Brownies!!

I tried a new brownie recipe tonight and they turned out great! The recipe is one from Alton Brown. I love watching his show, Good Eats. You learn all sorts of things watching his show.  I just wanted to share the recipe with you all!! I highly recommend it!! enjoy!!!
Also check out Kylie's Jokes page. she has some new ones for you!!!

Till Next Time!!!!

Cocoa Brownie Recipe

Ingredients

• Soft butter, for greasing the pan
• Flour, for dusting the buttered pan
• 4 large eggs
• 1 cup sugar, sifted
• 1 cup brown sugar, sifted
• 8 ounces melted butter
• 11/4 cups cocoa, sifted
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup flour, sifted
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

Directions

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F. Butter and flour an 8-inch square pan.

In a mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, beat the eggs at medium speed until fluffy and light yellow. Add both sugars. Add remaining ingredients, and mix to combine.

Pour the batter into a greased and floured 8-inch square pan and bake for 45 minutes. Check for doneness with the tried-and-true toothpick method: a toothpick inserted into the center of the pan should come out clean. When it's done, remove to a rack to cool. Resist the temptation to cut into it until it's mostly cool.

Yellow

My yellow rose as of 4/11/2012

Yeah!! I'm so thrilled! My first rose, heck first flower of all the plants I have planted is about to fully bloom!!! My yellow rose bush, the plant that is just thriving and doing amazing has its first bud abut to fully open! The girls find it fun to check it every day after they get home from school. They jump out of the car and run look at it.

One rose bush didn't make it. It finally had its last green leaves fall off.  All of the other flowers and plants seem to be doing well. The pansies look much greener and I've transplanted the tomato plants outside. The cayenne peppers will soon be transplanted outside also, and the cilantro in my indoor pot. The zinnias have also gotten up to about 2 inches tall and are so green!

Enjoy the pictures!!!

Till Next Time!!!!

My rose as of today 4/12/2012

A Boy and his Balloons

Balloons and a little boy can be a funny thing. Yesterday while it was nice in the morning Gabryle decided after we blew up some balloons for Kylie's party that it was fun to pop them. I have a couple of video clips of it for you. There are 2 total and I hope you enjoy them. The kids sat and enjoyed watching them this morning a few times and laughed a lot at it, especially the second clip.

Clip 1 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fm-i7WZIxJA&feature=youtu.be

Clip 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbtqtRRSTkw&feature=youtu.be

Till Next Time!!!

Kylie's Birthday Party!!

Kylie had her birthday party today. She seemed to have a great time today! Quite a few people showed up for it and seemed to enjoy themselves.

Kylie received some hair clips and hair ties, clothes, boots, money and Barbie's. We got her a Barbie purse that she could decorate. She, Kenzie and Amaurie all worked on coloring it for a while during the party. It's really cute.

We let her go to Wal-Mart this afternoon after her party and let her spend the money she got for her birthday. She ended up getting a barbie play set that has some sunglasses, phone, camera and purse, a Barbie puppy Wash set, and a big 'ol box of sidewalk chalk.

I think she enjoyed the most getting the chalk. She Mackenzie and Gabryle sat outside for a while playing with the chalk before dinner.

I'm glad the weather was great today to have her party! The kids got to play outside a lot and enjoyed running around.Check over on the Pictures page for more photos from her birthday party!!!

Till Next Time!!!

Easter Eggs!!!

One of the kids favorite things about Easter is getting to color Easter Eggs. Granted Gabryle still doesn't really understand it too well, he still enjoyed it. He seemed so interested in what we were doing. He could not quite figure out why we put the eggs in cups of colored water and let them dry.

All five of us colored a few eggs. The kids each did three eggs, Jerrod did five and I colored four of them. Jerrod did one with a toothpick and in a way "painted" on the color. It turned out really neat! I dipped one back and forth between the purple and pink and it turned out really cool also.

 We also this year instead of using one of the store bought egg dye kits, I made my own. I found the recipe via the Wilton website. All you do is take the following ingredients, mix together and bingo you have egg dye color!! The recipe for it is as follows:

Gabryle showing Daddy his egg

Wilton food color (or any other brand food color) 
3/4 cup HOT water
1 tbsp vinegar
hard boiled eggs


1. mix the food coloring into the hot water till well 
mixed. You can use as little or as much as you 
desire.
2. Add the vinegar and stir well.
3. Dip the eggs into the water mixture till desired color is on the egg.

Voila there you go! You have colored eggs. We did today Pink, Green, Purple and yellow. Kylie's favorite is pink. Mackenzie colored one of hers just purple and it turned out to be a beautiful purple color! Gabryle showed me which ones to put his eggs in and they turned out pretty neat. I'll remember next year for sure to do the eggs this way again.

The girls looking at their eggs as Kenzie's last egg is still
sitting in the purple color.

Kenzie working on her eggs

Watching Daddy color eggs.

 Enjoy the rest of the pictures from our event of coloring eggs this evening!

Till Next Time!!!

Kenzie munching on a meatball.

Watching Daddy color an egg

Coloring more eggs.

And more egg coloring

Gabryle inspecting the eggs. 

I can't remember what Gabryle was doing here. Just love
 his expression

helping stir the color.

Our finished Eggs

Our finished Eggs

Doctor check up

Doctor visits with the kids are not my favorite when they include shots. I am not a big fan of needles to  begin with and just to know that the kids don't like it doesn't make it better. Plus I'm not to keen on a doctors visit that lasts an hour and a half, with the majority of that time waiting.

Kylie had to have her yearly check up today with her doctor. We enjoy her doctor. He's in his late sixties, early seventies and is a pretty neat guy. When we took the kids to their first appointment with him he could immediately tell Mackenzie has asthma without looking at the chart or anything. Yes he is older than a lot of the other doctors in town but I see nothing wrong with that. He is always real nice with the kids and seems to really enjoy his job. He'll sit and answer all the questions you can think of to ask and give  you normal answers, not a bunch of technical words.

Today however Kylie actually had the medical student who is currently working with the kids doctor check her today. He came in and was cracking jokes with Kylie, and made her feel better about being there. He went through the check up and at one point asked her if she could stand up and jump on one foot for him. She jumped off of the exam table and walked up to him and jumped on one of his feet. We all laughed about it, especially Mackenzie and the med student then showed Kylie what he wanted her to do and she did right away. She turned red in the cheeks after figuring out she wasn't supposed to jump on his foot.

He finished his exam and of course she is as healthy as a horse. Her normal doctor came in and we talked for a minute then the nurse came in with the two shots.... Oh how I wish I had a picture of the look of her face. She was the same nurse who gave Kylie her shots last year when she needed them. It took me the last time she had shots holding her down tight just to get the shots done. She screamed and cried so loud when she had the shots that they heard her in the waiting room. It was not fun. Today however, she climbed up in my lap while I sat on the exam table. She grabbed monkey as tight as she could and didn't even flinch when the nurse gave her the first shot. OH the look of relief in the nurses face was worth a million words. I then turned Kylie around so the other shot could be given and she tensed up a little but didn't cry, kick, yell, scream or even whimper. So proud of my girl!! The nurse ended up giving her a sucker, sticker and balloon for being so great today.

Hopefully the next time we have to go get shots for her she does just as great as she did today. I bet if she does go back and has the same med student there, he will make sure to verify with Kylie not to step on his foot. Thirty seven pounds might not be that heavy, but I'm sure its enough to feel on your foot!!!

Till Next Time!!!

Our little fashion opinionated girl

I believe we have a fashion critique in the house. We started watching the Academy of Country Music Awards tonight, and Kylie has gone through and told us her favorite dresses and what she has thought of them. There has been no surprise that all the dresses she has seen that have been pink have been her favorites. Here is a list of her likes and dislikes from the first hour of tonight's show:

Carrie Underwood's dress that she performed in is pretty

Reba's red dress is Beautiful

Sugarland''s Jennifer Nettles pink and yellow is good and pretty

The Band Perry's Kimberly Perry's dress is black and Kylie does not like

Beth Berh's from 2 broke girls is a no because it is not pink and yellow.

Miranda Lambert's gold dress she likes cause it has sparkles

Reba's black dress is cute

Those were all the dresses that she saw and gave her input on. I have to agree with some of her opinions from tonight. I don't think she was too happy because she had to go to bed before Toby Keith sang "Red Solo Cup". She did however very conveniently have to go get a drink in the bathroom as soon as the song came on. She stayed up to watch the song and then went back to bed. After it ended she clapped a little and she was thrilled she was able to watch it. 

For a four year old, well I guess I should say five year old since her birthday is Thursday, she has pretty good taste in clothes. She can put an outfit together better than some adults can. Maybe she will grow up to be a fashion designer. That would be cool! 

Till Next Time!!!!