Easter Weekend

The weekend started off with Tyler's baseball game Saturday morning - bright and early! After that we headed to the Placerville Fairgrounds for their community "Eggstravaganza"! They had several egg hunts for kids, food, bounce houses, live music, games, crafts, face painting... and it was all FREE! 

 The nice thing about this event was it wasn't overly crowed. I've been to the community egg hunts in Folsom and Cameron Park and there are WAY too many people at those events. I really enjoyed the short lines and mild crowd sizes. 

 Making some crafts! 

 Check out the air he's getting! 

 Tug-of-war! This game was SO funny! They had all the children against 3 grown men. The kids had the men dragging on the ground in defeat. I wish I had it on tape! 

 Tyler helped me make the cupcakes for my sunbeams. 

 I got totally lazy with these ones... I had planned on making them into baskets :-/ 

 Coloring eggs! 

 We finished our Easter Eve with some home movies. Look how cute my brother Brian is on the TV! I believe he was about 5 at the time. 

 And what would Easter be without Trifle! 

 Tyler's goodies from the Easter bunny! 

 His new educational books ;) 

 Deke just getting home from his shift on Easter morning. 

 Check out this cute little BUNNY (not mouse) made out of bread! 

 Part of the Easter gang

 Courtney and David

 Another egg hunt

♥ Family photo ♥

 My husband is so seductive lol 

 Here is Tyler holding his cousin Kyla for the first time! 

 This is my friend Courtney and I, we have known each other since birth! It was great to have her and her mother come visit for Easter! 

Grandma's Rhubarb Pie

I have really come to love rhubarb. It's a delicious vegetable that you can find in stores in the early spring. I recently found out that my grandmother had a great rhubarb pie recipe that my father grew up enjoying. We discovered that my aunt who lives in New York had the recipe card in her possession, after a few emails my father was able to get this picture of the original recipe card in my grandmothers handwriting. With this picture I can now bake this delectable dessert for years to come. Last night was my first attempt - it was perfect with a side of vanilla ice cream. 

I think its funny how the rhubarb kinda resembles pieces of meat in the pie; almost like diced up hot dog! But I can assure you that the pie was sweet and divine and tasted nothing like meat ;) 

2011 Opening Day - GO YANKEES!!!

Yesterday was our baseball leagues opening day - it's our kick off party for the season! They had bounce houses, rock climbing wall, FOOD, music, a parade, and a raffle. I of course forgot my camera so please excuse the horrible picture quality from my camera phone. 

The team and coaches! 

 Climb baby climb! 

 We were lucky enough to win TWO of the raffle baskets! Both were "Family movie night" baskets. So fun! 

 After opening day we went to my sisters house to get our baby fix. Here is Deke meeting his new niece for the first time ♥

Hostess inspired cake balls

There is something magical about a Hostess cupcake. I mean, how can you beat a chocolate cupcake with chocolate frosting AND a cream filling? Oh heavens.... tasty.

With that being said I was really excited when I stumbled on Sugar Derby's blog and found her creation for "Hostess inspired cake balls". Cream filling and all!!! 

I thought I'd give it a try and take a batch over to the fire station for Deke and the boys to try. After all, who would make better judges than 7 hungry firemen? 

Welllll... it was also an excuse to visit my on-duty husband - win-win for everyone! ;)

I believe Tyler likes them :) 

We have a future missionary on our hands...

This past weekend Tyler's father took him to church on Sunday. This morning I received a picture text with the message that Tyler had doodled the following picture while in sacrament. It absolutely melts my heart to see that Tyler has developed such a strong testimony of the church at such a young age.

Tyler encourages Deke and I to have family scripture study every night before bed and always begs to read just a few more verses before passing the book.

Last night Tyler found Deke's old missionary training booklet (which has princess stickers on the cover) and Tyler said, "One day I will have a missionary training book too, but mine will NOT have princess stickers on it."

I am so grateful to have a son that provides such a good example to me and invites the spirit into our home on a daily basis. I have already witnessed him trying to teach his non-member friends about the gospel and I can't wait to see him as a full time missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.



Bacon wrapped eggs

I LOVE breakfast foods, all of them. I love pancakes, French toast, bagels, English muffins, burritos, sausage, bacon, eggs, etc.... but I love it even more when you can combine two fantastic breakfast foods into one dish. Here is a fabulous recipe for eggs wrapped in bacon. It made for a wonderful Sunday brunch dish! 

Step 1: Fry the bacon in a pan for a few minutes but not too long because you still want it to be flexible. 

Step 2: Wrap the bacon in a greased muffin pan.

Step 3: Make a bowl of scrambled eggs (1 egg per tin) with all your desired ingredients. For this one I used green onions, milk, salt, and pepper. 

Step 4: Pour the eggs into the tin, evenly dispersing them between each tin. 

Step 5: Bake on 350 degrees for appropriately 15-20 minutes or until the eggs are firm. 

Several minutes before the eggs finished I placed some cheese on top and allow it to melt. 

Step 6: Enjoy your fabulous meal! 

Thief in the night....

We went to New York a few years ago and while we were there I had picked up a little Statue of Liberty clock to place on my bookshelf. Looking at it today it looks a little different. Do you see what I mean? 

Lets take a closer look.... 

My son... the little stink... made a photocopy of it and placed it back on my shelf hoping I wouldn't notice! And where do I find the actual clock???? Hmm... I wonder.... 

On HIS bookshelf!!! 

I guess I should of gotten one for him too.

Ahhh... back where it belongs. At least for now until my little thief in the night returns! 

A quarter of a century old!

On March 4th my hubby Deke turned 25 years old! He loves to make fun of the fact that I am older than him and the first thing he says to me on his birthday is, "I'm finally to the age you were when we met!". G-thanks babe! 

Tyler was at his dads house this weekend so we decided to throw Deke a tiny little surprise party for the 3 of us on Thursday night when Deke returned home from school... 

Here is our mini-surprise party ♥

I know that looks like a red blob but it is indeed a heart on his cake.

When I asked Tyler what he wanted to get Deke for his birthday he immediately said a Barbie. Apparently they think its funny to make fun of each other for "liking" girl things. So I took him to the dollar store and he picked out a fairy doll and a princess card. He then went over to the balloons and grabbed the first pink one he saw. I told him that it was a baby shower balloon and read "its a girl" on it... his response: "PERFECT!" LOL when Deke opened his girly present he declared war on Tyler and told him to just wait for his birthday! 

Here is the cake I made for his family party 

The awful thing about Deke having his birthday in March is that he will always have a nasty mustache for that entire month. Its a Cal Fire ritual to grow mustaches that month! Yuck!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SWEETHEART! I'm glad your brain has finally fully developed! ;D 

Crab cakes with a savory chipotle sauce

Deke worked at the Cal Fire crab feed last Saturday and ended up brining home a HUGE bag of leftover dungeness crab. I've never been a huge seafood fan but I didn't want all that food going to waste either. So I made some delicious Paula Deen inspired crab cakes with a savory chipotle sauce. 

I say "inspired" because I took her ingredients but decided my own portions. Her recipe looked too mild and I needed a bold flavor to hide the fish taste that I hate. I was very pleased with my results!

I even convinced Tyler to try one... I only had to tell him they were Crabby-Patties and I had gotten the recipe from Sponge-Bob himself. hehe....  ;)

For dessert we had some strawberry Italian sodas :) 

Recipe with MY portions:
1 1/2 pound crabmeat, picked free of shells 
2 cup crushed crackers (recommended: Ritz), I used 1 cup for mixture and 1 cup for outside layer
5 green onions, finely chopped 
1/2 cup finely chopped red bell pepper 
1/4 cup mayonnaise 
1 egg 
2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce 
1 1/2 teaspoon dry mustard 
1 lemon, juiced 
1 teaspoon garlic powder 
1 teaspoon salt 
Several dashes cayenne pepper
Approximately 1/4 cup of flour (not for mixture) 


Directions: In large bowl mix all ingredients except the oil and 1 cup of Ritz crumbs. Once mixed, make medium sized patties and coat with Ritz crumbs and flour. Fry in pan on medium heat for 4 minutes on each side.  Once slightly cooled add chipotle dollop and enjoy! 


Chipotle Sauce: 
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup mayonnaise 
2 tsp lime juice
1 tsp finely chopped cilantro 
2 tsp of finely chopped chipotle peppers 
several dashes of cayenne pepper