Menu Monday!

I am loving my new meal plan binder, it definitely makes planning my meals and grocery list easy and quick. Hope everyone has good food planned for this week. Here is what we are having... (click the links for the recipes)

Monday- Chicken Lasagna (favorite)
Tuesday- Beef Taquitos (good and easy)
Wednesday- Quick Taco Salad (SO yummy)
Thursday- Chicken Tortellini Skillet (new one)
Friday- Out to dinner w/gift card

For more great menu planning ideas, visit orgjunkie.com

Toliet Paper Roll Wreath!!!

So the picture doesn't do it justice (I need some serious photography lessons), but isn't this wreath SO cool...

I made it out of toilet paper rolls, hot glue and brown spray paint!!! Can you believe it, toilet paper rolls, LOVE it. I saw it over at The Kundin Family blog, and have been saving rolls ever since. :)

Binder Park Zoo Day!!!

The girls and I had such a fun day at Binder Park Zoo with my Aunt and Cousin. It is a bit of a drive, but is totally worth it, I mean baby giraffes, SO cute. We had a GREAT time, but we are all exhausted and heading to bed at 8pm! :) Here are some of the highlights, thanks for coming with us Amy and Shelby!

Yup, those are BABY giraffes. So stinkin' cute!

Nora and Aunt Amy on the train.

Shelby and Molly riding the camel. :)

I can never get Molly to smile at the camera,
but I can get her to dance!!!

Nora loved riding in the sling all day.

We love seeing all the different animals, this is one of our favorite zoos.
What zoos have you been to and loved?

Chalkboard Stones!

So, my friend Karen saw that Pottery Barn came out with there Halloween stuff, and sent me the email. Most of you know I LOVE FALL and everything that goes along with it, so this is right up my alley. Now, I don't shop at Pottery Barn because it is not in the budget, but I do LOVE to get ideas from there.

So when I saw the chalkboard Halloween rocks they had, I knew I could make them with things I had around the house, and I think I got pretty close. I may even like mine better, since I didn't have to pay for them, hee hee. :)

(Here are the ones I made!)

First, I found my spray primer, chalkboard spray paint, old newspaper, and a bunch of flat rocks I swiped from my in-laws landscaping!


Then I sprayed both sides of the rocks first with the spray primer, and then with two coats of chalkboard paint.

After they dried, I decorated them with chalk! (I use the chalk ink markers I had from decorating Nora's room, they are AWESOME!)

They were so cute, I decided I could write different words and pictures on them so I could display them now, and then change them for Halloween and all the different seasons.

I need to find a cooler vase or way to display them though. :)

Menu Monday!

Every week when I make my menu plan, I just write it down on whatever paper I can find laying around. Then, as the week goes on, it gets moved from purse to counter, to table, and ends up either getting ripped or lost along the way.

Last week on Growing Up Our Style, I found this awesome printable from SevenThirtyThree. I printed it right away and put it in a binder. So quick and easy, and it works great. It has each day along one side to write the menu. Then on the right it has a spot to write your grocery list that can be cut off to take with you to the store!

If you want to print a free menu plan, go HERE.

What Will It Bee!!! Baby Shower

This weekend my friend Alyssa and I threw a baby shower for our friend Kalli! She doesn't know if the sweet baby will be a boy or a girl, so we decided to have a "What Will It Bee," shower.

The invite we just designed in Print Shop and then rubber cemented to black and yellow card stock.

I also made sunflower ink pens to use for the thank you cards and the games. I put them in a flower pot painted with chalkboard paint and filled with coffee beans.


We had these fun sunflower cupcakes for dessert. I even found some cute sugar bees to put on them.


I made up these cute water bottle labels with "Thanks for BEEing Here" on them


I also was excited to make up some of these tissue paper pom poms. I was surprised how easy they were, and only .50 cents each. :)

Black and Yellow turned out so cute!

I found some cute bee boarders in my old scrapbook stuff, so I had to use them!

Alyssa brought some yellow and black M&Ms, got to love how cute they are. The best and tastiest decoration!

Lemons for the water and lemonade, and even a yellow bowl for ice. We had way to much fun with this theme!

The party was a lot of fun, and I hope Kalli enjoyed it as much as we loved throwing it for her!

I am so excited to meet her little peanut, and can't wait to celebrate every stage with them! We are so happy for you two! Congrats!

I got my inspiration for the Bee Shower here and for the sunflower cupcakes here.

Molly's Miracle "Fun"draiser!!!

Hello all! I am very excited to be a guest blogger today on my sister Kim’s blog. To give you a quick intro…my name is Beth, and I am Kim’s older sister, although for much of our lives people thought Kim was older than me, as she has ALWAYS been more mature. Not to say that I am immature…just more wild and crazy. I managed to channel all of this craziness into a very cool profession where you need to be pretty crazy, which is event planning. When I found out that my precious niece Molly had a brain tumor and was going to need surgery, I just knew I was going to have to do something to help. After chatting with my mom, aunts and cousins, I just knew that I had to put my God-given talent to plan events to good use! And so, Molly’s Miracle “Fun”draiser was born.

Why am I writing about this and not Kim? Well, I think we all know that it’s a little weird to actually ASK for help. Who likes doing that? Not me. It took a little convincing to even get the event going, so I told Kimmy that I wanted to hijack her blog for a day and do the asking. Because that’s what sisters do.

And so…you ALL need to SAVE THE DATE for Molly’s Miracle “Fun”draiser event on Friday, September 17 from 6 – 9 pm at the Grand Rapids Children’s Museum. More information can be found HERE, but basically, it’s going to be the perfect family night out. Besides all of the fun, regular exhibits at the Museum, they are also featuring the Curious George exhibit through September. Plus, we’ll have all kinds of additional fun, like face painting, snacks, a penny carnival, a silent auction, and so much more. Even if you don’t have kids to bring…there will be lots of fun to be had, or you can contact me to volunteer. We really do need so much help to make this happen.

The event cost is $5 per person, with a maximum of $20 per family. Seriously…this is an incredible deal. It usually costs $6.50 per person just to get in to the Children’s Museum, including adults! Not to mention they aren’t normally open at night, so this is a great opportunity for parents who work to take their kids out and PLAY! Please spread the word to all of your friends with kids…even if they don’t know Molly, they can come and play and have fun, all for a GREAT cause.

Can’t make it to the event but still want to help? GOOD NEWS! We have a credit card donation button up and running right here on this blog. Look to the left, at the top…see it? This will connect you to a PayPal account that will put the money right into a fund just for Molly’s medical expenses. Nice and safe and secure. Pass it on.

We also have some really awesome fliers that were designed for us by a professional who just wanted to help, and they really look GREAT. If you would like to distribute fliers and/or post them in your place of business or church, please contact me at btimmer_99@yahoo.com so I can send you a PDF of the flier. I am also looking for silent auction donations, a DJ to help at the event, volunteers for the carnival games and face painting, and a few other things. So let me know if you’re interested.

Thank you all so much for all of the love and support you have shown Kim, Randal, Molly and Nora, and really…to all of us. It’s a crazy world out there, and you just never know what is going to happen next. But we DO know that we have all of you out there to lean on when we need it. It’s been amazing. See you all at the event!

Menu Monday!

This not as crazy hot weather has me getting really excited for fall recipes, but since it is still summer weather... here are the meals we are planning this week.

Monday- Out to dinner for Grandpa's birthday!
Tuesday- Taco Sloppy Joes
Wednesday- Sandwiches
Thursday- Layered Bruschetta Salad
Friday- Pizza on the Grill

For more great menu planning ideas visit orgjunkie.com

Garage Sale For Mollers!!!

We have been working hard this week, having a GIGANTIC garage sale at my parents house to raise money to help with Molly's medical bills. I am totally in AWE of all the amazing people out there. I still can hardly believe how well the garage sale went!

First, so many of my family and friends donated so much to sell at the sale, and big ticket items! Second, my sister, mom, dad, brother, grandparents, aunts, cousins and friends helped set up and run the garage sale! Even on a 90+ degree day! (my 8 month pregnant friend even worked with me in the heat today!) They are THE BEST! And third, SO many people were so generous and donated more than they spent. We even had someone donate a huge bin of stuff to put at the sale. People are so nice and I truly hope I will be able to pay it forward. I don't even know how to begin to thank everyone, but I truly appreciate everything. :)

Home From Camping!

We just got home from a long weekend of camping!

We did a lot of relaxing, playing and enjoying (and not sleeping...)

We came home with a lot of dirt, laundry, and a new tooth for Nora!

Hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to catch up on everything!

On a totally unrelated note,
I came home and found out I won a Silhouette!!!!
I entered a giveaway at The Idea Room, and I am SO excited, and can't believe I actually won! I was jumping up and down, and can't stop dreaming of all the crafting possibilities!

Pudding Pops!

We were inspired to make some Rainbow Pudding Pops that we saw at Random Thoughts of a Super Mom. Yumm-O, they are such a fun summer snack. Ours didn't turn out very rainbow however... Molly love to "bake" and she insisted on choosing, three colors, all different shades of, you guessed it, PINK!

Molly LOVED them, I even had one. :) It tasted like frozen pudding, I didn't know what I was expecting it to taste like, but I was surprised. :) ENJOY!

Office Chair Makeover!

So I had this super cute fabric, and knew I had to make something awesome out of it, so I decided to makeover my sewing chair.

The chair used to me my husbands company work chair from like 10 years ago at his old job. He got to take it home when they bought new ones, so it was this "gorgeous" green pattern.


I've never upholstered anything, so I really didn't know what I was doing. I just pulled off the top and bottom section of the chair, spray adhesived my cloth to it, and then got out the staple gun and went to work stapling the cloth onto the back. Then I just reattached the two sections to the chair!

I totally love it! I think it was a much needed improvement! What do you think?

Thoughts and A Bit of Nora Cuteness!

I don't normally write posts like this, but since I've been missing in blog world for a week or so, I thought I should let you know what I've been thinking, who knows, it might me therapeutic. Basically I've been having a really hard time emotionally lately, and after last weeks MRI I think everything is just catching up to me and hitting me all at once. It was a crazy 3 months and we just went day by day and got through them, but now that life is getting back to normal, I have time to let it all sick in.

I try not to complain about things (except to my sister and best friend, they have to love me and not judge, lol). I think that everyone is having some sort of struggle or issue of there own, and I don't want to complain about mine, I believe we just need to make the most of what we've been given, and be happy. With that being said, it is way easier to believe that than actually live it. I am worried all the time about, as bad as this sounds, my kids dying. After Molly's brain tumor, and how bad she got, the reality that there was a chance she wouldn't make it really hit hard. And now that she is doing better and we are home, anytime her or Nora do something adorable or sleep or play or... it hits again how much I can't live without them, and then I worry some more. It is a vicious cycle.

Anyways, last week, I just sort of hibernated in the house with my girls. We didn't go very many places, and didn't clean, just played and laughed and enjoyed. Then on Friday, my friend Stacy took me and the girls to the zoo, and at night my sister took me to a girls night at my best friend from middle schools house. It was very fun, and just what I needed to get back into the swing of things.

I know I shouldn't worry, but I am having a hard time with it this week. I also feel guilty that I'm not always the strong mom I should be in this situation. Sometimes I am very strong and have it under control, and sometimes I'm a mess. Either way, I have an amazing support system, a wonderful husband, great family and friends, and the most amazing daughters in the world! And I feel very lucky for how well things worked out for us, and how great Molly is doing!

Nora laughing cheered me up a lot this week. :)