Where Does Time Go?

Has it really been almost 5 months since I have posted on this site?  I can't believe the last time I was on here was Caiden's birthday in the middle of summer and we are now counting down the days until Christmas!

Gary's First Day Home



I love the Christmas season, and I am just as excited and unable to sleep on Christmas eve now as I was when I was a child.  It is just now the excitement has shifted to watching my boys open their presents.  And I am especially excited because I am able to spoil my boys a little more this year :)

To prepare for Christmas, we have put up the tree and Gary the Elf came to visit the day after Thanksgiving and has been keeping the boys on their toes ever since. They have so much fun looking for the little guy every morning.  He hasn't gotten as creative at our house as he is in others, but he has to stay up high so Bennett doesn't touch him. Wonder where he will end up tonight....

 

The family is doing good.  We have already had our first round of sick kids this season, with Bennett ending up with Influenza.  Luckily, he was over it in a day.  I felt so bad when he was so miserable that I hadn't taken the time to get his flu shot.  I know not everything thinks their kids should get the shot, but seeing that little guy, and being so miserable that he fell asleep on the floor of the doctor's office...if I can prevent that suffering, why not? 

 

Caiden is half way done with 2nd grade and Bennett is getting closer and closer to 3 years old every day!  I am still in school, but there is a light at the end of a very long tunnel.  I should be done with school by early 2014.  It seems like a long way away, but I started this journey in 2009, so it has already been a long road. I am now at the short end of the path.  When I am done I will have a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business with a minor in Management Information Systems.  I think I am already getting senior-itis, and can't wait for my 3 week long break between this class and my next one!

7 Years Ago Today

Seven years ago today, one single event happened that rocked my world. Life would never be the same. And I would never want it to be. Seven years ago today, I became mommy for the first time.  He was almost 2 weeks overdue, I was put on petocin for 12 hours and then ended up with a c-section cuz the little booger didn't want to come out.  I should have known that this was his first clue to me what his personality was, because to this day, 7 years later, he dawdles around and takes his time every morning and any time we are trying to get out the door. I cannot believe he is 7 years old, and about to start second grade.  But such a funny, fun, loving and caring boy he has turned into.  And along the way, he has turned into a wonderful big brother.

To celebrate the day, we started with miniature golf, which he has never done before, but loved it...even though I beat him LOL...it was pretty close...if you ignored all of the times he cheated by stopping the ball before it rolled too far away from the hole.  But hey, he's 7 and it was his first time, so I cut him some slack.

Then it was on to McDonald's for lunch. Then we headed to Chuck E Cheese for a while, played some games, picked out a prize.  We happened to be right next to a Cost Cutters and the boy needed a haircut, so we stopped in there quick.  Finally we ended the day with a birthday sunday at Orange Leaf. If you haven't been there, I highly recommend it.  They sell all different flavors of frozen yogurt and then you get to top it with about anything your little heart could desire.  It smelled yummy the second you walked in the door and it tasted oh so yummy.  Don't know what flavor you want? No worries, you can sample before you buy.  Caiden tried birthday cake, chocolate brownie, chocolate, vanilla, and cookies and cream before he settled on cotton candy.  

Finally we headed home, played some video games and picked up little brother from daycare.

All in all it was a great day, and Caiden said it was his best birthday yet.  

Happy Birthday Caiden! Mommy loves ya <3

New Hobby in the Making?

Thanks to Pinterest, I have a new obsession...ok really I have a million new obsessions, things I want to try, learn to do, make....I could go on and on.  I have pinned tons of things on this site, but I have only actually done a few of them.  1) The homemade laundry soap; 2) Cinnamon sticky roll things; and...ummmm...that was it.  Until today!  I have decided I want to learn how to decorate cupcakes.  I love them!  They are yummy and I love watching all of the cupcake and cake baking shows on TV.  But since I'm trying to eat healthy I knew having those things in my house would just be setting myself up for failure.  But then...I remembered that Caiden has a pack meeting tomorrow night, which means he has to take snacks.  PERFECT!  So I looked up the buttercream recipe on Pinterest, got out my mixer and got to work.

For this last minute project, I decided to use a cake mix for the cupcakes to save on time and money since I don't have all of the needed ingredients on hand.  Looks pretty yummy if I do say so myself =)

Then I got out the decorating kit my lovely hubby picked up for me while he was out shopping...read the instructions, picked out the tip I wanted to try out, and loaded the bag.  I wish I would have taken a picture of the mess I made by the time I was done!  I'm such a messy baker anyway...this was worse than most days! If I decide to do this on a more regular basis, I'm gonna need a better mixer!

I didn't do anything too fancy, but it still took some practice to get some decent looking ones.  I figured the boys in scouts won't really care what they look like, as long as they taste good (and they do...I always have to taste things before I serve them to others!! 

I think they turned out ok.  Not bad for a first time!  Had lots of frosting left over, so after consulting google, I put it in the freezer.  We'll see if it really tastes as good after being frozen.

New Design

I decided it was time for a face lift for my blog.  Even though I don't really post too much on here, it was getting old, boring and needed a new look for the new year.  I've gotten rid of a few things on my side bars, I may get rid of more in the future.  It depends on where this blog goes.

Hopefully I'll be better at blogging about my life as a busy mom of two this year.  My first priority is going to be my other blog, Road to Hot Mommy, because this is going to be the year I actually go down this road and stay on it for the whole year, until I arrive at Hot Mommy!  So feel free to check out what's going on there too :)

Homemade Laundry Soap

I've found some awesome ideas on the Pinterest website, and have lots of stuff on my boards, but haven't actually done many of them.  Until today!  I decided as a money saver I was going to try making homemade laundry soap.  I used this recipe (for lack of a better word) from Being Creative.  I found all of the ingredients in the laundry isle at my local Wal-Mart and my total cost for everything was $15.57.

I can't wait to finish up with my current laundry soap so I can try this out. 

Another tip I got from a good friend is to use vinegar in your fabric softener ball.  It doesn't make your clothes smell, and works great, according to her.  I don't know if you can put it in the fabric softener dispenser in your washing machine though.  Does anyone else do this?