Homemade Ice Cream

Tonight for New Years Eve Pablo and I are staying home. We are making a nice dinner, playing Wii, and watching the ball drop. I decided to breakout the ice cream maker that the Woodwards gave us several Christmas's ago. We made Amaretto ice cream with almonds and chocolate chips...yummy! I used a base ice cream from a Ben and Jerry's book and made up the rest of my flavors.

Amaretto Ice Cream

2 eggs

3/4 cup sugar

1 cup milk

2 cups heavy cream

1/4 cup amaretto

1/2 cup almonds

1/2 cup chocolate chips (I used semi-sweet so it didn't turn out too sweet)

Beat 2 eggs until light and fluffy. Slowly add in sugar. Add in milk, cream, and amaretto. Pour into ice cream machine (I keep my main ice cream base of the machine in my freezer at all times so it is frozen solid). Turn machine on for 25 mintues. At 25 mintues, add in almonds and choco chips and keep machine on an additional 5 minutes. Enjoy! (Any leftover I put into a tupperware container and put it in the freezer.)

Finished product....YUMMY!

Things to be Hopeful for in 2010

• getting engaged (I'm just saying....he has had his own engagement ring and my grandma's to choose from for the past 2 months.)
• upgrading our bathrooms
• a car that works!
• training my dogs to be better poopies (Auntie Beth will appreciate that one)
• who knows how many more different hair colors (p.s. I am now a dark purply red n loving it)
• Vegas for TMK's b-day bash
• Christmas in Portland
• a spring break visitor from Denver
• using the pool again with my new and improved back yard!!!
• cooking classes with Cam
• concerts...so far we have G-Love in January
• summer visit from Cal???

What are you hopeful for in 2010?

Visitors

While my mom was in town, we planted some new items for the pots in my backyard. In two of the pots we put a flowery plant that smells like sage. My mom said that it is supposed to attract hummingbirds....as usual my mother is right.

Art Project

The walls of my office at work are empty. About a year ago I bought 3 blank canvas's to paint and hang in my office. Two months ago I brought them home and decided instead to paint something for the house. I wanted to tie the colors of my different rooms in the house together and this is what I came up with....all in all I am pretty happy with the outcome.

Movies Scene Over the Holidays

I went and saw 2 movies over my long holiday weekend:

It's Complicated. I cannot remember the last time I laughed so hard....it is hilarious!

Sherlock Homes....cute! I love Rachel McAdams.

Did you see anything good???

Merry Christmas to Me

This year Santa was VERY good to me....I really don't think he knows what a bad girl I was. Here is what Pabs got me this year:

• Top Chef Cookbook (I already know what I am going to make first!)

• Very Hollywood perfume set....LOVE it.


• V.S. pajamas


• vest from the GAP


• bath and body works lotion and soap yummies

• Hello Kitty necklace
• Wii and Wii fit....we played it ALL day on Christmas!

What did Santa bring you???

Merry Christmas!

Holiday Card Rejects

Here are this year's rejects from my holiday card photo shoot....

(Someone is excited.)

I was surprised how easy it was to get all 3 to co-operate. Watch out for the perfect shot headed your way!

Best Dog Park Ever....

Yesterday I went over to Bre's side of PHX to do some holiday shopping and to get my hair done (yes, I changed my color again but that is another post and another personal issue we will discuss at a later date). While on her side of town we passed by the coolest looking dog park- huge space, obstacle courses for dogs, and a large lake with different jumping spots. Today Pablo and I took Moose to the park. We first unleashed him and he ran straight into the water. He just jumped in....kinda cute. We were there for over an hour, most of which was spent throwing the ball into the water and Moose swimming to get it. The park is 45 minutes away (one way) so we won't get to go that often, but it was a rare treat!

Wists

Bre introduced me to Wists one day at work during a phone chat. It took me about 10 minutes to register and have several things on my "wist list"....aka wish list. I love it. Isn't it amazing how much "stuff" you constantly want?? I have heard it said that Bill Gates cannot possibly spend all of his money; give me a week to 2 weeks and I am pretty sure I could cause Gates to go bankrupt. Check out my list- http://www.wists.com/mandyfrench

Happy Birthday to the Cutest Damn Nephew Ever!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Calen!!

I wish I could be there for your special day. I know you will have so much fun at Zoo Lights with your family and friends. And as your Great Grandma Weber used to say, when it comes to presents, "El Rippo!".

Love you bunches,

Your Favorite Aunt Mandy

Number 6:

My FAVORITE!: Meet Me In St. Louis...watch it! You will LOVE it. :)

Number 5:

Principal: "Scott, what was the last thing you and Charlie did, before you went to bed Christmas Eve?"

Scott:"We shared a bowl of sugar, did some shots of brown liqour, played with my shot guns, field-dressed a cat, looked for women... "

The Santa Clause

Number Four:

"It's just like Santa's workshop! Except it smells like mushrooms... and everyone looks like they wanna hurt me... "


Elf

Number 3:

Natalie: "Hello, David. I mean "sir". Shit, I can't believe I've just said that. And now I've gone and said "shit" - twice. I'm so sorry, sir. "

Prime Minister: "It's fine, it's fine. You could've said "fuck," and then we'd have been in real trouble."

Natalie: "Thank you, sir. I did have an awful premonition that I was gonna fuck up on the first day. Oh, piss it!"

Love Actually

Holiday Movie #2:

Numero dos to watch:

“You were shoveling snow. You were just a little girl in a flannel nightgown. And you were shoveling snow from the walk in front of our house. And I was the snow. I was the snow. And everywhere it landed and everything it covered. And you scooped me up…with that big red shovel. You scooped me up.”

The Family Stone

Holiday Movie #1

I am going to post some of my favorite holiday movies to watch this time of year. The first recommendation:

"They can't all be winners, kid."

Bad Santa

Old vs. New

Pablo and I have been waiting FOREVER to redo our backyard. We finally were able to have someone landscape it for us. It happened over the Thanksgiving week when my family was in town. It is amazing to see the before (gross!) and the after (love it!!!)....
It's like a whole new house now! We are SO happy with the results....each day I cannot wait to get home! :)

Classic

T-shirts- $3.00

Puffy paint-$2.98

Sweat bands- $10.00

The look on my dad and Pablo's face when they saw their competition....

PRICELESS!

My Anna Weeze and I played a game of tennis vs. my dad and Pablo on Thanksgiving Day. We knew that they would cream us, so we decided to make total fools of ourselves on and off the court. (Our t-shirts said "We eat tennis players like you for breakfast")

Cute ball girl! Look at those legs....sweet!

"Teet"

Calen loves his "teets"; also known to you and I as a treat. So as his favorite aunt, who am I to deny him what he wants??? Calen says "teet", I say "sure"! We made a trip to Baskin Robbins while we were all in Denver. I just love this shot of him eating his ice cream...

Steals at J & K Furniture

One of my favorite furniture stores up by my house is J & K Furniture. They sell used furniture...now I am not talking your Goodwill, garage sale rejects. I am talking Scottsdale housewife that re-decorates her house every year furniture. This is where I got my china cabinet that I posted about several months ago. I went in today to look for a bench. Our kitchen table is finally finished and we needed 2 more chairs. Instead of chairs, I decided that I wanted a bench for one side of the table. Well, J & K had just the bench I had in mind.

Looks like it is brand new...89 dolla!!

This adorable bookshelf that just needs the hooks for the shelves to sit on....9 dolla!

Now, getting them into my little Beetle was frustrating. I am sure to all of the people in the parking lot staring at my red face and fat ass trying to shove them into my Beetle, it was hilarious. To me, not so much. One douche even had the nerve to say to me as he sauntered by, "Not gonna happen". Oh yeah??? Well, it did happen! It just took me 30 minutes.

It made me want a 4 door Jeep even more. I loved driving this thing in Denver....it probably would have only taken me 5 minutes to get my new bench and bookshelf into this beauty.

Calen in Denver

My sister and Calen made the trip out to Denver for my grandma's funeral. While we were there it snowed. We didn't have any sleds but wanted to give Cal that same experience, so we used a laundry basket. It was hilarious. After each trip down the small hill in my aunt's yard, Cal would scream for more at the bottom..."Mo". "Mo". "Mo". We got quite a workout pulling him up the hill and pushing him down.Look at those huge mittens on his little hands!
My mom was really giving it her all...look at her face! :)
Damn, that's a cute pea-coat! His favorite aunt found that at the Gap for him.

Broncos

I love the Broncos. Living in Phoenix it is hard if not impossible to find Broncos gear at stores. I usually search for days or just order something off of the net. Being in Denver a few weeks ago, I was going Broncos crazy. Their supermarket had all the gear I could ever want. So I did what any girl that likes to shop does when she finds what she has been looking hard and long for....I stocked up.

Besides the normal Broncos garb I found that my favorite player of all time, Ed McCaffrey, had gone into business. No, not your typical car dealership (Elway has about 1 million of those). Mustards. That's right. It might not be as classy as a car dealership, but damn are they tasty. My favorite is the Dijon...notice the stash. Classic.

Things Done Over the Weekend

• Got my first trick-or-treaters....2 of them!
• Went and saw Bright Star with Cam...all about the poet John Keats...really good.
• Watched my Broncos loose their first game this season
• Made Grammy French's chili
• Got his and hers Blackberry's....mine is orange, Pabs is red
• Went swimming with Moose....it was FREEZING; last swim of 2009!

Wax House

This weekend I took a crafting class at Bre's new condo. In the class we created Halloween wax houses. They turned out really well...and melting the wax was a lot of fun....I got a little carried away with the wax.

These photos are borrowed from Sam's blog...for more, check out www.linkadventure.blogspot.com