Arizona Hiking

The hubby, biff, and I went hiking 2 days in a row. We're pretty hardcore. We just love the views from the top and along the way! :)

Holiday Recipes

My weekend, as I'm sure yours all did, entailed food galore! Here's two recipes i made. One I got from my aunt who's an amazing cook and the other from my best friend who's also the dessert queen. For anyone who knows me on a personal level can testify how far from a cook I am. However, I'm on a new kick with cooking and have enjoyed it thus far. I've always loved food, I just never learned how to make food...just how to order it. :) So any recipes I share, you KNOW will be simple and do-able for beginners.

Pumpkin Pie Cake

Our last Sunday dinner in Idaho, my wondeful aunt had us over for dinner and this was the dessert she made. I fell in LOVE beause it had pumpkin (delish) and yellow cake (yum). Put the two together and it's a hit. Plus, it gives the whole pumpkin pie a new twist.

Turtle-Turtle

My biff came over the other day and shared a single turtle she made for her family with me. It had the salty-sweet combination going on and I HAD to copy her. What else are best friends for?

Pumpkin Pie Cake Ingredients

• 1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
• 1 (12 fluid ounce) can evaporated milk
• 4 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 (18.25 ounce) package yellow cake mix
• 1 cup chopped pecans
• 1 cup margarine, melted
• 1 (8 ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease one 9x13 inch baking pan.
2. In a large bowl, combine pumpkin, evaporated milk, eggs, sugar, pumpkin pie spice, and salt. Mix well, and spread into the prepared pan.
3. Sprinkle cake mix over the top of the pumpkin mixture, and pat down. Sprinkle chopped pecans evenly over the cake mix, then drizzle with melted margarine.
4. Bake for 60 to 80 minutes, or until done. Top with whipped topping when ready to serve.

Turtles Ingredients

• Pretzels
• Rolos (or chocolate caramel kisses)
• Whole pecans

Directions
1. Heat oven to 200 degrees.
2. Place pretzels over parchment paper with rolos on top (removed from foil duh!)
3. Bake 5-10 minutes until chocolates get soft
4. Remove from oven and use a whole pecan to push chocolate down. Cool completely before devouring. :)

Christmas Time

 Is it true that boys turn everything into a competition? At least my husband and little brother do. And with gingerbread houses? Sigh. They were concentrating so hard they couldn't even look up and smile. boys.

 Favorite holiday tradition: We all get new pajamas on Christmas Eve, pile up in the car, and drive around to see the lights drinking our hot chocolate. Except this year, with grandma in town, there was not enough room in the truck. So my mom and I got our lawn chairs in the bed of the truck and enjoyed the view from the back. I know it's not Idaho, but it was still chilly. We stopped at the gas station to get our hot chocolate and Ryan had to take a picture of my hair... yes, it's the wind-blown look. :)

 Salvation Army on Christmas Day. Doesn't my husband look good in an apron AND happy to be there? Not like the blonde lady above. She doesn't look like she enjoyed herself. Hopefully she was just holding it in. Ha.

We hope everyone enjoyed being with family for the holidays and the memories that were created!

food for thought #3

live simply.expect little.

give much.

love extravagantly.

how straight to the point is this message. Especially during the holiday season but more importantly, life in general. I am an expert at making situations more complicated than what they need to be. The more I have the more stress I have... so i will expect little and give more to others because in doing so, I will have simple and extravagant happiness. Happy Monday Everyone!

Merry days

It's really hard to feel like it's Christmas when you're in Arizona with sunny days. I will not complain though. I love it like this. I have all the people i need here. My husband, my parents, my brothers, and grandma Tina. This weekend has been super with eating, visiting, shopping, cooking, eating, games, and eating...and more eating. My little brother, the videographer, is making a video of all of us. He interviewed us all asking us our favorite part of Christmas. We'll be watching the final production tomorrow morning. :) cant wait!

Happy holidays everyone! Have a great weekend!! And enjoy the blessings in your life.

Phoenix Art Museum

Today the family and I went to the Phoenix Art Museum. I was born and raised in Phoenix but there are many places here that I've never been to or visited and the Phoenix Art Museum is one of them (shamefully, the Grand Canyon is another). Ryan and I had quite the experience because we were both scolded twice by the staff. Within the first few minutes I was getting in trouble for taking pictures in one of the exhibits where photos were prohibited. Oops. Then, a tour guide was in the middle of discussing a piece with her group when she yelled over to Ryan, "Excuse me, please do not touch the artwork." Yes, Ryan was touching the artwork and she didn't hesitate to scold him for it.

I really admire artists who are so creative and create a piece that you just stare at and think to yourself, wow, that's beautiful. I would L O V E to have their talent. I'm still trying to find my talents in life and painting must not be one of them. I dabbled in water colors  for awhile and my paintings looked like children's school art compared to theirs. Although to be perfectly honest, there are pieces where I have NO IDEA what they were thinking. That's the thing with "art" though. You can say anything is art. I can glue a bunch of yarn and scrap metal to a cardboard box and say it's art and charge hundreds of dollars for it. Either way, we had fun interpreting art when we weren't getting in trouble. :)

vintage az christmas

We arrived in az last night, or actually this morning at 3am. I didn't think either one of us would be able to get up this morning, but we got up at a descent hour 10am. not bad right?

Today we are slowly recovering from lack of sleep and driving all day, but it's great to be with family in our cozy decorative home. This year we're doing stocking stuffers for gifts because of our family trip planned. However, my mom has decorated our house to the T. Garland, vintage ornaments and lights are all over the house. I love seeing the cool things my mom finds at her thrift stores... I just hope one day all her vintage belongings are passed on to me.
Ryan and I have always been home for the holidays or moving from one place to another. So having our own place to decorate has been impossible or inconvenient. This is what I want to fill our home with. Am I a sucker for vintage? Well, I am my mother's daughter aren't i? (really... ..i am right?)

fft #2

i have to find the beauty in today. today is moving day and our movers are 3 1/2 hours late. We are "patiently" waiting for them to come and we still have a 14 hour drive ahead of us. The beauty ? We are going to warmer weather and be with familiy for the holidays!!!

the graduate

the graduate

the wife

the boys + the creepy guy in the background

the family

it was an eventful weekend with the husband graduating. we had family come up, two brothers show up as a surprise, a pizza party, and the graduation ceremony. now that the weekend is over, we are packing all day today to move in the morning. procrastination is the pits. can't we go back to the weekend?????? :)

my afghan

My mother-in-law made me a beautiful afghan that i had to share. Two reasons why it's the best..
1. made with love
2. it's purple :)
Plus, a hawaiian pillow case in remembrance of our trip there. I can't wait to move to our new place and have them displayed.