Happy Thanksgiving!!

We have so much to be thankful for...loving families close-by, great jobs, wonderful friends, good health...we hope that each of you (if anyone actually reads this blog) have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday... Next year, we are going to strive for better picture-taking smiles...as this is the ONLY picture Justin would take with me...

Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Black Friday...

Katie's 3rd Birthday

Here are a few pics of our favorite niece in Birmingham who celebrated her 3rd birthday with a princess-themed playground party...

Uncle J-Loh gave Katie a soccer ball...very appropriate...but I think the most favorite gift was her scooter from her aunt Tay-Tay (Cobbie's sister).

Little does Katie know that her world is about to be rocked by identical twin girl sisters...coming December 2010/January 2011...we can't wait!

Taco Soup - thanks mom!

So...we took a small break from all the house projects this weekend...well, actually, we had to take a small break...the short story is that we had a rain delay. We were going to spend most of Saturday emptying our storage unit and putting bedrooms together, but we woke up to rain Saturday morning and it did not stop until late afternoon.

So I ventured out to the grocery (yay!) and put together this easy Taco Soup in the Crock-Pot...recipe compliments of my momma Lola...

Ingredients:
3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 packet of Ranch dressing/seasoning mix
1 packet of Taco Seasoning (I used an extra 1/4 packet too)
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can Rotel (mild)
2 cans black beans
2 cans Golden Hominy
1 can white shoepeg corn

Directions:
Place chicken in bottom of Crock pot and season with Ranch and Taco packets.
Pour all other ingredients on top (all juices).
Cook on low all day.
Remove chicken breasts, shred them, and add them back to soup.
Let cook ~30 more minutes.
Serve with shredded cheese and a dollop of sour cream.

I made corn bread muffins to go with it - also easy and quick.

Justin loved every bite of 4 bowls of this soup!!! It makes enough for a crowd and is definitely great for a rainy day watching football!!

Enjoy!!

Step Two: Floors Refinished!!

Well, its been a few weeks now since we had the floors refinished, and Justin and I have been busy with the after-math of refinishing hardwood floors. Not only is there clean-up to do, but we also decided that since the floors looked so nice and new, that the paint in each of the rooms needed to be freshened-up...

We wanted to paint the office first since it is important that Justin have a place for paperwork, conference calls, etc, while he is at home. Three coats of red paint later and I swore that the next time I wanted a red room, I would hire the professionals to come do it!! Agh...it took two weeks and help from Wayne to get it to the point where we were happy with the finished product.

We also painted the front room a light blue and the back bedroom green.

Here are some pics...

This is the "back master" bedroom mid-sanding...it is the originial master for the house, before the addition was put on:

This is the front bedroom, also mid-sanding. The guys from Mike Elliston Hardwood Flooring spent 6 hours sanding the three rooms and the hallway.

Same bedroom as above, after sanding, staining, and two coats of polyurethane.

After-pic of the hallway:

Small area from hallway into the guest bathroom...beautiful, clean, stained hardwood floors...who knew that these old floors covered up with smelly carpet could shine like this!! We love them!!!

Next up...shoe molding installation and baseboard paint...then bringing in all of the bedroom furniture from our storage unit...more pics to come (hopefully sooner than later!!)!