Cool summer treat for babies :)

I was trying to decide if Connor would rather have a bottle of ice water or some cold peaches in his little mesh pacifier thingy so I decided to give him....

ICE WATER WITH PEACHES IN IT!!!!

I know, I know.... Genius right?? Well, regardless, he loves it! He's been going to town on it for a while now. It's a good way to help him get the nutrients from fresh fruit and the hydration from water!

I think I'll try strawberries or blackberries next :)

Pink lemonade pie

I got this recipe off of Creations by Kara's blog and since I'm the type of person who sees a recipe and IMMEDIATELY has to try it, I did. Except I ran into lots of issues when trying to get the ingredients lol...

My beater is in storage, so I had to buy a $10 beater from Family Dollar. When I got there to buy it, I realized I left my wallet at home so my dear husband had to bring it to me. Then I go to Kroger to get my ingredients but I forgot to get the whip cream until I got all the way to my aunt's house in Bangs. I go to their little store to get some and there is a big sign on the door that says, "Not accepting debit/credit cards right now." I only took my debit card. I go back to the car and find $1.50 in pennies and am able to buy the stinkin whip cream.

Anywho... Here is the recipe:

-1 Graham cracker pie crust
-8 oz of cream cheese
-14 oz (1 can) sweetened condensed milk
-6 oz of concentrated pink lemonade juice mix (half of a container)
-4 oz (half of a container) of whip cream

The steps:
1. Beat the whip cream until light and fluffy
2. Slowly add in the sweetened condenses milk and then the pink lemonade concentrate.
3. Fold in the whip cream
4. Pour into pie crust and chill for 4 hours or until hardened.

UPDATE:

Freeze the pie overnight for an absolute splendid flavor/texture!!!!!!!!

The unanswerables, to me.

How do you combat the impossible? Why do people love one child more than the other? What makes people fall out of love? What does "beautiful" really mean? Why are certain actions acceptable by some people but not by other people? How is it that one person notices something so seemingly obvious but to someone else it is absolutely invisible? Why is it that nice people are treated unfairly? How can being nice make a person feel weak inside? Why does another person's thoughts and opinions matter so incredibly much? Why does a college degree make a person "smarter?" Why do people cheat on their spouses, the one person THEY chose to give their entire life to? Why does only one side of the story ever [really] prosper? Why is discipline so hard to acquire? Why do stomach aches result from being stressed or upset? How can someone abuse a child? What does it mean to have succeeded, especially when there is certainly going to be more hurdles? Does a person ever really succeed?

Blah blah blah

The last couple of weeks have been so rough.... I really just want to cry.

But then I think about how blessed we are to have a healthy baby boy and a healthy family and how we have a car and cell phones and lots of love. Many people don't have the simple luxuries that we have. It's hard to remember to give thanks for the easily overlooked things, such as food in the refrigerator (even if it's not something that sounds good today), running water, lights, air conditioner, and clean clothing.

I am thankful for my privileged life.

Chocolate surprise cookies!!!!

GeoTagged, [N31.54993, E99.11944]

I made the most amazing cookies today!!!!! I saw them in a cook book and I added my own little funk to them!!

These were extremely easy!!! Well, except for the part where I had to use my hand mixer outside so I wouldn't wake up the sleeping baby :)!

Here are the ingredients:

-3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter, softened
-1/3 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
-1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
-1/2 tsp almond extract (optional)
-1 1/2 cups flour
-1/8 tsp cinnamon
-25 Hershey kisses (or your choice of candy)
-extra white sugar for later ;)

Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Combine butter and brown sugar in medium bowl and beat with electric mixer on medium heat until light and fluffy.
3. Add the vanilla and almond extracts
4. Combine flour and cinnamon in another medium bowl.
5. Add the flour to the butter mixture gradually and mix well.
6. Put wax paper on your cookie sheet. Shape the dough into however many 1 inch balls you can make and then flatten until balls are a 2 inch round.
7. Place one chocolate candy in the center of each round and enclose the candy with the dough, making sure none of the candy is showing. The candy needs to be completely sealed in dough!
8. Bake until golden, about 15 minutes.
9. Sprinkle extra white sugar on top of cookies as soon as they are out of the oven.

Ta-da! Fantastico!

My husband was amazed as to how the chocolate centers didn't melt. It is pretty awesome :)

I hope you enjoy these little cones of goodness as much as we did!

Suitcase chair... Successful!

I have NO clue who came up with this. I saw it on the iPhone ap Recyclart and had to recreate it, although I feel like mine is wayyy better ;) heheh

My poor poor husband..... I feel so bad for him. He spent hours and hours helping me put my ideas into reality with nothing but wood and screws... Oh, and a little rose printed fabric. To say the least.... He was miserable doing this. BUT he was such a good sport and didn't stop until he finished!

He's so great at supporting my ideas, even if he knows they won't work out. And even though it always ends with, "I told you so!", he still goes right along with me. He has helped me create a masterpiece!

And thanks to my wonderful Papa, we had all the tools and other random-things-we-didn't-know-we-needed at the wave of our wand. Papa even gave me my very own blue staple gun!!! Seriously! Who else would just GIVE me a blue staple gun? AND a hammer thats the perfect size for me! Gosh he is my hero! I love him :)

We want to make more of these, but we may need an actual plan next time. This was fun but I know Trey was stressed to the max. Lol poor guy!

We were able to repurpose and old recliner's cushions, which makes me so so happy! Trey helped me go get a recliner by a dumpster and I ripped all the old fabric off and sliced up the foam with nana's bread knife (shhh she doesn't know! What?! I asked her for a knife and she ignored me lol).

All I gotta say is.... I LOVE UPHOLSTERING! Now I see why everyone on HGTV does it on like every episode!!!

I had that trunk for sooo long. It's moved from town to town with me during my gypsy first-college days and it's been used as a bedside table and a coffee table and a computer desk.....
So I figured it was time to give it a permanent use.

The legs were given to me by a nice man at a local antique shop and I spruced them up with some white spray paint (donated by none other than Papa himself).

Gosh, I love it. It's going in my new guest bedroom that's decorated in green and pink hummingbirds and other beautiful happy things :)

Happy 4th of July everyone!!!'n

I am so unbelievably blessed

I've known my entire life that there was something very special about the world I lived in. I've always felt happy and fortunate and thankfully I had parents who taught me that those feelings were what BLESSED people felt.

I've always had a love for words and colors and imagination and I feel like after years of traveling through life I have finally reached my gold pot!

My parents make everything so much easier for me than it should be. They also put an infinite amount of love into everything they do. I'm always so amazed by them. Being a young mother (I say young but 23 really isn't that young...), a new wife, and a full time college student, should scare me but it doesn't. My parents have taught me to have faith in everything and to NOT WORRY because God takes care of everything in the end. I am so fortunate to have had that kind of wisdom drilled into my head at such an early age.

But they haven't only blessed me with wisdom. I've lived like a princess my whole life and I get more and more thankful everyday.

Just this weekend they have blessed my husband and me with a new bed, couch, and tools for our new house! I'm so blessed. Can I say that too much?!

Just sharing the love I have for life. I really can't help but express it!!!!!

PS
And just when life can't get any more happier, I look down and see my gorgeous son sleeping next to me. Ahhhhhh I love it :)

My husband is my new carpenter

A few months ago my husband brought home a ton of random wood pieces and told me he was going to build baby Connor a toy chest. Well, today he did it!!!! Him and my Papa worked on it for about 6 hours! Wow I have never seen this side of him before. Yeah yeah he's a great electrician and yeah yeah he makes delicious steaks... But he is an outstanding carpenter!!!!! I have so many projects lined up for him now. I'm not saying I ever doubted his abilities, I just never knew so many talents could be compiled in one person. He does it all...

I've been reading this book about becoming a perfect help meet for my husband (by Debi Pearl) and I've learned so much. I have learned that times when our marriage seemed hard and bad were the times that I was sinning against God. I have learned that once I truly opened my heart our love would grow so fast. I'm blessed to have a husband who would stick by me through so much. We never have and never will have a problem with lying or cheating, but things such as getting mad at him for leaving a doritos bag in the living room is still a sin.

This book is changing my life. If any wives are reading this and want to learn how to become a better helper for your husband, read this book!!! It brings the bible into the content. It's real!

Off to bed! With my family by my side :) Sooo blessed!

PB&J ice cream sundae

I looooooove the show Cooking for Real with Sunny Anderson. The other day she made a PB&J ice cream sundae. I know.... WOW why have I never thought of that?!?! Well, I recreated it, and let me just say that the "Oos" and "Mmmms" that she did on the show were NOT an exaggeration. I literally couldn't speak! Here are the ingredients you will need (or the ingredients I used):

Ice cream part:
1/2 big jar of grape/strawberry/whatever kind of jelly you like
1 pint of vanilla ice cream

Sauce part:
1/2 cup of heavy cream
1/2 cup brown sugar, light or dark
Hefty scoop of peanut butter (I used creamy, Sunny used crunchy)

Sandwich part:
2-4 pieces old bread, the stale-er the better
3 tbsp of butter
White sugar, as much as you like

Here's whatcha do...

1. FIRST (do this HOURS) ahead of time..
Take all of the ice cream out of the pint container and put in large mixing bowl.

2. Mix your jelly into the ice cream. Your ice cream will get really runny and melty but that's okay.

3. Once your jelly is mixed in WELL, pour mixture back into pint container.

4. Freeze ice cream mixture until completely frozen again. This is so beautiful when finished!!!!

Once the ice cream is in the freezer...

1. Combine the heavy cream and brown sugar in a medium saucepan and cook on medium heat.

2. Bring to a rolling boil.

3. Once boiling, remove from heat and add your peanut butter. The heated mix will melt the peanut butter perfectly.

Okay, while the brown sugar and heavy cream are getting to that boiling point....

1. Put your butter in a medium skillet.

2. While butter is melting, cut your bread into little cubes, about the size of a crouton.

3. Ad bread to buttered skillet and cook until golden brown on all sides. This took a little while.

4. Once golden brown, remove from skillet and sprinkle with that delicious white sugar :)!!!!

You're done!!! Get a pretty bowl and scoop out some of your jelly ice cream and top with the peanut butter sauce!!! Then add as many croutons as you want! Yummmmo!!!

The sauce will stay in the refrigerator for up to 3 weeks if jarred properly :) Makes a great gift! Also makes a great addition to chocolate cake and plain toast!

My finished rose cake....

GeoTagged, [N31.67825, E98.95800]

I think it looks okay???

The idea came from:

http://iammommy.typepad.com :) try it!

Pork and root beer. Yum!

This is THE easiest most amazing meat I have ever tasted in my life. Pork tenderloins are amazing pretty much any way, but this way.... Wow. So easy and so delicious!

Ingredients:

1 (2 lb) pork tenderloin (plain)
1 (12 oz) can of your favorite root beer
*NOTHING else is needed for this! Not even salt and pepper!!!*

Put the pork tenderloin into a medium to big crock pot. Pour the root beer over the top of the pork loin. Cover, turn on medium, and cook 5/6 hours. I checked on the pork every hour or so and kept flipping it to help it absorb all the juices of the root beer!

Once completely tender, drain the root beer and be creative with the pork!!! Pulled pork sandwiches are a great way to use the pork, just add a bottle of your favorite BBQ sauce. Pulled pork tacos are also quite yummy! But my favorite way to eat it is right out of the crock pot!!!!! :)

Simple additions to boring foods

I love ways to spice up food without adding tons of sugar and fat!!! Here are some of my favorite ingredients to add to boring and bland foods...

1. Dijon mustard

Dijon mustard is good in almost anything!!! My favorite foods to add it to are scrambled eggs and fish, such as red snapper and tilapia. Adding 1 teaspoon of Dijon mustard to scrambled eggs is amazing! I have no idea why! Here's a simple recipe that serves 2:

4 eggs
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
Splash of low fat milk
Salt & pepper to taste
Fresh grated Parmesan cheese

Mix eggs, milk, salt, pepper, and Dijon mustard in a bowl. Pour into heated and buttered skillet. Scramble. Top with fresh grated Parmesan cheese.

Ahhh it's amazing!

2. Minced garlic (from the jar)

This stuff is so easy. Ad it to toast and you'll swear you put butter on it too. Put on meats instead of lots of salt.

3. Pancetta

Pancetta is similar to bacon, except it's WAY stronger in flavor. Substitute it in recipes that call for a lot of bacon and you'll save a lot of calories! I love it in pastas and I love using the grease it creates to cook vegetables in. Here's a good way to make a more updated BLT:

What you'll need:
Whole wheat bread
Fresh baby spinach
One tomato
Pancetta
Mayonnaise
Cayenne pepper
Heat a medium skillet and add pancetta. Once the pancetta is crispy like bacon, remove pancetta. Add a few slices of tomatoes and cook them in the pancetta grease for about 2 minutes on each side. Put the tomatoes on whole wheat bread with a little spicy mayo and some fresh spinach and you'll never know the bacon isn't there!!!

Spicy mayo recipe:
2 tablespoons mayo
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper