Chicken Pox

Well... At the start of a busy week, Isaac decided to stop us in our tracks with the chicken pox. First sign of them was Monday night. We are now at home for 7 solid days :)) 

We've been taking it easy. 

Hope you all have had a GREAT week!! We have enjoyed slowing down a bit and hanging at home...

Mexican Stuffed Shells

Well I haven't been doing Monday Munchies so here is a Tasty Tuesday! Thanks to pinterest we had another successful dinner.  My Bestie Allison tried it first and told me it was a good one so we gave it a whirl. It was a HUGE hit. Isaac (my 4 yr old) told me to add it to the favorites list... TeeHee!!

(Sorry for the low quality pic. I forgot to take with the big camera so we settled for the iphone pic.)

Mexican Stuffed Shells

Ingredients:

1 lb. ground beef
1 package low-sodium taco seasoning (or better yet use this Taco Seasoning!)
4 oz. cream cheese
14-16 jumbo pasta shells
1.5 cup salsa
1 cup taco sauce (This is a smooth, tomato based sauce found in the Mexican section)
1 cup cheddar cheese
1 cup monterey jack cheese
3 green onions
Sour cream

Directions:

In a frying pan cook ground beef; add taco seasoning and prepare according to package directions.  Add cream cheese, cover and simmer until cheese is melted. Blend well. Set aside and cool completely.  While ground beef is cooking, cook the pasta shells according to directions; drain. Set shells out individually on cutting board/baking sheet so that they don’t stick together.

Pour salsa on bottom of 9×13 baking dish.  Stuff each shell with the meat mixture. Place shells in 9×13 pan open side up. Cover shells with taco sauce.  Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes, add shredded cheese and bake for 10-15 more minutes, with the foil removed.  Top with any condiments you’d like (green onions, black olives, etc.) Serve with sour cream and/or more salsa.

Let me know if you try it...

Groupon!!

I am LOVING me some Groupon!! I've heard about it for awhile now but never really checked it on a regular bases, but here lately I have been. I have actually found some really GREAT deals on there. Today I got an oil change and tire rotation for $35 at Hermitage Quick Lube. This is perfect because my truck will need it in just a few months when we drive her 500 miles south to Mexico Beach, FL. Here's a link if you would like to check it out. 

http://www.groupon.com/r/uu2038045

Happy Shopping!!

Swing... Batter batter Batter

This past Saturday March 24 2011, my baby boy had his very first baseball game. 

He looked like a little major league player. 

He did amazing!! If you didn't notice in the pic, he had a direct hit on the ball!!!

 And he ran with all his might!!

I am one proud Mommy. I could just eat him up... Love this kid :))

Go Padres!!

BIG 35!!

Today my honey turned 35! We celebrated by cooking some Monterey Chicken, homefries, and green beans. Thursday we will be indulging in some all you can eat ribs down at a local cafe here in Mt. Juliet called Courtney's. 

Here he is in all his silliness Blowing out all 35 candles on his cake!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MIKEY!! Love you bunches Xoxo

Cowboy flair

Most of you know we were re-doing Isaac's room into cowboy theme. Ever since, I've wanted to bring in some kind of natural wood through a shelf. Mikey mentioned we had some old wood in the back yard, so we went to check it out.

This is what we started with.

Mikey got to dust off the ole wood tools out of the shed. He was (kinda) excited. 

With the use of the tools Mikey came up with this for me. I LOVED it!!!

A little stain and poly...

And some old iron pieces = VOILA!!

I am so proud of our little Saturday project. I don't think we could have done any better. It turned out fabulous.  What kind of projects have you done lately?

Letter Boxes

I am loving pinterest, but it's going to break me. Since I love crafting & cooking I have to pick and choose what I do because I want to do everything I see on there.  

Last year we changed Isaac's room to a cowboy/ western theme room. Well I saw these letter boxes for sale on there via etsy. I quickly realized I can do that so here is another pinterest project...

I started with 5- 8x10 wood squares from JoAnne's and some black paint. Painted all the edges with two coats of black paint and let them dry about an hour.

While my paint was drying on my boxes, I started painting the wood letters. I already had these from his nursery so I just had to re-paint them. I did two coats of black paint on these too. You can find wood letters at any crafting store.

Next it was time for the mod-podge :)) I searched everywhere for cow print scrap book paper. After looking at walmart, Joanne's, and Hobby lobby, with no luck, I found a cowboy theme scrap book pack at hobby lobby and settled on it. After measuring and cutting my paper, I mod-podged the paper to the wood. You have to do this quickly because mod-podge dries FAST! I let it completely dry for about 15 minutes. Now it was time to mod-podge a coat over the paper. I did two coats just so I knew it had a good sealant. 

I glued my wood letters on with gorilla glue. (Will NOT use it again) The gorilla glue bubbles up as it dries so some of my letters didn't glue flat to the box. I ended up sitting a thick book on the letters as they were drying then cleaned off excess after it dried. 

Here is the finished product. It turned out better then I imagined. Wish I had cow print, but love all the colors together. 

List of...What you will need:

5- 8x10 wood boxes or canvas

black paint 

small paint brush

scrap booking paper

mod-podge

sponge brush for mod-podge

wood letters

wood glue