Latest ETSY sales

Had 2 orders to complete for Thanksgiving, and I did it!

If you need any custom nursery decor, let me know! I am happy to get things done by Christmas if ordered this week!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/ReeseM1

Freezer cooking- Meal 3- Thanksgiving Pot Pie

This was an easy one!! Thanks to Dad for making me get a giant turkey and having tons of leftovers. I held one of these out for dinner this week too :)

Recipe-
Leftover Turkey
Leftover green bean casserole
One can mixed veggies
2 cans Cream of Chicken with Herbs
3 premade pie crusts

Just another rave

About Shutterfly! We have used them every year since we got married for our Christmas cards. You really can't find a better price, and when you have almost 100 people on your list, you want a bargain! I love sending photo cards, so that the people you don't often see, get to see what you are up to. It's especially great once you have kids, and people can see how much they have grown.

I don't want to give away what design we are using for this years' card, but I will say, it was a tough choice! I went back and forth on about 3 different designs for the card until I finally got Matt to vote and we got it decided. Olivia is featured prominently on the card, imagine that!

Really though, Shutterfly has been our best holiday tradition since getting married. We also get all of our prints there, and gifts for people as well, for Christmas, birthdays, everything! We got mom and dad a photo mug last year with Olivia's first year pictures all over them. They loved them!

Go check out some of our favorite products!

·         holiday cards  http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery   

·         photo Christmas cards  http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/photo-christmas-cards

·         personalized mugs  http://www.shutterfly.com/photo-gifts/photo-mugs

Christmas!!

Ok no, but I did get 2 awesome packages today! The blankets and such I won- a $300 gift set!! And I got the bag brand new off Ebay for $20 less than retail. Couldn't pass it up! And I got them both today.

I am more than happy for Ava to use Olivia's hand me downs, for most stuff, but it was really nice to win this gift and give her some of her very own baby stuff :)

Freezer cooking- meal swap!

Tomorrow there are 5 of us getting together to swap freezer meals. So I will have 4 new ones! My contribution has about 25 pounds of dairy, and a good bit of bacon and butter. So we should all be happy :) Except I didn't make any for myself!! Dumb!! But I do have the stuff to make more.

Needless to say, I am about over freezer cooking for the next few days. Maybe Thursday when O is in school. Maybe next week :)

 Based upon this recipe, changes as follows.

Added bacon. Deleted onion. Used random Mexican shredded cheese. Omitted parsley.

Cranberry bread. I have been craving it since I saw cranberries at Publix the other day. I used this Martha Stewart recipe, loosely.

Things I changed:

Used a whole bag of cranberries for 2 loaves, vs one. Would have been crazy tart if I used the whole bag for one loaf. Added cinnamon and a little orange zest.

Though I am burnt out, this was super easy. I will probably make 2 more loaves this week, as I have another bag of cranberries. Rumor has it, Sams' Club has a huge bag for super cheap. So I may well go get one for the freezer, or make my mother in law's amaaaaazing cranberry/apple bake. Mmmmmmmmmmmmm

And yes, that one loaf has already been cut into. I'm just saying. I'm 28 weeks pregnant, and I have wanted this stuff all week! Can't wait til tomorrow am with my coffee....

Freezer cooking- Meal 2- Chicken Noodle Soup

No recipe for this one, as it was just thrown together from what I had! Thanks Nanny for the Tupperware :) When she moved here she thinned down her kitchen stuff, and I got these bowls. Pretty great for this soup!

I guess she really is coming!

 Not now, obviously. But in my giant nesting phase of the last month, I have begun to realize that there is actually going to be a newborn in this house in the next 3 months! Someone asked my mom the other day, "when is the baby due?" and I heard her say "after Christmas". Which for some reason made it seem a little closer than I thought!

 Newborn cloth diapers. Prepped and ready for a tiny new tushie!

Tiny pink newborn size clothes!













0-3 month clothes! All washed and ready. Olivia did a lot of helping put these away. Hence why it took a month.....

Vintage Friday

2 years ago this month!!! Um, was she this small ever??! Oh yeah. Also funny the way 2 years later you look at baby pictures and think how cute and sweet they were. Then you remember that you hadn't slept in 4 months, your house was a wreck, you were taking Zoloft and you spent most of your time holding a napping baby that wouldn't lay down..... :) I love mom-nesia! Thank goodness for it, otherwise no one would ever have more kids!


And something I am working on---- a family tree! I am going to put this in the hallway upstairs outside of the girls' rooms.

Should look something like this. But not. No red leaves or black trunk. I am thinking no leaves, and light brown trunk. It will be on chocolate brown background. I'm going to paint it, cause I just can't see buying the decal for $50 or more. I am excited! Gotta get pictures from the whole fam-damily now! Working on that!

Halloween!

Olivia was none too thrilled about dressing up, but we managed to get her in the basics of her costume. She actually did get the concept of Trick or Treating, and didn't even really care about the candy, thank goodness! She did have one breakdown cause she wanted M&Ms, so we let her, and she was very happy for the duration.

Note the lovely face in her pjs that night! She was tiiiiiired

Olivia's Fall Photo shoot!

 Thanks to friend Melessa, we got some great pictures of Olivia the other day, in the prettiest leaves! Oh and that's Ava, at 26 weeks :) Enjoy!

Freezer cooking- Meal 1- Skillet lasagna

So on the spur of the moment, I decided to make this recipe for dinner tonight. On another spur of the moment, I decided to make 6 of them... well, I actually tripled the recipe, and made 6 meals for us. One for tonight, 5 for the freezer. 

Changes I made to the recipe- used 2 lbs ground beef, 1 pound mild Italian sausage. I sauteed them in garlic as well. I also used mostly cottage cheese instead of sour cream. I don't know why, I just did. I also added a bit more seasoning than the recipe called for.

Thank goodness for my Food Saver! See the finished product in the 2nd picture. It won't take up much room in my deep freezer!

I also did this for SUPER CHEAP! I figure on 4 servings per meal. (Actually, I know it will be more than that, but for the sake of argument here.)

The total cost is $.99 cents a serving!

I also did use the "healthier" stuff when making this, as I always try to do. Veggie sauce (no funky ingredients in this brand. No corn syrup, or dyes). I used Laura's Lean Beef. I used the Target brand of their multi grain pasta. I was happy and surprised to see that it even had flax in it! And nothing else weird either. Otherwise, there is a good bit of cheese..... :)

And it only took about 45 minutes to put the whole thing together. Olivia spent most of that time doing this:

Stay tuned for more! I am going to try to do a couple every now and again. For those lazy nights as I get into my 3rd trimester, and it's cold outside. Then hopefully I will still have stuff left when Ava comes. Cause we all know how much cooking will get done with a newborn and a 2 year old....

It's beginning to look a lot like

Christmas! Ok, not really, but the time is coming. And with baby Ava on the way, I am getting a jump on everything this year. I really need to think of a super cute idea for our Christmas cards. Every year we get them from Shutterfly, and we always love them! Super affordable, and always really cute.

Anyone have any great ideas? Keeping in mind I will be as big as a house, and Olivia will be um, well, 2. And hating having her picture taken....

If you blog, blog about Shutterfly, share it with them, and you can get 50 free holiday cards!! Who can pass that up!