Poconos in Pictures

Time flies when you're having fun.
And what fun we all had this week with my parents, sisters and their families.
What do you get when you have,
10 adults
1 very sick pregnant lady
7 kids (+1 more expected this September)
4 days
3 nights
1 house
This...

The Bad News Bears all together
Counting down the days til our next get together.

I Long For Salt Air in my Hair

Today, we dreamt about the summer on a cool winter day.

Clamming boots

My little buddy walking next to me

Snack break


Although I long for summer, there's nothing like the beach in the winter. Just another one of my favorite things.

Funny Valentine

The Decorations

The People









Took a bunch, but this was the best one of all. Poor Luke!

My rocks. Mommying is so much fun, especially when your friends are mommies...

Organized Pantry

Over the past two weeks, I've been working on organization in my house. With two little ones, it's been real hard to keep up with household chores and keep closets, drawers, laundry piles and our pantry neat and tidy. So I figured I should get my butt into gear and get organized before my house starts looking like those houses on Hoarders (omg EW!).

Step one of this process was pantry organization. Brace your eyes, does your food storage look something like this?

I can't believe I actually showed you that picture!

{I'm so embarrassed, but I figured you needed to see what I was dealing with before I got to work}.

With a little help from my mom, and a couple of stores (Ikea, Homegoods, Christmas Tree Shop and Target for all storage containers and labels), I was able to come up with simple ways to create more space for food storage.

My general rule was this: All boxes must go, unless they fit into my one crate of boxed food (that's right, ONE crate). I know this seems hard (my mom didn't think I was going to be able to do it), but this is doable. And by sticking to my rule, I was able to transform my pantry into this:

By emptying the cabinets and placing all the food in front of my eyes, I was able to then group food together by genre (baking goods, kids snacks, adult snacks, cookies, pasta, morning food- cereal/oatmeal/pancake mix, canned food, spices, and boxed food). Each group of food was then placed into baskets or containers (depending on size).

Containers were labeled and viola, pantry organized!

Is your pantry picture worthy? I'd love to see how you keep your food organized!

Birthday Blondies

Happy Birthday to my

older,

wiser,

beautiful,

compassionate,

(highly) emotional,

down-to-earth (except when she has her ditsy moments),

hard working,

lovable,

fashionable,

honest,

outgoing,

AMAZING

sister.

Love ya with all my heart :)

And because the birthday girl gets whatever she wants, she's gettin blondies made by a blondie (you guessed it...me) this weekend. And you better believe I'm putting extra love into this batch...

Here's the Toll House recipe with a few tweaks of my own.
Ingredients
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 cups firmly packed brown sugar
3/4 cup butter or margarine, softened
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 (12 ounce) package NESTLE® TOLL HOUSE® Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels

Directions
PREHEAT oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a large rectangular baking dish.
COMBINE flour, baking powder and salt in a small bowl. Beat sugar and butter in a large mixing bowl until creamy. Beat in eggs and vanilla extract; gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in morsels. Spread into prepared pan.
BAKE for 20 to 25 minutes or until top is golden brown. Cool in pan on wire rack.

Perfect birthday treat!

How To Sterilize Pacifiers The Right Way

Some call it the old fashioned way, I call it the right way. Sterilizing binkies (as we call them here) is apart of my daily routine...I could do it in my sleep. Literally. I'll wake up some nights thinking that I need to get out of bed to go sterilize bottle nipples and binkies. It's crazy.

I remember being a first time mom and having no idea how to do it. I was scared I'd let them boil for too long and somehow have them release toxins or deadly poisons (haha), or not leave them in long enough to totally defeat the whole purpose. Funny to think how clueless I was.

Well, here's the right way to do it...

{for all the new clueless mama's out there}

**Submerge all pacifiers, bottles, bottle nipples, etc. into boiling hot water. Keep them in there for about 5 minutes. Use tongs or spoon to dish them out. Let them air dry then pat down and restock the cabinet.**

Repeat at least once a week. Better to do it more often, if you can find the time...let me know where you find it ;)

Lovey Day

I know, I know, you're probably SO done with me and Minted, but I just gotta...one last time (I hope). Since Valentines Day is right around the corner, how cute would it be to send out personalized valentines?!
Here are a few of my favorites:

I love ordering cards like this because now people (ya know, like my parents, in laws,and grandparents) have a reason to save their valentines. It's a good way to send your love as well as give everyone a hard copy of a picture that they'll cherish forever.
Speaking of Valentines Day, I decided to host a little Red and Pink party for my two loves next Tuesday. Invites have been sent and decorations are in the making. If you are incredibly obsessed with Pinterest lately (welcome to the club), you'll love these sweet party ideas I found:

Can't wait to get our party on! Are you doing anything special on Valentines?