Chocolate covered marshmallow pops

Marshmallows have been my weakness during this pregnancy! So when I came across a picture of chocolate covered marshmallows, I knew I had to try them for Ethan's birthday. To me, they were delicious!!

Here's the how to as well as some ideas for creating different types of chocolate marshmallow sticks. The possibilities are endless!

Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Sticks

1 bag semi-sweet chocolate chips

1-2 Tbsp canola oil

1 bag of regular sized marshmallows

18 to 20 popsicle sticks

Sprinkles, crushed nuts...any type of topping you would like

Wax paper

After gathering your supplies, start by putting two marshmallows on each popsicle stick. Set aside. Melt the chocolate chips and oil in a microwave safe bowl at 30 second intervals, stirring after each 30 seconds until the chocolate is smooth. (I did half the bag and half the oil at one time and found it much easier.) Dip the marshmallow sticks into the chocolate and use a spoon to spoon chocolate making sure the entire marshmallow portion is coated. Sprinkle with your choice of topping and allow to cool on wax paper covered cookie sheet. Refrigerate until serving.

Enjoy some more marshmallow inspiration!

Source: littlebirdiesecrets.blogspot.com via Tara on Pinterest

Source: adventuresofabettycrockerwannabe.blogspot.com via ACGC on Pinterest

Source: goodhousekeeping.com via Colleen on Pinterest

Source: pinteresthandbag.com via Erlene on Pinterest

Source: laurenconrad.com via Ashley on Pinterest

Travels and Birthday Celebrations

Mid-August, we began once again to pack for life on the road. We are so thankful that the Lord provided for our truck to be fixed so that we can travel as a family and live out of our 5th wheel! The more I pack to leave for long trips, the easier it gets. The boys have their own bedroom and small half bathroom in the back of the trailer, there is a common living/dining space with a fridge, freezer, & range, and the "upstairs" contains our bedroom and full bath. It is small, but what a nice familiar home it offers us on the road. 

My biggest decision this time around was what to do with Hudson's sleeping arrangements. He pretty much has outgrown his pack and play but is not quite ready for the freedom of a bed. We decided not to even bring a pack n play and try to figure something out with his crib mattress on the bottom bunk.

After the first night of trying to get him to sleep, waking up in the middle of the night and seeing him close to falling out of the bed, I was ready to go buy a second hand pack n play. But leave it to my resourceful husband, Hudson is now rigged up on bottom bunk and is not able to escape or fall out. 

Here's the little man enjoying his last few days at home this summer...

Our first stop was Huntsville, AL. Ethan remembered both the playground at the church and some friends he met last year, so he was happy to be back. Hudson was just in awe that the playground was full of little rocks that he could throw. I found rocks everywhere that week...even in his diaper...weird!

Hudson doesn't like being outside on sunny or windy days without his hat. He gets very perturbed if the wind blows his hair and says, "bright, bright" if the sun is in his eyes.

After a two day trip, our second stop was Oklahoma City, OK. The boys seemed to be constantly fighting some sort of virus this week, so we laid low much of the time. We did venture out to the OKC zoo one day thanks to the tip of a local friend who told me that it only cost $1 per person to go to the zoo on Wednesday. Jonathan wasn't able to join us, so all in all, it cost a total of $2 to spend the morning at a really great zoo. (Hudson was free) Our favorite part was the sea lion show and the carousal.

It was a very hot sunny day for all, especially this pregnant mom! We kept seeing kids in bathing suits and Ethan asked why. Finally we found out and wished we would have known to bring water clothes. In the children's section was a little man made creek and also a splash pad. I allowed my boys to go in the creek and told Ethan not to get too wet since we didn't have dry clothes to change into. This is his smart idea of cooling off, but staying somewhat dry...

Stick your head in the water! He even got Hudson to join in on the fun.

Saturday in OKC was Ethan's birthday. Before leaving, I decided to take along a few dress up clothes and see if the 4 college kids that travel with us would be interested in having a dress-up party for Ethan. They sweetly complied and made Ethan's night. Ethan was spider man with a pirate hook (he doesn't even know who spiderman is!) and Hudson was sort of a cowboy, if you can see his vest and boots.

Jonathan was a National Hoops construction worker and I was a pregnant pirate :-)

The team members all came in dressed in their costumes, one with a spiderman mask on to boot. Ethan had fun sword fighting with "Spiderman" but as soon as spiderman took his mask off to revel Seth, our team member, Ethan's face was shocked. He even gasped and said "What?" He really thought he was fighting spiderman!!!

We had fun celebrating a little on Ethan's actual birthday. Ethan is excited to be four and ready to turn five or at least have another birthday :-)

My 4 year old monkey

Ethan's birthday this year came at a time when we had meetings scheduled and would be out of state. I couldn't rob my soon to be 4 year old of a birthday party, so we celebrated a few weeks early. He chose a Curious George themed birthday party and told me the friends he wanted to invite.

Here are some friends enjoying the toys in Ethan's room before the party began...

I enjoy party planning, but I wouldn't say that I'm full of creative ideas. That's where pinterest and my party planning friend came in. (If you want some great party ideas, head on over the Kim's blog!)

We don't have lots of space for hosting parties in our kitchen/dining area, so I decided to put the food table inside and have the kids eat out on the deck.

I've come to the conclusion that kids don't eat much at parties, no matter what is served (well, minus the sweets). So I stuck to small portions of Ethan's favorite foods. In honor of Curious George, I tried to keep everything as finger food items (but really I didn't want to mess with silverware!) We had mini pizzas from a recipe I found here, chips, carrots and dip, bananas, and these sweet treats...

Yes, that would be chocolate covered marshmallows on a popsicle stick! Yum, yum, yum!! I first found a picture of them in a magazine and started drooling. Considering I ate about a whole bag of marshmallows in 24 hours during the first few weeks of my pregnancy, these really appealed to me. I will have to share the recipe soon.

And lest I forget the cupcakes... I didn't even want to attempt to make a Curious George look-a-like cake, so I opted for cupcakes. I found a cute George picture and turned it into a cupcake topper. And what do you do when you don't have a cute way to display cupcakes? Cover books in wrapping paper of course! My husband thought I was crazy at this point.

Here's one of the cute party guests. My niece Claire watching the other kids play games like "Monkey, monkey, where's your banana?" "Hot Banana" and an outside water relay.

Here are a few shots of the kids enjoying lunch on the deck. Hudson really got into the chocolate covered marshmallows. Like mother, like son!

And of course, the opening of the gifts. I always am some what amused by how all the kids get excited about opening presents, when the presents are only for the birthday boy. I guess I don't remember being like that as a kid. I remember just wanting to eat the cake :-)

We praise the Lord for the 4 years God has given us with Ethan. He is truly a gift from God that we love to have in our home for however long God allows. We love you, Ethan!

What do you do with your ground beef?

     Anyone else out there wish someone would plan your meals for you? Along with writing the grocery list and matching it up with the best deals at the stores nearest you? I know there are programs out there that will do this for either free or a fee, but even with those, I still have to do some thinking. I'm talking about a magical friend who could read my mind and know exactly what everyone in our family wants to eat and needs to eat....don't want to throw healthy out the window!

    Well, until that happens, I will just have to continue thinking about what to serve for supper. And what to do with ground beef. Ever get tired of the same old ground beef go-to recipes? Tacos, meatloaf, spaghetti...

    I want to introduce you to Texas Hash. (FYI: I am by no means a great cook, creative cook or food photographer. I enjoy reading other peoples blogs and often marvel at how they are able to cook and take such amazing pictures of the the cooking process. That's not me! So just enjoy the recipe.)

    This was one of my husband's fav's that I had to learn when we first got married. To be honest, at first, I wasn't sold on it. But the more I make it, the more I like it. So I got the recipe from my mother-in-law but have since seen it in cookbooks and on the internet.

     The best part of this meal is that you can whip it up in the morning and when supper rolls around, just pop it in the oven...so therefore, no working in the kitchen around 4pm or so.

Texas Hash

1 pound ground beef

1 green pepper, diced

1 small onion, diced (you can also used dried onion flakes, about 1-2 Tbsp)

2 cups tomato juice

1 tsp chili powder

1 tsp salt

1/8 tsp pepper

1/2 cup uncooked regular rice

Brown ground beef in a large skillet, adding diced peppers and onions toward the end of cooking. Drain any grease off the the ground beef mixture and return the ground beef mixture to low heat.

Add remaining ingredients to ground beef mixture. Stir to mix well and allow to simmer on low until it is heated through. Turn off burner and pour contents of skillet into 2 quart ungreased casserole dish. Cover with aluminum foil.

When you are ready to bake, preheat oven to 350. Bake covered for one hour.

*We serve it with extra rice to stretch the meal out a little bit.

**This recipe is very flexible. If you like a little more spice, add a teaspoon more of chili powder. If you are a lover of chunky tomatoes, add a small can of diced tomatoes to the 2 cups of tomato sauce. If you do this, I would increase the rice to 3/4 cup or even a whole cup so the casserole will not be soupy.

Enjoy!

Sweet Summertime Memories

      Although we are home most of the summer, our days seem to be very busy! This nesting momma had projects galore on the to-do list to be completed before hitting the road again. I feel like we had two or three projects going on at one time most days, and I lacked the energy to complete any of them. I'm so thankful for the patient, hard-working man God gave me, as he was the one to tackle or finish most items on my list! (Being at our house for short periods of time during the year and being pregnant don't mix very well. Why do you always feel like everything has to be done "right now" when you are pregnant? As if waiting a few days or weeks will ruin everything...ah well...)

     The above paragraph details my memories of this summer. It is nice to be able to sit down and look at pictures and remember the fun times we shared too!! Enjoy!

Celebrating Jonathan's Birthday

Getting ready to enjoy the sprinkler! Love how Hudson's hair turned much more blonde this summer! (Didn't mean to cut off Ethan's head, but it was hard to even capture this picture with all their wiggling.)

The ever faithful Hudson hardly spent a day without shooting baskets and making me chase the ball.

Enjoying their very small pool. I got tired of the blow-up plastic pools that we have had before and wanted to try out the hard plastic kind. We'll see how it holds up. All the boys wanted to do was jump in it, which accomplished my purpose of keeping them cool!

Ethan took swimming lessons for the first time this summer. After the first few days, he really enjoyed it!

The boys morning routine of watching Curious George while I make their breakfast.

Ethan loved watching Peter Pan this summer. I think all kids must turn laundry baskets into pirate ships at some point in their life.

Hudson celebrating the 4th of July with his cupcake nicely smeared all over his face.

Loved spending part of the 4th making crafts and eating treats with our neighbors!

One of Jonathan's favorite holidays, Chick-fil-a Appreciation Day. Yes, I made our costumes...in the truck....on our way to Wisconsin.  Add that to your list of things to keep you occupied while on long road trips :-) It was nice to walk in this Chick-fil-a and know that I would not see anyone I knew!

Hudson got ice cream cone eating down to a science this summer!

So glad that Ethan mastered the art of riding his "big boy bike."

Another part of my "nesting" has been starting "school (K-3/4) " during the summer so that we can at least cover all the letters before baby arrives.