Hailey’s First Trip to San Diego

Hailey’s first trip to San Diego happened to coincide with Easter weekend.  I was really nervous about the trip, but Hailey was AMAZING on the drive.  She did so great, she is such a good little road-tripper. 

Taking breaks helped break up the car seat time for Hailey. 

We got in late Saturday (but not so late that we couldn’t go enjoy dinner at our favorite Italian restaurant!)

Sunday it was Easter and time for Miss Hailey to open her very first Easter Basket!  (With a little help from mom and dad of course). 

I had no idea what to put in an Easter basket for a baby, but I think I did a pretty good job.  :)

Her basket is bigger than she is this year!

After opening her Easter basket, we posed for a family picture.

Later that day, Hailey got to meet her Great-Grandma!

We were fortunate that we got to see the majority of our relatives Easter weekend.  Our lucky little baby even got to take her first trip to the beach and pose with her mom, dad, and Grandpa!

Pumpkin Carving 2010

The "before" shot: 

Clearing out the pumpkin guts: 

Tracing the pattern:

Carving and trying not to injure myself: 

And the finished product!  

I think it is one of our better pumpkin carving attempts.  Today, we are enjoying the fruits of our labor (aka roasted pumpkin seeds!)

Okay, Okay, Okay!

Okay!!  I will FINALLY blog about Easter weekend.  Here's what we did:

1.)  We drove back to San Diego late Friday night.  No pics of that, sorry.

2.)  We took my Grandma out to Black Angus for lunch and to visit.  We had delicious food but terrible service.  That seems to pretty much be par for the course at Black Angus. 

3.)  We colored Easter eggs with Travis, Alex and Cindy:

(I made a special one for Moose since he couldn't be there)

4.)  My beautiful niece Natalie was born!!  Which was fabulous timing.  We went to the hospital to meet her on Easter morning:  :)

5.)  We hung out with Brett's fam' on Easter, and the kids had their Easter egg hunt.

(This is part of the fam.  We'll call this a fam faction™)

6.)  Everyone got jolted by a 7.2 earthquake, or whatever magnitude it was, I just remember it was a lot.

7.)  We went to the San Diego Zoo!!

(Here I am just hangin' with the monkeys.  Pun totally intended)

(This is me communing with the wildlife.  I look so comfortable in this situation)

(You Takin' to me?  Man I'm on a roll today.)  

8.)  Then, we met Travis for lunch @ the Zoo.

9.)  We went up to Carlsbad to visit my Dad & Margie and had a yummy dinner.

10.)  We decided on the drive from Carlsbad to Alpine to drive home late that night (Monday) rather than getting up super early on Tuesday to drive home.

11.)  Got a speeding ticket for going just a teensy bit over the speed limit.  In the middle of the desert.  In the middle of the night.  With no one else around.  It's ok.  I'm not bitter. 

And THAT is our Easter Update.  :)

My Easter Tree

I have recently been sorting through boxes and boxes of old holiday decorations and childhood keepsakes.  It has been a challenge to figure out what to keep and what to let go of.  As I was digging I came across this Easter tree.

It was one of my favorite decorations when I was a kid.  I loved setting it up and hanging all of the little Easter ornaments on it.  Unfortunately, it was showing a few signs of wear from 20+ years of existence.

I can totally relate.  

The ornaments themselves were looking a little tired...

And wonky*...

One armed rabbit anyone?  

And even a little scary...

What's up with that beak?

So, I decided to give the thing a face lift. 

I gave the bunnies a little sandy-sand...

Sorry bunnies.

Then I livened the whole thing up with a can of spring-green spray paint.

I was lucky enough to find these cool egg ornaments at Joann, but they needed a little something extra.  So naturally, I glittered them.

Now my little bunny Easter tree has been given a facelift, and looks like something out of this decade.  I am really pleased with the result.

*Hi Megan!  I think of you every time I use the word wonky!!

Happy Valentine's Day

Christmas Goodies

Sometimes my crafting/baking endeavors are incredibly successful.  Other times, not so much.  Things tend to be a little bit more romantic and festive in my head than they are in real life.  Kinda like last night when I said "Wouldn't it be so much more fun to hand-dip your own Oreos in white chocolate rather than buying them from the store?"

The answer is no.

It is, however, sticky and messy and tedious.  But since white chocolate dipped Oreos are one of Brett's favorite holiday treats, we'll consider it a labor of love.

Here is my one crowning victory:

And oodles of other not-so-attractive hand dipped Oreos.

No worries, though.  Even the ugly ones are still quite tasty.

These hand dipped pretzels, were much easier and less sticky and less messy to make, not to mention much more my style:

 Salty+Crunchy+Sweet=Holiday Happiness.  :)

Christmas Ornament Spruce Up

I was feeling a little bit bored this year with the Christmas ornament balls that we use as filler on our Christmas tree, so I thought I would spruce them up a bit. (Spruce--how's that for a little Christmas tree humor?)

 Here are the necessary ingredients:

-Plenty of ornament balls. I went to Big Lots and got the cheapest ones I could find. I'm not ashamed to admit that. Plus, then there's no love lost of you mess one up or drop one on your tile floor and it shatters into a million pieces. Not that I have any experience with either of those scenarios.

-You will also need some puff paint (craft glue would work too) and some glitter.

Fortunately, I still had my outrageously overpriced glitter on hand from last year's ornament project.

Then have at it! Use your glue/paint to create whatever design strikes you and then sprinkle with glitter.

After it's all dry a little rinse gets the excess glitter off.

Here are a few of mine:

 

 

 

A word to the wise: When you rinse off your ornaments do not use hot water. The hot water will cause the mysterious substance that makes the ball colored to come off. Again, not that I have any experience with this. 

I'm just sayin'. It could happen.

Deck The Halls

Christmas decorating has been in full swing here at the Vowles house.

 We went last week and picked out a Christmas Tree from Target.  It wasn't quite as exciting as years past when we have cut down our own tree, but we love our tree nonetheless.

We got the tree into place...

And then we strung it with lights and garland.

Now it's looking more Christmasy!

Finally, we hung our ornaments, and voila!

Bed, Bath & Beyond talked me into these festive red placemats to help our table be more Christmasy too.

(Have I told you about this table?  It was a $50 Craigslist find that we couldn't be happier with.  Definitely a good replacement for our other table that did not survive the move!)  

They also talked me into some cinnamon scented pine cones that I used to make this DIY centerpiece.  I just filled a pretty bowl with the cinnamon scented pine cones and added a few sprigs of glittery flowers from Michael's and you have an instant centerpiece! 

More Christmas-related posts to follow.  Happy decorating, everyone!

Sweet Potato Cupcakes

Ok, so I will tell you up front that I am not the biggest sweet potato fan. Never liked them. However, I was recently inspired by Homemade Iowa Life (a blog I discovered) to try out a recipe for them for Thanksgiving.

Oh. My. God.

These things are absolutely delicious. No amount of description could possibly convey how amazing these are. They are the perfect blend of flavors and spices, without being overly sweet. Definitely a new holiday favorite.

Ingredients:
-2 cups all purpose flour
-2 teaspoons baking powder
-1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
-1/2 teaspoon baking soda
-1/4 teaspoon salt
-1 cup butter, softened
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
-3 eggs
-1 15 oz. can sweet potatoes, drained and mashed
-1/2 teaspoon vanilla
-small marshmallows, if desired

Directions:

1.) Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 24 standard size cupcake/muffin cups with paper cups and set aside.

2.) In a medium bowl combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt.

3.) In a large mixing bowl, beat butter for 30 seconds.

4.) Add sugar and beat on high until light and fluffy, approximately 2 minutes.

5.) Add in eggs, one at a time, beating on low speed after each addition until combined.

6.) Add sweet potato and vanilla, beating until combined.

7.) Add in dry ingredients and continue beating until all ingredients are combined. The batter will be thick.

8.) Divide batter evenly among the muffin cups. Bake for 20 minutes.

9.) Remove cupcakes from the oven and sprinkle with granulated sugar while they are still warm.


The cupcakes were absolutely delicious and perfect at this point, but since it was Thanksgiving and all I thought I would add some marshmallows. If you wish to add marshmallows, pile a few on top of each cupcake and stick the whole pan under the broiler until the marshmallows are nicely toasted.


Enjoy!


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Labor Day Weekend

Brett and I had a very nice, relaxing 3 day weekend. Saturday morning consisted of the usual lunch at China Cafe and grocery run. Later that day we headed over to Meggan & Dusty's. We went to Vander Veer park in Davenport to take some pictures of their adorable family:


Afterwards they were kind enough to have us over to their place for some delicious tacos. Brett of course made some of his famous salsa. YUM!

The next day we all decided to rendezvous at Scott County Park. I wish I had known about Scott County Park a few years ago, because it's really a neat place to camp/fish/swim/enjoy the outdoors. This time we all headed to the swimming pool, which was surprisingly un-crowded for Labor Day weekend. I really enjoyed the waterslides! Here's a pic of me going down the spiral-y one:


My timing was way off and the only slide pic I could get of Brett was just of his legs! Haha!


We also tried out the diving boards. Here is my one and only trip off the high-dive:


Dusty was much braver than me:


Since we were all together, we decided to continue Labor Day festivities and have a BBQ. It just isn't Labor Day without a BBQ!

Today was a lazier day, although it did involve 2 unscheduled trips to the grocery store (why can't I ever remember everything I need???). Brett took me to lunch at Lunardi's (a small mom & pop Italian place) and then we went to see Julie & Julia which was really cute and a lot funnier than I thought it would be.

All in all it was a great Labor Day weekend. :)