Fall Flavors

There are so many things that I absolutely love about fall.  I love the colors of the changing leaves, the cool evenings, football games, and the smell of the air.  For some reason, one of the first things that comes to mind about fall are all the smells. 

Cooking always seems more appealing because of the wonderful smells that fill up the house.  I thought I would share a few recipes with you and the scents that go along with them.

First of all, I have been making my own bread for about a year now.  I registered for a bread machine when we got married and it had been sitting in my cabinet taking up space.  One day I decided to take it out and put it to use.  I'm not going to lie...the frugal side of me came out here as well because my grandpa had it figured that it cost around $.35 to make your own bread as opposed to buying it in the store.  The end result was something that I had been missing out on.  Homemade bread is the best!  If you have a bread machine, I think this is the easiest way to make the dough...yeast and kneading the dough myself scares me (Stephanie I still need lessons!).  The following recipe makes a 1 1/2 pound loaf of bread. 

French Bread
8-9 ounces of water
1 1/2 t. salt
2 T vegetable oil
3 cups bread flour (I buy mine at Sam's in bulk)
2 t. sugar
2 t. active dry yeast (I also buy this at Sam's)

All you do is add the ingredients in this order into your bread machine.  I choose the dough option on my machine.  It takes 1 hour and 20 minutes to knead and let your dough raise.  I then place it in the oven at 350 for 30 minutes.  I choose to bake mine in the oven for two reasons.  Number one...I don't like my crust crispy.  Number two...the smell is absolutely heavenly! 

Since Halloween is approaching us, I have been in the mood to make sugar cookies.  The kids and I made cookies last week and I'm thinking that another batch will have to be made this weekend.  They just don't seem to last around here.  I have a very simple sugar cookie recipe that doesn't stick to the cookie cutters and rolling pin despite all the flour like a lot of recipes I've tried.

Sugar Cookies
1 1/2 t vanilla
2 sticks margarine
3 c. four
1 1/2 c. sugar
1 t. baking powder
2 eggs
1/2 t. salt

Cream butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla.  Add flour, baking powder, and salt.  Mix well.  Roll out dough on floured surface and cut out cookies.  Bake at 375 for 8-10 minutes.

Frosting
1/4 c. shortening
1 lb. powdered sugar
3 T. milk
1/4 c. margarine

Mix all together and add food coloring. 

I think the thing that makes these such a treat around here is that for some reason I only make them around Holidays...that's probably a good thing for the waistline! 

Another one of my fall favorite scents is Bath and Body Work's anti-bacterial hand soap in the Sweet Cinnamon Pumpkin.  I stumbled upon this scent last year in our church's restrooms and was too late to get it in the store since it is a fall seasonal scent.  I have waited all year for it to come out again.  It makes me want to wash my hands all the time because it smells that good!  One of my friends purchased this scent in the candle and she said it is amazing as well...I might just have to purchase one myself.

Stay tuned for pictures of my little cowboy and leopard...aka Landry and Brynley in their Halloween costumes.  I dressed them up this morning for a Halloween party and they looked so adorable, but I hate to ruin the surprise for the rest of you who may see them.  It would be like opening your presents before Christmas!

Potty Time

Does anyone else out there ever have a time when you feel like you have nothing blog worthy to share?  I have been in this boat the past couple of days.  Last week seemed to pass by in a blur, but I have had a little bit of time on my hands as of late to update my blog...and this is it...I can't come up with anything!  I do have some pictures and recipes I will share with you later this week when I get back around the house for awhile.  Until then...I will leave you with a mommy question.

Does anyone have any potty training tips for me?  I will take any suggestions or willing bodies to come and do this job for me.  It is the one thing that has always haunted me as a mom and now I feel like it is inevitable that I conquer it.  Landry is just a little over two years old and he is really beginning to like the idea of going on the potty.  I tried  to conquer this milestone a month before he turned two with the "Potty Training in a Day"...this turned into a three day nightmare in which I realized that he just wasn't ready.  Everyone always says "you'll know when he is ready"...for some reason I'm certain that it's not going to be something that happens overnight and I know that I am ready!  I am psyching myself up to start with potty training again next week.  Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.  I found this picture of the potty seat that we have...just imagine Landry's face in place of this random child's as I gear up for next week!  Prayers would be appreciated.

Out with the Old in with the New & Pumpkin Head Fun

Well this weekend marked my first ever garage sale at my own house.  Up to this point I would have to say it has been a success.  I think I like having garage sales just as much as I like going to them.  I have always been intrigued by consumer choices and I find it entertaining to see what everyone just can't live without.  Yesterday I sold my vacuum and low and behold...

The UPS man delivered my new Shark Navigator vacuum yesterday afternoon.  After good reviews from my best friend Angie, I decided to try it out for myself.  I ordered mine on Amazon for $139 (after using a few $5 Swagbucks gift cards) and got free 2-day shipping.  I absolutely love Internet shopping for everything except clothes...for some reason I still like to see before I buy.  I haven't had a chance to use it yet, but I am excited to try it out.
                                                                                                                                                

Landry has been so proud of his two pumpkins that he painted at a friend's birthday party.  He has carried these around outside and hauled them in his tractor and wagon countless times.

I decided that he might have fun decorating a big pumpkin at the house.  Aldi had their large pumpkins on sale for $1.99, so he picked one out and we brought it home to decorate.  He kept telling me that he wanted it to have a face, but I knew that he wasn't old enough to enjoy carving one.  We searched around the house and found the perfect inexpensive pumpkin project for him...I introduce you to "Mr. Potato Pumpkin" as Landry calls him.

I may not be the most creative person in the world, but I thought this was a pretty clever idea.  I've seen the face kits that you can buy to stick in pumpkins and that gave me idea to use the Mr. Potato Head pieces.  I used a skewer to poke the holes and Landry stuck the pieces in.  He was determined to get the hat on there, so we used toothpicks to keep it in place.  It was so much fun to watch his excitement.  Next year I am thinking we will have to incorporate our Mrs. Potato Head and buy an extra pumpkin for Brynley.

Ironing Out Those Wrinkles

As a full-time stay at home mom and wife, there aren't many complaints that I have about the job.  I love being able to see my kids grow up and reach certain milestones in their little lives.  I love the feeling of accomplishment when you finally manage to get the whole house clean while tending to two children.  I love being able to have supper ready when Brandon gets home from a long day of work.  However, there is one chore that haunts me every single week...

Ironing...it is by far my least favorite chore!  I'm not sure what it is about ironing that makes me cringe, but it's one of those things I always have to talk myself into doing.  It seems like the onset of fall/winter makes me dread it even more because that brings on the long sleeve button up shirts!  I know that I bring on a lot of the ironing myself because I don't like to dry any shirts for us or the kids...I feel like they keep their color a lot better...but this also brings on the wrinkles.  And, I swear they make men's/boy's clothes with material that wrinkles the worst.  My good friend Angie kept a well-stocked supply of Downy Wrinkle Releaser around when we were in college because she hated ironing too.

I have found that this works on my clothes, but it takes a steam roller to get the wrinkles out of the boy's clothes.  So, thanks to Angie I have a few less clothes to iron.  I know many of you are probably thinking I should just take the clothes to the dry cleaner.  Being the frugal person that I am, I would rather complain my way through the ironing process than fork out the money to get them dry cleaned.  Now before you go judging my complaint about ironing...tell me that the sound of a creaky ironing board doesn't give you nightmares too!  In all my years of ironing, I have never opened up an ironing board at my house, another person's house or at a hotel that doesn't have that ear splitting screech when you open it?  Why is this?

In the amount of time I took complaining about ironing on here, I could have had this week's ironing done!  I just thought I would share with you my least favorite chore...what are some of yours? 

I will try to post some updates and pictures of the kids later this week.  Have a great Tuesday everyone.

Strollers Anonymous

The search for the perfect stroller has been somewhat of a long-running joke around our house.  Some people need to go to AA...I need to go to SA (Strollers Anonymous).  It all started shortly after Landry was born.  We registered for and received the following strollers before Landry was born.

I loved the Graco stroller. It was easy to push, folded up very compact, and had lots of storage space for all those shopping trips I took it on. I also loved that the car seat matched and easily snapped in and out when Landry was an infant.

The Jeep umbrella stroller was a different story.  I registered for this stroller thinking that it would be nice to have a stroller that was very small and could easily be packed for vacations or every day use.  I immediately realized after only one use that this stroller was made for people much shorter than me (and I'm only 5'7").  Needless to say, when Brandon pushed this stroller he looked like the Hunchback!  I soon realized that I should have registered for the Maclaren umbrella stroller, which is specifically made for taller individuals.  However, I decided to just keep the Jeep stroller and live with a bad back!

Shortly after Landry was born, I realized that our love for running together was no more because we now had Landry.  It was then that my search began for a jogging stroller.  My mom soon found this Schwinn jogging stroller on a garage sale and I absolutely loved it!  Landry rode many miles in this one.

One child and already three strollers...and then along came Brynley and my search for a double stroller.  I immediately found this Jeep double stroller on a garage sale for about 1/4 of the cost of a brand new one and it was in like-new condition.  I brought it home and soon realized that it would not fit into the trunk of our car...Landry was the independent toddler and wanted to help push instead of ride...and it steered like a semi!

I resorted back to using my Graco single stroller and carrying Brynley or corralling Landry as he "helped" push.  Seven months later I realized that this was not going to work out because I am constantly on the go.  I began searching once again for that perfect stroller.  I decided on the Sit and Stand stroller by Baby Trend.  I was just about to bite the bullet and pay full price for one when I ran across two on the same weekend at two different garage sales.  So what did I do...I purchased both of them!  I just couldn't pass them up for the price.  You should have seen the look on Brandon's face when I brought two more strollers home, bringing our grand total of strollers to six!  My strollers were taking over his garage.  I sold one of the Sit and Stand strollers to a friend and I am hoping to sell the other four strollers on my garage sale next week. 

After only a few uses, I know that I have found the perfect stroller for our family.  It is so compact for a double stroller and Landry absolutely loves the option of standing or sitting on the bench seat.

This is our stroller.  I couldn't find a picture of it converted to the sit and stand option, so the picture below shows you what it looks like when the back seat is taken out.

Sorry to put you through the torture of reading this lengthy post, but I just had to document this crazy search for a stroller.  Do any of you have a favorite?  Even though I am definitely not in the market anymore...but I am easily persuaded!  Have a great week everyone!