Cinnamon Roll Sacrifice

Yesterday was crazy! I had two baking projects to complete, and even knowing this, I agreed to babysit for a friend in the afternoon. Honestly, the kids were no big deal at all. My baking, however, took way longer than I expected it to!

My first project was a birthday cake. In the shape of a shark. My cousin asked me if I could make it for her 5 year old. It really was simple enough, just time consuming! Luckily, I had the exact perfect number of eggs I needed to make two cake mixes. I baked two 9x13 pans, cut the shark body shape from the diagonal on each cake and stacked them on top of each other, and used the remaining corner pieces for fins and tail.

It's funny, the thing I was most worried about in anticipating this cake was how I was going to make gray frosting.... I got lucky and my first concoction of several food colorings mixed together developed this perfect shark gray color!

A quick moment of bragging for myself, half the shark body was frosted while I was holding a tired wiggly 9 month old who refused to take her nap. It was awesome, I was proud :)

By the time I finished the details, I had about 5 minutes to primp for our date. A double date with our friends the Chipman's to see "The Hunger Games"!

Ever since there was word of the movie coming out and people everywhere were getting so excited, we've been meaning to read the books. We were going to borrow them from my mom, but it seemed every time we tried, someone else was already borrowing them! So we gave in and just bought them for ourselves last weekend. I read the first one for about an hour Sunday night and then another 4-5 straight hours Monday night. Justin read the whole thing on Wednesday. Before dinner. He's such a fast reader, it amazes me!

Anyways, it was awesome and we had fun! It would have been more fun though, if I hadn't gotten a headache about 20 minutes in, that eventually got so bad it was making me nauseous. And of course the only position that seemed to be the most comfortable for both my head and my stomach was leaning forward onto my knees. Except, oh wait! I can't do that anymore!! Brigette's totally in my way!! I kept thinking I needed to go the bathroom for fear I was going to throw up, but I didn't want to leave the movie! And apparently Justin had the great idea to get me a coke or something for my headache, but kept waiting to suggest it because he didn't want to leave the movie either! :P He's a nice guy though, and did go get me a soda. Fortunately, it started to help pretty quick.

By the time we got home, picked up Carrie, and put her to bed, it was after 10pm.... And I still had to make cinnamon rolls....

Now I didn't actually HAVE to, but I'd been planning on it all week and really really wanted to! This morning we were planning on taking a few things over to a friends house to join in their community garage sale. I said I'd bring cinnamon rolls for both our families. So at almost 11pm, I started making them. Only to realize that I had zero eggs. Remember how I had the perfect number for my cakes earlier in the day?.........

I texted a friend and her hubby quickly brought an egg to my rescue! I measured, mixed, let rise, punched down, and rolled out dough in the next hour. At midnight they were ready for topping/filling. I spread on a nice thick layer of brown sugar and went to sprinkle the cinnamon.... 2 shakes... That's all that was left in the container.... You've got to be kidding me!!! Cinnamon is kind of essential to cinnamon rolls!!

There was no way I was going to bug my friend again. 11pm was bad enough, I was certainly not going to text anyone at midnight. So I googled, and was pleased to find out that my walmart is open 24 hours.... Let me tell you, walmart looks weird at midnight. Boxes all over the place. But I'm sure I looked weird too. Sloppy ponytail, pajamas, and flour/dough/sugar all over the bottom half of my belly because it's the same height as the countertops and protrudes into the messy baking zone :)

By the time my three pans baked one at a time (more than one pan wouldn't fit), I finally went to bed at 2:30. Knowing I was getting up at 6:30 to co-host a garage sale. Goodness gracious!

Fortunately they were DELICIOUS! And a side plus, I actually made a few bucks selling them for 50 cents at the garage sale.
By the end of the morning, we'd made $29.50. But I'd also visited a few garage sales myself and spent $20.... I'm just glad we at least made a profit! And honestly we did end up with a several cute things for me, Carrie, and Brigette!

I'm exhausted, but now it's off to Mesa for the rest of our General Conference weekend activities!

Semi-Productive

Today was supposed to be productive. Allow me to quote myself from this morning's facebook status update. "Alright, yesterday was a lazy tired day and today I HAVE to make up for it! Shower, tidy up, dishes, sweep, vacuum, lunch, doc appt, errands, bathrooms, dinner, crash on the couch!!! Thursday, here I come!!"

Well... I didn't do much of anything on my list today. By lunchtime, all I'd done on my list was shower. Who wants to tidy up, do dishes, sweep, and vacuum when you could do this instead?

Brigette's dresser before (It used to be in the family room before the new bookshelf took its place)


Brigette's dresser after!!
When the dresser used to be downstairs the paint color looked very pink. It must have been a combination of the yellow walls and lighting though because when we moved it into her room, it was a yucky pinkish red... Not at all what I wanted. So I redid it! (Don't worry, the room was very well ventilated!)

So although I didn't clean anything, I got a project done and I'm really excited about it :) The only other thing I got done the rest of the day was going to my doctor's appointment. Which was actually wonderfully boring and short. Weight, blood pressure, Brigette's heartbeat, measure my tummy, and gone. I'll have another ultrasound in 4 weeks, so hopefully I'll get some cute pictures to post!

The Latest on Our Girls

This isn't going to be a very wordy post, but still cute nonetheless. Carrie is deciding more and more that she wants to be independent. Lately, her independence has included dressing herself. Tonight though, she got herself in a little bit of a tangled situation and finally had to ask for help. Here's what her attempt at jammies turned into..... "A little help please mom?".....

And I wish I had a picture of Brigette, but I don't :( I should have another ultrasound in one of my next few appointments though, so hopefully soon. Anyways, the only thing I have to show an update on her of, is the fabric for her room!
I trekked to Hobby Lobby yesterday with Carrie (I'll admit, I was nervous, I knew it would take a while). Although we were there for two hours while I picked and chose fabric for Brigette's bumper, bedskirt, art projects, valance, curtain, and changing table cover... Carrie was a champ! It wasn't until the last 5 minutes while we were at the register that she started to be whiny and sick of it. It probably helped that I got her her own cart to sit in and let her drain my phone battery watching mickey mouse on youtube and playing games... ;)

I'm excited to get started on it soon! I know I still have 4 months, but it's going to creep up on me, I can tell!!

Didn't Have To Wait Very Long!

I guess I was antsy enough about the backyard to just get it done! Before the grass guys left a few days ago, I asked for a quote on rock and installation. We looked up the cost of doing it ourselves and the difference was so minimal, we called the guys back and said we'd just pay them to do it!

One big plus of them doing it was they'd get rid of all the weeds first. That alone would have been a horrible pain!!! See what I mean?!




Turns out, they could come in only a couple days, so we didn't even have to wait very long! Weeds cleared, 5 new bushes planted, and rocks spread, and they were done in about 5 hours. Awesome :)


We were working for a little while digging down the playground area to make room for the sand to be a little deeper. I caught Justin taking a break.... On Carrie's tricycle....

Even with help from our friend Eli and his pick axe, we didn't get the playground finished, but it's at least started. We dumped the dirt into our garden wall to build it up before we add potting soil to the top to plant in it.
I planted some yellow snap dragons and pink, white, and purple petunias around the bottoms of the trees. They make the yard look so finished :)


We put in three pink oleanders (yes, they're poisonous, but I've done a lot of research and the risk is minimal enough for us to feel safe about them)

And two morning glories on either side of the garden wall.

A view of the yard from Brigham's tree. Hopefully soon, we'll be getting a little picket fence to go around the A/C units, for looks and to block them off from kids.

The only unfinished part of the yard. We're going to try to get it done as soon as we can, but I'm not much help in the digging and wheelbarrow lugging department....

The side yard, free from the oodles of weeds that recently covered it. Also the future shed/storage spot for all the shovels, compost bins, and other yard work type things.

I saved the best view for last. This gives the best angle to see all the bushes, trees, flowers, and beautiful green grass. We're so excited for our yard to be almost done!! (Two years after we moved in!) ;P

Good Luck Airman Payne!

In a few days, a good friend of ours is leaving for Basic Training with The Air Force! Airman Cameron Payne reports this coming Tuesday, so tonight they hosted a going away party for him!

Corynn asked me to make these patriotic cupcakes to bring.It's easier than it looks. I mixed up a plain white cake mix from a box, divided the batter into thirds and added blue food coloring to one, and red to another. I used my mini cookie dough scooper to plop an equal amount of each color into a regular cupcake liner and tah-dah! red-white-and-blue cupcakes!

A close up :)

Carrie enjoyed licking the blue batter off the spatula, who wouldn't? ;)

And although I carried my camera around all night, this is the only picture I took. After we barbequed, it was time to challenge Cameron. Most of the boys lined up on the floor for one straight minute of as many pushups as you could do. Only one guy beat Cameron, and it shouldn't really count because he's already in the Air Force ;) The rest of the "civilian boys" put up a good fight though! Justin pumped out 35 before the minute was up.

Once the boys were done and Cameron was good and tired, the girls challenged him to "girl pushups". Honestly, I can't even remember how many Cameron got, but I was extremely proud of myself! Even at 22 weeks preggo, I got 35 in my minute! Physically, I was done around 30, but once I was so close to Justin's number I struggled and forced myself to get all the way to 35, just so I could say I matched him. Even though I really didn't because he did "man pushups"... But still :)

We had fun with friends and wish Airman Payne good luck in Basic Training and Tech School! See you in 6 months friend!!

Preschool Preview

Carrie and I got to have a fun morning today at our friend's preschool. My friend Laura will be Carrie's preschool teacher next year, but we got a sneak peek today. "Miss Laura" needed help putting on a puppet show for the kids, so she asked me to come and invited us to stay for the whole preschool class today.

It's letter P week so this first picture is Miss Laura teaching the kids how to make paper bag piggie puppets. They got to color, cut out the pig, and glue it on. It was fun to watch Carrie try to keep up with the "big kids". She's not quite used to it yet (especially compared to these kids who have been in preschool since August), but she'll get there in no time.

Patiently waiting for the doggy to be brought inside so they could go into the backyard for "recess"

Learning how the "snack of the day" is made....

It's popcorn!!

Enjoying the yummy "letter P" snack

Our puppet show was a fun version of "The Three Little Pigs". I got to be one of the pigs (the straw house one) and the Wolf. It was really fun to hear the kids giggle when I "huffed and puffed"... Sadly, because Laura and I were the only adults there, we have no pictures of the puppet show, but it was really fun to do. :)

Although Carrie seemed to have a little bit of a harder time following directions than the older kids, I'm really excited for her to start preschool next year. She'll be with a new class of kids, all her age, who have never gone before either, so she'll be in the same learning curve. And it's perfect timing, preschool will be starting only a few weeks after Brigette arrives, so mommy will get a couple of hours a couple days a week of "alone time" with Brigette. :)

New Grass!

You've seen pictures of our backyard before, but today we overhauled it a bit. On Halloween last year, we planted grass seed. We "leveled" the dirt ourselves between birds eating some and some other parts just plain failing, we ended up with a lumpy, unattractive patch of grass-like stuff....
Today we paid someone to come out, get rid of our old grass, level everything out, and lay new beautiful sod!

First, the sod cutter to gut out our ugly grass

They also replaced all our sprinkler heads with better ones. They have attachments on the bottom that have hinges all over, so if a sprinkler head gets kicked, or knocked by the lawn mower, they won't break, they'll just tip or lean a bit. This is totally awesome to us, because in the two times the lawn got mowed, three sprinkler heads got busted off.... :/

And then they got to rolling out the sod, woohoo!!!

Justin got home from work while they were there and enjoyed pushing Carrie on the swings and watching someone else do the work for a change! ;)

They rolled it out to squish it down and make it nice and smooth....

And voila!! Gorgeous new grass!

Of course, now this makes me antsy to get the rocks, plants, and sand, and garden done so it'll be complete!

Starting to Decorate

Even though we were tired, I convinced Justin to stop at Hobby Lobby on the way home from the zoo on Saturday so I could pick up the wooden letters to spell Brigette's name in her room. I love doing this project for each of my kiddos!

After about 5 long hours of extremely fine-tipped paintbrush acrylic work...... Ta-dah!!

And close ups of the letters so you can really admire my handy-work!

I love them!! I can't wait to put them up and get going on transforming her room into a girl room! I see another trip to Hobby Lobby for fabric in my near future..... ;)

**And on a side note, Justin and I were both miserably sick yesterday. We've got runny, stuffy noses, horrible coughs, and sore throats! Yuck!! We're coming down from it a bit today, and feeling very lucky that our sweet three year old is so good at self-entertaining! (And by the way, painting wooden letters is a great "I want to laze around in my PJs while I still feel like crud" activity) ;)

Today as I was blowing my nose, Carrie started giggling and said, "Mommy, you're making me laugh when you're hachooing!!".... I thought that was so clever of her! Inventing a new verb from what it sounds like when you sneeze/blow your nose...... I might have to start using that one.... ;)

St. Patty's Trip to the Zoo

The day started off both awesome and hilarious at the same time. I love St. Patrick's Day because it's easy. Wear green.... I remember my mom doing a couple cool things to make it a little extra fun when I was a kid. They're pretty easy, so I tried to be a cool mom and duplicate them.

When we first walked into the kitchen I asked Carrie to open the fridge to see if she could find anything green, and that would mean the leprechauns came to visit us. She was thrilled to open the fridge and squeel, "The milk! The milk is green!!"

When it came to green scrambled eggs, however, she wasn't quite as convinced.... (This is not staged, there's no way I cold have planned her face/reaction that well if I'd wanted to!)
Luckily, here's how it went down.... Sad stare (as pictured above)... Look at mom.... Look at dad... "Well.... Ok. I'll try them..." And she loved them! Ate her whole plate worth!

We all got dressed in green and I packed a picnic lunch. I'm not quite sure why I took a picture of it, but it was an out-of-the-ordinary fun thing so....

Then we hopped in the van to go to the zoo with some friends! This was my attempt at getting a picture of Carrie on the ride up. She decided the best way to "block" me was to use my phone as a shield for her face... Silly girl!

Waiting at the zoo entrance while Daddy parked the car. So excited!

Mommy and Carrie. I was excited too! As far as I can remember, I've never been to this zoo! Kind of crazy considering I've lived here since I was 9!

Riding on Daddy's shoulders just inside the gate

It only lasted long enough for us to grab this family shot and then she wanted down. Sure it's a great view, but you can't run around!

Carrie stretching her neck out like a giraffe

Looking in at the tiger exhibit

After having to be picked up to be able to see into the tiger cage, she seemed to need to climb every other fence we came to, even if it was shorter than she was...

Bring on the PB&J! And bananas, and apples, and chips, and oreos, and caprisuns!

And after a little de-stickifying of the hands and face, Carrie was off to play in "the caves". This little play area is the splash pad during the summer months, but for now was just a cool cave to climb in and slide down a few slides... Except she wimped out at the top and would NOT go down... I finally had to climb in after her to get her out of the other kids' way... :P

Chillaxin in the stroller
A picture of all the friends we went with: Indianna, Isaiah, Grace (the birthday girl; thanks for inviting us!) and Carrie. Their parents and baby siblings were there too, but I don't have pictures of them, sorry ;)

It was definitely a loooooong hike back to the car! Good thing we had fun!! Thanks to our friends for inviting us!