Birthday Girl

I have been the worst blogger ever lately. It is a combination of being busy, sick, and just not wanting to blog. I have been baking SO much and have not posted a single one of those recipes on here. I apologize.

Our little girl turned 2 on December 10th. She actually opened her presents on Sunday, the 9th, so we could Skype with family, since Tyler had a final and I had ballet on Monday night. Elanor had her two year doctor appointment on November 28th and weighed 24 lbs (18th percentile) and was 33 inches (39th percentile). She is still quite little. I think the doctor said she would be about 5'4"-5'5" as an adult--since you can double their height at two for an estimate.


On Sunday we opened these presents:

The big pile of presents on the couch was from Tyler's mom! We opened all the presents from my family over Thanksgiving weekend.

 Tyler and I have been working on this kitchen for a long time. We bought it back in August at a vintage store. It was just a hutch and needed a new coat of paint. We added in the sink and stove burners, replaced some knobs, fixed the drawer, and painted the whole thing. We love the way it turned out!

Elanor opened a ton of presents from her Mema and Papa--all having to do with this kitchen. She got a ton of IKEA food, pots and pans, etc. Elanor LOVES playing with her kitchen and making Tyler and I food. Thank you to everyone who got Elanor a gift for her birthday. We really appreciate it!!

On Elanor's actual birthday, we started off the morning by making some apple fritter rings. They are so good and probably not the healthiest thing on the planet.

Elanor thought they were pretty tasty as well!

It also snowed on Elanor's birthday and we played out in the snow a bit and also played with our neighbors.

Elanor got some birthday money so we headed down to City Creek Center to the Disney Store. I thought there would not be very many options to get something for $15 but there were plenty of choices.

Elanor saw a Belle doll.....so we had to get that. She really does not need anymore dolls....at least she has good taste. Belle was always my favorite---and no, I did not help here make that choice, I actually tried to dissuade her, so as to not get another doll, but her mind could not be changed.

In the car, with her new Belle doll.

After her nap, she headed over the her favorite babysitter's house while I went to teach dance. Tyler had a final but was able to pick her up right after and I asked someone to sub my last two classes and came home early so we could go out to dessert. We went to this French bakery called Gormandise. Elanor picked out her dessert all by herself. It was right at the kid eye level, plus she had just been to the Nutcracker, so she wanted this little mouse:

It is some sort of cookie/cake with jam and then chocolate mousse type stuff piped on top to make the mouse body and then covered in chocolate. Tyler ordered a fruit tart and I got a slice of chocolate mousse cake. It was all delicious. 

We had her birthday party the following Saturday. It was princess themed--but not overly so and not Disney princesses either. I am a bit bummed because I did not get many pictures because I was so busy. The first half hour was just the little kids and we did a little pin the crown on the princess game and a Rapunzel puppet show. The kids seemed to like the puppet show, but I think Tyler and I should have practiced.

Tyler drew this princess from a book called Princess in the Forest. We did not blindfold the kids since we were not sure how 2 year olds would do with blindfolds on. They seemed to enjoy putting the crown on.

I am sort of proud of the cake I made. It was a pumpkin cake with butterscotch filling and brown sugar frosting. Making things taste good is not too hard for me, but I wanted to make a cool cake this time. I made my own marshmallow fondant and tried my best  to make a crown. It might have been better if Tyler had helped me, but I wanted to try to do it on my own. I think it turned out pretty well, for my first time:

Well, that was probably more pictures of the cake than anyone but myself wanted to see (I actually had two more originally on here, but thought that was a bit much).

Getting ready to blow out her candles!

 She blew them both out by herself and loved it when everyone sang "Happy Birthday". I am very sad that I did not get a picture of all the little kids in the their costumes.... They were all so cute!

She is not really smiling in any of these pictures, but I promise she is a happy little girl. She talks soooo much and non stop. She loves to sing and dance and does so very dramatically. She can throw her fair share of tantrums and is quite independent, but she is also the most loving little thing. She gives hugs and kisses to us all the time and is always trying to give other little kids and babies hugs and kisses as well, which are not always wanted. She is such a fun little girl and we are so very blessed to be her parents.

In the Kitchen: Pumpkin Pancakes with Buttermilk Syrup

So, this is not my recipe and my pictures are not even nearly as good as the blog this is from, but hey, my camera is old and not suited to indoor pictures. Whatever the case, you should make these pancakes tomorrow or if it is easier you can wait until Saturday, but oh my goodness, they are delicious!

Oh, and did I say something about Buttermilk Syrup? This stuff is delicious. I had never had it until we had a Primary breakfast before the Primary Program a few weeks ago. Is it a Utah/ mid-west thing? It is easy to make, delicious and tastes like Butterbeer. Seriously, it tastes like how I imagine Butterbeer to taste, it just needs to be diluted with some club soda. I now need to try that.

These pancakes are perfect. Elanor ate 2 1/2 pancakes--which is a lot for someone of her small size. We all loved them!

Get the recipe for the pancakes here. I recommend making your own pumpkin puree, instead of buying the canned stuff. It is a heck of a lot cheaper and it tastes better. All you need to do is buy yourself a pie pumpkin from the grocery store, roast it like you would a squash and then blend it with a little water in a blender. Done and done, plus is makes quite a lot of puree to use anytime!

As for the syrup, well I will provide the recipe, but it is not mine. I got the recipe here.

Buttermilk Syrup

This recipe makes a lot of syrup (we had an extra 3 medium size mason jars of syrup left over), especially if you are a small family like we are. You can bottle up the syrup and keep it in the fridge and it will last for quite a while (several weeks) or you can half the recipe (you will still have extras). Also, cook this in a pretty large pot since the syrup bubbles up a lot when you add the baking soda.

1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) butter

1 1/2 cups buttermilk

3 cups sugar

1 tsp vanilla

3 tsp baking soda

Bring the butter, buttermilk and sugar to a boil, stirring pretty much the whole time. Once boiling, remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla and baking soda. Serve hot!

*Since this syrup already has a ton of butter, you don't need any butter for your pancakes.

Enjoy, this syrup really is quite tasty.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas...

Our tree is up and decorated, most of the other decorations are up as well, a gingerbread house is in the works, Christmas music is on (we like the She and Him Pandora station--it is a very good mix of classics and new stuff) and we have been to the Christkindlmarkt. All we have left to do is to go see the Temple Square lights and the window displays at City Creek, buy more gifts, get Christmas cards ready and sent, bake, bake and bake, sit on Santa's lap, and of course have Christmas! I guess we still have a lot to do, but hey, it is only December 1st!

This really is the most wonderful time of the year. I love Christmas.

Reading Christmas books by the Christmas tree really is the best.

Baking gingerbread for a gingerbread house with this little girl is definitely a good time. We love baking/cooking together!

The Christkindlmarkt was super cute. We went once during the day with our wonderful neighbors and once at night to see a little St. Nicholas parade with my aunt and uncle.

For more pictures (and better ones as well) of Elanor with the twins go to Becky's blog here. Aren't Grey and Micah's sweaters adorable?

Reindeer!

Christkindlmarkt at night:

Barrels of fire to stay warm!

Trying to get a family picture...

I hope everyone is having a wonderful Christmastime! 

P.S. There will be an "In the Kitchen" post up soon!

Thanksgiving!

I took a rather long break from posting mostly to get ready for and enjoy Thanksgiving. We drove up to Driggs, Idaho (near the Tetons) where my family had rented a cabin. I have not had Thanksgiving with my family since my freshman year of college! So, it was wonderful for all of us to have Thanksgiving together, especially since Jess and Ricky will not be there for Christmas.

We drove up to Driggs on Thanksgiving Day because my sister and her husband flew into SLC and drove up with us. We made it in plenty of time and were even able to help with some of the dinner preparations. I also brought up two pies and forgot quite a bit of stuff as well... I was supposed to bring sweet potatoes and they were made and ready to go but I spaced it and did not get them out of the fridge! What is wrong with me?

It was a delicious and wonderful meal. I did not take a single picture because I was enjoying my turkey far too much. Sorry about that, but I am sure you can imagine what it looked like with nine of us crowded around a wood table covered in a leafy tablecloth in a cozy cabin, with the table groaning under the weight of the roasted turkey, mashed potatoes, brussels sprouts, rolls, gravy, stuffing, sparkling cider (yes...I forgot to bring the sweet potatoes....grrrr). A pleasant picture, yes?

However, here are some pictures from every other time, but Thanksgiving dinner:

The Cabin

The view of Teton peak from the cabin.

From the outside

Elanor with her Uncle Erik

We went skiing on the Friday after Thanksgiving at Grand Targhee. It was a beautiful day!

Elanor came up  at lunch and we took her skiing! My parents got her a pair of toddler skis for her birthday and she absolutely loved skiing. She really enjoyed going fast and did not want to stop.

Here is the video of Elanor skiing down the bunny hill with her Uncle Ian:

Going up on the little kids moving ramp thing with Grandpa.

Elanor with her Nan.

Hot tubbing after skiing!

We celebrated Elanor's birthday on Saturday with my family, since they will not be able to be there for her birthday on the 10th.

She loved blowing out the candles!

Elanor also opened up some presents (she had already opened up the skis) including two "pretty dresses", a Pride and Prejudice board book, an apron and her favorite: a Merida doll from Disney Pixar's new movie Brave.  She carries this doll around with her everywhere. Merida has already been very useful in many ways such as, "You can't play with Merida until you go potty" or "Merida wants you to sit in your carseat" or "Merida is so sleepy right now, so let's get ready for bed".

Elanor was so excited about her Merida doll!

We tried to take some family pictures and these are my favorites:

Elanor face is hilarious in this one!

It was a lovely trip. We played many games, laughed a lot, talked about everything, ate good food and overall enjoyed being a family. I sure love them.

Snow, Snow, Snow!

Snow makes me all giddy, just the same way it did when I was a little girl. I love it! It means sledding, snowball fights, forts, rosy cheeks, hot chocolate, long johns, beautiful snow covered trees and skiing, if we are lucky enough to get to go. I have not outgrown my love of snow and I am so glad! So many adults complain about the snow and what a pain it is. I think snow makes everything so much more beautiful and fun. I especially love waking up to snow. It just seems so magical. I used to pray for snow all the time when I was little, especially on Christmas Eve. We woke up to softly falling snow on Friday morning and the snow did not stop until Sunday afternoon. We got so much snow (about a foot and a half)! We had so much fun in it!

We went outside as soon as we could on Friday to enjoy the snow.

Our house, with Friday morning's snow

Harry Potter Party

To end my Harry Potter Month, I threw a Halloween Harry Potter Party. In the books, it always talks about how the Great Hall has live bats fluttering around the floating candles and huge pumpkins for the Halloween feast decorations. I wanted to sort of do that, but of course I am not a witch and could not actually procure live bats. Instead, this is what I did:

My friend, Becky, had made a ton of felt bats and a felt garland for Halloween and she let me borrow them to decorate. We just used Christmas lights for the floating candles and they worked.

We had quite a few people come to out party! Everyone came dressed up and everyone had great costumes.