mid-day partial post

Hi hi hi!!! Here are some more photos from yesterday.  I am still nowhere near done editing all of the baptism photos, hehe.  I had AJ + Jenna over for breakfast today since they are on break, but those will get posted later tonight.  I haven’t even gotten to the Channukah party photos yet either.  I’m about to go run errands with my mom!  I’ll post again late tonight, like normal :)

I don’t normally add extra things to my food to make photos turn out better.  However, this bowl of oats was way too brown for my liking.  It looked like a bowl of…..you get my point ;)

Like I said in the previous post about the molasses oats, they were too sweet.  I made my normal banana oats with 1/2 oats + 1/2 oatbran + small banana.  I used 1T molasses and no other sweetener.  I couldn’t finish them all.  A little too intense!

More ornament photos!

Cookie time!

Bakin’ away.

My all natural/organic recipe for molasses cookies will be posted soon! Stay tuned!

Rollin’ away.

Shoes!

Me again…snooze, hehe

Holiday decor at our house.

Loooove mr.moose…my mom got it at crate + barrel last year.

A few more baptism photos.

“la la la la la”

I had a yummy chocolate pizzelle.

Megan had an awesome spread of food!  She made deeelicious chicken marsala, for the whole party!!

Gift table.

Logan + Dominic [the cute little baby] and their cousins.

Awesome cakes that Megan and her sis made and decorated!  I definitely had a slice of the vanilla :)

Cake face boy!  Lots of concentration opening a gift.

so so so stinkin cute!

Megan + her hubby, Anthony :)

The Godparents.

I tried to “paper-mache” this one for A.J.

My bro, Josh, got the pineapple.

Jenna got the one with the crazy paper bag ribbons.

I wrapped the photo books to look like the original WF bags.

Allllllllllll done for now!!!

~Ashley

more later today!!

Hello there.  Again, it is 2am.  I think I am still on Colorado time!  I don’t want to sleep the morning away so I had to stop editing photos and just put up a quick preview.  Yesterday was packed FULL of action.  I have tunzzz of photos to go through, especially from Megan’s kids’ baptism.  Okay…less talky talky

Molasses Oatmeal – firs time making it….didn’t realize how sweet molasses is! kind of “ick”

Ornaments I made for Logan + Dominic with the date of their baptism.

Molasses cookie time with dad.

My favorite shoes.

Logan!! Love him!

Megan’s cute lil’ family :)

My reused wrapping paper!  These went over really well, hehe.  I tried to make them fun!  I think the one package looks like a pineapple ;)

Like I said…..much more tomorrow!!!!

Gooooooodnight!

~Ashley

crabby oats

Lots of photos + little text, because again it is 1:30am.  Whooooops.

I went to the pilates class at 9am this morning and it rocked my socks!  I loved it.  The class was super challenging and reallllly worked my core [abs + back].  It was the first time I could really feel that if I did this often, my back [core] would be so much stronger.  The “legs” part killed me!  It was so so hard.  Already sore in new places :)

Before I left for pilates, a tired faced Ashley, ate a banana with almond butter.

Let is snoooooooow

Took this bar in my purse for after class because I had to run a few errands and new I would be starving.  I finally found the German Chocolate LARABAR!  Too bad I didn’t like it at ALL.  It had a really funky aftertaste.  It was similar to the chocolate-coconut but that is much better.

I wouldn’t buy this bar again.

I came home around 11 and had some crabby oats :)

Pretty sure the bowl is for crab dip, hehe.

I used to LOVE this spoon when I was younger.  I think we bought it from one of those cereal box deals or something. 

Toucan Sam!

Oats/Oatbran + 1/4 blueberry muffin + 1t honey + pnutty glob

My mom got an amazing box of truffles.  Gorgeous!!!  They are really unique…a few have lavender in them!

My parents were both busy during the day, so I went to my aunt, uncle, + cousin’s [aj + jenna] house to make a yummy lunch.

MENU:

• oven roasted sweet tater fries with: s+p, olive oil, dash ground cinnamon, dash sugar
• oven roasted brussel sprouts + kale with: s+p + olive oil
• grilled cheese on organic jewish rye [from WF] and local swiss cheese

So so so so good + simple!!! My cousin Jenna is not the biggest vegetable fan and LOVED the kale + sprouts.  She actually took seconds.  Everyone was shocked.  My Aunt could not get over how delicious the kale was.  4 more kale fans…oh yaaaaah!!!  

Playing with daylight + my camera ;)

The best sweet potato fries I have made!

oh.so.good.

I finally tried the Peppermint Cream coffee, from The Fresh Market, that Kath has been raving about this winter.  It was delicious and refreshing.  It had a little extra kick with the peppermint flavor that you normally don’t get from regular coffee.  Loved it!

Also, love this mug + spoon!

Awesome cupcakes that I look forward to every year!!! The frosting melts in your mouth…I think it’s like half cool whip + half buttercream.  I ate 1/2 of one later in the night after dinner.

So pretty!

Holiday decor at my aunt + uncle’s house.  The Hanukkah candle bowl w/Christmas candy canes, hehe.

Went out to din with my g’rents + cousins.  After we came back to my cousin’s house and made ornaments.  I wanted to make 2 for my friend’s kids that are getting baptized tomorrow.  I put their names and the baptism date on them.  They turned out super cute.  Ornaments are such an easy and affordable, DIY gift.  We all made a few + blasted music from grooveshark.com.  I let them pick out any songs they wanted.  It was super FUN!!!

I figured out the perfect way to let them dry!!! You just have to be careful to not have paint where the cup touches.  It worked perfectly!

Then we made a trial batch of my dad’s infamous molasses cookies.  He makes them every year, and my bro + I always used to help.  Well, these are DEFinitely not in any way a healthy cookie, but sometimes sweets are meant to be sinful!  However, this year, I did try to make them a little more natural/organic.  I used organic unbleached flour, sucanant [instead of brown sugar], organic molasses, pure cane sugar for dipping the dough, and butter instead of crisco because crisco is 100% trans fat [eeeeeeek!].

They were totally successful.  We’re making about 10 batches tomorrow!

Jenna [11] AJ [14]

Cookie paRtaY

They were super doughy and soft on the inside, with a bit of a crunchy exterior.  I ate TWO and I’m sure many more will be consumed tomorrow. 

I hear my bed calling my name…I must go see what it wants….Bizzzzy day tomorrow!!

• bake all morning with dad
• go to baptism for my friend’s kids + lunch afterwards
• help mom with a little cleaning to get ready for company + help dad package cookies
• shower
• Hanukkah family parTay

Adioooooooos!

~Ashley