We started MR in ballet this year. I haven’t watched a lot of her classes but she kind of is the ballet equivalent of the kid playing t-ball in the outfield picking flowers. But she is so stinking adorable though!
We made sure she had the basics: ballet shoes, leotard, leggings. But her bag situation was embarrassing. The only thing I could find was a beach bag that looks like a crab. It is orange and has huge eyes. While it is extremely cute and I love having MR take it to the beach, it just isn’t really a ballet bag.
I got a heat press for Christmas and the first thing I wanted to make was a new ballet bag for MR. I found an adorable ballerina SVG and got to work. MR and I made this bag together and she loves it. She takes it to class and places it in front of the mirror carefully so that everyone can see the ballerina. Adorable!
This year I really struggled to find a good gift for our daycare teachers. They really have done so much by adapting to the new way of teaching that homemade chocolate covered desserts just doesn’t seem enough during COVID. Obviously the best gift is money or a gift card but that seemed impersonal. I needed to come up with something to accompany the gift card and not something they have 100 of. And then the light bulb went off what about a fun face masks for them to wear at work that the kids would enjoy? Enter snowman masks! We will probably get snow in April, maybe even May so this mask could be used for many more months.
I don’t know about you but I love all of those fun beer and wine glasses with cute sayings. I am a very simple person where I don’t really use them myself but they are great personalized gifts. Something else you should know about me is that if something can’t go into the dishwasher, I will NEVER use it. But seriously, my dishes revolve around the ease of cleaning it in the dishwasher. Needless to say making my own cute beer and wine glasses meant that they need to be dishwasher safe. Here are two of the designs that we gave to my husband’s sister and brother-in-law for Christmas. What do you think? They seemed to like them.
Apply 2-3 coats of Mod Podge to vinyl. You can go onto the glass but it will leave a film over the glass. It is kind of noticeable but if you make it look nice then it is okay. I ended up making a rectangle so that it looked consistent.
As I have become busier in life with less time to myself I have discovered that I enjoy baking. And my kids love to join me which makes it even better. Although they probably just enjoy sampling the ingredients. I mean, I love baking chocolate chip cookies so I can eat the chocolate chips too!
My daughter loves wearing her apron when we bake and my son has been using my apron. He has no shame wearing pink! We will be baking and my daughter will all of a sudden yell “We forgot our aprons!” so we have to pull them out to continue. She is super cute.
For Christmas Santa brought him his own apron which I customized for him. Take a look!
One of the biggest money saving tips is planning my meals for the week! Every Sunday morning I sit down and figure out what we will be eating for the week. If I didn’t have a plan, there is no way I would cook anything during the week and we would just eat out! Okay really I still try to eat out several times a week but this makes it harder for me to skip a meal.
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Growing up we would have pepperoni bread all of the time. When I would play volleyball on the weekend, my mother would buy a loaf so I could eat it between games. For my bridal shower I received this recipe and I make it all of the time. Best part? You can put as much pepperoni and cheese as you want, yum!
The hardest part about making the bread is rolling the dough out. Think about it, if thats the worst part it has got to be quite easy! Once you get the dough rolled out, your just layer the pepperoni and then cheese. After rolling it up, you bake it. So easy!
Doesn’t that look delicious? It only takes 3 ingredients too!
See the recipe below for details.
I hope you enjoy! What is one of your recipes from childhood that you have fond memories of?
Using the Crock Pot is my new favorite kitchen appliance. Until I borrowed my Mother’s Crock Pot, I couldn’t make anything in it without burning dinner. Eric actually banned me from ever using it. And then I used hers and my entire world changed. This is by far my favorite recipe, I have to resist from making it every week!
These burritos are incredibly easy to make, it takes 5 mins to dump everything in before work and then its ready when you get home 8 hours later. What is even better is that even though you have to shred it, if you just stir the crock pot, it all falls apart! To me, this is like eating out. I think I might spend more time cleaning the crock pot than I do getting dinner together!
Doesn’t that look delicious? It only takes 3 ingredients too!
See the recipe below for details.
I hope you enjoy!
Crock Pot Chicken Burritos
Recipe by Levicky Landing
Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 8 hours
Total time: 8 hours 5 mins
Yield: 4 Servings
Ingredients
4 Chicken Breasts
Taco seasoning
Salsa
Tortilla Shells
Toppings of your choice: Sour Cream, Lettuce, Mexican Cheese
Directions
Place chicken on the bottom of the crock pot
Cover chicken with taco seasoning
Pour salsa to cover everything
Cook in crock pot for 8 hours
Shred chicken, you should be able to just stir and it will shred and mix itself
Make burrito out of crock pot contents and toppings
As part of fixing up the outside of our house, we got new house numbers. We were too afraid that they would break when we took them off the house so we spent $10 on new house numbers. But as always, after searching on Pinterest for ideas Eric and I just came up with our own idea. I will give Eric credit for this, it was mainly his idea.
When we were redoing the kitchen, the cupboard that goes above the microwave came with the wrong door. Instead of a sideways cabinet with double doors, it came as a vertical cabinet with a tall, skinny door. They just sent us the new cabinet door so Eric stashed the wrong one downstairs and put the new one up. Out of sight, out of mind for me.
As we were thinking about what to do with the house numbers, Eric went downstairs and grabbed the door and asked me if we could put it on there. I’m not going to lie, it took some convincing but now I’m in love!
Check out how the house numbers look on the house!
Growing up brings on lots of new experiences and celebrations. You are no longer just going to someone’s birthday party once a year. Now there are celebrations for marriage, babies, and new homes. I am sure there are many more but I am learning as I am going. One of the hardest gifts I have a hard time figuring out is what to get someone who just moved into a new home.
From now on I will always give this It’s A Wonderful Life themed house warming gift.
If you haven’t seen It’s A Wonderful Life yet then we can’t be friends. Okay we can but you need to watch it. My family watches the movie every Christmas Eve, it has gotten to the point where shush each other because everyone has their own favorite line that they say out loud during the movie.
When my husband married the family, he thought we were ridiculous. Let’s be honest, he still does but it is growing on him. I think he is starting to appreciate why it is my favorite holiday tradition.
Since this movie has been such a big part of my life growing up it seems only fitting that I give people a house warming gift like the one from the movie.
“Bread, that this house may never know hunger
Salt, that life may always have flavor,
Wine, that joy and prosperity may reign forever”
~It’s A Wonderful Life
What is even better is that it is super simple to put together. Without further ado, here is how to make it.
Read carefully because it is so easy you might miss a step!
Place the basket shred in the basket.
Place the bread, wine and salt nicely in the basket
Print the first picture on this post onto your card and write a nice sentiment inside.
Think you can do it? I do!
Wrap Up
I hope you enjoy giving this basket as much as I did. And don’t forget, if you haven’t seen It’s A Wonderful Lifemake sure you add that to your watch list!
Does your family have a tradition or movie that means a lot to you? What is your version of our family’s Christmas Eve tradition?
Before I let you go, make sure you take a look at these last few pictures!
It’s summer time!!! That means for 3 months we can be outside and enjoy the warm weather while we can. Yes I understand that when I state that it seems crazy that I still live in Cleveland but its home.
I have been making bucket lists lately and as I complete one I instantly create another in my mind and have a whole new list of things I want to do. Well, I just finished one now and now its time to create a bucket list for this summer. Here are the 10 things that I will be doing this summer, will you be joining me?
1. Attend A Baseball Game
I don’t think I have been to one in a few years. Progressive Field got a whole new bar section and has been updating it and I have yet to check it out! Eric tends to go with his friends so I just haven’t made it a point to go myself. But you better believe I will make this happen this summer and eat a ridiculous number of hot dogs for dollar dog night!
2. Participate in a 5K Race
Before you keep scrolling, I do not mean that you have to actually run the entire thing. If running isn’t your thing, find a fun race. My family participates in the Warrior Dash every year and there are lots of people that walk the entire course. If you can’t do an obstacle, no big deal you can just walk around it!
This is a great way to have fun, move a bit and support a good cause! Not to mention that when you finish, you feel great about yourself. I took this goal a little farther and I wanted to medal in my age group. This past weekend I took 2nd place for our company’s 5K race!
Warrior Dash 2015
3. Go On A Hike Or Bike Ride
Find some mountains or even a park nearby and go for a walk or a bike ride. Maybe there is a city nearby that you can bike around and explore the area for the day. The flowers are in bloom and the view will be beautiful no matter where you go. This will also be sure to beat your FitBit friends step count for the day! Don’t forget to put your FitBit on your shoe if you are biking for the day!
Put-In-Bay With My Parents 2015
4. Have A Picnic
I live in Cleveland so there are only so many days that you can be outside when it is nice and you don’t have to work. Take advantage of the beautiful weather and go to a park, a beach, or even your backyard and lay out a blank to have lunch on! You can either
My brother on our family vacation. I didn’t get permission before posting this first, I’m sure I will pay for this later!
5. Plant A Garden
We tried this last year and I think we might try it again. We might try to start small and just do a herb garden instead of a vegetable garden. Grab a pot and plant those veggies and/or herbs! When they are ready to be picked you will have a delicious, fresh cooked meal. It is always better when its your own garden! Get directions here for this beautiful herb garden.
6. Go To A Farmers Market
If your garden fails like mine probably will, head over to the local Farmers market. We can let the professionals handle the gardens and we can enjoy the fruits of their labor! The West Side Market in Cleveland is the best place to go in my opinion. Definitely a land mark in our city!
My friend and I at the Cleveland West Side Market
7. Go To A Flea Market
If you want to find that next upcycle project or try out the latest chalky paint trend, find your local flea market! I really want an old mirror or large picture frame so I will fight your for it if I see you at the Cleveland Flea market!
A water park has to be on the list of activities for a summer, its a given. If you can’t make it to the water park to ride some cool slides, go to your nearest beach or pool and relax! Sometimes relaxing is just what the doctor ordered.
Grilling out is perfect for the late night after work where you just want to enjoy what is left of the night. Turn on the grill, throw on some burgers or hot dogs and enjoy not wearing a sweater in the cold air conditioned at work.
For the Bon Fire, S’mores. Enough said!
10. Volunteer
Take some time and give back. You can go to the APL nearby and walk dogs or pick up trash on the highway. Find something that you enjoy while giving back to your community. Who knows, maybe it’ll be something that you will do regularly.
Hyland’s Summer Of Service Day painting a graffiti bridge
What is on your bucket list this summer? I look forward to hearing how all of your activities are going, be sure to share in the comments below!
