Sugar Cookies w/ Royal Frosting

This is a great recipe! I tweaked it a little for the liking of my family.

Ella’s White Sugar Cookies
Ingredients:
1 cup butter
1 cup powdered sugar
1 egg, beaten
1/2 t. almond extract
1 1/2 t. vanilla
1 t. salt
2 ½ c. sifted flour

Directions:
Cream butter. Add powdered sugar. Blend in egg, almond extract, vanilla, salt and flour. Chill dough until firm. Roll to ¼” thickness on well-floured surface. Cut with cookie cutters. Place on greased cookie sheets. Bake at 375° for 8-10 min. Cookies should not brown. Frost and decorate when cool. Yields ~24 cookies. THE ORIGINAL RECIPE SAID THAT IT MADE 40 COOKIES, BUT I BARELY GOT 24 OUT OF THE BATCH. I guess it depends on the size of the cookie cutters.

Royal Icing
Ingredients:
4 cups powdered sugar, sifted
2 tbsp. meringue powder (You can buy this at Michaels)
5 tbsp. water

Directions:
Combine all ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on low speed until the sheen has disappeared and the icing has a matte appearance (about 7-10 minutes). This will be the stiffest consistency of the icing. This is the consistency that you will use to pipe around the outside of your cookie. You may need to add water to make a little thinner, but ADD A LITTLE AT A TIME (Remember, if you are having any difficulty piping, it is still too thick. Add a little more liquid and try again.) Separate the icing into containers to tint frosting. Using a pastry bag (or in my case, a Ziploc baggy with a corner snipped to fit piping tools), pipe around the edges of each cookie. Let stand so the icing will set. Make sure to keep the leftover icing covered at all times when not in use so that it does not begin to harden.

After you have piped all of the cookies, thin out the remaining frosting by incorporating a small amount of water at a time, until the icing drips off the spoon easily when lifted and then smooths in with that still in the bowl. If you go too far and the icing is too thin, add more sifted powdered sugar to thicken it again. Once the frosting has reached the desired consistency, transfer it to a squeeze bottle (or a plastic bag with a hole in one corner), and flood the area surrounded by the piping on each cookie. If it does not completely spread to the edges, use a toothpick to help it along. Allow to set.

Use the remaining thicker icing for piping decoration as desired.

**I use gel food coloring because I think it makes brighter colors, but liquid food coloring can also be used!

Source: www.annie-eats.com

Molly is 2 months old (well almost three)!

I can't believe that Molly is already two and a half months old! It feels like she has always been a part of our family. She is loved so much by her sisters (mom and dad, too). She has been a pretty easy baby, but has been getting a little more fussy lately (hopefully this just a phase). She is very alert and loves "standing" while you hold her. She is smiling a lot and looks around to find out where the noise is coming from, and trust me, there is always NOISE in our house.
Here are her stats from her 2 month checkup:
Weight - 13 lbs 7 oz
Height - 23 1/4 inches
The nurse didn't write it down, but I think she is about 95% for each category! This wasn't very surprising see that Layne and Abby were both way off the charts for each when they were little (and still are off the charts).
Here are pictures to show how much she has changed in one month!

Molly - 1 month

Molly - 2 months (I couldn't find the dolls clothes)

Molly and Abby
Layne and Molly

She loves the exersaucer!

Swagbucks! I love it!

So, I posted about Swagbucks a while ago, but I just wanted to tell you how much I love it! For those of you that don't know what Swagbucks is you can read about it here.
This is a great way to buy Christmas presents. I've been buying Amazon gift cards and plan on buying the something for the girls from there this year. The gift card options are endless! This is the best and cheapest way to buy gifts for people (or yourself) because you aren't spending a dime, yet you can earn these awesome gift cards! You can now get cash from Swagbucks by buying a PayPal gift card and they will put $5 in your PayPal account.
A great way to build up points is to have people sign up using your code. I am amazed at how fast the points add up after just doing a few searches a day. The points add up even faster if your friends use Swagbucks too!

Hide the Remote!

So today I told the girls that they could watch Caillou for a little while. I turned on the TV to PBS and went upstairs to fold some laundry. It was quiet downstairs so I figured that they were watching the show, but I was wrong! Layne yelled that she couldn't find Caillou and I told her that it should be on because I turned it to the right channel. She then told me that she pushed the button on the remote (meaning the OnDemand button that we use to watch already recorded shows that Comcast puts up each month). My heart started racing because if you just start pushing random buttons you could end up finding more than kids shows...
Well it turns out that ordered an "ADULT" film... you know, the ones that cost $14.99. Luckily I pushed cancel right before the, I'm sure high quality movie, "Big Boobs" popped on screen. I told her that only I could use the remote and then quickly hid it from her.
What are the chances of a kid pushing random buttons on a remote and ending up purchasing an adult film. My job for tonight is to find the child lock on the remote...

School

Layne started school today and she was very excited about it. She woke up smiling and telling me that it is a school day! After we finished our french toast we loaded everyone up in the stroller and walked to school. Layne wouldn't stop talking the entire way to school, but once we entered the building she was silent! She loved finding her hook and hanging up her backpack, but when I told her it was time to go into her classroom she told me she had to hug her sisters first. It was the cutest thing! Abby cried when she realized that Layne wasn't coming with us, but that quickly stopped when she saw a few dogs our on walk back home.
Abby didn't know what to do without her big sister, so she stuck like glue to me for the next 2 1/2 hours! I'm hoping this will change, but it must be hard on Abby since she has always had someone to play with.
Layne was smiling when we picked her up and proud to show me her artwork that she had made today. She was very quick to hug Abby and Molly and tell them that she was done with school for the day.
I'm going to miss my big girl this year, but I know that she will love school and socializing with the boys and girls in her class.

Labor Day Weekend

We had a great Labor Day Weekend with awesome weather. We spent our last weekend of the summer at my parent's cottage. The girls had an awesome time playing with their cousins, Zach and Carter. Layne and Abby loved sporting the new wetsuits Grandma bought for the cottage. They fit perfectly as you can see from the pictures. :) Here are some pictures from the weekend.

Sisters

Cheese!

Tubing fun!

Go FASTER!

Last tube ride of the summer

Hudsonville Fair

Last weekend we went to the Hudsonville Fair with Matt, Allison, Zach and Carter. The weather wasn't the best, but that turned out to be a good thing because it wasn't very busy! It was dollar day, so all of the rides were only a dollar (thank goodness because I wasn't about to pay three dollars for a carousal ride). Layne loved all of the rides that she was able to go on (next year she'll be able to ride more). Abby wished she could have gone on all of the rides, but she was just too small. Here are some pictures from the day.

The Ferris wheel

Everybody on (check out that carnie!)!

Sticky hat

Carousal ride

Bumper cars - Layne loved this ride

Dragon "teacups" - Andy got the girls so dizzy on this ride

Matt, Allison, Zach and Carter on the dragon "teacups"

ROLLER COASTER!

Swings