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Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Sugar Cream Cake...

The recipe I am sharing with you today is an easy one, but one that is sure to satisfy your sweet tooth.  I'm sure a lot of you already have this one in your recipe box. 


Sugar Cream Cake

1 box yellow cake mix
4 eggs
1/2 C. softened butter
1 box powdered sugar (16 oz or 4 1/2 cups)
1-8 oz. package cream cheese

Beat cake mix, 2 eggs, and butter together.
Pour into a greased 9x13 pan.
Beat sugar, cream cheese and remaining eggs together.
Pour over first layer.
Bake @ 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

Enjoy!


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Thursday, February 23, 2012

The Many Faces Of Mel...

First things first, a little bloggy business.  Blogger is taking away the Google Friend Connect feature as of March 1st for non-blogger users.  For your convenience I have added the email subscription link to the top of  my right side bar.  Just simply type in your email and  click "submit".  You will receive an email confirming your subscription.  Just click the link provided and voila...whenever I update my blog you will receive an email notification. 

You can also follow this blog on facebook at This Farm Family's Life.  Either way, you will  be sure to stay in the know of what is going on in our life!

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Mel has become known to a lot of my friends as the girl who makes crazy faces.  Every once in a while I can get a cute little grin like this...

But most of the time it is something like this...



or this...







Happy Thursday everyone!

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Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Starting Garden Seeds Indoors...

It is almost that time of year!  The time of year where we can start thinking about what we are going to plant in our garden. 

This will be the fourth year that I have started my garden seed indoors.
Let me tell you, I have learned a lot from that first year!

I order all of my seed from Jung's.
I'm sure there are millions of other good places out there, but they have always treated me well. 
The first year I invested in some cell inserts and flats as well as some plant markers.

Always make sure to label.

I may have learned this the hard way.
I usually plant 2-3 different kinds of tomato plants and , after a while, all the plants start to look the same! 
I just fill each tray with dirt and somewhat pack it down, but you don't want it to be too firm.

You don't want the dirt to be too dry or too wet.  Sometimes it is fine straight out of the bag, but sometimes I will pour it into a bucket and add a bit of water to it and then mix it.

Then I take my pointer finger and poke a hole into each section.

Plant the seed and then cover it with dirt. 

Then LABEL!!!!

I typically like to start the seeds about the last week in March.

Then I put them in a warm and sunny location and watch them grow.
I have a sunroom which is perfect, but you can also set them in front of a window in your home.

Now, here is the trick.

You can buy the clear plastic lids to go over the trays, but I use plastic wrap.
Everyone has plastic wrap in their house, right?  Much cheaper.

Cover each flat with plastic wrap.  This will help the plants absorb heat and help the soil retain its moisture.



Once the seeds begin to sprout, you can remove the plastic wrap.

B feels that talking to them helps them grow... 

If your plants get too tall and it isn't time to transplant them yet, pinch them back to the bottom two leaves.  This will also make them stronger!









Note: I only start my broccoli, and tomatoes indoors.  Most seeds can be planted directly outdoors and will do fine, such as beets, radishes and green beans and therefore, I do not recommend starting indoors.  Make sure to check your labels.
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Friday, February 10, 2012

Pack Rat Mel...

I am back from a little unexpected hiatus.
I didn't plan on being absent from the social media world for so long, it just happened.
Things have been somewhat busy around here.
People have been asking when I am going to update my blog and I have to say it is nice to know I am missed!

My internet decided to quit working on Friday leaving me without until Monday.
Our internet provider is Verizon and a window popped up on my computer Friday morning that said there was an update available. 
I clicked it and it did its thing and then my internet wouldn't work.  Great!
I spent the afternoon on the phone with technical support and the guy finally said they have been having this problem after people run the requested update and there was nothing else he could do except show me how to activate the dial up connection.
Really?
Dial up!
Umm...yeah I can't do that.  I WON'T do that.
We have had the internet system for less than a year AND  we bought insurance on it (because it is a wireless device and weird things can happen when you have kids....OK maybe I should worry more about me doing something to it...I am the one who has ruined a cell phone by dropping it in the bathtub and another cell phone by dropping it in the toilet!) so I asked the man if I could take it into our local Verizon store and exchange it because everything worked fine until I ran the recommended update.
He said, "No because they won't have them in the store."
I didn't understand this because I bought the original one in the store.
He then proceeded to tell me that they could overnight a new one and he would even waive the $12.99 shipping cost.  I think he could tell I was becoming very frustrated!
So Monday Fed Ex Guy showed up at my house.  I uninstalled the old one and installed the newbie and I was a happy camper.
So, my word of advice to Verizon internet users, when the screen pops up to update to the newer version DON'T DO IT!

Mel has never been attached to one specific animal or "lovey" (unless you count her horses).
However, she gets attached to odd ball stuff as you will see in the pictures below.
She has become quite the pack rat.  You will see that in the photos as well.
Those of you that know me know that a pack rat I am NOT!  I tend to purge things often.  I hate clutter. I'm fine with it in other people's homes, but can't stand it in mine.  It makes my heart race! You can't tell that by the way my house looks 99%, but that is part of having kids and I would be lying if I told you it didn't bother me.

So, this pack rat phase that Mel is in drives me crazy, but I take it in stride and usually just shut the door.

This is her beloved "cow bed".  You can see the cow on the right....

Mickey Mouse, horses, lip gloss, sunglasses and a Leapster call the "cow bed" their home.

She also gets very attached to food and that has to be taken to bed as well, but we make her keep it on the changing table (she still sleeps in the nursery)... 
I love that she has the candy conveniently located next to the dental floss.  And yess that is a pair of tweezers.  She picked up the SpongeBob Mac n Cheese at Kroger one day and carried it around for about 2 weeks.  It is now in the cabinet, but I haven't cooked it yet because I am afraid she will be traumatized.

She raided the pantry one day and latched onto two more boxed of Mac n Cheese.
What can I say?  The girl loves her Mac N Cheese and baked beans! 

Brad got this game for Christmas and we have yet to play it because it has been in Mel's room ever since... 
The house and car are where her Smurf's sleep... 
Apples... 


So that's where my make-up went... 
This is her bed full of horses... 

This is a frog that I made for B (don't laugh...I try to be creative sometimes and this wasn't one of those times).  B didn't like it.  Mel loved it, so she took it to bed.... 

I hope that she grows out of this phase before she gets a house of her own or we may have to stage and intervention.  We have a while before that happens.  Until then, I'll just have to deal with it!
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Friday, February 3, 2012

The "B" Family...

Back in October I was given the opportunity to photograph this wonderful family.  I took Baby K's newborn pictures and was able to take these one year pictures as well as a few family shots. 

She was a very easy subject to photograph and I think she is used to being in front of the camera. ;0)

Enjoy the "beautifulness"....











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