sometimes i do stuff...

like cook, 

and craft, 

and pay attention to my children.

one time this week i managed to do all three at the same time.

lucky for you i lived to blog about it.

while i was crafting and not ignoring my kids i made soup. 

pasta figiole.

ingredients: ground turkey, chopped carrots, garlic, 1 can kidney beans,
 1 can white beans, 1cn diced tomatoes, 2 boxes veggie broth, ditalini noodles,
oregano, garlic salt, pepper (seasonings to taste). 

first, brown ground turkey in pot. next, add garlic (to taste), broth, carrots, tomatoes, beans (drained & rinsed), seasonings. then, heat on medium for 30 min. finally, add in 1/2 box of ditalini noodles, and continue to cook for 20 minutes.

serve. 

mmm, soup!

while the soup was simmering

the girls and i made this crafty valentiney banner thingy.

what you need to make a snazzy banner like mine:

7 sheets of scrapbook paper, heart-shaped cookie cutters for templates, scissors, glue-stick, sewing machine, and computer/printer.
we chose the words "Be Mine & XO" (freehand 521bt was our font choice). 

we cut out the hearts and words, 

laid out our banner pieces and selected the layout,

then stitched it together on the ol' sewing machine. 

too easy.

after finishing the banner we had enough left-over paper to whip up a 

little love for the entry way window/mirror.

AND then emilie had a brilliant idea for the scraps...
a little valentine's day love for her doll house! 

after helping emilie add her valentine's day banners to her doll house i snapped a few pix of what was happening around her dollhouse.

notice that dollhouse-dad is in the kitchen cooking, while dollhouse-mom is watching t.v..
yeah, my kid knows me well.
notice dollhouse-emilie playing with her dollhouse as dollhouse-josie looks on.
i can tell you what is going to happen...
as soon as dollhouse-emilie steps away, dollhouse-josie is going to do some rearranging.
dollhouse arguing will erupt, and dollhouse-me will have to get up from
my gilmore girls rerun and go referee the girls' dollhouse argument.
ah, life in dollhouse-ville.

have you done any valentine's day decorating?
what's your favorite winter soup?