Hayden got a special hat to wear since it was his 8th birthday. How cool to be embarking on a cruise on his special day!

My silly guys waiting in the cruise terminal

Our server and a bunch of other guys sang Happy Birthday to Hayden at Animator's Palette. He got a special birthday dessert too. :)

I made magnets for our door since it is made of metal.

Before our luggage arrived, I decorated the room a little bit.

We let Hayden open a few presents on the ship (he will be having a party at home after we get back).

Hayden loves all things Paul Frank which just happens to be his party theme also.

Lego Tent (Downtown Disney) 1.28.11

The Lego Store was closed for renovations but they had a large yellow tent store for us to peruse (hence the horrid yellow tint to these photos). The kids both got some Ninjago guys to take home so they were happy. They also got to play at this station where you could create your own Lego guys. We will have to go back for another visit when the new store opens up.

Fantasia Gardens 1.28.11

If you ever find yourself bored in Orlando, do yourself a favor and do not go play mini golf in the Disney area. It was pricey and the course that we tried stunk. We made the best of it even though the holes were incredibly frustrating. The Fantasia statues that they had were pretty cool but they really need to work on updating the greens.

Back from vacation and sick as a dog

We got back from our Disney cruise this past Saturday night and I have been extremely under the weather ever since.  I got sick on Thursday night and it got worse by the time we disembarked the ship Saturday morning.  Unfortunately, I am still struggling.  It started off as a cold with a sore throat and then it escalated into a fever/headache/nausea/coughing thing.  I didn't know how in the world I was going to be able to fly back.  Thankfully, I had a ton of meds with me to put me into a good enough stupor to take the flight with some sort of dignity.  As I entered the door of our house, I felt like it was swaying and rocking.  The floors seemed to be shaking and my balance was off.  Supposedly this is normal after a long cruise but good grief.  I am still doing horribly today with it.  The vertigo wouldn't be so bad if I wasn't also dealing with all the other crap.  I keep coughing up nasty stuff and I have an excruciating headache.  My nostrils and ears are stopped up.  I just hope that my kiddos don't get this nastiness.  Clayton has been taking good care of me.  He is going to take me to see a doctor this afternoon to see what the heck is wrong.  After I get better, I will be back to post tons of photos and details of our vacation.  It was a blast seeing the Barnes family again.  We are already planning another trip to see them soon.

Nectar of the Gods

If there is a condiment in heaven, I am sure it would be this stuff. Clayton and I are huge fans of salsa. The problem is that we have to go to a restaurant to get it. The jarred kind from the grocery store is terrible. I always seem to have a problem when I want to make Mexican food at home. There are no good salsas offered at the grocery store so I usually make guacamole instead. I made quesadillas this week so I scanned the salsa selection at Hay's and decided to make my own. I grabbed all of my fresh ingredients and headed home to try out Pioneer Woman's version of restaurant-style salsa. To my surprise, I didn't need the fresh tomatoes at all. Instead, the recipe called for canned tomatoes. I was a little bit taken aback by this as that just didn't seem right. Why would I use all fresh ingredients with the exception of the key ingredient? Well, now I know. Trust me, it makes all the difference in the world. I was stunned when I first tasted this stuff and you will be too! It is very close to the same salsa served at On The Border. We buy OTB's salsa by the pint occasionally so I should know. It is pretty dang near the same. I implore you to try this recipe if you like salsa from Mexican restaurants. It is so stinkin' good!!

Link to PW's recipe: Salsa

BTW, I was disappointed once I learned about the canned tomatoes being the secret to a good salsa but I have the secret to the white cheese dip that they serve in the Southern states and it is even more disappointing. That stuff is so dang good though!! I will post a recipe for it in the near future. For those back home in NC, it is the same cheese dip served in La Hacienda. ;)

Goofballs

Emerson is battling the warning label on the trampoline net. I wonder who will win?

E and H jumping on the trampoline

After jumping, they decided to check out the neighbor girl that lives behind us. They love Madison and frequently have fence-side chats with her, lol.

Happy birthday to my first-born!

Today, I am now the mom of a handsome 8 year old.  Wow!  That really blows my mind.  I feel so old, lol.  Hayden is such a sweet little guy and I am proud to be his mother.  We will be celebrating a little bit today but his party will be 2/18.  He chose the Paul Frank space monkey theme and I cannot wait to do his cake.  I have a vision that it will be a 2 or 3 tier cake with blue fondant.  I will make each layer different and the monkey face will be prominent. Since he chose the space monkey, it will also have some space-y looking things on it too.  It's going to be awesome!

We gave him a few small gifts today: a new DS game, Paul Frank underwear (which are ridiculously cute!) and some Paul Frank socks.  We will give him some Paul Frank pajamas and a toy that he has really been wanting at his party. :)

Beautiful Disaster

To celebrate Crystal's birthday, I made her this cake. I swear I did, lol. This is the photo evidence I have of it. It was homemade Devil's food cake with 7 minute frosting. Unfortunately, I followed the horrible instructions to use the whole recipe of frosting to ice the cake. It said that it would seem like too much but it would be fine. It was wayyy too much but I did it anyway because the recipe explicitly told me to. I should have known to trust my instincts. It was too heavy for the cake and it slid down one side about an hour after I completed it. How frustrating! I ended up removing a good portion of it. The bad thing was that the sprinkles left color everywhere in the frosting (the coloring came off them). I swirled the frosting around to mix the colors around and it looked like a graffiti artist had gotten hold of it, lol. During transport, the cakes slid apart and I about lost it! I had to slide it all back together at Ashley's house. Unfortunately, it looked pretty ragged after all was said and done. It's a good thing that it tasted good because it sure wasn't pretty. Regardless, I won't be making these recipes again

Hawaiian Sweet Bread Rolls

These rolls are remarkable! They are fairly dense with a super soft middle. The pineapple makes them sweet. I prefer to use vanilla over the coconut extract but that's just me. If you don't have a bread machine, these are really easy to knead by hand. The dough really doesn't take much work. When I baked this particular batch, I put them in a round pan and let them cook together. We have since had them baked apart on a baking sheet and we prefer that method. I have a ton of these dough balls in my freezer waiting to be cooked later on. All you have to do is put the dough balls onto a sheet pan and stick them in the freezer to flash freeze for 25-20 minutes. Gather them all into a Ziploc and pull them out whenever you want them. I usually put them on a sheet pan covered with a kitchen towel after lunchtime. They sit at room temp for 3-4 hours (or until doubled) and then I bake them per instructions.  The link to the recipe is provided below. :)

Hawaiian Sweet Bread Rolls

Creme Brulee

I served this incredibly yummy dessert to my neighbors recently. If you are a brulee fan, you would be amazed at how easy it is to make. The custard was so smooth and creamy. The recipe calls for Irish Cream but I didn't use it. In case you missed it, here's the link again: Creme Brulee

Cornbread

My kids and husband used to have an aversion to cornbread but now they love it thanks to this perfect recipe. I found it while perusing the Disney boards. It's supposedly the same stuff that the Hoop de Doo Revue serves up over at Fort Wilderness in Orlando. I honestly have no clue (I have never visited FW) but I can say that this recipe is awesome. It is super easy and sweet. The original recipe called for 1 1/4 cups of sugar in it but I changed it to 3/4 cup in my version.

Sweet Cornbread

Snow Day-12/30/2010

Love that snowflake that stuck to his eyebrow, lol.

I knew that Mother Nature simply could not make it the whole month of December without dropping snow on us. We were so close though. We finally got snow on 12/30 and it wasn't too bad.

Check out the cute coats and hats. Grandpa Steve and Grandma Sandy bought them for the boys for Christmas. I love how cute they are in them! Orange and gray just happen to be my favorite colors to buy for them.

Daddy getting Hayden ready (check out Emerson in the background, lol)

E making snow angels

The boys-H (7), E (6)

Chicken, Corn and Potato Chowder

I found this recipe from a foodie blog and I have to got to tell you all how good it is! It is perfectly thick and creamy. I was leery of adding canned cream corn (that stuff is disgusting in my book) but it seemed to balance out the flavors perfectly. Hubby and I both scarfed this stuff down. If it had crab instead of chicken it it, I would say that it could rival Bonefish Grill's corn chowder with lump crab. That stuff is primo! Click the link below for the recipe. :)

Chicken, Corn and Potato Chowder

New Year's Eve + Recipes-12/31/10

We hosted a fun New Year's Eve party this year with our besties, the Vetters and the Pratts. We all have little kids so we knew that we wouldn't be partying to the break of dawn but that is just fine by us. I am too old for that crap anyway, lol. We didn't really do anything other than visit but it was still alot of fun.

I made the best lasagna on the face of Earth (seriously!), *THE* bread by Pioneer Woman, salad and creme brulee for dessert. The creme brulee was a first for me so I wasn't sure if I could pull it off but it turned out marvelously. The recipe calls for Irish Cream but I left that out since the kiddos were all eating it. I went out to Bed, Bath & Beyond to buy me a torch just for this occasion. If you want to try any of these recipes, here are the links:

World's Best Lasagna
The Bread
Creme Brulee


Happy New Year!!

Christmas Morning-12/25/10

Clayton gets as excited as the kids to see what's in his stocking, lol.

Hayden-7, Emerson-6 (H got a monkey Scentsy buddy and E got the lamb)

H's face is this one cracks me up!

Christmas Morning (2)-12/25/10

Emerson and all of his moolah

The boys playing Beyblade

E is such a Mama's boy :)

New Scooters from Santa-12/25/10

The boys both got electric scooters from Santa. Hayden took to it immediately but Emerson was a tad bit reluctant. Clayton worked on building his confidence a little that morning but E decided that he would work on it later. I don't blame him. They move a wee bit fast.

Please excuse the pajamas, lol. It was Christmas morning and they couldn't wait to rush out the door to give them a try.

Christmas Jammies-12/24/10

Santa's elves leave us new jammies on Christmas Eve every year. They always ring the door bell and then disappear before we can catch them in the act. The note attached tells the boys to head to bed because Santa is on his way. :)

Silly boys!! Hayden-7, Emerson-6