Happy 93rd Birthday GiGi.

We celebrated Brad's grandmother's birthday this past week. Her Birthday is Feb. 15th just one month before Caleb's. We went to her house and Brad's mom had made what is called "piggies" it is a polish meal that sounds so nasty but is wonderful! It is meat and rice rolled in cabbage and cooked in a tomato based sauce. The first time I heard about it I was thinking it would be the worst thing I had ever eaten, but I love it. Brad's grandmother had been dropping hints about it for a while and so they made it for her birthday. Anyway, after dinner we had cake and had to take the boys shirts off because the icing had so much red dye in it. I think gigi enjoyed her birthday and having the grandkids around. 

Room Make Over

So I decided I needed to re-do my bedroom. I wanted to try and stick with things I had already but give it some life. So I got on pinterest and started looking and came across this room that I really liked. So below is my inspiration room. 

I went and got paint... I tried to get the color it said was on the walls in the picture, but I think it was misprinted because the color was nowhere close to the picture.  I flipped my furniture to a different wall which really opened up my room, even though it blocks the window a bit. I also still want to get different lamps and two small white pillows. I was really pleased with the outcome. I have a little still to do but not too much. 

The "Pwopatee"

Two weekends ago we took the boys to my dads hunting property which they pronounce "pwopatee" We packed up the car for our one night trip with more stuff then you can imagine is needed for a night. The boys were so excited. When we got there Brad decided to take the kids out on the golf cart while I made dinner. They made it about 100 yards and the golf cart quit on them. Brad couldn't get it to work at all so they ended up taking a ride in the "cabobin" which is how Benjamin says saburban. We ate dinner then started a fire in the fire pit. The boys couldn't wait to roast marshmallows. We had a bit of a hard time getting the fire started because everything was wet. We got a good fire going and then roasted marshmallows. 

 The next day Brad went and got the saburban and was going to tow the golf cart back to the shed. I was joking and said it just needs a womans touch and I sat down and it started up. Brad had to show me how to choke it and sure enough it started working fine. So we took the boys on a ride and stopped along the way to look at deer and pig tracks.

 After our golf cart ride we cozied up by the fire and the boys got warm.

It was a fun night and afternoon with the boys. Something different that we had not done in a while. I was glad they had so much fun.

My $6.00 picture.

So I found this tutorial on Pinterest on how to get large portrait pictures for very cheap. I was super excited to do this. I don't want to spend a fortune on portrait pictures of my children when they change so fast and grow up so fast. I want to be able to change it out if I can as they grow up. If I had this done from a photographer it would cost many hundreds of dollars. So here is what you do.

1. Find the picture you want and put it on a jump drive or portable USB drive.

2. Go to your local office supply store I went to staples, and ask them to turn the picture into a 3x4 engineers print. This will only print in black and white. Mine cost $3.17. It only takes a few minutes to have it done.

3. Next head over to your local home depot of lowes and go back to all the lumber. Somewhere around there are the large foam boards used in houses when they are built. This picture is half a board. I had to cut it in 3 pieces when I bought it in order to get it in my car. This will give you multiple options for other pictures in the future. (brings scissors in case you can't fit it in your car) It cost $9.00 and change and you can get MANY of these pictures out of one. (I split it in 3 so that is where I got the other $3.00 from.)

4. If you don't already have it get some spray adhesive. You will also need a small bottle of black acrylic paint and a paint brush. (I already had these)

5. Lay your board down and measure your picture then cut the board to size.

6. In a well ventilated area spray your board really well with spray adhesive. Then get someone to help you lay the picture on it. I started at one end while Brad held the other and slowly I smoothed it out trying to avoid air bubbles. Once you start to place it there is no going back. I actually got mine crooked and had to just go with it. I also had air bubbles that I didn't know I had until later.

7. Take the black paint and paint around the edges of the picture so you can't tell it is foam. You can't use spray paint is will eat big holes in the foam. You could paint the edges before you glue the picture on it as well.

8. In order to hang it get a string, or wire and used duct tape on the back to hold it in place. And then you have your finished project. It is not perfect, but people would have to look really closely to see the imperfections and know it is not a quality print.

This is not where I hung it, I just let the paint dry here. Below is where it is hanging right now, but I have not found a permenant place. You can see some of the imperfections in the picture below across caleb's forhead there seems to be a big line. This happened when it was printed and one of the reasons I think I am going to re-do it.

This only took abou 20 minutes to make.

Weight Watchers

My weekly update:
    This week was one of those where there was a bit of a stall in weight loss. I know weeks like this occur and you just push through them and hope for more weight loss in the weeks to come. I only lost 1 lb this week. I was hoping for a bit more but I will take one. So I am down to 164.5lbs. I will take it. Its a lot better then the 171lbs where I started. I feel so much better as well. It is nice to finally be getting the weight I gained with Caleb off for good.

One thing I have noticed is that I can fairly easily get my rings off now. This is something I am really happy about because I could not get them off before and it was a bit claustrophobic feeling to not be able to get them off.

These two cookbooks are my absolute favorite books. I have been going through them and writing out what the points for each meal are. I dont know why I didn't think to do this earlier. There has not been one meal out of these cookbooks that I have not liked. They are fast and very easy and use 5 ingredients (plus spices) and take no more than 20 to 30 minutes from start to finish. I am really excited about using these cookbooks towards weight watchers.

Afternoon with Mommy

While daddy and Benjamin went to the monster truck rally I had a date afternoon with Caleb. We went downtown and had pizza per Caleb's request. Then we went to the Chocolate Mouse and Caleb got a big cupcake and only at the pure sugar icing. Then we went to the pet bakery and looked at animals up for adoption. To round out our afternoon we went to the Mast General Store and Caleb had a blast walking around the barrels of candy and getting to pick some out and then he got to get a toy. He picked an airplane that does tricks when you throw it. He also got yet another stuffed animal to add to his collection it was a little beanie baby mouse. He had a great day and way too much sugar for one child. 

Caleb decided to wear Daddy's ear protection and pretend he was mowing the lawn. 

The Redneck Rally

Back in December I got some of the coupon flier things in the mail and Benjamin was looking through it with me. In there was a flier for the monster truck rally coming to town. Of course Benjamin instantly wanted to go and was so excited. It seemed like every day he would ask if it was time for the monster trucks. He just never gave up on it so Brad decided he would take him. We thought for sure he would forget about it. (we were wrong) So Brad went down and got tickets and Benjamin was thrilled. The morning of the rally when Brad got up Benajmin said "is it time to go yet?" They got their sound proof head phones and off they went. Brad took the camera because I of course said he had to document this event in Benjamins life and it was some great father son time. For lunch Benjamin had a hot dog, popcorn, and cotton candy. The only way to get cotton candy was with this foam monster truck as well and it cost $15.00, but obviously worth it. So here are the pictures from their day. 

 The foam monster truck hat that came with the cotton candy