Potty Snow Birthday...In That Order

Potty

Pee Pee in the Potty Face

It happens right before the Pee Pee in the Potty Dance

Snow

Not rain, sleet, or snow will keep us away from Tim's pizza.

And yes, pizza does taste better after walking in 6 inches of snow to eat it!

What else are you going to do strapped in a backpack in a blizzard?

Hat- check

Gloves-check

Boots-check

Tail-huh?

Oh! Scarf- check

Recycle Bin Lid Sled

Fastest Sled in the South

I'm pretty sure this is right before we crashed. Then went again!

Out Cold...or

In Warm

Rob's Birthday

Another Super Dad Cake

~Rob's Birthday Brownie~

We went to the roller derby bout for my 29th birthday party!

We had a good time. I found it inspiring.

It was the best time! I had my favorite people with me.

Then, of course, I knew many people there...

you could call it my scene (that and the Indigo Girls concert. funny).

They served beer.

Women were knocking the crap out each other...for your entertainment.

The half-time show featured one of the refs. He did skating toe-touches and break-dance skating.

Amazing. I know.

The girls and I were talking about what our roller girl names would be...

I have yet to think of a funny creative name. Leave a comment with a suggestion (this for you Kent).

My girlfriend Jess from High School thought she might be Spread Eagle.

While another girlfriend thought she would keep it a little cleaner with Katy Longlegs.

I. have. nothing.

Our team would be the 145 points...the other team 40 points.

They must have known it was my birthday.

We plan on going again!

A New Year

I'd like to say that every year we try to be better people. We try harder to bring the important things in our life, and leave behind the rest. While I can't say that any of our good habits were ever previous New Year's resolutions. I can say that that we add good things to our life every year.

So Jason says to me this year that he is going to make a New Year's resolution. He wants to make 20 pieces of art. His own art. Not art for a client. Paintings? Sculptures? Whatever. As long as it is his own art.
It seems that the past few years much of the art he has made has been a gift for me. I often times get art as my gifts for holidays, birthdays, or just cause. As long as this doesn't stop, I don't care what kind of art he wants to make.

This was my Christmas gift from Jason and Mr. Cash

It is a painting they created of "our family."

The three flowers are similar to the tattoo design Jason and I created together.

The tattoo is on my arm. Jason isn't into tattoos...yet.

So I thought I want to make a resolution too. I thought and thought. Jason thought and thought for me.

And here is what I came up with....

I want to become a better artist too! I know what you are thinking...let's just say I'm starting at ground zero.
Understand that I have much to work on during the year to become a better person. Jason suggested some things like spend less money on clothes (gasp!) and work in the garden (many times I'm the one taking the photos...not really doing the digging)- both good ideas, but I couldn't commit to too much. Ha.
Note: My art will consist of an ongoing list of "things I'd like to sew." I'm trying for 20 pieces too. I guess that would be my kind of art.

I mean, I can be an artist too! Right?

Doesn't this look like some of those Etsy profile pictures? And they are artists!

Photo notes: The glasses I got from Keith's get-rid-of pile and the art is Jason's.

I. know. If I'm going to be an artist, I better work on my originality.

Right now I'm resorting to using other peoples things to try to look artsy. *Remember ground zero*

Likely we were inspired by a holiday party we had with some friends.

We called it, Humorous Handmade Holiday.

Party goers were to bring a humorous handmade gift. Then we did the dirty Santa game and exchanged gifts.

Jason did a painting of a gnome peeing on a flower. Wish I had a picture to show, but I would need some sort of censor to cover certain areas of the gnome-wink, wink. It was the first to be out of the game (exchanged 3 times-froze it in time).

I made this super quick handbag

 

Yep, it is a douchebag.  Sorry but it is funny!

Hand stitched. Recycled material. Does that make it hipster artsy?

A couple of people made these great Christmas vest.

 

And this was the gift I received during the exchange.

See that's ART.

So..I should be able to make art...right?

And just so you know, Mr. Cash is a great artist...I hope to be as good as him some day.

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Love, The Jones Crew

The Last Day of Mom's Vacation

Here is what we accomplished on Rob's last day of vacation...

Back to work tomorrow...tear. No really, I will likely cry at some point.

Right after breakfast (some delish quinoa with honey, nuts, and berries)

More playing in the snow- we got a few inches over the night

We got so much snow it created avalanche . Ha.

More sliding!

I know what you're thinking...

Do they torture this kid or what?

He actually does his own stunts...

and look at this face. He loves it!

Snow Ice Cream

Empty bowls...I think there was ice cream in them at some point. Whatever.

Urban Hiking

Dad Pack

Mom Pack

This was at the end of the hike. Mr. Cash was getting really tired,

and I'm pretty sure was having an ice cream crash.

We ended the day with pear pie. I had some pears that needed to be cooked...so of course, pie!

While Jason was eating it, he thought it would be good with the snow ice cream.

Sadly, we had eaten all the ice cream (see empty bowl picture above).

*Note to readers: I haven't eaten piece. I just need you to know that.

Quick recipe for Pear Pie

1 crust (I made my own. buy it. whatever.)

A couple of pears

1/2 cup of butter (softened)

1 cup of sugar

1/4 cup of flour

2 eggs

1 tablespoon vanilla

(Guess this ain't vegan baby!)

Preheat your oven to 350. Cut pears in halves or quarters, and place them on your pie crust (you know, cover the bottom). Mix together the butter and sugar until smooth. Then beat eggs one at a time until light and fluffy. Stir in flour and vanilla. Pour over pears. Bake for 1 hour.

This is by far Jason's favorite pie.

I think the butter, eggs, and sugar make a custard-like substance, well...that is to die for. 

I would like to add I also got a few meals cooked, mopped the floor, read a few thousand books (to my hardcore reader), danced to "wock n' woll" and made a New Year's Resolution (next post). Wish me luck going back to work. I think we are all missing our usual schedule, but we miss each other more tomorrow!  

The Marshmallow Adventure

It all started like this...
I wanted to make this chocolate bark from a Barefoot Contessa cookbook my mother had given me. It had toasted cashews, crystallized ginger, and dried cherries. Click here for a video of her making it! We ended up making the bark with the toasted cashews, crystallized ginger, and dried cranberries. I used all semisweet chocolate.

Simple enough, right? It was just perfect because I had a ton of stuff to do! It seemed like just the amount of time I had scheduled in for that project. Because you know I have this whole day job thing going on...

We were going to take the bark and put little smore packs (that would be graham crackers and marshmallows...with the chocolate) together for some of our friends and neighbors.


Then we (when I say we...I really mean Jason) thought let's make the graham crackers. Note to all bakers: I'll link the recipe I used, but I had to modify it a little. The dough seemed really dry. I added more milk.

Then we thought let's make the marshmallows too...why the hell not?. At this point I was in knee-deep anyway.

Long story short (not really at this point, huh?)...Here is our adventure!

 The finished product.

Yep, it says, "Smore Great Memories"

I'm pretty sure having a kid has turned me into a really cheesy person...and maybe I like it! 

Oh the glorious sugar. I don't if you know this, but that is what marshmallow are made of...

Aren't they stinkn' cute!

Sigh! I used the last of my imported vanilla.

Looks like mama will be making a trip to Mexico...

So right...we ate a few too.

They toasted nicely!

(Sorry for the lack of a better picture. Eating smores with a toddler makes your hands a little busy.)

I think I'll begin with the snow...

While I have much to blog about, I'll begin with the snow...

Look at this happy face.

He was shaking excited to be in the SNOW!

Snow tracks

Mostly Lil' J's, some Lushie the dog's

I'm pretty sure they were working on a snowman...

that didn't last long.

At two you tend to move to something else quickly.

I would like to say this picture was after his snow angel, but it wasn't.

He fell and then rolled a little.

Yep, you are seeing this picture correctly!

This is my dear husband attacking our young son

with a snowball.

Then the innocent photographer got attacked too. Ruthless.

We headed to our local park.

Lil' J learned this month to go down the BIG slide all by himself.

He wanted to do it despite the snow on our lovely snow day.

I swear I didn't push him!

He sat down to go down the slide, and oops hit a patch of ice!

If you enlarge the photo, all you see is his feet...and me laughing my butt off.

The aftermath...

Happy Holidays

2009

Working Hard

I have to say the whole family has been hard at work. I have become a complete kitchen freak-cooking, baking, and such. I took a few days off work, and have been in the kitchen ever since. I'll post some of my creations later. In the kitchen, I'm somewhere in between Julia Child and Amelia Bedelia. Despite the process, the food is real good (this is why we have to exercise so much!).

Lil' J has also been hard at work.

Picture Notes:

In hand- real hammer

On head- vintage big bird hat (it was Uncle Keith's)

On face: big smile

Sadly, after this picture:

On face- knot on the head from the hammer

That didn't stop him...

Put the paci in, and kept hammerin'

After this man to man moment, Jason seemed really happy.

Then he had to come in the kitchen to do the dishes.

My husband is such a good man!

...and easy on the eyes!

Party like a Rock Star!

We had nearly 40 people at our tiny house for Lil' J's birthday party. The big 2!

I was such a great time. Lil' J was so happy to see all his very close friends and family.

Thanks for those that came to celebrate with our big guy!

Jason made this cake.

While his previous experience has mostly consisted of erotic, um, funny Bachelorette party cakes, he was the really proud of this one...as was the birthday boy.

Btw, The other cakes are quite good, too. I'm willing to send photos by e-mail, but let's keep this blog clean.

Lil' J had no issues with one candle. The other one was a collaborative effort.

While Jason was working on the other cake, I made these babies.

We had a variety of candies to decorate cupcakes.

Jason, as most know, stayed close to the candy bowls.

We had a good time, and he had a ROCK STAR birthday party!