Wedding Shower for Charlotte & Zach...

This past weekend I helped host a wedding shower for my sister Charlotte and her fiancé Zach. They will be getting married on June 12th...which is our anniversary. So I am very excited to share our special day with them.

The shower was at my parent's house since it was the middle ground for most of the guests. It turned out to be a beautiful shower! Many months ago when I approached Charlotte about a shower for them, she quickly let me know that if she was going to sit through a shower then so was Zach. So...it was a couple's shower. I know Charlotte is not really the girly shower type of person and since they both act like kids most of the time, I wanted to make sure the shower reflected their personalities. My goal: Everything had to be fun! Simple, right?

For the food, we had everything as much of a finger/pick up food as possible. We featured sliders, popcorn chicken (with appropriate dipping sauces), PB&J sandwiches (which Aunt Claire and Nicole so skillfully cut out into butterfly and batman shapes), cupcakes, marshmallow pops, milk & cookie shots, veggies & dip, cheese, chips & salsa, 7 layer dip and a yummy fruity punch. The favors for the shower were rice krispy treats cut out into a "B" and dipped in chocolate and covered in sprinkles. They were awesome!

Here are some pics of the invitation and from the shower...

The invitation...

Food...

Zach, Ashley & Charlotte

Koda, Christal & Taryne

Zach & Charlotte opening gifts...

Grandma Milady, Cheryl & Taryne

The Cousins...Christal, Tanya, Cheryl, Charlotte, Nicole, Theia & Taryne

Charlotte & Zach got lots of great stuff! And it was nice to see all of our family and meet Zach's family.

Until next time...Gig'em!

Chocolate Sour Cream Cupcakes (or Cake) with fudgy frosting...

I have been looking for a recipe for chocolate cake and I found one for chocolate sour cream cake. I found the recipe on Delish. Well last weekend I decided I needed to test this recipe since I was planning to use it for the cupcakes for my sister's wedding shower. This recipe included a recipe for a fudgy frosting...which I have to say is super yummy!

So here are the ingredients...

The muffin pan with the liners...

The baked cupcakes...

The frosted cupcake...

And my taste test...yummy!

The recipe...


Chocolate Sour Cream Cake (or cupcakes)


Ingredients:
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup shortening (I used the Crisco sticks)
1 1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
3 oz. bittersweet chocolate, melted and cooled
1 8 oz carton dairy sour cream
1 cup milk
1 recipe fudgy frosting


Directions:

Let eggs stand at room temperature 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour two 9 inch round cake pans or line muffin pan with cupcake liners. Set aside.

In small bowl combine flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In large bowl beat shortening and sugar on medium speed until combined. Beat in eggs and vanilla until combined. Beat in melted chocolate and sour cream. Alternately add flour mixture and milk; beat on low after each addition just until combined. Spread batter in prepared pans/muffin pan.

Bake 25 minutes or until tops spring back when lightly touched. If you are baking cupcakes, I baked them for 18 minutes and that was perfect. Cool on wire rack 10 minutes. Remove from pans; cool.

Prepare fudgy frosting. Place one layer flat side down on plate. Spread top with 1 cup frosting. Stack second layer flat side down. Spread with remaining frosting. Makes 16 servings.

Fudgy Frosting
Ingredients:

1-12 oz package semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup butter
8 oz carton sour cream
4 1/2 cups sifted powder sugar

Directions:

In large pan over low heat melt and stir the chocolate chips and the butter. Cool 10 minutes. Stir in the sour cream. Stir in the powdered sugar; stir until smooth. Makes 4 cups.

I was able to get 24 cupcakes out of the recipe. The cupcakes were light and the frosting was rich but they complimented one another very well. This week has been super crazy so I didn't have time to make the cupcakes for Charlotte's shower from scratch, but I will be making the icing from scratch. I can't wait to share these cupcakes with you...

Until next time...Gig'em!

Easter pics...

This afternoon I dressed Taryne up in her Easter dress to take some pictures of her with her basket and to have a little fun. Well I bought her this really pretty white dress with flowers at the bottom. It wasn't in the Easter dress section, but I chose it because it was a dress she could wear to other functions....not just for Easter. I bought a 9 month size because the 6 month one looked really small. Well, the 9 month size was a little big...

After several photos with her Easter dress I decided to change her outfit. She got this really beautiful dress from Cat and Zach (from work) and it is finally warm enough for her to wear it. So the second half of our mini photo shoot was in this dress...

She can now stand while holding on to something for about 20-30 seconds...

She had a blast playing with all the Easter eggs...I am super excited about Easter this year because we will celebrate it at our house with Charlotte, Zach, Tanya, Charlie and Theia. Taryne and Theia will be able to hunt Easter eggs together on their first Easter!

Until next time...Gig'em!

Blog ideas...

So lately I have posted several baking/cooking experiences and recipes on this blog. I have been contemplating creating a new blog for baking and cooking. However, my big hold up is creating a fun, creative and unique name for this new blog.

I had one idea but Kyle informed me that I could be more creative than that and I needed to keep thinking. In case you were wondering, I had thought of Rode Kitchen. He also didn't want our last name as part of this blog. So I am reaching out to all of my (few) readers and asking you your ideas for my new blog name.

I wanted to keep this blog open to baking and cooking and occasionally other crafty, creative things. I would love any ideas you may have...

Until next time...Gig'em!

Spring break is over...

Last week was spring break...for Taryne, not me. So day care was closed and I worked from home most of the week. Thankfully I was able to keep her on her day care nap schedule most days.

On Wednesday, she had her 6 month check up and she weighed in at 15 pounds 11 ounces and was 25 1/2 inches tall. She's growing! She also is now up to date on those pesky shots.

So at 6 months she now sits on her own for long periods of time without falling over (occasionally she leans to far in one direction and falls...), she is eating veggies (this has been trial and error, see my FB page for a video of the carrot disaster), she babbles constantly and if you hold her hands she can walk quite a while. Our biggest battle is tummy time. She HATES and I mean HATES being on her stomach. I am worried she will not want to crawl since she HATES being on her stomach. And the funny thing is, she can roll over, but since she has proven she has mastered that skill, she has no desire to continue doing it. Gee, I wonder where she gets her stubbornness....

Last Thursday she went to the hospital to meet her new friend Miss Charlee Elizabeth. She was a little curious at first but I am sure they will be great friends.

And yesterday day care started back up and I had to go back to the office. I dressed Taryne in some bright spring colors for the day. And I wanted her to wear the sweater once more before it is way to small...notice how the sleeves are getting a little short. This kid is growing like a beautiful flower!

Until next time...Gig'em!

Miss Charlee Elizabeth Menefee...

Yesterday my good friend Amie had her second little girl Charlee Elizabeth Menefee. Today Taryne and I went to the hospital to visit the family before they were released.

Charlee is such a beautiful baby and she was so good. Taryne wasn't 100% sure what that was! I think she was a little too small for Taryne...in a few months, Taryne and Charlee and Jacie (Charlee's older sister) will be able to play and have a ton of fun together.

Amie and Charlee

Taryne and Matt...she was checking him out!

Taryne, Cheryl, Charlee and Amie

Hopefully we will be able to visit them soon especially since we didn't get to see Jacie this time...Congratulations to the Menefee family!

Until next time...Gig'em!

Sweet potatoes...

Last night we made a grocery run and I picked up a sweet potato for Taryne to try. I can't stand sweet potatoes and after the carrots I wasn't too positive about this new vegetable. I don't think I have ever prepared a sweet potato before and I did not realize how hard it was...since I am not a sweet potato fan, I could have picked a not so great one, but once it was cooked it looked like any other sweet potato...

The sweet potato experience went a little better than the carrots. She only gagged once and after I mixed it with cereal, she managed to eat several more bites. We even got a smile out of her during the process! 

Until next time...Gig'em!

Starting solids...and real food this time...

Even before I got pregnant with Taryne I wanted to make my own baby food. I had no desire to breastfeed and I had planned to feed her formula after she was about a week or so old. Well, nothing ever goes as you planned. I ended up breastfeeding for almost 2 months, but the last month or so of that was a mix of breastmilk and formula because apparently my body doesn't like producing milk. I am sure you are thinking "Too much info!!!" and "I thought this was about solids...". Well I am getting to that, I just wanted to give you a little back story.

Back to making baby food. I saw the Beaba Babycook in a Williams-Sonoma catalog and I knew I had to have it. I thought "This will be great, Taryne can eat what we eat (when she gets to that stage, but we still need to puree) and I can save money on baby food since I will spend a lot on formula.". The Beaba can steam, puree, defrost and reheat veggies, fruit and meat.

So I got a Beaba Babycook for Christmas and I have been dying to try it out. Monday night, we finally decided we were ready for Taryne to start eating food since this Friday will be her 6 month birthday. You can use fresh food or frozen food in the cooker. I decided to use frozen food because they are just has healthy (and sometimes healthier) as fresh food. And that way I only have to make a little at a time.

So carrots were the vegetable of choice for the first round of solids. I steamed the carrots and pureed them in the cooker. Then we tried to feed it to Taryne...this did not go over too well. She gagged several times. So we decided to make some rice cereal to go with the carrots. We mixed a little of the cereal with the carrots...it helped...a little, but she still gagged.

The second night of carrots went a little better...hopefully tonight will be even better.

Until next time...Gig'em!

Just a playin'....

Last weekend we spent quite a bit of time just playing with Taryne. She loves to sit on the floor and play with her toys or pet the dogs...this post will be short and sweet because I just want to share some pics of Taryne playing.

Not really sure what she is looking at in the last picture, but it is pretty funny to me!

Until next time...Gig'em!

Spirit Week...

This week was Spirit Week at day care. Monday was PJ day, Tuesday was crazy hat day, Wednesday was crazy hair day, Thursday was crazy sock day and today was costume/crazy outfit day.

On Monday Taryne wore her super cute green PJ's with the little birds on them. Tuesday she sported her new flower petal headband. Wednesday I wanted to do several little pony tails, but she just doesn't have enough hair. So we just did the one ponytail that sticks straight up with a bow. Not too creative but oh well! Thursday she wore some socks that looked like little shoes...again, not too creative but she didn't really have any crazy socks. Today she wore her little pink tutu. I contemplated dressing her in the Tinkerbell costume she wore at Halloween. First I wasn't sure if she could still fit in it and second I figured it would sort of hard to play in at day care. So we went with the tutu!

I only have pictures from today because the other days were somewhat normal in a way...either that or you have already seen pictures of her in the green PJ's and the flower petal headband.

Until next time...Gig'em!

Aggie softball...

So this has been a crappy week. I really don't feel like going into details at the moment, but just know this week has had its moments. One of the good things that happened this week was I won tickets to the Aggie Softball game for Wednesday night. I was pretty excited because I love softball and we haven't had a chance to get to a game yet.

So on my way to work I am listening to the morning local sports show on the radio and they are giving a way a pair of tickets to callers 11 and 12. So I decide to try to win them...I have had luck in the past. Well, I was caller 4, 6, 8 and 12. I guess more people were concerned about the men's basketball final home game and didn't want to bother with softball.

I was pretty excited about my free tickets and Kyle had to burst my bubble by reminding me that he was going to have to work late. Well Boo!!! I decided that Taryne and I would go even if it was just the two of us.  So later in the afternoon I called my friend Mindy to see if she was going to softball and she was so we met up and went together.

Taryne had so much fun! She danced at all the music and played the entire time. We didn't stay the entire game because it was getting a little chilly and I really wanted to watch the basketball game which started at 8pm.

Here are a few pics from the game:

We really hope Taryne grows to love softball and other sports like we do. She seems to enjoy watching sports in person and on TV so we can only hope.

And a bit of trivia about Taryne's name...I know, you are wondering how that relates to Aggie softball or just softball in general...well...in 2007 while watching the Women's College World Series, there was a pitcher for Arizona whose name was Taryne. And she spelled it just the way we spell Taryne's name. That was the first time we heard the name and we loved it. So we decided if we ever have a girl, we would name her Taryne. Since then, we have seen Taryne several times...usually the girl is a softball player (crazy coincidence) but it is spelled as Taryn. We decided to keep it the way we originally found the name. So, long story short, maybe she will grow up to be a pitcher and win the Women's College World Series for some great university.

Until next time...Gig'em!