First Day of School 2012-2013

 Callie is in 2nd grade this year.  She was excited to start school and a lot of kids from 1st grade are in class again this year.

 Preston has a great teacher for kindergarten.  He wasn't sad at all for me to leave.

Callie had a different outfit picked for the 1st day and she changed her mind to this dress.  While waiting in line to get into school we saw a girl with her original pick and she told me when she got home 2 other girls had this maroon dress on.

French toast cupcakes with maple frosting and bacon sprinkles

Love these cupcakes.  My favorite cupcake I ever had!  I have noticed you either love them or hate them.  Many weird faces.  My friend had them made for our family's going away party in California.  

Ingredients
Cupcakes
3/4 cup unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks), at room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups cake flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3 large eggs, separated
6-8 slices bacon, cooked crisp and crumbled

Maple Buttercream Frosting
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature 
2 3/4 cups confectioners’ sugar
2 teaspoons heavy cream, at room temperature
3/4 teaspoon maple extract 

Directions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Line a muffin pan with paper cupcake liners.  With an electric mixer, mix the butter and sugar on  high speed until light and fluffy, about 10 minutes. Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, nutmeg, and cinnamon; set aside. In a small bowl, whisk together the milk and vanilla and set aside.  Add the egg yolks to the creamed butter one at time, waiting for each one to be fully incorporated before adding the next.  Alternately, add the flour mixture in 3 additions and the milk in 2 additions, waiting for each to be fully incorporated before adding the next.  Raise the speed to medium and mix briefly until a smooth batter is formed. 

Transfer the batter to a large bowl. Thoroughly clean the bowl of the mixer and put the egg whites inside. Whip the egg whites on high speed, using the whisk attachment, until stiff peaks are formed. Working in 3 batches, using a rubber spatula, fold the egg whites into the batter, until just incorporated. Divide the batter evenly among the cups in the muffin pan. Bake until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center of the cakes comes out clean, 25-30 minutes. Cool completely before frosting.

To make the frosting, mix the butter and sugar on low speed until incorporated. Increase the speed to high, and mix until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.  Reduce the speed of the mixer to low. Add the heavy cream and maple extract. Beat until fluffy and well blended.  May be stored in the refrigerator for 3 days.

Frost cupcakes and sprinkle with crisp, crumbled bacon.

EAT MOR CHIKIN!

My neighbor's son works at chick fil a and she told us if you dress up like a cow or wear spots you can get a free meal.  We made t-shirts and all had a yummy, free dinner.  Callie went over to our neighbors and decorated her shirt and face.  She went to eat with our neighbors and came with us too.

Tomatillo salsa

Taylor had this at work several years ago and still talks about it.  When we went to New York City we went to this restaurant called Dos Caminos and there tomatillo salsa was amazing.  So Taylor finally got the recipe.  Really different but really good!

Tomatillo salsa

6 tomatillo's (remove leaves, wash and cut into chunks)
1/2 jalaepeno pepper (seeded and cut into strips) more or less to taste
1/2 bunch cilantro chopped
1 med onion- chopped (1/2 goes with tomatillo's cooked and other 1/2 with raw ingredients)
2 medium avocados-diced
1 lime

cook: tomatillo, jalapeno and 1/2 onion in a saucepan until tender, drizzle a little olive oil in pan before cooking.

combine: cilantro, 1/2 onion(raw), avacados, squeeze juice of 1 lime into mixture.

Blend: Put cooked mixture into a blender and blend until smooth (just enough to eliminate the chunks)

Pour: cooked mixture over raw ingredients and stir gently.

Salt to taste.

Bachelorette/ Girls night out.

Carrie, Jamie, Reina, Me, Geneva, Maegan, and Holly.
We went to this karaoke place down town Fort Worth for our friends Bachelorette party. We went to her house and surprised her.  It was really fun. Can't remember the name of the place.   

More Destin

Realized I deleted some photos when I was trying to upload all my photos from our trip.  Got these from my sister.

My Mom, Paige and me enjoying the water and sand.

I am holding my sister's baby, Dallin.  He is so adorable!

  

Our first day at the beach.

Destin, Florida

My family all went to Destin for a Hammer family reunion.  Everyone came except my brother and his wife.  My mom went and picked up his 3 boys so they didn't miss out.  Everyone went for a week but we came down for 3 days.  It was so fun.  

 All the cousins after dinner in Britney and Andy's condo.  Each night one of siblings and my parents made dinner and it worked out great.  The traffic was so bad it would have taken forever to go out to eat every night.  To get to the grocery store, which was only 6 miles away took over an hour.

 On the14th floor of our condo overlooking the golf course.

 The water was so warm and turquoise.  While we lived in California the beach was never this nice.  The water was 50 degrees and the sand was so rocky.

 The best sand in the world we were told.  It was white sand and we didn't have to walk that far.

 Our condo provided these cards and you had to go early in the morning and wait in line. They set up these umbrellas and chairs everyday and all we had to do was reserve it with a card.

 Mine and Paige's footprints in the sand.

 The water would come up high enough to fill this hole up.  Paige said she wanted to go in the little water.  She loved it.  At first she didn't like the ocean but she warmed up to it and even body surfed with me and Taylor.

 My dad and Taylor were out in the water early one morning and found this crab deep in the sand.  My dad dived deep to get it.  Hilarious to watch.

 Callie and Madelyn had the best time together.  They were never apart.  Such good friends and cousins.

 My nephews playing in the water.

 Grandma and Paige.  Who knows what was wrong?

 From our balcony.

 Eating dinner in my parents condo one night.  My Dad being goofy.

 Preston loved the water.  He was so silly.

 We bought a boogie board when we got to Destin.  It was worn out by the time we left.  Well worth it.

 Relaxing and trying to get a tan while Taylor built a sand castle with Callie.

 My twin sister Britney bought this swimsuit and it broke so they sent her a new one and it broke again. So my mom fixed them both and happened to wear them the same day.  Whoops!  Lots of looks!  No it was fun.  Reminded me of old times when growing up.

 The whole gang! Missing Travis, Dana, and Emma kate.

 My mom gave all the kids water guns and glow in the dark sticks on the 4th of July.  They had fun squirting each other.

 We stayed at these condos called the Aerial Dunes II.  They had a full kitchen, living area, bedroom, and bunk beds for the kids.  They also had 3 large pools which was nice after being all sandy.  We will probably come back.

 Paige drinking melted homemade vanilla ice cream my mom made.  Yum!

 Our condo, Aerial Dunes II.

 Saturday morning as we were driving away.  Good bye beach!

 Preston said, "Mom, look it snowed."  I said, "No that is white sand."  He said, "NO it's snow."  I guess he doesn't understand it has to be cold to snow.

 Driving 12 hours home.  Very tiring!

 We rented a car so we didn't put the miles on ours and trash our van.  As you can see there was sand everywhere and smashed food.

The kids were exhausted with not many naps and limited sleep at night.

Day 5 continued in NYC

 We had a bike tour of Central Park.  It was about 40 minutes long.  This is where a film crew was set up filming a movie with Ben Stiller that comes out in about a year.  My brother-in-law saw Ben Stiller.  They would make us stop while filming and then we could go further when they were done with the scene.

 On the back of the bike.

 The Boat House restaurant in central park.  This was in the movie 27 Dresses wit Katherine Heigl.

 This fountain was in the movie Enchanted.

 The center of Manhattan.  11 miles north and south.

 Was in the movie the Ghost busters.

 Where the sitcom Friends opening credits is filmed with all of the cast in the fountain.

 A bridge in central park where a lot of proposals happen.

 Our double decker bus pass included a cruise around the harbor too.  We froze to death.

 Doing construction on the Statue.  We couldn't go up inside.  They are making it handicapped accessible.

 Manhattan, NY LDS Temple.  It is weird how it's just on a corner of a block.   It's right across from Julliard.

 Always wanted to see Julliard school.

We were told they had good red velvet cupcakes and cheesecake. It was alright.