Pinned some Kebobs thinking a quick easy meal for our Easter BBQ @ my brothers. The Kebobs include corn, sausage, shrimp, and potato. First off cutting a corn cob in multiple pieces is quite eventful. I used a meat mallet an a steel knife to cut threw them. Thinner the slice the easier it was to get the skewer through. After doing these, it gave me even more reason to blog about my experience because although something looks great in photos you never know how much of a pain it will be. So after hacking at the cob, I had to separately boil the potatoes then cut up to put a skewer through.(since the potatoes wont cook as fast on the grill) Then I sliced my sausage, and I used a mushroom instead of shrimp cause I forgot my shrimp @ home. Once I had everything ready to stab my skewers through we started with the corn and it was immpossible to get a skewer through the cob. Luckily my soon to be stepbrother Dillon stepped in and used a meat themomter with a pointy tip to stab through it. My dad almost went and got a drill it was so hard to poke. Looking back I would say start with a drill. Everything was stabbed on my skewer and we decided to place them in the oven first cause corn takes a while to cook. Good thing we did cause the sausage and mushroom cooked pretty fast on the grill.  I was really unhappy with these =[ I dont even want to write about them cause it was A LOT of work and overall wasnt what I expected. In the future I would probably do them all in the oven... what am I saying. I WONT be doing these again. Way too much work when kebobs are sometimes the most simple thing.

                                   Here is something that turned out great!!!
Strawberry Cream Cheese Vanilla Cake!! This is the picture that lured me in on Pintrest.

I have never made a cake from scratch and my first one turned out pretty dang good!!
The recipe is from perrysplate.com all directions and ingredients are on the site or on my food pinboard you can follow the link through there.
I am a batter freak, I can eat raw batter like mashed potatoes, gross I know. once I mixed this batter and had a few tastes I knew it was going to be good. I followed the directions and didnt change anything and once it was all baked I was super excited to have everyone try it. Difficulty I would say a 5 on a 1-10 scale. Just lots of layers and stuff like that but so worth it. The ONLY thing was that the cake itself was really heavy if that makes any sense. A small piece will deffinately satisfy you. And my cake turned out a little thick and chewy. I might have cooked it too long and I used all purpose flour instead of cake flour. I honestly dont even know if there is a difference but that could be why? So I took half to my brothers party and half i left for my mom. I couldnt really take the time and get a good picture of my final product because it was completely gone in minutes! But this is what I got and I would deffinately make this again =]
Anyone else make cake from scratch have suggestions? Im a first timer with the from scratch and would love to hear your feedback!

 And lastly I made a Skinny Red Potato Salad                                               
              Here is the recipe:
From skinnytaste.com


4 cups baby red potaoes boiled and cut

1/2 cup green bell pepper, finely diced

1/4 cup red onion, finely diced

3 scallions, diced ( i didnt use these)

1 tsp dijon mustard

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 tbsp reduced fat mayonnaise
salt and fresh pepper
Boil potatoes in salted water until soft, approx 10 minutes. Drain and let cool.

While the potatoes are boiling, combine red onion, green pepper, mustard, olive oil, vinegar and mayonnaise and season with salt and pepper. Mix well and let the flavors marinade while the potatoes cook. Once the potatoes are done and cool, mix into the bowl and add scallions and additional salt and pepper to taste. Serve room temperature or refrigerate until ready to serve. ( serve cold, so much better!)

     All in all it was pretty good, for skinny potato salad. But I know that where I was taking this salad people werent watching their figures and so my mom suggested adding bacon crumbles. AND WAAAHHHLAAAAA!!! It was perfect!!! I am not a fan of bacon in my salads or baked potato,I will just take bacon by itself. BUT, I really thought this salad was great! And I wont lie, I added a little more mayo cause it was pretty dry. I would deffinately try this one again also =]



Goodbye raw edge mirror

I am pretty fortunate to have a smart and handy husband. We moved in our house over 3 years ago and the house had no up grades and pretty basic stuff and only one color to work with.... WHITE! You name it the counters the floors the bathrooms, everything. Our bathroom is pretty plain so I found a pin that placed tiles around the edge of the mirror to make it more decorative. I found everything I needed at home depot which is starting to be my favorite place to go!
 

Things you will need:

 1. Tiles of your choice enough to cover your mirror. I used 3 sheets costing about $11 each. I have larger mirrors

2.liquid nails and calking gun $4.00.

3.scissors

Total Cost $37

The tiles I bought come on a sheet and have a netting behind it and you cut around the netting to get your tile. Liquid nails means PERMANENT my husband couldn't have stressed that to me enough. I started in one corner and went for it which led me to an issue at the next corner. I needed a smaller piece to fit in the corner.( its in my first picture below) If I would have started by putting a tile in all 4 corners to start I could have worked with the spacing of my tiles to make them fit perfectly. Thank goodness for the husband again. He cut the tiles for me and measured them, which if you dont have the right tools its really a pain. So why not make it easier on  yourself and just avoid what I did.
When you apply the liquid nails you only need a dot the size of a marble. If you get to much it spreads too much and you can see the adhesive in the mirror reflection or it seaps out the sides and makes for messy clean up and its some pretty tough stuff.
It was pretty simple all in all and I am pretty satisfied with it, but I do think there is a way to make it more rustic. I think with our bathroom being white had a lot to do with the outcome. Hope this explains =] If anyone has any suggestions or had something work great for you please let me know =] I am considering doing additional mirrors.

 

Cleaning with ammonia

So I am going to try something new on here. I spend a lot of free time on Pinterest, sometimes I am on the Pinterest app on my phone @ night and my wheels are just turning all night I cant go to sleep.While my wheels were turning I was thinking, there should be a place where people actully have done these specific projects,ideas or recipes and went through trial & error and shared.So this could either be helpfull to some or could be a shot in the dark. Dont just be a pinner& forget about these great ideas, do them & create great things!!I have seen multiple repins on CLEANING YOUR STOVE TOP WITH AMMONIA.

I have scrubbed and scrubbed my grates and literally spent hours doing it. I told my husband I am going to quit cooking just so I dont have to clean my cooktop. So i tried it and here is what I got =]
 

Things you will need
1.Ammonia only $1.27 @ Walmart

2. trashbags or zip locks for smaller grates
3. duct tape/ or twist ties if you have them  (dust tape was allready in our house so use what you have to seal the bags.
4. rubber gloves (protect your hands) wish I would have, mine a super dry right now
5. green scrubby
6. plastic scrapper

7. Measuring cup

First take amonia, bags, duct tape, measuring cup and grate outside. The smell is STRONG. I had to use trash bags because my grates are larger, I placed each grate in their own individual bag and I used 1/3 cup ammonia in each. Dont worry about saturating the grate in ammonia, apparently the fumes are what breaks down the crud. I had issues with my bags tearing and leaking so I had to double bag them. I twisted the bags shut and used the duct tape to hold it shut. I set them outside overnight about 12 hours. In the morning I opened the bags outside and took the grates to my sink. I took the used bags to our trash so the dog or baby couldnt get it. Use your green scrubbie and plastic scrapper if needed and watch it literally fall off!! I read somewhere all you needed was to spray it off with water, not true, I still had to scrub a little and get in there to get the nooks and crannys. I needed to use my scarpper to get of the really stuck on stuff but didnt use half the elbow grease on scrubbing like I used to. Here is the before and after!! Seriously amasing and so worth it. I guess I will continue to cook, probably gonna try another pinterest recipe I pinned. Good luck!

Brunette and a Blonde who lost that bond....

I am writing about this specific topic because I actually have time now to go through my house and organzie and replace photos and do a little inner and outer redecorating at home =]Exactally a year ago my best friend and I had parted ways. 5 years was the max amount stamped on the friendship. SO much water under the bridge it can never be repaired. Hurtful actions were done on both parts and its basically embeded in out brain to "hate" one an other. Long story short, I mischiveously "stumbled" across some unfortunate text messages and couldn't stomache what I'd seen. My "best friend" actually said that about me? In disbelief I was giving this person excuses simply because of an immature unfluence that was lingering around her @ the time.(which is why i felt the need to be a detective) But in reality I was the butt end of their jokes. I was wrong for going through the phone and wanted to confront her so badly but her wedding was 4 weeks away and I didnt want to even begin a battle @ this point. More and more occuances had happened, such as "fat" pictures of me saved on this persons computer which was shown to me on accident by her. This person was trusted with my passwords to everything, and to dig into my stuff and find these photos and save them, its beyond me why my weight gain mattered so much to her.(infact, everyone seemed to be fat to her) During the wedding planning I was so not emotionally with it. My mind was so confused and I was wondering WHY I was her maid of honor and why we are playing these games. I chose to close myself off to her. I painted a smile and did what needed to be done.Planned her bachelorette, did bridal showers, and all of the duties (allthough she may beg to differ, but i can guarentee you , she will lose that battle with me because I put a shit load of effort and money into everything!) The bachelorette party had drama, the knife was dug a little deeper in my back.It was just spiraling down farther and farther.Looking back I should have confronted her before the wedding and it would have saved me so much stress and saved her having to crop me out of her photos =] lol And she could have had who she wanted as her MOH. We were both each others Maid-of-Honor at eachothers wedding, and to be honest I think this puts an enormous amount of weight on a friendship. Weddings can bring people together and can tear them apart.There were numerous issues that can not be counted on both hands but thats for another day. ( she lost 3 friends during this and and still doesnt talk to us, and I have only met the other 2 once, but it was a mishap over her first bridal shower) ( that was a jab)....
I have had some amazing things happen to me the past year without what I used to call my bestfriend. I found out Orlo and I were going to be parents a month after her wedding and it changed our life. And she missed out on all of the special moments her "best friend" was having and she will never have someone special like me in her life again. I was there to pick up the pieces for her for 5 years, things she doesnt even know about. I am a great friend, and I can be a bad friend at times. Can't we all? But my great moments out weigh my bad by a ton. Being pregnant and becoming a mother has changed me on so many levels. There is no battle I can not handle and defeat, I am truely not bitter about the past, I am better because of it. We had the greatest times together and if either of us were to deny it, thats a maturity issue and one day she too will hit that aww haa moment and be a strong mature woman. We have never spoke of any of this, I have tried multiple times and asked her to hash it out because our friendship meant too much, but I was unsuccessfull at even getting an acknowledgement. Apparently I didnt hide my emotions during her wedding planning too well if she wont even speak to me.. but like I said, maturity is key! I am so lucky to have the friends I have now, and to be able to look back and learn. Now what should I do with the boat loads of photos I have of us together. Part of me says trash em, but on the other hand, those were some great freakin times and I looked gooood ;-) Any advice what to do with this memorabilia? I am not talking about a few photos, its more like a few hundred topped with a personalized scrapbook from her, and gadgets we have given over  the years.. What would you do with all of these things? Cause in all reality it doesnt matter, I have a beautiful baby girl to fill my albums with and a while new outlook on life. Am I over thinking this?
 To end, I am just going to say I love my long time friends who understand me and accept me big or small. I have plenty of people I can call friends and some I have known for over 20 years, I plan to keep my friends and have weeded out the toxic a year ago and my life has been one amazing trip. I have rambled on and trust me, this story keeps going. Blah blah blah. Any advice on what to do with the brusied memories stuck on paper and given in gifts?

3 months of love

 

Im sure every parent can understand the love they have for their children. In a very fast 3 months our love has grown so much for Kylie. Everyday I can find one more reason why I am absoulutly amazed and in love with her. I am still in the "emotional phase" with her. I can sit and watch her sleep and it still have the urge to burst into tears. She has had so many milestones and its crazy to think how much more she has to learn and we get to watch every second of it! The other day she was laying on her back and she put the palms of her feet together! (something so small, but I was tickled) She tries so hard to roll on her tummy but its still a work in progress. And I can almost put money on it that we made her laugh AND we caught it on film!!! I would post it but its embaressing because I was pretending to eat her hands and she got ahold of my bottom lip and refused to let go...
Kylie had her first sickness a couple weeks ago, It started with a slight fever and ended with a week of a runny nose and cough, which literally broke my heart, I would tottally be sick for her if I could, I quickly found that all the kisses in the world wasnt going to make her better, but I had hoped. I would do anything for this little girl and its so unreal until you actually have a child. Makes me sad to think that when my mom and I were going through my teen years I could have possibly dropped an " I hate you" once or twice. How heartbreaking is that!!! I just have a whole new respect for my parents.
Kylie is in love with Mickeys Club House, in fact, any cartoon on TV will do. She is a straight up addict! We move her from the TV and her eyes will find its way back to the TV, shes glued! Orlo and I are snapping pictures and videos of her any chance we get, we could show you things for hours. Poor Kylie has no privacy! =] She sure is doomed to have silly parents like us. Anything your kid does seems special, like the other day, she had quite the snot bubble, and today she farted in the mail store and made the whole place silent! Thats a true story!!!  We always have a chuckle at her bodily functions =] How immature! =] She is offically out of her newborn diapers and clothes and I just cant squeeze her into the cute onesies anymore. I have tried and the poor thing just looks miserable. We have made a lot more visits and met alot of new people since last month, she visited daddys work and his "hang out" @ the taxidermist down the street, and made a pit stop @ Butchs Speed Shop and watched Nana bowl. We are going to make a trip to the pumpkin patch soon and Halloween is going to be great!

My mom had brought my baby book to Vegas when Kylie was born and I have been waiting to post these. I can see some differances in the 2 photos but seriously just seeing her everyday has major flashbacks to my baby pictures. Of course I think she is a million times more beautiful =]
                                     Little Jamie                                                            Little Kylie

2 Months

Kylie finally made the journey to Lincoln county! We got to spend a whole week with family friends and fresh air! A BBQ @ my brothers for Marley and Ginos birthday, and BBQ at my pops house for Marissas 16th. We visited Brylee and Amanda, Kara Rose, Auntie Angelyn, and spent lots of time with cousin Dextri,and she experienced her first labor day in Pioche. A much more responsible Labor day this year ;)
She is near perfect at holding her head up and Kylie is smiling for us everyday now! She loves my high pitched annoying voice and loves to have her cheeks pinched, it's a guaranteed smile! Kylie is finding her vocal cords slowly, she coos and of course screams like a maniac when she is beyond hungry, her scream is almost adorable.......... I said almost. She is bonding much more with her daddy now, she is getting a personality and stealing his heart more and more every day.
I left her for the first time with my mom while I went out with friends saturday night during labor day and it was harder than I thought, I of course cried and had a hard time leaving the house. I felt like I needed to make a list of things she needs for them. How rude of me, to think my parents need a manual to take care of a baby! =] LOL All I wanted to do at the Bar was show pictures of my Kylie! (when I wasnt dancing with Jen)But we made it through the night and I was glad to be with her once I got back. It was great seeing everyone and having lots of visitors while we were in there.

Kylie got a baby blessing on Sunday from her Great Grandpa, Uncle Brent, and cousin Travis! It was an amazing 1 1/2 minute prayer to get her started in life, to bless her to be healthy and grow strong, to be patient and kind, to learn about God, and to be mindful of her parents! (remember that when your a teenager Kylie!)  Its now up to Orlo and I to teach her the right things.  We actually took her to church @ Canyon Ridge Christian church for the first time Sunday and it was great!! I felt like a jerk because we slept in till 8:30 and church started @ 9 and she went to church in her tie dyed jammies.... fail
It was a great lesson in selfishness and about doing service. One of the quotes mentioned was "Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth"

I am still adjusting to being a stay at home mom, I no longer go by a clock for time, I go by Kylie time. I swear getting out of the house before 10AM is close to a miracle. If im not feeding my chunky monster, im pumping, then washing bottles, then doing a few things around the house while doing multiple stops to put her pacifier back in, diaper change, a quick soothe , and now maybe I get to shower. And by time im done with all of that and ready to get out of the house it seems like she is ready to eat again.... Annnnnd reapeat! =] You would think I have time to get some things done, which dont get me wrong I do most days, but somedays just seem like a never ending diaper factory and mess hall, which is ok with me =] I just hope I get the swing of things soon, I would like to be out of my bedroom before 9 am one day. And just a note, im not sleeping till nine, although I wish I were =]
 * And just a side note for moms who have pumped, WAY TO GO!!!! Its hard stinkin' work!!! It takes exactally 1 hour to complete the feeding process. She eats about 8 times in a 24 hour period and I spend 8 hours a day doing a 30 min feed, 15 min pump, 5 minute bottle and parts wash, and 5 minutes getting bottles and parts ready to pump again in 3 to 4 hours hours... I do wish it was easier for me to nurse, cause its looking pretty awesome right now............................*sigh* (my poor boobs)
I could go on and on about my process during the day, it gets pretty tedious and OCD and I dont want to scare anyone from procreating =]

We have a busy few months ahead of us, lots to look forward too and lots if milestones to hit =] We are off to Lincoln County again this Saturday to take a few photos, celebrate Brylees 1st birthday and visit family. It took me a couple weeks to complete this blog due to... everything.... My goal for my next blog is 1 week!!!! I will be amazed if I can complete a blog in one sitting.... off to give Kylie her mute button =] Take care!

Orlo, Jamie, and Rascal plus 1

Life with our new plus one is amazing. Its challenging, tiring, sweet, and bitter, but AMAZING! Its allready been a month and Kylie is still as sweet as a peach.There has been so many memories allready made and I feel like its a new experience everyday. Since we brought our peanut home its been a little different in the Cox home. Nights are now up to her, I am up about every three hours during the night to change her, feed her, or just give her a pacifier. I am a 24 hour milk machine, I tried breast feeding for almost 2 weeks and ended up hurting myself with doing it inccorectly.Although we rarely nurse, she is still getting the good stuff =] Kylie has allready been to the cabin 2 times and went fishing last Sunday! We stopped @ lake called Apsen Mirror Lake, she didnt catch much but a few Z's. She met her boyfriend Finn and boy is he ADORABLE! We love the Ruby family =]

Kylies first bath was around 2 and 1/2 weeks old and she LOVED it! She had the happiest look on her face! I am not sure if it was the warm water or the pooh she took in the water. Either way, I love giving her baths before bed, she loves it. Mmmm the smell of clean baby =]

 

We have a water baby on our hands! She took her first swim in Nana's pool. At first she screamed, then she loved it. We hung out in the water for a little while and she kind of fell asleep. Kylie has allready done so much, she has a huge smile and is getting to be a pro @ holding her head up! Life if deffinately different, there is not a second in the day that I am not thinking of Kylie. Life evolves around our sweet baby angel, and it goes too fast! We are head over heals in love with her and the way things are going. She is a great baby, her cries are few and she sleeps so peaceful. She likes to stay awake during the day and kick her legs as fast as she can and fling her arms all over like a crazy girl, she is so active! So far we are extremely lucky to have a healthy happy baby =] Next week are going to Lincoln County to meet everyone! She is going to meet her GREAT GREAT grandma Cynthia and so many others who have not met her=] We are going for a week and she is having her first Labor Day in Pioche with great family and friends =]
 

We finally got to meet handsome Dextri!!!!

Holding her head up =]