thebabyperks

It's crazy how fast time has gone, it's almost the end of November!! To me it should still be October, but it feels like December. The weather is terribly cold here. Side note, happy belated Thanksgiving to everyone (& Hanukkah). One of my favorite things about Thanksgiving is watching the Macy's Thanksgiving day parade. Watching the program is something my mom did when she was younger and I love being able to sit back and just relax for a few hours. That leads me into some of my other favorites:

This is the sweater I purchased from JC Penny a while back. I love it because it is so soft and cuddly but it's also stylish.

My sweater and combat boots. I kept my promise to photograph when I wore both of them.

Another one of my November favorites is this gum. For those who don't know I'm addicted to gum. I literally can chew a pack of gum a day. This gum says it has long lasting flavor and it really does. A lot of time gum says that but it only lasts 20 minutes top, Extra stays true to its word though. One piece of this gum could last me an hour, which is a record for me.

Revlon Top Speed nail polish. I'm terrible at painting my nails but ignore that. I love the color (it's 820 Stormy). I was looking for something a bit different than the metallic colors I always use. This grayish color is just beautiful.

In my beauty reviews I said that my Neutrogena liquid coverage "stuff" was my foundation, however it really doesn't last or cover that much. I've found an AMAZING product that I just adore which has made me totally pitch all those other foundations I had in my bathroom. My dermatologist recommended this foundation because it doesn't clog pores and I finally found it. It covers my skin perfectly. I love it so much more. It's a little expensive but totally worth it.

The inside, under the brush is a plastic cover with holes that holds the product

Neutrogena Concealer is what I use to cover the more red blemishes and bumps that the foundation doesn't completely mask. It blends easily, however I still use my elf concealer too (just to inform everyone)

My all time favorite lotion. It doesn't have some amazing scent, it doesn't smell bad but it doesn't smell like Bath and Body Works either. However, this lotion is the Savior of my skin. It completely replenishes my skin in a matter of days. It leaves my hands super duper soft. I loved mine so much last year, I bought this huge bottle for home and a mini bottle for my purse. If I had to recommend anything, this lotion is Ahh-mazing!!

Well everyone, hopefully you enjoyed my November favorites. I'm going to try to carry the monthly favorites into 2014. I really am working on my YouTube account and I'll inform everyone when my account is officially created. I'll probably post the YouTube videos on my blog as well. Comment any ideas you have for videos or blog posts!!

Every year my church does Operation  Christmas Child. We also have a sister-church in Honduras that we helped tile their floors. While my pastor was in Honduras he talked to the pastor there who said the children carry their gifts in the shoe box. All their possessions are in a shoebox!? As he said, most children and teens can't fit their possessions in a wheel barrow. He challenged us to buy the plastic tote/boxes the size of a shoebox instead of an actual cardboard shoebox because the plastic holds up more. We sponsored a 7-12 year old girl for Operation Talanga and a 2-4 boy for Operation Christmas Child. It's an amazing way to give back to others around the world go check out http://www.operationchristmaschild.com/ . It might be too late for this mission, I'm not exactly sure, our boxes were due last weekend but I know there are many organizations that have Adopt-a-Child programs for Christmas. Just search around because the gifts you provide could be the only ones the child receives.

Girl's Gifts:

A hair brush, hair clips and hair ties. Not pictured was a pink wash cloth, toothbrush/toothpaste combo and a bar of soap

A princess coloring/sticker book with some butterfly crayons

A glitter filled jump rope

A plush baby doll because hey who doesn't want something to cuddle with??

A angel Christmas barbie doll, a mini size. Again, who doesn't want a Barbie or a doll in general?

Boy's Gift:

A "Cars" sticker/coloring book

A pirate pack of crayons

Hot Wheels cars

An Avengers mini fan

A toothbrush/toothpaste kit and a wash cloth and soap bar that wasn't pictured

Two spiky balls that when bounced they flash

A lion stuffed animal to cuddle and bring around

A doodle pad that is Superhero themed

There are so many options available to give back this holiday season. Hopefully you will find an organization that fits you. So many children appreciate these gifts not because they are material "stuff" but because they feel like someone out in the world cares about them.

**I feel like I do this every time I post, but I apologize for not posting recently. I've been caught up in swim team tryouts/practice. Anyway, I thought I'd show everyone all my different swim stuff!!

Swim Suits:

(Speedo) This is one of my oldest suits. It was my summer swim team suit for around 2-3 years (summers). I loved the pattern because it was really different and just had a cool affect.
 The pattern up close. As you can tell, it's really stretched out and is probably 4 sizes too big.

(TYR brand) Last years summer swim team suit. I absolutely hate it. It had super unflattering lines that went over my hips which just made them look larger.
 The back of the suit. The straps are really supportive though. Fun fact: my profile picture is in this suit!!
                                        
 (Nike) This suit I've worn to the shred. In the strap it was like rubber or some weird material which snapped, meaning only fabric is holding up one side. I wish it would've lasted longer, which is my only critique.

 I love, love, LOVE the print!!!
 My competitive swim team suit, I only swam on that team for a year, which was two years ago (I'm a sophomore, I swam competitively in 8th grade). It's really tight and I don't wear it a lot which is a bummer because it was expensive. Also, I like the side stripes but I wish there was more print, I hate plain suits.

 (Speedo) I love this suit so much. It was my high school swim team suit last year. I love everything from the print to the durability. It's lasted through all of my swim meets from last year, summer swim practice and practice for high school swim this year. The only complaint I have is that the navy blue fabric behind the print has stretched so the fabric will pull up over the print if that makes sense.
 The snakeskin print!
The navy blue fabric and the back. It's a little low cut.












Caps:
I got this cap during an event my summer swim team held. Some Olympians came to our pool and coached us for a day. It was the breakout!Swim Clinic. Josh Davis and Scott Spann came for our event. I bought an Aaron Peirsol cap because at the time I was a backstroker, ha ha, now I'm terrible at back stroke. I actually haven't worn it more than twice because I feel self-conscious wearing an Olympian's swim cap (is that weird??) 
 This plain black cap has lasted for a very long time. I used to wear it all the time but I haven't worn it recently because I've been wearing my high school swim cap from last year.
 This is the cap from my high school team last year. It's a generic green color with a white "WOLVES" and "T" for my high school. It's not the prettiest but it's a silicon cap and stays on pretty well. I do have those days, however, where it does slide off.
 This is my summer swim cap. I quite hate it, it's black which is fine indoors but my summer swim practice is obviously outside, and so are the meets, meaning my hair/head feels like its burning. I also don't like our mascot, the Wahoos?? Anyway, I'm not swimming with them anymore, there's a lot of drama and I don't want to deal with that during the summer anymore.
 A teal blue Speedo cap. I haven't worn it because I know it will take a while to stretch it out and I really don't want to do that. I know that eventually I will need to wear it though.
 This is the cap I got from Mizzou swim camp, if you can't see it. It was a complementary gift of joining the camp. We had to wear them so the coaches knew our names. It was quite terrible because the cap was tight and pulled my hair.


Goggles:
 I wear these goggles pretty much all the time. They are black Speedo goggles but they have prescriptions in them. My eyesight is awful and the pool my school swims at is so highly chlorinated that it burns. I wore contacts in the water last year but at the end, 2 girls got eye infections. I started swimming with these goggles and I really like them. They do fog up a lot though. I got them from a store called "On the Blocks" but you can also get them at the Swim Outlet I believe.
 The inside, I felt artistic...
 
 These are my second pair of goggles, I wear them if I have contacts in which isn't a lot but I also have them in case of an emergency or if my first pair snaps.






Swim Bag:
I love my swim bag because it holds so much stuff. I can fit sweats, two towels, a swim suit, and all my caps and goggles. It originally was a lime green but has since faded but I'm honestly okay with it. On one side there is a pocket with a zipper pouch where I store either my caps or my goggles. On the other side there is a almost-fleece like material that lines the top pouch, where I store my triathlon card and gym membership card, I also will put my phone in the pouch when I don't have a purse. There is a similar pocket with a zipper where I will store either my caps or my goggles, which ever aren't in the other pouch. The front has a huge main compartment that I store my towels, suits and sweats. The pouch below that which has "Speedo" written on it has some other random fabric pouches. I just put random hair ties, trash, jewelry in there, but be warned there are two spaces which all my bobby pins fell into so I had to fish them out. The very last zipper has a mesh screen which is literally the best design ever!!! You can put your wet suit in the compartment and it won't get everything else sopping wet. I love it because I can just take it out and hang it up without ruining the extra towels that are dry in the main part. 

 

In Honor: Jessi Kirby

    In Honor is about a girl named Honor who has lived a difficult life. Her parents died when she was young, leaving her with her brother, Finn and her aunt, Gina. Rusty (Finn's best friend) and Finn himself always had the dream of going to play football in college together, and that's what was going to happen when they both got recruited. However, this all changed when Finn suddenly enlists into the army, leaving Rusty alone and angry. Everything turns again when Finn is killed in battle. Honor has now lost her parents and her brother, her best friend. He was the one there to comfort her during the times she struggled with losing her parents. Now, he too is gone.
    Honor opens the hand-written letter, which Finn never did, the night of his burial. It came in the mail long before, but she was always too scared to open it. He gives her instructions to live life to the fullest and go out and do something crazy, with college approaching. Encased are tickets for a Kyra Kelley concert, a favorite musician of both of them. Honor takes it upon herself to serve her brother's wish, his last request.
    Again, things change when Rusty, who in a spout of anger didn't talk with Honor since Finn's deployement, showed up at Finn's funeral. It doesn't stop there, Rusty, who never seems to be sober requests to come on Honor's journey.
     Though there are multiple bumps in the road, Honor holds onto the hope to make it to the concert even when all odds are against her.



This book started off slow. I just couldn't get into it for some reason. Then, as I dove deeper into the novel I became entranced by what it offered. The character of Honor seemed like such a real person. I thought this book would be super predictable but it ended in an array of twists and turns. I recommend this book to anyone willing to take time and invest it into the characters.

                  

                                          





picture from: http://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&docid=eI4QddfrqXcXZM&tbnid=TkS-8bVzg0XHgM:&ved=0CAQQjB0&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.goodreads.com%2Fbook%2Fshow%2F12049227-in-honor&ei=YjyJUo2aGsXn2QWhxIG4Ag&bvm=bv.56643336,d.b2I&psig=AFQjCNGItufEpBH0rLNdJJMplWPkBlAzlA&ust=1384811980669661

My Friday night was spent relaxing and watching YouTube videos! I wanted to bake, and my parents had to go out and buy the stuff which took two hours... So I had two hours to just hang out with my dog (ignore my lame-ness).
My swim coach figured out that I bake and after a lot of good word from the other swimmers she gave me the recipe for Oreo stuffed chocolate chip cookies. Once my parents came home I took to the kitchen. But in my time alone I searched the blog Cannella Vita, (http://cannella-vita.blogspot.com/) my favorite baking blog. I saw she recently made Brownie Stuffed chocolate chip cookies. I quickly got a hold of parents to ask them to pick up some brownie mix. Wah-lah, I had a great night baking.

Oreo stuffed chocolate chip cookies:

Ingredients:
2 sticks butter, softened
3/4 c. light brown sugar
1 c. sugar
1 Tbs. vanilla extract
3 1/2 c. flour
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
10 oz. chocolate chips (I estimated 10 oz. with a 12 oz. bag, also I used mini chocolate chips)
1 package of Oreos (I used off-brand and they turned out fine)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
2. Cream together the butter and sugars together with a mixer until well combined. Then beat the eggs and vanilla in.
3. In a different bowl, combine flour, salt, and baking soda. Slowly add to wet ingredients
4. Stir in chocolate chips
5. Take a scoop of cookie dough and place on top of the Oreo. Take another scoop and put it on the bottom and then seal the edges (I found it easier to create a mound or dome and then put the Oreo in the hole/center and then wrap the edges around, if that makes sense?).
6. Put on parchment paper or silpat lined baking sheet. The cookies will expand, so make sure to spread them out.
7. Bake for 9-13 minutes or until golden brown.
8. Let sit on the baking sheet for 5 minutes and then let cool.

 The dough before mixing in the chocolate chips
 The dough onto a (double-stuffed, off-brand) Oreo
 Completely surrounded by dough :)
 Cookies in the oven!
 When I took them out, you can see what I mean when I say they spread out!
 I cut around the Oreo with a spatula. Then I kept the outer-cookie rings and gave them to my dad to take to his work!
 Finished product! The cream from the Oreo combines perfectly with the dough from the chocolate chip cookies. They took some time to get perfect but they were phenomenal!
 Inside of the cookie, apologies for the super blurry picture
Overhead view!



Brownie stuffed Chocolate chips cookies: adapted from Cannella Vita's recipe, I posted the link above^^^
~Confession time: I got lazy baking the Oreo stuffed chocolate chip cookies, so I stopped and used the leftover dough to make these. However, I'll post the true recipe so if you just want to do these, you'll have them!

Ingredients:
Box of brownies (and whatever is required for those)
2 sticks of butter
1 1/2 c. brown sugar
2 eggs and an egg yolk
1 Tbs. vanilla
2 1/2 c. flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking soda
12 oz. chocolate chips
          - Again I didn't make this dough recipe, I used the left over from the first!
Directions:
**Bake the brownies and let cool
1) Beat butter and sugar until creamy. Add the eggs, yolk, and vanilla and beat until smooth. 
2) Combine dry ingredients together in a separate bowl and add to the wet mix
3) Stir in chocolate chips
4) Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
5) Create a dome and stuff the brownies into the dough (I started to roll up the brownies I cut because the ball would cover better than an actual square. Then I pressed it back into a square).
6) Place a couple on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. These too spread out a lot so you will want to do a couple at a time.
7) When you take these out of the oven, let cool and enjoy!
 Some of my final products!! :))