Sunday Verse

John 7:37-38

On the last day of the greatest Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice,

"If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him."

Snow day - Cheater chicken pot pie

Austin actually got a little snow yesterday! Here is a view from my back deck into our backyard. I swear I really didn't pack Canada and move it back with me, but somehow the weather seems to have followed me back to Texas.

It may be a combination of cold weather and pregnancy but I get a hankering for comfort food during these times. My girlfriend actually first made this pot pie for me after my second babe was born and let me tell you I was one happy Mama to eat it up. I won't be complaining if she shows back up with more when this baby arrives! Thanks for this recipe JC!

This is so easy, you need frozen vegetables, some cooked chicken with your favorite seasonings, campbell's select harvest - roasted garlic potato soup and a pre done pie crust. The beauty of this is you can use up leftovers if you keep the basic staples on hand.

I almost forgot I added some red bell pepper to make mine more purty.... you say "pretty" I say "purty"... that's how it's done round these here parts. So back to the cheater part just chop up your chicken, add your soup and frozen veggies to your pie crust and follow the baking directions for the pie crust.

When dear husband arrives home from work slap on a apron and appear exhausted like you have been slaving over this from scratch for him all day! It is a great meal to make for new Mom's- hint hint or anyone else for that matter. Hope you enjoy!

Monday Reflection-Belated Sunday Verse

Psalm 118

Give Thanks to the LORD, for he is good;

his Love endures forever

Sorry this verse is late... I ended up having a migraine and felt yucky last night so didn't get around to this. But yesterday was so gorgeous that here is what we did after church. A lovely picnic by the lake.

What can be better than kisses from Daddy?

Or an M&M cookie?

Or just hanging out in the sunshine and throwing rocks in the lake?

Token belly shot!

Yikes get some color on those white chicken legs!

Would someone please tell that girl's Mama to trim her bangs? Poor baby with all that hair in her face! Hope you had a lovely weekend too.

A new favorite thing...

This post is for my Mom and Sister who both requested to see my new latte bowls that I have been gushing about. Swoon, I love the colors and style and they make me smile. Who doesn't want to be happy eating cheerios first thing in the morning? The only drawback is Dear Hubby feels they are too small for his portions. Oh, well! So I got these on my first ever visit to Anthropologie..... I know I've been hiding under a rock. Wow is that store ever fun but expensive. Good thing these bowls were reasonable. The funnest part is they change the colors for every season. I plan to get more and am actually planing to go back and get the seafoam blue as soon as they get it in stock. Who knew you could have a bowl addiction? What's your favorite thing? Have you been to Anthropologie?

Sunday Verse

Just thinking about the Loves of my life. I think these pictures speak volumes about how much a Father can Love his children. This is moments after our Son was born and his Daddy is in complete Love.

Look at how much Joy is on his face with his little girl. I'm so glad these memories and moments were caught on film.

Being a parent humbles me and teaches me of God's love for me. I keep hearing this song this week and I just know I am supposed to share it with you. It's a little long but I hope you take a moment to know how wild and passionate God is crazy in Love with you!

Happy Valentine's Day

xoxoxo, Jennifer

Psalm 9:1-2

"I will praise you Lord with all my heart... I will be happy because of you. God Most High, I will sing praises to your name."

Valentine Treats

Wishing ya'll a lovely Valentine's Day. I've been craving chocolate so this was the perfect excuse to do something about it. Tonight we are going to surprise Daddy with a plate full of sweets. I had several other projects in mind to do but just didn't get that far. At least this got done!

Earlier in the week I made candy cane hearts.

Here is the link to learn how to do this.

Turns out my helpers were more interested in dining on the mangos...

and strawberries

and there may have been some marshmallow nibbling going on too!

We did the best with marshmallows cut in half and dipped in colored sugar, the rest was a bit messy for the kids....chocolate all over their fingers! I'll be trying this again for other holidays. Hope you have a sweet weekend!

How to make a Treasure Keeper Necklace

Hi Friends, Sorry it has been awhile since I posted anything. I seem to have lost all blood flow to my brain and it is now surrounding my uterus! Last week was kinda rough for me so I decided to lay low... the weather was bad (cold and rainy and gray) and my OB doctor's office called me to report I had a urinary infection. I had no symptoms and have never had that with my other pregnancies! Needless to say making a pregnant woman take an antibiotic four times a day for one week with silly rules to have an empty stomach before and after is just plain cruel! Also a word to the wise when doing your laundry double check thoroughly as you might just wash a disposable diaper like me!!! All I have to say is those suckers hold alot of water. ALOT! And the gel inside the diaper will ooze out and stick to some of your clothes but thankfully if you wash the load again it will resolve and clean up nicely. I'm just trying to save you from my mistakes here people!

So to follow up after my post on these cute beauties my blogging pal Buckeroo Mama kindly requested a how to for these treasure keeper necklaces and I am happy to oblige.

Here in Texas the grocery store we shop at has an incentive for the kids to earn a peice of paper called a buddy buck and you get to put it in this machine with a crane and it pulls up one of these plastic guys with a numbered sticker inside. The kids collect stickers and work towards earning a prize. We just sent away for watercolor paints. Anyhow we have a ton of these and I could recycle them but have found uses for them like the treasure necklace, sorting activities and even putting candy in them for birthday party favor bags.

So to begin you need a lid from a vending machine prize. I recommend you have extra, my first few attempts got cracked until I figured out how to do this. If you notice this lid has 2 letters on it so I just lined up with them and poked there. I used the tip of a grilling scewer. An ice pick would work too.

Poke 2 holes for stringing a shoelace or ribbon through.

Now you'll notice the plastic poked in would be hard to thread anything by. So get a small screw and push into the hole going back up through the top of the lid. Use a screw driver and screw and unscrew the screw about half way. Work it around to get the hole big enough to thread whatever string you will be using.

Since my kids are young I used shoe laces as they have the solid tip making it easier to slide the beads on. Older kids may like a more colorful ribbon or yarn with a blunt needle.

Run the other side of the string through your hole and string away. We used pony beads with a bigger hole. You can find these at any craft store. String away and tie off the necklace to whatever length. Attatch the bottom to the cap and fill with trasures! For safety recommendations always monitor kids with this for safe wearing and use. My daughter wanted hers once at naptime but I was worried it could twist too tight, use your safest judgement as a parent!

This is a great craft activity with the kids, a fun play date idea and would make a fun birthday party activity. We sure had a blast making them and going on our nature walk afterwards. Enjoy! I'd love to see pictures if you make one too.