Cookie Surprise Cupcakes!

COOKIE SUPRISE CUPCAKES

These are the most amazing things in the world!

You take any kind of chocolate cake mix and mix according to the box





Fill muffin pans about half full and then take chocolate cookie dough (the pre made kind, about 1 TBSP) and put down in the batter . I use my cookie scoop, I don't fill it all the way though.


Then bake for 18-20 (I did 18 and they were perfect!) minutes at 350 and when cooled -

top with chocolate frosting (& mini chocolate chips or sprinkles!).

A while ago while we were at the Mystic Village we went into a great cooking store (that I LOVE!). They have all of these really great sprinkles. The best ones were the zoo and aquarium ones. It was fun to get to use them on these cupcakes and Landon loved it to!

This is one of the cupcakes cut in half. I didn't have very good lighting while I was taking the picture so I'm sorry...but you can kind of see the cookie inside.

This is the best container for taking (or storing) cupcakes. It has a tray inside that holds 13 big cupcakes or 24 little ones. You can also use it to hold a normal cake.

Here is my final product! I had so much fun making these and it was great when everyone loved them. I even ran some over to my neighbor around midnight. Lol.

Someone Like You.

I know I have been posting a lot of these on here the past few weeks...but I love reading! Even more I love sharing good books. This was a good book. Not great, but good. It wasn't far-fetched like some books that try to be "real life" can be. It was one of those books that just kind of went.

Here is what the back cover reads.

Halley has always followed in the wake of her best friend, Scarlett. But when Scarlett learns that her boyfriend has been killed in a motorcycle accident, and that she's carrying his baby, she's devastated. For the first time ever, Scarlett really needs Halley. Though their friendship may be tested by the strain, like a true friendship, it will endure.

I would have to give it 3 out of 5 stars.

Spring?

Three days ago we got about 2 1/2 feet of snow! It was crazy. You can't tell where my back steps end since the yard is just as high with all of the snow. It was nice to get Justin home an extra day since the base was closed. But it should be spring! Whats with all the snow?! Here it was all nice and getting warm...then BAM snow! I want it to start getting warm again. But just watch I'm going to complain about how hot its going to be this summer.



We haven't been doing much here. Landon and I are both sick and with all of the snow, we don't really feel like venturing outside. The missionaries are coming over a few times this week so that should be fun. But besides that, we are just staying around the house.

I have been in a little bit of a blah mood, and being sick doesn't help that one bit! I don't do much during the day and I don't feel like talking to many people. All I do is wait with Landon until Justin gets home. Once Justin gets home we don't answer our phones.....bad I know! But we watch a movie, eat dinner together then the boys play while I read and we all go to bed together. I lead such a dull life lately! I'm excited for spring to hit so we can start going on picnics and such again.

Am I the only one who has the late winter blues?

Church

It feels great to be going to church again. Since Justin is back I no longer have my fear of going (I hate going alone), and Jenalei being back helps a lot to. I went to Relief Society today for the first time here. It wasn't as scary as I thought it was going to be. I learned quite a bit today and I'm so very thankful for that.

Landon loved it today. It was the first time that he has gone to primary instead of the nursery. He told me that he learned a lot and he loved all of the songs....he even got a lolly-pop from one of the members for being so good today.

I'm excited to be going every week now. I have felt like something was missing and after today I know what it was. I know I always have God by my side, it just feels good to being going and doing my part.

I hope everyone had a great Sunday!

Back in the swing of things

Justin has been home a month and a half now. Apart from the pictures we now have plastered on the walls, it feels like he never left. Everything is perfect.

My only compliant is that he has been working so much the past week or so. He's one of the first ones in and always one of the last out. I love that he loves his job and he doesn't mind staying longer to get the job done, but its wearing thin on him. He comes home and hugs me so tight and says that he thought of me all day and how much he wanted to come home. Sometimes it harder when he's right down the road working long hours then it is when he's out to sea. When he's gone, he's gone. But now its a waiting game. Is he going to be home at 2? or maybe not till 8 tonight. Do I make dinner and hope its still warm when he gets here? Or do I wait and hope its not too late to get it in the oven.

The joys of being a military wife.

But I have to say my house has stayed spotless the whole time he's been back (well not on standdown since messes seem to follow him). I want him to come home to a clean house if I can't guarantee dinner will be on the table. But I have loved every minute I have got to spend with him. I even conned him into watching the Lakers game in bed last night so we could cuddle instead of him sitting in his chair watching.

He has duty tonight. Booo. So I think Landon and I are going to eat some random unhealthy dinner and make some big gooey desert to go with it. Then maybe I will camp out in his bed with him tonight. Who knows, the possibilities are endless when Daddy isn't here to rain on our parade. Lol.

Mom & Dad

I made these for you for your desktop. I know you guys like to switch it up all the time. I hope you like them! One is from Landon's birthday and the other is Homecoming. I miss you!

Sunday's at Tiffanys

I LOVE this book! It's one of those books that I just know I'm going to re-read. I couldn't put it down. I read this last year right before Justin left on deployment. I feel like I can't even say how great it really was.

Here is what the back cover reads.

As a little girl, Jane has no one. Her mother Vivienne Margaux, the powerful head of a major New York theater company has no time for her. But she does have one friend--Michael--and no one can see him but her. But Michael can't stay with Jane forever, and on her eighth birthday, her imaginary friend must leave her.

When Jane is in her thirties, working for her mother's company, she is just as alone as she was as a child. Her boyfriend hardly knows she's there and is more interested in what Vivienne can do for his career. Her mother practically treats her as a slave in the office, despite the great success of Jane's first play, "Thank Heaven." Then she finds Michael--handsome, and just the same as she remembers him, only now he's not imaginary. For once in her life, Jane is happy--and has someone who loves her back. But not even Michael knows the reason behind why they've really been reunited.

I would give this book a 5 out of 5 stars!

Things I love. Family edition.

#1 Let me just start off by saying that I love my husband I really do, but he does do a few little things that drive me up a wall. He loves cereal. Every morning he always eats it and always leaves the boxes on the counter! I swear I could tell him until my face turned blue to put them away but he just doesn't. He says that hes in a hurry and he forgets to run it back to the pantry. AND he always leaves the box open. He doesn't mind stale cereal so much but I sure do!

So the point of this story? I bought this and all of my problems were solved!

I bought 3. One for Justin, me and Landon. Each person can have one kind of cereal at a time (unless they like to mix). I keep them on top of my fridge and its perfect! Justin can't say he was too rushed since he has to put the milk away and its in the same place, and the cereal never goes stale since it has an easy lid!

Lol on to more things that I love!

#2 Landon got a ton of great things for his Birthday. I thought this was just too neat to share.

It's called My Little Sandbox. It's about 12x12, comes in a little wooden box inside of a cardboard storage box, has quite a few little toys to go with whatever theme, a shovel, rake and sand. Landon got the construction one and the pirate one (see below). He will sit at the table and play with it for hours! It can get messy but nothing the vacuum can't clean up.

This is the pirate box. It has a ship, monkey, alligator, treasure chest with treasure, 2 pirates, a tree and a parrot along with the shovel, rake and bucket.

They also make tons of other ones. Here is the mermaid one. They also have dinosaurs, doggy daycare, beach, farm, princess castle and even a nativity scene. Check them out! I bet they would even be fun for a desk at work! Kinda like a rock garden but way more fun!

#3 Hot cider mix.

I seriously can't get enough of this! I'm a tea kinda gal but I have seriously turned into a trader! I have to admit that I do make it a little stronger then most would. But I love it and so do the boys!

#4 Picnics!

The weather is just now getting warm enough that we can go again! It was so hard not going on picnics this summer while Justin was gone.

9 out of 10 times we eat the same things. I cook for a few hours and make Chicken Parm, Pickle Pasta and some amazing desert! We always stop and get drinks then head on to where we are picnicking. Justin and I have been picnicking forever. He proposed to me on a picnic while we were at the Camano Island State Park many a years ago. Lol. Then once we moved we kept it going. We have found a picnic spot everywhere we have moved. I love it!

We might be going tomorrow if the sun stays out....but I doubt it will.

#5. Road Trips.

I LOVE them! I never want to drive 3,500 miles again...but little ones are still great! Justin and I have our best talks when we are driving and when we aren't talking we rock out and sing as loud as we can to our ipod. I know that we are lucky and Landon has always been GREAT in the car. He has never been a crier.

A little of this..and that!

I forgot to post what Justin got me for my birthday oh so long ago! I feel so bad for Justin having so many things so close together. First Christmas, my Birthday two weeks later, Landon's Birthday at the beginning of February then Valentines Day a week or so after! Poor guy!



This is my new baby! It's all 7 books in one. I'm excited to read it, but it is going to take forever! This book is so thick!


My Eagles jersey for the die-hard fan my husband has made me! I love it! It even has sparkles in it! Totally Kim right?!



And this is my shiny thing he promised. I love it. Its so beautiful it takes my breath away. He's so good at picking jewelry out for me sometimes I swear he should be gay! Lol just kidding! I love my husband!


in other non-gift news!

I change my background a lot. Mostly because nothing ever really fits me quite like I want it to. But I have found it...well made it. I think it fits! I will get stir crazy at some point so I will end up changing my header at least every few months or so. But I'm hoping this sticks! I have also re-done all of my other blogs.

On a different note. Please don't take pictures off of my blog without talking to me first. I doubt I will mind. I just don't like seeing pictures that I took on other peoples pages. So please ask.

I hope everyone has a great week!

Great Day!

As I said before, Justin had duty on Valentines Day so he asked if I wanted to wait until he was home and I said yes. He got home from duty at 0800 and came up and crawled in bed with me. He then informed me that I could sleep in and he would get Landon breakfast and deal with the dog. I slept for another hour.....or two. Then I got up and we started getting ready to go out. We had plans to go out with our friends Briana, Louie and Belly (who we have been hanging out with non-stop the past few weeks). We were going to head down to Mystic, walk around the village and then go to the aquarium and dinner. We said we wanted to leave the house around noon, but when noon came around Justin said we couldn't leave yet. I guess he had ordered something and it hadn't been delivered yet, and they wouldn't leave it by the door. So we waited. Then about two hours later this arrived! I had to use the stock picture because the ones I took didn't look so good. Lol.

We are going to eat it all tonight during our family movie night!

But this is the balloon I got.

The sweet little card.

Then we left and went to Mystic. It was COLD! We walked around and Justin got me a few things! I guess he had planned what he wanted to get me and took me along with him to do it!

Everyone loves a cute Vera bag!

Even more so when this comes out of it!!!!!

Then he got me this from the candy shop! Every Valentines Day we get fudge. We always sit down and share it together. The coins he got for Landon and the Butter Crunch I think was for him but he claims it was for me.

We looked over and the Aquarium was PACKED so we decided to skip that for now and head to lunch/dinner. We went to Friendly's and it was so much fun. For everyone on the West Coast it's kind of like Red Robin meets Denny's. They have great American food and GREAT ice cream.

After that we went home, I took a little nap and then Briana and the gang came over for Wii playing. We always play Mario Party and the girls aways loose....BOOOO!

They left at about 11 I think. Then Justin played video games while I sat down here and read. It was such a great day!

We got Landon a few little things but I wasn't awake when he opened them so by the time I got down they weren't picture worthy anymore.

I hope everyone had a great Valentines Day!

Happy Valentines Day!

Justin had duty today so we are going to act like tomorrow is really V-day. I spent my day cleaning and decorating the whole house in pink...lol. Tomorrow we are going out with a few friends of ours that we have been hanging out with a lot lately. We are heading down to the Mystic Village and then heading over to the Aquarium. I will try to take pictures because I know I have been slacking.

I hope everyone had a great day with their loved ones.

Random

Random picture post. I took these pictures of the boys right after Justin got home. I didn't upload them to my computer until just down...I know I'm a slacker. I have a few post I want to write, but I know they will take me a while and I just don't want to sit here for that long yet. Maybe tonight after the boys go to bed.

.:Lost:.

Have you ever put something somewhere (or so you thought) so that you could find it again when you needed it?

Here is my little ditty of a story.

Before I left for Washington in August I gave two of my great friends here my house keys. One I also gave both sets of car keys to as well so that she could start Justin's car and move mine if needed. The other set of keys was set aside with the house key gone to stay with my friend while I was gone. I remember standing with Mandy in my kitchen taking the house key off to give to Casey. I remember her setting them on the counter.

I left for Washington. Got back a month Later.

Left for Bahrain. Got back 12 days later.

My mom left.

My mind left.

Couldn't find my keys ANYWHERE! I searched everything! I got all new furniture in every room of my house so I turned everything upside down thinking maybe, just maybe it got under something. I checked every closet. I checked both cars. Nothing. I even called my parents and had them check their house. Nothing.

Justin got home and we lived with one set of keys. Meaning he was the only one who could lock the house, check the mail and drive a car.....unless we wanted to take the keys apart, but we already know what happens when we (I) do that.

So two nights ago we went out to dinner with friends of ours. I was getting dressed and couldn't find anything to wear. I decided to wear my new jeans (for all who know me please pick your jaws off the floor. Yes. I Kim wore jeans). I wanted a hoodie to wear with them so I ran down stairs and grabbed a massive CWU hoodie off my coat rack. Ran up 2 flights of stairs and hurled it onto my bed...when I heard something jingle. NOOOOOO!!!! ohhh yes. In the front pocket of my hoodie, after being missing for 6 months I found my set of keys. I don't even remember wearing that sweatshirt anywhere!

It wasn't in the safe place I thought I had put it. But hey I can check the mail while Justin is at work now!

Landons Birthday Part 2

It's really hard on my mom living so far away from me and my little family. She tries so hard to do things for every holiday. The hard part is that she doesn't just like to send a little gift, she likes to go all out! This is what came to the door on Landon's birthday. He was so excited he wouldn't stop running around the house with it. I finally had to threaten to pop the balloons (i know I'm a mean mom....but it worked). The bear is now proudly sitting on his headboard in his room.


The bear. Named Elliott.

His balloons......

He RAN to get in the picture. He claims to have super speed.

These next few pictures are from Landon's Birthday dinner at Ranforest Cafe. We had a blast! They sat us right next to a HUGE fish tank that we watched the whole meal. We have taken Landon to Rainforst many times before but not in the last year or so, so this was the first time that he has really enjoyed it and it was so much more fun because of it.

The drink he wanted. Lol.

It was soooo big! But he loved it!

My boys. I always take so many pictures of them together. Maybe its because of the times we don't get while Justin is deployed. You have to make up for them sometime!

Happy Birthday little boy!

Landon's birthday was this week and he had a great few days. We had a party at KidCity Children's Museum. Counting him we had 6 kids there. From the looks of it everyone had a great time. We had a party room for 2 hours where we played a game, ate cake and just ran around for a bit then headed into the museum. Since it was Saturday it was packed! But it was still a lot of fun. Then on his real birthday Justin and I took him up to Rainforest Cafe for dinner. He had so much fun! I will post those pictures later since I don't have my camera with me.

I just can't believe my little boy is 4!

Here are a few pictures from the party.


This is inside the party room. Everything was Backyardigans.

Kaidyn looking great in his mask.

Landon in his.

The cake they provided. It was about 10lbs of ice cream!

I think even he was shocked!

Lighting the candles.

Blowing them out.

Eating the great cake!

Opening his presents.

me and my little boy.

Dinosaur room.

Ship/Fish room.

Jungle room.

In the VW Bug.

Space room.

Landon and Kaidyn

My boys!