  It was so fun and Spencer got to play with Landon and Tucker.  Spencer even decided he wanted to be a model for the Thirty-One bags.

I could literally spend a fortune on these Thirty-One bags.  I had never heard of them until now, so if you haven't, check them out.  And if you want to order, I can get you into contact with someone.  I bought these:

Cinch sack for Spencer and got 'SPENCER' monogrammed on it.

Mini zipper pouch for my purse with 'K' monogrammed on it.  I'm seriously thinking about getting a larger sized one of these too.

Got home to Rick sitting on the patio so where did we stay for the next 2 hours??  OUTSIDE!  It started to rain and Spencer had a great time playing in the rain.  Then he decided to play in the mud.  He literally had mud in his ears!  What a boy!

"Healthified" Chicken Tortilla Casserole

It's back!! (maybe some of you have missed it!)  This recipe I have been making for a little bit now and I found it at Tablespoon.com.  This is a great, great site to browse recipes that are easy, organized by category and use ingredients that are easy to find.  I also like that almost every recipe has nutritional values and that's helpful for us because it gives us carb counts.  It's almost unbelievable that this has "healthified" in the title because it doesn't not taste healthy at all, but it is!  Hope you like it!

1 can (10 3/4 oz) 98% fat free 45% less sodium condensed cream of chicken soup

1 can (4.5 oz) chopped green chiles (I double this)
1 container (8 oz) fat-free sour cream
1/2 cup fat-free (skim) milk
1 1/2 teaspoons chili powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
2 1/2 cups shredded cooked chicken breast
8 yellow corn tortillas (6 or 7 inch), torn into bite-size pieces
1 medium green bell pepper, chopped (1 cup)
1 large tomato, chopped (1 cup) (I use 4 Roma tomatoes)
1 1/2 cups shredded sharp Cheddar cheese or Mexican cheese blend (6 oz)

Heat oven to 350°F. Spray 13x9-inch (3-quart) glass baking dish with cooking spray. In large bowl, mix soup, chiles, sour cream, milk, chili powder and cumin until blended. Stir in chicken, tortillas and bell pepper. Stir in tomato and 1 cup of the cheese. Spoon and spread mixture in baking dish.

Cover with foil. Bake 40 minutes. Uncover; sprinkle with remaining 1/2 cup cheese. Bake uncovered 5 to 10 minutes longer or until cheese is melted and mixture is bubbly. Let stand 5 minutes.

from tablespoon.com

Enjoy!  Be sure and let me know if you try this!

Proud to report!

And this would be my last update concerning my summer to-do list.  Why is it that I can mark off a lot of stuff on it because I did them this week??  Oh well, it's done.  I didn't get it all done, but this is what I have done...

Oh the dreaded computer room closet...

Using the pictures above, we can chat about the Cradles 2 Crayons consignment sale...

See all those clothes now hanging in the CLEAN closet??  Yep, I'm close to being done tagging all of Spencer's clothes.  I have two bins to go through this weekend that we have to get from the storage unit and I'll be done.  All I will have left after that are toys and baby equipment.

My reading...

The Adoration of Jenna Fox was really good and interesting since it was set in the future.  This one is hard to explain, but a good read.

Pieces of Georgia was absolutely precious!!  A SUPER fast read because it's a journal that Georgia is writing.  Good one!

Uncharted TerriTORI did not disappoint as I figured.  I love the way she writes because she is so real.  I hope there are many more to come!

I think I'm going to order Kendra Wilkinson's Sliding Into Home today and see how that is.  Any other suggestions?  I'm a sucker for autobiographies, especially celebrities.

Things are moving right along with our home improvements.  We've already gotten the rest of our fence put in.  Concrete border is being laid in the front yard right now, new roof on Monday and grass and sprinkler systems go in after that.  They've already sprayed our front and back yard to kill all of our grass.  There will be many before & after pictures coming up!

Bell-O

Bell-O...those are the sweetest words that come from Spencer's mouth that just melts mine and Rick's heart!  It is Spencer saying "love you".  What a sweetheart!  I start school in one week...yuck-ola!  This is the first year out of my 10 years of teaching I haven't been ready to go back to school at this time.  It's for two reasons...1) last week was the first week of the summer that I didn't have anything school related to do (not counting vacation) and 2) Spencer is so darn fun and cute and I just want one more time to go swimming, one more time to go do this and do that. 

This is what we've been up to lately...

Swimming, swimming and more swimming!  Spencer is almost to the point that he has no interest in the kiddie pool.  He loves the big pool!  We are going to try to get in as much swimming as we can before it starts cooling off.

Exhausted after a long day swimming...

Birthday parties for sweet friends...

And LOVING bath time!!  Spencer has FINALLY gotten used to the big bath and cannot get enough of it.  He starts asking to take a bath at 7:00!!  Mind you, he doesn't go to bed until about 9:00 or 9:30, so that's a little early.

And a sweet picture to end this post...

We were getting ready this morning to go to school (Spencer's) and Spencer had his beloved dinosaur with him while I was changing his clothes.  We got down from the changing table and I told him to put the dinosaur up so we could go and he said, "pillow, sleeping, shhhhhhhh!" (and put his finger over his lips while he was saying shhhhhhhh)  Then he laid the dinosaur on the pillow.  Does it get any sweeter than that??