Mmm Mmm Mondays #14

Well today was yet another gorgeous day here in the Bluegrass state. It's hard to believe that it is just February and not even Springtime yet, because it sure does feel like it. We have had the most mild winter, and I am beginning to wonder if that means we are going to have a HOT summer. Most people I have talked to seem to think that we are going to have a pretty miserable summer, so I am going to just enjoy this nice weather we're having while we got it.

Hubby and I had a bit of cleaning out to do in our raised beds before planting season, so we took the opportunity to get it done today. It rained a few days ago so the ground was nice and soft and easy to clean up. Sweet pea is our new little garden helper, and boy did she have fun! She would go back and forth between hubby and I and "help" dig in the dirt wherever we were. She was not a bit afraid to get up close and personal with the dirt. She even touched a couple worms! Here she is helping daddy work.

She decided in the middle of digging to for-go the rake and just use her hands. Needless to say she went straight into the bath once we got inside.

She had to take a little break, because yard work is tiring you know!

She also enjoyed riding in the wheelbarrow. How can you resist that little smile. So stinkin cute!! (excuse my spray painting project in the background)

Anyways, I took a little break from cooking today since it was so nice outside, and let hubby do a little grilling, so I don't have an actual recipe to share with you today, but more of an inspiration to enjoy the good ol' outdoors. We LOVE grilling out in the Spring and Summer. Can you guess what we had tonight from this picture??

If you guessed bratwurst, then you would be right! They were so delicious and really hit the spot. We paired them with some mustard potato salad and chips. I usually make my own red potato salad, but this time we just went with store bought.

What a better way to kick off the fast approaching Springtime, than with good ol' hardwork and a yummy reward.

I promise to have a new recipe to share with you next week. I know I have kinda slacked off the past couple weeks. Maybe I will try and shoot for a sweet treat. Maybe! Hope everyone has a great week, until next time, BYE!

Mmm Mmm Monday #13

I didn't actually take pictures of the recipe that I will be sharing tonight, but I did however make it and it was totally delish! My girlfriends and I had a get together a couple of weekends ago and everyone brought a different dip. I had been wanting to try this pizza dip ever since I pinned it a while back, but never had a reason to until now. This recipe was totally easy and would be great to take to any party. Here is what you will need to make your very own.

You will need:

4 oz cream cheese, room temperature

1/4 cup sour cream

1/4 cup mayo

1/2 cup grated mozzarella

1/4 cup grated parm

1 cup pizza sauce

1/2 cup grated mozzarella

1/4 cup grated parm

2 oz pepperoni, sliced

*The recipe also calls for green pepper and black olives, but since I don't like either of those things, I decided to leave them out.

Mix cream cheese, sour cream, mayo, mozz and parm and spread it into the bottom of a pie plate. Spread the pizza sauce on top of that, and then sprinkle the other parm and mozz. Then add your layer of pepperoni and green pepper and olives if you opt to use them.

Bake at 350 degrees until cheese has melted and it's turned golden on top. Approx 2o mins.

Serve it with slices of french bread and Enjoy!

I am going to warn you that this stuff is very addictive and once you start eating it, you won't be able to stop. I am pretty sure I ate half of the dip myself!!

Picture belongs to original blogger that posted recipe

Link to Original Pin

Hope you enjoy. Until next time, BYE!

Chalkboard Wall in the Kitchen

Today has been such a great day. The sun is shining and I can feel Spring creepin up upon us. Sweet pea and I ran some errands this morning before nap time, and now we are snuggled on the couch together eating goldfish and watching "The Busy World of Richard Scary" on Netflix. Daddy is working late today, so it is just us 2 girls. I try and cherish these sweet times as much as possible, because I know they are not going to last forever!

I wanted to share a project with you that I completed over the weekend. I pinned the picture below (I don't know how to import pins from pinterest onto my blog, so I just copy and paste, any help would be appreciated) a while back and decided that I would like to try my hand at this project. I have a similar wall in my kitchen, so I thought this would be perfect.

Link to Original Pin

Here is the wall in my kitchen. This is actually the door that covers our water heater. It's kinda of an eye sore, but what can you do, right? I already had the chalkboard paint on hand, so this project cost me $0, which I LOVE! This is what we started with.

This is the closet after one coat of paint. The thing that I like most about working with chalk paint is that it dries so quickly and there is no sanding or priming involved so you are able to finish your project in no time flat. I love this because I am one of those people that can't wait to see the end result of a project, so ones that have a lot of waiting involved kill me!

Here it is after the second coat. It was pretty well covered by this point, but I decided to do one more coat on the front just to be sure I didn't miss any spots.

I just LOVE the way it turned out. Excuse the poor quality of the following pictures, my camera either takes dark pictures or pictures that are too light. I think this will be a great place for sweet pea to color while I cook once she gets a little older. Right now we have the kitchen blocked off because she just gets into too many things. On occasion I will let her in to play with the magnetic letters on the refrigerator, but when I am cooking it makes me nervous to have her in there with me.

For now I am going to use it for our grocery list. I hate getting to the grocery store and forgetting something because it wasn't on the list. This way I can just write down when we run out of something and it can then be transferred to the grocery list.

I have another chalkboard in the kitchen that I made from an old picture frame that I have been using as a menu board for our weekly meals, but I am thinking about turning that one into a message board with some cork board. Any know if you can buy that stuff in sheets??

I found this quote on the internet and I think it is absolutely true! Have you ever noticed that whenever you have or go to a dinner party everyone seems to always find their way into the kitchen.

Well speaking of the kitchen, I better get in there and make some dinner for sweet pea and I. See you late on for Mmm Mmm Monday. BYE!

Linking up at:

Savvy Southern Style for Wow Us Wednesdays

Valentine Wrap Up

I hope everyone had a lovely Valentine's Day. Our family had a great day from start to finish. In the morning sweet pea and I had breakfast ready for hubby so he could take it to work with him. I saw this idea on pinterest and just had to copy it. I know it's not much, but like I said last post, I don't cook elaborate breakfasts during the week.

Sweet pea also gave her daddy and sweet card.

After daddy left for work, sweet pea and I dined on some donuts as well, while we watched morning cartoons. Aren't those PJ's the cutest! Mom got them for her this past Christmas, and I thought they were approprite for V-day since they have sweets all over them.

Here are our presents from hubby. I got just what I wanted, a big box of assorted chocolates, YUM! To make it even better they are Godiva. I'm sure the whole box will be gone in a couple of days!! He got sweet pea this little bunny from Hallmark. Her name is Abigail and when you read certain sentences in her story she talks. It is so cute and she loves it!

This pic is from a couple of days ago, but sweet pea got this balloon from my aunt and she carries it around the house everyday. This day she was watching TV while holding it. She looks at it and goes "ah ah ah" which is the sound that she makes for a monkey. I love that kid so much it hurts sometimes!

Here are the rest of the goodies that sweet pea received for V-day. She got the little doll from her maw maw, the monkey cabbage patch from aunt Leah, robot card from cousin Heath and the rest from my mom (Nana). I don't know about you but I think she is a pretty loved little girl!

For dinner all 3 of us went to our favorite mexican restaurant El Nopal. They just opened up a new location down the street from our house, so we got some coupons in the mail and decided to use them. It was delish as always and sweet pea even dined on chips and salsa for the 1st time and loved it. Once we got home we put sweet pea to bed and watched a movie. We watched "The Ides of March" which wasn't very exciting, so naturally I fell asleep. I think I missed about 1/2 the movie.

I made these chocolate dipped strawberries for dessert, but we were both too full from dinner to eat any. We will have to have some tonight though, because I don't want them to go bad. Sweet pea did have a couple before she went to bed and she seemed to enjoy them.

Now that Valentines is over it's time to start thinking about what to do for St. Patricks Day. I think I'll keep my decorations up for just a little longer though until I figure out what to do. Until next time, I hope you have great day, BYE!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Wishing everyone a day filled with fun and happiness with the ones that you LOVE!

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY TO MY 2 LOVES, HUBBY AND SWEET PEA, I LOVE YOU MORE THAN YOU'LL EVER KNOW!!

Mmm Mmm Mondays #12 : Valentine's Day Edition!

Well Valentine's Day is finally upon us and I decided to make a little something for breakfast yesterday that I saw on Pinterest. You can find the original pin here. I made them on Sunday, since Valentines falls on a Tuesday this year and I don't usually make family breakfast during the week. This was a super easy and fun thing to make and sweet pea really enjoyed it. Cinnamon rolls are always a big hit with my family so what better way to celebrate the holiday of LOVE than with heart shaped ones. Here is how to make your very own.

Heart Shaped Cinnamon Rolls

You will need:

1 can flaky cinnamon rolls

red food coloring

(Sorry about the open package, I got a little ahead of myself and forgot to take a pic)

First take all your cinnamon rolls and the icing out of the package, then unroll each roll like so.

Take one side and fold it in like this to make one half of the heart.

Then fold in your other side to complete the heart.

This is what you should end up with.

While they were baking, I took some red food coloring and dyed my icing pink. Two drops is all you will need. Make sure you get it mixed in well, or you will have some white showing through.

Here is what they look like when they are done. Aren't they cute!!

Ice them up and Enjoy. Yum!



Such a simple and fun way to spice up a breakfast staple item in our household. When I asked hubby how he liked them, he replied "they taste the same as they always do", thanks for you enthusiasm babe!!

Sweet pea and I also enjoyed a Valentine's baking day today and I wanted to share a few pics of my little helper. I tell you what she is truly a natural in the kitchen, because I barely gave her instructions and she knew just what to do. I may have the next Martha Stewart on my hands!


We made devils food cupcakes with Reese PB cups in the middle and then I made the Cake Boss's peanut butter frosting to go on top. I am taking them to work tomorrow, I hope they are good.

These are our matching aprons that I got for Christmas from hubby's grandparents. Sweet pea was too cute prancing around in hers. Having a cute little helper makes baking 2x more fun!

Hope everyone has a very Happy Valentine's Day tomorrow. Hubby, sweet pea and I are going to our favorite Mexican restaurant and then hubs and I are gonna watch a movie. My how things change when you have a child. (For the better of course!) Until next time, BYE!

Fabulous First Days of February!

The weather this past week (minus the weekend) was fabulous! The highs were in the low 60's and the lows only got into the high 40's. We didn't even have to use our heat for almost the whole week, and boy was that nice. We have terrible insulation and original windows in our home, so lets just say it's not the most energy efficient, and our bills reflect that bad!

Sweet pea and I tried to spend as much time outside as possible, and I have been itching to get back to the zoo again, especially since sweet pea is really into animals right now. So on Wednesday we decided to go after nap time. This ended up being the perfect time, because it was about 2 hours before they closed and there was hardly anyone there, which made for easy animal spotting. In the summer you can barely get to or see things, and it's even harder for sweet pea to see anything when she's in the stroller. Here are some pics from our fun day.

The elephants were just some of the few animals that were awake that day. We must have been there at nap time.

Don't they look comfy?

Sweet pea was excited that she got to see the gorillas eating a nack (snack).

The seals are my favorite, but they aren't as exciting to watch in the winter as they are in the summer, boo. Sweet pea seemed to enjoy them though.

This is one of the new polar bears to our zoo. She is a baby and her name is Quanik. This was the first time that we got to see her, because she was in transition for a while, and we never had a chance to go see her until now. She was so much fun to watch, and was totally hamming it up for her audience.

Since Diego is sweet peas favorite show, I thought for sure she would want to see the jaguar, since baby jaguar is Diego's side kick. It was sleeping, but she still said "hello" to it, and seemed content to just that.

The giraffes were sweet peas favorite animal of the day. They were the first thing we saw, and the last as well. This one happened to be outside when we came back the second time. I don't think I have ever seen a giraffe laying down before, so I was glad I had my camera on hand.

Sweet pea was very unsure of this bronze statue outside the giraffe house, but after some coaxing this was as close as she would get. I love this picture because it's almost like she saying "Wow your tall!"

I am glad we enjoyed the outdoors when we did because the weather is going to get cold again this week, and they are even calling for a chance of snow. I knew this was going to happen, but I am still not happy about it. Hopefully Spring will get here soon, so we can enjoy some more outdoor activities.

Gonna jump off her now and watch the new show on NBC called "Smash", so far it's pretty good. Until next time, BYE!

Mmm Mmm Monday #11:Superbowl Edition!

Hopefully everyone had a fun filled Superbowl day! We hung out at my sister-in-laws house all day and played games until the BIG game came on. We also pretty much ate all day, and boy was everything yuuumy!! I literally don't think I could have eaten more if I tried, I was full as a tick until I went to bed. Everyone that came to the party brought a dish, so we had lots of variety. I decided that I wanted to make something that I had never made before, so I poked around pinterest a bit looking for some inspiration.

I came across a recipe for a buffalo chicken cheese ball, and decided that it sounded yummy. I wasn't 100 % satisfied with the recipe that I found, so I decided to just use the idea of making the cheese ball, but come up with my own recipe, using things that I had on hand. Here is how I made it.

Buffalo Chicken Cheese Ball

You will need:

2 chicken breasts, cooked and shredded

2 pkgs cream cheese (8 oz)

1/2 bottle wing or hot sauce

1/2 can diced green chiles

1 cup monterey jack cheese

shredded cheddar cheese

sour cream-for garnish

Place everything in a large mixing bowl, except for the cheddar cheese.

Using your hands, mix everything together very well.

Once it's mixed, form ingredients into a ball, and place on wax paper.

Next flatten the ball a bit and shape into a football.

Next take your cheddar cheese and coat the outside of your cheese ball generously.

To create the laces on the football, place sour cream into a plastic baggy and cut off the tip to use as a pastry bag. Make the laces as shown below. Place cheese ball in the refrigerator until you are ready to serve or leave for your event. It will keep the cheese from getting to soft.

Serve with scoopable tortilla chips and Enjoy! (I left the football on the wax paper but just trimmed the excess off once I transfered it to the plate)

I'm pretty sure that this cheese ball was a hit, because it was almost gone when I left the party after halftime. Hubby enjoyed it thoroughly as well, but said that it needed a bit more wing sauce. It had a nice flavor, but could have used a bit more kick.

Hubby's (and everyone else) rating: WHOPPING 5!

I hope you enjoy this recipe if you choose to indulge. I am going to go enjoy some chocolate chip cookies and good TV so I will see you later. Until next time, BYE!

Linking up at:

Wow Us Wednesdays over at Savvy Southern Style