Meet Bob.. Our iRobot 770 by Roomba

Meet Bob! Our iRobot 770

Meet Jewel (the reason we needed Bob)

We purchased our iRobot 770 by Roomba three weeks ago so now it is time for my review! I LOOOOOOVVVVVVEEEEEE Bob (that is our iRobots name) he is absolutely amazing!

Some of his best features are: 

1. The ability to schedule a cleaning time, it could be daily, weekly, every other day, what ever you choose!
2. It self Docs YAY!! When it is low on battery or done cleaning it takes itself back to the doc and charges
3. It alerts you if it is stuck (and then stops) and also when full
4. It spot cleans
5. It comes with 2 virtual walls which allow you to prevent it from going into places you don't want it to go\
6. It actually holds quite a bit of stuff

Some down falls to Bob are:

1. He is pretty loud
2. Sometimes I don't think he gets all the places (we have a VERY large open great room floor plan)
3. Sometimes he gets stuck under the dining room table with all the chairs there.

Over all.... BOB IS AMAZING!! Since we have had him I have not had to sweep up dog hair once! It is all gone, and Jewel our Golden Retriever sheds like a champ! All I do is my weekly mopping now. I would highly recommend this product to anyone who has pets and/or a lot of hard surface flooring. I am not sure how great Bob would work on carpets because we don't let him in our bed rooms (I still don't think his sucking ability will top my Dyson's for carpets) but he is worth every dime!!! So if you are thinking about it... get that Roomba!!!! http://store.irobot.com/product/index.jsp?productId=11305110

Pot Roast... Its whats for Dinner :)

Sooooooo... I LOVE POT ROAST and since it is finally getting cool enough out to bring the slow cooker out of hibernation... its time to roast :)

This time I scoped out Pip and Ebby's Slow Cooker Pot Roast its was super easy and extremely yummy!!!

Below are Pip's directions and my comments (in italics) and her pics.. because I was super lazy :)

You will need:

A 4-lb. roast (I like to use tip roasts, but the options for this are plentiful) -I used a 2.5 lb roast because we are a family of 4 and 4lbs is a lot of food :)

One 10.75-oz. can cream of mushroom with roasted garlic soup

One 1-oz. package dry onion soup mix

1 1/2 cups water (for me this did not look like a lot of water)

Throw all of the ingredients into a slow cooker and cook on low for 8-9 hours.

Periodically spoon the gravy over top of the roast.

After about 4-5 hours of cooking, add carrots and peeled, cubed potatoes to the slow cooker, if desired. (I added 3 cut up carrots and 2 large pealed and cut potatoes)

***** Me and My Younghans Review*****

For me it was very yummy... I am thinking next time around I may use a touch more water (about 1/2 cup) and also I think I am going to use an additional can of soup to make the gravy thicker. The flavor was good but not as strong as I like it.

Daddy Younghans loved it! Wouldn't change a thing...

Steven and Zack both tolerated the pot roast, but neither would normally be big fans of any sort of pot roast, they are just not old enough to appreciate its glory :)

Over all I give it 3.75 out of 5 stars, due to it just not being quite as flavorful as I would prefer, we will try it again with some modifications. 

Million Dollar Spaghetti... or not???

As an avid Pinterester.. I love discovering and trying new recipes... tonight our family verged out on our normal blah spaghetti and went for Ashley Kaitlin's Being Grown Up Blog's Million Dollar Spaghetti.  I went line by line and direction by direction to follow her model... Below are her directions and my pics :)
 *** NOTES IN ITALICS ARE MY COMMENTS ON THE DIRECTIONS!

Ingredients
1 lb. of Ground Beef
1 can of Spaghetti Sauce
8 oz of Cream Cheese
1/4 cup of Sour Cream
1/2 lb. of Cottage CheeseWhole Stick of Butter
8 oz. of Noodles
Bag of Sharp Chedder Cheese

First: Go ahead and put your over on 350! Boil those noodles!! 

While they are boiling go ahead and mix up the cream cheese, sour cream and 
cottage cheese!! Make sure that it is mixed up VERY well! -I used my kitchen aid mixer to make sure I got it good and mixed

Then.. go ahead and cook that meat!

 Make sure its good and brown and drain it!
Then pour your spaghetti sauce over it! -Issue I saw here was there was no specific size noted on the "can of spaghetti sauce" Cans and Jars very alot, I just a 24 oz jar, because I buy in bulk but only used 16 oz of it because that is a standard Jar Size.

Take a few slices of your butter and put them in the bottom of your casserole dish -Again no specific amount but being butter was used twice in the recipe I used half (1/4 cup) here. 

Then layer HALF of the noodles in the bottom of the dish! - There was no dish size specified I used a 13 X 9 however based on the differences in coverage between her pics and mine I am guessing hers was a 11x7. The only difference I see is that my coverage is thinner than hers. 

Pour that nicely mixed up creamy mixture on top of the noodles.

and SPREAAAAAD it all over!

Then add the rest of your noodles and put a few slices of butter on top of those noodles. -Again I guessed  1/4 cup

Now pour the red sauce and meat on top!

and once again SPREEAAAAD

Now place that awesome casserole in your oven for 30 minutes!

After those 30 minutes take the dish out and pour some chedder cheese on the top and put it back in the oven for 15 minutes! Now there were no specifics on the size of the bag of cheese or if you should use it all so I just covered the top like I would with a lasagna and it seemed to do the trick (about 2 cups), I didn't want it to end  up over cheesy or greasy. 

Then your DONE!

*** Now for Me and My Younghans Review****

It smelled AMAZING!! Sooo good!! 

I loved it, it was super cheesy and creamy which is just my style. I was a huge fan of the texture too.. nice and thick! This is a great dish for a larger family or a potluck because of the amount of food that you have at your disposal and also its a great dish to alternate with the normal lasagna. 

Daddy Younghans liked it but wasn't 100% sold. He is of Italian decent and usually likes his food more authentic and less creamy. But he said he would definitely eat it again and went back for 2nds..but did ask that next time I hold back on the Sour Cream and Cottage Cheese.

Steven... ATE IT ALL.. but he is my eater and loves all things food (its amazing he is sooo skinny).

Zachary (THE PICKIEST EATER) ate it... had to bargain toward the end for him to finish the meat but he liked the noodles a lot (and that is a huge compliment because he does not eat anything).

Over all... 4 out of 5 stars, the loss of one star was due to the vagueness of some of the recipe which made it difficult to follow without playing the guessing game, and because Daddy thought it was a bit too cheesy. This will be a recipe that makes its way into our rotation!! 

I fall for FALL!

Rock and Roll!!
So we have kicked of the 2012-13 school year with a bang! Steven is now a big Second Grader and Zack is rocking out in Kindergarten which means Mommy is home ALONE (for now). We are loving living the North Carolina life style and loving Fall!!! Because with Fall comes: Soccer, Football, Pumpkins, Halloween, Thanksgiving.. and soo much more!!!

So for that I wanted to share my favorite of favorite Fall snacks:

MUDDY BUDDIES!!!
What you need:
9 cups of Rice Chex cereal
1 cup of semi sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup butter
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla

Measure the chocolate chips, peanut butter and butter and place them in a microwave able bowl for 1 minute, stir, then continue (if needed) to microwave for 30 seconds until it is smooth. Then add the vanilla and mix well.

In a large bowl pour the 9 cups of Chex mix and then pour the chocolate over the Chex and and mix until the Chex is well coated.

Now I use a large cereal Tupperware box and put 3/4 cup powdered sugar pour the chocolate Chex mix into the box and add the remaining powdered sugar on top. Cover the box tightly and shake, shake, shake!! After the Chex are covered in powdered sugar, refrigerate for at least 1 hr and enjoy. I keep them in the fridge after because they are just better that way!

The Mario Room... Is Finally Finished!!

My five year old is a HUGE mario fan! Well he is a huge everything fan... but Mario tops the list so when we moved here to NC we told him he could have a Mario Room and its finally done!!!!

It was pretty easy and relatively cheap (thanks to some birthday and Christmas gifts from family!)

We painted his room Mickeys Shadow from Homedepot, I like gray because when he grows out of Mario it can easily be converted into a many other rooms...

I bought a few Mario posters from ebay (about 4.99 each) and poster frames from target (6.99 on sale). and hung them on one wall. I made the letters above his bed (you can see how in an earlier blog) and bought his bedding from Target as well. I am cheap so I only get the comforter for the bottom bunk and use a mario throw up top (its also easier to make the top bunk that way.

My mom bought him the cut out and wall stickies for his birthday from a party site :) and wa la!! I am super happy with the result and so is my Mario man!

Canvas Name Tiles... sooo cute

I wanted to do something to personalize my boys rooms so I went with these awesome canvas name tiles.

What you need:
Canvas (one for each letter you will be creating) you can get what ever size you would like
Wooden Letters (I went with larger white ones (prepainted for ZACK and wooden ones for Steven)
You can Paint (get acrylic) or Modpodge the letters, I did both :)

For the Painted...
These are easy, I went with Red Green and Blue for my Mario Bros fans room
You simply paint the canvas (you will want to do multiple coats) and then hot glue the letters on when dry! Tada!!!

For the Mod Podge,

You first will want to pick out the paper or scrap you want to use on the surface, I did beach 12x12 scrapbook sheets but you can use anything, You could even modpodge a letter to your son or daughter to add a more special touch. You could also use photos, wrapping paper, newspaper... I mean anything!!

You will cut the paper to size its best to cut slightly (1/4 inch) smaller on the side and top so there isnt an overhang)

Goop on the modpodge on to the canvas and then place the paper on.

Let it dry for about 30 minutes and then modpodge over. It will dry clear but you will be able to see brush strokes which gives it an awesome texture!!!

I let them dry over night and then hot glued the letters on the next day.


I also glued on some shells for some extra beachiness... (yes I make up my own words :))

Our Wacky Weekend...

Our Wacky Weekend :)

So we had a great family weekend. Attended a new church, not quite sure if it is a fit for us so we will pray on it and see where we are meant to be :). Well our weekend started with an angry Wacky standing out in the driveway yelling for a taxi.. now we live in rural NC so the chances of one showing up are slim to none but it was funny to watch. Moved on to our 4 year old once again steeling the show by coming into our room at 10 pm (after we were asleep) and letting us know he was bored and wanted to play... umm no! The Saturday morning my hubby decided to play chef and cooked French Toast.. however after it was cooked and served I noticed that there were no eggs out. When I asked he said he used a new recipe without them LOL... he forgot them so our sons got pan toasted bread with butter and syrup...My boys finished breakfast and went into the backyard.. they were being quiet so I worried LOL and turns out they had made their own see saw with a 2x4 left over from the fence build... love my little creators. Then we went out to dinner that night and our astute children were in the bathroom when the Manager went into clean up some water (I am about 80 percent sure that my kids put it there) when they offered "for five bucks we will clean it up for you" the over generous manager agreed and my kiddos came out 10 dollars richer... it never gets boring here!!!

 Now on a different note February is fast approaching so I updated my scrappers white board (you can see how to make it in an earlier blog of mine). I only swapped out a few of them to make it still match the decor but I am happy with my hearts :). I got my cute fonts at 1001freefonts.com and I love them I get alot from there cuz I like free stuff  :).

Hi ho hi ho decorating I go

Soooo I love the idea of hanging my kiddos art and our fridge is anti magnet so I wanted to do something else. I have seen the master piece walls around and wanted to put my own spin on it...
I got some extra large clothes pins at A.C. Moore's and painted them black....

Added an Adhesive sticker on the back and attached them on the wall. I also got the Master peice vinyl wall word from etsy.com (as well as some others you can see below) but if you are lucky enough to own a Cricut you can make them :) I love it and think it is adorable and super easy to change out the art!!

Here are a few more I got off Etsy! 

 This one says... Happiness is taking a long hot bubble bath!

The scrappers white board

Happy New Year!!!... So we are here in North Carolina (finally) and almost settled in! This means I get to DECORATE YAY!! So I need a white board type object but hate how ugly they usually are. So I found on Pinterest(my personal haven) this neat collage frame this lady made for each day of the week you can see it HERE, now it wasn't what I needed but gave the the idea!!!

What you need:
A collage frame, I got mine at Target but you can get them any where... I love this one because it has the big circle in the middle and I thought it was adorable!!!!!

Get a bunch of Scrap Book paper that you like and will go with your decor :).

Now: Take the back off the frame because you need to make the scraps into the proper size to fit in the frames, this can be fun and tricky :). I downloaded a bunch of super cute free fonts to make my titles, but you can scrap them with stamps, stencils, stickers or about any thing you want. You want to put it directly on the paper itself and then into the frame... Re-attach the back and hang and wa-la!!! 

For my subject areas I used the following titles but feel free to use what ever you would like!!

In the large areas:

Menu

To Do (for our weekly activities)

Honey Do

Shopping List

The Medium Areas 

Birthdays

Etc

Today

The Small Areas:

I used our last initial Y

and the Month

The best part is you can change them out and make them themed.. for February I will use Heart Paper and Valentine themed paper... now I wont change them all just a few.. and make sure you save your pages when you change them out to reuse them later :) XO!