Happy Birthday Rachel!

Yes, this beauty had a birthday on Friday.  She's 13 y'all!  13.  Otherwise known as hormones-are-raging-out-of-control-and-we've-now-become-the-most-stupid-parents-ever.  Just kidding, I don't think we've hit the stupid part yet, but I'm sure it's coming.

Is this not the cutest dang picture?  This girl had so much hair, I had her in pigtails at 6 months!  She was such a good baby, very content and a great sleeper.  Now the 2's &3's?  We won't discuss those ages...as cute as she was, she was a very stubborn/bull headed toddler.  Shocking that this rings true now!

In all seriousness, we are SO proud of this kid.  She is a beautiful, smart, outgoing, independent and strong willed girl.  Or should I say, teenager.  Ugh, that word.

As strong willed and independent as she is, she has a big heart.  Right now her closet is full of blankets she is making to donate to the local women's shelter, and for Christmas she used her money to buy 25 pairs of hats and mittens to donate.  She also volunteers at a group home for developmentally disabled adults.

And with the amount of questions this kid asks in a day (remember the questions you're kids ask when they are 2/3?  Yes, she still asks as many questions now...), I will be shocked if she won't be a lawyer later on in life.

Her birthday was on a Friday so we decided to head on down to the cities.  We did some shopping at the Mall of America (this is like being in hell for people like me who hate to shop) and had supper at the Rainforest Cafe.  She proclaimed it was the BEST BIRTHDAY EVER!  To which Emma replied, "you always say that".  And Alayna said, "moooooooom, I'm hungry...." even though we had eaten exactly an hour before....

On Saturday  Rachel and I had tickets to go see the play "The Secret Life of Girls".  Man oh man, it was an EXCELLENT play.  It was at a very small theater at our local college, no props, and just 9 characters.  It was about a young girl who struggles to find where she belongs in school, and how she gets bullied and then also becomes the bully.  It was phenomenal, and had me crying at the end.  Lots of great discussion from Rach, and I was SO happy that we went!

Happy happy birthday kiddo, we love you lots:)

New Blog Design!

So I have been blogging for about 6 years now and my main goal for this blog was to just document our life.  When I started I was an at home mom that did daycare, now I work outisde the home 4 days a week.  I LOVE to go back and read about our life, you forget some of the cool/fun things you've done.

I did all my own design work on here, but am NOT a techie kind of gal.  This year I was ready to look a bit more "professional".   

Enter Chris from Hubby Jack's Blog Attack.  He emailed me a quick questionnaire about what I was looking for.  Um, I like everything old/antiquey and I wanted to keep my barn door.  And then I said, "good luck buddy"!  Just kidding, it was a bit more detailed than that, but seriously he created a design that I feel is a great representation of me and I didn't have to take out a small loan.

Thanks Chris!

Living Room Gallery Wall

If you read any home decorating blogs, or browse Pinterest much, then you have seen gallery walls before.  I love how you make make it your own.  I did a gallery wall in our family room a few years back, you can read about it here.  I still love that wall, and haven't really made any adjustments to it over the years.

So I was really excited to do one in our living room upstairs.  We have vaulted ceilings, so it's hard to find a picture that will look right.  Tuesday I had a seminar in the cities and I talked my amazing hubs into driving me as I hate driving in the cities.  We took advantage of our day and made a trip to IKEA.  We had never been there and I made a haul with picture frames!  I bought black and white frames of all different sizes and also used ones I already had.

It's not finished yet, I still have a couple spaces and frames to fill, but I love how it turned out.  There is so much history and love in those pictures.

Linking up to:
Tatertots and Jello
Red Head Can Decorate
That DIY Party

Quinoa Vegetable Skillet

I recently completed the Advocare 10 day Cleanse.  Its a cleanse that includes a fiber drink, herbal cleanse supplements and probiotics.  Now, I am not one who typically tries cleanses.  Number 1, I am afraid I will be needing to use the restroom at work every 2 hours and I do NOT want to feel like I may crap myself at any moment...Number 2, most cleanses are about eating hardly any food and drinking weird stuff like apple cider vinegar with cayenne pepper..huh? 

So anyway, I was pleasantly surprised with this cleanse.  It's 10 days of really watching what you eat, I exercised like normal and ate very clean.  After the 10 days I lost 3 pounds.  Now, I would imagine that I would have lost those 3 pounds without the cleanse, but I will say that my energy was through the roof and I just felt better.  Might also be from the beer I refrained from having.  Just kidding, I still had a couple...

One of my favorite meals I cam up with was this Quinoa Vegetable Skillet.  It was SUPER easy to make, and very satisfying.

Skillet Vegetable Quinoa

Prepared quinoa *I keep a bag of prepared quinoa in my freezer

2-3 Tbl. olive oil

Chopped onion and garlic

Sugar snap peas

Shrimp

Crushed red pepper

Shredded Parmesan cheese

*Heat the olive oil over medium heat, and add onion.  Saute until softened and translucent.  Add sugar snap peas and cook until crisp tender, add garlic.  Stir in shrimp (or chicken) and red pepper flakes and turn heat to low, cover and cook for a few more minutes.

Like I said, it is very satisfying and I love the added heat the red pepper flakes give it.

Linking up to:

Redhead Can Decorate