New York City : Part I

It all started when I was a little girl & watching Home Alone 2 : Lost In New York. When I watched the movie (several times every year...duh) I knew I wanted to someday go to NYC at Christmastime. 

When you think about it...a lot of Christmas movies take place in NYC. Home Alone 2, Elf, Miracle On 34th Street, tons of Hallmark movies, etc.... It's just a very Christmas-y city. 

ANYWAY. I knew ever since I was little that I would go to NYC at Christmastime. I just didn't know when. And to be honest, I didn't know we were going to NYC until a few weeks before we left. 

It started when Taylor Swift's album 1989 came out. Of course, I got it on itunes right away. The first song on the album is called "Welcome To New York". I got about halfway through the song & I had to pause it. I called up Alex & basically the conversation was like this:: "Hey...wanna go to New York City in December?" Alex : "This December?" Me: "Ha, yeah!".....and that was when we began planning. It was mid to late October at the time. 

We were leaving the week after Thanksgiving. I couldn't believe how fast it got here. Before I knew it we were up at 4 in the morning getting ready to head to RDU Airport for our flight to JFK. Traffic getting to the RDU airport took longer than we thought it would (thanks to traffic) & it took forever to find a place to park in the parking garage. 

We were thinking we would have time to relax at the airport...grab some starbucks & watch a movie on the ipad. Well, we had time to get a little something to eat, but that was about it. 

Here we are on the flight to NYC. 

Alex has always been obsessed with flying. He made friends with the pilot once we landed & the pilot let us go in the cockpit. 

I have never been to NYC before. Alex has been a couple of times, but the last time he was there was when he was around 12 or 13 years old. We could see the city from the plane & both of us were so excited! Once we landed, Alex had got us a private car & driver...so we were driven in to the city. Taking in everything around was kinda crazy. It seemed unreal to actually be in NY. Of course...once we left the airport...it looked like we were in the "hood" of NYC. But the closer we got the better we could see the buildings & before we knew it we were at our hotel. We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express...a couple of blocks down from Times Square.

Pumpkin Spice Turtles

I found this recipe somewhere on pinterest but can't remember where. But these were a huge hit at the murder mystery party. They were super delicious and very easy to make...

::::: What you'll need ::::

Waffle pretzels

Pumpkin Spice Hershey Kisses (they were sold out, so I used regular hershey kisses)

Caramels

Pecan halves

Set the oven to 350 degrees. First put down the pretzels on your baking sheet. Put one caramel on each. Put in the oven for 4 minutes. Then put the hershey kiss on top. Let that sit for a moment in the oven. When the kiss has melted enough, push a pecan half down in there. Then let them cool!

That easy....BUT....the next day I had some cooling in another room. I went to eat one & it was so hard from being cold...it chipped my tooth! So be sure to re-heat them for a few moments in the microwave!

Murder Mystery Halloween Party

A little late....BUT. Since we are a little too old for trick-or-treating (even though we could totally pass for 12 year olds) & Halloween is one of my favorite holidays....I decided to throw a murder mystery party.

I bought mine on www.nightofmystery.com - & it couldn't have turned out any better. I chose the "Murder of A Millionaire" party package.

We decided to host it in my basement. So I went all out with the decorations...candles, sheets hanging up & covering furniture, some Halloween decorations...I was pretty proud of myself. Especially if you knew how long it took to do.

I also chose to serve dinner at the party (which the package recommended doing). I made a (if I do say so myself) delicious chili bean soup & mexican cornbread. Desserts were fun to make...I made rice krispy treats from scratch. Rolled them in to balls-colored them orange-stuck a chocolate cookie on top...and it looked like a pumpkin. I even had them on a tray that was covered in "dirt" (actually crushed chocolate cookies) to make it look like they were in a pumpkin patch. Another dessert was turtle candies. AND no-bake sweet & salty peanut butter bars sprinkled with crushed candy corn. Yes, I am Martha Stewart. :D I just wish I would have gotten more pictures of the food before it was all demolished.

I don't want to give anything away (if I tried to go in to any detail, it would give everything away), just incase someone sees this that wants to play this game...so I'm just going to leave you with some pictures from the party. Just know it was one scandalous, surprising party ;-).

Yummy Made From Scratch Cinnamon Rolls

So Sierra decided the other day that she wanted to make this delicious looking-yet very elaborate-dessert recipe. It turned out delicious & I will post that a different day. Anyway...after we did that I thought it would be fun to bake something else together! So I found a few different recipes & changed them all up a bit...& we made cinnamon rolls from scratch. It was easy too! And SO delicious.

||W H A T  Y O U  N E E D||

For the dough....

2 cups flour

2 tablespoons sugar

4 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons butter

3/4 cup milk

For the filling....

4 tablespoons butter

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup sugar

4 teaspoons cinnamon

For the glaze....

powdered sugar

1/4 cup milk

vanilla extract

||S T E P S||

1 : Go ahead & make the filling. Don't forget to melt the butter first ;).

2. Time to make the dough! Mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Stir together. Soften the butter and mix that in. Then add the milk.

3. Get the pan you plan on baking your rolls on & sprinkle half of your filling mixture on to the pan. 

4. Roll out the dough (don't forget to add flour to whatever surface you're using-don't want it to stick!). I made mine in to a 9 inch circle. This will make the dough about 1/4 inch thick. 

5. You will then want to take the rest of your filling mixture and carefully spread it evenly on to the dough.

6. Slowly & carefully roll up the dough. 

7. Now...this step all depends on how large you want your rolls to be. Just stretch the roll out in to the width and length you want. Obviously, the longer it is the more you will have, but they will be thinner. 

8. Slice the roll evenly. Depending on how large you want them to be...will determine how far apart you cut in the dough. We ended up making around 12. But with the amount of ingredients we used you can make up to 18. 

 

9. Turn on your oven! Set at 400. Bake for 20-25 minutes.

10. While that's baking you can make your glaze! You add 1/4 cup of milk. Then you slowly begin to add powdered sugar. You want to add as much as you need to reach the consistency you want for your glaze. Once you have your consistency just the way you want, add vanilla extract. I estimated. Some like more vanilla, some like less. I am one of those who likes more. I suggest slowly adding it a little bit at a time & tasting it until it reaches the right flavor for you.

11. Once your cinnamon rolls are out of the oven you want them to cool before you put the glaze on them. Being the impatient person that I am, I could't wait for them to cool-so I immediately put on the glaze. Which just caused it to melt all over the rolls. If you like, you can just use the glaze as a dip! 

 They are deeelicious! Yum yum.

The Day We Sprung Our Dog Out Of Jail

Well...doggy jail. Aka the pound.

Our sweet little dog Lucas disappeared. I happened to see one of my friends on Facebook posted a picture of a dog at the pound. Immediately realized it was out doggy.

The day started off nice & feeling like Fall outside. Fall is my favorite time of year so I was excited when I took our dog Allie outside for a wall this morning. I snapped a picture of the sunrise.

Little did I know the day would be a nightmare. Our dog disappeared a few days ago and we hoped that someone else found our dog & took him home with them. When we saw him on Facebook this morning saying that the dog was at the local pound we panicked.

We ended up paying $131 to get him back. We then had to go to the court house to get some sort of tag for him. That took a while. We were so happy to be back home with our boy.

The picture above is a picture of us right after we bailed the dog outta doggy jail. This was actually taken in the doggy jail parking lot.

He even got his very own mug shot. O.o

Happy 4th of July!

To start off my fourth of July...while I was getting ready for the day I managed to get a second degree burn on my leg from my curling iron. It hurt (and still does) but at least my hair looked good. 

Alex & I spent the fourth with his family. We started off the day by spending hours in TMobile so Alex could switch carriers. He also upgraded to an iPhone 5s. He has got me obsessed with everything Apple. I even got the iPhone 5s before him. Hopefully now that he has his he can show me more stuff about my phone...because he is much smarter than I am & will figure things out much quicker! 

Here we are in TMobile.  

"Ice Cream" Sandwiches

I love ice cream sandwiches, but not the calories. I've been trying to eat better lately (as in the past 48 hours). It feels like summer & I need ice cream. Buuut...since I have been trying to eat better, I needed to come up with something myself. & it was a success & really easy to make.

All you need is : 

*W h i p p e d  C r e a m*

*V a n i l l a  E x t r a c t*

*G r a h a m  C r a c k e r s*

*T i n y  P i n c h  o f  S u g a r*

Grab a bowl & put in as much whipped cream as you want.

Then you're going to add vanilla extract. As much as you want. I started out with a small amount & kept adding more & tasting it until it was the way I wanted. If you add to much vanilla, just add more whipped cream. After you mix it up well, add a TINY pinch of sugar...

Take the graham crackers & break them in half. Add as much of the mixture as you want. The more the better...& just stick them in the freezer!

I'm not too sure how long I left them in there. It was probably about an hour & thirty minutes. While I waited I went swimming next door with my sister & cousin Sierra. 

When I got home I ended up eating three of them & they are delicious. My mom & sister loved them too. It's sooo much better than an ice cream sandwich that you'd buy at the store. You can eat as many as you want & not feel guilty about it. It tastes like vanilla ice cream! BTW, I used cinnamon graham crackers. Adds a bit more flavor.

& that is the finished product! It's cold, creamy, vanilla-y, & delicious. I'm proud of myself for coming up with it! :P 

Biltmore House - Asheville, North Carolina

I have always wanted to go to the Biltmore House (especially at Christmastime...which we definitely plan on going back for). We drove the 3 hour drive from Alex's house to Asheville, NC. We went straight to the Biltmore House. It was so big & beauty-ful. We got to tour the house...which took a long time because this house is the largest house in America. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take pictures inside the house, but we got plenty of shots outside the house.

On the inside they had all of the old furniture. As Alex said, it was like stepping back in time. It even smelled "old" haha. I don't think either of us had climbed so many stairs. There was a huge spiral staircase...so big that there were seats & couches on the different levels of the staircase so you could sit to take a break. That house had everything from a million bedrooms...to fireplaces in almost every room...a bowling alley...an indoor pool...& the list goes on & on.

It is hard to believe that that house was actually someone's home. It is so unbelievably huge...I think it would have been pretty creepy to live there...& what if you were there home alone? I would flip out. But they did have at least 5 bedrooms for their servants...so I guess they were never technically "alone".

Since I couldn't take any pictures inside the house, I found someone online so you can see how pretty the inside really is...

When you first walk in this is what you see...

Easter 2014

Easter this year was a little bit different. Normally the day before Easter my family & I have a huge/competitive Easter egg hunt. Unfortunately this year the day before Easter was cold & rainy. So there was no egg hunt. We still had our traditional dinner at the seafood restaurant that night. Alex was able to go with us for the first time. We had a great Easter even though there were no egg hunts. The weather better be better next year!

Warm Weather...Finally

The weather was finally starting to feel like Spring...so Alex decided to clean all of the windows of his car (also known as Lindsey). While he did that I sat on the front porch eating a fudge popsicle & watched him clean. I also ran from bees & wasps.

After he finished with the windows, we went to the park a couple of minutes away. It was so nice to ride around with the windows open!!

We found a really cute gazebo at the park & decided to investigate it. That didn't last long because we ran because there were bees everywhere. Once we got a safe distance away we were able to take a picture of us with the gazebo. 

Alex is almost always working & on a third shift schedule (hopefully this will be ending soon)...so we are on opposite schedules but this day we were able to spend the whole day together going out & spending time together. It was sooo nice <3.

 

Later that night we colored Easter Eggs. By this time we were both tired from the "busy" day, but we had fun & sang "The Easter Bunny Is Comin' To Town"...the words we actually knew anyway.

Second Round of Couponing

Couponing this week was not as easy as our last couponing trip. I used the same website as before (couponmom.com) to combine coupons with store deals.

Our first stop was Walmart. There were a few things on our list that were not in the store, which frustrated me because they were some good deals!

Our second stop was Ingles. This was our first time couponing at Ingles. We noticed on the sign outside of the store explained how they doubled coupons. Which I guess we should have checked before we even went to the store. Because unlike Walmart, Family Dollar, & Dollar General- Ingles doubled their coupons BUT there were "rules". In order to use 3 coupons you had to spend at least $10, 6 coupons with $20, 9 coupons with $30, & 12 coupons with $40. It completely threw me off. When we realized we had 11 coupons, we would have to buy enough things that would add up to $40 (minus coupons & store deals). Since we only had around $15 worth of stuff to buy, we bought more groceries that we needed in order to use all of our coupons. Ingles also did not have a couple of the deals that couponmom had listed. From now on if there are good deals/coupons at Ingles, we plan on making a whole grocery list to be able to use all of our coupons. We will actually be prepared!

Our last stop was at Dollar General. They were out of only 1 item that we had on our list. Other than that, every thing at this store went smoothly!

Walmart

{Oscar Mayer P3 Portable Protein Pack}

In Store Sale Price = $1

Coupon = $0.75

Total Price : $0.25

{Zest Soap Bar}

In Store Sale Price = $0.97

{Gillette Venus Embrace Razor}

In Store Sale Price = $6.97

Coupon = $4

Total Price : $2.97

{Mitchum Advanced Control Deodorant}

In Store Sale Price = $2.97

Coupon = $2

Total Price : $0.97

{Garnier Fructis Conditioner}

In Store Sale Price = $2.96

Coupon = $1

Total Price : $1.96

{Suave Professional Infusion Conditioner}

In Store Sale Price = $2.88

Coupon = $1.50

Total Price : $1.38

{2 Afrin Nasal Spray .5oz each}

In Store Sale Price For 2 = $4.64

Coupon = $3

Total Price : $1.64

{Tresemme Heat Protector Spray}

In Store Sale Price = $2.74

Coupon = $2

Total Price : $0.74

TOTAL PRICE : $10.88

TOTAL SAVINGS : 57%

Ingles

{Greek Gods Yogurt}

In Store Sale Price = $1

Coupon = $0.50

Total Price : FREE

{2 boxes of Zatarains Rice}

In Store Sale Price for 2 = $1

Coupon = $0.50

Total Price : $0.50

{Post Poppin Pebbles Cereal}

Store Sale Price = $2

Coupon = $1

Total Price : $1

{Picsweet Premium Corn}

In Store Sale Price = $1

Coupon = $0.50

Total Price : FREE

{Bounty Basic Paper Towels Single Roll}

In Store Sale Price = $1

Coupon = $0.25

Total Price : $0.50

We bought TWO-we had two coupons.

{Angel Soft Bath Tissue, 4ct}

In Store Sale Price = $1

Coupon = $0.45

Total Price = $0.10 EACH

{2 boxes of Barilla Pasta}

In Store Sale Price = $1

Coupon = Buy 2 get $0.45 off

Total Price : $0.73

{Sparkle Big Roll Paper Towels Single Roll}

In Store Sale Price = $1

Coupon = $0.25

Total Price : $0.50

TOTAL PRICE : $3.43

TOTAL SAVINGS : 82%

Keep in mind they doubled our coupons.

DOLLAR GENERAL

{Vidal Sassoon Hair Spray}

In Store Sale Price = $3.50

Coupon = $2

Total Price : $1.50

{Speed Stick Gear}

In Store Sale Price = $3

Coupon = $2

Total Price : $1

{Tums Freshers 25 ct}

In Store Sale Price = $2.50

Coupon = 1.50

Total Price : $1

{Tresemme Shampoo}

In Store Sale Price = $3.50

Coupon = $2

Total Price : $1.50

TOTAL PRICE : $6.35

TOTAL SAVINGS : 60%

When you take away all in store sale prices & coupons...the total for everything combined would be $76.50. We only paid only $20.66!!!!!! So we saved a grand total of $55.84!!!!!!!!!!!! When we were checking out at Dollar General...the lady checking us out said "I'm surprised there were any of these left!" (talking about the hair spray)- she said because one lady came in earlier with EIGHT coupons for them. I can't wait to work our way up to being that good at couponing!

First Couponing Experience!

Using www.couponmom.com, makes it so much easier to coupon. They have it set up to where they combine the store's weekly sales with coupons. So after a few weeks of saving coupons from the Sunday newspaper (redplum, smartsource, & P&G) we had enough to where we felt we could make our first shopping trip. 

FAMILY DOLLAR

{2 boxes of General Mills Cereal} 

In Store Sale 2 boxes = $2.50 

Coupon = $2 

Total Price : $2

{Garnier Fructis Mousse}

In Store Sale Price = $4.25

Coupon = $2

Total Price : $2.25

{Vidal Sassoon Shampoo}

In Store Sale Price = $2

Coupon = $2

Total Price : FREE

{16-18 ct. Tampax Radient Tampons}

In Store Sale Price = $4

Coupon = $2

Total Price : $2

TOTAL PRICE : $8.25

TOTAL SAVINGS : 56%

WALMART

{Oscar Mayer P3 Portable Protein Pack}

In Store Sale Price = $1

Coupon = $0.75

Total Price : $0.25

{2 Cover Girl Eyeshadows}

In Store Sale Price Per Eyeshadow = $3.14

Coupon = Buy 2 get $3 off

Total Price : $1.64

{Herbal Essences Shampoo AND Conditioner}

In Store Sale Price Per Bottle = $2.97

Coupon = Buy 2 get $3 off

Total Price = $1.47

{4 ct Sharpie Highlighters}

In Store Sale Price = $2.37

Coupon = $1.50

Total Price = $0.87

TOTAL PRICE : $6.59

TOTAL SAVINGS : 54%

DOLLAR GENERAL

{2 Dawn Dish Soap}

In Store Sale Price = $1 each

Coupon = Buy 2 get $1 off

Total Price = $0.50

{Cats Pride Litter 9lbs}

In Store Sale Price = $4

Coupon = $2

Total Price = $2

{BIC Sensitive Disposable Razors 12ct}

In Store Sale Price = $2.75

Coupon = $3

Total Price = FREE

{Speed Stick Deodorant}

In Store Sale Price = $2

Coupon = $1

Total Price = $1

{2 Nivea Simply Soft Lotion}

In Store Sale Price = $4 each

Coupon = Buy 2 get $5 off

Total Price = $1.50

TOTAL PRICE : $7.85

TOTAL SAVINGS : 65%

When you take away all of the store sale prices & coupons....the total for all of these put together would be $78.72. We only paid a total of $23.50!!!! So we saved a grand total of $55.22!!!!!! I would say our first couponing experience was a success! Now I'm excited to dig in to this Sunday's newspaper coupons!!!!!

Walt Disney World

My first trip to Disney World.

Alex's millionth trip to Disney World. (He use to work there)

He surprised me with tickets to Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party!!

November 2013

Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

Alex, Karen, & Nannie's first trip to Myrtle Beach.

My millionth trip to Myrtle Beach.

September 2013

Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Our Bucket List