Baby it's cold outside!

Last week was freezing here.  It was so cold, so we had the first hot chocolate of the season, turned on the heat, and baked cookies.  This is one of Maggie's favorite things to do.  She loves to help in the kitchen.  So of course the first step to making new stuff is putting away the dishes in the dishwasher.  Maggie has been getting really good at unloading.  She stacks everything up on the counter and then I put away the high stuff and she puts away the low stuff.

Then comes the measuring.  I wish I'd have gotten one with the her pouring the ingredients into the bowl, but she is so focused on getting the measurement just right...I love it!

When Sam got home from school he wanted to help too.

 I think it's mandatory to have a few tastes of the dough.

And the finished product.  They were so yummy!

 Enjoying the fruits of their labor....with some milk of course.  What traditions do you have when it turns cold outside?

Fairwell to October and another photo shoot

Obviously, Halloween is over, but I thought I'd throw in these last few pictures of what we were up to.  We had a skull breakfast on Saturday morning, and I have to say that this was Sam's very favorite of all of our spooky meals.  It will definitely be a repeat. 

 We are pretty lame because we didn't even get our pumpkins carved before the big day.  I woke up feeling really crappy...the runs and puky stomach...and it pretty much lasted until the afternoon after I was able to sleep it off for a while.  So I didn't get hardly anything I had planned for the day done.  I didn't even take a single picture of them in their costumes!  So sad!!!

 We hit the Target clearance yesterday and picked up a pumpkin carving kit for $1.00, so Sam desperately wanted to come home and carve our pumpkins.  This is the pattern he picked.  We also figured out what we are going to be for Halloween next year.  I scored tweedle dee and tweedle dum costumes for the twins, and Maggie will be Alice and Sammy will be the Mad hatter!  I can hardly wait!!!

Then, yesterday afternoon I took some family photos of the Larsen's.  We went to Murray park and it was such a pretty day.

Hooray it's finally feeling like fall!

We woke up today to find this!!!  Sam was so excited that it had snowed he could hardly contain himself.  The first thing he wanted to do was put on his hat and gloves so he could play.  We had to run to Target first though because Miss Mags didn't have any snow boots that fit.  As soon as we got home they both were so happy making tracks in the snow and then Sam took to sliding on his knees.

This is the face I got after some snow snuck under his coat and onto his tummy.  But do you think he was ready to come inside???  Definitely not.

This is the first year Maggie has really played in the snow and she was just as excited as Sam.  As you can see her gear isn't as water proof as his yet, but that definitely didn't stop her!

Loving that goofy face!  She picked these boots out today.  I was surprised that she picked these over the hello kitty ones and the cute zebra stripes.  She loves the eyes. While kneeling down, she points to the eyes and says "eyes!" and then laughs.

After the fun in the snow we decided to make some chex mix, then snuggle up and watch Shrek 2 that we borrowed from grandma.  What a great day!

Just for fun I thought I'd throw in these two fun "spooky" meals we've had this October.  We also had spider pancakes and spooky cupcakes, but I forgot to take pictures before they got scarfed down.

Yes, that is my prego belly poking into the picture!!!

Sam's party

Sam was so so so excited for his party this year. He's at such a fun stage right now with being excited about everything. He's especially excited about Halloween decorations...we spent about an hour the other day looking at all the spooky stuff at Target. Anyways, as I mentioned before, our camera's flash is not working, so these pictures are kind of sucky.

The day before his party he was running in the church gym and tripped and smacked his face right on the floor.  He had a pretty good fat lip to show for it!

He was so into openening his presents that we couldn't even get him to look up!  So excited.

 These are the treats we had.  The only thing he told me he wanted for his decorations was for them to be blue, so I decided to do blue monster cupcakes. 

Since our camera has been down I haven't been able to take pictures of the bike we got him, but as soon as I get it back from the canon store I will snap some.

Stats

What a fun birthday!!!  This girl is so much fun.  On the 19th we threw a little party for Miss Mags.  We had a great time enjoying Maggie with some of our family.  I made these cupcakes for her big day, and I am just loving these chocolate treats on top.  So easy and very cute to add to any treat. 

At Maggie's 1 year doctor appointment her stats were:

Height: 30"   {75%}

Weight: 21 lb. 8oz.    {50%}

Head: {75%}

She is growing like a weed.  I think that since she started walking/cruising {at exactly 11 months} she has really started to slim down.

Sweet thing

What a fun morning. Sam and I had quite the party making cupcakes together!  He is so funny...he loves to be involved in all of the steps of cooking...which can be quite helpful!  {and yes, that is chocolate all over his face...and yes, he'd already eaten a healthy breakfast of eggs and a banana before he consumed tons of sweets!}

I got the idea to make these chocolate wafers, for want of a better word, from the Martha Stewart Magazine.  They were so easy, I think they will become a must for holiday treats.   

We filled the white cake cupcakes with homemade strawberry jam {thanks for the idea Liz}, then topped them with pink vanilla cream cheese frosting, a heart wafer and some pink sprinkles.  They are divine.  It almost makes me wish I visiting taught myself!!!   Just kidding!  Wow, did that sound arrogant, but I am very proud of how well they turned out.  Normally I forget something in the process and it turns into one of those...best of intentions...projects!

Sam's Birthday Monster mini Cupcake suckers

What a long, but fun project! I started making these cupcakes from this recipe. They are mini cupcakes that you make by 1- baking a cake...I did white cake, 2- crumbling up the cake and mixing it with icing...I chose strawberry, 3- shaping the combo into cupcake shapes with cookie cutters, 4- dipping in chocolates of choice, and decorating however you choose. Mine weren't as cute or successful as the recipe shows, but it was worth a shot. Plus, Sam can't leave them alone, so I know he will love them tomorrow on his birthday at the Dunes!!! What do you think?