Greeting cards are so expensive to buy these days. We usually buy a large box set from Costco containing a large variety of greeting cards to always have on hand. However, I like to give Brad something more personal. For his birthday, I decided to make cards for him from both Melody and me. See them both below.
I love BBQ Sauce, but we rarely use it for some reason. I guess in my mind, BBQed items are meant for the grill. Well while visiting my parents, they made BBQ Pork Chops (on the grill), and I decided to attempt them myself but in a skillet. I personally don't care to grill. I like food from the grill, but you won't find me using it. I liked this so much, I may try it on chicken sometime soon too!
Yesterday was Brad's 34th birthday! We started out the morning with the breakfast of his picking...French Toast and link sausage.
Weekends have always been busy for Brad and me, even before Melody. We were constantly traveling somewhere or doing something locally. Well much hasn't changed since having Melody in that regard. We are constantly doing something or going somewhere. We do not travel as long distance as we once did, but we still travel to see our families frequently and spend time with my best friend here. With that said, it is exceptionally rare to get a lazy weekend day. On a typical Friday-Sunday, one day/evening is spent with Emily, Justin, and Lydia; one day is spent with my parents for at least a portion of said day; then the other day is usually a prep day of some sort [groceries, lunches, meals, etc.]. Well my parents recently went on a cruise, so we had an extra day at home alone. We decided to just have a fun lazy Sunday just the three of us.
A new indoor playground opened in Huntsville recently called Let's Play. My best friend, Emily, and I decided to try it out on a whim a few weeks ago. It isn't exactly right down the street from us. It is actually about 15-20 minutes drive from where we live. That doesn't seem too far, but it does usually require a little more planning when you have cranky one year olds! Anyhow, we happened to be near it one day visiting a consignment shop, and we decided to just try it and see if it was really fun for our aged kids.
So I was trying to find a way to get Melody to eat vegetables. That is truly a struggle of mine. She loves french fries, tater tots, and any other form of potato. I decided to try and make a fake tater tot. I saw on the Today Show where people use cauliflower a lot, so I decided to give it a go. I found an easy recipe online and attempted it. Of course, Melody didn't fall for it. She did eat one, but no more. Brad said it tasted like real tater tots to him. I however didn't care for it. Normally I wouldn't share recipes I didn't care for, but since Brad liked it, I decided to share it anyway.
So I recently read in a parenting magazine that by age 15 months, a child should start attempting to color with crayons. By two, they should be able to use crayons on their own. Well it never truly crossed my mind to let my almost 15 month old use crayons. Mainly because she still puts most things in her mouth that she picks up. Well the other day I went to Target and decided to get some jumbo crayons and a cute coloring book. I have regular crayons at home, but I know she will break those quickly, so I wanted some larger, more durable ones. I sat her down at her picnic table [yep we still have this table in our house!], and I let her color. It went much better than I expected, and the crayon only made it in her mouth twice! Success!
I have contemplated making posts about things such as this one. I am always afraid of the criticism that may come with it. For whatever reason, many parents feel the need to criticize one another. I don't think I ever truly realized that until I became a parent myself. [I mentioned mom shaming in a previous post about my first year as a mother.]
I found this recipe on Pinterest. I love the broccoli salad from Ruby Tuesday's, but we never eat there anymore. I haven't been to a decent Ruby Tuesday's in years. They are either super slow, super rude, or the food is awful (or a combination). We usually only go if we have a gift card or a really great coupon and want something different. Anyhow, I saw this recipe and had to try it. It isn't quite like what I envisioned, but it was still good. My only complaint was that it was a little too runny. I also didn't include the cranberries like the website recommends because Brad doesn't care for them. I only made 1/3 of the original recipe as well. We didn't need quite that much because I wasn't sure if I would like it enough to save.
I wanted the invitations for Melody's first birthday to be super cute. The theme was ice cream, so I had to incorporate that for sure. I designed an ice cream cone using my Silhouette Cameo and used it throughout the party. I thought using it on the invitation would be perfect.
This is the first summer where Melody is actually able to go outside and play. Last summer, she was too young for sunscreen, and I didn't really want to risk a sunburn on a three month old! So this summer we have tried to take advantage of my parent's pool. They live about 45 minutes away, but I was able to go stay with them for a week or so earlier this summer while Brad was on a work trip. We have also went and visited a few other times. Melody is definitely a water baby. She loves to just kick back and relax in her floats. When you just hold her in the water, she enjoys getting to splash you and herself. We have even enjoyed the pool with her best friend a few times. I am sure we will spend a few more times at their pool this summer, and we also plan to buy a small pool for a weekend of fun later this summer when it cools off a bit. See all of her fun below!
I have mentioned it before, but on occasion I like to bake during the week before Brad gets home. It is a nice treat for him. The other day he kept mentioning his love for cookies. I am not sure if that was a hint or not, but I decided to try to find a new recipe. I wanted something with lemon and white chocolate chips. I found a recipe that I happened to have most of the ingredients, so I made it!
We go to Costco about once every eight weeks or so. Surviving any trip to a store these days requires some sort of bribe for Melody to keep her quiet throughout our visit. Typically I bribe her with puffs or some other snack along with water. On occasion, I will bring her a toy of some sort to keep her entertained. However, Costco can be a much longer trip than our average grocery run. We spend at least two hours a visit most of the time. We walk up and down every aisle to see what's new and what we think we need [we always walk out with at least one thing we didn't plan to buy].
One of the items I was in charge of for my cousin's couples shower in Memphis was the guestbook. I contemplated many different options. My original thought was to try and do some sort of guestbook that tied directly to the theme of the shower...Memphis, BBQ, Elvis, etc. My best friend had a cute idea of getting everyone to sign an Elvis record. My biggest concerns were a) how would they display it; b) how expensive it would potentially be; c) how easy would this be to do. I decided in the end to go a safer route. I saw various shadow box ideas, but decided to just come up with a version of my own.
We were buying groceries a few weeks ago, and on our menu that week was some form of a frozen meal. I was just going to get something from the freezer section at Walmart. I was thinking Asian, so maybe one of those PF Chang's meals for two. Well as we were looking for some Asian dipping sauces, I came across a PF Chang's Home Menu Sesame Sauce. I decided to purchase that and make my own sesame chicken. I am very glad I did! See what I did below.
When we did our recent bathroom remodel, we ran into a small hazard. After installing the new toilet paper holder onto the side of the cabinet, I noticed that the screws came through the cabinet. So when you would open the cabinet to get a towel out, you could potentially cut your hand on the screw. This was not the case with our previous toilet paper holder. We needed to come up with a solution to this so that we didn't end up with scarred hands!
One other "craft" I was in charge of for my cousin's couples shower in Memphis was the invitations. My mother-in-law knows I love doing things like this, so it made sense. At the time, our theme was Hometown Memphis. Both the bride and groom are from Memphis but currently live in Ft. Lauderdale. Since the shower was being held in Memphis, it made sense to make the them Memphis based.
Sausage and cheese seems like an easy enough recipe that a recipe really isn't necessary, right? Well it probably isn't, but this is one I have only made twice, and I love it. I was introduced to this about 4 or 5 years ago at a restaurant called Champy's. It is back in Muscle Shoals, AL, and my family all went there for dinner one night. We ordered a smoked sausage, cheese, and pickle plate. It was so good, my mom would recreate it on occasion for holiday gatherings or just as a snack. Huey's in Memphis also has a similar appetizer. It is just called a cheese and sausage plate there, but it contains similar items as Champy's...sausage, cheese, pickles, pepperoncini pepper, crackers, and dipping sauce. Well one weekend when we smoked ribs, we wanted a light lunch. We decided to make this as a snack that day. See how we made it below!
For Father's Day, I wanted to do something special for Brad from Melody. I wanted to incorporate her footprint in some sort of way. I saw online where someone made superhero cape from a baby's foot.
Our house contains two bathrooms, a master bathroom and a guest bathroom. Our guest bathroom did not necessarily have a theme. We had a lot of red and gold throughout the bathroom. The walls were beige, and we do not use a shower curtain because we have a shower door instead. After having Melody, we decided we wanted to revamp the bathroom to make it kid-friendly. We started looking into decorations and paint colors late February, and we began work at the end of March. While this wasn't a full remodel, we did repaint and redecorate.
