Weekly ramblings

Well...Were in the midst of yet another fun run of sleepless nights in the Sweet household. When Scarlett wakes up at night, instead of getting her out of her bed/nursing her/etc., I've been laying her back down, saying "lay down", and walking away. Over and over and over and OVERRRR again. It is HEART WRENCHING, seriously. She cries like she feels so hurt and abandoned. It breaks my heart but I'm not going to continue nursing a 14-15 month old 6-8x a night anymore and I don't really feel that the crying it out method is for us, SO, in a nutshell -- this is a compromise. The last two nights she's cried until approximately 2 AM on and off. At about 2, she finally passes out til 7 or so from sheer exhaustion. 

I'm a walking zombie. Doing lots of smart things like sticking metal in the microwave, turning the microwave on for 20 minutes instead of 2. I've been battling a cold/sore throat for a week and on top of that I'm in the midst of a squat / plank challenge (thanks, Ni-Ni.. For the inspiration.) so I can barely walk. I'm limping around SO slowly. In other words, I feel AWESOME ;) ha.. 

We went to Fall Festival this weekend. We were a little disappointed because they didn't have some of the things that they did last fall, that we were really looking forward to (face painting, horse back riding, etc) and we stupidly went during the kids nap time so it was slightly crazy.. When will I ever learn to not take my children out in public from 12-2? J mean really.. 

Monday Ty had the day off so he and the girls carved pumpkins. Kinley even drew her own face on hers! (Mommy cut it out, though.) we lit them and sat them on the front porch and then took a (sweater blanket- duh) wagon walk up and down the street to check their hard work out. While walking down the street we really noticed how some of the leaves are turning colors. We've got some super red and orange ones in our neighborhood already. Ahh :)

We had an impromptu trip to Freddy's for ice cream. Seriously, guys. Andy's is over rated. Freddy's has the BEST ice cream. K got a dirt cup. Ice cream, crushed Oreo, gummy worms. (Mainly only consumed the gummy worms, of course.) and S got her very own big girl cup of (plain vanilla) ice cream. She must have felt really big because she completely refused help eating it. That was fun to clean up. 

The weather has been right up my alley. Super cool, crisp mornings. Now if only we could get a good thunderstorm I would be set. ;) 

Kinley had so much fun carving pumpkins that we decided to get little ones and...  what's better than carving?(not to mention, more kid friendly?) that's right, paint. ;) I just got the little $3-4 pumpkins in the produce section of wal-mart, stripped the kids down and let them go to town with washable kids finger paints. Highly recommend to my mommy friends.

 Tuesday we had ballet, and a little girl fell down during class. Out of 11 little ballerinas, Kinley was the only one to check on her. She ran across the room, helped her up, rubbed the little girls arm and asked if she was ok. She makes me so proud. She really is so beyond her years and such a truly compassionate kid. All of that dancing must have worn her out because she fell asleep on the couch the second we got home. Tu-Tu, shoes, the whole bit. I carried her upstairs to her room and tried to sneak the tu-tu and shoes off but she wasn't having it. So I let her be. It was pretty hilarious seeing her hot mess, bed head roll out of bed in her whole ballerina get up this morning.

Well, Ty just signed us up for netflix and I've got two big sweater blankets calling my name. So, good night, friends. 

Apple Pie Cookie Recipe

Ok - if you're looking for a yummy and fun twist on apple pie- this is it. Plus, they're so cute. It's a must-try.

What you'll need is:

-Pillsbury pie crusts (if you prefer store bought - otherwise you can make your own)

-Caramel sauce 

-Apple pie filling (again, you can do this the from scratch method if preferred.. This is the quickest/easiest way to do it)

-2 eggs

-Cinnamon sugar 

-Nutmeg

-Apple Pie Spice

-round cookie cutter

1. If you went with store bought dough, take a rolling pin and flatten the dough as much as you can to increase it's surface area.

 You may want to put flour down to avoid the dough sticking to the counter tops. 

2. Apply just enough caramel sauce to cover the dough with a thin layer 

3. Finely chop up the apple pie filling and layer on top of the caramel sauce. 

4. Flatten the remaining dough with a rolling pin and cut into thin strips for your basket weave crust top. I personally think the smaller you plan to cut your cookies, the thinner strips you need to slice for your basket weave top. 

5.Weave the dough on top of the pie filling.

6. Use round cookie cutters to cut them out! First batch I did bigger cookies (approx 6-8) and second batch, I used a smaller cookie cutter to get smaller, cuter cookies. (12ish?) Simple enough. 

^ I could have probably cut those thinner and they would have been prettier to look at. I suggest slicing the dough with a plain old pizza cutter. 

5. Once your cookies are all lined on the pan ready to pop in the oven, use the 2 eggs for an egg-wash. Just a light brushing is all they need. 

6. For this step, I combined all of my spices into one old salt shaker. Saves from having to use 3-4 different bottles on each cookie. So, if you have an old salt shaker on hand, I recommend you just throw the cinnamon sugar, apple pie spice, and nutmeg all in together and sprinkle ontop of the egg wash. 

7. Toss in the oven for 20-25 min at 350* and there you have it. 

Feels like FALL!

Finally, finally.. It FEELS like fall! We had a very fun weekend enjoying the beautiful weather. 

Friday, we had "Girls Day Out".. We started the day off by getting manicures with Piggy Polish (if you have a little girl - get this stuff) it's great. It's non-toxic so it's great for little ones who suck their thumbs etc. and it's washable so they can get hands-on with it. Ours consisted of lots of pink, sparkles, and flower stickers .. Obviously. ;) 

We then ran inside and whipped up some kid friendly sushi before going out for the real deal. It's SO easy to make. And great if you've got a picky eater like Kinley. 

1. Remove crust from bread.

2. Flatten bread with rolling pin.

3. Apply PB&J.

4. Slice into thin strips with pizza cutter. 

5. Tightly roll them up. The PB&J will act as glue and hold them together. 

Sooo easy, right? I just threw them in some Tupperware, tossed it in the diaper bag and voila. Instant toddler happiness. We took it with us to entertain the kids at the restaurant. I'm pretty sure Kinley and Caroline had them consumed before our edemame even arrived. AND they were asking for more. Success in my book. 

Now, onto the real deal. Scarlett was scarfing the sushi down and saying "mmm" the whole time. I like this kid. 

After sushi we went to the park and stopped for some ice cream. The girls had a blast and we have a pretty exciting play date in the works for next months "Girls Day Out".. Can't wait! 

We went to Nixa Saturday night after Ty got off work and woke up and celebrated in true fall style all day Sunday. Pumpkin coffee - straight from the gas station, might I add ;), orange hoodies-leggings-boots, AKA, best outfits known to mankind, baby cardi's, Ty and I love dressing the baby like a grandma. Is that mean? ...aaaand lots and lots of time in the kitchen. Baking apple pie cookies, Halloween themed chocolate chip cookies. (Kinley 100% picked this out and specifically asked to bake them on her own.) I like this kid, too.

The apple pie cookies were a lot of fun. I totally recommend them! It's a great thing to make for all of the family get togethers coming up this holiday season. 

We let k completely go to town with her own "pie". Whatever she wanted to add, she could. She ended up with blue frosting, fish sprinkles, banana sprinkles, cinnamon apples, and caramel sauce. Ummm yummy? ;)

Were back home now, so time for some unpacking and laundry. The girls are having a screaming contest in their pajamas. Crazy life I live, I know. 

Hope every one has a good week! 

Impromptu STL/Zoo trip

Well today we had some pretty boring plans to clean out the garage, go grocery shopping, get cars washed, etc. I felt bad, thinking that I could do that stuff any day Ty's at work and didn't want to make the girls suffer through the boringness. Is that a word? 

Anyway, as we were leaving breakfast and heading to grocery shop I said "we should just take them too the zoo.." Next thing you know, were heading down I-70 to STL. Needless to say, Kinley was stoked. When we would peek in the back seat she would whisper (because baby sis was sleeping) "I'm so excited!" .. So cute. 

A last minute zoo trip, that's 2+ hours away is about as spontaneous as we get anymore. And I'm ok with that. ;) 

And OBVIOUSLY, we couldn't leave the zoo without one of these little gems..

We did a little sight seeing while the kids slept..

And we finished the night up with a princess-style pizza party and splashing in mud puddles in the rain. Successful day if you ask me. 

  

Today was in the mid 80's. Yuck! Where are you, October? But by Sunday were supposed to have lows in the 30's. Oh, home sweet, bi-polar Missouri weather, home. 

I am very much anticipating busting out boots, leg warmers and fuzzy blankets this weekend. But until then I'll settle for snuggling my sleeping baby on this couch. Good night.