Merry Christmas

From my family to yours.



Everyone have a wonderful holiday!

Wedding Wednesday: Invitations!

I ordered them!!!

Now obviously I can't show you them as I am currently buried in invitations, envelope's, response cards and maps, and they haven't been sent out yet.

But I did want to talk about the amazing website that I ordered them from.

Invitations were beginning to become the worlds most annoying wedding duty. I couldn't decide if I wanted to make them or have them made, and when I went out to look at either option I couldn't find any that I liked. Not only that, but prices were ridiculous. Most packages I saw did not include reception or response cards and were already over 200.00. Not going to happen...

So two weeks ago when Chris and I were both off, we made it a mission to find our invitations. After an unsuccessful day of searching stores, Chris decided to take to the internet and found invitation styles

This site is amazing. They have thousands of templates for you to choose from and everything is totally customizable


I picked my invite, and pretty much changed everything about it. The colours were off, I wanted different wording and I played with the spacing. I sent them my order and I had a proof e-mailed to me within 48 hours. I made some small changes and had another proof sent in less than 24 hours.

Once I approved the final invite they shipped them and the whole process, including delivery took less than a week. I actually sent my order in a week after my guest book order and my invites showed up two days before the Shutterfly package (which came today...one day late but who's counting?)

The process was completely painless and I absolutely LOVE my invitations (not exactly loving the assembly process, but that's another story).

What makes it even better is that I got 110 invitations, reception cards, response cards and two envelopes per invite and saved myself around $200.00.

So if your looking for invitations check out invitation styles (I'm not getting anything for this. I just love a good deal and want to share)

Tasty Tuesday: Melted Snowman Cookies

Hey All!

How was everyone's weekend? Mine was crazy filled with last minute Christmas running around and our annual baking. I am like 90% done my shopping. I have some stocking stuffers left and the bestest's gift, which I will be getting tomorrow! It is going to feel so good to be done and finally get to sit back and enjoy the holiday (even if it is snowless...still a touchy subject).

Seeing as we just finished all of our Christmas baking, I figured I would use the next few Tuesday's to share some of the recipe's for our favourites.

This week: Melting Snowman Cookies.

My sister came to me a few weeks ago with these

Cute right?

Well they required about one hundred different ingredients and about a million different steps. Not very convenient when your making 8 different recipe's in one weekend, so my mom vetoed it. Until I decided that there had to be a way to do it cheaper and easier (I like modifying recipe's if you haven't noticed.

So here are my modified melted snowman cookies

We used a generic sugar cookie recipe. I believe we used one from Pillsbury but I'm sure any will do. When rolling the balls for your cookies make sure they are big. The cookies need to be large to make sure that you can fit everything that you need on them.

After they baked (about 8-10 minutes) we melted white chocolate to use as icing. *NOTE* Next time I would use icing sugar. The white chocolate is an off white colour so the "snow" looks dirty. Also you need a lot of white chocolate to make it look thick and drippy like it's supposed to. Icing sugar will probably be easier to work with and look nicer.

I placed a blob of icing sugar in the middle of the cookie and used a spoon to spread to the edges making it thick and drippy so that it looks like the snowman is melting.

After that comes the hard part. You need to take a large marshmallow and microwave it just until it becomes puffy (10 to 30 seconds). Then you need to somehow manage to grab them and put them on your cookie to make the snowman head. It's not easy. The marshmallow sticks to your hands and pretty much makes a mess. After a while you will get it down to a fine art and it becomes easier.

Then it's time to decorate! We originally bought mini M&M's to make the faces. I don't recommend this. They are far to big and the faces look scary and creepy instead of cute. After one we switched to mini chocolate chips for the eyes and nose and used the M&M's for buttons.

They were a lot of fun to make and I think they turned out fairly well, but I'm not going to lie, they were tedious and time consuming.

The marshmallows make your hands sticky and therefore everything else sticks which gets aggravating by the 20th cookie. I think decorating icing would make things go a lot smoother and may try that next time.

I also think these would be great to do with kids. You do the baking and they can decorate!

Thoughts on Thursday

* 10 days until Christmas!!!

* 10 days until Christmas and it is currently raining outside. Raining and warm. I'm really starting to worry about my Christmas day snow situation

* 10 days until Christmas and I am not even close to finished my shopping. I swore things would be different this year...

* All my Christmas traditions are happening this week. Our annual baking is on Sunday and the bestest and I are doing our shopping trip on Wednesday. These are only a few of the reasons why I love this time of year so much, so I can't wait.

* Even though we have a huge baking day on Sunday I'm in a mood for baking right now. So I think I might be making cookies tonight.

* The Christmas cards are out and I'm pretty sure everyone has received theirs. Unfortunately I'm still at war with my scanner, so I'm having problems showing them to you. I may need to get the boy to come and look at it.... Stay tuned!

* OK I'm going to get off of the Christmas topics.

* I'm waiting (not so patiently) for my guest book from Shutterfly to get here. The range for delivery that they gave me was between Monday this week and Monday next week. In my logic that means it should already be here. Hopefully today!

* I missed Wedding Wednesday yesterday due to my work's Christmas party and I actually had exciting stuff to talk about! Oh well, there's always next week.

* That's pretty much it! It's going to be a busy but fun weekend, so bring on Friday!

Tasty Tuesday - Quick and Easy Mac and Cheese!

I'm back after another crazy weekend!

A friend and I went to see this on Saturday:

It was actually really cute. I mean it's not going to make an Oscar list any time soon, but it was a cute, fun movie. Not to mention all of the amazing views of New York City, which is enough to make me happy. Overall, I was pleasantly surprised. I was very concerned that it was going to turn out like Valentine's Day, which was not so cute.

This weekend also included my 4th party lite party since September. I am literally drowning in candles. The bestest and I have decided that the power could go out for a year and we would be totally fine.

With all of these busy weekends I feel like December is flying by. We are already half way through and there isn't even snow yet! Today I could go out in a heave sweater and no jacket. As much as I hate snow, I want it for Christmas. I have never had a snowless Christmas and since there are only 12 days to go, I'm starting to get a little antsy.

With all of the craziness that December brings, I figured I would share a quick and easy recipe that Chris and I fell in love with a couple of months ago.

Chris and I both work full time, and I don't own a car, so he needs to pick me up before going home himself. After the drive, taking puppy out and finally getting ready to eat neither one of us wants to wait an hour for food to be ready, so recipes that are good and easy to make are very important.

I found this recipe on Campbell's website sometime last year and it became an instant hit. The hardest part is cooking the pasta, and then popping it in the oven for 20 minutes.

Quick and Easy Mac and Cheese:

1 can (10 3/4 ounces) Campbell's® Condensed Cheddar Cheese Soup

1/2 soup can milk

1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper

1/3 of a 1-pound package rotini pasta or medium shell pasta (about 1 1/2 cups), cooked and drained

1 tablespoon plain dry bread crumbs

2 teaspoons butter, melted

• Heat the oven to 400°F.
  
• Stir the soup, milk, black pepper and pasta in a 1-quart casserole dish.
• Stir the bread crumbs and butter in a small bowl. Sprinkle the bread crumb mixture over the pasta mixture.
• Bake for 20 minutes or until the pasta mixture is hot and bubbling.

My Adjustments:

• I normally double the recipe (4 cups of pasta and 2 cans of soup) but I make them in separate trays to make sure the portions are right (and I may have once crammed it all into one dish and had a small exploding incident in the oven....not important...). This way we always have left overs the next day, meaning no one has to cook, and occasionally Chris has enough to take for lunch.

• Honestly, the breadcrumbs are the best part and a tablespoon isn't enough. You barely know it's there. I normally use about 2-3 heaping tablespoons of melted butter, and then add the breadcrumbs until it is crumbly enough to sprinkle over the top of the whole dish.

Other than that I just follow the directions. Watch the oven because it will sometimes take less than 20 minutes and your breadcrumbs will burn (Also learned that one the hard way!)

Enjoy!!

Wedding Wednesday - Guest Book!

I have been on a roll with this wedding this week. All of a sudden I got motivated and have been ticking things off the list everyday.

Since getting our engagement pictures done, I have become obsessed with getting my guest book finished.

If you know anything about me, you would know that I am obsessed with pictures. I ALWAYS have my camera with me, and I'm pretty sure my friends have just stopped bringing theirs because they know I will have mine and I will be taking pictures.

My room is covered with pictures of friends and family and I'm slowly running of places to put frames (this doesn't mean that I stop buying them or printing pictures. Nope, it just means that I have a nice pile of frames sitting on the floor waiting for a place to go).

So, when looking for a guest book, I knew right away that I didn't want a generic one. I didn't want a book filled with signatures that I probably wouldn't be able to read and would probably end up in some box in my non existent attic.

I wanted something that I could display, that showed our personality, that I loved looking at and most importantly that used the million engagement pictures that I payed a fortune for.

I used Costco to get my Christmas cards printed because of the location and price, but when I went to look at their guest book, I wasn't impressed. Not to mention that Costco's website limits the sizes of the pictures that you can upload, so most of the pictures that I wanted to use I was unable to actually upload.

I spent days on different photo book websites, Costco, Blurb, Walmart, Black's and my fussiness was starting to show because I just wasn't loving any of them. Either the photo book wasn't what I was looking for, too pricy or the website was impossible to use.

I finally decided to bite the bullet and listen to all of my bloggers and try Shutterfly. This was the one. The site is super easy to use, they put no limits on the size of your pictures, and you essentially drag and drop the pictures to where you want them to be. Super easy.

I worked on it for a few days, adding boarders and playing with the pictures to make sure it was exactly how I wanted it. I ordered it last Thursday (when it went on sale for 30% off) and I got the notification that it had shipped last night.

I cannot wait until it gets here. This was my first experience with Shutterfly and I can honestly say I will be returning. The prices are amazing, the shipping is reasonable and the website is so easy to use. I should have saved myself hours and just went there first!

In other wedding news my dress came in! Stay tuned for updates of fittings!

Long weekend recap!

I'm back from my relaxing 4-day stay at home vacation!

We started it on Thursday by sleeping in (until after 11....heaven!) then getting up and heading out to grab some lunch. After that we hit some stores to check out invitations (this turned out to be very unsuccessful...I'm picky and didn't like anything I saw) and then went to see a matinee of Hugo.

I will admit that this was 100% Chris' pick. I had no idea what Hugo was, and when I was told it was 3D, I was even more disappointed. I find that 3D movies don't agree with me (unless they are really well done, like Avatar) they give me headaches and if the 3D is really crappy (*COUGH...My Bloody Valentine....*COUGH) I become nauseous. It's not fun.

Anyways, back to the point at hand....Hugo was AMAZING! The 3D was really well done, not overly blatant and there was never pointless objects flying in your face just because the director saw a good opportunity to show of his 3D abilities.

The story was even better. I'm not going to give anything away, but if you have the chance go see this movie.

The movie was actually fairly long so even though we entered in daylight, by the time we left it was dark, so we figured we should go home and spend time with the puppy. The rest of the evening was spent cuddling with my boys, catching up on the PVR and finishing my Christmas cards so they could go out on Friday. I also ordered my guestbook (more on that Wednesday) and found invitations from a site online that I loved and were a price I am willing to pay. I have a few details to work out, but hopefully they can be ordered sometime in the next week.

Friday we decided to get up early to accomplish the list of things that we failed to get done on Thursday (somehow lunch and a movie was so much more appealing than running an endless list of errands). We started by grabbing breakfast (gotta eat!) then ventured to Sears to work on our gift registry. We got a lot done on it, and I think the rest of it I can finish online. Working on the registry is fun, but I still find it so overwhelming. Who can remember what you have previously scanned? And the sales rep is a tad bit persistent and keeps sending us off in different directions. Needless to say I'm glad that process is over.

After that we went to pick up Miss. B and take her to Chapters for some Christmas gift ideas (very successful here, I picked up her gift at Walmart on Sunday), we had lunch while C got his hair cut. Then we dropped her off and hit some sport store. After that I met Mommy for dinner, a nail appointment, and a meeting to get a quote on bridesmaid dress alterations (this wasn't quite so successful, I don't think we will be going there). After a very busy day I went back to Chris' for another quiet evening catching up on the PVR.

Saturday was one of my favourite days of the whole year. We got up and met my family for lunch and then took off to go cut down our Christmas tree!

This is something we have been doing for 20 years, so pretty much as long as I can remember and I absolutely love it. It just wouldn't be Christmas for me without a real tree. I love coming into the house to the scent of fresh pine. I love tracking through the snow (although not this year) and watching the boys cut down the tree, and then going back to the chalet for hot apple cider.

My baby all ready to find a tree

Tree Cutting

Me and my boys

The family

We then headed to a crazy mall so Chris could buy a T.V stand for a T.V he doesn't have yet. Then it was nap time, tree hunting is hard work!

Yesterday was a bit of a lazy day. We visited Chris' grandma, and met his family for dinner to celebrate my future sister in law's birthday. Then it was home for football and, you guessed it, more PVR. A Good way to end a busy weekend.

It was a well needed break. I got a lot accomplished and I also got to spend some time with my fiance which is always nice.

Hope everyone else had an awesome weekend!

Weekend Recap!

What a busy, busy weekend!

But it's ok because this is a short week. Chris and I are only working until Wednesday and then taking off for a long weekend. We aren't going anywhere but there are big plans for sleeping in and tackling that wedding checklist with a vengeance. I can't wait.

My weekend started bright and early on Saturday when my mommy and I plus s0me girlfriends headed to Niagara for a girls shopping day.

It was a beautiful day for outlet shopping, not too hot and not too cold. I apparently was not in a shopping mood because I barely spent anything (extremely unlike me).

I did manage to pick up a cute photo frame from Stokes to put on my signing table

Mine is black and slightly larger than this one. And really inexpensive! I only paid 7.99, which is amazing.

After we shopped ourselves out we headed back home and met the fiance at East Side Mario's for dinner. I also should add that Saturday was the 6 month mark for our wedding day!

It's crazy how fast time is flying! I remember when we set the date almost 3 years ago and I was so mad because I was out voted and had to wait what seemed like forever to walk down the aisle. And now I will be doing it in 6 months!

Sunday also started early with a trip to Costco.

I could spend a fortune in that store. I think I was in there for about 5 minutes and had a list of 10 things I wanted.

I behaved and only walked out with two books and a Christmas present! I'm loving the fact that I started early this year. My goal is to not be running out Christmas Eve for one last gift. I'm going to get it done early!

We spent the rest of the day visiting family, watching football and doing a mini photo shoot.

How cute is my baby?!?!

I also ordered my Christmas cards! I ended up using Costco because of their location and prices. It was so easy. I literally uploaded photo's, attached them to the card, wrote a little message and they were done. I'm getting 50 cards for 15.00 which is perfect and I can pick them up as early as today. Super convenient which is exactly what I need in my life right now. I'm feeling very accomplished that I actually got off my butt and did it this year. I have been swearing to send them for years and it just hasn't happened.

I can't wait to get them. I will post pictures as soon as I hear that people have started to receive them because there are people on my list that read this blog and we can't ruin the surprise!

Mrs. Hangers

I'm absolutely in love with these


I have seen them in a few places while wedding planning and I really, really want one. The problem is they aren't exactly cheap.

So, me being all ambitious figured I would Google how to do it myself.

I should add a disclaimer at this point. I'm not what you would call a do it yourselfer. I much prefer someone to do it for me. I start out all ambitious and then it doesn't turn out quite how I imagined which causes disappointment and eventual quitting.

BUT I really want one. And from what I hear they are actually pretty easy to do, so I'm thinking I might give it a shot (I'm sure this is going to provide hours of amusement for Chris).

Did you have a name hanger? Did you make it? Was it hard?

Wedding Wednesday: Cake!

First of all, I apologize for the lack of blogging lately! I feel like I only post on Wednesday's. I have a million drafts of posts that I start and then give up on halfway through.

Lots to talk about, but too much going on to actually finish a complete post.

This week I actually made progress on my cake!

I should start talking about my cake lady. After much debate, Chris and I decided to go with a family friend to make our cake. She has recently started a cake business, he cakes taste amazing, and to be honest, her prices are a million times better than anywhere else we have looked. The cake it not hugely important to me. I want one, but it doesn't need to be 18 tiers with special filling and a fountain.

I'm very indecisive (you have probably picked up on that through this wedding planning experience), so I was having a really hard time deciding if I wanted an actual cake at the wedding, or cupcakes.

When we first got engaged I wanted a cake. I wanted to have something that I could put a topper on and cut.

Last year we went to three weddings and the cake got cut only once. Two out of the three couples ended up taking their entire cake home because the venue either a) forgot to cut and serve it or b) ran dinner too long so it just never happened.

After thinking that through I started to lean towards cupcakes. They are cute and super easy because people can help themselves. I figured we would still have extras but at least I wouldn't be forced to eat an entire three tier cake just so that I didn't feel wasteful.

I was still on the fence because I figured cupcakes would be way more work and therefore way more expensive. I was not willing to go over budget on the cake, it's just not worth it to me.

I also wanted something to cut.

After about a million e-mails between me and my cake person, we have finally narrowed it down.

I'm going for something similar to this:

This way I can have the top portion to put my topper as well as do the cake cutting ceremony. It will be decorated with blue and silver gerber's just to give it a little extra something.

The flavours will be chocolate with vanilla icing and vanilla with vanilla icing (I'm boring, I know) and she will be using blue and sliver cake dust (matching my colours of course) to help guests know which is which.

And to top it all off it will only be 25.00 more than a regular three tiered cake!

I'm very pleased that this is crossed off the list, that my guests will get cake and that Chris and I will not be eating it for the rest of our married lives!

Wedding Wednesday: To Do List

Since nothing significant has happened in the world of my wedding since last week, I figured I could use this week's wedding Wednesday to tell you about some of the things on my to do list. Maybe writing it down will motivate me to actually do some of it!

* LIMO, LIMO, LIMO: I seriously need to get on this one or I'm going to be walking to the church on my wedding day. No I still haven't made the decision between the party bus or the old car. Maybe if I got off of my behind and called for quotes this would become an easy decision.

* Invitations: I'm on the fence between being ambitious and doing it myself or being lazy and getting them done. Either way a decision needs to be made and soon.

* Favours: I know what I want. I know where to get them. I just need to order and pick them up. Who knew this would be such a problem

* Tuxes: Yeah this would be another must. My bridesmaids have dresses but at the moment the groomsmen are going naked. It's not like this is even difficult. It's just a matter of dragging our butts over there and making some choices.

* Alterations: Due to some dress drama (trust me, you don't want to know) I need to find someone else to alter the girls dresses. We are picking the dresses up on Tuesday so I have time.... right?

* Guestbook: We have our engagement photo's. I have pretty much decided on using Shutterfly to make it. Now I just need to DO it.

Like my shameless excuse to post another engagement picture???

Bachelorette Weekend: I want to go away with my bridesmaid and a select few of my favourite girls for a bachelorette weekend. Since I have had a recent MOH change, and the bestest has had a lot dumped on her, I am having a heavy hand in planning this little trip. So I need to find a place to stay, decide on a weekend and nail down a few other little details. Then my MOH and bridesmaids can go crazy.

Bridal Party Gifts: I have some idea's. Kinda.

Yeah this really didn't help.....and I'm sure this isn't even half of it. Cue Panic mode.

Some Friday Randoms

Seriously TGIF! This week has been brutal. I'm tired. And cranky. And just not good. Bring on the weekend!

The fact the I am having such a long, tough week is making me feel very old. Apparently I cannot party like I used to.

Another thing that makes me feel very old is the fact that I have spent this whole week looking forward to the weekend because we had no plans. Yup. I was highly anticipating two wonderful days filled with sweat pants, sweaters, the PVR and bed.

Unfortunately this is not going to happen because we all of a sudden have two birthday parties to attend and a movie date set up with friends. I don't know how this happened. Maybe next weekend.

I have a serious addiction to eating the Halloween candy. I don't know what it is about making chocolate bite sized that makes it so appealing. It's not like I'm eating less. In fact, I'm probably eating about twice as much. Seeing as my dress is coming in ANY day, this is really not a good time to go on an adorable mini chocolate eating binge.

Now that Halloween is over, my holiday gets to start. I'm ready to break out all of my Christmas stuff (I just need to find room). I have Christmas scented candles burning (Peppermint Snow...Yum!). The stores are breaking out all of their Christmas decorations, I have seen a few Christmas themed commercials and I'm already thinking about presents. For me, Christmas starts November 1st. I absolutely love everything about it.

Since getting my engagement pictures done I have been looking into photo guest books to display at the wedding. I want a book that will display both sets of our engagement pictures as well as leaving space for guests to sign. Problem? There are so many options! Shutterfly (Do they even ship to Canada?) Vistaprint? Costco? Walmart? (Quality....?) I just don't know. Did you make your own guest book? Who did you use???

On a similar note, I'm seriously considering doing Christmas cards this year (I know I say this every year....but THIS year I'm serious.) Same issue as above. Who do I use? Shutterfly? Vistaprint? Walmart? If I do them, I want them to look good.

Happy Friday everyone!

Wedding Wednesday: Lessons

When Chris and I got engaged almost three years ago I pretty much had my bridal party decided. I have three friends that have been like sisters to me since grade 9, so they were obvious picks. Chris' sister and my brother's girlfriend and I have gotten pretty close over they years so I knew I wanted them involved. And of course I wanted my big sister right beside me as my MOH.

My sister is ten years older than me but we have always been really, really close (I intended to have cute baby pictures posted here, but my scanner was being a large pain in the you know where, so I'm settling with those that I found on my computer)

Looking back through my childhood she has always supported me through any step I tried to take. Granted, being 10 years younger I'm sure there are times when I drove her absolutely crazy (stealing her clothes on a constant basis comes to mind) she was always right there when I needed her to be

I was her Maid of Honour when she got married to my brother in law 10 years ago, and it was always known that she would be returning the favour when that day came for me. I honestly think I was engaged for less than 24 hours when I officially asked her.

Probably the biggest lesson that planning a wedding has taught me is that absolutely nothing is perfect. When I first set out on this adventure I was convinced that by giving myself lots of time and micro managing every single detail that absolutely nothing would go wrong.

At this point SO many things have needed to be adjusted or changed, steering me away from my original plan and making me shift directions. Every time this lesson gets driven in just a tiny bit further....and it is now officially pushed as far as it can because......

.....my sister, and MOH, is 8 weeks pregnant!

Her official due date is June 4th, but because she had so many complications with Miss B. she will need to have a planned C Section, and from the sounds of it they want her to go 2 weeks early, which puts her right around my wedding day.

So this has forced her to drop out of my wedding.

Adjustments.

You have heard me talk about my bestest before, and how absolutely amazing she is.

We met the first day of grade 9 and connected pretty quickly over our mutual love of this boy

Over the course of our friendship we have survived 4 years of highschool

College

University

She's now almost finished teachers college and I could not be more proud of her!

There have been parties



Weddings

Broken hearts, stupid boys, arguments, experiences and far too much laughter.


I could honestly go on and on and on. She's the kind of girl who is always only a phone call away with ice cream, a girly movie and the ability to call whoever it is an asshole and take my side just because I need her to.

She is also the kind of girl who is willing to take on the responsibilities of MOH, including a shower, bachelorette and anything else that is required of her with only 7 months notice without batting an eyelash.

She is essentially another sister, and we have probably been through more together than some sisters have.

All of my friends and family expected me to flip when I found out that my big sister and MOH was pregnant. Like I said I have learned that weddings are about adjustments. My sister has already given me two absolutely beautiful nieces that I would give the world for. She is having a baby and there is no way I can be upset about that. If it means that she will be sitting behind me on my wedding day taking good care of my future niece or nephew then so be it.

Lucky for me I have an awesome best friend who can take over and who I know will do an amazing job.

So to my bestest... Thank you so much for stepping in. You know I love you and I could not be happier that you will be standing right behind me, supporting Chris and I on the most important day of our lives.

Tasty Tuesday's - Chili!

Remember last week when I told you I had Chili cooking in my slow cooker??? Well this week I thought I would share the recipe with you.

I subscribed to a site where they e-mail me a different recipe everyday because, let's face it, I'm working hard to embrace this whole cooking thing, but I'm never going to be the kind of girl who can look in the pantry and make something magical with the things that I randomly have in there.

A couple of months ago they sent me this:

Quick Slow Cooker Chili

Ingredients

• 1 pound ground beef
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 green bell peppers, chopped
• 5 (15 ounce) cans kidney beans with liquid
• 1 (28 ounce) can whole peeled tomatoes, with liquid
• 1/4 teaspoon chili powder

Directions

1. In a large skillet over medium high heat, saute the ground beef for 5 to 10 minutes, or until browned. Transfer to a slow cooker. Then add the onion, green bell peppers, beans and tomatoes to the slow cooker. Season with chili powder to taste. Cook on high setting for 4 hours, or until all vegetables are tender.

*NOTE* I totally suck at taking pictures while I cook. In my defense, I was doing around 15 things at once and taking pictures was not at the top of my list. I'll do better next time.

I made a few adjustments. Instead of 5 cans of kidney beans, I went with a 5 blend of chili beans. I just thought that 5 cans of kidney beans was a bit much.

I also used onion powder instead of chopped onions. The boy has a large aversion to onions, so if he saw or tasted any it would have been over. I'm not taking that chance so a dash of onion powder was used instead.

It turned out really good and it was super easy. It was my first time ever using the slow cooker and I must say I'm a fan of throwing everything into one giant pot, turning it on and letting it essentially cook itself. Definitely my kind of cooking.

I will suggest that of you like your chili really thick to either cut the cans of beans to three, or use a thicker blend.

Enjoy!

Looking Back: Halloween

I think I have expressed my dislike for dressing up on Halloween before, so we won't go there again.

Somewhere along the way my friends got the bright idea that costume parties would be a good idea. I argued. Whined. Complained. Threw tantrums. But still managed to lose.

So I thought this year I would show some of my previous costumes

2005: Dr. and a Nurse

2006: SOMEHOW I managed to win the war and there were no costumes. That has not happened since. I need to remember what I did, and how I accomplished it!

2007: Red Riding Hood

2008: Go-Go Girl

2009: Cowgirl (Chris was an old man. I couldn't find a decent picture with his wig on)

This year I was DETERMINED not to spend money on a costume. So I went out and spent money on super cute boots and made a costume around them.

2010: 80's

This year we had two events to attend.

The first one was with friends and the theme was decades. Because I didn't see these people last year when I wore my 80's costume, I decided that it would be fine to just re-use it.

Saturday we had a Halloween/Birthday party for my Brother in Law, and they did see my in my 80's costume last year, so I went as a cowgirl again because its easy, and I do love those boots :)

This year was pretty cost effective and easy, which is a good thing seeing as I do have that whole wedding thing right around the corner that seems to be costing me a small fortune.

That's it for the parties. Tonight I will be heading out with my sister and the little ones for some Trick or Treating (I draw the line at dressing up for this. I will be in jeans and the biggest sweater I own) then heading home for some quality T.V time with my boys.

For those of you driving, be smart and safe!