SICK of being sick

So Ciera was sick last week. I got sick this week. Now little missy is sick again-- and sick BAD!
The flu bug has hit my poor baby girl hard. She has a fever, is weak and of course I can't forget the vomitting.. yuck.

I just pray that the boys don't get this horrible illness, and that both Ciera and I recover quickly. NO TIME, I repeat no time to be sick!

Times like these I'm thankful for our church family and the sweet, selfless friends we have that will take time out of their day to help us. Ciera can barley get up off the couch, can't keep ANYTHING down and has a hard time drinking water, so my good friend Karen volunteered to go to the store and pick up bottles of lemon-lime Gatorade for us. We are now calling her our "Gatorade Fairy".

Seriously. SO. Thankful.

Great Grandma’s Fudge

Great Grandma’s Fudge

Ohh this is a good one friends!

This recipe comes from my hubby’s Great Grandmother. I have absolutely no idea where she acquired this recipe, could be her own, could be a friends, could be out of a cookbook! All I know is that it’s amazing and I had to share it with you!

 3 Cups    ( 18 oz. )      Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips

 1 Cup     Butter

 2 Cups   Miniature Marshmallows

 2 Teas.  Vanilla

 2 Cups   Coarsely Chopped Walnuts

 4 Cups     Sugar 

 1   12oz.  Can of Evaporated Milk

 Put the first 5 ingredients into a large mixing bowl and set aside.

 Combine Milk and Sugar in a large heavy pan.  STIR, slowly but
CONTINUOUSLY, bring to a boil over medium heat.  As soon as it comes to a
full rolling boil, cook it for 11 minutes.  NEVER STOP STIRRING!  A flat
wooden spoon works well to keep it from sticking or scorching at the bottom
of the pan.  At the end of 11 MINUTES pour the sugar/milk mixture over the
ingredients in the mixing bowl and stir until completely combined.  Pour
into a greased 9"x13" cake pan and chill for a few hours before cutting.
Store in a covered container in the fridge.

Homemade Essential Oil Play Dough!

Homemade Essential Oil Play Dough!

My daughter, Ciera has been on a HUGE play dough kick lately. All she wants to do is play with the stuff, and look up videos on You Tube about play dough, and all the new things she can learn to make with it.
Well, our canned play dough was nearing the end of it’s life (due to being left out, lids not being closed.. You know the story!) I was about to take off to Target to go replenish her stock, but then I remembered seeing a great recipe on Pinterest for homemade play dough made with essential oils. I looked it up this morning, realized I had all the ingredients at home, and figured why not give it a try?!?
It gave us a fun activity to work on together, and of course Ciera was absolutely thrilled!
Here’s the recipe, I hope you’ll give it a try with your littles!
Homemade Essential Oil Play Dough:
2 cups of flour
2 cups of colored water (just add a few drops of food coloring into the water, stir)
1 cup of salt
1 TBSP. olive or vegetable oil
1 TSP. cream of tartar
approx 8 drops of essential oil OR extract of your choice (I used doTerra’s grapefruit essential oil)


* Add all ingredients together in a non-stick pot  (other then the oil/extract), cook over low heat until the mixture forms a ball.




Remove play dough ball from pot, let it cool for a good 10 minutes. Add in your essential oil/extract and have your child knead the oil into the dough. They’ll LOVE doing this!


Have fun and play away!

Brownies with Peanut Butter Cup Icing

Brownies with Peanut Butter Cup Icing

This recipe comes to you from my good friends over at Tradernation on instagram.
It is absolutely GENIUS and too good not to share with you!
Take this:

Bake the brownies according to package directions.


(licking the brownie batter off the spoon is part of the package directions, right?!? Kidding, I don’t recommend it, especially because it has raw eggs, but it’s oh so good!)

When the brownies are done baking, remove them from the oven and take these:

And spread them all over the warm brownies. I used about 3/4 of the package of PB cups.  It turns out the to be the most perfect, decadent icing. YUMM!


Hope you enjoy this easy peasy recipe.
And, if you happen to love Trader Joes (like I do) and happen to have an instagram, go follow tradernation, for more great products and recipe ideas!

Essential Oil Infused Cake Pops

Essential Oil Infused Cake Pops

If you know me, then you know that I absolutely love my doTerra essential oils.
I’ve been using them for about a year now, slowly replacing many of my over the counter meds and other household products in exchange for these natural, pure and safe essential oils.
You guys probably never would have guessed that I just love desserts, and could pretty much live off them for the rest of my life like a day, maybe… haha. Well, leave it to me to create an essential oil infused dessert! I don’t just use my oils for medicinal and household use, no I love to bake with these oils and let me tell ya, I  created a very unique sweet treat!
I love that these oils are so pure that you can cook and bake with them. I had so much fun with these cake pops!

I chose 2 of my favorite oils: peppermint and wild orange.


For the peppermint cake pops I made a chocolate cake, and added 1 drop of oil- I repeat ONE drop of peppermint oil to the cake batter. The oils are SO extremely potent that all you need is a drop!
So bake the cake, remove from the oven. Let it cool. Then crumble it all up! Mix cake crumbs with approx 1 1/2 cups of frosting until the consistency looks almost dough-like. Then roll into cake balls approx 1 inch in size. Place cake balls on a wax lined cookie sheet, and pop them into the freezer for at least half an hour. Freezing the cake balls will allow them to be much much easier to work with when it comes time to dip!
To dip, I used Wilton Candy Melts-

You can find these at most craft stores in the cake decorating section, in a variety of colors. I used the green and orange colored candy melts. Melt  according to the package directions.
Take your cake pop stick (these are also found in the same section), dip just the tip into the melted candy melts, and stick it into your cooled cake balls. This will act as a “glue” so the sticks won’t fall out. Let them harden for a few minutes. Now dip your cake balls into the candy melts.
I garnished them with some pretty purple sugar, and wrapped them up.
For the wild orange cake balls, I went about it a little differently:
Make your regular cake batter this time and don’t add any essential oil yet. Bake your cake, cool, crumble, add frosting, roll into balls, freeze… you get it- exactly the same way I made the peppermint cake balls. Now melt your candy melts, and this time add 1 drop of the wild orange essential oil to the melted candy melts. This will make the candy melts taste like an orange creamsicle, yumm!
Both flavors of cake pops turned out great, but I found that the orange infused ones had more flavor. I think this is due to the oil being placed into the melted candy melts rather then the cake batter. It gives it a more intense flavor!

I brought these cake pops to an “Intro to essential oils” class taught by my friend Jen Broas (also known as Crash Test Mommy, here on OC Family) The class was hosted by Suz Broughton- Alive In Wonderland, and I think they were a hit!
I love this photo Suz took of Jen and I with the cake pops. Such a fun night!

I’d love to hear from you if you try making some of your own cake pops with essential oils, if you use essential oils… I’d just love to hear from you! Happy Baking!