a thought...

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who not change like shifting shadows ~James 1:17

I am thankful for this truth today.  I am thankful that God loves me and wants to lavish me with His love.  I am thankful that He does not change; He is not fickle or fake.  He is constant and unmoving.  

happy saturday!

I've said this lots of times before, but I love Saturdays! 

We have nothing planned today, so we're just going to hang out and relax =)  We might even play in the snow.....pictures to follow!

Have a great day!

cinnamon roll cake

Tonight we were invited over to a potluck dinner and get together with some good friends.  I, as usual, brought dessert! =)  I found this yummy looking recipe on Pinterest a little while ago was glad to have an excuse to make it! 

ooey, gooey, deliciousness!

Ingredients:
cake:
3 cups flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
4 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 cups milk
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup butter (1 stick) melted

topping:
1 cup butter (2 sticks) softened
1 cup brown sugar
2 TB flour
1 TB cinnamon

glaze:
2 cups powdered sugar
5 TB milk
1 tsp vanilla

For the cake, mix the first 7 ingredients together in a bowl until well incorporated.  Slowly mix in the melted butter.  Pour the batter in a greased 13 by 9 pan.  Set aside.

Next, for the topping, cream the brown sugar, flour and cinnamon together with the softened butter.  Drop by the spoonfuls on top of the cake.  Take a spoon or a knife and swirl the topping into the batter.

Bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes (or until a toothpick comes out clean).

While the cake is baking, whisk together the glaze.  Once the cake has cooled slightly, pour the glaze over the top.  Serve warm or room temperature.

**My notes**
This recipe is super easy to throw together!  It definitely does not disappoint.
For the cake part, I only had 3/4 cup of sugar left in my pantry, so that's what I ended up using.  The cake still turned out plenty sweet.
I made the batter ahead of time, put it in a covered 13 by 9 dish, and kept it cold in the fridge until I was ready to bake it.
Also, I didn't use all the glaze this recipe makes.  I poured maybe a half over the cake and let the rest sit out so our friends could put extra on their cake if they wanted it.
I think this cake would taste amazing with vanilla ice cream ... but if you tried that, I would skip the glaze. 

sledding with friends

All the schools in the area were closed from all the snow we got yesterday, so this morning Jaden and I had a playdate/lunch with some of our friends!  We brought our snow stuff and sleds and had a great time out =)

the sledding hill next to starla's house is humongous...and the perfect place to kiddos to sled!

jaden absolutely loved it =)  the snow was pretty packed down, so he and carson practically flew down the hill each time

cami could not be persuaded to sled.  she watched the boys the whole time we were outside.

carson liked sledding too...he didn't venture up the hill as high as jaden, but he still had a blast

i love carson's Mohawk hat =)

eating snow...seems like that's a requirement for all kids when there's snow around

cami ate a ton of snow while she watched the boys =)

first snow

Finally it snowed! There were several times this winter that forecasted snow, and all we got was rain, or cold, or wind, or some combination of the three.  So when the weather called for snow today, I was pretty skeptical.

But....it did!!  And now everything is covered in soft, wet, white snow.
Jaden and I bundled up and went outside to play =)

walking on the golf course behind our house

a view of the course

jaden kept screaming "look, there's no footprints!  this is so fun!"

the park in the snow?  yes, please!  =)  jaden said the slides were suepr fun.

so pretty

a view from the bridge at the park

puddle splashing

on our way to splash in some puddles

i love his face =)

this was jaden's favorite puddle

starla's baby shower

My good friend Starla is also pregnant and happens to be due two weeks before me.  I got to throw her a baby shower this past weekend.  It was fun! =)

starla =)  look at that preggy glow on her face!

playing "measure the belly"....you take ribbon and try to guess how big around the momma's belly is =)

the ladies