Big Changes

So much has changed in our family over the last couple months. Joey interviewed for a new job and after lots of praying, he got an offer! WOOHOO! God is so good! Not to mention, we now have two cars! YES, two cars! It's crazy how we take things for granted until you don't have them-- but we survived with one car for almost two full years. Now that Joey has a new job and since he won't be working from home anymore, it was definitely time to get a second one. Also, I wasn't about to have a second baby with only one car and Landrey is coming very soon! It definitely saved us a lot of money though, and made sense since he was working from home.

We also have been really diving back in to church and have finally settled into our favorite place, 12Stone, which is right down the street from our house. Hartley loves going to her class now and is learning a lot and meeting new friends. It makes me super happy to see her enjoying something new. We even joined a couples small group to meet more couple friends and it has been wonderful so far. I've never been in a small group, so I"m really looking forward to how it changes our relationship as a couple and in our marriage.

Some other changes in our family have to do with my bow business! I'm so proud! It started out really small and very slowly when I opened it in February of this year and finally I have made huge progress! I made my very own Georgia Bows that are now being sold in a store in Athens, Georgia, called The Clubhouse. It was so exciting to get an offer from a family friend to have my bows sold in her own store. I have been one busy, busy mom! Every chance I get I'm working on a big order for the store or for items to sell on my Etsy shop, not to mention just managing to keep up with the housework and my crazy, little, terrible-two, Hartley. She has been so funny lately, with everything she's saying now. Her favorite thing to say as of late is, "why?" after every single thing I say. That's fun! It's incredible the things she has picked up. It blew my mind the other night when she said "because!" Oh parenthood. It's full of surprises.

Last but not least, I'm now 32 weeks pregnant with Landrey! I'm so ready for her to be here that I can hardly stand it. I can't believe she'll be here in less than two months! It seems so unreal. This pregnancy has flown by, but by no means has it been as easy as Hartley's. I was horribly nauseous and tired the first trimester, but luckily never got sick. This time, I'm sleeping hardly at all and getting up a bagillion times a night to go to the bathroom. The best thing about this pregnancy has been that I'm a lot smaller than I was with Hartley, but I think I may be the only one who says that's a good thing. She is a very, very active little girl! I just cannot wait to meet her and see what Hartley thinks of her new, little sister. =)

Until next time....

Sew in love with Sewing!

I've recently fallen in love with sewing and everything that goes with it. I mentioned that in my most recent post about Landrey's nursery. Well...I'm super excited about my latest project: recovering my extra infant carseat carrier. It's not hideous or anything but just worn out and not really my style. Right now I'm working on the outer fabric which is gray and white Suzani. For The inner part I'm going to use gray Minky which is super soft! I'm ecstatic! Here's my progress so far-- the old fabric is that pink floral stuff. 

-Sarah 

Landrey's 3D/4D Ultrasound

Today we went in for Landrey's 3D/4D ultrasound at 28 weeks. We enjoyed it so much with Hartley's pregnancy, we decided we must do it for Landrey's. I'm definitely so glad we did because there is nothing better than seeing that sweet face before she's actually here. We managed to get only a handful of good face shots because she was so active and snuggled up on her side. It reminded me so much of Hartley and how she seemed to hide her face. It was such a fun experience, I couldn't stop smiling. I can't wait for her to come in less than 3 months!!! 

-Sarah

Landrey's Nursery

It's been forever since I've written, so of course a lot has happened. I actually have three other drafts that are saved, which kind of irritates me that I never published them. I'm now 26 weeks pregnant with our second baby, another sweet girl whom we are naming Landrey. Long story short, I spent hours searching for baby bedding for her, but couldn't find a single thing I liked. I even bought a set from Target and then returned it because it just wasn't good enough. I came to the conclusion after learning on Etsy and EBay, that people make custom bedding---however, at a large cost. Luckily, I found a lady on EBay who was willing to make some for me for the average price. I had to wait 6 weeks to get it, but for the most part, it was worth it. I just made a few minor adjustments. I've also been very into sewing lately, so I ordered some fabric and created a matching curtain valance, lamp shade, pillow, mobile and comforter to go with the custom bumpers and bed skirt I had made. Here's how it all came together. :)

Top Chef Citti

I'm most definitely not a top chef, but I just really wanted to use that title. haha. I've mentioned in recent posts, or should I say, many, many months ago (ughhhh I wish I could make myself update this more often..) how much I have enjoyed cooking lately. I think cooking is my new favorite hobby since becoming a mom. I always liked cooking, but I pretty much always cooked out of a box and threw on some extra flavor. Joey has become my number one fan, rooting me on and telling me he loves how I have been trying so many new things, which of course, is very nice to hear.

When I say that I love my crock pot, I mean I absolutely LOVE my crock pot. Some may think it's lazy cooking but I just think it's super fun! My favorite place to get crock pot recipes is from crockingirls.com. I definitely recommend checking it out. Other than that wonderful recipe site, I pretty much google only five star recipes. haha...I'm just afraid that if I don't look for those, they won't be any good otherwise. Luckily, pretty much every recipe I've tried has turned out great. Although, I must admit that half of the time, I don't follow the recipe exactly, I end up adding in my own things here and there. My most recent recipe is one very similar to a chicken and mushroom with white wine sauce that I posted a while back, but with Pork Chops and White Wine (I substituted white wine with cooking sherry).

Here's the link: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/baked-pork-chops-i/. It turned out absolutely delicious, except, I've found that pan frying meat, especially pork chops, is a rather quick process, so there's no need to bake them afterwards (unless you want to)....I just added the sauce on top in the frying pan. =) I served it with mashed potatoes and carrots. MmmmMmmmMmm!!!

I also recently tried an excellent steak marinade that a friend shared with me and it was AMAZING!!!! I think it's my new favorite marinade for steaks. I thought I'd share that too! Here it is:

Steak Marinade:
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup olive oil
1/3 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup worcestershire sauce
1 1/2 T of garlic powder
3 T of dried basil
1 1/2 T dried parsley
1 tsp ground white pepper (I used black pepper)
1/8 tsp of cayenne pepper (I omitted this)
1 tsp minced garlic

I let this marinade sit for about 3 hours and it was so flavorful and just right!

Until next time.....(I will be writing about our complete bedroom makeover..woohoo!)

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Sunday Funday!

What a fun-filled weekend!!! Friday night we started the weekend off by having my sister, Stephanie and her husband, Michael, over for dinner. We grilled teriyaki chicken with zucchini and rice and boy oh boy, was it delicious!!!! I also made my favorite drink to serve up for company, which is Sangria. It was a great night with siblings and spouses. It was so nice to have some quality time with each other.

Saturday was a fun day too. We had planned to take a picnic lunch to the park, but after I had made and packed our picnic lunch, it started raining. =( We decided to take Hartley to Catch Air instead, which is a play place for kids. She loves it!!! It's so cute to see her explore and be so fascinated by everything. We ended the night with one of my favorite crock pot recipes: Chicken Soft Tacos. It's delicious! All it requires is chicken breasts, 1 packet of taco seasoning (I ran out, so I made my own), and 1 cup of chicken broth. You cook all of this on low for 7-8 hours or until it falls apart. This makes the best chicken for soft tacos! YUM!!!

Today I was so excited when I was browsing online when I came across the Zoo Atlanta page. I was looking at their ticket prices because I have been waiting for Hartley to be old enough and of walking age to really enjoy family outings. I wasn't that surprised by how expensive the tickets were, luckily Hartley would be free, but, I ended up finding quite the surprise at the bottom of the page. I came across a section that said if you are a member of the public library, you can check out the Zoo Atlanta Family Pass DVD and when returning it, receive a receipt that gets your ENTIRE family (of 4) into the zoo for FREE! Yes, FREE!!! I almost fell out of my chair, I was so excited! Before seeing that, I thought $5 off being an early bird was exciting...but wow, a FREE family pass. Now- the tricky part of this exciting deal is actually tracking down the DVD. Since, of course, everyone loves FREE, and those who are public library members know about this, the DVD is ALWAYS checked out and literally never available. Me, being the detailed and precisely planned person that I am, I looked at all the branches to see if it was available and luckily it said one of the two was "in transit." We made sure to get to the library only a few minutes after it opened today and luckily, we got there right as the library truck was unloading. I expected to have to come back a couple of days to try and get it if someone beat me to it, but WOOHOO!!! I got it! So....we are going to take Hartley to the zoo for the first time next weekend and i'm so excited-- not just for her, but me too! lol.
 
Before heading to the library, we also stopped for a quick lunch and then went by the store. We got Hartley a little blow up pool and balls to make her a ball pit, and she absolutely loves it!

The next few weeks are going to be quite busy for us, which is not the norm. We have a birthday celebration and zoo trip next weekend, a beach trip the following weekend, and then a family cookout the last weekend. I love having so much to look forward to.

Until next time......hopefully not in 6 months ;)

Walking, Talking(trying to), Toddler

A lot has changed in the Citti Household lately. Now that Hartley is walking everywhere, every second of the day, I can say I'm one beat mom. It's kind of funny because I kept saying, "I just can't wait until she walks!!!!" --but boy that just made things much more tiring for this momma. Not to mention--Hartley has always been pretty good in restaurants, but that changed the second she started walking because now she doesn't want to sit. I'm learning that being a mom can make you feel pretty awkward and embarrassed sometimes....(or maybe that's just me) following your child around as they walk up to random strangers and stare at them for five minutes. Anyways, she is growing up so fast and I feel like my life has been on fast forward since she was born. It seems like yesterday when I had her and now she is walking, trying to say words, and already showing me a glimpse of the "terrible two's". She is so smart, too! She loves to read books and look at pictures. Everywhere we go, all day long- she wants to point to things and know what they are. She understands most everything I say and loves when I ask her to do things. Although it is tiring and frustrating at times, (this toddler phase), I still can't believe that she is my little girl. She's my whole world and when she smiles and laughs, my heart just leaps with joy. I had no idea I would love her as much as I do and love her more every day. It's kind of crazy, having a baby....you get to relive childhood in a completely different and whole new way. It's incredible!

On another note, I've been really into cooking lately. I have always loved cooking, but now that I'm staying at home, I've been having so much fun trying recipes and using my crock pot. I'm not sure why I love the crock pot so much--maybe it's just because you can dump everything in one big pot and turn a knob, i'm not sure. haha!  I am surprisingly proud of myself though, for trying recipes and being brave enough to make them my own and spice them up a bit. Here is a list of my favorite recipes so far:

1) Slow Cooker Pot Roast
Five Stars*****

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/slow-cooker-beef-pot-roast/detail.aspx?event8=1&prop24=SR_Title&e11=crockpot%20pot%20roast&e8=Quick%20Search&event10=1&e7=Home%20Page

This is by far the best pot roast I have had. I have tried several in the past month or two and decided that this recipe was the best. The only thing that I thought was missing was the delicious flavor that I had loved from Paula Dean's Pot Roast recipe....so, I added to this recipe: a tablespoon of Worcestershire, 1 cup of red wine, a dash or two of Garlic salt, and lots of salt and pepper. It is DELISH!!!

2) Slow Cooker Chicken with Mushroom Wine Sauce


http://allrecipes.com/recipe/slow-cooker-chicken-with-mushroom-wine-sauce/

This Recipe was absolutely delicious too! The only thing I changed was the amount of wine in the sauce. I'm pretty sure I added a whole cup instead of just a quarter. YUM YUM!!!

3) Easy French Onion Soup


http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/tyler-florence/french-onion-soup-recipe2/index.html

This was by far the most delicious French Onion Soup I have ever had. Not only was it super tasty, it was very easy to make! The only thing I added to the recipe was using my own choice of cheese as well as sandwich rolls to open and pour the soup in and over the top. It's to die for!


Happy Thursday!

<3 SaRaH