Gallery Wall

This is one of my favorite wall decorations in my house. 

I love being able to display a ton of my family pictures in a neat, organized way!

Over half of the frames in the collage are from goodwill that I got for less than $2 a piece and spray- painted them black. I got the family sign and "C" from Hobby Lobby and the green circle frame was also from goodwill that I spray- painted- that's probably my favorite part. :)

Easy Beef and Bean Echiladas

This is a new family favorite of ours! 
They are very simple beef enchiladas and they taste amazing. 

Original Recipe- Food.com

Ingredients: 

1 lb ground beef

1/4 cup chopped onion

1 teaspoon minced garlic

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce

1 teaspoon paprika

1 teaspoon oregano

1 teaspoon chili powder (this can be adjusted based on preference) 

1/2 teaspoon cumin

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1 can of black beans (refried beans taste great too) 

3 cups shredded cheese 

1 (10 ounce) can enchilada sauce 

12 whole wheat tortillas (corn tortillas work well too) 

oil

Directions:

1) Brown ground beef with onion and garlic. Drain.  

2) Add next 8 ingredients (worcestershire sauce through beans).

3) In another skillet, heat oil.

4) Add tortillas, one at a time, for 10 seconds on each side.

5) Drain on paper towel.

6) In 9x13 baking pan, pour just enough enchilada sauce in the bottom to coat the bottom of the pan.

7) Fill each tortilla with a spoonful of meat mixture.

8) Cheese can be put inside each enchilada at this time, if desired.

9) Roll tortilla and place seam side down in pan.

10) Continue with remaining tortillas.

11) Pour remaining enchilada sauce over tortillas and top with cheese.

12) At this time, pan may be refrigerated for several hours or overnight.

13) Bake in 350 degree oven for 20 minutes (30 minutes if refrigerated).

Enjoy!

This meal is easy to make ahead and store in the refrigerator and then just pop in the oven when dinner time rolls around. This would also make for a good meal to take over to a friend's house. 

New Favorite Paint

When we moved into our duplex, I was looking for some kind of paint that I could use to cover up the nasty bronze chandelier in our dining room. I was thinking about spray painting it, but I really did not want the hassle of unhooking the light fixture, taking it outside, painting it, and then hooking it back up.   I'm in my 3rd trimester, and just the thought of doing all of that drained my energy. ;)


So, while on the hunt for paint, which started at home on Pinterest and led me to Home Depot, I found this awesome little aisle of Martha Stewart paint. And this is where I fell in love...I mean...found my new favorite paint!

This is the finish and color I chose...Metallic Paint in Cast Bronze. It only cost around $6 and it goes a long way. I posted some pictures of different things around my house that I have painted. 

And I've only used about half the container of paint after doing all of these little paint projects. 

Light switch covers. 

My $2 good-will find. 

The nasty old bronze light fixture :)

And about 10 or so handles for my dresser {my latest project- pictures to come later}

So fun! 

{Tutorial} Simple Hair Bow

Here is a simple, no-sew tutorial for hair bows!

Materials Needed-- scissors, hot glue gun, felt {or any material of your choice} , measuring tape {or ruler}, hair clips and/or ribbon for a headband.

Start out by cutting a piece of felt 2 inches wide by 8 inches long. You can adjust the length and width depending on the size of bow you're looking to make.

Cut out a piece of felt that is 2 inches long by about a 1/2 inch wide. 

Now take your longer piece of felt and fold it to make the sides meet. Try to get the sides to be as even as possible. 

Put a thin strip of glue on each side of the felt to hold them in place. 

This is what your felt should look like after you're done gluing down the sides. 

Flip the felt over so you can fold it to get the desired look you want for your bow. You can either pinch in the middle like I did, or you you can make the inside puff out a little. It just depends on how you fold the felt. It took me a little while to figure out how to fold the felt to get the look I wanted. You'll have to mess around with it :)

Once you have your desired "look", go ahead and place a small of drop of glue on each fold of the felt to get the center to hold in place. 

Now take your smaller piece of felt to wrap around the center of the bow. 

Glue each side to the back of the bow. 

And here is the finished product! Now you can either attach a metal hair clip or a head band to the back of the bow.  

I choose to go with a head band for baby #2. 

So there ya go- a simple hair bow that DOESN'T require a needle and thread! ;) And the nice thing about felt is that it comes in many different colors, so you can make lots of bows in many different colors! 

The Gender Reveal Party {Better Late than Never}

We wanted to do something a little special for baby #2 since it seems like this pregnancy has been flying by! We decided to not find out the gender right away, but to be surrounded by friends and bite into cake balls to be surprised. :)

I started off the morning by going to the 20 week ultra-sound by myself because Nate had a meeting he couldn't get away from. I got to see our sweet little baby moving all over the place! The ultra-sound technician stuck the gender in an envelope and I had to wait till that evening to know what was inside!!

Here is a picture of me with the envelope.

I dropped off the envelope with a family friend who was going to be making cake-balls that contained the color related to the gender of the baby, so the inside was going to be either pink or blue.

At 6 that night, we had friends show up for the Gender Reveal Party. Here are some pictures of the party and the decorations...

Pick your team. Boy- grab a mustache. Girl- take a pair of lips

The gender-revealing cake balls!

The baby's picture

The Table complete with a boy side and a girl side

The Cake-Balls again

                                    
                                                            Our Family with the table

Taking a bite....it's a GIRL! {BTW- I was completely shocked! I was so sure it was a boy.}

Eliana taking a bite of the pink cakeball

It's pink- we're SO excited about having another little girl 

The Party Guests holding up their respective mustaches or lips 

I'm so glad we were able to do something fun for baby #2 and to create a fun memory as a family :0)

A year in the life of Eliana Lou

I can't believe my baby girl just celebrated her first birthday this past week. She has brought so much joy into our lives and I'm so thankful for God blessing us with this sweet girl.

It hasn't always been easy, but thanks be to God for his grace and leading in our lives to allow us to raise up this little girl for His glory. I pray that I will always keep raising children in perspective. It's not about me and how they affect my life. It's all about Christ and what He has called me to do. It's all about raising children who will serve Him.

Proverbs 22:6- "Train up a child in the way he should go, Even when he is old he will not depart from it."

The First Year of Eliana Lou...

Our family at Eliana's 1st birthday party!

March 24, 2012

3 Years and Counting...

Today Nate and I celebrated 3 years of "wedded bliss." I can honestly say that the past three years have not been entirely blissful. We have had our hard times, our arguments {wait, I mean disagreements:) }, our ups and downs, our fun times, our goofy times, our "laugh-out-loud" funny times, and I wouldn't trade any of them. Each trial and experience we have gone through has strengthened not only our relationship with each other, but our relationship with our Lord and Savior. I am so thankful for the godly man that the Lord has blessed me with. We have such different personalities, yet we are just so perfect for each other. We complement each other very well. I am a pretty balanced mix of Sanguine/Choleric where Nate is all Phlegmatic! It is humorous at times how different we really are. :)

Our Anniversary Dinner at Olive Garden

Ten Things I Love About My Nate-the-Great:
1. His beautiful, blue eyes
2. His ability to always make me laugh, even when I'm mad at him
3. His passion and desire to do what God wants him to do
4. The way he'll sit and listen to me ramble about "nothing"
5. The way he loves on our sweet Eliana
6. His love for soccer and how he wants to use it as a platform for the glory of God
7. How he always knows the right thing to say
8. His desire to be constantly growing as a Christian, husband, and daddy
9. His ever-improving ability to lead me and our family
10. His hugs and kisses:)