twelve|sunny.nine

[one]

The weather has been glorious all week! We’ve been reaching 80’s all week and Haidyn couldn’t be happier. She’s been wearing sandals, shorts and short sleeved shirts all week AND gets to play in the water! She’s in heaven everyday at school and pooped by the time her bedtime rolls around. Happy Haidyn means a happy Mama.

 I’ve also been having a little fun myself with my wardrobe choices. I no longer have to wear cardigans to cover up during the day. I can finally wear my blouses and bust out my wedges for work. Ah! I can’t even tell you how amazing it is not to wear flats to work.

[two]

The short week for me meant that I needed to work harder and have less time to recuperate while we attend all of our events planned for this week. It’s a week of celebrating the graduates this week! I attended a JROTC ceremony and we attended a high school graduation for a dear family friend. Needless to say, I cried at both occasions just thinking that my baby would some day go through the same thing. I know it’s a long ways away, but it’s still so sweet to think about it. I’m a baby I know. I’m so excited and proud of the teens that allowed us to celebrate with them on their big days!

[three]
I stumbled upon a list of Free/Frugal Summer things to do around Reno! You guys know that I am a sucker for anything to do that costs nothing or close to it. All of the events go throughout the summer and are so cool! I've already planned out most of our summer out with the tons of free events happening around time. Haidyn is going to be so excited when we attend everything. If you happen to be in the area and missed this amazing list please visit, here.

[four]

This will be my first time about talking about my faith on my blog, but I can’t help but not be thankful this week for him and what he’s blessed me with. I wake up every day so thankful for everything I have in my life and grateful for the future ahead of me. I try not to dwell on the negative things in my life since I know that they are just speed bumps I have to tackle head on. I’m staying positive and embracing the wonderful life that was given to me. I refuse to let someone’s negativity affect me or my family. I am blessed beyond belief. I firmly believe that we will always be okay, if we have faith in him. The quote in our home and the one we live by is “The Happiest People Don’t Have The Best Of Everything, They Just Make The Best Of Everything”.  My faith will always keep me and my family strong and positive.

Real Corn Cornbread

 The weather has been off lately, so we’ve been having a lot of warm dishes to counter it. Cornbread is always perfect match for any soups, chili or BBQ! I decided to whip up a batch of these and they did not disappoint. My husband loathes cornbread, but after giving this one a try he’s become a cornbread lover. The man ate 6 to himself; I think it’s safe to say they’re more than just tasty. We will definitely never go back to regular cornbread ever again. Thank goodness, I never keep cornmeal in our pantry or else we would’ve never found this recipe.  I tested out different variations in this recipe; plain, jalapeno cheddar and cheddar.  Now, you just can't resist can you?

INGREDIENTS

• 1 can of Whole Kernel Corn (15oz)
• 1½ cups flour
• ½ cup sugar
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• ½ cup milk
• 2 eggs
• ¼ cup softened butter
• ¼ cup honey 

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat the oven to 400°.
2. Mix all of the dry ingredients in one bowl and set aside.  
   
   
    
3. Combine all of the wet ingredients in another large bowl until well incorporated.  
   
   
   
   
   
4. Pour dry ingredients into wet batter and mix well.  
   
   
   
   
5. Line a cupcake pan with liners and fill each cup equally or 3/4 of the way full. You may also place the batter in a 8x8 baking dish to save time **  these will not rise much **
   
   
   

   

   i added cheese and jalapenos to some of the muffins for extra flavor!

6. Bake at 400° for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   These muffins paired great with our chili! 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

 

 

** Adapted from: Miranda Bee **

WEEK IN PICTURES| Memorial Weekend

We kicked off our 3 day weekend with a dinner we like to call the “Gilmore Girl Feast”. If you don’t know about the GG’s all you have to know is that they have an unhealthy appetite of eating really good yet very bad for you food for dinner. They don’t need home cooked meals to make them happy and neither did we Friday night.Haidyn and I baked a Strawberry Mango Jello Poke cake for the Saturday Campout before Waymon got home.  Waymon picked up our dinner and drinks while Haidyn and I picked out movies for the everyone; Paddington, Selma and The Cobbler.

 

 We didn’t get to watch the movies until Saturday Morning, but we sure did have fun eating everything in front of us. There were no leftovers, no food wasted and Haidyn ate almost an entire double cheeseburger to herself. We were very proud parents. Our kid was prancing around our living room with her food in hand, happily dancing I might add. And yes, we ate on the floor picnic style in our living room. Haidyn was no longer sad about her “owee” from school. 

 We woke up Saturday morning groggy from our GG feast, but ready to conquer the day! All of that excitement lasted until we noticed that it was raining outside. I  started my bow board for Haidyn so that I could make any adjustments if needed. Once Haidyn woke up, we whipped up an easy breakfast, cleaned and popped in a movie before Grandma Tracey’s visit. Haidyn was eager to show Grandma how fast she can walk now. Seriously, the kid can almost run with her stride. Nonetheless, we were proud of her and just as excited as she was. Grandma dropped of some great books for Haidyn to read through the weekend too! Of course, her favorite was the alphabet book. 

After Grandma left, we binged watched all of the redbox movies. Haidyn could only sit through some of Paddington before napping. Waymon even got a little nap too when watching Selma. We watched all of the movies before packing up to head over to get together with the family for our family campout. 

 Everyone was happy to see Haidyn and we were so excited to see everyone. We were welcomed with lots and lots of food. Such good food! Haidyn ate a little as she was still busy greeting everyone and exploring. She got to spend lot of time with her Papa Lolo as we got to spend time with my cousins. It was great catching up with everyone and laughing over Pitch Perfect and the fact that our parents were putting more and more tents up in the backyard then needed. We left before Haidyn’s bedtime to head home so that we could put her down. We didn’t want another bedtime meltdown from her. 

smores cupcake before devouring

 
 Waymon and I ended the night watching a “scary” movie; the taking of Deborah Logan. I will say it got me good during some jumpy parts and I cuddled with Waymon way to much to overcompensate for me being scared, but it wasn’t too bad after it was all done. It was more of an “erry” scary rather than an actually scary. 

Sunday came along and we basically redid our Saturday all over again. It was finally beautiful outside. There was sun and not a drop of rain! We celebrated the latter with a big breakfast of crepes, eggs and turkey bacon!  We take our weekend breakfasts pretty seriously. We rarely eat something small.

 

 

i finally moved sass' bed to the window and she stayed there all weekend.

After cleaning up the house a little more, I went off to have tea with a friend to catch up. It was great catching up with her. I rarely, if ever, go out with my friends because of our busy schedule but it’s so nice to do so when we have the time. By the way, if you’re in Reno please go to Too Soul Tea Co. it’s seriously too good. Any who, after my lunch time tea I picked up the babes to head over to the park to meet up with our friends for a family day date.

  We had a family picnic while we waited for our friends to head over to the park. Haidyn loves hanging out being a big girl while we’re out and about. She sat quietly while she ate her chips and little sandwich as she people watched. Once we were done with our lunch, we met up with our friends to have our girls play.

 

 

 

and yes they're always so cute like this [:

 They were more interested in roaming the playgrounds rather than each other, but it was nice to see their friendship form just a little bit. Haidyn hasn’t been around kids her own age, since the girls at her school are about 2 years older than her but she did try . The girls did their own thing as we all caught up with each other’s lives as parents .  We headed to the store to do some grocery shopping and headed home shortly after. Waymon and I called it a night as we surrendered to Netflix to watch Turtle Tales!

 

 

 

excited for turtle tales!

 

Monday was our day that we had no intentions of acknowledging the outside world. It began to be raining and stormy where we were so we ended up making another big breakfast, reading books and enjoying a movie marathon! I finally got to watch Kurt Cobain’s documentary and we were all in heaven. Haidyn loves Nirvana, if you didn’t know so she was jammin to all her boys! She didn’t even nap so that she wouldn’t miss Kurt. We proceeded to watch other movies such as; The Sixth Sense, This is Where I Leave You, Tangled, Big Hero 6, 8 mile, The Other Woman and Wayward Pines ( not a movie, but such a good series already!) Seriously, we binge watched everything and had no regrets about it. We never have lazy days, so it was nice to actually just spend time together. I cooked up some turkey cheeseburger chili for dinner and we sat once again in the living to eat dinner to end our wonderful weekend together.

yes this is the face i wake up to [:

 

 

Thank you for all those who have served time for our great nation as well as those who are currently still serving. Without you, my family wouldn’t be able to have such great weekends like these.