"Photo" Dump Wednesday: Video dump...

Happy Hump Day! Its my last day in the office this week until next Wednesday. Woohoo!!!

Instead of posting a variety of pictures this week, I decided to post some videos of my little munchkin who is growing up so fast.

Coming down the stairs. I told her I'd be right back but apparently, I wasn't moving fast enough, incase you are wondering what she was saying, its "we're coming back!" Not sure if she was being sarcastic :-D.

And here she is going up the stairs. I am amazed that at 21 months, she is fearless about going up and down the stairs.

And JOE's new favorite song...Happy Birthday. Apparently, we've attended a lot of birthday parties so she picked up the song. Yes, notice she has her own "platform"...a.k.a my Wii fit step board. Good thing someone's making use of it. :-). I haven't had a chance to capture the one where she actually sings with her toy microphone on the Wii board. Priceless!

Enjoy the rest of your week! I'll be back next week to post about our very fun/big weekend plans :-D.

Weekend festivities and a partial DIY

It was a busy weekend. But one filled with lots of laughs and celebrations. 

On Saturday, I attended a friend's baby shower. The mom to be's friends did an awesome job with the shower. It was well planned and definitely well put together. Here are just some highlights from the shower. The theme colors were chevron yellow and gray. The same as the baby's nursery. No doubt the nursery will look awesome. The couple have also decided to not find out the baby's gender so we are all eagerly waiting to see if they'll be having a boy or girl :-).

It was a brunch shower. I LOVE brunch!

They had made to order waffles AND omelets! YUM!!!

The centerpieces were made with pictures of the mom to be during various stages of her pregnancy. How awesome!

While I was at the shower, J took JOE to go scout the location for her 2nd birthday party and also to a birthday party for our neighbor's twin boys. 

JOE had a great time at the party.

The rest of the weekend was spent making DIY items for my sister's bridal shower coming up this week. YAY!!! Can't wait to celebrate with her. These are just some of the items that'll be going into the favor bags. 

More details on each will be posted next week.

Have an awesomely blessed week!

Photo dump Wednesday: Family time

Yay! We're half way there!!! Its been a pretty LONG week already and I am glad its finally the middle of the week. 2-more days to the weekend! I can get a much needed manicure/pedicure in preparation for the festivities next week. More on that in a later post.

For now, here are  just some of the things we've been up to.

On Monday, after I got JOE, she immediately ran to her room and got the barrettes you see in her hair. She insisted that I put them on her and then she proceeded to get in our bed and cover herself with the "banket". She also REFUSED to take the barrette off so I waited until she fell asleep :-D.

Right after I put them on her. Here she is cheesing it for the camera :-D.

On Tuesday, she picked out 2-different barrettes for her hair. I wonder if we'll have a repeat again tonight. Coincidentally, the colors she pics matches what she's wearing. My fashionista in the making.

My evenings used to be spent catching up on my shows. Now, they are spent watching Sheriff Callie and these singing chipmunks! Thanks Disney :-/.

Coincidentally, her shoes for my sister's wedding also arrived. She is one of the flower girls. These shoes were sooooo comfortable, she didn't want to take them off! They were faux fur lined so I can understand why she wanted to keep them on :-).

Last Sunday, I wanted to get a family selfie. I LOVE the way JOE looks at her dad so adoringly. It melts my heart.

And one with everyone looking straight ahead :-D.

So last Friday after work, I decided we should go to a pond not too far from us to feed the ducks. I figured JOE would enjoy it. She did...

Until she decided SHE wanted the bread and didn't want to feed the ducks anymore.

She would ask for more and would stuff it in her mouth quickly. I guess she didn't want me to take it away from her. Incase you're wondering, she was NOT hungry. 

Last week, while giving myself an at home pedicure, JOE decided to get her nails done as well. But not all her nails. Nope...just the big toes. And she also wanted flower decals put on there since I was getting decals on mine as well. She was actually good about letting them dry and then she couldn't wait to show her dadda.

I took this picture of JOE's bathroom cause it made me smile. I used to have those mirrors in my bathroom in the condo. I wasn't sure of how to use them in our new home. Thankfully, they add a somewhat whimsical theme to JOE's bathroom. I am yet to paint the walls there but I am torn between yellow and pale green. Any thoughts? I don't want it too girly since she'll be sharing the bathroom with her future siblings and guests.

And to solidify just how blessed I am feeling this week, my sister in law posted this picture of my niece and nephew. They are just so cute, I had to share! My niece loves walking with her brother. How adorbs is this picture? I say VERY! But of course, I am partial :-D.

Enjoy the rest of your work week!

Weekend in review

I can't believe I didn't post this last week. It has been in my draft folder for that long. 

A couple of weekends ago, we had a VERY busy weekend. We attended J's grandmother's 90th birthday party and my friend's daughter's 2nd birthday party on Saturday and the following day, we were delighted to celebrate with Peg as she celebrated her sons (Tman and Jbird's) joint birthday party. 

We were all very tired by the time Sunday evening rolled around but we also thoroughly had a great time. So much so that I didn't get a chance to snap too many pictures!

Here are some of the pictures from the festivities.

The dessert platter was DELISH! My hubby's cousin made them and she did a fabulous job!

J and JOE. My little girl is definitely Miss. Social! It was hard getting her to stay still long enough to take pictures. She just wanted to go from place to place!

She actually let me braid part of her hair. SCORE!!! She is doing so much better with this. Its not always a chore anymore.

Photo credit to my Brother in Law. I forgot to take a picture of all the "yummy goodness" as J would put it :-D.

Cake made by my hubby's aunt for her mom's birthday. It was really good!

I didn't take any pictures at the 2-year old's party because I spent a lot of time chasing JOE around. That girl is a giant ball of energy!

On Sunday, we had a blast at the party for Peg's sons. Check out these cuties on their throne!

Talk about an AWESOME birthday cake! It was delicious too. JOE kept asking for "mor cake peas".

Overall, it was a weekend of celebrations and I thoroughly enjoyed it! Hope you're having a great week so far!

DIY: Recipe for Ham and chicken buffalo Mac and cheese

A while ago, I found and pinned this recipe from Sparkpeople. J loves pasta and I wanted to make something different from the usual meals I make. For the most part, I followed the instructions but not to the T. I made some variations to better suit our needs and it still tasted great. I did have some observations (below).

J and JOE both enjoyed the meal!

Ingredients:

4-cups of macaroni (NOTE: the ingredients listed below is what I used for 4-cups of macaroni. Feel free to adjust as needed)

2-cups of chopped broccoli

1-tablespoon unsalted butter

1-medium chopped onion

1-teaspoon minced garlic

1-6oz can of fire roasted diced tomatoes

1-tablespoon whole wheat flour

2-cups skim milk

3-pieces of cooked chicken breasts

1-cup of diced ham

3/4-cup buffalo hot sauce (adjust to desired heat level)

1/2-cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Directions:

• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
• Coat your baking dish with cooking spray.
• Cook pasta according to directions on box, drain and set aside.
• Place the broccoli in a microwave safe dish and cook on high for 2-minutes.
• Melt the butter in a large saucepan set over medium heat.
• Add the onions and then the broccoli and garlic. Cook until the onions is translucent.
• Add the fire roasted tomatoes and let cook until it starts to bubble a little.
• In a cup, add the flour and a cup of milk. Stir until fully mixed. Add the mixture to the saucepan and then add the remaining cup of milk while stirring.
• Add the buffalo hot sauce to the saucepan and cook for 2-minutes
• Add the cooked chicken and the diced ham to the saucepan and cook for another 5-6 minutes to allow the meat to fully marinate in the sauce
• Add the pasta and mix everything up
• Pour into your sprayed baking dish
• Top with cheese
• Bake in the oven for 15-minutes

Buon Appetito!

Feedback/Comments:

The dish was DELICIOUS! However, my biggest issue with it is that the original recipe required a lot of ingredients and had a lot of steps. I tried to shorten things a bit with my recipe but it was still a lot.

This is not a traditional mac and cheese recipe. As on commenter put it on the Sparkpeople site, "when I saw the title of this recipe, I envisioned a bubbly and cheese dish. This is not the case. This is not a cheesy dish at all as you would expect a man and cheese to be. That being said, I did likt it and will probably make again, and try to make it a bit thicker, the sauce was runny."

I didn't have any "runny" issues with the dish but I certainly noticed quickly that it was not entirely a cheesy dish.

If you do make it, let me know how it turned out. These two certainly enjoyed it! :-)

Have a fabulously blessed week!

Photo Dump Wednesday: Firsts

We had a pretty fun weekend planned around JOE and it was perfect. JOE have several firsts this weekend.

JOE loves Elmo and since she hasn't been to a museum, we figured it would be a good opportunity to take her. Coincidentally, it was also Elmo's birthday so of course, there was a pretty good crowd at the museum.

J decided to treat us with his black credit card ☺.

Our first first of the day was J turning JOE'S car seat forward facing. She is still a petite little one but she is tall so we figured she was ready. We were right. She loved it. 

Another first was JOE visiting the Children's museum. The first thing she saw was Elmo and she immediately went over to say hello :-).

Then it was time to get down to business. The business of cooking that is. Here she is with all her food gathered in her shopping basket.

Now to review all she has.

Next stop, wash the veggies. My baby does watch me when I am in the kitchen! :-).

And now it is time to cook!

But oh no! You need to build the fire...or something...who knows? She just started gathering this stuff...

And then an announcement came on that Elmo was going to do a dance. JOE was at first excited until she saw Elmo...I'll let you see her reaction.

By the way, why does Elmo have a butt? I thought Elmo was a guy?

And Elmo also had boobs. Hmmm...something is different here...

I think JOE sensed it cause check out the look on her face.

And there was a cookie monster too.

Well, after a little crying by JOE when we said we were leaving, we were off to our next adventure. The Ferris Wheel!

On our way, we saw this and I just had to take a picture. It looked rather peaceful/calming.

Then there was this door. The picture didn't do it justice. Its pretty cool!

We also walked by a farmer's market on our way. Yup...this was a long walk to the Ferris Wheel but also a scenic one.

And there she is. The American version of the London Eye. Wicked cool! We waited in line for almost an hour in hot and humid weather to get on and it was worth it.

JOE clearly was enjoying it :-).

Some pictures of the view from up there.

And then it was time to head on home. JOE promptly fell asleep once we got in the car. She had an awesome time and so did we.

I hope you're having an awesome week so far.