Happy Valentines!

According to the Greeting Card Association, an estimated one billion valentine cards are sent each year, making Valentine's Day the second largest card-sending holiday of the year. (An estimated 2.6 billion cards are sent for Christmas.)

Approximately 85 percent of all valentines are purchased by women.

Interesting.

I made a LOVE-ly breakfast this morning for the LOVES of my life...

(not a picture from breakfast. we don't get ready for breakfast at our house.)
We had over-night french toast, but I cut hearts out of the bread for the top layer! It was pretty cute, I think I am the only one who appreciated it though.

I also made pink whipped cream and of course, BACON, which they both appreciated. Give them BACON and CANDY and they will love you forever! They are two peas in a pod.



So now that I am married and have a child, valentines is really more just about showing my family and those that I love, that I do.
I try to make it special, with little things like HEART overnight french toast and such. But I do plan on hanging the fact over my MAN's head that he is working today, how am I supposed to do nice special things if he is not even here?
Armani and I are going to go to
HAPPY SUMO
&
CONFESSIONS OF A SHOPAHOLIC
Just kidding.
Maybe Geej and I will do that next week. WINK. WINK.
(He doesn't even read this, so I am winking at nobody.)

JBN
(just be nice.)
(a pinegar reunion theme)
and
just LOVE everyone!

I did these myself, on myself. Tricky. Festive, don't you think???

HAPPY VALENTINES!

spell check...

Just so nobody thinks I am really really dumb, in the post below, I said that we are going to bread Gwen. No. We are going to BREED Gwen, not bread her.
Just to clarify.

IN HEAT

Some of you know, we have an English Bulldog, and we are planning to bread her.
Crazy?
Yes. Probably.
At any rate she will be 2 this August and has not gone "into heat", until this morning. Exciting..ISH.
We went to the store, got some depends and what not, hence the "ish" part of exciting. Puppies, yes exciting! Taking care of lots of puppies, "ish". Lots of puppies in my little house, "ish". Armani playing with little puppies, exciting! Me playing with little puppies, exciting! Too bad we have to wait till her next cycle to breed her though.
THIS IS GWEN WEARING DEPENDS AND SOME HOMEMADE...SUSPENDER TYPE THINGS
SHE HAS MORE PERSONALITY THAN A DOG SHOULD BE ALLOWED. SHE WOULD NOT LOOK AT ME. SHE IS MAD THAT I PUT HER IN THIS LITTLE GETUP.STILL NOT LOOKING AT ME. WANTING TO GO OUTSIDE, BUT I WONT LET HER.Once again Geej has a catering event, on a weekend, surprise surprise! Well, he just called to say HI and check to see how Gwen is doing. First of all, he didn't ask how I was handling it and second, he NEVER calls to see how I am doing when it's my TIME OF THE MONTH. He said "poor thing". I never get any sort of sympathy, and I am pretty sure it is a little more tough on a human than a dog, plus that lovely time comes EVERY month, for a dog it is only twice a year!
I just needed to get that out.
I feel better now.
Thanks for listening.
I'm really not mad, I just found it interesting that the dog is getting my sympathy that I do.
I will remember this in the future...
I am done now.

Sugar Cookies

Giovanni had a catering event so Armani and I made some delicious sugar cookies, a Valentines staple.

During the course of the evening I was called, Big Mama, Big Mama Chef, Big Mama Santa Clause, and Big Mama Cleaner. My little Handsome never ceases to crack me up, even if it is at my expense.

I said something about not droping a single one (sprinkles) on the floor and he got all excited and said, "SingleLadies?". There is no space for a purpose, he says it as though it is one word. Let me explain, a while ago we watched "All My Single Ladies" music video, which Beyonce sings, needless to say he LOVES it. You can watch it HERE.
Am I a horrible mother? I suppose there are a whole lot worse things I could be letting my child watch. His eyebrows pop up and his head cocks to one side when he hears it come on. The kid LOVES music and dancing, he is our little entertainer. I just want to squeeze him (and I do), he is so deliciously cute!

Whipped Cream

So I was sitting peacefully on the couch one evening when my dear husband, sat down to chat with me. He, knowing that I am extremely ticklish, kept digging his elbow into my thigh, acting like he had no idea what could be the problem. I kept telling him to stop, anyway I tried to bump his water that he was taking a drink of, mind you it didn't do ANYTHING. Then he took a big gulp and stood up and leaned behind me and spit it down my neck!
WAR.
He ran into the kitchen and I followed, not sure what I was going to do to get him back.
Oh, what is that on the counter? A bottle of Whipped Cream?
Perfect.
I went after him spraying with all my might.
Somehow I got the worst of it. It's only cause his arms are longer though. I had a big mess to clean up but we did get a really good laugh from it all! My plans to get back always seem to backfire.

I didn't make it.

Truth be told, I didn't not complete my little challenge of NOT going to the store for a week. I suppose I could have done it but we did run out of MILK and who can really go to the store and ONLY get MILK? Not me. I did make these though...

The Pioneer Woman is AMAZING. I love her. I don't really know her, but I know that she loves food and so far I have LOVED everything I have tried.
These little ditties in the picture are French Breakfast Puffs
They are TO - DIE - FOR, really, they could probably cause an instant hear attack from all the butter... They were worth every single calorie and fat gram, I have no idea how much there is exactly but even if I knew I would still make these and eat them again!
I also made these
Onion Strings.
I may need to go get my cholesterol checked.
They were very tasty.
Oh and another delicious item....
LITTLE CAKES
These are my sister Breanna's little German Chocolate cakes she made.
Are they not SOOOOOOO cute?!?!
I ended up making them on Sunday. My cake was a little thicker it seems so I only did two smaller circles. They were so delicious. And cute! Remember my new motto?
"you are what you eat, so eat something cute!"
I should feel sick about all this food I ate over the last week.
I don't.
I feel happy that I ate lots of good stuff!

Deliciousness

My dinner last night was DELICIOUS!!! I did not take any photos, I was pretty hungry and just thinking about eating, plus Geej got home later than what I thought so we watched American Idol while we ate, plus I think a picture would only have made it look not-so-good, you know??? (at least my food photos)

the menu

Homemade BBQ Sauce
(Pan) Grilled Chicken
"Crash Hot Potatoes"
and salad with ranch

It made me feel a little like it was summer. Oh how I wish it was summer...
Doesn't it seem like the days are getting slightly longer? Maybe the sun has just changed positions, because in the afternoon the sunshine is coming through my blinds in my dining room and it makes that room all nice and warm - temperature and color.
ANYWAY.

You will want to add these recipes to you collection. I promise.

BBQ Sauce

• 2 cups ketchup
• 2 cups tomato sauce
• 1 1/4 cups brown sugar
• 1 1/4 cups red wine vinegar
• 1/2 cup unsulfured molasses
• 4 teaspoons hickory-flavored liquid smoke
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/4 teaspoon chili powder
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon celery seed
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper

DIRECTIONS

1. In a large saucepan over medium heat, mix together the ketchup, tomato sauce, brown sugar, wine vinegar, molasses, liquid smoke and butter. Season with garlic powder, onion powder, chili powder, paprika, celery seed, cinnamon, cayenne, salt and pepper.
2. Reduce heat to low, and simmer for up to 20 minutes. For thicker sauce, simmer longer, and for thinner, less time is needed. Sauce can also be thinned using a bit of water if necessary. Brush sauce onto any kind of meat during the last 10 minutes of cooking.

The sauce keeps for quite a while, so make all of it and just keep using it. It is so good!
When Armani woke up from his nap yesterday he laid his head on my shoulder and said "mmm that smells good" and I said, "do I smell good?" and he said "no. that dinner smells good." I was letting the BBQ sauce simmer while he was sleeping, so the whole house smelled like it!

Now, the "Crash Hot Potatoes" are originally from The Pioneer Woman's blog, but I saw them on Vegan Yum Yum. I thought if two "FOOD PEOPLE" are blogging about them. They have to be tasty. So here is a new way to do potatoes, just click on the link for the directions!


I absolutely LOVE food. I love to cook and try new things. I love to read blogs about food. You get the idea. So don't be surprised if I post more about food in the future. If I try something tasty, I feel the need to share. BTW, if you like food too, take a gander at some of the sites I listed under FOOD, over to the right. They have some DELECTABLE photos and recipes, even if you don't try them, they are just nice to look at and wish you were eating it!

I'm Out.

I really hate when I run out of things. I'm sure its just because I am out, but it seems that I need whatever it is, twice as bad, when I am out of it.
On top of being out of plastic wrap, I am out of eggs, and a few other items that are not quite as high on my list of STAPLES, I had decided to NOT go to the store this week, UNLESS we run out of milk. PERIOD. Make it do or do with out...does that fit here?
(I am thinking too much about that phrase now and it sounds all wrong.)
Anyway, I have tons of stuff in my freezer and cupboards that I just don't use, but I could use. I always have leftovers, that are never used as leftovers, the poor things. I do not what to be a waster. I want to have more room in my house for the things that I use and need. (my house is small and storage is, what would you say...nonexistent, yes that is it, nonexistent.) I am not going to throw away my boxes of rice-a-roni, I am just going to use them up and then not buy them again, because I don't tend to reach for those when I go to make dinner.
This is not going to be easy. At this point last week I had already been to the store twice! I am sick of going to the store! From this week forward I will use more what I have and plan more so I don't have to go to the store EVERYDAY.
I feel good that I got that out!
Sorry for the not so interesting post, but I don't think I have anyone who reads this anymore, anyway.
None the less, I will let you know how it goes.

No, our home was not broken into.
I was enjoying the peace and quite in the kitchen,
cleaning up dinner with my sweet husband.
HMMMM.....
it has been REALLY quiet for a while, meaning Armani hasn't come in screaming for one reason or another, he hasn't asked us to come play with him, etc...
the Husband went to check on him and found that the "little RAT", and I mean that with all the love in my heart, had DESTROYED every corner of his room.
Lovely.
Just lovely.


p.s. notice his outfit? he will not wear anything else. If I can somehow bribe him to wear other clothes when we leave the house, you will find these clothes underneath. Not to mention they are from last summer so they are a bit too small. Oh, the joys of a two year old! I do love however that he has an opinion, even if it is not mine...

you MUST try this place!!!

So I just went to this place today. Today is their grand opening.

The Sweet Tooth Fairy Bakery,
Click HERE to go to their site.
The shop is darling.
The Cake Bites are delicious.
The Cupcakes are CUTE & TASTY.
Plus they have others cute little item for sale, like aprons and cupcake bath fizzers!
The whole experience was very YUMMY!
Above the door it says
"You are what you Eat so Eat something CUTE"
I think that is my new motto!!!

How cute is this???

So my friend Bekah makes these and sells them on her ETSY shop. If you are like me, you take your camera with you in your purse. If you are like me, there may be some crumbs from something either you or your child ate at one point and the remainder was stored in...your purse. If you are like me you like cute things, I feel cute when I pull out my camera (because I have one of these cases!!!) I think I need this one though, it's pink, why wouldn't I want it! And if nothing else for $13 bucks you can protect your camera or ipod or phone from all the ailments of a purse.

Anyway. Bekah I hope you don't mind that I posted about you on my blog.
I just think these are SUPER cute! And VERY VERY functional!

NEW LOOK...

same great taste! Just kidding. As you can see I am trying my had at CUSTUMIZATION. I like my background but how in the world do you make a header or banner or whatever? Any help?

So it has been a while since I posted last. A long while. Life has been crazy busy, Christmas was a blast. We have been to California twice since Christmas for weddings of good friends. The first trip we drove and the second trip we left Armani with the Grandmas and we flew. Flying is a DREAM! Lets see. 10 plus hours vs. an hour and 15 minutes. Take your pick.

I have lots of great pictures from the last little while but I am going to save myself some time and just start today and not worry about any sort of updating. Not that you really care anyway!

If you are odd like me

You may like to try this. I don't know if any of you out there have ever had the desire to bite into CHALK or maybe a ROSE or PLAYDOUGH or SILLYPUDDY? I have had the desire to do these things and I have tried all of them, multipul times, even though some are just plain disgusting, that would be the playdough. Something might be wrong with me, but it just seems like these things would be fun to bite into. These things are also fun to cut with a knife. To make a long story short, today I was making S'MORE bars and it calls for quartered REESES PEANUT BUTTER CUPS. I stacked them by twos and then used a big sharp knife to cut them into quarters. It was satisfying. You should try it sometime, plus they taste good, but they are more fun to cut than to bite.
Just thought you might like to know.

Happy cutting and biting into odd things!

santa claus is comin' to town

So this was a little while ago, the day after Thanksgiving, but we went to Santa's Grand Event, or something, at the University Mall. Santa came in on a HELICOPTER. My mom said, "What happened to the good old days when he came in on a SLEIGH???"

Either way, I think it is exciting! I LOVE Christmas!
Armani was THRILLED. So was I to be truthful. I have never been that close to a helicopter, at least one that was moving. It was really windy!
I was another fun CHRISTMAS activity!

So if the video doesn't work, I am sorry. It took a year to upload. Without the video the post is boring!

ooops...

I had an enrichment activity last night, I signed up to bring a dessert. When I got home I was washing the platter that I put the dessert on, and on the back I saw this

ummmm. I hope I didn't poison anyone. I just was trying to make it look nice.

Armani found a Santa hat in my box of Christmas decorations and insists on wearing it, all the time. His latest FAVORITE activity is "doing dishes". I came in and he had given himself a beard of bubbles while wearing the Santa hat.

ho. ho. ho.

While I was climbing up a latter in our garage to get down a box of lights, he said "mom you better watch out, you better not fall, cause I'm tellin you why, I'm Santa" He makes me laugh!

This is a three in one post. This is the last thing for now. We went to the Lights On Festival in Provo. It was free. That is nice. They had singing and dancing performances and a band of all elderly men, it was cute. They didn't turn the lights on at 6:30 like a thought they would, the mayor needed to make it official by saying a bunch of stuff we didn't really care about. And then he tried to do a PRACTICE countdown, but Santa and the kids really threw the MAGIC DUST when we all said MERRY CHRISTMAS, so the lights didn't turn on and then they had to get MORE magic dust and we had to count down again. The lights did turn on with the second MERRY CHRISTMAS, and it was very beautiful, the trees in front of the Covey Center were loaded with lights. Armani loved it. My toes were frozen. It was a fun HOLIDAY family night!

I am trying to make the most of this holiday season, by filling it with all sorts of Christmas-y activities. Giovanni says that it is just going to make me more depressed once it is all over. He is probably right, but I like to believe that I am right till proven otherwise!

The front room makeover

We have lived in our home for almost 4 years now. We originally planed on about 2 years. If I have learned one thing in life it is this, PLANS CHANGE. Like me, you may not want plans to change, but I believe it is just part of life. You never REALLY know what your plan will be.

So we have done things to our home along the way, but being that I PLANED to not be here for TOO long, I never really settled in and made this home MY home.

Now we are still here and I really have NO idea when we will make some other house our home. So I will take one room at a time and make it what I want it to be, so that I will be happier with this home that I spend the majority of my time in. Don't get me wrong, I am VERY grateful and feel VERY blessed to have a house that we own.

This is our front room before the recent makeover

this wall is pages from art books that we put up on the wall, I really like this wall. You can also see the GREEN wall. I really like this wall too, but it is time for a change.

Here is our brown wall.

The rug and coffee table are new additions (that we bought on by birthday). The futon is also new, well newish. Thanks Magleby's!

So here is what is looks like now.

new paint and some fun mirrors, plus we moved our computer desk to this wall


I am going to make curtains for that window and also paint the futon black, and make a new cover for it...that is the new fabric draped over it.

new tv (via some trade) and new tv stand

we are going to put a piece of wood painted white over the existing curtain rod and I am going to make new curtains

Last but most definitely not least, we are going to get a new fan. I would like to put just a basic white molding around the ceiling, like we have in our dining-ish room, but that is just more time and work, it looks good enough without it.

so you don't have to wait any longer

I am sure you were not really waiting but I will now post about my birthday, which was on the 14th of November, I know, that was quite some time ago. Oh well.

My wonderful husband bought me these


for breakfast I made this


Armani also wanted this

Yes, for breakfast.
The french toast with fresh whipped cream and raspberries,
with a dusting of powdered sugar were not enough for him,
he had to have leftover mac and cheese too.

For lunch we went here


and ate this


the best MEATBALL sandwich in all the world...


maybe the MESSIEST sandwich in all the land too.
Sorry for the gross picture - that isn't even all the napkins I used either!!!

Then we went here


and got some new items for our front room!

Then we went here


the DELICIOUS Tepanyaki, with family, I love my families.

Then we went to this

and ate this

this

and this


I may have felt a bit sick at the end of the night, I am not sure why, my day didn't revolve around food or anything...


I planed it and he executed it, therefore I had a great birthday!