Canning Fun

In my neverending quest to become a Domestic Goddess I have learned to can! I made some delicious cinnamon applesauce and pickled jalapenos (from our garden). It was so much fun I started looking around the house for other things to can. My kids vettoed the pickled eggs.

From this:

To this - yummy

Pickled Jalapenos - can't wait for tacos!

Our Budding Actress

It's been awhile since my last blog (okay a long while), but it's time for me to come back. Tonight my daughter, Madison who is 9 years old, began her acting career. She performed as the Phony Princess #4 in The Princess and The Pea at our local Boys & Girls Club and oh my was she cute! After the performace she was beaming. What a good fit for her; she's very dramatic after all. I'm not sure where she gets it from (wink, wink). Madison has a tendency to get bored with activities that she's doing, but I think this one is here to stay (for a bit anyway).

Madison is the green one in the back row.

Chicago Bears vs. Houston Texans

One of my dreams has finally come true! Anyone who knows me well, has no doubt what a huge Chicago Bears fan I am. On a whim, I bid on tickets to the Bears-Texans game in Houston. I actually won! John and I got a sitter for the kids for four days and we hit the road! We drove during the day and stayed in hotels at night. The experience was amazing, the game on the other hand...well, they lost the game and their playoff chances. But the players-Brian Urlacher, Devin Hester, Lance Briggs...so yummy! Next season, Soldier Field is calling my name! By the way, yes that is a look of thrill and excitement on John's face to be there with me :)

Christmas Morning

Christmas morning the kids woke us up at 4 am and then I proceeded to tell them "yeah right" and to get their cute little butts back into bed. Once 8 am rolled around we got up and opened our stockings and Nolan found a little treat along with a note from Santa. He has been a bit of a turd this year and we kept warning him he was going to get snowman poop if he didn't shape up... Now before you tell me how mean I am, he also got a stocking full of surprises. This was just a bit of a wake up call, suprisingly he has been nicer since. After the stockings, my charming husband made us breakfast and we all ate together in the living room floor. After that, the wrapping paper went flying!

Polar Express

It's been awhile since i've posted, so I'm going to play catch up and let everyone know what we've been up to the last couple of months... The Saturday after Thanksgiving, John and I took the kids to the North Pole on The Polar Express! In Connersville, Indiana they have this awesome historic train that takes kids to the "North Pole" to recreate the movie "The Polar Express". We took our golden tickets and boarded the train in our pajamas as the conductor yelled "all aboard". As we sat down, the sound of Christmas carols poured into the train cars enveloping us into the Christmas spirit. Hot cocoa and cookies were passed out to the children and their parents...yum. Once we reached the North Pole we all got to sing to get Santa to come out of his home. Santa boarded the train and sat with each and every child to find out what they wanted for Christmas and gave them a bell...just like the movie. This is the coolest thing ever to do for your kids at Christmas time. Tickets go on sale in May and are sold out before summer

ends so act quickly!

Finally Finished!

Our kitchen remodel is finally finished! Actually, it was finished a month ago but things happen... Here are the pics of our new kitchen. We didn't actually do a full remodel. Our cabinets and layout was all good, but we brought our bar/counter area out into a "L-shape" and added more cabinets underneath our new granite countertops. John installed the cobalt blue pendant lighting over the extension...I'm glad he is so handy! We had someone install the tile backsplash just to avoid anymore marital spats. Anyone married who has done home improvements probably knows what I mean. Good grief...we spent over six hours picking out the tile, think how long it would have taken us to install it! Anyway, we love the improvements we've made. It was well worth it!

New England 2008

Last week John and I took the kids to New England on vacation. We stayed in a beautiful resort in the Berkshires, in Massachusetts. There wasn't a whole lot to do in the town we stayed, but we took a lot of day trips. One day we went to Vermont, another to Six Flags New England, John went to NYC and then my personal favorite...Boston. There was so much to do there, we'll have to go back when we have more time. The kids did get to ride their first train though! Nolan loves trains so that was big for him. Then we took a quick trip to Madison's future home, New Haven , CT - home of the Yale Bulldogs :) We had a great time, but I think it'll be a while before I drive that far with the kids and my husband again!