Friday 5

What the heck happened to this week? I don't know about yours but my week flew by! (so is the entire month actually! I mean, is it really almost August? Yikes!) Linking up today with April from A. Liz Adventures, Amanda over at Meet @ the Barre and Karli with September Farm. for Friday 5 and Friday Favorites. Join in!

 

 

 

 Enjoy the weekend and here are my 5 favorite thing this week:

 

This tank is a must! Get it here

Favorite snapchat this week:

 

 

annnd second fav snap: (she looks so silly & tiny!)

 

 

Can we talk about how much I love these bow box valances Miss Dixie shared from her trip to the Greenbrier? AH! I'm in LOVE!

And Lastly, don't forget to join us (Jenn from Going the Distance) next Wednesday for the first edition of What's Hap-'pinning' in your life currently! Grab the button and join in on the fun!

Currently

Now that we are back home, we are diving back into house projects and this makes me so happy! We only have a tiny portion (of the huge) porch to sand before we can prime it and get my dream southern blue floor painted! We also scored a gorgeous antique bedroom set from a local yardsale site for another guestroom - all we need is the mattress/box spring combo and of course some pretty bedding. Our photographer called and let us know that Miss A's portrait was done and I am SO in love with that pretty addition to her nursery. (Don't mind the stuff on the mantle and we haven't hung it yet!) I've been staying busy with lots of bridal showers coming up, a wedding planning meeting and consultation next week and also was asked to judge the new Longwood University Cheerleading squad again this year! Woot woot calendar is full!

There is so much good stuff going on in the lives of my closest friends and I cannot wait to share! I feel so blessed lately and thankful for everything God has given us. I feel like we are all right where we need to be! Oh, and want to know what happened last night? (Mama's don't smack me!) Andi slept for 10 hours ya'll! She always gives us 6-7 but 10?! You go little lady - we are seriously some spoiled parents. She is also getting so strong (so bittersweet because of course as Mom's we want them to progress but secretly I want her to stay little haha) If you have me on snapchat (jessicamc313) then you saw the excersaucer I put together for her and she is loving it for a few minutes on and off during the day. She's not quite tall enough so she gets a little frustrated sometimes...it's too cute though!

 Alright, we are heading to see some family and my sis out of town today so we have to take off - I hope everyone has a great day and guess what? Tomorrow is FRIDAY!

Andi's 1st Vacation = Success

So we are home and finally settled and after what seemed like 20 loads of laundry later, we're getting back into a routine. Last week was absolutely fabulous and just what we all needed. The weather was perfect and Andi did just fine being away from home. She slept on the beach, didn't mind hanging out in the pool and slept through the night EVERY night. She did, however, get her first little runny nose and had to have some Tylenol to save the evening and although she sometimes got a little unpredictable at restaurants, she was overall a compete joy! (and to think I was sort of nervous...) We ended the trip by heading on down the island to Hatteras and stayed with Heather and her twin girls before heading back home. Only 360 more days to go until we go back! Also, they added a Carter's to the OBX outlet mall this year - I call it fate!

Alright ya'll, photo dump time:

Friday Favorites

It's that time of the week again ya'll - the best time - WEEKEND time! I'm so pumped to be taking Miss Anderson on her first OBX beach vacation and we leave Sunday! I seriously cannot wait to see if she loves the beach as much as her Mama does and at the end of the week we are heading down to Hatteras to spend some extra days with my bestie Heather and her twin girls (who are now 10 months! Wow!) This also means I'll be taking the week off from blogging so of course I will miss ya'll!

Have a great weekend and join in on the linkup! I'm linking up today with April with A. Liz Adventures, Amanda over at Meet @ the Barre and Karli with September Farm. for Friday 5 and Friday Favorites

 

 

 

 

Jenn from Going the Distance & I have a fun new link-up announcement to make! On Wednesday's (we wear pink...no just kidding) we've created a new spot for ya'll to come together with your favorite projects, DIY's, fashion picks, rants, prayers and overall favorite finds from Pinterest that week or just what is happening in your life at the moment. It can be anything! (no seriously, anything!) Of course we understand that there are tons of link-ups to choose from on any given day so stop in and join in if you can! It's called 'What's Hap-pinning' (see what we did there?) So grab the button below, link back to us and join in ya'll on the first week of August!

Andi snuggles and time with Tiff for a random Tuesday girls night! (She's due in October ya'll!)

 

 

 

So we all know how much I love Chrisley Knows Best on Tuesday nights on USA (ahem ahem he favorited two of my tweets remember? Yup, we're besties) and on  last night's episode Julie decided to create a cooking blog to showcase her Southern recipes however, she didn't say where you could find it. Here is the blog: http://www.thechrisleykitchen.com/

Soooo remember that interview I had at the new event venue near me that was looking for a wedding planner? Well you are looking at the new wedding planner they needed! More details to come but it's looking like a fabulous partnership/future is unfolding and I am feeling so blessed right now! Thank you for all of your kind words during the interview process!

 

 

And lastly, #5, HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND YA'LL!

 

 

Recipe Time: Easy Chicken/Broc Casserole

Any of ya'll country music fans? Food fans? Food Network fans? ok well if you answered yes to at least the first two you'll have a good idea of where I'm going with this one. Trisha Yearwood has a cooking show on Food Network called Trisha's Southern Kitchen. I wanted something easy and quick to fix for dinner this week that would also produce some good left-overs (aka excuse to not cook the next night) and her chicken broccoli rice casserole hit the spot! See below for the recipe and pin it for your next easy dinner at home night!

 

 Trisha's Southern Kitchen: Chicken Broccoli Rice Casserole

 

You will need:

• Nonstick cooking spray or butter, for the baking dish
• 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 medium head broccoli, cut into small florets
• 2 cups cooked white rice
• One 10-ounce can condensed cream of chicken soup
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 10 ounces Cheddar, grated (about 2 1/2 cups)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9-by-13-by-2-inch baking dish with nonstick cooking spray or butter.
Place the chicken in a large pot with water to cover. Add some salt, bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to a low simmer and cook the chicken until tender, about 45 minutes. Drain the chicken, cover, and refrigerate until cool, or up to 24 hours. Shred.
Meanwhile, bring a medium pot of generously salted water to a boil. Add the broccoli florets, and boil until crisp-tender, 2 to 3 minutes.
Spread the rice in an even layer in the baking dish. Make a second layer with the broccoli. In a large bowl, mix the chicken soup, the sour cream, mayonnaise, lemon juice, shredded chicken, half the Cheddar and some salt and pepper. Pour the mixture over the broccoli and top with the remaining Cheddar. Bake for 40 minutes; let stand for 5 minutes before serving.

 

Real life messy non-glamorous kitchen

Husband Approved - so simple but SO good!!

 

Weekend Snaps

Another weekend bites the dust! Cheers to a new week and the countdown starts for Saturday and our OBX vacation- so ready for the sand and waves! This weekend we did a lot of girl time and lounging since hubs was working (but he's off today/tomorrow so that's nice) We took Andi to her first day at church with some good friends/neighbors of ours and she did excellent! Well, she slept throughout the entire sermon. We are still what you call 'church shopping' but it felt so great being back! Afterwards we experimented with a new recipe via Trisha Yearwood (which I'll share!) and I introduced Andi to her first pageant as we watched Miss USA together! (LOVED Miss OK's gown and last year's Miss USA's yellow gown!) That was about it for us- Hope ya'll had a great weekend!

Linking up today with B Loved Boston for Weekending!