Heart on Homestead

Click Chicks: Mom!

noreply@blogger.com (Jessica) — Thu, 16 May 2013 13:13:00 +0000

I know been a few weeks since I've linked up with the Click Chicks - I have just been so busy I can't even think straight! When I realized that this weeks topic was MOM... I immediately grabbed my camera, headed outside and had my husband snap a few pictures of me with my son.

I'm glad I did because there probably hasn't been a decent picture of just us two since... well, ever. Exhibit A. It's difficult for me as a photographer to accept the fact that my son refuses to sit still or take his hand out of his mouth for a picture anymore. I guess after taking monthly pictures his whole first year, he caught on to my madness. ;)

Taken any great pictures lately?? Link up with us!

Another Mother's Day Post.

noreply@blogger.com (Jessica) — Mon, 13 May 2013 14:04:00 +0000

Contrary to what my photo above might suggest (in the last frame, I'm literally saying "just forget it, it's not gonna happen.") - I had a wonderful Mother's Day.

I got up early to flowers and a card from my thoughtful boys along with a delicious breakfast of eggs, bacon and toast. After I downed some coffee and grabbed a quick shower, I was on the road to do a photo shoot for a beautiful family of four.

On the thirty minute drive, my mind started to wonder. Last year at this time, I was elated. I had a beautiful, wonderful 3 month old baby boy that made my heart explode with love. This year, of course I feel the same about my now 15 month old but ... it's different.

Not only do I have joy in my heart for all the mothers, grand mothers and great grand mothers out there, but I can now understand the struggles they've gone through - that they go through -on a daily basis. It's cliche but true when I say I appreciate my mom 100 times more now that I'm a mom. She had four babies, I only have one and I can't IMAGINE the tough stuff she put up with. She's a miracle worker, I tell ya!

However, along with celebrating all the mothers and caretakers in my life, I'm also thinking about my friends who want nothing more than to be a mother and for those mother's who've lost their babies. It hits way too close to home for me and my heart breaks for them on a daily basis. This day is hard for them and I feel guilty about my happiness. I want that happiness for them too... so much so it hurts.

So as you celebrate your mom and the women in your life, say a quick prayer for those who are so impatiently waiting to hold a sweet baby in their arms.

Sorry this post took a sort of sad turn but I have to say what's on my mind. As Ashley put it, "Today, whatever your story might be, I hope that you find unexpected joys and laughter in surprising places….."

Happy Mother's Day.

Relay For Life 2013

noreply@blogger.com (Jessica) — Mon, 06 May 2013 12:51:00 +0000

Life has been crazy busy lately! I feel like I even have to schedule days to relax and do nothing but even though it's been hectic, it's all been for fun things. Not only has my photography business been steady but there have been several work events and outings with friends contributing to my jam packed schedule.

One such outing took place this weekend that I look forward to it every year: Relay For Life. I joined my work team this year and I'm proud to say we raised over $2000 for the American Cancer Society! After a long school year of fundraisers, it was finally time to cut loose and have some fun at the fairgrounds. :)

Our booth!

The parade of survivors...

It was a fun night, as always, but it's also an emotional night. At the opening ceremony, they do a "parade of survivors" where they all take a lap around the track. I saw too many familiar faces in the crowd and it's enough to pull at your heart strings!!

My mom said something that really stuck with me. She said that when we used to go to relay, we knew someone who knew someone with cancer. Nowadays? We now personally know several close friends and family members with cancer and she's absolutely right.

Why do I relay? For my grandpa, my uncle, my friends, their parents and siblings and most recently diagnosed, my father in law.

Above: Noah taking a few steps on the track in honor of his grandaddy. His luminaria below.

Bagpipes to the tune of Amazing Grace. AKA: Tearfest.

After the luminarias were lit and the tears were dried, it was time to have a little fun! I put my camera away, the bands started up and we all stuffed our faces with local cuisine. By the end of the night, we were all frozen and happy and already coming up with a plan for next years fundraisers!

Do you attend your local Relay For Life?

It's never thanks enough...

noreply@blogger.com (Jessica) — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 17:05:00 +0000

Noah loves his daycare and so do I. They're loving, caring and some of the best women I could think of to care for my baby boy while I'm away. With that being said, is there any real way I can thank them for what they do? They are essentially raising my son. Yes, that's harsh for some moms to hear, but it's true. He spends over 8 hours a day with those women and with those other kids ... and you know what? I'm glad he does! It works for our family and I know they truly miss him when we're away.

So, when I found out that this week was staff appreciation week at the daycare Noah attends, I knew I had to make something special for those ladies. :)

I'm sure some of you might recognize this from Pinterest - and when I saw it, I couldn't resist! For a grand total of $10, I made three of these cute little pots. It really only cost $.97 for each pot, $.98 for each flower and $4 for a small bag of soil (which I probably could have done without!). I simply used some craft paints I already owned to decorate the pots and then potted the flowers when they were dry. Boom! DONE!

Needless to say, they loved it. It's a small gesture and a tiny way to say thank to the ones who take care of the most important little dude in my life!!

Have you done anything for your teachers/day care workers/SECRETARIES lately?! ;)

Weekend Recap: THE GLO RUN!

noreply@blogger.com (Jessica) — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 13:10:00 +0000

Happy Monday my friends. I hope you had a fantastic weekend. I know I did!

Friday evening was spent at home with my boys, relaxing with pizza and watching movies. Saturday morning, Noah let us sleep in until 8:00 (yay!) and around lunch time, I hit the road for Maryland to spend the night with Maria and run the Glo Run 5k.

Getting ready ... ready to runnnn.

We arrived at the event site early to grab a bite to eat and even got a chance to do a bit of shopping before the race. I went into Charming Charlies for the first time...and um, it's basically Claire's for adults and it's AMAZING. My life is forever changed. Thank you Maria. ;)

Once the time came, we got painted up with glow paint and gathered at the start line.

Reppin Beantown - Boston on our hearts!

The wind was whipping and there was a chill in the air but once we started running, we heated up quick! With the support and motivation of my sweet friend, Maria, I know I ~~ran~~ jogged at least the entire first half and after maybe a minute of quick walking, told myself that it's mind over matter - and continued to jog to the finish line.

Maria used her Map my Run app (correct me if I'm wrong M!) to keep our time and when we crossed the finish line, we ended up the race at 42 (I think?) minutes with around a 12 minute mile pace. I've been averaging 11.1 min/mile at the gym so I'm happy with that!

I almost gave up near the end and slowed a bit but I knew the quicker I was, the faster I could get to the post-race party!!

There were black lights, glow sticks, post race snacks, a DJ and a ton of people just dancing the night away. We had so much fun!!

Thank you Maria for running with me and I can't wait until next time!!! :D

Click Chicks: Happiness

noreply@blogger.com (Jessica) — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 00:56:00 +0000

This weeks Click Chicks topic was happiness and how could I post anything other than this kids smiling face? He's so proud of himself that he's finally learned to pull up, that he couldn't stop grinning. :)

I know, I know - I really need to photograph other things ... but I tend to wait until the last minute to take these pictures (AKA, I took it yesterday evening) so that doesn't leave me many options! This link up is supposed to be about challenging myself and I really need to try harder. Fingers crossed I do better next week? ;)

Have you picked up your camera lately?? Link up with the click chicks! Next weeks topic is BLACK AND WHITE.

Click Chicks: Silhouette

noreply@blogger.com (Jessica) — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 12:48:00 +0000

Curious baby.

Sunny day.

Perfection.

Link up with us next week to capture HAPPINESS!

Click Chicks: Bokeh

noreply@blogger.com (Jessica) — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 15:01:00 +0000

Ahhh bokeh. Who doesn't love that beautiful blurry background you get when shooting at a low aperture?

In December, you see everyone posting pictures of their kiddos in front of Christmas trees and lights - achieving those gorgeous, round orbs of light in the background. I'm, of course, totally guilty of that as well.

Remember this image from last year?

But as awesome as it is to use those tiny, twinkly little lights to achieve great bokeh, it's not necessary. One of my favorite pictures right now happens to be an image I took this weekend. It was a gorgeous day and the light was perfection.

I turned down my aperture as low as it could go, and upped my shutter speed to accommodate the bright afternoon sun. After that, I selected my point of focus (her eyes) (click here for a great description on how to select a single focal point rather than chancing it using auto focus) and snapped.

The result?

Not only did I achieve the great blurry background I wanted, but if you look in the bottom right hand corner, I got some great blur in the front of the image as well.

Have you taken any great pictures lately? Link up with the click chicks! Next weeks topic is silhouettes.

Having a One Year Old

noreply@blogger.com (Jessica) — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 13:51:00 +0000

Remember last month when I was so upset about Noah turning one? Looking back, I'm not quite sure what I was so sad about. Of course, I miss the infant stage and those teeny, tiny baby snuggles but things are so much more FUN now.

He laughs and smiles so much that it makes my face hurt. He babbles now. He plays independently and with imagination. He stacks blocks and puts them away. He points to his head and his belly when you ask where they are.

He takes his socks off every morning in the car on the way to "school" and throws them over the side of his car seat. He eats like a champ and can put away pizza like nobody I know. He loves to make noise and bang on things like a drum. His fake cry is hilarious, it's all I can do not to laugh at him. He has 3 visible teeth and 3 (or 4?) more on the way (much to our dismay).

He loves his dada and that's of course his favorite word (but "no" is coming in at number two). He says "hi" when you ask him to and waves "bye byes" too. He dances all the time and whenever he hears music. His hair is slightly red but I'm not sure where he gets it. His eyes, however, those baby blues are all mine. (The big feet he gets from his dad.) When he hugs the dog, my heart just melts but when he hugs me - I'm a puddle.

Like I said, I'm not sure what I was so scared of.

Click Chicks: Window

noreply@blogger.com (Jessica) — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 14:20:00 +0000

For this weeks click chicks challenge, I thought I'd use one of my favorite photos of my cousins son, George! It was the morning of his birthday and he was cruising around the living room with his dog, Sasha. The sun was pouring in the window through the front door where they stood watching the fresh snow on the ground when I happened to catch this shot.

I really hope you all join in with the click chicks to show off your pictures! Whether they're on your iphone, droid, point and shoot or DSLR, we wanna see them!! :D

Next weeks topic is BOKEH! Let's get some gorgeous blurry backgrounds!

Now Bake This: Blueberry Muffins

noreply@blogger.com (Jessica) — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 12:59:00 +0000

Thanks to some crazy Spring snow (and the fact that my road still hasn't been plowed, GRR), I have the pleasure of bringing this Monday morning post to you while I'm still in my pajamas, sipping coffee in my living room. Pawn Stars is on and the baby is eating his breakfast - Monday's don't get any better than this!

For this weeks Now Bake This post, I made some DELICIOUS blueberry muffins for you, complete with a scrumptious cinnamon crumb topping.

Nine times out of ten, I reach for a boxed muffin mix but this time, I wanted to see how difficult it would be to make them from scratch. Well friends, I can honestly say - I will NEVER buy boxed muffins again. These were seriously so easy to make and the best muffins I've ever had. Even better than Costco blueberry muffins and we all know Costco bakery is hard to beat!

I used this recipe from Allrecipes.com and my comments are in red.

To start, gather your ingredients:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup white sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoon baking powder
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1/3 cup milk
1 cup fresh blueberries

For the topping (next time I'll half the crumb topping, I didn't need 2/3 of it!):

1/2 cup white sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup cold butter (cubed)
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and grease muffin tins or line with muffin liners.

Combine 1 1/2 cups flour, 3/4 cup sugar, salt and baking powder. Place vegetable oil into a 1 cup measuring cup; add the egg and enough milk to fill the cup (should be all the 1/3 c milk it calls for). Mix this with flour mixture. Fold in blueberries. Fill muffin cups almost to the top.

To Make Crumb Topping: Mix together 1/2 cup sugar, 1/3 cup flour, 1/4 cup butter, and 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon. Mix with fork, and sprinkle over muffins before baking. (I sprinkled a teaspoon of the crumb topping onto each muffin and it came out perfectly)

Bake for 20 (mine were done in 20) to 25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until done.

Did you bake anything this weekend?

Click Chicks : SUNSET!

noreply@blogger.com (Jessica) — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 17:43:00 +0000

I had every intention of taking a fresh picture for this weeks link up but I failed - yet again. Life has been so busy, I swear I'd lose my head if it wasn't attached!

So, since I didn't have a chance to take a new picture, I dug through my old photos and found this gem!

I took this off the deck of our beach house as the sun was setting. You can't tell but on the other side of the line of trees is nothing but gorgeous blue water. I can't wait to go back!

Are you linking up with my click chicks this week?! Next weeks topic is WINDOW.

Now Bake This! Mac and cheese.

noreply@blogger.com (Jessica) — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 12:26:00 +0000

Another weekend down my friends! I hope yours was enjoyable, I know mine was. We were busy as usual running around with friends and taking care of errands but it always goes by too fast. Monday - why do you have to show up so often?! The only thing that makes me excited for the day is I plan to enjoy a healthy portion of this oven baked mac and cheese for lunch.

There are three different ways you can make baked mac and cheese. You can throw all your ingredients together in a dish, using uncooked pasta like in this recipe or you can boil your noodles and layer your cheese (the way my mom did it) like this recipe. But me? I prefer to make mine using a white sauce. It always turns out creamy and delicious with the perfect amount of crunchy topping!

As you can see in the picture above, I halved my recipe but the recipe below will make a full 13x9 pan of mac and cheese. In my opinion, you can never have enough but Kevin and I still can't eat a whole dish! ;)

Ingredients:

1 pound elbow noodles (i prefer the large elbows)
3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons flour
2-3 cups milk
3 cups your fave shredded cheese (I used cheddar this time)
breadcrumbs

Preheat oven to 400. Boil noodles until al dente and drain, set aside. In a large pot, melt butter and add your flour, stirring constantly for 2-3 minutes. Gradually add in milk and stir until thickened. Add as much milk as you like until you reach your desired consistency. (Almost gravy like if you've never made a white sauce.) Add cheese and stir until melted. Add drained pasta and pour completed dish into a well greased 13x9 pan. Top with a good amount of breadcrumbs and a light sprinkling of cheese for crunch. Spray your breadcrumbs with cooking spray to achieve a nice brown topping! Bake for 30-40 minutes until bubbly.

Did you do any baking this weekend?

Click Chicks: GREEN!

noreply@blogger.com (Jessica) — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 22:50:00 +0000

Happy Thursday my friends! It's almost Friday which means we're one day closer to the weekend. I can't wait, I've got some fun plans with friends Saturday and plan to relax with my family on St. Patrick's Day, no big plans but good times all around!

To ring in the beginning of the weekend, the click chicks went with a St. Pat's day theme for today - GREEN!

I literally stopped on my way home from work today to snap this picture. It was a gorgeous, breezy day this afternoon and I couldn't resist the greenery that's starting to pop out around here.

Did you crack out your camera today?!

Link up with the Click Chicks! Next weeks topic: SUNSETS.

Wordless Wednesday

noreply@blogger.com (Jessica) — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 16:40:00 +0000

Now Bake This! Chocolate Chunk Caramel Brownies

noreply@blogger.com (Jessica) — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 13:45:00 +0000

Sorry for not linking up last week for Now Bake This - I hope you all will forgive me! After Noah's birthday party, I was just wiped out and completely forgot.

To make up for it, I made you some delicious chocolate chunk caramel brownies!

These brownies were so easy and they came out perfect. Chewy, gooey, and sweet, just like a brownie should be.

Simply gather your ingredients::

1 cup butter or margarine
2 cups white sugar
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp vanilla
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

ADDITIONAL:

Semi sweet chocolate chips
Your favorite caramel sauce (I used Hershey's but you could melt some caramel candies or use whatever you have on hand)

Melt your butter (or margarine) in a saucepan and add the remaining ingredients in the order shown. From there, mix in about a half (or whole) bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips into your batter. Pour into a well greased 13x9 pan. From there, simply drizzle your caramel sauce over your batter and swirl with a toothpick. Add as much or as little as you like but keep in mind, the more caramel you add - the gooier (gooey-er?) your brownies will be!

Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 35 minutes. I left mine in a tad longer as I used A LOT of caramel. ;)

Have you baked anything lately?!

LINK UP with Now Bake This every week!

Click Chicks: Shadow

noreply@blogger.com (Jessica) — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 15:20:00 +0000

How did I completely forget about click chicks this week!! ACK! I'm horrible. My brain has been mush since the weekend and now that we got 20 inches of snow (rare for our area) things have just been crazy. That's no excuse as I have my camera attached to my hip!

This weeks click chicks topic -- SHADOWS!

Not quite sure this picture counts but it's one of my favorites. My friends little girl was playing in her bedroom floor and the sun was just right to cast the perfect shadows across her face.

Be sure to link up with me and the other click chicks!! Next weeks topic is GREEN!!

Mobility.... redefined.

noreply@blogger.com (Jessica) — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 14:25:00 +0000

Remember when I posted this post? About how Noah refused to move?

Well... there has been a bit of a change around here. Nothing significant, he still hasn't sat up on his own or pulled up to standing but this kid - he is definitely MOVING.

You can only guess why his new nickname is Scooter!

He started scooting about a week before his 1st birthday and he hasn't slowed down. Most folks told me "just wait til he moves, you'll want him to just sit still!" but on the contrary - I'm glad he can scoot! He can actually get what he wants without getting frustrated.

Sure, he gets into things he's not supposed to. His favorite things to play with right now are tissues, cell phone cords and the baseboard heater (it's not on, he just likes to bang on the metal to make noise). But that's to be expected right? He's learning quickly the true meaning of the words STOP and NO. ;)

As far as sitting up/pulling up? Still nothing. He'll pull himself to his knees sometimes but he still hasn't gone from laying down to sitting up on his own. He's getting stronger by the day and the pediatrician doesn't seem concerned. She gave us a few exercises to help with his sitting up so we'll see where that takes us. She and I both have accepted that Noah will develop in his own time. He's not in a hurry to walk and that's okay.

Am I still worried? Yeah, for sure but I know he'll get there eventually. :)

The Photobooth!

noreply@blogger.com (Jessica) — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 18:58:00 +0000

One of my favorite features of Noah's birthday party this weekend was the photo booth. I really tried to enjoy myself the day of the party and put down my camera so with the photo booth, I was able to get some crazy awesome pictures!

To set it up, all I did was put my DSLR on a tripod and left a remote for folks to use. Once I had the camera all set up, I connected my DSLR to my laptop using it's USB cord (my EyeFi card wasn't working. GRR). From there, I was able to go to My Computer and access the pictures. I left this window open so folks could see their pictures after they were taken. That was it! It was so easy to set up and as you can see, people had SO much fun with it. :)

(Caution: Picture heavy!)

That very last picture is by far my favorite. By the end of the party, Noah was beat and my mother in law put him to sleep as we were all cleaning up. (Thanks Lela!)

Have you ever had a photo booth at one of your parties? Ever been to one that had one? :)

Noah's Birthday Party

noreply@blogger.com (Jessica) — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 20:46:00 +0000

Saturday afternoon was one for the record books. It was wild, crazy, colorful, fun and fantastic. I hope Noah realizes how many people truly love him and came out to his first birthday party - friends and family from Pennsylvania and Maryland (hey Maria!) joined us for the celebration and I'm so glad they did. Even though we ran out of food (poor planning on my part, dad went and got some pizzas...OOPS.) it was a wonderful day.

Party hats from Target and the Dollar Store went great with the theme and my rock star sister made up some jars of colorful candy to put around the room. Along with that, I laid out sheets of construction paper and lots of crayons and coloring books for people to enjoy!

We kept the food (a little too) simple with just some finger foods but next time, I'll be sure to make twice as much!

I couldn't have a kids party without these juice hugs. A childhood staple!

Trix treats! OMG these things are like crack.

Colorful and psychedelic cookies made from Joe Corbi's dough. (bought from a coworker doing a fundraiser, which was perfect because they went with the theme great!)

Most of the decorations I found at either the Dollar Tree, Target, Walmart or our local party store, Nancy's Party Things. A few items I got from Oriental Trading as well. (The pennant banners were 100 feet for $8 - I was sold!)

Friends and family surrounding the birthday boy!!

Even my niece got in on the "color" theme!

It was baby-palooza all weekend. So much fun!

MY BFF HER BF!! Aren't they all of the cutest?!

Roomies Lindsey and Liz - love their faces.

Oh hey there gorgeous lady!! It's Maria! :D

I'm so glad she made the long trek to tiny little Elkton and I can't thank her and her husband, Ale, enough for helping out after the party - which they DID NOT need to do! Big big props to them.

As you walked into the room, their was a table set up with all of Noah's baby pictures from each month. It was so neat having them all laid out for folks to see how big he's gotten!

And my pride and joy of the day? Noah's cake. Teeny and tiny and sweet, just like him! ;)

I think it's safe to say he liked it! :)

PS - Want more smash cake photos?? Check out our at-home photoshoot HERE!

The inside of the cake was just yellow cake mix colored with frosting dye I found at our party store. The high chair decoration I made with just some strips of fun colored ribbon I found for 99 cents a yard at our local fabric shop!

When we weren't coloring, cake smashing and socializing, folks were in the photo booth.

But I'm afraid I'm going to have to leave you hanging on that one. Be sure to check back tomorrow for more fun party pics!!

Click Chicks - WATER

noreply@blogger.com (Jessica) — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 13:33:00 +0000

These week has been an absolute whirl wind. With Noah's birthday party this Saturday, I've been cleaning, prepping, cooking and getting ready to host a plethora (a word not used often enough) of people. It's sure to be a blast. Our family loves to have a good time so I'm very excited!

In the mean time, I had to link up today with my fellow Click Chicks for this weeks photog topic:

WATER

This picture was taken two years ago when Kevin and I visited Charleston, SC. I was a photography rookie at the time and shot mostly in aperture priority mode. When I took this picture, I knew I wanted to catch the droplets of water as they were falling so I took a chance and switched over to shutter priority and jacked that puppy up. I got lucky since it was so bright out and the light didn't suffer.

Although... now that I'm looking at this picture, I'm ready for Spring. And vacation. :/

Link up with my fellow click chicks:

Meg from Megs7827

Lindsay from Eat, Wine, & Be Merry

Rachael from We're Ready For Roots

Ivy from Little Woman, Little Home

Happy Birthday Noah.

noreply@blogger.com (Jessica) — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 14:22:00 +0000

Dear Noah,

I've written and re-written this post a thousand times. There's so much I want to say to you but nothing sounds quite right.

I want to tell you how much I love you. It's a love I never thought I needed but now I can't live without. It sounds so cliche but it's true that I didn't know my heart could beat outside my body until you were born. You're a part of me, plain and simple.

I want to tell you how wonderful it is to be your mom. You've always been calm and easy going and I'd be lying if I didn't tell you that I'm grateful for it. When we brought you home from the hospital, I was so scared. I was afraid of what having a newborn meant but every rough night was worth it and thankfully, you've only given us a handful of those.

I want to tell you what an amazing little boy you've become. In the last year, I've gotten to watch you grow into a loud, funny, spirited kid. You're always so happy and there's always a smile on your face which I like to think I had something to do with. The fact that you're such a morning person? Yeah. That's from your dad.

I want to tell you how much I dreaded today. It might sound crazy but it's true. I've cried more tears over you turning one than I did the night before I came back to work after you were born. I know you'll always be my baby but the fact that it's been a whole year is just too hard to believe. I've always told people that those first few months after you were born were my favorite. You were brand new and had this sweet smell of baby lotion and breast milk and I miss that. You fit in that crook in my neck just perfectly and even though you're getting bigger, I think we'll make it work.

I want to tell you that I can't wait for you to grow up. Even though I miss my sweet infant, there's something about the thought of you throwing ball in the front yard with your dad that I can't wait for. The day you take your first steps isn't far off now and that means soon we'll be teaching you to ride a bike. And how to swim. And, before I know it, how to drive.

You're the best thing that's ever happened to me and I know the best is yet to come.

Happy First Birthday son.

Love, Mom

Now Bake This - Week 5!

noreply@blogger.com (Jessica) — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 13:47:00 +0000

This weekend FLEW by. I know I say that every Monday but I was sick as a dog Friday, cleaned (as much as I could while recovering) all day Saturday and then had a fun photo session on Sunday with a friend.

Well, after all that, I wasn't really in the mood to bake last night so I just whipped up an old favorite of Kevin's that he's been asking for. Lemon bars!!

They're so easy and so delicious, you really can't go wrong. Normally, I do sprinkle a little confectioners sugar on top after they cool but I didn't have any around the house. Otherwise, they turned out just as amazing as they always do! Find the recipe here.

Did you do any baking this weekend?! Link up!

Click Chicks: Nature!

noreply@blogger.com (Jessica) — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 02:29:00 +0000

For this weeks Click Chicks photo challenge, we were all asked to photograph nature. However, it seems that time got away from me and I didn't have a chance to get my camera out of it's bag at all this week. SO - I digged through the archives and chose a picture from when we were at the beach this fall.

It seems a bit fitting since I'm having beach fever right now. I'm officially counting down the days until we leave for our vacation in June and this cold weather isn't helping matters. It's been windy and frigid here lately and I don't know about you but I'm so weather for some sunshine!

Have you had a chance to crack out your camera or have a favorite picture from the past you'd like to show off? Link up!!

Next weeks topic is WATER!

Dancing Man

noreply@blogger.com (Jessica) — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 20:19:00 +0000