another treat for the road

If you are anything like me you stress about what to serve for guests. Well rest assured that if Buddy the Elf and his sugar obsession visit you I have the PERFECT recipe. David asked if I would make a cake for a co-workers b-day but since I was too lazy to pull out all the cake stuff and destroy my kitchen with frosting I decided to go for a trifle...which looked silly considering I don't have a trifle dish (maybe when Buddy comes to visit he can put in a word to Santa for me!) I found this recipe ( www.mykitchencafe.blogspot.com ) and figured it met all the peanut butter and chocolate requirements. I have to admit when I was making it I felt like a 6 year old attempting to make an FHE treat by just grabbing everything that was in the pantry. I think it turned out pretty good though;)

1 9X13 pan of your favorite brownie recipe
10 ounce bag of peanut butter chips
5 ounce package vanilla instant pudding mix
3 cups milk
1/2 cup peanut butter, creamy
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup whipping cream, whipped and divided
20 regular sized (about 2 inches in diameter) peanut butter cups, divided

15-20 oreos chopped (it didn't call for it in the recipe but let's be honest can you go wrong with oreo....i didn't think so)

Line a 13 by 9 inch pan with aluminum foil, extend foil by 2 inches over side. Grease lightly with cooking spray. Prepare brownies according to the recipe. Add peanut butter chips. Bake in foil lined pan for length of time required. Cool completely.

Lift foil out of pan. Invert on cutting board. Remove foil. Cut into 3/4 inch pieces, using sharp knife.

Coarsely chop peanut butter cups; 1/4 cup for garnish.

Combine pudding mix and milk in large bowl. Beat at low speed for 2 minutes or until thickened (I had to chill mine for about 5 minutes to thicken it completely). Add peanut butter and vanilla; beat until smooth. Gently fold in half of whipped cream.

Place half of brownies in bottom of trifle bowl; top with 1/2 of chopped candy/oreo and half of pudding. Repeat layers. Top with remaining whipped cream, spooned or piped on. Garnish top with remaining peanut butter cups. This would work with any cookie/candy combo too! 

9 months....and 360 months

Sheesh I've been a little on the lazy side of blogging these days. Tuesday was David's birthday, I hope he had a fun day. To kick off the morning Grant woke up (too excited to sleep I'm sure!) at 3:30 am which meant that David was up at 3:30 as well, hum...what a thoughtful present Grant, thank you! After David left for work Grant and I decorated the house with balloons and streamers. Ok Grant just crawled around with his tongue hanging out while I did all the work. It was quite the psychedelic trip for him but once his eyes adjusted to everything I think he had a lot of fun chasing the balloons and watching me pop my head through the streamers and ribbons like every 5 seconds. We went out to dinner that night and had a fun time as a family. We love you David!!! *No Grant is not wearing capris...just the way he is situated!*

Well today Grant turned 9 months and I can honestly say this was the hardest yet best month by far. I was either giving him kisses and kisses or setting up my ebay account...I was thisclose to putting him up for sale multiple nights. He was sick for a few days and just when I thought he was getting better he ended up having a double ear infection. It was hard to know if he was really sick because he was always happy, well in the day at least (that's where the millions of kisses were given). In fact when I took him into the doctor he was acting totally fine, just like when you take your car in to the shop it just magically works again and the mechanic thinks you're nuts! Anyway he is finally better! Hooray!!! His check up is next week so I will get his stats then. We love you baby G!

-loves music...especially the guitar
-army crawls EVERYWHERE! it's a good thing there are like 3 places in my house he could be, everytime i turn around he is somewhere else.
-he says "dada" a lot but hasn't quite figured out who it is...i like to pretend he says "dada" over "mama" because i always say nice things about "dada" to him;)
-laughs a lot
-will choose my boring clear water bottle over any fun new toy
-likes to feed himself
-gets really happy when elmo is on

a little light reading....making sure to read the home teaching message by the end of the month!

 this pretty much describes the last month....reaching and grabbing anything and everything!

oops...8 months

We were in CO when Grant decided to grow up and turn 8 months old. He is so much fun these days. I took him to the doctor yesterday and he weighs 16 lbs! Hum I guess we'll be starting the "bacon only" diet in 2010.

*He can kind of make out "dada" but mainly just screams and sighs really loud.
*He sits up on his own, rolls around a lot but mainly just army crawls for everything.
*LOVE LOVE LOVES my water bottle and will scoot for that thing over any fun colorful toy.

To be honest I'm a bad mother and can't really remember what he did during 8 months! More to report in a few weeks on his 9 mo. stats!

that is sooo 2009

Sheesh Christmas was forever ago and I'm now getting around to blog about it. Why you may ask? Well one boy (David) has strep and the other has a double ear infection. Boo. Don't let that fool you though, Grant was all smiles at the doctor's office. He's been fairly happy----we just have to make sure we're either jumping in front of mirrors or playing peek-a-boo and he's fine, once those things stop then we're in trouble!

Ok back to Christmas....we had a wonderful time in Colorado visiting both of our families. Some of the Harrison clan drove up to spend Christmas with us too which was a lot of fun! Grant did pretty good on the trip...however he started making these crazy faces and puppy sounds every once in awhile which was weird but I guess he left that habit in CO because he's back to normal now!

We opened our presents from each other a few days before we left for CO, Grant got a piggy bank and some books. He is one smarty pants kid and had a grip on that pig the whole night!

Playing with some of his cousins....











We had a little candlelight/talent night at my parents house, it was a great way to get into the Christmas spirit.

All of the Luke crew got college jammies and I think Grant's are pretty much the cutest thing out there! I'm afraid we'll need these in every size, got to start 'em young right???

It was so fun to listen to Christmas music, watch Luke 2, exchange gifts (we had a white elephant exchange which Grant wound up getting some lottery tickets and won $24....good thing we bought a piggy bank!!!) read Christmas stories and just laugh and be together as a family! Darn it, if only there was a way to move Kohl's closer to our family. ;)