Ricotta Blueberry Muffins

I LOVE to cook and bake!  It makes me so happy that you can mix certain ingredients together and make something amazing!  I am so excited to share one of my all time favorite breakfast muffins with you. They are adapted from Skinny Taste's Chocolate Chip Ricotta Muffins which are to die for as well! I wanted to make this a little more "healthy", so I added blueberries instead of Chocolate Chips...that's really the only difference, but it gives it such a different flavor!  Here's what you need!

*2 cups cake flour
*1 tsp baking soda
*3/4 cup sugar
*3 large egg whites
*1/4 cup butter (melted)
*8 oz. ricotta cheese
*1/2 tbsp vanilla 
*1 pint basket blueberries (or more if you'd like)

First in a bowl combine the flour and baking soda, set aside.  In another bowl, mix together sugar and butter until it's combined well and add the egg whites.  Next you'll add the ricotta cheese.  Once all of that is mixed up nicely, add the flour mixture and the vanilla. And lastly, fold in the blueberries.  The batter is pretty thick and sticky but that's perfect!  Spoon into muffin cups and bake at 375 degrees for 15 minutes or until a little brown on top.  DELICIOUS!!  And here is a fresh batch right out of my oven!

Hope you all find time to make these delicious little creatures! Enjoy!!

InstaFriday

Hello there! I am starting a new link up every Friday at Life Rearranged.  I will be linking up my weekly pics from Instagram. It's always fun to me to see how people spend their days...kinda stalker-ish I know but hey, it's fun! :) Head on over and say hello if you'd like! Here's what we were up to this week!

This little love was sick most of the week last week so we decided to get out and spend a day shopping...she brings her stroller everywhere!

This face I tell you literally almost KILLS ME!! She is such a happy girl and LOVES getting her pictures taken!

 It's been so nice here we had to spend some time outside. We finally got a swing for Kensie to add to the swing set so it was perfect and they loved swinging together!

My husband and I will be married for 10 years this month! I can't believe how fast time has gone! I have been wanting boots for A LONG TIME and we found these and he got them for me for our anniversary...what a sweet man I have!

I figure I've always been a pretty organized person, but I love organizing other people's things more than mine! haha! A wonderful blog that i follow called  i heart organizing shared her budget binder and planner on her blog and I fell in love with them! The binders and title plaques are Martha Stewart from Staples!

I hope you all have a marvelous weekend!

Favorites of 2012 via Instagram

2012 was definitely a big year for us! So many huge things happened and it is a year I will remember forever. Two of the biggest moments for me was the birth of my second daughter and purchasing our first home! Not every moment was great but we continue to focus on the blessings!  God truly blessed us in so many ways last year and I am looking forward to what's in store for us in 2013!

My wish came true when I found out baby Carter was a girl

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We took our last vacation as a family of 3 to the Grand California Hotel at Disneyland

Enjoyed my last time being pregnant

My beautiful daughter Kensington Claire was born
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Sisters!

Our first home!
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I hope you all have had a wonderful New Year so far! I'd love to hear what happened in your 2012!! 
 

A few Christmas Highlights

Happy Sunday everyone! I thought I would share a few of our highlights from Christmas! I have to preface this by saying they are mostly all of my girls but those were my highlights! :) We pretty much had 3 different Christmases on different days and all of them were quiet and lovely! 

 my beautiful girls before our Christmas eve service 

 after Christmas eve service...all 4 of us!

 Kaydence opening her gift from Santa!

 Kensie's gift from Santa...not realizing she's not supposed to sit in it :) haha

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year! Enjoy the rest of your weekend!!

Our New Home

I am back! And hopefully a couple times a week! I've missed you all so much!  Thought I'd kick off my return with our new house.  December was a bit busy to say the least! Being married to a worship leader makes him pretty much non existent during Christmas time, and of course this year we had to buy a house in the middle of it all! We were so fortunate to be able to buy the home of our dreams and we moved in on December 14th! I'll share some pictures of it empty as we saw it. She is a beauty and we couldn't be more excited! I'll share pictures of it decorated soon. 

 I still get excited seeing this picture! I remember thinking..."there is no way we could ever afford this!"

The entryway...love the wrought iron!

Living room...don't mind the random car seat and don't worry there was no baby in there! :)

I actually have a big girl kitchen!

We actually have a dining room now too!

Master Bedroom with a sitting area

Those were some of the pictures we took when we first saw it. Hoping and praying it would be ours! I can't wait to show you pictures of it decorated soon!

Wow! Where Have I Been?

Things have been a bit busy around our house since the birth of my second daughter! Adjusting to two kids was harder than I had anticipated... I know there are many of you out there that have 3,4,5 and so on kids and I applaud you! I am going to get back into blogging more often now that we have sort of settled into a routine! I also have some very exciting news that will give me A LOT of projects...I am happy to announce that we are going to be home owners! Hopefully escrow will close by the end of this month. Keep checking back for updates and fun little projects I find to do around the new house! Til next time...  

Our New Addition!

Wow! I cannot believe that I have neglected this blog for so long! I honestly have no idea when I am going to get back to crafting because I have my hands full with two littles now! Yes that's right, my second daughter Kensington Claire was born on June 19, 2012 weighing 8lb 3oz and measuring 19 inches long. We are so in love with this little girl!  Here are a couple pictures from the hospital, then the third is my favorite picture that I will ever have. My oldest daughter meeting her sister for the first time!

Photo by Sara Lucero

Photo by Sara Lucero

 

Here she is at 7 weeks! Love her little face!

 

I'm sure I will be sharing a lot more of my new addition soon. I'm trying to figure out the exact direction of this blog now. I will for sure be crafting again at some point but may be adding a little more family and personal posts...we'll see. Let me know your thoughts! Thanks everyone for being such faithful readers and hanging in there with me! 

A Long Over Due Post with Maternity Pics and Baby Shower! Whoo Hoo!

Oh my dear, dear readers. I feel like such a bad friend! I honestly have not been doing much since the pregnancy due to some minor complications that have hindered me from doing much of anything. I have a hernia which limits most of what I would normally do, so the crafting has been put on the back burner for a while. I did however get my little girl's room finished and those pics will be coming soon! But for now I decided to share a few of my maternity pictures taken by my wonderful friend LeAnn Salazar at Pure Photography, and a baby shower that I couldn't have even imagined if I tried, also thrown by LeAnn and her sister Ashley. I am very lucky to be able to call them my friends!

These were taken when I was about 30 weeks and I am now 34 weeks so I've grown a little ;) Last Saturday was my baby shower. I was blessed to have 24 of the closest people in my life with me on that day! The pictures taken below are from Sara Lucero.

I hope you are all having all having a wonderful Spring! I can't believe May is already here. My goodness! Well I will be back next week with pictures of the nursery! Thank you all for hanging in there with me. :) I promise one day soon my craftiness will be back!

And it's a....

We had our ultrasound appointment this morning and received very exciting news! WE"RE HAVING ANOTHER GIRL!  My husband and I could not be more excited!  Kaydence has also been telling me for weeks now that I have her baby sister in my tummy. :) I am so excited to get back to crafting, sewing and I also have a dresser re-do coming up as well.  Thank you all for hanging in there with me while I was MIA most of the time.  Hopefully very soon I will be posting some DIY baby clothes and some fun stuff for the room.

I wanted to also give you all a heads up that I will be having a giveaway later this week with an ADORABLE tote bag from one of my wonderful sponsors, Ruby Jean!  Make sure to click on her button on my sidebar! TO DIE FOR! :)

I will be seeing you all very soon!! Hope you all have a wonderful rest of the day!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all of you and your lovely families! Now that I am finally starting to feel better this month has just flown by! I promise in the new year I will be back and blogging as regularly as I can :) Until then though I truly wish you all the most blessed Christmas and New Year!

Healthy Strong Heartbeat

Today was my 8 week ultrasound, and as I noted in my last post I was a nervous wreck! I am happy to say that there is one baby with what the Dr. said has a "very strong, healthy heartbeat!" Those words were music to my ears!

Meet our little peanut.  This baby is loved more than it could know already.  Thank you for your prayers and if you wouldn't mind continuing those prayers.  You all mean so much to me and am so grateful for you!  I really promise I will get back to crafting as soon as I can.  I have two duvets to finish up by Monday, then I am finished with those until further notice!  So until then my lovely readers, have a beautiful day.

Love,

My Fears

This post is very different from any post I think I've ever written as I want to be very transparent and open with you all about my fears at the moment.  First, I wanted to apologize for not blogging more! I am just so nauseous that it is hard to do much right now let alone anything crafty! I am really hoping to get some Christmas crafting done very soon and as soon as I do it will be up for all to see! :) Continued prayers for us and this pregnancy would be greatly appreciated. I have a dr. appointment on Monday to hear our little ones heatbeat and see them for the first time. I'm excited beyond words, yet nervous and scared at the same time.  I'm not sure if I have shared this with you all but I lost my first pregnancy at 8 weeks.  That was an extremely difficult time in our lives and with Monday being my 8 week mark it is hard not to worry.  I worried like this when I was pregnant with my daughter too and she was born a beautiful healthy gift from God.  I know that whatever happens that God is in control and He will be praised in ALL situations.  Thank you all of my lovely readers for your sweet messages and comments.  You all feel like a whole extra part of my family!  I will post on Monday when I get home. 

Love,

Some Very Exciting News

We're pregnant!  We are super excited and I'm already tired! Haha!  I know that I have been a bad blogger again lately with such sporatic posts, but I am learning to say no to certain things and will be back blogging regularly very soon.  The baby's due date is around June 20, 2012 so I am very early on...so prayers for a safe and healthy pregnancy would be greatly appreciated! Love you all and thank you for sharing in this with me!