Aunt Tata

Thought I would share....The 5 precious kiddos that have stolen my Heart!



Brinleigh Reese



Harlan Nicole



Bryce Micheal



Morgandy R'yan


*Merritt Grace pics soon to come!

'So even though I may not be officially an "aunt", I have been given the title of Aunt Tata to five very precious little kiddos...Morgandy (10), Bryce (4), Brinleigh (2), Harlan (6 months) and Merritt (1 week)! Yes, I may not have kiddos of my own but I sure do love these little ones with all my heart and enjoy spoiling them as much as I can!

Oven Fried Chicken - Weight Watchers Style

So in an attempt to get the wonderful 30 lbs that I have gained in the last year (apparently happiness = weight gain) I have dedicated myself to cooking very healthy meals for Justin and I! My aunt gave me this recipe a couple of years ago and we just tried it out last month, but it is now a steady favorite at our household!

Oven Fried Chicken Recipe

1 egg beaten with 2 tablespoons water
3 or 4 chicken breasts
1 1/2 ounces of corn flakes crushed (I usually use more than 1 1/2 ounces)
8 teaspoons of butter melted
6 tablespoons of flour
1 oz of Parmesian Cheese
1 teaspoon of salt
dash of pepper

1. Mix flour, salt and pepper in one bowl then set aside

2. Mix corn flakes and parmesian cheese in one bowl and set aside.

3. Dip each chicken breast in the flour mixture, then dip/cover in egg and then coat with the corn flake mixture. Drizzle melted butter over the chicken.

4. Place the chicken in a coated pan and then bake at 375 for 1 hour.

Delicious and very healthy as well!

Showers and More Showers..

So it seems like all my friends are either having a baby shower or a wedding shower (well mostly baby showers since I am the last one to tie the knot). Every weekend has been filled with wonderful get togethers with friends and a great time for my mom (I just OK the idea) to come up with creative new ways to give gifts.

My moms first creative idea was a duck bathtub filled with all kinds of wonderful baby gifts ... and of course all the gifts have a duck theme! I will post a pic when I get one downloaded from my moms camera, but to give you an idea of what it looked like the duck had all types of tissue paper in it to make it look like water and then had a ton of baby "duck items" to make it look like a little duck pond! Absolutely precious and the glowing mom to be "Keri" was delighted to go through everything for baby Kelby when she got it home. ( I promise a pic is coming soon!!!)


The pictures that are posted above are of the present that my mom came up with for my dear friend Mandy and her Little Girl Merritt... a pink duck bathtub filled with balloon dolls wearing all the precious clothes and hair accessories! My mom decided since we had purchased so many goodies for Little Merritt, that we needed to show case it in a very special way and I think this was a great idea!!! Everyone loved it and Mandy couldn't wait to open all the gifts when she got home with her hubby! (She of course wanted her hubby to see it before she unwrapped it all) Oh and since I had made baby Merritt a little, or should I say rather large tutu, my mom decided she needed to make a little ballerina balloon doll to wear it! The only bad thing was that by the time we arrived at the shower the ballerina balloon was a little deflated.. but still gave everyone a big smile!

I guess everyone should know that my mom is a very special woman who has amazing creative ideas and I only wish that I could come up with some of the projects that she does! I mean really.. who would have thought of balloon dolls? Mom, I adore all your crazy and imaginative projects.. in case I never told you before :)

Arts and Crafts Extravagana #2 -

So in an attempt to add some life to our dining room, I decided to use some styrofoam that we had laying around (from moving) and see what I could come up with...and this is what I did! A great piece of artwork for around $4.00! All I had to purchase were the letters at Hobby Lobby and some black ribbon to put around the edges! The other items such as black spray paint, the scrapbook paper, styrofoam and the decorative thumb tacks, I had around the house! (See Justin, I keep all these random things for a reason)

Arts and Crafts Extravaganza

While we are still in the process of trying to buy furniture and in an effort to save money on decor for the house (since I know it will most likely change when we do obtain furniture) I have decided to become thrifty and try to make a few items myself. My first art and crafts project was to try and make a wreath for the front door. I originally saw the top wreath from pottery barn and thought I could make that...so the one below is my attempt of the wreath with some reindeer moss and a plain wreath from hobby and a glue gun! Not to bad if I say so myself.. especially for only about $10.00!