Brand New Nephew!

Welp it's a Greyson post! Precious baby boy was born March 27th weighing 6lbs 14oz and 20 inches long. He is incredibly adorable and I can't wait until Monday to go see him in person! 

Some of my family were there when he was born so they sent me photos.

There is nothing like fresh out of the womb baby!

Proud new daddy!

I love this precious little family! Walter and Greyson are going to get in so much trouble together :)

Not About Steaks

I know I promised that my next post would be about Travis making amazing steaks but this just seems better:

My sister Lexi is having her baby as we speak!! 

I'm so very excited for her and her husband Alex! Little baby Greyson is going to be just awesome :)

I feel like I've been documenting all of Alex and Lexi's big moments in their lives and I really wish I could be there to take photos of their baby being born. But I am definitely going to be taking some photos once that little guy comes here! 

I took their engagement photos:

And their wedding photos:

I didn't take this photo (her mother in law did) but I just love it:

My family has been snap chatting pics of her all day haha!

Sooooo excited! Next post may be steaks or it may be baby Greyson haha! We shall see :)

Wednesday

I suck at thinking of interesting titles for my blog posts...

Today was a busy and fun day. Since I'm off on Wednesdays I always use the day to clean my house. About every other day I pick up the house but on Wednesdays I super clean the house. I scrub the bathroom and kitchen, mop the floors, dust, vacuum, do laundry... you know the heavy duty housework. Today I woke up early and got all my chores done because my bestie Angelia and her son Ace were coming over! WOO! 

It was a really great time to get the babies together and to visit with each other. Sometimes it's nice to have a long meaningful conversation with an adult. I also used that time to vent about things. Having someone to vent to it also very nice :) 

Action Ace and Wiggly Walter

The wonderful Angelia brought me a cookie and coffee. Good Girl! But since I was up early and had the time I managed to make some cookies too. I found this recipe on Pinterest for Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Quinoa cookies and I have everything in my cabinet to make them so I did!

They were pretty good! Kind of tasted like no bake cookies. They may have peanut butter and chocolate chips in them but there isn't any white sugar or flour and that's count for something, right? hehe

And of course my baking buddy, Mr. Walter.

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

• 2 cups cooked quinoa
• 1/2 cup peanut butter (chunky or smooth)
• 3 tablespoons pure maple syrup
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
• 3/4 cup rolled oats
• 1/2 cup unsweetened, shredded coconut (I left these out)
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Combine quinoa, peanut butter, maple syrup, salt, and oats in a large mixing bowl. Using an electric mixer on low/medium speed, combine ingredients well. I didn't allow quinoa to cool so it melt the chocolate chips :/

3. Stir in chocolate chips.

4. Scoop and mold dough into round, tablespoon-sized cookies.

5. Place cookies on parchment-paper-lined baking sheets and bake for approximately 20 minutes, until bottoms are nicely browned.

6. Allow to cool completely before storing.

P.S. Next post involves steak...Mmmmm... 

Weekend Update

Have you ever watched the Weekend Update segment of SNL? It's hilarious. Here is my weekend update. It's not that funny but it'll do. 

Went to my friend Michelle's bridal shower on Saturday. In just a couple weeks she will marry Travis and I's good friend Paul. 

After the shower we got to have some family hangs. 

That's our friend Paul holding Walter btw ;)

Sunday we had church and I watched the nursery. We have so many babies at church now so the nursery is full! Good thing I had two helpers. Then we had lunch with friends and I got to take a nap! It was great. There is something about a Sunday afternoon nap. 

Walter had a super cute outfit :)

We ran some errands this morning before I had to be at work. 

I got a new dress! 60% off at DressBarn! Super duper deal! I'll probably wear it to the wedding. 

I wore weird socks and tennis shoes with leggings today. It was comfortable so I kind of didn't care. 

The rest of the week looks like groceries, cleaning, working, cooking and then friends visiting. I'm excited about friends visiting because I'm hoping to take a lot of photos!

Makin Stuff

Tonight for dinner I really wanted to try this recipe that has been floating around Pinterest for a while. It's a one pot (less dishes!!) pasta dish. It is so delicious and it taste like it took forever but totally didn't!

Here's how mine turned out. I really wish I had better lighting in my kitchen... Im seriously thinking about buying a soft box hmm...

Notice the ground sausage. My husband is a major meat eater so I cooked up some spicy pork sausage so he can add it to the pasta. 

Here is the recipe that I used:

Ingredients:
12 ounces linguine pasta
1 can (15 ounces) diced tomatoes with liquid
1 large sweet onion, cut in julienne strips
4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
2 teaspoons dried oregano leaves
2 large sprigs basil, chopped
4 1/2 cups vegetable broth (regular broth, not low sodium)
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Parmesan cheese for garnish

Method:1. Place pasta, tomatoes, onion, garlic, and basil in a large stock pot. Pour in vegetable broth. Sprinkle on top the pepper flakes and oregano. Drizzle top with olive oil.

2. Cover pot and bring to a boil. Reduce to a low simmer and keep covered and cook for about 10 minutes, stirring every 2 minutes or so. Cook until almost all liquid has evaporated – leave about an inch of liquid in the bottom of the pot – but you can reduce as desired.

3. Season to taste with salt and pepper, stirring pasta several times to distribute the liquid in the bottom of the pot. Serve garnished with parmesan cheese.

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We are having guests stay with us Friday night and they will be sleeping in our guest room in the basement. Right before we had Walter we had a dog named Joey who was so awesome. We gave Joey to Travis's grandma because she needed the company. Anyways! Joey peed on the carpet downstairs a few times and I have scrubbed that carpet and it never smelled right! I didn't want our guests to have to sleep in a pee smelling room so I looked to the internet for a homemade carpet deodorizer.

Here is what I found and it actually works amazingly!

These are the ingredients: 

Recipe:

1/2 cup Borax

1/2 cup Baking Soda

1 T of cinnamon

(I did cinnamon because I didn't have any essential oils. Plus I love cinnamon!)

Mix together and put into a container that you can sprinkle on your carpet, let sit for about an hour then vacuum! I found an old powdered sugar shaker at Goodwill Outlet last year and never used it until now! 

Playing with the Camera at Work

The other day I had some down with the kiddos and they are were being really good so I did a little photo shoot. The room where I watch the babies has great lighting and white walls which helps reflect the light and give a nice clean look. I am only posting the photos of Walter because I want to respect the other baby's parents. They may not be the very best baby photos ever, but this is a personal best for me.

Not a lot of smiles today but I'm okay with that. The last photo I took because I just liked all of the colors! Baby toys are quickly filling up our house and the colors and sounds make me happy :)

Walter and Coco

Here's a little video of Walter lauging at Travis's grandparent's poodle. It's kind of cute :)

A New Clock

The weather was so beautiful today! It was sunny and warm. Walter and I ate lunch with our friend Sarah and her babies, Hazel and Hogarth. After that I had plans to run some errands but it was just so nice that I took Walter to the park instead. We sat and enjoyed the weather and little guy also got to eat. There is something about breastfeeding outside... it just feels right :)

I wish I would have brought my camera but I totally forgot. We did get some post nap shots though.

I bought this wooden shoe at Goodwill not that long ago and Travis thought I was a weirdo for buying it. It looks like it was hand carved and it was just really interesting. I was thinking of maybe painting it but it also looks pretty awesome just plain. 

We went and visited Travis's grandparents the other day and it is always nice visiting them. They live on a farm and they have a ton of land. A one point they had a ton of cows, llamas, alpacas, peacocks, turkeys and a donkey! Travis's grandpa (Junior or Sunny) said at one point they had chickens and milk cows. I say this almost everyday but I really want a small farm. I think Travis and I are going to make that happen.

While we visited Junior and Rosemary, Travis asked them about this certain clock that has been sitting on their piano for ages. Junior told us that his grandma gave it to him when he was younger. That would be Travis's Great Great Grandma! Junior also told us that it was at least 150 years old! I couldn't believe it! It was just gorgeous! Something else I couldn't believe was that after we talked about the clock for a while Junior gave it to us! He told us that his grandpa's name was also Walter and wanted it to stay in the family and for us to give it to out Walter someday. I almost started crying it was just so sweet.

I know this is kind of lame but I took a picture of myself... I know everyone has their opinion on the "selfie". I just felt good and pretty today and I wanted to take a photo!