Happy (late) Easter!!

We had a great Easter!! We took our pastors advice and went to the 11am church service as opposed to the 9:30 which we normally attend. The extra hour and a half gave us time to really relax, sleep in, leisurely hunt eggs, and talk about the shock and joy Mary and the disciples must have experienced on the first Easter morning. Sadly, we've attended several funerals in the past few months and we just tried to contemplate the joy and confusion we would feel if any one of our friends were alive again. It's weird to consider but I'm sure disbelief would be rampant so it's easy to understand where some of the disciples were coming from when they originally had doubts.

We don't ever do anything huge on Easter, like cook a ham or have family over. Instead we had brats, deviled eggs : ) and coconut cake.

The thing I had up my sleeve was Bible covers for the girls. I always struggle with the commercialism of Easter. Because I have children; eggs, the "bunny", and all of that are a requirement in my house. I thought I would try to at least balance it out a little bit by making something pretty they could put their Bibles in hoping that they would maybe keep their Bible on their nightstand or equivalent and hence pick it up more often.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter!! XOXO -Amber

I Spy....

Hope all is well!! XOXO -Amber

Good Times for Jill's B-day!

This is just one of the things we did yesterday to celebrate Jillian's birthday. We spent a couple of hours shopping and we had a great time playing in the backyard and cooking cheeseburgers on the grill. Jillian is 12 now and continues to make me proud everyday! I Love You Jill!!

Food and Stuff (original, I know)

We've been doing a little bit of experimental cooking around here. Nothing crazy, just recipes that we hadn't tried before. The favorite was this Fruit Pizza which I found on one of my favorite blogs, Fly through our Window. The girls didn't really like the name, they thought I was making actual pizza with fruit when I told them it was part of dinner BUT they let it go once they tried it. It's delish! I also had TONS of plans for what I was going to make with all of those juicy oranges that we had. I zested them and juiced them with that pitiful little wooden handheld piece of crap in the picture (I bought something more suitable the very next day). Then we ended up just drinking the juice! We couldn't help it, one sip and we were hooked. So orange creamsicle jelly will just have to wait until next time : (

Lastly, I made Nigella Lawson's Toad in the Hole from her new cookbook. I'd heard of this dish but never really knew what it was. When I was reading through her new book, Nigella Kitchen, and realized that I had all of the ingredients I had to make it. I am so glad that I did, it's really tasty! I can't believe how easy this is to make also. It's basically sausage made into patties (or cut up I suppose is more traditional) fried for a minute or two in a bit of oil and then topped with a popover batter and tossed in the oven. I thought it was pretty funny how looking at the finished product tells you how this dish got its name.

I also tried out a co-op that is available locally. I got all of this produce for $15 which is kind of a steal. The only drawback is that I had to be there at 7AM on a Saturday and was therefore sneaking out of the house trying not to wake anyone up at 6:45 on our only sleep-in day. I'm not sure yet if I'll do it again as not all of the produce has been great. The one thing I do like is that everything is locally grown, we'll just have to see if I actually use everything.

This camera shy girl is turning 12 in three days!! Yes, I said 12!! Where has all of the time gone?

We've also been enjoying as much time outside as we can get. It's still beautiful here for hopefully another month or two so we'll just keep at it until we can no longer take the heat.

Gelsey taught Frank how to hopscotch, pretty hilarious if you ask me!!

Sorry for the brain dump, it's been a little while since I've been on here I'd built up a backlog of stuff. Next time I'll give updates on the garden : ) Hope all is well!! XOXO -Amber

Sewing Projects

So I had two baby showers in one weekend last week. It was very fun and I got to see some friends who have moved out of town and I hadn't seen in a year. As gifts I decided to go with something homemade so I made changing pads for on the go and a mini diaper pouch that holds a couple of diapers, wipes and maybe some A&D. I found the tutorial HERE (Violet Craft) but I can't find the direct link. I actually think it was linked from the sew mama sew blog as a gift idea but I snagged it a while ago and I can't quite remember. Anywho, it was super simple but practical and cute. I used flannel as one of the fabrics so it would be soft for little baby bottoms and I got to make one for a boy and one for a girl which was exciting as we find out what we're having next Thursday and the prospect of either is exciting.

I've also made a couple of pairs of shorts for the boy. They're just right for a boy who would rather wear no clothes, as they were cheap and easy. He got to pick out the fabric which I hoped would make him actually want to wear them and so far it's worked pretty well : )

Now I'm on to Easter outfits which I'm 100% sure I won't finish in time but I've also got something else up my sleeve. I'll fill you in in a week and three days.

Hope all is well!! XOXO -Amber