Throwback Thursday

Oct. 2009

Jay and I met back in 2009. I'm still very much in love with this man. He takes great care of his family, puts us first, is a wonderful father, and a very hard worker.

I would never have imagined we'd be here today with 2 more kids. He's been my rock over the last almost 4 years. He's always believed in me and always lifts me up when I'm down.

I look forward to many more years of growing with this man.

April 2013

Homemade Chocolate Chip Frappe (McCafe' knockoff)

Who doesn't love a great Frappe? I sure as hell do! I'm particularly in love with McDonald's Caramel Frappes.

Here I am this morning thinking to myself "how great would it be to have a frappe right now"!

"Hmm, wonder if I could make one myself."

Yes! I can, and you can too with just a few simple ingredients.

1.Frozen coffee.  Freeze your left over coffee in an ice cube tray (or brew some coffee just for this purpose).



I was too impatient and didn't let my coffee freeze completely (don't do that, let it freeze).

 

 

2. Chocolate syrup. (I didn't have any but I did have baking chocolate; melted it). Use as much as desired. I would suggest about 1/4 cup, but you can adjust depending on how strong you want the chocolate to taste.

3. Blend frozen coffee cubes, 1/4 cup milk, and chocolate until mixture is the consistency of a frappe.

*I added some chocolate chips into the blender, as well as to the finished product. If you have some ready whip, spray that shit on top and add a chocolate drizzle if you want to get fancy!

Some of my fave. blogs

I have to share with you all some of my favorite blogs around the web. The women/men that run these blogs must have some pretty interesting interesting lives. These are a mix of blogs; educational, humor, parenting etc. Hope you all love them as much as I do!


1: Cake wrecks is by far one of the best! Who doesn't love someone else's screw up? And it's on a cake? Best thing ever!

Who doesn't love a penis cookie with fireworks?



2. J&A and Co.  This is my absolute Go To for parenting. This family is BEAUTIFUL. And I'm not talking about physical appearances (though they are beautiful in that aspect as well) but in their parenting advice. Definitely a must read! Mother's Little Secrets is by far my favorite post so far.

 

 



3. Welcome to the Mouse House. By far the best for tutorials; sewing, homemade cleaners, home décor, she's got a little of everything over there. I may be a little bias on this one as I've followed Haley over on BabyCenter's sewing group but she really is amazing! I mean seriously, how many people do you know can make a super cute skirt out of a tea towel from Target?

 

 

 

 

Share your blogs with us and If I love love love it, I'll share here for everyone to check it out! 

Project 365: Days 1-4

I'm not going to bombard anyone with a post a day just to post a pic or two. Speaking of which, I can't only do one pic a day. Sometimes it will be easy because let's face it; I don't leave my home, let along my living room 5/7 days a week!

I'll post my pics, with labels of course every few days so it's easy on everyone!

Here's to the start of 1 year of photos!

1/356  Sophia doesn't make the "poop" face that other babies make.
She enjoys pooping and she aint afraid to show it!

2/365  not a day goes by that she doesn't make me smile.

 

2/365  She enjoyed wearing Taylour's clothes.

 

 

2/365  My beautiful sister, beautiful daughter, and beautiful nephew on the way.
I'm just as excited to meet him as I have been if it were my own baby.
 

3/365 There will always be room in our bed for our babies.

 

4/365  One of my favorite moments of the day.

Nursing my baby to sleep.

 

Project 365

I see these all over the net and wonder if I could remember to do this every single day. I don't use my camera as much as I used to and would like to get back into the habit. I'm really just not happy with my camera. I have a simple Kodak point and shoot camera but of course I would love to have a Nikon DSLR. How wonderful would that be for me.

I've had a passion for taking photos for a long time but the point and shoot just doesn't work for me. I'm not a professional by any means but I still have a desire to take good photos.

I would really enjoy doing this project though and I'm hoping to follow through; I'm horrible at follow through. Though it would be better to start on the first of the year, I'm too impatient to wait that long.

How many of you have done this project and actually followed through with it? I would love to hear what you've learned from this.

So you want to chalk your hair:

     Binks has been wanting to dye her hair lately and in hopes of compromise I was willing to let her get highlights. Her aunt on the other hand stepped in the mommy role for this one and absolutely refused to allow this. Binks has gorgeous blond hair that my sister and I were both born with. Unfortunately there was no one around to stop us from dying our hair and now we both regret it and have struggled for years trying to get that perfect blond color back.

This led me to Pinterest for a little research. Final Compromise: Hair Chalking!

Hair chalking isn't hard at all and the process itself takes little time. I was able to get up at my regular 5:45am; made coffee, nursed the baby, hair chalked, "curled" hair, made Jay's lunch for work, cooked breakfast, and had Binks out the door by 6:35.

Here's a look at all of the steps of hair chalking:

1. Make sure you have the proper tools.
   a: Chalk pastels (commonly used by artists) or actual hair chalk but that costs a little more.
   b: Spray bottle with water.
   c: Flat iron/Curling iron (do NOT use a blow dryer as it will blow the chalk out)

Step 2: Wet the strands of hair you will be chalking (complete 1 section at a time so the hair doesn't dry)

Step 3: Rub chalk on wet strand. Rub in ONE directions; either up or down, not both.

 

 

 

Continue with steps 1-3 until you have all the desired strands done.

 

 

Step 4: Lock the color; flat iron or curl the strands you have just colored with chalk to help the colors stay in.

 

 

 

 

 

Style as desired. I "curled" Binks hair with the flat iron; not going to lie though, I did rush through this step. Her hair doesn't take too well with curling using a flat iron, it takes a little more patience and time than I have available early in the morning. We'll play with these a little more over the weekend.

 

 

 

 

Do NOT let this stuff stay in over night, it will come off on pillows, clothes, blankets, and whatever else you or your child sleeps with. Come through chalk to loosen and wash every night just like you would normally wash your hair.

 

 

 

Now go pick up some chalk pastels, get creative and share your pics with us!

 

 







Happy Mother's Day ladies!

     Happy Mother's Day to all of you wonderful mothers in the world today; the mommy to be, the grandma, the one that serves as mommy and daddy; today is your day and you are all special to your families and deserve to be appreciated and celebrated!

    

 

 

My Mother's day stated yesterday. I've been wanting a new patio set so that's what I got. Not as easy as I thought it should be however. That crap is expensive in case you didn't know. I picked out a cute little bistro set from Target, not what I originally wanted but I do love it. I was originally wanting something that seated 4+ people since we do like to entertain but I just don't have $1,000+ to spend on a set right now. Besides I always have a habit of what else I can buy with that kind of money. I tend to be a little more frugal these days, I guess having 4 kids will do that to you.

 

 

 

Since I'm the only baker in the house, I took this opportunity to bake some cupcakes and icing from scratch. I'm in love with Canoli(s)(ies) (I'm not really sure what the plural of canoli is but you get my point, right?). Let me tell you, recipe was super easy, broke my mixer, icing was super easy, DOESN'T TASTE LIKE CANOLI. The powdered sugar taste is very strong in the icing and the cupcake mix tastes just like regular yellow cake mix. I'm not complaining though, it was a good bonding moment since I had Binks helping me late last night. We (I) iced them this morning then enjoyed one while the kids played outside. While the selfish side of me wants to keep all of the cupcakes to myself, I think I will at least let the kids have one a piece.

 

 

 

There's no way on Earth I'm giving my toddler one since the sugar is pretty strong in them so I made her and the other kids some kabobs with strawberry slices, banana slices, and pound cake.

 

 

 

 

 And because it is ~My~ day, I got to choose dinner. We will be dining on some yummy Chicken Sandwiches (on buns), with lettuce, tomato, onion, and bacon. Because ya know, bacon makes everything better! I can't wait to bite into the deliciousness that is grilled chicken!

 

Miracle Cream

     A couple weeks ago we took the family to Downtown Disney for a little down time.  We had an amazing time and the kids actually had fun, every one of them with the exception of Sophie. After all she was only about 2 months old.

     We stayed at the Buena Vista Palace Hotel and Spa. I must say this is by far the best hotel we've stayed at so far. Concierge service, valet parking, 24 hour pools, and best of all, we got to treat the kids to breakfast with Pluto, Goofy, and Minnie.

 

We visited every shop at downtown Disney. Matt's favorite being the huge Lego Store. They had lego statues of the seven dwarfs and a dragon coming up out of the water. It was pretty cool to see. You can't help but to just stand there and admire all the hard work. I wouldn't want to be the person or one of the people that made them though. I can't believe I didn't get a photo of the dragon. Hmm, looks like I have an excuse to go back!

 

I need to mention Jay and mine's favorite store though. We didn't really think about going into Basin the first day, actually I'm not really sure what made us go in to begin with but we stopped to check it out before we left to come back home. Basin is nothing but bath and beauty products. Of course I had to grab some bath bombs. They had some really cute ones for kids. I picked up a Mickey one and Princess one for Brooklyn. The Mickey bath bomb had little pieces of Mickey head confetti that came out has the bomb fizzled down, the confetti fizzled out eventually too but it did last a while. The only thing I didn't like about that one was the fact that the water was close to turning black from the Mickey heads. Her princess bomb had a "surprise" in the middle, nothing exciting really, it was only a quarter machine ring; which she can't play with because she's too young. I picked up some bombs for myself, which I must say left my skin feeling very soft. The scents were amazing too. Upon check out, Jay found the best product of all, a solid moisture stick.

 

He puts this on his feet and back every day before work, doesn't have a single back ache all day. And let me tell you, he's on his feet all day with his back going out regularly. Some friends of ours were pretty skeptical about this product, but after a long night of sitting in my hard chairs playing games at the dining room table, they will be buying some for themselves now. Whit has problems with her ankle that pain pills wont touch, she rubbed this stuff on and felt the tingle right away. She said it didn't take the pain completely away but it did make it more than just manageable. Her fiancé Bob loved it on his back too. Pain gone with just a rub of a stick! Now you don't have to go to Downtown Disney just to buy this awesome stuff either. They have a website! So while you are sitting at your computer or have your phone in your had reading this, please take the time to pamper yourself and grab some of this miracle cream! While you're there, pick up some of their shampoo and conditioner bars and let me know how they work!

 

 

 

Update 5/10/13: I just went by Basin.com to order another moisture stick, I'm thinking it will be cheaper to drive the 2 hours to Orlando. $13.50 for shipping? Are you fucking kidding me?

 

 

No electronics

My eldest daughter came home from school yesterday with some interesting extra credit.  She has to go 4 days without "screen time". In other words no tv, no video games, and no computer. This would be easy for her except that i watch GH(General Hospital) every day as she's walking in the front door. If you knew Binks then you'd understand why i say this means i have to without tv for 4 days. Well from 3pm until she goes to bed at night. She's very easily distracted. Binks is 11 and will sit down with Brooke watching "Mickey's club house" for hours! I don't get how she can do that. 

I wish us both luck over the next four days, and thank God for Pandora! 

New addictions

Haha, who doesn't have an addiction? Not I that's for sure!

1st new addiction:
 
     I started watching "Bridezillas" recently. Not quite sure why as I'm not married or engaged, but needless to say I've learned a new word; "Brohoes". Anyone want to shed some light on what a broho is?

Checked it out on UrbanDictionary.com;

A bro hoe is a white girl who hangs out with "bro's" that dirtbike. They die their hair half blonde, half black. Wear brands such as Skin, SoCal, and SRH. They like to smoke weed, drink beer, be ignorant, oh and they DGAF (don't give a fuck.) You can usually find these types of fake girls at the mall, in No Fear stores... or at southern California teen parties, usually doing a keg stand or smoking a bong. Basically a bitch who thinks she's one of the guys because she rolls with his crew, but those guys only chill with her because she gives them head.   The chick definitely fits into that category!     2nd new addiction:        30 day challenges. What more can you say about them. Pinterest is so bad for my health in many ways and these 30 day challenges have only made it worse. Though I have yet to finish one. I've started the Squat challenge, and a photo challenge.      The squat challenge I've made it to day 6 I think. That shit hurts! Not to mention I'm one of the first that will tell you "I just don't have time to work out". That's a load of crap. We all have time, I could very easily work out while the babies take their naps, however there is always one obstacle that stands in my way; laziness. Yeah I said it, at least I can admit it though.   Hmm, maybe I should go start a new 30 day challenge! See ya on the flip side bro hos!