Brayden's Birthday!

This past week was Brayden's birthday. We went out on Friday night with a bunch of friends and than played games after. The following day we floated down the river with Brayden's moms family. Later that day we went out to dinner with a few of Brayden's family members, and my parents. We ended the weekend by seeing Hercules and having a BBQ. It was a really fun weekend!

 (Brayden's moms family)

 (Braydens sister and her husband)

Since we were having people over on Friday night I decided to make a Better Than Sex Cake. For those of you who don't know what a BTS Cake is your missin out. They are soo good!

Here is a basic tutorial on how to make them!

 I use the Duncan Hines Devil's Food cake mix, following the exact ingredients and baking time on the back of the box for a 9x13 pan. Which varies from brand to brand,  so be careful for that.

 (You of course need to lick the beater. Haha!)

Mine baked for 23 minutes.

To make sure my cake was done I stuck a knife in the middle of it. Now if you pull it out and it has cake stuck to the knife it is not cooked, if it looks like mine did^ than it is done. A little trick my mama taught me (:

Take a straw, any kind of straw, and poke holes all over the cake. This does not need to be done any certain way, it is literally so easy and can't be messed up. Even if you stop paying attention an poke the same spot 5 times like I did (right side) lol.

Take 1 can of 14 ounce sweetened condensed milk and any caramel topping and mix together in a bowl. I typically use like the same amount of caramel to the 14 ounces. (Aka, 14 ounces of each) You can adjust this depending on preferences though. Once they are mixed together and the cake has cooled pour the caramel/milk over the cake and it will seep into the holes.

Now this is where mine is different. Most recipes say to put cool whip on top, YUCK! Cool whip is just nasty. It tastes like chemicals and is not even worth the calories in my opinion. I would way rather make my own whip cream. I just use my kitchen aid to blend heavy whipping cream + a little powdered sugar to taste. Yes, it is that simple. I typically make mine barely sugary due to the cake being so sweet itself. 

Now you can get these (chocolate and toffee) or just the toffee bag, either way is good. You can even get a few of the candy bars and crunch them up yourself if that's what you prefer.

Sprinkle over the top, and your done! Make sure to keep it refrigerated.

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DIY - Horseshoe "lucky" wooden sign

One day while skimming through Pinterest I came across a wooden sign that had the phrase LUCKY with a horse shoe for the U. I just had to do one identical to it for myself. Now I am not the most western person out there, but for a few years I did get really into horses/rodeos.

Let me get side tracked a little bit and explain how my love for horses began... Early in 2009 I begged my parents to put me in horseback riding lessons, they finally gave in, and I fell in love. I loved riding horses, and I immediately wanted one of my own. Around the beginning of August the begging began! (I was the most annoying beggar as a child, my poor parents haha!) One day after my lesson as I was taking the saddle and bridal off of the trainers horse, I remember telling my mom something along the lines of me needing one, and how I would take such great care of it. My mom must of said something a long the lines of her not knowing where to buy a horse, because my trainer said that a family that boarded their horses at the facility I took lessons at was selling their black and white paint quarter horse. At this point, my mom probably went home and begged by father to buy me the horse for my upcoming birthday the end of Septmeber. (Maybe that is where I get it from haha!). My parents just kept saying "maybe one day" or "we don't have time for a horse" etc. to keep me not suspicious. One day right before my birthday we showed up to the facility for my lesson and my trainer told me to go back and get the horse, like I did at the start of every lesson. I walked back through the stables and inside of the stall was the most beautiful horse with a bright pink bridle and a bow on its forehead. My parents ended up buying the horse that the family was selling at the facility. His name was Ajay, and he was tallest prettiest horse I had seen, probably because he was all mine haha. I kept doing lessons and 4-H after I got the horse. After getting pretty confident in my riding skills I started to do 4-H competitions , and queening in rodeos. I ended up placing in several rodeos and 4-H competitions. I had kind of had slight allergies from the beginning, nothing an allergy pill couldn't fix, but as time went on I became more and more allergic. It got to the point that I would have to sit in the car while my mom got my horse all cleaned up and ready for a show, and I mean bathed, brushed, saddled, foot covers on, chest piece, bridle on, hair braided, hooves painted, everything. Once my horse was ready she would bring it by the gate, I would get on and go do my pattern, once I was done I would jump off and get back in the car. Even doing all that I would still get itchy, a runny nose, puffy eyes, drowsy, breakout in hives, and sneeze every 10 seconds. No allergy pill was helping at this point, and it was becoming nearly impossible. Due to my allergies, and how busy my life was becoming as I got older we decided to sell my horse. We ended up selling him to my trainer, who still currently has him.

Ok ok, done being side tracked now, that itself was a blog post probably haha! Here is the picture I found of the Pinterest one... 

Now lets finally get around to the tutorial part, so you can try it!

I went to my local Ace Hardware (like a Home Depot / Lowes) and had them cut me a 2.5 foot piece of wood and bought a horseshoe. I  than brought them home and sanded the edges of my board and put a light coat of stain on it. The stain I used was MINEWAX, color Early American. While that was drying I went onto Microsoft Word and found a font like I liked. Once I found the font I enlarged it so each letter was on its own page (size 72 for me). You can scale it according to the size of your board too. I printed the letters off and checked to see if the board was dry yet. The board ended up taking an additional 30 minutes, 45 minutes total to completely dry. 

You than take a pencil (not mechanical) and trace the outside of the letters, on the back side. Make sure you do not do it on the front (side with ink) or the letters will be backwards. You will need to do this fairly dark so there is enough to transfer onto the board. Be careful touching it after you trace it, to avoid smudging.

Once you have traced the outline of all of the letters you will want to space them out evenly on the board, including the horseshoe U. Once they are spaced out to your liking you will want to tape down the papers. Once the papers are taped on you will nail in the horseshoe with flat top nails. I put 2 nails per side, one at the very top and one at the very bottom. I did it that way so it wouldn't tilt and was very secure. 

You than get the same pencil and scribble over the letter on the front side. This will imprint what you did on the back side onto the board. 

(^^^ I know this is very faint, but this shows what it will look like once transferred over.)

At this point all you have to do now is paint inside the letters on the board. The color I used for my board was BEHR - Eggshell Creme left over from my  DIY - Stencil Table. Here is my final project! I cannot wait to put this baby up when I have a house of my own.

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Get to know me

Lets get to know me a little bit today...

What is your dream vacation? I would love to go on a cruise to somewhere warm, lots of beaches, and hikes to waterfall/pools. I also have always wanted to go to Hawaii and Bora Bora (don’t those water hut Pinterest pictures look amazing?!)

What is your favorite food? I really like treats, is that a food? Haha! I also really like pasta, parmesan rolls, steak, and salad’s.

What is your favorite candy? My whole life I have really liked Air Heads, lately I really like Mamba’s.

What is your favorite dessert? Oh man, this is tough. I would say it’s a tie between Cheesecake Factory’s Chocolate Tuxdo cheesecake and Ben and Jerry’s Half Baked ice cream.

What is your favorite soda flavor? I am always in the mood for a Dirty Dr Pepper. Lately I have been into Mtn. Dew + Blue Raspberry and Lemonade + Coconut + Blue Raspberry.

What is your favorite thing to do in your spare time? Camping, boating, go to movies, hangout with Brayd, relax and watch TV.

Who is your favorite genre of music? I like just about anything really. I constantly listen to pop/hip hop, country, rap, rock, sometimes I’ll play classical at work. It really depends on my mood and who I am with.

What are your worst fears? Being kidnapped, lost, or confined in a small place.

Who do you admire? I really admire my parents. Yes everyone says that, but mine are truly the most selfless, caring, loving, patient people I have ever met. They go above and beyond for not only my family, but their siblings, parents, friends, and anyone in need.

Talk about your worst scar. When I was little I was running up the street and tripped, my forehead hit a little rock and gave me about ¾ inch scratch. I constantly picked it, regardless of my mom slapping my hand every time I went near it, taping band aids on my face, etc. I absolutely hate it now, and wish I would have listened to my mama.

If you were a Disney Character, who would you be? Well, haha. My dad would read me and my sister (more my sister) the actual stories, instead of the glorified Disney ones. So I am not too sure if I was ever not scared enough to obsess over a specific one, but now I would say I am most like Tangled (don’t remember her specific name.)

How many times have you moved? The only ‘move’ I have made in my life is from the upstairs of my house, to the basement. My family has been at our house since before I was even born.

What is something spectacular you have done? My family has had the opportunity to take temporary custody of my four year old cousin. He has been with us for about a year now, and has become a completely different kid. That is pretty spectacular to me!

What can you tell us that no one knows about you? Oh man, this is a tough one. I am a very open book.. I guess despite how eager and ready I am to start the next chapter of my life (pay bills, move out, get married, buy a house, start a family, etc) – it still scares me to death, and I think it will until I get used to it a bit.

Indoors or outdoors? I love to be indoors and outdoors. The only downfall of being outdoors is sometimes my allergies kick in. Lately I have been using Peppermint Essential Oil from my work doTERRA, thanks to Kenny for recommending, and it has been working miracles.

What do you want to be when you grow up? If you would ask me this 2-6 years ago I would have told you an exact profession and location, but now my mindset is kind of changing as I grow and get older. I really think that I would enjoy being mom and maybe have a part-time job. I would like to have a part-time job for a little added income and to get out of the house for a few hours. I would love to have that job be for the company I work for now, I have really enjoyed working for doTERRA this past little while.

Soup or Salad? Salad all the way, though I do really like cream of broccoli soup, mmm!

What’s your favorite animal? I love horses, but can’t be around them a lot due to allergies. So for an animal I can be around, dogs! I love my Boxer, Brayden’s old Malamute, and would love to one day get a Golden Retriever or a Silver Weimaraner.

(Brayden's Malamute and my Boxer)

 (Silver Weimaraner - adorable huh)

(Golden Retriever)

What is your favorite ice cream flavor? Ben and Jerry’s Half Baked, so good!

What is your favorite color? My favorite colors are the shades between grey and black. I love darker colors.

Go to snack? Lately peeled/sliced apples with Biscoff on top. If you have not tried this, TRY IT!

What is your favorite Sport? I really like to swim!

What is your dream car? For my next car I want either a Toyota 4-runner, Jeep Rubicon, or a Toyota Tacoma. Super white, sparkle white, or maybe (very maybe) charcoal, with black rims of course. 

If you were stranded on a desert island what one item would you want to have? Brayden, if that counts as an item. I would feel completely safe with him. He is way more of the ‘survival’ type than I am, I would probably be dead in 2 days alone. Haha!

What is your favorite restaurant? For my birthday we usually go to Teppanyaki as a family. I do also like Tucano’s, if I can get a piece of chocolate cake for dessert. Yes, I am aware that is like a 2,500 calorie meal haha. I am always in the mood for a hamburger from 5 Guys, or In-N-Out as well.

What TV shows do you watch? Bachelor/Bachelorette (guilty pleasure), Pretty Little Liars, Bones, Scandal, Fringe, Dawson’s Creek, One Tree Hill, Dexter, Weeds, Parenthood, Orange Is The New Black, 24, Prision Break, Funniest Home Videos / Ridiculousness and so many more. I love TV Series, until they end, than I get all frustrated and pissy haha.

What is your favorite Vegetable? I really really like cucumbers.

How often do you paint your nails? I have a serious problem when it comes to doing my nails. I enjoy doing them, so after like 1-5 days they are redone. I usually have acrylic on with a gel overlay. My nails hardly grow anymore due to doing them so much haha!

What is your favorite clothing item? Black pants. I could wear a comfy black pair of pants every day for the rest of my life.

If you won a lot of money what would you buy? A new car within an hour (haha I want one bad), put money aside for a wedding/moneyhoon, pay off any debts, buy a house.

What time do you wakeup / go to bed? When I work 6:30 and snooze till 7:00 than 9:30-10:00, when I don’t work typically like 8:00-9:00 and then like midnight – whenever we are done doing what we are doing.

What is your favorite vacation? I love going to New York City and Florida.

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What is (currently) a few songs you could listen to on repeat all day?  Crazy Girl – Eli Young Band, Trumpets – Jason Derulo, Boom Clap – Charili XCX, One Grain Of Sand – Ron Pope, Play It Again – Luke Bryan, Otherside – Red Hot Chili Peppers, pretty diverse ehh?

What did you want to be growing up? I wanted to be a Nurse, a Surgeon, a radiation technologist, than a Surgical technician. It was always medical based though.

What piece of technology could you not live without? My iPhone, because I use maps constantly due to having the worst sense of direction haha! Next would probably TV’s, I really like movies and tv series. 

Have any other questions? I would love to answer them! Leave a comment below and I will get back to you within 48 hours. 

Enjoy, xoxo!