Tasty Tuesday - Chili

Since it's cold weather...thought I would share the chili recipe I grew up with. Here are the ingredients:

• 2-3 cans Tomato sauce
• 2 cans Chili beans
  
• ground beef (cooked)
  
• chili powder

You can double the ingredients to make extra to share or freeze.

I'm not a huge chunky chili kinda girl....so my mom would always blend the beans up a little which made it more of a smoother texture. So yep..you just pour the beans in the blender as you see below and blend it up to your desired texture.


Put it all in a pot on the stove or crock pot and heat it up. We have always put Frito chips and cheese in our chili. Makes for a good meal during the cold weather season and it freezes well.

Family Fun

We just got back from our family trip to Florida to visit my parents. We had a great time. Abby (my sister) and her family live in Baton Rouge, we live in Birmingham and my parents live in Florida (with my brother, Russ). We get to see each other a few times a year but it's always tricky to get ALL of us together in the same place. So needless to say, this weekend was a little crazy with three little ones running and rolling around everywhere but it was so much fun and we all loved every second of it.

WARNING: lots of pics to come...

We all felt like this was a perfect picture to represent our weekend. Can't help but laugh at this picture and everybody "trying" to get set up.


Justin, Briggs and I got there a day early. These are two happy grandparents...holding their Christmas present from Briggs...an ornament with his handprint on it.


This was day 2. Briggs and Brooks were trying to figure each other out. It was so cute seeing them play together.


Briggs wasn't too happy with Brooks..haha


Their favorite thing to do all weekend was roll on the floor together.


Our last trip to the beach in October wasn't too successful. We learned from that trip and brought the strollers for the babies which worked out really good. As you can see...they are happy.


Briggs and Uncle Russ hanging out


This was Cade's first trip to the beach. He liked the sand...just not the water (he ran away from the water crying).


And here is Briggs...I know, I know...he is getting so big. And yes that's him sitting up all by himself. I have to be close by b/c he can only hold it 10-20 seconds but it's long enough to get a cute picture.


We tried getting a good picture of the babies..but Brooks didn't like how the sand felt...so this was the best we could do.


Rah-Rah and Abby's babies

Uncle Justin and Cade doing work on the computer (and Ipad...Cade can work that thing better than I can...that's not a joke)


We got the boys matching outfits


HILARIOUS...it looks like he is wearing a mini Santa hat..but it's really antlers with a Santa hat....gotta look close.

And here are two very happy grandparents (Rah-Rah and Poppa)


Finally...the group shot.


It was a really fun weekend. I think everybody is pooped since we have been home but the best tired you can be :) I miss everybody already!

Christmas Decorations

Anybody heard of pinterest...I might have posted about it before on here...hehe. I'm not completely obsessed with pinterest or anything, but it has inspired some new projects around the Poland household.

I was looking for some fun, inexpensive stuff to do around our house for Christmas decorations. In our dining room we have this light that hangs over our table.


All I did was use some Christmas ornaments that I already had and bought two rolls of ribbon (I think was under $2 each) and tied them on the chandelier. A very easy way to change a normal looking light to a festive decoration in your house. (Click here to see original picture)



To hang our Christmas cards this year, I was inspired by this picture. I changed it up a little and got some lights in the shape of snowflakes (only because they didn't have the normal looking lights) and hung them on the wall (I think it was around $2 for the strand of lights). I used clothes pins we already have to attach the cards to our string of lights. We LOVE getting Christmas cards of our friends and family..hint hint ;)

Seriously it is one of our favorite times of year and it's a great way to see how our friends lives are growing and changing. We get to watch our kids grow up and get an update on how things are going. So we love displaying all those special people in our lives to remind us of how blessed we are.

Christmas Party

It's Christmas time...to get ourselves in the spirit...we started our season with celebrating at Justin's work Christmas party. Thought I would throw a couple pics on here of us all geared up for the big night.



You might be saying to yourself..where is Briggs. Well, no babies allowed at this event. We had our first paid babysitter (our friend Lindsey). I told her, this is probably the easiest babysitting job she will ever have. Briggs was literally awake 30 minutes before she put him down to sleep. She just got to chill watching tv the whole time (sorry yall..I forgot to take a picture b/c I was in a rush getting out the door).


And here is one of our best friends, Celeste and her husband David. You might be thinking...I think I have seen these people before. Does this ring a bell...yep these are the people we left our child with for 12 HOURS when we went to the Alabama/LSU football game. David and Justin work for the same engineering firm which was a treat to get to attend the party together. And thankfully they were there b/c Justin was hired (yes, that's right, got paid and all) to be the photographer for his work Christmas party. Anyway, needless to say, I would have been hanging out solo the whole night if it hadn't been for these two smiling faces. Secretly...I think that may have been one of their deciding factors for coming to the party...they had pity on me having to be by myself.


And here are Celeste and myself smiling for the hot cute photographer :)


And last but not least...I did forget to take a picture of Briggs with his babysitter...but she was a GREAT BABYSITTER. I got this picture a few minutes after I arrived at the party. So sweet! I think I'm going to add one requirement to the babysitter list...must have photo and video documentation capabilities. I mean how awesome is that when you are off somewhere and get a precious picture like this one.

Tasty Tuesday - Corn Dip

This is a recipe that I always get requests for during football season and is SO EASY to make.

Ingredients:
two cans of corn (can be any kind, but I use white and gold), drained
1 can rotel (mild or your preference), drained
1 8oz cream cheese (cut into cubes and then place on top of the corn)
Lightly sprinkle with garlic salt

Heat in oven at 350 for 20-30 minutes, until the cream cheese is melted. Stir and serve warm with your choice of chips or crackers

jewelry hanger

Anybody out there discovered pinterest yet?...I love it! I've gotten so many ideas from it which is where I was inspired for my latest project. Here is what gave me the idea and then I just did my own version of it at home.

I first started with a frame from Hobby Lobby..half price of course. And just a tip...if you have a smart phone, they do accept their 40% off coupon (online...click here) directly from your phone if you pull it up and show it at the register.

All you need for this project are the items pictured below...

• a frame without a back
• a roll of screen (got that from Lowe's)
• staple gun (extra staples)
• wire cutters

And then you cut the screen the size of the frame..I left a little extra on the sides so I could staple it easily and then trimmed the extra when I was done.


Use the staple gun to staple the screen onto the frame, like so...


The frame I purchased didn't have any brackets or anything to hang it with. So, I got my hunky handyman husband to drill holes in the back for the nails to go in when I (he) hung it.


And then I wanted to show a size scale of my finished product. This is Briggs 5 1/2 months old...so as you can see...the frame is pretty large. Isn't that baby cute! Of course, you could always do something smaller or a couple small frames...I just opted for a larger one.


And here is my finished product...


I'm really pleased with the finished product. It's a cute way to display your earrings and makes it easier to use what you have, when you can see it better. More to come from these DIY projects. I'm working on a necklace hanger now...can't wait to share that one..gonna be cute!

6 month pics

I have had so many requests for this post...so here it is

Who does Briggs look like? I don't think it's too much of a question from these pics...but curious what yall think.

Justin @ 6 months



Briggs @ 6 months...he has the same facial expression as Justin...does that count for anything :)



Iris @ 6 months (Sorry for the poor quality. My mom has all my pics in a frame on the wall so she had to send this to me via text...but you get the idea)