Creation Falls

We took a break today to get to one of our favorite hikes. It's such a great one for the whole family. I love when we get outdoors.

Emerald Coast

It's so hard saying goodbye to family and the beach. We've just had the most wonderfully relaxing family reunion on beautiful Blue Mountain Beach in Florida.

Peonies

More of those gorgeous blooms just begging to be shown off...

Cleaning Up

When the dishwasher breaks it's time to teach the kids how to wash and dry.  It's a good time for visiting with each other as we stand shoulder to shoulder at the sink.

Side note: Peony season has been long and generous this year. Hurray!

Celebrate

How we do birthdays...

Pittsburgh

Traveling for spring break...

Next Up

This living room is difficult to situate because I want to keep the table for game playing, computer work, and extra seating for when we need to expand the dining area with guests. 

The room is also long and narrow so it's a little too cozy with all the furnishings right now. Still, I think I'm going to leave the furniture and work on something over the shades on the windows and maybe do something fun paint-wise with the table. I probably also need to get some things up on the walls and update the lighting.

Blueberries

We've talked about getting a blueberry bush for three or four years and finally got one. It even produced a few edible ones in it's first season. A few for us and the rest for some backyard critter.

Update

We've been living with this for a while now but I'm finally getting around to posting an update. It still needs more lighting and I need to tackle my nemesis: accessorizing. I am using the color raspberry as an accent but I can't figure out where to add it. 

In Bloom

We've had such a nice spring and the garden seems to be doing particularly well.

It's provided enough blooms to bring some indoors. Which is always lovely when some of them smell as good as they look.

Momentum

With the recent purchases, I feel like I am nearing the finish line and it's motivating. Here are the chairs we purchased from Overstock with the chairs I would like to get from World Market if they're still available. We did make the purchase of the beaded chandelier from Zulily. It hasn't come yet and I'm having some remorse because this one from West Elm is on sale for just a bit more and I love it as much, if not just a tiny bit more. 

I'd like to do some DIY art on the wall so I'm looking into some ideas and deciding if I want to keep it light, dark for contrast, or go metallic. Ugh, this is such a good exercise to let me know I am not a designer. I love seeing it more completed but I really don't enjoy the process. Making decisions and purchases stresses me out!

One Year Later

Seriously. A year. And it still isn't even finished. [Shrugging shoulders] There's been other stuff.

We got the sideboard and cabinet from Ikea [Besta], the table from West Elm [Boerum], and the rug from RugsUSA. We're waiting on chairs that have been ordered. I still need to figure out lighting and accessories. Then it will be done. I'm so not the type to continually change things up. So keep a look out for all that happening in January 2015. Here's a look at the most recent changes. You can see where we started here and progress here and here.

Finding Focus

Christmas morning we took a few moments to write down our gifts to the Savior and share them with each other. It was such a great start to the day and left a lingering peace in our home. Definitely a tradition worth keeping.

Our Christmas Traditions - Part III

Tradition #9 - Sugar Cookies

I feel like we try a new recipe every year. They're usually family recipes and this year we found another yummy one from Grandma Richins. The kids love cutting out the shapes and helping with the icing. 

Tradition #10 - Christmas Eve Dinner 
This has been everything from ham, turkey, roast to a dinner of appetizers, and this year we're going to try fondue. We usually light candles and this is where we each receive our ornaments for the year.

Tradition #11 - Bingo!

This is from my family and is a fun way to win prizes or, better still, money. For some reason our markers are always red hots. That may be one I'll have to change since it's a bit disturbing seeing kids sneak the heavily-handled candies. We do a number of rounds and the stakes get higher with the more difficult challenges. The hope is that everyone will win at least once.

Tradition #12 - Luke 2 & One Gift
Dad reads from the Bible. It's peaceful hearing the words while watching our own children and sitting near the nativity scenes. We open the presents from our family gift exchange on Christmas Eve. It's fun to see what everyone thought up and created. We'll get our gifts for the Savior ready for the morning and everyone tries to get some sleep!

Our Christmas Traditions - Part II

Tradition #5 - Graham Cracker Houses

Instead of gingerbread we use the most inexpensive graham crackers we can find and we even hot glue them into our house shapes instead of using icing. Since the kids don't eat the cracker base and our icing doesn't set fast enough, the glue is a perfect solution. We have an icing recipe that sets like concrete so the kids have their work cut out chipping out their favorite candies.

Tradition #6 - Seeing the Lights

Usually we drive around neighborhoods in our city trying to find fun setups. I came across a fun idea here from FrugalFun4Boys for a Christmas lights scavenger hunt. This year we attended a local, drive-through light show and loved it.

Tradition #7 - Neighbor Gifts
These have changed each year from homemade goodies to store-bought gifts. Sometimes we'll use our Christmas sugar cookies. This year it will be chocolates, ornaments, and sparkling cider. 

Tradition #8 - Christmas Movies
From the Grinch to Frosty and Rudolph, we love pulling out or renting Christmas movies throughout the month. Sometimes we'll all go to a new release at the theater on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. We are looking forward to seeing Frozen this year.

Our Christmas Traditions - Part I

Tradition #1 Gift Exchange

After Thanksgiving we pick names from a hat and the only rule is that you can't buy the gift.

Tradition #2 Decorations

Our decorations are super simple and mostly fit in one room. Either the day after Thanksgiving or in the first week of December, the tree goes up with lights and all our collected ornaments [we each receive an ornament every year on Christmas Eve], our three wise men on the mantle, the wreath on the door, a strand of lights on the house, and stockings over the fireplace. This year we brought the ornamental, lighted trees inside to flank the fireplace and I love it. 

We have three nativity sets we set out on the table in front of the fireplace and the kids reset them all month long. One new tradition is to remove the baby Jesus from our nativity sets and put him back Christmas day along with bringing him our gifts - service, self-improvement, anything we think Christ would want us to offer of ourselves. 

Tradition #3 Christmas Countdown

My sister gave us this advent tree maybe seven or eight years ago and we've reused it every year. We fill each box with one or a few small treats and the kids take turns each night pulling their box. If there are enough, it's fun to see if they'll share.

Tradition #4 Christmas Stories

In addition to our own collection of Christmas books, we are always on the lookout for other good books to read by the tree, usually after dinner. We've found some great ones this year. 

Chicken & Rice Casserole For the Win

I've been meaning to share this recipe for a while. Our neighbor brought us this dish while I was recovering and the kids went nuts over it and pleaded that I get the recipe. I made it a handful of times and the kids still love it. I also paid it forward to a neighbor when she recently had her baby and she said all her kids loved it and so I passed the recipe on to her. Now I'm making it public. You're welcome.

1 to 1 1/2 lb chicken breasts, cooked and cubed
2 boxes Uncle Ben's Long Grain and Wild Rice (quick-cooking)
1 can cream of chicken soup
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 cup chicken broth
1/4 cup chopped onion

Cook rice according to package directions. The directions say to use just less than three cups water if you're using two boxes. But I add three cups and I upped the chicken broth amount in the original recipe from 1/2 to 1 cup because otherwise it dries out too much in the oven. 
Once the rice is cooked, stir in all the other ingredients. Transfer to a 9x13 [or so] baking dish and bake uncovered at 350 for 45-50 minutes. If you like, you can sprinkle something crunchy over the top [like crumbled Ritz crackers] before it goes in the oven.

Warm It Up

The cold weather has settled in here and it's time to pull out all those recipes for yummy, warm meals. One we've used again and again is this Broccoli Cheddar Soup from Annie's Eats.  We've eaten it in bread bowls, the way the kids prefer. Having it in a bowl with fresh, warm bread [or any bread!] on the side is just as delicious.  We always puree it instead of leaving all the ingredients chunky so even our littlest can share in the goodness. And he loves it as much as we do! 
One pureeing tip: I don't own an immersion blender anymore so I just ladle the soup into our blender about 3/4 full and blend until smooth. I leave the cap off and cover lightly with a paper towel [so steam can escape, but the soup won't splatter]. I have to do that three times with this recipe.

Growth Chart

I have had this pinned from Thistlewood Farm for such a long time knowing my kids would love tracking their growth. I finally got around to completing it and it's already doing its job. I like the idea  of using this medium since we'll be able to take it with us wherever we live. 

The main, well...only, difference is that I used wooden numbers [instead of marquee tiles] from Hobby Lobby and painted them black.

Market to Marvelous

I saw a link to this tutorial on how to turn the flowers you buy from the market into beautiful arrangements on The Nester's blog [I think]. You can find the how-to at The House of Earnest site here. It really works!

My husband brought these home one evening "just because." Love that man. Here they are straight out of the package:

Not too bad, but after reading the instructions I was able to come up with this:

And then with the lilies blooming: