Happy Birthday Mom!

Today is my Mom's birthday!  It is fitting that she was born on Valentine's Day because she is the sweetest person I know.  Here is a picture of her and my Dad on their 50th wedding anniversary this past November.

 

 

Can you believe she is celebrating her 70th birthday?!  Obviously 70 is the new 50.  Hope it runs in the family!

 

Happy Birthday Mom!  Hope you had an awesome day. 

We love you!

Homemade Valentine's Day Gumdrops

I saw this recipe on Pinterest and decided to make it for my kids.  They were easy to make but next time I will make it with them because they would have fun cutting out the shapes.  They ate them all up in one day.  Don't judge.  It happens.

 

Valentine's Day Gum Drops

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2 1/2 cups sugar, divided

1 1/2 cups applesauce (no sugar added --- healthy right?)

6 oz package of Jello - I used strawberry

2 envelopes unflavored gelatin (.25 oz each)

1 tsp lemon juice (can be bottled)

 

Coat a 9 x 13 baking dish with cooking spray and place in the refrigerator.  Combine 2 C sugar, applesauce, jello, unflavored gelatin and lemon juice in a large saucepan.  Let stand for 1 minute.  It will look like this:

 

 

Bring to a boil over medium heat stirring constantly.  Boil for 1 minute.  By now it will look like this:

 

 

Anyone else see a smiley face in the above pic?  After boiling for one minute immediately pour into the cold 9 x 13 pan.  It will have the white foaming looking stuff on top which is fine.  Refrigerate until firm (2-3 hours).

 

Now comes the only tricky part.  You need to invert this onto a cutting board or wax paper that is covered with sugar.  It will not just pop out of the pan so I peeled it up by hand and plopped it on the cutting board upside down.  It's really sticky and didn't fall apart or tear during this step.  Couldn't take a pic of this process because I don't have three arms so this is the after picture.

 

 

Now comes the kid friendly part.  Cut out the gumdrops with cookie cutters.  Place the cut out gumdrops on a piece of wax paper that has been covered in sugar.  You want sugar on both sides so place the side down that did not get sugar from the cutting board. 

 

 

Let dry for 8 hours or until slightly sticky.  My experience was that they were exactly the same 8 hours later.  If the kids make these with you they will not want to wait 8 hours so let them eat them right away!  Any leftovers store in an airtight container.

 



 

Since I gave my kids such a sugary, gonna pay for this later in dental bills, treat I decided to give them this little gift.

 

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I give you once guess which gift they liked best.  Have a great Valentine's Day everyone!

Weekend Recap

Saturday we decided to head to Atlanta to take the kids ice skating.  I had purchased a Groupon for the rink located at Park Tavern.  This place has an awesome view of

Piedmont Park. 

 

The rink was a little small but the kids still had fun.

My girls with their skating buddy.

Next we had lunch at Steve's favorite place on earth.  He is so obsessed with this place and even ordered one to go.

 

 

Sorry but I have to post a picture of my veggie bowl.  These things are HUGH!

 

 

On the way home we noticed the outside temperature.  We just had to take this picture and send it to my in-laws.  They live in Utah where it was 16 degrees.  I won't repeat the reply I received. :-)

 

 

We got home just in time to watch the Broncos play.  We will not speak of this game.

During half time I went for a run.  I have never run in the dark and probably never will again.  It was creepy!

 

 

The next day was church time.  Pastor Roy always brings it! 

 

 

Shortly after getting home it was time to watch the Falcons.  What a great game!   

 

 

We did get some productive stuff done too.  Devon's closet needed cleaning out.  Again.

 

 

We also started painting the girls bathroom.  By "we" I totally mean Steve.  This is just the primer.  I cannot wait until it's done.  They are going to love it!

 

 

Hope you had a good weekend too!

Better for You Chocolate Cupcakes

 

You are going to be so happy I have a Pinterest obsession and found this recipe. Not sure why I picked this one out of the hundreds thousands I have pinned but I'm really glad I did.  This recipe replaces the oil and eggs with pumpkin puree.  Better for you! I know it sounds gross but it doesn't change the flavor.  You have got to try these!

 You just need these 3 ingredients:

1 Boxed Chocolate Cake Mix

1 Small Can Pumpkin Puree (15 oz.)

6 oz. of Chocolate Chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Mix together cake mix and canned pumpkin with a mixer for about 2 minutes.  Stir in almost all of the 6 oz. of chocolate chips.  Spoon into muffin tin with liners.  Batter is thick and will not rise as much as a normal cupcake so fill almost to the top.  Add remaining chocolate chips on top.  Bake for 22-25 min. until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

 

Teri's Tips:

• DO NOT taste the batter!  It tastes nasty unbaked.
• To prevent yourself from eating all of them in one day you can freeze them.
• They taste extra yummy heated in the microwave and served with a big 'ole glass of milk.

Christmas Then & Now

So I am obviously not good at keeping up with this blogging thing.  Must add more blogging to my long list of New Year's resolutions. 

 

Looking back at our Christmas pictures I came across this beauty:

 

 

This is from 2002 and was our first Christmas with three kids.  We took this with the camera timer and as you can see we didn't get the perfectly posed picture.  Devon (far left) is spitting up, Delaney (middle) didn't want to sit down, Denver (right) looks in shock that this is his life, Steve is smiling and is obviously unaware he has spit up on his hand, my parents at this point are probably very thankful they just had one child and me . . . I have blocked out that first year.  And those jeans.

 

Fast forward 10 years:

 

 

We visit this Santa at Chick-fil-A every year.  He is great at getting the kids to pose.  Needed him 10 years ago! 

 

Hope your Christmas was filled with family and fun.  Happy New Year's Everyone!