My First Week Off In Review

Hey there!

Hope everyone is doing well, and not to hung over from last night! I know our night was low key. We've done so much this past week off, so here it is, I'll try to keep the pictures to a minimum.

Baby Fox got a train set from his nanny, best gift EVER, he won't stop playing with it!

Baby Fox helped me with some last minute shopping

We played a lot outside, yep this is a pool toy that he wanted to ride

We have spent every waking moment together...and we're still happy.

We celebrated Christmas with just us on Christmas Eve Day, this is Baby Fox seeing the tree for the first time.

And then there were more gifts downstairs waiting for him

Then we headed up to my parents house and met them at church

Baby Fox got birthday celebration #1 with just us and Uncle Matt, Aunt Carolyn and Auntie Cole.

Christmas morning, we offically have a two year old! This is birthday tree at Nana and Grandpa's.

Grandpa was SO excited to give him this GINORMOUS airplane! Baby Fox was too!

Had a great Christmas/birthday celebration with extended family.

The "kids" table is offically bigger than the adult table!

Adult table

Birthday celebration #2

The next day we relaxed with Grandpa and watched the Lion King.

Back at home we ate Baby Fox's favorite dinner, spaghetti (which he calls alligator, we have NO idea why)

Then I painted this toy chest for Baby Fox, big reveal coming soon.

And we've gone on a few bike rides

Mr. is headed back to work, so Baby Fox and I will see what kind of trouble we can get ourselves into this week.

Linking up with these fab people

 

Sarah at The Not quite Military Wife

and Megan at The Mrs.
and Jennifer from The Adventures of the Scott Family

for "Mommy Moments Blog Hop"
 

Happy New Years!

Let's see, I usually do a weekend update, but that will have to wait till tomorrow. So I figured I would go over past New Years Eves...what better time right?

2006

Let's see, I only have so many pictures on my computer, so let's start with the first one I have...the year is 2006 and Curtis and I decided to go to VEGAS for New Years Eve, yep, we just wanted to say that we did it once. Since my brother lived there at the time, we figured it would be a good excuse to go visit him.

We started the night before and just kept on drinking, this is December 30th.

New Years Eve we continued drinking then around 10pm headed to the strip, it was seriously CRAZY! We walked through a hotel, I think the Excalibur to get to the strip...this was the "line" to get out there...

We made it!

 

Curtis does NOT know how to fake smile...this is his best attempt (yep I'm really that much shorter than my husband)

The only bad thing, Mr. decided that he didn't want to hit ANY traffic, so after a whole night of drinking and going to bed around 3am, he decided to wake us all up at 6am to get on the road...worst trip home EVER! But at least we were home by 10am and could go back to sleep...all in all, it was a great trip and we can check it off our bucket list, never have to do that again, although my brother still lives in Vegas...

2007

Decided to keep it low key and go to my Aunt and Uncle's house for New Years

We had good food

Lots to drink

And some drunken debauchary to end the evening...

Yep that's Mr. and my Aunt putting palm frawns in an abandoned boat in front of her house...she got tired of looking at it sitting there for months, so they decided to decorate it

2008

Not sure what happened in 2008, no documentation, so it must not have happened.

2009

Anyways, onto 2009, first New Years in our house...we're in the sub burbs now, so we go to basically the only place really open on New Years worth giving a try, Dualing Piano Bar...heck ya! The best part, it was themed, roaring 20's...double heck ya!

Note: That dress I'm wearing is from my mom when she was my age! No she's not that old! She said it was the in thing to have when she was my age...crazy, and it fit PERFECT!

2010

Now we have a kid and Baby Fox was exactly 1 week old...

He was trying to make it till midnight, but konked out at 10:30. Here he is dance partying to the music

At midnight, notice how Baby Fox is alseep?

 



2011

Yep we stayed in again...I guess after 2009 our New Years got a little more relaxed. We stayed in again, went on a bike ride, and just had a great family day. Just before putting Baby Fox to bed

 

Baby Fox at midnight, totally knocked out.

 

2012

This year we're pretty much doing the same thing as last year, staying in and  being warm and not waking up with a hang over tomorrow and watching the parade with Baby Fox. Although our New Years has drastically changed over the past few years, I wouldn't change them for the world! Baby Fox is the best kid a mom could ask for. Now I'm starting the new year right and I'm off to the gym, since I haven't gone in 10 days, the longest break I've taken since having Baby Fox. So what are you doing tonight?

See you all next year, have a safe, fun New Years Eve!

Spiced Nuts

I'm back! Sorry for the little break without notice, I was just feeling lazy and wanted to enjoy some time off with the baby. Next week I'll be back full swing...I hope. I have another week off of work, so we'll see.

I don't normally post on Sunday, but I thought this would be a quick easy thing to make for all of you who are going to be celebrating New Years  with a bang! Or perhaps doing something more exciting then staying at home and watching tv.

So here is it, the easiest best spiced nut recipe and you can thank Aubry at Beauty and Truth for this gem

Ingredients:

2 egg whites
2 tbs water
5 cups raw whole almonds
4 tbs white sugar
6 tbs brown sugar
3 tbs ground cinnamon
1 tbs ground nutmeg (I bought this at Sprouts - they have a herb and spices section where you take as much or as little as you want of the spices that you want, so I bought exactly what I needed, much cheaper route to go. Don't be fooled, they are no located with the other bulk items, looks to one of the outside walls, ours is near the juice)
1 tbs ground cloves
1 tsp salt
What to Do:

Step 1: Preheat oven to 250 degrees, and line a large cookie sheet with parchment paper.

Step 2: In a small bowl, lightly beat egg whites and water until frothy bubbles appear

Step 3: In another small bowl, mix dry ingredients, minus the almonds

Step 4: In a large bowl place the raw almonds

Step 5: Combine almonds and egg mixture in a large bowl, ensure that all almonds have been covered

Step 6: Add the spice mixture to the almonds and eggs. Makes sure the spice distribute (this seems like such an enginnering word to use) evenly.

Step 7: Spread almonds evenly onto your cookie sheet from step 1. I used two cookie sheets.

Step 8: Bake almonds for 1 hour, stirring every 20 minutes or so to keep from burning, even roasting is the ultimate goal. I think mine ended up taking more like an hour and 20 minutes. Once done let them cool for about 15 minutes. Store at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.

I ended up doing about a recipe and a half, so this is what it looked like with both cookie sheets combined to one.

Note: Don't eat hot, they don't taste as good as they have not had time to harden and make that crunchy aspect that makes spiced nuts so yummy. ( I cannot eat almonds, but was told this by Mr.)

Now go out and find your local Sprouts, buy what you need, and go at it! I found this recipe and make it the next day, so you can too, it's definitely a crowd pleaser and everyone enjoyed it.

See you tomorrow!

Merry Birthday Christmas

Hi all! Writing from my parents family room today. I forgot my computer so I don't have any new pictures, but I hope you all are having a very Merry Christmas and are enjoying spending time with your family. I know we are.  Baby Fox is being spoiled rotten by his grandparents and was definitely spoiled by his parents too. At one moment Mr. and I forgot what was in the HUGE box that we had wrapped a few weeks ago...not good. LOL.

Most importantly, Happy Birthday Baby Fox! He is the best little boy in the whole world and I could not have asked for a better, more caring, loving little boy. I can't believe he's 2 years old!  I feel like just yesterday he was this squishy little thing

and now he's 24 pounds of little boy.

Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday Baby Fox! See you in a couple of days when we get back from my parents.

Spritz Cookies

With cookies of course! Remember all those cookies I made last weekend? Well I'm making more this weekend and I'm sharing the recipe this time . Remember this recipe? Where I explained America's Test Kitchen? Well that's where this recipe is from, so if you want the full explaination, go there, see the "*" note.

*Some of the links are affiliate links and I will  either receive a small commission, at no cost to you, if you click on it or if you make a purchase from one of these links, I may also receive a commission on the sale of the product. Click here for my disclosure page.

Okay onto the recipe.

Spritz Cookies

Ingredients:

1 Large Egg Yolk
1 Tablespoon Heavy Whipping Cream
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1 cup Unsalted Butter (2 sticks), softened (about 70°)
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon table salt (but if you salted butter, omit this)
2 Cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1 Cookie Press (this one is highly rated, but on the expensive side, this one is half the price and well rated, this one is electric but my is it expensive)
Various cookie press shapes

What you do with it:

Sidenote: The recipe below has been doubled from above. I find that it's not worth my time to just make 1 batch at a time, as one batch only yields 2 cookie sheets worth of cookies. If you've ever had these cookies you eat at least 5 at a time...so they go pretty quickly.

Step 1: Adjust oven rack to middle position; heat oven to 375°.

Step 2: In a small bowl, beat yolk, cream and vanilla with a fork until combined, set aside.

Step 3: In standing mixer put butter and sugar

Mix until light and fluffy, 3-4 minutes. Scrape down bowl with rubber spatula (I did't add that tidbit the reciepe did).

Of course Baby Fox had to get in on the action, as soon as he heard the mixer turn on he runs up to me and says "doing?"

Step 4: With mixer running at medium speed, add yolk/cream mixture and beat until incorporated, about 30 seconds. Scrape down bowl.

Step 4: With mixer running at low speed gradually beat in flour until combined. Scrape down bowl and give final stir with rubber spatula to ensure that there are no flour pockets.

sidenote: If you don't have these bowls you need to get them stat! They look like a bowl, but then you can fold them for easy dumping into your standing mixer

See the pinching action? Totally easy way to get your flour in the bowl without spilling everywhere, you're welcome!

Step 5: Using cookie press to form cookies, follow manufacturers instructions to fill. If you don't have cookie press you can use a pastry bag with a large tip on the end to form cookies.

Step 6: Press or pipe cookies onto ungreased baking sheet

Yet another side note. My cookie press is electric, which you can find here, or here. I have not tried either one of these, so use at your own risk. Mine is older than me and was passed down from my Grandma.

Step 7: No cookie is complete without some sprinkles right? Pour them on! I was being stingy because I didn't want to go to the store to get more sprinkles, but after I took this picture my Dad went and got some more, so later cookies have way more sprinkles.

Step 8: I do two cookie sheets at a time, and rotate the cookie sheets (top goes to the bottom rack, and vice versa), makes baking go a lot quicker and I'm not in the kitchen for so long. So yes I own a lot of cookie sheets for this reason.

Once you start eating these, you'll never want to stop. Seriously, they are so good, and they are small enough that you can pop them in your mouth...it's dangerous I tell ya!

Here is what 595 cookies look like all bagged up.

And there you have it. So go out and make some cookies for your friends and family! Hope you all have a great weekend and get all your last minute shopping done, I know I have some stuff to still find, hoping I get it today, so all I have to do is, wrap, wrap wrap!

17 Days!

I am having I'm going on a 17 day break f-it's at work today. Yep that's right, my work shuts down for the week between Christmas and New Years and since New Years days in on a Monday and we happen to have Friday, Jan 4th off, I just have to take 2 days of vacation and I get 17 consecutive days off!

side note: I work a 9/80, meaning I work 80 hours in 9 days, so I get every other Friday off.

Tomorrow is one of our off Fridays, good thing, if the end of the world does happen, at least I'll be at home with Baby Fox.

On a totally differen work related thing. They recently moved our office, I work at this rather large campus and we have a TON of buildings. We were in this really swanky building, newest cube stuff and all, very fancy. Not even a year after we moved in, some other group with more clout came in and stole it from us! So they moved us to a building off in BFE and when people ask what building we're in, they would say, there is no building with that number. Anyway, this building is AWFUL, when I saw awful I mean we are the ONLY people on our side of the building. There are two lobbies and the stuff in-between don't connect. So literaly we're off in the west wing of this building to ourselves. The worse part, you walk in and have to walk down a 200ft hallway to even get to our offices. It's like you're walking the "green mile" every single day. And of course the bathrooms, kitchen area, fridge, everything is near the lobby, so you have to take a really long walk to wash your hands, go to the restroom, get your food.... You probably say, it can't be that bad Sarah...oh how wrong you are. This is the hallway of doom:

This picture is taken looking for our offices towards the lobby. You see that brown door at the very end? That's the kitchen area, then if you take a left, and a right, you'll be at the bathrooms and the lobby. So the door to your left is where the managers sit, the door  right across from it is locked and no one uses, and the second door on the left, is a gigantic room that has boilers and other ginormous looking equipment and they let us store our extra stuff in there. Then there are a few other door that are always locked and I've never seen anyone walk in or out of them. But mostly it's just plain white walls. And you see how it's sort of dark in the hallway? We don't even get the pleasure of all the lights being turned on, yep, only every other.

So there you go, where I work. I'm so happy to get a 17 day break from this sterile feeling walk. Although I have to admit sometimes when I walking in the hallway alone, I feel like I could be an Olympic gymnast and pull a Gabby Douglas and just go running down the hallway performing flips and cartwheels in perfect fashion.

Okay this post got way to long for something that was about work. Let's hope the world doesn't end tomorrow and we'll get another day to blog to each other.

Much love!