My Favorites: Baby Products

Since having a little one, I have found some products that I absolutely love. Before I had my own baby I thought I'd never like some of these…I'm glad to find out that I was wrong. I'll give y'all a picture of my faves and a little tidbit on why I love them! These are products I have used newborn- 4 months and each are linked. I hope this post helps some of you new mamas and soon-to-be mamas!

The Fisher Price Rock-n-Play: Holly slept in this for the first 9 weeks and still takes her naps in it at 4 months. It is super easy to move around from room to room and its easy to rock. I recommend buying the platinum edition with the vibrate feature- it soothes baby. It's also pretty easy to travel with as it easily folds up.

This is both a book and a video.  I heard about it after Holly was born and so there was no chance I was going to read a book, so I downloaded the video from Amazon to watch while nursing. It is well worth the $10. He talks about the 5 S's of calming a baby and THEY WORK. Once we started using the techniques Harvey Karp teaches, we truly did have a much happier baby.

The Shush Baby Shush app is awesome for shushing- one of the 5 S's from Happiest Baby on the Block. This app is awesome. For a low .99 from i-Tunes store, you can get an app and set it to any of 8 white noises. We use the shush. It goes anywhere from 10-30 minutes. Holly almost always calms down when hearing the shush and falls asleep to it every night.

"Peanut" is one of Holly's favorite toys. It's a great interactive toy that you can grab and take anywhere. It has different textures and makes different sounds that babies love. She loved "Peanut" the day she met him- true story.

I admit it, the 4 Moms Infant Tub is something I thought was silly before we started using it. Now, I can't imagine bath time without it. Totally worth the $50. I promise. I love that it tells you the temperature of the water…I think Holly does too. She always has her perfect 99 degree bath, ha. What I love more, is that it filters out dirty water so the baby is always sitting in clean water. It also is super supportive of the baby and fits great over a double kitchen sink.

The Fisher Price bouncer seat is such a great little seat for older babies. A friend let us borrow theirs and we love it. This has been great for Holly because I can easily move it around and she can sit, play, and be entertained. It's also great for hooking Peanut to. I love that I can take it in the kitchen and she can play while I cook dinner! 

This isn't a baby product, but the song "Beautiful Girl" by Tyrone Wells (from beautiful world album) is played 1208394802 times a day at our house. This song almost always calms Holly when she's crying. She LOVES it. Thank you Tyrone, thank you.

So, those are just some of my current favorite baby products. I'm sure there will be many more editions of favorite baby products as my little girl keeps growing! Mamas- what are your favorites?

Stay tuned on Monday for a special edition post! 

Starting Again

Hi! So, I have taken quite a sabbatical from blogging for a few years. Recently, I decided that I’d like to take another gander at it, and here I am! I have no better introduction than that, so there it is.

In this blog’s former life, it was mostly about cooking because, really, I used to have a ton of time to cook. It was my thing. Now, I still cook, but it’s really out of necessity most of the time and not just for the fun of it. Thus, the direction of my blog is changing! New name, new content. Awesome. We’ve moved, had a baby, and started new jobs providing for lots of new things to write about!

Today I’m starting off simple and sharing about my favorite room in our new place: the nursery! Right now, Holly’s nursery is pretty simplistic. This is mainly because we are living in an apartment right now as we save to buy a house. I didn’t do too, too much with her room because I wanted to wait until she has a more permanent dwelling! Nonetheless, it is still my favorite room here. Her room has the most sunlight and is just a happy place! So I’ll walk you through with some pictures below. Stay tuned for more updates about life with baby, memorable moments, and our journey to where we are now.

Here's Holly's crib. We have Pali nursery furniture which we love.  Beside her crib, to the left, is a large butterfly rocking toy. We bought this a long, long time ago and saved it for our first precious baby.

In front of Holly's crib is a fun hot pink/white chevron rug that her Grandma bought her 

This is my favorite corner of her room. This chair from Best Chairs is super comfy. Her nursery is "bird themed", so I love one of my snow day projects- the birds on a wire wall art.

"h" for Holly hanging on her door (Pottery Barn)

Detail added to a toy bin (bin-TJ Maxx)

I made these "puffs" for a corner of the room. A super simple tissue-paper craft.

On one wall, there is a frame  of as many of our friends I could fit (there are many more) who prayed for baby Holly on her way here!

A special little bird on the dresser

Lastly, a little bird detail on the curtain rod (Lowes)

oh there you are...

She's back! Yes, it's been since April since my last post. There's no real reason for the lack of blogging other than I just haven't! Today is a very rainy day, so I thought I'd catch up some!

School has started back up, and life is busier than ever. Our summer was wonderful, but it seemed very short! We spent a wonderful month at a Young Life Camp in New York called Lake Champion. It was amazing, and we miss our Lake Champion family! Here's a little snapshot of some of my LC ladies!



Rodeo Night at Camp!

During June, husband and I also celebrated our three year annivesrsary.



Anniversary dinner

Now we are falling into our "fall routine" and are currently enjoying a quiet weekend at home. I just got all of my September magazines in the mail and I'm looking forward to some fall cooking! More to come on those dishes later.

Today, I thought I would share my favorite free fonts. I love downloading new fonts to use on various projects. They're great for making signs for around your house, creating invitations, or any other crafty projects you may have. These are all available from dafont.com.

 



 

 

Well, that's all for now. I will check back in soon!

 

 

Oh Happy Day

This girl is happy to report that spring break has officially begun! Horray! I've already started a list of things I want to accomplish over the break, but the list is going to wait until Monday. I am going to relax this weekend and spend some good quality time with my husband and our dog. That's right, we got a dog. I'm not sure that I ever thought I would own a dog, but low and behold here we are. We are now the owners of a lab/shepard mix dog that we rescued from the Humane Society in Lynchburg. His name is Tucker and he is five years old. He really is the perfect first (for me) dog. I am not a fan of the drooling/barking/jumping type dog and Tucker does none of the above, so we've been pretty compatible so far. It's been a fun two weeks getting to know him and spending time together. Currently, his only downfall is that he super stubborn when it comes to going to bed, in other words, he refuses to unless it's on his time. I just don't get it...I'd love for someone to tell me I have to go to bed every night. I personally am a fan of sleep. Perhaps he will learn over time...

Since it's been a while, I am going to wrap up the past few weeks in a picture tour.

 

This is Tucker...taken on the day we got him.

 

Last weekend we did a lot of yard work and spruced up our porch.

  

I also worked on a little repainting project. This is our little porch table...as you can see it was quite rusty.



A few coats of spray paint and it's good as new!



I made this really easy chicken dish that could be a great prepare ahead meal. Recipe below.



This is blurry because I took it on my iPad, but it is my precious husband and Tucker both asleep. Too cute.



Here is the above chicken recipe. It is directly from Real Simple. It was so good and I didn't change a thing (other than I just made three pieces of chicken instead of four).

Serves 4

Hands-On Time: 15m
Total Time: 1hr 15m

Ingredients

6 tablespoons olive oil

2 lemons, 1 thinly sliced, 1 juiced

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

3/4 pound trimmed green beans

8 small red potatoes, quartered

4 chicken breasts (bones left in, with skin, about 3 1/4 pounds)

Directions

1.Preheat oven to 450°F. Coat a large baking dish or cast-iron skillet with 1 tablespoon of the olive oil. Arrange the lemon slices in a single layer in the bottom of the dish or skillet.

2.In a large bowl, combine the remaining oil, lemon juice, garlic, salt, and pepper; add the green beans and toss to coat. Using a slotted spoon or tongs, remove the green beans and arrange them on top of the lemon slices. Add the potatoes to the same olive-oil mixture and toss to coat. Using a slotted spoon or tongs, arrange the potatoes along the inside edge of the dish or skillet on top of the green beans. Place the chicken in the same bowl with the olive-oil mixture and coat thoroughly. Place the chicken, skin-side up, in the dish or skillet. Pour any of the remaining olive-oil mixture over the chicken.

3.Roast for 50 minutes. Remove the chicken from the dish or skillet. Place the beans and potatoes back in oven for 10 minutes more or until the potatoes are tender. Place a chicken breast on each of 4 serving plates; divide the green beans and potatoes equally. Serve warm.
 
It was delicious and takes very little prep time. The rest of the time is spent in the oven!
 
Tonight I felt I got a gift...the gift of time. I have felt like lately I'm just rushing through my days and just getting done what needs to get done. Cooking has been a chore rather than something I am doing because I love it. Tonight I knew that I had nothing to get done, nowhere I had to be, and nothing to wake up early for tomorrow. It was awesome. I just took my time cooking and cleaning up the kitchen. I really enjoyed being in there making our meal tonight.
 
I am so excited for this weekend. I LOVE Easter. It's my favorite holiday (after Thanksgiving). I am looking forward to our church service which is always so beautiful. Then, we're heading to my home to see my family. I just love the feeling of new life and beauty that this week and weekend brings. Tonight I read these verses from Phillipians 1: "...because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." A few things stand out to me in these two verses, 1. "partnership in the gospel", I love thinking of how I am a partner with Christ and with others in bringing the gospel to those around me, 2. "he who began a good work in you will carry it through", wow. Even though I fail often, and sometimes can't see that good work, it is there because I have been created to do a good work. I have the author and Creator of life seeing it through. That's awesome. How privileged we are to celebrate the cross and the One who died so that we may have a good work in us so that we may partner in continuing to share Him with others.
 
Well, I am headed to bed. I really want to contact the Apple support people but I suppose since it's close to 1am that they aren't "open". My itunes software is sending me over the edge by not updating which is causing a slew of problems. Oh well. Tomorrow we're getting up and going to the Farmer's Market! I'm excited for this new little addition to our town!
 
Happy Easter!
 
 

A little bit of this, a little bit of that

Hey there...it's been quite some time since my last post; over a month to be exact. But, we are still alive and well...we are just alive, well, and busy. But, I have some good recipes to share and a DIY project or two to tell you about, so let's get to it.

First off, I must blog about one of my favorite appetizers- spinach and artichoke dip. My friend Megan and I discovered a recipe for this scrumptious dish in college by Alton Brown (Food Network). It is hands down the best spinach and artichoke dip I have eaten so far...and I've tried a lot of them. This is not a health conscious recipe, so if you're looking for a healthy version this is not the one to use. Me? I don't really care...it's too good to give up. I've tweaked it just a bit from the original recipe. Here's what you need:

1 box of frozen spinach (preferably thawed)
1 can of artichoke hearts, drained OR  1 1/2 cup frozen
6oz cream cheese
1/4 cup mayo (I use Duke's)
1/4 cup sour cream (I use Breakstone)
1/3 freshly grated parmesan
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp garlic powder

Boil the spinach and artichokes until they are tender, about 5 minutes. Drain. While that is working, heat the cream cheese in the microwave until softened. Then, in a medium bowl, stir together all of the ingredients. Eat. My favorite dipping tool is a tortilla chip.

His original recipe calls for red pepper flakes. I'm not a huge spicy fan, so I leave them out.

The next recipe I want to share is one we had tonight. Since we are Catholic, during lent we can't have meat on Fridays. So, we opt for fish instead. Tonight we had tilapia with a tomato and onion saute. This is a take on a recipe that I found in Real Simple a few years ago. I feel like tilapia is such a versatile fish that you can do just about anything with it. I typically season mine with evoo, garlic powder, paprika, salt and pepper, panko bread crumbs, and lemon slices. I then roast it for 12-15 minutes at 375 degrees.

Tonight I switched up our saute a little bit. First, I heated about 2tbs of evoo. Then, I sliced a small onion. I then started getting the onion soft in the pan. While that was working, I sliced a pint's worth of cherry tomatoes in half. I then added them to the pan. While they were softening, I added 1/2 tsp dried basil, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and a generous drizzle of honey. I let that work for a few minutes and then covered the pan for 3 minutes, just to sweat the onions and tomatoes. After that, I uncovered the pan, let it saute for about 2 minutes more and then served my fish on top of it all. It was so tasty! The honey really took the saute to another level. This whole meal took about 25 minutes to make. A great weeknight option.

One last recipe suggestion... In January, Southern Living printed a recipe for ratatouille. I had never made ratatouille before so I was excited to try this classic dish. It was so good. Husband ranted and raved about it for days. You should check it out here.

Now for a few simple projects...

Since we moved to a place with a lot more wall space, I've had to get a little creative to fill the spaces. It's all still a work in progress, but we're getting there. Here are two simple projects I did to add a little something to our new walls.

First is a super easy, super fun way to make some "word art". From a website called Tagxedo.com you can create a word shape using any words that you like. I typed in words describing our marriage and generated them into the shape of a bird. You don't have to register or anything at Tagxedo, just go in and follow the directions. The more times you type in a word, the more times it appears in your word creation. Here's the one I created for our dining room.

The second piece I made was one I made for Kenneth for Christmas. I saw the idea on Pinterest. My suggestion for making something like this is to download fonts that you think will work for your piece. I downloaded ten or so fonts and played around with them until I got something I liked. I create this whole piece in Microsoft word.

Making and printing out the two projects above was virtually free. I then just put them both in nice frames and there you have it!

In other news, I got a haircut this past week. I hate it. This is not unusual, though, I pretty much never like my haircuts. (Isabella House is nodding right now) I went in thinking I was going to a medium length and came out with a much, much shorter length. I think I lost at least four inches of hair when it was all said and done. All I know is that this head of hair isn't going near scissors for a long, long time. My husband is sweet and keeps telling me he likes it...we even went out to eat to make me feel better about it. Here's my first day of short hair picture. (Ignore the fact that my hair is slightly covering my eye)

That's all I have for now...perhaps my next update will come sooner than a month from now! Enjoy the new blog design!

On the last day of 25

Here I am on the eve of turning 26. It's been a low key night as I am battling a ferocious cold and am feeling kind-of run down. I was just thinking back over the past year of life and reflecting on all that has happened. I believe that this year has held more for me than I ever could have imagined. I am definitely not standing in the place that I thought I would be last year on this day. Kenneth and I have been through many different changes this year which have brought us stress, joy, strength, frustration, compassion, and most of all have brought us closer to God. If I've learned anything in year 25 it is that I continually have to let go of what I have for my life and hold to what God would have for me. So as I enter into my 26th year, I will hold fast to this: I am loved by a bigger God than anything I could see or imagine and His plan is best and nothing is too big for Him.

As promised, I am going to leave the rest of this post to photos of our new place. Everything is unpacked and now it's just down to tweaking and adding decorative elements over time. I have before photos, but they're not too great because I took them with my i-Pad, but they'll give you an idea of what we were working with. Enjoy!

living room before...a lovely shade of hunter green

living room, side 1, after

side 2, after

master bedroom before

master bedroom after

dining room before

dining room after

guest room before

guest room after, still a work in progress

office before

office after

kitchen before

kitchen after

So, that's our place as it stands right now. I will get more detailed into each room in later posts. I am looking forward to adding to our decor and making it more like home over time. Well, that's all for now. I am off to bed, hoping that some rest will help cure this cold! More posts to come soon on DIY projects, yummy dinners, and easy, tasty appetizers!

oh hey...

Just a short update tonight. We are all moved and are slowly settling in to our new house. All the rooms are painted, curtains are sewn, furniture is arranged, pictures are hung, and things are being unpacked. It's been an overwhelming process. We moved in on a Saturday and traveled to Florida the following Tuesday for Young Life's All Staff Conference. So, I've really only been in the house for a little over a week. I have a lot of recipes to share, diy projects to post about, and pictures of our rooms to show, but it will have to wait. More work still lies ahead of me for tonight. We had a great time in Florida and we learned so much..more to come on that too. Just wanted you all to know that we are alive and well, ha. I am looking forward to having this weekend to get things settled and to host our first party on Sunday. So, that's all for now, look for another, more detailed, update soon.