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Posted in Family, Raleigh NC by Karen

We’ve been in our new home for about 3 weeks now. Honestly, it feels like a lot longer! This place just felt like home from the minute we moved in. Here’s a little recap of how our home has shaped up since December 26…

We had our closing at 8 AM the morning after Christmas. Every year Chris holds back one present for me for the day after Christmas. This year it was keys to a new house!

Shortly after we closed on the house, the movers arrived to load up our stuff from the rental house. Nolan was an excellent supervisor.

Good-bye rental house! You were good to us for those quick 8 months we lived in you. (Sadly, our awesome tree did not come with us. He found a new home in the woods out back.)

Moving into the new house…patiently waiting for the movers to bring all their toys in!

Chris and I did not waste any time unpacking. Our first night in the new house was fueled by Chardonnay as we made our way through the boxes.

Here’s what our house looks like now!

North Carolina doormat!

Here’s how she looks from the inside…

This is the hallway and stairs that are to the left when you walk in the front door. We hung our very favorite pictures that reflect all the places our family has lived- Florida, NC and Pennsylvania. (Thank you Darrah and Kisha for 2 of those!)

This leads into the boys’ playroom. (Otherwise known as formal dining room, but that’s not how this family is using this room!)

The playroom (doorway leads to the pantry and kitchen) with our Pennsylvania barn star. We also have the boys’ birth announcements hanging (gift from Auntie MB!)

The builder gave us some extra windows in this room so it is nice and bright. Perfect for a cheery playroom! (Or formal dining room someday!)

But truth be told, this room is never this neat and tidy. It usually looks like this…

Down the hall is our kitchen. I love that I can see the playroom from the kitchen now!

Next to the kitchen is a little bump out area that we added. This is where we have our dining table. We really like it because it’s close to the kitchen and next to the living room. It’s all very open. It also has a sliding door that leads to the deck out back.

This is another super bright room!

This is what you see if you look straight down the hall from the front door. Would love to eventually update our dining chairs, but for now, that’ll have to go on the wishlist.

Here’s Brady in the open area between our kitchen and living room. It’s usually where they use their riding toys and race in a circle through the playroom and kitchen.

This leads into the living room. We just hung some pictures, so now it’s really feeling more homey. (Sidenote: the pictures currently hanging are of just me, Chris and Brady! I ordered some new prints to reflect the fact that we are now a family of FOUR! Sorry for the delay, Nolan.)

Hi Albert!

We’re really happy with how everything has turned out. It’s crazy to think that less than 6 months ago this was all just a plot of uncleared land. We feel very blessed to have been a part of the process of creating our forever home. But of course, regardless of the house we’re in, home is wherever I’m with these guys!

12Jan2015

“Healthy” 7 Layer Dip- Kids Cook Monday (Football Edition!)

Posted in Kids Cook Monday, Meatless Monday by Karen

One of our favorite things to do on the weekends is watch football. Our kiddos cheer for our teams and clueless-ly scream, “Touchdown!” whenever we get excited about a play. This weekend was full of NFL playoff games (sadly, the Cowboys were robbed of their win) and tonight is the college football Championship game. We’re sad to see football end this year, but happy to indulge in some football-watchin’ food!

One of our favorite party foods is 7 Layer Dip (or Taco Dip). We have it at most of our family gatherings, but I thought it would be fun to do a little makeover with a few tweaks for a slightly healthier version. We made this up yesterday for a meet and greet with our new neighbors to watch the Broncos/Colts game and are enjoying it again tonight for the Ohio State/Oregon Championship game.

Here’s what went into our new and improved 7 Layer Dip…

Ingredients

1 Can Refried Black Beans
1 Container Guacamole
1 cup Plain Greek Yogurt
1 can sliced black olives
About half a jar chunky salsa
3 stalks of chopped green onion
1 brick of Colby-Jack cheese, shredded
Chips for Dipping

We swapped out the refried pinto beans for refried black beans, and the sour cream for non-fat Plain Greek Yogurt. I also switched up my regular onion for green onion (just for a change!) and regular tomatoes for salsa (just for a little more flavor!) This was an easy dish to assemble. Here’s how we layered ours…

Beans, guac, Greek Yogurt, Black olives, salsa, green onions, and cheese on top!

There were lots of kid helping opportunities for this dip- Spreading the beans on the bottom of the dish, grating the cheese, opening and draining the olives, sprinkling the cheese on top, and Brady’s favorite…cutting the green onions with big scissors!

Even though this dip did not bring the Cowboys much luck, it did help Chris drown his sorrows…

And Brady is pretty much a fan of anything with guacamole and olives. He’d root for that team all day long!

You really can’t go wrong with any combo of these ingredients…

And for what it’s worth, you could really healthy up this football food by eating it with Baked Tortilla chips (And the leftovers also make a mean taco salad!)

Happy Football Watching!

5Jan2015

Veggie Hummus Wraps- Kids Cook Monday

Posted in Kids Cook Monday, Meatless Monday by Karen

Happy New Year! January is usually my least favorite month, but as I’ve gotten older, I’ve come to look at it as a fresh start where everything is new and it can actually be somewhat motivating! As much as I hate to say good-bye to the holidays, family, and overall lack of routine, my inner planner and organizer really likes when the structure of day to day reality comes back. So, with that in mind, it’s time to get back to our Kids Cook Monday posts. This one is extra exciting because it was made in our new kitchen!

These guys were filled with light cream cheese, hummus, beans, and whatever veggie you have on hand that your kiddos love!

We decided to make some Veggie Hummus Wraps for lunch today. They were really, really, good. This idea came from the fact that we needed a meatless lunch that was going to be tasty but full of protein. These wraps delivered for both categories. Here are the ingredients that went into our wraps- really you can put anything in them that you have on hand that sounds good to you.

Ingredients:
Whole Wheat Tortillas
Light Cream Cheese
Hummus (any flavor)
Shredded Lettuce
Black Olives
Black Beans
Shredded Cheddar Cheese
Diced Red Pepper
Diced Cucumber

For today’s lunch we did lots of chopping and assembling. Brady loves to help with cutting up vegetables (he feels so big!) and today he was an expert cheese grater as well.

Giving a 3 year old an entire block of cheese to grate…that was just too much power. He couldn’t resist.

For the assembly, we took one Whole Wheat Tortilla and spread cream cheese on half of it, and hummus on the other half. We sprinkled our beans, then veggies and cheese on next.

Then we began to tightly roll the tortilla by starting with the cream cheese side and rolling towards the hummus (this way each bite has both hummus and cream cheese in it!)

Then I carefully sliced our wraps into little pinwheels to make them easier to eat. I mean, they were messy either way, but this seemed to work best for my boys.

Yummmm

These were a hit!

I went ahead and took the time to figure up how much protein/fiber were in one of these wraps including the tortilla, hummus, cream cheese, and beans. 8 grams of protein! 6.5 grams of fiber! That’s not counting the shredded cheddar or veggies either. I also love that this is so versatile- I’m picturing adding avocado, tomatoes or spinach leaves next time. I’m all for eating healthy, but much like my kiddos, I’m not down for it if it doesn’t taste good. But, in the wise, ever so eloquently put, words of Brady, “This is good.”

25Dec2014

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!

	kesuf on The Mini Man Cave
	Lauren Tillman on The Mini Man Cave
	gypcgal on Nolan is 3!
	Amanda Estes on First Day of School (2…
	Pastel Carousel on July Adventures

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Author Archives: Karen

Home.

“Healthy” 7 Layer Dip- Kids Cook Monday (Football Edition!)

Veggie Hummus Wraps- Kids Cook Monday

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

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