… an awesome post about our friendship here.

Only 5 days left to do your wedding post for the first ever Eli’s Lids Linky…
Remember When you got married?
Did you have a big princess wedding? An elegant beach wedding? A shotgun wedding? Elope? Did you get wasted and wed in Vegas?
Share your unique day with me…. because I want to know… really!! I love this stuff.
It will be so much fun to show off what a hottie you were in your wedding dress and those perfect centerpieces and that family member that got a bit too wild and the first dance and…
Just to get your juices flowing… below is one picture from my wedding… I love that the breeze is blowing my veil off my face. We are listening to our vows and Brad is thinking “I can’t wait for tonight!!” (btw – I did have a chocolate fountain at my wedding… it broke… so we turned it into chocolate fondue!!)

Rules for the Linky (simple but read them anyway!)…

• The post has to be about a wedding… if you haven’t had one or are too embarrassed to share yours, post some vintage pix of your grandma’s big day. (I’m thinking I’ll do my mom’s and my Granmom’s too!!)
• It should have pictures
• When you add your link, do it for that specific post only. NOT your blog
• It doesn’t have to be a new post… so if you posted about your wedding 3 years ago and you don’t want to write a new one, just link to the one you already did!
• Link your post back to the my post on the 27th so your blog visitors can join the wedding-show-off-fun too!
• Comment on the weddings you visit… cuz we all LOVE comments!!

(If you don’t know how to do a linky then just email me and I’ll walk you through it!! That’s how bad I want to see your wedding mania!)

~Breast milk is best for baby.

In honor of this special occasion I got new PJs and I’m going to get all new bras this weekend (thanks to Hot Hubby’s $50 visa gift card, an award for being awesome at work… you go babe!!).

*Now don’t go showing me cute nursing bras, I know they exist. They are too expensive and I wasn’t about to spend non-necessity moo-la till the magic one-year-switch-to-whole-milk-milestone.

Every once in a while one of our pop-up books is a little roughed up and gets ripped apart (I’m sure this never happens at your house). I had been taping them… which lasts about 2.5 seconds before it is back into the fix-it pile.
So I came up with this solution…

Reminder:

The first Eli’s Lids Linky “Remember When You Got Married?”will be on January 27th. So get those photos scanned in, and that post written so you can show off your day as a bride (or anti-bride!)!!!

This post was written by Cheri…

~1/2 of a 17.3 oz package Pepperidge Farm Pastery Sheet (1 sheet)
~1 egg
~1 tbsp. water
~1/2 cup apricot preserves OR seedless raspberry jam
~1/3 cup dried cranberry, softened*
~1/4 cup toasted sliced almond
~1 (13.2 ounces) Brie cheese round~1 pkg. crackers

Thaw the pastry sheet at room temperature for 40 minutes or until it’s easy to handle. Heat the oven to 400°F. Mix the egg and water in a small bowl. Unfold the pastry sheet on a lightly floured surface. Roll the pastry sheet into a 14-inch square. Cut off the corners to make a circle. Spread the preserves on the pastry circle to within 1-inch of the edge. Sprinkle the cranberries and almonds over the preserves. Place the cheese in the center of the pastry circle. Brush the edge of the pastry circle with the egg mixture. Fold 2 opposite sides over the cheese. Trim the remaining 2 sides to 2-inches from the edge of the cheese and fold them up onto the cheese. Press the edges to seal. Place seam-side down on a baking sheet. Decorate the top with the pastry scraps, if desired. Brush with the egg mixture.

Bake for 20 minutes or until the pastry is golden. Let stand for 1 hour. Serve with the crackers.

*To soften the cranberries, mix the cranberries and 1/2 cup hot water in a small bowl. Let stand for 1 minute. Drain and pat the cranberries dry.

This turned out so good! I brought it to a party and those who tried it seemed to really like it. I brought the rest of it home and my mom and I devoured it. yummy! We ate this with Wheat Thins.

1 pkg McCormick Sauce Mix (beef stroganoff)
2 tbsp. oil
1 1/2 lbs. boneless beef sirloin, trimmed and cut into thin strips
1 cup water
1 cup sour cream

Heat oil in large skillet on medium-high heat. Add beef; cook and stir 2 minutes or until no longer pink. Stir in Sauce Mix and water. Bring to boil; cover. Reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat; stir in sour cream. Serve over noodles or rice.

I like to make quick easy meals sometimes because my kids are so young and need my attention. This was a new one for me and I really liked it (my husband especially). To jazz it up a bit you can add 2 tbsp white wine or sherry and 1 pkg (8oz) sliced fresh mushrooms with the sauce mix and water. I may try that next time I make this.

1 egg
1 1/2 sticks of butter softened
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups flour
1 cup of chocolate chips (milk, semi-sweet, white, peanut butter, whatever you please)

Stir softened butter, egg, sugars, and vanilla together. In a separate bowl mix the flour, baking soda, and salt. Blend the flour mixture into the sugar mixture and add chocolate chips. Form balls ( I use ice cream scooper) Bake at 375 10 minutes.

These really are my favorite cookie. When I try other peoples I just wish they had my recipe! I used half peanut butter chips and half milk chocolate chips. My youngest son Nash loves them and gets very upset if he sees them and they aren’t in his mouth. So I hid them from everyone in the family but me. Selfish, maybe, but I’m just watching out for their health….I promise!

Cheri and her husband, Devin, reside in Illinois with their two little boys, Kai and Nash. Devin is a worship leader and Cheri is a mama extraordinaire!

She also creates awesome beaded girl’s socks! You can find them at her etsy shop or take a quick look at her featured post.

I have a favorite blog… it’s called the Nie Nie Dialogues. The author, Stephanie Nielson was in a private plane crash with her husband (Christian) and a flight instructor. The instructor died but Stephanie and Christian survived. Stephanie has been in a drug induced coma for about 4 months enduring surgery after surgery while extended family watched her 4 young kiddos. Nie is awake, in the middle of a long burn recovery process, and today was her first day back on her blog. Stephanie is such an inspirational wife and mama… the kind of gal you just want to be friends with.
In honor Nie’s return to the blogging world I decided to pay my respects by doing something Nie does…

I had gotten a hand orange squeezer thing at my wedding and never used it (but kept it around… just in case). I pulled it out along with my favorite cherry pitcher and got ready to squeeze my little heart out.This proved to be much more difficult than I expected with the hand squeezer thing… I began to examine it. “This sure is small and it is in a narrow oval shape… like a lemon!” That’s right I am making fresh squeezed OJ with a lemon squeezer. But I pressed on cutting the oranges into 4 slices and kept it up.

I thought this was even more fitting because what began as something very Nie-esqu: making fresh squeezed OJ… turned into something

very Kara-Noel-esqu: a little off, kinda silly and always fun! The juice came out delicious! Eli (who can eat 7 oranges in one sitting… yes 7!!) loved it.

We are blessed!

Coming soon…

Awesome Recipes from Cheri

Hot Hubby’s B-day Review

&

Eli’s ER Escapade!

(btw- our computer still has limited access because of the virus so I apologize for not responding to comments. I’m going into withdrawal because I can’t blog hop or post as often!)

I can’t click the links on blogs or twitter, ebay doesn’t work, I can google but I can’t click on links after the search…ug!
We have caught something… from Twitter, I think. Please help me if you know what to do… or google and email me with what to do. I’m going to sit here and cry… well I’m going to Bible study and then doing the dishes… but when the kids go down for a nap and I can’t blog hop I’ll be crying… well, I’ll be organizing the paper work… but I’ll be super bummed! Help!

Saturday night we were driving along (to church no less!) and we were hit by some clown!

I feel the best way to articulate this epic story is through washable markers and my little paper cut outs…

Crazy… I know! We are all OK and luckily the clown has insurance.

Sunday we went car shopping and Wednesday we bought one. You don’t mess around when you only have one car and it is totaled!

We got a minivan… it’s the bomb diggity!!

Eli tells the story like this…
Mmmmm… I think that…

Perfect!

Why am I jumping for joy?

Because we have been saving our pennies, so our car fund combined with the insurance money from the total = no car payment!! Yeah!

I can’t believe I have such a nice ride… I feel like a queen. I mean I have butt warmers for goodness sake!

But Hot Hubby and I are both hurting… backs and knees (of all places). The kiddos haven’t complained but it is hard to tell because they are so young. We are getting checked out on Monday.

Send us all your prayers! (Well not all of them… the government could use some and how about the new CPSIA law?… don’t even get me started!)

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Reminder – The first ever Eli’s Lids Linky is on January 27th!

Remember When You Got Married

I wasn’t at your wedding and I’m dying to see the best photos! So scan them in and get that post ready to be put up on the 27th.

Spread the word because you know you want to show off how hot you looked in that dress!!!