More Awards...

I have received a few awards over these past few weeks and I thought maybe it was about time to blog about them and pass them forward.

First up from my friend Polly over at The 5th Sister;

The rule is if you are tagged you must list 5 things that make you a true, authentic mom and then pass along the tag to 5 other deserving bloggers.

Technically I am not a Mom yet however Polly was gracious enough to award it to me anyway. Personally I think you become a Mom the minute you can't keep your Cheerios down...what we do for our children! Coming up with five things is somewhat difficult for me but here are some things that I think are going to make me a wonderful Mom as long as I follow through.

1.) I plan on telling my children everyday that I love them no matter how many times they have been sent to the naughty chair or talked back to me. I want them to know that there is absolutely nothing in this world that would ever make me question my love for them nor do I ever want them to question whether I do because I haven't said it enough.

2.) I plan on beating my children. Just joking, I don't really plan on beating my children but I do want them to know the difference between right and wrong and if that means a swat on the fanny once and again then so be it. I got the swat a few times and you know what...I have lived to tell about it and am grateful my parents did it. Obviously spankings will only be used for certain actions but I want my children to know there are consequences to their negative actions that will help teach them to not do it again.

3.) My goal when it comes to parenting is to be the sort of parent that a child can come to about anything and everything but still have respect for. I don't want to be your best friend, I want to be your Mother, but having said that I want them to come to me when they have those typical life questions. I for sure do not want them getting their facts about the birds and the bees or knowledge about drugs that can't be found in my medicine cabinet from their friends or teachers. I am their main teacher in life and feel that information should come from me.

4.) Christmas Eve at our house will be new pajama night for Santa's arrival...I have almost bought Addison her first pair for next year on more than one occasion. I really need to take a breather.

5.) I see a Katie's Krafty Korner in my future. I want to be a hand's on Mom who can get down, dirty, and creative when it comes to school projects, classroom Mom stuff, and passing the time projects...I can't wait!!

Now enough about me here are my five nominees:

Cassie over at Cassie Craves and Life Ensues. She's hands down a pretty cool Mom and since she already has one toddler with a baby on the way she really deserves an award...can somebody say patience?

Heidi over at Tried-and-True Cooking with Heidi, take a look at some of her snacks that she creates for her children...that alone deserves this honor. Growing up it was fix your own snack at my house.

MamaKeith over at the domestic mama, she made jack-0-lantern brownies for Halloween, cool Mama in my book! You must check them out for all of your Halloween events for next year.

Su over at This Stop Willoughby, read this post of hers and then you will know why I tagged her.

And lastly Lisaloo who has several blogs but this is the one I picked due to the nature of this award, Krafting with Kids. Please see #5 of this post and that should be a very good indication of why I picked her. Seriously, high five to the Mommy's that go above and beyond the call of duty when it comes to doing stuff with their kids.

Now I know a few of you ladies may have already received this award so obviously you don't have to redo it on your blogs, for those of you who haven't received it though, spread it around!

It's official...

I told you you would love Thanksgiving and if your movement Saturday afternoon after our first meal was any indication...you LOVED it!!! You were all over the place and beating the heck out of your Mommy. The good news though is that since you were so excited after having had turkey and Grandma's stuffing, Daddy FINALLY got to feel you kick for the first time. You also gave Aunt Megan a nice little kick as well although I don't think she was quite as excited as your Father was. Oh how Mommy loves feeling you roll around like a monkey in her belly, I think I am going to miss having that once you arrive but at least once you're here that means I can snuggle and love on you in person. It's getting closer and closer!

28 week appointment...

Daughter, would you mind explaining to your Mother why she has gained 9 lbs. in 4 weeks? I realize it's winter but you are not a squirrel...please stop storing food for your winter hibernation.

I had another dream this morning about you and you came out with these perfectly round cheeks, maybe you have squirrel tendencies after all.

Any who, we had another decent appointment I guess you could say. Your heart rate was 150 and my blood pressure and urine were once again clean. It was after those announcements that the appointment went south of the border.

Do you know why they call the glucose test a one hour glucose test?

It's because one hour from the time you drink your lovely orange beverage they are supposed to take your blood. Not one hour and forty five minutes later as was the case today. How they manage to misplace your file and then proceed to forget about you is beyond me but they did. It didn't help that I was dehydrated which meant trying to get blood was like trying to find a needle in a haystack. Four nurses and five sticks later they finally found blood. This was after they all had to argue about who was going to do it and then proceed to ignore my request to just redo the test at another time when we were all better prepared. I was actually pretty proud of myself though. Needle sticks #3 and #4 were done after I pretty much told them to have at it. For anyone that knows me and the chore it is to get blood from my veins this is a new thing. Normally after the second one I wave the white flag and tell them to back the hell away before anyone gets hurt. It didn't even get dizzy from all of the commotion. I think Mommy has finally put on a pair of her big girl underwear...YAY!!

Hopefully they are able to use the blood and not force us to deal with it again. You didn't move much this morning and I knew why. Mommy hadn't fed you since around 7 o'clock last night so her lil' peanut was just hungry and tired of all the bull crap. I just fed you a single with cheese from Wendy's and you haven't stopped moving since. I guess since I have gained (gulp) 9 lbs. in such a short period of time that maybe a burger from Wendy's wasn't the greatest of ideas but I was in a rush to get home, feed your brothers, and then get back to work since I had been gone since 9:15 this morning. Hell...let's be honest, the cheeseburger probably wasn't smart but the thought of even considering going on a diet is just a joke. Our first Thanksgiving dinner is tomorrow followed by at least one more and then we head into the Christmas season which means Christmas parties, our holiday bake off, Christmas Eve, and then Christmas day. By then you will be a month away from joining us in the real world so why make myself suffer? Not only that but what kind of mother would I be if I didn't allow to you participate in all of the wonderful food during this season?

Antipasto Kabobs

Here is yet another baby shower appetizer...they were really yummy...minus the olives. I am not an olive fan if you couldn't tell...lol!


Anitpasto Kabobs~

Ingredients:
1 pkg. refrigerated cheese tortellini
40 black olives
40 green olives
2/3 C. Italian dressing
40 slices of pepperoni
20 slices of hard salami, halved
20 wooden kabobs

Directions:
1.) Cook tortellini according to package, drain and rinse in cold water.
2.) In a resealable plastic bad, add tortellini, olives, and dressing. Refrigerate for four hours or overnight.
3.) Drain and discard dressing.
4.) On each kabob, thread one of each olive, two slices of pepperoni, slice of salami, cheese tortellini. You may choose whatever order you would like for them to go in.

*Kathy also added little cubes of cheese to each of her kabobs since her kabob sticks were on the longer side. The cheese was a nice addition especially for this mother to be who needs her calcium!!

These were very yummy and one of my favorite items, without the olives of course!

Salami Roll Ups

As some of you may know, our first baby shower was held this past weekend. My step-dad Jim and his girlfriend Kathy were kind enough to host it in our honor. We received lots of wonderful presents including the wholesale box of diapers that my Grandparents got us. This box literally contains probably ten or so packages of diapers. They should go lovely with the presents they gave to Daniel. Only my Grandpa would be able to give hospital packaged gloves and surgical masks, those items go with the safety goggles, jumbo sized tweezers, and clothes pins. What they don't realize is that gift probably should have gone to me instead. I am definitely not looking forward to dirty diaper duty in our house, Daniel is much better with foul odors than what I am.

Anyway, now that the talk of dirty diapers make you think of appetizers...lol, here is one to share with you. My step-dad was on drink duty for the party while Kathy was the foodie. She made several different appetizers and she made enough to feed a small army. I will be sharing a few of the recipes here over the next few days since any of these items would be great for all of your holiday functions.


Kathy's Salami Roll Ups

Ingredients:
40-45 slices of salami
1 8oz. block cream cheese, softened
1/2 C. sour cream
4-5 green onions, finely chopped

Directions:
1.) Mix the cream cheese, sour cream, and green onions.
2.) Spoon onto each slice of salami and roll using a little of the mixture to "seal" the salami.
3.) Refrigerate for an hour or so to allow the mixture to firm up. (This is my suggestion)

I hope you enjoy and by the way...the salami rolls are shown on the second tier of the above picture. I thought I would point that out for those of you who might mistake the fruit kabobs for salami...lol.

Thanks again Father and Kathy...we had a wonderful time!




Happy Thanksgiving...gobble, gobble!!

Hamburger Hash

Quick post tonight. I stumbled upon this recipe over at Three on Food posted by Kathy who found it over on Heidi's blog. Daniel actually liked this after he added some ketchup...me on the other hand could live without it. We both agreed that next time we make it we will use sausage and mild salsa instead of hamburger and the diced tomatoes. I threw mine in the oven for a little while to brown the top which is why my cheese is a little browner.

Cheesy Hamburger Hash~

Ingredients:
1 lb. lean ground beef

1 bag frozen O'brien diced potatoes, the kind with onions and peppers

1 can diced tomatoes with Italian herbs, undrained

2 Tbsp parsley (we did a little less)

1/2 Tbsp garlic powder (we added fresh garlic)

1 - 2 cups shredded colby jack cheese

salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Cook ground beef, then drain but leave a small amount of the fat in the pan to cook the potatoes in. Heat remaining fat in pan on medium heat. Add frozen potatoes, cover and cook 10 minutes; stir occasionally. Season potatoes with salt and pepper to taste. To the potatoes, add beef, tomatoes, parsley and garlic powder; stir well. Cover and cook 5 minutes. Stir and pat mixture down. Sprinkle with cheese and cover and cook an additional 5 minutes.

Do you like Pink?

Peanut...do you like pink? As in the color pink?

If not then I am sorry. You have more pink clothing than I know what to do with. This is not entirely my fault, I swear. Just about everything that has been purchased for you is either all pink or has hints of pink through out.

Would you prefer purple, maybe a suttle shade of orange instead? You just let Mommy know okay dear!

I painted your room yellow, does that help a little bit? Of course the bedding Mommy bought you last night has pink all over it so once again, do you like pink? I sure hope you do, because if not, then I don't know what to tell you girlfriend!

We were going to remain neutral and do your room in a farm theme but I found your new bedding on e-bay for much, much cheaper. I knew I had to have it as soon as I saw it. See last week when I was starting to realize we probably wouldn't be able to afford your farm bedding, I started drawing up butterflies and lady bugs to paint on each of your walls. Little did I know that while surfing on e-bay last night for a cheaper version of the farm bedding that I would stumble upon the bedding I actually bought for you. The butterflies and lady bugs were almost identical to the ones that I had been drawing for you. I feel that it must have been fate that I stumbled upon it with less than two minutes to go before the end of the auction.

I really hope you like it. I am pretty sure you won't really care but I hope you like it just the same.