Sharing the Good News...

I'm not sure there is anything more exciting than telling someone you love that you are pregnant. I've heard some really creative ways of telling grandparents and other family members the good news. I was lucky that I discovered I was pregnant with my second on Father's Day one year so that made for an even better celebration. I know a lot of people put "Big brother/sister" shirts on their older children to spread the word. I also heard a cute idea once where the soon-to-be mom let out the news during a prayer..."We're thankful we can have a baby..."

How have you told people you love when you are pregnant? What cute ideas have you seen done?

P.S I'm not pregnant.

WINNERS!

Congratulations to our two randomly picked winners- Kimberly and Dev! Email mommydiariesadmin@gmail.com today with your mailing address! We're thankful to all of you for your heartwarming comments about the moms you love.

Kimberly said...
I think the Mother in law situation can be difficult. As hard as that relationship can be to build there is a joy in getting close enough to learn from the person who raised your spouse. I'm grateful for my mother in law. She puts people first every time, a skill I am constantly trying to emulate.I also am a follower with a button.

Dev said...
My mother is very special to me. She has dedicated her life to her children and made numerous sacrifices to make sure we are happy and have everything that we need and want. She is a wonderful grandmother and a fantastic example.

GIVEAWAY: Family Fun Magazine (x 2!)

Dear Mommies,
To celebrate you this Mother's Day we are giving away TWO 1-year subscriptions to our favorite Family Fun magazine! Family Fun is stocked full of great ideas for families. We know you will love it all year long! (If you already have a subscription this one can roll over to start when yours ends.) It's our way of saying "Thanks for being the wonderful moms that you are! And thanks for stopping in to read our Mommy Diaries!"

To enter our giveaway simply leave a comment and

answer the following question:

Who is a special "mom" to you and why?

The giveaway will end at 8am EDT on Wednesday, April 29th and we will announce the winners that morning. If you're a winner you have 24 hours to email mommydiariesadmin@gmail.com with your mailing address. If we don't hear from you we'll pick another winner.

***As always, we'll give you up to three extra entries for being or becoming a follower, posting about the giveaway on your blog, or adding our button to your blog...just make a note of it in your comment.

Cheesy Mummy Dogs

I also think this is a fun and different way to have hot dogs. This is also from kraftfoods.com. You should check out the website, there are some easy and yummy recipes on there!

1 can (8 oz.) refrigerated crescent dinner rolls

4 KRAFT Singles, cut diagonally in half

8 OSCAR MAYER Beef Franks or Wieners

PREHEAT oven to 375°F. Unroll crescent dough; separate into 8 triangles. Top each dough triangle with 1 Singles triangle and 1 frank; roll up.

PLACE, seam sides down, on ungreased baking sheet.

BAKE 12 minutes or until golden brown. Serve with your favorite condiments, if desired.

Easy Homemade Macaroni & Cheese

I have married a big kid. Frequently when we go out to eat, my husband will still order macaroni and cheese. He loves it. He is always asking me to find a good homemade mac and cheese recipe. I've tried several.

I think this one is one of his favorites. And I made this for the missionaries last time we had them over for dinner and they loved it. (I tripled the batch, and it was ALL gone by the time they were done with it.) This recipe is from Kraftfoods.com.

It is easy, and really good, if you like mac and cheese...

1 can (5 oz.) evaporated milk

2 eggs, lightly beaten

2 Tbsp. butter or margarine, melted

1/4 to 1/2 tsp. ground red pepper

1/2 lb. (8 oz.) VELVEETA Pasteurized Prepared Cheese Product, cut up

1 cup shredded Cheddar Cheese

2 cups (8 oz.) elbow macaroni, cooked, drained

PREHEAT oven to 350°F. Mix milk and eggs in large bowl. Add butter, red pepper, prepared cheese product and Cheddar cheese. Stir in macaroni; mix lightly.

POUR into 1-1/2-quart casserole.

BAKE 20 minutes or until heated through.

Enjoy!

Terésa signing in!

Hi everyone! I’m Terésa (pronounced Ter-a-sa with a hard ‘a’ sound- to get the accent, you can just copy and paste -- Hey my parents named me. If I had a say it would have been something like Sophia or Josephine- Oops digressing). I’m from Idaho. I haven’t gone private with my blog (yet?) so that’s as specific as I’m willing to get... o.k. Idaho, but not the Boise area :).

I’m married to the love of my life, and we have two beautiful children (I know we are all wondering who has the ugly kido's, but mine, non-the-less are beautiful) a boy 11years old, and a 2 year old PRINCESS in every sense of the word. And we were sealed for time and all eternity last May.

Hmmm... More specifics?? I have blonde hair, I home-school my son, I’m a cosmetologist on the side (mostly do it for fun. How many people can say their job is like playing... oh, and the discount on hair products.) I was raised in the church, my husband is a convert (and he’s from North Las Vegas- the ghetto part. I have to remind him all the time that he is white.) You can read more about us here.

I enjoy crafts... any that I can get my hands on, cooking, and being a mommy! I’m excited to get the chance to show some of my work here, and hopefully it helps some of you... some one... o.k. I’m not making any promises ;). And I’m excited to hear from all of you!

Tricks of the Trade Question

My husband and I have been talking about baby #5 recently, and we keep going back and forth about when's a good time to stop having kids(especially when the 4 we already have are being naughty!). As members of the LDS Church, we know how important families are and we want to have a large family, but when do you get to the point that you know you are done? I'm only 26, and would hate to stop now, only to change my mind later and have a baby in my mid 30's while my other children are so much older. Has anyone out there completed their families? How did you know you were done? How many is a good number? I've heard some people like an odd number. I think 5 is gonna be my limit, but is it just a "wait and see"? What do you think? How many kids is a good number?

Baby Names

We aren't finding out what this baby is, which is fun, but we can't seem to come up with any good boy names. This could be in part because there are roughly 30 grandsons on his side and the names are a bit thin on the ground.

I mean if you really think about it... that's 60 names you can't use. (His brothers get really touchy about it)

So I've been through the books, and gone to the websites and I'm feeling a little overwhelmed. Honestly I shouldn't since it's my fourth baby, but there it is.

So what are some of your favorite boy names?

Ham Tortilla Roll Ups

This is a great left over ham recipe. We like to have it with our leftover baked ham, or even deli sliced ham also. It is easy, we usually always have the stuff on hand, and the WHOLE family likes it!

Make a medium white sauce:

2 T. butter

2 T. flour

1/2 t. salt

1 c. milk

-melt butter over medium heat, add flour, salt, and a dash of pepper, mix well. Add milk all at once and stir constantly until the mixture thickens and bubbles. Once it has thickened, add a handful or two of cheese (we like swiss, but I use whatever I have on hand).

For the Filling:

Tortillas

Ham (cubed, shredded, sliced)

fresh diced tomatoes (we have used petite diced canned and it works too)

Cheese

Any other toppings you want, we occasionally add diced green chilis, but other veggies would be good too, maybe some bell peppers or olives?

-lay out tortillas, sprinkle with cheese down the middle, then top with ham and other toppings. Add a little spoonful of sauce, then roll up tightly and place in a 9x9 baking dish. Once the pan is full of tortillas (I think I usually do 6-8) pour the rest of the sauce over top and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. I like to turn the broiler on for the last five minutes, it makes the tortillas a little crispy. Enjoy!

Pin Cushion/ Button Jar

So, a while ago I posted a quick little link to an idea I had seen on another site. Here Well I finally got around to making one of my own. Which looks nowhere as cute as theirs, but took me about an hour. It was so easy and I'm completely excited to have somewhere to stick all my pins and needles (instead of carrying around the box they came in). Take a look. I used an old chicken bouillion jar so it's a bit bigger than a baby jar (hence the larger ribbon) and I'm into using up what I've got floating around, and I also don't have a fabric store in my town *sniffle*.

The picture was taken with my phone, so it's not the best photo in the world either... and if you're wondering, that's pomegranate juice in the background, if anyone wants to hop on over to my place and show me how to make jam out of it I'd be forever grateful.

Ham Fried Rice

We also have a ton of leftover ham, so this week we've already had this delicious and easy recipe for Ham Fried Rice (from the Food Network). It was a really light dinner that went great with a green salad.

Ingredients
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
3 1/2 to 4 tablespoons corn or peanut oil
3 1/2 cups cold cooked rice
2 to 3 ounces honey or sugar-cured ham (yielding 1/2 cup cubed ham)
1/2 cup fresh or frozen peas or baby lima beans
1 to 1 1/4 teaspoons coarse kosher salt
3 tablespoons green and white scallions
Peanuts

Directions
Heat a wok or a small, heavy skillet over high heat. Add 1 1/2 tablespoons oil, swirl to coat the pan. Add eggs and scramble them. As soon as there is no more freely running egg, turn them out into a bowl and break them into small bits. They should be soft and a bit runny -- not brown.
Heat the wok or a large skillet and add 2 tablespoon oil to coat. Add the rice and toss briskly to coat and separate each grain, about 2 to 3 minutes. Add the ham and peas. Toss to mix in the ingredients and allow the mixture to heat through, about 30 seconds. Return the eggs to the pan and toss to combine. Season with salt, scallions and peanuts, tossing another 5 to 10 seconds to let the eggs get hot.

p.s. We're also using some of our ham for the yummy Princess Pasta that was posted earlier on this blog.

Left Over Ham!?

Not really a ham person myself... but I use it occasionally in some pretty good recipes.

So here's two:

1) Chicken Cordon Bleu
Ham
Swiss Cheese slices
Chicken

Generally you would pound out the chicken and then roll the ham and Swiss into it (using toothpicks to hold it in place), but I find that tedious and I have no toothpicks, so I just cut the chicken lengthwise to thin it out and then stack it. Chicken, ham, Swiss, ham, chicken.

Place in oven safe dish and cook at 350-400 (covered) for about an hour... or until chicken is done all the way through.

(Sorry guys, that's how I do my recipes... I just wing it a lot of times)


2) One of my favorites! Potato Soup

3 medium red potatoes (I use russets a lot)
2 C water
1 small onion
3 TBS butter
3 TBS all purpose flour
Crushed red pepper
Ground black pepper
3 C milk
1/2 tsp sugar
1 C shredded cheddar
1 C cubed ham

Cut potatoes into 1 inch cubes (and ham if you need to). Cook potatoes in the water until tender. Drain, reserving 1 Cup of the potato liquid (water may be added if needed). Set aside both potatoes and liquid.

Melt butter in large saucepan (the one you'll use to make the soup) over medium heat. Add onion, cook, stirring frequently until onion is translucent and tender, but not brown. Add flour to saucepan, season with pepper's. Cook 3-4 minutes. Gradually add potatoes, reserved liquid, milk, and sugar to onions. Stir well.

Add cheese and ham.

Simmer over low heat 30 minutes, stirring frequently. Makes 12 servings.

Tricks and notes:
*I add more cheese and ham and you don't need salt if you've got good ham.
*If you turn the heat up during the simmer part and stir constantly it takes less time, but if you want to do other things go with the lower heat... you don't want to burn your milk.
*Serve with rolls, they are perfect with this.
*Missionaries love this meal.
*A little bit goes a LONG way (it is potatoes) and it still tastes great the next day.

Pictures

This is my first time with the tricks of the trade question and I wasn't sure of what to do but I have been thinking about this a bit lately with Easter and everything. Porter is my first child and he is currently nine months old and like any first time parent I have been obsessed with taking pictures of every little thing he does and dressing him up for every holiday in cute outfits. I know a lot of mom's who take their kids in to get pictures taken at like target or sears every three months, some moms do it every six months, others wait for a holiday such as Easter or Christmas. It's hard to know how often to get their pictures done. So I guess my first question is how often do you get your children pictures taken? The other thing is it gets pricey to get their picture taken all of the time, I know there are constantly coupons but it's still for one pose and if you want more then one thing it adds up fast. I am one of those who takes their own pictures of the baby, which leads me to my next question, if you take pictures of your children do you have any fun ideas for set-up or places to take pictures? and also do you have any tips on how to edit them when you are done? for example on how to make the lighting look good? I have done a few of the black and white with one thing in color and that's fun the first couple of times and then gets old.

So just to recap... How often do you get your children's picture taken? and Do you have any tips or ideas for taking pictures yourself?

THANKS!

Jelly Bean Bracelets

If you're looking for a last minute Easter activity or something to do with all those jelly beans, this was a fun one! My kids and I made these jelly bean bracelets. I actually decided it would have been a better idea for me to do them myself and stick in their Easter baskets because it was kind of hard for the kids to stick the needle through the jelly bean and they ended up just handing me what one they wanted to go on next instead. But they were very happy with the result, and had very sticky arms the rest of the day! :)

I got this idea from here: JELLY BEAN BRACELETS

Happy Easter!!

German Pancakes and yummy Buttermilk Syrup

I found this recipe on allrecipes.com. We tried it out for dinner tonight and we all loved it.

Ingredients:

• 6 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons butter or margarine, melted

Buttermilk Syrup

• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 3/4 cup buttermilk (I didn't have any so used 1 cup milk with 1 Tbsp. of vinegar)
  
• 1/2 cup butter or margarine
• 2 tablespoons corn syrup
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1. Place the eggs, milk, flour and salt in a blender; cover and process until smooth. Pour the butter into an ungreased 13-in. x 9-in. x 2-in. baking dish; add the batter. Bake, uncovered, at 400 degrees F for 20 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, in a saucepan, combine the first five syrup ingredients; bring to a boil. Boil for 7 minutes. Remove from the heat; stir in vanilla. serve immediately with the syrup.