Happy Birthday to my Wonderful Grandpa

(me & my gpa 1987)

i want to wish my awesome grandpa draper a very, very happy birthday.

i love you g.pa and i hope you have a very wonderful birthday day!!!

(me & gpa i dont know what year this is but i was really into troll dolls aparently notice the troll slippers and troll doll- oh how i miss the 90s)

uni.

this picture is for my little sissy sami (since she just made accadians at BHS!!) to prove that once upon a time in my life (like in 1989) i could pull off a unitard too-- gotta love the bowl cut, leg warmers, & salt water sandal tan lines on my feet.

Congrats Sami Sue!!! I am so proud of you!

Green Cookies

monday night c & i made lots and lots and lot of delicious green sugar cookies to celebrate st. patricks day and share with friends!!
my sugar cookies are the best sugar cookies ever made- i would put them head to head against anyone recipe and i know mine would win by a land slide-i welcome the challenge :)

this is more like it.

i really couldn't justify turning in my assignment with those half ass cupcake pops. so my sister deni and i went back into the kitchen for round two with the intention of making something more worthy to blog about. so i decided that i would try a different route and take the cupcakes off the stick. look how adorable these are! they are pretty simple to make.

bake a boxed cake. and let it cool completely. crumble the cake up then mix in 1 can of cream cheese frosting. then roll into balls and put in the freezer.

you will need some candy cup molds- you can find these at roberts or GiGis for cheap- melt some chocolate bark and spoon some into the bottom of each cup. get the balls out of the freezer and put one in each cup. slowly pushing the ball so the chocolate moves up around the sides, stop when the chocolate gets to the top edge of the mold.



now put those in the freezer- and melt a different color chocolate melts (these can also be found at roberts or michaels or GiGi's) carefully remove each of the balls from the molds. hold em by the bottom and dip the tops into the second color.let the excess chocolate drip off back into the bowl. cute cute. while the chocolate is still soft add a red hot or m7m to look like a cherry, and a few sprinkles. and there you have it!! adorable as can be. i took these little guys to share with my english class today when i handed in my paper, and they were a huge hit!!
i am so pleased with the way these turned out!
hopefully this makes up for the crazy googly eye pop incident :) these cupcake bites are from the always incredibly talented Bakerella. So if you decide to make these and have any more questions check out her blog.
thanks to my sissy deni for taking all of the pictures- you are the best!

bakerella would be ashamed.

its pretty safe to say that Sunday evening i was far from feeling motivated.
i have a fairly large stack of school projects that are lingering over my head that need to be finished in the next few days, but i can't seem to get going on any of them.
one of these projects is suppose to be an instructional paper about something i am pretty knowledgeable about....and the simplest thing that came to mind was baking.

Well two weeks ago when i was assigned this project i was so pumped to show off some of my awesome cup cake pop skills. i had planned on doing the ones that look like cupcakes, and had all of the stuff picked up to accomplish my goal. But when it came down to actually getting them done....i was over it before i began.
Luckily my older sister came home just in time talk me off a cliff and get me motivated. So instead of bagging the whole plan (like i wanted to do)we made these little monsters. Yes, i realize that this is not my best work. and yes, i realize that they are a little creepy, but i can't help but to kind of have a soft spot for these little guys. look how cute they are with their crazy hair and googly eyes.

Happy Happy Birthday Sami dear...

(sami dancing in a competition in colorado 1/10)

i want to wish a happy happy birthday to my littlest sissy sami. the baby of the family turns 16 years old today. i can hardly believe it. i remember the day that she graced the world with her presence.

Samantha Jane you are a blessing in the lives of everyone who has the privilege of knowing you. You are a kind, caring, dedicated, driven, talented,beautiful and passionate young woman. When you start a new adventure you always give it everything you've got and giving up has never been an option for you. Your future is so bright with endless possibilities! You inspire me to be a better person and to never give up on anything!

Know that you are incredibly loved by many and i hope that you have the happiest birthday you can possibly imagine!

with lots of love, your big sissy erin

p.s. please forgive my lack of blogging all 3 of you who frequent my blog, but i have been terribly busy with work and school. a quick update though i got a promotion at work and that is pretty awesome. and just in case i have not mentioned it in a while i am head over heels in love with my c.-----promise to do better soon :)

well hello beautiful...

i must have been a very good girl this year, because santa left this little beauty for me christmas morning...

oh the possibilities are endless...

thanks santa.

Happy 2010!

Happy New Year!

we kicked off the year with the annual torching of the christmas tree at my parents house.this has been a tradition for longer then i have been alive. it is such a great time surrounded by great friends, family, and AMAZING food! (kaboom!!seriously the greatest tradition ever) (kicking my year off with a smooch from my love)

here is to a great new year full of love, life, and prosperity.

"live without regrets."

happy birthday c.

this weekend we celebrated my c.'s 23rd birthday! he is my very best friend and my partner in crime. we have so much fun together always going on new adventures and getting into mischief. he is pretty much the coolest guy i know.

so happy birthday chris! i love you mucho mucho mucho gusto!!

skate with a derby chick!

so i have this super awesome big sister,deni, and she is a derby girl. she plays for the bomber babes and is pretty fierce on a pair of skates.

she invited c. & i out to "skate with a derby girl night" at classic skating.

i can't remember the last time we had so much fun!

deni ,being the good big sister she is, held my hand until i got the hang of it. it has only been 102 years since the last time i strapped on some roller skates. c. didn't need any help at all he is a natural at all things athletic.

then c. & i snowballed to love sick tween tunes and it was wonderful.

thanks again 'GrandSlam Brakefast' (aka deni) for a super fun night!

Super Easy Mini Cheese Cakes

these little cheesecakes are so easy and a total hit especially if you are running short on time and need a quick treat for all those holiday parties & potlucks

Mix Together:

16 oz (2 packages) of Cream Cheese, softened to room temperature

3/4 cup Sugar

3 Eggs

1 Tbsp Vanilla

1 Tbsp Lemon Juice

Mix together until smooth.

Use your mini cupcake pan and grab some 2" baking cups. (if you don't have a mini cup cake pan- you can use just a normal baking sheet with aluminum baking cups instead(like these), they may lose just a little shape, but will still look great)

Put Mini Nilla Wafers flat side down in the bottom of the cups. Easiest cheesecake crust ever right?! Then fill each cup about 3/4 of the way full. Bake at 350 for 12-15 minutes. Play some Jenga while you wait for these little guys to cool down, well at least that is what c. & i do.

When they are cooled all the way (i put them in the fridge to speed this process up) spoon on some pie filling of your choice (we used both raspberry & cherry) and refrigerate. This recipe will make roughly 4 dozen. How simple is that?

Recipe from the always inspiring Bakerella

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

because it is kinda becoming my "thing"

c. & i love to hang out and bake fun stuff together. We take advantage of every opportunity to make yummy and fun treats for our friends.

So today is Shellie's Birthday and we decided to make her some yummy girlie cupcakes!! we did an adorable pink,purple, & white combo that turned out so cute!

Happy Birthday Shellie!! Love ya girlie!!

hug a veteran

this Wednesday we will be celebrating the sometimes looked over holiday of veterans day.
this is a day that we can thank the wonderful men and women who serve our country and protect the freedoms that we enjoy.

c.'s grandfather sam served as a green beret in Vietnam. He fought valiantly and was lucky enough to make it home in one piece- then many years later in 2004 he went over to Iraq as a civilian to drive truck across battle lines to get supplies to our troops. On sami's 1 year and two day anniversary in Iraq his convoy hit a road side bomb and he was filled with shrapnel, lost half of his skull, and one of his eyes. And after many years of hard recovery he is finally getting back to his old self, but will never fully recover from his battle wounds.

there are countless stories of loss and bravery i am sure most of us have heard a few, but on Wednesday please take a moment out of busy schedules to be grateful for the sacrifice that so many soldiers have made for the freedom that we sometimes take for granted.

Well, Grandpa Sami had a birthday last week he turned 60!! happy birthday! c. and i were assigned to make some yummy cupcakes to celebrate! So in honor of his bravery & dedication to his country we made him camouflage cupcakes!


wilton makes the most amazing icing coloring that we used to get these great camo colors. the dye is only $1.70 a piece and come in a wide spectrum of colors and shades- so if you ever have a specific color for a project check em out (i got mine at Michael's) we were going for a camo effect so we did 6 thinner layers of batter instead of the 3 thick layers (like in the halloween tie-dye cupcakes)fresh out of the oven the tops look like this! they didn't even need frostingnow cut it open a look inside! i love how they all turn out so different just depending on how the layers come together. how amazing are those greens? we used chocolate frosting to look like dirt. then decorated with little army men and camo stars. here are all of the different stages together.close ups. i think these little guys look ready for battle.we may have run out of chocolate frosting towards the end- so we improvise. we made some tasty green frosting for the rest- it kind of looked like grass at the front of the battle line. this is one of the best things about baking and decorating, there is freedom to just let your creativity roll. HAPPY VETERANS DAY TO ALL OF THE BRAVE MEN & WOMEN WHO SERVE & FIGHT FOR OUR FREEDOM!!

october "ketchup"

because this week started off a little rough due to the "jackass" featured in my previous post, i have been way to frazzled and discombobulated to post the rest of the Halloween festivities that were enjoyed. but today is a better day. technaglass fixed my window bright and early this morning for a much better price then i thought it would be and my bank is taking care of all of the fraudulent transactions- so ...here is a happy post.

c. & i love to carve pumpkins (as mentioned in many a previous posts) c. loves to do the most difficult and challenging pattern that is available just to prove he is super awesome. after seriously 30 minutes of looking at patterns and evaluating the difficulty he finally settled on this freaky clown. i think he did an amazing job, like always. he is so incredibly talented! i decided to go a much more simple route this time- i did both the cute cupcake and the little angry baby face. i drew my own pattern for the cupcake pumpkin and i was more than pleased with the way it turned out. there was also "Witches Tea" at Gardner Village with all of the female cousins on the rogers side. it is always such a good time to get together with all the girls, get manis & pedis, and just laugh.
i think one of the best parts is shopping with my sisters & mom. we have so much fun together and always spend way to much money! i love it! then the big day finally arrived! HALLOWEEN! the one day a year that you can be anyone you want to be and no one looks at you funny for painting yourself blue or wearing a tutu!

this year c. decided to be maurice, from little monsters. it is one of his all time favorite movies and he has wanted to be him for years. His costume was awesome! people were stopping him to take pictures. His mom made him a custom vest, and he did all of his own make-up.c. even cut his hair into a mohawk just to get all of the details right. he was very impressive!i went as a troll doll this year. yes that is a giant rhinestone on my belly button. i was pretty happy with the way it turned out. my sissy deni made this awesome tutu and let me borrow it.
Ruby had to be in every picture we took, i think she likes showing of her cool pumpkin t-shirt. my parents had their annual halloween extravaganza at their house. this is all of the girls before the party started. me the troll doll. deni was "Hell on Wheels" she looked so super hot in her little devil outfit! my mom was a wench that was being turned into a vampire by my dad, they looked very fierce! and my youngest sister sami was Minnie mouse! she made her own costume and looked so adorable! my dad was a classic vampire (think interview with a vampire era) - as mentioned before my mom is his wench that he is turning her. such an awesome couple costume.my sissy and i cinching my mom into her costume. i thought she was going to pass out from lack of oxygen-but hey its better to look good than to feel good. :)