Tasty Kitchen

Are you a Pioneer Woman fan? Did you see she has a new recipe website?
Tasty Kitchen. I joined. I like recipe sites - adding recipes to my recipe box, sometimes printing them out, rarely using them.

Ten on Tuesday

1. We went on our annual fall camping trip this past weekend. And here's our annual family picture in front of our cabin. Three out of four isn't bad, I don't think.


2. This one got sick the second day. (Picture from the fourth day, after the fever had broke.)


3. Prior to this, I'd never seen 104.3 on a thermometer before. Yep. I called the doctor.

4. She still managed to get some bike-riding in. In between the naps and many movies she watched. Good thing I came prepared for rain because she watched every movie and cartoon I brought.


5. She was sick last week, but thankfully was fine in time for camping. She loved it. Loved running around in her froggy boots, playing on the playground, riding backs and eating crap. Yep. She pretty much existed on cheese puffs, chips, marshmallows, a pizza pie and some fruit. Sadly for her, it's back to regular scheduled eating habits this week.

6. The cabins are tiny. Cozy, but tiny. Even though Mackenzie started off the night in the pack and play next to me, she ended up in my bed each night. And she's a pillow hog. And if her head wasn't pushing mine off the pillow, she was laying her head on top of mine. And that's just not comfortable.


7. Michael knew the girls would end up in bed with me. (Last year, they both slept with me every night.) So he slept on the futon. Emma slept there too, except for the one night she slept in my bed. She also fell off the futon early Monday morning. I heard a thump, yelled crap and jumped out of bed. She did not enjoy that.


8. The futon is also where Emma spent a good chunk of her time, taking naps and watching movies.

9. All Mackenzie wants to do is ride bikes. But she can't because she can't reach the pedals. This was Michael's solution.


10. Even with Emma sick and all the rain, it was still a good camping trip. We all got naps in, got to eat pizza pies and roast marshmallows. I made Brunswick Stew. We went on walks, they rode bikes and played on the playground. It was good.

PS, this bench made me laugh.

Lay 'Em Down

My new favorite song. I think I need the CD. Didn't realize until tonight, but they also sing Shine On. Love that one, too.

Needtobreathe - Lay 'Em Down

She could make a career out of this.

Today, Emma did Mackenzie's hair.



In completely unrelated news, I finally found a template that works. One snag - the photo bar/title. The only way to get my photo bar centered is to choose to put it behind the title. If I do that, huge letters go across the pictures. If I choose to use it instead of the title, it's all the way to the right and it's not the size of the photo bar either. So I had to change my blog title to "." That's why there's a little dot at the top of Mackenzie's head. I'll work on it tomorrow. I'm sure if I mess with the HTML I can get it to work, but that requires a lot of Googling to figure out the code and it's time for bed. Oh, and I see only the top of my profile picture is showing. Hmmm...

Ten on Tuesday

1. Went to Zumba tonight. First time in a few weeks. I still love Zumba. The going an hour early to get a pass, going home for a half hour then going back up there so I can get a spot 15 before class starts? Not as much.

2. For some reason, last week Mackenzie thought she'd eat Bitty Baby's hand.


3. Shortly after, she made this face.


4. Butterfly at the zoo. I've never seen anything like it before.


5. When I was in Virginia for my Grandma's funeral, I lost track of how many times I heard, "I wish it wasn't under these circumstances, but it is so nice to see you." Or some version of it. And it's true. While we no one wanted us to all be together because my Grandma had passed away, it was nice to have everyone together. Granted, most of them see each other all the time, it's us northerners who don't get down there too often.

6. I only have three cousins, first cousins that is, and I think this might be the first picture of all of us together since we were kids.

(Brandi, Rachelle, my sister Tara, Jeff)

7. Snail at my Uncle Hugh's. I'm not sure I've ever actually seen a snail in person before.


8. My cousin Kelly. My mom and Kelly's dad are first cousins. My SIL Abby and I were just discussing if Kelly is my second or third cousin. I thought second. She thought third. Anyone know? I could just Google it, of course.


9. Emma likes chocolate ice cream. A lot.

10. We're going camping this weekend! Our annual camping trip has been moved up a couple weeks. Lots to do to get ready. Big list. Many errands.

monkey see, monkey do.

Whatever Emma does, Mackenzie does.

1. Saturday after Brett's football game, Emma was running on the field with her hands behind her back. Mackenzie ran out after her, with her hands behind her back.

2. Sunday Emma was in dress-up shoes and got on the coffee table. We told her to get down because she knows she can't stand on there with shoes on. As she's getting down, Mackenzie climbs up, with dress-up shoes in hand.

3. Emma wants something to drink, Mackenzie wants something to drink.

4. Emma says she's done eating and asks to be excused, Mackenzie says "all done!"

5. Emma gets up on her bed, Mackenzie wants up there.

6. Emma yells, Mackenzie yells.

7. Emma dances, Mackenzie dances.

8. Emma jumps, Mackenzie jumps.

9. And on and on and on...


If only Mackenzie would've done what Emma was doing - smiling - for this picture. Instead, she was shoving goldfish in her mouth.

Scrapbook Sunday

Here are four pages I posted during my week at WCS earlier this month. I didn't scrap at all this week, but my space is finally cleaned up. Now it's time to get it all messy again.


At least she's creative and plays well by herself!

Bazzill; Sassafras, Basic Grey papers; AC ribbon and Thickers; EK Success arrow stickers

I think she might need her own camera.

Cardstock from Hobby Lobby (my fav green cardstock every); AC papers, Thickers, ribbon and flower


This page I actually did last fall, just never got around to scanning and posting it.

Not sure who makes the black background pp; Scenic Route paper; Making Memories chipboard accents


I just have to say again how awesome it is to have Mackenzie sleeping through the night. :)

Bazzill; Sassafras paper; AC Thickers, pen, jewel brad; 7 Gypsies stickers

Ten on Tuesday

1. Emma started preschool today. Originally, I wasn't worried at all about her crying when I dropped her off. Then she started saying she would miss me and that while she would go to preschool, she didn't want to go alone. I wasn't quite sure how it was going to go.

2. We started off the day with cinnamon rolls. Michael asked, "Sure those aren't for Mommy, not Emma?"


3. In the car at preschool. In case you couldn't tell, she'd been crying. We had a little disagreement over clothes and hair this morning. I'm sure it wasn't the last.


4. Walking in. I didn't do too good of a job with this one.


5. Finding her name and putting it on the board. Each child picks out a color and shape that is their's for the year. Emma picked purple triangle. When they arrive, they find their name on the chair and put it on the magnetic board. They also find their name tag, same color/shape and put that on.

6. Just before I left. I had to give the teacher her extra clothes and drop off the apple. (We got homework at orientation, an apple to put her picture on and write about her favorites. It'll go up on a tree with the other student's apples.)

7. She said cheese for me, then "Bye Mommy! Bye Mommy! Bye!" Seriously. I think she was trying to get rid of me!

8. Picked her up at 11, Mackenzie couldn't wait to see her. Although from this picture, she does seem to be trying to escape.

9. Each day, the students names are hanging from different pegs and they have to find their name to hang their coat and/or backpacks. Great way to get them to recognize their names, especially Emma since there's another Emma in her class, she'll need to know her last name when she sees it. I was trying to take a picture of Emma next to her name, but instead it was Mackenzie saying cheese. Not long after, she ripped down the name tag to the above left of her head. Awesome.

10. With her name hang tag. She loved preschool. According to her, she was a line leader, went potty and washed her hands, played in the water table. Some kids took the toys out and put them on the doll house and the teacher told them no. She looked at books while waiting for Mommy.

11. Also, Grandma McIntyre came over. We went to Penn Station for lunch. Caroline and Jack came over in the afternoon. Birthday ice cream next door for dessert. It was one heck of a day for Emma. :) And Mommy, too.

Scrapbook Sunday Monday

For some reason, Picasa and Blogger weren't letting me upload pictures last night. Hence, Scrapbook Monday.

I went to a crop with Felicia Saturday and got 3 pages done. That was good for me, since I tend to just talk and walk around the store more than scrap when I'm there.

Hi Felicia!


Marie stopped by to say hi. So glad she'll be back next month and I'll be able to see her for more than 45 minutes. Plus, then she'll be scrapping with us. :)

Two of my three pages, still need to scan in the third:

The girls at their first Friday night football game of the season.

Bazzill; Cosmo Cricket papers; AC Thickers and ribbon.


Watching the Twins Day parade last month.

Jenni Bowlin paper; KI paper; AC ribbon and Thickers; Making Memories frame.

Best. Biscuits. Ever.

No one makes biscuits like my grandma. I think the best part of visiting her in Virginia might just have been getting to eat her biscuits. You couldn't eat just one. More like 5 or 6 at a time. They were that good.

My grandmother, Mrs. Barbara Sizemore Elliott, passed away Sunday. She was 91.






I rode down with my sister and her family Tuesday morning, got there that evening in time for the calling hours. We left Wednesday afternoon after the funeral and I got home late Wednesday/early Thursday at 2:30 am.

It's always great to see your family, especially when you don't see them very often. We'd just been there last summer (when the above picture was taken) and I'm so glad. Grandma got to hold Mackenzie, and while she didn't really know who we were, I'm still happy we were there. That we got this picture. That I'll be able to show it to my girls when they get older and tell them all about their Great-Grandma Elliott -the funny things she said, how good her biscuits and fried chicken were and just how much she loved her family. Love you, Grandma.

It's the end of my week over at WCS

It's been a lot of fun blogging at Write. Click. Scrapbook. this week. Thanks to everyone who checked out my posts, hopefully you found some inspiration. :) And hello to those who found their way over here, hope you come back again!

And now, we're off to the fair. Cotton candy, fair fries, shaved ice and kiddie rides - here we come!

Have a great weekend!

Ten on Tuesday Wednesday

1. I'm a little late with Ten on Tuesday this week. I've been over at Write. Click. Scrapbook. Come on over, say hi, stay a bit. :)

2. Tonight Emma tried roller skating for the first time. She went half way around Beth's garage on Caroline's skates and she was done. She didn't fall though. I was impressed.


3. I hope she likes roller skating. Then I can pull out my roller skates. They're white. I got them in 6th grade. And they still fit.


4. Emma has been really into drawing lately, both with chalk and on her Doodle Pro.

5. We've got houses. Big houses with lots of windows. And a titled roof.


6. Music notes.

7. The ice cream place down the street is a new favorite. It's the one in the top left. Usually it's one big window though, which is the ordering counter. I did the house on the lower right, although she's added some things.


8. Also being drawn: spiders; monsters; Emma and her friends; a scene complete with house including chimney and smoke, tall grass, birds and the sun; her name; random letters; a roller skate.

9. Stopped at Sweetie's (best candy store, make that warehouse, ever) to get some strawberry cheesecake Jelly Bellys (or is it Jelly Bellies?) because they're my favorite. Of course they were out but the girls liked pushing the carts around.



10. And the messy space where I've been scrapping the last two weeks. When this week is over I've got a major clean up to do!