Big news people. I just found out that I am pregnant with baby #3. This will be our last baby and I am very scared and excited. We weren't trying for a baby, but I guess fate had another idea. Big Shock to say the least. Right now I am 5 weeks along and scared out of my mind. Our youngest is 2 and I thought she was going to be our last, so we got rid of ALL of our baby stuff. We have absolutely nothing. We also are living in a 2 bedroom house and we need to find a bigger place ASAP. I hope and pray that we can find something before baby comes. I have decided that we aren't going to find out the sex of this baby, or tell anyone any final names until the baby is born. So far I have been feeling great. A few queasy moments, but all in all great. I didn't have morning sickness with my other two children, so i'm not expecting it with this one. I'm sure I just jinxed myself. ha ha. Half of me is excited to be pregnant again (omg, i'm pregnant!), and half of me is scared to death. My sister and my brother both had babies that turned one last month and I completely forgot what it was like to even hold a baby until theirs were born. I felt like Mrs. Butterfingers holding a football. How was it so easy with my own?!?

I thought I was done making first birthday smash cakes for my own kids, but I guess there will be 1 more. I can't believe i'm going to be a mommy again. It is very surreal. I took the test last night and it came back positive, I then proceeded to cry for the next hour. My husband didn't want another child, but it takes 2 to make a baby right? He should have worn protection like I told him to. While crying I blubbered out "but we are almost done with diapers", and "please don't tell this child that I was hysterical" and "we only have 9 months to get Logan to behave". What a rollercoaster of emotions I went through last night. I lay in bed all night and tried to think of all of the things I have to do and get before baby comes. Trying to remember all of the things I learned with my other children. It is so easy to forget. Its only been 2 years, I should remember all of this, but I didn't. I have insane heartburn and was trying to remember if I could take tums. Turns out you can. Made lunch for my mom, including fish and a pasta dish. "can I eat fish"... turns out you can.

Oh my mom. So she is 51, and doesn't realize that she is getting older. She currently has a gall stone blocking, either her kidneys or liver. She has to have surgery in a couple of days to have her gall bladder removed. Yesterday she needed something down from the rafters in the shed, so she needed to climb on something to get it. Her "ladder" of choice was the garden mower. She stood on the cold metal hood, while wearing her snow covered slippers, and slipped off of the mower landing on my brothers motorcycle and taking it down with her. Later that day my little brother (17) had forgot that she fell and as she went to sit down in the lay-z-boy, he rocked it backwards to scare her. It scared her and she jerked, and broke her rib. She went to the ER today and got pain meds for her broken rib. Right now she is snoring in the chair next to me. What a lady.

That is what is going on in my house hold right now. Hope all of you are doing well.

Happy New Year!

We survived the apocalypse, we hope you did too. I haven't been doing much the last couple of weeks. We had Christmas Eve at my parents house, and celebrated Christmas morning at our house. Growing up, we always opened presents on Xmas Eve. Santa would come at some random point in the days before Xmas, and sneak the presents under the tree. Now that I have kids, I want to do it right. I always pictured my kids running into the living room and tearing into the presents under the tree. They had so much fun on Christmas morning. They ran into the living room, just like I had imagined, and my son (3) says "where is santa?" Then they ripped into their presents and played until noon, when we went to my moms for Christmas Lunch. It was a great day, surrounded by family, stuffed with food.
Oh... We took the kids to the "Holiday Train" this year. It is a train that goes through Canada, and certain parts of the U.S. We are lucky enough to live in a town where this train stops. Everyone lines up along the railroad crossing arms and the train, decked front to back with lights, stops. Santa gets out and hands train whistles to the kids. A train car opens up and a band plays all sorts of Christmas music, and they give a check to the Mayor. It is a lot of fun, and puts everyone in the Xmas spirit. Unfortunately this year it was 5 degrees F outside, so we only stayed for a couple of songs before our feet were frozen. The kids loved it and cried when we had to go.
I hope you all have had a GREAT 2012 and are looking forward to my posts in 2013 :)
As always, thanks for reading!!! Happy New Year ALL!!!!!

Figuring out how to make my son more independent

My son is now 3 years old, and he is quite the character. We have been trying to potty training since he turned 2, but he gets his stubbornness from me. For the last month or so, the only accidents he has is when he is sleeping, or when he needs to poop. He will not poop in his potty. Usually in the mornings he has already pooped before he starts making enough noise to the house up. Ive caught him before actually pooping and put him on the toilet, and he won't go. He will cry and whine, until he has to start getting ready for daycare. I bribe, I cheer, I read, sing songs, beg and plead, but he will not do it. Then he goes to daycare and I remind him to poop on "Kathys potty". He holds it all day, until he can come home, and poop in his pull up. Peeing isn't a problem, although sometimes he gets too busy playing and ends up forgetting. When he does go to the potty, he always asks for help to take off his pants and pullu up and to help him get on the potty. I know he does these things on his own at daycare, but not at home. I also know he can put his shoes on and off on his own, but when he is around me, he wants me to do it. I try to tell him to do it, but he has a fit and as were running out of time to get somewhere, I just end up doing it. I miss the fact that he isn't a baby, and I want him to know that he can come to me for anything, but when he won't do the things that I know he can do, it is very frustrating. I have put him in just underwear, and he doesn't care. He poops in them. For right now I am just taking it a day at a time, and trying not to lose my sanity.

Happy Holidays everyone! I love this time of year. Its the time for soups and snowmen, presents and pies... My family and a few friends are doing a cookie exchange. I made Dark Chocolate Cashew Brittle cookies. First off I had to make cashew brittle. I have never made any type of brittle before so I followed trusty Betty Crocker and made her recipe. The first batch burnt, so I had to make it again. It turned out buttery and yummy.. Here is the brittle before being added to the cookies, and after. Everyone gets a plate of 6 cookies and a bonus of cashew brittle for them to snack on.

Please excuse the blurry picture, it is from my phone. The cookies are chewy and chocolatey and delicious. If you want the recipe, let me know...

Charlie Brown Birthday Party

My Niece Isabel turned 1 on the 3rd and my Nephew Easton turned 1 on the 7th. If you are doing the math, they were born 4 days apart. That was a crazy week at the hospital. Isabel had a minnie mouse themed party and her daddy made her smash cake. Smash cakes are my favorite to make. It gives me the opportunity to be silly and creative in a smaller size. Easton had a Charlie Brown themed party (he looks like Charlie Brown), and my sister let me make his smash cake. Here it is...

My sister and I also made him cupcakes. My sister baked them, and I helped to decorate. Here they are...

I bought the figurines from Ebay. Made a boxed (gasp) cake mix. Stacked 2 round cakes and cut them into the house shape. Covered in canned (double gasp) icing.
Hey, no judging. We were out until 10:30pm, the night before the party, cheering on my brothers basketball team. I was up until 2am making and fretting over this cake, even though I cheated on it. My nephew loved it, as you can see...

French Toast Cupcakes with Maple Buttercream and CANDIED BACON!!!

Ive gone vegetarian before, for months on end, and the thing that always brings me back to meat is bacon. Darn you, you delicious slice of pork heaven! I took my daughter to the local cookie shop here and they had these cupcakes. It was a french toast cupcake with maple icing and candied bacon on top. I about fell out of my chair when I tried it! My first thought was that they were going to be gross, but believe me when I say that this is as close to heaven as you will get here on earth. I haven't had tried to re-create them until tonight. I WON!!!

These mini bites of heaven are like an orgasm in your mouth.
First thing you need to do is to candy the bacon. It sounds difficult but it is super easy. Don't Panic.
Things you will need:
Bacon (duh) I don't use the maple bacon, but its up to you
brown sugar
cookie sheet lined with parchment paper

Preheat oven to 350
place your uncooked bacon strips on the cookie sheet. Be sure it isn't touching.
Spoon some brown sugar on top of each slice and spread it thin with the back of a spoon.
Put your bacon in the oven for 10-12 minutes
take it out and flip each slice. Again make sure its not touching
put it back in for another 10-12 minutes. WATCH IT CLOSE OR IT WILL BURN!!!
take it out of the oven and move to a cooling rack with paper towels underneath. As it cools it will harden enough for you to cut it into pieces with a knife.

For the cupcakes
What you will need:
2 C flour
1Tbsp baking powder
1tsp ground cinnamon
3/4 tsp salt
1/3C applesauce
1 1/3C white sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3 eggs
2/3C milk

Preheat oven to 350. line your mini cupcake pan with cute little cupcake wrappers. Stir together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Set aside.
In a large bowl beat applesauce, sugar, and vanilla until well mixed. Add eggs one at a time, beating for at least 1 minute after each egg. Beat in the flour mixture alternately with the milk. Fill cupcake liners 3/4 of the way full.
Bake for around 12 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center, comes out clean.

Icing
What you will need:
2 sticks unsalted butter, room temp
1/4 tsp salt
4-6 tsp maple syrup
1Tbsp vanilla extract
3-4 cups powdered sugar

Beat the butter until is is mixed. Add vanilla and salt, mix lightly. Add 3 cups of powdered sugar and mix on low until it is incorporated and mixed well. If you put your mixer on high, the powdered sugar will fly everywhere! Not like I experienced this first hand or anything.... After it is mixed well, add your syrup and let the mixer go on high until it is nice and fluffy. If your mixture is too thin, add more powdered sugar, a little at a time, until it is thick enough to hold its shape.

Now for the fun part. Ice your cupcakes, I like doing it with a piping bag. Top with the crumbled candy bacon. Enjoy.

Here I am, sitting on the couch with my husband, reminiscing about how naive we were as new parents. I remember when my son was born, I made my husband write down every diaper change, the color of the poo, the amount, texture, and whether there was pee or not. I also made him write down how much he ate and how often. How crazy is that?!? I remember thinking that breastfeeding would be easy. It wasn't. My son was a tongue sucker in the womb. He was used to having his tongue on the roof of his mouth, so breastfeeding was impossible with him. He wouldn't latch on. I sat in the hospital room, crying and feeling like the worlds worst mom because women all over the world just do it, and it seems so easy and natural. Oh how wrong I was. I failed and now I understand that as a mom, you have many failures, many trials and errors, many mistakes but also many celebrations, laughs, and some cringe worthy moments. Its a ride, and you just have to hold on, and enjoy every second of it, or try to. You have to let go of some things, and embrace others.