3 Month Out-takes

I just took some photos of my 3 month old and the out-takes made me smile so much that I decided to share them first.




Sweet P didn't want me to get her picture with her sister. Instead, she preferred photo-bombing nearly every shot.





She also helped accessorize sister.




When she finally decided she wanted a turn (without her sister, by the way - no sharing the spotlight here) she accessorized herself and was quite pleased. Then I asked if I could take a picture without the headband and her mood quickly changed.



I'll post the rest on Monday. Until then, have a great weekend!!

My Gift

"Behold, children are a gift from the Lord." - Psalm 127:3

I am thankful for your sensitivity. You sometimes are hurt very easily but that sensitivity recognizes when others are hurt and it hurts you too. I am thankful you see others hurt and want to "fitz it" and I pray this never changes.

I am thankful for your energy. From the time you wake up in the morning, usually telling me you want to dance when I come in to get you out of bed, until night time comes when you need to be put back in that bed, you are constantly moving. 

I am thankful for your curiosity. You want to learn and know everything. You hand me things and with a puzzled face, look at me asking, "this?" You want to be where I am, watching what I'm doing - always learning and remembering. You get this from your daddy and I hope you never lose your curiosity.

I'm thankful for your beauty. Your eyes melt me, your smile makes me smile and you are already so confident. I sometimes find myself staring at you in the backseat or while you're playing wondering how you could be so beautiful already and I know we'll be in trouble in a few short years.

I'm thankful for your affection. You want to be near me always and can't go ten minutes without touching me in some way. Whether it's sitting on my lap to have me read you a story, climbing on my back when I'm feeding your sister, or just giving me a hug without my asking, you like affection. I will always give it to you.

I'm thankful for your restrained confidence. You are very cautious when trying something new but once you master it, you are fearless. I'm thankful you look before leaping and boldly do what you know you can.

Most of all, I'm thankful God gave me you for a daughter. I'm thankful He trusted you in my care. I am supposed to teach you and help you grow but you teach me daily. You teach me to be free, to live in the moment, to crave knowledge, to care for others and recognize their hurt, to just go for it. I'm thankful for you and the wonderful gift you are.

Hello and thank you!

Just wanted to pop in and say hello and thank you.

Thank you to everyone that voted for my design in the minted challenge. Voting is over and the winners won't be notified for a few days. As you know, this was my first design competition so I'm thrilled at all the support you guys gave me.

Also, I'll been canning up a storm. I feel like a grandma. Picking vegetables from our garden and canning them but I'm not ashamed to admit that I'm kind of addicted. I'll have more to share on that later.

Oh, and I have been cracking up at some instagram comments about this lovely lady!!

So, hello, thank you and talk soon.

Lake Fun

Insta-Friday

Happy Friday!!

If you're tired of hearing about the minted challenge and how you can still vote here for my design that's in the final round, ending in a day or so, well, this post is for you.

I'm linking up with Life re-arranged for insta-friday so here are some photos from the phone.

she gets herself in this thing and can't get out. instant baby-sitter :)

heart-shaped cookies for Father's Day week

our attempt at a date night. turns out everyone had the same idea, even the news crews.

instead of a drive-in movie for date night, we hit up some mexican food.

triple-berry cobbler - requested for Father's Day

Father's Day breakfast

make your own pizza night

it's a wonder she can fit with everything else she sleeps with

little sister had a blow-out while we were painting and this is what I returned to

sporting her onesie her auntie made her

donuts - need i say more

picking her own snacks from the garden

 

snack from the garden

she woke up wanting tomatoes for breakfast

that's what we've been up to. You?

We did it - kind of!

Thanks to all you lovelies out there that voted on my designs for the Minted holiday card challenge, one of my designs made it to the final round!

holiday photo cards - A Washi and Whimsical Christmas

There were over 2,700 designs submitted and the final round begins with 1,170!! I'm so very thankful to all of you that voted. My design is in some amazing company and I'm honored to have made it to the final round of voting!!! You guys made it possible! So thank you, thank you, thank you!

We still have some work to do. The final round of voting started today and will last three days. So, I need a huge favor again. Since it's a new round, the old votes don't carry over, and I'm asking all of you awesome readers to go back and vote again. This is the last time I'll need you to vote. After the three days of voting are up, the winners will be chosen.

So, let's make this happen! Click here to go directly to my design and cast your vote. Once you've voted, click through the other amazing designs and rate some of those too.

If you haven't voted yet, now's the time! To vote you'll need a minted account which takes seconds to create and you just need an email address. Then you can vote for as many designs as you want, just don't forget to vote for mine.

You guys rock. Thanks again.

Oh, and in case I haven't said it yet, thank you!

Incubator Project Update

Head over to my sister's blog for an update on the Incubator Project. It's truly amazing!

Oh, and you may want tissues.

Thank you!

Thank you to everyone that's already voted for my designs in the minted holiday card challenge!! You guys are so awesome.

Just an fyi, there were so many entries for this challenge that their doing a 2-phase voting process. Right now it's in the first phase and only the top voted on designs will move on to the next phase.

If you went over and created an account (thank you, by the way) you probably got lost in the mix of all the other designs over there. If you couldn't find mine, here are the links again: washi card and the neon card.

My Designs board by Lesley Zellers, featuring personalized Christmas cards

So, thanks again for your support. You guys are super awesome!!!

Minted Voting has Begun!!!

I mentioned in the past that I was taking part in my first Minted challenge.

For those of you who don't know, Minted holds monthly design challenges and voters rate the best designs in a highly competitive process. This month's challenge is Minted’s annual holiday card challenge!

This is typically their biggest design challenge with tons of designers submitting entries. I have submitted two designs and I would love it if you would click on the links below and vote for mine because the winning designs are produced and sold!

These are my two designs ready for voting:

holiday photo cards - A Washi and Whimsical Christmas

holiday photo cards - A very neon Christmas

You can click on the graphics above to go vote, or click here or here. I think you have to register to vote. I'm not 100% certain so let me know if you can't just click the link and rate the designs. If you do have to register, you only need to provide a name and password and that's it. Once you register, you'll be taken to a random design to vote so it's way faster if you back here and click on the links to my designs to vote. If you do, I will love you forever!

Once you rate my two designs you can see and vote for tons of others too. Let me know what you think.

Thanks so much! Oh, and thanks to everyone that already went to "vote" the last time. Voting hadn't started yet but you can go now and it will count this time! Thanks! You guys rock!

Days Go By

Typing that makes me think of that Keith Urban song.

"And the days go by
I can feel 'em flying
Like a hand out the window
When the cars go by

It's all we've been given
So you better start livin'
You better start livin'
Better start livin' right now"

I like that song. Anyway, here are a few pictures from our days lately.

by the pool

testing out the waters on the potty training thing

making art

watching my girls grow

soaking up this sweetness

having tea parties and milk & cookie parties

making goofy faces and noises to get this one to smile

watching her learn new tricks

And my personal fave,

source

trying to figure out what to do with her MacGyver hair

She'll love me for posting this one day, I'm sure. 

Happy Friday and have a great weekend!

Caprese Salad with Bread - recipe

My new post is up at Beautifully Rooted today.



Check out the recipe and let me know what you think!!

Summer Squash - 4 Ways

Our garden has transitioned from a spring garden, full of onions, radishes and various lettuces, to a summer garden, full of squash, tomatoes and herbs. That also means our meals have also changed. Our squash plants are doing better this year than they ever have in the past so I've been making squash nearly every day.

Aside from fried zucchini, I have found a couple of new favorite recipes we'll be making again so I thought I'd share those with you.



First up, stuffed squash. My recipe is adapted from this one from Martha. We love onions in just about everything and this recipe seemed like they would go quite well so added those, replaced the oregano with fresh basil and I didn't have mozzarella so I topped it with feta. I like my version.

To make this, you'll need:
2 zucchini - cut in half, seeds scooped out to make a little boat
2 plum tomatoes - diced
1 medium onion - diced
5-6 leaves fresh basil - sliced
a little extra virgin olive oil
2-4 ounces goat cheese
salt and pepper to taste



In a medium bowl, combine the tomatoes, onion, basil with a drizzle of little evoo.



Season the zucchini with salt and pepper then heap the tomato mixture on top.



Bake until the squash is tender, about 20 minutes at 400 degrees. Top the squash with some crumbled goat cheese and return to the oven under the broiler until the cheese is golden.



Next up, squash with pasta.
 
I found this recipe when I was searching for zephyr recipes. A zephyr is the squash pictured in the first image with the yellow top and green bottom.

I planned on adding shrimp but mom brain struck and I totally left it out. I'm sure it would have been delicious with it in there. Click the link for the recipe.





I also tried another recipe from Martha that uses raw squash with fresh dill and feta. All things I like but it wasn't my favorite and I probably won't make it again.



You can find the recipe here.

And since I can't end on a bad note, I already shared my recipe for zucchini-banana donuts, but here's the link again and the picture.



So, what are your favorite ways to cook squash?!