Making Dinnertime Easier

Since having a baby we have strived to bring more fresh fruits and veggies into our home. Yes purees and jarred baby foods all have their place, but Emma prefers fresh fruits and veggies as opposed to processed baby food. She also loves to feed herself so this requires chopping up of various items into sizes small enough for little fingers to grab.

I've always been used to dealing with dull knives. It didn't bother me to badly until I started putting them in the dishwasher and that made them even duller. After vowing to never do that again with our new knife set, I was irritated to find that my knives were still pretty dull after not much use. Come to find out the straight bar that comes with most knife sets is not a sharpener as the hubby and I thought. Cutting grapes, tomatoes, peaches, bell peppers....anything with a peal was proving difficult and irritating to cut into little pieces for our baby girl. We both decided that we needed a knife sharpener.

Enter the System Sharpener. We sharpened our large knife first to test out slicing meats....another issue in our home. It has two wheels, a diamond grinding wheel for professional sharpening and a ceramic wheel for fine honing. A little pressure to glide the knife through each side and voila, a perfectly even sharp knife! It even has a suction cup on the bottom so it will stay secured to your counter top! Seriously I was excited. I needed to try out my new knives with a recipe that required a lot of chopping. I chose my Tri Colored Rotini Pasta recipe because of all the veggies I needed.

Everything sliced like a dream and in a fraction of the time. Also I didn't squash my tomatoes! Hallelujah! I can't wait to start creating masterpieces with fruits and veggies so my family can eat pretty chopped foods!

This shop was compensated for this post by receiving a free knife sharpener, all opinions are my own.
#KnifeSharpenerSystem

Tuna Pasta Salad

Since its the hubbs b-day on Saturday I decided to make a couple of his favorite dishes. One of those is tuna pasta salad. So easy and the perfect summer dinner.

Tuna Pasta Salad

My family cook book!

Ingredients:
Shell Noodles
(2) cans Tuna
Mayonnaise (To taste)
Corn
Celery (Finely Chopped)
Green Onion (Finely Chopped)
Shredded Carrots
Salt and Pepper (To Taste)

Directions:
Cook shell noodles according to package directions. Fold all ingredients together. Refrigerate until ready to eat.

Simple and quick. Perfect for those late nights, or lunches!

Skipping Rocks

Every year since we got married the hubbs and I take a trip for Thanksgiving. It was a trip to Florida to see my father and step mom. This year since the hubbs got promoted, he couldn't take that week off, but still needed to take vacation. So he decided that the week before (this week) that we would go visit his Uncle in Lake Havasu.

On Tuesday after I got off work we packed up in the car and drove the 4 and a half hour drive up to the lake. The next day we got up and prepared to take on the town. We hit up Cabana Palms for lunch and then walked around some shops. Afterwards we headed over to the lake and watched the boats pass, looked at the lighthouse and just relaxed. The boys skipped rocks, I attempted but alas it was an epic fail. Skipped only twice. However it brought back many memories of my favorite comedian Bill Engvall. Its very interesting to wander around this usually busy tourist town, turned ghost town in the off season. It will be a good time on the lake. Please enjoy the photos from our first day!

Carmaggedon & Bachelor Parties!

As I am sure that you heard we had a dramatic weekend in Los Angeles recently. It cause such a fuss and even coined it's own name "Carmageddon!" Caltrans workers shut down a major artery into L.A. from 8PM Friday the 15th evening to 10AM Sunday the 17th. They made this big fuss about everyone saying off the road and doing things at home. They had $8 chartered flights from JetBlue to take you from Burbank Airport to LAX and even were giving discounted helicopter rides. Everyone was expecting the worst.

However, before we even knew about it we had planned a Bachelor/Bachelorette party that Saturday, July 16th for my sister-in-law and soon to be brother-in-law. I was also preparing for the worst. There was no way I was sitting in traffic! I let the best man know our plan b options, which was to go to dinner and dancing in Santa Barbara. Saturday came around and what would you know. Everybody listened to the media and all stayed home. The bridal party got dolled up and hopped into the Esclade limo. First stop, dinner at The Yard House. Yummy eats and "Cadillac Margarita's" were on the menu. We had the best time toasting and chatting. We all then jumped back in the limo and headed to The Crocker Club. A unique nightclub in the heart of Downtown Los Angeles. It is decorated like a bank vault. We danced and had a wonderful time! Alas, as the clock struck midnight we remembered that our limo was going to turn into a pumpkin is we didn't head back. So we all jumped back in the limo and partied it up until we return back to reality.

It was a great night, and we had a blast! I mean anything to do with dancing and I am there! We made the best out of a not so pleasant, that turned out to be pleasant, situation. Beside's I got to see a new side to my brother-in-law! Dancing fool! I know who I am calling the next time I wanna go dancing! Please enjoy the very limited photo's from the evening!

The Happy Couple

The girlies at The Yardhouse

The Fella's (Yardhouse)

Inside the L.I.M.O.

The Crocker Club

2D at Disney

For Darin's birthday we decided that since we both had the day off we were going to spend it at Disneyland! One of our favorite spots to go, and now that we have a season pass, a more cost effective day trip item. We contacted his family and his mom agreed to drive us to the park and spend the day with us. We arrived with little to no traffic (much to our surprise they finished the road construction) and parked in the giant structure. We made a pitstop at La Brea Bakery and had a quick bite to eat for breakfast. Then we hit the rides. First stop, Star Tours. Since the ride had recently been refurbished and has new 3D graphics so we wanted to check it out. The hour long wait turned into and hour and forty five minutes, for a 5 minute ride. :-S Needless to say, it wasn't worth the wait as it was essentially the same ride. At least we were able to fast pass Space Mountain while waiting. We then moseyed over to Big Thunder Railroad saw how long the line was, and decided to fast pass it, since the return time was only 35 minutes later and went over to Pirates. We hit both those rides and then went over to the Haunted Mansion. I mean within the course of an hour and a half we hit every major ride in the park, because we just know how to play the game! :-D

Afterward we headed over to California Adventure. Had some sourdough bread and went on the new Little Mermaid ride. We did some shopping and decided that it was time for some celebratory beverages and dinner. We headed to Downtown Disney and met up with Darin's brother and a friend at Tortilla Jo's. Then we went back into the park to go on The Haunted Mansion and watched Fatasmic. One last ride was to be ridden before the park was to close. That was Indiana Jones. For those of you who have ridden it, you know how jerky it is. One second you are speeding along and the next your completely stopped. So we decided to make it a game. Hands and feet in the air at all times! We totally burned off those burritos and margarita's! My Ab's hurt for days afterward! All is all it was a wonderful birthday for my lovey dovey and can't wait for our next Disney adventure!

The Graduate

This past weekend we went up to San Luis Obispo for Darin's sister's college graduation. In 2007 she was accepted to Cal Poly's Animal Science program and after 3.75 years, many awards, and Dean's List she graduated Cum Laude, just .01 percent away from Magna Cum Laude. Something to be proud of for sure, also a reason to celebrate. So Saturday morning Darin and I awoke bright and early to make the 2.5 hour drive up through the coast. It was a perfect day, and the sun came out just in time for the graduation. Over 2000 students and all their families piled into Spanos Stadium for the 2 hour ceremony. The only thing was the speakers were set up so poorly that we could only hear the echo off the opposing sides bleachers. Afterward, each major had their own name ceremony in individual lots around the school. We watched as she accepted her "diploma" and then it was photo time. The 2011 graduating class had a large photo on the steps of the business building. We did our own photos and then made the trek back to the car for dinner. Unfortunately because of the extreme amount of people it took well over an hour walking and driving just to get out of the school, so we missed our reservation for dinner. Luckily, Cailee's fiance worked at Giuseppes in downtown Pismo and they were able to squeeze us into a table! We ate some wonderful Italiano and had some funfetti cupcakes baked by yours truly. It was a great day and a wonderful time spent with Darin's parents, grandparents, and of course the Graduate and her fiance.

What's next for her? She has been accepted into Western School in Pomona for Veterinary Science. In another 4 years, she will be a vet. We are proud of you Cailee and looking forward to the next celebration!

Beautiful Day

Packed Stadium

Cailee is in the middle

Us with the graduate