It's good to be green:)

There are not alot of things that I can say I am crazy in love with, OK the husband & kids don't count! I really like clothes (trust me, anyone that ever physically sees me loves that fact that I wear them!) I really like watching the sunset on a beautiful spring day and I like the fact that I was born and raised in gorgeous San Diego, you get what I mean right?

But I am crazy in love with the Gospel, I am crazy in love with the mountains and skiing and I am crazy in love with my IRISH heritage!

I loved that my daddy would make us corn beef and cabbage every St. Patty's day even though no one really liked it. I try to keep that tradition going today, only I have added potato's and whoopie pies with green filling, which seems to be the only part of dinner anyone really

likes:):)

I like the fact that I have some pretty cool company in the Irish Heritage dept. I mean how can you not like that Bono, Pierce Brosnan, Liam Neeson, Colin Farrell, Peter O' Toole, and Enya all share Irish blood.

I remember growing up in San Diego and going to every Celtic fair that came to town. My mom would drag us to every cultural event there ever was and I usually complained the entire time. Not when we went to the Celtic one's! I loved watching the dancers doing the Irish Jig and Step dancing. I loved the costumes they would wear and the Celtic music they played. I always wanted to learn how to do those dances!

I will never forget one festival we went to my mom was looking at a map of Ireland trying to find a tiny town we had a relative from, she was doing genealogy and needed to find it. After searching this map for what seemed like forever in my 8 year old mind, she turned to me and asked if I could find it. I will never forget turning to the map and feeling as if someone was standing over me pointing it out to me, there was no one there that you could see but instantly I pointed my finger to the direction I felt and there it was! That experience left such and impression on me and my mom's words of "you must be really close to your Irish ancestors" has never left me.

It is on my " bucket list" to one day go to Ireland, I love the pictures, music, food and can't wait to one day stand on it's beautiful cliffs.

I am also very grateful for my Irish traits, I never really appreciated them as a kid but man do I have freckles! I have found that if I avoid the sun and with makeup that I can keep them pretty well hidden but give me a full two days or so in the sun and I am blooming like it's spring on my face! I would also avoid the sun because of my hair, (oh my I will never get along with you hair!) turns a golden blond with shades of red highlights! I hated the freckles and reddish hair growing up but looking at my pictures as a kid, they were really cute!!

I have also come to appreciate my fair skin and green eyes. I never really wore green on St. Patty's day because I just told everyone they couldn't pinch me, I had green eyes! Worked on everyone but my brothers!!

I am proud to be Irish! I hope I can share that pride with my kids so that they appreciate their heritage as well! I look forward to one day meeting all the Gibson's in heaven! I can tell my kids that when I am gone up to heaven and you hear thunder from the skies, no worries it will just be me wearing clogs and finally learning the Irish Jig:):)

HAPPY ST. PATTY's DAY!!

Carlingford, Cooley Peninsula, County Louth, Ireland

(Found Here)

TREAT: Whoopie Pies with GREEN filling: YUMMMM:):)

Ingredients

• 3 cups sugar
• 1 cup butter
• 4 eggs
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 6 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 cups unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 1/2 tablespoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 cups milk
• Filling, recipe follows

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F, or preheat a convection oven to 315 degrees F.

In a large bowl of an electric mixer, beat the sugar, butter, and eggs together until well combined. Add the oil and vanilla and beat again.

In a separate bowl, combine all of the dry ingredients. Add half of the dry mixture to the egg mixture and beat or stir to blend. Add 1 1/2 cups milk and beat again. Add the remaining dry mixture and beat until incorporated. Add the remaining 1 1/2 cups milk and beat until blended.

With a large spoon, scoop out 32 circles of batter onto a baking sheet. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes. Let cool.

Spread filling onto 16 circles and place remaining circles on top, to make 16 Whoopie Pies.

Filling:

1 1/2 cups shortening

3 cups confectioners' sugar

1 1/3 cups marshmallow topping

Dash salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/3 to 1/2 cup milk

3 to 4 drops GREEN food coloring

In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine all ingredients except the milk and beat well. Add just enough milk to achieve a creamy consistency. Spread filling across cooled cookie circles.

(courtesy Moody's Diner)

Just Because....

This makes me smile......

Child of Grace: Liz Lemon Swindle

Gratitude

Friends By: Liz Lemon Swindle

I am SO THANKFUL for the love of a kind Heavenly Father.

I am SO GRATEFUL for a Savior that knows and loves me.

I am SO BLESSED to have the knowledge of the

Gospel of Jesus Christ in my life.

I am SO HONORED to be a wife and mother.

My heart is full of GRATITUDE.

Happy Thanksgiving

A message of Thanksgiving

16 Candles (for the last time)

Sixteen years ago today my baby was born:)

He was my biggest, baldest baby and he stole my heart the moment I saw him.

He is now my tallest and thinest baby with the best hair in the family!

He still owns my heart and his big brown eyes still make me melt!

Justin was a "surprise" we were done after Josh, we thought!

I can not even imagine life without him, he has made our family complete

and I will be forever grateful for our amazing surprise gift:)

Happy 16th Birthday Justin, We love you tons:):)

Hilary Weeks

I love Christmas music, I pretty much will listen to it all year!

This year Hilary Weeks has a new CD out to add to the collection:)

She has such a beautiful voice, check it out HERE!

And see how you can win one HERE.

GOOD LUCK:)

Distressed

I have always loved the thought of seeing things through the eyes of a child. Kids have an incredible way of seeing things differently than adults do, mostly they are just plain pure and blunt about what they see. Even though my kids are getting older they still have the ability to see things so differently than Joe and I may. One such occasion with Justin recently illustrated this point!

Everyone has been effected in one way or another by the state of the economy that the world is in right now, we are no different. In an attempt to find ways to cut back and keep our business in the black Joe and I have been working non stop to cut costs. One such way of doing this has been to have me take over all the accounting and office management. Knowing that I would be working full time from home and needing an office to do so in, I set out to make a nice little office space in Kate's room. I searched high and low for a desk that would meet all the important criteria of setting up an office in this space. Along with the typical office paraphernalia I had to find a desk and this desk had to be of a certain color, shape, and size and most importantly it had to be the right price! After days and days of searching I came across one that I thought would work perfectly!

This was actually a piece of furniture that had three drawers for all the office goodies and the color went perfectly with paintings that hang in the room. The only thing that I would have to change were the ugly handles, not a problem, a quick trip to Anthropologie and I had three drawer pulls that made this piece perfect!

As you can tell from the picture, part of the charm of this piece is that it is distressed, as are a lot of the pieces of furniture in our home. I figure one way or another every piece of furniture is going to get a bump or scratch so buying it distressed just makes the ones to come just a bit of added character.

I have had the "office" decorated and in full operation for about two and half months now and it is working out great, so much so that I have found the boys taking over my office when I am not using it.

After one such occasion I went into the office to begin another day of fun accounting work to which I was greeted by a smiley face, a smiley face CARVED into my new perfectly colored, perfectly sized, distressed piece of furniture-UGH!!!

I set out to find the culprit that would be so bold as to carve into my new furniture, I didn't have to look very far. After getting the NOOOOO I didn't do that from Josh I moved onto Justin, when I asked if he did it he shyly said yes to which I told him I was proud that he was honest with me. Next came the most obvious question, WHY would you carve into the desk? He sheepishly looked at me and said " I was bored and the thing is a piece of junk anyway, it already has scratches and marks on it" picking my jaw up from the floor I then asked if he knew what "distressed" meant and why in the world would I buy a piece of junk for the office? "because your so cheap mom"!!!

He knows me to well, UUUGGGHHHH:):):)

Carded

Every occasion is different, will Joe buy me a card or will the kids end up

making me one because he either did not have the time (or the desire)

to pour over cards for an hour trying to find the perfect one?

Honestly I really do not mind, as a matter of fact some of my favorite

cards ever are the ones made by the kids at home at the last minute.

I do how ever keep EVERY card that I get

(yes even the ones from YOU!!!:)

So you can probably imagine that I look forward to the card

selection at each special occasion with as much anticipation

as the gifts themselves. This year for my birthday Joe picked

a winner, I laughed until I cried because it is sooo

cute and such a " me " card!

Front:

Inside:

Although my gifts were very thoughtful and great

(lots of goodies for my new camera:)

It was this card (and the words written by my boys)

that was truly the best gift of all! The only thing that

would have made it better is if Kate would have been here to sign it too!