the perfect studio

I just love taking pictures at the beach! Its the perfect backdrop, the perfect studio. The light, the colors, the mood...love it all!!

Here are a few shots I captured this past weekend!

Ryder fighting the inevitable baby beach nap with Grandpapa

believe it or not, she wasn't posing for this! sweet girl with her crazy hair! love it, love her.

Haven being such a good little Aunt.

My smokin' hubby discovering he still has some sweet skim board skills even after years of no practice!



Sweet Daddy-daughter pic. I love how even though she's scared of the water, she trusts her daddy.



Ryder being his wiggly self! Trying to steal his Grandmomma's earrings.

Like father like son, right?! haha

This was an hour after the first one was taken..still playing with her niece! so sweet. Piling the sand in the bucket for Clairsy, only to have her dump it all out...over and over and over and over...thanks Haven :)

Love this :) Ryder giving kisses!

My crazy brave man taking on the tropical storm waves of Beryl. It was sooo rough out there!

Shark tooth I found within the first few minutes of being there!

These two can play for hours!! Thanks to ElizaJane for being a sweet Aunt and playmate to ClaireBell.

Jumping over the waves with Grandmomma and Grandpapa. So fun!

We had a fun, relaxing day and enjoyed the last day of sunshine before the storm hit! Thankfully it is back today and we are already itching to feel that salt on our skin and sand in our toes. Still so thankful to be living here. 

Weekly Highlights

Fun Fact:

Don't you hate when you get in the refrigerator to get some lettuce or spinach and its slimy?! Ugh. So much for your healthy lunch, right. So its either a trip to the grocery store, or leftover pizza! Well, no more slimy greens!

Next time you open a bag of spinach, chop a head of lettuce, or any other greens, put the leftovers in a sealed container or zip-loc with a paper towel inside. The reason for the slimyness is because of too much moisture. The paper towel serves to soak up that moisture. Just change the paper towel every few days and your greens will last 3 times as long! 

(didn't get a pic of lettuce, so here's some cute faces instead!)

Project of the week:

I mod podge'd the fabric (coordinating leftovers I had from the kids bed-sets), to foam board and framed it. Then painted polka-dots on these letters and hot-glued them to the fabric. The frames I got dirt cheap at Michael's around Easter. And prints of the kids from Shutterfly...love, love that company, by the way. This collage is hanging in their room.

Recipe of the week:



I think this dish could be 100 times better, which is why its my recipe of the week. Not that it turned out so great, even though it looked really pretty, but that it has potential to be a family favorite! Full of veggies, chicken, and cheese, these lasagna wraps put a new spin on pasta for us. My hubby looovvvves pasta, so I'm always looking for new recipes and fun ways to make it...evey though he'd probably be happy with spaghetti and meatballs every night :)

And photo of the week goes to:

my three favorite people in the world :) Even though they look like they're being tortured by the "beast," they're actually having a blast!

We also enjoyed a great weekend with family yesterday and today! Beach pics to come...



Veggie Bake...delish.

Here's the recipe I promised! Its a great way to incorporate a lot of vegetables into one dish. It's so colorful and the flavor combo is awesome!

Enjoy.

Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp olive oil (divided)
• 1 large sweet yellow onion cut in half and sliced
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1-2 russet potatoes, unpeeled
• 1 zucchini
• 1 yellow squash
• 3 large Roma tomatoes
• Sea salt, freshly cracked black pepper, to taste
• Dried thyme, to taste
• 1/2 cup of grated Parmesan cheese

Step 1.
Go ahead and prepare your veggies. I sliced them all about 1/4 inch thick.

Step 2.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Coat a baking dish with cooking spray. Heat 1 tbsp of olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Once hot, add the onions and saute until translucent...takes about 8 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for another 60 seconds. Spread the onion mixture on the bottom of the greased baking dish.

Step 3.

Layer your veggies alternately on top of the onions. You can fit a lot in there if you squeeze them in tight. (that also keeps the moisture in better.)

Season with salt, pepper, and thyme to taste. Drizzle the last tbsp. of olive oil over the veggies.

Step 4.
Cover with foil and bake for 35 min. or until the potatoes are tender. Uncover and sprinkle the parmesean cheese over top. Continue to bake another 25-30 min. or until browned. Enjoy!

Since we Aren't vegetarians in this house, I serve this with grilled chicken breats and salad. But it would make a fantastic vegetarian dish!

Let me know what you think!

Happy Thursday, friends! Almost the weekend! 

Twine covered bottle Tutorial

If you're looking for a fun way to add a little texture to your room, these bottles will do the job!

Its easy, cheap, and quick! Who doesn't want that, right?

So here's what you'll need:

Glass bottles ( I used wine bottles, but any would work)
-make sure you remove any metal wrappings, the hot glue doesn't stick well to that.

Hot glue gun

Hemp/Twine of your choice. I purchased the thickest they had.

This project is pretty self-explanatory and doesn't really deserve the title "tutorial." So I'll just post the pics and give a few tips. I think you can figure it out from there ;)

 You will have to glue the hemp every few inches for the first few times around. Once you get a good inch or two up, its just wrapping until you get to the neck.

Once you get here, go back to gluing every few inches or the hemp will slide around too much.

Then finish the top like this.

And you're done!!

If I had some fresh flower cuts from the yard, they would find their new home in these bottles. But, alas, I do not. So Some beaded flowers have gone into one. I'm thinking a big red artificial flower will grace the other, once I can find one I like.

Have fun! Be creative!

Thanks for stopping by today :)

Weekly Highlights

Fun fact:

Did you know if you put your green onion roots in water, they will endlessly grow??

Never buy green onions again.

Just wash those roots and change the water every couple days.

Mine have since grown about 5 times this size! I just clipped, chopped and refrigerated them...more onions than I know what to do with!

This was my project of the week...

This shelf was just a natural wood color. My Dad made it for me when I was little. It has held everything from baby dolls to DVD's. And now it shelves my little creations.

I painted the shelf with a little Folk Art Acryllic paint in this ever growing popular blue.

Created the hemp covered bottles.

Painted the fancy A with some more acryllic.

And lastly, printed pics of my babies and mod podge'd them to canvas. I hot-glued ribbon to the back and hung them with good ol' fashion tacks.

I think this shelf is the start of something beautiful in my family room.


My favorite recipe this week was this:

We enjoyed this pan of deliciousness with some grilled chicken breasts and salad.

Will post this recipe along with the hemp bottles tute.

Photo(s) of the week goes to this little cutie for making me laugh, driving me crazy and keeping me sane all in the same sweet face.

One word to describe this week would be: Motivated.

Motivated to keep a cleaner house.

Motivated to decorate that cleaner house.

Motivated to keep exercising every night with my hubs.

Motivated to put the kids to bed earlier.

Motivated to pray. unceasingly.

I think its time to be motivated to make dinner...... ;)



Rain, Rain, please don't go away!

You can't play outside because its raining?

We think otherwise.

She sat staring out the window Sunday afternoon, wishing to play outside, watching the water pour off the roof.

You should have seen her face when I asked if she wanted to get her suit on and play in the rain!

She ran. She jumped. She splashed. I think I won the cool mom award with her that day when I joined her :)

Don't you just love to see your girl smile? me too.

Happy Thursday, friends.

My Mama, my best girlfriend

For my sweet Mama:

You loved me the second you found out I existed

You carried me for 9 months...I now know how hard that is

You went through 26 hours of hard labor to birth me...fortunately, I don't know how hard that is!

You held me, You kissed me, You sang to me

You stayed up countless nights just to keep me healthy and happy

You made the sacrifice to stay home and school me

We played, we joked, we laughed

I don't think you even know what a difference you have made in my life

Do you know how much I remember you praying with me every night?

You singing to me every night?

Now I do that with my babies, knowing how much they will remember

As I grew, I strayed

You were/are always there to bring me back, so kindly and wisely

You taught me how to do laundry, how to cook, clean, and most importantly, you taught me how to serve God by being an excellent wife and mother

I find myself thinking, "what would mom do?" so often

Your advice and your encouragement mean so much to me

I've always been able to talk to you, about anything, at any time....you have no idea what that means to me! Thank you for always being there.

Thank you for teaching me how to be a mom. You came beside me during the hardest time in my life and sweetly pointed me to the right path. I couldn't have done it without you.

And if being an awesome mom wasn't enough, you are getting to impact a whole new generation by being the best Grammy in the world! My kids truly love you so much! I love the way you spoil them, hold them, kiss them. You are a great mother and grandmother; we are all so lucky to have you!

This mothers day is hard. We long to be with you as you fight to keep being positive. You are so strong. Grandma is so blessed to have you there with her right now. And even though you are strong, I know you are fighting back tears, with a lump in your throat, struggling to take another breath sometimes. It seems unreal. None of us can imagine her being gone anytime soon. Thank you for being such a sweet, sacrifical daughter. I wish we could be there with you physically during this struggle. Please know I am praying.

I miss you! I miss our daily talks. You are my best girlfriend! and I love that.  

 Happy Mother's day, Mama. I love you so so so much.

Ryder

Little Ryder update:

Ryder will be 9 months old this month

He is a very busy boy!

He loves his sister, a lot

He started crawling very early, at 5 months

He is very easily pulling himself to his feet

Sometimes he forgets to hold on and we get a wobbily few second stand

He follows his daddy with his eyes, constantly

He has said his first word...."mama!" which made me cry a little

He still has no teeth, poor boy, but LOVES to eat

His favorite thing to do in the bath is splash...which happens to be Clairsy's LEAST favorite thing to! its humorous to watch

His favorite toy is whatever CB is playing with

His eyes never turned brown, making him the only blue-eyed baby in the family :) i'm jealous.

He likes to be sung to sleep, and he sings with me

He is the sweetest little boy! I love him so very much