Its finally FRIDAY!!

This has been a SUPER busy week for me!! 

*Monday was a normal work day & then Bella had dance class until 7pm which means we don’t get home until 730 just in time for baths and bed. Thank god for my mom for picking up & feeding Bella dinner!

 *Tuesday was another normal work day followed by dinner at the parents’ house to celebrate my brothers 23^rd birthday!

*Wednesday Bella was with her dad and I worked late & went to target after work!

*Thursday I packed the car & got everything ready because today at 12pm we are headed to St. Louis!!!

 

We go to St. Louis at least once if not twice a month because my cousins live there!!! We have quite a bit of things planned and I’m so excited because one of them it taking Bella for the very first time to this little gem……

Thats right we are headed to a St. Louis Cardinals game tonight. Taking Bella to her first game!! Im excited i don't expect her to sit for very long  by any means but there is SO  much to do and plenty of places to watch them game!

By far my favorite player. Matt Holliday!!

Bella LOVES Fred bird. She knows who he is. Looks for him on T.V and loves watching him dance. She met him last January but preferred to watch him from afar so it will be fun to see how she does!

Besides the game we don't really have anything else planned. We usually just go down there and fly by the seat of our pants :).

I hope everyone has a................

Katie,24,Illinois

Today i am linking up with Kelly's Korner for Singles Friday! So today will be all about Me!!!

I am 24 years old born in April. I live in a very small farming town in central Illinois. I am a country girl at heart and love hoodie and bonfire weather all while wearing my coach purse :)

  First and foremost i am a Mommy to a beautiful 2 1/2 year old Isabella! I will NEVER say that she was an accident but more like the best blessing on earth..Isahella's dad and i have never been "together" we have since day one "co-raised" her. From the time she was 1 day old until the day she turned 2 years old he came to my house every single day after work to see her and hang out with her and then would go home after she went to sleep. The day she turned 2 years old it was time for this mamma to come to the realization that she and her dad needed one on one time with each other. Now she goes to his house on Tuesday & Thursdays until 830pm and then he brings her home for bed. Every other weekend he picks her up at 10am on Saturday and i pick her up from him at 10am on Sunday. This is what works for us. We are friends and will only remain friends he is engaged to be married and also has a 6 month old boy. I am thankful that her dad is in her life and that we can be friends.

I come from a very large family and Bella and I are blessed that we are usually always surrounded by family. Almost all of my family lives in the same small town as Bella and I.

I work full time for a large apartment company on the University of Illinois campus. I am the office manager and am in charge of 14 employees plus keeping around 4000 students happy. I love my job. I have worked for this company part time since i was 15 years old.

I love to cook and entertain the problem is to find the time to do it. I do a lot of cooking on the weekends and usually have my family over for a big dinner on Sundays. If it weren't for the crock pot Bella and i wouldn't eat during the week :)
I bought what i like to call Bella and I's "starter home" in April of 2011. It was a definite fixer upper and we didn't move in until July 2011. I love our home and its the perfect size 3 bedroom 1 bathroom 1 car garage for the two of us!

In my free time when Bella is with her dad I like to watch the Fighting Illini Football & Basketball teams, St Louis Cardinals & Chicago Bears. I am a definite sports girl but love to also curl up with a glass of wine and a good chick flick. Also my parents own a bar so i like to go there and mingle/ hang out with my best friends.

Bella & Mommy! Bellas 2 year pictures!

Best friends since Grade school!

My friend Jen & Myself

Favorite place on earth. Aka Busch Stadium

Cardinals game with my mom!

Best friends since the day sara was born all 9 days after me :)

A day in Chicago with my baby girl!

4th of July parade!

BEATIFUL country living!

She loves her cardinals also!

Could be my favorite drink! Margarits anyone?

Never to old to booze cruise with the best friends :)

Any questions feel free to comment with your email :)

Tasty Tuesday!!

Today I'm linking up with Tasty Tuesdays!

This weekend i did some good ole home cooking! Nothing makes me more happier than being in the kitchen for a SHORT amount of time whipping up new recipes with Bella. This kid LOVES to cook! I tried one old recipe that i have had before and one completly new recipe and both were big hits!! I invited the family over for a big ole family pot of chicken enchilada STEW not soup :) Theres a very big difference!

This is the EASIEST recipe ever and you could probably 1/2 it if you weren't cooking for a ton of people.
I found this reicpe in a crockpot cookbook but i changed it quite a bit!

-6 cans chicken-Sometimes i cook and shredd chieckn but i was being lazy on Sunday
-3 cans enchilada sauce
-2 cans chicken broth
-2 cans corn
-2 cans green chiles
-2 large cans stewed tomatoes
-1 box bow tie pasta

Dump everything in crockpot except the pasta

Boil the pasta and then add that in the crock pot

Cook on low 6-8 hours.

The recipe before didn't call for any type of noodles hints why im calling this a STEW and not a soup its very thick but very Delicious :)





 I found this recipe for pumpkin chocolate chip cookies they were super easy to make!!!

Here is the recipe

*1 1/2 cups sugar
*3/4 cup oil
*1 cup canned pumpkin
*2 1/2 cups flour
*1 Teaspoon baking powder
*1 Teaspoon baking soda
*1/2 teaspoon salt
*1 Teaspoon vanilla
*1 teaspoon cinnamon
* 1 cup chocolate chips.

I am not the prettiest cook so i just through everything in the bowl except the chocolate chips and mixed it up and then added in the chocolate chips and baked at 350* for 10 minutes.

These cookies were AMAZING. i may or may not have bought another can of pumpkin to make them again this weekend :)

Amazing Fall weekend!

I will let the pictures do that talking for this AMAZING weekend :)

 Friday was the 2nd busiest day at my work. We are open from 9am-MIDNIGHT. Yes you read that i right i worked a 16 hour day on Friday. We had a huge party for all of our tenants as well as a Dj and lots of giveaways!!

While i worked ALL day on Friday my AMAZING Dad & Uncle put up Bella's swing set. Because i wasn't there they obviously didn't show it to her until we were all together on Saturday Morning!! Lets just say she freaked out and she LOVED it!!

It was a BEAUTIFUL day in central Illinois on Saturday so my mom and i decided to take Bella to a local zoo. Its a small zoo but its oh so cute and she loves it because she can walk the whole thing and get up close with lots of the animals with out there being a huge line!

This was my favorite age to take Bella, She was pointing out EVERYTHING to us!

Of course we had to ride the carousel before we left!

Right outside the zoo is the massive park! We played for about an hour before we told Bella it was time to go Shopping!! You can tell by the last picture that Bella wasn't as excited about us as shopping but she also wasn't letting go of that tutu!

When we got home from our big adventure we played outside for a little while and then went inside for a popcorn and movie night. Bella loves to watch the popcorn maker. After such a fun day on Saturday and not getting to bed until 1am on Friday night due to work i'm not ashamed to admit that i crawled in bed at 9:04pm on Saturday and it felt oh so good :)

Sunday we got up and made a big batch of Chicken Tortilla Stew, Chocolate Pumpkin cookies. Decorated the house for fall and  A great nap by miss Bella and then spent the rest of the day outside playing on the swing set and riding around town on the golf cart!

This weekend was such a good weekend. So much quality time with Bella and lots of stuff was done. I just love the fall and the semi cooler temperatures :)

WILW

Today I'm linking up with the What I'm Loving Wednesdays!

I'm LOVING that its already Wednesdays. I think every week should be a 4 days work week :)

I'm Loving that i got to spend ALL weekend with this little girl. I have been working ALOT of hours at work but i got 3 FULL days off with her!

I'm loving that my grandparents are celebrating 52 years of marriage this Saturday. They sure do know the meaning of true love and testing faith.

I'm loving that this stinker right here is at the age where she picks out her own outfits. (Mommy hangs outfits all together on a hanger and she goes to her closets to pick one out) She is at such fun age!

I'm loving that its TAILGATE season. Go fighting ILL-INI!

I'm loving that hurricane Issac made us have a movie and Pj day on Saturday and we did NOTHING all day it was just what the Dr. ordered! (6 inches of rain in our area. Thankful for no flooding but still praying for the people who were truly affected by it!)

I'm loving that i didn't get out of my sweats at all on Saturday as well!

I'm loving that hurricane Issac stopped for our party on Sunday and this bright rainbow came out right in front of my grandmas house!

I'm loving the matching shirts i found for Bella & my cousin Sydney. Dance & Blind is my thing. These two are two peas in a pod!

I'm loving that we had lots of family time this weekend. Celebrating my Grandmas 70th birthday!

 

 

 

 

                                    

I'm loving that it 78 SHORT days Bella and I along with 15 of our friends and family will be in Cancun for 10 DAYS of solid bliss!!!

**Just a few things I'm loving on this Wednesday. What are you loving??**

Another Guest post!

Come see me at the Faboulous living like the kings I am guest posting for Kat today. She is one of my favorite people to read she has such good information ALL the time! I also like to stock follow her on instagram and get extremly jealous of her baking skills :)