Life via Instagram Lately

Since I have been a horrible blogger, I figure I could update a little bit via Instagram photos. I just finally downloaded pics off my phone, which seems to be the only place I am taking pictures lately. Here is a quick look of what we have been up to in the last couple of months.

 Uncle Chipper came and stayed with us. He is a sweet old doggie.

 Oliver and I had a play date with Casey and her boys Rowdy and Max. Play date means the dogs run around like banchees and we drink wine. It works well.

 Lauren Harrington and I ran the Katy Trail 5K back in May. I actually was able to run it without knee pain, but since then I have tried to run with no luck. I will just continue to get more out of shape and fat.

 I won this awesome Ikat tote from having lots of Stella & Dot trunk shows in April. I love it!

Hostesses can earn their own right now by hosting a show before August! Let me know if you want to hear more!

 For Mothers's Day, mom, Jackson and I rode the DART rail... for fun... 

We have been to a couple of Rangers games at the Ball Park.

 We spent Memorial Day weekend at the ranch with our niece Blair and Eric's parents.

 My sister in law and niece and nephew came to visit. Here is Merritt with my dad.

 We went to a "high school" themed party. Eric went all out with his letterman jacket and Beevis and Butthead shirt circa early 90s.

 I was a bridesmaid in Brittany's wedding. It was a wonderful weekend!

 This yummy cinnamon roll is from breakfast at a local diner.

 I took some time to relax in the parents' pool.

 We went to a wedding over the fourth of July weekend in Clearwater, FL.

More pics to come on that.

 Last weekend, I went to Cate's 2nd birthday Tinkerbell party. She was so cute!

Expect more thorough posts to come now that I got these photos off my phone!

Ohh and be prepared for a big Ollie post. Of course I have tons of him!

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner: Part 2

We eat a lot of chicken. I am always looking for new and easy chicken recipes.

I also have been Pinning on Pinterest a ton and decided I needed to make something from my pins (follow me emilyb83). If you haven't joined Pinterest yet, you are missing out. (I am talking to you Ashley!) I have been a pinning fool lately, mainly due to the fact I am bored out of my mind at my current job and counting down the minutes to my last day on Friday. (Starting a new job too... more on that to come.)
You might remember this easy chicken recipe I made earlier this year from this post creatively called Winner Winner Chicken Dinner. Well, here is Winner Winner Chicken Dinner: Part 2. They are similar recipes, but I think Part 2 is the winner. I found this recipe for Parmesan Garlic Chicken on Kayln's Kitchen blog.

Source: kalynskitchen.com via Emily on Pinterest

You can access the original recipe on the link above, but I actually only made two chicken breasts with the recipe below. I think hers must have not been the huge, hormone induced chicken breasts I apparently buy. I did eat only half my chicken breast and am having the other half for lunch today! Eric's chicken breast seriously had to be close to a pound, but don't worry he ate it all. It also says to marinate for a day, I did it around 4:00 and cooked it around 7:00 and it was still tasty.

Parmesan Chicken with Garlic and Herbs

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 tsp. crushed garlic (garlic puree from a jar is perfect here)
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil (oops I realized I used regular olive oil here)
1/2 tsp poultry seasoning (I used Penzeys)
1/4 cup whole wheat Panko bread crumbs (I used regular, plain bread crumbs.)
1/4 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese

Combine crushed garlic, olive oil, and poultry seasoning in small pan and heat 1 minute, until just warm.

Trim all visible fat and membranes from chicken breasts, then make small crosswise slits about 1/2 inch apart down the length of each chicken breast, being careful not to cut too far into the chicken. (This helps the garlic and herb flavor penetrate the chicken more.) Put chicken into zip loc bag, pour heated oil over, and marinate all day in refrigerator (or a couple of hours).

To cook, take chicken out of refrigerator and let it come to room temperature for a few minutes while you preheat oven to 425.

Mix bread crumbs and parmesan (pulse a few times in food processor if the mixture isn't fine enough.) Place cheese/breadcrumb mixture in flat dish and dip each chicken breast into it, pressing on as much of the coating as you can.

Place each chicken piece in casserole dish which has been sprayed with nonstick spray. or olive oil. Bake until chicken is firm and cooked through, about 25 minutes, then put under the broiler to brown more if desired. Actual cooking time will depend on the thickness of your chicken breasts, but chicken should feel firm but not hard when it's cooked.

Busy weekend!

We had a pretty busy weekend! Eric was out of town all of last week (yes, he missed our two year anniversary! Ollie and I spent it by ourselves.) Friday night, we went over to his parents house to celebrate his Mom's birthday. It was a low key night of appetizers and Spanish wine, while watching our niece Blair play. For dinner, his mom made a brisket and I made our hashbrown casserole (seriously, this is the easiest, best thing if you need a big side) and his sister made The Pioneer Woman's cheese muffins. It was nice hanging out with his family. We came home and finally finished the Hatfields & McCoys. Did anyone else watch this mini series? It is crazy to think this stuff actually went on. It really was a sad series, but I am glad that Eric convinced me to watch it. It didn't hurt that Johnse was pretty cute too! Ha!

Saturday morning, we woke up and got some Whataburger taquitos to fuel us for our morning of yard work. I mowed and Eric edged and weed eated the yard. I also climbed the tree and did a little tree trimming. My poor neighbors probably had to hear me yelling that I was going to fall every 30 seconds. Luckily, I did not.

After finishing our yard work and cooling down, we headed up to Frisco. My good friend Tracy and her family were celebrating their family of 5 becoming offically one. Tracy officially adopted her husband Brandon's boys. It is so great to see this family evolve over the past couple of years. I am so excited for Tracy and Brandon!

Tracy and sweet Cate

Eric playing with Cate. It was pretty cute.

Sunday, we slept in and then tried a new breakfast spot near our house. I had seen this restaurant, The Mecca, while driving down Harry Hines and thought it looked a little out of place. The sineage actually was in English and it didn't look sketchy! I looked it up on the internet and it actually looked like a great little breakfast spot! The food was great. I ordered the migas, which were awesome. They were just spicey enough and the refried beans were great. Eric has eggs and corned beef and hash. We also had to try their "famous" cinnamon roll. This roll was HUGE! It was seriously one of the best cinnamon rolls I can remember ever having. It was ooey and gooey and buttery and so good.  Definitely reccomend. Can't say much about our waitress. I am hoping she was having an "off" day.

After breakfast and doing some cleaning up around the house, we headed to my parents house to water my mom's plants (they are out of town celebrating their 35th wedding anniversary). We took advantage of the pool and once again tried to get Ollie to swim, but without much luck. He loves the water, but he will not swim. He only will get on the shallow first level. We pulled him in a couple times, but he freaked out. I wish he liked to swim!

I took advantage of the float with a cold beverage.

He usually rides in the back of my 4Runner, but we took Eric's car. He is confused.

Tired dog, can't decide if he wants to lay down or how to in Eric's car.

For dinner, Eric smoked a pork tenderloin in our electric smoker. It was so good. He marinated it in a bottle of white wine (apparently you can't drink it after raw pork has soaked in it, so sad and a waste! :) He also smoked some corn on the cob. Yummy dinner!
We watched two movies this weekend as well. Satuday night, we watched Colombiana, which was actually pretty good. It stars Zoe Zaldana as a assasin. Worth watching. Last night, I watched the Adam Sandler-Jennifer Anniston movie, Just Go With It. Would not reccomend. It was just dumb and silly. Best part was Dave Mathews showing up as Nicole Kidman's husband!

And last but not least, Happy 35th Wedding Anniversary to my parents! They have always been a wonderful example of what a marriage should be like to me and my brother. I am very fortunate to have them as parents. I hope they are having a wonderful time celebrating in the Texas Hill Country!

35 years ago! Gotta love the tux on my dad :)



Hope everyone's Monday is off to a good start! Wish I could say we would be relaxing tonight, but we have tickets to the Rangers game! There is always something!!

Brit and Dave tie the knot!

This past weekend I had the pleasure of being in one of my best friend's wedding! I am sure you remember Brittany and Dave's Mexican Fiesta Engagement Party and when I went to visit them in Kansas City, as well as their couples shower. Well, the big day was finally upon us! It was a wonderful weekend full of good friends and lots of fun. The wedding was absolutely perfect and Brittany could not have looked more gorgeous on her wedding day! We all stayed at the Omni in Fort Worth, which was a great hotel. We visited the hotel bar Whiskey & Rye both nights and it was super fun.



The wedding weekend started off with the bridal luncheon. Here is the bride to be with all of her bridesmaids and her reader. :)

After the bridal luncheon, we were all treated to a mani/pedi by Brittany's sweet family.

The beautiful bride getting into her gorgeous lace dress!

Kate and I. She coordinated with the bridesmaids dresses quite well and was the best reader Ridglea United Methodist Church ever saw!

The ceremony was held at Ridglea United Methodist Church in Fort Worth.

Sisters! Brittany with her sister and maid of honor, Lauren, and her now sister-in-law, Liz.

Brittany and her dad :)

Ashleigh and Me, waiting to make our grand entrances.

The Crazy Trio! We are all best friends from college. Read more about our shenanigans here!

Mr. and Mrs. David Reid!

So, I like to take pictures in big bath tubs. I couldn's pass this one up! After the ceremony, the bridal party had a detour to Dave's parents house and we took advantage of some photo ops.

Eric looked quite handsome. Please note the pocket square.

My date :)

Brittany dancing with her little cousin. They were all precious!

A good time was had by all at the Reid-Kane wedding! The reception was held at the Fort Worth Community Arts Center, which was a unique and great venue. It was such a fun time and I am so glad I got to celebrate Brittany and Dave. They are off on a European honeymoon now and I cannot wait to hear all about it! Congrats to the couple!

2 years!!

Today we celebrate our second anniversary! I can't believe how time has flown by and we have been married now for two whole years! I have a feeling year three will be our best one yet! We have a trip to Europe planned in September, which I cannot wait for! Two years ago on this day was the best day ever. We had a wonderful wedding and were surrounded by all of our friends and family. We are so fortunate to have the wedding of our dreams. I did a full wedding recap last year and you can click here to see that.

I feel very blessed to have Eric in my life. I cannot imagine spending it with anyone else. He is a wonderful provider, supporter and partner. I hope he knows every day how much I appreciate him.

We celebrated last night by going to dinner at Celebration Restaurant on Lovers Lane because we are unable to go out tonight. This place is crazy. It is pretty much all you can eat! You order a first course (along with tons of bread), then you order your meal and they will bring you seconds or another meal if you want it, along with three sides, which you can keep ordering as well! We left quite full, but somehow made it to the Warwick Melrose Hotel (where our reception was held) to have a celebratory drink. If we are in town, I want to make this a tradition. I love this hotel with its old elegant charm. The Library Bar is perfect to sit and have a cocktail while listening to the live pianist singing in the background.

Here is to year three! Love you Eric!

Hello anyone still there?

Hello! It has been forever and a year since I blogged. I miss writing and documenting what we do. I hope to get better. I just don't want to sit on a computer these days! For this quick short post, I am going to share a little project Eric did this weekend which he is so proud of! His mom gave us this old, rusty planter and Eric decided he was going to redo it. I wish I had taken a before photo, but just imagine an ulgy, rusty black color. It was so easy to redo it. I think I want to figure out more things to spray paint! He went to Lowe's and all I told him was to get blue paint. He picked out the shade and these cheery green pots to go in it. He believe his words were that it looked "cute". I almost died laughing, but I can't help but be proud of him. He even went to two different nurseries to get the flowers because Lowe's selection was apparently not good enough.

How "cute" is this? :)

I really do have to hand it to Eric. He takes excellent care of our yard. He waters all of our plants and the grass and usually mows, weed eats, and trims the yard himself. He has a little vegetable garden going and has plans to expand it. He has a natural green thumb! I am lucky to have him to care for our yard! I know Ollie appreciate it!

Happy Monday!

The Beach, Richard Simmons, and Korean Karaoke

I have not posted in quite a while! I can't believe my last post was my rasberry beer recipe, which by the way I am craving and must make again. But not for like a week because I am in full detox mode since returning from a wild and crazy Bachelorette weekend in Los Angeles! I don't have all the pictures off of my camera yet for a full and proper recap, and if you follow me on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram, you have seen many of our crazy antics that took place this weekend. Here is a sneak peak of what Brittany's Bachelorette Bash entailed.

 Beach time! We stayed in Redondo Beach and hung out between Hermosa and Redondo and it was absolutely gorgeous! The Hermosa pier area was so much fun! Lots of beach bars and restaurants.

 Yes, that is Richard Simmons. He actually is still very much alive and teaches work out classes in Beverly Hills weekly. He is an absolute crazy man who scared me a lot. The class might have been one of the funniest things I have ever done in my life.

 Rummy Bears - enough said. You can't have a Bachelorette Bash without them.

This about sums up Saturday night. We sang Karaoke for like 5 hours in a private BYOB room. Yup, it was a complete crazy mess. I have seriously lost my voice.

Full recap to come hopefully by tomorrow! Don't worry, I have lots and lots more pictures of Richard in those hot muscle pants. LOL.