GIVEAWAY TIME!!!

CLOSED

We are hosting a GIVEAWAY to one lucky person to win a $50 gift card to TARGET! To use however and whenever you want!

Who doesn't need some extra cash this time of year for some Holiday shopping?! I know I do! All you have to do is click on the links on our side bar and like our Facebook page, follow us on Twitter and Pinterest and Follow our Blog and you can be eligible to WIN!

**Please make sure after you like each of our pages, that you come back and leave a comment on our blog with your email address (so we can contact you if you win) and tell us all of the ones you liked/followed so we can enter you into the drawing that many times. Please no cheating. We will be checking up.

***The Giveaway will officially be closed on Thursday, November 29th at Midnight. So hurry, and Good Luck!***

Exciting News!

I just wanted to post a little bit of exciting news about the blog today. I've know for about a month that the Sticky Buns Breakfast Ring recipe I made would be posted up on the Pillsbury Facebook page, Twitter page, and Pinterest! I feel so honored and hope that all of our followers/visitors to this blog will give the recipe a try! Not only are they very easy to make, but delicious!

You can check out the featured links below:

Pillsbury Facebook page

Pillsbury Twitter page

Pillsbury Pinterest page

Thanks for visiting our blog and feel free to follow us on Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter and the blog for updates on more great recipes we've tried!

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Easy Christmas Countdown

I love the idea of an Advent Calendar, but "having" to do something everyday gives me a panic attack.  A simple countdown better suits us, and helps with my 5 and 3 year olds constant asking of when Santa is coming. I looked around and couldn't find something that; A. My kids wouldn't rip tiny little wooden doors off of, and B. Was less than twenty dollars. So, I came up with this idea...My kids love opening presents (duh), and star burst are always a safe bet.

This project started with some fluttering of the eyelashes, and a "Honey, can you help me with this..??" He is the brains behind the math, and making the stencils. He is a keeper.

Supplies:

Thick card stock or Chipboard paper. I got mine (12x12) at Michael's for .25, I used 4 sheets.
Scotch Tape
Wrapping Paper
Candy of Choice
Embellishments of Choice
I stuck mine to the wall using Sticky Tack.

Total cost, $16.

Step 1-3:

Make a triangle stencil, 6" by 4 1/4", use stencil to make 25. Make sure it all comes together correctly.

Step 4-7:

Tape your candy onto the chipboard. Turn face down and wrap it up, you will end up with 25 cute little presents for your chitlins to rip open in utter joy. Build your Christmas tree starting with 5 triangles at the bottom.

Embellish it to your heart's content, and end up with something like this!

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DIY Household Cleaners

Happy Monday, everyone! Here are some of my favorite DIY home cleaners that I have gathered together. I love that I am using natural products, and that I am saving money at the same time. Win, win! 

First Up, Floor Cleaner. Some sick and twisted human being decided that white grouting sounded good for a kitchen floor... Huh? And it wasn't off white, it was ultra pure white. It will never be that white again, regardless of my Saturdays channeling Cinderella. 

Try not to judge too harshly....I have a 5 year old; 3 year old, 2 year old, 2 dogs, 1 cat, and oh, yes, a Husband. Ha!

Floor Cleaner

Ingredients:

1/4 cup washing soda

1/4 cup vinegar

1/2 TBSP  blue dawn dish soap

2 gallons HOT water

(optional, few drops of lavender essential oil)

Directions:

Mix ingredients in the sink for mopping the kitchen floor, or pour mixture from sink into a spray bottle and use for laminate wood flooring or linoleum in bathrooms etc.

Laundry Detergent

Ingredients: All ingredients can be found at your local supermarket. I buy mine at Wal-Mart.

2 cups Borax

2 cups Washing Soda

1 cup Fels-Naptha

(optional, few drops of lavender essential oil)

Directions:

Mix together ingredients in a large tub. Add 1/4 cup to your laundry. If I am washing towels or linens I usually add 5-6 drops of lavender for a nice scent. 

Dish Detergent

Ingredients:

1 cup Borax

1 cup Washing Soda

Directions: Mix ingredients together, I make mine in a Tupperware container. Use 2TBSP in your dishwasher.

Counter Spray

Ingredients:

1 cup Vinegar

1 cup water

Directions: Mix ingredients together into a spray bottle. You may want to add 10-12 drops of an essential oil. like lemon, if you aren't crazy about the smell of vinegar.

Stain Remover

***Disclaimer*** Make at your own risk, I went around my house like a happy little elf cleaning all the wonderful art my sweet children have left all over my walls. You will throw away your oxi clean, and never buy Mr. Cleans magic erasers again.

Ingredients:

2 cups Hydrogen Peroxide
1/2 cup Blue Dawn Dish soap.

Directions: Mix together in a spray bottle, and Christmas has come early! I am seriously in love!

I hope you find this post of home cleaners as useful as we do! It's great knowing the full ingredients to clean with and not exposing your family to harsh chemicals. Please comment and let us know how well they worked for you. If you have any tried and true recipes of your own, please share! We'd love to hear from you!

Chicken and Stuffing Supreme

Hi, Guys! My name is Lurlyn, when my brother, Tim, married Nicole, he got an awesome wife, and I got one heck of a friend. We share mothering horror stories and complaints…(ironically about our children’s incessant whining, haha!), recipes, lots of laughs, and many sentences that begin with, “I saw ______ on pinterest”.

I am going to be sharing a meal that my hubby asks for frequently. I got the recipe from his Grandmother, but made a few modifications, because sour cream makes EVERYTHING better.  We eat it throughout the year using chicken, but it’s a great way to use up the turkey leftovers you will have after the Thanksgiving feast.

Chicken and Stuffing Supreme

Ingredients:

1lb chicken or turkey

1 (6oz) box stuffing. I prefer the cornbread kind.

1 (10 ¾oz) can cream of chicken or mushroom soup

4 oz. sour cream

1 cup cheese

Directions:

Skip ahead if you are using left over turkey, or are a smart cookie and have shredded chicken ready in your freezer.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

1. Fill a large pot with water and bring to boil
2. Place chicken in boiling water, reduce heat, and let boil for 25 minutes. Drain. (If you want to be said smart cookie, cook extra chicken that you can put away in the freezer for a rainy day)
3. Make stuffing mix according to directions on box, set aside.
4. Mix soup and sour cream, set aside.
5. Shred the chicken, I use my kitchen aid for shredding chicken, no having to wait for it to cool, and it’s super fast.
6. Grease up an 8x8 pan, (recipe can easily be doubled and use a 9x13 for larger families.) Cover bottom of pan with 1/3 of stuffing mix and press lightly to cover nicely.
7. Cover stuffing with chicken
8. Pour soup/sour cream mixture over chicken.
9. Put cheese over mixture.
10. Cover with remaining stuffing mix
11. Cook for 30 minutes or until bubbling.

PRINT RECIPE

Enjoy! Who says stuffing can only make an appearance on holidays!?!

Behind...

I haven't blogged in a while. I'm so behind. This summer/fall has been busy. I'll have to do a little catching up soon. I'm super busy right now editing senior pics for 3 different seniors so I don't really have too much time but I wanted to put a quick pic up and say HI!

We added to our family... it's a kitten! His name is JJ and he is loved by both my kiddos (almost too much). Isn't he cute?!

Independence Day

We had a little bit of a mellow 4th of July this year. Both kids were sick with fevers and just not feeling too good. We were invited to go and participate in festivities by a couple of friends but we decided to keep it sweet and simple with our own little family. Even though the kids weren't feeling themselves, I think they still had fun! 

We first treated them to a red, white, and blue ice cream star at Dairy Queen. Nothing better for a fever then ice cream, right?! ;) Afterwards we headed to the Casino close to our house where they sell thousand of fireworks. It's basically a carnival for pyromaniacs. It was cool though. We went up and bought a kids backpack full of fireworks and the sells guy threw in tons of sparklers and about 5 roman candles. Sweet deal!

The backpack of explosives!

My cute little man, playing with buzz light year while we wait for the sun to fade a little more...

Trying to introduce the sparklers to Timmy, but he just hid behind Tim the whole time. Where's the trust?

Aubri loved them though! She was pretending to be our fairy godmother. Tim just kept lighting them trying to convince Tiger it was fun. No such luck.

 He's more trusting with me. But that was all he would do. I'm not so sure why he is more timid this year... last year he loved it!

The kids loved the colorful smoke bombs!

It was all going so great until we lit up some loud ones... Thats when it all went bad for Timmy...

Timmy took off running for the road. I felt bad that it scared him so bad. He was pretty upset about it. :(

We got out the poppers and that made it a lot better. Whew! Timmy wasn't able to throw them hard enough to make them pop, so he enjoyed stomping on them.

The kiddos just chillin being their goofy selves.

I love these two so much!

Aubri put on a dance for us...

Then Aubs and I did a little sparkler art...

I took this right before Tiger decided to go in the house and watch the fireworks from the window. I love this!

The End!