Project Life 2013 : Weeks 8 and 9

Week 8: February 18-24



What happened this week?
Snow. Lots of snow. On Thursday we got over 10 inches of snow, my work was closed Thursday (and I stayed home Friday too), the schools were closed Thursday and Friday. Since there was so much snow we also spent almost three entire days at our house, only going outside to play in the snow & to shovel. Oh, and Justin had the flu (I think) most of the week as well, so I had actually ended up taking Tuesday afternoon off to stay home with Claire because he was not up to it.



Anything special about the layout:
All of the pictures this week were taken with my big camera. One insert for more snow pictures.

Week 9: February 25 - March 3



What happened this week?
On Tuesday, we had ANOTHER snow storm come through and drop almost 10 more inches of snow on us! Claire had two more snow days but I only had one snow day this week. On Saturday, the local Mahaffie Farmstead had horse drawn sleigh rides and since Claire loved haw rides in the fall, I decided to take her to ride the sleigh. She loved it. And my nephew turned 4 months old.

Anything special about the layout:
No phone pics this week either. I actually need to replace the picture that was just of the sleigh because I was looking at the site's webpage and they have a picture of us on the sleigh and they gave me a copy of it!

What to see more: Project Life 2013

I also linking up on The Mom Creative's Project Life Tuesday! Go there to check out other project lifers.

Project Life 2013 : Weeks 6 and 7

Week 6: February 4-10



What happened this week?
Claire finished her swim lessons. On Saturday, I took Claire to an neat little kids "museum" Wonderscope. She had a lot of fun pretend playing in the farm to market room and with the wind tubes & scarves. My sister-in-law had her baby shower on Saturday afternoon. Then on Sunday after lunch with my parents, I took Claire to the mall to ride the carousel.



Anything special about the layout:
3 phone pics, 9 good camera pics. I included an insert with a note from Claire's school on one side and her certificate for completing swim lessons on the other side. The LaLaLoopsy card is actually Claire's Valentine for school. I wanted to include it in Week 7, but I really wanted to see both sides, so I just let it show through to this week. Almost all of the pictures are from the weekend. I think only the swim pictures are from during the week..

Week 7: February 11-17



What happened this week?
Claire's Valentine's party at school - I didn't actually go to the party, so all I'm including for Valentine's day is an extra card that she "wrote" on and a picture of a temporary tattoo that I put on my wrist. We had a teeny tiny amount of snow on Friday night (not even an inch) but Claire was insistent on Saturday morning that we needed to have a snowball fight. So she found enough snow to scrape together a "ball" and threw it at me. It was Anaya's weekend with us so I included a couple pictures of her, but it's hard to include her since she's 13 and therefore doesn't want to hangout with family as much. We also hung out with some friends of mine from college (eating dinner + drinking wine + playing board games), they have a daughter about Claire's age and I have a picture of them to include in that white space, I just forgot to order it.

Anything special about the layout:
4 phone pics, 7 good camera pics. Nothing terribly different this week. Almost all of these pictures pictures are also from the weekend. I just haven't been doing anything during the week, so I tend to not pick up my camera as much.

What to see more: Project Life 2013

I also linking up on The Mom Creative's Project Life Tuesday! Go there to check out other project lifers.

Project Life 2013 : Weeks 4 and 5

Week 4: January 21-27



What happened this week?
Claire continued swim lessons. A girls shopping trip with my mom & sister-in-law. 3 month pictures of my nephew. Just a fairly basic week.

Week 5: January 28 = February 3



What happened this week?
More swimming lessons. Claire had her 4 yr check up (text blurred out). Claire's homework for speech therapy was M and N starting sounds, we did most of it in the bathtub spelling out the words with her foam letters. We got our fish tank + 9 fish & 2 aquatic frogs. 3 of the fish (neon tetras) died within 48 hours of being put in the tank, the other fish are all still alive over a month later. One of the frogs died, one of them is still alive. It was Superbowl Sunday and I included a funny story about Anaya being oblivious that happened during the Superbowl.

Anything special about the layout(s):
Not really. Week 4, I had 4 phone pics & 8 good camera pics. Week 5, I had 2 phone pics & 9 good camera pics. I like the one in week 5 of Claire looking at the fish tank that I cut in half to fit in the middle row pockets + journaled on one side of the picture. Since the picture wasn't originally solid enough on one side to journal on I added a gradient layer that was black to transparent to make the side where I journalled a little darker but not be super obvious by having an opaque journal block.

What to see more: Project Life 2013

I also linking up on The Mom Creative's Project Life Tuesday! Go there to check out other project lifers.

around here...

We've been playing in the snow...a lot. We experienced Blizzard of Oz and got about 10 inches of snow - it's been almost 2 yrs since we've truly had a snow storm. This lead to a four day weekend! Which was nice, but I'm ready to get back to real life and Blizzard of Oz part 2 is on the way tomorrow!

I'm working on catching up with Project Life. Posting 2 weeks & Ordering 3 weeks worth of pictures.

We're looking into some different programs for Claire to be involved in with the school next year.

I'm reading lots of silly chick-lit. Currently reading Friendship Bread, and just finished I've Got Your Number (it's was predictable and unrealistic, but cute).

After hearing so many people talk about them, I watched Season 1 of Downton Abbey and Season 1 & 2 of Arrested Development. I really liked Season 1 of Downton Abbey, but I haven't been able to get into Season 2, I've watched the first 2 episodes and I just don't care that much. Arrested Development is funny, love that it is all on Netflix, so I just watch 3 or so episodes before bed. Thanks to our lovely public library, Justin has been catching up on all the episodes of Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

Claire is obsessed with LaLaLoopsy's and I think they are taking over my house.

Of the 9 fish and two dwarf frogs that I bought for our new fish tank, 6 fish and 1 frog are still alive AND they have been for over two weeks!!! I didn't know it, and the pet store people didn't tell me, but Neon Tetras are good "starter" fish, so the three fish that died were all Neon Tetras, although two of them are still with us. Then I had two frogs, one was bigger than the other and the smaller one just died. Not sure why... but now whenever I don't see the big one move for a day I start freaking out that he is dead.

Recipe : PB Spreads

These cookies are based on Pioneer Woman's Spreads. This is probably my second favorite re-incarnation of these. My favorite way to make them is to make the cookie base the way she says to (only with salted butter, instead of margarine & salt) and then sprinkle dark chocolate & mint chips on them. However, Justin is not a huge fan of mint which means I ate WAAAAY too many of them so this batch was specifically for Justin.



Ingredients:
1 cup Brown Sugar
1/2 cup Salted Butter (softened)
1/2 cup Creamy Peanut Butter
1 whole Egg
2 cups Flour
1 teaspoon Vanilla
6 ounces, weight ( To 8 Ounces) Chocolate Chips

Directions:
Cream Butter & Peanut Butter. Add Brown Sugar and mix well, then add egg and vanilla and mix well again. Add the flour and mix it until it is all combined, scrapping sides as necessary.

Dump the dough in the middle of a large ungreased cookie sheet. Spread it out so that it is about 1/4 inch thick. I used a combination of my hands and an offset spatula to spread it out.

Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes. Sprinkle Chocolate Chips over the top and put back in the oven for a minute or two. Then using an offset spatula, spread the chocolate over the cookie based until the entire cookie covered.

Let them cool on the cookie sheet for a while and then cut into squares (I use a pizza cutter). The longer they sit the more the chocolate with firm up. It will probably take a couple of hours before the chocolate is firm enough to put them away in a container where they will be stacked...assuming that you manage to not eat all of them between the time they get done and they time you can put them away.

Menu Monday (on Tuesday, again)

I actually had the menu made since Sunday (I worked on it during the superbowl), but then I didn't get a chance to type it up until tonight.

Last Week

Monday - Chili-Stuffing Bake
Tuesday - Lawnmower Taco Casserole
Wednesday - Garlicky-Chicken Noodle Bake
Thursday - Leftovers
Friday - Cheddar Brats, Fries
Saturday - Chinese Take-Out
Sunday - Leftovers

The Chili-Stuffing bake was sooo good. The recipe was on the back of a box of cornbread stuffing mix - of course I didn't follow the actual recipe because I was using leftover chili. The Garlicky-Chicken Noodle bake was from my Make-Ahead and Freeze cookbook. I made the casserole on Wednesday and ended up putting it in two casserole dishes, one that we had that night and one that went in the freezer for another time.

This Week

Monday - Deli Meat Sandwiches
Tuesday - Breakfast Scramble
Wednesday - Homemade Pizza (Pepperoni & Sausage)
Thursday - Freezer Burritos
Friday - Homemade Mac & Cheese
Saturday - Pan-fried Cube Steak
Sunday - Leftovers

Project Life 2013 : Week 3

Week 3: January 14-20



What happened this week?
It was Claire's FOURTH birthday! We celebrated it three times (once at home on her actual birthday, once on Saturday with Justin's parents, and again on Sunday with my family)! Claire also started swimming lessons which is honestly one of the most stressful things I have ever done. She seriously, slipped into the pool the first night (in 4ft deep water) and the teacher was not fully paying attention. I about lost it. And now there are only two more classes and we're all going to survive, although I've possibly irritated the teacher by refusing the leave the pool room anymore.



Anything special about the layout(s):
I ended up with two inserts this week. The first one is about 8.5 x 6 inches. The front is just some journaling about Claire turning four and some of her favorites. In the back, I included some of her birthday cards. The second insert includes pictures from two of Claire's parties (the one at home and the one with Justin's parents). The only cellphone picture this week is from swim lessons.



What to see more: Project Life 2013

Menu Monday (on Tuesday)

Last Week

Monday - Leftovers
Tuesday - Deli Sandwiches
Wednesday - Cashew Chicken, Rice & Pineapple
Thursday - Lawnmower Casserole Chili
Friday - Homemade Pizza Dinner @ my mom's
Saturday - Meatloaf Junk/Whatever
Sunday - leftovers Meatloaf

I changed things up a little bit towards the end of the week. Justin was cooking on Thursday which is why I was planning on having him make a casserole that I had already prepared. But then I was looking at the grocery store ad and they had everything for Chili on sale, so I switched Thursday to Chili (and Justin made it). My mom invited us over for dinner on Friday, so we went. On Saturday, I went shopping with my mom & sister-in-law and we had a late "lunch" of appetizers & dessert at Outback. That meant I wasn't hungry at all at dinner time. I think Claire had a bowl of cereal, I had an orange and Justin had...something? Then the meatloaf got moved to Sunday night.

This Week

Monday - Chili-Stuffing Bake
Tuesday - Lawnmower Taco Casserole
Wednesday - Garlicky-Chicken Noodle Bake
Thursday - Leftovers
Friday - Cheddar Brats, Fries
Saturday - Chinese Take-Out
Sunday - Leftovers

Project Life 2013 : Week 2

Week 2: January 7-13



What happened this week? Claire's birthday is the following week, but on the Friday of this week the temperature was in the mid 60s (which is slightly weird for January in KS), so I ended up taking the afternoon off work and taking Claire out to a park to play and take 4-yr pictures. I wish I had changed her clothes, but when we left the house I was just going to take her to get her hair trimmed and then go home, change clothing and go to the park. Oh well. She's still a cutie! Then I included a couple of fun Claire stories on the "Currently" card. And we had a new adventure at an indoor trampoline park that just opened in December. Claire had fun and we'll definitely have to go again someday.



The only phone picture this week are the ones from the Trampoline Park. I wasn't sure what we were getting into so I didn't take my big camera. I should probably replace the batteries in my old point-and-shoot to take with me places like this. I also have the painting that Claire did one evening this week that was mostly a bunch of her hand prints. I'll probably trim it and fold it and put it in an 8.5 x 11 insert.

What to see more: Project Life 2013

Hello Project Life 2013 + Week 1

As soon as they made the new editions announcements back in the fall, I knew that I was going to get Seafoam. It fits in with my blue/green project life theme (and it's close to my favorite color, teal). The first day it showed up on Amazon, I ordered the core kit and a big set of Design A inserts. Less than a week later, it was in my hands - of course that was about a week ago because I was also waiting for the album to get here. I already had a plan of how I would do my title page before the kit even arrived. I'm waiting to even look at the end page until the end of 2013 because who knows how many album I'll end up using!

Title Page



This is possibly one of my favorite title pages for Project Life. I love the calendar (although I ended up doing that in 2012 also). I love the zig-zag card with our H on it. I don't love my homemade "Hello 2013" card. I'll probably pull it out and re-do it. Either by hand or on my computer. I really like Ali's "Hello Life 2013" box, but I haven't managed to convince myself to spend almost $5 on it.

Week 1: January 1-6



What happened this week? This was the first week of January & of 2013 (obviously). I had Tuesday off work and it snowed the day before so I took the girls sledding - it only took 2 or 3 years of Anaya asking for me to finally do it! The girls were still out of school, but I went back to work on Wednesday after having almost 2 weeks off. We also took some 2 month pictures of my adorable nephew.

I'm not a huge fan of cell phone pictures - maybe if I had an iPhone it would be better but my fancy-schmancy android phone pictures suck if the lighting is anything but wonderful. The sledding pictures are from my cell phone because I didn't think I could manage my big camera + sledding without getting snow in my camera.