Recipes and such

First of all, the ONLY reason I have not posted about our Eater festivities is because our MacBook is FULL! How can it be full when it's less than a year old you ask? Answer: We take WAY too many pictures and on any given day I am too lazy to wait the 3 hours that it takes to back up our computer on the external hardrive. I may or may not be a little bit impatient.

Moving on...

I am by no means the chef in our home. I have an awesomely handsome Chef Sean that comes into my kitchen and whips together the most deliciously creative things in 5 minutes flat without the use of a recipe. He is amazing at cooking! I get a teeny bit jealous at his creativity in the kitchen but don't tell him I said that.
So you can tell my excitement when I actually put something together without following a recipe (line by line, measurement by measurement) that actually tasted good! So good in fact, that I wrote it down on a recipe card for future use! Don't judge me, I have "mom brain" and all of my memory brain cells went to my daughter.

I am so excited to present to you my one and only recipe:

Creamy Broccoli Tomato Sauce
2 cans 98% fat free cream of mushroom soup
2 cans Italian diced tomatoes
1 bunch fresh broccoli
1 package fresh mushrooms
1 packet Italian dressing mix

Cut broccoli. Place in microwave safe bowl with a little water and microwave 6 minutes, or until tender. Set aside. In medium saucepan mix together cream of mushroom soup, tomatoes, and Italian dressing mix. Bring to boil. Add diced mushrooms and cooked broccoli and heat through. Serve on pasta of choice. (I put it over some cooked squash and it was SO GOOD!)
You can't have dinner without dessert right? Even better if you have your dessert before dinner (see picture below) HA! If you haven't made Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie, you need to today, like right now. It is SO much easier than it's cookie counterpart and SO YUMMY!!! It can be found here.
This cute little bug was sleeping while I was working away in the kitchen. When I went in to wake her up she turned over with a full hand print on her fore head. I thought it was so cute that (much to her dismay) I had to take a couple of pictures.

It had faded a little by the time I got the camera but her sad face is pretty cute to look at anyway.

Oh yeah. Here is Prada with her new do...

A little less homeless looking. Bless her heart.

Daddy's Caddy

Daddy got new golf clubs and someone likes them almost as much as he does...

I know, I KNOW! Prada has since been groomed...

Pretty cute, huh?

S + A

This has been on our vanity mirror for a couple months now and I can't seem to get myself to clean it off. It all started when Mr. Pack accidentally squirted some lotion onto the mirror, and counter and floors? (The lotion pump wasn't working so APPARENTLY you have to hit it several times in frustration in order to get it to work again. BOYS!) When I saw it later that day I thought it looked like one side of a heart. Instead of getting frustrated and wiping it off (because he didn't care enough to do so) I thought, what the heck? I'll make it special. Out came the eyeliner. The next morning, to my surprise, Mr. Pack had added a little more to it--with lotion, naturally.

What can I say? We kind of like each other :)

Elmo

I never thought I would see the day that I would be writing a post like this. I always thought there is NO way MY child will EVER wear THOSE things. Well...I lied. There I said it.

For Christmas Manhattan received an Elmo doll. She loves him because you shake him and he talks. She thinks it's great! Soon after having him she learned to say his name, "Ellllmo." Well one day when I couldn't think of anything for us to do I put on Sesame Street. BIG OOPS!!! That's all she wants to watch now. Anytime she sees the television on she asks to watch "ELMO." Whatever makes her happy right? Wrong. Apparently it only gets worse. Keep reading.

My big girl watching Elmo

Dear Manhattan, STOP growing!

Earlier this week while getting some last minute Easter necessities at the store we passed the pajama section. Of course right there at eye level are some "ELLLLMO" jammies. I about died! What was I supposed to do? Just walk away? No. She would have a fit. Instead I gave them to her just to hold for the rest of our trip through the store. I thought FOR SURE I could just ditch those puppies down some obscure aisle and that would be then end of it. Well that's just what I did--right next to the Pillow Pets. Problem solved. Oh wait! Not two seconds later was she looking in the back of the cart screaming for precious Elmo. UGH! I thought those sneaky mom tricks worked. Apparently not. We had to go back to where I ditched the jammies, retrieve them from the VERY back of the shelf, and put them back into my little girls arms.

I bought the jammies.
She loves them.
I love them because she loves them.
And now we own our first set of character jammies. Now don't go all crazy on me thinking that I've turned over a new leaf. I'd be hard pressed to EVER find those light up shoes with Princesses on them in HER closet. But I lied once, who's to say I won't do it again. HA!

April Showers

Me: "Erica, how does the saying go? April showers bring...?"
Erica: "A chance of rain."
Me: {Laughs uncontrollably}

Today it was raining a lot. Not a little. A lot. Like enough to fill a 5 gallon bucket with rain water in 10 minutes because your rain gutter is leaking (ugh!). A lot. So all this rainfall spawned the little conversation with my sis.

Two days a week she comes over to hang out with us until my mom gets done with work. I am so grateful! We have such a good time together--we are always laughing! Not to mention that I absolutely adore watching she and Hattie interact. Hattie is still working on names of family members but you better believe she can say one name loud. and. clear. "Erica."
We are so blessed to have her sweet spirit in our lives and can't imagine life without Erica.

Makeover: Laundry Room

Okay, okay, so technically it's a laundry closet but room just sounds nicer. I can't wait to have a laundry room someday...but you get what you get and you don't throw a fit, right?
Anyway, I was really excited to do some no cost decorating and prove to Sean that you don't have to spend any money to improve things and make them prettier. I knew that I would have to start small so I took one look at my laundry closet and definitely saw that it needed a re-do. It was dusty and full of boxes and junk. NOT very pretty hence the reason for no before pictures...too embarrassing! In order to do this I basically went around my house and found a bunch of things that I already had and that were looking to be repurposed. Here's what I found:

• the 3 glass jars
• the washboard
• the clothespins
• the white wicker thing?
• the picture frame
• the wreath
• the tin bucket
• an old canvas
• some leftover burlap from anther project
  

Quite a bit of stuff, right? And I know that you're asking yourself, "Who has a washboard just lying around?!" Umm...Me. I swear.

After that I knew that I wanted to add some type of "laundry art" that I could just print off. This lead me to The Graphics Fairy. Holy cow! I was instantly obsessed with all the images she has! You'll be lucky to find something that she doesn't have. If you need instant art for your home definitely take a look! There I found the cute laundry brushes that I put into the small frame. Cute and free? I'll take it!
Later on I had an idea to cover an old canvas with burlap and hang a picture from it. I found the blue Laundry print off of Spirk Space. She recreated a print that I have always loved from Ballard Designs and I got it for free! SCORE! She has tons of different colors too which makes it even better! Check out her other cute free printables too!
So after I got all of this stuff together I knew that the space needed more. It was just lacking. In comes the $$. Dang it! Oh well. I had seen on a couple of blogs some really cool bottles and I knew just the place I could find them! Sunflower Market! They have tons of different yummy sparkling lemonades and they are around $3 a piece. I of course needed 3 so there went $10. We drank up and then the Mr. helped take off the labels.
The room was almost complete. It needed something special. It needed a SIGN. If you have been in my house you know that I really like SIGN's. I can't help it. They make me happy. So off Hattie and I went to SIGN Heaven (Hobby Lobby) and we found the perfect one! And guess what?! It was the last one left and 50% off! BOOYA! $3.75 for that little beauty and the room err...I mean closet was D-O-N-E.
Here she is in all her glory! Haha!



So no, I did not succeed in NO cost decorating but in our house if it's $20 or less it's considered nothing (because when can you EVER find anything that is less than $20 these days?! Seriously.) So there :)

Lifesavers: Baby Products

Well...there really isn't much to report as of late. We have all been sick in the Pack Clan the last little while and so life has been pretty boring lately. Poor Hattie has had horrible diarrhea and has the worst diaper rash! It is heartbreaking when she points to her diaper and says "OWEE!!!" Ugh! No fun! But through all this I have realized how many baby products that I love and that are true lifesavers in our household.

Product #1: The Diaper Genie II Elite Whether you have a newborn and are changing 5000 diapers a day or you have a sick toddler that you are changing all the time you need this in your nursery! It keeps all those dirty diapers in one handy place and contains all the nasty smell. I love this model because it has a foot pedal that opens the top and you just throw and go. So nice!

Product #2: Prince Lionheart Wipes Warmer When I was pregnant someone told me about these and I am so glad they did! It keeps the wipes warm and fresh and makes diaper changes a lot more comfortable for your little one. It uses a little anti-microbial pad that you get wet and put in the bottom and then your wipes stay moist and germ free.

Product #3: Boudreaux's Butt Paste This has been the best diaper rash cream. It's not sticky and goes on smooth and clears up the rash SOOO fast!

Product #4: Johnson & Johnson's Lavender / Oatmeal Vanilla Products

Let me tell you...these products smell YUMMY!!!! I love bath time because Hattie always comes out smelling divine! I love the both the shampoo and lotion because the smell lasts for hours and hours. There is nothing better than getting a whiff of a yummy smelling baby! Oh yeah, and don't skimp out and buy the store brand. I made that mistake once and don't like them nearly as well. The shampoo is watery and the lotion is runny. Johnson's is definitely the way to go!

Product #5: Baby Einstein My First Signs

I don't think Hattie would ever have her hair done if it weren't for this movie. HAHA!! I put in on in our bedroom in the mornings and she LOVES it! I love it too because she is learning! Around 6 months old we started teaching her some signs and now she signs quite a lot of words. It helps her so much to communicate her wants and needs. This movie not only reinforces the signs she already knows but teaches her the spoken words as well. It's wonderful!

Product #6: Infa Feeder This is probably the best all around baby product out there! It is truly a LIFESAVER for any of you busy moms out there. My BFF Amanda let me try hers one day when Hattie was being super cranky in the car. It worked wonders! Who knew you could feed your hungry baby on the go WITHOUT any mess?! You just put a jar of food in, screw the lid on, and let baby go to town. This has saved me countless times on long drives, road trips, and even church. If you have a baby that is starting rice cereal you need one these in your life! You can find them on Amazon.com. Love, love, LOVE this thing!