Sibling Bond Development

I have written a couple of posts about the mommy guilt that comes with having a second (or beyond) child. They are Mommy Guilt - Having a Second Child, and Dealing With Second Child Guilt - Revisited if you aren't familiar. In the second post, I went on about how the gift of a sibling far overshadows any loss of attention that a first born might have to deal with. I used my own sibling relationships to make my point.

Well, it has been a mere month and a half since that last post and I just had to share how much more evident that point is becoming in our lives lately.

More Birthday Odds and Ends - Cakes and Outfits

12 Days To Go!

I'm having a lot of fun planning this party. The hubby is liking it too because he gets to eat the practice cakes. I try not to have more than 1 slice of each because I don't want to gain 20lbs before the party - that would be sad. Hubby has a crazy fast metabolism so he is in the clear for that. He could probably eat a whole cake a day and still have a six pack. . . not that I'm jealous or anything.

Modified Onesie - Mock Necklace with Rosettes and Crystals

I was feeling crafty again today so I decided to experiment with modifying a onesie.

I went through Baby Boo's closet and found a few plain white onesies. I actually picked one that had a design on the front because I knew the design would get covered up anyway, and because I liked the fit of this longer and lighter cotton onesie compared to the thick and boxy Gerber brand ones:

Five Question Friday - August 26, 2011

After 2 weeks of hiatus from 5QF, I figured I better jump back in. Happy Friday to everyone!


  1. Did you make any fun purchases this week?

I bought an outfit for a wedding - dress and shoes - coming up in October. All my other wedding attire was too summery so I needed something new. The dress itself is not too revealing, but it is not flattering to the midsection if there is much additional flub so it is great motivation to stay in shape. the shoes are AMAZING!

Not So Wordless Wednesday - August 24, 2011

I probably could have stuck to the rules for this Wordless Wednesday since these photos really need no caption - That's just not my style though. So without further ado, I bring to you my spaghetti monster:

First Birthday Party Organization

There are two and a half weeks until Baby Boo's 1st birthday and her 1st birthday party!!!

I'm not usually a list making kind of person - I'm just not that organized. I did make one this time though because I want to try to make the actual weekend of the birthday party relatively stress free and that means I can't leave everything until the last minute. This is what I came up with a few months ago:

1. Rent park pavilion
2. Figure out color scheme
3. Make decorations
4. Try making marshmallow fondant trial cake
5. Figure out design for actual cake
6. Figure out food for party
7. Design invites and order them online 
8. Send out invites
9. Buy Hailey's birthday presents
10. Decide on a birthday outfit for Hailey to wear

Potty Training Boot Camp - The Results

Several weeks ago I announced that I was going to do a potty training boot camp with Little Dude because I really wanted him to be done with diapers. If you missed those posts, check out Potty Training Boot Camp: Prelude and In the Thick of It. Being that the last mention of it was 3 weeks ago, I figured I owed everyone an update on the situation.

First things first, is he potty trained?

The answer is. . .

. . .

. . .

. . .

. . .

(Not So) Wordless Wednesday - August 17, 2011

I may permanently change this to Not So Wordless Wednesday because my yapping mouth (or fingers) has a hard time ever being wordless about anything. I feel it is best to be realistic with oneself and embrace those short comings.

I shared this on FB, but they were too cute to stop there. Here is Baby Boo eating some of her grandma's empanadas. My mom makes some amazing empanadas and Baby Boo got to try one for the first time. She obviously liked it since she ate a whole one and they are not small:

Yes. . . I'm Alive. . .and Doing a Meme!

Wow, almost a whole week without a post! Considering I often post daily, I have been more than a little neglectful. Life gets in the way sometimes, but I'm back on the horse and I appreciate everyone putting up with my little hiatus. . . or maybe no one noticed. I'm OK with it either way really.

I was tagged the other day in a meme by the lovely Elizabeth at Momma Two.

If you aren't familiar with her blog I highly recommend checking her out. She has an incredible way with words and tends to be rather hilarious. She doesn't sugar coat anything about mommy-hood and I love that about her.

(Totally Not) Wordless Wednesday - August 10, 2011

Today I have a couple of addendums (or is it addenda?) to previous posts.


Do you remember this series of photos from a few weeks back?:

If not, you can check it out here - please do so before calling CPS.

Well, the bad parenting must be rampant around here because Baby Boo got in on the action too:

Conquering Fondant

I mentioned a while back that I will be making Baby Boo's birthday cake just like I have all of Little Dude's. I also mentioned that I want to try to use fondant this time around. Since fondant is notorious for being difficult to work with, I figured I better not leave things until the weekend of the party. I found this recipe for homemade fondant on the Bake at 350 blog. There are several similar recipes floating around the internet and they all claimed to be much yummier than store-bought fondant. This sounded great to me since most fondant tastes like a bland, gummy, mess.

Last Friday I figured I would go ahead and give it a shot.

Five Question Friday - August 5, 2011

How is it seriously Friday again? This last month or so of summer is whirring by like crazy. I look at my calender on my phone and it looks like every single day for the next month has at least 1 event, if not more. As much as I'm loving it, I may breath a sigh of relief come fall. . . then right after the holidays I will wish it all to come back to glorious summer once again.

   1. Do you have siblings and are you close to them?

Yes I have 4 siblings and we are a pretty close family. I am the oldest followed by two brothers, and then twin sisters. We all live close by and see each other fairly often. Family dinners are always rather hilarious. We tease each other a lot and always manage to have a good time. My mom had all 5 of us in 4 1/2 years so we are rather close in age.

   2. Would you rather be slightly UNDER weight or slightly OVER weight?

The Naked Wall Revisited

I decided I needed to blog about this subject again in hopes that after seeing it all written out in front of me, I would actually get my butt in gear to get going on this project. You may recall that a few weeks months ago I posted about my plans for the dining room portion of the kitchen. The wall on that side of the room was and still is very much naked, and I have illusions of one day changing that. I blame this gorgeous summer we have been having. The days have been so nice that I have had zero motivation to get anything done inside the house. That includes cleaning, but I at least force myself to do that. . . sometimes.

To recap a little, I am planning on making a display using a repurposed antique type case to hold family photos. The display would look something like this:

Whole Grain Pancakes

This whole wheat pancakes are great to keep on hand for breakfast as well as snack time. I always make several, and freeze them in groups of 2-4. That way, later in the week when I need something quick and easy to feed my kids, I can grab some out of the freezer, pop them in the toaster, and feed them to my kids within 5 minutes with minimal effort. They are pretty healthy to boot!

I like this recipe with a relatively high amount of sugar (as far as pancakes go) because I skip the syrup (too messy). If you plan to serve with syrup consider cutting the sugar to 2 Tbsp instead of 1/4 cup.

If you have older kids that are finicky about whole grain foods, start with 1 cup of whole grain flour and 1 cup of regular flour. Over time you can adjust the ratio until you end up with just whole grain goodness.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups whole grain flour
• 2 Tbsp flax meal (optional but very healthy)
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 egg
• 1 1/3 cups milk (roughly)

Mix in ideas: Chocolate chips, cinnamon powder, crushed walnuts, banana slices, blueberries, and peanut butter.

Making the Pancakes:

Sift together flour, flax, baking, powder, and salt in a small bowl. Set bowl aside. In a larger bowl, mix the egg and sugar together until well combined.

Add in the dry mix, stirring to combine. Slowly start adding in the milk while continuing to stir.

Add enough milk so that the batter is slightly runny. Add extra if it does not get runny enough. Mix the milk in slowly in case it isn't all needed. There is a decent amount of wiggle room with this so don't worry too much about getting the perfect consistency.

 Throw in any add ins like chocolate chips or blueberries. Then heat a pan on the stove to medium heat. I use about 1/3 of a cup for each pancake, that tends to be a good size for my kids. I prefer not to use non-stick cookware so I use a tiny spray of Pam on the pan. Cook pancakes on each side for about 2-3 minutes each.

Chocolate Chip pancakes pictured above.

Cinnamon dusted pancakes pictured below:

 I often make several different kinds out of 1 single batch. Variety is fun!

 They are wonderful fresh, but most of the ones I make get bagged up and frozen for later consumption.

That's it! Quick, easy, and healthy - Not much else I could ask for!

(Not So) Wordless Wednesday - August 3, 2011

These are more cell phone pics from earlier this year in May.

Roughly every other weekend we take a walk with the kids around town and stop at Dairy Queen. The walk is no longer than a couple of miles total, but we take our time with it. Earlier this year we made use of the single jogging stroller despite having a perfectly good double stroller in the garage. Little Dude walked for quite a while, but once he got tired we improvised and it actually worked out really well:

Filling up the tires at the gas station:

We were lucky that Baby Boo was in a mellow mood otherwise she would have been kicking her brother the whole time and our nice little arrangement wouldn't have worked at all.

Mmmmm, Dairy Queen:

Little Miss Boo passed out pretty early on and missed out on ice cream. . . don't tell her that:

All Over the Place

My mind is a bit of a blank hence the lack of posts so far this week. I have also been going to the gym very regularly which is great, but zaps my energy once nap time comes around so I tend to nap instead of write. I gave myself a day off today though. I apologize in advance for the lack of cohesiveness of this post - such is my life right now.

Potty training is going OK, but we have been so busy that it is hard to be consistent with Little Dude. There continues to be too much going on for the rest of the summer so I will have to just keep on plugging away at it when I can, eventually it will click.

I really have to get on top of planning Baby Boo's 1st birthday party stuff as well as her 1 year portraits. I am trying to wrangle up yellow and white/grey outfits for the family shots, but that is actually kind of hard at the end of summer. So far I have the hubs taken care of. I'm not exactly picky. I don't want super matchy matchy so I am very liberal on shade and texture differences. I haven't had to many opportunities to look either since I don't like clothes shopping with the kids. I'm a pro with the cart in the grocery store, but a giant stroller at the mall just ain't happening. If I let Little Dude run loose then it becomes much more about him exploring and having fun than it is about me shopping. I think a trip to grandma's will be in order soon.

Maybe I will attempt some shopping today!

Online I found some cute possibilities, but I don't ever buy nice clothes for me online because I need to try stuff on before I buy it. I hope the local brick and mortar stores have some of these on hand or at least something similar:

Maggy London dress from Nordstrom

Adrianna Papell dress from Nordstrom

Pleated floral dress from Forever 21

Jessica Simpson dress from Zappos

OK, enough online dress shopping now. None of it gets me any closer to actually having something to wear for the portraits.

I need to do a test run cake trying out some homemade fondant. I have heard rave reviews about this recipe from the awesome cookie blog Bake at 350. I don't trust myself to get it right the first time so a trial run will be quite necessary. If you are interested in what ideas I'm entertaining for the cake itself, check out this post. I need to go tend to my babies now, in the mean time I will leave you with some more cake eye candy that I found on Pinterest:

sprinklebakes.com

So girly! I wish I knew where it was from beyond Pinterest

Cool texture and lots of messy buttercream for the smash cake. From Sweetapolita - seriously go check out this site, such pretty cakes!

Maybe I should head back to the gym after all!!!