This and that from the weekend

Well I was hoping this wouldn't happen...I was hoping Monday morning would never come! We have been so busy the past couple weeks with the move, filming for House Hunters and things we call full time jobs (and Jon has been traveling for work quite a bit). So this weekend was the first we had to ourselves. I was in the BEST mood Friday knowing we didn't have any concrete plans, it was joyous! We didn't want to sit on our behinds all weekend but we wanted to go with the flow. 

Friday

• Notice anything different about my blog?? Thank you to Melissa from Cherry On Top for helping me out! If you are looking for help, check out her site! She is amazing and SO fast...it literally took hours for her to finish!
• I crafted while Jon drafted. I told Jon I wish I had something I loved as much as he loves the NFL. I have taken up interest in the Browns since we met because I love seeing him so happy. I have to say...watching all 20 hours this weekend hit my quota of watching ESPN

• We used to live 5 minutes away from an indoor basketball court and Jon has been missing that lately so we checked out the neighborhood courts that night. The sunset was beautiful and we had a blast

• It's no secret we have an obsession with froyo. Sadly we moved away from our favorite yogurt shop, Yogurtland, so we've had to improvise. Look what I found at our new grocery store...it is frozen GREEK yogurt. Healthy right?!

Saturday

• Breakfast was banana bread pancakes...recipe to come...omg delicious! (we like anything covered in peanut butter and honey)

• Saturday was our neighborhood garage sale and I scored some fun stuff and most of it was free :-). I had no idea that so many people would be putting stuff on their driveways with "free" signs...score! I told my sister I could have bought her an entire baby registry if she knew the sex of her baby...this neighborhood is a baby factory!
• It was so cute, we heard little girls yelling "cookies! lemonade! Help cure cystic fibrosis!" so I went outside and recognized Eliot from Quints by Surprise on TLC. I told her I would go get my money and come to her stand...and I am glad I did! I got to meet the quints and their mama and turns out they live right around the corner from us! So cool! Jon asked me if I told them we were reality TV stars too...hahaha um no.
• The rest of the day was spent organizing the garage (we can put our cars in there now..yay!), painting Jon's office (still need to finish) and yardwork. A neighbor came over and said how nice it was we were mowing the lawn for our parents...haha. Do we look THAT young?!
• Ernie was very exhausted (and I am noticing a sleeping trend for him)

• We were both literally covered in dirt and achey from yardwork so we showered and decided on date night. We went to Mesa Rosa and I had a major food-gasm while eating the steak enchiladas. If you live in Austin...GO! We ended our hot date with a stop to Home Depot, our home away from home. We picked up paint, primer and a few other things. We want to put up crown molding in Jon's office so we did some looking around...

Sunday

• We slept in, yay, and went to 11a church. I was so focused and moved with the sermon yesterday and the music was perfect. Our pastor talked about 6 different brain wirings and how they mold our relationship with the Lord. We had a friend come with us and then had a yummy lunch at home.
• When I did our first load of laundry in our new washer/dryer last weekend, I had a feeling something was up. We bought a floor model GE energy saver set for a steal of a deal without much research (which is VERY unlike my husband). Something was definitely wrong with the washer, during spin cycles I thought the whole house was going to shake and crumble to pieces. Moral of the story, we returned them and opted to go with bigger, nicer ones. I've only ever used 3.5cu feet washers and our new one is 4.7 woot woot! We love our LG fridge and bought highly rated HE, energy star LG washer and dryer. Luckily Jon's awesome friend Ken (THANK YOU!) helped us tow the old ones back and new ones home. Friends rock! And I am obsessed

• I just HAD to take a picture of this sign at the gas station in our neighborhood...hmmm

• Be sure to check out the recipes I posted this weekend- Italian sausage and tortellini soup and chicken fried rice, mmm mmm. 
• I am teaching Zumba tonight and Thursday at 5:30p at All That Cheer in Round Rock, would love to see you!

Fried rice

I am not the biggest fan of Asian food but who doesn't love fried rice?! Thanks to Kristin, this recipe makes regular appearances in our home.:-)

Ingredients

3 cups white rice

3 tbsp. sesame oil

1 cup frozen peas and carrots

1 small chopped onion

2 tsp minced garlic

2 eggs

Between 1/3 and 1/2 cup soy sauce

2 cups cooked, cubed shrimp/pork/chicken (optional)

Wok

1. Cook the rice according to the package (I used 2 bags of instant, boil-in-a-bag, white rice) and set aside

2. Meanwhile, heat the sesame oil in your wok and add peas and carrots, garlic and onion and stir fry until tender

3. Add the eggs, lightly beaten, and stir fry on low until scrambled

4. Add rice, soy sauce, and cooked meat and stir fry until heated through

5. Let cool and enjoy!

Italian Sausage & Tortellini Soup

I made this DELICIOUS soup for my family on Christmas Eve and you better believe it will become a staple in the Hart household. It is so hearty and filling...not to mention chock full of veggies!

Ingredients

1 pound  ground Italian sausage
1 cup chopped onion
1 tsp minced garlic
5 cups beef broth
1/2 cup water
2 (14.5 ounce) cans Italian diced tomatoes
1 cup thinly sliced  carrots
1/2 tbsp  basil leaves
1/2 tsp oregano
1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
1 1/2 cups green beans 

1 1/2 cups sliced zucchini
8 ounces cheese tortellini pasta
3 tbsp parsley

1. Brown the sausage, drain, and set aside

2. Meanwhile, saute the onions and garlic in a large pot

3. Once onions are soft, stir in the beef broth, water, tomatoes, carrots, zucchini, basil, oregano, tomato sauce and sausage. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer uncovered for 30 minutes

4. Stir in the green beans and parsley. Simmer covered for another 30 minutes. Add the tortellini during the last 10 minutes

5. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and serve warm!

Baby Sprinkle

Last night I hosted a surprise baby "sprinkle" for one of my best friends, Mary. Mary is giving birth to her 2nd baby boy in a couple of weeks and last year we threw her a huge couples shower for her first but still wanted to do something special for her. She thought she was coming over to our new house for dinner and we had 3 couples there as a surprise. She was so happy and excited!

Sticky Bellies bunting (the numbers are those stickers you put on your babies onesie every month for pictures. I ordered them here)

Bow tie diaper garland

Little man onesies

Such a beautiful family!

Treats (from Sweet and Sour Showers)

Blurry but I love this picture! I wouldn't take my hands off of her belly. Little man was kicking and it was so amazing to experience.

The men (the draft was on last night so they were parked on the couch)

(I can't believe I didn't get a photo of the women!)

Stache pacis

Mama-to-be

I can't wait to hold that little guy!

Have a great weekend y'all :-)

Thursday Randoms

It's been a while since I had a randoms post but then again all my posts are random. Here is what is going on in my head/life lately...

• I got my renewal notice from Costco in the mail and decided to upgrade my membership. I am a little excited about the executive membership. It is an additional $55 a year but you get 2% cash back on all purchases and if you don't hit the $55 at the end of the year, they reimburse you! (trying not to get mad at myself for not doing it last year since we bought our gym memberships and DSLR camera there but whatever!)

• We finally got the keys to our mailbox. We've been MIA from the real world with the move and House Hunters that we forgot to go to the post office to drop off our HUD. Turns out the post office is 15 miles South of our house (we never go around there) and they were like yep come back next week. UGH! Once we got the keys we couldn't find our mailbox. There is one literally 1 house away so Monday night we went hunting for mailboxes and basically ran a half marathon to find ours.

•  The box was FULL to the brim. Exciting except for it was a lot of bills and mortgage documents. But Jon got a few birthday cards...people know how much we love animals doing cute things

•  Tuesday night I was crying watching the Biggest Loser. Anyone else do that? It was the week before the finale and they got to see their families, I just felt so proud and happy for them. I am a sap
• I am in LOVE with my new necklace from The Honey Pot! It is actually a hymn :-). For all you Hunger Games freaks...she has Hunger Game necklaces! Check em out here.

•  If you live in Austin, I would love to have you come to one of my Zumba classes! See this post for more deets.
• Our house has some rockstar insulation!!!! Our inspector commented on it after our walk thru but we are so lucky we never get direct sunlight (the sun does set in the front-ish, thank goodnes). We've been opening the windows at night and it gets COLD! We are trying to soak it all in now before the 110 degree summer days that are so $$$$$$$$$! 

• I finally took the keys to our first two places we lived together off my key chain. Yes I still had the keys to the cabin even though we haven't lived there since March 2011...it was sentimental! I still remember the day Jon gave me a key to his place when we were dating. The two keys are now in our printers box.

• I am turning into my mom...setting up serveware with sticky notes for a dinner we are having tonight (oh yeah and this was Tuesday!)

• I complained in an earlier post about the new blogger interface but thanks to Erin, I switched back!

• I know I mentioned on Twittter I am reading the book Escape by Carolyn Jessop who escaped the FLDS community. I didn't get much reading time before this week and I am officially hooked. It's so bizarre, creepy, sad and humbling. I find myself thanking Jon every time I read for being such a loving husband. I had no idea the FLDS community was full of so much abuse and conflict, it's heartbreaking. Anyway, I highly recommend the book!
• Hmm so what else. We are looking forward to a weekend with no concrete plans, which we haven't had in over a month. We have projects to do around the house and want to do some furniture shopping/painting but other than that...sleeping in, eating, napping, DVRing. I want to cry when I think about how we've been so busy and haven't had a night to relax!

So what random things are going on your life?

Shake it

Hahahahahahahaha

Would any of your boyfriends/husbands/brothers do this? Jon would be mortified!

I had a great first class this week and was wishing this was my full time job haha. If only! I did want to share with you guys (mostly my Austin readers) my new Zumba schedule! I will be teaching Mondays and Thursdays from 5:30-6:30p at All That Cheer in Round Rock, TX. $5 a class! Classes start Monday April 30th and I would love to see you!

via

For my non Austin readers, do you Zumba?!

What are your favorite rhythms to do?

Any favorite songs that your instructors use?

Antsy

So we just moved and are still exploring our new neighborhood. We moved into a "master planned community" meaning it has 3 elementary schools, a middle school, preschools, doctors offices, restaurants, gas station, markets, etc. It rocks! You never have to leave. It is very popular for young families and we were so excited to get to meet people. 

I took Ernie on a walk last week (Jon was traveling for work) and I found that there is the most adorable park a block from our house. There is a playground, swings, picnic tables and lots of room for throwing a frisbee, playing football, etc. I texted Jon after leaving the park...

Hahaha after we texted I thought, "I MUST take a picture of this convo"

So why was my uterus antsy?

There was a group of little girls playing with their baby dolls afterschool having such a funny conversation, two toddler boys digging in the rocks and pregnant women and mommies holding tiny babies in swaddles...it was baby fever of about 150. I am already nostalgic enough thinking about the house we live in being the house we have children in and now this park?! I was imagining myself coming their everyday with Team Hart in tow and I instantly got to thinking how amazing that will be. 

N0 I am not pregnant but wanted to share this funny text. Actually...Kristin shared some BIG and EXCITING news yesterday and after I commented "something is in the water" she asked if I was pregnant haha. Nope. But something IS in the water (or on the world wide web) because I can name at least 50 people who are pregnant right now. No lie. 

We are so excited to be opening a new chapter in our lives, the expensive chapter of homeowner-ship! We can't wait to see what the Lord has next for us :-)

Oh and Jon is known for making me shirts with different sayings. Literally. I have at least 5 homemade shirts, starting from the very beginning of our relationship (he made me a shirt that said Taken when he asked me to be his girlfriend). See this post.

House weekend

How is it already Monday? I feel like we didn't even get a weekend! House Hunters came back to film us in our new home and it was a busy but really fun weekend. We can finally entertain family and friends and are feeling like our house is our HOME! I just want to thank my family for being so helpful and supportive this weekend...it's amazing how quickly things can get done when you have helpers :-). I wish that I could take this week off of work but it is just as busy as last week unfortunately. Let's just say Jon and I are looking forward to doing NOTHING next weekend...and I mean nothing. We are going to be MIA :-)

We shot at Cupprimo Cupcakery (they were on Cupcake Wars)

I am in love with our new hanging basket, a housewarming gift

Cuddling with Mr. Ernie

Love you!

My craft room :-) you can't tell but the walls are a light teal, love em

We shot at the Austin Table Tennis Club...I'd never been...what an experience haha

Ernie looks sooo big here!

Shooting the final interview!

This weekend wore him out

We shot at my parents house Saturday...Jon was workin'

Sound check

We celebrated Jon's birthday last night and look at what a friend gave him! Such a thoughtful gift!

 

Thanks for all the love!

P.S. Reminder...I am teaching a FREE Zumba class tonight in Round Rock! Check out this post for more information. See you there!