Attempting to be a Super Mom

Well, I hope everybody had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  I ate so much food it was insane.  I made a lot of food, but the best thing was the Pumpkin cheesecake.  I have never made anything even close to it before.  My sister always makes the desserts.  Besides cookies, I've never really made dessert from scratch, so I called my sister for moral support.  She assured me I'd be fine and that cheesecake is so easy, and after making it myself, I can tell you she was right.  The recipe is actually from the Cheesecake Factory.  I'm not a pumpkin pie person.  I'm not really much of a pie person at all, because I don't like the crust which is why I decided to make cheesecake.  With Ben's peanut allergy, I have to make desserts from scratch most of the time to make sure they are safe for him.  It turned out so good so I thought I would share the recipe with all of you. Cheesecake Factory Pumpkin Cheesecake   Crust: 1 1/2 cups graham cru...

Sorry to have updated so much today.  I was behind on my posting and had so many things to post.  I figured it was best to post them all in individual posts.  Now, it's time to put in an update on our jam packed weekend. Saturday, Ben and I went to Shawn's parent's house to spend the afternoon and evening.  We ate a wonderful dinner at Terry's new house, then went to the Legends to take Chris (Shawn's brother) his dinner, do a little shopping, and see the Christmas tree and lights.  It was so pretty and while it was a little chilly, we had a good time. While Ben and I were spending time with his parents, Shawn was here in Lawrence at a friend's birthday party.  We met Shawn there later in the evening.  Tim (the guy whose birthday it was) has a pet snake and he had it out so Ben could see it.  Shawn was holding Ben and had him trying to touch the snake.  He'd say "Can you touch it, Ben?" and Ben started tickling the snake, saying "tickle t...

Tonight, we made a scene like what I saw on another blog Momma's Playground - finished fall art project .  Ben and I did it and today, I got daring and let him cut and glue some also.  It didn't turn out bad at all. What you need: construction paper scissors glue crayons 1.  First, trace your little one's hand and then their hand and arm and then cut them out. 2.  We made grass by cutting a length wise strip of green construction paper and then making it grass like by cutting fringe on the top. 3.  Glue the hand, hand and arm, and grass to your paper. 4.  Cut out a sun and glue it to your picture. 5.  Cut out pieces of orange and yellow paper. 6.  Crumble up the orange and yellow pieces and glue them to the hand and arm for the tree and put some down at the bottom for the leaves that have fallen. 7. Color your turkey or decorate it wit...

Saturday, we did our Thankful Turkey craft and we did it as a family, which was probably for the best anyway.  It turned out great, and quite colorful. What you will need: construction paper a paper plate a marker or something to write with glue scissors 1.  Cut the center out of the paper plate to give you a nice sized flat circle. 2.  Color the paper plate cut out on one side.  I let Ben and Shawn do this part while I did step 3. 3.  Cut out all the pieces you will need to create your turkey body, face, and several decent sized feathers that you can write what you are thankful for on. 4.  Put together your turkey body and face. 5.  Write what you are thankful for on each of the turkey feathers. 6.  Glue your turkey body onto the front of your paper plate. 7.  Glue the feathers on to the back of the paper plate so you can read the writing from the front.

Friday we made our coffee filter turkeys.  This was something I should have planned out a little better.  I knew that I had a doctor's appointment and thought that while we were waiting for Shawn to come home we could start this craft.  In the end, Ben was covered in marker from the waist up.  Thank goodness I had him take his shirt of for the craft but the doctor did comment on his pretty colored neck and chin.  It was fun definite fun though. What you will need: construction paper glue scissors markers coffee filters Water in a spray bottle or eye dropper 1.  Color your coffee filter with marker.  We learned that the more you color it, and the darker it is, the better it will turn out in the end. 2.  Spray the coffee filters with water from either an eye dropper or spray bottle.  You want just enough to make the marker run but not enough to remove the marker.  (This is quite messy so we did it on the counter...

Our Thankful Turkey will have to wait either until I come home tonight or until tomorrow.  I've run out of time and patience for now.  I feel bad, because I don't want to be one of those people that doesn't have time to do things with their kids.  I'm trying so hard to involve Ben in everything I do, but I want to do fun things for Ben everyday also, not just making the day about me or the new baby. Ben is in terrible need of a nap today and has been since about 11:30 this morning.  I'm not in a great mood today either.  I didn't sleep well last night, because the baby was up moving around all night.  I woke up this morning and felt great but that has since worn off.  I just keep thinking now of all the things that have to be done before work tonight and the little amount of time that I have left to do it.  The good news is it is Thursday, so only one more day after tonight and I also worked almost an extra hour last night, so that's an hour les...

I woke up exhausted from being in pain all evening yesterday, so I decided that the craft I had planned for today can wait until tomorrow.  I can do the prep work for it tonight when I come home from work so Ben won't have so much waiting while I cut out all the pieces.  We did color a picture of an Indian and pilgrim, and began to learn what Thanksgiving really is all about.  I unfortunately was not as well informed as I'd have liked to be about the topic, so I researched it using wikipedia . I feel so extremely lazy today.  We did a pizza party for lunch because I just didn't feel like cooking anything.  Ben loves anything coated in cheese.  So cheese pizza worked very well for us.  He even got a special drink.  I let him have sprite with his lunch.  I only let him have pop on special occasions or when we go out to eat, and even then, pop isn't guaranteed.  I think he enjoyed it today. Maybe while Ben naps I'll get some reading in ...

Since Ben had such a good time with the big craft yesterday, we did a craft today that I think every kid does in preschool or elementary school.  We made a Native American headband. Here is everything you need: construction paper glue or a stapler scissors crayons straws 1.  Cut out feathers from multicolored construction paper, and color them. 2.  Next, cut a strip of construction paper about 1 1/2 to 2 inches tall that will fit around your little one's head.  It took me 2 strips of the construction paper cut lengthwise.  Attach the ends together either with glue or staples.   I used the staples so Ben didn't have to wait for it to dry. 3.  Color the headband. 4.  Attach the straws to the back of your feathers.  Once again I used staples so Ben didn't have wait for the glue to dry. 5.  Attach the feathers to the inside of the headband. That's it!...

Ben and I had been lacking in the crafts side of things, so I decided today that we would make these really neat wreaths like we saw here: Ramblings of a Crazy Woman - Handprint turkey wreaths .  I thought this would be a fun activity for us before nap time.  He loved tracing his hands so much that after I was done, while I was cutting them out, I gave him a crayon and some paper and continued trying to do it himself.  We decided to change it a little bit from a wreath to a big turkey made of hands. Here is everything you need: A paper plate Construction paper Crayons or markers Glue Scissors 1.  You'll need to trace you're little ones hands on a few pieces of paper.  Ben doesn't have much patience even though he enjoyed it.  He was just having a hard time sitting still so we only did it on 3 sheets of paper giving us 6 hand prints.  I put a few pieces of paper behind them and folded them in half so I ended up with 28 hands total. 2....

I am about 23 weeks along and up until last night we hadn't taken any pregnancy pictures yet.  I feel like I'm getting huge fast and so it was definitely past time to do it.

Last night, Shawn had a sleep study at LMH.  I knew I'd miss him while he was gone, but I didn't sleep well at all.  I had these plans to make the evening like a slumber party for me and Ben, but it didn't quite work out.  Ben had a tummy ache from too much pizza and brownies at CiCi's pizza earlier in the evening.  My sinuses were starting to really get to me... We just ended up laying in bed watching things on the DVR.  No snacks, no fun games, no coloring, nothing.  We were very boring last night but I can't even begin to tell you how many times I woke up throughout the night.  This house makes too many scary noises and without Shawn here, I just couldn't sleep.  I woke up the second I heard Shawn put the key in the lock this morning. Funny side note:  This morning I was watching Go Diego Go with Ben and when Click the Camera came on and was singing the song, I was being silly and had my hands in front of my chest and was waiving them an...

Buffalo Chicken Dip 4 chicken breasts (or any kind of boneless chicken meat) 1 bottle blue cheese sauce 1 package cream cheese 1 small bottle Frank's hot sauce shredded mozzarella cheese Boil (or simmer) chicken in water (or optionally, chicken broth) for 30 minutes or until cooked.Heat oven to 425°F. In an oven safe dish, spread cream cheese along the bottom. Shred chicken into a separate bowl. Add blue cheese sauce and Frank's hot sauce (depending on how hot you'd like it). Spread chicken mixture over the top and sprinkle with mozzarella (too much cheese will make it hard for dipping). Cook for 20 minutes or until cheeses becomes bubbly. I serve this with tortilla chips but it's also good with Triscuits, or even Ritz crackers.  I also cheat, because I can be a little lazy and don't always have all the time in the world so I often use a rotisserie chicken and just cut the meat off of there. This is not my picture, but this is what it looks like when it...

I've been so busy lately and sometimes when I'm busy, important things get forgotten.  I seem to have forgotten to go to the library or recheck our books out online.  I know the fines are probably ridiculous and I'm super embarrassed about it.  I normally look forward to going to the library but today I'm dreading it.  I think I need to get a separate day planner for at home than at work.  Right now, the two are combined and I think it's so overwhelming that I only look in there at work. Here is the nightmare that is my day planner: That is my goal for next year.  Two separate planners and I will make sure everything is in there, i.e. when the library books are due.  When you are busy, what kind of things do you forget?  How do you keep from forgetting the little yet important things?

I've got so many things to work on and to add to that, Thanksgiving is less than 3 weeks away, and Christmas is coming up in 7 weeks.  I'm starting my Christmas shopping this weekend.  I'm not going to wait until last minute like I normally do.  I've already got a few ideas for people, but the tricky one will be my husband.  He's the hardest person I know to shop for and he shouldn't be at all because he's so easy to please generally.  I'll figure something out, I always do, but I'm definitely open to suggestions. I need to get the ball rolling on making the bedding for the baby and Ben and I have this incredible urge to knit more but I'm feeling oddly uninspired by my massive collection of yarns. I finished a scarf last week that was originally going to be for Designers Against AIDs, but I fell in love with it... I know that's selfish, but it matches my coat.  With my belly growing more everyday, my coat buttons keep moving so much furt...

I haven't updated yet to let everyone know about our Halloween.  We had such a blast with Ben.  We carved our pumpkins and went to KU to take pictures of all the pretty trees the weekend before.  Ben loved the leaves and the fun on the campus. He didn't really like the carving of the pumpkins so much though as he thought the insides were "yucky." We decorated the house and made cookies to get the festivities going all week long. On Halloween, we went to Shawn's parent's house and started chili in the crock pots and went to the Legends for trick or treating and some last minute costume piece purchasing.  Later, we ate dinner chili and yummy cornbread, got all dressed up (Ben was a monkey, Shawn was Jerry the plumber, and I was Michelle Duggar) and went to my families house for my brother in laws 21st birthday party/Halloween party.  Shawn and his siblings went to the haunted houses, and then we all met up in Paola for a party there.