My First Pampered Chef Show!

Yep I decided to start my own Pampered Chef business! Why...as if I didn't have enough on my plate with 3 kids under the age of 6. Well that's exactlly why. Since I can't financially pursue my real passion of having my own horse I decided to do something else that I enjoy and that is cooking, baking and being around friends or just adults period. Yes being home all day around little people gets tiring and sometimes I even feel like I am loosing some of my adult social skills so I thought this would be a great way to get me out.

I had my first cooking show at my house. I had some great friends show up and it was a blast! We made pizza and mini marghareta pies. It turned out great! I didn't take any pictures of course but here are the recipes, thought I would share. And if you ever want to purchase a Pampered Chef product let me know!

Here is the link to the great pizza we made:

http://www.pamperedchef.com/recipe_search/recipe.jsp?id=9680

Of course you can personalize this which is the fun part! I don't like cheddar on pizza so I just did mozzarella and parmesan. And since I had some zucchini in my frige to use up and a yellow bell pepper I chopped those up and put those on it. And the best part was the crust! I bought Wegmans whole wheat pizza dough and oh my gosh; baked on the Pampered Chef stonewear this was SOOOO Good and so healthy! So I hope you get a chance to make it. Great recipe to do with kids too!

Awesome!

Another awesome design by the hubby:-) The crew that made our porch gave us an amazing deal to do this lovely patio! At first I didn't think anything of it, but now it's a retreat I am so glad and blessed to have. Originally we designed the patio to grow my own garden but it somehow evolved into this nice retreat. Brian designed the whole thing and I have to say it is more beautiful than I imagined! Great job Brian!

So now our porch is a little less crowded and our patio is great for summer parties or for nights when Brian and I want to sit outside and relax after the kids go to bed. The umbrella has solar lights on it and the lanterns in the planter boxes are solar powered as well; no need to pay for electricity there!

So come on out and visit us this summer! I love barbecuing and now we have a great place to hang out outside. We still have the sandbox, Brian moved it further back into the yard. Hope all of you are having a great summer!

Brian picked out these perrinials at Home Depot; they all do very well in our hot Virginia summers and they are pretty too! Brian has good taste! In the middle of planters is the bench seat where up to 4 people can sit! I know stone will be hard to sit on so I do plan to find a nice cushion.

View from the porch. We will be putting in a 6' fountain and once we get that going Brian plans to tile the inside wall with some pretty glass tiles to add some color. I can't wait to get the fountain! I LOVE the sound of water....



View from the patio...Finally we got the recliners off the porch and now I can sun bathe; as if I didn't need to get tanner right:-) We get such good sun in that area in the afternoon, now I can relax, if that is possible, and maybe the 3 kids can play in the yard! I will let you know if that ever happens. But for now a great place for visitors to sit and get out of the noisy house:-) Just kidding...but yes for those of you coming out to visit now you have another place to relax. I think I am going to change our house to a luxury hotel, what do you think?

Joint Forces Air Show

The nice thing about living so close to District of Colombia is all the military stuff that goes on. This weekend the Andrew's Air Force base was hosting a Joint Services Air Show! If my Dad was here he would contest to how much I love air shows. I don't know what it is about airplanes but I have always been so curious and fascinated by them. There is just something so cool about any plane or helicopter. And of course growing up near San Diego and Miramar I was able to get up close and personal. Every year Miramar host an air show and my Dad and I would go...I loved it!

Well this was my first time going to Andrew's Air Force Base and let me tell you it was awesome! First of all it is free, second of all if you have a Department of Defense ID, which my hubby does, then you don't have to take the long shuttle from the FedEx field, you can drive right up on the base and park next to the air strip which we did. The show started at 8am and since our kiddos are up at 6am every morning we had no problem getting there early. We picked up Jason, Aria's Godfather, and on the beltway we went. We were there for 3 hours and it was great. All the planes were open, you could even get in the cockpits. They had helicopters open, I was surprised...Miramar only let a few planes open but not all of them. How fun for the kids! Oh and Ocean Spray had a big van there and they were giving away free drinks of their new sparkling cranberry drinks. The base didn't allow any food or drinks so we drank several of those, what a treat. All in all the kids were great and by 1pm we covered enough ground and saw enough planes we were content heading back home.

Since the food vendors were so expensive we didn't eat lunch there, which was good because we went somewhere even better for the same price; the National Harbor! On the way home and none of us had been there. It is right next to the Woodrow Wilson bridge right before the VA border. It's very new and it was kind of like a miniature Seaport Village. We at at Rosa Mexicano; GREAT healthy Mexican restaurant. Wow we all liked this place. The kids meal was healthy and very nice portions. I couldn't even eat my entire pulled chicken sandwhich. A great spot for a date night for sure! There was other restaurants with pretty cool names; Ketchup, Elevation Burger, Bond 45, Freshii just to name a few, and looked like some spots I will have to try for sure. OK so yes a long day with 3 kids after we got done exploring this place so finally we headed back home after dropping off Jason.

Enjoy the pics and if you are in DC tomorrow the show is still on free to public.

Daddy and Kaden in front of the real Memphis Belle!

One observation I have made over and over again; Lance loves planes and he has no problem spotting them in the sky. Mmmm maybe a future pilot in our family????

The Memphis Belle, I loved that movie...

Kaden in the cockpit of a helicopter; sorry didn't notice the model. Either way pretty darn cool, he even got to touch the yoke.

You can't see the entire chopper but this thing was COOL. Massive and hey if I could have I would have loved to go up in this thing. Way cool that is all I can say:-)

Kaden checking out some telescopic instrument.

Kaden doesn't like to share....

Daddy and Kaden checking out the drone? That thing that is remote controlled that drops you know what.

Kaden and I next to some cool aircraft.

When we got back to the car, we had an amazing view of these stunt planes...way awesome! OK I know of my choice of words are juvenile but I get excited about these kinds of things; like a kid in a candy store:-)

The stunt planes getting back in formation.

Another shot from the car.

At the National Harbor. They had this weird statue in the sandbox that was right next to the water.

Maybe it's Gulliver?

And after lunch the kids always have room for ice cream so we went to Ben and Jerry's.

A Mircale!

A miracle indeed...we were suppose to have thunderstorms and rain all day Sunday and instead after coming out of of church we saw sun and clouds spreading. Yeah! I wanted so badly to take the kids to Frying Pan Park for the opening ceremony of the antique carousel and free ice cream social but with rain in the forecast I figured it would not happen. So I was thrilled when the weather had changed so ubruptly.

Here we are at Frying Pan park having lots of fun!

Little Lance wearing his birthday onsie he got from Aunt Shari, sorry you can't see it but it has 3 jelly fish on it. Very cute.

Kaden eating ice cream, but I couldn't get him to keep his eyes open. The sun was very bright that day.



Aria on the carousel...this carousel was built in 1913; pretty cool! We got to ride it for free but after today they will charge. Aria got to ride it three times!

I can't believe this picture came out; my camera battery was dead so I had to use my phone...I took this while the carousel was moving.

Kaden loves carousels too!

I tried taking another picture and put my face next to his and he started laughing...ugh I love my little prince! You should have heard his laugh, so adorable!

Kaden's favorite part of the farm...riding on the tractors!

Happy 1st Birthday Lance!

My prince Lance....turned 1 year old today. Just one year ago around 6:30am in the morning Brian was driving me and breaking every traffic law to get me to the hospital. Two nights prior I was having contractions each night, and each night I thought I would be going into labor but by 4/5am they would go away and I would start my day again! Then finally the third night, May 14, 2010 the contractions started again I remember thinking "ok God is this it, can I get this little guy out today please!" And Amen he was coming...I checked in to the hospital around 6:30am and Lance was born just after 9am. I was so exhausted especially after having contractions the last two nights and not sleeping much at all. There he was so precious and perfect in every way imaginable. I was so excited to meet him, as I was with all my children, but because I know he will be my last I tried to cherish those few minutes after birth a little bit more. There is nothing like the smell of a new baby and there is nothing like the touch of having your new baby skin to skin after carrying and nurturing the child for 9 months in your belly! I thank God for allowing me to carry all my children, and having good birthing experiences. What a blessing! So today we got to celebrate our precious little prince.

We just had family; Grandma and Grandpa Valletta, and Aunt Shari! Thank you guys for making it extra special. I made some homemade turkey burgers, grilled some fresh yellow corn and of course I made my special double fugge chocolate cake. For all the family that is far away we thought about you and wished you were with us; Grandma Christine, Grandma Marilyn, Uncle Kelly,Kenny and Greg; Aunt Nova, Katie, Colleen, Tonia and all the cousins, and friends. (Grandpa Howard we now you were watching:-)

I didn't take too many pics as I primarily did video but here is what I did get. Thank you for the gifts everyone he loved them all!

Lance loves playing with balloons so Daddy went out and got him 6 helium balloons. Here is in the kitchen.

Grandme Christine got Lance this cool ball that rolls on it's own, plays music and has little ribbons sticking out on it. Kaden liked it too as you can see.

Mommy giving him a bottle of Pedialyte; poor Lance has not been all himself the last week. Not sure if it's teething or if he got some kind of virus but he seemed better today.

Lance in the family room with some gifts.

Grandpa Valletta playing with the boys with their new toys.

Finally...

Sorry it's been so long since I have been on this thing...but I have been working hard at loosing all my baby weight and I have reached my goal! Yeah!!! I am back to 119 which is what I weighed when I got married, can you believe it!? I can't. I mean I never thought I would fit in to my tight short surfer shorts that I love. Now if we could just get some hot weather in VA I can wear all my old clothes. We recently went on a family vacation to Cocoa Beach and Orlando so enjoy the pics. Sorry none of me, I am the one doing all the hard work:-) Hope all of you are doing well!

Daddy and Lance hanging out at the GatorLand waterpark.

Aria playing in the nice GatorLand waterpark. I miss FL!!!! So nice and hot just the way I like it!


Kaden talking to the peacock:-)

The train we took to view the park.

All Aboard!

My prince Lance and I waiting for the train...love those blue eyes!!!!

Entering Gatorland...pretty cool. I wasn't thrilled to go but it was a nice small park. Just enough for the little ones.

We went to Sea World...

In the car going down...

More Bread

So you saw my last post...well I keep making bread and it's a lot of work. So from the recommendation from a friend a ordered a copy of this book from Walmart.com, which was cheaper than Amazon, and this book is awesome. " Artisan Bread in Five Minutes A Day," is just what you need if you want to make great home baked bread...cheaper and better for you than store bought.

For those that love to fresh baked bread but don't want to put all the time into it, these two authors did all the work for you and you can have fresh bread every day for only about 20 minutes of time in the kitchen! If I can do it with 3 kids in the background you can do it too! Not to mention the kids like to get involved and it's a great way to teach them appreciation of food. My kids gobble up all the bread I make, not like the store bought kind at all.

Bon Appetit! And please let me know if you start making some and how it goes.