Favorite Doable Hiking Spot In Southern California

Happy Monday Foxy Friends. I know two posts in one day! Crazy talk around here, but I just couldn't help myself, so many good blog hops going on right now. Today I'm teaming up with some awesome ladies for a favorite places in California post. How fun is that? We are all located up and down the California coast, so no matter where you are going to visit you're going to get something fun to do!

There are so many fun places to visit in California. Besides the obvious Disneyland, LEGOLAND, and the beach. My favorite spot is Top of the World in Laguna Beach. It is up in the Laguna Hills/Mountains, I never know which is considered a mountain and which a hill. Anyways, it has a gorgeous 360° view, with ocean on one side and the mountains on the other. If you drive there, there is a park at the top, called Alta Laguna Park, where the kids can play. We've taken a picnic up there, the kids played, we sat on the grass and enjoyed watching the kids and of course the gorgeous weather. There are also several hiking trails you can do as well. You can either start at the top and work your way down and turn around when you get tired, or you can take a 6 mile round trip, starting at Canyon View Park in Aliso Viejo and working your way up and back.

 

Before my ankle surgery I used to go a couple of times a month with a hiking group on Saturday mornings. There is nothing better than watching the sunrise. Not many people are hiking then, so it's quite peaceful and some great conversations with friends, old and new.

 

Now go check out these other ladies to see where their favorites spots around California are:

 

 

 

 

Elizabeth at Chasin' Mason 

Sarah at Foxy's Domestic Side 
Tiffany at  Tiffany Ching Bean

Bethany at House of Mitchells 

Whitney at Work it Mommy 

Jenny at Princess Turned Mom 

Justine at Little Dove

 

 

3 Tips to Getting Me Time

Hello Foxy Friends. If you are coming from The Blended Blog, welcome! So glad that you stopped by. Today I'm talking about how I get some me time, sometimes it seems selfish, but I like to think of it as, if I don't get some me time then I'm not going to be the best mother that I can be.

| ONE |

Three words, Mom's Nights Out. I live for these. I have a group of friends that try to get together once a month or every 6 weeks or so. Hard with everyone's schedules. We usually do a Thursday night, those always seem to work out the best. But seriously chatting about beauty, make up, kids (sort of), what's going on in life, it's great to catch up and not have to wipe someone's nose or talk over screaming kids.

 

January

December

It's really a great excuse to dress up a little and put on a full face, cause really when do we really do that?

| TWO |

This little blog space of mine. Although I do talk about my kids a LOT, it's time that I sit down at my computer and talk about anything that I want to. Whatever is on my mind at the time. Plus I have met a lot of great ladies. Like all of the ladies over at The Blended Blog. I cannot wait to see/meet some more of them in real life in May. This is from Vegas last year...and we've been talking about our May meet up for over a year!

We did lots of shopping

Laughing and eating, I'm sure that May will be no different and we're adding a bunch more TBB'ers.

| Three |

Exercise. If you have been around for a while then you all know that I exercise. Last week, I shared how much I really hate working out, but in reality, it does make me feel better when I am having a bad day. Sort of run/lift out the anger. I used to feel super guilty having the kids with someone else all day and then get home to have them go to the gym daycare. But when I really thought about it, this is for me, this is what makes me feel good about myself. Sometimes when I have a bad day at work, it helps to clear my head and let's me restart my thinking away from work so I can be a better mother for the kids. Plus it lets me eat that brownie I really need after a tough day, who's with me?

Now hop on over to Deena to see how she makes time for herself as a busy mom of 2.

Linking up here

Kylie Lip Kit Obsession

Hello Foxy Friends, if you are hoping over from  Whitney's blog, welcome! I know this months theme is December cozy, but you know what makes me cozy? The Kylie Jenner lip kits, haha. Seriously though, I'm obsessed, Christy first mentioned them in one of her favorites posts and I had to have them, so back in August I bought two...then a couple of months later I bought another two more, then a few weeks after that I bought another and then 2 weeks after that I bought another...seriously it's an addiction. If you haven't heard of them Kylie Jenner has come out with a make up line and one of things in her line is a matte lipstick, it comes with a lip liner and a liquid lipstick that has the most power staying power ever. I'll put it on at 8am and at 8pm, it's still there.

Some of the ladies over at The Blended Blog decided since we are all obsessed with the lip kits that we would do a blog hop showcasing what each of our colors looks like on our skin tone. We all have Posie K, so you're going to get to see it on 4 different skin tones, fun right? Plus get to see all of the other colors everyone has. So lets get started.

I'll start with the order I bought the colors. My first color...was Posie K, love at first sight. For my skin tone, this is an everyday light color for me.

Here I am wearing it over the weekend.

A few friends and I did a Christmas exchange, white elephant (but nice gifts) exchange and I bought the Posie K because I knew it would look good on all of them. Here's my gorgeous friend, Jenn who won and is loving her color too. Crazy how different it looks on her right? Yep I promise that's the same color.

After this I bought Mary Jo K, I was hesitant to buy this, but went for it and am so glad that I did.

Here it is again, I had just gotten it and had to try it on.

I bought this color for my sister as well, because I thought that this color would look great on her and she's been looking for a non bleeding red for a while now...it's perfect on her! Same color, different skin tones, awesome how well it looks on both of us right? (She's the one on the left...see my mom doesn't have a lip kit on and her lipstick is fading after appetizers...she should have one too)

 Onto the next color, I bought Spice, it's a little darker and I love that for the Fall and Winter. The picture above with my sister and mom, I'm wearing spice. Here it is again, when I first got it and just HAD to try it on, yep the same day as above with the Mary Jo K.

I decided I wanted to go a little darker, So I got Leo, for whatever reason I just love dark lipsticks, funny coming from me, when I wore my first bright lipstick I was so self conscious and thought everyone was staring at me, seriously.

And the last but not least it's the Kristin, a lighter pink that I thought I could wear in the Spring and Summer.

 Next up on my I want list...Vixen (another dark one), Love Bites, 22, and Kourt K...I think after that...I might be done, until she, of course, comes out with some new colors. Oh I might mention that I did get KoKo K and it looked horrible on me. It was too light and just washed me out like no other. So I gave it to my sister who it looks perfect on.

Now hop on over to see what the one who started it all, Christy  has in her collection.

So now that you've seen all the colors, does it make you want to buy some? Which color would you get?

Don't forget to enter my $125 giveaway to Kate Spade!

 

An InLinkz Link-up

Linking up here 

Christmas Blog Hop: Recipes

Happy Monday Foxy Friends. Today the ladies at The Blended Blog have decided to give you a few weeks of Christmas blog Hops, today is Recipes, next week is Home tours and then the last week is Christmas Memories. If you're coming over here from Lana's blog, welcome! Thanks for stopping by!

In full disclosure my aunt gave me this recipe, and I've changed in a bit, but not much. I had these big plans to show you a step by step, but then when I got to actually cooking it, I was also cooking 4 other things (we decided to do another Thanksgiving Dinner) and forgot that I wanted to take pictures, I should have written a note on the stove. Oh well...and the recipe is?....Mashed Potatoes!  Now these aren't any normal mashed potatoes, nope, these are the easiest and best mashed potatoes you'll ever eat. It takes one pot, and all you have to add at the end is butter and mash away, no draining water, nothing, it's all done for you.

Ingredients:

4 pounds of Russet potatoes, peeled and quared and cut into 1/2 inch pieces
12 tablespoons of butter (mine was salted)
1 teaspoon of sugar
1 1/2 cups of whole milk (could use half and half if you wanted)
1/2 cup of water
Salt and Pepper


Directions:

Step 1:

Place cut potatoes into a colander and rinse under cold water until it runs clear (you have to look closely as it's not totally obvious, the water is just slightly cloudy, but not much, took me about a minute before mine ran clear), drain thoroughly.

Step 2:

Melt 4 Tablespoons of butter in large pot over medium heat, add potatoes, 1 1/4 cups of milk and all the water (if you are using unsalted butter, add 1 tsp now), cover.  Bring to a boil then reduce heat to simmer, stirring occasionally until potatoes are tender and most of the liquid is absorbed. (30-35 minutes).

Hint: My potatoes were super tender, and falling apart when most of the liquid was absorbed, you want a bit of liquid left, so when you mash they is something there to mash it up with

Step 3:

Off heat, add remaining 8 tablespoons of butter and mash with potato masher until smooth. I have not tried this with an electric mixer, as the potatoes are so soft that it takes about a minute of mashing. Fold in the remaining 1/4 cup of milk, until liquid is absorbed and potatoes are creamy. Enjoy!

And this is how it looked on my plate, yum! We have left overs for days, which makes me incredibly happy.

How easy is that? No draining of the potatoes, no having to put through potato ricer, can't get any easier than that!

Also on a side note: I made my killer stuffing recipe, and they turned out looking better this time, here's the new picture, if you want to get that recipe, click here.

Now hop on over to Carrie to see what she's cooking up!

 Linking up here

Favorite Kitchen Gadgets

Hello Foxy Friends. We're back from a wonderful vacation. I can't tell you how much fun we had on our first family vacation. It could not have gone any better. More pictures coming soon, I promise. If you're coming from Christy's blog welcome! I just love that we're all sharing our favorite kitchen gadgets, you can never have enough of those!

Here are my 5 favorite kitchen gadgets.

Some of the links are affiliate links  and I will  either receive a small commission if you click on it or if you make a purchase from on of these links, I may receive a commission on the sale of the product. By purchasing through Foxy's Domestic Side, you're helping me to continue creating fun things for this space.


Citrus Juicer (Lime) /  Orange Juicer - Seriously this thing produces so much juice, I have the lime one, so it's slightly smaller, but will also juice small oranges. No more struggling with one of these.

Onion and Tomato Saver  - I thought these things were hokey...but my mom bought one for me, and it the best thing since sliced bread. Mr. and I used to put our onions in a baggie and then put the baggie in glassware to try and ward off the smell, and even then it didn't always work...but after getting this thing, no more! I have no idea how this works, it's magic! And it's only $2.99, can't beat that!

KitchenAid Hand Mixer - I've had my little hand mixer for 20 years...and it's still going strong. It's something in the kitchen I always grab for when needed. I actually use this more than my big kitchen aid mixer.

Cherry and Olive Pitter, Red - This was actually the ONLY thing left at our house by the previous owners that was useful. Everything else was dumpsters worth of trash...I wish I was kidding. I never used it until kids, when they both decided they loved cherries...and I was spending far too much time pitting them...now it takes me a few minutes and the kids have a bowl full of pitted cherries.

Silicone Baking Mat - I used to work at a kitchen store growing up, and people used to always buy these, but back in the day it was $50 to buy, but now you can get two for $21, pretty good deal, so I decided to give them a try. Holy cow, how have I been living without them for so long? You know those cookie sheets you have that are no long non stick, so you use them for your random baking of chicken and what not? Well now you can use them again for cookies! Hooray, no more having to throw them out and buying new ones.

And I also wanted to include Mr.'s favorite kitchen gadget.

 This may look like a Spaghetti Server but according to Mr. it's a Taco Claw...you wonder what that is? Well it's the utensil you use when serving tacos of course. When you don't want all of the extra juices in your tacos...use the taco claw. He gets giddy when using this for tacos...I wish I was kidding.

So what is your favorite kitchen gadget? Now head on over to Katie's blog to see what her favorite kitchen gadgets are!

Linking up here

The Blended Blog: Day In the Life Blog Hop

Welcome! My first ever Day in the Life Post. I've always meant to do one of these, but never did it for some reason. I always love reading other people's DITL, so why not?! The ladies at The Blended Blog and I decided that we wanted to do a DITL, but thought it would be fun if we all documented the same day, seeing what everyone else was doing on the same day. After you read mine, follow along the hop and see what everyone else was up to.

7:50am: I wake up the first time, realize it's only 7:50am and roll back over to catch a few more zzzzzzz.....

8:10am: Baby Fox wakes up and asks to go use the restroom...actually it's more like a "I HAVE TO GO PEEE!!!" (screamed through his closed door, and then waits for us to say okay go ahead....seriously we've tried so many times to tell him to just go, and he won't...2am..."I HAVE TO GO PEE!!" scares the living daylights out of me...every time! I digress...)

8:12am: Baby Fox goes back to his room, no time to get up yet.

8:30am: Mr. gets up to go ride his bike

Not taken that morning...

8:42am: I get up, use restroom and brush teeth.

8:46am: I go get Baby Fox up, and then we go get Mini Fox up (our clock is 10 minutes off)

He's ready for the day!

First she wants her back rubbed....then...

She said she wanted me inside her crib with her...and Baby Fox wanted to take our picture... 

9:02am: I make the kids breakfast while they watch Tangled

 
          Mini Fox requested "I want eggs and cheese on top of toast, peeeaazz"

          Baby Fox requested "I want oatmeal with toast in strips please" And I added part of a left over    apple pancake from earlier in the week.

10:01am: Breakfast clean up (yes it takes them almost 45 minutes to eat breakfast...)

10:10am: Get the kids ready for the day. Baby Fox likes to pick out his own clothes.

Mini Fox wants her hair like Elsa...who am I to say no?

10:38am: Leave for Baby Fox's hair cut (long over due)

10:50am: Arrive and Baby Fox gets his hair cut

11:40am: I drop off the kids and Mr. at home and get to go on errands by myself! The original plan was I take Mini Fox and Mr. goes back with Baby Fox to watch Star Wars. Mini Fox objected to that plan and wanted to stay with the boys.

Mr. took some pictures for me so I could include what they did while I was away...so cute.

Meanwhile I got to go to several stores...mostly I was trying to think up of a Valentine's Day Craft for the blog/ to give to Baby Fox's school friends. I came up with a Juice Box Robot

So excited, errands by myself, totally unexpected!!!!

First stop was Walmart, which I bought the juice boxes, but forgot to take a picture. Next stop was Hobby Lobby, I was looking for some baskets to replace the ones we have in our family room and maybe find some Valentine's Day inspiration. I found neither.

Then I had the bright idea of stopping at Party City, I thought that maybe they're cheap candy section would have some stuff for my robot...

1:32pm: I take Mini Fox to my parents so she can take her nap and spend the rest of the evening there

2:00pm: Spa day with a friend! It was so nice to catch up with her and relax for a bit.

The door leading into  the Spa, obviously I couldn't take any pictures inside

3:30pm: Leave spa to go pick up Baby Fox for his first sleep over!

3:50pm: Pick up Baby Fox and Mr. and head over to friends house to spend the night.

Seriously he jumps out of the car and yells, by while waving backwards...like we weren't going to walk him in..silly kid.

Off and playing...

4:15pm: We're FREEEEE!!!! We head back to the house to get ready for our date!

5:30pm: Leave to go out...

6:30pm: The two restaurants we wanted to eat at have 3 hour wait times! Oops, didn't realize it would be so packed on a Saturday...

6:50pm: We are at a local brewery place.

8:00pm: We pick up Mini Fox from my parents, she had a blast at the church spaghetti dinner

They put these blankets up when people are moving in or out of the complex my parents live in.

She loves riding the cart

8:35pm: We are home and put Mini Fox down for the night

8:45pm: Sit down to watch a movie with Mr. - We watched Room, I read the book and it was very true to the book. I liked it, perhaps too serious for a date night, but whatever, Mr. said I could pick what I wanted.

And that my friends is my day on January 23rd! It was super fun to participate in this blog hop with the other Blended Blog ladies, I can't wait to see what they were doing on the same day as me. Now go hop into Nicole's day and she what she did.

Amanda, for Thinking Out Loud, Vanessa and Penny for Thinking out Loud, Lulia, Stephanie and Sarah for The Ladies Collective, Annie and Natalie for Thoughts for Thursday, Joey and Kristin for Stuff and Things and Michelle for Party at My Place