Been A Little Busy...

This is why I haven't been blogging much lately!

We've been:
1. Traveling to Arkansas to see friends and family
2. Decorating and unpacking the house
3. Having a few house guests (brother, brother's girlfriend, two extra dogs, brother-in-law, college friends, brother again, etc.)
4. Planning an engagement party for our friends, Bill & Hillary
5. Getting rear-ended at a red light (all ok just a few scratches on my back bumper)
6. Reading the Hunger Games trilogy (I'm on book 2 and LOVING it)
7. Celebrating two years of marriage!
8. Re-painting our desk and finishing other projects around the house
9. Celebrating Caroline's birthday in Dallas
AND
10. Welcoming our new niece, McKinzie into the world this past Friday, April 13th!


I cannot wait to get to New York City and see this beautiful baby girl and her older siblings- Kate (almost 5) and Wesley (almost 2)! Aren't those the cutest smiles?!? Just precious.

If You Give A Mouse A Cookie..

Remember this adorable children's book?


I can SO relate to this mouse! As I've mentioned, we recently purchased and moved into a new house = really exciting and yummy cookie. Now I need a big {expensive} glass of milk = decorations and furniture.

We obviously can't buy everything we need at once, so I'm scouting Pinterest and the web for cheap ideas. I'm thinking I'll start with some little things that will add a pop here and there. So here are my top two for today:

Idea #1 - give my Kitchen Aid Mixer a pop of color. I totally regret registering for a boring and plain white mixer. I wish I would have gotten a fun bright color. Now I've found an inexpensive way to give this appliance a face lift! For $12 at The House of Smiths Designs you can purchase these vinyl decals to put onto your mixer. I'm thinking about the chevron in a green.



Idea # 2- paint and/or wallpaper the back of my butler's pantry. I'm not sure what color I want to do but right now the clear glasses against white pantry are not working. They just don't stand out.




Again, this idea came from The House of Smiths Designs. You can see her step by step instructions by clicking HERE.

Pictures of the finished products will follow! Wish me luck :)

Packing Fun!

This weekend we begin the packing process as we'll be moving into our new home very very soon!!

Source: notetosarah.tumblr.com via Devon on Pinterest

I'm semi-looking forward to packing as it's a great time to get rid of stuff we don't need or use anymore. I have a ton of clothes that I keep thinking I'll fit into again but I think it's time to say goodbye!

There are so many great tips and tools to get packing done right. Loving these free packing labels from Pinterest.

Source: theprojectgirl.com via Hayley on Pinterest

Right now we have about 10 boxes in our attic that all say "Miscellaneous." Hmm that's helpful!

Go-To Dinner

This is our go-to dinner when we can't decide what we want. It's easy. It's light and it's delicious!



Picture and recipe courtesy of The Little Kitchen That Could.

Roasted Tomatoes
Ingredients
1 pint grape tomatoes
coarse sea salt and freshly ground pepper
extra virgin olive oil

Step by Step
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees
2. Place tomatoes on rimmed baking sheet.
3. Drizzle with olive oil and toss lightly to coat.
4. Generously sprinkle salt and pepper to cover tomatoes.
5. Roast for 15 to 20 minutes.
6. Let tomatoes cool slightly and reserve for pasta.

Caprese Pasta
Serves 4
Ingredients
1 box Angel Hair Pasta
Roasted Tomatoes (recipe above)
1/2 cup torn fresh basil
1 cup fresh mozzarella, cut into small chunks
Coarse Sea Salt
Pepper
Splash of Olive Oil

Step by Step
1. Heavily salt a pot of boiling water and cook according to directions.
2. Drain pasta and return to pan immediately.
3. Add tomatoes, basil, mozzarella and a splash of olive oil.
4. Mix and let mozzarella melt slightly.
5. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Enjoy!

Awesome Surprise

If you know me, you know that I am a flour tortillas and queso kind of girl. There are many times I will only have tortillas and queso for dinner at Mexican restaurants. It's definitely not good for my waistline but who cares!! I always say to David I love Mattito's Bob's dip but their tortillas are not great. In a perfect world I'd have Bob's dip and tortillas from Rosa's Cafe or Chuy's.

So yesterday was Valentine's Day in case you didn't know and typically we spend the holiday at home cooking. This year David asked if we could have "nice Mexican food" for dinner. So he cooked carne asada and I prepared homemade guacamole and sopapilla cheesecake. He walked in the door with Bob's dip and flour tortillas from Rosa's! I was COMPLETELY surprised and so blown away by his thoughtfulness.

It was one of those "you heard me" moments!


Everything was SO delicious, I'm STILL in a food coma.

After dinner we played a couple rounds of Scene It? and was a perfect ending to a perfect evening.

Happy Valentine's Day!

How about a little Valentine's humor?







All joking aside, David and I will enjoy a Valentine's Day dinner at home. We're cooking carne asada, guacamole and having sopapilla cheesecake for dessert! Yum!

We're Under Contract...

David and I are under contract on this adorable house! It's not final until we get the house inspected, appraised and so many other steps but it's still exciting!



We've been searching for quite some time now and fell in love with this house and the area it's in.

Fingers crossed it all works out. We are scheduled to close mid-March!