A Recipe and Some Resolutions

Hey friends! If you hadn't noticed already, I've been in a little bit of a blog rut lately. I've had things I want to say, but just haven't been able to bring myself to write anything. But not to worry (not that I actually thought you did), I'm back! I have a recipe for a yummy chocolate pie and a few New Year's resolutions for y'all.

I'll start with recipe. If you're on a diet, I'd steer clear of making this one. It's so good, but definitely not good for you. On the plus side, it's really easy to make, so here ya go!

Chocolate Pie Ingredients:
1/2 a stick of melted butter
3 1/2 tablespoons of cocoa
1 1/2 cups of sugar
2 eggs
Small can of evaporated milk
Pie crust 

Directions:
Mix butter, cocoa, sugar, eggs, and milk together in a mixer
Pour into pie crust
Cook for 30-35 minutes at 350

Whipped Cream Recipe:
Pour one pint of heavy cream into a mixer.
Add 1 tablespoon of sugar and 1 teaspoon of vanilla
Mix on high until whipped

I realize I'm a little late jumping on the New Year's resolution bandwagon, but I guess I'm better late than never. At least I'm getting them posted before Valentine's Day.  I really only have two things that I want to focus on this year. I've never really been big on making resolutions, but these are two things that I've been thinking about for a while, so I figured this is a great time to start. I can't wait to look back on these in few months to see if I actually follow through with them.

My first resolution is that I want Ryan, Eliza, and I to make more of an effort to sit down and eat dinner together every night. We are really bad about feeding Eliza and eating our dinner after she goes to bed, but I think it's important that we make time to sit and have dinner together. We have already gotten better about this, but I really want to make sure we keep it up.

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My second resolution is to have quiet time every day. I did not start the year out great with this one, but I am getting better. Some days it's only for five or ten minutes, and other days it's longer, but I feel like this is so important to make a priority every day. Jesus Calling is a great book that I have loved reading if you're looking for something good. 

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I actually have a third thing that I want to do this year. It's really more of a goal than a resolution. Some of you may have heard of this before, but I have a friend who sells her daughter's clothes on Instagram, and she's had a lot of success with it. I've been debating whether or not to sell Eliza's clothes because we want to have other children and I'd like to be able to use the clothes again (if we have another girl), but after talking with my friend and thinking about it, I've decided to go ahead and give it a try.  I'll have clothes from newborn to 12 months. I know a lot of people that read this blog are friends and family, but is this something that any of you would be interested in? If you are, leave a comment below. It'll take me a little while to sort through all of Eliza's clothes, but stay tuned for me details! 

Office Space

In our new house we have a small office on the second story. It's actually more of a large closet with a built in desk. I love having this space, but we've been using it as a junk room rather than an office. We just throw all the stuff we don't know what to do with in there and close the door. One of my goals for the summer when I'm out of school is to organize this room and make it more functional. Here are few of my inspiration pictures.

By the way, I have not forgotten to post pictures of our new house. I plan to do a whole post on this sometime in the near future. I'm just not quite ready to share pictures yet because we're still getting settled in and working on a few rooms. :)

15 Month Update

I haven't done a monthly update on Eliza since she turned one, and a lot has changed since then, so I thought I'd fill y'all in one what she's been up to the past few months. She is now walking, talking, and getting into everything.

She can say about eight to ten words now. Her favorite words are baby and bye bye. She loves to dance and our dog Belle is her best friend. Every time Belle comes in the room Eliza gives her a big hug and a kiss, and runs around after her calling her name. Eliza's favorite toys are the ones that make music, push toys, and balls.

Eliza is very serious and it's hard to get her to smile or talk around people she doesn't know. It usually takes her a little while to get comfortable with new people, but once she does, she won't stop talking. At home she is quite sassy and loves to tell us no. She walks up to things like the outlets and the drawers we've told her not to get into shaking her head and saying no, no, no. It's hilarious.

The last time we went to the doctor Eliza weighed twenty two pounds, but I think she's closer to twenty three now. Her hair is growing pretty fast these days, and she's currently sporting a really nice looking mullet. We've switched her completely over to whole milk and she continues to be picky eater, but we are working on this, and she's getting better with trying new foods. She is at such a fun age, and I can't wait to watch her grow and change even more over the next few months.

Happy Birthday Aunt LuLu

We love you and hope that you've had the happiest of birthdays today! We can't wait to see you this weekend!

New Year's Eve

This year for New Year's Eve we had some friends over to our house to celebrate. It was really laid back and fun. We watched the Clemson game, had some oysters and champagne (perfect combination, right?), and hung out by the fire. Like I mentioned in the last post, this year was a far cry from last year when Ryan and I were in bed before the ball dropped praying that Eliza would sleep through the night. It's amazing how quickly things change!

Year in Review

2012 was a big year for us. It was busy and stressful at times, but it was also wonderful and so fun. I think we grew a lot as a family, and we are in a completely different place (literally and figuratively) now than where we were a year ago. This time last year I had a three month old who was barely sleeping through the night, and I was crying every day because I had to go back to work. While I still wish I could be at home with Eliza, I am much more comfortable with the fact that me working right now is the best thing for our family. I feel that God has truly blessed us and taught us so much over the past year.

When I look back on all of our pictures, it's hard to believe everything that we had going on in one short year. I don't think we'll be quite as busy in 2013, and I'm really looking forward to that. I don't have any big resolutions for this year, but I do have a few goals that I'll share with y'all in another post. I hope y'all have as much fun as I did looking back on our past twelve months.


January-We celebrated the new year with friends, took a trip to the mountains, and Eliza turned four months old.

February-We celebrated Valentine's day, tried to stay warm, and spent some time with friends. 

March-We sold our house, bought a new house, and moved into an apartment so we could renovate the new house. Eliza was baptized and we had our last party in the old house to celebrate her baptism. 

April-We began renovations on our house, enjoyed the warmer weather, visited the Easter bunny, and had a peep decorating contest.

May-We ran in the Crawdad Dash in Columbia, and celebrated Ryan's birthday. Eliza had her first dip in the pool, and we enjoyed Artisphere in downtown Greenville.

June-I got out of school, we made some progress on our house, and took a trip to the beach.

July-We spent a lot of time at the park, and went to the beach and the lake to celebrate the fourth of July.

August-Eliza and I started back to school, and we finally moved into our new house. We spent most of August getting unpacked and adjusting to a new schedule.

September-This was a months of firsts for Eliza. She celebrated her first birthday and we took her to her very first Clemson game.

October -We continued to get settled into our house, went to the pumpkin patch, and celebrated Halloween.

November-My best friend got married and we celebrated Thanksgiving by having twenty-eight friends and family members to our house for dinner.

December-We had a traumatic Santa Claus visit, got a Christmas tree, and celebrated Christmas in Columbia with my family. 

 Happy New Year! Here's to a great 2013!

2013!

Happy New Year! We rang in the new year with a few friends at our house last night, and we had a blast. I will be back with pictures soon. Until then, I'm going to start the year off right by spending the day hanging with my little family.

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