Seth & Mallory

Body By Vi is Weight Watchers Approved!

2011-08-02T09:02:00.009-04:00

Guys, this is EXCITING!!! Body By Vi and Weight Watchers are best buds now! I've compiled a list of some of the most popular shake flavors and calculated the Weight Watchers points for each shake. They are ridiculously low points for an ENTIRE meal! And with fruits and veggies being "free" points, you can go through a whole day well under your maximum allowance. If you have a shake you would like me to calculate the points for, make a comment under this post and list the ingredients. I'll get it calculated for you. And for LOTS more information, visit my website at www.haines.bodybyvi.com

Mocha Frappe- 2 Weight Watchers Points

Cinnamon Bun- 2 Weight Watchers Points

Chocolate Dipped Banana- 3 Weight Watchers Points

Mango- 4 Weight Watchers Points

Blueberry Cheesecake- 4 Weight Watchers Points

Snickerdoodle- 4 Weight Watchers Points

Butterfinger- 5 Weight Watchers Points

Reeces Cup- 5 Weight Watchers Points

Peanut Butter & Jelly- 5 Weight Watchers Points

Nutella Graham Cracker- 6 Weight Watchers Points

Snicker's Bar- 9 Weight Watchers Points (an excellent recovery shake)

You're Invited!

2011-07-10T15:47:00.002-04:00

Hi Friends! You are ALL invited to a Body By Vi Challenge tasting party!
When: Thursday, July 14th
Where: FCS Lower School Campus, 2231 Jefferson Davis Hwy. Fredericksburg, Va 22401
Time: 6-8p.m.
What: Come join the party and learn more about the Body By Vi Challenge with me. I've already lost weight and have tons more energy! Imagine a challenge that gives away over 100K to its customers, saves you money just by consuming the products, exceeds your expectations time and time again, and helps you find a new HEALTHIER YOU, without any complicated diets. I can't wait to share some smoothies with you!

Body By Vi

2011-06-30T20:21:00.002-04:00

I am so excited! I just became an Independent Distributor for Body By Vi. What is that? I'm glad you asked! In a nutshell, they're shakes and smoothies. Not just any ordinary shake or smoothie...but super HEALTHY ones! I've already started loosing weight and I feel great! The shake mix smells like a cake mix and they are incredibly versatile. You can make virtually any flavor you want just by adding different juices, milks, dry pudding powder, peanut butter, fresh fruit, etc. I try a different one every day. So far, my favorites are Butterfinger, Mocha, Mango, and Blueberry Cheesecake. I'm holding myself back from making a Pumpkin Spice one. You KNOW I'll use every can of pumpkin in the Greater Fredericksburg area once I get hooked on that! Anyway, I'd love to come and do a party for you. All you have to do is open your home and invite your friends and family. I'll do the rest. Another cool thing I'd love to do, is come to where you work and make them for your staff! Who doesn't want a nice little smoothie break during the day?!

Square Cake

2011-06-12T14:32:00.007-04:00

Well, this is my first attempt at making a square cake. My sister's high school graduation and 18th birthday fell in the same week and I was lucky enough to have her here in Virginia for her birthday. So, of course, I made cake for the occasion. This is a Mocha Chocolate Cake with Mocha Chocolate Frosting and a Dark Chocolate Ganache filling. I quickly discovered that working with this particular recipe of chocolate frosting is so not forgiving! Ugh!! Therefore, it didn't turn out as "picture perfect" as I was hoping and the reason it's on this blog as opposed to the Sweet Moments blog. I still wanted to show people, but I didn't want to scare any potential customers away. You guys are all buds...so I knew you would understand. I was, however, happy with how the flowers turned out. We learned how to make these in my last cake class and I thought they were gorgeous! They remind me of a summery, Hawaiian flower; perfect for our beach-filled week while my sister was here.

Last Cake Class

2011-05-26T18:38:00.007-04:00

Well, I had my last cake class this week. For a final cake we had to make an 8 inch, or larger, cake and take it in to learn how to cover it in fondant and then we could decorate it any way we wanted. I had a plan for how I wanted to decorate it, but by the time I left class, it was nothing like I had planned. We learned how to make a new flower and I wanted to use it, but they weren't dry enough to use. So I improvised and this is what it turned out like. I'm going to save the flowers we learned in class for my sister's birthday cake in a couple of weeks. I can't wait!!

I've also learned that I must learn how to take better pictures. I have an awesome camera, thanks to my awesome brother-in-law, but I have no idea how to use it to its full potential. If anyone would like to teach me, I'd LOVE to learn. :)

Shower Cake

2011-05-23T20:09:00.002-04:00

This is a cake I made for a Bridal Shower last weekend. I LOVE daisies!

Basket Cake

2011-04-28T16:05:00.012-04:00

This was the last week for Course 2, Flowers and Cake Design. As a final "project" we learned how to do a basket weave cake and then decorated it with all of the flowers we made in the previous three classes. I couldn't decide which flowers I wanted to use so, typical me, I decided to use ALL of them. :) I tried to make it look like a garden.

It's definitely a beginner's looking cake, but now that I know how to do it, and can practice, I think I'll get the hang of it.

And with all of this cake, I'm thankful for co-workers who are cake lovers! I've been quite popular since I started taking these classes. Next week starts the gum paste and fondant class. I am SO excited! Stay tuned....

Flowers!

2011-04-13T10:18:00.013-04:00

You've probably realized that this entire class is on how to make flowers. I need a lot of practice with these...but here's the first night of learning. These pink ones are supposed to be Primrose's.

This one is a violet. For me, these were the easiest to make. It seemed the bigger the flower, the more difficult it was for me. But by the end of the night, I was starting to get the hang of it.

This is an Apple Blossom. It was probably the most difficult for me to get the hang of.

Another Apple Blossom.

Close up of a Primrose.

A whole bunch of flowers!! :)

Fondant and Gum Paste Flowers

2011-04-06T10:52:00.010-04:00

I LOVE working with gum paste and fondant! It's like play dough for adults!

A cute little flower.

These were fun, but I'm not sure they're all that pretty. They're supposed to be pansies, but I think it would be prettier to make one out of white and make it a cherry blossom.

Reminds me of Spring!

Roses

2011-04-06T10:43:00.011-04:00

This week was all about learning how to make Roses.

I'm not totally comfortable making them yet because I've definitely seen better ones. :)

The pink rose and rose buds I made using the icing that I made for class. However, I'm discovering that I have really hot hands and it melts the icing while I hold the bag. So the pink rose is made with somewhat melted icing and is the reason it's a little flat.

My friend Anna is taking the class with me and she has really cold hands. So once she was done making her roses, she let me borrow her blue icing that wasn't melting to make my blue roses. They turned out a little better due to the colder icing.

If you remember my first cake, the one with the rainbow on it, I was totally embarrassed because it fell apart as I was taking it out of the pan. This time, I showed it who was boss. :) It came out perfectly...so I feel I redeemed myself a little bit. It was a lot less lumpy.

Cupcakes

2011-03-21T21:51:00.012-04:00

Tonight was week 3 of class; the second week of actually decorating cake and tonight was cupcakes. It was a lot of fun!

She taught us how to blend colors in the bag to achieve the green/white look.

I wasn't a fan of the blue flower pictured above...but I'm glad I learned it. Not sure I'll ever use it though. :)

The pink flowers were some of my favorites to make!

And the green/white ones.... :)

Cakes

2011-03-14T22:12:00.007-04:00

So, tonight was my second cake class and the first class where we actually decorated a cake. Everybody does the same rainbow design in order to learn and "master" 3 different techniques. The rainbow itself is done with zig-zags. The clouds are done with little puffs. And the border, which you'll see in the pictures below, is done with the star technique. I clearly need more practice with everything, but I'm pretty excited that I actually decorated one.

The side of my cake got a little beat up in transit, but...what are ya' gonna do? The part I'm really proud of, is the fact that I covered up the hideously lumpy portion of the cake. I tried something new when I greased my pans and it failed...horribly! The top layer of my cake broke in half as I was taking it out of the pan! So I tried to piece it back together as best I could...but it looked awful! I was pleased to find that I could decorate over it and cover up most of the boo-boo's.

Can't wait til next week's class!!

My Handsome Puppy, Gibbs

2010-11-30T20:55:00.017-05:00

Kendall's Wedding & Bachelorette Party

2010-07-13T12:25:00.075-04:00

Wedding Cont.

2010-07-13T11:46:00.104-04:00

Wedding Cont.

2010-07-13T11:26:00.036-04:00

Tom & Sharon's Trip in October

2009-11-17T10:07:00.049-05:00

October is a beautiful time of year to visit Monticello. We had a blast!!!
Sharon and I giving Tommy J. some lovin' before heading up to Monticello.

Oh boy....

Tom got some great pictures of the flowers in the garden!

Getting ready for our tour. Notice how everyone looks very intellectual and studious...then there's me cheesin' it up for the camera.

We had a fantastic tour guide!

So pretty!

I don't remember what this is. But I'm sure it's something historically significant.

I'd LOVE to have a garden like this one!

Ha, I have no idea...something clearly wasn't right.

Chillin' at Monticello.

Thomas Jefferson's grave.

Yeah, we were so not ready for a picture, TOM!!!

Whoops, almost.

That's better.

One of our favorite things to do when they are here is go to Washington...especially at night!

She was not thrilled about having her picture taken while wearing a hat.

A cool shot of our flag!

CHEEEEEESE!!!

I LOVE Washington at night. It's my favorite time to be there!

We had never been to the Smithsonian before and they just happened to be open late the night we were there.

Ooooo, SHINY!!!

I took Tom in to see the Hope Diamond. We discussed what a proper engagement ring should look like. He now knows what to shop for. ;)

BIG elephant inside the Smithsonian.

Don't look now! But that smile is about to be wiped off your face!!!

Did you ever get that feeling that there is something huge and creepy behind you? Sharon feels that way.

I LOVED this place! Could've spent another two days in there.

BIG elephant again.

Mmmmm....

Sharon and I clearly got the memo to smile for the camera. Then there's Mr. Personality to the left. ;)

A view of Washington from Arlington House.

This is taken from the top of the hill at Arlington Cemetery. If you look closely, you can see the Jefferson Memorial.

Teddy Kennedy's stone.

Arlington House

Burt's Bees

2009-10-07T09:00:00.002-04:00

Hello Friends! I participate in a company called BzzAgent.com where I receive free samples of products for different companies. Right now, I am spreading the word about Burt's Bees new line of facial cleansers. If you would like a free sample of one of their products, let me know and I can bring you some. Or, if we aren't going to see each other for a while, click on the link below where you can receive your own sample delivered to your home.

http://www.burtsbees.com/a/burts-bees-natural-acne-solution.html

Check It Out!

2009-09-10T19:36:00.003-04:00

Hello Friends!
A friend of a friend turned me on to this neat-o blog! It's FULL of recipes to use in your crock pot. I will be using many of these as I will be returning to work on a regular basis shortly. You can find a link to it on the right of my page; "Crock Pot 365". Be sure to let me know what you try!

Sunflowers

2009-08-27T12:00:00.015-04:00

Ok, so these aren't sunflowers, but the morning glory (above) is what I have growing on my back deck and they are getting SO pretty this time of year.

The Gerber Daisy (below) is my FAVORITE flower! My wonderful secret sister gave me a beautiful bouquet and this was one of the flowers in it.

In the beginning of the summer, Seth and I planted a bunch of different sunflowers by a white fence on the side of our yard. I LOVE sunflowers! Especially in the fall time!

Birthday Fun

2009-08-27T11:32:00.033-04:00

For Seth's birthday, we met his mom and our friend Tom at Cass Scenic Railroad in Cass, WV. Seth LOVES to come here and we had a great time with family!

This way!

This is the train we took all the way to the top of the mountain.

Locomotive #6.

The other engines chillin' out.

This is Seth's mom, Sharon and our friend Tom.

This is a huge tank that holds water. We stopped and filled the tank back up so we had enough steam to make it to the top.

This is looking down at the tracks below. We stopped and waited for this train to go through so we could continue back down the mountain.

Happy Anniversary!

2009-06-18T14:44:00.001-04:00

June 19th, 2004: The happiest day of our lives.
Happy Anniversary, Babe!!

Summer Time!

2009-06-08T17:16:00.001-04:00

I hope to be updating my blog much more frequently now that school is out! Stay tuned!

Our Narnia

2009-03-06T21:27:00.001-05:00

So, Virginia does get snow....every 10 years or so! We loved all of its fluffy spledor and were thankful to get 3 snowdays from school to play in it! We had almost a foot! I made sure I took lots of pictures so when we have kids we can show them what it looks like. Hopefully we won't have to wait another decade to see more.

Getting ready to go play in the snow!

Here he comes!

The accumulated pile.

This is how he relaxes.

Our bird feeder.

It was SUPER deep!

Frosted like a cake.

International Agape Missions

2009-02-09T08:21:00.001-05:00

Hi folks!
If you are interested in participating in a missions group, a friend of ours is very active in International Agape Missions. Please visit the link to the right of my page and check out the website. God Bless!

Winter Wonderland 2009

2009-01-29T10:11:00.000-05:00

Our cute little home.

The snowy garden.

Frosty trees.

The slippery driveway.

You can't really see it in here, but there is a really pretty red bird in the middle.

The Beach

2009-01-13T07:59:00.000-05:00

Ok, I realize that I have not been on this blog in months...sorry!!! But here are some pics. Some of these may have already been on here.

The Haas' in Fredericksburg

2008-09-08T08:14:00.000-04:00

This summer my great aunt and grandparents were able to join my mom dad and sisters on a trip to Fredericksburg. We wanted them to be able to see some of the history around town so we took a carriage ride through Fredericksburg. If you've never done it, it's pretty neat.