To blog....

or not...perchance to sleep....I think I'll choose sleep tonight and blog another day.

We're still here...just sleep deprived....maybe tomorrow I'll find a few spare moments for an update.

Yawn.

'night

Happy Birthday Mr. E!

As you may have already noticed, February is a busy month around here!

We start off with Miss E's birthday on the 1st, our anniversary on the 19th and then Mr. E's birthday on the 20th. If you throw Valentine's Day in there, well, it's a busy busy month!

Yesterday (uh, well, it was yesterday when I started this post, but I never got it finished - we celebrated this past Friday), we celebrated Mr. E's birthday - 5 years ago our first son was born - he took his time getting here that day, but it was a good thing since CKB was working 2.5 hrs. away and had to drive home after I gave him "the call" and headed to the hospital. Even so, CKB arrived 5 mn. after we did (my mom and the girls and I) because I hadn't gotten everything ready at that point and had to pack a bag, get the girls ready, give my mom directions to the hospital, sit in construction traffic, etc. just to get to the hospital that morning! Mr. E wasn't born 'til late that night so we had plenty of time, thankfully!

5 years old - it's hard to believe sometimes that he *is* 5 and that he's *only* 5 - he's a big boy, both in what he knows and can do and physically. He's the same height as Miss A currently and she's 2 years older than he is.

Mr. E requested muffins, bacon and eggs for breakfast, a fruit plate for lunch and a pepperoni "flip" pizza from Cici's for dinner. We were able to accomodate him except for the muffins - we had cinnamon rolls instead - he didn't complain :)



After dinner, we celebrated with cake and ice cream - per Mr. E's request I made him a blueberry cake and blueberry ice cream. His favorite past time these days is to play Super Mario so I decorated the cake in that theme (I am NOT an artist - be kind) - he liked it a lot and requested the "pipe" piece for his piece of cake :)



We played a game in the den - "Stomp the Goombas" which seemed like a great idea at the time, but I didn't count on the balloons being super industrial strength - none of the children could get them to pop! Any other time, they'd have popped w/o anyone hardly touching them, but not *these* balloons. We got them popped eventually w/the help of a small pocket knife and CKB's assistance.


"Goombas" and "Boos" ready to be STOMPED! That one on the top right looks worried!




Presents followed and Mr. E was excited with his new goodies. He just forgot how to smile for these pictures :)


Here he is w/Grandma - Grandpa is in the background holding Miss Baby


Everyone was interested in how this new game worked - Jedi Math - Leapster is a great tool for having fun and learning/reinforcing what's already been learned at the same time!



Happy Birthday Mr. E - our big, sweet boy!

Happy Anniversary!

Today is the 9th anniversary of the day CKB and I were married. It's been a wonderful, busy, 9 years!

Happy Anniversary CKB!

3 weeks

Miss Baby continues to grow and get sweeter every day. She is 3 weeks old today and doing wonderfully. She has grinned at us a few times already. Today Mr. A wanted to hold her and did with a little assistance. As soon as Miss Baby started to fuss a little though, he said "I don't want to hold her any more Mama." It's a good thing I had my arm around him helping him hold her because he was ready to get her off his lap - later he was ready to hold her again, however, so I guess a little fussing wasn't too much for him!

Here's Miss Baby taking a peaceful nap - happy 3 weeks old!!

Giveaway Winner!

Well, it's about time, right? No one guessed the actual birth date for Miss Baby correctly, so a winner had to be randomly chosen. Baby girl was born on Jan. 27, her actual due date.

The winner of the giveaway for an "easy peasy swaddle blanket" is.....

Courtney

I'll be sending you an email to see if you prefer a boy or girl theme for the blanket soon!

Thanks for participating everyone else and stay tuned, I plan to host another giveaway very soon!

- CAB

It's in the bag!

Awhile back, I entered a blog giveaway and was excited to find out I won! A few days ago I received my handmade item from Jessica over at Jessica's Quilting Corner.

Isn't it great? Perfect for carrying Miss Baby's necessities! Thank you so much Jessica, not only for the fact that I won the giveaway, but for your thoughtfulness in making something that's perfect for my life right now! I've already gotten some wonderful comments from friends and family this past weekend about the bag - everyone's amazed that someone MADE it for me! You do great work! Thank you!!!


The bag is lined with the striped fabric and has 3 pockets on the outside of each side. It goes great with baby girl's pink patterned carseat and pink everything else!

2 weeks already

Miss Baby turned 2 weeks old yesterday - the days are busy, hence my lack of blogging these days. We're trying to find our stride and keep up with schoolwork for Miss E, Miss A, Mr. E and Mr. A while taking care of baby needs and trying to slowly fit in a few other things that I'll have to take back over when my parents go home - I haven't accomplished much here yet - my parents are a tremendous blessing and have all but taken over laundry, dishes and most meals. I may never blog again once they go home!

But, for now, Miss Baby is in bed...for the moment...it's 11:20 at night and I should be in bed too since I'll be up soon - but here I am wanting to share a pic of my little sweet girl with y'all - so, without further adieu (and any photo editing b/c my pc is WAY low on memory right now), here's a pic from this afternoon - yesterday was just too busy to get a pic - sigh - already I've dropped the ball on getting one every Tuesday of her first year - oh well. Isn't she precious?

Lollipop Lollipop Oh Homemade Lollipops, Lollipops!

Inspired once again byMarie over at Make and Takes, we attempted to make our own lollipops a few weeks ago. Visit her blog for the ingredients and instructions if you're interested in trying this out for yourself - it really is easy!

Today, CKB is attending the ordination to the office of elder of a good friend and we are on our own at home (w/my parents here, of course, but w/o CKB for a whole Saturday). He will return home late tonight, Lord willing, and then head off again tomorrow morning for an appointment at a church about 3 hrs. away. Miss Baby isn't quite ready for that trip - it entails all of us getting up at 6 a.m. and out the door by 7 a.m. - driving 3 hrs. - being there a couple of hours, then driving back 3 hrs. It makes for a long day for us "big folks" and no doubt would be pretty rough at this stage in the game what w/Miss Baby eating every couple of hours and so forth. We'll see next month if we're ready for the trip.

So, today is Saturday - no school for the older children = a little more "free time" for me and a chance to share our lollipop experience with y'all.

So, after reading about making our own lollipops, we decided it would be a fun project for the children - granted, I had to do most of the work due to the extremely hot nature of the lollipop liquid, but they got to reap the benefits afterward :)

So, here we go - in pictures:


Getting the lollipop mixture up to the right temp...almost there!



Preparing the mold - by the way, best to make sure you have cooking spray that is NOT butter flavored for this - oops!



Preparing for some "rustic" lollipops...hmm, my cookie sheet looks a little "rustic" - where's my Brillo pad???



Lollipops underway...yes, I'm a messy pourer - give me a break, it's my first attempt at this!



And the rustic pops....and yes, I goofed and poured lollipop liquid on BOTH ends of one of the sticks...maybe I did it on purpose...just maybe it's a special Valentine lollipop...hmmmm? Maybe.



Taste testers preparing to try the pops....



And the verdict is in...Success!



Things I learned from our first lollipop making experience.

1. One mold is NOT nearly enough. I tried reheating the mixture after these first 6 pops had set and the lollipop mixture was not a pretty sight (or smell) after the reheat - oh well.

1a. In the first picture you may notice a larger pot in the background - a small saucepan worked a lot better - with the large saucepan my candy thermometer wouldn't measure the temp. since the amount of liquid wasn't very high in that big pot.

2. Make sure to have NON-butter flavored cooking spray on hand.

3. Don't use wax paper under the rustic pops - some of them seemed to become "one with the wax paper" and had a waxy film on them when I peeled them off. I messaged Marie about this and she said she now uses foil - I will try that next time and/or parchment paper.

4. Putting a plastic sleeve and pretty ribbon on makes them look really nice and ready for sharing with friends! A few of the lollipops wanted to "stick" to the plastic sleeves - we solved this by dipping them in sugar first and then inserting them into the sleeves. What's a little more sugar anyway?




5. This was fun and I definitely would like to try it again...sometime...when I have some spare time...maybe next Christmas...after I get more molds...maybe...

Hope you enjoyed reading about our lollipop making experience! Now, back to Miss Baby and getting some things done around here on our Saturday at home.

It's a Mystery......party, that is!

Well, more accurately a Detective Party, but either way it was fun!

What am I talking about, you ask?

Well, despite all the missed sleep, constant feedings, and general hubbub that surround a new baby in the house, another important event has occurred.

Miss E turned 8 years old on Feb. 1 and we celebrated the day prior (since it was a Saturday) and had a little family birthday fun.

Miss E formed her own detective agency awhile back and at times goes about recruiting new members amongst her family and friends.

So, what better for a sweet sleuth than a detective party!

Here's her cake - each "clue" had a riddle that she had to solve - when she figured it out, it led her to the location of her presents. This was a lot of fun to watch as the lightbulb came on and she dashed off to see if she was right in her guess at the clue. And yes, a little trail of siblings followed her every move - it was so sweet to watch them all run off together and come back to the cake to watch her open the present and then solve the next clue.

The cake...



Blowing out the candles...


Reading a clue....



Her cake was chocolate (triple chocolate fudge, to be exact) with strawberry frosting per her request.

Where does the time go? 8 years ago we welcomed our first little one into the world and now she's 8 and we have another brand new baby. Miss E is a wonderful blessing to us - she is incredibly bright, has a wonderful imagination, enjoys reading more than just about anything, draws and creates things all the time. She is a beautiful young girl and we are so proud of her.

Happy Birthday Miss E!


What's in the box Miss E? Everyone's curious!



Ahhh, a game that's very appropriate for the detective!


Happy Birthday!

1 week already

1 week has already flown by since Miss Baby was born. It's hard to believe - time flies by so fast! She is already so much a part of our days - our coming and goings - the children constantly ask where she is if she's napping and not in my arms. She is much loved by all!

Happy 1 week birthday Miss Baby - we love you so much!