Christmas Card Time!!!

I love getting a great deal and I love Shutterfly, with this great offer I am getting both. Last year, Justin and I sent out Chirstmas cards for the first time, after looking all over for the best card I finially found just what I was looking for at Shutterfly.
Look at this great offer from Shutterfly, They are doing a promotion for bloggers! I loved the Christmas cards I ordered from Shutterfly last year, so when I started thinking about this year card Shutterfly was the only place I looked.
Shutterfly always has the cutest cards! I've attached some of our favorite things, including cards! This card looks like the one we orderd last year. I also really like this one and this one. Shutterfly also has the best gift ideas for everyone on your list. Our favorites are the calendars and photo books.


If you already got your Christmas cards, Shutterfly has cute cards for birthdays, moving announcements, etc. Check them out here. Also, if you are a fellow blogger and want to see more information on this amazing offer, click here!

J&A Designs

Check out this site J&A Designs.


These are friends of mine who are making handmade home accessories. They are just starting out but have been working hard to get a good inventory ready for Christmas shoppers. If you see something you like but the colors are not what you are looking for they can customize for you. I can tell you that these two are perfectionist so your products will be well made and will look great.
They just launched an online store click here to go right to it. Check out all of their wonderful products. They have great one of a kind frames, really cute magnetic boards, and cute initials

You can shop their store by clicking the link on the web site, or find them on facebook at J&A Designs.



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Book Review: Redeeming Love

This is my first book review (well I guess that is what you could call it). So here I go!

Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers was one of the 12 books I got at the MC book Bazaar. To read about that click here. It was one of the first books I picked up at the book bazaar. It was also the first of the 12 books I read.

Anytime anyone saw I was reading Redeeming Love they would tell me that it was the best book ever. Friends have encouraged me to read this book for some time, but I had so many other books I wanted to read, plus I didn't have the book. Let me just say that I am not the biggest fan of Christian novels. I think it is because most of them are geared toward teenagers, or the setting is in the early 1900's or late 1800's. I personally like books that are more current, and will keep my attention. If I were completely honest I would say I like "chick books." You know what I am talking about - something set in NYC, or some other major city where the main character faces some big dilemma that always works out for the best. That is not to say I only read chick books, those are just the books that I gravitate toward.

I was a little nervous when I first started reading this book because it is not something I normally read. I knew it had to be good when Christians and non-Christians told me it was a great book.

Redeeming Love is a historical romance novel set in the 1850s Gold Rush in California. The story is inspired by the book of Hosea from the Bible. Its central theme is to portray the redeeming love of God towards sinners.

I will not be giving anything away by saying that we can do nothing that will stop God from wanting to know us as His children. This book took the story of Hosea and made it personal. It tells a story that helps all readers more clearly see how the sin in our lives can keep us from truly knowing the love of Christ.

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone wanting a good love story with a deeper meaning behind it.

Happy Halloween!!

I know I am a little late posting about our Halloween events, but better late than never, right? Our Halloween weekend was really busy but really fun. I am going to let the pictures speak for themselves, but I want to give a little background. I had to come up with three different costumes this year. One for my Bunko group, another for a Halloween/Birthday party, and the last for a college small group bowling party.

I started the Halloween festivities off with a Halloween themed Bunko night. In attendance that night we had two cowboys, a bee, Hello Kitty, two doctors, Alice in Wonderland, an old lady, Mother Christmas, a spider web (me), a Stepford wife, and a spooky teacher. We had a great time and ended the night eating some really good ghost cake.



While I was at Bunko, Justin worked on our pumpkin. Last year Justin wowed me with the Southern Miss pumpkin. I was very impressed!! This year we thought long and hard about what our pumpkin should look like. We could not think of anything quite as good as last year but Justin did you a great job carving the spooky house on this years pumpkin.

This is the pumpkin that Justin carved for us last year.

This years pumpkin, bats and a scary house.

We had a Halloween/Birthday party on Saturday night, unofficially dubbed Birthoween. It was really run. We all dressed up, carved pumpkins, had cake, and watched Ghostbusters. Justin went as Steve Jobs and I went as Elle Woods.

If you didn't guess it Justin carved the Apple logo. The pumpkin that won was the Fleur De Lis. I guess there was a lot of Saints fan at the party and not as many Apple fans.

The silly string finally came out.

Singing to the Birthday girl!!

I love this pic because all the pumpkins are lined up in front of the garage.

Of, course I had to dress Jack up for Halloween. He is just too cute to not. Last year Jack was a Jack-O-Lantern, this year he was Turtle. I don't think he liked being the custom. I made him wear it all night (well not the hat but the shell). He is just too cute.


To end the Halloween weekend we had a college small group bowling party. Not only did they ask us to come dressed up, but they asked us to dress as a group. I went to Google for inspiration and found the perfect idea - we would dress up as Tetris pieces. Justin and I gathered all the materials and invited the group over on Saturday to make the costumes. I think they turned out great. We had a great time bowling with all the other small groups. I think our costumes were the best (I am not biased).

Another small group leader, oh and by the way this is not his costume. He really dresses like this.
Beth Ann showing off her bowling skills.

Sweet Lyndsey, AKA Tinker Bell!!

Happy Fall Y'all!

YEA.... It's Fall!!


YEA.... It's Fall!!

The weather is finally changing and now I feel like Fall is really here. I have to say that Fall is my favorite time of the year. I love the colder weather, the smells of fall - spiced pumpkin, cider, and fires burning, love getting out my crock pot and cooking chili and roast and tomato soup and grilled cheese. I also love tights, boots, scarfs, and hats, all things that keep me warm during the fall. With all of that said, I think I love decorating my house for the fall the most.

I try to keep my decor for Halloween and Thanksgiving the same. We of course carve a pumpkin and it goes out on the front porch, but that is just about all of the Halloween decor I put out. Instead, I fill my tables with small pumpkins, gourds and some foliage. I do replace my Jack-O-Lantern with a cute scarecrow.

I hope you enjoy the decor I put up this year.

This is a new addition. I saw this at a gift shop when I was with my mom a few weekends ago. I thought it was really cute. I know our mail box needs a little work but that will have to come later.

My front porch!

I hope you enjoyed the pictures. I will be blogging about our Halloween weekend later this week so keep your eye open for the cutest turtle ever...

Garden Vegetable Chicken Skillet

Garden Vegetable and Chicken Skillet

Photo by: Taste of Home

I normally don't blog about recipes but after last nights meal, that might change. On the menu last night at the Garcia's was Garden Vegetable and Chicken Skillet. I found this recipe in my Simple and Delicious magazine. On Sunday I was looking through the 6 month old magazine for some dinner ideas and ran across it. I deiced it was time to give it a try.

I chopped all the vegetables a head of time because Wednesday nights are really hard to get dinner on the table before we leave for church. What I really love about this recipe is that you are not limited to the list of vegetables given. I added yellow peppers to the mix and a few more carrots. Next time I am going to add more veggies to the mix . Also if you wanted to make it a little more heart healthy you could substitute olive oil instead of the butter.

Garden Vegetable and Chicken Skillet

1-1/2 lbs. boneless chicken, cut into cubes
1 medium yellow summer squash, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
1 medium carrot, chopped
2 Tbsp. butter
3 cups fresh baby spinach
1 garlic clove, minced
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. dried thyme
1/4 tsp. pepper
1 cup uncooked instant brown rice
1-1/4 cups water
1 Tbsp. lemon juice

In a large skillet, saute the chicken, squash, onion, and carrot in butter for 5-6 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink; drain. Add the spinach, garlic, salt, thyme, and pepper; cook for another 2 minutes.

Stir in rice and water, Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 10-15 minutes or until rice is tender. Stir in lemon juice.


This is a must try meal. Let me know what you think!

DIY Art Project

The last time we were at Ikea we picked up these white frames for $2.99. I wanted them to go in our almost finished guest bath. Click here for some before and afters. It's still not done, we have a few minor things to do before it is completed.
Justin had a great idea to paint a really cool skyline on them, however the painting didn't turn out like Justin had hoped because the frame was so small. We scrapped that idea and starting brainstorming something new. While I was shopping at Hobby Lobby I came across some really pretty scrap paper that I thought might look good in the frames. I grabbed the paper on sale for only $1.00 for all three sheets. I measured and cut my paper and put them into the frames. For only $10.00 I have the perfect piece of art for our guest bathroom.

What is so great about this artwork is that when I am ready for a change I only need to get new paper. I love this because I like to change things up every once in a while.