2015 Favorite Photos: January thru April

Hey Y'all! I want to catch up on photos that I missed out on posting earlier this year, so I'll start with Spring.

Here are some of my favorites of Jonah (and our adventures) from this past Spring. We took a trip to San Antonio for my birthday in January, and rode the train in Hermann Park in February. We hit up the fried oreos at the Houston Livestock Show and Jonah wore his Texas best for Go Texan day at his pre-school. We celebrated Easter with our family and painted (and ate!) delicious sugar cookies. Annnnnd, we made a little trip to watch the Astros and it just happened to be dollar dog night. SCORE!!!

We took Jonah in April for his first "big boy" styled hair cut. He looked into the mirror, shook his head and said "who am I". I laughed SO hard but also felt so bad for him. He missed his long hair for weeks after the big cut. He would shake his head back and forth (because he used to do that and his hair would flop around) and would say "Mom!! It won't work anymore!!". Poor little Badger!! Definitely contemplating letting him grow it out again!!

Jonah's "Werk" Party

Jonah turned 3 in June and more than anything wanted a "werk" party. He loooooves to work on stuff (take things apart, fiddle with things, shove things where they shouldn't belong) you know. Normal boy stuff, right?!

His wish was my command. Obviously because parties are my JAM, y'all.

I started by making a trip to the Home Depot. That place is just my fave. I found a bunch of great stuff to craft with (I didn't stutter. The Home Depot! Crafts!!), and started with caution and wet paint banners. They were seriously the cutest (and so cheap).

We had TONS of moving boxes still in the garage because we had only moved in a couple of weeks (ahem, two) previously so I grabbed a couple of large boxes and made Jonah some fun werk vehicles!!

We had pizza, and lots of delicious treats. I made the kids a box lunch and put them in the living room at our coffee table (the construction site!) and they loooooved it. It was such a fun night, Jonah totally had a blast!!

And, here are a few more photos from his actual birthday and family celebration-

  

 He requested a waffle on the morning of his birthday!

LOVE my big 3 year old!!!!

Blogger of the year

So. Let's be honest. I haven't won any blogger of the year awards in 2015. This will be my third blog post this year. THIRD. I can't hardly believe that myself. I posted over 100 times in 2014, roughly twice per week and I've BARELY managed to post once per quarter this year. Eh. Life.

This year my "word" of the year must be rest. Just saying "NO" to outside pressure, stress and obligations.

I've got a lot to say. A lot, but I better pace myself (ha).

And, I could hug the sweet friend that texted me this week to tell me she misses reading my posts (Heyyyy, SherahJo!!). Kindof a kick in the rear I needed to remind myself that this blog about our life is important. Especially for our kiddos to look back on and read when they're grown (no, I didn't say kiddos to give you a big announcement) and see our adventures together. Somehow instagram replaced my blog.

Anyhow, I'm back. Maybe. I'm not going to put undue pressure on myself. I leave for China next week (great timing) and I'll be out of pocket for two weeks.

Soooo. I can't really catch up on five months, but I'll summarize. We moved into our home (I'll do some fun before and after photo posts) have gotten settled in, became semi-burned out on home reno projects and stopped for a break. Jonah had a big "werk" party (I'll def post photos from that) And have just been enjoying our new part of town/life in general.

I'll leave you with this new recipe that Jonah and I tried yesterday. Seriously yummy oatmeal cookies that came about because I was hungry for cookies, Jonah wanted me to play with him (he says that probably 654235 times per afternoon) and I didn't have butter so I googled "oatmeal cookies no butter". Annnnd, that's a fact. So, so good.

Recipe Via

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups old fashioned oats
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup canola oil or melted coconut oil (use a little more if dough seems is too dry)
• 2 large eggs
• 4 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips or chocolate chunks + more if desried

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with a silpat or parchment paper.

In a large mixing bowl or bowl of a stand mixer add the oatmeal, flour, sugar, brown sugar, baking soda, salt, canola oil, eggs and vanilla, beat until the dough is moist and all the ingredients are combined. The dough will be crumbly. Mix in the chocolate chips.

Using your hands clump together a tablespoon of dough. Use you hands to really squeeze the dough into a ball. If the mixture is not holding add 1 tablespoon more of oil. Place on prepared baking sheet. If your balls are a little crumbly do not worry, they will come together while baking. Repeat with remaining dough.

Bake for 10 -12 minutes or until set and golden. These are best right out of the oven, so eat up!

House of Strickland

It's official. We closed on our house last Wednesday, April 29th. The morning after I arrived home from China...which officially made it the most stressful busiest week of my little life. Well, probably not. But close.

We are so, so excited and thankful to be homeowners once again. Renting has been an interesting journey the last two years. Ready to put down deep roots and settle in. 

I'll try to post some fun DIY projects in the coming weeks and months.

For now, we are soaking it in. We don't have to be our of our apartment until the end of June/early July, so lots of time to do those projects and take our time with the move (hopefully low stress and low key!).

And, Jonah is on CLOUD NINE. Love that he will have a new house, and backyard to explore.

New Year Tidings

Happy New Year, Y'all!

I promise I'm still alive. Just reallllllly busy at work right now (market season). Making sure all of our designs and samples get to the shows and our orders are on the water before Chinese New Year. All in a days work. Well. Not really, but that about sums it up. CRAZY time for me.

In other news I'm beyond obsessed with salt dough. It's addicting. I've been making the cutest ornaments for our celebration tree.

I almost love them as much before as I do painted!!

And, I turned the BIG 32 on the 7th. Jeremy surprised me with the prettiest cake I've ever seen and we celebrated with friends. It was such a fun birth-week. You know. Because big girls celebrate their birthday all week!! ;)

And lastly, I leave you with this. The two cutest buddies of all time. Delight in their cuteness.

I'll be around closer to LOVE day with fun tutorials and crafts. Hope everyone is having a fantastic 2015!! 

Stockings and Presents

This is the first year that Christmas actually means something to Jonah. He will be two and a half the day after Christmas and this holiday season has been just the best ever. To see the wonder in his little face when he sees a house lit up with Christmas lights.It's amazing. We pulled up to my parents house and he exclaimed in a high pitch little voice, "Ohhhh, Papa's lights are SO beauuutiful!!!" it totally made my Dad's day! :)

I have been making a point to do something special each week (go for a walk at dark to see the lights in our neighborhood, build our first gingerbread house together) to make the most of the holiday. Has this season always been so short?? It feels especially so now that he's growing and I want it to last and last.

We've been talking about the true meaning of Christmas with Jonah as much as possible. We've explained the Christmas story, read several books to him and are just trying to put the spirit of giving into his little mind. He's not so fond of it, really. It's pretty funny. We talk about giving presents to other little kids and he automatically says, "those toys are for me, Momma" and I gently remind him that they are not for him.

We adopted a 5 year old little boy named Josue for Christmas and picked out his presents carefully. I prayed over his gifts as I was wrapping. I know that sounds a bit silly but I just wanted to send extra blessings to him and his family this season. We are trying to teach Jonah in all the best ways about the JOY that comes from giving to others!! I am so thankful for my blessings big and small.

Along with giving to others- I've had the BEST time assembling Jonah's stocking stuffers. I have been thinking about it awhile now (nerd alert) and knew I wanted to give him fun, original toys and candy. I picked up the candy at Candylicious on West Alabama and most of the toys came from World Market. I was blown away by their fun toy section. So original! I can't wait to see Jonah's face when he tries Pop Rocks for the first time!! Also, if you squeeze the chicken a squishy egg (complete with yolk) pops out. It's the funniest! He's gonna love the chocolate tools, too.

Christmas is definitely for kids (okay, and Momma's too!)...

Happy Christmas, everyone!

Party like a Strickland: Jonah's first Christmas Party!

It's the most wonderful time of the year. Really, truly!! I've been on a blogging break mainly because I am filling my time with existing in our moments. Everyday moments. Cooking. Baking. Working. Crafting. Parking. (with Jonah, not with Jeremy. Ha!) Churchgoing. Festivaling it up. Who doesn't love a good festival?! Totally digging into this holiday season and making each moment count!!

I just wanted to pop in to share a few photos from this past Monday night. I hosted our first annual Christmas Party. I really plan to make this a tradition in our house! This year I invited a few of our friends over and we made salt dough ornaments, laughed, devoured tasty hot chocolate, chased the boys around our tiny apartment and had the best time ever. The boys had a blast and Jonah was completely zonked the next day. All of the fun wiped him out!

*The salt dough recipe can be found here.

And, on Sunday we headed down to Galveston to explore Dickens on The Strand, the annual Victorian Festival that the City of Galveston hosts each year. We had the best time shopping and trying the festival food. I stopped a lady passing by on the street and asked it she would snap our photo. I never do that, but I am SO glad I did!! I'll cherish this photo of us in such a fun moment-