- quick recipe of the week -

Wow, what a great weekend we had! Ellie's birthday party was a raging success! I am really happy with how everything turned out! It was so much fun planning! Ellie had a blast, and I think everyone else did too! Pictures to come soon (our wonderful family photographer and great friend, Nina, took professional pictures for us during the party. I can not wait to see them!)

Without further ado, let me introduce you to the lovely, Alycia from Crowley Party. I was so honored when she said she would contribute a recipe today, because she is such a well known gal in the blogging world...and my blog is kind of "small time" still...(wait, "kind of"...who am I kidding? It's TOTALLY "small time" still!)

(Image credit Alycia)

Alycia's blog started off as a place to document the life of herself and her hubberz, & since then has grown into a creative outlet where she can share the things she loves...food, fashion, crafts & anything else life has to offer her! Alycia and Trevor follow the mantra that life should be a party, hence the blog-title, Crowley Party. She loves the blogging world for so many reasons, but mainly because you get to make connections, & bounce creativity off each other! So please go visit her, join the party, and say HELLO!

Today Alycia decided to share one of her favorite "go to" breakfast meals :) Her husband loves them...I mean who wouldn't? It is all the best things about breakfast in a bite! I think I would definitely get the "wife of the year" award if I whipped these up every weekend for my hubby!

Breakfast Cups

6 slices of bread

6 slices of bacon

6 eggs

1/2 cup of shredded cheese

salt & pepper 

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray muffin pan with butter non-stick spray. Using a cookie cutter cut circles out of bread slices about 3 inches in diameter. Take bread circles and press them into the muffin pan, set aside. Heat a large skillet on medium-high. Cook bacon on the skillet until partially cooked but still pliable, about 3 minutes. Shape bacon strips into the toast cups, fill with 1 Tbs of shredded cheese. Place in the oven for 5 minutes, allowing the bacon to toast just a little more. Remove from oven. Crack your egg and separate out most of the egg white. Drop eggs into the cups, sprinkle with salt & pepper to taste. Place back in the oven and cook until white begins to set, about another 8 – 10 minutes. The yolk should be creamy. Remove from oven when done and pop out using a spoon, serve warm.

(Image credit Alycia)

Printable Recipe

Although I'm not usually huge on breakfast, these look so good and I will definitely be trying them out! (I know, I know...breakfast IS the most important meal of the day...I really need to start eating breakfast regularly...I'll just have to start with these!)

Definitely go check out Alycia's blog. It's pretty awesome, and I promise you will love it!

- just a little reminder -

Last night we had a great Halloween! Really really awesome! Ellie was all smiles the entire night, and enjoyed herself so much. Stay tuned for pictures and more highlights!

I was reminded of two things last night...both of which I already knew, but last night was just another amazing reminder for me. The first one is that I have the best little girl in the entire world. She brings me more joy than I could have ever imagined. And she melts my heart every time I look at her!

The second thing I was reminded of, was just how sweet of a friend I have. Awhile I ago, I was drooling over this bracelet from Lee La La.

My amazing, thoughtful friend surprised me and bought it for me! She brought it over last night when they came over to trick or treat with us. It's funny...I really, really needed something like that in my life right now...a gesture of kindness to remind me what really is important in life. And it looks just as lovely on as I thought it would! It's such a delightfully perfect bracelet! Thank you Lisa, for being you. You are an amazing person, and I appreciate you!

(Hopefully I'll have some time this week to post the rest of our super cute Halloween pictures!)

- quick recipe of the week -

Happy Happy Halloween! I hope everyone has their costumes ready! Ellie has picked her own costume out this year, and has been talking about it for over a month now! I'll be sure to post pictures after the festivities tonight!

I am excited to feature Ashley today, because she is sharing an awesome Halloween recipe. Ashley blogs over at a sweet little blog called, Adventures of Newlyweds. Ashley and her sweet hubby get to travel the country for his job, and they have had so many adventures along the way.

Ashley wanted to share a joke with all of you to get you in the Halloween spirit. So hear it is!

Q: What did the ghost say to the bee?
A: Boobee.  Get it??! BOOBIE! 

Ha ha ha, she's funny right? You should definitely head over to her blog to meet her and thank her for the awesome Halloween joke (oh, and also for this recipe cause it's a good one!) She actually got this recipe from her sister-in-law who is a fabulous baker. They sound like the perfect treat to wind up the day with (if you aren't too full from all the Halloween candy!)

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

3 cups sugar

1 cup oil (or half oil, half applesauce for a healthier alternative)

4 eggs

2 tsps vanilla extract

3 1/2 cups flour

1 1/2 tsps salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp nutmeg

2/3 cup milk

1 3/4 cup pumpkin (not the pie filling!)

1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a muffin pan with nonstick baking spray. In a mixing bowl, beat together sugar, oil, eggs, and vanilla. Blend thoroughly. In a separate bowl. sift flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Gradually add egg mixture to the dry mixture. Blend thoroughly. Fold in half the milk and half o f the pumpkin. Repeat. Spoon the mix evenly into the pan (about 2/3 full). Bake 20 minutes, or until a toothpick or fork comes out clean. 

(Image credit Ashley)

Printable Recipe

Ummmm, yes please! They look so good! Much better than Halloween candy. You gotta try these out! And don't forget to head over the Ashley's blog and say hello.

And stay tuned for pictures of Ellie in her ridiculously cute Halloween costume!

- missing in action -

I've been a bit "mia" lately because I have been busy planning for this:

I edited out my address and my phone number, hence the big ugly blank spots...

 I absolutely love planning parties, and it's even more fun and rewarding to do when it's for your own little one!

It's crunch time now...the party is in a week! So if you don't hear from me next week, it's because I am knee deep in party decorations and cupcake baking....even though what I should be doing is getting back into my work out routine, getting my actual work done at the office, and maybe doing some of the laundry that is piling up. But those things just aren't as fun...and Ellie only turns 2 once right? (I think that's going to be my excuse every year...I seriously love planning her parties!)

I leave you with a picture of our recent pumpkin patch trip. It's almost Halloween! Have a great weekend everyone!

- a little public service announcement -

I know that as a parent, we can't wrap our little ones in bubble wrap and try to protect them from every thing that might hurt them. I know that accidents happen, no matter how cautious you are as a parent. But I also think there are some proactive things that parents can do to prevent some major accidents. Even the accidents that you don't think would EVER happen in your house.

Now that I have a toddler, I have been aware how important it is to strap your furniture to the walls. But up until now, we had not actually done it. You always say you will, and then just never get around to it.

A week ago, I read this post. Please take the time to read it. It's a scary story about a little girl who climbed on a dresser to try to get a toy. Her mom had left her alone for less than 30 seconds...that's right, it happened that fast..the dresser fell on her head, and the poor little girl was pinned under it. She had major head trauma and needed surgery to correct the damage that was done to her head and her brain. It's a scary thought...that something like that can happen that fast.

(Image credit thecreativemama.com)

When I told Matt about the story, he didn't even have to read the story...he just took one look at the pictures of the little girl post-surgery, and told me he would strap everything to the wall immediately. One week later, we have a safer house (and yes, also a lot more holes in the walls, but that's okay! We'll deal with that when we move or when our kids have grown up).

We used these straps, and they seemed easy enough to install. And they are definitely secure! 

Ellie isn't even that adventurous of a toddler. She doesn't climb on tons of things, and she can be pretty scared and timid. She's definitely not fearless and doesn't explore many areas of our house without us. But I would never, ever forgive myself if I took my eyes off of her for a minute and something like this happened to her (and let's just be honest, it's totally unrealistic to think you will always have your eye on your child at all times). And imagine if something like this happened to your child and it was completely preventable, with one $5.00 package of safety brackets and a half an hour of your time. Seriously you guys, please do this! Don't assume that something like this won't happen to your child or that your furniture is heavy enough and will never tip over. You never know what could happen in 30 seconds. I know so many people with toddlers that say they are going to get around to doing this, and just never do. And odds are, nothing will happen to their children. But you never know! People use seat belts, and car seats everyday to protect their children...furniture straps are really no different. It's just another strap that ensures your child's safety.

I actually have an extra package of these that we didn't end up needing. I am going to offer them to anyone who is interested in trying them out, as long as you promise that they actually get put to use, and not just thrown in a drawer with the intentions of installing them "some day".  Just shoot me an email or leave me a comment and I will mail my extra package out to the first interested reader who wants to make their house just a little safer for their little ones!

And a big thank you to my hubby for making this a priority and getting these installed on our furniture! Our dressers and tables are not even close to budging anymore.

- quick recipe of the week -

Hello, hello all of you lovely readers! Welcome to the beginning of the week and Happy Monday!

We had a wonderful family weekend, complete with the pumpkin patch, the apple orchard, amazing BBQ, and fresh apple pie! It was great! 

Today I am happy to be featuring Marissa, from Momma Rake. Marissa has two beautiful little girls and a wonderful husband. She is also uber talented and sells the cutest things on Etsy. Her blog is filled with posts inspired by her love of faith, family, food, and fashion with fun little tutorials and recipes along the way. Her DIY tutorials look so easy, even for a "non crafty" person like me! You will always find something on her blog that will inspire you and make you smile.

(Image credit Marissa)

(Image credit Marissa)

Easy Beef Stroganoff
1 lb. ground beef

1 large bag egg noodles

1 tsp. minced onion (or 1/4 cup fresh chopped onion)

1 tsp. garlic powder

1 tsp. seasoned salt (such as Lawry's)

1 8 oz. package button mushrooms, sliced

1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce

1 tsp. soy sauce

1 can cream of mushroom soup

Prepare pasta according to package directions.

Meanwhile, cook ground beef, mushrooms, minced onion, garlic powder, seasoned salt over medium high heat until meat is cooked. Drain off the fat and return to burner. Add soup, Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, and cook over medium heat until bubbly. Serve over pasta.

(Image credit Marissa)

Printable Recipe

Thank you Marissa! It looks so good!

- my name -

My name: Kyna

For anyone who has been wondering..it's pronounced {Kee - na}. It's Irish Gaelic. And no, I am not Irish...not a drop of Irish in me...but my parents liked the name, and so it was decided...Kyna it is!

I struggled with it as a kid. I was an extremely shy child. So having a unique name didn't exactly help bring me out of my shell. No one could ever spell it right, or pronounce it right. However, for the record, now that I am older, I really like love my name, and I am so glad it's so unique and different...although, I'm not gonna lie...when we named Ellie, I wanted to make sure we chose a name that was easy to pronounce and spell. Because going through elementary school with an un-prounaceable name is just hard!