When in doubt, glitter it out!

Come Christmas time I start seeing sparkly treasure popping up all over my moms home.

really really cute stuff. Makes me envious!

Finally I got her to take me to her secret store filled with magical wonder!


It's not really secret, just so happens I've never been there before. But it really was oozing with sparkling holiday cheer.

It's up in Mesa, it's called the Orange Patch. Incase you wanted to check it out :)

love this guys stubby little arms...





Kassidy made me a new tree topper this year out of twigs and leaves from our Ash tree. It's really cute actually. We've had flying Santa topping it forever! Come to find out Santa look great where ever you put him on the tree!! Which is good because I <3 santa.


My kids LOVE these little plastic horses! Pretty sure it's all they actually cared about getting for Christmas.


What you see here ain't even half of their collection.


Kassidy cracks me up. I swear these guys are real to her. She sets them up with such care.

Lets pretend these ones have a history together, she'll say

and then goes on and on with the most amazing horse story you've ever heard.

the aftermath...



there is always an aftermath!

Hope you all had a merry Christmas!

Luckily I hate egg nog

but sadly I do like apple cider!

oh shoot. The trouble with writing a blog post on Christmas eve is well...

A. theres no one out there to read it. Because you're all out there having fun at your family christmas parties.

and B. I'm not.

because I'm sick. *wimper wimper*

let me guess...

you didn't get my Christmas card.

So few did. And the tragedy is that I usually don't do Christmas cards. This year the stars aligned perfectly! (I mean until it was time to give them out and i got deathly ill)



We finally got a family photo of sorts. We went on a little road trip and pulled off the side of the road to take these. Hooray for tripods. (please note, Natalie was a bit ill that day)

BTW... I accidentally killed my tripod on this trip. *sheds a tear* I've been awesome at killing things lately. Especially photographical type things.


anyhoo, as you can see family photos with the Ison's are kind of a joke.


We have no clue what were doing. Did I mention this is the first family photo we've had since Kassidy was 1? Do you realize she's 12 now? and a half!!!!!!!

Fail.


My real intent for this trip was to take some black and white film photos. But I am thankful for the family photos we got out of it! Though by no means perfect still quite dear to me.

here's what Came out of my lens.



You wanna hear something funny? This morning I went to the bathroom as per usual and I got all shaky an went into a fit of cold sweats and nausea and the next thing i knew i was slumped up against the wall. Did I pass out on the toilet???!!! Oh my. Thank goodness no one walked in on that horror scene. No sugar plum fairies dancing around in your head tonight! haha!

Even though I'm sad that I'm missing my family party I do hope you're all enjoying yours! Have a Splendiferous Christmas all!

and if you get my card a bit late you'll know why ;) !!

cat bowl night at the Isons!

When the food gods speak, I listen.

and what do they say?

SHARE!

Eh I don't know what's gotten into me but I am in a recipe sharing mood tonight soooo...

lemon chicken.

A much healthier lemon chicken than the one you know!!

because I know you need a delicious new recipe to get you out of your boring dinner rut. I also happen to know it needs to be easy, preferably with minimal ingredients and that is exactly why i am sharing :)

5 ingredients!

4 chicken breasts
1 C chicken broth
3 T sugar
4 T lemon juice
4 t corn starch

T = tablespoon
t = teaspoon

cube your thawed chicken. Sauté over med/high heat until the chicken is cooked through. Light brown is nice. Charred brown is welll... charred!

sauté= high heat, low oil.

in a saucepan add the chicken broth, sugar, and lemon juice.

take a little of this very mixture and stir it into the cornstarch in a separate little bowl until its soupy sans lumps.

add the cornstarch mixture to the chicken broth mixture and bring to a boil.

pour over your chicken.

voila! See that didn't take long at all!

oh you know what goes perfectly with this lemon chicken??????

My delicious fried rice recipe.

7 ingredients

3 eggs
1/2 an onion, small diced
6 cloves of garlic, minced
5-6 C cooked LEFTOVER rice. Can i just stress the importance of the rice being leftover??!! its needs to be cold thru and thru... and thru some more :)
variable amt. of soy sauce
1/2 t chili paste (optional, adds spice)
1 C frozen peas and carrots

first your gonna need to whisk the eggs pretty good. get your non-stick wok piping hot. Drizzle it with olive oil. Pour the eggs in and then pick the wok up! Yep with your hands and possibly some oven mitts. Then tip it so the eggs get swirled around the edges and it makes a thin flat circle off egg. Slide it out onto your cutting board. I usually fold it over and then slice it in thin strips. Set aside.

Then in your already hot wok :) add a little more oil. Toss in the onions. Sauté the onions for a minute or so then add the garlic for a brief minute.

Add the cold LEFTOVER rice to the pan. let it cook in there for a few minutes stirring occasionally.

In a separate bowl mix the soy sauce with the chili paste, I eye ball it but I'd guess its around 5-6 T of soy sauce??

Pour over the rice. stir it in real good.

Toss in the peas and carrots.

Woot. You're done.

The rice isn't hard but it does require thinking ahead a bit. What I do is when I make a dinner with rice I just cook twice as much rice as I need and refrigerate the rest for fried rice later in the week :)

and now for my next trick...

a photo of a bug.



that looks like a leaf.

and has nothing to do with anything.

p.s. asian style dishes taster better in bowls with cats on them. Give it a try!

it's good morning time!

That is what Lucy says to me and Chad every morning as we try to sleep through the commotion around us.

But it was Natalie that woke me this morning.

Mom, Emma didn't answer her door

I am one of those moms. You know the kind that doesn't get up and see to it that their kids are well fed and groomed with their school bags all packed up good and proper.

Morning person is definitely on my list of wants for my next life.

Natalie and I had been out till after 10 last night trying to get some Christmas shopping done. Christmas shopping wears me out on a good day, letting it drag on well into the night is brutal.

We were tired.

ok, get in the car.

I grabbed my warmest p.j. pants which happen to be like the ugliest things you ever seen plus they don't stay on very well because they're missing a button... aaaaand yesterdays shirt. Glanced in the mirror. Wow, crazy hair. fantastic.

jumped in the car, reached for the sunglasses (because we all know these babies do more that just keep the sun out of our eyes... they also block the sleep face from being clearly and completely seen) you know its true.

dang! The sun wasn't out! ok fine never mind lets make this quick!

This my friends is how the morning began.

and then something kinda wonderful happened!

THE FOG!



It was sooooo perfectly magical!


And I could feel the giddy welling up inside. isn't that the best?! I ran back home and grabbed the camera so I could share the beauty! Man it was a gorgeous morning.


then there was the shift...


I went from totally embarrassed to leave the house like this even within the confines of my vehicle, to happily prancing around the cold wet neighborhood looking like a creature of the deep. haha!!!

I don't regret a single second of it :)

Fog is a rare thing for Arizona, add sleeping late to the mix and you may never see such a sight.

So what I really want to say is

THANK YOU Emma, from the bottom of my heart for not answering your door this morning! You made my day magical :) !!!!!

<3