So long controllers!

I don't care who you are... this is cool! While watching E3 this morning with Zac we saw the demo for xbox's newest controller "project natal", where you are the controller. Unfortunately they have no release date or price for this yet. I'd have to say this totally one-up's Wii. Can't wait!!

November can't come soon enough!

Movie Trailers - Movies Blog

This is what you show Emily if you want your eardrums ruptured. She about flipped at the end and who wouldn't when... well you'll see! :)

Now nothings getting done

And I was doing so good too. I got three bathrooms, the laundry room and half the laundry in the house done along with major tidying in the garage... all in one day, too! Well, this is why.



Which means I have lots of leverage until her newness wears off! She came home with us yesterday. Emily's been begging for a pet since we had to find new homes for our dogs since we can't have them here. Emily's friend's cat had a litter and we got first choice. She doesn't have a name yet... everyone wants to name her something different.

• Princess Peach
• Pumpkin
• Sulley
• Marmalade

So could ya help us out and vote for the name you like best?

Got the bug...

Spring cleaning today. I've gone through three bathrooms and the laundry room... next up is my closet and bedroom. I hope to surface soon...
Oh, andThursday Ally is performing in Hope of America along with many fifth graders in the district. I hope to show you a bit of it this weekend.

Ok, this is getting ridiculous!

Today I've been working on revamping my blog. I got the background done and since this afternoon I've been working on the header. You think that would be easy.... but oh no! Today about 5ish the power went out! Almost done with the header and the power goes out!! and out it stays until just before 6. Thinking I'd be safe to start again I open up PSE and start pulling it all back together. I get about to where I was before the outage and my screen goes black, I hear the whir of my computer shutting off, and the house is suddenly quiet and dark.... CRAP!! You'd think I would have thought about saving... but noooo.

Now I get to try and salvage dinner since it was cooking when the power went out. Maybe I'll try again later with the header... and when I do, I'll save as I go.

Excuse me :)

Working on a new look for the blog. I should have it all done by tomorrow. Yay!

Miss You...

I've been thinkin' about my gal pal Kasi a lot lately. Wishin' I had someone to hang with and scrap with again. It's been almost six months since I've seen her. So today while playing in Digital Candy's speed scrap I did a page with us. I hope you are having a fabulous day my friend!

The Loot!

Well Julie and I had so much fun on our day out... it was nearly the whole afternoon. We headed out at 11 am and didn't get home until 4! We even met her up with her mom who lives pretty close to Making Memories so we could all shop together. After the shopping we went to Iggy's and had a great late lunch!

The sale had tons of Awesome deals! There were lots of stuff and lots of ladies hungrily grabbing at everything. If you decide to go here's some tips.

• I'm glad I limited myself money-wise, taking only cash. It made me really think about my purchases and if I would use them.


• Take a large bag, like a tote with you. They'll give you an empty box to haul around with you to put your stuff in but it doesn't have handles making it akward when wading through the crowds.


• wear comfy shoes. You'll be walking a bit and standing in lines, if you go in the morning, for check out.

I took $60 with me and spent it plus some change I had on me and got all this!! I ended up with 35 items so that roughly adds up to less than $2 per item... not bad,eh?

So Excited!

I'm heading to Making Memories this afternoon with a new friend of mine. I'll let you know if I find anything good!! whoo hoo!!

Lucky Me!

We had a fun morning today. The naughty Leprechauns came again and left the kids with green marks all over their arms and faces anda pile of "gold" candy. They also left a large pot of "gold" for mom and dad to share.

Everyone got dressed up in their green duds. I wore, what Emily lovingly dubbed, my "ho heels" so I could be festive too.

Sweet!

While checking out all my favorite blogs I ran across a fun one. Kinsey over at Kinseygirl posted a fun FREE way to make your own font. It took just a few minutes and out comes your very own personal font! I thought even you Digi girls might want to get in on it, if you don't have your own font yet, so you can add even more of a personal touch to your pages.

Finally it's gone!

For the last few months Jesse has been wiggling one of his front teeth but it has never been quite loose enough to come out. Even with the new grown-up tooth coming in it still wouldn't let go. Hubby has been bugging me to get him into the dentist so they can yank it but I figured it would come out when it was ready. Also I didn't want Jesse to get upset or nervous having the dentist in his mouth doing who knows what. I know they know what they are doing but a six year old doesn't have a clue. Finally yesterday you could tell it was on that last strand of whatever was holding it up there and "POP" out it came! Now you can see his big tooth! I think this smile is just adorable.

Of course a visit from the tooth fairy was in order, which I totally spaced until the alarm went off this morning. So I ran downstairs, grabbed some cash and went to go sneak into his room to find that he was already awake and slightly disappointed that the tooth fairy hadn't shown up. So what do I do? Some really quick thinking. Somehow the tooth fairy got confused and left money under MY pillow! Silly tooth fairy!! So I traded the money I got for the tooth and he totally bought it!! The tooth fairy has a know reputation for being unreliable and scatterbrained in this house!

Flavorful Friday

Yes... I know it's Saturday. I have been having fun with my out-of-state family that will be here for a while. I hope to post some more about it later. Right now though I want to get to my recipe.

Here in Utah we seem to have a few things that are hard to find outside of this state. I didn't know anything about fry sauce until I moved here and the same could be said about the cookie I'm about to post a recipe of. Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Cookies sound to me like a fall food, just like turkey and pumpkin pie. But here you can find these soft cake-like cookies year round. These are the only cookies my youngest will eat. Wierd, I know, but once they are baked he can't get enough of them! I'd have to say my most favorite thing about these are that it only requires 3 ingredients!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 (14 ounce) can 100% pure pumpkin
1 (18.25 ounce) package spice cake mix
1 Cup Chocolate chips


DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease two baking sheets.
Dump pumpkin and cake mix into a large bowl. Stir until well blended and creamy. Stir in chocolate chips. Drop by spoonfuls (I use my medium scoop from Pampered Chef) on prepared baking sheets.
Bake in preheated oven until tops are firm when lightly touched, 8 to 10 minutes. Cool on racks. Makes about 2 dozen cookies.

Paper fun!

It's been so long since I've scrapped a LO. So I was really happy when a group of mine put on a crop and I actually got to play! Not a whole lot but enough for me to really want to keep going even after it's over. I even got a digi LO done for one of the challenges!

Flavorful Friday

In honor of my super-duper cruise I decided today's Flavorful Friday would be something I ate almost every night aboard the Elation! The waiters at our table knew exactly what to bring DH every night for dessert... this, with 3 vanilla ice creams! On the last night he ordered double his usual. Once we got home he had me scouring the internet to find his beloved dessert. Well I finally found it at cruisecritic.com on their boards. Last night I made this heavenly treat and it was just like I remembered! I bought the 7 oz. ramekins at Walmart, a set of two for $5. This recipe fills 6 ramekins. I personally like my center very runny, like hershey's syrup, and last night I baked it for 13 minutes. The center was more like hot fudge. Next time, and there Will be a next time, I'll bake for a minute or two less. I have yet to finish the whole thing... it is sooo rich, but sooo worth it!

Warm Melting Chocolate Cake

8 oz. dark chocolate (you can use 1 1/3 C. semi-sweet choc. chips)

8 oz. butter

5 eggs (room temperature)

5/8 C. sugar

2/3 C. flour

Directions

Melt chocolate & butter over low heat. In mixing bowl, mix eggs and sugar, then add flour. Slowly whisk into the melted chocolate mixture. Pour into greased (i used Baker's Joy) ramekins. (i tried 4 oz. & 7 oz. -- 7 oz. is just too big!) Bake at 400 F for 12-14 minutes. Yield: 36 oz. unbaked batter; 8 servings if you use a 4 oz. ramekin.Adjust times according to the size ramekin you use, and the texture you prefer. In a 4 oz. ramekin for 13 min., the texture on the inside of the cake was a little heavier than pudding, kind of like a loose fudge. I also did some in my convection oven at 350F. 13 minutes in a 4 oz. ramekin yielded a smooth, hot fudge sauce-like center. In the 7 oz. size, 16 min. at 350F in the convection oven produced a pudding-like texture in the middle. Regular oven, 7 oz. size, at 400F, smooth, heavy sauce-like texture resulted after 14 min.

Playing Catch-up

This month has been crazy busy for me. With three birthdays, a cruise, sick kids and surgery for DH I feel like I've not had a moments peace. So to catch you up on things here's what's been happening.

Jesse turned six before we left on our cruise. It was just a small family party. We all had a lot of fun watching him blow out all those candles after singing to him! Since Christmas Jess has been obsessed with Legos. Not so much the building of them (dad helps with that) but just playing with them. So he and dad put the legos together with super glue so they won't come apart in his 6 year-old hands. I bet you can't even guess what he got? No ideas??

LEGOS!!

Indiana Jones and Star Wars Legos. Along with a nerf gun so he can have wars now with his brother. I like that they keep him busy and he lets his sisters in on the action most of the time. There's only one thing I don't like about them... they end up everywhere!!

Just a few days later DH and I headed off to the airport to catch a plane to San Diego. It was so nice once we got off the plane because you could tell you were somewhere that didn't have snow! It was 60 and sunshiney in beautiful San Diego. It took just a few minutes to get from the airport to where the cruise ships dock and getting through check-in was a breeze.

I was so proud of myself for getting used to the motion of the boat quickly and not once getting sick! We had an inside cabin which we loved! You can sleep anytime you want and not worry about the sun waking you. The food was so good and the activities kept you busy while going port to port.

On Sunday I got to enjoy a wonderful hour at their Spa and got the Exotic Lime & Ginger Salt Glow & Half Body Massage. Oh, it was HEAVEN!! And just in time for Formal Night that night. Dinner was Lobster Tails and Steak along with anything else off the menu. After dinner and before the dancing (no, I didn't get DH to dance) they had photographers everywhere taking pics of everyone in their formal wear. This is the only professional pic I got for the entire cruise since they were like $20 a sheet!

Monday we arrived in Cabo San Lucas. It was so warm (80 degrees!!) and pretty there. I wore my shorts and my swimsuit off the boat because I wanted some sun and I was not getting back on the boat without swimming in the ocean. I used to, every Summer at least once, when I was a child. Since we lived about 30 - 40 minutes from Santa Cruz, CA it was a cheap way for my mom to entertain us. We checked out the local flea markets but didn't buy much. Most of our spending was in Ensenada two days later.

See that big yacht? When we got off there were all kinds of rumors flying around that it was Tiger Woods'(Cabo's got a great golf course). Once we got to the beach we saw that it had a British Flag flying so knew that wasn't his, but whomever it does belong to was WELL OFF! You can't see it in the pic but on the back of the yacht there was a helicopter!

I didn't get any pictures in Ensenada... although we did have a great time. One of the couples we were cruising with took us to a little hole-in-the-wall Empanada stand. Oh My Gosh!! They were sooo good! Next time we go I will be going back with an empty stomache! After that we walked down the Main tourist-y street and got many things. Jewelry for Em and I at the sterling silver shop, a leather purse that feels like buttah for me and lots of other things for the kids. We even stopped to watch a guy do some spray paint art. It was amazing!

I can't wait to go again. Next time we will be taking all the kids and making it a family vacation.

5 Things I Like About Today... so far.

My BFF Katie tagged me over at her blog, so I figure I might as well post. It's just a short little thing. Thanks Katie for thinking of me!

1. I'm finally home after many errands that had to be done.
2. I don't have to think about dinner tonight.
3. I got to shower this morning... I'm sure everybody I ran into appreciated that.
4. My kids aren't fighting with each other.
5. My cute high-heeled boots are off my feet!

Now to tag others. Hmmm.... I tag:

Kasi

Shelley

Emma

Valerie

Shauna

Flavorful Friday

So sorry everyone for not having a picture of this. I really wanted to make it this week but with sick kids, two birthdays, and trying to get my home in order so that I can leave in peace tomorrow... I just haven't had the time. I hope you enjoy and I'll see ya when I get back!

Chocolate Oatmeal Bars



2/3 C. butter or margarine, softened

1 C. packed brown sugar

1/3 C. corn syrup

1 t. vanilla

4 C. quick cooking oats

1 pkg. (11 1/2 ounces) milk chocolate chips

2/3 C. chunky peanut butter

4 Heath candy bars (1.2 ounces), crushed



Directions

In a mixing bowl, cream the butter and brown sugar. Add corn syrup and vanilla; beat well. Stir in oats; press into a greased 13 x 9-in baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on a wire rack.

In a microwave or heavy saucepan, melt chocolate chips and peanut butter; stir until blended. Spread over cooled bars. Sprinkle with crushed candy bars. Refrigerate until set before cutting.

Be Careful What You Wish For...

Because it might just happen!

I've been wanting some snow now for a couple of weeks. The kids were home and I thought the Christmas break would be a great time to go sledding. Well Old Man Winter wasn't cooperating with me. I only wanted a few inches of fluffy white stuff for the kids to play in while they were here. Well I finally got what I wanted! It's been snowing since yesterday afternoon and as grateful as I am for it, I'm ready to be done with it all! I think there's at least a foot out there. I've had to use the snow blower four times in the last 24 hours. I've gotten stuck almost twice! Plus I have a hard time shopping for all those little things I have to pack before Saturday.

I can't wait for 80 degrees in Cabo San Lucas!

Happy Birthday to me!

I love my hubby! He knows me so well!!

It's just what I wanted... something I could carry around in my purse and perfect for our cruise!

Flavorful Friday

Sorry for missing last weeks flavorful friday. With the holidays and all I was just way busy. I hope you all forgive me. I also don't have a picture to go with this weeks recipe. The last time I made it I didn't even think to take a picture. I hope you enjoy!

Preview Chicken

4 chicken breasts, cooked and diced
1 Can each of cream of chicken soup and cream of celery soup
1 Cup sour cream
1 pkg. Herbed croutons, crushed
1/2 a stick of margarine or butter, melted
1 Cup Chicken broth or stock

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix together in a medium bowl the two soups and the sour cream. Set aside. Layer, in a 13 x 9 inch pan, in this order chicken, soup mix, and crushed croutons. Drizzle margarine over the croutons. Then add the chicken broth evenly over the top making sure the croutons are well soaked. Bake for 40 minutes. Serve over hot buttered egg noodles.