Day Number 73

 Well, The baby sparrow passed away this afternoon. I was a bit concerned last night when it's chirp seemed to have disappeared. My oldest daughter seems to be taking it the hardest.
  We went over to Mom's this afternoon. I wanted my sister to model some things for me, 15 year old sisters come in handy that way. Marc (Stepdad) popped into the room where the boys were playing on the xbox and he knew I was in the room with camera in hand but was apparently clueless to my snapping a couple of shots of him. Which maked this photo so amusing to me. I figured he'd chosen to ignore me!

Day Number 64

If you remember Bella had her birthday party back on March 19th. I posted the pics Here.
  My mom had searched for some time for the perfect gift for her. I forget every time one of my kids hits 2 years old how hard it can be to shop for them at that age! 2 and 3 seem to be an inbetween age where they are too young or too old for the really cool gifts! Lucky for us Bella LOVES to play pretend.
   My mom had gotten her "Tinkerbell's Cafe" for Christmas. Since then we have enjoyed many  pretend meals of "Soup".  "Soup" consists of the plastic bread, carrot cake and wedge of cheese put into a bowl. All of which came with her Cafe. She puts it all in a bowl. Then Bella takes the ladle that came with her cafe and dips it into the "soup" and proceeds to shove the ladle into our mouths until we gag. She then giggles hysterically and claps her hands. YAY!
  So after mom searched and searched she found the CUTEST pertend food EVER! Would you like to see?
Of course you would!




Are they not gorgeous?!!?!?  It was unfortunate that they didn't quite make it in time for Bella's party but that wasn't anyone's fault. The mail got dropped off after Mom and family had left. Otherwise Bella would have been enjoying them sooner!
      Once we got past her initial trying to eat the felt food she really enjoys pretending to eat them. It's also much more comfortable while she's trying to force feed them to us. She even loves sharing them with her brother and sister! Miraculous! I think we need to stock up on more! I love looking at them as much as Bella loves playing with them!
 These felt foods are entirely hand made, and are made of recycled materials. I highly reccomend these to anyone who has a little one who likes to pretend. These keep Bella "cooking"  for hours.  They are colorful and very well made. They have so much detail. My personal favorite are the animal crackers! Growing up they were my favorite snack. I still buy them occasionally. Click to see proof!
  Interested? Little Retro Kids can be found on:

Facebook:
Little Retro Kids

Etsy:
Little Retro Kid's Shop

Thanks for stopping buy!

Day Number 61

 YAY! Today is my birthday!!! As Jon said today is my 1st 29th Birthday!!!  We managed to sleep in until 10:30!! WOW. Our dog woke us up with her whining. Thats ok, I will take what I can get. We watched the last episode from season 1 of 24. Amazing. Then we went and picked up my business cards and headed over to my mom's where I discovered that She and Jon had conspired against me and threw a surprise feast. EVERYTHING was Dr Pepper! The brisket had Dr Pepper BBQ sauce that my mom made from scratch. The cake had Dr Pepper in it the cookies had Dr Pepper in it even the jello salad was Dr Pepper! AMAZING! I know it might sound odd. but it really was awesome! Every recipe was developed by my mom (Marye' Audet-White).  I can  still taste it!
 Pictures from my birthday party? OK!

My cake  was dr pepper with chocolate ganache filling!

Bella thought it was super yummy too! Can't you tell?

Random pic of shiloh!

Dr Pepper whoopie Pies!!! OMGoodness YUM!

And a peep to top it off!

I thought I had more pictures. I am thinking I got caught up in food and friends and forgot to take more pics!

Day Number 60

Wow, tonight was amazing. Jon took a half day off from work. He came home and we got some sonic for lunch, then went and picked up the kids from school. From there we dropped the kids off with my mom. She is keeping all 3 of them tonight. Then, Jon took me to the Cheesecake Factory!!!

 I had never been! The food was amazing and the service was equally so, which is saying a lot. The decorations were elaborate. The restraunt was huge. I Totally want to go back!!! But it's going to be a while. We spent a bit more than planned but it was totally worth it! He took home half his meal and cheesecake and I took home 2/3 of mine. The sunset we saw as we walked out the doors of the restraunt was amazing!

After dinner we meandered around the mall a bit. I made my appt at Toni & Guys. Mom is treating me to a cut and color for my birthday. I am really excited! Then we saw Just Go With It! The movie was hillarious!
 

Day Number 59

I think that I am going to post a self portrait today. I was going to get a haircut and  give myself a mini-makeover before doing it, but  I took this one and started playing around with it in photoshop and I like it so post it I shall!

I LOVE Vintage/Antique things. Especially photographs. I love the way they look and the history behind them.
I was just playing around in photoshop and added the grungy/vintage textures I had to this one. I love it.
  On a side note. I may not be around much this weekend.
 Tomorrow Jon is taking a half day off of work. My mom is taking the kids for friday night and Jon and I are going out on our first date in over a year. We intend to take full advantage of having no children so we are not likely to be home much. However, I will have my camera so I'll take pictures and post them on Monday.
Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Drink anyone?

 As the kids and I were walking home from school yesterday I contemplated  what sort of cool special beverage could I concoct for the four of us once we got home?  I started thinking about what I had in my fridge that might possibly go together. Then it hit me. I had Drinks left over from Bella's birthday party that were still unopened. So I told the kids I would make them a special drink when we got home and this is what I came up with:

Doesn't it look delicious?  Well, Thats because it is! Wanna know how I made it? Of course you do! And it's your lucky day because I will tell you! Now normally I leave the food blogging to my mom, Marye' Audet-White. However, I AM her daughter so I have been known to follow in her footsteps at times!


Ingredients:
*Seagram's Gingerale *Dole Orange Strawberry Banana Juice
 (You'll find it in the section that contains the cooled  juices, teas and punches)
*Sliced Strawberries with sugar added.
(freezer aisle with  the cool whip and other frozen fruits)
* Bananas

First I combined the gingerale and juice 40% gingerale 60% juice into a 12 oz cup. No exact measurements here I make everything by taste.  I added 2 tbsp of sliced strawberries (with juice). Stir it up. Take a banana, peel it and slice 4-8 pieces of banana straight into the cup.

There you go! A yummy summertime treat right? I think next time I might make a couple of changes. Honestly, I would love to try this with a good organic gingerbeer! Then perhaps a little bit of homemade whipped cream on top? Oh yes please!
 Go ahead and try it! But come back and leave me a comment! I would love to see how you liked it and what changes you may have made to it!

Day Number 51

WOW I just realized I have surpassed 50 days of my photography challenge! That is INSANE! I don't think I've ever commited to something like this for so long. I am really excited!
  Now On to the photo.
 You may remember my being commissioned to take a photo of my kids under an umbrella? If not you can refresh your memory Here.
  Well believe it or not, the artist is one of my brothers. He needed to make so many copper plates for his college course. So he asked if I would take that photo so he could turn it into this:

I recieved it on Saturday so I wanted to frame it before it got torn up. Which is likely to happen when you a. forget to put things in a safe location and b. have children who have no concern to someone else's things. In my case, both apply.
  Doesn't it look great?! I am so proud of him! He is so talented!!!

On a side note, I finished editing Isabella's 2 year photos! They came out so nicely!

 
If you want to see the rest of them, they are located on my  Facebook Fanpage. Please go take a look! I am always looking for subjects. Make sure to click that "Like" button so you can follow my work!

  

Day Number 49

I FINALLY got around to doing Bella's 2 year photos today! I am REALY Excited about them! I ended up shooting at my mom's house because we were having a family feast and when we got there the lighting was PERFECT!  I love my mom's house because it has a very country feel but is still in city limits. Imagine how much more convenient it would be if her house were in Grand Prairie instead of Lancaster!
So here's a little peek at what I got!

Yup! That's my soon to be 2 year old! One week from tomorrow! I cannot believe it! Regardless she is my gorgeous little redhead!

She will hate me for this I am sure! But she should know better than to be goofy when I have a camera in hand! I love this girl. She is absolutely one of my favorite 15 year olds in the WHOLE world!

Now it's off to bed for me. Gotta make sure I can get up on time with this whole moving an hour ahead time thing!!



Day Number 37

Today was my sister's 15th birthday party!  Wow. I remember when she was born and now here she is all grown and beautiful! I love her so much and I am so proud of her!
The Birthday Girl!

She is so beautiful!!!

I find that i really enjoy taking the dark candlelit pictures! So much fun!

come again soon!

 

Day Number 31

Wow. A whole month, give or take a day or 2. I feel very accomplished!
 Yesterday was my oldest daughter's birthday party. She turned 9 on wednesday. I can't believe it! A party requires cake in most cases So here is a picture I took yesterday of Amanda's cake! It was tasty, and theres even some left still!
  I am kinda proud of the little bit of Bokeh peekin out in the picture!!!

I generally have so much fun making my cakes! I am glad that I have the ability and a little skill. :)

Day Number 25/ Day Number 26

 For today's photo we actually ventured away from home.
 I went to "Town Square"  in Lancaster and took some pictures of Bella. Then we headed over to my mom's and had some coffee and cookies, I even took a few more pictures! We then packed up and Mom my sister and I went to Salvation Army to do a little thrift store shopping. I even found  a few good deals. We had a lot of fun and I definitely feel as though I have made up for my lack of picture yesterday.
 Which by the way, I felt really bad. Yesterday was so insanely busy that I completely forgot to take a picture! So I took many today! I will post two here and Probably a couple on my Fanpage.


This is My Bella. I just love her so much! She is so stinkin' cute!

This is my sister Kyrie. I love her curly hair!!!

 

Thank you for visiting! 

 

Day Number 5

 Well today's post is more than just a photo.  My friend Devina came over today and we watched a movie and munched on snacks while cuddling our adorable puppies. Since my plans changed due to neglect on my part instead of lunch we just had snacks. Right after I put Bell down for her nap I snatched my mom's cookbook and frantically searched for a cookie recipe that I had all the ingredients for. I decided on her oatmeal cookies! They are so YUMMY! But I am not one to simply stick to a recipe. I am too much my mother's daughter for that!

Marye' Audet- White's Classic Oatmeal Cookies - with a spicy twist

(Marye' Audet-White is my mother and I requested permission before posting this recipe to my blog.)

Yields 60 cookies

Ingredients:

¾ cup vegetable shortening

1 cup packed brown sugar

½ cup sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

¼ cup water

3 cups old-fashioned oatmeal, uncooked

1 cup flour

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 tsp of Cayenne (red) pepper

1/2 tsp Ginger

1 - 1 1/2 tsp of Ground Cloves

½ teaspoon baking soda

Be careful not to overbake.

 1.         Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly grease cookie sheets.

 2.         Beat together shortening and sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in egg, vanilla, and water.

 3.         Combine dry ingredients; stir into creamed mixture. Add any optional ingredients at this time.

 4.         Drop by rounded teaspoons onto prepared cookie sheets. Bake 12–15 minutes.

 5.         Allow to cool 5 minutes before removing from cookie sheet.

Marye' Audet-White is my mother and I requested permission before posting this recipe to my blog. 

for more super awesome recipe's from Marye' Audet-White

Buy her cookbook here- The Everything Cookies & Brownies Cookbook by Marye' Audet

and you can visit her website Restless Chipotle

And now, My photo of the day:

 The extra spices really added a nice kick to the cookies!
Thanks for reading!!!!