Vacation photos!

                              We got home Saturday from our fun filled vacation week. This year we went to Virginia Beach.  We spent 5 days at the beach and then stopped over night in Washington D.C. on the way home. I have been to both places before but, I'm not sure if it counts if you're not old enough to remember being there. We had the best time! We all love the beach, so going was a blast and to go to D.C. was amazing. I think this may have been the best trip ever. Virginia Beach is beautiful. We went to a few other places while we were there. Let's see. The beach, obviously.  We went to downtown Norfolk to see a huge ship. We drove across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel, both ways. We went to First Landing, were the first settlers landed. It was hard to believe we were standing in the same spot. I love stuff like that. We spent a whole lot of quality family time together, I love that best of all! Our visit to Washington DC was amazing as well. The buildings, memorials, and monuments are so much bigger than I realized. The day we went was the same day someone vandalized the Lincoln Memorial with paint. I will never understand what possesses some people and their actions. Thank goodness it is fixable. So without further delay here are some pictures. No groaning now. I won't bore you. Now remember this is just a sample of our pictures. I lost track of how many we actually took.



The beach

Cape Henry Lighthouse (new)



The beach



The beach



The beach



First Landing



Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel (off the side)

The Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel (inside)



The USS Wisconsin



My Boy



The Capitol Building

The Washington Monument (being repaired)



Lincoln Memorial ( with some paint still on it)



House where Lincoln died (duh)

King Neptune on the beach

All you need

                                          We had so much fun! It was an awesome trip! I must thank my hubby and my Boy. I love them so much. It's always nice to spend time together as a family. It really makes you appreciate things more when you can do it together. I hope you enjoyed my "little" picture presentation. Thanks for stopping by. Have you taken a trip this summer? Or are you going to? Well if you do, have fun and be safe. ENJOY!

It is summer!

                                        Did I just realize this?  No. Just stating a fact. A fact I am very happy to say is true. I get to spend so much more time with ny family in the summer. No schedules, no homework, not too many hurries, and family. I love summer. Kids grow up so fast. Time flies. I am thankful for all of the time I have with my family. I love them all  so very much! My posting will not be as scheduled the next couple of months. I will be spending as much time with the family as possible. I will still be posting,  just not on a schedule. I will try to post often, as often as I can. I hope you understand. HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!

A faux fireplace redo

                         I don't have a real fireplace in my house, so I have to make do with the faux surround. I got it for a steal a few years ago $15.00 brand new. Here's what it usually looks like.

               I decorate it for Christmas, but this is what it looks like most of the time. Pretty boring. I decided it needed a little something. Here's what it looks like after I tweaked it a little. The top stayed the same. I have to keep it somewhat clear so we can see through the "window" into and out of the kitchen. I completed a few more projects this week ( yay me) and now that they are done I added them to the mix.

                  I am really pleased with how it turned out. In the next few posts I will share how I made the window, the family banner, and the letter. It may not seem that different, but the lights glow at night and it looks pretty. What do you think? Better? I believe so. Have a wonderful day!

Old photos and family history

My Grandmother at 16

My great great Grandparents



Some family history research.

                                                We spent the afternoon going through a bin of our pictures. Some of them turned out to be older than others. Yesterday I found the family research I started several years ago. I think it might be time to take another look through the family history information I have collected. Things in that department hit a few snags. I hit a dead end rather quickly and put it away for awhile. Since then the Internet has opened up more options for these kinds of searches. At least I would hope it has anyway. It is the information super highway right?  Maybe it will be easier now. These are pictures of people on my maternal side. My Mom has done quite a bit with her side. It is really fun when you can put faces with names. I decided to do my paternal side. It was interesting to find people and learn things about my family. I'm not even sure how to begin again. Does anyone know of any free research sites I could visit to get started? I think this could be a great project for my son to work on too. He had a family tree project at school last year and we had fun working on it together. I hope we can continue. Please let me know if you can point me in the right direction. Any suggestions would be much appreciated. Thanks!
                                              

Minty Goodness

www.mcdonalds.com

                                                I love these shakes full of delicious minty goodness.  Just the right amount in there too! I think it might be time to have another one.  I mean they won't be around forever, right...limited time.  After all,    I have only had one.....so far.

The Walking Dead

Never in my wildest dreams did I EVER and I mean EVER , think I would watch this show. You could say, and it would be an understatement, that I am not a horror type person!  NOT. ONE. BIT. So when the Boy came home one day and announced he would like to start watching this show I was... shall we say, not too excited ( again an understatement!). After much thought and discussion the Hubby and I agreed, if it was something that WE wanted to watch, he would do it for us and has on more than a few occasions. We decided to rent the first season. I mean why not start the horror from the beginning, you wouldn't want to miss anything right? ( said with much sarcasm)  So, we did for family movie night. We figured we would watch one  part of an episode and everyone would have their fill. We only rented one disc from season one. Our rental store broke up season one into two separate rentals ( don't know why-- the other season comes all in one set). We watched the first episode, not too bad. I watched without any major trauma. Jumped a few times, but not completely out of my skin. Only had to cover my eyes a few times. It is a show about zombies you know.  So episode one became two and so on until we watched all four episodes on that disc and wished we had rented disc 2. Who knew? Not me that's for sure!  We have finished season one now and are on to season two, about 5 episodes in. And guess what...........not only have the paramedics not been called to restart my heart, I can say I am enjoying it. WOW. That's big for me. Doesn't mean I am or will ever be a horror type person!!! I am content with JUST THIS SHOW. Do you hear me Boy, just this one. So far ( wink).  I guess I could stand to be a little more adventurous. Just some, not ready for Horror movies though! Have you watched The Walking Dead? Who is your favorite character? I think so far, I would say Glenn. I won't push you to watch it don't worry.

Words

     While I was walking through our house the other day I noticed we have a LOT of  "word art". I also noticed we have all white walls, but that's an entirely different story. I'm not afraid of color, just afraid of the wrong color. Anywho, as I was saying, there are a lot ( more than I realized) of framed and unframed words in my home. Apparently I have a "thing"  for words that I didn't even realize until that day. Who knew?  Not me I guess. Oh well, at least their not velvet paintings. Not that there's anything wrong with that. So browse my gallery, take your time I will wait. What do you think?  Is this a "problem" of mine or am I just expressive? I am going with expressive. Do you notice things like this in your home? Things you didn't notice, until you take a good look around.




 

The Dining Room

The Dining Room again.



Above the Basement door across from side entry.

                                                                   Kitchen going into Family Room.

Family Room.

                                                                                        Family Room again.


In the Boy's room
 

                                                                    Even our school pictures.

Kitchen (love my cupcakes).


                                                                            Family Room again.

Bedroom.

New neighbors

                                                           Two mornings in a row I have seen this little bird on our back deck. She seemed to be checking out the bird house the Boy made with his Dad a few years ago. I couldn't get a picture of her going in or coming out. I could certainly hear them singing out there too. Daffie enjoys watching her hop around on the railing. I hope they like the neighborhood. Spring is coming! Thank goodness.

YUMMY!

Have you tried making any of these yet?  Coffee mug cakes. Oh. my. goodness. They are really good and easy to make. I found my recipe here. There are many to choose from.  I tried coffee cake in a cup ( more than a few times ) and we really like the peanut butter mug cake. They all look really yummy. I'm thinkin' maybe the bread pudding in a mug next. I will post when I make that one. So many to choose from. If you try or maybe I should say when you try making one, be sure to let them cool enough after microwaving they get pretty warm. Here's the recipe:


Coffee Mug Cake

In the mug mix:

1 T melted butter
2 T sugar
1/2  an egg (save the other half someone will want another one!)
2 T sour cream
a few drops vanilla
1/4 C flour
1/8 t baking powder

Topping  (mix in separate bowl then add to top of mug)

1 T butter
2 T flour
1 T brown sugar
1 t cinnamon

Microwave for about 1 minute and 30 seconds. Remember to allow the cake to cool after microwaving before eating, especially if little ones are eating them. The mug and contents are hot. They are very good and only take a few minutes to prepare.

Try one and let me know how you like it! We really like them. Easy enough for some kids (or me) to make themselves. And they are homemade, none of the "mystery" ingredients in there. Which one or ones did you make?

                                      

My happy Boy

The Boy

               This is my Boy. He was in Kindergarten in this picture ( 5 years ago ). I remember this day well. He was so excited because one of the first grade teachers took his picture for a display that was going in the hall at school. He came home and told me all about having his picture taken. He talked non-stop about this teacher. Funny how such a small exchange can have such a large impact.  Before the end of the conversation he told me he wanted her for his first grade teacher. Guess what?  He got her. This turned out to be one of my favorite pictures of him. Thanks Mrs. Rawson, for that and SO MUCH MORE!  She was the teacher that suggested we get him tested for the gifted program. I mean, everybody knows their kid is smart, right,  just ask I will tell you all about it. But, to have someone else recognize this in your child is fantastic. We are very proud of you Boy! Keep up the good work. By the way, doesn't he look happy?

Daffie's pets

This is our Daffie. She is the best cat ever! These are our leopard geckos. I'm sorry, they are Daffie's pets. At least SHE thinks they are hers. She sits up there proudly watching over them. Keep an eye on them Daffie. Keep up the good work! We love you!   Have a sweet day!

I love these cakes in a jar!

                        The last one were so good I decided to make some more. These were pineapple coconut. I had never seen pineapple cake mix before. Have you? Well let me tell you,  YUMMY! I mixed the cake mix according to the instructions, but added 1 can crushed pineapple and about 3/4 of a cup of sweetened coconut flakes. I made my own vanilla butter cream icing. I added some toasted coconut on top to finish them off. I have to say we loved them. I can't wait to try some other flavor. I think I need more jars though! You have to try some! let me know! Have a sweet day

Christmas Past.....

We have just about finished our Christmas decorating. Just need to "tweak" a bit and add a little more here and there. I love Christmas!  We all love decorating for the Holidays here too.  We all help put all the pretties up. All three, oops I mean four, after all Daffie likes to "help" too!  So we spend the day together decorating, hanging out, and laughing, lots of laughing!  I thought I would share some things we used in our decorating.  The first picture is Hubby and Me,  from umm.......a long time ago. Mere babes I say. And of course we still look exactly the same. (wink)  The next picture is from The Boy's first Christmas. He is about 4 months old.  The things we put on our children, he was very cute in his Santa outfit, don't you agree?  In the third picture The Boy is about 2.  Look at those rosy cheeks! The last picture is of a wreath we made around the same time. We traced his little hands. I love to look at these kind of things! I wonder if he would let me trace them now to make another?! That wreath has been up every Christmas since we made it. Thanks for taking a walk down my memory lane with me. I will share some more later. Ahhh the magic of Christmas!

But I am helping, Mommy

                                 This is Daffie ( short for Daffodil ). She is such a good helper. She helps with almost everything. She especially likes to help make the bed. Doesn't care for vacuuming though. She takes many naps to rest from helping. WE LOVE HER VERY MUCH!!

Pumpkin Jar Cakes...Cupcakes in a jar

I finally made some jar cakes or cupcakes in a jar. I just love the idea of individual versions of desserts. I think jar cupcakes are sooo cute. I have plans for some jar pies and jar cheesecakes too. These turned out way better than I imagined they would. You can use just about any cake recipe you want to, but with it being fall and all I had to go with something pumpkin.   Here's my recipe:

1 box of Spice cake mix  ( I used Duncan Hines )
1 box of instant pumpkin spice pudding
1 can 100% pumpkin ( I used Libby's )
2 eggs
1/3 C of oil ( veg. oil )

 Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix all ingredients together well. Fill jars 1/3 full. Too full and not enough room for icing. Bake for about 24 minutes. I only had 12 jars to use so I had extra batter that I mixed with oatmeal and made cookies. ( Baked 350 for about 12 minutes). The cookies were not as good as the cakes. I need more jars!

I made my own maple icing for the cakes.

2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 stick butter
1 teaspoon maple flavoring

Add sugar and butter to mixing bowl and mix for about 5 minutes then add maple flavoring , mix another minute then it's done. I would recommend doubling the ingredients for more icing. Lots of icing is always good.

If you fill the jars too full with batter you might not have enough room for icing. Although they would still be good, everything is better with icing! I think they turned out pretty cute. Not to mention yummy. These would make really cute little gifts for teachers, neighbors, or family.

Mine could have used a little more icing.  Try some and let me know how yours turn out.
Have a sweet day!