Thanksgiving Recap & New Additions

This year we spent Thanksgiving with my family. (We rotate years.) We had a delish lunch at my Uncle and Aunt's house followed by dinner at my Grandma's. Lots of family and food.

These little guys didn't make it to Thanksgiving dinner,

but I did get to see them right before their bedtime.

I love my nephews.

My Mom got an early Christmas present from my Dad--a puppy!

Nuts meeting Lizzie.

Now for the other new addition...

My sister is pregnant!

My mom, sister and I got up at 3 a.m. for Black Friday shopping.

I was just along for the ride and didn't buy anything. My sister got a tv. And my mom went crazy buying baby clothes. She is going to have to control herself. :)

LeAnn doesn't know what she is having yet, but the kid will have plenty of Halloween outfits.

They were all on clearance for around $1.50 and gender neutral and CUTE.

The rest of the weekend was spent shopping, decorating, and painting.
Ty and I started a new project. Part of our house has wood/brown trim and the majority has white. We are working on getting it all white and we repainted our dining room area.

I've been fighting off getting sick this whole break and it didn't work. I hate being sick. ugh.

Argyle love

One thing that Ty and I have in common is our love for argyle print clothing. Mainly with socks, but it is not limited and includes pajamas, sweaters, etc.

Ty has several more pairs that were in the laundry basket.

The man loves his argyle dress socks.

If we ever have a little boy you can bet he will own several argyle sweaters. At the craft fair this past weekend there was a booth that sold the cutest baby socks. They had a couple of argyle ones for baby boys. So cute.

Weekend Recap

Shopping, New Moon, chocolate chip cookies--It was a perfect weekend.

Friday I convinced Ty to shop at Target with me. I just love that place.

We found these flannel sheets to keep us warm this winter.

I found this sweater in the dollar section by the front.

He wasn't too sure about it, but he did let me keep it on him. Nuts always acts like he is going to die from the frigid temps, so I thought a sweater might help.
The sweater wasn't made for a dachshunds body, but I might be able to do some tweaking.

Saturday I went to a craft show with my aunt, cousin and cousin-in-law. It has become a tradition for us to do this every year. It is so much fun.

I ate the biggest corn dog ever.

It ends where my hand is holding. Isn't that huge?!?

I only bought one thing there, but oh my goodness if I was pregnant or had children I would have gone crazy. There were so many cute things for babies!

I bought this napkin holder.

I have wanted one of these for quite some time. I can't wait to find some Christmas napkins to put in there.

Ty had to work this weekend. He is on a family practice rotation and they only had to work one weekend this month. Thank goodness. After he got off on Saturday we headed straight for the movie theater to see New Moon. I thought it was a great movie! We did have to listen to people (girls and older ladies) scream when Jacob took his shirt off.

Sunday Ty's sister-in-law was in town visiting her parents. She came to church with me on Sunday. I got to spend some time playing with Nathan during church. I'm not sure how parents ever listen to the preacher. (And he is a good baby!) He kept me amused and he wore the cutest little outfit!

Sunday afternoon I worked on a onesie project, baked cookies and cleaned like a mad woman. I may have used a little too much bleach when I cleaned the bathroom. I need to invest in some rubber gloves. The smell has finally come off my hands.

some randoms

*I love that purples and plums are in this season. Lately, I'm drawn to those colors in clothing stores.I got this beauty in the mail yesterday.

Not sure that I would ever use this color scheme in my house, but I love it. So pretty.

*I did not get the job that I applied for within my company. Kinda disappointing, but they hired a lady with a doctorate degree. My measley bachelor's degree can't compete with that. :)

I did get a promotion and I'm now an Assistant Director. whoo hoo! I'm very excited about it!

*I'm also training the new director. This means on top of doing two jobs I'm also training someone. I'm not complaining, I'm not complaining, I'm not complaining...

*I didn't check my gmail once yesterday. Work is BUSY.

*Thank goodness Megan introduced me to TweetDeck. It is one way to stay in touch throughout the day.

*Not so good when you are training your new boss and tweets keep popping up on your screen. hehe. I thought that I had exited out of it, but it went down to toolbar (down on your screen where it tells you that you are connected to the internet.) Apparently, it doesn't automatically exit you out of the program when you hit the X.

*Ty and I have been listening to Christmas music on Pandora. He is asking me if we can put lights on the outside of the house and put up our tree. I'm torn, but staying strong and resisting. I hate doing Christmas things before Thanksgiving, but it is the best part of winter and I can't resist that jolly music!

*Ty went with me to a recruitment event on Monday. I love it when he can do these things with me. It makes my job so enjoyable and he does a great job promoting our program.

*And just to bring things full circle and to show you my train of thought. Ty wore a dark plum tie to church on Sunday with a grey sweater vest over it with grey pinstriped pants. I loved it. My two favorite clothing colors of the season: purple and grey. I wish I would have taken a pic of his outfit.

POM Wonderful

I was contacted a few weeks ago by Lindsay at POM Wonderful. She sent me a case of POM juice. I loved the shape of the bottles. When Ty saw them he informed me about all the health benefits of the juice. He has been drinking it straight from the bottle. It's not quite sweet enough for me to do that. I like my sugars.

I started searching for a recipe to use and found one on the POM Wonderful site.

POM and Balsamic-Glazed Chicken

I love balsamic vinegar and couldn't wait to try this.

This is the photo from their site. It was so much prettier than my food that I didn't even bother with taking my own picture. The recipe was delish! And so much different than what we normally eat. I loved that.

I halved most of the recipe or just guestimated since it was just the two of us. I will definitely be making this again!

Ingredients
Juice from 2-3 large POM Wonderful Pomegranates,* or 3/4 cup POM Wonderful 100% Pomegranate Juice
4-6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, or 8 to 12 boneless, skinless chicken thighs
1 cup packaged peeled baby carrots
3 sliced green onions
2-3 tablespoons olive or vegetable oil
1 cup chicken broth
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
2 teaspoons cornstarch
2 teaspoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon crushed dried basil
1/2 teaspoon crushed dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon salt
Hot cooked penne pasta (optional)
Garnish (optional):
1/3 cup arils from 1 large POM Wonderful Pomegranate

Preparation
1. Prepare garnish - Score 1 fresh pomegranate and place in a bowl of water. Break open the pomegranate underwater to free the arils (seed sacs). The arils will sink to the bottom of the bowl and the membrane will float to the top. Sieve and put the arils in a separate bowl. Reserve 1/3 cup of arils from fruit and set aside. (Refrigerate or freeze remaining arils for another use.)
2. Prepare fresh pomegranate juice.*
3. Place oil in a large skillet; brown chicken pieces in batches with carrots and onions for 5-6 minutes or until tender, stirring frequently. Remove chicken pieces. Keep carrots and onions warm.
4. Place broth in a pan and add back chicken pieces; cover and simmer for 15-20 minutes, or until cooked. Reserve 1/3 cup of chicken cooking liquid.
5. Transfer chicken and vegetables to platter; cover and keep warm.
6. Put reserved 1/3 cup of chicken cooking liquid in skillet. Stir in pomegranate juice, vinegar, cornstarch, brown sugar and seasonings. Bring to a boil; reduce heat. Simmer 2 minutes.
7. Drizzle some of the sauce over chicken and vegetables; garnish with reserved arils. Serve with pasta if desired, and pass remaining sauce.
Note
*For 1 cup of juice, cut 2-3 large POM Wonderful Pomegranates in half and juice them with a citrus reamer or juicer. Pour mixture through a cheesecloth-lined strainer or sieve. Set the juice aside. Nutrients Per Serving (10.2 oz.): 302 calories, 28g protein, 23g carbohydrate, 11g total fat (2g saturated), 73mg cholesterol, 625mg sodium, 543 RE vitamin A, 12mg niacin (B3), .6mg vitamin B6, 25mcg selenium, .5mg manganese.

All things monogrammed

Lately, I have been obsessed with all things personalized and monogrammed.

I ordered these notecards with my birthday moolah.

I love these preppy notecards from AnaStella's etsy shop.

LOVE this quilted jewelry roll from Pottery Barn.

I love the green and navy of this travel mug
from MonogramChick paired with the swirly monogram font.

p.s. Thanks for all the nice comments about my blog design!

New Blog Design

I am pretty amazed that I am just now changing my blog design. I loved my old design, don't get me wrong. But I usually get bored with one style for too long. This happens in all aspects of my life: clothes, my house decor, etc. I have a hard time figuring out my style and sticking with it.

I am especially proud of this design, because I did it all myself! It took me awhile to figure everything out. HTML code is so confusing.

I'm so glad Megan was available on gchat to reassure me that it looked nice. (We have the same blog design taste and I know she is working on a new look from one of my fave blog designers.) And that Ty let me spend a couple of nights glued to my computer trying to crack the code of HTML.

Cinnamon Coffee Cake

Before I left for New Orleans I baked a cinnamon coffee cake for Ty and his parents. His parents stayed at our house after a football game and before heading on vacation. I didn't get to see them because I was in New Orleans. I wanted them to have something that could be eaten for breakfast or just for a snack. This was the perfect thing. Ty loved it.

Cinnamon Coffee Cake

Ingredients

• 1 (18.25 ounce) package yellow cake mix
• 2 (3.4 ounce) package instant vanilla pudding mix
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 1 cup chopped pecans

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 9x13 inch baking pan, or a 10 inch Bundt cake pan.
2. In a medium bowl, stir together the cake mix, and vanilla pudding mix. Add the eggs, oil and water, mix until well blended. In another bowl, stir together the brown sugar, cinnamon and nuts. Pour half of the batter into the pan, spread evenly. Sprinkle with half of the nut mixture. Cover with the rest of the batter, and sprinkle with the rest of the nut mixture.
3. Bake for 20 minutes in the preheated oven, then turn the oven down to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C) and bake for an additional 35 to 40 minutes

Nathan's 1st Birthday Party

If you are anything like me then you appreciate all the small details that go into party planning. I love following the Hostess with Mostess to see all the great parties she blogs about.

My SIL, Sarah, did a fantastic job of planning her son's 1st birthday. Everything turned out great! I believe that she found most of the items on etsy.

The invites.

The party favors were construction rubber duckies and soaps that were in the shapes of construction trucks. SO cute!

Me, Lillian and Lucas (Ty's niece and nephew)

Nathan in his cute birthday outfit!

I just love those little curls!

The gift pile grew quite a bit from this. Nathan recieved so many cute gifts!

The gift from Ty and I came wrapped in the blue wrapping paper with construction trucks on it.

I was so excited to find that paper at Target.

We bought Nathan an Eat This, Not That for Kids book (Sarah is really into healthy eating.) and a personalized melamine plate.

{plate purchased from Molly Caroline Designs on etsy.}

My sister, brother and I all had personalized plates that we loved. In fact, we still ate off of them in high school. We need to dig those plates back out for the next time I am at home.

Even though Sarah was busy with the party planning she made me this

adorable apron for my birthday!

She sewed the apron and then embroidered this on there.

The embroidery makes me swoon!

Birthday Extravaganza

This weekend we headed home to attend Ty's nephew's 1st birthday party. It just so happened to be my birthday weekend. (Nathan's birthday is this coming weekend, but the party was a week early so that everyone could attend.) I haven't been at home for my birthday in years. My parents have always traveled to my college town or we have met in the middle.

My grandma took us out for a birthday dinner on Friday and then we made the drive home. We spent late Friday night and Saturday with Ty's family. We had the most gorgeous weather.

Nuts loves to play with Harley as long as Harley is tied up.

Ty's parents' house is down in this valley and is in the middle of a huge plot of land. There were still several trees that had beautiful leaves on them.

Saturday evening was spent at Nathan's 1st birthday party and I will do a post

on it soon. It was adorable!

We spent Sunday with my family. Sunday, the 8th, was my actual birthday.

I love cookie cakes!!!

Mine had a cupcake with sprinkles on it!

We used to always get a cookie cake for everyone's b-day in my family.
If it was your birthday you got to cut out whatever the center design was and have it all to yourself. No one else could eat it. You also had slices of the outside too. But you were guaranteed that center piece. (Yes, my family has some issues with sharing food.)

I was so excited to cut out my cupcake to take home.

My Mom had the table set with her china and my great-grandma's serving pieces.

I have been begging my Mom to let me take these gorgeous green bowls home.

There are 4 or 5 small bowls like the one above and one big bowl.

This picture describes my family perfectly.

Ty, Nuts and I drove home late Sunday afternoon. We celebrated my birthday by getting Chili's To Go (my fave!) and opening presents.

This was one of my gifts from Ty.

It's the kid size snuggie! It is the perfect length for me.
This gift was a complete surprise. He thought that since I spent so much time on the couch I needed something to keep me warm. Not sure if that was a nice comment or not. But hey, now he is encouraging me to stay on the couch!

Nuts kept trying to get under the snuggie with me. Since it is the kids size there isn't quite enough room for him. Plus he is a cover hog.

I told my Mom that Nuts had a Christmas list and he wanted a dog snuggie. I was just joking, but now I think he really does need one, because I'm not sharing!

I had a great birthday weekend with lots of family, presents and fun.