Time Gone By and the Holidays

HEEEELLLLLOOOOO there!

I just realized my most recent post was from September 6th.....

SEPTEMBER 6th PEOPLE!!

... I apologize for my lack of creativity and communication.

That being said, and I know I've said before, things are a changin' round these parts!

We have so much to be thankful for, and I am especially thankful this season for a new opportunity that awaits me, as a 100% stay at home mom!

YIPPIE!

I am so so so happy that I can dedicate my time and energy to our handsome son and that when our sweet daughter arrives in a few months, that I will have ample time to bond with her.

I am sad to leave my current position at the bank, but know that home with my kiddos is where my heart is, and where I need to be.

That being said....

We will have family here for basically the entire next month, but once the new year arrives, Lord willing, I plan to get back at it with craft projects, home improvement, family, ministry and photography posts!

Enjoy the holidays!

Bubble Pizza

I grew up with a family homemade pizza recipe consisting of French bread and the fixings. 

I liked it. 

I recently made it for my family, however, and the bread got super soggy from the sauce and the cheese was too thick... It just didn't hit the spot. (You know, the kind of dinner where you are thinking about which kind of cereal you are going to eat after the kid is asleep before you even leave the dinner table). Ha.

Anyways, I saw this type of pizza on Pinterest and when the biscuits were on sale this week PLUS a coupon, I knew it was meant to be! 

I sprayed the pan so it wouldn't stick, and laid out the biscuits and flattened them a bit to help cover more of the 9x13 pan and then dashed Italian seasoning, garlic salt and basil on the dough to give the crust some flavor! You toss this in the oven for 10 minutes @ 400.

When the timer went off I dumped one jar of great value pizza sauce on, placed pepperoni in and then layered some cheddar and mozzarella cheese and a few black olives! Plop it back in the oven for 20 more minutes and your done! 

Easy. As. That.

I think my favorite part was that because the "crust" is individual biscuits, they are kinda like mini pizzas (no cutting and No messy cheesy sauciness) they just pop out with a spatula easy as can be! 

The biscuits were nice and crispy on bottom and soft on top. ( if you don't prebake them for 10 minutes I heard they won't cook through (yuck).  

Give it a try with your favorite toppings and let me know how it turns out!

-Paige 

Forever and a year

I have been horrible this summer! We moved, I started a new job, we found out we are expecting another baby and we've been getting settled in our role at the church! Not that that is any excuse to let the blog slip, but phew! We've been busy! There is one more big thing I store for us that I can't quuuiiittteee let you all in on. It's exciting. And in a few months you will know all about it! :) I hope you all had a wonderful summer, it's 55 degrees out today here in wyoming... Brr! I think summer is OVER! Happy Monday, and I'll do my best to keep up with the blog much more frequently! 

The Living Room

This room is probably my husbands favorite. To say that he was thrilled to move to a town where the outdoor, cabin-y, natural theme was the norm would be an understatement. 

When we walked into this house and I saw the trim I thought. "our furniture will look AWESOME in here!" and I was correct! The wood and slate furniture we have matches so nicely with the wood trim. 

If I had to give this room a design title, it would be naturally calming. I say this because the pale blue walls immediately put me at peace, they are so relaxing. The wood accents, wicker, browns and greens, as well as out art all are natural pieces. 

If you notice, not much furniture is up against the walls. After living in such a small apartment, where everything HAD to be up against walls to even walk through the room, I love the feel os space all around! 

Also, THOSE SKY LIGHTS! I love natural light, and these skylights are so wonderful! I love listening to the rain hit them, and we all love napping in the beam of sunlight they let into our home!

This little baskets resides on Dakotah's crate. It is out catch all and a life saver for that everyday clutter (mail, bobby pins, binkies, wallets, receipts) you name it, it's probably found a home in this basket at one point. It eliminates a pile of junk landing on my kitchen table!

See my sofa table over there? yeah, its not against the couch anymore! I rearranged the other day and I really like it against the wall! It houses our phone, some books, and some of my favorite decorations on the top shelf, our "yard blanket" and James' shoe basket on the first shelf. The rest of the first shelf and middle shelf hold toys for James. I like them back here - not because they are my favorite decorations, but because they have a home, and can be put AWAY at night when he goes to bed and I dont have to look at them!

  

 

My "sofa table" is our latest DIY project. We took two cheap Wal-Mart (mainstays) 3 shelf book shelves and placed a 12" board on top, and trimmed it with a cheap trim we found at our local hardware store. Jimmy stained it (and did the rest of the work) and its BEAUTIFUL! It does not have a back, so it just slides on and off, if I want two book cases again, I can have them in two minutes!The blue book in the above photo is our wedding guest book. My mom sliced out all the old pages and fitted it with clean cardstock. All of our guests wrote us a little message and then my mom printed off wedding portraits and placed them throughout. It is one of my favorite things!
This Lamp is form Walmart as well, have you checked out their lamp section? its pretty killer!

Seriously, how amazing are these curtain rods?? Guess where? Yep. Walmart again. 

**NOTE: there is not a target within 300 miles of me, that is why most all of my newer things are WalMart finds!**

The window ledge holds all elk scouting equipment, nicely organized and hidden in another basket!

$2 yard sale oak coffee table find! SCORE of the YEAR!

Thats our living room! One of my favorite spaces, and one that gets ALOT of use!

House Tour: Before you enter

The long awaited and anticipated house tour has begun!

I decided it just makes sense to start as you pull into our drive way. Our current Home sweet home  Rental sweet Rental is a duplex. It doesn't feel or even really look like one, since we are on a corner lot, and our home and our neighbors home enter from different streets. 

I fell in love with the teal-y color that the outside is painted the moment we pulled up to check out the property. After moving in, we realized that on the side where the house doesn't get much sun, the pain is GREEN. and I mean G.R.E.E.N. I've never been so thankful for sun fading, ha! 

I know you just want photos, so here they are. They aren't too exciting, but I sure do love our little patio and our wonderful yard! 

Isn't our matching dog house the cutest? Jimmy did an awesome job with it, trim and all! (come on sun fading!)

I got the yellow pillows at Target, they are Room Essentials brand. They have had a home in our bedroom, living room, and now, the porch! Think they add a fun pop of color and look great with my flower pot from Walmart.  

cute boy playing in his yard!

This patio set is also from walmart, you can find it here.

Well, thats it! The exterior of our wonderful home! 

~paige

From here

I must confess, I am writing this post from here, chin deep in a bubble bath, indulging in some "Mother's Day chocolate"... Bliss. 

From here I enjoy listening to the sounds of my son & husband playing with blocks.

Today we went to our church to check out worship practice for the morning service, from here I am blessed with the sounds of hymns being sung from the lips of our new congregation members.

This morning we stopping in the local fly shop where my husband picked up his graduation gift- a new fly rod, from here I watch the smile beam across his face, thankful to be back to the mountainous wilderness. 

This evening we went for a drive into the mountains. From there, you ask? From there I watched herds I elk roam about, mulies hop fences and my husband gaze upon the beautiful creation from God that we get the privileged to call our new home. 

From here, I am blessed. I am exited. I am home.

High five for Friday!

Well, we made it! Jimmy graduated from TBC with his bachelors in Christian leadership pastoral & youth, biblical studies and a minor is psychology and counseling! So so proud of him! 

We arrived in wyoming at our new home, errr ... home for the next week while we wait to move into our real home, on Monday! 

We picked up the newest member of the Tolle house on our way here, we now have a sweet, 7 week old yellow/red lab, Dakotah. 

We got keys to our church! That's pretty exciting! 

We aquired two la-z-boys, gifted to us! Since our entire house is still packed up (waiting to move to our real home) we are more than thankful to be relaxing in chairs tonight and not on an air matress! Haha! 

Tonight we had pizza and are watching the back to the future trilogy! Loving some family r&r these days!