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

Bahamas Pt. 1

It may be 2 in the morning, but I am keeping to my word. These past few days have been crazy. They have been filled with unpacking, taking down Christmas Decor (very sad!), and cleaning the house after my floors have been glitterfied with the decor.


Anyway, Bahamas was so much fun. We started out our vacation with a trip to Mom's to pick her up and drop the dogs off for their vacation. The next day, we got on the road and drove five hours to catch out flight. We left our phones behind and let me just say that it was so nice to not have to carry our phone around every where we went. Dad greeted us at the small airport and showed us around. We did not go to the popular tourist island, but the biggest island there, yet the most undeveloped out of all of the islands. Dad lives literally five minutes away and the only thing we saw going there were trees. Going onto the base, it reminds me of the bases in Hawaii in the older days. For those of you who don't know what I am talking about, think of the movie Pearl Harbor for a reference. I don't know what else to say other than it was so nice and relaxing to be there.


Maddie had a blast there. Everyone drives in a golf cart while on base. Maddie got front seat so she wouldn't be in the sun while we went to places. She LOVED it. She had Mimi and PopPop take her on a ride every day. We went to the beach everyday, walked the beach looking for shells several days, and played in the water enjoying the beautiful weather. The lowest it was was 72 and the average was about 79-81 throughout the day. The base is pretty small, so we walked to majority of the places. They have a general store where you get all of the items you need for the house. There is a place to eat with so many options to choose from. I never walked to a table without a full plate. They had so many different cakes and pies to choose from for dessert, as well as, ice cream and cookies. Along with those two, they have a small post office, finance office, a clinic, and a 1 pump gas station. That pretty much covers the base other than a few bars, a small restaurant, and a beautiful beach!!!


In my next post, I'll share some stories and a few photos. Stay tuned.


Lori