A rare but beautiful sight

Kirkley does not slow down for much and usually when we hear silence, something is usually up. Not this morning. Things got quiet, I walked into her room, and I found her "reading" to Little Bear. I think it lasted a whole ten minutes!

How to use up your Valentine chocolate...

Back in the day I bought these cute little ramekins -- 16 of them to be exact -- back when I thought I'd be hosting fabulous dinner parties. Little did I know I would have people over like once every six months once I had kids. :) Maybe another time in our life!

Anyway, we had a bag of Dove dark chocolates and these cute ramekins sitting around so Double Chocolate crème brulée came to life! Don't think you can't do this! I PROMISE you can! It really is super easy and the results are really amazing. I've had to share these little ramekins with friends and fam so Alex and I don't eat one after all three meals! Your fam will be SO impressed -- crème brulée is super easy but super fancy! Share one with your Valentine -- it's still Feb -- keep celebrating!

Sorry, no step by step pictures -- I was doing good just to get this made much less have pictures of each step! :) This is going to look like it takes forever -- promise it doesn't. Just trying to be descriptive....

Double Chocolate Crème Brulée
Makes 6 servings

2 cups (16 oz) heavy whipping cream
8 egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup cocoa powder (I used part dark, part regular)
2 ounces chocolate (I used Dove Dark Choc hearts), roughly chopped
more granulated sugar for the tops after baking

- Preheat oven to 250.
- Chop up chocolate.
- Separate eggs; put 8 yolks into a large bowl (a bowl with a spout to pour from if possible). Whisk in cocoa powder and sugar till most is dissolved.
- Heat whipping cream on stove until warm -- almost simmering. Remove from heat and whisk in chopped chocolate. Whisk till dissolved.
- Add about half of a cup of the cream/chocolate to yolk mixture and whisk well (you are tempering the egg yolks so they don't cook too quickly). Add a half cup more and whisk well. Now add all and whisk well.
- At this point, you can pour it all through a strainer. I didn't want to get anything else dirty so I skipped this step, and they turned out fine.
- Put 6 ramekins in a 9 x 13 dish. You may not fit them all in one 9 x 13 -- that is fine.
- Pour mixture into ramekins evenly.
- Pour warm water into 9 x 13 carefully around ramekins; come as close as you can to the top of the ramekins without it making a mess -- about halfway up.
- Bake at 250 for an hour and a half.
- When crème brulée is done, it will shimmy a little bit but it shouldn't be too liquidy.
- Remove crème brulées from the water bath immediately and put in the fridge.
- Refrigerate for at least 2 hours or overnight -- this is great make ahead.
- At serving time, sprinkle a spoonful of sugar on top of each; shake off excess into the sink -- you just need the layer that sticks to the top.
- Torch moving quickly over the sugar. You'll see it melt then bubble a bit -- bubbling means it's done -- don't burn and keep the torch moving! If you don't have a torch, put them on the top rack of your oven under the hot broiler. Watch with the door cracked for the sugar to go clear then start to bubble. Take them out as soon as you see some bubbles.
- Serve!

A few notes -- I have a food scale so it took me 8 Dove chocolate hearts to equal 2 ounces. I think you can totally guesstimate or try to look on the pkg at the serving size or whatever. This measurement being off won't mess things up really. Don't have ramekins? Find some small glass/ceramic containers that can go in the oven. And keep your egg whites for breakfast in the morning when you're feeling guilty for eating this!

Two Months

This little guy is two months old! At his two month check up, he weighed in at 14 pounds and 14 ounces and measured 23 1/8 inches long. Still 95th percentile weight and 50th percentile height. The doctor said it would be a while before he rolled over...because of his size. :) I'm a little self-conscious about the chunkiness, but we also love all of these sweet little rolls.

He's eating every 3-4 hours and waking up once in the middle of the night. I was told that the 5am feeding is not the middle of the night so that one doesn't count, but it sure feels early since Kirkley is up and about around 5:30! :)

Totally in love with these eyelashes...

Especially loving that he's still smiling by the end of all of my picture taking!
And for reference...found a picture of his sis at two months old:

SNOW Round 2!

We got back out in the snow this morning for one more round of fun! This little bear joined us this time...

Kirkley got all of her last snow fun packed in! She trekked all around the course...Rolled up another snow man...
And got in a snowball fight with Daddy. She lost when she took one to the face. Daddy said, "Whoops -- she moved on me!" :)
As we were wrapping up to go inside, Alex says, "Aren't you going to get some artsy fartsy picture of the snow melting?" Oh, okay! :) Snow was so fun while it lasted!

Click for 2009 Snow Pics

SNOW!

We finally got out in it for a little bit this afternoon till we were all frozen!

She loved looking at her footprints...

and throwing snowballs!
She'd drop down every once in a while and make a snow angel....
And of course we had to try it out!

YAY for SNOW!

bloggers...

you need to click out of reader to see what I figured out how to do with my post titles!!!

I used this tutorial and love her fonts!

For our out of town fam....

It's coming down and we're SNOW excited and ready to play! :)

Daddy Daughter Date Night

Kirkley and Alex headed off to Daddy Daughter Date Night tonight! The girls were so excited -- Kirkley talked all day about her princess party!


The girls were not much on the picture party...
Until I said they could jump up and down in their fancy dresses!

Sweetheart Celebration

Kirkley's class had a Valentine party today. She was thrilled to have a "bawentime" party when I told her it involved cupcakes. I couldn't get her to put her drink down for a smile!

She was so excited to give out Valentine treats to her classmates. I was excited they were free Valentines that we made out of all of her old crayons! Same process pretty much as last year except I stuck all of the colors in silicone muffin molds then in the oven. They popped right out once they were cool.

This is over the top...I know

Here is one perk Jay is getting as child #2. We have one blurry picture of Kirkley with her first smile since we didn't have a SLR camera when she was born. That has been my one of my favorite investments. Not that Jay needs 82 pictures of his first smile but just in case! 82 pictures of his first smile and of his sweet cheeks and chins! We go see what this chunk weighs this afternoon at his 2 month appt! I really think he'll be topping the scale at 15+ lbs! Kirkley did not do this -- it has been crazy to see him growing so quickly!

And a side note...My favorite lens (thanks to the Fitts family for this find) is the Nikkor 35mm 1:1.8G. Alex and I gave this to each other for Christmas this past year, and I wish we'd gotten it sooner! It does the blurry background thing that we all thought our pics would look like with a SLR camera. It's the only lens we really use now. Random photography advice from someone who only knows how to change the ISO and f settings....

Granddaddy & Cynthia

Granddaddy and Cynthia came for a visit this past weekend. Both children were well loved on!!! We loved seeing them -- come see us again soon!

Smiley

I have tons to post, but I had to go ahead and share this one! Jay has started smiling and focusing with his eyes on a more regular basis now. It's been precious! He's been spoiled the past few days with Granddaddy and Cynthia in town and worked on his grin to tell us how much he's enjoying the extra attention!

A weekend missing Daddy...

Daddy headed off with some friends for a long weekend of this ...
I was a little {A LOT} nervous about a weekend at home with both kids alone. That was all compounded by the fact that earlier in the day Alex left, we thought Kirkley might have gotten a concussion at school -- she didn't, but it made for a crazy afternoon of dr appts, cleaning up sickness, and nursing our sweet girl back to normal. Luckily, Grammy and Aunt Lala came to the rescue all during the weekend and provided me with some one on one time like they always do when things get crazy around here! :)

By Saturday night, the mommies were ready to get together and let the kids cut loose with an "almost sleepover" at the McDonalds'. Kids came in their jammies and were good and worn out by the time we left! Missed yall, Barrons!

Kirkley, Jay, and I were SO glad to see Alex after three nights away! When we told her he was going skiing, she said, "Can he bring me some snow?" Daddy did not disappoint and came home with a cooler full of a precious souvenir!
Little did we know it would be snowing it up around here just a few days later! Glad the daddies made it back safely and had a blast!

Snuggle Bugs

Kirkley was so proud of herself holding Jay and thinking he was smiling at her!

So proud of herself too when she announces, "I'm not hitting him!

Tummy Time

Doesn't last long before snoozing sets in...

And has to be done in a "protected" area...

And usually ends up as hang out in the swing time!