Cruisin'

We just got back from a super fun cruise yesterday, that's why I've been so busy! :) I don't think it's very smart when people announce they'll be gone before the fact, I wanted to wait til I got back to tell ya all about it! I've got lots to tell and even more pictures and only posted half of them ;)

Tim and I and my parents went on the Baja cruise, leaving from Long Beach, CA, we visited Catalina Island and Ensenada, MX. Besides Tim, it was our first cruise! I've been so terrified of the ocean but realizing more how short life is I decided to buck up and go. I'm so glad I did! Tim was such a sweetheart to plan it all. It was so fun to be with my parents, I'm glad they came. Of all people they most deserved a vacation!

We got to visit Hollywood a little bit when we arrived, it was fun to go up to the "Hollywood sign". Next boarding the Carnival Paradise. The view of the city from the boat reminded me of NYC on our way to the Statue of Liberty.
The ship was so beautiful, me and my parents were giddy like little kids :) We went to the front of the ship waiting for us to sail away and decided to enact the Titanic scene. The guys pretended they didn't want us to jump. haha
We were pretty excited when we got to all the food buffets, woa! That was one of our favorite things to do there :) they had some gooood food!
The ship looked amazing at night with all the lights, there were lights everywhere, so pretty!

After a rather rough night of stomach problems for my parents and I, we were grateful to get to land in the morning. They took Dramamine after that and were fine from then on. First day we woke up in Catalina. I must say this was my favorite, it was gorgeous! There were some amazing flowers! My favorite is the redish one in the middle.

We rented a golf cart and got to ride it around and explore, super fun! We went to the Botanical Gardens, lots of neat different cacti and plants. My dad is standing by some crazy twisted cactus and the "Old Man" which they have; we've had it forever but we didn't realize how tall it gets!
Tim's favorite was the "Prickly pear", it's cool how the old ones change.

My mom and I got to drive the golf cart back to town while the guys browsed around. If we had great weather all the time, I'd opt for getting a golf cart, they're so fun ;)
Look how buff and tuff the guys are holding up the ship, hahaha :) yea right, that ship is beastly HUGE!

Tim's favorite buffet on the ship was the mongolian, it was pretty tasty!
That night on the ship we had a formal night and got to dress up for dinner! Our waiter was awesome and brought him out a dairy-free dessert, a marinated pear which he said was great!
I was excited to see the sunset from the ocean, I've heard it's just amazing when you're out there. It did not disappoint. Stunning!
That bottom picture I was taking a pic of Catalina when a seagull flew right in the shot, ha! Not a very shy bird, but a great poser! :)
Tim took me out walking on top of the ship at night and went to the front to look out, but it was so completely dark and no moon out, all you could hear was the waves below, kinda creepy, call me crazy but I like to be able to see it to enjoy it.

The next day we arrived in Ensenada, Mexico! It was so foggy, we thought it would be cold, but not so, I got burnt while on the horsies. Yup, we went horse back riding, fun eh! Believe it or not, I know my way around with a horse. My horse was named "Baio", not sure of the spelling, but not as great as my dad's horse...."Bud Light". haha We joked about pulling him over for "riding under the influence". lol We rode for about 1 1/2 hours, it was so gorgeous on top of the mountain, foggy below, blue sky above with the sun shining through and the ocean right over the cliff, that's where the fog was coming from.
Sadly my mom didn't do too well on the horse, so they took her back, she was a trooper for trying it out! It was hilarious to watch my dad try walking when we got off the horses, haha I'm sure I looked just as funny, my knees were really hurting so when I tried to walk felt like they started to buckle up, I felt like an old granny. :)

Thank goodness Tim knows Spanish, it really came in handy. We were able to find an alternative ride up to La Bufadora besides the tour bus which was ridiculously priced. After walking a few blocks away from all the touristy stuff, we found a stellar guy named Oscar to drive us around. He and Tim were able to talk which was good or it would've been an awkward 45 minute ride. I could pick out some of the conversation with my limited Espanol. Si, hablo espanol. :)

Up at La Bufadora was the "Blow hole". It's a crevice in the cliff where the waves come in from ocean, some magical science stuff happens that I don't understand and Poof the water shoots up! Pretty sweet lookin! I was taking a picture of my mom and I when it went off really high and sprayed us! That was my next favorite part of the trip.

We got to look at the market up there and Tim did the bartering :) That's not my thing. I got a sweet cowgirl hat and a hat for Faith...which my dad is wearing. hehe Tim got another Frank Sinatra hat and some gnarly sunglasses since he left his other one's in Catalina. :(

The last day was spent at sea. It was the best weather in the whole trip, absolutely perfect day! A little too perfect, cuz I stayed out a little too long and got a little too burnt :( Yup, I came back a baked lobster hardly able to walk from the pain in legs. Silly me, I never learn. It was so nice to just sit out in the sun, read a book, run to the buffet for a snack, come back out a repeat :)
My mom got that pretty blue dress from the market in MX and it was the perfect day to wear it, nice and airy and light, she looks great in it!
Every time we came back in to our room, it would be all cleaned up and there would be a different "towel animal" on our bed each time. They fold towels up to look like an animal, they're so cool! I didn't want to take them apart. The pic here is a lobster. they did an elephant, dog and stingray also, so clever.

If I didn't make it obvious enough, I'm a fan of cruises! The staff there was AMAZING, they were all from different parts of the world, it was fun to meet them, they were all so nice and so helpful. The whole cruise was very neat, orderly and organized, which is right up my alley! The best part about the vacation was we didn't have to clean up anything, good thing the cruise wasn't too long or I don't think they could've gotten me off the ship. JK
This was my first time ever to be on vacation without Faith and it was so hard to leave her. I missed her like crazy and have never been so excited to see someone before, when we got back! I'm not one of those parents who's excited to get a break from the kids, nope, no more vacations without my little sweet pea. :)

If any of you have not been on a cruise, I highly recommend you go!! You can get some incredible prices! Do it, you won't regret it...unless you get sea sick, just take some Dramamine and you still won't regret it :)

Am I ready to get back to normal life? No, but I will anyways :)

Spring crafts!

So wow, it's been a bit busy lately, but I did manage to get a few crafts done. I have a bunch of things I wanna share, but won't be as fast as I'd like, so please be patient with me for a bit. :)

I don't know about you, but I'm soooo ready for Spring. Winter, once again, has overstayed its welcome. ;) Here's some fun Springy these I made:

This cute lil pomander flower ball. So springy and go well with my cherry blossoms!

My sister and I made some fun easter eggs! Get some styrofoam eggs (I like the smooth ones, got mine at Hobby Lobby), paint (optional, but so cute!), dry, spray with adhesive and sprinkle glitter evenly all over. Poke hole in top and hot glue ribbon on. Show off wherever you want, I hung mine on some branches I spray painted white with white glitter and stuck in a tall vase. Love it!

Aren't those boingy carrots so cute?! Got them at Tai Pan.

Chocolate ice cream wraps

When I went on my little excursion to AZ, we visited my favorite shop there called The Orange Patch. I think I love about every store that ends in "patch". :) Just a cool word!
We noticed some chocolate wraps and thought what would you use those for?! The awesome owner shared an idea, making us very eager to get back and try it out. We cleaned them out of their last 2 packages... I sorta felt bad for the lady behind us who was eyeing them also, but not bad enough to give them up :) It's not like I can go there everyday.

mmmmm Yum, right!

What you need:

* Chocolate wraps (recipe at bottom)
Ice Cream (your choice of flavor)
Whip cream/cool whip
Fudge/caramel sauce
Strawberries

Thaw ice cream. Smother ice cream on wraps
Roll up, wrap the wrap in saran wrap....HA :)
Put in freezer for a couple of hours til set up.

Slice the rolls, top with fudge sauce, whip cream and strawberries. Better yet, skip the whole cutting part and eat the whole thing yourself! ;) FYI, do more than one wrap, trust me, one is not enough!

I don't know where you can buy chocolate wraps around here (bummer!) so I found a recipe you can use to make your own!

* Chocolate Tortilla

• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa (get high quality cocoa like Ghiradelli)
• 1/4 cup milk
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup coconut, melted (or vegetable oil)
  
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 dash salt
• 
  

Combine ingredients until smooth.

Cover and store in refrigerator for 2 hours.

Heat a nonstick skillet over medium heat.

Pour 1/4 cup tortilla mixture in center of pan and tilt to spread batter into a circle.

Let cook for 2 minutes then flip to cook other side for another 1-2 minutes.(Be careful not to burn or else the tortilla will be too stiff for folding.).

Let cool to prevent ice cream from melting during assembly.

Thin Mint Truffles

Everyone get their girl scout cookies?!? I definitely got stocked up with mine :) Everyone's favorite is Samoa's right! ;) Thin mints is a close tie.
I couldn't resist trying these thin mint truffles and they are as good as they look! Great treat for St. Patty's..... and every other day :)

Thin Mint Truffles

9 oz box of Thin Mints
4 oz (1/2 block) cream cheese, softened
Dark chocolate almond bark or dark chocolate candy melts
Nonpareils

Crush the Thin Mints very finely. You can do this by placing them in a large Ziploc bag and rolling them with a rolling pin, or use your food processor, which is what I did.


Once they are crushed, pour them in a large bowl and add the cream cheese. I would like to say that you can just mix it up with a wooden spoon, but if you want to do things properly you are going to have to get your hands involved. Squish them up real good until it's thoroughly combined and the cream cheese is no longer visible.

Roll into 1 inch balls, place on a wax paper lined baking sheet, and refrigerate for about 30 minutes.

Melt almond bark or candy melts and using a toothpick, dip truffles completely and twirl to allow the excess to drip off. Place back on lined baking sheet and sprinkle with nonpareils before set. Refrigerate until firm.


*Makes about 24 truffles.

St. Patty's cookies

Faith and I spent half the day baking up some fun treats for St. Patty's day. I thought these rainbow and shamrock cookies were super cute! Definitely a fun one to include the kids in! More fun than play dough cuz you can eat it! :)
Recipe found HERE.

For some reason, the purple looks blue in the pix...hm

"Despicable" party!

Given a few choices, Faith picked Despicable Me as her theme. Not surprised, as she watches it at least 3 times a day. It was fun to plan though and it was gender friendly too, not just for girls. The best way to plan a Despicable Me party is to play off the minions with the color scheme of yellow, blue and black. Those little guys are my favorites.

These are the invites.

For treats we had:

• Minion Goggles (mints)
• * Girl Scout Cookies, named from the movie (Coconutties, Choco Swirlies, Minty Mints, Lemon Cremies, Berry Munchies) turned the boxes inside out and wrote names on.
  
• * Minion twinkie cakes (aren't they the cutest things ever! Thanks to my sister Tam, I didn't have to spend all day doing them by myself)
  
• * Anti gravity Serum (Lemonade)
• * Dr. Nefario's juice (where he says "Do you want to explode?" favorite line in our house)
• I found some test tubes for cups and flasks for pitchers, after the longest search ever found them HERE. They worked out perfect!
• Vector's crazy straws
  

hahah what more can you say about the Box of Shame :)

• For favors, I gave every child a balloon attached to Moon Dough. Went along with the theme of Gru stealing the moon. Tried to redeem myself from sending them home with loads of candy last year from Faith's sweet Candyland Party.
  

Games played:

• Gru Says (like Simon Says)
• Knocked Over (3 tries to knock over "spaceship" with ping pong balls.)
• Annoying Sound Contest (based off part in movie where Gru says 'No annoying noises' and girl says 'Does this count as annoying'.) We got a movie of this, pretty fun.
• Carnival game (throw big ball through moving hula hoop.)
• Steal The Moon (someone hides 'moon' [spray painted styrofoam ball] and the rest try to find or "steal" it.)
• Watched Despicable Me movie after gifts and cake.
  

I love my sweet girl she was so excited for her party and to see everyone. Thanks to all you who could make it, wouldn't have been a party without you!

Lucky charm shirt

I'm not all that big on St. Patty's, but I will wear green so people don't think they have reason to pinch me (although I'd just pinch them back no matter what I'm wearing haha). This holiday's usually so close to Easter that it's not worth decorating for, Easter's way better. I do love to have fun with the food however! (recipes coming up!)

When I saw this tutorial, I thought what a fun, different way to do a shirt! I had fun trying this out...and nearly passed out from all the bleach fumes. hah Best to do this in the garage/outside.

Now my little sweet pea can ward off all the pinchers out there in style! :)

If you want to use the pattern I made, download it over at My Pookie Designs!

Happy Happy birthday Faithy bug!!

Sweet Faithy bug,

I can't believe you are 4 years old today! Life was even more happy when you came into our lives. It is no coincidence we named you Faith. My faith grew right along with you from the very day I found out I was pregnant with you.

At 4 years old your favorites include:

COLOR: Pink (it changes every day so I think it's all the bright colors!)

MOVIE: Despicable Me, Cars, Veggie Tales

CEREAL: Lucky Charms

SONG: I love to see the Temple, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

FOOD: Chicken nuggets

FRIEND: Mikkie (duh! :)

TOY: Ponies, flowers, Mikkie frog

BOOK: The Mercer Mayer Little Critter stories

THINGS TO DO: Preschool, games on Zoodles, dance, violin, play with Kuzco (aka chase him around with things that scare him), memory games (SOOO good at these!), road trips (hehe as long as you have the iPod).

You are an extremely smart, bright, fun, funny, talented little girl. Or should I say big girl! You amaze me every day and bring daddy and I so much joy!

Happy Birthday Sweet Pea!!

I took advantage of the amazing weather in AZ, got a fun birthday outfit and went to the Mesa Temple for a photo shoot. We came back to the cold, depressing weather and I thought how glad I was we did her pictures there! Faith was excited about her cowgirl boots! The only thing that would have made the pictures even better is a cowgirl hat and our little rocking horse. Darn it. Oh and a pro photographer of course, I'm not pro by any means but I think they turned out pretty good. Faith did very well after continually being bribed with a yummy treat after or in my exact words, "Whatever you want!" haha How's that for a bribe?! I said that knowing very well she would be completely content with a cookie. :)

BRB

So much goin on and so little time to do it all! I'm in sunny AZ right now, soakin up the glorious sun with the gals!! I'm so not looking forward to going back to the cold.
I have some fun stuff coming up, so I'll brb later! :)

Funny story: Driving into Arizona and Faith sees a cactus and says, "Woa, look at that crazy tree!" hahaha First time seeing a cactus. She's quite the little traveler and likes it here so far!

$100 YouTube contest!

Do you play the piano?

Do you want $100?

Do kitty cats meow?

Then you should enter into this fun YouTube piano challenge with the amazing Dale Jessee!
Check out the details here to enter! Good luck and have fun!! :)

Valentine dinner

Since we celebrated Valentine's early (and it's too crazy to eat out on Valentines!!), Faith and I made a fun, festive meal at home! Tim was quite surprised and loved every bit of it.
Our menu included:

• Pizza with heart-shaped pepperoni
• Salad with heart-shaped carrots and 'cupid arrow' tomoatoes
  
• Heart cut-out apples (we need healthy with all the bugs going 'round)
  
• Dairy-free chocolate covered strawberries, special for Tim
  
• Berry smoothies with 'cupid arrow' straws!
• Sparkling cider, of course

Ever since we discovered how yummy and EEEAASSYY pizza's are on pita bread, we can't get enough of it! I'm never making homemade pizza dough again! And it's fun to have our own personal pizzas to put whatever we want on it, Faith looooved having her very own pizza.

Anyone else stay home and do a fun dinner?! Or breakfast?

Happy Valentines!!

I RUFF you!



Happy Valentines Day!! :) :)

Cream-filled strawberries

Ever heard of mascarpone cheese?
Mascarpone pronounced mas-kahr-POH-nay is a soft unripened cheese that belongs to the cream cheese family. It comes from Switzerland and Italy and is a thick, buttery-rich, sweet and velvety, ivory-colored cheese produced from cow's milk that has the texture of clotted or sour cream. It delicate and mild flavor is great with fresh fruit and is probably best known for its use in Tiramisu.

.....Uh, YEA! That screams delicious! I would suggest trying the mascarpone over cream cheese, it's very delicious!

Cream-filled Strawberries
Recipe from: CafeJohnsonia.blogspot.com

12-16 (more or less depending on the size) large strawberries
4 oz. cold heavy cream
4 oz. mascarpone cheese (or cream cheese, room temperature) {I found the mascarpone at Smith's with all the specialty cheeses.}
2-4 Tbsp. confectioner's sugar (make is as sweet as you like)
1 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
a little vanilla extract

Beat the mascarpone (or cream cheese) and confectioner's sugar with an electric mixer. Add the heavy cream. Continue beating until the mixture thickens. Add the lemon juice and vanilla extract. Continue beating until stiff peaks form.

Cut an "X" into the bottom of each strawberry.

Fit a pastry bag with a star tip and fill it with the cream. Carefully pipe the cream into the center of each strawberry, allowing some of it overflow from the cuts you made on the strawberry.

Serve immediately, or cover with plastic film/wrap and refrigerate until ready to serve.You can't stop at just one with these!

This makes a nice light, but addictive little treat for that special someone! :)

Want a cute tag to go along with it?! Go HERE to download!