Peanut Butter BIG Cups

I saw this recipe off of Mom. Undecided's blog a few weeks ago and I just knew that when I saw it that I had to make it...that very second! I quickly jotted it down and started, as it just so happened that I had all of the ingredients in my pantry (something that never happens)! Ok, that is a lie, I didn't have the baking cups - I had to run to the store for those. Then, once the chocolate was mixed, I realized that the powdered sugar was expired, so off Chad went to the store for me!

Prepare to have a full belly after just eating half of one of these!
Everything you need:

1 cup Peanut Butter (I overflowed mine, so it was probably closer to 1 and 1/4 cup)
3/4 tsp. Salt
1/2 cup Powdered Sugar (again, I packed it in and overflowed it, so it was closer to 3/4 cup)
24 oz. Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips (her recipe called for 1/2 of that! I used all 24 oz!)
Double Boiler
Cupcake Pan
Baking Cups (optional, but less cleaning later, so I used them!)

Here we go, step by step:

Boil water in your double boiler, melting just a little bit of butter in the top pot. This will help the chocolate melt smoother. Dump in 12 oz. of Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips and stir until chocolate is smooth.

Spoon chocolate evenly into 1 dozen baking cups in your cupcake pan. Put them in the fridge for 30 minutes to set while you make the middle peanut-buttery layer!

Mix the Peanut Butter, Salt, and Powdered Sugar ingredients in a bowl. As soon as your 30 minutes is up, scoop on top of the bottom chocolate layer.

One more time, mix up the rest of the chocolate (12 oz.) in your double boiler and scoop on top of peanut butter layer. Set back in the fridge for at least another 30 minutes before indulging in one for yourself, er-I mean before serving!

Enjoy!
Next time I make these, I think that I will try the mini muffin pans and baking cups, so we can just pop them in our mouths! If you don't eat these things just right, the peanut butter oozes out everywhere! Nonetheless, still tasted pretty close to the ones you buy in the store!

PS - no backyard updates, because there hasn't been anything since they dug our hole. There is said to be a lot of action back there this week though! Fingers crossed!

Embrace the Camera: Hair Day!

Yesterday Lola and I both got our hair done! Poor little Lola was in NEED of another haircut, so after my appointment (just a color to my friends who keep my hair cutting obsession in check, yes, it is trying to grow. Went back to being super blondie again! Had a brain fart a few weeks ago by asking to add a little brown in there?!), I ran home and grabbed her and brought her right back to get hers done! Haircut #2 went so much smoother than the first one! She was so excited to get it done (a girl after my own heart)!

Love her little angle!

Joining the Anderson Crew and embracing the camera today (well, pic is from yesterday, hope it still counts, but I am posting today)! That means mommy has to grab the camera and be in the picture too! Go grab your camera and join in!

We Have A Hole!

Today was a very exciting day! From the upstairs window of our bedroom and the back patio, the kiddos watched the machines dig out our pool!

In a matter of hours, our backyard transformed from the picture on the left to the one on the right!

As soon as the machines were loaded up, we headed outside to check everything out...and to play in the piles of dirt they left behind for the landscaper too!

It was so dusty and dirty out there! The rain boots that I just scored for the kids at Target this last week came in handy for the dirt today! I see many baths in our future!

Off to get dirty! This "double dirt" pile is the easiest for Lola to climb, so that is where they spent most of their time!

We decided to make the pool a little bit bigger than what was originally drawn up and remember how I said that I didn't like where they drew the pool out the first time? They have to get everything re-permitted and order more piping and reconfigure the cleaning system, but the good news it that it shouldn't add any extra time. They hope to have the pool piping in on Friday, reading for inspection next week so that they can starting the next part-"shooting" the pool is what Mr. Pool Guys called it! Waaahoooooo!

PS - Have you stocked up yet?! I have!!!

This has to be the best deal out there for those of us who don't get our shampoo and conditioner at a discounted rate! Beauty Brands is currently running their $11.98 Liter Sale! It says that you are only limited to buying 4 per brand and 12 total per customer, but that is NOT TRUE! At least not at the Beauty Brands that I go to! I stocked up today (even started Christmas shopping a little early, something I NEVER do)!

Our 4th of July!

We had an amazing 4th of July as a family of four! To say that we were busy was an understatement! What started off as a pretty uneventful day two quickly turned into a very busy day, but luckily all of the parties we were invited to were timed perfectly so that we wouldn't have to miss a thing (we just had to duck out a little early on party #2, but at least we got to stop by and stay for awhile)!

Our day started off at Aunt Lori's where we swam and bbq'ed with her and cousin Danielle! We were supposed to meet Chad's long lost cousins and aunt, but they had a few other things planned in the morning and only stopped by for a short visit to say hello! It is always nice to meet family that you haven't met before. Thanks Aunt Lori for setting that up! After they left, we sat around the living room coffee table for a good old game of Apples to Apples! This has to be, hands down, my all time favorite board game to play, ever! With each group you play with it is always a new experience, so it was fun to play with Lori, Danielle, Daniel, and Chad! Uncle Daniel was hilarious and you could almost always tell which card was his and he would try to convince everyone to pick his card and give them a hard time when it wasn't picked! Kyan was our official card picker-upper, it worked out perfect!

Our second stop was the Garrett's house for swimming and BBQ stop #2! Susie's house definitely had the best food out of all 3 stops, although they were all very tasty. She just had this desert that was to die for! Mmmmmmmm, I think my mouth is still watering over it.

Our final stop was at the Durham's house for dinner and fireworks! This is what Kyan had been waiting all day for! We watched from the balcony of Rae's house and could see the fireworks pretty good. The finale was so pretty! Lola was completely uninterested and it scared her a little, so she watched Dora on Auntie Rae Lynn's bed while we all watched the fireworks!

*a little side note (I haven't talked much or at all about this on my blog yet) but we are potty training and I think we have it down! I was a little nervous for the 4th, as we were so many places, but we took our little pink potty and Lola went multiple times every place we went! She even asked, no mommy pestering or having her sit there for 45 minutes before she peed to pee!
More on potty training and how much I HATED it later! This post is all about our fantastic fourth as a family and how we were surrounded by all of the people we love!

From the Roseland family to yours, hope you had an amazing 4th of July!

Lola's Tank for the 4th of July!

I have had stack of little tank tops that I purchased from Old Navy when they had their $2 tank top sale sitting on my shelf, washed and ready to be worked on for at least a month. They have been staring at me, waiting patiently for me to get started. Finally, I whipped out this little number for Lola for the 4th of July!
It is far from perfect and took me forever (I had a fight with my bobbin on my sewing machine for about an hour, but once we worked things out it was smooth sailing!) but I love the result and I think it looked so cute on her yesterday! I am excited to work on the rest of the stack!

How-To Make Your Own:
Pin down your first layer of lace, sew.
Add as many layers as you want. I added one at a time, as I wasn't sure how many would look just right! Lola's shirt had 8 layers.

Here is the shirt all finished! I made a hair clip (first intended for Lola's hair) and pinned it on the shirt just to see what it would look like and fell in love! So I had to make two, one for her hair and one for the shirt, just in case we needed both!

Up close of her clip!

I was trying so hard to make a "red/white/blue" version of something! Turns out the lace was a little on the hot pink side (for the shirt too) over red, but - I still think this might be my favorite clip I have ever made her! To make your own, go back to this post to see how I made the basic one. For this clip, the only difference is that I used an alligator clip instead of the snap clips and I jazzed it up a little with a peacock feather and some lace instead of the felt leaves!

Backyard Update!

Hope you are not sick of the little back yard updates yet - 'cause there are a lot more where this is coming from!
Mr. Landscaper Man, Scott, from SS&J Landscape Designs, dropped off several lovely baggies of rocks for us to choose from on Friday afternoon along with the sample of grass/turf that we will be putting in our backyard. I knew immediately that lots of the baggies were out of the question NOT going to work! Thank you, try again. There were two that caught my eye. I grabbed a few rocks from the front yard, which you see on the left (it didn't have to match it perfect, but I wanted it to be kind of close) and placed the rocks on top. I made Chad stare at the rocks for a long time and tried to decide which ones to use. I went with my gut and the rocks that immediately grabbed my attention from the very start - 1" Cotton Candy (rocks on the right)! They almost look good enough to eat, or at least lick (just kidding)!

Ok, so this morning we knew the Mr. Pool Guy 1 and Mr. Pool Guy 2 were headed over bright and early to do their measure and mapping out of where the pool was going to go. I met with them when they first got over, left them to their business and said see you Tuesday morning bright and early!
Well, about 2 hours after they left I went outside to take pictures of what they did and my heart just about stopped. Ummmmm....the pool was NOT painted out where we were talked about where we wanted it and was WAY to close to the house. Our backyard is HUGE, so why was it pushed so far up? I panicked. I yelled for Chad to come outside to see if I was just going crazy and not seeing something right. Nope, this time I was not nuts! So I called Mr. Landscaper back (he has the contact #'s for Mr. Pool Guys) and explained the situation. They came back about 30 minutes later and told us to play with the layout and get it to where we wanted it and that they would come in early on Tuesday, before the diggers (I know that there is a more professional name for it - excavators?!, but diggers is what you are getting today) came in, respray it out exactly how we wanted, where we wanted! Whew! So after they left, we played around with the layout (which was fine by the way, I LOVE how big the shelf is. Just the direction and proximity to the house was wrong) for a while and finally came up with a solution! We are ready for them on Tuesday!

Other than that setback this morning, our 4th of July weekend is shaping up to look rather fun! I am sad to say that we weren't able to make it back to NE this year to be with my parents, small town celebrations are so unique and fun, but we do have plans to spend with family tomorrow! We will be heading over to BBQ and swim at Aunt Lori's at 11, then off to the Garrett's for round two of the same thing around 3:30 and then Rae Lynn's to top off our evening with a dinner BBQ and fireworks at the Surprise Stadium!

Hope everyone has a safe 4th of July weekend with the ones they love!

Joel, we miss you and are thinking of you as we celebrate our country's freedom. THANK YOU for all of the hard work you and the rest of the service men are doing so that we can stay free! Can't wait until you are home soon. Love you.