My Coconut Oil Obsession

I'm sure you've all heard the raves about how amazing coconut oil is by now. I've been reading about it on blogs and hearing about it for so long, but I was very leery to jump on the bandwagon because my skin is already plenty oily. Honestly, I was afraid that putting any more oil on my skin was going to break it out. There are so many uses for it, it really is incredible. A lot of my pregnant friends have used it to prevent stretch marks and they said it worked wonders.


The pharmacy I work at started carrying it and all the girls at work were buying it up.
We would get multiple jars a day and they would be gone so fast. I decided since they all loved it so much, that I should at least give it a try...and boy, am I glad I did. I absolutely LOVE it and I will never be without it again.


Here are a few of the things I've used it for:
- Eye make-up remover. It works wonders getting eye make-up off, without all the harsh chemicals.
- Shaving my legs. It is supposed to be great for shaving your legs and it really is. It is supposed to reduce the size of your pores after shaving and help prevent razor burn.
- I apply it all over my body as a lotion after I get out of the shower. Yes, you are a little greasy for a while, but it hasn't bothered me one bit.
- I apply it around my eyes every night as an eye cream. It is supposed to be really good for dark circles, bags under the eyes, and wrinkles. I can tell that it helps my bags and dark circles for sure.
-I also apply it to my hands and lips before bed. Keeps them both soft and smooth.
- It can also be used as a hair conditioning mask. You just have to make sure you rinse it really good afterwards.
- I put it on any breakouts and it reduces the size and redness over night. It is amazing how much faster it will heal. Since using it on my face, I can tell a huge difference in my skin and complexion. It has helped reduce redness and acne scars and I feel like my face is a lot more bearable to look at without makeup.


There are a million different brands of coconut oil and a million different uses. You can research all the different uses on Pinterest. This is the brand we carry at my work and I love it. I've heard this brand smells a lot better than some. It smells like you just opened up a coconut....heavenly! It also makes you wish you were eating a coconut.

Seriously, if you haven't tried coconut oil, go get some now!! You can thank me later :)

Happy Valentine's Day!

I hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's Day! I'll admit, I do enjoy Valentine's Day. It's not my favorite holiday and we don't go all out by any means, but I still really enjoy it because I get to spend quality time with Aaron. We used to have a rule that we could only spend $20 on each other and it had to be handmade, but we no longer do that anymore. This year we agreed for it to be just a card and a date night. We wanted to save our money for something cooler than flowers and chocolate. I'm kind of an odd girl. I love flowers and I love to have some fresh ones sitting on my kitchen table, but if you're going to spend $60 on something, I'd rather it not be flowers. Am I weird for that? 

Anyway, I couldn't just get Aaron a card. I tried really hard, but I had to make him a little treat to go along with it. I woke up at 6am with him yesterday morning to make him blueberry muffins for breakfast. Little did I know, the guy is not a huge fan of blueberry muffins.....oops. Wife fail. You learn something new everyday right? 

After we had breakfast together, we opened our cards and gifts. This is what I made for Aaron:

 I cannot take full credit for it though. A friend at work made something similar to these with cokes to sell to the school kids. I hadn't ever seen anything like it and I just thought it was too cute. A perfect little candy treat. She told me how to make them so I thought I'd give it a try for Aaron.

I wanted to make it a little more manly, so I used his adult beverage of choice and added some beef jerky and all his favorite candy. 

Aaron got me some yummy smelling perfume and a cute little bear with 2014 on it. He wanted to get me something sentimental with the year on it so I would have something to remember our "first married Valentine's Day".

After work we went on a dinner/movie date. We saw Endless Love and we both really liked the movie. It was a wonderful Valentine's Day. 

Hope you all have a happy Saturday. It looks like the weather is supposed to be nice this weekend and we have absolutely NOTHING planned. So nice. I'm going to frolic in the sun and take the pups on way too many walks...and I might even do a few crafty things :)

Yummy Smoothie Recipes

I've been making a lot of smoothies lately with my Ninja Kitchen System (blender, juicer, and food processor). I've tried out a few new recipes this week that I really like and wanted to share. I use the smoothies as a meal replacement for dinner. I have been using my Arbonne protein powder in the smoothies so I get all the nutrients I need. It is amazing how full these make me.

Coffee Protein Shake

For this recipe you will need:

-1 scoop vanilla protein powder

-1 scoop chocolate protein powder

-1/2 frozen banana

-1 cup brewed coffee

-1 cup unsweetened almond milk

-2 handfuls of ice

Blend all the ingredients on high for 1 minute.

 

 I use the Caramel Macchiato Iced Coffee because I'm not a huge coffee fan so I didn't want it too strong. I also use the Silk Almond Milk.

 The Arbonne protein shake mix. Seriously, the best shakes around. It is well worth the money.

And voila! Enjoy!

Orange Dreamsicle Protein Shake

For this recipe you will need:

-2 scoops vanilla protein powder

-1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk

-1/2 cup water

-3 oz. frozen orange juice concentrate

-1/2 frozen banana

-1 tsp honey

-5 ice cubes

-1 tsp orange zest

This one was really good!!! Be sure you don't put too much orange juice concentrate in it or it will be way too potent. It tasted just like an orange dreamsicle!

For some reason, after working out, I always crave an orange or orange juice. Aaron and I were both really craving orange juice last night after our workout, but we didn't have any. We only had a bag of oranges. I decided to use my Ninja to make some homemade orange juice. We used 3 peeled oranges and a handful of ice. It was so refreshing and good! We will definitely be making homemade orange juice more often.

I have been pinning a bunch of smoothie recipes and I can't wait to try them all and share them with you. If you have any good recipes, please share!

Be Our Guest, Beth!

Our first friend came to visit us this past week. It was so much fun showing her around the area and getting to spend quality time together. Here's a little overview of our week:

-She arrived on Wednesday evening. We had dinner at the local seafood restaurant and stayed up chatting and catching up. 

-Thursday morning we slept in, ate cinnamon rolls, took a tour of the fish hatchery where Aaron works, went antique shopping in a local town nearby, had lunch at a cute, quaint cafe, toured another local town on the lake, and went to my favorite boutique. 

 Enjoying our lunch

It's tradition to make our guests stop and see the seashell trailer

Touring the fish hatchery

Antique shopping

-Thursday night we had pizza and went to see the movie, Lone Survivor. It was extremely good and sad, but for someone with a very queasy stomach, it was very hard for me to watch. My eyes were closed for half of the movie.

-Friday, we woke up early and drove an hour and a half to the nearest big city for the Memphis Flea Market. We each left with a few goodies. We spent the rest of the day shopping around at the mall and various other stores. 

-Friday night we had our friends over to hang out and then we decided Beth needed to experience the local night scene. We took her to Eagles (kind of similar to what an Elks Lodge might be).....haha. I told her she was in for a nice surprise. It is nowhere near the night scene she is used to, but it turns out she loved it. We played songs on the juke box, played darts, and even did a few line dances haha. We had the whole place to ourselves, which made it even more fun. 

 -Aaron really wanted to take Beth dirt roading and show her the Bayou so we loaded up the truck, Samson included and went "dirt roading". 

-Saturday morning we slept in, made sausage, egg, and potato skillet and went to look at the spring. Beth headed home after that. She was planning on staying until Sunday, but we heard the weather was supposed to get bad in OK and in AR. Thank goodness she left when she did because the snow came quick on Sunday. 

Here's what it looks like outside our front door currently and it's still coming down.

I wanted to show you one of my favorite wedding gifts. We got this leather journal with our last name on it from a sweet friend and she said it was a family tradition of hers to write in it when they had visitors, during holidays, etc. I absolutely loved the idea. We keep this journal on the nightstand in our guest bedroom for all of our guests to sign.

 My favorite thing is reading what our guests write after they leave. They always write about what we did on the trip, what they think about the town, and always leave the sweetest notes. Beth's was especially sweet and made me tear up. Thank you so much, Beth for coming to visit us. You are an amazing friend and I had so much fun this past week. We can't wait until you come visit again. Thanks for the wonderful gift basket and for driving 7 hours to come see us. We love you!!

What I'm Loving

It's been a while since my last blog post. We've been really busy lately and blogging hasn't been my top priority. Hopefully that will change soon. Here's a few updates on what's been going on and what I've been loving about life.

#1. I'm loving that we got to go home and spend Christmas with my family. We didn't have our family Christmas until January this year, but my parents made sure to leave all the decorations up for us to enjoy.

Seems like our stockings doubled in one year. I love the way my mom displays the Christmas cards on the mantle with the stockings. It's my favorite thing to check them all out.

We added this stocking to the mix this year. My talented mom made it all herself especially for Aaron. Isn't that cool?

Christmas morning pic with the pups.

#2. I'm loving the new pillows I got for Christmas. They are both homemade which makes them even more special.

My super crafty sister-in-law made this adorable pillow. I LOVE IT!

My mom and my Aunt Jan made this pillow. From this angle it just looks like a cute Christmas tree.

But check this out...turn it sideways and it spells our last name. Isn't that clever? My brother and his wife got one too with their last name. Their Christmas tree was much taller and skinnier than ours :)

#3. I've been in a crafting slump lately so I was really excited that on my last day off, I was very productive in the crafting department.

I made this little outfit and headband/bow for sweet baby Beatrix. I haven't made a onesie outfit in a long time because I don't have my wing-woman (AKA my mom) to help me sew around them so I haven't been taking any orders. I must admit...I kind of missed it. I'm  contemplating buying a sewing/embroidery machine.

I also made another set of these mugs for my friend who placed an order.

...and I started on a little decor project for our living room wall above the TV. It's not finished yet so I can't show you the finished product, but I will post about it when I'm done. Nothing fancy, it just needed something.

On top of all the crafting, I also managed to have dinner on the table when Aaron got off work. I'm telling you, it was a productive day and it felt oh, so good. Most of them are not that productive.

 I made Mix and Match Mama's (The Bachelor, Sean Lowe's sister) Chicken-a-la-King. It was really good and easy. You can find the recipe here: http://www.mixandmatchmama.blogspot.com/2014/01/dinner-tonight-chicken-la-king.html. If you haven't read her blog, you should definitely go look at it. She has some wonderful recipes.

We had a ton of leftovers so we put the Chicken-a-la-King on top of a store bought Caesar Salad Kit for dinner the following night. Can't beat a 2-for-1. I honestly liked it better on the salad, served cold. It was really tasty.

#4. I'm loving that our first friend is making the 7 hour road trip to visit us!!! Can't wait to show Beth around the area and play hostess for the week. I have a bunch of fun touristy things for her to do so she gets the full effect. Dirt roading might even be on that list ;) I'm not sure she know what a culture shock she will be in for.We also have a fun day planned going to the Memphis Flea Market. So excited!

#5. Did anyone else love the Bachelor wedding as much as me? I'll be honest, I shed some tears. I just love Catherine and Sean. I don't think they could get any cuter. The wedding was beautiful and so very precious. It made me want to get married to Aaron all over again.

Happy Sunday! Hope you all have a wonderful week.

Chick Flicks

I'm a sucker for chick flicks. It's been a long while since I've seen a really really good chick flick. Pretty much the only movies I go see in the theaters are chick flicks so I was really excited when I saw these two previews on TV last night. I will be going to see Endless Love on Valentine's day with my hot date and I will be seeing Labor Day sometime this month. Keeping my fingers crossed they show up in our little local theater.

Happy New Year (A little late)

 

We had a wonderful New Year's Eve and New Year's day. We got off work, popped open a bottle of Strawberry champagne and had a glass together before heading out with friends. We had dinner at a Mexican restaurant, followed by 3 games of glow bowling. There was a power outage during our dinner and we joked that it was the Millenium 14 years later. The lights were out for quite a while...luckily we were already done eating and we had some cash on us so we could pay and leave. I'm not quite sure what everyone else did.

 

After bowling, we headed home and set off a Chinese lantern. When you don't have fireworks, those will do right? It was actually really cool to watch it float up into the sky. We were afraid it was going to float into our neighbors tree and set it on fire, but we just barely missed it...eek! 

 

It was a great night and we had a lot of fun with sweet friends.

 

Cheers!

Happy 2014 from us!

 Love these friends.

And this guy

 Baby Miller is coming in a few short weeks. Can't wait to meet him/her! So exciting.

 

Aaron and I slept in on New Year's day and we relaxed and just hung out all day. It was a wonderfully lazy day off together.

 

It's no secret that I've gained the married 15 pounds so we are both making an effort to get healthier, exercise 5 days a week, and eat right. I tried my first juicing recipe yesterday, and it was pretty much a complete failure.

 

I used 2 apples, 2 handfuls of spinach, 2 handfuls of romaine lettuce, and 2 handfuls of brussel sprouts.  I used my Ninja Complete Kitchen System. I was told it could juice, but I had never tried it before.

I don't know about you, but nothing about this looks appetizing. I'd rather not drink a chunky salad. So then I was mad that my Ninja didn't juice and that I wasted all those ingredients.

 

I got online and googled it and found that there is a secret. You must add 4 ice cubes and set it on crush for 1 minute. After I tried that it was much juicier, but still not drinkable in my opinion.

Finally, I figured it out. I poured it all into a strainer and I squeegeed it with a big spoon until it was completely juice coming out. It finally looked like the right consistency. I tasted it and to my surprise, it was actually really good. It just tasted like apples pretty much. Have you tried juicing with a Ninja? If so, what's your secret and what are your favorite recipes?

 

I've also been drinking Dr. Oz's swimsuit slimdown drink before every meal. It's supposed to be really good for you and help burn fat. The recipe is: 1 cup grapefruit juice, 2 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar, and 1 Tablespoon raw honey. It tastes absolutely disgusting, but hopefully it works. I'm willing to try anything at this point.

 

Hope you all had a wonderful New Year's Eve and New Year's day.

 

Guess what tomorrow is???

JUAN-UARY 5th!! Can't wait for the new Bachelor...woooohoooo!!