• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
Jessica Acs. Crazy Happy Chaos

Jessica Acs. Crazy Happy Chaos

A little bit of everything. Life, animals, family, crafts, recipes.

  • About
    • About Jessica
    • About Animal Quest
  • Blog
    • Daily Life
    • Scrapbooking/ Mini Albums
    • Animal/ Zoo stuff
    • Travel
    • Crafts
    • Tutorials
    • Recipes
    • Journaling Prompts
    • Classes
    • Kids/ Babies
  • Recipes
    • Baby & Toddler Food
    • Entertaining
    • Gluten Free
    • Healthy Family Meals
    • Low Fat
    • Low Sodium
    • Sweets n’ Treats
    • Hidden Veggies Recipes
    • Vita Mix Recipes
  • Freebies
  • My Book
  • Contact

Daily Life

Hello again

June 25, 2015 by Jess Leave a Comment

Yes I am still here. It’s been a whirlwind of a year and not so much in a good way, but we have pushed through it. Easily the most stressful and busiest year of my life (even more than my time in the EATM program – which at the time I didn’t think anything could top that!).

Numerous times I have sat down and started writing posts and for various reasons they never got finsihed, or photos never got downloaded, and they are all still sitting in drafts. I am going to finish them and post them anyway, so things may be a little backdated around here in the next while. I have lots of new recipes to share that I’ve created, lots of stories, lots of photos.

Some of our big news is that we have moved to 5 acres, only 10 minutes away from where we previously were. We have more room to expand and grow now, which we need for the animals. Most of our property is all wooded so there is still much to explore in there. Our new little house needed a LOT of work, which we have mostly done ourselves. I took many photos throughout of all the befores and afters so I can post a bunch of tutorials – from DIY refinishing of hardwood floors with minimal equipment to recaulking showers to painting over wood paneling. Both Steve and I have learned a ton of things since moving here.

We have welcomed many new animals (including 2 more pigs!) – but if you follow me on Facebook or Instagram then you probably already know that! Most of my photos lately have been of my child, my dogs or my pigs πŸ™‚ And we have had many sad goodbyes as we have lost animals too. It never gets any easier, never πŸ™ Our hearts continue to break each time one of our animals passes away.

So with that, I will leave you with a few photos for now but hopefully I will be able to get a bunch of new posts up soon πŸ™‚

20150503-IMG_0772

I can’t believe this little nugget is almost 3!

20150506-IMG_0966

Ava with one of our ferrets “Buffy”

20150510-IMG_1078

20150510-IMG_1177

20150512-IMG_1194

With one of our new little pigs “Napoleon”

Filed Under: Animal/ Zoo stuff, Daily Life

Easter Outtakes

April 12, 2014 by Jess Leave a Comment

Well, all my latest attempts at trying to get Ava’s Easter photos taken this year keep getting squashed. The weather has just been awful and I really wanted to take the photos outside. It inevitably gets put off and put off, as I keep hoping for better weather each day. One day was beautiful and sunny but sooooo sooooo windy.

Today was the day, I decided that first thing this morning. It was our warmest day of the year so far, so it would be perfect to take the photos outside right? Well….I’ll tell you how the events of today panned out….

happyeaster2014

Ava and I left the house by 9:45am this morning to make it down to our local Easter Egg hunt. I was SO excited about this – her first egg hunt! We lined up with all the other parents and toddlers for the “toddler egg hunt” which was essentially just a mound of straw with a ton of plastic easter eggs thrown all over them. Not such a hunt, but good for the tiny kids I guess. As we were waiting for it to start the sky became very dark and thunder started rolling in, then lightning, then rain. Oh JOY. They let us start the egg hunt early so we all rushed in and I showed Ava how to throw the eggs in her basket – she caught on really quick and we only stayed maybe 3 minutes, tops. Then I grabbed her and we ran to the car. As we were driving home, the rain basically stopped, so we made a quick stop at the dollar store. Right as we are going through the check out, I look over at the window and there is hail coming down – HUGE hail, I don’t think I’ve ever seen it so big before. Yeah we were not going out in that, no way. Neither of us had coats since it was so warm out, plus I had parked across the parking lot cause it was so busy when we drove in. So we waited for it to die down, but then I suddenly remembered that Norman was out in the backyard when we left. Steve had already left for shows so no one was home. NORMAN!!! I grab Ava & our bags and I sprint out to the car. We were just down the street from our house so we made it home quick and by the time we did, it was barely raining again. What is up with this weather??

Poor Norman was so dazed when I finally found him in the backyard. I couldn’t find him at first and he wasn’t coming when I called. I got this horrible feeling that he was so scared he broke through the fence and was running amuck in the neighborhood! But thankfully he was just hiding somewhere. I brought him inside, dried him off and gave him a bunch of freshly washed fleece blankets to lie on. He spent the next 4 hours laying in his bed not making a peep. Poor traumatized piggy!

Soon after that our babysitter arrived and I had to load animals in the vehicle and rush out to a show. I got back late in the afternoon and Ava was napping so I took our Patagonian Cavy for a walk in the backyard. I got this great idea to hook him onto one of those dog tie out cables that we had out there from before we got our fence built a couple years ago. Bad idea, very bad idea. I had just walked away from him to get a shovel and I turn around and see him trying to back out of his harness. I drop the shovel, bolt over to him but I was too late – just as I got to him, he slipped right out and BAM – away he ran! If you have ever seen a Patagonian cavy – you will know they have very long spindly legs – great for running and jumping. They are capable of jumping 6 feet in the air from a standstill and our fence is about 6 feet tall. I had visions of him jumping over the fence and then me trying to find him out in the neighborhood somewhere. Steve would so not be pleased at all right now.

So there I was following him all over the yard trying to catch the slippery large rodent. The worst thing to do is chase him, so I had to be very calm, even though inside I was everything BUT calm. After 15 minutes of this, I went in the house to get a blanket to try to throw over him to try to catch him that way. When I got to the backdoor, I turned around to check his location and he was right behind me. He had followed me all the way back to the house. I tried to get him to come inside but he just sat at the back door. I grabbed a beach towel that was in the kitchen then I went and got his big travel crate. I took that outside (he was still sitting near the back door) and I placed it beside him and opened the door. I then had to use the towel like a matador to try to usher him into the crate. It worked! But now I had the cavy in the crate but no harness on him. That was my next task. I took him back to his enclosure and then I had to go into it with him, closing myself right into it. The next 20 minutes (and they were very long minutes) I spent trying to get the damn harness back on him. He is an extremely skittish animal with powerful legs. He kept burying his face into the far corner and then when I tried to slip the harness over his head, he’d bolt past me to the other side. It was quite the struggle but I finally got the harness back onto him. I practically fell out of his enclosure, I was so exhausted, not to mention covered in wood shavings from head to toe.

Meanwhile Ava was still napping and I was waiting for her to wake up so we could do the Easter pictures. It was now a bit sunny, a bit overcast but not raining at all, and still warm. Since the rest of the week is supposed to be crappy weather, today is my only chance. I got everything ready ahead of time – the camera was outside in the spot where I planned to have her sit, her outfits were waiting (yes outfits, I had 2 dresses and a pants outfit I wanted to change her into). Oh and the animals. We just got 2 new baby chickens a few days ago – they are about a week old and I thought it would be so cute to have them in the photo with her. I also thought it would be cute to have 2 Flemish giant rabbits – one on either side of her, and then I also wanted one of her with our mini rex bunny. I went and rounded up all the bunnies, put them in their travel carriers and brought them over to the photo spot in the wagon. Everything was ready! Ava woke up just minutes after -great timing! I changed her into the first dress and carried her outside. We took the chicks out first. She was not overly excited to see them since they reside in our living room right now so she sees them and plays with them all the time. *sigh* Then of course guess who comes on over to get in the way? Yep Norman. Then the dogs run by in the background. Then Ava finds it fun to pull all the green shredded paper stuff out of the basket. Then the chicks jump out of the basket. Then Norman comes over again and starts eating the green shredded paper. Not what I envisioned, that’s for sure! Here are the photos:

 

20140412-IMG_1270

20140412-IMG_1185

20140412-IMG_1197

And here’s Norman… and Angus is also in the background

20140412-IMG_1230

The chickens are out of the basket, all the green shredded paper has been thrown from the basket and both Norman and Moose and in the photo too.

20140412-IMG_1203

 

20140412-IMG_1209

20140412-IMG_1225

20140412-IMG_1239

20140412-IMG_1247

And Norman is back…again (also Angus is way in the back again too)

20140412-IMG_1273With Hank, our Mini Rex. He kept trying to jump out and she would not look at me. Not once.

20140412-IMG_1250

The first Flemish Giant Rabbit

20140412-IMG_1255

the second Flemish Giant – getting them both in the photo – yeah right! The gray one had already taken off and was way across the yard!

20140412-IMG_1257

ok, I give up

What I learned from this wonderful experience…

1. Make sure the dogs and pig are in the house while trying to take outdoor photos that do not involve them.

2. Don’t bring a white blanket outside for the photos (see photo above)

3. Don’t try to attempt to use 2 rabbits at the same time unless there is another person (and not Ava) there to help

4. Forget the outfit changes – not going to happen!

5. Have bribery treats on hand for Ava. It was so hard to get her to smile for the photos!

The great ending to this fantastic day: I put the chickens back in their travel cage, the mini bunny in his and I put everything into the wagon. I hauled them over to the rabbit enclosure then I had to chase the other 2 rabbits around trying to catch them. I finally got all the rabbits back in their home and I turn around and Norman had pulled the extra outfits out of the wagon and was nosing them around – getting mud all over the back of the white dress! UGH

And I am officially finished with taking Easter photos and with this day.

Good night!

siggy

Filed Under: Animal/ Zoo stuff, Daily Life, Kids/ Babies, Photography

Right Now

March 31, 2014 by Jess Leave a Comment

It is the last day of March today and our first “nice” day of the year so far here in Chicago. Today is the warmest day of the year at nearly 60 degrees Fahrenheit. 60 degrees??? Heatwave for us! It’s a little windy outside but I am so tempted to pull out all my summer clothes so I can wear shorts and a t shirt outside right now. Enough of being cooped up indoors, this has been the longest winter ever.

But since the snow all finally melted just last week (and there are still some piles of it around), our backyard is a glorious big mud pit. (well some of it is anyway). Which makes it oh so fun to clean off 16 little feet when they continuously come in from outside all day long (3 dogs and a pig).

We did get outside for a bit yesterday which was really really nice! I took Ava, Angus and Zoey for a long walk to a nearby Forest Preserve and we had a little picnic there. (Moose and Steve were doing shows for most of the day). Poor Angus is getting older now so he was pretty worn out on our way back to the car. I plopped him into the stroller with Ava for the last bit and both of them were quite content! Ava was actually really excited to have her buddy sit with her.

20140330-IMG_0619

20140330-IMG_0626

20140330-IMG_0632

20140330-IMG_0636

20140330-IMG_0647

10150709_10152312718066145_1587932381_n

Speaking of Ava, she is 20 months old now and talking up a storm! She knows all the dogs by name now and can say their names perfectly. She also says “norman” now and not “Normo” or “NumNum” anymore which I kind of miss cause it was so darn cute. She also knows our cavy “Waldo”. Yesterday when Steve got back, we were all playing in the backyard together (yes Waldo and Norman too!) and Ava learned how to climb up and go down her little slide all by herself. It seems like such a small thing, but it is so big. Our baby is not such a baby anymore and we are sure realizing that everyday! Just like when Norman was trying to play with her and knocked her down accidentally. Ava sat there stunned for a second then looked up at us and said “what happened?” as clear as day. Wow.

20140330-IMG_0660

20140330-IMG_0672

Norman was trying to play with the chickens at one point. I promise that no chickens were harmed! πŸ™‚ Great action shot of our chicken Nuna though!

20140330-IMG_0687

What Happened?

20140330-IMG_0689

20140330-IMG_0708

Watching these two together makes my heart want to burst with love πŸ™‚

20140330-IMG_0722

20140330-IMG_0724-3

Such a Daddy’s girl πŸ™‚

20140330-IMG_0747

20140330-IMG_0775

20140330-IMG_0744

Other things that are going on:

There is a fun article about me over on the Little Lake County Blog that I write for.

I recently got to review Yummi Pouches and did a review for them here

I also created 3 new yummy recipes – primarily so I can use them in pouches for Ava and they are all hidden veggies recipes!

And later today I am going to attempt to take some Easter pictures of Ava in the backyard. We’ll see how that goes!

Happy Monday everyone!

siggy

Filed Under: Daily Life, Kids/ Babies, Photography, Recipes

Friday Photos

February 28, 2014 by Jess Leave a Comment

Here are all the photos that I posted this week on Instagram:

Just a little bit of randomness for today πŸ™‚

This is Angus last night on our way into Chicago for a show. He and Moose were both requested for the show but since the vehicle was full of all the other animal’s crates, Angus got to ride with me πŸ™‚

I made this yummy Shamrock Smoothie yesterday. Recipe is here. You won’t believe this is so healthy and that there is spinach in it but there’s lots! It tastes like the Shamrock shake from McDonalds!

Another recipe I made yesterday – Spinach and feta muffins. Healthy and sooooo delicious!! The entire batch is gone already, 1 day later. Recipe is here.

A family favorite: Pancake breakfast! Steve likes his plain and Ava and I love the raspberry ones! made from scratch, recipe is here.

Watching what else? Bubble Guppies of course!

I’m ridiculously excited that our chickens are laying eggs again!

 

siggy

Filed Under: Animal/ Zoo stuff, Daily Life, Recipes

Meanwhile at the zoo

February 28, 2014 by Jess Leave a Comment

or rather, at our house….

baby hedgehogs our zoo

playing with 3 of the baby hedgehogs. At just a little over 2 months old, they are now the same size as their parents! Wow, did they ever grow fast. Thank goodness human babies don’t grow this fast. These 3 babies are all female and they still live with their Mama. We are keeping all of them, hooray! If you know us in real life, you will know how hard it is for us to part with our animals… it’s hard enough just going away and leaving them overnight!

raccoon animals zoo

Peek a boo!! It’s Russell, our raccoon.

patagonian cavy animals zoo

Waldo playing in Ava’s room again. This guy has come such a long way the last few months.

20140226-IMG_4235

Mesmerized by the Bubble Guppies. It’s the only thing she wants to watch and as a result I cannot get the theme song out of my head.

20140226-IMG_4234

This is Emmy, our baby iguana.

hairless guinea pig and teddy bear guinea pig

Playing with our 2 male guinea pigs. Dobbie is a hairless piggy and Charlie is a Teddy Bear Guinea Pig. Fun fact: Dobbie is Charlie’s Daddy! It’s always fun to take them to shows together as no one can believe they are father and son πŸ™‚

toddler in the snow pet pig

We ventured out into the snow a few days ago since Ava was feeling better. We were out there for literally maybe 4 minutes, tops. Basically long enough for me to get these photos. Let’s just say Ava is not impressed by the snow. At all. That’s my girl!

20140216-IMG_3982

toddler in the snow

toddler in the snow pet pig

toddler in the snow puppy

I’m late posting this but this is our latest family photo ( from December)

20140218-scan

siggy

Filed Under: Animal/ Zoo stuff, Daily Life

Right now

February 26, 2014 by Jess 1 Comment

  • not enjoying this winter in Illinois. Not. At. All.
  • Did a deep clean of the house yesterday and it felt fantastic. Although now my back doesn’t feel so fantastic….
  • Stayed up way too late last night and woke up way too early. (huge thank you to 2 of my dogs for waking me up to go outside at 3:00am – after they had been out at 1:30am!!)
  • I would actually be very happy if I never saw snow again.
  • I want sushi right now in the worst way.

 

In other news:

I recently got to review a very cool music album over at the Little Lake County Blog

This mini album of mine that was in my book was featured a couple weeks ago in Women’s World Magazine.

friends mini album

friends mini album

 

Over at Homeketeers I did a couple tutorials on some Kids Crafts:

These crayons were really fun to make and they are so easy for Ava to hang on to!

DIY homemade toddler crayons

DIY homemade crayons

the other kids craft is also using crayons: stained glass crayon melt art

stained glass crayon melt art kids craft

I’ve been baking and creating new recipes like crazy. All those cookies that I baked last week took me back to the baking I did for our wedding almost 3 years ago. I baked hundreds of cookies and hundreds of cupcakes from scratch! Right up to the morning of our wedding day (as I wanted everything to be fresh). Thankfully a few of my friends helped and one of my friends husbands came over to finish baking some of the cupcakes for me so I could go get my hair done! Thinking back on it now, I can’t believe we managed to pull it all off!

For old times sake, here are some photos of our wedding baked goods: everyone got one of these Mickey cookies – which turned out to be HUGE so there were 100 of those.

mickey mouse wedding favor cookie disney

wedding favor heart cookies

 

Then we had plates of mini heart cookies on each table so there were probably 300+ of those. And we had a Cupcake Display as well as a cake. My goodness. I think we had about 100 full size cupcakes and 100 mini cupcakes. 3 different flavors and 1 plate of gluten & dairy free for those with special diets. More on our wedding here

wedding cupcake display

wedding cupcake display

white chocolate chip cupcakes wedding

wedding cupcake display

I did create all the recipes myself so I will scrounge those up and post them up here soon. The few months leading up to the wedding I did so much baking, trying to find the perfect recipes. It was a good thing I had 100 testers as not only would my 5 roommates test them for me, but I took everything else to the zoo and let everyone there test them out πŸ™‚ I do miss those days…. Now my only taste testers are my toddler and my pig and neither of them provide very accurate feedback. Ava will eat anything in a cookie or cupcake form and Norman will eat….well…ANYTHING at all. Steve does not like sweets, so he’s out. (occasionally Β though he’ll like something, like the cookies I made last week).

So that’s what’s going on around here right now. Feel free to share what’s going on in your world πŸ™‚

 

siggy

Filed Under: Animal/ Zoo stuff, Crafts, Daily Life, Kids/ Babies, Recipes, Scrapbooking/ Mini Albums

  • Page 1
  • Page 2
  • Page 3
  • …
  • Page 35
  • Next Page »

Primary Sidebar

View More: http://kristinnicolephotography.pass.us/reedyfamily

Popular Posts

Archives

  • Home
  • Contact
  • Blog
  • Archive

Handcrafted with by Jessica. Get in Touch.