A Boy and His Dog(s)

We have a fifth member of the family who accompanies us everywhere. He is Collin's best friend Doggie (or Doggy depending on who you ask). Over the last year, Doggie has been Collin's constant companion. Wherever Collin went, Doggie came along tucked under his arm.

Doggie does everything Collin does:

Swinging at the park

Playing at the playground

Chilling on Grandpa's sailboat

Climbing the slide

Caroling in the Christmas parade

Freezing on a hayride

Meeting baby sister

Sliding at BouncU

Riding in the bike trailer

After Doggie spends his days enjoying all of life's adventures with Collin, he spends most nights and nap times serving as Collin's pillow.

Last week, Collin left his doggie an hour away at his Grammy's house. In order to avoid a crisis at bedtime, Matt took the kids to IKEA to buy a new doggie. Collin was happy with his new friend, but definitely missed his old one. After a few days, we were able to get the old one back, and Collin is thrilled to have two doggies now - New Doggie and 'Nother One Doggie.

The "new doggie"and the "nother one doggie."
Can you tell which one is which? :-)

In case you were curious, Collin still favors the old one even though he's pretty crazy about both.

Milestones

In the past week, my kids have reached a few milestones. We like to celebrate the little things (monthiversaries, half birthdays, etc) in our family, and I think these steps might require a little celebration of sorts. Perhaps a cake or some cupcakes are in our very near future.

First milestone this week: We took the guardrail off Collin's bed. He had started playing with it during naps and bedtime, so it was time for it to go. For the first couple of nights, we put couch cushions on the floor by his bed, but he didn't need them.

Second milestone: We had to lower Jenna's bed. She's been pulling herself up in her crib, so we had to lower the mattress a little bit. From the looks of it, we will be lowering it all the way in the very near future.
Third milestone: Collin got his first bike. We picked this bike up at a yardsale this afternoon. As soon as he saw it at the yard sale, he yelled, "It's Collin's bike! Need Daddy get Collin's bike!" We decided to give it to him right away, since his birthday isn't until December. He LOVES his bike, and I'm thankful for yardsales!
Every milestone is bittersweet. Each one marks the beginning of new exciting things to come, but it also means that my babies are growing up too fast. I'm so thankful to live in a time when I can capture each stage and every little milestone on camera.

Works of God Monday

When I was in college, a time was set aside every Monday in chapel for students to share testimonies of how God had worked in their lives recently. Five years later, I still take the time almost every Monday to reflect on the works of God in my life, and now I've decided to share them with you.

Today I have been reflecting on these blessings:

• God has provided consistent work for Matt - The first quarter of the year is typically a slow time of year for anyone in Matt's work, but he has not had one day without work in 2011. In fact, on several occasions He provided work for Matt and another person. In addition to Matt's work, the Lord has provided me with consistent tutoring work since the beginning of the year. It's such a blessing to be able to work without leaving my kids.
  
• God has placed us in a great church - Finding a good church was extremely important to us when we moved in September. About a year before we moved, Matt started listening to the sermons posted on RBC's website while he drove to his jobs. I would also listen to them occasionally (usually when Matt said, "Hey, I heard this really great sermon the other day. You should listen to it.") When we realized we would be moving in the area of RBC, we decided to visit. We already knew the preaching was great, but we wanted to see what the place was really like. To make a long story not quite so long, we found a church family that we wanted to be a part of and have been part of RBC ever since. We are so thankful for God's clear direction in this important decision.
• God has given us Christian neighbors whose kids are the same ages as Collin and Jenna - Even though we moved six months ago, we haven't spent a lot of time outside getting to know our neighbors yet. Today, I was able to get out with the kids and enjoy the beautiful weather. While at the playground, I met some of our neighbors for the first time. Even though I just met them this morning, we quickly discovered not only the bond we have in our kids being the same ages, but also the bond we have in Christ. I was so encouraged by my conversation with sisters in Christ this morning.
  

What about you? How has God been working in your life lately? I'd love to hear (read) about it!

So Fun at Six Months!

Today is Jenna's 1/2 birthday! It's been six fabulous months since our princess turned our world upside down. Jenna is such a sweet baby girl who's always smiling. She smiles for just about anybody, but she reserves her biggest smiles for her big brother. She's always on the move, and it won't be long before she can keep with Collin.

Jenna had her first taste of real food yesterday, and she LOVED it! We had no problems with gagging, spitting, crying, etc. She's such an angel baby!

See that little bit of food around her mouth? Yup, that's as big as the mess got! I love her! Of course, how could I not with a face that adorable?!?

Cake, Candy, and Cousins

On Saturday, we drove to NJ to help our niece celebrate being 3. Matt and I were at the hospital when Arianna was born, and it's hard to believe three years have gone by already.

Just about everything that comes with birthday parties was new to Collin so it was fun to watch him experience it all for the first time.His first new thing was Pin the Tail on the Donkey. Even with his eyes uncovered, he pinned the tail on the donkey's back instead of the backside. Somebody else had put their tail there, and Collin tends to be a follower.

The pinata was new to him as well. He really didn't understand why he had to hit anything in order to get candy.


He was excited once the candy came out, but the poor short-sighted little boy did not understand the "get as much candy as you can" part. He picked up one "lolly", asked us to open it, and decided he didn't need any more candy.

Birthday hats were a new thing, too. He wasn't crazy about it, but who is? Maybe someday birthday hats will be comfy......

The cake part of the party was one part Collin understood perfectly. He knew it was Arianna's cake, but he also knew she was supposed to share with everyone. When asked what kind of cake he wanted, he asked for a "cake muffin".




Jenna is too little to participate in the birthday activities, but she did have fun. batting a balloon around and playing with her cousin Carson.

Winnie-the-Pooh Cake

When my sister asked me to make a Winnie-the-Pooh cake for my niece's birthday party, I said, "Sure, no problem." Then I started to panic a little bit. I love to decorate cakes, but nobody had never asked me to make a cake for them. I have no artistic ability (Seriously, on a good day, I can draw stick figures), so the task of drawing a Pooh with frosting was overwhelming to say the least. I would not have been able to make Arianna's cake without looking at Pooh cakes that other people had made, and now I am passing on the steps to this cake to maybe help out somebody else. This is the cake that I attempted to replicate.

The first thing I had to figure out was how to cook a cake that was half chocolate and half white. (When Sarah asked me if I could do that, I said, "Of course!" but I really had no idea how to go about it). I copied the lady in this video on the "rolled-up towel method" and successfully made one cake with two flavors. I used one chocolate cake mix and one white cake mix in an 11x15 pan. The line in the middle was not exactly straight, but it didn't seem bad for a first try.When the cake was cool, the fun really started - keeping Collin's fingers out of the icing while I decorated the cake! I frosted the entire cake with white frosting and let it harden just a little bit.

My original thought for drawing Pooh was that I could place a picture of Pooh on the cake and use a toothpick to poke holes around the edges into the cake. Instead, I poked holes all around Pooh before I placed the picture on the cake. When I put it on the cake, the backs of the holes actually left a decent outline for me, and I just sort of guesstimated the rest.

I bought a tube of black frosting, because I've never succeeded in making my own. (If you have ever had any success with making black or red frosting, please let me know how). I used a #2 tip to outline Pooh in black.

I used a mix of ivory and yellow food coloring to get the right color for Pooh. I filled in his body with stars using the #16 tip. I built up his hand, cheeks, and snout by putting on a few more layers of stars.

I bought a tube of red frosting as well and filled in his shirt with red stars. I used red frosting for his tongue and just kind of smeared it around with a toothpick until it looked like a tongue. :-)
I used chocolate frosting for his nose and the inside of his mouth.

I used green and yellow frosting to make balloons and strings and wrote my niece's name on the balloons with red frosting using the #2 tip. I used green frosting and the #16 tip to do the edges.
Because I always worry about not having enough food during parties, I also made a batch of cupcakes to go with the cake. All in all, I was happy with the result. I hope the birthday girl was, too!!

She looks happy, don't you think?

Could Life Get Any Better?

9:30 am.

Sitting on the counter in his favorite choo-choo jammies.

Licking cake batter off the beater.

Could life possibly get any better for this two year old??

Why, yes. YES it could!!

He could have TWO beaters (and a spatula and two bowls)!!

Sometimes you just need to spoil your little ones a little bit. :-)

New Look

As you may have noticed, I've made some changes to the look of my blog. The new background seemed to fit the season, so this is will be the look until something else strikes my fancy.

Unfortunately, I'm not as blog-savvy as some of the rest of you, so I do have a couple of questions:

• I would like to put a picture of my family at the top of the blog. How do I do that?
  
• How do I make tabs at the top that a reader can click on to find posts about a certain topic? I know I can put labels on them that show up on the side, but I wanted something on the top.
  

Thanks for your help!!

Recipe Review: Chicken Salsa Pizza

I stumbled upon this recipe this morning and decided to try it for dinner.

Ingredients:

• 1 prebaked 12-inch pizza crust
• 2 cups (8 ounces) shredded cheddar cheese, divided
• 1-1/3 cups salsa
• 1 cup cubed cooked chicken

Directions:

• Place bread shell on an ungreased 12-in. pizza pan. Sprinkle with 3/4 cup of cheese. Top with the salsa, chicken and remaining cheese. Bake at 450° for 8-10 minutes or until cheese is bubbly.

I made a few modifications to the recipe, but I didn't make any major changes:

• To add a little extra kick, I put green chiles on 1/2 of both pizzas. I would have put them on the whole pizza, but that didn't really seem like it would be fair to the two year old who was going to be eating it.

• On one of the pizzas, I used a mixture of sour cream and salsa instead of straight salsa. That was good, too. Neither Matt nor I could decide which version we liked better.
  

The conclusion? We loved it! It was SOOOOO easy to make, and it was delicious! At the request of Matt, this recipe will definitely become a regular on our menu.

Lucky Enough To Be Irish

"If you're lucky enough to be Irish, you're lucky enough!"

Big smile. Fat chin. :-)
Irish Princess

How handsome is he?!?

Lucky in love :-)

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!