What's Up Wednesday!

Happy, happy Wednesday! I'm linking up with Mix & Match Family for my first What's Up Wednesday! Here goes…

What we're eating this week:

We're spending a few days in Alabama this week with my family, and my dad got a new grill for Father's Day! He's been grilling out for us this week, and my mom has been cooking lots of fresh vegetables! Yummmmm :)

What I'm reminiscing about:

We've been cleaning out the garage at my parents' house, and it seems like it's is my stuff that's taking over. Whoops! Since we have a basement at our new house, we actually have space for me to put this stuff, so we're taking some back with us. Some of my favorite things I've found are 1) my American girl dolls!! The rest of their clothes have yet to be found, but I am DEFINITELY taking these back with me!! My Today Girl is even wearing an outfit from the American Girl Place in Chicago! :) We also found 2) My table and chairs that were given to me by my grandparents for my 2nd Christmas. These will go in Hank's room! And 3) This massive box of notes!!! This case is FILLED with notes from middle school and high school from my best friends. I die a little inside every time I find these.

What I'm loving: 

Catching up with some of my childhood friends this week at home!!! Crazy that our children are now becoming friends :) :) :)

Hank and his new friend, Rhett! Rhett's momma and I have been friends since we were almost this age!

My friend Sarah and I in our unplanned matching Old Navy dresses! :)

What we've been up to:

Signing a lease on a house, collecting moving boxes, Hank's doctor's appointments, visiting family in Alabama and Tennessee...

What I'm dreading:

PACKING! Ugh!

What I'm working on:

I've got some crafty projects coming up! I'm going to be redoing some furniture and decor, so I'm thinking up colors schemes and shopping for fabrics! Definitely excited about having a new project. :)

What I'm excited about:

MOVING!!! and setting up our new home!

What I'm watching/reading:

HGTV on Netflix (we don't have cable) and a new book called "Coffee, Tea, and Holy Water" by Amanda Hudson. This book is great so far! It's about a girl's travels around the world, learning about Christianity in other countries. 

What I'm listening to:

Hank's new babbles. We REALLY thought he said "Momma" the other day, but we're waiting on him to do it again to confirm. Haha

What I'm wearing:

LOTS of patriotic clothes! My favorite is this little smocked patriotic jon-jon by Smock Monkey. We got it from a fellow preemie mom whose twins weren't going to be able to wear it. I think Hank looks like a million bucks in it! :) 

What I'm doing this weekend:

We're heading out Friday morning to a state park in Tennessee for 2 of Jacob's family reunions! 

What I'm looking forward to next month:

Moving into our new home!!! 

What else is new:

My husband and family makes fun of me for obsessing over things. It's kind of a problem. Right now I'm obsessing over the placement of all our furniture in our new home -- it will literally keep me up at night thinking about it! It's just too exciting to me!, Hank's first birthday party (which is only 2 1/2 months away!!!!! Oh my goodness.), and the fall pre-order going on right now (for 2 more days!) at The Smocking Bug. OH MY GOSH I WANT ALL OF THEM!!! 

Hope yall have a great rest of your week!!

Friday Favorites!

It's time for…… FRIDAY FAVORITES!!! I'm a little behind this week, but I have a second cup of coffee in hand and am ready to go! Thought I'd write about a couple of exciting things that are happening in our family! :)

(Linking up with Andrea for this Friday Favorites!

One. 

I thought I'd post a photo of my FAVORITE little kiddo!! We had a 9 month checkup this morning, and he is soaring high with flying colors! He's up to 18 pounds & 4 ounces and in the 25th percentile for his age!! For his gestational age (6 months) he's in the 64th percentile! We have come a long way from his 2 pounds 12 ounces birth weight! 

This past week we had Hank's 9 month photoshoot with Sarah Mesa Photography. Sarah has done Hank's 3 month (newborn, since we weren't able to have a traditional newborn photoshoot in the NICU), 6 month, and now 9 month photos. Here are some of my FAVORITES from the photoshoots!

3 months (first weekend at home)

6 months

9 month preview

We love working with Sarah and can't wait to see the rest of his pictures!!

Two.

OUR NEW HOUSE!!! It took some convincing, but Jacob finally got on board with finding our family a rental home instead of an apartment! We are both so excited that we found the perfect place for our family, and we move in on August 1st! It was built in 1954, is in a wonderful neighborhood, and has TONS of storage -- something our current home is severely lacking in!! =P

In our new living room! We are all so excited!

Sweet little kitchen with a stainless steel fridge with an ICE MAKER!!!!!!! You have no idea how happy that makes me!! We also plan to paint that crimson red wall with a more neutral color. We DEFINITELY appreciate the crimson (Roll Tide) -- it just doesn't match some of our turquoise furniture. Lol.

We have a backyard!!! I am so excited about this! You can't tell much in this photo, but to the right there is a retaining wall that goes up to another decent sized plot of land. We plan to make this into a garden! I am so excited to think about Hank playing in a little swingset in the backyard at our new home! 

There are some quirky things that we will have to work our way around (like a basement staircase in our tiny tiny "spare room" bedroom, but we feel like the pros of this sweet house are worth finding ways to be creative with things like that! We can't wait to move in and have people over! :)

Thanks for stopping by, and have yourself a wonderful weekend!

Balsamic Brussel Sprouts with Bacon Recipe

Happy Monday, friends! Hope you all had a wonderful weekend! We had an exciting weekend of (rental) house hunting!! More to come on that later. :) But today I want to share one of my most FAVORITE side dish recipes with you -- Balsamic Brussel Sprouts and Bacon. If you're like me, brussel sprouts were a BIG FAT NO when you were a kid. My sister LOVED them, but our dog definitely got her fair share of these things from my end of the table. But as I've grown into a wiser and more experienced person through the years (Ha!), I've found that adding bacon and olive oil makes everything better. Well, maybe except Strawberry Pretzel Salad. But everything else -- YES. We now have brussel sprouts at our house at least every two weeks. Who would've guessed!?? And it's even pleasing to meat-and-potatoes picky-eater husbands! (You say bacon and they come running -- can I get an amen?) I usually make this with a "little bit of this, little bit of that" tactic, but last week I tried to nail down a recipe for you to try. I hope you enjoy!

Here are your ingredients. Pretty simple!

First preheat your oven to 400 and prepare a baking sheet with aluminum foil and nonstick spray. Chop your onion and cut up around 6 pieces of bacon into chunks. (Or more if you so desire! I use my kitchen scissors to make is easier). Cut the brussel sprouts into halves and put on your prepared baking sheet. (FYI: Kroger has a bag of brussel sprouts that I use. I don't have the size on hand, but you can really use as many sprouts as you want!) Saute the onion and bacon chunks in olive oil and balsamic vinegar until onion is slightly browned and bacon is about halfway cooked. It should look like this:

….and it will smell DELICIOUS!!!!!

Dump the whole pan, juices and all, onto the baking sheet with the sprouts. Spread everything out evenly, then drizzle with 1/4 cup olive oil and 1/8 cup balsamic vinegar (or more, if you want! They just probably won't end up as crispy), then toss to combine. Season with a teaspoon of garlic powder and salt and pepper to taste. Bake at 400 for around 35-40 minutes, until they're as crispy as you prefer! Flip every 15 minutes or so, so everything gets evenly roasted.

I typically would cook these a bit longer, because we like them VERRRRY crispy… as in, almost burnt. And maybe even kind of burnt. Okay burnt. But since most normal people probably don't prefer burnt food, I figured I'd cook them the normal way this time. ;) 

My stomach is literally growling right now.

ENJOY!!!!!!! :)

Friday Favorites!

Happy Friday, friends!!! Hope you all have had an amazing week! 

I'm linking up with Andrea from Mix and Match Family again today for another round of Friday Favorites. This one's going to be filled with a lot of pics from our mini vacation to CHICAGO!!!! *Insert a million heart eyes emojis here.* We left Tuesday morning and arrived around lunch time and got back around midnight last night. It was a quick trip but so needed! I had forgotten how much I absolutely love Chicago and miss being in a big city. (Louisville is not what I consider a big city -- ha!) And it was great to spend some quality time with my favorite family! :) I'm going to hit some highlights from our trip and tell you a little about my favorite things we did. 

One. 

Food. Let's just go ahead and get that out of the way! ;) We had some restaurant suggestions from a Chicagoan before we left, so we came prepared. For our first meal we had some amazing Chicago hot dogs from a place called Flub a Dub Chub's. You literally cannot get more "hole in the wall" than this. We almost missed it walking by because you have to go down into a basement to get there! It was an amazing way to break the ice though! We also ended up eating pizza one two THREE times. I'm not ashamed. We tried out Giordano's the first night, but our favorite was a friend-recommended placed called Lou Malnati's. It's definitely not a hole in the wall, but it was fabulous! We ate there twice and got their special deep dish Chicago style pizza. We had never had the true deep dish before (Pizza Hut is lying when they say "deep dish," we now know! Ha!) and we LOVED it. So good! 

Flub a Dub Chub's hot dogs!

   

Deep dish pizza at Giordano's

Hank and I at Lou Malnati's 

Two. 

THE AMERICAN GIRL PLACE. Cue happy tears, childhood memories, and emotion overload! I came to this store when I was a little girl and loved it, and I loved it again this time! In storage at my parent's house I have Molly, Felicity, a Today Girl, and a Bitty Baby. Molly and Felicity are both sadly now retired, but I almost want to put Grace on my Christmas list this year!! Lol! A French baker doll?? Yes please!! And who knew they had BITTY TWINS now?!!!! Oh my, the cuteness!!! 

Three. 

Our walk from Lincoln Park Zoo to Millennium Park! Okay, this is actually a love/hate relationship, but we experienced some great things along the way! We started at Lincoln Park Zoo (which is a great, FREE place to go if you're ever in Chicago!) and walked the whole 2.7 miles 47 trillion miles to see "The Bean" at Millennium Park. I really do think our map was wrong, because 2.7 miles seemed A LOT longer than it should have! But we got to walk through some beautiful neighborhoods, see the incredible Magnificent Mile, and take some selfies at The Bean (Cloud Gate)!

Daddy and Hank at the zoo!

Beautiful (and expensive) neighborhoods on the way from the zoo to the Bean!

Bridge near the Magnificent Mile

We made it to The Bean!

Mandatory selfie

Four.

Water! On Wednesday we walked a couple of miles down to Navy Pier, and we stopped at the Ohio Street Beach along the way! Sadly we didn't know this man-made beach existed or we would have brought swimsuits!! But nonetheless Hank got to experience his first "beach," and it was a fun way to cool off a little bit. Wednesday night we picked up our Groupon tickets for an architectural boat cruise on Lake Michigan, and this is easily my favorite thing we did in Chicago! We took off from Navy Pier and got to ride through the beautiful city while learning about all the buildings. Hank also got to experience his first boat ride, and he loved it when he wasn't asleep! :D 

Ohio Street Beach

Hank's first boat ride!

The beautiful Chicago skyline, up close and personal!

Five.

Family time! Not only did I get to spend a couple of quality days with my two favorite boys, but Thursday before we came home, we also got to see my sister and sweet nephew, Eli! They live in Wisconsin, so they drove an hour and a half to spend part of the day with us before we had to head back to Louisville. 

Told you there were going to be a lot of pictures!!! :D I'm so glad to have been able to spend a few refreshing days with some of my favorites, doing some of my favorite old and new things! I hope you guys have a wonderful weekend! :)

Strawberry Pretzel Salad Recipe

Happy Monday, everyone! I hope you all had a fabulous weekend! My weekend was busy but great! Saturday I had the honor of helping host a sweet friend's baby shower for her first baby girl, due September 3rd! She and her husband have adopted two precious boys, so we had to fix her up with some pink!! :) It was such a sweet time. 

Sweet, glowing Sarah!

Yummy food table!

Two words: COFFEE. PUNCH. If you've never had it, you are missing out on an addiction!

The shower was at 10:30, so we made brunch food. One of the things I volunteered to bring is a southern STAPLE where I'm from in Alabama -- Strawberry Pretzel Salad. You will not find ANY green on this salad, though! (But hey, it's called salad so it's healthy, right???) In my hometown, you will find this dish at barbecues, baby showers, church potluck dinners, and cutesy restaurants where moms and daughters frequent. It's the perfect mix of salty and sweet! And it's one of my favorite desserts salads, so I thought I'd share the recipe with you!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

First you need to crush up some pretzels! (If you have kids, this is a great job for them. ;)) I used the checkered kind, but any kind will do. You'll want to crush them into bits/chunks, not powder, so you still have a crunch when you eat it. Mix with melted butter and sugar and press evenly into a 9x13 pan. Bake on 375 for 8 minutes, and then let cool completely. 

Next, combine softened cream cheese, thawed Cool Whip, and sugar. I've seen people use up to 1 whole cup of sugar for this part, but I used half a cup, because there is definitely not a shortage of sugar in this recipe! But if you have a super sweet tooth, by all means, you go for it!! Mix these 3 ingredients until smooth and creamy, then spread across the cooled pretzel layer. 

Now for the third layer, slice up some fresh strawberries! You can also use a couple of bags of frozen strawberries for this part (and it will probably even help the Jell-O to set faster), but I love fresh! I could just jump in that bowl right now! Mmmm.

Lastly, combine your strawberry Jell-O with boiling water, then add your strawberries! Let that sit for just a few minutes, then pour over your cream layer. Spread the strawberries evenly. 

Voila! Now put that in the fridge for at least 4 hours, until the Jell-O is set, and you will have many new best friends when you serve it. You can add a dollop of whipped cream and a slice of fresh strawberry for presentation if you want! 

A few notes: Even though you want the Jell-O to set in the fridge for 4 hours, I would recommend making this dish the day you're going to serve it. That way the pretzels still stay crunchy instead of soft! I wasn't able to do that this time because I wasn't going to get up at 4am to make a strawberry pretzel salad!!! =P Also, be careful when putting it in the fridge, and make sure you have a flat surface. I did neither this time. Ha! Too much wiggling it around, so some of my Jell-O layer seeped down to the pretzel layer. I tried to fix the appearance with some Reddi-Whip. ;)

There you go! I hope you enjoy! If you bring this to your 4th of July BBQ, I promise it will be a hit! :) Have a great week!

Friday Favorites

Hello there! And welcome to my brand new Hatcher Homemade blog! We are going to be figuring out this thing together. ;) I've been wanting to create a food/crafty blog for a while now, and thanks to some advice and encouragement from my friend Sarah Shaneyfelt, I'm finally going to give it a go! (Sarah is a childhood friend of mine, and you can check out her amazing blog at http://meettheshaneyfelts.blogspot.com.) For my first post, I want to link up with a blog called Mix and Match Family and tell you all about my "Friday Favorites!" :)

One.

My Social Book. For those that don't know our family, in September I gave birth to our precious Hank. He was born prematurely at 27 weeks on the nose, weighing 2 pounds 12 ounces and measuring 14 inches. We spent 10 weeks and 1 day in the NICU with him, and we experienced everything from a heart surgery, blood transfusion, MRI's, UTI's, Brady episodes, and many other frightening things. He came home with us on Thanksgiving Day, oxygen tank in tow! Throughout our NICU experience, we kept people updated through Facebook. I wanted to find a way to put these posts (along with all the comments from his prayer warriors) into a book, but I had no idea how, other than printing everything and putting it into a huge binder! I put some feelers out and several people told me about mysocialbook.com. In just a few clicks, our 10 week NICU journey was put into a hardcover book for a great price and was delivered to my door in a little over a week. This is now one of my most prized possessions, and I can't wait for Hank to be old enough to flip through these 200 pages and see how great God is and how loved and supported he was and is!

Two.

My new favorite Pinterest meal -- Korean Beef with Asian Style Stir Fried Green Beans! This meal is so super easy and QUICK! It literally takes as long as browning ground beef, because that's pretty much all you do!! I've made it twice now, and it's definitely become one of my favorite go to's when we're short on time for dinner.  AND I love something that's got some kick to it! (You can make this meal as spicy or mild as you want, though). 

Three.

Our "new" media table!!! This table has been in my family for as long as I can remember. It used to be an end table in my parents' living room when I was a child, and then when they got new furniture, it was moved to the garage. When I moved to college, I got a lot of hand-me-down furniture, and this piece was my favorite! The only change I made then was a quick switcharoo of the knobs. I changed the brass knobs and put these vintage knobs on. (Vintage as in they came off my mom's childhood bedroom suite that my dad and I refinished several years ago! :)) I don't ACTUALLY know how old this piece is, but it was definitely time way past time for some refinishing, as you can see. I plan to do a separate post with steps and more photos, but for now, here's a before and after!

Thanks for stopping by! I'm looking forward to this new adventure! :)