birthdays galore!

Jeremy's birthday was the Friday before Gracie was born. I made a special dinner just for us, I even pulled out the fine china. At the last minute Ella Claire ended up joining us. :) So much for a romantic dinner at home, but still very special, and fun memories were made.

On the menu: filet mignon, baked potatoes, and salad.

Unfortunately, I don't have a good picture of our food, but I used a marinade on the filet's that my family has been using for a long time. It makes the best steaks ever; melt in your mouth steaks. If you need a good marinade or plan on having steaks anytime soon, give this marinade a try.

1/2 cup worcestershire sauce
1 stick melted butter
juice of 2 lemons
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp black pepper
3 minced garlic cloves

*melt butter and add all other ingredients. pour over steaks in a ziplock bag. marinate over night. grill until like doneness.

For dessert, we had chocolate molten cake. I took a chance and just randomly chose a recipe online (it was recommended by the pioneer woman, so I wasn't too worried), and it definitely turned out a winner. I didn' know what a breeze these would be to make either.  You can literally throw them together in no time at all.

Okay, I know this next picture is not that pretty, but I wanted to show the inside of the cake and how perfectly they bake. Just like you would find in a restaurant; nice and firm on the outside and ooey gooey on the inside.

So even though this post is almost 1 month late, Happy Birthday, Jeremy! I love you with all my heart!

Ella Claire turned 2 on October 6th which was the Thursday before the wedding and 2 1/2 weeks after Gracie was born. I didn't plan a big party for her and planned to have one towards the end of October. However, I did want to make the day special for her. I asked her what she wanted for her birthday and she said, "birthday hat, birthday balloons, and CAKE!" I so wish I had videoed her saying this because the way she said it was too cute! If I get a chance in the near future, I'll try to post it. Anyway, I figured if she wasn't having a party, then I could definitely handle a birthday hat, balloons and a cake.

Earlier in the week we went to party city (that's a whole other story, just fyi, don't take your baby to party city during halloween. Sweet, innocent eyes will see too much. Honestly, it was too much for my eyes.) Anyway, we ran with our eyes covered to the birthday theme aisle and picked out some fun minnie balloons and minnie party supplies.

I planned to pick up the balloons on Thursday, make her a small birthday cake and have pizza for dinner; just the 4 of us, since the wedding was just 2 days away. Steph ended up spending the night (and the rest of the week) because of my parents having house guests for the wedding. Andrew came over to help with rehearsal dinner favors that Steph and I were working on, and Brian, Jess, Jon Jon and Su Su (J's parents) just happened to stop by to see the birthday girl. So, we ended up having quite a few people join our party. It was so fun and i'm so glad everyone was able to join us, wish the rest of our families could have stopped by too! :)

This is the look I sometimes get from my big, strong willed, independent and determined 2 year old. :) The terrific two's are just TERRIFIC, and all my friends tell me 3 is even more fun! oh my!

Our family photo. We haven't quite figured out how to get everyone to look at the camera at the same time yet.

This next picture of EC turns my heart into a puddle. She is a very serious girl and I just love this great big smile on her face! It's pure delight.

Steph laughed at my DIY in 5 minutes, minnie mouse birthday hat. They didn't have any minnie hats at party city. So I bought and cover a princess one in pink and white polka dotted fabric that I already had at home and put a black fluff on top. Looks minnie enough for me, and EC loved it!

Ella Claire got lots of phone calls on her big day and she was loving that!

Can't believe this little girl is two! Life with her is so much fun and she truly is a blessing! Happy Birthday, Ella Claire! I love you to the moon and back!

Our favorite homemade fajitas

Happy Friday everyone! I'm back today with another recipe, one I really hope that you'll try. Chicken fajitas!!

It's one of our favorite summer meals. I have been meaning to share them for a while, since last summer in fact, but you know how that goes....  I thought I better go ahead and post them since summer is quickly coming to an end. I don't have great step by step pictures with this recipe, because I'm usually in a hurry and just throw them together. But don't let that hinder you from trying them. I really think you'll be impressed, because the marinade for these fajitas is just right, and what all the other homemade fajita recipes I've tried, have been lacking. 

The recipe to me is just right and I don't think it needs any tweaking. But, you know me and sometimes I'm out of certain ingredients....okay A LOT of times I'm out of certain ingredients, and I end up having to substitute. One of my weaknesses is meal planning before grocery shopping! I've recently tried to start couponing and I realize how important this is, so I'm working on it. :) Anyway, I usually make them just like the recipe says, maybe adding some homemade guacamole and mushrooms. But, the time I decided to photograph my steps for the blog, I was out of limes and had some lemons that really needed to be used. Still tasted great!

Steph was visiting when we decided to make these, and since I don't have a fancy lemon squeezer, she volunteered. :)

This picture doesn't look that impressive, but this is what makes these so yummy!

Don't forget to brush your veggies with olive oil.

Grill your veggies and chicken to your liking.

You aren't supposed to separate your onion rings until after they come off the grill. But, mine usually fall apart. :) I think they taste the same.

Cut up your chicken and veggies and toss with remaining marinade.

Serve to your hungry little family....

Even the youngest ones can enjoy their own little version :)

She will eat the chicken, but not the peppers or onions.

Hope you enjoy them as much as we do! Please, let me know if you try them, and what you think!! :)

homemade chocolate peanut-butter cups

Calling all chocolate and peanut butter lovers!!!

Today, I have just the thing for you! I've had this recipe posted on my food board in pinterest for a while...just waiting for the perfect time to make them. When better than at 7 months pregnant?? As you know from last years post, I always try to make some sort of patriotic dessert. This year, I just couldn't decide on one and the creativity was lacking just a tad. So, with hubs help and while EC took her afternoon nap, we whipped up these delicious chocolate and peanut-butter cups. There isn't anything patriotic about them, so the patriotic plate I placed them on will have to do. :) I'll let you click on the link for the recipe, but share a few of my pictures from baking.

These must be seriously dangerous for expecting momma's, because the author of that blog mentions her craving for these while pregnant. I can attest to those same chocolate and sweet cravings; it's basically all I want to put in my mouth these days. Terrible, I know! Don't worry though, I shared with anyone and everyone. I handed them out to family and then took the last of them to work to share the chocolate love.

The original baker uses a regular sized muffin pan to make hers, but I thought that might be a little too much, so I made mine bite size and used a mini muffin pan. I did have some chocolate and some of the peanut butter mixture left over and decided to make the large ones and they were much easier to make, especially coating the paper liners with chocolate. But the bite sized ones were just so cute and more of an appropriate serving.

Just a few simple ingredients.

Chocolate in the double boiler, ready to coat the muffin pan.

Coating the mini pan was a little difficult, so I opted to not go all the way up the sides. Just far enough to make sure the peanut butter would be completely covered all the way around.

Mixing up the peanut butter mixture.

This is how I divided my peanut butter up. 

Scoop in your peanut butter mixture.

Ready to be smothered in chocolate.

Perfection!!

2 yummy recipes and special friends

It has been another busy week at our house, and it's kept me away from my computer and this blog.  So here I sit, on a friday night excited to just stop by and say hi! Hi!!! :) Our friday nights used to be spent staying out late, eating dinner out, maybe watching a movie or going shopping. But these days, and for many days ahead, I think most of our friday nights will be spent just like tonight. Cooking dinner at home, watching Ella Claire dance around and play with her toys, and relaxing on the sofa thinking about our busy week and excited about the weekend ahead. I should also add that Friday nights at home also include hubby watching Swamp Loggers. There is something about that show that he loves, and I'll admit, I have gotten into it with him a time or two. Crazy, I know!

One thing I have been wanting to get on here and share is a yummy recipe that I found online. This popped up on a blog a few weeks ago and I immediately knew I wanted to try it.

Honestly, I didn't want to try it because it looked so good, it made my mouth water (even though the fresh mozzarella was calling my name). I actually was more curious about how corn would taste on pizza. That's right this pizza calls for corn. To my surprise it was wonderful! The corn and small amount of sugar give just the right balance with the pesto. 

Here is my pizza before heading into the oven.

and then after...

Idea from here, recipe from here. I also should say that I added A LOT of mushrooms to our pizza. I'm a mushroom kinda girl and I had a pack that was past it's prime in my fridge. We all really liked it and I will most definitely be making it again. 

After making the pizza, I had left over pesto and mozzarella, but not enough for another pizza. I decided to try this recipe. A little twist on the old grilled cheese classic. This was an amazing sandwich! Seriously, good! 

All it is, is fresh mozzarella, tomatoes, and pesto, grilled just like a grilled cheese. Give this one a go, you will be glad ya did!

I am well over half way though with this pregnancy, (can you tell with all the talk about food???), and realized sometime last week that I haven't taken any pregnancy pictures. For some reason, I haven't been as thrilled to see my stomach get bigger and BIGGER this time around and I have simply forgotten to get pictures. I started thinking that one day our little Gracie might want to know what her momma looked like when she was carrying her around in her tummy, so I asked J to snap a quick picture. Here I am in all my 26th week glory...

And this time around I have a sweet little baby girl that just couldn't resist getting in the picture too.

I haven't compared this picture to how I looked when I was pregnant with EC at 26 weeks, I'm actually a little afraid too. People keep telling me that they didn't gain as much with the second, but I'm not thinking that's going to be the case with me. Running and working out during my 1st pregnancy kept me from gaining too much. The result of my first pregnancy keeps me from running and working out during this pregnancy. But, that's okay, one day there will be plenty of time to workout and run, and I will not want to then...right?

Earlier this week, we had dinner with some wonderful friends that we go to church with and live just a few houses down from. We have been neighbors for over 2 years now and soon these friends will be moving about 5 hours away. We will miss them terribly! Not only do we always stay at their house way too late when we go over for dinner, but we eat way too much! Windy is an amazing cook and I'll miss her friendship the most, but also her yummy food! :)

Their oldest son, Jacob, is just a little bit older than Ella Claire, and they are just at the age where they play great together. More like, Ella Claire follows him around and wants to do what he does. :)

Brian and Windy, we are excited for you and the opportunities that this new job will provide for your family, but you will be greatly missed! 

Okay, no more crying.... moving right along...

Ella Claire has been keeping us entertained with all that she can do these days. I'm having to be careful with what clothes she wears around the house, because a few times I've turned around and she is completely in the nude. No shirt, no bloomers, no diaper! She hasn't figured out how to unsnap a onesie yet, so she wears a lot of those when we are just hanging out at home. She also likes trying to put clothes on. Putting them on is a little trickier than taking them off, so sometimes she needs a little help with that. Otherwise, she ends up getting frustrated..

Or wearing them any which of way. And that's fun too!

Her choice of foods can also be amusing. Tonight for dinner we had a cheesy chicken casserole and salad. She had already eaten, but when she saw that we had lettuce, the begging began. That is correct, she preferred lettuce over cheese chicken and pasta! I can't imagine that.  She was actually saying, "lettuce, please!" She is just like her daddy though, and I've heard stories of how he would beg for salads as a child. He remembers eating salads while watching cartoons. Hilarious!

Alright friends, I think that's about all I have time for. I hope you have a wonderful, long weekend and make lots of family memories during this fantastic holiday! Happy Birthday, USA!!!