Nothing New...

This past week/weekend we really haven't had much going on. We've been pretty boring and don't really have much to blog about this week...but I'll try to find something since there is hardly a dull moment with our wild and crazy 2 year old!
On Saturday night the Exira-EHK Spartans boy's team won their sub-state game and will play at state on Monday, March 7th! I have 2 cousins on the team so we will make sure and make an appearance at the Well for the game! Go Spartans!

It sure would be cool to celebrate like we did last year at Wells...with a state championship for the girls team (Exira...my uncle and brother coached the girls team)

The Best Cupcakes!!!

So as I was looking through some blogs, I came across a baking blog (I LOVE to bake, just don't like having the goodies around our house!). On the blog was the recipe for Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes...I thought they looked pretty good and Andy was all about it! So on Friday I attempted the make the recipe. Oh My! They are AWESOME!!! They just might be the best cupcakes I've ever had! Who doesn't love a little cookie dough?
You can view the blog where I found it by clicking HERE

In the recipe she uses, she makes the cake and cookie dough from scratch, which I'm sure would be awesome but I simplified it...here is how I made them:

Ingredients:
*White cake mix (and all the ingredients you need to make the cake per the box instructions)
*Refrigerated Prepared cookie dough (I used the Pillsbury already portioned cookies, I think they're called Place and Bake)

Step 1: Take the cookie dough and form into balls (24) and place on a cookie sheet and place in the freezer. You want to freeze them for a good hour if you can.

Step 2: Preheat oven to 350. Prepare the cake mix following the box instructions. Line cupcake pan with liners (this recipe makes 24 cupcakes). Pour batter into the 24 cupcake liners.

Step 3: Place the balled up cookie dough in the center of each cupcake batter and push down just a little.

Step 4: Bake cupcakes for about 16-18 minutes, until the tops are lightly browned. Let cool

Frosting:
3 sticks softened butter
3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
3 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tbsp. milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract

To make the frosting, combine the butter and brown sugar in a mixing bowl and cream on medium-high speed until light and fluffy. Beat in the powdered sugar until smooth. Beat in the salt, milk, and vanilla extract until smooth and combined. I used a gallon storage ziploc bag to pipe the frosting on the cupcakes (I don't have a fancy piping bag yet!).

Seriously, the frosting is just as good as the cupcakes...and I'm not a frosting girl...could be the 3 sticks of butter!

Frost the cupcakes and sprinkle with mini chocolate chips!



Here's a pic of what the final product looks like! The cookie dough doesn't cook all the way through since it's frozen when you bake them!

A New Toy!

I was so excited last Thursday when the weather was 70 degrees because that was the same day we received our double jogging stroller. Yes, I know we don't have 2 kiddos right now but eventually we will add to our family and we figured that it's best to prepare for the future and get a double instead of a single. So Brady and I tested it out on Thursday and also Friday. I love it! We go for walks pretty much every day when the weather cooperates and it was starting to put wear and tear on our Chicco travel system stroller so a jogger was needed!
For some reason Brady was not too thrilled with a mini-photo shoot...

A Fun Saturday!!

We had a great day on Saturday. I started the day off with a great 12-mile run with my friends Mollie and Becky in Altoona. It's always get to chat and catch up from the week and get in a run on a beautiful morning. Then we laid low a little, made some great lunch and then at 3, Meggie, Jen and I headed to West Des Moines for a much needed girls day/night. We started with some shopping then went to Cheesecake Factory for dinner and of course cheesecake, and then we went to No Strings Atttached movie. It was a fun movie and a great get-a-way for us! We definitely need to do it more often! While we were out and about, all the men got together with the kids and they had a great time! They ordered pizza and the little boys had a blast playing together!
We didn't get really any pics from our fun day except for this one of me and Brady before I left to go shopping.

A little visit

On Saturday Nana and Papa Cathcart stopped by to see Mr. Brady and to give him his Valentine's gift! He got a Super Why video (which he loved!!) and some yummy candy. We had a great time playing and catching up!



He does not like sitting still for pictures!!! Ha ha ha!

Semi Wordless Wednesday

...our little monkey snackin' on a banana...

Happy Valentine's Day

I know it's a little late...but better late than never! We had a great Valentine's Day! We actually celebrated on Saturday with a wonderful dinner at home...filet mignon, shrimp, stuffed mushrooms, asparagus and dessert from Dairy Queen. We decided to keep it low key at home as it's so hard to take Brady to any nicer restaurants. We exchanged some gifts...I got some sunless tanning sessions and a gift card to Barnes and Noble and I got Andy a new watch. Here's a pic of our littlest valentine...being ornery as usual!

Funny Boy

Brady loves to do his alphabet on his fridge phonics game he has...he will point to the letters and most of the time he's right. Here are just a few fun pics of him.

Outside fun with daddy

On Sunday Andy and Brady headed outside to do some shoveling and so Brady could play outside. He was a great 'helper' for Andy.

Wordless Wednesday

...I love to wear daddy's boots!!!

Monkey Joes

On Saturday we ran a few errands and then took Brady to Monkey Joes. He wasn't too sure about it at first and clung to us...not sure if it was because there were so many people, it was loud or what his deal was. So at first we went in to the bounce houses with him and before we knew it, he was just running all around, and was a bouncing fool. He had a great time and didn't want to leave...we grabbed some lunch and headed home. He took a great nap after all the fun he had!

Snow Day!

Last Wednesday Grand View closed down due to the weather and Andy took the day off too. So we had a fun snow day at home! We got lots done...like reorganizing the pantry (fun, fun!). And we got to play with Brady all day! We got out his play clay and he had fun rolling it out and making shapes, etc.

Our Biggest Resolution

Being in the fitness field, I hear my fair share of people new year's resolutions and usually by now they have dropped them. I see the wellness center explode with exercisers and people scheduling consultations to begin the year and usually they've fizzled out...but I've been so amazed at Grand View...everyone's stuck with it so far! It's great...but this post isn't really about fitness types of resolutions...I decided that this year I wasn't going to make any of those (besides running another marathon in May). We needed to make some more important changes. Number one of my list was to get back connected with our church. We hadn't been going much lately because Brady didn't do well at church but now he's big enough to go to the nursery and behave okay. I didn't want to only 'go' to church but get more connected...so I've been volunteering in the nursery and we will continue to do more. We really want Brady to grow up with a strong connection to the church.

Here are some pre-church pics!

Mr. Outgoing

After our weekly Costco run, we took Brady to the mall to play. He really enjoys it. It's so nice that now we can just let him go free and not follow him around the whole time. I just love watching him interact with other kids. He is just so outgoing. He will just go right up to any kid and 'talk' to them or play chase with them. He will wait his turn to go down the slides, etc and if he runs into someone, he will say sorry and try to hug them. Ha ha!



Look closely...Brady is the one going down the small train slide on his tummy!

Semi-Wordless Wednesday

Brady got this cute fleece for Christmas and when he wears it, it reminds me of a lumberjack for some reason...ha ha ha! He wouldn't take it off at all on Saturday!

Date Night

On Friday night Andy went out for a guys night with Bryce and Jon. That meant that Brady and I were on our own. Any time it's just us two, I try to make it special and have a 'date night'. So we ran some errands, ate a yummy dinner, had some popcorn (his favorite) and we watched a couple of episodes of Super Why. It was so much fun to cuddle up with him on the couch, share some hot popcorn and watch his favorite show.

Here's some pics of my cute date!