Beef Stew ...

I have posted before about how much I love

McCormicks beef stew pack for the crock pot

Friday I tried a new one

as always, I like to brown the meat before I add it to the crock pot

I cut the meat up into bite size pieces and then throw into
a Ziploc bag that is filled with Bisquick. 

you could use flour, I just prefer the bisquick
Just shake it up and coat the meat good...

just brown the meat in a little oil

cut up some potatoes, carrots and celery

and then add the mixture with water, the instructions are on the back.

 I like to serve over rice with some good

hot buttery bread.....mmm, perfect for a cold night.

later.......

Snow ...

People that know me know that I turn

into a 10 year old when the forecast calls for snow

I get very obsessed with following a few different

weather forecasters and I hang onto every word they say

I know, it's sad

But I just love snow so much

we haven't had any chance of snow since November

we haven't really even received the cold artic air needed to

produce a good snowfall

but one forecaster I follow had been hinting about a snow storm

happening sometime around the 18th....he's been saying this since

the first of January

and sure enough, we had snow

I wouldn't really call it a "snowstorm"

but we had big fluffy snowflakes, we even had thundersnow

and some lightning.....

they had said we would get 2 to 5 inches

but we had just finished up an entire week of rain, lots of rain

so at our house, we ended up with about one inch of

measureable snow on the ground

about 2 inches of snow on the deck (hard surfaces)

and this morning waking up to a winter wonderland

was just perfect!!
I took the ones below before I went to bed....

 

and below is what we woke up to!

 

All day Pippa Lou stared out the door....in and out all day long!

 

we had a week of rain so to finally see the sun was so refreshing...

 

I worked from the home so this was my view all day long....beautiful

 

Now I'm just waiting for the next one!

later.......

More from the baby shower ....

here's some more pictures from the baby shower on Saturday

here's Bucky and Jacquelyn.....the new parents

2 of their best friends....Melissa and Deana

We played a game where you were given a piece of ribbon

and had to cut it to the length you thought would wrap around

Jacquelyn's baby bump

below is my mom watching someone else cut their ribbon

looks like she is really concentrating....

and we re-purposed the ribbon.....these were from the tables

at Jacquelyn and Bucky's wedding!

here's Jacquelyn and I....

below....still trying to figure out ribbon lengths

the prizes were really cute coffee mugs with a little pack of coffee,

some Lindt chocolate, chocolate covered spoons and a Starbucks

gift card!

Another game I didn't get a picture of was the months of

February and March were printed out and everyone put down their

best guess for when the baby will arrive. That prize of course will have

to wait to be given out....

 One of the gifts that Johnny and I gave them was the

"clothesline present"

this is where you take lots and lots of baby stuff and clothespin them

to a rope and then you just lay them in a laundry basket....kind of just zig zag

back and forth to get them all laid in there. Top with a bunch of tissue paper.

Then the parents to be pull out the clothes line and start pulling it all of

the way out. We had been buying things for our little grandson since summer so we had tons of things to "clothes pin". The clothes line stretched all the

way around the room.....fun!

Below is Kayla....who designed the shower

she was also a bridesmaid in the wedding and a very dear

friend to our family.

see below....it's a pacifier with a mustache on it, so funny!

this shirt is funny because Bucky's dad is known as

Buck, and then of course we have Bucky

so now I guess we'll have a buckaroo! cute.....

here's me and my mom......isn't she looking fabulous!!



Chrissy thought with all of the presents being unwrapped that is

was Christmas again. So Bucky took some tissue paper and wrapped

it around some of Chrissy's toys......and she was thrilled!!

this is the bumper pads for the crib. They are doing his crib in The Taylor

collection from Pottery Barn for kids. They also received the crib skirt, sheets, quilt and mobile...so precious!!

and here's me with my 2 girls.....Nicole and Jacquelyn



Bucky and Jacquelyn are into bowling and bowl on several leagues

My mom gave Bucky a bowling pin bank and it had money in it

she told him if he guessed how much was in it, she would double the amount

and he guessed right! (after a few hints)



and below is a pic taken the next day with all of the gifts

the big box underneath is the crib and I can't wait until everything

is all together so we can show everyone the nursery.

they are storing everything in our living room right now as they

have new flooring going down this week at their house for the new baby.

(almost all of these pictures were taken by my niece Mallory
thanks Mallory!!!)
later.......

A baby shower .....

On Sunday, Jacquelyn's friend Kayla hosted a

baby shower for her and Bucky at my house

She chose a vintage circus theme since Jacquelyn and Bucky

are doing the baby's room in light gray, white and yellow

and little elephants in the crib and accessories

this was set up in the foyer as a circus tent

and guest could leave their gifts here

the table in the foyer had cards for folks to leave

words of wisdom for the new parents

M&M's are Bucky's favorite candy so she had a container

with gray, blue and white M&M's for folks to guess how many

(there were 658 in there)

the glass containers were filled with circus tickets

and the white and blue pompoms were those ones you see on

Pinterest that you make with Styrofoam balls and coffee filters

the blue ones she set in blue dyed water

there were chicken salad sandwiches, pasta salad, green bean salad,

caramel popcorn, veggie tray, animal crackers, peanuts and mints



 and yummy vanilla cupcakes with sparkling sugar icing

and blue lollipops stuck in them

I did not get pictures of all of the drinks except the wine below

but there was also a tub of bottled water and flavored water

then a hot chocolate bar with the sign below.

on the hot chocolate bar were marshmallows, peppermint chips,

chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, chocolate dipped spoons

and cool whip.......needless to say, I hung out there a lot!!

Kayla threw in the "supposed to be cold" because our temps have

not been normal winter temps. I think we hit around 64 the day

of the shower

there was also coffee

she used mason jars with blue and white paper straws in them

for the waters and the wine

I'll have more pics to come tomorrow

later......