BBB, GBB (boys birthday blog, girls birthday blog)

Time has flown by since I promised a blog about my Boys birthday and now my daughters birthday has come and gone too. In all the chaos, my good friend Karen forced me to take pictures and thank goodness she did because I would have none. I put many hours and months into the hard work of planning these parties and I am pretty satisfied. I am my own worst critic and I am really disappointed in my sons smash cake. They are my speciality, I should have done a better job. BUT planning a huge double birthday was insane. We will get to that in a minute. The boy's were born 2 days apart and I REALLY did not want to have joint parties, ever. However it ended up happening that way. Their party was Pirate themed.

I made a few things like a bean bag toss.. I painted a big ship on cardboard and cut out some holes.

I saw this shark photo prop on Pinterest and I ad to make it. The night before the party my husband took the painting and added the white in the eyes, the shadows around the eyes (which I hate) and the gills. Giving credit, where credit is due. The teeth are white craft foam and I hot glued it to the cardboard and taped a red tablecloth on the back.

We did a "walk the plank" game and a pinata with the pull strings. It was fun and the kids didn't mind that I forgot to get prizes for the winners of each game. But they did get a big treasure chest with an eyepatch, moustache, tattoos, candy coins, and a blow up sword. They all had a blast.

 This is the large cake that everyone ate off of. I mis-measured some of that red fondant, but it ended up delicious. The inside was a delicious strawberry cake (Logans choice).

 Connors cake was chocolate and he hated it. Who knew that decorating a ship cake with no fondant would be so hard?!? I was not happy with this smash cake. I might have to call a mulligan for his second birthday and make him another to make up for it.

This is the only smile I got throughout the entire party from him. He was so tired that he fell asleep in his pile of chopped hot dogs. I completely spaced taking pictures of all the food. There were Hot dog ships (hot dogs with sails in them), Cannonballs (black olives), Pollys crackers (ritz) hunks o gold (cheddar cheese squares), peglegs (pretzels) and Fish n Chips (chips with goldfish crackers mixed in). We really did have a fun time and the kids had the most fun.

A month later my daughter turned 4. And as any young girl having a birthday, she wanted a frozen party. I searched for so long online for decorations (that weren't insanely priced), toys (again not inflated price) and finally came up with an idea. I was going to do a nice winter/snow/elsa theme  but do so with elegance. Here is what I came up with.

 This is the reason that I put in all the hard work and the many hours of stress. This is her reaction to seeing her cake for the first time.

Closeup of the ombre icing effect. Her cake is a moist vanilla bean with a vanilla buttercream.

I couldn't stop taking pictures of this cake. It was delicious and moist! My daughter loved it. 

We played Pin the Nose on Olaf

 Artwork courtesy of my husband.

Waiting for the results of the game

We also had a "make your own olaf" station

 Elsas snowflakes were blue jello jigglers that my husband cut into snowflakes. With a cookie cutter, lets not give him too much credit.

 These are pretty self explanatory

 Snowmen in Summer. I melted some chocolate and piped the hands and hair onto some parchment paper and let them cool. The eyes are some candies I found in the party isle. The buttons are chocolate chips. The white stuff is vanilla greek yogurt. My husband and I went back and forth on the noses. I said that they should be orange tic tacs (but I was afraid of bleeding) and he said mandarin oranges (which I thought were way too big). I went to the store and looked around for a while and stumbled upon a bag of mini starbursts. I took the orange ones and they were just soft enough that I could shape them into carrot-ish shape. Olaf's nose isn't a perfect carrot shape, it is kind of short and bent. I put these together a few hours before party and the noses bled a slight amount but not bad at all. We had some kids LOVE them and a couple of kids didn't like the yogurt. You could use vanilla pudding too, but it is slightly yellow. As Olaf says "yellow and snow? no go".

 I totally spelled Kristoff wrong. oh well. His "ice" is actually cotton candy flavored lolipops from Buffalo Bills on Amazon.

 Elsa punch. I got a few weird looks as I was scooping ice cream into juice, but it tasted delicious! It is a large can of pineapple juice, 2 liter of 7up (you can use sprite of ginger ale also) Blue hawaiian punch and scoops of vanilla ice cream. The ice cream melts and leaves some creamy foam on top of all of the cups. Its a fun drink.

 Snowflake oreos are simply oreos dipped in blue chocolate melts. I found some chocolate transfer paper, cut it into squares and when the chocolate was still wet, I placed the transfer sheet on top. When they cooled, you take the the paper off and it leaves a tattoo.

 Avalanche is a midified version of Puppy chow. Here is the recipe (I didn't have the cinnamon pack so I left it out) http://www.crazyforcrust.com/2013/07/cinnamon-roll-muddy-buddies/

We had a blast and I hope that these ideas helped you. If you have any questions, feel free to ask :)

Some days and a foot blog!

Warning: This blog post contains pictures of some pretty nasty feet. So if you are grossed out by things like cracked heels, you might want to skip this post.


WELCOME/ WELCOME BACK! I'm sorry, I didn't mean to yell.
I am now the mother of a 5 year old, a nearly 4 year old and my little baby is now 1! I feel all those typical emotions. Happiness that diapers are almost done, yet sad that my babies are growing up so fast. Where has the last 5 years gone? Yada Yada Yada. If you are a parent, you know and are sick of people saying it. If you aren't a parent, you don't understand and are still sick of hearing it ha ha. But really, it goes fast and makes you realize that you are getting old fast and I am afraid that it only goes faster as I get older. Death scares the hell out of me. I will be laying in bed, waiting for my brain to stop and all of a sudden my awesome brain says "psssttttt... hey you... one day.... you won't be here anymore.... one day.... you will exist no longer..... one day.... your heart will stop beating..... how does that make you feel" and my heart says "oh shit!" and it starts racing and I cant breathe and the room starts spinning as I work myself into a panic. I know its ridiculous. I know I am only 28 years old and, statistically, I have many more years to be alive and enjoy the things here while I can, but damn... death scares me. I'm not scared of the actual act of dying. Im scared that in my final moments, I will have many regrets. A list of things I wish I did when I had the time. I don't want to miss out on the awesome things that will happen in a thousand years. I don't want to never eat breathe, shower, or laugh again. Its the final of finals. I don't want my family to cry over me. I don't want to get old. My 30th birthday is going to be a doozy. I plan on being drunk all day. BA HA HA! I only drink like twice a year but I might crank that up a notch or two. I digress

The reason for this blog post was to write about my boys birthday party, and my BABY FOOT review.. but it might be best if I don't mix the two. So I will separate them. Keep an eye out for my BBB (boys birthday blog). For now, its all about my FEEEEET!!

Ive had one pedicure in my life and that was 2 years ago. I loved the way my feel looked and felt afterward. It was truly heavenly to have someone else cutting my nails, and rubbing my feet. My husband won't touch them. I don't wear socks, like ever (unless i'm wearing my ariat boots) and if I can get away with walking around without shoes, I will. I had some of those vibram 5finger shoes and though they look extremely dorky, they are SUPER comfortable! Unfortunately my husband refused to be seen with me while wearing them, and the velcro strap broke within a few months :( Bummer. After my last pregnancy, my heels got so dry and cracked that they bleed and hurt very bad. The rest of my foot had tiny pieces of skin sticking out and they would catch on everything. I came across a product called Baby Foot.

This box contains 2 plastic booties that are filled with a variety of plant acids and it smells like Lavender. You cut the top off of the bootie, stick your foot in, tape the top of the bootie so the gel stays inside. Then you kick back and relax for an hour. During the hour, I feel nothing. Other than cold gel squishing around my toes. After the hour you wash your feet with soap and water. Immediately after rinsing my feet they felt water logged. As if I had been in the bath too long and my feet got pruney. Not a horrible feeling, just weird, but it subsided within an hour or so. Now this is the time when I came down with pneumonia and was in bed for 3 days (which I don't remember, thanks fever). Day 4, my feet started turning white in some spots. I was getting excited. After a shower on day 4, they started peeling and every day they peeled more and more. During this time I recommend wearing socks. They catch all the little pieces of skin. By day 12 my feet were done peeling but my heel was not much better. It wasn't as dry as it was previously, but other than that, no change in the heel area so I took a razor blade to it. I didn't have to take off much, but did have to take off some skin.

Starting at the top left and going clockwise that pictures are in this order. Before soak. After soak, 5 days in, 12 days after initial soak. I wish I would have take more pictures but as my pneumonia was getting better, I came down with an awful respiratory thing. Ive been sick for a whole month, so taking pictures of my feet was one of the last things on my mind.
All in all, I am VERY pleased with the results of this product. The science behind it is pretty amazing. The plant acids seep into your skin and separate the living skin from the dead skin and it just peels away. I plan on doing this every 4 months and keep my feet looking good. I am hoping that my heels will be 100% better after my next treatment. If you are thinking about this. Do it.
Here is where I ordered
 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00461F4P/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
However there are cheaper options on amazon. I hear that the Japanese and American versions are the same things, just different packaging. 
If you have tried this, or are going to, let me know how it worked for you!!!

The best ever parfait

Honesty time- this is not my recipe. This recipe came from Ree Drummond (The Pioneer Woman). It is a recipe for her Best Ever Yogurt Parfait. Let me tell you first hand, I would lick this stuff off of an old boot. It is divine. Ive made it twice in the last week and my kids told me that I was the best mom ever!!!! So if you want to be the best mom, or dad, EVER... make this!!! This recipe makes 4 good sized parfaits.

16oz plain (i used vanilla) greek yogurt
1/2 C heavy cream
1tsp vanilla
1/2 C brown sugar
assorted berries

Wisk together the yogurt, cream and vanilla. sprinkle the top of the mixture with brown sugar. It is perfectly fine to have clumps of sugar. Do not mix the sugar in!!! Cover it with plastic wrap or foil and let it rest in the fridge for half an hour. After you take it out of the fridge it will look like this.

Now, it tastes just fine out of the bowl this way. So if you forgot berries, just eat it like this. If you do have the berries, spoon a bit of this in the bottom of a cup. Don't mix it all together because you want the swirls of the brown sugary syrup.

RIGHT!?! It looks so good.


Then a layer of fruit of your choice. I used blueberries and raspberries. After each layer of fruit, add a layer of yogurt. Its a parfait. Really not that difficult. The finished product should look something like this.

Look at that syrupy marbling, fruity, creamy, sweet goodness!!!! Its like a mouth orgasm. Try it tonight and after your fingers have stopped trembling, pop me a comment and let me know what you thought. Enjoy and as always, thanks for reading!

Superwoman in yoga pants!

The last 2 days have been pretty... whats the word.... crazy.
Sometimes, okay most times, when I go to sleep my brain won't stop thinking. I think about the most absurd things and almost always bother my husband while he is trying to sleep, by asking him these absurd questions. Hey, i'm not getting any sleep, why should he? (only joking. I let the poor guy sleep so at least one of us is a functioning adult the next day). So the other night my brain wouldn't stop and as I am finally drifting off to sleep my brain shakes me awake to ask "have you checked if your drivers license is expired". Why no brain, I havn't. My birthday was nearly 2 months ago. I might want to check that.... in the morning. So as typical, 3 days pass before I remember to look and I finally do and go figure, my license expired on my bday. Awwwww CRAP. My husband works 7am to 5:30pm, and conviently the DMV is open 9am to 5pm. You know what that means right? I need to load up my brood of kids and take them with me to the DMV. Here in the heart of oil country, EVERYTHING is always super busy. I was absolutely dreading the trip but I knew it had to happen. Yesterday I wake up and look out the window. Its flipping raining. Perfect day to do this. So I get the kids ready, get them loaded up in the car to try to get there before the lunch rush and put the car in reverse. My daughter squeaks out from the back seat "mom, I have to go potty". The fact that she is speaking quieter than a church mouse isn't what bothers me, alright it does, but it isn't what bothers me most. I just told her to use the potty and she had a tantrum because "SHE DIDNT HAVE TO GO!!!!!". Lesson learned- MAKE the kids go potty before leaving the house. By the time we got to the DMV it was lunch rush, my kids were hungry and I was realllllly dreading this. We ran to the building in the rain (so much for doing my hair and makeup. Damnit, I was determined to have a decent photo this time). A gentleman held the door for us and my outlook started looking a little brighter. We walked in and grabbed a number. As I look around for seats I realize there are 3 available, but not together. A couple of guys must have seen the look of hope slide off my face because they instantly got up and demanded we take their chairs. As hope flooded back into my face a woman across the room said "maam" (I hate being called that btw. It makes me feel old). "Maam, you need to fill out one of those forms first". She was helping me and I was beyond grateful. It would have been a crying disaster if I had waited for my number to be called only to find out I had to take a new number and fill out a form first. Thank goodness for her. I filled out the form, handed snacks out to my 2 oldest kids and took out some disney maps I got in the mail. They were more than happy to just look and point out the cool things on their maps. They were actually behaving! Sooner than I anticipated, our number was called and we were in and out of there in 30 minutes. It wasn't as bad as I thought and I silently scolded myself for looking on the negative side.

Que today's adventure and the reason for the title.

Yesterday I got a slip in the mailbox which means I have a package that I need to pick up at the post office. Why is it that I order something, shipped ups. UPS ends up transferring to the post office and the post office just leaves a slip? Are they not allowed to leave it on my deck? Can I request them do this because post office trips with 3 kids under 5 is insane. I digress. I had to go pick up a package today, it was my daughters birthday gift. So the kids eat breakfast and I get them ready to go. I don't even bother putting real people clothes on. Instead I am wearing a pair of yoga pants, running shoes and my husbands sweatshirt to cover my butt. I use my hands to put my knotted hair into a sort of messed up ponytail. Again I am trying to avoid lunch rush because, as I said, everything here is always busy, and again I arrive at lunch time. Hey, at least this time I remember to make my kids use the bathroom before we leave. We get to the post office and squeeze into the last space in their cramped parking lot. I am constantly fearful that my kids are going to go running off into the road and get hit so I constantly remind them to keep a hand on the car at all times until they reach the sidewalk. I walk them around the car so I can get the baby. I put on my handy dandy ring sling and scoop him up. I put him in the sling while standing on the sidewalk and I promise the kids that if they are good they can get a chocolate malt with lunch, which will be fast food because its getting late. I also have to send off a package. We wait in line, while my kids play under this table in the middle of the room that holds all of the shipping labels. I tell them repeatedly to get away from that table and stand like good kids. 15 minutes later they listen. 1 minute later and its our turn. I get everything done. Package picked up, package shipped off and a silly card for my husband purchased. I didn't need the card but it was too cute to pass up. On the front it says "Sometimes I don't know why I put up with you" and on the inside it says "oh yeah, because you put up with me". I told you, it was cute. I balance a baby on my hip and a box, fancy waiter style on my 90 degree arm, while telling my kids to follow mommy like duckies. I get my kids safetly in the car and buckled in, and I triumphantly text my husband  "I DID IT!!! I'm basically superwoman" We get to the resturaunt, order some food and take it home. As we are passing the mailbox I see that the mailman has been by so I check the mailbox and there it is. Another pinkish orange pick up slip....
facepalm
I give up. I let my kids eat their food in the car, eat my food in our driveway and start heading back to the post office. Luckily there is a spot available so I take it. Safely get my kids out of the car "keep your hand on the car at all times", forget the darn sling at this point. I just don't care anymore. Carry my baby in "follow mommy like duckies kids" and step into line. Again my daughter starts playing under the table and again I tell her not to. My arm is starting to tire at this point and I am starting to care now. I should have brought the sling. Finally it is our turn and I resist the urge to cry as the man behind the counter says "hey, weren't you just here?" and as he goes back to get our package I hear a loud THUD and a couple of people say "ouch I bet that hurt". I turn around and oh lord, its my daughter. Despite all the times I told her to stay out of that table, she decided to go under it and jump. She smacked her head. Of course she starts screaming as if someone were murdering her. I get her calmed down and our package is handed to us. I look out the window... raining. Spectacular.... "ok kids, follow mommy like duckies" "keep your hand on the car at all times" and I get my wet kids safely buckled into the car. They of course use this time to remind mommy that she forget to get them a chocolate malt from the resturaunt. I take a deep breath and blow it out. I turn around and calmly tell them that they were sold out of malts. We go home.

Holy Hiatus!

I came here to realize that my last post was just after I found out we were expecting baby number 3! He will be a year old in a couple of weeks. He was born 2 days after my Sons 4th birthday. We named him Connor Mason Roy. He is a spitting image of his daddy and older brother. Life with 3 kids is... INSANE! Im either breaking up a fight, distributing snacks, digging things out of mouths, disciplining or chasing kids around all day. Its a wonder I find time to clean, and blog. Ok, I don't clean as much as I should. Laundry and dishes pile up pretty quickly now.
In my last post I was SO worried about finding a bigger place. A couple of weeks after that post we signed up for housing through my husbands job. We also realized a lump in my daughters throat wasn't going away. It looked like she had an adams apple. We took her to the ENT specialist and he told us that it is he thyroid. He explained that when she was forming in my belly, he ttongue grew out of there and there was some tissue left in there. A cyst if you will. There was a chance that it could eventually grow into cancer. In feb 2012 she ended up having surgery to remove the cyst. I think I had a harder time with the surgery than she did. She really was a trooper and hasn't had an issue since. Then we got the news that we got accepted into housing back in Williston (2 hours away). This was great news because we were going from a 2 bedroom 1 bath trailer, to a 3 bedroom 4 bath townhouse and my husband wouldn't have to drive the crazy 4 hour commute. March 1st we moved back to Williston. What a relief it was! We then had to figure out what in the world we were going to do with the trailer. We were paying about $1k a month for the trailer/lot rent, and over $1k for the new place every month. Money got really tight and during weekly visits to the mobile home (again, 2 hours away) we found out that people have stolen everything from our yard. Once we pulled up and there was a woman with a screwdriver trying to pry the back window open. We showed it to a few people and had extra keys hanging on the kitchen wall, and someone that was looking at the home, stole the keys. So we had to change the locks.
In June we rented the trailer out to my fathers co-worker who had 7 kids (jeeesh!) and we told him that we would pay first months rent and bills. Despite what my family thinks (i'll discuss that later) we are good people who help others out. We wanted him to get settled in and stock up on groceries. I guess my dads company was paying for them to stay in a hotel but couldn't afford it any longer. We had him sign a contract for 9 months, and if he were to miss 3 payments in a row, he would be evicted and still charged for the entire 9 months of rent. Big surprise, he never paid us. We never got a single penny from the guy and he was evicted a couple of weeks before our son was born. The stress we were under affected my pregnancy and I had to be induced for his safety and it ended up as an emergency c-section. We evicted him and never got a penny. The condition of our trailer was depressing. He had kicked holes in the walls. His kids wrote all over the walls. There was animal hair and kitty litter everywhere. He had numerous animals there and the front of the oven was ripped off of the unit. What a mess. We ended up not taking him to court. At this point we couldn't afford it. So he got off scott free and that makes me so mad. Im sure karma will bite him in the ass at some point.
Against better judgement we rented through the winter to another of my fathers co-workers. He paid every month on time, but was even dirtier than the first guy. He moved out in June 2014. The state of our trailer was awful. The first guys destruction paired with this guys lack of cleaning made this home uninhabitable. He didn't even move out his stuff. There were spiders, webs and mouse droppings EVERYWHERE!!! We told him that he needed to clean the whole thing out and he did. I am happy to say that as of this past Saturday, the mobile home is no longer ours! WOOOOOOHOOOOO!!!!
In July 2013 my neighbor threw me a baby shower. She invited my family and none showed. I took a large break from talking to them. I deleted all family from my facebook and vented my frustrations to my friends there. I forgot to delete someone and they told my brother about it. I didn't exaggerate anything. I spoke the truth. I am nothing if not honest. My family came down on my hard about it and went even as far as writing my friends individually and explaining that I am a liar and they are good people etc (which my friends didn't tell me about until later). To make a long story shorter-ish, my brother called my kids "fucked up" and "bastards". He wished that my abusive ex boyfriend would have killed me or I would have killed myself as a depressed teen. My parents support him no matter what he says to me and demand that my husband apologize for speaking to him unkindly. We no longer speak to a single member of my family, immediate or extended. My kids will grow to never know their Aunts, Uncles, Grandparents or cousins. When I made this decision, it hurt, bad. I cried for days on end, as if my family members were all killed. Ive told them that I don't want them in my life, or the lives of my children. My father still showed up on my doorstep trying to disprove my reasoning, without success. I told him that when my kids are old enough, I will tell them the truth and then they can decide if they want any contact with them. Growing older and having kids of my own REALLY made me realize that the way I was raised (pushed aside and abused) was not normal and I can't figure out how anyone can treat their kids the way my parents treated me.
My husband has been promoted a couple times since moving here and he is higher up in the company and getting to where he wants to be. At this point, I would be perfectly happy moving anywhere in the world with my own little family.
The crafting has taken a back seat since I had my youngest but now that he is getting older, I am finding more time to do it. I primarily sew and crochet now. I made these baby booties the other day

 

 How cute are they, seriously! I have a few friends expecting babies in the next few months, so ive made a few pairs of these. The grey ones pictured, some purple cream ones, and now a batman themed pair. They are pretty fun to make.

The last smash cake I made was for my neighbors son. His party was Mickey themed....

And here is a blurry pic of my step daughters cake this year.



She loved it.
Now in the next month and a half, I have a son turning 5, 2 days later my youngest turns 1 and then my daughter turns 4.  My boys are having a pirate themed party and my daughter wants a Frozen theme. go figure. So I have a few cakes to figure out and pretty quick.

Heres hoping that your lives are far less complicated than mine.
I will definitely get on here more often now.