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Happy Sunday everyone! Most of you are probably indulging in lots of junk food and gearing up for the Super Bowl, huh? Lol.

I am going to attempt to quickly (or not so quickly) bring you up to speed. Would you like a recap of my life the last few weeks? Duh, of course you would, or you wouldn’t be reading this, would you?

Let’s recap:
In December:

There was picking up Daddy at the airport, combined with Daddy meeting Dazlynn for the first time (he’s been deployed since May, remember?)

There was fun as a family, like feeding the ducks and visiting the Japanese Tea Gardens.
I may be a bit partial, but I happen to think Dazlynn is the cutest cupcake you will ever see

There was holiday baking and sugar cookie making at Uncle Matt & Aunt Heather’s house.
The dogs helped…. lick sugar off the floor

There was lots and lots of present opening.

Did I mention there was lots of present opening?

There was gingerbread house making.

There were lotsa fun sister photos taken.



There was a trip to ikea in there somewhere.

There was game time with Daddy.

There were lotsa special moments captured.

There were Christmas Cards sent out.

There were feet put in faces on our mini roadtrip to Houston….

And so, so, so much more. But that’s all for now.

Then there was January.
Oh January… how unpleasant you were for me.

There was 2 ER visits with little miss Dazlynn.

2 Hospitalizations for little miss Dazlynn, totalling 11 days between the 2.

There was visiting baby sister in the Peds ward.

There were crappy cell phone photos taken.
And many sleepless nights during Baby D’s 9 day stretch in the Peds Ward.

There was 24 hours in the PICU – which was awfully hard on this Mommy’s heart, can ya tell why?

5 Doctor appointments (just for little baby D, add another 2 if you include physicals for J & M)

Many, Many breathing treatments for little miss Dazlynn at home. (who was diagnosed with RSV after the 5th day in the hospital)

There was happiness in my heart to have my sweet girl happy & at home.

There was the 2 year anniversary of my brother’s (Ruzbeh’s) death – January 10th.
There was the above mentioned’s would-have been 32nd birthday – January 30th.

There was excitement about moving into a 3 bedroom apartment (compared to my 2 bedroom, with 4 of us here) and then the realization that after 9 days in the hospital, and very very little sleep, and absolutely no motivation to pack – that I would not be making that move. Boo.

There was (still is) days of feeling completely and utterly overwhelmed, and alone. Being a basically single mom is really friggin’ hard. When there’s 3 kids, 1 super sick and 1 (Makayla) kinda sick, that makes that really friggin’ hard skyrocket thru the roof. It’s emotionally draining, to say the least. But you gotta keep on truckin’ – cuz noone’s gonna make sure your kids needs are met but you. Doesn’t seem to matter if your needs are met. They really shoulda taught us this in highschool…

There was a fun trip to Spring Loaded that Uncle Matt treated Jazzy & Makayla to, and a trip to the zoo that was fun, so it wasn’t all bad. There were (2) good days…

Let’s just say I don’t have very high expectations for February… but then it won’t take much for it to be better than January

Doesn’t that look delicious? Mmmmm…. it is! I was going to make some basic fudge last night but instead I decided to change up the ingredients and use some fun stuff I have, that sounded like it would be yummy together. And Ta-Da! My very first recipe, lol. I doubt there will be more, I am not much of a cook, but this recipe is fool-proof. Follow the instructions and there’s no way you can mess up. Don’t even need a pan, just microwave it! Zip zap, stir, pour – done! Doesn’t get much better than that, does it?

I call it “Reeses Rocky Road” because thats exactly what it tastes like!

Ingredients:

• 1 can sweetened, condensed milk (14 oz)
• 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1 cup white chocolate chips
• 1/3 cup milk chocolate toffee bits
• 1/3 cup pecans
• 1/4 bag of marshmallows (10.5 oz bag)
• 2 teaspoons margarine
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 heaping tablespoons creamy peanut butter

1. Combine milk, white chocolate chips, semi-sweet chocolate chips, toffee bits, margarine, and vanilla extract in a large, microwave-safe bowl. Stir up a bit, and microwave on high for about 90 seconds, or until all chocolate is melted – more or less may be needed depending on your microwave.
2. Stir in Peanut butter. The exact amount doesn’t matter, you could add more if you wanted. Don’t worry about it not being the exact same amount I used. It should melt right in, but you can zap it for a few more seconds if you think you need to.
3. Stir up, and add in pecans. You can add more or less – or change it up to almonds or peanuts, whatever you like.
4. Pour in Marshmallows – I used the last of my bag of marshmallows, which was a regular 10.5 oz bag, and there was about 1/4 of the bag left. Again – whatever looks good to you!
5. Pour into a foil (or wax paper) lined pan. A large brownie pan would probably be best, but I don’t have one of those (lol) so I used some tupperware containers. Fill about an inch high. Guess it doesn’t matter really, but that’s how high I filled mine.
6. Put in refrigerator (or freezer if you are in a hurry) and leave til it sets and is no longer runny.
7. Cut up, serve, and enjoy!

These would make awesome little treats for gift baskets for friends! Or, an awesome way to tempt yourself and see if you have as much self control as you think you do with that funky little diet you decided to go on right before the holidays Haha!!

So, let me go ahead and jump on the happy list train, holiday style

Christmas tree bokeh makes me happy. For real. I have been wanting to try this since February and ta-da! I now have a tree and was able to do it I can’t really explain why it makes me so happy. As a photographer, Bokeh in general makes me happy. But combine bokeh with my favorite object of my favorite season of the year, and well, I guess that might explain it! Ha! Come on, you know it makes you at least a little bit happy. Maybe confused… but happy? Lol.

Flippina makes me happy. Isn’t she cute? Go ahead, say the name out loud. You know you want to. Flippina. Did you say it? Was it hard to say it without wanting to say “Filipina”? Or was that just me? Lol. I have never owned a Christmas Cookie Jar in my life. I mean come on, $20 for an empty damn cookie jar? Nah, I’d rather get a couple gifts with that. But, this year, I found this cutie at Sam’s for $12.98, and guess what? She Wasn’t Empty! Flippina came with 3 bags of the cutest little sugar cookies ever. They are about the size of a quarter – perfect size for random treats for the girls during the day. Or, as we use them – for prizes for whoever wins Christmas Bingo!

Speaking of Christmas Bingo. That makes me happy, too. This is the first year we played it. Found a little set for $1 at Wallyworld (aka to common folk as Wal-Mart) and surprisingly Makayla is quite good at it! I wasn’t sure she would get the concept, but she does! (Told ya the cookies were cute!)

Hot cocoa makes me happy. Although this year, I took a plunge and tried something new. Peppermint Marshmallows. My blog-friend Patty mentioned how awesome peppermint hot cocoa is, and since I don’t have peppermint flavoring to add, I added peppermint marshmallows and a candycane. Dont-Juge-Me. Lol. And, doing it this way, it was quite tasty, and had an awesome aroma. I also love mini-marshmallows. Or, as Makayla calls them “wittle messy-yellows”. Do you love them like I love them? Cuz like I said, I love them. Jazzy does too. Makayla doesn’t, but we do =)

The fact that I have one more gorgeous little girl to add to our Christmas photos this year makes me happy. This is the first year I am doing photo Christmas Cards, wish me luck getting that photo… Lol.

And, I have to share this video. It’s not holiday themed, maybe I shoulda put her in her her christmas jammies. But, it’s adorable, so feel free to admit you love it =) “Chicken Leg” that I mention is not saying she has chicken legs… if you have seen those cheeks – well her legs are far from chicken legs lol. My brother does this thing he calls “Chicken wing” on my older girls when he tickles them, and this is just me doing to to her, but on her leg, so I call it chicken leg! And she obviously thinks it’s pretty funny. Haha. Sorry if it starts playing right away, I haven’t figured out all the darn video codes yet =/

Five Words.
Don’t. Buy. Them!
Make. Them!

All you need is an oven, which most of the US population has in their home, some old broken crayons (or ones you just bought for 25 cents a box) and a muffin tin! Not only can it reuse your old crayons instead of tossing them out, it’s also a fun activity for the little ones! And it’s not too painful for us adult-folks either

First get your crayons. We used one box that had been used, and a new box of crayons that hadn’t been opened yet. It doesn’t matter to me, because they are going to get broken anyways lol! Plus, I always stock up in August when they are crazy cheap so there’s always lotsa extras on hand around here.

1. Preheat your oven to 250 degrees.

2. Have the kids unwrap the crayons. My girls call them “naked crayons”… lol. These crayons had the wrappers on pretty good, so I had to cut the side with a knife so they could peel the paper off, or we woulda been here for hours. (who knows, you might want them occupied for a lil bit! lol!)

3. Then, break them! That’s the fun part.

You could make this a learning activity by having your child sort them by color! Or counting them, or whatever! Lotsa possibilities.

4. Put them in a muffin tin (best if you use foil instead of putting them straight into the pan) or my choice was silicone baking cups. fill to desired height. I didn’t want super thick ones but I didn’t want them to break real easy either so I guessed at about 1/3 full.

(this was the reaction I got when I said I was going to “cook the crayons”.)

5. Stick ‘em in the oven for 10-15 minutes. Most tutorials say 20 minutes but I looked at 13 minutes and mine were well melted. Just keep checking in on them, it varies per your oven, how high they are on the rack, etc…

6. Once melted, pull ‘em out. You can leave them as they are, or if you want a “swirl” effect take a straw, or a stick, or the end of a spoon, whatever, and simply do one or two swirls to achieve the look you want!

7. Let them cool off, pop them out, and enjoy!

Apparently Makayla felt a need to see what they smelled like…. lol.

Did you literally bust out laughing when you saw that photo? Maybe it’s just me, but I LOL everytime I look at it

I’d say Operation: Create-A-Crayon was a success! Yeah?

These also make super cute add-ons to gifts, or party favors! Would be fun to do for an indoor child’s party, too!