Sunday, October 28, 2012

Our New Life!

Literally! We have a new baby! A precious new life that we are responsible to raise. What a blessing it has been so far. Things are going so well. Ivan is just the sweetest baby with the calmest behavior. There have been very few times that I have felt a little overwhelmed. A lot of the low stress has to do with my parents  being here and helping so much. Since I had a C-section, things like getting out of bed, bending to pick something up were tough so their help has been huge especially when Jeff has had to go back to full time school and been busy with his calling again. At night Jeff is always there when I need him and since he has some special arms that Ivan quiets down right away in, its very helpful to have him right there. 
Here are some sweet pictures of Ivan.

calming him after his bath
Laying on his tummy to get his legs and feet.





And for those who are interested I will be writing my birth story on my pregnancy blog but will be making that blog private soon. Iv'e been getting comments from random strangers and I don't care for that.  

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Painting Stripes

These last few days I have been on a kick to do projects. First with the headboard and now this. Yesterday morning I decided I wanted to paint stripes on the walls in the baby's room and while thinking about what color realized we had leftover paint from the color in our bedroom. So I thought that would be perfect. It already ties in to the house and its free! So at 11:00 I had a haircut coming over then right after I started mapping out which walls, how many stripes, what size then continued by marking the walls with a level and a pencil. 

At about 2:00 I about finished taping all the lines and was ready to paint. I had another hour until a second haircut would show up and I still hadn't eaten lunch so I decided I should take care of that. Good thing too because the client called and said his day ended early and he could come over then (about 2:20). Great! I could get that done then start painting. =) And that is just what happened. I had the brush to wall at about 4:00 and had 3 of the 5 stripes done by the time Jeff got home. And no I hadn't thought of dinner. Whoops. Luckily we had some leftovers so not only was it microwavable but dinner was quick so I could get back to my project. Jeff helped paint the 4th line while I painted the 5th and it went by so quickly. We had some good laughs and stories from the day and I really enjoyed his help. He is such a great guy! 




This morning I couldn't wait to take the tape off so I quickly ate breakfast and started pulling it down, putting the curtains back up and putting the furniture back. Thinking the whole time "I should watch the clock, this work can be distracting and you have a haircut at 10:30." I finished it all and it was only 8:37. So I had time to take pictures, post about it on the blog, and now, get ready for the day. =)    

Saturday, August 25, 2012

Headboard

Since we moved in I have been wanting to add a headboard to our bed. So yesterday I took a trip to Home Depot to find some wood for the easiest DIY headboard project I could find that I still liked. 

What I started with.
My sample board. Seeing if I like the colors then seeing how it covered with the stain.

The boards after the color coat.

The finished product!

I used a Minwax stain color-Ebony. I had two small paint cans of blue and green from the previous owners so I thought that would be perfect. It does feel a little unfinished now that its up but I love it for now. I might add some molding to the edges later. 


Funnel Cake

Last Tuesday for our dessert night we made  Funnel Cake. It was so yummy. Here is the recipe.


Funnel Cake

Ingredients:
1 egg
2/3 cup milk
2 Tablespoons sugar
1 1/4 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
Funnel Cake Directions:
1. In a deep skillet, heat about two cups of oil over medium-high heat until hot. Test the temperature by dropping a pinch of flour into the hot oil. If it sizzles right away without smoking, it's perfect.
2. Beat egg and milk. Mix all other ingredients in a separate bowl and slowly add to the egg mixture, beating until smooth.
3. Using a funnel, drop into hot oil working from center outwards in a web pattern. (You can use a gallon sized freezer bag instead of a funnel by pouring the batter into the bag, snipping off a small corner of it, and squeezing the batter into the oil.)
4. Cook for about 2-3 minutes, remove from the oil when golden brown and crispy.
5. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve.



Being sure to follow instructions!

Our "spiderweb"

Dessert with an awesome movie. 

We will definitely be making these again. So easy and so tasty! 

Thursday, August 16, 2012

Caramel Apples

Jeff and I have decided to make Tuesday nights Dessert Night. So if you follow me on Pinterest you can get a pretty good idea of what we will make. This was our first night where we made these delicious Apple Pie Caramel Apples.

The delicious apples

Jeff preparing the dipping goodness.

Melting the caramel.

We still have more of the makings so im waiting until the perfect moment to make them again. That may just be today. =)

Friday, July 27, 2012

Maggots

Yes, this post is about the disgusting insects maggots. I will keep it brief since the more detailed I get the more I will imagine them on me. So! Here is the story
Thursday is trash day in our neighborhood and the truck doesn't come by until well in to the afternoon. Important because if it came by first thing in the morning I would have put the trash out the night before and might not have noticed THESE!


What seemed to be thousands of maggots were growing, living, and taking over my garbage can! I was so disgusted I hurried to tell Jeff (via text) to which his reply was "take a picture!" While practically burying my face in their "perfect environment" to get the picture I could hear a loud humming noise from all of them squirming around. Ideas were already coming in to my head as to how to get rid of them. Ideas that involved the smallest contact, even the furthest distance would work best for me. 
I remembered seeing a video on Youtube long ago, where a family had a huge wasps nest near there house and destroyed it by knocking it in to a metal trash can with some kind of lighter fluid then setting it on FIRE! Wonderful! Fire destroys everything! Including melting my plastic garbage can. So I knew that would not be realistic. I turned to Google and asked my question. It often surprises me how many people on the internet have my same questions and have already dealt with my same problems and there are tons of answers from people who have tried things!
 My Solution: I decided to wait until the trash truck came for the garbage so there would be less surface area for these suckers to be on. It was almost exciting when I could hear the truck down the street and as I watched from my office room window, pictured them all falling and separating their precious families and I yelled to the trash man "take em all. Take them all!" Then practically clenched my fists and stared at what was now left of them. I hurried down stairs to start boiling the water and grabbed the gallon bucket of bleach and the empty bucket from the garage. With my poison all ready I bring the garbage can just off the street, open the lid, and with no second thought, pour that beautiful liquid in to the can. I listen as the bubbles and silent screams of them all reached my ears and enjoyed every second of their death. I let them soak in their poison (plus some hot sun) a little longer before I laid them to their graves (the street). I grabbed the hose and gave the can a final rinse and No more bugs!  As the garage door closed I looked at the battle sight one last time and felt so triumphant! It was a great day in the Bell home.