hallows eve

It blows my mind that its already November 6! It seems like it should barely be August and instead it's getting cold and we are going head first into the Holidays. I love this time of year (like almost everybody else) and am looking forward to Thanksgiving and cooler weather. 

October was good to us, and flew by. We dressed our little miss Scarlett up for her first Halloween and showed her off like the proud parents we are. She made such a cute cow, Jed was the farmer, and like 68% of the female population I was a girl with some sort of ears on my head (kitty cat). 

She made such a sweet little cow and discovered her tongue just in time to show it off for all the pictures. 

We went to our churches Trunk or Treat the day after Halloween and spent time with our family and friends from our old Spanish Branch that we use to attend. I also spent the night hanging out with my two favorite sisters. 

Scarlett had a blast watching all the other kids going a little nuts and got herself pretty tuckered out by the end of the night. 

family photos

I had been wanting to take family pictures since Scarlett was born, but after looking for photographers I could never bring myself to pay the big bucks. I totally think pictures are worth the money, but I couldn't justify the high price tag when I knew other things (like diapers) were more important. So I enlisted my sister and we went out and did a few snapshots outside. I am so glad we did, I know I will cherish these first family pictures forever. It also happend to be the Saturday before our Scarlett girls blessing, which makes them even more special. 

Thanks Jenny for taking these... you are totally a natural photographer!

My black thumb

 source  

This is totally me except I am the boy!! I love the the idea of gardening and my mom is a pro gardener so you think it would be in my blood...well i guess its just one of those things that skip a generation. Last year I attempted my first garden (a container one), it failed MISERABLY!!!! By week three they were just a pile of dried out dead plants. I guess watering is essential everyday not just the days you remember huh? 

Well, one of the reasons that we bought our house is that it sits on a .45 acre, which means we have a HUGE backyard. And with my mom near by I had no excuses to not try and start a garden this year. I am determined to make is work and change this black thumb into a green thumb!

Here is how the garden making went...

We started with a huge space covered with a TON of rock (our whole back yard is covered in rock with that nasty black plastic underneath. What were the previous owners thinking!!). Then we spent the next 4 hours shoveling out the space we wanted to use (yes it did take that long, and yes I did want to die).

We had some old random wooden beams on the other side of the yard that we moved over to edge out the garden. Then we poured a ton of manure and mixed it all in the dirt (sorry I don't know all the gardening lingo).  Finally we planted some plants: tomatoes, eggplant, carrots, cucumber, onion, water melon and cantaloupe. We only ended up using about 3/4 of the garden space which was fine with me (less work).

The fencing around the garden is just some garden posts my mom had. So far everything is going good. Its been about 3 weeks since we planted and so far nothing is dead yet! Carter is LOVING the garden, he thinks its is the coolest thing ever and always is wanted to "help" water the plants.  Here's to hoping that this year is better than last year!!!!

linked:

craft and tell + cherished bliss
show me what ya got + not just a house wife 
take-a-look tuesday + sugar bee crafts 
made with love + sew chatty
ta-da tuesdays + mommy by day crafter by night 
get your craft on + todays creative blog     
sew dang cute crafts

diy by design   
inspiring creativity wednesdays + twin dragon fly designs 
tea rose home 
the trendy tree house 
let birds fly  

catch a glimpse thursday + a glimpse inside 
the 36th avenue  
transformation thrusday + the shabby creek cottage 
delightfully inspirting thrusdays + delightful order 
look at me i'm so crafty + fun to craft 
strut your stuff thursdays + somewhat simple     

feature yourself friday + fingerprints on the fridge 
inspiration friday + at the picket fence 
frugal friday + the shabby nest 
freestyle friday + happy hour projects 
friday fun finds + kojo designs 
weekend showoff pary + lady bird ln 

mad skills + mad in crafts

sumos sweet stuff 

made by you monday + skip to my lou 

making the world cuter moday 

craft o manic monday

M.M.M. Day + craft

the cure for the common mondays + lines across my face 

more the merrier mondays + diy home sweet home project 

Carters Happy Birthday!

Carter turned three this May!! We had the usual cake and ice cream and had some of his besties over. We scored some great free luau decorations awhile back so he had a Hawaiian luau/dinosaur party, complete with grass skirts (all the kids hated them except for Jack who just wanted to eat it)! 

 

We all went in and got a Carter a swing set for his birthday!! German wasn't to happy about it, we have a park right behind our house...but this way Carter can just go right out back and I can be doing other things (while of course keeping an eye on him). He LOVES it!!! All he ever wants to do anymore is go outside and play on "his play ground".

 I cannot believe that 3 years have come and gone. It really does go by so fast. I am so blessed to have this crazy, intelligent, wild and sometime annoying (haha) little boy in my life. I honestly cant imagine my life without him and I dont want to! I LOVE YOU CARTER!!!!

Look what i found!!

Finally I have found somethings that are worth talking about!! That were FREE or super cheap!! I don't tend to find good deals, all I find are broken tables at goodwill for like $200 or free dirt on craigslist! Im not super cool like my sister Peggy and her husband, who basically have people throwing free antiques or nice furniture at them (just a couple examples), nope I just get the rejects. But not today! I was driving home from a workout when I passed a super cute buffet/night stand/sofa table/console table (apparently I don't know what it is) sitting on the side of a house just a block away from mine. It said...

Well I have a good home! I immediately pulled over to try and cram it in my trunk when I realized that it was full of stuff for a upcoming yard sale! I rushed home, all of 1 block, threw everything outta my car and started to go back. As I pulled up to the stop sign on my street I saw a truck full of furniture drive by! Ive gotta tell you, anything that is posted for free in Rio Rancho is gone in like five minutes so I obviously wanted to cry right there because I was sure they took my little furniture piece..."STUPID YARD SALE" was all I could think. I decided to drive by just to make sure she was gone and there she was, in all her heavily used and dirty glory!

She definitely isn't perfect...

But she is MINE, and I beat out all the other furniture hoarders in RR to get her!

You want to see what makes her the best??

Yep, her sexy little casters!!

Ive got a screaming kid so I'll let you know tomorrow about my other amazing find!

PS Is it wierd that i gave this piece of furniture a gender?
PSS dont look at my gross floors!

An Oldie but Goodie

I was going through my old blog, and I came across this...

This is the current picture at our new home

This was one of my very first redo! I dry brushed everything and loved how worn and old looking it turned out. Sad thing is... its not comfortable AT ALL!!! Its sturdy but doesn't feel like it when you sit down. "Oh CRAP! I'm gonna bust this chair" is NOT what you want people thinking when they sit down in your living room. Either I find I was to fix this problem or its adios to this pretty little chair.

Everything But The Kitchen Sink Cookies

For lack of a better name, these cookies really do have just about everything in them. I was in the mood for something super sweet and full of flavor. I have to come clean...I am a flavor junkie! Seriously the stronger the better. I tend to have a heavy hand in anything I am cooking or baking. These cookies were just right. Here's your line up...


The only difference being that you need to use Baking Soda NOT Baking Powder. Next you most definitely need to go find some helpers..



Are they not the CUTEST!!!! The stash binky is compliments of Peggy. Maybe we can get her to do a free printable template on here (hint hint)!


After you finish mixing scooping and baking you end up with these delectible chewy bites...

Everything but the kitchen sink cookies

2 1/4 cups flour
2tsp baking soda
1 cup (2 sticks) butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2tsp vanilla
2 eggs
1 cup white chocolate chips, halved
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips, halved
1 cup toffee bits
1 cup chewy caramel, roughly chopped
1 cup mini marshmallows
1 cup pecans, roughly chopped

Preheat oven t0 375. Mix flour and baking soda in a separate bowl. Combine 3/4 cup butter and sugars in your mixer and beat until creamy. In a double broiler melt 1/8 cup butter with 1/2 cup white chocolate chips. Add to sugar and butter mixture. Repeat with 1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate chips and add to mixer. While mixer is on low add the eggs and vanilla. Continue to mix and slowly add your flour and baking soda until combined. Add all of your extras i.e. toffee bits, caramel, marshmallows, pecans. Scoop onto greased baking sheet and bake 9-11 minutes.
ENJOY

Hi, my name is Jenny and I have no follow through...

You can see the best examples of this here and here. The first being back in 2009 when I first decided that I wanted to try out Blogging, that became a 3 year saga of ZERO follow through and procrastination. Seriously I think I blogged like maybe 13 times in those three years. The second is a example of my most common lack of follow through...EXERCISE!!! Yep, I've started and stopped this process more time than I can even remember. So, when I wrote that post about exercising I thought if I became accountable to my little blogging world, then maybe I would keep it up. HA, I showed myself, not even being accountable would help me follow through. Now let me just say that its not a lack of wanting or desire that keeps me from completing my goals its...PROCRASTINATION!! I seriously have a problem with this! Like with blogging, its not a lack of ideas or projects its my constant thought of "I'll do it a minute" that kills me! I constantly am telling my sister, Peggy, that I have posts already written in my head its just a matter of sitting down and writing them out. I always find myself sitting down to blog and two hours later I've got nothin...but my Facebook status is updated, I know whats going on in all my friends lives, Im up to date with the latest celebrity gossip, and I've blog stalked all my favorite blogs including reading all their archives AGAIN (oh but how I love them)! I seriously have a problem! That being said here is a little peek at what you can HOPE to expect here at Pictures of Happy in the near future...

Get your cupcake on!

Super Yummy Frosting Recipe

1 container cool-whip
1 8oz cream cheese
powder sugar to taste
1tsp strawberry extract (optional)

Throw everything into your mixer and let it go. I find that the longer you mix the lighter your frosting is. I ended up putting about 2 cups of powder sugar in mine. You can flavor yours any way you want, also is pretty dang good if you add some mashed up strawberries.

The cake is my signature Texas Fudge Cake. Its SUPER moist and DeLiCiOuS. Easy and quick too.

Texas Fudge Cake

Bring to boil: 1 cup margarine, 4 tbsp. cocoa powder, 1 cup water

Pour over: 2 cups flour, 2 cups sugar, and 1/2 tsp salt

Mix well and then add: 2 eggs, 1/2 cup milk, 1/2 tsp. baking soda and 1 tsp. vanilla

Mix well and pour into greased 9x13 pan (or cupcake pan OR bunt pan, basically anything you want). Bake at 375 for 30 min or until wooden skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Black Tie Gala

Last Saturday German and I had the opportunity to go to the Sickle Cell Anemia Gala her in ABQ. It was SO much fun to get all dressed up and go out on the town! The last time German and I were so dressed up was at our wedding! I have never been to a Gala before, there was dinner and dancing along with a silent auction. There was some AMAZING art work that I would have loved to bid on, but they were a little to rich for our blood. We did bid and won a huge gift basket full of different types of BBQ sauce and meat rubs! It was a great night and we met lot of new people and had a lot of fun...that and my husband looked HOT!

Happily Healthy

OK , so I know that almost everyone out there wants/needs to loose weight. You have a couple options...

1. pay for a gym membership or exercise classes
or
2. Try to have the self discipline to do it on your own

Believe me I am all for those gym memberships and classes but when your on a strict budget (ie dirt poor) that is not an option. Sooo I need to have the will power and discipline on my own. I've heard numerous time that you can get the same results at home that you can in a gym...I'm going to put that to the test.

Have you ever heard of a gym called CrossFit?? Well I dont know to much about it, but what I do know is that it is AMAZING and gets you results.

Yah, crazy cool right?? So my Mom and sisters have all bought a month pass to the CrossFit in our area and started yesterday. So, while they do that I will be trying out this...

I've also heard that this gets you results too, I guess we'll find out. I'm about 11 1/2 weeks postpartum and need/want to loose about 30lbs. I know that that is not going to happen in a month but this should be a good jump start. We'll up date and let you guys in on how we are doing and in the end find out which way is better! i do understand that everyones body is different, but just for fun lets see what happens.

For my sister Pangie...

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I love you and believe in you COMPLETELY!!

Happily Healthy

A page where we share tips, ideas and inspiration on our journey to being more happily healthy.

I need to loose weight...like quite a bit of it. I'm pretty sure most of us would like to be a little bit thinner/toned, and if you're anything like me you can get pretty frustrated/disappointed when you don't agree with what the scale says! I can't count the times I've stepped on that thing and it tell me me I've only lost 1 pound! 1 POUND! So to remind myself how good that is...

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OK, so it doesn't make everything all better but it sure does help! I'm sure glad that isn't on my body anymore!