Where did my week go?

Where did it go? This week flew by and I am sitting here where my time has went. I have had Mary Kay on my mind since I have started! This week I did two facials and got all of my inventory. :) Oh how happy I am! I have my debut party on Saturday and a few more facials this week. I am beyond excited. I can see this is going to go far.

Maddie has been talking a lot more. She tries to repeat every word that we say and even tries to read to us now. She is such a little know it all. She actually got sent to time out by daddy because she rolled her eyes. OH BOY! was she upset when HE sent her there. If anyone knows how close Maddie and Jeff are, then you know that Jeff can't punish Maddie in anyway or look like he's mad at her. She gives the little pouty face and it is an instance forgiveness.

Jeff has been really busy at work, as usual. He is working long hours, so Maddie has been staying up a little later to get some time in with him. We all watched Dumbo on Friday. She is so funny. I normally have Dumbo playing in the car for when we go places and there is one spot where she screams out in laughter and says funny mommy, funny mommy! Two seconds later, I hear the same thing all over again! She cracks me up! So, we HAD to watch it to see what is so funny. Friday has turned into our family movie night.

That is all I really remember from this whirlwind of a week. Until next time.

Lori

chocolate molten cupcake

I have been craving something CHOCOLATE!!! Like a chocolate cupcake with chocolate icing sounded good, but I knew that I would be the only one that would eat it, so I had to find something else. I was looking up recipes and getting ideas when I ran across this recipe. It was so easy to do and it tasted AH-MAZE-ING!!!! I was surprised how easy it was and how delicious it turned out. Just goes to show you that you don't have to do a million and one steps to get a great tasting dessert. Are you ready to see what you need in order to accomplish this recipe??

Ingredients needed:

1 box chocolate cake mix (or you can make it from scratch if you'd like)
      + ingredients it requires (Eggs, water, oil)
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
1 1/2 cup semi-sweet morsels

On the stove, heat up the whipping cream, but do not let it boil. Add the morsels and melt completely. Cool it i the fridge for about an hour until it is thick. Stir occasionally. Preheat the oven to 350* and prepare the box mix, but do not bake it. Put a 1/4 of the mix in the cupcake, a tablespoon of the cream/morsel mix in the middle, and then the rest with the cake mix. Bake 18 minutes and serve warm! They are delicious and so good. I may or may not have eaten two and debated a third. These are a must!!!

Enjoy!

Lori 

Mary Kay Independent Consultant

So, I am VERY excited to share that I am now a Mary Kay Independent Consultant. I signed up yesterday and am so excited for this new adventure! I have been debating this for a couple of months now and kept tossing the idea around. I finally just went for it and couldn't be happier with my choice. I already ordered my product, have everything set up, and ready for my box of stuff so I can get started! My first task is to get 30 faces in 30 days. Do I have any takers? It's free for you! I just need input and a picture!! I feel like jumping around because I love their products and know that if everyone tried it they would, too. If you would like to look at my website or order anything you can go to www.marykay.com/loriboone  I will be happy to help you out in anyway. If you want to earn free product, let me know and I can help you out with that too!! * About to burst!*  Check it out!!

Lori

Family Night out!

     We have been trying to do a lot more family time since Jeff has been working long hours. It's tough on Maddie only getting to spend an hour or two a day with him, so when he is home we like to make the best of it. This family night out, we went to go get some ice cream. Maddie has had ice cream before and we go to Sonic or Wendy's regularly to get some sort of cold item. This time was a little more special. We took her to Marble Slab and let her pick out what she wanted.

     She got to try a few samples and she told us which one she wanted and what on it. She decided to go with Cotton candy ice cream with gummy bears mixed in. I thought it was slightly weird, but it was what she wanted and she actually ate most of it. She had so much fun getting to try new flavors and choosing which one she wanted. Jeff got a scoop of mint ice cream with oreos while i devoured butter pecan with chocolate morsals. It was really good. It was definitely one of those nights where we will remember always because she was all smiles that night.  

Enjoy the pictures! :)

Lori

Apple Cinnamon Dog Snacks

Here is another dog snack. I really like this recipe between this one and the other one because I have all of the ingredients on hand and it is all healthy. This recipe is really easy, as well. These smell really good. I have a second batch in the oven right now! Like I said in the previous post, tomorrow is my dog's 'birthday' party, so I am trying a few new recipes.

What you need:

1 large apple- cored sliced and minced
1 cup oats
1/2 water
1/4 cup honey
teaspoon of cinnamon
11/2 cups whole wheat flour

Preheat the oven at 350*. Add all of the items together except the flour. Once it is well mixed, add the flour a little at a time. Roll them into balls and place onto a greased cookie sheet. The original recipe I found HERE didn't seem right. So, I took a chance and baked them at what I thought. I baked them at 15 minutes, flipped, and baked for another  minutes. I guess we will see what the dogs think when I feed it to them.



Lori

Peanut Butter Dog snacks

Today is Katy's ( my dog) birthday. She is the big F-O-U-R! Each year I make her a little cake and her and Toby(my other dog) share her little cake. This year is a little different. A couple of friends who have dogs are going to meet us up at a dog park and and let them all play. I decided that I would make them some cookies instead of the cake (mainly because I didn't have a lot of the items. I found some pretty easy recipes to make! :) I have another batch in the oven now, but I finished these and had to know if the dogs would eat them. Of course they did!! :)

Look no longer for a dog snack recipe! :) I know people are just dying to make some dog snacks.

2 cups of Whole-wheat flour
1 tablespoon of baking powder
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup milk

Preheat oven to 375*. In a medium bowl, add the flour and baking powder together. In a small bowl add the peanut butter and milk together and cream. Then add the wet to the dry mix. Knead the batch and roll it out to 1/4 inch. Use a cookie cutter ( I used a dog bone and a cupcake cutter) and cut out your cookies. Place onto a GREASED cookie sheet and bake for 20 minutes. Let them cool and serve! :)

Like I said, easy, quick, and apparently delish!  Enjoy!!

Lori

Chuck E Cheese

Before I get to tell you about Chuck E cheese, I want to tell you about what I did this morning. I am part of a coupon group and once a month we make food and bring it to the Ronald McDonald house. We are, also, beginning to help clean rooms and such. I made up a batch up homemade chili (enough for 30 people) and spent a little time cleaning. Today was a really touching moment. Each room is sponsored by a person, family, or company. One of the rooms we cleaned was sponsored by a family whose daughter died on the day of her Wedding. Her WEDDING! Her and her husband were MILES away from their honeymoon when she was killed by a drunk driver!!! It really makes you think. Now onto the reason for this blog...  

 

Jeff has been really busy at work and there hasn't been much time for play or time in general to hang out as a family. We decided that today would be a good day to have a good family day and do something fun. Who doesn't want to go to Chuck E cheese as a kid?? I was really excited because I use to love to go as a child and knew Maddie would have a blast. I knew she would be too little for some games, but there would be plenty for her to play with. We got there and the line to get in was out the door! Oh boy! We finally got in and actually ended up taking someone's table. I guess someone sat another family, but the family went to get tokens and such. We were sat and the lady came back up with her kids. We got the situation packed, but this place was CRAZY!!!! Maddie couldn't wait to start playing games, but we had to eat first. Jeff took her to ride a few little rides in front of our table while I sat at our table and made sure no one took our table. Ha! She quickly ate a slice of pizza and was off! 

This was a very eye opening experience. We had kids pushing Maddie out of the way to play games, kids trying to take our tickets while Maddie was STILL playing, a lot of the machines were actually broken, and -my favorite part - ADULTS playing and blocking games with kids waiting to play. I couldn't believe it! We were trying to let Maddie play skeeball. She always tries to play at another place we go to, so we thought we would really enjoy it. There were six lanes, two were broken, one only had one ball, and two ladies were having a competition on two lanes. Really ladies?! Anyway, Maddie had a lot of fun if you put all of that to the side. She was getting tired, so I cashed in her tickets (which wasn't a whole lot) and got her a few little prizes. It was a good time and quite the learning experience. Tomorrow we are going to go get some ice cream and let her pick out what she wants. I am pretty excited to get to spend some more time as a family and get out. 

She's got quite the arm!

Maybe a basketball player?

She came close a few times getting it in the hoop. Definitely hit the rim a few times.

Why roll it when you can throw it?!

Daddy finally had to show her how to do it! haha

Overall, we had such a great time! I am so sad that she is growing up so quickly!

Enjoy the pictures!

Lori

Mint chocolate cookies

So, a few people asked for this recipe and I am happy to share! WARNING: These cookies are delicious and you will consume 5 before you know it. I normally only make them at Christmas time when I make a lot of cookies to share. These cookies are not made like the traditional cookie is. You start on the stove, move it to the fridge, and then to the oven. Well worth every bit of work!!

 

Ingredients needed: 

 

3/4 cup butter

1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar

2 tablespoons water

2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

2 eggs

2 1/2 cups AP flour

1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

one box of Andes mint wafers

 

Directions: 

 

In a large pan, cook the butter, sugar, and water on low until it is melted. Add in the chocolate chips and stir until it is partially melted. Take the pan off and continue to stir until completed melted. Let it cool in a large bowl for 10 minutes. While it is cooling, add the dry ingredients into a separate bowl. Once it is slightly cool, beat in the eggs one at a time at a high speed. Reduce the speed and add the dry ingredients. Chill the dough for AT LEAST one hour in the fridge. Bake it in the oven at 350* for 8-10 minutes. I have found it important to place the dough back in the fridge while not in use. While the cookies are baking, start to take the wrapper off the mints. Place a half a wafer onto each cookie after it's baked. Wait 5 minutes and then spread over the rest of the cookie. 

 

Try it and let me know what you think!! 

Lori

Homemade Mozzarella Sticks

Today was Super Bowl Sunday and to me that means I get to make a lot of appetizers and munch on food way too often. I found this recipe and I wanted to try it. I love eating mozzarella sticks and if I can make them at home and taste just as good, then I am in a lot of trouble. Ha! We went to my friends house for the big game. These things had to be in the freezer for at least two hours, so I had to plan accordingly. These came out pretty good. I had all of the supplies on hand and was excited to try it out.  I got the recipe from HERE. I didn't try the sauce this time. I may try it next time, but I like mine with Ranch dressing.

Ingredients needed:

12 mozzarella sticks ( I cut a 12 thick pieces from a block of cheese that I had on hand)

1 1/2 cups Progresso Italian style bread crumbs or regular and then add 4 teaspoons Italian seasoning
1/2 teaspoon table salt
Freshly ground pepper to taste
4 eggs
1 cup of all-purpose flour
Canola oil for frying

I added the bread crumbs, salt, italian seasoning, and pepper together. I cracked and slightly beat the eggs in a bowl.  In a separate plate I put the flour. Take the cheese and coat in the flour. This will prevent the cheese from soaking up the egg. I, then, put it in the egg, into the bread crumb, back into the egg, and then back into the bread crumb. Once all of these are finished, place it into the freezer for at least 2 hours. I used a deep fryer for this instead of on the stove. The oil should be at 350*. Cook until crispy and brown. Then enjoy! :) 


Lori

Easiest Cupcake ever!

I was throwing my Spring Premiere Thirty-one party and my baking mind started rolling. I love to host parties and to bake things for people, so this was perfect!! I made a few cake pops (which turned out to be a HUGE hit) and some Mint chocolate cookies. I needed something non-chocolatey for those who may not want or like chocolate. I wanted to make some pineapple cupcakes, but could not remember what I added and didn't add. I found a different recipe and fell in love with it! This is seriously the easiest cupcake that you could ever make. Are you ready for this?!?!

Ingredients needed:

Yellow cake mix
20 oz. can of pineapple

Can you believe that? No eggs, no oil, no water. How much healthier could a cupcake get??

Mix the ENTIRE can of pineapple into the cake mix. Pop them into your cupcake liners and bake for 19 minutes at 350*.

That easy!! They are so delicious, moist, and pretty healthy. I top my cupcakes with cool whip and enjoy! You may need to have two just to feel like you actually ate a cupcake! I know I do!!


Try it out. You know you want to!!

Lori :)

Easy semi-homemade cinnamon rolls

Pinterest in my newest addiction and with that addiction comes along new recipes, crafts, and ideas for things. I ran across this recipe and had to try it. I only had one tube of crescent rolls, but that was enough with some scrambled eggs to feed the three of us. It is a really simple recipe. I am so glad that I came across it and tried it out. My family loved eating on it. I tried it this morning and can't wait to do it again.

1 can of Pillsbury crescent rolls

4 T brown sugar

1 t cinnamon

1 T butter

1 T flour

1/2 C powdered sugar

2 t milk

Preheat your oven to 350*. Add the brown sugar, cinnamon, slightly melted butter, and flour together. Unroll your crescent roll and spread your mixture. Roll it back up and slice it into pieces. I found it easiest this way and with a bread knife. Bake it for 10 minutes. While they are in the oven, mix the powdered sugar and milk together for the icing. Once they are done baking, cover them in as much or as little icing.  I did it a little differently from the recipe, but it was still good to me. If you would like to look at the original recipe, click HERE. Try it out and tell me what you think.

Birthday Boy Cupcakes

My friend's son turned one and we are celebrating his birthday tomorrow. She asked me if I could make cupcakes and a little smash cake for him. I happily agreed! I can't pass up a chance to make cupcakes and learn some more techniques. I made them tonight and am pretty happy with how they turned out. I will post a few pictures tomorrow once they see them in person. It's a sports theme party. I had a lot of fun making them! Playing with fondant will be my next lesson! :) Check back tomorrow for some pictures!

Our little rockstar!!

Jeff got Rock Band for the Wii a couple years ago and we actually hardly use it. Maddie found the instruments in our coat closet and has fallen on love ever since. Well with the guitar at least. Maddie plays with it all of the time and even "rocks out". She is so funny. Today, I caught a video of her playing with it. Singing, dancing, and rocking out is her thing lately. Red solo cup will come on the radio and she is always trying to sing it in the back dancing as much as she can in her seat. All you hear is "parrrr-yyyy parrrrrr-y...cup, up over and over again. Anyway. I wanted to share some of the cute video I caught today.

Enjoy!

New Gym Routine

Starting off the new year, I wanted to start fresh in the gym. I really want to go on a regular basis and watch what I eat. This doesn't mean I am not going to eat my goodies or enjoy a nice juicy greasy burger and fries, but it will be in moderately. I am keeping count of my calories, but not strict on it. I have been doing rather well I might add. I haven't made it to the gym every day during the week, but I make it when I can.

I normally do 30-35 minutes on the elliptical and that is about 4 miles for me. Jeff suggested that I do more cardio, so I bumped it up to an hour and did SEVEN miles. That's right!! SEVEN miles!! I couldn't believe it. I have never gotten past four miles before, so to do this was a big accomplishment for me if you couldn't tell. I had to skip the next day to take care of some things around the house that NEEDED to get done. The next day I did another SEVEN miles and even cut off a minute and a half. I was ecstatic.

I hope to lose a few pounds and get back to my pre pregnancy weight, but my main goal is to tone up and be in shape. Just wanted to share this and hope to continue this routine that I have going on.

Until next time,

Lori

Ending the weekend on an exciting note!

We are currently at my mom's house for the weekend. We took advantage of the long weekend and came up to help her with a few things. I made some homemade lasagna, chili, enchiladas, and alfredo sauce. Jeff smoked up some boston butt for her (and us :) ). we split it up into one or two servings for her and put them in the freezer. I need to make sure that she actually eats and not sandwiches or canned things. Gotta take care of her! Jeff did a few things around the house. As we are settling down for the night and about to watch a movie, I hear water running and ask Jeff if the water for the hot tub  was still going (jeff cleaned it for mom and was filling it back up). He said yes, but it would be a while. I asked him to go check and sure enough the back patio was in a 1/2 inch puddle.  Haha. Mom and I got a chuckle out of it and out we went to go help clean up! If Jeff wanted some excited before we left, he could have done something else.If you ask me, I think he was trying to get out doing his homework.  Now, everyone is wide awake and watching a movie. We leave in the morning to head back home and get ready for the new week. This weekend went really quick!


Maddie had a blast this weekend with Mimi. She is still getting used to the idea that PopPop is not always with Mimi anymore. If we want to see PopPop, then we have to go to our vacation spot. Mimi and Maddie took Maddie's baby on several walks outside, stopped for some tea, and enjoyed the nice cold day. Maddie and Mimi baked some cookies this evening. She had a lot of fun putting icing on and covering them in sprinkles. She may or may not have tried icing and sprinkles a few times, asked maybe a few thousand times if she could have one, and get icing all over the counters.


This weekend was so much fun. I am glad that we could make it up here, help mom out, and make some more memories between Mimi and Maddie. Maddie absolutely adores her Mimi and PopPop. She gets really excited when she thinks that they are on the phone or hears their voice! There are several times that she asks to talk to them before she goes to bed or random times throughout the day. I am so thankful that we can live this close to my parents and her have this special bond with them. I just can't wait for the next chance to make more memories.


Hope you had a good weekend.


Lori

Thirty-one Spring Catalog!

I can't even express how excited I am for this new catalog!! I got my new ones in the mail yesterday for my parties and such, so I got a glimpse of what is available February 1st. I will definitely be ordering items as soon as I can-not only for party purposes, but for personal use too! I am loving the new colors and patterns. If you would like to check out my link it is www.mythirtyone.com/LoriBoone  you can click HERE for easy access. Also, if you would like a new magazine, I would be more than happy to mail you a copy. I would need an address to send it to! GREAT hostess benefits for February! I WILL plan a party for February so I can get some great items! I do catalog parties for all of my friends that do not live near me. Those are easy to do and still have all of the same benefits as doing a house party! I highly recommend these parties!  ECK! I am so excited. I am visiting my mom right now and I can't even tell you how many times we looked at the catalog and talked about all of the items we wanted and how cute the patterns were. One last thing, I have a party currently going on right now. One person who orders from my party will receive all of the hostess benefits!! Great opportunity to buy last minute items from the fall and winter catalog, get our monthly specials (thermal tote-$10 and cinch bags for $15), and look for great gifts for people. Spread the word please! It will be open until January 31st.


Enjoy!! :)


Lori

What we did in the Bahamas

I already made it clear that we had a lot of fun and that it was beautiful there.I was really curious to see what was beyond the base, so I dragged Jeff on a bike ride with me. I was actually surprised to find that it wasn't what I was thinking. I was expecting cool stores, lots of people trying to sell things on the side of the roads and lots of houses. Mom told me that all of the cool people she was tell me about live on the opposite side of the island an hour away IN A CAR! Dad's tahoe was still in the states waiting to come over! Jeff and I saw a lot of run down houses. There was one building that I thought had been empty for a while because it had looked so worn down. I was wrong. When we rode past it on our bikes, there was music coming from it. Boy, was I wrong! There were a lot of kids riding around on bike, and a pregnant dog that was literally skin and bones other than her big ole belly. I felt terrible and wanted to feed her my oatmeal bars that I packed just in case.

The water was beautiful! My pictures just didn't do it justice. It was so clear that you could see the bottom without a problem. We stopped and admired the water, waves, and the bright beautiful colors everywhere! It was so peaceful. We rode six miles the first time we went out. I lost all of those pictures, but I do have some from our second trip. Our second trip was to a fabric factory which wasn't really a factory. It was a store with a lot of different fabric, shirts, dresses, freshly made soap and lotions there. I bought some fabric for me and an apron and shirt for mom and dad. After our fun little trip there, we went to a little hotel where the light house is. It was a nice little walk to get there once we parked out bikes. This was a pretty short trip, but really fun. Enjoy the pictures! :)

Like I said, pictures just don't do it justice

Fresh conch shells with no conch

How pretty is that

Jeff wanted to do something in the water before he left. He is really big into scuba diving and all of that stuff. He didn't have anyone that we knew of that went scuba diving, so he didn't get to go this time. He did get to go fishing though and spear fishing. He had a lot of fun fishing. Him and my dad went with a friend and his family. Jeff caught a twenty pound Wahoo and one of the other guys caught a 10 pound Mahi Mahi. It was an unbelievable amount of fish that we took back. Jeff learned how to filet a fish and cut it up. The next day he tried to go spear fishing. It made me really nervous because there was a lot of shark out there. Jeff didn't come back with anything this time. He said there were a lot of little fish, but nothing worse a spear. He was explaining a really cool big beautiful blue zebra looking fish that he decided not to spear. It turned out that he made a good choice because the fish was poisonous! Next time, we hope to get him to go scuba diving and spear fishing.

Jeff's Wahoo that he caught

The Mahi Mahi that was caught, as well.

Fileting a fish

my adorable daughter!

Lemon Shark

Jeff's fish that was getting cut up

A better picture of a lemon shark

A big Eel!

She thinks she's going with Daddy!

  

She wanted to go with him so bad!

There he goes...

This vacation was so much fun. So many memories and firsts for us! Hope you enjoyed!



Lori

Christmas in Paradise!

Finding time to sit down and write up any posts is not an easy thing to do. I feel so lost after vacation. I can't seem to get back into reality mode!



Anyway, Christmas was spent in the Bahamas this year with my parents. It was so nice to get away (did I mention how nice it was to have no phone, no schedule, or alarm clock in the room) and be in the warm weather. I will say that it was slightly weird that it was so warm. It did not feel like Christmas at all. Maddie had a few gifts to open from Mimi and PopPop. Jeff and I even had a present to open. Jeff and I got some woven baskets that were made by some Bahamians. Mom said that the lady who she bought them from said it takes anywhere from 6-9 hours per basket.  They are beautiful baskets. We went to the galley on the base to eat. It is an all you can eat buffet. For our Christmas dinner, we had turkey, ham, king crab legs, sweet potato casserole, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, and so so so many more sides. There were like eight different pies and cakes there.

Family photos in our jammies

Maddie admiring the tree and looking for 'Elmo on the tree'

This was her babys apron

mmm.. what else is in there?

Maddie showing off her Abby

That's her Bahamian wallet

Madison and her matching baby doll

After presents, Maddie, mom, I got together and started baking some cupcakes. Maddie tried out her new apron and hat. She looked adorable in it and now every time she helps in the kitchen, she throws it on and runs into the kitchen. :) We baked some two batches of Oatmeal Butterscotch cookies (dad's favorite). He was very happy to have so many that he could try out his food saver. I was supposed to make oreo cupcakes, but dad didn't have any cupcake tins for me to use, so I had to wait until the next day and borrowed a friends.

Before dinner, we went to the beach and took some Christmas family photos. They turned out really good. I was really happy with how Madison did as well. We all got dressed up, had a couple Santa hats, and posed away. We had a little accident with our hard drive (Maddie dropped it on accident) and we lost everything that was on there. Half of our trip, along with a year worth of pictures (so Jeff says, I think its more) is lost forever. Luckily, I still have Christmas pictures and the second half on my laptop.

Needless to say, this is one Christmas that we will never forget! We had so much fun and already want to go back! Can you blame us?


Next post, I'll talk about everything else that we saw and did on our trip to the Bahamas. Until then, enjoy these pictures.


Lori