Team pic

Zane's team won again this morning, putting them at 2-2-1 (2 wins, 2 ties, and 1 loss). Next week is his last game. I can't believe the season is over already!



Zane's soccer team

Finally!

Here's that video I mentioned last weekend of Raegan trying to crawl into one of my kitchen cabinets. Now that I've switched over to uploading videos with YouTube, I can get anything on here now. As long as I'm willing to wait, that is!

The world is her oyster now

After many desperate attempts to get up on the couch last night, Raegan finally succeeded. She was VERY crabby last night, so hence the teeny fit she throws in the middle of the video. She always gets so mad when she knows what she wants to do but she just can't quite accomplish it.

This week in Raeganland

No pictures this post. Just updating some of the things that Raegan is up to these days.

Speech:
-Raegan says "uh oh" now, but only copying when someone else says it. She's not connecting it to something that has happened on her own yet, but it sure is darn cute to hear her say "uh oh" over and over after you say it. :)

-One of her favorite things to do when Daddy and Zane are downstairs is to crawl over to the baby gate at the top of the stairs and yell "Hey!" downstairs.

Walking:
-Raegan is starting to walk a LOT more. She's also doing a great job of standing independently and staying steady while standing for a good 5 or 6 seconds now. She's most motivated to walk when she can walk to someone, but sometimes we'll see her do it when she's walking circles around the coffee table. She still giggles when she walks more than 4 steps, like it's just so awesome that she can do this now.

Personality:
-Raegan loves going outside, to the point where it's almost over the top. Most evenings when we let Daisy out Raegan is right at the door hollering at us if we don't let her out on the deck also. I *did* say I wanted a child that liked being outside....

-Raegan is curious about everything right now. She wants to know how everything works and she is getting into everything! I can only imagine when she's walking even better.

-She is bound and determined that we will nurse forever, I think. I have a three day weekend coming up in a couple weeks, and that's when we're going to start getting rid of the morning nursing. My goal was to have her weaned by Thanksgiving, so I guess I better get on that pretty soon. :)

Weekend

Here's a couple pictures from the rest of our weekend. I didn't take any at the dog show that Zane and I went to, because meh. Who wants to see a whole bunch of dogs that don't belong to anyone you know? Well, maybe you do. I don't know. :)

Zane and I went to this farm a couple miles outside of town that was selling pumpkins. It wasn't an actual pumpkin patch, but just someone selling a cool variety of pumpkins. The one on top is called an Australian Blue and the one below is called Uncle Fester. The one below is actually going to go with me to my classroom later this week so we can guess what the inside looks like and then chop it open.

Piggy back ride!

Raegan kept herself well entertained while I baked yesterday. I've tried a couple times, but I can't get the video of her trying to fit in the cabinet to upload. She never did figure out how to do it. :)



Go K-State!

Apple Pie cupcakes

Cutest cupcake liners ever!

Thanks to a coworker, I have discovered this website. It has a LOT of recipes that I am interested in trying, but I decided to start off with a very fall taste - apple pie cupcakes. These ended up being quite a bit of work. If I had an apple corer/peeler, it probably would have gone a lot quicker. I think if I were going to make them again I would skip the homemade apple mixture in the middle and just buy a can of apple pie filling. Might not taste as good, but it would definitely save me some time. The other note to make about this recipe is that the frosting recipe is not correct.

On her website it calls for 2 1/2 c. butter and 2 1/2 c. powdered sugar, which if you've ever made frosting before, you can tell right away this isn't correct. I think I might have ended up with something like 4-5 c. powdered suger, which ended up making waaaaaaay too much frosting. So I would halve the rest of the ingredients and then add powdered sugar until you get the consistency and flavor you're looking for. I wasn't a huge fan of the taste of the frosting, but everyone else raved about it, so it must just be me. :)

I'm not as artistic as the blogger I got the recipe from, so don't judge my pictures. lol

Apple Pie Cupcakes

Yield: 24 cupcakes

For the cupcakes:

3 cups sifted cake flour

1 tbsp. baking powder

½ tsp. salt

1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

2 cups sugar

4 eggs

1 ½ tsp. vanilla extract

1 cup milk

For the apple filling:

2 tbsp. butter

2 tsp. cinnamon

2-3 tbsp. sugar

3 large Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and diced

Directions:

To make the cupcakes, preheat the oven to 350°. Line two cupcake pans with paper liners.

In a medium bowl, sift together the cake flour, baking powder and salt. In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar together on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing well and scraping down the sides of the bowl after each addition. Add the vanilla extract and mix well to combine. Add in the dry ingredients alternately with the milk, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. Stir until just combined.

Divide the batter evenly among the cupcake liners, filling them about 2/3-3/4 full. Bake until golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 18 to 22 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes in the pans. Transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

Cupcakes fresh out of the oven. Again, don't judge my photography skills.

To make the apple filling, heat the butter a medium skillet over medium-high heat. Add the cinnamon and sugar and cook for a minute, until the mixture begins to bubble. Lower the heat to medium and stir in the apples. Mix well. Cook until the apples are somewhat tender, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool.

I would seriously make a double batch and eat the leftovers with ice cream. So yummy!

While the apple mixture is cooling, use the cone method to remove a chunk from the center of each cupcake, making sure to leave a rim around the top of the cupcake. Fill the holes with the cooled apple mixture. To decorate, top each cupcake with a swirl of vanilla buttercream.

A little taste of fall!

For decorating:

Easy Vanilla Buttercream

20 tbsp. (2 ½ sticks) unsalted butter, softened

2 ½ cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted

1/8 tsp. salt

2 tsp. vanilla extract

2 tbsp. heavy cream

Directions:

In a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat butter at medium-high speed until smooth, about 20 seconds. Add confectioners’ sugar and salt; beat at medium-low speed until most of the sugar is moistened, about 45 seconds. Scrape down the bowl and beat at medium speed until mixture is fully combined, about 15 seconds. Scrape bowl, add vanilla and heavy cream, and beat at medium speed until incorporated, about 10 seconds. Then increase the speed to medium-high and beat until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes, scraping down bowl once or twice.

Copied from Annie's Eats

Wichita Zoo

Today was a perfect day to go to the zoo. It was about 65 and sunny, with very little wind. We made it there by a little after 10:00, and brought sandwiches so we wouldn't have to worry about paying for overpriced food so that Raegan didn't have a complete meltdown.

Listening to different amphibian sounds

This one penguin kept swimming right up to the glass, like he wanted to take a look at the map in Zane's hand, so Zane let him have a look.

I have this exact same picture of Zane from when him and I went when he was 7 or 8. I should compare sometime.

In the rainforest

The otters were also very friendly and kept coming up to the glass.

Showoff!

At the new tiger exhibit

Why do primates always look so pouty when they aren't moving around?

We've never seen a bear come so close before. It was awesome!

We've also never seen a bear actually play with the ball that's always in the water.

What do you suppose they were all looking at? There's wasn't anything in the sky above us. I looked, and then felt kind of silly for looking.

Baby!

Riding on the wooden horse at the petting zoo

Zane milking a "cow"

Zane and Raegan at the end of the day

Raegan did such a good job today! She fussed quite a bit in the car on the way up, and ended up sleeping for about 30 minutes before we got there, but she didn't cry once at the zoo. When we stopped in a picnic area to eat lunch, two very friendly geese came within a foot of us trying to get a handout. I was a little freaked out, because I remember the not-so-friendly geese we had when I was growing up. These guys were easily shooed by the stroller, but they kept coming back. The fun fact that Zane and I learned today was that there is no actual breed called a panther. That's just the name people use for black jaguars or leopards. Did not know that.