Holiday Re-cap and Birthday Party

After a very successful and busy Christmas, I am happy to say the holidays are almost over. I had a wonderful time seeing my family and friends, however, it was really tiring. It was one busy day after another. So now after baby boy's first birthday yesterday and my last Christmas party tonight I will have a few days of relaxation before heading off to the dells! Exciting! 

Anyways. For the birthday party yesterday, I used some ideas I found on Pinterest. Obviously! 

The food: Salsa Chicken. Let me start by saying: I LOVE CROCKPOT COOKING. It is just so easy. And there are so many options. This was probably my 4th time making this recipe and it is really good. The original pin brought me here to Texas Fit Chicks blog. If you are too lazy to go to the link, the recipe is:
1 cup frozen corn
2-3 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 can rinsed black beans
1.5 cups of chunky salsa. 
(I didn't actually measure any of this. And I tripled the recipe. Roughly 7 chicken breasts, 3 cans of corn and beans, and two jars of salsa (one large & one small). It fed 12 people with enough left over for another meal for a family of 5! We made the burrito with it.)
It is super easy and super good. I like to let the chicken cook almost the whole time and then make pulled chicken. I used the entire mixture of beans, corn, chicken and salsa and put it in a tortilla with taco/burrito fixings. It was a hit. It is going in my recipe book for sure. Next time I make it I will have to take a picture!

Apple slices. Also a HUGE hit. I cut up 4 apples and they were all gone in about 20 minutes.    The original link brought me here. All you do is cut up an apple or two really thin slices and soak the slices in a bowl. In the bowl you squeeze the juice of one orange and one lemon (more if needed). Enough so that all the slices are covered. Put the bowl in the fridge for 30 minutes-2 hours. SO GOOD.

The biggest thing that happened yesterday, was my little man turning 1. ONE!?!? How did that happen? Of course I had to take a few pictures ( by a few I mean like 175??) I got the idea for the pictures I took here. I loved the idea of 3 different pictures but that go together and have a message. Here are a few of the pictures I took. 

I think I got a few pretty good shots of him. I will have to get a few printed before his party to put out. Maybe even a few wallets or sizes for people to take at the party next weekend. Thank goodness I still have some time to decide which ones I want to use. But I think these turned out pretty well. I'm still a rookie photographer but I love capturing the moments. 

I recently decided I was going to put scrapbooking on hold, since I have no time and limited funds, but I wanted to have a way to display my photos from the last year besides the 10 picture frames. So I decided to make a family yearbook. I saw a deal on amazon for photo books at Photobin.com. So i started one. I am currently 100 pages in and am only at July in my pictures. Theres more work to be done. But I am excited to get it printed! :) I will post pictures of that when it's done! 

Time to get ready for the last Christmas Party of the year! Hope everyone has had a wonderful holiday season. My new years resolution will have to be blogging more! 

Until next time,
-Amanda :) 

The holidays are upon us!

I must be the worst blogger in the world! (or the busiest student/mom ever...either way!)

I can't believe we are already into december, and the holidays are upon us. It is Colton's first official Christmas and I want it to be special, I am aware he won't remember it, but it doesn't even matter. I went through a stage back in high school and my first few years of college where I dreaded the holidays. Let's be honest, they are A LOT of work, especially when you are broke. Trying to find gifts for everyone with no money, and the awkward moment when someone gives you a gift and you haven't gotten them anything....yeah DREAD! But this year I am totally into it! Although I really shouldn't be spending the money, cause being in college with a baby doesn't leave me much money to work with, I love buying gifts! I went black friday shopping and everything! I haven't been so proud of myself in a while. 

First of all one of my favorite holidays ever...THANKSGIVING!!!! I love it. The food, the family, the last 24 hours you have money... I love it. It has always been one of my favorite holidays. Starting on Thanksgiving it is okay to listen to Christmas music and decorate for Christmas. It is such an exciting time. 

Being the organized (haha) mom I am, I am trying to not be a procrastinator this year and wanted to get christmas cards ordered and out by the first week in December. So I needed to take some pictures of Colton. This of course is one of my favorite things to do, but since the weather has gotten colder it is harder to get outside and do them. Unfortunately, I do not have good lighting for indoor pictures and prefer the natural light the outdoors offers. But there is not much of a choice anymore so I went to Pinterest of course to get some cute ideas. I had seen something a while back of a child wrapped in lights for pictures and another where a mom had used wrapping paper as the background. I really liked both of those ideas, and I searched for them again, but couldn't find them :( Anyways, I decided to combine them(? honestly I could have seen this exact thing, I don't know, but I am not trying to take credit for something I have seen!) and take some Christmas pictures! Here are a few that turned out well!

I got the santa pajamas at Target and the wrapping paper at Walmart. I set up the background by taping the wrapping paper to the floor and wall, I made sure to tape it to the floor as close to the wall as possible. And I plugged in some christmas lights, I had to borrow some from my neighbor since I couldn't find ours. I think multicolored lights would have worked well too. 

We had to sing some Mickey Mouse Clubhouse songs to get the smiles, but even the blank stare is kinda cute. Overall I think they turned out well. 

WARNING: If you do this with a toddler, they WILL eat the lights! 

Exhibit A:

He didn't actually bite them, but he likes to put stuff in his mouth. (Don't worry we were watching him closely!) 

So I got the Christmas cards ordered and I believe they are done, I will have to wait until I am back home this weekend to pick them up or have my mom do it. I can't wait to see them and get them sent out. I feel as though I have accomplished a lot already! On black friday I watched How the Grinch Stole Christmas and wrapped gifts! Yay holidays! 

Now all thats left is buying and wrapping the rest of the gifts, and planning a birthday party for my soon to be ONE-YEAR-OLD! I can't believe how fast time flies!  It has been a great start to the holiday season and I can't wait to be done with my classes to really start enjoying!

I hope everyone has been enjoying the start of the holiday season, and have had as much luck getting stuff done as I have!

Until next time...(I know that is usually a while)  :) 

-A