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!

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

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!

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.

Gardening with Mammy

Yesterday I went to a cake decorating class and the girls went to Mom's to help her garden. I also have had laryngitis for the past few days so she kept them till dinner. It was a fun morning and a quiet afternoon for me...so nice! The girls had a great time gardening. I guess they were a little crazy. They wanted to play in the dirt more than plant onions. :) 

Masters Week

For those of you who don't know...it's Masters week. For those of you who don't know...the Masters is a huge golf tournament. This is a crazy week if you live in Augusta. All the schools shut down, most people who live here leave, the normally quiet roads are crazy crowded and all the restaurants raise their prices. It's pretty crazy. One of the cool things this year is that my dad and Shane are doing security at the Masters this year. They are working at the gate the first half of the day and then they get to walk around the grounds for the second half. That's a pretty big deal. The golf course is very private. You can't see it when you drive by...the whole thing is walled in. You can't just buy tickets to see the Masters...you have to get on a waiting list for years! It's pretty crazy. So if any of you are watching it this week...keep an eye out for Shane and my dad...you just might see them cheering Tiger on. :)

So while everyone else is going crazy for golf...I've been trying to keep my girls busy without going anywhere. We did go to the park this morning but I don't think that counts....most golfers aren't hanging out at kid parks! It was a gorgeous day today and the girls had so much fun. They got to run and play and then we had them run around the walking track. Yes...they BOTH took naps today! :)

 After lunch I gave them both pudding for the first time. Needless to say they loved it. I loved how Heidi called it puddin. :) They were too into their food to stop and smile for a picture.

 For the rest of the day I did tons of cooking. First I made some Bananaberry Muffins courtesy of Bakerella. I used her recipe but made a few of my own changes. I have to say they turned out pretty good! Bananas and blueberries are two of my girls' favorite things so they love them. But I don't really like either and I still loved them. :) Especially with the cinnamon sugar topping. I always add that whenever I make banana bread or cake. I don't know why exactly but it reminds me of being a little kid when my dad would make me cinnamon toast. Seriously...the best ever. :)

Then I made some Meaty Tomato Sauce ala Pioneer Woman. I few changes there too but only because I didn't have everything that I needed. I just made the sauce though...that is for tomorrows dinner. 

 Then I made dinner for tonight...ala me. :) Or my mom or Nan...depends on how you look at it! Usually I save Linguine and Clam sauce for a romantic dinner but its fast and easy and my girls love it so I made it for them. That also turned out really good.

I don't know what happened today. I was just in the mood to be in the kitchen. Hopefully I can keep the momentum going for the rest of the week. :)