Long Weekend Fun

We had a great weekend! Ben took Friday off to spend with us, and we did a good amount on our little three day weekend.

On Friday Ben had an interview in Phoenix. Afterwards, we had lunch in Scottsdale, and let Baylee play a little in the mall play area. We took my mom a cupcake, and she was excited to show off her grandkids at work. Payton lost one of his shoes (from his only fitting pair) that night somewhere in between Subway and Target. :( Don't ask me how that happened since he was asleep the whole time.

Saturday morning we were a little lazy, but we spent the rest of the day out. Ben wanted to go to the Diamondbacks FanFest. It wasn't the A's, but that's okay. So, off we went back to Phoenix.

At FanFest, Baylee got to sit in the little stroller and I carried Payton. We didn't want to take in the double. Ben was excited that it was on the field.

Baylee, Payton and I are out there!

Baylee was excited for the inflatable slides. This one was an obstacle course. She was so happy she beat out the other little boy and won.

Payton, Ben, and Baylee in the clubhouse.

Ben and the kids in the dugout.

After FanFest, we paid a surprise visit to my grandparents and uncle. They loaded us up with three bags of oranges and grapefruit before we all went out to dinner. We had so much fun with them, and appreciate the citrus!

Baylee had a lot of fun picking the oranges off the trees. She loves oranges!

I guess this is her happy orange picking dance?

Payton and me watching the orange picking.

Valentine's Day at our house was really mellow. Every Valentine's we try to have fondue. My Howard grandparents gave us a fondue pot when we got married that we use for cheese fondue. We (or at least I) love it! Here's our little feast:

And don't forget dessert! Chocolate!:

I loved our weekend. We had so much fun together, and it was great to have Ben around for an extra day!

Play Time Fun

These are just a few random pictures from the last week or two that I liked. Nothing too exciting...

How I was able to finish getting ready the other day:

Who says a bath has to have water to be fun? Baylee wanted a pretend bath, and her and Payton had a blast playing in the tub.

Check this guy out:
He started pulling himself up! Time to make sure everything is out of reach and time to lower the crib mattress (I had a Baylee falling out of the crib flashback today when I saw Payton standing in it)...

I was finally a nice mommy and let Baylee play with playdough for the first time since we've lived in our new house. Don't ask me why it's been so long, but she was so excited.

Of course, Payton loved it too. Too bad I didn't let him eat it.

Cupcake Of The Month- February

My family came over for the Superbowl, so I decided it would be a good day for cupcake making. My February cupcake was cinnamon with brown sugar, cream cheese frosting. They were pretty yummy! Once again, the frosting didn't thicken as much as I wanted, but it was a little better than last time and tasted really good. Everyone but Baylee and myself went back for seconds. Baylee only eats frosting though, and helped herself while I was trying to make it, even though I told her not to touch. Typical 3 year old!

I think this is definitely one I will be making again! None to throw away this time!

Chocolate Time!

Friday night we dragged the kids and my brother with us and hit the chocolate festival in Glendale. We were a little disappointed-it seemed like there was more to do last year when we went, but we still had a little fun. How can you not when there's chocolate involved? We didn't do much, but here's a couple pictures:

It's not a chocolate festival without the chocolate covered cheesecake, which Ben informed me, Payton also got to try (bad daddy!). We also are suckers for the crepes. This year we got a strawberry with chocolate sauce. It was delicous and my mouth is watering just thinking about it. My brother, Scott, settled for the cinnamon sugar.

Baylee and I went on a miniture horse-ride. We were going to bring Payton too, but being the mean parents we are, we decided we didn't want to pay for him. He doesn't know the difference yet.

Baylee loved petting "Becky" and "Betty" afterwards. This little ride was probably the highlight of the night. We had fun, but I'm not sure if we will be going again next year. Without our big long walk to the chocolate factory, it didn't seem like there was too much going on with the exception of all the craft and food vendors. Maybe we'll go back if we decide we need more wood roses.

Who Needs A Vacuum?

Payton doesn't officially crawl on his hands and knees, it's more of an army crawl where he pushes himself with his feet. He's been doing this for a couple months or so, and he can get around pretty fast! This is one of his favorite spots:

That's right, he knew his sister was eating and rushed over hoping she would drop something. We try to keep our floors as clean as we can, otherwise our human vacuum takes care of it.

This Could Be The Start Of Something Sweet

I'm not much of a goal setter and I don't usually make New Year's Resolutions. In fact I've always hated them, but this year I had a few things I decided I want to accomplish. Nothing too big, but things to better my life, even if its just something to give me some time to myself to relax and do something for me. So, here's one that is just that.

It's no secret that I love baking, and it's also no secret that I love cupcakes. I think it would be so fun to have a little cupcake shop one day. Seeing how I've never made cupcakes completely from scratch that didn't follow a recipe, I want to try to make cupcakes at least once month . So, I will probably post monthly on my cupcake of the month. To start the year off, for January I made a coconut cupcake with lime cream cheese frosting. I did use basic cupcake and frosting recipes as a guide to start this process off, but added my own adjustments to make them my own and give them the flavors.

The Result: My cupcakes didn't turn out as I hoped. The coconut flavor was pretty mild, and the frosting wasn't as thick or cream cheesey tasting as I wanted. They were still pretty tasty though, especially after a couple days. This is one I want to go back and work on more though. But as for February, I already have a new flavor cooking in my head.

And isn't my cupcake model so cute? I think so.