Lauren Darlings Giveaway!!!!

Happy Wednesday y'all! I have a big treat for you today...a holiday giveaway!! Miss Lauren from open [heart] window is giving away a customized, hand painted sign from her adorable etsy shop, laurendarlings. 

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Hey new friends, I'm Lauren. It's the season of giving and that's exactly why I'm here.

I am delighted to offer a chance for one lucky reader to win a sign from laurendarlings. 

This is my new shop, and I mean really new. 

It's just over a month old and I create hand painted wooden signs, that I often have a hard time parting with myself. 

Do you ever see a quote (on Pinterest, cause we are all addicted to that right) that you would love hanging in your home? 

Got an inside joke at your house or a favorite family saying?

Need a personalized baby shower or wedding gift.

Then look no further. I'm your gal. I've got signs waiting for your order. 

I absolutely love creating EXACTLY what YOU want. 
That's why my shop doesn't have TONS of items.

I am not requiring you to follow my blog - open [heart] window but if you want to check it out, come on over. All I am asking if you are the lucky winner, that you will feature your new sign on your blog or tweet about your win. Don't worry, I won't hunt you down if you don't but I would appreciate it.

For those non-winners or Christmas shoppers you can request your custom item over at the shop or email me larn.levy@gmail.com. I will be running discounts through the month of December so stay tuned. 

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Isn't Lauren so talented! Are you already thinking about what you'd want on your sign??

For Entry (required):

Visit Lauren's etsy shop and leave a comment letting me know what you'd want on your sign! Bible verse, silly quote, your last name with wedding date?

For extra entries (leave a separate comment for each):

Follow Lauren on Twitter

Follow me on Twitter

Tweet about the giveaway

Follow Laurens blog

Goodluck!! 

Giveaway will close  Tuesday Dec. 6th at 12p CST & winner will be announced shortly after.

Felt bow tutorial

I have been a crafty lady lately and today I am sharing an adorable, easy craft with you. All you need is a little felt (and I mean a LITTLE, scraps is fine!), fabric scissors, and hot glue. 

Now for a little picture step-by-step

(please excuse my frizzy hair)

Thank you to Emily for posting this tutorial! 

I prefer the weeeekends

(Will Ferrell anyone?)

This weekend was amazing. Jon and I went to my parents lakehouse for 2 nights with the fam. You may be asking what the heck do you do at a lakehouse during the wintertime but that's why it was so fun...we relaxed! We watched lots of football, played games, shopped the Wal Mart in town and my sisters and I did lots of crafts (I can't share...the gifts may be for you!). James had a friend with him and our family friends who have a house a few minutes away hung out with us. The game of the weekend was Loaded Questions. If you're a personal friend of mine, you've probably played! One person asks a question, "what was your favorite thing about Thanksgiving", "if you could name your own professional team, what would it be?", etc. Everyone else answers on a piece of paper and passes their answer to the question-askers right. That person reads the answers and the question-asker guesses who said what. It is pee-your-pants funny. 

Here are some shots from the weekend

The boys digging a giant hole (recliners and all!)

Athena (my fur-niece) the model dog

There was a lot of this this weekend. Ernie seriously never stops!

Tired boy...

War Eagle!! My dad's bff is Lutzenkirchen's (#43) dad and we grew up with their family. Despite the loss, go Auburn! My parents and sister even went to the National Championship last year :-)

The burn ban is FINALLY lifted! yay! Jon and the boys made an awesome fire and we cozied up to make smores. Jon has an obsession with coconut marshmallows that I am just now finding out about! They look gross to me.

Yesterday we got home in the early afternoon and we spent the rest of the day at the gym, running a few errands and watching Tommy Boy (which I had never seen!). It was a cute movie. So sad that Chris Farley died so early.

Today we are both back at work and it is HARD getting back into the swing of things! I am still stuck in holiday mode (and it doesn't make it any easier that Christmas music is on 3 Austin stations!). 

Are you still recovering from the holiday weekend? Did you do any Black Friday shopping (or maybe Cyber Monday today??)

White chicken chili

It is finally chilly here in Austin so what better way to warm up than making a dump truck full of chili? I found this recipe on the adorable blog, Six Sisters Stuff. I will definitely be making this recipe again (and again and again).

Ingredients

2 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breast, cubed (we used rotisserie chicken)
1 medium onion, chopped
1 1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 tbsp vegetable oil
2 cans navy beans, rinsed and drained
1 can (14 oz.) chicken broth
2 cans (4 oz.) chopped green chilies
1 tsp salt

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp. pepper
Big pinch of cayenne pepper
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup whipping cream

1. Saute the chicken, onion and garlic powder in oil until fully cooked (if using rotisserie or pre cooked chicken, just saute the onion and add the chicken after)

2. Add beans, broth, chilies and the remainder of the seasonings

3. Bring to a boil. 

4. Reduce heat, simmer uncovered for 30 minutes. 

5. Remove from heat and stir in sour cream and whipping cream

6. Serve warm and enjoy! 

Our Thanksgiving

We celebrated Thanksgiving with my family on Wednesday evening. My sister and her hubby have 2 Thanksgivings to go to so we split it up. We spent Wednesday afternoon playing Yahtzee, taking family pictures and of course...eating!!

Ernie wanted in on the games

I am not going to share family pictures just yet since my parents are using them for their Christmas card. We were all in gray or black and all 3 dogs were in the picture! It is a miracle we got a good one. Here are some other shots we took...

Mom and Tomi

The Higgins

The Harts <3 (minus Ernie)

Gramma and Grampa

The Fanning kiddos- do I look adopted with my dark hair?!

We love our little Jamesie

Fanning kids with our grandparents

Tomi and her niece, Athena and her nephew, Mr Ernie

Dinner was served at 5:30pm with a 20lb turkey, gravy homemade stuffing, mashed potatoes, Reames noodles, broccoli cheese casserole, green bean casserole, corn, Rhodes rolls, cranberry and lots of dessert. Dad was the turkey carver in his super feminine apron :-)

Every year my mom gets us new ornaments that serve as our place cards. This year's will fit perfectly with our tree colors

One of my favorite things about Thanksgiving is the conversation and talking about what we are thankful for. We decided to go around and say a few unique things we are thankful for (unique meaning not just saying family). I said I was so thankful for the lives our parents have given us. As I grow older I realize how much our parents supported and loved us, giving us the tools and morals we need to become responsible adults. I am also so thankful for the relationship I have with all of my siblings. I cannot imagine not having them in my life! I also said I was very thankful for our church and getting involved in small group. My dad talked about how he is thankful that our family is so close. He said he loves that us "kids" are such great friends and that his heart is so big when people compliment on how close we are. We have so much to be thankful for this year!

The girls and I went over to the neighbors to say hello for a bit and then we had "Christmas" with my grandparents. The rest of the night was spent hanging out, watching basketball and best of all...watching old home videos! There is SUCH a cute video of little James when he is 3 years old that us girls could quote word by word. We watch it probably once a month. We also got out some old videos of me and Cori when we were little. I was quite the sassy chatterbox. 

Ernie and Athena just celebrated their birthdays so I made them a special, dog friendly cake that they loved. 

Yesterday (actual Thanksgiving), Jon and I woke up early and volunteered at Operation Turkey. We packed up to go boxes of meals that were being delivered all over Austin. Funny thing: Jon recognized Farrah from Teen Mom's dad Michael. I was too nervous to go say anything and then towards the end of the event, we heard him go up to some young girls asking if they've seen the show. He was totally bragging and we were instantly annoyed. I mean if you've ever seen the show you'd know that his daughter is a brat (and calls him by his 1st name). He just got divorced and is now living in Austin. Weird huh? 

We came back home, napped, watched football then picked up some sushi, soup, sweet potato chips and brownies from Whole Foods. We made chicken and dumplings for dinner and watched movies all afternoon. Such a perfect day! Today we are heading to the lakehouse for the weekend. 

We wore PJs most of the day

and someone was sooo tired

What did you guys do for Thanksgiving??

P.S. Wednesday I guest posted over at Wifey's Notes. Check it out!

I am thankful for

& so much more.

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I wanted to take the time to say THANK YOU to each and every one of my readers. Thank you for the comments, the RTs, the pageviews,  the love and support. Thank you to the true friends I've made through this blog. And thank you to my husband who encouraged me to start this blog. You are all the reasons I keep writing. I love you all!

Hope you are having a blessed Thanksgiving Day!

Mr. Ernie's Birthday Party

Last night we had my family over to celebrate Mr. Ernie's birthday

Before everyone came over and Jon and I were in the kitchen I was telling Jon people probably think I am crazy for having a party for our dog but judge me all you want, it was fun! I mean, we don't have kids yet and Ernie is our little babe for now. Obviously this was a special thing, we won't celebrate his birthday with a party every year, just this once. 

One of the first things I pinned on Pinterest was a set of mustache printables I thought would be so fitting for a party at the Hart house (they were originally for a baby shower). On the menu last night was burgers, turkey dogs and homemade crockpot potato soup so what could be more fun than Ernie themed food labels?

Each member in my family was so sweet to bring Ernie a gift. We were laughing because he is SUCH a toddler. Opens one gift and ready for the next one. He actually ended the night playing with a plastic water bottle haha. He is a simple man. Tomi got him this hilarious Santa costume. Ernie looks sooo weird and scary. 

Dinner was so good...I can't wait to share the potato soup recipe. Thank you to my hubby for making it yesterday while I was at work! Ernie was quite the little ham last night and a ball of energy. He doesn't have a care in the world when he has his ball. He was a happy little clam. I made cake batter blondies (that we named "brindles") and put 2 candles in them to have fun. Ernie couldn't eat any but we sure enjoyed them.

Doesn't it look like he's blowing out the candles?

It's so true how time flies when you are happy and having fun. Ernie has been with us for 9 months and we've loved every minute of it. It's crazy to think that Ernie will only get older and hopefully more calm! He is still such a wild man but we are used to it.