Makes me smile...

Jason got me a new camera for Christmas.  It is A-MAZING!  I need to can't wait to learn how to use the camera.  One thing that makes me smile is seeing/hearing my boys laugh.  Just look at this smile.  Can you hear the deep belly laugh from Tyler??   

I just love it.  It is amazing the personality differences between Andrew and Tyler.  I wonder how Colton's personality will be different.

Sneaky, Sneaky

What do you do when it's 830 at night and your child asks for something to eat (normal bedtime is between 7 and 8)?  Last night, Jason and I were watching a really good movie (movie review coming up) and decided to let the boys stay up a little later.  The movie ends and we start herding the boys to bed.  Jason sees Andrew fix his pj pants and hears crinkling.  He asks him what is in his pants.  Turns out, Andrew decided to hide a fruit snack in his pj pants.  Whoah - what do you do?  He knows he is not allowed to have food upstairs and tries to be sneaky with the fruit snack.  Well, Jason put the fruit snacks in the trash.  I started thinking, Andrew ate a good dinner and had a nice dessert.  But he loves snacks.  Half the time, snacks is all I can get Tyler to eat!!  What do you do??  I still can't believe he tried to sneak them upstairs in his pants!!!!!!  I'm thinking it's hereditary from Jason not me of course!!

Movie Reviews!!!
I love watching movies!!  In the past week, we have watched three movies:  Our Idiot Brother, Killer Elite, and The A-Team.  Our Idiot Brother was good - nothing too spectactular.  I know I didn't have to think much to enjoy this movie.  The main actor drove me crazy with his long hair and facial hair.  I wanted him to clean up!!  Killer Elite was an action packed movie.  It didn't get good reviews, so I was delighted that I wanted to continue watching it.  I was disappointed in DeNiro's part as he was barely in the movie.  The best movie was The A-Team, by far.  Bradley. Cooper. Shirtless. Need I say more?? he he.  Overall, I really enjoyed watching this movie.  It had some unexpected twists.  I had no idea the A-Team was an old tv show.  I loved seeing how the plans came together.

It's Friday!!

Yippee....it's friday!!!  I love Fridays; though, I'm not completely sure why.  Friday's mean getting ready for the upcoming week is close!  Laundry, grocery store, cleaning, lunches, doctors appointment - yep, that's right.  Colton had a doctors visit this morning. I had to pay ANOTHER $20 co-pay just for the doctor to say "he is not gaining enough weight" and "he is not within the normal weight growth".  Blah.  Blah. I guess I didn't realize all kids were the same.  Colton is the happiest kid I have!!  He laughs and smiles all the time. 

Anyway, in other news, I took cupcakes to ATCs daycare.  I HATE transporting cupcakes.  Until I received this from Mom-Mom.

It is an amazing carrier!!!!!!!!  All 24 cupcakes were kept tight (well until A started swinging the carrier).

Telemarketers

I hate when our house phone rings.  It drives me crazy.  Telemarketers are ridiculous.  I know they are doing their job, but really - during dinner or after 9??  C'mon, gimme a break.  Anyway, tonight we got a phone call.  Just after dinner, we were all sitting in the family room and our house phone rang.  Jason noticed it was a telemarketer and asked Tyler to answer the phone.  The conversation between Tyler and the telemarketer went:
T:  ello
Person: may I speak with Jason?
T: (insert incoherent mumbling here) no.
Person: can I talk with your daddy?
T: (insert incoherent mumbling here) no.
Person: is your mommy or daddy home?
I'm not sure what happened after this as we were all trying not to laugh too loudly.  ha ha ha!  Love it!

CUPCAKES!!!

I decided to use a boxed mix for the actual cupcakes.  My kitchen-aid mixer was on the top shelf in the garage and I really wanted to try the cookie dough in a devil food cupcake.  Ya see, ATC's daycare provider (as stated in previous post) used the cookie dough in a yellow cupcake.  I've been obsessed with chocolate (wait - who is not obsessed).

I couldn't help taking this picture.  I can't count as I had 4 cupcakes with no balls.  But the finished product was - wait for it, AMAZING!!!!

The cookie dough in the middle just makes the cupcake!!!!!  Here is the recipe:
Cookie Dough:
2 sticks softened butter
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
4 tbsp milk
1 tbsp vanilla
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup chocolate chips
To make the cookie dough, combine the butter and sugars in a mixing bowl and cream on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Beat in milk and vanilla until incorporated and smooth. Beat in the flour and salt until just combined. Stir in the chocolate chips. Using a 1.5 tbsp scoop, shape the dough into balls or tubes. Freeze on a parchment lined baking sheet overnight. (original recipe)
Cupcakes:
Use whatever mix you have on hand!!
Make cupcakes as instructed.  After each cupcake liner is filled 2/3 full, drop the cookie dough ball right on top!  And magically, they come out smooth on top!  Yummy! 

Yucky Day = Cupcakes? Huh??

It looks so yucky outside.  Our awesome fireplace is on -

and I'm too busy thinking about cupcakes.  That's right - cupcakes.  ATC's daycare provider made these cupcakes last week.  She found them on pinterest.  I {heart} pinterest.  As it turns out, I had all the ingredients on hand!  I decided to start making them on Sunday, not realizing the cookie dough needs to be put in freezer over night. 

Do you think my balls are too big?  :)





I figured it could go in for a few hours and then I could make them.  Well, by the time the few hours were up, everyone was back home.  So...I didn't finish.  I'm wondering if I should finish them right now.  All I would have to do is make the cupcakes.  hmm...

Many Chapters...

I’ve realized my life has many chapters open all at once.  Some may never close – like motherhood; some may close and then open back up sporadically throughout my life – like my weightloss journey.  Then of course, there are the chapters that are extremely short – like old boyfriends.  Geez, Jason and I have been married for 6 years.  That is a chapter I intend never to close. 

The reason for this blog is to keep track of all those open chapters.  I don’t necessarily want to work on ending the chapters; rather, make sense of them.  I like the idea of writing the crazy stories of ATC (Andrew, Tyler, and Colton) as well as documenting or holding myself responsible for certain things.  2012 is going to be my year.  It is going to be the year I “started” this blog, the year my house becomes all organized, the year I successfully lose weight, and finish all those projects!   (And boy do I have a lot of open projects!!)  Wish me luck on my upcoming adventures!!!