Bananas, Chocolate and Mason

We've had fruit in the house more often lately, which I love. Bananas have been showing their faces around here quite often as well...which is weird because usually the texture of them makes me gag a little bit, but I've been doing good.

That being said, they seem to go bad so easily! Does that happen to any of you and if so, can you prolong their vibrant yellowness in any particular way?

I had about 4 of them that were a little aged and I wasn't going to try to eat. So placed them in a brown paper bag and set them aside to make banana bread (note...we did not have any vanilla in the house).

I decided that I was in the baking mood last night at about 11:00pm. I opted to make banana muffins rather than bread. They are SO GOOD!

I think I need to get one of those glass cake holders to put stuff in. They make it all look so much better and you can leave it sitting our for decoration.

And then, I MUST tell you about this awesome discovery I found. T. Marzetti's Chocolate Fruit Dip (they make that caramel apple dip)! It is to die for! I bought some yummy ripe strawberries and dipped them right on in. Uh, it is amazing! And even better than making your own chocolate covered strawberries because you don't have to wait for them to dry! You should really try it!

And then Mason just wanted to say hello to you all! :-)

We're off...to do absolutely NOTHING today! I can't wait! I only have 4 days left with my honey. He'll be traveling to California with his band! I hope he does well out there and makes it big so that I don't have to work anymore! ha! It'll be kinda quiet and lonely around here, but I'll find things to make do... Keep him in your prayers next weekend.

Dips, brownies and babies

Whew! It's only Saturday night and it's already been an eventful weekend! Last night, we had our usual PIZZA FRIDAY! Then we went grocery shopping for some of the fun stuff we were going to make this weekend. I did some cleaning and then made a homemade spinach and artichoke dip for today. Two of the girlfriends came over to just hang out and have an appetizer day. This morning, Ava (the little niecey) came over at eight o'clock in the mornin'. We made some brownies and then the girls came over. One of my friends has a little girl who is a little over 1 year old (she is SO darn cute!). We just hung out and it was really a great day! Now...I'm just blogging :-) and watching a Lifetime movie. The Mister had a show tonight. I was just so exhausted after today that I had no energy to socialize (ha!). I am getting good at remembering to take pictures. I have always wanted to have more pictures but never remembered to take any...so I'm trying to be aware!

Hope your weekend is great so far!

These are my ingredients for the SPINACH AND ARTICHOKE DIP. I don't like when recipes have too many ingredients (I don't know why, it's weird, I know, but it just bothers/annoys me :-). This recipe is really very simple. For the recipe click here.

This is the finished product. I forgot to take a picture of it while it was heated in the crockpot...mmm...SO deliscious! Seriously, it was even better than getting it at a restaurant, so fresh! We also had bread with spinach dip and a veggie tray and some brownies (can't forget the chocolate!).

As I had mentioned before, we made some brownies this morning. I, being the good aunt that I am, had to let Ava lick the beaters...

...and lick the bowl! We were all kids once and remember that being the BEST part! I still like doing it today!

This is the finished product. Aren't they so cute! I found these little heart shaped tins, so we decided to make individual brownies.

This picture didn't really turn out too well, which brings me to another subject...we need a new camera!

I think Mason was kind of bored today. I caught him not caring much here, just laying there, probably wishing that a) someone would just give him some scraps or b) he wishes everyone would leave so he could have some peace and quiet. Although, he was all tuckered out after they all left!

Oh and p.s. I did gather up the energy to go out and do some shopping tonight. When I got there, I asked myself what the heck I was doing?! The mall was SO crowded and it was just very unpleasant and stinky in there. Oh well, I got some cute shirts :-)

It's been a long week

We've had a LONG week here. Ryan (I think I decided we can use our real names from now on) has had practice and then shows starting on Wednesday and going through last night. So, with our overlapping work schedules, we haven't really seen much of eachother in the past week. I MISSED HIM SO MUCH!!! So today, Sunday is our day together of just relaxing and getting to spend it with eachother! I am SO excited!!!

I took quite a bit of pics of the weekend...so you have some added entertainment!

Friday night, I decided to be ambitious. We had our treadmill inside (in the box of course) and I WANTED it put together. So, I set my mind to it at about 9:00pm. And...as you can see below, I DID IT, I DID IT!!!

It's tucked behind the couch. Not so bad, wish we had a 'gym room'!

It took me probably about 2 hours-ish to put together. At first, I thought, what did I get myself into, but it wasn't that bad, actually. My hands were really sore after putting it together though! I finally used it this morning and it felt good. I only hope that I will stick with it. I get bored easily. I also feel bad about the people under us. I figure if I use it at 'normal' hours that it shouldn't be too bad, right?!

Ryan's dad was in town, so on Saturday morning we went out to breakfast with him, my future SIL and BIL, their cutest little baby boy and Ava (my niece!). We had her for the day, well I had her alone while Ryan went into work for a bit. She was so good at breakfast, just playing with Colin (the baby). It seemed like he really liked her, he kept smiling at her and watching her. They better get along...they are our Flower Girl and Ring Bearer!

Ava and I ran some errands after we were done with breakfast, but not before stopping at Grandpa's to change her clothes. She HAD to do it, really, she insisted that we stop there. You see, she spilled on her shirt at breakfast and this little lady is one for being neat. I suppose it's a good thing, right?! Another added fact, she HATES when she has 'flyaways', she even calls them that. So she will put uncountable amounts of mousse in her hair until she is satisfied. She also LOVES to stare at herself in the mirror...oh boy, I have a feeling her teenage years will be hellacious!

She had a fascination with my sunglasses and would not give them up. So we had a photoshoot! Too cute!

Then last night, I decided to make some Cake Balls, which I found the recipe on THIS girls blog, which is awesome! FYI if you don't know, I'm a self-admitted BLOG ADDICT! I some how come across blogs and like what I read, so I go through the whole blog and read it. I LOVE it though. It's kind of like, in some weird way, you know the person. There are some great people out there and some great blogs!

The recipe for Cake Balls is super easy though. I love anything with sugar in it and thought these would be awesome...and let me tell you, they are!

You just bake any flavor of cake that you like, as you normally would, according to the instructions.

Then, while it's still warm, crumble it up in a bowl and mix in a regular size tub of any kind of frosting you desire. I used yellow cake and butter cream frosting...it was SO hard not to just eat the crumbled warm cake sitting in the bowl...I had to remind myself I was making something with it!

Then you roll it into balls, maybe the size of a tablespoon. I used a measing spoon...I couldn't find melon ballers or mini ice cream scoops anywhere?! After that, I refrigerated them for about an hour so they would harden up a bit.

Then I melted a package of chocolate bark. You can use your choice of any flavor or bark you want! The chocolate hardened fast, I was amazed! Take a look at the finished product...can you tell that I got a little lazy while I was dipping?! I didn't have a good utensil to dip them with...so it got kind of annoying. They are AWESOME!!! I just stored them in tupperware and separated them with wax paper. I have to say, they taste better the next day! MMMMmmmm good!





I thought this picture was cute. It was last night, before I took Mason out to go to the bathroom. I kept asking him, "Does Mason have to go outside?" Whenever say a word of interest to him, he cocks his head to the side. It's so cute...and for once, I captured it on camera! Of course, he was doing it to the word OUTSIDE!!!