Bon Voyage, Adios

It's Lent time! I'll see you at Easter my unhealthy friends! I've officially decided to give up two bad habits i have...Soda and Peanut M&M's! Diet Pepsi is my favorite but i'm going to go without all soda! yikes! And whenever i crave chocolate, those little things in the yellow bag is the first thing i go to! But it's all worth it! See you soon!

Cake Balls

I've had these before but it's been a while. This weekend was a relaxing weekend for me and i wanted to make something simple, mouth-watering and something Daniel has never had. These are so unbelievably good! You can't stop eating at one!! It's a hard chocolate coating on the outside and a soft moist cake on the inside. I'm thinking of all the ways to vary this recipe...chocolate almond bark outside with white cake and white icing, chocolate with chocolate cake and chocolate icing, carrot cake with cream cheese icing! but i went with Red Velvet cake and cream cheese and i'm so glad i did!

So simple...bake your cake mix according to directions. When the cake is done and still warm, crumble it up in a large bowl with a can of frosting. WARNING: You will be tempted to grab a fork, sit down and eat the whole bowl just like this!! :) (again, i used red velvet cake and whipped cream cheese frosting but you can mix it up however!)

Now...important....refrigerate cake and icing for quite a while before you start making the balls. (i refrigerated for 1.5 hours and that didn't do it for me...when i started to form the balls, they fell apart so i had to stick them back in for another hour or so) Melt almond bark (vanilla or chocolate-depends on cake choice) and dip the balls in the bark. I used a fork to do this.

SO GOOD!!!!!

Love those stripes!

There are MANY projects i want to do around our house but one of our easier ones is to redo our master bath. It's a boring white right now and i just hate it! My sister's fiance knows how to lay tile so i'm going to beg him to help me with our floor!! sam, pretty please?! :) These are some wall colors/bathroom looks i'm choosing between...so, i need to figure out how to make my bathroom look like one of these ON A BUDGET!

this may be my favorite...found this online on Rate My space. i love the stripes! daniel actually agreed to do the stripes for me!! yay!

this is my other fave! love the wall color against the white cabinetry!

so spa like. love it.
and for kicks...isn't this the cutest kids bathroom ever?!

Stacy's 30 Bday

My cousin Stacy's 30th bday was last week. Her husband Doug set up a surprise dinner at Dave and Buster's with a group of our friends and all of our kids. The kids had a blast! Carson was pooped when we got home! I didn't get any pics of the bday girl but i did get some of carson and stacy's two little ones...Makenna and Addison. These girls are adorable!

Carson in a big chair :)

Not sure if you can read but it says "Players only in the Playing Area" thought it was kind of funny to get Carson standing there
Addi and carson hugging. it was so cute!! i asked them to hug and neither hesitated!

Here is Makenna...this girl is a spitting image of her mom! Carson and Makenna hanging out onthe big chairs

Big Boy Room

I love Target! I got a couple things at their home event...50% off. I got a adorable little blue vase for my bedside table as well as the cutest apron ever! I paid a total of $8 for both of those. BUT...my best purchase was by far the Bear set for carson's big boy room! I have bee eyeing this set since he was born because i thought it was so adorable and now that he's older it works perfectlybecause he loves bears! It NEVER goes on sale and while i was there over the weekend, it was! I got the quilt for $20 (regularly $85) and after looking at three different targets, i found the bear paw sheet set for $6 (regularly $26)! I loooove a "deal"! Anyway, i have big plans for his room and i am so excited! It won't be for a little while because we're renovating his room so for now i'll just showyou the adorable quilt and sheets!

this is the quilt and sheets... i can't get it to turn?? this is a close up...i just love it!!

Prayers

Our family needs all the prayers we can get right now. My uncle Merle, my mom's brother, lives in Nebraska with his wife, Marcy and five grown kids and small grandchildren. One of my cousins had twins at a young age and Merle and Marcy have pretty much raised those two boys. They are 5 now and they need Merle in their lives. Merle was diagnosed with brain cancer close to a year ago. He has had two surgeries and is now going through cemo. We just recently found out that he is at a stage 4 (it can only get to stage 5) and the doctor's say they can not do another surgery on his brain. We pray that the cemo will do it's job but for now all we can do is pray to god for him and his family.

Peanut Butter Filled Cupcakes

Holy Heaven! These were amazing! I made these for Superbowl and they were well received!! Again...found these on Brooke's blog. The girl has some great recipes!! like her, i cheated and just got a devil's food cake mix and before baking, pushed a reese's peanut butter cup in the middle of each and let them bake. Then i topped it with the Fluffy peanut butter frosting from All Recipes.com. I topped each cupcake with a couple bits of leftover peanut butter cups. I will DEFINATELY make these again...actually, i'm going to make something similar for V-day but with a different frosting. You should definately check these out! And little Carson got his own devil's food cupcake...minus the peanut butter. I felt bad making cupcakes he couldn't have one of :)


Fluffy Peanut Butter Frosting
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup creamy peanut butter
3 tablespoons milk, or as needed
2 cups confectioners' sugar

Place the butter and peanut butter into a medium bowl, and beat with an electric mixer. Gradually mix in the sugar, and when it starts to get thick, incorporate milk one tablespoon at a time until all of the sugar is mixed in and the frosting is thick and spreadable. Beat for at least 3 minutes for it to get good and fluffy.

Super Bowl!

How awesome was that game?! im an avid sports fan but for some reason...just can't get that into football?? However, the end of this game had me on the edge of my seat! whew! We had friends over for the night and it was great to catch up! Not to mention, the food was awesome! Sam made a great recipe of Italian Beef...i could of eaten it all night! Nikki made a wonderful fruit pizza which was so delicious that i was suprised i had never tasted it before! Jill made a great pumpkin cheesecake froma recipe from the Cheesecake Factory and Todd even pitched in and made the cucumber and feta salad! Daniel and i made appetizers and i made the Peanut butter cupcakes i've been dying to make. I'll post that recipe next! They were so amazing!

Part of our night consisted of making jewelry! Jill tought herself how to make her own and i was really excited to have her over to teach me how. It was fun! i made some pendants, bracelets and a necklace. You should see all her jewelry stuff...it would blow you away. Take a look at this....our entire dining room table was full!!

It was a lot of fun and now i'm going to start making my own...of course, with help from Jill! :) She's really good! She makes jewelry for special occasions too! So, if anyone needs anything, let me know and i'll get you in contact with her!

Speaking of making things...Daniel had a great idea for coasters!! I have been on the lookout for some cool looking coasters but haven't found any worth spending money on. So, he volunteered to make me some! He cut down a small tree that we had in our yard and made them for me! He just cut them and carved them and then put brown felt on the bottoms with super glue. They work like a charm, our heavy bottom glasses fit perfectly on them and they are "us"! I love them! He has some leftover and he is going to glaze those to give them a shiny look. I'll post those when he does.