Bye Bye Bisquick!

Saturday mornings in the Sellars' household involve

big homemade breakfasts.

Some days it's eggs, bacon and potatoes.

Others it's my husband's special chorizo and eggs,

pancakes

or our recent favorite

homemade waffles!

Once you try this recipe

you will kiss Bisquick goodbye!

Seriously.

They are just as easy to make as using Bisquick

but a million times better.

Yummm..

P.S. When it comes to waffles there is no such thing as

too much syrup.

Ok here it is...

Ingredients:

2 eggs

2 cups flour

1 3/4 cups milk

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 tablespoon white sugar

4 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Preheat waffle iron. Beat eggs in a large bowl with hand beater until fluffy (I just put them in the stand mixer and beat them for a minute or so on high). Beat on flour, milk, vegetable oil, sugar, baking powder, salt, and vanilla just until smooth.

2. Spray preheated waffle iron with non-stick cooking spray. Pour mix onto waffle iron. Cook until golden brown. Serve hot.

Happy waffle making!

Ruffle-icious

Every thing's better with ruffles

lots and lots of ruffles

This hand me down dress needed a little

pick me up

So I got out the stitch ripper and

removed the flower at the top

and the patches

then I took an old cotton shirt of mine

and started cutting.

and ruffling.

pinning. and sewing.

until I had just the right amount of ruffle goodness.

Then I added a few ruffly flower things to cover up the area where I removed the patch

and ta da!

A piece of messy, girly, ruffly goodness.

For free :)

Did I mention how much I love upcycling clothes?

Blessings Jar

Why is it so easy to forget

answered prayers,

blessings from the Lord,

times that He so clearly speaks to us, etc.?

We as a family

have made a decision NOT to forget the Lord's

goodness and faithfulness in our life.

We want to be intentional about remembering God's blessings...

thus the Blessings Jar.

A plastic (kid proof) jar that we keep in our kitchen

and when Aaron or I, the kids, or our family as a whole

experience God's wonders

we write it on an index card and put it in the Blessings Jar.

Anything from funny stories, answered prayers, accomplishments, observations of how a family member has grown and even hard things that produce good things can be written down.

Then at the end of the year (or whenever we want) we will sit down and read all the blessings God has allowed us to experience.

"Give thanks to the Lord...remember the wonders he has done."

1 Chronicles 16:8, 12

They're here!!!

Yesterday we welcomed

two tiny, feathery

members to our family

They are

the cutiest tiniest things you ever did see

(each baby hummingbird is less than an inch!)

We were able to sneak a couple pictures of them while Mommy was out of the nest for a second

Because most of the time she is found here.

Taking care of her babies.

It's hard to tell in the pictures just how tiny the nest and babies are

so I grabbed a Sharpie marker and took a picture of it right next to the nest.

As you can see the nest isn't even as big as the cap to the Sharpie.

Crazy!

Learning Book

I love all of my readers

(yes you!)

and I love to see all your twists and takes on the projects I make.

Remember my Counting Book?

Cee Cee's Dreams

just emailed me her version of it

and I loved it so much I had to share it with all of you!

After the counting part

she added an alphabet section

love it!

and a section on colors

all using items from around their house!

Genius!

P.S. I love to see your versions of my projects!

Most of the time they are better than mine anyway :)

Beanbox

Stuck inside

with stir crazy kids

wishing winter was over and summer was here?

Make a bean box :)

An indoor version of a sandbox.

Check out the details here at the Mother Huddle.

{I've also seen this done with rice}

Teanie Tiny Eggs

Hidden on a branch

on a tree in our backyard

lays a miniature birds nest

with two

teanie. tiny.

hummingbird eggs

(about the size of a tic tac)

and one mommy hummingbird

It's so exciting.

Like a little jewel or hidden treasure in our backyard.

Every day we go outside to see if the mommy is in her nest

and to look at the baby eggs.

And to praise God for making such beautiful things.

We can't wait until the eggs hatch

and two itty bitty baby hummingbirds emerge.

But until then we wait.

Like a family waiting to meet their new arrival.

Oh the excitement and anticipation!

And in the meantime we went out a bought a hummingbird feeder so Mommy hummingbird could have a quick little snack while she takes care of the little ones.

Wreath

love. love. love.

this

colorful burlap wreath

I think it would make any door happy

don't you?

Check out the tutorial from Tatertots and Jello here.

We are...

on a little vacation

visiting Aaron's Dad's side of the family

here

and our friends at Disney World!

See you in a week!

Ruffle Scarfs

It's no secret

I love ruffles

and I especially love all the cute ruffle scarfs popping up around the blogging world.

Here are some of my favorites.

Love this sweater turned scarf found here

Sew Much Ado's ruffle goodness found here

find this cutie from Shealynn at the Benner Daily here

Love the scallop ruffles on this one

Ruffles and Stuff shows how to make this ruffle scarf here

Mackenzie at 2

I love the mind of a 2 year old.

Random. Silly. Creative. Inquisitive.

Mackenzie is in such a fun stage right now.

Every day is something new.

She constantly cracks us up with the hilarious things she says and does.

I love how she explores her world.

and her creativity.

I love to see her imagination at work.

I wish I could just bottle up this moment in time and keep it forever.

But since I can't do that I'm trying my best to write down funny stories, video tape and take pictures often and save things that help me remember the 2 year old version of Mackenzie.

After Mackenzie finished one of her masterpieces I had her tell me what her picture was about and I labeled each item so we could remember later.

This pictures included:

2 turtles, a kangaroo, a "big fish" and lots of water

"because they were swimming in the ocean".

This picture had:

2 flowers, grass, clouds and 2 suns

oh and Hello Kitty.

Lately Mackenzie loves for me to draw pictures with Sharpie (as she dictates to me what should be in the pictures) and then she paints or colors them in. It's our own version of coloring books :)

Another favorite is outlining her hands with paint, crayons, markers, etc.

So fun!

What are some ways you preserve family memories?