Happy Birthday Girl!

Happy Birthday to our baby girl!! We now have a two year old as of November 10.  She had her 2 year check up and is doing very well.  Doc says her growth and development are excellent and has actually graduated from the baby scale to measure her height.  Next time she will do a standing measurement. 

2 year stats:

Height: 36.1 in (95%)

Weight: 27.3lbs (57%)

Head: 48 cm (63%)

I'm afraid the terrible 2's are upon us......She's really pretty sweet most of the time still but has started to rebel a bit more strongly, refuses to lay down for naps or bedtime on her own like she used to, gets up every night at 3:30 am and pretty much throws a fit when she doesn't get her way, which she does most of the time.  Still, we couldn't be happier and LOVE her to pieces. 

We had a little party with the family last weekend.  My dad made his vegetable beef soup and I made the yummy Oreo Cheesecake Cupcakes.  She got lots of presents (not spoiled at all) including a Kitchen Set, portable DVD player, Simba and Nala, a bike, clothes, play dough and cowboy boots.  Here are a couple shots from the weekend. 

{opening her leap frog reader}

{new bike with no pedals}

{unwrapping was the best part}

{cheeeeeeese}

{blowing out her candles - make a wish!}

{elmo and abby play dough fun}

 

{playing with play dough - can't quite say "abby"}

Kyle, Nick, Tyson, Steph and I got to go out with some friends on Saturday night since we had a few babysitters around! 

{t|k}

{sisters}

{the girls - shelley, amanda, steph, me and erin}



Until next time....

Oreo Cheesecake Cupcakes

A new obsession with Pinterest has lead me to the kitchen, and we all know I don't cook, bake etc....  Not that I can't, I've just never had the desire to do so.  Peyton turned 2 on Nov 10 so I was browsing Pinterest for party ideas and decided I was going to try to make Oreo Cheesecake Cupcakes.  I found the recipe here but it originated from 52 Cupcakes, originally from Martha Stewart’s Cupcakes. 

Here is what theirs looked like and the recipe:

Ingredients22 Oreos: 16 left whole, and 6 coarsely chopped

2 8-oz packages cream cheese, at room temperature (Neufchatel is fine)

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs, room temperature, lightly beaten
1/2 cup sour cream
Pinch of salt

Instructions
1.Preheat oven to 275 F.
2.Line 12 standard muffin tins and 4 ramekins (or 16 muffin tins, if you have them) with paper liners.
3.Place 1 whole Oreo in the bottom of each lined cup.
4.Beat the cream cheese in the bowl of a stand mixer on medium. Gradually beat in the sugar and vanilla.
5.Pour in the beaten eggs, a little at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl after each addition.

6.Beat in the sour cream and salt.

7.Stir in chopped cookies by hand.

8.Pour the batter into the prepared tins, filling each almost to the top.

9.Bake, rotating pan halfway through, until filling is set, 22-25 minutes.

10.Cool in the pans for about 15 minutes, on a wire rack, then transfer to a plate in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours.

Overall I think I nailed it!  They had to have used way more than 6 chopped oreo's in the mix so next time I will probably add more but they were pretty tasty!  Here's how mine turned out. 

And, since it was for Peyton's Party, I decorated them with Elmo faces.  My mom and Steph helped too!  They were pretty stinking cute if you ask me! 

{it's ELMO's world}

Beggars Night

So, of course we procrastinated finding Peyton her Halloween costume this year so didn't really get what we really wanted.  She has been OBSESSED with Rapunzel, Symba (Lion King) and now Ponyo.  Our original thought was Rapunzel but they didn't really make one small enough for her.  We also looked for an Elmo one since we all now she loves him, but no where had any left in her size either.  We ended up finding her ladybug dress on clearance already so it worked out and was still adorable.  We tried one last time to find a lion costume but no luck so the ladybug she was.  Gma and Gpa Dirks, Great Gma Verla and Tyson came down for beggars night.  For some reason, in Iowa they do trick-or-treating the night before Halloween and call it Beggars Night.  The kids are supposed to tell you jokes instead of saying trick-or-treat.  Some do, but most just take the candy and run!  Here's the only joke I remember....Knock Knock - Who's there? - Yodaleigh - Yodaleigh who? - I didn't know you could yodle!  We ventured out to three houses on the street and Peyton thought it was pretty awesome......after we left Grant's house.  We started at our next door neighbors house, they have two kids, Grant and Gabby that Peyton likes.  Well Grant was dressed as a skeleton this year and had a mask, Peyton did not like that one bit and was pretty scared of him.  I wanted to get a picture of them but even after he took the mask off, she wasn't feeling it.  After two more houses we decided it was too cold and went back home to hand out candy.  Peyton loved all the kids coming to the door.  Greg and Sheryl were just as excited about it as Peyton was.  Greg taught her that the kids come and get candy, then they go home.  So Peyton would greet them at the door, then say, "Go Home!"  Nice huh! 


{happy halloween!}



{little lady bug}

{trick-or-treat}

{so happy}

{Bopa}

{all clean after a long day}

Until next time....