LOVE

Since I am still new to blogging and new to some of you I wanted to tell you a little about myself.  So here are 26 (my age) little interesting/not so interesting facts and details about me and what I LOVE!

1.  I love GOD!  He is number one in my life; by His grace and mercy I am saved.  He has blessed me with everything in my life, a loving family, an amazing husband, beautiful children, a blessed life through and through and I am so thankful!!!

2.  I love Shawn, my husband of 5 1/2 years, more than words can express.  He completes me and we are truly best friends.   The last decade and a little more of my life has been blessed with him in it and he is just so awesome and such a great husband and daddy!!!

3.  I love my two beautiful children Cole and Reese!  I loved being pregnant with them, and now I love being with them every minute watching them grow and learn.  I learn new things everyday with them.  I am a better person because of them and I see life in a new way.  It wasn't until I became a mommy that I truly understood what true unconditional love is.  They make me smile everyday and just make life so much better!

4. I love my family.  Family is so important to me.  I have awesome parents/in laws and family that I would do anything for.  We have lots of get togethers and  just great times just hanging out.  Though I see my family often I would like to see them more often and make more time for the people that I don't see that much!!

5.  I love my friends.  New and Old. There is nothing like a true friend and I am blessed to have ones that I have known since I was two and ones that I just met over the past couple years. 

6.  I love to dance.  I am not a professional by any means but I love to just let loose and dance!  In the mornings I put on music and me and my kids dance around together.  Reese just started rocking back and forth and clapping when the music comes on; Cole jumps up and down with me and dances all around.

7.  I love to sing.  That is...in the shower or when no one else can hear me lol.  Maybe around the kids but no one else.  It's nice to belt a note out here and there and pretend like it sounds good. 

8.  I love to travel.  Let's see where have I been...the first time I flew was in my senior year of HS so...I have been to Florida, Utah, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, Maryland, Virginia, Delaware, and my favorite Hawaii!!  My three favorite trips were my honeymoon to Hawaii, our family trip to Disney/Florida and our latest trip to Smoky Mtns. Tennessee.    Now that we have a trailer we plan on doing a lot of traveling!! 

9.  I love TV.  I know it's horrible but I am hooked on design shows, cooking shows and the worst Reality TV. 

10.  I love cooking.  I would love an infinite budget to go to the grocery store and home stores to buy all the best/fresh foods and cooking supplies to make the gourmet meals I see the chefs on TV make.  I am planning on taking a cooking course in the fall to expand my knowledge a little more; it should be lots of fun.

11.  I love taking pictures.  Usually my camera is sitting close to me so I can grab it to take a picture of whatever it is my kids are doing.  That is another class I would like to take. 

12.  I love exploring my crafty side.  Lately I try to make my own home decorations, in particular holiday decor, but really anything for any room.  I got a sewing machine for Christmas and finally got it out yesterday and started on my family room pillows. Next week I will start on the curtains.  (keep an eye out for that post)  Crafts are fun and a great way to relax.  I look forward to having the kids do crafts with me in the future!!

13.  I love sweets.  Cake, ice cream, cookies, fruits, cheesecake, mmm I am making myself hungry writing about it. 

There are 13 things I love, while there are lots more...here are 13 more random things about me.

14.  I am a night owl.  I might be dead tired but I like to stay up late.  (but then I also like to sleep in :) )

15.  I have never broke any bones.  I fractured my nose once but never broke anything. 

16.  I am afraid of heights, though getting better.  I don't mind flying but am scared of the ferris wheel. 

17.  I thing yellow mustard is so gross, I can't even stand the smell of it.  But I will eat dijon, honey mustard, and the spicy horseradish mustard from the Pretzel Factory.

18.  My belly button is pierced twice, though I took them out when I got pregnant, and I had my ears pierced three times on each side. 

19.  I want to run the Pitman Fourth of July race this year.  I have wanted to do it the past few years but have been pregnant the past few years and haven't been able to.  We'll see if that actually happens this year!

20.  My favorite movie is Dirty Dancing.  I used to watch it with my dad when I was little.  I could watch it a hundred times and still want to watch it again. 

21. My first concert was the NKOTB when I was five years old.  My dad took me and all I can remember is being deaf for the few days following the concert (well it was probably only a couple of hours but whatever I was five)  When I was pregnant with Cole I saw them again in concert with my sister in law.

22.  I have a degree from Rowan University in Communication/Writing Arts that I will most likely never use.  I'm not even why I chose that for my major.

23. When I was in college I was in a sorority Sigma Delta Tau for all of about five minutes.  I got into the sorority and then transferred schools so never really did anything with the girls.  Actually I was never really cut out for the whole sorority scene. Not there is anything wrong with it I just didn't quite fit in with those girls. 

24. I can, or should I say I used to, eat some tacos.  When I was a little girl my step dad and I would go taco for taco and see who could eat the most.  I used to be able to eat at least 7 or 8 tacos at a sitting, sometimes more.  Now if I did that I would prob throw up.   

25.  When my friends and I were in middle school and high school we would have lots of sleep overs and one thing I remember that I laugh about every time I think of it is the time we folded one of my friends in a pull out couch and pushed her down into the couch.  Such a bad idea!!!!  But at the time it was hilarious.  She got stuck and we could see her pounding on the cushion but we were laughing so hard we could barely pull her out.  Again such a bad idea!!  wow great times! She got out and was fine, I don't think we ever did that again. 

26.   And my last little factoid is....I am scared to death of spiders and centipedes, daddy long leggers are probably the worst!  I am getting better but I still get freaked out when I see them.  In our last house we had spiders that were huge and they would crawl around while we were sleeping...my sister in law found two in her bed one night OMG I would have died.  Anyway on that note I probably won't be able to sleep tonight but oh well!


Thanks for reading about my oh so interesting life!  And don't forget today is April Fools day so be sure to try and fool someone! 

Enjoy~

Kristyn

Spring Spring where are you Spring??

I recently purchased a magazine with lots of great spring and Easter crafts and decorating ideas.  Later I went online and starte poking around some blogs and websites to find more fun ideas.  Even though it still feels like winter here in NJ there isn't any reason why we can't get ready Spring and all the fun it has to bring.  Here are some of my findings:

from Family Circle:

Ok so I love framed prints...this Easter Print below when framed looks so nice as a seasonal decoration.  I will definitely be printing this out and framing it for this Easter. 

If you like click --> Easter Print.

Along with these fun crafts there is also lots of yummy foods that come with spring and summer.  I love this time of year because everyone has been couped up in their houses all winter and want to get out; so there are lots of parties and little get togethers.  What would those little shindigs be without some fun and delicious snacks. 

Here are a few I can't wait to try:

Easter Eggs

 Lemon Bundt Cake

Easter Bonnets from the awesome Bakerella!!

 So I included just a few of the many yummy sweets and fun Easter/spring crafts I found.  I hope you enjoyed them and felt inspired to maybe try one or two.  I know I will trying some of these out and will post about them when I do.  If you decide to try one of these or something else please share I would love to see and hear you ideas. 

Enjoy~

Kristyn



Smoky Mountains Tennessee

For our first family vacation in our new fifth wheel trailer we took a 10 hour drive to the Smoky Mountains in Tennessee!  We had a great time and we will definitely be going back when the kiddies are older.  It was a much needed vacation and we really enjoyed our time down south.  Here are some pictures of our fun filled days!

  

Enjoy! 

~Kristyn

Family Room Accents

My family and I moved into our house last summer and are slowy getting each room done.  A few months ago my friend Katie created a design board on her  blog for my family room.  We picked a bold color for an accent wall and the rest of the room is kind of dull.  Katie had some great ideas for our room and so that is one of my new projects. Here are some pictures of our family room before. 

The room doesn't look very different...yet!  I have been slowly picking things up for the room.  I purchased the fabrics for the window treatments and pillows.  Along with some frames and accent pieces.  I wanted to share one of the accent pieces. I was at AC Moore the other day and spent probably an hour and half walking around the store.  They had all of the spring decorations out and I got some great ideas for Easter and Spring decor.  I also picked up a few things for our family room.  Here is the accent piece I made the other night...

My Supplies: 

an 8" wooden hoop

fabric

buttons

thread

I stretched the fabric over the smaller of the two pieces of the wooden hoop then placed the other wooden piece over the fabric to secure it tighty in the hoop. (above)  Then I trimmed the excess fabric off.  (below)

 After trimming the fabric off I went to the front and using a pencil wrote the letter W on the fabric.  You could do this with any letter.  Our last name is Wentz so I thought this would be a nice personalized accent for our room.

 I then took the buttons and thread and sewed each button on covering the letter W I had written.

 Here is the final project below. Also in this picture is a print of "House Rules" that I had done in the yellow accent color and then framed to match the black-brown wood in the room.  

This crafty accent it is super easy; you can use any fabric and any design you would like to make it your own.   

I hope you enjoyed this and try it for yourself!!

 

Mexican Chicken Dinner

So yesterday I took chicken out to thaw for dinner.  I never ended up using it so I figured I would use it today and so I decided to try something new for dinner.  I made a Mexican Chicken in the crockpot.  I love using my crockpot because you don't have to do a whole lot and there isn't very much cleaning afterwards.  This chicken dish was delicious and super easy. 

What you need:
Chicken Breast ( I used 2 breasts)
1 1/2 cups of Salsa
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp Tastefully Simple Wahoo Chili
1 tsp Parsley
1/2 tsp of black pepper
1 can of Chcken broth
1 can of corn niblets (drained)
Oil for bottom of crockpot

To start season your chicken with salt pepper and cumin (or whatever else you would like).  Turn the crockpot on to low and sprinkle some oil into the bottom. Then it is simple.  Put all the ingredients into the crockpot and stir until everything is blended together well.  Next put the lid on and go on with your day.  I stirred everything a couple of times through out the day just to make sure it was well mixed.  Before you get ready to eat shred the chicken, which will most likely have already started to fall apart on its own.  Once it was ready to serve I shredded cheddar cheese for garnish. 

For the Corn Cake: 
Box of Jiffy Yellow Cake mix
1  can of corn niblets (do not drain, you will use the liquid in place of the water called for on the cake box)
1 egg

Mix the above ingredients until well blended.  I used my mixing spoon to crush some of the corn to really incorporate the corn into the cake batter.  Have your pan greased and lightly floured (8x8 9x9 8-9" round pan or cup cake pan).  Bake at 350 for 20-25  minutes.  I broiled mine for two or three minutes at the end for a nice brown top.

Now it's time to eat!! Enjoy!!

my babies