Today officially marks the 29th year that I have been on this planet. I can't believe that I am one year away from the big 3 0 , blows my mind.

I grew up totally convinced the world was going to end before I graduated High School. I never choose a career when I was younger, because to me there was no point, I would not live past 18. I truly honestly believed it. And now I'm entering my 29th year, I would have never thought!

I am so grateful that I'm still around, that I have a fabulous family, extended and close. I'm grateful for the people I know and the things I have been able to do  and see.

I am so thankful that my Mom decided to have me. Some of you may not know, but there is a 16 year gap between me and my sister and 18 years between me and my brother. Many ask if I was an accident, but my Mom assures me that I was not, an accident or not - I'm glad I'm here and came to the family I came too.

Happy 29th Birthday to myself :) Its been a good day so far. Yay for 29 years, and here is to many more good ones...

So I got invited to go craft last night, I couldn't resist. I love having family close by that are amazingly talented, and I get to reap the benefits :)

We made coasters last night, they turned out super cute - so I had to share. The pictures don't do it justice, but you should get the general idea.

Cute huh? I love them, but most of all I just love crafting and being creative :)

I rushed to the store today, because I heard the January issue was out! I flipped to the back page, and there I am :)
Don't forget to check it out, its my one claim to fame..hehe

I'll post the actual page on another post, when I have more time.

Sometimes when we make chocolate chip cookies, my kid gets kind of goofy :)

This weekend we had a Christmas Party for my husbands side of the family. We had a lot of fun getting together with everyone. I like to dedicate this post to all types of people:

People that like santa people

Kids that like to bowl people

People that want world peace people

People who are happy people

People who have a stare down kind of people

People that take pictures of bowling balls

People that want you to know who they are with kind of people

Musically gifted people

People who are a little cheesy

People who are madly in love

People that think they are pretty much cooler than you

Kids that are cute kind of people

And...kids that have rocking awesome smiles ;)

We had a great weekend! Happy Holidays ya'll

I have not done Christmas cards for several years. I used to send out whacky pictures in my cards, just to be different. Well this year I decided to do the same. I made this picture, but when I saved it - I saved in the wrong format and it made it kind of blurry. I wasn't very happy with them. So I only sent out like 5 cards this year.

I thought I would share what I put together for this years card:

Pretty silly eh? I'll have to make sure next years is better so I can mail out more.

Anyways, Seasons Greetings from us here in Idaho!

Do you know what a chick pea is? Growing up we always called it a Garbanzo bean..I knew what it was, but never knew of it's glory until this year.

This is the year of firsts with a chickpea for me - it was the first time I had ever tried Hummus... and can you say yum? I loved it, and then I found out - main ingredient: Chick Pea Yo

Well, I've had a can of garbanzo beans sitting in my pantry. It's been sitting there for several months, not quite sure why I bought it. But I bought it and it sat there and sat there.....until today!

I was reading a magazine and came across a recipe for...

dun da da dunnnnn.....

Roasted Chick Peas!!!!

So I said to myself "Brit, you are making yourself some Roasted Chick Peas"

and I did, went straight into my kitchen and made them.

They are tasty, so I thought I would share the recipe. I don't think I cooked mine long enough because they aren't as crunchy as I would like...but next time, they will have a crunch.

Enjoy!

Hey, wait I'm not done yet. Are there any other secret chick pea recipes I don't know of? I only know one...so if you have more, please share ;)

One of my nieces is starting modeling, they had a photo shoot in November and apparently no one felt the need to tell me about it. Tonight I randomly came across some of the pictures online. She's growing up so much...holy cow...what I want to know though, is when was one of my own family members going to tell me that these were posted online...hello family keep a sister in the loop.

Check out more pictures here. (photo from Marcel Walker Photography)

A Figgy Pudding story. (Names are made up to protect the innocent)

One day this little boy named Blake was singing a song, it went like this:

"Then bring us some freaking pudding, then bring us some freaking pudding"

You see Blake had the words of the song a little wrong, he heard the song on the radio once, and was just singing as he was playing, not knowing that he had one of the words wrong. It's Figgy not freaking, but he wasn't corrected, his mother named Josephina just let Blake keep singing the song.

Well Blakes older sister Maggie heard her little brother singing the song, and she thought she better let him know he's singing it wrong. This is how it went down:

Blake: "Then Bring us some freaking pudding, then bring us .."
Magge: "You're singing the song wrong"
Blake: "No I'm not"
Maggie: "Yes you are, it's supposed to go like this... "Then bring us some F%*#ing pudding"
Josephina: "Maggie!!!! What did you just say"
Maggie: She repeats herself, like it's no big deal
Josephina: "Maggie that is a terrible word, we don't say that in this house"

Poor Maggie honestly had no idea she was saying such a terrible word.

It was hard not to laugh...not that I was there or anything.

Kids come up with the funniest things sometimes :)

Ok so contrary to popular belief, I'm kind of a loser. Kirklan is always wanting to go on trips and get away, but I always decline because I want to save money, or timing is bad, or the kids have school...always some sort of excuse from me...kind of lame.

Well on Thanksgiving weekend Kirk proposed to get away and leave that weekend and head to Vegas. I wanted to go, but since we were already on vacation, I decided that we wouldn't go.

On our drive home from Thanksgiving Kirklan was teasing me how I'm a downer and how I never want to go anywhere, so at that moment I decided I was going to plan a trip.

So I got online, booked a trip and told Kirk we were heading to Vegas that next weekend. My mother in law took the kids and off we went to 5 glorious days spending time with each other.

Here are some pictures from our trip, in no particular order. We had a great time, it was so nice to get away. I love you Kirky, thanks for being my babe :)

Did you know it's a 10 hour drive to Vegas from my house? That's a long drive...here is a picture after we FINALLY arrived to our room and then we headed out to walk the strip. We walked and walked and walked...

Me and my gangsta husband at Bellagio

The strip at night, it has such a fun atmosphere at night - I love it!

So...I've always wanted to go in the Coyote Ugly bar, but not being a drinker it always seemed weird wanting to go hang out in the bar. I've always walked passed, but never went in...but this time we went in and watched the girls dance on the bar. I had an oppurtunity to go dance on the bar, but didn't take it - I was too nervous...maybe next time :)

Me and my babe in the Coyote Ugly  (sneaking a pic) hahaha

We stayed at the MGM Singature Suites - which I would highly recommend. This place seriously rocked, it was upscale, fancy and lovely. This was the view from our balcony.

Out on the balcony one morning before heading out to lunch. We never ate breakfast while we were there, we were too busy staying up late and sleeping in...ah, lovely.

We went to a few shows while we were there, one of them was the Criss Angel show...it was pretty trippy.

We also went to the bodies exhibit...it still haunts me today. It was super cool, but kind of freaky seeing dead bodies.

Kirklan hugging his favorite machine! We played awhile and won NOTHING, and then one night Kirklan won $25.00 on this machine, $66.00 the next night and our final night I won $50.00 - gambling is so much more fun when you actually win :)

Me and my hot babe. Dang we had a good trip, it was so nice to get away and be just with my honey for 5 days. We had a great time, we definitely need to get away more often.

Oh and what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.

The End.