Pictures of Christmas

Here are some pictures of stuff I did for Christmas!! I made this bear outfit for my aunt:
This is what a disaster my kitchen table looked like the week before Christmas:

These are the hanging bear welcome signs all finished:

These are some little chickens I painted for my Aunt's kitchen, she loves chickens:

These are some bunny cookie jars I painted for my aunt and cousin:

This is my bunny holding his new Christmas tree:

I made these little bracelets for some pre-teen girls who helped out with the breast cancer walk this previous November in California. I am going to making more to sell and will donate all the proceeds to the breast cancer walk this next November. The three charms are a shoe (for the walk), the pink ribbon and the heart with pink ribbon:
This is how I packaged the little bracelets. It is a little pink bag with a tag I stole for my good friend, Mary. LOL I literally copied her idea exactly and she was nice enough to share some of her paper with me! I am not sure what line it is from:

I tried making some cinammon apples for Christmas! They were easy to make and fun. I got the recipe from the Betty Crocker cookbook. The only thing I didn't like was I thought they were going to be more like caramel apples. They are actually more like suckers though! Tee hee I should have paid attention that you cook the cinammon sauce to hard crack stage! Silly me! This picture was while they were drying before I wrapped them! I wrapped them in cello bags and ribbon:

Justin and the Horse

We recently went to Thanksgiving Point with Justin's brother Andrew and sister in law Jamie. While we were there Justin made this new friend...I thought it was a cute picture!!!

Pierced Ears

A couple of weeks ago I dragged DD Brianna to the mall to look at some clothing stores. She totally hates shopping! After two stores she was begging me to go home! As we were walking out I saw an ear piercing kiosk....so I asked Brianna if she would like to get her ears pierced! Her answer was "not today, maybe later!". I asked her a few times over the next week and her answer was always the same! So Friday afternoon out of the blue she tells me she wants to get her ears pierced now (like a Princess!). So we wait a few hours and I ask her again and she still wants to get them pierced. So I explain to her it is going to hurt....kind of like getting a shot at the doctors. She is still up for it! So we go to the mall and she chooses out pink princess sparkley earrings (of course). She did great when they actually pierced them! She didn't even whine and just cried a single tear. She thought she looked great with her new earrings!! When we got home that night before bed she wanted to take them out so they wouldn't get lost when she was sleeping! So I explained to her that she couldn't take them out for a while. She said well what am I going to do when I eat?! I don't want to spill on them!!! Such a princess!

Painting

I have been so into painting lately! I talked poor Justin into cutting out all the wood for me. I looked totally pathetic trying to use the saw and almost cutting off my fingers! So he finally gave in and just cut it out for me. Here are the little Christmas decorations I have made:

The little snowmen here are supposed to be ice skating....they have little wire skates on their feet!

These are the interchangeable lids for my cookie jar! This is the rabbit holding a birthday cupcake:

Birthday!!!

So this week it was my birthday! My DH Justin, decided to make me a birthday cake with some help from my good friend Nettie! She made the cake and Justin decorated it. To decorate it Justin used two cans on frosting, four tubes of frosting (red, yellow, green and blue), a bag of peppermint patties, a bag of reeses peanut butter cups, a bag of fruit marshmellows, rolos and a bag of peanut butter chocolate chips! You couldn't even slice the poor cake! He topped it all off with some black candles!

Jewelry!

After the bead and gem show this weekend I decided to make some jewelry! I bought some chain at the show, so I am super into that! Here is what I came up with:

Dogs!

We have only one puppy left! She is so cute and sweet! I took some pictures of the dogs today and WOW are they hard to get good pictures of! Here are my gorgeous dogs! Blue is on the left and Shysa on the right:

Here is the last puppy we have. I loved this picture of her, she is standing like such a German Shepherd!

How sweet is this:

Mom:

Dad:

Puppies!

Here are some pictures of our current puppies! It is sure hard to get a picture of them! They are so busy! In these pictures they are five weeks old. In this one they are looking at their Dad:

It's hard to tell, but in this picture they are play fighting! Really cute:

Zeus and Hercules

So we currently have three puppies left from Shysa's current litter! They are really cute and really busy! They are starting to explore the backyard. They will be six weeks old tomorrow. I thought it would be fun to post current pictures of the two males from Shysa's first litter. Here is Zeus (my favorite-Louey):

This is Hercules, the other male:

It's crazy how big they get so fast!! I think they are both really good looking dogs!!!

Baby Puppies!

Shysa had more puppies!! She had four babies, all girls! They will be three weeks old in two days. They are just adorable little fluffy balls of fur! Their eyes have been open for a few days now and they are starting to toddle around on their little legs. They are really cute! This pictures doesn't do them justice:

Anniversary Party

After much preparation, it was finally time for my Grandparent's Anniversary party! I thought it went really well! Everything looked great, we had lots of food, the real cakes turned out great and lots of people came!! My Grandparents really seemed to have a good time! It was so much fun to visit with out of town family! Our kids loved playing with old friends and making some new ones. As everyone probably remembers I made a paper wedding cake and album for the party. I posted a picture of how they looked set up at the party on my stamp blog: http://www.stampingspot.blogspot.com/ Here is a picture of my cute Grandparents at the party:

Three days later my Grandpa celebrated his birthday (I won't post his age!) what a busy week they had!!!

What Do You Smell?

We have a ton of gas cans in our garage...whenever there is a hot day the gas cans heat up and the garage starts to smell like gas fumes (probably not so good). Well this afternoon as were walking through the garage my three year old says "ewwww whats that smell?" My six year old says "its the smell of a garage and I like it!!". He must have got that from his Dad...

What Makes You Fizz?

Ever put hydrogen peroxide on a cut and it foams and fizzes? Or have you ever garglyed with it and it makes you look like a rabid dog foaming at the mouth? My husband and I have an ongoing debate...I swear that the hydrogen peroxide foams and fizzes whenever it comes into contact with or is killing bacteria. My husband thinks that is an old wives tale and that it foams or doesn't depending on the depth of the cut...what does everyone else think? Anyone know the answer?

Bobby Boo!

Brianna got Cinderella III from the Easter bunny...she has become quite obsessed with it! Well obsessed with anything princess actually. For her birthday she received a princess wand! The other day she taps Morgan on the head with it and says "Bobby Boo!". Not quite sure what she was trying to change him into!

Allie

Last week we went to see Allie! Allie is Shysa and Baloo's puppy who my Grandpa took! She is really quite the handful! When we got there and opened the door to go inside she ran in, jumped up on the edge of the table, licked my Grandma's plate and then stole my Grandpa's piece of cake! She is a little bit crazy, but really pretty and really sweet! She is about 3.5 months old in these pics. Justin says she is prettier than Shysa...

Side View of Allie:

Front View of Allie:

Easter

Congratulations to Clover! The Easter bunny brought a special present to my aunt! Her goat, Clover, had a baby on Easter! Here is a pic:

The Prestige

So Justin and I watched The Prestige last night! I really enjoyed it! Justin thought it was just okay. I really enjoyed the ending and all of the twists to it. There are things while you are watching the movie that end up tying into the ending and make it all fall into place. Overall I thought it was a good movie! Worth buying for sure :)

Twilight and New Moon

So in the last couple of weeks I have read two books!! Twilight and New Moon by Stephenie Meyer. They were very interesting! The first one, Twilight, I didn't get really into it until half way through! I enjoyed it though and the ending for it was very suspensful! You had to go buy the second in the series, New Moon, right away to see what happens to Bella. Overall I liked the second one a little better. It gets a little far fetched in places, but the first one isn't plausible anyways. The ending of this one was a little slower...after finishing it you weren't as anxious to get the third book! Which is good and bad...good because it doesn't come out until September-ish and that is a long time to wait if you are inpatient like me! Overall they were fun books to read! They are super fictional, but there were some fun characters!

And Then There Were None...

So today we are puppy free!!! It is a bitter-sweet feeling! On the one hand there is no more puppy mess and I get my prized stamp room back! On the other hand I kind of miss the little things! They were all really cute and unique!! One thing I am really excited about is no more classified ads in the papers!!! I had some really strange experiences! I had some really strange calls from people and I had people calling at seven in the morning! I am not lucid enough to speak to people that early! Now begins the cleaning of the puppy room...

And Then There Were Two...

Yesterday was a busy dog day!! We had lots of calls for the dogs, especially the males! I wish we had more males! We sold three of the dogs, so now we have two little girls left. We sold Louey!! Which was very sad! He went with his brother though, so hopefully he will have a good friend to play with! Shysa seems kind of sad about it! She looks for the puppies! I wonder what she thinks?! Overall I was happy with the homes all the dogs found! Looks like the all have really happy homes!

Katie's Wife

I just had to blog about this! As I am listening to my husbands phone call tonight...he introduces himself as "Hi this is Justin, Katie's wife". I am giggling hysterically and he has no clue what he has just said!! So finally I told him wife?! And he just blushes as he realizes what he has just said! So if you talk to Justin don't forget to ask him if he is still my wife!!

Puppy Update

The puppies are six weeks as of yesterday! They are really growing up! Their little ears are starting to stand up now, some more than others. They are getting really playful. As soon as I open the door they run over to see who is there! They still are really excited to see Mom! Sometimes I don't think she is as excited to see them though! They had their second trip outside over the weekend. They seemed to have a good time running around and checking out the big outside world. We let Blue out in the yard with them too. He was really good with the little guys!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Here is a recipe I tried out for chocolate chip cookies tonight! They turned out well! The thing I like about this recipe is, you dump all the ingredients in and just mix! Super simple! The cookies baked up fluffy!

2 1/2 cups flour

1 cup light brown sugar, packed

1 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 12oz package semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 375. Into large bowl, measure all ingredients except chocolate chips and nuts. Mix ingredients on low speed. Beat on medium speed until well blended. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool slightly before removing from pan onto wire racks. Makes about 3 1/2 dozen.

Banana Apricot Nut Bread

I decided to try out a new recipe for bread tonight! It turned out okay, just a smidge on the dry side! Kind of different though! Here is the recipe:

2 cups all purpsoe flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup dried apricots, chopped

1/2 cup chopped walnuts (I substituted pecans)

3/4 cup ripe banana, mashed

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup butter (I softened mine a little bit)

1 egg

Preheat oven to 350. In a large bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, sugar, apricots and nuts. Mix throroughly. In a seperate bowl, combine mashed banana, milk, butter and egg. Stir in dry ingredients, mix well until blended. Pour mixture into a 9X5 inch loaf pan, bake for one hour or until bread begins to pull away from the sides of the pan and wooden toothpick comes out clean. Let cool in pan for ten minutes, remove loaf out of pan and place onto rack to cool completely. Makes one loaf.

Who Doesn't Love A Puppy?!

The puppies are five weeks old this week! Only six more days and they will be ready to find good homes! I didn't think I would be sad when they left...but I am realizing now I just might!! I really won't miss all the puppy mess, but how could you not miss the cute little balls of fur!? They had their first trip outside on Sunday! They really had a good time and it really wore them out! They loved to run and check stuff out! They were fascinated by the little bit of snow left on the ground! Some of them walked through it and some of them just laid in it! Must be a dog thing!! They met Dad for the first time since they were born and they though he was pretty fascinating and likewise!! When Dad barked at Mom, Shysa, the puppies ran with their tails between their legs! Yelping the whole way! Apparently he sounds pretty tough! The individual guy above is Louey! I am a little partial to him! I think I will cry when he leaves!! The left picture is them after their big adventure! They were worn out and ready to go in! The middle picture is all, but one puppy, lined up and posing for their photo shoot!

Five Year Olds and "Secrets"

As I was making dinner tonight, my five year old is chattering away (very typical!). When he suddenly exclaims "Mom, I have a secret!!". Thinking it is going to be something silly I say okay whats the secret? He says "Last night when you were out with friends Dad let me eat sooooo many Scooby Snacks! He let me eat all the Scooby Snacks I wanted!" I am thinking oh really? When he continues on "Yeah he said not to tell you because you would say no! Next time you go with your friends he said I can eat all the Scooby Snacks I want again!". The moral of the story is...don't trust five year olds with secrets and when you leave the house take the box of Scooby Snacks with you!!!

Spongebob's House!

Today I grabbed a whole pineapple to cut up for smoothies. My three year old saw it and exclaimed "I want to see Spongebob!". For anyone who doesn't know, Spongebob lives in a pineapple under the see! I kind of giggled and started cutting the pineapple up! I cut the top and the bottom off and she got this horrified look on her face, stared at the pineapple and asked "Where is Spongebob!! Don't cut him!". My kids loved drinking Spongebob's house after it was all done.

This is what I put in my smoothie and it turned out pretty good!

1 cup coconut milk

2 cups orange juice

2 cups cut up Spongebob house (fresh pineapple)

1 banana

2 spoonfuls of plain yogurt

I stuck it in my blender (you may want to have a large blender or cut the recipe in half). I blended for two-three minutes to make sure all the pineapple was smooth!

My first Post

This is my first blog ever! So hopefully it will be a good one!!!