Easy Taco Dip

Hello there, hope you guys are having a great weekend so far! With the holiday season upon us (can you believe it's almost December now?), I thought I would share a favourite party food of ours. You can't go to a gathering around here without at least one, sometimes two of these bad boys. It's taco dip, and it's probably the best party food out there.

Christmas Cookie Jar Gifts

Hi everyone, today I want to share a great and easy gift idea for the upcoming holiday season. I'm sure you have seen these everywhere, but they are such an easy gift! 

They are cookie gift jars. I know, I know, but just hear me out. Who doesn't love getting goodies? And around the holidays everyone is baking, so there is an overabundance of goodies everywhere. So this is a way to give baked goods, but allowing the recipient to choose when they will have the goodies. Pretty sweet deal.

Fun Christmas Recipe Cards

Hi everyone, can you believe that there are only 37 days until Christmas! Crazy, I can't believe how fast this year has gone by. 

Today I want to share with you a quick and fun way to dress up the goodies that you give to people around the holidays. I have found that it is always nice to have recipe cards either included or ready to hand out in case people ask for them. It is also a great way for the giftee's (is that even a word?) to know what they are receiving. It doesn't hurt to be ready, and why not make them really cute and fun?

I found these recipe cards at Micheals last year in the dollar bin (I looked again this year, no luck):

wax paper pom-pom's

Morning everyone, today I want to share another craft I have for Braxton's upcoming birthday. I found the idea on Whipperberry . They used them on Christmas presents as part of the wrapping and decorations. But I thought they looked really cute as snowballs.

(Please ignore the baby toy in the background, I can't help it)

Chicken Lentil & Rice Soup

Hey everyone, 

Today I am sharing another soup recipe (I know!) that I started making a few years ago. Luis loves this soup, and as soon as the weather starts to get colder, he starts to ask for it. It's a very hearty soup with ingredients that you won't mind feeding yourself or your kids.

Basement Built-In's

Happy Friday everyone, can you believe how cold it's gotten in just a few days? The white stuff finally made an appearance a few days ago and I am in denial that winter is almost here.

The biggest change we have made in the current basement renovation has been in our rec room. Here is a quick picture of how it looked just a few months ago:

3D snowflakes

Hey everyone, hope you all are staying warm! 

Today I want to share a fun craft that I did as a decoration for Braxton's upcoming (first) birthday. It is a great craft to do in front of the TV or with older kids. And it's also great as a winter or Christmas decoration! First you need to gather your supplies:

Braxton's story

Hey everyone, today I thought I would get a little more personal with you guys and share a bit about Braxton's birth story. Since it is a little late to get into any crazy detail, a little recap will do nicely.

Braxton was originally due on December 12, 2013, but after our first ultrasound they moved the due date to December 3, 2013. The whole pregnancy it seemed like he was going to come early, the doctor kept saying that he was always on the big side of where he should be.So when December 3rd came and went, I was a little surprised. I think the delay was a blessing as it helped me mentally prepare for the fact that I was about to have a little person come out of my body. I remembered being told that walks could help induce labour, so I took our dogs for a long walk on December 4th.

That night on our walk, about halfway through I felt a little leaking (sorry, TMI!). Thinking I just had to go to the bathroom, I hurried home and thought nothing of it. But by the morning of December 6th I thought that it was possible that I had a slow leak happening. We called the doctor and he told us we needed to go have a test done at the hospital.

So off we went to the hospital, and I decided at the last minute that we should bring our hospital bag with us - just in case (you see where this is going?). We got to the hospital around 9am and got right into a room where they started doing a stress test on the baby and checked to see if my water had actually broke, or if I had a small leak.After completing the test, the nurse said she had to call my doctor. Not good. So after waiting about 20 minutes for the doctor to arrive, he came right it and confirmed that I did in fact have a slow leak. And then he informed us that he was about to break my water and induce me. We were having a baby!

Let me just say I hope that I never have to have my water broken or be induced again. That was not fun. Not.at.all. But, I got the greatest gift from it. After 9 hours of labour, our baby, Braxton was born.

Hope you don't mind me sharing a little bit about the (other) love of my life. But, I mean, who doesn't like looking at babies? Here are a few more to brighten your day (and make up for the reading you had to do to get to this point):

Kerby

pumpkin sour cream muffins

Hello again,

Today I want to share a recipe that I found at A Beautiful Mess for Pumpkin Sour Cream Muffins. They has some great stuff all the time, you should go check their blog out here.

I recently found a can of pumpkin puree in my pantry that was about expire so I went in search of a recipe that could use up a few things that I had on hand. When I came across this recipe, it was like kismet. I just so happened to have some sour cream that I needed to use up too!

These muffins are so yummy! Just the right amount of sweetness, without feeling like you are eating a cupcake for breakfast.

basement hallway & stairs - before & after

Happy Friday wonderful people! The weekend is almost here, so sit back with a nice coffee (or tea) and enjoy another basement update from yours truly.

Today I want to share the rest of the hallway and stairs. This update is mostly cosmetic as it was just a little drywall, a new light fixture, some paint and new trim, along with an update to the stairs I refinished here. 

But first, a look back to how this area looked when we bought the house:

slower cooker baked apples

Hey everyone, today I want to share an easy dessert idea that I found. I would consider this a healthier version of apple crisp, and it is pretty tasty. I found the recipe at Sidetracked Sarah. It's an easy and yummy recipe, that younger kids can help with if they want!

nursery before and after

Happy Monday everyone! (Please don't throw things at me) 

Today I want to share a transformation that happened last year, but I never shared with you guys. Last spring we converted our old computer room into Braxton's nursery. And what a transformation it was!

Here is the before picture; a little history to the colour of this room. When I lived at home, I always swore that my "office" was going to be red. So, once we bought this house the very first thing I decided, the computer room was to be red. Not sure if Luis even knew what was going on until he was fully committed. 
 

italian wedding soup

Hey there, today I wanted to share a new recipe I tried that I found on Pinterest. The Hubby loves Italian Wedding soup, but it's really hard for me to order because it has onions and/or garlic in it. So I thought I would give it a try, that way maybe we both could have some.

I found a recipe at Just a Pinch Recipes that seemed easy enough for a novice soup maker to handle. But of course, I had to change it up a little to account for the missing ingredients. 

It didn't turn out quite as pretty as the original soup did, but it tasted pretty darn good.

closet turned office

Hi everybody, hope your ready for another big, picture filled post!

Today I want to share another basement update. Across from our half bathroom downstairs we had a closet. It was a huge closet, but mostly full of junk and unused. Here is a picture of the closet before our first renovation.

beef barley soup

Hi there. Today I wanted to share with you a dinner I made that was so good! It was the first time I had made beef barley soup, and I think the second time ever that I had barley. So it ended up a win for me!

half bath before & progress

Hi everyone, earlier this year we decided to do a complete gut job on our basement. We are still working away, but I want to start sharing some progress with you.

Back in 2012 we did a basement renovation in our hallway and rec room, but I never really showed you guys our downstairs half bathroom as we never really did anything to it. You can see the first basement renovation here (Please note that the pictures are still edited to the old blog name).

Our downstairs bathroom is pretty darn small. And before we started our latest renovation, the door would swing into the bathroom. So closing the door was a dance between the vanity, the toilet and the door. It usually involved straddling the toilet to close the door. Very welcoming.

first pumpkins.....and a first fail!

Hey everyone, I thought I would share another Halloween related thing with you, because why not? Might as well keep with the whole "I'm late posting for the first holiday since I became a full-time blogger" thing.

I know you'll forgive me.

Since Braxton is too young to understand what pumpkins are, let alone carve them, I thought it would be cute to let him paint them. So off to the local Micheals I go to find some non-toxic washable paint to use in this project. The selection was pretty bare, but I managed to find white and red.

So right before bath time I laid out some newspaper, got the paint onto paper plates and put the pumpkins on the ground. One almost naked baby later and I thought the cute would just happen.

Yeah, no.

first halloween

Hey everyone, I know it's a little late but I'm new to this blog game (so to speak). I wanted to share Braxton's Halloween costume with you guys, and if you follow me on Instagram you will have already gotten to see my cutie. We got this costume from a Carter's store near our house, and it's pretty cute.

Meet, Braxton the dragon!



Pretty adorable right? I know, you can make googly eyes all you want at him. He's taken ladies. Hopefully the horrible pictures don't scare you guys off!

Here are a few more, including his cute little bum tail!

Next year I want to make him a costume, so to Pinterest I go! And hopefully my picture taking skills get better by next Halloween!

I hope everyone had a safe Halloween! And feel free to share your little ghouls and goblins, I'm a sucker for kids in costumes.

Kerby