A Catch-Up

Holy cow, this month of December has been way too fast! I don’t even understood what happened, but all of a sudden, Christmas has come and pass, and it’s the end of the year! Between the semester finishing, and finals, and preparations for Christmas, I didn’t keep you guys in the loop about anything! So here are the highlights:

I made some awesome Cookie-in-a-Jar jars:

I made Peppermint Rice Krispy treats:

I bought 10 mini jars of Martinelli’s Sparkling Cider because I am impulsive with purchases:

and had a Merry Christmas! I hope you guys all did as well!

Weekly Darth

I hope nobody gets sick of looking at this baby. I don’t get tired of looking at this face. I wish they lived closer, and I could snuggle this baby always.

It’s getting cold, so he has to dress warmly now.

He doesn’t like his matching vest and hat, but I can’t even stop staring at it.

This face is also too much, I can’t handle it.

Stamp while Chatting

Tonight we had Stamp & Chat, and we had an awesome time. We made amazing cards, and had a feast!

See how cute?!

We all brought our favorite treats, so we have here: peppermint chocolate cookies, my peppermint chocolate chip cookies, some sugar cookies (made in Swig’s recipe), a veggie tray, and lemon cupcakes. Delicious!

Chocolate Chip Oreo Peppermint Cookies

I made a new batch of cookies tonight, and I had to mix up two recipes together to make them happen. I took the recipe for my chocolate chip cookies, and added some new things. Here’s the recipe for these delicious cookies:

2 and 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 and 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup (1.5 sticks) unsalted butter, melted
3/4 cup light brown sugar, loosely packed
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg + 1 egg yolk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 tsp peppermint extract
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup Andes peppermint chips
1 cup smashed up Oreos (not completely – you want chunks, not just the fine powder)

Toss together the flour, baking soda, cornstarch and salt in a large bowl. Set aside.

Preheat the oven to 325F degrees. In a medium size bowl, whisk the melted butter, brown sugar, and white sugar together until no brown sugar lumps remain. Whisk in the egg, then the egg yolk. Finally, whisk in the vanilla and peppermint. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix together. Pour in the chocolate and peppermint chips. Then, hand mix in the Oreos, and don’t overmix or the Oreo’s will take over the cookie dough. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper. Roll the dough into balls, about 1 Tablespoons of dough each. Bake the cookies for 11-12 minutes. The cookies will look very soft and underbaked. They will continue to bake on the cookie sheet. Allow to cool on the cookie sheet for 10 minutes before moving to a wire rack to cool completely.

These were crazy delicious! Honestly, the peppermint is such a great edition. But truth be told, when I make these in the future, I think I’ll leave out the Oreo. It’s a delish cookie, and I liked the taste, but I want to see what it’s like without it. But otherwise, these are awesome and super tasty. Enjoy!

Festival of Trees

This year, we went to Festival of Trees like always. For some reason, it seemed Extra PACKED this year. I don’t know what was going on, but like, I almost couldn’t see many trees, my heck. But there were many awesome trees, and there were at least 12 Frozen trees. There could have been more, but we skipped a few rows that were too busy to make it down. But here are favorites:

People are so clever! I think I ate my weight in popcorn, but it was so delicious, I just couldn’t pass it up.

Foto Friday

Cookster got another haircut this week (I like that I say another, when it’s been over 3 months). She was sad, in the car, on the way home.

She looked smashing though.

Weekly Darth

I know I just posted pics on here of baby, but I don’t care, he’s aces.

Here is baby in his Thanksgiving outfit. Fancy like people should dress on this day.

And then, ready for sleep in his jam-jams. His eyes are too cute.

Feels Like Christmas

We are super on top of things this year, and basically, we decorated the whole house here in about an hour or so. Husband helped me with loads of it, so now, we’re ready for the holiday! Decorations-wise, at least.

Here’s our fabulous tree, and then I made a collage of the other stuff we’ve done.

We have a couple of mini trees around the house, plus assorted cute Christmas things. Happy Holidays!

It’s Done

Well, we did it. We got through 30 days of blogging every single day. Most of it was likely boring, and you know what, that doesn’t even matter. All that matters is that there’s one for every day, I think. But now, we’re going to be in December, and with finals coming up in a couple of weeks, and then Christmas shortly thereafter, I think the blog might be neglected a little bit. Which is just fine! Happy beginning holiday season, y’all!

Weekly Darth

Ok, so with Thanksgiving falling on Thursday, I couldn’t do the weekly Darth that day, so here it is. Whilst he was here, he had some baby pics taken, and yes, they are as awesome as you think they are. I’m posting them all, because they are all amazing.

TOO CUTE FOR WORDS.

Foto Friday

Today I went Black Friday shopping, and the one thing I got that I love the most is:

This tiny Lego Christmas tree. After I got home, I put this together, and I love it so. I put it on the window sill where all my Lego’s go, and it’s so fantastic.

Happy Turkey Day!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! In light of the holiday, I’ll keep it brief. I did my standard run this morning, and I finished it almost 10 minutes faster than I did last year! I ran by myself this year, PJ isn’t running anymore, so I finished it in 33 minutes, going at my own pace. Pretty cool!

I enjoyed a delish thanksgiving breakfast with Husband’s family, and then had a great dinner with my family. After eating too much food and pie, I came home and laid in a food coma for the rest of the night.

I hope everyone else had a great holiday!

Pies and Cooking

So, before I start this, I’m going to level with you. I didn’t take a single picture of any of the stuff I made today. I forgot to get pictures of the pies I made, and the hot fudge I made. Yup, that happened. Dang it. So, here we go:

Tonight, I made the pies for Thanksgiving. I made a pumpkin cheesecake that didn’t really work out very well. I followed the recipe, but it made too much cheesecake-to-pumpkin pie ratio. I made a backup pie then, a peanut butter pie, an old staple, and I dig it. It’s a no-bake pie, so it’s easy and awesome. During the making of the pb pie, I learned I didn’t have any hot fudge in the house, despite previously thinking I had a full bottle. Dang it again! So I looked at recipes online, and finally found an easy one that I could make hot fudge at home! So after making that, I finished my pies. Here’s the recipe for the delicious hot fudge:

1 cup sugar
3/4 cup cocoa
3/4 cup half and half OR milk OR cream (which is what I used)
4 TB butter
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt

Place all ingredients in a saucepan over medium heat, stirring constantly, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and keep stirring for 2 more minutes. Remove from heat and pour into a heat safe container. (I used a small mason jar) Allow to cool and store in refrigerator.

Easy and delicious! So finally, my pies are ready, and Husband made an apple pie while I was doing these, so I think at this point, we’re all ready for Thanksgiving!

Taco Casserole

For dinner this past Sunday, we made a taco casserole that was made in one pot! It was ridiculously easy, and incredibly delicious. Here’s how to make it:

1 lb Lean Ground Beef
1 Package McCormick Taco Seasoning (low sodium)
2 Cups Water
1 (15oz) Can Diced Tomatoes (low sodium)
1 (15 oz) Can Tomato Sauce (low sodium)
1 Cup Frozen Whole Kernel Corn
2 Cups Uncooked Elbow Macaroni
1 Cup Shredded Colby/Jack Cheese

Brown beef in 3 quart pot over medium/high heat. Drain fat and return beef to pot. Add taco seasoning, water, tomatoes, tomato sauce and corn. Bring to a boil. Add uncooked macaroni and reduce heat to low. Cover and simmer for 10-15 minutes (until pasta is cooked through), stirring occasionally. Remove from heat. Sprinkle cheese on top and cover. Serve once cheese is melted.

Here’s what it looked like in the pot, after the cheese had melted.

And once I served it up, it was delicious and oh so tasty.

Miscellaneous Monday

I had to drive Rory back to the airport today, and it was a sad occasion. We didn’t get to spend nearly enough time together as I would have liked, but at least we got to see each other a little bit. The baby was as cute as his pictures convey, and it turns out I am pretty good at getting him to go to sleep. We had many much good times, playing on the floor…sitting on the couch…staring at each other…really, babies are boring. But I’ll miss his tiny face, and hopefully he’ll come back before he’s too big!

I don’t have school at all this week, which is really exciting! I mean, it won’t change my life too much, since I’ll still be getting up at the same time and basically doing the same amount of stuff, but at least I won’t have homework! …except I went ahead and decided that during this break I should work on my BIG homework assignments that will be due at the end of the semester. I’ve gotten a real jump on my math project, and now I just need to write a paper (for my geography class, what the what) and then I won’t have to stress too much at the end!

I have a small nephew that comes over from time to time, and he’s enamored with the magnets on my fridge. I have many much magnets on there, and he grabs the ones he can reach and plays with them. I usually can’t see him, I’m chatting in the room with his father, and this last week, he’s broken two magnets: a magnet (from Hawaii!) that’s a ukulele, and a school bus magnet I’ve had since I was about 16. So basically, this kid isn’t allowed to be in my kitchen anymore, at least not by himself. Hopefully I’ll not lose anymore to this vicious toddler!

Many Much Treats

I had to make many much treats for the fiesta last night, and I thought I would share them here. First of all, I made cupcakes, of course. Twinkie Cupcakes, in fact.

The recipe could be found here: (it’s a little long) Twinkie cupcake.

And also, I made Apple Pie Fries, and sadly, I forgot to get a picture of them when they were done! I got one of me cutting them, but that’s not impressive. Find the recipe here and they are delicious.

It took all afternoon to make these delicious items, and a fruit dip I’ve talked about before, so it’s not that exciting. I recommend these items, though!

Family Fiesta

Tonight, we had a family party, with almost every single kid in my family attending! I like that I say kid here, but the youngest of us is 28, so that’s not really kid anymore. We got together, and had many much food, a lot of fun, and an awesomely epic game of Heads Up played, and it was so fun! Of course, my dad had the most fun of any of us:

Yes, he legit fell asleep during the screaming we were doing while playing the game! After all the awesome games, we all called it a night, and I had to clean up after it. That’s the worst part of a party – the clean up! But it was worth it after such an epic night.

Foto Friday

Basically it’ll be pictures of Darth this weekend. Thug life chose him, y’all.

Weekly Darth

Tonight’s weekly Darth is a little more special because Darth is in the house!

I picked him up from the airport this afternoon!

And we had a little Tummy Time, of course.

But this pic, taken before he came, is the best thing I’ve ever seen.

Study Partner

Tonight, I was studying for my geography quiz, and I had someone that wanted to help me out.

Honestly, this is the most clingy dog I’ve ever had in my whole life. I don’t understand her, but its just so funny. She worms her way in until I wasn’t studying anymore, but was instead, looking at her face. Weirdo.

Crockpot Chicken and Rice

So for dinner last night, we made a super tasty meal, and it was really easy to make. Here are the ingredients:

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
14 ounce can Cream of Chicken Soup
14 ounce can Cheddar Soup
14 ounces Chicken Broth
1/2 teaspoon Cajun Seasoning
1/4 teaspoon garlic salt
1 cup sour cream
6 cups steamed broccoli florets (Boiled in hot water for 3 minutes then drained)
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

And then, super easy directions:

Place soups, chicken broth, Cajun and garlic salt into a crockpot over low heat.  Whisk until smooth.  Add chicken, pressing to the bottom. Cover lid and cook on low for 6 hours or on high for 3 hours. When chicken is cooked, use 2 forks to shred into bite size pieces.  Stir in sour cream and broccoli. Serve over steamed rice and sprinkle with cheese if desired. If you’d like, top also with crunchy chow mein noodles.

This was fantastic and delicious.It reminded me a little of Hawaiian Haystacks, and it was so tasty.

Miscellaneous Monday

I have to do a presentation on Switzerland tomorrow in my geography. I’ve been learning so much about this  country, and it’s so interesting! I’ve been working on this for weeks, and I had to learn how to do a Power Point presentation, which definitely wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. The good thing about this presentation is my class has dwindled from about 30 people to only about 10 show up per class, so it won’t be as many people there as there could be, and that works for me. Wish me luck!

The other night, Husband and I wanted some tacos, but we weren’t hungry yet at dinner time, so we waited. It wasn’t until about 11:30 that we actually wanted some food, so we ran over to Taco Bell (which is so far from my house now that the one next door has been torn down) and by the time we actually ate it, it was close to midnight, and I was like, I’m not even hungry for food, but I ate anyway. Such a good decision.

I’ve had many of my school finals this week. Turns out, my history teacher doesn’t like big tests, so instead of doing tests, we’ve done a quiz a week (sometimes 2) this whole year, so today was my last quiz for the class. I really like the idea of not having my finals all being a big test, and having to cram for it. My English final is just a 5-7 page paper due this Friday, so there’s that final. The only 2 classes I’ll have a final in are math and geography, and I’m not even concerned for them, I think I’ll do well enough and not have to stress. Wish me luck when I get there in 3 weeks!

Fall Toes

Today, I realized I still had my Halloween toes, and it was high time to get them changed. So I did them myself, and for the flowers, luckily, I still have some stickers I could put on there. Nobody judge the uneven painting, and uneven cutting/filing, I did these all myself!

But they’re really not looking too bad! Nobody will see them anyway, since I’ll be wearing shoes, but at least I know they’re ready for fall.

Card Swap

This past Thursday night, we had our last card swap of the year. To mark the fun event, we went to dinner at Brick Oven first, and it was so delicious, as always. Then, onto the swapping. For Christmas, we do cards/tags plus a neighbor gift. When everyone set up their gifts, before we started swapping, it really felt like Christmas with all the gifts!

We got tons of great ideas, and some super cute ones! And now, I have a small break before I need to start my cards for next time!

Foto Friday

This is quite possibly the grossest thing I’ll ever post here. This is a CHUNK of my hair. From my shower drain. After I took my shower yesterday, and washed my hair, and lost a good chunk like I always do, when I was finished, I saw some hair on the shower floor. I bent down to pick it up, and it was stuck. So I pulled a little harder, and then this THING came up OUT OF THE DRAIN and it was the grossest thing I’ve ever seen, and I can’t believe how much hair I lose all the time, that this thing was just chilling down under the drain plate. Ugh. So now that I’ve grossed you out, happy Friday!

Weekly Darth

Baby Darth didn’t disappoint in terms of his cuteness this week.

It got chilly this week where he lives, he needs to be bundled up!

Look at that face! I’m so excited that hat is almost fitting him – I bought him that hat, and I can’t wait until he wears it regularly.

Stampin’, Chattin’

So we had our awesome stamp & chat tonight, and it was fun as always! We made some really cute, earthy cards for Thanksgiving!

See! Way too cute. I can’t wait to send these out!

Pumpkin Pie Dip

For Stamp and Chat tomorrow, we’re all making (getting) our favorite dips and chips. Since I don’t really do chips and dip that often, I went for a dessert dip. I saw this on Pinterest and was super jazzed to try it. The ingredients are few, they are:

15 oz can of pumpkin
5 oz box of instant vanilla pudding (you won’t be making the pudding, you just need the powder)
16 oz cool whip, thawed
1/2 TB pumpkin pie spice
1/2 TB cinnamon

Mix every ingredient together in a large bowl. Chill for several hours before serving. To dip, you can use apple slices, Nilla wafers, or graham crackers.

Guys, this was crazy delicious. I can’t even explain how good this was! You can either dip stuff into it, or literally just eat it by the spoonful. It’s awesome.

Miscellaneous Monday

School is getting out of hand of late. I have too many final projects due in the next little bit here. I have to give a presentation in Geography soon, so I need to work on that, I haven’t even started! I’ll be learning how to make a power point presentation, that’ll be fun. Then I have a “major paper” due in English, still studying for my math tests, and finally, I have my final history quizzes in the next week. Hopefully I can do all this without my mind turning to jelly!

I almost can’t believe we’re the the middle of November already. It seems like summer just started. I feel like it’s not nearly almost Christmas, we can’t possibly already be just 2 weeks away from Thanksgiving! How did this happen?! Where did the time go? And this leads us to…

HALLMARK CHRISTMAS MOVIES ARE STARTING! It’s already that magic time of the year, when we get to enjoy these fantastic cinematic masterpieces. I’ve already seen 1, Nine Lives of Christmas, and I have 2 more on my DVR, and more coming every day. I love these, and I love the Christmas movie time of year. I do tend to lean toward the Hallmark movies, as opposed to the Lifetime movies, because these are just a little bit more fun and lighthearted. Make sure to watch some before the season is over!

It happened so fast

Well, we got 9 days into the month before I didn’t have anything to blog about. I can’t think of anything at all to throw in here. We gave it our best. Enjoy your Sunday, friends!

Snickers Pie

I needed a dessert to bring to a family dinner tomorrow evening, and decided to make a Snickers pie. It was crazy easy! All you need is:

1 green apple
20 mini snickers bars (I’m sure you could use some big ones but I didn’t)
1/4 cup caramel ice cream topping
2 1/2 cups Cool Whip, softened
1/3 cup sweetened condensed milk
4 oz cream cheese

So, chop up those Snickers, chop up those apples, and put them on the bottom of a graham cracker crust pie. Poor the caramel topping on them. Mix together the cool whip, the milk, and the cream cheese. Spread it over the pie crust. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours. Then, sprinkle some of the leftover Snickers pieces, a few strategic apple slices, and some caramel topping drizzled over.

This was so tasty! And so easy! Make it, guys. It’s sticky to eat, but oh so yummy.

Foto Friday

I went into the kitchen late last night, and opened the fridge, started to snack. As I was munching on whatever I was eating, I looked up to see this:

I hope you can see her there, but she is just creeping in the kitchen so hard. “Vieve…are you eating anything? Did you want to share with me?” What a weirdo dog.

Weekly Darth

The pictures this week are just fantastic. First of all, he has a tiny bathroom that he wears!

Is that the cutest thing you’ve ever seen?!

He’s been working on his neck exercises, trying to get a strong neck to hold up his giant head.

This is honestly the best picture I’ve ever seen in my whole life. His face is so excited!

New Phone Time

Husband I decided that after more than 3 years of marriage, might as well get onto a family plan of cell phones. Of course, we switched to his plan, his service being better, and because of this, I had to get a new phone, you can’t bring your old phone to a new place, apparently. So, with the Verizon phone switching program, I could turn my iPhone to them, and the would give me one for free! A victory, I say. So finally, the phone came, and my AT&T contract was up. So today, I went to the Verizon store to get my phone turned on.

It is a really weird switch, going from the 5 to the 6. The iPhone 6 is much bigger, much skinner, and wider. I am not used to it yet, but hopefully I will be soon. It took me a long time to get everything back to the way it was. It deleted all the music off my phone, and reset all my contacts and information. After many much hours, it’s finally back to the way I want it!

Every Vote Counts!

Happy Voting Day! Hopefully everyone that has the ability to vote will do so. I did, of course, walked myself over to the voting booths, placed my vote, and wore my “I Voted!” sticker proudly. And then tonight, I of course had my scout pack meeting, and again, we decided to have mock elections. The treats this time were all healthy, I had chosen carrot sticks, another chose bananas, and the last was apples and peanut butter. My poster was fabulous as always:

The gal who was first on the agenda is an older lady, and she was really concerned that we would be lying in our campaigns. We told her there was no need to lie, but there’s no problem if we do – lying happens in real elections all the time. So after all her worrying that I would lie, she gets up to do her speech, and she full on lied! She had a power point presentation with rock climbers, skateboarders, the whole nine yards of what boys are into. She sits down, and when I get up, I basically repeat what’s on the poster, claim that her treat (Which she called Bomb Dip) was likely to explode in your mouth when eating it, and then I sat down, and held my poster up. The last leader got up and did her campaign, and then the kids voted.

And surprise! I won! I was so jazzed! We ate the carrot sticks, and I danced my way home with my victory.

Miscellaneous Monday

When I got home from school on Friday, as I walked in the door, Husband said “I did something wrong”. Immediately I start looking around the house, wondering what the heck is going on. I come upstairs and see him, and there it is: he had shaved his head. Not like, Mr. Clean, bic shaving kind of thing, but he buzzed it. It was so different looking at first! Now, I’m used to it, and I rub his head quite frequently. I don’t know if he’s keeping it like this forever, or just for right now, but it’s kind of fun!

We have some pictures that we recently had framed, and it was about time we put them up onto the wall. I don’t like where they’re placed. I don’t like how they are, but nobody seems to agree with me, and I can’t seem to get Husband to move them. They look so awkward where they are! And I don’t know how to get people to get on my side here, but somehow, I will get these pictures moved.

Today, I stayed after class in math, because I needed to ask my teacher about the math class I should be taking next semester. I wondered if I should be taking Math 990, or skip that and go to Math 1000. As he was explaining the difference between, and explaining what the 1000 class would be like, I asked him if he thought I could handle the jump, the skipping class. He said yes, and then he said, that without checking to see exactly where I stood, I was one of the top 3 students of the class. I was SO JAZZED when I heard this! I knew all my hard work this semester has paid off, and now the decision is made. Starting next semester, I’m taking Math 1000. Hopefully I do well!

Crock Pot Philly Cheesesteak Sandwiches

Ok, found the recipe on Pinterest, and just wanted it so hard. We made it today, for dinner, and following the recipe, I’ll give you my critique.

2 1/2 to 3 pounds beef round steak
2 green peppers, sliced thin
2 onions, sliced thin
3 cups beef stock
2 teaspoons garlic salt
2 teaspoons black pepper
1 envelope dry Italian dressing mix
6 to 8 hoagie buns
Provolone cheese slices

Directions:
Spray crock pot with non-stick cooking spray or use a slow cooker liner. Cut meat into thin strips, place in slow cooker. Add green pepper, onion, stock, garlic salt, pepper and dressing mix. Cover and cook on low 7-8 hours, or high for 3-4 hours.Spoon meat mixture onto toasted buns, top with cheese. You can then put the sandwiches on a baking sheet and bake an additional few minutes to melt the cheese and toast the sandwich.

So, after that long in the crock pot, the bell peppers were basically kaput. Should I make this recipe again, I would actually wait until the last hour or so, and put the peppers in then, so they would still be a little crispy, and not super soggy. But otherwise, this is crazy delicious! It was easy, and really tasty.

To assist the dish, we made parmesan potatoes, also very tasty.

Here We Go Again

All right, y’all, here we go again. It’s November, so it’s time for the National Blog Every Day month! I’m going to repeat what I’ve said in years past:

This is going to get boring, there’s only so much you can talk about every day.

I’ll try to keep the boring ones incredibly short.

So join this journey with me, and we’ll make it!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween everyone! You guys got to see our costumes yesterday, and today, I went to the office for a Halloween lunch, and got my picture with all the gals there, their costumes were so cute!

And then, tonight, I put Cookie in her costume, and she looked awesome.

A tiny hula dancer! She was so mad to be in it, but I don’t even care, she was so cute. Hope you guys had a safe and awesome night!

Ward Halloween Party

Tonight was our ward Halloween party, complete with a chili cook-off. Husband entered in a chili, but we had a small issue trying to get it to be tasty, so we didn’t win, alas. But the two of us won best costume, I was Batman, and he was my Robin.

We got adorable small trophies and everything

It was a fabulous evening, and my first ward Halloween party ever. After much chili, and many cookies, we called it a night!