Five Years of Awesome

Tomorrow is my five year wedding anniversary.

I am amazed that it has been 5 years. Time has gone by so quickly!

We really have had so much happen in five years ~ so many amazing times together! Amazing times as a couple, as a family, at home, on the road, with friends and family. We laugh, we play, we get through the mundane :) I am so very lucky to be married to such an awesome husband and father. 

I don't really have any words of wisdom, no advice or rules to follow. I feel lucky that we have arrived here together.

Cheers to five amazing years - I know we will celebrate many, many more...

Building a Birdhouse with a 2 year-old

My husband took on an awesome project with the little guy this past weekend! They built a birdhouse. Now, it says it could take up to a year for the birds to find it - if they even do - but it's a good looking house regardless. I love how proud A gets when he makes something himself (with mom or dad help, of course).

Right: He's so proud! Left: The final product!

We bought a make-it-yourself kit from my park's visitor center. A is really into making things himself these days, and it was all he could talk about all weekend long!

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day to my Amazing Husband!

Meeting at Night

by Robert Browning

The gray sea and the long black land;
And the yellow half-moon large and low:
And the startled little waves that leap
In fiery ringlets from their sleep,
As I gain the cove with pushing prow,
And quench its speed i' the slushy sand.

Then a mile of warm sea-scented beach;
Three fields to cross till a farm appears;
A tap at the pane, the quick sharp scratch
And blue spurt of a lighted match,
And the voice less loud, through joys and fears,
Than the two hearts beating each to each!

The Best Gift

I was so lucky this Christmas - my family and friends were so very generous!

But at risk of embarrassing my wonderful husband, I have to tell you about the best gift ever - the one that had me so touched that I was crying on Christmas morning.

It's a book :) A photo book my husband made of A's first year. It was so thoughtful and perfect. Not only did he make a beautiful book, but he took quotes from some of my favorite blog posts. It was so thoughtful and creative. (Please ignore my not so beautiful photo editing!)

I still can't look at it without tearing up. Thank you, my dear, it means the world to me!

Fourth Anniversary - Flower Dessert!

Every year, when my anniversary rolls around, I do my duty and look up what I’m supposed to get for my husband. The first years were just a bit odd – paper, leather, cotton – but I quickly came up with some creative ideas. This fourth year, however, had me stumped. Flowers. I couldn’t just go with the obvious, so it took me quite some time to figure out a solution.

My husband does not like “stuff,” therefore I couldn’t get him anything permanent that would just sit around the house. However, he does like dessert (definitely doesn’t stay around the house for a long time). So lo and behold, I decided to find a recipe for a dessert that had flowers involved J I can’t wait to share the “Anniversary Flower Dessert” with you!

Prep Time: 30 minutes
Servings: 4

Ingredients:

4 pieces of Pound cake

½ gallon ice cream

½ package of oreo cookies

1 package of gummy worms

Other Things you’ll need:

Small flower pots, coffee mugs or

4 Straws

Fresh cut flowers

1. Cut the pound cake into rounds to fit in the bottom of your container. Make the pound cake the bottom layer in the container. Lightly press to make sure it is all the way down.

I took the extra pieces and put them in the bottom of the mug for me :) *If you use a flower pot, you can line it with aluminum foil if you wish!

2. Insert straw into the middle of the pound cake and cut off 1/2 inch from the top

3. Now grab your favorite ice cream, let it soften on the counter or put it in the microwave for 20 seconds, and spoon it into the container. Work around the straw until it almost reaches the top of the straw. Make sure to hide a worm or 2 in the ice cream with it's head peaking out!

5. Put the oreo cookies in the food processor until the look like dirt! You can also crush them in a ziploc bag for a low tech solution. Spoon the dirt (lots of it!) over the ice cream making sure not to plug up the straw hole. Now put it back in the freezer to re-harden the ice cream!

6. When you are ready to serve - place the flower in the straw and then cover the top of the straw with dirt so it isn't visible. Ready to serve :)

Enjoy! I know we did ~ Love you honey!

Sustainable Saturday ~ LED Lights!

This week I want to highlight a project that my wonderful husband did in our kitchen. Of course, I also have to point out that today is his birthday! ~Happy Birthday to my smart, talented, dedicated, funny, handsome, amazing husband~ Not only is he all those things, but also creative and handy in terms of "greening" our home!

The story of our kitchen lights isn't a short one :) When we moved in I was amazed at how DARK the kitchen was. How can one successfully cut things with a sharp knife without light?

Before: Very Very dark kitchen

After - Amazing Lights!

The first step in fixing the lighting issue was adding more light. My awesome husband added track lighting to one side of the kitchen...amazing! I really had no idea he knew how to do such handy things. I thought this solved my kitchen issues, but then, the recessed lighting became an issue.

There are three strangely placed lights in the kitchen. First one, then another, then the first again would go out. It never occurred to me that we (ok, my husband) could replace them himself. I also had no idea that that was something that could be done without hiring someone! It did take some time to figure it out, so installation of the first one took longer, but by the third he had it down :) We bought retrofit lights and also installed new "cans." (I'm learning so much!

So my husband did lots of research and decided not only to replace the lights but to put in energy efficient LED lights. The result - we use 12 watts per light instead of 65 watts. As a great bonus, not only are the new lights much more efficient - less energy and less money - they are much brighter and more attractive. The photos below show the kitchen with the first LED light installed. You can definitely tell which one it is!

Success! We now have new energy efficient lights in the kitchen - which means I can see when I cook and it costs less to use them. Win ~Win.  I am so impressed with my husband - thank you dear!

Crockpot and Molten Lava Chocolate!

I'm not sure if anyone else has a significant other addicted to chocolate, but I do. I am always keeping my eye out for creative ways to use chocolate :) Or new easy recipes for chocolate desserts. So this week, I came across a crockpot lava cake recipe. At first, this puzzled me. Dessert in a crockpot? That seems many ways of wrong. However, I know my husband likes lava cake, and his birthday may be coming up, so I decided to try it!

Here is the recipe and my results :)

Cake Ingredients:
2 C. Brown Sugar

2 C. All-purpose Flour
6 Tbsp. Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
4 tsp. Baking Powder
1 tsp. Salt
1 C. Milk
4 Tbsp. Butter, melted
1 tsp. Vanilla Extract
1 C. Semisweet chocolate chips.

Molten Lava Sauce Ingredients:
1 1/2 C. Brown Sugar
1/2 C. Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
3 C. Boiling Water

Step 1: Make the cake!
- Mix the dry ingredients (brown sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, salt) in the crockpot
- Stir in milk, butter, vanilla and chocolate chips until smooth
- Spread evenly

Step 2: Make the Lava Sauce :)
- Mix together Brown Sugar and Cocoa and sprinkle over mixture in crockpot
- Pour Boiling Water over the mixture. Do Not Stir!

Step 3: Cook in Crockpot
- Cover and cook on high for 2-2.5 hours (this is a very long time to wait!)

Step 4: Serve
- Uncover and turn off heat. Let sit for 20 minutes
- ENJOY!

Yum, yum, yum!

Best day(s) of my life

My wedding day - where I married the love of my life

The day I met the little guy - the second love of my life!

A random day during the first six weeks of A's life. I was on maternity leave, my husband was home, I felt happier than I ever had. My heart was full.

My Wonderful Husband

All my boys

Sometimes I can't believe how lucky I am. Not only do I have a wonderful husband, but he turned out to be an amazing father. I love seeing my son with his daddy.

Right now, A wants to be just like his dad, and it makes me so happy. He follows him around and imitates everything he does. Stretches like him, relaxes like him, tries to do yard work just like him (shovel, rake...you name it)....he's even learning to use the bluetooth like daddy.

I know it sounds a little cliche, but my heart really does melt when I see them together. I am so lucky that A has a good role model and father who loves him.

Happy Father's Day to an amazing father...

An awesome husband...

...knows just how to celebrate your birthday!

He gets you a card signed by your 1 yr. old son (yep, really!) and a balloon picked out by your adorable son. He buys you a coldstone creamery peanut butter chocolate ice cream cake (with a candle even). He gives you gorgeous earrings (made of 2,000 year old Roman glass).

He takes you on a beautiful hike, makes a yummy picnic lunch and goes wine-tasting with you.

Just in case you were wondering - I have an awesome husband :)

Enjoying my hike!