Christmas Cards!

I'm sending out Christmas cards and I know I missed some people last year, so if you want one and you didn't get one last year email me your address or tell me on Facebook. kelsey8537@yahoo.com

Or leave it as a comment!

Thanks!

We live with a raccoon!

Griffey gets into everything now! It is sweet that he is learning to explore, but it is definitely annoying too! haha.

I learned that I just need to baby proof the apartment better.  He lost all the measuring cups, got into the chocolate chips, and decided to drink a bottle of green food coloring.

No matter what he does though, I will always love him and think he's cute!

Halloween Finally!

This Halloween all the Dimock/Hill cousins got to be together and I got some cute pictures.  It's fun to .

watch them all play, especially now that Griffey can walk and follow the older girls around.

Adam and I didn't dress up because Adam is lame and he sucked me into his Halloween Scroogeness. Oh well! Next year I'll make us all wear matching costumes to make up for it!

Carlee and Emily

Three best friends- Carlee, Emily, Haylee

I love Emily's big blue eyes in this picture!

Lawn Gnome, Snow White, Belle, Dora

Haylee's an expert model

Carlee was Dora and even had her hair sprayed brown for the night.

Emily made a beautiful Snow White.

Griffey was a lawn gnome. He wouldn't wear the beard that went with it, but I was just happy he kept the hat on.

Griffey started walking a lot during the week of Halloween.

Bushy Eyebrows!

Hi Denae!!

I was so excited when I saw that someone from Colombia checked our blog because I knew it was you!

I stole this from Denae's blog!

My sister, Denae, and her husband, Andy, and in Colombia traveling around. Check out their blog to hear about their trip!

Also, my mom and her friend, Jody, are currently in Africa hiking Mt. Kilimanjaro.  Here's their blog.

Meanwhile, I'm sitting around my apartment in boring, old Eugene.

Fall's Here...

...and that means it is time for the pumpkin patch!

Griffey got to feed the animals!

Of course, we had to stop for the photo op! Nice face Adam.

He didn't really want to move. Everything was too poky!

Me and Griffey

Brittany looking at one of their many reject pumpkins.

Brittany and Austin came with us to Lonepine Farms.

Griffey finally found a pumpkin he liked.

We saw a little girl  posing on the pumpkins, so we decided we needed to also!

Adam and Austin thought we were insane.

Griffey loves his daddy.

Our family...and the evil broccoli.

Brittany trying to get out of the huge, scary maze.

We picked out pumpkins, defeated the daunting maze, bought some fresh produce, and then shared a delicious caramel apple. Good idea Brittany! 

Cookie Overload

Someone got into the cookies! Although I was not happy about it, he was too cute to take the cookies away before I took some pictures.

I'm selling Avon!

I just started selling AVON and I am very excited about it because I love the products and they aren't very expensive and they have all sorts of different products.

I plan on not being pushy with my friends and family, so everyone won't get sick of me.  However, in case anyone is interested, I have catalogs and also a website that people can order off of. Also, if anyone wants to be on the email list ofr special discounts and offers, let me know.

Thanks for the support! Here's my website : http://www.avonrepresentative.com/kdimock.

Don't forget....Christmas is coming!

Family Trip to Florence

Griffey loved playing in the sand and Adam loved helping him explore the sand and water.

             Last week, we went to Florence on a whim.  We brought Griffey to the jetty, had rootbeer floats, and walked around old town Florence (and of course, we got some awesome candles at the Newport Bay Candle Company.)

He was trying so hard to walk!!

He couldn't figure out why his hands kept sinking.

I need to get a tripod so we can get pictures of all three of us at once!

Buddy and Daddy - Big smiles!

Two Successes in One Month!

I kill plants. All plants. The only two plants I have ever kept alive for more than a week were a pot of mint and a pot of chicks and hens and the only reason these plants were magically staying alive past a week was because I set them in the path of a sprinkler. By the way, the mint is dead now. ha

Anyway, I am a proud, successful farmer now! Check the picture for proof!

You can barely see it, but I am holding my very first tomato grown from my topsy turvies. By the way, notice both of these plants are beautifully thriving!

My other recent victory came after I joined Bi-mart. I joined for the sole purpose of winning stuff on Lucky Number Tuesday.  The first Tuesday after I joined, I won a 2-Liter of diet Shasta cola. Adam thought it was a lame prize and begged me not to redeem it and embarrass him, but a win is a win and you better believe I walked out of the store with my prize. And of course, I made Adam document my giant win:

Success! Just ignore my look in this picture- I had just finished lap swimming and was still dripping!

So obviously August was a victorious month for me!

Happy Birthday to Adam!

This post is a little late considering Adam's 30th birthday was on July 23, but I wanted to talk about how good the cupcakes were that I made for his birthday.

For Adam's birthday, we went to Baker Bay at Dorena Lake with some of his family and friends to swim and have a picnic. Afterward, we went to an Ems game.  Here's my boys at the game.

As per Adam's request, I made three different kinds of cupcakes: strawberry, lemon, and lime.  They were so delicious and it was a nice change from boring chocolate and vanilla.

Thanks to the wonderful internet, I learned a simple way to make a box of cake mix your own. 

For the lime cupcakes you mix:
-1 box lemon cake mix (18.25 oz)
-1 1/3 C. vegetable oil
-4 eggs
-1 (3oz) pack of lime flavored jello mix (straight out of the box, in powder form)
-a couple drops of green food coloring (optional, the mix will already be a lighter green)
After you mix them, just bake by following the directions on the box.

For the strawberry and lemon cakes, I used the cake mixes that were already strawberry and lemon, but I bet following the lime recipe with any flavor of jello would be good.

As good as these cupcakes were (the lime were the biggest hit), the frosting was even better. The Perfect Cupcake Frosting and Filling Recipe can be found here. Thank you Our Best Bites for the recipe!

This picture is from the recipe's website.

I mixed fruit flavorings into the icings, topped them with lime and lemon zest, and cut out fondant '30s' for the top. 

Even if you don't like frosting, I guarantee you will like this recipe!

Also, did you know that the most amazing way to eat a cupcake is to pull the bottom half of the cupcake off and place it on top of the frosting to make a sandwich?! Blows your mind doesn't it!

Vegetables Adam will eat!

Recently, I have been trying to find new ways to cook vegetables so that Adam will try new things and not get sick of the only few vegetables he does like. (Sorry to embarrass you Adam, but we both know it's true). Plus I want Griffey to grow up liking vegetables too.


So anyway, I found an awesome recipe for yummy grean beans that have bacon, vinegar, shallots, and garlic in them. Yum!

I borrowed the picture from the same website with the recipe (http://www.laaloosh.com/). Their ranch turkey burgers are amazing too!

Shallots and Butter Green Beans Recipe


Ingredients:

- 2 lbs green beans, cleaned & trimmed

- 1 cup sliced shallots

- 2 tbsp Hormel 50% Less Fat Real Bacon Bits

- 2 garlic cloves, minced

- 2 tbsp light butter (I used Brummel & Brown)

- 1/3 cup balsamic vinegar

- 1 1/2 tsp lemon zest

- 2 tsp fresh thyme, chopped

- 1/2 tsp fresh rosemary

- 1 tsp salt

- 1/2 tsp fresh ground black pepper

(You can cook your own bacon and use that and use normal butter too.  This is just a lower calorie alternative and honestly, it tastes awesome this way.)

Directions:

In a medium frying pan or wok, melt the butter over medium-high heat. Add the garlic, bacon, and shallots and saute for about 4 minutes. Stir in the balsamic vinegar and cook for 1 1/2 more minutes.

Remove from the heat and add in the grated lemon rind, chopped thyme, salt and pepper.

Cook the green beans in boiling water for about 3 minutes (or until crisp-tender); drain.

In a large bowl, combine the green beans with the shallot mixture and toss well to coat.

I can't believe Griffey is almost 1!

 It seems surreal that Griffey is now a one year old, well he will be on August 20th. It's crazy that my pregnancy took forever and then the his first year just flew by.

Last year at this time seems like a different life to me now.  I was all alone and just found out that Adam wouldn't be able to be here for Griffey's birth and I was excited, yet nervous about being a single parent for the first 8 months. That time in my life seems so unreal now, because now that Adam is here, it feels like he never left.

Anyway, here is a little look at everything my big one year old loves to do:

He loves sleeping with stuffed animals while striking model poses.  He loves this giraffe because it plays music and he has figured out how to wind it up.

He loves helping with the laundry and riding around in the basket.

He loves being outside, especially hiking and swimming.

He loves his cousins and his teddy bears.

He loves rolling his tongue.

He loves going to baseball games.

He loves the quarter machine cars at the mall.  He's a little scared of them too though.

He loves chewing on things, especially straws and lids.

He loves his family, dressing like his dad, and eating graham crackers.

He loves giving kisses.

He loves playing in the dirt...

..and I love him!!