Crockpot Wednesday

Since Saturday was 9/11, we all showed our support by wearing red, white and blue. Kelton and Katie wore their outfits from last year and Konnor wore a little outfit that used to be Keltons.

It just doesn't seem that long ago that Kelton was the
tiny man in my life. He was 5 months here.

And my newest sweet little man at 7 mo!

E was kind enough to let me out of the house on Friday evening to go to Target with Lisa. I had a bunch of coupons to use and I also could not wait to have my first pumpkin spice latte of the season! I got this stuff for $58.27. The huggies were .17/diaper! My other favorite purchases were the $1 socks and the .99 watermelon. The coin purses and the Dora DVDs were $2 each and will be great to donate with the holidays coming up!


You know I think a lot of baby products are total marketing gimmicks. Is a travel wipes warmer really necessary? There is disposable everything (crazy!) And I've yet to find things like baby laundry soap, shopping cart covers and specialized diaper pails even remotely necessary. So when I saw Boogie Wipes (saline nose wipes), I just rolled my eyes. Shortly there after, I was attempting to peel a big ol' dried boog from Buggy's nose and it wasn't going well. She was in a toddler friendly headlock, screaming her sweet little head off and the baby wipe I was using just wasn't cutting it. That weekend, Boogie Wipes were on sale at BRU and I had coupons, so I gave them a shot.


After the first couple uses, I fell in love. They are like magic wipes, magic dried crusty boogie removing with no tears from toddler wipes. Awesome! They are my new go-to for baby shower gifts. That and a bottle of Shout. Snot and stains, kids make a lot of both!

For my crockpotting this week, I wanted to make use of the french loaves I got at Target for .40 each. I love french toast, so I decided we'd give that a go. After some googling, I saw that it often turns the bread to total mush, so I toasted mine first.


Then I put it in my 4 qt and poured this mixture over the top...
8 eggs
2 cups vanilla soy milk
2 tsp cinnamon (because that's all I had left)
1/4 cup organic brown sugar
2 tsp vanilla


This cooked on low for 4 hours and smelled soooo good!

I used some apple butter to make a syrup that we ate on top without even any butter, it was that good! Kelton raved about it. If he's anything, he's totally honest about my cooking. Hopefully he learns to fib before he gets married!


Next time I need to soak each piece of bread separately before putting them in the crock as the bottom pieces were much more saturated than the top pieces. Oh yea and this is one recipe where you definitely don't want to forget to spray/grease your crock. Trust me!

Labor Day Weekend!

Sat morning we headed over to Eric's parent's house for more playtime with the K-Cousins and Nana's surprise 60th bday party. It's hard to believe nobody spilled the beans!!




The big hit of the weekend was the Gator.
I think they all got in several rides a day!



There were Artie the Airplane rides too, of course! Bugs just taxied this time. She'll go up in the 182 later this fall when it's cooler and not so bumpy.





The big sandbox is always a favorite!



And we can't forget bedtime stories with Nana and Papa!
What a great way to end the day!

Kelton is glad to have another Nascar fan in the family...even if his favorite driver is Jeff Gordon! These boys have the best Papa in the world! He's taking them to the race in KC next month!


These two little ladies are 2 yrs old and exactly 10mo apart in age. Need I say more? :-)

Little Kon Kon wasn't even a figment of our imagination when everyone put their hand/foot prints in the cement at Artie's hanger on 3/17/09.



So that the last k-kid wouldn't be left out, Papa poured some cement and Konny left his mark! At 6mo old, I think his feet are just as big as miss tiny foot Buggy's were at 13mo.






It's also that time of year for APPLES!! And since there was no late freeze this year, there were plenty to go around. We brought home a big box and I've made 4 crockpots full of apple butter so far! (This was my crockpot Wednesday - in case you were wondering. Also Friday and Saturday!)


It's super yummy and also super easy to make. It's Yvette's recipe.

5 qts apples, peeled, cored and chopped
4 cups granulated sugar
4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp salt

Fill crockpot heaping full of apples and drizzle sugar mixture over the top. Cook on high 1 hr. Switch to low and cook all day until mixture becomes thick and dark in color. Poor into hot sterilized jars and seal.

That is a lot of sugar, so I usually cut out at least 1/4 of it and this time I used some demerara sugar too. I also don't have a 5qt crock, just a 4qt and 6qt but I've never had a problem! This is hard to screw up!



I think I have enough apples left to make a couple more batches to keep the house smelling yummy over the weekend!

Crockpot Wednesday, Gravy and the KCousins!

Last week, Dillons had chicken thighs and drumsticks on sale B1G1, so I picked up a couple. I originally thought I would have E bbq them, but then I decided they'd be great for the crockpot today. I wanted to do something different than just dumping them in with bbq sauce, so I found this recipe for Crockpot Sticky Chicken.

Why is it called sticky chicken? Absolutely no idea.
Of course, I never follow any recipe exactly. Obviously, I didn't use a whole chicken and I mixed my minced onion with the dry ingredients. I rubbed each piece down really well and threw them in the crock pot on low.

Then I sat down to nurse the baby.
Then I remembered I forgot the garlic powder.
So I just sprinkled dried minced garlic on top and called it good.

This was done after 7 hrs and the smell had my mouth watering! I made some mashed potatoes, some green beans and decided to try my hand at gravy. It's intimidating, ya know? I ladled out some of the drippings, added some corn starch and the water from boiling the potatoes.

Then I patted myself on the back because it turned out awesome! No lumps and I seriously wanted to drink it!
Then I called my mom to come over for dinner
because it was just that good!

Grocery shopping this week wasn't anything too exciting. At Walgreen's, I got this stuff for $4.76. I stopped back by a 2nd time and got some Free and Clear Tide, another box of tampons, a Blistex and 2 pieces of candy for $3.77.


Thurs nights are always waffle nights at our house. It's easy and that's at least one day a week that I don't have to plan dinner. Last week, I fixed Kelton's waffles up extra special with bananas and chocolate sauce. At least they were whole wheat waffles, right? :)


Katie is such a little momma, always nursing, rocking and singing to her babies. Yesterday when I was wearing Konnor in a sling, she wanted to wear her baby too. I knotted up a blanket, but I think I'm going to have a get her a sling so she can easily put them on herself when she wants. She's just too cute!


I saved the most fun for last! Last night we got a visit from the K Cousins (Uncle Shawn and Aunt Carrie too)!! We had a lot of fun playing, eating watermelon and visiting the pond. We can't wait to play some more over the long weekend!