outings

We went to the Huntington Library in Pasadena today with my friends Kelly and her twins Miles and Cash, and Jessica and her little Lily.

The Gardens are amazing! Too bad we only made it to a few of them. With 4 babies it is hard to get too far in a few hours. We found a great place to sit on the lawn and take pictures, feed and change the babes. We will have to go back and see more of the place soon!

We took lots of pictures :)

Kelly and Miles (Cash is in the blue)

 James in the mush pot!

 Craziness

 Mommies and their babes

 Kelly took this with her cool iPhone App

 Jess and Lily

Cash was obsessed with my leg. It give me a little bit of self esteem boost :)

A few Halloween Recipes

I was in charge of hosting this months bunco, so I decided to go with the Halloween Theme. 

I found some fun recipes and thought I would share since they were a hit with the bunco girls!

These were from Real Simple magazine and were delicious! I made mine with light cream cheese and the cookies are surprisingly low fat.

And these little ghost were a hit! Fun and easy to make. All you need are nutter butter cookies, white chocolate and mini "morsels". I got the recipe from Taste of Home.

I know I do too many of these...

But I can't get enough of these little laughs!!!! I had to share :)

James' Blessing Day

On 10-10-10, (didn't even do that on purpose!) we blessed our sweet baby James.

Haws did a great job and gave him a beautiful blessing. We were so happy to have so many friends and family members there. Jared and Thor even flew in for the occasion! The only thing that would have made the day even better was if Dana and Chase could have been there, but my hard working sister couldn't get the weekend off.

I was so busy that morning I failed to take a picture of James by himself in his blessing outfit! So we had to do a photo shoot later that week. 

We went to my parents house after for a delicious brunch. The food was so good! Thank you to everyone who helped! It is so nice to know that James is loved by so many wonderful people.

We actually got these shoes from off the top of a baby cake! Score :)

 Love this face!

 This is the beautiful Blessing Blanket my Aunt Nancy knitted for our family. She is so talented!

Waking daddy up from his Sunday nap.

Dad was more worn out than James was!

Couldn't get everyone in the picture, but here is some of the crew.

Thanks to all for making it a special day.

Big Boy Stroller

James has graduated from his bassinet seat for his stroller into the normal seat. He enjoys his walks even more now that he can see everything. He will just sit and babble and look all around, but still falls asleep about half way through. My baby is getting so big already!

The Mobile

I got a mobile before James was born. It was one of the first things I bought for him when I was pregnant. I waited to set it up until a few weeks before my due date only to find it was missing a piece. I was so bummed, but tried my luck at taking it back to Babies r Us. It was way past the 90 day return policy, but they said they could refund me the current selling price which was about half what I had spent... another bummer. So I decided we could live with out a mobile and I would wait to see if James would want one. James loves looking at things and every time I was at a baby store I would look at the mobile, but never wanted to spend the money. Then my mom went to Utah to see Dana and came home with this...

But this is not just any mobile. It was specially made by Dana so that James will recognize her and Chase when they come to visit. Check out the pictures she has attached to each animal...

She is hilarious! James does love his mobile and I am sure it is because he gets to look at Dana, Chase, me and my dad when he is under it.

Mini Cinnamon Rolls Cookies

 We made these last Sunday and they were delicious. I got the recipe from Taste of Home magazine and made a few changes. Turned out great! 

• 30 Servings
• Prep: 1 hour Bake: 10 min./batch + cooling

Ingredients

• 2/3 cup butter, softened
• 1-3/4 cups sugar, divided
• 2 eggs 
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 8 ounces white baking chocolate, chopped

Directions

• In a large bowl, cream butter and 1-1/4 cups sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, 1 tablespoon honey and vanilla. Combine the flour, baking powder, salt and cream of tartar; gradually add to creamed mixture and mix well.
• Shape a heaping tablespoonful of dough into a 6-inch log. In a shallow bowl, combine cinnamon and remaining sugar; roll log in cinnamon-sugar. Loosely coil log into a spiral shape; place on a greased baking sheet. Repeat, placing cookies 1 in. apart. Sprinkle with remaining cinnamon-sugar.
• Bake at 350° for 8-10 minutes or until set. Remove to wire racks to cool completely. In a small bowl, melt baking chocolate; stir until smooth. Drizzle or spread over cookies. Let stand until set. Store in an airtight container. Yield: about 2-1/2 dozen.

Nutrition Facts: 1 cookie equals 170 calories, 7 g fat (6 g saturated fat), 38 mg cholesterol, 105 mg sodium, 25 g carbohydrate, trace fiber, 2 g protein.

Like father like son :)