Twas the day after Christmas

Twas the day after Christmas and all through the house was peace and quite brought to you by Legos!

Thank you Mamaw and Grandpa! The boys played with these for hours. We love it! We were able to Skype with John's Mom and Dad on Christmas Eve. It was so nice, and of course the boys made out like bandits. We had a very nice and laid back Christmas day. Mom and Dad came over and we all had dinner. Dad smoked and BBQed the turkey, all I can say is yummy! I thought I would share a few new ideas and recipes that I used. First was a way to display the Christmas cards (I loved it)!

 Just take a pretty ribbon, tape it to the inside of the cabinet door and stick clothes pins on the ribbon and they will hold the cards up! It's that simple! Now when I saw this idea, the clothespins were just plain. For my house they needed a little sparkle (So I glued glitter on them ;) I bet they would look cute painted too! I got everything at the dollar tree, and spent about $4.00. I would say that is a SCORE!
 On Christmas day I wanted to make Hot Cocoa (but without all the sugar and junk in it) for the boys as a treat.

 I came across this great recipe on Pintrest of course.
    Serves 2
   2 cups of any kind of milk
 2 tsp unsweetened cocoa powder
   2 tbsp chocolate chips
1/2 tsp vanilla extract  2 tsp maple syrup

  Whisk everything in a small sauce pan. Place over medium heat. Stir and cook until chips melt. Top as desires and enjoy. The boys loved it! I tried some and it was really good.

I also wanted the house to smell good all day. I just made my own aromatherapy.

 So I put orange peels, cranberries, whole cloves, and water. Put it on simmer all day and smelled so good.
My new favorite holiday cookies! Soft gingerbread with mini chocolate chips. I altered mine a bit from the original recipe. Next time I will try the white chips.

White Chocolate topped Gingerbread Cookies

3 cups flour
2 tsp. Ginger, Ground
1 tsp. Cinnamon, Ground
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. Nutmeg, Ground (I used fresh)
1/4 tap salt
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup molasses
1 egg
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp. Vanilla Extract
1 cup white chocolate chips
Mix flour, ginger, cinnamon, baking soda, nutmeg and salt in large bowl.
Beat butter and brown sugar in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy.
Add molasses, egg and vanilla; beat well. Gradually beat in flour mixture on low speed until well mixed. Press dough into a thick flat disk. Wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate 4 hours or overnight.
Preheat oven to 350°F. Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Roll in granulated sugar. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets.
Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until edges of cookies just begin to brown. Immediately press about 5-6 white chocolate chips into center of each cookie. Remove to wire racks; cool completely. Store cookies in airtight container up to 5 days.


John and I have been living on squash this fall and winter. I discovered that they are not that hard to cook. We love acorn and butternut squash. This baked acorn squash recipe is from Pintrest and was really good.

• 2 whole Acorn Squash
• Kosher Salt To Taste
• 2 Tablespoons Butter
• 2 Tablespoons (to 3 Tablespoons) Brown Sugar
• Pure Maple Syrup

Preparation Instructions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Halve each squash, then scrape out the seeds and stringy membranes. Place the halves, flesh side up, on a baking sheet and sprinkle each half with salt.
Next add a generous tablespoon of butter to the center of each squash followed by 2 to 3 heaping tablespoons of brown sugar. Next drizzle squash with maple syrup.
Pour 2 cups water in the bottom of the baking pan.
Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake an additional 30-45 minutes, or until squash is golden brown.
In the last 5 minutes of baking, turn on the broiler and allow tops to get a little more brown and the butter/sugar mixture to bubble.


Simple table decorations, a church ornament on a cake stand, with fake snow. We were wishing for a white Christmas, but it didn't happen this year, maybe next year.

 Had a couple mason jars, filled them with fake snow, put a few cranberries, and tea light.

 The last thing I want to share with you is how some cleaning products have made my cleaning easier, and with out all the harsh chemicals. Shameless Plug for my friend Terry.  It is called H2O home cleaning http://www.myh2oathome.com/TERRYLEWALLEN/ This company is based in France and they have microfiber cleaning cloths. Now I kept hearing microfiber this microfiber that, but I didn't understand why they were better than a regular cotton wash cloth. So for those like me who want the scoop, here it is... Microfiber is suppose to pick up more junk cause the fibers are smaller than cotton (hence the name microfiber). Now the cool thing about this H2O is their fibers are 100 times smaller than a human hair! I have personally felt the difference between a Target microfiber cloth, and these H2O cloths. The difference is unreal. These are so small that they pick up all the dirt and most importantly germs!  All do you use is water to get the cloth damp, and clean away. For deep cleaning they have a food grade clay powder that you can clean just about anything with. I used it to clean this.

All the brown stuff is baked on and sticky I have tried soaking it and that did nothing. So I got the clay powder out and went to work. I cleaned only half so you can see the difference.

 I know the picture is not very good but it looks almost like new on the right side. So if you are interested go to Terry's sight and check out all the great things she has. I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and a great New Year! Till next time.

Did you deal with a Halloween Hangover?

I have returned to share something I have learned and what is on my heart I feel compelled to share with you. The few days fallowing Halloween I saw so many posts on Facebook of my friends who's children were having hard days (meltdowns ect.) I call it Halloween Hangover. I am just giving my opinion here... I have found that we need to stay away from foods with Red 40 or Yellow 5 dyes. I had heard that once or twice before but never paid much attention to it (as with most things about health and food) but once we decided to make a change in our life, first to lose weight, then it became to get  healthy, and now it has progressed to getting healthy from the inside out. All of these changes our boys have gone through with us. Nick however has always been busy, and sometimes hyperactive. If I had him tested for ADD or ADHD he would probably be lumped in with the growing number of children who carry that label. I did not want that for him nor did I want to drug him to reign the busy in... I did not want to change his happy spirit. So I have been looking to help him naturally. I have a wonderful friend and church member who introduced me to essential oils and the combinations that could help Nick. They did help but he still found it hard to focus in school and sometimes it's like is brain is going so much faster than his mouth or his body. He would tend to be very emotional, he could have highs, lows. Also meltdowns, how can any of us (parents) forget meltdowns as we wonder what thing has possessed our sweet and loving children?  Part of the problem I believe (very strongly I might add) that these dyes that they are putting in our food are a big part of the culprit for some of the issues with our kids today. Please take a few minutes to read this article. What the mom observed from her daughter sound just like Nick and what he has gone through. I breaks my heart that they have to go through that and most of the time no-one knows why. They just want to label them and give them RX with bad side effects. It is like putting a band aid on the issue and not really get down and dirty and try to find out why it is happening. Okay enough of my soap box for now, please read.

http://www.allergykids.com/blog/seeing-red/

I would be doing you a dis-service if I didn't tell you this also. I was in the shower just the other day and thought to myself I wonder if it is in shampoo? Guess what?! Sure enough there it was RED 40. Just what I didn't want to see. It's in everything friends, read your labels. It is an easy enough fix with the shampoo. (I had some that had no dyes in it that he could use) The Halloween candy is another matter all together...I threw away about 75% of Nick's and Jared's candy. I know it seems harsh, but I did replace it with some other candy that is dye free! So it can be done. It might be harder with littler ones, there might be meltdowns as you fade those dyes out. But if you stay strong and don't give in it will get better, much better. I have noticed such a BIG change in Nick, that I could not in good conscience share with my friends to help them and their precious ones. Till next time.

Our Trip to Cali 2012

   Let me first say that unfortunately I sometimes forget how incredibly blessed I am, to have married into such a great family. I know, I know, it seems like I am kissing up.  I have heard other stories from people who don't really get along with the "in-laws".  I am thankful that I don't have those stories.

   We got in late Friday night and hit the ground running! First thing Saturday morning loaded up the car and drove almost 3 hours from the Lomita area, to the central valley. That is where we moved from when we came to Washington. Honestly I was not really looking forward to the heat that was awaiting us there. It (the heat) has been know to make me cranky(it's not pretty). When we got to the area the guys dropped us girls (Mom, sister, our nice, and I) off at a baby shower for one our cousins. I really love how even though we may not see each other or talk as much as we did when we lived there, we all seem to pick up right where we left off. It's like not that much time has passed. This is the really cute diaper cake that was on each table.

My darling nice took my picture as I took hers. Silly girl!

 Some of the cousins. Ashleigh, Lynette, her daughter Zoe, Lauryn, and Jennifer.

We beat the heat thanks to our cousin Chris and his wife Lynette, they had a pool that the kids were in love with!

After pool time the boys played inside with cousin Noah and Zoe.

 Not sure what Noah is doing to Jared, but they had fun!

So glad our kids got the chance to hang out and get to know each other. We stayed the nights with Grandma (AKA as Granny, but I just can't bring myself to call her that) and Granddad. I have to say I hope and pray that I am as spry and go get'em as she is when I am her age. She was like the engerizer bunny. She kept going and going, she did not slow down very much the whole time we were there. Here she is with Nick.

The kids (Emilee, Jared & Nick) helped Mom (Debbie) and Grandma make a yummy breakfast for us all! So neat to see the kids cooking with their Mamaw & Great-Grandma! Something I did not have growing up, that is why it is so precious  to me!

 After we spent a few days with everyone there it was time to head back to the Lomita area, with a slight detour at Six Flags Magic Mountain. The last time we were there the boys were small and we stayed in the Bugs Bunny world. Then...

 Now they were mostly big enough for all the rides.

Their first ride this trip was Ninja!

 Waiting in line, Emilee, and Nicklas (She has gotten so tall. Almost as tall as John. For this picture she picked Nick up and he sat on her hip like a baby, cracks me up!)

 Jared is ready to go!

 The park closed at 6pm the day we went. We thought it would be a bummer, but much to our surprise, we got to ride everything we wanted (with the exception of Superman it was closed) and did not have to wait long at all! The Flash suites Nick!

 Nick has his pretend baterang ready to fly. I just had to get a shot of the boys with this Batmobile. After all, Papa John has a picture of himself standing next to the Batmobile, when he worked on Batman Returns.

 Nick and JD ready to do battle, Look Out!!

I found these great Hello Kitty sunglasses in the gift shop and had to try them on! As Jared was taking the picture some guy photo bombed me so I had to really crop it LOL.

 Jared's souvenir from Magic Mountain...Superman Cape!!

Nick's souvenir...Green Lantern Cape!!

And my lovely souvenir, I could have done without, courtesy of The Revolution! A big fat bruised knee, and that is looking good!

After laying low and re-cooping for a day. John and I decided to take the boys to a Miniature Golf place we used to go when we were dating.

 John helping the Nick, Nick, figure out how to hit the ball through the wagon wheel.

Mine was the only ball with a face drawn on it.

They also had Lazer Tag. The guy running the games let the boys play one for free since it was a slow day! SCORE!!

 and last but not lest the slick track...Nick got to go first.

After a few laps, he got comfortable and started driving like his Dad, one handed, made me smile...

Jared's turn on the big track he said it was a blast!

  I don't know if you can tell from his face but I think he liked it!

After that we all (Dad, Mom, Shannon, Emilee & us) went to...

For some yummy dinner. Sadly I was so hungry I forgot to take pictures of the yumminess, so sorry.
I did get a picture of the boys with Grandpa Butch!

After dinner the kids curled up and watch a movie on the kindle...Priceless...

I pray that they stay close with their cousins. All in all another great trip! Here are some random shots of the boys...

Thanks and have a great day!

Happy 4th Of July!

I would like to first start off by saying how blessed I am to be an American. We  have so many comforts and liberties here. Is it perfect? Heck no!! Would I change some things? YES!! Although,  I don't have to worry about going to jail because I want to worship. I can speak my mind, I can choose to be anything I want. I choose to be a Christan & I choose to be a stay at home wife and mother. All of this is possible because men and women serve and fight to protect us and these freedoms, at great sacrifice to them and their families. I have lots of family, and friends that are or have been in the military. So thank you to all who have served and continue to serve.

                                                                Our 4th of July

The boy's went out early in the morning to be in a parade with Nana, and Papa. These days Dad is getting more involved in politics. He really likes Hadian for Governor.

By the end of that they were pretty pooped. We still wanted to go to Joint Base Lewis McCord, they were hosting "Freedom Fest" on base. They host it every year, but this was our first year to go. So after some lunch we headed out. It is kind of like Wilson park for all my California peeps. When we got there IT WAS PACKED! but the first thing Nick saw was the Rock climbing wall. It was free to climb so we were all for that! (we are cheep LOL) Here Nick is getting the harness ready to go.

When it was his turn, I knew he loved to climb, but gee wiz kid...

He is a natural...

He caught up to this little girl in no time...

The look on his face is like, ok now what, that was easy. I tell you he climbed up in about one minute and half maybe less. We bought a few tickets for the boys to ride some rides...getting line for the spinner thing. You know the thing that you stand against the wall and spin real fast and the gravity keeps you against the wall.

Nick is on the end waving and Jd is next to him, but apparently he is too big to wave to his momma.

Nick is telling Jd to wave LOL

Of course there was cotton candy to be had...

And games to play...

Love  My 3 boys...

We met some friends there, and stayed till the fireworks, they were great! They faked us out a few times thinking they had shot off the grand finally. Also the Boom kept setting off this car's alarm. It was funny. Hope you all had as much fun on your 4th! Love you all!