Blurbs About My Kids... But Mostly Pics

Dang. I keep meaning to take some darn nice pictures of my girls to replace the ones I took 2 years ago, but life happens. And by life, I mean Netflix happens. Ha! 

However, I'm not a complete Netflix crazy lady, and have somehow managed to snap a few pictures of these stunning little girls of mine. 

Ava is growing up like crazy. She loves fashion and posing for the camera (surprise, surprise... I am her mother, after all.) One Sunday she was looking particularly cute, so we went out into our teeny weeny backyard and she modeled for me. It's actually a win-win situation. She gets to model, and I get to practice my mad photog skills.

Isn't her hair just too cute? Ava has this beautiful, thick, blonde hair. She recently asked me for highlights, and I about fainted. I told her I don't even spend money on my hair anymore, why would I spend money on hers? She looked at me and said, "Duh, Mom. YOU went to hair school. You could just do it for free." Touche, my child. Touche.

Still a big, fat  NO though. :) Nice try.

However, now that we've been in the sun more and more, it's getting naturally highlighted, and she'll stand in front of the mirror and point every highlight out. Where did she come from?

The same Sunday, I tried getting a good picture of Coco, but she wasn't going to have it. This was the best I could do. At least I captured her little sandals on the wrong feet. Toddlers + shoes on the wrong feet never gets old. I crack a smile every time she puts her shoes on.

I did get a cute picture of Halle, though. I love the windblown hair and her little dress. This is how I'll forever remember her. My carefree, wild little girlie.

These pics were taken on Mother's Day. I am realizing more and more that I don't have enough pictures of ME with my kids. I'm always the one behind the camera, and let's be honest, they're much cuter to look at than I am, but still. I want some pictures of all of us!

Ava's dimple cracks me up...

And this sweet little picture. Ugh. I can't even. Halle is too sweet for words.

Now, on this blessed Mother's Day, Coco didn't have shoes. True story. I grabbed them as we were running to the car to head to church, and I thought I put them in my bag... and I didn't. I left them on the counter. So, she went to church shoeless. She also took of her little cardigan... which made her look like a little hippie child. 

She's also starting to pull some really funny faces when I ask her to smile. 

And yes, Halle wore hot pink high heels with a red dress. That's how we roll.

Motherhood has changed me. It is now my whole life. Literally, my whole life. It's so hard/rewarding/exhausting/challenging/loving and stretches me to the limits every. single. day. but these 3 girls are my world.

Rolo Cupcakes

I love baking. Yes, it's true. I don't do it as often as I would like because, well, with 3 kids, I have enough dishes to do already and sometimes they like to help a leeetle too much. Okay, a lot much. But sometimes, I set aside my freaky cleanliness obsession and decide to bake. 

Once upon a time, I baked cupcakes weekly. I would think of a recipe, make it, and send the leftovers with my husband so he could share the goodness that is my cupcakes with his co-workers. He was new to the company, and I reallllly wanted people to like him. And me. Even thought I've never met them. I still wanted them to think he had like thee coolest wife. ever. period. So I'd bake away and those were the good ol' days.

                   

*Don't you just love my little hand model? I'd take a bowl of Rolo's with a side of chubby toddler hands any day...*

Moving on... Those were also the days where I fell in love with filled cupcakes. I can never go back to making just normal, unfilled cupcakes. They are seemingly unsatisfying. #imacupcakesnob 

Those were also the days when I made these Rolo cupcakes for some event, and one of my friends tasted these and said they were amazeballs. She used a different word to describe them, but I won't repeat that here.. Ha ha! 

Well, a few weeks ago, said friend brought over a little side table and some clothes for my girls, and I wanted to thank her, so I made her favorite, amazeballs cupcakes. But this time, I not only filled the center of the chocolate cupcake with Rolo's, but I drizzled some caramel happiness into the middle. Double the caramel, double the fun. :)

The cake part of these cupcakes were more like a brownie. I also love really chewy cupcakes. I'm not a light and fluffy cupcake kind of girl... I'm a sink-your-teeth-and-close-your-eyes-because-it's-so-dang-chewy kind of girl.

So, that's how I made these. Combine that with the caramel to the second power center, chocolate frosting, with a Rolo on top, and more caramel sauce, and these were some suuuuuuuper rich and fulfilling cupcakes.

Chocolate Rolo Cupcakes

I'm not really good at making up cake recipes, so I found the delish cupcake recipe over at Sally's Baking Addiction. You can find it here. However, I did double the recipe and it made enough for 12 cupcakes and tons of mini ones...

Fill the cupcakes with a little bit of batter.
Add a Rolo and then drizzle some caramel sauce on top of it.
Fill the rest of the cupcake liner (well, fill it until it's 2/3 full) with some more batter.

Bake according to the directions.

Once the cupcakes are cooled, pipe with chocolate frosting.
I don't really follow any frosting, I just dump ingredients together. It drives my husband crazy!
I do start with 1/2 stick of butter, a couple cups of powdered sugar, about 2 TBSP of cocoa powder, and a few TBSP of heavy cream. I whip all those together. If I want it more chocolatey, I add some more cocoa powder. Not a ton, just a little bit. Like a teaspoon or so. Whip some more. If it's too runny, I add some more powdered sugar to stiffen it up. If it's too stiff, I add a teeny bit of cream. A little cream will go a looooong way.

Whip like mad.

And then whip some more. That's what makes a good frosting.

Pipe onto the cupcakes, top with a Rolo, and drizzle some more caramel sauce on top. I just use whatevs caramel sauce is in the ice cream section at the store.

Now eat like a freak and enjoy.