family table friday

I was featured on the 

Family Table Friday Link Up 

hosted by:

Jen from Life With Levi, Chelsea from Someday I’ll Learn, 

& Cristina from Tailor Made Momma. 

Thanks so much ~ I've had family members make this after I posted it. So cool!

my new do

A couple of weeks before Kelly decided to cut her hair, I got a new haircut too.

Mine was not quite long enough for Locks of Love though...

My friend Monica who works at Twenty Four Twelve Fillmore did it and I love it!

My baby likes it. He keeps pointing to my hair and saying "pretty" ~

And best of all, my husband REALLY likes it! I think I will be getting my hair done more often --

rainbow cupcakes

I have been wanting to make these Rainbow Cupcakes that I saw on a Facebook post -- I was holding off making them for a special occasion.
I figured Kelly's first soccer game as a Lady Gator would be good -- since it was also her BFF"s birthday.

Her first game ended up being rained out.
But I made them anyway!

I planned on topping them with whipped cream for the girls, but the kids (and Grandpa) ended up eating most of them plain -- I did make a little though

They were super easy, but a bit time consuming -- I will definitely be making them again!

locks of love

Kelly has been asking to cut her hair for a long time. She REALLY wanted to do Locks of Love like her cousin Solana.
I had her convinced that she should wait until 1st grade -- or so I thought!

Lately, she had been asking me again --- and then she went and asked her dad, who did it himself 10 years ago,
and that was it.
We brought her to have it done last week.

The hairdresser cut off 15 inches!
(and had a difficult time sawing though it)

She was soooooo HAPPY!

She keeps telling everyone about it and loves the reaction she gets ~

After all, Rapunzel cut her hair off too!

dinner tonight

Everyone knows that I don't cook. Mike cooks.
I do know how to do a few easy things -- like French Toast, egg salad and this pasta with tomatoes and feta that everyone (but my husband) likes.
The kids got Mike an oversized slow cooker for his birthday, but I have been the one trying it out. I've been looking up recipes, and I have tried a couple of them out --
but I have made this one three times now since everybody loves it.

I do have to mention, I also don't like to change things around too much. When I try a recipe, I follow it. I like to measure things and to be exact (might be why I enjoy baking...)

Mike likes to change things around. He wanted to add bell peppers to it, but I am sticking to this. He can try his bell peppers when he makes it!

I got this slow cooker recipe on eatingwell.com
But I even double this.
(we are are always feeding 7 people + another kid or 2 sleeping over on weekends)


Wine, Tomato & Chicken Recipe

• 4 slices of bacon
• 1 large onion, thinly sliced -- or chopped as small as you can to hide from the kids that say they don't like onions, but eat them all the time
• 4 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 tsp dried thyme 
• 1 tsp fennel seeds
• 1 tsp freshly ground pepper
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 cup white wine
• 1-28oz can diced tomatoes -- I've tried 3 different flavors so far, the one with garlic is good, but the plain one was too
• 1 tsp salt
• 10 bone in skinless chicken thighs 

*I don't eat chicken on the bone. I don't like it. So the first time I did this, I used boneless thighs. The second time we tried it on the bone (Mike took it off for me) and today we are using boneless chicken breast because it's what we had at home. I personally liked the boneless thighs so far.

Cook bacon over medium heat until crispy.
*I don't even like bacon, but I add it

-- Oh and one of the reasons I don't cook... Mike watches me and is sort of antsy, wanting to just take over.
hmmmph
So I let him make up the bacon this time and chop onions. He was happy.

Put the bacon on a paper towel to cool and drain. Save about 2 tbsp of oil in the pan.
Add the onions and cook 5 minutes or so until they are soft.
Then put in the garlic, thyme, fennel seeds, pepper and the bay leaf and cook for a minute.
Add the wine and bring to a boil for about two minutes (keep stirring and all)
Add the tomatoes with their juice -- and then the salt.

Place the chicken in the crock pot and sprinkle on the bacon -- I do more than one layer, and have been just putting the bacon on top of each layer.
Pour the tomatoes, etc over the chicken and put on the cover

Cook 3 hours on high or 6 hour on low.

We eat it over rice and have never had leftovers!

Smells good!!!
We've got an hour to go ~