Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays from Jax & Us!

 

Of course this whole month of December has consisted of lots and lots of baking and putting together gifts! Although I didn't get pictures of everything, below are a few that I did take and several links with recipes to some of the goodies I made this Christmas.

 

White Elephant Gift #1

6 Pack of assorted beer, 6 - 1 inch red pom poms, 10 brown pipe cleaners and 12 small or medium googly eyes & a glue gun.

Adult Treats ;)

If you are an adult in my family - you needed this Christmas morning after the Christmas Eve pajama party that we had! Or if you stayed up late helping Santa. I put this in treat bags with a mix of different chocolates for the guys and socks and nail polish for the girlies.

Jaxon didn't need any of the above to love his stocking!

I could have filled 2-3 stockings for him with all the ideas I had for a toddler boy stocking. Some of his favorite stuffers were

1. Contigo Water Bottle

2. Mickey Mouse Toothbrush With Thomas The Train Toothpaste

3. Dinosaur Stamps With Ink 

4. Superhero Socks

5.  Mini M&M's

 

Of course the husband stocking takes some more thinking but once I started, I thought of tons of ideas for Grant besides candy.

1. Movies - Can't go wrong there! I bought the second Hobbit movie.

2. Wallet

3. Leveler Tool - The phone app just doesn't cut it for me.

4. Gloves

5. Flash Drive

 

Other ideas I had were a flashlight, gift card, ear bud headphones because who knows where they disappear to, ornament, chapstick, other favorite toiletries, socks, sports or dress watch, video games, mini liquor bottles or energy drinks. And of course now I'm thinking of a few more...

 

Links below to some yummy and easy desserts! Hobby Lobby sells adorable sandwich baggies with holiday designs on them that are perfect for "neighbor gifts", coworkers, friends and family treats.

 

Peanut Butter Ritz Cookies

 

Pretzel M&M Hugs

 

Reindeer Chow with Holiday M&M's

 

I will also add the directions to make individual mini Oreo cheesecakes on a separate post. I made individual pumpkin pies for Thanksgiving and love that minis can be on display and be eaten when ever guests are ready versus waiting until the end, cutting and serving slices.

 

Hope y'all have a great New Year!

2014 was so good to Jax & Us. Looking forward to what the next year will bring me and my boys!

Juicy Juice

Jax & Us are still around ;) The amount of pumpkin pie I've eaten in the past week is not okay, but I enjoyed every last bite! When Monday rolled around and my 5 days off of work was over, all I wanted  was clean juice to help me forget everything I ate over Thanksgiving weekend. I've experimented with a ton of fruit & veggie combos since I bought a "beginner" Bella Juicer a few months ago and this weeks combo was worth repeating for my juicing friends!

• 4 Gala Apples, Cored With Skin On
• 1 Whole Cucumber, With Peel
• 3 Kiwi, No Skin
• 1 Cup Of Green Grapes

This juiced enough for two. I can drink any juice because I know I didn't make a huge mess in my kitchen for nothing.... the real taste test is if Grant will drink it or not. We agree this combo is one of the best yet!

One piece of advice I would give to any one wanting to begin juicing is start easy! This combo is heavy on fruit and ideally you want to keep going until most of your juices are heavy on the veggies.

Fall Family Photos

My favorite time of the year is here and along with trips to the pumpkin farm, extra baking and lots of warm coffee,  fall family photos are a must for Jax & Us! I have hundreds and hundreds of pictures of Jaxon on my Shutterfly account but the photos you'll see around our home are from lovely and affordable photographers that I have found via Facebook and by word of mouth from friends. We had a mini session with Cindy Diaz Photography (Dekalb/Elgin area) over the weekend and thanks to her quick turn around, I already have our cd with photos to share with you all!

DIY Caramel Frappuccino

It's no secret that I have a special kind of love for caramel blended coffee drinks. The day Caribou shut it's doors, I was heart broken. Starbucks Caramel Frappuccino will never taste the same to me as a Caribou Caramel Cooler, but I've learned to love them. This morning I woke up determined to find a copycat recipe to save some time and money while still getting my coffee fix. The end result:

Who doesn't hate driving out of your way, waiting in line for 5-10 minutes while carrying a 35lb toddler to stop him from attacking the juice box display, handing over $5 a drink and getting a Frappuccino that  isn't 100% the way you like it? I can't be the only one! What's great about the DIY Caramel Frappuccino is there is so much for you to  choose from while creating a frapp to your liking. Another plus about making a Frappuccino at home is being in control of how much sugar is (or is not) in the drink.

 

Jaxon wanted to make sure he made an appearance in this post. ;)

In my Ninja I blended the following:

 

1 - 1 1/2 cups of ice. 

1 cup of Starbucks Caramel Iced Coffee.  I found this in the cold juice/drinks section separate from the milk at Jewel, it could be by the milk section at a different store. You could also brew your own coffee at home and let it cool down. I find the store bought coffee more convenient for myself.

1/4 - 1/2 cup of milk. Totally up to you on what kind of milk you prefer to drink and how much you prefer.

Smucker's Caramel Sundae Syrup. Regular and sugar free syrup can be found near the ice cream cones/toppings. I drizzled some before I blended. Depending on whether your coffee is flavored already, you'll want more or less.

 

Optional: 1-3 teaspoons of granulated sugar if you're feeling extra sweet. I did not add any and it was just fine.

 

Whipped Cream to top it off, along with some caramel drizzle and you have yourself a Caramel Frappuccino!

 

My very honest little brother drank one with me and immediately said it tasted just like Starbucks. I spent $10 at the grocery store for all of the ingredients (minus the milk I stole from Jaxon's supply) and figure the iced coffee will be enough for 6-8 16oz drinks while the syrup and whipped cream will last much longer. Unless Grant eats the whipped cream before that.

Enjoy!

Life After The Army

Summer has just about come to an end here and the Powells are several weeks into the new school year! Jaxon is finding that three mornings of preschool a week isn't as awful as he originally thought ;) His teacher may feel differently about that, but we think it's going pretty great on both ends! With how much fun our summer was spending time with friends and family at home, I just realized we've hit the 3 month mark since Grant has officially separated from the Army. Which may explain why I've had Georgia on my mind lately. I sometimes think of how I have yet to meet baby Riley since my neighbor, Kelsey, had her a week after we moved - after I watched her belly grow for months! I see pictures of the Manley girls and Lacey on the West Coast and can't wait to make that trip to Washington to see where the Army has taken them. The Rava baby will also be on my list of little people to meet and Jaxon would love to have a playdate with Hailey Starr again. As we keep moving forward and further away from the Army life, I treasure pictures more and more. Coming across an old picture and remembering the friends I made down South will keep those sweet memories alive. Whether it was just being a friend and grabbing coffee to get out of the house, comforting each other when we'd get the news we didn't want time and time again from the Army, standing next to each other while those buses pulled up and our husbands marched across that field back to us, or celebrating birthdays and holidays together like a family does - thank you for your friendship! Three months out and I truly feel we are where we are meant to be right now. Grant and I are looking forward to see what else is coming our way :)

 

Cat in the Hat 1st Birthday

As promised, I'm going back and catching up on some old projects I've done. Jaxon's first birthday was so much fun to plan! While Grant was in Afghanistan I put lots of energy into things to keep me busy and help those ten long months go by faster. Sorry Mom, I know your house was a mess while I worked on different projects on every room ;)

 

Invitations by PartySparkle

 

 

Diaper cover and tie from GigiezLilCreations and party shirt from HomeArtsBoerne



 Banner by caitlinwilhelm

 

Jax is one! Seussville has a great selection of Cat in the Hat décor and birthday supplies

 

Very lucky to know so many talented ladies :) Danielle Roberts made our cake, cupcake lady Jenna Roth made Thing 1 and Thing 2 cupcakes, and Cake Pops by Vanessa

These were all loved by Jaxon (as you can see)!

 

 

 

 

The cupcake stand was about $6 on Amazon and I hot glued ribbon around each tier. I actually used it again for our Mickey Mouse birthday party.  









The only thing missing from our Cat in the Hat party was Grant! I cannot imagine hugging and kissing my baby goodbye at 6 months old and not holding him in my arms again until 16 months - my husband is much stronger than I am. I thank him and every service member that sacrifices seeing their babies grow in person. It's not just the birthdays and holidays - it's every day for them. So gives your babies extra kisses before bed tonight, all over the world parents are wishing they could be home to do the same!

Oh two-odles!

Thank you all for the love on Jaxon's birthday! He partied all day with a trip to Starbucks for breakfast, spent the morning at the petting zoo, Colonial for lunch, then had his dinner delivered by a train at 2Toots, and finally made his way over to the baseball fields to watch his favorite team.

As some of you may know (especially those of you on Snapchat), Jaxon is a huge Mickey Mouse Clubhouse fan. Grant and I cannot thank our family and friends enough for making his birthday party so special. He absolutely adored it!

Invitations by ThePrintableOccasion

Party shirt by RightUpYourAli1

Cake from Jewel

Cupcakes by the lovely Jenna Roth

Oreo Cookies by Jaxon's auntie Raquel Fortoso

I made the centerpieces and goodie bags.

 

 

 

 

We had a lot of fun with the theme. Of course we had a hotdog bar, because what else would Mickey Mouse eat!?

Happy birthday Jaxon!

Our sweet boy is two today! This year we're thankful Grant is home to celebrate with us. I'm thinking Jax will be doing his cake dance for the next five days. Looking forward to another year of laughs and smiles while watching him grow up way too quickly! XOXO

One was fun!

Keep up with Jax & Us

I've been going back and forth about starting our family blog since last year and always got stuck at the beginning - what should the blog name be? Today it finally came to me - Jax & Us! It couldn't get any more simple than that. If you know the Powell family at all, you'll know that Jax is always running (or galloping) along and ten feet behind him are Grant and I trying to keep up! With friends and family from coast to coast, a blog seems to be the easiest way to update our loved ones. I occasionally find the time and energy to try new recipes and crafts that I get questions about so those can also be found on here. I plan on going back a few years and posting some of the good stuff that has happened to our family and projects that have turned out okay. Stay tuned!