Fourth of July

We had a great fourth of July! We finally got some warm sunny weather! My husband and I had a nice relaxing morning. We slept in until 9 and then cleaned the house and planted some bushes in front of our house. I was soooo glad to finally get that finished.:) Later in the day we went and played mini golf with my sister and brother-in-law. We ended the day with watching a local firework show. It was awesome! I think this is going to have to become our fourth of July tradition!

My favorite little lady playing in the grass.

My sister and her husband took their truck and we put the girls in the back with toys.:)

The girls waiting for it to get dark enough for fireworks with my brother, brother-in-law, and husband.

My husband and I. Not the best picture ever but at least we got a picture of the two of us.:)

Iced Coffee Recipe

A while back I found a recipe for making iced coffee. The recipe is for a cold brewed coffee. I had never heard of such a thing! I had to try it right away because I  have always disliked how other coffee can have that burnt flavor. In fact I am VERY picky about what coffee I like. I have made my coffee cold brewed ever since but have changed the recipe along the way. I also found a good recipe for homemade sweetened condensed milk that I use.

Cold Brewed Coffee
1/2 cup of your favorite course ground coffee bean (fine ground works too)
1 liter of water

1. Fill a pitcher with the water and then add the coffee beans. Stir until the beans are all wet. Let this set 12 or more hours. I usually just let mine sit over night one night.

2. Prepare a strainer by setting a coffee filter in it and then placing it on top of a large bowl. Pour some of your coffee mixture into the filter. Let it drain.  Repeat until all of the coffee mixture has been filtered. (This is how I do it but if you have a better way...go for it.)

*This mixture will stay good in your fridge for about a month.


Iced Coffee Recipe

1/2 cup Cold Brewed Coffee (above recipe)
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup Homemade Sweetened Condensed Milk

Mix the ingredients together add ice and ENJOY!

*When I make the Sweetened Condensed Milk I omit the butter. 
**You can use storebought Sweetened Condensed Milk but I much prefer the taste of the homemade. I also find that storebought is much more difficult to mix in.

Standing!

The other day I was doing a short exercise video so I had my back to my little L. When I turned around this is what I found her doing!

On her way up...

She always wants the TV controls but she is not allowed to have them. She was pretty proud of herself for getting them. :)

Ever since she did this she has been pulling herself up on everything! She even started taking a few steps behind a little doll stroller her grandma bought her.

Strawberries

Today I picked some strawberries from my bushes and then decided I would have some fun taking pictures of them. I love the look of strawberries so I figured why not. I think I will try it again some time and see if I can get some pictures to turn out even better.:)

Here are some of them...

I'm linking up with

Yogurt Honey Cupcakes with Raspberry Frosting

I just made these today for the first time and they turned out really good! The frosting still needs a little perfecting but not bad for the first time.:)

I found the original recipe at this website and then tweaked it a little bit. 

Yogurt Honey Cupcakes

1/2 c. honey

1/3 c. butter

2 eggs

1/3 c. yogurt

1 t. vanilla

1 t. baking powder

1/2 t. baking soda

1 t. salt

1 1/2 c. all purpose flour

1. Mix the honey and melted butter together. 

2. Beat in the eggs one at a time.

3. Beat in the yogurt and vanilla. (I used Appel Farms yogurt instead of Greek.)

4. In another bowl mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

5. Slowly mix the flour mixture into the honey mixture until smooth.

6. Fill greased muffin tins 3/4 full.

7. Bake at 350 for 12-15 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

I will give you the "recipe" for the raspberry frosting but I will warn you that I was making it up as I was going so I did not measure anything. I tried to guess the right amounts of the ingredients but you will just have to tweak it a little as necessary to make it work for you.:)

Raspberry Frosting

1/2 gallon size freezer bag frozen raspberries

1/2 cup sugar

1 T. clear gel

2-3 c. powdered sugar

2 T. butter

pinch of salt

1. Take the frozen berries and sugar and heat in a saucepan on medium heat until it comes to a boil. Add the clear gel and heat until thickened stirring constantly. 

2. Push the berry mixture through a strainer to get rid of the seeds.

3. Mix 4 heaping tablespoons of the berry mixture with the powdered sugar, salt, and butter. Mix until nice and fluffy adding more powdered sugar or berry mixture as needed.

Frost the cupcakes and enjoy.:)

Life

Wow! Life has been so busy lately! I just never seem to get on here anymore! I have so many things that I want to post about but it just never seems to happen! I have been experimenting with so many new recipes and working on crafts that I cannot wait to share with you all! Hopefully sometime later today I can get started on catching up. Right now I have one little girl who needs some food and another who needs a diaper change.

 For now I will just have to settle for sharing a picture of my two favorite little girls. :)

My little girl is getting big!

My little sweetie is 6 months old!! It is hard to believe it has been that long since she was born! Here are a few pictures I took of her recently.

Showing of her moves ;) lol