Sugar Cookie Recipe

Since the holidays are right around the corner, I figured I would share one of my favorite sugar cookie recipes. Kyle and I are hosting a huge bake sale at his work this weekend so I will be baking up a storm in my kitchen with many different shapes of sugar cookies. Pictures to come :)

Rolled Sugar Cookies-taken from Cookie Craft

3 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
2 teaspoons vanilla* or 1 teaspoon vanilla plus zest of 1 lemon
food coloring (if cookie design calls for it)

*Instead of vanilla, you can use other extracts such as almond or peppermint.

1. Whisk together the flour and salt in a medium bowl.

2. Using your mixer, use the paddle attachment to cream together the butter and sugar until the mixture is light and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla (and lemon zest, if you're using it) or your extract of choice and mix until well blended.

3. With the mixer on low, gradually add the flour mixture to the butter mixture until the two are thoroughly blended.

4. If your cookie design calls for adding food coloring, do so now, and continue blending until desired color is reached and is evenly incorporated.

5. Turn out dough onto work surface and divide into two or three equal portions, Form each one into a rough disk. Use a flour coated rolling pin to get a nice even, flat disk and use whichever cookie cutters your little heart desires.

6. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

7. After you have rolled and cut the dough and the cookie shapes are on parchment-lined cookie sheets, bake them in the middle rack of the oven for 12-16 minutes or until the cookies start to turn slightly golden around the edges.

8. Cool cookies completely on a rack before icing or decorating.

Moving!

This next week is going to be a crazy one. After living in this house for only a year, the military informs us that we need to move so they can renovate this house. Finally, after months of trying to get some answers as so how they want us to go about doing this, we are moving! The movers come to pack us out on Thursday.

We are moving into tower style housing, and I couldn't be more excited. We checked them out and they are much nicer than what we are living in now. They were recently renovated, so the cabinets, carpeting, appliances, everything is new!

Funny story, we are moving into the same towers that Kyle's dad and step mom used to live in when they were stationed here. Kyle has all kinds of stories on how he stomped a gecko in this area, or how he used to play over in that area. It's pretty neat.

Anyway, here is a picture of Kyle and Liam in the hallway in front of our new front door. Liam was rockin' the diaper look because he pooped his pants real bad earlier in the day and I forgot to restock his diaper bag with a clean outfit. Good thing it's still 100 degrees here so his little butt didn't freeze!

Stats

Yesterday we had a WIC appointment so I got some deets on Liam's growth.

At 4.5 months, Liam is weighing in at:

Length: 26 inches

Weight: 16 pounds.

He is in the 80th percentile for weight, and 90th percentile for height!

(For those who don't understand percentile, 80th percentile means that only 20% of babies his age weigh more than him, and only 10% of babies his age are taller than him.)

In the last 2 months, he has gained 4 pounds and grew 3 inches! He's practically a grown ass man.

Shots 1, Liam 0

Yesterday we got Liam's 4-month shots. This round of vaccines have sure kicked Liam right in the butt. His 2 month shots didn't really affect him. He got a low grade fever for a night that was cured by one dose of Tylenol. This round is a totally different story...

First off, the lady that administered them was a complete psycho and was completely stressed out and acted like she had never administered a shot before in her life, even though that is what she does every day from 7am-4pm. She made the already awful experience, that much more worse. Liam pretty much hated her guts as well. She got irritated with me because I wanted to hold Liam during the shots, and she was getting stressed out because he was wiggling his legs after she stabbed one chubby thigh. What the hell do you expect lady?! For him to sit there with a smile and say, " That felt great. Please stab my other thigh, I promise to sit here all calm."

Anyway, Liam screamed and cried, I shed a few tears and we were out the door. One leg bandaged up with Bugs Bunny, the other bandaged with Daffy Duck.

The first several hours after the shots, Liam was totally fine. A little lethargic, but nothing too notable. Around 12pm everything changed. He started to get super achy and even more lethargic. Anytime I would pick him up to move him he would wine in pain and he started to run a temp. We spent the afternoon napping and watching, " It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown."

By bedtime, Liam was running a 101.1 temp and had chills.

Time for Tylenol.

The entire night is a blur. Liam was waking up every 20 minutes just wanting a boob, or to be held. I gave him Tylenol every 4 hours. His temp was reaching 102.8, and the Tylenol would only bring it back down to 100. I spent the entire night checking on him and comforting him. He was miserable.

Today he is a little better. Still running a temp and still clingy as ever. It's okay though. It gives me an excuse to have a lazy, movie-filled day with my favorite boy.

Wordless Wednesday

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Applesauce Raisin Bread

So, since I have been trying to eat healthier, I needed to think of healthier snack foods to keep around the house instead of cookies.

I stumbled across this recipe and it is so yummy!

Prep time: 15 minutes

Cook time: 45min-1hr

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons (I used WAY more) ground cinnamon

1 cup dry oatmeal

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

3/4 cup raisins

1 1/4 cup applesauce

1/3 cup vegetable oil

2 eggs, beaten

1/4 cup milk

1/4 cup apple juice

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 8.5x4.5 inch loaf pan.

2. Soak raisins in apple juice.

3. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, oats and brown sugar.

4. Add applesauce, oil, eggs and milk.

5. Stir until just combined. Mix in the raisins (not the apple juice)

6. Spread evenly into loaf pan. Bake 55-60 minutes, or until knife comes out clean.

7. Cut yourself a big ol' slice and enjoy! After all, it is low-fat :)

Big boy food!

Today was a big day for me...well, and Liam.

We decided it was time to start him on solids. I have to admit, it has been something that I was trying to put off. Liam is still exclusively breastfed, so giving him rice cereal almost feels like I am being cheated on! That, and it means Liam is growing up, which I am in denial about.

We decided to give rice cereal a try because he was acting like he was starving after every feeding. Also, anytime I eat while holding him, he tries to steal my food out of my hand, and whacks my silverware, water bottle or whatever I may be holding at the time. He is always very interested in what Kyle and I are eating.

So we gave it a shot earlier this evening, and here are the results:

HE DID NOT LIKE IT ONE BIT!

He was sooo hungry when I sat him down to feed him, that he was thrashing around in excitement. Every time I would come in toward his mouth with the spoon (cue the obnoxious airplane noise parents make when feeding their infants) he would thrash around, arms and legs flailing everywhere knocking the rice cereal off the spoon and all over my arms, his legs, and his outfit (notice the blob on his left sleeve.) We both were a hot mess. Once I got some in his mouth he made the most disgusted face I have ever seen.

I couldn't help but laugh.

I have to admit, I was highly entertained by this feeding. We didn't give him much. I only mixed a tablespoon of rice cereal with 4 tablespoons of breast milk.

About halfway through his "meal" he started to get pissed. Most of the cereal was making its way onto his festive bib, and not in his mouth. He was having a hard time figuring out how to move the food from the front of his mouth, to the back of his throat. He did manage to get a few bites in, but not much. We will try this solid food shenanigans another time.

After he made a mess of him and I, I gave him the boob and all was good in his little world.

Then it was off to the bathtub for a scrub a dub.

Our little boy is growing up so fast!