Calling in the Reinforcements

Allie ran out of steam priming her bedroom walls and I overbooked myself with other obligations today. What to do? What to do?

I happened to have two hungry teenage boys hanging out in my living room playing video games. It was about lunchtime, so I devised a little plan that worked before - same boys, 2 years older with bigger appetites (read about that HERE)

 And guess what?

It worked again!

Thank you Alex and Dakota! You rocked it and Allie is sooooo thankful.

p.s. I L♥VE you Carl's Jr.

 

Making Mini Clay Cakes with the Girls

When my youngest girl has friends over for the night we always try to come up with a fun craft for them to make. Thank goodness my second oldest girl is super crafty and has lots of fun ideas up her sleeve.

Today they made mini cake necklaces out of polymer clay.  Click HERE for the tutorial.

Aren't they adorable...

So cute!!  

While they were making their clay mini's, I was busy making real cinnamon streusel cake mini's of my own.  I'll post all about it tomorrow.

"Enhancing Beauty, Enhancing Life:"

BEFORE:  DARK ROOTS

Once upon a time I was blond. Really blond. I was born that way. White-blond, tow-headed blond.  For years I've tried to keep that look and it was fairly easy until recent years when my hair started turning dark.  Very dark.  Dark roots + blond hair = not good.  (Especially when you're tired from not sleeping well and you didn't know you were going to get a before and after photo taken!  (thanks Sean!) 
 

AFTER:  BLONDE AGAIN

Thank goodness my good friend Kim came to my rescue!   Kim has a fantastic, professional hair studio right inside of her home.  How cool is that??   K.Smith Hair Designs is an entire room dedicated to "Enhancing Beauty, Enhancing Life".  Enhance she did!  I loved Kim's pampering and her TANTALIZING conditioning scalp massage.  Man!  I could sit in that chair all day and enjoy that scalp massage.  I'm really pleased with my results.  Now that it's fall I'm going for a more blended look with caramel-blond highlights.  Oh, and I was not compensated in any way for my recommendation...I just thought I'd share my experience with my AMORRIS friends.

If you live up my way, send Kim and email for an appointment at kimmayann@msn.com

 

You'll be glad you did.

Motivating Boys

Today is a beautiful spring day and the weather is just right for planting two climbing honeysuckle vines in my front yard. I also have three teenage boys available to help me, yes sir, I do.

They will do just about anything to help me because 13 year old boys just love to help in the garden.

Yeah, right.

But with a little motivation...like FOOD - specifically anything they wanted off of the Carl's Jr. menu - they were willing to work hard.

Boys and food. Gotta love it.

Cupcakes, Baby!

This weekend I hosted a baby shower and luncheon for my dear friend. So many of her extended family and close friends attended that we literally squeezed into my home. Lot's of women = lots of baby love!

I just had to post this picture of the expectant mom with some of her hubby's side of the family - talk about gorgeous women! There are aunty's, great aunty's, grandma's and great grandma's pictured.

The menu included Spinach Mandarin Orange Salad with Raspberry Vinagrette, Napa Cabbage Oriental Salad, Fruited Curry Chicken Salad, Mini Muffins and cheese and crackers. But the hit of the party were the cupcakes.

I had numerous requests for the recipes - yummy Chocolate Fudge and luscious Lemon Cream Cheese - so I thought it would be easiest to post here:

Chocolate Cupcakes

1 box devils food cake mix (Duncan Hines is best - in my opinion)

3 large eggs

1/2 cup butter, melted

1 cup of water

Melt the butter in the microwave. Add all ingredients in a mixing bowl and blend on low for 1 minute. Then mix on high for 1 minute. Fill cupcake liners 1/2 full and bake according to box directions (my cupcake pans are dark so I bake them at 325 degrees for 18-20 minutes).

Chocolate Fudge Butter Cream Frosting

4 cups powdered sugar (needs to be thick enough to pipe onto cupcakes)

1 cup butter, softened

1 cup crisco shortening

1 pinch of salt

1/2 -1 cup cocoa powder, depending on how chocolatey you want the cupcakes to be

1/4 tsp almond extract

1/4 cup heavy cream

Blend butter and crisco until smooth. Add salt, cocoa powder and almond extract. Gradually add powdered sugar blending well after each addition. Eventually you will have a very thick mixture. On the highest speed of your mixer, stream in the heavy whipping cream nice and slow - not too much at once. Basically you are whipping the cream into the frosting....get it?....Butter cream! Beat for 1 minute.

Lemon Cream Cheese Cupcakes

1 box white cake mix (Again, Duncan Hines is the best in my opinion)

1 box (3.4 oz) Jell-O Lemon flavor instant pudding mix

1 cup water

4 egg whites

2 Tbsp. oil

1 tsp. lemon extract

Heat oven to 325 degrees (my cupcake pans are dark, remember?) Beat cake mix, pudding mix, water, egg whites, oil and extract in large bowl with mixer on low speed until moistened. Beat on medium speed 2 minutes. Spoon batter evenly into 24 paper lined muffin cups (about 1/2 full). Bake 18-20 minutes.

Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

4 cups powdered sugar

1 package (8 oz.) cream cheese, softened

1/4 cup butter, softened

2 Tbsp. lemon juice

1/4 tsp. lemon extract

1/4 cup heavy cream

Beat powdered sugar, cream cheese, butter, juice and extract with mixer on low speed until well blended. On the highest speed of your mixer, stream in the heavy whipping cream nice and slow - not too much at once. Basically you are whipping the cream into the frosting. Beat for 1 minute.

That's it. Pipe onto your cupcakes and eat all the deliciousness.

Thank You to all of my Sisters!

Yesterday I was officially released as the Relief Society President in my ward and I want to give a shout out to ALL of the wonderful sisters that have made the past 2 years of my life such an incredible experience.

I was thinking about all that my presidency and I accomplished during our service and I was overwhelmed by the success of what we were able to do. One of my favorite memories will be the two AMAZING Woman's Conferences that were held in 2008 and 2009 on Mother's Day. My presidency and I purchased Gerber daisy's for the centerpieces and then planted them in our flower gardens.

Those in my yard are blooming again and will be sweet reminder of our times together.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for enriching my life and the lives of my family.

Serious Skills

These girls have skills. I'm talking SERIOUS skills.

 

Indigo Girl is my girl. She's the one with black hair. She's sweet. And she's 16. Remember? And then there's sweet girl #2. She's Indigo girls' really good friend. She's Holly and she's not 16...yet. Here they are sewing and creating. By the end of the morning they had 3 machines going. They have serious skills. They animate, and write, and design/sew clothes and watch uber cool tv reruns of Pokeman and are teaching themselves Japanese and Romanian. 

Why? "Because it's cool", they say. 

It's wild I tell you. 

When I was their age, I didn't draw or speak languages like Japanese and Romanian. I took Home Ec class and sewed a pair of shorts out of terry cloth material and took Spanish I because I HAD to. Not because I wanted to. I wanted to drive and date boys. Indigo Girl and Holly...not so much. 

"Why drive when our mom's do it for us" and "Boys are just boys", they say.  

Say What?

They would rather practice their skills. Those Serious skills. 

I'm grateful!

Sugar and Spice

Hi. This is Allie and this is my 1st post.

 

Best Pals Forever! In this picture: To the Left is Sugar (Allie), and Spice (Taryn). We are best pals. Where? Well... we are in my room. Of course, it's well... CLEAN!! Okay i admit it! It's messy. Why? Because, we knew each other for about... two or three years. HALLELUJAH! We tore-up my room in about, i would say 5 minutes MAX.

 

Go Falcons! I make T-Shirts, only two so far. This is my post, Sugar and Spice! 

I will post more later when my mom will let me.

BYE!!