Sorry for the silence

Poor little man has a stomach bug… caught it sometime this last weekend I am guessing and came down with it yesterday. Poor guy. Sorry no pictures this week from our trip. Maybe next week. That is unless Eric and I catch it too… Hopefully not!

It’s her birthday!

My sister, my one and only FAVORITE sister!  It is her birthday and this is my chance to post lots of embarrassing childhood pictures on here of her in celebration….haha just kidding!    But I do want to post a little collage of this little lady without whom I do not know what I’d do.

To my sis: I love you.  You are wonderful.  You are an encouragement to me every day.  I love your love for God.  I love your heart to follow Him.  I so love our sweet friendship.  Hope you have a Vondervul Birf-day.

Happy Birthday to you!

Happy Birthday to you!

Happy Birthday dear sister….

Happy  Birthday to youuuu!

Love,

the Robinson’s

Christmas Shopping Online

So I am not the type of person who usually…ever…passes on things like this, but this site is so cool. So I thought I’d tell me friends and family about it. Its called ShopAtHome.com. If you like to shop online this is the site for you. You literally get payed to shop online, receiving cash back for every purchase you make through the site.   I will get $8.00 credited to my account for just signing up today. If you are interested, check it out by clicking here.   And if you want, you could even just sign up for an account to get $8.00 to go towards the next online purchase you make. Pretty sweet huh?

We’re baaaaack!

We are back and yes I AM armed with many a picture from our vvvonderful trip! Much fun was had as promised. We are one family member larger.  (Yeah for weddings and cousin-in-law’s) Little Man had a BLAST at Grandma and Grandpa Woof ’s and I have a sneaky suspicion that we will be spending more time on skype…

I plan on giving you a sneak peak into this trip but I need a few days to recuperate so come back on Monday and we shall have some laughs together. What do ya say?  See you then.

Grandma and Grandpa Woof

Who is that you ask?  Well it’s just my parents and the name that Little Man has so lovingly given them due to the fact that every time we talk with them on Skype they show Little Man the Doggies.  We all know how much he loves doggies.

And since you asked…and it is Friday… let me also inform you that we will be visiting them THIS WEEKEND!  Yippy!  Our trip will be complete with a stop in one of our favorite nostalgic town’s, a family wedding, an early Thanksgiving Day, lots of time with the fam and lots and lots of pictures.  Come back in a week to see our trip captured in photographs.  Until then…Hasta Luego!

What’s that? Oh you need a picture to tide you over…oh ok.  Here you are…

Little Man being held by Grandpa Woof, 5 months old…riding one of the doggies he is all to eager to go see!

Sleepy boy!

Last week I witnessed something I never thought I would ever see…my son falling asleep in his highchair. Click here to see it live.

My Conversion to Yard Saling

It was love at first sale…just last year my parents took hubby, little boy and I Yard Saling in St. Louis.  At the first stop, I found this gorgeous fabric.

See the beautiful gold stitching?  And that red color…I LOVE it!

There was the perfect amount of fabric to make my dream Duvet (Comforter Cover) for our down comforter.  I bought it all for 0.75…and immediately I was hooked.  (A post to come on the duvet which is in the process of being made!)

Since then I have come a long way.  Having my own yard sale, learning the in’s and out’s of yard saling…etc.  I can’t help but jump with jubilant glee in my heart when finding something that is PERFECT and exactly what I have been looking for at a yard sale for $0.25!!  I have found that if I hold out long enough in buying something, either the need/want for it disappears, or I will find the item in perfect condition for 95% off of the price that I would have bought it for brand new in the store.  Wanna see some examples??

My vintage flour container turned kitchen utensil holder: $0.25!

These and…

…these.

Twenty pieces of boys size 18-24 month clothing in BRAND NEW condition, for $15.oo.  That money would only buy Little Man 1 or 2 shirts brand new from the store.  This lot includes a winter coat, a fleece pull over, fall hooded jacket and sweater, lots of pants, long sleeve shirts, 4 pajama sets, and 3  short sleeve shirts and one jumper for next summer.

Remember my black painted picture frame? $2.00

Or my dream fireplace candelabra? $1.00

And did I happen to tell your about our printer that died after we first moved here?  Well it did…went kaput.  So I researched and found the printer I was going to buy at full price for $79.99.  (Yikes…that would be a hard purchase for me.)  So what did I do?  I held out.  And I prayed…seriously.  I talked to God about how I knew we didn’t actually NEED a printer, how I realized that we wouldn’t freeze or starve without it… but that if we had one it would be so nice.  I prayed that He would provide us a way to purchase a printer for less so that we would have more money to give away.  And guess what?

Two weeks later, I went to a yard sale and guess what I found…?  That very printer, BRAND NEW.  I bought it for $25.00, and the owner threw in a color and a black ink cartridge for free.  I praised my Provider all the way home.

Have I won you over to yard sailing yet?

Toddlerhood in full bloom…

In an attempt to get a video of Little Man both dressed like a doggie and barking like a doggie, I captured his toddlerhood in full bloom.  Wanna see?  Here ya go.

Remember Little Man’s love for Doggies?

Well, if you remember Little Man’s love for doggies, this post will come as no surprise to you.  Although we didn’t ‘trick-or-treat’, we did have an opportunity to go to a fall fun-fest-type-thing that the city of Huntsville was putting on where many of the members of our church, Sojourn, were volunteering.  What a perfect opportunity, right?  Opportunity for what, you ask?

Opportunity to dress my little boy up as the cutest puppy you’ve ever laid eyes on…

We had a great time watching Little Man run around, having the time of his life.  Let me also mention that not only was he dressed up as a doggie…the Festival was hosting an actual dog costume contest…for actual dogs.

You can imagine the excitement.

Here are some favorite shots from the day.

Please take note of the little tail sticking out of the back of the costume on the third polaroid down…cuteness.

Monster Pumpkin Pureed!

Back to this hugeness.

“How in the world do you begin to attempt to cook such a thing…?”

Here is one way to do it. Worked well for me.

Begin by washing the pumpkin thoroughly.  Preheat your oven to 350.  Then lug the monster onto a flat surface with your cutting board centered underneath it.  Chop the sucker in half like so:

It will then look like this:

Then cut the halves in half like this:

Scoop out the seeds from the center with a spoon and reserve them in order to make yummy roasted pumpkin seeds later.

Grease four cookie sheets (if you have four, I only had two so I did this step in two batches).  Place the pumpkin flesh side down like this:

Put the cookie sheets into the preheated oven.  I put a little water in the pan, but wait until they are already in the oven to do this otherwise you’ll have a mess.

Roast for 45 min-1 hour or until the flesh is VERY fork tender and the skin has begun to bubble up.  TIP:  If after an hour the skin still has not bubbled, turn the broiler on for a few min and keep an eye on them, just as the skin begins to bubble up and brown turn it off and take ‘em out.  Also check every 15-20 min or so to see if the pans need more water.

After cooked, take out, cool completely until cool enough to handle.  Using a spoon, scoop the pumpkin flesh out of the skin or shave/peel the skin away. Put the flesh in a large mixing bowl or soup pot to reserve while doing the next step.

Break out your trusty blender and puree that pumpkin in batches as big as your blender can handle.  Puree until smooth. You can also use a potato masher but who wants to hand mash over a gallon of pumpkin…not me.

I stored the pumpkin puree in a large plastic storage container so that I could freeze it in batches of 1/2 cup portioned size servings in my handy dandy silicone muffin tray.  I’m telling you if you do not have one of these add it to your Christmas wish list…it is the mother of all things freezing.  I put it on a metal baking sheet, fill up the cups, freeze it.  Pop out the portions with ease into a freezer bag and viola!  Perfectly portioned pumpkin for all my fall recipes.  And all for a few dollars…  and a good couple hours work.  Totally worth it in my book. (actually it only cost me the time because our good friends the Long’s bought it for us.  They’re so sweet

Still with me?  I doubt many are…but that’s ok.  Maybe someday you’ll come back to this post because you yourself will want to purchase, roast, and puree your own monster of a pumpkin.  And we will join together in rejoicing amidst our delicious pumpkin baked goods all fall and winter long…