This was a surprisingly very busy weekend for us. It was not planned out to be a busy one, but it just kind of happened.  Saturday was really the only day we had stuff planned out for. We all had dentist appointments and my girls are cavity free ( can I get a Whoop Whoop) and to reward them, we took them to go see Beauty and the Beast 3D; which they loved of course!
But our big news is, Josh and I got a new car! A "New to Us" SUV actually. We didn't go into the weekend with car shopping on our mind. We new that eventually we would need to buy a new car. The one I was driving, was on borrowed time. But we didn't expect it to happen this fast. I wanted/needed something that would eventually fit our family that wants to grow, whether that be a mini van or suv I just wanted more space for passengers. What we ended up getting was an SUV, a beautiful blue Volvo XC-90.  What I really like about this car is that is a no fuss no frills SUV. It has all the features I appreciate without being to complicated or over the top. And the best part...it seats 7 people!!!! I love that!

So now onto the menu, almost! We have had some very wintery weather lately. Lot's of snow that has become a lot of wet slush and rain. We just keep getting a dusting but then it rains and it's gone. So with that, I had plans for today to make a Carrot Cake with my cute sister who also happens to help me out a lot in the kitchen. But, because of the weather, we've pushed the cake baking back to next week.

Today, (Tuesday) is actually Josh's birthday and we've been doing some fun celebrating over the weekend. We had his family over to the house on Saturday for one of Josh's favorite dinners, Oriental Chicken Salad and Texas Sheet Cake which came out almost like Josh's mom's. Josh's mom always makes the cake, and I thought it was high time for me to tackle it. The cake itself turned out great, but the frosting...well it just tasted a little too powdered sugary for me. The recipe card I have states a box of powdered sugar. I didn't even know there were boxes of powdered sugar, I always grab the bags...and there were no directions for measuring. Just a box. So I threw in a whole huge bag of powdered sugar. LOL, the frosting was good...a little thick for the cake I made, but still edible. I'm going to make the cake again in the next week or so and get the precise measurement because I just can't make a mistake like that again.

So how are your weeks going? Aside from celebrating the greatness of my hubby today, this weekend we have dentist appointments. UGH! It's been a year since we've been and I know I have a cavity or two. I know this because they told me a year ago I did. But since then we've moved and we really don't want to drive 25 miles to that dental office when we have one right down the street. I'm nervous, this is Eden's 1st appointment, so I'm hoping it goes well for all of us. But I told the girls if they both walk away without cavities, we'll take them to go see Beauty and the Beast in 3D! I'm not so much a 3D person. I end up getting a headache about 25 minutes into the movies, same with IMAX. But I'm willing to suck it up for the girls.

Also, school and Awana start back up this week. I'm feeling a tad bit like Super Mom because I had school going at about 9:45am and Grace was finished at 10:50am, which was perfect because their "Papa" took the girls to Salem to go see their daddy at lunch.  Which meant, I got to go to gym while it was still light out an I worked my butt off there for an hour and I'm feeling the exertion now. I'm feeeellling verrry sleeepy! But, that also meant, I got all the ingredients for Josh's special birthday dinner tonight :)

Happy 2012 everybody! Did you all have a fabulous New Years Eve? I'm hoping this new year finds you all in good health with a multitude of blessings!

The hubby and I just hung out at home and had a movie night. We watched Mr. Popper's Penguins with the kids, then they went to bed and then we watched a few movies up until midnight when we popped the cork on our bottle of champagne, watched as the neighbors lit off fireworks, shared a couple of kisses and then finished our movie ( Midnight in Paris, very cute) and went to bed. It was a perfect evening!

Since Josh had today off, we went grocery shopping this afternoon and figured out the menu for the week. It wasn't until right before we left for the store when I realized that there are a lot of pasta dishes on our menu this week. This was completely by accident, lol! Oh well, it's that time of year I guess to satisfy your hunger with warm, filling, and comforting meals.

Merry Christmas week to you all! I'm sure you are all scurrying around trying to get last minute gifts bought and wrapped and menu's made, and wonderful foods cooked.  I, myself am sick with a cold and I'm trying to quickly get rid of it and get on with my holiday week. Josh is officially on vacation now, and also sick :(

We do have some fun little posts headed your way for this week of festivities. So stay tuned :) As for me, I'm headed to the freezer to start my thawing out my turkey. We're having ham and turkey this year and I'm going to try brining my turkey with the PW's recipe.  Wish me luck :)

I was thinking yesterday about my New Year resolution I had made at the beginning of the year. I wanted to take away the coffee and drink tea instead. But like most New Years resolutions, it stuck for maybe 2 days and I was back to drinking coffee again. I'm not sure what my resolution will be this year or if I will even try to have one. I normally can't stick to them anyways. Am I the only one who finds it hard to stick to something you plan on doing and doing it consistently?

If I do a resolution this year, maybe I'll just try and stick to my schedule of going to the gym 3 days a week ( which 3 days is a struggle) and have 3 blog posts a week as well. Since summer, I've had a hard time of making it to the gym all 3 days. I refuse to wake up at 4am and go to the gym because I know I will be a Crabby Patty for the rest of the day. So the only option I have is to go in the evenings when my husband gets home from work...which is an hour long drive for him; and he doesn't always get out of work on time. So to help combat issues that may arise, you might start noticing a few more crockpot posts during the week. As far as the blogging goes, I've recently just starting working out a really good scheduling system.  I've begun writing several posts all at once, scheduling them out, and then having Josh edit my writing. He is easily entertained by all the editing that has to be done, because after the first or second post of writing I've done, my grammar and punctuation start to make me sound like I've been drinking...which is definitely not the case. Hahaha!

The New Year is still a few weeks off, but it's never to early to start thinking about the things you might want to improve upon or change. But why you're thinking, why not take a gander at this week's menu.