Kyle's 30th Birthday Continued...

I am the worst blogger! I never remember to bring my camera when we do anything fun, so we have no pictures of the actual event or people involved. But here's where we went this weekend:

La Grande Orange has the BEST pizza. We went with a few friends to celebrate Kyle's bday (yes, turning 30 requires several celebrations. Still to come is Kyle's family party...). I should have taken a pic of all our fun friends who were great enough to make the long drive out to Phoenix to have some pizza with us. My cousin turned us on to La Grande a couple years ago and we have been dedicated patrons ever since. You have to try it! My favorites are the Roasted Corn and the Rocket Man. Kyle has never deviated from the Gladiator.

I made some chocolate cherry cupcakes using a modified version of my sis-in-law's recipe for that yummy chocolate cherry cake that I posted a pic of last month. I thought they were okay, but a few people liked them a lot and wanted the recipe so here it is:


Chocolate Cherry Cupcakes

1 (18.25-oz.) package chocolate fudge cake mix
1 (3.4-oz.) package chocolate instant pudding mix
3 large eggs
1 1/4 cups milk
1 cup canola oil
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 teaspoons almond extract
6 oz semi sweet chocolate chips
8 oz cream cheese
1/2 c powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla

1 (21-oz.) can cherry pie filling
Your favorite chocolate frosting (I made a sour cream choc frosting with butter, sour cream, melted semisweet chips, vanilla and powdered sugar)
Garnish: chocolate dipped cherries

Preparation
1. Preheat oven to 350°. Line 2 cupcake pans with paper liners. Set aside.
2. Beat cake mix and next 6 ingredients at low speed with an electric mixer 1 minute; beat at medium speed 2 minutes. Fold in chocolate chips. Pour batter into prepared pans.
3. Bake at 350° for 15 to 18 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire racks 5 minutes. Remove from pans to wire racks, and cool completely on wire rack.
4. Using a serrated knife, cut a cone from each cupcake top (see this cupcake blog for better directions) . Mix cream cheese, 1/2 c powdered sugar and 1 tsp vanilla. Spoon a little of this mixture into each cupcake. Top with a spoonful of cherry pie filling. Replace cupcake top. Chill for 2 hours. Frost with favorite chocolate frosting and top with chocolate dipped cherries.
I think these cupcakes are a lot better if served at room temperature rather than chilled. The manager at La Grande was nice enough to keep the cupcakes in the kitchen for us, but she kept them in the fridge so the frosting was a little hard when we ate them.



Have you noticed a trend in the subjects I tend to blog about lately? Yes, I have a real preoccupation with food. I'm pregnant. I'm think of little else... Don't worry though, only a few more months of hearing about what I eat every weekend. Then I will be on to blogging about childbirth and breastfeeding. Ha ha. :)

Happy 30th Birthday Kyle!

Today is the big one for Kyle. To celebrate his leap into old age we had a little in-town weekend getaway. Friday afternoon we dropped Gage at Grandma and Grandpa's house and then Kyle and I got a villa at the Sheraton Desert Oasis resort in Scottsdale (they have REALLY great rates right now if you are looking for a night away from the kids). The villa was awesome and had a huge jacuzzi tub in the bedroom. We had a great time relaxing without entertaining Gage or worrying about what he was getting into.

We had dinner at Kyle's fav Thai restaurant, Thai Pan (Mark, the owner, said they are thinking about opening one in the Mesa/Gilbert area someday. We are keeping our fingers crossed because it really is SO good).

Saturday we slept in...or at least tried to but I guess we are both too used to getting up early because we didn't make it past 7am. Picked up breakfast at Whole Foods and then went shopping for Kyle's birthday present. He got a new pair of shoes that he loves. And we ate cupcakes at Sprinkles. It was a fun weekend but definitely too short!

Fun at the Park

Today we met up with Gage's birthmom and her son, Jacob at the park. The boys had a great time playing together and I think it made Natalie feel good to see that Gage is so happy. Gage is starting to look a lot more like Jacob as he gets older, although their personalities remain very different.

It's a BOY!!

We are having a boy! Kyle and I were totally shocked, but very excited. When the doctor told us it was a boy, we actually made him double check (twice) because we couldn't believe it. Poor guy is very much a boy, although, he may have to get over a bit of a complex as a result of being called girl names for the past few months. Kyle's mom even started making a pink flowered quilt for him. Clearly my mother's intuition isn't so great when I am the one pregnant with the baby.

But I am so glad we are having another boy. Now the boys can share a room and I don't have to stress about decorating a new nursery. And I have SO many cute boy clothes thanks to all our friends and family who gave us darling gifts and hand-me-downs. And Gage really needs a brother. No doubt about it, he is definitely going to need someone to wrestle with. :) Gage has a biological brother, Jacob, that we see once or twice a year. I always hoped we would have a boy someday so Gage didn't feel like he was missing out on something by not growing up with his brother. And most importantly, I suck and doing little girl's hair. My girl would have been such a ragamuffin. :)

Kyle is excited but also a little disappointed. He has always wanted a daddy's girl. And I have always said I could only handle two kids and I am totally fine with having only boys. His first reaction when we found out it was a boy was to tell me, "well, now we have to have another one". Not sure I want to risk having THREE boys. But, obviously the Lord seems to have an interesting plan for our family, so who knows...maybe after these two boys settle down a little we might be brave enough to go for another baby. Maybe...

For now, we are just going to focus on trying to come up with a boy name that is as cool as the girl name we have been calling him. Any suggestions?

**And just for the record, if you know what our girl name is and you happen to like it, we are not yet relinquishing permission for anyone to use it. We aren't giving it up until we are totally 100% sure that we don't have any more children coming into our family...at which time maybe we will use it for our next dog. :)