Christmas in Texas

Christmas Day after opening presents, going to church, having lunch and a nap for EVERYONE, we loaded the van and drove to Texas!  Yep, we drove through the night all the way to Kirbyville, TX.  I will say the kids did great, but traveling long distances with children is not for the faint of heart.

We had a great visit with Larry's parents and his grandmother.  I took a ton of pictures over the holidays, but didn't manage to take any of TX family.  I did get these of Larry and the kiddos at Lake Sam Rayburn.

Christmas 1

Our family celebrated Christmas at church, at home with my family and in Texas with Larry's family.  I'll post some of the highlights in the coming days.  Here are some pictures of the first celebration with Mimie and Papa.  We also celebrated Papa's birthday which is Christmas day.

another garage sale treasure

Saturday was a fun day for the hyphenated family.  We put everyone in the car and went out in the chilly morning weather to a few garage sales around town.  We scored quite a few treasures! A few needed a little TLC before they found a home in our apartment.
My night stand was one of the projects.

Larry found this stool/step stool:

It was rough looking, painted cream over the original green paint.  Larry loved it right away because it reminded him of one that was in his Grandma's house when he was a kid.

We stopped at lowes on the way home from the garage sale and bought sand paper and spray paint.  One sure way to actually do the projects you  think up is to bring home all the supplies you need with the item to be refurbished/up-cycled.

Larry sanded all the surfaces and smoothed out the paint chips and drips from the previous owner.  Then we sprayed it a cool and retro turquoise.

I may embellish the seat back and seat later with a paint marker or some brushed on free hand designs.  I'm thinking a bright yellow and red for accents....

For now it has a new home in our kitchen!

Chair: $6.00

Paint: $5.00

Sand Paper: $2.00

Total Cost: $ $13.00

garage sale night stand

We've been living without night stands since we moved into our new place.  While the apartment overall is bigger, the master bedroom is smaller. The nightstands we were using didn't fit in the room with our king sized bed.
I refuse to spend a lot of cash on furniture for this place since it is temporary, so i have been scouring garage sales for the past few months in search of a small night stand.
I scored one today!

Here is the before:

One $2.00 garage sale table,  a can of silver spray paint, a little fabric from the scrap bag applied with modge podge:

Tada!  Here is my wonderful (and perfectly sized) garage sale night stand:

Total spent: $7.00

Oh yeah!

Oh. My. Yum!

Pinterest.  It is a wonderful thing.  I love it.  I have to limit my time on Pinterest because it is fabulously addictive. I love seeing all the fun tricks and tips, craft projects, home decor, and of course, recipes.  Lots of wonderful pictures of even more wonderful food!  (On a side note: I am curious to know how many people actually make any of the projects they pin...)
We are wanna be foodies around here, so I pin all kinds of recipes and last week I actually made one:
This recipe for Fudge Babies from Chocolate Covered Katie.  I don't know Katie, but her blog is great.

They are totally rich, decadent and not at all terrible for you, in fact they might even be good for you.  Fudge Babies are also ridiculously simple to make. You don't even have to turn on your oven.
I've made them twice and my family loves them too.  Brooks thinks they are candy. And let's face it, any healthy food that your three year old thinks is candy is a good thing.

Lucy on the Move

Lucy has been moving around for a little while now.  She crawls some but mostly she does what we call the "swim," flapping her arms and kicking her legs to gain forward motion.
She has also started pulling up to standing! Needless to say, mommy is not ready for all this.  we have no "containment strategies" in place to keep the little girl from getting into mischief.  Here is a short clip of exactly what I mean...

homemade teething biscuits

Here is a yummy recipe for homemade teething biscuits.  I made them for Lucy today and she LOVES them.  She loves them so much that when ever she dropped the biscuit she would cry:) lol!

Homemade Teething Biscuits

2 tbsp butter, softened
1 ripe banana
1 egg (you can sub the egg for 1tbsp ground flax seed mixed with 3 tbsp water)
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 and 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp water
1 and 1/2 cup baby rice cereal

Preheat your oven to 300 degrees.
First, if your banana is very ripe (lots of spots) - mash it up to a smooth puree.  If it is not ripe (even still slightly green, just put it in a bowl (peeled) and microwave it for 1 minute.  Mash the cooked banana into a smooth puree.  Let it cool before you add it to your biscuit mix.
Cream the butter, add the banana, egg, baking powder, salt and vanilla.  Mix well.
Add the rice cereal gradually mix with a wooden spoon until smooth.  You may need a bit more or less flour but the dough should not be sticky.
Divide the dough into 4 equal pieces and roll each piece out like a snake.  About 3/4 inch in diameter.
Press the log sort of flat to about 1/2 inch thick and then cut the flattened log into 2 1/2 inch sticks.
Bake on an ungreased cookie sheet for 45 minutes or until dry.  Flip the biscuits over halfway between baking.
Store in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks or in the freezer for 4-6 weeks.