Deters Blog

Mom needs to learn...

2012-02-02T09:03:00.000-08:00

To put her make-up in a very high place!

He did pretty good though, actually got half his eye lashes covered! Shhh, don't tell his Dad!

More baby stuff

2012-01-27T08:25:00.000-08:00

Baby's 'room' is getting nearer to being done. Yes, there is one letter missing as we still are quite unsure what it will be. Dennis thought I was spelling out the whole name so he was quite confused when there was an M and D on the wall. Silly guy, I didn't want to waste THAT much money on not knowing her first name! Although, that would be adorable! I took the same yarn that I wrapped the letters in and braided it for a good place for all her bows and barrettes. That is the long funny looking thing next to the diaper holder.

The diaper holder, I never used with Will but since we are cloth diapering, I figure it may be easier. You may also notice the packages of disposables next to the un-put-together crib. I have no idea how long it will take me to get into a routine with having two kids and getting into the habit of doing laundry every night so, I will use disposables for the first few weeks of her life.

In this picture, her clothes were in the dryer, so they are now all clean and put away!! Very exciting to have all this stuff done.

I think that with Will, I was starting to pack for the hospital at about 34 weeks not knowing when I would go into labor. Now knowing that I will more than probably cook this girl until she is well done, I'm not too worried about it. I may just wait until the crib is put together so there is a place to put the suit case.

Another thing that I will have to do to the crib after it is put together is wrap a soft blanket or something around the leg to avoid the stubbed toes. This next weekend Dennis and I will have a little dinner date with some friends in Manhattan to get their crib mattress that they are kind enough to let us have!

Lastly, another picture update. I took this this morning so I am 33 weeks and one day. I'm not sure where this girl is hiding because I think I look kinda tiny! I feel huge but I don't think I look like I have 7 weeks left. I know being so tall she has lots of room to hide, even being a big girl she will not fully show her huge self until the last several weeks.

P.S. I got my results back from the re-test I had to take for my urine and all looks great so nothing to worry about!!!

Thanks Tara!

2012-01-24T00:36:00.000-08:00

A while back, my beautiful sister, Tara made some Dulce De Leche and gave me one! I'm glad she did. It is so very tasty! I think it would be amazing in some coffee... This time however, I decided to put it in something else. Ya, your right, cupcakes. Who would think I would do something else?

I made a basic spice cake (although I added all my good stuff and made the box cake taste pretty amazing!) Because the Dulce De Leche was so thick I thought I needed to thin it out a bit. I added just a little milk, but I think I added a little too much because it just went all threw out the cupcake. Not that that was a bad thing by any means.
Once filled, I added a cream cheese frosting. There was another item I was wanting to try out that I had received as a gift. It's a frosting plunger thing (I'm not sure what the actual name is...) that I got for Christmas. It seems pretty cool really but I think my cream cheese frosting was too thick and it wouldn't come out the tip.

I am excited to try this frosting plunger thing out again on some butter cream and see how it works. I know from others that say they love it, it will be a pretty cool thing once I know how to use it and with what kind of frosting.

Ta-Da! Pretty darn tasty cupcakes! At least that is what my taste testers, Will and Dennis seemed to think. I do have a little of the Dulce De Leche left in the fridge at home and I'm very excited to try it in some coffee!!!

32 1/2 weeks with Baby #2!

2012-01-23T22:24:00.000-08:00

Less than seven weeks left before this baby will make an appearance into the world. We are so very excited to meet her! At this appointment earlier today, I am proud that I only gained 1lb! That leaves me at 28lbs up. I told my doctor about all the Braxton Hicks contractions I have been having lately. Last week I know I had about 15 by noon when I was working day shift. I thought that if they didn't slow down then I would make a call into my doctor and see what she thought. Because of the amount I had been having, she wanted to check just to make sure that they were not doing the job of real contractions. Luckily, they are indeed just the annoying Braxton Hicks contractions, and not making any change.

I was measuring 33 1/2cm and that is great. She is also head back down!! Very good thing for that. Her brother will just have to walk a lot more so that he doesn't sit on her and flip her over again...

A little different thing happened too, my blood pressure was a bit high for me. It was 107/88. I normally am lower than 110/mid 60's. So the bottom number is something to keep an eye out for I guess. With the blood pressure being a little high, and finding just a little protein in my urine, it made my doctor want to keep an extra eye on things. So, I have to give another urine sample by Friday to check the protein levels. She thought it may be because I was a little dehydrated. When I work nights, I wake up at and eat a bowl of cereal (this day it was noonish) and then I had just a little soda on the way to my appointment. So, not much to drink at all. I knew I was dehydrated so lets hope that is the reason for the protein. I have been ordered to drink a lot more water. For some reason, this is hard for me to do!!

I go back in two weeks for a few tests and blood work to go along with my normal check up appointment. The tests are the Group B Strep test, nothing big, just a swab check to see if I have it, if I do then I have to get anti biotic during labor. I was negative with Will so I'm sure that I will be again but if so, no biggie. I will get some blood drawn and I'm not sure what they will check with this besides my platelet numbers to see if I am good to get an epidural. I wasn't ever worried about that with Will as I am not this time either... Although, I better be able to get one of those things!!

Next time I wright an update on Baby #2, I will be almost 35 weeks along. Can you believe that? And here I thought that Will's pregnancy went fast. Now my baby is almost two years old.

On a side note, I told him he was almost TWO and I said it funny with my two fingers out. Now he has started to go "TWO" but instead of having his fingers in the V shape, he has them crossed. It's pretty cute, I need to get a video of that one and put it up here.

Baby decor...

2012-01-22T22:46:00.000-08:00

Since the baby will be sharing a room with us, she doesn't have much for her own decorations. I did finally join the pintrest madness and saw something like this. I thought they were cute and would look great hanging above her crib. I took down the picture that we had there and have yet to hang anything but it will come. Since we are still unsure on her first name, I will show you her other initials, Margaret Deters. The first name is up to two names and we will decide once she is born what she looks like. (Pretty sure I know what it will be but the option is still there.)

Visit to Pet Land

2012-01-22T02:12:00.001-08:00

"I want this one, Mom!"

Will did keep going back to the beagle but we got out the puppy that Grandma and I liked best! The so adorable Cocker Spaniel. She was the sweatest little girl and very new.

Will 'hugging' the puppy. I did my best at protecting the poor thing from strangulation but Will just LOVED playing with the puppy!

Checking out all the other cute puppies! I'm so glad that we took the time to go to Petland with Will. I think I will have to try to make time to do this once in a while, just Will and me.

Big Brother in Training.

2012-01-21T23:08:00.000-08:00

Will is really getting the hang of this big brother thing... At least he's trying. For a couple of days now, he will carry his baby doll around and just rock her and be a good brother. I don't remember what it was he was doing but it made me think he was trying to feed her. So, I asked if he was going to give her a bottle. He got up, walked to the kitchen and stood to where we keep the bottles (not yet cleaned for baby but out and ready), just stood there and pointed. I gave him what he wanted, a bottle.

He has since then been rocking her and feeding her like a big brother should. Since he was doing this, I taught him how to burp the baby after she is done feeding. It's so flipping cute at how he treats this doll. His Dad and I know for sure he will be a great big brother. He's very excited to have a baby sister.

Just so cute!! I'm not sure what made him put Dennis' shirt on like this but he did. He put his head threw the arm hole.

Addicted?

2012-01-17T05:59:00.000-08:00

I really don't think that I have an addiction but I just couldn't resist buying this diaper! Look how stinking cute it is!! There was actually a girly one up there that I really wanted but since this brand fits bigger kids, I figured that Will could wear this one as his night time diaper and one of the tighter fitting ones could go to his sister.

Seriously, so flipping cute!!

Big Boy Bed!!!!

2012-01-14T08:24:00.000-08:00

Last night was the first night in the big boy bed. Will did great for such a big change. He cried for about 20 minutes off and on at first and finally went to sleep. He stayed in his bed though and I think that surprised his Dad. At about 1:15 he did fall out of bed and as soon as he fell back to sleep he fell again. I kinda figured he would since he was quite close to the edge. After Will fell asleep that second time he slept until morning.

And yes, I grabbed my camera before going in to get him. This is what I walked into this morning. One happy big boy! Thanks to the greatest Dad in the world for making his Grandson a frame for Wills bed! Dennis thought it needed something to go around it to keep the mattress from sliding around though. Overprotective Dad he is... Dennis did think he was fine sleeping on the floor on the mattress and so I asked my Dad to do this for Will.

30 week update:

2012-01-10T06:44:00.000-08:00

30 Weeks and 5 days to be exact!!! Can you believe that? 9 weeks left from yesterday until baby time! I am beyond ready and excited. Okay, so we're not READY as in crib and everything clean ready, but physically, I'm ready.

Yesterday I had another appointment and pleased to update that everything is going well. I was measuring right on track so no issues that we know of. She has turned into a transverse position though and that makes you measure smaller. I can even tell you the day she changed from head down to sideways. It was last week when Will was having a needy day and wanted held a lot. So, I was carrying him around and while I was not letting him 'sit' on my belly he was putting quite a bit of pressure on my belly. Later that night I was feeling her kick in different spots and felt the side of my stomach and it was not nearly as hard as it had been. I knew I had been feeling her back and butt as hard as it was and the spots she was kicking. She has plenty of time to turn back head down though so just keep your fingers crossed she knows what she is supposed to do, and her brother doesn't make her move again!!!

As I am getting bigger and bigger, it is getting very hard to take care of Will anymore. Last night while I was giving him a bath, I could hardly breath as I was bending down to wash him. I'm sure it will only be a few more weeks when Dennis has to take over bed time routine. I don't know if Will is teething or if he just knows he is soon to not be the only one in the house, as he has been quite clingy lately. Of course, I don't mind, this morning I got to snuggle and rock him back to sleep for about 20 minutes before work.

A new symptom that I have, has just started is when ever I sit on anything hard, it feels as though my tail bone is broken! It hurts so badly and trying to stand up is excruciating. This never happened with Will so its an all new experience for me. Trying to keep a toddler out of trouble while trying to alleviate the pain is a challenge.

I gained eight pounds this last month!!! OUCH! That was a hard one to see. The most I ever gained in one month with Will was seven. That makes my total weight gain of 27lbs. I may be just a little over what I gained with Will at this point but I'm not to sure. I know that my total with him was 40. So, as long as I keep it in check I SHOULD be able to keep it right around that if not a little less. They say a pound a week is good. If I keep up with that then I should be below the 40 lb mark and that was my goal for this pregnancy. Although, not sure why I say that since I eat whatever I want and whenever I want when pregnant.

Back to Will for a minute. I want him to be able to say his sisters name. I know that he will eventually be able to if he can't at first but its still something I want him to be able to say. We are down to two different names for this little girl that I think we will end up waiting until she is born to decide for sure but I was trying to get him to repeat me saying the name. Last night he said one of the names twice!!!!! I was so happy and shocked that he was able to say the name. So, now we have to work on getting him to say the other name as I'm thinking that will be the final decision.

A new belly picture is a must I think but I don't have one right now. I do start going to the doctor for check ups every other week now! That should speed the time up after holidays and third trimester pains a little. I will leave you with the hopes of this little girl flipping around and staying that way!!!

Happy New Year!

2012-01-05T23:12:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!!!

I know, it's a bit late but I hope you guys had a great evening. We spent the weekend in Kansas City to watch this adorable couple get married!

Although Will refused to sleep much in the hotel that weekend, it was a great time. We aren't sure if it was the hotel or if Will was just truly sick. He woke up with such a dry cough. He was up about 2 hours each night. We left the wedding early and I felt bad about that but with the little amount of sleep Will got, I was glad that we did leave early.

Earlier in the day we wanted to go swimming. We were quite shocked to find out that the hotel did not have an indoor pool. Can you believe that, we went swimming OUTSIDE on New Years Eve!! It was about 60* outside so warm compared to normal January weather in Kansas but the pool was heated. The pool was about 80* or a little warmer, it felt like a cool bath. I didn't think it was all that bad but Mom said that Wills head was purple. Him being half albino, it doesn't take much!! (Just kidding, but you can't get much more white and blonde hair than him). So, we went inside and sat by the hot tub as I splashed the hot water on Will and I to warm up. He warmed up quickly as did I. So, this is my sister Tara, Logan her son and our Mom swimming on NYE!!!
We stayed at this nice hotel that is attached to a shopping center. It was so nice that we didn't leave the the hotel the entire weekend except for the wedding. We ate lunch at this place called Fritz. It is a little Rail Road place that has little trains deliver your food to you. It was so cute and Will and Logan loved it. Will is probably distracted by a train. Trains come close to his favorite things at the moment, but I do think puppies win!

I hope that you leave 2011 with great memories, and the new year brings you even better ones. It is hard to believe that in just a little over nine weeks we will have another child. Will is going to be a great big brother. I am excited for him to have someone to play with, fight with, and love.

Will's Christmas!

2011-12-28T11:07:00.000-08:00

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!

2011-12-25T00:39:00.000-08:00

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

2011-12-23T05:24:00.000-08:00

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...

2011-12-13T08:01:00.000-08:00

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:

2011-12-12T09:24:00.000-08:00

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!

2011-12-11T07:18:00.000-08:00

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?

2011-12-06T22:38:00.000-08:00

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?

2011-12-05T07:00:00.000-08:00

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

2011-12-05T05:34:00.000-08:00

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...

2011-12-01T21:21:00.000-08:00

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!!

2011-11-30T02:05:00.000-08:00

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

2011-11-25T12:25:00.000-08:00

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!

2011-11-18T18:09:00.000-08:00

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.

2011-11-17T08:54:00.000-08:00

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:

2011-11-11T23:25:00.000-08:00

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:

2011-11-11T00:57:00.000-08:00

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:

2011-11-07T10:24:00.000-08:00

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?

2011-11-05T07:46:00.000-07:00

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.....

2011-11-01T21:24:00.001-07:00

GIRL!!!!!

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-31T20:46:00.000-07:00

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!

2011-10-25T22:51:00.000-07:00

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!

2011-10-25T22:00:00.000-07:00

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!

Family update:

2011-10-20T06:39:00.000-07:00

I’m a good blogger right? I mean to the point that I update on a regular basis and I apparently keep some coming back to read more. Why is it then, that when I do bake, I have a hard time remembering my AMAZING camera? I keep forgetting to take pictures of the process in baking. In the last week and a half I have made Pumpkin Cheese Cake Brownies, Pumpkin cheese Cake, and I am now working on some cake pops. The good thing is I have remembered to take pictures of step by step process for cake pops. It occurred to me that I had not done a blog about that yet. So, this is just a little update on the fact that I am working on another baking blog!!!

Will update: He loves to watch movies. His favorite movie: The Lion King. It’s quite funny really, when he wants to watch a movie he will bring me any movie that we have. I keep telling him he does not want to watch XXX or Blow or The Barber Shop. If he actually brings me an animated movie that he may appreciate, Aladdin, Pocahontas, Monsters Inc., or the usual, The Lion King. I will start the movie in hopes that he will be entertained while I work on getting supper ready or cleaned up. The funny part (I say funny because no matter how annoying it is now, I will laugh at it when the phase passes) is that if it is anything but The Lion King, he will continue to bring me movie after movie until he finds the right one. The Lion King!

Will is also missing his dad so much. We really can’t wait for some snow, to have Dad around more. As of today we will have 118 head of cattle!!! When I get home I’ll take a picture of our new additions and all the work Dennis has been doing. We now have a huge lot just south of the house. It is crazy at how busy Dennis has been with all the work that is non-chopping related. Once chopping is over we usually get him back, not this year! Hopefully now that the cattle are all in and he isn’t working on the fence until 10 or 11 at night he will be home. I know there is still quite a bit of work he has to do until the lot is up to his standards but the cows will stay in and that’s what matters!

I ordered something from eBay the other day that was by no means necessary! After our doctor’s appointment the other day and this babies’ heart rate had dropped from the mid 160’s to the mid 120’s, along with very little movement yet, I have to admit, I freaked out. I was not only used to Will’s heart rate being in the 160s but I was this child too up until my last appointment. I found a Doppler (like the kind at the doctor’s office only a much cheaper kind). I got it in the mail yesterday and although it is hard to hear it because the volume on the Doppler isn’t incredibly loud, I did get the babies’ heart beat right away! It was holding steady of the mid 120’s to lower 130’s still. It is quit reassuring that I can now hear the little one whenever I want. Especially if he/she isn’t moving much.

18 week doctors appointment.

2011-10-16T06:37:00.000-07:00

I had another doctor's appointment this last week and just haven't told you all about it yet! It was a pretty typical pre-natal appointment with just checking the heart rate and blood pressure, yada, yada, yada... So far, whenever we have heard the babies heart rate it has been in the 160's. That is exactly what Will's was the whole time. Up until this last Thursday I was thinking it was maybe another boy based on the heart rate. When she checked this time, it had dropped to the 120's! I was pretty shocked at how far it had dropped. I'm sure this is normal as she would have told me if it wasn't. I know the 'old wives tale' is that if the babies heart rate is more than 140 it is to be a girl.... Well, Will is no girl! He is all boy!! So, with this little ones heart rate at 120, I kind of wonder if that little tale is opposite for us?!?! We will find out on the 27th for sure. At least I hope that this little one cooperates for us!!!!

First carnival

2011-10-13T23:17:00.000-07:00

The other day Will and I took a trip to a friends house, about an hour away from us. They were having an October Fest that weekend and had a bunch of carnival rides. I'm not sure Will had even ever seen a carousal before this, and boy did he love it!

I was so excited to capture all the huge smiles he had that I didn't even think to shoot video.

He truly was laughing so hard, I have never once seen him laugh like this before. The only time he has come close is when you do the kissing attacks on his neck.

We had such a fun day hanging out with our friends again. The little boy that is just a few months older than Will is a fun guy. It took them a while to warm up to each other (or rather Will warm up to a new place with new toys.)

Knowing that they will move someday makes me a little sad so until then, we will just enjoy our day trips to them and visa versa!

Another one I love.

2011-10-08T00:40:00.000-07:00

Over the weekend we went shopping and well, I just had to have a little Starbucks. I did get decaf since you know, the baby shouldn't have much caffeine. Will enjoyed the Caramel Frappichino a little too much. I actually didn't have much of it at all!

Just because :)

2011-10-06T04:26:00.000-07:00

The Winner Is:

2011-09-30T09:08:00.000-07:00

I sure wish I knew how to add the widget onto a blog!! I promise you a million times over that I did use Random.org.

The winner is:

The Frazee's!

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!

I will send you a message on facebook as soon as this is posted!

Pumpkin Meringues

2011-09-24T07:35:00.000-07:00

I have always loved meringues. I think they are about my favorite cookie. They are light and airy, yet delicious no matter what your taste is, because, you can change the flavor to what ever you please. Do you love pumpkin pie? I'm sure the answer is yes. If so, you will love these!!

The main ingredient in any meringues are: egg whites, cream of tartar, sugar and a flavor of your choice.

I get so tiered of waisting the egg yolks so yesterday, I bought some egg white beaters. This was the first time I have ever used egg white beaters. I think I like them!
You beat the egg whites, cream of tartar, and salt on medium speed until you have soft peaks form. I know, the soft peak is hard to see in this picture but I tried. At least you get the idea of the foaming going on here.

You will then add the sugar one tablespoon at a time. Will did an excellent job at helping me with this. It back fired on me later... stay tooned. After adding the sugar, add the pumpkin pie spice, vanilla, and any coloring if you so choose to use any. You will beat on high until stiff peaks form.

Nope, not yet. Keep beating (and push the kid away from the sink full of soapy water so he doesn't continue to add tablespoons of unwanted ingredients into the batter.) (And then drop the Tablespoon into the mixer and end up with a very bent measuring spoon.)

Those are some nice, stiff peaks!!-----
V V V V

Some, recipes have you dollop the batter onto waxed paper. I like to put them in a zip lock baggie and cut the end off. So much easier. Be sure to have the zipper completely closed so you don't have a blow out like I did... that is not so much easier.

Bake at 250* for 40-45 minutes and then turn your oven off and leave them in the oven until it is cooled. Then take out and enjoy!!

Beautiful! And delish!

Pumpkin pie meringues:

2 egg whites
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a small bowl, beat egg whites, cream of tartar and salt on medium speed until soft peaks form. Gradually add sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, beating on high until stiff peaks form. Add pie spice and vanilla.

Place egg white mixture in a pastry bag fitted with a large star tip. Pipe 1-1/2-in.-diameter pumpkins onto parchment paper-lined baking sheets.

Bake at 250° for 40-45 minutes or until set and dry. Turn oven off; leave meringues in oven for 1-1/2 hours.

CMA cake

2011-09-18T00:28:00.000-07:00

Christian Motorcycle Association, is a group that rides and spreads the word of God. It's a great group of people and I happen to work with a couple of members. One of them, asked me to make this cake for a gathering they were having at Sycamore Springs. I was pretty excited about this opportunity. It is by far, the biggest cake I have made to date. My original idea was to use a cluster of trees in certain areas on the cake. Since this is my first stacked cake, I wasn't really anticipating the lack of space to put the trees. Things worked out well though as they were made of modeling chocolate, they were really easy to cut in half. I just put more buttercream on the back of the trees and attached to the cake.

This sign is made of fondant. If I had edible markers, I would have made this all edible. Since I don't, I had to use a regular marker and that is not okay to eat. The highway is also made out of fondant. I had to buy it because there is no way I would be able to get my own fondant that dark.
Chocolate rocks boarder the highway.

Overall, I'm pretty excited about how this cake turned out!

Will's 18 months!!

2011-09-17T02:23:00.000-07:00

I nailed it on the head. After the second night of Will not wanting to sleep, I knew he had an ear infection. He couldn't have timed it any better either since yesterday was his 18 month and my 14 week pre-natal appointments. For 18 months, Wills stats are:

30.8 lbs 50-75%
35" tall- 97%

He actually measured 36" but since he was wearing shoes she took off an inch. Not that big of deal since he is that tall! This rash that he has gotten from the cloth diapers, the Dr. thought it was a yeast infection. She's the doctor, she knows best, but I still have a hard time believing that it was not due to that detergent we were using. I have 'stripped' the diapers (washed them 4-5 times until no more soap is in them and then wash a couple more times) and now waiting until his bum clears up so we can start putting those cute fuzzi butt diapers on him again. Oh, yes, we FINALLY have them all!!! Three weeks after they were due to come in, we are stalked up with diapers! These are the diapers that you do have to wash a good 4-5 times before you can use them, washing adds to the absorbency; so, they have to be washed a few more times before we can use them yet.

As for Baby #2, it's nice and healthy with a heart beat ranging in the 140s. It was nice of Baby #2 to also boost my metabolism enough to only gain a half a pound this last month. Thanks baby!!!

I have been having some CRAZY dreams lately! From being in a tornado holding onto a cow, to shooting a wolf that came into our house, to aliens looking in Wills bedroom window as I was trying to get him back to sleep. (That one, I'm not too sure it was just a dream!) I do love dreaming, its a fun time to let your imagination go wild. The fun thing about it is that you have no control over what your imagination is doing. You never know what you will remember in the morning. I look forward to bed to see what I will be dreaming next (minus aliens... truly, could have been real!).

Dennis is pretty much done chopping the corn for this year. It's been so dry the last couple of weeks to months that all the corn is ready for combining (Wills new word!). It has been nice to have him home more. We enjoy having Daddy around to tackle and play with. He just needs to get Wills swing set done so when he starts chopping again, we have something to do!!! It will get done, in time. He will be back to chopping the sorgo before we know it. It is crazy how fast time has been flying by.

Dennis asked me the other day if I had been in the garden to get any tomatoes or peppers lately. No. I'm done in the garden. I did what I wanted and now, I don't care. It took all I had to do what I did do too. I sure wish we had more corn frozen but I had absolutely no energy to do that.

I am working on a huge three tier cake for an event. I'm excited to post about it, come back tonight or tomorrow, I should have pictures posted!!!

Diaper stash... so far!

2011-09-11T09:29:00.000-07:00

Yes, so far! I will be pretty stalked up once all of them come in but, once the baby gets here I will need to add to the stash. Probably no more than ten more and I should be good to cloth diaper two kids at the same time. That will require me to do laundry every day until baby #2 has a little larger bladder.

These are the Gro Via all-in-two diapers. They have an insert that you can just snap in and out and reuse the oh-so adorable covers. These are the inserts we do not have yet. We do have one so I know that they do take quite a bit longer to dry. The Fuzzi Bunz (look below) will air dry over night and these will take an extra day. Once we have these in, I can start doing laundry ever-other day instead of every night.

The rest of these are the Fuzzi Bunz. They are pocket diapers, so we have to stuff them. It didn't sound that appealing but I have timed how long it took me to stuff (all 6! HA!) and it took a whole 3 minutes! Do the math, 30 seconds for one stuffing. That is totally doable, even if we only had pocket diapers and had to stuff them all.

Then you see these flat rectangle orange and yellow fabric on the bottom left hand side of this picture? These are cloth wipes. Let me tell you that Will loves them! He used to squirm, and squeal and just hated the highly chemically-added wipes. They just hurt his little bottom. These cloth wipes, he just lays there and takes it. There is a spray that you spray on his hinney (its called Happy Hinney) and he loves it!

I was so excited to get a picture of Will in his new diapers that I didn't even realize my camera was on manual and way out of focus. But, here he is in his new diaper. He has now been wearing cloth diapers for long enough that if he dirties it an hour before bed, I don't want to dirty another cloth so I'll just put a sposie on him. The second it is on, he tries to take it off. It is just not as comfortable as those soft, fleece lined diapers!

So, I'll admit, we had issues with night time diapers the first night. I, like other new to cloth mamas really have no idea what to do for nights. I did buy a night time diaper that was recommended to me by the seller. This is what he looked like the first night. Blimp Butt is what I like to call it. Well, it didnt work out. I was working nights so Dennis had him and said that Will woke up at 1:30 with a soaking wet diaper. Dennis swears that Will said 'Thank you' after he changed him.

Since this night, I have discovered that the Fuzzi Bunz diapers work if I stuff them with 3 liners. It makes his butt pretty fluffy but it stays dry all night. So, no more blimp butt.

I am excited to get the rest of the diapers in and see how it all goes. So far, I'm in love. As far as diaper rashes go, the normal rash he got with the sposies has not appeared. He has however, gotten a heat rash right around all the creases on his diaper covered area. I'm not sure why this is happening but it is red with little bumps, just like a heat rash. It is even peeling a tiny bit on his thighs. The things I have yet to learn.

Thinking About a Givaway!

2011-09-08T21:44:00.000-07:00

Some follow my blog because you are family and you love my baby, others follow my blog because I love to bake, and you love to see some of my creations. Since I have been lacking in the baking area lately, mostly because of lack of energy from baby #2, I am going to be making up for it by having a giveaway! It's not much, trust me. Nothing like the Pioneer Woman who is giving away cameras, stand mixers, and everything else very expensive that I have to save for months to purchase! It is more of a "Thank you", thanks for following my blog and reading what I have to say.

I'm going to make a few rules to enter of course. Lets hope I can figure out random.org to pick the winner!!

2 Rules are: If you aren't a follower of my blog, follow it, become a member.

Then post a comment on this post. Tell me what you do or don't like about Halloween, or give me an idea for Will's costume for Halloween!! Anything, just let me know you read my blog!

Winner will be picked on September 30th at noon, central time.

This is the little 'Thanks' that I'll be sending the winner of the giveaway. It's baking cups for 24 cupcakes with the cutest little pumpkin and owl picks for toppers. I hope you enter and good luck!

A Little Stressed?

2011-09-05T08:50:00.000-07:00

It’s time for a little confession. This pregnancy, I have had about a million times more stress than I did with Will. I just feel as if this pregnancy is just doomed… There is not an once of me that would be surprised if I ended up on bed rest. Things are just not happening as smoothly as they did with Will. Don’t get me wrong, the baby is very health (as of the last we saw the little blob) and doing well! It’s daycare.

When I was pregnant with Will, I had called nine daycares before I got into one. I was starting to get stressed, but that is hard to do when I called all nine, in one day! That was it, one day of daycare hunting and BAM! We find one right away. With this daycare, we have been so blessed. She is a great ‘second mom’ for Will. He loves going to her house to play with her and all the other kids every day. You know you have a wonderful daycare when you drop your child off and he shuts the door on you. The first time he did this, it kind of hurt, but I thought about it and realized that it was the greatest thing, he LOVES it there. So, now I just laugh and am thankful for the fact that Will loves it.

With this pregnancy, I knew that for three days after announcing that we were expecting that we didn’t have daycare. I was relaxed about it, knowing that I was only seven weeks pregnant. After the three days, I had a wonderful surprise when picking up Will from daycare that we would be able to take the baby to her too! I was so excited! Well, things changed and the two kids that left for another daycare, hated it there and decided to come back to the place they also love. So, I was out of daycare. Back on the hunt I went.

A week or two went by where I called several daycares in town looking for two openings. I would HATE leaving our now daycare but would hate even more driving to two daycares every morning and evening. After calling half a dozen or so, I ran across one that was pretty sure that it would work out. Again, I was elated. She although, never told me it would for sure so I kept my eyes and ears peeled. I then get a message from her saying that it would not work out and that the kids also were going to stay with her. Turns out, she is now closing her daycare to work at another job. Wonderful, more parents now looking for daycare.

We fast forward a couple more weeks and we come to this last daycare. This daycare is quite different than the others. She gave me full on YES, we would be able to take Will to her. I was going to meet her this week to give her a little deposit just to ensure Wills spot for May. Again, another facebook message saying that she was going to have to decline because another family had an older child, allowing her to take two of their kids instead of my one. This again, was a week or two of me thinking we had it set in stone that daycare stressing was done with.

Crushed is an understatement to how I felt. A third daycare has now told us no. Why is it no one wants to take my baby boy? He is the most wonderful little guy there is, he is so loving, sweet, care free guy. I do know that it is not that they don’t want him. I know for a fact that his daycare now will be sad the day we do find daycare for him. If that day comes. So, I am now back on the so stressed I just want to cry boat. And, crying so much, I could float the boat! I can’t help but feel like there is just something horrible that has yet to happen with this pregnancy. Why is it that daycare is so hard to find? I know that people are looking for jobs out there, why can’t they open a daycare?

So, I end this by asking something of all of my readers. Will you please say a quick, simple little prayer for us to not only find a GREAT daycare, but also that the rest of this pregnancy will go relatively smoothly and stress free? Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, I feel like we will need all the prayers we can get.

When Mom cooks:

2011-08-31T00:39:00.000-07:00

I play tractors under her feet.

Buddy Brady

2011-08-31T00:35:00.000-07:00

On Sunday we had a few friends come up and boy Will has so much fun with Brady. He is a little boy that is just a few months older than Will. I of course love chatting with his mom. This picture that I snapped of Will just may be one of my favorites. These shorts pockets will not stay in!

The boys had fun on the 4-wheeler. Will always heads straight for it if his hand is not being held, guiding him to the door. That or helping his Mom carry a light bag of groceries into the house.

We also colored with sidewalk chalk. Will colored himself with sidewalk chalk. I showed him this picture on my camera and he started to laugh.

We discovered dry erase

2011-08-31T00:33:00.000-07:00

It's the refrigerator, it cleans. Let's just hope he doesnt find the perminet marker and do this!!!

The best part of all of this was at the end when we had to clean it up, I sprayed down the fridge and he was mad because he wasnt doing the wiping. So, I gave him the paper towels and he cleaned up his own mess! I know, I shouldnt get used to that.

Crazy Cowboy

2011-08-31T00:30:00.000-07:00

He loves those cowboy boots and pacis!! I was working in the kitchen and came into seeing this. Had to take a picture!!

A few from this year

2011-08-24T03:52:00.000-07:00

Will and I go ride with Dennis as often as we can since we really don't get to see him often. Like I said in a previous post, he doesn't last long but he loves it. It's pretty fun to see the guys play with Will too. They love honking at him as he waves to them. I wish I had brought my camera in the chopper with us because Will LOVES to sit on his Dads lap and 'drive' the chopper. When he gets into his rambling mode Dennis will key the CB and have Will talk to all the drivers.

Will waving to Dad. I took this picture about 5 seconds before I took the next picture, Dad had the biggest smile on his face when he saw Will waving so big.

Sidewalk chalk.

2011-08-24T03:44:00.000-07:00

Really, have no idea why this picture is so off! After Will learned that the chalk is not for eating, he had fun coloring the sidewalk. We made a nice sign for Dad for when he came home. This was a day that going to be 120* so we went out extra early that morning to swing, color, and play with Katie. After lunch we did make it into town for one last day at the pool. It was a bittersweet trip to the pool. Knowing that fall is coming just cools you down immediately, but no more water to splash in the sunshine makes me a little sad. Good thing I love winter too!

I had to post this just because I love how he walks when he gets something in his mind. He tucks his head down and walks so fast its more of a jog. Don't you love that double chin?!?

We miss Daddy!

2011-08-24T03:38:00.000-07:00

Chopping season; we just don't get to see Dad. So, every chance they get they spend together. That means mowing the lawn is something fun for them to do together. This does scare the pa-too-dy out of Mom but I know Dad has a tight hold on him. One evening, Dennis actually came home early (7:30P.M.) and he called about an hour earlier saying keep Will up. It was a challenge because he was tiered but once they got on the mower, he was no longer crabby!

I loved it, once Will saw me out watching them, he waved the whole time. Oh and I know you cant see it, but he does have two different shoes on. It was his choice. He loves to put on different shoes all the time. We get home from daycare and he has to put the first pair of shoes he sees on. This just happened to be a different pair.

Baby Deters #2

2011-08-24T03:36:00.000-07:00

Baby #2 is growing well and fast. It is hard to believe that tomorrow I will be 11 weeks already! I had our first doctors appointment last Thursday but new I would have sonogram pictures to post today so I just waited. On Thursday, we talked about when this baby would be born and just my overall health. Dr. has agreed that since Will was such a big boy, she would be fine inducing this baby a week before his/her official due date. Now that we have had a sonogram done, I'm not sure what due date she will go by, the March 15th or the 19th.

If we induce a week a head of time, then we will be looking at March 8th. Happy Birthday to my sister, Nikki! She always said it would be okay if Will came on her birthday, she may get her wish this time around. This picture is pretty hard to see, but I'm sure you can figure out what the baby is. His/her head is on the left and bottom on the right, facing up.

This is the best picture we got of little baby #2. This is more of his/her face. You can see the eyes and bridge of the nose, and the little body. The heartbeat was measuring in at 160 bpm. Although I was 10 weeks 5 days, the baby was measuring just a few days behind at 10 weeks 1 day.

The everchanging blog

2011-08-13T21:24:00.000-07:00

The Deters Blog is a blog that is everywhere. It is pretty scatter brained. This blog is my baking adventures, my baby, and all the cuteness, wonderful, amazing things he does, and anything else that happens in my life. I started this blog in full anticipation of blogging the child we did not know yet. As time went on, this blog has turned into a baking blog, mixed with my family. Now that we are now going to have baby #2, this blog will be transformed back to a Mommy blog again, with a twist of baking.

Well, if you haven't noticed, let me tell you, I have not been baking lately. The reason being of course is because of my previous post. I'm so, so exhausted. I truly don't remember being this tiered with Will. A good reason for that is probably because I didn't have a toddler to chase around, so if I so chose to take a two hour nap every day for 9 months, I could! This time around, not so much. At 9 1/2 weeks, I feel like I am starting to get my energy back some. Well, enough that I actually made supper. Pizza has been on the menu now for well, seven weeks. Back to the supper I made. Fried zucchini casserole as I am calling it. It is a lot like lasagna only instead of the pasta, you put fried zucchini! It took two hours to make the dang thing. This and zucchini bread is the extent of my baking lately.

Will is already a great big brother. He will sit on my lap, lift my shirt, say 'baby' and hug 'it'. It is so cute. He is going to be wonderful with the baby. There is a baby at daycare so I am really not scared about how he will react to having a baby around. I have walked into daycare and Will was rocking the baby in the little bouncer.

Diaper changing... so much better! This little boy is so hard to change. Since he was about eight months old, he would toss and turn and flip and squirm every diaper change. There have been several times when one diaper change turned into bath time. *Knock on wood* he has been sitting still for us to do this for about a week now!

Pacifiers. When to ditch it? I thought about one year, we even tried around his birthday. He won because right around then, he got a cold, cut teeth and was just not feeling well. I truly believe now that the paci addicts in every family are the parents. I enjoy being able to just give it too him and make him happy when he is sleepy and whiny. So, he is still attached. Do we try to toss it before the next baby gets here, or just say whatever?

Dennis is in full swing of chopping and has been for about two weeks now. Thank God, there has only been minor break downs. Pray that this continues. I know he is missing Will like crazy. He will leave as soon as Will gets up or he drops him off at daycare and doesn't see him again for the rest of the day. If I have a day off, we do try to go ride around with Dennis for about an hour or so. Will doesn't last longer than that. He loves it though! He blows kisses and waves to all the truck drivers. All the drivers are great too, they love honking their horns at him and try to get Will to wave to them.

Our garden is down to tomatoes and peppers. Fresh tomatoes want to make me puke, so luckily, Mom has offered to take them all and skin, and freeze them for spaghetti sauce. I will be able to handle the processing of the sauce fine, so we will get together a day I have off get it all done. We have some late corn that is just now tasseling but Dennis is placing bets it is too weedy to get much corn. I would love to get more corn than what we have but if it doesn't work out then hopefully next year, our garden will be a better producer.

I have been working as much as they will offer me. I cant take other people's hours but if I could, I probably would. I love having all the bills paid off and then still money to put in the savings! Since it is chopping season though, I have to restrict the hours that I do work. I can't work evenings since we would not have daycare and I it is hard to work at 3:00AM since I would have to be asleep by 6:00, Will would be roaming the house alone. But, that's what I get for working in law enforcement. No one has a 9-5 job.

Will's excited!

2011-08-10T07:21:00.000-07:00

I do not have a face to see,

Or put inside a frame.

I do not have soft cheeks to kiss.

I don't yet have a name.

Not yet can you hold my tiny hands,

Nor whisper in my ear.

It's still too soon to sing a song,

Or cuddle me so near.

But all that will change come this March;

When they say I am due.

I am the newest Deters;

And I can't wait until I meet you!

All I ask between now and then

Is your love for me to grow.

I promise I'll be worth the wait;

Just think of all the joy we'll know!

So as you're waiting patiently,

Please pray lots of prayers for me.

I cannot wait to be a part Of this wonderful family!

What do you have in your garden?

2011-07-31T19:02:00.000-07:00

Did I say that gardening was a hobby of ours? What I really mean is, it is our job. It is truly insane at the amount of work it takes to grow a garden. Especially one that will give you produce throughout the winter. At the beginning of the summer, Will didn't allow me to do much in the garden yet, even during nap times I had other things to do. Maybe that's just an excuse? Now that it is harvest time in our garden, I have been trying to make more of an effort of going outside during Wills nap time. The inside of our house is taking notice of this but oh well, soon it will be winter and I will be cooped up for months.

We like to chop up the onions and freeze them, they are then ready to go when cooking. Just put the amount you want in the pan or in ground hamburger for meat loaf.

Green beans are the same way as onions, if you freeze them you just have to drop them in water to boil before they thaw out and you are good to go!

Corn. What a pain in my butt. It is so worth it though. I have had corn that you freeze on the cob but for some reason, it has a rubbery texture until it is cut off the cob. The 'recipe' I use is as follows:

4 quarts corn
1 quart water
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 tsp. salt

Mix it all up and then put the amount you want in freezer bags and enjoy all winter long. The last several years, we have gotten 45-50 bags. So far this year, we only have 12. This makes me sad. The corn is not done yet though, I have about that many more and then Dennis planted some a lot later in the season so they will not be ready for another couple of weeks. That is if the heat didn't kill the crop!

Tomatoes, peppers, and potatoes are not even close to being done. Well, the potatoes are done, I just couldn't dig anymore in the scorching heat (at 9:00 PM, see the clock!) Peppers are the same as onions. If you have them cut up and ready to be put in whatever you are cooking or baking then they are okay to freeze. If they thaw out they get very slimy and gross! YUCK!!!

Since the tomatoes are not done all at once, I will have several days of skinning them and freezing them so that when we have enough, we can start making spaghetti sauce!!!! YEAH!!!

Chopping season starts again!

2011-07-28T00:58:00.000-07:00

I just realized how bad I have been at blogging the last month or two. I think it is due to the blogger not allowing me to upload photos all the time. It just decides when it wants to and when it doesn't want to. So, I will have a quick family update on all of us!

Dennis has started chopping again. Yesterday was the first day. I'm not sure how it went because I had to leave for work tonight at 10:40 and he didn't get into the house until 10:45. Because of this, I was running late and bairley had time for a good-night kiss. Dennis has been keeping these hours for the last couple of weeks just trying to get the chopper ready. That thing takes more care, love, and money than a new born baby! Kidding really, but its crazy at how much time that thing takes. It's okay though, it is our money maker and Dennis loves it.

Will is finally getting those molars. They are known as the one year molars but I'm not sure why because it took him quite a few more months than 12 to get those treacherous things. So far, he is just not sleeping as well. He doesn't want to nap much and getting to sleep for bed is a chore. Tonight, I had to let him cry himself to sleep. Nothing made that boy happy. Luckily it was only for a few minutes and by the time I was out of the shower he had fallen asleep. He is getting to be such a big boy!! If it didn't take a day and a half to upload a video on here I would show you how he helps me vacuum! It was too cute, I had to post it on facebook.

As for me, working like crazy. Well, when Dennis is home to take over Will watch that is. This week I am supposed to work from 9P.M. to 7 A.M. but since chopping takes precedence, I go in at 11. Hopefully I can do this without taking any vacation hours.

There is still quite a bit of corn out in our garden but I got 12 quart size bags in the freezer today. I should have about that much more in the garden yet. We have quite a few peppers in the refrigerator that needs to be cut and froze but I have been lacking energy to do so. I think our tomatoes are in the same boat as everyone else. Too hot to turn colors or put fruit on! With yesterdays temperature of 110*, nothing will grow in that kind of heat!! I know I need to dig some potatoes, especially since I have been craving some and they are easy to fix. Dennis planted some more green beans a lot later so we are actually getting some of those yet too. I think the heat has taken any vines we had. Our pumpkins look like crap or I should say the vines. There isn't any fruit on any of the pumpkins. We may have one or two watermelon but they are very small and I am sure not so well since we haven't had much water. It is just a hard summer for any produce. Whether it is for the livestock or for us in our small household, it has just been a hard, hot summer for all.

Harry Potter Cupcakes.

2011-07-19T17:03:00.000-07:00

Beerbutter.

It sounds rich and oh so bad for you. If you like butterscotch, this is a drink for you! Well, I made the drink into a cupcake (the recipe is from Amy Bites blog I posted a while back). If you care to make the drink, it is as simple as adding 1 cup butterscotch schnapps into one 2 litter bottle of cream soda. Not enough alcohol that you should worry about your kids drinking one small glass of it. It is so buttery with just a hint of the butterscotch.

(I had to try just a bit of it :))

Mixing the butterscotch chips and heavy cream in a double broiler will make a ganache that is inserted into the cupcake and later drizzled over the top of the cupcake.

The decorations on it is a little tacky given the fact that I didn't have long to decorate them but I tried my best at making them Harry Potter themed cakes. The Ganache is also in the buttercream. Butterscotch delish-ness all around!

Will's 1st hair cut!

2011-07-19T15:12:00.000-07:00

At 16 months old, Will got his first hair cut. It maybe sooner than either his father and mother had their first hair cut. He was playing around with the hair clippers while I grabbed my camera. NO IT WAS NOT ON! He was such a big boy and did so well. Once I showed him what was making the noise, he was okay with it and unrolled the toilet paper very well while I did the cutting. Bye, bye mullet!

Ta-da! The great hair cut! I did have to do a little trim up after this picture was taken and I did not do any trimming on top. He is officially a big boy now!!!

Cake Central Favorite!

2011-07-09T22:19:00.000-07:00

I have been wanting to update my blog for a while now but for some reason, blogger will not allow me to upload my pictures. No pictures but some great news!!!

Last night I uploaded some cake pictures I have done and put them on Cake Central. It's a website that I'm truly addicted to. (Hi, my name is Natalie...) LOVE that site! It has galleries of cakes, cupcakes, sugar art, cookies, anything to do with cake. It's also a forum, a place to ask questions, share stories and just get to know other bakers, hobbyist and professionals alike. Anyway, once I uploaded my pictures it is free game for other members of this site to add them to their favorite cakes, and/or make comments. My cake pops of the lady bugs from Jaelynn's birthday is in the top most saved pictures for the day!!!! This totally makes me happy! I just want to go out and decorate something, with frosting of course!

So, hopefully blogger will allow me to start uploading pictures again so I can tell you about a few new things I have done! In the mean time, have a wonderful week and eat something sweet!!

"Gotta make it!"

2011-06-25T09:26:00.000-07:00

You know the recipes. The ones that you find, say out loud, "Oh my goodness, I have to try that!" If your like me, you'll print it off and add it to the other hundred "gotta make it" recipe pile. My pile is on top of the microwave. I have occasionally hole punched it and organized it nice and neat in a three ring binder, but the pile still gets away from me. Here's a recipe that I WILL make, on July 15th. Why July 15th you ask? That's the date the very last installment of Harry Potter movies come out.

This 'butterbeer' that we hear so much about in the movies is apparently as easy as mixing 1-2 liter cream soda and 1 c. butterscotch schnapps. Now, that's not the recipe I am wanting to try, it that cupcake up above, I found a recipe for it from another blogger who actually went to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal’s Islands of Adventure park. She had the butterbeer and made up her own recipe. Because she posted her own recipe I will just share it with you.

Butterbeer Cupcakes

Makes 18.

For the cupcakes:.

2 cups flour

1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup dark brown sugar, packed

3 large eggs

1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon butter flavoring

1/2 cup buttermilk

1/2 cup cream soda.

For the ganache:.

1 11-oz. package butterscotch chips

1 cup heavy cream.

For the butter cream frosting:

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened

1/3 cup butterscotch ganache

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon butter flavoring

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 16-oz. package powdered sugar

Splash of milk or cream (as needed).

For the cupcakes:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line cupcake pans with paper liners. Combine your flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a bowl and set aside. In a large bowl, cream your butter until light and fluffy. Add your sugars and beat until well-combined. Beat in your eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Then beat in your vanilla and butter flavoring..Alternate adding your buttermilk, cream soda, and dry ingredients in batches until all are well incorporated.

Fill each cupcake liner 3/4 full, then bake for 15 to 17 minutes until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean and cake springs back to the touch. Cool completely on wire racks..

For butterscotch filling:

In a double boiler (heat-proof bowl over a pot of simmering water on the stove), combine butterscotch chips and heavy cream and stir until completely combined and smooth. Cool to room temperature. Fill a squeeze bottle with ganache and insert into the center of each cupcake, squeezing until filling begins to overflow..

For butter cream frosting:

Cream butter in a large bowl until fluffy. Add in ganache, vanilla, butter flavoring, and salt and mix until well combined. Beat in powdered sugar 1 cup at a time until reaching desired consistency. Add milk or cream by the Tablespoon as needed. Frost cupcakes and top with a drizzle of butterscotch ganache.

Recipe compliments of: http://amybites.com/?p=623

There you have it! That's my GOTTA MAKE IT and WILL MAKE IT recipe.

Yep, I'm pretty proud of these!

2011-06-22T01:50:00.000-07:00

I was out for a half an hour the other day after our a thunderstorm and was taking picutres of the lightening from the storm that just passed. I should have been out before because it was dying down quite a bit by the time I got out there but this is what I got.

Again, I was quite pleased with myself and my new found abilities with my camera.

Ribbon Cake

2011-06-21T23:18:00.000-07:00

Okay, so it's not quite what I had in mind but I love how it turned out. She wanted pink and I gave it to her!

Update on Will

2011-06-16T06:49:00.000-07:00

Will had his 15 month check up on Monday and he weighed 28 ½ lbs and is 32 inches long. Big boy, but we all knew that. If you remember, he started walking back in January, so naturally, he is running and climbing onto EVERYTHING! Truly, everything. The other day, we were hanging outside and while I was attempting to weed the flowers a bit, Will decided he wanted to ride the four- wheeler. It was just a few feet behind me so I let him play by it and when I turned back around not but a minute later, he was on top of the dang thing, straddling it and playing with all the knobs and gadgets. Afraid of him falling off, I stand right by him as he gets off of it as if he had done this a hundred times.

Every time we go outside, he runs straight for the lawn mower that is broken down by the garden. He loves to sit on it and pretend to run it. We can just tell that he is a natural farmer. On Sundays, when Dennis has to watch him while I’m either at work or sleeping , he is Dads little helper. They will fix fence together, check cows, just do the farm chores that have to be done.

He is also a wonderful sharer. Just last night, we were sitting in front of the TV eating watermelon and grapes when Will turned around and started shoving grapes in my mouth. It was so funny. I guess I looked hungry or just that he enjoyed making me laugh.

I could go on forever about this little kid. He is such a joy to hang out with. His personality grows every day. We are still working on following directions and things like not hitting. Will has just started the hitting stage. He thinks it is funny even when I get the stern face telling him NO. It will all resolve in time. Until then, we will enjoy every second with this little man and try our best at raising a true gentleman.

Rose swirl

2011-06-15T06:45:00.000-07:00

After seeing this swirl tha looks like a rose, I just had to figure it out. It is so beautiful and... easy to make! I had to try a couple of different types of decorating tips to finally figure out what one works but boy I was so excited when I found the one!

I look forward to having an order for these, wouldnt they be georgous for a wedding? This also gives me an idea
for how to make a cake look like a bouquet of roses.

If you are looking to making this swirl, you have to use a tip that is compleatly closed. You simply start the swirl on the inside of the cupcake and work your way out. Ending by putlling the tip away and seal it with some kind of embelishment. No, you dont have to but it adds that finishing touch!

Amazing cupcakes!

2011-06-03T22:29:00.000-07:00

Peaches and Cream cupcakes! Yes, they are as amazing as they sound. The reason they are not as beautiful as they should be, my monster of a child, decided he wanted one. Or twelve. He decided to take matters into his own hands since Mom was not doing anything about his little wants. He dumped the entire container of Peaches and Cream cupcakes upside down. A little love and I salvaged all but one.

Red Velvet is a favorite to most people. It's a classic cupcake that will
always be a request. I needed to find a recipe that was the most moist red velvet cake. That is after all, the most important job of a baker, make moist cakes.

I'm not sure if this will be the recipe but it was delicious.

Twizzler cupcake is one that I will keep around for a very long time. If you love twizzlers, you will love this cupcake. Nope, I'm not going to give this recipe out either. The cupcake part is a vanilla cupcake with a twizzler filling and in this case, a cream cheese frosting. I haven't decided if I like butter cream or cream cheese better on this cupcake. Talk about unique. And that's what I want to be known for, unique.

Key Lime is even refreshing to say! Doesn't it scream summer? This is a heavy cupcake so, I think I need to figure out a way to make it lighter. I'll have to mess around with it a bit to find the perfect consistency. Even a thick cupcake, it is delish!

Memorial Day Weekend

2011-06-03T21:36:00.000-07:00

We had such a great weekend full of BBQ's and family fun. Before the BBQ on Monday, we met up with a friend and her daughter, you know her, I've talked about the ever so adorable Jaelynn, and took some 15 month pictures of the two. Of coarse, Will is not quite 15 months and Jaelynn has been for two weeks but it works out well.

We actually ended up having four, that's right FOUR barbeque's over the entire weekend. Friday night, we just had another couple come over to our house for some yummy ribs.

Saturday night, we went over to another friends house, she just so happens to be my boss. More great food, and even better company.

Monday after my parent's barbecue, we went to the couple who came over on Friday night house. Again, way too much food with wonderful friends.

For all these barbeque's, I made moscato cupcakes. They were oh so moist!

Now, I'll keep my recipe a secret, but if you want to attempt to make your own kind, this is what you can try.

You may use a basic cake recipe, whatever is your favorite of choice. I used chocolate. When the recipe calls for water or milk or whatever kind of liquid in the cake, you simply substitute that with the mascato. Easy peasy right?!

Now, for the frosting, you take the left over wine and boil it down until you have about 2-3 tablespoons left. You will use this instead of the liquid you have for that recipe, so milk, any extracts, and so on.

Good luck and enjoy!

From another blog to this blog:

2011-05-25T16:34:00.000-07:00

I saw this interesting, yet, very easy desert and thought it looked very delicious so I had a go at it! You can make homemade sugar cookies if you choose but, when your mixing it all in, might as well buy it!

This cookie cuppie is as easy as layering your sugar cookie dough with some of your favorite candies. I had this candy at home, so I just used it.

After baking them, the laffy taffy was very hard to get off the liners. I also had milk duds and those turned out the best. It was just a fun, easy to make desert!

Enjoy!!!

Strawberry Lemonade.

2011-05-25T06:04:00.000-07:00

Strawberries are in the air! It is the perfect food that says, "summertime is here!" With both of these strawberry cakes having purred strawberries in them, they scream with delight! I have always been a little leery about my decorating skills with butter cream, but I was quite pleased with this cake. There were just a few areas where I couldn't cover the strawberries unless I had an inch of butter cream on it!

Strawberry summertime cake.

2011-05-24T17:42:00.000-07:00

This was a cake order I had for a two year old. I hope she liked it! With the few extra cupcakes that there were, I can verify that it tastes pretty amazing, I'll have to add that recipe to my list of cakes!

This is the cake that went with the cupcakes.

I was very happy with how it turned out!

Around the Farm

2011-05-16T01:21:00.000-07:00

I love having my camera around when we go down to see the cows. Will just loves those big tasty animals... It was pretty funny that here he would walk as close as he could until one made a quick movement and he turned and ran back to me. It was pretty classic.

On Mother's Day, I woke up to Will wearing this Larry The Cable Guy shirt. Dennis had cut the sleeves off of the pearlized, button shirt he had bought him in the fall. I couldn't believe that he did that! Latter in the day, he gave Will a 'tattoo'.
While my sister is moving her family and getting their new house ready (only 5 miles away!) I have watched her kiddos a few times. Kaydence still takes a bottle and boy did Will want it! He picked up the bottle and thought really hard about taking a big ol' swig when I told him 'No', he looked at me and then started feeding Kaydence. Such a nice, caring little boy he is!

Well, It's cold again here in Kansas, but there were a few days last week that were right around 100*. I sure would hate to wear a black coat when it is that hot so I try to have a pool for Katie. I set the pool up fully expecting Will to jump in. I was right! He enjoyed splashing around for a while and then decided to just jump in!

Katie was thirsty.

I'm pretty proud of this picture. If money grew on trees, I'd buy a macro lens. I can't get enough of macro photos (minus spiders!!!)

The warmth of the day sure brought all the bugs out.

Multi-colored swirl

2011-05-16T01:12:00.000-07:00

I had left over icing that I was wanting to get out of my freezer so I thought I would have some fun and try a new trick.

See my left over frosting!
:)

I decided to use the tip that I posted a few days ago about putting the icing in plastic wrap before putting it into the bag. I now know that I have to do it with BOTH colors and the plastic baggie does not work.

When you put the colors side by side in the bag with a slit in both plastic wraps, the colors should be pretty even coming out of the bag. This I had issues with, especially with the blue.

It turned out pretty good though. Like I said, the blue had issues.

(I also used the left over batter from the s'mores cupcakes I had made a week before hand. I put them in ice cream cones.)

Fondant Roses

2011-05-16T00:51:00.000-07:00

This is how you start, roll out your fondant pretty thin. (I could have rolled it out quite a bit thinner, I was hurrying while two babies slept.) You will also need this funky looking petal cutter. After you have cut several flowers out, you will need to make a cone as pictured.

I put this cone on a stick to help me hold it in place. Then I start with one petal and start wrapping the petals, one at a time around the cone. You will need to 'glue' the peddles to the cone by either placing a little water on it or piping gel as I did.

You will repeat this step several times until you have reached the size of rose you are wanting.

Here are my roses that I made. Ya, I know, I need more practice, but for the first time to have ever done this, I thought I did a pretty good job.

At the end, the base was vary thick and I had to cut some of the fondant off. Really it wasn't a big problem but I'm not sure if the professionals have to do this or if it was just me. I will work on them more.

Baking tips.

2011-05-10T11:31:00.000-07:00

I have been going to this website, cakecentral.com for quite some time. This site is awesome, any baker, professionals to hobbiests can surf through it all and see cakes, recipies, forums, everything that others post to help other bakers. Its a great site and I have learned a lot and saved a lot of photos that I would love to make someday. It's usually the place I get ideas from. Anyway, I found a link that everyone posted thier best tips and advice from everyone over the last 4-5 years. I thought that I would jot them down and post it for my own use as well as your own if you care to.

~Putting parchment paper at the bottom of the pan before baking will help release it. Esp, with bigger pans.

~Wrapping cakes in plastic while cooling will make the cake even more moist.

~Sift Everything. Sugar, flour, cake mixes, everything.

~Use baking spray with flour

~Bake 8* lower than you normally would.

~measure out ingrediense the night before and put them in a ziplock baggie. Esp, if you have a big cake to do.

~unsweetened, unflavored applesause instead of oil makes all cakes more moist.

~Press a clean towel down on a cake and push the center to make it level. Some have not had to cut the top of the cake it is so level.

~Always have extra decorating tips

~To make butter 'room temp' just drop in warm water for a few minutes.

~Use two cake boards for cakes bigger than 9x13. Just in case it bends in middle, that would be a disaster!

~To clean your decorating tips, put them in a bowl, compleatly cover in water and microwave for a few minutes with 2-3 drops of soap. If the medal tips are compleatly covered, you will not have to worry about sparks. If you are still concerned about this, you may just boil in a sausepan.

~Put wet ingredients in your mixing bowl first and then dry.

~ALWAYS make more frosting than needed, it freezes well if to much is made

~Food saver works great for fondant.

~Ice cube trays work great for egg yolks to freeze for later, white cakes call for whites only and will waste a lot of yolks.

~Measuring sticky stuff like, penut butter, shortening, honey, ect, line measuring cup with plastic wrap = no cleaning!!

~Add a drop of viniger to buttercream, it prevents cracking.

~ceramic tiles work as cake boards, and are very pretty.

~Violet food coloring offsets yellow color and makes it white (MUST TRY THIS YET!)

~If you have a turntable that needs tilted, put a 3-ring binder under it.

~Wrap icing in plactic wrap, then slit a hole at end and drop into a bag with tip, much easier to clean and change colors with the same tip.

~Transporting cakes put a grip-non-slick stuff under the cake board so not to slide.

~Brushing a cake with simple syrup if it takes a few days to decorate it will keep it moist.

Well, there you have it. That is 5+ hours of looking up other baker's tips and techniques they use. I hope that one of these will help you out in some way!

Will's food Dance

2011-05-09T07:29:00.000-07:00

Because I have no idea how to flip the videos, you need to watch it oddly. Anytime that we are eating, EVEN if Will has already eaten, he does this little food stomp until he gets some. It is the cutest, funniest thing you will see. The video would be longer but I am having issues with my video on my camera. That's another story.

Cake-pops with my niece

2011-05-09T07:10:00.000-07:00

My niece Emi helped me decorate some cake pops for a Mother's Day get together at my in-laws.

I had the cake in the freezer from the Easter cake I made so it wasn't really a big deal of doing it. These are the 3 cake pops that I made. Emi had fun decorating the others with all my sprinkles I have.

We ended up making about 24 of them. Here they are all done up and pretty! (Yep, I said it, done up!)

Here's my niece Emi holding proudly her cake pops. This was the first experience she ever had making them. I hope I didn't scare her away and she will help me decorate again someday.

Sold a cake!

2011-05-09T06:55:00.000-07:00

This is the first cake I have sold for money. I felt bad about it too. You can see how not level it is. This is because the cake is THAT moist! It was a very last minute order and so I did not have any time to make another other wise I would have, trust me! The one who ordered this said he didn't even care if it had any decoration on it. At least I know that it tasted amazing!

Making half a batch of this cake, makes this cake above and 2-3 cupcakes. I have wanted to try making cupcakes like this. I thought they turned out pretty cute, I just need the right tools to make it look amazing. I was also going to add a little flower but didn't have the fondant cutouts. So this is what I had.

Happy Easter!

2011-04-26T23:05:00.000-07:00

A few days late. Here are a few pictures from Easter. Will had so much fun finding the eggs and putting them in his bag. He had it down pat! Grandma Deters helped him around on the rocks. The poor kid had enough accidents in one week.

At Mimi and Papa's house, Will and I enjoyed the swing. Then he found out how to get on the swing by himself and I regretted teaching him how to do that. It was such a great day with family.

I had to take a few of the beautiful tulips. We have a huge mole problem at our house and so the dang little devils eat the bulbs and so I dont have any anymore.

Logan is such a smart little guy, he was trying to pul Will around, succeeding a little. He then looks up at me and says "You help?" So I go over to help him and he then he says "I get in now." So, lucky me, I get to pull the boys around in the red waggon. It was pretty fun.

Beautiful Mother and Daughter. They were having 'girl talk'

Aren't they cute!

Finished Product.

2011-04-26T21:28:00.000-07:00

Just another cookie

2011-04-23T09:33:00.000-07:00

We decorated cookies with Dennis's family last week and I was pretty excited to try something that I had seen and was even more excited when it turned out so great! We made some color flow icing along with royal icing. I know this picture is pretty dark but it really shows you the detail in the flowers. I love how it turned out and if you had just square cookies you could do the same thing. I cant wait to try it out again!

Modeling Chocolate and Fondant

2011-04-23T06:18:00.000-07:00

By far, the easiest thing in decorating. It is easy to make, easy to use, just easy in general! I also made my own fondant. This was also very easy, time consuming, but easy. Not having any of the utensils that you need to make fondant flowers and things, I had to just use my hands to mold the flowers. These are 'supposed' to be jonquils. Yes, they do have a mold for these, if I had them. Who knew that you can have so many different decorating utensils.

So, Nikki came over after I had made the modeling chocolate and she wanted to play. I showed her what I was wanting to make with the cake and so she helped. She made the squirrel but didn't have time to make the fur. He still isn't done, I just wanted to show you this little guy. I'm pretty excited about all this! So much fun!

This is my little guy. I made a bunny! Maybe I'm a little bias but I think he's pretty cute. I actually just made him a little girlfriend but I haven't taken a picture of her yet. You will have to wait for a later post.

Nikki also made the little blue birds. Can they get any cuter?!?! All of these will go on top of a cake that will be a tree stump. This cake is taking way to much time for an Easter cake but I really needed to practice my decorating. I have full confidence in my cakes, even ones that I am making for the first time, I have the full belief that it will taste amazingly moist and delicious. Even the fillings, they are so easy! So, this cake may have taken me a total of 6+ hours already and I still have to put it all together but I am enjoying every minute of it as I need the practice!

Modeling Chocolate
2 1/2 cups + 2Tbs. white chocolate chips
1/2 cup corn syrup

Melt the chocolate in microwave at 30 second intervals stirring each time. Once fully melted, stir in the corn syrup, let stand for at least 20 minutes. Knead together like bread dough. You may keep in an air tight container up to 6 months in room temperature.

Marshmallow fondant
16 oz marshmallows (not jet puffed)
2 Tbs water
1 Tbs. glycerin (I used corn syrup)
2 drams of Lorann butter flavor (A dram is those little bottles of oil that is in my last post. I just used 2 tsp of another extract that I had)
2 lbs powdered sugar

Melt Marshmallows and water in microwave for about 1 minute. Do not go over 90 seconds. Add the rest except the powdered sugar. If you are coloring your fondant, this is the time to add your color. Trust me, its tough to color once it is hard like rubber! Then add about 1/2 of the powdered sugar and get it mixed really well. Then you may add the rest. Adding it in two prevents clumps. This will get challenging. The original recipe calls for you to make this with an electric mixer. I have no idea how it will not blow your motor because of how hard this is to mix. I just greased my hands up and went in! After about 15 minutes of mixing, my arm aching, and a kid wanting to be put to bed, I had fondant. 100% better tasting than store bought!

Tangerine/Grape cupcakes!

2011-04-17T03:35:00.000-07:00

To start this off, I bought new toys!!!!!!!!

These are the LoAnn flavorings and oils, I think I bought a dozen of them! I was so excited about these I just had to try them out. I have wanted summer cupcakes, just didn't know how or how to do it. Now I have what I needed!!!! Alright, I'll stop the excitement, on to the cupcakes:

I have to admit, I was getting lazy by the time that I fought with the sugar, so I cheated.

I used an average white cake mix for the cupcakes. I did change it up a bit by adding some sour cream and apple sauce to make it extra moist. I then added one Orange flavor and Tangerine flavor oil. The Grape frosting, I did make from scratch and yummy it is!

1 cup butter, softened

8 oz. cream cheese, softened

2 Tbs. milk

2 T. vanilla extract

1/2 bottle of LoAnn grape flavoring

4 cups or 1 lb. powdered sugar

Combine all the ingredients except sugar in a medium to large bowl and beat until smooth and well combined. Begin adding powdered sugar about a cup at a time, continuing to beat each addition until completely combined. You may need to adjust the consistency by adding sugar or milk until it is at the consistency you want. (I ended up adding quite a bit more milk. For some reason, it seemed quite stiff for what I wanted).

Frost and enjoy!

Cherry Limeade Cupcakes

2011-04-17T03:15:00.000-07:00

CAUTION: These are the sweetest cupcakes you will ever eat, in your life!

I have them all cute for Easter since I made them for my family for later today, our Easter on Palm Sunday.

To make the Limeade cupcakes:

1 1/2 cups cake flour (I only had bread flour and didn't notice a difference)

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. baking soda

1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temp

1/2 cup sugar

2/3 cup limeade concentrate

2 eggs

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin pan with liners.

In a small bowl combine the cake flour, baking powder and baking soda. Stir together and set aside.

In a bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle, cream the butter and sugar on med-high. Add in the limeade concentrate. Add the eggs, scraping down the bowl after. Add in the flour mixture in thirds, blending slightly after each addition. Mix ingredients just long enough to incorporate (do not over mix).

Divide the batter between the prepared cupcake liners (will make 12 cupcakes). Bake for about 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserts in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool in the pan for 5-10 minutes, then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

Lime syrup

1/3 cup limeade concentrate

1/4 cup powdered sugar

Whisk limeade and sugar together in a small bowl. Poke holes in the top of the cooled cupcakes, and brush over the top. I brushed two times, and could have been once more.

Cherry Buttercream

3 cups powdered sugar

6 Tbsp. butter, softened

2-3 Tbsp. Maraschino cherry juice (or grenadine) (I had more like 4)

red food coloring (optional)

Mix powdered sugar, butter and maraschino cherry juice in the bowl of a stand mixer. Mix on low speed until sugar is incorporated, then increase to med.-high speed and beat until smooth. Add more maraschino cherry juice as needed to achieve desired texture (or powdered sugar.)

Frost and enjoy!

If I make these again: The buttercream is VERY sweet. It also didn't make quite enough so I would double that next time. Also, I poked holes in it by making a few X with a fork on top of the cupcake.

I found the recipe on The Doctor's Dishes Desserts Decor blog as well (I love her!)

Spun (Poured) Sugar

2011-04-17T02:40:00.000-07:00

Okay, since I post all about my baking, my failures should be included, right? I had the idea that if I made spun sugar and balled it up to make it look like a birds nest, it would be pretty cute and make a great cupcake topper. Turns out, I need practice. The idea of making the sugar spun is that you have a 'shaker' and you throw it back and forth vigorously to make the strands of sugar. This was my creative idea to get the rods about 12" apart. I didn't have a the shaker that is talked about in spun sugar recipes so I just tried to drizzle it back and forth with my spatula. This technique made me thankful for the fact that it was cold so I was wearing socks. Hot sugar is well, hot. So, I had the idea of maybe aluminum foil with holes in it will work as a 'shaker'. Just so you know, it doesn't work.

I halved the recipe of: 2 lbs granulated sugar, 1 lb corn syrup, 1 pint water.

You bring this all to a boil to about 250 degrees.

With all my failures, I resorted to this. Pour the sugar out on a silicone mat and let cool for a few minutes. I then cut circles out to wrap around Easter eggs.

Let the sugar cool and carefully remove the eggs.

Ta-DA! Little sugar eggs. As another side note: I added orange flavoring and green food coloring. Why green? I'm not sure, I don't think I would care for green eggs. Don't tell Dr. Seuss.

After trying this attempt, I am now watching YouTube videos on how to make spun sugar, and learning that a whisk would have worked!!!! I'm excited to try this again as sugar really is a work of art! Try it for yourself and you will find this out!

Recipe for Samoa Cupcakes

2011-04-17T02:19:00.000-07:00

I guess I'm just going to do it this way for now and hopefully I will figure out how on earth to fix this dang posting problem sometime in the near future. Samoa cupcakes: For the chocolate cake: 2 cups AP flour 3/4 cup cocoa 2 cups sugar (1 cup white and 1 cup brown works great) 2 tsp. baking soda 1 tsp baking powder 1/2 tsp salt 2 eggs 1 cup hot coffee 1 cup buttermilk 1 Tbsp. vanilla 1/2 cup oil 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips Preheat oven to 350 degrees, line cupcake pans with liners. Sift dry ingredients together and give it a whisk. Mix wet ingredients together in a 4 cup measuring bowl. Add wet to dry and whisk until smooth (not long). Add chocolate chips. Bakes for about 18 minutes Ganache glaze: 12 oz. mixed chocolate chips 4 oz cream 1/2 Tbsp butter Over double boiler, melt cream and chips together, add butter. Coconut Buttercream: 1 lb unsalted room temp butter 1 small white chocolate instant pudding mix 1 1/2 cup heavy cream 1/4 cup Malibu Rum (I omited because this was for my son's 1st birthday!) 1/4 cup cream of coconut 1 cup powdered sugar Beat butter and pudding in stand mixer with paddle on med high for about 5 minutes. (scraping bowl may be needed) or until light and fluffy, reduce speed to low and add cream and rum to blend, then rebeat on med high for 5 minutes. You may need to blend longer if it is still clumpy, just keep beating, higher the better. Reduce speed to low and add cream of coconut and sugar. (I found out that cream of coconut is very thick at the top and liquid at the bottom. You must stir it to have a consistancy you want. This may be the reason for my buttercream to turn out so greesy.) You will also need a carmel sauce. If you feel like being a creative baker, go for it, I on the other hand, had won the carmel sauce that was pampered chief and used it. To Assemble: Fill cupcakes with the caramel sauce, if you need to, you may have to cut a dome out. Dip the cupcakes into the Chocolate Ganache. You will need to let the ganache set up a bit. Add buttercream frosting and then drizzle more caramel over the top. If you happen to have some real samoa cookies, you can cut them in half and have a great decoration! If I were to make these again, I would have to figure something out with the frosting. It was way to greese for me, It tasted great but something needed changed. I also added cocanut flakes in the frosting to help with the issue on hand. I found this recipe at www.putacupcakeinit.blogspot.com there were several different Samoa Cupcake recipes I found but this was the best one I have found.

Recipe for Chocolate Chip cookie Dough cupcakes

2011-04-16T23:11:00.000-07:00

Just for the record: I HATE TECHNOLOGY!!!!!!!!! I tried 4 times to get spaces on this damn thing and it still did everything together. So, apologies! We will try this again, and hopefully I succeed! Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes: Egg Free Cookie Dough Filling: 1 2/3 Cup all-purpose flour 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted 2/3 cup packed brown sugar 1/4 cup white sugar 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract 2-3 Tablespoon milk 2/3-1 cup chocolate chips Mix all ingredients in a big bowl. Supper easy, right?! Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes: 3 sticks unsalted butter, at room temp 1 1/2 cups dark brown sugar, packed 4 large eggs 2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour 1 tsp. baking powder 1 tsp. baking soda 1 cup milk 2 tsp. vanilla extract 1 cup chocolate chips To make the cupcakes, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake pans with paper liners. In a bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the butter and brown sugar. Beat together on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Mix in the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. combine the flour, baking powder and baking soda in a medium bowl. Stir together to blend. Add the dry ingredients to the mixture bowl on low speed, alternating with the milk, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients, mixing each addition just until incorporated. Blend in the vanilla. Fold in the chocolate chips with a spatula. Divide the batter evenly between the prepared cupcake liners. Bake for 18-20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool in the pan 5-10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Cookie Dough Frosting: 3 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature 3/4 cup dark brown sugar, packed 3-4 cups confectioners sugar 1 cup all-purpose flour 3 Tbsp. milk 1 Tbsp. vanilla extract Beat together the butter and brown sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment until creamy. Mix in the confectioners' sugar until smooth. Beat in the flour and salt. Mix in the milk and vanilla extract until smooth and well blended. To Assemble: Cut a cone out of the cooled cupcake & fill with some cookie dough. Frost cookies as desired with the cookie dough frosting and additional chocolate chips. (The original recipe called to garnish regular chocolate chip cookies. She has the recipe on her blog. www.thedoctorsdishesdessertsdecor.blogspot.com I give up on this stupid blog b.s.!!!!! I have no idea why it will not space. Giving you a recipe is no good if you cant read it so I am so sorry this is doing this to me.

Recipe for Chocolate Chery Cola Cupcake with Red licorice filling

2011-04-16T22:25:00.000-07:00

I'm going to be doing a little back tracking as I have never posted recipes of the cupcakes and all the other yummies that I have made. So, I will be re-posting some posts just so I can add the recipe. Disclaimer now: I have not made up any of these recipes and will say where I got it. I will eventually get so good that I can make up my own but for now, I'm still learning. Chocolate Cherry Cola Cupcake with Red licorice filling: What you will need: 2 cups granulated sugar 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour 3/4 cup cocoa powder 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda 1 teaspoon salt 2 large eggs 1 cup half-and-half 1/2 cup canola oil 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract 1 cup cherry cola, warmed in microwave for 1 minute Red Licorice Filling, recipe follows 2 cups crushed yogurt-covered pretzels Marshmallow Frosting, recipe follows Cherry Cola Glaze, recipe follows You will need to preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In an electric mixer on low speed, combine sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add the eggs, 1/2 and 1/2, oil, and vanilla and beat on medium speed for 2 minutes. Stir in the warmed cherry cola until fully combined. Fill the cupcake liners 3/4 full with batter (If I make these again, I will not fill more than 1/2, when 3/4 they overflowed badly) and bake until the cupcakes spring back when touched with your finger, 10-15 min. Let cool. Fill each cupcake with the red licorice filling. Sprinkle the crushed yogurt covered pretzels on top (I didn't have these, living in Small Town, USA, I was unable to find any around here) Top with Marshmallow Frosting and drizzle with Cherry cola Glaze. Red Licorice Filling: 5 ounces red licorice (about 10 jumbo pieces) (recommended: Red Vines) 2 cups water 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar 1/4 cup cornstarch 1/4 teaspoon salt 4 egg yolks, slightly beaten Tear the licorice into 1 inch pieces and place in a saucepan with the water over medium heat until it comes to a boil. Remove from the heat and let cool. Whisk in the sugar, cornstarch, salt, and egg yolks. Cook over medium heat, whisking constantly, until think and bubbly (I thought this took forever, it truly took about 15-20 minutes of whisking until right.) Continue to cook for 1 minute, and then remove from heat, cool to room temp. Marshmallow Frosting: 8 egg whites 2 cups granulated sugar 3/4 teaspoon cream of tartar 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract Place the egg whites, sugar, and cream of tartar in a heat-safe bowl over a saucepan with boiling water. Whisk constantly over the heat for 1-3 minutes. Once the sugar has dissolved, remove from heat and beat with an electric mixer on high until stiff peaks have formed, 5-7 minutes. Stir in the vanilla extract. Cherry Cola Glaze: 3 to 5 teaspoons cherry cola 3/4 cup powdered sugar Add the cherry cola, 1 teaspoon at a time, to the powdered sugar until it has a good consistency to drizzle on cupcakes. Okay, here is what I learned in making this cupcake. If you want to save time with the cupcake, you can also use a chocolate cake mix and omit all ingredients and just use a can of cherry cola. I of course enjoyed trying a new recipe but I thought it was just an average chocolate cake, so this would be much easier and less time consuming. Try the whole thing if you want though. Also, the red licorice filling was very good. I had some extra and filled it with the white sour cream cupcakes that makes a million and topped with a butter cream frosting. To me, these were so much better than the combination with chocolate. If I ever repeat anything of this recipe again, it will most definitely be the filling! If you are looking for pictures again, you will have to go back to March's post of this process. I got this recipe from Food Network channel from the show Cupcake Wars.

1st trip to the park!

2011-04-15T09:08:00.000-07:00

Will RAN for the lady bug! It was so cute, he knew what to do as soon as I sat him in this thing. He started bouncing and smiling as big as he could. He had so much fun! (He did not pee threw his diaper, he sat in a puddle!) After going down the slide several times, I taught him to climb up this and it will get him right back to the slide to go down again. Of coarse I had to help guide his feet to the rocks but he knew what to do. The park has these musical pipes. It was pretty fun and loud to bang on them. It took Will a while to get the hang of what to do with them but then the only other thing he wanted to do was either play in puddles or go down the slide. Yep, Mom had to! You can just see the excitement on his face. HA, not really but at least he wasn't screaming. This little bench will be so cute in the summer to take pictures by so we will just try it again then.

Trying to climb up the slide! He kept trying to crawl back up the slide. Then he discovered that it was more fun to go down on your tummy! Oh what fun we had that day, I cant wait for more warm days to live at either the pool or the park!

Knick-Knack Paddy-Whack

2011-04-08T23:59:00.000-07:00

Give a dog a bone!

We didn't have the baby gate up the other day and Will found the dog treats. It was so cute, he grabed a hand full and waited at the door for us to open it. So, this is how you give a dog a bone,

Step 1: Get a bone (or 3)

Step 2: Give Katie a bone at door.

Step 3: Give her a 2nd bone as she runs to her purch. Step 4: Give Katie the 3rd bone and then final step is get mad when you are to go inside when done.

2011-03-31T01:01:00.000-07:00

Will had a great birthday and a great day to celebrate! The weather turned out to be perfect, it was about 80 degrees with 100mph winds. Okay, so the wind wasnt that bad, but it was windy. We cant complain though becaue we could open presants outside!

Will loves his mower he got from Grandma and Grandpa, he was taking it all over the yard that day. Now he mows the carpet in the living room since the cold weather is back. Of corse, children who are so layed back and easy going will always be tiered and cranky on thier birthday party!

Alright, so Mom is really pushing the basketball game instead of football, since this is from Mom and Dad. He has his own basketball goal.

Here are all the wonderful cupcakes I made for Will! I counted and yes, there were 100 cupcakes!!!!! Hence why I did not make the bacon cupcakes.

The picture is a little out of focus but here is Wills smash cake. Boy did he smash it!

He is so excited to get dirty!!!

Talk about a sugar OD! His diapers looked like that for the next two days. Just a little TMI.

Not cake...

2011-03-31T00:42:00.000-07:00

I really wanted to try out the smooth icing look on cookies. Now, this being my first try, I was pretty pleased, but, this is something that takes lots of practice. I had bought some Easter cookie cutters at Target the other day and gave it a go. Not being able to find my Grandma's sugar cookie recipe, I had to resort to a cookbook recipe. The tulips and carrots turned out the best. Probably do to the fact that they are pretty plain. I didn't want to go threw all the work of coloring even more frosting yellow so I went with store bought yellow icing ready to go in the tube and all. Bunnies were very fun and turned out pretty cute. Obviously, I need to practice on them more but until then, these were pretty cute. With the frosting having to set out for a night before being able to wrap them up, I thought the cookie turned out to be kinda dry. I had reports that they were not so much but, I guess I am my own worse critic.

What does a sugar overdose look like?

2011-03-23T03:34:00.000-07:00

We went to the St. Beneidict's St. Pattricks Day Parade. Will of corse injoyed himself because he got candy! Here he is sucking on a sucker. (Parental advisory was in affect at all times)

And.... he layed down in the middle of the kitchen floor. Just being goofy!

What does 'Heaven on Earth' look like?

2011-03-23T02:12:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Will!

2011-03-15T06:28:00.000-07:00

He hasn't changed much in the course of a year. Still the sweetest, most beautiful baby.

Has it really been a year?

Where did the time go?

So far this morning, every time I look up at the clock to see what time it is, I have flash backs of what I was doing at that exact time a year ago. The good thing of this is that I didn't start doing this until about 7:06, at witch point I had just gotten my epidural and started to feel no pain. Even the worse pain I had that day was so worth it, I would even go as far as saying, I would have gone through that much pain for several days, or even a week just to have my little man.

He is the best of both Dennis and me. At one year old, his personality shines. He love to play hide and go seek with the kitchen towel. He throws it over his head and chases you around laughing hysterically. When he plays tractors he has to make tractor noises. Bath time is probably the most fun he has throughout the day. It's a 'lets see how wet we can get Mom by splashing!' When he is being kissed on his neck, he laughs so hard that he can hardly catch his breath! I guess all of that would be part of me, the laid back, care free, have fun in life, that I think is the best part of me.

As for what his strong parts of Dennis would be that he is so determined. Once Will gets something in his head, he will do it, one way or another. When his father does this, it of course irritates me a bit, but in the light of things, this is a huge plus in life. Will also gets his stubbornness from his father. Another thing that can be quite annoying and testing at times, but is truly a great trait to have in life. He is also very brave. I have said many times that if something could be dangerous, Will will do it!

It is now 10:35 AM and one year ago I started pushing. See I keep doing this, as I am sure I will all day long.

Now that things have been quite busy and I ha vent gotten back to this for awhile, and the time now is 11:28 and 3 minutes until Will was born a year ago! Happy Birthday little man!!!

Will and Jaelynn's birthday pictures!

2011-03-11T23:32:00.000-08:00

For my first attempt at taking pictures of one year olds, I didn't think I did all that bad. But, one year olds are so, so, so, hard to photograph! Most of my favorites are of them eating the cupcakes, maybe this is because they actually sat still.

I have decided that one year olds have to be the hardest to photograph. Obviously, I do not have much experience but, think about it. Nine month olds don't walk yet so they just crawl everywhere. Granted, they crawl fast but you surly can get a great shot or two. Eighteen month olds will listen if they are in a good mood and will stand in one spot for at least a little while.

This has to be my favorite one of Jaelynn. The editing and everything turned out great. I LOVE it! She is such a pretty girl!

Will was the food monster of course! Who would have thought differently? He took the wrapper and shoved the entire cupcake in his mouth. The entire cupcake. It was so much fun, I cant wait until his party. He will have his very own 3" cake to demolish! So much fun. I guess you can say that the seven teeth he does have are the sweet teeth he got from his Momma!!!

The only time he was still enough to get a great shot was when he was eating his cupcake. It was a great time! (No, I did not make the cupcakes, I bought them!!! I knew Dennis would question my thinking on that, but all the ones in the freezer are for his party!)

This is probably the best one he took while clothed. You can almost count those little chompers!!!

She is such a beautiful little girl! I cant get over how cute she is. Her Momma made her outfit. It went great with her lady bug themed party.

Will was very unsure of these steps. This may have been a first time he has actually gotten scared of something. Usually if it is remotely dangerous, he is all for it!

GOTTA LOVE THOSE BABY BUTTS!!!!! This is most definitely my favorite picture that we got! It is so fun to see these two grow up together. I love having fun nights together, Will chases Jaelynn around all over the place. If we are at Wills house then he is very possessive over his toys and same with Jaelynn. It's so funny!

Chocolate Cherry Cola cupcakes, with red licorice filling, and marshmallow frosting

2011-03-06T00:27:00.000-08:00

This was a copy from the show Cupcake Wars on The Food network channel. It was a very fun cupcake to make. I have enjoyed finding so many fun recipes. First of all, if you have never seen this show, you need to. You will get addicted!

These chocolate cherry cola cupcakes were easy to make, they are your typical cupcake recipe. The only thing to say about this cupcake is when it says to fill 3/4 full, it really mean 1/2 or less! They overflowed all over the pan, it looked like I was baking a sheet cake!

The recipe says that red vine licorice is the best kind but, apparently no one in the entire town sells red vine licorice. I did find this Australian licorice. I bought some with Twizzlers just to see what one would taste more like Red Vine. I ended up using about half and half.

You have to boil the licorice in water for a while until most of the licorice is melted... There will always be some chucks left but that's okay right?

Then adding some sugar, corn starch, and other ingredients, you boil that until it becomes this thick. Takes forever... trust me. After about 15 minutes of sitting and whisking, it became the right consistency.

Time to inject the cupcakes! This is supper easy. It isn't even necessary to cut a hole in them, just put your tip inside the cupcake and fill away!

This is the marshmallow frosting. I'm not quite sure why it is called marshmallow because it is really a meringue. After beating the frosting for well over 20 minutes, I still didn't have the right consistency to make it look like a true frosting. It tastes amazing but ended up more like a ganache.

Apparently, I forgot to take a picture of the finished product. Just imagine the cupcake with a white layer on top. For Will's birthday I have made some chocolate cowboy hats I will lay on top of them. Can't wait!!!! Can you tell? ;)

Samoa cupcakes

2011-03-05T22:56:00.000-08:00

If you will be coming to Will's birthday you will get the opportunity to experience these cupcakes first hand without having to make them yourself! I can post a recipe but this is what I did and needed.

Our couch (Nikki) held a bake off for a fundraiser. I received 'Peoples Choice' for my Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes. In winning this I received quite the award, I got this this caramel sauce, along with some other goodies.

I baked chocolate cupcakes, it was a certain recipe but lets just say chocolate cupcakes. After cupcakes were made I stuffed some of this yummy caramel syrup.

After the cupcakes have the caramel syrup in the center you dip them in chocolate ganache.

This is the coconut frosting. Lets talk about buttery! Next time that I make it, it will be lacking at least one stick of butter that the recipe called for. It was so buttery that the before I added coconut to the frosting, it wouldn't even stay on the spatula! It didn't call for the coconut but I had to put something in it to thicken it up. I am glad that I did though, it made it much more 'coconuty'

This is the end product! Don't they look scrumptious?!?!? Can't wait for Will's birthday to share these amazing cupcakes!!!!

Fun days off!

2011-03-04T23:05:00.000-08:00

So, a few things to start this off. One is that for Jaelynn's birthday party, Lacy and I made some cake pops. They turned out so cute! I was so happy with how they looked. Absolutly adorable!

And at Jaelynn's birthday Will was playing with all of her books. The sweetest baby in the world to me is of course the one in the mirror!

On my first few days off I baked up a storm! I made so many cupcakes mostly for Will's birthday. For breakfast, I made waffles. Will loved them and I sure hope Dennis did too since he had said the day before that he used to love eating those as a kid, pouring the syrup in each square.

(Stay tuned for the cupcake posts)

One little tough guy!

2011-02-23T14:34:00.000-08:00

We all know that Will is a tough guy, right? He almost never cries. At least once a week I pick him up at daycare and she tells me some story of how he is so tough. Well, I think today he made that an all time record for being tough. We went on a walk and since the county has just put new rock down a few days ago on the road, it is much more bumpy than normal. I noticed that Will was sucking on the tray in front of him. No biggie, he does that a lot. Then we stop to throw some rocks in the creak (ok it was me but it gives him something to look at.) I look at his face and he has blood out of his mouth!!! What? Not a single peep out of the kid to let me know that he had hurt his gums on the tray while walking! I of course felt bad but he never made any kind of noise to show that he had hurt himself. Crazy kid of mine!

And I also want to say from the last post, I said, big purchase with the caddy I had bough. I just want to make sure you know my big purchase was a whopping $19.

I'm SOOOO excited!

2011-02-17T02:27:00.000-08:00

I found this web site that has so much baking stuff. It has everything you would ever want for desert making. It really is cheaper than most places that sells the same stuff. They are also very fast at shipping. My order went threw on Monday and it came in on Wednesday!!
http://www.countrykitchensa.com/

Here are some of the sprinkles I ordered. Jumbo hearts, mini stars, and black pearls.

They also have candles for every theme. Here are the candles I got for Will's birthday. Of course he will only need one this year!

Okay, these I am probably most excited about. Edible eyes!!! They are 3/8" and the perfect size for making those cake pops I love to make! I am so excited to use these!!

So, this is my newest big purchase. It is my baking caddy. It is full of all my baking stuff. Yes, I had to put a sign on there for some family members do not eat the candy... but they still do. Not using any names ;) But I do have another caddy too, I just don't have it full YET!