Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Carrot Cake



So I have never been a fan of carrot cake until the beginning of this year. My friend ordered some for dessert when we were out and insisted that I give it a try. I liked it alright but really fell for the cream cheese frosting. I tell you, I am a creature of habit and rarely give anything a try that doesn't consist of mostly chocolate. Since my friend's baby shower was coming up, I decided to bake a trial batch of carrot cake cupcakes and served them to our bible study group. They were a hit - with them and me! I wasn't going to try them, but with all the positive feedback, I couldn't resist. They were delicious and decided to make them again for dessert when Tanj and Matt invited us over for dinner tonight. I didn't want to make cupcakes since they are so small and make so many, so I made them in ramekins so they were a little larger but still personal. You feel extra special when you have your own little creation in front of you that you don't have to share (unless you have kids!). Anyway, I was so happy with the way they turned out and even better, Tanj and Matt were ecstatic as well!

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Crazy Kid

 Nate thinks he is so hilarious with these on. I think so too!

Potty Time!

 I haven't mentioned that NATE IS POTTY TRAINED!! Now, that is blog-worthy! He did such an amazing job learning. It took a whole day of wetting his big boy underwear for him to "get it" by the next day. Believe it or not, he even stays clean and dry at night. Noah was still wearing a pull-up at night until he was three. We do put him in a pull-up just in case, but sooner than later it'll be all underwear. Yay Nate! Big Boy!

Monday, February 20, 2012

Star Wars

 Our friends, Gabe and Ari, had a Star Wars birthday party today, and who better to play Darth Vader than Jay!?
Noah received his Jedi training certificate
Nate hitting the Death Star piƱata

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Noah's first flight - I mean kite

 It was the perfect day to pull out Noah's kite that he received LAST Easter! Yes, we kind of forgot about it. Oops! Anyway, we all enjoyed some good old-fashioned fun!

Cute


Just thought this was cute!

Saturday, February 18, 2012

Auntie Anne's, anyone?

For those of you that may not have known, my first job at 14 was as a pretzel-maker at Auntie Anne's. My dad used to love picking me up if I had a closing shift especially because I could take any and all of the leftover pretzels home with me. One would think a pretzel or two would do the trick, but my dad insisted that none make their way into the trash can. There were nights when 20 pretzels would get bagged up and handed over to my dad. He was in heaven! In many ways, I married someone just like my dad (that's a great thing!). In this instance, I definitely married someone like my dad! Jay absolutely loves Auntie Anne's pretzels! So much that my mom will actually give him gift cards on special occasions and also save coupons that she may come across. 
I've seen the "make-at-home" pretzels packs at the grocery stores many times, but didn't take the plunge to make a purchase until Jay mentioned how great it would be to make them at home at the drop of a dime.
Anyway, today I flashed back to the late 90's and it was like riding a bike. I flipped that dough right into a couple dozen pretzels like no body's business.
 Seven minutes later, the next biggest pretzel fan in our family woke up from his nap just in time to sample both the salted pretzel as well as the cinnamon sugar.

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Happy Birthday, 'Nen!

Another birthday for Jay! The big 3-5! Jay is a huge fan of lemon so of course, he requested a lemon cake. I made a lemon cake with lemon filling and cream cheese frosting. When I bake, I prefer a more decorative look, always using a fancy frosting tip and such, but I knew from the time I filled the center with the lemon curd, that it was not going to cooperate - thus, the "organic" look, if you will...
As I get back on track with my posting, I will add some of my creations for your viewing pleasure.

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Picnic

Doing the same thing day after day gets a little boring for all of us, so more often than not, we are eating lunch outside of our kitchen. Most of the time we eat at the park, sometimes we eat at the patio table out back, a lot of times poolside at Mimi's house, and others we picnic on our small patch of grass out front - which is what they chose to do today.