My Week in Pictures

My week started with Easter! The kids all got a little something from the Easter Bunny. (Sorry the pictures are so dark, bad lighting)

This was my 1 1/2 year old's basket....



This was my 9 year old's basket....



This was my 15 year old's basket....



The Easter bunny knows exactly what each kid likes. :)

Then we went outside and Madison learned the art of collecting Easter eggs.



She got a little help from her best friend and older sister.



My cutie son collected the most eggs. He's a pro!



Later that week....

I'll huff and puff and blow your house down! That's what goes threw my head when I see this. Our minor result of that bad freakish tornado storm that hit the South. Thankfully we only had stuff blowing around our yard and poor little Madison's playhouse was blown apart.



You can see how much the wind moved it from the grass marks to the left. Crazy!



Then April 28th was my 37th birthday! Can't believe I'm this old already. {tear, tear}

Look what Starbucks sent me in the mail to cheer me up. Only since I'm one of their favorite customers.



Thank you Star $$!



Coffee and Cake Pops! A perfect combo for this birthday gal.



Lastly, my kids surprised me with homemade cupcakes decorated with their Easter candy. How smart are they to make good use of all those extra jelly beans? It really made me love them even more then I already do. I have the best kids!




That was my week in pictures. It was an eventful one to say the least. I hope next week I can get some crafting and more organizing done around here. It makes me happy!

Making Christmas Cookies

We LOVE decorating sugar cookies at Christmas time! It's been cold around here so what better way to warm up then baking. All the kids helped me prepare this batch. They all come running when it involves sugar! ha! Even though the cookies may not be the best looking, they were so yummy. Making memories is what it's all about

Christmas in the Kitchen

It's starting to look more like Christmas around here. (I'm going out of town for Thanksgiving dinner so I don't have to worry about cooking at my house.) I can start to begin making candy treats for family/friends. It's never to early since my days ahead are jam packed full of other holiday activities, works and school. Any chance I can get to get a jump on my homemade gifts saves me a lot of stress.

Treat bags of muddy buddy mix. They are great anytime of the year, but we made them for Christmas this time.



Pretzel Hugs ready to be a gift for someone.



In the candy dish, more holiday favorites.



And if the sugar treats don't keep up my energy, a Gingerbread Latte from Starbucks will! Yum!



What homemade treats do you make around the holidays?

Happy Birthday Robert

Today is my Brother-In-Law's birthday. He would've turned 36 if he were still here. Just two weeks after my birthday. Every year he would do the same thing, call me old when I had my birthday first. Then when his birthday came two weeks later, he couldn't talk anymore. It was a fun long running joke of ours.

I thought we should bake a cake today. The kids tried to decorate it in Roberts memory.





Here's a fairly old picture of all of us after Jared was born.



I also made his favorite meal enchilada's. He always would beg me to make these when he came over. So in honor of him I made a batch of enchilada's and toastado's to go along with it. A very Mexican birthday dinner because if he were here, we would be having this.



We miss you Robert!

Must Haves in my Kitchen

I thought I would show you what I must have in my kitchen. These are some of my favorite products and they make my life so much easier. If you haven't tried any of these, you must.

First up, Press & Seal. Much better than Saran wrap and clings on your dishes without any fuss. Reusable and doesn't get stuck together like plastic wrap does. Makes storing left-overs in the same dish you served it in a big help. I hate creating any extra dishes to wash, since I AM the only dishwasher in this house.



Next up, slow cooker liners. I make a lot of meals in my crock-pot and hate the clean up. So you just put this down in the bowl first before you add your ingredients. Cooks the same, just with less mess when it's all gone.



Third, I love pre-cut foil. It dispenses the perfect size and I don't have to mess with cutting. Brittany is always making little pouches of food to cook in the oven, so this comes in handy around here.



Cooking sheets! I am always baking something in the oven on these things. I found a baking sheet that I just love. Most that are sold don't have enough depth on the side edge to catch juices that sometimes run out. The commercial bake ware does make a big difference. They are deeper to catch more and just seem to be all around better. This is what restaurants use in their kitchens. Since I'm feeding an army now, I feel like I need to have more industrial cooking items. I picked up another Oneida one up at Wal-mart the other day.




Well that's all for now. I will be posting more of my favorite products and household items in a future post. Look for that to come soon. I hope you'll try these and if you have, what do you think of them?

Fall Treats

I like to make Fall treats for everyone. Something about this time of year makes me want to serve up carmel dipped apples, gooey covered popcorn, and chocolate M & M cookies. It'll add a pound or two on ya but they are just too good to pass up. You have to have one. This is what I made.






In one word, Yum! I'll show you the cupcakes I made tomorrow. If everyone lived closer, I'd share them with ya.

Baking Kit

Yesterday I was in the mood for baking. I have been reading blogs about favorite desserts and decided to get out my baking kit. I was tired of looking through my cupboards for misplaced sprinkles or cupcake liners. I decided it was time to make a storage box to hold them all so I could find things easier. This is what I used.

It's a fairly large Rubbermaid storage tote that I decorated with pretty ribbon to dress it up. I used stickers on the outside to label the container.



Inside holds everything you might need to make up a quick batch of cookies or cupcakes. You never know when you might be running low on snacks and have a couple of hungry kids to feed. That's why having this on hand helps me get through till I can go grocery shopping again.



I decided to try my hand at making Chocolate Covered Cherry Cake Ball's. They taste just like the candy, except they are made with cake. I started with this. Cherry Chip Cake and Vanilla Icing. I mixed the cake according to the directions and baked it in the oven.



When it came out of the oven I cut half of the cake up and crumbled into a mixing bowl. I added vanilla icing and stirred them together. This makes it all mushy and easy to form into round cake balls. Afterwards,I stuck the batter back into the fridge to harden and cool.





After about half an hour I got the cake back out of the fridge and melted Hershey's chocolate chips in the microwave. I took formed cake balls and dipped them in the chocolate to cover. I placed them on wax paper till they hardened. They were ready to eat in just a few minutes. I kid you not, these taste just like Chocolate covered cherries and are soooo sweet. My kids just loved them. You will have to make up a batch and try them for yourself.