Costumes....Through the Years

Becky
Becky, Anna and Bailey

Bailey and Katy

Poor Andy! If you're a boy cousin in this family, it is pretty much guaranteed that the girls will dress you in a tutu and take your picture at some point!

Even at Christmas the cousins of all ages play dress up!

Becky, Beth, Ryan and Katy-Bop

Exercise

It's been a long time since I've exercised. Today I started riding my bike again. My friend, Marilyn, brought her bike over and we rode together.

Lots of cobwebs and dust on my bike. How does a stay at home mom clean a bike?

With a vacuum cleaner of course. (You didn't think I was going to touch all those spider webs, did you?

Finished the job with Endust and a rag. My neighbor (and die hard biker) would have died laughing if he could have seen me vacuuming my bike.

We rode. We visited. It wasn't so bad. Why is it so hard to make myself exercise when it is so good for me?

Katy

Katy is the baby of the family. When she was born, I became a stay at home mom. Learning to be a SAHM was a big adjustment. I had been in the work force for 16 years. To get me out a bit, I began to do some volunteer work at church. Katy was my helper.

She was such a cutie pie!

I love this picture of her in the sand box in her tutu. :)

She is heavily involved in DECA at school. This year she is the president!

Don't be fooled though. She can be a wild thing!

She loves to take fun and crazy photos!

This is her friend, Kelli. They drive matching cars!

She adds a lot of joy to our family. :-)

Friendships That Endure....

I've been thinking a lot about friendship lately. Friendship that lasts a lifetime is rare and to be cherished. Becky (my oldest daughter) met Caitlin in the church nursery. They "met" in the baby room. They've been on my mind lately because Caitlin is getting married soon and I've been helping Becky (her maid of honor) plan a wedding shower for her.

While they have had some similarities in their lives (we attend the same church), they have also had differences (Caitlin was homeschooled and Becky went to public school). Their personalities are very different but complimentary.

Currently they are both seniors in college. Caitlin in California and Becky in Arizona. Of course, Becky's first "road trip" was to California to visit Caitlin.

So far, this "forever" friendship has been going for 21+ years. I expect it will last.

I'm looking forward to the next chapter.....

Spark a Smile Turns One!

A year ago I began attending a monthly card making group. We call ourselves "Spark a Smile". The cards we make are donated to a number of organizations. This month we celebrated with a birthday party! We had carrot cake. :-)
We also made birthday cards to donate. It was our biggest turn out ever and a lot of fun.

Carrot Cake

Carrot cake is a favorite family recipe. I'm not a big cake eater but IF I'm going to have cake, this is the one I want! The ingredients are amazingly simple for how yummy it is!

You need to grate your carrots. I have a Salad Shooter that I use for this. Love that little machine! It's small so it's easy to store and the parts go in the dishwasher!

Mix up a whole lotta eggs, sugar and oil to make it REALLY fattening!

Use the beater and mix them until they look creamy.

Stir in the dry ingredients: Flour, Baking Soda, Cinnamon and Salt.

Fold in the carrots. Now is where I have to confess that I got kind of flaky about my picture taking at this point. No pictures of putting them in the muffin tins and no pictures of the final product.

I love these muffin papers. Found them at the grocery store. There are a number of designs and they are lined with foil so they the cupcake papers still look pretty after you bake them. Anotherwords, the cake doesn't soak through when baking.

Cream cheese frosting....Mmmm.....SO yummy and so few ingredients! Butter, Cream Cheese, Powdered Sugar and Vanilla. Just mix it all up!

Again....sorry about not having any pictures of the final product! Here's the recipe:

Carrot Cake

2 cups of sugar

1-1/2 cups oil

4 eggs

2 cups flour

2 teaspoons soda

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons cinnamon

3 cups raw shredded carrots

1/2 cup nuts (optional-I don't usually add these)

Beat sugar and oil; add eggs, cream well. Add flour soda, salt, cinnamon. Fold in carrots and nuts. Pour in a greased and floured pan and bake around 45 minutes at 350 degrees. Do test to see if it is done.

Frosting:

1-8oz. package cream cheese (room temperature)

1 stick margarine or butter (room temperature)

1 box powdered sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla

Enjoy!

Poor Bears.....

Well Miss Becky heard mom was baking carrot cake yesterday and came home from college for a few hours......

The bears were in her way.......

Just thought I'd share..... :-)