Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween! We didn't end up dressing up this year, because we just couldn't decide and/or agree on one. But we did pumpkins, and by we, I mean Adam. He did the greatest pumpkin ever.

Look around, look around, at how lucky we are to be alive right now! Hope you guys had a great night!

Any Questions?!

Ok this skit was on SNL last week, and I was laughing so dang hard at it. I've definitely watched it over and over, and thought I would share it.

I hope you guys enjoy it as much as I did.

Foto Friday

Today we had to take Cookie to the vet. She has an ear infection, which we learned today is an allergic reaction to something, we don't know what. So she got a shot and some ear drops, and we went on our way. Afterwards, she was in good spirits.

Darth and Gecko

Man I heart these babies, guys.

 Just casually eating whilst sitting in a princess shopping cart, as you do.

 You almost can't see Darth photobombing this, but I was dying.

Gecko loves himself some spoons. He tries to eat them always.

Stamping plus Chatting

Ok, technically, Stamp and Chat is on Thursdays now, but I do weekly baby pics on Thursday, so I'll just bend the space-time continuum and post these whenever I have the opening! So here are our amazing cards that we made, and we ate some delicious pumpkin foods. It was fab.

Aren't they so adorable?! I love them so much, I can't wait to send them.

Miscellaneous Monday

So today, I'm here, at my house, cleaning my fridge. All of a sudden, I hear some weird pops, and then BOOM smoke comes pouring out of the bottom of the fridge! Of course I panic and called a friend to help me. We got it turned off and unplugged and the house was full of the smoke that kept pouring out. Turns out, the bottom had caught on fire! Oy! So now, we need a new fridge. Whilst I am excited about this, the timing could be better. I know, nobody is every ready to make a giant purchase on an appliance on a seconds notice, but that's all right. At least nobody was hurt, and the house didn't burn down. We went fridge shopping, and luckily found one one sale that fits in the dumb place we have for the fridge. It'll be delivered Wednesday. Byeee foooood that was in there.

Fall break was this last week, and literally, I did nothing. My SIL's were supposed to come watch a Halloween movie but alas, that didn't work out as I'd hoped. But I got some homework done and also got the house clean, and had a good weekend in general. Basically, it just got me excited for thanksgiving and Christmas and for this semester to be over, in general. We're halfway through now! We can do this!

Fall break was only Thursday and Friday. So here am I, heading into Ethics last Wednesday. It was a busy morning of my hurrying to get ready. I was at school, running into the building, and decided to check my email. I was going to write one on my way in, before class. As I opened my email, I found an email from my Ethics professor, canceling class. Gosh darn that it had been sent an hour before, but I was so busy I didn't waste time checking email. Now I know I'm just going to check my emails right before I leave the house, just in case.

Caramel Apple Time

I tried something I haven't done in a while - made caramel apples. Last time I made them, it was like, 5 years ago, and the caramel slid off. But I tried to do it better this time.

They turned out really good, but word of advice - get yours eaten within a day or so, because the caramel does start sliding off something fierce. But these were CRAZY delicious and I was super proud.

Darth and Gecko

 So, here's Darth's costume this year. Basically, he's been wearing it every single day in anticipation. What a great guy.

 He's learning how to smile and it's turning out pretty great!

...until it doesn't.

Cake Mix PB Cookies

This is a super simple recipe that turned into a delicious cookie, guys.

1 yellow box cake mix
3/4 cup peanut butter
1/3 cup oil
2 eggs
24-40 Reese Peanut Butter Cup Miniature

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix first 4 ingredients together in a bowl until they reach cookie dough consistency. Drop by tablespoon onto a greased cookie sheet. Bake for 8-12 minutes (until slightly browned on bottom edge). While baking, unwrap Reese peanut butter cups, set aside.
When cookies are done, remove from oven, and push peanut butter cups upside down into the cookie.
** The PB cup will melt quite a bit. If you don't want them as melted, just wait 3-5 minutes before putting them in.

So the original recipe said that she made 40 of these cookies, but I stretched my dough as far as I could and only made 24, so I guess my tablespoons were considerable bigger than hers. I just have one standard size cookie scoop though, and I'm ok with my sizes. Enjoy these!

Darth and Gecko

Guys, I have about a month until I get to see these jokers. I am jazzed and I hope the month passes fast.

 This is what we call 'mean mugging'. It's his teething face. Basically his poor mouth is in pain, and so he makes this face to try and deal with it. It's sad and cute and funny all at the same time.

 Ugh these two. I just want to snuggle them all so hard.

This is genuinely one of the happiest babies I've ever seen. He's rarely unhappy.

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving!

Guys! Happy Thanksgiving! This is the time of year that I'm grateful to have married a Canadian, because I get to enjoy two Thanksgiving, like champions. We hosted dinner as usual, and had to resort to having a couple tables in the garage, and a couple in the living room to fit us all. It was delicious and good times were had by all. I made my usual pumpkin silk pie, of course.

Hope everyone celebrated accordingly! :)

Banana Cupcakes with Nutella Buttercream

I had some leftover bananas. You know the kind. As soon as they get to ripe, you recognize that you won't eat them anymore, so you set them aside for a baking purpose. With these ones, I decided to do a simple banana cupcake with a Nutella buttercream. Here's the recipe for the cupcakes:

1 box yellow cake mix
3 ripe bananas, mashed
1/3 C oil
3 eggs
1/2 C sour cream
2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line pans with cupcake liners.  Add mashed bananas, oil, eggs, yogurt and vanilla extract and stir well. Fill cupcake liners and bake for 15-20 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.
And then for the frosting, I just used this old favorite. The cupcakes cooled, and I frosted them. Finally, I got to try one and
WOW
These are freaking delicious!

I recommend these in a big way.

Darth and Gecko

Good stuff this week, guys. Let's see.

 Gecko, in this picture, looks EXACTLY like Darth did at like, 8 months old. Amazing.

Darth finds car rides really relaxing and usually just falls asleep during them. 

THESE ROLLS THO

Peach Pie Cookies

So, I have a peach tree. In years past, it's blessed us with many delicious peaches. For some reason this year, it gave us a million peaches, but they never grew larger than like, an apricot. They were small and tiny and minuscule. As I had about 6 that were good for consumption, I decided to do something with them. After a bit of searching, I found this recipe on the good site of Pinterest. Here's the recipe:
1 cup instant oats
¾ cup flour
1 ½ tsp ground cinnamon
1 ½ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
2 TB unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
1 large egg
1 tsp almond extract
½ cup honey
½ cup diced peaches

Whisk together the oats, flour, cinnamon, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together the butter, egg, and almond extract. Stir in the honey. Add in the flour mixture, stirring just until incorporated. Fold in the peaches. Chill for an hour. Preheat the oven to 325°F, and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. I used a cookie scoop and dropped the cookie dough into rounded scoops onto the prepared sheet. Bake at 325°F for 11-14 minutes. Cool on the pan for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack.

Ok here are my notes on said recipe. The almond extract is too much. In the future, I would do a 1/2 tsp of that and 1/2 tsp of vanilla extract because the almond OVERWHELMS the cookies so much. I didn't have enough honey so I substituted agave for it. It made the cookies very healthy but also, they tasted healthy. I would like to try a recipe in the future where I just use some brown sugar, see how that would taste. Otherwise, these were pretty tasty. I want to just fiddle with the recipe in the future.

Conference Card

This weekend was conference, and as is my usual during conference, I made my card. Its a Christmas card, and we have to only make one, and this one wasn't too bad. It took me a bit to like it, but I think I really do. Without further ado:

Not too bad, and I only had to make one, so that's even greater! Getting ready for Christmas, its coming soon...