1 YEAR HOME ANNIVERSARY

A year ago yesterday marked a whole year of homeownership for the two of us. It has been one of our biggest adventures together and through it all, the fun times and the stressful times, it has been the best year and we are so thankful!

January 15, 2016, we signed the papers, got the keys and officially became homeowners. We rushed over and got a picture in front of our home and then headed straight to Jet's Pizza to pick up a pizza and a coke. It's a tradition we started when we moved into our apartment to get a pizza and eat it that night for dinner on the floor. It's a fun little tradition and we love it!

And now for some before and after!

Starting with our front door

Our entryway, we painted the walls (my dad did) and painted the interior of our front door.

Our dining room, we took the curtains down (the day we got the keys), primed and painted over the wallpaper, and spray painted the gold chandelier a rubbed oil bronze, and Matthew built a 10ft long farmhouse table!

Our kitchen, we upgraded the appliances, stripped wallpaper, and painted!

Our living room, we painted, bought new recliners, new rugs, and ran cords through the wall.

Matthew's study, we painted it and bought him a desk & chair and hung his CPA license on the wall.

All of our guest bedrooms looked the same when we moved in. We haven't painted any of them, but we did fill them with furniture!

My office

Guest bath, painted it (same color as the kitchen!) and added a cabinet. The wallpaper was not coming off easy so I just painted over the wallpaper and that worked perfectly fine!

We have officially celebrated every holiday in our home and decorated for many different seasons!

Spring..

Summer...

July 4th...

Fall...

And finally, Christmas...

We love our house and we have LOVED making it our home over the past year! To see all home posts on social media search #TheCoatsHome. We also had the opportunity to host several dinner parties over the past year, and we enjoyed all of them and look forward to hosting many more. Too see all of our dinner party posts, check here.

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1 YEAR HOME ANNIVERSARY

FRIDAY VOL. 2

I love vests, they are one of my favorite winter clothing pieces and I love pairing them with different tops. My sister got me the vest for Christmas and it is definitely a new favorite! She found it at TJ Maxx, too! 

Now that our big Christmas tree isn't in our entryway anymore (so sad!) I want to really focus on our entryway table and styling it. Right now we have the clock that Matthew's uncle made for us as a wedding gift, some milk glass vases from our wedding and my bible on it. I would love to add a lamp on it for some light in our entryway. If you have any entryway table styling ideas, send them my way!

I walked out of work on Monday and it was still daylight out...woo hoo! It's the little things y'all!!!! 

It has also been a bit on the warmer side this week...70 yesterday and I was LOVING it! 

With all the rain we've been getting this week I feel like we need to purchase this for Reagan...girl hates the rain!

Our sweet neighbor gave us some Pred's tickets the other day for the game this past Tuesday night. They were really nice seats and we got a parking pass...woo hoo! We lucked out with our sweet neighbors, they really are the best. It was a really good game and we won in OT!!

A week ago today I was back at home with my handsome husband and our precious puppy girl watching TV by the fire for our first snow day! We had the best snow day and I am secretly hoping we get at least one more this year!!

Happy weekend, friends!

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FRIDAY VOL. 2

LASAGNA | DINNER RECIPE

As mentioned yesterday, we love lasagna. We probably have it at least once a month in our home, as it is definitely in our 'favorites rotation'.

The recipe that I am sharing today is my MIL's recipe and it is GOOD! Since it is just the two of us, I like to make them in smaller portions, so that we aren't eating lasagna for every meal all week. When I do make lasagna for dinner I like double the recipe and it ends up making six small ones (which would be equivalent to two regular sized pans of lasagna) and freeze the other five. One small pan is enough for our for three meals (dinner that night, lunch the next day and then either lunch or dinner another day that week).

Ingredients: 1 lb. ground chuck 1 lb. hot sausage 2 28-oz. jar spaghetti sauce 10 oz. lasagna noodles 2 eggs 2 c. small curd cottage cheese 2 c. ricotta cheese 1/2 c. grated Parmesan cheese 2 T. parsley flakes 1 t. salt 1/2 t. pepper 1 lb. shredded mozzarella cheese
Directions: 1. Brown meat slowly. Spoon off excess fat. Add 1-1/2 jars of spaghetti sauce and mix.  2. Cook noodles in large amount of water until tender; drain; rinse. 3. Beat eggs and remaining ingredients, except mozzarella cheese, in a separate bowl 4. In this order layer these ingredients: 1 T of spaghetti sauce in the bottom of the pan, noodles, cottage cheese mixture, meat/spaghetti sauce mixture, and then sprinkle with thin layer of mozzarella cheese. Repeat until pan is full.   5. Pour remaining jar of spaghetti sauce on top and sprinkle top with shredded mozzarella cheese. 6. Bake, covered, at 350 for 45-50 minutes.

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LASAGNA | DINNER RECIPE

TAKE THEM A MEAL

I love cooking for others, for a dinner at our home, and I love cooking for others, for a dinner in their home. Have you ever had the opportunity to take family or friends dinner? Maybe they are going through a tough time, they are new parents, or new neighbors just moved in next door, etc. Whatever the reason is, there is always something going on in life that requires a meal, and a good one at that!

One of my favorite things to make for these kinds of situations is lasagna. Maybe not everyone likes lasagna as much as we do, but I like to assume they do. 

Lasagna, the easiest meal to make, and it freezes well! The two families that I made dinner for recently were small, so if you are making dinner for a larger family then I would recommend making larger portions. I bought these, aluminum to-go containers at Dollar Tree and they come in packs of three.

You know what's even better than lasagna? Lasagna that you didn't even have to cook yourself and is delivered right to your doorstep...I like to make each family two lasagnas (one to eat that night and one to freeze for another time, they are good for up to 6 months) a box of garlic bread, salad + dressing, dessert, and if I have extra time I will make them breakfast! Breakfast casserole, breakfast burritos, or what I did recently, cinnamon rolls - all in disposable containers to keep it hassle free! 

 I also made recipe cards to label each item. That way if they have any questions about what's in the dish or need instructions to warm it they have it right there in front of them! Check out the recipe card printable below. I printed a lot off and keep them in my kitchen for anytime I need them!

You can find the Pioneer Woman's recipes here, and I will be sharing the lasagna recipe tomorrow!

Here is the recipe card that I designed for these and for future meals. You can right click and save on the picture below to save it to your computer for your own personal use.

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TAKE THEM A MEAL