Summer Theme

For card club this month we had a summer theme and I have really been wanting to make these beach bag cards again so that is what I did. I am really happy how cute they turned out, I am finding it hard to give them out. I might just have to make more....

Appreciation #20

This months appreciation goes out to Andrea Boerem. Andrea and I met while at a BBQ in NYC. I still remember her rose colored sweater and her shinny lip gloss and I thought that she was beautiful. We quickly formed a relationship that has continued to grow. She was a constant support to me last year and has been the best cheerleader for us throughout this whole adoption process. Andrea is always so happy and cheerful and I have never heard her say a mean thing about anyone. Last weekend she came to California to stay with her parents for a week and I got the privilege of hanging out with her for a night. She came over and had a sleep over just like we would of in high school. She tried really hard to convince Doug that we should dress him up in girls clothes and do his make-up but we settled for watching chick flicks, baking desserts, and of course eating them. I loved that when we woke up in the morning the first thing that she wanted was more cookies and ice cream, that is the Andrea that we know and love. I am truly grateful for her friendship and for everything that she has taught me.

Dougie Fresh Birthday Celebration

Yesterday our not so young Douglas turned 29. To celebrate we thought that Go Kart racing sounded like a great plan because lets face it, guys like to drive fast. We started the evening off with dinner at BJ's, not to shabby.

Then we were off to the tracks. I must say that it was a whole lot of fun!!! Check us out:




Sunday we had a small BBQ with birthday cake. Doug request a lemon raspberry cake and we all know that I aim to please my man so a pink cake is what he got.


Happy Birthday you old man, I love you so much.

Diddy Reese

When people heard that we were moving here, I often would hear, you have to go to Diddy Reese. Diddy Reese is a cookie joint where you can make your own ice cream sandwiches. When we first got here, we tried to go a couple times but the line was always way to long and I never thought it was worth it. I mean, I bake pretty darn well so who needs to wait in line forever when I can just go home and make it myself. Well, it finally took some friends coming into town to make us go. I have to say that I was impressed how good the cookies were and the line went really fast. Our dear friend Ann came into town and she grew up around here and really wanted to go so we went to Diddy Reese and had a great time.

Doug's brother Adam, his wife Lisa, and son Steven came to visit us this weekend. Off to Diddy Reese we went. There we were minding our own business in line when a homeless man came and just hit, yes hit our dear dear Steven....hard. What the heck???? He said that he did not like the way that "the baby" was starring at him. As Steven was crying, it took everything in me not to go hit him back. Call me insensitive, but that is an innocent boy he was talking about. Anyway, Diddy Reese is still the bomb but watch out for people standing around you. Who would want to hurt this adorable little guy??

Canning

Sometimes I get on these kicks and right now it is all about food storage and canning. I have been prepared for awhile with a two year amount of food storage (yep, that is what I brought to the marriage) but it was only the basics. We also have our backpacks ready with our 72 hour kits (Doug calls them our week long kits because I added so much more). I am going to have a hard time seeing other people suffer so I really want to be prepared. Lately because of some amazing women in our ward I have been learning how to cook with food storage. You can check out our enrichment blog to see recipes here. Not just getting the basics to survive but enjoying eating with it. The recipes they have taught me have been amazing and all the fun gadgets they have. My In-Laws gave us a wheat grinder for Christmas and it has been great making wheat bread with freezer jam. I have been canning the important stuff like chocolate and cake batters;) Last week I learned how to can meat, I never knew that one could can meat but you can. Other people may think that this is gross but when we really need to use it and everyone else is eating rice....again, we will be eating steak and chicken!! Yes, this does have something to do with all the earthquakes that have been happening.

Mothers Day with Mom

I know that Mother's Day was a couple weeks ago but it is never to late to do a shout out to our dear mothers!! This year I spent Mother's Day in Escondido with my brother Robert's family because my parents were there visiting. It was great to spend some time with my mom, I never realize how much I miss her until I have to leave her. We had a great weekend shopping, grilling out, and talking.....what us Finck's do best. On Sunday my dad was so sweet and bought me a bouquet of flowers, he says that in my heart I am a mother (love you dad). I was also able to spend some time with the kids and you can never beat that!! I love you mom and I am so glad that we were able to spend some time together. I so hope by next year I will be a mother for real:)

I also wanted to tell my mother-in-law how much we love and appreciate her as well. I lucked out when it comes to mother-in-laws. It has been a complete joy living closer to my in laws and getting to know them more. Doug was able to go spend the day with his mother and it makes me happy that he cares for her so much. We love you Katie!!

Crafty

I have become good friends with a co-worker named Katrina and she is expecting her first child. For her shower I offered to help with the food and she ended up hiring me to make some cupcakes and I added my own surprises. She asked me to do this because I have started to be quite the baker lately and I use my fellow employees at work as my testers because Doug thinks that everything I make is delicious (good man!!). I made the ever so good chocolate cupcakes with cream cheese filling, top with cream cheese frosting. My friend Heather came over and thought me how to use fonded so we added beautiful flowers on top. While I was at the gym with Melissa, she had mentioned seeing cupcakes that look like baby rattles and they were just adorable so we went with that. Then I once again wanted to try the mini cupcakes from bakerella so I made those with pink colored chocolate this time, they turned out so cute. Here are some photos to give you an idea:



On the shower invite it asked everyone to bring the new mother diapers but I wanted to get creative so I again asked for help from Melissa. She helped me make a diaper cake that turned out cuter then I could have ever imagined. First, we went to Joanne's to get fabric, ribbons, and bows. She then taught me how to make burp rags and wash clothes. We added the burp rags to the top of the cake then added the burp rags around the cake with the diapers and wait for it.....made suckers out of the wash clothes....so cute. Melissa is so talented, you should check out her own little business, she is amazing. Here are some more pictures to give you a better idea:

Thanks to all my friends and all their talents, I am learning so much from you:)

Happy Birthday Jenny

True to fashion lately, I am a little late at writing this post but I wanted to say Happy Birthday Jenny!!

The girls celebrated by going to a movie:



We saw 17 Again. Honestly I was not impressed with the movie but it was a fun evening with the gals.

The next day we enjoyed a BBQ with the gang and did our best at singing Happy Birthday.

Exciting Week

Last week the Halls were back to their exciting life. It started off, thanks to Papa Hall, with Doug and I going to a Clippers game. Even if they did lose by 40 points, it was still fun to go to the last game of the season and sit in great seats.

The next night, one of my dreams came true thanks again to Papa Hall. He got us floor seats to go see Bruce Springsteen in concert!!! It amazes me that he is 59 years old and still rocking it and looking good. Bruce ran around stage and was completely entertaining in jeans and his guitar. An unexpected guest, Social Distortion came and sang a couple songs with him. That is when Doug finally got excited. He sang Thunder Roads and I was in heaven.

Then the next day we went to a Dodgers game with the Larson's. This was our way of saying happy Birthday to David Sr. It was a great day, we had great seats, and got to see five home runs. It was my first time having a Dodgers Dog and I was not disapointed.

Enrichment

We had an Enrichment Activity last week that I really wanted to share, it was such a great one and all based on service. Sisters in the ward signed up to contribute services that they had to offer like babysitting, baking, photography, dinners, etc. Then at the activity the sisters that were there had a form to fill out that gave them points like, have you cooked or babysat for anyone in the ward, have you picked anyone up from the airport, have you helped the missionaries, etc. The more service you did, the more points that you earned. Then we had an auction using the points that we had. We had paddles for the sisters and everything, there was nothing that the committee forgot, everything looked amazing. It was so fun to see all the talents that we have in our ward and to see more friendships build within the Relief Society. I just thought that it was a great idea and I think that all of you should steal it for your ward.