Gluten-Free/Grain-Free Eating {Kabobs}

  Hello once again!  Tonight I would like to introduce you to my latest friend, who makes last minute meals and "I don't know what to make tonight!" nights much better.
  This friend is the kabob.  I've always been a fan, but never so much as I am now.  They do take a little prep work, but not many dirty dishes are made (which is always a plus with me!).  Layton and I always tend to have the ingredients on hand as well and then I usually just roast a side to go with them.
  So, the other night we made just your basic chicken kabob.  I always make mine with bell pepper and onion, but the wonderful thing about them is you can just use whatever you have on hand.  We have done steak with pineapple before too, and it was probably my favorite.  :)

  Don't they look beautiful?!?!  My husband is getting to be quite a whiz at the grill.  :)

  This is our dinner completed.  Quick and fairly easy, considering it is a gluten-free and grain-free meal.  We had roasted asparagus and roasted/mashed cauliflower (also a favorite!) this time.  I've also done green beans or broccoli, sweet potatoes if you want a little starch.

  All-in-all a fairly easy meal with on hand ingredients.  We are starting to get the hang of this gluten-free stuff around here, by God's grace.  But on those nights when I really don't have it all together (because we all know that all of us have those nights) Chipotle is my NEW best friend!!!  ;)

  Have a blessed weekend, people!  And good cooking!

{Together}--The Joys of Married Life

  Layton and I went to our first bed and breakfast a week ago.  We so enjoyed it.  The bed and breakfast was in Grandview, TX on a 860 acre, working cattle ranch.

  We loved every minute of it.  Just a break in every day life.  A time to get away from all the craziness.

    Our room was so pretty!  They had rose petals on our bed and gave us complimentary champagne and chocolate covered strawberries.  :)  My absolute favorite part of the entire room... it had a claw foot tub!  It was wonderful!

  Here are the pictures of our room and bathroom.  It had an old-fashion toilet, beautiful hardwood floors, and a huge king sized bed with feather pillows.

  Along with breakfast we also got to go to dinner on the ranch.  They have a restaurant on the ranch as well and since it was Friday night they had a live band playing.  There was also a huge dance floor in the middle of the room and all these older couples out two-stepping and doing all sorts of fancy moves.  It was really cute... they all looked so happy together.

  They had a pool table in the dining room too, so Layton and I played a few games after dinner.

  It was a lot of fun and we really enjoyed our first experience at a bed & breakfast!  So much to be grateful for and so many joys in married life.  We are definitely blessed by the road God has planned for us and we just continue to take it one step at a time!  :)

 {Togetherness}

~Valentine's and Anniversaries~

  I know it has been a long time once again... life just never slows down, no matter what stage of life you are in.  Different stages just bring different complications, different things to keep you busy, and different things that "have" to get done.
  Meanwhile, through all of the craziness, Layton and I have celebrated an anniversary... not the anniversary of when we wed, but of when we got engaged.  He proposed 3 days before Valentine's so it should always be pretty easy to remember and brings a whole new meaning to Valentine's Day.
  We haven't celebrated big yet... that has to wait a few weeks, but we are apart of a young couples group and last night they had a Valentine's Dance and so we were able to celebrate that way for now.  :)

  We enjoyed dinner, the company, and the dancing.  One of the couples taught us all how to swing dance.  Great fun!  haha... but pretty funny as we were all trying to figure out what we were doing.  :)

  I hope everyone has a wonderful week!  I plan to spend my week focusing on God's gracious gift of giving me my wonderful husband.  Our journey was a rough one, but it has been wonderful to look back and see God's grace throughout our relationship and now to be married is marvelous!  God is good!

Another House Project-{table}-

  Well, remember that pinkish-purple, pepto bismol colored table?  It is finally finished being re-made.  It is made anew!  And I have to say, that I think I like it very much.  :)
  I found this table in Canton when I went with my mother and sister... my brother was taking pictures for one of the booths there so we decided to make a shopping day of it.  The table was $15, the paint was technically free (I got it from my mother.  But she got it for 50 cents.), and the labor was free ;).  Not bad for a new table.
  I had been looking for a small table just like this one everywhere.  I looked at Home Goods, World Market, and on the world wide web, but had no success.  There aren't very many tall, little tables out there I found, and the ones that are out there are around $100.  So you can imagine how happy I was to find this bargain.

  Here is the pepto bismol pink! How glad I was to be rid of it.  haha... I'm not a fan of pink and especially not this shade of pink.
  The funniest part about it is, the other day Layton and I were in Target and I saw a table this exact color on clearance... I understood why it was on clearance right away.  ;)

  To those of you that might like this shade of pink... I do not mean to offend.  We all have our colors we like.  I just tend to be an orange, blue, red, green, yellow person.

  And I have found that those that like the color orange the best tend to not like pink at all.  They just aren't very good friends. :)

Here is the new color... I also am a fan of the distressed style.

I love the look and what all you can do with it.

The casual, rustic, and practical aspects of it also appeal.

  We use the table now in our living room.  It sits in the corner by our stairs with the key bowl on it.  It also has the picture frame Joe gave us for Christmas on it with photos he took at our family vacation last October.

  I think the thing I liked best about this table was that it was so versatile.  For now it will go in our living room, but I don't really like furniture that can only be used for one purpose (or at least for the most part).

  I like that this table could eventually go in a bathroom, entry way, kitchen, or nursery.  Since we do not know what our future house will look like, it is hard for me to buy furniture for specific spots right now.  Though I do look forward to those days when you know exactly what you want for a certain spot and you go hunting for it.  :)

  This is the other project I worked on today.  My sweet sister Stephanie found this tack board for $4!

  I have it in my kitchen right now with aprons hanging on it and recently it has collected coupons and other odd papers, but now it will be a wonderful picture board.

~Enjoy your Wednesday.  Only two days till the weekend!

A Dallas Adventure...

   So, last Saturday Layton and I used some Christmas money we had gotten and went to the Dallas Aquarium.  It was so very fun!  We both enjoyed a day out together.  And we decided beforehand that we were going to take our time and not rush... just a relaxing day, so that was really nice.  :)
  First we went to Starbucks... Layton's idea.  :)

He got a vanilla spice latte because his throat was bothering him.  :-/

I got a White Mocha Frappe with toffee nut... So good!

It's by far my favorite.

   Then to the Aquarium we went... traffic wasn't too bad which was really nice and we got there rather quickly.  Though once we got got of our car we realized it was very good we were going to do an inside expedition... it was really cold out side and windy.

   As your walking in there are already animals which is fun.  We purchased tickets and then started our adventure through the rainforest.  It was pretty crowded which was a bit of a bummer, but not to bad.  All the exhibits were really fun.  There were monkeys, birds, turtles, fish, sharks, and so much more.

This guy was one of the free range birds and he had landed on a branch right above our heads.

Our camera does not do him justice... his colors were beautiful.

This guy was hilarious.  Layton and I laughed at him for a while.

They are tiny little monkeys and they move super fast.

And I loved his mustache... :)

At one point he even jumped onto the fence right in front of us.

This was taken in the main aquarium part...

He loved swimming on the glass.

The crazy part is he looked huge and I went to another aquarium one time and they said that the glass makes everything look 20% SMALLER!  Craziness.

Flamingos!  They were orange, not pink, which was interesting.

Afterward we went to the Dream Cafe.

It was suggested by Ben and Rhiannon and was pretty good.

They serve brunch and lunch, so Layton got pancakes and I got chicken enchiladas.

   We had a marvelous time and I would definitely say it is worth going to.  And it is always just fun to take a little road trip and do something you have never done before.  =D
   Now it is another weekend, starting tonight...
~Enjoy your loved ones and all the blessings God has given you!

Our First Christmas

   I know, it has been a while since Christmas, but we have been so busy that I am just now getting to this blog post.  :)

   We had a wonderful first Christmas.  And the best part to me was not the gifts or the decorations on the tree or the wonderful food, but the company... I could not stop thinking about the blessing of being married to this wonderful man.  Many of you do not know Layton and my's story, but if you are interested in knowing it, let me know and we can have coffee sometime.  There were many, many times that I thought Layton and I would never be married and then to be married and celebrating our first Christmas together was such a wonderful time.  A great time of reflection and gratitude.

   And then on top of all of that it is just fun to celebrate the birth of Christ with the people you love most.  :)

Upon Layton's request, I made chocolate chip waffles.

I also made homemade whip cream to go with them... so very yummy.  :)

Layton with his milk mustache...

He is in love with milk and would drink it constantly if I let him.  :)

Then we opened our HUGE stockings.....

I think we were both more excited to see the other person open theirs, though we were both curious as to what the other one got us.

I got Layton the new Kutless cd, A journal, Reese's pieces, mint M&Ms, white chocolate reese's, nutella snack, almond joys, scrabble titles (to play speed scrabble), and last but not least, Tim Hawkins tickets.  =D

Layton got me three candles, also Reese's pieces, A huge bag of coffee, truffles, burt's bees, Andes mints (my favorite), fuzzy socks, three sets of knitting needles, and last but not least, an iTouch.  =D

   We had a wonderful time and great fun.  Afterwards we went to my parents for dinner and fun. :)  I hope you all had a blessed Christmas and a wonderful New Year!

~Keep warm this cold, rainy day.  :)

Tis the Season

   Merry Christmas everyone!  It is just a little over two weeks away until Christmas...  :)
  Since it is Layton and I's first Christmas married I was afraid that we would have zero decorations.  Thankfully, my wonderful mother gave us some of her stuff, we were able to go get a little tree, and I knitted stockings for us to hang.  It has all gone together and ended up looking very festive.
  Here is a look into our Christmas decor this season...

Our Tree... He is short and fat and we love him very much.  :)

Ignore the color of the table (it is my next house project, hopefully).

This is on the corner by our stairs... we had leftover ornaments and then the silent night is from my sweet mama.

Our stockings!

They turned out just as I was hoping they would, though they are HUGE!  There is no way we will ever be able to fill them.  :)

A close up... Don't they look good?!?

Though I found out very quickly that L's are a lot easier to do than K's.

And then last, but not least... our snowmen.  :)

  Merry Christmas everyone!

Enjoy God's great gifts this season...