Peacefully Beautiful

I love the mornings where you wake up and its barely light in your room.  When you climb out of bed to the cool morning air and everyone in the house is still peacefully sleeping.  Dreaming of far off worlds.

When you go to your sink and look out the window you see a wall of fog.  Slowly creeping towards the house. I love stepping outside and letting the fog encompass me. Slowly taking over the space around me, invading the air and making it's dewy presence known.

I love the serenity that comes in the early morning. The peace of the world waking around you.  The crisp chill of the air waking your lungs.  I love the beauty of the early morning.  I love fall.

Smore Covered Marshmallows

My dear friend Molly was over and pinning things on her iPad.  She showed me a picture of marshmallows cover with chocolate and graham crackers.

So away I went.  I had marshmallows, graham crackers, and chocolate chips. Why not make some?!?!?!  I only saw a picture so I have no idea how who ever made theirs did it but here is how I made mine:

EAT ME!!!!!

You will need:

• wood skewers 
• big marshmallows
• chocolate chips
• crisco
• graham crackers crushed 

1. Place marshmallows on wooden skewers

2.  Put Chocolate chips and crisco in pan to melt.  I used 1/2 cup of chocolate chips to a 1/2 TBL of crisco.  It covered all 11 marshmallows and I had a little left over.

3 Dip marshmallows in melted chocolate and cover well.

4.  Cover marshmallows with crushed graham crackers.  We poured it over each one. 

5. EAT IT!!!  

So yummy!  The left over graham cracker and chocolate I combined.  Then today I added some marshmallow cream in it.  OMG yeah it was way too good.  

So if you happen to have all those lying around in your kitchen go make some.  You will be glad you did!  ENJOY :)

Oh Snoopy

One of my favorite thing about fall is that there are Peanuts movies to watch EVERY MONTH!

source

I am a Peanuts freak. I love Snoopy.  The reason being in my mom gave me some Peanuts comics when I was a little girl that she had when she was growing up. So they make me feel close to her.

Well today Triston runs into the living room and asks if he could watch The Great Pumpkin.  My heart swelled and I got a huge smile and my face.

OF COURSE YOU CAN!!!!

Great Mondays

Monday, Monday, Monday.  Will had this wonderful Monday off.  Which was nice, he took Triston to school and picked him up.  I was able to stay home with Andi and continue to attempt to teach the foreign concept of going to the bathroom on the potty. No progress on that home front. (If you have any advice for girls PLEASE let me know, my son was easy....Andi not so much.)

When Will left to take Triston to school today he forgot his phone.  After he dropped him off he said he was going to the gym and then to get his hair cut.  Triston gets out of school at 11:15, I wasn't sure if Will remembered.  So around 10:30 I start to over analyze think "what if he forgets Triston!".  So me being me goes on this crazy train of what will Triston think if he thinks we forgot about him. Is he going to freak out?  How am I going to get a hold of Will...he has or only carseat. Blah, blah, blah... I call my mom and tell her my situation, she tells me he has the carseat he knows. Also asks why I don't have two carseats ( we only JUST got our second car).  He didn't forget him. I freaked out about nothing.

Isn't it crazy where your brain can take you?  I mean my mind can go crazy places when I am freaking out about things.  Do you do the same thing?  Does your mind take you on a adventure when it is not needed?

Wine time

I could not have a day like today and NOT share it with y'all!  First off we went to two wineries.  The first was St. James and the other was Meramec.  St. James had 40 different wines at their tasting and you could choose 8 different ones.  Katie, Molly and I stood near each other so we shared sips.  So in total I think we each tried a good 12 ones.

Pictures By Molly Robin Photography

My favorite was the Island Getaway.  It's a sparkling wine that taste like you need to be sitting on a beach.  SO good!  If you are ever traveling Route 66 stop by and try some. Mmmm you will thank me.

Pictures by Molly Robin Photography

Then at Meramec Winery I bought a bottle of their Harvest Moon.  I brought it back for my hubby for watching the kids.  It taste like pumpkin spice, which was different.  The lady at the tasting said to mix it with apple cider.  So when we break open the bottle I will let you know how it mixes.

Now to the food post of the day :)

My amazing french toast:

This was probably the best french toast I have ever made!  It was so good.

The apple sauce:

OK I looked at a few different recipes and threw together what I thought would be good.

Danielle's apple sauce:

15 small apples
2 TBL brown Sugar
1.5 TSP cinnamon
squirt of lemon juice

I used me apple peeler corer slicer. Then I threw all the ingredients together in the crockpot on low for 6 hours.  Make sure to stir a few times while cooking.

Here is the kicker...........it only made about a cup of apple sauce. SO if you want more I would put a few more apples in the pot.  Or you could always put some water in there and make it a little thinner.  But it taste great. I will be making it again.

Not so random note My friend Molly was the photographer of the beautiful pictures from the winery.  She is one artsy girl!  You should go check her blog Between the Sheetz out she is cooking her way through the Pioneer Women's cookbook! Warning you might become hungry!

Wine and Dine

It's Friday!  I am super excited that the weekend is here.  This weekend is going to be great tomorrow I am going to St. James Winery with some good friends.  Then Sunday we are having some close friends over for dinner.  This weekend will be filled with good friends, amazing food, and some great wine.

Sunday I will fill you in on how the amazing food and wine goes.  But I wanted to give you a heads up on what to look forward to.  

Tomorrow:  When we made the cannoli's I had left over filling.  SO me and my amazing brain thought, hmm what to do with the extra filling?  How about stuffed french toast?!?!?!?  I know pick you jaw up off the floor from that amazing idea.  So right now I have home made french bread cooking in the oven.  My house smells AMAZING! 

Recipe

Then after my filling french toast I am going to try my hand at some homemade apple sauce.  My friend Katie brought over some fresh picked apples and I found a recipe that you make it in the crockpot.  If all goes well I will let you know how it turned out.  I think I am going to change a few things in the recipe so we shall see :)

While the apple sauce is doing it's thing I am going to head out to the winery.  Once home we are making the 25 pound turkey my husband grabbed at the commissary.  Great story that goes like this: 

Me: "Hey booger (what I call my hubby, yeah laugh) can you grab a turkey on the way home?  The one thing I forgot when I went shopping is the biggest I needed go figure."
Will: "Yeah babe no problem."

So he comes home with an arm full of things and this HUGE turkey.

Me: "Will this is huge.  Why did you get such a big turkey?  Do you know how big it is?  25 lbs we only needed it for Saturday (only the 4 of us and Triston wont eat it) and Sunday for the turkey tetrazzini."
Will: "I just grabbed the first one I saw."

Bahahahaha! Really?  I love him! Such a guy!  So yes now we will have a HUGE meal on Saturday.  No complaints as we will be pretty much fed for 4 days in a row.

Sunday: I am using the other loaf of french bread and making turkey tetrazzini.  I use the Pioneer Women's recipe. Check it out!  I have made it a few times before and it is amazing.  For our family we eat left overs through the whole week.  If you want to impress your friends make it some time.

 I will update you on how this weekend of yumminess goes!

Hope everyone else is having fun this weekend!!!!!

Cannoli and Expresso

Well around here when we do a play date we DO a play date!

Today my two good friends, Molly and Katie, joined me to make cannoli's and expresso.

First off, I am a cannoli WHORE! If we go to ANY place that sells them I WILL buy one (or 6).  It is almost an addiction.   Will knows if he wants to sweeten me up bring one home and my parents always buy me some from the bakery when we come to visit.

We found the cannoli recipe on pinterest.  If you like cannoli's you should try it.  It is a little different since you are using pie crust but is EXTREMELY easy and pretty dang good.  Katie was a barista so she taught me how to properly use my expresso machine.  Honestly I will be surprised if any of us sleep tonight.

Good food; great friends. What more could a girl ask for?

Rocky Horror Love!

So I have always wanted to attend a interactive showing of Rocky Horror Picture Show.  I have never had the chance to attend till this past Saturday.  Let me tell you....IT WAS FREAKING amazing!  I wanted to share a few pictures of the night with you.

I literally had to drag two of my friends with me because they did not realize what an epic night they would be missing.  Needless to say they had a good time.  They were a little scared when rice came flying at their heads in the beginning of the movie, I on the other hand laughed my buns off.  

We have decided that this has to be a yearly event.  Next year I will be making out costumes, I haven't decided which way we are going to go.  But I do know they will be epic!  

Rockets!

We found a pin (doesn't it always start with that [my brain is reading this with an Irish accent if you would like to join me]).  The pin lead me to this blog where they made straw shooter.

NUMBER ONE: If you do not know me then come sit down and I will share a story with you my friend.  comfy?  need an extra pillow, cocktail?  Ok, good, now on with this story.  My wonderful son is picky and likes to control things.  This I understand, his dad deployed when he was 6 months and didn't return till he was a little over a year.  Then we moved a year after he returned.  Where we live now he leaves in spurts nothing too long, but still time with out dad.  SO how he copes with the things like moving, leaving old friends, and missing his dad; is to be picky about weird things he can control.  So food. Even if he likes it, if he didn't want to eat it in the beginning he isn't going to eat it.  Well this rolls over to straws.  (All that to get you to right here, Will says I blab...do it?) He has decided he want to drink through a straw for mostly everything.  I carry them in my car, purse, and any place I might randomly need straws.

"Danielle, you have to be spending a billion dollars on straws that is crazy!"  Is what you must be thinking.  The answer to that is no. My dad goes to this restaurant supply store and buys them bulk....I mean BULK. So I had them in spades.

This story over now back to the craft :)


I got out 3 sheets of printer paper and had both the kids draw on them to make them pretty.  We then cut them out and glued them shut.  After a few minutes he headed outside and had a BLAST with them!

We made a few challenges:
-whose rocket can go the farthest contest
-whose rocket can go the highest.
-who can aim their rocket the best.

The last one turned into a war and we chased each other around yard blowing rockets at each other.  But it kept the kids happy and wore them out.  Andi was not good at shooting them, she was too little to get the concept and kept sucking in instead of blowing out.  But she was a great rocket retriever when we would shot ours off.  So the whole family (minus dad sleeping on couch) had a great time!

sleep with one eye opened.

Why one should never fall asleep while my children are awake.

Let me begin by saying:

1. Will is still not used to the time change.
2. He realized he had a LOT more Yingling then he thought.
3. He found a bottle of red wine that he declared was his new favorite.
4. He normally doesn't drink a fourth of that combination at home watching football.

So he fell asleep on the couch. Then he halfway fell off the couch.  (The kids and I were doing a project outside which I will share soon.)

We walk inside. I turn and see him half on half off the couch. Instantly take picture. Turn to put my camera up and check battery statues on IPAD. Check out why the kids are laughing. Grab camera once  again and take another picture.  The kids topped him off with Eeyore.  Then added a few blankets. Finally the cherry on top themselves.  

I was not involved in any of this!  I just watched their little brains think of ways to decorate daddy.  It was fun watching the thought process.  Will during this...SLEPT the entire time! I think he grunted maybe once.  I finally told the kids to leave daddy alone and we made dad move to the bed where he could sleep in peace.  We had, had our fun! 

So take this as a fair warning.....if you ever stay the night, eat Thanksgiving dinner, or drink too much at one of our "celebrations"  all is fair :)  

Nummy food day

In our house during fall Will sits on his recliner and his eyes are glued to the TV for football.  He loves the game and watches all the teams, but his roots lie with The Ohio State University.  As for me I swing either Carolina or Clemson.  But we aren't too picky as long as its a good game.

Well you always need some good munchies if you are going to veg out on the couch all day.  So I stumbled on a Roasted Chickpeas pin and decided it was worth a try.

I let Will choose which one to try and he picked garlic parmesan.

Will and Andi loved them.  They both finished off the whole bowl before half time.  I wasn't in love with the flavor he picked.  Next I am going to make the honey cinnamon. Try them, let me know what you think!


Then I made Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip bread. The recipe makes mini loaves.  I do not own any mini loaf pans.  So instead I make mine in coffee cups.  I made 5 mugs out of the batch but I could of fit them into 4 mugs.

See, mugs not only hold that wonderful goodness known as coffee in the mornings BUT you can make some awesome bread in it!

Side note; they make good presents too. If you have teacher mugs or holiday ones make up a quick batch and bless someones taste buds.

Now be hungry!!!

Meet the furry family!

Since I talk so much about our people family I feel you should meet our four legged children as well!

We will go by who was adopted first.

Meet Lady!  

Camping with the kids in the living room

We got lady right before we got married in 2006.  I told Will I wanted a dog to travel with me because we lived 4 1/2 hours away from each other. I was driving between Camp Lejeune, Charlotte, and Augusta. I was in the car a lot.  I LOVED the look of a doberman pinscher so I opted for a min-pin.  

We had lady for about 5 months and Will said to me..."Danielle this is not a dog it's a rat." So I found a place in South Carolina and we got Max.

Max aka Moo Moo

Sleeping with Andi

When we got max he was about 7 months old and he was bigger then my parents dog.  We knew he was going to be big but I don't think we expected as big.  At his biggest he was 120 pounds.  He is SCARY looking and we have had people not come in our house because they were scared of him.  But he is the biggest baby ever!  I love him to death.  He is laid back, loving, and so gentle.  He is also a great guard dog.  People see him or hear him and they think twice.  So he is my protection when Will leaves for training or what not.  

So those are my two furry children.  They are two of the best around!

10-4 Good Buddy

Howdy Howdy there!  So I found this on one of my favorite blogs I follow and had to join the party.  Thanks The Chronicles of Chaos.

1. Do you listen to Pandora?  What is your go-to Pandora station?

Ok I listen to Pandora EVERYDAY when I clean!  It's always on the Michael Buble station, I love his music and the oldies it plays.   (I told my husband when we were dating a billion years ago that if Mr. Buble EVER asked me to marry him that I had permission to do so….) 

2. What is your favorite post from August?

I think it would have to be my MIles Between Us because I wrote it while I was missing my husband and it let me remember everything I truly love about him.  It is always great to focus on the positive.  

3. What non-cartoon TV show reminds you of your childhood?

MASH  I love this show! My dad and grandpa used to watch it all the time.  Will hates it but when he was deployed he found the whole series and sent it to me....golly I love him.  (Maybe this is why I married into the military? hmm must ponder that one)

4. What bad habit do you have that even annoys you?

I am SUPER analytical. I hate over thinking everything.  Also if we are naming things, I sometimes turn into a control freak. (Family trait)

5. What 5 things would you take with you if your house was on fire?  People don't count...hopefully, that's a given.

-2 ceramic statues my grandma gave me. The first is of a dancing couple.  The other is a girl feeding chickens. That was her job on the farm growing up. She found it in Denmark where my great-grandpa is from.    

-The photo albums by my door. It has my scrap book my friends made me from my bridal shower, my wedding book, college book, and my kids....tons of photos.  

- My dogs......if they aren't considered people :)

- my cricut, I love that thing....haha! 

6. Do you have a cleaning schedule that you use to keep up with your housework?

Sort of...once a week I clean my house throughly...then I just keep it up through the week.  But i do laundry every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. My house is SMALL...we downsized when we moved here from Hawaii.  Praying the next house is a little bigger.  

7. What was your high school mascot?  Please tell me you have the ability to scan a high school picture to post too...

Yellow Jackets....what what!  

8. What is your favorite picture from August?

THIS ONE!!!!  My hubby finally got home :) 

9. What do you love most about fall?

Lets list what I don't like about fall...shorter list.  I love everything, the smell, the sights, the weather, the clothes, and the festivals...LOVE.IT.ALL! 

10. Tell me your dream cupcake.

Are these considered a cupcake?  I dunno, they are cups...Mini Cannoli Cups.  I haven't made them yet but I am having an expresso and cannoli date coming up in a few weeks with one of my good friends, and yes you can join. So perfect time to try right!  I will keep you posted :) 

Check it out here

I hope you join in on the fun too.

Tristons first day of school

Today was Tristons first day of preschool!

  He was very excited. Of course we had to do the "what do you want to be when you grow up?"  question.  He answered " An Army dude".  Which is all grand but his dad is a Marine.  We happen to be stationed on an army base for the time being. SOOOOOO this answer prompted a burst of giggles from me and his dad to say "no, no, no, no military you want to be an engineer". Great fun!

When we got to school and in his class room he was ready for me to leave.  Pretty much said "BYE MOM!!! See you later!"  Yea broke my heart.  But, I was so proud he was ready to start school and was so excited.  

Once he got home I asked asked a billion questions about his day.  He was eager to share. After he told me about coloring, singing, friends, and rug time I asked him these few things to record for the future:

• What was your favorite thing you did at school today?
• When we got to sit on the carpet
• Did you make friends?
• Yep I did
• Do you remember their names?
• Not sort of (um ok? haha)
• Do you like your teacher?
• YEA!!

Now for the save and ask each year questions:

• What is your favorite movie?
• 101 Dalmatians and Despicable Me
• What is your favorite TV Show?
• Gravity Falls
• What is your favorite color?
• red
• Who is your best friend?
• Jessie
• What is your favorite thing to do?
• Watch TV (go mom!)
• What is your favorite food?
• pizza

Oh what a great day!!!!! I love my little man and I am so proud of him!  Here starts the wonderful journey of education!  

Look who we found!

Yesterday was the much anticipated "last chain" day.

Triston was too freaking cute, as soon as he woke up in the morning he went RUNNING to the living room to grab the chain.  Once he had it he ran into my room freaking out..."MOM, MOM, MOM, look its the last one!  We get to go to the airport to get DADDY!!!!" He was way too excited way to early in the morning!  It was great. 

So of course, yesterday was the day that hurricane Isaac decided to make its debut in our neck of the woods.  The 2 hour drive up to St. Louis was good wet fun! But we made it there safe and headed to the mall first.  I like to let the kids play and walk around some so they don't get antsy from so much time in the car.  

Andi eating a cinnamon pretzel at the mall 

Well once we get there what happens?

My phone starts making that annoying this is a test alarm (never knew it had that sound in it).  I look to find we are in a tornado warning. REALLY PEOPLE!  Needless to say nothing happened.  But I had tornados so I was a little scared.  

After we got some energy out we headed over to the airport and got daddy!  The kids were excited.  Andi wasn't sure what to do she just kept pointing and saying "tickle. tickle, daddy" then laughing.  Triston went and helped him pick up his bags.  Then we headed home.

FINALLY WE ARE ALL TOGETHER :)  This wasn't the longest separation but it is always good to have the family all together.

Welcome home Daddy!  Now go watch some football :)