Vampire Cupcakes

I swear I've blogged more in the last few days than in the last few months! However, there is more to come! (You can determine if that's a good thing or a bad thing) Tonight was our church Halloween party. I am a youth leader (young womens) and our booth was a cupcake walk, so I had to make cupcakes. I decided to make vampires and they turned out pretty good (if I do say so myself).

In case you want to give it a go too, here are some basic directions...

1. Of course you have to bake and cool your cupcakes first. I think it's easier to frost cakes and cupcakes if they've been put in the freezer for 10-20 mins before you start.

2. Frost your cupcakes smooth with a spatula or knife. I used a green for the base color.

3. Next make the hair by using a star pullout - tip #16.

4. Pipe on the eyes and mouth using tip#3. Change bags and wash tip. Pipe on fangs using the #3 tip again and white frosting.

Wah-la! What do you think? I think they turned out pretty cute and they went pretty fast at the cupcake walk. Of course, the pre-teens figured out that if you lick the hair, your tongue turns blackish purple. They thought this was great fun! lol

Baby Samantha

Probably most of you either know Mallory or remember me talking about her - she's been my best friend since the first grade. I won't tell you how long ago that was :)

Anyway, on Oct 20th, baby Samantha Aria was born. She was only 32 wks 3 days but so far is doing great for how little she is. She was 2 lbs 14 oz when she was born - which is 4 oz more than her big brother Ryan was. Obviously she's still in the NICU growing and developing but here are some pictures of her.
Sometimes it's hard for those of us who haven't had a preemie to understand just how little they are. Well, you see the wedding ring in the picture above in comparison with little Sam's hand. Also, her diapers are about the size of a credit card.

She hasn't needed to be on a ventilator, so that's fantastic! She's also now off the C-pap which blows air into their lungs.
Mallory has been released from the hospital but still is not supposed to pick up Ryan (now a year old) and cannot drive to the hospital to see Sam. So, Sophie and I are going up to stay with her this coming week to take care of Ryan and shuttle Mallory back and forth to the hospital. SO, if you need to reach me, I'll have my cell phone (my new #, not the old one) but I won't be at home. Yay! I'm looking forward to it :) Sophie and Ryan are going to have SO much fun together!

Cashew Chicken Casserole

This is my mom's recipe for cashew chicken. I think it qualifies as a casserole IMO. It is the absolute best cashew chicken of any kind that I've had!! I often take this over to people who are sick or just had a baby because its so yummy; you can make ahead, refridgerate it, and then pop it in the oven; and the left overs are some of the yummiest ever!

Mom's Cashew Chicken

1 chicken (I use chicken breasts instead of a whole chicken)
12 oz can of bean sprouts
1 can cream of mushroom soup
large can (or 2/3 of a bag) chow mein noodles
1 c. chopped celery
1/2 c. milk
1/4 lb salted cashews
1/2 c. chopped onions

1. Set aside some chow mein noodles (about 1/3 of what you're using). Mix all ingredients together in a medium to large bowl.
2. Spoon ingredients from bowl into a greased casserole dish. Top with the remaining chow mein noodles. Don't worry if they don't fully cover the dish.
3. Bake uncovered for 1 hr at 350 degrees.

Wine Sauce Chicken

A friend of mine asked for this recipe (she had it over at our house one time) so I thought I'd just post it here. Boy it's yummy!! Not the lowest in fat, but ooooohhh so worth it. I serve this over rice but you could also serve it with warm noodles.

Wine Sauce Chicken

INGREDIENTS
6 boneless chicken breast halves, cooked and cut into bite-sized pieces
2 tablespoons butter
2 cups sauteed mushrooms
1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of mushroom soup
1 (5 ounce) can evaporated milk
1 1/2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 cup white wine
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup slivered almonds for topping
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese for topping


1. Place the butter or margarine in a 9x13 inch baking dish. Place the chicken pieces on top and add the sauteed mushrooms.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
3. In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine and heat the soup, milk, Cheddar cheese and garlic powder. Remove from heat and add the white wine and mayonnaise. Pour mixture over the chicken and mushrooms. Top with slivered almonds and grated Parmesan cheese and bake in the preheated oven for 1 hour.

Pumpkin Picking

Last Saturday we took Sophie to a local pumpkin patch and let her roam around and pick her pumpkin... kind of. Of course she's only 16 mo and wanted every new pumpkin she saw, so we eventually picked her a pumpkin.

Look at her expression when I first put her down by the corn stalks! I loved her reaction - she was so excited!!

She loves being carried around on Daddy's shoulders!
(Daddy needed a little spit in his hair!)

Sophie loved roaming around, thumping all the pumpkins she could, playing in the dirt, and exploring corn stalks for the first time. She is such a sweet girl!


Out of ALL the pictures of the two of us together, not one of them had both of us looking at the camera! Arg :)

I love this picture. It's so sweet to see a little girl and her daddy walking hand in hand.
Also, look at the beautiful CO mountains in the background. You can see the rain coming too.

More Baby Sign

Sophie doing more of her signs.

Sophie showing off some of her sign language

I video-ed Sophie showing some of the signs that she knows. She's so smart and picks them up so quickly!

Cebu, Philippines

Aaron got back a week ago from the Philippines. It's so nice tohave him home! Of course I was so excited to see what pictures he had taken... I'm imagining hundreds of them - everything from the scenery to the people to the food to the shopping. Uh, yah, that's what we'd have if I went, but I suppose it's different to most men. It definitely is to my hubby. So, we have maybe 10 pictures :)

He did have a blast though. He was able to go shopping (yay for me!) but the real attraction is the beach in Cebu. The hotel has a private beach complete with reef so Aaron went snorkeling about every day that he was there. He was able to see things that we've just dreamed about seeing in the wild - puffer fish, baracuda, trigger fish, anemones, clown fish, a bamboo shark, etc. He even, at my urging, got an underwater camera. UNFORTUNATELY stupid Walmart ruined the film when the developed it and we only have one picture that you can even tell what it is. Ah well.

He can't wait to go back and we're hoping that all of us get to go next time!