Living on Tulsa Time.....for GOOD

"Spring" in Minnesota

Nothing like great Watermelon on a 100 degree + day

Hey everyone!! So I took a long break from blogging- I was having too much fun in Minnesota with our friends, too busy finishing the details of the house, and too stressed about the BIG move to Oklahoma!! So here's a quick update of the past 4 months!!

We miss our Minnesota friends everyday! I miss our lazy days of good food, good fellowship and sweet baby kisses!! I miss our outings, our girls night outs & random drop in's to say hello! Minnesota friends- you are truly one of a kind!! Please come visit us soon! :) Lots of sunshine and hot weather here!

D, B & E at the MN zoo

Ella & her boyfriend on a supervised date! 

LOVE these sweet faces!!! 

BFF's for life! 

  Ella love's being in Oklahoma near family!! She love's her Nana, her Aunt KK, her Gramms & her Papa! And all the Aunts, Uncles, & Cousins!! They spoil her rotten!! She love's her new house & is constantly getting "lost" or running around screaming like a wild child! She love's all of the different rooms, her new bedroom and mommy & daddy's new "big" king bed!! We have to go to the pool/splash pad in our neighborhood daily because it is Ella's favorite place!She is a water baby like her daddy! She loves playing with all of the big kids in the neighborhood and adores our neighbors dog! We give Maggie a cookie every time we head outside!

No pictures please! 

I LOVE the splash pad!! 

Go-go-go-go

Seriously tuckered out after playing with the big kids next door! 

First ice cream truck experience

Ahhh- I love this little stinker!! 

Learning to read X-Rays like daddy :) 

I love my Cozy-Coupe

Snack break @ the pool

Here's your cookie Maggie

    Jon started his new job right away and all seems to be going well!! He really likes the group he's working with and seems to be fitting in very well! He's looking forward to vacation in 2 weeks...so he can work on the house :)  He too loves the new house, maybe just not all of the work that comes with it! Ha! We planned our first vacation without Ella in August to celebrate my upcoming 30th birthday in Las Vegas... needless to say he is VERY excited! He misses his co-fellows in Minnesota (probably because they wore Captain America sweatshirts to work daily) but plans to meet up with them at conferences in the future!

Captain America sweatshirts = normal work attire right?

   I'm doing really well too! The move wasn't too stressful & everything went pretty smoothly! I absolutely love our new house and it's starting to feel more and more like home everyday! I still have a lot of unpacking, organizing, decorating and furniture to buy.... but it's a process right?!  Ella is going to be very sad when I finally get living room furniture...it is a huge toy zone at the moment! She's in heaven!! We DO have our spare bedroom up and running..... so please visit soon!! The transition back to living in Oklahoma is going well too- it has welcomed us with open arms & Mexican food! 

Kitchen

Wine Cross- Butler's Pantry

Laundry Room

Ladies Desk

Master Bathroom

Kitchen again :) It's my favorite place!! 

My little mini-me

The Kirkland's :) 

   I promise to try to blog more frequently and put up pictures of the rooms with furniture in them :) All is well with the Kirklands & our Krazy life!  Please visit us soon :)

How to remove a carpet stain

Who could be mad at this face? 

        Crystal Light is my enemy today......


        In the Kirkland household we LOVE our Crystal Light!  We drink it by the pitcherful!  The fruit punch is delicious and calorie free!  It makes us drink tons & tons of water and tastes better than plain water! So of course Ella loves it too!! (Judge me if you want- but please your kids will one day drink soda, etc soon) We dilute hers with water, but it's what she loves because she see's us drinking it all day long! She is a smart little girl I tell you- you cannot fool her!

       So without thinking about it we went upstairs on Tuesday, juice cups in tow, to play! (A change in scenery & toys is a must multiple times during the day)  We were running around chasing each other when BAM- we knocked over the Crystal Light cup.  On our WHITE rental carpet... awesome! I hurried as fast as I could to soak it up, poured all my resolve carpet cleaner on it and scrubbed away! (Keep in mind this all happened right before bedtime when Jon was at a dinner conference) So after scrubbing & vacuuming the area I put Ella to bed and finished the rest of the things I needed to do.  I looked at the spot and thought "it looks pretty good, I'll go get some more cleaner tomorrow."  It must have been really dark or something because I woke up to this in the sunlight.....

        WHAT???  No no no- this was not good! Now a lot of you are going to say "oh you can barely see it" but trust me...you can see it!  Very clearly- a red outline on the carpet.  This is a rental condo, and we want our deposit money back, I had to get this stain out!  So of course I went to my trusted Pinterest to get some answers! I found a bunch of different answers, but the most consistent was a interesting method I call "Ironing my carpet."  So I thought I'd give it a try...what could it hurt? If it didn't work I'd spend the money and rent a carpet cleaner to pay for Stanley Steamer to come!

Carpet Stain Remover:

2 Cups water
4-5 drops of Dawn Dish Detergent   (I used knock of target brand and it did just fine)
White towel

Dampen a white towel with soap/water mixture and lay over stain.  Turn your iron on the medium heat setting and place over the towel & stain.  Let it set for 5-10 minutes.  Look at the bottom of your towel.  Repeat in a different stained area with a clean part of the towel.  Best to work in small areas.  You may need to repeat multiple times before stain is gone.

Most of the "recipes" called for the blue Dawn dish soap- but this worked great & didn't dye my carpet green at all! 

Ironing my carpet- I felt like Cinderella

It's amazing what the bottom of your towel looks like- a nice pink shade of crystal light 

Now you can't tell me that doesn't look 100% better!

     I worked!! I couldn't believe it!!  It took me 2 different sessions, on 2 different days (so yes my stain had time to set in....but that didn't matter) but it worked!  My crystal light stain is gone!! Our deposit is safe for now!  However- Crystal Light is now banned from our house! I had nightmares of more crystal light spills on our brand new carpet in our brand new house!! NOT happening!!  I'm going to have to find a "clear" calorie free drink to enjoy or switch to Crystal Light Lemonade! Or heck- just enjoy some old fashion aqua!

  

Her first bite of a Cadbury Egg- she loved it!!

    Ella has been extra "giggly" lately and has learned to blow kisses! She thinks everyone she see's gets a "blown kiss."  That little girl is making friends all over Minneapolis! Such a hoot!! She loved her first Cadbury egg bite from her daddy.... I can tell they are going to be candy buds together! So fun! 

 

Bean burrito night, a wedding, and being on call

       So that's what we've been up to!!  I'm done blogging now right?!  We have had a busy past week with Grace Ellison's Denver wedding weekend extravaganza, Jon being on call a few days, and Ella loving her some bean burritos for dinner one night!

I LOVE bean burritos and sliced up grapes....yummy! 

       Our weekend trip to Denver started out a little rough- we were delayed due to snow in Minneapolis (go figure) and then stranded without a rental car for a while, all while having only eaten very little that morning (first big mistake)!  But daddy pulled through, got us a rental car and Ella a chicken & cheese burrito! We then spent the weekend catching up with old friends, eating yummy food, not sleeping (because Ella decided that staying out past her bedtime & a new time zone meant = lets wake up every 2 hours to play all night), and celebrating the marriage of Grace & Kevin!  While Ella did not sleep or nap much, she did seem to have a great time dancing at the wedding and running around our hotel room in nothing but her diaper! Thankfully now that we are back home she is sleeping all night again- I worked too hard to revert back! I guess there really is "no place like home" to Ella! But aside from lack of sleep- the weather was beautiful, the bride was gorgeous and I had a great time!!  The wedding was so fun too!! It's amazing how Pinterest has changed how weddings are "done" now- it had such a comfortable, rustic, classy feeling to it!! Grace's mom, family and friends did A LOT of work & pulled it off..... it was a BEAUTIFUL wedding!!

A little "self shot" before the wedding....it was freezing that day

My dance party date

Me & the GORGEOUS bride! BFF's since 8th/9th grade!! 

My little lucky charm 

What is this thing?  It is no iPhone.....

        Time for "True Confessions of the Paleo diet"......  Paleo is going "alright" for us!  We splurged a little in Denver because it was impossible to cook food in the hotel & the wedding food was SO yummy! Now that we are back home we are getting back on the semi-paleo band wagon!  After long talks with Jon about the foods we truly love, the amount of time and money that we have to spend, and the fact that he works such long/strenuous hours at work....we've decided to modify our diets.  So to say we are 100% Paleo is no longer true!  Jon has added back beans, brown rice & the occasional whole wheat bread I make from scratch!  Nothing too fancy- nothing processed, but definitely Paleo "no-no's."  I'm still trying my best to stay pretty true to Paleo, but I have a swipe or two (or three or four) of the homemade hummus I make for Ella at lunchtime occasionally! What can I say? It's so good! And again- homemade!  So I'd say we are eating a more "whole foods" diet, but no diary right now and not a lot of gluten when possible!  This whole experience has been great for our family!  We feel so much better, our clothes fit so much better (if they aren't loose :) and Ella is eating a lot more fruits and vegetables than before!  So I figured I'd share our honest truth with you guys since I'd started out so positive about the Paleo Diet.....I still think it's an awesome diet, just maybe too strict & expensive for us during this time in our lives! But we are taking a lot of what we learned & incorporating it into our everyday eating.

Daddy gets 2 of these? AWESOME!  

      Jon was on call a few days last week and Ella decided to play with his pagers for "fun."  She thought they were neat little items to carry around the house.... if she only knew what it meant when they beeped!! Not good!! I guess she's our little "doctor" in the making right now!!

     A new recipe coming by Thursday!!

Melt in your Mouth Goodness for Wednesday

    Oh my goodness what have I done?!  This morning in honor of yet another birthday girl- I made a Cinnabon Cinnamon Roll Cake! It is TO DYE FOR yummy!! And the best & most dangerous part is that is is SUPER easy and uses every day ingredients most people have in the house! Which means I can make this cake whenever I want it.... which is everyday! I made it this morning while feeding Ella breakfast and getting ready for our "breakfast party."  It's super quick to make and best served warm! My house still smells amazing at 2pm! Swoon! This might be my new favorite go to dessert! Tastes exactly like a cinnamon roll, but you don't have to let s rise like bread dough! Easy! Seriously- anyone can make this!  I got the recipe from www.sixsistersstuff.com- they have really amazing recipes!

*Again- sorry, I was in a rush and didn't do the "step by step" pictures....I'm just not that type of cook or picture taker! But as you can see- the end result is glorious!!

Seriously- AMAZING!! I wish you could smell it!! 

Cinnabon Cinnamon Roll Cake  
Ingredients: 
3 cups flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
4 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 cup milk
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
4 T butter, melted
2 sticks (1 cup) butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
2 T flour
1 T cinnamon
2/3 cups nuts (optional)

Glaze:
2 cups powdered sugar
5 T milk
1 tsp vanilla

Directions:
With an electric mixer or stand-up mixer, mix flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, milk, eggs, and vanilla. Once combined well, slowly stir in 4 T melted butter. Pour batter into a greased 9x13" baking pan.
In a large bowl, mix the 2 sticks of softened butter, brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, and nuts until well combined. Drop evenly over cake batter by the tablespoon and use a knife to marble/swirl through the cake. Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until toothpick comes out nearly clean from center. Place powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla in a large bowl. Whisk until smooth. Drizzle over warm cake. Serve warm (we like it straight out of the oven) or at room temperature.   (www.sixsistersstuff.com)


   Afterwards we had to teach Miss Ella how to brush her teeth with her new toothbrush! She was crazy about the cinnamon roll cake- begging my friends for bites of theirs and snatching if off the plates when no one was looking!! We also had to put her hair up in the "Pebbles" ponytail...it's getting so long & it's always in her face!!  And alas...she pulls all her bows off now! :(  Such a sad day for me! I will continue to keep trying in hopes she lets me again one day!

    I also wanted to share with you a little pintrest project B & Ella did on our Monday-funday with her!!  Yogurt finger painting! Such a great idea and the girls loved it!! Only problem is you can't really keep the artwork as it is painted with yogurt...but we took pictures of it!! 

Yogurt Finger paint:

1 Container vanilla or plain yogurt

Food safe food coloring in any colors you want

Place yogurt in separate small containers, add 1-2 drops of food coloring & mix until it is the color you want! Then let them go to town! 

We chose pastels/neons for Easter 

They look really excited right?! 

Little Picasso (and yes they did eat some--which is why I used Yogurt)

$50 and it's yours! 

Such a happy little delight Miss B is! 

Ella staring at B's artwork

Oh yes- she ate it too! (I must admit it was yummy vanilla yogurt)

Two peas in a pod these two are! 

   Yesterday Ella & I had a "Mommy-Daughter" date at the Mall of America! We hadn't been in a long time and thought it was a perfect day to go! She loved every minute of it and was so into looking at everything, pointing, talking and showing off all her tricks to new people we met! She loved Cinderella at the Disney store, built Lego's at Legoland and watched the roller coaster as it went "vroom-vroom" through the air! It was the perfect morning for both of us!  I loved watching her little eyes light up with wonder every time she saw something bright, colorful, or sparkly! 

Hiii Cinderella!! 

Mom- look is Cinderella...she's my favorite right now! 

I can and will destroy this tower! 

Just pull harder.... 

Ah ha- I got you tower! 

  Needless to say she napped very well for me that afternoon!  It has been a GREAT week for us! The house is getting closer & closer to being done every day! They started to put the stone up on the outside! The fireplace will be made out of the same stone!! 

To keep Miss Ella downstairs...she loves to climb stairs! 

STONE :)