Will's Christmas!

He is 'riding' this huge puppy that he LOVES!! He now uses this puppy as a pillow that he has to carry out of bed when he gets up. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!!!!










He got a basketball goal from his other Grandparents and he loves that too. He is actually getting pretty good at shooting. The first couple of times he did this under-hand thing that was quite funny hitting Dad about seven feet behind him.















His face just makes me laugh in this one. This is a pretty fun book that he gets to push buttons that make a bunch of Micky Mouse noises.










Santa stopped by at my Mom and Dad's house and we got to try it out again..... you can see how well it went over.


Let's just hope next year's Christmas Santa vising goes better...

After all of the festivities, he napped so long yesterday! He took two very long naps. He hasn't napped twice for about two months now. So, with Will being well rested and a billion new toys, I'm hoping to get things back in order!

Merry Christmas!

Do you ever try to wrap your head around how much God loves you? I try and just can't imagine it. He gave me a glimpse of how much He loves me by giving me my son. The love I have for Will is only a fraction of how much God loves me. And you. Can you imagine giving your son's (or daughter's) life up for a stranger? Now I know we are no stranger to God but never the less, having your child die just so someone else can live in eternity? If you can imagine that, then try knowing that your child will live a life where He will be beat, tormented, and crucified to save others from death. Granted, Jesus had many, many followers who loved Him and stayed by His side that He did have a great life and saved us Christan's from death. I just can't imagine knowing my child would have such a hard life and the most horrible death. That is how much God loves us. Amazing isn't it?

This is the day that we celebrate Jesus' birth. The man that would end up saving us from our sins. I thank God that He gave us his son for us. That He gave us just a glimpse of the love He has for us. So today, I wish you all a very Merry Christmas. Never forget the love God has for you. Wishing you all safe travels to and from your celebrations.

Sugar Cookies

Here's the step by step process of these delicious cookies:

1 c. Crisco butter or veggie, doesn't matter
1 c. sugar
1 large egg
2 Tbs. milk
1 Tbs. Vanilla extract
3 c. All Purpose Flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt

~Beat shortening and sugar in large bowl on

medium speed until smooth and creamy

~Watch it very contently until it is smooth and creamy (Will tried to put mascara on earlier in the day, hence the black on his face.)

~You may want to throw a knife in at this time too.







~Add egg, milk and vanilla until well blended.

~ Mine are added one at a time because Will added them. I measured them into a small bowl and he put it in the mixer. He's such a great helper!

~Combine flour, baking powder and salt. Gradually add flour mixture to already creamed mixture at low until well blended.

~Here is another time you might want to throw in either plastic wrap or a measuring spoon.


~The easiest way to cut sugar cookies out is to go a head and roll the dough out on waxed paper
before putting it in the refrigerator. You will need

to put another piece of waxed paper over the top. It does not need to be perfect, just a little thinner to refrigerate quicker. If you have the time then don't worry about and stick the whole bowl in the refrigerator until firm (about 1 hour).

~ Heat oven to 375*F. Roll out completely and cut with whatever desired cookie cutter.

~Bake 5-9 minutes or until done.

~Ok, so with Will's help, these are the few items that ended up in the mixer at one point during

mixing. Luckily this time, the tablespoon

didn't end up in half... It did last time.

~ While cookies are baking, get your tractor and disk and stack cookie decorations on top of disk and carry it around. It's great fun!

~Here's some Santa cookies I made. Pretty cheesy I know but whatever. The beard took forever because the tip was to small but he turned out pretty cute...

~Santa's belly! I saw this on another blog somewhere and thought it looked pretty easy.

~The snowflake only turned out cute in this way. I tried several different other ways to frost it and it just didn't turn out.

~The mittens were quite easy and very cute! I love color flow frosting. It is much easier than anyone would think and it turns out so professional looking. (Okay, as professional as I can make it!)

Last years Resolutions and more...

Only two and a half weeks until the new year starts! This year has flown by. In some ways I am very glad for this and others I think "Where did my baby go? He's a toddler now, a big boy." He is so crazy and fun and talks a lot. TV has become a favorite activity for Will. While I know this isn't good, it still keeps him out of the kitchen while I try to cook supper. This is a good thing because he has also taken to pulling the chair up to the counter top or stove to 'help' Mom. NOT GOOD! A year ago Will wasn't even walking yet, and now he loves to run and fall on his belly seeing what kind of reaction he gets.

Well I wanted to wright about last year's resolutions. My New Years Resolutions were to blog more (check) and to read the Bible from cover to cover, or start anyway. I'm not putting a check next to that one because I have only gotten to Leviticus on the 11th chapter (think). Leviticus has been a hard one to read so far because it is all about the laws and types of offerings. So it does take some time to really focus on reading so that I can understand as much as I can.


Even though I haven't gotten very far in the Bible, I do believe that my faith has grown a great deal. I feel like I owe most of that to a couple of of my co-workers. These two are very knowledgeable on the Bible and religion in general. They are my go-to people when I have questions about what I have just read. It allows me to really understand what I just read. They have also given me other books to read to understand the stories of the Bible. I guess if I am making excuses to why I haven't read more in the Bible, this would be one of them. Since these books are lent to me I feel like I have to read them first to give them back. Remember, I'm a slow reader! Overall, I am very happy with where my faith has gone over the last year. I truly find the more I read and the more I pray the more positive things happen in my life. When I'm having a down week or two where I don't read anything and I put off praying for the important things then I see negative things pop up around me.

As for blogging more, well hello! I think I have very much made this a successes. I love going to my 'stat' corner to see how many people red my blog in the last couple of days. (December 10th there were 84!!!) I love it! I love that I have things that people care enough to keep coming back. I'm not sure if some are irritated that my baking has slowed down and it's all about my life and my adorable son or not, but it's still fun to see I have loyal readers.

As for this next year's resolutions, I don't really have any made. I can think of two off the top of my head. One, continue my growing faith. I believe you ever know enough. I'm sure even the Pope learns new things from time to time. Secondly, loose weight! I know I can't start this resolution until March and I will probably loose a good 25-30 within a few weeks. I'm sure that loosing weight is on so many people's resolution list but I want to get back to my pre-Will weight and then some. I would love to be even smaller than our wedding day. That was the lightest I have ever been. I know its going to take some serious work as I am such a junk food junkie. But, I will make it. It really irritated me that I never made it down to my pre-Will pregnancy weight.

After today's work I am off for over a week! I love hording my vacation days until the very end of the year. Over my days off I am hoping to get the crib in our room (not sure how but we will re-arrange until it fits!) and get Will used to sleeping out of his little cage. The anxiety of not having things done for this baby girl is really starting to get to me. When time is involved I have anxiety. It's really the only time I have anxiety issues. I can't handle being late and I want things done now for when this baby comes in over two months! It doesn't help matters that Dennis and I can't agree on a name for her. I really don't want to settle for anything less than my favorite name. He chose Will's name and I let him have so much of what he wants that I just think I should get this one thing. The name I have loved longer than I have even known Dennis. I know he will love the name once she arrives and we call her by her name. The good thing is we do agree on a middle name. It's a start.

P.S. This is the last post without a picture for a while!!! I can't believe I have posted twice without a picture!

Baby #2 26 week update:

I have been poked and prodded like all pregnant woman at the 26 week appointment. The best news of all for the appointment, I've only gained 17 pounds! Not really sure how that has happened as I have not in the least bit tried to keep it under control. I eat what I want, when I want it and figure I'll worry about starving myself after the baby is here. I did that with Will and gained 40. It's not a bad number to gain but not good either so whatever.

The baby is measuring about two weeks a head of schedule. I am 26 weeks 2 days or 4 depending on if you go by ultrasound or not and measured 28 1/2 weeks. Dr. says as long as it is within two weeks then all is okay. If in a month when I go back I am measuring even more than two weeks (four or five) then we would have to do another ultrasound to see what would be causing this. (I'm not at all disagreeing with seeing this little girl again and making sure she is a she!)

I had the lovely breakfast of that orange drink that tastes like flat orange soda. The taste isn't all that bad but you try choking down an entire can of flat soda. It's not all that easy, especially on an empty stomach. This is the gestational diabetes test. They draw blood and I wait a day or so to hear back the results. When I was pregnant with Will I failed the first test because I was told I didn't have to fast so I ate breakfast. I failed it by a mire 4 points too. So I made sure not to have anything before doing this test.

Then I got a shot in my butt. Okay hip but none the less, its still in a sensitive area and would rather blood be drawn any day. This is the Rhogam shot that I have to get twice every pregnancy to ensure that we can have more children if desired. I'm sure everyone knows what this is but just in case you don't... If you have a negative blood type then there is a possibility of the baby having a positive blood type. If this happens then my body will produce these anti bodies that fight off any subsequent pregnancies. So, not a fun shot to get but very necessary shot to get if we want more kids.

Overall it was a great appointment and was pretty normal. I did ask what she was thinking for an induction date. I know it is WAY a head of time but the curiosity was just killing me! As of now she is thinking the 12th and that is what I was guessing she would say.

Makes me laugh!

When Will watches TV, I have to make him scoot back. He is like "Lucky" off of One Hundred and One Dalmatians, you have to constantly tell him to get back from the TV. He does though, he'll go sit on the ottoman or on the floor. It's funny though, this is how he relaxes to watch TV. Crossed ankles, just chillin out. He was actually watching the above mentioned movie when I took this picture. He didn't even want to look away from the TV. It's a good thing he likes to play as much as he likes TV.

Help Daddy?

There is only one bottle fed calf at our house and Will wants to feed it! He didn't because I think it was about 20 degrees that evening and Momma didn't want to go outside!!

<------ Is where I keep hearing a mouse and saw it earlier today!
I'm going to kill it!

Swell much?

I didn't swell much with Will in my pregnancy until the very end where I was just retaining water. I am only 25 weeks pregnant now so I find it hard to believe that I am already swelling so much. I have always had Cankles so I am used to the un-prettiness of my legs but this is pretty bad.

I realized the other day that my collar bones were not sticking out as much as they usually do. Even at my heaviest weight (not pregnant) my collar bones will stick out like crazy. I take this as a good thing because then it makes me look thinner than I am.
This was my feet last night after I took my socks off. Again, normal pregnancy swelling I guess but for me at 25 weeks, I find it crazy.

My sister and Mom were concerned about it so my Mom gave me her blood pressure measuring thingy to borrow to check off and on. Last night it was still normal but high for me. Even pregnant I usually will run 110/ 70ish give or take some and last night it was 129/79. So, I'm not worried about it for now but I will keep an eye on it as high blood pressure would not be a good thing for baby or me.

Multi-colored swirl pt. 2

Lets see if I can describe how to do this with no pictures to help my directions.

Doing this swirl is much easier than trying to do the two different colored frosting's. It is truly easy!

You must use a piping bag for this one. No doing it cheaply by using a zip lock baggie here! If you buy the plastic disposable bags (the ones I usually use) they have a wonderful crease on two sides of the bag. The gel type of food coloring is what is needed. Take a toothpick full of the coloring and slide it from the tip all the way up the bag (as full as you will fill it with frosting.) You could easily do both sides to get more of a colored swirl. What you see here is only one side of color. Fill your bag with frosting and swirl! Yes, it's that easy!

These cupcakes were made for Wills last day of his daycare that he has gone to since he was born. They were chocolate cupcakes with peppermint frosting (hence the swirl).

As a side note, I am very sad that Will had to stop going to his one and only daycare. I know that I shouldn't get so hooked to a daycare but since she saw Will more than Dennis. She may have even seen Will more than I do depending on the week! I felt like I was taking Will away from a parent or grandparent. This is why I have been so emotional about it. The good news is that we have found a daycare that will take both kids. Wills first day is today! So, Mama is a nervous wreck and I am praying harder than I ever have that he makes the transition well and enjoys going there. Once again, I lucked out that Dennis had to take Will this morning so no tears for me. Yet.

Almost a month later...

On November 8th we had our first snow. It wasn't much but we had to go out for about 5 minutes to play. Will would have nothing to do with his mittens! He needs to get over that by tomorrow afternoon since we are supposed to have another 2".

Will and Katie playing in the snow. It was quite early in the morning, as soon as he woke up we went out to play!
"WOW"

I just love this one!

Santa!!

And Santa had no idea what to do with a screaming child!!! You can tell that Mrs. Clause has kids because she could pose while holding the screaming kid. After an hour of waiting in line, this is pretty much what I was expecting but we had to get the picture!!

A heart to heart

I have been wanting to blog about something for quite a while now. It’s a subject that not many people like to talk about. The fact that not too many people talk about it is surprising since so many people have had to deal with this. I’m talking about depression. Well in my case, it was post-partum depression. One in five women experiences this at some point after child birth. There are many reasons that one may become depressed after child birth. I’m not going to go into them as it is easy to find on the Internet and that is not my main reason for posting this. My main reason for posting this is just to bring a little more awareness to others that it can happen to anyone at any severity and at any time. I want others to get help sooner than I did if they are having troubles. Waiting until 10 months post-partum is too long. I will just share my story with you.

After Will was born, I had these feelings of jealousy. They really kicked in once my niece was born. I know that jealousy is wrong and I shouldn’t have felt that way. But, I did. I hated feeling that way but just thought it was a touch of the baby blues and it would wear off soon. I was jealous of silly things too. My recovery from Will was horrible. I had to go back at eight weeks post partum to get a spot cauterized that never healed correctly. That pain was almost worse than the tearing that happened in the first place. The jealousy that comes into affect here is that there were several people who I am close to who also had babies right around the same time I did. There is in no way I should have been jealous in the fact that they had such great deliveries and very minimal to no tearing. I should be happy for them right? So, why did I feel this way? I just brushed it off as baby blues.

This one I still feel guilty for being jealous for. The said people above live in town so it is much easier for others to get to their house and gift a meal. Meals after a baby is born have to be the best gift ever. I say this because, once again was jealous that they had so many people giving them supper after their baby was born. With us living in the country, it makes it pretty impossible for those who live 30 plus miles away to send their congratulations in the way of food. We still had family send a few meals our way, and I will forever be grateful for that. As I said above, it is the greatest gift to give!!

Will was an awesome baby. I have said this since day one! But, one of the babies that was born before Will, was sleeping through the night after only a few short weeks. Will wasn’t horrible by any means but still had to get up to eat every 2 ½- 3 hours all night long. He did this up until HE was ready to sleep all night. This wasn’t until he was five months old. At five months, he was sleeping through the night pretty regular and we enjoyed the uninterrupted sleep. It was fantastic, but, the fact that it took him five months to sleep through the night still gave me yet another reason to be jealous over something so silly. Really, he was healthy, there is no way I should have been angry over this.

There were a few other reasons that were silly and quite unimportant of why I was down. Silly or not though, it still stands that I was down. I still felt that it was just baby blues that lingered on for quite a while. Baby blues can last up to a year and I knew this. So I kept trucking through.

My energy was by far from where it was when I got pregnant with Will. The days and weeks went by. I wasn’t crying, not sad, just pissed off at the world. I truly was a bitch and didn’t care. I could tell anyone off and it would not bother me in the least bit. I’m usually a nice person. I am, I truly care about others and their well being but at this point, I didn’t care.

The straw that broke the camel’s back was when Will was finally moving around more. His personality was growing so much. He was crawling all over the place and wanting to walk more than ever. All I wanted was for Will to take a nap. Even if he just woke up from a nap, I was tired and wanted him to sleep again. This still hurts me knowing this is how I felt, that I didn’t want to play with my son. I do and did love him with all my heart but I was just tired and depressed without knowing it. It still breaks my heart that I felt this way toward Will. I get teary eyed just thinking about how I felt then. No mother should feel that way toward their child.

Finally the time came when I was tired of it. I was tired of feeling like a bitch all the time and having the guilt of having all these feelings hidden inside of me. The guilt of feeling so jealous over such silly things. I talked to my doctor and was prescribed anti-depressants. Within a week I was feeling more like myself. I wasn’t pissed off at the world any more. Most importantly, I wanted to play with my son! I enjoyed playing with my son! All of a sudden, I loved being a mother more so than ever.

Of all the things to worry about another delivery and another baby, the thing I am most worried about is having post partum depression again. As you may know, it does occur more often in mothers that have already had it once, whether post baby or any time in their life. It scares me that it will be worse this time. With Will who runs around all day long taking up so much of my energy and a baby that will keep me up all night, I think I have a right to be worried about this. I know that with help I will get back to normal if it does happen again. I'm not sharing this story to let the world know that I was depressed but to let others know that sometimes the baby blues is more than just that. If you or someone you know is having any degree of depressed feelings for more than a week or two, get help, please. It isn't worth waiting to see if it wears off.

Belly Pic!

This is one thing that I didn't do when pregnant with Will that I wish I had done. Take pictures throughout my pregnancy. The main reason is to look back on the pictures when pregnant with any subsequent pregnancies. This picture was taken at 22 weeks 3 days to be exact. This was the changed date since the Dr. changed my due date back a few days to the 17th. I probably will not take too many but for future references, here you go Natalie!

The changes in a year.

Last year, we had a little guy who couldn't even walk yet.

He filled our lives with joy and loved spending every moment with him.

His favorite thing to do, eat! Everything!

His personality was really starting to shine as he became more mobile.

This year, we still enjoy every single second of this little guy (as we always will) only now, he RUNS everywhere!

His favorite thing to do is play tractors and watch The Lion King.

This boy still loves to eat only if decides to be stubborn and not, then he wont.

Will is learning about time outs as he is taking a liking to not listening to Mom.

This guy is just so awesome. I love the ornery grin he gets when he is up to something goofy. He also discovered that it is pretty funny when you put hair in Moms face and she blows it out. This new trick causes messy hair anytime I hold him. I really could go on and on forever about how amazing he is. He is just the sweetest little guy. I am so excited for him to be a big brother as he loves babies. We did a little Christmas shopping the other day and one of the store owners had a new baby there. She put her down to check us out and he had to go around to check on her.

Oh Christmas shopping, oh how I love to be (so close!) done with you. This is by far my favorite holiday, just not the $$ it costs in gifts. I have 2 more gifts to purchase and then I am making a few more and DONE! Dennis said he was going to get Wills gifts so I'm just not worrying about it. We are on the same track of what to get him though.

As for the other little kid I am oh so grateful for, she is starting to kick more and more. I am so glad that I have posted about Wills pregnancy because I now will go back and see what was happening with him at this time. I was thinking that he was kicking all the time at 23 weeks. Going back and reading what his 22 week blog said, turns out he was just starting to move more then. We did have a name picked out for Will at this time in his pregnancy and for this little girl... not so much. I am in LOVE with a name but Dennis isn't too fond of it. I keep calling her by this name in hopes that it will change his mind some and he will end up loving it as much as I do. Plus, he named Will, I should get this one right?

Baby update:

I had my appointment today for week 22! Can you believe it? Time has really flown by. Baby girl was kinda hiding from us today. She was hard to find on the doppler but once found, her heart beat was all over the place from 120-143! What a range! She must have been doing some summer salts in there or something. Overall, I have been feeling pretty good. The baby is growing and that is all I can ask for. With that being said, here is the little whining for today. I can't believe how hard it is to breath already! I feel like my lungs are the size of a tangerine. Makes me wonder how small they will feel once I make it to the final stretch of the 3rd trimester... My lower back is already starting to ache. The kind of aching that doesn't go away even when laying down or sitting. Again, I may complain about these things but there is no other place I want this baby girl than inside of me growing as she should, so bring on the back ache and the inability to breath, as long as she is growing!!

There were a bunch of things that I had to ask the doctor this week, so I completely forgot to ask how far my belly was measuring!!! I have no idea if I was measuring on track, big or small. I will try to remember to call on Monday and ask. One of the really weired things that has happened a couple of times since last month, was that when laying down on my left side, as I get up using my ab muscles, it feels as if my abs are being ripped apart from my navel down. It is truly the weirdest feeling I had ever felt. It didn't hurt, and twice it wasn't even that big of a deal, just felt it and that was it. Only once did it stop me in my tracks and the feeling lingered for about an hour after. No idea really what it was, just was told to do some stretches.

My foot long, one pound baby is starting to kick hard enough for me to feel more and more. She is so much quieter than her brother was. At this age with Will, I think I could see my belly move from all of his movements. I still only feel the little flutters of her oh so huge ninja moves.

We are still discussing names. I have a name that I would LOVE to name her but Dennis' doesn't seem too keen on it. In hopes that he will change his mind, I keep calling the baby by this name. He doesn't say anything when I call her by this name so I'm hoping that he is secretly liking it, just not going to say anything until it is closer time to meet her.

As far as her brother goes, well a hoot is all I can really say for him. He is just such an awesome little guy. I know, I'm bias but hang out with this kid and he will have you laughing your butt off! Some of the funny things he has been up too lately is running around the living room with a big afghan between his legs yelling "eee up!" The little cowboy!! Will also knows that the pacis stay in the crib. Big boys don't have them during the day. Well, he disagrees with this known fact. He will sneak into his room and get his skinny little arms threw the rails to grab as many that are in his reach. Again, knowing he isn't to have them, he sneaks out of his room with the biggest grin on his face. I have to follow him back to his room to make sure that he will throw them back into his bed. This may be the down fall of moving him to a toddler bed, the availability of these security suckers!

Will has learned the importance of wearing gloves!!! After our first snow of the year (pictures to come) we bundled up and went outside to throw some snowballs for a few minutes. I also didn't have gloves on so I guess I was unaware that his little fingers would freeze much quicker than my man hands. It was a painful few minutes once we came inside. Will didn't understand the water or putting your hands in front of the heater so, we just rock-a-byed while I rubbed them trying to get them back to normal quickly.

Now that my heart burn has finally subsided, I think I will move on and try to eat an entire sandwich. Something that has also been a challenge in the last several days.

Dads Teddy:

Is now Wills Teddy! Every kid has a security blanket of some sort. Whether it is a paci (Will!), a blanket, or a teddy bear. For Wills Dad, it was this teddy bear. Well, not exactly this teddy, as his was 'lost' at some point. I'm sure he would kill me for posting this.

As a joke, Dennis' and my first year together his family got him the exact same bear from the exact same person only 25 years later. This bear is always in our living room and while Will doesn't carry it around like his father did, he still loves to love on him. He cuddles him and reads to him. This was a moment that I had to run into the kitchen to get my camera.

Our little tricker-treaters treats:

These are the Halloween cupcake bites I made for our tricker-treaters.

They are hard to see because I wraped them up, but I like to have things a little more sanitary than well... not. The picks are from Hobby Lobby and the spiders were chocolate and pumpkins were vanilla! I hope that they enjoyed them as much as I enjoyed making them.

How do you eat s'mores?

We eat them in the bath tub! Well, I was going to let him eat it in the kitchen but he wasn't letting me hold the s'more so, bath tub it was!

Oh and doesnt he have a cute butt?!?!?

Good enough reason?

Baby #2 is a.....

GIRL!!!!!

Happy Halloween!

Will ended up going as a cowboy. His cousin Logan was a cowboy too. Will was supposed to be a very adorable puppy for Halloween. Pictures are proof to that we tried to get him to be a puppy. He even picked out the costume himself!!

Yep, this is what happens EVERY time we attempt to put this costume on, that Will picked out himself. We tried every several days for over a month. Even bribed him with some candy. Bribery is not a bad thing, I promise! He ended up thinking that if he just said the word "Puppy" that he got some smarties... Not the case.

I know, the door behind Will is in focus... sorry, it's what a quick photo of a very pissed off boy does.

Wishing you all a very happy Halloween. Hope you all stayed safe and are now enjoying your candy!!! Your dentists will enjoy seeing you in a few months.

Cake Pops step by step!

You start off by just baking a cake. Any flavor you choose, it doesn't matter. I just use a box cake mix. If you so choose to, you may make it by scratch, but unless you are baking for someone with an allergy, it really is pointless.

After the cake is baked and cooled, you crumble it all up.








See, crumbled!!!


After the entire cake mix is crumbled, you will add half a can of frosting. If you so choose to make the frosting by scratch, just add about that much. Again, unless making cake pops for someone with an allergy, I'd say it's pointless. It's very easy and inexpensive to just use the store bought cake and icing.






I forgot to take a picture of it all blended together. Go figure right?! After it is all thick and blended well together, I use a small cookie scoop (ice cream scoop, whatever really, just make sure it is small, about 1") and start balling the cake mix up. This is one of the most time consuming parts of cake pops.

Once they are all balled up, they must be chilled. If you want to put them in the refrigerator over night or in the freezer for about 15 minutes, either would work fine.








While they are chilling, it is time to melt your chocolate. Note, these white chocolate chips do not melt, I repeat, do NOT melt! I had quite the issue making these cake pops.










Once the cake balls are chilled and your chocolate is melted, you will dip the end of the sticks only about 1/4" and stick about half way threw the cake ball. This needs to harden so the ball stays on the stick.

Once you have all the sticks in the cake balls, the first ones you stuck should be dry enough to do this next step! You will gently drop the cake pop into the melted chocolate. You do not want to swirl the cake pop as it will either fall off the stick or you will end up with cake remnants in the chocolate and will end up making other cake pops bumpy.

You will want to tap your wrist that is holding the cake pop to aid in getting the excesses chocolate off.

Once the cake pop is fully covered, you can sprinkle some cute candies on it while it is still damp. After they are all dry, if you have little baggies you can bag them up. This is not a necessary step, just something I do if I am selling them. It prevents any nastiness getting to them before they are delivered.

I did make a few extra balls and of course, always have left over chocolate to try out a new candy mold I bought. I am planning on making these for Halloween for my few trick-or-treaters, only Halloween colors of course! I'm pretty excited for the way it turned out!!!!

Painting pumpkin- picture overload!

Warning: There are a million pictures in this blog post! I had so many to choose from. Also, I uploaded them backwards because well... I cant figure out after 2 years of blogging that blogger uploads them that way!

Every year, we find it a blast to get the kids together, strip them down naked and let them paint pumpkins. After the kids painted their pumpkins, I took a jab at carving my pumpkin. Just a little disclaimer, I did use a power tool or two ;).

This is the final product of my pumpkin! I know, I should have taken a picture at night with the lights out, it would have showed up a lot better!

See, Will helped!!! After I outlined my little trees and grave with that tool (I don't know what it is, I just know it was left in my car for 6 months or longer... no names...) I had to go back around with the pumkin carving tools to go all the way threw the thick pumpkin.

This is Tara's pumpkin! It's a little ghost! Not sure why I had the top up like that. My Mom got this peanut pumpkin and she wanted to carve it to see it's guts. I think they may try to plant a few of the seeds next year.

Miss Madelynn got all dirty too with the babies. She didn't have to strip down though. Being five years old you kinda know to be careful.

Will right before bath time! I love it when they get all dirty. My Mom had said "No cloth?" Nope! Not at $20 a pop, not taking a chance of washable paint not washing out!

Aunt Tara painting with Kaydence. Hope you don't care I blogged a pic of you Tara!!! Kaydence took a bit to figure out the getting dirty business.



Both babies, getting dirty. So much fun!!!

Will knew exactly what to do! It just so happened that we attempted to do this just a few weeks before hand, so it was quite fresh in his mind.

A cowboy pumpkin???

Yep, looks good!

"What is that stuff?" Will checking it out!