My Heritage

I consider myself pretty young, I never feel like I am closer to 30 than 20 and I never feel mature for my age...really I don't! More often than not I feel too immature to be the full-time working mom of two and wife! The past few days I have had to attend or am going to be attending 2 funerals. Funerals ALWAYS make me feel old, they always make me feel mature, I realize they are a sad part of life and that as an adult I attend out of respect and love for whomever has passed on. On Sunday I was sitting in that too small room with the urn and beautiful picture at the front of the room, surrounded by beautiful flowers and all I could think was that I was so relieved that someday, hopefully after my girls are raised, I will have family to stand up and surround my coffin, they will celebrate my life, they will cherish memories made with me and even though I will be rejoicing in Heaven, it makes me happy to think that through my girls a little piece of me will live on...It was the first time in my life that I thought about the heritage that I am passing on through my daughters. I have always wanted them to be well behaved when necessary and have tried to instill good values in them, but on Sunday, at that funeral, I realized that what I really want to pass on to them is my zest for life, I want them to be optimists, who always look at the glass as half full and a cloudy day as partly sunny! I want them to throw their heads back and laugh REALLY laugh that loudest laugh in the room because life should be fun, I want them to never know a stranger and to be friends with everyone, and I want them to embrace family and spend as much time together growing up as possible so that they have a great sister bond as adults. I am so thankful that God blessed me with my girl's so that a little piece of me will always live on through them... So I am going to start worrying a little less about the ever growing mountain of laundry that, let's face it, I am NEVER going to conquer, and start concentrating a little more on growing my heritage!! So that when I am up in Heaven looking down one day on my sweet girls, I will smile because they will be laughing through the tears at my funeral, because a story told is always better with giggles and I want the story of my life  to be all about giggles we shared, so that my laughter can live on through them :) Plus growing my heritage is going to be so much better than doing their dirty laundry! of this I am sure!!

Have You Ever???

Have you ever had a dream that you just couldn't shake?? I had one last night and it is driving me crazy this morning! You know the kind that makes you where you can't focus because you keep going back to it? I dream ALOT, pretty much every night I have dreams that I can re account for in the morning, they are usually vivid and stupid but I remember every detail! I also dream about my past alot, not bad things, just about the people who were important to me years ago even though I may have absolutely no interaction with them today. Is that weird? Tell me I am not the only one! LOL! I also notice that scents trigger dreams for me, if I smell the cologne that my grandpa used to where then I usually see him in a dream within a few days, if I stay outside late at night and smell the fresh dew it will take me back to camping with my church youth group....So tell me do you dream? Are they vivid and of people in your past? Do you think that God tries to send us messages in our dreams?

Pup-Cake Cup Cakes 101

Many of you know that I am a self taught, wanna be  Food Network great, self proclaimed, cake decorator! It has been a year now since my debut cake which was a beach cake and I have come pretty far!! ANYWAY enough background! So my niece Lexie turned 10 this week :)

We are very proud of the young lady she has become! I can't believe it has been ten years since she came into our lives! She was the cutest little thing and has a personality that is one of a kind! She has went from growling at strangers to having the prettiest smile! We love you Lexie Lou and can't wait to see what the next year brings you!!

and now back to the cupcakes!

Okay so Lexie has always been a lover of dogs (hence why she growled when she was a toddler, I am pretty sure she acted like a dog for the first few years of her life! We embraced it and let her play in (clean) dog kennels and gave her Reese peanut butter cereal as dog food!) umm Caylee may be following in her foot steps....video footage of that soon....

ummmm back to the cupcakes

so I saw these cute dog cup cakes in a book called "Hello Cupcakes" and I had to try them! They turned out super cute! Wanna see???

now I can't take all the credit even though I really want too... because I mean they are stinking awesome...but I had an intern for this batch! My oldest niece Lydia, she did half of them and did a great job! really she almost showed me up and it was her first time!Carleigh did one too, can you guess which one??

(cell phone picture=bad quality Sorry!)

She did this 100 percent by herself, she used marshmallows for her eyes and gave it a collar that you can't see! Future pastry chef???

So how did we make these little puppies! Well first you bake your cupcakes just like always, and you have to let them cool completely! Than you decide on your dog color and ice the top of the cupcake. The trick for the nose of the dog is a marshmallows cut to the height of your desired snout. place on cupcake and then ice it too, and then we just used piping tips to draw on our faces! To make the ears we used rolled out tootsie rolls! One think we learned is that next time we will buy a bag of colored tootsie rolls so that we don't have to put icing on top of them when we want something other than brown ears! and that's how we did it!

This was a long post thanks for hanging in there with me!!! Have A GRRREAT Day!

Because my head is going to explode!

UGH!! I am in the middle of my big yearly audit at work and if I have to think about it for one more minute my head is going to explode all over my office!! So I decided to sneak over here and do a little catch up! First of all I missed Flashback Friday, yeah I know I am not good at this blog thing, hopefully I get better as soon as things calm down a bit!! Second, I have no pictures for you today but I do have a fun post coming up that will include some cute pictures of  Project "Pup"cake! oh yes my friends it was a fun project for sure!!! My girl's are monsters darlings as always :) they make me smile a million times a day! Caylee is now using Bull Sh*t in context frequently along with dam*it, I think maybe we need to start watching our mouths a little more...although she sounds pretty cute and funny when she says it so I can't help but laugh! Would I be a bad parent if I admitted to trying to capture that cute little toddler accent voice saying it, on video???  Sounds kinda like buww tit  and nammit....okay I won't admit it then....well my friends, the auditor's are calling, can you hear them??? Sounds kinda like "DeAnna get your arse in here, we need to take a chunk out of it"...!! Good thing I have ALOT of cushion!!! Have a great day!! I will be back with pictures SOON I promise!

Flashback Friday!

So I think that Flashback Friday is going to have to change to Must See Monday this week!! :) I have had an extra full week that has included both cars breaking down, getting ready for a week of an audit at work, and lots of other things!! I want to be an avid blogger  and I sure am trying but not doing a very good job!! Once I get past my audit at work hopefully I will be able to jump back in with both feet!! I hope everyone has a GREAT FATHER'S DAY weekend celebrating the men in your life who have loved supported and raised you and those who love and support and raise your babies!! :) Be back on Monday with a post you won't want to miss!

Rock-a-Bye Baby

You won't want to miss this receipe!!!!

(I am definitely not a photographer of food!! )

So a month or two ago my mom snagged me a homemade ice cream maker, brand new, still in the box with the plastic, at a garge sale for 12 dollars!! It was such a fun bargain!! It is electric and works like a champ!! We have tried a couple different things with it but on Sunday we made the BEST peanut butter ice cream EVER!!!  The receipe came from allreciepes.com and was melt in your mouth great! So I just have to share because you are going to want to try this! You will not regret it!!!

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup whole milk
• 3/4 cup peanut butter
• 3/4 cup sweetened condensed milk
• 1/2 cup half-and-half cream
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 12 miniature peanut butter cups, chopped

Directions

1. In a medium bowl, beat the sugar and eggs with an electric mixer until thick, about 3 minutes. Set aside. Pour milk into a small saucepan, and bring to a simmer over low heat. Gradually drizzle the hot milk into the eggs while whisking vigorously. Then pour the whole mixture into the saucepan. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until thick enough to coat the back of a metal spoon. Do not boil.
2. Remove from heat, and whisk in peanut butter. Allow to cool slightly, then whisk in the sweetened condensed milk, half-and-half and vanilla. Cover and refrigerate until chilled.
3. Pour the mixture into an ice cream maker, and freeze according to the manufacturer's instructions. Fold in peanut butter cups when mixture is still soft, then transfer to a container, and freeze until solid.

You should really visit allrecipes.com they have TONS of great things to try!!!

FlashBack Friday!!!!!! (a few days late) but well worth the wait!

Put me back!!! 

I am learning how to use blogger and  they have a feature where you can write a post and  predate it which is how my Friday posts will be during the summer!!! But I didn't get that done for this Friday so lets have a Flashback Friday on a Monday, K!!....K~ Here is a five year flashback to one perfect little Ms. Magoo looking Carleigh Lou!!!! Oh my how she stole our heats!!! and look at these two!! PRICELESS!! aren't the just  too stinking cute!!

Oh how time flies!! Come back next Friday!! You may just be surprised at who we flashback to next!! :)

Carnival!!!! Family Reunion!!!!!

Oh wow I have missed blogging!! Summer got here and life kind of exploded on me! But I think that I have gotten things under control and back into a semblance of a routine!! So let's play a little bit of catch up! The girls are both doing great! Caylee is cracking me up at how much she is mimicking Carleigh right now! She wants to do everything she does! It is pretty stinking cute! and Carleigh doesn't seem to mind at all! (Yet!) I am sure it is coming!! A couple of weeks ago the carnival came to town and we had a lot of fun, but it was very eye opening to me that Carleigh is definitely leaving the pre-schooler era and turning into a big girl! She rode most of the big kid rides!! and LOVED THEM!! Caylee is the prefect age for the toddler rides and Carleigh rode some of those with her too "just to be my helper"! This was the first carnival of the summer season and even though Caylee did some rides last year this was time she squealed and laughed and loved them and cried when we left! Carleigh had to get arm art :) Fun stuff! I am pretty sure she didn't wash that shoulder for like 7 days!

Miss Independent did her own hair ( I am so not ready for THAT stage!!)

 The weekend after the carnival was Family Reunion Weekend, Tim's Dad and Step Mom Carla came up from Texas and we camped the weekend at Tim's cousin's house! The rest of his family came on Saturday for a cookout! It was a nice time, it rained :( that was a bummer! It was cold like sweat shirts and long pants on memorial day weekend! UGH!! but we made the best of it and had a blast! I however was busy cooking, cleaning, chasing kids, playing in our new camper, chasing kids, unloading a sandbox and multiple other forms of entertainment. ( I like to feel like Mary Poppins with my magic bag of tricks!) and trying to get some visiting in!!

I enjoy being the butt of the family jokes ;)

Magic show anyone? Carleigh made this leaf disappear and reappear!! She that little speck on the ATV out there, yeah that's Caylee, she was a ATV pro!!! She LOVED it!

Not to be shown up by her sister and cousins!

Tim and all his cousins and brother? I am curious can you tell which one is his brother?

Gigi and Pops!! We like to make Gigi laugh :)

Tim's Aunt, Son, and Uncle :)

Caylee thinks she is going to Stow away to Texas! Her mama thinks NOT! 

Okay that catches me up on major events :) Check back tomorrow for our first ever "Flashback Friday!!!" I can't wait to post it!

Must see!!!

Okay so I promise to be back to regular blogging soon so please please hang in there with me! Life has been a little bit insane but I am hoping to be back to normal in the next day or two!!!! Until then this is the most adorable you tube video I have seen! I am so going to teach my girls this so that we can be bonafide Gleeks!! Carleigh is already pretty good!! and Caylee shakes her booty like no other!!

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Writer's Block, Memorial Day, Busyness and a Receipe Oh My!!!!

So sorry for the delay in blogging!!! I have a million ideas for posts but for some reason I can't get them communicated onto this screen in a way that I like them!! UGH!! I guess they call that some form of writer's block!!! We had a WONDERFUL Memorial Day weekend!! I wasn't on my computer at all over the weekend to do a post but we enjoyed camping at Tim's cousin's property with his Dad and Step mom, cousin's, brother, sister-in -law and nieces and nephews and aunt's and uncles! It was a great time that deserves it's own post just as soon as I get my hands on some pictures! On top of all of this I have been SWAMPED at work! and it isn't looking like the rest of the week is going to be any better! so for now I will leave you with the recipe I promised last week!! and I will be back soon with some new updates, and pictures!!!

This makes an awesome appetizer! Tim brought the receipe home from a coworker and we have made it numerous times since!!!!

Sausage Bread

2 cans crescent rolls
1 pound of sausage (mild or hot depending on your taste buds!)
1 package of cream cheese

Roll out one can of crescent rolls onto a cookie sheet
brown your sausage until fully cooked and then drop in your block of cream cheese and mix into the sausage until it is melted and mixed together.
Take mixture and spread onto rolled out crescent roll
Take second can of crescent rolls roll them out and cover the other crescent roll and mixture. Press sides firmly together to create a seal all the way around and cook at 350 until golden brown. Slice and enjoy while hot!!