Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Happy Thanksgiving!

Since we all know that time will escape us tomorrow, we'd like to extend our Happy Thanksgiving to everyone a day early.

We sincerely hope everyone has a great day and enjoys time with friends and family. We will be hosting Thanksgiving at our home this year. We are starting with the football game and snacks mid day, traditional dinner in the evening and of course followed by delicious desserts.

It we want to be truly honest, our house will be divided this year. Saints Vs. Cowboys... it's going to be intense! We all know who is going to take it though! ;)

We hope you are all Thankful, full and safe this holiday. Enjoy! ♥

Monday, November 15, 2010

Yummy Pumpkin Cupcakes

A few weeks ago I made the Yummy-est pumpkin cupcakes. Let me tell you, they were a HIT! Such a hit, that I thought I'd share the super easy recipe I used to make them.


First I gathered all the needed ingredients: Yellow cake mix, pumpkin, pumpkin-pie spice, cream cheese, confectioners sugar, candy corn and some festive cupcake liners.


Combine


Prep for baking


In the meantime I made some delicious cream cheese frosting to top the cupcakes with.


The delicious smell of fall pumpkin filled the kitchen as these came out of the oven.



After letting them cool for a bit, I frosted these bad boys with my new frosting gun! What a fun toy!


Then I adorned them with some festive candy corn. Don't you just want to dive right in?!

Here's the recipe if you'd like to try some for yourself... I'm telling you they're super easy and SUPER tasty!


:::Pumpkin Cupcakes:::

1 18.5-ounce box yellow cake mix (plus the ingredients called for in the package directions)
1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1 15-ounce can of pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie mix)
2 8-ounce bars cream cheese, at room temperature
2 cups confectioners’ sugar
Candy Corn


  1. Heat oven to 350° F. Line two 12-cup muffin tins with paper liners. Prepare the cake mix as directed but with the following change: Add the pumpkin pie spice and substitute the can of pumpkin puree for the water called for in the package directions.
  2. Divide the batter among the prepared muffin tins and bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean, 18 to 22 minutes. Let cool.
  3. Meanwhile, using an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese and sugar until creamy. Spread on the cupcakes and top each with a piece of candy corn.
Enjoy!

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Is Beach-Bodies Insanity workout truly for the insane?

The answer... YES! 

Steve and I are on day 7 of the 60 day workout, and we will both honestly tell you, that we are bone tired! Don't get me wrong, the results are fantastic, even after only 6 days... Wish us luck!

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Playing Catch Up::: Halloween

Halloween may not be the same when you are a grown adult compared to when you were a young kid, but we still managed to feel a bit of the magic this year. We picked out pumpkins on a cold, crisp day. We dug to the depths of the piles to find our perfect pumpkins, and even found a few miniature ones for the furry kids in our lives. We brought them home and adorned our front porch, just waiting for the right time to carve them.


When the carving night arrived, we had a blast trying to decide what would be carved into our pumpkins. It had been years since we both really sat down and carved a pumpkin so we got all the necessary tools and supplies, parked ourselves on the kitchen floor and began.








We even saved the seeds to try roasting this year!





We couldn't have been more pleased with our finished products!





On the day of Halloween, we made sure we had candy for any trick-or-treater's that would descend upon our house. And boy are we glad we did, we had a whopping 4 trick-or-treaters (all in one group). But it was exciting none the less. Maybe we'll have other Halloween adventures next year, perhaps making our own apple cider? Who knows...


Stay tuned for some of our most favorite Fall Recipes!

Saturday, October 23, 2010

Viva Las Vegas!

As a nice beginning of fall break, we recently took a quick trip to Las Vegas. There's actually quite a story involved in how we got to go, but let's keep it short. We went and listened to a time share deal and got an (almost) free trip out of it. After a few upgrades and some saving for spending money, we were ready to go! We went from Monday-Wednesday, and were wiped out by the time we got back home! We stayed at the Circus-Circus hotel and had a blast!

We arrived a little too early to check in, so we walked around our place and found this great bar to have a drink at. Such a fun atmosphere and fun glasses!!







After we got checked in, we took off down the strip.







After walking around for a bit, we decided to utilize a voucher we had for dinner at Planet Hollywood. Steve had a great time checking the place out. Two split appetizers, two glowing glasses of margaritas, lots of memorabilia equaled a great dinner experience.















After dinner, we took another walk around the strip. We stopped to watch the light show outside of the Bellagio. What a beautiful site!














As we were walking, we noticed large crowds gathered around. There were guys who claimed to be "Stone Men" who would do certain movements or acts as people put money into their bucket. Either that or they would scare those who weren't paying attention as they walked by. It was great! We could've stood there all night and watched them!



The following day we got up and bought a bus ticket. Our feet, legs, back.. you name it, were worn out from all the walking we did the day/night before. We hopped on and rode down to Fremont St and checked out Old Town Las Vegas. What a blast! We loved it down there! And are pretty sure that we want to stay down there when we go back to Las Vegas another time. We also decided that later that night, we HAD to come back to see it all lit up and to watch the light show.




After leaving Fremont St., we hopped back on the bus and rode it all the way down to the other end of the strip visiting places along the way.




















We even stopped in at the M&M store. There was a replica of the original Las Vegas sign made completely of M&M's! We also got to watch a 3D M&M movie!




 After leaving there, we decided to search out the shark tank that a lady had told us about.. we walked and walked and walked.. all to sadly find out that it didn't exist. An aquarium did though, but cost a fortune to get in. So instead we settled for a pretty fountain and another walk to the nearest bus stop.



After grabbing a bite to eat, we hopped back on the bus (yes we got A LOT of use out of that bus ticket!) and rode down to Fremont St to see the night life there. What a blast! 

AND

We found a shark tank!! With a water slide that goes right through the tank! (of course you are enclosed, but how awesome!!)





Upon returning back to Circus-Circus, we stopped at a place just outside called "Slots-of-Fun" Let's see if you can guess what we kept calling it...?! It made us laugh, and that's all that matters. We also got a football filled with delicious margarita!
That night we returned to Circus-Circus, played some more, lost some more and called it a night. We had a blast in Vegas, but were sad to leave.

 
 
I foresee us returning in the future.