'Tis the Season

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas in the Mantiply Household!

One of my favorite clips from one of my FAVORITE Christmas movies!

Our first Christmas decorations are the cute Santa hats that my sister made for me last year!

Next we have an old Christmas tree that belonged to Matt's Grandmother.  The funny thing is that my Grandmother had the same tree, and every time I see ours it takes me back to my spending time at my Grandparent's house for Christmas.

Ok...so we may not have a mantle, but I've found joy in decorating our bookshelf with some Christmas decorations and our stockings!

And finally we have our very fake beautiful Christmas Tree!  Complete with presents and everything!

"P"inspiration

I saw this picture on Pinterest...

 

Yes, I do actually realize that I don't own a turquoise piano (and probably never will) but I loved the idea of the cluster of plates above the piece!

I started to think that the naked area above the wooden desk that my grandfather built needed a little personal touch.

Today on my day off, and with Matt out of town the help of a good friend, I finally got around to hanging my plates!  I was DREADING this project because we've hung plates in the apartment before and the plate hangers are a NIGHTMARE.  I found this little trick on Pinterest for hot gluing picture hangers on the back of the plates, and it worked perfectly!

My Tools!

The finished product!  I think they turned out pretty cute!  

It's a blue, silver, gold and white/ivory color scheme.

Travel Monday

Thanksgiving was a whirlwind of travel - From PA to VA and back to WV, it was a crazy 4 days filled with family and friends! 

This week is starting off with yet more travel...just not for me.

Matt's at the Nemacolin Woodlands Resort for a regional sales meeting.

This place looks gorgeous!

Wed nes day

Haha...so true!

Thanksgiving Week

Just thought I would share the recipes of some yummy desserts that I'm making for our Thanksgiving Meal!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients

• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 cup light brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup canned pumpkin puree
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 2 cups (12-ounce bag) milk chocolate chips, not semisweet
• Nonstick cooking spray or parchment paper

Directions

Heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spray cookie sheets with nonstick spray or line them with parchment paper.

Using a mixer, beat the butter until smooth. Beat in the white and brown sugars, a little at a time, until the mixture is light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs 1 at a time, then mix in the vanilla and pumpkin puree. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves. Slowly beat the flour mixture into the batter in thirds. Stir in the chips. Scoop the cookie dough by heaping tablespoons onto the prepared cookie sheets and bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the cookies are browned around the edges. Remove the cookie sheets from the oven and let them rest for 2 minutes. Take the cookies off with a spatula and cool them on wire racks.

Pumpkin Gooey Butter Cake

Ingredients

Cake:

• 1 (18 1/4-ounce) package yellow cake mix
• 1 egg
• 8 tablespoons butter, melted

Filling:

• 1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
• 1 (15-ounce) can pumpkin
• 3 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 8 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1 (16-ounce) box powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Combine the cake mix, egg, and butter and mix well with an electric mixer. Pat the mixture into the bottom of a lightly greased 13 by 9-inch baking pan.

To make the filling: In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese and pumpkin until smooth. Add the eggs, vanilla, and butter, and beat together. Next, add the powdered sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and mix well. Spread pumpkin mixture over cake batter and bake for 40 to 50 minutes. Make sure not to overbake as the center should be a little gooey.

Serve with fresh whipped cream.

Variations: For a Pineapple Gooey Cake: Instead of the pumpkin, add a drained 20-ounce can of crushed pineapple to the cream cheese filling. Proceed as directed above.

For a Banana Gooey Cake: Prepare cream cheese filling as directed, beating in 2 ripe bananas instead of the pumpkin. Proceed as directed above.

For a Peanut Butter Gooey Cake: Use a chocolate cake mix. Add 1 cup creamy peanut butter to the cream cheese filling instead of the pumpkin. Proceed as directed above.

Travel Monday - Are you ready for some football?

I took a mini-vacay from blogging and really focused on spending time with Matt.  Usually after a long day of work, we sit down to eat dinner, watch some of our favorite shows and spend some time together.  This more often than not, involves one or both of us on the computer.  Last week I subbed for kindergarten and at night, I really didn't want to do anything but lay on the couch with Matt.  We also had quite a bit of laundry/packing to do to get ready for the next two weekends.  On Friday we headed to Richmond, celebrated my Dad's birthday (Happy Birthday, Dad!) on Saturday morning then Saturday night we headed to Northern VA to spend some time with good friends.  Sunday was a whirlwind of the Cowboys and Redskins game and a trip back.  What a crazy fun weekend we had!

Kindergartners Cry

...and boy do they cry a lot!

Today I had the chance to sub in a Kindergarten class.  I'll be the first to say that I don't have much experience with this age group.  I love working with Pre-K since there are only so many things that "have" to get done.  It's more like playing with little ones all day.  Today I found out that Kindergartners have about the same capacity, only with more rules and expectations.  This lent itself to some great entertainment.

My favorite part of the day was when we spent a whole lesson discussing ants and what "hard workers" they are.  To tie it in to a creative activity, we discussed how ants are hard workers much like parents are hard workers.  The students had to draw either their Mom or Dad doing work.  One student approached me saying 

"Mrs. M (not expecting kids this age to say my name) here is my Mom working."

Me - "What does your Mom do?  What is her job?"

student - "Putting on makeup"

haha

Travel Monday

Last weekend Matt and I had visitors in the form of these 3 lovely ladies...

(find her blog HERE)

(find her blog HERE)

It was a low-key weekend of catching up, good food, and relaxation!

When we were getting (much needed) pedicures on Saturday afternoon, the nail tech asked if we were all from WV.  I said that no, I was...and then as I was just about to say "they are all from VA" it hit me...Britt is living in VA, but Meaghan is in TN and Courtney is in NC.  

That's when you realize how amazing friends are.  Matt and I honestly couldn't get through our time out here (going home most weekends is quite tiring) without those wonderful weekends that friends and family members commit to making the trip out to visit us in WV!

We had such an amazing weekend, and this week we're gearing up to start a marathon of traveling that will take us through the New Year!

I'm Weird...

So, I am 100% aware of the fact that I live in an apartment and there are only so many things I can do to "decorate" but sometimes dreaming is good for me.

I could spend hours on Pinterest and my favorite things to look at are the home inspirations!  From organization to kitchen to dream pools and everything in between, I love getting lost in my head and pretending like "one day" I may actually use these pictures for inspiration in our own home!

Here are some of my favorites!

Give me this house on a lot of land in the country and I'd be pretty ecstatic!

source

I'll take this kitchen, complete with the window treatment and all!

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I'll take this bedroom...

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Accompanied by this bathroom...

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This laundry room...

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And I guess we could top it all off with this porch and backyard!

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Yes...that is an adult-sized tree house!

I guess I'll keep on dreamin  :)

Try this!

This recipe is not only delicious, but soooo easy!

I saw it on pinterest the other day and realized that I had everything that I needed in the pantry or freezer and made a mental note to make this on a night that I didn't feel like making anything too involved.

Cheesy Chicken Pot Pie Cups

Believe it or not, this recipe is listed as healthy with each cup only being 144 calories!

- 1 can of reduced fat biscuits (10 count)

- 1 cup cooked chicken breast, diced
- 1 (10 1/2 ounce) can reduced-fat cream of chicken soup
- 2/3 cup shredded low-fat cheddar cheese
- 1 cup of frozen mixed veggies (I use broccoli, cauliflower, corn, peas...anything)
- 1 teaspoon dried parsley flakes

- 1 teaspoon of onion powder
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Separate biscuits and place each biscuit in a cup of a lightly greased 12-hole muffin pan, pressing dough up sides to edge of cup.
3. In a medium bowl, combine chicken, chicken soup, veggies, cheddar cheese, parsley flakes, and black pepper. Mix well to combine.
4. Evenly spoon chicken mixture into prepared biscuit cups.
5. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes or until golden brown.
6. Remove from oven. Place muffin pan on a wire rack and let set for 2-3 minutes. Serve at once.

Wedding

Last Saturday Matt was an usher at his good friend (Tyler's) wedding.

It was a gorgeous fall afternoon and a fun weekend spent with great friends!

Travel Monday - Greenbrier

Needed that break...

Last time I blogged was Wednesday and Thursday was a whirlwind of subbing, hair cuts, packing, and getting ready to hit the road to VA.

We went to a wedding (pics to come tomorrow) that was beautiful and so much fun!

On the way back from VA, we stopped to get gas off of the exit where the Greenbrier resort is located.

I started thinking that most people don't know about this hidden gem, and they should.

So here it is...Travel Monday - Greenbrier edition

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The first time I was introduced to THE GREENBRIER was in 2010 when I started to plan our wedding.  I (for a quick second) thought that maybe getting married in WV would be a good idea since that is where Matt was living and I was spending a lot of time there leading up to the wedding.  The first thing I did was google search weddings in WV and The Greenbrier was the first thing that popped up.

I did a little digging and quickly realized 1) how incredibly popular (thus expensive) this place was and 2) since it was so popular, you have to book over a year in advance for events here!

Yikes!  I was interested enough though to keep looking at pictures, and this place is GORGEOUS!

My grandparents have visited and have great things to say about their time spent there.  Matt attended the Greenbrier Classic (golf tournament) here a few months ago and loved it.  Their most recent claims to fame...

The Greenbrier Class Concert Series 2011 included...
Luke Bryan
Tim McGraw
Miranda Lambert
Keith Urban
Black Eyed Peas

If we're still living in WV this time next year, I'm definitely looking into going to those concerts!!!

New Chik-fil-a

There is a new Chik-fil-a opening (the only one in Charleston besides the one in the mall).

This means 2 things...

1) There are about 100 people literally camped out in line for the grand opening tomorrow so they can get free Chik-fil-a for a year.

2) I am able to get my first subbing gig for one of those very people waiting in line!

Today I walked into a school I'm relatively unfamiliar with (private school) and took charge of a class I had met for about 5 minutes a few weeks ago.

It was so much fun!  I'm exhausted to say the least, but when I look back on my day I can't believe how fast it went.

Respect teachers...please!  Subbing was tiring, but I didn't have to do anything but show up and teach (was so happy I had a teacher willing to let me take over and not just make the kids do busy work all day).  No lesson plans, grading (o.k...maybe I did some grading to help out the teacher) no parent issues, no real behavior problems to deal with...I walked into the school and out of the school and that is where my "job" started and stopped.  Not the case for actual teachers!

I did have some comic relief throughout the day in the form of...

"Mrs. Mantiply, Jane is eating the rug."

"Mrs. Mantiply, Jane is cutting up her bible."

and my personal favorite...

"Mrs. Mantiply, want to hear a Christian Joke?"
"Sure"
"Your Mama's so fat she had to go to Sea World to get baptized."

(so ensued a 5 minute convo. on just because it has the word baptized in it, does not mean that is a Christian joke...haha)

Going back tomorrow and can't wait!

Travel Tuesday?

Part two from yesterday's post...

Like I said, we were also in PA to help Alex celebrate turning the big 21!

Although college apartment parties are no longer the usual for me, I couldn't pass up this opportunity!  I talked my cousin, Jayson and older sister, Kate into joining me!  They took the dressing up thing a little far...I went for comfort! haha

In the picture we have a hippie, doctor, my sister in her "birthday suit", and Maleficent.  My cousin went as the Invisible Man.

We also decided to make those broken glass cupcakes, and I was pretty happy with the way they turned out...a joint effort between me baking the cupcakes and Kate icing them and making the broken "glass"