Brecken - Happy Once Again

Since Brecken got his tonsils out in October, we have seen HUGE improvements in his sleeping and overall happiness.  He still won't talk or really eat much of anything - but we are working on that.  But he will play for hours and be happy.  He still loves to dance and does anytime he hears music.  Of course, he still FREAKS out when I leave (which isn't all that often) and likes to be close to me - but he really is getting better.  And when he is happy, he is so much fun!

BYU vs UofU Gingerbread Houses

For some reason, Matthew is a HUGE U of U fan.  He is always drawing pictures with U's on them.  So, of course, he had to put a big "U" on his gingerbread house.

Gavin, on the other hand, LOVES BYU and hates the U.  So, when they were making gingerbread houses he asked Myron to draw a "U" on his house (with frosting so he could decorate it).  Myron said, "Don't you mean a "Y" for BYU?".  Gavin said, "No!  I want a "U" so I can cross it out!"  And that is exactly what he did!

Gingerbread Houses

Every year, the boys decorate gingerbread houses.  This year, with Ed traveling so much, we couldn't find a night that we could make the gingerbread houses.  So, Saturday night while Ed & I were at Xactware Christmas Party, Cortney & Myron (Cortney's boyfriend) were babysitting and helped the big 3 make their gingerbread houses once the little 3 were in bed.  They all had a great time!  Thanks Cortney & Myron!  Our kids LOVE you guys!

6-months old!

I can't believe Cameron & Kesley are already 6-months old (yesterday)!  I was so excited to take pictures of them so I could scrapbook a cute page - but they were not in the mood to have their pictures taken, oh well!  They are still cute to me!  And it looks like Kesley is way bigger than Cameron in the pictures - but that is NOT true.  Cameron is WAY BIGGER than Kesley (Cameron is in 18-month sized clothes and Kesley is in 9-month sized clothes).  They have their 6-month well child visit on Tuesday so we will find out just how much bigger he is.

Happy Birthday Ed! (almost 2 weeks ago)

It was Ed's birthday almost 2 weeks ago - Happy Birthday Ed!  I usually bake several cheesecakes and take into work for Ed's birthday.  But with his new position, that wouldn't work as well.  So, I baked one cheesecake (the yummy Brownie Mosaic Cheesecake) and 3 different kinds of cookies (peanut butter, chocolate with chocolate chips & white chips, and toffee chocolate chip) and fancy brownies (I will try to post the recipe in the next few days).  I put one of each kind of cookie in a bag and one brownie in a bag and put all the bags in 2 big baskets.  That way people at Ed's work could come and grab a bag of goodies.  

Then on the weekend, we had a party for Ed and 2 of our friends whose birthday's are around the same time (but all get kind of forgotten with Thanksgiving and Christmas).  Michelle T. was kind enough to organize it and have it at her house.  We had yummy Mexican food!  I baked 3 different cakes - one for each with a birthday (their favorite cake).  Ed got his favorite German chocolate cake, Jared a plain cheesecake and Laura my chocolate cake.  It was a fun night!

2 BIG for 1 Crib

My sweet little twins are 6-months old today (because it is after midnight).  They have gotten so big!  Which is great and bad.  Great because they are healthy (minus their yucky coughs) and bad because they no longer fit in the same crib together.  So, 2 nights ago they slept apart for the first time!  It worked great last night but considering the fact that it is after midnight and Kesley is STILL AWAKE, it doesn't seem to be working so well.  Wish me luck!

Fabulous Party with SANTA!!!!!

Monday night we had the most fabulous party (if I do say so myself) at our house.  Everyone started to arrive at 6:00 (with several inches of snow on the ground).  The kids could all write letters to Santa, eat treats, and drink hot chocolate (we had a hot chocolate bar) while we waited for Santa to arrive.  Santa arrived right on time at 6:30 as the kids were singing Christmas carols.  Each kid (all 60 of them) got to sit on Santa's lap and tell him what they hope to get on Christmas day.  It was so much fun to see all the kids faces light up as they sat on Santa's lap.  I think I had just as much fun as all the kids!  My cute cousin Amanda was in town and took pictures of all the kids (and lots of families) on Santa's lap.  As soon as I get them from her, I will send them on to everyone - and blog more about this party.  Thanks Amanda!  And thanks to everyone who came and helped make the night one I know we will all remember!  I can't help but smile when I think about it and all the kids!

Brownie Mosaic Cheesecake

This one was really really good!  Definitely a keeper and a make again!  The real recipe had a recipe for brownies from scratch - but I am not a fan of brownies from scratch and it was just less time consuming to use a box (I used Betty Crocker brownies).  The recipe only uses about 1/4 of a batch of brownies (2 cups cut into small squares) so I cut up another 2 cups into small squares and froze them to use later when I needed to make this cheesecake again (worked great).  This recipe was really nice too because if the cheesecake cracks (which they do all the time - I made this recipe twice and it cracked once) you put ganache (so easy) on top.  Anyway, if you want to make a yummy cheesecake, this is a GREAT one to try!  I found it at Brown Eyed Baker.

Luscious 4-Layer Pumpkin Cake

This is a fun addition - not a fabulous, amazing dessert - but a good one.  It isn't too pumpkinie so I like it (not a big pumpkin fan).  It is worth a try.  I found it at Kraft Foods.

Dulce de-Leche Chocolate Brownies

Oh - these are really yummy and so easy!  I found them in one of the little Betty Crocker cookbooks that you find at the check stand (called Betty Crocker Christmas Cookies).  The only unusual ingredient is dulce de-leche (which is a type of sweetened condensed milk that I found in the Mexican food aisle).  I didn't take a great picture - they look better in real life.  Enjoy!

Pie Pops

These are so fun and SO CUTE!  My friend Michelle T. told me about them.  She saw them on Bakerella  I am not a big pie person (eating or baking) but these I can do!  They are really easy to make (especially since you can use the pre-made rolled pie crust) and a big hit at a party (or Thanksgiving dinner).  If you want to see more details on how to make them, click here (or on Bakerella above).  You can use your favorite pie filling - so try them!

Thanksgiving Desserts

I was in charge of non-pie desserts for Thanksgiving this year (actually, I volunteered for them - I love baking but I am NOT good at making pies and I am not a huge pie fan). I think I might have gone a little over-board on making desserts but there were several recipes I had been wanting to try and I thought this was the perfect opportunity to try them. They all turned out to be good. The 4-layer pumpkin cake was good, not amazing, but a good addition (not too pumpkinie). The cheesecake and the brownies were really good! The pie pops are fun - and really easy to eat when holding a baby. I love the toffee chocolate chip cookies and the pumpkin chocolate chip bread. I will post all the recipes this week. I did post the toffee chocolate chip cookies last week - click here for that post and recipe. And here is the pumpkin chocolate chip bread recipe again (thanks again Carol for the yummy recipe)!