TGIF?

Are Fridays a GOOD day for you? For me, it means breakfast out with my boyfriend and our little Brayden... Darcy is off on Fridays, the rest of the kids are in school... so we've started taking that time as our little date. Even with Brayden, we love it. LOL!

This weekend we're not doing a heck of a lot! We curl Fridays, so that's on for tonight, but after that it's alllll open. I think some scrapbooking is in order, don't you? I have a few things I need to work on for the next week or two, and some other things I want to try just for fun!!

Whatever you are doing, wherever you are... I hope you have a fantastic weekend!

Yay for Long Weekends!!

So I'm not TOTALLY jumping up and down in the air.... because usually by noon on a Saturday I'm wishing school was on due to the excessive noise and energy in the house. LOL!!

But, it IS the long weekend, Louis Riel Day (family day) is on Monday so the kids are off. I'm off too, but I always am (for now).....

What has everyone been up to? I've been busy with the kiddos, with the house, with some scrappin' ;) We had an online crop at Love is in the Details this past week and it ends tomorrow night at 9pm CST. Take a peek at the challenges if you are feeling crafty today and tomorrow, sign up and post them and you can win some fabulous prizes! We are always welcoming newbies to the forum, we've had some really great girls sign up in the last little while and it's so awesome to see!!

I did 2 challenges for the crop, along with a fun jellybean guess.... one was a color challenge with the colors red/white/pink (it WAS a LOVE theme crop, after all!) and the other one was to use the words of a love song in your title and/or journalling. Of course I went with Bon Jovi... did you think I wouldn't?! LOL!

I have to admit the only other challenge I completed was one of Ambers, but I love it, one of my absolute favorite pictures of my little monkey.....

And here are a few others that I have completed in the last week or two just for fun!

I think today is going to be a scrappy day... I can't do laundry as my washing machine is on the fritz - ACKKKKK not good with 4 kids and 2 adults in the house. LOL!!! But I'm not going to complain about having more time to scrap today!!

Oh what a week....

My sweet little Brayden... From birth I have had concerns over his rapid heart rate and his obvious struggles with his breathing and the fact that he couldn't do more than a breath or two without grunting. The doctor dismissed it not once, not twice, but at least three times that I had gone in and asked him if it was normal and should be looked into.

Finally last week, after chatting to a few friends online and hearing their concerns, I took him in on Thursday to the other doctor, and asked him to listen to his heart and breathing. He decided to do an oxygen saturation test and his levels came back below 90 with no sign of cold or chest congestion. He then decided to do xrays and that xray showed the good possibility of an enlarged heart.

Friday, they called me and asked me to bring Brayden in for an EKG, which he was an angel for. These results along with the xrays, were sent down to the big city, which is 7 hours away. We spent the whole weekend worrying and wondering and trying to prepare ourselves for anything. It was a rough weekend... :(

Finally yesterday, I went in and talked to them about it to see what we were to do next. They said that the doctor in the city wanted Brayden to wear a Holter monitor for 24 hours, but they weren't positive they could do it here in our small town, they have never done one on an infant here before. However, we were reassured by the xray tech that travels in once/week that she could bring one in for him and we could do it here. So tomorrow afternoon, he will be having his placed on and hopefully he will be a good boy and leave all the wires alone for 24 hours. LOL!!!

After this, we don't know what will come next. I suppose it depends on the results and how the doctor in the city feels about it all put together. I just want answers, and I want to know what we are going to have to do with him... whether it be medicine, surgery, or by some miracle we get a clean bill of health report. In the end, it doesn't matter what they tell me, I just want answers, because the not knowing and the wondering is eating this momma alive.

So for anyone reading this, and believes in the power of prayer... or even just the power of positive thinking, we could use a lot of them in the next little while as we wait for results and deal with what may or may not lie ahead of us.

Brayden is such a happy, sweet, loveable little guy. He is still smiling, he is still showing us every day how amazing he is. I don't ever want that to change.

I'm so excited!!

In March, I will be taking a fantastic road trip with Lori (head honcho of LIITD) and Lisa (fellow consipirator at LIITD) to Edmonton... As if that wasn't going to be fun enough as it is, we are going to Memories Wholesale Convention!!! Why am I excited? We're not going to be the only ones there. Mr. Tim Holtz will also be there!! SOOOO thrilled that she asked me to go with her!!! I can't wait to head on down south and pick up the girls and do some road tripping ;)

And there are only 15 spots left at the annual spring crop at LIITD held in Miami, MB. This years theme is LAS VEGAS, baby!!!! It's even inspired my boyfriend and I to look into a trip to Vegas in the fall ;) If you want to sign up for the crop, here is the info >>>>>>> RIGHT HERE!!!

I think that is all for today... I'll leave you with another cutesy layout of that precious little Calyn that I scrapped the other day...

Scrappy Sunday!

Yup, I'm scrapping today! Ok, so I did it yesterday too.... scrappy weekend I guess?

A friend of mine gave me access to a bunch of professional pics she had taken of her little girl, Calyn. Calyn is a ball of fire, she is happy and funny and she is always on the go!! So I thought this title was especially fitting for her!!

I'm looking forwards to doing some more layouts with this cutie on them. Sometimes it's nice to do a few pages about OTHER things besides my own kids :)

I hope your weekend was an awesome one, and that your coming week is smoooooth sailing! And get some scrappy time in there, ok?

Droolworthy!!!

MAYA ROAD is at it again! They put out some sneak peeks of the upcoming goodies, and I was drooling before I even got halfway through... My favorite, if I HAD to pick, would be the little sand pail mini album!! Click HERE to go to their blog post!!!!

The Prairie Woman

Prairie Woman. That's me! So the story behind this whole fiasco, is that Lori asked me if I liked to cook, I said I sure did... and so she told me that she wanted her and I both to put together a full meal, complete with recipes and photos and decorations and yada yada yada.

I should have slapped her upside the head before she even finished her sentence. But no, I said SURE! Sounds great! Let's do it!

Stupid, stupid me.

We looked at recipes, and decided that we would each do our own thing. I chose to channel the Pioneer Woman completely, using all her recipes. Pioneer... Prairie... they're close, right?

The menu that I finally settled on:

French Onion Stuffed Mushrooms

Fried Mozzarella Sticks

Whiskey Glazed Carrots

Restaurant Style Smashed Potatoes

Roasted Beef Tenderloin

Sounds good, right? So let's get to work and see what mess I made.....

(and please click on each item to see the original recipe/ingredients!)

First off, let's tackle the Fried Mozzarella Sticks!

Here are the yummy ingredients... and the Panko breadcrumbs are just as awesome as she describes on her original post. I was thrilled to see them actually on our little grocery store shelf.

Never thought it would be as easy as taking some cheesestrings out of the package!


Just wait until they are baked.... if you think THESE look good, just wait for it...


My kitchen has no calories. Just saying.


Yummmmy goooooey crunchhhhy goodness.


Wipe up the drool. We're moving on to the stuffed mushrooms.
I didn't even cry while cutting these suckers.... it was a nice change.

Mushrooms slightly cooked, and onions cooked to a caramel-goodness...

And the two shall meet, and things will never be the same.

Oh wait. Sorry, forgot this was a threesome.

I want to just pick these up with my fingers and throw them in my mouth.

I did.

Delicious appetizers... all ready to serve!!

Add some dipping sauce in the middle if you want... I myself just didn't think about it. ;p

And now for the smashed potatoes. I think these are some of the best potatoes I have ever had in my whole entire life. I changed it a bit from her recipe... as you can see by my ingredients here (that is, if you clicked on the links at the start of the post to even SEE the recipes)
The biggest difference, is that I used garlic butter instead of regular butter.

Best. Decision. Ever. Try it.

To cook the potatoes, I just pierced them and threw them in the microwave.

When they are soft, simply throw them in a bowl, mash them up and add all of the ingredients.

Throw some extra fried onions on top before serving... you will be happy you did.

This was one of my more riskier recipes. The Whiskey Glazed Carrots. I have never cooked with alcohol before. I mean, I drink it while cooking, but have never put it in my food. I think I'll be doing it more often. I'll drink it WHILE putting it in my food.

The carrots were chosen because of their color, I love how bright they are, they really spruce up any dish....

Here you see the butter, the whiskey, and the brown sugar coming together in holy matrimony.

And here come the carrots to spice it up a bit ;)

I can honestly say, no carrot will ever compare to this dish ever again...

And now... the absolute belle of the ball. Or the beast of the ball. Or something like that.

Beef Tenderloin.

Absolutely expensive, something I have never bought before.

I'm more of a ground hamburger type of girl....

suits my budget much better.

But this was about trying something different, so here goes nothing.

Cutting off ALL of the fat that I could was actually quite fun.

I pretended that I was in the O.R. with McSteamy....

I was still pretending I was with him when I was rubbing the beef down with the salt and seasoning.... I gotta be honest.

Ooooh this part was fun. Notice my fancy kitchen mallet. Courtesy of the garage.

Pounding those peppercorns was fun. Therapeutic.

Plus, it cleared my sinuses... definate bonus.

This sucker barely fit in my frying pan.

Remember I said that my kitchen has no calories? It still doesn't. I promise.
This butter went on before I threw this in the oven for 25 minutes....

Oooooh baby. Come to momma........ I don't normally love rare beef.

However, this was so amazingly melt in your mouth delicious, that I ignored the redness and just let my tastebuds do the walking AND the talking. mmmmmmm good.


This next picture was after I threw it back in the oven so that Darcy would eat it. He doesn't eat rare beef. He doesn't eat medium beef. I had to cook it some more. ;p

If you will, please pretend that in these super cute napkin rings, are some super cute napkins.

Thanks.

I used the Echo Park Wintertime paper pack to decorate my table all pretty like....

and these Melissa Francess Envelopes and Tags were perfect for having the 'menu' on the table.

Here's my little table setup. Buffet style, which in my family these days works a lot better, unfortunately... I know, a sit down meal with the family is what is best, but you do what you gotta do sometimes. LOL

For my centerpiece, I had found this spiky silver 'thing' at the store, put it on a vase with a candle in it, and made some 3-dimensional stars and tucked them in. I think it turned out kinda funky looking ;)

This 7 Gypsy tray served well as another decoration. I just decorated a few of the frames with papers and a few embellishments and then added a 'happy new year' sentiment with some shiny red alphas. It will be very easy to take this apart and re-do it for another occasion!

Voila! A meal fit for a King.

Or for a boyfriend, 3 fussy eaters, and a bottle fed baby.

I really hope that you enjoyed the journey into the life of a Pioneer Woman wanna-be.

I guess I AM the Prairie Woman.

Remember, any meal at home can be dressed up and made into a fun little occasion with just some paper, some ribbons, a few die cuts, etc. Let your mind wander....

but not too far or else you'll forget you have something in the oven.

Thank you to Lori, for bringing this idea 'to the table' so to speak...

I hope she had as much fun as I did... to find out, PLEASE check out the LIITD blog asap and see what miss thang 'cooked up'!!!!

Cheers to you and yours!