Hot Chocolate

It has been mighty cold here in south Texas,

and by cold, I mean in the 50's.

People are acting like it's the next ice age,

and by people, I mean my kids.

So I've warmed them up with an 'All You Can Drink' 

hot chocolate bar...

Creamer Family Hot Chocolate Mix

Mix together equal quantities of:

Unsweetened Cocoa

Sugar

Dried milk

Powdered coffee creamer 

(I like a flavored one like French vanilla)

Mix together and store in an air tight container.

Put 2-3 teaspoons of mix into warmed milk or water.

Just remember to drink responsibly!

Just call me Lady Marmalade

The very first fruit tree I planted in our backyard was a Satsuma Mandarin orange tree.  We've only gotten 2-3 oranges the past couple of years, but this year we are up to our eyeballs in oranges!

 I thought a great way to preserve them would be in a batch of marmalade.

Ingredients:

About 9 medium sized Mandarin oranges

Juice of two lemons

Approx 2 cups of water

3 cups of sugar

Peel oranges. Scrape the white pith off the peels using a butter knife or edge of a spoon. Cut the peel into fine strips. The amount of peel depends on whether you'd like more or less of it. I used almost 2 cups of cut peel. Place cut peel into a large pot and add the 2 cups of water. (If you're using more peel, add enough water to cover the contents of the pot).

Boil peel until soft, about 10 minutes. Measure out the liquid that's left (I had about 1 cup) and replace with the same amount of fresh water. Do this to lessen the bitterness, you can always omit this step if you like your marmalade more bitter. 

While the peel is boiling, pick off as much of the white pith and membranes of the oranges segments as you can. Also remove any seeds. Place fruit and lemon juice in a food processor and puree til an almost smooth consistency. Add this mixture together with peel and water into a large stainless steel pot and bring to a boil.

Add sugar. Stir often until consistency thickens, about 30 mins. depending on how juicy the fruits are, or until a candy thermometer reaches 220˚F (104˚C), that's the gelling stage.

In my batch below, I decided to just thinly slice my lemon instead of juicing it.  I like the look of "slices" in the marmalade and it also added a nice texture.

Fill into sterilized jars, seal with their lids and allow the jars to sit in a hot water bath for 10 mins. Remove and let cool at room temperature until you hear the "pop" of the button on the lid.  That means it's sealed properly and those jars will keep on the shelves for months. Those that don't seal properly can be kept in the fridge.

This is seriously good stuff!

It might even make you sing, 

"Gitchi Gitchi Ya Ya Da Da!"

Halloween, just a few days late!

We had a super fun day on All Hallow's Eve starting with pumpkin carving.  The boys did great jobs on their pumpkins 

(and freaking out Mary Grace with "pumpkin guts!).

  

Kyle carved this awesome skull in a cave:

We stopped buying costumes years ago because I insist that we make them, I think it's sooo much more fun that way!
We had watched, "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" a few days earlier and Danny thought it would be funny to be Charlie Brown in his ghost costume.  There really is nothing better than a plain white sheet and black paint for a ghost costume!

"Did you get anything good in your treat bag, Dan?"

"I got a rock."

John Paul totally embraces the 

guts and gore of the season:

A little face paint and LOTS of fake blood 

and we have the "Turtle Creek Slasher!"

Last of all is the 

PRINCESS!

I made this princess dress without even asking Mary Grace what she wanted to be.  After raising four boys, I was going to get my pretty pink princess, dag-nabit!  

When I revealed her dress to her she was totally disappointed.

"I want to be Cookie Monster!" she said.

"Too bad, sister!  You're a princess THIS year!" I said.

And once she realized people give you candy, 

she was OK with it.

Now time to raid my kid's candy bags,
but not Danny's, 
all he got were rocks!

Happy Halloween!

Because I'm too cheap to buy a card...

Happy Anniversary,

Doug E.Poo!

October birthdays

This past week was book-ended by birthdays!

Mary Grace and John Paul's birthdays are just a mere six days apart, which means lots of cake, presents, and celebrating...heck, it might as well be called 'Birthday Week!'

Mary Grace turned THREE!

I can't believe our sweet little baby is a big girl now!

We celebrated with a shopping trip to Build-A-Bear.  Mary picked a pink ballerina bear, complete with tutu and pink slippers. Pizza, cake, and ice cream were on the menu that evening as we had a book party for the birthday girl.  
She absolutely adores books!

A few days later, John Paul turned THIRTEEN!

He's very happy to finally be a teen ager now, and reminds us of his status quite frequently.  All he wanted to do on his special day was go to Barnes & Noble for books and then to the craft store for painting supplies. 
I cannot tell you how happy that makes me!

You might have noticed that the cakes look the same.  I found an awesome recipe on Pinterest for 'Crack Cake' because when you're thinking of a cake for children, you want to hear the words "crack" and "wine" right?

Crack Cake

**1 box Duncan Hines yellow cake mix 

1/4 c brown sugar 

1/4 c white sugar 

**1 box vanilla pudding instant mix 

**2 teaspoons cinnamon 

4 eggs 

3/4 c water 

3/4 c oil 

1/2 c white wine (really any kind) 

 Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 

Mix the above ingredients by hand or hand mixer. 

 Grease a bundt pan. Pour into pan. Bake for 50 minutes.

 When cake comes out of the oven... 

 Melt 1 stick butter into 1 cup sugar and 1/4 cup wine.

 Pour over hot cake. Cool. Flip out of pan onto plate and serve.

**JP wanted a lemon cake so I used: 

1 box lemon cake mix

1 box lemon pudding mix

2 teaspoons lemon zest

This cake is delicious and super moist!

It gets better the longer it sits,

so make it the day before!

Dark Ocean Dreams

Our son, Ryan, works for the salon Visible Changes.  Each year they offer up a hair show of up and coming talent.  Ryan and his partner for the event, Michael, competed along with 50+ other stylists in this year's theme:

 'Dark Ocean Dreams.'

From left to right: Ryan, Brittany, Michael

Their creation was this stunning

'Calypso Sea Goddess'

Unlike the other contestants, Ryan and Michael painted their model head to toe in beautiful sea green tones of make up.  They didn't use wigs, but the model's own hair which they molded around a balloon (then later popped to create a hollow shell of hair) that resembled an octopus.  Ombre green and blue extensions were curled into tentacles, and pearls and sequins framed her face along with lovely patina jewelry.  Her dress was completely hand made.

And as gorgeous as she is, 

the pictures just don't do their work justice!

She was truly a work of art.

She was also a favorite among the crowd, 

receiving deafening screams each time she walked the runway.

The guys had a great show and came in among the top ten, although, they were the winners of the whole show in my opinion!  We are so proud of Ryan and I am simply in awe of his talent.

He's only been with the company for three months.

I cannot wait to see what the future holds for him, 

great things I am sure!

Congratulations, Ryan and Michael!!!

Heavy is the head that wears the crown

Mary Grace is turning 3 this weekend!

She received a cute fabric crown on her first birthday (Thanks, Mrs. Janet!)

but the poor thing is so worn and won't fit her anymore.

I figured it was time for a new one.

I followed this tutorial, 

and in about half an hour 

she had a brand new crown.

And of course she needed 

a matching dress to go with it.

The Geranium Dress from Made by Rae
is the perfect party dress.

Turning three is going to be awesome!

And so it begins...

I walked outside barefoot the other day and discovered that the pecans were ready.  OUCH!

And so it begins, 

harvesting, cracking, and eating of the pecans.

It's a good time of year y'all.  

Thankfully, Mary Grace will scavenge for pecans for hours!

Unfortunately, so will our dog, Abby.

She will eat them shells and all.

She loves them so much and stalks me 

as soon as she hears me cracking the shells.

Our first pecan treats this fall:

Turtles ~ Creamer style!

Place a layer of mini pretzels on a sheet pan 

and top with a Rolo candy on each one.

Put pan in a 300 degree oven for 5 minutes.  

Top with pecan half and press gently.

Then place the pan in the freezer for a few minutes to set the chocolate up.

It's the perfect bite of salty, sweet, chewy, and crunchy!

Danny says we should top these with bacon next time...

don't tempt me child!

The Crochet Beanie

With cooler weather approaching, I've ditched my sewing machine and picked up my crochet hook to make some adorable beanies for the kids.

I am a self taught crocheter (is that even a word?).

And most of my projects have been from YouTube, 

in particular, from IHeartStitching

,

She shows you how to make everything from these adorable beanies to baby blankets, scarves, and dish cloths.  

The tutorials are simple and clear enough for a rookie like me, 

but look like they took hours to make!

And who doesn't love a warm, 

cozy hat for those chilly winter days?

Poop Happens!

Last week we were bombarded with lots of rain here in south Texas.  The natives were getting restless being cooped up for so many days, so I picked up some little things to keep them entertained.  One of the items was Play-Doh, because even at the age of 45, I still love the smell and squish of this stuff!

I also passed by a section of the toy aisle dedicated to pranking.  My boys LOVE pranking, especially when their victim is their father.  I saw a small Play-Doh like kit called...POO-DOH.

  

And as the mother of four boys, 

I knew my kids had to have it.

Let me tell you, this stuff did NOT disappoint!

There they were, the boys and Mary Grace, sitting around the kitchen table getting along, laughing, and telling every poop joke known to man...

and making every color of poop known to man...

for HOURS!

The kids got their prank on by putting some 

on the carpet for dad to discover after a hard days work.

Pretty real looking, right?

But being a veteran father of five, he fell for it for 

about half a second before getting retaliation.

A week later they are still giggling and joking about poop.  

They are also plotting and scheming.  

I'm not going to give away all the details, 

let's just say that the upcoming holiday season will be 

very eventful!

Running of the Bulls

On Sunday, Kyle and I participated in the 
Houston Texans 5k race, The Running of the Bulls.

Kyle is a HUGE Texans fan!  

So much so that he got up at 5:30am to head into Houston.  

Check out my still bloodshot eyes in our pre-race selfie...

The event was huge, but really fun.  The race course went all around NRG Stadium, the Astrodome, and the Texans practice field affectionately called "the bubble."  We really had the best time together and he totally pulled me through the race because I haven't worked out in weeks!

The race ended by running through the Texans Toro tunnel, which is the same one the football players run through at the start of games.  Here we are at the finish line, I'm a hot sweaty mess and Kyle didn't even break a sweat!

The after party was on the floor of the stadium, 

 which I believe was Kyle's whole motivation for going.

Well, that and CHEERLEADERS.

When Doug was about Kyle's age, he had some photo opps with the then Houston Oilers cheerleaders, the Derrick Dolls. 

Kyle thought it would be funny to recreate his dad's photo.

So here 'ya go...

Thanks for being my 5K buddy, Kyle!
But I think next time we'll ditch the cheerleaders 
and go on a zombie run instead!