Easter 2012

Easter was so fun this year! Really, anytime spent with my family is a great time! This year, we went to my aunt and uncle’s house. We love going there so that we can pretend we are cowboys like them. :) The kids love riding the horses…. and so do the adults.

Holding this sweet baby girl is one of my favorite things! Sadie looked beautiful, as always! But of course, I had to get one of my favorite little guy’s in the picture, too! Griffin is so handsome and such a good big brother!

Big brother, little sister! So much love between them. And I have so much love for them! (By the way, if you can’t tell – Easter is like a mini photoshoot. I even got to take some of these this year!)

My cousin, Megan, and I. Excuse me… my favorite cousin, Megan. :) She is really just like another sister to me. And I mean…. aren’t we cute?

Here’s that handsome boy I get to call my husband!

My beautiful, wonderful niece modeling for the camera. (Remember Easter is time for a photoshoot – and she knows what to do!)

My amazing family! Seriously, so blessed.

Abby got to come along. Rocket isn’t such an outside dog, so he stayed back at home curled in a blanket. Abby had a blast. She especially loved the horses. The kids all love her!

Easter Egg Hunt!

And horse riding! I got to ride with Connor. Everyone loved the horses. Griffin, Jessalyn, and Connor all had a turn. Sadie decided she didn’t want to ride this year but maybe in a few years. :) Jonny had a blast!

It was a great day with family. Jonny and I went to church that evening and it was amazing. They had an orchestra that just stirred my affection for Christ. I continually remind myself of the gospel and Easter is a time to reflect on what Jesus Christ did for us. He died for our sins and rose again, conquering death. It’s beautiful and I don’t deserve what he did for me; I am so thankful. Grace and Love were shown on the cross. I pray that we celebrate the reason for Easter daily. So wonderful.

Planting Flowers

Gardening is a hobby I have wanted to start so badly. We contemplate making a garden for fruits and veggies but there are a few things that stop us right now. Well, my cousin had given me these pots for my birthday (2 birthdays ago…) and we finally are putting them to use! They have our address numbers on them and there is another with our monogram.

At first, I wanted to plant herbs in these. But, since they need to be in the front yard with the numbers on them, we decided on flowers. We picked out these gerber daisies and I love them especially because they were the flower we used in our wedding! We also picked out a lily for our big pot and we put one in our landscaping area, too.

I finally have had a hand in planting something! We had fun picking these out and putting them in the pots together. The dogs were out in the front yard with us and it turns out that Rocket loves gardening, too! I think this is a good first step for much more gardening in our future!

Banana Bread (My Guest Post!)

Check me out over at Worthy of the Prize for a guest post! She let me post a recipe and share some of my heart. God’s been working and I love sharing. Go on over to find the recipe for some delicious Banana Bread!

Flashback in Time: Save Texas School Rally

So, there are several things that I just never got around to blogging about. I almost just want to skip over them since they happened so long ago, but I love using this blog as a documentation – so I’m just going to roll with it. You might see some flashback’s with some events that happened a while ago but I’d say they are still blog-worthy events! :)

This one was the Save Texas Schools Rally in Austin, Texas. Basically, Texas was cutting funding in education and therefore, many jobs would be lost and in my opinion, the quality of the education system would have suffered. So – in order to try to express ourselves, there was a rally in Austin to try to convince the funding not to be cut and for the Rainy Day Fund to be used for education. (Rainy Day Fund = The reason for the umbrellas… get it?!)

Jonny and I felt strongly about this issue and so we went! It was a blast and was really neat to come together with other educators and citizens who felt this issue needed to be addressed. Our friends Matt and Holly also went and so we met up with them and marched together!

In the end, some of the Rainy Day Fund was used. And specifically in Denton, the cuts weren’t nearly as bad as they could have been. Hey – maybe we had something to do with it! :)

Pinteresting Lately

Oh, how I love Pinterest. In the summer, I would get lost on there for way too long. But now, I only get so much time on there before I need to move on. I have still been finding some fun things, though! Here are some of my pinterests lately…

Brisket tacos in the crockpot -

Dijon Roasted New Potatoes -

Clean Chocolate Chunk Cookies -

A really intense workout -

I will definitely be trying all of these soon! Probably have them in the perfect order, too, since I will need that workout after all of the yummy food! :)

Circuit Workout

One of my new favorite blogs is called peanut butter fingers (pbfingers.com). She posts several workouts and some that really stuck out are circuit workouts. I pinned several the other day and tried this one tonight:

Oh my goodness! It was definitely a fantastic workout. She said it would take 30 minutes, but it ended up taking me 50 minutes. Of course, I did have to rest in the middle. Especially since I had my heart rate monitor on and I saw my heart rate going really high.

One thing to note is that I didn’t actually use a jump rope. I just did the motion of jumping rope. There is a lot of this!

I ended up burning a good amount of calories:

This is definitely a workout I will do again. Especially since this can be done at home. In the winter, it’s harder for me to actually get to the gym so it’s nice to have some workouts in my pocket I can do at home. And I got to watch some E! while working out. Love this!

Crockpot Creamy Chicken with Biscuits

Chicken pot pie is one of my favorite comfort foods, so when I saw this recipe – it spoke to me! I have been trying to find more crockpot meals. They are so easy – yet I always forget about them. You make the chicken and veggies in the crockpot and then make the biscuits right before serving. Now, if you are looking for a healthy option, I would go with this chicken pot pie. But, this is a good choice for a really creamy and easy meal.

Ingredients:
3/4 pound carrots (about 4), cut into 1 in. lengths
2 stalks celery, thinly sliced
1 small onion, chopped
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs (I ended up using breasts)
1/2 teaspoon poultry seasoning
salt and black pepper
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup low-sodium chicken broth
6 store bought biscuits (or make your own!)
1 cup frozen peas
1/2 cup heavy cream

Directions:
1. In a 4- to 6-quart slow cooker, toss together the carrots, celery, onion, and flour. Place the chicken on top and season with the poultry seasoning, 1 teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon pepper. Add the wine and broth.
2. Cover and cook until the chicken and vegetables are tender, on low for 5 to 6 hours or on high for 2 1⁄2 to 3 hours.
3. Thirty minutes before serving, prepare the biscuits.
4. Ten minutes before serving, add the peas, cream, and ½ teaspoon salt to the chicken and stir to combine. Cover and cook until heated through, 5 to 10 minutes more.
5. To serve, place the bottom halves of the biscuits in shallow bowls, then top with the chicken mixture and the remaining biscuit halves.