Sisters

I'm going to post more pictures of Ava tomorrow - prepare yourselves - there are a lot, but I wanted to share this picture today.



Both were taken by my sister at the hospital.

Can you tell they're sisters?

Resurrection Rolls

I have a new recipe up at Beautifully Rooted today!



Hope you enjoy it and I hope you all have a fantastic Easter.

March PhotoADay Recap

Another month passed and another month documented in instagram photos, mainly a transition of my belly to welcoming my baby girl!! Thank you for all the prayers and compliments for our newest.

As for March, I haven't missed a day yet, although, I did cheat two days. Day 12 was "fork" and well, you can obviously see I did not take a picture of any type of fork. Same goes for day 28 which was "trash". I just wasn't feeling it those days so I took a picture of little miss Sweet P throwing a tantrum and my two loves.

Anyway, back to the photos. Here's my month of March in a collage.



1-up 2-fruit 3-my neighborhood 4-bedside 5-a smile 6-5pm 7-something i wore 8-window 9-red 10-loud 11-someone i talked to today 12-fork 13-a sign 14-clouds 15-car 16-sunglasses 17-green 18-a corner of my home 19-funny 20-before/after 21-delicious 22-kitchen sink 23-moon 24-an animal 25-breakfast 26-key 27-my name 28-trash 29-feet 30-toy 31-where i relax

I also have larger ones up in my PhotoADay set on flickr that include little descriptions, as well as January and February.

Now on to April! Here's a link to Fat Mum Slim's prompts for April if you want to join. And, as always, I'm recipeforcrazy on instagram if you want to find me.

SHE'S Here!

Yep, we have another girl in the house!



Our sweet little, Ava Grace, was born Friday morning at 10:14. She is so laid back and just a dream. I can't believe how small 7 lbs. 14 oz. feels in my arms.



She has already planted her feet firmly in our hearts and her big sister's! What a joy it will be to watch my two girls grow together!



I'll post more pictures soon but wanted to share our exciting news with you all. This tired momma is going to try to get some sleep. Have a great weekend and thank you sister for the amazing pictures of my girls, I'll cherish them forever.

Iced Thumbprint Cookies - recipe

It's no secret that my sister has a thing for iced thumbprint cookies - I don't blame her, they are delicious and extremely addictive. I think it's the sweet/salty combo of the cookie with the icing that makes them so addictive.

Anyway, when she presented me with the challenge of duplicating her favorite cookie I couldn't turn her down. I'm always up for a challenge, especially when I get to taste-test the efforts.

After a couple of attempts, a serious fail and many scribbles on my recipe card, I finally came up with a decent contender. While they may not be exactly right just yet, they are pretty darn close.

So, with that, here's a recipe for you to make your own!

Ingredients for the cookie:
1. 1 cup salted butter - softened
2. 1/4 cup sugar
3. 2 cup flour
4. 1/2 teaspoon salt

Ingredients for the icing:
5. 2 tablespoons milk
6. 1 1/4 cup powdered sugar

7. and 8. are optional but highly recommended: sprinkles and food coloring

 *UPDATED: yes, that is vanilla in the photo but I didn't end up using it in the final version. I tried it in earlier attempts but didn't use it in the end. Sorry for the confusion, I was too lazy to take a new picture!*

In a blender with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar on med-high until pale and fluffy. Reduce the speed to low and slowly add the flour and salt until combined and pulls from sides. Form dough into a disk, wrap with plastic wrap and refrigerate for about an hour.

Form little balls, about 1/2 tablespoon or so in size, make an indention with your thumb and roll the sides in sprinkles.



I found it worked best to roll out a couple of balls at a time, then make a thumbprint and immediately roll in sprinkles while the dough was still a little warm from your hands. This helped the sprinkles stay on the best.



Once you have a cookie sheet full, bake for 10 minutes at 325 degrees. You'll have to take the pan out and press the thumbprints back down and then return to the oven to bake another 10 minutes or so. You don't want these browning so watch them carefully.

Let them cool completely before filling them with icing.

To make the icing, just whisk the milk and powdered sugar together in a small bowl and add in some food coloring. If you want to make several colors, just pour a little icing into separate dishes and add the colors you want. I used a teaspoon to scoop up the icing and then poured it into the thumbprints.

Now, here's the hard part. You have to let the cookies sit for at least 6-8 hours so the icing sets and gets hard. It's tough, I know, but well worth the wait.

Indulging

As my pregnancy nears an end, so does the indulging.

That meant I needed to take Sweet P for her first Krispy Kreme before I went into labor! We had a grand time.



And how cute does she look in that hat!?

Not only and end to donut dates, but and end to fewer sweets all around.

(sadly, all those were eaten in the last month!)

So, it's that time where I get healthy again so send your best healthy recipes my way!

Oh, but before we go overboard, I still have a recipe for a super, tasty treat that I'm posting tomorrow. *Hint: it's pictured above!*

Getting Outdoors

And watching others do some yard work.



And wondering when we should invest in a trampoline because those random seat drops on the are going to start hurting!



And laughing until it hurts.

Bribery

First off, thank you for all the sweet comments yesterday! You guys can make a pregnant lady feel pretty good.

So, I'm sure I'm breaking all kinds of rules in parenting with what I'm about to share today, but I don't really care!

It all started innocently enough. Sweet P's hair started getting longer and is at that awkward girl mullet stage. I just don't know what to do with it so we tried pigtails a while back. I have never put a little girl's hair in pigtails and I just wasn't very gentle. After some tears, I finally managed to get some hair in those little bands. I felt bad for Sweet P so I gave her two M&Ms.

Side note, we have a jar of M&Ms in the bathroom as an incentive for her to use the potty. A friend told us it helped his girls want to potty train.

Well, we aren't using the M&Ms for potty training yet but we are going through that jar in a hurry. See, we have this deal now, one M&M per "bow" as she calls it. Yes, I understand it's bribery. And yes, I am fully aware you're not supposed to bribe your children.

But, she looks so darn cute with those little pigtails and really, what's the harm in two stinkin' M&Ms?

So now most mornings she wakes up, asks for milk and then requests bows and nem-nems - and I happily grant her these.

A Watched Pot

Errr, belly.

You know that old saying, "a watched pot never boils?"

Well, same can be true with a pregnant belly, especially when the Dr. tells you that you probably won't make it through the weekend.

That, my friends, is the kiss of death. Don't tell me that. Tell me you'll see me at the next appointment. That way I don't sit around all weekend analyzing every single movement in hopes it's the start of something meaningful!

Dramatic a bit? No, not me. Just a very pregnant lady ready to meet her boy or girl - who also happened to defy the Dr. and made it through another weekend.

Sheesh.

20 Months and Talking Up a Storm

Next week Sweet P will be 20 months and it's evident how much she's grown in less than a year.



She has some mad jumping skills. She's really funny and LOVES making people laugh. She has a super-tender little heart and oozes personality. She picks up something new every single day and repeats almost everything I say.



Her vocabulary is growing so fast and I wanted to document all the words she knows right now, or at least how she says them so I made a little list. Once I got started I couldn't believe how long it became. I'm sure I missed a ton but I ended it with the ones that were on the top of my head.



It amazes me how fast she learns things and I'm sure she'll be teaching her brother/sister all kinds of tricks. Until then, it's still just the three of us, anxiously awaiting baby #2's arrival!