Cupcakes and Cousins

I made some cupcakes the other day. I think they are my new favorites. And of course it is a Pioneer Woman's recipe. All of her stuff is awesome.

Click HERE to get all the details. This link is to the icing, but I also made the cake she suggested. It was a chocolate sheet cake recipe with white icing that the PW calls 'the best frosting I've ever had.' And I agree!

I made these cupcakes to celebrate the Spooners' birthdays! Both Grande and Sister had birthdays in the past week. Happy Late Birthday!

But I didn't really need an excuse to make cupcakes.

I did make these cupcakes without a big mess.
If you put the batter in a measuring cup, or any cup with a spout, it is much easier to pour the batter into the cupcake pan. This was a lot cleaner (and easier) than trying to spoon in the batter and spilling it everywhere.

 Other people may already know this, but I'm glad to just be figuring it out.

I could spend all night trying to center the above picture, but it just won't work. Sorry. 

On Monday, I kept all of these kiddos. 

 They are really silly when they are together.

 They follow each other around.

   I think they really like each other.

 These girls had on matching hearts.

 It's fun to have your cousins near by.

Millie even went over to their house later that night. I think she missed them. 

We made Swedish Meatballs tonight. 

It's was an experiment. 

And it was really good. 

I'll share the recipe soon.  

I'm off to watch Disc 2 of Downton Abbey.

Plastic Bags Under Control

A while ago I showed how I moved furniture around and cleaned out some areas of my home. I cleaned out one of our kitchen closets. The biggest part was cleaning up all the plastic bags. 

I found a good way to store those bags through Pinterest. 

I used an empty tissue box, but I've seen this done with an empty box of wipes too.  

Start by stuffing one bag into the box, and leave one handle hanging out. 

 Then loop another bag through that handle.

 

Push it all into the box.

 Leave the handle of the second bag out.

And repeat. 

Then when you pull out one bag, the next one comes out ready when you need it. Like tissues. 

 I can't remember exactly how many fit in here, but I know it was at least 20.

 This closet is not perfect, but it looks a lot better. At least you can see the floor now.

I'm currently working on my closet. I'll let you know how it goes. 

Livin' Our Life

I have not been in the blogging mood over these past couple of days. Maybe because we have just been livin' our life and enjoying the 80 degree weather.

I've mentioned before how I love the heat and sun. I did not miss winter one bit.

As for livin' out life, this week did not start out so smooth.

We were excited to open the pool. It is always a fun time. It makes us feel like summer is right around the corner, even if it is a couple of months before we can actually swim. The blue pool is also a lot prettier than the blue tarp that covers it in the winter months.

However, while getting the pool ready, the liner ripped. Nick jumped in and patched it. It took him a couple of hours before he felt warm again, and the patch did not stick because the tear was so big.

(I like how you can see mine and Millie's shadow in this picture.)

So this means a new liner.

Nick has spent a lot of the week talking to pool companies and having people come (and waiting on people to come) look at it to give us estimates.

So for now, this is our view of the pool.

Then Tuesday morning we went to the pediatrician's office because Millie looked like this.

It ended up being an allergic reaction to some antibiotics. We now know she is allergic to penicillin. The rash did not seem to bother her one bit. The steroids she has to take to make the rash go away is another story. Let's just say she hasn't napped in 3 days, we got called out of the nursery on Wednesday night for the first time ever, and sometimes she cries regardless of what I try to do to help her.

But today she looked like this.

Much better.
Much happier.

And because of the nice weather it is hard to do any inside work.

This is about 1/4 of the laundry that is done. There is still so much more that I haven't touched. I have to do it soon, or we will run out of clean clothes very soon.

Millie found a sock in the pile that she did not want to part with.

 Don't worry. It was from the clean pile.

She held on to that sock for at least 20 minutes. 

She eventually dropped the sock and found a diaper.

Don't worry again. It was a clean unused one.

This week hasn't been all rashes and spending money on pool liners.

I did start reading The Hunger Games.
And I like it. I'm not done with it yet, but I think I'm going to love it when I finish.
I love stories that last more than one book. Harry Potter, Twilight, Narnia. All of these have been favorites of mine.

We have been strolling and playing outside a lot this week.

I hope it never gets cold again.

We sat outside for hours today. 

 She had on SPF 100.

Then we shaded her with an umbrella.

Have a good Sunday. 

We will probably be outside again.

MS Vacation

We recently returned from a trip to Mississippi.
We enjoyed seeing family and friends.
It was nice to have good meals that I did not have to cook.
It was also a time to have other people watch Millie (even though she is not fond of anyone else).
Millie finally let my mom pick her up, without crying, after being together for 5 days.
To say she really likes me is an understatement.

I did not take my camera out the entire trip. However, I did take plenty of pictures on my phone.

We started the trip in Madison.

Nick and I enjoyed a date out on the town while trying to avoid tornadoes.

This was a plate of fried green tomatoes topped with crab meat and a sauce that was a perfect for dipping our rolls. It was so good that I forgot to take the before picture. 

We also had a lot of play time with cousin Carsten.

The next day was mostly spent at lunch with a friend. We enjoyed a good bloody mary, and I witnessed my first public proposal.

 The whole restaurant clapped. It was very exciting!

 I know this picture is blurry, but it was taken from a few tables away on a camera phone.

We stayed at lunch for 3 hours enjoying ourselves while these kids were riding around Toys R Us.

These orange tulips were in the shopping center, and they were gorgeous.

This is Sunday morning. Millie was reading the paper before we headed to Greenville.

We found this baby girl when we got there.

After she left with her parents, Millie and I spent the rest of our week with my parents and Stephen Small.

I have no pictures of Millie with grandparents. As I mentioned earlier, it took 5 days for my mom to hold her without crying. And Millie doesn't cry with just my mom. She reacts the same with Nick's mom, my sister, Nick's sister, and if you are a man, just stay away. Except for her dad. She really likes her dad too.

We also made a drive to the country to see my friend and her sweet baby.

 Nick and I also embraced technology while we were apart.

This is us talking using 'facetime' through facebook. It was really neat to be in different states and still be able to see each other.

I did a little shopping too. This is Stephen riding the boat at Stein Mart. I think boating is in his genes.

 I thought this fish bedspread was cute. If Millie was a boy I might have bought it.

We came home Thursday to a beautiful day.

Pizza sticks always make good travel food. 

Millie also turned 9 months old on Thursday.
So I decided to whip out my camera and take some pretty outside pictures.

 Trying to get the leaf out of her mouth.

   Watching Stephen run around. These girls love him.

 I love this picture because they are matching in their orange and blue and skipping. Cute isn't? Especially the small one.

 Playing with my workout ball. It was the only ball we could find at the time.

We enjoyed our trip, and we are glad to be home. I am not glad about the pile of laundry, but that can wait til Monday.