Birthday Treat Week: Paleo Fudgesicles

I failed to mention that not only is it my birthday week but it's also Nurse's Week and today is 

National Teacher's Day! Ty & I have another excuse to celebrate ourselves besides my birthday. 

Why not, right? However, there are no intentions to except we'll continue to eat these sweets all 

week. I found some great ecards I wanted to post, but realized this post was about
fudgesicles and not nurse week ecards. So I just stuck with these two. 

The weather has been incredibly lovely for a whole week. What's up with that? I LOVE! I got

stuck inside at work all weekend and then pulled an extra shift yesterday to help them out, so 

today is MY day. I'm going to bake, relax, and get ready for our mini getaway!

Paleo Fudgesicles

2 bananas

2 dates, pitted

1/2 C canned coconut milk

3 tbsp cocoa powder

2 tbsp honey

1 tbsp almond butter

1 tsp vanilla

pinch of salt

1/4 C Enjoy life chocolate chips

dixie cups

Get your food processor out and place your bananas and dates in it. Puree them, then 

add all the other ingredients except the chocolate chips. Once it's all blended, sprinkle 

the choco chips at the bottom of the dixie cups. Go nuts with tons of choco chips at 

the bottom or keep it to a sprinkle. 

Then pour the blended ingredients over the top of the choco chips in the dixie

cups and place a popsicle stick in the middle of the chocolate filling. 

Place in freezer until frozen (overnight). Cut or rip off the dixie cup and enjoy!

Happy Nurse's Week to all my fellow nurses. Happy Teacher's Day to all the great

teachers currently and those who have retired. And again, happy birthday week to me!

♡Nurse & Teacher Stanley!

Credit to paleomg.com for the recipe!

Birthday Treat Week: Paleo Almond Butter Bacon Cookies

4 years ago, I celebrated my first birthday with Ty. 

4 years later, we'll celebrate in another country.

#traveleverychanceyouget

4 years ago you couldn't pay me to get married. 

4 years later, I say don't hesitate to marry that man when you find him.

#lovehimeveryday

4 years ago I was 23.

4 years later, somehow I thought I was turning 26 and apparently can't do math.

#stillyounginmindandheart

4 years ago, I ate desserts for breakfast.

4 years later, I have no problem doing the same.

#queenofdesserts

Paleo Almond Butter Bacon Cookies

1 C almond butter

1 C coconut palm sugar

1 egg

1 tbsp baking soda

6 pieces of bacon, cooked crispy and chopped

dash of sea salt, optional

serve with a glass of almond milk

Preheat oven 350 degrees. Using your mixer, blend together the almond butter and coconut 

palm sugar. Once blended, add the egg and baking soda. Fold in the cooked and chopped 

bacon. If you choose not to use the bacon, you can cook them as is and add a sprinkle of 

sea salt to the tops when they come out of the oven. Otherwise, make sure the bacon is 

folded into the batter well and make tablespoon sized balls and place on a cookie 

sheet. Bake them for 10 minutes, then let cool. We found that they still taste good 

even after three to four days. Just put them in the fridge if you don't plan on eating 

them all right away and share with others when you get a chance!

Happy birthday week to me! Let's celebrate with desserts all week long!

♥The Stanleys

Baby Makin' Gift Ideas

We're not baby makin' but we have friends that are...plus I just felt the need to say baby makin'. 

It just sounds cooler than 'baby gift ideas' or 'how to wrap the baby shower gift' for the title.

Anyway, when people are getting married and having showers, I get busy crafting. When people 

are baby makin', I get really busy crafting. I'm pretty sure my neighbors thought I was some 

nutty lady crafting in the front yard everyday last week. I was either painting, glueing, tie 

dying, or something else....all in the front yard. Yes I know I could've done it in the 

craft room, but guess what? I didn't want to miss a minute of that sun, 

so I managed to do what I could outside to get those rays.

My mom, the crafty lady she can be, came up with a cute little idea for 'wrapping' a baby 

shower gift. Why not put all the gifts in a bigger toy you get for the baby?

Step 1) Buy a stroller, a shopping cart, a wagon, or something along those lines

Step 2) Get some sort of string/yarn/twine and wrap it around the outside of the big gift itself

Step 3) Paint clothespins a color that goes with your gifts...we chose gray

Step 4) Pack it full of gifts the mama put on her registry plus a few extra outfits

Step 5) Hang some of the clothes with your homemade clothespins along the

outside of the big gift/along the string you've chosen to wrap around it

Then you can add some mason jars to the bottom with homemade gifts inside them...

here's what I made for Kelsey's little babe!

Rosette and flower headbands

Leftover stretchy fabric you can tie on the babe's head in any sort of way you prefer.

Make a quick grey rosette flower and put some leftover buttons that are laying around on it.

Gettin a little vintage-fancy with the headbands...

Fun fabric flower attached to a clip...for an outfit or to attach to a headband.

Easy way to make some of the flowers versatile!

Why not tie dye some onesies for kids? Everybody needs a little tie dye in their lives.

I made various pretend bathing suit onesies...this was just one of them.

It's as easy as making a template for baby bathing suits, tracing on

your iron on material and fabric, then lining it with a fun color band.

Tie off the tops of the swimsuit top and you've got yourself one covered

baby in a onesie bathing suit!

Take a onesie, take your choice of paint, and a pencil with a fresh eraser

on the end. Squirt some paint on your plate or cardboard, dip your

eraser in the paint, and start making polka dots all over. Let dry.

While drying, make a little fabric flower to go on it and it's

as easy as that!

Congrats Kels! Several more weeks to go and before you know it, you'll be

holding that baby girl. We wish you an easy delivery, restful sleeps when

she arrives, and one healthy baby!

♡The Stanleys

A Best Friend, A Wonderful Husband, & 2 Great Kids

All at once, I had my favorite people in the same vicinity. My best friend, Meg, 

got to join our picnic date at the park with Casey & Evy. And to surprise us all was 

the good ol' Uncle Toodles/Uncle Ty/my husband. Ty took off during his lunch time to
have lunch with us and bring the kiddos treats.

And in case you were wondering what last week was all about...

a nice trip to Latte Da for hot chocolate with double whip cream

and another trip to the park!

Have a good weekend everybody!

♡The Stanleys

Overdue Monthly Bride Celebration

Back in March I shared a little something I made for Kari to celebrate the bride and count 

down the months left until gettin' hitched. Well between our vacation and then Kari being out 

of town for a week, we never got the chance to do exactly what I had planned. I wanted to 

share what the initial plan was and then what really ended up happening...that way you all

have another idea if you've chosen to do something similar for the bride!

*Initial plan:

I was suppose to have Kari over one weekend and we were going to paint terra cotta pots, have 

a nice walk to the farmers market, and get ourselves either flowers or herbs to plant in the pots.

*What actually happened:

Since there was never enough time to paint them together when we hung out or the market 

was closed, it didn't happen all month. So for her 5 months to go, I ended up painting them 

myself and planting some herbs. Rather than crafting together, we got together and walked 

Portland's waterfront and bridges. It's all very simple, but it gives the bride something to 

care for until the wedding and you can have the entire walk to catch up!

Here are a few ideas you can do to treat the bride:

*Buy some terra cotta pots and plants you know she likes. Paint the terra 

cotta pots together, then do the planting

*Buy fun planter boxes or pots and let the bride pick out what she wants to plant in them

*Take her to the local lawn and garden store and treat her to a certain amount (your choice on 

how much you want to spend) of flowers you can plant in her garden

1-Chives     2-Cilantro     3-Basil

If I would've had a lighter, creamy color I would've painted above the colors...lesson learned.

Now you go do what I've learned for your bride and you'll be a great MOH

two months in a row!

Have a wonderful sunny Friday!

♥Cori Lou

Birthday Month Resolutions: MAY!

I turn 27 this month. I believe in celebrating all month. Yes, celebrating the birthday girl all

month. Poor Ty, right? Good thing I don't expect to be showered in gifts each week. I
just find random things I want to do 'cuz it's my birthday' even if it means walking
5 miles one day to celebrate the birth of me. ha! Anyway, I feel I should come
up with some good resolutions for my birthday month, but the other side of
me says relax, enjoy your birthday month, you're getting old, save your
energy. So that's what I'm going to do! Happy Birthday Month to me!

Cori's April Resolutions

*Dishes:
I lost count of how many times I did the dishes. And by lost count, I think I got 

close to two hands worth. More than 3 as I had planned, good enough.
And I'm about to do them today too...I might be forming a habit!

*Workout Planning:
I smashed the goal of planning my workout days. I'm already planned through the beginning 

of May! By planning out extra credit workouts and body movements on paper, I met other 

goals by getting to the 55# kettle bell for kb swings, stringing together more butterfly 

pull ups, and PR'd a dead lift!

Ty's April Resolutions

*Biking:
to work, the gym, & around town on weekends!...
I decided to join him and I biked everyday I didn't work. 

And I mean everywhere!

We've officially just parked our bikes in the living room...easy access to jump on and go.
Somehow it doesn't flow with the living room decor though

*Honeymoon book:
that's still in the works. Apparently May will be a better month to finish it!

Together We're Better April Resolutions

*Walk 50 miles (no running or biking included):
We ended up doing 59.6 miles!! Took some early mornings 

before work and some great evenings to put in the mileage, but it gave us some 

quality time on the streets of DT Vancouver & some fresh air!

*Off the computer/internet at a certain time:
If it wasn't for walking at night we probably would've had more late nights on the internet. 

I will say that cutting the ties of the internet/computer at night was much more difficult 

than we had imagined. We realized that it's much more of a habit that clearly 

needs some more time for breaking!

Birthday Month Resolutions: MAY

CORI

*Organize the cupboards!

how annoying is it when you need something in the back of the cupboard so you have to take

everything out to get it? Worst thing ever, especially when we have cabinets I have to get

up on a ladder for. It's time to reorganize that junk in a way that is much more
conducive to my height and needs.

*Blog about desserts for a week straight...

because we should all be eating and celebrating like it's our birthday for more than 

just our birthday. Who said I can't have a dessert days before and days after my birthday?

*Reduce my use of toilet paper...

Sounds weird, I know. I don't mean cut back on the amount of times I use the bathroom because 

we all know that's impossible. But, cut back on the amount of toilet paper I pull off that roll. I underestimate my strength with I whip that tp off the roll...I mean it comes flying off and next 

thing I know I have a giant ball of toilet paper. It's not necessary and it always makes for 

the possible toilet clogging. When I went through a roll in like 24 hours, 

I realized it's time to cut back.

TY

*Plan a mini getaway for Cori's birthday

Cori has been all over the US and all over the world in her travels, but has yet to just

cross the border into Canada. I'm going to see what I can come up with for a 

quick trip up north for a short 3 day birthday exploration.

*Be more efficient
I recently read my buddy's blog about how inefficient we all are. How we could use more
'quality' time at work, meaning that we get stuff done in the time we have. That way we get
'quantity' at home, meaning we get more time at home instead of having to do any extra
'things' at home. In turn, you get more time at home which turns into more quality of life!

Together We're Better Resolutions

*Garden
It's that time of year again...flowers are in bloom, spring is here! We don't have much to
work with, but figured we should fix up the yard just a bit.

This is what we have to work with plus some pots

*Learn more about the iPad

Let's be honest, we use the ipad for the absolute basics. I don't even know how to get pictures

on the blog from the iPad and we just learned how to instagram (we're super old school).

It's about that time to really get to know our pad for what it's worth!


*Fundraise for our trip
We have to raise at least $500 by May 15th and at least another $500 by mid June.
Have any ideas for us or need us to do a job around your house?
Holler at us!

That's all we got for you. A simple birthday month although we'll be busy planning our trip,
preparing for Kari's shower, fundraising, celebrating birthdays, and trying to squeeze
in mini adventures! May, be good to us in weather, efficiency with work &
home, and don't rush getting through to the end of the month.
We're in no rush!

♥The Monthly Resolutioners

Walkin Til The Legs Fall Off!

And the grand total for our April walking resolution is....
59.6 miles!!!

We may look like tourists in our own city, but for a legit reason...

Ty got a new backpack for our trip and the guy who sold it to us at REI said

to 'try it out'...that's exactly what we did. We threw nearly 25 lbs into 

each pack and walked over 4 miles with them on for our last night of 

our April walks. Why not, especially if it's testing out the new pack, 

prepping us for our trip, & giving us some quality time 

together in the fresh air! Can't beat that.

There were are, lookin spiffy in our packs and ready for our trip to SE Asia!

It's that time again...monthly resolutions. Stay tuned for tomorrow to see what we 

have in mind for our resolutions! And for you all, see how many miles you 

can walk with your friend, spouse, family, etc this month.

♡The Stanleys