Thursday, July 22, 2010

Oh Baby! Shower...

let's rewind back to June, shall we?... and I would tell you that I hosted a baby shower for a friend of mine. This post has been requested by quite a few people, but they just wanted the details. so here are the details my friends.


invite and labels

this is the invite i made up. i actually used this for another friends baby shower a while back, so all i had to do was fix the information. :) i also made special mailing labels. i LOVE making customized mailing labels.

decor2


decor


for the decorations - i did it nice and simple. i picked up a bunch of mini pink roses from walmart and put them in mason jars. i actually already had the mason jars, they were a nice find at Goodwill and they only cost me .25 cents. I put the jars along my fireplace mantel and on the food table.

pom poms

POM-POMS! No party is complete without pom-poms. i love them. and they are so super easy to make. for those who wanted the tutorial on how to make them click here


good food table

cupcake

the food table was nice and simple and super yummy! i asked my friend things she liked and if she had any prego cravings, so the food was designed around that. we had cookies, reese peanut butter cups, starburst and i make chocolate cupcakes with brown sugar frosting topped with scor bar. i also did some fruit skewers and a veggie platter and then served mini chicken salad sandwiches, yum! i have requests for both the cupcakes and chicken salad recipes. the recipes will be at the end of this post. i also made some little flags to put on cupcakes and some of the other food.


baby games

i am SO not a fan of games at a baby shower. but i thought it would be fun to do a little some'in some'in. so i made up a "baby quiz" about my friend and i also made up a "baby scattergories" game. it ended up being a lot of fun.

thank you

for Thank You's, I made rice krispy pops. super easy and super yummy. i just made a few batches of rice krispy, cut them out in circles, i melted some chocolate and covered the tops of the circles in chocolate and added little edible candy pearls for a pretty little touch. i added a sucker stick and a little pink bow on the stick as well, and put them in little clear bags. easy! and i also made a fun 'thank you label' to put on each treat. love it.

and there you have it!

and for the recipes:

Chicken Salad Sandwiches

2-3 cooked chicken breasts shredded or cubed (i just used a rotisserie chicken)
4 oz. cream cheese (softened)
1/4 cup mayo (sometimes you need a little less or more, depending on how much chicken you use.)
1 small can of crushed or cubed pineapple (drained)
1/2 cup toasted sliver almonds
2 stalks of celery chopped (you don't even have to add the celery if you don't want)
salt and pepper for taste

mix: everything together.
I suggest putting a nice little scoop of salad on a roll (i prefer a yummy potato roll) and i alway butter the roll on both sides just a little bit before adding the salad.

YUM!!

Chocolate Cupcake with Brown Sugar Frosting

*This is without a doubt THE BEST chocolate cake recipe EVER! The recipe does call for you to add 2 cups of chocolate chips to the batter, but I never do. It's good either way. AND the bonus, you can really do this cake with any cake flavor you wanted, you'd just have to match the pudding to with whatever cake flavor you choose. SO GOOD!

BEST Chocolate Cake

*Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F

Ingredients:

1 box devil’s food cake mix
1 small box Jello instant chocolate pudding mix (not the sugar or fat free kind!)
1 cup sour cream
1 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 cups mini semisweet chocolate chips

All you do is dump everything except the chocolate chips into a very large bowl– A 4 qt bowl is good, but one of those 8 cup mixing bowls is too small! — then mix well with a beater. The batter will be thick!

Then take your 2 cups of chocolate chips–and stir them in.

Now, pour your batter into your cake pan of choice. Okay, it doesn’t really pour. It’s very thick. “Scoop” your batter into your cake pan of choice.

like to bake my cakes in two, 9-inch pie pans or do cupcakes. But you could really use this batter to make any kind of cake- sheet cake, cupcakes, bundt cake, etc. It tells you the cooking times for specific cakes on the back of the cake mix box. I use that as a guide. Sometimes I need to add about 5-10 mins to whatever they say. Make sure to do the toothpick check, but remember, you may get some of the chocolate from the melted chips on your toothpick so don’t let that fool you. ;) you want your toothpick to come out clean and you cake is done. DONT over bake!

let your cake cool.

Brown Sugar Frosting

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter

1 cup packed dark brown sugar

1/3 cup heavy cream, or more if needed

1 (16-ounce) box confectioners' sugar

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 cup chopped scor bar optional

Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat and stir in brown sugar and cream. Bring to a boil and boil for at least 1 minute and stir consistently , and then transfer to a mixing bowl. Add confectioners' sugar and vanilla. Beat with a handheld electric mixer until it reaches a spreading consistency. At this time it may be necessary to add a tablespoon of heavy cream, or more, if frosting gets too thick. Just be sure to add cream in small amounts because you can always "add to", but you can't take away. Frost cake and sprinkle top with chopped scor bar, if desired.

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

nap time...


i was walking down the hallway the other day and i thought i'd peak in on brody while he was taking his nap and this is how i found him...


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love him!

splish....splash...

it's been nice and toasty around here lately...so to keep cool, we've been going over to Easton to play in the water.
Brody LOVES the water!


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Wednesday, July 14, 2010

My Peter Pan...

you know, peter pan is the boy who never wants to grow up.
...well, brody and i had a talk and he told me he would never grow up.
good deal.
i love spending all my time with this little guy.
i love that we share so many moments together.
inevitably he will go grow up, *sigh*, but for now i won't worry about it, and just enjoy it!
he's perfect.
he's my peter pan!


peter 3

peter 4

peter 2

peter 1

"So come with me, where dreams are born, and time is never planned. Just think of happy things, and your heart will fly on wings, forever, in Never Never Land!"
— J.M. Barrie (Peter Pan)

The 4th and Bear Lake...

bear lake

for the 4th of july weekend we flew into salt lake city and then drove up to Bear Lake to spend an extended weekend with tyson's family. we had so much fun and it was so great to see everyone, and even better, it was great that everyone got to meet brody! Tyson's ENTIRE family was there. that was the best part of all.

cute brody

brody seriously had the best time EVER! He loved playing in the water and playing in the rocks. he also really loved the staircase in the house, he would take a seat at the end of the stairs and just chill for a bit. he is so dang cute.

brothers

tyson and his brothers.

bears

we actually were staying on the "idaho" side of the lake, but one day we drove over to the "utah" side and walked around a tiny little town. and of course we had to get a picture with a bear. and apparently i think i am funny.

rasberry ice cream

my friend jamie (shout out!) told me that while we were in bear lake we had to have rasberry ice cream at 'la beaus'. and we did just that - and it was AMAZING! yum! brody loved it too!

beach house

here are a few pictures...two pretty views and the house we stayed in.

baby blessing

we also got to be apart of the blessing of our new niece Paige. She is a doll and so sweet.

cousins

our attempt of taking a picture of all the cousins...18 and counting!

family

tyson and his whole family.

my boys

love these two!!

beauty

this was just one of the AMAZING views on our way to Mandy's house. Idaho really is beautiful. we left sunday afternoon from the house in Bear Lake and headed back to tyson's sister's house in Ririe Idaho. I was so excited to go back to Mandy's house and feel right at home. and that we did. we were back in our stomping grounds and it was like we never left. i love that feeling.

brody and tractor

there were some tractors outside by mandy's house and brody LOVED them!

snaps

of course sunday was the 4th of July...and we indeed celebrated. we started off while still day light with a bazillion little boxes of the "snap thingys", and Brody seriously is all BOY...tyson showed him what to do, and he was hooked! he loved it.

fire

sunday night we set off a tons of fireworks, roasted hog dogs and marshmallows. but not just your average marshmallow...softball size mallows we bought in Ohio. they were AWESOME! and i was so busy stuffing my face with mallows that these were the only two pictures i took that night. not the best pictures...but at least making memories.

birthday boy

and of course we celebrated Tyson's Birthday! He was born on the 4th of July!

rexburg

monday morning, we headed into "town" aka Rexburg. awe good old Rexburg. let's not even begin to count how many years I/we spent there. But it was great to go back. we walked around campus and drove around town. it was fun. we drove past the temple which i love and i took an "ok" picture of the thriving metropolis that is rexburg. ha. and of course a pretty picture of just one of many wide open fields. it was great to visit.

sno oasis

and of course while in Rexburg and it being summer it was only tradition to hit up the SNO OASIS...only THE BEST sno cone place EVER! I can't even express to you how happy we were. l-o-v-e sno oasis.

aunties

brody gett'in loved up by all his aunties. we love them!!

airport fun

tuesday morning we drove back to Salt Lake and headed back to Columbus. but we did have some airport fun. we flew from SLC to Minneapolis and we had a good time killing time before our flight to Columbus.

brody carryon

brody was obssesed with the carry-on thinys. he was cracking us up! he was the perfect size! ha. and well that was it! good times were had. we were so happy we had the chance to see all of Tyson's family. Hopefully someday we will live closer to everyone...LOTS closer!! Thanks Everyone for a fantastic time! We Love You!

the end

Sunday, July 4, 2010

Happy 4th of July



We hope that everyone had a wonderful 4th of July weekend!

We had a blast!

BORN ON THE 4th of JULY...



tbday

happy birthday tyson!
we love u.