It's been a while

Hello sweet friends! I have recipes and cutesy Valentine things I intended to post. But, I logged on and decided I would go a little more into the life side of things. So here what's going on. :)

1. My sweet princess turns 19mos on Tuesday. She is still nursing. We are trying to wean but it's so complicated. She is allergic to dairy milk, soy milk, and almond milk. She didn't have a break out with coconut milk but apparently she doesn't like it much. She likes the almond and soy but it just doesn't like her back. :( It's kinda of hard to wean her from nursing when I don't have an alternative to offer her. So far we only had one day that she did not nurse at all. On average we have it down to once a day. The weekends however are another story. Whenever we are lounging around she's like hey I forgot I could be drinking milk right now. So lesson I learned from this I'm not 100% sure I would ever breastfeed another child. Everyone encourages you to do it for the first 12mos but no one tells you the hell it is weaning if you actually make it that far.

2. I'm having a little trouble balancing all the "jobs" in my life. Ya know wife, mom, teacher, individual, cook, maid. I just can't find a balance and as a result I have pretty much gone bald and have a nice belly to show for it. I decided to try out the Daniel Fast to pray about it more and listen for guidance from the big guy.

3. Mr. Spouse's goal for the new year for himself was to get back into church. So being the supportive wife I am.... I decided to go with him just cause. Well, I'm actually enjoying it and look forward to it. It helps that Pastor Eben is awesome at making self to text connections about the bible. :)

4. All natural... I've also decided to let the relaxer grow out of my hair and go chemical free. We knew from the beginning once we found out we were having a girl that we would not relax her hair ever. Well..I've decided if I'm being the person I want my child to be how would I explain my relaxed hair to her once she's older. I am transitioning to natural hair by wearing a sew in. I would of just chopped off what's left of my own hair but Mr. Spouse begged to go the slower route.

5. More natural... after the fast I also plan to begin to transitioning our family into clean eating. Ya know little to no preservatives, grass fed meat, organic, all that jazz. I just have to get Mr. Spouse on board. This route seems to always be pricey. This was also something we talked about doing as a family when I was preggo.

Well that's all folks. Sorry no recipes, no cute toddler craft projects. Hopefully, I can get some of that up soon after my fast and I see the light on how to balance it all. I hope you enjoyed my totally random post.

P.S.
If you are reading this and you knew me well pre-baby you are probably like WHO THE HECK WRITES THIS BLOG. Well folks it's me....the new me anyway :)

Happy 30th Birthday Mr. Hubs

This post is a little late but better late than never right. Mr.Hubs turned 30 at the beginning of the month. I wanted to do something special. I know when it was little princess' birthday I talked about traditions. We decided to do a birthday lunch. But, school has started for me and I had to work that day. So, I started thinking what could I do that no matter the month or day of the week and it could still be tradition. And...what could I do that Mr. Spouse could duplicate it totally on his own when my birthday rolled around. I originally thought of a donut tower. But that idea was quickly tossed out b/c I already knew getting up early for fresh donuts and be on time to work wasn't gonna happen! So then cinnamon rolls popped in my head. I know making them from scratch would be best but it wasn't realistic for my little family. Mr. Spouse could not do that when my bday rolled around. So it was decided cinnamon roll tower using Grands Cinnabon Cinnamon rolls.

Birthday Cinnamon rolls
1 can of Grands Cinnabon Cinnamon rolls
Sprinkles
candles

Bake your rolls according to the package. I took mine out about 2 minutes before the max bake time. They will continue to cook on the hot cookie sheet once you take them out. This will ensure that your rolls are light and fluffy not hard as a rock.

Once they have cooled off just a wee bit spread them with the yummy icing that is included. I then stacked them to resemble a tower. I did four on the bottom and one on top. Next, dash on sprinkles of your choice. Lastly, add the candles on the very top.

Light the candles and call for the lucky birthday person!

Sing happy birthday and enjoy! I literally made this in between getting ready in the morning. It was quick and easy. I woke up about 20 minutes earlier than usual.

 

I also planned a surprise party for him that weekend. He had no idea. He walked in the door, heard surprise, and walked right back out the house. haha :) I just wanted to share his cake. It came out pretty cute. I will say it looked a lot better than it tasted. I know how to make cakes yummy but I can't exactly make them pretty so I had to hire a baker.

It was the game of life with all his accomplishments so far. :)

On another note, when I logged in to create this post I saw that I had over 2200 views. Just 18 little post (this makes 19) and that many views. I don't even know if that's alot. I'm not up to date on the average views per post for a new blogger. Anywhoo....I figured people must be a little intrigued. I've had a couple comments asking about the followers tab. I was a little chicken at first about doing that. But the reality is the number of followers doesn't matter, if people are lurking and enjoying it that's fine too. :) But, if you're lurking and you want to follow go right ahead! I'm doing my first Social Studies QR code lesson this week. If it goes well I'll upload the file and share :)

Sharing this idea here:
sixsistersstuff
iheartnaptime
chefintraining
skiptomylou
Cheerios and Lattes



Currently....

**UPDATE** I've added a follower button if you would like to come out and follow in the open :)

**I'm editing this post a little to link up with Farley at Oh Boy 4th Grade.

Sorry y'all, long time no post. I can't really say I have an excuse. I've been oober tired and for good reason but just TMI for blog land. Anywho, I thought I'd post a random post of the things currently flowing through my mind. This is super long and makes up for the recent neglect. :)

Currently, I'm loving the little kid Ragu commercials. Mr. Spouse pointed them out to me and honestly at first I was a little shocked. But, I got over it and now it makes me chuckle big time. This is my favorite one.

Currently, I'm loving me some Maroon 5. Mr. Spouse did not know who they were and I about fell over. I had to make him listen to their Pandora station. I'm so loving the beat of this song. So catchy. Sorry about the ad but trust me the song is awesome and Adam is pretty good eye candy too. It's worth the wait. :)

 

Currently, loving my friends so much! About 2 years ago when I got engaged I thought my world was over. My "friends" were just being not supportive at all. It was like the wedding was a chore. I didn't even have a single bridal party person at my bachelorette. This was oober hard for me. If you know me well, you know I give 1000% trying to please others and keep everyone happy. I never ask for anything in return. But then... my "co-workers" came along and reassured me and showed me what real friendship was all about. This summer I actually thought to myself I can't believe I'm almost 30 and just experiencing the bliss of true friendship.People that give just as much as me and w/o thinking about it. I love these gals. :) The only thing that blows is that we all took new jobs so we don't get to see each other every day.

 

Currently, I'm loving my new school. It is so laid back. Totally, the polar opposite of my old school. I mean the principal has really high expectations. But, he has such a genuine passion for children that it softens the blow. Y'all he called working with kids his ministry. I'm in love...

 

Currently, I'm into watching Iyanla: Fix My Life. It comes on OWN. I told Mr. Spouse I should probably sign my family up for that show. We would triple her ratings. I know everyone says that about their family. But really once again if you know me well you know I always win this category hands down. I decided I didn't care enough at the moment to fix it so I won't contact her just yet. :)

 

Currently, hating mosquitoes with a passion. I know hate is a strong word but seriously they are pissing me off! They keep getting into my house. I think me and baby girl have at least 10 bites b/t the two of us. I'm praying they are good bites. There have been lots of cases of West Nile in our metroplex. I told Mr. Spouse if I see the mosquito camping out here I'm going to kill the shit  crap out of it. He pointed out there was only one way to kill them. HA!

 

Currently, I'm noticing my husband is a hoarder. He brings home all kinds of things his well off clients don't want anymore. I have 2 jet skis in my garage, a golf cart behind my back house in the back yard, about 2 grill things, and a box of Christmas lights in the foyer. Oh and the furniture in our master bedroom is way to big for our house but came from someones storage and was brand new. Oh and how could I forget my super eye sore TV. I have a 70 inch TV sitting in my living room. I hate that too. It takes up SO much space. Someone wanted a new one so my hubs happily snatched up their one. I told him one day I'm going to call the mission and it will all be gone when he gets home.

 

Now, with that said I will say every once in a while he brings home something I like. I noticed this little baby in the corner one day last week.

It's super awesome! It's so maneuvers greatly! Also, it's cordless. You just keep it on the charger until you're ready for it. It also has a little detachable handheld mini vacuum too. It is so light! I grabbed it to clean up little princess' dinner mess. But, I got all carried away and couldn't stop vacuuming.

 

Currently, I'm laughing every time I see this floating around pinterest. It is totally my life. Now all my friends have kids or are trying to have kids. I tried shoppings at Charolette Russe and had to go up to sizes than my normal size b/c I have birthing hips now. And..I don't know about the hangover part. I don't drink enough to know if it's true. I think at this point if I did drink that much I would be in big trouble w/Mr. Hubs. He did his time with those days. :)

 

 

Well, that's all folks. I promise I'll post again soon. This weekend to be exact. :)

 

 

 

 



Fall Bucket List 2012

**UPDATE** I've added a follower button if you would like to come out and follow in the open :)

I remember going to see The Bucket List at the movies. My only uncle had just passed away from cancer. I BALLED like a baby in the theatre at the end of the movie. My sweet friend that I went with had no idea what to do. It took a couple of minutes but I was alright.

Anywho, I've seen the Summer Bucket list and Back to School Bucket list that were floating around blog land. I decided to take a stab at it and make a Fall Bucket list.

Oh oh, before I do that how could I forget. I'm super excited that less than 2mos into blogging my page hit over 1,000 views. I don't know what normal stats are but that makes me very excited. .HOLLA.... I said that this morning and little princess repeated after me. It was hilarious. :) Just wanted to say thanks and keep on reading.

Ok, back to my bucket list. This is a family friendly type bucket list. I've posted before about the lack of family traditions for my hubs or myself. So I am big on starting them. I know little princess is to little to know the difference but ya gotta make it a habit right??? Here is a picture of our list and I'll explain a few things on it.

If you live in Texas like I do you know that Fall is the best time to go to the zoo and the aquarium is just an added play date for little princess. I want to try and get those in once a month.

Take a hayride goes along with a tradition I want to start. The Sunday after Thanksgiving I want to go to a tree farm and pick out a Christmas tree. I stole that tradition from a friend. Hopefully, I can find a farm that does hayrides too. :)

We have a fire station right around the corner from the house. I saw this really cute picture of little acorn donuts. I'm totally making those. I don't remember where I saw it first. But here is where I stole it. See aren't they cute. :)

And another recipe that I found that looked worthy of trying was this pumpkin one. I'm going to try it with a Spice cake mix though instead of Butter Pecan. The bonus is they are only 97 calories. And for that reason alone I am for sure dusting with powder sugar!

If you would like a copy of my bucket list you can download it here.

 

I am linking this post to Six Sisters, Skip to My Lou, I heart naptime, craft, just something I whipped up and Full Hands Full Hearts

I should be mopping the floor, it's fall y'all

Strawberry Party First Birthday

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When I thought about party themes it came down between strawberries and rubber duckies. Her rubber ducky was her first favorite toy and strawberries were her first favorite food. I'm not a big fan of "themes". You know like where you go into any store and pick up plates w/characters on them. Then everyone and their mom can have the same thing. I prefer to just go with colors. I did the same thing with her nursery.

So I decided to do a strawberry party and just use pink, red, and green. The only thing that had an actual print of a strawberry were the cupcake wrappers. I just thought they were cute :) My friend Katie took pictures. I told her it should be her side job! I'll walk you through the details of the party.

The first thing guest saw was the wreath on the door. This was the only thing that didn't match the color scheme. I wanted a wreath we could use year after year. Unfortunately, it fell apart by the end of the night. I think the weight of the card didn't have enough support. When you opened the card it sang Celebration and had a little note saying come on in!

Once you walked in there were balloon streamers. These were a lot of fun for the little ones to reach up and pull down as the party went on. We already had a picture of it so whatever made them happy!

I made two banners to hang from the arch thingys. The thought popped in my head when I thought about those happy birthday banners you buy at the store. I took all of our favorite pictures from her first year. I taped the pictures so they were two sided. I punched two holes at the top of each picture. Then I used fishing line to make the banner and hung them from a 3mm hook. It came out super cute if I may say so myself.

I made two separate favor bags. One for toddlers and one for school age kiddos. I cleared off the mantle and placed them on top. I made some mini poms to hang there also.

I wanted the menu to be very toddler friendly and full of Layla's favorites. We served mini corn dogs with strawberries and bananas. We had juice bottles and mini water bottles also. I made Neapolitan cupcakes and a strawberry coconut cake. Ohhh so good!!! Now I want to bake more just writing about it.

I also served Sprite and pizza for the adults. I put food coloring in the Sprite cups ahead of time. I wanted the drinks to match the theme. They came out really cute!

I used ribbon and hot glue to make a highchair banner. Cute little detail that was super easy.

We had a ball pit and balloons all over the floor the kiddos to play.

I also cut out strawberries for the kids to decorate. They could use stickers, bingo dotters, or an ink pad to do their finger prints.

I made a DIY photo booth with Dollar Tree stuff. We had everyone pose for a picture before heading out. There's Layla with Grandma.

Well that's all folks! I hope this makes you feel like you were there :) I'll leave you with pictures of our party girl! You can find my inspiration on my pinterest board.

Happy birthday my sweet Graycie baby

This past Thursday my sweet girl had her first birthday. My husband and I didn't have any birthday traditions from our childhood. It was really important to me that we start some with baby girl. So we decided each year she would have a birthday dinner or lunch.

Well, this year we altered it a little. The plan was to go the the aquarium and have lunch. But, reality set in as the day drew closer. My little one still likes her two naps a day. I knew that she would not be up for driving an hour to get there, taking an hour to browse around, going to lunch, and the hour drive back. Luckily on Wednesday a friend of mine told me about an aquarium that was about half the distance away. It was really nice. It's called Sea Life. If there is one in your area, I highly recommend you take a visit.

So we made a new plan. As soon as she woke up from her first nap we let her eat chicken popper things from Sonic. That was her special birthday lunch. After we finished we would hit the road. That gave us just enough time at the aquarium that she could have nap number 2 on the way home.

She LOVED the aquarium! I gave myself a big pat on the back for thinking of that one. So many people thought it was a waste because she wouldn't remember. But, I'll remember and she enjoyed it in the moment. As soon as we walked in she squealed and starting pointing to the fish.

The pictures aren't the best but they still hold the memory. I used my phone and we had to keep the flash off so we didn't disturb the sea life. She had so much fun! Daddy did a good job of bending down and crawling into all the nook and crannies for the kids.

Once we got close to home we went for her first piece of cake. We stopped at a little cupcakery I've wanted to try. I'm a cupcake fene. There isn't a place close to me that I haven't been too. But, that's a whole nother post of it's own.

Layla and I tried the Chocolate Covered Strawberry and Daddy had the Strawberry Lemonade cupcake. It had to weigh at least a pound in frosting. So our first attempt to have her eat cake was not a success.

Finally, Daddy just took off the icing and broke the cupcake in half. Then she enjoyed her cake. She didn't seem as excited to eat it as she does her beloved peas and strawberries. But, that was fine with Mama!

My sweet friend over at The Lowe Down made this for my sweet girl. I absolutely love it.

Well that's all for now. Later this week we'll have pictures of her strawberry party. We had all of our little baby friends plus her cousins over. My friend Katie took pictures for me. I am super notorious for being in the moment and forgetting about pictures. I am so glad I had her do that!

Chicken, crayons, and what?!?!?!

I thought I should take a little time to discuss how I came up with the title of this blog. I'll go over it in sections.

Chicken
This is a nod to marriage. I've been with my husband for 10 years and married for 1. I love to cook for him and try out new recipes. My cooking adventures all began with an episode of Cupcake Wars. After watching the show he wanted me to bake cupcakes for him, just the regular old ones. But, hello...after watching that I couldn't just whip out plain old vanilla. So I made pink lemonade and I've never gone back to "vanilla" cooking every since. I hope to share some of my yummy recipes with you guys soon.

Crayons
I am a teacher and I love it! I've taught 2nd grade for the last five years. I'd gotten to the point of burn out and knew it was time for a change. Not in careers but just to teach something different, in a different place, ya know. So, starting in January of this year I started doing a whole lot of praying. I had to stand on faith. I knew that the kids at my old school needed a teacher like me but I knew I was ready for a little something different. I knew that if I was suppose to be at my current "at risk" school God would leave me there.But, I still had faith I would move and get something new. So much so that I just tore down my whole classroom knowing in my heart one way or the other I wouldn't be in 2nd grade anymore. Boy was I right. At first my old principal moved me to Kinder for the upcoming year. Then, like the first week we were out for the summer I got a call to interview at my dream school! It was for a 4th grade Social Studies teacher. I got the job!! I am excited but super nervous about my new job.

Diapers
I have the most LOVING and happy baby girl. She is so dang sweet y'all! My sweet girl turns one next week. I still remember her laying across my lap like it was yesterday. Now, she is her own woman. :) She's learned to walk and she is all over the place. I absolutely love every minute of it. Last week she just stopped playing, looked up at me, waved hi, and blew me a kiss with the muah.. sound effect and all. Ahhh... that girl melts my heart. We have a "big" party planned for her. I swore I wouldn't be that person that spends $100's of dollars on a birthday she wouldn't remember. Guilty!!! Although, it does make me feel better that most of the money has went to her outfits. Yes, that's plural! Once again guilty.... But, really I think it's normal for every baby girl to have a birthday outfit and a party day outfit right....

Well, I hope that gives you a little more insight about me and my quirky title. Yes, chicken, crayons, and diapers are all in a day's work (for me anyway) :)