Joining forces - Yummy Appetizer Recipe!

Last year I started another blog for moms...it was meant for us to fill with favorite recipes, favorite kid books, favorite deals at Baby Gap...you get the idea. Well, let's just say, that blog didn't really "take-off," so now, I'm joining forces...that blog with this blog. So, whether you like it or not, instead just cute pictures and stories of my kids, I'm going to try and add some other things here as well. AND, please, please, please, feel free to leave comments and add your own favs. as well! (that's what I was trying to do w/ the other blog, which didn't really work...we'll see if my readers here will do as I ask! :O)

So, to start things off I wanted to share a recipe I tried last night for the first time. And, let's just say, there was hardly a morsel left on the plate! It's a must for a summer BBQ party! (or winter gathering in your home!)

I found it in the Kraft Food and Family Magazine and it was super easy (like most recipes in their mag)! Thanks Kraft!

Click on the recipe title below to find the recipe on their site (you can print it there or here):

Warm Italiano Spread

1 pkg. Philadelphia Neufchatel Cheese (I'm guessing regular cream cheese would work equally as well)

1/4 cup pesto

1 plum tomato, chopped

1/4 cup Kraft Finely Shredded Italian Five Cheese Blend

Triscuit Crackers (or other...)

Heat grill to medium heat. Place unwrapped Neufchatel cheese on 8-inch square sheet of heavy-duty foil; top with pesto, tomatoes and shredded cheese.

Place foil on grill; cover with lid. Grill 8 to 10 minutes or until shredded cheese is melted and Neufchatel cheese is softened but still holding its shape.

Transfer foil to platter. Serve spread with crackers.

How to prepare in your oven: Prepare as directed above - bake at 375 degrees for 12 to 14 min. or until shredded cheese in melted and Neufchatel cheese is softened but still holding its shape.

***Note from me: I set the timer for 8 min. to grill it and it was really melted...maybe check it at 5 or 6 and you'll be good to go! (it was still delicious, but softer than it was probably supposed to turn out.)

Birthday Party #2 - Morton Arboretum

We spent a wonderful afternoon celebrating Sam's birthday last Saturday with Brian's family and our great friends The Glavach's. We met at the Arboretum for a picnic lunch and play time. And, after a strong debate that morning if we should move the party inside, we were so thankful that we stuck with the plan and got to enjoy the gorgeous day!

Birthday Boy!

YUMMY! More monkey cupcakes!

Kiddos enjoying lunch!

Sammy showing off his new swim trunks!

On to play time!

Sammy enjoyed the fun from the stroller.

The tadpoles are out and the kids just couldn't wait to check them out.

Heidi and Jeremy walk out to see what it's all about.

Yes, the little black things are ALL tadpoles...there had to be thousands of them!

The water was just too tempting for Jackson!

Jake and Ellie

Best Buds Hannah and Peter inspecting the tadpoles.

All partied out! I had to sing and clap as loud as I could to keep

Sam and Ellie awake on the way home! I'm proud to say, I did it! :O)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SAMMY!

I can hardly believe that our little Sammy boy is 1 year old already! Brian and I feel so blessed by this little boy. He is a true joy and we just love watching him grow each day!

Yesterday was his big day and let me tell you, we threw him the best 1 year old party a family could throw! Okay, I'm totally kidding, but we did go out for dinner to Hannah's favorite restaurant and therefore, Sam's favorite restaurant, Red Robin. :O) After dinner, we came home and gave Sammy our gifts (sadly, I didn't even wrap them, isn't that terrible?!) and what do you give a sweet little boy living in the Chicago area? A Cubs shirt and hat, of course!

Sam's first party was last weekend when we were in MI last weekend for Mother's Day and celebrated Sam's birthday with my family there.

For some reason, I'm a little obsessed with monkeys right now (maybe b/c our little man IS a monkey!) and found the instructions to make these adorable cupcakes online. They were really a piece of cake to make, literally! hee, hee, hee! ;O)

"Happy Birthday to you!"

Stripped down and ready to attack his treat!

Mmmmmmmm, this is SO GOOD! How much can I fit in???

I love this look...like he's looking around wondering if he's going to get caught for something he shouldn't be doing. :o)

Stay tuned for more birthday fun...we'll be celebrating Sam's with Brian's family on Saturday!

Mother's Day and Tulips

We were lucky (just ask Brian!) enough to see the wonderful Dutch Dancers perform last Friday night in Holland, MI and the kids just loved it! (well, maybe the girls, more than Luke :O) We enjoyed our evening and even convinced the kids to pose for a few pictures. Thanks kiddos! 

Back at Grandma and Papa's, the kids had a blast playing together. Hannah, Ellie and Taylor are sporting their matching pig-tails! 

Great Grammy Smith came on Sunday to celebrate Mother's Day and Sam's birthday with us. She was so sweet and you could see the love in her eye's when she saw the kids that day. 

Sammy loved sitting by her, making sure to check her out from every angle! :O)

The kids with Grandma and Great Grandma on Mother's Day.

We love you moms and grandmas!

Pretty Pretty

Last Friday the kids and I stopped at a few garage sales on the hunt for a wagon and instead, came home with a new play vanity! For $5, I got this cute little thing and the girls just love it. Of course they had to have Sammy in the "customer" chair right away! Oh my, he has no idea what he's in for w/ these two girls! 

All dressed up for spring!

Since I failed to get pictures of the kids all dressed up for Easter, I thought I'd have a little photo shoot a couple of weeks ago after church. I LOVE Spring and have been so happy about the warmer temps and brighter days!

Lovely sisters

Hannah - age 5 years 5 months

*she just lost her 2nd tooth last weekend!!

Ellie - age 2 years 8 months

*we are just marveling at her expanded vocabulary lately..she's such a sweet little girl

Sam - age 11 months and 24 days

*He's a proud 'almost' walker!! He'll take 4 or 5 steps!

Look how excited he is!

Our little blessings

Unfortunately when we tried to take a family shot using the timer on the camera, Sammy didn't quite figure it all out...no matter how many times I said, "Sam look at the camera!" I wonder why that didn't work?! :O)

After pictures, Hannah decided it was time to let her butterflies go free. I thought she'd be hesitant about it...missing them, but she wasn't at all. She thought it was great to watch them fly out in to their new home. Ellie liked it too. :O)

Loss

It's almost too much to bear...another dear friend losing a baby girl. My college roommate Kerry called me yesterday to tell me that her baby girl, Sadie Grace, who was due to be born on May 21st was gone. Unbelievable. After not feeling the baby move for quite some time, Kerry and her husband Jeff became alarmed and went to the hospital Monday night. There it was confirmed that their baby girl was gone.

Kerry is probably, as I type this, in recovery from her c-section to deliver Sadie Grace today. I can't even begin to imagine what that must have been like. I'm just so heartbroken for her. So heartbroken for Mar. So heartbroken for any parent who has lost a child.

Mar and I will be traveling to Colorado Springs on Saturday to be with Kerry and her family for a couple of days. I know Mar is going to be such an enormous support for Kerry and I just pray that I can be what I need to be for both of them. It's so sad that they now share this story, this horrific journey. Mar expressed her feelings on her blog and I just wanted to share it here... Sadie Grace

Please continue to pray for Kerry, Jeff and their almost 3-year old Caleb. Pray for their entire families. Pray for travel safety for Mar and I and Kerry and Jeff's family that will be traveling to be near them. Thank you.

McDonald's toy that was actually worth getting!

We got this strange spaceship toy from McDonalds and finally found a great way to play with it! Sam thinks it's HILARIOUS! What a great laugh!



Mc Donald's Toy actually worth something from Sarah Giere on Vimeo.

Happy to report

WE HAVE RECOVERED!!!

THANK YOU LORD FOR YOUR HEALING!

Faces

Nothing much to say today, except that we are still recovering from a stomach bug over here. Ellie finally perked up by Thursday afternoon, only to have Sammy get a touch of the bug (he's doing great now) and Hannah get nailed with it Friday night. We cancelled our trip to MI for the weekend and stayed put. Hannah literally has been on the couch since Friday night. Finally tonight she was talking more, eating more, walking more and currently sound asleep! I'm fairly confident that she'll be much better tomorrow after a great night sleep. 

Here are a few pictures from the past few days...the precious faces of our children. Even when they're sick and not smiley, they are oh so precious!

Poor little Ellie - knocked out by the nasty stomach bug!

Johaniks - this one's for you...can you read his shirt? "Pilot in Training!" :o)

Brian and Ellie checking out the butterflies! That was one of the good things about sticking around this weekend...we got to see them right after they emerged from their cocoons! Brian and Ellie also got to celebrate with Jake for his 11th birthday (happy birthday Jake!!)!

Unfortunately Hannah was too out of it to enjoy the miracle we were witnessing! Have you ever seen such a sad face?

I got this "walker/wagon" a couple weeks ago at Ikea and being the crazy boy that he is, Sam decided to find a new way to ride/push it! Silly guy!

He thinks he's hot stuff!

This picture of Ellie was taken the day she really came around after being sick...how cute that she discovered that she could see herself in a spoon! She can't do that with the plastic Ikea spoons she usually uses! :O)

AND last but not least, BIG NEWS!!! Sammy took his first steps! Of course after he did it once or twice (this was my best attempt to get a picture of since there wasn't anyone else around to take a picture), he thought it was more fun to just lunge at me instead of stepping. Just like his Daddy, always trying to make me laugh! 

Brother and Sister

Sam and Ellie (at age 1 yr. 5 months) in the ball pit. Notice how there are fewer balls in the picture with Sam. It's a mystery where they are, but they have to be here somewhere, don't they? I'm sure if we scoured our basement we'd find a few!

96 years young...

I don't mention her often on this blog and I'm not sure why...she's so special to us! So today, I want to wish a very special Happy Birthday to my Grandma! Great-Grammy (to my kids) turned 96 today! Isn't that just amazing?!

I know she won't see this (in fact, I'm not sure she's ever looked at a computer in her life...I need to ask her that one), but wanted to acknowledge her to all of you. We love you Grandma!

*my most recent picture of Grandma with Sam - Feb. 2009

Easter

I guess "they" say that life doesn't always go as planned right? Well, our Easter weekend was one of those such times. Good Friday morning Sam woke up with nasty, goopy eyes again! Long story, short, I took him in that afternoon and the doctor believed that the sinus infection we thought had gone away, had in fact, NOT. So, we put him back on an antibiotic. Because he had taken a turn for the worse again, he wasn't the happiest camper Friday or Sat.

We had planned to meet Dan, Mar and Jackson in Wheaton on Sat. for a time at the little zoo and have our own egg hunt with them. Well, because of Sam's issues, we thought we better lay low and not risk infecting the Glavach family! So, we did an egg hunt at home instead for the girls and Hannah invited her new little friend Mia from down the street. Despite Sam's sickness, we were able enjoy a beautiful day!

I guess Hannah is contemplating where to look for her next egg in this picture. :O)

Ellie found one!

Easter was great! Sam was well enough to take to the city to spend the day with Brian's family. We arrived in the morning and I stayed home w/ him while the rest of the family attended the Moody Church service. Steve, my father-in-law, was home sick as well, so while Sam napped, we watched the service live online. It was nice to feel like we were there with everyone. :O) It really was a beautiful service.

After church, we celebrated with the family up in the party room on the 56th floor of the building...even Molly, the Johnaik's new pup was there! She and Sam bonded!

Sam is 11 months old now!

Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of the girls w/ their dresses on...shame on me! And unfortunately, when we got home, I realized we didn't get one of our family either! So, I made my family sit down and pose for the camera. And, unfortunately, this picture was taken just minutes before poor little Ellie got hit with a nasty stomach bug. Needless to say, it was a long night.

So, here is the Giere family w/ one not-s0-happy 2 1/2 year old. (and a somewhat stunned looking 11 month old!)

Here we are three days later and Ellie is still pretty out of it. Her fever seems to be gone, but she has been left with one issue...let's just say, I've been changing a lot of diapers! (it's actually times like this that I'm sort of glad that she's not potty trained yet...although that's one of the next things on the 'to do' list!)

We hope that you had a blessed, healthy Easter!