Good Cookers

The girls call themselves "good cookers" and they are.  They like to cook and I try to let them help me often.   The girls great great aunts and cousins gave them these adorable bunny aprons for Easter, so we decided to put them to use.  We made Mississippi Spice Muffins. The girls can completely make them by themselves.  Zeb is not here this evening so I thought that while I was giving Sam a bottle the girls could eat a muffin or two that they made.  When Sam was done with his bottle, so were 12 muffins--12!!!

Here is the recipe in case you want it.  It is from Southern Sideboards.  Like Mommy, like daughters we leave the pecans out!  No nuts in brownies, cookies, or muffins for us! ha!  The best part about this recipe is that you can make it and it was last for a long time in your fridge (recipe says indefinitely).  We make them every couple of weeks and in the morning we have freshly made muffins because all I have to do is scoop them out of the tupperware container!  It's also great to keep on hand in case you need to take something quick to a family in need.

1 cup of soft butter (i use light)
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 cups unsweetened applesauce
3 tsp cinnamon (plus a little if you like it as much as we do!!)
2 tsp allspice
1 tsp cloves
1 tsp salt
2 tsp baking soda
4 cups flour
powdered sugar (optional)

Cream butter and sugar.  Add eggs one at a time.  Mix in applesauce and spices.  Sift salt, baking soda, and flour.  Add to applesauce mixture and mix well.  Bake in mini muffin tins for 10-11 min on 350.

I've never seen a kid

wave like this...so while he was still doing it, I had to get it on video!

Who needs skiis? We don't!

Vegas Mountains

Other than eating yummy Vegas food, we had a blast hiking a mountain one day.  We set off to see Raintree, supposedly the oldest living tree in Nevada.  We never could find that tree, but we weren't the least bit disappointed.  It was a difficult, cold, and snowy hike that we will never forget.  We went with the Stewarts and unfortunately I didn't get a pic of all of us.  As you can see, we weren't expecting 2 feet of snow on the ground.  The people that had gone sometime recently in front of us had snow shoes and poles--we had tennis shoes!  It took more than 2 and a 1/2 hours to get up and somewhere around 45 min to get down!  I have a video to post of how we got down the mountain! 

At the bottom

Beautiful views--wished I had something other than my iphone camera

Anybody know what animal makes these tracks?  The guys insisted it was a dog--Mary Ellen and I insisted it was a bear.  We settled on calling it a dogbear!  

Awesome standing on snow and looking out over desert

We made a lot of holes that looked like this!  And we won't be telling how many times we busted it on the way down.  It's amazing I didn't break my right arm and Mary Ellen didn't break her leg!

On our way back into town, we drove through the desert.  I had never seen the desert or desert plants before, so we stopped so I could investigate.  Jimmy warned me to watch out for snakes so I ended up not doing much exploring!

small bits of beautiful colors

Happy Easter

I have taken over 300 pictures in the last week, so it will take me a while to get through them!  Here is the best of the 3 of them on Easter morning!  I hope y'all had a wonderful Easter--we did!

Tubes

We went to see an ENT on Monday after 6 months of fevers and ear infections.  Both ears looked bad so Dr. Carron wanted to do tubes as soon as we could.  Today was the day--a very early day! ha!  He was a trooper!  

Getting his bp taken

Ready to go--he seemed a little nervous which I found funny

When I got to go back he was still sound asleep.  As soon as he opened his eyes I snatched him up.  Even though tubes isn't a big deal in the scheme of things it is not fun for a nurse to take your baby back and for him to be put to sleep!

Relaxing with something to drink

Dr. Carron said his ears had "lots of thick, nasty mucus".  It must have been bad for an ENT to say this!  Hopefully one more round of antibiotics will do the trick and he will be well for a while!

Food in Vegas

Our favorite thing about traveling is definitely the food.  Usually, Zeb and I have done lots of research and have reservations booked well in advance.  We didn't have time to do this at all for this trip!  I googled "Top 10 ____ in Vegas" on my phone before we went to eat.  Google didn't disappoint--yummy!!!

The first night we ate at Valentino's at the Venetian!  It was good-kind of pricey though!  I wish I had taken a picture of the appetizer plate.  It was beautiful and delicious.  It had 5 samples on it!!

Sunday we ate brunch at Cafe Bellagio at the Bellagio.  The omelets were great, but as the Stewarts found out orange juice is $7.50 per glass!  Zeb and I were glad we had water! ha!  The omelets were yummy and reasonably priced!

For dinner, we wanted a burger.  Google led us the the BLK at the Mirage.  It was hands down the best burger I have ever eaten!  It is a must  in Vegas!

Monday we spent all morning in the mountains and came back very hungry.  We split chips and salsa and mahi tacos with the Stewarts at La Salsa.  We got 4 different kinds of salsa and all were yummy!

For dinner, Zeb and I went to Emeril's restaurant Delmonico.  I absolutely loved my fillet!  

Tuesday was my last day to eat in Vegas, and there were still a lot of places I wanted to try.  So Mary Ellen, Kristi, and I went on a progressive lunch.  We wanted to start at Mario Batali's B and B, but it was closed at lunch. So, we started  at Grand Lux and had delicious appetizers.  I took pictures below!

Then we had freshly made noodles from Being Noodle 9 at Caesar's Palace.  I have never had fresh noodles before --oh my! I will post video later of them making the noodles.

We finished the meal with a frozen hot chocolate from Serendipity!

Tuesday night we ate with a large group at Mesa Grill!  Bobby Flay's restaurant.  This was probably the best food we had!  Zeb and I split the following 3 dishes!

Pork tenderloin

Shrimp Tamale

Chicken Tacos

Our only complaint is that we didn't eat enough desserts!

Vegas

Zeb had a conference in Vegas, and I got to tag along.  We had a great time, but I don't care if I ever go back!  ha! The cigarette smoke is awful and made me very sick!  However, it is the best food I have EVER eaten!  (all pics were taken with iphone)

The Bellagio Conservatory--beautiful!!

fun fact...it takes 3 guys 5 hours each to water this small area--it is beautiful!!!

Art work made out of  flower petals

Fountains at the Bellagio

Roller coaster on top of New York, New York

pretty intense roller coaster--2 flips, several big drops, and beautiful views

This pic is for Shirley...

Of course we saw a wedding.  This one actually looked plan.  One day we were walking on the street and a man asked us if were married yet.  If we weren't he could marry us right then and there....sad...

Volcano at the Mirage

Meet Zoe

Two weeks ago the girls found this caterpillar outside.  We decided to capture it and put it in an old applesauce jar.  We are waiting to see if it will turn into a butterfly (or moth)!  When I taught school each child would have one that we would watch and journal and wait until they turned into beautiful Monarchs.  That was only 5 years ago and I can't remember what to do--ha!  Anyway, Zoe gets lots of attention around our house and if nothing else happens the girls have had a lot of fun watching her eat tiny holes in the leaves and crawl around and around in the jar, and, oh yeah, go to the bathroom!  I will keep y'all updated!  Let me know if you have any advice for Zoe!

9 months

This sweet little boy is 9 months old!  He is a much happier camper than he was when I did his 8 month post!  He is crawling all over the place, but prefers the army crawl still!  He weighs 16 1/2 pounds (10% on a term baby chart) and is 28 1/2 inches (75th on a term baby chart)! Skinny, skinny, but long!  I was surprised he was only 10 %, but I think I am just comparing him to when  Zeb's finger was thicker than his sweet legs!  In keeping with the Henson tradition, his head is greater than 97%! ha!  He has a pretty bad double ear infection that we tried to wait out, but ended up having to start yet another antibiotic today :(.  I am hoping he will get to feeling better very soon!  He sleeps like a champ at night--6:45ish to 8:15 ish!  Napping is still tough, but is better than it was.  He takes five 6 oz bottles a day--still!  He has tried all the fruits and veggies and likes most all of them.  He has gotten much better with his tongue thrust and can swallow easier now.  When I say the word "ball", he laughs out loud!  He really likes to play ball.