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!! :)

Just an update and Ella Claire and Madelaine's first slumber party!

Wow! Has it really been 2 weeks?!??! I don't know where the time goes....Since my last post, baby preparation has been in full swing. I am feeling so energetic and wonderful and I'm loving that! It's crazy, these pregnancies of mine! This is usually the time where most women are slowing down and starting to feel the aches and pains of the 3rd trimester. My body, on the other hand is just starting to get used to it all and I'm feeling better than ever. This time it took a little longer for me to feel better than it did when I was pregnant with Ella Claire. Around 27 weeks is when I really got my energy back this go 'round.  I'm just thankful it decided to come back. ;)

A few months ago, I talked Jeremy into taking the carpet out of Ella Claire's new room and Gracie's nursery, and installing hard wood floors. Those were the only rooms in our house that have carpet and it's always bothered me that the color was so dark. We finally found a great deal on a color that matched our other hard wood. About 2 weeks ago, the floors were scheduled do be installed. Jeremy took all of the carpet out of both rooms which meant all of the furniture had to be stored somewhere else, for the "short" amount of time it would take to install the floors and put in the molding. That somewhere else, ended up being our living room, bedroom, and hall. :) Yes, we have furniture crammed into every nook and cranny of this little house. 

    

Well, a little halfway through the first room, we were informed that we would not have enough hardwood to finish the second room. Yes, you can imagine the sense of panic I experienced when I realized the floors would not be finished in one "short" day, like I was told. If it were just Jeremy and me living in this house, it would be no biggie. But, Ella Claire not having a room and having to sleep in our room 2 nights in a row... not a fun adjustment! I was already worried about her moving back into her room after sleeping 1 night in ours. 

 

To make a long story short, the Lord obviously thought I needed a lesson in patience. The hardwood we needed was out of stock and it has taken 2 weeks to come in! And, Ella Claire is still in our room. Not after tonight though! Bright and early tomorrow morning, the floor man will be arriving to complete the floors. Hip hip hooray! I can't wait to get everything back in it's place. The nesting has definitely started, but it's hard when your nest is under mini construction! :)


During this time of our home being basically upside down, Madelaine came over for her and Ella Claire's first slumber party! This was a few weeks ago when my sis and bil were in Honduras. The girls had so much fun!

Jeremy ended up sleeping in the living room on the mattress that goes on Ella Claire's new bed. The girls couldn't resist playing on it before heading to bed with me, in me and Jeremy's room.

I'm sure Ella Claire will just love this picture one day! :)

EC aka the sippy thief. Do you see this Minnie sippy? Ella Claire talks about Minnie Mouse all day and night and I think she had her first official store melt down when she had to hand it over to the cashier so I could pay for it. She spotted it on the shelf and had to have it. :) I surely wasn't prepared to buy character items this early! Where has my baby gone???

Nutella and banana sandwiches for lunch!

Making a very big mess! But, so yummy!

Still sporting messy bed head at lunchtime!

Do you see Madelaine's first shiner??? She fell and hit her cheek on the window seal at Gigi's house the day after her mommy and daddy left for the missions trip! :( There was just a small bruise on her cheek but the next day she had a complete black eye! 

The girls were really so easy and played great together as always. I was a little worried about us getting any sleep, but they did just fine and both were ready for bed and naps the next day. 

Time for a story, song and prayers! And a little bit of water before nap time.

Sorry about this grainy one from my phone, just couldn't resist how sweet they look with their white onesies and lambs!

Happy Friday, ya'll! I'm looking forward to a weekend full of organizing rooms and washing pink newborn baby clothes! Crazy I know, but I'm actually excited about it! :) See ya later, gators!

photo fun

Morning! Today I thought I would share with you something neat I have decided to do for Ella Claire and Gracie and any other little ones that might be apart of our family one day. I find myself making mental notes almost every day to remember something funny or cute that EC says or does. In reality, I will not remember a thing unless I write it down. Mom brain, pregnancy brain....whatever you want to call it! 

Last Christmas, I decided to make a photo book for my parents and Jeremy's parents and both of our grandmothers. They LOVE it and Ella Claire loves looking at it too. A few weeks ago, I got an email from shutterfly for a free hardcover 8x8 photo book. I decided to make one for Ella Claire, starting from where I left off in the other book from Christmas. So basically, every year, I am going to make a photobook for each of our children. It's such a great way to keep your favorite photos organized and remember those special moments or funny comments. Now, I'm a little OCD about pictures. I take a ton and print out all of them and keep them in a photo book and I have a hard copy of them all on CD.  If I had a fireproof box, which reminds me, I really need to pick one of those up, I would have those CD's in my fireproof box. But, even though I do all of that, I still like the idea of my fav's being in a book; it's like our own little story.

This is the book I just got for FREE from shutterfly. I only paid shipping.

This is the one I made for Christmas...

It came from picaboo. I will say, the quality of the photos are much better in this book, but it's a little bit more expensive. I got these books bogo and I think Picaboo is having that sale again right now. This is the back of the book. I chose a brown linen for the cover. But there are many options.

A few pictures of the inside...

Here is the front and back of the shutterfly book.

I love that you can add text to the spine.

I forgot to take pictures of the inside of the shutterfly book for you, but here is a screen shot I made while designing it. I added text all throughout the book. I made sure to acknowledge EC's age, her favorite things, favorite foods, her 1st boo boo, and a few things she loved to do at each age. 

A few tips if you decide to create your own...

1. Up load your pictures to the website then start your book. The programs will allow you to just pull pictures from your computer as you create the book, but then when you are finished it has to upload the pictures and your book design and it takes FOREVER!! Like, I'm talking 3 days. Not kidding. So just save yourself the time and frustration and upload all the pictures to the website then start your book. If you forget a few pictures, you can always go back and add more. This is a screen shot I took of it uploading my pictures and book. If you can read under the title Uploading Project, it says, "You're almost there!" This was not true, this was about 48 hours into the upload and it took another day or so. Frustrating!! I actually ended up starting completely over and uploaded the pics first. Worked much better that way.

2. Start early and be patient. It takes a while to design the book. You design the entire thing, front to back, so you pick out the backgrounds, colors, layout of each page, text, etc...  I got the email for a free book and procrastinated. Then a few days before it expired I decided to go ahead and make one. Because it took so long to upload, I almost missed the deadline. I literally ordered this last book hours before the deal expired.

3. Go back and check every page for misspelled words, and correct dates. Enough said for that, don't ya think?

Okay, after complaining about how long it took to upload, it really is worth it! I am so proud of the books and I know I will always love looking through them. Ella Claire loves them too! They are great entertainment in the car and we took it to the doctor's office this week and it kept her quiet while we waited.

Happy memory making!!

One more thing...my brother in law and sister, along with a team from our church, left early yesterday morning for a missions trip to Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Our Pastor mentioned Sunday that they will be ministering to the Honduran army while they are there. We are praying that the Lord will do mighty things through them! Please pray that lives are changed and souls are saved and also for the mission teams safety! Also, my sister and BIL left Madelaine here with my mom and dad and I know that was a VERY difficult thing for them to do, especially for Kim. So, pray for extra strength for them while they are away from their baby girl! Thanks so much!!!

sneak peek

Last week, Jeremy and I got a little sneak peek of Gracie. We had our 4D ultrasound and we think she looks just like big sister, Ella Claire! I took EC's 4D pictures with us, so we could compare immediately and so far, from what we see, they look just alike. That means, I'm going to have another baby that looks just like her daddy! That's okay with me, though! :)

This picture is of her heart, and I'm posting it because it shows her heart rate in the top right corner of the picture. 144 bpm, that's the slowest it's been so far!

Here's her sweet little profile in 2D.

and on to the good ones...

A profile shot in 4D.

This next one is neat because you can see the cord floating in front of her. At first we were afraid we wouldn't get any good shots because the cord was right in the way.

She put her hand in front of her mouth...

...then started sucking on the side of her pointer finger.

Then she threw out a peace sign. :)

She gave us a little smile.

And then, she put her foot right in front of her face, as if to say she was finished being photographed.

Another shot of her foot, that happens to look really long!

Hope you enjoyed these. I know a lot of people don't like the 4D pictures because they can look somewhat distorted through the fluid. I think they are amazing and I can't believe technology allows us to see our baby's facial features before she graces this world with her presence. It's amazing to see how active she is, even 13 weeks before she is due to arrive. What a precious miracle!