Wednesday, February 24, 2010

I'm Makin' Waffles!

My house has mostly empty closets and bare walls. Everything left to pack fits into five categories:
1. Not fun to pack (translate: won't easily fit into boxes).
2. Categorized as 'essential' items until their status expires in two days and 80% of the 'essentials' will become fair game 'non-essentials'.
3. Kitchen--pantry, cupboards, small appliances--and laundry room. I can't believe all the random things that collect in the laundry room.
4. Kid's rooms/some toys.
5. Furniture that waiting for strong, willing men on Saturday.

Today I plan to tackle the kids rooms and the pantry. I know, sounds fun, right? So when I woke up to fussing baby at 6:30 am, I brought baby out to kitchen and told him, "Baby, we're starting our day off on a good note--with Belgian waffles!" (For the full effect, imagine that in a voice that sounds like Donkey from Shrek.)

Then my heart sank as I realized that the waffle maker probably fit into the 'non-essential' category and had already been moved to our new house. Not wanting to see the truth, I peeked with squinted eyes into the cupboard....and it was still there! Jeremy must know my heart :)

Baby wanted held the whole time I made them, but no matter. He soon enjoyed the first one in his highchair and even shared a few bites with the begging dog. The blueberries that were on sale this week fit deliciously into each little waffle square on mine, topped off with light whipped cream. Mmmm, it just lifts the spirits.


By the way, I'm not sure where my camera is...hope to resolve that before moving day....The photo is from Flickr by HeatherMG.

Monday, February 22, 2010

A Little about My "To Do List" and My "Wish List"

We are moving Saturday--finally! I'm excited to move on to the next stage of life in a new place, but I'll really miss my good neighbors and friends here. Thank goodness for FB and blogs to help stay in touch!

The past two weeks have been very busy and so I'm feeling a little unprepared for the moving process, but thanks to Jeremy, we got a plan last night (for my sake--I love to write lists.) Now I just need to start crossing things off the "To Do List".

Just a couple notes on the last week, I did a GNO where I taught a few neighbors how to do fondant cakes. It was a lot of fun and their cakes turned out so great! I spent a lot of time last week making six batches of fondant and getting the cakes and all my tools gathered, but I didn't want them to pay me for it. They were so sweet, though, and bought me this wonderful "Thank You" gift that brought tears to my eyes! It's some fun tools for working with fondant with I have had on my "Wish List"--a non-stick rolling pin, rolling pin rings, flower cut-outs, and bake even strips for cakes.
I didn't take pictures from the fondant class, but I have pictures of the cakes I made for a baby shower on Saturday. It was for my good friend from Jr. High/High School/College. She had her baby a couple weeks early, so her shower was postponed a couple of months.

I made two cakes, one for the baby girl and one for her mommy. I haven't done much piping on fondant, so I wanted to try that out, but I found out it's much harder to get the perfect consistency for piping on fondant because it doesn't stick as easily as it does to buttercream frosting. After two batches of frosting and over an hour trying to get it right, I finally got something that would work, but I need to perfect the process for sure!

Wish me a product week-- I have a couple days worth of things I need to get done before I start packing up the house!

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Newborn Sleep Gown

I loved dressing my newborn babies in sleep gowns--so much easier for middle-of-the-night diaper changes and so comfy for them to curl their little skinny legs up inside. When I saw this pattern on This Mama Makes Stuff, my sister and I had to try it out for her baby. Hers turned out so cute that I made some for some for my friends who are expecting this year. I love how they are made from T-shirts--well worn T-shirts just up the 'comfy factor'! This one was a man's XL and I actually got two out of it. Too bad I don't know anyone having twin boys!
My cousin and aunt helped me sew these four in about 45 min. per gown! I think I'm a little addicted to making these, though, because I still have two gowns left to gift but already want to get more T-shirts to sew up some more!

Friday, February 12, 2010

Grandma Wilson

On Tuesday my Grandma passed away. She was 93 years old. I'll miss her.

I did a video slideshow for the family and to show at the viewing. It's been tons of hours this week (and I can tell my kids have been watching a little too much tv/movies) but it's so worth it in the end. Here are some of my favorite pictures of her. My mom and her mom (my grandma) This is my grandpa (he passed away in 1999) and grandma holding me and my sisters. Can you tell which one I am? I'm on the left.My grandma and her younger sister and brother-in-law on vacationHer only wedding picture. This was her first husband. He died when she was pregnant with my mom.My cute grandparents in the 1960's--my favorite picture.

Saturday, February 6, 2010

$30

That's the amount we're going to save each month by switching from Luvs to Hanes! I'm so proud of my little girl for achieving this huge milestone! We've been working up to it for a few months and doing lots of 'practicing', but this week it just clicked--and she's been diaper free since Monday. I never wanted to push her into it, and I'm so glad because she's doing so well and actually hasn't had ANY accidents (knock on wood). We even went on a couple of errands and to the Aquarium this week without accidents!

Bradley has also has been so fun to watch these past couple of weeks. He's walking so well and hardly ever crawls anymore. I love watching him gain confidence in himself. I also love his new little walk--shoulders back, arms up, elbows out, tiny steps. So cute.

He's also pointing at a lot of things that he wants, and that's been a fun insight into his personality. For lunch yesterday, I was feeding him peas and macaroni and cheese for lunch and started with the peas first. He took a bite and then dramatically started pointing at the bowl with the Mac N Cheese. I complied, and he was a good boy and ate his peas afterwards--he just wanted the good stuff first!

Thursday, February 4, 2010

Fun with Fondant

Here are some more pictures of Brad's birthday cake. Fondant is so much fun and I just had to post more pictures of the decorating of the cakes!
These are the cakes before fondant. I made the large cake a chocolate with Oreo filling. The small was vanilla with cream cheese filling. I still haven't perfected my filling/filling process, though, as you can see when the stripes are added to the cake. Any tips out there? I love seeing the cakes after the fondant is on, but just hanging off it. It reminds me of the scene in Sleeping Beauty where the fairies make Rose her 16th birthday cake. I always breathe a sigh of relief after that first layer is done successfully--no tears, rips, bubbles. Then comes the final touches!

If you want to learn how to do fondant, my neighbor is graciously hosting a get-together at her house (since we're in the middle of a pre-move mess right now). It will probably be some time next week. It'll be free of course and I'll share my yummy fondant recipe with you, show you how to make it, as well as the limited information I know about how to decorate with it :) If you want more details, e-mail or leave a comment and I'll get you the invite information!

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

One Year Ago

One year ago we were finally able to bring Brad home from the hospital. Those were two very long, extremely difficult weeks after his birth while he was in the NICU. It surprises me how much emotion I still feel about that time and what a trial it really was. However, I did learn and grow a lot from the experience, and we are so blessed to have a happy, healthy boy now.

We love you, Brad!

Monday, February 1, 2010

Brad's First

As I said, I'm behind on blog posts, but here are some pictures from Brad's Birthday.

This is a good morning for a one year old! We had his party that weekend, and I wanted to make it special by doing a fun cake but not necessarily getting too much into a theme, as I feel there will be plenty of time for pirate and dump truck themed birthdays in the years to come. I've been wanting to try this star idea with fondant for a while, and I think it turned out fun. Here is Brad's "smash cake". Fondant isn't very easy to dig into, so it's made with cream cheese frosting--Yum! He seems to like it, too! Check out his cute bib. My sister, Holli, made three of those for him. They are the cutest fabrics and she covered them in vinyl, too! We had some yummy food: shredded beef sandwiches (Merilynn baked the buns from scratch), deviled eggs, pineapple, fries and sweet potato fries (a hit with the kids and adults), and a spinach salad. This is the only thing I got a picture of, though. I made chocolate covered cinnamon bears for the party favors.

Thanks everyone involved for the fun gifts, helping with the delicious dinner, and making a first birthday celebration so special!