Poor Aunt Steph, lol

Migas (Pioneer Woman's recipe)

I have never been a fan of dressing up my eggs.  I tend to like them boring and plain.  Well, that attitude has changed since being introduced to migas by my mother-in-law Christie.  She made them for us one time while we were in Wyoming.  They were loaded with cheese, salsa and corn tortillas.  What's not to like?  I swear, they were amazing!  Once I got home, I remembered that Pioneer Woman had covered this egg dish before and decided to give it a go.  They were a hit.  Check out the link below to get PW's version and try them for yourself.  They are soooo good!

Pioneer Woman's Migas  

An Apology, LOL

The boys have a friend, Daniel, that likes to come over and jump on the trampoline. The play session usually goes off without an incident but there was one time it didn't. Daniel went under the trampoline and Hayden was jumping so you can guess what happened. D got hurt and H felt terrible about it. H made him a card and took him some candy (he only lives 4 houses down). How funny is this card?! It is so dang cute. Daniel forgave him and now all is right with the world again, lol.

Lemon Herb Chicken

While I am not a huge fan of lemon, I LOVE this chicken! I got the recipe from Paula Deen forever ago. I tried to look it up on the net but couldn't find it. It appears to me that all of her roast chicken recipes now include lemon pepper seasoning (her own brand, of course). I could swear that this was the chicken that she made for her bag lady chicken noodle soup but the recipe I found was very different. Oh well, I am glad that I got this goody from somewhere. Try it and trust me, you are going to get a thumbs up from even the pickiest of your eaters. My kids don't care for real food (McDonald's, blue box macaroni and frozen corn dogs are more their taste-blech) but they did devour this chicken.

Lemon Herb Chicken

I have so much to say...

and yet I can't say anything!!  If you are a Facebook friend, then you know what I am referring to.  Big changes are coming our way (hopefully!). :)

Hayden's 8th Birthday Party

Hayden had a fabulous Paul Frank monkey (Julius) party last month. We had to delay his party until after our cruise so we picked 2/20. Unfortunately, he was coming out of some random illness that was spanning the neighborhood so he wasn't his usual cheerful self. He still had a good time though. :)

I dropped his big birthday cake 2.5 hours before the party so Clayton hurried to Hay's to get some cupcakes. They were not as cool but he didn't seem to mind.

The kids had a banana hunt. Each came with a letter on it to spell out a message. They had to unscramble them to figure it out. This turned out to be a really cute activity. The message read, "Happy Birthday Hayden Gray Logan".

We also had the kids do a banana peeling contest. Each kid was given a banana and they had to peel and eat it using only 1 hand. Paige was the fastest by far. She somehow popped hers open using her hand and leg together. I have no clue how she actually did it though, lol.

I had a candy kabob station set up in the dining room but it was only a hit with the girls. The boys were all too interested in playing the Kinect and jumping on the trampoline. Speaking of the trampoline, there was a period of time when all the kids went outside and the adults were all inside. It was crazy how quiet it was, lol. We enjoyed our peaceful moment and chatted away.

Daniel made Hayden this sweet card. Don't you love the cute Julius drawing?

Opening gifts (he really wanted those Julius jammies so we happily obliged)

The Details

Julius the monkey was practically everywhere. I wish I had taken better pics of the food set-up. Since I dropped the cool cake I made, I had to go with last minute cupcakes from Hay's. I made Julius picks to stick in them. The water bottles and snack boxes were really cute but they are hard to see in the photo.

Goodie bags with homemade tags and silver star wire

A painted canvas that I made

The Aftermath

Hayden zonked out after his party. The poor guy wore himself out, lol.

Tallen's Birthday Cake

After making this cake, I realized that I don't like working with fondant all that much.  It isn't hard to use, it is just that it is a totally different decorating process and I don't enjoy it.  I made this cake for my friend Johnna.  Her son had a party last weekend at Bounce.  I talked her into letting me make a cake for the occasion so that I could practice.  This cake looks simple but it taught me a lot of skills. 

C&E playing Kinect

Cake Wreck :(

So, the worst thing that could have happened at Hayden's party happened. I dropped the dang cake. It was sitting all nice and pretty on the refreshment table when stupid me decided to move it back a touch.  When I slid the cake stand, the table cloth caught it and the cake went over backwards off my kitchen island.  I stood there just staring at it in disbelief.  I spent hours on this thing and then it ended up on the floor.  Sigh... You know I didn't take any pictures of it before the incident either, right?  Of course not.  Clayton picked it up and set it all back on the stand but there was no saving it.  I ended up getting cupcakes from the grocery store to replace it since I only had 2.5 hours until the party.  Lesson learned.

Valentine's Day 2011

I made the boys heart-shaped French toast and bacon with pink milk.  They weren't too impressed.  Unfortunately, the day started with Hayden throwing up and then both of them developed fevers before lunch.    It totally sucked.  Holidays are a big deal in our household and they both had to miss their school parties.  

I took both boys' valentines to school for them so that they could still exchange them even though they weren't there.  After school, I picked theirs up for them.  E had made a bag and H had a box.  They were feeling good when I got back (thanks to Motrin) so I let them open the valentines up. 

On our way to Orlando's airport [2.5.11]

It took forever to get off the dang ship that morning.  I was begging for them to let me through because I was so afraid that I was going to toss my cookies right then and there at the customs counter.  As soon as we disembarked and got our car, we stopped at a Publix so that I could buy a bunch of medicine.  It managed to make me feel okay thankfully.  We stopped at an outlet mall and rested in the car. We were so tired. The boys hunkered down in the back of the rental car and slept for a little bit.

Our flight home was delayed and then they lost one of our bags when we got to Denver. Ugh. To make matters worse, Denver was freakin' cold. We found our car covered by a sheet of ice. If I hadn't of been so sick, I would have booked me another flight right back to Orlando and stayed there.

Cruise Day #7 [2.4.11]

Today was our day at Castaway Cay. Let me tell you, this is always the best day of the cruise. The island is amazing! Disney really pulled out all the stops when they designed it. I could live there forever. Unfortunately for me, I woke up with the flu (did not know that was what was wrong until I got back to Colorado). I was miserable! I luckily had a bunch of drugs with me to make me feel okay enough to get off the ship that day. I would have been sad to have missed it. The weather was awesome and the water was beautful. The kiddos had a marvelous time as well as the adults.

Clayton and Jason got into a water fight, lol.

I think my hubby may have won that battle!

Beautiful Jasmine enjoying the water

I was pouting because it was our last day.  I didn't want to leave!  BTW-That white mark on my tummy (just above my bikini) is where I put a cherry sticker when I tan.

I love this man more than anything in this world.  I took this pic while he was laying in the water.

Hayden

The view of our ship from the beach

Cruise Day #6 [2.3.11]

Today was a lazy day at sea. We had a wonderful brunch at Palo, a galley tour and the kiddos swam. It was a great day. That evening, we got to see the kids club do a little presentation in the theatre which was cute. Hayden opted out though and this is where we found him afterward:

He had fallen in love with Peggle and Chuzzle (both games that I really like).

Jason and Natascha in Lumiere's

We had watched a horrible, and I do mean horrible, magic show during our trip. Jason tried to show off his mad magical skills during dinner to try and show up the so-called professional magician. Emerson was impressed, lol.

Jasmine and Emerson boogied down during John Charles' show in Rockin' Bar D. John puts on a awesome show where he sings lots of songs with a guitar. He does everything in a humorous way. Lord forbid you get up and walk out of the room while he is performing. He will totally call you out, lol.

Cruise Day #5 [2.2.11]

You think that they like each other? Nah, not one bit! lol

Today we went to St. Thomas. We were so drained from the previous day at St. Maarten though. We ended up not going to a beach and instead did a little shopping. We didn't stay off the ship very long. Well, long enough for me to buy a couple of beads for my necklace. ;)

We had lunch on the ship and let the kiddos swim in the Mickey pool. Hayden and Jasmine seemed to stay in the pool mostly but Emerson insisted on going down the Mickey slide a million times over, lol.

They had another pajama party for the kids tonight so they insisted on going. When I went to pick up Hayden, I found him learning to play chess.

Cruise Day #4 [2.1.11]

Lovely St. Maarten

Hubby bubby

We walked a long while up one of the beaches to get away from the crowds. Once we found a location, we let the kids run for the water. They had such a wonderful time! The only bad thing was that the water was a little bit rough. There was a major drop-off if you went out too far also. It was kind of stressful worrying about it while they played but we came out unscathed. Emerson lost his kids club band so we worried about the $50 fee for it but they never made us pay for it. It slipped off his arm while he was in the water.

See how beautiful the water was? It was breathtaking!