Some good recipes I tried in 2012

   Potato skins for the Superbowl stuffed with the usual butter, cheese, bacon & topped with sour cream. 

Mixing up the yumminess. 

Voila! 

Pioneer woman white enchiladas topped with cilantro. 

Chocolate cake balls for my Grandma's birthday party- first time making these, they were a challenge! 

Easy parmesan linguine topped with fresh basil 

More pasta.... 

Reese Piece's cookies with mini chocolate chips

Tried some canning. Some cilantro-lime salsa 

It was epic fail. Only jar that sealed properly. Still sad about the ones I had to throw out. :( 

 

Bruschetta that I can't forget about! Must make this again soon. 

Prosciutto wrapped asparagus drizzled with olive oil & roasted. Even my kids loved this. 

homemade biscuits. Nuff said. 

Yummy scalloped potatoes with bacon & onion topped with parsley. 

Making Christmas candy!

Buttery almond toffee topped with melted white chocolate. 

 chocolate covered Oreo reindeer 

Peanut butter cups melted on pretzels 

Love to cook! Can you tell? 

Newborn photo shoot

My sister, husband & their two boys welcomed a new baby on December 17th, a girl! My first niece. Thrilled beyond words.. love baby Anna so much. When my sister asked if I wanted to do a photo shoot I gladly said YES! I'll be right over. 

In their living room they have these lovely french doors that allow so much sunlight in, that gave for perfect natural lighting. This took about 2 hours to get enough pictures where I felt like I had gotten some great shots. About 2-3 feedings were worked into that 2 hour time-frame. :) A happy baby is a must for good pictures! 

Enjoy! 

Caught a mid-dream smile! Image slightly blurry because I didn't want to miss it! 

I think this is my favorite one of all. 

Christmas present for my Mom

I was doing some browsing at Hobby Lobby when I came across a Martha Stewart family tree set of stamps.Packaged so cute in a wooden box. You can customize it any way you want to, there is a tree stump stamp, various branches, 2 leaf shapes, & ones to fill in the family names. I thought it would be super cute to get an 8*10 frame & do the family tree on some pretty vintagy-looking paper. 
               

This looks simple right?? 

Decided on this paper, really didn't like the roses but planning on trimming paper & cutting it out. 

My daughter helping me fill in the empty spots where the ink didn't get pressed down all the way. 

Ok. Thumbs down on my penmanship skills. And the fact that I had to call my sister to get everyone else's anniversary dates, & even some birthdays. Total Aunt Jana failure moment right there. ( My sister is expecting baby #3 in 2 weeks, notice blank circle on left, no that was not an accident)

 See how my tree spread onto the part of the paper I was going to trim away? Sadly, I think this was a practice one that will have to be discarded. I will go shopping for more card stock in a print that is not so busy & doesn't take away from the tree. Thought I would share attempt #1 at a cute, handmade gift idea! 

Merry Christmas!