The Baby MONSTER is 2!!!



My Baby Monster turned 2 years old last week and we had his birthday party this past weekend. 

Being way over excited to show off my mad skillz, I wanted to be creative and make the cake and cupcakes.  The cupcakes were to be Red Velvet from Created by Diane, which looked delish!

I made sure to get all the right ingredients:  

Ingredients + A's skateboard out in front by the salt :)

And I followed each and every direction, step-by-step, to get the mixture just right:

Even though it was kind of thick, I thought it looked okay and tasted very good.

Now on to baking.  I used my brand new, handy dandy (thought it was $1.99, but ended up being $11.00) ice cream scoop like they do on tv and poured the mixture into the baking cups. 

A is so proud of his mommy :)

And after they were done, I took them out of the oven and got these:

Nice and moist, and yummy with a little bit of a chocolate flavor :)

See the moistness?  They came out soooo yummy.

Then, a few hours later, something bad started to happen.  They got heavy...they got really heavy...like rock heavy...no...like boulder heavy!  Trying to be positive, I just stored them up and got the rest of hte stuff ready for the party. 

Then, as my luck would have it, the next morning, when it was time for the party and I pulled the cupcakes out, I swear if I would have dropped even one on the floor, it would have gone straight through the floor and into the crawl space and maybe, just maybe, into the abyss of hell! 

These things are seriously HARD! 

"THAT'S WHAT SHE SAID!"

Sorry, I had to say that :) 

But in all seriousness, I had to swallow my pride and hide these abominations from everyone at the party...well, I did have to show some people my major fail.  Someone had to laugh with me right? 

BTW, I am not even going to go into what happened with the what was supposed to be fabulous cream cheese frosting....now that was an EPIC FAIL! 

But, I do have something totally wonderful that came out of the party..well, 2 things actually. 

The first is the actual cake I made for my Little Baby Monster.

All it took to make this little guy was a Big Top Cupcake maker, some icing, two donuts and VOILA!!!

My adorable Mickey Mouse cake!!!  Love it :)

The second most wonderful thing to come out of Little Baby Monster's party?

To Be Or Not To Be....2...4...6...10...14...

They say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder.  But what is beauty really?  Who decides what is beautiful and what makes them correct in their assumption?  My husband thinks I am beautiful, but I don't necessarily agree with that.  But who is right?  Am I right because I know who I am inside and out, all my secrets and flaws?  Or is he right for loving me unconditionally? 

We all walk through life with flaws as we are only human and haven't been perfect since the time of Adam and Eve and that stupid apple.  Every morning I find myself standing in front of the mirror cursing my body and calling myself a "fat cow" and picking out all the flaws and how it would be so wonderful to not have that fat here or to have more fat there.  I do this every single morning without fail even though every night, before I go to bed, my husband will look at me and say "you are beautiful."  After which I tell him to shut up and to go away.  Is it because I don't believe he is being honest and sincere because he is trying to "get some" or is it because I just refuse that I can be anything but beautiful?  Why are all women so profoundly cruel to themselves and seeking this unrealistic goal of the perfect body.  Who made a size 0 or 2 so perfect?  Why can't a size 10 or 14 be so perfect and beautiful?  Not so long ago, many many men were in love with a certain lady who went by the name of Marilyn Monroe.  She wore a size 12 or 14 and had the curves to boot.  To name a few more ladies over size 10 in the public eye:  Chistrina Hendricks (MadMen), Adele (singer/songwriter), Sara Ramirez (GreysAnatomy) and Queen Latifah (singer/actress).  Though a few have been struck by the Hollywood standard of approval and signed on to be spokeswomen for certain diet plans, all of these ladies have two things in common:  They are all over size 10 and they are beautiful! 

But, lets take this biblically for a minute, in 1 Corinthians, the Bible says:  "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, Who is in you, Whom you have received from God? ... So use every part of your body to give glory back to God..."  1 Corinthians 6:19-20  "You were bought at a price [Jesus death on the cross].  Therefore honor God with your body." 1 Corinthians 6:20

Therefore, who am I to judge my own body?  If the Holy Spirit lives within me, why am I calling myself a "fat cow" and hating myself for what God has given to me?  The Holy Spirit lives in this body and I curse it every day.  If I am cursing my body and The Spirit lives inside of me, am I not cursing the Lord and what he created me to be?  That is very much everything that I stand against!  So, from now on, I will learn to love my body and love myself as I love The Lord God who lives inside of me every second of every day.  He gave me this "temple" to take care of and I will not consider it a "fat cow" any longer, but a vessel.  This will obviously take some time to get used to, but sometimes, we need to love ourselves, respect ourselves and know that we were made in His image to be who we are and not who everyone else wants us to be.

Valentine's Inspiration!

Valentine's Day is only a few days away and I am preparing A's cards for the big class party.  Truth is, if the kids didn't have parties at school, I wouldn't even remember V-Day because I don't really celebrate it.  I mean really, if you can't show your "love" affection every day of your life, why pick one day of the year to be sweet and sensitive and sexy?  Even though he pushes my buttons, gets on my nerves and acts goofy about 75% of the time, I will love my hubby every day with hugs and kisses and....*gag*...sorry, just threw up a little in my mouth.....moving on.....

Since I am so in love with the idea I had for A's cards this year, I wanted to pass along my enlightened idea...Well, actually, it wasn't my idea.  It was from a post at Texas Monkey where I found the cutest Valentine's Day card idea. 

First of all, I took a few pictures of the Valentine in question...



He is adorable isn't he????  You know he is!!!



Then, I picked out my favorite picture and uploaded it to Picnik and added some cute little pretties like "Happy Valentine's Day!" and a skull and cross bones over a heart, cause that's how my A rolls!!!! 

I ended up with this:

I sent the file to CVS Photo and had them printed out*.  Then, all I had to do was cut two slits in the picture using rotary cutters, one slit above A's hand and one below his hand.  

I then added the pièce de résistance...THE COVETED SUCKER!!!  The final product looks like this:

Isn't it the cutest thing ever?  Whoever came up with this idea first is a genious!!! 

I think I will be using this idea for a long time, you know, since I have no imagination :) 

So sad you aren't in his kindergarten class aren't you? 

Yeah, me too!

*I got the pictures for free using credits from previous orders and using my CVS card whenever I made in-store purchases. 

I had no idea they would be free, so all I had to pay for was the suckers, which I got from the Dollar Store for $1.50. 

Beat that!

Feeling Dumpy?

Mr. Adorable himself :)

I love baking sweets and Mr. A just loves to help with doing anything, so the other day I decided to make some dumpcake to take to a friends house. Well, I didn't really do anything.  All I did was get the ingredients out and opened the cans.  A did the rest...

*9 x 13 baking dish  *1 box cake mix  *1 can crushed pineapple  *1 can pie filling (any)  *1 stick of butter.

DUMP can of crushed pineapple in ungreasted dish and spread.

DUMP can of fruit on top of pineapple and spread.

Spread dry cake mix on top....

Dollop cut butter on top of dry mix...and bake at 350 for about 40-45 minutes until top is golden brown!

Why is it that when you make food, it NEVER looks as good as it would on tv or when someone else makes it?  Oh well, it must have been good cause it's all gone!!!

 

Easy Peasy Puddin Pie! 

A's Holy Jeans...

In my journey to being a sewing chic, I have started out slow...very slow.  In fact, I just got a sewing machine a few months ago, but it's just sitting there laughing at me.  Since I don't have a lot of time to sit around sewing because I have a job, three kids, a husband and a house to take care of, I thought I would start out with a small job.  Bigger than fixing holes in socks and smaller than handcrafting a new wardrobe. Where oh where to begin....OH!  I know!!!  A pair of holy jeans...No, not the Lord's blessed jeans, but A's jeans.

I don't really mind holes in jeans, people actually pay good money for the holy ones, but apparently it's not kosher to the mother-in-law or the husband, so I will fix.  It only took me about 10 to 15 minutes and I was done :)  No machine, no problem...I used hand stitching and now my baby can wear his jeans and not complain of cold knees!!!

Though after I had finished, M informs me that they have actual jean patches...nice to know that now ;) 

A Hard Week Can Be Made Easy...

Lying in bed watching Phineas and Ferb with A, and loving every second of it.  The clock is still blinking from the power going out for two seconds this morning, but I really don't want to fix the time because the time is actually right and the flashing isn't really that annoying, though I am thinking it's really because I am just too lazy to press two buttons at the same time to stop the blinking.  Hey, momma can't fix everything.   

The weather has been terrible this week.  A huge winter storm blew through with sleet, snow and high winds knocking out power everywhere, stranding people at home and cancelling schools and closing businesses.  I haven't ventured outside for two days and I am so not going out tomorrow.  If I did, I would fall flat on my butt and everyone knows that.  I already can't walk so why even try.  If I see a bump in the sidewalk or a feather laying on the floor I automatically trip.  I even fall in my dreams...It's just a fact of my life.  I AM clumsy. 

This week started out horrible with my Papa's funeral and me stressing about starting a new job the day after said funeral.  The funeral was brutal, but the closure and time spent with close family was a much needed band-aid over my sad open wound, which is healing slowly, but surely.  I was shocked when the pastor started reading my blog about Papa to everyone in attendance, but it brought tears and some laughs, so I am glad it helped those who needed to smile. 

The job is going great.  It's much different from my old job where we had about twenty to thirty pages of requirements that changed at least once every day, if not three or four changes in a day.  I have had a great week doubling my line count and getting great feedback.  I cleared out the account today and it felt great to finish everything.  I also work Sunday through Thursday with Friday and Saturday off, which really helps with Mike and I since Mike is off half day on Friday's.  Couldn't have worked out better.  Just praying that this is the fit I have been looking  for. 

Due to the storm, the kids have been home for the last two days and school is closed tomorrow, AGAIN!  They are starting to drive me a little bonkers, but thankfully, M has decided to work half days so I can get some work done in the afternoon and evenings when the kids are here. 

I hope you are all cozy and smiling because I am tired and ready for bed.  God bless you all and I love you to pieces :)