Tuesday, January 10, 2012

- t minus two days folks -

So the chaos has begun! The chaos of the hubs and I trying to get all of our work wrapped up as well as getting packed and ready to go. That's right ladies and gents, we leave in two days! Only two more days until we get to relax in the sun, and do nothing but lay by the beautiful crystal clear ocean all day long. I.can.not.wait!

I know my hubby was really leaning towards making this a vacation for just the two of us, and while that would have been heavenly, I really am so excited that we are bringing Ellie. It will be her first international trip! I'm bracing myself for a "challenging" plane ride, but who knows, she might just surprise us! But traveling is so so important to me and I can't wait to share it with Ellie. And I can't wait to see that first stamp in her passport! Hopefully there will be many more stamps to come soon.

The mere beginnings of the packing chaos I always seem to create for myself...


I hope everyone has a wonderful rest of the week. My guess is this will be my last post until we get back, because, well...I'm just plain busy! But I do have some fabulous guest posters lined up to keep you company while I am gone, so don't be a stranger! Meet some of my wonderful blogging buddies while I am gone!

Bye everyone! We'll miss you while we are gone!
(Edited by the fabulous Nina S.)

Linking up with...



and then, she {snapped}


Monday, January 9, 2012

- quick recipe of the week -

Happy Monday everyone! Today is my mom's birthday and I want to wish her a very, very Happy Birthday! I have the most amazing mom in the world and we love her very much!

I hope everyone had a stupendous weekend! Today, I'd like to introduce you to Kaley from Rogue Poags. Kaley has an absolutely adorable family made perfect with her hubby and her two cute little boys, Kullen and Rhys. I will let her introduce herself so without further ado, meet Kaley...



Hamburger Casserole
1 lb ground beef or turkey
1/2 yellow onion, chopped
1 small can of pork & beans
3/4 cup BBQ sauce
1 can biscuits
2 tsp brown sugar
1 cup cheddar cheese

Combine ground beef/turkey with the chopped onions. Mix in the pork & beans, BBQ sauce, and brown sugar. Top with biscuits. Bake at 400 degrees for 25 minutes. Top with cheddar cheese and bake an additional 2-3 minutes or until the cheese is melted.


(Image credit Kaley)

(Image credit Kaley)

Thank you so much for sharing Kaley! This looks quick,easy, and good...my favorite kind of recipe during the busy week!

Friday, January 6, 2012

- coming soon -

Super excited about some minor construction happening to my blog soon...plus, something new coming too! Something that will probably definitely be a challenge in my already busy life, but will be fun and will help me get a lot more photography practice in! (it involves a little photo of a day project...holy cow! Something I'll have to work on daily...eek!)


Have a sublime weekend everyone!

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

- top eleven in 2011 -

My Top Eleven in 2011...
(there were so many more than just these eleven things that were pretty amazing this year, but these are some of my favorite)

1. Our little miss gained so much more confidence and independence this year.


2. Our first attempt at piggie tails...success! This is hands down one of my favorite pictures I took of Ellie all year!


3. I took a leap and decided to finally start a blog. I have met so many awesome people and have made some great friends since I joined the blogging community!


4. I celebrated 8 wonderful years with my amazing hubby.


5. We had a lot of family fun on the water, and took an awesome summer family trip to the lake with our wonderful friends. 


6. Matt started a new job with a great company...this was truly one of the best things that could have happened for us! So many positive changes have happened since then!

7. We took our first camping trip with Ellie.


8. We had such a fun Halloween this year with Ellie.


9. My baby girl turned 2!

(Image credit Nina S.)
10. Ellie's first trip to Disneyland!


11. We had a quiet, but perfect Christmas with just the 3 of us...and I got an awesome gift...a new car! I absolutely love it!


I hope everyone had a safe and happy New Year's. Welcome 2012! It's gonna be a great year!



Linking up with...



and then, she {snapped}

Monday, January 2, 2012

- quick recipe of the week -

Happy New Year's everyone! I think 2012 will be a great year! I can't wait to see what it has in store for our family!

Today, I am pleased to introduce you to Natalie, from Growing up a NJ Wife. I've been following her blog for quite awhile now, and I love it! Natalie is a wife, and a mom to a beautiful little girl.

(Image credit Natalie)
She is a lover of shoes, wine, bacon, and shiny objects (a girl after my own heart). In her free time, she loves taking pictures, and is quite the talented photographer! You should definitely visit her blog to check out some of the cute pictures she takes of her baby girl! You can also read her awesome posts about everyday life, and very little is off limits! (ha ha, you've been warned, but that's why I love her blog so much!)

Smokey Gouda Burgers

1 lb ground turkey (or beef) meat
2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp grilling seasoning
1 tsp garlic powder
1 small palm full of cumin
1/2 palm full of papirika
A few shakes of chili pepper
1 cup Smoked Gouda cheese cubed

Mix all the ingredients together and make 4 patties. Make them thicker on the edges as they will puff up when they are cooked. Grill them to deliciousness and enjoy!

(Image credit Natalie)


Thank you so much Natalie. These burgers look scrumptious!And I bet they would taste great with a good wine!

Don't forget to stop by Natalie's blog and say hi! She'll be glad you did!

Friday, December 30, 2011

- belated Christmas update -

So, I've been off of work this whole week (hooray!), but I am totally that type of person that gets nothing done when I have time off! You would think with a week off, my house would be sparkling clean, I would have loads of blog posts scheduled to post, and all the other odds and ends that I have been meaning to get to would be done...WRONG! It's been a week filled with a lot of sitting around, playing in our backyard, and pretty much getting absolutely nothing productive accomplished! Not even the work that I brought home that I really do need to get started on...ugh! Budgets and financials and year end numbers...it makes my head hurt just thinking about it.

So, in spite of my lazy relaxing week, I finally made myself sit down to write a post. I know this is almost a week late, but here is our little Christmas update...

The Friday before Christmas we went over to a friend's house for dinner. Right before we left, Ellie just wasn't looking right. After I asked her if she was okay and I got a quiet, murmured "no", I sort of knew what was coming and attempted to run into the kitchen. But I didn't quite make it. Yup, she threw up all over me, herself, and our friend's floor....A LOT! I, of course, freaked out, but we finally got her cleaned up, and packed her into the car. I don't know how we made it home without another episode, but somehow we did (maybe God figured that me having to clean my leather bag that Ellie covered in throw up was enough...so he spared my car and leather seats!). Once we got home, it was non stop. For the first couple of hours, we kept changing her and putting her back in her crib, but after doing that twice, Matt and I realized that changing her sheets all night was not going to be an option. So I hunkered down in the bathroom with her, and held her all night while she would doze off in my arms, only to wake up 20-30 minutes later and start crying, and moments later would throw up again. It broke my heart so much to watch her getting so sick. There is nothing worse than having to watch your child suffer.  Needless to say, it was a long night, and this momma didn't sleep at all. I sat on the bathroom floor with her for almost 8 hours, while she got through it. Her Dr. assured us there was no reason to take her to urgent care since she wasn't showing any signs of dehydration, so we just stuck it out all night long.

After almost 13 hours of throwing up, she finally fell asleep for three straight hours, and when she woke up, her stomach seemed to be feeling better. She, however, was wrecked from the long night, and it took her almost 4 days to get back to her normal happy self. We completely canceled all of our Christmas plans, which was not fun to do. We ALWAYS spend Christmas with Matt's family, and my mom and my sister, but this year we didn't. We knew there was a possibility that Ellie could still be contagious, and I was just holding my breath expecting to get the same bug (considering she threw up on me all night long). There are other young kids on Matt's side of the family, and my sister is pregnant, so we didn't want to risk getting anyone else sick.

So, it was a very, very, very quiet Christmas. Ellie wasn't up for many pictures and I didn't want to force her, so here are just a few that I caught on Christmas morning...(the lighting in my house is horrible, and these pictures are definitely not in focus but I captured my girl opening a few gifts and that's all that matters!)



Overall, while it wasn't exactly what we had planned, it was still a great Christmas with the three of us...

Oh yeah, and this also helped make it a great Christmas...



Yup, my hubby is pretty amazing!!
A-MAZING...and so so good to me! Back off ladies...he's all mine! (I love you babe, so much!)

Ellie is finally back to her normal self and is feeling much better, and I am so relieved!

And of course, once she was feeling better, we had to snap a picture of the gigantic bow on her (since she is really the most amazing gift in our lives!)


 I hope everyone else had a wonderful (and healthy) holiday weekend!

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

- i'm being featured -

To make up for my the fact that I lacked a recipe on my blog yesterday, come visit me over here at lovely Vivian's blog, where I am featuring a really good crock pot recipe...one of my favorites...

YUMMY!

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