Ethan's Reading!

Not much time but I just wanted to mark the day. Ethan read his first story last night. Doug and I were in shock that he picked it up so fast. It's amazing how fast they learn. Ethan was so excited that he wanted to practice in his bed last night instead of going to sleep. He was so proud of himself. It made me feel sooooooo good to see that spark in his eyes.

Blake's latest news

Yesterday I finally got a call from the endocronologist and got semi good news. All tests came back normal. Very good. No answers though. Not so good. The tests did show that his metabolism is high. Really? Who woulda thunk. The high point for the normal range of the thyroid test is 1.5 and Blake's result was 1.49. Still not high enough to burn through 1200 calories. On one of his growth hormone tests he was a hundreth of a point off of abnormally low. So the doc thinks that although he is still in the normal ranges that the combination of the two and how close they were to abnormal may be the cause of the problem but they can't say for sure. He will be reevaluated in 9 to 12 months to see if he has started to grow at a normal rate yet. If he hasn't caught up or is not on a normal curve yet then they will give him growth hormone shots. I don't think the shots would start at three but they never said. So for now we still give him a high calorie diet as well as we can and hope for the best. I'm really hoping he catches up soon so that we don't have to do the shots but if we do, it could be a lot worse right?

Doug's Christmas Party

This past weekend was Doug's company Holiday party and surprisingly we had a good time. Mostly because we got away as much as possible. Every year they have the party at the Pfister in Milwaukee. It's a really swanky hotel but their pillows suck. It was the first time we had been away from Blake that long and as much as I love my boys it was nice to get away for a little mommy and daddy time. It was nice not to be interrupted every other word and to have some adult conversation but we did miss them. Every year there are celebrity sightings at this hotel since it's the nicest hotel in Milwaukee. I could really care less but this year the guys of the company got a special treat. The Cleveland Cavaliers were playing the Bucks on Sunday so Shaq and Lebron James were at our hotel and seen often. Personally I'd rather see them at a game than walking thru a hallway but the guys loved seeing these basketball legends. The Baltimore Ravens also stayed at the hotel which got Doug excited since their quarterback was from his dad's university. We also met a woman from the music biz that I will not name but will say she was one of the nicest, real people I have ever met. We talked to her for a long time and exchanged numbers so I hope that we get to talk again in the future. All in all a good date night for Doug and I. Too bad we only get that once a year. Can't we do a holiday party every couple of months? Just so we can recharge our batteries.

Anemone and Ranunculus Wedding Cake

Whew! It's been a busy past couple of weeks. Here are some pics of my first ever wedding cake. Most of you have seen these already but I wanted to post it for myself for when I make a book of all my blogs. This cake was an almond pound cake with raspberry cheescake italian meringue buttercream and homemade raspberry preserves and a coconut pound cake with lemon italian meringue buttercream. Yumm. I also made one more cake just to serve that was coconut pound with coconut flakes and coconut meringue buttercream. The flowers are all made out of gumpaste and the ones that are painted are painted with an edible paint. I had to teach myself how to make these flowers so it took me weeks to make 37 flowers. I could not have made this cake though without the help of Tina, Amy, Beth, and Nikki. Beth painted some ranunculus for me while I took Blake down to his endocronologist appt. She did an amazing job and the cake wouldn't have been as beautiful without them. I had a little disaster but I was saved by my wonderful team. On Thursday after a long day at the hospital with Blake, I came home and Tina and I put together two of the larger cakes. The two tiers were three pound cakes each and everything was made from scratch so it was satisfying to see two of them done. Well that night, before we put them together, I made the icing to cover them. I was distracted by a crying Blake and forgot to add the extra ingredient that makes it shelf stable. It wasn't part of the original recipe. It's something that you have to add at the end. Anyway we stayed up late putting the cakes together and icing them only to realize in the morning that I couldn't use them and had to start over. So Friday night my team and I made 6 new cakes and two more batches of icing, carved, leveled, and iced the two make up cakes, covered all cakes in fondant, finished my gumpaste flowers, and piped on the design. It was a lot of work and there is no way I could have done it without my team. I had Tina who's pregnant, Amy that had to leave for work by 4:30 the next morning and Nikki with fybromyalgia. I felt awful that they all stayed up so late working so hard but they refused to give up, so thank you so very, very, very much. Saturday Tina and I did the finishing touches and delivered the cake successfully only to have another little hiccup once we got there. We went to put the support dowels in only to realize that they were too long. I surprised myself and stayed semi calm and we figured out how to fix it without a saw. Aunt Aleatha helped me place the flowers and it was awesome to see it finished. It was better than I had even envisioned. Thank you so much to all those that helped. Even those of you that watched the boys. I couldn't have done it without all of you.

Blake's first tooth!

Yeah! Today is the day that Blake's first tooth has broken thru. Have you ever heard of a kid teething so late? The doctor yesterday was so happy that a tooth was coming thru that her eyes teared up. She's so funny. She was just as happy about it as I am. We are going to have a little family celebration for the momentus occasion. I know it's weird but if you waited 18 mos. for a tooth to come then you would be celebrating too.

Blake's Update

So last Tuesday we had our last Gastroentestinal and Nutritionist visit. Blake is now 17 lbs. 15 oz. and 29 1/2 inches long. Since Sep 1 he has gained 8 oz. and grew 3/4 of an inch. He dropped again on the chart. Just when I thought he might start catching up he started to dive again. Needlessly to say I didn't take the news very well. I know things could be so much worse, which I am so thankful for, but I work really hard to make sure Blake gets as many calories as I can everyday. To see no improvement was disheartening to say the least. The doctor and nutritionist literally told me that they give up and that they have no idea what is wrong with him. They only know that something is wrong. What child eats 1200 to 1400 calories a day and doesn't gain weight. Ugh, frustrating. So now we are going to see an endocronologist on Nov. 19. We are hoping that they can figure this out. An endocronologist is a doctor that studies glands and hormones. They study things like Turner syndrome, growth hormone deficiencies, dwarfism, thyroid and pituitary problems just to name a few. I am not looking forward to this visit but at the same time I am. I am hoping that they can finally find a diagnosis but I am not looking forward to doing more tests. From doing some research, one of the first tests they do is a cat scan of the brain to make sure there is no tumor. So scary. I never should have looked that up. I don't really think he has a tumor but just the thought of the possibility keeps me up at night. As sad as I feel about Blake, I feel just as blessed that he is as healthy as he is. Things could be so much worse and I try to remind myself of that every time I get sad about it. He is so happy and for now he has no idea that he's a shrimp. I will keep everyone updated with his stats but in the mean time I am asking that you keep him in your prayers. I am praying for support and guidance. I pray that the doctor's figure this out quickly so we can get a plan in action. The worst part is the not knowing. Oh well at least the kids keep me busy enough that I can't drown in worry. Oh and then there's that little business I'm trying to get up and running that keeping me crazy busy too. So excited about that and the kids like eating my test cakes. I think all of us have gained weight for Blake by eating all these cakes. Can I just donate mine to Blake?

The Sugar Mamas Cakery

If you haven't heard, we have come up with a new name for our cake business. It used to be A Slice of Heaven Cakery. It is now The Sugar Mamas Cakery. It's kind of a funny story about how we got that. I was talking to Doug about our repair bill for our car and he was stressed out about paying for it. So I told him not to worry because my cake business was going to make tons of money and that I would be his sugar mama. Aha moment! We both started laughing and said, "That's it! That's the name!" I laughed my butt off and still can't help laughing every time I say it. What do you all think of it?

Here are my latest creations. The margarita cake was for a client and the chocolate one was for my father in law.

This cake is a cream cheese key lime cake.

This cake I was lucky enough to eat. It was a yummy, yummy chocolate cake with a vanilla swiss meringue buttercream and strawberry filling, covered in delicious chocolate ganache. Oh ridiculous. I call it my chocolate lovers cake. It was so delicous that even though my stomach ached from being so full, I had to have another piece. Everyone moaned and groaned when we ate this. Oh how I miss you chocolate cake.

Halloween Party at the Cottrell's

My good friend Lacey was nice enough to throw a Halloween party this year and I was lucky enough to help her. It was really fun getting things decorated. I've never been a huge fan of Halloween but this was really cute. Thanks to Lacey for throwing the party and letting me be a part of it. Doug even got to help. I called him the web master. Pun intended. He did a great job spreading the spider webs everywhere. I also made pumpkin lanterns out of jars that turned out really cute. Thanks for the idea Brittany. I don't have a pic of those though. I'll have to get one from Lacey. I think Ethan had a good time until his sword got broken but that's what will happen when you get that many kids together. Oh well. Super glue to the rescue.

I made these cupcakes but I ran out of time, so they don't look like they were supposed to. Oh well. I wasn't feeling very well so I started them too late. I raced to get these done. The vampire bites had strawberry preserve in the middle of the cupcakes like they were bleeding. Oh were they yummy.

Justin and Lacey Cottrell.

The gang.

Trick or Treat!

Trick or Treat!!! For Halloween this year, like last year, we were lucky enough to go trick or treating with Ethan's friends. Ethan was a dragon slaying knight and poor Blake was the dragon. They were both adorable and obviously Ethan is very into being a knight. He's actually been wearing this costume for a while. It was cold but the kids never complained. Blake actually fell asleep on my shoulder while we were out. Afterwards we had a Halloween party at their house. I'll post pics of that later. Until then enjoy Sir Knight Ethan, Blake the Dragon, Hayden the Hulk, Clayton the Optimus Prime Transformer, and Justin the Parrot.

Jusin and Lacey Cottrell. Lacey was his accessory. Pretty nice accessory. I loved their costumes. She's so talented. She made all of their costumes.

Clayton

Hayden

Blake is 18 mos old today!

Blake is 18 mos old today! I can't believe my baby is a year and a half today. It's late but I can't sleep and I think I'm getting a cold again. So I decided to come out and write something about my munchkin. I have no stats on him until the first week of November but I can say that developmentally he is just fine. Regardless of how small he is he climbs on everything. I don't know how he does it but he does. He is sooooo fast and is into everything. He loves his big brother soooo much. It is monkey see monkey do around here. If Ethan does it than Blake must do it too. It's so cute to see their interaction. Blake loves to laugh, have fun and be soooo silly. Pretty much everything Ethan does is funny in Blake's book. Hopefully it stays like that. Blake is also such a lover too. I never imagined how strong the mother child bond could be until I had my own. He loves me to pieces and even though he is a handful and still doesn't sleep well, that love overwhelms me and makes me forget any negative I think he might have. He also loves to dance. One of these days I will video tape it and post it. Any time music is on you will surely see him dancing. It is the cutest thing. He loves music and he has started singing in the last few weeks. I love listening to his songs and wonder what he is singing about. This morning he was singing to Wonder Woman. Hysterical. I love him sooooo much. I am so lucky to have my boys. They are such good kids. Well after Blake's appointment with his GI doctor and his pediatrician I will let you all know what his stats are. Please keep him in your prayers. We are still trying to figure out why he isn't growing or why he still has no teeth. We aren't so worried about the teeth though because there have been cases where babies didn't cut their first tooth til they were 22 mos old. It's rare but it has happened. Still, we have no good conclusion as to why he is not growing but we have a great pediatrician so I have confidence that we'll figure it out. Maybe God just knows that I'm not ready for my baby to be a big boy any time soon. Happy half birthday Blake! I love you!

Fun on a beautiful Fall day!

We had a beautiful day on Sunday so we decided to take full advantage of the nice weather and jump in the leaves. We were at my in law's visiting them and Doug's Aunt Darlene from North Carolina. The kids absolutely loved playing in the leaves. Even Blake loved it. It seems that almost nothing bothers him. As long as I'm around he pretty much likes everything. We burried the kids and had a leaf fight that included mommy and Auntie Sarah. It was soooo much fun but poor Auntie Sarah got slugs in her hair. Serioulsy gross!

For anyone who doesn't know but the two in the yucky Packers jerseys are my adorable niece Abbie and the handsome nephew Ryan.

A Fright Fest Weekend!!

So for the first time in forever Doug and I went out on a date. Crazy right? Where did we go? To Fright Fest at Six Flags ofcourse. We love going there and we are total adrenaline junkies. We had such a good time and went with some of my fav people in the world. Tim and Rhi came with us on Friday night and there was no one there so we walked on every ride. I was kind of dreading our date night because all day it sprinkled and was cold but we bundled up really well and it dried up outside. So it turned out to be perfect. We had soooooo much fun and it was nice to feel like a couple again. We even went out to dinner and had a good laugh with our friends. Mike and Carson joined us and it felt like old times again except that we were tired and home before 11. Ah well that's what happens when you have kids. Well thanks to all who was involved including my mama for babysitting. We love you guys!!!

New Cakes!

Ok so these pics printed last to first and for some reason my little post is after all the pics. I'm still learning how to do this blogging stuff. Here is a birthday cake I made for a little girl. This is from the back of cake.

Here's the front obviously. One of these days I'll learn how to edit out the backround of these pics.

This cake was for our first customer. It was a german chocolate cake and she wanted a cape cod, New England kind of feel. So this is what we did.



Yes it says Mommatula!



Me finishing the cake with just minutes to spare. Don't I look lovely? Don't answer that!

So my friend Tina and I are starting a cake and dessert business which is not quite officially started but even so we have already had our first client. We were soooooo nervous but I think it turned out great. It was a huge hit with the family. Can't get any better than when they say it was like the big O for their mouth. Their words, not mine. Who thought I'd be a baker and really enjoy it. Anyway the second cake was for my friend Kelli's daughter Maggie's 6th birthday. I ran into a few snags making this one and it was my first topsy turvy cake that I learned a lot from. I still think it turned out pretty cute. Still can't believe that people actually like my cake. Even more my family is really enjoying all of my practice recipes.

And then there was cake! A lot of cake!

Here's the cake that took me days to make but it was soooo worth it. The top tier was a cocunut cake that I think I overbaked a little but was still yummy. The bottom tier was chocolate with chocolate chip. It was huge! Thank you soooo much to my friend Tina!!!! She came over and helped me make the superhero logos because I had been up late everynight for three nights. Thank God for her! Seriously. We made the Batman logo, the Green Lantern logo, the Flash logo, Superman's logo and Wonder Woman's logo that you can see on the pic where Ethan is blowing out his candles. Spiderman was made out of chocolate. I piped it in stages in a spiderman cake pan. I thought it turned out pretty good. There are a few things I would have done differently but oh well. Now I know for next time.

OK I'm sooo new at this. Here's more pics.

This was a training course that Batman taught the kids. I loved how Ethan's cape was flying.

He is just too ridiculously cute. He really liked wearing his costume too.

Batman and Wonder Woman. AKA Ethan and Abbie. I loved her costume!!

They just realized that Batman was behind them. It was really funny. He came behind them and when I said to say cheese for a picture he said "cheese" in his deepest voice with all of the kids. Once they heard him, they turned around and were amazed that the real Batman was there. It was soooooo funny!

This was them just before they heard Batman say "cheese". Awesome!

Superhero Birthday Party!

For Ethan's 4th birthday we decided to do a superhero party and I'm soooooo glad we did! He had soooo much fun. All the kids came dressed up as superheroes and daddy came as Batman. Ethan had no idea that it was daddy. I think he was just really excited that Batman was there. Best party ever!



























Ethan blowing out his candles with Uncle Timmy, one of our best friends.

















Ethan with his favorite cousin and one of his best friends.
















If you look closely at the decorations you can see that most of the pictures of superheroes were colored by Ethan. I printed 4 pictures of superheroes and then a bunch of coloring pages for Ethan to do. We put up about 15 pictures that he had colored himself. I think it added a really cute touch and he was proud to put up his creations.



Blake coming out of the training course tunnel. They all really got into it. It was a lot of fun.















Group picture of all the superheroes. It was awesome to see them all dressed up. I think that was my favorite part. Ethan loved his costume and, like always, really got into character. I love this boy!!!