Fruit Icing? Yes, please!

If you know me you know I love fruit. Especially berries!! I use to enjoy a slice of cake but I never craved for a slice....until now.  Lately I have been adding fruit to my icings.  I started off with smashing strawberries and adding them into my butter creams, but with strawberries not always being in season I have been experimenting with other berries.  This weekend I made a blueberry butter cream.  I love the color the berries gave to the icing.  It does not have a drop of artificial coloring.  I am not a big fan of fondant. I find it to have no taste.  So I normally always make a butter cream but this weekend I experimented with making a cherry marscarpone frosting.  Let me tell you it was sooooo good!!! I think I will be making it all the time in the future.  It's so much lighter but not as light as a whipped icing.  It's PERFECT! Hopefully this picture will help remind me that I don't need another slice of cake. ( Oh the miles you have to run to burn this baby off )  By the way I have found that I love cake so much more, ever since I used the cake recipes off the Little Red House.  No more cake boxes for this girl.  They are so easy to make, and so moist, fudgy and yummy.

Breakfast

I love any time I can eat food.  But there is a special place in my heart for breakfast time.  You don't have the fanciest food but that is why you are so great!  You are so quick and easy to make.  You don't come off as pretentious or intimidating.  Daddies feel like they can wrap their head around you.  It's always wonderful to wake up on Saturday morning to french toast and strawberry compote with whipped topping in bed!  Which leads me to my next point, WHIPPED TOPPING for BREAKFAST! 

I don't have to wait till after dinner to have something sweet! How pretentious dinner can be.  Dinner must thinks it's a pretty big deal, to make one wait to allow ourselves to a treat.  You are the most courteous of all the meals. You don't insist on making me come to the table to partake in your deliciousness and goodness.  You sometimes come to me, and join me as I stay warm in my sheets and allow my eyes to slowly adjust to the suns gentle rays that begin to penetrate the small spaces between my blinds.  

And as sweet as you can be on a Saturday morning you have the ability to provide me with the nutrition I need to start my day right.  Whether, it be a baked frittata with tons of veggies, or egg whites with yummy spinach, or nopales with tomato, onion, and green chiles, or a smoothie, or my personal favorite rolled oats with coconut milk, berries, and almonds, you never fail to make healthy look easy.  So easy, that my children never put up a fit when they sit down to breakfast.

Yes, breakfast time you really do hold a special place in my heart. 

The Monstrous Smith R.V

Look who came into town.  These two went on a cross country trip across the United States.  And they did it in style.  We are always so happy when they stop by.  The kids found out Thursday they were going to stop by and they would not stop asking me when Uncle Kevin and Auntie Sara were getting in.  Viggo was so excited to see the car that had a refrigerator.  This thing is massive but I'll just let you see for yourself.

Getting rid of someone's hand marks.... I can't think of who it could be? But I was told they belong to someone who was tanning.  Yup there's enough room on the dashboard for someone to tan.

I didn't take pictures of it, but it has a living room, dinning table, kitchen, shower, master bedroom, and it currently has three flat screen t.v's and it still has room for another 50 inch t.v.  And if that wasn't enough it even has a place for a stack-able washer and dryer.   I told you it was Monstrous!

Ettinger Winter Wonderland Part II

 I look out my window and there is no more snow.  I'm glad we enjoyed it while we did.  My hubby even made me a thermos full of hot coco.  I don't know why but that made me really happy.  Love him! Don't look too closely this first pic is a little blurry and a tad noisy.  I recently changed my settings on my camera to use the back focus button. If you have not tried it, you must.  It feels awkward at first, but it is wonderful especially when you have moving kids.  It allows you to not miss that millisecond when you find that genuine unrehearsed moment.  Anyways, back to my point my hubby was not use to it.  It did not make it any easier for him that he was having to shoot with a freezer zip lock bag wrapped around it.  He's so good to me!

Oh how I loved our little Winter Wonderland! My kids even were playing old Christmas movies that we still had recorded on the DVR.  My husband keeps reminding me, "you like snow now, but that's because it melts away in a day. Wait till you have five straight months of it."  

But for now I'm still glad you visited my little corner of the desert!  

Snowing in My Corner of the Desert!

 I know many of you in parts of the country that experience snow all the time are probably ready to see it go.  But for this native California girl my heart skips a beat whenever I get the chance to see it fall.  We had a blizzard advisory which obviously I thought to myself like that's going to happen out here in Tucson Arizona.....but it did!  I ran out in my flip flops and short sleeved shirt wrapped a plastic freezer zip lock bag around my camera and tried to capture our little blizzard out here in Tucson.

Note to self- I am going to need to own shoes that are not just flip flops and opened toed shoes before I move up to Washington.

( My little one seemed very disturbed about how cold and wet it was,

 or maybe he just thought I was acting crazy. )

 Happy Hump Day Wednesday!

You Know Your Wife Needs a Date when....

1.  You can't remember the last date you went on

2. You find her trying to give herself some me time by trying to give herself her own pedicure and manicure... but finding her getting frustrated because her kids are crawling all over her like a jungle gym.

3.  You find yourself making marketing plans to have your kids be the next new big weight loss program, because you see your wife can't even get two bites in before she has to get up from the table.  Or, because by the time she gets to her dinner it's already cold and she is too tired to heat it up again.

4.  She begins to tell you about all the fun vacations people are going on that she sees on Facebook.

5.  You find her excited to just be in the same car as you.

6.  On your Costco run she gets dressed up.  

7.  She takes you down memory lane about all the fun dates you have had.

8. You find that you have plenty of choices to pick from at RedBox.

9.    You find her putting up White Christmas lights in the back patio hoping that you see it as an opportunity for you to make something romantic out of it.

10.  You find her taking Myspace like profile pics of herself because she is excited that she got out of her gym clothes!

( 9 and 10 I would consider to be red zone stages)

I'm Marissa Ettinger who is head over heals for her husband David Ettinger but approves this message!

And this "myspace" picture taking lady is going on a date this SATURDAY! 

Hope this makes all you date deprived mommas out there smile and laugh.  Either, at the funny things we do or just at me.  Happy Hump Day Wednesday!

Day of Lovin!

I use to not care so much for Valentine's Day.  Maybe it's the cheap side of me, but sometimes it felt like whoa we just had Christmas, do we really need another excuse to spend money on things that are really not that necessary.  

Don't get me wrong I love the whole romantic idea of it. What girl doesn't?  But it feels sometimes like it gets lost behind the extra large teddy bears, and huge bouquets of king sized candy bars.  If given one I would not be one to turn one away ( but in case anyone asks I prefer the fruit arrangements! With lots of strawberries!)  Don't worry this isn't a Debby Downer post, I am getting to the good stuff right now.  I know that we need to love everyday, but there is something fun knowing that everyone is going to put in extra effort to show how much you love those closest to you.  

I was really looking forward to it this year.  I was so excited to get to show my hubby and kiddos how much they mean to me.  There were no extravagant gifts or out to fancy dinners, just simple I love you moments.  And I would say that all those simple I'm Lovin you moments made this day feel special to me.  I got up and made sure that my kids got to eat heart shaped pancakes.  I love how excited they get when I do stuff like that.

Later I made red velvet cupcakes.  ( Recipe from Martha Stewart )

 I thought it would be fun to make ombre frosting.  It took me a while, but I finally got it to work!

Even though I said no gifts my husband got me some gorgeous flowers.  I love flowers! My dream is to one day find a field full of them surrounded by mountains and blue skies.  

 

 Isn't he looking so big?

 They melt my heart every time!  ( They also have the unique ability to make me feel like my hair is going to grey by the time I turn 35. )

Uncle Kevin and Auntie Sara sent us flowers.  Along with it came this necklace.  Ariana thinks they got her a real diamond necklace.  ( I think she may like extravagant gifts...)

 He and his Dad were so sick.  But he still wanted to eat a cupcake. His Dad was feeling pretty awful but he loves me so much that he tried to enjoy the steak dinner I made him.  (I didn't know he was feeling that terrible.  I would have made a soup instead.)

This is the gift I made David.  I took some old pics of us and created some Polaroid frames for them.  They go on a string and you can hang them in your room in a frame or over your bed frame.  I just thought it would be a fun way to let David know all the reasons why I love his so much! 

I hope you had a wonderful Valentine's Day too!

His Very First Birthday!

Thursday was my baby boy's 1st Birthday!!! Can you believe it?  I can't!! I was really emotional about this one.  There is such an exciting yet sad feeling about celebrating the very first birthday.  You know from here there will never be another first birthday again.  

We did everything that we Ettinger's out here in Tucson do.  We decorated the house with Streamers balloons, and birthday banners.  I made Micah his first homemade birthday cake.  Every year I think maybe I should just buy them one.  Like a really cute one with all the fun kid decorations.  (I am horrible at cute fondant kid cakes)  But for some reason I just can't make myself do it.  I just love baking my kids cakes.  And so far they love them.  So, I think I will keep making them because I am sure one day..... I will get the request to buy them a cake.  So I might as well enjoy this I love homemade birthday cake stage. 

I don't know what got into me that morning, but I packed my Viggo and Micah up in the car, strapped my camera on, grabbed some snacks and balloons and went up the road to take some pictures of my One Year Old Micah.   Oh what an adventure that was. When we first got there I had two coyotes walk right up behind me. Viggo and I ran to Micah to make sure they didn't mistake him for a puppy or some sort of small animal.  My Viggo was a great little assistant at first.  But, then the snacks came out.  I packed snacks for the moment of I HAVE DONE EVERYTHING AND I STILL CAN'T GET THE SHOT MOMENT! Well,Viggo busted out that last resort a little early. Like five minutes into taking pictures early.  If you know us then you know my boys love food.  And when there is food around there is nothing that matters more to them.  So, I ended up with lots of I'm looking at my hands shots because my Micah was too busy eating. At least he was having fun eating snacks with his brother.  I finally got him to look up at me once, all I had to do was pretend to hurt myself as I shouted oweeeee, and pretended to cry.  ( He thinks it's hysterical to see me hurt.) 

We ended the day with opening presents and eating dinner and cake.  My neighbors were nice enough to let their kids come over and share cake with us.  It was a good first birthday!

(This is the picture I took moments before I noticed that two coyotes were walking right behind Viggo and I.)

MICAH 

- You love feeding yourself
-You love water, and taking baths
-You started to walk for food
- You give me wonderful slobbery kisses
- You don't let your brother push you around.  In fact sometimes I find you pushing him around
- You love music.  You bop up and down as soon as you hear a beat
- You have THE best smile! You make everyone melt at the sight of your dimples
- You love food but you are picky.  You don't like to eat the same thing often.  You refuse to eat it if you feel like you have had it too much.
- You love to be held!
- I just realized that you are not doing that high pitch scream you have as often. 
- You love to play with your brother and sister. 
- You adore your dad.  You think he is the greatest.  But you love me even More!! (I know you love us both the same, I just like to tease your dad.)
- You love animals.
- You love to look at yourself in the mirror, and give your reflection a big kiss.
- You already want to draw.  You take a crayon in your hand just like your brother did and you try so very hard to color. 

We are so lucky to have you Micah.  You light up my world.  You, Viggo, and Ariana just bring me so much joy! I am so glad to have you in our home.

HAPPY FIRST BIRTHDAY!