Mini vacation

We decided to take a mini vacation this weekend while we did our Christmas shopping.

We got a really nice hotel and spent the weekend relaxing and shopping. We got about 90% of the shopping done which I am so happy about. I still have to get hubby's stuff and finish up the boys, but that is about it. Now the task of wrapping it all. Luckily hubby likes to wrap and is good at it so I will be putting him to work soon.

The boys had a blast swimming in the pool. Their swim lessons are really paying off. They both were swimming all over the place and jumping in the water. The only bad part was the hotel lost power Saturday night for a few hours. It was annoying, but at least the boys were already asleep so it didn't bother them. Then last night I was in the middle of watching Army Wives and our electric went out at home. Luckily it was only for a few minutes, but it was still annoying.

This week is jam packed with cleaning and finish up projects. Hubby schedule got all messed up which I am not happy about. Hopefully we will be able to get everything done, but I'm not sure. There are days that I really dislike his job.

Baby blankets

I finished cutting all the squares for the baby blankets that I am making. Luckily there are just 21 pattern and 21 solid squares for each one. I am hoping to get the tops done within the next two weeks. It will depend on hubby's schedule since right now things are up in the air.

I'm not sure which one is going to be ours and which one is going to a friend. Once I get them together I will let the boys choose. I'm guessing they will choose the train one, but you never know with them.

I love these simple blankets. They are perfect for putting on the floor for tummy time or throwing over the car seat to get from house to car when it is cold.

We are going to try and finish up the majority of our Christmas shopping this weekend. It feels very weird to be shopping in October since I am usually a last minute type of person, but I can't really do that this year!

Halloween Costumes

The boys just had to try on their Halloween costumes. They look so cute. I can't wait to see how they like Trick or Treating this year. It will be hard with Cooper's allergy, but luckily we have a stockpile of candy that will replace anything he can't have. I don't think he will mind too much as long as their is candy to eat!

My favorite jam

I love toast with peanut butter (or in our house sunbutter) and jam. Usually we just had strawberry or raspberry that my mom or MIL made. Then last April I went to a Taste of Home Cooking School and they made a Apple Berry Pomegranate jam that looked and smelled really yummy. Since hubby loves Pomegranate I figured I would give it a try. Oh my goodness it was heavenly. It made 5 small jars and we had it gone within a month. It has just the right combination of sweet and tart.

Apple- Berry Pomegranate Freezer Jam
Ingredients:
1 pkg (1.59 oz) Ball Simple Creations Freezer Jam Pectin
1 ½ C sugar
4 cups peeled, cored, and chopped apples
½ C pomegranate juice
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1 C crushed frozen raspberries (don’t completely unthaw leave a little frozen)

Directions:
* In a large mixing bowl, combine freezer jam pectin and sugar, stirring until evenly blended
* In a medium saucepan, combine apples, pomegranate juice and lemon juice. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally. Cover and reduce heat. Simmer 5 minutes. Lightly crush apples and allow to cool 15 minutes
* Add apples and raspberries to pectin mixture, stirring until just combined. Continue stirring for a full 3 minutes. Ladle ham into clean 8 oz freezer jars, leaving ½ inch headspace. Apply lids. Let stand until thickened, about 30 minutes. Refrigerate up to 3 weeks or freeze up to 1 year.

My day in pictures

Yummy raspberry pie
Halloween cookies with the kids
Stupid football game
Coop haircut
Cody hair cut. Hubby got one too, but no pics of that.



Mountains of laundry.

Eaten pie while watching...

the Red Sox lose!

Updated to do list

A little while ago I posted a crafting to do list that seemed overwhelming. I figured now that I am under 50 days till this little guy comes I would see where I stand.

- the Christmas quilt. I have the top done, the back done and it is ready to be basted. Then it is quilting and binding. Right now I am about 1/3 of the way done hand sewing the binding down. I am hoping to get it done in the next week.


- baby bibs. I have been looking for bibs that have terry cloth on the back because they absorb so much better, but I haven't had any luck so off to the sewing machine I go. I have one done except the Velcro and another cut and ready to be sewn. I have two bibs done. I am not in love with the fabric, but I have two to get started with and I can make a few more later.

- baby blankets. I have the fabric to do both mine and my friends, but haven't started working on them yet. I am still trying to get all the red dye to bleed out of the fabric. Once I get that done I will be ready to cut. Luckily these don't take long to put together.

- car seat blankets. I have some fleece to make a small blanket to wrap around the babies legs when we are in the car this cold winter. Two done, maybe one more to go. The two that are done are for me. I might make one for a friend, but depends on time.

- a punch embroidery chicken wall hanging. I have maybe 1/32 of this done for my mom for Christmas. I was making progress on this until my punch needle broke. I bought a new one so hopefully will be making progress on this again soon.

- a crochet hook holder. My MIL wants a roll up crochet hook holder for Christmas. Right now I am in the planning stages of this. I need to find some fabrics that I like for this. I've got the idea all laid out, just need to pick fabrics. Luckily I don't think it will take too long to finish.

Right now I am ignoring the rest of my list. I have a million things to accomplish over the next few weeks. We are going Christmas shopping on the 25th of this month. It seems so insanely early, but in order to get everything done and wrapped I need to get started.

Baby crafts

Saturday morning hubby took the boys for the morning and I got so much accomplished. I have had this pile of things I wanted to do for the baby and I actually got most of them done.

Right now I am soaking the fabric for his blanket and waiting for the stupid other computer to run virus scan so I can work on his announcements. I know what I want to do, just have to get it to work out. Hopefully I will be able to post pictures of them this week. I am still plugging away on the Christmas quilt, but right now I am getting frustrated with how slow it is hand sewing binding so I am taking a break for a few days.





These are little car seat blankets that I made. I wanted something warm, but small to wrap around his legs since he will be born during winter. I love how they turned out.



I have been looking for bibs that have terry cloth on the back for awhile and I haven't had any luck. So I decided to whip some up. I'm not sure I am loving the lady bug fabric, but it was what I had on hand at the time. I will probably make a few more before he comes.



Here is a little crocheted hat that my mom made for him. I want to make a few more because I know they will be needed here. I plan on getting some warmer ones too. I might even try making one out of fleece, but not sure if I will get there or not.



This is a breastfeeding cover prototype that I made. I love using receiving blankets as covers, but they were always falling down and with two kids climbing all over me I needed something that would stay put. I have to get some new receiving blankets and make a couple of real ones.

Sneak Peek

Here is a sneak peek of the Christmas quilt. I am working on hand sewing the binding down on the back. For me it is a very slow process. I hate hand sewing, but it looks so much nicer that I force myself to do it.

There will be more crafty pictures coming soon. I have about 8 projects in the works right now!

Crazy weekend

It was a pretty busy, crazy weekend around here. After getting sick Thursday night, Cooper woke up Friday and still wasn't feeling good. He was whiny and mopey and just miserable. He slept on and off all day and just gave this pitiful little look. My parents came in Friday night and he was pretty clingy to me which is unusual for him when the grandparents are around.

Luckily Saturday morning he was pretty much back to normal and driving us crazy. My parents helped with a bunch of stuff around the house. We went out and bought the boys Halloween costumes. It was a very interesting experience. They were both so indecisive. Cody didn't want a mask, Cooper couldn't decide what he wanted, they both wanted all this extra stuff to go with the costumes. My dad was the smart one by staying in the car!

I finally finished the quilting on my Christmas quilt finished. It is drying from where I had to wash away the marking pen. Hopefully I will be able to get a picture of it tomorrow. I still have to make the binding and attach it, but at least the longest part it done. I love how it is turning out, but I will be glad when it is done too. I have too many other projects I want to work on!

Foiled plans

So much for making plans tonight.

I needed to get groceries, but had to wait until after my mom got home so I could call her about something. Of course she didn't get home until late so I left later than I planned.

Then I had to go to Best Buy to return the boy's DVD player because it died. I thought I would be all set because I had bought the 4 year warranty. They did replace it, but because it was more than a year it voided the warranty so I need to decide if I want to buy a new one.

Next off to get groceries. I hate going to Walmart period. Going with two kids who haven't had dinner yet is horrid. Luckily they weren't too bad, but it still took forever.

I picked up Burger King for them because frankly I was not going to go home and cook anything.

Finally got home around 7 and sit down for dinner. Bedtime is at 8 so the boys pretty much ate dinner and went to bed. Not a great way to end the day, but nothing too horrible.

Cooper had been coughing on and off all day long, but I wasn't too worried because Cody had the same thing last week. I went downstairs thinking that I could finish up some of the quilting on my Christmas present quilt. I no more got one line done and I hear Cooper cough really bad and then a weak call for mommy.

Upstairs I go and of course he has thrown up. EVERYWHERE! It was gross. Usually it doesn't bother me, but this was pretty bad. He looked so pitiful. So I wait until he is better and draw a bath. He is loving just splashing in the water and letting his head and tummy settle. After stripping the bed, remaking, and cleaning up he crawls back into bed and pretty much promptly falls asleep.

Ugh! I am exhausted.

Apple bread

I have been in serious apple baking mode since we went to the apple orchard. A 1/2 bushel of apples is ALOT! Luckily I only have a few left to use.

Here is one of my favorite apple recipes. It is super yummy and moist.

Apple Bread
Ingredients:

3 eggs
3 C flour
2 c sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 C vegetable oil (I used all applesauce. You can also use half applesauce and half oil)
1 tsp cinnamon
1 Tbsp vanilla
4 C chopped, peeled apples
1 C chopped pecans (I obviously left these out and just added about 1 TBSP more flour)


Topping:
1 Tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon

Directions:
 Preheat oven to 325₀
 Grease and flour 2 loaf pans (make sure you do this really well)
 Stir together eggs, sugar, oil, and vanilla
 Combine flour, soda, and cinnamon on flexible cutting mat
 Add to wet ingredients and mix until just combined
 Stir in apples and pecans (batter will be lumpy and thick)
 Divide between loaf pans
 Prepare topping and sprinkle over both loafs
 Bake for approximately 1 hour 10 minutes. When toothpick comes out clean it’s done It sometimes takes a little longer. Make sure you check it right in the middle of the loaf.

You can also make a bunch of small loaves and freeze some. It freezes prefectly.