I Heart You

Ahhh Valentine's Day ... your hearts, your red and pink romantic decor, your endless amounts of love, your oversized teddy bears, your dozen long stemmed roses, you and all your smoochies and I love yous - for those of you in love with someone to share it with, you're such a happy day.

Truth be told, I've never been over the moon about Valentine's Day. I'm one of those "it's so overrated, such a Hallmark holiday, blah blah blah" people. But, I am also a girl ... and therefore expect SOME kind of special attention, even if I say differently (insert winky face emoji). Aside from our fourth (I think) Valentine's Day when Shane booked some super swanky preset dinner menu reservation, at some over priced restaurant downtown (which I enjoyed of course .. just thought it was worth mentioning .. ha), we've kept our Vday's pretty simple. A homemade heart shaped pizza has been our favorite one to date ... maybe we'll reenact that at some point and let our little man make his own too.  But I dunno, to me it's just more fun to make an ordinary day special .. and that's what we've always done.

This year however, I'm looking at Valentine's day in a whole new light ... as a parent!  It's making it really fun. I'm imagining my kid(s) a little older and putting together super cute Valentine packages for them to take to school. And giving them a special little Valentine gift from daddy and me. And maybe even splitting up and letting Daddy take his little princess to dinner (if we ever have a girl) and I'll get to take the boy on a dinner date. It makes me smile picturing it all.

Anyways, before I get ahead of myself, I'm also focusing on fun ways to make it special this year. And by special I simply mean making some fun treats for us to munch on next week. I made these little nuggets a couple of years ago and they were so fun!  I'm so excited to start building traditions with our wee one.  I'm going to let him help me in the kitchen this year, and plan to every year after that (until he has his own little lady to take out one day, sniff, tear, sigh).  But while I've got him all to myself that's just what we'll do. And giggle and make a might mess because, Valentine's Day and toddlers and love. Here are some of my favorite contenders for this year's Valentine treat.

How on earth will I ever decide? So many adorable sweet treats!  Maybe I'll just have to make them all ... I'm sure Bennett wouldn't mind having dessert for every meal next week. Ha!

Here are the links if you're interested in check them out yourself. Which one would ya'll pick?

• High Heels & Grills: Valentine's White Chocolate Dipped Krispy Treats
• Valentine's S'mores Cookies | Chelsea's Messy Apron
• Cookies n' Cream Strawberry Cheesecake Bars - Creme De La Crumb
• Brown Sugar Blondies | The Recipe Critic
• Sweetheart Buddies | The Recipe Critic
• Easy Valentine's Day Cookies - Family Fresh Meals

Happy love month to all. Smoochies.

strawBABIES.

BABY it's cold outside!

 I'm talking bone chilling, might as well stand in a freezer, because it'd probably be warmer, kind of cold. BUT, I was overly enthused and it warmed my heart a little when I found these magnificent marvels at Kroger last night.  

Ripe strawberries, for what seems like the first time in weeks (or stawbabies as my sweet niece Emmie calls them) make me think of Summer, warmer days, and crazy new arrivals that will be here just in time for summer.  But I mean look at these fellas would you?! They were DEEEEELICIOUS too.  Which is extra special because I've been craving strawberries like they're going out of style.

Okay, are you catching on yet? 

                                       ~ BABY it's cold outside...

                                       ~ New arrival this summer...

                                       ~ Cravings...

                                       ~ straw - BABIES.... :)

Yes, yes it's true -- we're having a BABBBBBYYYYY!!!

AHHHHH! My friends were getting on me that it was time I shared the big news on the blog, but I just couldn't decide how I wanted to announce it to you guys.  And to be honest - I still can't come up with something clever.  So instead, I'm going to recap for you how I told my closest family and friends.

The Rents:

We told our parents before anyone else.  We were nervous to tell so we wanted them to know, but wait a little while longer before announcing it to everyone to make sure everything was A-Ok.  This is our first little one and the first grand baby on my side of the family, so we knew we wanted to make it special.  I of course went straight to Pinterest to scour ideas.  SO many to choose from!  But my heart landed on the little pair of empty shoes.  Hubs and I had just recently gotten back from a big trip to Europe, so packaging up a picture was an easy segway into the delivery of the picture.  We told our parents we had our favorite picture from the trip put in a frame for them and they suspected nothing while tearing into the paper ... but when they looked at the actual photo... SURPRISE!!!

All of their reactions were SO great!  So emotional and so, so fun!  Unfortunately, I only have a picture of my parents - because Hubs recorded his parents reaction on his phone and then synced the phone the next day and lost all history of both videos (but because this is a happy post that's all I'll say about it :) ... it was a tough pill to swallow however on top of my already raging hormones, when he broke the news to me...WHEW).  I love the bottom picture of my dad .. if you know him, and can imagine it - the noise he's making is a high-pitched "Ha-Ha!" ... and yes of course... Penny is crying :)

The Immediate Family:

Next we were on to telling our siblings and closest family.  We told Shane's family at one of or our big Sunday night dinners.  His brother has 3 kids, and Brody is the youngest.  Shane snuck Bro-man downstairs and put this little shirt on him while everyone was getting seated for dinner.  (We made the shirt super easy with some iron-on letters the night before).  It was so great to watch everyone's faces as he walked into the room.  You started seeing people understand what was happening one by one. 

                 

Next we were on to telling my brothers.  We had a family trip planned to NYC for Thanksgiving and we knew that would be the perfect time, because Baby Bro would be home from college and we'd have some time with just the bros, my sis in law, and my extended brother and his wife before we had to meet up with everyone else.  Bottom line however, they're my brother's and total boys, so a simple one-liner seemed more appropriate for them than some crafty announcement.  So while we were all snuggled together on our way to NYC, hubs casually asked ... "So, what's it like to spend your first Thanksgiving as uncles?"  Their faces were awesome. Followed by the "WHAT?! Are you serious"  Once we arrived in NYC we headed to the Trump Ice Skating Rink.  Everyone else enjoyed the ice - I watched and celebrated with Hot Chocolate :)

Telling the Friends:

This one was great - talk about the element of surprise. If you guys remember, back in early December I talked about the annual Cookie Party my mom and I host. Well, this year the party became the perfect backdrop for announcing the big news.  Every year we get all the gals and mama's and pose for a big group picture to commemorate the evening. However, this year we planned a little twist :)  (My extended brother's wife, Cristina, mentioned above, was in on the plan and offered to be our "photographer" for the photo).  We usually just do a self time or something, but this year we needed a better plan.  We had everyone snuggle up and gather around ... 

and Penny said "okay, everybody say.... KATIE'S PREGNANT!"

Cris knew this was coming, so we had instructed her to just keep clicking the picture no matter the reaction.  It was so great to hear the shrieks and squeals and looking at the pictures after was even better. There were SO many and everyone's faces were so great. But here are some of my faves. Have I ever mentioned how much I love my friends? Because I DO!

Hubs took a bunch of his buddies to a bar and broke the news to them. And then one of his friends broke the news via Twitter to everyone we know ... so that was cool ... NOT!  Unfortunately, there are no pictures from that evening out (which ended up being a late one). -But, I do have a perfect Facebook post I can share from one of his friends, from the night he told the guys :) Too cute!

So that's it folks! Our newest little bundle of joy is expected 

late June - Summer 2013. 

Recipe Monday: Ooey Gooey S'mores Cookies

Well hey there!! Remember me?  You know... the girl who set out a couple of months a go to build a blogging empire and then abandoned her entire site for nearly over a month!? Now that is dedication.

Ahhh!  Well gang .. all i can tell you is, i promise there is a reason.  Well, several reasons.  All of which i plan to fully update you on - IN DETAIL - in due time :) You have my word.

You also have my word, i will never abandon you for this long ever again (or at least i don't plan to!)

So - in honor of recipe Monday, I will give you a DELICIOUS recipe to try out for your holiday baking this year.  My mom and I entered this into our 4th Annual Mother Daughter Cookie Exchange this year, and although we walked away with no awards (booo.) we did walk away with SEVERAL compliments, and a guest who wanted our recipe to make for her next entry at her cookie exchange the following weekend.

(that was the moment in which i was able to high-five myself saying, "yea your cookies were overshadowed this year, you still did great"...*sigh*)

Here's the signature group photo ...

...don't mind Laura in the front row (yes...) in a sheep costume, or Carey in the back dressed as the Virgin Mary...there's more to come on that in the actual Cookie Exchange post..all i can tell you is THEME is important and although not mandatory holiday attire is encouraged :)

Ooey Gooey S'mores Cookies

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 1/3 cups flour
• 3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs (7 full graham cracker sheets)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup Mini Hershey’s Kisses (or chocolate chips/chunks)
• 1 cup Jet Puffed Mallow Bits

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and spray with cooking spray (we used a Silpat instead).
• Using a mixer, cream the butter and sugars until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the egg and vanilla and beat for an additional 2 minutes.
• Meanwhile, use a food processor or blender to crush 7 graham cracker sheets into 3/4 cup fine crumbs.
• In a separate bowl, whisk together the graham cracker crumbs, flour, baking powder, and salt.
• Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, and mix on low speed until the dough just comes together.
• Add the chocolate and marshmallows and stir to combine.
• Place 1.5 tablespoon sized scoops of dough onto the prepared cookie sheet.
• Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes.
• Makes 2 dozen cookies.

 

I wish i could take credit thinking of these adorable little treats, but i found the recipe on this adorable blog: http://www.kevinandamanda.com/recipes/dessert/gooey-smores-cookies.html  The woman is a GENIUS i tell you. 

The addition of the ground up graham crackers adds so much flavor to an otherwise somewhat ordinary cookie you won't believe your taste buds. And she is ON POINT with the over sized chocolate chips and baby marshmallows (take her word for getting them at Target - I looked elsewhere and came up empty handed - walked into target and voila! - ADORBS!)

The only addition we made was adding some swirled melted vanilla baking chocolate (colored red and green) over top to add a little Christmas flare.

I'm working on my post to let you know how everything went at the cookie party - but for now I will leave you with your recipe. So fire up those ovens, bake some deliciousness and share some yummy holiday spirit!