Peanut Butter Cheesecake

 
You need this recipe.

This stuff is SO GOOD and it is really easy to make.  I got it from the Hershey's Chocolate Cookbook (which was one of our wonderful wedding gifts).  Warning: this cheesecake is VERY rich and addictive!

Peanut Butter Cheesecake

6 Tb butter or margarine, melted
6 Tb cocoa
1/3 cup powdered sugar
1 1/2 cups (about 45 cookies) Nilla Wafer crumbs
8 oz cream cheese, softened
2 Tb lemon juice
1 1/2 cups Reeses peanut butter chips
14 oz can sweetened condensed milk
1/2 pint whipping cream, whipped

1. Stir together butter, cocoa, powdered sugar and Nilla Wafer crumbs in bowl.  Press firmly onto bottom of 9-inch springform pan (or just a regular pie pan); refrigerate while preparing filling.
2. Beat cream cheese and lemon juice in large bowl until fluffy; set aside.  Combine peanut butter chips and sweetened condensed milk in medium saucepan over low heat; stir constantly until chips are melted and mixture is smooth.  Add to cream cheese mixture; blend well.  Fold in whipped cream.  Pour evenly over crumb crust.

3. Cover and refrigerate over night or several hours.  Add any kind of topping you'd like before serving- I've had it plain, with a cranberry topping or with crushed Butterfingers.  Everything was delicious and there are so many more possibilities.  And that's it!  Enjoy!

Merry Christmas!

Our photos were taken by the talented and wonderful Kellie.

Books Worth Reading

Welcome Home, Elder Dimick

 Can you believe it's been 2 years?  I am so excited that my little brother is back home.  He arrived yesterday (on 12-12-12) at 12:00.  Pretty weird.  He definitely has some major adjusting to do, but he'll get there!  He served a great mission and worked really hard.  We are all so proud of him.

We dressed up all of the kids like missionaries, complete with their own personalized name tags (which we kind of had to do because that was the first time Jacob was meeting 3 of the grandkids and the 4 he had met were way older).

Penny has absolutely fallen in love with Uncle Jacob (I know it doesn't look like it from this picture but that was after I had woken her up in the morning and from a nap, back-to-back)!
 

Our Big Girl

Lately Penny seems to have just gotten so much older.  She can do so many things now and understands most of what we say.

SO BIG- she went outside and shut the door.  But then she couldn't figure out how to get back in.

She can say so many things now, it seems like she gets a new word or phrase everyday.  Today she said, "Help, please."  Some of our favorites are: "Readyyyy, Go!" and "Cupcake".  Some of her favorites are "Ca ca" (quack quack, she LOVES ducks), "Cra cra" (cracker) and "No!".

She loves to help.  If I am doing the dishes, cooking, cleaning, etc. she has to be up there doing it with me.

She loves other people.  She waves and says "Hi!" to random people we see on the street.

She gives kisses now, but for some reason will only give them to Mommy.  I think rejecting Daddy has turned into a fun game.  Last night she was being so silly, she put her hands on either side of my face and was trying to kiss me (open-mouthed) on my mouth.  She thought it was hilarious.

 

This is my FAVORITE age (so far).  I love that she can do so many things on her own now and can keep herself entertained for so long.  But the thing that I absolutely love the most about this new age is that she has learned to care and sympathize.  Last night I had a killer headache so I was laying in bed with my eyes covered.  Penny was so concerned, she kept coming over to me and tapping me, or laying her head down on me.  We love that kid!

TOMORROW

 

This will be so much fun and there will be TONS of great items for gifts (or yourself, we won't tell) .  Hope to see you there!

Our lives

Just wanted to do a little update of what we've been up to lately.  Penny still has way more than her share of personality:

This is how she likes wearing her sunglasses:

Remember this picture?

Well, apparently, she decided all her glasses need to look like that.

She loves reading now even more than ever:

She would just have us read her books all day long if we let her.

She also thinks she's hilarious:

And she has discovered a new love: coloring.

She's really good about coloring on her little notebook and apparently she is a very strong righty- she never uses her left (I, the lefty of the family, was a little bummed).  

Another new love: purses.

This picture kind of freaks me out.  She thinks she's 18 already!

A couple of days ago the 3 of us were just hanging out in our room (yes, we all share a room), doing our own thing.  We looked over at Penny and she was just laying on the floor, playing with whatever was nearby.

It totally brought me back to my childhood where the floor was just as good a place as any to lay and the most unconventional things were the best toys.  Enjoy it while you can, Penny!

Scott is still working for Activision (doing quality assurance for video games), they just finished Black Ops.  And still trying to get in as much play time with this little girl as possible!

Scott and I don't do Black Friday shopping so on Black Friday this year we decided it would be our Welcoming in the Christmas Season Day.  We decorated for Christmas, listened to Christmas music in our jammies and made Christmas treats all day.  Scott named it "Fat Friday."  

Scott was getting out the nativity set and I looked over and saw him telling Penny the Christmas story with it and her listening so well.

It was so cute.  And then they both had to play with them.

(I don't remember the Disney princesses being at the stable)

Penny saw me stirring some dough and wanted to help.

She is a very good helper!

And then she had to have a sample.

Now she thinks anything I am stirring needs to go in her mouth, even if it is funky-looking to me.

Mickey Mouse Beanie Pattern

Recently I made this Mickey Mouse beanie for my nephew:

 I wasn't able to find a pattern online so I had to make up my own.  It turned out well so I decided I would post the pattern.  This beanie was made for a 2-year-old with a 19-inch head circumference.

Here it is:

Beanie:
(Black) Start with slip knot, CH-5, SL ST into first stitch to make a ring.
Rnd1: CH-2, 12 HDC into ring, DON'T join.
Rnd2: 2HDC into each HDC (24 stitches)
Rnd3: *1 HDC into first stitch, 2 HDC into next*  Repeat all the way around.
Rnd4: *1 HDC into next 2 stitches, 2 HDC into next stitch*  Repeat all the way around.
Rnd5: *1 HDC into next 3 stitches, 2 HDC into next stitch*  Repeat all the way around.
Rnd6-13: 1 HDC into each stitch all the way around.
 Rnd14-18: Switch to red, 1 HDC into each stitch all the way around.
Rnd 19: 1 SC into each stitch around, finish off.

Ear flaps:
(Red) Join yarn with slip stitch at appropriate place (Find seam of beanie and fold in half so the seam is in the middle rear.  Each end of the folded beanie will be the middle stitch of each ear flap- count over 6 stitches to find beginning.)
Row1: CH-3, DC in next 11 stitches.
Row2: CH-3, turn.  *DC DEC into next 2 stitches, DC into next stitch*  Repeat, ending with DC DEC
Row3: CH-3, turn.  *DC DEC into next 2 stitches, DC into next stitch*  Repeat, ending with DC DEC
Row4: CH-3, turn.  DC DEC into next 2 stitches, DC into next stitch, DC DEC into next 2 stitches.
Row5: CH-3, turn.  *DC DEC into next 2 stitches*  Repeat once.
 Row6: CH-1, SC into next 3 stitches.  Finish off.

Cut 2 strands each of black, red and white yarn 1 1/2- 2 feet long.  Thread through tip of ear flap and braid together.  Knot and cut at desired length.  Repeat for next ear flap.


Ears:
Start with magic ring, CH-1.
Rnd1: 12 HDC in magic ring, pull tight, join to first HDC, CH-1.
Rnd2: 2 HDC in each stitch (24 HDC), join, CH-1.
Rnd3: 2 HDC in each stitch (48 HDC), join, CH-1.
Finish off (leave a long tail to attach)

Make 4 ears- attach 2 together to make each ear stand up better.

Attach white buttons to red strip in front.  (You may have noticed my buttons are photoshopped on.  I didn't have the buttons for the beanie yet but wanted to show what it would look like.  Obviously they will look better in real life!)

Firsts

Penny has had some fun firsts lately. A very important one:

First time at In-N-Out!!

She LOVED it.

And, first art project!  We did painting with edible paint.

I made the paint out of Skittles.  You just soak the skittles in water for about a minute and it makes a thin, edible paint.

Not really the best material for a masterpiece, but the nice thing was that I didn't care about her getting it all over!

And, I KNEW she would do this:

I didn't care about her ingesting the paint, but I didn't want all the brushes to get destroyed so I took them away.  And then Penny decided she needed to destroy her picture.

And then she decided she was done.

Another fun first that she had today: first milkshake!

We were fortunate enough that Scott had a day off today (because he had to work Saturday and Sunday) so we took advantage of it by going to the beach- because it was 94 degrees at our house!  Literally!  We walked down the Seal Beach pier and had Ruby's for lunch.

Penny had fun chasing the birds around, and she was making friends with all the kids on the sand.

It was a BEAUTIFUL day to spend on the beach and our only regret is that Scott and I didn't bring our swimsuits! 

Happy Halloween!

(Penny is Toothless, I am Astrid and Scott is Hiccup from How to Train Your Dragon)