Jenny's Journey

  With Easter only 1 week away, today was a great day for us to decorate Easter Eggs!  Instead of buying the usual Paas dying kit, I bought Kool-Aid packets!  It worked great and smelled nice and fruity (not the usual vinegar) too! It was soooo easy.  Seriously there is no vinegar and water to measure, no tablets to dissolve.  I used cold water. Assorted colors of Kool-Aid, water and maybe a few drops of food coloring (to help some colors along) (yellow needed a little help and I added a few drops of blue to the purple cup otherwise it was kinda gray.) I did not measure the water…just added enough water in the cup to cover 1  egg. What do you think!?!?     The blue was a gorgeous robins egg blue….so very pretty! Oh and the eggs cooked great too.  I never ever remember how to hard-boil eggs. How I did it was this: 1. Put eggs gently in a large pot and cover with cold salted water (I guess the salt helps them peel better) 2. Bring to...

Happy Valentines Day to everyone I love! I hope you all know who you are!   Hope you all enjoy a nice day with the ones you love as well!  (that’s a big heart cookie from Pinecone Restarant (and Truck Stop…best foods are had a truck stops!) in Johnson Creek!

Oh what memories I brought back when I decided to make homemade play dough!  The smell, especially reminded me of my childhood.  Homemade playdough has a smell unlike store bought Playdoh and you could actually eat it if one felt the urge to do so.  If that’s the case, maybe I can find you a recipe for homemade glue too! This is the recipe I used. 1 cup flour 1 cup H20 1/4 cup salt 2 tsp cream of tarter 1 tsp oil and food coloring of your choice. Mix together the above and heat over medium heat until it comes together.  Dump out onto wax paper or something and knead it together for a bit.  Let it cool.   Or give it to the kids hot….. I personally like playing with it hot, but I like things hot….and this makes a super soft, pliable dough. Jenna giving the little girl a dough cut, when she badly needs a hair cut herself!!!

This here is a picture of the 2 bird feeders the girls made (only 1 in the picture).  You take a toilet paper roll, cover it with PB and then cover it with bird seed…then slip it onto the tree branch.  The birds loved it…had 2 cardinals on it this morning!  So cool to see.  One thing I love to see in winter is all the birds eating the seeds off of the snow on the ground.  Such a nice contrast, you can really make out all the different kinds of  birds there are!  Funny thing is that when I came back in that nite from putting out these feeders….there is Jadyn and Jenna eating PB….and the occasional bird seed as well.  Jadyn was attempting to spit out the seeds, Jenna just ate it all!  Jadyn looked up at me and had 2 pieces of seed stuck to the side of her mouth!!  I know…you would think I didn’t feed my kids!! Now here are my 2 attempts at felt flower making….the one kind (the pom pom looking ones was super easy.)  Jenna wore this hea...

As of this upcoming Saturday we are taking our 1st official vacation as a family.  This will be the first time ever that James and I have taken the girls on an extended vacation from home.  We have done, 2 days max with them...that been it.  Just the 4 of us! It should be a blast, as long as the weather behaves! On Saturday we are driving 5 hours north, to Lac du Flambeau Wisconsin.  We will be only 15 minutes from the resort area of Minocqua and Woodruff, Wisconsin.  Right now the only thing that worries me a bit is the 5 hour drive.  That is along time for anyone to drive, let alone little kids stuck in car seats!  We plan on making stops, one most definitely being McDonalds, with a playland to let them use up some energy!!! The place we are staying at is:  http://www.timberbayresort.com/  and we are staying in the smallest cabin the Cedarwood.  It looks nice, way nicer than some I had seen while scoping out a place to stay!!...

This is what our house is always like!  Makes for lots of laughs!

Its been a long time, but since my computer has been giving me some major problems I really didnt feel like doing much computing other than checking my email every so often.  After speaking with BTGS (Better Than Geek Squad - aka my brothers)  it was thought that I was due for a new computer anyways.  Jeff did a little searching for a new laptop and I finally have it to use!  I even went wireless baby!  OMG!  I am soooo with it.  So, here I sit...on the couch laptop on my lap (no really?!?!?) and James is watching Wild Justice(???) on the tv....and LIFE IS GOOD.  Oh and we also did the annual Breakfast with Santa at the Pfister hotel this morning.  It was very nice as always!  Jenna did NOT like Santa...but I do recall Jadyn at the same age freaking out as well!  Afterward we all headed over to Jim and Nicole's for Brooke's 12th Birthday Party!!  (That is where I picked up my new laptop!

Saturday - October 10, 2010  Team Jenna The one we stride for....Jenna Wow, we could not have asked for a better day! 100x better then last years weather!  Made the 5 mile walk much more bearable! This year Team Jenna consisted of Jenna, Jadyn, James, my Mom, Shelly, Jake, Joyce, Kim and myself. (Becky and Jim were part of our team but something came up last minute) As a team we raised $1080.00 for CHW!  Its a bit down from last year, but we had a few less people on our team, plus I noticed (others did too) that many people donated less this year. (I wonder why!?!?) We made our usual stop at Dunkin' Donuts along the way....and I am sad to say that in doing so we once again were being chased by the street sweepers and cop cars!  Next year I think we will need to bring donuts with us!  We were done around 1230/1245 and let the girls play at the playground for awhile (which was nice cause there were barely any kids there!) After leaving...

I was off of work the last 4 days...and really enjoyed my time too! On Thursday I spent the entire day with my Mom in the Brookfield area...shopping, lunch (at Stir Fry)...etc.  Thanks Mom...I had a really nice day with you! Friday my Mom came over again and she planned on painting my dining room, but instead decided on Kohls, Menards, lunch at PineCone and then home to do some yard work.  My Mom bought us a burning bush for our yard for our Anniversary(because I had wanted one) and they were on sale at Steins....and the weather has been great lately for planting.  Oh, and yes....Jadyn was in school both days and yes I sent Jenna to school both days as well.  Saturday, all of us(the 4J's) took a ride to Madison for the Farmers Market.  We got caught in a bit of Badger traffic, but overall we got there with out much trouble.  Found a great parking space.  We purchased fingerling potatoes, a dozen ears of corn, Zestar apples (1/2 peck), Salsa Verde...

When I got home from work on Friday, I was completely surprised to see flowers in a box on my porch...couldn't imagine who they would be from!  They were from Jacob, my godson!  How nice. I made sure I called and thanked him!! They are gorgeous!  For my birthday we went to La Merenda for dinner (a tapas restaurant). We had been there before 2 years ago for our anniversary and enjoyed it so we decided to go back.(which is kinda against our date nite rules!!!)  I broke the rules when I took the picture of the two of us above, because it was at the Marcus Center for the Performing Arts before the musical Wicked!  Got yelled at...but whatever! We had great seats, Row N Seats 9/10.  It was a great performance.   Interesting story of the witches before Dorothy came to OZ!  Saturday, my entire family 14 of us in all, went to the Brewers game.  We tailgated and had seats in Section 222.  It was awesome because the first h...

This happened some time this morning and I am still attempting to clean it all up.  Keep finding it everywhere!  Hey, I was tired and laying on the couch...wondering what Jenna was up to!

My 11 day vacation started today, Friday July 9th.  James didn't have to work either, so he had a wonderful idea to go up to Green Bay to the Bay Beach Amusement Park!  We all really enjoyed the time together! Jadyn and I went on the Ferris Wheel and Tilt a Whirl together and she also went on the Tilt a Whirl with Daddy !  She loves spinney type rides!  Fast ones too!    We even brought the girls swimsuits along (though we did not put Jenna's on her and her diaper swelled up because of that!!! I think it weighed more then she does!!!) Jenna really liked the water! James thought Jenna was feeling a bit left out because she so desperately wanted to go on a ride that James was putting Jadyn into, so we gave in and let Jenna try out a few rides!  She did great.  Only one she could not go on because she would not sit! Of course we took a train ride!  We had packed bags along in case we decided to get a hot...

We had a busy Memorial Day weekend.  Well Friday we started out by hitting a local place called Sweetie Pies for fish.  It had been noted in the Journal awhile ago about how good the fish was.  We agreed. Saturday I took the girls grocery shopping and James went and got his tire(he had a flat on Tuesday nite) taken care of (thankfully the tire was surprisingly under warranty and it was replaced FREE!!) and then got his Dad's truck and got 1 1/2 yards of mulch.  Well, next year we will have to remember we only need 1 yard!  We ended up putting 2 1/2 wheel barrels in the back of our lot, cause we didnt know where to go with it all!  It was hot and hard work, but I am glad it is done.  I am guessing James is too, because now I can stop nagging him about it!  Don't worry, I will find something else!  That evening we drove out to Hwy 18 and 89 in Jefferson, to the Hwy 18 Drive-in and saw the newest Shrek movie!  Jadyn loved it! Jenna was a ...

First push-up pops of the season!  To only be eaten outside!

Jenna had her 2nd surgery on this past Wednesday.  The surgery allowed the Dr to explore the area and see what was really going on in there. (it is extremely hard to look in a baby's mouth when they are awake!) Dr Denny said to expect the worse and hope for the best.  We thankfully got the best!  Only one side of her gums/palate needed to be repaired.  The front, back and left side of her palate are fine!  The right side would cause problems in the future if not fixed.  So she only has stiches on that side. Because the surgery was not as extensive as first expected, she (we) also got to home the same day!  We were home around 415pm! It was a rough evening and nite, but we did finally get a smile and laugs out of her!  That was good to see!  Hardest part for her right now seems to be the sleeping.  She has to have the arm bands on 24/7 for 2 weeks.  But at 2 am Thursday morning when she woke up she wanted to eat...so she had...