two years

Happy Anniversary to my amazing husband of 2 years! They've seriously been the best 2 years of my life. Not always easy, but always, ALWAYS worth it. I couldn't have asked God to give me a more perfect husband, for me. He's an amazing father, a hard-working, driven, funny, smart and admirable man, and I'm so lucky that he said "I do" two years ago today.

I love you so much, baby!

Recipe: The best tortilla chips you'll ever eat

I've mentioned before what a sucker I am for chips and salsa... I just love it! Hands down, best snack ever invented.

Somehow, I always run out of chips before salsa, and this was the case one day when the craving struck... tons of salsa, but no chips! But guess what I did have? Tortillas! And the easiest recipe ever was born.

Ingredients:
Flour or corn tortillas
Olive oil
Salt

Preheat oven to 350. Coat baking sheet with olive oil (spray works best) and a layer of coarse salt. Cut tortillas into triangles, place in a single layer on baking sheet. Spray (or brush) lightly with more olive oil, sprinkle salt on top. Bake for 10-12 minutes, turning once, until golden brown. Prepare your mouth for a party.

Top with taco fixings, shredded chicken, cheese, salsa, whatever your heart desires!

This would also work well with pita bread, and can be used with a variety of dips, including hummus!! Also, try cinnamon and sugar instead of salt, and dip in a fruit salsa! The possibilities are endless!

I hope you enjoy my new favorite snack!!

let's be controversial, shall we?

I usually shy away from addressing controversial topics, on the blog as well as in real life. I have strong opinions about a lot of things, but I know that others do as well. Their opinions are just as valid as mine, and while I do enjoy a good debate, I think there are certain things that should just be kept to yourself. However, sometimes the stupidity of the world smacks me right in the face and I just have to rant a little bit. Prepare yourself.

While scrolling through Yahoo tonight, I came upon this article.

http://news.yahoo.com/tenn-judge-changes-infants-name-messiah-215423538.html

I was seriously flabbergasted by this. I'm always amazed when there is something in the news about the government intervening in parenting, and have heard of this happening often overseas, but this is just absurd. In case you don't want to read the article, here's the reader's digest version: a mother and father went to court because they couldn't agree on their child's last name (it doesn't specify, but I'm guessing that Daddy wanted it to be his last name and Mommy didn't) and the judge presiding over their case TOOK IT UPON HERSELF to determine that this child's first name was inappropriate, and ordered it changed. Not only that, but LEGALLY CHANGED IT HERSELF, without the parent's consent.

You see, this little boy has been named Messiah. Granted, probably not the best name for a little boy in a small, conservative town in Tennessee, but seriously? Why exactly is my legal system wasting my hard earned tax dollars to change a little boy's name, because someone may find it offensive? The judge said that "the word Messiah is a title and that title has only been earned by one person and that person is Jesus Christ." So if I decided to name my child Captain, is that illegal because he didn't earn that title? Or how about Adolf? Mussolini? What about the extremely popular name CHRISTIAN?? Why isn't that just as offensive? Where exactly do we draw the line?

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The judge, after determining that this little boy's name was inappropriate, took it upon herself to rename him Martin. MARTIN? Are you freaking kidding? The kid goes from being something epic like Messiah to MARTIN?

Thank goodness the mother plans to appeal. I cannot tell you the kind of hell fire I'd rain down on the justice system if they presumed to tell me what I could or could not name my child. If Kim and Kanye can name their spawn North West, then this poor woman should be able to name her child Messiah if she wants to, religious zealots be damned (see what I did there?).

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What do you think? Is Messiah an acceptable name? Was this judge right to intervene??

on scarves, boots, and chai tea lattes

I am ready for Fall.

It's 95 degrees today, but the heat index is making it feel like 110. To beat the heat, we have stayed in the A/C for most of the day, but D and I did venture out to the public pool for a little bit. I have no idea what I was thinking. It is Saturday, after all. It's like all the nice, respectful, quiet people hit the pool during the week, and on Saturdays, the hoodlums come out of hiding and try to do cannonballs on your baby.

Anyhoo.

We have our annual vacation to the Outer Banks with my in-laws in less than 2 weeks, and I could not be more excited. It's crazy to think that this time three years ago, Mike and I got engaged!

 

And then on Wednesday, we'll celebrate our 2 year wedding anniversary, and Saturday is baby D's 8 month birthday!! August is a good month for us :)

 We always go on our family vacation the last week of August, so in a weird way, vacation has started to symbolize the start of Fall for me. One last week of summer shenanigans, then we get home and it's time for Halloween. Kind of.

I am dreaming of breaking out my (extensive) scarf collection, warm chai tea lattes on a brisk day, and some awesome new riding boots. I cannot even begin to put my excitement about D's first Halloween into words. We've started perusing costumes and coming up with ideas, because I really want to do a family theme costume. Everything has been sooo over done (thanks Pinterest) that I'm struggling to come up with an original idea. I wanted to do something that he would be into, but so far the only thing I can tell you decisively that he is a fan of is The Lorax (he literally watched the entire thing, like, did not look away) and the toy that looks like an iPod that makes noise excessively. And while the Lorax is an actual costume possibility, it is NOT. CUTE. At all. It's actually kind of scary.

Not a plethora of ideas coming from D's favorites, at this point! So I guess I'll keep brainstorming.

I'm also super excited for new cool-weather outfits for D! I'm kind of dying over this fox-themed collection from Carter's. It doesn't get much cuter than that!! I'm not sure there's much cuter in this world than a baby in boots and a beanie. I can't wait to go shopping!

Just as soon as the temperature drops below sweltering.


Happy Saturday!

Mama

You guys.

Yesterday, my life changed forever. Okay, that's possibly a tad overdramatic, BUT.

D said MAMA! He was hanging out in our bed with Daddy, like he does every  morning, when I left the room for some reason. I could hear him babbling, but then Mike called for me excitedly, saying "He said mama! He's calling for you!"
Of course, when I went back in the room, he immediately stopped. But as soon as I left his sight, he started again.

Oh man, let me tell you, there is nothing in this world like hearing that little man call for me. It's indescribable. But, now he has a serious weapon in his arsenal. I had the hardest time putting him to bed last night, because he would fuss, then call mama and I'd come running :)

This little boy seriously brings so much joy to my life.

Happy Friday!

life lately

I honestly don't even know where to start.

 Obviously, I took a break from blogging. It just became so low on my list of priorities, and I felt that I didn't have anything of vital interest to say, that it just fell by the wayside. I've thought of picking it back up again a few times, especially since the last few months have been pretty interesting, but it never seemed like the right time. I played with the idea of starting a different blog, but having a new name and a new website doesn't change anything if you don't have anything interesting to say!

Life is about to get extremely interesting for us, to say the least. And I want to document it all, in some way. I've never been much of a journal keeper, but I do love to type (thanks Mavis Beacon!!) and blogging just seems to be an easy and fun way to keep up with our adventures, while being able to share it with others. I have to admit, I got waaaay too caught up in the whole "blogger world"- way too invested in who viewed my posts, how well a giveaway went, if I got any comments, etc. It took away from the real reason I'm here, just to simply write and document my memories.

So, I'm starting over. No more worries about sponsors, giveaways, comments, etc. I'm just going to write. And that's that.



This summer has been a whirlwind, and I feel like we've done so much. I flew across the country with D by myself (more on that later), we're going on vacation in 2 weeks, and we have some seriously exciting things happening for us in September (I'll share details when I can).

Here is a little recap of our summer in pictures.

A visit to my parents in Montana...

Quality family time by the river...

 Twinkies.

 

 

Oh this face. Nothing makes me happier than to see this boy smile.


I hope everyone has a wonderful hump day!!!

regularly scheduled programming

Ya'll, I have been busting my hump trying to get ready for our yard sale this weekend. I've got lots of great posts planned, but it's just not happening today. I'll get my hiney in gear tomorrow and get back to our regularly scheduled programming.

Have a great Tuesday!!