Day to Day with Debra

Stomach Bug Times 3!

2012-01-22T23:45:00.000-05:00

Wow, I thought the cold was bad! Sarah, Ashton and Brenna came down with the 24-48 hour stomach bug. That's a whole lot of vomit for two worn out parents. I know, it's a gross thought but it was I thought you would like to share my life for a bit. Needless to say, for a couple of weeks (minus a few "well" days) we were taken over by the sick bug. It was a long, intense couple of weeks and I'm glad we are past it. I would never wish three kids with the stomach bug on anyone! But praise God we are healthy again and back to the normal insanity. This week has started out very well and I'm glad that we are moving forward on a good note.

Three Sick Kids

2012-01-08T23:29:00.000-05:00

We are in for a ride right now. The three youngest kiddos are sick with some sort of cold. There is a little coughing, some lovely fevers and all the runny noses a mom could ask for. And did I mention that it gets worse for all of them at night? Well it does. Brenna and Ashton get hit the worst from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m. and then Ian wakes up with a spiked fever around 4 a.m. (give or take a half hour). This time certainly tests even the toughest of moms. As all that goes on, I must admit that I'm grateful to my heavenly father that they are fairly laid back during the day regardless of their symptoms. Ian is the only one that is giving me a little trouble but that is more because he is a Mommas boy and does not believe that anything is more important than me holding him any time of day!

Tomorrow I'm going to face the doctor dilemma. Do they have a standard cold or is it something more. Should I take them to the doctor for a strep or flu test or do I wait it out 4 more days. Most colds last 7-10 days and I may just be in the middle of things. I really hate going in and hearing, "It's just a virus that's going around." I know it should be reassuring, but I like my illness' with names and medications that treat them.

Just keep praying for us. I could use some down time to process all the things that have happened this past week. My mom's health continues to decline. While the doctors will not say how long she has left, I know that there is a good chance that she will not live to see the end of January. But for now I have the kiddos to focus on and it's taking most of my mental capacity to be on alert for all of them. Each day I have to draw up a medicine chart just to track the times they can have each one. Have I mentioned that I'm being distracted by the Christmas decorations that are still up? They are driving me nuts. So many trivial things and other deep things. Beginnings and endings all in one. And laundry. There is always laundry!

2012 is Here!

2012-01-07T00:44:00.000-05:00

The new year has started off and I don't even know what to say about it. Right after Christmas, my mother's condition worsened and she was admitted to the hospital in Key West, Florida. She's had colon cancer for the past few years and it stopped responding to treatment in October. The relationship that I have with my family is strained at best. I've talked with my mom a good bit over the past few years and found out about her condition by chance. My aunt and cousins came from Virginia to do the 16+ hour ride to Florida for our final visit with her. My aunt said that mom lit up when I came in the room. I'm just glad I got to see her before the end. Her mind is still working great, it's only her body that's not keeping up with her. One of these days I'm going to write what I remember of our family story.

My cousins and I decided to piece together all that we knew to see how things got to be so dysfunctional. It was eye opening and helped me to understand some stuff that I still questioned. I love seeing how we've all made a commitment to be different from how we were raised and to raise our kids in a different manner.

On another note, the SC Cottage Food Law is still in the Medical Affairs Committee. My friend in Edgefield is meeting with Senator Shane Massey to discuss what's going on. I was going to go, but Ashton, Brenna and Ian are sick with some kind of head cold/fever combo. I sent her my questions for the senator and I can't wait to hear about her meeting.

Sarah is doing great this year. Her violin playing is going well and I'm exited at how it has progressed. Daniel and I are talking about looking into a private tutor at some point. If possible, I think having one over the summer would help move her forward more. She's doing great in school and loves being part of a few clubs. She's smart and witty and hormonal. I think that says it all! Ha!

Daniel is looking forward to the new year as well. He's going to help direct a play at Pickens High this year. Yes, I know he teaches in Easley, but he has a drama background and this may lead to a new opportunity career wise. He's so gifted in teaching and I love seeing how he uses it to help another generation learn and grow. I'm also very impressed with the new bed that he and a friend built Sarah. We've wanted her in a loft bed for some time, but the expense has been more than we could afford. After looking at some plans, we decided that we could build one and not pay a fortune! After a little nudging, Daniel got together with a friend and in a day they had the thing cut and put together. I'm going to be painting it soon! Sarah is excited to finally have her own bed and I'm glad to see one of them up!

This year we are looking forward to a lot of new things going on. We're planning a trip to Williamsburg in the summer. Ashton is already planning his next birthday. Brenna may need her first root canal. Okay, I'm not really looking forward to that but I thought I'd throw it in. My baby boy will turn one! We'll hopefully get to go to the beach and so much more will go on that we haven't even planned yet. Oh, I almost forgot - I'm going to run a 5k (Lord willing)! No matter what happens, it's going to be an exciting year for our family and I'm looking forward to it.

God Bless!

Breast Cancer Awareness Raffle Cake

2011-11-28T22:07:00.000-05:00

Daniel asked me to make a special cake for the raffle at the local theatre. Since I had family coming in and two other cakes, it made for a crazy weekend. I do wish I had had more time to spend on this cake. It was dedicated to my mother-in-love who survived breast cancer before I met her and to my husbands grandmother who recently beat it as well.

Sarah's Birthday Cake

2011-11-28T21:58:00.000-05:00

If I ever get time to add more than a few pictures, I will post some of the birthday photos. For the time being, I'll just add the picture of her cake. She wanted an Addams family cake. I wasn't sure what to do until I saw a house made of royal icing. Unfortunately, it did not make it to the cake and I had to scramble for an alternative. This is not my best work, but she loved it and that is what counts. The house is made of rice krispy treats and the cake is Sarah's favorite spice cake with cream cheese icing.

Ice Cream Party Birthday Cake

2011-11-28T21:48:00.000-05:00

Chocolate and Vanilla cakes filled with vanilla butter cream and covered in fondant. The ice cream, cupcake and candy are made of sugar cookies.

Yummy Empanadas!

2011-11-18T10:12:00.001-05:00

Let me set the stage for you. Earlier this week we discovered a 3 pound pack of hamburger in the freezer. it had been in there for a good while and was in danger of becoming freezer burnt. I had already pulled out some chicken and a london broil for meals this week. The hamburger thawed out much faster than expected. I cooked it up but had no clue as to how I would use it. Then I remembered empanadas. "What's that?" you say. Empanadas are little meat pies. Think hot pockets but filled with yummy meat mixtures (they can be made in dessert fashion as well). Every recipe online required things that I did not have in the pantry (mainly onions) or ingredients that I knew my family would not eat. And, I had stuff in the fridge that needed to be cooked before it spoiled.

After scouring different recipes, I found an empanada dough recipe from here. The recipe for the meat mixture looked good, but didn't fit into my fridge cleaning plan. As for the dough, I would recommend reducing the flour by 1/2 cup. you can add it later, but I ended up adding a lot of extra water to get most of it incorporated. For a larger empanada, take a 2 inch ball and roll it out into a circle. This will make a hot pocket sized empanada. For an appetizer type, roll out the dough very thin and use a 3" cookie cutter to cut small circles. Fill with a rounded teaspoon of meat mixture. For both, moisten the edges with water or egg and then use a fork to push the pastry together. I've used a pie crust before, but this was better.

Now for the meat mixture:

2 - 2 1/2 lbs. cooked hamburger
1/2 roll of cooked sausage
1 large shredded carrot
1 finely diced stalk of celery
3 - 4 cups of good quailty pasta sauce or fire roasted diced tomatoes
8 ounces goat cheese
oil

In a pan, cook shredded carrot and finely diced celery until soft (around 8 minutes).
Add cooked beef and sausage and stir.
Add 2 cups of the sauce.
Crumble goat cheese and add to the pan. Stir it in until melted.
If the meat mixture is very dry, add more sauce. The mixture should not be runny, but everything should be well coated with the sauce/cheese mixture. My sauce was very thick and took at least 3 cups.
Cool mixture.
Take your empanada dough an begin to roll out your pieces. Each piece should be very thin. If I had a pasta maker, I would have rolled the dough through it to give my arms a break!
Fill each with the meat mixture and seal. Poke a vent hole in the top.
Bake in a 350 degree oven for 10-18 minutes depending on the size of the empanada.
Any uncooked leftovers can be frozen for later use.

I was planning on freezing some of these, but they went fast! So fast this morning I realized that we forgot to take the corn out of the microwave! We were downing these as they came out of the oven!

This is a great recipe. You can change the meat mixture or use chicken or pork. Anything would work as long as you don't fill it with a lot of liquid.

P.S. Sorry for not having a picture. After I ate the first one, I didn't even remember to pull out the camera!

Bring on the Food!

2011-11-14T08:45:00.001-05:00

I wasn't fully ready to bring on the food with Mr. Ian. However, I had (and still have) a strong desire to sleep through the night. I started him on oatmeal and he loved it. But after 20 minutes, he would scream and pull his legs up like he was in pain. After that, we tried rice and the little man quickly rejected the flavorless white mash. With all that going on, I decided it was time to break out the stash of baby food that I got on sale four months ago. I was able to buy 70ish jars of stage 2 baby food for around $10. With Brenna, I made my own. But this price was too good for a frugal mom to pass up.

Now before you freak out about skipping stage one, I will tell you that I believe stage 1 baby food is a waste of money. It's only watered down stage 2 food. Plus, feeding babies watered down food is just asking for a huge mess. I know some new moms whose hearts would palpitate over that statement, but it's true none the less! I've even had to start mixing in some baby oatmeal to thicken up some of the runnier stage 2 fruits for Ian. If I skip that, he spits out more than he swallows.

After the first week, I found that we could get some of the cereal in Ian without ill effects if it was mixed with other baby food. Unfortunately, he's showing signs of being like Brenna - the iron content of the cereal binds him up (if you know what I mean). Thankfully prunes take care of that quickly. After we finish this box of baby oatmeal, I'll start grinding up instant oatmeal for him to avoid this. A food processor makes quick work of it.

Ian has only been on baby food for two weeks. He's loved everything except rice cereal and turkey tetrazinni. The faces he made with those two were priceless! I even made a chicken, gravy and mashed potato casserole last night and he scarfed down a good amount of it! I know, I'm breaking another "traditional" rule in feeding him so many different kinds of food early on. But some rules were meant to be broken! Look at that face in the picture and see if he doesn't agree!

Fall Festival at Grammy and Grampsy's Church

2011-10-30T23:06:00.000-04:00

I made Brenna her own little princess dress for Halloween. She did not want to take it off!

Sarah is Christian punk rock singer, Ashton is a dragon and Brenna a princess fairy. In fact, Ashton cracked us up as we were going to the church. Have you ever seen Super Why? It's kids show and one of the characters is a princess fairy that uses her wand to spell words. Brenna dropped her wand and Ashton rushed it to her and said, "Brenna, you need your wand so you can spell princess!"

I can't get enough of these guys!

There was a little face painting...

And Grampsy holding Ian (who was a conductor).

Ashton almost stumped the face painter! He wanted to look like a dragon.

Brenna thinks makeup is a necessity, not a nice to have.

Scary dragon...

And a butterfly princess. (I would have a picture of Sarah, but she had disappeared.)

This is my favorite picture of he night.

I would have had a nice one of Ashton, but his face was stuck to the cotton candy.

Thanks for inviting us Grammy and Grampsy! We had a great time!

So Glad For Sunday

2011-10-30T01:03:00.001-04:00

According to most calendars (and some people), Sunday is the true beginning of the week. I'm so thankful for that. If you read yesterday's post, I got some exciting news. The SC Cottage Food Law has some official language that legislators are passing around. But with the good things, there have been some not so good stuff going on.

Daniel's mom came down with pneumonia. She's doing the whole chemo thing and her immune system is not up to snuff. God has been answering many prayers and she has stayed out of the hospital, but she's not out of the woods yet. In addition to that, while I was talking with my mom, my dad fell and dislocated his shoulder. My mom is also going through the whole chemo thing and we will see shortly if the new rounds of treatment are preventing the spread of her cancer. And tonight we found out that Daniel's aunt has tumors on her kidney. They found it because she was having some painful swelling in her hip. They are most likely going to be removing her kidney sometime soon. Do you see why I want the new week to start?

Some days I would like to question God on his plans. I try not to. He uses all things for his glory and my small little mind only catches glimpses of his plans. I have to admit though, I hope and pray my family gets a break soon. We've lost three relatives in the past few years and now two relatives have serious cancers attacking them and one more may have it as well. And Daniel's grandmother has had a lot of health issues on top of it. God knows why all this is happening. I trust that he'll walk us through this valley just as he has in the past. It's just a tough road sometimes.

Anyway, I'm glad it's Sunday.

My Little Adventure

2011-10-29T00:24:00.001-04:00

You've seen my cakes on here. I'm not the best, but I feel like I hold my own. A while back a friend asked why I did not sell them to the public. I started to look into it and found that South Carolina did not allow home bakers to sell their goods and renting a kitchen would end up costing more than the cakes I hoped to sell. For a while, that stopped me. I let that dream go and moved on. Or so I thought. The desire was still lurking under the surface and when I found a site for the Texas Home Baker bill, my interest was renewed. I read most of the posts and then found out that many other states either had a cottage food law or had folks working toward that.

I decided that I wanted to be one of those "folks" working towards changing the law. This would not only be for me, but it would be for all the people across South Carolina who had the skills to bake, can or do other things in their home kitchen but could not. This would also be for my family. My skill has the ability to help support us financially and in the current economic climate, it would be a blessing.

Not sure of where to start or even if I could do this, I emailed the lady behind the movement to enact a cottage food law in Georgia. She was very encouraging and after talking with her, I started a facebook page called SC Cottage Food Law. Go check it out! We now have 69 members. I also started an online petition that has over 400 signatures supporting a change to the law.

Things had started to slow down on the facebook page and I was not sure how to get momentum going. So I turned it over to God. And out of that, I met another woman who shared my passion to get the law passed. She's been a breath of fresh air and because of her Senator Shane Massey agreed to sponsor the bill. She also made a huge difference in spreading the word about our petition. You can't tell me that God doesn't answer prayers!

I found out tonight that a second draft of the bill has been floating around. I knew that it was being looked at, but to find out that there is actual legislation in the works blew my mind. I hope to get a peak at it soon. You hear every day how one person can change things. It really is true. And I'm so blessed to be a part of it. Come January 2012, this legislation is set to hit the SC state house. I'm not 100 percent sure how the process goes here in South Carolina, but I'm praying we get it through on the first go. So many home here would benefit from an additional source of revenue and it would allow many current home bakers to legally do something they love.

Next year, I hope to become a home baker in South Carolina. I'll need a name for my new venture. Feel free to leave me some ideas. And then I'll get the hubby to make me a wonderful little website to start advertising my wares! I can't wait. Pray for all the people working to make this law happen. Pray for favor with all the Senators and Representative that have not officially signed on to this and pray that Governor Nikki Haley will sign it into law when passed.

Did You Ever Imagine...

2011-10-28T00:44:00.001-04:00

"Mom, did you ever imagine you were a microphone?" asked my curious little man as we drove along the highway. I have to admit, some questions catch me by surprise. I calmly answered, "Well no dear, I have never imagined that I was a microphone." With his question answered, he sat back in his seat for the remainder of the ride.

But it got me thinking thoughts that you can only have when the kids suddenly go quiet in the car and you've just been asked a random question. What would it be like to be a microphone?

My mind flashed back to the first time I saw Steven Tyler singing on TV. His mouth was huge! And he spit all over the microphone! So if I were a microphone, I would be spit on. And I would have someone singing/speaking/yelling into me. To make matters worse, what if I ended up being a microphone used by multiple people. How much spit and germs would I endure... Sweaty hands, being dropped...Ughh.

So now I have imagined being a microphone and I thought I would share. And now that I have thought through it, I figured I would share it with you. And now you are going to think about being a microphone. Yeah, I like sharing!

Praying for Deliverance

2011-10-11T21:40:00.000-04:00

What's Happening?

2011-10-11T00:22:00.001-04:00

Life never seems to slow down. This past Sunday, my pastor preached on how Christians need solitude and how we are bogged down with the sickness of being in a hurry. He told of how Christ regularly pulled away from the crowds for some alone times. I'm one with Christ on that front. I need solitude. I need my time away. I love being a wife and mother but have sorely missed my recharge time since assuming those roles.

You see, I had time for solitude before marriage. Sarah's grandparents would take her for a night or she would go with her dad for a day. I would veg out on the couch or do something just to recharge. I had time to rest and figure out my thoughts. I sometimes would clean the house. Other times I would order Chinese food and watch a movie or read a book or journal. I could breath and think. I relished in not being "needed" for a short time and solely focusing on my needs.

In this day and age, that may sound selfish. We have so much going on and we should be doing something all the time or else life our time is not being utilized properly. As a mom, I've noticed that whenever the kids are home, my mom sonar is active at all times. I'm on the job 24/7 whenever they are around and it doesn't matter if Daniel is here of if someone else is helping with them. When they are out of the house with someone else and I am here alone, my state of being relaxes. That part of me that is constantly sending out sonar and waiting for the pings to come back takes a break. I'm officially off duty and can rest. And as I become rested, I'm better able to meditate. My mind starts working through questions that have been sitting on the back burner waiting for a turn to be processed and I pray more effectively.

When we got married and moved here, my regular down time disappeared. Daniel is the type that constantly needs something to do. He's never really understood the down time thing. Don't get me wrong, he takes alone time here and there, but it's not as vital to him as it is to me. God made us different in that regard. Lately that fact has put a big "time" strain on our household as his schedule has ballooned with activities. I wish I could say that I've been perfect at handling it, but I'm human and when I have no down time I get a bit grumpy! But as we listened to the message this Sunday, I think it sunk in that going all the time was not what God wanted us to do and it gave him a little more perspective on his crazy wife!

As for what's going on now, Daniel is working to get through the last week of play practice! Hallelujah! He's going to be awesome, but we all miss him being at home in the evenings. He'll still be teaching home bound kids after school which will ongoing throughout the year. In addition, he's running for City Council. I know that if he wins, he will do an amazing job. He cares so much about finding ways to bring our town back to life. When we moved here it was filled with cute shops and restaurants. Now the restaurants that are left are struggling and most of the shops have moved out. I know that he'll work to push a change there.

Sarah is enjoying middle school. She's excited to continue learning more about the violin. A few weeks ago, her grandmother took her to Clemson to hear a visiting violinist play. It was such a treat for her and she loved having some girl time with Grammy. At school, she's joined the history club and Teens for Christ. (And no, even though she thinks she is, she is not a teen...yet!) The only part that she would gladly give up is the homework!

Ashton is becoming an amazing young man! He's so sweet and funny. I wish I could record a lot of our conversations so that I could always remember the funny things that he says. I love the wonder and awe that he shows for everyday life. I pray the more of that rubs off on me each day! I've been working with him on the K4 Abeka home school. He's tracing letters and learning sounds, colors and shapes. He's even working on memory verses. I was going to do one a week with him, but he seems to get them better if we do one every week and half to two weeks. I love being able to go at his pace.

Brenna is a mess. She confident and authoritative. She loves her brothers, but struggles with not always being her Mom's baby. I've been trying to make more of an effort to hold her when Ian is down and give her some additional snuggles. She's so determined and focused on doing things the right way and making sure her hair looks good while doing it. It cracks me up!

And Ian. I can't get enough of the little guy. He has such a sweet spirit and reminds me so much of Sarah as a baby. We had to take him to the doctor for an ear infection and he weighed in at 16 pounds. And he's so tall! If it were possible, he would be standing up on his own. Ashton and Brenna were late bloomers when it came to moving, so it amazes me to watch him work to do these things so early. I think he'll take after big Sis and be walking by the time he's one! The time sure does fly.

As for me, I'm trying to get back to the gym. I still struggle with finding the energy to pull the three little ones to the gym each day, clean, home school, cook, blog, etc. I stick with the more important ones for the family, but things like the blog tend to fall behind.

On a positive note, I started a little facebook page called the SC Cottage Food Law at the end of August to see if it was possible to allow South Carolinians' to sell cakes and other baked items made in home kitchens to the public. It was slow going for a little while. I gave it over to God and he send a new friend to help push things through. Her Senator agreed to sponsor legislation to pass a cottage food law. After I heard that, I got on the phone to my Senator and he agreed to cosponsor. Even better, he emailed me a few days later to let me know that another Senator wanted to cosponsor as well! I also started a petition as well so that our Senators could see that this was important to South Carolinians'. I checked a few minutes ago and we now have 345 signatures! This bill should be before the state representatives in January. I know that this is just the beginning and many things could derail this bill before it passes, but I'm still encouraged by the success of it so far.

And on that note, I'll end this extra long update and head to bed!

Tinker Bell Birthday Cake

2011-10-04T02:00:00.000-04:00

A friend from our small group asked me to do a Tinkerbell cake for her daughter's birthday getaway. It's chocolate cake with butter cream icing and covered in fondant. I created a new chocolate cake recipe and think it's better than my old one.

I love how this turned out! I'll post addition pictures on my cake blog later.

Rose Swirl cake

2011-10-03T04:00:00.000-04:00

I made this for a Woman's Banquet at church. It's a chocolate cake with cream cheese icing in a rose swirl pattern.

Apple Picking for the First Time

2011-10-02T20:20:00.000-04:00

Believe it or not, I've never been apple picking. Or if I have, I don't remember it! Our friend Judi and her daughter Hanna joined us for the adventure. And she introduced us to apple cider doughnuts and Apple Cider slushies! If I had known how good they were, I would not have brought a lunch! I lost my smaller camera and can only post some of our pictures from the day.

Sky Top 2011 or "Apple Mountain" (as Ashton calls it)

Heading out to pick some apples.

Sarah helping Brenna pick.

Hard at work.

Ashton couldn't go on without a bite of apple!

Brenna needed a snack as well.

And Sarah joined in as well!

I love this shot!

And here is our friend Hannah.

The girls started getting a little scary looking...

So we took a break.

And this picture sums up Brenna perfectly! She even eats apples with an attitude!

And we did manage to bring a half a bushel of apples home. After the apple donuts and apple cider slushies entered the picture, the kids took a break on the apples! From that bushel, I made some apple butter, apple pancakes, apple fritters, apple sauce and an apple pie! We'll be heading up to pick Granny Smith Apples soon!

It's September Baby!

2011-09-05T19:58:00.000-04:00

Life with four is an amazing thing. It's crazy and wonderful all at the same time. Some days I feel as though I'm super mom, but there are many where I find myself wondering if I really accomplished anything. Seriously though, have you ever cleaned a house and then twenty-four hours later it looks worse than it did when you cleaned it. And don't get me started on laundry! The piles, they never end! But that's all part of being a mom of four and I wouldn't trade that for anything!

Tomorrow is a big day here. Sarah will start middle school. Do you remember how it was when you started? I was so excited and nervous.  I remember one of my first bus rides there. One of the guys that bullied my older sister came up to me and said something stupid. But when it came to a war of words, I could hold my own. I came right back at him and he backed down. That was so empowering. Then there were many drama filled moments. Middle schooler's are so emotional. Hormones start coming into play and the world can erupt on any given day. I don't miss that part at all!

But now my baby girl will enter it. She'll face the whims of emotions. She'll barrel through her fears and find new dimensions to herself. She'll become confident about her ability to navigate a strange new school. Lord willing she will find life-long friends on her way. This year she'll learn to play the violin and experience the rigors of gym class. I'm so excited for her and proud that I get to walk beside her as she starts her new adventure.

Daniel is also entering the fray. He was tapped to teach a new style of class for special-ed students at the high school. He spent a good deal of this summer making lesson plans and figuring out how to teach 4 different grade levels in one room. On top of that challenge, they've doubled the number of students that were meant to be in his program. He's not even certain that his class at the new school will hold them all!  Daniel also signed up to do another play and is running for city council. This fall is going to be packed.

Ashton will begin K4 homeschooling this week. We did a small start last week, but I decided not to push things too much. It's pretty easy in the beginning. He's excellent at auditory learning. His biggest challenge will be to slow down to do his coloring and writing assignments. And did I mention he turns four this month! I'm seeing a Yo Gabba Gabba cake in his future!

Brenna will have a new "first" as well. This week she'll be seeing the dentist for the first time! My little princess was playing in her room with her brother and somehow chipped her front tooth. It's a sizable chip and I'm surprised that it's not causing her any pain.  But, the edges are very sharp and I'm afraid that she'll fall and cut her lip or tongue before we can get it fixed! So far we've avoided that. I haven't mentioned this before, but she is a little dancing diva as well! One day I'll have to video her and post it here!

And my little Ian. He's really not that little, but who cares. He reminds me so much of his older sister as a baby! He's good natured and quick to smile. He's started talking (baby talk) and if he could figure out the balance thing, he would be standing up on his own! I have to go out and get some six month pants for him because he's too big for his 3-6 month clothes. (He'll be 3 months old on the 7th.) He shared a check-up visit with Brenna last month and weighed 14.6 pounds. I have a feeling that he's already over 15 pounds now. The funny part is that his sister is only 29 pounds! He'll outweigh her by the time he's one!

As for me, I'm working on getting the state law for home bakers changed. I want to run a little cake and pastry shop from the house to help provide for our family. I've not had a lot of time to put into the effort this week, but hopefully will get to it soon. In order to legally sell food from home, I would have to install a separate kitchen or rent a kitchen. I can't afford either of those options. Lately many states have passed cottage food laws to allow cooks/bakers to use their home kitchens and I hope that we can mirror that here.

I also found out a few weeks ago that my mom's colon cancer has moved to her liver. She's going through chemo now. After watching my mother-in-law go through a relapse with her ovarian cancer, I know just how hard it is for my mom. So if you have a moment, lift her up in prayer. I pray that if it's God's will that he will remove all traces of cancer from her or allow the chemo to keep it under control indefinitely. Cancer is such an ugly beast.

This week, Daniel started leading a small group at church. Our first night went great and we got to meet some new folks and get to know some better. I'm so excited about our group and can't wait for our next meeting! I enjoy spending time with God on my own, but he knew something when he called us to fellowship with other believers. And I got to meet another stay-at-home mom! Her son hit it of with Ashton right away!

We also were invited by another friend to go apple picking. I don't have the pictures downloaded, but when I do I'll post a few. Ashton is still asking if we are going to "Apple Mountain"! It cracks me up! I fear that he's a bit like I am though. I don't like cooked apples unless it's applesauce. I made German Apple Pancakes and Romanian Apple Cake this weekend. Each had larger chunks of apples in it and he picked them out. I can't wait for the Granny Smith Apples to come in season. They are my favorite! By then I hope that Daniel's grandmother is out of the hospital and able to teach me some about canning. And if I'm lucky she may lend me all her canning gear! I would love to have homemade applesauce all year long!

debradaytoday.blogspot.com

Deep Conversations with Grampsy

2011-08-24T05:53:00.002-04:00

Hey Grampsy!

I love watching Ian with people. He just stares at them as if he gets everything they are saying!

And it was obvious he was having a serious conversation here!

I think Grampsy was trying to impart some wisdom on growing hair. I could be wrong, but hair is a serious matter when it comes to the Graybeal men!

Brenna's Birthday Pictures

2011-08-22T14:17:00.000-04:00

I love the fact that Brenna's birthday is in the summer and we were able to share it with her cousin Emma. And I loved it even more that Emma's grandfather let us use his pool! How fun!

No more pictures!

Cousin Will heading down the slide.

Mr. Fearless going down as well.

Cousins

Deep conversations...

This is as close to a smile as she would give!

Go Ashton!

He is addicted to the slide!

Go Will!

Can you believe she's almost as tall as I am?

Poser!

Brenna and I are hanging out in the deep end.

Seth is ready for a splash!

Baby boy loves to party!

Cousins who play together tend to eat together!

This is why I put so much effort into the cakes. While I love the challenge and the chance to be creative, I love watching the kids get an extra special surprise for their birthday!

Aunt Jennifer, Uncle Michael and cousins got her some nice toys and this outfit. She willingly gave me the toys, but refused to let me put away the outfit!

She loved her monkey girl doll from her Sissy.

Brenna is in love with her stroller!

Ian snuggle in his Grammy's arms.

Help Daddy!

Brenna needed a little help getting her candles out!

She moved so fast that I could barely get a picture of her blowing out the candles!

Aunt Jennifer (Daniel's sister) and Emma

Miss Emma!

Brenna is all about her new stroller, doll and birthday cake!

Cake time!

Uncle Daniel has Will!

Emma has her second wind thanks to a sugar high.

And I'll end here with my handsome husband and son!

I know it's hard to believe, but I have more pictures and will post them to Facebook later!

Brenna and Emma's Birthday Cake

2011-08-22T12:26:00.000-04:00

I hope to get time to post pictures of the party later, but for now here are the cake pictures. The carriage was my most ambitious cake to date and I'm very pleased with how it turned out. My wonderful daughter and my lovely niece loved the cake and that made it worth all the work! And I want to send a big thanks to my husband for keeping the kids out of my hair while I worked on the cake! Love you babe!

First there was a ball of cake...

And a fairy godmother came and turned it into this!

The wheels were a little challenging. Thankfully they are for looks or this thing would only move in circles!

I wanted each girl to have their own cake. My niece just went to Disney and is in love with princess'. I also like to call Brenna my petite princess, so the theme was an easy one. I found the pillow cakes online and the tiara fit in. While doing research, I found this sweet little carriage and just had to make one!

Happy Birthday Brenna!!

2011-08-12T19:35:00.001-04:00

Wow! She's two. It's hard to believe our tiny little girl is another year older! My sister-in-law and I decided to do Brenna and Emma's (my niece) party together on Friday. But we had to push it out 'til next week. Because of that, I had a partially finished cake (that was to be part of the larger cake) sitting on the dining room table. I decided to finish that cake and do an at home party for Brenna. It also gave me a trial run for the party cake! Here's few pictures of the little Miss!

My first Pillow cake. I think it turned out pretty well!

Brenna loved it! I also love their expressions in this pictures. It's as though Ashton can't believe the cake is for Brenna and she's surprised it's hers. After I grabbed this shot, Brenna leaned over and licked the cake. Thankfully it was hers to begin with!

The tiara was fun to make. I have another one made out of gum paste. I broke a piece of of it and had to make a few last minute changes, but it still turned out cute!

The tiara is made out of royal icing and painted with edible metallic silver paint. I sawed off the right portion of the tiara and stabilized the heart on top with a little more royal icing.

As you can see, she loved her cake!

And blowing out her two candles!

I love how her little tongue always sticks out when she's accomplishing something. Daniel tells me that her great grandfather used to do the same thing when he was working!

She didn't wait to get a fork!

This is her new table set. She's fascinated with the horse and the box!

Mmm, cake!

Sissy helping with her next present.

She loved her own personal TV radio and table set!

Almost 2 Months

2011-08-05T09:35:00.000-04:00

My little man is getting bigger by the minute! Three weeks ago he started smiling on purpose. Now he let will let loose with a grin that seems like it covers most of his face. Add that to the coos and little noise he makes to try and talk, and our hearts are sold on the little guy! He also has a strong desire to stand up. If his head didn't weigh so much, he might just be able to do that with out a little balancing help from Daniel or I. We are so blessed to have such a happy little guy!

Creepy Crawly Critters

2011-08-05T09:15:00.000-04:00

When we moved in this house, I was amazed at how there seemed to be so many bugs around. Mainly it attracts spiders. No matter what we do or what we spray, there are spiders everywhere. Recently we discovered that the most revolting of the spiders is actually a brown widow spider. (I'll try and get pictures of that one later.) That's right. It's a relative of the black widow spider. Who knew?

The other night, I was folding laundry at the dining room table and noticed a gray lump moving on the driveway. It was getting dark and I couldn't make out exactly what it was. I called Daniel over and he couldn't figure it out either. We decided to go outside and take a look.

Of course I had to get Daniel to run in for the camera. This wasp was about an inch long. The wolf spider's body was at least that size. It's leg span was even longer. We watched the wasp drag that thing at least 20 feet to our back porch. It will then place the spider in it's burrow and lay eggs on it. Since this type of wasp typically ignores humans, we let it live. Plus I don't mind getting rid of a few spiders.

Now before you feel too bad for this spider, I will tell you it's not the smallest one we've seen around our house. Last year there was one that could have eaten a small mouse or frog in my garden. I found it while I was out at night looking over the garden. Needless to say I promptly went back in the house! I don't mind spiders, but those things will jump at you! And there is another one that sits on the light switch box at the back of our house that is slightly larger. I'm all for things that kill spiders here!

The View

2011-08-03T11:00:00.000-04:00

Slowly but surely, I'm getting the posts for our trip put together! Springfield, Illinois is a small city compared to Greenville or Richmond. The tallest building by far was our hotel. I found this picture on google (because I forgot to take any pictures of the outside of the hotel).

We were on the eleventh floor and had a great view of the city. In fact, we were facing a train track. Each time the train whistle blew, Ashton and Brenna would run to the window to watch it come by! That's great entertainment for a one and three year old!

By the time we arrived at the hotel, we were all exhausted. Ashton walked in the room and said, "Be quiet everyone, it's time to lay in the beds!" Then he noticed the window and Brenna noticed the phone and Daniel started checking out the flat screen tv!

We truly enjoyed our stay at the Hilton. Thanks to a hotel messup and some gifting of free meal tickets, the kids and I were able to eat breakfast at the hotel most of the week. And let me tell you, it was the best hotel breakfast that I've had! Delicious fresh fruit, yogurt, smoked salmon, cheeses, eggs, potatoes, bacon, sausage, grits, oatmeal and many other wonderful things! It's amazing that I only gained 5 pounds while eating out for an entire week! And with any hotel, having someone come in and clean the room for you is priceless!

Dreaming of Oreo's

2011-07-29T23:35:00.000-04:00

Mmmm. I made this little beauty for dinner at a friends house. It's an Oreo Cream Pie with extra oreos and whipped cream on top! Just follow the instructions off the back of the Jellow Instant Oreo Pudding box. I always add an extra teaspoon of vanilla to any pudding. For the decorations, add 6-8 oreas to a food processor and blend until they are crumb sized. Put them over the top and press into the pudding mixture to set. Add whole oreos to the top. Place whipped cream in a piping bag with a 1M large star tip. You will not have any leftovers!

Sweet Pepper and Avocado Salad

2011-07-28T00:46:00.002-04:00

I normally use the base of this salad as a dressing for a summertime pasta salad. But then I tasted it before adding it to pasta and fell in love! It's light, delicious and full of flavor. I hope you enjoy it!

3 lemons zested and juiced
1 avocado cubed
1/4 teaspoon dill
1/4 of a red pepper diced
1/4 of a yellow pepper diced
1/4 of an orange pepper diced
3 tablespoons oil
Salt to taste

Zest and Juice 3 lemons
Add dill.
Cut avocado and gently stir in lemon juice/zest mixture. (This will prevent avocado from browning.)
Add in peppers and stir gently to coat.
Taste and add salt and oil.
Stir gently to coat peppers.

This will stand alone as a side or would work great over pasta, fish or in a salad. You should eat this within 2 days of making it or the avocado will get mushy. If that works for you then it will last longer, but I'm not a huge fan of mushy avocados.

Brenna - The Potty Trained Princess

2011-07-27T10:40:00.000-04:00

I was very concerned that Brenna would not decide that she wanted to go along with the potty training program. Somehow, she inherited a good deal of stubbornness. (I wonder where that came from!) But on Saturday (Day 3) we had a few good success'. She kept coming up to me when she needed to go "#2" to ask for a "diap" (her word for diaper). It was extremely helpful.

Daniel and I decided to keep her home Sunday so that we could be sure that there would not be a setback. She only had one accident all day. Then on Monday she only had one accident as well. She's also sleeping through the night dry. There was only one night where woke up wet. It was 5 a.m. and she started to go and caught herself. She woke up screaming and finished up on the potty. Since then she's been dry each night.

On Tuesday, she hurt her elbow and we needed to go to the doctor. While we out, she did not have an accident. She even used the bathroom at Lowe's. This is a big deal for us because her brother had serious issue using other toilets. But since she's decided that she's going to go potty, it's not been an issue.

I started out wondering if she would be easier to train than her brother. In the end, she was. We still have to make sure she goes to the potty on a regular basis as she is still rarely asks to go potty herself. But as long as we keep on top of it and watch for her cues, she will continue to be successful and we will only have to get diapers for one little one!

Potty training can be tough, but there are things you can do to make it go smoothly (check out my previous posts). With Brenna, I had to modify things a little from how I did it with Ashton and Noah. Brenna will turn 2 next month and I can proudly boast that she's out of diapers!

Brenna's Potty Training Day 2

2011-07-22T10:18:00.000-04:00

My goodness, potty training is tough! It doesn't help that Brenna can hold it for hours! We started yesterday morning when she got up. She only tinkled a half an ounce in the toilet. She had a small accident at nap time but appeared to stop herself. It was not until 6:30 or so before she could no longer hold things in and an accident occurred. Daniel and I were amazed! She had another small accident in her bed around 10 p.m. and then slept through the night dry. When I trained Ashton and Noah, they had accidents every 15 or 20 minutes the entire day. Because of that, I was able to get them on the potty in time to use it. Eventually they realized what I wanted and we could work with it. We know Brenna has to go, but with so few accidents it's hard to tell what her signals are!

As you can tell from the pictures above, she doesn't mind her potty. One of our main problems is getting her to sit still. She's constantly in motion and is not stopped by watching a movie. In addition to that. she inherited a sizable stubborn streak! She'll tell us she has to go but does not want to sit long enough to make things happen. We've decided to let her start wearing her new underwear a day early in hopes that it will trigger something! Lord willing we'll be on the road to success before Sunday! I really want to get back to church. Due to having the baby and vacation, it's been six weeks since I've been to my church!

It's Potty Training Time

2011-07-20T23:33:00.000-04:00

It's time for another round of potty training. Brenna will be two next month and she's been telling us when she's pooped or needs to potty for two months. We delayed it because of Ian's impending arrival and the trip to Illinois. Everyone says that boys are harder than girls to train. I hope they are correct. When I trained Ashton and Noah it was not that bad, so this should be a breeze! Well, a mom can dream...

We told Ashton that Brenna was going to start potty training. He's convinced that she is to small to start. He even volunteered to start changing her diapers for us! I think he doesn't like the idea of Brenna being "big". That's his roll and he's not ready to share it.

The Arch

2011-07-19T14:30:00.000-04:00

A friend of Daniel's told him that the St. Louis Arch was not far outside of Springfield. After a little research, we found that it would only add about 40 minutes plus visit time onto our trip. We decided that the chance to visit it was too good to pass up. As we pulled into Missouri, the kids were asleep! Daniel and I enjoyed sneaking peeks of the arch from the highway. The closer we came to the arch, the more impressed I became with the simple, yet powerful design. Coming on the bridge over the Mississippi River, the full magnitude of the arch was evident. It's size was inspiring. I knew it would be big, but it was larger than I expected. (Not that I had huge expectations to begin with!)

As we pulled into St. Louis, the kids started to wake up and take notice. One of the best things about having children, is that you get to enjoy watching them as they discover new things with you. At one, Brenna is an easy sell on most things. But Sarah and Ashton really get into seeing new sights. We walked up to the arch in the blazing heat and could not wait to get into the air conditioning! Who knew that Illinois could get so hot! And the humidity! Goodness, I was wearing Ian and we were sweating like crazy!

Under the arch is a museum and the entrance to the tram that takes you to the top of the arch. All Ashton wanted to do was ride the "train" (tram)! We had to wait to board and went looking through the front portion of the museum section. It focus' on the arch being the gateway to the west. Eero Saarinen won the contest with his simple, yet elegant design. He used stainless steel for it's strength and because it represented the time. As an added bonus, the arch reflects the light and colors of it's surroundings.

They also had a dozen or more peace medals. These medals were awarded to Indian tribes that made treaties with the government.

We also saw many talking exhibits. I think their were motion sensors in the eyes that allowed the figure to follow the movements of people.

On the way to the tram, we had to wait by a huge image of one of the final sections of the arch before it was completed. Brenna rarely stands still for a picture!

And Ashton sometimes gets a little crazy.

And here is Sarah suffering through another picture that her crazy parents made her take! (We gave up on getting Brenna to stand still for a group shot!)

After the wait, we headed out to board our tram. Each group got their own little car for the ride up to the top. The door to enter was only four feet tall! Since Daniel is 6'3", he started to get a little nervous about the size of the tram car!

By the time we got on the tram, Daniel and I were worn out. Ian did not like standing in line. He screamed for 20 minutes. Add that to a three year old who thought he was Tigger and a one year old whose favorite word is NO and you get two frazzled parents! But we made it to the tram and I convinced Ian to suck on my finger! He hasn't figured out how to get his to stay in his mouth and he thinks I've gone off the deep end if I try to get him to take a pacifier! The tram was a lot of fun. The car small, but not so small that I started to feel claustrophobic. The ride up took four minutes. We were able to see the inside of the arch through the windows in the door. While Daniel, Sarah and I enjoyed the ride, Ashton and Brenna were overly excited! They wanted it to go faster and giggled with glee as the chains moved the car up at an angle. Daniel was worried that they would scare Brenna, but she has more courage than most 1 year old children that I know.

We were checking out the view at 630 feet! I was impressed that the kids were not concerned at the height. Brenna wanted to people watch while the rest of us could not get enough of the view. After taking in the view and snapping all our pictures, we headed back down the Arch.

Sadly, we were all exhausted and did not stay to finish our tour of the museum at the base of the Arch. But that is what happens when you have so many young kids with you and it's 90 degrees outside! After a short stop at Burger King, we headed straight to our hotel. When Ashton saw the bed he said, "Everybody stop! Let's go lay down!" Then he saw the view from the eleventh floor and forgot his desire to rest!

Our Trip

2011-07-12T09:42:00.000-04:00

Wow! They said that adding on a second our third child would be challenging. But I think it's the fourth that makes things a little nuts! Maybe it's just the breastfeeding part or I just blocked some stuff out from the past. Or it's because we are traveling and three of them are 3 and under! But, it's worth every minute of the craziness!

We went to Nashville and visited with our dear friend Cheryl. The kids loved playing with her and her sweet little dogs. Plus her son has a set of drums that the kids loved!

While in Nashville, we decided to take advantage of the reciprocal membership and visit the Nashville Zoo. It was a built on an old plantation and the designers did an awesome job of keeping most paths shaded. We loved everything except for the heat. And the zoo couldn't do much about that one!

Checking out the Meerkats.

Checking out the flamingos.

This was cute. Water came out of one end of the birds for washing...

...and air came out of the other end!

Sarah feeding the birds.

And Ashton too!

The zoo was built on an old plantation. The preserved the home (which we didn't take any pictures of) and we managed to get our first family photo there!

Do you know how hard it is to get a good picture with four young kids? It's like herding cats! But they didn't do too bad in the end. As for me, I'm normally the picture taker, but I was carrying Ian in a wrap and it's extremely difficult to bend and snap pictures while wearing him! We loved the zoo and I've posted all the pictures over on facebook.

This Is the Stuff...

2011-07-06T00:46:00.000-04:00

Today I had to take Ian to the doctor to get checked out for reflux. The Ear, Nose and Throat doctor scoped him when he was cutting his frenulum (the bit of skin beneath the tongue) and found out that it was most likely cause some issue he's been having. To be honest, I didn't see why the doctor had to see him. We had the diagnosis and all we needed was a prescription. My appointment was at 3 p.m. At 3:35 p.m. the receptionist informed me that someone canceled my appointment. Since the nurse set it up and called me with the time, I was a bit shocked. Instead of honoring my appointment time, the receptionist put me in the pool and I ended up waiting another 45 minutes to see the doctor for five minutes. But I walked out with a prescription for Zantac.

Then I went over to Chick-fil-a for some lunch. It was 4:30 and I had not eaten anything since breakfast. (I get very grumpy when I miss meals!) A nasty storm was fast approaching and I wanted to grab some food and get home as quickly as possible. The kids at the drive-thru window were playing around and messed up my order. I had to park and go in with Ian to have my order fixed. And the kids in the drive-thru were still goofing off. If the storm were not threatening to come at any moment, I would have asked to see a manager. And because of the delay, I ended up driving through driving rain and hard winds for most of the ride home.

I could go on, but this snapshot reflects my week in a nutshell! This is the stuff that drives me crazy! That Francesca Botticelli song rings true each day for me. I had to stop myself when I got home and remind myself that I was blessed that Ian could get medicine to help him and that we were able to see a doctor so fast. I was blessed to get food after the appointment. I was blessed to arrive home safely. Each time I wanted to complain, I reminded myself of the good that came out of each situation.

So often we get stuck in the moment of frustration and forget to see the blessings and good things that come out of those aggravating circumstances. But when we turn it around and start looking for the good things, we see how blessed we are. My day started turning around once my focus shifted to what was good and right. It brought me back to one of my favorite bible verses - Philippians 4:8-9.

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

Ian's First Visit to the Doctor

2011-06-18T01:28:00.000-04:00

Ian had his first checkup today and I have to admit that I was extremely surprised at the outcome. For those of you know know us well, you may remember that doctors had an issue with the weight of each of our previous kids. The height to weight ratio didn't match the charts or they were not gaining weight as fast as the doctors thought they should be. And for those of you who know us, you know that our kids are insanely healthy and all doing great! That said, I was prepared for the weight talk again today when low and behold, little Ian had regained all but 2 ounces of the weight he lost after birth (making him 10 pounds 2 ounces)! Because of that, we do not have to go back until he's two months old! Woo hoo!

The doctor checked him over and pronounced him good to go. He does have a clogged tear duct and small nasal passages that keep him congested, but both will go away as he grows older. We are also going to be seeing an Ear, Nose and Throat specialist to have the frenulum clipped . (That's the piece of skin that is under your tongue which connects it to the bottom of your mouth.) The doctors in the hospital did not get to us and we were not prepared to wait another day for that to happen. As frustrating as it was, we are just happy that it's finally going to be done. While Ian nurses like a champ now, the frenulum thing is starting to cause a few issues with his latching on and it can cause speech problems as he grows. Since he's so young, we decided to take care of it now instead of waiting.

I also have to give a shout out to my other wonderful kids. We had to take the whole gang to the doctors office and they were all wonderful! There was another child in the well waiting area who was a little terror. He kept running around and would not listen to his mom or his grandmother. His grandmother kept remarking on how well behaved our kids were compared to her two year old grandson! His mother told me that her oldest behaved but this one did not. She would talk to him, but not get up and do anything. I sat there thinking that if Ashton or Brenna were doing what he was doing, I'd have their butt in time out regardless of the fit they threw! Sometimes seeing other's out of control children makes you appreciate yours so much more!

Family of Six Update

2011-06-14T00:29:00.000-04:00

Wow! It's always so amazing to add another little one to the family. We are blessed to watch each child enjoy Ian. I can't tell you how much fun that has been. Sarah is old enough to hold him and walk him around as much as we let her! We have to have to have some limits because she would willingly keep him all day! Ashton is taking his big brother roll seriously. He loves to hold Ian and help burp him. Brenna thinks he's a little doll. One of of the first things that she says in the morning is "I want to hold the baby!" She's like her big sister. If it were possible, she would carry him around all day.

And how is Ian handling all this attention? He ignores them and sleeps right through it! If I was not present at the hearing test, I'd think the kid were deaf! Every now and then he'll open one eye and peak at them. It's so cute.

As for me, I'm healing. We knew that the c-section recovery would come, but can not wait until it's passes! Sadly, healing can not be rushed. Last night I had to skip my pain medicine because Ian was waking up every hour to feed. He did that the night before and I was scared I was going to drop him because I would nod off while feeding him. Big mistake. I was in so much pain this morning. But Daniel decided in the early morning hours to try letting him sleep in his bouncy seat and it worked like a charm. I slept for 3 or 4 hours straight! It was amazing.

I've also been busy enjoying all the little squeaks and noises he makes. And that baby smell and the little jerky movements that they make. You would think that those things would get old, but they do not! Plus, he loves to cuddle up on my chest and sleep. He's so peaceful and laid back. I do wonder how if he'll be this calm and laid back as he gets older. I love watching them grow!

I've also been really happy with how the baby weight is coming off! I know, I know, I should not be worried about weight. But, I would be a liar if I said that I didn't step on the scale daily to monitor it! Regardless, I've dropped 22 pounds since the little guy was born. Granted Ian was 10 pounds of that! And I retained a lot of water as well. Did I mention my feet now look normal and not like miniature blimps? It's true. You can even see between my toes! As for dieting, I'm not. I still enjoy ice cream, but am working to keep up the healthy diet that started before the little guy arrived. And in 4-5 more weeks, the gym and I will be seeing each other again. We have been apart far too long!

Enough of that though! We've been blessed to have so many wonderful friends bring food by. And Daniel has been doing the Mr. Mom thing so well. I do think he may be fully gray by the time I heal up though! The kids are really giving him a run for his money.

We are in need of prayer this week. While we were at the hospital delivering Ian, we found out that Daniel's uncle was being prepped for emergency surgery. He had a perforated bowel and was septic. After the surgery was finished, they could not get him to wake up properly. Further testing was ordered and the discovered that he had three strokes, multiple blood clots in his brain and one in his foot. If he awoke, he would be partially blind and paralyzed and would need his foot amputated. Yesterday or today they decided he was doing better and took him off the respirator. That did not go as well as was expected and he is too weak to go back on it. Sadly, the news is not good and Tommy is not expected to pull through. Please pray for our family. Tommy is so incredibly sweet. A dear friend of mine accurately calls him "The Mountain Man." He's a good old country man with one of the biggest hearts around and this news has hit the family hard.

Welcome Ian!

2011-06-09T01:47:00.000-04:00

On June 7th, Daniel and I arrived at the hospital around 10 a.m. We were directed to the recovery room to prepare for surgery. Generally, things are always running a little late but it was different that day. Once the nurse plugged in my IV, she called for the nurse for the anesthesiologist to come talk with me. I've had two other epidurals and am very familiar with the drill. As he walked out of my room 5 minutes later, I heard him tell a nurse that he loved repeat patients! Once he was done, my nurses started calling my doctor to see if he would be available to go deliver early. Apparently this is a rare thing!

Now, did I mention my doctor is also known as the "Ken doll?" He's got sandy blond hair and is taller and lean. I guess he's good looking, but the fact that he's most likely had a few rounds of botox always stops me from seeing that! Regardless, he's a great doctor and even though it's distracting, I'll keep going back to see him.

My dear little son Ian was born at 11:54 a.m. Due to his size, 10 pounds and 4 ounces, the nurses literally had to push and shove him out of my abdomen. While I did not feel pain from cutting, that portion of the section was a bit painful and extremely uncomfortable. The reactions by the doctors and nurses was pretty funny though! Ian's size caught them off guard and they had a good time guessing his weight before the official weigh-in. Daniel recorded the entire birth for me. I can't tell you how much I love that he did that. It offers a connection to the birth that I never had with Sarah or Ashton.

After they pulled Ian out, he came over to see me, peed all over the place and went to be cleaned up! Daniel was then able to hold him and sit beside me while I was put back together again. I'm so thankful to the Lord that things went so well for both of us. When I was finished and cleaned, they wheeled me back into recovery. This time Ian was allowed to stay with us in the recovery room! I was rolled in and got to see him laying comfortably in my dear husbands arms. I love that sight!

So far, Ian has been an amazing little guy. He's been sleeping long stretches and every now and then will open his eyes to explore his new surroundings. He's taken to nursing like a champ. Tomorrow he'll be circumcised and he'll be having the little flap of skin under his tongue clipped. He's a bit tongue-tied at the moment. That condition is not really affecting his nursing at the moment, but could cause some issues later on.

He did get to meet his siblings on his birthday! It was so much fun to watch them react to this helpless little newborn. We are so blessed to have such great kids!

As for me, yesterday my new nurse managed to get most of my pain under control. I'm looking forward to heading home with Ian on Friday and starting to figure out the "new normal" for our family.

Now it's time for me to try and sleep again. All this medicine and baby feeding is causing me to have random waking moments throughout the night.

But for you pleasure, here are a few pictures of my new little man!

12 Hours to Go

2011-06-07T00:38:00.000-04:00

Big Belly and the Family!

Ashton is convinced his baby brother is kicking him!

Brenna has not decided if she wants to have her picture taken. She could care less about the size of her mother's stomach!

I'm sitting here at midnight downing my last glass of water before the big to-do tomorrow. You see, my little man will be arriving not long after 12 p.m. I was praying and hoping that God would allow me to somehow go into natural labor before this day, but it was not to be. The second part of that prayer involved being at peace with a c-section if that was the best option for the baby and I. I believe with my whole heart the c-section is God's plan and for the first time I feel peaceful about it. To be honest, it's a bit strange.

Now, tomorrow may be a different matter. I don't do well waiting for surgery. Heck, I don't do well waiting to give blood. I have no issue with doing it. I'll even watch as they stick a needle in my arm, but I get extremely anxious beforehand. It's nuts. Lord willing this peace that I have now will overcome that nervousness tomorrow.

Anyway, Daniel and I took the kids for the final Family of 5 swim today at the YMCA. I love watching how they each are growing. Sarah has always been a water child. She goes off and swims all over the place. She enjoys the slides and meeting new people. I love watching her freedom in the water. She's also been a great help to me in the pool. I don't keep her in the kiddie section much, but she constantly comes back over to check if I need help with the kids. She's even taken to catching Brenna when she goes down the kid's slide. I can't tell you how much of a blessing that's been during this past week.

Ashton loves the water as much as his older sister! He loves to jump off the side of the pool and has even started practicing holding his breath underwater. I hate to jump into water, so I find it amazing to watch him do it fearlessly at the age of 3. We purchased a life jacket for him last week and he's taken to it amazingly well. Daniel and I have been taking him in the deep end and he's slowly becoming more confident in his ability to swim with it on. Today he wore his new goggles for the first time. His big sister has a pair and he wanted to be like her. He kept them on almost the entire time!

As for Brenna, she is going to follow in her older siblings footsteps. Her main desire, other than splashing in the water, is to go down the slide. She took a tumble on the steps the other day and ended up with a scratched, slightly bruised eye. But that didn't stop her. She went right back to it today. She's been watching Sarah and Ashton jump into the pool and today was trying to figure out how she was going to jump in! She reminded me of me! She would go up to the edge and make to jump in and then you could see that uncertainty and fear pull her back. She'll certainly outgrow it, but it was funny to watch her do something that I do to this day!

And me, I enjoyed watching them all. I sat back and watched as Ashton splashed around and even through him in a few times for good measure. I waved to Brenna as she set off down the slide and I watched Sarah swim and play with her friends in the deeper section. I laughed as Daniel dunked Ashton and Sarah and tried to teach Brenna how to jump off the pools edge. It was such a fun time and I will treasure it always.

While I sat back, I was excited to think of how this new little guy would fit into out family of five. He'll make a big splash of his own and shake everything up. Our "normal" is about to get a makeover that will change each of us in some way. Sarah will still be the oldest, but she will have a little more responsibility around the house for the next few weeks. Ashton will have a brother who will one day be as rough and tumbly as he is. And Brenna, poor Brenna... She's going to be kicked out of the youngest child category. While she'll always be our littlest princess, she'll have to give up some of her limelight to a squishy little boy.

In twelve hours, our family is going to change in an amazing way. Another of God's blessings will be added to our household and I couldn't be happier!

I'll post pictures as soon as I'm up to it.

I Love Publix!

2011-06-02T22:51:00.000-04:00

I have to say, Publix is my favorite SC grocery store to shop at. The sale items normally pair up with great coupons and I rarely shop there without saving 50-70% off of the original price.

My dear husband is getting a taste of the coupon thing. He's had a great attitude about it as well. Granted I'm due to have the baby next Tuesday, so he doesn't have a choice! I sent him out to take advantage of the diaper deal and the sale on Kellogg's cereal on the last sale cycle. I went over the coupons I had and what I wanted. He ended up with a jumbo pack of huggies and Pampers, huggies and Pampers wipes, 7 boxes of cereal and a thing of dressing for $42.81 (including taxes). Because of the coupons, he saved $43.12! The two boxes of diapers alone, without coupons are worth $40!

Tonight I had to take the whole family to Publix. It about killed me! But, the paper that came out had $5 off a $30 purchase coupons for Publix. I sent Sarah to the neighbors houses to collect their coupons. They don't shop at Publix and were willing to let us have them. Because of that, called Daniel to come join us and got some cash out of the bank in order to use 3 of the coupons which gave us an addition $15 off our total bill.

Here is what the three purchases looked like...

Total Before Savings: $41.21
Final Cost: $20.86
Amount Saved: $20.35

Total Before Savings: $64.56
Final Cost: $19.44
Amount Saved: $45.12

Total Before Savings: $113.21
Final Cost: $39.27
Amount Saved: $73.94

Overall, we saved 63% on our grocery bill. This included a few non-sale items like cat food, jelly, flour tortillas and ice cream for our very worn out children!

This will be my last sale shopping for a while, but I'm confident that Daniel will be able to take it over and continue the savings. It's not the most glorious job, but we manage to save so much money and get some really good things that we would not normally buy. My goal is to save at least 50% each time I shop the sales papers. There are few things that we pay full price for.

Deb's Easy Coffee Cake

2011-05-30T09:15:00.000-04:00

I adapted this recipe from Aunt Anne's Coffee Cake on allrecipes.com. I've never made her exact recipe and am sure it's delicious. What stopped me was the little instruction that said to cut in the butter. I was pressed for time and had no desire to cut in butter. I wanted a coffee cake that was quick and easy to put together and that had great taste. The one I came up with fits my morning time constraints.

Prep time - 10 minutes or less
Cook time - 30 minutes

2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup white sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg
3/4 cup milk (more if needed)
3/4 cup applesauce
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Topping:
1/2 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup brown sugar (no need to pack or level)
2-3 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 cup butter - partially melted
Pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Grease 8x11 inch pan with baking spray or flower/oil combo. (I use an 8x11 pan and get a 1" thick slice of coffee cake. A 9x13 will net a thinner slice and you will need to adjust the cooking time.)
Add flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt to a bowl. Stir with fingers to combine.
In a 2 cup measuring cup, add egg. Add enough milk to go up to the 1 cup mark. Then add 3/4 of applesauce and vanilla. Stirl to combine and break up the egg.
Add milk mixture to the flour mixture.
Stir until just combined and pour into the bowl.
Add 1/4 butter to a small bowl. Place in the oven to allow to soften/partially melt.
While it's in the oven, combine flour, brown sugar and salt in a small bowl. Mix with fingers until combined.
When the butter is ready, pour it over the sugar mixture. Use your fingers to mix butter through evenly. If the crumbs are broken apart to much, squeeze handfuls of the brown sugar mixture to make larger crumbles.
Place 1/2 to 3/4 of mix over the batter. Use a knife to do a light swirl pattern through the topping.
Place in the oven for 25 minutes. Pull it out of the oven and add the additional topping. Cook for 5 more minutes.
Pull out of the oven and let it sit for 10 minutes. Cut and serve.

The reason I love this is because it is extremely quick and easy. While other recipes have a better crumb texture, I have yet to find one that beats this recipe when it comes to time involved. And for our family of five (soon to be six), quick but tasty recipes are a life saver! I can have this in the oven in less than 10 minutes. You can't beat that for a homemade breakfast!

Also, be sure to put the vanilla into the batter. I forgot it this morning and I realized that something was missing right away. It doesn't make it bad, but it's a little flat in the flavor complexity department without vanilla!

Sometimes A Store is Just Too Big

2011-05-28T09:01:00.001-04:00

The next town up from us got a new Walmart a little while back. I have steadily avoided venturing into it. The store is massive and new and I don't really know where things are at. And now that I'm into couponing full time, Walmart rarely has the best prices. But yesterday I needed to look for some odds and ends and a few groceries and did not have the energy to the next county for a Target run.

I parked at the lawn and garden section because I could get a spot closer to the front doors and went in. Overall the store is very nice. They did a good job with the layout and I love the fact that it's clean and open. The store that it replaced was overcrowded with goods and pain to navigate. The produce section is lovely and I enjoyed walking through it. We even found some large, delicious strawberries to take home.

But then I got to the deli section. This is where my sense of too much came in. We are going to a picnic on Sunday and I'm bringing subs for the family. I asked the lady behind the counter what were the cheapest varieties of meats. The reason I asked is because there are 3 large coolers with meats and they have little tags at the bottom that are not clearly matched with each one. I'm huge, the extra water weight has altered my eyesight and bending is not a pleasant thing. Finding the prices and matching them up with two kids in tow was not an option that I wanted to explore. She looked at me and said, "I would have to come over there and look at the prices. You just need to tell me the brand you want and I'll cut it." I asked her if she didn't know the prices of what she was selling and she gave me a blank stare. I told her I'd go to a smaller deli for the meat I wanted and left. The hormones that control patience are not with me right now and sometimes it's better to not say anything at all.

That said, I realized that I forgot to look at swim vests that were on the other side of the store. It was an exhausting hike back to the other end. And to top it off, they didn't have what I was looking for. I'm sure it will be better after the baby, but I think I'll stick with smaller stores. I like a more personal experience and I like being able to walk from one end of the store to the other without feeling as though I've completed a long distance walk.

On the plus side though, the new Walmart has decided to double coupons. It's not a nationwide policy, it's just our store and only as long as the management decides they want to continue that policy. I'm sure I'll stop by there again, but for right now I just think it's too big.

It's a Rainbow...Cake

2011-05-25T20:37:00.001-04:00

Sarah had a cake walk at school this week and I decided it was time to try my hand at a rainbow cake. I've seen a few variations of this cake on different sites here is what I came up with. I did have grander plans for the outside of the cake, but since I'm less than two weeks away from delivery, I decided to forgo fondant decorations. Well, that and I still need practice on my butter cream piping techniques. Overall, it was a fun cake to make and I think I'm going to try it again for Brenna's birthday in August.

Before the icing...

Can you taste the rainbow?

Little dots and simple swirl roses.

Cross posted at debssweetspot.blogspot.com.

Kiddie Pools, Bubbles, Family and Friends

2011-05-22T02:09:00.000-04:00

We really need a bigger pool!

Brenna is not sure she likes being in the water.

Crazy dancing boy!

I love that grin!

She's thinking up some kind of mischief!

"DADDY!"

I couldn't stop myself from buying this! It fits her prissy personality so well!

Add a bubble blower to pool time and you have two very excited kids.

He looks like he's praying on a bubbly day.

Ashton loves that the bubbles stick to him.

My neighbors daughter asked Brenna to poke her. Then everyone else joined in!

Big, big bubbles.

It cracks me up to watch Ashton purse his lips even though Sarah is blowing the bubble!

Peek a boo!

Sarah helping her brother blow bubbles.

19 Days... But Who's Counting?

2011-05-20T08:35:00.000-04:00

I think this picture is very appropriate. This little guy is the size of a watermelon! His head is fully engaged in my pelvis and is constantly squishing my abused bladder. The only thing missing from it is little green legs and arms that are using my kidneys, lungs and ribs as punching bag/jungle gym combo.

To be honest, I was wishing this little guy would slow down some in his movements. On Sunday I got just that. We had an exhausting day and the little guy stopped moving as much. While it was nice to get some sleep, I started to get worried that something was wrong. Every few hours, I had to lay down and count his movements to make sure he was still doing his thing. That's lasted all week. I certainly prefer the kick boxing kid to the barely moving one. That's the kid I'm used to. Thankfully nothing was wrong. I believe he just descended a bit and was not sure what was going on.

Last night he made up for all that rest. Between the braxton hicks and the little guy moving, I didn't get much sleep at all. To be honest, I'm thankful! With my other three, so little movement would not have been a huge concern, but this guy is active all the time! And now that he's back to his old ways, I can rest easier.

That said, I would love it if he decided to come early! But then again, I would miss some important stuff with the end of school coming up. That was part of the reason he's scheduled for a c-section 3 days after my due date. That and it's the first day my doctor was on call during the delivery window. However, as of June 1st, those constraints are out of the window and he welcome to show up early. I don't really care who delivers him!

So how's the family taking the impending birth? Daniel is a bit stressed out. He's working his tail off trying to pull together all the final meetings for school and deal with his back/leg issues. On top of that, he's taken over a good deal of the chores that I can no longer bend for or put a lot of effort into. Sarah has been a great helper as well. When I need to sweep, she goes around and picks up things that I need off the floor. She also helps to keep the TV babysitter going when I need to lay down for a nap in the evenings. Ashton is excited that his brother is coming soon. He regularly comes over and pushes my stomach around or shouts, "Hello baby brother!" And his little brother responds to his voice! Brenna is the kid that's going to get the biggest surprise. We've told her there is a baby in my belly, but she so young and it makes no sense. I think she's going to be partially fascinated by the baby and extremely jealous that this little guy is going to need so much hands on time!

As for me, I'm tired of being tired! I can't wait to get my energy back...or what's left of it anyway! And to be able to sleep on my back or stomach - I dream of that right now! Last night I dreamed of being in labor early. I hope that's a sign from God! Ha. But if not, I'll be here waddling around for a few more weeks.

Week 36 - Grouchy Pregnant Lady Edition

2011-05-10T09:28:00.000-04:00

It's hot, I'm swollen and the world keeps moving on. Most days of this pregnancy have been really good. But sometimes, mostly when I've not been able to get a lot of sleep, I get very irritable. I know it's pregnancy related and try and reign it in, but there are days that things just push me to the boiling point. Yesterday became a prime example of that! After not getting more than a few hours of restless sleep, I had to get up and get the kiddos ready to go to the in-laws and take Sarah to school. My sunglasses were missing in action and I got a late start because I wanted to find them. Sunny days with tired eyes and no prescription sunglasses make for rough driving.

I managed to get Sarah to school, drop the younger ones off and get to my doctors appointment. Normally I'm in and out in 30 minutes or less. I'm a low risk pregnant lady and I've been blessed to not have any issue that take more than a moment to discuss with the doctor. And those have all been benign! Sadly, my normal doctor was out for the week and I was assigned a different one. This has happened before and it has not been an issue. For some reason, yesterday was the exception. I ended up waiting an hour and ten minutes to see the doctor for two minutes.

Let's recap why this could be a problem. First I had to arrange childcare for the appointment. That means I'm expected back at certain times (even though my in-laws didn't mind, I did). Second, I had to go to the bathroom. My appointments consist of peeing in a cup, getting weighed, listening to the baby's heartbeat and having my stomach measured. Since I'm a scheduled for a cesearean, there are no other exams. I had to wait over 45 minutes to do the "pee in a cup" portion of events. My bladder has a child's head on top of it. It's not a good thing for it to be over full. Third, I was hungry. I had not eaten anything since 4 a.m. and I was hurting. My sugar started dropping in the office (which made my mood worse) and I was shaking by the time I left the doctors. I normally stop out to get a snack after my appointment and had nothing with me to overcome that situation. Last but not least, I think it's rude to keep someone waiting for so long without notifying them that you are going to be running late. To be honest, because I've done this three other times, I know the warning signs and would LOVE to skip these last few appointments. Since I have to go, I expect to be in and out in a reasonable time or to have my appointment rescheduled.

Anyway, I did finally get out. I ran to Chick-fil-a and grabbed lunch and things started coming back to normal. Then I picked up the kids and we came home and all took naps. Thank the Lord for nap time! I don't know how I would have gotten through the evening without one!

So now you have a good picture of what turns a normally semi-sane pregnant lady into a grouchy monster - make her wait for the bathroom, be late and don't give her a chance to eat. I know there are more things, but this is a good basic list!

Now for the baby update. Baby G is doing great. He's growing and squirming around in his cramped quarters! Just last night, I realized that I could grab around his little foot as he pressed it against my stomach. Each time I did, he would pull back and squirm around some more! It's an amazing thing to be able to carry a life inside of you. Baby G has also dropped down some. The other day his head engaged more than any of the others had. I started having regular braxton hicks contractions and decided to take it easy for the weekend. While I would love for him to come early, I would prefer that be fully baked! Regardless, he popped back up a day later and is not giving my spine too much trouble. Plus the regular contractions have stopped.

As of next week, in theory, Baby G could be born at any time! I say "in theory" because not one of my kids has decided to come early. But a mom can dream! The only down side would be that the house is not ready for a baby to come home to! I still have to clean out the car seat, get some new sheets for the cradle, sort out the clothes that I have to determine what we still need to buy and so on. I could really use some nesting energy right about now! I know, we'll manage if he does come early. I'll be making a list after I pay some bills today and working towards getting all that stuff taken care of.

Now it's time to go do some cleaning! Woo hoo!

Pomegranate Red Wine Roasted Chicken

2011-05-05T00:15:00.000-04:00

At 35 weeks pregnant, cooking a from scratch meal is becoming more challenging. It takes planning, thought and energy. That last one, energy, is where I struggle the most. But there are times, like tonight, where I don't have much of a choice. I asked Daniel to pull some meat out of the freezer last night for dinner tonight. He chose a whole chicken and I was tasked with figuring out what to do with it. My darling daughter strongly desired to have lemon pepper chicken, but I did not have the energy to go out to the store for lemons. Instead, I remembered the two bottles of pomegranate red wine vinegar that I got for free at Bilo and had yet to use in any dish. The vinegar became the base to this delicious chicken.

1 whole chicken
1/2 baseball sized onion, thinly sliced
1/4 cup of pomegranate red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon minced garlic (I used the pre-chopped kind) or 2-3 cloves chopped
1/8 cup olive oil
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary (optional)

Place large cast iron skillet in the oven. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Combine onion, vinegar, garlic, olive oil, soy sauce, sea salt and rosemary in a bowl and stir to coat.
Take the chicken and pat the skin dry. Using your hand, create a pocket between the skin and breast meat. Use your fingers to open the area in the legs as well.
Once the cast iron skillet is hot, pull it out of the oven. If your pan is well seasoned, place the bird in. If not, coat the skillet with a bit of oil before placing the bird in it.
Take most of the vinegar/onion mixture and evenly distribute it under the skin making sure to tuck some in each leg. Place a table spoon or so of the onion mixture in the cavity of the chicken. Pour the remaining onions and juice mixture over the top of the chicken, using your hands to make sure the skin is covered. Lightly salt the top of the chicken.
Place in the oven and bake until the juices run clear (around 30-40 minutes)
Enjoy!

If you have time, I would suggest putting all of this in a zip top bag and marinating for a day or so. Even a half hour would allow the flavor to go through the meat more. However, if you do not have the time, it doesn't matter. This dish turned out great with no advanced marinating. The vinegar ensures that the meat comes out tender and juice and the pomegranate flavoring pared with the onions is amazing!

I've started using my cast iron skillet for baking all my chicken dishes. If you don't have a cast iron skillet then something must be wrong with you! Just kidding. A standard dish will be just fine, but cooking times may need to be adjusted. You can cook this at 350, but I go for the higher temps and have not had any dry chicken issues.

Serve this with veggies or a salad. The juices can be reduced and used as a gravy for rice or mashed potatoes or poured over the meat.

5 More Weeks...

2011-04-28T08:25:00.000-04:00

It's hard to believe that Baby G will be here in 5 weeks. Then again, bending is a pain and this rotten little guy consistently turns my lungs into a spring board for his womb antics! That kind of makes it more real. To be honest, I was wondering yesterday how I was going to survive 5 more weeks of this little jumping bean keeping me up most nights! It will all work out though.

Right now Daniel and I are cleaning out the house of all the junk that's built up over the past 5 years or so. It's a tremendous task and I'm doing my best not to be overwhelmed by the sheer volume of stuff that we are getting rid of. Today I have to finish the yard sale laundry. And then I have to tackle Sarah and Ashton's room. Ashton's room will be easy. I'm paring down the toys to a reasonable level. Sarah's room will be the big challenge. Not only will I be getting rid of stuff, I will be prepping it for Brenna to start sharing it with her after the birth of Baby G. Did I mention I want to build their bunk bed? Yeah, that's not even started...

But I'm convinced that it will all come together before the little guy makes an appearance. Thankfully he will not need the crib for 3-5 months after he's here! I do believe he's going to rival his brother in size. Either that or he's going to be a kick boxer! For some reason, I don't remember feeling this weighed down by Ashton so early. That could be pregnancy amnesia, but I doubt it.

On a more exciting note, my dear husband won a very special Lincoln Fellowship Award. With it comes an all expense paid trip to Springfield, Illinois to do an in-depth study on the life of Abraham Lincoln. As a perk, he can bring his family! So we are seriously looking into doing the 12 hour drive. While he's doing special tours and lectures, I'll be hanging out with the kiddos and exploring Springfield. Lord willing, I'll be fairly well healed by the time the trip comes and Baby G will travel well! Before we go, I'm going to start doing studies with Sarah on the some of the landmarks in the area. I can't wait. I would also love to take a side trip to Chicago for the day. It's about 3 hours away from Springfield. It just depends on what's going on and how much energy I have built back up.

That's all that's going on with us for the moment. I've got to head off to do more with the yard sale. It's Saturday and I'm determined to get everything completed so we can start lugging things over to my friends house. The weather should be nice by then and I'm hoping we sell most of it while we are there!

Easter Humor

2011-04-24T20:19:00.000-04:00

First of all, let me wish you all a Happy Easter! We were blessed to spend time with friends and family today and I hope you were was well. Christ overcame death and by his sacrifice we all are able to be saved! It's certainly a time to celebrate.

On that note, let me get to the bit of humor caused by the handsome little man in the picture above. We don't really do an Easter Bunny thing. We don't talk about him, we don't visit the scary looking rabbits in the mall and it's not something that often comes up in our house. Daniel and I do get them Easter baskets, but we focus more on the true meaning of Easter being the reason we celebrate with gifts and fun.

Now that I've caught you up on how we do things, let me fill you in on the rabbit that we had for a few hours. I was lying on the couch napping while the kids were asleep and kept hearing this awful sounding "bird" outside the dining room window. It was close to time to get Sarah, so I got the kids up and we headed out the door. That's when I noticed the noisy bird was actually a terrified rabbit in the mouth of my favorite cat. I rescued the little rabbit but was not sure that he would make it. In fact, when we came home I was surprised to find it still alive. We attempted to save it, but by the end of the night it had passed.

That brings us to today. One of our friends at church asked Ashton about the Easter bunny. Ashton looked at her and started telling her how our cat had killed the Easter bunny and he was dead and couldn't bring a basket. I don't think she fully understood all that he was saying, but Daniel and I had a good laugh over it.

So folks, just so you know my cat killed the Easter bunny!

Make Up Party Cake

2011-04-22T13:12:00.001-04:00

This week I made a sweet little cake for a 6th birthday party. I made a little makeup bag with some fondant decorations. The cake was an interesting challenge. I had intended it to sit up straight, but the filling inside kept causing the cake to pop open as I iced it. Because of that, I decided to lay it down on it's side. As I was working on the fondant decorations for the bag, the cake slid off my makeshift lazy Susan and flipped completely over on it's top. Praise God that it landed on the table, it didn't break and I had extra icing to repair the damage! If not, I would have had to make a new cake! When all was said and done, I think it turned out really well.

I'll post some additional pictures at debssweetspot.blogspot.com.

A Girl and Her Chocolate

2011-04-22T12:53:00.001-04:00

Brenna has a love affair with chocolate. I know, it's hard to believe but it's true. And since we are not big into giving the kids sweets often, she rarely gets it. Because of that, she get's a bit crazy when she has some.

Look at that foot on my table! I told you she get's a little crazy!

"CHOCOLATE!"

What are you looking at?

debradaytoday.blogspot.com

Park Shots

2011-04-21T11:09:00.000-04:00

She loves to wave to people passing by!

I call this the drugged duck! It looks a little scary! (I made that bow earlier in the day!)

My biggest monkey swinging on the bars!

I made that bow also!

This slide is 6 ft. high. Brenna had been dying to go down it, so we asked Sarah to take her down.

Brenna loved it, but really wanted to go down by herself.

Since Sarah was playing with another little girl, I talked Daniel into letting her try it. It was hilarious. He stayed at the top and I waited for her at the bottom.

As you can tell, she loved it! We did this over 15 times with her climbing all the way up by herself. Daniel had to pull her away so we could leave!

Pool Time

2011-04-20T21:54:00.000-04:00

The weather is warming up and that means pulling the kiddie pool out of storage!

Our Tuesday...

2011-04-20T02:00:00.000-04:00

I had a doctors appointment to check on Baby G this morning. My doctor was on vacation and I met a new one that reminded my of the OB I had while in Virginia. He was wonderful. Because of that, I was pleasantly surprised to meet the doctor today. I think he'll be my backup if my normal doctor is out for the rest of the pregnancy!

As far as Baby G goes, he's doing great. His heart beat is steady and he kicked out at the doctor a few good times for listening to him. And he's head down. Although I could have told the doctor that. My bladder is very aware of his position and my lungs get danced on regularly!

Since the kids were off this week, we decided to make a day of our time in Greenville. Daniel took the kids to Bojangles for breakfast while I had my appointment. Then we went over to the Greenville Zoo. The one thing I love about this zoo is that it's small but still fun. The little ones walked most of the way and wore themselves out! Plus, it's shaded! And did I mention that it has a cute little playground for the smaller children that's halfway through the walk? I still love the larger zoos, but for a day trip this one is excellent!

So let me share with you some of our morning...

A lady came up behind us while we were looking at the vultures and said, "Oh look, there are the eagles!"

Daniel took Brenna around to all the toys while I sat down for a few minutes.

Always in motion!

There were three leopards in this pen. One came up to the window after the camera was down and the kids loved it! Brenna kept yelling, "Hey, Cat!"

Ashton was listening to the monkey's howling! I love this picture of the three of them!

Big Sister was helping her brother and sister pet the pig!

I love this girl! She loves the zoo and the snakes!

Brenna was done! Daniel wanted a good picture of the two of them, but she kept going waving and saying bye-bye!

Zoo Rant

2011-04-19T22:34:00.000-04:00

I'm going to post my pictures of our fun day at the zoo in a separate post. For this one, I'm just going to vent. We were at the zoo and there were a few field trips going on. Now I normally don't mind going while their are field trips, but today was insane! The teachers and chaperone's of half of the kids were not paying attention to what the kids were doing and it was all I could do to be polite!

I took Ashton over to see the lions. One was at the glass and the kids were huddled around. I didn't even care if we made it to that end of the lion exhibit. The school kids that were their just kept piling in and pushing the pregnant lady with a 3 year old out of the way. Some chaperone's even encouraged the kids to push us out of the way. This went on for 5 minutes and I had to walk away because I was about to get nasty on some parents! That same thing happened in the snake house.

As for the regular visitors, there was a mom with two pre-teen boys going around and shoving Ashton out of the way. We finally separated ourselves from that little family, only to meet them again in the toddler playground. That's right, the TODDLER playground. There is an age limit, but the mom didn't really care. She let these kids run roughshod over the playground until they knocked down the little picture kiosk thing. Thankfully no little kids were in front of it when it fell or there would have been injuries. After that she finally took them out.

We thought we left it behind, but as we were driving out of the parking lot to leave, we had to slowly drive behind two families that were walking in the middle of the road in the parking lot. One mom didn't even realize that her 8ish year old daughter was walking smack dab in the middle of the road. She was 3-4 feet ahead of her the entire time and did not look back once. The other family just didn't care and spread out over the other half of the road.

I don't understand these things. I know that when kids are on field trips you want them to have fun, but not at the expense of others. When I chaperoned Sarah's field trips, my groups had fun and behaved. I gave them boundaries and it worked out. I could never have let them pull the kind of crap that the kids and parents were allowing today. And it did not only happen to us. We saw other families experience the same things before the kids left for lunch.

And then then parents of the older kids and the parking lot families. How do you let your kids run dangerously through toddlers and get to the point that they are knocking over toys that could have seriously injured others? Or how do you walk the length of the parking lot and not notice that your child, who is in the middle of the road, has a minivan a 5 feet behind her? These things boggle my mind and really push my pregnancy hormones to the limit!

Even with all the craziness in the zoo, we had a fun visit. Ashton and Brenna were blissfully unaware of the rudeness of others and had an amazing time. Sarah saw it and was a wonderful example of how a kid should be on an outing. Okay, I think I'm done venting! And now onto some pictures of the rest of our visit!

My Brenna

2011-04-17T22:51:00.000-04:00

I have to tell you, Friday night this little rotten child finally started saying "Momma" consistently. Sarah and I went shopping and Daniel had put the kids to bed. He was finishing up with Ashton when I came in and found Brenna in an upset state. She wasn't ready to go to bed and didn't mind screaming her little head off to let everyone know! I was going to let her tough it out, but then a light bulb clicked and she started saying, "Momma, Momma, up!" I couldn't pass that up! You see, she's known how to say "Momma" for a long, long time, but rarely ever does. I'm just there and she hasn't ever really felt the need to call me by name. But on Friday it clicked that saying Momma gets a response!

After I pulled her out of bed, she kept saying it over and over to herself and to me. I would answer her and she would laugh in that sweet way that she has. She was so excited over it that she could barely contain herself. Then Daniel came out from being with Ashton and she kept telling him, "Momma!" It made my heart swell. We eventually got her back down to bed and I'm happy to report that since then she's been calling out to me on a regular basis!

It does make me wonder though. My heart swelled with pride and joy when she started regularly saying Momma this weekend. If that little thing can give me so much joy, I wonder how much more joy God gets from us when we call out Abba, Father?

Sarah's Easter Party Cupcakes

2011-04-15T08:45:00.000-04:00

Sarah informed me yesterday at 3 p.m. that she was having a class party today and would like for me to bring something. Grrr. Got to love those last minute requests! But since she rarely has parties, I decided to go ahead and make it happen. She requested a chocolate cake, but out of consideration for the teacher I decided to go with cupcakes.

In addition to that, I didn't want to do the normal chicken or egg cup cakes. I wanted to do something that actually reflected the whole point of Easter. Since time was limited, I had to modify my original design.

Here is what I came up with late last night. Additional details and pictures are posted at debssweetspot.blogspot.com.

Plain Homemade Bagels

2011-04-14T11:42:00.000-04:00

First and foremost, this is not my photo! I borrowed it from this link. And, over at TastyKitchen.com, you will find the tutorial for making homemade bagels. I didn't change anything when I made them this morning. Ashton and I sat out on the front porch eating these bagels with peanut butter spread on them. We didn't talk much because we were too busy savoring the delicious bagels!

As for making them, they took a little longer than the prep/cook time stated. Rising time alone was about 50 minutes, added to mixing and baking time, the whole thing took around an hour and a half. I do believe that you could mix the dough the night before, let it go through the first rise and roll them out for bagels and stick them in the fridge. Then in the morning, pull them out and let them come to room temperature and rise (if necessary). After that all you would need to do was boil them and bake them! I may do that next time. Then again, you could bake them the night before, but then you wouldn't have them fresh out of the oven for breakfast. Either way they would be divine and really simple to make.

Here is the link to the printable recipe. Head on over there and try it today!

My Little Man

2011-04-14T08:14:00.001-04:00

This little guy is a mess! He's sweet and lovable and completely rotten. Each morning, he crawls in bed with his cold feet and cuddles up next to me while his Daddy finishes in the bathroom. This morning was no different. We curled up under the covers until I had to turn over. At 32 weeks, I can only lay on one side for a certain amount of time before my arm starts going numb. I turned over and he was really upset. After a short discussion, he determined that I was not going to turn back towards him. He then said, "I need to lay next to my little brother!" He then crawled over me and curled up next to his little brother! I couldn't love this little guy any more than I do already!

Me and My Cat

2011-04-13T00:41:00.000-04:00

Ted. His name is one of the first things that my kids have said on a regular basis. He also happens to be my favorite animal. I used to believe that I was a dog person, but after owning him, I've discovered that I'm much more of a cat person. Ted is loyal, aloof and loving. I don't like it when cats lay all over me constantly and he only wants that kind of thing every now and then. That's why we get on so well. We're not overly needy and only need that kind of animal/human cuddly thing every now and then.

This year, Ted is around 13 years of age. He's been a part of my family for almost the entire time. When I found him as a kitten, I tried to find him a new home but they all sent him back. They said he didn't play well with other animals and he wasn't very people friendly. They were right. He only really liked my dog and for some reason, I was his favorite human. It's kind of funny how that worked out. But now my favorite animal has officially entered his senior years and it saddens me.

He's always been a tom cat. The alpha male in every neighborhood that we have lived, Ted regularly chased out any competing cats. But now a new gray cat has come to live in our neck of the woods and the two are fighting for that top spot. Some days Ted begrudgingly tolerates this new cat's presence. On others, they fight and the young buck gets a few good licks in. And that is how my guy got a golf ball sized abscess on his face.

Over the course of a week, it grew larger than any he had managed to get before. I finally decided to start the warm compresses to see if I could encourage it to pop. Today I gave him another warm compress and let him walk through the house for a while. A little while later, Ashton started yelling, "Ted spilled milk in the hall!" I wasn't sure what to make of it until I remembered the abscess and that the pus would be a creamy white color. Ashton thought it was milk!

We got Ted wrapped in a towel and with my free hand I put hot water on a rag and then grabbed some paper towels. Ashton and I took Ted out to the front porch where I spent the next 20 minutes squeezing pus out of his cheek. For the most part, Ted was a trooper. But towards the end, he had enough and started protesting. Ted has always had a loud meow. It rivals most other cats and has served him well when fending off his territory. But this loud meow startled Ashton and he ran in the house and refused to come out until I was done cleaning Ted up. It's not easy explaining to a three year old how sometimes even though something we do hurts, we must do it to make things better. He was also concerned because Ted bit a rabbit earlier in the week and it died. He thought that becaue a cat bit Ted that Ted would die also. It's amazing how perceptive 3 year olds can be!

For the next few days, I'll have to squeeze his cheek and make sure that the inside of his wound heals before it closes up again. It's a gross job, but I love that little cat and if I don't do it, the outside will heal and the abscess will come back. Some may say that he should go to the vet, but I've cleaned out many abcess' before and know the drill. Unless it doesn't heal up right, we'll be letting mother nature take it's course. We've been through this many times before and I I'm sure I'll be cleaning out a few more abcess' before all is said and done. It's what any owner of a tom cat does or else they will go broke!

As for the aging though, I do wish he would retire from the top cat position. It breaks my heart to see him losing his strength. And since his kidney's are not functioning as well as the once did, he's losing weight and just not as strong. There is not much that I can do but let him be a cat and provide him all the love I can. He's already loving the fact that he'll spend the rest of his life on canned food. And every now and then he supplements it with fresh bunny or squirrel! There is a selfish part of me that wishes he'd last another ten years or more. Sadly we only have a few short ones left. He's such a great cat and I've been blessed to have him in my life.

Soccer Birthday Cake

2011-04-09T20:33:00.000-04:00

My nephew had birthday this weekend and I made him a special soccer cake. The figurine was my first gum paste person and although he needs improvement, the resulting person was better than I expected it to be! This is a yellow cake, covered in buttercream with fondant and gumpaste accents.

I've posted additional images at debssweetspot.blogspot.com.

Week 31 or 32 - I'm not sure which!

2011-04-05T11:33:00.000-04:00

First let me start off by saying that I find it odd that the website that I pull these pictures from finds you at 7 months of pregnancy at Week 31. I'll never fully be able to wrap my mind around the math behind 40 weeks being equal to 9 months. Even if you don't count the first two weeks, it's still 9 1/2 months. Granted in my case, my body gestates longer by nature!

Things are going well for Baby G. He's as active as ever and I can't wait to see how this plays into our lives come June! I had to have a 3-hour glucose test last week and the results came back great. My blood pressure and the baby's heart beat are awesome! He's measuring just right and loving life in the womb!

To be honest, I can't believe we have less than 9 weeks left. And to top it off, nothing is set up for the little guys arrival. I need to do a yard sale to clean out the house, but am overwhelmed just by the thought of it all! Thankfully we have all the major stuff and Brenna doesn't have to be out of the nursery until after the little guy comes, but I still feel so behind! So this coming week I'll be prepping for a yard sale. Every closet is getting cleaned out, the shed will be wiped out and the attic will finally have room! That's the goal at least.

However, after the yard sale we'll start working on transforming "Sarah's room" into "The Girl's Room"! The boys room doesn't need a whole lot of changes. Mainly we need to add storage to create a roomier atmosphere and decide what we are going to do for closet space. The desired goal is to build in a walk-in closet but we may just purchase a small wardrobe until we have everything put in place.

I have a sinking feeling that Baby G's arrival is going to hit Brenna hard. She's such a Mamma's girl right now. And to top it off, she doesn't share well! Now I know that a lot of kids don't like to share. That's a normal part of life, but my little Brenna takes it farther than most! Only time will tell though.

As for me, I miss sleep! I'm not a side sleeper and that's the only way a huge pregnant lady is able to sleep. If I lay on one side too long, my arm goes numb and then I have to switch to the other. I toss and turn most nights! I'm also experiencing a bit of swelling when I'm not careful with my salt intake. It's not horrible, but it is something that I'm not used to.

Well, I'm it's time for me to leave the online world and tackle the dirty dishes and laundry...

Birthday/Anniversary Celebration Cake

2011-04-04T07:38:00.001-04:00

Last month, Daniel, his sister and parents all celebrated birthdays. In addition to that, is parents had an anniversary as well. We had plans to do a cookout to celebrate then, but were unable. Yesterday we made up for that and had a wonderful cookout. I wanted to do a fun cake for the occasion.

Originally I had planned to put daffodils on top of the cake instead of these daisy inspired flours. But, Daniel volunteered to help with a play at the high school and then got ill all weekend. Needless to say, I did not get to start the cake on time. But, I'm still mostly pleased with the results. Next time I do a cake in this design, I'll make the flowers a bit larger.

I have additional photos posted at debssweetspot.com.

debradaytoday.blogspot.com

Walgreens - 63% Savings

2011-04-01T08:54:00.000-04:00

I don't normally shop at Walgreen's. I tend to stick to CVS alone because I can only shop at so many stores in a week and I rarely have good experiences there. Last night was no exception! But Walgreen's had Aveeno products on sale and I love their lotions! On top of that, Sarah and I are sensitive to most body washes and I wanted to see if we could use the Aveeno brands.

Total Before Savings - $59.95
Final Cost - $22.14
Amount Saved - $37.81

As for my shopping experience, I don't like Walgreen's because their sales are not clearly marked and their associates do not know much of anything about how the register rewards and sales work. I had questions about the Aveeno sale and the concurrent 25% off sale and could not get a coherent answer on any of it. Maybe it's just the ones in my area. I don't know. If it were not for the Aveeno sale, I would not have bothered going in.

Lemon Pepper and Rosemary Chicken

2011-03-31T07:51:00.001-04:00

If you are looking for a quick and easy dinner that tastes like it took all day to prepare, then I have the answer for you. We eat chicken all the time. Why? It's cheap. If I could have steak and burgers a couple of times a week, I certainly would! So for the chicken, I'm always trying to think of different ways to prepare it. I decided to go with lemon pepper chicken. We had a whole bag of lemons in the fridge and the local store had chicken thighs on sale. Now some of you might prefer the breast (and it would work for this), but dark meat roasts up to be very tender and juicy. Plus it was on sale for $0.98 a pound.

Now, this dish can be marinated for a short time or overnight. The longer it's in the juice, the better. But, as a pregnant woman who doesn't always feel like cooking, doing things in advance rarely happens. So I threw all of this together without marinating for more than a few minutes and it turned out great. Also, I used my cast iron skillets to cook the chicken. You can use any pan, but cast iron is my preference.

4 lemons zested and juiced
1/4 cup olive oil plus 2 tablespoons
1 tablespoon sea salt
1/4 - 1/2 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
4 sprigs of rosemary chopped - a little over a tablespoon when chopped (you can use 1/4 teaspoon of ground rosemary)
8 chicken thighs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. I needed one large and one small cast iron skillet to cook all the chicken thighs. Place both skillets in the oven while preheating.
Put the lemon zest in a large bowl with the lemon juice. Add in salt and pepper
Slowly whisk in 1/4 cup of olive oil.
Coat chicken in the mixture. Make sure the skin on the thighs is stretched to cover the sides of the chicken. Leave it to sit.
Pull hot skillets out of the oven. Add remaining olive oil to each skillet and roll them to coat.
Place each thigh in the skillet, skin side down. I managed to get 5 in the large and 3 in the small one.
Pour the remaining marinade over the chicken in each pan.
Place back in the oven and cook for 20 minutes.
After 20 minutes, turn the thighs over in the pan. Turn broiler on high and place back in the oven. Be sure to leave the pans in the middle of the oven. If you get to close to the broiler, the skin will burn.
Broil for 10-12 minutes or until the chicken is completely done. Skin should be golden brown and perfectly crispy.
Move chicken to a serving plate. Separate oil from juices in the pan and place the lemony juice in a bowl. You could reduce this and add a little corn starch to make a sauce or leave it as is and pour it over your chicken or rice. Or you could grab a spoon and slurp some up. It's very versatile!

Times may need to be adjusted if you are not using a cast iron skillet. Just be sure to check the temperature of your meat when you pull it out of the oven. While it was cooking, I made rice and snow peas to go along with it. This meal takes around 40 minutes to prep and cook.

I'm sorry about not having a picture. Our camera doesn't do evening shots very well and we kind of ate it all up so fast that there was no chicken to grab a picture of!

Enjoy!

Deb's Sweet Spot

2011-03-28T23:15:00.000-04:00

I've had a few people mention that I needed to have a separate site for my cakes and other sweet creations. So I've done just that. You can stop by Deb's Sweet Spot and see some of my more recent cakes. I'll be posting all that I make on there going forward. I'll still link them to this site as well.

Flower Barrettes

2011-03-28T17:36:00.000-04:00

I've noticed a lot of kids wearing cute little flower barrettes lately and decided to give it a go. I saw a tutorial on a website somewhere (sorry folks, pregnancy amnesia has got me here) and this is what came of it.

I love these!

After taking the flower apart and hot gluing it together again, I glued a barrette that I made onto the back.

Yes, the flower is too big for her head but it was cheap and perfect for trying out this project. And she wears it well!

I'll be looking for some flowers for Brenna. The larger flowers will work great on Sarah.

He'll regret this one day!

debradaytoday.blogspot.com

Princess Castle Cake

2011-03-27T00:54:00.001-04:00

A friend Facebooked me with a cake request for her sweet daughter. Here are the pictures. The cake used the Wilton Romantic Castle set, It's buttercream with gumpaste flowers. The turret tops and other purple decorations are made of royal icing that has been coated in sparkling sugar. The top layer is a white cake with an oreo filling and the bottom is chocolate cake with a chocolate filling.

debradaytoday.blogspot.com

One Heck of a Week

2011-03-27T00:25:00.000-04:00

I haven't had the energy to post all week. I know, Deb deprivation is a horrible thing to bear! Just kidding! Last weekend I had to take Sarah for her visit to her Dad's. This entails me driving 7-8 hour round trip. The Friday trip hit me worse than any other drive has. By the time I got home, I was so swollen and in more pain than I've felt in a long time. It took almost three days for it to get to a manageable level. And then that Monday I had to turn around and make the trip again! This time I didn't feel a lot better until Thursday. I thought my energy had come back on Wednesday, but then I hit a wall could not bounce back.

After that, any energy that did come back had to be put on a cake I promised to make. Normally that would not be a big deal, but Daniel's back is out again and that leaves Momma in charge of most things around the house. As for the cake, I'm glad to have had the chance to do it. I learned a lot about working with butter cream covered cakes and started improving my piping skills. Plus, I got to make two new fillings for cakes!

To be honest though, I was beginning to doubt that it would all come together for delivery this morning. I should have expected a little craziness. Something has always come up when I made cakes in the past. But this week it's been nonstop! First the travel-lag hitting as bad as it did. Then Daniel was knocked out and not able to do a lot with the kids while I was working. Finally I started working on the cake Thursday. I cut out over 285 little flowers and made little round dots to fit in each one. It was all I could do to keep the kids out of them! Finally, on Friday I got to start decorating the cake turrets and putting the cake together. Brenna is teething and very needy which put a damper on things. Daniel came home early from work and was feeling awful. Then my butter cream refused to "crust" and I could not get the top layer to smooth out. I felt as though I were in a boxing match with some force that was determined to force me to give up on getting the job done. I'm a little too stubborn for that though!

I finally decided to refrigerate the cakes in hopes of getting the butter cream to set. It was after midnight as I dragged myself to bed. As I made my way to the bathroom, Daniel moved to take Ashton to bed and discovered that he peed it. I'm not kidding here! I could barely deal with that knowledge. I only wanted to crawl in bed for a few hours of sleep. We got him cleaned up and I grabbed a blanket and headed to the couch. Daniel dealt with the bed and I crashed. Only Brenna woke up 2 hours later. I got her up and tried to get her to go back to sleep but she wasn't buying that! I asked Daniel to watch her as I needed some rest. He laid her back down later and at 4 a.m. she started doing the crying and then going silent for a while thing. At 5 a.m., I gave up on rest and went for her. Since I could not sleep, I decided to work on the cake.

Funny things happen when you get a bit of rest after being so exhausted. The cake finally started coming together. The butter cream did not set correctly, but I managed to get it smooth. I then used an impression mat to give the castle a rock facade. Some places would not be impressed upon, so I drew those in with a knife. I ran out of butter cream the night before and made a batch so that I could start decorating. Meanwhile, Brenna found some powdered sugar in the kitchen and started licking it up. She then dumped a bag of snack sticks all over the living room and created general chaos throughout the house. But, she left me alone to work and I decided it was a good trade off!

By the time the rest of the family got up, a lot of the cake was completed. I was working on decorating the plastic pieces and assembling them. About forty-five minutes before we needed to leave, the cake was completed. I took some pictures and we all took turns keeping Ashton away from the cake! It turned out great and I thought we were out of the woods. We got it out to the car (thankfully we have an ugly, but very convenient awning in the back of the house) and started to leave. That's when Daniel noticed that someone had busted out the back window in his car. We decided to leave it until we got back home. Not much could be done and everything was already soaked. I truly think that Satan didn't want this thing to happen.

We dropped off the cake and I love knowing that it made a great birthday suprise for a special little girl and her family! That is one of the things I love about the specialty cakes. They are unique and add a little extra pop to a birthday. And the face of a child when they see it is wonderful for everyone involved! Plus this may lead to me doing a few more cakes for folks in the future! Who knows.

Anyway, that's why I haven't posted anything lately. I've been having a crazy week. Not bad, just crazy. And things are already looking up for next week! Why? Because each day is a new day from the Lord and that excites.

Oh, I found out that I have to get a 3-hour sugar test. I've been putting off until this coming week because my mother-in-law had her chemo last week and it makes her ill the entire week. Pray for her if you think about it. She's so tough and faces a hard week after every treatment. But she'll be watching the kiddos next week while I drink the gross juice and get my arm poked repeatedly! Lord willing I will not have gestational diabetes. I don't want to think about insulin or anything more in that regard.

debradaytoday.blogspot.com

Oh How I Cried

2011-03-19T08:20:00.000-04:00

While driving home last night, I broke down crying. Maybe I should amend that and say I was sobbing. It was severe and I almost needed to pull off the road. I haven't cried like that in a long time but these pregnant lady emotions were provoked. As I drove home from North Carolina, I started listening to a country station. I normally do not have extreme reactions to songs, but I heard If Heaven Wasn't So Far Away for the first time.

The song was beautiful. You should listen to it. But then it got me thinking. My son is a lot like his grandfather. He loves to tinker at stuff and figure out how things work. I could picture him so clearly sitting in my grandfathers shed learning about various tools. Or sitting out at the truck changing brakes or completing some other necessary repair. I could see Brenna sassing my grandmother. My mind formed pictures of the kids sitting at my other grandmothers house in the kitchen while she cooked. It tore my heart up and I cried like a baby! I'm tearing up just writing this post! And because of that, I feel that it's only right of me to share this song with you.

Happy tears folks!

Porch Pictures

2011-03-18T00:25:00.000-04:00

This is what happens when I ask these two to say "Cheese" at the same time.

And then I get a cute little smile from both of them!

And then this crazy boy says, "Take my picture! Cheese!"

And his sister decides she's not impressed. (Then I saturate the picture because I love how it makes her eyes look.)

What's that?

It's crazy Brenna!

Who also knows how to be very, very cute!

And look at those little feet and toes. I love baby toes!

Bye, bye folks!

Publix Shopping - 55% Savings!!

2011-03-17T23:54:00.000-04:00

I'm so excited about my shopping trip tonight. Publix had a lot of things that we love on sale and most of them had coupons to go with them! I even managed to get some Cover Girl Eye Shadow for $0.50! The Huggies diaper deal allowed me to get a box of diapers, a tub of wipes and a huge box of refill wipes for $14.68. It would have been $18.18, but I noticed later that the cashier scanned my $3.50 off coupon twice! He's my new favorite cashier!

Also, the Betty Crocker muffins are buy one get one free. In the box, there is a $0.75 off coupon on two boxes. I'm going to stock up on these guys. For $1.02 a box after the $0.75 coupon, this makes a nice cheap breakfast for the family. And since I'm pregnant, any breakfast that takes little effort is a great help!

Here's the breakdown...

Total Before Savings - $146.85
Final Cost - $65.34
Amount Saved - $81.51

I love saving more than I spend. And I love, love, love getting things that I would not normally buy for great prices. It makes it even more fun when I shock the cashier and bagger with savings!

The Weirdness That is Pregnancy

2011-03-16T00:40:00.002-04:00

Pregnancy is a strange thing. It's different every time. Sometimes it seems familiar and then life throws you a curve ball. Let's look at my four pregnancies.

With Sarah, I had no morning sickness. This was almost unheard of, but I loved it! However, there were two things that caused me to get physically ill - Shrimp with Lobster sauce and the time that she shoved my gall bladder into an unnatural position.

Back to the shrimp with lobster sauce. That was my all time favorite Chinese dish. Before I knew I was pregnant, I had it on two different occasions. I threw up both times, violently! I thought it was just bad food. Then after I found out I was pregnant, I ate it one final time. The food was not bad, Sarah just wouldn't let me get it down! It was many, many years before I was tempted to taste that dish again!

And when it came to chicken, I hated it while pregnant with her. I couldn't even eat my grandmothers fried chicken. It was torture to sit at her house and smell it because it still smelled divine! But the moment it touched my mouth, the taste, ugh! Funny thing about that chicken tasting bad thing though is that my first hospital meal after giving birth was fried chicken. I'm not joking. And guess what? I ate every bite and licked my finger afterwards! That's saying something, because hospital fried chicken is not that great to begin with!

After Sarah came Ashton. Again, no morning sickness. That was almost my favorite part of pregnancy. But the chicken thing came back. Only this time, I was able to start eating it in my second trimester. My new hang up with chicken became the smell of it raw. I never noticed the smell of raw chicken before. I'm not talking about after it's gone bad, I'm talking about not spoiled raw chicken. I can't describe how it smells, but to a pregnant, scent sensitive woman, it was not a good thing! Did I mention that I could sub in for a blood hound when pregnant? Apparently this is a common thing with pregnant women. Sometimes it's a blessing and on a quite a few occasions, a curse.

My dear son also left me with another memory. His head was huge. Now, he was a big baby when born anyway, but he left a nice little bruise on my pelvis where his lovely, HUGE head would repeatedly knock into it. Then again, I'm thankful he never really messed with my bladder much or kicked me in the ribs or lungs. He could have. Did I mention he was HUGE! He weighed in at 10 pounds 7 ounces.

Next came my feisty little Brenna. I should have known that she would be full of attitude. With Brenna, I got my first taste of morning sickness. Tasting morning sickness - that brings back memories. I had a great deal of sympathy for women who had morning sickness, but was secretly glad that I could never fully relate to that aspect of pregnancy. That was until I had Brenna. And no I couldn't even touch raw chicken with her! The misery of feeling nauseous all day and night was just enough to almost drive me insane! And then there would be little rays of hope. We would be out driving and I would get a whiff of a hamburger or something and we would have to stop and get it right then. Not because I was craving it, but because there were a few (precious few) times when I would smell something and be 100 percent certain that I could eat it and it would stay where it should. My hopes would be lifted that the dreadful illness had passed and then an hour or two later the sickness would return. Sometimes I would hope to be ill. I just wanted the nausea to end. I tried to take my vitamins, but I couldn't keep them down. I couldn't drink water or most liquids because I would end up miserable. Morning sickness is not for wimps. It why women got stuck with it! But then again, after having gone through it, I'm not so sure that being wimpy is bad thing.

Now I'm on to Baby G. Once again, things are totally different. He's the most active of my kids in utero. He kicks and move all the time. I did manage to not get morning sickness and I thank the dear Lord for that kindness. Although, I did get a nice little ulcer that took a good while to go away.

But how is this guy different from his siblings? Like his oldest sister, I could wear my normal pants until I was about 5-6 months prengant. With Ashton, I was wearing maternity clothes a month or so into my pregnancy and 3 months in with Brenna. But, he found my bladder a few months ago. I thought he'd be too little to do anything to it, but I've been proven wrong. I think he believes he should head butt it on a consistent basis. I can tell he gets it from his Grampsy! And then he tap dances on my stomach. Since aging and pregnancy together make that little valve that keeps stomach contents from coming up weaker, this is not a good thing. I've gotten up on quit a few occasions thinking that he was going to make me physically ill from his antics. Something tells me he's going to have a bit of mistchief in him as well. Not one of my other kids ever came close to what he's putting my internal organs through. And did I mention he's even kicked at my lungs a few good times. I'm so scared for my ribs. I've never been concerned for their safety before. It's a very strange feeling to have!

I say all this in good humor. I really do love the feeling of a little one growing inside of you. It's an amazing blessing to be able to carry them as God knits them together. And it's fun to see how even in the womb, each one is different and how just carrying them changes your body as well.

Purex Insider

2011-03-11T09:07:00.000-05:00

I can't remember where I saw it, but I found a link to sign up to become a Purex Insider. It promised that each person would get a chance to try out different products from Purex. I'm not a brand snob when it comes to laundry detergent. And a while back I had a few coupons that let me try the Purex 3 in 1 laundry sheets. Since I loved them, I decided that the chance for free laundry products from Purex would be well worth my review time.

A few weeks ago, I received a wonderful free sample package in the mail. Years ago, I was Print Production Manager and printed/designed different mail pieces. Because of that experience, I still get excited when I see a really nice mail piece come to my front door. I would share pictures, but my daughter used it to help build a prototype for one of her inventions! But that's neither here nor there.

The package contained a small sample of Purex Complete Crystals and a sheet outlining the benefits of the laundry softener. And, for the frugal mom and tester a coupon for a free full sized bottle! Since laundry is a never ending chore in our house, I was able to put the test sample to use right away.

The first thing that impressed me was the smell. It's a mild, fresh scent that did not overpower my extremely sensitive nose! Since I get headaches from overpowering scents, this was a huge bonus. Per the information, I also found out that this softener did not add any oil to my clothes. That means that they will last a bit longer and my towels will still be absorbent! In addition to that, it's added with the clothes at the beginning of the cycle. That ensures that I will not forget it! Since I normally forget to add my dryer sheets in, well, the family is very appreciative!

After using it for a few weeks, I can say that I will certainly purchase this again. I rarely use the recommended amount, which means that this will last longer than the label recommends. It's also 92% natural. I know it's not all natural, but it's close! Check out Purex.com for more information on this.

If you are interested in becoming an insider, I recommend signing up at PurexInsiders.com. Just be sure to post your opinions on their site and on whatever social media you happen to use.

In another week or so, I'll be doing a review on Purex with Zout. They sent me a full sized bottle to try out! And if I'm lucky, I'll be getting a few coupons for you guys to try and win!

P.S. While Purex does provide free samples of their products for review, no money exchanges hands for the review!

27 Weeks and 4 Days - The Ups and Downs

2011-03-09T21:23:00.001-05:00

I was going to post a new veggie picture, but the site says that month six incorporates up to 28 weeks. I used it last time because Baby G measured in at the weight on the photo. He's going to be a big guy. And that leads me to the "downer" part of pregnancy - weight gain. Normally I don't really care about the weight gain. However, I was religiously going to the gym before this little guy was concieved and working to lose my "Brenna and Ashton" weight. Therefore, I'm not looking to gain a ton this go around. Losing weight is a lot harder after you turn 30 and after you've had 3 kids.

Back to the downer part of it all. I've been doing very well with the weight gain. The ulcer that tormented me at the beginning of this pregnancy went a long way to making certain that I didn't gain any weight for the first 5 months. Since I possess a little extra padding, this was not a big deal! No pun intended! But last week I went to the doctort. You know those montly visits where you pee in a cup and then get weighed before seeing the doctor and hearing the heart beat and being sent home.

Well, I tinkled in the cup and then went to step on the scale. And according to the nurse, I gained 10 pounds over the course of the month! Now I would not have cared, but her reaction caught me totally off gaurd. Here is how it went -

Nurse: Did I read that right?
Me: Yes, you did.
Nurse: Oh my, did you know you gained 10 pounds?!
Me: Uh, no. According to my scale, I'm up about 5ish. (I'm slightly anal about weighing myself.)
Nurse: This can't be right. Ten pounds, that's a lot for one month.
Me: Okay.
Nurse: Can you confirm your name. I want to make sure I have the right chart.
Me: (I'm in a bit of shock over how big of a deal this is to her.) Sure.
Nurse: Well, is this your birthdate?
Me: (I'm starting to think the doctor is going to lecture the heck out of me now.) That's when I was born.)
Nurse: Well, I guess that's all. Ten pounds. Go on and get seated and they will come get you in a few minutes.

A few minutes later, the doctors nurse comes and pulls me back to the exam room. She does her thing and then leaves me there. I'm still not sure how to take the whole nice version of the "Your Getting Fat" conversation that I just went through with the nurse. The doctor comes in and this is how our conversation went.

Doctor: Hey, how are you doing?
Me: Nothing much to complain about.
Doctor: Well, your hemoglobin was good, the urine test looks great, your BP is awesome and your weight looks good.
Me: (As I pick my mouth of from shock,) Great!

That's right, the doctor didn't think much about the weight thing at all! Why? Well, I've technically only gained 12 pounds for the entire pregnancy! I still can't believe the nurse made such a big deal out of it. In the end though, I thought it was really funny.

Now to the ups of pregnancy. When I brought my current maternity pants, I thought I was getting the size that I wore when I was pregnant with Brenna. I did not. I picked up a smaller pair and didn't realize it until after I had wore them for a month. Since I had never purchased this brand before, I thought it was just one of those sizing flukes. Not so my friends! I purchased another pair of pants from Kohl's and got them in the size that I thought they should be. Guess what? Those bad boys are way to big for me! Ha! Eat that nurse lady! Just kidding. But any small weight victory while pregnant makes the day a good day. Especially since Baby G is poking out front and looking like he's due next month, instead of in June!

debradaytoday.blogspot.com

Spring is Coming!

2011-03-07T11:07:00.000-05:00

We had a pretty evening the other day and I decided to start turning the soil in our garden beds. I also needed to start thinking about what seeds I'm ordering for the spring. I can't wait to start planting again! The kids came out with me and played around. Ashton went to check on the parsley. He was so amazed by the black swallowtail caterpillars last year and can't wait for them to come back!

We have a few things that are coming up in the garden with no help from me. The parsley never did fully die out. That was an interesting surprise. The strawberries are coming on up as well. I do believe I'll have to thin them out some. We also had one artichoke to survive the winter, some lettuce, rosemary, oregano, sage, chives and a little dill plant. I want to add some lemon grass in this year.

As for what I'm certain to plant, tomatoes, bell peppers in all colors, edamame and okra. I don't know what else just yet. I had a lot of trouble with squash bugs, cucumber beetles and squash borer moths last year. There are some ways to help keep those things away, but all involve chemicals that I'm not fond of using while pregnant. Plus the kids love to have their hands in the garden so it's tough to add them in. I would also like to put in a fruit tree or two. That all depends on our ability to get rid of the Bartlett pear tree in the front yard. In addition to that, I'm thinking of adding in some blueberry bushes. The hard part for me is that we can only plant those things in the front yard. Our back yard is heavily shaded and has large trees that suck up all the nutrients from other plants. But we'll make it work!

Here are some pictures from our time outside the other day. The little ones were so excited to dig in the dirt and Sarah was loving riding her bike again!

Black really does trim you down!

My gorgeous daughter! (She gave me a real smile! Hooray!)

Diggin' in the dirt. We'll be growing peppers and okra in this box.

This child of mine almost always has a weird or serious expression on her face!

But she loves that gardening has all kinds of fun stuff to play with (and taste).

I'll fix it, Momma!

Girlfriend loves her some dirt!

So does the little man! He asked me to snap a picture of it.

Pulling weeds.

Sneaking in a break.

She thinks no has noticed! And yes, she always sucks those two fingers!

Making Hair Clips

2011-03-05T14:40:00.002-05:00

My dearest Brenna tends to lose hair clips on a daily basis. Don't get me wrong, she loves having them put in. But then she feels her hair and notices them and they come out. Sometimes we find them, many times we do not. Now if you have girls, cute barrettes and hair clips are anything but cheap. I lucked out and found her dwindling supply at Claire's during a half off sale. At full price, they are close to $1.00 per barrette!

While trying to find a better solution to the barrette dilemma, I noticed a post come up at thefrugalgirls.com. The title, "How to Make *Cute* Hair Clips for Babies and Little Girls…" immediately caught my attention. The fact that it was on The Frugal Girls website guaranteed that I would be able to make it happen at a cost that I could live with. Go over to their post for complete instructions.

The ribbon on the left was horrible to work with. Don't purchase ribbon that has additional strings running through it. Use the kind that has printing on it. Things will go a lot better.

By the time I got to get pictures of these, 3 of the 4 pink clips were missing in action. Daniel later found one and I'm pretty certain the other two are lurking in the car, but who knows...

The pink clip was my first. It takes one or two clips before you figure out the right amount of glue and how to get the ribbon to lay. Plus, I was using a low temp hot glue gun and the glue dries quickly. By the time I got to the green clip, I had the hang of things. Don't get discouraged though. After two clips, my 10 year old was able to put some together on her own.

You can also make a bow to put on top of the clip. This was inspired by a set of clips that were $1.25 a piece! You'll also see at The Frugal Girls link, you can add different embellishments.

Since I love figuring out savings, I determined that with the four rolls of ribbon and the box of clips, I could make 88 clips for under $10. That doesn't include glue stick costs, but who cares! Plus, these will make wonderful birthday and Christmas presents!

I'm going to try these soon. I do hope this encourages those of you with little girls to try this easy craft. You wont regret it!
debradaytoday.blogspot.com

Out of the Mouths of Three Year Olds

2011-03-02T09:37:00.001-05:00

I love this age, the 2-4 year old range when kids learn to place names on objects and verbalize how they see the world. It makes for some fun stories and great conversations with your children. The only part that I dislike is that it passes all to soon.

I clearly remember many of the crazy things Sarah said when she was little. Little things like calling a park bench a "bit--" and making sure everyone around us heard her say, "Look at that bit--!" It took a year before I had the nerve to call it a bench again. And the time she made up a grandfather in California and a friend at daycare. Not to mention the cooties conversation with my volleyball buddies or her desire to be a boy so she could stand up to use the bathroom!

And that brings me to my little man. He's already halfway through this stage and that makes me sad. It's so much fun to here how he sees the world and laugh over his mispronunciations.

Just the other day, he decided that bridges were no longer an afterthought. For the moment, they are exciting. But there was one little problem. He couldn't get their name right initially. He looked that the bridge that we were near and in a loud, overly excited voice, he cried out, "Look there's a bit--!! Look at the bit-- Daddy!" Those moments always catch you off guard. Even Sarah asked if he said what she thought he said. We laughed and now he knows that a bridge is a bridge.

Before that it was with train tracks. There are a lot of tracks all around us. We pass near or over them daily. For weeks, Ashton kept spotting "tractors" that I could not find. And one day as we passed over a set of tracks, it dawned on me that he was getting train tracks and tractors confused. And now that little slip is gone as well.

I'll be sad when he stops calling a spoon a "smoon" or asking us to "zwip" his jacket for him. I'll miss when he stops imagining that dinosaurs are what made the turkeys stop in the field and how they were rude to hold the turkeys up. Or when he gets horses and cows confused. And I'll miss it when he stops thinking it's funny that cows poop in the fields that they eat. Well, I guess I can be realistic. He may never get over the last one!

Just last week, he asked to go to Grammy's house for a visit. I told him that she was feeling gross after having chemo. With a serious, I have an easy solution type voice, he said, "Well she can just go get a shower!" That little mind is always working!

These little things are so funny and special at the same time. As a stay at home mom, I'm blessed to be near him as he figures them all out. But as with Sarah, I know that this time flies by so fast and one day, he'll have the words figured out and know the proper ways to relate. That will be exciting as well, but will not replace the joy that I receive as he learns how to relate to the world God gave us in ways only a three year old can! Even an old, run down bridge is exciting for me through his eyes.

So as you look at your little ones today, freely jump into their world. Get excited over the little things. Laugh as they mess up their words and enjoy giving them the knowledge of the right ways to say those things. It'll be gone before you know it. Thankfully, I still have more to go with Ashton and then I'll get to walk two more through this time. God is good!

debradaytoday.blogspot.com

Family Pictures

2011-02-27T20:14:00.000-05:00

Daniel and I took the kids to Falls Park to get some nice pictures of them for the family. I hope you all enjoy them, but the captions are meant as a guide for my family to order them.

394

394E

395

395c1

395c2

395c3

396

396c1

401c1

412

413

414

416c1

419c1

419c2

421

421c1

421c3

429c1

431c1

432c1

436bw

440bw

440cbw

442c1 - At this point, she decided to take off her shoes. But this one would not come off and she got so frustrated. She started kicking her feet and squealing. It was hilarious!

444c1

445c

445cbw

The black and white images were a little grainy or overexposed as color images. They look a lot nicer after the editing. A lot of the pictures are different crops of the same image or with a few color edits. Just let me know the size and quantity that you want!

debradaytoday.blogspot.com

Deb's Favorite Macaroni and Cheese

2011-02-25T13:12:00.002-05:00

When I was a child, Kraft Macaroni and Cheese was the best macaroni and cheese EVER! But then I grew up and over time it stopped tasting as good. Since being a stay at home mom, I've had the time to refine my homemade version. Just to brag a little, my kids think it's much better than the box kind!

1-1 pound box of macaroni
2 cups shredded sharp cheddar
4 ounces cream cheese
2-4 cups milk
2 tablespoons butter
2 teaspoons of worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon ground mustard
Salt/Pepper to taste

1. Cook the macaroni for 6 minutes. (Most boxes show al dente done at 7 minutes. If your box calls for longer, cook one minute less than the suggested al dente time.)

2. Drain most of the water from the pasta. Leave pasta in the pan and place it back on the burner over medium heat.

3. Break up cream cheese into small chunks and add it to the pan. Add in butter, worcestershire and ground mustard. Stir until cream cheese and butter have fully incorporated into the macaroni and cheese.

4. If the pasta/sauce is looking dry, add up to one cup of milk.

5. Stir in shredded sharp cheddar one handful at a time. Allow each handful to melt before the next addition.

6. If the pasta starts to loose the creamy texture, add more milk until it's the consistency that you like.

7. Add salt and pepper to taste. Typically the salt in the cheese is enough to salt the entire dish and you will not have to add any.

8. Serve and enjoy!

The creaminess of the macaroni and cheese is all up to you. If it seems to thick, thin it out with milk. Also add a bit of milk while reheating. It will bring back the proper consistency.

This also works well for baked macaroni and cheese. Add half of the completed macaroni and cheese to a buttered 9x13 baking dish. Grab another bag of sharp cheddar cheese and put a thin layer over what you poured in the dish. Add the rest of the macaroni and cheese to the dish. Spread it out evenly. Add 1 cup of milk. In a small bowl, mix 3/4 cup of bread crumbs with a couple of tablespoons of olive oil. Don't make mush, just coat the bread crumbs. Add in a couple of dashes of seasoned salt and stir. Place the bread crumbs evenly over the macaroni and cheese. Bake at 350 until it's bubbly and serve!

Today Should Have Been a Monday

2011-02-23T23:11:00.000-05:00

It was one of those days. You know, those days that feel like Monday's. They are crazy and unusual and you feel as though you just want to crawl back in bed and see if you can wake up on a new day!

This morning was crazy. My oldest was having an off day and I was still tired from the weekend. Having a fender bender and then driving almost 1000 miles in 3 days can do that to a pregnant lady!

After dropping Sarah off at school, I came home with the kids. Ashton and Brenna played in their room while I did a few things in the house. And then my rotten little man came out the bedroom covered in orange highlighter. He had a circle drawn around his face and down his arms and legs. I checked on his sister. She got off lightly, only a few marks on her face and clothes.

A short time later, I heard Brenna go back in the hall. I told Ashton to go make sure that the bathroom door was closed. He loves to help out. I went back to my chores as he ran off. A few minutes later, I realized that I didn't hear the door close or Brenna protesting. I went back to the bathroom and found them both sitting on the floor. Ashton had pulled down the baby body wash/shampoo bottle. It has a pump head. He applied a thick coat to his hair and was helping Brenna put some in her hair!

I didn't get a picture, but it was a sight! Tonight, I rectified that situation. I was hoping things had changed. I had a horrible headache when we came home from church. Daniel was working on dinner and I was trying to get the Tylenol to kick in. And then I heard it. You expect silence or screams to lead to some crazy situation with kids, but Ashton and Brenna have this devious little laugh that comes up when they are being rotten. And that laugh was coming from my bedroom.

I slowly opened the door and found Brenna looking like this...

That's my Aveeno lotion. Ashton followed her around the room, squirting her with it. It was all over the back of her head as well. But the fun didn't end there. I sat her in her chair to clean her up...

And her hair got a bit crazy. She rarely smiles in pictures. But the lotion thing made her a little giddy. Almost every crazy picture I snapped had her smiling. I left her sitting in Ashton's chair while I got a wet cloth to get more of the lotion out. And I came back to more madness...

My littlest nut climbed up on the table and started playing with her Daddy's phone. If she prank called you, I apologize. Look at that face. That's the sixth or seventh picture in a row that I have of her smiling. That sin nature really nets great smiles in pictures!

She's trying to figure out who to call.

Hey! What language is this?

All right Mom, I couldn't understand a word they said. I'm done. My smiles are gone. Come clean my hair out!

Time for Cakes

2011-02-22T19:29:00.000-05:00

Many of my friends have asked a few questions about this whole cake baking thing that I partake in.

Why do I do it? When Sarah was little, I decided that I wanted to be the one to make all her cakes. I don't know why. For me, this was part of my present to her. At first the cakes were simple iced cakes. Those were before the digital age and I don't have a scanner to upload them here.

How do I have the time? The simple fact is that I make time to do this. There is no other way around it. When the kids were little, I would work mostly while they were in bed. As they grew, they became my helpers or I found an activity that they enjoyed. Ashton loves to bake. He helps add flour and other ingredients to the bowl and then gets to lick the mixer paddle! If he gets interested in the cake, I give him a little fondant to play with or he can decorate the leftover cake. And I sometimes resort to letting the TV babysit. And no, I don't care if you judge me for that!

Cake Genesis - Originally all my cakes were out of the box and iced with container icing. I happen to like Duncan Hines and don't mind using it! The problem came when I started putting on more elaborate decorations. For one of my early cakes, I added candy decorations as part of the theme. They started falling off at the party! I did some online research the next year and found ways to make the icing stronger.

Food Network eventually began airing episodes that featured professional cake decorating. That was when I became aware of fondant. I've tried making it from marshmallows and that was not a fun experience! Currently I purchase the Wilton Fondant at Hobby Lobby or Michael's. They always have 40-50% off coupons which brings the cost of a five pound box to around $10. Fondant can be challenging to work with. But with each cake, I've gotten better. In addition to that, YouTube and Google are great ways to find smart ways to do a plethora of decorating techniques. The big thing that I'm still perfecting is how to get the fondant smooth on a cake. On a good note, even when I screw it up, I usually have decoration that can cover my imperfection! On the Oliver cake, the scarf covered a whole lot of messed up fondant!

I'm still not great at piping decorations. Part of that is my lack of practice. I currently have a good amount of icing left over from the Oliver cake. If I have time, I may practice with some of it.

Quick Tips

Level Your Cake - This can happen by cutting it down so that it's even. I had an uneven oven for many years and had to make additional cakes to get enough level pieces to make a normal height cake. Where there is a will, there is a way. I've recently learned that if you take a metal flower spike (the thing you use to make a rose on) and place it upside down in the center of your cake pan, it will help your cake bake a little more evenly. There are other items on the market and people swear by different methods. I tend to go the cheap, but effective route!

Food Coloring - Spend the extra money and get the food coloring at the craft store. Either Wilton or Americolor work the best. The liquid stuff does not work as well and can not be used in fondant. Hobby Lobby just started selling the Americolor brand and I like it because it's squeezable.

Character Cakes - I love being able to buy little figurines for cakes. I recently did a Toy Story cake for my son and we purchased figures to put on it. In addition to looking great, he still plays with the figures. It's the easiest way to decorate a cake and your kids love it!

Ideas - Some things I just come up with myself, but others come from pictures online. Sarah and Ashton like to research their birthday cakes and let me know which aspects of each cake they would like to have incorporated. For the younger kids, I pick the flavors. Sarah is old enough to pick her own flavors now. I've moved away from box cakes and have started trying different recipes on allrecipes.com or cakecentral.com. I only use recipes that get great reviews and I always read a good amount of comments. This lets me know if I need to make changes to the recipe before baking.

Smash Cakes - For first and second birthdays, I make a smash cake. These cakes allow the little ones to make a huge mess while the adults enjoy the pretty cake. The cakes are covered in icing. If I can't get the icing smooth, I use a star tip or a grass tip to make the sides look decorative and to cover the imperfections.

I'll stop here, but would love to answer any questions you have. Just message me on facebook or leave a comment here!

Oliver Cast Party Cake

2011-02-22T18:46:00.000-05:00

My talented husband is currently playing Bill Sykes (from Oliver) at the local theatre. Last weekend was the cast party and he signed me up to make the cake. The cake had to serve up to 50 people. I looked on CakeCentral.com and found a pound cake recipe that made a generous sized cake. I made 3 - one plain, one chocolate and one lemon flavored. Since it was a free cake, I decided the actors and their families could afford to be guinea pigs!

It took me a little time to settle on a final design. In the end, I chose the top hat, as it's a main feature of a lot of the characters in the play and the books mirrored the set in the theatre. I did a good amount of research on how to make the books. If you need some advise let me know. There are not many tutorials or other resources out there on the web for closed book cakes.

The hat was sort of modeled after the one Daniel wears. His was brown with a green sash. Since the brown would have clashed with my idea, I used a little artistic liscense!

I just loved this in Black and White!

The "gold" wrapped, chocolate coins represent the greed of the thieves. They came from the dollar store.

The lettering was hand painted with gold dust mixed with vodka.

The cake board is 3/4" plywood covered in contact paper. I then put some colored fondant over that.

I wiped the black of the top hat with a damp paper towel. I then took bronze dust and used a paper towel to brush it on the hat to give it a scruffy appearance.

I used a hot glue gun to put a piece of ribbon around the edge of the board. In hindsight, green would have looked nicer!

The entire cake is covered in fondant.

The gold coins really added character. I'm so grateful we found them only hours before the cake was due!

The cake turned out to be a huge hit. Daniel told me that one person almost moved the cake because they thought it was a prop and it was in the way! Thankfully someone was there to say something! It's one of the best compliments that I received!

One More Reason I Love Him

2011-02-17T22:18:00.001-05:00

Some Little Person...

2011-02-17T22:10:00.000-05:00

...ignored the wet floor warning!

A Few Pictures

2011-02-16T21:29:00.001-05:00

Sick kids love home made macaroni and cheese!

Look at that concentration! Superman did not want to take off his pj's so we compromised and just put on jeans with the new to us top! He promptly put on the matching pants when he came back in the house.

I can't get enough pictures of this kid! It helps that he sits still!

And this one, she finally slowed down and I love it!

I know, we should clean off the trampoline. But if we did, I would have missed this shot!

He got a boo boo and Sissy took care of it!

And this little rat was giving me stink faces in most of the photos!

But I did manage to get a good one of her!

But this is the one that really made me laugh. Guess what she likes exploring?

Sick - All 5 of Us!

2011-02-16T10:24:00.000-05:00

I hate being sick. I didn't think there were many things that I would like less, but I found out this week that being sick is not the worst thing. Having all three kids and the hubby sick when I'm sick, well that's worse than being sick and pregnant.

Did I mention that before? You know, that I'm pregnant and all that jazz. Well, when you are pregnant and sick, all the good drugs are no longer viable options. And when you have kids, you can't just crawl in bed and stay there. Those pesky kids want to share your bed and crawl all over you as well. They are really into that whole "hold me, I'm sick" thing when all you want to do is hide! Now before you get your panties in a wad, I'm just kidding about the kids. It's hard comforting little ones when all you want to do is crawl up in a ball, but I'm grateful to be able to do just that for them. Even when I'm coughing my lungs out and grouchy on top of it!

Daniel got off early Monday because that was my worst day. It also happened to be the day when Ashton and Brenna peaked in their illness and Sarah finally came down with it. Then again, that's when Daniel started getting sick as well. It just kind of snowballed on us! I did end up going to the doctor. I started having coughing fits so bad that my chest would seize up and, well it was painful. My OB would not see me, so Daniel managed to get me in at the office he goes to. I've not had a family doctor since we moved here and we were a little concerned that I would not be able to see someone.

I had all the classic flu symptoms and some shortness of breath to add to the fun. That meant I got to experience my first flu test. Have you had one of those? If not, let me tell you, I'd rather have a shot! Since I love you so much, I'll give you the details... They take one of those long Q-tips and put it an inch or so up your nose. Then the nurse, who was as nice as could be, starts swirling it all around your nasal cavity. And just when you think she's done with one side, she swirls some more! I had to stop her halfway on the first nostril and then she had to dig in there some more when I could sit still again! And yes, I said first nostril. Because when that one is good and irritated, she goes into the second and repeats the process. I'm sure the test feels longer than it actually was due to the fact that it's incredibly uncomfortable!

In the end, I was negative for the flu and can still say that I've never had it before! But because of the shortness of breath, she gave me an antibiotic. Then she called an obstetrician who told her to go ahead and put me on Tamiflu because of the baby. I'm thankful for both prescriptions. And while I was waiting, I found Robitussin Cough. That is what finally brought my terrible cough to a managable level!

On a funny note, when this started, my loving husband went to pick up some Robitussin cough and brought home expectorant instead. What is expectorant? It makes your cough more productive! That means the cough doesn't stop, your body is just encouraged to push more stuff up so you keep going! I told him it was the wrong stuff and he went back and brought home the exact same medicine again! I just laughed. And then I coughed! And then I coughed some more. I guess that was punishment for laughing! He felt bad but I told him not to worry!

Anyway, Ashton, Brenna and I are fever free today! I'm so excited. Sarah is still at 101, but I have hopes that it will break by the weekend. We are all still coughing. I hear that the cough portion will far outlive the infectious period though.

Now I'm off to continue cleaning! Laundry is close to being done. Then I'll be mopping and wiping down all the surfaces I can get my hands on!

After that it's cake baking time! Daniel is the villain (Bill Sykes) in the play Oliver at Foothills Playhouse. You should really go see it this weekend or the next. This weekend is the cast party and I agreed to make a cake for it. But I have to have most of it completed by Friday. Sadly that means I can't do a lot of fancy fillings because they would need refrigeration. But flavored butter creams will work nicely. I can't wait to show you some pictures on here. It will be my most ambitious cake yet! I'm hoping it will be wonderful! Daniel has worked so hard and this is one way I can celebrate his accomplishment.

Week 24

2011-02-11T19:24:00.000-05:00

Baby G is growing stronger every day. According to a website, he's the size of an egg plant! While that seems large, my stomach makes it appear as though I'm carrying a pumpkin!

A few weeks ago I had a follow up ultrasound to check his brain measurements. Praise the Lord, they were all in the normal range! (He was weighing in at 1 pound 3 ounces.) As she was working to get the measurements, Baby G kept twisting and moving. I told her how he was not very cooperative for the last ultrasound either! I mentioned we didn't even get the usual profile shot and she moved in on him to snap one. She moved the wand and there he was, laying in the perfect position for a profile shot. She moved to snap the picture and just as her finger grazed the button, the little guy moved. She managed to get a slightly blurry shot! As she moved the monitor around, she realized that he didn't just move, he flipped over completely! She then went back to confirm that he was a boy and he wasn't having any of that! I've never seen a kid pull their legs up to their chests in utero as much as this little guy did. But we saw the "goods" as he tried to get away from our prying eyes.

Baby G is a lot pickier about foods that I eat. Spicy foods, sausage, too much salt and too much sugar are all out of the question. And a few days ago, I learned that banana bread receives a worse reaction than all of the others combined! On the other hand, he loves veggies. I had a pepper tonight and I could have eaten 10 more!

Ashton is really taken with the new baby. Yesterday he informed me that his brother was sleeping in my stomach. Not only was he sleeping, but there was crib in their for him to rest in! I know I'm big, but not that big! As for Baby G, he knows when Ashton is around. Sarah and Daniel try to get him to move, but they rarely succeed. If Ashton lays his head on my stomach or starts "squishing" his brother, Baby G starts squirming around. One day Ashton felt him. He looked up at me with a startled expression and said, "He kicked me!" It was adorable.

As for me, I'm trying desperately to get back to the gym. Mornings are tough here because he stops kicking from 5-9 ish. That break means that I can get into a deep sleep. And that means I'm not up early enough to prep Brenna and Ashton for the gym. We tend to do breakfast after I drop Sarah off as school and it makes no sense to head back out then. But that's part of life I guess!

Hormones... They are increasing as steadily as my waistline! I'm so much more likely to tear up right now. We were watching Toy Story 3 tonight and as Andy was handing off his toys to the little girl, I had to fight to keep a sob from slipping out! Sadly, I'm not joking. Hormones suck!

Well, I'm on to month 6. We're starting to get the kids rooms worked out. I'm on the hunt for some maternity shirts. I'm down to 3 of my pre-pregnancy shirts and losing ground. I broke down and bought the pants last month. Baby G has also decided to burrow down into my pelvis. His brother bruised the top of my pelvic bone and I expect this little guy to follow in his footsteps. Bending is challenging at the moment and I don't see that getting better.

Just Because I'm Slow at Posting...

2011-02-09T10:10:00.000-05:00

...I thought I'd remind you of one of my most read/tried recipes - Budget Friendly Beef Stroganoff. It's perfect for this cold weather and cheap and easy to make. Plus it will please almost any man or child in your house! That includes the ones that normally turn their noses up at cube steak!

I've also decided to start adding my recipes to Allrecipes.com. It will make them much easier to print out. Here is the link.

Enjoy!