Thursday, December 30, 2010

Christmas Day ♥










Oh the excitement of Christmas!! This was the funnest Christmas that I have had. Getting to watch Ava, Campbell and Cooper on Christmas morning and throughout the day was the best thing to me. Ava came in and walked straight to her new stroller and baby doll. She wasn't too sure about her new wagon, until I set her in it and showed her that she gets to get pulled around in it, then she didn't want to get out :) All she wanted to do was open presents. She didn't care what they were, she just wanted to open them.

Campbell and Cooper were both spoiled as well getting new electric (guitars) "matars" as Cooper calls them :) Cooper got more Monster Jams then he knows what to do with and Campbell finally got her robe and new luggage that she is always begging for at any store we go to :) My favorite line of the day was when I walked in to their house Christmas morning and Cooper jumps up holding a cd and shouts, "Becky! Look what Santa brought me, the Big Time Rush CD..he know'd I liked em'.." Cutest thing ever that he was so excited and just the way he says it.

There is so much hustle and bustle that goes along with Christmas, that it's easy to forget to stop and enjoy all the little things. These little details of that day are some that I never want to forget!

Monday, December 27, 2010

Weekly Menu, 11.

This week will be another short week as I am leaving for North Carolina on Thursday night!

Monday:
Steamed broccoli
Crescent Rolls

Tuesday:
Sweet & Sour Meat Balls
Rice

Wednesday:

Thursday:
Leaving on a jet plane!

Friday:
Red Rocks New Years Eve Dinner!

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

December.

This month so far, these are some of the things I've done:

Took the kids to see Santa arrive on his sleigh at the Country Village in Bothell.

Driven the kids around to look at Christmas lights, especially this house, our favorite!

Did some mini photo shoots to try and get a good Christmas card picture...

This is how that turned out..Pretty much how things always are..chaotic, but I love it that way :)

Visited this little Cutie and made some Christmas treats!

Got to spend the day meeting this sweet new baby, Andrew..

And his crazy & sweet big brother Zach.

Did the traditional baking night with Shelby and made lots of treats for their party..

Attended the annual Barkshire Christmas Party and had a good time!

And last but certainly not least, booked a plane ticket to North Carolina for New Years Eve to visit one of my best friends Jennifer and others! Can't wait!

Monday, December 20, 2010

Weekly Menu, 10.

Last week was a little hectic and there was literally not a night that I was home, so needless to say, the meal plan was of no use. However this week, since I am officially done Christmas shopping, I will be avoiding those that are not done shopping by staying home.

Monday:
Turkey & Ham Melts
Fries

Tuesday:
Lasagna
Garlic Bread
Corn

Wednesday:
Chicken Fajita's
Mexican rice

Thursday:
Ordering Pizza (Holiday baking extravaganza day)

Friday:
Christmas Eve, dinner with the Family.
My addition to the meal: Macaroni Salad, Pecan Pie bites.

Friday, December 10, 2010

The list.

I found this on a blog and thought it was hilarious because so many of the things are true.
I will highlight the ones that most relate to me!

1. I think part of a best friend’s job should be to immediately clear your computer history if you die.

2. Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you’re wrong.

3. I totally take back all those times I didn’t want to nap when I was younger.

4. There is great need for a sarcasm font.

5. How the hell are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet? (I’ve seen Martha Stewart do it, but it never seems to work out for me.)

6. Was learning cursive really necessary?

7. Map Quest really needs to start their directions on #5. I’m pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.

8. Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died.

9. I can’t remember the last time I wasn’t at least kind of tired.

10. Bad decisions make good stories.

11. You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you know that you just aren’t going to do anything productive for the rest of the day.

12. Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after Blue Ray? I don’t want to have to restart my collection…again.

13. I’m always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten-page research paper that I swear I did not make any changes to.

14. “Do not machine wash or tumble dry” means I will never wash this – ever.

15. I hate when I just miss a call by the last ring (Hello? Hello? Damn it!), but when I immediately call back, it rings nine times and goes to voice mail. What did you do after I didn’t answer? Drop the phone and run away?

16. I hate leaving my house confident and looking good and then not seeing anyone of importance the entire day. What a waste.

17. I keep some people’s phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.

18. I think the freezer deserves a light as well.

19. I disagree with Kay Jewelers. I would bet on any given Friday or Saturday night more kisses begin with Miller Lite than Kay.

20. I wish Google Maps had an “Avoid Ghetto” routing option

21. Sometimes, I’ll watch a movie that I watched when I was younger and suddenly realize I had no idea what the heck was going on when I first saw it.

22. I would rather try to carry 10 plastic cloth grocery bags in each hand than take 2 trips to bring my groceries in.

23. The only time I look forward to a red light is when I’m trying to finish a text.

24. I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger.

25. How many times is it appropriate to say “What?” before you just nod and smile because you still didn’t hear or understand a word they said?

26. I love the sense of camaraderie when an entire line of cars team up to prevent a jerk from cutting in at the front. Stay strong, brothers and sisters!

27. Shirts get dirty. Underwear get dirty. Pants? Pants never get dirty, and you can wear them forever.

28. Sometimes I’ll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is.

29. Even under ideal conditions people have trouble locating their car keys in a pocket, finding their cell phone, and Pinning the Tail on the Donkey – but I’ll bet everyone can find and push the snooze button from 3 feet away, in about 1.7 seconds, eyes closed, first time, every time!

30. My check engine light has been on for three months now and nothing’s happened. I’m starting to think that my car is just an attention whore.

31. I don’t understand the purpose of the line, “I don’t need to drink to have fun.” Great, no one does. But why start a fire with flint and sticks when they’ve invented the lighter?

32. Sometimes I pretend not to remember details about people because having a good memory apparently equates to creepiness.

33. My GPS says “Estimated Arrival Time.” I see “Time to Beat.”

34. Whenever someone says “I’m not book smart, but I’m street smart”, all I hear is “I’m not real smart, but I’m imaginary smart”.

35. My keyboard needs a removable crumb tray like my toaster.

36. What would happen if I hired two private investigators to follow each other?

37. I wish it were appropriate to say to a complete stranger, “Excuse me, would you like me to show you how to discipline your child?”

38. I never understood why the Lions and Cowboys always get to play on Thanksgiving. Shouldn’t the Patriots play the Redskins, and then steal their stadium afterwords?

39. Double-Stuffed Oreos should just be called Oreos, and regular Oreos should be called Diet Oreos.

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Cheerleader.



Campbell has started cheering in a league where she will be performing at Boys basketball games throughout the Winter, for the Monroe Select teams. In her squad, there are 6 girls and they stand on the sidelines during the whole game and do cheers. She practices once a week and has been so excited and can't wait to come home and show us her cheers. Her first performance was last Saturday and she couldn't wait! During half time, I asked her if she would like to play basketball and she shook her head..nope, a cheerleader it is! :)

Monday, December 6, 2010

Weekly Menu, 9.

Monday:
Chicken Bakes
Cheesy Rice

Tuesday:
Swedish Meatballs over egg noodles

Wednesday:
Turkey Melts
Fries

Thursday:
Visiting the Harding's

Friday:
Lasagna
Salad
Garlic Bread

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Black Friday.

I have always been a Black Friday shopper for as long as I can remember. In fact, I consider it a holiday. One of my favorite holidays :) Last year I spent Thanksgiving in Ellensburg with the Bennett's and the next morning, Rachel, Becca and I left at 3am for Yakima to get our shop on. They were hooked and we decided it would be a yearly tradition. We have been so excited for it since last year. We talk about it often and were literally counting down the days. I laughed many times that getting up so early, standing in LONG lines and dealing with some crazy people, was something we actually chose to do and were excited to do, but it is so much fun. To me, it kicks off the holiday season and of course there are many great deals to score.

Once again I spent Thanksgiving with the Bennett's which was such a special day in and of itself. We had so much fun cooking, laughing and celebrating the biggest blessing of the year, baby Addi. Truly an angel that makes me so grateful and makes me believe in happy endings.

After dinner, we looked through the ads for hours and made our lists. The alarm clock was set for 2:30 which came awfully quick. We were so excited to get up and on the road. Our first stop was Target where we stood in line for over an hour and almost had some words with a lady that seemed to think that we were all just standing in line for the heck of it :) After Target we headed to Old Navy, Famous Footwear and the mall. We dropped our first load of goodies off at Rachel's and headed on down the road to pick up Rachel's friend Amy and then we were off to Bellevue. We stopped at the Outlets in North Bend first and then continued on to Bellevue where we checked into our hotel. We stayed at the Hyatt which was super nice! We had reservations at PF Changs where we had the perfect window seat to watch the 1st night of the Christmas Parade.

After dinner we shopped some more, until the mall closed and then we headed back to our room where we all couldn't wait to sleep! Saturday morning we stopped at a few stores and then headed back to Ellensburg. We had so much fun, literally laughing until we cried many times, making many memories and I think we are all counting down the days until next year :) I ♥ Traditions.


Monday, November 29, 2010

Weekly Menu, 8.

Monday:
Chicken Fajitas
Rice

Tuesday:
Meatloaf
Green bean casserole
Crescent Rolls

Wednesday:
Spaghetti
Salad
Bread sticks

Thursday:
Tuna Casserole

Friday:
Homemade Pizza
Salad

Monday, November 22, 2010

Weekly, Menu 7.

This will not be a typical week as it is Thanksgiving, and I will be heading out of town Wednesday morning.

Monday:
Beef Stroganoff
Corn
French Bread

Tuesday:
Meat loaf
Au gratin Potatoes
Green Beans

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

12..err 6 weeks of Christmas Cookies, Week 1.

Apparently I have missed the buzz in the blogging world about the "12 weeks of Christmas cookies" challenge that some are doing. I stumbled upon it while checking out this sweet little blog and I thought, I would love to do that! Only one little problem, it is already only 6 weeks until Christmas. So, I guess I will just have to double up and try 2 new recipes a week for the next 6 weeks. The idea was to make a new cookie each week until Christmas. Since I usually have a few baking extravaganza's during the Holiday's, I would love to test new recipes that could potentially be added to my holiday favorites.

Here is Recipe #1. I picked this one for my first recipe because it's unlike anything that I usually make and it had eggnog & rum in it..done deal.




1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup cornstarch
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1 cup butter, softened
1/2 Tbsp rum
1/4 cup eggnog
1 cup powdered sugar, for rolling


In a medium bow, whisk together the flour, cornstarch, and salt.

In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Beat in the rum and eggnog.

Add in the flour mixture gradually until well-combined. Cover and refrigerate the dough an hour or until firm.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Roll the dough into 1″ balls and place on the baking sheets about 1″ apart.

Bake 12-14 minutes. Remove to a wire rack to cool about 5 minutes before rolling the cookies in the sugar. Makes about 3 dozen cookies.

Enjoy!

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Phoenix.







I had the best time going to Phoenix with The Barkshire's. I was so excited that Jeff was able to race this particular race since it is on Cup weekend and I love going to Phoenix. This weekend really reminded me how much I do love racing and love being at the race track. I was telling Shelby that it's kind of funny because I watch racing so much on TV, that when I see the drivers and crew members at the track, I feel like I know them because they are so familiar to me..then I have to remind myself that I don't in fact know them :)

The West series was scheduled to race Saturday night after the Nationwide race to bring more exposure to the series. I'm not sure how I feel about that since it didn't seem like the pro's out weighed the cons of the weekend, like the crazy down time. It was the ultimate Nascar style "sit & wait" weekend. And the race didn't turn out well for Jeff, when another car made contact with him forcing him into the front stretch wall and blowing out the right front tire while running 8th. Obviously not the outcome any one hoped for, but as they say, that's the way it goes sometimes. It was so disappointing after all the hard work it took by Jeff to get the funds secured to even be there and all the hard work that it took from he & his crew to be there.

While in Phoenix, Shelby & I spent Friday in Scottsdale doing some shopping at the Fashion Square Mall. They have pretty much every store! We had lunch at my favorite place there, Olive & Ivy and made a quick stop at Sprinkles for a cupcake. We went to the truck race on Friday night and watched from the pits which was fun and afterwards we got to meet one of our favorite people on Twitter: @Mother_Function aka Josh, Kevin Harvick Inc. employee and Kevin's better half. He was super funny and nice.

The weather was wonderful, the racing was pretty good minus Jeff's incident and we all can't wait to do it again..hopefully sooner than later.

Monday, November 15, 2010

Weekly Menu, 6.

Monday:
Spaghetti
Corn

Tuesday:
Turkey Taco's
Mexican Rice

Wednesday:
Out for dinner

Thursday:
BLT's
Tomato Soup

Friday:
Homemade BBQ Chicken Pizza
Caesar Salad

Monday, November 8, 2010

Weekly Menu, 5.

Monday:
Chicken Taquito's
Mexican Rice
Corn

Tuesday:
Spaghetti
Salad
Garlic Bread

Wednesday:
Leaving for warm, sunny Phoenix!!

Thursday:
Gone :)

Friday:
Gone :)

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Pumpkin Patch.








The day before we went to Craven Farms, I got my new camera and I couldn't wait to use it! I know nothing about it, but I figure that I will learn as I use it. We couldn't have asked for more perfect weather! I brought Campbell & Cooper, Lizzie and our neighbor Erica and my Sister brought Ava along. Our Grandma Chouinard also came with us and I think she really enjoyed seeing Ava run through the patch. We got to go on a Hayride, and then pick out our pumpkins and afterwards the kids visited the animals in the petting zoo. I love going to the pumpkin patch, it's a tradition that I look forward to every year!

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Halloween 2010.






For the past several years, I have been gone on Halloween, but not this year. I was so excited to be home for it and to be able to see all the kids in their costumes. Growing up in my family, Halloween was always a big deal. We always had Chili on Halloween, our whole family came over and usually lots of our friends and it was something we looked forward to every year.

This year I had Dailey's birthday party on Saturday which was a costume party so I already had my costume and decided to wear it all day on Halloween too. I went to pick up Ava with it on and She didn't know what to think :) The kids were so excited. Cooper was a Cop and couldn't wait to put his costume on and play outside in it pretending to get bad guys! Campbell decided to be a Sea Gal Cheerleader since she already had the costume from cheering this summer. She looked so cute in it ofcourse, even though she was too shy to do any cheers or cute poses for us.

I passed out the candy to all the trick or treaters and I loved seeing their reactions when I opened the door. I think I caught all of them off guard because I didn't hear many "trick or treat's" it was more like "I love your costume!" or "wow, your a rainbow" was my favorite from a sweet little boy. I think I enjoyed it more than the kids did and I was bummed when we got our last spurt of kids. I can't wait until next year!!

The best costume for the night, by far, was our 5 year old neighbor boy Kyan, as the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland. So creative and authentic! Loved it.

Monday, November 1, 2010

Weekly Menu, 4.

Monday:
Meatloaf
Baby Reds
Green Beans

Tuesday:
Brown rice

Wednesday:
Green Salad
Breadsticks

Thursday:
Ritz Chicken
Cheesy Rice
Broccoli

Friday:
Home made Pizza
Salad

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

A Birthday Surprise.

Today is my sweet friend Stevie's 22nd birthday! Stevie and I have a lot of things in common. We both love to shop, love racing, love to cook, scrapbook, laugh, take pictures, go to concerts..you name it. When we first heard that Lady Antebellum was coming to Seattle, we both said that we were definitely going to see them. I think the concert snuck up on us because on Sunday we didn't have tickets and didn't have plans to get them. Until my brain started to think...hmmm, it is her birthday on Tuesday and how cool would that be to surprise her with tickets? I texted her to make sure she was available Monday night and when she said that she was, I told her I would pick her up at 4:30 and all I would tell her was that we were going downtown Seattle...I got online and was still able to find some AWESOME tickets.

I picked her up last night and couldn't wait until 7:30 to tell her so I gave her a card that told her we were going to Lady A. She was sooooo excited, to say the least :) We went to one of our favorite restaurants, The Cheesecake Factory first and then headed over to the Wamu Theatre.

We had such a great time! We were so close to the stage and sang pretty much every song. I would definitely see them again, especially in a venue like the Wamu Theatre. That is my idea of the perfect concert setting. Very intimate feeling. And there is just something about going to a concert that is magical to me. I can hear the same songs on the radio and like them, but when I am seeing and hearing them performed with my own eyes, I love the songs that much more.








We ♥ Lady A.