A Pinterest Post for Mom

I know I am totally behind on blogging about our family and Charlotte, I'll have to be a little more behind cause this post is for my mom!  She was very proud of her latest project and wanted to put it on Pinterest but didn't know how. I offered to put up a quick blog and pictures for her and "pin" it for her :) So here goes!

My parents are doing a bit of a Master Bedroom redecoration (largely IKEA based!) and my Mom came up with this great idea for some shelving.  My Mom has an old sewing machine that she displayed family photos on for as long as I could remember, but it didn't really match up with her new contemporary IKEA chairs.  So, it was time to find a new way to display the photos.

There is an unused little corner between two big windows that could house some shelves, but mom wanted to do something a little different than just one shelf  a few inches above the next shelf, etc.  This is her solution! (apologies, I don't have any "before" or "in process" photos)

She purchased different shelves of varying styles and depths, that would all be about the same width to fit in the space. She hung them alternating between the walls.  By doing this, it took up a lot more visual space, gave more space to house the photos, and was very visually appealing.

Overall, I think she had a great idea and executed it very well!  It is a wonderful centerpiece to this reading nook in my parents master bedroom.  We just wanted to share the photos, and maybe inspire you to hang your shelves in a little different way! Enjoy :)

 



 



 



 



 

 

 

 

Trip #2

Less than a week after our Trip #1, C and I hit the road AGAIN!  This one took a lot of planning, especially in packing.  We/I traveled 4 states in 4 days!  All so I could see my sister Hannah and attend her concert at University of Cincinnati: College Conservatory of Music - and it was totally worth it!! :)

Wednesday night C and I had a quick dinner with Jeff and hit the road.  We got to my parents house  just in time to put Charlotte down for bedtime.  The next morning, we loaded up and got on I65 to Bowling Green KY.  We weren't gonna subject Charlotte to our Cincinnati whirlwind trip, and she was more than thrilled to stay with her Granna and Grandad for the night.  They went shopping, ate and played at Chick Fil A, had a sleepover with cousin Reese and caused all kinds of trouble, I'm sure!  She is still talking about her little trip. :)

Mom, Dad, and I kept driving north until we got to Cincinnati OH!  Thankfully, we were able to stay ahead of all the storms and tornados. It was a hard knowing that Jeff was in AL, Charlotte was in KY, we had family in both KY and TN, and we were in OH to visit Hannah.  All these states had tornados, hail, and rain traveling through. We all came out of it untouched other than a power outage.

Hannah had no clue that I was coming up with Mom and Dad, so it was great being able to knock on her door and see her face as she opened it!  I loved seeing where she is spending her 2 years of graduate school. Her apartment is super cute and the CU campus is beautiful!

Before her concert, we had time to go to dinner - PF Changs!!  One of my favorite places - spring rolls and chicken fried rice - double yum.  I missed Jeff and Charlotte, but it was great catching up as the Shoopman family of 4.



Our evening was capped off by a lovely Orchestra concert by CCM.  Hannah played principal oboe in the firs

t half of the concert - it's great being able to go to a concert and hear her great solos!!  Now, classical music isn't really my thing, but if Hannah is playing, I know it's gonna be a good one :)


The next day, we all had breakfast at our hotel and found something wonderful to do with the rest of our day - IKEA!! I've never been but always wanted to go.  Amazing place!!



I had looked online before and thought their stuff was well priced, but never knew how great the quality was as well.  It is just as good as most furniture stores we've looked at, but so much more affordable - not to mention, super cute. We were all in awe as we walked around - taking pictures of so much that we loved.

Mom is trying out a great recliner that does not look like a recliner! yay!

I started making plans on what to buy for our next house :)  I'm starting to pin things here to keep track of what I want. Like this:



Mom, Dad, and Hannah each found a chair to get - $69 bucks and totally comfortable.



I was amazed at the size of everything - here is the area you go to pick up the furniture that you want to buy:



Of course almost everything I got was for Charlotte - a great car rug for $14, finger puppets for $4, and an awesome paper roll for C's coloring for $11.





After our morning of shopping, we grabbed some mexican for lunch, and Greaters ice cream before we had to say our goodbyes.  It was so great seeing Hannah.  I'm excited that she is gonna be down for spring break in just a couple weeks!

We drove back to KY, picked up Charlotte, stopped in to visit Nana (who is still in the hospital), stopped at Zaxby's for dinner, and all collapsed into bed!  Sunday we had a little bit of a lazy morning and then headed back to AL.  Now we get a couple week break before hitting the pavement again :)  See you next time!

It was a beautiful day for a drive home Sunday morning!

Trip #1

I never seem to blog enough so then I have huge "round up" posts - guess you can settle in and catch up!!

The past 2 weeks, Charlotte and I have made 2 trips north!  We are looking forward to a couple weeks at home before Jeff travels to Brunei (on the island of Malasia) for a work trip for about 10 days.  When that happens, Charlotte and I are planning to take some long trips to KY and TN to keep company with friends and family :)  Anyway, back to our first trip.

Jeff had a long week at work, plus a lot of freelance video work to do the week of Feb 20th, so that Thursday - Saturday, Charlotte and I decided to visit Spring Hill.  It actually worked out perfectly, that Thursday morning, my grandmother fell in her home and had to be taken to the hospital.  My dad was in Seattle and my mom was stuck at work, so since I was actually heading up to visit her that morning, I took a detour to the hospital instead.  Since spending hours at the hospital wasn't great for a 3 year old, my dear friend Allison let me drop Charlotte off at her house to spend the day.  I was glad I was able to be with Nana in the ER., she was dehydrated, among other things, so she was pretty loopy and weak.  Though it was not the exact way I wanted to visit her, it was the best thing I could have done for her. After she was moved upstairs to her permanent room, I left so she could get some rest.

At that point, C had just laid down for her nap, so I went ahead to Encores Consignment sale to  stock up on clothes and toys for the upcoming season.  I do this twice a year, and was really glad I could schedule a TN trip during the sale. Before we left, Charlotte was very patient with me and let me try on all of her summer clothes that were 2T so I could make a list of things she'll need. :)

I aways take pictures of the clothes that still fit, so I can match the new stuff!

My mom got off work and picked C up at Allison's house so I had a little more free time to myself!!  After Encores, I went to get my haircut. I had it straightened with my new Wet to Dry straightener so wanted to get it dry cut so I'd know what it would look like straight.  During the haircut, I was told I have thin hair, seriously?? I always thought of my hair as think and wavy - it is as a whole, but apparently each hair is actually thin.  The hair dresser said I need to use a leave in conditioner to make it silkier and shinier. I always wanted that, but thought my dried out/somewhat frizzy hair was just how it is.  After she put on that conditioner, I was sold! My hair looked and felt so much better.  I never buy the products they suggest but I did this time.  How did I go 28 years and never know this!?  Yay for new hair! haha  Afterward, I headed back to my parents house to spend the night.  Mom and I were both worn out and watched Water for Elephants - it was a wonderful movie!

The next day, we meet Allison and her kiddos Hazen and Laney at Let It Shine Gymnastics.  On Fridays, they have open play for an hour, for $5 bucks the kids get to jump on trampolines, try out some of the gymnastics equipment and have a good time getting some energy out!!  Charlotte loved it all!  I am hoping the next trip to Spring Hill will be on a friday so we can go again!!

Falling in the foam blocks

Running down the super long trampoline

Rolling down the mats

Mom took Charlotte home afterwards and let me have even more "me" time!!  I wasn't as successful at the Encores sale as I had hoped, so I visited the consignment shop in town "Here We Grow Again" and found a few things there. My next stop was Goodwill - and I always find good stuff there!  Clothes for C, a shirt for jeff, and of course new toys.  I can't help but buy stuff for Charlotte. I never find anything for myself.  I guess that is part of being a mom!

We spent Saturday with my Dad and just had a little trip to the library (as Charlotte calls it, her "old" library) to play with the trains.



All in all, it was a busy but wonderful visit home!

Valentines Baking: Sweet and Bittersweet

Jeff and I have never been huge gotta-celebrate-Valentines-Day people (ironic since our first official date was on Valentines Day - you'd think we'd be ones to celebrate!) Oh, and today would have been Charlotte's birthday if she miraculously came on time, ha :)

This year, we had a MOPS (Mother's Of PreSchoolers group) Valentines party, and had to bring snacks inspired by the day of love ;) Since our meeting is 9-11am, I wanted to do something a little more breakfast friendly, so got a mix of Banana Bread Muffins.  I found this great idea on Pinterest (of course!) on how to make your muffins or cupcakes heart shaped and voila, Valentines Ready!  All you do is stick a marble beside the muffin paper in the tin, and when the muffins bake up, they turn into hearts!





They weren't perfect looking hearts, but they did the job.



(It isn't baking related, but at MOPS we decorated onsies for the local hospitals NICU!  Aren't they adorable!



We had a mix of iron-ons, stamps, and puff paint.  It was great fun and a good cause!)

We ended having so much food and so many leftovers, I had a ton of them to take home (the mix made 24)  And we won't eat that many muffins!  So I decided to send them to work with Jeff.  I was afraid they would dry out overnight, so I tried this Pinterest idea to put a slice of bread on top of your cake (I figured it would work with muffins) and the bread will dry out but your baked goods wouldn't.  It actually worked! So I sent Jeff off with the bowl of muffins this morning. :)



Our romantic plans tonight will include a spaghetti dinner with Charlotte, and then watching Breaking Dawn once she goes to bed. (you're jealous, I know)  But I did want to do something special for dessert.  We have a heart shaped cookie cutter that we use for Charlotte's play doh, so I cleaned it off and decided we could bake heart shaped sugar cookies.  I also wanted to make Jeff's favorite Peanut Butter Pie for our movie time.  So that was my plan this morning...

First up, Peanut Butter Pie.  Got the recipe out and realized I didn't have the cool whip needed.  Scratch that plan. I looked on Pinterest on my Yummy Board for something that I could cook using ingredients I already have, namely that  grahman cracker crust originally meant for the pie.  I found this great Chocolate Chip Cheesecake bar I figured I could put it into a pie shell instead of the 8x8 pan.  We got out all the ingredients, Charlotte helped my measure and dump stuff in.  I got through the first 5 ingredients and realized I had more than doubled the amount of brown sugar needed.  No way to salvage, so I dumped it out and started again.



This time I triple checked my measurements, but apparently was paying so much attention to that, I forgot to read the directions. I was supposed to stir it all together, THEN add the flour, THEN add the chocolate chips.  I had it all in the bowl together and tried to mix it.  Did not work well at all.

I gave up at this point. Charlotte even gave me a hug cause she knew I was frustrated.  I wasn't gonna attempted it AGAIN, I don't have enough butter to do this over and over!  I may attempt it again while Charlotte naps and I can fully concentrate. Blah.  Looks like we may only have sugar cookies for dinner... oh wait, those had their own FAIL!

I used Betty Crocker Cookie Mix for the sugar cookies (I swear by her dry mixes! They make great cookies and all you add is butter and egg!)  There is a version to make cut out cookies, so I added the needed flour to the mix with the butter and egg.  Turns out, I was supposed to put the flour in alone with the dry mix, combine those, then add the egg and butter.  I figured they would still work.  We laid out the dough and did our heart cut outs!



Sadly, they weren't solid or thick enough to pick up from the cutting board (yes, I dusted it with flour) and put on the pans. So, change of plans again, we rolled them up instead and baked them regular.



After they baked, we sprinkled sugar and pink sprinkles on them and called it done.  Still tasty, but not very cute :(



 

Well, it's time to go fix lunch. It may seem silly to have blogged about all this, but I was frustrated!  and my 140 character limit for Twitter just wasn't going to cut it.  Maybe I'll just give up on baking anything that does not come out of a box.

 

More Pinterest Recipes!

I have been cooking up a storm thanks to Pinterest!  I have had some frustrating moments with things that don't turn out like they are supposed to, or recipes that aren't as specific as I need them to be.  But overall, it has been great adding things to our menu, I'm hoping I'll keep them in our rotation.

The first recipe that will definitely be sticking around, is Sour Cream Chicken!  It was really easy to make, and had the perfect blend of crunchy stuffing on top, and very juicy chicken. I usually don't go back for 2nds and I did for this one! This is going to be one of my go-to chicken dishes, it's made up of things I usually have in my fridge or pantry all the time.  I'm not good at taking photos as I go as most food bloggers do (I'll try to get better!) So you'll just have to settle for this bad picture of my plate with my sour cream chicken, green beans, and mac and cheese :)



You'll notice the green beans on the plate?  They were actually replacements for the Microwave Potato Chips (think Zaxby's/Logans) that were major duds. They didn't crisp up at all, just got majorly soggy. I figured it was too good to be true, but there were lots of comments from people who loved them, so I thought I'd give them a shot.  One recipe marked off the "to try" list!  Oh well, gotta try new things, right?!





Oh, and Charlotte enjoyed her Apple/Grape Cars for lunch the other day!  She loved eating the "wheels"  (sorry, no pic from me, just a screen shot)



The Super Bowl was this Sunday, we had a little party just the 3 of us ;)  I did go the easy route on 3 dishes - I got TGI Friday's frozen appetizers for Jeff's Buffalo Wings, my Potato Skins, and our Spinach and Artichoke Dip.  For frozen appetizers, they were pretty good!!



I did try my hand at one new Pinterest recipe for the big game: The Peanut Butter Mini Brownies. Wow-o-wow were these good!  I thought they were too gooey and put them back in for a couple more minutes, but I shouldn't have.  They didn't "cave in" quite like they should have, but I was still able to get some peanut butter in them and of course top them with chips!  Jeff and I both thought they were delicious.  They are super rich though, so watch out!



I was going to make the Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie, but realized I bought the wrong kind of crust, so that's back on the menu for later.  Instead, I had a box mix for Lemon Squares so I went ahead and made those.  I also used my crock pot for a Super Bowl must have -  Chili Con Queso!  (Velveeta, Rotel, and 1/2lb ground beef)



Overall, we had a great Super Bowl, just the 3 of us. (and all that food!)

 

My menu for the next 2 weeks has these new Pinterest recipes: Slow Cooker Pork Chops, Loaded Mashed Potato Casserole, Crockpot Chicken Tacos (may do chicken or pork), Grilled Cheesy Potatoes, Three Cheese Chicken Alfredo Bake, Crockpot Hawaiian Chicken, Taco Casserole, Heart Shaped Muffins (for MOPS), Breakfast in a muffin tin, Crescent Roll Cheesecake, and I'm gonna try the Sliced Baked Potatoes again, with smaller potatoes.   Wow! That's a lot of food to cook!! (You should see how full my fridge and pantry are!)  I'm not going to  link them all, you can find them all here.

 

 

Charlotte is 3!

*Warning! This post is all about Charlotte so it is very looooong!

Can you believe it?!  I can't!

3 years ago we went into the hospital to be induced?



3 years ago we brought home a 5 pound 9 ounce 19 inch long tiny squirming thing??



3 years ago we went from being Jeff and Jordan to Charlotte's PARENTS?!  Amazing.



Speaking of Amazing - our kiddo is soooo amazing!  She has such a sweet spirit, is absolutely hilarious, is very well behaved, and a pretty smart cookie too.



Her favorite things lately are reading books, singing us songs, doing puzzles, playing with cars and trains, Candy Land, and just recently got into playing pretend with her babies.  Charlotte loves to play outside in our huge drive way, go for walks/rides, go to Target and the library, and eating out at restaurants. Her favorite foods are mac and cheese, chicken nuggets, french fries, any breakfast foods, and fruit.  She loves all things tech/electronic: playing games on PBS.com or Disney.com, games or books or shows on the iPad or iPhone, and watching movies like Toy Story, Bugs Life, Tangled, Winnie the Pooh, and shows like Dora, Max and Ruby, Calliou, Curious George, and on and on.



She knows her colors, shapes, a lot of the alphabet, how to count, and is starting to recognize numbers and letters, and is continuing with her sign language. Crafts and art are starting to become more fun now that she can be more hands on.  We've got the name, birthday, and most of the address down now.  With us moving, she also is starting to understand how we all live in different cities and states.  She is also starting to help around the house - cleaning up her toys, helping with her bed, getting ice in our cups for dinner, and carrying things to the table.  This is of course just a small list of all the amazing things that our amazing 3 year old can do.



We have not had our 3 year check up yet, that'll happen next week.  From what I can tell, she is perfectly healthy, still tall and has filled out a little more so isn't as much of a stick :)  She also had her first dentist appointment a couple days ago.  Charlotte did fantastic!   They have a huge indoor play place inside so that definitely helped her feel more comfortable!



It was an option to have them clean her teeth and she did let them do it and had no issues.  We got a clean bill of health - no cavities or any issues there.  The dentist did alert us to potential future issues.  Have you ever noticed the gap in her front teeth?  Apparently that's cause from gum/tissue coming down too far and pushing those teeth apart.  She may have to have a frenectomy to remove that tissue and braces to close the gap, unless her permanent teeth come in and push that tissue out of the way. Fun huh?  She also inherited her momma's small upper jaw.  This means her upper teeth on her right side sit on the inside of her bottom teeth when she closes her mouth, instead of coming down on the outside.  I had the same issue and had to have an expander and then braces in high school.  It's crazy that C is just 3 years old and we are already looking down the road at orthodontics and possible oral surgery.  Double Ick.  That may be too much information for you, but there you go anyway!



On to Charlotte's party! C's birthday was on Monday (the 23rd) so we decided to have her 'party' the Saturday before.  We weren't planning on doing anything big - we don't really have a lot of friends down here yet, and it would have been tough to do something in Spring Hill with our TN friends.  We decided to keep it simple with just a family get together.  We had more family able to come down than we thought! Saturday Jeff's parents, brother, and his family drove down from Bowling Green KY and met us at the Mellow Mushroom here in Hutnsville for lunch!  We had a great time eating lunch together, then headed back to our place to hang out.  Charlotte had so much fun with her cousin Reese who is just a couple months younger.  They ran and played and scram all day :)  The balloon curtain that I made from Pinterest was a big hit too!

It's hard to get a good picture of 2 active little girls!

Visiting with Grandad and cousin Avery

I didn't have anything major planned, but we did do an art project - making butterflies out of their feet! They had fun picking their colors and getting their feet painted.

My parents joined the party that afternoon about 3:30 - just in time too, the girls were ready for cupcakes!  I have to admit I'm pretty proud of Charlotte's cupcakes! They were baked in sugar cones and I frosted the top with cupcake frosting in a spray can - it was so much easier! Top it with sprinkles and they looked just like ice cream cones.  Love it!





Then it was time for presents! Charlotte got 3 pairs of shoes - she is a shoe-aholic - lots of cute clothes, a Woody doll (to match her Jessie from Christmas), PJs, an art easel, and a few more things.  After a little more play time, it was time for the BG folks to head back north.  We were sad to see them go after just an afternoon of playing together, but Jeff and I are so grateful to them for making the big trip all in one day so they could celebrate C's 3rd Birthday with us. Thank you all!!


My parents spent the night and we had a great breakfast the next morning, and then took a drive!  We were excited to head up to Monte Sano here in Hutnsville and enjoy the view of Huntsville and maybe taking a walk on the trail.  Unfortuantly, it was very very cloudy and rainy.  We did enjoy our drive though - it was crazy thinking that we were actually driving through the clouds!

This was our "view" but all we saw were clouds! It wasn't raining but we got wet just from being in the clouds.

We had to get out and walk around at least at little bit for this active girl!

That afternoon, Jeff and I gave her our present!  A big girl room!  We converted her crib to the full size, so she got a new mattress, bedding, art, lamp, etc.  She looks so tiny in that big bed but she loves her new room.












All in all, Charlotte had a great birthday party weekend!  On her actual birthday C and I had MOPS that morning, then Jeff came home from work early.  After her nap we headed out for a Jeep ride with the top down on the beautiful 60 degree January day!  A trip to Target to spend her birthday money, diner at Zaxby's and a movie night with Cars 2 wrapped up her day.



What a beautiful kiddo.  Jeff and I are so blessed to be her parents.