Tell the Truth Thursday! We're Moving!

Yep you read that right were moving! 

If you follow on twitter your likely thinking this is old news... we know that already but hey not everyone follows on twitter yet... 

What you don't know is that we are moving in with my sister...

Yep, my sister!

And when I have told the peoople that I see on a regular basis that we are moving in with her I have gotten every possible reation.. from "Wow thats so great!" to "Are you sure that you wanna do that?" to "Are times really that rough??"

And I'm sure that some of you would react the same way... right!

Well No times are not that rough, my sister has a big old house and it's just her and her cat living there, plus my sister is one of my best friends, she loves my kiddos as much as I do and we have lived together before... after childhood that is. And Yes kinda times are that rough not specifially for us but the rental market is CRAZY right now and lets all face it we aren't in the place to buy a house right now. 

Yes I am very sure that I want to do this and so is Robyn. sure it wont be easy and sure there are going to be times that we don't all get along but we need the space she wnats us to live here and were family at the end of the day we have to work it out and get along!
After all in the end your family will be all you have!

And yes this is so great it's awesome! I'm super excited to live DOWNTOWN again! Did I mention that my sister lives two streets away from the downtown and while that may not sound all that great it's just where I want to be! There are so many perks to living there that I wont go into a list right now but it is going to be an amazing time for us!

So this is why I have been away from the blog and not really crafting much, I have been packing and throwing away and donating.... more on that soon!

But in the evenings I have been working on a few new things and I am planning on posting about them next week! 

Make it Monday! Mashed Potato Bake!

If you know me (and if you read this blog frequently you can pretty well say that you do...) you likely know that I like a good KRAFT recipe...  but since they usually use brand name products or items that I usually don't buy when I make their recipes I am typically 

"inspired by" 

them not really making them... 

So here is another "inspired by" recipe that I found through Kraft.

This is a super simple recipe that you can make ahead or make on the spot. The original recipe can be found here. 

However this is how I made them...

6 potatoes (peeled and cut into chunks)

1/3 cup ranch dressing

1/2 to 3/4 cup of cheese shredded 

(I used cheddar but you could mix it up with your favorite cheese)

Bacon bits (optional)

Chives (optional)

Boil potatoes, mash with ranch dressing, press cooled mashed potatoes in an oven safe dish and top with cheese, bacon bits and chives if using. 

Chill in the fridge over night or bake "on the spot". 

Bake at 350 for 30 mins until heated through if made ahead 

or

at 350 for 20 mins if made "on the spot".

This makes for an easy side or a great pot luck dish that you just warm up once you reach the party!

And its super yummy too!

Happy Monday!

Giveaway Winner!

It's official my FIRST giveaway is over!

This turned out to be a pretty bad week to run a contest it seems... 

Max got Delaney's stomach flu and has been sick all week so I have been away from the blog (and the internet in general) for the majority of the week... 

But there were a few entries... so without any further suspense the winner is.... 

Terry from These Peas Taste Funny who is a new Facebook follower

(I used a random number generator to choose the winner and the lucky number was 4)

She will get to personalize a sign for FREE!!!!!

Congrats to Terry I have sent her off an email to let her know that she is the winner and as soon as I have her sign finished I will post a picture or two to let you in on what she choose and how it turned out!

Hope you have all had a better week than I have... 

If I won the lottery...

While checking my twitter today and being very unproductive I clicked over to The Not So Functional Housewife, where she had a pretty personal post about what she would do if she won the lottery. Its kinda silly but I think we all know what we would do or have at least had a conversation about what we would do with the winnings.

Robyn and I have such great plans for lottery winnings but we rarely buy tickets... a little illogical hey!

But since the housewife shared what she would do I thought (since I am not feeling very crafty while tending a sick Max, prepping for the move and being sick myself...) that I would share our top 10 things we would do.

1) Buy a house! 

(or maybe build my dream house... which looks a whole lot like Katie Bowers house)

2) Take a LONG vacation in Hawaii. 

(I have a bit of a thing for Hawaii)

3) Pay off student loans and other debt!

4) Give our family members money or make their "dreams" come true.

5) Put away a trust fund/college fund for the kids.

6) Buy a NEW car 

(like off the lot new)

7) Take the kids to Disney 

(ok I want to go too...)

8) Open a restaurant.

9) Go back to school.

10) Go see Ellen 

(in the audience of her show not like a stalker or anything...)

So what would you do if you won the lottery? If you post it on your blog join me in linking up with the Housewife!

Photo Friday! Halloween Take 2!

As I have posted earlier this week, Delaney had the stomach flu on Halloween. It was so heartbreaking to have to take her to the hospital rather than trick or treating... so we persuaded our friends to hang on to a few treats or if they had a special treat bag done for her to hold onto it until last night when we went out for Halloween Take 2!

They were all so sad that Delaney was sick and that they couldn't see her and Max in their costumes that it wasn't hard to get them to wait it out a few more days... and save some left over candies!

So we made the rounds to all of our friends houses' (and even went to one of their parents houses)

So for Photo Friday I wanted to share Delaney on her Halloween Trick or Treating Take 2!

Plus all her loot...

Max got a few treats too...

Plus My photog friend Seamus (of This is My Perfect Crime) snapped a few pictures of her too...

Hope that you all had a great Halloween and that you haven't eaten all of your kids candy... yet.

Happy Friday!

Don't forget to enter my first giveaway!

My First Giveaway!

(Contest is now closed! Click HERE to see who won the personalized sign!)



I have been planning this giveaway for a while I was planning on waiting until I reached 100 followers, I was going to wait until I opened my shop, I was going to wait and wait and wait but I have decided that there is no use in waiting. 

There is no reason for waiting!

Why not go for it!

So as my give away to you my friends I have for one lucky follower

One Hand Painted Sign!

You can choose the colors the text and the graphic, as well you choose either wood or canvas for your sign....

Some examples of what you might like...

A childs name plaque with a silhouette, a family name plaque or "A Few of Our Favorite Things" sign.

Want to know how to enter???

Leave a comment below with what you would want on your hand painted sign.

Easy hey!

Now if you want more entries to increase your chances of winning...

Follow Momma Made It! with Google Friend Connect to the right...

Follow Momma Made It! on Twitter by following the link or by clicking to the right...

Follow Momma Made It! on Facebook by following the link or by clicking to the right...

Tweet about the giveaway! 

ex. I just entered to win a hand painted personalized sign on mommamadeit.blogspot.com

Leave a separate comment on this post for each of the extras you do or if you already do these things and cross your fingers! 

(well not the whole time...) 

The giveaway will be open for entries until midnight on November 12th and the winner will be chosen and reveled on Sunday November 13th! 

DON'T FORGET IF YOU ARE A NO REPLY BLOGGER OR YOUR AREN'T USING A GOOGLE PROFILE TO LEAVE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS SO I CAN CONTACT YOU IF YOU ARE THE LUCKY WINNER! 

Tell The Truth Thursday! I blame myself!

This is going to sound silly and irrational but I blame myself for things that are completely out of my control. 

I especially blame myself when Delaney gets sick.

Seeing as I am a stay at home Momma I feel it is my job to take care of my kids and my home and make sure that they are all safe. So when My child gets sick I feel like I have not properly done my job.

While Delaney doesn't get sick often when she does I find myself saying to myself, I should have watched her better, I should have made her wash her hands better, I should have not let her shake hands with strangers, I should have taken better care of her...

I feel like while it's totally irrational to think this way, what else can I think.I should know that kids get sick, I should know that kids pick up germs, I should know that I can't help that she will get sick (and max will too), I should, but I don't... 

It's almost sick the way that I blame myself, the way that I put myself down and make her illness my fault. 

It's one of the things that I have to work on as a Momma... 

 

I have a few things I have to work on as a Momma...

Do you blame yourself for things that you can't control when it comes to your kids...

Liebster Blog Award!

Tonight I was awarded the Liebster Blog award by Kat's Adventure Book!

This is an award that is given to Bloggers that are "up and coming"  and I couldn't be more thankful to Kat for choosing me as a recipient!

I am blown away that anyone other than my hubby, family and friends read my blog let alone follow it and that anyone would give me an award for blogging is beyond what I had wished for.

 

The Liebster Award spotlights up and coming bloggers who generally have less than 200 followers.

Upon receipt of the Liebster Award, there are a few very simple rules:

1.  Copy and paste the award on your blog

2.  Thank the giver and link back to the blogger who gave it to you

3.  Reveal your top 5 picks and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog.

4.  Hope that your followers will spread the love to other bloggers.

Now I will pass this award on to 5 other blogs that are up and coming.

My top 5 were so hard to choose...  but here you go ladies!

1) Creative Carmella http://creativecarmella.blogspot.com/

2) Erin's Creative http://erinscreative.blogspot.com/

3) It's a Momma Thing http://itsamommathing.blogspot.com/

4) First Comes Baby http://msangelstarr.blogspot.com/

5) Creating Sarah http://creating-sarah.blogspot.com/

I am sure that these ladies would love it if you would stop by and check out their amazing blogs! 

It's quite amazing that this should come to me right now because it is just what I needed to give me the courage to put myself out there and announce a few exciting things! 

I am going to start selling some of my crafty endeavors and I am having my first giveaway!

I will give you all the details tomorrow after Tell The Truth Thursday!

Stay tuned!

Halloween Hijinks!

Well this is how our weekend leading up to Halloween started....

An awesome party at Best friends house!

I was an Artist... (shirt with paint on it and paint brushes in my hair...)

Dr. Daddy! (scrubs bought at the Sally Ann)

We were out till 1:30 am and had a blast! 

Chatted and danced and just enjoyed being kid free for a night out with all of our friends!

Then it took a turn for the worst...

Delaney and Max had stayed at Nanny's house for Friday night so that Momma and Daddy could go to the party, and apparently at 3 am Delaney woke up screaming that she had to go potty... turns out (TMI) she had diarrhea... not fun for Nanny and Auntie to deal with but she seemed fine and went back to bed. fast forward to Monday after a weekend filled with more diarrhea and vomiting (for the first time EVER) she seemed to be feeling a bit better and DEMANDED to go trick or treating! 

On a side note trying to explain to a three year old what throwing up is and why it happens is heart breaking... especially when she says "but I don't want to throw up" with her sick voice and a pale face.

So our Monday started out looking like this!

Our cutie trick or treaters!

Strawberry! She's Berry Sweet!

Captain Kirk! Trick or treating where no 2 month old has gone before!

Super cute right! (I might be bias but I think they are adorable!)

And our Halloween ended at the ER after Delaney vomited 6 times in one day!

We were told she had the stomach flu and just ride it out with Gatorade.

So after a full day yesterday of resting and only throwing up 2 times were all feeling a bit more at ease and a bit better too! So our Halloween Trick or Treating got postponed and we will be having Halloween Take 2 tomorrow with our friends and family...

Hope your Halloween didn't end up like ours!

Make it Monday! Bruschetta Chicken!

While thumbing through a few Kraft Whats Cooking magazines I found this awesome chicken recipe... (also found online here) which shouldn't surprise me because I have made many things from there before and they usually turn out great!

So I thought hey whats the harm in trying it out right... because lord knows I've done everything else you can do with chicken!

So here is the original recipe...

Bruschetta Chicken Bake

1 can (14-1/2 oz.) diced tomatoes, undrained

1 pkg.  (6 oz.) STOVE TOP Stuffing Mix for Chicken

1/2 cup water

2 cloves  garlic, minced

1-1/2 lb. boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-size pieces

1 tsp.  dried basil leaves

1 cup KRAFT 2% Milk Shredded Mozzarella Cheese

 

MIX tomatoes, stuffing mix, water and garlic just until stuffing mix is moistened. 

LAYER chicken, basil and cheese in 3-qt. casserole or 13x9-inch baking dish.

TOP with stuffing. Bake 30 min. or until chicken is done.

 

And here is mine!

Simple right!

 

Well if you know me you know that I never have on hand everything that a recipe calls for and so I kinda took the recipe and made it Momma style....

 

I don't buy stove top so I just added regular stuffing (actually I used left over turkey stuffing from thanksgiving... and yes I did make it right after thanksgiving I didn't let the stuffing sit around in my fridge) I also used marble cheese and dried basil because that is what I had on hand.  

 

It was super yummy and very easy! (and it tasted even better left over!)

They recommend you serve it with steamed veggies but a green salad or a light potato dish works great too!

I hope you like it as much as we did!

Would make for a great Halloween supper, fast, easy, nutritious and filling! 

Halloween highlights! Halloween Bat Decorations!

I don't know about you but our Halloween decorations have been up for about 2 weeks now! We really like Halloween around here! 

But I know some people wait till the day of or the day before, so are you looking for an easy Halloween decoration?

 Sparkly Flying Bats!

You could certainly make these with your older kids or you can do most of the work and get your younger kids to help out with the decoration of the bats!

These are super simple!

Just cut out a bat shape on black paper.

Then decorate with glitter or googly eyes and put them up on the wall. Try to cover up how you stuck them on the wall (I used painters tape on the back of my bats but you could use sticky tack as well.) and they will look like they are flying up your wall!

Easy Peasy and super cute!

How do you decorating for Halloween? Do you make decorations (on your own or with your family)? I'd love to hear all about it in the comments!

Halloween Highlights! COSTUMES!

So as I have mentioned over the last few days I want to share my Halloween ideas from this year and from past years and I am going to share them right up until Monday to give any stragglers a few ideas!

I love dressing up for Halloween!

Its so much fun pretending and wearing a fun costume!

(I'm not one for the scary costumes)

So here are a few of the costumes that we have done over the last few years!

Delaney's First Halloween she had two costumes...

 We had this store bought banana costume, I got it the previous year for $2 on clearance! It was a bit too small though so she wore it for the day and  for the evening...

I turned her into Winnie the pooh....

I just put her into a pair of Yellow Sleepers, yellow scratch mitts, a Winnie the Pooh hat and I cut down a red diaper shirt. Super easy and I had it all on hand!

and here we are with her! You can't really see in this picture but I was a lady bug, I made my costume by sewing a red t-shirt in a circle, adding red ribbon straps, and spots from a black t-shirt. I did it in one hour or so on my sewing machine, and Robyn was the GRILL SERGEANT!  He picked up this t-shirt at wal-mart I think and wore camouflage pants, he then clipped BBQ  tools like a spatula and a pair of thongs to his belt.

For Delaney's second Halloween I had just started working a new job and didn't have the time to make a costume (I know it's no excuse...)

But she was the cutest monkey I ever saw! (there are no pictures of us on Halloween because we didn't really dress up... I wore a red sweater and devil ears... it was sad!)

Last year was another store bought costume for Delaney

She was Minnie Mouse and she LOVED it!

Daddy dressed as a biker, Mohawk and all... his costume was jeans, a t-shirt from the Sturgis motorcycle show and a bandana (that he didn't wear...) and I was a sheriff, Jeans a black shirt, and a sheriff star which was also part of my night time costume for a party I help Best Friend throw...

Hubby was a Jail bird and I was a cop!

I semi-made my costume...

I took an old powder blue suit owned by my step-dad (from back when powder blue suits were cool) and adjusted the vest to fit (sadly the pants fit like a glove... ) I made some other changes fun when I altered it to! I sewed a collar and darts in the front so that it had a fitted look. 

What are you dressing as this year? Do you have a favorite costume from a past year? Share them in the comments!

Photo Friday! Pumpkin Carving!

This Photo Friday is extraordinarily wordy! and may seem more like a how to post but really its a combination of the two! 

One of my favorite things about Halloween is Pumpkin carving! 

It's not something we did frequently when I was a kid but I love it! 

There is something just plain fun about gutting a gourd and slapping a picture on there that well lets face it really doesn't belong on there! 

We had a hard time finding a good pumpkin this year, it was slim pickings and not because we went looking too late.... (that was what happened to us last year...) this year all the pumpkins in our area are kinda... well they all sucked! We had a fairly chilly summer and so the pumpkin crop really suffered but we did find one that wasn't that bad... it is almost flat on one side, and is a little oddly shaped but it served our purpose...

WARNING: the photos in this post are a bit on the blurry side... I am not great at taking photos in the dark with my little point and click it seems...

So first I have to show you our last pumpkin first!

Last year we did Minnie Mouse! 

Here she is just completed

And here she is all lit up! 

This Year I got a bit more ambitious... 

Tangled's Rapunzel!

I couldn't find a stencil that I liked so I kinda made my own.... I printed this picture and traced over the picture to make it look how I wanted it with a sharpie

(its an early illustration of Rapunzel from Disney studios)

then I put it on our pumpkin with painters tape and used it as you would any stencil...

 (I used a push pin to outline the pattern and then I just started to cut right into her!)

The key to making a pumpkin stencil is that the lines can't be too close to one another or touch, you want to cut on those lines so try not to make them too thin or too thick... 

I'm pretty proud of my little Rapunzel pumpkin... (and as I'm sure you can tell already Delaney decides what goes on the pumpkin, next year I guess we will need two, a Delaney pumpkin and a Max pumpkin!)

I had to add this video I found on You tube to this post! 

This guy has the best Halloween light shows!

This one is done with the traditional Jack'o'lantern faces singing the song from 

The Nightmare Before Christmas! 

AMAZING!

Happy Friday and Happy Pumpkin Carving!