Kammi, The Hot Mess.

Do you ever feel like there is just so much on your chest that you need to get off and you don't know where to start?

That's me right now.

I know I've been talking a lot lately about how we are facing another deployment and it is getting closer and closer.  I know that some of you are probably sick of hearing about it, but whatever.  This is me.  This blog is my place to be happy and to be sad when I need to be.

I've had my sad moments, like I always do, but for the most part lately, I've been ok.

Except...I'm not really ok.

My head is a jumbled mess.  I have things that I want to write about and I just can't untangle the good things from the bad things in my mind right now.

I'm strong.  For my family.  I always will be.  But there is that part of me that just wants to fall apart.

This will be our third deployment in three years.  I should be used to this by now, right?  It has always been the same thing.  I am a mess leading up to deployment and then once he has been gone for a little while, things cool down and I'm good.

This time has been different, though.  This time, I've gone back and forth between being ok and being a mess.  My emotions are like a light switch when The Sophster get ahold of it...off...on...off...on...etc.

Gah!  It makes me feel looney!

I'm struggling with how sad The Sophster will be.  I hate that so many of her loved ones are in and out of her life.  Her sister and Bryson live in Louisiana, her Daddy goes on deployment, her Aunt Janine lives in Germany.  She gets to hold onto them just long enough to be super close and then they are ripped away.  While I love how in tune she is with her emotions, it makes me really sad when she says "I really miss my Sissy {Daddy, Aunt Janine, Brysee}".  We talk about how those people don't ever leave because they want to, it's because of work, school, etc.  She seems to get it.  Except, Daddy comes home from work every day now.  And he won't soon.  Not for almost eight long months.  That's somewhere around 245 days.  That's a life time for a two year old.

I'm struggling with the fact that this will be our longest deployment yet.  I'm now struggling with the 12 hour shifts that The Mister will be working {probably} until they leave.  There isn't enough time.  There aren't enough kisses or hugs or smells or snuggles or feels.  There aren't enough date nights left...there may not be anymore date nights.

Basically, what I'm saying is, I'm trying.  I'm trying to be here and to write.  But my posts may be sloppy and jumbled and all over the place for now.  So I just want to prepare you.  But don't worry, I never stay like this for long.

WFD {What's For Dinner} Wednesday

Can I tell you guys a secret?

I have had ZERO inspiration to write this last week....and I apologize.

It's just that, between Mitch being on leave these last two weeks, deployment coming up in a matter of days, and planning our Thanksgiving feast...I haven't had much energy to put onto this blog.

I did do some cooking this week, however.  So hang with me because I made some of our favorite things to eat this week and also some new things!

Can you believe that I cooked dinner FOUR times this week?!  That hasn't happened in what seems like forever!


I have a confession...I have no idea how to work a grill.  There.  I said it.  I bought The Mister this fancy schmancy infrared gas grill for Christmas last year and I have no clue how to work the thing.  He is the grill master.

What this means for us, is that, mama doesn't usually eat steak at home when The Mister is deployed.  This week, I demanded sweetly requested, that we grill out some big juicy rib-eyes!

I absolutely love that we can find 100% grass fed beef at Target now!!  We love the Thousand Hills Cattle Company beef.  I always buy their hotdogs for The Sophster and the ground beef for my Veggie Spaghetti with meatballs, but on occasion, we love to treat ourselves with their rib-eyes. And they never disappoint!

With the steak, I made our favorite brussies with bacon and also glazed some carrots.  This was something new for me, because glazing carrots used to mean lots and lots of brown sugar {which is now a no-no}.  I didn't do things much different this time, though.  Just used coconut palm sugar, a couple of dates {chopped}, and some cinnamon in place of the brown sugar.  I don't have step by step pictures, so you'll have to use that imagination of yours!

• Chop carrots
• Put carrots in pot with about a half inch of water, 3 Tbsp grass fed pure butter, 2 rounded tsp of coconut palm sugar, two dates, shake of cinnamon, and about a tsp of kosher salt.
• Bring to a boil
• Cover and reduce to simmer for about 8 minutes
• Remove lid and crank the heat back up to a med-high until water is evaporated, carrots are cooked, and sauce is ooey-gooey and delicious!
• Don't let your husband eat all of them! 

Somebody couldn't keep her fingers out of mommy's brussies long enough for me to get a picture!

Thursday night, The Sophster and I went to visit some friends in the hospital who just became first time parents!  Yay!  We spent more time than I had originally anticipated up there, so I had to come home and throw something together quickly because we were all HAAANGRY!

We had some chicken breasts in the fridgey, so I cooked them the way that The Sophster loves them, and just prepared a quick salad to pair with it.  

The chicken is super easy.  It's just boneless skinless breasts, season with salt, pepper, and garlic powder, then pan sear in coconut oil.  Easy peasy and certain to be loved by toddler palates everywhere!

We bought some Four Pepper Hot Sauce at the farmers market last weekend.  It only has ingredients that I can pronounce.  I like that.  So we put the hot sauce {it's more like relish, really} on our chicken.  It was yummy.

The salad was just some baby spinach with an orange bell pepper cut up over it, some s&p and garlic powder.  We used our Tessemaes red wine vinegar dressing.

Side note: I went to Whole Foods yesterday and was so excited to see that our WF actually carries more than one flavor of Tessemaes now!!  WooHoo!  I bought Zesty Ranch and Soy Ginger.  I can't wait to try them both!

Remember the saga about the lamb roast that wouldn't fit in anything??  And then my super wonderful Mister went and bought my dream slow cooker and the lamb still wouldn't fit???  

Yeah.  I decided to take that baby for a test run this week!  I made the Easy Shredded Beef from paleomg.com.  I hadn't spent a lot of time on Julie's blog until recently.  That chick is FUNNY and she creates some delicious looking food!  Guess I'll be adding her book, OMG. That's Paleo?, to my wish list.

I made the beef a little different, because that's just what I do, and I added a pack of sliced cremini mushrooms and a handful of peeled and smashed garlic cloves.  

I also could have sworn the time said low for 6 hours, so I didn't start until right at about 6 hours before dinner time....it says 8-10 hours.  Fail.  So, in an attempt to save dinner, I put it on high for 3 hours and then low for 4 hours.  I figured we could eat a little late that night.  Anyway, I think cooking it on high those few hours might have messed me up.  Don't get me wrong, it wasn't bad...it just wasn't beautiful and shreddy like Julie's was.  Next time, I'll know better.  Next time, I'll also add some fresh thyme or rosemary for a bit more flavor.  The meat was, however, awesome as leftovers!

With it, I cooked some burnt broccoli {we love our green veggies crispy and burnt around here, if you haven't noticed}, sautéed in some coconut oil, with some parmesan grated on top, and the most amazing, most delicious {I did that in my best Gordon Ramsey voice, btw} sweet potato medallions.  Seriously.  Those things were so flippin' good, YOU GUYS!  You have to make them. 

Here's how:

• Preheat oven to 400*
• Clean and scrub your sweet potatoes
• Slice them into about half inch rounds
• Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and coat in melted coconut oil
• Place potato rounds onto baking sheet in a single layer
• Coat each round with coconut oil
• Season with s&p and garlic powder
• Put in oven for 15 minutes
• Take out, flip over, coat with coconut oil and season
• Cook for an additional 15 minutes
• Remove from oven
• Devour
• You're welcome 

The weather here has been especially dreary and gloomy the last couple of days.  Most of you may be used to that this time of year, but this is Florida.  We are not.  We are used to wearing shorts.

Anyway, I've been eyeballing this recipe over on the Paleo Parents blog for a couple of weeks now, and last night seemed like the perfect time to make their Creamy Dairy-Free Butternut Bacon Bisque.  

I love how they break down all of the good stuff that makes this soup so wonderful.  Stacy says:

" The best part of this dish is how freakishly good it is for you. With nutrient-dense and healing stock, anti-oxidants from the beta-carotene-rich butternut squash, tons of vitamins and minerals including a good punch of Vitamin D from the lard, this soup is the perfect food when winter germs approach and winter squash is in season."

BOOM!  Plus....there's this...

I followed the recipe exactly, except, I don't have pork stock made, so I used the chicken broth that I cooked up over the weekend.  

It was divine!  The Mister and I each had two bowls and The Sophster really enjoyed dipping her bacon into her soup and eating it like the delicious meat candy that it is.  I mean really, everything is better with bacon, right?!

On a more serious note, I do want to say that I'm glad that you all are here reading these posts.  In a few days, I will be experiencing some gloom and doom and I probably won't feel like writing {or maybe even cooking} at all for a while.  Having you here and seeing that you are interested makes me want to not go hide away in my little deployment cave.  So, Thank You.

On a funnier note, I love that this WFD Wednesday series of posts has kept me accountable for how long leftovers have been in our fridge.  I'll be writing one week and go to link back to a meal from a past week and I'm like, "Ew...that's still in the refrigerator...time to do a purge!"  haha So, thanks for that, too!  

I am not linking up with The Pajama Mama this week.  Today is her birthday and she is probably out partying it up PJM style!  If you get a chance, pop over to her Facebook page and send her some happy birthday wishes!  While you're there, make sure you like Our Life with The Sophster, too!

Did you make anything delicious this week?  What about Thankgiving?  It is next week, you know!  Who does the holiday cooking in your family?  Do you leave it to one person or is it more of a Turkey Day potluck?

Hope you all had a delicious week!

**Disclaimer: This post does include at least one affiliate link.  If you were to click on said links and purchase said product, I would get a teeny tiny kickback from Amazon.  In hindsight, this isn't so bad when you think about all of the many hours that go into this blog, right??**

WFD {What's For Dinner} Wednesdays

Hey there!  Remember last week when I said that Sandra was coming to visit and we had a very busy week planned?  Yeah.  That happened.  As a matter of fact, I only cooked two meals this week.  I did not cook a single thing from Wednesday to Saturday.

We ate out A LOT.   For me, it can be a bit defeating in the kitchen when Sandra is here.  She is used to eating all of the foods that we don't keep in our house, so it's very difficult to please her palate with my cooking.  So we ate out, where she could get what she wanted and we could make the healthiest choices possible.  Either that, or we ate leftovers.

The good news is, the two meals that I did end up making this week came out really yummy!

Sunday, I decided to cook dinner as more of a late lunch meal, since The Mister was driving Sandra back towards Louisiana that afternoon, and I wanted everyone to have full happy tummies.  I made the Pina Colada Chicken that is featured over at The Paleo Parents blog.

This recipe was posted by the Paleo Parents, but it is a review of the Pina Colada Chicken from the new cookbook, Well Fed 2.  I have the first Well Fed cookbook and I honestly love it, and I have to say that, after trying this recipe, I will surely be buying the new cookbook, too!  This stuff was delicious!

The recipe in the book suggests pairing the dish with some cauli-rice.  I didn't want to make plain ol' cauli-rice, so I jazzed it up a bit to go with the tropically inspired chicken dish.

I shredded the cauliflower as usual in my food processor.  Then, sautéed it in some coconut oil, the rest of the coconut milk leftover from the recipe, and some crushed pineapple with some of it's juices.  It was really yummy!

Last night, I set out to make a paleo version of shepard's pie.  In our PP {pre-paleo lol} life, I made a pretty tasty shepard's pie, and as I've mentioned before, my recreations haven't always come out so good the first shot.

Long story short, It.Was.Awesome!  So awesome, in fact, that it is already gone.  Which makes me kind of sad because now I will have to cook tonight {which is usually a night off for me}.  Just kidding.  I love being in the kitchen!

I made this paleo by using some beautiful locally grown butternut squash instead of mashed potatoes, and just adjusted the spices from my usual pie.

The only thing I would change here is, I usually add about a half cup of beef broth to keep the pie moist, but this time it seemed a little soupy.  Tasty, but soupy.  Today, as leftovers, it was not at all soupy.  So maybe the next time I make it, I'll leave the broth out or just use less of it.

Want the recipe?  Let me know!  I'm happy to make it again and create a post with tons of pics!

Comforty Goodness right here!

I know that I said I would spend some time this week working on some grain free mug cakes also, but to tell the truth, we ate so much junk that I just didn't feel up for baking any more sweets.  I did take one shot at a cake recipe I want to figure out.  It's definitely not ready to give out the recipe yet, but hopefully it will be soon!  See the sacrifice I make for you people?  I have to make all of these yummy cakes and then EAT THEM.  Tough life for this girl.

Can you guess what I'm working on here?

Well, that's it for this week!  I'm linking up again with The Pajama Mama, so don't forget to check her out along with any other blogs that have linked up over there!  I love that she lets her son, Mango, shop for his own items and then she actually came up with some things from items that he chose!  She is one cool mama!

What kind of meals were on your table this week?  Do you have "lazy" weeks where you don't cook much for your family?  What are some of your favorite cool weather comfort foods to cook up?

Hope you all had a delicious week!

**Disclaimer: This post does include some affiliate links.  If you were to click on said links and purchase said product, I would get a teeny tiny kickback from Amazon.**

We Are Picture People

We recently had The Sophster's Fall/Halloween pictures done with the fabulous Sheri, from Wurth Images.  I just wanted to take a moment to share about Sheri and how wonderful she is!

We met Sheri last December.  She was introduced to us by a friend.  She is involved with Welcome Them Home, a group of photographers who do military homecoming photos and then she offers you the edited photos on disc for dirt cheap {basically the cost of gas and a little time for editing}.

I met her when she met us on base for Mitch's homecoming and I immediately loved her.  She was actually there to mostly capture pictures of my girlfriend and her family, but she managed to get some awesome shots of us, too.  They all make my heart skip.  This one still melts me every time I see it framed in our living room.

She also shot our family photos in January of this year when Sandra and Bryson visited.  It was a cold day and The Sophster was being less than cooperative.  Still, Sheri had some great ideas to keep all of the kids involved and to keep them all from getting bored.  

She is also about to become a photographer for Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep, infant remembrance photography.  

The woman has such an incredible heart for people.  She absolutely blows me away by what an incredible human she is.  And also what an incredible mother she is to her beautiful daughter, Alice, or as The Sophster has so lovingly deemed her, Baby Awice.

So when it came time to get fall pictures done of The Sophster, there was no other choice for us.  We are forever clients of Wurth Images.  I'm also proud to say that she has become a friend to me.  

If you are local to the Jacksonville, FL area, please please please check Sheri out.  I promise you will love her.  I promise your kids will love her.  I very very highly recommend her services!

Now, without further ado...The Sophster...

Check That One Off The List! An Epic Mommy Fail.

You know that list that parents have of things that you hope never happen?  Ever had one of those things checked off?  I got to check off the first major one {seemed that way at the time, anyway} on Wednesday morning....

My mother-in-law is out of town and she left us with her car.  This had been nice because we have been a one car and one bike family since The Mister decided to sell his truck months before deployment and has been riding his bike to work every day.

The car has this little quirk where the driver's door doesn't lock/unlock with the electric locks or the key fab.  My guess is the actuator, but what do I know?  Anyway, you basically have to unlock the doors from the passenger side and climb over to the driver's side to lock the driver's door and visa versa for locking it.  Only, if you press the driver's door lock down manually, all of the other doors lock in the car.

Wednesday morning, The Mister left out of here to drive to Louisiana to pick up our oldest daughter, Sandra.  Naturally, he took our car.  It's a lot of miles from North Florida to almost New Orleans, we know that our car is dependable, and then there's the whole thing about insurance or whatever.

The Sophster and I needed to make a quick run to Target, so we got dressed and jumped in Oma's car.  When we got to Target, I went through my usual run down for what we needed to take into the store with us.  Into my purse went keys, phone, water bottle.  Then, I opened the door and thought "Hmm...I wonder if this door will lock from the door switch?"  I flipped the switch up and down a couple of times.  Nothing.  "Oh well", I thought, and shoved the lock down.  Jumped out of the car, closed the door....and immediately realized that I had locked all of the doors...with The Sophster inside the car.

So I locked my kid in the car, in a parking lot.  I mean, who cares about the parking lot, really?!  I LOCKED MY KID IN THE CAR!

I immediately started shaking like a leaf.  What was I going to do???  My purse, phone, keys, and CHILD were locked in this car!!

Thankfully, there was a nice gentleman across the parking lane from me and I very nervously asked for help.  He was very gracious and called the Sheriff's office for me and they were out within just a couple of minutes.

He asked if there was another key and I had no good answer...."No sir, there's not.  This is my mother-in-law's car, she's out of town.  My husband has our one car and is on his way to Louisiana to pick up my step daughter"

....I felt like puking.

I stood by Sophi's window making funny faces at her, praying she wouldn't start wigging out.  She did fine right until probably the last few seconds she was in there.  The officers were able to get into the car quickly and we got her out.  She was a little freaked out by all the policemen standing around and you know, from being locked in the car, so she wouldn't speak to the officers that just rescued her, but she did manage to give them each a high five and they gave her a Sheriff's Office bracelet for being so tough!

Also, that very same night, as The Mister was on his way home, our kitchen sink backed up.  The garbage disposal was clogged and I had a sink full of dishes to wash.  So, there they sat until the next morning when The Mister could fix it....and give me lessons on how to fix it, in case it happened again in the next 8 months.

These are the things that are supposed to happen during deployment!  Maybe they are just getting themselves out of the way before he leaves?  Oh that would be wonderful!  I hope it's not a sign that the worst is yet to come.

Stupid Deployment.  We really can never be friends.

Have you ever locked your kid{s} in the car?  What are some things that you have checked off of the "hope that never happens" list?  How did you handle it?  If you are a military family, what have been some of your toughest deployment/pre-deployment challenges to tackle?

WFD {What's For Dinner} Wednesdays

Hey y'all!  It's time for the weekly round up of what was ate here at Casa de Sophster!  I'm going to try to keep this one short and sweet today, though.

As I type, The Mister is on his way to Louisiana to pick up Sandra, and we have a VERY busy weekend planned.  As I said before, we don't see Sandra and Bryson as often or for as long as we would like, so we try to cram a lot of things into a short time.  And as much as I love you guys, I'm not going to be hanging around here talking to you all weekend!  So, I'm trying to write and schedule a few posts over the next few days...you know, so you won't worry about little ol' us over here in Sophster land!

I'm realizing quickly that, we are pretty much down to making three meals a week most weeks.  I can't tell you how happy that makes me!  When we first made the switch to paleo, I felt like I never got to leave the kitchen!  Cook, cook, cook, cook, COOOOOK was all I ever did.  Ugh.  It was exhausting.  I was rewarded though.  By the health of my family, by the fact that The Sophster will finally eat her veggies {and I don't have to hide them!}, and by regaining my own health.

Now, I've gotten this thing down, pretty much.  I can make one big meal that will last us two or three days {usually} and I get some time off from the kitchen.  Time to play and steal some much needed snuggles from The Sophster!

Let's get down to business!

Thursday night was Halloween!  We took The Sophster out for her very first trick-or-treating!  The girl had a blast!  We were out for about an hour.  We can't believe that she lasted on foot as long as she did.  After about 45 minutes, she kept getting candy and then sitting down in the driveway of said candy giver to "take a break".  So we walked for about another 15 minutes and came on home to check out her bounty!   We ate leftovers.  No way this mama was cooking after all of that trick-or-treating!

Minnie Mouse was all set for some candy hunting!

Friday night we had our pre-deployment briefing for the families, so I also did not cook that night.

Saturday night was back to the kitchen, though!  The Sophster and I decided we wanted to make some veggie spaghetti.  Let me tell you, before changing our diet to grain-free, we were a spaghetti loving family!  I usually made it once a week or so.  Since making the switch, I have tried to make a successful "veggie spaghetti" {thank you, Daniel Tiger for the name} four times....and failed each time.  Something was always missing.  So, I set out to make a new version this time....and Oh.Em.Gee people, it came out AWESOME!

I'm not going to post an entire recipe in this post, but if y'all show an interest, I'll get it typed up and in a new post.  I will tell you this, though....I made this for lunch time because Mitch had to work nights Saturday, and The Sophster not only loved it for lunch, she asked for it for dinner!  She loves this stuff!  YeSSSS!!

Want in on one of the secrets?

I added a small pat of grass fed butter on top of each pile of spaghetti squash!  Have you guys ever had real butter from grass fed cows??

 I have a funny story.  So, my Nana used to tell this story about how when my mom was a little girl, she used to walk around eating sticks of butter.  {Sorry, Mom}.  That always really grossed me out.  Until recently when I stopped using what I thought was butter, and started using REAL BUTTER.  Omg people, if I wouldn't get totally shamed walking around eating a stick of this butter...I probably would with this stuff.  The stuff is creamy and tasty and omg omg omg!  I imagine this is the kind of butter my child sized mother used to nom on.

Have I totally freaked you out yet?

Anyway, here is The Sophster...I think she was just a little excited about the way her spaghetti tasted. She kept proclaiming "YAY! VEGGIE SPAGHETTI! I LOVE VEGGIE SPAGHETTI!!"

Sunday night was cool in a couple of different ways.  One, my little brother and nephew came over to play and have dinner with us {yay!} and two, mama got a new kitchen gadget!  

I decided to make the lamb roast that was taking up huge amounts of room in our freezer.  I set out to make the Mediterranean Lamb Roast from my Practical Paleo cookbook, but I quickly realized that my {very old and outdated} slow cooker was much too small.  So, I tried the dutch oven {does that name just make you giggle?  It does me!}.  Too small.  Ugh.  What was a girl to do?  Guess I would need that newer, bigger slow cooker now instead of after The Mister leaves for deployment!  Being the awesome, wonderful {fill in all things good here} husband that he is, he took off and brought me home my new slow cooker in record speed!  We ripped open the box, cleaned the cooker out, plopped the lamb roast in....it didn't fit.  Omg this roast was never going to get cooked!

These are the moments when I am so so thankful for Pinterest {do you follow me yet??}.  I found this roasted lamb recipe from the Paleo Foodie blog and I knew that it would be "the one"!  It would have to be, really.  I had all of the stuff to make it and that damn lamb roast was definitely fitting into my roasting pan!!  The recipe doesn't call for it, but I also added about an onion and a half, cut into quarters and shoved down around the roast.

It actually came out pretty amazing.  Easy peasy and really tasty.  I made my cauliflower mash with it and served it with the onions that cooked with the roast.  I didn't think my brother would eat it, but much to my surprise, he cleaned his whole plate!  If I can get my picky brother to eat my food, I must be doing something right!

 The kids had lamb, cauli-mash, grass fed hotdogs, and some banana slices sprinkled with cinnamon. Neither one of them ate their cauli-mash.  Maybe I'll add butter to theirs next time and see if that helps.  I feel like I need to yell "Butter ALL THE THINGS!"

Last night, Tuesday, I went with another easy meal.  We did our Commissary shopping yesterday, so this family was lucky to get dinner out of me at all.  Yeah, I'm pretty lazy on grocery days usually.

I made my asparagus with lemon zest and I made some chicken thighs with bacon and sage.  It came out really really yummy.  I mean really....chicken....wrapped in bacon.  Would you just look at this deliciousness??

It's sooooo simple!  Just take some chicken thighs {I use bone in}, season with s&p and garlic powder, top with a few sage leaves, and wrap in bacon.  I started these on the stove because I like to live dangerously and I infused a couple of large garlic cloves in some bacon grease before adding the chicken.  Cook these puppies for 40 minutes {less time if using boneless}, pop them under the broiler until they start to sizzle and BAM!  You get a husband with a happy tummy!

The Sophster requested more veggie spaghetti.  Who I am to tell her no??  Psshhh!! 

Anyway, that's it!  I am working on some yummy grain-free mug cake recipes {these might be my new favorite things}.  I'll be in the test kitchen {aka the kitchen in my house} some this weekend with The Sophster and Sissy.  Looking forward to sharing some of those soon!

What about you?  What was on your plate this week?  Make anything new and exciting?

Hope you all had a delicious week!

**Disclaimer: This post does include some affiliate links.  If you were to click on said links and purchase said product, I would get a teeny tiny kickback from Amazon.**

We Put Some Paint on Canvas...and it came out Awesome!

Sandra and Bryson came to visit us for about a week over the summer.  With their mother also being military, they don't live close enough to us, anymore. Which means that we don't get to see them nearly as often as we would like to these days.

When they come, we always try to make the best out of every trip.  We take short trips to theme parks, we go to the pool, go to the zoo, to the park, movies, whatever.  We just try to have as much fun as we can in those few short days with them.  The Sophster is always elated to have them here and then on the flip side, she is always devastated to see them have to go back to their mother's house.

We wanted to do something memorable for all of the kids while they were here this summer.  Something that they could take home with them and something that The Sophster would have here.  A reminder of the closeness of our family, even when we are far apart.

We decided on painting some canvas together.  I saw this idea on Pinterest a long time ago.  I think I even pinned it with something like "Will have to do this when the older kids are here", or something.

I showed it to The Mister, and of course, he decided that we could do it better.

So we did.

I ran out to the store to grab some canvas, which turned out to be on MAJOR sale!  I scored two 16x20 canvases for less than $6! Yes!  Then I came home and The Mister and I started brain storming about what we wanted to put on each canvas.  We knew that the canvas for Sandra and Bryson would hang in their play room at their mom's house, so we wanted something inspirational for them.  We decided to put "Dream BIG" on theirs and The Mister wanted to do an ocean scene on the other.

Sometimes that guy blows my mind with how crafty he can be!  I would have just sloppily put the masking tape in shapes of letters all over the canvas....he had another idea.

He took a piece of board that we had laying around, put a double layer of masking tape down, and carved the letters/shapes out with an exacto knife!  Clever guy, that one.  Knew I married him for some reason!

Next, we got the tape placed where we wanted it on the canvas.  He did a pretty awesome job, right??  I mean, can you believe that he cut all of that stuff out by hand?!  That dude is GOOD!

Can you just picture how great these will be??  I'm so excited right now.

We put some newspapers, cups of WASHABLE paint, and paint brushes down on the floor.  Then we put the two canvases down and let the kids go crazy!

After a minute, they were over the paint brushes and onto full on hand painting!

Almost done!

These are the hands and faces of some kids that have had a GREAT time making something together!

Remember how I said that the "Dream BIG" canvas was going home with Sandra and Bryson?  We thought it would be a neat idea for all three kids to put their handprint on that canvas.  So we painted a white hand on each kid and had them place their print down.

Then we wait for the paint to dry....we waited for what seemed like a lifetime....oh the anticipation could have just killed us.  The Mister did cheat and pull some tape before it dried....bad Mister!

Here's what they looked like after they dried and we peeled the tape...

Oh but we weren't done yet!  We took the "Dream BIG" canvas outside for a smelting of glitter!  The Mister outlined the words and patterns with some glue and made a glue border.  Then we gave each kid a cup of glitter and let them, once again, go crazy!  

Ready to see how it came out???  Of course you are!  Left is right after they threw the glitter on, and the right is after we shook it off {the final product!}.

Crappy cell phone pics aside, it looks AWESOME, right??   It now hangs proudly in the kids' playroom at their mom's and they still talk about how much fun they had making it.  Win!

As for the one that would stay with us, I carried it upstairs to my crafting area and hot glued some seashells all across the bottom, so it could have a sea floor. :)  

As most parents would be, we are so proud of the art that the creative minds of our children created that day!  The ocean canvas hangs right above my crafting/our office space, and we get to look at it any time we are here at our computers, or upstairs playing/crafting with The Sophster.  They are very precious works of art. :)

What are some of your favorite crafts?  Do you think this might be something you would do with your kids?  What are some favorite things that your littles have created for you?