Yep... It's official!

I am really bad at blogging... which is kind of funny since I am a talker and I am online constantly. Apparently I need to find a consistent way of combining the two. I am going to try! REALLY hard! So here goes.

DECEMBER... what a great month! I LOVE December! I love the warm, fuzzy feeling that Christmas brings. I love trying to make the season so special for my kids. I love the decorating, and the crafts, and the baking, (and the eating), and the family time!!! I especially love that my husband is in education and gets two weeks off. But that's rushing ahead... first things first.

December brought my birthday first. 37 big ones. Not so bad (I guess)! It's funny how 30 brought me to tears yet 37 is no big deal. My parents came over for dinner and games to celebrate... we're wild like that! :) We also enjoyed a champagne cake... YUM!

We spent the rest of December...

Being silly...

Decorating Christmas cookies...

More being silly...

Celebrating Paige's half birthday

And searching for our Elf on the Shelf "Abby" every morning.

To be continued...

Updates... Finally!

So I pretty much stink at consistent blogging... but it wasn't all my fault... Really, it wasn't!  :) For some reason my computer is acting wacky and won't always let me access the site I am trying to get to. Shockingly enough... this was one of those sites... and I'll admit it... I was just too lazy to keep trying. So here comes a long post with all of my news. Luckily, I am pretty boring and there isn't much news to share!

Here are my Halloween cuties all dressed up. We went trick or treating with the cousins and Nannie and Pop in our neighborhood.

On 11-11-11 I celebrated 8 years of marriage with my wonderful husband... AND we were even able to get out of the house ALONE for our once a year dinner date. Okay, sometimes we get out TWICE a year... what can I say... we just don't have eager babysitters beating down our door trying to take care of our kids. We went to a little Italian restaurant and had a great time... it is so nice to enjoy a meal and a glass of wine and be able to talk WITH NO INTERRUPTIONS!!!!

The next day we celebrated Pop's 65th birthday at the Mexicali with the family. Two nights in a row of dinner out!!! Yippee!!!

Jack's 3 1/2 year birthday was on the 14th. Yes, we celebrate half birthdays here... any excuse to celebrate with cake, right? Well, this year Jack was super excited for it... and so was Hailey. She made him a cute birthday crown to wear with pictures of Thomas the Train (Jack is OBSESSED!). He requested a Thomas cake too. Since I am not a cake decorator, I just decorated the top with Thomas figures... he LOVED it!

We spent Thanksgiving with my family at my Mom and Dad's house. It was delicious, as always. We were so happy to get to spend the day with our family. We were especially thankful to see my uncle and cousins who came up from San Diego... we just don't see them often enough. The next day we woke up and began our tradional day after Thanksgiving decorating extravaganza!!!! Everything goes up that day... I like to be able to enjoy the season for as long as possible. That evening we went to Jason's parent's house for dinner to celebrate with his family. We really enjoyed a nice long weekend together playing games, and watching movies and being thankful for our many blessings! 

Seriously???

I cannot believe that my last post was on Halloween... I am a SAD excuse for a blogger. Not a whole lot has happened this month... but I will update soon. :)

Happy Halloween

I LOVE getting ready for Halloween. I love making fun fall themed and spooky treats, doing crafts with the kids, and going to the pumpkin patch. I love the harvesty feel that October brings... I just don't care much for trick or treating. I don't know... there is something about going door to door begging for candy... it is just NOT my thing. Unfortunately, the kids love it... so we will be partaking in the fun this evening. Hailey is going to be a rock star, Jack is Thomas the Train, and Paige is a peacock! They are so cute!

We finally made it to the pumpkin patch this past weekend! Here are some cute pictures of our fun at the patch!

At least one kid knows how to look at the camera! :)

Sweet girl!

Picking the perfect pumpkin!

Hanging with the scarecrow!

After we got home, Daddy took the kids out back for pumpkin carving. He is the resident carver here. I usually have the extreme pleasure of being the "pumpkin guts scooper"... FUN! Surprisingly, I escaped that duty this year!  Yay!

The rest of our weekend was spent playing games with the kids, baking, a little cleaning, a LOT of laundry (Boo! ), and of course... Dressing up!!!

Arrrggg matey!!!!

Happy Halloween!!!

So Tired

I just cannot shake how tired I have been the past several weeks. It is awful! Maybe I should take better vitamins or something... I don't know.  I just feel like I can't accomplish anything lately. We have been in our new house almost one month... its so hard to believe. I was so energized when I started moving everything in and the past couple of weeks I don't think I have touched one single box... SAD! I feel so lazy! Oh well... they aren't going anywhere I guess! Ha! The days just go by so quickly... here's hoping I get my groove back soon.

Just a few things that have been occupying my time in the last week! :)

My baseball boys

Not happy that the other kid on the team got the ball first!

Precious girl

Learning to ride without training wheels

A baby shower for a dear friend

We are trying to get the kids to the pumpkin patch... here's hoping this weekend we will make it! :)

Black Magic Cupcakes

I think I said in a previous post that I had been baking/cooking a lot... and I do mean A LOT! Everyday has turned into Kitchen Fest 2011. If I see something that looks good, I can't get it off of my mind until I make it. This week has consisted of making several pans of lasagna and baked ziti... (I even gave some away and still have some in the freezer... yay!), chicken tortilla soup, this Honey Sesame Chicken, with a side of Pioneer Woman's Sesame Noodles (these are so good i will eat them cold for days after...) and much more.... including these cupcakes...

Don't mind the picture... I tried to make them look Halloween-ish for the kids... I'm not a food stylist...Ha!

 I found this recipe for Black Magic Cake on Pinterest (shocking, I know given my new love for Pinterest)! It looked sooooo good I had to make it. I wanted to make a cake, however hubby and I have differing views on frosting. He prefers disgusting canned frosting, which I usually will not buy, and I prefer homemade. I'm not particular... cream cheese frosting... good; buttercream frosting... good; ganache... good!!! While Jason is not a fan of buttercream, he does like the other two and I wanted to experiment with different frostings so I made cupcakes. These are so YUMMY! I made a mochaish (is that a word?) buttercream, and a ganache and they were great with this cake. I would imagine a peanut butter frosting would be fantastic too... I guess that gives me a reason to make this cake again!

Black Magic Cake - I read that this is originally a recipe from Hershey's cocoa

• 2 cups sugar
• 1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup Cocoa
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup buttermilk or sour milk*
• 1 cup strong black coffee OR 2 teaspoons powdered instant coffee plus 1 cup boiling water
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. 1 Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour two 9-inch round baking pans or one 13x9x2-inch baking pan.
2. 2 Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, buttermilk, coffee, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes (Batter will be thin). Pour batter evenly into prepared pans.
3. 3 Bake 30 to 35 minutes for round pans, 35 to 40 minutes for rectangular pan or until wooden pick
   inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool
   completely. Frost as desired. Yields 10 to 12 servings.

I made 24 cupcakes and a large ramekin and baked them for about 18 mins... they were perfect!

These are kid approved too... 

(I left off the one with him EATING the paper towel to get every last bit of chocolate.... BOYS!)

Workmen

I've had a lot of workers in and out of this house in the past few weeks...

But I think I'll keep this one...

He's been running through the house "fixing" things. Love this kid!