Tomato Soup Spice Cupcakes

I don't remember what year in college or who exactly I was rooming with but we got this small cookbook from Campbell's and it had this recipe in it. We made it and loved it. I threw away the cookbook (I think at the December white glove check or something) and then got reprimanded for getting rid of it. Today I was looking for a quick recipe to use up some left-over turkey and remembered it. So, to any of you old roommates who might still hold a grudge, here it is in all it's glory! (And for those of you who haven't tried it, don't snub your nose at it, it's actually really good!) You can click on the Campbell's and it will take you to their kitchen home page for more great recipes!

Ingredients:
1 box (about 18 ounces) spice cake mix
1 can (10 3/4 ounces) Campbell's® Condensed Tomato Soup (Regular, Healthy Request® or 25% Less Sodium)
1/2 cup water
2 eggs
Directions:
Heat the oven to 350°F. Place liners into 24 (2 1/2-inch) muffin-pan cups.
Combine the cake mix, soup, water and eggs in a large bowl and mix according to the package directions. Spoon the batter into the muffin-pan cups.
Bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean.
Cool the cupcakes in the pans on wire racks for 10 minutes. Remove the cupcakes from the pans and cool completely.
Frost with your favorite cream cheese frosting.
Tip: After frosting, you can sprinkle the cupcakes with toasted chopped pecans or walnuts.

We've MOVED!!!

This is the front view from the street. Notice the grass, it belongs solely to us. Which means no one will be throwing their cigarette butts in it, no one's animal will be doing it's business in it (we hope anyway) no one will be doing who knows what in it!

This is the back 'yard'. Very small but Grace doesn't need a ton. She has a sandbox and a trike so she should be okay. The shed is ours to store things in but the shop is not. The owners use it.

This is the kitchen. It is huge! Notice we have our kitchen table in it and a little table with 2 chairs for Grace, and it still has room!. (we found it at D.I. for $15, we couldn't resist!)

This is the living room. After much deliberation on Grant's part we settled on this. If you have any suggestions on the furniture placement, let us know. FYI though, there is a heater vent in front of the big window so we can't put any furniture on top of it! Notice the walls are NOT white!

The bathroom, not very big but it is our own and I am so excited to have cabinets behind the mirror! Only one of our apartments has had counter space in the bathroom so usually, the tiny counter space there is is packed with toothbrushes, deodorant, soap etc. Not here!

Grace's room. Grant is going to build her a bed (which will eventually be a bunk bed) so for now she sleeps on boxes of old clothes :) She doesn't care though. She just thinks it is cool she can see out the window when she stands on her bed :) She has only fallen off once :)

Our room. We still have a little unpacking to do and picture hanging and it all ends up in our room so Grace doesn't get into it! What can you do

Grace just runs around and around in all the space. Since there aren't stairs cutting everything in half it seems like our house is twice as big as our apt. was!

The coolest thing happened though. On Saturday I was going to start really cleaning the old apartment. I knew we had 3 days so I wasn't worried. I was going to make Grant do all the bending etc. and keep all the easy stuff for me. Well, the bishop came to help Grant move the bigger stuff and tells me that his wife wants to help me clean! So she and her 2 teenage daughters and the bishop come over and do everything while I worked on the bathroom! They cleaned out cupboards, washed down walls and doors etc, the bishop even vacuumed! I was so thankful. I knew Grant and I could do it so I didn't ask for help, but it sure was nice not to have to!

Anyway, come visit when you can. We actually have room to lay down a mattress or two!

Kids, Christmas, Move

You know what I love about children? Grace gives us a play-by-play report of almost everything she does. She'll be getting up onto a chair, "oh, up, uh oh, bonk, paper, pen" or something like that :) It is so cute because she only knows so many words so it's like this paragraph condensed into 6 words and you know exactly what she is doing!

Christmas was good for us. We've enjoyed our bed so our Christmas $ wasn't wasted! We found this awesome little used trike on the side of the road with a sign on it that said, "Free, to a good home. Merry Christmas" So Grace has a trike now! It is too big for her, but oh well because there isn't anywhere by our house to ride it. She has to scoot forward on the seat until she almost isn't on it, and then she gets top heavy and tips. She gets back on every time though! She also got a stroller, she likes it but there isn't a lot of room in our apartment. When we move she'll enjoy it more I think! Grant also got this way comfy blanket from his mother. It's one of those velor ones I think? I don't know, it is soft and warm and we love it! (did you get a load of Grace's new smile? She usually scrunces her nose more and it's more of a glare than a smile. I'm just glad she has 4 months to grow out of it before her 2 year pics!)

We will be moving next week. We are SO SO excited to leave our apartment complex! No more college students smoking, partying, bringing strange people over and littering and other disgusting stuff everywhere! I don't even let Grace play in the little grass there is here for fear of what is in it! It is a house with quiet older neighbors, a tiny back yard just big enough for Grace to have grass and a lot of room to run! I'll post some pictures when we move! And one extra plus, the walls are NOT white! All of you who rent can understand how white walls get very, very old!