A few of my favorite things

Wish I was in Opera's audience while they got all of her favorite things... but this will have to do for now!

A few years back while I was at SunCal, we did a recipe exchange and I got some of my new favorite recipes! My friend Anda shared this Peanut Butter Fudge recipe with me. Ever since then I've made it at least once a year. For Christmas parties or work functions. I even have my sister Jacquie making it the last few years! This is a hand written recipe from Anda's grandma and is so easy to make!! Taste amazing!!

Peanut Butter Fudge
2 cups Brown Sugar – packed
2/3 cup evaporated Milk
½ tsp salt

Butter 8x8x2 pan

In a sauce pan mix brown sugar, evaporated Milk and salt.
Stir over low heat bring to a boil and boil for 3 minutes.
Remove from heat.

1 ½ cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup peanut butter
1 tsp vanilla extract

Stir in chocolate chips, peanut butter and vanilla until chips are melted and mixture is smooth. Pour into pan. Refrigerate at least 4 hours or until firm. Cut into squares.

I've changed it up by mixing in more peanut butter of course, or peanut butter chips, or even white chocolate chips. Anything and everything sweet in it tastes great!

Another one of my favorite things right now is Christmas Music!! I know you're thinking it's probably WAY to early for that right? Nope. I'm loving it! A week ago I got 48,000 new songs for my iTunes and I'm having so much fun listening to new stuff, it's incrediable. A tiny portion of that was Christmas music. But not just any Christmas music, some Irish Bagpipe Christmas music. Amazing!! Also, anyone who sings O' Holy Night, I could listen to it for ever! It was my moms favorite and it has carried on with me! Alana has also learned Jingle Bells, the first chours only, so you can imagine what my car rides are filled with these days... lots of Jingle Bells! Last year the Holidays were destined to be bad, so I was Anti all Christmas stuff last year. This year I feel so different. I feel like for the first time I love the Christmas Season! The music, the decorations, everything about it. I'm very excited this year! Maybe because Alana for the first time really will understand Christmas and will have such a great time deocrating and opening presents! More of my favorite things to come, pictures of the PB fudge and Alana singing Jingle Bells!!

Brotha from anotha Motha

My sister Jacquie and her Fiance Donovan invited Victor and I to a show in LA called
Pandemonium. Not only did we get free tickets to the show, we also got to be witness to such an amazing story! Donovan's dad died about 10 years ago and a few years after he died, D got a letter in the mail from someone claiming to be his brother, from his dad, but another mother. They were able to talk a few times by email before losing contact information when his brother moved. 7 years later Donovan was searching on Facebook to see if he could find his long lost brother but he had no luck. No kidding, 2 days later he got a friend request from him. They were finally reconnected. His brother, RJ, is a performer in Pandemonium and would be in LA for a month or so. He left Donovan 4 tickets to come see the show. The whole ride down there I asked questions to find out more about the story and Donovan was so nervous! He was going to meet his half brother for the first time ever! His voice was shaky, his heart was beating so fast! We got to UCLA where the show was just in time for it to start. Poor Donovan had to sit through the entire show and watch his brother on stage before he could actually go to meet him! RJ left us passes for the VIP after party, so after the show we found our way in to get a drink and hor devours. We waited for RJ to come out. Slowly but surely we saw actor after actor come out and greet their friends and family. I was so nervous for Donovan, I could not even imagine how he was feeling! He knew what his brother looked like only from pictures, and we now just watched him on stage for 2 hours! But still we waited for what seemed like days, for him to come out from behind stage! At one point Victor and I saw him from a distance and D had his back turned, and I was so excited! The pressure what just building and building... finally he walks out the door to Donovan! It was such an amazing feeling to watch them hug for the first time.

They stood there for a few minutes and just sized each other up. Looking at their same features and picking out who looked like their dad. It brought tears to my eyes! It really was an amazing part of Donovans life to be a part of! Lucky for D, his brother is so nice and loving! We all stood for hours and talked and got to meet the cast! RJ would introduce D to the cast members and some of them would freak out because they've known RJ for so long and to finally meet his brother was awesome for some of them! It was all so much fun to be a part of!

The show its self is so great! It's almost like a cirque du soleil show, but it sounds like an orchestra. Kind of hard to explain. They take everyday house hold objects and makes them into instruments and together they play in an amazing orchestra. Between trash cans as drums and using wood saw's as violins, it really truly does sound like a full blown orchestra with awesome performers! They move so fast and never stop it was hard to get good pictures of them!

At the after party RJ had his own Entourage! We walked around the party with him and he introduced us all the everyone he knew. The cast of the show are amazing people! I wanted to take pictures with everyone! I felt like they were all celebs! Speaking of, there were a few there! Ricky Lake and Tommy Lee (which we didn't get to see). But we did get to see and meet Dan Finnerty and The Dan Band . He was so cool. We got to stand and talk to him for a bit! I love to meet celebrities that are cool and down to earth, and Dan was all of the above! Even as we were leaving, he called to us and said good bye and good night, nice to meet you... ?? What? Um, nice to me YOU!

It was a really great night and I'm so happy that Victor and I got to be part of Donovan meeting his brother. He is a really great guy!! It was after 1am and Donovan didn't want to leave his brother but we were all tired and his brother was also really tired, and we pretty much got booted out of the after party when they closed the doors on us! So we said our good bye's for now... I have a feeling we will be seeing a lot of him!

Wordless Wednesday

Yeah right... I am hardly wordless... but I tried :) Check out this amazing picture of my sister and her Fiance, done by the one and only Angel G Photography! More Engagement pics with Angel to come soon. Ahhh!! So happy for my sester! This man was sent to her straight from my mother in heaven!

Twinkle Beatles

This girl loves to sing. The other day she was sitting in this tub we have for fire wood on the fire place singing her little heart out. She sings about a little "R" instead of a little "Star". But she's getting it. Then the next song she sings cracks me up! She is our little Beatles fan! Enjoy a little serenade by Alana Rose.

Rosie Posie

LOVE my Rosie! Here are some cute random pictures to hold you over until you see her again! Video's coming soon... Blogger is kickin my butt tonight!

She loves her Whinnie the Pooh!

Cheese! LOVE this smile!


Grandma and Grandpa watched her the other night for a few hours while mommy and daddy got a date night in! We got to grandma's house and she was snuggled in her jammies next to grandpa on the couch!


For Alana's birthday, Aunt Ashley got her this adorable handmade doggie. One of her co-workers made it for Alana! It's a little purse! When she got it for her birthday she was excited to get a stuffed dog but she didn't really know it was a purse or really care at the time, she just liked that it was a dog! This weekend as I was getting my purse to leave the house she said "Wait, I'm going to get my doggy purse". I was curious to see what she was going to bring out. Sure enough it was the cute Doggy purse Aunt Ashley got for her. She was so excited to bring it with her! It was so cute!

Birthday Princess

This weekend was Kali's birthday! Kali is a special cousin to Alana because she's been with Alana since she was 3 months old! I watched her 5 days a week for the first year of Alana's life! Kali was kind of like her older sister! I felt like I knew how it was to have 2 kids! We love this little girl who is growing into such a little woman!! We celebrated her 4th birthday this weekend! Here is a little flashback to a few years ago with my girls!

My cousin Chrissy planned an amazing day at Disneyland starting with Breakfast at Ariel's Gratto at CA adventure. Kali and all of her cousins were going to dress us as Princesses so Alana was getting ready to put on hers at home before we left! I LOVE this picture of her! She looks like a little dancer! Her hair is sooooooo long now, I didn't even get a picture of the back but you would not believe how beautiful it is, long and curly! Not sure I'll ever be able to bring myself to chop it!

Waiting for everyone to meet up for the Princess Breakfast I snapped a few good ones of my little Princess Snow White! 

Could she be any cuter? I know she's mine and all, but seriously... 

The Birthday Princess Kali/Cinderella arrived! How adorable does she look in her outfit? She LOVES to dress up and taught Alana how to dress like a princess!

The Birthday Princess and her parents!

Alana still doesn't like characters all that much so this was as close as she would get to Ariel. She knows who she is and of course loves the movie, but she still just doesn't trust them yet for whatever reason! Aren't all of her cousins so adorable! Princess and Prince's!

As we ate breakfast we got a visit from every Princess. They came and signed the books and stood for pictures! Great way to meet them all on a personal level! Alana... still not having it, I pretty much had to make her stand next to the kids, even bribed her with candy.

She knows who Snow White is and was even dressed as her, still... not so much.

Then as soon as all the kids cleared out Snow White got down to Alana's level and talked to her about being her twin. Alana didn't back away for the first time EVER! Snow White asked for a hug and Alana leaned in and went for it! My heart melted!!!! This picture is worth a million words!

She even loved her so much she stood to take a picture with her! It was seriously one of those "Disney Magical Moments". It was so amazing! I wish I could find this Snow White and personally thank her for making Alana's day! Or maybe my day, ok, my year!

We got a yummy breakfast and then of course no birthday would be complete without some cake! Happy Birthday Princess Kalea!!

Out of the Princess outfits and on to the rides! Kali and Chrissy.

Alana's favorite ride!

Jacob smiling big for the camera.

Gotta loves these sweet boys! Jacob actually said he wanted to come home with me! I would have taken him home in a heartbeat!

Chrissy got the kids faces painted! Alana got to watch the bigger kids get theirs done first and then sat nicely for her turn! They are so cute!

We had such a great day with the family at Disneyland! I can't thank Chrissy enough for everything. She really planned such a fun day for the kids and I know that these pictures will be priceless in years to come!

We got to go home for a few hours and come back to see The World of Color! It was our first time watching it and it was AMAZING!! I loved it so much! It's like Fantasmic on steroids!! A 2010 version of it. The things that Disney thought up are so awesome! It is A LOT of work to see the show though. You have to get a fastpass for it in the morning when you first get there and then stand in line before the show to get in line again then to find a seat... a lot of work, so I may not see it again any time soon, but well worth seeing it for the first time! Beautiful work Disney! 

Dancing while bowling

My friend Nicole works at Lucky Strike in Tustin which is now Bawlmor Lanes. They had an open house night for local friends and businesses. They had stars there from dancing with the stars. Cheryl Burke and Rick Fox! We were super close to them while they were bowling but every single time they would turn to face us someone would walk in the way or they would turn before my camera would click.... These are the best pictures we could get, and by we, I mean mostly Crystal. She was determined to get a good picture of Cheryl for her grandpa who is in love with her! 

Rick Fox

Because I don't really keep up with celb's and who they are dating and all that happy crap I had not idea that Rick Fox was dating Eliza Dushku! I LOVE HER!!!! I was so excited to see her and be that close to her! Although again, all of our pictures suck!

And when they got closer..... even worse pictures. I totally blame these on Crystal and the free Martini's!! Which of course she'll blame on my camera!! Love you Crys!

Thank you Nicole for inviting us for such a fun and free Martini night! Just what the doctor ordered for me!!

Thanks to my partner in crime for feeding me free Martini's all night and thank you for the Del on the way home. No drinking night would be complete without either!

Some boys we ran into! Nice to see you guys, thanks for keeping Crystal occupied while I bowling 200 games in my heels?!?! I heard they had some swag bags for us on the way out, but I'm pretty sure by the time we left they were totally out!! Bummer!

Happy Birthday Mama

Another year gone. Crazy to think that my post last year is pretty much the same post as I'd like to post this year. I even went as far as saying "Hopefully next year will be a bit easier"... haha... little did I know it hasn't gotten ANY easier at all!! Which doesn't leave me very hopeful, but time heals, blah, blah... Ok, not just one year, but several I'm sure!

The other morning I woke up from an amazing dream I had. We were standing in her living room and she had her arms around me hugging me so tight. Like she knew it would be the last time. It was the longest dream about a hug I've ever had... just a big big hug. I woke up and hurried to close my eyes to get back to that dream... I even got in the shower and let it run over my face and imagined myself back there... I guess it was just that visit I've been waiting for. I hope she comes back again soon. I NEED more dreams like that!

Her last birthday years with us were my favorite!! LOVE in Vegas! Some of the best memories I have of all times with her! Tonight my family is going to meet at Miguels in Corona for dinner. One of her favorite places... or maybe our favorite but she just went there to make us happy! Her potato and cheese burrito with a side of beans.... I know she will be there in spirit with us! She would have been 63 years old today. I only had her for 29 and need her for more.... Love you mama... miss you like you'll never understand!

Bestest

The other day Alana was pretending to be a kitty, she meow's and wants love! So I totally soak it all up! I pick her up and love her and she snuggles with me just like a little kitty. It's the funniest thing considering she's never even been around a cat, but somehow she has their lovin down to a T!

Then the best thing on the EARTH happened to me!! She put her arms around my neck to give me a tight hug and said the most amazing words to me. "Mommy, you're my best friend".... (insert heart melt here). Where did she hear that from? I don't care where she heard it first, she knows I am her best friend and that's all that matters. Seriously, I looked at Victor and tears came to my eyes!!! I know that her sweet lovin won't last forever, but I'll soak up every minute of it that she'll give!! Ahhh!!! In 10 years when she's being a mean teen and hates her parents please remind me of this blog and this moment! I will remember it for always!


Randomly... tonight at dinner she decided she wanted to eat all of her little green tree's from her plate and then mine! ALL of them! I was so proud that I took a picture!


She tries her hardest to move her eyebrows like I do but doesn't quite have control over them yet... but she thinks she is moving them when she does this! She cracks me up! I love my best friend!