The "Home Zoo"

Stuffed Animals take over every one's house at some point I'm sure... Well I had an idea to help corral the animals up and still keep them accessible for the kids to play with when they wanted to!  I had seen the idea of the beanbag chairs for them, but wasn't sure that it was what we wanted...  So I thought this up and here you go...

 

Step 1: Went to the Homac and bought the wood...  Wood is a lot more expensive here, so I wanted to keep it small and simple...

 

Step 2: I screwed the large frame together, then nailed the small rectangle dowels to the frame to make it look like a cage...  Nailed on the top and bottom flats...

Step 3: Put the Zoo cage in the kids room and we placed all their stuffed animals in it that they don't want in their beds to physically sleep with each night.  Now their animals can have a safe place to hang out without being on the floor when the kids are in bed... (the stuffed animals used to cover the entirety of each bed that you wouldn't be able to find the kids if they laid in the bed under the animals!)  This idea is much better I think.  Trystian loves it!  He wanted to make sure he got in the picture!!

 

Another home creation I have done lately is make a cup out of mason jars for the boys...  They are long out of sippy cups, but when we have movie night with snacks and drinks, I really didn't want the kids to have open cups of liquids to spill on the carpet or couches...  so I thought of this so that they have something that is not baby like, but also good for when we go camping and stuff too to keep the bugs out!  The boys love drinking out of them now!

 





Boeuf Bourguignon

So I really wanted to share the Boeuf Bourguignon I made for us the other day.  I love food, and especially old time recipes that aren't rushed!  Here it is below:

 

about 2 pounds Stew Beef

2  onion, sliced

Salt and pepper

2 parts red wine

1 part beef stock

2 cloves minced garlic

about 3 1/2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons olive oil

about 1 pound fresh mushrooms, sliced

about 1 pound fresh carrots

celary hearts chopped

 

 

Preheat oven to 350 degree.

 

Marinate beef in red wine in the fridge for at least 3 hours, overnight is better.

 

Heat butter and olive oil in dutch oven until almost smoking. Dry beef in paper towels; it will not brown if it is damp!

 

 

Add beef to hot pot, a few pieces at a time, and sauté until nicely browned on all sides.

 

 

Remove beef with slotted spoon.  Add onions to pot and cook till transluscent.

 

Return the beef  to the pot along with all of the other vegetables.

 

 

Stir in wine and beef stock, just enough so that the meat is barely covered. Add the garlic and salt and pepper. Bring to a simmer on top of the stove. Cover pot and set in lower third of oven. Let it simmer for 3 to 4 hours. The meat is done when a fork pierces it easily.

 

 

 

Serve over noodles, rice, or mashed potatoes! I like it over egg noodles.

 

 

BON APPETIT!

 

 

Pregnancy Diary: 14 weeks

Excited, Exhausted, Happy, Overwhelmed!! 

I am now 14 weeks along in pregnancy number 3!  2nd trimester, so the fatigue has diminished a bit...  It almost feels like yesterday I just found out I was pregnant, but then again, I'm also dreading how long it seems all the same.  At work, we were doing 12 hour shifts for about 6 weeks, and so that's probably what made the time drag out...

At my last OB appointment (12 weeks), the Dr. did a little unltrasound because it was early and still hard to find the heartbeat on the doppler.  It was exciting to see the pumpkin move around!  Trystian insists on telling me that there is a boy and a girl in my belly, but the ultrasound only shows 1 baby so far. I guess we will have to wait to see if there is a twin hiding in there wont we?

I have a home doppler and was finally able to find the heartbeat on my own...  This is a relief to hear sometimes because I'm right at that in-between stage where you dont have many pregnancy symptoms, AND you also do not have a huge stomach and can't feel movements regularly yet.  It is a little hard to find because this pumkin keeps moving and moving!  I'll catch it for a few seconds, then *blip* *kick* and pumpkin moves...  Very active baby, and as each day goes by now, I can feel the movements, which are still very light and not that hard kicking feeling.

I'm thinking a girl, but what do you think??

A Transformer Rescue Bot Birthday

 

This weekend was Trystian's 5th Birthday party!  YAY!  I feel like I was just bringing him home from the hospital yesterday!

He wanted a Transformers party, with a Blades rescue bot cake!  Wow, it took me forever to make it, but I think it turned out pretty well!

 

I also got really creative with the food for munching!  Now, we had all had brunch at the club so I wasnt going to have a full spread at the house.  No one would be hungry for any of it.  So light refreshments were perfect!

After a VERY LONG week of LONG work days, I was so  happy to enjoy some downtime this weekend!  Trystian had an awesome birthday and had a lot of friends over, so he was very happy!
 

 

And somehow no one heard of the "good luck candle"... Growing up, we had the amount of candles of how old we were turning, and then one for good luck...  I got looks of wonder when 6 candles were on the cake.  LOL

Wedding pics!

You know... I didn't realize I never posted any of the wedding pics on here from December yet...  hhhrrmmm... I really am behind.

Trystian is stuck to me like glue...  He came up to take communion with us

This was so much fun!

Corie and Matt caught the bouquet and garter.

We had a great time doing our special "bridesmaids" dance!

YAY!

Oh what a nice cake!  Where did we get it?  well I made them! :)

 

More dancing fun!

 

Don't the boys look adorable!

Trystian was my little usher!

 

 

Again, all the kids look great!

BEST DAY EVER!!!!

 

The news is..........

So we are ready to release our really exciting news!

We are gonna have a baby!  The kids are so excited!  We are so excited! 

The little pumpkin is due October 30th.  S/He will be born here in Japan... Which means that poor Atreyu is the only one of my kids born in America thus far... 

 

News!

We have exciting news... but I can't say it just yet...  Soon Very Soon... Stay Tuned!