Proudly Displaying Our Artwork!

This is my dining room art and I'm proud of it.  Whatever projects we are working on I love to show them off, and my daughter is proud to have them on the wall too. Sometimes it get a bit too cluttered, but for now it works! 

Recently my aunt and uncle sent her a small gift from California and first thing she wanted to do was run over and draw a picture of it. I think that's the sweetest! We sent it to them in a thank you card! I love our art wall even if it's just made of yarn and oversized pushpins!

Homemade pizza ideas

So I'm sitting here trying to think what do I write about on a day when nothing is going right! The answer is always food. When life is out of control and you can't focus, put some food in the oven! Anyways here is one of the zillions of pizzas that Jonathan and I have made since getting an awesome recipe from a friend(who got it from a friend, confusing but true).  Every time we make one, about once a week I wonder why we didn't do this sooner. It's a wonderful process and now my daughter loves to roll out her own dough too! I think of all the money and time wasted on frozen gross cheap pizza and it's sad.

Anyways here is the pass it on recipe:

2 1/2 cups flour 
1 package yeast
1 cup water
2 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp olive oil plus more as needed

Dissolve your yeast in the water, make sure it's warmed and add 1tsp of sugar. Leave for 5 minutes. While you add other ingredients to mixer then when ready add yeast water. Add olive oil till perfect dough consistency, not too sticky. Then let rise for about 30-45 mins. Till doubled in size. Add fixings and bake 425 for 15 min.

Could it be any easier? Nope! Our current obsession, which we are having tonight, is Alfredo sauce with motzerella and sliced mushrooms, yummy! We like to add olive oil and garlic salt to the crust for extra yummy flavor!  

And while I'm on a roll. Don't buy prepared pizza sauce, what a waste of money. Buy a 33 cent can of tomato sauce and add your seasonings.  It's easy and totally yours. Maybe on the other hand I should market my own secret sauce and make a fortune!

Cloth diaper pros and cons

I feel proud to say I'm a cloth diapering mama, but let's not get confused its hard work! Before I even had my first I decided I loved it.  I bought the supplies and set up everything, watched all the blogs and thought to myself that the pros far outweigh the cons.  It's true it's a long list: cheap, good for the environment, not overflowing your garbage can each week, and much better on the skin so better for baby.   

Fastforward to now, with two in diapers and Yes I have changed my opinion, but not much.  I still value them and use them, but with two in them, gosh my diaper bag was stuffed to the top and so hard to stay organized with all the bulky cloth, plus you don't just throw them away when you're out you have to stuff them in a wet bag and carry around stink with you. And yes it stinks through the bag and  you may have no choice but to put it in with your clean stuff in your diaper bag, so ugh. Also it is a little more challenging buttoning them in a cloth then just pulling the tab on a disposable especially when you have a cranky or wiggly baby or toddler. (Frown face) 

My solution for now cloth at home and disposable when we are out.  A compromise for sure! I know there are cloth diaper mamas that would send disappointing vibes my way, but I'm trying.  Life is hard, complicated, and full of surprises. Often I have to remind myself not be a control freak, tell myself to enjoy life, and try to not get down on myself for what I'm not doing. 

So yes cloth diapering is wonderful and frugal and better, but finding balance in your life is the most wise thing you can do. Don't take on more than you can handle. Figure out what's right for your family. Your kids won't care if you did or didn't when they're twenty.

Jake and the pirates party for my two year old!!

I have more pictures if only I could find them, ugh. Story of my life. Anyways, just wanted to post about our awesome kids party from over the summer.  My goal is to have a fun kids party each summer for my kids. Something fun to look forward to and to invite new kids each time so they can widen out and make new friends. Also it was a huge highlight of my childhood and I want to share! So this was the first of many to come.  Let me just say it was a blast! My daughter was two and my son just 6 months, but we all got involved! 

Number one rule I made very clear, everyone had to dress up. No party poopers here! It really added a lot of fun to have the adults including the Mimi and papa in costume! 

So I made the invites myself, for almost nothing.  I had bought a few dollar store jake items that inspired the party, plus my daughter was obsessed with the show, but I cut out the jake logo and put it on brown, treasure map looking, paper and wrote in my best calligraphy to invite the kids to our ship, our house!!! They were so cute!

Next I stalked eBay looking for party supplies. I found a woman selling left over supplies from her sons party. It was such an awesome find. I price checked all she had included and it was a fraction of the cost. Amazing!!! Plus I sold what we didn't use and didn't get messed up and made a lot of the money back.  

I made the cake myself, like you couldn't tell, but it was a lot of fun and my daughter loved it! The cup cakes were a hit and easy for the littles to eat! 

As the kids arrived they colored jake and izzy pictures, which you can print for free from the Disney website.  Once everyone had arrived we played pin the treasure on the map.  I had a wall covered with an oversized map and a gigantic X where the chest should go! Then we played, Captain Hook pretzels, the kids had to see how many pretzels they could get out of the bowl using a hook. (Tip: make sure the hook fits you may need large pretzels).  Next was snack time: including goldfish, fruit snacks, cupcakes, fruit and drinks.  Finally we went outside for the kiddos to walk the plank, my husband built out of some supplies we had, and they dug for treasure in a small sand box filled with plastic coins!!! We also had a kiddie pool and bubbles!

Would have been perfect except it started raining forcing all to go back inside, but no worries they all enjoyed a jake episode while mom came up with plan B:) a last minute puppet show starring dad and an older guest!! 

All in all we had a blast, kids were tired and we can't wait to settle on a theme for next summer! 

Did I mention I'm in love with my crock pot?!?

This is going on right now in my kitchen! While I'm checking off the todo list dinner is cooking and allowing a beautiful aroma of fantasticness to fill my house! I love my crock pot! Have I mentioned that? Who invented this amazing cooking savior because they deserve a hug. I use it for everything. I mean you can seriously name a meal, breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert, and I can make it in a crock pot. I might sound nuts, but it's true.  With two kids, two and under, it saves my life.  

Like everyone else, we are on a serious budget and eating out just isn't in the plan. I looked last month and I think we spent $1.50 eating out the whole month.  And don't get me wrong it's not because we are against making things simple, but anything not bought at the grocery store really adds up fast. I mean crazy fast.  Try it sometime, keep a log.  I did and it was scary.  Trying to be a stay at home mom really makes you set priorities and here's mine. Healthy food, I know what's in it ( I washed my hands, which is a lot more than I can say for a lot of restaurants), and being the guardian of our funds,

it's the best solution.  There are zillions of amazing recipes out their on Pinterest(I'm obsessed), allrecipes.com, and blogs.  My advice is read other peoples reviews not just the person putting the recipes out there.  Also after you've made months worth of dinners in the crock pot you start to get the hang of things and can get creative.

One of my old standbys is just plain chicken breasts with taco seasoning, diced tomatoes, sliced onion, and bell pepper. It's a throw everything in kinda meal. I heart easy food. Then when it's time to eat just grab tortillas and your favorite toppings add a side of rice, beans or whatever you got. Yum! 

Gosh I could go on forever about this, but you get the idea. Instructions include: step one distract the kids, step two throw ingredients in crock pot, step three make sure it's plugged in and turned to low, step four go about your day! Done! Check that off your list, I did!

It's been two years, what?!

My loves 

So where have I been and what's been going on? I think the picture sums it up! A two year old, a one year old, and life. How do people find time to blog and finish the ever looming todo list? I don't know, but I know I'll be sad if I don't start documenting our crazy life with or without my todo list finished.  So here I go, another attempt. So much happens each day. I not only want to be present mentally, but also enjoy the chaos that sums up my life.