Just lookin' for some experienced mommies' opinions!

Well since my only child is just 4 months old and I wasn't blessed with the natural ability for crafts or cooking, I feel bad I don't have much to contribute to the mommy blog just yet. Which is why I love this blog because it is really helpful for people like me that aren't experts at the mommy thing, I just wish I had something to share. Hopefully I do soon but until then I will probably have a few questions I just need advice on, hope that's ok!

Anyways I'm just curious what everyone's opinions are on how much time to wait between babies!
Obviously everyone has different opinions and has done it differently, but i'm just curious why people wait however long they wait! my husband and I always planned when to have our first but never talked about the rest after that, I kind of always figured to wait 2 years.
Well we have our first and he is such an angel baby, he is SUCH a great baby, we really got so lucky with him. SO on the one hand I'm thinkin WOW this is such a blast he is so easy yada yada I can have another one right away and I wouldn't have a problem with that.. THEN I'm like wait.. he is too good there's NO way we will have 2 like this..our second will be so different and probably harder (especially with one already). So maybe it's still best to wait a couple years!
I have also heard 18 months is a good distance and most people that have them close like that love it! If anyone has any advice on the matter I'd love to hear it:)
Just curious what others have done and whether they would do it that way again or not!

"Food For Tots"

I don't know if I've posted about this cookbook before. I love this book and my aunt is the illustrator of all the cute little pictures inside. Some of my regular favorites include the Mac-n-cheese, Baked Fries, and the Puffy Apple Pancake:

Puffy Apple Pancake (similar to German Pancake)

1/3 cup butter or margarine
2 med. apples
3 Tbl. sugar
2 tsp. cinnamon
4 EGGS
1 cup milk
1 cup flour
*powdered sugar (optional)

1. Set oven to 425.
2. Put butter into a 9-10 inch frying pan and place in oven until butter is just melted, not browned.
3. While butter is melting, peel and core apples and cut then into thin slices.
4. Remove pan from oven, add sugar and cinnamon to the melted butter and stir in the sliced apples.
5. Return pan to oven for about 3 min.
6. In a blender, whip eggs and milk at high speed for 1 min. Set blender to low speed and slowly add the flour until well blended.
7. Remove the pan from the oven and pour egg batter over the butter and apples.
8. Bake for 20-25 min. or until the pancake is raised and golden brown.
9. Serve immediately and enjoy! Cut in wedges and dust with powdered sugar. Good with a dollop of applesauce and fresh whipped cream too!

Deviled Eggs

So after all the egg decorating is over what do you do with all those colored eggs?? One of our favorites things to do with them is to make deviled eggs for Easter dinner.
It's pretty simple but here is the recipe we use:

6 hard boiled eggs
3 TBS mayo
1/2 tsp mustard
pinch of salt
pinch of pepper

Peel shells off eggs and cut lengthwise in half. Remove yolk and put into a bowl and mash up with a fork. Add remaining ingredients to yolk and stir together. Spoon mixture into egg whites. And if you want you can sprinkle some paprika on top. Yum! We love these.

And I don't usually care about them looking too fancy but if you do then you can use a piping bag (the bag you use with frosting to decorate a cake) to put the mixture in and squeeze into eggs whites... then it looks a little prettier (like the picture... which is not my picture).

Hard Boiled Eggs

Maybe I'm the only one who has to look in my cook book when I hard boil eggs once, maybe twice a year. So here is what you do

Place eggs in a single layer in a pot. Cover with cold water one inch above eggs. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to just below a simmer, simmer for 15 minutes.

Easter Eggs

One of my favorite activities every Easter is dying eggs. And since having kids I have loved doing it even more! I love how it brings the family together and I love the anticipation of what the final result of your egg will be. Every year we have the tradition that the last egg to be dipped takes a turn in every color...leaving us in the end with one ugly brown egg.

Click on the links below for some fun ideas to do with your children and your eggs...feel free to comment and tell us what you plan on doing!

• Animals from Family Fun: Mouse, Pig, Sheep (I'm pretty sure I've fallen in love with these!)
• Dying Techniques from Amazing Moms: Egg designs
• Or if you are out of Paas packets you can always find a more natural way to dye them here.

Have fun this year dying eggs with the kids!

My randomness about eggs!!!

So... I have been in the Easter mode now for a few days! Good thing cuz it is getting down to the wire! Anyway, I decided last spring that it would be fun to get some chickens!!! I thought a dozen eggs would be good so I got a dozen!!! Two have now passed on leaving us with 10 chickens!!! Well any of you who know anything about chickens know that they lay one egg a day!! So after careful calculation..... that means I am getting 10 eggs a day!!!!! What in the world was I thinking?! Maybe 5 chickens would have been better. So I have turned to everyone I know and started selling my eggs for a dollar a dozen! Fresh and brown! What a deal!!! My chickens are currently living at my moms and so she collects the eggs when I am not around to do it!!! Both our fridges are crazy full of ...... yeppers eggs! both our fridges have about 8 dozen at the present!!!! What in the world are we going to do?! If any of you are close to Idaho Falls or know someone who is, let me know so that we can get these eggs being used and not just wasted! And I am super excited to learn all these recipes so that we can have more creative egg meals!!! Happy Easter!!!!

My Necklace Holder

You're right Cassi! I forgot to post a picture! Well here it is. I love the idea of making the necklace holder bigger. I wish I had one more peg on mine. One of them keeps falling down. I'm going to make a "manly" looking one for my husband's belts. They're always on the floor!

Necklace/Key Holder

Ok, I know more of you made the necklace holders from last month! Chalece... I know you made one! It's always fun to see pictures and everyone's different styles!
So, here are mine. I did one for my keys and one for necklaces. I wanted the necklace one to be a little bigger. And you can't really see it, but there is one of Kara's fabric flowers on the bigger one. So I did both crafts in one! :)
Anyone else?

Play Dough!

Today my daughter and I wanted to try something different. We've been stuck inside for pretty much the last 6 months, and needless to say, we're going crazy! I thought it would be fun to make some play dough. I've never done it before, so I went online to find a good recipe (Brielle still loves to put things in her mouth) that would be safe to eat.

I found this great recipe, and it is supposed to be one that keeps the dough nice and soft.

I made it today and Brielle and I had a blast! She loved to squish the play dough between her fingers and say "Ewww!"

I found the recipe on Lovely Design (she's got some really fun ideas!) and it turned out great! I made the yellow one first, and I think that one turned out the best. My one caution is this: put the flour in a little bit at a time! With the yellow one I did just that because I didn't know how much I needed. But with the red one (the second one I did) I got cocky and thought I knew what I was doing. Well, that one turned out hard and grainy. So my third one, the blue one, I did the flour slowly and it turned out great again! I used a wire wisk at first while putting the flour in so that it didn't stay all clumpy. Then used a spoon when it was too thick.

Here's the recipe (it's also on the link above):

2 c water
1 c salt
food coloring
4 tsp cream of tartar
4 TBSP oil
2 c flour
(I didn't have enough salt to do even one batch, so I quartered the batch and got 3 colors! And it's the perfect amount for Brielle's little hands!)

- Combine water, salt, cream of tartar and food coloring (.5 tsp for pastel color and 1.5 tbsp for vivid color) in a large saucepan.

- Cook on low heat and stir. As the mixture heats up, stir in the oil and then the flour slowly.

- Keep Stirring the mixture until it starts looking dry and pulling away from the pan. Remove from heat and pinch a piece between two fingers. If it is not sticky, it is done. Otherwise, continue stirring over low heat.

- Place the dough on counter and knead until smooth. Children will enjoy kneading the warm dough when it cools enough for them, too!

- When finished playing, store playclay in an airtight container or plastic bag to re-use again and again. Do not refrigerate.

* For children who cannot tolerate gluten or food colouring, you may subsitute rice flour for flour and use natural beet (red), spinach (green) or carrot (orange) juice for colour.

Enjoy!!

Favorite Blogs

Well Bridget must be a mind reader because her post was a perfect lead in to our "about us" question this month!!

We want to know from all of our readers and contributors: what are some of your favorite blogs to read??

(Besides your own personal blog, and this one of course!)

4 Nuts in a Nutshell

One of my friends has recently started a blog because she loves to write and has a great way of finding the humor in life. She loves new readers and is hoping to update it regularly, so I thought that I'd let you check out her funny look at motherhood.

Raspberry Stuffed French Toast

Since this is french toast, I think it counts as my recipe for eggs..... right?  Besides cooking with eggs, we like them scrambled with all the fixins, bacon, cheese, diced tomatoes, and peppers. But, here's a french toast we love, and eat on special days, like Easter Sunday!

4 oz. neufchatel cheese, soften (like cream cheese, less fat)

1/2 c. sugar

2 t. vanilla

1 t. cinnamon

2 eggs, plus 2 egg whites

5 cups fat free milk, divided

1 loaf french baguette, cut into about 18 slices

1 pkg (12 oz.) frozen raspberries, divided

1 pkg. (4 serving size) vanilla pudding/instant pudding pie filling

Beat neufchatel cheese, sugar, vanilla, and cinnamon with electric mixer until well blended.  Add eggs and egg whites, one at a time, mixing well after each addition.  Gradually add 2 cups of the milk, beating until well blended

Arrange 9 of the bread slices in a greased 13 x 9 inch pan. Sprinkle with half the raspberries, top with remaining bread slices.  Pour cheese mixture over bread, let stand 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Bake 40 minutes or until golden brown. Meanwhile, bring remaining 3 cups milk just to boil in saucepan; gradually add dry pudding mix, whisking until well blended.  Remove from heat; let stand 5 minutes.  Microwave remaining raspberries until just warm.  Serve toast topped with custard sauce and raspberries.

If you want you can make ahead of time, cover and refrigerate several hours or overnight.  When ready to serve, bake uncovered at 350 for 40-45 minutes or until golden brown. Prepare sauce while it is baking.

It is delish, and very Spring appropriate!

Quiche

I love a good quiche. Before I moved out of state, I would host a Christmas Cookie Exchange/Brunch and serve this every year. You can make one large quiche in a pie pan, or mini quiches in mini muffin pans. The minis are great for baby/bridal showers.

1 box rolled pie crusts
6 slices bacon(or 1/2 cup ground spicy sausage)
½ cup diced green onion
4 eggs, beaten
1 cup milk
½ cup heavy cream
1/4 teaspoon salt
¼ tsp fresh ground pepper
1 cup shredded Swiss or Cheddar cheese

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Roll out pastry and press into deep dish pie plate.

Cook bacon or sausage till done. Bacon should be crispy. Drain and crumble. Add bacon or sausage to bottom of pie. Add cheese. Add chopped green onion.

In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, cream and salt and pepper till very well combined. Pour egg mixture over the toppings until just under the edge of the crust.

Bake in preheated oven for about 45 minutes, or until center is set. Let quiche cool for 10 minutes on a wire rack before serving.

I've found that with the meat and cheese, even men will eat this quiche!
Happy Easter!

One Hour Craft - Fabric Flowers

April craft time.... just in time to make some cute flowers for your little girls, or yourself!! These flowers I just made up myself and are very simple... I'll try to explain the best I can.

First, start with a bunch of circles of fabric. They are all pretty much the same size, and they don't have to be perfect. I like using a couple different fabrics together, like the black polka-dot and then I used some black tulle. Same with the pink.... you'll see later.

Second, take one of the round pieces and bunch it up in your fingers.... like so....
Then take a needle and thread and start sewing together your bunches. It helps to kind of shape and sew as you go, pulling up material in the needle to make it look the way you want. Does that make sense? Probably not.... sorry.
After I had one bunch done, I just slipped another circle onto my needle and thread and did the same thing. So, I had about 3-4 circles sewn together, and then I added the tulle at the bottom. In the next picture, you can see the bottom, I took a much smaller circle, and sewed around the edges to make it look a little more finished (plus it is easier to glue or sew it onto something else).
Here's the pink one all done! Isn't it cute!!
And the black....

These are fun to use on whatever, hair bows, headbands, bags, dresses, belts, whatever suits your fancy!! Have fun, and please share if you make some, so we can see all the great ideas!

And the winners are.......

Ok we have our 2 winners!!!

Here is what random.org had to say:

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

33 47

Kiera said...

hm... it was always a big family dinner and an easter Egg hunt, with a basket and a movie on the resurrection, since I got married we added another family dinner, that's basically it, now that we have a baby we will have to think of how we wanna celebrate in the future, this year will probably still be spent with both of our families:),..I posted about the giveaway and have a button:) put me down for more!

and

cbracken said...

So fun - love the find it bags!  I'm now a follower!

Congrats to Kiera and cbracken!! Email MommyDiariesAdmin@gmail.com and let us know which prize you want!! First come, first serve!
Thanks to everyone who entered! We love reading your comments!! We'll have to have the I Spy bags in a future giveaway since they seemed to be commented about a lot.

Happy Easter!!!