Ballerina Cupcakes

I saw these adorable cupcake toppers on Pinterest and was so happy to have an excuse to make them! The competition dance team had a practice/pizza party before the start of the season's competitions. The girls agreed that these were perfect to take, especially for the little competitors like Erin. They turned out so well!

Cookie Dough Cake

Bill's #1 saying is "do we have any cookies?" When the kids and I were talking about cakes we could make for his birthday I mentioned one I saw on Pinterest. When they saw it they all voted this had to be the cake! Believe me this was quite the cake! Totally homemade and totally delicious. Everyone loved it. It was definitely a labor of love which took me 4 hours to make start to finish. The cookies were chocolate chip but with chopped bittersweet chocolate. The filling had no bake cookie dough between the layers of homemade butter cream icing.
Happy Birthday Bill! We all love you so much!

Apple - Pies

Apple Pie in an apple, Paige's choice for dessert last night. Fun to make and even more fun to eat. She helped me scoop out the insides of the apples and mix up the filling. Paige's favorite part was cutting the crust out and making the lattice topping. They were so yummy and the kids loved having their own apple!

Cookie Pie

We spent part of the afternoon making our dinner and tripling it for some friends who could use a night where they didn't have to worry about cooking. One of the meals was for a friend of Erin's from dance and as soon as she found out I was taking a dinner she had to make her special cookie pie. It's so simple, just a pie crust, soak chocolate chunk cookies in milk, and layer soaked cookies with cool whip and top with crumbled cookies. It's her favorite to eat and one she can totally make on her own. We had a great time in the kitchen. I made lasagnas and she made a couple of pies. So cute!

What To Do With A Girl Scout Cookie

 Samoa Cupcake

I can't believe I have cookies still from last years sale but I do! When your the troop leader you tend to buy some extras that are left over, I'd hate for them to go to waste. Since the cookie sale is upon us again, I decided to make cupcakes for the Girl Scout sleepover last week.
I found so many recipes and had pinned these. They turned out great!
The Samoa one has coconut extract in the batter and is so good. The Tagalong had coffee in the batter and the best part of that one is the Tagalong cookie in the bottom of the cupcake liner. It's like a little surprise when you take a bite. The girls loved them and took the extras home.
Here are the links for the recipes. Remember to order extra cookies for your baking needs! We have plenty of cookie salesgirls here so feel free to contact us if you need to stock up!

Samoa Recipe found here

Tagalong Recipe found here

Tagalong Cupcake

We Love Cake Boss!

We have been so busy I have not even taken the pictures off my camera for almost 2 weeks which is unheard of! Never in my life have I been THIS busy. And Bill is just as crazy with scout stuff and work. It is bordering on insanity in our household, but all good stuff. As you can see from the newest pictures, really fun stuff.

Two weeks ago our good friends invited us to go see Buddy from Cake Boss. Being that we are huge fans we were not turning that invite down. We saw him last year when he was in town but we didn't get to meet him. Thanks to our friend McKinley's diligence in getting good tickets we were able to get pictures and autographs. Thank you McKinley!!

Both Lindy and Erin wore their Cake Boss t-shirts that we got last year and not only did Buddy sign pictures for them he also did their t-shirts! He was also so sweet and posed with each of them individually. The kids loved it!

Family Baking

Every year I try to be organized and have most things ready by Christmas Eve so that we can just "hang out". Difficult to do when you are having Christmas dinner at your house and don't want to spend Christmas cooking. But it always ends up being a fun day and we keep the kids busy which helps them since they are so excited.

We always make a Christmas castle out of my castle bundt pan. It is definitely easier than trying to make a Gingerbread house and the kids love to decorate it. So we set up cookies to ice and candy to decorate and let them go to it. Bill and I did as much of the dinner prep as we could and we all spent the afternoon in the kitchen. Perfect day!

Erin starts the castle.

All the kids really got into the decorating. We cut out big cookies this year. This was the small gingerbread man, the large one serves about 3 people!

Lindy loves dough! She always helps Bill make bread and he has taught her to knead dough and the rising process. Seeing them with their rolling pins is too cute. Cut outs are the one cookie that we are not allowed to make without Bill, they are his favorite.

I Did it, I Did it!!

I successfully made Chocolate Mousse! I have tried in the past and not had it turn out. I was determined to serve it as one of the many desserts we have for Christmas dinner. After the kids were in bed on Christmas Eve, I set to work chopping bittersweet chocolate and laying out all my ingredients. I think part of the problem in the past was how I cooled the chocolate after cooking it and I probably over beat the whipping cream and made it way to stiff. With no distractions I not only doubled the recipe (another way I set myself up for failure!) but it turned out perfectly.

This might be strange to take pictures off all my baked goods but I am making a Miller Family Christmas cookie cookbook. I am back in full swing scrapbooking and am making a special book of all our favorites. I envision adding our fondue recipes, Bill's Thanksgiving turkey prep, punch recipes, my Valentine's Day Molten Chocolate cakes, and other holiday favorites. Hopefully with the pictures taken I will actually get it all done! A little preview...

Kitchen Cupboard Cookies ~ Kyle's favorite

Peanut Butter Cup Cookies ~ Ethan's favorite

Erin's Preschool

Oh, if I could keep Erin as a preschooler forever! It is such a fun age and she loves doing everything, even the laundry! She started her week making Valentine's for co-op. She did a great job writing her name and was most excited to hand them out on Thursday. I was proud of her for putting so much effort into them.







Then she was off to dance class on Wednesday. She LOVES dance. She has known all of her ballet positions since last fall. She's got her little shuffle steps down in tap and does a mean somersault in tumbling. Miss Sandy is her hero, she can't wait for her recital!




I signed up to bake cakes that church needed for a dinner Thursday night. Perfect activity for Erin, she loves to bake. She literally made these cakes herself. I supplied the ingredients and she did all the mixing, I poured the batter in the pans and put them in the oven. She was quite pleased with her little self!











The bonus of having your mom teach at co-op, you get to take the really cool classes even when you are a little mini fairy. She was a little tired at the beginning of class but perked up when she was able to share with the other girls the project of the day for which she made a sample to show.




Home from co-op and off to church to deliver our cakes. She was beaming proud. What a little cupcake!




Now on to some real work. It's been a party here all week! We worked on numbers and counting. I gave Erin a stack of hearts cut in half, one side had a number 1-10, the other corresponding heart stickers. She had to match the number to the right amount on the other half. I was surprised with how much number recognition she has. I only had to help with 9 and 6 and when she would count too fast. She really liked doing this, I'm sure it will be out for a couple of weeks.

Well, this little Valentine cupcake is partied out. Along with all this she also did a full co-op day and went on our museum field trip. Love from Erin.

She's as Cute as a Cupcake!

I love my Brownie girls! They all are so special and unique. When I say they are a great group of girls I mean they are GREAT! They treat each other kindly and with respect. Mackenzie is a special part of our group. She joined our troop right after our Daisy year. She is creative, funny, a little quiet, and can sell a serious amount of Girl Scout Cookies. She sold over 400 boxes this year, she needs to go into sales!

When her mom, Angie, told me she wanted to join our troop I was thrilled. I had her in Storybook Art class at co-op and we bonded. She always liked the art projects and was an eager learner. I also was ready to play matchmaker and fix her up with Lily. The two remind me of the other and I thought they would really hit it off. I was right they have become great friends at Brownies and I love seeing them form a friendship and grow up right before my eyes.

Angie has been taking cake decorating classes, much to my delight and I think it is rubbing off on all her kids. Mackenzie always puts effort into her Valentine's. Last year she came with little tote bags for all the girls filled with goodies. This year her dad, Jay, walked in with boxes and containers filled with cupcakes, cards, and a cake. Little did I know that there was a special container with a cake just for me. That's right an entire cake for me! Cupcakes for the kids but a cake all to myself. I could hardly wait to grab a fork. And believe me when I finally got to it, there was no disappointment. Her cupcakes were all packaged in adorable little individual boxes. Boxes so cute we had to keep them I could not throw them away. Later that night Lindy came up with the idea of packing the girls lunches for co-op in the little boxes and having boxed lunches. Too cute! Not sure how long they will hold up but I have never seen them so excited to eat lunch. I guess it's true that presentation if everything.










The Jackson family holds a special place in my heart. Not only do I love just talking with all of them, Angie and Jay are wonderfully positive people, but Cassie and Zach always keep me entertained. Last year when I had my spinal surgery they brought me three dinners in addition to an "extra" dish for my freezer. Mackenzie made me pictures and cards and delivered our meals with a smile.

They will be moving this summer as Jay will be finished with his training to be a pastor. I know they are excited for their move someplace out west. They have all worked hard and made a lot of sacrifices to reach this goal. It has been a joy to watch them embrace their dad's dream and help him achieve it. There will be a church in the Rocky states that will be blessed with a wonderful family to lead their way.

I am blessed to have had these past two years with Mackenzie and to have become friends with all of them.

Candy Cottages

In preparation for Christmas and to have a fun decoration the kids and I made these adorable Rice Krispie cottages. They were so simple! Having not attempted gingerbread because I have heard it is hard to get the walls to stay together this seemed perfect for young ones. Being sticky already and attaching the base square to the 2 roof pieces we were ready to decorate. After we finished we displayed them on a covered cake board and loaded it with coconut "snow". We used the little chocolate covered nonpareils to create paths between the cottages. This will definitely become a tradition and we may do it for other holidays!

The Krispie Village

Erin is so proud of her pink cottage!

I even got Kyle to participate!

Twelve year old boys will do anything

that involves candy!

Our palette of supplies.