My little model

We went and took A-Cakes 7 month photos with my sister-in-law. We are so lucky we have three amazing girlies in our family that all take super amazing photos. You can find my SIL's photo information over on Facebook. Its called Sincerely, Lex Photography. She is moving to California (boo!), so if you live there, you should contact her for some photo-shoots. Or you can ask me about my other amazing SIL's that do photography too if you live in Utah. 

A-Cakes was happy all day, but for some reason, we got out there and she decided to be an ornery goose. So smiles were few and far between, but I think the pictures turned out gorgeous. 

We were exhausted by the end trying to make a ton of noise to get her to look at us, and not the grass. 

Finally a smile. And thats just cause she was being held by daddy.

We snapped a few family ones in there too. 

Beef Enchiladas

My mom used to make these Enchiladas when I was growing up. I was not an easy kid to cook for since I hate cheese and most other dairy products, so finding things I would eat is tough. Usually she would make something that she could easily leave a spot without cheese for me, but add cheese for the rest of my family, who all love cheese (ick!)

But I always loved these enchiladas, and they are pretty easy to make, not very much work at all. I make them pretty often because Jeremy loves them. It was one of the first meals I made for him once we were married. 

Beef Enchiladas

1 lb ground beef

1 small can green chiles

1 can refried beans

1 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp cumin

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

 5-7 tortillas

1 can green or red enchilada sauce

Cook the Ground beef  with garlic powder, salt and pepper, and cumin, until no longer in pink. Add green chiles, saute about 1 minute. Add refried beans, mix until beans are pliable and all mixed through. 

While that is cooking, get a 9X13 pan, spray with cooking spray, and add a tiny bit of enchilada sauce to the bottom of the pan, and move pan around so the sauce spreads. 

Get your tortillas and add the beef mixture to the tortilla, so it spreads across the tortilla in a line, you can add more or less depending on how big you want your enchiladas. I used mine to make 5 because I only had 5 tortillas, but I usually use six. 

Now line your enchiladas along the bottom of the pan. 

Add more enchilada sauce and cover the tortillas. 

Bake at 375 for about 20 minutes, cover in cheese, bake another 10 minutes or until tortillas are a little crispy on the edges. 

Serve! 

Beef, green chiles and beans mixed together

Sin in a Bowl

{This picture is from Finding Joy in My Kitchen, My layers didn't look as neat as theirs and I want to show you all the goodness that is in it, the other two pictures are mine though.}

So my momma made this dessert for Easter, and I think everyone had about five bowls of it. It was amazing! At first I wasn't going to eat it, cause I just thought it was pudding, whipped cream, and strawberries, and I thought, boring. But then I realized there were brownies in there and I had to try it, and I am so glad I did. It was super yummy! It was the hit of our Easter dinner. So I had to make it. I made it the other night for my sister in laws that were visiting us, and it was a hit again. But it didn't taste as good as my mommas. I skipped the step that the recipe suggests letting it sit for 8 hours, and the brownies didn't soak up all the pudding goodness. But the next day it was way more delicious after it sat for a while. So I suggest making this the night before or something. It is called 'Sin in a bowl' and it really does live up to its name! 

You can find the recipe for it over at Finding Joy in My Kitchen. 

And in case you are wondering. Usually when I find a recipe for something on a blog, I don't add the recipe on my blog, because I find it more polite to direct you to the original blog and if I gave you the recipe, there would be no reason for you to visit their blog, I know when I create something, I would like someone to do the same for me. 

Simple Elastic Waist Skirt

So if you look at my sewing pinterest board, you are lead to believe I am an amazing sew-er (what the, how do you write that word without spelling sewer?) I have pinned all these cute DIY baby dresses, reversible hand bags, and crazy cute maxi dresses. And I guess looking at that board all the time and pinning advanced sewing tutorials lead me to believe I am a sewing wiz! So I started on this baby ruffle skirt that had many layers of ruffles with tulle underneath and everything. But halfway through this adventure I realized I suck at sewing. My greatest sewing accomplishment was making some My Little Pony pajamas for myself in Clothing 1 in high school. And those only worked out because I had my friends who were sitting by me tell me in detail everything I had to do, and fix my machine when I tangled it all up. Why in the world did I choose this crazy ruffle skirt as a beginning sewing project? Well I persevered and finished that dang skirt and the end result was some pretty shoddy stitch work, and a skirt that barely fit A-Cakes (thanks to me not measuring properly). She wore it once, and then the whole thing fell apart in the wash, I guess I didn't sew close enough to the raw edges so it totally frayed and got all stringy and I had to throw it away! The thing took me hours and hours and hours and now its sitting in my trash can. 

Well it was such a difficult project and I tangled up my machine so many times (with no friends to fix it for me, just tutorials on youtube) that I had to take a few weeks break from sewing. But I wasn't going to give up, so I went back to my advanced pinterest board and looked for SIMPLE, and BEGINNER sewing projects. And I found this elastic waisted skirt that was guaranteed to be easy and great for beginners. 

And it totally was. I whipped this baby up in an hour and a half, maybe a bit less. I measured correctly this time and tried it on A-Cakes and it fit! And I learned my lesson with sewing the raw edges so no fraying. 

So really, I am telling you, ANYONE can make this skirt! 

{I love my cute little model}

I didn't do a tutorial, I don't feel like I am an experienced enough sew-er to give you instructions, but you can find the amazing tutorial that I used over at Freshly Picked. It is great and gives you wonderful instructions on how long to cut your fabric and everything. 

I am loving this skirt. A-Cakes wore it today and I thought it was adorable. And so light and cute for summer! I think I am going to make a few more for her in different prints and probably one for me too since they were so easy. 

I bought the fabric on sale at Wal-Mart for $1.50 a yard and I used about 1/3 of the yard, if that. I already had the elastic, but if you don't its like $1.00 at Wal-Mart. 

So this skirt cost me $1.50!!! 

Chicken & Beef Fajitas

So... How ya liking the new look? I have to change every few months, I get bored of the same style.


I have been craving fajitas the last couple months. Its weird cause I never really loved them that much. But now I want to eat them every night! 

In March when I went to New Mexico, my mom's friend made these fajitas and that is what got me hooked, they were really good. I didn't have the recipe, so I made up my own. But my mom finally got the recipe from her. So I mixed the new recipe with the one I invented and Bam! Wonderful. 

So when I make up my own recipes, I don't really measure anything. I just keep adding stuff until I like how it tastes. That is what I did with this fajita recipe. So I am estimating here, but I would tweek it to your liking. Its an easy meal, and simple to make your own.

Chicken & Beef Fajitas

1 lb chicken breasts, cubed. 

1/2 lb thin beef steak, sliced thin. 

1 Green Pepper, sliced

1/2 onion, sliced 

4 to 6 tortillas 

1 pack McCormick Fajita Seasoning

1/2 C. Water

1 tsp balsamic vinegar

1 Tbsp Lime Juice

1/4 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp pepper

1/4 tsp chili powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp garlic powder

red pepper flakes (add to your level of spiciness) 

1 Tbsp olive oil ( margarine or veggie oil works too)

In large pan, heat chicken, beef, green peppers and onions in olive oil. Add cumin, pepper, chili powder, salt and garlic powder, stir. Cook until chicken is almost cooked through, stirring often.. Add water. Continue cooking on about med (okay whatever 7 is on your stove top, cook it on that) until water reduces down a bit, then add McCormick seasoning packet and mix it all up. Add lime juice, vinegar and red pepper flakes, stir. Continue cooking until water is reduced down pretty low and has made a kind of thin-ish sauce. 

You're done! Enjoy.

NOTE: I did not have a McCormick Seasoning packet and that is what my mom's friend said she used. I did however have the McCormick Fajita Seasoning that comes in the spice container, so I used that. I used about 1 1/2 Tbsp of that, maybe a bit more...

I also recommend using the uncooked tortillas you can get at your grocery store in the refrigerator section. I used to buy the already made, ready to serve kind, but the uncooked kind is soo SOOO SOO much better. I will never go back. They are like a dollar or so more, but so worth it, and they only take like a minute to cook. The other kind seriously would like break in half whenever I would fold it over for a burrito or something, but these kind don't. 

I love this rice, its Zatarans Black Beans and Rice. It went great with the fajitas.

** Update**

I love to puree vegetables and put them in dinners. This is a great one to do that with. I love summer Squash added to this recipe. 

My Favorite Baby Items

There are a few items that we have that I love! 

These things have saved me in keeping A-Cakes happy!

Baby Gym Floor Mat: We got this for A-Cakes for Christmas, but she didn't really play with it until she was around 3 months, and she has loved it ever since. We bought it at Walmart, and it came with the toys already. I think her being on it has helped her roll better because she reaches for the toys. She can spend up to 25-30 minutes with this thing! 

Medela Breast Pump: It is just a small manual pump that was like $30.00.  I don't work outside the home and so I just needed a manual one. It works super great if you want to pump a few times a week, even once a day or so. I pump every so often and store milk in the fridge or freezer, so if we go somewhere I can just give A-Cakes a bottle of the pumped milk! It can be a bit slow, so if you need to pump a lot, get an electric one. But it helps for outings.  (Also on that note, some babies don't take bottles, but I think if you start them at around 4 weeks they will take to a bottle better. It is early enough that they aren't too picky, but breastfeeding is well established by that time. )

Crinkle Book:  Who knew a $4 item could be so wonderful. A-Cakes loves this so so much. Its her favorite toy. Many melt downs have been stopped because of it. It makes the crinkley loud noise, and she loves it. I like the handle because I can hold the handle and she can bat at it without it falling on the floor. 

Hylands Teething Tablets: Thanks to my lovely friend I bought some of these for A-Cake's poor teething gums. They are all natural, and they are tablets and dissolve instantly in their mouth. She seems to like the taste too. You can just buy them at Walmart and they work really well. She is much happier once she has these. They do seem to make her a little constipated though, so if you try them and baby seems to have a problem, our pediatrician just said to give them a little bit of prune juice. 

Lanolin:  Totally kept my boobies in good shape with the whole nursing thing. No cracking or bleeding like I hear can happen from some people's horror stories. I haven't really needed it since like A-Cakes was a month old, but I occasionally use it if I get a little hurty. Did nursing hurt any of you guys? Some people said at first it kills, especially when the milk comes in, but it totally didn't for me. I honestly didn't feel that big of a difference. I only get a bit uncomfy when A-Cakes hasn't eaten in a while. 

My Baby Wish List: 

I probably won't get any of these items until the next baby comes. But these are the things I keep telling Jeremy I NEED for our next kid! 

Travel Swing: 

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    We have a regular swing right now (we actually bought it at a garage sale, score!) but it is kinda bulky and a pain to bring to people's houses. And A-Cakes just sleeps so well in it, that a travel swing would be excellent to just pack up so she can go to sleep in and so all hell doesn't break loose when she gets tired outside of the house. If I had to do it over again, I would just have a travel swing, a bigger swing isn't needed, and the travel swings are a heck of a lot cheaper. 

Baby Step-N-Play

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My cousin says she thinks this is what helped her kid walk earlier. And I just think it looks like it would keep baby entertained for a long time! 

Video Baby Monitor

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I bought the cheapest monitor out there. But all monitors are not created equal. Mine sucks! It picks up the neighbors and we can hear them, and vice versa. And it makes kind of a buzzing noise too while its on, annoying. I don't even use it. I can just hear A-Cakes whenever she cries. But a video one would be way more awesome. I could make sure she is okay, because even when the monitor was on, I still check on her like a thousand times and make sure she is breathing, and hasn't rolled into some awkward position somehow preventing her from breathing. 

Things that are Just Plain CUTE!

Play-N-Crawl Ball: It moves a tiny bit, so baby has to make more of an effort to get it. I have seen A-Cakes try and get up on her little legs and crawl too it. Of course she is a bit young to crawl, but I think it is going to help her crawl. Plus it sings and tells them shapes and has a little lady bug that moves on top of it. I just think it is adorable.  

(also the blanket I took a lot of these pics on, its a big minky blanket that my aunt made for A-Cakes, I LOVE IT. Its so cute! All pink and stuff and I secretly use it for myself half of the time, its just the right size)

Pink Flower IKEA lights: My MIL bought these for A-Cakes for Christmas. They are too cute. They make the perfect nightlights, and they give off this super cute pink glow and her room is just this cute pink paradise all night. I just think they are cute! 

Petunia Pickle Bottom Diaper Bag: I didn't buy this, my cousins all chipped on it for me for my shower (thanks guys). I don't think I could have justified buying a $100.00 diaper bag to Jeremy, but I love this thing. It is water resistant on the outside, it has this zipper thing in front that comes out to be a changing mat and lots of pockets. My favorite thing about it. It has straps to be a backpack too! Because you are just carrying like a thousand things sometimes and the backpack straps take the weight off your arms and distributes it evenly. Plus, it is just freakin' adorable. 

Burlap and Ruffle Table Runner- Super EASY!

I gotta new table a few months ago (courtesy of a hand-me-down from my mother-in law), I love it, its blue, and has little drawers in it too to put all my junk. And its not a cheap-o table from Ikea. 

But it needed a little pizzaz. Like a table runner, but I didn't have a sewing machine. So when I visited my mom in New Mexico in March I borrowed hers and made myself one while I was there. Yes, I made this clear back in March and I was just lazy and didn't post it. Now I have my own sewing machine, and I made a skirt, and someday I will get around to posting that... 

ANYWAYS.... 

This table runner is so freakin' easy. Anyone could make it, yes anyone, even if you are like me and have the sewing skills of a monkey, and not those smart ones that know sign language.

I got about two yards of burlap, and had plenty to spare (I actually probably only needed a yard of it) And I bought about 1/2 yard of muslin and used most of that for the ruffles. 

I just cut out a big rectangle of my red burlap, then I ironed about 1/3 inch of fabric on all sides, pinned and sewed it so the edges didn't fray. 

Then I made the ruffles. Don't be afraid, ruffles are really easy. 

I didn't take pictures while I was making them, or anything though. 

So you can use the tutorial I used over at one of my favorite blogs, A Girl and a Glue Gun. 

I looked at a few ruffle tutorials and they all confused me except for hers, cause she takes a lot of pictures which I love. Once I made the ruffles I just sewed them right onto the burlap. It is all straight lines. 

I could have made the table runner longer, which would have been fun. But I figure with a baby who is going to be crawling in a few months, I would be an idiot to make something hang over the edge. That is an accident waiting to happen. 

Also my new table did not come with chairs. I had my chairs all picked out online at a store, but waited until we had money to buy them, then once we had the money, the store is no longer selling them. Jerks! So I am still waiting to find my perfect chairs. So we are using our Ikea chairs still. 

Oh and we have an office chair here since Jeremy thinks this is the office (why do we even have a spare room?)