{Fall into Autumn: Northern Arizona}

Some things I love about Autumn are the the cool, crisp air, the leaves falling off the trees and the changing of the color of the leaves. Living in the desert with plants that don't lose their leaves, and cactus that don't exactly have leaves to lose, makes it difficult to see such things. Not to mention we just left our triple digit friends for the lower 90s a few days ago. Luckily for me, and many others that enjoy this, northern Arizona is not too far away! 

A little climb in elevation, drop in temperature about 20 degrees and a completely different climate exists. We drove up to Flagstaff last weekend and got to see some changing Aspen trees. Explored the hilly-mountainous area around Flagstaff and Jackson got his first hike in.
[Warning: Photo overload!] All from October 7.

Pinecones aren't that tasty.

Look Mom, I found dirt to play in!

Family trip success! Next on the agenda: Snow.   

I've lost my wisdom

So what's been happening lately?


For one, I was lucky enough to have to have two of my wisdom teeth out. I'll pause for the cheers. Oh wait, no one wants that! I did pretty good actually. I think my jaw was more sore the afternoon after it was done than the next day. I remember in high school everyone having their wisdom teeth out. For some reason I was lucky (?) enough to miss that train. Oh well, better late than never, right??? This will be my diet for the next few days: 

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As soon as I can eat real solid foods again, I'm looking forward to some strawberries and salads and spaghetti, of course not all together.


Here are some photos:

Making a mess playing with toys. Messes are so fun!

Lots of feeding ourselves going on here. 

We celebrated our (Jackson's) first 4th of July. We went to watch the fire works in Chandler. What perfect weather it was that night, warm and humid, which is kinda rare for the desert but man it was nice!

Tough to get a good firework photo with my phone.

Bright flash makes us look funny!

While the 4th of July just wasn't the same since we all had to work and go to daycare, we did get to spend the evening together. Watermelon, strawberries, sitting at the park and playing. We missed the parades we used to go to. The BBQ's and family get togethers.

Lots of naps with our bunny and uncle jimmy bear. Gotta have a friend to cuddle up with :)

Enjoy your week. I'm on zombie shifts so I'll be backwards from you all. Looking forward to getting a few miles in this week in between the heat. Man oh man, we must be in July now:

Check out those overnight LOW temps only in the upper 80s and low 90s. Hello A/C!

Sweet Tooth

We all get a sweet tooth every now and then, right??? Well maybe not my brother, he isn't a huge fan of sweets. That's ok. More for me. Well, not too many, I do have some baby weight to get rid of :)

Mine did NOT turn out looking like this! But they tasted just as good :)

I had a sweet tooth a while back and the first thing that came to mind (the first thing that always comes to my mind) is something peanut butter and chocolate. Upon scouring the web for recipes, I came across this one from Joys of Baking. I think I've used a few recipes from here before. This one is amazing. And SUPER easy too! FYI: use small/mini muffin pans or mini muffin size paper cups. I used a regular size muffin pan and they came out way too big. Talk about sugar rush!


Ingredients:
Filling

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

2 tablespoons  unsalted butter, room temperature

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup confectioners (powdered) sugar

Chocolate Coating

9 ounces semi sweet chocolate, coarsely chopped

9 ounces milk chocolate, coarsely chopped

1 tablespoon shortening

Place the peanut butter, unsalted butter, and salt in a microwaveable bowl, and heat in the microwave for about 45 seconds or just until soft, but not melted (check and stir the ingredients every 20 seconds). Stir in the confectioners sugar.

Melt the chocolates and shortening in a heatproof bowl placed over a saucepan of simmering water.

Drop a teaspoon of the melted chocolate into each of the paper lined miniature muffin cups. Top with a scant teaspoon of peanut butter mixture. Then top with another teaspoon of melted chocolate. Refrigerate until set. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

Makes about 36 peanut butter cups. Preparation time30 minutes.*** Depending on the size of the peanut butter cups you make!

Yes, it says it should make 36. If you use the regular size muffin pan like I did, you'll get 15 maybe. Oops! Needless to say they lasted longer since that was way too much chocolate. But it tastes just like a store bought peanut butter cup. Must try!

Desert Botanical Garden

Josh and I were lucky enough to take a trip to the Desert Botanical Garden earlier this month with a few new friends we've made here. What a day! That place was really cool. It was great to learn about a bunch of different plants around this region. We're trying to learn as much as we can about this area since we are new. Here are some photos. The names of some of these plants may have left me, but I'm sure Josh will know the answer! We also went to the Butterfly Exhibit--that was our main reason for going--which was VERY cool! We got to help release some butterflies too!

Saw a nome!!

This is that plant you ate Jimmy!