our christmas card

we'll be sending out lots!

if you want to make sure you get one leave me a comment and let me know :)

*thanks to Toviah Morris Photography for taking our family pictures*

this picture...

this picture...

used to be easy to get.

ahhhh...got it! well kind of ;)

so hard to believe my little girl is going to turn 1 this month!

she brings so so so much joy to our lives :)

i just love being a mommy

maple glazed apple cookies

i'm on a roll!!!
pinterest success #2

i'm not a food blogger

nor do i aspire to be one

(obviously, considering the lack of food posts on this blog ;)

but i did think it would be fun to attempt one at some point in my life

so here it is!

like i said, pinterest was my source of inspiration

this time i made maple glazed apple cookies 

and i will go ahead and take this time to confess that i ate waaayyy too many
but at only 77 calories a cookie, i don't feel to bad ;)

first there were apples to be chopped

then there was butter, sugar, and maple flavoring to cream

eggs, spices and flour to add

all mixed into a battery goodness

and then, of course, the apples :)
i'm a sucker for anything apple, and these did not disappoint!

now i know that rugged and rustic is all the rage right now when it comes to baking

but i'm a uniform type person

i like all my cookies to be the same size

so i always use a cookie scoop when i dip out my cookies

cute, round, and uniform :)

well, mostly round anyways

as i now have a toddler in the house, i also have little girl fingerprints all over my oven door :)

and last but not least, the maple glaze

scrumdiddlyumptious!!!!

Maple-Glazed Apple Cookies

ingredients:

½ cup butter, softened (4 oz or one stick)
1 cup brown sugar
¼ cup milk
2 cups flour
1 egg
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp nutmeg
¼ tsp cloves
1 tsp baking soda
2 cups chopped apple

glaze:

1 T melted butter
1 cup powdered sugar
¼ tsp maple flavoring
2-3 T milk

directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Cream butter and sugar together in a large mixing bowl until light in color, about 1-2 minutes. Add egg and milk; stir to combine. Add remaining dry ingredients (except apple) and stir just until combined. Gently fold in the apples. Drop by heaping tablespoons onto a greased baking sheet.
Bake at 400 for about 10-12 min or until tops don't look wet anymore.

To make the glaze, whisk together all glaze ingredients in a small bowl. When the cookies have cooled for a few minutes, drizzle each cookie with glaze. 

*the only changes i made to this original recipe was to add 1/2 teaspoon of maple flavoring to both the batter and to the glaze.

now, i'm one of those people who likes to have the nutritional information to go go with my recipes, so here it is if you're interested.

Nutrition Facts

Serving Size 25 g

Amount Per Serving

Calories 77 Calories from Fat 25

% Daily Value*

Total Fat 2.8g 4%

Saturated Fat 1.7g 9%

Trans Fat 0.0g

Cholesterol 11mg 4%

Sodium 113mg 5%

Total Carbohydrates 12.3g 4%

Sugars 7.2g

Protein 0.9g

Vitamin A 2% • Vitamin C 0% Calcium 1% • Iron 2%

Nutrition Grade C-

* Based on a 2000 calorie diet

(this is based on 40 cookies, as that is how many this recipe made for me)

a pinterest success!

i do a lot of pinning

not so much of actually doing what i've pinned

maybe i should make a goal of attempting at least one pin a week

could be fun :)

anyways, this week i had a pinterest success!

check it out:

you can find the original pin here

and here are my little melted buddies:

i must say, this was a fun project!

my friend Diana came over and we spent the day baking cookies, whipping up icing, melting marshmallows, and creating snowmen personalities out of gumdrops :)

i highly recommend it!

and just because she's so cute...

this was monday night...she took her first multiple steps in a row

and this was this morning

completely amazed at how fast these little ones learn!

i can hardly believe how quickly time is passing...

i figured it out :)

so after doing lots of web browsing and reading and looking at other possible blog sites, i figured out what to do :)

i had seriously considered moving to wordpress, but was saddened by the thought if not having my blog posts all at one place

i thought about paying for the extra space, but wasn't sure i wanted to be paying $25-$50 a year for the rest of my life

here's the secret: if your pictures are under 2048x2048 pixels, they do not count against your available space! yay! and yay for batch resizing in photoshop!

(for those of you reading this on my xanga site, this of course does not apply...i always just copy and paste my posts over from blogger to make it easier for those of you who have xanga accounts ;)

so here is a bit of what's been going on in this northern part of the world: 

*it is currently -14C outside with a realfeal of -23C (i am not cool w/ this)

*Bump took her first step last week, and began walking this week!!! she is so proud of herself :)

*my first turkey is currently brining in the refrigerator for a Thanksgiving dinner tonight. i'm nervous.

*Macy (my car) now has snow tires and is not impressed w/ the fact that she looks like she is running around on 4 spare tires...or maybe i'm the one who is not impressed...dave says it's good for my pride ;)

*the guys were able to shingle our roof in the nick of time as the snow is now a permanent fixture

*i love our new siding! although it's still not quite done

*i have decided that the best baby advice i was ever given was to teach my baby to self soothe! i am in love w/ full nights of uninterrupted sleep! i think Brighton is as well ;)

*last weekend i sold over 600 whoopie pies at a craft show. i made 13 different kinds - apple pie, banana bread, pumpkin spice, classic chocolate, birthday cake, mint chocolate chip, lemon, red velvet, chocolate peanut butter, brown sugar oatmeal, chocolate chip cookie, inside out, and double chocolate.

*my birthday was november 11 and my hubby made it such a special weekend with an overnight getaway sans baby! i love him :)

*this weekend we are going to Winnipeg to do some Christmas shopping. it's strange how a 5 hr. trip to go shopping has now become quite normal.

and now for the resized pictures:

 Munchers and her very tall giraffe from Timeless Toys

 the only snapshot i managed during my bday getaway

 sellin' whoopie pies!

 yay siding!!!

 my poor little Macy and her snow tires :( 

but at least we don't slip and slide!

i love having Thanksgiving twice a year!

it's definitely one of the biggest advantages of living in Canada ;)

i am so so thankful for these 2 amazing people

love 'em a bushel and a peck!

no more pics :(

ugghhhhh!!!! apparently i have uploaded too many photos and have filled my quota on blogger :( anyone know of any ways of getting around this other than paying a monthly fee for more space?

the fireplace

before: 

after:

must say, that cozy fire sure does put ya to sleep!

more of virginia

i didn't do so well at capturing the rest of our time in va, but i did get a few shots in here and there

one evening angela invited us over to her house for some amazing fajitas

loved hanging out in her cozy little home :)

charlie wasn't too sure about this little person invading his space lol

i was super blessed to have friends come all the way down from delaware to see me and bump!!

we had a delicious lunch at the Little Grill Collective (thanx for the pic Carmen!)

checking out some awesome hats from Timeless Toys!!!

one of Bump's favorite things to do at Grandpa and Grandma's house is to go check out the chickens w/ Grandpa

hanging out w/ Mummsy, Auntie Bec, and Abe

right before we left, Dave and i stopped by Bridgewater College to take a few fallish pics of Brighton

 happy last few days of October!!!!!!!