You Make Me Want To Jump!

Do you remember being little and wanting to jump on the bed? I do...and well, I wasn't allowed. When my boys were little I didn't let them jump on the bed, even though they did it any ways. Now, I don't care if they jump on the bed. Come on it's fun!!!!! Addison is the one that I catch jumping for joy every now and then.

I could hear Addison giggling the other day and I walked in her room to find her having a good ole' time jumping on her bed (well her spare bed, she says she doesn't want to break her bed LOL). I grabbed my camera and snapped away.




It's funny how when you snap a picture you can really catch the delight in their little faces.





Look at her....she is having a ball!!!!




Whoa!!!! Would you look at those moves!!!!!!



To all Matilda Jane fans...I will be having an online show in a few days. If you would like to be added to the email list to see the new line please leave me your email in the comments and I will not post it. The new line is REALLY cute!!!! Very different!!!!

Hope your day is full of giggles and laughter....maybe I'll jump on the bed with my little one today...sure looks like fun!!!

Recipe Monday

Yes it's time for Recipe Monday. I admit that I almost did not post today...Today is a difficult day for me. My Aunt Jeanine, who is my mother's sister is having a difficult surgery this morning. It was discovered a few weeks ago that she has cancer in her mouth (under her tongue). My aunt doesn't smoke so this was surprising news to all of us.

Jeanine and I are very close. We are only 8 1/2 years a part so we are more like sisters. People often ask me if life was difficult as an only child and I always answer no...I never felt like an only child. I was with my Aunt almost every day. I love her so very very much.

Up until 11 years ago when we moved to the midwest Jeanine and I lived only minutes apart in southern Ca. The move has been difficult on both of us. We really miss each other. We take a trip together each year (a cruise). Her two boys are very close to my boys. In fact my son Chris will be flying to Vegas soon to meet Jeanines two boys and to celebrate her youngest son's 21st birthday.

Jeanine lost a full term baby girl 18 years ago who shares my middle name. Jeanine lost her husband 10 years ago and she beat breast cancer a few years ago. Jeanine is a very strong woman and I hope that some day I can be as strong and beautiful as she is...inside and out.

Jeanine will be in the hospital for approx. 7 days with a tracheotomy. I know that she is very scared and I am asking for prayers for her. Please pray that they can get all the cancer and that she will heal quickly.

Today I decided to post my favorite cruise drink in honor of my favorite ship mate, my Aunt Jeanine. I am often caught drinking this yummy drink at around 8:00 AM as soon as the bartender shows his face : )

I wanted to share my favorite picture of me and Jeanine...as you can see we loved each other so very much...from the time I was born she took very good care of me. She still takes very good care of me. I wish I could be with her through this difficult time...

Dirty Banana

1 ounce rum cream liqueur (sort of like Bailey's, but with rum)
1 ounce rum-based coffee liqueur
splash of hazelnut or almond liqueur
2 ounces milk ( I use skim, the rum liqueur is very rich)
1/2 ripe banana, peeled
1 cup of ice


Combine all ingredients in a blender. Blend until an ice cream consistency is achieved. Pour in a glass and enjoy!!!!!!

I sometimes use vanilla ice cream in place of ice : )

Don't forget a little umbrella....



Of course I can't just post a drink with out a little snack to go with it..

Baked Caprese Salad

1 baguette, sliced 1/2 inch thick
1/4 cup of olive oil (I like to use garlic olive oil)
Kosher salt
5-6 Roma tomatoes, sliced
Freshly ground pepper
1 1/4 lbs of fresh mozzarella cheese, sliced thin
Leaves from 1 bunch of fresh basil

Preheat oven to 400. Arrange the baguette slices on a baking sheet, brush with olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Bake for approx.5 minutes or until the bread is golden and crisp. Top each slice of bread with a slice of tomato and sprinkle with salt. Top with a slice of mozzarella cheese and sprinkle with salt. Return baking sheet to oven and bake until the tomato and cheese are warm, approx. 5 minutes

Arrange the toasts on a platter. Top each toast with a basil leaf. I like to chop the basil leaves up and sprinkle some on top but if your serving for guest they look nicer topped with a whole basil leaf. Drizzle a little more olive oil over the basil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper....Enjoy!!!!

Friday's Finds

Welcome to Friday's Finds....


With Chinese New Year approaching I thought I would share an adorable cook book that I bought for my girls. It's by Handstand kids



It comes in this adorable little take out box with a set of chop sticks.The recipes are easy to make and yummy!!






If you are looking for great chopsticks for little hands Merae Asian Living has a wonderful selection. I love the training chopsticks. I still need the training chopsticks : )





One of my most favorite sites around is China Sprout I have ordered so much from China Sprout. I give my girls a few little things on CNY. I always give them new chopsticks, a book on CNY, jewelry and money (red envelopes). This year CNY falls on Valentines Day so we will be celebrating both!!!

I love this cute little ladybug necklace.








Love love love Circle of Friends products for my girls. My absolute favorite is the Tea Tree shampoo and leave in conditioner..It smells like lavender and it's wonderful!!! The products leave my girls hair so silky and smooth.




If you would like to link to Mister Linky please link away but leave a comment...I am getting a lot of spam linked. If you do not leave a comment I will have to delete your link.

B&W Wednesday

I am really enjoying B&W Wednesday. I have a collection of B&W photographs (framed) that I started about 1 1/2 years ago...where are they? In my closet neatly stacked waiting to be hung. My plan was to hang them along the wall in the staircase leading down to the basement...but after collecting 6 framed b&w's I stopped...got side tracked and moved on to something else. Now I am hopefully back on track and will be able to complete my project soon...Thanks Lisa for starting this kicking rear in to gear : )

This week I did something a bit different. I am showing the before and after. The first picture has not been processed. Not that it's a great picture...because it clearly is not LOL in fact it was getting ready to head to the "trash can" when I decided to give it a second chance at life..

I enjoy using actions because they can give you a wonderful starting point. I usually have to play around with the action because rarely will the coloring work perfectly for my photograph. I used a B&W action that I created a few weeks ago. The action left the flowers looking soft and pretty but I wanted to warm them up and give them a little texture...again the picture was not great and needed desperate help. I added two of my textures and suddenly some of my flaws were covered!!!!

I choose to turn this picture of Addison in to B&W because the picture needed some softness to it.

Can't wait to visit all of you and see what you posted today!!!! Happy B&W Wednesday!!!!

Recipe Monday

I'm thinking Superbowl this week!!!!! Here are a few recipes from our football lovin' house to yours!!!!

Christopher's Guacamole Dip

My son Chris loves to cook and he is very good at it. This is his recipe for Guacamole

2 ripe avocados
1/2 med. tomato, chopped
1 T.finely chopped onion, or more to taste
Juice from half of a lime
1 jalapeno pepper, chopped
1 T. chopped ciliantro
1 tsp. garlic powder, or more to taste
1 tsp. salt

Peel avocados. Remove and discard the pits. Mash the avocados in a medium bowl. Add remaining ingredients; mix well. When I make this, I go by taste. You can add more or less of any ingredient as desired. For best results, do not mix ingredients in electric blender.


Fruit Dip
(This is my favorite)

4 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup thawed cool whip
Whipped topping
1/2 cup sour cream
6 T. brown sugar
6 T. KAHLUA (oh yummy)

Mix all ingredients together; cover and refrigerate. Serve with fresh fruit dippers, such as apple slices, strawberries, melon chunks and/or grapes (or it right out of the bowl like me). Sprinkle dip lightly with brown sugar just before serving if desired (trust me, you will desire).

Conga Dip

1 8 oz brick of cream cheese
1 can of chili
8 oz. grated cheddar cheese
1 bag of tortilla chips

Soften cream cheese in a microwave safe dish for approx. 20 seconds. Spread the cream cheese evenly over the bottom of a medium baking dish.
Spread the chili on top of the cream cheese. Sprinkle the cheese on top and bake on 350 until the cheese melts.
Serve with tortilla chips....yummy yummy!!!! And easy!!!!!

Shrimp Dip

3 oz. cream cheese
2 t. lemon juice
1 can small shrimp, drained and rinsed
1 cup sour cream
1 pkg. Good Seasons Italian Salad Mix

Mix all together. Chill at least 4 hours (best if made up the day before) Serve with crackers.

We usually have a lot of appetizers on Superbowl Sunday along with sandwiches, chili and Mac n Cheese....and we always save room for dessert (gee wonder why we're not a skinny family).

If you would like to join in and post a recipe on your blog...you can link up to Mister Linkey. : )

And The Winner Is

Here's my little helper Addison...making sure to keep her eyes closed (not that she can read the names any ways, but she thinks she can) so as not to cheat.

And the winner is.....

APRIL from Mei Mei s and Mayhem!!!! Yay for April!!!!


Miss April leave me your email in the comments and I won't publish it...I will email you sweet girl to get your address!!!!!! : ) I went for the large candle instead of the medium...more for the buck!!! : )

Some Girls Are Born With Glitter In Their Veins

Little update....We will draw a name tomorrow morning for the Summer in Winter Give Away...you can enter up until midnight tonight...just leave a comment in the Friday's Finds post and you will be entered!!!

Also on Monday if you would like to participate in Recipe Monday please know there is NO NEED to post a picture with your recipe...this is not about photography...I'm in it for the FOOD!!!!! : P

Since we are close to Superbowl Sunday I am going to post some of our families favorite party recipes. If you have a favorite party recipe or any recipe that you love.... post away!!!!

Friday's Finds and.......

It's Friday!!!! Today I thought I would add a twist to Friday's Finds!!! It's not like I have discovered something that many of you won't already be familiar with. What you may not know is that The Body Shop has the best body butters ever!!!!!

I find myself experiencing the "Winter Blues" right around now every year. I slather myself in coconut body butter from where else....The Body Shop!!! It smells like Hawaiian Tropic Oil..you know, that oil that you used to smear all over yourself in the summer only to find out years later that it's not very good for you considering it has no protection against the sun...but let's face it, it smells heavenly!!! Not only does this body butter smell wonderful but it is fantastic for very dry skin. My girls have very dry skin...I use both the Body Shop Shea and coconut butters on them. It has really helped their skin (I sound like a walking billboard).

I also love to burn a yankee candle called Coconut Bay. It smells so good.

Recently I was buying make-up at the Bobbi Brown counter and came across a perfume of hers called Beach. It's wonderful. According to the woman behind the make-up counter, Bobbi Brown created the perfume from one of her favorite childhood scents...the smell of coppertone. I have to be very careful with perfume because I get migraines if the perfume is too strong, but not "Beach"...I can spray that stuff all over the place. I'm sure the rest of my household does'nt appreciate my strong summer smell..but who cares, if momma's happy, we're all happy!!! Right!

So here's the deal...I decided to share a little bit of my "summer in the winter time" with you....I am doing a little give-away. I will be giving away one large coconut body butter, a coconut scrub and a medium coconut bay Yankee Candle....sorry but your on your own with the perfume : )

To be entered in the little give away just leave a comment. I will draw a name on Sunday!!

One last little thing to share. We bought Livi an ipod for Christmas. I found a cute little speaker from PB teen. We bought the once with peace signs. I didn't expect the sound to be that great considering the price...but the sound is pretty darn good!! I love that Livi can take it any where with her because it runs on batteries and it's tiny.

If you have a favorite that you would like to share just leave your site on good ole' Mister Linky.

Addison in Black & White

Once again it's black and white Wednesday and I had to scramble to get my picture in. : ) I made it!!!!

This picture is from Easter. It's been fun revamping some older pictures in to black and white!!!!

iHeart Faces

This weeks photo challenge over at iheartfaces is texture.




My sweet little Addison who is always eager to pose for Mommy...especially if theirs a bribe involved LOL

I used two different textures in this picture and an overlay.

Make sure that you visit iheartfaces and take a peek at all the beautiful textured entries...so much talent over there.