My kid rocks...

and totally jammed out to this:

Ken's Birthday Carrot Cake Recipe

For my father in law's birthday today, I made him a Carrot Cake from scratch :) his choice. It's nice to be able to cook for family- especially when they're so appreciative! :)

Here is my recipe (tweaked a bit from the Joy of Baking version)

The Cake:

1 cup walnuts- toasted and chopped

1 finely grated carrot

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

4 large eggs

1 1/2 cups granulated white sugar

1 cup vegetable

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1/2 cup of Apple Sauce

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

Toast the walnuts for about 8 minutes Let cool and then chop.

Peel and finely grate the carrot. Set aside.

In a separate bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and ground cinnamon. Set aside.

In bowl of electric mixer (or with a hand mixer), beat the eggs until frothy (about 1 minute). Gradually add the sugar and beat until the batter is thick and light colored (about 3 - 4 minutes). Add the oil in a steady stream and then beat in the vanilla extract. Add the flour mixture and beat just until incorporated. With a large rubber spatula fold in the grated carrots, applesauce and chopped nuts. Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Remove from oven and let cool on a wire rack. Cool completely before frosting.

The Frosting

1/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature

2 cups confectioners sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

dash of Lemon Zest

Beat the cream cheese and butter, until blended with no lumps. Add the sifted confectioners sugar and beat, on low speed, until fully incorporated and smooth. Beat in the vanilla extract, and lemon zest.

More, better, Halloween Pictures

Thanks Aunt Katie!

Kat's First Birthday

Kat's birthday was so great! I'd have posted earlier, but Jenni and Johnny were still here at the house and we were having too much fun to blog. Trust me when I say there are many more pictures to come, but these are the ones that Tim's Dad e mailed to me. Our camera battery went dead just as the party was starting (which is the same thing that happened at our wedding to the photographer's camera, so it's a running theme with us) I know Ken took many many more pictures, as did Karen, Jenni, and Aunt Katie- so once I shake everyone down I'll post them. There's also video that I need to chop up so we can post it- all things to come when I get a minute.

Kat got SO many sweet presents and toys that it's hard to even list them here. She's playing with nearly all of them already, so everyone that came obviously had good taste! All the kids had so much fun playing together, and all the adults had so much fun watching them play that we didn't need much more entertainment than that.

I did learn that chocolate icing takes about 3 full shampoos to come completely out of a child's hair- a valuable thing to know. I also learned that when someone Kat's size eats 3 cupcakes worth of icing that they, in fact, do not sleep for a few days. :)

Kat and Johnny had an absolute BALL playing together all weekend (again more pictures to come I'm sure!) and that was probably the nicest present for Kat. After we took them to the airport today she kept running around the house yelling Ja Ja (Johnny) and trying to get into our spare room door. Methinks the WeeKat needs a playmate!

It was a wonderful weekend, and as we took a break from packing/unpacking/ and cleaning to enjoy it, we're back to the grind tomorrow. It was a lovely little break though!

For now here's the basic pictures:

Kat's 1st Halloween

Kat's first Halloween was so fun- we got some kinda dark pictures on our camera, but I suspect that Grandpa and Aunt Katie might have gotten some better pictures of Kat in her costume- so you might see those once I get them. Kat had SO much fun, it was really chilly here, so we only went about 5 blocks before heading back to the house. We got an entire Elmo bucket FULL of candy, and Kat was admired at every single house- even though no one was quite sure what she was supposed to be (a monster) they all could tell it was cute. She also tasted her very first Halloween Candy (Reese's Cups) and loved it- hey it would have been mean to do all that Trick or Treating and not give her a wee bit of sweet stuff. She's completely zonked out asleep upstairs now- I think all this 'Being a Pink Monster' stuff wore her out! We had a wonderful Halloween! There's some video at the bottom too :) Riding on Daddy's shoulders
Picking out some candy

Momma and Kat-monster
She thought playing with the hat was waaaay more fun than wearing it!


This was the closest I could get to a full picture of her costume, this kid wouldn't hold still! She was be bopping around all night long.

News...

This must be the best toy ever! Kat has been playing in her 'fort' all day long. She keeps dragging her toys in, setting them up against the sides, and chattering at them.

We have big news! We got our final closing date on the house- this coming Monday! Exciting no? We still have to have the Electric and Furnace guys in there to fix stuff before we can move in- we're also going to clean it from top to bottom and paint, so it'll likely be at least 4-5 days before we actually are moving our stuff in, but we're getting so excited! We've been packing here (hence the box fort for Kat) and hopefully will be ready to move once the painting and fixing stuff portion of our week is done!

We'll be having a Housewarming Party probably the 2nd weekend of November- but we'll send invitations once we finalize everything. Looking forward to having our friends over!

To Kat...

A few minutes in your world- Age: Almost 1 year old

Today we took the big walk down to the playground, and Momma didn't even make you ride in your stroller! You got to ride on my shoulders part of the way, and walk about a block clutching Momma's finger and giggling at the way the wind gusted and blew your hood back off of your head.

When we finally got to the park, you immediately set about collecting every yellow leaf on the ground. You'd pick one up, inspect it, then spot another one and compare it against the one you had. You'd put the best leaf in the cat shaped pocket of your purple hoodie, and set out to find another prettier yellow leaf. Once your pockets were full you started handing them to Momma, which she held for you.

Finally you chose the slide as the first thing you wanted to get on- you toddled up to it, and started trying to climb up. You went down the big slide all by yourself! Your delighted face the minute right before you let go of the rails is something Momma will always remember. That excited anticipation of the fun to come was just too much! Finally you'd 'whooosh' slide to the bottom and then clap (yay!) because you were such a big girl for doing it by yourself!

After you were done with the slide, you told me 'Go Momma', so I put you down and followed you to the swings. You loved the swings, as usual, and squealed with glee every time I played 'Get your foot'. You wanted to go higher and higher, and would furiously pedal your legs while you were swinging- trying to run, or maybe to fly?

Finally you got tired of the swings, and spent the rest of the time toddling around the park. You sat on the ground and with absolute fascination, crumbled the brown leaves making little piles in your lap. Momma never ever minds watching and waiting for you to discover things. Spending a little time in your world is the closest to a zen-like state I ever get, your fascination and interest in every little thing around you reminds me to value all the little things.

Finally it was time to go home- so you held tight to my finger and walked about half a block before you got too tired. So Momma picked you up, you wrapped your arms around my neck and laid your cheek against mine and hummed to yourself while we walked home. Now you're sound asleep in my lap, snuggled up warm and sleepy, all worn out from playing and full of milk. Today has been a lovely everyday kind of day, and I'll always keep it close to my heart.

Spaghetti Monster

Pumpkin Patch Pictures!

Uploading these real fast before we head out the door to Gamer Night :) Enjoy! We did!

Punk Baby

In her 'fortress of solitude'


At-ti-tude! :)

Sweet silly grin

2 more weeks....

We got the last of our paperwork to the mortgage company today, and she said it would be about 2 weeks until we close- so that means we'll be moving in 2 weeks!!

I'm so very excited, granted we won't be able to do the improvements we originally planned right when we move in, but we can do a little at a time, and that's just as fun!

So now we have lots of stuff to do- we're picking up some boxes this week from our friends Erin and Jeff- and after that we're going to start packing up our non-essential stuff.

For the first time in a very long time, I'm getting excited to decorate the house. I've got all my little paint chips ready, and keep getting ideas for how I want to arrange things. I'm nesting :)

Cinnamon Applesauce Pancakes

Kat's current favorite food is pancakes- she can't get enough and eats them like they're going out of style. We don't even put syrup or anything on them, just the pancakes and sometimes a little bit of butter. I was trying to find a sneaky way to make them better for her and found this recipe- I tweaked it a little bit, but they are SO GOOD! Tim is begging me to make a big batch for him- and I have to say, you can really taste the apple and it smells like fall in our house right now. These freeze and thaw really well, and don't get too cakey so you don't need to worry so much about toddlers eating them.

Applesauce Pancakes
1 cup flour –
1/4 teaspoon salt –
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon melted butter –
1/2 cup milk –
1 beaten egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla –
1 1/4 cups applesauce

Sift flour, salt and baking powder into a medium mixing bowl. Combine butter, milk and egg. Stir into dry ingredients. Add vanilla and applesauce; beat well. Spoon batter into a hot, well greased griddle, cook until golden brown.

If you're freezing these, cool them down in your fridge before freezing!

Enjoy!

The geeks shall inherit the earth :)

Inside house pictures, and Inspection Update

So our inspection was yesterday, and in the grand tradition of home inspections, something had to be wrong :) We are having to have someone come in to check out the furnace and the electricity. The furnace is brand new, but not putting off any heat- according to the home inspector, this could be a really simple fix, but he wanted to be sure we had an expert check out the way the furnace was hooked up since it's kind of different than what he's used to seeing. Also it looks like half the outlets are ungrounded (which is common in older houses) but is also a fire hazard, so we are in the process of figuring out how much this stuff will cost us to fix- or whether it's stuff we can do ourselves. We are still definitely buying the place, but the cost may need to be adjusted based on needed repairs.

So here are the inside pictures I took of the house yesterday :) Enjoy :)

The Master Bedroom

The foyer heading into the utility/laundry room

The door leading into the Master Bedroom


The Kitchen and Dining room


Kitchen

The cabinets and counter top in the dining room

Living room shot 1

Living Room Shot 2

Bathroom

Bedroom 1

Bedroom 2