Life// Eli's Birthday

 As you may have noticed, Eli is quite crazy. I can't seem to capture a moment where he is at all serious. I guess that just might be because he never really is....

  He turned six on the 20th, where does the time go?

 He couldn't choose whether he wanted to eat cake first or open presents first, so he did both.

 Amazing Batman attire, made by Layla.

 Horse wood-burning, made by Gabe.

 The birthday cake was scrumptious, a soft chocolate cake topped with whipped coconut cream.

It was quite a day!
Eli is always the one to make us laugh when we are down and always looks on the bright side.  I am so thankful to have him as my brother!
Love,
Hagen

A Birthday and an Outfit

So today was Layla's birthday! (Is it obvious that we have a lot of birthdays in Jan.?)
I can't believe she's 20! She says it's just another year of life, but I'm so thankful for the many years with her!
 
She is bright and practical, and I love her! I love her laugh and her bright blue eyes, I love our late night talks and how we always know what the other is going to say just by looking at each other! I love photographing her and, being the little sister, I feel it my duty to *sometimes* get on her nerves....which can be a lot of fun at times... Sorry sis! :)

 Anyway, here was how her day went....

To start, her and I went out to a local farm and picked up milk. While we were out I got some pics of her!

-What She Wore-

Sweater- from a friend $0

Skirt- from a friend $0

Leggings- walmart $7

Boots- army surplus $30

And then, of course, we commenced the celebration!

 Delicious chocolate (of course chocolate) cake with chocolate, orange, and peanut butter icing!
I did the piping myself....

20!

I decide to withhold from you the video of us singing happy birthday. I thought you might be tired of hearing our untalented singing voices....
But here are a few pics of Layla opening her gifts!

Olivia made her an ankle bracelet....

 Mom got her tea making cup thing, (not what it's called at all!) Basically there's a little basket type thing that you place in the cup that holds your desired teas and it'll just steep right there in the cup! Pretty cool!

 

She got a few little homemade things, a necklace and I made her a friendship bracelet and a few Shrinky Dink rings....

And for dinner we (dare I say it?!?!) went out to eat at a delicious mexican restaurant!

I LOVE you SO much Layla! Happy Birthday!

Love,
Hagen

Eli #5!

Earlier this week we had another birthday! Eli tuned five! He is just growing up so fast.... It's almost sad....
But they can't stay little forever! 

  He certainly is a little cowboy! Mom and I made him a vest with matching chaps! 
Here he is riding a bucking bronco!  

 So serious....

 Here is his delicious cake.... We decorated it with a few steer, wandering out of there fence.....

The cake was a chocolate cake with chocolate and peanut butter icing! Yum-yum in my Tum-tum!

 Opening his gifts! 

After the celebration we went to the original Bass Pro shops in town!

 My sweet family!

 I asked Eli to crawl into this tree for a picture but he looked at me and said, "What if there's snakes?!?!"
I then told him that cowboys weren't scared of snakes. He looked at me again and said, "Oh, right....."
I love that boy!

Well, that pretty much sums up his day!
I hope you are enjoying all these birthday posts because Layla's is coming up soon! :)

Love,
Hagen

Birthday Girl!

Yesterday was a day of celebration! Matilda turned Eight! Can you believe it? She's growing up so fast!

 I just love her! She is very artistic and and has a wide sense of humor! She is very independent, she loves and is loveable!

 Reading a card from Layla....

Opening her gifts! (Check out Baby O's face in the background!)

 Matilda was pretty stoked when a friend bought her a muffin from the coffee shop we went to that morning...

I can't believe this, but I totally forgot to take a picture of the cake! We just ate it to fast....
But it was a delicious chocolate cake with peanut butter icing and chocolate chips sprinkled on top.... (Now you know why it was gone so fast...)
 

 Here is a video of us singing "Happy Birthday!" Please, do excuse our singing voices but, as you may know, the happy birthday song is possibly the hardest song to sing on the whole face of the earth.

Love,
Hagen

Peanut Butter Cups

Hello dears! Today I have a recipe for you!
I had been craving these little cups of yummyness for forever, and couldn't stop thinking about them. So, I decided the best thing for me to do was to just make them!

Peanut Butter Cup Recipe

Makes 17 mini cups

3/4 cups chocolate chips

2 Tbsp. coconut oil

3 Tbsp. smooth peanut butter

1 1/2 Tbsp. coconut oil, melted
17 mini baking cups

I will say the more chocolate you have the better

 because the layers will be thicker....

1. Pour chocolate chips in a sauce pan along with the coconut oil. Put on medium heat. Stir until melted.

2. In a bowl, combine melted coconut oil and peanut butter. Stir until liquidy.

3. Place the baking cups on a cookie sheet. Pour a tsp. of the chocolate mixture in each cup. Put the cookie sheet in the freezer for the chocolate to harden.

4. When the chocolate is nice and hard, pour about a tsp. or tsp and a half of peanut butter mixture on top. Pop them back in the freezer to set-up.

5. Then simply pour another tsp of chocolate over the peanut butter, let harden in the freezer for about 6 minutes and voila! You've got yourself a delicious, melt in your mouth treat! 

Well let me know how you like them! Because....uh....we did... :)

Love,

Hagen

Recipe~ Creamy Coconut Macaroons

Here is a taste-bud-popping recipe, as promised! 
 

-Creamy Coconut Macaroons-

1/2 cup butter, softened

2 Tbls cream cheese, softened

1/4 cup honey

4 eggs

1/2 tsp baking powder

3 Tbls coconut flour

1 cup Enjoy Life chocolate chips

2 Tbls coconut oil 

1. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, cream cheese and honey.
2. Add in the eggs, one at a time.
3. Sift together the coconut flour and baking powder, and stir in. Make sure you don't over mix!

4. Drop batter by tablespoon fulls onto a lightly greased pan and bake at 350* for 12- 15 minutes. While cookies are baking, put remaining batter in fridge. 
5. While cookies are baking, melt together the chocolate and oil in a double boiler.
6.  Let cookies cool in the fridge before dipping.
7. Dip cookies in chocolate one by one. Place the dipped cookies upside down on a sheet, and place in the freezer for ten minutes.
8. Enjoy! Store cookies in the fridge. Makes about 36 macaroons. 

The sun started melting the chocolate, as you can see. Being sun-kissed made them taste even better!
These macaroons are so simple, I think the best part is that they are gluten and sugar free. 

Hope you enjoy these as much as we do!
Bake on,
Layla

I ♥ Thursday {No. 10}

It's Thursday, thursday...

Okay, I won't go there...

 

Source: via Bramblewood Fashion

Here are just a few things we have been loving/doing for the past few weeks:

First off, let's start with chocolate, because chocolate deserves to come first. Enjoy Life is our favorite brand of chocolate, it's allergen free, so we can all enjoy it!

Second comes books and the library. We love going to the library and diving into a good book, like this one...

"The Watch That Ends The Night" by Allan Wolf is an amazing book we both recently finished. I have to say it is one of the best Titanic books I have read!

The beach, of course! When we went last weekend, the waves were full of jellyfish. Arrg, those jellyfish just float around looking cute and harmless, and when you least expect it, ZAP!

 Source: via Pinterest

Writing and receiving letters from our long-distance friends is awesome! It makes you feel close, when it seems like you are a million miles away...

Source: via Nautical Nonsense

Collecting shells has become a fun hobby of ours. You never know what things you will find that have been washed ashore...

source: via Pinterest

And just loving the big state of Texas!


What have you been loving?
So, are you ready for the first day of Summer tomorrow? According to the heat here, we thought it already was Summer!
Blessings,
Layla & Hagen

Chocolate Birthday Cake

Hey y'all!
Last weekend, Mom became another year wiser. That's right, it was her birthday! Our aunt came down, spent the weekend with us and took Mom shopping. Of course we made her presents and cake, chocolate cake!
 
Here is an adorable paper frame Hagen made. I love the little RV!
 

And here is a little video of us singing 'Happy Birthday', and Mom blowing out her "candle"....

We had an enjoyable weekend celebration!
And now onto the cake...
 

I have a confession to make about this cake... it was made from a mix... go ahead, ridicule me...

Are you done? Okay, well this mix is our favorite to use whenever we are short on ingredients and time. It is gluten and soy free, and we only use it occasionally. 

For the cake you will need:

 1 bag of Pamela's Chocolate Cake Mix 

3 eggs
1/2 cup oil
1 cup strong coffee
 1/2 cup water

Mix together the above ingredients and pour into greased cake pans. Bake at 350* for 25- 30 minutes. This mix makes two 8-inch round cakes or 24 cupcakes.

For the ganache you will need: 
  1 10 oz bag of Enjoy Life Mini Chocolate Chips 
2 Tablespoons cream cheese
1/4 to 1/2 cup milk, or heavy cream
    
Put these ingredients into a saucepan or double boiler on low heat. Stir until you have a nice liquid. I started out with 1/4 cup of milk, then slowly added more to get the consistency I wanted. You may have to add more liquid, depending on if you use milk or cream.

When your cake is cooled, pour the ganache over the top. I like to do a small amount at a time, letting it soak in and spread out. 

When it comes to chocolate, I'm a pushover...
I hope you enjoyed this not-so-made-from-scratch recipe!
Blessings,
Layla