T-ball teaser!

Here are some pics from our second practice last weekend....



We had our last practice before our first game last night and boy was it FUN! Preston got to play catcher and thought that is the best place to play...you get to see the most action {besides 1st base}. The coach handed out their shirts and he changed into it immediately. Then as we pulled out of the parking lot, he wanted to know if his game was going to be on tv {unfortunately ESPN does not carry small town t-ball at this time, but I am considering writing a heavily worded letter about that!}



After his bath he wanted to know if it would be all right to just sleep in his shirt, so he would be ready for the game when he woke up. I said sure and his next question made me chuckle out loud...

"Do you think I should just sleep in the car?"



I think that might be going just a tad overboard there son!

GOOD LUCK #3!!!

more chocolate!

{I POSTED SEVERAL NEW THINGS TODAY...SO BE SURE AND READ ON DOWN. KITCHEN AND BIKE RIDING FOLLOW}

I don't know what it is with this pregnancy, but I am CRAVING chocolate....didn't have that with the other two!

So I whipped up a batch of these little cuties yesterday!



Let me tell you first why they are SOOOO wonderful.
1) no wrapper to peel off and no waste of cake on that silly wrapper

2) BITE SIZE!



3) Quick to make and frost {store bought frosting piped out of a disposable bag and a few sprinkles...Perfect}

4) Perfect size for little hands and just the right portion...they can have 2, which is WAY BETTER than 1 Big cupcake



Now here's the reasons they are BAD

1) BITE SIZE {read: easy to eat too many...if you are a big person and have big hands and a big mouth...}

2) EASY TO EAT {see #1}



3) They disappear WAY too quickly! {Guess #3 under wonderful makes this one better}

Here's the trick to making these without the wrapper. Baker's Joy! I would post a picture, but I don't have one...

One spritz in each "compartment" of your pan and they come out perfectly. I did discover that if you let them cool about 5 minutes in the pan after they are done, you will have an easier time getting them out. And the little ones are easier to get out than a regular size cupcake {had to make big ones w/o sprinkles to keep hubby happy}.

The little ones also cool faster than the big ones, so the decorating and eating steps are reached quicker as well....so put a mini-muffin tin on your next list of things to buy and start having some fun with your cupcakes!

Kitchen Cabinet Re-do

Okay, I promised pictures last week, but the weekend just went too fast...with all the bike riding and t-ball practice and such. But I did manage to take off a few of the doors and re-arrange some things to see if I would like having open shelving.





And I also left the foam board up to decide if I wanted to go with the black or the white. This is a picture of the bottom cabinets with the black next to the counters and stove.



Here's my thoughts after the weekend of thinking. What I like about white cabinets is the contrast between the cabinets and the counters and floors. For me, there wouldn't be much of a contrast and I think I would become very frustrated with the "dingy" look of my counters and backsplash compared to crisp white cabinets. {The counters and backsplash HAVE to stay for now...no options there.}

I also like the contrast of the dark cabinets and the light counters...which I would have if I went with the black paint. Keeping in mind that this is just a temporary solution and sometime within the next 10 years I hope to do a complete kitchen re-model. This just needs to get me by until then and get the circus color scheme out of my kitchen before I pull my hair out!

We have been living with the open shelving unit for a little over a day now and I am not used to it yet. I am going to give it at least a couple of weeks before I make the final decision about that one. One thing I DO like about it is that it gives the kitchen a "decorative" element that it definitely was missing prior to!

So, weigh in with your opinions {not that I will really take them into consideration, because it is MY kitchen after - all, but I DO want to hear what you have to say! Just ask Jeremy what I told him when he said, "Well I DON'T like the black!}

Big Boy Bike

This weekend, we went from this


to this



It was decided by MOM that if Preston was ever going to learn to ride without training wheels, he NEEDED to have a bigger bike. He looked like circus clown trying to ride that little bike...a bike the same size as his little sister! RIDICULOUS!



I had a Dr appointment on Friday {everything looks good...go back in three weeks for my Rhogam shot and more blood work} and decided I was just going to bite the bullet and buy a nwe bike. Jeremy wasn't 100% on board with the idea, but I figured, who cares....kids need to be kids and what he needed was the proper equipment.



{Look at E.T. in the background there! Love it}

And wouldn't you know that the proper equipment made the task of learning to ride a whole lot more enjoyable for the whole family! Preston was eager to practice, so much so that he about wore his parents out.

Yes I did tag along beside, but I deleted ALL the picture Jeremy took of it. His whole goal was to humiliate me, not capture Preston, so there were some very unflattering shots. Then J finally decided that I shouldn't be RUNNING down the street, so he took over again...and my bulging abdomen thanked him!



P caught on quite quickly...as long as he could go straight....turns are getting better, but still make us a little nervous. That and he won't go more than one lap without stopping...really tiring for the parent who has to keep getting him started. But at least there isn't as much RUNNING down the street now!


{J did take this one!}



And regardless of how it looks {this is my favorite shot of the day btw} there were NO injuries...unless you count the almost concusion CJ got while trying to keep up! Preston went to turn and clocked her with the handlebar! She's tough...she's fine!

Kitchen Mayhem

I was going to paint our kitchen cabinets white, but after seeing this and reading this blog


I am SERIOUSLY thinking going black....anyone? What do you think?


And this picture just proves that convincing my mom to use an old screen door (that she already had) for her pantry door was a BRILLIANT MOVE! Your welcome mom!

This picture also makes me think white is the way to go in the kitchen....someone please help me!!!

T-ball...here we come!

Preston brought home a note from school this week that our first t-ball practice is going to be this Saturday! WOO-HOO! That note prompted this...



and this...



If you didn't know we actually have a ball diamond in our backyard! The people who lived here before us put it in! It is going to be great for practice this summer...only problem is someone will have to MOW IT! Eeeek!

Little Birdie

The kids and Jeremy discovered this dove and her nest the other night. She made her little nest in the tree right above our swing. The COOL thing is that there are two tiny eggs in there! We can't wait for them to hatch...it's been fun keeping an eye on our new friend.

(Now everyone please pray that the babies don't fall out of the tree once they hatch, because Jack will eat them for sure!)

Happy Belated, Belated Mother's Day!

I KNOW this is a couple of days late, but I had to wait for all the mother's day festivities to cease so that I could write about them all!



Dinner on Sunday was FABulous! I fixed Chicken Spaghetti and it was a huge hit. Russ said he hadn't had it in ages and Jeremy even commented that my altered recipe was even better than the original! Of course, we like things SPICY at our house, so I spiced it up to suit us. Russ was hoping to take the leftovers home with him, but there wasn't much left when we all got done and so I kept it...and ate it for lunch today. (It was even better the second time around Russ)

The rest was super simple...a nice salad & some veggies & great French bread


I have to tell you about the French Bread though. We had regular white bread and wheat bread. When the bread came around, Russ put a piece of wheat on Preston's plate to which P replied, "I don't like French Bread." Being the irritated mother that I am about stuff like this I smarted back, "Yes you do, it's the same kind that I fix when we have regular spaghetti."

"It doesn't look the same."

Russ intercedes...replaces the wheat with white and says,
"Here, eat this American bread instead."

"I like American bread." Little turd!

Anyhoo...
We also had these

and these

to top the meal off. The top photo are the cake bites that I blogged about recently. I think they are DELICIOUS and I am sure that the scale will agree with me when I go to my check-up on Friday!


Another funny story is about the "punch" I fixed.


While filling his glass Papa commented, "This sure is good punch, whatever it is."

I just HAD to laugh and say that my "fancy" ice cubes must have done the trick. ( I froze slices of lemons and limes in ice cube trays.) And then I added the ice cubes to regular old Kool-Aid.

You know the powdered stuff in the little packets you add a LOT of sugar to? That's what I used and added the lemon 'n lime ice cubes. And I do have to agree with Papa that it did elevate the sophistication of Kool-Aid!


That afternoon we just hung out with Uncle Russell.

We were going to plant flowers but it was incredibly cold here, so we just vegged instead. And Papa indulged the kids with a reading of "Sweeping Booty." (Cambree's pronunciation, not papa's).


Cambree made silly faces everytime I went to take a photo. I think it was a conspiracy between her and Uncle R.



So the final step in celebrating Mother's Day was to plant the flowers...which we ended up doing last night. The kids went and helped me pick them out and they also helped me "decide" where to plant them. I hope they end up doing okay, because Preston will be crushed if they don't. I think he may end up with the green thumb or at least be the most interested in growing stuff.....might come in handy next summer when we plant our vegetable garden.
( I know that I am putting on the lbs and if ANYONE comments on it, you will be forever banned from this blog....said that mainly to make myself feel better. I know no one reads this, much less takes the time to comment!)



(This view is OK, but I am sure from the street it was SCARY!)

Finally....Sunshine!

It's about time the sun has decided to come out from ehind the clouds...it was starting to make me depressed and grumpy (or is that a result of pregnancy hormones???) I am blaming it on the lack of sunshine...as I have felt more like myself the last couple of days.

With the sunshine also comes the motivation to finish up some projects. I am happy to say that I did manage to finish the quilt top I was working on for Baby W, not sure if I blogged about the fact that I wanted to make one. So here's the scoop on that. I have a small problem with reading other peoples blogs and they can be quite a time warp for me. But on the other hand, I get some great ideas and inspiration, like making a baby quilt. I found a pattern that looked relatively easy, picked out some fabric and after about three good afternoon/evening work sessions I had finished the top. I put it in the mail today to my Grandma Betty who will hand qiult it for me. How special is that...W's mom made it and his great-grandma quilted it! I guess now the next step is for me to learn to hand-quilt or to save for a quilting machine, because I enjoyed the process of making the quilt a whole lot more than I thought I would. I can see another hobby developing here. I didn't photograph it before I put it in the mail, but I promise to do it soon. But here's the pattern I used and you can see the fabric I chose here.

In other news, I got really excited about a couple of recipes I have been wanting to try and about actually being home for a full day...hasn't happened in over three weeks! Anyhoo..
I have been on the hunt for a fail-proof cinnamon roll recipe and I got this one from Pioneer Woman (you have to read her blog if you don't know who I am talking about...it's a hoot!) I set to work this morning following all of the directions and I have to say that while they didn't come out looking as perty as Ree's, they didn't taste too shabby! I just need to perfect the art of rolling them. I think the dilemma might be that my dough was too thin, but then again, I am just guessing. However, I do think next time that I will cut the recipe in half. I was too afraid of messing up this time to tinker with the measurements.

I also came across these little cake balls (or bites as we have to call them at our house...something about men and eating something called balls....I don't get it!) And let me just say that while time consuming yes, they are easy and sinfully delicious! I can't wait to improvise on this recipe. Today I used devils food cake, cream cheese frosting and chocolate almond bark....I can hear them calling my name from inside the fridge....and my thighs are just begging for one more before bed! Maybe I should indulge them..
Just this once!

Next on the list of things to do is to get ready for a mother's day lunch. Chicken spaghetti, salad, veggies, bread and cake bites! YUMMMM! This will be the second time in about a month that we have had my parents over for lunch on Sunday (the first was on Easter and come to think of it, I don't think that occassion got photographed or blogged; how sad).

Anyways, the kids think it is fantastic and I have enjoyed it too. It is nice to get to cook for my mom instead of her always doing the cooking. And secretly I want to prove that I can cook just like all those before me! Maybe someday I will master the art of bread making and pies and feel worthy in the kitchen...those are projects for another day though.

The thing I look forward to the most is setting the table and seeing what fun things I can come up with. For this week I think I am going to pull out the cherry dishes and have a bright and sunny theme going on. I will take pictures this time. For one thing it is May 8th and I have yet to start a May photo folder on my computer...that should be a sin!

I have rambled on enough for one evening and haven't really included any photos of what I have rambled about....more for next time I guess!

Gracie & Nicole

I was so lucky to get to photograph this mother and daughter on Saturday. They have to be two of the most beautiful people I have ever seen. I don't think either one take a bad photo. Gracie has grown so much since I last saw her in November and she was so comfortable in her own element. Nicole had some great ideas for their Mom & Me session...painting toenails, swinging...things they like to do together. And it turned out that these two things gave us some of the best shots I have yet to take...of anyone! Here's just a few of what we got that day and I have to admit upfront that their gallery will have more than the 10-15 pictures advertised in the special....I just can't decide which ones to edit out!





This in one of my all-time favorite shots...it would look awesome as a gallery wrap!


And maybe it's because I am a mother of a daughter, but what I wouldn't give to have a photo like this of me & Cambree. Moms, just think how many times in your lifetime you have blown on little piggies to dry them! Doesn't get any sweeter than this!

First Kill

Preston shot his first live animal tonight! He is SOOOOO excited and probably won't sleep a wink tonight! I don't have time to type the whole story right now, but you can look forward to it soon.