Birthday Cake Truffles

To help celebrate momma turning 27, the kids and I attempted making some truffles.  This was a first for me (and you may be able to tell from the pictures)!  My mom gave me the idea this past weekend.  I already had 2/3 of the ingredients, so I thought "why not."  It sounded easy enough!

First, make sure you have your ingredients: cake mix, ready-made frosting, and a coating of some sort (choc. chips, baker's chocolate, almond bark)

Bake the cake according to the directions on the box.  Once the cake has cooled, break it apart into a large bowl.

Then, stir in the ready-made frosting.

Form into bite-size balls and place in the refrigerator overnight, or the freezer for a few hours.

Right before you remove the cake balls from the fridge, melt your coating in the microwave.  Place toothpicks into the cake balls and dip into the coating.  You may choose to just use a spoon to 'dip' the cake balls in and out of the coating.  Place the covered ball on wax paper and then return to the refrigerator to help the coating harden.

Enjoy!!

As you may have noticed, these aren't the 'prettiest' looking truffles!  I think I made the cake balls a little too big.   The almond bark coating that I chose wasn't as smooth to cover the balls as I thought it would be.  I'll try a chocolate type coating next time.  I'll keep plugging away and one day I'll have beautiful truffles to show-off!!!

Books, Books, Books

WE LOVE BOOKS!

With the dullness and cold of winter, taking the kids to the library hadn't been on the top of my list of things to do for a while.  So when the temp decided to hit in the 60's, I decided that we were due for a visit!  This was the first time we've gone since Miley started walking, so as soon as I set her down, she was everywhere.  This made the trip quick, of course!  When we arrived back home, Molli carried in our big library bag full of books while I carried in a couple bags of groceries.  When I finished putting things away in the kitchen, this is what I turned the corner to find:

 

All 3 kiddos reading their books!! 

WE LOVE BOOKS!!

She's ONE!!!!!!

Our baby girl turned ONE yesterday!

I was reminiscing all day about what I was doing a year ago, in my hospital room.  She has been such a joyous addition to our family.  She seems like a big girl now.  I am realizing that soon we will no longer have any 'babies' in our house.  It makes me a little sad:(  Anyway, we are still so excited that Miley has reached this wonderful milestone.  Here's what she's up to these days:

Stats

Weight: 18 lbs. 6 oz. (11%)

*She is very low in percentile here.  We have to start 'beefing' her up with 8 oz. bottles of formula before bed, so it's not 'good-bye' to formula and bottles just yet for us:(

Height: 28 1/4 in. (24%)

Head Circumference: 18 in. (70%)

Fun Facts
~trying to start 'running' - she loves to be chased

~interested in shows on t.v. - favs include Dora, Diego, Fresh Beat Band, Bubble Guppies, and her music dvd's

~no more jar food, strictly table foods

~we were transitioning to drinking strictly from a sippy cup, but now we are doing 1 sippy cup, 2 bottles of milk/formula a day, until we get that weight up!

~sleeping through the night (majority of the time!)

~starting to transition to 1 nap a day (doesn't it seem a little early for that?!?!)

~says d-d-d-d-d-d-dora, hi, who's that?, dada (which translates into several things: dada, papa, bottle)

~loves to watch out the front window when people leave - the goodbye wave usually comes after the people are out of sight!

~has the girl attitude already when she doesn't get her way - screams, throws her head back, lays on the floor and kicks her feet

~enjoys sitting by herself, looking at books and loves to be read to

~could chew on toothbrushes all day long (never her own of course!)

I could probably go on and on!  You'll just have to come see her sometime to experience the big girl she's becoming!

Her birthday celebration was small and intimate, just the 5 of us!

(so thirsty after all that cake!)

SO GLAD I didn't make a very colorful cake!  Miley didn't have to get in the tub when she was finished.  Just a sweep up of the crumbs and a wipe of the face and hands, and that was clean-up!

Happy Birthday sweet baby girl!!

Super Bowl Funday!

My dad, Papa, celebrated his 52nd birthday on Super Bowl Sunday!  We invited my family over for good eats and to watch the game.  My mom pretty much supplied ALL the awesome food.  She brought all the ingredients over and we just had an afternoon of fun in the kitchen.  Here's a look at the scrumptious food!

The 'goodies' - my mom brought ALL of this over!

Marinated steak...YUM!

And the steak turned into this - STEAK FAJITA NACHOS

And what would nachos be without.............................

Homemade Guacamole and Pico de gallo

(I made these!!!!!!!!!!)

Yummy sliders with mushroom sauce

The cooks:)

Brother Joe - future chef, really!!!

We mustn't forget the man of the day........................

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD, PAPA, BLIZZO, BLANE!!!

What a fun day!

First Haircut

Miss Miley was born with quite a bit of hair.  And almost since the beginning, it has always been in her face.  We are always trying to brush it to the side, to get it out of her eyes.  I've tried to put bows in, but her hair is still too fine for them to stay put.  The other option is to pull her hair into a ponytail on top of her head.  As cute as that looks, it's a struggle to try to do that with an almost 1 year old on a daily basis.  So......Nanie suggested cutting her hair!  This wasn't a hard decision for me, or a sad one.  Let's do it!!!

Getting in the 'kids haircut chair' in Nanie's Salon

Notice the hair swept off to the side (reason for haircut!)

Getting ready to snip

And....snip, snip, snip

Pretty girl with bangs<3