Sunday Afternoon

I love Sunday afternoons. After church and lunch with the family at the local restaurant, Sunday afternoons are usually pretty chill around here. Sometimes it's a nap, it's always football when the Broncos are on, today, we went for a ride.

John Wayne getting the horses in from the pasture.

Someone has outgrown her cowboy boots, so sparkly Uggs it was.
Guess we know one thing she'll be getting for her birthday!

As evident in the picture above, a little someone wanted to be totally in control with no help. Poor Moe, the Little Lady gives confusing directions.

The Little Lady has gone for quite a few rides and liked it, but today was the first time that we had an all out hissy on our hands when it was time to get off.

Minus the hissy, it was a perfect Sunday afternoon. Have a great week all!

Life in Phone Pictures

Happy InstaFriday! How's your week been? Great here in the trailerhood.

Friday, I got a promotion at work...Assistant Vice President - Marketing.

Wahoo!

I celebrated with some red velvet cake ice cream {yum!} and my sweet Mom and Dad gave me flowers.


Saturday, the Little Lady, my bestie and I had a girl's day. We took the Little Lady to the Children's Museum in Denver. I knew that she'd have fun, but she had BIG fun! Her favorite part was the bubble room.


After the museum we had lunch at The White Chocolate Grill. Have you ever been? It was my first time and I thought it was really tasty.


I've spent most of my week out of town at a trade show. Monday evening after my friend/co-worker and I got the booth set up, we treated ourselves to pedicures!


And then a little Target shopping!

New play clothes for the Little Lady and new exercise clothes and Jillian DVD for me.


And then most of the rest of my week has been spent with this, at the Colorado Farm Show.


Happy weekend from the trailerhood, friends!

{Please excuse this week's photo quality...the lighting in the hotel room was so bad, so my shopping goods pics turned out really bad and so I decided to edit them all on Picnic and went with the 60's effect and um yeh, obviously a bad choice. Oh well, no time to fix them. About Picnic...do you use it? Do you know it's shutting down in April? I am bummed! If you have any suggestions for a good alternative, please let me know.}

Ranch Wives Cooking Club - {Cheater} Donuts

I had a few requests from my blog friends over at InstaFriday to share my donut recipe. I feel kinda silly even calling it a recipe, because it could not be any simpler!

All you'll need is:
a can of refrigerated canned biscuits {The first time I made them I used the Grands, but then thanks to a tip from my cousin, I now use the cheap, generic ones, they fry up much better!}
oil to fry them in {I just use vegetable oil}
butter {1/2 stick}
cinnamon
sugar


Cut holes out of the biscuits. A plastic water bottle or soda bottle cap is perfect for the job.


My recipe is so nontechnical here that I don't even know for sure how much oil I use, just enough to be about a half inch deep...or what temperature I heat the oil to. This is where a candy thermometer would come in handy {but I wouldn't know what temperature to tell you to heat the oil to, but I'm sure a simple Google search would answer that}. I heat mine over medium heat and maybe even a tad under.


When your oil is ready {I do the simple splash of water, wait for sizzle, test} it's time to fry the donuts {I do five at a time, I think it's easier to keep an eye on them} for around 90 seconds on each side. You just have to keep an eye on them and turn them when they are golden.


Then do the donut holes.


After removing them from the oil, place on a plate with a couple of paper towels.


Then dip both sides in melted butter and place in the cinnamon and sugar mixture, coating both sides. {You can also make different frostings and glazes, but my family's preference is cinnamon/sugar.}


And enjoy!


This is such a simple weekend morning treat. The only trick is not getting your oil too hot, and using the cheap biscuits, they are thinner and cook all the way through quicker, other wise you risk having raw centers.

Girl's Day

Girl's Day for my bestie and I used to mean lots of shopping and maybe a massage or mani/pedi. It now means a third girl and lots of bubbles, color crayons and little people.

Yesterday, me and Aunt Katie took the Little Lady to the Children's Museum in Denver. To say that the Little Lady had fun would be a major understatement. She.loved.it!!! And if she loved it, me and Katie loved it. Right? Right.


The Little Lady LOVES Aunt Katie and this next picture is so stinkin' cute!


We started with some dress-up and tap dancing...


The Bubble Room was the Little Lady's favorite, especially the "Big Bubble Maker." The Little Lady would make her way to the front of the group and every single time a bubble came out she'd let out a huge squeal!


Here's me and the Little Lady INSIDE of a big bubble...pretty cool!


Check out the Little Lady's wet tutu...someone might have slipped in the bubbles and landed in them. Didn't slow her down one bit.

We spent A LOT of time in the Bubble Room!


There was shopping.

Imagine a room full of toddlers and shopping carts...


And giant tree climbing.


And trains.


And a fire station.




And lots and lots of more fun stuff!


We had a great Girl's Day and will for sure be back!
{Even if Aunt Katie and I sure could have gone for a massage after that!}

Life in Phone Pictures

Hello friends! Wow, another week in the books already, doesn't seem possible.

We started the weekend out right...with homemade donuts! They are sooo good and sooo easy (canned biscuits).


Saturday night was the big massacre game.
It was sad.

But on a high note, the Little Lady had her first {her Mama's first desperate attempt at} pigtails.

Major teething = hands in the face all.the.time.

Half-time brought on a major hissy.
It was excused, all Bronco fans felt like having one.

Yes, I know it looks as though she's sweetly sleeping...psych!

Sunday night and Monday, John Wayne and I had a little getaway to the big big city. It wasn't so much a getaway, but a retreat/meetings for John Wayne's work, but for me it was pure getaway! Sleeping in, Starbucks for breakfast {remember, I live 100 miles from my nearest Starbucks, so yes this = big treat!}, shopping and lunch with one of my best girlfriends.

The Embassy Suites that we stayed at was really nice. I managed one lousy picture. The exercise room. But I did determine that working out at 9AM (rather than 5AM) in a room full of nice equipment (rather than your living room) is actually fun.


My Mom and Dad pulled my old rocking horse out of storage, cleaned it up and it's now the Little Lady's new favorite toy!


I know that I've been counting down the days to the weekend...enjoy!

My alarm clock...

Every morning, my alarm clock goes off at 5AM.
Every morning, I groan and contemplate rolling back over and sleeping for another 45 minutes.
Every morning, except for that one, I drag my butt out of bed and go workout.

I have a workout buddy this year. My bestie and I are holding each other accountable to working out five mornings a week. It's working for me. My bestie and I are both ultra-competitive and therefore we both hate the idea of writing the dreaded "I didn't work out this morning" email.

Pinterest is a great source for a little motivation too. I was thinking how effective it would be if instead of the annoying beeping that my cell phone blasts at me each morning, if it flashed one of these babies on the screen {yeh, I'd probably still need that annoying beeping too}, but wouldn't that help get you out of bed?!?

I always regret when I decide to skip my morning workout...this would help me remember that!

This is what my bestie posted to my wall on the morning I decided to skip : )

And this one, well it just wins...it's the one I need flashed in my face every morning!
Thanks Lori : )

Well for now I'll just have to print that last one out and tape it to my night stand, but here's to all of you ladies dragging your butts out of bed in the morning or to the gym after work!

Blog Love

I received this sweet award from Melodee over at the Polkadot Notebook.


This award is given to bloggers with less than 200 followers, in the hopes that it will bring many new friends/followers.

Leibster is German and means 'dearest' or 'beloved' but it can also mean 'favorite'. The idea of the Leibster award is to bring attention to blogs with less than 200 followers. So, in the spirit of good fun I am passing this award on to five other bloggers. Please stop by and visit them.

The Rules are:

1. Show your thanks to the blogger who gave you the award by linking back to them.

2. Reveal your five picks for the award and let them know.

3. Post the award on your blog.

4. Bask in the love from the most supportive people on the blogshare-other bloggers.

5. Finally and the best rule of all..........have fun and spread the love!


My five picks for the Liebster award are:

The Other Side of the Road
Extreme Results: in fitness & life
Saturday's Mail
Imperfectly Wonderful World
Jack and the Kumquat

Now go visit their blogs and share some blog love!

Life in Phone Pictures

Hello friends and Happy Friday!
Can I get a "whoop whoop"?!?
I really love Fridays.

Anyways, this week has been a good week. I've kind of been on a Denver Bronco/Tim Tebow induced high! You know that they upset the Steelers, right?!? Very exciting!
Can I get a "whoop whoop"?!?

The Little Lady is currently obsessed with all things fancy: her tutus, hair bows and fancy shoes.
Makes me proud : )
She wants this tutu from her Halloween costume on all.the.time.


{Yes, my Christmas tree is still up behind the Little Lady in one of those pictures. That was Saturday's project...the house is back to normal again.}

Sunday, John Wayne, the Little Lady and I went to the National Western Stock Show and Rodeo at the Denver Coliseum. Our niece and nephew were showing their steers in the Catch-a-Calf Show. They did great!


We left the Stock Show in time to catch the second quarter of the big game on the radio and made it to Colorado Springs to my aunt and uncle's house in time to catch most of the second half on TV; thank goodness, this is not a game I would have wanted to miss! And just because, here's the stadium with the actual game going on inside it as we were driving by : )


The Little Lady, yeh, she's a Tebow fan. Every time we mention him: fist in the air, screaming his name {or at least her version of his name}.


Yesterday was a big day around here. We all {John Wayne, my Dad, my Grandpa} took our calves to the sale. You see it's such a big deal because when you make your living as a rancher, you have one pay day a year and yesterday was that day.

The day went great!
The calves looked great and they sold great.
Can I get a "whoop whoop"?!?
Mama gets a new pair of shoes!!! : )


Sale day, it's a family affair: my Grandpa and Grandma, Mom and Dad, John Wayne, the Little Lady...and I even took the day off work!

I'm pretty sure that John Wayne and I agree that the best part of sale day is the paycheck, but I know someone who thinks it's when they handout homemade cookies!


Have a great weekend!

GO BRONCOS!!!

Cold, Cattle and Cotton Candy

Today we went to the National Western Stock Show and Rodeo in Denver. Our niece and nephew were both showing steers in the Catch-a-Calf show. Yes, this means that last year during the Stock Show, they were both successful in catching a calf {running down, wrestling, haltering, pulling across the finish line} during the contest.

I've been going to the Stock Show each year for literally my whole life and the Stock Show always means one thing...COLD! It was 18 degrees out when we arrived this morning {the sun did eventually come out and it turned out to be a pretty nice day}.


Cousin Sydney is one of the Little Lady's favorite people.


John Wayne and I both grew up showing cattle. I imagine that in not too many more years, we'll be right back in there with someone else on the end of the lead rope.


I have to tell you, the Little Lady must have found the show {plus all off the other action going on around us} to be very entertaining. She was really chill {especially for her} during the entire three hours we were watching the show.


Yes, this is what my child wears to the Stock Show. In the midst of lots of Wranglers and boots, the Little Lady has on her Broncos jersey {which by the way, GO BRONCOS!!!}, a tutu and silver sparkly Uggs : )

I'm happy to report that the Little Lady is going through a stage where she loves hair bows, tutus and fancy shoes.
She cries when we take them off.
My heart is bursting : )


This is the only picture I got of Gary {and it's with my cell phone, my Nikon and the lighting in the show ring did not agree???}. He's the one in the front. He ended up getting second place in his class. Both Gary and Sydney did very well with their projects. Their aunt, uncle and little cuz are very proud of them!


Completely random, not good picture, but on the way back to the Suburban, we visited with the bucking stock. There was no rodeo today, they start later in the Stock Show run.


The Stock Show is always a good time. We always run into numerous friends, more good shopping, good food...oh about that cotton candy...we didn't get any this year.!. That's one of my best childhood memories, watching the rodeo, eating cotton candy that my Grandma bought me. Stock Show fail...we better take Grandma and Grandpa next year!