NEW

So thanks to Katy for filling me in how how to get a new layout and to add stuff to the side of my blog.. it was soo simple!! I obviously had a blond moment when trying to figure it out on my own before posting a post asking how to do it.. I love the way it looks now! I love having pictures on the side now.. I had a different layout from a different website and it somehow messed up on me(too much playing around that i cant remember what i did) so back to having the black layout for now I know i said i'd post a few recipes on here and i have not done that yet.. Been slacking here a bit.. well... doing other stuff i should say.. But thats my next goal on here.. get recipes on here!! I enjoy getting ideas from others and trying new things.. I do enjoy cooking(when i'm in the mood) but I hate the clean up part that goes with it... I've been starting to have more of an interest in baking, but i do try to avoid that as my tire(what my mom calls those rolls around the belly) doesn't need it! :)
Well its LATE and hear Kylie starting to fuss..

help please........

how do i get a blog roll on the side of my blog?? B, this is probably why your view count is so high is b/c i go there all the time to click on the ppl's blog!! I don't have a clue how i get it on my page!?!? Also how could i find some cool layouts instead of using just the blogs templates.. those are boring!! help me please!!!!

Canon Rebel Camera ROCKS!!

Got a new camera when we went to DSM over the weekend.. I still think we are crazy for getting a Rebel but its ok.. i'll make it worth it!! :D Those are some of the pics we took with new camera.. i have lots more but this blogger site is slow at downloading pics.. More pics on my facebook.. Most of the pictures above are all the ones i edited...

EXCITED!!!

excited to leave for a night(Sat. night) with my family... today(Friday) Alex came home early, we got to talking about how we need to go clothes shopping for the 2 of us.. and later on.. at the spur of the moment.. I told Alex that we should get a hotel for the night and just chill in Des Moines because I need a break from home! Take Carson swimming, RELAX with hubby and kids and go clothes shopping(AND hoping to get a new camera, but we will at least look at them).. He was up for it, so he reserved a suite room at Staybridge Suites for us and thanks to my dad for letting us use his hotel points.. :D I used to be hard to please(before I became a mom), but it doesn't take much anymore.. when a break is needed, I'm up for anything outside of the house.. I think we are still planning a trip to Branson, MO maybe late Sept/early Oct... we'll see how things go by then.. I shall get off now and fold laundry and unload dishwasher.. its almost midnight but I want to get stuff done tonight so I can come home to a clean house on Sunday.
Found this list that may be helpful for you on your next trip..

I'm a BOY! not a girl!!

We went to Hy Vee yesterday afternoon, got bread and a lady in her I'd say late 60's, looked at Kylie and said she's smiling as I was getting my loaf of bread and I peeked around to check Kylie out and she was.. awake at that too... Carson was in front of cart and wanted me to pick him up and i did and this lady asked Carson, "are you the big sister??" Carson just looked at her and nodded yes.. LOL poor kid!
But seriously........ He looks like a boy to me, he's even dressed like a boy!! its ok for boys to have curls!! Look at all those shaggy long hair styles out there for guys(skateboarding type, i love those styles on boys, which is why i like leaving Carson's hair long) and they look like boys to me!
Since this is a Carson blog, I will continue to talk about him.. I've been amazed by how much he loves his little sister!! He loves to kiss her, talk to her, smile to her.. Its amazing to watch him go from an only child to a big brother! He is adjusting MUCH BETTER than we expected.. He is proud to show off his little sister at the stores whenever ppl see that I have a new baby, you know how that goes, you get attention when you are hauling a new baby around, not really the attention i like but it'll stop soon.. :) I just hope Carson continues to be an awesome brother!
Well i better get off of this. Carson wants to go to the playground at the school up the road.. I talked him into that instead of the park.. :)

need help..

so i am wanting to get a new camera.. Does anyone know whats the main thing to look for when shopping for a camera? does the size of the mega pixel matter? As you can tell, I don't know much about this.. i just want a camera that'll do its job right! crystal clear pictures and all.. a REAL camera.. a photographers camera.. :) Any suggestions??

A different note, Kylie is one month old now! The month has flown by fast! She still sleeps a lot, loves looking at the ceiling fan, loves being held by her mama, makes grunting/cooing noises.. I love having her!! I would have took a one month old picture of her, but this is where the camera goes out on us.. :( Time for a different/new one.. We've had bad luck with our camera.. if you don't know me well, i love pictures! pictures will always stay with me forever.. Besides my kids, pictures will be the next thing to grab out of house if house is on fire.... which i hope NEVER happens.. That reminds me that i should save ALL my pictures on a website for just in case if i don't make it to pictures, or if files on computer gets ruined.... i guess i better do that THIS week before i forget...

Recipes...

One of my sister in law came up with a challenge idea of decluttering your house, it gave me an idea...I was thinking... for my blog readers... we should all post a blog about your favorite recipes you like for lunch/supper.. and easy would be a plus too.. Anyone up for that?? Its been a challenge lately trying to decide whats for lunch/supper..(Our food lifestyle is pretty limited as we avoid certain things). I don't do breakfast.. just dry cereal or bananas will do Carson just fine.. It does seem like we eat the same thing all the time.. Last night, we made(ok, Alex made it) chicken fajitas for the first time, that was good and easy(easy if you already have your chicken cooked and thawed out, read time saving cooking tip below).. I LOVE meatballs, lasagna(which i never make b/c its a pain in the butt to make) and my "minute steak".. I'm not sure if its really called minute steak or not but its what I call it and its one of Alex's favorite meal too.. He never had it till I started cooking for us(sadly, that was after Carson was born). (Ankeny days is a different story, i never cooked.. just hamburger helper, which we don't even buy anymore) Anyway back to minute steaks.. it is cooked hamburger patties covered in brown gravy(also cook before pouring over hamb.) and cook it in the oven for about 25-35 mins at 350°.. Its yummy! Alex makes really good mash potatoes(with my breast milk... haha j/k) so we usually have that with our meals.. and he makes good pancakes too.. Because Alex says he will die without meat for a day... (which makes it more of a challenge for us to decide on whats for lunch/supper) but we usually have meat everyday for either lunch or supper.. Beef and chicken only..

Time saving cooking tip: Buy a 10lb tube of beef(80-85%) and cook some of it, bag and freeze and the rest of the meat, make hamburger patties and layer it with wax paper, bag and freeze and grill frozen.. Chicken-I buy a big thing of Tyson's chicken from Wal Mart and i cook that too as well and cut into cubes and bag and freeze. Its handy having meat already prepared/cooked for whatever you want to make at the spur of the moment.. which is my case.. I usually don't plan meals till I look in the fridge/freezer to see what we have.. Who has time to cook all day like Rachael Ray?!?! yes it is an everyday thing if you mainly eat at home... the only humor i found in it.. :)

Check out this website.. maybe they will have your favorite restaurants recipes on here...

here is my recipe for tonight.. I will continue to post more.. I thought this was good and fairly easy..
beef taco skillet

Enjoy!!

disorder???

Do i complain too much on this?? lol.. seems like i'm always nagging about all the stuff i need to do.. Like i tell some ppl... i think i have a disorder.. i cant stand it when my house gets out of control.. I hate how my house looks messy sometimes and takes my time away from my kids b/c I'm always trying to do something.. I've been trying to work on that and just let the house go and clean it up at night time when kids are asleep.. I've realized that when i tidy up Carson's toys, different/more toys comes right back out and theres more tidying up to do.. so.. thats actually wasting my time when I'm trying to make the house look nice.. who am i trying to impress?? no one really.. no one really stops by in the day time and if someone does.. i hope they understand that i have an almost 3 year old son that likes to play with his toys.. and then i feel like I've been lazy if they come over and see a mess here.. I also have a hard time focusing on one thing when i have a million things to do.. Can anyone relate to me??
I went through Carson's toys last night.. it feels so much better in here! I actually took some of his toys and some big toys out in the garage to put in the attic for now.. This house is too small for all the toys..
Ok next time i will keep my blog on a positive note.. no more nagging!! *bear with me*

where do i start!?

i'm feeling a bit overwhelmed(no surprise).. I want to go through Carson's toys, I already tried to do that but it gets dumped right back out by a lil boy named, Carson... So i guess my best bet is to just wait till he goes to sleep or when the hubby gets home and stays here. He is at the Newton races today.. Laundry and dishes is piling up.. stuff is out of place, stuff that doesn't have a place to go.. I just want a relaxing weekend with a clean house! I don't think thats possible with a almost 3 year old.. So when I get old, I'll get to do that, but I may be too old to keep up with my house!! (no, I'm not saying I'm going to have 12 kids.. ;))
We went to 2 weddings yesterday.. one at 4pm(lake keomah) and one at 6pm(ottumwa).. The first one was an emotional wedding.. It was kinda hard on me b/c I was there for my friend when her mom passed away and that was really hard on me, just knowing that her mom wasn't physically there was hard(I was thinking about her almost during the whole wedding, knowing that she is watching her daughter get married).. They had a table there with a picture of her mom, a rose and a letter by it.. that made it even harder!! But i'm happy for her and wish her the best! I'm jealous that she gets to go to Mexico for her honeymoon! She also has a 2 year old son, kudos to her for being brave enough to leave her child.. I wanted to go somewhere far for a honeymoon but i wasn't able to do it.. A weekend in the "far, far land of Des Moines" was hard enough for me without Carson!
The 2nd wedding.. was a happy wedding.. and lots of people too! Carson didn't want to sit still during the wedding so that was a challenge for us..(he did great at the first wedding) We had supper at the reception and watched them dance.. then went to target afterwards.. Got home around 10:30 I believe, Carson of course fell asleep on way home. Glad it went "good" for us... it could have been worse, could have had a screaming baby during the weddings.
I should be working on the dishes and laundry while Kylie is sleeping..

Monday

I'm not a big fan on Mondays for some reason.. Maybe b/c it was the start of a new week on the school days.. I hated school.. Today isn't bad at all.. just.... its Monday and its back to the start of my daily routine, laundry, dishes, tidy-up, shower, dress the kids... etc.... Today we need to go to the redemption center and recycling center. I hope to be able to clean the garage out eventually and do another garage sale.. I also need to go through Carson's toys and decide which ones to get out of here. I was debating on putting some toys in the garage sale but i don't think i can do it.. Instead... they will be going to storage till we get a bigger place.. Speaking of bigger place, I've been thinking of new house plans in my mind.. I know what i want.. and it doesn't even have to be fancy either.. I need to draw it out to show Alex what i want.. Of course it'll end up to cost more than we want it to be.. thats just life.. everything but love and happiness costs money.. It wasn't too long ago when i told Alex that money is just paper.. lol guess i better rethink that! Hopefully we can do it in a few years.. I'm praying for it!
Well since I want to be outside today and going to the yucky redemption center, I'm thinking about skipping a shower.. We have Carson's blow up pool out now.. so maybe we'll just chill outside and sweat(hopefully that helps me lose some weight).. I feel like i have a lot to do! Thank you cards is still sitting on the table waiting for me to do some writing.. Maybe i'll set a table up outside while watching Carson. All depends on how Kylie is doing.. Anyway, i shall get off and get moving to todays activities or it'll never be done!

Take me out to the country.....

So I guess summer time is the time for solicitors to go to peoples door.. I absolutely HATE it... We had about 4-6 people come by but thats way more than enough for me! UGH!! See why i want to go out in the country.. I happen to be one of the unfortunate people thats home all day (along with a few neighbors) so they are going to bug me of course.. A lady swing by collecting names..... for what?! i don't know..... working for a company(Edward Jones or something like that) thats going to be opening in town soon.. but why do you need my name?? my sister happened to be at the door when this lady stopped by and got her name and address so i assume that they are going to be sending out mail, i figure i can just throw it away if i don't want it instead of making a big deal asking her why she wants our info.. So yea, I hope to find a place out in the country where I can have my peace and quiet and PRIVACY.. I want to be able to walk around in just a t-shirt and not wonder if my neighbors can see me through the window.. Thats how we lived at my dads house except I don't plan on walking around the house naked like this one person whose name will remain anonymous on here. You know who you are!!! LOL
I need to look for those... NO SOLICITORS stickers for my door!! I need one!

On a less venting note, I weighed Kylie yesterday and she weighs 9lbs and 2oz!! I was not expecting that... I'm afraid she is taking after her mama... have no problem gaining weight... Too bad its not the other way around for me.. :)
Off to do stuff.... Have a good one!