Weekend Recap

I had planned a lazy, but fun weekend and I think we completely succeeded!! We've been super busy for what seems like the last 2 months, without a single lazy weekend, so we were definitely due for one. Plus, it was Texas/OU, so it was the perfect excuse to watch football all day, make some yummy food and chill! And, Texas WON! SUCH a great weekend! Here's a recap...

 

I didn't take pictures, but Friday night was spent drinking wine and watching Ghost Adventures on Travel Channel. If y'all haven't watched that show yet, you really oughta. It's super scary, and they go to cool places.

 

We spent Saturday morning in our jammies, watching College GameDay and cartoons, while daddy prepped the chili. It's hard to see in this picture, but his PJs say "Mommy's Sleep Champ" with a little football player- so cute! He IS my sleep champ these days! And I love his belly hanging out- total boy!

 

 

After breakfast we all put on our burnt orange, put out the flag and attempted a photo sesh. Our little tight end was more interested in sprinting into the street. Real cool.

 

 

Right around the start of the game, I made these YUMMY and EASY jalapeno poppers. All I did was roll out crescent rolls, cut them in half lengthwise, put a bit of cream cheese, bacon and fresh jalapeno on the fat end (if that makes sense) rolled them up and baked them at 350 for 15 minutes. They were super tasty and the perfect appetizer for game day!

 

We couldn't pull Jacob away from the game for lunch (haha, more like dad), so we brought lunch to him. Haha! This picture cracks me up. Particularly the brewskie on the counter. Cheers!

 

After lunch, Jacob took a 2-hour nap while Josh and I dug into the chili and watched the second half of the game. Traditional Texas chili doesn't have beans in it, but ours does. And its the best chili I've ever had. I'll share the recipe in another post.

Josh and I prepare our bowls of chili completely different though. He likes more juice with cheese and lots of crackers, while I like less juice, LOTS of cheese, sour cream and Frito's. Gotta have the Frito's!

Saturday night was spent drinking more wine (a 2007 Cakebread to be exact- it was divine!!), watching more football and a little baseball, and an early bedtime.

Josh let me sleep in on Sunday morning (score!), so after I woke up and had my coffee, we took Jacob to the park for an hour or so. He was having so much fun chasing all the squirrels. Haha, so cute!

And the rest of Sunday was pretty uneventful- 2.5 hour nap for Jacob, grocery store for mom, run for dad, dinner and laundry. Suuuuper fun!

I hope y'all had a fun weekend, too! Lazy, relaxing weekends just can't be beat! So glad we were able to hang out all weekend together.

Recipe - curry chicken & broccoli

When I was a kid, my mom always made our favorite meal for our birthdays. This was my meal. 

It's warm, creamy, hearty and totally delicious. I love making it on cold or dreary days. 

Ingredients

4 chicken breasts

Broccoli

2 cans cream of chicken

1 cup mayo

2 tsp. lemon juice

2 tsp. curry powder

Shredded cheddar cheese

Rice

Directions

1) Cook your chicken any way you like. I prefer to grill it, because it's easy. Then cube it up in bite-sized pieces. 

2) Steam your broccoli. The amount you make is really up to you. I try to go heavy on the broccoli to make it healthier. I also buy the frozen steamer bags, because it's easy. 

3) Mix together the COC, mayo and spices in a bowl. 

4) Put the steamed broccoli on the bottom of a 9x13 dish. 

5) Place the cubed chicken on top of the broccoli. 

6) Pour the COC mixture on top of the chicken and broccoli. 

7) Top with a good helping of cheddar cheese. (always with the cheese in Texas)

8) Bake at 350° for 30 minutes. 

9) Serve over rice and ENJOY!!

Life is too dang short...

Hi everyone! I hope y'all are having a wonderful Thursday! Thank goodness- I can almost smell Friday and the weekend!! It's Texas/OU weekend in Dallas, and we are super excited (even though my poor Longhorns will probably get whooped).

On a more serious note, it was brought to my attention by one of my neighbors that my "Dear Neighbor..." post (which has since been removed by me) was offensive and humiliating.

Gosh! I can hardly gather my thoughts to write this "rebuttal" post...

For starters, it was not my intentions to offend or hurt anyone by that post, but I can clearly see how it could and did. I am truly sorry for doing that.

After having Jacob, I had a lot of alone time to do some soul searching and evaluating of my life. I came to the conclusion that I was a negative person. I often blamed other people for my problems. I hardly ever took responsibility for my actions, which sometimes hurt others. I was judgmental and rude. And quite frankly, wasn't a good role model for my son!

I have tried so hard to be more optimistic, positive, happy, Godly and most importantly- a good role model for my son.

And that post completely went against everything that I've been trying to do. Everything I want to do. And everything that I want this blog to be.

I'm truly sorry for hurting your feelings, and will do my very best to remain positive, encouraging and HAPPY! Because life is too dang short to be anything else.

My sister is MARRIED!

This post is mostly a photo dump, but I'll do a brief summary too.

 

My sister married Joe on Saturday, October 5 in Austin, TX. The ceremony was at the beautiful Chapel Dulcinea in the Texas Hill Country, and the reception was at Scholz Garten.

 

The ceremony was at 10:30am, so it was a very early morning with hair and makeup. Then we made our way out to the venue for last minute touch-ups and getting everyone dressed. My sister got us bridesmaids these awesome running shorts with our monogram! How perfect! And I think they looked pretty phenom with our boots, huh?

 

 

 

 

 

 

flowers by Bouquets of Austin

 

my dad with his daughters and grandson

 The ceremony was absolutely breathtaking. It was such a still autumn morning, so peaceful and serene. It was just perfect.

 

 

And no wedding is complete without a little "ice breaker." In this case, the best man (Joe's older brother) dropped the rings and they nearly fell into the fountain! Haha!

 

 

After the ceremony, Joe and Carrie got to ring the chapel bell. It was such a magical way to end the ceremony!

 





 

 

And Jacob got to play in the fountain while everyone mingled and took pictures. What a cutie!

 

 

Here's a bunch of pictures from the day... 







 

The reception was a relaxed afternoon party, complete with kegs and BBQ. So much fun, and such a perfect party for Joe and Carrie!

 

 

The bride's cake and groom's cake were combined into one big cake. The bride's cake was funfetti, obviously...

And here's a little photo collage of mine and the best man's speeches. Love these people!

 

And I'll leave you with my favorite picture from the weekend. A picture of my sweet little family. I love these guys more than words can even express, and I don't know what I'd do without them! They are my world. My happiness.

 

Jacob - 16 months

This monthly update came and went- and I didn't even realize it! Oops! Time is just flying by so quickly, I can hardly believe it! I can't believe we have a 16-month old, it just can't be true!

In other news, we've officially been members of our playgroup (Baby Buddies) for 1 year! What a blessing that group has been for us (especially me). All the kids are growing up, and I just love watching them actually play together. How fun!



Age: 16 months
Height: (don't go back until 18 months)
Weight: (don't go back until 18 months)
Milestones: I feel like Jacob learns something new every day...every hour! It's so amazing to watch him. He's just a little sponge! I really don't even know what to say here. He's saying 11 words- mama, dada, da (dog or airplane- ha!), duck, ha (hot), mo (lawnmower or more), book, hi, bye. He plays/sings along to "happy and you know it" and plays "peak a boo", "soooo BIG" and dances to EVERY song he hears. He's getting really good at waving hi and bye now- he used to be kinda delayed, but now he waves perfectly. He has such good ears- he can hear airplanes before I can! And he immediately points up and says "da." We're working on "airplane."
Sleep: Sleeping has regulated a bit this month. He's sleeping 12-13 hours a night still, so usually 8pm-8 or 9am. We hardly ever hear him fuss throughout the night. Occasionally he loses his blanket or Boo and will fuss for a second until he finds them, but otherwise we really don't hear a peep until the morning! He naps for anywhere between 1-3 hours, depending how he slept the night before and how much activity we've had that day. I usually try to get him down by 1:30 for his nap though.
Eating: Mealtime has become one of my least favorite times of the day. He never wants to sit still long enough to eat, so I either make his meals SUPER excited (by using muffin tins) or singing/dancing while offering him food, or I drag his highchair near the family room so he can watch TV while he eats (this only happens for breakfast when there's a new Doc McStuffins on). Of course, Jacob eats like a CHAMP for Josh.
Clothes size: 18-24mo in Old Navy and Gap, but otherwise he's in 24mo or 2T.
Diaper size: Size 5 Cruisers
Best Moment: it's been a really fun month. He's just such a bundle of joy! I really enjoyed watching Jacob play with all the kids at my sister's wedding reception- he was having so much fun!!! I loved it!
Worst Moment: He was suffering from some seasonal allergies and cutting his 1-yr molars last week, so we had a few rough days, but other than that...it's been great! We're giving him Zyrtec now daily.
Favorite toy: His new golfing set from his CoCo and his lawn mower still.
Teeth: he cut his 4th bottom tooth, so 8 total. I expect a molar soon, too.
Looking forward to: with the cooler weather, I'm excited about taking him for LOTS of runs, trips to the park, pumpkin patch (with and without dad), and Halloween of course!!! He's actually going trick or treating this year. Yay!

My sister is getting married!!

I can't believe this weekend is finally (actually) here. It's bittersweet for me. My baby sister is marrying her best friend and soulmate, and I'm so incredibly happy for her. But at the same time I'm so (selfishly) sad! How is my baby sister old enough to be getting MARRIED?! I remember when she was just a teeny tiny little child, bugging me and stealing my stuff!

My sister has blossomed into a lovely woman, and I'm so grateful God has blessed me with such an amazing sister and friendship. I can't wait to see how He shapes her future and I'll be there to celebrate along the way!

Love her and them! Cheers, y'all!

Master bedroom facelift

I have literally not touched anything in our bedroom, except for the sheets-obv, since we moved in. Everything is exactly the way it was after we first moved in. We painted the walls white, bought some nice furniture, hung some curtains, and that's it! Ugh! How boring!

I decided it was time for a little facelift, before baby #2 comes and life gets crazy again... I present to you, our new modern adult bedroom....

I am so pumped about how it turned out. I especially love how the room looks at night, all lit up. It almost has a little Kardashian-feel to it, which I promise wasn't intentional, but I'm digging it!

I found this beauuuuutiful fabric on FabricGuru.com and literally couldn't buy it fast enough. And to my surprise the entire bolt (18 yards) arrived TWO DAYS after I ordered it! Holy cow! I think I peed in my pants when it was delivered. I ended up decorating the entire room around this fabric. I'm usually pretty good at throwing in splashes of color, but I wanted to go very cool and calm in our room, so I'm sticking to blacks/greys/whites and a little beige/brown.

We have 4 windows in our bedroom, 1 bay window and 1 additional window, so I made all 8 curtains myself, and 2 matching throw pillows. My husband hates tons of pillows, he doesn't see the point in them when you're just going to throw them on the floor. He has a point, but I love the look of tons of different patterned pillows (when I actually make the bed).

Our furniture is oversized and dark (almost black) wood, so I like to keep the bedding light. I bought these cool ikat sheets in grey from Target. I generally like really soft sheets, not sateen, but just nice, soft, cool, cotton sheets. I think after a dozen washes, these sheets will be perfect! They are a little too crisp for me yet...even with lots of fabric softener and 3 washes. I'll keep y'all updated.

Because the nightstands are dark, I wanted lighter lamps. My goodness- lamps are the hardest thing to shop for! They are either adorable and super expensive, or cheap and look it. I am a mama on a budget here, so I'm looking for cute, expensive-looking and cheap. Haha! (good luck, right??) Well, I stumbled upon these gems at Target and fell in love with them! Actually, to be honest, I thought $45 was too expensive, so I kept looking... And soon realized that the exact same mercury glass lamps were going for $125-$250 at Restoration Hardware, Pottery Barn and Crate & Barrel. Sooo I quickly went back to Target and scooped up two of those bad boys before they were sold out! I also grabbed two of these shades while I was there. The website doesn't really do the shades justice- they have a linen-look to them, with a very subtle sparkle. Very pretty!

I currently have a plain white blanket on the bed, because its too dang hot for anything else,but once the weather cools down, I plan on buying this duvet and a lightweight down insert from Ikea.

I have also talked my sweet husband into installing DIY crown molding. Home Depot has an "easy no-cut" system, that looks pretty painless. Hopefully we can tackle that in November, when the weather cools down and our crazy life slows down for a sec (and we have a free weekend).

I hope you like it as much as I do!! Cheers!