Eliana's 2nd Birthday {Finding Nemo Style}

My favorite little red head turned 2 on March 22nd, but we celebrated her birthday on the 14th. The girls on the soccer team are like big sisters to Eliana and I wanted to make sure they were able to join us for her party- they were all leaving for spring break the next day.

I absolutely LOVE birthday parties! My mom always made sure that our birthdays were a very special day that included a theme party and lots of friends and games. I would love to continue that tradition with my girls. Nate and I have talked about what sort of traditions we would like to do for a our girls, an when we talk about birthday traditions, I just get SO excited! :) :)

Finding Nemo has pretty much characterized the life of Miss Eliana Lou since she was 10 months old until about 4 months ago. We ended up traveling a decent amount after Eliana turned 1 and watching this movie was just about the only thing that would keep her entertained. I'm not sure how parents took trips without the technology we have available today! I am soooooo thankful for our iPad and for Finding Nemo- it has definitely kept me sane on quite a few trips. :)

Here are some pictures from Eliana's Party. 

I can't believe my sweet little girl is 2! She loved her party and two of her favorite gifts were her Mickey Mouse and Woody from us. 

My first attempt at a shaped cake. As long as Eliana knew who the cake was, I was satisfied! :)

Her Birthday Bunting

Nemo Cookies

You can't have a fish party without some gold fish...

Cupcakes. 

We "found" Nemo and he was sitting on the table to welcome the party guests. :0) 

The Table Spread with the desserts/snacks

My poor watermelon "shark" is missing his top row of teeth because I ran out of time, but I still thought it looked cool and so did my little nephew. :)

The blue jello jigglers even had fish "swimming" on them. 

One of my favorite parts about the party was the photo op. All of the party guests wrote Eliana a special message on the chalkboard and had their pictures taken with their message. 

Nate thinks he is so funny sometimes. :)

Our family at the photo op. 

A picture with my beautiful little 2 year old right before we sang Happy Birthday. 

The next two pictures were on Eliana's actual birthday. One of the traditions we would like to continue is to have birthday pancakes for the girls on the morning of their actual birthday.  

 

Eliana LOVES pancakes and she was super excited about the sprinkles and the "2" on her plate.

Since today is all about Eliana we took her out to eat at Pizza Hut since she loves pizza as well.

 {pizza and sweets...this girl is a mini-me!}

I am so incredibly blessed to have this sweet little girl in my life. All I can say is thank you, Lord. 

Duck Dynasty Party!

February 27, 2013...does this date mean anything to you?? Well it does to my family...it was the Season 3 Premier of Duck Dynasty. This show has easily become one of our favorite shows to watch as a family. Even Eliana recognizes the theme song and says "Duck Dynasty?" 

To celebrate the Season 3 Premier, we had some friends over to our house for a little party. :) 

Here are some pictures...

My friend Jami snapped these pictures. 

The two pictures on the left were by our front door. 

Oh, Si. :)

Close-up of my Duck Dynasty Cupcakes.

Some DD cupcakes

Welcome to the party...

Food! 

My Duck Commander labels that I made

One more picture of the table. 

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)