Weekend with Friends

I had the lovely pleasure of meeting Jessica and her family this past weekend.  Jessica lives in Tulsa and is also a friend of Megan’s who I met last weekend!  I feel so blessed to have met TWO sweet gals over the past couple weeks!  Jessica and Kyle were so precious, they have two baby girls named Lucy and Penny.  I think Connor found a new girlfriend in Penny 🙂
 Here we are at Starbucks….a.k.a the best place on Earth!
I love how Jessica asked “So, do you work at Starbucks because you sure do know a lot about it?”
ha..ha…ha..
 This is the door to my Mom’s classroom
Can you tell she is a proud Nana???
 Above is our 2010 Christmas card
OWLS=Perfect 🙂
 Connor caught in action, he’s into EVERYTHING right now!

Saturday I met up with my friend Amber and her son Kylon.  We had some yummy Mexican food with her friends and then went to Sam Moon where I got some flashing Christmas earrings!  Of course we also got our Starbucks fix too!  We went to WalMart to get cookie dough to bake that afternoon.  WalMart is a zoo right now….and I don’t want to go back for a long long time! 

 Here we are with our dough…..Amber’s gingerbread cookies turned out perfect.  My sugar cookies on the other hand looked like blobs of melted mess on a sheet pan!  I think it was the cookie dough because it certainly wasn’t the baker 😛  Thanks Amber for having me and Connor over and we look forward to many other “projects” together.  We want to modge podge something…..have any of you ever modge podged???

Red Velvet Cake Balls
Ingredients

◦1 (18.25 ounce) package cake mix


◦1 (16 ounce) container prepared cake frosting


◦6 ounces of chocolate flavored confectioners coating disks or bar (available in white chocolate, dark or milk)

Prepare the cake mix according to the directions on the box. When cake is finished baking allow to cool for 30 minutes. Crumble the cake into a large bowl using a stand mixer or a hand mixer. Add the frosting and mix until well combined. Place the bowl in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours or overnight.

Line a baking tray with wax paper. Use a melon baller as a scooper to form balls with the cake mixture. Place on wax paper. Once you have used all of the cake mixture, place the baking tray in the freezer for 1 hour. Melt the chocolate in a glass bowl of the microwave, stirring every 5-10 seconds until smooth.
Remove the balls from the freezer. Using one toothpick, pick up the balls one at a time and dip in the chocolate. Use a second toothpick to slide the ball off the first toothpick onto the wax paper lined baking tray.

Side note: Sometimes I use a bit of vegetable oil to thin my chocolate so it doesn’t get clumpy.  I also let the balls refrigerate overnight before dipping.

Happy Cake ball making 🙂

What’s in my camera bag?

A bunch of you have asked me what kind of camera I use and how I get my pictures to look the way I do.  I’ve had a couple previous posts on how to edit photos using Light Room or Photoshop.  I love to play around with photos.  So here are the deets……..
 Nikon D80
 Nikon 50mm 1.4
For portraits
 Nikon 24-120
 Tokina 11-16
Wide angle lens
 Nikon Flash

My current wish list:

Posing Guide

Christmas Flashback Contest

#1
 #2
 #3
 #4
 #5
 #6
 #7
 #8
#9



Winner is selected next Friday, Dec. 10th
To Enter:
(1) Guess which one is me in any of the above pictures & which one is Bonnie -the more correct guesses the more entries!!!

-or just comment…I don’t care!-

(2) Extra entry for Tweeting about the Christmas Twinkie contest 🙂
(Yes-the prize will probably include some sort of Starbucks 🙂

All is Well

It has been a crazy week!  Well, most weeks are crazy, but Connor and I have both had the sickies and have not been feeling good.  I think my ears have finally started to pop and I can hear again!  I hate HATE being sick….I just want to feel normal again and not all dumpy 🙁

I am counting down the days until we get to go home to AR for Christmas!  I’ll finally get to see my nephew Jarrett again…and you too Bonnie 🙂  I cannot believe I have only seen him once, I am sure he’s grown up so much since I last saw him.  Always nice to have something to look forward to!
Anyway…

Sometimes I think I have a puppy dog on my hands???
He loves to fetch things and he follows me around the house now like a puppy.

Here is Mr. Sick Face
Doesn’t he look thrilled ya’ll?

 He’s been doing lots of sleeping and has been really cuddly…which I don’t mind!
I hate it when babies get sick 🙁

My lovely husband decided to go on a diet 2 days before Thanksgiving!!!!

I mean really…who does that???  He is crazy but has been doing good so far!  So we’ve been eating a lot of lettuce like rabbits….last night we had this chicken caesar and it was pretty good!

I’ve been a crazy mad wrapping woman!!!
I LOVE to wrap presents it’s one of my favorite things to do!

I finally got all three of our stockings hung.  I am sure you saw in the last post with the stocking hangers.  I got all three Pottery Barn stockings on EBay.  Connor’s was already embroidered and the other two were blank.  I took mine and T’s to a local store and they put our names on there.  The font is a bit different, but it works for me!  I got all three stocking for the price I would have paid for ONE at Pottery Barn!
 These are the new Starbucks ornaments out this year
Aren’t they cute!  I must get them 🙂
That’s all for now!  We’ll holler hoooooooooo at you later!
(Owl hat 50% off via Gap black Friday…yippee!!!)

"Ho Ho HomeGoods"

Gift card provided by BlogHer and HomeGoods
I have been shopping like a mad women for the past few weekends.  I even woke up early before work on black Friday to hit some sales before work that morning!  When BlogHer contacted me offering a $25 gift card to HomeGoods to gift a friend, family member, or myself I said YES!  I love HomeGoods, TJMaxx, and Marshall’s stores.  I’ve always found great deals in the past and they have a wide variety of things to choose from. 
On Saturday while we were in Dallas we stopped by HomeGoods to shop.  I didn’t get a gift for family or friends because they read my blog, but I was looking for some stocking holders to hang our stockings on the mantle.  I just got all three of us stockings and haven’t hung them because I didn’t have anything!  While looking for stocking holders I found so many goodies I have to share with you…..
 Tis the season to shop til you drop!
 Connor was ready to shop with Momma!
 Look at these cute cupcake ornaments!  So cute!

 They had so much Christmas decor on the shelves I felt like I was in heaven!  I love Christmas decorations and this is my favorite time of year 🙂

 Christmas kitchen towels and oven mitts for holiday baking
 Pretty photo frames for those holiday family photos to give to someone
 Sparkly tree topper..bling…bling..!!!

 My Christmas decor is in this blue color.  I loved this little glass tree.  HomeGoods had something for every decorating style!  If it wasn’t your style I am sure you could find something for someone else in your life.

 I love Christmas cookware, platters, and serve ware.  Look how cute this is! 
Great for all those Christmas parties or as a hostess gift
 Beautiful candle holders
 This was one of my FAVORITE things in the store.  It’s a cupcake tower, but it looks like a beautiful chandelier!  It’s so pretty!  They also had one in black and I love all things sparkly and blingy!

 And finally…..

Here is my HomeGoods purchase……

 I got three of these Christmas tree stocking holders for less than I would have paid for one at a retail store!  Aren’t they so cute and sparkly???

Thank you so much BlogHer and HomeGoods I had such a fun time shopping! 
Go HERE and enter to win a $100 HomeGoods shopping spree and 20 winners will get $25!
Good luck and happy Christmas shopping everyone!

In this Wonderful Weekend!

Today Terence & I had the joy of meeting Megan (& Brent) from “In this Wonderful Life“.  I’ve been reading her blog for awhile now and she’s one of those blog friends who has always felt like a real life friend as well.  We both have struggled with PCOS and shared the longing for motherhood over the years.  Last year I found out I was pregnant with Connor and a few months later Megan shared her wonderful news that she was pregnant with Cohen!  Most of you already know that Cohen is with Jesus and the events that have taken place over the past year.  I know with all my heart that Megan and Brent will be parents again someday. They are such a beautiful couple inside and out and will always be Cohen’s Mommy & Daddy 🙂
I ask that we all continue to pray for them as God directs their path.  I don’t understand why people face certain trials in their lives, but I do know there is an ultimate plan unfolding beyond our own understanding. 
Trust in the LORD with all thy heart; and lean not to thy own understanding.

In other weekend news…….

Connor boy loves strolling around the mall.  And for some reason he’s been eating like a HORSE today 😛
Growing up way to fast for me!
Terence wanted to go to the Beretta store today….much to my dismay 😛
I am not a fan of guns and I don’t know if I ever will be.  I’ve been to the shooting range ONE time and I almost peed my pants.  I need to get over it…..but I just don’t like them!  We’ve been thinking about getting one for home defense because there have been some break ins in our area…and we DON’T live in the hood ya’ll!  We live in a nice legit neighborhood and that scares the crud outta me!  So maybe I’ll go to the range and try to get over my gun shyness!
I told Terence I would go to Beretta if he got me a Sprinkles cupcake and he DID!!!  Ha..ha..
I am thrilled…….
This is random, but so is a lot of stuff on this blog….
Look at this cute owl oven mitt and apron!  I swear once I started liking owls I think the whole planet did…they are EVERYWHERE now for realz!
 Yes – look at that face…..he’s totally cheesing.  You know why he is cheesing???  It’s because he likes to get close to the fireplace and play and eat wood.  The past couple of nights Terence has been building a fire, which I love, but this kid is way to interested in the fire IN the fireplace….we have a little pyro on our hands and it’s got to STOP A.S.A.P!!!  I may get some sort of barrier to put up…he usually feels the heat and turns right back around, but he’s getting braver and braver every day!
“You caught me Momma!” 
“What are you doing Daddy???”
Curious George….yes he is……..sigh…….
HOPE YOU ARE ALL HAVING A GREAT WEEKEND!
XOXO – Becky