Tuesday, April 26, 2011

The Last Few Days

It has been so busy around here lately. We had a great Easter. We spent the weekend with family, decorating eggs and doing Easter egg hunts. I really wanted to make sure the girls knew that Easter was WAY more than eggs and bunnies so we talked about Jesus a ton. It's kind of hard explaining Jesus' death and resurrection to a 2 and 3 year old but I tried. :) Here are a few pictures...
 The girls loved being able to decorate eggs

 At Grandma and Grandpa's house for an egg hunt...all the grand kids but baby Joshua

 All the grand kids with their Grandma and Grandpa
 Finding eggs at our house Sunday afternoon
 

 All the girls did really really well
 

Then Monday, the girls and I had a cleaning cleaning cleaning day. They both wanted to help so I gave them little projects around the house. Natalie really loved helping me clean. I gave her a baby wipe and she went to town cleaning the cabinets. I will definitely have her do that again...they look great! :)

 Today was dollar Tuesday at Baskin Robbins so we took the girls out for ice cream. Heidi took her nap today so I let her get her ice cream on a cone. Nat, on the other hand, didn't take her nap and had a complete melt down when she found out she didn't get a cone. Thankfully I told her at home before we left for 31 Flavors. :) Once we got there she was happy just to get ice cream in a cup! Heidi made a huge mess with her cone but she really loved it.
 The picture on the right is Heidi doing her new frowning face. She does it to make you laugh...it really is funny. She will frown at you and then give you a big smile and then frown and then smile...all in a matter of seconds. It is so hard not to laugh!! Such a cute kid!

I've also been baking cupcakes pretty much every other day. I'm trying to perfect my recipes. Thankfully I have a ton of people to give my cupcakes away to or I'd be a hundred pounds heavier!! :) Right now I have banana cupcakes in the oven.  I'll post pictures of those later!

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

The Best Cupcake Ever

So after making all those cupcakes none of them stood out as a really good cupcake. Today I made this cupcake and it was so awesome! Super moist and really yummy. It made me so happy! :)
Coconut Lime Cupcake

Monday, April 18, 2011

Cup Cake Tasting

Shane and I have been talking about me starting a cupcake business for a while now. Nothing crazy...not Cup Cake Wars or anything. :) But I wanted to try out a bunch of recipes and see what people thought before I started selling them to people. Which brings me to the other reason these past few days have been crazy. Since Colie was here she wanted to be here for the tasting. After getting my awesome new mixer, I spent Saturday night and all day Sunday making cupcakes. Big cupcakes and little cupcakes. And way too many to finish in that amount of time! 
 A whole table full of cupcakes
 Just thought this looked cool
 Carrot cake with cream cheese frosting
 White Chocolate Rasberry....white chocolate cake, raspberry filling and a white chocolate cream cheese frosting
 Lemon Raspberry...a butter cake with lemon added, raspberry filling and a lemon frosting
 Chocolate Peanut Butter Twist...chocolate and peanut butter swirled cake, and chocolate and peanut butter swirled frosting with a baby reeses cup on top
 Triple Chocolate...Chocolate cake, chocolate cream cheese frosting with chocolate chips on top
 Pink Champagne Cupcakes
 Vanilla Cupcakes with a royal icing flower on top
 This one didn't turn out like it was supposed to. Its a S'more cupcake. Chocolate cupcake and marshmallow frosting with graham cracker crumbs and chocolate on top. The marshmallow was supposed to be really fluffy but I ran out of time. :)
 Heidi really liked the cupcakes. :)
 I passed around the baby cupcakes and had everyone critique them for me. It was really fun.
Last night I was completely exhausted after making so many cupcakes in such a little amount of time. I made 9 different cake batters, 9 different kinds of frosting, 11 total cupcake combinations,  216 baby cupcakes and 132 big cupcakes in 12 hours with one mixer and one oven. Totally crazy!! Lets just say I slept really good last night. :)

My Birthday!

I know I am two days behind but it has been a CRAZY couple days! Colie came down from Alaska and surprised us all! I have no idea how you fly 11 hours and surprise people but she did. So we have been having so much fun just hanging out. Friday was my birthday and it was perfect. Shane took care of everything all day. He got up with the kids, cleaned the house, decorated and then cleaned up again after everyone left. That alone made it perfect! My parents brought over home made taquitos and chimichungas that were amazing. Colie made me a chocolate cake for dessert. Seriously...it was a perfect day! :)
First Colie took a bunch of pictures...
 I love all these pictures of the girls! They looked so cute. :)
 Our family picture
All the girls...we are just missing Gracie!!
 The family eating our yummy dinner. It was way better than you can even imagine!
 Shane bought me the stupid candles that don't blow out. After I already blew them out he wanted me to do it again. I didn't think that was such a great idea. :)
 My birthday cards from the girls
 A cute t-shirt from Aunt Marilyn and Photoshop from Colie. I was just a little surprised! Now I just have to figure out how to use it!!
 
 Shane bought me a stand mixer. I was soo excited! I have been wanting one of these since I was probably 11. I was so surprised and so happy!!
 And the perfect way to end the day...chocolate cake!

Saturday, April 9, 2011

A Beautiful Day

The weather here has gotten so nice! Spring is in full force and thankfully the humidity has not started. :) The girls played in the backyard while I made dinner and then after dinner we all went outside to play. I pushed the girls on the swings. Natalie's hair kept getting in her face so I put it in a quick ponytail. I thought she looked pretty cute. 
Then I decided to give Heidi a haircut. I pulled a chair outside and cut her hair while Natalie played in the grass. The beginning was easier than the end cause she was getting restless. It turned out pretty decent and hopefully it will be a little cooler for her this summer. 
 I don't even know if you can tell from the front but I took a good chunk off. Anyway...it was a nice night.