Happy Birthday Jose!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOSE!! Today is Jose's 29 birthday. He's been out celebrating by playing a round of golf today and another round tomorrow. This is the special birthday cake I made for him. It's a three layer, double chocolate cake with chocolate frosting, topped with his favorite treats - pecans and ferrero rocher candies. I hope it tastes good, it's a new recipe and a LOT of cake. Enjoy honey!!

My latest creation

So don't ask me where this came from, but I had an idea for a new craft and just whipped it up. It is a portable baby changing pad with a pocket to hold diapers and wipes. The whole inside is made out of terry cloth so you can just throw it in the washing machine and not worry about it. It is much thinner (and cuter) than the ones out there that I've seen. And it's much more sanitary than changing your baby right on top of those nasty things in the ladies room. And to go with it I made a matching bib. That way you can take your baby out to dinner with you in style!

If you want one, let me know and I'm happy to whip it up for the cost of fabric and a small fee.


This is the inside of the changer. It measures 27"L x 17"W when it is open.


This is the pocket side. It will fit up to three size 6 diapers and wipes! Or anything else you want to fill it with.

And the cute bib!

Sew So Cute!

I did it.... I finally finished my first quilt! It was a lot of work (and there are a few mistakes) but overall I am really happy with it! Machine quilting the whole thing was definitely a new challenge. I had no idea how incredibly difficult invisible thread is to work with. I was originally making this just to practice and then going to donate it to charity, but after all those hours I put in I'm having a hard time wanting to give it away. Anyway, I'm sure I'll have many more quilts and sewing projects to come.

Oh, and please don't look too carefully (especially you Amber!) because I'm afraid you'll see all the flaws!

And thanks Anna for sending me the fabric!

Makeover!!

I decided that it was time for a blog makeover! I was already entirely sick of that robins egg blue. It just didn't seem right for fall, although it's still over 100 here! Hope you like the new look of the blog. I'm sure I'll end up changing it again soon. : )

Easy Doughnuts

So I found this great recipe from Paula Deen for semi-homemade doughnuts and decided to try it last night. I couldn't belive how easy and how good they turned out. Basically you just take canned store-bought biscut dough and make a hole, fry them up, and frost. I made a simple homemade chocolate frosting and added a few sprinkles. I did the donut holes in cinnamon sugar. They tasted so good when they are warm and dipped in milk. If you want any more details on the recipe, let me know. They could be a great FHE treat and they were fun to make! But like I said, it came from Paula Deen so you know that they are bad for you!

Two Happy Mexicans....

Let me preface this by saying...I would never normally recommend eating in a gas station, EVER - until now.

We finally found some authentic Mexican food here in Scottsdale. And yes, it is located inside a gas station, a Shell station to be exact! Now I'm not one to try these sorts of things on a whim, but we saw it featured on "Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives" on the Food Network. So we tried it out for lunch yesterday and it was excellent! The beans and rice tasted almost as good as my mother-in-law makes them! Any place that serves Menudo (not the one with Ricky Martin in it) has got to be legit . And if you have no idea what Menudo is, be very grateful.

I'm sure there will be many more visits to Roberto's in our future.

And a special Happy Birthday Shout-out to the best sister ever! Love you Anna!!

The Castaneda Tortilla Factory

One of the things that Jose and I miss most about leaving Dallas is his Mom's cooking. She is AMAZING. Jose is a a VERY picky eater when it comes to Mexican food, because he insists it tastes authentic. None of that Tex-Mex business for him. So, in an effort to be the most amazing wife ever (and because I have LOTS of free time on my hands now!) I decided to make some homemade tortillas. And believe it or not, they turned out great!! It took me a few to get the hang of it but they tasted wonderful. Making them round is a lot trickier than it seems. Once you've had homemade, you'll never be able to go back to storebought again.

Oh and Jose rated them at 8.5....a VERY high score. He rates all of the dishes I make (sides included) on a scale of 1 to 10 every night at dinner. I don't think I've ever gotten a 10 before and 9 and 9.5 only come along once in a blue moon, so I am VERY pleased with the 8.5. The best part is that Jose will eat almost anything, so even if it scores a 4 (and yes that has happened) he'll still eat seconds, sometimes even thirds.

Rise and Shout!

Last weekend Jose, Timmy and I headed up to Seattle for the BYU vs UW football game. What a blast! We saw lots of old friends, played a little golf, ate some Burgermaster, and just had a great time. I had an especially good time being one of the guys! Here are some pics!

This is us with BYU's #35 Matt Bauman and wife Lindsay at the team fireside the night before the game. Matt was one of Mom and Dad's first missionaries out in PA and is now part of the extended Pugh family.


Here's Jose and I at the game. Our seats were in the nosebleeds, but at least we were out of the sun. Who would've ever thought that would be an issue in Seattle?

Here are some happy Cougar fans after the victory (even if it was somewhat controversial). Nothing beats a beautiful blue sky day in Seattle with Lake Washington in the background. Brandon didn't get any press in the pictures, but it was great to have him along too! Thanks for the fun weekend guys!!

Back to School

Jose officially started classes at Thunderbird last Tuesday. Doesn't he look handsome and ready for his first day? I made him take a first day of school picture like my mom always did when I was a kid. And I even made him a lunch to take. But I did resist the urge to put stickers on his lunch bag and write a cheesy note on his napkin. That doesn't make you many friends in business school the way it does in elementary school! Way to to go Jose on your first week done! You are now one week closer to being finished!

What would we do without the internet?

Today we FINALLY got our internet back up and running! It has been down for over a week and I have been going crazy! It's funny how you don't realize how dependent on something you are until it is gone. However, at least one good thing came out of it...I found out what an awesome public library we have down the street. I'm so excited to have a new place to find fun books to read (I can never get enough of those!) and of course surf the internet in a crisis. I promise more posts tomorrow about what we've been up to during our vacation back to the stoneages.....