For the past two weeks, I have been making these Halloween goodie boxes. I made five for my husband's co-workers and three for the ladies who I talk to at my daughter's school while we wait for our kids to get out of school. I made the green ones for the ladies and the purple ones for my husband's co-workers.
Here is what it looks like when you open it.
I absolutely love how the stamp fits in the white cardstock. Isn't it awesome when things work out for you without even trying?
Here is a look when you open the box from the bottom.
I didn't know what kind of candy to put in there. So I decided I would just stick to the two I know that most people love. I put three rolls of Smarties and two butterscotch candy.
I love the font to the sentiment. This stamp is actually from Lawn Fawn. The green, purple, and orange cardstock is from Recollections at Michaels. The pumpkin on the front was cut out using my Create a Critter 2 cartridge. I absolutely love how everything turned out. I hope everyone likes it, too.
Happy Halloween everyone! Have a fun and safe weekend!
Today at my husband's school, they are having a fall festival of some sorts for the kids. After both of the kids wake up from their naps, we are going to head on out. I will pack their snacks and drinks and stuff when they are napping. It should be fun. A lot of the staff members have been asking my husband to see the kids.
It is cloudy outside today but the weather doesn't feel cold. It is so weird that it is nearing the end of October and it is still not really cold. I hope that doesn't mean that we will have a longer cold season. I hate the cold. I hate dressing up in hoodies and I hate how the cold weather makes my skin so dry.
I think the good Lord has been answering my prayers because my daughter has been pretty pleasant lately. For the last two days she has been nice to me and hasn't really thrown her usual toddler tantrums. Also for the last three nights, my son has been sleeping all night! I am so thankful for that. Now we just need to work on getting my daughter to sleep all night next.
Tomorrow I will be posting a picture of the Halloween craft I have been working on for the past two weeks. It has been a long time since I crafted or made a card. I also need to start working on the family's Christmas cards this year. It usually takes me a while because we send a lot of cards out, so I need to get the stuff together so I can start to mass produce the cards. I love when they are all ready like that.
Here is the Goulash that I made the other night for dinner. I kept forgetting to post the pictures and the recipe on my blog. My husband and I both love this meal, but for future references, I am going to make this and serve it the next day. We both didn't really care for how soupy it looked, but eating them the next day worked great as the pasta absorbed all the juice. It is really good and a hearty meal. I would most definitely make this during the winter and not in the summer though. Here's the recipe!
Classic Goulash
2 lbs. lean ground beef (I used lean ground turkey)
2 large yellow onions, chopped
3 cloves of garlic, chopped
3 cups water
2 (15 oz.) cans tomato sauce
2 (14.5 oz.) cans diced tomatoes (I omitted this out)
3 tbs. soy sauce
2 tbs. dried Italian herb seasoning
3 bay leaves
1 tbs. seasoned salt, or to taste
2 cups uncooked elbow macaroni
In a laarge Dutch oven, cook and stir the ground beef over medium-high heat, breaking the meat up as it cooks, until the meat is no longer pink and has started to brown, about ten minutes. Skim off the excess fat, and stir in the onions and garlic. Cook and stir the meat mixture until the onions are translucent, about ten more minutes. Stir in the water, tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, soy sauce, Italian seasoning, bay leaves, and seasoned salt, and bring the mixture to a boil over medium heat. Reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer for twenty more minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in the macaroni, cover, and simmer over low heat until the pasta is tender, about twenty five more minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat, discard bay leaves, and serve.
Enjoy!
This week I am truly blessed because my husband works only four days this week. However, he will be doing some landscaping to the front yard. He is going to plant ten new shrubs, five will be Japanese Boxwood and the other five will be some rosemary of some sort. Even though he will be busy doing stuff, I will feel less stressed. Hopefully my daughter doesn't give me a hard time that day.
I have some much needed laundry to do today. I also need to clean the bathrooms, but that will have to wait until I can get both kids asleep. I also have a couple of projects that I need to finish by the end of this week. That's all the stuff I need to do this week.
I have a little confession to make.
Parenting is tough. This is by far the hardest job, but most rewarding job, I have ever had in my life. I thought some of the jobs I have had were tough when I was younger. But this is by far the toughest. It was somewhat easy when my daughter was younger. But now the toddler years has emerged and I am struggling on a daily basis trying to keep up with her and her multiple personalities.
I know it will get easier. I just can't wait until it happens.
I am beginning to have a serious love/hate relationship with Fridays. I love it because the weekend is near and my husband will be home to help me take care of the kids. But I hate it because it is seriously so exhausting trying to handle my daughter. She is most definitely becoming a three-nager. I never thought I would have a child to be such a horrible thing, but she is becoming quite the three-nager.
I just hope and pray things will get easier with her when she gets older. She was such an easy baby when she was younger. I miss those days.
Perhaps a new analogy would be; easy baby, frustrating toddler.. frustrating baby, easy toddler.
Ahh, that would be somewhat nice. I guess. Because that would mean, my son would be the best toddler I could imagine .
I don't think I could handle another toddler who has meltdowns over absolutely ridiculous things.
Today I stopped by to see my dad with my son after I dropped off my daughter. I love being able to see my dad and him seeing his grandson. But the drive there is so long it seems. Most of the time when I see him, it's just a short visit because I have to be home in time to be able to pick up my daughter from school. I fear I am going to be late picking her up and her teacher reports that against me.
My son seems to always fall asleep on the ride home. The question that goes through my head is, should I let him nap or should I wake him up? If I let him nap, he will be woken up once we get home and then he's going to be cranky because his nap was short and then in a hour or so we have to leave to pick up his sister. And when we get home, he might not nap because he's not tired since he took a small nap earlier. Then when she wakes up from her nap, he will be cranky and fall asleep which will make bed time a nightmare since he took a late nap. If I wake him up, he is cranky because he's tired. But nap time for the both of them will be easier because he's tired. Ahh.. the struggle is real.
We are still feasting on leftovers. I can't believe it. Today I might heat up the last of the leftovers and tomorrow, since it is Friday, cook something really good. I can't wait to start cooking casseroles again.
My Dear Sweet Little Boy,
I remember when your daddy and I were talking about giving your sister a younger brother or sister. It feels like that conversation took place yesterday. Honestly I was scared to get pregnant again, but I know I had to try one more time for your daddy.
We struggled for a while to conceive you, my beautiful boy. But one day your daddy left to go to the store for something and I took a pregnancy test because I just had a feeling that I was. Sure enough, within three minutes I got a big fat positive. I stared at the two lines staring at me and looked at my belly and thought, 'here we go again'.
I couldn't wait to tell your daddy that we were pregnant with you. I wrapped up the pregnancy test and put it in a box and wrapped it up. I couldn't wait til he came home to give him his present. When he opened the box and saw the two lines his first reaction was 'is this what I think it is?'.. and when I told him yes. We were both excited beyond words can describe.
I quickly scheduled a visit to the doctor to start getting the proper prenatal care. I found out my due date was only three days after your daddy's birthday. What a great birthday present!
I admit that I wish you had moved around more when you were in my belly. When your sister was in my belly, she moved a lot. I enjoyed that so much that I couldn't wait to get pregnant again to experience that all over again. Not to mention, the doctor I had didn't give me as many ultrasounds as I had when I was pregnant with your sister. It made me scared when I couldn't see you or feel you move, but everything worked out well.
We scheduled to get a C-section with you because your sister was home and your grandmother, my mom, was watching her. We didn't know when you were going to make your debut, so we decided to schedule a C-section.
The night before we were going to go to the hospital, your grandma came over to spend the few nights at our house. Your daddy and I went to bed after we put your sister to sleep. But we couldn't sleep. We were so excited and couldn't wait for you to get here.
We left the hospital at 4:30am because we had to check in the hospital at 5:00am. Our C-section was scheduled at 7:00am. During the last week of my pregnancy, I had slight Braxton Hicks but no real contractions. Wouldn't you know it, once we got to the hospital and the nurses were hooking me up that I started having consistent contractions? Your daddy and I both thought about letting the birth happen naturally but we opted against it. The doctor who delivered you was on call that weekend and we didn't want to wait around for you to make your debut and when it was time, that another doctor would deliver you.
But you came into the world and the first time I heard you cry, I cried hysterically and thanked God for you over and over again. I looked at your daddy and smiled. I couldn't believe it. Our family was complete. We have one of each and we feel so blessed.
You are only a year and a half now and we love you to no end. We can't wait to see what kind of young man you will turn out to be.
We love you!
Love,
Mommy
