When sleep evades...

What do you do?

I drank coffee much to late in the evening last night.  I guess after a certain point I need to switch to decaf.  It has never affected me that much in the past but perhaps after having 3 children my body chemistry has changed.

So, last night I decided not to let myself be idle since I was up.  So I cleaned my house.  Living room looks great and so does the bathroom.  Kitchen is getting there.  I have a counter to clean and some dishes to do yet but then we are golden in that room too.

As I was doing this I was wondering what kind of products other people use.  I have my routine in my cleaning and certain products that I swear buy but there are always a few that I am not quite as pleased with.  They don't quite perform as I would have hoped.  I don't want to go out and buy a whole second set of cleaners that I may or may not like, so I thought I would ask you!

What kinds of cleaning products do you use?  Why do you like them?  Are there any that you have tried that you do not like?  Why?

Palm Sunday

Today is Palm Sunday.  We had a wonderful sermon about the surprises that people may have heard/encountered during this holy week. 

During Sunday school my kids made Resurrection Eggs.  There are 12 eggs that each have a part of the Easter story in them, along with a list of what each egg holds and means and the scripture where the story is found.  The girls have been playing with them since we got home.  I think they know the story by heart.  :)

They also received the traditional palm branches today as well.  My two year old promptly took all the leaves off of it.  So my four year old followed suit.  My husband then told them they had "whipping sticks" (along with the don't hit each other with them speech).  My two year old then proceeded to tell us that, "They hit Jesus with the whipping sticks.  They are naughty.  That is not nice."  If you know my two year old you would know that she was VERY passionate about this statement and crossed her arms to let us know this was serious business.  As cute as it was, it is true. 

I sit here in wonder listening to my four year old telling the story to the two year old over and over and over again. 

Happy Palm Sunday everyone!

Spring! I love it!

I grew up in southwestern Minnesota.  Minnesota doesn't really have spring per say.  It has winter (and lots of it) and hot, humid summer.  Fall and spring totally get lost.
Since I moved out here for college I have found that I am TOTALLY in love with spring and fall.  As a mom I especially love these seasons.  There are so many things for my kids to learn about.  I can send them outside to play in the sandbox, play with chalk, play in the dirt.  They love to dig in the dirt and find things...worms, rocks, sticks, you get the idea.
I hope that this year I can have them "help" me with planting a few things.  Perhaps some flowers or some veggies.  We only have a small area that we can plant things in but I look forward to these memories with my kids.  Today seems like it is going to be another FABULOUS day, so we will likely spend much of it outdoors.
I hope to find some good homemade recipes for chalk, bubbles, and many outdoor fun things.  When I find a good one I will be sure to share it all with you.
Enjoy this wonderful spring day!

A beautiful spring day!

Today was perfect!  We had such a GREAT day.  We took Corbin to his first auto show and he did great, as did the girls.  :)  We got the kids some new clothes from Once Upon A Child, they had an AMAZING sale.  We also got a picnic table from there today.  I am SO excited.


Then we went for a walk downtown.  We walked through the short north and then went to the North Market.  It was such a beautiful day for a walk.  Then we went and saw where my mom, mother in law, sister and I would be staying while we are at a women's conference this spring.  It is literally 2 city blocks from where the conference is.  I am so excited about it.  :)

Now we are relaxing at home with 3 freshly bathed kids with full bellies.  Talk about an amazing day.  I hope that this spring/summer has MANY more of these days in store for us.

Crazy Day

The last week has been crazy around here!
A good friend of ours just had her baby, CONGRATS!  So we have been (along with many others) helping them out this week.  He is the most precious little guy ever.  :)

I am currently working on crocheting a blanket for my friend's baby.  It should have been done a while ago but I lost the yarn and just now got around to buying more.  It is coming along nicely and I am hoping that I will have time this weekend to get a good piece of it done.  I will post pics when I am done with it.

Another project on the burner is a tie-chair.  It is a portable, cloth high-chair that fits right on a regular chair.  I have not been able to find a pattern so it is going to be coming all from my own head.  Wish me luck!

The girls' Easter dresses are cut out and are waiting for me.  I really need to get those done this weekend or I will be scrambling next week.

That is all for now, I am sure we will have another fun filled weekend with lots of pics to share with you.
Have a great weekend!

Easy Grilled Chicken Teriyaki Dinner

Oh my goodness!  This was one of the best meals that I have made in a long while.  It was sooo easy too!
I made Chicken Teriyaki on the grill served over a salad with pineapple rice and asparagus.  It was sooo yummy!  And easy to boot!  :)

Here is what I did:

Grilled Chicken Teriyaki

1 bag chicken tenderloins
3/4 c teriyaki sauce/marinade
1/2 c pineapple juice
1/4 c olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
Generous squirt of lemon juice

Mix all the ingredients together and toss in a large zip top baggie for a few hours.  I did mine before church and we grilled around 6pm (my marinade time was about 9 hrs).

Prepare your grill with vegetable oil.  Then grill 3-4 minutes on each side.

I did a bag of salad and tossed a few pieces of pineapple in with it to carry the flavor through.

I prepare my rice as directed from the package and tossed in a bit of pineapple juice and citrus grill seasoning.  When the rice was finished I tossed a few pieces of pineapple as well.

The asparagus I think was AMAZING, and I am not a huge asparagus fan.

I cleaned and prepared the aspargus and then heated 2 T of butter in a pan.  I then added a splash of pineapple juice, salt and pepper, and a splash of lemon juice.  I cooked them over medium heat for about 10 minutes.  Half way through the cooking I covered them.

This is what our dinner looked like.

After we ate I decided to try making this molten lava cake mix I had.  It turned out pretty well!  Here is a picture of that.

Painting and Pasta

Today was a rainy, dreary day.  So I had to think quick to occupy the kids.  The baby was easy, food, toys, sleep, done.  :)  The girls were just about as easy as well.  Earlier in the week we had gone to JoAnn's and did a little rainy day shopping.  They had mini plaster figurines that you could paint (2 for $1) so I bought several packs of those.

This occupied the girls (that and painting on construction paper) for almost the whole afternoon.  Here are a few pictures of that.

And just for good measure a cute pic of my little guy...

I tried a new recipe (from my head) for macaroni and cheese tonight.  It turned out REALLY well.  :)  Three different kinds of cheese, sausage and green beans.  I will post the recipe soon, with pics.

Little bit of this and a little bit of that...

The last few days have been beautiful!  The days are sunny and bright with the rain in the evening/mornings.  We have been to the zoo twice this week and outside every day.  I love it when the weather looks up.  The kids have enjoyed being outside as much as I have.  We have been riding bikes and playing with chalk.  Going for walks and finding treasures (aka: rocks, sticks and leaves). 

I am planning to start the girls' Easter dresses this weekend.  Then I will attempt a collared and buttoned shirt for Corbin. 

I have also made plans to make I Spy bags (don't worry, when I get to them I will put up a tutorial).  We plan to go on a long trip back to Minnesota this summer and the I Spy bags are going to help us on that long car ride.  The gist of an I Spy bag is you put random objects in a bag and fill it with plastic pellets or rice.  Then you have a list of the objects and the kids need to find the objects by moving the pellets/rice around.

I have always had trouble with making No Bake cookies.  Well, a friend of mine said she had a recipe that would work.  After balking at the idea for a while I took the plunge and tried them yesterday.  To my amazement they actually worked!  I still can't believe it.  They are just like they should be. 

See I told you it was a little bit of this and a little bit of that.  :D

Pooh Sticks

The weather here is beautiful!  It was 55* here today.
So with such wonderful weather, we took advantage of it and had an impromptu playdate.
We took a walk with a friend to a local park.  When we arrived the park was, well, "broken" as we told the kids.  There was so much water and muck we knew it was a bad idea.

Plan B, we took a walk to a bridge and played "Pooh Sticks".  Ya know, the game where you toss a stick into a river/stream from a bridge and then run to the other side to see who's stick comes out first.  So we all grabbed a stick (or piece of mulch) and tossed it in...on one side or the other.  When you play this game with a 4 year old, a 2 year old and 21 month old this is what you get.  :)

After the wonder of "Pooh Sticks" wore off the girls picked up sticks and played in the grass.  It was a wonderful chance for the the kids to get out and enjoy the sun.

Here are a few pictures of our "Pooh Sticks" adventure:

So I may have gone a little photo crazy but we had such a good time.  I definitely see more "Pooh Sticks" adventures in our future.

A new day, a new challenge.

Recently, I decided that I should start to run.  So this last week I did so.  I have completed my first full week of the Couch to 5K program!  It is GREAT!  I just started my second week today, and I did it pushing my 4 year old and 2 year old in our new to us jogging stroller.  I did pretty darn well!  My iPod, that plays my C25K podcasts, died mid run today.  Thankfully I had been paying attention to see about how long it took me to do one set of run/walks.  That way I could finish it up without having the podcast.  Now, I did it but I certainly enjoy it more with the podcast in my ear.  :)

For more information on the Couch to 5K program go to:
http://www.coolrunning.com/engine/2/2_3/181.shtml

Here is where I find my podcasts:
http://www.ullreys.com/robert/Podcasts/podcasts/podcasts.html

And so it begins...

...a new blog.
I would first like to introduce myself.
I am Alison, a stay-at-home mom who has three children.  I have 2 daughters (ages 4 and 2) and a son (7 months).  I have been married to my husband, Dan, for almost 6 years.
I love to craft, cook and dabble in many things.  My current crafting craze is quilting and sewing.  I have made three quilts, one for each of my children.  I am going to be starting the kids' Easter outfits very soon.
I hope to be able to try new things and share them with you at the same time.
I am new to blogging so we will see how it goes.  I will be learning as I go so please bear with me as I work out the details.

I can't wait to get started!  
Here are a couple of pictures of the previously mentioned quilts I have made.