Birthday, Birthday, Birthday

First off, I have to admit that I lost my camera cord and have not been able to upload photos...KILLER!  I didn't find my cord, but my oh-so-nice friend lent me her fancy smancy card reader thingy.  My photos are back!

Two weekends ago we went back to Dallas for Josh's birthday.  It was the big 3-0, so there was no way we would miss it!!  We went to this fun restaurant down in the Bishop Arts area with the whole fam!

The Birthday Boy!

The gang!

...Didn't want to start a fire with all those candles... :)

 

Similarities?  I think so!

Our grandparents are pretty cute, if I do say so myself. :)

We're not all looking, but it was the best one I had. 

Dad's birthday is three days after Josh's.  Since we wouldn't be there for the actual day, we went to brunch to celebrate.  He got to open our gift early!

 A K-State shirt!  (He always switches between his A&M and OU shirt, so we thought he needed to add his own college into the mix!)

In addition to two birthdays I've celebrated for my whole life, we have a new birthday to celebrate the same week too!!  Our new niece , Addison Jolie, was born on the 23rd!  We obviously weren't there for the big day, but are looking forward to meeting her over Easter!  Here's a sneak peak of the cutie!!

Look at those little feet!!

Baby and Mom!

 And the new family of five!

3 birthdays in 6 days...can't wait to celebrate again next year!!  Happy Birthday Dad and Josh, and welcome to the world Addie Jo!

Love, Sara :)

Happy Valentine's Day!

I hope you had a wonderful Valentine's Day yesterday!  I always loved Valentine's when I was younger, but as I got into junior high, I utterly despised it.  I was never all "boy" crazy like most girls and the whole day was just uncomfortable.  

As I've gotten older and am back in an elementary school, I've remembered why I loved it so much!!  When you're younger, it's not so focus on the one person you love, but just love in general.  It's such a fun day at school!  Combine that with Anthony and all of the sweet things he does for me, and it makes it the perfect day!! 

Here's what I took to school for the kiddos.  I printed labels, cut them out, then stapled the label on top of a snack sized ziploc bag.  SO EASY!!

And my Valentine's Bag!!

I make Anthony's lunch on most day's, but here is what I did yesterday:

Heart PB&J!!! ...is it obvious I teach Kindergarten?

They all had little notes for why they were in there.

Anthony left me little surprises all day!  I only got pictures of a few though. :)

A note tucked inside my computer when I opened it at school!

The notes was with a new Kate Spade wall calendar!!!! (I took this with my phone and it won't let me rotate it...grrr)

When I got home I decided to make these layered cupcakes I found on Pinterest.  They were the EASIEST, most YUMMIEST things I've tasted in a while!!

I preheated the oven to 350 and put 24 cupcake liners in my muffin tins.  Then I mixed a brownie mix according to the directions on the back.

I used a mini ice cream scoop and filled the cupcake liners about 1/3 of the way full.

Then I made a strawberry cake mix according to the directions on the back of the box.

I cleaned my ice cream scoop and filled my tins (on top of the brownie batter) so they were 2/3 of the way full.  I had to spread the strawberry batter out slightly so the brownie wouldn't cook up around the strawberry.

Then I baked them for 20 minutes.

The recipe I found called for an actual frosting, but I was being slightly lazy and didn't have any thawed butter....so I put whip cream on top instead!  It was just from a can, but it was PERFECT.  It gave the brownie cupcake *just* the right amount of sweetness.

How fun do those look?!  Hope you had a great Valentine's Day too!!

Love, Sara :)

Thank You Shirley And My NEW KITCHEN!!!!!

First off, I would like to remind you that my dryer has been in my dining room for about a month now. (See pictures here...)  Last week the repairman people came and hauled it off to fix it.  The absence of the dryer re-energized me to finally move all of the painting/repair/junk from the temporary storage unit dining room to the new temporary storage unit guest room.  

After I moved all of the junk out of there, I desperately needed to mop.  Funny, because I didn't have a mop.  I did some research trying to figure out what kind of mop and moppy stuff I needed for my wood floors...I only wanted to have to buy one cleaner...obviously.  After I researched... I called Mom.  :)  She told me what to buy, I grabbed it without hesitation, and headed home.

Then came the REALLY funny part.  I wish someone had been videotaping me because it would have been a hoot.  I got a self-wringing mop.  (That's what it's called, but let's get this straight...I still did the wringing, but there was a twisty lever to help.)  That thing was next to impossible to figure out!  And I didn't even have a clue on how to fix my moppy water.  Yikes...

I finally got everything ready.  As I started mopping and smelling the soap from the mop water, my mind instantly flashed to Shirley.  (It's the same soap Mom uses...remember?)  

Who's Shirley you ask?  Shirley cleaned my house growing up.  She also cleaned Maggie's house, which means I saw her twice a week...(We were probably all sorts of terrors while she was cleaning...this is my formal public apology, Shirley :) )

The more I mopped, the more thankful I became Shirley and all the mopping she did for me growing up.  After I mopped my self into a corner, I sat down and wrote Shirley a letter just saying hi and thanking her for cleaning our house.  She came to our wedding, so I had her address, I just hope she doesn't think I'm crazy!  I'm a HUGE fan of actual letters (Thanks Grandma!) so is there is anyone you're needing to thank?  Here's your nudge to go do it!!

Ok, now for the house.  I REALLY wanted to do an entire before and after post, but that would be in like 5 years, so I decided to go room by room.  My favorite room?  The kitchen of course!!  I love, love, LOVE how it turned out and haven't even complained about cleaning it!!  Here it goes!!

Before:

 After!!!

Before:

After!!!

Before:

After!!!

Does it look familiar?  Oh maybe that's because.... It's inspired by Aunt Cheryl's kitchen!!!! 

...By the way, I'd like to go on record that I do realize it is Uncle Don's kitchen/house as well, but let's face it...Aunt Cheryl designed it all.  Adding 'and Uncle Don' is an extra 13 characters to type...

I plan on sharing my SUPER organized drawers and cabinets soon!!  Have a great week!!

Love, Sara :)