Newest Creation: Libby with Braids

This is my newest creation.  It is called Libby.  It features two thick braids and a big tri-colored flower (flower pattern by The Lovely Crow).  Love these colors together!

Now she's giving away a Silhouette SD!

Check out Craftaholics Anonymous by clicking on my sidebar button! She's giving away a Silhouette SD digital cutting tool for a prize to one of her readers!!
www.craftaholicsanonymous.net

Oh Crafty Me

I craft! Did you know I craft? No not the weird wikken stuff. I make stuff! I'm pretty sure I can make just about anything. Now finding the time and energy to do so is a different post, but when I do I love to make anything. I make crochet hats, booties etc. I make bows, bags and other little kiddie stuff.
One of my favorites sites is Craftaholics Anonymous! Linda always has cute stuff to share. Blogs are where I find all my ideas typically. So if you craft or want to craft or like to see what others are crafting you should check out her blog! Right now she is doing this fantastic giveaway for her "Blogiversary." You can click on my sidebar button to go straight there. Lots of awesome stuff! Go check it out!
http://www.craftaholicsanonymous.net/

A Big Night in the Casey House

We had a big night in the Casey house. Jillian has spent the week at Grandma's house and today (Thursday) I met my dad and he took Eden for the weekend. So this meant that it was an ALL AVERY night. We went to eat at her favorite restaurant, rented her a Scooby-Doo movie, got ice cream and a new folder for school (which she needed). She said she was getting spoiled! I'm pretty sure if they recognize they are getting spoiled then they are not spoiled right?! So after the movie I was about to clean her face with a wet wash cloth. Right after I wet it she came to me and said, "You know mom, when we were leaving the store my tooth leaned WAY forward." I took a look and sure enough it was just hanging there. I told her it was ready and to pull it just a bit and it would come out! Then I conviently had a fresh, wet wash cloth in my hand for her to bite on. It bled for just a minute. This was Avery's first tooth to loose! It's been 2 weeks since we it started on the wiggly path. Here's a pic of her little gap:

She already has her adult tooth making it's way in. The new tooth is WAY back behind the row of baby teeth.

She is all excited and ready to see what replaces her tooth come morning!
I made a quick little pouch for her to keep her tooth in hoping that I can do the ol' switch-er-roo when she's out to the world. She wrote a note to the Tooth Fairy that says, "Der Toof Fare, This is my frst Tooth! Avery Casey"

The Man questioned why I do the whole tooth fairy mess, but not Santa. My answer to that is that Santa is given god-like abilities (ie: he sees you when your sleeping, he knows when you've been bad or good) and seems to replace Jesus during the Christmas season. I haven't actually told Avery that there is a tooth fairy. She asked if the tooth fairy was real and I answered with a good ol' "What do you think?" allowing her to speculate and decide what makes sense to her. Since the whole tooth trade for money bit is secular I don't see a problem with it!

Anyway... she's all excited! It was a big night in the Casey house!

The Santa Lie

I guess I am alone in my "Santa Feelings". Perhaps it is the way I was brought up or maybe it's just my own realization. We don't do Santa. It is something fun that we pretend with and talk about, but we do not "do" Santa. We don't have presents from Santa. We don't put out milk and cookies. We don't have a "be good for the spying elf". And we don't believe Santa is watching us and seeing if we are naughty or nice.
Before you think I am a big "Scrooge" hear me out!
With all the Santa tradition comes telling your child the following:

"A man you don't know will be coming into your house while you sleep, via the chimney (or some other way you make up if you don't have one)
Giving you presents that elves make in a toy shop
Reindeer fly this man all around the world in one night doing this to every house
This man can SEE you all the time!
This man knows what you are doing and how you are behaving.
This man knows what you are thinking!"

All of this bothers me tremendously! And here is why.
How am I to tell my children all these lies? Yes they are lies regardless of the fun of the kids believing and the excitement. I am supposed to tell them that THIS man can see them and THIS man knows what they want and THIS man knows how they behave. Only to have them realize a few years later that it was all lies.
AND THEN... and here's the big deal for me.... they are still expect to believe that Jesus is real. That God actually can see them, that God actually does know what they are thinking and what they want!! That their blessing come from Him. Ya right! No intelligent kid is going to continue to truly believe in the real Lord and his omniscient ability after being lied to when they were younger and more naive.
I don't see how lying to my kids when they are gullible can possibly have a good affect on them later in life.
All this to say... It seems like no one else (besides Starsha that I know of) feels this way. My Christian friends all do Santa at their homes. I feel strongly about it. I guess it doesn't matter so much what other families do. To each their own and all. It just bothers me that people don't see the correlation between Santa and the God-like abilities Santa is given and God, Jesus and the true Christmas story.
My kids should trust me. This means that I do no lie to them... ever.
We do fun stuff with Santa and have fun with it all, but my kids know that Santa's not a real person and will not be "visiting" us at Christmas time.

Alright... there is my rant on the evils of Santa!
Thoughts?

Who needs preschool when you have a big sister!

Here's a little video of Avery reading and teaching the twins. She LOVES to teach them colors and letters. She's the best Big Sister!!




She would read to them all day and teach them everything she knows if she could!

What's for Dinner?

I made this last night for dinner and everyone liked it, it was fairly simple, and it makes a BUNCH!

Sorry I have no photo's. Maybe I will take some next time I make it.

Tomato Alfredo with Sausage

1 1/2 lbs mild Italian Sausage Links (I used fully cooked Kielbasa Sausages. Worked fine)
2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped or use a garlic press
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
1 medium green bell pepper
2 - 14.5oz cans Italian seasoned diced tomatoes, undrained
1 - 15oz can tomato sauce
1 tsp sugar (I used about a half a tsp for fear of making it actually taste sweet. Around here we like to say "NO SWEET MEAT!")
16 oz uncooked mostaccioli, rigatoni or penne (I used rotini)
1/4 cup of whipping cream (I used heavy cream and I used about 3/8ths cup)
Freshly grated Parmesan cheese (I used the stuff in the green can. Take if from a wife of a man who works at a cheese plant... it's all the same as the fresh stuff... just costs less)

How to Put it all together:

If you use Kielbasa then you can skip step 1 & 2 because it is already cooked, but you should warm it up a bit in the skillet before adding the garlic.

1. Removed and discard casings from sausage links. Cut sausages crosswise into 1/2 inch pieces.

2. Cook sausage in large saute pan over medium heat for 8 minutes.

3. Add Garlic and continue cooking 2 minutes. Drain if necessary.

4. Stir in onion, bell pepper, tomatoes, tomato sauce and sugar. The pot was REALLY full at this point. I ended up moving it to a bigger pot rather than a saute pan.

5. Bring to a boil. Ruduce heat; simmer 20 minutes; stirring occasionally.

6. While sauce is cooking, prepare your pasta choice as directed on the pasta package and drain.

7. Remove sausage mixture from heat and gradually stir in whipping cream.

8. Serve over hot pasta. (I mixed it all together) Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese if desired.

So there you go! This was our dinner last night and it was GOOD!

Enjoy! Let me know if you try it and what you tweaked!