I am Forty and Fabulous

My family threw me a big surprise party for my 40th birthday back in March.

As you can see it was a retro theme and TONS of fun!

S'mores Bars and German Chocolate Ooey-Gooey Butter Cake Bars.........insanely yummy!!!

I made two new desserts last night and they were AMAZING!! On the left is the S'mores Bar and on the right is the German Chocolate Ooey-Gooey Butter Cake Bars. They are both from Paula Deen's Best Desserts,
The link for the S'mores Bars
http://www.pauladeenmagazine.com/recipe_results.php?id=382

GERMAN CHOCOLATE OOEY-GOOEY BUTTER CAKE

1 box German chocolate cake mix
1 cup butter, melted and divided (you know if it has a cup of butter -it's good!)
1 large egg
1 8 oz pkg cream cheese softened
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 16oz box confectioners' sugar
1 cup sweetened flaked coconut
1 cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350. Lightly grease a 13x9x2 inch baking pan.
In a large bowl, combine cake mix, 1/2 cup melted butter, and egg. Beat at low speed with an electric mixer until combined. Press evenly into bottom of prepared pan. Set aside.
In a large bowl, beat cream cheese at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Gradually beat in sugar until smooth. Add remaining melted butter , beating at slow speed until combined. Stir in coconut and pecans. Pour over cake mix layer, spreading evenly. Bake for 45 minutes (the center should remain slightly gooey). Remove from oven. Let cool completely before cutting into squares.


ENJOY!!! I liked the S'mores Bars the best, but my hubby like the German Chocolate Bars the best. What do you think?

Pesto Pasta & Bread Sticks....oh YUMMY

Tonight I made some CRAZY, yummy stuff. My husband couldn't quit telling me how wonderful it was AND my kids ate it and LIKED it!!!

I made Pesto Pasta with Roasted Tomatoes and Bread Sticks and the pesto was even homemade. I usually buy the pesto pre-made, but I made it for the first time today and I will never buy store bought again. It is incredibly easy and delicious.

Pesto Pasta with Roasted Tomatoes

1 pint cherry or grape tomatoes

12 ounces sliced mushrooms

3-4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

Kosher salt

Freshly ground black pepper

8 ounces bowtie pasta

1/4 cup pine nuts

1/2 cup pesto (see recipe below)

1/3 cup freshly shredded Parmesan cheese

1. Pre-heat oven to 425 F. Bring a large pot of water to a boil.

2. Place tomatoes and mushrooms on a baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil. Toss with your fingers, making sure everything is coated with olive oil. Sprinkly lightly with kosher salt and pepper. Cook for 12-15 minutes or until tomatoes look plump and some of the skins just start to split.

3. When the water comes to a boil, add 2 teaspoons kosher salt and pasta to the water and cook according to package instructions.

4. While the pasta is cooking, place the pine nuts in a small skillet over medium heat. Stir frequently until the nuts turn golden brown, about 7-9 minutes.

5. To assemble, toss the hot drained pasta with pesto and parmesan cheese. Top with tomatoes and mushrooms and sprinkle with toasted pine nuts.

*** This recipe is from Our Best Bites


Incredible Bread Sticks
I will be making these ALL the time. I also made her Garlic Bread Seasoning.....oh man they are so YUMMY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Click on the link below for great step-by-step pictures and instructions.
http://www.ourbestbites.com/2008/04/breadsticks-and-pizza-dough/

http://www.ourbestbites.com/2008/04/garlic-bread-seasoning/

Incredible Fresh Basil Pesto
Click on the link below for great step-by-step pictures and instructions.
http://www.ourbestbites.com/2009/09/fresh-basil-pesto/

As you can see I am kind obsessed with my Cookbook Our Best Bites by Wells and Jones. Alot of the recipes are on their blog....BUT some are not and it is so much more handy to have the cookbook in front of you.

Carlie loves Softball

This is Carlie's 2nd year playing softball. She is on the same team as her cousin Claire and her Uncle David is the coach. Here are some pics from her first game this season.

Happy Mother's Day to Me

Look at the cute candy gram my hubby and kids gave me for Mother's Day this year.

Berkeley is THREE!

My sweet little boy turned three back in April. He is such a little firecracker. I do not have the energy to keep up with him.
He loves........
TO EAT: pancakes, hot dogs (he just ate 5 the other night for dinner), fruit snacks, bananas, yogurt, any kind of fruit, peanut butter, and sandwiches. He eats ALL morning long and then not so much in the afternoon and evening
TO: play outside, give kisses, run away from mom and scare her to death, be with his daddy, help mom clean, ride his scooter, run in circles, tell his mom NO and see what he can get away with, dance, play with his big "sissy", and play with his train set
TO WATCH: Mickey Mouse Club, GeoTrax, Jake and the Pirates

He is very LOUD, determined, fun, happy, inquisitive, crazy handsome, stubborn, and silly little boy, and I LOVE him to pieces!!!!!

Easter 2011

I know it is June and Easter was forever ago, but TOO bad. I have been a single mom (more on that later...don't get worried Corey and I are still married and always will be) and have been horrible about blogging. My life is changing soon (more on that later..:)) so I am trying to get caught up on blogging.
I LOVED my kids outfits for Easter and wanted to show them off. They were so pretty and handsome in pink.

Easter Egg Hunt

Every year there is a BIG easter egg hunt in our little town up at Sorosis Park. Berkeley's favorite treat - Ding Dong
Seriously....this is the 1-2 year old section. Too small of an area and a bunch of parents that should let their kid get their own candy. Berkeley did great though.
Pretty Carlie

Carlie was in the 5-6 year old section

My cuties
Pretty sweet view of Mt. Adams in my town (soon to not be my town anymore...we are moving in about a month)

Is it just me or does Berk look afraid?

Carlie and her buddy from Kindergarten

My kiddos with the tooth fairy. Carlie thought is was pretty awesome since the tooth fairy had just visited her the other day.

Psych Party 2011

I am the Stake Camp Director. For all my non-LDS friends - this means that I am in charge of a week long girls camp in the summer for girls ages 12-18. This calling consumes my life sometimes. The past few months I have been working like crazy for our Psych Party. We introduced the theme to the girls and leaders of the stake with a silly skit, showed a fun video of last year's girls camp, sang songs, ate yummy food, did a little certifying, and got organized. It was TOO much work, but I think that it went well. Thanks to my all my assistants....I could not have pulled this off without you!

Copper War

A lovely young lady, Hannah Olheiser came to me one day in my classroom requesting me to be the sponsor in her desire to raise money for The Make a Wish Foundation. She told me a touching story of her inspiration and how could I possibly say no?

The first thing we did was sponsor a Copper War at our school. We put all the 4th period classes on 10 different teams. I was the captain of the purple team. You put pennies in your own team jars and them silver coins and dollars in other people's jars. Pennies are positive points and all other money are negative points. Your quest is to stay in the positive. Of course I bragged all over school that my team would win. I even wrote a "beautiful" song about how the purple team would be victorious and sang it on the video announcements. Of course, if you tell teenagers that you will win, they will do everything in their power to make you lose. It was AMAZING to watch the students and teachers be so generous and competitive. Just when you think teens are selfish and too self-absorbed to serve or give to others, they surprise you. What a great experience. As could be expected my team ended up losing (we were something like negative 12,000 points - even after bringing in 150 bucks in pennies), BUT we raised the most money. All in all we ended up raising almost $1300 to help grant some wonderful child dealing with a horrible illness their wish. I wish I had taken more pictures, but here are a few of the kids that volunteered to come in a count all that money.

Berkeley the Hair Stylist

Berkeley loves to have his hair done. He is always asking my to do his hair. I usually put gel in it and make a faux hawk. But, recently he has been sneaking into my bathroom and stealing my pomade and putting hand fulls in his hair. Yikes!!!! He likes to do this right before we need to go somewhere. Of course the process to get all that pomade out is a HUGE annoying one. Oh well, can't get too mad at those blue eyes.

I am Lame

I have been so extra busy this year that I have not blogged in over two months! How ridiculous. So I changed my background tonight and I promise (not that anyone reads my blog except my sister) that since it is Spring Break (oh baby) that I will do some blogging over the next week.

Billy Bob Sno-Park Adventure

A few days after Christmas Kim, Juan, Jordan, Andres, and Adan came for a visit to The Dalles. We went sledding at Billy Bob Sno-Park (yes I live in hick-ville) with Corey's two sisters families - the Maganas and the Nietos. What a fun day in the snow. Thank goodness there was a warming hut that some snowmobilers had a fire going in. It was a freezing day. Carlie had a BLAST sledding with her cousins. She was so brave and never stopped to hang out in the warming hut. On the other hand Berkeley does not like the snow very much. I am not sure if it is because it is cold or he can't walk very well, but he spent A LOT of time in the warming hut. On the way back the roads were very snowy and slick. Anne Marie was in front of us and ran off the road. We had no cell service and the snow was really deep. We were able to dig and push her car out though - all because of my super fit body (ha ha...I have been working out though).

Christmas Eve

Here are some photos from Christmas. It was a nice mellow Christmas with NO traveling!! Hooray! For the first time in my teaching career I did NOT want to go back to work at all after Christmas break. I wanted to call my principal and tell him I quit. I love my job, but I love my job as mommy a lot more. Trying to balance a career and my family is the toughest thing in the world. But, at least I get to spend my summers as mommy - a much easier and enjoyable job! :)

Happy New Year

Corey and I spent New Year's Eve at the Stake Youth Dance. Good times.....