Happy Halloween!

Dominic as Elmo. He decided at the Last minute to go dressed as Elmo today. My sister was here and we all had a great time.

Here are the kids dressed in their Halloween Finest. Dominic (Spider), Luca (BumbleBee) and Gioia (Skeleton). We went today to the Harvest Moon Festival in town. They had a parade, jumping balloons and costume contest. Dominic was wearing the Elmo at the time. I think if he had been in the Spider costume he might have won a prize.

Oh i almost forgot. We went to a Haunted House, put on by the local Lions Club. Dominic had Massimo carry him and hid his face the whole time. Gioia was scared but brave and walked by me the whole time. Afterwards I said "Dominic do you think you want to come back and do this again next year? " He said, "Why?" LOL. I just laughed and said, "oh for fun." He said, "No."
Why indeed.

As part of the festivities this week we also went to a Pumpkin Carving party. We had food, drinks, carved pumpkins and played. It was great. Here are Gioia and her friend Charlotte making crazy faces.

Picture Monday!

Ok. Its Wenesday. Shhh! Don't tell anyone. But I have a good excuse, my husband is out of town this week. Anyway. I found another good picture to share.

I like to call this one "Cooking Babies!" These two were just turning 2 years old. We were camping out with a bunch of friends. Lincoln C. on the left and Gioia on the right decided to get in the old fire pit and play. They got pretty dirty but it was so cute. Its pretty fun. These two are both 6 years old now and losing their baby teeth. Very sweet!

Wow Kara. We have been friends for over 4 years now. :) That is great!

Greenhouse plans.

We have been talking about Greenhouse plans for a while. At first we were talking of building one. Then DH found a really great deal to buy one made of plexiglass and aluminum frame. My idea was that next spring we replace the windows on our house. Then we reuse the windows for the greenhouse. Sounds great right? I am having a tough time convincing him. Then he offered that why didn't we just buy the great deal one and have that be our Christmas gift to ourselves. Well...I think he got me there. :) I still want to find a purpose to reuse our windows. Maybe we can save them and use to build a second greenhouse or use for building a workshop sometime.

The plan is to pour a concert slab and figure out a way to heat it so we can use it year round. One idea is radiant heat in the slab. I think that is the best bet. We have kicked around several ideas, but that seems to be the easiest.

The other thing on the agenda is we are looking to buy a fireplace wood burning insert with blowers. We talked to some friends that might have one that will work. We are stalking Craigslist and also education ourselves on the best deal. I mean why not? I am home everyday. These babies will crank out enough heat for the top floor at least. We bought the chainsaw. Cutting wood is not really a problem so..... Oh and if we ever need more wood, well my brother sells it all the time. Definitely better than buying loads of gas all winter. We still have the furnace of course for the times we need it or if we run short of wood.

I have also got a gallon of water from the cistern to get it tested this week. I can't wait to start using it.

Picture Mondays!

So my blog has been kind of boring lately. I read lots of other peoples blogs and they are SOO interesting. I do feel like i have a pretty interesting life, but maybe I am just not conveying it well on my blog. I have seen people do picture days and I think that is a great idea. Mondays are usually boring around here, so I am picking Monday. Also the twist will be that it is probably going to be an old picture or a picture from a past event etc...

So to kick us off. I love this picture. It is Me, My mom and my little sister Melanie. We were on vacation in Branson (Silver Dollar City). We didn't get to take a lot of family vacations back then because my mom was a single parent. I think the year was 1985, or there abouts. I also remember really enjoying this vacation because our family friends The Dulys were there with us. One thing I remember is that Brian couldn't ride the rollercoaster because of his epilepsy. Fun, that that stuck out to me as a kid. Later I developed childhood epilepsy. I grew out of mine. Brian did not. What a great picture. We all look so good. My mom looks so young and skinny. She has recently returned to her beautiful skinny self. She even wore some of my PJ's when she stayed all night recently. I am proud of you mom! :)

Slings the good and the bad..

So I sold 12 more slings to HappyBottomus . My friends awesome store that sells my slings like hotcakes. :) I love it. I sent 4 flannel slings and 8 regular cotton slings. I am excited to see how well or fast the flannel slings sell for winter. That is the good. I also know lots of people having new babies soon, so I may be busy with that as well.

The bad is kind of embarrassing. So i was all on a high from selling 12 slings to HB. I was online messing around and was reading a blog I frequent. She just had a baby so i was thinking OOH I wonder if she would like a sling. So I emailed her telling her I could send her one for free and if she liked it maybe she could mention it on her blog. No big deal right? Wrong. She emailed me back with a short pissy reply saying that they don't except freebies, ESPECIALLY for a plug on the blog. I was embarrassed and hurt. I really didn't think of it that way. My other WAHM's and I always swap products and link to each others blogs. So i was thinking of it in that way. I really did mean it as a gift. Being naive, it never even crossed my mind that she would say no. *sigh* Oh well. Learned my lesson.

For any new moms to be out there I am getting a new shipment of fabric in soon. SO check back to the website for new beautiful fabrics. www.bambinoslings.com

Yummy snacks.

Veggie Bars

1 package of crescant rolls
prepared ranch veggie dip
1 bag broccoli cole slaw, chopped fine in food processor
mozzarella cheese

This recipe is not super detailed. It only makes about 4-6 servings. So you may want to double it for a larger group. SUPER EASY. Roll the dough out flat, bake and let them cool. Then spread the veggie dip on it. Layer the veggies and then cheese. Press lightly to stick it to the dip. Refrigerate any leftovers.




Whole Wheat Beer Bread

• 3 cups whole wheat flour
• 1/4 cup vital gluten
  
• 4 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 (12 fluid ounce) can or bottle beer

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan.
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, baking powder, salt and brown sugar. Pour in beer, stir until a stiff batter is formed. It may be necessary to mix dough with your hands. Scrape dough into prepared loaf pan.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 50 to 60 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of the loaf comes out clean.

9 year anniversary.

Massimo and I had our 9 year wedding anniversary on Sept. 30th. We had a great night. My mom came and watched the kids. They did awesome. We went on a date to see Dave Matthews Band in concert. Willie Nelson opened up for him. It was really fun. Dave and Willie sang Gravedigger together. Our friends Melinda and Jeremy went with us. That was cool.

Massimo also got me some BEAUTIFUL HUGE yellow roses. I was really surprised and they smell great!

The boys.

Well I finally got a picture of Dominics PJ's that I made him. Same pattern as the ones I bragged about earlier. Here they are being modeled by Dominic. Another great thing about this pattern is that it has a 2 inch hem. So if they shrink from wash, or they kids grow really fast I can drop the hem.


As for Luca, he got his first haircut today. I am happy to say that it is shorter and he looks more like a boy. However, I am also happy to say that he STILL has curls! HOORAY! I love his darn curls. He was a very big boy and sat pretty still for the lady. Of course, I have a envelope with some of his curls in it.