Smokey Cheddar Cheese & Olive Balls

Hey guys! I have a pretty simple appetizer recipe to share today! I made these for Christmas day, but they would be just as good for any New Year celebrations! 

I adapted the recipe from a recipe out of The Williamsburg Cookbook: Traditional and contemporary recipes adapted from the taverns and inns of Colonial Williamsburg. I visited Williamsburg a few years back and loved it! I'm so glad I own this cookbook. I randomly found it at an antique shop here in town.

This is the only picture I was able to take before they were devoured!

Their recipe calls for:

1/4 Pound cheddar cheese

1/4 cup butter

1/4 teaspoon paprika

3/4 cup all purpose flour

36-40 stuffed Spanish olives, drained

What I used (I also doubled the recipe!):

2 cups shredded smoked cheddar cheese

1/2 cup butter

1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon milk

70-80 large Spanish olive halves, drained (I had huge olives from Costco, so I just cut them in half)

Here's what I did:

1. Put my cheese, paprika, and room temp butter in my mixer. Mixed until smooth.

2. Slowly added the flour. If you find that the dough is too dry, add a bit of milk.

3. Taking teaspoon sized scoops of the dough, I flattened it in my hand and then rolled it around an olive half. Placed it on a greased cookie sheet.

4. Once all of the olives were rolled, I put the cookie sheet in a 375 degree oven for about 20 minutes, or until they start to get a golden color.

These little babies are best right out of the oven, but can last a couple of days in the fridge. You can also make them ahead and freeze them (un-baked) and then put them in the oven for about 30 minutes straight out of the freezer.

And there you have it! I will say, rolling all the olives in the dough is a little time consuming, but it's totally worth it! Hope you enjoy.

I hope that you all had a blessed Christmas!

Family Christmas Pictures 2014: Kayla

Good Morning! Can you believe there are only 3 days until Christmas? I love this time of the year! It is so beautiful outside as the seasons change, and it is great time to get the family together and take that yearly family Christmas picture. Perhaps you're waiting til the last minute, but I'm guessing most of you have sent your your family Christmas picture/greeting cards (if that's something you do). We took our pictures the weekend before Thanksgiving. We rarely get the chance to take pictures of the whole family all together, so I was excited we got a few good pictures. It is crazy how challenging it can be to get a decent picture of everyone. Kenzie had her work cut out for her, to try and get everyone's attention, and us all smiling at the same time. It is a big different to go from one kid to two, in terms of taking pictures. Haha. Anyway, I was happy with how they turned out, and I thought it would be fun to share them with you all! I always enjoy looking up picture ideas for family pictures on pinterest. Here you go!

And I just have to share this one of Simon and cousin Ben, the bestest little buddies!

Did you share family Christmas pictures on your website or blog? I'd love to see them, leave a comment below :)

DIY "Be Adventurous" Nursery Art

I was looking to come up with a few more things to hang in Simon's nursery, but nursery art from the store can be SO expensive. Which is when I decided to come up with this easy and cute DIY nursery art. It isn't perfect, but I love how it turned out and it was fun to make!

Supplies:

-One black poster board (the thicker hard board kind) ($2.00)

-White chalkboard marker (Already had)

- Two frames ($2.00/each)

-Box cutter (or something to cut the black poster board) (already had)

Depending on what size frame you use, cut your board to that size. Using the white chalkboard marker write out your words, and draw your design (I used pencil for this first). Put the board in the frame. There wasn't enough room for the board and the glass in my frames, so I just took the glass out. 

 That's it! Easy, and inexpensive nursery art, made by YOU! Thank you so much for taking the time to stop by our blog. We appreciate all of our readers, and are so grateful to you. If this is your first time to our blog feel free to follow along with us on FACEBOOK, PINTEREST, TWITTER, OR INSTAGRAM (KAYLA) (KENZIE)

Benjamin's 5 Month Update

Hello everyone! It's time to do a little update for Benjamin. He's actually 5 months and 1 week old now, but oh well! Better late than never, right? I feel like Ben is growing up so quickly that I need to document everything before I forget. These blog posts help me do that. Ben is giving us the thumbs up, so let's get started!

We haven't had an appointment since Ben's 4 month check up, so I don't have any new stats for him. He will go back at 6 months. I do know that he is growing out of some of his 6 month clothing, but is mostly wearing 6-9 months. I feel like he has been in his 6 month clothing for a while now, so maybe he is slowing down growth wise- which is normal since he started out pretty big!

Ben is still breastfeeding, but has also started eating baby food. He is a champ! He was opening his mouth for the spoon the first time I made rice cereal, and now loves eating all kinds of baby food. He usually finishes a whole thing of baby food, so he is a hearty eater just like his daddy! So far, his favorites are sweet potatoes, bananas, and prunes. The first whole baby food he finished was prunes and it sure helped get things moving, if yah know what I mean. 

As for other milestones, not much new. He is rolling all over the place and it looks like he is trying to crawl, but hasn't come close yet. He is grabbing more things, like people's glasses off their face. Toys have become much more interesting to him, and he stays occupied with them for much longer periods of time. He also likes to hit the table or your hands, which is adorable. He is still talking a bunch, and is making new and different sounds. He has learned that coughing gets him attention, so he now does the most precious fake cough.

Ben attended his first wedding! My niece was married this last weekend, and we decided to bring Ben along. Thankfully, he was a very well behaved boy. The only time he fussed was when we were trying to put him down for a little nap. Once he had his snooze, he was good to go for the rest of the event! Also, my niece said people kept coming up to her after the wedding telling her how cute Ben was. Always a nice thing to hear!

The only thing we are really struggling with lately is Ben fighting sleep. He will scream and scream to keep himself awake. He was screaming so bad the other night that he burst a blood vessel in his left eye! Let me know if you guys have any tips, I would greatly appreciate it! 

I think that's it! We are super excited for Ben's first Christmas, even though we know he won't remember or "get" what's going on. It will be fun for us as first time parents! We also wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas!

Lots of love & talk to you all soon!

Christmas Decorating + Kid's Festive Breakfast Shenanigans

We were busy getting into the Christmas spirit at our house this past weekend. Daniel went out and picked out our tree, then Addie and I decorated it. She didn't quite grasp the whole hanging ornaments on the branches, and more so just plopped them on the tree, but it was cute to see her try. I also hung our stockings and set out a few more decorations. 

We don't have an actual fireplace, so I hung them on our DIY Apple crate bookshelf!

My little Christmas decorating helper wearing her 

"Bedhead, graphic tee, sippy cup, LET'S DO THIS!" Tee from Shop Jumping Jack

We decided to make some Christmas breakfast, too! Here is what we came up with...

We had fun making rudolf/reindeer pancakes the other morning! They are super easy to make and festive, too! I just used frozen mini pancakes, cooked bacon, decorative candy eyeballs, and cut up a strawberry for Rudolph's nose! They turned out pretty cute.

We made a little pancake snowman, too. For him we used frozen pancakes, bacon for arms, decorative candy eyeballs, whipped cream for snow and a scarf, a strawberry for a hat, and chocolate chips for buttons!

I have seen so many other creative breakfast ideas on pinterest, I just never remember to try them out. Not to mention, its usually early, and im not much of a morning person! Haha. Thanks for stopping by! Do you and your family have any particular Christmas decorating traditions? I'd love to hear about them, comment below :)

FREE Frozen Birthday Party Invitations and Menu + Ideas and Inspiration

Adeline turned two years old at the end of November, and I've known for a couple months now that it would have to be a Frozen themed party! She, like most young girls her age, just LOVES everything olaf, anna, sven, and elsa related. I have been pinning things on our Party Board on pinterest, which is where I got most of my inspiration. However, I decided to give a few FREEBIES to you all!! I made Adeline's invitations and decided to give you the images, also a free menu printable! They will be at the end of the post, so keep reading, but first here is some other Frozen party inspiration all from Addie's party!

The perfectly IMPERFECT cake I made! Lol

 

 

And here are the TWO FREEBIES I promised!!

CLICK HERE to download FREE Frozen Party Menu Printable

CLICK HERE to download Frozen Party Invitation Template

(Just open the image in PicMonkey - and add all of the information you'd like to have on your invitation - save the file - then print! I printed them out as 4x6's from Walgreen's)

Here is Adeline's example...

 That's all for now! Please let me know what you think and if you decide to download either of these, I would LOVE to hear from you! :)

3 Ingredient Christmas Treats

Hello everyone! I've been trying to get ahead of the game and get a lot of my Christmas gifts done. We decided to try to make our own food gifts this year, and it seemed like a great idea at the time! I soon realized how much I would need to make for 8-10 people! I started searching for things to make with as few ingredients as possible! So far, I've only made one- Pretzel Hugs! I will also include some other recipes I found.

Pretzel Hugs

Ingredients:

-Small Pretzels (either square or traditional)

-Hershey Hugs kisses, or any other kind you like!

-M&Ms

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees.

2. Line a baking sheet with either parchment paper or greased foil.

3. Lay out the pretzels.

4. Place a kiss on top of each pretzel.

5. Put in the oven for about 5 min, the chocolate will be shiny and a bit melted. Don't let it get too melty! I did this on my first batch and had to suffer through eating them all to hide the evidence.

6. Gently press an M&M on top of the kiss, helping to spread the chocolate evenly over the pretzel.

7. Put in the refrigerator for 5-10 min to cool.

And now onto some other yummy looking 3 Ingredient recipes to try out for the holidays!

Mint Oreo Truffles by Sally's Baking Addiction

Cookies & Creme Fudge by Hidden Ponies

Shortbread Cookies by Eugenie Kitchen

Peanut Butter Fudge by Our Thrifty Ideas

Lemon Cookies by Somewhat Simple

Fluffernutter Cookies by Picky-Palate

Let me know if you try any of these recipes out! Also, if you have any easy recipes for treats, post them in the comments! Have a great rest of your weekend,