Olivia is going to be the next Mozart!

Meridith and Jamaal are in town right now! Meri hasn't seen little Livy in months so everyone went to Muriel and Mikes for pizza and Olivia time!

Olivia got to play the piano with her Uncle Stank. She really had a blast banging on the keys!

Are you a Gleek?!?!

Cause I sure am!

Sooooo there is this super awesome show called Glee that I looooooooooove! Every time I watch it, it makes me all happy! I feel like a freaken teenager! lol! Its about a high school Glee club set in my families home town of Lima, Ohio (how cool is that). There is tons of singing and dancing, it makes my little heart all a flutter!

So they are going on a LIVE TOUR!!! And Phoenix is the first stop!!!!! ::Squeal::

Luckily my good friend Sarah is also a Gleek and is going with me! Tickets just went on sale this morning and they are almost sold out! It took me 30 minutes to secure tickets!!! I cant believe we get to go to Glee! I am MORE excited about this then I was when I got to go see New Kids on the Block for the first time!!!!!!!!!!

The ever changing kitchen

Soooooo once upon a time, our kitchen looked like thisHorrible 1980's white-wash cabinets with a lovely turquoise-ish counter top.

We did sand and stain the cabinets a mahogany color which really helped tone down the turquoise counters and bring our kitchen out of the 80's. (Here is the only pic I have right now, Ladmo helping butch install the new stove) We had a perfectly fine cook top that had a ton of storage underneath and a wall oven unit. Well our friend Josh's parents redid their kitchen and had a nice stove that they didn't want to go to waste so they offered it to us! I jumped at it, because that meant I would now have TWO ovens! Woot!

As it turns out, cook top stoves are much wider then a regular slide in range. So when Butch(my step dad) cut it out it left us with a good 5" gap on one side. We have plans to eventually redo the kitchen, so I wasn't to upset by it. So Butch put a piece of wood in the open area... (note you can see how the mahogany cabinets look against the turquoise counters in this pic)We decided we would cover up the wood with some tiles and make a little hot plate area of sorts next to the stove. I think it looks fine and will get us through until we can really reno the kitchen

This was our ghetto reno for the weekend :)

Big weekend ahead, might even have time for bed, bath & beyond

I'm gonna be a busy bee this weekend!

Tonight I am thinking that I will shampoo the carpets and maybe take a crack at shampooing the "princess chair" Our chair and half and ottoman. I may even do a second coat of paint in the bathroom, I feel like it needs another. We shall see.

Tomorrow Butch (my step dad) is coming over to help us get our drip system in working order before it gets to hot out. Micah and I also want to conquer the master closet, get it cleaned out and maybe even up and running! I also have lunch plans thrown into the mix and babysitting little miss Olivia! Cant wait!

Nothing to much planned for Sunday, Ladmo and I have puppy school at 3. Our new teacher is super awesome, Ladmo is responding to commands a lot better. Now if we could just get him to quit biting us and eating his own poop we'd be golden!

Our Wedding Invites and Misc!

I don't think I ever attention whored them up on my blog!

These were our save the dates, this is the only thing the Deb didn't print for us.

The hubs did all the design work and then the wonderful Mrs. Debbie of Definitely Debra made all the printing, cutting and layout magic happen! She seriously is AMAZING! We used Envelopments paper. Our actual invite was on White Linen, our boarder color and the programs were in Wicked, our pocket color is no longer carried, the envelopes were white linen.

Here is the invite with all the inserts in the pocket, the band at the bottom was a belly band that wrapped around and had to be slid off to open the inviteHere is the invite with the inserts taken out. We had a RSVP and Map card

Close up of the invitationThe back of our invite envelopes. Micah designed our crest/monogramClose up of the RSVPOur programs, they have been dubbed the Diva program at the shop because they were so thick! We actually included our seating chart in the program, our final head count was 286 and I couldn't imagine almost 300 people crowded around a table trying to find the place cards. This made it easier.

The following signs Deb made for us, they turned out so sweet!

This sign was at the guest book table. This was at the candy buffetOur please don't drink and drive sign that was on the bar.One of our 35 table numbers!

Hello! Lucky

In case you haven't stumbled upon this sweet little stationery site yet, let me direct you their way.

Hello! Lucky's blog and their Website...both are AMAZING! The site has some of the prettiest letter press I have ever seen!

And their blog features amazing weddings and party ideas and just well, super fabulous stuff! Go lurk them! And buy me a few things while your over there, I need more pretty in my life :)

This just in

Olivia does NOT like shopping...

This is what she had to say about it

She looks like she is channeling her inner Popeye

Yelp Desert In Bloom VIP Party!

That's right, the Elliot's attended a V.I.P. party, so L.A.! haha

So I Yelp, In case you didn't know. I love food and I love complaining (or praising if it so deserves) http://www.kirstine.yelp.com/ Well last night Yelp hosted a Yelp In Bloom Event for people who review on Yelp, They only allowed a limited number of people and the Hubs and I got to be one of the lucky few! There was all the food and drinks you could handle for as far as the eye could see, and then some! They also had music and a circus school there doing acrobats! Who knew Phoenix had a school for that!?!

The event was hosted at the Desert Botanical Gardens. If you have never been and you live in AZ, then shame on you because you are missing out on something really special! And let me tell you its just as amazing at night as it is during the day. I love how the desert smells after the sun goes down.

I am going to try to remember all the restaurants that were there, I know there were way more but this is all I can remember:

Cein Agave They had Shrimp ceviche there, the hubs said it was fab!

WildFlower Bread Company They had this AMAZING deconstructed sandwich with a spicy mashed potato served in a martini glass! So yum!

Roka Akor We went to this place for Micah's Bday! So awesome to see them at this event, and Unlimited sushi, in Micah's book is = to heaven! I did have a California roll and it was delightful!

The Gelato Spot & XOXO Bakery I could eat gelato all day long! I had the Snickers and Micah had the chocolate, both were amazing!

Let Them Eat Cake They had the cutest cupcakes there, and you know I love cuppys! Micah had his last night, It was a vanilla cake with Bavarian cream, I snuck a taste and it was good! I am saving mine for tonight I snagged a lemon cake with raspberry filling!

Mama Mia The pizza was good, we will order from them! Also they had pasta and meatballs, I thought I was going to loose Micah to the pasta last night, he loved it!

Makers Mark we didn't make it to this booth

Salty Senorita I am generally not a fan of this place, because its so watered down with Scottsdale socialites...but let me tell you they make a mean chips and guacamole! Lordy!

Petite Maison They had Foie Gras there, we skipped this both do to the yuck factor

The Mission This place the line was to long, I think they had some sort of soup there

Butter & Me Sadly these people were rude, all we got was an apricot bar, which was tasty, but no cupys, they had like 6 on the table and seemed to be guarding them with their lives

Cruz Tequila When I drink tequila my shirt comes off and this was not that type of party, so no tequila for Kiki

Karlsson Vodka We skipped this booth as well, we had to trek it back to the west side, so just one beer each was all we had.

Session Lager We each had a glass of this! Micah got the Dark and I got the regular. Both beers were really good and really clean tasting! Loved it!

5th & Wine They had a few different types of breads with toppings going on. The bruechetta was really good, The hummus was off I just wasn't a fan.

JJ's Brownies Super yummo and the ladies there were really nice!

Hehe this picture is cute, we snapped it on our way out the door.

Awwwwe So cute

Doncha just love being in love

I dont have baby fever AT ALL....

Trick!

Seriously....my friends need to stop getting knocked up! And Olivia needs to stop being so darn cute! My baby fever is in over drive, but we are not acting on that right now and I am totally ok with that....HOWEVER that does not stop me from looking at things, taking notes...it will be my turn sooner then I think and a girl has to be prepared.

So at Kim's shower she got a super awesome Petunia Pickle Bottom diaper bag and it made my heart go all a flutter when I saw it. Seriously, who am I and why do diaper bags all of a sudden stop me in my tracks? So I went on the site today, and I fell in love with a diaper bag. I want to get something that will be unisex and that poor Micah wouldn't be embarrassed to carry. I always feel so bad when I see a dad carrying a bright pink diaper bag. I will not do that to the hubs.

So here it is It is THE COOLEST bag ever. I love that you can wear it as a bag pack if you need to. Also the little changing pad that flips out is pretty dang cool as well!

I had to go to Buy Buy Baby on Saturday to shop for three different babies, and I did browse around as well. I fell in love with this super cute bedding. I love that it is gender neutral, I really don't want to find out the sex of what we are having when that time comes and Micah really does...we shall see... At any rate, I thought this could be cute for a boy or girl

So there you have it folks, I have baby fever and already have a diaper bag and bedding all picked out. I am sure if Micah is reading this post he has already fainted or gone running for the hills! LOL

Fanciest Baby Shower Everrrr

Yesterday I got to go to one of the most amazing baby showers I have ever been invited to!

My friend Kim of The Event Essentials is all sorts of knocked up with little Miss Madison! She is a super cute pregnant lady!

Her shower was at the Firesky Resort, and it was just absolutely breath takingThe food was super tasty! And let me tell you about the cake! A Pina Colada cake with coconut butter cream filling! I wish I had a picture of the cake to post, when Kim posts more pics I will post them over here. The cake was so pretty and it tasted sooooooooo good! Sugar Buzz did the cake! There were also cake balls or cake pops, however you want to call them, they were spectacular! She had La Dolce Pesca do those! The one I got was strawberry and it had edible glitter on top! I took this pic with my camera phone, sorry about the quality The photography was done by Shelly Ivy, all the photos posted here with the 'i' watermark were done by her, the other two crappy ones were with my camera phone. I haven't had the pleasure to work with Shelly, but I love her work, she takes amazing photos.

And of course the fabulous invites were done by little miss Kim herself! When you receive an invite in the mail and it comes in a a silk envelope with a rhinestone broach on the front, you know you are going to be attending a stunning event! All the reset of the detail such as flowers and linens are linked on Kim's blog! And if you are not a reader of hers I suggest you start following, she is always posting fabulous ideas!

Micah made dinner last night....

And it was soooooooooo tasty!!!!



I have had a crazy week at work and was just to tired to make dinner last night. I asked him if he was up for taking on dinner. On the meal plan our options were chicken picadillo stuffed peppers or sweet and sour shrimp. He chose the shrimp.



This dish has a lot of steps, but OH MY GOD it is soooo worth it. I was so impressed with the hubs last night!



Here is the recipe he followed



Here is a pic, sorry its a bit dark.

Irish Car Bomb CUPCAKES!!!!!

What can make a sweet little cuppy ten times better and maybe a little bit more on the sinful side??? ALCOHOL!!!!!!!!

I always do something for my co-workers bdays. This week one of the guys in manufacturing was turning the big 21 so I really wanted to do something with a touch of the tipsy ;)

Enter in Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes. Here is the original recipe I found, I did change it up a bit

Here is what I Did:

Ingredients:

FOR THE CUPCAKES:

1 bottle Guinness, I used the extra stout version they have out

1 stick, plus 1 tbs unsalted butter

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa, I Used Ghiradelli

2 cups dark brown sugar

3/4 cup sour cream
2 eggs

1 tbs vanilla extract

2 cups flour, I used cake flour

2 1/2 tsp baking soda

FOR THE FROSTING:

1 3/4 stick of unsalted butter, room temperature

3 cups confectioners' sugar

4 Tbs Bailey's Irish Cream

For the Soak:

Jameson Irish Whiskey

Directions:

FOR THE CUPCAKES:

1. Preheat the oven to 350; line a muffin tin with cupcake liners.

2. Combine the Guinness and the butter, chopped into 1-inch chunks, in a large sauce pan, and heat to melt the butter.

3. Remove from heat, and whisk in the cocoa and sugar.

4. In a bowl, whisk the sour cream and the eggs and vanilla, then add to the beer mixture.

5. Sift together the flour and baking soda, and fold in the batter.

6. Pour into muffin molds and bake or 25 minutes, or until inserted cake tester comes out clean. Let stand 10 minutes, remove from muffin tin, and cool completely on a rack.

FOR THE SOAK:

1. Once cupcakes have cooled a bit, take a fork and pierce the top of the cupcakes a few times with it.

2. Pour some Jameson into a small bowl or cup, take a basting brush, dip it into the Jameson and then swipe it across the cupcakes once.

3. Once all cupcakes have one coat of whiskey, give them another round or four ;) Depending on how much of the whiskey taste you want to come through.

FOR THE FROSTING:

1. Put the room-temperature butter in a large mixing bowl and bet at medium-to0 high speed for a few minutes.

2. Gradually spoon confectioners' sugar into the bowl, mixing on low speed

3. Add the Bailey's and mix at low speed.

These were a huge hit and soooo tasty! I could have eaten a bowl full of the frosting alone!

Ooooops... I had my comments blocked!

Sooo I have been wondering why my past few posts hadn't even drummed up one comment.

A couple of my lady friends told me they are restricted from commenting...and sure enough I had messed with my comments and thought I had set it to only allow people who followed my blog...(I have been getting weird comments from Japan???) As it turns out I had it set that no one could comment.

Sooooooooooo things should be back to normal, I *think*

Cheesy Sausage Calzones!

Last week as I was planning this weeks meals, I was on the hunt for quick and easy recipes. I found a couple really tasty ones off of Pillsbury.com! So last night I made Cheesy Sausage Calzones the easy way (recipe here) They were easy and turned out pretty good!

I put a touch of olive oil in a warm pan and tossed in the onions and bell peppers. (Dice into small bits). I added a touch of ground savory (I looove this spice and add it to any dish that has a red sauce!)Next add the ground Italian sausage and chop up into small pieces Following the recipe, I put two biscuits together and smashed them into 6" circles. Then I put shredded mozzarella cheese on one half. Next up the sausage filling. Which was sooo good! I got the sausage fresh ground from Sprouts! Next step, you fold the other half of the biscuit over the top of the filling and pinch the edges shut to make little pockets :) Follow recipe and bake.

They came out looking amazing! I heated up some jarred sauce and dinner was ready! This really was super simple and tasted really good! I do think next time I make these I will use pizza dough, because the biscuits do make for a ton of bread then a normal calzone would have. But one of these guys is all you really need, they are super filling!

Happy Friday! Pot Pie Recipe!

Ahhhhh Friday! So glad to see you!

This weekend should be pretty low key. We have no real plans. I work at Definitely Debra's tomorrow, and that's about all the plans we have. We for sure need to hit the grocery store, but I need to do my weekly meal planning first. I am hoping to maybe start working on the hutch again and see how far I get with that :)

Last night I had no clue what to make. We haven't gone grocery shopping in over a week and a half. There was still a ton of left overs in the fridge from that awesome Valentines day meal, so I decided I need to use those or toss them out.

So I called the meal POT PIE! Micah loved it and went back for seconds, and so did I ;)

Here is my recipe, its pretty basic, most pot pie recipes you find will be just about like this but I did wing it a bit as I was dealing with what was in the fridge and cupboards.

1/3 cup butter chopped into a few pieces.

1 can chicken broth

1/3 cup flour

1/2 cup milk

1/2 an onion diced small

2-3 cups misc cooked veggies. These were left over roasted veggies from vday. I used the potatos, carrots, red bell peppers, and sweet potatos

1 1/2 cups cooked meat. I used my left over beef tenderloin diced in small pieces.

Salt and pepper

1 tsp Sage

Dash of Garlic Salt

2 pie crusts from the fridge section. I used Pillbury

Preheat the oven to 425

1. Melt butter. Add onions and saute till soft.

2. Add flour, salt, pepper and sage to onion and butter. Mix well, will be come a thick paste.

3. slowly and chicken broth and milk a little at a time to four paste. Stir to incorporate after each addition til combined then add a little more.

4. Toss in precooked veggies and meat. Cooke for about 5 more minutes.

5. spray 9"pie pan. Roll first pie crust into bottom. Add pie filling mixture.

6. Once filling is in, I sprinkled with a little more salt and pepper and a bit of garlic salt

7.Roll second pie crust on top. Give a pinch all the way around to seal pie crusts together. Make a couple slits on top to release steam.

8. Bake for 30-45 minutes.

And there you have it, left overs that turned into an awesome dinner! Excuse these pics, I took them on my cell phone.

Ladmo is getting so big!

I wish he would stay a puppy forever. This was just 6 months ago! He was just a tiny little fryand here he is 4 months ago