High Five for Friday

Happy Friday to you!  I hope you all had a wonderful week.  Can you believe Christmas is just 2 weeks away?  The time flies between Thanksgiving and Christmas.  I have a lot to catch you up on, so here goes.


1.  Thanksgiving.  How was yours Megan, you ask?  It was a real kick in the pants.  Cars dying, sickness, not everyone able to make the big feast...............the list goes on and on.  It wasn't anyone's fault.  Just the way things happen sometimes.  Mom had a terrible stomach bug pretty much all weekend.  We delayed Thanksgiving to Friday hoping she would feel like eating some.  Which she did but got sick again on Saturday.  So I spent the whole weekend at home.  I did get caught up on some sleep.  I got a little bit of time with the nieces so it wasn't all bad.  I am noticing a trend I do not care for.  Me doing most of the cooking.  (Mom does help.  Dad peeled potatoes.)  It is just exhausting and then no one wants to do the dishes.  Family can we PLEASE go out next year?!

I was so proud of my bird.  I take great pride in my work.

Our table.  So thankful.

This lil miss took great interest in helping me cook.  She did great with the pecan pie.  I was thrilled!!!

Selfie

Selfie

Sometimes you fall asleep before dinner is served.

The slumber party that did not happen.  The one on the left wouldn't lay down and had to go in the pack and play to sleep.  The one on the right joined me in my bed and literally climbed my back ALL NIGHT LONG!  She's a nut!

2.  Poor Baby K's birthday fell on Thanksgiving.  As a fellow holiday birthday girl, I wanted to make it special for her.  Mom ordered her an adorable cake.  (Grandpa picked it up and took all the credit.)  We had decorations and presents as well.  She made out like a fat pig........Peppa the Pig!  It is a cute show the girls are in to.  All the toys were Peppa and the cake and decorations were Bubble Guppies (another TV show.) Baby K was SOOOOO cute when we sang and gave her the cake.

Gammy helping

Big sister comes to help!

My Grandma Carr always gave the non birthday sibling a gift to me and my brother growing up.  So of course Big Sister needed a Peppa the Pig.

CAKE!!!!!!!!

Happy Birthday to you!

Honey I gave her a big piece and let me tell you.  She ate almost all of it.  Of course she only had a roll for dinner.  It is tuff being 2!

3.  If you follow me on any of the social media sites, you know I am Martha Stewart's protege.  I had my house decorated for the holidays before I left for Thanksgiving.  I got my parents done and helped my friend Lee do his.  I LOVE to do it.  Here is some of my work.  I will do a full blog overview in the future of all my Christmas decor.

We three trees................These are the 3 I did.  Mine is on the far left.  It takes about 3-4 hours to do.  9 strands of lights and tons of ornaments.  If you didn't know I love the color pink because it just makes me happy.  Mom and Dad's is in the middle.  And Lee's is on the right.

Miss Bailey under the tree.  It is her first Carr Christmas!!

4.  I like to eat.  I like to eat out.  This week I tried 2 new restaurants.  The first one is King Ribs BBQ.  My co-worker and I went for lunch.  Rib Tips special for just $8.68.  I am drooling just looking at these pictures again.

Rib tips with potato salad and coleslaw.

The second place I tried was Harry and Izzy's.  For those of you local to Indy, you know this is a spin-off of the famous St. Elmo's Steakhouse.  I went for a friend's birthday.

Floor to ceiling wine cellar

Their famous shrimp cocktail

Wedge Salad

Filet

Prime Rib and Fried Green Tomatoes

Brownie sundae

Wine

Birthday girl

Elizabeth and Ellen

Me and Lee

So now I am not going to be eating until the holidays after this delicious week of food.  And my wallet is quite empty!!!  Tis the season!

5.  And because he is already mad at me for posting this picture on social media, I am going to share here.  My Dad and his love.  Bailey.  She ADORES him.  And he's just a cranky, old man.  I guess he has a thing for blondes.  Because every blonde dog we have ever had, loved him the best.  Sometimes Bailey is the only one who likes him.................I kid!!!!  Like I said he's a cranky, old man.

Have a wonderful weekend!!!

Today I am linking up with:

Recipe: Potato Soup

Today I want to share with you a super easy potato soup.  I tried a lot of different recipes before finding this one on Pinterest.  (You can follow me on there, here.)  This soup takes 5 minutes to put in the crock pot and 8 hours to simmer.  I made a batch about a month ago and just pulled out my last frozen Tupperware container of it.  Time to make some more!  Fall is the perfect time for soup.  Just makes ya feel all warm and cozy inside.  You can pair this soup with crackers or I ate with some french bread.

Easy Crockpot Potato Soup
1-30oz bag of frozen diced hash browns
1-32oz box of chicken broth
2 cans of cream of chicken soup**
2-8oz pkg of cream cheese**
3 oz of bacon bits
Optional Toppings:
Shredded cheese
Diced green onion
Additional bacon bits
Salt and pepper to taste

**I doubled these from the original recipe below.  I wanted to make a little more creamier soup.

 Add all ingredients BUT the cream cheese into a crock pot.  Cook for 8 hours.  An hour or so before serving, add in cream cheese. 

The original recipe on Pinterest

Ingredients.  Everything but the hash browns came from Aldi.

My VERY old hand me down crock pot.  My parents gave to me.  I think it is at least 25 years old.  Still does the trick.  Maybe some year Santa will bring me a new up to date crock pot.

Look at all the yummy soup.

Finished product.

Hey Girl Hey

Testing................

Testing 1, 2...............

Testing...........

Oh hey!  This thing still works.  So let me catch you up to speed on my exciting life.  If you forgot why I am a little absent from the blog, well I forgot too.  Darn thing is as I get older, the worse my short term memory is.  If you ask me to do something, I have to do it immediately.  Because I am likely to get distracted by a bright, shiny object.

Get to the point, Megan.  (You also start to talk to yourself as you get older.)  So I am taking a class this fall and have about a month left.  I won't get into all the boring details but that is how I spend a lot of my free time.  It comes first.  (You are being boring Megan.)  But like I mentioned in this post, when it is over..........the blog is going full force.  I've really missed having this creative outlet.


Here are the top 5 things I have been up to.

1.  I've been traveling home to see the family about once a month in Ohio.  (About a 4-4.5 hour drive.)  I. LOVE. MY. NIECES!  Like it is crazy how much I adore them.  Mom and I got to take them trick or treating.  Who knew it was so much fun?!  I dressed up as a witch.  K#1 thought it was the funniest thing that I drew a 'wart' on my face.  K#1 was a pirate fairy (last minute change from Elsa).  K#2 was Olaf the snowman.  She was just the cutest thing ever!  I think everyone we passed on the sidewalk told me how cute she was.  (Thank you I know.)

The best photo with the girls.  Baby K was very interested in my hat.

My love muffins

I just kept saying Olaf, Olaf, Olaf, Olaf really fast to get her attention.  I guess it was funny.

'Meggie let's go already!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!'  Mom and I thought we were never going to get out the door.  Can you spot the photobomber?

Baby K's favorite part was holding the candy.  She was happy as a clam.  She also looks cold.  I promise we had her all bundled up.

Gammy and the girls at the Halloween party at their daycare.

2.   Here are a few more photos of my adorable nieces.  I can't stop.

Katie at the apple orchard.  I'm telling you she is ALWAYS happy!

Big sister cooking eggies with Gammy.  The girl LOVES her eggs.  Will eat them off your plate, too.

Our little fashionista

4 going on 14 here

3.  My family has a lot of cracks in it.  Sports related that is.  Grew up in an Indiana University lovers house.  Then I went to the enemy school......Purdue.  (Boiler up!!!)  And then my brother happened.  Still trying to figure out where we went wrong with him.  So my Mom put an IU bib on Baby K one day and something happened.  It wasn't pretty.

Photo from Gammy, "I'm off to Bloomington for my college visit."  

 Then this texting war began between Mom, me, Andy, and Stacey.  Grey-Andy (the smart ass comments) and Mom.  I'm in the blue.

WOW!  It is hard for my brother.  Being that he didn't go to a Big 10 school.  I feel sorry for him.  And I'm going to dis-own him the next time he puts down his birth state!  He is so EMBARRASSING!  He likes Ohio State.  GASP!!!!   (Yeah I left out 'the' in Ohio State.  I'm a rebel.  Take that!)

There is the Hoosier baby boy on the left.  1983.  And Baby K on the right.  Twins?  You tell me.  Poor thing got the big forehead, too.

In all my silliness here, I must say I love my family.  To the moon and back and then back again.  Life just doesn't get any better than that.

4.  I like to cook.  I like to eat.  I hate to do the dishes and clean up.  But I like to cook and eat.

CHILI!  I am really wishing I had some of this today on this very, very cold day.

Chicken, broccoli, rice casserole.  I wasn't too crazy about this.  But I ate it for a week.

Just an egg souffle.  My Mom saw the picture and she said, "Where did you get that?"  I said I made it!

Potato soup.  This was so easy to make.  And I ate it for a week, too!

5.  I cut 2-3 inches off my hair.  (I apologize for the bad selfies. I was trying to show you how long it was.)  It feels like a hundred times better.  I can't pull off long hair.  I don't know why I try.  It is super, super curly when short.

 Have a great weekend everyone!!!!  Stay warm!

I'm linking up with The Lauren Elizabeth for High Five for Friday.