On the road again

For Eric and I, moving is just what you do as a young family. Before we reach our 5th anniversary this summer, we will have moved 5 times. We realized a lot of our friends probably have no idea that we are moving again, so consider this an announcement. We are moving to Alabama! 

It has been such a blessing to live in Connecticut the past year and a half. We've met amazing people that we love dearly and it will be so so hard to leave them behind. We've had wonderful opportunities to travel and experience a part of the country that was completely unfamiliar to us before. Now we are looking forward to meeting new wonderful people in Alabama and experiencing a different unfamiliar territory. We are confident we will grow to love it and are excited for the change. Most especially excited for a very positive job change that will allow Eric to be home and give our family a bit more consistency.

So here we are, up to our eyes in boxes, getting ready to embark on our next big adventure, and anxious to make our Sweet Home Alabama!

I know I'm terribly behind on my blog and it's mostly just full of empty promises to update with loads of pictures, and I promise (wink) I'll do that someday. But today I have only one thing on my mind:

CHOCOLATE CAKE.

Valentines Day was pretty low key this year (every year?) but I thought I should at least whip up some baked good for us to enjoy to celebrate. Earlier in the day I picked up a bag of perfectly ripe avocados and I remembered a while back pinning a recipe for chocolate cupcakes that called for an avocado, so why not.

oh. my. goodnessssss.

I can't stop eating these. I woke up on February 15 wanting them for breakfast. And I justify it by reminding myself they have no eggs, refined oil, or refined sugar so they are good for me. I know I'm lying to myself, but how else can I explain 3 cupcakes a day?? As I was eating one today, I realized I must share this goodness. Mostly because I've always disliked chocolate cake because it was either too dry or too oily or too fakey-funky tasting. This is the chocolate cake I've been needing.

Chocolate-Avocado Cupcakes
(Recipe adapted from Vegetarian Times)

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 3/4 tsp. baking soda
• 3/4 tsp. salt
• 1 avocado, pitted and peeled
• 1/2 cup pure maple syrup
• 1/2 cup honey
• 3/4 cup milk 
• 1/3 cup applesauce (or oil, but why?)
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners. Whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in bowl. Purée avocado in food processor until smooth. Add maple syrup, honey, milk, applesauce, and vanilla, and blend until creamy. Whisk avocado mixture into flour mixture.
2. Spoon batter into prepared cupcake cups. Bake 25 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into center comes out with some crumbs attached. Cool.


The original recipe then had you glaze them with some weird tofu glaze, which I didn't bother trying. Instead, I topped them with my favorite chocolate buttercream frosting. This is of course the unhealthy part of the cupcake, but they are still delish without it.

For the chocolate frosting
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter 
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder 
1/4 cup milk 
2 cups confectioners’ sugar 
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

To make the frosting, melt the butter with the cocoa powder in a small saucepan. Bring to a light simmer over medium-low heat and let it bubble for 1 minute. Whisk in the milk and cook for 3 more minutes, letting the mixture bubble up around the edges. Remove from the heat and beat in the confectioners’ sugar with a whisk or hand beater. When the mixture is smooth, beat in the vanilla.


You do have to work pretty quickly with this frosting as it sets up pretty fast and is difficult to spread once cool, but dang it's yummy.

So there you have it. You should really make these cupcakes. And there is something about secret ingredients-- they are secret for a reason. No one needs to know there is avocado in these babies. That's a little secret just you and the blender can keep. They can also be totally vegan by using 1 cup maple syrup instead of half honey and some non-dairy milk instead. And obviously you would skip the buttercream frosting and try something different. Here is the link to the original recipe if you are interested.

Palmyra Trip Part II

We started out the day by heading to the Hill Cumorah and seeing the Moroni Monument. It was really incredible to stand there on that hill (despite the freezing windy-ness of it) and just feel the history of the place and the strong spirit that was there. This is where the gold plates were kept safe and delivered to Joseph Smith to be translated so the true Gospel of Jesus Christ could be restored. 

From there we drove past the Palmyra temple and on to the Smith family farm. This place was truly amazing. 

First of all, it was amazing that they fit 10 people in that teeny tiny log cabin and felt grateful for their wealth! It made me realize just how much we have today that we are so ungrateful for. It was a great reminder at this very spendy time of year to live simply.

Second, and most obviously, it was amazing to be in the exact place where Heavenly Father and His Son Jesus Christ appeared to Joseph Smith. Where the Angel Moroni visited Joseph. Where the gold plates had been hidden, translated, protected. Where it all began. We couldn’t help but wonder as we drove around that small town if those that live there now have any idea how sacred this place is—the incalculable impact it has had on the world. Being there made everything real. These aren’t just stories we have been told. Joseph Smith truly saw God the Father and Jesus Christ. The Book of Mormon is true. The Gospel has been restored!

Palmyra temple

 Entering the Sacred Grove (Reese was fast asleep)

Wesley lacked wisdom and departed from the log home behind him to enter into the woods to pray

 She slept through Niagara Falls and now the Sacred Grove...

Smith Log Home

 The picture should lend a little perspective. The house was so small. The ceiling beams had a 6'2" clearance.

 Here's the kitchen/living room/dining room. After the First Vision, Joseph came in and leaned over this fireplace where his mother was preparing breakfast. She asked him what was the matter and he replied that he was fine, but he now knew for himself that Presbyterianism wasn't true. From that moment on, the Smith family (and the world) would never be the same.

Carefully climbing the stairs up to the bedrooms

 They were tricky! It made me a wee bit nervous to climb those with a sleeping baby in tow.

 In the bedroom where Angel Moroni appeared to Joseph

The white building in the background is the welcome center, the trees to the left are the Sacred Grove, the cabin to the right is the Smith's log home.

 Smith's land and the path leading to the frame home, the white house on the left.

 I love this picture because of Wesley. So 2 year old. I'm walking ahead with our awesome tour guide, a senior missionary from Orem, UT. We met some really great missionaries on our tours!

 Reese eventually did wake up and join the fun.

 In front of the Smith's frame home, built much later.

 This home is 85% original and underwent crazy amounts of restoration. The walls in this room had to have the plaster removed while retaining the original whitewash. 

This is a replica of Alvin's toolbox where the gold plates were hidden or transported on a number of occasions.

 The hearth, another hiding place for the plates.

 Original floorboards in this room

 The kitchen. The fireplace was the stove and this home had a fancy upgrade-- an oven. Can you see it? It's the tiny door to the right of the stove. They tested the temperature with their hand.

 Behind me to the right is the breakfast table. It was here that Martin Harris broke the news to Joseph that he had lost the translated Book of Mormon manuscript. Right in front of me is where Joseph then spent the rest of the day pacing. I could feel his worry as I sat in that space!

 Reesey enjoying the tour

2 year old + historical tours =

We passed through the Sacred Grove again and then headed on to the Book of Mormon Publication site where a wonderful sister missionary played with Wesley and gave us a great tour. We learned a lot about how the Book of Mormon came to be published and it was really neat to see where it all happened. 

After all of our touring, this happened in about 20 seconds:

I wish I could have taken a video of this... he fell asleep eating his snacks in the car as you can see by the crackers in his hands. Such an amazing trip! I'm so glad we went-- we had a beautiful experience.

Palmyra Trip Part I

One of the great things about living in Connecticut is our proximity to a lot of cool places. Add to that the fact that Eric racks up lots of hotel points and it makes for some great experiences!

Eric took this week off of work to enjoy the holidays and family and we took a quick trip up to Palmyra. We got into Rochester, NY at 4 pm and spent an hour at the National Museum of Play. This place was huge! 150,000 sq.ft actually and the kids loved it. 

When the museum closed we went over to Dinosaur BBQ for excessive amounts of meat and a crazy delicious salad dressing. (Seriously, if you are ever in upstate NY you should go there. Be sure to get a side salad with the house dressing. I think it was a bleu cheesy thousand island mix of sorts and like I said, crazy delicious).

At the football exhibit

Climbing around on a Jack in the Beanstalk play structure

Sitting on a troll's head, obviously.

Playing in the "sandbox." It was a giant area filled with little PVC pellets. Wesley and Reese were in HEAVEN. Unfortunately, we didn't get a picture of Reese going nuts in here.

We wrapped up the day by picking up some Ben and Jerry's and playing in our hotel room. I must say, as much as we hate having Eric travel and all that that entails, it's pretty nice being a platinum member of a hotel chain-- they upgraded us to a giant room. Never gonna complain about that!

bloggity blog

What was I thinking? I really set a goal to post on the blog once a week and then actually published it for the world to see. I know what I was thinking-- wouldn't it be nice to have some sort of history recorded for my kids where I can have a scrapbook meets journal while also satisfying the grandparental demands for more pictures of the babies!

But lets be honest. Once a week? This coming from the girl who does laundry on a Monday then folds it the following Monday, simply to make space for more laundry.

That being said, I'm working on it. More to come soon I promise. I have pictures from a whole summer of fun! Coming soon: Toronto, Philadelphia, Rhode Island! (Did we go anywhere else? I really can't remember...)

Teeny Reesey

I took Reese in for her 4 month check up the other day. Here are her stats:

Weight: 12 lbs 8.5 oz (between the 10th and 25th percentile)
Height: 25 1/4 inches (75%)
Head circ: 42 cm (between 50-75%)

I should point out that she is really closer to 5 months and being compared to other 4 month-ers for the percentile info, so she's probably on the lower end of the spectrum anyway. She's so teeny. Eric calls her 10% nowadays.

But being small has advantages. Because she doesn't have much weight holding her down, she's quite strong and mobile for her age. She is a champion roller, easily flipping from back to tummy and back, and she almost always scoots her way off her blankets when I set her on the floor. (Not very quickly, but she gets there nonetheless).

With that, she also is showing quite a bit of walking prowess. Observe:

Wesleyism

Today I made grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch. I had some tomato soup with mine and I was dipping my sandwich in the soup. I went to rotate the laundry in the middle of the meal and after a minute I hear Wesley calling, "Mommy!! Dripping!! Dripping me!!" My first thought was "Please don't tell me you've spilled my soup everywhere... I should have buckled him down today..."

Fortunately, when I got back to the table, he was just panicking over some milk he'd spilled and that was dripping down his arm a bit. I sat down and he drank more of his milk and I noticed crumbs in it. I thought, "Man, he must really be backwashy today." It wasn't until he picked up his sandwich again that I realized what really happened. It was totally white on one end and dripping milk. Hilarious. He is such a little copycat. The milk was "dripping" because he was trying to be like me and dip his sandwich.

And while we are on the topic, sandwich is one of his favorite words to say. I think because it ends in that satisfying "ishch" sound. Same story with "orange."

Here's some Wesley in action: