Friday, November 30, 2012

Thanksgiving 2012

We had a great Thanksgiving.  Lots of good food, good company, and time with family.  Doesn't get much better than that, right?







Mason had a good ole time playing.  It was a gorgeous day!




Our famous self portrait!  There were plenty of people around, so I'm not sure why we took the picture ourselves. 

 

Friday we took a trip to Uncle James' house for another Thanksgiving meal.  Mason enjoyed the ride watching his movies.


And yet again.  Another self portrait. At least we capture the moment, right?  Wow!  I'm getting wrinkles around my eyes!  EWW!



In some families the tradition is to watch football on Thanksgiving.  Our family likes to target practice.  So the guys set up the targets.



Mason enjoyed watching!








That's about it!  Nothing too exciting, which is fine with us!  Just a relaxing weekend.  Oh yeah!  We did shop a little bit, but NOT on Black Friday.  I'm not into camping out for a good deal on a sweater!  HA! 

I hope y'all had a good Holiday too!

Friday, November 16, 2012

Getting older!

Hey y'all!  I guess I'm living up to my older years now.  I have completely let time go by without telling you about my birthday.  Well, I guess I am getting older!  YUCK!  It's really just a number, right and of course, you are only as old as you feel.  Not sure I want to think about that either!  HA!  

I had a fabulous birthday day and weekend!  We spent the part of the day at Pullen Park.  A super nice park near us that has recently been renovated and updated with lots of new features. 
 





The weather couldn't have been more perfect!  We had a great time riding the carousel, the train, and Mason rode the boats.
 








After a fun time at the park, we went to the State Farmers Market Restaurant. If you live in the area or are just passing through, you must have lunch here!  YUMM-O!  Country style!  


 
I even had a little girls night out and went to a jewelry party.  Something about women getting together, laughing and eating.  We had a good ole' time!  They were so thoughtful too!  Had a little cookie cake that was yummy!



With my birthday money (thanks Nina and Papa), I ordered myself a watch! 

Afford to stay on time with a Just Jewelry watch! 

Super cute watches (and jewelry) and super affordable too!  I'm excited to see the watch in person.  I ordered the 'Time To Go' watch, but I really like all of them!   If you are interested in more information or just want to look through the catalog, you can contact Kristin here.

I also got money for new walking/running shoes (more like walking for me) HA!  Grammy and PawPaw gave me new jammies and a monogrammed laptop sleeve.  

My wonderful and talented husband (along with my baby boy), made me some shelves that I have been admiring from Pottery Barn.  He did a great job imitating their work and of course, for a ton cheaper!

Here are pottery barn's shelves:


And here are the ones Kevin made:



I am very pleased with the way they turned out.  He did a great job!  Thanks Babe!  

On Sunday, Grammy, PawPaw, Uncle James, and Lori came over to our house and brought a spaghetti dinner!  Mom (Grammy) also made me a delicious carrot cake, at my request.  So good!  We had a great time eating, talking, and riding Mason's bike.  Yep! For some reason, we all felt it necessary to ride his bike.  I was laughing so hard.  The things we get into are hilarious sometimes! 






Uncle James and Kevin's faces were priceless!  I couldn't stop laughing!  
 




Lori, of course, fit on his bike perfectly!


Thanks to all of my friends and family who made my birthday a little extra special!  I had a great one and hope to have many, many more! Thank You!



Friday, November 09, 2012

Show Us Your Life ~ Side Dishes

Hey y'all!  Today is all about side dishes at Kelly's Korner.  Just as Kelly mentioned.  I feel like we have the same side dish ALL THE TIME.  Veggie and carb.  I have recently discovered, through my friend Melinda, a yummy green bean side dish.

The Pioneer Woman's fresh green beans.  These are so good, but I have to be honest and say I did change the recipe up a bit.  

DSC_0088 

Here is the her recipe (you will need to go to her site for the instructions):  

1 lb green beans
1 cup chopped onion
2 cloves garlic
1/2 cup chopped red bell pepper
2 tablespoons bacon grease (can substitute 1 T butter and 1 T olive oil)
1 cup chicken broth
1/2 to 1 teaspoon kosher salt (can substitute regular table salt; use 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon)
Ground black pepper

As she suggested, I substituted butter instead of bacon grease.  We never have real bacon so I would never have bacon grease.  I have used frozen and fresh green beans and they are both yummy!  There is something about the chicken stock that gives the beans such good flavor and of course, if you use the bacon grease, well, that is even more flavor.  

Another one of my 'go to' side dishes is roasted vegetables.  You can use whatever you have and is in season.  I use red potatoes and carrots a lot.  Just throw your veggies on a sheet pan, drizzle with olive oil, salt, pepper, and maybe even some garlic powder, toss them around to make sure they are evenly coated.  Bake at 400 degrees for 35 minutes (some veggies take shorter or longer times).  Roasted veggies are so flavorful!  

Thanks for stopping by!  I'm looking forward to checking out your recipes too!  

Tuesday, November 06, 2012

Halloween

Trick or Treat!  Mason had it down pat.  He did great holding his bag, saying trick or treat, and saying thank you!

We tried a few new things this year.  Mason didn't have school on Halloween day, so we had a FULL day of activities.  We went to downtown Clayton and trick or treated with our friends from the playgroup.  Most of the businesses we handing out candy.  There were a ton of people there and we had to wait in line for a while, but Mason did pretty good. 












Later in the evening we met Daddy at Church to trunk or treat.  This was actually the first time Mason went trick or treating.  He was a little confused at first.  He asked why we didn't ring the door bell!  HA!