Wishes For Stella

At one of my baby showers my sister had everyone fill out a 'wishes for baby' card. The cards have sentence starters and the guests finished them. You can find printable versions of the cards here. They're so sweet, and something I plan on reading to Stella as she grows up. After the shower, we had her Poppy fill one out, and when I got home, Tim and I each did one. The other day I put them all together into a little book.

All of the things people wrote were so thoughtful that I wanted to share one of my favorites from each card.

I hope you respect that I will oppose you dating
I hope you get into a little bit of trouble (but not too much)
I hope you love Jesus and the beach
I hope that you cry when poppy leave
I hope you become best friends with your siblings
I hope you laugh at your mom and dad
I hope you never forget that everything comes from God
I hope you get your dad's awesome story telling skills
I hope you grow slowly! Don't rush it! Enjoy your youth!
I hope you love with your whole heart
I hope you aren't afraid to take chances and follow your dreams
I hope your ignore mean people
I hope you love who you are
I hope you get lots of smoochies

My next project for the Love Bean includes these pictures...

Birth Announcement

Get ready for it. I'm finally going to share some more of my work on this ol' blog! First up birth announcements that I designed for the Love Bean. Even though they've been done for awhile, I never actually got around to sending them out, and since it's approaching Christmas card season, I've decided to wait and send Christmas cards. That way I can include one of the photos from our recent shoot with Sarah Alair Photography. (We haven't got the photos back yet, I'll share my faves when we do!)

 

I love the way they turned out and I'm a little bummed I never got around to sending them out. Oh well, it was fun designing them. The left side includes her name, the origin and meaning of it, parent's names, who she is named after, nicknames, hair and eye color. The right side displays her demeanor, who she resembles in looks, where and when she was born, and her weight and length. 

I'm seriously looking into freelancing full time so that I can work from home and be with Love Bean all day. So, be watching for a Facebook page to pop up. Through that you'll be able to hire me or purchase pre-made designs to print on your own, including the one above! Of course Stella's info would be swapped for your little one's, colors could be changed as well.

Tasty Morsels: Part 2

Time to review the dishes from my original Tasty Morsels post!

Day 1: Creamy Basil Pesto with Cheesy Bread
This was a great start to the series of Pinterest recipes. Typically, I favor pasta dishes with creamy sauces, but this homemade Basil Pesto was pretty darn good. It was really light and fresh, and it was even good the next day. The Cheesy Bread, was super super good! The recipe makes A LOT, so hubs took a bunch with him to work the next day and all the guys at his shopped loved it. Will I make it again? Yes to both

Day 2: Twice Baked Potato Casserole
I served this as our main dish, well actually it was the only thing I served. But it really is more of a side dish. I read casserole and assumed I wouldn't have to serve anything with it, but it's really just mashed potatoes with a few extras. Will I make it again? Yes, but as a side

Day 3: Crockpot Chicken Taco Bowls
YUM! These are delish and so so easy to make. It's really versatile too. You could also put it in a taco shell like my hubs, or use it as more of a dip. Will I make it again? Yes!!

Day 4: Pesto Chicken Stuffed Shells
I ended up skipping this recipe. I didn't have any leftover pesto like I thought I would and we had a lot of the chicken taco bowl left, so we ate that again.

Day 5: Cauliflower Crust Pizza
I was very nervous about this dish, because I had never tried anything like it. It turned out really good though. Hubs couldn't believe the crust was made from cauliflower. I topped our pizza with sauteed red and green peppers, onion and bacon. I think the crust would even be good on it's own with some veggie dip or something. Will I make it again? Yep

Day 6: Black Bean Soup
I didn't end up making this either. But I still want to try it someday. 

Day 7: Cheesy Enchilada Casserole
The recipe called for Italian Dressing, I thought that was odd, but I added anyway. Turns out it was weird...neither hubs or I really liked this. I have a similar Taco Lasagna recipe that I'll continue to use instead. But I will add the black beans from this one. Will I make it again? Nope

Timmy's Special Request: Blueberry Bread
This was pretty good, although it was a little bit crumbly. It was really pretty when it came out of the oven. Will I make it again? Probably


You can find the recipes and links to the original sources via my Tasty Morsels Pinterest board.

Stella 1 Month

Our little Love Bean is 1 month old already! Each month (until she's a year old) I'll be taking a picture of her in our orange chair.

Tasty Morsels

As you all know by now, I'm in love Pinterest. But what you don't know, is that I've pinned all these tasty looking recipes that I've never actually made. Over the weekend, my mom and sisters made fun of me for not having tried any of them. They've tried lot's of stuff they've pinned.

So momma, Al, and Mal this post is for you! I've planned a menu for the next week using only recipes from my Tasty Morsels board. I'll report back what the hubs and I thought of each dish. Now, I just have to go on a MAJOR grocery shopping trip.

This is the menu we have to look forward to

Day 1: Creamy Basil Pesto with Cheesy Bread
Day 2: Twice Baked Potato Casserole
Day 3: Crockpot Chicken Taco Bowls
Day 4: Pesto Chicken Stuffed Shells (a second Pesto dish bc there will be leftover homemade pesto from Day 1)
Day 5: Cauliflower Crust Pizza
Day 6: Black Bean Soup
Day 7: Cheesy Enchilada Casserole

Timmy's Special Request: Blueberry Bread

I'm excited to get in the kitchen and try these dishes out!

Stella's 1st Trip To The Mitten

The Love Bean and I made our first trip to Michigan. She did so good in the car on the way up. The way back to Chicago, was a little different. It wasn't horrible, but we did have to make a couple extra stops, which added about an hour to our travel time.

It was such a good trip. Stella got to meet her Auntie Mal, Uncle Jesse, Uncle Owen, her cousin Raelin, and some of her Great Grandparents, all for the first time! And I got to meet my new nephew Gatlyn!! He was born at 28 weeks, but is such a fighter.

Stella's Poppy (my dad) took her for her first combine ride. I think she liked it, even though she slept most of the time. And I'm pretty sure her Poppy loved it! I'm sure she'll be begging me to ride with him again when we're up there for Halloween ;)

October Love List

Happy October! Here's a list of some of the stuff I'm loving this month...

• Our Love Bean is here!! 
• Dressing for the beautiful Fall weather
• Visitors, of course they're all here to meet Love Bean, but it's still fun
• Trip to the mitten to visit my sister
• Maternity leave
• Hoping to get my portfolio site back up
• Wearing boots again
• Halloween
• All my favorite shows are back