Snowman Day Without Going Outside!

So the past 2 months I have continued my Dads tradition of Soup Sunday (I will get into more details with that later this Fall/early Winter). I love the concept of on Sundays in the Winter cold months you have something nice and hot brewing all day. Soups are good for left overs too (total plus when you are working and tired during the week)! Well, this Sunday I did something I have wanted to do since October (yes I plan that far out sometimes). Snowman Day!!!!!!!! Perfect timing we had a light dusting of snow on the ground when I began to make dinner.  See the menu and pics below.




Time to stay warm while dinner is cooking. This is homemade Hot Cocoa.
Just recently I started making my cocoa from scratch
with cocoa powder, sugar, milk, a little vanilla and cinanmon.
We all LOVE it!!!!

My assistant....



This adorable snowman has 3 completely different tastes.
The head is a baslamic oil drizzle and oregano and shredded parm.
The body is a homemade garlic butter and mozzerela cheese.
The bottom portion is a shredded chicken alfredo pizza.
 

Proud little Stinker cannot wait to share his Pizza Snowman with the family!

                                     And for dessert......... simple and quick thats what I like!


 I was determined to make each face different colors. I got the sprinkles to stay on with corn syrup, the eyes are chocolate chips, the nose is a peanut and of course the body is a mini powdered donut.


BEST part of snowman day was my secret recipes worked. ALL schools in the area the next morning got a snowday! Hooray!!!! No eating the leftovers the next day did not get a second snow day. :-)

Merry Christmas 2012

Simple and quick Christmas Eve breakfast we brought to the In-Laws. Heads up grapes in the Winter are not cheap but it was so worth it and turned out really cute.

 

Me and Sport trying to make a frame to freeze time.

I wanted to wish you all a VERY Merry Christmas! Cherish every second of the holiday chaos hustle and bustle. I'll be signing off and cherishing my family time. See you in 2013 for lot's of new and fun family adventures. 

We Give Thanks 2012

Although Spooky Week is one of my most favorite times of the year. I must say that the Thanksgiving Season and Day is pretty high on my list too. There is no better day to make everyone really stop and appreciate exactly how blessed we are. Well at least that is how my family uses this season and day.

 

 Starting 7 years ago Hubby and I laid out a schedule (I know this is no surprise me and a plan). I'm sure many of you have the challenges of "picking" a family or side for each Holiday. WELL after many many many days of discussing him and I created what we think is the best of all (at least for us). Christmas Eve is always with his family (I will share more of the Christmas layout in a different blog), Easter we rotate years his side of the family and then mine. Yes, it is possible to do breakfast with one and dinner with another but with the 1 1/2hr drive each way that's 3 hrs in the car to see his family alone its really alot of added stress and normally turns out to just be tired and upset all around. We try to see the family who has the "off year" either Good Friday or Holy Saturday. Thanksgiving.... well as ALL know we LOVE the kitchen. Hubby was a chef back in the day about 15 years ago and cooking and making a mess is a hobby to him. I locked it in as Thanksgiving will always be at our house!

 

Yes, this was a HUGE fight and unfortunately sometimes it still stirs up trouble, but sometimes as a parent you stand your ground this is the one holiday I can lock in traditions how we want. The rule for Thanksgiving is our door is always open! We don't mind if ALL sides of the family from both sides come or if it is just us. We are so grateful to God for having the roof over our heads, the food we eat each day, that all the extra visitors throughout the years are considered even extra blessings when we get them. 

 

 

 

We were blessed with Jasons parents and sisters family coming over for Thanksgiving this year. First Thanksgiving at our house with them and it was our FIRST holiday hosting at the new house.

 

So I mentioned Thanksgiving traditions let's dig in....

 

* We have been so lucky enough to be chosen by an Elf on the Shelf each Thanksgiving morning our family member Elbie the Elf makes his annual appearance to stay for the next month and he does something different EVERYDAY from this day until Christmas Eve.

* As a couponer you could only expect I am a shop til you drop Black Friday Shopper. Although you can start to find out sales and deals ahead of time and I am highly disappointed lately that stores open soooooo early it is really starting to take away from it BUT you really do get some great deals. Plus this is a tradition in itself that I go just us girls with my Mom and Sister, coffees in hand and our Plan of Actions (POAs).

* Hubby makes the dinner and I do the appetizers (crafty and cute of course)

* We always watch the movie Willow.... I know this movie has NOTHING to do with Thanksgiving but I'm laying out the traditions and this is on the things to do list we started years ago.

* Chef Dadda makes most of the desserts ahead of time which helps with the day of (yet again another tradition to always assist in baking the few days ahead of time).

* My favorite of all... we ALWAYS do a "Give Thanks" activity and craft. Each year I make the craft a little different but the main focus is for everyone to reflect what they are thankful that year and in life. I have saved all submissions from everyone and plan (one day) to make a memory book of all of the answers.

This year we were blessed with the first time Thanksgiving Day visit from Grandma and Grandpa Reseigh and the Neeb Family (Chef Dadda's sister). It was a wonderful and rather relaxing day and evening! 

I love moments that are captured like this!

 

I have the kids working on a Thanksgiving madlib (lame me I know having them work and learn but it was actually silly and fun).

So cute! I made Pilgrim Hat (hot dog bites), pumpkin shaped deviled eggs, a Turkey Shaped cheese Ball (crackers and pretzels as the feathers) and a "garden" of pumpkins (little carrots in hummus spread in far back behind cheeseball).

Fantastic job Chef Dadda!!! (May I add yes I have all dishes caught up and cleaned slight OCD that I follow him with a sponge).

 

 Great and breaking news.... we have discovered and will start a new tradition on Black Friday nights we will now attend the Holiday Lights Parade festival. This was our first visit with this and although it was VERY cold but it was beautiful and worth it.

Super excited to add it to the perfect family day traditions!!!

 

Reseigh VS Food - Noodles (Kun Fu Panda)

This challenge was not on amount of food but the heat index and timed (30minutes) for the family to finish 6 packages. GOOOOOOOOOO team!

 



Reseighs took win!!!

Hellooo.. Goodbye another weekend come and gone

 This past week flew by but with nothing but smiles.  Simple recap....
Friday -  I went out and used my Groupon to Dream Dinners with my mom. See a little alone time not only did we have a good time BUT I left there with 6 ready to eat meals to add to my freeze to have on hand. Friday due to a very great solid straight A progress report my Dad (Papa) took Jeffrey to the home opener Red Wings game. They had a great time... a little alone time for them (hasn't happened in a while). He also came back in a great mood.


My Mom and I getting ready to knock out some meals together.



Look at her concentrating so hard and then there is me... was that suppose to be Tsp or Tbl?


Nothing beats a great feeling of having on-hand ready to make meals completely ready in the freezer outside.



Look at this amazing 4th grade progress report from all of his teachers.


Yup it earned him a special night out with Papa just the 2 of them for the Home Opener Red Wings Game!!! Stinker is trying to go so we had to sneak them out.


Saturday - Jason and my dad went and used their golf Groupon and had a beautiful day of 18holes. Me and the boys played outside, did some yard work and just enjoyed some quiet time. We then had a fantastic night reuniting with the All Star baseball families at one of their houses. Of course the boys were gone and played for hours. The Dads also gone and watched sports together. The Moms sipped some drinks and we too even found some time to relax. Our goal was to leave by 9:30...NOPE we didn't leave until 1am. No worries Stinker fell asleep long before that, which is why we were able to enjoy a couple more hours.

Sunday - Its a beautiful day that couldn't be passed up. We utilized our Greenfield Village pass and brought along Nonna and Papa. We all had an absolute fantastic time. We took a train ride, rode in the Model T cars, we learned a lot about Thomas Edison. It was a great day we had a nice picnic. Sunday evening the boys had the typical neighborhood play date in our backyard but I don't mind all the giggles and smiles it was great to see all the kids enjoying the weather together.


Mom, Dad, & Sport riding in the Model T behind us.


Stinker taking a deep breath of the beautiful mother nature surrounding us.


This is one of my favorite buildings the garden house. Where's Waldo/Papa I love that I was able to capture him with these beautiful colors AND he has a smile!


My Mom and Dad are waiting outside in the front of the Thomas Edison building. Sport wouldn't leave, he had so many questions and wanted to learn. The workers were very patient with him it was cute.


We took a nice family train ride around the whole Village. What a BEAUTIFUL day and place to escape to.

Another wonderful weekend with the family enjoying time together & making memories.

What's Cookin

About 3 years ago I was brainstorming about creating my own cookbook. I know, I know stop laughing. Me in the kitchen?!?! It doesn't happen often and when it does I normally complain about it.  However, my plan for the cookbook wasn't to create all new recipes but to adapt ones to my family's needs, taste buds... however I realized that's what everyone does and let's be real its probably best I leave the REAL recipe mixing and changing up to someone else.  My real favorite part about the kitchen is the planning and the creativity!!! Its teamwork in our house about 60% of the cooking is done by my hubby "The Chef".  I like the behind the scenes but still help out with about 40% cooking when we are in a pinch or he is on travel. in addition to pulling the menus together, find sales (couponing is another addiction of mine),  my ultimate favorite part is adding a twist to the kitchen/menu each and every possible way.  We have huge holiday menus with artsy looking food, playing with our food, games with our food. After doing this for a while I realized that we really do have something to share and hope that you and others enjoy it too! Together me and hubby are like the perfect ice cream sundae. He is the ice cream (gets the food prepared and cooked) and I add the syrup, sprinkles, whip cream, and cherry (all the fun, creativity, and finishing touches)!  We are't chefs (well he does have experience in the kitchen), you won't find many "original" recipes on here but the creativity is endless and so is the fun! Enjoy!!!!

Reseigh VS Food - The Not So Wimpy Burger Challenge

Around the corner from where I grew up there was a Coney Island and served the best "Wimpy Burgers" aka slidders.  I tried to recreate these awesome burings and turned it into a family challenge using Hawiaan dinner rolls (24), 2lbs of burger, and a whole bag of steak fries. 

Yummy! These were soooooooo tasty!

Yes this is JUST his  plate with a beer to wash it down.

Sport 1st down. I lost count how many he really got down I think 5 or 6.

All smiles from our little stinker. He did pretty good and even cheated gave Rosie our dog a few bites but we let it slide. She is part of the family too!

My boys are quitting on me. Notice I'm behind the camera... I actually quit on them much sooner than I hoped. The fries was the big kicker...WAY too much!  Chef Dadda started eating about 3 at a time to get them down faster. Sport has one more burger to go and we win the challenge!

Pretty sure Sport passed out at the table BUT the Reseighs are back on the board and won the challenge! 

Reseigh VS Food - High Five Flap Jack

Well that peppy mom in me (from my cheerleader days), I added another twist to our challenge. No time frame to beat just a fun light dinner. The rule at dinner today was after each pancake someone ate we had to High 5 the rest of the family. Fine call it cheesy but we had a good time!!! 

This has been Stinker's favorite challenge so far but that little tummy wasn't too much help he didn't even finish one.

Let the high fives begin!!!

Check out the size of the pancake vs a large dinner plate!

Needless to say, although we had fun doing this challenge, the Reseigh's did not win. We had great leftovers for breakfast the next day!

Reseigh VS Food - Cinco De Mayo in October



Crunchy or soft .... we had both! We had a burrito challenge which everyone enjoyed. This was straight up taco night! No sides needed (well unless you count the beans) but the boys added those to their taco not me.  All in all we did really well.  Technically we had a few shells left over, but we are the judges and hands down we took a win.

Look at that cutie all excited to take another challenge.

We won and most importantly look at those smiles filled with success! 



Reseigh VS Food - I Scream, You Scream

The Reseighs all enjoyed LOTS of ice cream. Thank you to Man VS Food we created a dessert challenge.  2 waffles and 3 large scoops of ice cream for each of us.  Piece of cake... or should I say "waffle".  The

Reseigh won this challenge by a long shot. Guess we have a sweet tooth or two in the house.

Reseigh VS Food - Mangia Mangia!!!

The spaghetti challenge include 3lbs of noodles, 2 lbs of meat and sauce and a box of Texas Toast to top it off.  Really no words can explain just how much food that was. We even brought in some ringers Nonna & Papa who brought over some vino to help it go down.

Look at the size of the meatballs!!!!

A good view of proportion. Look at the size of the meatball next to the glass of wine OR even Stinker's head!

Little Stinker didn't last long before he backed out from the pasta and moved on to his own "vino".

Sport was the last man standing and was going strong for a while.

There wasn't even a dent in the plate the Reseighs did not come close to winning this challenge but we had a ton of leftovers.