Delicious Red Velvet Cupcakes

I'm posting this recipe because I've already given it out to several friends- it's that good! And it it would be a perfect dessert for your family on Valentine's Day. Jeni found this recipe and my Mom made them for Jeff's open house. They were a hit and Kyle loved them. We went to a dinner party last week and I had to take a dessert. Kyle requested these so I made them for the first time and they were yummy and moist. This recipe is a keeper.

RED VELVET CUPCAKES:
Makes 30 (1 cupcake) servings.
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 25 minutes

INGREDIENTS
2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup milk
1 bottle (1 ounce) McCormick® Red Food Color
2 teaspoons McCormick® Pure Vanilla Extract
Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting (recipe follows)

DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Mix flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt in medium bowl. Set aside.

2. Beat butter and sugar in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed 5 minutes or until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Mix in sour cream, milk, food color and vanilla. Gradually beat in flour mixture on low speed until just blended. Do not overbeat. Spoon batter into 30 paper-lined muffin cups, filling each cup two-thirds full.

3. Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted into cupcake comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire rack 5 minutes. Remove from pans; cool completely. Frost with Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting.

Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting: Beat 1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened, 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, softened, 2 tablespoons sour cream and 2 teaspoons McCormick® Pure Vanilla Extract in large bowl until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in 1 box (16 ounces) confectioners' sugar until smooth.

http://www.mccormick.com/Recipes/Desserts/Red-Velvet-Cupcakes.aspx

Perks Cont.

Perks of Having an Unemployed Husband:
1. He is his own boss
2. He can have time off whenever he wants or needs it
3. I have a babysitter 24/7 for when I need to run errands, go to appts, work...
4. I have extra help with the kids
5. We can go to the Temple anytime we want
6. The "honey do list" can get some attention
7. I'm sure there's more... :)

P.S. THANK-YOU to everyone for all your well wishes, prayers and sweet comments. It means a lot to us to have such great friends and family. We are so grateful to all of you for your love and support during this time!!!

Perks

One of the last perks from Kyle's work were free tickets to a hockey game that he got last week at work. The Everett Silver Tips played the Spokane Chiefs. Kate was excited to go watch people ice skate. That's all she talked about. We tried explaining the game of hockey to her before so she wouldn't be scared when players got smashed up against the sides or from the loud cow bells that the crazed fans used. She was fine and the game had her attention for about 5 minutes and after that she was interested in the girl's dippin' dots behind us, moving from seat to seat and eating her candy. Preston kicked a guy in front of us a couple times so I'm sure they were glad we were behind them.

They are in a trance watching the mascot!

I took this picture so after 5 attempts we got this one and Preston is only partially cut off- not bad.

We stopped at a store before the game so she could pick out some candy and she chose these. She was in heaven. She wanted to eat the whole bag- I didn't let her. :)

The hockey game (and Kate's fingers in the lower right corner- once again her fingers found a way into the picture!). We have no idea who won because we left after only an hour. Preston was getting squirly and super whiny so he needed his bed. Good thing the tickets were free!

Kate wanted to wear her gloves. It was chilly in there so we were all bundled up.

Reality

Well... this isn't good news at all, but it's reality for a lot of people right now. Kyle got laid off from his job on Monday! Horrible, I know. He came home around 11am on Monday and I was just thinking he was coming home for an early lunch so when he walked in and said he was laid off I thought he was kidding. I finally believed him when he showed me the paperwork stuff they gave him. I was pretty devastated and had my fair share of crying and being emotional for the next couple of hours. Kyle had a really good attitude about it. He kept telling me it will work out and be fine. His main concern was health insurance for the kids since our insurance was now ending at the end of January. He even handled it well when they told him. When they told him he said, "well, it's no one's fault." I would have been more upset, but then again it's really not their fault, it's the housing market. He even made it past several lay-offs over the last 15 months at his work. (He worked for a home builder as a project manager.) They even paid him a compliment by saying they would like to hire him back when the market turns around, but they know he will be taken b/c he's smart and a good guy. Hmpf. He better be hired by someone else by then. :) There's another guy in our ward that is out of work and watches his two kids and I joked that Kyle and him can start a daddy daycare or do playdates together. Ha! Gotta have some humor in this mess, right?

So now I am the sugar mama. I'm only working 2x/month right now, but today the dentist's wife, who is a hygienist in the office, offered to give me her 4 days that she was scheduled to work next month! She is happy to have a break, but that was so nice of her. I will probably look into temp hygiene work as well. Thank goodness for my education!!! The Church encourages us to get an education and this is exactly why- to get through times like this.

We will get through this and we just have to have faith that all will work out fine. It's the unknown that is scary and always wondering "how long will it take to get a job?" If we knew that answer I think we'd enjoy Kyle's time off a bit more. Maybe take a road trip... do lots of fun things... you know, the stuff you do with time off. :)

Video of Preston

This is a video of Preston playing outside with his ride on toy. When he is actually on it he goes backwards. And he's already fallen over while on it. Preston will say "hi da da". We are working on the "hi ma ma" part now. ;)

Kate's infatuated with getting a hand, face, foot, body, you name it in the way of the camera when I'm taking a picture. So at the end of the video that is her hand and her giggle. She thinks she's funny. Let's just say her timing isn't always good. You know how it is when you are trying to get "the right picture" and a hand gets in the way. Not funny then, huh?!

Magnets 101

Kyle got a new calling at church as the Gospel Doctrine teacher for Sunday school. He's a bit nervous. :) He teaches twice a month and tomorrow is his first time. My Mom had this calling a few years ago before she started teaching seminary and my younger brothers and sister wanted her to get released because she would always quote scriptures to them. Well, the other day Kyle started to quote a scripture to me about some day-to-day thing and so I had to laugh. It reminded me of the joke with my Mom and how she used to do that! It must be something with that calling. HA!

Preston browsing through The Friend magazine. I just thought it looked cute.

This is a face when he whines and wants me! You can see a fresh wound by his left eye. One of many to come, I'm sure. I cut his hair on my own the other day and I think it turned out pretty good. It's a good thing he's so blonde b/c it hides mistakes well. He actually sit still during the hair cut. He would cry every time I turned off the clippers to change the guard. You'd think he would cry when I turned the clippers on!

Kate wanted a picture taken of her! This is her ultimate cheesy smile. Her latest thing is talking about wanting to go to Disneyland to give all the princesses a hug.

These are some magnets I have been making today. (The picture is sideways for some reason and they are on my old metal pan- it looks gross. :)) They were so easy and fun to make. I bought all the stuff to make them a couple years ago to do with my family, but we never did them. So just the other day I pulled the stuff out and started making some. On the fridge, they look much cuter than just a regular magnet.

All you do is use a clear gem stone thing (I bought them at Target) and glue (you want to use a clear glue, I used a dimensional magic glue) on a cute piece of paper to the back. You want to place glue on the flat part of the gem, put the paper on and then put glue on the back of the paper as well and smear the glue around with your finger to cover the paper and seal the edges. Let it dry and hot glue a round magnet to the back. Done! You should make some.