Wordless Wednesday...

Sunshine!

Life is just generally more pleasant with SUNSHINE!
In my opinion anyway…

It appears that my family agrees with me?!

Buggy. 4 months old!

She's already 4 months… closer to 5 months now to be honest.

How does this happen?

I'm secretly crying over here, but so happy to see our little Buggy growing and smiling and chatting like crazy.

Her smile is so contagious!

We love her so.

I've been consistent for 4 months now taking her photos. Yeah me.
A bit shocking really!  Most would think there are less photos of the second baby… not around here.

Easter Was Here!

Memories from a successful Easter weekend…

And I might have taken a few pictures!

Explorers.

We are enjoying the fresh air and signs of Spring.  Today we explored many corners of our favorite places.

HAPPY EASTER!

Carrot Cake Whoopie Pies!

These are a no brainer.
As in… my child will even eat these sort of no brainer!
Soooooooo delicious!

INGREDIENTS:
Cookies
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
1 tsp cinammon
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup soft butter (not margarine)
1 egg
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 cup large oats (not the quick kind)
1 1/4 cup grated carrot

Icing
1/2 cup cream cheese
2 1/2 tbsp butter
1 1/4 cups icing sugar
2 tsp vanilla


DIRECTIONS:
In a bowl, mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinammon, ginger and nutmeg.
In a second bowl mix butter, brown sugar, egg and vanilla.  Mix with a hand mixer for 2-3 minutes until smooth.
Mix wet and dry ingredients lightly, then fold in carrots and oats.

For icing, mix butter and cream cheese and blend on high until smooth.
Add icing sugar and vanilla.

Preheat oven to 350.
Line cookie sheet with parchment paper.
Drop dough onto a cookie sheet spreading cookies approx. 2 inches apart.
Bake 11-14 minutes (until lightly golden brown).
Let cool to room temperature before adding icing.

Place a small amount of icing into a pastry bag (or ziploc baggie with the end snipped off - my preferred method, no mess).
Pipe a small (or large) amount of icing between two cookies making a sandwich.

CHOMP!
Seeeeeee… so yummy!

I may add raisins to the cookies another time, or of course chocolate chips.

Thanks to Annie's Eats for a version of this recipe.

Easter prep!

Last night we started the Easter Egg preparations.
Someone is pretty pumped about Eggs, and hunting for eggs, and treats!
We are hoping to catch a glimpse of Mr. Peter Cottontail himself, that would be a big deal.  BIG!

We ate a lot of chocolate.

We colored a lot of eggs.

And we took a few breaks in between to play with Lego.

I'm pretty sure we will be eating egg salad sandwiches (with crusts off!) all week long!

The attention span often only lasts 5 minutes… we continue to make memories at our house.

The set up time is always longer than the activity itself, totally worth the efforts.

Feeling really grateful going into the long weekend.

My cold is lifting, my knee limp is less obvious, and we have a lot of fun plans (doing a lot of nothing) in our favorite happy place, FERNIE!

Farm adventures.

A few more from our farm adventures this week…

He climbed fences, lined up wiggle cars, got dirty, and "checked on Papa's horses"….
Not a bad way to start the weekend!

Friday Favorite...

My wee Ranch hand checking horses!

Missing Arizona...

I really am!
Yesterday it was 17 degrees here… this morning it snowed.
Seriously Mother Nature… why do you gotta be this way!?