Fun and thankful week!!!

So much to be grateful/thankful for this last week.... 

Lots of food,

quality time spent with the family, and the friends,

cake creating

monster truck cake success!

I'll start off with this scruptious tart my dad came home with for my mom and I....  it was just as delightful as I expected it would be!  :D

....and then I got this little guy delivered for breakfast one day!!  it wasn't bad...  it might actually change my "never eat taco bell," rule...  I'd eat it again!!  I think it was the shell, the shell was delightful!!  :)

....and then I had the pleasure of meeting up with an old co-worker / friend for lunch one day!!  yummmm... the food was delicious, but I was full after the salad!!  and the garlic bread!!  ;)

.....and I enjoyed this beautiful sunrise on the way to work one day!  :)

....and unfortunatelly for me, I started playing draw something with proffessional artists...  ;/

...their drawings convinced me, that I definitely need a stylus...  or to stop drawing...  I'm going to go for the stylus!!  ;)

....and Mr. Jake and I got to spend the morning together..  then we met Jaime and her mom for lunch...  and again, my meal was the biggest...  why is that??  ;)

....and I also got to spend some jumpy time with Miss Ella, while Mr. Luke looked on!!  ;)

....and sunday was family day...  my dad BBQ'd for us!!  I LOVE that he was so happy and excited to BBQ!!  :)

YUMMMM!!!  Carne Asada, pollo asado, and al pastor, all al carbon!....  :)

<3>

.....and luckily he finished just before the storm came...  and we ate while it poured rain and thundered outside!!  :)

carne asada, pollo asado, salsa, guacamole, queso fresco, and a potato is what was on the menu!!  :)

...and we ended the day with a fun game of dominoes!!  :)

Here's to a fun end to the week, and a fabulous stormy sunday afternoon spent with family!!  :)

I can't wait to see what blessings, next week brings...

Have a good one everyone!!  :)

Cards

Card making Sunday has become sort of a tradition, once a month Mike's Aunt Michelle holds a workshop and Gaby and I go... We have so much fun making cards, eating, and catching up with Michael's family!!  :)

Our setup!  :)

the pretty cards we made this time around!!  :)  they were mostly thank you, friendship and birthday cards, and we used these super cute mug stamps that I think I need to have..  I just decided that right now, when I was looking at the cards again!!  I LOVE them!!  :)  One day I will have a craft room where I can have all of my goodies set up..  ;)

...and we also made a super cute gift card holder...  :)

....and on the way home we enjoyed a little stormy weather!!  :)  some rain and these awesome clouds!!  :)

Thank you Aunt Michelle, we can't wait for the next card making day!!  :)

Random

I was going thru my phone today...  and noticed that there are a lot of "randomness" sort of pictures on there that I haven't downloaded yet...  so today is a good day for that!  it's a small glimpse of the serious randomness that is my life...  and a little peek, inside what I am grateful for and blessed with EVERYDAY!!!  :)  In no particular order, random pictures from the good ol' phone!!  ;)

Pretty, Pretty sunsets!  LOVE, LOVE these!!  and I can't get enough of them...  as you will soon see!  ;)

....and the puppy, and spending time with him!!  ;)

another pretty sunset, or two or three!!  ;)

...and I was lucky enough to be able to visit with Miss Leanna, Dave and Marcela again...  I made them dinner and hung out with the oh so cute and sweet new baby girl...  I couldn't believe how much she had grown in such a short period of time!!  :)  It was seriously LOVE at first sight...  I can't wait to visit with them again!!  :)

.....and I woke up one morning to snow in the mountains behind my house!!  that's always super exciting!!  :)  and oh so pretty!

...haha!!  this picture makes me laugh..  Mike took it one day on their way home...  I think Sisco was saying, "bye bye grandma, see you tomorrow!"  ;)  We have seriously all fallen in love with that guy!!  :)  GREAT shot Michael!!

...and one day I decided banana bread sounded good...  so I made some...  I cheated a little, it wasn't from scratch, but I did put many real bananas in it!!  and it definitely hit the spot!!  :)

another awesome sunset over the lake!!  :)

....and Valentines day goodies!!  :)

...and somewhere in the last few weeks my mom made homemade arroz con leche / rice pudding...  it was sooooooo good, I think I should post the recipe, maybe soon!  maybe I can talk her into teaching  me how to make it!!  ;)

BREATHTAKINGLY AMAZING!!

Reading/snuggle time with the kiddos...  it's moments like these that melt my heart and truly make me feel grateful that they love me as much as I love them!!  :)

Ed's macaroni casserole!

Grandpa Ed used to make the BEST macaroni casserole EVER!!  I still crave it...  It's mostly on cold winter days though...  So on this day I decided I wanted it, I bought the stuff to make it, and then I made it for dinner...  It was Yummy and Super easy...  You literally only need 3 ingredients!  ;)

What you'll need:

1 box of mac and cheese

1 package of kielbasa, I used the beef kielbasa...  but anyone works, Turkey's good if you're trying to save on calories

and a 1 or 2 tomatoes... enough to layer twice

we LOVE the sausage part here...  so I made 2...  ;)  and I like it with extra tomatoes... 

cook the mac and cheese according to the directions on the box, while that's cooking steam cook the sausage, I did it in about 4 tablespoons of water, in a skillet, for about 15 minutes....

when that's done, take them out of the skillet and let it cool, before  you slice the sausage...  It'll need to be sliced so you can layer it as well...

when the mac and cheese is cooked, layer some on the bottom, enough to cover the bottom, then layer the sausage and tomato slices, and repeat...

Bake at 350 for 25 minutes, or until the top is golden brown...  and enjoy!!  :)

Monster truck cake 3/24

A few years ago I took some cake decorating classes...  I LOVED THEM!  and from that my LOVE of baking, and decorating was re-born.  It's the best way I know how to "relax"!  :)

It's my motto!  :)

It seems that ever since then, I have been making birthday cakes for the kids, and for baby showers, and cupcakes, and treats for whatever occasion/party we seem to be throwing...  and I've LOVED every minute of it...  I think the kids one's have been my favorite so far...  I think it's the look they get when they see it...  :)

I LOVE it, it completely overflows my "Love life cup!"  and I have my wonderful friends to thank for that..  and my loving cousin too...  If it wasn't for you guys, there would be no kid cake creations happening at all!!  :)

This creation was no different, except for the fact that I thought we would be creating angry bird treats...  I will be honest, "scared," is the first emotion I felt when I realized Mr. Luke had changed his mind, how in the world would I create a monster truck.....  Creativity is NOT my strongest quality!  ;)

After a little research and some help from the cake decorator at work, I/we came up with this.... 

Step 1:

The body....

not bad huh?  we/she cut a full sheet of cake into pieces,

first in half, then one of the halves became the bottom piece and the other half we/she cut into half again, and one of those became the middle front piece, and the other half was cut into half again to create the top/windshield part and the sides back of the monster truck...  there was 2 pieces left over that we ended up eating!!  ;)  I had to taste it, and make sure it tasted right!!  ;)

so just like that I was ready...  I ran home with my "truck", and some flames that I had printed on edible paper, I got the decorating stuff, and frosting and got ready to decorate!!  :)  I was no longer scared, I was super excited though!!  :)

....and just like that, it started to look a little monster truckish!  ;)  I used yellow candy melts for the headlights!  and the birthday boy requested a green truck, so green it was!  :)

...almost done...  This is by far the easiest cake I've decorated, aside from the princess one, but this one was definitely the one that caused the more thought, and stress, not in a bad way, but definitely in a I hope I'm going to be able to do this way, aside from the pirate ship cake this was the only other 3D one I've ever made!!  ;)

I used chocolate donuts for tires...  and put the flames around the truck!

towards the end I remembered that the birthday boy requested orange frosting too, like the avenger, so I added Happy Birthday and the number 4 (his age) to the top of the truck, in orange!  :)

Jessica bought these cute pans online, we set the cake in there and I preceded to add more "dirt"...  and Luke added his special touch by making his real cars crash into the monster truck...  Nice!!  :)

...and I finally posted this online for people to see!!  :)  the monster truck from all angles!!  ;)  One can never have enough pictures!!  ;)

....and I think the birthday boy liked it alright...  ;)

 The birthday boy also requested avenger colored funnyfatty cupcakes...  so that's what he got....  funnyfatty orange and green cupcakes, and we topped them with racing flags!!  :)

 I'm pretty sure I was happy with the cake too!!  ;)

Happy 4th Birthday Lukey!  I hope you enjoyed your cake....  ;)

I LOVE YOU!!  :)

Shortly after people started arriving, and I decided to go play with the children for a while...

Miss Ella and i had fun sliding down the slide... 

...and there was lots of bubbles blowing around...

 

 and as soon as I get Jessica's pictures I will add more...  There may of been a nap somewhere in there for me too!!  ;)