It totally breaks my heart to think about the mural in Hallie’s room now. Many of you know that before Hallie was born, My Mom, Mother in Law and myself painted a beautiful tree mural with birds and butterflies on Hallie’s wall.  By now it is probably covered with a fresh coat of white paint getting ready for new tenants as an investor bought our home.

A week or so a before we moved out, I had my good friend Whitney, come and take some photos of Hallie playing in her nursery before we boxed things up.  Photos I am sure to cherish for the rest of my life. Photos I will be sharing with you as soon as we get them back!

The last day we were in the house I took Hallie into her room, just the two of us.  I sat her down on the bare floor as all of the furniture and her toys had been packed away in boxes and moved already. I told her “how happy Mommy was when I found out you were girl”. I told her “I knew immediately the vision I had for the nursery where we would bring you home for the first time.” I explained to her all of the people who had a hand in helping me make my vision come to life. “Tia Joyce helped me make your letters, and Auntie Jennifer and I made your mural. Daddy and Pop put together your crib which was given to us by Ms. Marie and Sophie. Daddy, Uncle Adam and Aunt Kate built your changing table which was given to us by Nana and Bapa.  But the most special gift in your room was the mural. Mommy, Memi and Nana spent hours getting the tree, birds, butterflies and flowers just right.  We talked the whole time we worked about how excited we were for your arrival. We wondered what you would look like and how your personality would be.  We were so proud with how it turned out.”

“Then when the room was done and you arrived Nana continued coming over to add “finishing touches” to your room.  She was so excited! She made you curtains, cross stitched bears for your walls and painted a peg board for us to hang your ballet shoes on! Eventually we had no room left to put anything, but she wanted everything to be perfect for you.”

After I told her all of of that, I took her over to the tree and we took a couple of photos and said goodbye to her room, goodbye to the mural, and goodbye to Nana. It was a sad sweet moment, but one I am so glad I took the time to have.

Mom will live on in the photos, and Memi and I will make sure Hallie’s room is just as special as the first!

<3 Kelly

These were some of the very best Blondies I have ever tasted, and I knew when I was done eating them that I would HAVE to share the recipe with my readers!

INGREDIENTS:
1/2 C Unsalted Butter
2 Cups of Light Brown Sugar
2 eggs
1 ts Salt
1 ts vanilla
2 ts baking powder
2 Cups of flour sifted
1 Package of M&M 11.4 oz bag

Steps:
1. Cream the butter and brown sugar together
2. Add eggs, Salt and Vanilla and mix until well blended
3. Slowly Add the baking powder and sifted flour until batter is smooth
4. Stir in 1/2 of the bag of M&M candies by hand so that you don’t break them
5. Pour batter into a greased 9×13 baking dish then add the rest of the bag placing them on top of the batter. (I didn’t use the entire rest of the bag…I had a small handful left over which I shared with Hallie) Also the batter will rise in the oven so don’t worry if it doesn’t look too full,
6. Bake at 350 for 24 minutes.  It will look undone when you pull it out of the oven, but will set as it cools.

<3 Kelly
PS this is the last day to enter the giveaway!

Happy Friday Folks! Today Hallie and I are so excited to be going  to our Play Group Valentine’s Party! We are bringing our homemade Valentines to share with our friends, but I also couldn’t wait to share them here with you! Here’s what we did:

 Hallie loved helping me break the crayons and match the colors in the trays

 It’s so crazy to see how much she has grown in one year…also look at those baby blues! They are now green!

Hi friends! Today I am sharing with you all of the fun heart shaped treats Hallie and I have been eating this week to celebrate Valentines Day!

Of Course we will be bingeing on Linzer cookies and other treats, but I have also found ways to bring the love into our regular diets!

Heart shaped Watermelon, Heart shaped Cheese and Heart shaped Sandwiches!

 This kid is loving it!

 We’ve also done heart shaped Strawberries and Oatmeal with a “kiss” of raspberry jam….of course Hallie had to stick her finger in it before I was done taking the picture! I had to pull it away for it’s Photo op!

If you are looking for more of a sweet treat (like we were on Saturday) Dunkin Donuts is doing heart shaped donuts!

For dinner we have tried heart shaped personal pizzas:

That was also fun and super delicious!

And of course even snack time at our house has had fun Valentine flair!

Frozen Strawberry Yogurt with heart shaped sprinkles! This is a staple at our house (minus the sprinkles) It is the only way I can get Hal to eat yogurt lately! (I tell her it’s ice cream! I know I am terrible!)

Are you experimenting with any Valentine foods?!
<3 Kelly and Hallie

With Valentines Day around the corner, I thought I would re-share my recipe for those Yummy Linzer cookies! I make them this time every year and people just go nuts for them! These cookies are just that good! As soon as someone hears that I have made some, a mob of people (cough…Dad…cough) are salivating and offering up the shirt on their backs just for a taste!!! For the Friends Fans out there…it’s like Monica and the candy!

I wasn’t kidding!!

I love me some carbs! It’s the reason I was skeptical to try this recipe and the reason I shutter when someone mentions cauliflower pizza crust…I’ve tried it…no it’s not the same…no it’s not a close substitute! Give me the thick warm flaky pizza dough and enjoy your cracker thin low carb “crust”. This recipe however was different! I almost didn’t even miss the starchy goodness of rice!!!
It was simple and you can prepare it with all fresh or frozen Veggies. I did a combination of what I had on hand.

Here’s what you need:

1 Small head of Cauliflower Riced in Food Processor (I say a small head because I feel mine made way too much!)
1 1/2 TBS Sesame Oil
2 small Garlic Cloves
1/2 Chopped Yellow Onion
8 oz Chicken or Beef
1 Cup diced Carrot
1 Bag Frozen Broccoli (or any other Veggie)
2 Eggs
Salt and Pepper to Taste
3 TBS Soy Sauce
Chopped Green Onion as Garnish

Gather Ingredients

Pour Sesame Oil Into Wok or pan with the garlic and Meat. Cook Meat Thoroughly.

Cube Meat and add Carrots and Onion

Cook until Onion is clear and carrots become soft

Add Riced Cauliflower and Mix for about 2 minutes while preparing Frozen veggies in Microwave.

Add Frozen Veggies and Mix again.

When all ingredients seem cooked through. Make a hole in center of wok for your eggs.

Crack eggs into the center and scramble in the hole you made.

When the eggs are scrambled, mix them in with the rest of the ingredients and mix in your spices and soy sauce.

Garnish with Green onion.

Enjoy!

Hi friends! I am so happy that it is almost the weekend! I have a fantastic recipe (if I do say so myself) that you MUST try this weekend! It’s a Chicken Pot Pie recipe that I concocted because I was craving it the other day and couldn’t find a recipe with homemade crust that I liked! I made it last night and everyone licked their plates clean AND went back for seconds! So here goes:

Ingredients:
For Crust:
1 1/2 C flour
3 TBS Sugar
3 ts Baking Powder
1/2 ts salt
1/2 C butter
2 eggs
3 TBS milk
For Filling:
2 carrots chopped
2 celery stalks chopped
1 yellow onion chopped
3 chicken breasts
your favorite poultry seasoning
1 package of frozen veggies of choice (Another reason I made my own recipe, I hate peas! I went with corn, more carrots, and green beans)
1 can cream of chicken soup
1/3 C of whipping cream
(olive oil or butter for pan)

Step 1
Mix dry ingredients for dough together.
Step 2
Cut in butter
Step 3
Add eggs and milk and mix well until dough is formed.
Step 4
Cut dough in half leaving a slightly larger half and a slightly smaller one. Press larger one into a greased pie plate
Step 5
Season chicken and pan fry. Cut into chunks and set aside,
Step 6 
Cook veggies in the same pan until soft.
Step 7
Add chicken back into pan and add the cream of chicken and whipping cram. Mix well.
Step 8
Dump mixture into pie plate and top with remaining dough securing sides and cut middle to vent.
Step 9
Cook for 20-25 (until brown) at 375 Enjoy!

Ingredients
Your favorite clear tear free soap (1 Cup)
4 TBS Corn Starch
Food Coloring

In a bowl Mix together the soap and cornstarch.  Next separate mixture into small Tupperware for easy storage. (One for each color) Drop only a couple drops of food coloring into each container and mix well!

I made 2 colors! Slime Green and Purple People Eater Purple Spoon a drop of each color onto a color pallet and hand the kids a paint brush and let them paint the bathtub walls, their toys, themselves! It was easy to clean up and didn’t stain with only a few drops of food coloring! Enjoy!

Hi there and Happy Monday! This weekend was primarily spent on the couch watching too much Netflix and consuming too much chocolate chip cookie dough! We did squeeze in time with both sets of family’s though, and Hallie got to see all 4 of her grandparents which was lucky!

With all the Fall shows starting, the lovely Fall weather we WERE having here in Big D (COME ON FALL!!!!), and the neat Fall activities we have scheduled for this coming week/weekend, I was inspired to share some of my favorite Fall recipes and products!

Fave Products:
Bath and Body Works Candles
All of the Fall scents at Bath and Body Works are scrumptious, but this Sweet Cinnamon Pumpkin might be my absolute favorite!