Beautiful- Phil Wickham

I really enjoy listening to this song, it's good thinking music.

So just put your feet up, relax, and listen to the words!

Here's the lyrics. I especially like the last verse :)

I see Your face in every sunrise
The colors of the morning are inside Your eyes
The world awakens in the light of the day
I look up to the sky and say 
You’re beautiful

I see Your power in the moonlit night
Where planets are in motion and galaxies are bright
We are amazed in the light of the stars
It’s all proclaiming who You are
You’re beautiful, You're beautiful

I see you there hanging on a tree
You bled and then you died and then you rose again for me
Now you are sitting on Your heavenly throne
Soon we will be coming home
You’re beautiful, you're beautiful

When we arrive at eternity’s shore
Where death is just a memory and tears are no more
We’ll enter in as the wedding bells ring 
Your bride will come together and we’ll sing
You’re beautiful, You're beautiful, You're beautiful

I see Your face, You're beautiful, You're beautiful, You're beautiful
I see Your face, You're beautiful, You're beautiful, You're beautiful
I see Your face, I see Your face
I see Your face, You’re beautiful, You’re beautiful, You’re beautiful

Scatter-Brained Thoughts

We were looking at buying a house these past few weeks. We are not anymore. It was a foreclosure, we had an offer pending on the home inspection. After the home inspection, we wrestled with the giant amount of work needed on the house, and decided it wasn't for us. Whew! That took a lot out of us.

Somewhere in those few weeks our computer charger broke. The computer went dead fast, with no way to charge it back up. AGH! So no computer for me, or for Casey's homework.

And now, after hearing weird sounds and vibrations from the truck whenever we shift, the truck will be in the shop for about 5 days. Thought it was a U-joint on the back of the truck going bad, turned out to be a transfer case issue. We caught it early, so it should be an easy fix, fingers crossed. You know, just in case you were wondering...

In the words of my Mom, "There's always something!"

Josey is just adorable, as always. :) She is full of gibberish and dancing to any music that plays. Josey carries a purse around the house with her arm straight up in the air, pretending that she's "going somewhere" and "Oh, so busy". This stage is awesome! At the same time, I see the beginnings of a little girl looking up at me, and not a baby anymore. Josey is still really big into cuddling with a bottle in the morning, so that makes me happy.

This makes me laugh. This picture is one of Josey's concerts in full swing. She's dancing and singing on the top of her lungs into her play microphone. I just love how she has her pj's on and her Daddy's hat on backwards. I think this was about 8:30 in the morning the other day haha!

Well, that's kind of what's going on out here in Illinois :) Have a good day!

Recipes from Near and Far

I made these chocolate chip cookies and they were probably the best cookies I've ever made. I don't know about you, but I always look at pictures of cookies and wish that mine turned out picture worthy. They always flatten, burn on the bottom, or I add too much chocolate chips cause I want to get rid of the bag. These cookies DID turn out just like the picture, no joke.. and they are everything a chocolate chip cookie should be and more.

This picture and recipe are from cookingontheside.com Click for recipe

We tried this casserole the other night and we really liked it. I was a bit nervous about the fennel. I've never eaten it before, and was afraid it would taste like black licorice (EW). But! The fennel tasted great! This is a recipe I am going to keep making for sure! I got a little creative with the type of sausage to put in the casserole, I used chorizo mexican sausage and it was a great spicy addition to the recipe.

Picture and recipe from Kayotic Kitchen Click for recipe

If you are ever in the mood for a salad and you're sick of the same ol' same old thing, you should try making Napa Cabbage Salad! My sister-in-law brought this to Christmas dinner and it was amazing! I need to make it myself soon, because I can't stop thinking about it! So tasty, crunchy, colorful, and delicious! Mmm Mmm!

Napa Cabbage Salad

Ingredients

1 large head Napa cabbage

1/4 - 1/2 cup sesame seeds

2 pkg. Ramen noodles, crushed

1 bunch green onions, chopped

1 cup sliced almonds, browned

Dressing

1/2 cup sugar

3/4 cup oil

1/4 cup vinegar

2-3 Tablespoons soy sauce

Directions

Mix only cabbage (broken in pieces) and green onions. Just before serving add remaining ingredients and toss the salad with the dressing.

Playing in the Snow

Our one and only snow, that actually stuck, was a few weeks ago. It has been a really mild winter here compared to last year!

We wanted to take Josey out to play in the snow. It took longer to put all her snow gear on than she was actually outside :) But, we had fun!

Josey was so excited to see everything white!

And, as you can see she dove right in! :)

Aw! My little girl!!

Josey's little trail is so cute! She actually walked most of the way to that spot.

After rolling around for a bit trying to get up, Daddy came to the rescue!

Josey needed to be rescued again, she wasn't liking to learn how cold snow is on your fingers. She had originally started with gloves, but they came off as soon as we went outside. That's how it goes..

Josey and me!

I loved seeing her little boots next to ours after we came in. Funny little side note: I bought these baby boots right before Casey and I got married. I knew how much Casey likes hunting and thought they were appropriate. It's crazy to see them being used now :)

Grocery Store Exploring

I have been having a little fun grocery shopping lately, and I've been trying some new products. Some we approve of, some not to good. Let's focus on the good ones!

On our good, oh so yummy, lets buy it forever and ever list is:

Strawberry Fig Newtons- These are yummy! A nice break from the regular Fig Newtons, we've been buying those for a long time. Josey loves these strawberry ones too! Kid tested, mother approved in this house.

Noosa Yogurt- I can't say enough about this yogurt. It is SO creamy and delicious! It also has the good for you live bacteria in it, which is something I look for when I buy yogurt. I think everyone has been kind of on a yogurt trend lately, this kind should be here to stay! It isn't Greek yogurt, it's Australian, and it's lovely! We have tried almost all the flavors, all are good, but the honey is our favorite. 

Crumpets- Reminds me tea parties with my sisters growing up. We had such horrible British accents! But, oh so much fun. When I saw these in the store I HAD to get them. These are pretty much the same thing as English Muffins, except the bread has even more tiny holes that butter and jam can sink into. YUM. 

Flax Seed Cookies- These are a great healthy snack. You should try them! I'm weird about what ingredients are in the packaged food that I buy. The ingredients have to be familiar to me. For example, if I was making these cookies myself I would use the same ingredients as listed on the package. I'm so sorry high fructose corn syrup! (and all you other weird made up ingredients!)

The whole ingredients thing just reminded me of juice. If the front label says pomegranate cherry juice, the ingredients should start off with pomegranate, right? Nope, it's almost always apple. Then maybe the 6th or 7th ingredient down, the label will finally say pomegranate. Same with so many other juices! Sneaky sneaky!

Take and Bake Bread- SO delicious! Light and fluffy loaves of bread that come in so handy. These loaves can add that last special touch to make an ordinary dinner extraordinary.


What fun new grocery products have you found lately??

Jamaica Mon

We went to Jamaica for our honeymoon the first week of January. We will be married 3 years in March, so I don't know if you call it a vacation or honeymoon, but that's besides the point... Casey and I went away and did NOTHING for 5 days. It was awesome!

If you are curious, we went to an all inclusive resort called Couples Sans Souci, in Ocho Rios Jamaica. I would definitely recommend this resort! Everything is included in the price, even room service! The food was awesome too!

View from our room. This picture does not do it justice! We were over looking lush gardens and just beyond that was a "cliff", for lack of a better word, to the ocean. 

This is the same tower from the picture above. The water was right next to me :)

Gorgeous!

The one and only picture of ourselves, of course.

Beach Time. You put up a flag for your next drink. Awesome, huh?

Got my toes done, much better ;-)

It was cloudy on and off throughout our stay, but it didn't both us at all, the temperature was low 80s the whole time, and the clouds kept Casey on the beach longer :)

Loved everything about our trip!

And now I'm home with my baby again!!!!

Christmas was here, FA LA LA LA!

We had a great Christmas weekend with lots of family! We go to see my husbands family in Quincy every year on Christmas Eve.

Then we had the McCausland Family Christmas at my house! Yahoo! It was my first time hosting Christmas. I had a good time doing it! We had so much amazing food! And we all had a great time together. Later that evening, we went over to the Green's house and ate again. Josey had a little pot belly that night. You could see it so pronounced through her one piece pajamas!

I didn't take too many pictures but I have a sweet one of Josey holding her new doll.

She was trying to put the little ribbon on the dolls head. Funny how she wants to do that to the doll, and I can't put anything on her head anymore. Also notice, there is only one shoe on Josey. Ha! Little girl!

Through all of the excitement and the "hoopla", let's all remember why we even have Christmas. We have been given the ultimate gift in Jesus coming, taking our sin, and placing it ALL on His own shoulders. For you, for me :) I hope you and your families had a Merry Christmas!

Josey's First Birthday

We had Josey's birthday party almost 2 weeks ago now. It was a very fun PINK event with family and friends.

I discovered Pinterest.com a few months ago and got some great party ideas from there! If you don't know what Pinterest is, I would encourage you to check it out!! But, please don't hold me entirely responsible for your new "pinning" obession ;-)

We had a Pink Ruffle Cake

I found a pan at Kohls that makes three big sized cupcakes. I really love it! I made those with strawberry boxed cake mix. I used the leftover cake mix for regular sized cupcakes. Topped all my cupcakes with a ready made (I know) french vanilla frosting. There was a princess pack of sprinkles in the cake aisle, I used the little round white sprinkles on the big cupcakes and I used little yellow crowns on the regular cupcakes. I found a free printable for the cupcake toppers and taped them to toothpicks. 

Here's a close up of the cupcakes!

Here is Josey's cake with her 1 on top!

Josey's Grandma made Chocolate Covered Oreos! She put them on lollipop sticks, and decorated them all cute. Look at them in that cool box too!

We had the rest of the kitchen decked out with pink balloons and pom poms taped to Josey's chair. Those pom poms are surprisingly easy to make!

Singing "Happy Birthday"

Josey wasn't sure about what to do with her cake.

Here we go! She actually ate quite a bit! Let's just say she played hard after her cake, and she slept so good that night! Josey has been playing with her toys almost non-stop since!

Happy Birthday Baby Girl!!! 

Tomorrow

Josey will be one tomorrow.

This year went by so fast!

I so look forward to all the days God will give us together.

I hope that Casey and I can grow old watching our children grow up.

I hope so many great things for her, like any parent would for their child.
To be confident in who she is, confident in her relationship with the Lord. To smile, laugh, be goofy, and never think she's too good to say "Hello", "I'm sorry", or "I forgive you". I hope Josey realizes early on that life is not about herself. I hope she can be a good friend, listener, and a strong woman .... Just to name a few :)

Casey and I are so proud of Josey, we love being parents. She is such a fun, giggly, determined, crazy little girl.

One day old

One Month

Two Months

Three Months

Four Months

Five Months

Six Months

Seven Months

Eight Months

Nine Months

Ten Months

Eleven Months

Two weeks ago.. this melts my heart :)

Cheese Cranberry Bread

There are certain things that really remind me of Christmas. Forget the tree, decorations, and hot chocolate, this bread is IT for me. It's worth baking for the smell in your kitchen alone. All the different flavors are delicious! So here it is:

Cheese Cranberry Bread
1 1/2 cups cranberries, halved
1/2 cup sugar
2 cups flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup nuts, finely chopped (I used walnuts)
2 teaspoons orange peel, freshly grated
1 1/2 cups cheddar cheese, finely shredded
1 egg, slightly beaten
1 cup milk
1/4 cup butter, melted

(1) Mix cranberries and 1/2 cup sugar in a small bowl.
(2) In a separate bowl blend together the next four ingredients flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.
(3) Mix in sugared cranberries, nuts, orange peel, and cheese.
(4) Beat eggs, milk, and butter together in a separate bowl. Add wet mixture to dry mixture. Stir just until ingredients are moist.
(5) Turn batter into buttered (bottom only) 9 1/2 x 5 1/4 x 2 3/4 loaf pan. Spread evenly into corners (can use wax paper)
(6) Bake at 350 degrees about 1 hour or till toothpick comes out clean. Cool loaf on cooling rack. Refrigerate.

Mmm! This was breakfast this morning. I almost put butter on it, but then you wouldn't be able to see the great colors this bread has. Hope you bake this! And if you do, hope you enjoy it as much as I do!