Happy New Years !

I want to wish everyone a wonderful New Year !
I hope this new year brings many blessings to you all.

Love ,
Victoria for The Mizell's <3

Worlds Best Chocolate Chocolate chip Cupcakes <3

Here is one of my favorite recipes to make ! It's quick and very simple.

Sometimes I make it with the Cream cheese topping and then other time I leave it off. :)

With out the topping it becomes egg and dairy free ! ;-)

World's Best Chocolate Cupcakes

1 c. Sugar
1 1/2 c. Flour
1 tsp. Baking soda
1/4 c. Cocoa
1/2 Salt

1 c. Water
1/3c. Oil
1 Tbsp. Vinegar
1 tsp. Vanilla
1c. Chopped Nuts ( Optional , I never use them )

Cheese topping :
8 oz. package of creme cheese
1 unbeaten egg
1/3 c. sugar
1/8 tsp. Salt
Dash of vanilla
1 c. Chocolate Chips

Preheat oven to 350. Sift together first 5 ingredients. Add remaining ingredients to dry mixture and beat together.
Fill cupcake pan half full with batter then drop 1 tablespoon cream cheese mixture on top.
Bake at 350 for 30 to 35 min. Makes 15 to 20 cupcakes.

Topping: Blend all ingredients together except chocolate chips. Blend in chocolate chips with a spoon.

Enjoy !

Hot Tea Anyone ?

Well, I love tea. Hot tea. I enjoy sweet tea in the summer but it doesn't even begin to compare to how much I enjoy a nice cup of hot tea in the winter ! When I was young the only two flavors I would drink was Chamomile and what we called "throat coat".
They were both natural but somewhat sweet compared to the other flavors.
In the last year or so I have completely branched out! I also I have found what brands are the best. (IMHO) I like Harney & Son's , Celestial Seasonings and Tazo.
I thought I would list what I currently drink and see if any one else has suggestions or wants to share their favorites ;)

Tazo :
Passion
Wild Sweet Orange

Celestial seasoning :
Sweet Apple Chamomile
Gingerbread
Red Raspberry Leaf
Eckinacha Wellness Tea

Harney & Son's :
Hot cinnamon spice <-- ( My current Fav. !!)

This is what my desk usually looks like on a cold night. Never with out my mug beside me ! lol

A little humor anyone ?

Here are some of our favorite Comedians. My siblings and I can carry on whole conversations  using quotes from these guys !  I hope these make you laugh. :D

Tim Hawkins : Parenting

And here are some others just for good measure. ;-) 

Brad Stein : Bumper stickers  

Brad Stein : The Fishing Show

Banana Split cake Recipe

Here is a favorite family recipe I thought I would share :-)

1 box vanilla wafers
1 stick butter
16 oz. Cream Cheese
1 can of Pineapple
1 cup powdered sugar
1 tub of Cool-whip
about 4 Bananas
2 Pints strawberry's
optional :
1/2 cup Pecans broken up
I like to toast them but that is up to you.

Melt the butter and mix with crushed vanilla wafers. Spread on bottom of 13 X 9 pan.
Whip together cream cheese, powdered sugar and juice from pineapples.
Spread on top of Vanilla wafers. Spread crushed pineapple on top of cream cheese. Top with sliced bananas and cool-whip. On top of that slice strawberry's. Sprinkle pecans on top.
Refrigerate for at least one hour before serving.
I like to drizzle Hersey's chocolate syrup on top of each portion , and cherries are wonderful in this when they are in season.

State Capitol Pictures

Here are the pictures we took of Texas State Capitol. It was so beautiful. I can't believe I have lived in TX my whole life and have never been inside it ! I would love to go back again sometime and take better photos. We had to hurry through in order to make it to the Alamo before they closed. There was some pretty cool furniture in one of the reception rooms. :-) I posted lots more pictures on Facebook if you are interested.

Fun filled Week :-D

Well , We have had a wonderful week here ! We have had friends staying with us from NC.
We fit in 2 dance practices , 2 trips to different book stores, horse back riding, several fun card games and a trip to San Antonio where we saw the State capitol , the Alamo and went on the River walk. I had never been inside the Texas state capitol before and it was AMAZING ! I have lived in Texas my whole life and had never seen the inside. I would highly encourage people to go visit it :-)
Pictures to follow soon !

Emotional Purity

I wanted to share one of my favorite books with y'all.
The Title is Emotional purity By Heather Arnel Paulsen.
You can read her blog here : http://www.emotionalpurity.blogspot.com/
She has some wonderful stuff on there !

I think this book gives very good insight as to how your emotions should be involved in a relationship.
What I liked most about this book is the unique topic.
You hear lots of information on how you should keep your self physically pure and how you should keep all physical intimacy for your marriage.
But what you rarely hear about is saving your emotions for marriage !
Just think of sharing your hopes and dreams, your deepest thoughts and desires with only ONE !
One example in the book was to look at your emotions as glue for marriage.
Think of it like a sticky note. After a while of being stuck to different surfaces it loses it's stickiness. God gave us our emotions to be able to bond with our spouse in marriage.

The author (Now married but single when she wrote this.) said she won't let herself get emotionally involved with someone until she has a commitment of their intentions. If someone expresses interest in her , her *Dad* will get to know him intimately before she does.
A great example of this concept is in the new movie " Come what may ".
http://www.adventfilmgroup.com/Home.html
I watched it a few weeks ago I highly recommend it . :-)

~ Victoria

The Big Leap :-)

Ok ! I have finally done it. I started a blog, after several people suggested I should get one.
Now, the big question is what will I write about ? Most of you who know me well know that although I adore reading I *really* don't care for writing very much :)
I have decided I should try and fix that and hopefully this blog can be one of the tools.
As a homeschooler and a Christian I feel like we are called to be able to express ourselves well and in different ways so, this is something I will be working on.

That and all the cool kids have blogs right ? :-P