Favorites

I've abandoned the idea of posting my "Friday" favorites because realistically it just won't happen every week. But I still want to post a few of my favorites whenever I just can't contain myself about something.

One of my absolute favorite things is something I use every single day - my Clarisonic! One of my friends told me about it last year (thank you Shauna!) and I got one for my birthday last January. The inventor of the Sonicare toothbrush used the same technology to create a sonic face brush that you use to clean your face. It is awesome! My face feels so clean when I use it. Look at these pictures from their website:

The website says you get 6x more makeup removal using the Clarisonic (vs. manual cleansing). It sure feels like it! It also helps exfoliate your skin so products can absorb better. Check out more at their website. If you have been thinking about getting one and it's in the budget - do it!!!

A Pint-Sized Perspective

I wish I was better at recording some of the cute, crazy things that come out of my kids mouths. Here are a few of my recent favorites:

#1: Ella, a month before we had Chase

Ella: "Mom, I know how you can get your tummy flat again in 2 weeks after you have the baby!"

Me: Silent...wondering where this is coming from since I never talk about weight or size around her, even while pregnant. Curious. "Oh, really?"

Ella: "Yah! I saw this thing on TV and you sit on it and move your bottom side-to-side and in 2 weeks you can have a flat stomach."

I came to find out later she was talking about the "Ab Circle Pro" off an infomercial. I'm tempted to check it out.



#2 - Ella, driving in the car this summer

Ella: "Mom, do we have any jeans that we can sell?"

Me: "Uhhh...why?"

Ella: "Because we could take them to Plato's Closet."

Me: What???? "Plato's Closet, why?"

Ella: "Because I really want to go there."

Me: What???? "Why?"

Ella: "Because they "have the hottest styles of jeans!"" (verbatim from the radio ad)


#3 - Finn, right after we had Chase

One morning as I was nursing Chase, Finn came over very curious to what I was doing. I told him I was feeding Chase milk.

Finn: "Oh, Chase is drinking milk from mommy's belly button"

So You Think You Can Dance Shocker

So last night as I was feeding Chase, I pulled up my DVR to watch So You Think You Can Dance. They are still in the auditioning part of the show and last night's episode they were in Salt Lake. Yeah! I love seeing footage of the mountains and the city there.

Shortly into the show this red-headed "burlesque" dancer shows up to audition. Oh yah, I remember the preview about her from last week's episode - she's basically going to strip for the judges, including a little chair dance. Seems pretty desperate to me.

Before her audition there's a short little highlight of her. She's saying she dances in a local burlesque show in Salt Lake City and is trying to bring a little Vegas to SLC and that she might show the judges " a little somethin-somethin' they haven't seen before." As she's talking I'm thinking there's something about her but I don't know what... then her audition starts and I see her name.

Oooooohhhhh my! She used to be one of my beehives in Young Women (our church youth program) about 8 years ago. Huh, I've thought about her from time to time over the past few years. I'll occasionally drive by her old house and wonder what ever happened to her since her family moved 7 or so years ago. Burlesque never crossed my mind. I do remember her mom driving her all the way to some performing arts school in downtown Denver. Guess it paid off for her :) although it's probably not how her parents envisioned her to develop her talents.

I won't spoil the outcome of her audition for all you bloggers that haven't watched it yet. You'll have to check it out for yourself - although you may just want to skip it, especially if your kids or hubby are around. I will say that Nigel enjoyed the audition which did not come as a surprise to Mary Murphy or Mia Michaels or me.

Cake Balls

Last spring we had a Stake Primary Leadership Meeting for church and our message was tied into gumballs and balloons, so we wanted a "round" dessert to stick with the theme. So I found this recipe for cake balls (and cake pops) from Bakerella and we went cake ball crazy!

They are so easy to make and the options for creativity are limitless! I've had a few people ask, so here is the recipe:

Cake Balls

1 box cake mix (cook as directed on box for 13 X 9 cake)
1 can frosting (16 oz.)
1 package chocolate candy melts (you can find these in the "candy" aisle at Michaels, JoAnns or Hobby Lobby)

You can use basically any flavor of cake mix and then a complementary frosting. Eg. chocolate cake and chocolate frosting, red velvet cake and cream cheese frosting, lemon cake and white frosting, etc.... And then for the candy melts there are tons of different colors, so go crazy with them!

1. After cake is cooked and cooled completely, crumble into large bowl.

2. Mix thoroughly with 1 can frosting. (1 can may be too much, so start with 1/2 to 2/3 first. You don't want it too "gooey". Also, I found it easier to use fingers to mix together, but be warned it will get messy.)

3. Roll mixture into quarter size balls and lay on cookie sheet. (Should make 45-50. You can get even more if you use a mini ice cream scooper, but I like to hand roll them.)

4. Freeze until firm.

5. Melt candy melts in microwave per directions on package. (I also only melt a few pieces of the chocolate at a time because it starts to cool and thicken. It’s easier to work with when it’s hot.)

6. Roll balls in chocolate and lay on wax paper until firm. (Use a spoon to dip and roll in chocolate and then tap off extra. I found it easier to slide them off of the spoon with a knife) If you want to make cake pops. Make sure to put them on the stick before rolling them in chocolate and also ensure you get chocolate down near where the stick meets the cake ball. This will help keep the cake pop from sliding off the stick.

7. If desired, sprinkle with sprinkles before chocolate cools. You can also drizzle a different color of candy melt over the top.

An "aerial" shot of the cakeballs. So colorful!

We made 8 different kinds of cakeballs and used a different color of coordinating candy melt for each one. We had a few "menus" posted so people would know what they were getting. I think the favorites were chocolate, of course, and then the lemon and third maybe red velvet.

Check out Bakerella's website for all of her amazing, creative ideas for cake balls and pops. Any of you overachieving, ambitious moms out there (I know a lot of you!!!) might love the Halloween Cake Pops for your kids Halloweens parties!

More Chase

Chase is 8 weeks today. I cannot believe it! Even though I can't remember life before him and I do feel like the last eight weeks have been a fog, it is going way too fast. He's been such a sweet little addition to our family and his arrival has made our family seem closer. My favorite are the times in the evening or on the weekend when we all end up on the couch or our bed and we just all ooh and aah over Chase. Such a big impact by such a little person!

3 days old and not too happy about his first bath

1 week old

3 weeks old

5 weeks old

Chase is Here!

It's been nine - NINE - months since my last post. Wow - nearly a year! So much has happened. Most notably, the arrival of our new family member. I just realized I never even mentioned on my blog that we were expecting. I just can't get it together when I'm pregnant, so I'm not surprised that I did nothing with my blog - or even look at anyone else's - my entire pregnancy. I am sorry that I have neglected everyone's blogs. I look forward to catching up!

So, yes, we had an adorable little baby boy, Chase, on August 11th. I went into my labor on my own in the middle of the night and he was born at 8:44 in the morning after a really quick easy delivery. The best part is that I was able to avoid having a c-section which just happened to be for later that day. I'm still doing the happy dance about that!!! (Video of said happy dance to be posted at a later date...)

So, here's a few photos of our sweet little guy in the hospital. I love the little scowl on him in the picture above. He was born with that cute little scowl and it's his signature expression - that or raised eyebrows and wide eyed.

I look a little dazed and confused - could have been the "all-nighter" in labor

Ella & Finn meeting their little brother for the first time

First family photo with little Chase

Friday Favorites

Happy New Year! Well, there goes another month without a post. This is in part to a broken computer, the holidays, illness, company, etc. I know, I have every excuse in the book, don't I! Well, here are my favorites this week.

1. Beautiful January weather - Yesterday we had a high of 66 degrees here! I went for an afternoon run outside and ended up having to take my jacket off and run in just my tank top. It was so warm and beautiful. Love that about Colorado weather - you never know what you're going to get.

2. Apple Time Capsule - So, as I mentioned earlier, we had a bunch of computer problems in December. One day, out the blue, our computer just shut down and wouldn't boot up again. After 3 trips into the apple store and 10 days later, we finally got it fixed! It ended up that our hard drive just crashed and we lost EVERYTHING on our computer. Luckily, we had a backup, so we didn't end up losing any data. A few months ago we had a computer scare, thinking we had lost info, so we bought the Apple Time Capsule. It is a wireless external hard drive (that also doubles as a cable modem) that we have set to backup everyday. It has a huge hard drive, it's small, it's sleek and I love that it does double duty. Clearly, it is worth its weight in gold. I would highly, highly, recommend this to any Mac owners!!!

Short post today, I'm working on sorting through the gazillions of pictures I took over the holidays so I can get those posted soon!