Happy Friday!

Hi Friends! How are you? I know, I know. It’s been too long! I’m so sorry. Please forgive me! I wish that I had an awesome excuse for the absence of posts the past month – like a really big promotion at work or a last minute family adventure overseas. But I don’t. Honestly, life has been pretty normal. After the “craziness” of the Holiday’s, we eagerly settled back into our regular routine. (Well, normal sans daily blog posts for me. Ugh!) But I’ve been missing you all and have some things I would like to share…

Gabby is back at school, and loving it! (Check out the last pic in this post.)

Did you happen to catch the amazing sample sale at Calypso St. Barth? I snagged an awesome Caftan for 90% off. I cannot for summer!

I received a copy of the Smitten Kitchen Cookbook for Christmas (Thanks, A!) and I cannot stop reading it. I’ll be sure to pass along my favorite recipes!

My favorite blogger, Cup of Jo, is expecting! So happy for her!

I made us dinner reservations here for a pre-valentine’s day treat. Yum.

And finally, big “happy birthday” wish to my sister  who turned 21 yesterday! Cheers! We are so excited to celebrate with you this weekend! xxoo

Have a great weekend and a pretty morning!

lake como italy{image: source unknown; Lake Como, Italy}

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hi Friends! Happy Monday! How are you? How was your weekend? Are you ready for Thanksgiving? Can you believe it is just days away?!

I am signing off early from blogging this week to prepare our home for family and friends. I hope you understand! My wish is for  you each to have a pretty morning, a wonderful week and a very special Thanksgiving celebration! xxoo

For each new morning with its light,

For rest and shelter of the night,

For health and food,

For love and friends,

For everything Thy goodness sends.

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Thanksgiving Menu

Thanksgiving is a week away! Whoa. Can you believe it? This year we are hosting Thanksgiving at our house for the first time. We are so excited! I have been working on the menu and wanted to give you a sneak peek…

Thanksgiving 2012 Menu
Shrimp Cocktail
Crudities and Dip
 
Popovers
Harvest Salad
 
Cranberry Sauce
Green Beans
Mashed Potatoes
Herb Butter Roasted Turkey and Gravy

Pumpkin Pie and Vanilla Ice Cream

Luckily, I have a lot of help. And even a few tricks up my sleeve! More to come…

Organization System

It seems that everyone has their own way of staying organized. To-do lists, calendars, and apps like Evernote should make it easy to stay on top of things. But even with all that, I recently felt like I needed more. So I just installed the Pottery Barn Daily System in our kitchen. And I have to say that I love it! I used the Linen Pinboard, Letter Bin and Office Organizer. And we now have a place for mail, magazines, car keys, school papers, invitations, cute pictures and more! How do you stay organized at home?

 {image: Pottery Barn}

Happy “Haunted” Weekend!

Hi Friends! Happy Friday! How are you? How was your week? Are you up to anything spooky or scary this weekend? It’s amazing to think that Halloween is just a few days away and October is almost over. Soon we will be planning our Thanksgiving menus and making holiday shopping lists! Wow.

Next week is a really big week at our house! Gabby starts school on Monday. She is so ready and I am so excited for her. And Alex’s birthday is on Friday. Fun! Plus we have a lot of Halloween activities, including a party on Wednesday night.  So, given all the action at home, I decided to use up some vacation days (yes, from that real job!) and have the week off work. I will also be taking the week off from blogging to make it a true “stay-cation”! This way I can really focus on family, work on some house projects and enjoy a little bit of down time (AKA “relax”)!

Have a great day and a pretty morning (and a fabulous week!). xxoo

 {image: pinterest}

Chicken Soup

There is something about Fall that makes me crave soup. It’s warm and filling and it just makes me feel cozy. Last week, I found a recipe for Chicken Tortilla Soup and decided to try it. I made some changes to the recipe (some were intentional, others not so much) but it turned out great! Here is the original recipe:

INGREDIENTS:

1 (15 ounce) can whole peeled tomatoes,
mashed
1 (10 ounce) can enchilada sauce
1 medium onion, chopped
1 (4 ounce) can chopped green chile
peppers
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups water
1 (14.5 ounce) can chicken broth
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 bay leaf
1 (10 ounce) package frozen corn
1 tablespoon chopped cilantro
7 corn tortillas
vegetable oil
DIRECTIONS:
1. Place chicken, tomatoes, enchilada sauce, onion, green chiles, and garlic into a slow cooker. Pour in water and chicken broth, and season with cumin, chili powder, salt, pepper, and bay leaf. Stir in corn and cilantro. Cover, and cook on Low setting for 6 to 8 hours or on High setting for 3 to 4 hours.
2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
3. Lightly brush both sides of tortillas with oil. Cut tortillas into strips, then spread on a baking sheet.
4. Bake in preheated oven until crisp, about 10 to 15 minutes. To serve, sprinkle tortilla strips over soup.

And here are the changes I made…

-I used all the white meat from a rotisserie chicken.

-I used cream of chicken soup instead of enchilada sauce.

-I omitted the garlic, chili powder and bay leaf.

-I served it with crumbled tortilla chips, add some shredded cheddar and a dollop of sour cream.

It was DELICIOUS!

PS - The Cincinnati Zoo’s new baby giraffe has a name! It’s Lulu! xx

Give Me Grace

Life is starting to get back to normal at our house. The doctor has assured me that this cold virus can take 10-14 days to work its way through the body. 10-14 days!? But, I am going to keep positive thoughts streaming and hope for the best.

Even when Gabby is sick, she still loves her bedtime routine. And one of my favorite parts is reading stories after her bath. We love the book Give Me Grace by Cynthia Rylant. It is truly uplifting and delights the soul. I even catch myself thinking of verses throughout the day.

Give Me Grace by Cynthia Rylant

Monday make me good and kind to all creatures that I find. Help me love God’s whole creation. Make my life a celebration.

Tuesday teach me faith and caring, teach me wisdom, teach me sharing. Raise me up and make strong. Be with me the whole day long.

Wednesday make me full of light. Guide my heart both day and night. Give me gladness give me grace. Shine your love upon my face.

Thursday open up my eyes to your angels in the skies. Let me know their wings are near me, and that they will always hear me.

Friday keep the ones I love. Comfort them from up above. Left their hearts and hold them dear. Help them know that you are here.

Saturday in early morn make me thankful I was born. Give my spirit peace within. Let each day with hope begin.

Sunday in a quiet time, bless this little life of mine. In the wonder of each day, let me live a holy way. Amen.

 {image: Amazon}

Reality Check

Before I sat down to write a post this morning, I reread my Happy Weekend post from Friday. After this weekend, I feel that I owe you all a “reality check” post. It all sounded so dreamy on Friday – fun, fall activities and spending time with family doing the things we love. Our weekend included some of those things, but that does not fully describe reality. Let me know share with you what the last three days were like…

On Friday morning, Gabby woke up screaming with a fever. After an hour of holding her limp, tired body, I called the doctor. They said to bring her in ASAP. We were in the waiting room 20 minutes later. She had a fever of 101 (the first fever of her life), but thankfully checked out fine otherwise. It was a just cold virus. And they said to also watch for croup but otherwise just be patient and nurse her back to health. Since we could not go to the Play Cafe, we stopped at Starbucks on the way home for a treat. (I needed caffeine and she deserved some juice!)

Aunt Adrian arrived home from college and we managed to get out of the house for lunch at Panera. While Gabby napped and Adrian settled in, I went to the gym and to the grocery store to buy our ingredients for dinner. But before we could even start cooking, all the smoke detectors in the house went off. Within minutes the fire department and the police department were at our door. It turns out that the steam from Adrian’s shower set the alarms off and they were dispatched via a home alarm system we have. Since our house is still rather new to us, we had no idea! But it’s great to know they are only minutes away!

Once everything settled down, Alex left for the hockey game with a friend and Adrian and I made a delicious dinner. We had salad, broccoli, roasted potatoes and grilled filets. Yum!

After dinner, we called it an early night and went to bed. Luckily, we all got a good night of sleep! On Saturday morning, we had coffee, cinnamon rolls and berries for breakfast.

Gabby was still not feeling great, so we did not go to the Zoo. While Alex played golf, we went to the mall and grabbed lunch at Nordstrom. Their crab bisque is to die for!

When we arrived home, there was a stray dog in our yard. After two unanswered phone calls to the numbers on his collar, we had to let him be. But Gabby loved chasing after him! We hope “Bucky” found his way home!

 

Adrian and I were able to sneak away for a lovely afternoon at the nail salon. (Thanks, Alex!) When we returned home, we lounged around and snuggled with Gabby. Poor thing! We ordered take-out and watched football. However, Saturday night was rough. Gabby was awake from 2:30-4:30am and both Alex and I did all we could to comfort her. My heart broke knowing how icky she felt!

Sunday morning was rather calm, all things considered. Aunt Adrian left to go back to school and I went to a friend’s baby shower. Gabby took a 4-hour nap! Whoa. Alex and I were hopeful that she would wake up feeling better, but she still felt warm and had a cough. Sigh. What a weekend! xxoo

 

{images: Alli Parlin}

Building Self-Esteem

As a parent, there are a million things that can keep you up at night. Is my child growing and developing as she should? Is she eating enough? Is she happy? And on, and on and on. I am not big on reading parenting articles or books, but every now and again, I find something that is really important. And I think this one is worth sharing…

Help Me Grow is a site dedicated to providing parents information about child development and community resources. The recent post on Nurturing Your Child’s Self-Esteem is excellent. Furthermore, there is a link to Words to Use with Your Kids Everyday that I have permanently memorized… You can use these everyday phrases to instill confidence, self-respect, and thoughtfulness in your children.

  1. Thank you.
  2. Tell me more.
  3. You can do it.
  4. How can I help?
  5. Let’s all pitch in.
  6. How about a hug?
  7. Please.
  8. Good job!
  9. It’s time to…
  10. I love you.

 

“Whatever they grow up to be, they are still our children, and the one most important of all the things we can give to them is unconditional love. Not a love that depends on anything at all except that they are our children.”  -Rosaleen Dickson

 

Happy Weekend!

Hi friends! Happy Friday! How are you? How was your week? Are you ready for the weekend? I am, but I have to admit that I am nervous about our dinner club on Saturday night. We decided to make a dramatic change of plans… instead of serving the Mediterranean menu, we are doing something totally new and different. I promise to tell you all about it on Monday (with photos)! Until then, keep your fingers crossed for us and enjoy these links from around the web…

A cool new place to buy art.

Yum… Milkshakes.

I wished I lived in Seattle so I could try all of these.

Gabby’s school has a blog. It’s so cute!

A parenting guide for the rest of us. LOL

Boden’s Fall Sale (25% off!). And boots! I’m ready for fall!

My alma mater, MSU is playing Notre Dame tomorrow night. GO Green!

And finally, a very BIG Happy Birthday wish to GOOTZ! We are excited to celebrate with you tonight! xxoo

{image of sunset: unknown}

Happy Monday!

Hi Friends! How are you? How was your weekend? Did you do anything fun? We were very busy doing a lot of great activities with the people we love…

  • On Friday night, we took Gabby to a Family Night event with Alex’s parents (Gootz and Grandpa) at the Cincinnati Nature Center. You can see photos here.
  • On Saturday, I went to a baby shower AND a bridal shower while Gabby played with my Mom (YaYa)!
  • On Saturday night, Alex and I played some golf and had a nice dinner al fresco, while Gabby was with her favorite babysitter, Lindsey!
  • On Sunday morning, I did a photo shoot for a friend. Her daughter just turned one!
  • On Sunday afternoon, we met my Dad (Grandad), brother and sister at the Cincinnati Reds game. It was a perfect day for it!

All that in one weekend! Wow! As usual, it’s Monday and I’m exhausted!

Also, I think we have finalized our dinner club menu. I will be sure to share it this week!

Have a great Monday and a pretty morning! xxoo

Happy Monday!

Whoa. What a weekend! How are you? How was your weekend? Ours was packed with so much fun, including family time at the pool on Friday, a trip to Lexington for a bachelorette party on Saturday and a friend’s 2nd birthday party (Elmo theme!) on Sunday. I’m exhausted, and it’s only Monday. This photo is from the Family Camping Night that we went to at our pool. It was so much fun! They serve dinner at the pool, then everyone sets up their tents on the golf course. We did not camp out, but certainly plan to in the years to come.

The image above summarizes our summer… she spent hours in the baby pool (usually wearing a swimsuit, but it was just too hot this weekend!) gazing at all the big kids in the big pool, while eating ice. Have a great day and a pretty morning! xxoo

Happy Weekend!

TGIF! How are you? How was your week? Are you ready for the weekend? Today feels like a Friday even more than usually, because I am home from work! Yippee. I am spending the whole day with my favorite little person in the whole wide world! This morning we are meeting friends at a new play cafe  and tonight we are going to “Family Camping Night” at our pool. It is the perfect ending to summer! We will be heading home after smore’s and campfire songs, but luckily little Gabby is too young to know any different. I applaud all the parents that “rough it” for their kiddos. While I am having fun being a mom today, here are some fun things from around the web…

Goodnight Moon for adults!

There is something about fall that makes me want to carry a new clutch.

I just ordered these pillows from Etsy. I love ikat!

My first Birchbox arrived! Yeah!

I want to try this kid friendly paint (via my good friend, Anna)

An open letter to America’s Teachers

Finally, here is a great quote that we heard at Parent’s Night…

Do not worry that your children never listen to you; worry that they are always watching you.

~Robert Fulghum

Have a great weekend and a pretty morning! xxoo

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