Have you met our bunnies?

A few weeks ago we adopted two wonderful bunnies...

and

Sugar is Brad's sweet girl and Peaches is mine. They are such sweet bunnies! We adore them and have had so much fun with them so far. They are not lacking at all in personality or character. =)

 

Did I mention that they are French Lops and weight nearly 10 lbs EACH?!?

 The organization that we adopted them from is the SPCA of Monterey County. This group does such a great job of rescuing animals and finding them forever homes. You can click HERE to visit their website and see all of the wonderful animals that are looking for homes. You can also make donations to them via their website. SPCA is COMPLETELY volunteer run and donation funded. They do NOT put animals down. I can't emphasize enough how wonderful they are and accomidating to help the animals find loving homes.

 

Our girls were bonded and had to be adopted together, which was a huge plus for us since we wanted both anyway. if we had more space we would get even more animals from them!

 

Here are a few more pictures of our girls:

 

Ah! I just love them!

 

 

 

 

Easter

We've made it to April already! Wow! It feels like the year is flying by already. We had a great Easter over here. Our day consisted of church, the kids Easter egg hunt on post, then some time at home where hubby put in my garden!!! and some yummy Easter dinner, complete with ham, cheesy potatoes, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole and sweet rolls.

 

 

 

They had a blast at the Easter egg hunt! Riley got 40 eggs and Elijah got 18. He wasn't very happy when he realized how many Sissy got!

 

 

Look what a great job Brad did putting my garden in...

 

 

Now its time for some fresh soil and I can plant some tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, zucchini, peppers and herbs! I'm so excited!!!!

 

Tune in for updates on the garden!

 

 

Carson-Dellosa Spectrum Readers

I have the pleasure of working with a great company called Carson-Dellosa. My experiences with them began when I won a blog giveaway that included a variety of their Guinness World Records Reading Resource Books. After that I began getting some great products to review. We recently received the Spectrum Readers: AWESOME! Snakes (Level 1), CREEPY! Crawlers (Level 2), and MYSTERIOUS! Outer Space (Level 3).

 

Our daughter, Riley, really enjoyed the bright colors detailed pictures. As a homeschooling mom, I like the fact that these readers aren't like many of the readers that we have used. These are non-fiction and can be used for unit studies. The level one books are good, but seem to be a little above the level one books that are offered by other distributors, but that is because they are geared for  "children who are beginning to read high-frequency words and simple sentences with the help of strong picture clues" according to the level guide on the back of the books. The most notable difference between level 1 and level 2 is the size of the font and the length of the sentences. The level guide states that level 2 books are "for children who are progressing in their reading skills with slightly longer sentences and a greater range of vocabulary." My favorite of the samples that we received is the level 3 book. It had paragraphs and really seems to get more information in on each page. The level 3 books are for kids that are able to read alone and understand multi syllable words and complex sentences.

 

If you are looking for a great selection of readers that are not make-believe/fiction then these are definitely the books for you. At only $1.99 a book (via the Carson-Dellosa website), they are well worth the price!

 

 

*I was not paid for my opinion, I simply received the products and reviewed them*

 



Do you like pie???

I love pie! ...almost any kind of pie! I was craving lemon pie a few days ago... so off to the Internet I went, searching for a recipe. Here's what I found:

Lemon Freezer Box Pie:

In a bowl mix 1 (6oz) can of lemonade concentrate with 1 (8oz) tub of cool whip and 1 can of sweetened condensed milk.

Pour into a graham cracker pie crust (I use pre-made, but you can make your own)

Stick it in the freezer for 6 hours or over night and serve.

(This will thaw into a soup if you don't eat it straight out of the freezer.)

After making the lemon freezer box pie we were hanging out with some friends and one of them brought up chocolate peanut butter pie.. well shoot! NEW CRAVING! Back to the Internet I went. This time I settled on a recipe from Allrecipes that I altered and made my own.

 Chocolate Peanut Butter Freezer Pie:

Whip 8 oz of cream cheese (pre-softened) in a bowl.

Slowly add 1 c. sugar and 1 c. smooth peanut butter.

In another bowl whip 1 c. cool whip with 1 Tbs vanilla extract.

Fold the cool whip mix into the cream cheese mix.

Pour the filling into an oreo pie crust (once again, I buy them but you can make them if you want).

Pop it in the freezer for at least 4 hours then serve.

 

So... do you like pie? How about freezer pie?

 





Happy Halloween!

Wishing everyone a happy halloween from South Korea! We have lots of fun plans for the day! We are heading over to the fall festival so that the kids can play games and eat and get some treats and then ending our day with trick or treating in our apartment complex.

Did you know that there are FREE  templates for pumpkins online? That's right! You don't have to buy those papers that you will only use once! This year, I used this site to print out our template. I love it! Free is always good!

Here is our completed pumpkin:

 

I'm a sucker for roasted pumpkin seeds and this is the only time of year that I make them at home. Do you roast your pumpkin seeds? If not, here's how you do it:

 

1) Rinse the pumpkin seeds under cold water and pick out the pulp and strings. I usually let them soak for 20 minutes so that more of the goo comes off.

2) Place the pumpkin seeds in a single layer on a baking sheet that has been pre-sprayed with cooking spray. Spray the top of the seeds with more cooking spray and then sprinkle with salt.

3) Bake at 325 degrees F until about 25 minutesor until toasted. Be sure to check and stir them after 10 minutes.

4) Let cool and store in an air-tight container

 

... and of course I have to include pictures of our kiddos(Ry's costume is handmade, as usual):
 

 

Being a stay at home mommy

What do I do in a day, you ask? EVERYTHING!

We have chosen to home school our kiddos so a few hours of my day goes to teaching. We are using a curriculum from Alpha and Omega Publishing called Lifepacs. Riley is taking Math, Science, History/Geography, Bible, and Language Arts from this curriculum. Here is more information about that part of her curriculum. She is also taking Horizon's Health, Horizon's Penmanship, and Horizon's Spelling and Vocabulary. To give her some other electives, she is taking piano lessons from her dad (they are using Alfred's Basic Piano Course Level A (theory book, lesson book and solo book), ballet lessons at the youth center, and art classes through our home school co-op. To add even more fun into the mix, she participates in Awana's every Wednesday (3rd year) and is also a Girl Scout Daisy (2nd year). Throw in a few field trip with the home school co-op and you have one busy schedule for a six year old!

I am also taking classes through American Military University. I am working on my Associates Degree is Computer Applications, which I should finish up this coming year and then I am re-enrolling and going for my Bachelor's Degree in Accounting. That's a tall order for someone that has been out of 'normal' school/college since 2004, but I am really excited about it. Right now I am in week 15 out of 16 in two classes, Anatomy and Physiology as well as Spanish (at AMU via Rosetta Stone). If you want more information about AMU go here.

As you know, by all of my previous posts, I am up to my elbows cleaning and organizing our home. We have so much stuff that needs to be purged and I am determined to get through everything before we leave here in January.

Oh and just in case I have some free time... we are on an exercise kick. We spend a lot of our exercising time at the parent child gym that we have here on base, but we also have an elliptical at home that holds me over until we can make it back to the gym. We're hoping to get a nice set of weights so that we can do even more at home.

I know you're wondering... what do I do with all the 'free time' in my day... hahahahahaha.... I don't really have much of that with two kiddos home all the time. But when I do... We take time to enjoy the playground, I'm getting ready to start a great quilt that has a book to go along with it, I read in my kindle (sometimes this happens at the playground), I make freezer meals, and I spend as much time as possible with my hubby (who is also taking classes).

Oh and we have a new toy to introduce Elijah to... MILITARY MEN!!!!

 

Aha! There is a clean house in my near future!

For the past few weeks I have been working on cleaning up our home and getting rid of as much junk as possible. As of now, I have cleaned out the laundry room (with the exception of the cabinets.. cuz I cant see the mess, so I will get to this chore after everything else looks nice), Elijah's bedroom, Riley's bedroom, our master bedroom (which is getting a NEW bed frame TOMORROW!!!!!!! SOOO EXCITED!) and the pantry/fridge/cabinets in the kitchen. So lets see... that leaves:

*Reorganizing the kitchen counters

*Dining room/homeschooling room/craft room/office area

*Living room rearranging

*Hallway closet

 

I think I can ACTUALLY do this!

 

Here's the pictures for the places that I have recently finished organizing/cleaning:

Riley's Room

Riley's Room with a sleeping Ry bug hehe (I'm stealthy like that)

Gotta love the door! She's quite the decorator.

On to the master bedroom...

I finally organized all of my beauty supplies!!

More master bedroom... excuse the blue bag... it lives under the bed but since we are getting a NEW bed frame tomorrow it is hanging out by the closets =)

And now for the kitchen cabinets:

...that's all folks!

 

 



Happy Saturday!

What have I been doing, you ask? Cleaning and organizing and cooking and I FINISHED WORKING OUTSIDE THE HOME!!!! Woohoo!! I'm a full-time stay at home mom now! This past week I accomplished a few things. I re-organized Elijah's room and vaccumed/cleaned. I re-organzed Riley's closet which meant FINALLY getting rid of the rickety dresser that she has had since she was a baby. (It came in a set with the crib and changing table, both of which have been long gone!) I still need to cleanout the rest of her room. Enjoy the photos of my week!

Elijah's nice clean room:

 

Riley's organized closet:

 

A sneek peek of our homeschooling space that is currently getting put together:

 

 



Oh Mr Laundry Room.. I WILL get you organized

Ah..... I have almost finished reorganizing our laundry room... The floor is clean, everything has a home... well, as long as you don't look at the counter or in the cabinets, but I'm getting there. The last time I posted, I was showing off my super unorganized laundry room, so now that most of it is finished, I will share it again.

Here is the area above the washer and dryer nicely organized:

 

Here is the cleaned up floor/moved freezer:

 

This is the organized shelves above the freezer:

 

Last, but not least, this is the laundry sorting area behind the door:

(Since our 6 year old is in charge of sorting the kids laundry, notice the color cheat sheets on the wall)

 

See! I can clean! Hahaha!

 

We also recently had a fun game of hide-a-kid. Fun times! Enjoy the pics!