Christmas Card Season!

It's Christmas card season again, and Shutterfly has some great specials right now on all of their Christmas cards. Most of them are 40% off and you can get free shipping on all orders over $30 with the code SHIP30!

Candy Striped Snapshot Christmas Card

Shop Shutterfly's collection of Christmas photo cards.

View the entire collection of cards.

Living Room "Artwork"

We've been in our house 2 years on Friday. Wow, has it already been that long?! We've had the living room in a nearly-finished state that whole time. The big items that was always missing was some sort of art piece behind our sofa where there is really, really big, blank wall. After pouring through idea after idea, we decided to try our hands at something like this we saw on Pinterest:

So, I went to our local Goodwill to look for some frames. I came home with a wide variety of shapes, sizes and colors! Nothing that a good ole' can of ORB spray paint couldn't fix! I was able to snag all of these frames for a mere $20! Can't beat that anywhere!



We then went to Michael's and Joann's, because we had coupons for both and thankfully they are right next to each other, and got some fabric and matting paper for about $10.

Early Saturday morning, we loaded into the car and made a family run to Home Depot. Picked out our board, had the handy-dandy employee cut it down to size (6.5 feet) and then picked up our stain, the braces and few other odds and ends, and for about $45 we were out of there and on our way back home to get to work!

It took 4 DAYS to get the board just right! After applying our first coat of stain, we weren't particularly thrilled with the color. So, we just mixed it with a stain we had leftover from the crib project, and it ended up being just what we wanted! We wanted to do it right, no matter how impatient I became to just 'get it done', I waited the full 24 hours in between staining so that it could dry before I sanded to apply another coat!




Then, the big install night came! It took about 1.5 hours to do all the measuring, centering, measuring, centering, measuring, centering and you get the point! And then.....




How pretty is it!?!? I just looked at it from all different angles including walking in and out of the room several times, for about 30 minutes!

Project Breakdown:

Board- $8.00 (they cut the board for free!)
Braces- $20.00 (they were sold in packs of 2, so we have one extra for another project!)
Stain & Sandpaper- $15.00
Picture Frames- $20.00
Fabric, Matting- $10.00
Accessories- $0.00 (I had most of these on hand around the house)
TOTAL- $73.00 (definitely can't buy a nice and large piece of art for that!)



BEFORE:

AFTER:

Foodgawker

Lately I have been making lots of yummy treats that I have found on foodgawker.com. That site is fantastic, but a total time hog! Unfortunately for a lot of the recipes, I haven't had my camera close by, so no pictures of banana white chocolate almond muffins, blueberry muffins, yogurt dill bread, buffalo chicken pasta, golden lemon roasted chicken (so easy and inexpensive!), paprika potatoes, variety quiche, and rataouille just to name a few! Last night however, these looked so good, I actually went upstairs and got my camera to capture the awesomeness!

These were suppose to be Gouda-Stuffed Mushrooms, but last week when I bought the gouda, I didn't anticipate having to wait a whole week to make this recipe, and we ate it all before last night! So, I had plenty of mozzarella and cheddar on hand, so that's what we used! I also used cilantro instead of basil, because I had some fresh in the refrigerator.

So, without further ado, here is the evidence of yum:

The inspiration recipe can be found here:

http://circle-b-kitchen.squarespace.com/food-and-recipes/2009/12/2/gouda-stuffed-mushrooms.html

Summer Update- Part 2

So, picking up where I last left off of our summer adventures:

In July, we took Amelia on her first plane trip to Virginia/Washington, D.C. We spent a wonderful family-fun-filled weekend with Neal's grandmother, Aunt, Uncle, and cousins. There was lots and lots of swimming, which Amelia just loved. We also were able to have a family reunion of sorts with people from all over Virginia & West Virginia. It was good to see some of these people we only see once every year or so.




Our first trip into D.C. we visited the Air and Space Museum...with about 7.4 million other people, as well as the Native American Museum with about 4 people. (Let's just say it wasn't that the most popular attraction in town, but the building itself is fabulous!)

Neal & Amelia in front of the Amelia Earhart section

On the 4th, we dared to travel into D.C. for the festivities there! Heard the concert in the National Cathedral, and toured the beautiful gardens on the ground there.




Visited with Brian in his digs up in Georgetown and enjoyed some tasty watermelon!



And then, for the grande finale of the day, watched the concert and fireworks on the lawn of the Capitol building. It is always such fun to be in our nation's capitol on the day that we celebrate our declaration of independence...and apparently the entire eastern seaboard thinks so too, because they are all there with us!!

A Long Time Coming- Summer Update Part 1

It has been a very packed summer so far! In some ways we are on the go what seems like ALL the time, in other ways, we are getting to spend a lot of quiet family time together at home, just the 3 of us! Here is just a glimpse at the fun summer activities so far!

May
Coca-Cola 125 Years Celebration in Centennial Park, Atlanta

Enjoying her first taste of frozen strawberry lemonade!

Mother's Day
This was my first Mother's Day with Amelia out-of-utero! It was such a fun day celebrating being a mommy to this precious little girl. Our outfits even matched!





Officer Training School Graduation in Montgomery, Alabama
One of our good friends, Michael, graduated from the Air Force Officer Training School. We went down for the weekend to celebrate his commissioning and graduation.




June
June brought on some major life changes for members of both of our families. Hannah graduated from high school. And we celebrated the start of medical school for Sharon. Also, Amelia really perfected her crawling and now scoots along with determination and speed!

Hannah's High School Graduation Party





Father's Day
Their outfits also matched! We didn't get a picture on the actual day, so we took this one the next day when Neal got home from work. Unfortunately, Amelia just wanted her dinner and was not having a pleasant experience during her photo session with dad!



Swimming with Friends, Lake Allatoona, Georgia
My sweet friend, Kenzie, whom I worked with at the Korean Consulate way back when, has a family lake house on Allatoona. Mom, Amelia and I went over one day to swim with her, her kids, and her mom! Amelia wasn't too fond of the water at first, but she eventually warmed up to it and actually ended up falling asleep while I was holding her in the water!










Sharon's Farewell Party
We celebrated Sharon's achievement of being accepted into Medical school! It is bitter-sweet, because although we are terribly excited for her to be taking this next step in pursing her passion, she will be doing it 8 hours away in West Virginia. We will miss her terribly, but hope to see her in her new home in the not so distant future!





Well, that's all I have time for now. Amelia Jane just woke up from her nap and she is quite vocal about getting out and eating her lunch! July updates will be coming soon, and there might even be a video involved! Oh, yeah, that's the hook for ya!