Wednesday, May 29, 2013

things i'm lovin!

who's ready for another round of fav things??

now that summer is on the verge of being here, i have to share my current fav blizzard from the dq. there are few things that scream summer to me quite like dairy queen. my dad and i (and sometimes my mom, too) would regularly hit up dq in the summers for a sweet treat. in my hometown, there isn't a single dq that is open year-round, so we didn't have any other choice than to get our dq fix in between march and october! so, my very fav recent blizzard is peanut butter and oreo. for some reason, i randomly was craving this combo a few weeks ago, so i asked if they had anything with oreo and pb. the girl said no, but that they could totally make it. and they did. and it's amazing. seriously, try it! just order an oreo blizzard with pb and all of your wildest dreams will come true!


in the same category of summery treats, i have to share about my lil izze obsession. i've bought them during winter in the past and it's just not the same. this fruity little drink can turn a bad spring or summer day upside down and quick. and it's as close as i'll get to 'cracking open a cold one'. it's refreshing, smooth and brightens up any day! blackberry is my fav, although the others are delish, too!


i'm a long time lady antebellum fan and so it's no surprise that i''m pumped about their latest cd, golden! since grant and i have spotify, i rarely buy a cd these days, so i've been jammin to lots of new releases, but lady a has been added to the rotation again. grant and i both would love to see them live... maybe next summer (since they aren't touring this summer)!


lastly, i'm always on the market for a good bodywash. i go through phases with what i'm looking for: creamy, more gel-like, different scents, etc. i've been hooked on nivea's bodywashes for awhile now, but this one particular scent is so fab. it just smells clean. i don't know how else to describe it! nivea bodywashes are creamy and kind of thin, so you don't need a lot. and they smell so fresh! and... they're cheap! ha


any fav things consuming your every thought lately?? if you try that blizzard, i can guarantee you will love it and will probably end up writing a blog post about it, too. just sayin! ;)

Tuesday, May 28, 2013

life around here.

phew! busy, busy, busy has been the name of the game around here lately! so, as i'm sitting here sipping my latest fav at-home coffee, i thought i'd jot down a post.


this coffee has been a life saver for me recently. i am an iced coffee lover. i bought the iced k-cups a couple months ago thinking that would solve all of my problems. wrong. it doesn't brew the coffee strong or hot enough. so, it's basically watered down not-strong-at-all nastiness. although this coffee isn't the best of the best (i'd rather have sbux any day), it's a great alternative! caramel macchiato is my fav!


i somehow talked my bff becca into coming to nowheresville, indiana for a visit! she flew in last weekend and it was just what i needed! having many friends is great, but having a few friends that know you better than you know yourself is such a blessing. we ate, laughed, shopped, pedicured, cooked, talked. it was fab. she's getting hitched in oct, so we talked about wedding a bunch, too! helps make me not feel quite so left out of the planning process! 


becca flew out tuesday afternoon and then my parents drove in from mn on thurs! it's been fun hosting, but our home feels SO much smaller when people are staying here! ha! while here, my parents and i drove all over town, looked at land for them to build, met w a realtor, toured some homes. oh... did i mention that they are moving here??? it's like a dream come true and i don't really know how my life could be playing out so perfectly! they have a home to sell in mn and have to figure out a lot of details, but indiana is in their future and i can think of one little boy who would be so excited if he understood what all this means!!

everyone got ready for church on sunday and then grant pointed out that they all matched. ha! needless to say he went and changed...


fun with cousin roslyn at the local zoo. they are riding a caterpillar!


checking out the emu's with gpa!



getting up close & personal with the emu's!


this boy is so lucky to have these two as his grandparents!


labor day goodness (my homemade mac n' cheese, along with potato salad, pineapple & grilled chicken/ burgers! yum-o.


in the midst of hosting visitors, we got the exterior of our house painted (trim, door, shutters) & updated exterior lights, had an open house at grant's new office space he's leasing and ordered our bedroom furniture!

holden acting like he owned the place at grant's office open house. 



my rose bush is blooming!!



freshly painted trim, shutters & door! ptl.



new dresser! love the chunky feet on it and the grain is gorgeous!!! got matching nightstands, too!


i'm hoping life will slow down a little bit now and we can have a few days with no real agenda. well, except for catching up on the bachelorette, that is! anyone else watching???

Friday, May 17, 2013

h54f!!

it's been a few weeks since i linked up for high 5 for friday. part of that is probably because my last few weeks have been busy, part of that is because i dumped all the pics off my phone & didn't feel like searching through the computer to find them, and part of that is because we've been living a pretty simple life around here. meaning my target trips have pretty much been the peak of my week! :)

ok, so now that i'm back, here's my top 5 highlights from the week!

5. i guess i'm late to the party cause this song was released months ago, but it's new to me and i love it! perfect for summer! love love love finding new jams!


4. so... a couple weeks ago, i may have gotten brave and thought i could cut holden's hair myself. it just spikes in the front and i thought 'how hard could it be??'. well, when grant got home, he asked me to never do that again. my argument for doing it is still valid (costs $$, don't like how it's cut most of the time, have to wrangle him in someone else's chair for 15 min, planning around nap times, etc), BUT... i knew he was right. so, yesterday, we went and saw my friend megan and she got him lookin real niiiice. only took one dumdum and he barely moved! ;) ps this is him waiting for his appt.


3. who doesn't love a new shirt? especially a polkadot new shirt!! got this lil ditty from kohls & i'm obsessed w the color! I've known forever that coral and turquoise are like MY colors, but i'm really liking this seafoam, too. 


2. we were lucky enough to have some family come into town this week! we had dinner at arni's and then went to my in-laws' house to hang out. here's parker (2nd cousin), roslyn (niece), stephen (1st cousin), archer (nephew) and holden. gotta love having a tv in the kitchen to flip on mickey. makes for a peaceful moment or two!


1. hooray for an updated fam pic!! on mother's day, our church offered fam pics to everyone that attended. since my hub was the photographer, i didn't plan on US getting a pic. so, as I'm on my way out the door for lunch, grant says we should get a pic. there are a lot of things i don't really like about this pic, but i can look past all those things and appreciate that my 18 mos is actually looking at the cam AND smiling! I'd call that a success!!!


did you have a good week?? link up w lauren & i to share your top 5's!!



Thursday, May 16, 2013

my go-to choc chip cookies!

in honor of yesterday being nat'l choc chip cookie day, i thought I'd share my go-to all time fav recipe! anytime i take these to a party, someone alllllways asks for the recipe. i think that makes it a keeper! :)


pinterest has been very hit or miss for me when it comes to recipes. like i've said before, i don't claim to be good in the kitchen. i'm not saying it's always the recipe's fault... but they don't always work out for me. it's pretty depressing, actually. and just when i was about to give up on pinterest recipes altogether, i found THE best chocolate chip cookie recipe. better than any other choc chip cookies i've ever made. so, without further ado...


BEST choc chip cookies

3/4 cup salted butter, soft
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1 egg
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp corn starch
1 tsp baking sofa 
1/8 tsp salt
1 cup semisweet choc chips

directions:
1. preheat oven to 350. 
2. cream butter & sugars w mixer. 
3. add in egg and vanilla. 
4. mix in flour one cup at a time. 
5. add in corn starch, baking soda & salt. mix well. 
6. stir or mix in choc chips. 
7. spoon dough onto a cooking sheet. i fit about 12 on each pan. 
8. bake 8-10 min until golden on top. do NOT bake more than 10 min. (trust me!)

y'all will thank me for this recipe later! these babies are fluffy, soft, chewy deliciousness!

Saturday, May 11, 2013

he still needs his mama.


i have had a lot of moments here lately where i think to myself that my baby is almost not a baby. and then i have to hold back the tears. where, oh where, has the time gone???

holden is now a year and a half and acting more and more like a little boy and less and less like a baby. i know it's natural. if this wasn't happening, i would be concerned... but that doesn't make it any easier!!


i am in LOVE with the stage that holden is in. he is curious, adventurous, full of communication and a little ornery at times. he challenges my patience and reminds me often that motherhood is not for the faint at heart. and that's even more why i love him. he makes me more like jesus. he sharpens my attitude, my outlook on life and reminds me to have a little zeal in each day.



now that summer is here, we are getting outside more. lots of walks, lots of playing on grandma & grandpa's putting green, lots of playdates at parks... and lots of knee scrapes. it's an unfortunate part of toddlerhood. holden is a walker, for sure, but he's still a little unsteady and concrete isn't forgiving. so... with summer comes lots of boo boo kisses, too. i don't wish for boo boos, but i can't help but soak up every moment afterwards when all he wants is his mama. 

i dream of the woman he will marry, his future kids, his future job, where he'll live, what ministries he will be leading. his future is bright and it's hard to not want him to be my baby forever

the good news is... he's still my baby. and he still needs his mama. and, i'm hoping, he always will.


Wednesday, May 8, 2013

picking a bed.

since grant and i got married in 2007, most of our furniture has been either hand-me-downs or cheap apartmentesque furniture from target. when we moved into the first home we actually own (our current home), we both knew we wanted to get a nice set of furniture for our master bedroom. so, once we got settled in, we began the discussion of what kind of bed we wanted.

wood? upholstered? four post? platform? white? cherry? dark?
so many questions.

we quickly agreed that we wanted an upholstered bed with some sort of tufting and/or nailhead design. since our bedroom walls are medium to dark, i knew i wanted something cream or beige color. although we plan to flip this house next winter, i have lots of bedroom ideas that this bed will work with even if we don't have dark walls. 

we originally agreed on this bed that we found on wayfair and then again on amazon. we both love the straight lines of it and the price is killer, too. we do still really, really like it, BUT... i had major anxiety about ordering a bed online. the fabric is velvet, so i wasn't sure if i'd like that or not. then there's the whole 'how do i return this thing if i hate it?' ordeal. it just seemed too risky to me.


so... we i decided it was a better decision to find a bed from an actual store that we could see and feel the fabric. luckily, it didn't take long and i found a bed i LOVE! the picture isn't near as fancy as the one above, but i am in love with this bed for real. it's from z gallerie fyi!


now, grant has said he wants new bedding and the whole nine yards. i see lots of trips to indianapolis' home goods in my future... :)


Monday, May 6, 2013

things i'm lovin!

i have recently become obsessed w a few things here lately and i feel compelled to tell the world!!!

first, this isn't a recent fav, but it's recently made it's way back into my rotation. grant doesn't really drink coffee at home, so i try to not have a ton of creamers in the house or they will go to waste. my current go-to coffee creamer is the coffeemate peppermint mocha. it's the perfect amount of peppermint, but not overpowering.
no-crease hair ties are all the rage these days. i didn't really see the benefit of them until my dear friend gave some to me as gift. she's made me a believer, to say the least! they are AMAZING for throwing your hair up especially if you only want it up for a period of time (like while you're doing the dishes and working up a sweat). my hair is SO fine and regular hair ties almost instantly crease my hair. the other benefit of these is they are super trendy as bracelets and aren't too tight on your wrist like other hair ties might be.


if you own a dyson, have a good amount of hard floors in your house (tile, wood, etc) and don't own the hard floor attachment you seriously don't know what you're missing!!! i cannot recommend the dyson enough. i've had mine for around 5 years and still love it dearly. when we moved into our new house and have mostly laminate floor and tile in the bathrooms, i realized real quick that i needed to get something. i had no idea dyson even made hard floor attachment, but they totally do and it's worth every penny! it fits on pretty much every dyson and is such a lifesaver! makes vacuuming a breeze. seriously! get it!


I'm in a constant state of mind trying to decorate our house with things i LOVE, not just like... not just like the pricetag... not just like the durability... not just like that it's 'good enough'. i do know myself well enough to know that my style changes regularly, so blowing lots of $$$ on certain things just isn't worth it, BUT, i still want stuff i LOVE. with that said, i was recently at west elm and found THE most perfect throw pillows. I'm hoping to snag these on sale, but they ARE silk and that makes me nervous w a toddler constantly destroying my house! we'll see if they ever make it to mi casa...


so... what are y'all loving?? a new lipstick? fav new drink at sbux? share w me!!!



Thursday, May 2, 2013

birth story: archer finn!


there are few days that i have lately that really just stand out in my mind. i might get a really sweet text from a friend or days like today, someone in front of me in the sbux drivethru buys my drink. these things don't really leave a lasting impression, though. i guess that's the best way to describe this: a lasting impression.

some may think it's strange how monumental this day was for me... especially since i have been through labor myself and have a sweet baby to show for it already. i just don't know how to explain how incredible the miracle of life is being on the other side of it.

not being the one stuck in a bed for hours.
not being the one asking nurses how many more pushes (ok... i may be the only one to ever do that...).
not being the one to be so exhausted that the first moments with your baby are a blur.


gretchen, grant's sister, asked me early on in her pregnancy what i thought about taking some pictures of their son after he was born. you know, getting weighed, his first bath, etc. i delightfully said no problem and looked forward to those first moments with my nephew. especially since we lived in florida when my niece was born and i feel like i missed out on so, so much with her.

fast forward several months. gretchen is a week overdue and we are all just on the edge of our seats wondering why he doesn't want to come meet us! since i knew they wanted pics RIGHT after he was born, i was fully expecting a call when they headed to the hospital to make sure i got there to take his first pics.

well, about the time i got the text that they were heading to the hospital, i had gotten about two hours of sleep. my friend ashley was in town visiting and we had stayed up late chatting. then, holden decided he wanted to party about 2 hours after we went to bed. and, per usual, this was no fun and my delusional sleeplessness was kicking in. well, shortly after holden woke up and would NOT go to sleep, grant got up cause he couldn't sleep either. and then i got THE text.

"we are heading to the hospital. if you can head there in about 30 min, that would be good."


so, i jump in the shower (knowing i won't have time after he's born before i have to be to MOPS) and start to get ready for my day. at 4am. oy. around this time, i text gretchen's husband, jason, back and ask if he can find out what exactly gretchen wants pics of (in between contractions, of course!). he texts back that she wants me there when she's pushing. and not just there... in the room.


my heart skips a beat. the thought never crossed my mind about being in the delivery room as she was delivering. maybe because gretchen is fairly private. maybe because i didn't know if that was something that i would even enjoy. i don't know why it didn't, it just didn't.

so, knowing that with gretchen's daughter, her entire labor was around 4 hours, i knew i had to move quick. i threw on some clothes, grabbed my camera (that grant lovingly got all ready for me) and i was out the door. i wanted a coffee... i wanted lunch (it felt like i should be ready for lunch since i was clearly not getting the sleep my body needed!). but, i knew i couldn't risk missing everything for a coffee!


i drove a little quicker than i should have, almost ran a red light that was taking forever and i can still remember the jitters i had. it was like i remembered the nervous feelings i had going into labor and was having sympathy feelings or something. so, with my stomach in knots, i made my way to the hospital.

when i got there, they weren't quite ready for me, so i waited in the lobby. i had grabbed some goldfish on my way out the door, so i anxiously munched on those while watching infomercials. after maybe 20 min, i got a text that she was ready to push.

what?
already?
ok... here we go!!!

i got settled in my 'station' up by gretchen's shoulders and was ready to shoot. luckily, since gretchen does have ridiculously quick labors, it didn't take long and we all got to meet the little (not so little) baby boy!

 archer finn diehls was here! all 10 lbs, 3 oz of him! gretchen is a warrior. a non-epidural warrior!






archer finn, your auntie misty loves you to the moon & back. i can't wait to see the man of god you become and the great things you will do! i feel honored to know you from the beginning, my love!

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

easy crockpot chicken tacos amazeballs!

if you've read much of my blog, you may get the impression that i'm savvy in the kitchen. well... i am here to tell you that that couldn't be farther from reality. i wish i liked to cook, i wish i liked to do the dishes afterwards and i reallllllly wish i had a husband that knew not to compare my meal to carrabba's (yes, i'm serious about that last one). i really shot myself in the foot because when grant & i first got married, we were both working, both had no clue how to cook & lived near a bunch of amazing restaurants. ergo, we ate out. like every other night. we ate some darn good food and food that is impossible to replicate.

fast forward 6 years and i am now a stay at home mama with more time than ever before to meal plan, grocery shop & get a meal on the table. the desire to cook in me is starting to grow, but i am nowhere near the pioneer woman! thanks to my handy, dandy pinterest, i've found some recipes lately that are tasty, versatile & most importantly... EASY! i have a feeling my crockpot will quickly become one of my dear friends!

ok, ok... enough with my cooking history!!! you've gotta try these easy, peasy crockpot chicken tacos! like tomorrow! :) since it makes plenty of chicken and i got sick of eating chicken tacos for lunch every day, i switched it up and made quesadillas w the chicken! and they're amazing! so, without further ado...

EASY CROCKPOT CHICKEN TACOS



1 package taco seasoning
1 24 oz jar of salsa
6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1. pour the jar of salsa in the crockpot and dump in the packet of taco seasoning.
2. toss the chicken in & make sure as much of the chicken is covered w the salsa.
3. turn on low & let it be for 6-8 hours.
4. the chicken will be falling apart, but shred any remaining chunks.
5. ENJOY!

this recipe could NOT be easier. and that's comin from a lady who doesn't know much about cooking! the original recipe called for a 16 oz jar of salsa, but i wanted to make sure that it didn't get too dry in the crockpot. honestly, 20 oz would prob be the perfect amount, but go with your heart! :)



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