Bedroom Make-over : Alex's Bedroom

I've been re-doing each of the boys' bedrooms.  Alex was my last one to do, and I had purchased everything I needed to do the makeover.  My only problem in getting started was Alex and his messy room.  

I had told Alex that I wouldn't start on his room until he cleaned it up.  Nana came over one day and helped him get it straightened.  I bought the paint.  And then it was wrecked again.  LoL.

The weekend before Thanksgiving, I coerced my daddy into helping me paint Alex's room.  Alex chose a military theme for his room so I picked out a medium dark green for his walls.  With my daddy's help, I got Alex's room painted and ready to decorate.

I positioned Alex's bed in front of his bedroom window. That's the one wall we haven't ever put his bed, and he wanted something different.  He's grinning big because I swapped out his mattress and boxspring with mine and Dave's old mattress and boxspring.  It was only a couple of years old, and we hated it.  The boys thought our mattress was awesome.  We hated it.  Dave surprised me on Christmas eve with a new mattress and boxspring.  Alex immediately asked for our old one.  He got it.  Now I have his old mattress and boxspring leaning against the wall in my dining room.  LoL.  

After positioning his bed in front of his window, I hung some camouflage army netting over the window.

The netting has a green side and a brown side.  Alex and I decided to hang it with the brown side showing to provide some contrast with the green walls.

I had taken some of Dave's military items, such as, dog tags, patches, medals, etc, and put them in shadowboxes to display in Alex's room.  

We hung them to the right of Alex's window.  I had ordered some military vinyl cut-outs from Amazon a few months ago, and we put some of those around the shadowboxes.

I bought a lamp and lampshade at dollar general and some military figures at Walmart (I think).

I sat down with a glue gun and creatively glued the little plastic figures to the lamp.

We hung the plane and helicopter from the lampshade.

Alex loved his lamp.  :-D  And it helped to complete that corner of his room.

We hung the rest of the vinyl stickers, the army flag, and other items I've collected.

Portrait of a happy boy.  

I've still have some more to do to finish his room, but I got a lot done this weekend.  Alex wants me to camouflage a couple of his walls.  :-/  I'm not too eager to start that project.

Until then, I'll be patching the walls and touching up the paint in Shane and Zach's rooms.  These boys of mine are rough on the walls in my house.  LoL.

But that's what it's like when you live with 

 . . . .the Ferrell boys and me!

A Little Chicken Soup to Sooth the Soul

So this Christmas break has been nice but unfortunately, my boys have all been sick during different parts of their vacation. Yesterday, Zach woke up feeling bad . . . bad enough that he didn't want to go to church.  Zach loves church so I knew he was really sick when he opted to stay in bed instead of going to church with me.

I took him to the clinic this morning, and found out that he has an ear infection and an upper respiratory cold.  

He feels really bad.  And he asked for some Chicken Noodle Soup.  He was talking about the kind in the can, but I decided to make him some homemade chicken soup.  

Whenever we have fellowship time at Calvary Baptist that involves bringing soup, everyone counts on Angie to bring her Cheesy Chicken Soup.  It's a favorite of everyone's at Calvary.  I love to make it too, but it has potatoes in it.  My boys are not big fans of potatoes so I modify it a bit.

Here's my Cheesy Chicken and Bowtie Soup:

First, you need to cook some chicken with seasonings.  I season my chicken with salt, pepper, onion powder, and garlic powder.  I used a package of chicken tenderloins, approximately 1 pound.  Once it's cooked, chop the chicken up or shred it.  

While the chicken is cooking, chop up 2 celery sticks (or 1/2 cup), 1 large carrot (or 1/2 cup), 1 small onion (or 1/2 cup), and slice up a bundle of green onions (or 1/2 cup).

In a large soup pot, cook the carrots, celery, and onion in one cup of chicken broth until the vegetables are tender.

Saute the sliced green onions in butter.  I used 2 tablespoons of real butter.  Once the green onions are tender, pour them into the pot with the other vegetables.  Add 4 cups of chicken broth, the chopped up chicken, and a 15 oz. jar of Cheez Whiz.  Yep, Cheez Whiz.  Let the soup mixture simmer on low while the Cheez Whiz slowly melts into the soup.

At this point, Angie adds boiled, cubed potatoes, but I substitute bowtie pasta (per Zach's request) or egg noodles.  I cook the pasta according to the package instructions and then add it to the soup.  After I added the pasta, I added more chicken broth to make the soup the right consistency.  The pasta tends to absorb some of the broth so more is needed.

I wish my picture was better.

Cheesy Chicken and Bowtie Soup

 2 (32 oz.) box of Chicken Broth

1/2 cup of chopped celery (appr. 2 celery stalks)

1/2 cup of chopped carrots (appr. 1 large carrot)

1/2 cup of chopped onion (appr. 1 small onion)

1/2 cup of green onion, sliced (appr. 6 or 7 green onions)

2 tbsp butter

1 pound chicken tenderloins, cooked and chopped

1 (15 oz.) Cheez Whiz

1 package (12 oz.) of bowtie pasta, cooked and drained 

Cook the carrots, celery, and onion in 1 cup of chicken broth until the vegetables are tender.  Saute the sliced green onions in the butter.  Add the green onions to the cooked vegetable mixture.  Add 4 cups of chicken broth, the cooked, chopped chicken, and Cheez Whiz.  Let the soup mixture simmer while the Cheez Whiz slowly melts into the soup.  Add the cooked and drained bowtie pasta to the soup mixture.  Add chicken broth to the soup mixture as needed to get the right consistency for the soup after adding the pasta.  Salt and pepper soup to taste.

Serve in a bowl to any child that's suffering from an ear infection for instant relief . . . . It's guaranteed to make your child feel much better.  

Especially if your child is like my Zach.  :)

I hope you give this special soup a try and when you do, I hope you think of 

                        the Ferrell boys and me!

Happy New Year 2017

It's 2017, and I'm blogging again.  I've missed putting my thoughts down in this format.  I've missed recording my family's adventures and misadventures in this format.

I've been posting a lot on facebook and instagram, and for a while, I was satisfied with that method of connecting with my family and friends with our activities.  But now, I think more is needed.  I need this outlet for my thoughts and my ideas.

So here goes  . . . my first post in a while . . .

New Year's 2017:

In my family, we leave our Christmas decorations out until after the New Year.  It's our tradition.  Today, I'm saying goodbye (until next Christmas) to these Christmas decorations that have been sharing our holiday with us this year. 

These nutcrackers are a favorite of my boys.  We went to see a Nutcracker performance in Meridian a couple of years ago.  The nutcrackers they were selling at the theatre were way out of my budget, but Dollar General came through with these super cute nutcrackers.  Each of the boys have their favorite one.  And every year when I pull these out, my boys remember our night at the ballet . . . and the Nutcracker dancer in the tight white tights . . . with every bulge showing . . . Ha! My boys were horrified and hysterical at the same time!  Such fun memories. 

Our local school has an annual Christmas bazaar.  I alway love to buy handmade items for my Christmas decorations, especially when they are hand made by one of my friends. 

The wonderful Santa banner hanging on the inside of my front door was hand painted by one of my boys' teachers.  It's a favorite of mine.  The tree in the foyer is a favorite of the boys.  It has hunting and fishing ornaments on it along with shotgun shell lights.  :)

I am a crafty person.  I love to make things for my boys, and they love it when I make decorations for them.  I saw the nativity stocking holders on some blog I follow, and they were selling the vinyl cut-outs of the nativity they used to make the holders.  I ordered the vinyl cut-outs and followed their directions for making the stocking holders (with my daddy's woodworking help), and now I have these super special stocking holders for my boys' stockings.

My boys LOVE a countdown calendar.  We count down to Christmas every year, and this Nativity countdown calendar is a favorite of ours.  I made this several years ago, and some of the characters need legs (the sheep) or eyes or numbers (20 is missing), but we continue to use it regardless.  In each little pocket is a Bible verse to look up before placing the Nativity character on the backdrop.

We count down to baby Jesus being born and read the Bible verses telling of his birth every day as Christmas approaches.

My favorite room in the house is the dining room.  I love decorating a table.  I started collecting the BH&G Christmas dishes a few years ago, and I buy some pieces every year.  During the Christmas season this year, we ate at the dining room table for supper many times.  The boys loved it.

And collecting Christmas items is a habit of mine.  I started collecting the Willow Tree Nativity a few years ago and I buy a couple of pieces of it every year.  This is a favorite of mine.

Another favorite collection I have is my Dept 56 Snow Village.  I quit collecting it after I married Dave because I ran out of room to display it  . . . 

and I started have children which altered my ability to buy it.  LoL!

But I love it and so do the boys.  They are constantly rearranging it.

I'm going to find a place to leave it out year round because I love looking at it.

And now I have to pack it all up until next Christmas. I bought new plastic containers to put it all up into along with rolls of bubble wrap.

Our main tree with no ornaments on the bottom half.  LoL!

It makes me a little sad, but then I'm also looking forward to having a clean, uncluttered house again.

My kitchen "cupcake" tree.

So . . . I'm going to start packing and you can check back later to see what's been going on in the new year with

                   the Ferrell boys and me