Happy new years Eve!!

I will be spending the last night of the year playing Beatles Rock band, American Idol on Wii and Kissing my hubby when the clock strikes 12:00 oh yeah and eating lots and lots of junk food!!

I just made this Cheese ball

I got the recipe from My Kitchen Cafe

4 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened

4 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese

1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder

1 teaspoon dried oregano

2 teaspoons dried parsley

¼ teaspoon pepper

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

1 tablespoon hot pepper sauce



1 cup pecans, finely chopped for rolling



Place finely chopped pecans in a shallow dish and set aside. In a large bowl (or in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment), mix the cream cheese until smooth. Add the cheddar cheese and mix until just combined. Lightly sprinkle all the seasonings and sauces over the cheese mixture and mix until thoroughly combined.



With lightly greased hands, portion the cheese mixture into four pieces and roll each section into a round ball. Coat in pecans. The easiest way to do this is to hold the cheeseball in one hand and scoop up the pecans and press them onto the cheeseball with the other, turning the cheeseball as you go and letting the excess pecans fall back into the dish (this also helps the pecans to go a little further). Cover each cheeseball in saran wrap and refrigerate until ready to serve
 
** I used Wahhabi instead of hot sauce.. I Loved it!!
 
I hope every one is haveing a safe and happy new year!

I miss you William!!

Today 4 years ago today was the last time I held you in my arms.

I wish that day never had to come..

I miss you and wish that I could know what you would look like as a sweet 4 year old.

I wish I could feel your sweet breath on my cheek as you gave me sweet candy kisses.

I love you baby boy and I cant wait until the day i get to hold you again..

A crafty day for me..

After I cleaned my house a bit today I drove to the fabric store to get in on the after Christmas deals.

I picked up some fun Christmas fabric for next year.

I decided to pick up some fleece to try and recreate the scarf that one of my daughters friends mom made for her.

It was so super easy and took no time at all and the cost was 3.00 dollars.

The best part is that it looks so super cute on.

I think I am going to have to run to Joannes tomorrow and get some more fleece.

I am thinking I need a black and white one.

I think I will also make a tutorial any one interested?

Oh yeah I also made 12 table runners for a wedding tomorrow.

I will show you pix after the wedding..

Hope you all are had a great day!

The clean up!!

I love how my house looks all decorated and cute for Christmas..

But I hate the cleaning up part!!

I still have a head ache going on a week now.. Boo

I hope I will feel be gone when I get a massage and adjustment tomorrow.

I really don't how much longer I can stand it..

I never had any issues with my back or head aches until that darn accident..

OK I wined enough it's back to work!!

The messy house is wanting to be cleaned..

I hope you all are enjoying your post Christmas week!!

Tootles for now!

Hand warmer tutorial

I was on the phone with my Father In law the other day and he was telling me about these hand warmers that they useto sale to put in your pockets to keep your hands warm  when your out in the bitter cold.

I thought that was a fantastic thing to have so i look online and really could not find any.

So I decided to come up with something on my own along the same idea as a rice therapy bag just small enough to put in your pocket.

Of course they had to be cute and soft. So I used fun fabric and Chenille that I had left over from bibs and burp rags that I had made.

So they were super easy!

So here is what you need!

rice

essential oil or spices(if you want)

scrap fabric

sewing machine

something to cut with rotary cutter or scissors or what ever else you can think of

thread

First i cut 2 squares out of the cotton fabric and then 2 out of the chenille.

I cut them 5X5 you can make them bigger or smaller.

then put right sides together

Then sew a 1/4 seam all away around leaving a one inch opening for the rice.

then turn right side out and fill with rice.

I filled it with a cup of rice.

I then sewed a seam across the opening to seal it shut.

I forgot to take a pic.

You could also whip stitch it if you wanted too.

And walla you are done

.

Now all you need to do is heat them in the microwave for about a minute and a half.

Then stick  the warmers in your favorite coat pocket and have fun out in the cold while your had stays toasty warm.

A little look into the Wilderness Christmas ..

I am sad to say that no family pix where taken on Christmas day just snapshot here and there.

Our family photographer (Me) Had a bad headache and was not thinking straight.

I did manage to get a few shots of our super fun day!

Madie Cat was very happy to get a Madame Alexander doll she named Katie Anne.

Benny boy got a super fun scooter with fancy features that I don't even begin to understand.

He had to take it out at first light and see if he could make it sparks.

Evidently there is a scooter on the market that will spark when you ride it.

Ben was a little disappointed when there were no sparks when he rode it down the hill.

I was relived.

Here are the girls playing with there camera with weird grins on there faces.

And here is Kadie with the same grin.

And here are the boys looking at there loot.

After presents and a yummy breakfast we spent the day playing Beatles Rock band on the WII

and eating yummy  cookies our neigbors brought over.

I hope you all had as fun of a Christmas as we did!

Santa came and trimmed my tree with some decorations bought at Tiffany's!!

This was totally unexpected!!

Have I told you all lately what an amazing husband I have!!

I truly am a spoiled girl..

Merry Christmas from Alaska!!

We wish you all a merry Christmas from the Wilderness family

We all hope you have a safe and happy Christmas and take the time to remember all the blessing you have been

given this year.

Remember to take the time and celebrate our Saviour Jesus Christ birth and thank him for all that he has made possible in our lives.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night

The best Baked Ziti

I love a good baked ziti and yesterday I made a really good baked Ziti..

It had the right amount of cheese and sause. it was soo soo good!!

It was super easy too.

The best part is that my kids and hubby loved it too.

So do you want the resipe?

Here it is

Baked Zit

one pound of cottage cheese
2 large eggs, lightly beaten

3 ounces grated parmesan cheese (about 1 1/2 cups)

1 pound ziti or other similar pasta (like penne thats what I usedbb)

2 tablespoons olive oil

5 medium garlic cloves, finely minced (about 5 teaspoons if you cheat like me and buy it minced allready )

1 (28-ounce) can tomato sauce

1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1 tablespoon dried basil (use 1/2 cup fresh basil if you have it but add it to the sauce after it has simmered and you take it off the heat)

1 teaspoon sugar

Black pepper

3/4 teaspoon cornstarch

1 cup heavy cream (or substitute whole milk but increase the amount of cornstarch to 2 teaspoons and the cooking time in step 3 by 1 to 2 minutes)

8 ounces mozzarella cheese , shreeded

Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 350 degrees. Whisk the cottage cheese, eggs and 1 cup of the paremsan cheese together in a medium bowl; set aside. Bring 4 quarts of water to boil in a large pot over high heat. Stir in 1 tablespoon salt and pasta; cook, stirring occasionally, until pasta begins to soften but is not yet cooked through, about 7 minutes (the pasta will finish cooking in the oven). Drain pasta and leave in colander. Do not wash the large pot.


While the pasta is cooking, heat oil and garlic in a large skillet over medium heat until the garlic is fragrant but not browned, about 2 minutes. Stir in the tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, sugar, basil and oregano; simmer until thickened, about 10 minutes. Take off heat and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Stir cornstarch into heavy cream and transfer mixture to the now-empty large pot the pasta cooked in. Set the pot over medium heat. Bring to a simmer and cook until thickened, 3 to 4 minutes. Remove pot from heat and add cottage cheese mixture, 1 cup tomato sauce, and 3/4 cup mozzarella, then stir to combine. Add pasta and stir to coat thoroughly with sauce.

Transfer mixture to a 9X13-inch baking dish and spread remaining tomato sauce evenly over pasta. Sprinkle remaining 3/4 cup mozzarella and remaining 1/2 cup parmesan cheese over the top. Cover the baking dish with foil that has been lightly sprayed with cooking spray and bake for 30 minutes.

Remove foil and continue to cook until the cheese is bubbling and beginning to brown, about 30 minutes longer. Cool for 10 minutes. then eat untill you are stuffed!!

Enjoy!! and aways if you try it let me know if you like it..

Santa Baby!!

Bum -bum bum -bum!

Santa baby, just slip an apron under the tree, for me

Been an awfully good girl!

so hurry down the chimney tonight

Just think of all the fun I've missed think of all

the fellows That I haven't kissed!

Next year I can be just as good

If you check off my Christmas list

Come and trim my Christmas tree with some decorations bought at Tiffanys

I really do believe in you

lets see if you believe in me ..

This was the Apron I got from the flirty Apron swap

The theam was Favorite Christmas carol.

Can you guess what mine was?

Timi did such a great job right down to the sabel trim on the pockets..

I love this apron!

It really is me..

Thanks Timi for a great Apron and

socks

Shirt and other goodies

I just wish the sun wasn't setting when I was taking pix

So I could have taken better quality of pictures but that's the life of living in Alaska..

But yesterday was winter solstice so that means we are gaining day light!!

So Happy late winter solstice every one!!

My kids, Dale and I have new names!

Every year we try to come up with new ways to put names on the packages wit out the kids knowing who they belong to.

We have used many different methods including different wrapping papers for each person, numbers, different colored ribbons and on and on.

When I was at a Christmas party earlier this month we were discussing this very topic and one of my friends said she used the names of the reindeers but for got who was who.

I liked that Idea so I learned from her mistake and made a master list  of who is who.

(lets just hope I don't loose it)

Now wrapped in gold under our tree we have packages for

You know Dasher and Dancer

and Prancer and Vixen,

Comet and Cupid

and Donner and Blitzen

But do you recall

The most famous reindeer of all?

Rudolf the red nosed reindeer.

So far the kids are clueless.

We were pretty lucky that there are 9 reindeer the same amount of people in our family.

So do you all have any thing fun you do with your presents or any other fun tradition?

Easy peasy Christmas treat bags!

I am home from church with 2 little boys with very sore throats.

So I decided to make some treat bags to take to the neighbors.

It was so super easy.

I just pulled out my scrap book paper cut them in to my desired size.

As you can see I made one of my papers shorter than the other then I sewed them around the edge and bottom leaving and open pocket .

it took no time at all.

Now that they are done all I had left to do was fill them up with candy!

easy peasy

The same shoes.

Kadie my sweet daughter always takes a lot of time and care when getting me gifts for my birthday she bought me the cutes pair of shoes.

She was so excited for me to open them.

I looked at them and said these are so cute!

I hated having to say the next thing " but I already have them"

She just laughed.

Wednessday Kadie went and bought my Christmas present and showed it to Dale he looked at what she got and said oh I don't think she will like them.

So she decided to just show me to see if I would like what she bought.

I tried to tell her I did not care what she got and that I was sure I would love it!

She then said"please just look at it:.

So I gave in and just started laugh when she showed the gift to me.

She just looked at me and said don't you dare tell me you already have these shoes.

Two weeks a go I bought these cute pumps.

I have yet to wear them.

I think you all are getting the point.

I said it's ok at least you know my taste in shoes.

She just laughed and said I am never buying you shoes for a gift again.

Dad there's two of you.

Today Ben and Garrett had there tonsils out.

The boys got up early and were goods sports about the whole thing.

Here is Garrett sporting his party hat!

Ben had fun playing with the all the little dudad they were putting on him.

They then gave him happy juice.

Believe me he was very happy!

He kept singing and then he sat up and said Dad there's two of you.

Garret got a little goofy to and he did not even have any happy juice.

Ben was first to have his surgery.

He had a bit of trouble coming out of the anesthesia.

At one point he turned really blue because he wasn't breathing enough.

It scared me and I had to walk away before I had a full fledged panic attack.

It just brought back to many bad memories.

The staff was amazing and had him 100% in know time.

I was also grateful that they had me get in his bed and snuggle him while he was coming too.

I think it gave me more comfort than it gave him.

They then moved Ben and I to a room with the best view ever while we waited for Garrett.

I wish I could have gotten a better shot.

Garrett had an easier time coming to in fact he was quite goofy.

He ate a little then started to get sick.

The poor kids was sick for hours.

I felt so bad for him, but he was such a trooper he would get sick and then smile and say I feel better now.

Once he felt a little better they reslised us

 and we were able to enjoy our beautiful ride home.

At least Dale and I did.

 Ben and Garret took a nap.