2009 review

I decided to go through all my pictures from 2009 and pick ones that meant something special to me or even something that will help jog the memories in years to come.

Starting with the center picture...the first time I went tubing...oh so fun!
There are pictures of...

my wonderful family.

my youngest dressed and ready for his 1st soccer game.

many trips to the beach or to the races.

holiday traditions and a new failed holiday tradition.

silly times.

vacation memories.

my handsome husband doing great things or just being his wonderful self.

my pink (Barbie, toy, whatever you would like to call it.) phone.

I hope that your 2009 was a great one and you have many fond memories just like I do.

I welcome 2010 with open arms.

Happy New Year!!!

Oreo Balls

These are just a little piece of heaven everyone loved them and they are oh so easy to make.
I first found the idea for them here, Little Birdie Secrets. Then yesterday I got an email from Kraft Foods and they have them there with a different name and some different topping ideas.

I started out using my blender to crush the Oreos but it wasn't working too well. So instead I turned to my handy dandy Tupperware chopper. This is a whole bag of Oreos.

Mix with 8 oz. softened cream cheese. I used 1/3 less fat kind.

Place the balls onto a waxed or foiled lined cookie sheet. I used a Pampered Chef scoop.

All the balls rolled up.

Melt some chocolate for dipping. This is what I used but when I used it all I just melted some of the chocolate squares.

All covered in chocolate.

This was the hardest part for me. I tried using a spoon to let the white chocolate drizzle and sometimes it came out looking like this...

See the big glob on the one to the left and at the top of the pictures.

Put in the fridge for 1 hour and they are ready to be eaten.

No matter what they looked like I still said it was a little piece of heaven. Oh they were so delish! I made them to take to a Christmas Cookie Exchange party for Dec. 23rd and made them again Christmas Day. The 2nd batch I wasn't able to find regular cream cheese or 1/3 less fat so I bought the fat free kind. (Target had cream cheese on sale and that is why I couldn't find the other.) Won't ever not ever buy the fat free kind to make these again. They would not roll up right for me and I had my hands covered in the Oreo/cream cheese mixture.

Sweet Giveaway

Make it and Love it is having a sweet giveaway. Go check it out! You won't regret it! I think that I will also be making a purchase from Pepperblossom Decor...such cute stuff!

October so far

It has been a long time since I last blogged and I have missed it. I have been keeping up with all the blogs I read through google reader.
We are not even half way through October and a lot has happened this month.


Tyler is playing soccer for the 4th year. We are actually thinking about taking a break and not having him play in the spring. We will see...

This is Reed's first soccer season and he much rather hang out with his girlfriend then play soccer. It is too cute though. We are thinking about trying baseball for him in the spring only time will tell.


October 3rd we had Tyler's 8th birthday party. Even Eric and some of the other dads got their own lane for bowling fun.

Another giveaway...

Today must be giveaway day! :0)

Go here and check out this giveaway for a camera strap cover.

I personally own one of her camera strap covers and love it. I would love to have another one to swap back and forth. The one that I have has a minky back and it is super comfortable.

I Heart Faces Giveaway

Over at I Heart Faces they are having a digital SLR lens giveaway. This lens is amazing go on over and check it out and see for yourself.

1st photo shoot

The PE teacher where I work is pregnant, 35 weeks, and before school let out I talked to her about doing some pregnancy shots. Tonight was the night. Here are a few of my favorites.

I cannot even begin to tell you how nervous I was. These pictures were taken in the development she lives in so I was not familiar with what was good for backgrounds and what not so it was interesting.

Things to remember before next time.
*take a list of picture ideas
*know the location of where you are shooting.

I am sure the list will grow just can't think of anything else at the moment.

Please comment if you read this and let me know what you think.

Awesome giveaway...

One of the blogs that I frequent regularly is having an awesome giveaway...it is beautiful.

Go check it out and enter the giveaway if you like and if not enter anyway and give it to me. :)

Sometimes ya just gotta...

JUMP!!!

The boys were cleaning up the playroom and needed a break.
It was too hot outside and they were outside at baseball camp this morning.
I have been wanting to take jumping pictures for a while now.
They had fun
released some energy
and did I mention have fun.

Racing Weekend

It was an early Saturday morning

the track opened at 7 a.m.
We arrived about 7:30 a.m.
after breakfast at the hotel.

Resting before the race begins.

Playing with the cars.
Everyone who walked by commented on the # of cars he had to play with
if only they knew it was about a 1/4 (if that!) of what we really have.

Go #26!
He was the only one in his group so

Eric changed the plate and

he raced with the
older racers.

Overall he did well and finished 5th out of 7.

Daddy watching the race.

wall art

So after yesterdays post with a sneak peek I wanted to share the completed project with you.

As you can see Tyler's choice of yellow paint on his canvas proved not to be successful. Today we went back to Michael's and he picked blue and orange. The top part of the play room's walls are blue and I wanted to make sure that the blue would work and actually show up on the blue wall, so we bought a back up color of orange (just in case). Thankfully we didn't need the orange because it really wouldn't have matched his brother's redish color that he chose.

Here is Tyler doing a repaint of his canvas. Tyler and I were so excited to see that the yellow actually showed through when we put his prints on it. So a different spin on this project would be to paint one color and then another on top so you don't have just white showing through.

The boys are asleep and I just finished their paintings by adding their names. I will have dh hang them on the wall for me this weekend. Then maybe another picture will come. :0) I want to add one more thing and that is the date on the back with a Sharpie.

I used my Cricut "All Mixed Up" font and cut out their names at 2 1/2".

Interested in creating this project??? Go here and click on the link from that site for more detailed instructions.

Materials:
paint
16X20 prestretched canvas
foam brush

Photo Hunt 170: Rocks

Here is a picture of my oldest son and rocks at Swallow Falls State Park in Maryland taken during our vacation there in June.

Wanna play along with the photo hunts go here.

Feeling Crafty

The boys did some painting. I will hopefully comment some more on this tomorrow and give you a link to where I got the fab idea. Let's just say I read the blog around 1:45 and was in my car headed to JoAnn's and Michael's at 2:04. Back home at 3:16 with all supplies.

While at JoAnn's I picked up 5 fabric quarters to make...

this!

It is NOT completed.

I need to add the ties for it.

It is not the pattern that I intended it to be.

There are many errors, too many to name.

There was blood from a cut toe and fingers being pricked by pins.

There were children sent to the other room to play.

They were not allowed to watch me.

Dinner was at 8 p.m. because I lost track of time working on this.

It is my first try and I do intend to wear it while in the kitchen preparing/cooking/baking food.

Not sure I love it, YET.

My husband taught me things about the sewing machine...imagine that!

Let's hope my sewing career does not end here.

It was FUN!

Cuteness

This past Sunday Eric and I cleaned the garage (Yea, I know fun times!). Above his work/tool bench we added a shelf a couple of years ago to help store some of the Rubbermaid totes that were sitting on the floor. We put the ones up there that held clothes left over from our older son for our younger son as he grew into them. I honestly thought that I had gotten all of the clothes down that were in Reed's current size. Well apparently I was wrong. I found 2 tubs full of clothes that he can fit into now! YIKES!

One of the things that I discovered was that he now has a ton and I mean a ton of "new" pajamas to choose from. I picked out 2 tonight and he said one more and picked out these.

So we put them on and had quite the conversation.
R: So these have slippers on them?
M: Kind of but they are attached and you can't take them off.
R: I want to see my feet.
M: OK, after I take a picture.
R: Take the picture now.
M: You need to show Daddy and brother first and then I will get my camera.
So he proceeds to walk out into the living room where Daddy and brother are and not one single comment from either one. What is up with that??? I thought he was so darn cute.
I got my camera and had to put my camera card in and told him to go stand by the front door. I took one picture and he started unzipping and off they came. Back to select different pajamas for tonight. He ended up in pajamas with sports balls all over and of course he could see his feet. :0)

These particular pj's were not his older brother's but were passed to me from a former student. Maybe if we go to Maryland for Christmas they will still fit him and we may get some use out of them. Then we can leave them there for one of my parent's neighbors who has a son who is a year and can grow into them.

"35"

Thursday, July 16th was my 35th birthday. I have to say that this was one of my most favorite of birthdays. I started the day by dropping my boys off at VBS. Then my friend Stacey and I got in the Suburban and headed to K-Mart...she needed a beach chair so that we could relax here.

We got to the beach and had 2 hours to enjoy ourselves. Stacey and I chatted, we read our books and at times I just sat and stared out into the vast unknown of the ocean and of course I people watched. :) The life guards were up to something as they kept going in and diving in the ocean and then one went up and down the sand on a 4-wheeler. Never did find out what they were looking for.

I sat in my chair just getting my feet and lower legs wet. Soaked up some rays and then it was off to get the kids from VBS.

Once we picked up the kids we headed to lunch at the Ale House.

Before Eric and I went out for the evening the boys sang Happy Birthday to me and I blew out the candles.

Friday night Eric and I went out with our friends Chas and Ali to Opa's great food and great company. Here Eric and I are mushing the hummus (It was the best that I have ever had.) this coming from someone who doesn't like hummus.

After dinner we listened to a local Mexican band that was playing at City Place . Then we headed to Renegades to do some country dancing.

4th of July

Happy Independence Day!!!

Hope everyone is enjoying the holiday.

I will return to the blogging world next week. :)

Camera Strap

Last Saturday I received my Mother's Day gift. I was so excited when it came and had been tracking it all week to figure out when it would reach my home.

It is the camera strap cover from *Shey* [B] . I had been stalking her etsy shop and blog for about 2 months. I kept wanting to buy one so as Mother's Day was approaching I told Eric that I knew exactly what he could get me for Mother's Day. I told him that I would even let him choose what design, but I wanted the lens cap holder added to it. They are all great so it didn't matter to me, plus I couldn't just pick one. So my oldest son picked out the Disco Dot with Tourquoise.

As I was reading Shey's blog today I was directed to Joy's Hope where she is having a giveaway for one of Shey's camera strap covers. I of course would love to have another one to change out, but if you would like to have one hurry over to Joy's Hope and enter.

Manic Monday #171

If you joined the circus, what act would you most want to perform?
I would love to be the elephant rider, who knows what she is really called, but that is what I call her.

Would you generally be overdressed or underdressed at a party?

I would be underdressed I am a pretty causal kind of girl.

Do you feel that children should be sheltered from unhappiness?

No, then how would they become an all around well rounded individual? With unhappiness also comes happiness. Gotta experience both.