With Mama
With Daddy
Meeting his brothers
One week old
He is our “smallest” baby at 9 lbs 1 oz. My delivery was fast and not too painful, which was a nice break from the previous two. 
We are feeling so blessed to have this sweet boy in our family.
K, so my whole fam damily (Mom, Dad, sibs and their spouses, and nieces) all went to the beach last weekend for one last trip before school starts. We had a blast digging in the sand, jumping in the waves, and just spending quality time together.
Sunday night we had a big family dinner of one of our favorite meals: Low Country Boil.
It’s got all the essentials…corn, sausage, shrimp, and potatoes. And a little kick.
Holy Freakin’ Yum. The first time I had ever heard of this meal was while watching Steel Magnolias. There’s a scene where Julia Roberts is talking to Dolly Parton at the town fair, and Dolly Parton and some other ladies were dishing up Low Country Boil to the fair goers in the background. Julia Roberts orders iced tea (…”the house wine of the south!”) instead, but the corn and potatoes and shrimp still caught my eye.
To keep costs down when feeding a large crowd like our family, we divide up the ingredients. One person buys the shrimp, one buys potatoes and corn, another person is in charge of sausage, etc. Then we all cook it together!
So, do you want to learn how to make it, too? Here’s how:
The thing that makes this dish, to me, is Old Bay Seasoning. Use it to make your boil as spicy as you want, hot stuff!
My oldest sis is an awesome cook, so when she said to add onions and garlic this time, we did. (And, she was right! SO yummy!)
Instead of one flavor of sausage, we used a variety for different flavors.
The fun part is serving the Low Country Boil. We put clean plastic down on the table, and then place newspapers on top. Once you drain your pot, dump your Low Country Boil on the papers. Sprinkle more Old Bay on top if you wish. We also add cocktail sauce and ketchup to the table.
Served with warm bread, this meal is one of my family’s favorites!
Low Country Boil is easy to make, as long as you add the ingredients in the right order. (If not, your food could get over or under cooked.) It’s a total crowd pleaser, and you can adjust the spice to your taste. Serving dinner on the newspapers makes cleaning up a breeze, too! Yummy dinner, easy clean up? My kinda meal!
So, have you ever had Low Country Boil? Do you add anything else to it? Does your family have a favorite meal you make when you get together? Ever eaten off newspapers before? (The clean up is so easy!!)
Hope y’all are having a great week!
Only three more days home with my boys before school starts. 
Pin ItK, so we’ve been visiting my in-laws for what was going to be a week long trip….and it turned into my boys and I staying for a whole month!! We’ve had such a blast reconnecting with family and friends, playing, shopping, and organizing.
We’ve since left to go back to Austin, and I realized that there’s a few things I learned on this little vacay. So I thought I’d share those ideas with you (whether my own or taught to me by friends), interspersed with some of the beautiful scenery from the long and winding road between Utah and Texas. (Did I say long? Excuse me while I get a mega phone…) the LOOOONNNGGGG!!!! road between Utah and Texas.
I hate coming home to a messy, dirty house. After a long car ride, that is the last thing I want to see. So, before we leave, everyone takes a task or two and helps get the house to a place we want to come back to. I’m not talking white glove clean, either. I just think of the things that would make me either cringe or feel relief after a big trip, and we tackle those:
Empty sink, empty dish washer. Empty washing machine and dryer. Sweep floors. Wipe down the bathrooms. Vacuum. Make the beds.
We always pick travel routes with friends and family somewhere along the way. That way, if we (heaven forbid) break down or have some kind of emergency, we have someone close by to call on. It’s also nice if you need to save some money or can’t afford a hotel. Friends and family are happy to have you overnight, and it’s fun to get a visit in, too. (Make sure you are someone they can call or stay with if they come through your town, too!)
I heard this from just about every friend I talked to, and it really does save a ton of change. Jamie loves trail mix and dark chocolate covered pretzels; I love peanut butter M&M’s and diet Dr. Pepper; and my boys always beg for grapes and Gatorade. Buying your fam’s faves before you leave keeps you from spending too much at gas stations and rest stops. (75 cents for M&M’s before or $1.59 on the road?…it’s a no brainer.)
*My friend Heather lets her kids grab pretty rocks they find when they stop on road trips. When everyone gets home, the kids paint their rocks to remind them of the vacation.
*I love collecting sand from each beach we go to. I just grab an empty water bottle and fill it with the sand.
*Gina’s friend buys a few inexpensive things for her kids before the trip, and then lets them open the gifts on the road. This keeps her kidlets excited, and they don’t ask for souvenirs at every stop.
*Allison and her family bring card games like Apples to Apples Jr. along on their trips to keep things fun.
*Sometimes we rent a DVD from Redbox while we’re on the road. The movie is usually something we haven’t seen, and it can be returned to any Redbox kiosk we see. Score!
*Among other activities, we pack puzzles for the boys to do on road trips. A large baking sheet from the kitchen can be used as a lap rest, and the puzzles stay put without sliding off the sides.
*We also declare a “no media” time in the car. Yes, it sounds like poking forks in our eyes, but there is a point when the kids have had too much media time and start freaking out. We shut off all electronic games, DVD players, music, etc. and have quiet time. Kids can read, color or draw, or play with toys. Usually they end up falling asleep, which is my real plan all along. (Bwah hahah ha!)
I literally wore a weeks worth of clothes for a whole month. The only way I could do that was by mixing things up. Pairing cardigans with different shirts, layering things, cuffing my jeans one day and leaving them straight down another.
All home rules applied to Grandma’s house as well. Meal times happened the same time as at home. Bedtime routines stayed the same (mostly!). And my little J still had naps, or at least some quiet time, around the same time everyday.
If everyone’s clothes are clean and folded in their suitcase, then unpacking is a breeze. And that is one less chore you have waiting for you when you get home. Sure, you’ll have one day’s worth of laundry to do, but it’s considerably less than a whole week (or month!!) of clothes to wash.
If driving home takes a few days, pack one small suitcase with a day (or two) worth of clothes and toiletries for the whole family. It is so much easier to take out one suitcase than to pull out and haul every freakin’ piece of luggage and repack the car a million times.
*Have a trash bag in one hand, and a “keep” bag in the other. I shove all of the toys and books in one bag to be sorted out when I have a minute inside.
*All the trash is thrown away in the garage garbage can….it doesn’t even make it into the house.
*We also have a portable DVD player that is immediately put back inside. I don’t want my kids to think we can watch a movie on the way to the grocery store.
I add the clothes we haven’t washed, plus our travel blankets and pillows, to the washer right when we get home. I don’t want my house, or our stuff, to smell like travel one more second!
If you can, try not to schedule a bunch of stuff like Dr. appointments, meetings, or anything too time consuming they day after you get back. And if it works into your schedule, try to come home one day early so you don’t have to go to work the next morning after a long trip. That day after is so much easier when y’all can sleep in a little, catch up on unpacking and checking out the house and yard, and get to the grocery store.
So hopefully some of these ideas will be helpful on your next road trip! They’ve kept me from feeling too crazy (especially when all that driving has made me a little loopy!)
How about you? What are some of your best road trip tips? Do you like to fly or drive? What’s your MUST HAVE road trip snacks and treats? Anyone else ready to throw a few movies out the window after hearing them one too many times? 
P.S. All the pics are ones I took through Instagram while on the trip. You can follow me under freestylinbeth.
Hey y’all! It’s the weekend!! Yay!! I thought I’d help you get into a lazy, chill mood by showing you one of my favorite places to unwind and relax….my mother-in-law’s garden.
She has been blessed with not just a green thumb but 10. She has a gift of turning a boring yard into an oasis.
The Hubs and I actually got engaged in the backyard of my in-laws’ previous home. It was so beautiful – full of flowers and fruit trees and a hammock. Once summer came around, I was often found outside eating cherries straight from the tree while swinging in the hammock. (This was before kids, of course!)
And their current home is no different. Grandma’s yard is her pride and joy. You can wake up with the sun and find her already outside planting and digging and watering.
Here are a few pictures I captured around their house:
The stacked pots on the left were a Mother’s Day gift from my sister-in-law. My MIL recreated one for the front yard. (Learn how to make your own HERE.)
Grandma planted a few trees in the backyard and created her own curbing around it.
She embellished the cement with rocks and pretty stones. A rusting agent was applied as well for added color and to make the curbing look like it’s been there for a long time.
One of my favorite features are these trellises MIL built out of scrap wood. The vines will cover the trellis by the end of the summer.
A finial was added to the top of the trellis and gives it the perfect rustic finish.
Small solar lights were added inside the flowers and come on at night.
I absolutely love the stone steps she made leading out to the sidewalk.
They were created with the same plastic curbing Grandma used for the trees, but boards were nailed to each side of the curbing to make the U shape. Beginning with the bottom step, the concrete was poured into the U mold and set. Pretty stones and rocks were added to the steps as well.
Both the metal dragonfly and large flower were pieces she found and added. The metal flower actually had a hook attached to it, but it was broken off for the steps project.
Topiaries line the fence…
I love sitting in the backyard at my in-laws’ house. It is so peaceful, and the scenery is beautiful. The summer evenings are so much more mild in Utah than in Texas, so it’s a nice escape. My sweet boys enjoy being out here, too…playing in the grass, digging in the sand table, searching for bugs, and helping Grandma water the plants.
It’s going to be hard to leave here! We’ve really enjoyed the memories we’ve been making.
Hope you have a relaxing and chill weekend! What are your weekend plans? Working in the yard? Are you watching the Olympics? Whatever you do this weekend, I hope it’s a great one!
K, so my cute little fam is getting packed up and ready to go on a big road trip. We leave tomorrow, and I have SO. MUCH. TO. DO.
Like this:
(I can’t believe I just showed you that!)
And this:
(Note to self: Stop by the store for sandwich bags, chips, and Diet DP.
Cuz somehow you are out!!?!)
Plus clean for the house sitters… :)
K, now that I’ve just posted that pic I realize there are some rogue arrows from PicMonkey on my ice chest. Oh well. I have way too much to do to change it. Consider it a little insight into the crazy.
I really wanted to blog today about something meaningful and helpful or make a super cool project that’ll be pinned 14 billion times just because it’s oozing with awesomeness.
But to be honest, with being out of town last week at Haven, and turning right around to go out of town again, I just don’t have a project. How’s that for total honesty?
I thought I could whip one up real quick. Trying to rid this home of way too much brown, I considered painting my entry table with a sample of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint I got as Haven swag.
But then I got to coloring with Pickle,
and took the little one to the doctor ;( ,
and I realized:
So. This is today’s post. Me. Being a mom. Running around like a crazy chicken trying to leave on a trip. Wishing I could give you some inspiration and great ideas.
Instead, I’m going to focus on my family and blog in the car. Cuz heaven knows my butt’s gonna be in that seat for a LOOOOOOOONG time.
If you’d like to follow me on Instagram (I’m pretty sure I’ll be taking pics on the trip!), you can find me at FreeStylinBeth.
(Anyone wanna come over and fold laundry with me?)
I am married and the mother of two ADORABLE boys (with boy #3 on the way!). I love figuring out how to have what I need or want without spending anything (or just a little). I LOVE seeing something so cool, looking @ it and thinking, "I bet I already have something like that." Then, I dig through some things, move some stuff around, (maybe spray it with a little spray paint), and I step back and admire what I just created with something I've already been blessed with.
House of Hepworths
Thrifty Decor Chick
Emily A. Clark
6th Street Design School
Hi Sugarplum!
design dump
Designer Bags and Dirty Diapers
dear lillie
