Summer Nights

Ahhh, as much as I love the warmth and sun, I also enjoy the beautiful fall colors and the leaves falling. With a slight breeze and a warm cozy jacket, I love taking walks. I'm kinda ready for the fall. My front door is too. I'm so excited because I already have my fall wreath done. I'm not going to post pictures until it's official up and officially fall, of course. But I was just too excited after surfing fall wreaths on Pinterest....yes, I'm still addicted.
On the family side of things, summer was fun with many days spent at the pool. I want my girls to feel safe and comfortable around water. I'm excited for the days that they will beg me to go to the pool. I will have to go and just lay out in the sun, reading a good book. Oh, darn.
Joe continues on temporary active duty orders, working as a Mobilization Officer for the NG out of town. He enjoys it, but it takes him away from our family during the week and we miss him so.
We are welcoming a sweet gal into our home this week. Andrea is going to be attending our local community college and living with us. This will be a great help while Joe is working away.
I have yet to post pictures of some of the new decor I've finished. Chloe's room and Clare's room and our room as well. Someday...soon...I hope!
Until then, toodle-loo!

Lil' Bug's 1st Birthday Party

Okay, so I feel really bad, but Lil' Bug's party was WAY better than Clare's. Maybe because I felt that I needed to make a big deal about her turning one. Or because the idea of polka dots was giving me a creative bug and I just needed to do something. Or because I pinned way too many ideas on Pinterest and felt like I should at least attempt some of them. So here are the results:

Bought the polka dot balloons at Hobby Lobby! Couldn't resist!

These cupcakes were SO delicious. I'm glad there are leftovers. I used chocolate chips for the "polka dots".

The finished "tablescape". I loaded our digital picture frame with pictures of Bug and had it playing throughout the party.

Yum! Buffalo-Style Cauliflower....SO GOOD and really easy to make.

A pinterest recipe...you spray the cut green peppers with Pam, sprinkle with Garlic Salt and bake at 400 degrees for 10 min. I had salsa for dip.

Ants on a log. Who can resist???

Those adorable cupcakes again.

The most delicious lemonade. I found the recipe via Pinterest. It was from this blog with the most adorable idea for a baby shower: You are my Sunshine. So everything was yellow!!! Cute!

Fruit Salad

Beautiful Gerbera Daisies....my fave!

And last but not least, the Bug herself. What a big girl she is!!!

Chloe's polka dots

Okay, so I couldn't wait to get started with this project. Next week just seemed too far away. So we knocked it out in 4 hours!
Isn't this just the cutest! Now everything needs to be moved back into place and the little touches added. I'll post more pics soon!

5 Ingredient Taco Soup

Well, another new recipe is making it's debut at our house- 5 Ingredient Taco Soup!
It looks so yummy!

1 can corn, undrained
1 can beans (black, kidney or other) undrained
1 can diced tomatoes
1lb browned hamburger
1 packet taco seasoning

Throw it all in crockpot on low for 4-6 hours. Serve with tortilla chips, cheese, sour cream, and chopped green onions (optional).

It's officially spring!

I finally had a chance to work on my wreath and I must say, I'm so proud! Of course, I saw this idea on Pinterest but tweaked it to fit my own taste.

I saw these flowers at Hobby Lobby and was a bit scared to commit to such a bold color, but it's so beautiful and it'll carry into summer just fine.
This is the exact same wreath I've used in my other posts- from a friend for $5!!!
I will be decorating the girls' rooms more next week. Painting, rearranging! I'm so excited to be finally making this house REALLY our home.

Making our House a Home

After almost 9 months, we finally have our family pictures on the walls of our new home. I couldn't figure out what I wanted to do with them, but I was getting tired of them just sitting in a box in our bedroom. So, I decided to display them where we spend most of our time, in the TV room! I found the quote "Together we're a Family" and decided to write it on the wall. I used a black sharpie paint pen to do so. Turned out great!

Finally had a chance to add a splash of color to Lil' C's room too! The alphabet poster I made in Publisher and had printed at Staples for $15!!!! They had a sale and I knew it was too good to be true. I was thinking of doing something completely different, but after months of nothing happening in the room, I stumbled across this idea on Pinterest (there I go again!) and decided that something similar would look way cute in the baby's room. I scrapped my original idea, but kept the color scheme because I just love the boldness! (Red and Black)

Since I made the decision to be a Stay-At-Home Mommy, I wanted to have rules posted somewhere in the house. But I didn't want a tacky piece of poster board taped up to the wall. Well, I found these frames on a FB For Sale site and snatched them up. I knew they'd be perfect for our house rules. I typed them up in Word and printed them out to fit the size of the frames. Fortunately there were nails already in place on the wall where they were going, so that was less work for me too!

Over the course of the last few months, God has been reminding me how important it is to love him and others and that He is love. So as I was sharing this with Joe and we thought it'd be a great reminder that we should display in our home and in a place where we'd see it everyday. So at the top of our stairs, these four verses will greet us each morning before we go anywhere.
"God is Love." 1 John 4:8
"Love never fails" 1 Corinthians 13:8
"Love one another." 1 John 3:11
"Do everything in Love." 1 Corinthians 16:14
I used four blank canvases, a black sharpie, and a red sharpie paint pen. I wanted it to feel like it was one big sign so I spanned the word "Love" over all of them. I am very pleased with how it turned out!

Loaf Pizza

Okay, so I found this recipe on Pinterest that I just had to try. However, my late night grocery shopping left me with only Italian Bread from the bakery. So I just decided it was going to work.
I sliced the bread into three seperate slices to make it thinner, because Italian bread is thicker than the French bread that the recipe calls for.
We used pepperoni, black olives, and sausage for our toppings. Next time, I'm going to add mushrooms and green peppers too! It was SO delicious!
Here's a pic of it right out of the oven!

"French Bread Pizza"

2 Loaves of French Bread (I used 1 Loaf of Italian Bread sliced into 3)

1 jar Pizza Sauce

Favorite Pizza Toppings of your choice

2 Cups Shredded Mozzarella Cheese

(I also topped it with a sprinkle of Italian Seasoning and Parsley)

Bake @ 500 degrees for 5-7 minutes, cut and serve!

Yum!

Happy Valentine's Day!

How sweet it is to be loved by you!
I used a few of the letters from the "NOEL" I did on the Christmas mantel, for the Valentines' mantel. I had Big C color some paper and then I cut out hearts to just tape up on the wall.

And here's a couple pics of Lil' C. Ain't she just the cutest???

Happy 2013!

Finally, after taking a bit of a break, I'm getting around to posting some of the latest and greatest that has spoiled this family over the holidays
Let's start with this:

I wanted to make the grandparents something special from Big C. I had seen this done on a larger scale and had wanted to do something like it. So I had her finger paint to her heart's content. And of course, she gave her "stamp" of approval when she was done. Once it was dry, I cut it into different sized strips and weaved it. Turned out great and both sets of grandparents LOVED it!

This delicious recipe was the best Christmas breakfast EVER!

Ingredients:

2 rolls Pillsbury Crescent Rolls

8oz Cream Cheese

1.5lb Breakfast Sausage

1 Dozen Eggs

1/2 Cup Milk

2 Cups Cheddar Cheese

Directions:

Preheat oven 375 degrees. Beat eggs and milk. Scramble and set aside. Brown Sausage. When cooked, add cream cheese and stir to combine. Add scrambled eggs and combine. 

In an ungreased 9x13 dish, press down one can of crescent rolls to form a base, then top with sausage/cream cheese mixture. Add the shredded cheddar cheese, then top with the second roll of crescent rolls. Bake for 25 minutes. YUM!

Next, we had this delightful concoction. When I asked my mom for the recipe, I had to go into detail about how the only time I remembered eating it was when I was in middle school, maybe elementary. We were at our church's fellowship hall, practicing for Quizzing (all my Nazarene friends will remember these times.) My mom had made this treat for us and I remember how much I loved it. Fortunately, it didn't take her long to find the recipe. SUPER EASY!

Ingredients:

1 pkg marshmallows (10oz bag)

Popped popcorn

1 stick of butter

M&Ms (I used half of a large bag)

Directions:

Melt marshmallows and butter. Combine with popped popcorn and M&Ms and mix up.

spray hands with Pam and spread in pan or use wax paper to spread it. Let it set. Then cut and serve. It's basically rice crispy treats but with popcorn and M&Ms instead of Rice Crispies.

Finally, another mantle design. Yes, Valentine's Day is the next holiday. And before, I never really decorated for it. But again, this house with this gorgeous mantle, I just couldn't wait to decorate! I got Big C involved by helping "color" the hearts. I actually had given her three different colored sheets, then after she was done coloring, I cut out different sizes of hearts and just taped them up on the mantle. Little C enjoyed watching Mommy tape them up. Smiling every time I looked down at her. I used a couple of my letters from the Christmas mantle decor and added a heart and the 'V'. Turned out pretty cute. And simple.