Cajun Mac and Cheese

MMMMMM... I love food! I am spoiled and get the Food Network Magazine at my house. I love it!! Every month I get tons of new recipes! Its Awesome! Here is one I tried last week and LOVED!!! Its from the March 2012 issue (pg 90)

Cajun Mac and Cheese

12 Ounces Wagon wheel Pasta (I used bowtie)

2 Tbsp Olive Oil

6 ounces Andouille sausage, diced (I used some sausage I found in my freezer)

2 bunches scallion, thinly sliced

1 Bell Pepper,, chopped ( I used red for some color)

1 Tbsp Cajun spice blend

2 Tbsp Flour

2 cups whole milk (I used 2%)

8 ounces Chedder cheese cubed (I grated mine)

1) Cook pasta for one minutes shorter then normal. Drain, reserving 1 cup of cooking liquid

2)while pasta cooks; heat oil in pan and add sausage, stirring until sausage starts to brown. Stir in scallions and pepper and cook until slightly soft. Add Spice blend and flour and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes, Gradually whisk in the milkd and continue whisking until thickened and smooth... about 5 minutes.

3) Add this sauce to the pasta. Add cheese and reserved pasta water and stir until cheese is melted and pasta is coated.

YUMMMY!!!!



Vday Crafts

I love being crafty so I always am excited for a new holiday season so I can be crafty! This year I have been busy working on on lots of fun Valentine's day stuff. Thanks to Pinterest for all the inspiration! LOL! I love my little centerpiece (above) that I have on my island!

I made each of the boys little valentine's day jars and filled them with goodies... Like Chocolate hearts, gummie lips, love hearts, Heart Suckers and felt conversation hearts. Jaxon picked out the Valentine to go on the top of his it says "You Rock" he says thats what people tell him once they see him dance.

For our friends who dont live near us we made cards to mail to them. They say Love you to Pieces. The boys had lots of fun glueing on the torn paper.

And Here are the conversation hearts I made for the boys. I think they are so cute!!!
I also did up the valentines to hand out at school. We live near a wonderful store (no really its my absolute favorite place) called BULK BARN!!! I adore it. I always spend way too much when I go there. Anyways... there they had gummie car candies... so I got a whole bunch  and filled little treat bags for them. Then we attached a tag that said "I 'Wheelie' like you" I thought it was perfect for Jaxon since he adores cars!
 So now I am all set for Valentines day... all I need to do is finish up Tims gift!

Avoiding Productivity

What do you do on a Tuesday afternoon when you havent slept the last few nights because you have a cold and cant breathe??? You blog because doing anything productive sounds like a drag! LOL! So I thought Id post some pictures from our prechristmas prep... seeing how I was lame and never did that! Above is a picture of Jaxon and Owen with Santa. Owen didnt care and Jaxon was shy but i think we still got a decent picture!

I made an activity count down to christmas and every day for the month of Dec. we did a different activity. Like Watch a christmas movie or bake cookies, etc. This day was Santa's Beard craft. Jaxon really liked it. But I think his favorite part was that Krysten came over to do with with him. He loves Krysten!

This day we painted ornaments. Thanks to Auntie leah for getting them the Ornament Kit. My boys love to paint so it was a fun activity that we did over and over this christmas season. Jaxon and Owen loved to see their creations on the tree!

I LOVE OWEN!!! yes he has paint on his face. Jaxon is my child who hates being dirty and this would have drove him nuts... but Owen is the exact opposite and loves to be messy... so he was on cloud nine to have paint on his face and hands and all over. (yes is drives jaxon insane that it doesnt bother Owen!)

What have I been doing lately??? Ive been reading... I have moved onto Cinder... its pretty ok.. but predictable so its taking me a while to get it done. I have done Valentines Crafts... I made cards to mail out, felt conversation hearts and goodie bins for the boys, a centerpiece and of course valentines to give out at school and church... speaking of which I should take some pics of those to post on here asap! Hmmmm... Im also planning a baby shower! One of my besties is having a baby! YAY!!! So I am elbow deep in shower planning! Its going to be so much fun! Im so excited for Stef!!! I just wish should would find out what she is having!!! ARGH!!!
  Oh and im now 20 weeks pregnant which means half way!!!
The Boys started swim lessons today... Owen hated it. he loves the water but hates the class. Jaxon seemed to like being independant in his own unparented class. I cant believe he is big enough for his own class with out me!!!

It's a Boy!

I had an ultrasound earlier this week (Tuesday) and got to see the baby! Its always so much fun. This little monster is a mover for sure. He will be able to keep up to his brother's for sure. At first the tech was worried that she wouldnt get any good pictures because it never stopped moving. but finally we got some nice shots. And we were lucky enough to find out gender. IT'S A BOY!!! One last little boy to end on. Im super excited. Yes I girl could have been fun, but I love being a mother to boys. They are awesome!!!
Yes as I am a planner I have a name all picked out and everything... Rohn Nelson Pisko. For those of you who don't know I am a HUGE iditarod fan. (Thats a dog sled race in Alaska) Its amazing and one of the pit stops along the trail is Rohn Alaska.. there isnt much of anything there... but I heard the name and loved it! Plus I dont know anyone else with that name. So I think it should be pretty unique.
So now I just have the last half of my pregnancy to get through!

One Lucky Mommy!

Some days I look at my two little boys and think "What have I gotten myself into?" Other days, like today I look around and think how lucky I am to get to spend my days with them. Despite the crazy wild personalities they have they are pretty cute boys. So I thought I'd Share some of their sweetness with the world.

Owen has a toy vaccum and its his favorite toy ever! He is constantly helping daddy vaccum. (I dont vaccum... thats Tim's job) He copies everything daddy does... lifts up the cord, vaccums the cracks in the couch... even pretends to empty the canister. It makes me smile to see him working so hard!

Owen and Snowflake (aka Bear)
Owen adores this bear. Jaxon made it last year for christmas but it hasnt left Owens side since then. he LOVES bear. As owen has gotten older Bear becomes more and more like a person. Owen will pretend to put chapstick on bear, or lotion on bear and makes bear sit up straight beside him and nods his head when answering a question. Sometimes I think Bear will start talking before owen does! LOL!

My Boys have the coolest uncle ever... Uncle Kris is a DJ!!! So when we are at uncle Kris' house Jaxon gets to play DJ (under Kris' watchful eyes!) He loves music and will jam out and have dance parties for hours. His favorite it scratching on the turntable!

DJ Jaxon!

Mama and Papa

This is a post for Owen. He has been asking to see Mama and Papa for the last couple of days... so sad that since they are back in Texas we won't get to see them until March 22...long ways off. But no matter how hard I try to explain this to my 2 yr old he just doesnt get it... or he doesnt care. He askes me multiple times a day "Mama? Papa?' and everytime I put on his coat he gets all excited because I guess he thinks we are going to see mama and papa but then he cries when we get to a store and he shakes his head... "No mama and Papa" sad I know... (mom, feelign guilty yet for being so far away!?) So here are a few posts (yes the pictures are from this summer) of some of the reasons why mama anda papa's house is so much better then ours.
Above is owen feeding tokens into a game at chuck e Cheese. He loves that place. He is catching on too. He loves collecting tickets.

Auntie Rachel and Jaxon seeing just how many tickets we have

Then there is the piano. My boys love playing on it. It's our piano now but since we dont have room (and I dont have the patience for the noise it will bring) yet its still at Mama and Papa's house. Its the great temptation they face every morning when Im trying to keep them quiet as normal people are still sleeping...

Baby It's Cold Outside

We have been hit with a serious artic chill this week. The daytime highs has been around -30 with the windchill making it feel like -44 degrees or so. It's brutal! We have spent all week indoors only venturing out to take Jaxon to and from school. The boys are handling it really well and only have a mild case of cabin fever. We've watch tons of movies (toy story 1, 2 or 3 are big hits right now) and lots of curious george for Owen and done lots of crafts. But we are still looking forward to the warm up next week! My Poor Little Owen's hands cant take much more of the cold. Little Owen has hyper sensitive skin... and the cold seems to make it worse... I forgot to put gloves on him for the walk from the back door to the car and by the time I got him in his hands were bright red and starten to stiffen up... yep I know Im a great mom.
So in a hope to try and warm myself up a bit I thought I'd post some pcitures from this past summer, warmer days... oh how we miss you and look forward to your return.
One of our favorite spots in the Summer time is Heritage Park. The boys love the rides and the candy shop and getting cookies at the bakery. I love all the different activities they have like day out with Thomas and Rail days and the Harvest sale. I also love how close it is (unlike Calaway Park another one of our favorites, but that takes a whole day where as Heritage Park only takes a couple hours!)  
Jaxon on the Merry Go Round!

Owen on the Merry Go Round

The Boys on the little Ferris Wheel.

OH this is a big week in our house. Owen is now Officially off the soother. YAY!!! We took it away Sunday night and he has gone 3 whole days and nights with out it! YAY! he has been asking for it alot today... but I think its just that his teeth are bugging him... he has his hands in his mouth alot today! But Im not giving in. He is doing great! We are now a soother free house (ok... for another 5.5 months until the new baby comes)