Pizza, Pizza!

This was an amazing BBQ chicken pizza the hubby and I made! All you do is mix barbeque sauce in with the tomato sauce. Then we topped with shredded chicken, mozzarella and pineapple. Delicious. I'm thinking next time we'll also sautee up some red onions and mushrooms.

Birthday Muffins <3

Yesterday the love of my life turned 25 :)

We had ourselves a nice lazy day of lounging around, watching TV and eating. Always lots of eating.

To start out our eating I got up and made my hubby his new favorite..... Pumpkin Cheesecake Muffins!

They are super delicious and actually pretty simple. My hubby doesn't really like cakes and cookies and such so it makes me so excited to find recipes he really enjoys. These muffins are destined to be a part of our lives from now on.

Go Pokes!

I've discovered that there is a lack of orange in my closet. And seeing as how I live in Stillwater, that will never do. So I decided to try my hand at a tee shirt craft with an old large tee shirt I got for $0.25 at a resale shop. Here's what I came away with :)

Sisterly Love

My wonderful little sister recently celebrated a landmark birthday and I hosted a gathering in her honor. When I asked her what kind of cake she wanted (my mother is known for making fantastic cakes for us on our birthdays and I wanted to follow that tradition) sister replied she wanted a white cake with white frosting. I said okay, but knew that wasn't gonna cut it. So I  looked up how to make a tie-dye cake :)

I had a lot of fun with this project and even more fun surprising her with it!
First you just make cake batter. I did my classic soda pop cake - cake mix and 12oz of diet soda = 1 WW point cake <3

Then you divide the cake batter into containers (one for every color you're gonna use) and add your food coloring. I did six different colors and used Eskimo Joe's cups.

I made this one as a two layered round cake so I took my two pans and got to work. The idea is that you layer each color on top of the next. So I started with red on the bottom, using most of the red batter, then poured the orange on top of that and so on and so forth. If you pour it in the center, it kind of pushes the previous batter to the edges and works itself out. And then the second pan was done in the opposite color pattern (starting with the purple).

Roll it, bake it and mark it with an M for Molly :)

Like I said, I wanted to surprise her so here's what she saw....

The big reveal!!

So there it is, I made my sister the most colorful white cake ever!
And I'm pretty sure I got addicted to making fun colored cakes in the process :)

Family Ties

I have some major catching up to do! So let's rewind a few weeks to a very special occasion. Austin's grandparents celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary! And for the first time in years all of their children and grandchildren gathered in one place! And then all of their siblings joined in the fun! It was truely a special time <3

To try and capture the moment for this extraordinary couple, we tackled a rather involved photography craft. Hubby and I got those big wooden craft letters from Hobby Lobby spelling out the family name and painted them red. We prepped a long frame with a custom mat to fit 8 4X6 photos side by side. Then we headed off for the great event.

As the family started gathering, we would take people aside one couple or sibling set at a time and snap a pic of them with one of the wooden letters. (Of course my OCD self had it all planned out where the oldest child and his wife had the first letter and then his kids, etc  down the line.)

Once the pictures were taken I emailed them to my ever-amazing sister who did some quick edits to make the photos black and white while leaving the letters red. Then  we got the printed etc etc. And here is what we ended up with!

There's a couple of shots that could use a little more editing, but all-in-all it came togetherly beautifully! And they could not have been more pleased. Gram is one of those grandmothers that is all about her family pictures (there must be thousands all over her house) so this was right up her alley :)

Roadtrip!

Friday night the hubby and I took off on a little roadtrip to Fayetteville. We loaded up his show truck which he planned to trade off for a motorcycle. All didn't go exactly as planned and we ended up hauling the truck the 200 miles back to Stilly.

Fortunately, it wasn't all for not. We got to spend some quality time with an old friend. Helen not only allowed us to stay in her home but she fixed us an amazing quiche! We are so glad that we got to catch up with such a great friend. <3

Give a Little

Lately I've been trying to focus more energy on giving back. Not that I'm a taker by nature, but I feel like giving is the best way to express my love and support of all the people who love and support me and my family. Plus, giving can be so much fun!

My husband and I did some pretty cool giving this last weekend; we gave our home and hospitality to all the summer staff members at St. Crispin's. That's right! We had a big ole party! Complete with grilling, dancing and a sleepover!

All of our friends at St. C's mean the world to us and there is no way that we could ever repay them for the friendship they have given us. But we hope that can at least give back a little of that same kindness.