Merry ChristSMITH! {December Shenanigans}

Posted in Family, Holidays, Raleigh NC by Karen

December has been a quick and busy month. We kicked it off with some Christmas decorating and tree trimming. Our tree this year was less than stellar, but it got the job done. While we didn’t put out all of our ornaments or decorations because of our impending move, we did just enough to make it feel festive. Plus, it just doesn’t feel like Christmas without a tree filling the house with that awesome smell and glowing lights!

We had a 9 day trip to Savannah and then Daytona (Chris went to Clearwater for a work trip) in the beginning of December. It seemed like a good idea (before we got our December 26 closing date). Even though it was right in the middle of Christmas season and our big move, we had some nice visiting time with my dad and step-mom and then my mom and Grandma in Daytona. The kids loved all the time with their grandparents.

One of my favorite memories from last December was our advent calendar. Each day was filled with a fun activity or treat to experience with Brady. This year we did something similar, but we wanted the focus to be more on the act of giving and doing for others (with some fun stuff for the boys mixed in.) Here’s some of our activities we did…

Making cards and giving candy to the kids in Brady’s class.

Surprising the boys with their train track around the tree one morning.

Donating a gift for Toys 4 Tots.

Eating treats and watching a Christmas movie.

Visiting with our elderly neighbors and bringing them a Christmas present.

Picking out Christmas presents for Albert and Gato.

Getting Peppermint Chocolate Chip milkshakes from Chick-fil-A (mommy’s favorite tradition!)

Making Candy Cane Brownies for our neighbors.

Christmas presents for the trash collectors (Brady’s most favorite activity!!)

Breakfast for Dinner!

Baking cookies for Santa (frosting/sprinkles for Brady and Nolan!)

Some of our other activities included cleaning out our old toys and giving them away, putting a surprise present in the mailbox for the mailman, looking at Christmas lights, and surprising Brady’s teacher with her favorite coffee one day. I hope these are traditions we continue as it was such a joy watching the boys experience the act of giving and getting to spoil them a little along the way.

While much of the month was consumed with thoughts of our new house and tons of to-do lists, we appreciated any small moments where we got to slow down and enjoy Christmas, our boys, and our new hometown. I loved getting an afternoon to myself to do some exploring and shopping downtown.

Nothing like walking around downtown on a chilly day! (especially if you have hot coffee in hand, like I did!)

I also loved baking cupcakes and getting to go to Brady’s class celebration for Jesus’s birthday.

How cute are these kiddos?!

But, admittedly, lots of adult beverages were consumed after bedtime this month to help keep our sanity.

Even though adding a big trip and a big move to an already busy month at times made us a little, cray cray…

We are abundantly aware of the many, many blessings God has bestowed upon us. We are constantly in awe of all that He has provided for us and give thanks for the good, the bad, and the crazy every day!

We spent our Christmas with Grandpa and Nana, opening gifts, eating, and getting ready for our big move.

We hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and will have a blessed 2015!

30Nov2014

Building Our Forever Home…Almost Done!

Posted in Family, Raleigh NC by Karen

In true Smith fashion, things are nice and crazy right now (and exciting!) We’ve been traveling for the holidays- Atlanta last week and Savannah and Daytona next week. We’ve also been putting up our Christmas decorations. Oh, and we are moving into our new house the day after Christmas! Our original closing date was scheduled for February. That got bumped up to January, and while it was a little sooner than we had planned on, we went with it. THEN, our builder came to us and said they’d like to close before the New Year. Whoa! We quickly had to make arrangements with our current rental house, look for movers, and wrap our heads around moving over Christmas break. (We also negotiated a few concessions with our builder to compensate us for accommodating their expedited schedule!) Despite the stress that comes along with yet another move (our 3rd in the last 2 years) we are pretty giddy about the idea that we’ll be starting out the new year in our forever home.

The boys look forward to our weekly trips to the house on Sundays to check out the progress. It’s always a fun game of chasing Nolan around and trying to keep him from picking up rusty nails, touching wet paint, grabbing insulation, etc… Brady has the house memorized and has been able to give a tour since it was just framing and floorboards. He loves to show us where “his” playroom is going to be and always likes to remind us that we need to remember to bring the T.V. from the old house.

Here’s some pictures of the recent progress…

Nolan checking out the new bathtub in the boys’ future bathroom.

It was really exciting when the siding started going up!

Drywall really made it start to feel like a home!

The original deck. They ended up re-building it because it was just all wrong.

The new and improved deck with the stairs moved to the side.

My favorite part of the process…seeing the kitchen cabinets installed. Not gonna lie, I almost teared up when I saw my kitchen. {The site of future Kids Cook Monday posts!}

Another exciting day was when the stonework started going up!

Paint and trim- getting closer!

The driveway was poured this week and our fireplace has a mantel. I can’t wait to see the flooring and countertops go in next. It’s hard to believe that in less than a month we can unpack our boxes for good!

24Nov2014

Vegetable SOUPer Stars! {Kids Cook Monday}

Posted in Kids Cook Monday, Meatless Monday by Karen

Today we whipped up a simple and tasty vegetable soup. This is the kind of soup that is perfect on a rainy, cool day, and utilizes whatever fresh or frozen veggies you have on hand. It’s exactly what you want to eat when you’ve maybe been overindulging in junk food or perhaps need to detox after several days of binge eating Thanksgiving foods!

We started our soup with a combo of fresh, frozen, and canned ingredients. And to really make our soup “shine” we used some awesome star shaped pasta in it.

Ingredients:

2 Cups Frozen Vegetables (we used 1 cup peas, 1 cup corn)
1 onion (diced)
2 carrots (shredded)
1 can Italian tomatoes (don’t drain!)
1 box vegetable broth
About 1/2 box pasta

Check out these awesome star shaped pasta noodles. Brady was so impressed!

Brady asks for me to buy him a carrot practically every time we go to the store.

Using the box grater to shred the carrots is such a fun activity for kiddo helpers.

To make this simple soup, we started by cooking up our onions in a big pot in some olive oil. Once they were tender, we tossed in the frozen vegetables. Then we threw in the carrots and cooked them for about a minute. Next, we added the entire can of tomatoes (juice and all) and the entire box of vegetable broth. We brought the whole pot to a boil and then added about half the box of pasta. We turned down the heat a bit and let everything cook for about 10-15 minutes (until the pasta was tender.)

This soup thickens as it sits and the pasta absorbs the liquid. If you want your soup soupier, add less pasta. If you want it thicker, add more pasta. Either way, you can’t go wrong with these flavors.

Nolan- caught eating vegetables and he doesn’t have a clue. A win for mommy!

Vegetable Souper Stars! Easy, peasy, yum.

16Nov2014

Yogurt Parfaits – Kids Cook Monday

Posted in Kids Cook Monday, Meatless Monday by Karen

We’ve been on a Greek Yogurt kick here in the Smith house. Or as Nolan calls it, “Yoyo.” We have it in the mornings with granola and fruit, but I got to thinking how fun and easy it would be for our afternoon snack. I decided to set out our yogurt and a bunch of topping choices to make it like our own self serve yogurt shop. Most of the toppings were super healthy, but there was just enough yummy stuff set out to make it seem like a real treat.

Here’s our ingredients…

We used honey flavored Greek Yogurt, but you could certainly use plain or vanilla and add a little honey for sweetness. We had berries, bananas, chocolate chips, granola, and peanut butter for topping choices. Other yummy options could be blueberries, slivered almonds, coconut, crushed pineapple, or chocolate syrup. The possibilities are endless!

Brady was such a big boy scooping out his own yogurt and chopping up his fruit for toppings.

Of course Brady opted for peanut butter in his parfait!

Brady’s finished product- delicious!

Rollie Nolie got in on the action too!

I went with a chocolate strawberry combo with a little granola for crunch.

This would be such a fun activity for a morning playdate or birthday party. We’ll be doing this for our afternoon snack again, for sure!

10Nov2014

Pirate Party- Arrghh!!

Posted in Free Printables, Holidays, Projects/DIY by Karen

Recently, a sweet little girl I know, named Ryley, turned 4. Her momma, Darrah, and I became friends in grad school, and have remained close since. It’s hard to believe we both have little ones now, let alone little ones who have turned 4!!

Throwback! This was baby Brady and Ry right before her 1st birthday. Where has the time gone?!

Darrah had a fantastic Pirate themed party planned for Ry’s big day, and asked if Chris and I could help her come up with some printables for the food and décor. Of course we obliged, and her party turned out so cute! Here’s some pictures from the party.

LOVE this Fleet of Cupcakes!

Darrah’s creativity teamed up with a few of these Pirate printables, made for an amazing party that any 4 year old would love to have! Here’s the links to the printables that we designed with Ry’s party in mind, but would be perfect for any Pirate themed event. There are game titles, thank you notes, and food labels. Just click on the link below the image you want to download and print!

Homemade Pasta- Kids Cook Monday

Posted in Kids Cook Monday, Meatless Monday by Karen

Few things in life are as yummy as homemade pasta. Nothing from a box can ever taste as fresh or light. For years, Chris had been saying he wanted to learn how to make his own pasta. Finally, last year he got his own pasta maker. Today he taught Brady to make pasta. It was somewhat time consuming, but really fun! And, Brady was SO into it!

Homemade fettuccine! (The finished product.)

Here’s the ingredients for a basic pasta…

3 Cups flour
4 eggs
1 1/2 Tablespoon Olive oil
1 Tablespoon Salt

Here’s how the pasta came together…

In a small bowl, whisk the eggs, salt, and oil together.

Add 3 Cups of Flour to your mixer.

Slowly add the egg mixture to the flour with the mixer on low for about a minute, or until all the egg mixture is incorporated into the flour. Dough should be sticky between fingers. If it seems a little dry, add a splash of water.

Roll dough onto a counter that has been dusted with flour. Form into a ball. Let dough sit under plastic wrap for about a half hour.

Cut dough into about 5 sections. Roll each section flat.

Carefully press each sheet of pasta dough through the pasta maker 3 times until it is very thin. (Each time you put the sheet of pasta through the machine, you decrease the width setting on the pasta maker.)

I love that part way through the process Brady had to go get his dinosaur and “Man with the Yellow Hat” hat.

Run the thin sheet of pasta through the pasta cutter to make your desired noodle shape. We made fettuccine.

Lay noodles flat to dry out for about 30 minutes. Turn the pasta over and let the other side dry for another 30 minutes.

Boil the pasta for about 5 minutes. (This part goes way quicker than dried pasta!)

Once your noodles are cooked, top with your favorite sauce, veggies, or meat. This fettuccine would be fabulous with a marinara or alfredo sauce. We tossed ours in some butter, salt and pepper, and threw in some green peas and Parmesan Cheese. It was super simple and the pasta was definitely the star!

Pasta with Peas and Parmesan!

Yay for homemade, fresh pasta! And, yay for time in the kitchen with daddy!

31Oct2014

Halloween- Smith Style

Posted in Family, Holidays by Karen

Halloween has never been my favorite holiday. It’s always been OK, but now that I have young kiddos, it’s a whole new ballgame. We had such a blast getting ready for and then celebrating Halloween this year. Our boys are at such a fun age and really enjoyed every bit of the festivities. Brady was obsessed with planning, creating, and wearing his costume that he thought up. And Nolan? Well, he was pretty much made for Halloween. Socializing with strangers, eating junk food, and being told how cute you look… that’s basically Nolan’s dream come true.

This year we let the boys pick out small pumpkins at the Farmer’s Market and they each got to paint them. Nolan mighta eaten a little paint. And of course, Brady meticulously painted every inch of his pumpkin as slowly and carefully as possible.

Nolan’s on the left, Brady’s on the right.

For Halloween food, I turned to Pinterest. So many Pinterest ideas seem silly and over the top, but I can honestly say that our boys got a kick out of all the special food that we made. For once, we nailed a Pinterest inspired idea!

PB&J Spider Sandwiches

Mummy Hot Dogs

Jack-O-Lantern Ranch Bean Dip

Aaanndd… Fizzy Worm Juice (which was not Vodka and Sprite for us adults, if that’s what you were thinking. Ahem.)

As for costumes, this year Brady chose what he and Nolan would be. He’s been super into his Curious George books lately, so he decided that he wanted to be “The Man with the Yellow Hat” and Nolan should be Curious George. This totally worked for me because I had a monkey costume that I bought from Target on clearance at the end of the season last year, so Nolan was taken care of. However, Brady’s costume was a different story. Turns out, “The Man with the Yellow Hat” is not a very common pre-schooler costume, so we had to do some improvising. We found his shirt at the mall, the pants on Amazon, and well, yours truly made the hat. Thank you, glue gun!

Ahhh the cuteness!

We took the boys trick-or-treating at the park by our house for their “Trick or Treat the Trails” event. They had a blast and I was so relieved to see that people actually knew what the boys were dressed as. Again, thank you, glue gun!

Once Nolan realized that people were just giving him candy, he was stoked! He tried eating it wrapper and all!

Brady would not let Chris and I go without costumes, so last minute we threw together some cowboy costumes. When a 3 year old tells you to wear a costume, you do it.

We ended the evening by trick-or-treating with our neighbors in our neighborhood. After we put the boys to bed, Chris and I sat outside, gave out more candy, and enjoyed some more “Worm Juice.”

It was an awesome Halloween! We’ll probably need to detox tomorrow from all the sugar and excitement, but it was worth it. I’ll leave you with another favorite Halloween memory…Nolan’s first time listening to “Thriller.” HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

27Oct2014

Slow Cooker Sweet Potatoes {Kids Cook Monday} Farmer’s Market

Posted in Kids Cook Monday, Meatless Monday, Raleigh NC by Karen

One of our favorite things to do is to take a trip to the weekly Farmer’s Market in Downtown Raleigh. Besides the abundance of farm fresh produce, there’s always fun free samples, live music, and lots to look at. My boys always get a kick out of checking out what’s in season and sampling different vendor’s goodies. For this week’s Kids Cook Monday recipe, we headed downtown to see what was in season this time of year. We were inspired by all of the apples and sweet potatoes for sale. Not only did we get to sample some yummy granola and peanut butter, but we also got the ingredients for this week’s Kids Cook meal.

I should note that not only is the Downtown Raleigh Farmer’s Market entertaining, but the produce is SO cheap! This slow cooker apple/sweet potato dish cost about $2 for the whole batch. Even if you doubled the batch, it would still be a super affordable Thanksgiving side dish!

Sweet, tart, and slow cooked goodness!

Ingredients

3-4 apples, peeled and chopped
2-3 large sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped
1/4 cup water
3 Tbs. Brown Sugar
1/2 tsp. Cinnamon
1/4 tsp. Ground Ginger
2 Tbs. Butter

I used a combo of sweet and tart apple varieties. You could also mix up the spices you use- nutmeg would be delicious!

Mine and Brady’s favorite part of cooking- chopping!

As you can see, we gave the apples a very rough, not perfect, peel and chop.

Dump the apples and sweet potatoes into the slow cooker. Pour the water over them and toss your butter on top.

Sprinkle on the brown sugar, cinnamon, and ginger. Give the pot a big stir and then put the lid on. Cook on high for 3-4 hours or on low for 6-7 hours. The apples cook faster than the potatoes, so check your potatoes to make sure they are nice and soft.

Patiently wait for your sweet potatoes to finish cooking…

Once the sweet potatoes are cooked through, remove from the crock pot. We ate ours just like this, but you could also top with more brown sugar and pecans. Or, even add a little cream and mash them up a bit for a apple sweet potato mash. Yum!

Not only do these sweet potatoes end up tasting like apple pie filling, but your whole house will smell delish!

This would be the easiest Thanksgiving side dish ever. Plus, it won’t take up that precious oven space! Our kiddos enjoyed this farm to table treat, and hopefully yours will too!

23Oct2014

Boone/Blowing Rock Adventure

Posted in Family, Travel by Karen

The Smith Family went on a heck of an adventure recently. My Aunt Claudia was coming to visit us and asked if we’d like to join her for a trip to Boone, NC to a cabin in the mountains. Of course we jumped at the chance! Aunt Claudia found the most amazing cabin in the mountains of the Blowing Rock/Boone area which is about 3 hours from Raleigh. We spent 5 days exploring the area, climbing mountains, taking in scenery, eating delicious food, and making some awesome memories. This was an especially great experience for me because I visited this same area when I was little with my Aunt Claudia and her family. It was fun to see it all again through my boys’ eyes. It was also the perfect place to see the Fall leaves in all their splendor. Here’s some highlights from our trip…

We took a drive through the Blue Ridge Parkway up to Grandfather Mountain. We crossed the Mile High Swinging Bridge and it was (stomach flipping) awesome. Brady and Chris climbed the side of the mountain and went as high as they could while I proudly watched and tried not to have a panic attack!

Not gonna lie…crossing this bridge scared the you know what outa me!

Chris and Brady climbed so high on Grandfather Mountain. You can see them sitting at the top of the peak. (Mommy had a panic attack!)

Check out the Viaduct on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Amazing how it just drops off into nowhere. I can’t imagine how they built this…

Driving the Blue Ridge Parkway- breathtaking!

Our cabin was perfect. We had a hot tub, pool table, and wrap around porches with amazing views. The boys loved it!

Loved these views all around our cabin.

We spent one day exploring Downtown Blowing Rock. It was so quaint with lots of shops and restaurants and a great park that the boys loved.

The kiddos loved this little park in Blowing Rock.

LOVE this picture. He was so proud of his leaf!

Super chilly day in Blowing Rock!

One of the highlights of the trip was visiting Tweetsie Railroad. There were rides, a petting zoo, and of course, a train that went through the mountains. Again, the scenery was perfect.

Nolan’s first time going on a ride. So precious!

Tweetsie Railroad Train…the boys LOVED riding this!

An awesome backdrop for a great park with gorgeous weather!

Brady is a train loving fool and Nolan loved waving “Bye-bye” to people from the train.

I went to this park with Aunt Claudia when I was little. So sweet to experience it with her and my boys again.

Another Smith Family adventure for the books, and another reason for us to love North Carolina!

12Oct2014

Pumpkin Pancakes- Kids Cook Monday

Posted in Kids Cook Monday by Karen

It’s Fall! Which means it’s time for all things pumpkin to show up on the shelves. I love pumpkin scented candles slightly more than pumpkin flavored foods or drinks, but by nature I am a sucker for any kind of marketing, so naturally I buy into the pumpkin madness that October brings. My favorite things to indulge in are the Target brand pumpkin spice K-Cups (much tastier than the infamous PSL, in my opinion.) I also LOVE my grandma’s pumpkin bread recipe. But now, I’m obsessed with these pumpkin pancakes. They are perfect for a cool Fall morning or a fun “Breakfast for Dinner” night. But mostly I love them because pancakes are the easiest meal for kids to get in the kitchen and help with. Plus, my boys ate them up like crazy!

Brady (and Nolan) loved getting in on the measuring, whisking, and pancake flipping! I’m guilty of feeding them frozen/microwavable waffles and pancakes during the week, so I think they especially enjoyed watching the process of how “real pancakes” were made.

Here’s how it went down…

Pumpkin Pancakes

Ingredients
2 Cups Flour
1 Cup Sugar
3 tsp. Baking Powder
1 tsp. Salt
2 Cups Milk
2 Eggs
1 Tbs. Vanilla Extract
1 Cup Pumpkin Puree
3/4 tsp. Cinnamon
1/2 tsp. Ground Ginger
1/4 tsp. Ground Cloves
-OR-
2 tsp. Pumpkin Pie Spice

I don’t have Pumpkin Pie Spice on hand so I made my own mixture with cloves, cinnamon, and ginger.

Mix together all your ingredients and get your griddle pre-heating.

Add a little butter to the griddle and then pour your batter on. Flip pancakes once they begin to bubble in the middle.

Chris and I topped our pancakes with butter and syrup, but the boys ate theirs plain (as they usually do.) Both boys asked for seconds. I think if we make these again, we may make a big batch of silver dollar ones and freeze them for busy mornings. Happy Pumpkin Season!

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our blessed adventures

Finding the extraordinary in this ordinary life!

Author Archives: Karen

Merry ChristSMITH! {December Shenanigans}

Building Our Forever Home…Almost Done!

Vegetable SOUPer Stars! {Kids Cook Monday}

Yogurt Parfaits – Kids Cook Monday

Pirate Party- Arrghh!!

Homemade Pasta- Kids Cook Monday

Halloween- Smith Style

Slow Cooker Sweet Potatoes {Kids Cook Monday} Farmer’s Market

Boone/Blowing Rock Adventure

Pumpkin Pancakes- Kids Cook Monday

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