Tuesday, January 28, 2014

More Basketball Shots Of Jax & Cohen

Game #3
Jax and Cohen still going strong!
I love watching my little buddy in action.  He's so passionate about B-ball.

Monday, January 27, 2014

A White Picket Fence, Fairies and Flowers!

It's insanely hard to believe that I am STILL putting some finishing touches on Lilah's room (2 years later).  We are down to the final details.  All I need is curtains and maybe one or two pieces of artwork and I am DONE!
The above wall was rather empty, so I chose to use the below, white picket fence, to fill the wall up a tad.  I moved Lilah's end table to the other side of her bed and cornered the picket fence in that area.
A picket fence inside? Absolutely. It definitely adds character to her room. I guess if I really wanted to, I could have just kept it just like that.  It's darling without any detail.
After installing the fence, I had the pleasure of adhering the nylon, colorful flowers, which can lay flat or you have the option to position them in a 3-D type of way because they contain wiring!
See how they "popped" out of the wall? I chose to take advantage of the wiring.
3-D fairy and butterfly stickers.
The coolest thing about these stickers is 1. They are repositional stickers.  2. They are 3 dimensional stickers.  3. When Lilah's heat or ceiling fan is on, the fairy wings flutter from the breeze.
My eyes are still adjusting.  I am a creature of habit.  I LOVED the night stand where it was, but this, for now, is what we have.
Different views!
Some of the pictures show it's true beauty.  Others make it look messy/crowded.  I'm not sure which photo appeals or doesn't appeal to me more.  Either way, I think it's a really unique addition to any little girl's room.  It's colorful and captivating for my Liley Bo and matches PERFECT with her bedding.  
Now Lilah has her very own garden in her room!

Saying Goodbye To "Tech", Our Pet Hamster

Tech 
(December 26, 2012 - January 26, 2014)
Two Sundays ago, we noticed our hamster's, Tech, eyes would not open.  He was moving sluggishly and not eating.  Within the week, it became obvious that Tech's life was coming to an end.  I think he truly was dying from "old" age.  Apparently hamsters only live about 2-3 years.  We had him for 2 years. 

This past Sunday, Tech passed away.  We placed him in his own little zip block box coffin and kept him there until we were able to find the time to burry him.  
Today, the kids and I used the mountainous area, across the street from our home, to burry him.  The ground was so hard to dig because it has been ruthlessly cold here.  We did the best we could to get the hole deep enough.  
We found a nice spot.
Without daddy there to help, we couldn't dig the hole big enough to keep him in his coffin, but we padded the hole with fresh hamster shedding and placed him on top. We filled his hole back up and decorated the area where he was buried.  
The kids handled the entire process so well.  Absolutely NO tears.  No major questions.  Just simple goodbyes.  Lilah did ask if we could get a dog, but of course my answer was a BIG FAT "NO!"
 Now his cage sits, lonely, without him.  
He was a sweet hamster, but the reality was, no one played with him and I was fully responsible for taking care of him, minus the few times I forced Tyson to clean the cage or when Lilah got on being a "mom" kick and carted him around all over the house.  
After we headed home, Lilah found another "heart shaped rock" and ran it up to his area to say one more final goodbye.  
And NOW, I will leave you with a FUNNY on hamsters, just because if you are anything like my husband, you think I am morbid, weird, or you are laughing your tale off at this post.

Thursday, January 23, 2014

DIY Oreo Ice Cream Cookies

Tomorrow, I am bringing one of my "besties" dinner.  Exactly one week ago, Jody's mom fell down an entire flight of stairs, at Jody's home, while playing with her granddaughter.  The end result was painful, both physically, emotionally, and I am sure mentally.  She broke both wrists and one ankle.  Her mother now resides in a rehabilitation center, for additional surgeries, as well as training on how to heal and live, temporarily, without critical body parts.  

I already know what I plan to make her for dinner.  After all, she's been haunting me for it ever since I made it for our family.  Do you recall the meatloaf cupcakes? Yes, that's what's for dinner, but being her husband just returned home from a two week missions trip, to Uganda, I thought it would be nice to bless him with his FAVORITE "last course"… ICE CREAM! I beefed it up a bit though.  I decided to make my own ice cream sandwiches using chocolate oreos, vanilla oreos, and m&m cookies. Take a peak…
Basically, I started out with strawberry ice cream and golden oreo ice cream by Breyers, oreo cookies (both chocolate and vanilla) and sprinkles.
1. Set ice cream on counter about 10 minutes, to thaw out.  Meanwhile, layer a jelly roll pan with parchment paper.   
2. Scoop a large quantity of ice cream onto the parchment paper.  Place another layer of parchment paper on top.  Using a rolling pin, roll out the ice cream to approximately 1.5" thickness.
Eventually, I sent Darren out to get vanilla bean and chocolate peanut butter cup ice cream too!
 Walaa!  Refreeze for 1 hour.  DO NOT CHINSE ON THIS DIRECTION!
I was too impatient and kept pulling it out, which delayed me even more.
3. Prepare your cookies to be filled with ice cream.
Pull the oreos apart carefully!  I went through a TON of oreos.  They kept breaking, but I think it's because the bag had been dropped in the store.  
4. Pull the ice cream out of the freezer. Remove the top layer of parchment paper.
5.  Begin filling in the cookies with ice cream.  This step has to go FAST.  It's incredible how quickly ice cream melts when you DON'T want it to. The way that I "cut" this ice cream was by using a biscuit cutter which matched the size of the cookie.  
6.  After filling the cookie, refreeze immediately!
7. OR roll the ice cream cookie into your favorite toppings first, then refreeze.  I chose to use colorful sprinkles (their daughter Ansley will love that) and heath bar!  I had no rhyme or reason to which ice cream I filled each cookie with or which toppings I used.  I figured I couldn't go wrong with ANY combination.
I thought the finished product turned out scrumptious looking and just gorgeous!!!
I hope they taste as good as they look.  I did NOT taste test.
 Colorful, fun, and I hope tasty!
 Photogenic cookies!  Gotta love PRETTY food.
The best part about this dessert is that the options are endless.

I have ONE last recommendation.  Elliminate steps 1, 2, and 4 completely.  I highly recommend using the solid ice cream from the freezer.  Work cookie by cookie. Scoop out about 1 tablespoon of ice cream or more, layer ice cream on top of cookies, squeeze both cookie top and cookie bottom together and immediately put into the freezer.  Then do cookie #2 and so on and so forth.  Doing step 1, 2, and 4 is very messy and you feel pressured to work fast because the ice cream melts fast. I eliminated these steps at the very end when I had more cookies than I had ice cream left.  It was so much easier and more enjoyable that way.