I must be crazy

Yesterday Kell and I went and saw Marley and Me. Absolutely wonderful movie. I have added it to my top 5 favorite movies. Yes it was that good. One thing that Kell and I agreed on was that it made us want to move back to Ft. Drum more than ever. Obviously almost all of our friends are gone from Ft. Drum, which sucks. But I miss everything about the place. the gorgeous summers, gorgeous winters, even if they are a little too long. We want a quaint little house with a couple of acres, away from lots of neighbors. A place where our kids and dogs can run free in the yard without worrying about crime, etc. Upstate Ny is perfect for that. I'm sure most people think we are crazy for wanting to go back, but we are some of the few people out there who find that it feels like home. It's not for everyone, but it's for us.

picasso pumpkins

Here in the Texas heat, it's not smart to carve pumpkins. They will rot quickly. So we decided to paint pumpkins instead. The kids had a blast.

bouncing pies

No not really bouncing pies. But today did have both bouncing and pies. :P

Bouncing....







and pies.......

Suncatcher

Yesterday I took Miss Caitlyn to a beautiful park to collect some leaves. We needed some fresh air. Today we decided to make something with the leaves.

Leaf Suncatcher

You need:
Wax Paper
Fall Leaves
Crayon Shavings
Adult with Iron
Newspaper


Instructions:
Cover work surface with newspapers. Sprinkle a small amount of crayon shavings on a piece of wax paper. Arrange leaves on top. Sprinkle more crayon shavings and cover with another piece of wax paper.
Place a piece of newspaper on top and iron with a warm iron until crayon shavings melt. Trim and hang in the window.

http://www.makingfriends.com/fallcrafts/leafsuncatcher.htm

I think we added too much crayon shavings but it still turned out nice, and Caitlyn enjoyed doing it.















I truly love Fall! If only Texas would cool down and allow me to enjoy my most favorite season. Anyone else doing any fun fall crafts??

chai love

I had the best chocolate yesterday. I'm attracted to packaging. I saw this packaging and was instantly drawn to it. After seeing that it was Organic and Fair Trade and made with real chai, I HAD to have it. Delish. Yes I realize that plenty of other people probably already know all about Theo chocolate but I'm raving about them anyway. hehe :)

They also had Hazelnut crunch (made with crushed hazelnuts), Coconut curry, and Bread (made with french bread and butter)..and some other yumminess. I must go back and buy more, the Chai would be perfect melted and added into truffles, or mix with cream and fruit dipped into it, etc. Think of all the possibilities. It's perfectly spicy to add the perfect amount of flavor to any dessert.

This reminds me that I need to go back to World Market because I need to buy this delish Chocolate Chai Tea that they have on sale this week. I had company this week so I've been slacking on things around here. I need to do some baking this week so I'll be reporting back with some more yumminess.

cake and soccer

Goodness things have been busy around here. I thought I'd finally post pictures of the cake from Saturday. My neighbor wanted the sesame street cake I had previously done so it will look familiar. I did try and change up the colors and the borders a bit. Plus it's smaller.



Now on to the soccer part. Yesterday was Brogan's first practice. He had so much fun and Caitlyn and I really enjoyed watching him. I did however forget to bring chairs. So Caitlyn and I sat on the ground the entire hour. Needless to say, I got bit by a lot of fire ants. Not cool.
Here's a few pictures from the practice.

It's in!!


I took videos of the practice for K to see since he had to study...stupid pa school. haha But for some reason I can't get videos to post on here. Will have to figure out at a later date.





Alright ladies, I'm off to finish readng my chapter for PWOC tomorrow.

Melt in your mouth, not in your hand

I'm making a birthday cake for my neighbor's daughter who's turning 1. She's doing a sesame street theme so I will be making my sesame street cake again, will be posting about that tomorrow. She also wanted half chocolate and half white. I had batter leftover. And what do you do when you have batter left over. Well you make cupcakes of course! Again I am out of cupcake liners, I keep forgetting to buy some. Sometimes cupcakes are better without icing.

chop chop

I needed a change in my life. So I decided to get rid of my highlights, went back to all brown, and then last night I chopped my hair off again. At first I hated it, but after playing with it a bit, I realized I think I actually like it. :) I feel sassy.

I looked awful due to me crying for an hour over my hair haha so this is all you get for a picture.


Yesterday was a semi rough day but thankfully it was a gorgeous day. I love when there are little cotton puff clouds throughout a perfectly beautiful blue sky. I took a moment to enjoy it.

no bumper stickers allowed

(photo taken from random search on photobucket..it's not mine)

It's official....I'm a Soccer mom now. I registered Brogan this evening. The season starts on the 15th. Lots of pictures to follow I'm sure. I will admit I have a mini mini van. It's half van. Half car. Don't believe me? Look up Mazda 5 and you'll see....but no worries...there will be NO soccer bumper stickers on my car. I'm not that kind of soccer mom. :P

yumm-o

I have a new addiction. Klobasnek. Well that's the official term, but here in Central Texas they are mistakenly reffered to as Kolaches. They are everywhere here. Kell and I decided to get brave and try them. Yummmoo.

Orange

Yesterday I made cupcakes in order to get rid of all my extra filling and icing. I tried a new recipe.

Orange Cupcakes...from cupcakerecipes.com
Ingredients
• 1 3/4 cup cake flour (see tip)
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 large eggs, separated and whites beaten until stiff
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup orange juice
• 1 stick of butter, softened


Orange Cupcake Recipe Directions

Combine butter, sugar, egg yolks, and vanilla in a mixing bowl. Cream these ingredients together thoroughly.

Mix flour, salt, and baking powder together in a separate mixing bowl. Add dry ingredients to creamed ingredients 1/3 at a time alternating with adding portions of the orange juice to the creamed mixture.

Fold in beaten egg whites. Spoon batter into cupcake liners until 1/2 full.

Bake in a 350 degree preheated oven for 15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Cool cupcakes completely before frosting with Orange Icing.

Note~~ Do NOT overbake!

I thought they were quite tastee. I would love to make them again but without the vanilla and more orange juice. Plus I didn't get to use the orange icing since I was using my leftover icing. So to sum it up, I'd definitely make these again.


Pictures of the cupcakes. Silly me didn't realize I was out of cupcake liners and I couldn't go to the store because I didn't have the car. So I had to make do without liners, that's why they look funny haha.

Happy Saturday

It's been a long week. Both of my boys had a great first week back to school. I'm proud to say I survived getting up early everyday haha. I think I actually like it. I get so much more accomplished. One thing is for sure, I'm much more busy during the school year. Which means I should have more things to write about. yippie.

Thursday night was eventful. I had to run to the store after I put the kids to bed (kell was home, don't worry). I get home from the store to see my neighbor and one of his daughters walking in front of my house. Two seconds later two abulances pull onto our street. My neighbor waves them down. His oldest daughter got her finger slammed in the door. It was barely attached. OUCH! I told him to send his other girls to my house so they didn't have to see the medics working on their sister. I insisted the girls stay the night at my house so they didn't have to sit for god knows how long at the ER. The two little girls that stayed with me go to Brogan's school so it was easy Friday morning getting them all off to school. I must say it was fun getting 4 kids up for school, dressed, fed, etc. Seriously. Yes I'm crazy. Anyway the little girl will be ok. They "glued" her finger back on and added stitches around the glue, she also fractured the bone. Poor thing. Atleast she's on vicodin for the pain.

Friday after taking all the kids to school, I proceeded to bake and decorate a cake for my good friend's birthday. I'm happy with the way it turned out considering I had no clue how I was going to decorate it till well I actually started decorating lol.
With flash to show the colors well

without flash

She loved it and keeps saying it tasted Sinful! haha. She requested Chocolate cake, with a raspberry filling, and raspberry buttercream. yummm
I have a ton of the filling and buttercream leftover. I tend to always make too much but I'd rather make extra then not enough. I promised the kids we'd make cupcakes today so we can use up the extra filling and buttercream. They'll love doing that. I'll save a cupcake for everyone! :P

Back to School

Brogan finally went back to school on Monday. Well actually both my boys went back to school on Monday. Brogan's loving Kindergarten. His teacher has nothing but great things to say about him. What can I say, my boy is smart. Thank goodness he went to PreK first. :) I'm starting to adjust to the new schedule. I'm not going to lie though, it's rough. I have to get up at 5:45 with Kell to get myself and the kids ready, eat breakfast, etc and out the door to take Brogan to school on time. I haven't had to get up this early is years. oy! On the bright side, I'm getting more things done around the house.


Boys on their day back...


Super early!

quick one

I haven't blogged in awhile..ahhh sorry girls! Things have been hectic around here. Kell's on break right now. He finished his trimester last week and we spent a couple of days trying to get the house ready for his mother. She was here for 4 days and just left this morning. We get 24 hours to ourselves then his dad, stepmom, and grandma will be here tomorrow and be with us for a week. I'm so over having visitors at this point. Kell goes back to school on Monday. So does Brogan. Both boys are excited. I'm ready for Brogan to go back to school but not ready for Kell to go back. Thanks to his family being here the whole time, we have no family time to ourselves. Oh well what can you do. I have to do more some housework and spend some time with my family but I will be back in a couple of days, when I can find time, to post some pictures from our last week or so. I promise to get caught up on everyone else's blogs as well. So don't be surprised when you get a flood of comments from me haha.

Star of the commissary

Watch out peeps, Diva on the scene......

"Please no pictures" haha


It was 9:30am, walking into the Commissary at Randolph AFB. We were stopped by many fans......mostly grandpas and grandmas.. :P

Oh boy we're in trouble for sure.

Smile..It's Sunday

Don't mind her super cheesy grin :) Happy Sunday!

chocolate overload

Since the cupcakes didn't turn out quite like I hoped they would, I had to go an alternate route. Although FYI, the cornbread cupcakes..yes that's what I'm calling..hush....they really are tastey for a oopsie. Kell loved them actually. hmm maybe I'll screw up more often. :P So back to my alternate route. I made a batch of chocolate truffles. I didn't finish making them because I'm just too tired...I'll finish tomorrow. I flavored them with Bailey's and Banana schnapps. Dipped in powdered sugar, cocoa, and drizzled in white chocolate. I then put them in little baggies for Kell to take with him tomorrow. I had a hard time fitting them in there though. Either I needed bigger baggies, or smaller cups. Either way though, Kell had the car today so I had to use what I had on hand. I don't want these in the house though...not Weight Watcher friendly...so I must find a way to get rid of all these...good thing I have a playgroup this week..I'll share the yummyiness with other mommies and will send some to work with Kell on monday too. Ok I'm nodding off. Night ladies!


yeah I had a hard time with this bow..

cupcakes to cornbread?

Well crappppppppp.....I wanted to make cupcakes for the librarians at the library Kell goes to everyday. They are nice old ladies who adore him. This week they just gave him some awesome books for Caitlyn. How thoughtful! I thank people with baked goods. So I decided to whip up a batch of vanilla cupcakes. I mix all my stuff together and make my batter. Put the batter into the pan. Then I realize that it looks thicker than normal. I'm confused. I taste the batter. Ok not what the batter should taste like. What did I do wrong? I go over the recipe again, ok I did exactly what I was supposed to do. Then it hit me. The flour bag didn't look quite right. Nope it didn't. Why? Because I used self rising flour instead of all purpose.

FYI self rising flour already has the salt, baking powder, etc added to it so you don't have to add the other ingrediants yourself..thus calling it self rising. not a big deal if you have to substitute it for all purpose flour during baking, just omit baking powder, salt, etc from the recipe. It is however a big deal if you don't realize you used self rising and you go ahead and add the baking powder and salt to the recipe. You are basically doubling the baking powder and salt.

The "cupcakes" didn't quite bake the way they should have. They grew to be huge and overflated, then fell flat after they were done. I thought I'd be brave and taste them. They taste exactly like Sweet Cornbread! Oh well atleast they are still edible. But no cupcakes for the librarians. Guess I'm off to make truffles instead.

Sophie

Next weekend we pick up our newest family member. Meet Sophie!





Isn't she precious! They say she's very shy, timid, sensitive, yet playful like a puppy should be. She's 6 months old, and already housebroken...yay! The lady selling her has medical issues and can't take care of her the way she thought she could.

We have a soft spot for Weimaraners. They are our favorite dog. When Kell and I first got together, he had a Weim. Beautiful great dog! But while Kell was in basic training the Weim got loose (a friend of mine was letting him outside while I was at work and he got away from her). I searched for weeks. I went to every pound, SPCA, humane society, etc looking for him. I put out flyers. I know someone must have found him and kept him. Which makes me sad. Kell was heartbroken. I swore to him one day we'd get another weim but we had kept putting it off. Finally I agreed it was time for a new addition. I figured since we won't be trying for a third baby for a little while, why not get a new dog! Yes I'm crazy..get over it. :P Anyway enough rambling, I'm just so excited to get her. I'm in love already.

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I hope everyone has a great Friday! I did some shopping this morning....used canvas bags for everything ;)......treated the kids to lunch....now I'm about to do some housework. Kell gets off work early today so he's going to play with the kids in the pool when he gets home. Tonight being our traditional family night, we always have pizza..fun!

Stay little

I loved when my babies would fall asleep on me. It was my favorite part when they were teeny tiny. Luckily Caitlyn is still young enough that she randomly takes naps. I certainly mean random. If she's tired, she will lay or sit where ever she can and pass out. It's so cute. I'm addicted to taking pictures of her in her random sleeping spots. My favorite of course is when she falls asleep on me. Yes she still does it. I can't help it she's my baby.

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Here she is from today. We swam in the pool for a little bit and we snuggled up on the couch afterwards. Next thing I know, she was asleep.

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Just for laughs I'll share a few of the other pictures I have of her sleeping on me.

This one was a few weeks ago. We were getting ready to leave the house and I was brushing her hair. She fell asleep while I was brushing her hair. And yes she was standing up at the time. :)

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This one is from a month or so ago. We were on the floor watching cartoons, she laid in my lap and fell asleep as I rubbed her back. I let her stay there till I couldn't feel my legs anymore.

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This one is from a year ago. Not quite a funny one, but still a great moment to share.