Saturday, December 8, 2012

Pumpkin Bars

So, somehow I ended up with an extra can of pumpkin in the pantry. What to do, what to do, what to do? Bake, of course! Here is a yummy recipe for pumpkin bars!

Ingredients
1 cup applesauce
1 2/3 cups granulated sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
15-oz can pumpkin
2 cups sifted all purpose flour
  4 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda 

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. 
 Combine the applesauce, sugar, oil and pumpkin. 
Stir together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, salt and baking soda.
Mix the dry ingredients and the pumpkin mixture until thoroughly combined.
Spread the batter into a greased 13x9 baking dish.
Bake for 30 minutes. 
Let cool completely before frosting with your favorite cream cheese frosting.
Cut into bars.
Enjoy!
 

Friday, December 7, 2012

Friday's Letters [12.07]

Happy Friday AND Happy December!

Photobucket


Dear sweet baby girl, You sure are a stubborn little thing, aren't ya? Every time we try to take pictures of you, you flip and flop all over the place. Please get out of this habit as soon as possible so I can take the gajillion photos of you I have planned for the rest of your life:-)


Dear crazy December, Whoa, whoa, whoa. Who said you could be this insanely busy? Enough of these eleven and twelve hour days. This is supposed to be a time of resting and enjoying others' company. That can't happen if I'm running around like a madwoman. 

Dear Cuties, Thank you for being so positively delicious AND healthy. I must admit that your addictive nature has taken me completely captive. Are you still healthy if someone eats an average of four of you a day?


Dear Dr's Offices, What is going on with these ridiculous waits?! I can kind of understand why it takes so long at the nephrologist's because there are a bunch of old people with lots of questions, but all the others?!? The two hours we spent at the OB this week was insane! Any chance y'all could work on this?

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

We Play for Keeps!

Have you ever heard of CrossFit? I hadn't either until this past April when it invaded David's workout regimen, and thus our lives as well. The concept (at least what I understand it to be, though I'm sure my husband will correct me!) is in order to become the best you have to constantly vary your workout and challenge yourself to do different things. There is a Workout Of the Day (WOD) every day with different exercises. You try to do as many repetitions of those exercises in a certain amount of time. It is very competitive, which is one of the reasons David loves it so much.

He was introduced to this phenom by a friend of his at work, and has since got into incredible shape. It does all of this from our garage since it is pretty costly to frequent a "box", or gym. Before I go any further I must tell you that this is SO not my cup of tea. His grunts and shouts during the workout, and extreme exhaustion following it, are not my idea of a good time. He loves it though, so CrossFit will continue to be a part of the Mobley vocabulary.

All of that mumbo jumbo leads me to our Saturday morning-his first competition! The local minor league hockey tea was hosting it as a benefit for the Wounded Warriors Project. He had to see how many calories he could burn rowing for a minute, then he would see how many shoulder presses he could get in a minute (with 75 pounds), then take a 30-second rest, then do as many ball slams he could get in a minute (weighing 30 pounds), then do as many kettle bell swings (weighing 35 pounds) as he could in a minute. That was one round. He did this three times for time. It was intense to watch. Here are some pictures from our adventure:

He checked out the competition by counting for another competitor. 

Assessing the ball slam challenge.

Swing that kettle bell!

Last round of shoulder presses

Absolutely exhausted.

And my favorite picture of the day. . . 
Believe it or not this guy started off fully clothed and ended up in just his underroos by the end of it! The best part? His Mulan-looking ponytail on top.

Will I ever do this? Never say never, but it's not likely. I like to be in shape, but I'm not a big fan of my thighs crushing others to death as many of the women at the competition looked like. I may be singing a different tune after Peanut is born, but for now I'll leaving the intensity to David!

Monday, December 3, 2012

20 Weeks!



How far along? 20 Weeks

Total weight gain/loss:  +15 pounds. We go back to the doctor tomorrow so I'm sure next week's number will be a big jump!

Maternity clothes? Some things. I'm still able to wear some of my other stuff, but the maternity clothes are much more comfortable at this point.

Stretch marks? None.

Sleep: Love it!

Best moment this week: Going out to dinner with another couple who is having a girl and are due a week after us! It was so much fun to talk to someone who is in the exact same spot.

Miss Anything? Caffeine this week. It was rough going back to school after a glorious 5-day weekend!

Movement: I'm starting to feel some flutters!

Food cravings: Spinach salad this week. I went to the Teeter every day after school this week to pick up more. At this week's grocery trip I'm just going to buy enough to last the week!

Anything making you queasy or sick: Soaps and lotions are still getting to me oddly enough.

Have you started to show yet: Yes! It's exciting:-)

Gender: A sweet baby girl!!!

Labor Signs:  Nope.

Belly Button in or out? In, but I see the potential for it to poke out in the near future.

Wedding rings on or off?  On.

Happy or Moody most of the time: Happy most of the time with some mood swings in between. The past few days have been kind of rough. For some reason the smallest thing has me about bursting into tears. I will be elated when this passes!

Size of Baby: Peanut is a banana this week. She is roughly 10.5 oz. Wowzers!

Looking forward to: Working on decorating the Nursery!

Saturday, December 1, 2012

Cool Whip Cookies

While I was posted up with my foot this past summer I went a bit recipe crazy. And by "bit" I mean I tried at least one or two new recipes a day. Yea, crazy. Here is one that I rustled up with only the things I had in the kitchen. It was super easy and super yummy! They tasted even better when we put a little cream cheese frosting between two of them. Mm mm mm. Let me know what y'all think!

Ingredients
1 egg
8 ounces Cool Whip 
 1 box devil's food cake mix (could use just about any cake mix!)
1/2 powdered sugar

Directions
 Preheat oven to 375.
Mix egg, Cool Whip, and dry cake mix together.
Roll teaspoon size balls into powdered sugar and bake on cookie sheet for 10 minutes. 
Enjoy!