Baby Shower Book

My friend and neighbor just had boy/girl twins and we are throwing her a shower tomoorrow. She is also moving out of state so the shower will serve as a farewell party too. I made this keepsake book for guests to write a message giving some sort of mommy advice, along with their address so she can keep in touch. Simple and cute!

School Picture Project

I tend to overbook myself. A few weeks ago I was in the shower and that is when I do my best brainstorming. I thought "Hey, I should go take a nice picture of Ethan's class so I can scrapbook it". Then when I suggested that to the teacher I suddenly volunteered to do all three classes. Let's just say this turned out to be an ordeal.

But finally they are done and just in time. I made each one into a nice keepskae for the kids. If they want to do something else with the picture like stick it in an album it won't be too hard tp peel the picture from the mounting. They turned out pretty well. And ignore the different paper choices. That was an ordeal in itself. I mis-calculated how much paper I would need and then Hailey found a glue stick and ruined several sheets. So I improvised.

A New Page

Actually this isn't a new page. I did this one in January but I am only now uploading and blogging new pages I have done this year. I stole this idea from Staci. I just loved the individual explanation of each kid. This is the first page in our 2008 book (after the title page). It' s a little boring and lacks accent, but it'll do. I decided I am going to do one like this each January of the kids. It will be fun to see how they evolve. Thanks for the idea Staci!

Pimpin' Aint Easy

Lynette and I are still getting the kinks worked out of the craft night we started a few months ago. I've decided I am the craft night pimp. I made so many calls today trying to collect our money from people who still owed. I just need some gold chains and a cane. Here is part one of last month's project. It's 6x12 inches. Cute idea Lynette! The second craft we did that night will get posted about shortly.

March Card Swap

I have been so bad about posting on this blog. I actually have a million things to post, but it is a matter of getting pictures uploaded and then sitting down and writing about them! This month the card swap theme was "thank you". I'm not crazy about my cards because I had to do them the afternoon of. Oh well. Tomorrow I will take a picture of the super cute cards I got and make a post about it. I also have about 20 scrapbook layouts that are all done, just waiting to be journaled and photographed. Hopefully all of this will be done by week's end!

Best Meatloaf Ever

A few people asked me for my meatloaf recipe because I made mention of it on another post (on our family blog). So here it is!

Glaze
1/2 C Ketchup
1/3 C brown sugar
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp mustard


Loaf
appx 1 1/2 pounds lean ground beef
3 slices of bread, crumbled through food processor (or blender)
1/4 C chopped onion
1 egg, beaten
1 cube beef bullion, crushed
2 Tbsp lemon juice

- Mix all glaze ingredients together.

- Combine all loaf ingredients, plus 1/3 cup of glaze. Mush all together until evenly mixed.

- Shape into a 9x5 inch loaf pan. Bake at 350 for 50 minutes.

- Pour off fat from pan and spread remaining glaze on top of loaf. Bake an additional 10-15 minutes or until center of loaf reaches 160 degrees.

Mango Salsa Chicken

I have a new love. Mango salsa from Costco. Oh my gosh, I can eat it by the spoonful like soup. Cody had a great idea to use it as a marinade for chicken. But I took it a step father and used it as a sauce for chicken in the crock pot. YUMMY!!!!! And this is the simplest recipe on earth and relatively low in fat.

Take 5 chicken breasts and smother then with salsa in the crock pot. Cook it on LOW for 3 hours. Depending on the size of the breasts it may take a little longer, but check it after 3 hours. Once it is done sprinkle grated [cheddar] cheese over the top while it is still in the crock pot (enough to cover the top), then replace the lid. Once the cheese is melted it is ready to go! I served it over rice and let me just say, holy wow. I scooped out LOTS of salsa chunks onto the rice and the chicken was so tender and juicy. It is almost a meal in itself!

January Pages

I've set a goal for the year to scrapbook at least 4 layouts/pages from the previous month. So the first day of February I printed off all of my January pictures and I have given myself the whole month to get my pages done. I figure this is a great way to keep up on them. These are the ones I have done so far. I am working on 2 other layouts right now. Sorry about the glare on the pictures. I haven't figured out how to make it not do that even when they are not in plastic sleeves.

February Card Swap- Part II

Here are the cards I got from the swap this week. Everyone had such great ideas! The 3 tier cake card is actually fabric and it is really cool.

February Card Swap

These are the cards I made for tonight's card swap. The theme is "birthday" (if you couldn't tell). The bows on them were a pain in the neck but I like how they turned out.