Me and My Younghans

To the Mom of the little boy who fell into the Gorilla enclosure at the Cincinnati Zoo

2016-05-30T20:21:00.000-07:00

So its been a while since I have blogged.. mainly because my littlest man and life has gotten busy. But I wanted to write on this even if no one reads it. As most people have probably heard by now a little boy fell into the Gorilla enclosure at the Cincinnati Zoo this weekend and to save him the zoo dangerous animal rescue team had to shoot the Gorilla, Harambe. The strange thing to me is that instead of people worrying and praying for that little boy, most are horrified at the death of the Gorilla. Yes, I feel this is a tragic outcome however when you have to choose between the life of a toddler and that of an animal I would assume the child's life would take precedence?? Would be be in the same amount of outrage if this had happened in the wild while a family was on a safari? And to the people out there making threats against his mother (which who knows he could have been there with Grandma, Neighbor, Dad, Uncle, Aunt or countless other responsible adults, but please assume its his mom) and those who ASSUME she was not paying attention, is negligent, was on her phone or the countless other assumptions that have been made, please look at your own life, your parents, your friends, neighbors etc. Tell me are you so perfect that there is not a single situation in your life that something could have or has gone terribly wrong. There is no time where you could look back and think "wow, that was close" or "how lucky am I that that didn't go another way". You must be amazing because I can think of countless times where my breath caught in my chest and fear struck me at my core for what could have happened if something had gone slightly different. My youngest son (Tyler, 3) has had the Heimlich administrated on him, not once but twice, by his uncle while choking on food. Both times I thought I would throw up, had no idea how to handle it because my mind was going a mile a minute. When my oldest son, Steven, was 4 and my husband and I were at the mall with him and my middle son ( who was 2 at the time) and we were looking at something, Steven was holding my husbands hand and Will let go to reach something and he was gone. We were freaking out and found him a few moments later in the Brookstone store, but that could have easily gone very wrong. So now when I see the reports of this family and this little boy and all I can think of is how terrified this mother and this little boy's family must have been and how frightening it must be to think of what could have been. It is saddening to me how in this family's time of need that instead of praying for them and just lifting them up in our thoughts we rip them down and tear them to shreds. If you are so perfect that you feel you should be judging this person's actions and talking about a young child in such ways as "they should have let him die"... "he was better off in there than with his negligent mother" ... "they should have shot his mother instead" then so be it, but if you have ever texted while driving or even dialed your phone while driving, or been on the phone while in charge of a child, if you have ever let your eyes of any of your children for any reason, or taken your eyes of the road, accidentally ran a red light or stop sign, left the oven on, forgot to lock the door, forgot to put a cleaning product away, went to the bathroom with young children in the home and no one to watch them for those two minutes, went to the store with one or more children and stepped more than arms length away to grab a product, then you are far better than I am and judge away, but for all of the normal, regular, everyday flawed people of the world, take a breath, step back and imagine you are right there with this family, this mom, and this little, sweet, precious gift from God and just send them some good thoughts and prayers that they make it through this. And to his Mommy, where ever you are, know that everyone has had those moments and they do not define you as a person, I do not know you, and cannot judge your parenting but as long as you are present and doing the best you can that is all any one could ever ask. So be there with you little boy, hold his hand and kiss him and tell him how much you love him. And know that no matter what anyone says, there are plenty of other imperfect people out there praying for you and with you and we understand how hard this is. And no matter how tight your chest feels and how hard it is to get the what could have been's out of your mind... Just Breathe.

And if you don't know the story... you can read it here.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/29/us/cincinnati-zoo-gorilla-shot/

Crock Pot Tater Tot Casserole - Recipe and Review

2014-05-13T18:30:00.002-07:00

So I found a yummy sounding recipe on Pinterest the other day and decided to give it a whirl...

I found it here at Tammie Lee Tips and figured what the heck, I am always looking for new recipes, especially when they use the crock pot :)...

So here are the details:

Crock Pot Tater Tot Casserole

Ingredients
1 pound ground beef, browned
1 can RoTel, I used Mild
1 16oz package of frozen Tater Tots
1 can Cream of Chicken Soup
1 small onion (chopped)
2 cups cheddar cheese, shredded

Directions
1. Brown beef and add in chopped onion and Rotel
2. Pour beef and onion mixture on the bottom of a greased Crock Pot
3. Mix in Cream of Chicken Soup
4. Top mixture with tater tots across the top
5. Cook low for 2-3 hours.
6. 30 minutes before you are going to serve the Tater Tot Casserole top with shredded cheese.

Its amazing! It really is, it even received Zachary's 2 thumbs up (which is huge since he is pretty much the pickiest child on the planet!

My picture looked awful.. so I borrowed hers :)

Tyler's Dr.Seuss Birthday!

2014-05-13T18:18:00.000-07:00

Oh Joy, What Fun! My Baby Boy turned One!!

What a year! Tyler is amazing. He is crawling faster than lightening. He is the happiest baby, always smiling and only cries when he is tired or hungry. He says Mama, Dada, TT *Steven, Brabra, *Zack, Nan, Gee, Baba, Nigh Nigh, and Cheese :). He loves to point at everything and his absolute favorite thing is peek a boo (which is the only way to get kisses from him). He also enjoys his daily crunches (yes actual sit ups) His best friend is Bob (our Roomba). For his amazing first birthday we went all Seussy up in here!

The Menu:

Who-Tizers
Green Eggs and Ham
Wocket in my Pizza Pockets
One Fish, Two Fish, Have a few Fish
Sam I am Salsa
A. B.uffalo C.hicken Dip

Who-Feast
Go Corndogs Go
Roast Beast Sandwiches
Dr. Seuss Salamaroni Sandwiches (italian sandwiches)
Northbound Zax Max and Cheese
Sally Sallews Seven Layer Salad

Who-Sweets
Truffula Cup Cakes *** See photo and how to below.
Happy Birthday to You Cake
Yertle Turtle Ice Cream

Who Drinks
Thing one and Thing twos Yummy Drink Goo (7-up and Sherbert Punch)
Mr Humperdinks Fizzy Bubble Drinks (soda)

He had the most amazing day with all of our family here to celebrate him! I cannot believe he is one already it makes me so proud and so sad all at the same time...

How to Make Truffula Cup Cakes

You Will Need:

Your favorite Cup Cake Mix

Frosting Bag with Star Tip

Frosting (I used store bought this time green, and whipped it to make it soft)

Lollipop Sticks (Party city)

Cotton Candy Machine (sorry I know what a pain :))

Make the Cupcakes according to directions, then freeze over night to make easy to decorate

Frost with tip in a circular motion to create "grassy hill"

Make small cotton candy fluffs on the lollipop sticks and insert into cupcakes

** they will not hold up well in humidity because its cotton candy. I recommend to serve with in 3 hrs if in a dry environment.

Crab Rangoon Dip... NEED IT! WANT IT! Love it!!

2013-11-03T08:26:00.000-08:00

Its fall/football season/holiday season... what is better than some great hot dips!!!

Crab Rangoon Dip

Ingredients:

-2 cups crab meat
... -16 oz. cream cheese (2 blocks)
-1/2 cup sour cream
-4 green onions, chopped
-1 1/2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
-2 Tbsp powdered sugar
-1/2 tsp garlic powder
-1/2 tsp lemon juice

First, soften the cream cheese in the microwave for about a minute.
Chop your green onions. Add them and your two cups of crab meat .
Add the sour cream, Worcestershire sauce, powdered sugar, garlic powder and lemon juice.
Mix all the ingredients and bake for 30 mins at 350 degrees. Serve hot with chips or fried wontons or pork rinds.

Ooohy goowy and oooohhhh soooo yummy!!

Not My Picture... only because I ate it tooo fast :)

Bridal Shower Towel Cake

2013-08-05T20:01:00.000-07:00

I made these for my Sister in Laws Bridal Shower but you could use them for house warmings, wedding gifts, bridal showers, bachelorette's, first apartments, high school grads moving out ect.

Its pretty simple
You need:
6 Dish towels
5 Kitchen Wash cloths
Utensils
Ribbon and any other decor you want (for decoration)
Safety Pins

Take your 6 dish towels fold them long way into fourths, then attach them with safety pins end to end. Then roll them fairly tightly and pin the roll together.
Do the same to the Wash Cloths but folded into thirds.
Now for the Utensils you want to have a spoon, whisk or something that will go through the centers of both the wash cloths and the towels to attach them together. Then decorate!

You can also do this with Bathroom stuff, and of course diapers, receiving blankets ect for a new baby!!

7 Layer Cookies.... ummmm yes please!

2013-08-02T06:58:00.003-07:00

So for my Sister in Laws bridal shower we were asked to share a recipe so I asked my husband what I should share... he suggested either my twice baked potatoes ( you have not had twice baked until you have had these) or my dads 7 layer cookies. Well since she already has the twice baked cookie recipe, I went with the cookies and decided to share the recipe here. I promise you they are heaven on earth, I have never gone anywhere with these and not been asked for the recipe by every person who has one!!

What you need
1 stick of melted butter
2 - 2 1/2 cups Graham cracker crumbs
1 bag of semi sweet chocolate chips
1 bag of butter scotch chips
1 bag of shaved (flaked) coconut
1 package of sliced almonds
1 can of condensed milk

Preheat oven to 350
You want to take a 13 x 9 inch baking dish (I prefer glass), spray it with non stick spray.
Add the stick of butter and then the graham cracker crumbs. I usually add the crumbs slowly (1/2 cup at a time and spread and press in the dish) you want to cover the entire bottom of the dish and still have them be hard pressed together with the butter, that is why I don't use measurements, it will come out to about 2 to 2 1/2 cups.
Add the entire bag of chocolate chips level out evenly
Add the entire bag of butter scotch chips level out
Add the entire bag of coconut
Add the entire bag of almonds
Pierce two holes in the condensed milk (one on each side of the top) then drizzle out of one of the holes the milk all over the almonds
Cover with foil and bake at 350 for about 25 minutes

***The picture is a generic I found online because I didn't make them today but had to share the recipe, yours will be much thicker!!! I promise you will thank me!

Our Newest Man!! Yep No Pink here... EVER :)

2013-07-26T20:51:00.001-07:00

Ok so its been a while since I have posted mainly its because I have been busy....

Yep.. Real Busy :) That is our newest Younghans.. Tyler he was born on May 2nd... and to say it was a complicated pregnancy is an understatement! We lost our Dylan in August (when I was 20 weeks pregnant) to potters syndrome. It was a very hard and tough loss, but even before I could blink I was pregnant again. We found out October 2nd... SHOCK! I was soo excited but extremely high risk. I was under a major microscope and at both maternal fetal medical offices and normal obgyns on almost a weekly basis. Then in March we moved to New York... BTW NEVER MOVE DURING A HIGH RISK PREGNANCY!! Because of my risk level (did I mention I had a complete Placenta Previa as well) no doctor would take me and I ended up going to the hospital weekly for appointments. Well after 2 one week stays in the hospital and multiple times on Magnesium Sulfate (which makes you feel like you are on fire) I had an emergency c-section on May 2nd and our little man came! My c-section was traumatic to say the least, the spinal did not work so they put me on Ketamine which made me hallucinate, (my poor husband) I could not tell reality from my dreams, thought I was dying (and pretty ok with it in my little world), though my husband was a cartoon, baby was a teddy bear, forgot I was pregnant, had no clue where I was, thought I was in a comic book and my hubby had four eyes... fun stuff! My poor husband was completely freaking out, they brought him in for the section and I was completely whacked out of my head, then our little man came and he was whisked away before my husband could even see him. Then poor Will was rushed out of the room because I was loosing blood and needed a transfusion.... Our little Tyler was one tough cookie, he had Respiratory Distress Syndrome, was on BiPap, C-Pap, had a shunt in his lung, a blood transfusion, Jaundice and 6 weeks premature and still made it home after only 2 weeks. He was healed before I was ... after two natural births I can honestly say C-Sections SUCK I ended up needing a blood patch because of the botched spinal and was in a fair amount of pain for about 5 weeks. But our littlest man is here now and perfect and was worth every crazy minute of my pregnancy! The big boys are amazing big brothers, very helpful and love him soo much (occasionally too much).. I forgot how wonderful babies are and if it weren't for the risk of another extremely high risk pregnancy I would have 4 more :)....

Meet Bob.. Our iRobot 770 by Roomba

2012-09-18T07:10:00.002-07:00

Meet Bob! Our iRobot 770

Meet Jewel (the reason we needed Bob)

We purchased our iRobot 770 by Roomba three weeks ago so now it is time for my review! I LOOOOOOVVVVVVEEEEEE Bob (that is our iRobots name) he is absolutely amazing!

Some of his best features are:

1. The ability to schedule a cleaning time, it could be daily, weekly, every other day, what ever you choose!
2. It self Docs YAY!! When it is low on battery or done cleaning it takes itself back to the doc and charges
3. It alerts you if it is stuck (and then stops) and also when full
4. It spot cleans
5. It comes with 2 virtual walls which allow you to prevent it from going into places you don't want it to go\
6. It actually holds quite a bit of stuff

Some down falls to Bob are:

1. He is pretty loud
2. Sometimes I don't think he gets all the places (we have a VERY large open great room floor plan)
3. Sometimes he gets stuck under the dining room table with all the chairs there.

Over all.... BOB IS AMAZING!! Since we have had him I have not had to sweep up dog hair once! It is all gone, and Jewel our Golden Retriever sheds like a champ! All I do is my weekly mopping now. I would highly recommend this product to anyone who has pets and/or a lot of hard surface flooring. I am not sure how great Bob would work on carpets because we don't let him in our bed rooms (I still don't think his sucking ability will top my Dyson's for carpets) but he is worth every dime!!! So if you are thinking about it... get that Roomba!!!! http://store.irobot.com/product/index.jsp?productId=11305110

Pot Roast... Its whats for Dinner :)

2012-09-17T16:07:00.002-07:00

Sooooooo... I LOVE POT ROAST and since it is finally getting cool enough out to bring the slow cooker out of hibernation... its time to roast :)

This time I scoped out Pip and Ebby's Slow Cooker Pot Roast its was super easy and extremely yummy!!!

Below are Pip's directions and my comments (in italics) and her pics.. because I was super lazy :)

You will need:

A 4-lb. roast (I like to use tip roasts, but the options for this are plentiful) -I used a 2.5 lb roast because we are a family of 4 and 4lbs is a lot of food :)

One 10.75-oz. can cream of mushroom with roasted garlic soup

One 1-oz. package dry onion soup mix

1 1/2 cups water (for me this did not look like a lot of water)

Throw all of the ingredients into a slow cooker and cook on low for 8-9 hours.

Periodically spoon the gravy over top of the roast.

After about 4-5 hours of cooking, add carrots and peeled, cubed potatoes to the slow cooker, if desired. (I added 3 cut up carrots and 2 large pealed and cut potatoes)

***** Me and My Younghans Review*****

For me it was very yummy... I am thinking next time around I may use a touch more water (about 1/2 cup) and also I think I am going to use an additional can of soup to make the gravy thicker. The flavor was good but not as strong as I like it.

Daddy Younghans loved it! Wouldn't change a thing...

Steven and Zack both tolerated the pot roast, but neither would normally be big fans of any sort of pot roast, they are just not old enough to appreciate its glory :)

Over all I give it 3.75 out of 5 stars, due to it just not being quite as flavorful as I would prefer, we will try it again with some modifications.

Million Dollar Spaghetti... or not???

2012-09-16T15:33:00.004-07:00

As an avid Pinterester.. I love discovering and trying new recipes... tonight our family verged out on our normal blah spaghetti and went for Ashley Kaitlin's Being Grown Up Blog's Million Dollar Spaghetti. I went line by line and direction by direction to follow her model... Below are her directions and my pics :)
*** NOTES IN ITALICS ARE MY COMMENTS ON THE DIRECTIONS!

Ingredients
1 lb. of Ground Beef
1 can of Spaghetti Sauce
8 oz of Cream Cheese
1/4 cup of Sour Cream
1/2 lb. of Cottage CheeseWhole Stick of Butter
8 oz. of Noodles
Bag of Sharp Chedder Cheese

First: Go ahead and put your over on 350! Boil those noodles!!

While they are boiling go ahead and mix up the cream cheese, sour cream and
cottage cheese!! Make sure that it is mixed up VERY well! -I used my kitchen aid mixer to make sure I got it good and mixed

Then.. go ahead and cook that meat!

Make sure its good and brown and drain it!
Then pour your spaghetti sauce over it! -Issue I saw here was there was no specific size noted on the "can of spaghetti sauce" Cans and Jars very alot, I just a 24 oz jar, because I buy in bulk but only used 16 oz of it because that is a standard Jar Size.

Take a few slices of your butter and put them in the bottom of your casserole dish -Again no specific amount but being butter was used twice in the recipe I used half (1/4 cup) here.

Then layer HALF of the noodles in the bottom of the dish! - There was no dish size specified I used a 13 X 9 however based on the differences in coverage between her pics and mine I am guessing hers was a 11x7. The only difference I see is that my coverage is thinner than hers.

Pour that nicely mixed up creamy mixture on top of the noodles.

and SPREAAAAAD it all over!

Then add the rest of your noodles and put a few slices of butter on top of those noodles. -Again I guessed 1/4 cup

Now pour the red sauce and meat on top!

and once again SPREEAAAAD

Now place that awesome casserole in your oven for 30 minutes!

After those 30 minutes take the dish out and pour some chedder cheese on the top and put it back in the oven for 15 minutes! Now there were no specifics on the size of the bag of cheese or if you should use it all so I just covered the top like I would with a lasagna and it seemed to do the trick (about 2 cups), I didn't want it to end up over cheesy or greasy.

Then your DONE!

*** Now for Me and My Younghans Review****

It smelled AMAZING!! Sooo good!!

I loved it, it was super cheesy and creamy which is just my style. I was a huge fan of the texture too.. nice and thick! This is a great dish for a larger family or a potluck because of the amount of food that you have at your disposal and also its a great dish to alternate with the normal lasagna.

Daddy Younghans liked it but wasn't 100% sold. He is of Italian decent and usually likes his food more authentic and less creamy. But he said he would definitely eat it again and went back for 2nds..but did ask that next time I hold back on the Sour Cream and Cottage Cheese.

Steven... ATE IT ALL.. but he is my eater and loves all things food (its amazing he is sooo skinny).

Zachary (THE PICKIEST EATER) ate it... had to bargain toward the end for him to finish the meat but he liked the noodles a lot (and that is a huge compliment because he does not eat anything).

Over all... 4 out of 5 stars, the loss of one star was due to the vagueness of some of the recipe which made it difficult to follow without playing the guessing game, and because Daddy thought it was a bit too cheesy. This will be a recipe that makes its way into our rotation!!

I fall for FALL!

2012-09-16T09:54:00.000-07:00

Rock and Roll!!
So we have kicked of the 2012-13 school year with a bang! Steven is now a big Second Grader and Zack is rocking out in Kindergarten which means Mommy is home ALONE (for now). We are loving living the North Carolina life style and loving Fall!!! Because with Fall comes: Soccer, Football, Pumpkins, Halloween, Thanksgiving.. and soo much more!!!

So for that I wanted to share my favorite of favorite Fall snacks:

MUDDY BUDDIES!!!
What you need:
9 cups of Rice Chex cereal
1 cup of semi sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup butter
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla

Measure the chocolate chips, peanut butter and butter and place them in a microwave able bowl for 1 minute, stir, then continue (if needed) to microwave for 30 seconds until it is smooth. Then add the vanilla and mix well.

In a large bowl pour the 9 cups of Chex mix and then pour the chocolate over the Chex and and mix until the Chex is well coated.

Now I use a large cereal Tupperware box and put 3/4 cup powdered sugar pour the chocolate Chex mix into the box and add the remaining powdered sugar on top. Cover the box tightly and shake, shake, shake!! After the Chex are covered in powdered sugar, refrigerate for at least 1 hr and enjoy. I keep them in the fridge after because they are just better that way!

The Mario Room... Is Finally Finished!!

2012-02-24T07:25:00.002-08:00

My five year old is a HUGE mario fan! Well he is a huge everything fan... but Mario tops the list so when we moved here to NC we told him he could have a Mario Room and its finally done!!!!

It was pretty easy and relatively cheap (thanks to some birthday and Christmas gifts from family!)

We painted his room Mickeys Shadow from Homedepot, I like gray because when he grows out of Mario it can easily be converted into a many other rooms...

I bought a few Mario posters from ebay (about 4.99 each) and poster frames from target (6.99 on sale). and hung them on one wall. I made the letters above his bed (you can see how in an earlier blog) and bought his bedding from Target as well. I am cheap so I only get the comforter for the bottom bunk and use a mario throw up top (its also easier to make the top bunk that way.

My mom bought him the cut out and wall stickies for his birthday from a party site :) and wa la!! I am super happy with the result and so is my Mario man!

Canvas Name Tiles... sooo cute

2012-02-10T08:53:00.000-08:00

I wanted to do something to personalize my boys rooms so I went with these awesome canvas name tiles.

What you need:
Canvas (one for each letter you will be creating) you can get what ever size you would like
Wooden Letters (I went with larger white ones (prepainted for ZACK and wooden ones for Steven)
You can Paint (get acrylic) or Modpodge the letters, I did both :)

For the Painted...
These are easy, I went with Red Green and Blue for my Mario Bros fans room
You simply paint the canvas (you will want to do multiple coats) and then hot glue the letters on when dry! Tada!!!

For the Mod Podge,

You first will want to pick out the paper or scrap you want to use on the surface, I did beach 12x12 scrapbook sheets but you can use anything, You could even modpodge a letter to your son or daughter to add a more special touch. You could also use photos, wrapping paper, newspaper... I mean anything!!

You will cut the paper to size its best to cut slightly (1/4 inch) smaller on the side and top so there isnt an overhang)

Goop on the modpodge on to the canvas and then place the paper on.

Let it dry for about 30 minutes and then modpodge over. It will dry clear but you will be able to see brush strokes which gives it an awesome texture!!!

I let them dry over night and then hot glued the letters on the next day.

I also glued on some shells for some extra beachiness... (yes I make up my own words :))

Our Wacky Weekend...

2012-01-29T15:04:00.000-08:00

Our Wacky Weekend :)

So we had a great family weekend. Attended a new church, not quite sure if it is a fit for us so we will pray on it and see where we are meant to be :). Well our weekend started with an angry Wacky standing out in the driveway yelling for a taxi.. now we live in rural NC so the chances of one showing up are slim to none but it was funny to watch. Moved on to our 4 year old once again steeling the show by coming into our room at 10 pm (after we were asleep) and letting us know he was bored and wanted to play... umm no! The Saturday morning my hubby decided to play chef and cooked French Toast.. however after it was cooked and served I noticed that there were no eggs out. When I asked he said he used a new recipe without them LOL... he forgot them so our sons got pan toasted bread with butter and syrup...My boys finished breakfast and went into the backyard.. they were being quiet so I worried LOL and turns out they had made their own see saw with a 2x4 left over from the fence build... love my little creators. Then we went out to dinner that night and our astute children were in the bathroom when the Manager went into clean up some water (I am about 80 percent sure that my kids put it there) when they offered "for five bucks we will clean it up for you" the over generous manager agreed and my kiddos came out 10 dollars richer... it never gets boring here!!!

Now on a different note February is fast approaching so I updated my scrappers white board (you can see how to make it in an earlier blog of mine). I only swapped out a few of them to make it still match the decor but I am happy with my hearts :). I got my cute fonts at 1001freefonts.com and I love them I get alot from there cuz I like free stuff :).

Hi ho hi ho decorating I go

2012-01-23T06:24:00.001-08:00

Soooo I love the idea of hanging my kiddos art and our fridge is anti magnet so I wanted to do something else. I have seen the master piece walls around and wanted to put my own spin on it...
I got some extra large clothes pins at A.C. Moore's and painted them black....

Added an Adhesive sticker on the back and attached them on the wall. I also got the Master peice vinyl wall word from etsy.com (as well as some others you can see below) but if you are lucky enough to own a Cricut you can make them :) I love it and think it is adorable and super easy to change out the art!!

Here are a few more I got off Etsy!

This one says... Happiness is taking a long hot bubble bath!

The scrappers white board

2012-01-13T05:52:00.001-08:00

Happy New Year!!!... So we are here in North Carolina (finally) and almost settled in! This means I get to DECORATE YAY!! So I need a white board type object but hate how ugly they usually are. So I found on Pinterest(my personal haven) this neat collage frame this lady made for each day of the week you can see it HERE, now it wasn't what I needed but gave the the idea!!!

What you need:
A collage frame, I got mine at Target but you can get them any where... I love this one because it has the big circle in the middle and I thought it was adorable!!!!!

Get a bunch of Scrap Book paper that you like and will go with your decor :).

Now: Take the back off the frame because you need to make the scraps into the proper size to fit in the frames, this can be fun and tricky :). I downloaded a bunch of super cute free fonts to make my titles, but you can scrap them with stamps, stencils, stickers or about any thing you want. You want to put it directly on the paper itself and then into the frame... Re-attach the back and hang and wa-la!!!

For my subject areas I used the following titles but feel free to use what ever you would like!!

In the large areas:

To Do (for our weekly activities)

Honey Do

Shopping List

The Medium Areas

Birthdays

Etc

Today

The Small Areas:

I used our last initial Y

and the Month

The best part is you can change them out and make them themed.. for February I will use Heart Paper and Valentine themed paper... now I wont change them all just a few.. and make sure you save your pages when you change them out to reuse them later :) XO!

Jar gifts.. super cool and easy gift for teachers, co-workers, neighbors or anyone!

2011-12-18T15:41:00.001-08:00

If you need a great easy gift for co-workers, teachers, secret santa, friends, neighbors or anybody. These are fun and simple. I made two kinds a pamper package and a snack sack. You can do pretty much anything.

Kerr or Ball, 1 qt Jars. Make sure they are Wide Mouth!

Ribbon, A few Kinds to give it flare :)

Labels not only to tell them who its to or from but you could be creative and tell them what the package is for, I used christmassy type because it is the season!

Fabric for under the ring of the lid, Cut into 10 inch squares, I used a sheer glittery snowflake fabric and a patterned black for under to give it some flare.

Now for the contents:

For the Pamper Jar I used, Nail Polish, Face Scrub, Chapstick, Fuzzy Socks, Lotion, Fragrance Spray

To Assemble I started by placing the objects in the jar in a big little pattern (to make it look pretty)

I then Rolled the Sock and Placed it in the Center, to keep all of the outside objects standing or to wiggle them around you can use a pen, pencil or chopstick :).

Then I place the inner lid on the jar and cover with fabric and then twist the outer lid on tight.

I created 2 Labels for these one I used Scrapbook ABC Stickers on a small tag with the persons first initial and the jar title "Be Pampered" on the back. The other was a standard to from on it. I tied them on the ribbon and then onto the lid :) Wa La!!

For the Snacky Jar:

I used Mentos, Slim Jims, Peanuts, Granola Bars, Crystal Light and Candy for the filler.

For this jar you want to place all large object around the outside and then fill in with candy :)

I added Candy Canes under one of the ribbons for a little more holiday flare!! I just think they turned out soo cute and run about $9 each if you buy in bulk you could probably do it for less :)

Stuffed shells aka yummy

2011-12-14T09:26:00.001-08:00

Last night we had ahhhhmazing stuffed shells and they were super easy....

Here is what you need...
Large shells (12 oz)
32oz of ricotta cheese
1 pd of mozzarella cheese
8 oz of Italian blend cheese (I used kraft with a touch of philly and it was worth it!)
2 eggs beaten
1 tbsp of parsley
2 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
28oz pasta sauce ( I used the can of hunts and it worked fine and is cheap)

Steps to yummy
1. Preheat oven to 350

2. Bring pot of lightly salted water to boil and add pasta
3. Cook pasta for about 10 min. Until al dente then drain.
4. In a large bowl mix eggs, ricotta, 1/2 mozzarella, 1/2 parmesan, parsley, salt and pepper.

5. Spoon mixture into shells and place them into a glass 9x13 dish or a large casserole dish.

6. In another bowl mix the remaining cheese and pasta sauce together and poor over shells.

7. Bake in the oven for 45 to 60 minutes or until edges are bubbly

Then EAT!! SO FREAKING GOOD

Pinterest....

2011-12-13T15:26:00.000-08:00

Its official I have a pinterest.com addiction! I love this place, I cant wait to move just to use stuff from the site to organize/create/diy it up!! The site has everything and more... I just want to play there all day (and do sad I know). Especially since my kids are currently sleeping on mattresses on the floor, there clothes are in totes and we are eating off paper plates LOL!! This move can't happen fast enough!

My and My Younghans

2011-12-13T09:12:00.000-08:00

Welcome to my Blog... My name is Courtney Younghans (like Youngins) and I am a SAHM of 2 awesome boys and wife to one awesome hubby! We are currently making our way to Rocky Point, NC where we will continue our lifes adventure and I want to share some of my (mis)adventures in NC and also being a Mommy, Wife, DIYer, Crafter, Baker, Ecter :)... Hope you enjoy xoxozo