Hello everyone!!!  Sara here!  Y’all I have been cooking up a storm and leaving a mess in my wake!  But I have been making the living best stuff!  Last week ended on a high note with an enchilada bake…the leftovers were even better!

Then I made a chicken alfredo “pasta” or squashta as I like to call it!

This right here…this right HERE…was so flippin good!  It was savory, and casserole like and so comfy in this freezing cold weather!  I ate it for dinner, for breakfast, for lunch and I am for sure going to make it for Thanksgiving!

Then B came over and we ate the squashta for dinner and then we made Korean beef together….IT WAS SO GOOD and I can’t explain enough how easy it was to make! I just love cooking with my boo.  And you guys, Acts of Service is my 4th out of 5 love languages, but after I left for work the next morning, B unloaded the dishwasher, reloaded the dishwasher, took out my recycling and MADE MY BED!!!! Oh my gosh, I need to retake the test, bc I have never been more turned on or more in love! HA!

This recipe is on Pinterest but the first two I found on Instagram!  I follow Whole 30 recipes and they are forever putting up great looking and tasting food.  I have the Whole 30 cookbook, but it can get a little boring and I know it is blasphemous to say this…but so bland! #rightchelsea!? It is so fun cooking and I feel like everyone at work is in to healthy eating right now so it has been fun to try each others food!

This week also marked my sister Kelly’s actual birthday!  The one and only Kelly Courtney Beard, turned 40 this week and I bombarded social media with all the cutest pic of my sweet sis!

I feel like bursting in to tears every time I think of how much I love my sister!!!  And somebody look at how AHHHHH-DORABLE we all were!  And I just can’t get enough of these two!

Our Aunt Deb and Uncle Steve were in town and staying with our parents so we all went out to dinner for Kelly’s birthday at Firebirds and had a ball!

We did a selfie circle and it was hilarious!  I ordered the spinach salad without the stuff I couldn’t have and got the most reasonable dressing (green goddess) since I forgot mine and topped it off with steak!

Deee-licious! We laughed and ate and talked and snuggled and celebrated Kelly!

I ate the hell of out my leftovers for breakfast the next morning!  I ate all my steak so I added chicken sausage and my Whole 30 approved dressing!

After work Jenny came over and we had an afternoon tea!  Except I made coffee and sweet potato waffles with ghee instead of tea and crumpets!

It was so good and even though we didn’t get to hang out for very long, I cherish any moment I get with my favorite meatball!

Ugh I love her!  It’s a good thing I fueled up and that Jenny had to go bc I had a big project ahead of me!  About a week before I reached out to as many people as I could think of to write a birthday letter for Kelly.  Kelly loves a letter, so what better gift than compiling a million personal letters for her 40th!  Now the title is going to start making more sense.  So, I had received all the letters, gathered the pictures, ordered the book they would go in, got the envelopes to place the letters in, got beautiful Sharpies to write with…I sound so organized and prepared right?!  Let me tell you what happens when I do anything.  I have 1,000’s of thoughts that swirl through my head at rapid speeds.  So when I start doing something I think…hmmm, I should get my craft box out, don’t want to miss out on an opportunity to make this gorgeous.  Then I think, where is my craft box, then I think oh yeah, the front closet, then I open the front closet and there is an insane amount of shit between me and my destiny.  Then I think, fuck this shit, I need my craft box and I start ripping everything out of the closet (which is my catchall) until finally I can see the light…I also find an unopened Amazon box, a christmas present I never gave to Chase, my missing mittens and literally everything I have ever been missing!

One idea leads to another which leads to another which results in this hot mess!  I try to tell myself that it is just my creative brain.  I spent way too long on this, so I reigned myself back in and got started!!!  I love starting an arts and crafts project!  I love letting all of my ideas come to fruition. But more than anything, I love my sister so much and reading all of these letters from people who also ADORE her had me straight up bawling my eyes out (like sorry about all the tears on the pages of this book I made!)  Before I knew it I had made another huge mess…

Annnd maybe the best thing I’ve ever made! I have always LOVED writing books for my family!  Imagine that!

The plan was to give the book to Kelly on Superbowl Sunday, but as you read last week, Chase got the flu…then Kelly!  So our party was cancelled.  But we finally rescheduled when everyone was feeling better.  It was really a blessing that my deadline got extended (not that my family for the flu!) because so many more letters came in.  So, to everyone who shared their beautiful thoughts, memories and well wishes with my sister, thank you so much!!!  It was incredible to see her, someone I’ve known and looked up to my whole life, through other people’s eyes.  I think it will make us even closer and I didn’t know that was possible!  I made a big pan of chicken chow mien and showed up at Kelly’s.  I felt like I was going to barf…I was so ready for my sister to bathe in all this love.  And let me tell you something…we all had all the feels.

Me and mom couldn’t stop crying!

Dad was comfort eating!

40 people wrote letters!!!  My sister is so loved by so many.  This book was worth ripping my house apart and mildly harassing her friends, family and co-workers.  We had so much fun reading and laughing and crying, eating the best dinner if I do say so myself…

Then we watched Roseanne and Seinfeld bloopers and that one Drew Carey show with all the farting!  The kids were bored out of their minds, but the OG Beards had a ball.  Lesson learned…leave nothing unsaid.  All the wonderful things you think about a person, tell them.  It literally means the world.  Also, always say yes to family time.  And finally, who cares about a clean house when you can make people feel good!?!  I love you all!!!  Until next time. Xoxo