Dacen's New Ride!

     This last weekend was a nice a relaxing one! The weather warmed up a little so Dacen got to take his new Christmas present from Santa for a ride!  Santa picked this hot ride up at Target's Black Friday sale!  Dacen LOVES it!!!  My husband and I had so much fun watching him laugh and smile! Let me tell ya those little cars can pick up and go!  We had to jump out of the way a couple of times!  Oh my goodness! Help us when Dacen turns 16!

Chicken Roll-Ups!

     On Sunday nights we like to cook and make a meal that we can eat for left overs on Monday! We also make meals that tend to take a little longer, since we seem to have more time.  Tonight we made chicken roll-ups!  This is a recipe my husband introduced to our family cookbook! Not sure if there is a different recipe for this one or if they are called something different.  My husband and I just call them "chicken roll-ups". I thought I would share his recipe with you since they are so yummy! 

Ingredients:

2 packages of chicken breasts
1 box of Chicken Stove Top Stuffing

Tools:

Plastic wrap 
Mallet 
Toothpicks (optional)

1. First you lay out a sheet of plastic wrap.

2. After you rinse off the chicken breasts lay them on the plastic wrap.

3. Now place a piece of plastic wrap on the top of the chicken breasts. 

4. Take the mallet and hammer the chicken breasts that are laying between the two sheet of plastic wrap until they are about a quarter inch to a third of inch thick. 

5. Next you make your Stove Top. We usually follow the instructions for using a stop top however, there are microwave instructions on the box too.

6. Then you are going to take the Stove Top Stuffing and spread it across a chicken breast. 

7. Next roll up the chicken breast with the stuffing inside.  Repeat for each chicken breast. If you are having a hard time keeping the chicken breasts rolled up you can use toothpicks to keep them in place.

8. Lightly brown the chicken rollups in a frying pan on the stove. 

9. Once they are brown place them in a casserole dish and bake for 30-45 minutes on 350 degrees. 

     These chicken-rollups go great with just about any side dish!  Tonight for our side dishes we made mashed potatoes using new red potatoes and corn on the cob that we threw on the grill. 

Taking Down the Christmas Tree!

     
     Today I am attempting to take down our Christmas tree!  Usually, we take our tree down on New Year's Day!  However, we ended up being so busy this week that I am just now getting around to it!  When it comes to taking the tree down I always wish I had a secret closet in my house made just for my Christmas tree!  I have heard of people having these magical closets or places of storage for their tree and when it's time to put it up they can just pull it out and TA DA! Yep, that would be nice :)  However, since we do not have a Christmas tree closet or wondrous place of storage I will be tackling the job of "taking down the tree" today! Here is a picture of our tree this year!  I actually made my own Christmas tree skirt this year.  No sewing at all!  Which was perfect for me! I don't know the first thing about sewing, however, it is on my bucket list to learn! I found this no sew idea on Pinterest! How to Make a No-Sew Ruffled Christmas Tree Skirt It can be time consuming but I just worked on mine a little bit every night after Dacen went to bed.  It took me about a week, but I did a lot of ruffles! If you put a Christmas tree up when do you take yours down? 

Little Sister!

    

     I thought I would introduce to you my little sister Dacey!  You will be hearing a lot about her on my blog!  Dacey and I are 9 years apart!!!  I am 29 and she is 20!  Dacey is not only my sister, but my best friend! Growing up I liked to think of myself as her mini mom. However, now that she is in college it doesn't even seem like we are so far apart in age! Dacey helps out with Dacen A TON plus we are always hanging out!  So I thought it would be appropriate to do a little blog post on her!  Plus, I wanted to give a shout out to her YouTube channel! Dacey also has a blog, which is daceycouture, but her passion is making YouTube videos!  Dacey is a YouTube partner! If you have not seen her channel you should definitely check it out!  Her channel is daceycouture.  She mostly talks about beauty but she also has a series on her channel called College Couture, where she talks about all topics related to college!  It would mean the world to me if you checked her channel out and subscribed!  She is the best sister, the greatest best friend in the world, and the most AMAZING Auntie Dacey! 

     Click below to check out her latest YouTube video! 

Decisions, Decisions!

     My husband and I are in the process of building a home!  It's very exciting!  However, there are tons of decisions to make.  I am one of the world's worst decision makers! I am the girl that stands in line for two hours in a gift shop looking for the right souvenir or present! The girl who can never decide on what to wear or what to order at Starbucks!  Yep, that is me! I am thankful to have my better half, Steve, who has been patient with me through this decision making process! If it was not for him we would probably still be deciding on the floor plan! Our home is coming along and is scheduled to be finished sometime in March!

     Throughout this home building process I have found myself paying closer attention to things I never thought I would.  Windows for example!  I never even knew there were so many designs!  When it came time to pick out our windows, I found myself staring at windows everywhere!  I even found myself saying, "Oh, honey, look at that! That one is the such and such design!"  If you had asked me a month ago to name the design of a window I would have said, "Um, square???" LOL! Then there is brick and rock... I can't even begin to tell you the number of choices! 

     So, where are we in the building process you might wonder?  Well, as of now we have all of the items on the outside of the house picked out, such as, windows, brick, rock and stucco, except for the paint.  Now we are deciding on the inside items.  We have our carpet, wood floors, and tile picked out. The next two big things we are needing to decide on is the granite and the paint colors!  I would love to hear if you have any suggestions!!! Can't wait to share our home building journey!  Here are some pics I found on my phone so you can see the progress so far! 

Stew: It's What's for Dinner!

Tonight I made one of my favorite recipes!  Stew!  Whenever it is a really cold day or yucky weather outside I love making stew for dinner!  Today is definitely one of those cold days! My stew recipe was handed down from my momma.  You may hear her referred to as Granny J at times on here! That is what Dacen calls her! Anyway, I thought I would the share the recipe with you! You can adjust the ingredients to your liking!  You might want to add or subtract ingredients.  For example, when my mom makes it, she adds tomatoes.  But since my husband is not a big fan of tomatoes I leave them out! Now, a big heads up, I am by no means a chef, food critic or do I know the correct way to type up a recipe but here goes! :) 

Ingredients:

1 package of stew meat or your favorite steak cut up
Meat tenderizer (a few generous sprinkles) 
Onion (very small amount)
1 15 oz. can of Veg All
1 15 oz. can of corn
3 8 oz. cans of tomato sauce
2 Large baking potatoes

1. Boil water and meat in pot. Generously sprinkle in some meat tenderizer and add your chopped onions (these two items are just added for flavoring and tenderizing).  Let boil for about 20-25 minutes or when the meat is done to your liking. I am a well done meat kinda girl! 

2. After the meat is done boiling, drain your water.  I also remove the onions. 

3. Next add the potatoes. I usually skin and dice them up. 

4. Add water back in until the potatoes and meat are covered just a tiny bit. Boil these two together until the potatoes are almost soft. 

5. Next add in Veg All, Corn, and Tomato Sauce.  

6. Let simmer for 25-35 minutes. The longer it simmers the better! 

Super easy, yummy, and one of the best leftovers ever! 


  

New Year's Resolution for 2013: Start A Blog!

Happy New Year!!! My name is Devin.  My New Year's Resolution for 2013 is to start a blog!  So here I am trying this blogging thing out! I have NO idea what I am doing, so please hang in there with me!!! Any tips you have are much appreciated :)  My husband is Steve and our little boy is Dacen. 

Dacen is 2 years old and the greatest gift from God! We also have a little pomeranian named Bailey and a lab named Boomer. Have you ever heard of champagne wishes and caviar dreams?  Well, it's more like milk wishes and cookie dreams with this family! LOL! We feel truly blessed and want to share our life journey!  I want this blog to be a place where we can look back on all the memories we make this year!  So, here's to a blog lovin' 2013!!!