{Recipes} Lasagna Roll Ups

As a working mom, this girl is always on the hunt for quick and easy meal ideas. So often I don't arrive home until close to 6 each night and by the time I get Harper's things unpacked, get her a snack, and spend some time with her, I'm not left with a ton of time for meal prep. So when I came across this deliciousness I made up my mind to try them. With only four ingredients, all of which we always have on hand, and just 25 minutes to make, I was game. And ladies, I am telling you, they are delicious. Do yourself a favor and go make them! These are definitely becoming a family favorite and will be in our weekly meal rotations (:

Ingredients
6 lasagna noodles (though I use 9 so I can freeze some for later)
1 pound ground beef
1 regular sized jar of spaghetti sauce
2 cups of mozzarella cheese

Directions
1. Cook lasagna noodles. While lasagna noodles are cooking, brown ground beef. Drain grease from ground beef and add in spaghetti sauce.
2. Drain lasagna noodles. Spoon spaghetti mixture onto center of noodle. Sprinkle cheese on top of sauce, Roll up. Lay seam side down in baking dish.
3, Continue process until all noodles have been done.
4. Spoon remaining sauce on top of noodles. Top with remaining cheese.
5. Bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes!

I promise you'll love it!

{Weekend Recap} Birthday Celebrations

Last Friday was my birthday. For those of you wondering, I turned 26. Unlike some people, I'm not one to make my birthday a week long affair because it's just another day in reality (though I'm not dissing people who celebrate all week...that's their perogative). But thanks to some of my amazing friends and family, my usual one day celebration became a weekend all about me. And after the last few weeks I've had, it actually felt great to be given so much love and attention by those closest to me. It really puts things into perspective and made me realize who are the important people in my life and who aren't. Ya know? But back to my birthday... sorry to get so sappy. I just get a little emotional with how blessed I really am. So often I forget...

On Friday, I got to start my birthday off with a delay at work due to the potential threat of black ice. In a nutshell, that meant an extra hour of sleep for this girl and who doesn't want to start off their birthday with extra sleep?! After dropping Harper off at daycare an hour or so later than usual, I headed in to work. When I got there my lovely coworker, Elizabeth, had brought me a gravy biscuit, home fries, and a nice ice cold Coke from one of my favorite breakfast spots from the other side of town. It was the cherry on top for my morning.

But that wasn't the end of it, because at lunch, as all of my teammates and I gathered around our teacher table, they broke out some yummy cupcakes and a birthday card complete with a gift card to Old Navy/ Gap/ Banana Republic (which I may or may not have already used to purchase two of these and Harper a pair of these). These lovely ladies know me so well!

To end my birthday, my in laws came to the house to watch Harper while Kevin and I headed to Olive Garden for dinner with some of our closest friends. One couple of which, had just announced that they were expecting, so we could not have been more excited to catch up with them and to hear all about how their pregnancy was progressing. And after hearing all of it, I can't help but say, Kevin and my baby fever grew even larger... if that was even possible :P

On Saturday Kevin had to work so Harper and I spent the morning sleeping in. By the time we woke up and got ready, it was time for Kevin's breakfast break so we loaded up the car and headed out to meet him. As his break was nearing to a close, my dad called wanting Harper and I to meet him and my mom for brunch...compliments of him of course (;. So in typical Saturday fashion, we headed to meet them at Farmer's Table, one of our favorite breakfast stops. And we may or may not have been dressed as total bums :P

By the time Harper and I returned home it was nap time so I put Harper to bed. However, she wasn't hearing any of it so after an hour of hearing her kick her bed or scream her head off, I caved and headed up to her room to get her. Of course, as I opened the door, I was greeted by a little cutie that had heavy eyelids and a huge smile on her face. I was totally played. So I took her out of her bed and headed for her rocking chair. Not thirty seconds into a rhythm, she was snoring in my arms. Instead of putting her down, I cherished the moment and spent the next two and a half hours just rocking her and soaking up that moment. Because just that day she turned 22 months old and it only seemed like yesterday that I was rocking her and she was two weeks old. Time has truly flown by so quickly.

When Kevin got home from a twelve hour shift at work, my parents came over and offered to keep Harper so Kevin and I could enjoy dinner out with my sister and brother in law. So while Harper hung out with my Mom and Dad, we grubbed on some steaks from one of my favorites, Texas Roadhouse. And of course, no trip there is complete without popping into the Target next door (; Who can say no to Target? Or this adorable bathing suit I found making it's way to my cart!

Sunday morning, Kevin had to head in yet again for another 12 hour shift at work. So has become the norm for the Holt household. So while he worked, I got up early to get ready for church and do some things around the house. Harper ended up sleeping in later than usual which definitely helped considering we'd lost an hour of sleep but more importantly, an hour of time I needed to tackle some much needed house chores. So I was definitely thanking the good Lord above.

Before heading to church, Harper and I met Kevin for breakfast. And of course, after the church service, Harper and I headed over to my parents' house for lunch with the family and my friend Brittni, who has become a permanent fixture during our Sunday lunches. Mom and Dad have just adopted her as their own (; We ended up spending most of the day there. We all sat around and chatted, brainstormed our itenerary for our upcoming trip to Charleston, and Brittni and I even took my brother's new convertible for a spin! Good thing it's insured (; haha And while we're on that topic, as Brittni and I were fixing to go for a ride, Harper ran to her carseat that was sitting in my parents' floor and kept pointing back and forth outside to Andrew's car and my Dad, saying "car, car". A clear indication she wanted to ride too. It was precious!

By the time we did end up leaving, it was sometime after 4 and Harper was way past the point of naptime. But since she was going strong, we decided to head to Belk to do some shopping with Brittni or B as Harper calls her. Usually I drive but Brittni offered to this round so we popped Harper's car seat over and I'd say she was in heaven. She laid back with her hand behind her head and her ankles crossed and looked like quite the little grown up. Be still my heart.... After grabbing these and these, we headed home with some Cook Out trays in tow. 

It couldn't have been a more perfect birthday weekend or a more perfect weekend for that matter! Here's to hoping the next one is just as sweet (:

A Trip to Safari Nation

Over the last few weeks, NC has seen it's fair share of snow. Needless to say, schools have been cancelled and we've spent quite a bit of time at home. Normally I'm all for the break but factor in being stuck inside 24/7 with a rambunctious toddler and you've got your fair share of meltdowns and headaches. Parenthood isn't always rainbows and butterflies my friends. Though, truth be told, I wouldn't have it any other way. 

So after being stuck inside a few days during one of our first rounds of snow, Kevin, Harper, and I headed out to meet up with some family friends for lunch and a play date and it was most definitely what the good Lord ordered. Our families had such an absolute blast and it felt wonderful being able to get out in the fresh air after being cooped up inside for what had felt like forever. Shortly after 11, we met up with the Loye Family, at a local Ham's restaurant for some sandwiches and sides. When lunch was over we headed over to Safari Nation, an indoor inflatable park, so the kids could get some energy out. I wasn't quite sure how it would go considering it was right smack dab in the middle of Harper's nap time but she acted like a champ and played her little heart out with two of her favorite buddies. I'll let the pictures do the rest of the talking!

If you want to see more of the Loye Family, head here to see Stacey's adorable blog and all of her super creative ides!

Dining Room Chair Update

Happy Monday, ladies! I don't have much of a weekend recap for you all today. Thanks to the snow from last week, I had an extra long weekend. Most of it was spent at home doing some spring cleaning, tackling some project or another, or soaking up some time as a family. All in all it wasn't a bad weekend, just one I doubt you guys would be interested in reading about.

But I wanted to pop in and wish you all a great start to the week. I also wanted to send a thank you out to those of you who offered your opinions in my dining room chair dilemma post from last Friday. Saturday night after getting home from my nephew's birthday dinner at PF Changs, I decided to put together the four chairs sitting in my foyer. After doing so, my mind was made up. The chairs were definitely keepers! Now I just need two more. Go figure... they're currently sold out. But thanks to some much needed assurance from a Target customer service rep, they will soon be back in stock and hopefully be completing my dining room in no time!

Aren't they pretty?! (Sorry, part of the table is cut out... that side doesn't have chairs yet :X haha)

Well, I'm off! Check back tomorrow to see what we did on one of our snow days (:

{Five on Friday} Life Lately Edition

Happy Friday, ladies! So things have gotten busy again here in the Holt household so I figured I'd just dedicate today's post to a Life Lately Edition and catch you all up on some things happening around here. So let's get this show on the road...

1. A New Look

So you probably have noticed by now the ole blog got a fresh new look. After scouring for months for a new blog template, I finally pulled the trigger on this one from Brand Me Beautiful and I am in love. I still have a few things to add and to tweak but for now I couldn't help but share it and make it go live. The bold black and white with pops of gold make me giddy!

2. Snow Days

As I mentioned last week, NC got hit with some snow days. The kids ended up missing an entire week of school and teachers only reported for a few hours two days last week. I thought that was the end of it and then Tuesday morning I woke up to snow coming down and school cancelled. The weathermen totally missed that one and the roads had not been prepared. Needless to say, it was a disaster and lots of accidents happened. Thankfully not involving me. And then, Wednesday night, we were blessed with more snow. And by snow, I truly mean a winter wonderland. We got right around 6 inches of pure snow at our house and it couldn't be more beautiful. Just look at the pictures and decide for yourself.

3.  Sick Days

Sunday night after heading out for dinner, I came home and noticed I felt cold and a bit achy. I didn't think much of it as we had just came in from outside so I threw on some sweats, curled up in bed, and called it a night. On Monday morning when I woke up, I realized I couldn't have been more wrong. I felt like I had been hit by a truck. I had no energy and could barely move. But in an effort to push through, I took some medicine and made my way to work. By lunchtime I realized that was a mistake and as soon as I was able to go home, that's where I headed. On Tuesday I woke up feeling much better but decided to call the doctor and pop in for a visit just to be sure I hadn't had a virus or anything. When I arrived they checked my temperature and when the sweet little nurse said my temperate was over 102, I happily told her it was wrong. But after another quick check, the thermometer showed the same numbers. I was floored. I didn't feel warm and my cheeks weren't flushed. After telling the doctor my symptoms, he ran a strep test as a precaution and boom, that's what I had. A very severe case of it in fact. Yet again, I was floored because my throat didn't even hurt!! How crazy is that?!

4. Harper's Big Girl Room

Yesterday I purchased Harper's big girl bedding. We have no intentions of switching her over to our guest room until Baby Holt #2 makes his/her appearance, but since he/she doesn't exist yet, we've got a while. I hadn't intended to purchase her bedding anytime soon but after finding it for a STEAL, I had to go on and get it. And let's be real, I have no objections with decorating a room. So at least I get to get an early start (;

5. Dining Room Chair Debate

A couple of weeks ago, I purchased some new chairs for our dining room. I am so absolutely in love with them and even decided I wanted to go back and order more. That was until the husband told me he thought they looked too short for our dining room table. So ladies, give me your opinion? Are these chairs too short? Or do you think they just look short because our current ones were high backed?

Cast your vote and give me your thoughts!