Our kids

I wanted to introduce our kids to my blog followers....aren't they cute?

Painting

I don't know about you, but painting a room is a royal pain.

Have you ever started the process thinking you had everything you needed, only to realize you would be making 3 more trips to Home Depot before the project is over?

We started off by steaming the wallpaper off the walls, then we scraped the glue off, and we thought we'd be ready to paint after that, but we were wrong.

We then had to sand down the walls, fill in the holes, sand down the filling, and respackle yet again. After that was over we had to wipe down the walls to remove any dust AND THEN we were ready to paint, but not paint - PRIME.

Our home was completely covered in wall paper, so this was a very long process, and I wanted to share my painting experience.

Happy Painting! :-P

Happy Birthday Mom!

Happy Birthday Mom!!!

Today is my mother's 56th birthday, and honestly she doesn't look a day over 42.

I wanted to take this opportunity to say thank you to my mom for all the days she stayed home from work to take care of me when I was sick, for helping me with my wedding plans and keeping me from getting the jitters, for always supporting and encouraging me in what I wanted to do in life. She is the best, and I couldn't have asked for a better mom!

Anniversary!!!

April will mark my 2 year wedding anniversary with my husband. People always say that grass is greener on the other side. When you're single, you want to be married, and when you're married you want to be single, but I think there are always going to be aspects of someone else's life that seem more glamourous or more interesting than yours, but it doesn't mean the situation is better than yours. I love being married, but would I love an evening to myself every once in awhile, sure I would, but I wouldn't trade being married for anything in the world. I love my husband dearly, and we even each other out in so many ways. He's the stressed one, and I'm the one who calms him down. I'm the procrastinator, and he is the OCD, get-everything-done-yesterday type of guy . . . so when you put the two of us together we somehow manage to meet in the middle :)

WIN!!!

For a chance to win the $300 grand prize, share tricks to help lighten your load and get laundry done faster. Place your comment in the section below to enter.

Suz from The Life Of Suz, mother of 2 year old quadruplets, put OxiClean to the ultimate challenge. Take a look at the results!

Jenny On The Spot loved how the Max Force Gel Stick easily conquered the chocolate pudding stain that had been sitting on her kid’s white shirt for four days!

Carrie from, Growing a Baby, is a laundry expert with two cute, but messy eaters. She loves the gel stick and says "it’s been great to be able to just dab some gel on the clothing item and leave it until later."

Life With the Boys said "I used the power pack in my whites, colors, and a load of towels. Everything came out looking pretty ship-shape."

"In our family, laundry is a HUGE deal. By this I mean, with 9 of us in the family we always have HUGE amounts of laundry to do. Add in the fact that 7 of us are boys… well I think you get the idea." -Said Mama Fasha

"When one lives in a home with seven kids (COUNT THEM: SEVEN) and a minor petting zoo, one has some serious laundry considerations." - Said Herding Squirrels. See how Oxiclean worked for her.

Xiaolin Mama said "This weekend after 3 basketball games, 1 soccer try-out, dance class and a sleep over, I was left with some stanky laundry!" See if OxiClean worked for her.

Vacation Ideas

We've been on a few weekend getaways since we've been married, so I wanted to post them in case any of you are looking for getaway ideas. The first two are very family friendly, and the third was a couple's resort in the pocono's but the area would still be fun for families:

Cape May NJ



















Annapolis, MD



















Pocono's PA

Strawberry Muffins

LOVE this muffin recipe: Try it for yourself!

Ingredients

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
2 eggs
1 cup plain Stonyfield Farm Yogurt
1/4 cup butter, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup chopped strawberries, fresh or frozen
½ cup brown sugar (optional)



Directions
Preheat oven to 375°F. Grease a 12 muffin tin or line it with paper baking cups. In a large bowl, sift together flour, sugar and baking soda. In another bowl, stir together eggs, yogurt, melted butter and vanilla until blended. Toss the strawberries with the flour mixture.
Pour the egg mixture into the flour mixture and stir until the flour is just moistened. The batter will be lumpy. Spoon the batter into the muffin cups. Bake for 20 – 25 minutes, or until the tops are golden brown.

Yields
12 muffins