Old McJones Had A Farm

Farming. It's in my blood. My grandparents are framers. My great grandparents were farmers. And now I'm continuing the tradition. Well...kind of. A little. Okay, not really. BUT, now I'm like 5% farmer. Only because I bought these!!!

C-H-I-C-K-E-N-S!!! I've been tossing around the idea since we finished the house. But the excuses from Craig kept flying. It's too cold outside! (whatever, aparently not to cold to cut wood and freeze to death while doing it) We are too busy! (maybe...but whatever) It's too hot out! (this I agree with, but still, whatever). This weekend I seized the moment. He wanted to go shopping for something to build dog pens out of. I can't remmeber what it was exactly because frankly, it's really not important. Anyway, I agreed to go along to asure that the trip would end in a timely and cost effective manor. That is until I seen the chicks. It's expensive to get started, but that's beside the point, right? Some how I talked him into it. Before I knew it we had all the supplies needed to raise chickens before even checking out the "dog pen building supplies". We ended up loading 10 Rhode Island Red chicks into the truck for the noisy ride home. The kids didn't have a clue what was in store for them when we got home! Needless to say they love them! Sadie especially. I'm happy to report that all 10 chicks are still alive, despite the repeated attempt from Sadie to hold them and tell them to sit. I do believe that they will learn to fly earlier than normal in at attempt to get away from her as fast as they can. Now the next project is to build a chicken coop. "The dog pen has been put on hold until completion of this new and more important project." Direct quote from Farmer Jen.

Forever ago!!!!

It's been WAY too long since I've posted, and I apologize for that. With the end of school and our CrAzY baseball/softball schedule I really haven't had a whole lot of time to get on here. To make matters worse my computer was broke for about 3 weeks. Now that it's back I'm ready to start posting pictures and keeping you all updated on our Life According To....Us!! =)

Makeover!!!

I won a blog makeover giveaway!!! So excited to have beautifulblogs.com design an awesome new layout for our site. Should have it in the next couple of weeks. Be on the lookout! =)

Blog Desgn Giveaway

One of my favorite websites SimplyJenna.com is giving away an awesome blog makeover. I would love to win this. My makeover would give our site the style update that it needs. Lots of bright colors and maybe even incorporate some of our family pictures. No more blogger backgrounds for me!

Hot Chocolate Mission

I have an addiction. A true addiction. Not put me on a reality show addiction, but still an addiction. Hot Chocolate. Yummy rich hot chocolate. Add flavor or not. If it's cold outside (sometimes even during the summer) and we are out to eat I order hot chocolate. It's not always on the menu. It should be. Then I could have it every time I'm out. There is always Quik Trip to stop at on the way home. But truthfully, I'm getting a little tired of it. So.... I'm on a mission to find the absolute best hot chocolate mix out there. I've done plenty of research over the last few years. There was a little ski lodge in New Zealand that had a VERY good contender, but seemed to be over shadowed by all of the teas. Tea is thier thing in New Zealand. Not hot cocolate. Therefore I could probably not live in New Zealand. Tea is good....but come on, it's not hot chocolate. Anyway, I'm looking for suggestions, websites, restaurants, any place that sells a good hot chocolate. Let me know what you've got.

The Rainbow Cupcakes

Most of you have probably been reading my posts on facebook about these crazy cupcakes that Halie and I made the other day. They are definately worth a blog! Every month our school does a bake sale. This month Halie's class was in charge of providing the baked goods. She wanted to do something for St. Patricks Day. After looking on line she decided on some cupcakes that we found at familyfun.com. Now let me warn YOU because family fun did not warn me. These cupcakes take forever. They turned out great....but the process requires some major patience. It didn't help that we need two dozen either. We started of with a regular white cake mix and mixed to according to the package. Then we divded the batter equally into 6 bowls and added the food coloring.


We ended up with purple, blue, green, yellow, orange and red. Each of these would be a layer or the cupcakes. In the end the cupcakes would look like a rainboe when you bite into them.


Layering the batters took FOREVER!! I would put a spoonful into the cupcake tin and spread it to the edges with a spoon. Then ad the next color. So on and so on.

After the batter fun they baked at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. They turned out H-U-G-E!

The inside really turned out neat. Halie was very impressed at all of the different layers. They tasted pretty good too! =)

To make the rainbows on top of the cupcakes I used airheads. They were pretty sticky to work with, but it got the job done. It was more work trying to keep the kids out of them than anything.

First I had to cut each color into six strips. After they were cut I squeezed the different colors together and cut the "new airhead" in half. I was getting 2 rainbows out of 1 airhead.

Here are the rainbows. They turned out pretty good for my first time. Maybe my only time...

Next it was time to ice the cupcakes. We went with a green. St. Patricks Day and all.

The finished product! I put toothpicks behind the rainbows for added support and topped it off with a golden nugget. Halie was happy. I was exhausted. Just a meer total of 3 hours worth of cupcake greatness.

Cooking up a storm!

Finalized my Chili and Roasted Potatoe recipes this week. So excited about both of them!! Trying out a toffee dessert today. Should be yummy. I'll be workin gon the manicotti recipe soon. Hopefully lots of pictures to post too!!