Compliment Worthy Crockpot Meals

Hey friends! I've started a new adventure writing some fun blogs for Aisle9, a website with tons of quick tips and fun articles, with some especially good stuff for women! I was writing down some of my compliment winning crockpot meals to give to a friend as a wedding gift, and decided that enough people asked me for the recipes it just made sense for it to be my first blog. So if you'd like to check it out, the link is below! I'll be posting more articles in the future on all kinds of topics, like hair and beauty, cooking, workouts, gift guides, decorating and crafts, parenting... the list goes on!

Stay tuned and take a peek!

Five Compliment Worthy Crockpot Recipes for Busy Moms

Photo via Damn Delicious

Haddie: 2 year update

Dear Haddie,

At 2 years old...

• You weigh 26 pounds, are 33 inches tall and wear 2T clothes (sometime still 18-24m because you're very petite)
• Your favorite foods are cheese, crackers, pizza, pepperoni, baby food pouches, bananas, waffles, cheerios, yogurt, fruit gummies, and carbs.
• If you see me with a Coke you whiiiiiiiine and whine and whine until I share with you
• You don't run, you prance. Sometimes I call you Fancy Prancy.
• You are finally doing better about dropoffs, you only cry occasionally at church or school
• You sleep like a teenager. You have been sleeping from 7:30-8ish and take a 2+ hour nap ever day. 
• you get VERY jealous when I'm holding anyone else, including your brother. If you're on my lap and he tries to join us you push him off 
• You are finally leaving your ponytail/pigtails in, yay! For a few hours at least, and then you pull them out
• You don't like for me to mess with your accessories. Coats and shoes must be left on at all times (including at school)
• You walked around the house drinking out of your sippy cup and spitting it on the floor. It is so gross but you think its hilarious. You also like to dump your yogurt shake on the table which earned you your first (and only) real spanking 
• You are pretty athletic. Not only are you not scared of many things at the playground, but you seem to run/climb/slide pretty easily!
• You love babies and point them out wherever we go, but you pronounce it like the French word, Bebe, which is so adorable
• You love finding my lip gloss or Chapstick so you can pucker up while and have me put it on you
• You only get your pacifier for sleep or the car and as long as you don't realize I took it away, it doesn't usually seem to bother you
• Your favorite toy is the water table outside
• If you find dog poop in the yard you will squish it in your hands (GROSS)
• You carry a purse around with all your treasure in it (usually a pacifier, lego baby, and a cell phone)
• Brother picks on you sometimes, but you've learned how to milk it. Even if he barely or accidentally runs into you, you start whining like he hurt you really bad
• You are in a real "mommy's girl" stage. You only want me to hold you and you cry if I even put you in the carseat and don't climb into the driver's seat immediately

Sometimes I just look at your Daddy and say, "look how adorable Haddie is! I just can't get over it!" But it's true, your sweet little dimple and big blue eyes frequently catch me off guard when I see you smiling at me in the rearview mirror. Grandma Susie says you like to "keep us busy" which is a sweet way of saying you are into everything! Which is true :) But that is one of my favorite things about you, how adventurous you are. It's pretty rare to find you a) bored or b) afraid to try something out. You will follow Titus around and do everything he does and more! And if you fall down, you usually just get back up and keep going. Plus you are very easygoing and rarely get demanding (unless you want your pacifier, then you are ruthless), so for the most part, not much seems to bother you. We love you to the moon and back, baby love!

Titus' 2nd Birthday Party

My friend Heather and I delivered our baby boys 4 days apart, and after both throwing huge blowout parties last year, we learned the error of our ways and just threw one party this year to celebrate both boys. We also realized that rather than dirty either of our houses we should just do it outside at their favorite playground and call it a day.. Since Brooks and Titus both like Curious George, it was an easy selection for our party theme!

Titus started out cranky because he had to be woken up from his nap early, but also because (surprisingly, given who his parents are) he does not like crowds or lots of people talking or staring at him. But once Garland took him out to the open field to throw the ball around and he ate four pickles, he was ready to party :)

 Both birthday boys liked to pick off the sprinkles more than eat the cake

Twelve Months (One YEAR!)

Dear Titus,

At 12 months you...

• You weigh 22 pounds.
• You wear size 4 diapers and 9-12 month clothes (definitely still need shorter pants).
• You sleep from about 8pm to 7am. You take two naps around 10:30 and 2:30.
• You have had 5 ear infections in 4 months, its been really awful. Right now we are on our 5th antibiotic plus Zyrtec in the morning and Benadryl at night to cut down on the drainage that is causing the infections. If this doesn't work you will have to get tubes, so we're hoping this will be the combo to get you healthy!
• You LOVE waving. You love waving so much that when I tried to teach you to clap you just waved at me some more.
• You still dislike your car seat but the iPad helps a lot. We'll probably turn you around soon because you are so unhappy.
• You don't really care much about eating and still like baby food a lot (you don't reject it in favor of table food like a lot of babies your age). I can never really tell if you're full or if you want more food because you just want out of your high chair.
• You don't like sitting in the shopping cart or stroller very much. In general, you hate anything that keeps your from crawling/trying to walk. And straps are like your worst nightmare! Most of the time you stand up in the shopping cart.
• You love bath time so much you will crawl into the bathroom throughout the day and stand at the side of the tub and giggle.
• You still love ceiling fans.
• You like to play in the yard, you could grab sticks and grass and hold them in the air to observe them for like an hour straight. You are so curious and detail oriented, you check everything out with great concern!
• You have started putting sounds together and say a lot of words like "glargle glargle" or "blurb" or "drawler." You have even said your first real word, "dog." You stand at the screen door and watch Bosco and Lucy and say dog (which kind of sounds like "dock").
• You love Yo Gabba Gabba.
• You like watching and chasing the vacuum! 
• For whatever reason you love when I watch you play in your crib, or the "big bed" (mommy and daddy's bed) for that matter.
• You chase the dogs around the house and laugh/scream hysterically because you get so excited. They run away trying not to get caught which only makes you want to chase them more.
• You think it's fun to get your temperature taken with the forehead thermometer and you try to do it yourself.
• You love to dance and it has become my favorite thing that you do!

Oh sweet boy, what a year it has been. Things are so much easier and more entertaining at 12 months! You are such a loving snuggler and you give away smiles and giggles so easily. Everyone always comments on how much they love your laugh- I hope your joy continues to be infectious in years to come. Everyone says to cherish these baby moments because they go by so fast, and I can attest to the fact that time has, indeed, gone by very quickly. We are so lucky to call you our son and could not be more grateful for every minute, day, month, and year that the Lord allows us to shepherd you and fall even more in love with our short, wobbly, adorable, little boy. I can't wait to see what year two will hold and the many adventures we will have as we learn more about each other in the days to come. We love you to the moon and back, precious Titus.

First Birthday Party!

 

Spring Mantle Decor

I got a few questions from the pictures I posted of my Spring mantel decor, so here is how you can do it in your own home if you want!

The first element I used for the mantle was the weathered barn wood frame Garland made for me and I first featured at Christmas. It's just some old wood that he nailed to a couple pieces of framing to hold it together. Extremely easy project!

Then I took off the Christmas wreath and replaced it with this book wreath I made a couple years ago. I LOVE this wreath, it goes with anything! You can see that mine is different colors because I used a few different books and hung it on my front door, so they aged different colors in the sun. Make sure if you use different books that you do a better job of spreading out the roses so you don't get clusters of one color or the other (like mine).

If you want to do a wreath on wood like I did here's the easy trick: Buy a 3M hook and hang it on the backside UPSIDE DOWN. Then just tie a knot with the string around the hook as shown here. Genius! Thanks Pinterest!

Next I lined the frame and wreath with the mercury glass vases I made this summer. This was a super easy and inexpensive project, probably totaling $10-15 for 10 vases.

 Wild flowers from Hobby Lobby on half off! Oh, how I love that place. 

 I stacked some old books I got at a garage sale on both sides just to give plenty of variation on height.

Lastly I made a fabric garland to hang down from the mantle. This was my favorite part! I went and bought fabric scraps from a fabric store for $7 and that was the total cost! I used twine I already had and a lot of elbow grease. Depending on the type of fabric you get will depend on how easy or difficult your project is. A couple of my fabrics had stitching or were just really thick and it took a lot of effort to cut through. The plain cotton fabrics were really easy though! All in all it probably took me 3 hours to make and it's about 5 feet long. Here is the tutorial I used, but it's pretty self explanatory.

All in all the whole mantle probably cost me about $35 including the vases, wreath, books, barn wood frame, flowers, and fabric for the garland. Easy update for spring, now we just need to weather to catch on to the change in season! Happy crafting!