Birthday Girl

Happy 4th Birthday Sweet Pea!


You truly are a gift to us...our miracle baby!

Merry Christmas!

Make a Smilebox greeting

If You Were A Fly...

...on our wall, you'd have heard some humdingers from Natalia these past few weeks.

Some have called her witty...I'd have to agree, and add a few adjectives of my own. ;o)

But whatever adjectives you assign, they were good for a laugh. Mind you, some we tried to muffle and disguise as loud coughs and others necessitated correction.

Enjoy!

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Natalia told me one day that the little piece of paper in her hand said, (as she moves her finger over the words) "kids should get everything they want."

Before we pray at dinnertime, Pete usually asks Natalia what she'd like to thank Jesus for. One night she said, "For this food, and...(sweeping her upturned hand across the table)... my people." (Guess I should have my people speak to her people! They sound important!)

When helping me bake one morning she said, "Mommy, it says next on the recipe that I should lick the batter.

We are still having potty training issues. Yes, it's been a loooooonnnnngggggg 6 months. The newest challenge has gone like this:

Natalia: "Mommy, mommy, mommy! I gotta' go potty!"

(We race to the bathroom only to have her come to a screeching halt just outside the door.)

Me: "Why are you stopping?"

Natalia: "I don't have to go...my sister does!"

Me: "Um, you don't have a sister. If you are pretending and either you or this imaginary sister has to REALLY go, we gotta', you know, GO...pronto!"

When we were unwrapping presents the other night, Pete asked Natalia if he could play with her new cash register.

She quickly retorted, "You got your sweater."

Me: "Natalia, are you excited to celebrate Jesus' birthday tomorrow?"

Natalia: "YEAH! But Mommy, he doesn't have a car!"

Me: "He doesn't need a car. He's with us all the time. We just can't see him."

Natalia: "I think he should take an airplane."

Brown Bear and Polar Bear Cupcakes

These weren't too difficult. If you like to create when it comes to food, this is right down your alley. In my opinion, if you can frost a cupcake, these won't be too challenging.

Here are my tried and true, FAVORITE chocolate and white cupcake recipes, as well as the frostings. Enjoy! :o)

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Devil's Food Chocolate Cake

1/2 c. shortening

1 3/4 c. sugar

2 eggs

1/2 c. unsweetened cocoa

2 1/4 c. flour

1/4 tsp. salt

1 tsp. vanilla

1/2 c. sour milk or buttermilk*

1 c. boiling water (with 1 1/4 tsp. baking soda, dissolved)

*Buttermilk substitutes:

1 1/2 tsp. lemon juice OR vinegar PLUS enough whole milk to equal 1/2 c. (let stand 5 mins.)

1. Preheat oven to 350. If using a substitute for buttermilk, mix that now.

2. Cream together shortening and sugar, then add eggs.

3. Combine cocoa, flour, and salt in a separate bowl, then add to sugar/egg mixture.

4. Add vanilla and sour milk/buttermilk to mixture.

5. Lastly, add baking soda water and stir until well blended.

6. Fill cupcake liners 2/3 full. Bake 20-25 mins.

(Makes about 3 dozen cupcakes)

***I only needed a dozen cupcakes, so I halfed this recipe and with the remaining batter made a dozen mini cupcakes. The mini cupcakes are "glued" with frosting onto the big ones to create the bear's snout. I did not use mini cupcake liners; just lightly greased my nonstick mini muffin pan.

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Creamy Chocolate Frosting

2 c. powdered sugar

4 Tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder

6 Tbsp. butter, softened

5 Tbsp. evaporated milk

1 tsp. vanilla

1. Sift cocoa and powdered sugar together.

2. In a separate bowl, cream butter, then gradually alternate adding powder mixture and evap. milk.

3. Blend in vanilla and beat until fluffy.

*If necessary, adjust milk and sugar ratios. You don't want it to be too soupy or too stiff.

**Makes enough to liberally frost a 9x13 cake, or 2 dozen cupcakes.

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Silver White Cake

2 c. flour

1 1/2 c. sugar

3 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

1/2 c. shortening

1 c. milk

1 tsp. vanilla

4 egg whites

1. Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour pans, or prepare cupcake liners.

2. Beat everything but the egg whites in mixer on low speed for 30 sec.

3. Then beat on high for 2 mins.

4. Add egg whites, beat on high 2 mins. more.

5. If making round layers, bake 30-35 mins.; 9x13 bake 35-40 mins.; cupcakes bake 15-20 mins.

*Bake until the tops are no longer "glossy", but you don't want to let the edges get more than lightly brown.

**Makes 2 dozen cupcakes.

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Mom's White Frosting

2 c. powdered sugar

1/3 c. shortening

3 Tbsp. water

1/4 tsp. vanilla extract

1/8 tsp. almond extract

pinch of salt

Put half of the sugar in a bowl and add shortening, water and flavoring. Mix well. Then add remaining sugar and beat until fluffy. Adjust sugar and water ratios if needed.

*Makes enough to frost 2 dozen cupcakes or the top of a 9x13 cake.

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Finally, to make the bears, once you've baked enough cupcakes and cooresponding mini cupcakes for the snouts and prepared the frostings, this is what you'll need.

Brown Bears:

Junior Mint for the nose (1 per bear)

Werther's for the ears (2 per bear)

Chocolate chips for the eyes (2 per bear)

Chocolate sprinkles (about 1 Tbsp. per bear)

Polar Bears:

Junior Mint for the nose (1 per bear)

White Gumdrop, halved for the ears (1 per bear)

Chocolate chips for the eyes (2 per bear)

Coconut flakes (about 1 Tbsp. per bear)

1. After cupcakes are completely cooled, use a paring knife to gently hollow out a circle for the "snout" to sit in, and use frosting to attach mini cupcake. Spread frosting over remaining top of cupcake and "snout".

2. Attach nose, eyes and ears, then "fur". It's important you don't attach the fur first because then your other components won't stick.

*One thing I'd do differently than what is pictured: put Junior Mint more towards the top of the snout. I think my placement of the noses in the photo at the top of this post makes the bears look more like dogs.

Pink And Blue

Birthday Boy

Where did that year go?!?!?

Today my son turns one, and I marvel at how fiercely I love this little man of mine.

I could get super sappy on you all, but let me just sum it up with this. Just looking at him makes me mushy.

(Aren't you glad I spared you the rest?! Ha Ha)

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It's been a busy, fun-filled couple of weeks!

I hosted a Christmas Brunch/Tea one weekend for the ladies in my Care Group. We also did a pumpkin roll fundraiser as a Care Group to benefit our church's building fund. Throw in a few Christmas parties, a special date night with my parents and younger brother and sister-in-law to a Hershey Bears hockey game, AND getting to meet one of my blog friends face-to-face at the Choo Choo Barn! Needless to say, I have 4 or 5 posts at least floating around in my head...when I'll actually get to them I don't know.

We had a 1st birthday party planned for yesterday but since we all got a bunch of snow dumped on us it's been postponed. Not to worry. We'll be with everyone again in a few days.

In the meantime, we've had some fun family time here at home.

Here are some pictures of the cupcakes I made for the party, whenever it happens. Since Adam loves the two Eric Carle board books that we have, "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?" and "Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?", I decided bear cupcakes would be fun.

I was really pleased with the recipes I used for these. That's another post! :o)

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Not everyone gets a decent snowfall on their birthday! We spent a good chunk of time both Saturday and Sunday playing outside. It's hard to say how much we actually received but I'm guessing between 10-12". Hopefully it'll stick around so we can have a white Christmas!

Adam was pretty unimpressed with his first introduction to the white stuff.

He DID like the sled ride though.

This was the first time in a long while that he stayed where I set him down!

What would be a good caption for this photo do you think?

I mean, just look at that face! :o)

Modifications

I usually keep things pretty simple when it comes to decorating for the holidays/seasons. Some people would argue "sparse" is a better word. I call it "uncluttered". :o)


This decorating philosophy has proven to be rather childproof-friendly, though you'll see we still made one big modification this year.



Come inside...


Entryway wreath.



Bowl of beaded fruit on the dining room table.



The nativity scene on the china hutch.



Some of the Christmas books we like to read. If you have any you can recommend, this is one collection I'd like to expand.



Do you like our tree? It's good for some giggles anyway. It's so very VERY tiny!

Our traditional Polish straw ornaments, glass balls and white lights...and Natalia's paperclip angel she made at Connections (the mom's group we go to a few times a month).

It was either this or nothing because I simply was NOT going to put our big gray playyard gate around our big tree. Our house isn't THAT roomy. And I wouldn't put it past Adam to somehow scale the thing anyway.

It took me all of 5 minutes to set up AND decorate! Hmmm, that's a tempting concept. Just kidding!



The wreath and lights on the back deck. (I learned the hard way last year that if you loop the lights around the deck railing, the squirrels like to chew the wires. They leave it alone if you loop the next railing down. Those squirrely squirrels!)



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I'll be posting birthday party goings-ons soon! Only a week until Christmas! :o)

Homemade Enchilada Sauce

At least once a week I make something Mexican-ish.

And since I can find E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G else for these dishes at ALDI's BUT the enchilada sauce, I went in search of a recipe I could make from scratch--and preferrably can.

Allrecipes delivered once again! :o)

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10 Minute Enchilada Sauce

1/4 c. veg. oil
2 Tbsp. flour
1 (8 oz.) can tomato sauce
1 1/2 c. water
1 Tbsp. chili powder (more if you like heat--we're mild people)
1/2 tsp. cumin
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
1/4 tsp. salt

***you could also add cayenne pepper if you like it spicy


1. Heat oil in saucepan over medium heat; mix in flour.
2. Slowly add tomato sauce and water and spices.
3. Low boil for 10 minutes, stirring frequently, then use immediately or pour into pint jars to can.
4. Prepare seals/lids as you would to can, fill canning pot with water and boil for 20 minutes.


***Multiply the recipe by 6 to fill 8 pint (16 oz.) jars.

As is, this recipe makes alittle over 2 cups worth--enough for a 9x13" pan (about 8 tortillas).

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If you don't have an enchilada recipe, here is mine:

1 lb. ground beef, (or about 2 c. shredded, cooked chicken)
1 can refried beans
1 c. shredded cheddar
1 c. shredded Monterey Jack
(enchilada sauce)
package of flour tortillas
iceberg lettuce
sour cream

Brown the beef, then mix with 1 can of refried beans. Blend cheeses together, then add 1/2 c. of cheese mixture to beef and 1/4 c. of the enchilada sauce. After the tortillas are filled and in the pan, pour the remaining sauce over the top followed by remaining cheese. Bake uncovered for 25-30 mins. at 350.

Serve over top a generous pile of shredded iceberg lettuce and with a dollop of sour cream.

Garlic-Herb Orzo Pilaf

I made this again the other night and it was so yummy alongside our chicken and veggies.

If my memory is correct I got this from the Taste of Home magazine.

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1 Tbsp. olive oil
2 tsp. minced garlic
1/2 c. uncooked orzo pasta
1/2 c. uncooked long grain rice (I used an unseasoned brown and wild rice blend)
2 c. chicken broth
1/3 c. water
1/4 tsp. dried basil
1/4 tsp. dried parsley
1/4 tsp. salt

1. In a large skillet, heat olive oil over medium heat; once oil is hot, add garlic and cook for 2 mins.

2. Add orzo and rice; cook 5-6 mins. until lightly browned.

3. Slowly stir in broth and water, bring to a boil, then cover, reduce heat, and simmer for 20 mins.

4. Add seasoning at the end before serving.


(Makes 4 servings)

***Sometimes I like to throw in some craisins while everything is simmering, then garnish with sliced almonds

I Love My Kids

I catch myself looking at them somedays and thinking, "can they really be mine?"

YES! And I simply cannot imagine what was so important before they came along! (I don't mean to exclude you honey dear! *wink*)

I know these pictures don't mean as much to the rest of you, because let's face it, we're all partial to our own kiddos. But, here they are none-the-less. :o)

Adam, all dressed and ready for church (with Mr. Incredible in a cameo role)

My daughter, who I still look at trying to find ANY shred of resemblance to me...but I'm keeping her! ;o)


Got milk?


Natalia CRACKED ME UP the other day when I found her like this. Lately she has loved making little nooks to cozy up in. What made me laugh was the afghan laid over her lap to ward off the apparent chill. :oP

Maybe the afghan fits in with her fascination with all things GRANDMA this week. She's asked me countless times if we can pretend that I'm Grandma. Um, sure--I'm having another birthday soon anyway! Why not just jump ahead a few more years?!