Hannah turned 1! ~ pic heavy

Yesterday I was going to blog about the birthday party that we threw for Hannah but I was surprised with the Versatile Blogger Award and had to take care of the thanks for that and passing the award on to some other great bloggers.

I hadn't blogged in a while before yesterday because my parents drove in from Oklahoma which took up my week. It was great to see them and have them here for Hannah's special celebration.

Today I spent most of my morning and early afternoon watching the Royal Wedding that I had recorded. I didn't think I would care so much but it was fascinating watching everything and I started crying when I saw Prince William tell Princess Kate she looked beautiful. I hope they stay together forever, we need more long term marriages for our children and ourselves to look up to.

Anyways, onto Hannah's big day. We celebrated it on Easter Sunday, her actual birthday. We had the whole family over for Easter dinner, cake and ice cream. I decorated the house with Easter decorations and birthday decorations. 

 Front window

 top of bookshelf

Jellybean topiary. All week Hannah had been pulling herself up on the furniture, she's just now starting to cruise a little.

Speaking of she is throwing an absolute fit right now so I'm going to make this quick.

Here's the cake, I've never been more proud of a cake before.

Something weird happened to the icing on her little cake but it still tasted good. She only ended up having 6 or so bites and I had to pretty much feed them to her. I don't think she wanted to get too messy, lol.

Here's the big girl having some fun in her pretty dress that Grandma picked out.

Doing "so big" for her guests.

All cleaned up and in a new outfit after cake.

Loving her new toys.

We had a lot of fun that day. Here's to another great year!

  

Versatile Blogger Award

I received the Versatile Blogger Award! I'm so excited!

The rules of accepting the award are as follows:

1. Thank the person who gave you the award and link back to them.

Thank you, Emily @ LaForce Be With You. I'm so glad I found your blog a while ago. I love all of your different ideas.

2. Tell 7 things about yourself.

That is alot to think of....

1. I'm a Gemini through and through. I am a creature of change. I get bored quickly, so I'm always changing    my hair, style and blog background.

2. I'm getting more comfortable with myself the older I get, just like they say. Who knew?

3. I had no idea 15 years ago that I would want to be a housewife, but I've never been happier in my life.

4. As I was reading Emily's story about being stung by a stingray, it reminded me of how scary the ocean is to me as well. I was stung by a jellyfish when I was 11 in the Gulf while snorkeling with dolphins. But that's not why it scares me, it's the massive size and the deep dark parts. But this doesn't stop me from dipping my feet in and going on a boat, I just don't want to dive it.

5. I've lived in 4 different states, Georgia, Florida, Oklahoma and Oregon, slowly making my west my whole life. Now I would never leave Oregon, too beautiful. But I will always be proud to be a Georgia peach, just wish I still had my accent.

6. I love all types of music. Literally, I listen to alot of country because it's wholesome but you might catch me listening to hip hop or pop while dancing with my baby girl, classic rock, oldies or metal while sampling my husbands huge metal collection. I also went through a Christian ska phase in high school.

 7. When I was living in Marietta, GA at age 9-10 I played on the playground with a couple of the members of Another Bad Creation.

3. Pay it forward and award the Versatile Blogger to 15 recently discovered new bloggers.

Hopefully these bloggers are new enough (that part was hard) and they haven't received this award before, I scowered your blogs and couldn't find it.

1. Melissa@{Oh} Buttons!

2. Courtney@She's Crafty

3. Danielle@Blissful & Domestic

4. Katie@Craptastic

5. Mrs. Gray@Crafting with the Grays

6. Dana@D'Lea Designs

7. Angie@Thrifty Like Me

8. Angie@Tennessee Sunshine

9. Jenny@Seamingly Smitten

10. Lauren@My Wonderfully Made

11. Leah@Living Life Crafty

12. Katie@Katie's How To

13. Lindsey@I'd rather be crafting

14. Christini@Christini Yogini

15. Emily@Domestic Deadline

Check these ladies out, I wouldn't be following them if they didn't have something great to offer.

Mini morsel shortbread squares

I have been cleaning for the arrival of my parents. They are coming for Hannah's first birthday. They are driving from Oklahoma and should be here tomorrow. It should be a fun visit. 

Well I have sad news about Hannah's Sprout birthday card. Even though I checked to see how much postage I should put on the envelope, it still wasn't enough and it was returned. There wasn't enough time to get it back to Sprout so we just decided to keep it and we'll try again next year.

My camera is out of memory and that's why I'm at the computer now, I'm loading everything on to Cd's. Once I have room again I'll take pics of all of the Easter/birthday decorations I've made and set up.

For now here is a recipe for some super yummy chocolate chip bars that I found on the back of the chocolate chip bag. I wanted something chocolate but couldn't figure out what I wanted to make so I just looked at the back of the bag and there it was. These were super easy and very yummy.

Mini Morsel Shortbread Squares

2 sticks butter

3/4 cup sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

12 oz bag of semi-sweet mini morsels

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Beat butter and sugar in a large bowl until creamy.

Beat in egg and vanilla.

 Gradually beat in flour.

Stir in 1 cup mini morsels

Press into bottom of greased 13x9 baking pan.

Bake for 30 min.

Immediately sprinkle with remaining mini morsels. Let stand for 5 min then spread evenly.

Cool completely in pan. Cut into squares.

I loved the crunchy shortbread. These will become a regular treat in our house.

Linking up to:


 

Whole Strawberry Country Jam

I decided I would take my first attempt at making jam yesterday. I chose a really simple recipe, so simple you even keep the berries whole. The flavor turned out good but I'm not crazy about the whole berries. It left alot of jelly without fruit which makes it a little runny, but once you spread it on toast you don't notice. This was good for my first attempt but next time I will tweak it a little. What I really liked though was how quick it was and still very yummy.

Whole Strawberry Country Jam

4 cups strawberries

3 cups sugar

2 tbsp lemon juice

wash, dry and hull strawberries.

In a large pot stir together strawberries and sugar.

Cook on low heat until strawberries release their juices, continuing to gently stir.

Once juices are released, raise heat to medium or so, bring to rolling boil.

Let boil without stirring for 15 min.. But check to make sure jam isn't sticking by running a wooden spoon across bottom of pan.

After 15 min. remove from heat. Pour lemon juice on top, while it's setting.

Once cooled, stir in lemon juice.

Pour into preferred storage container.

Done.

Linking up to these fun Friday parties:

Sprout birthday card entry

Hannah's birthday is quickly approaching and she absolutely loves Sprout, we watch it everyday. I've wanted to send a card in for her birthday since we first started watching. I don't know if it will arrive in time to be considered for TV but I got it in the mail today anyways. I think it turned out pretty cute and should show up pretty goon on TV if it is picked, fingers crossed. I added her favorite characters, Chica, Patty the Pig, Elmo and Barney. I also added some things for Easter since that's the day of her birthday. The only bad thing is, is you don't get the card back, but that's why I scanned it.

 

My first feature!!!

Guess what peeps?! I was featured! I'm so excited I can't stand it. This totally made my day.

 I knew the German Chocolate brownies were good and nothing that I had ever thought to do before. They didn't last long in this house. The recipe is in the Tasty Tuesday post for March 29th if you are interseted.

 Well I'm busy making Hannah's birthday card to send to Sprout so I better get to it, because I'm running out of time.

Have a great day!

birthday invite pics

I'm working on Hannah's birthday invitation and I took some adorable pictures of her for them and wanted to share.

Here's the front of the invite, I used the circus text on the actual printed versions, but this gives you an idea. I'm super excited for her Easter birthday!