Whit Whit's cup

Whitney found someone to play her game........

Life is Good with Morgan to play with!!!!

Macy is 4!!!

Macy turned 4 on Monday and has loved every minute of it!!!!

Today, she invited 2 friends for a day of fun......

Lunch at Chik-Fil-A

Cute Finger and Toes

A special treat was her cousin, Morgan, flew into town and joined in the fun.

 Whitney loved the sprayer and all the colorful bottles of nail polish and chemicals!!!!

The salon is not an ideal place for a 15 month old to play!!!!

Orange Leaf---our new favorite hang out

 Morgan gave our Coon the perfect card for her 4th birthday.

Over the weekend, the Middles shared a cake for their big days.

Macy November 26th and Kaylee the 29th

 The girls think it is so funny that for 3 days Macy is 4 and Kaylee is 5.

Life is Good with November birthdays!!!

Macy's Parade

Someone was very excited about HER parade this morning!!!!  

She loves to watch the parade and loves to sit next to the TV for a picture even more!!!

2012

2010

2008

Life is Good when a little Macy has a parade every year near her birthday!!!

Spiced Pumpkins Cupcakes

For those of you that are regular readers you know I don't post too many recipes, and you probably know the reason behind that.........I don't really like to cook and don't do it very often.  Thankfully, Justin enjoys it and is good at it!  Macy says the best thing I cook is a waffle(frozen Eggos) and sometimes I even burn those.

So as many of my friends are shopping and getting ready to make wonderful meals for their families, I am not!!!  Justin did all of our recipe picking and shopping for our turkey day meal.  He also hasn't assigned me any jobs........He gives those to my dad and brother who are willing and very capable of helping.

My one and only Thanksgiving meal contribution are Spiced Pumpkin Cupcakes.......and mostly because I really like them.

The other day after preschool, Macy and her little buddy E helped me mix up the batter and bake 24 of them.

Today, Hannah helped frost 20 them......notice a few are already gone!!

McCormick's Spiced Pumpkin Cupcakes

1 pkg. yellow cake mix

1 pkg(4 serving size) vanilla instant pudding mix

1 cup canned pumpkin---or a whole can if you don't want to waste any!!!

1/2 cup each oil and water

3 eggs

1 1/2 tsp. Ground cinnamon

1 tsp. ground cloves---Note: If you find you actually don't have this when you thought you did, you can use Pumpkin Pie Spice even though ground cloves isn't listed in the ingredient list!  The cupcakes will taste the same

1 tsp. Pure vanilla extract

Beat all ingredients on low until moist.  Beat on medium speed for 2 minutes.  Spoon batter into 24 paper-lined muffin cups, filling each 2/3 full

Bake on 350 for 20 minutes

Frost when cool

Frosting:

Beat 1 package(8 ounces) cream cheese, softened, 1/4 cup butter, softened, 1tsp. Pure Vanilla Extract and 1/4 tsp ground cloves-----or Pumpkin Pie Spice!!! until light and fluffy.  Gradually beat in 1 box (16 ounces)   confectioners' sugar until smooth.

I learned a good cooking lesson here.  Once the frosting was done, I frosted one cupcake to make sure they were good---I was kind of joking, but glad I did.........I had forgotten to mix in the sugar so the frosting wasn't sweet and was just cream cheese....not too tasty!!!!  The girls got a good laugh when I dumped the sugar in........I used a opened bag and when I poured it in...........a spoon feel out too........not sure how long it had been in there!

Life is Good when others cook your food because you really aren't very good at it!!!

15 Months

Whitney is now 15 months!!!!  

She loves her big sisters and wants to be around them all the time.  Especially, when they are upstairs or downstairs and she can't open the baby gate.  She is able to find every cabinet that doesn't have the baby lock in place.  Her latest trick is climbing on the kitchen table when a chair is left out..........she has found MANY art projects and snacks left out!!!

She is full of smiles and gives hugs all day.  

Her favorite foods lately are ham, blueberries and gogurts(they can get a bit messy).

She likes to stack her blocks and knock them down or play with whatever the bigs are playing with.

20.15 pounds

30 inches long

Life is Good with Whitney Grace!!!

Infinity Scarf

Over the weekend, I found an idea from Pinterest for turning old scarves into Infinity Scarves.

This morning, the Littles and I cleaned out my basket of winter gear and found 3 scarves to use.  Macy loved folding the scarves while I was sorting through them, and Whit loved unfolding them and running away with them.........Macy wasn't too fond of that!!

While Whitney napped, Macy and I got to work.

She sorted buttons and I sewed them on..........

 One scarf was a little two small to wrap around my neck twice, but I think the girls will have fun with it!!!

I see Hannah in a pair of cranberry ruffle pants, a brown shirt and this scarf headed to school in the very near future!!!!

 I think they turned out cute and now the scarves will get more use.  

I didn't use the yarn as suggested on Pinterest---I didn't have any, I just used regular thread.  I also did a few stitches on the outside edges where the ends met so they didn't come apart.

Life is Good when you can repurpose things!!!!

7 Little Chesnuts Running and Playing

We had a visit from our cousins this weekend and everyone had a great time.  They got in late on Friday night, and the kids played from the moment they woke up until they closed their eyes at night on Saturday.

Whitney sat in Williams lap for a bit!!!

A morning bounce

 They thought piling up was hilarious.  

Thankfully, no one ended up with and elbow or knee to the nose!

For dinner we did fajitas.  Justin loves to use his discada. 

 Later today he plans on browning A LOT of ground beef!  

Avery and Kaylee took this picture of Whitney "glued to the wall."

"Group Hug"

 After rootbeer floats they headed up to watch  Toy Story 2 while the adults watched ISU beat Kansas.

Life is Good when cousins come to visit.....

......For Thanksgiving we have Grandma Carol, Papa Dave and Uncle Dustin coming.  The week after we have Aunt Ellen and Morgan coming.  The girls are very excited for all our company!!!!