The Pattersons Chronicles

Finally we got some family pics

2011-08-26T22:49:00.000-07:00

So after being married for 10 years and the oldest grandchild being six, it was time for a family photo. We kept on meaning to do it and never did. So when we came for a visit in July, I got everyone together for a super fast and cheap photo shoot. My dad took the pics. Thank you Dad! And we went to a local state park. So here are the fruits of my labor. I think they turned out really well. It was a really hot day so everyone was uncomfortable and wanted to get it done really fast. We had a lot of fun and I really appreciated everyone's cooperation. Thank you! Love you guys!!

Blake would not stop making that silly face. I have to admit that it's a really cute face but it got into about 85% of the pics. Lovely. All we need are a few, right?

Love this one. I just wish Ethan was in it.

Mommy does not like Kindergarten!

2011-08-26T10:03:00.001-07:00

Mommy does not like this at all. I'm sure I'll get used to it but I'm not sure I'll ever like this. One, I miss him and two, it makes me feel old. Like I'm a real mom now because I have a kid in school. Weird! Can you see the lack of makeup. Yeah I knew I would cry. I tried so hard not to. I made it all the way back home and then sobbed the second I got in the house. Ethan was excited though. A little nervous but very excited. His school is from 8 til 2 so not a terribly long day but definitely too long for me. I miss him so much. I hate that I can't be there to protect him, help him, and make him feel secure. I hate that I have to trust the teacher to do that. We've already had some issues. One kid called him a baby because Ethan rode in the bike trailer one day to school. So now everyday he wants to ride his bike or walk instead. That made me so mad! This is pure torture! I can't wait til summer comes back! I'm so proud of Ethan though. I know he'll do well and learn so much!

This is Gizmo, the class pet! Ethan loves lizards so he was really excited that he got the class with the bearded dragon.

Need blogger help

2011-07-06T11:17:00.001-07:00

Does anyone know how to center my title? I've tried what the blog told me to do and I tried what the site said from where I got my background but neither worked. What do I do? :(

Look Whoo's Turning 3!

2011-05-08T15:19:00.000-07:00

Can you believe it? My little guys is actually 3 years old. It makes me so sad to see how fast it goes by. It actually makes me think about having another one. I know, I know. I must be talkin crazy talk. I won't have anymore but it does make you want more.

Anywho, I wasn't going to do a party or make a fancy cake for his birthday since we had just moved and were still getting settled in but you know me. I can't help myself sometimes. So we invited two new families that we have met that we just love and the neighbor kid that keeps coming over and had a small get together. No games. Just cake and ice cream. I didn't even make the cake from scratch and I only used what I already had. So I definitely made it a lot easier on myself and didn't get all crazy like I usually do.

I had a hard time coming up with a cake idea because it seems like the only thing that Blake likes to talk about these days is poop. No one wants to eat a cake that looks like poop. So instead I went with the only other thing Blake is really into. Owls! I loved making this cake and better yet, Blake thought it was awesome. He calls owls hoot hoots. It's a long story.

So on his third birthday, besides the love of owls and poop, these are the three things that I want to remember about Blake.

First - You absolutely love playing with Ethan. He is definitely your best friend.

Second - You love your family soooooooooo much. All of them!

Third - You're CRAZY! You have a crazy sense of humor, love crazy rides and you are crazy messy.

I wouldn't take my Blakers any other way. Love you so much Blakers!

I made this owl out of fondant and gumpaste. Isn't he cute?

Seriously love this boy!

Egg Hunts Galore!

2011-04-24T18:37:00.001-07:00

We did not 1, not 2, not 3, but 4 Easter egg hunts. Insane! We feel pretty lucky that we have so many activities to do around here. The first hunt was at the community center down the street with tons of kids. The following three pics are from that one. Wait til you see what Ethan won. Boy was he excited!

Easter craft with the high school volunteers.

Selena and the Easter Bunny had to be like body guards to all those Easter eggs and protect them from the mob of 1 to 5 year olds. That's just a portion of the eggs. There were at least 500 all together.

Ethan and his Grand Prize! He won a bike! Amazing! The new kid on the block won the grand prize. There was one for a boy and one for a girl. Ethan was so sweet though and gave it to Blake since he already had one. The funniest thing though was that we had walked to the community center so Daddy had to carry it all the way home. It's a good thing daddy is so strong and that we don't live that far away.

So here is Easter egg hunt 2. This one was with a neighborhood moms group that we were invited to. They were really sweet and there are usually a lot more kids. The are two groups. One for 5 and up and one for the younger ones. We were obviously with the younger kids this day. The kids were really cute and the moms were so nice. Even a grandma came to help out and she was super cute.

Aren't they sweet?

For hunts 3 and 4 I don't have still pics. Hunt 3 was with the ginormous primary at church. They had a primary activity on Saturday and both Ethan and Blake got to participate. They had so much fun. They made easter bags that you can see on the last post and came home with their first silly bands which they've already forgotten about. Then of course the last hunt was at home where the Easter bunny hid 4 golden eggs. The kids were so cute. They thought that was the coolest thing. Oh and he left them golden bunnies just like from the movie Hop. Which if you haven't seen yet you should. I didn't think I'd like it but it was so cute and pretty funny.

So that was pretty much our Easter. Lots of fun getting to know lots of new people. Oh and answering lots of questions about what Easter is really about. How was your Easter? Hope everyone had a wonderful and blessed day!

Happy Easter

2011-04-24T16:14:00.001-07:00

Happy Easter Everyone! This was our first holiday on our own and I think we did a pretty good job. Believe it or not Dad, but I actually made it to church on time. I know it's a miracle.

Thanks to a beautiful young woman named Maddie, that the kids already love for taking this picture for us. She did a great job. This is right outside the church. Oh how I love this weather! I wish I had gotten a picture of my shoes for you Mom. They are really cute!

My handsome boys right before church. Just before Blake got strawberries all over him without us noticing.

We were going to have dinner at our big fancy table but there is carpet under that table. Blake eating and carpet are not good ideas together. Just ask the grandparents.

I actually made a holiday dinner all by myself. Another miracle! I know it's an easy one, but most of you know that I am the worst cook. This meal should make Nana Patterson really proud.

Here's most of our Easter eggs. Two of them are missing. The boys had so much fun dying these. They put stickers and glitter all over them too. I love this tradition. We tried to make a black egg but it just came out a really pretty green. We forgot to add the pink before it got dumped.

Easter baskets the kids made at the primary activity.

Blake and Ethan watching Tom and Jerry movie, an Easter present, and laying in their sleeping bags, also an Easter present.

The last miracle of the day though is the best. My brand new niece was born today. What a wonderful day to enter the world. She's here because of our Savior and we could not have asked for a better gift than her on this day. Congrats Ryan, Holly and Vivi!

Ethan's Sleep Study

2011-01-08T09:19:00.000-08:00

Snore... z z z z z z z z z z z z z z z

Ethan had a sleep study done in the middle of December because he had gigantic tonsils and he snored a lot. The doctor's had asked me since he was a few months old if I had noticed any sleep apnea. I always said no because I never did. He snored but that was about it. He didn't jerk awake. He didn't stop breathing for long periods of time when I watched. He wasn't tired the next day and he didn't wake up multiple times at night. He did breathe funny at times. It was like he was breathing through a straw and it sounded like Darth Vader was in the house. Anyway we decided that we would put off the sleep study until we could afford it or it was necessary. We decided to just go ahead and do it this December because the doctor had talked about doing it as a way of seeing if Ethan's tonsils needed to come out. She was concerned that he would start kindergarten and get lots of strep throat and tonsillitis and have lots of problems because of how large his tonsils were. We really didn't think he had apnea. So when we went to the sleep doctor and she described hypopnea it sounded just like Ethan. It was the Vader breathing pretty much. It's where they don't stop breathing but don't get enough oxygen either. So later that night we went back to the clinic to do the study. The people there were awesome and really helped Ethan feel at ease. I didn't get any sleep but Ethan did really well. I still didn't think he had apnea. Well how stupid was I? Not only does he have sleep apnea, he has severe sleep apnea. Severe is greater than 10 respiratory events in a night. Ethan had 124! Are you kidding me. 18 times he stopped breathing and the rest were times that he got less than 50% oxygen. I can't even tell you the amount of guilt I felt. Needless to say I scheduled an ENT appointment that day to schedule Ethan's Tonsil and Adenoidectomy.

He had his surgery on Monday and he's been miserable since. He has a cold and a double ear infection on top of the surgery pain. Oy! Hopefully though this will all be worth it in the end and he won't have to sleep with a cpap machine.

I seriously don't know how he slept with all that stuff on him. He's such a good boy.

Frankenstein

He kinda looks like Rapunzzle.
P.S. I have no idea why that one section of text is bigger than the rest. I tried to edit it a million times and couldn't get it fixed. Anyone know why it can look one way while you're doing it than look another way once it's posted?

I love this quote

2010-12-20T06:48:00.000-08:00

Quote of my life.

I am just a regular girl.

A wife who loves her husband, but doesn't always show it.

A mom who adores her babies, but runs out of patience.

A friend who cherishes her girls, but forgets to return calls.

A person so energized by being creative, but not without dry spells.

I am a homemaker who would rather rearrange furniture than dust it, repaint a bathroom than clean it, eat out than sit down and plan meals.

{Written by Emily}

All of that applies except the creative stuff. I have long dry spells with the occasional creative moment. The projects I start though never seemed to get finished. Why is that?

Inspiring

2010-11-29T13:46:00.000-08:00

For anyone who doesn't read Little Miss Momma's blog her address is littlemissmomma.blogspot.com. She has a secrets series going on right now and it is incredibly inspiring. I love how honest this mother and her followers are. Just thought I'd spread the word about her blog. I just think she's great and she's got some cool crafty stuff on there too. Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. I'll post stuff about it soon.

I've gone pillow crazy!

2010-11-16T12:39:00.000-08:00

You know I must be sleep deprived and stressed if I think I can sew up some pillows, but that's just what I'm attempting to do. First I'm trying to figure out what to do with the blue pillow.

Should I?

1: Do a silouette out of black felt of the kids on the pillow

2: Make a fabric flower

3: Or use ribbons to adorn it

What do you all think I should do? Oh and I'm slipcovering the couch in white fabric. Yup! I've lost my mind!

Oh and if you can't tell the fabric is just laying on top of the three pillows on the right.

Fire Truck Groom's cake

2010-11-04T07:55:00.000-07:00

I was asked by an old co worker of mine to make a groom's cake for their wedding. This cake was fun to make but disaster happened. You only get to see one side of the cake because the other side has a nice little dent on it. Just as I was putting the finishing touches on it, it fell over. Luckily it was covered in fondant and it wasn't that bad and I could put it up against the wall. The bride said no one could tell but let me tell you, I had a mini heart attack that morning.

Ethan's Birthday/Halloween Party

2010-11-03T07:45:00.000-07:00

So Ethan's party was a little late this year. Sue me. We were so busy that it got delayed, but I don't think Ethan minded. He thought it was awesome that his birthday party was also a Halloween party. We had all the kids come in their costumes, which was super cute ofcourse. Blake wouldn't wear his so this is the only pic of him in it.

Mom and I made Ethan's bald eagle costume out of felt and a sweat outfit. Thank goodness for Lacey. She gave us the inspiration for it all. Ethan asked me a while ago if he could be a bald eagle for Halloween.

I was like, "Ummm honey, mommy can't buy that and I don't know how to sew."

Ethan's response, "You'll do great mommy. I know you can do it."

Great. Now I have to do it.

He then said, "Just ask Miss Lacey to help you. She can do it."

True.

Miss Lacey is way more talented than I am but I don't think she's going to want to make your costume on top of the other three she's doing for her own kids.

So my mom and I went to work using Miss Lacey's parrot costume as our template. For anyone that doesn't know Lacey, she is my amazing friend and Ethan's best friend's mom.

I was surprised by how well it turned out. I cut out all of the feathers and my mom sewed it all together. Thank goodness for Nana. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

And if you're wondering why Ethan wanted to be a bald eagle, it's because of the eagle sanctuary that we saw at Dollywood in Tennessee on our vacation. He's kind of obsessed with eagles.

This is what it looks like during gift opening. A mass amount of kids all running around and trying to see what he's opening. Definitely not organized chaos. I haven't figured out how to slow down the process or make it more organized yet but who really cares right? Ethan's last present was from his brilliant Aunt Sarah and cousins. His very first pets. Dwarf frogs. They are acutally really cool and come in their own, almost maintenance free, tank. All the kids crowded around to see this one. Their names are Hopper and Good Swimmer. I know, real creative, but that's how Ethan names his stuffed animals. By what they do and look like. He absolutely LOVES them.

Ofcourse it wouldn't be a party without a cake. Blake thought this cake was spoooooky!

We had fun decorating for this party too. Super simple and stuff we already had. Can't get better than that. Thanks to everyone who came. It wouldn't be as special without all of you.

As for my Ethan, here are 5 of the reasons we love you so much

You're so silly and make us laugh every day

You're so loving and cuddly. I love your constant hugs and kisses. Blake will learn to love them too, eventually.

You love to learn and because of that you are soooo smart.

You love adventures as much as we do and are always ready for a new one.

You're always so positive and you lift us up. Thank you!

We love you so, so, so much!

Happy Belated Birthday Baby, I mean Big Boy.

P.S. For all of those non regular bloggers, you can click on the pics to enlarge them and then hit the back arrow to get back to the blog.
Love you

Tests, tests, and more tests

2010-11-01T10:22:00.001-07:00

So the latest on my sweet little Blakey is that he has finally reached 20 pounds. Haleluiah!!! I know that is so small, but it took us forever to reach that goal and I was super excited to finally get there. We went and saw a genetecist that we really liked and he filled our heads with all kinds of info. He told us about things I had never heard of before so I was really glad that we decided to go see him. He did the most thorough exam I have ever seen. He measured almost every part of Blake's body, including his pupils. He has ordered some tests to be done and we have to go see a pediatric ophthalmologist in the next two weeks. Yay!!! Heavy sarcasm! Just like the other doctors he didn't see any red flags right away which is good and bad.

Good because we are hoping that there is absolutely nothing wrong with him and that he can get growth hormone therapy and lead a normal life.

Bad because that means more tests.

He did mention a disorder that is extremely rare and said that we wouldn't test for that until we absolutely had to. But from what he said about it, it kinda sounds like Blake. I'm really hoping that it isn't that though. It's something to do with his growth hormone levels being normal but his growth hormone receptors being defective. I'm praying that's not it because it isn't very well studied yet and I don't know how that would effect his hormone therapy. So I'm going to try and not worry about it until I have to. Til next time God bless and I love ya all.

Pics I forgot from the Kennedy Space Ctr

2010-10-26T09:53:00.001-07:00

They have a moon rock there that they let you touch. Face it. That's pretty rad.

Florida trip, Journal 1

2010-10-26T09:00:00.000-07:00

Some of you might have thought we were crazy for driving to Florida with two little ones and especially overnight. Maybe we were crazy but it worked out great! The boys slept really well. Only one wake up and a little fussiness, mostly from the adults, but we drove thru the night and the rain with basically no problems. Thank you for answered prayers!!! We arrived in southern Georgia the next morning and stopped at a restaraunt where the waitress must have said "ya'll" over a hundred times. Seriously! We made it to Orlando by late morning after seeing why it's called the dirty south. We saw a truck in southern Georgia that was so covered in mud that we honestly didn't know what color it was.

We had arrived. Yay! We stayed at a Sheraton resort, I think, and it was Gorgeous!!! I have video of it but I've been waiting for Doug to turn it into stills. So maybe another day I'll show ya how amazing it was. You'll just have to trust me for now. It had four pools and some really cool kids areas. Our condo was pretty but who wants to stay inside when you're in Florida so instead of staying put and getting some much needed sleep, we decided to go out. Just then it started to rain. Just a light rain though, so we decided to go to the Kennedy Space Station. So glad we did. We had such a great time and most of it is indoors or on a bus so the rain was no big deal. Ethan was flabberghasted by the sheer size of things and the fact that they had actually been to space. If you've never been, it's definitely a must see. So amazing! The kids were so good and we got to see bald eagles and their nests which started Ethan's fascination with eagles. Did you know that the Nasa property is home to hundreds of bald eagles?

Ethan was speechless and soooooo excited to meet a real astronaut! Not really an astronaut but we didn't tell him that.

Blake's update

2010-08-20T06:42:00.000-07:00

So I know it's been forever since I posted last but I've had so much fun this summer and been so busy with Blake that I haven't had the time. I still have to post about my vacations but I'm still waiting on some pics to be finished. Oh well.

So here's the update. Blake's leg is doing really well. It healed faster than anyone expected. The doctor originally said 4 to 6 weeks with the spica cast on and it ended up only being 3 weeks. At first I was elated but then the doc told me that he still wasn't allowed to walk on it.

"How the Heck do you stop a 2 year old from walking?!"
He told me not to worry and that he wouldn't want to walk. "Trust me" he says.
OK harder to do than say.

So I trusted him and he was right. Blake didn't start walking along furniture until about 6 weeks after the accident and then by himself a week later. It was difficult to watch my two year old be in pain from the weakness and soreness that still lingered.
Now he is doing great though. Still limping a very little bit but he doesn't let anything stop him. Ofcourse I am now the hoovering mother but wouldn't you be?

In regards to his other issues well he still cannot gain weight. Do you know that he has gained less than 4lbs. in this last year? I went to have him weighed and measured yesterday so that the Mayo docs had the very latest info. He is 18lbs. 14.5oz. and 33inches long.
So since May he has lost weight from 19lbs even. Which we did expect some weight loss from his accident but I just didn't think he'd gain nothing from May to the end of June and then none or very little in the last month. He has grown a half an inch and broken in 4 new teeth so that's all good news. We still have no clue why he can't gain weight and he is still falling farther and farther down the chart. Really, he's not on the chart. I like to still think of him as being on there because you can still put the dot somewhere on the chart. It's just in that large space at the bottom with no lines.

As soon as we here from the Mayo clinic I will let you all know. Thank you so much Ryan and Holly for your friend at Mayo. He has been so nice and so helpful. We love you guys so much. Please keep Blake in your prayers. We really need to find answers.

Love you all

Worst Day and Night Ever!!!!!

2010-06-22T06:19:00.000-07:00

I wish that I was posting about my vacations like I wanted to but unfortunately I'm not. Last Sunday, Father's Day, Blake broke his femur and we spent the night at the hospital to put the cast on and control his pain. Which was a lot of pain! So how did it happen? I'm not really sure but I can guess. We were all outside playing with some soccer balls. And when I say all I mean myself, Doug, Ethan, Blake, my nephew Braeden, Papa, Kyle, and Garret. So 5 adults and three kids. How could someone get hurt with that much supervision? Oh ya Blake has my genes. So we think that Blake's foot found a divet in the grass and his leg twisted or he fell sideways while he twisted with his foot stuck. None the less his femur broke. Biggest bone in the body and the littlest two year old. I still am dumbfounded by this and just don't understand why or how! When he fell onto the soft grass he was on all fours and not crying yet so we thought he was fine. Now looking back he must have been in shock. Doug picked him up and set him back on his feet obviously not knowing. Our first reaction was that he was just fine. It's grass. Who gets hurt in the grass. Once his feet hit the ground again that's when the screaming started and the crying didn't end until 13 hours later. Literally. After he wasn't calming down and he started screaming harder every time I moved while I was holding him we decided to go to the ER. I thought maybe he pulled something or tore a ligament. No way did I think it was possible that he broke a bone, let alone the largest and strongest one at that. So once at the ER we very quickly found out that his femur was broken. The staff at NIMC was absolutely amazing and made things go so quickly. When I found out that his femur was broken I sobbed so hard. Even more than I was already crying. Let me tell you it is so hard to not move when you are crying that hard. I was holding Blake as still as I could but the poor thing still felt every breath I took. He had already had a dose of pain meds by this point but a femur fracture is very painful.

So next step was meeting the ortho surgeon who came so quickly. We were so lucky that Blake didn't need surgery. His break was huge but it was not compound and would be easily set back into place. So we waited for the OR to open up so that we could get his SPICA cast on. Basically his body cast. Unfortunately the OR was taking longer than the Doc expected so in the interest in decreasing Blake's pain he did it right there in the ER. They put us in their largest triage room and got to work. Doug and I even helped. I am so thankful to this doctor. He didn't even wait for an OR nurse knowing that it would be so much easier if he did. Instead he got to work with ER nurses that didn't know what he was doing since they never do that in the ER, just to get Blake into a more comfortable position. Blake was more than amazing. I'm even crying thinking about how brave and amazing he was. They were going to sedate him but he was doing so great that they decided not to. You might think that's cruel but that would have ment much higher risks and he could have woken up sick and vomitting reardless of the anti nausea meds. So they gave him some morphine and went to town. One of the only funny parts of this whole thing was that the doctor had to make a whole for where the diaper would go and he was sawing away cast around the pee pee area and I think Doug was extremely close to passing out at that point. Blake was funny though too. He had a huge IV in his arm and we are putting on a gigantic cast and he was crying about the pulse ox thing on his finger. It's this little thing they put on your finger to make sure you get enough oxygen. Anyway the nurse took it off and moved it to his toe and mid crying Blake says "Thank you". It was soooooo cute.

So once the gigantic cast was on, Blake was free to fall asleep if he could through all the pain. The morphine helped but since he's so little they can't give him that much. Once he fell asleep he kept on waking up from massive muscle spasms that caused him a lot of pain. We finally got up to the pediatric unit and into his bed. I pushed the two beds together so I could sleep next to Blake. Anyone that knows him knows that my hair is his security blanket so I slept as close as I could so he could have it. That night was the longest night of my life. Not only did I need to check his diaper every hour but Blake was in so much pain and it was excruciating to watch him go thru that. I don't think I ever cried that much in my life. The doctor even begged me to not cry.

By about 8:30 the next morning he finally fell asleep for about two hours and woke up in a much better mood. He saw my mom and a micky mouse balloon from his aunt and cousins and smiled. Best moment ever! To see him smile again was heaven. So after talking to specialists, social workers, and a police officer we worked out how we would get safely home and we are receiving a special car seat from Children's Hospital today. I was soooooo glad to take Blake home. The nurses were all amazing but there's nothing like home to make you feel better.

So now we are home and have our own hospital bed set up in the living room next to the couch where Blake and I will be spending the night for the next week. He's doing much better now and is not in as much pain but still is in some pain. We are medicating him around the clock and won't stop until Saturday. Thank you to everyone who has helped and called and came to visit. We love you. If I haven't called to tell you what happened yet then you're not family. I have just been so busy taking care of Blake that I contacted a few family members and let them call down the chain. So if anyone wants to come visit you are more than welcome. Looks like we won't be going anywhere for a while.

Here's a pic before the pain meds were finally easing the pain.

After pain meds had finally started easing the pain. Leave it to Blake to be a goof ball.

Blake's 2nd Bday party

2010-06-01T06:08:00.000-07:00

I had all these plans for a grand party and then quickly let those go, because I was way too busy and he's two. Really? Does he need a big party? He's never going to remember it anyway. I was actually really glad that we kept it really simple. We ordered pizza, got juice boxes for the kids, water bottles for the P's, played outside, and ate cake. No games, no elaborate menu and most importantly, no crazy mom that hasn't slept in a week getting ready for this party. I was kind of sad that the kids couldn't play the rock star video game that I wanted to set up but honestly most of them were too young to play it anyway. So here are some pics of my super relaxed bday party for Blake. I wish I had a pic of me in here so you could see the pure joy on my face that I didn't have a big party.

Blake's cupcakes and cake. The cake was confetti cake with strawberry buttercream. Yumm!!!!!

It was humid and warm so the color mist I used was sweating off the cake. Oh well. At least I tested it on my own cake and not a clients.

Blake blowing out the candles. I had to help him to save everyone from eating his spit. It was so cute though.

Blake having a great time on the trampoline. It is probably his favorite thing to do outside.

These are our friends Cassie and Myles. Myles is only 6 weeks older than Blake and ridiculously cute.

Nana and Poppop Patterson. We love them so much! I can't believe I don't have pics of my own parents. Oh well.

Some of the friends. We are so blessed to have really great friends. Even some of our friends with no kids absolutely love our kids and always come to their parties.

Thanks to everyone who was able to come. We had a great time!

Long time, no post

2010-05-19T07:14:00.000-07:00

I know I've been MIA lately but I really didn't want to post about all the crap that's been going on in our lives because when I look back at this I don't want to remember how miserable things were. I will be posting about our Florida trip soon though. As soon as I get my pictures off the video camera I'll share it all with you. We had the best time and we can't wait to do it again. So until then I hope you all are doing well. See you soon.

Blake's stats

2010-05-07T07:01:00.000-07:00

At Blake's 2 year well check we finally weighed him after not doing it for three months. He now weighs 19 lbs. 4.5 oz. and he is 32 inches long. So he has gained 2 pounds in three months. For him that's not bad. He also now has eight teeth and we'll be seeing the dentist soon to make sure that there are more. He's still not on the chart for his weight but he's in the 3rd percentile for his height. For the last three months we ditched the pedia sure type drinks and the heavy whipping cream and did things like chocolate syrup in his milk and olive oil in his mashed potatoes. We were spending an extra $150 to $200 on the pedia sure and whipping cream a month. And that was using coupons. So for budget reasons we decided to give it a break. Plus it didn't really seem to be working that well. He still wasn't gaining weight when he was on that diet. He still gets a higher calorie diet just not an astounding 1400 calories a day. So now for the next three months we are going back on the 1400 calorie diet with the drinks and see what happens. Wish Blake luck and us luck that I don't have to declare bankruptcy! Oy! At least Blake's happy, I think.

Cute Tea Party Cake

2010-05-07T06:29:00.000-07:00

Here's the latest I did this week. It's for a little girl that's having a tea party theme for her birthday. Her mom sent me a pic of this tablecloth that she's using and this is what I made.

My baby's 2!

2010-05-01T06:11:00.001-07:00

Blake was 2 on Thursday. Crazy, I know. It's very hard for me to believe. I feel like I just had him. Doug came home early so we could take him to a park but unfortunately our trip had to be rescheduled. We were on our way to the park and Ethan threw up all over the car. He's had the flu since Tuesday but he hadn't been sick on Wednesday at all, so we thought he was all better. Obviously not. So we spent the afternoon cleaning out the car and took a nice walk. So here are a few things that I want to remember about my Blake on his 2nd birthday.

His favorite foods are yogurt, french fries and shakes.
He loves to play with my hair. Which I have to admit that I love too.
He's a great cuddler in the morning.
He's talking so much! You all might need a translator but we understand.
He's an adrenaline junky. He loves to be thrown around.
He loves rides at amusement parks. He can't wait to ride the big coasters. He always says "Whoa" when he sees them. He rode a ride at Sea World that goes up then drops you down and bounces up and down again. It's kind of like the Giant Drop but for kids. He LOVED it! Older kids were screaming and he was giggling the whole time.
He loves Spiderman and Batman. He got to meet Spiderman at Universal studios last week. He talked his ear off.
He's breaking 4 teeth in all at the same time right now. Ouch! As of today he has 7 teeth. Three molars and four front teeth.
He has the most beautiful blond curly hair.
He LOVES the beach. He totally looks like a surfer baby.
He loves the water too. Pools, lakes, the ocean. Doesn't matter how cold it is, he just loves it.
His best friend is Ethan, ofcourse. Ethan makes him laugh all the time.
He's very independent as long as I'm around. He'll play by himself for as long as I let him, but if I leave he gets really upset.
He loves his nanas and papas.
His favorite cousin is Abbie. He loves to say her name. One night he was yelling it at the dinner table for at least 30 min.
He's a great traveler and adapts well to change.
Most importantly he's a lover and really likes when the whole family is together. He cries when Doug or I have to leave. :( But it's so nice to know how much he loves us.

Happy Birthday Blake! We love you so much and we know that our lives would not be complete without you.

He blew out his candles all by himself. It's a good thing it was a cupcake because, you know how 2 year olds blow out candles. It was covered in spit.

The week before his birthday he got to meet some of his favorite characters. Mickey and Minnie. He even gave Minnie a kiss. My little Cassanova.

Latest Wedding Cake

2010-04-12T18:29:00.001-07:00

Here's the latest cake I've done. It was President Nuttle's son. Some of you may know of them. Anyway the mother of the bride is one of my mom's best friends and I was honored that they asked me to make this cake. It was chocolate cake with mint buttercream and chopped andes mints. Seriously yummy! The caterer said they couldn't keep the chocolate cake coming fast enough for the guests. I also made three almond cakes with almond buttercream and raspberry filling. That too was sooooooo good. The flowers and all of the decor for the wedding was done by my Aunt Aleatha and my mom. They just started a business called True to You Designs. You can find them on facebook. I'm pretty sure Doug will be starting a website for them soon. I will post pictures of their stuff soon. They always blow me away. They even had me making some of the floral pieces. Not easy.

Sugar Mamas Cakery

2010-04-06T18:58:00.001-07:00

Hi all. My new cake blog is just about done. Come and visit it and tell me what ya think.
www.thesugarmamascakery.blogspot.com

Have a great week everyone. I have 9 days left til we leave for Florida and I'm quarantining us until we leave. So don't take it personally but we aren't going anywhere unless we have to. After being sick for three weeks I think our immune systems need a break. We're still batteling strep and a bad ear infection. On the good side I think Ethan is feeling better today. He was singing Follow the Prophet as loud as he could while he was on the pot. That kid cracks me up!

New Moon Cake

2010-04-03T19:41:00.001-07:00

This week I made a New Moon cake for my sister in law's sister in law. She loves New Moon and so Sarah wanted to suprise her with a New Moon cake. Her mom wanted to get her a little spring cake with flowers. I'm so glad that Sarah convinced her that Danielle would like the New Moon cake better. I was sick this last week so this cake came down to the wire plus I have a wedding cake to do for Saturday and I'm still working on getting the business started. Ugh!!! So much to do, but it's great! The flower on top and red petal is from the new moon cover, the red ribbon is from the cover of Eclipse, and the bottom tier is inspired by the movie. The crescent moon and spears are straight off the movie cover. I hand painted the background colors and the trees on the bottom tier. Oh and did you notice that the cake sparkles? Yay Team Edward! I'm not really sure why my dad put ivy leaves in the picture but bless his heart he thought it added something. Maybe it did. Once I photo shop it, it might look a little better. Just love dad for doing the pics cuz I suck at it. Thanks dad. Love ya.

Triple Agent Zero

2010-03-24T22:08:00.001-07:00

Introducing Triple Agent Zero. He has blond hair, blue eyes, is 4 years old and will dazzle you with his charm. He's got deadly kung fu tickle moves and likes to drop stink bombs. Ha ha OK seriously. Ethan had career day at school and he told me that he wanted to be an astronaut and a secret agent when he grew up. Astronaut I can't do but secret agent, easy peasy. He already had all the stuff we needed since this is a regular game in our house. I just love how he poses. Oh and thanks to Uncle Ryan and Aunt Holly that made him his badge!

Red Velvet and Delicious!

2010-03-24T22:01:00.000-07:00

I needed to test out some red velvet cake recipes and this is what I created. I don't know why I can't just leave it iced. What's wrong with me! My excuse was that I needed to test out some new pearl dusts that you can't see since it's on the side. But really I'm just a little obsessed and can't leave it alone. Oh and by the way, the cake is delicious. Best red velvet cake I've ever had! I iced it with cheesecake buttercream. I don't even like cheesecake and I still think it was good.

My new cake blog

2010-03-22T09:54:00.001-07:00

Hi all. My new cake blog is about halfway done. Please feel free to have a look and tell me what ya think. I'm still learning a lot about this blogging stuff so I still have a lot of tweaking to do and I still have a lot of info to post but it should be done soon. This blog is only temporary though. In a few months I hope to have a website. The blog address is http://www.thesugarmamascakery.blogspot.com/

Wooo Hooo

2010-03-21T08:03:00.000-07:00

I get to make a Twilight cake! Woo Hoo!!! I know I'm a dork!

Packing on the pounds.... kind of

2010-03-12T10:55:00.000-08:00

Today Blake got weighed and he has gained 14.5 oz. since Jan. 14th. Yay!!!!! You all know what a big deal that is to us. He is now 18 lbs. 7.5oz.. We haven't weighed him in a while so when we went to the doc for his concussion followup and pink eye, gross, we went ahead and got him weighed too. Here I am working out almost every night to lose my baby belly and I'm secretly adding hundreds of calories into Blake's food for a 7 oz. weight gain a month. Don't we all wish we had this struggle. I tried to post a funny video for you guys but it never finished downloading. Maybe I did something wrong. Oh well have a good weekend everyone.

March grocery Madness!!!

2010-03-03T06:45:00.000-08:00

So after finding out that I suck at saving money at the grocery store I decided to figure out how other people spend half of what I do on groceries. I already bought store brands and bought everything I could that was on sale but I was still spending so much more. For the month of Febuary we stretched out everything as far as we could and tried to waste nothing. We saved $112.84. I didn't buy as much nutritional milk as I usually do for Blake so I definitely would have saved less if I had kept up with that.

My goal for March is to save another $100 this month. I am going to meal plan, which you guys know I don't cook so that will be hard. I'm going to use coupons and try different places. Thanks to my awesome Friend Lacey whom I'm just not worthy, I bow down to you Lacey, I am on my way to major coupon savings. She has this binder full of baseball card holders and she puts all her coupons in there to keep them organized and it makes them easy to see. Ingenius! So the last few days I've been organizing all my coupons and checking the sales flyers that come with the paper. I also have been checking out a blog that shows what stores have good deals that match up with coupons. Again thanks Lacey.

Okay so March starts and I think I'm somewhat prepared to start my grocery challenge. What a joke! My first adventure was at Walgreen's where even strapped in Blake was trying to dive out of the cart. He seriously was impossible to shop with. I never shop at Walgreen's so I didn't know where anything was and was all over the place. I learned that I was definitely not as organized as I thought I was. I spent 40 minutes there and yes I saved money but not as much as I thought I would. So I left there feeling totally defeated. I marched on though and went to Meijer's later that night to get more groceries. This time I was much better prepared but it took me forever to get all my groceries. One, I don't know that store and two, I had my coupon book, my calculator and other sales flyers that I checked for almost every purchase. I didn't have a lot of time so there were a few things that I wanted to buy somewhere else but I needed them the next morning so I had to buy there. But even if I had bought them somewhere else it wouldn't have been that much in savings. So in total I have already spent $215. Not off to a good start. I did have to buy some things that I don't normally get but that only ads up to about $50 of what I spent. I'm hoping that I won't have to do another shopping trip for a couple of weeks so maybe it will be better than I'm expecting.

So what I learned from yesterday is that I have a lot to learn and that this is going to take a lot of practice. So wish me luck in my March Grocery Madness Challenge. Where do you guys shop? Any tips?

Ethan's Star Wars Adventure

2010-03-01T11:35:00.000-08:00

Anyone that knows Ethan well, knows that he is a super hero and Star Wars freak. He's never seen all of star wars but he's seen most of it. We edit out the bad stuff. So when we heard about a Jedi training event at our local library we just had to take Ethan. Now Ethan thinks that these people are real people so you can imagine the courage it took to meet Darth Vader and his other bad guys. I don't know what they are called. Ethan is going to have to help me with this blog.

Can you see the wheels turning in Ethan's head? Right now he's got to be thinking, please don't use the force, please, please, please.

Ethan tells me that this guys is the master clone trooper and that he's a good guy. He really liked his uniform.
This guy is a bad guy that rides those speed bikes and Ethan said that the guy was really nice to him because Luke Skywalker was secretly there.

Ethan says this is Luke Skywalker dressed up as a storm trooper. He says that at first he was scared to be there but since Luke was there, he was making sure all the bad guys were on their best behavior.

Obviously Vader and his people. Every time you tried to take a pic of him they would quickly pose. They were really good at it.

My three teeth baby.

2010-02-21T08:49:00.000-08:00

As you all know, we have been waiting for Blake's teeth for a long time and now we have two teeth breaking within days of each other. It's funny what parents get excited about. So Saturday night Blake was up most of the night and most parents would wonder why their 22 month old was up all night. But with Blake's history it means nothing to us that Blake is up all night. Low and behold the next morning though Blake's third tooth had cut. Don't really know if that's why he was up since he was just playing in his crib all night, but you never know. The picture is difficult to see but that's the best I'm going to get from him. He's so cute it doesn't really matter though.

Daddy's birthday Feb 14th

2010-02-21T08:14:00.000-08:00

Doug's birthday is on Valentine's Day and so we haven't celebrated Valentine's Day in about 10 years. It's my fault. Doug's so good to me all year long that I'd rather have a day all about him than get flowers that will die. So this year we went to his parent's house for a small dinner. We had already celebrated with his sister and friends on another date. We ended up having dinner all by ourselves though because his mom went to the ER for some issues with her heart again. She's fine. She just needed another medication. So Doug and I ended up making a dinner we knew nothing about, and if you know us you know that we are NOT good cooks. All the while we were really worried about Doug's mom. We persevered though. Dinner came out great despite our handicap. I spent most of the afternoon decorating Doug's golf bag birthday cake. I think it came out pretty cool. I didn't have all of my stuff with me but I think I made the most of what I had.

Yes Doug really is 34. Ha ha old man.

Some of these posted the wrong direction. Don't really know what happened.

Ethan made the golf ball all by himself. He had a lot of fun doing it.

The cake was covered in buttercream and chocolate fondant. Mmmm, mmmm, good.

Can you also see the silver edible dust I put on the irons?

My man and little men. Happy Birthday baby!

Blake's first hair cut

2010-02-19T11:48:00.000-08:00

So after much begging from friends and family, I finally caved and got Blake's hair cut. We took him to a Hair Cuttery and I was terrified because last time I took Ethan to one of those places they did a horrible job. Blake was amazing, ofcourse. He didn't make one noise. Mommy was the one whining. I asked her to take an inch off. I was hoping to preserve the ringlets. Well, she took off around three inches. I was pretty ticked off to say the least. Everyone said it looked adorable, except for my super conservative parents, but I was still upset. I'm more used to it now and even though I miss the mass amount of curls, I do think he is still pretty stinking adorable. These pics were taken about three weeks ago.

Before the hair cut.

After the hair cut. He's not so sure either.
Alright, alright. It looks pretty cute.

Blake has 2 teeth!!!!!!!

2010-02-16T13:13:00.000-08:00

I know, I know. You people think I'm crazy and I'm cool with that, but I gotta celebrate Blake's second tooth. We've been able to see it forever and it finally broke through. So he is about 22 months old now with two teeth. Hooray! Hooray! Maybe by his 2nd birthday he'll have three teeth. Yeah right! The kid takes two years to pop out two teeth. He's going to be the only 99 year old in the whole world with all of his own teeth. Ha ha! I'll post a pic when you can actually see it. He's got one on the top left front and the other is his bottom right front. It's gonna look real funny but I don't care. At least he's got teeth.

2010-02-15T13:02:00.000-08:00

4 Things Tag!

4 things I like to watch:

1: Lost - Best show ever. We have friends over every week just to watch it.
2: NCIS
3: Grey's Anatomy
4: Cake Boss

4 things I am passionate about:

1: My amazing hubby
2: My gorgeous little ones
3: Spiritual growth
4: Traveling and learning more about the world.

4 Words or phrases I say alot:

1: Seriously?!
2: Crazy!
3: Time Out!
4: I love you!

4 Things I learned from the past:

1: Be careful who you trust.
2: If it seems like it's too good to be true, it almost always is.
3: Kindness is always the way.
4: Love what you have.

4 Places I like to go:

1: Hawaii
2: St. Lucia
3: Great America with the fam
4: London

4 things I did yesterday:

1: Decorated an awesome golf bag cake for my hubby's birthday
2: Went to the in laws for a bday dinner for Doug and they ended up going to the hospital again. I'm going to start thinking that we are the reasons for their ER trips.
3: Snuggled with my hubby after an exhausting day
4: Had a dance party with my kids while Doug made beat box noises. He's so talented.

4 things I am looking forward to:

1: Trip to Disneyland
2: Trip to Tennessee
3: Moving
4: Definitely Summer!

4 Things I love about winter:

1: I'm with Tina, NOTHING!
2: NOTHING
3: NOTHING
4: NOTHING

4 Things on my wish list:

1: For Doug to get a new job
2: Move out of Illinois
3: Travel more, especially to Europe.
4: That Blake will grow, grow, grow.

4 people I tag

1: Bina
2: Nikki
3: Eve
4: Brittany

Weekend movie and superbowl ad review

2010-02-08T06:29:00.000-08:00

Doug and I don't go to the theater often but this weekend we each saw a movie. Doug was probably the last person, besides me, that has seen Avatar and I saw Dear John.

Avatar: Doug didn't even want to see Avatar but went because he wanted to hang out with my dad. He's not really a sci fi kind of guy but he freakin loved it!!!!!!!!!! He said it was one of the best movies he's ever seen. He tried describing it to me but I guess it's one of those things that you have to see for yourself.

Dear John: For those of you who haven't heard of this one, it is a chick flick. It stars Channing Tatum, who's totally hot and whom I've loved since Step UP. I know I'm a dance dork. Anyway I thought it was going to be a romantic, sweet movie and it ended up being really sad and disappointing. I'd recommend waiting til it comes out on DVD. It had some good parts but for a movie that came out a weekend before Valentine's Day, it didn't make me feel very romantic.

As for the Super Bowl ads, I thought that most of them were disappointing but my fav one was the one where the dog put the shock collar on the guy with the Dorrito's bag. That one had me laughing out loud.

Hope you all had a fun weekend. Go Saints!!!!!!!

Legoland Fun!

2010-02-06T20:08:00.000-08:00

Ok so some of you know that we have a bazillion legos and that Doug and Ethan make all kinds of really cool stuff with them. If you saw the post of the family as lego people then you know that Doug is working with legos for his tradeshow design. Well because of that he got a free ticket. So Doug took Ethan to Legoland for the first time. Yay!!! Ofcourse Ethan absolutely LOVED IT!!!!!! Kids that aren't into legos might not love it but Ethan was in heaven. I think he's going to be an engineer one day. He loves to build. Anyway, he got to see amazing lego builds, rode a lego rollercoaster, made his own lego, and took a lego class. Pretty cool to a 4 year old and a 33 year old daddy.

Can you see the pure euphoria?

Holy Crap it's Darth Vader! AHHHHH!

I wonder if this hippo had bad breath.

Real or not, this would freak me out too!

Ethan's lego that he made.

My crazy cuz and fam

2010-02-06T19:50:00.000-08:00

In November my cousin Rachel got married and my cousin Nikki came up for it from Arkansas with her amazing hubby Steve and her gorgeous son Caelen. Nikki is like the sister I never had and never wanted. Just kidding Nik. I love her to death and we are pretty much joined at the hip whenever we are together. A few years ago she married her soul mate, Steve. Who I adore!!! He is no doubt a blessing from God to her and Caelen. Him and Doug hit it off right away. They kind of had to because when Nik and I get together you can't seperate us. We had a great time with them and were really, really sad to see them go back to Arkansas. We have big dreams of living close to each other someday. Although the guys might hate that cuz they'll never see their wives again. Seriously!

Barbie cake

2010-02-06T19:36:00.000-08:00

Here is a barbie cake I did for a little girl that wanted the pink dress. Italian meringue buttercream isn't as easy as american buttercream is to work with but it tastes so much better that I'll sacrifice perfection for taste. I was waiting to post this so that I could put other cake pics with it but I'm still waiting for those pics to be sent to me. I've also made a superman symbol cake for a 40th birthday and a buche de noel. The superman cake turned out pretty cool. The buche de noel was gorgeous but unfortunately I did not have time to take a pic of it and I trusted the client to take good pics. Next time I'll just deliver it late so I can get a pic of it. They were all fuzzy and totally not usable. Oh well. Live and learn.

My husband is a blockhead

2010-01-26T18:21:00.000-08:00

My husband is a blockhead. Wait! We all are. Ha, ha, ha. Doug and his creative funnies. Gotta love em. Here's what we would look like as lego people. Note Ethan's Flash shirt. For anyone who doesn't get it, The Flash is a superhero. And check out Blake's one tooth. I personally love the McSteamy stubble that Doug added for himself and if you could have seen the before pic of me, you would have thought that my lego alterego was a hooker. She had way to big of boobs for me and way too skimpy of a dress. Hope you all get a laugh. We did.

So much catchin up to do!

2010-01-12T07:43:00.000-08:00

It's been forever since I've blogged so I'm probably going to overload you guys with a bunch of stuff you guys won't care about, but I gotta do it. We've had a lot going on in the last month. Just recently my mother in law had a small heart attack and is in the hospital. We love her so much and it was very scary for us. She has been having some complications on the medicine that she's been on in the hospital that made her heart stop once and made it slow down to 30 beats per minute another time. It was very scary to watch. She is doing better today but we are still really nervous. How could we not be? No matter how faithful you are, it's still scary.

On a lighter note, Blake woke up singing a song about his fav cousin Abbie and Ethan came running out of his bedroom yelling Good Morning. He always says good morning but today was just so enthusiastic and sincere. I love when Blake sings. He's always making up his own songs.

So now for an update on what we've been doing. We took Ethan ice skating for the first time and he LOVED IT!!!! He took to it really quickly and ofcourse wanted to do it by himself right away. We had a hard time getting him off the rink. He totally wore out Doug. Blake went around with Daddy a couple of times too and he loved it as well. It's too bad that they don't make ice skates in his size. I bet he would have rocked it!

Ethan's Reading!

2009-12-30T07:05:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-10T11:56:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-07T19:44:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-30T06:49:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-11-12T07:40:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-08T20:16:00.001-08:00

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

2009-11-06T14:04:00.001-08:00

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

2009-11-04T06:07:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-11-01T15:07:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-10-29T21:37:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-10-27T06:22:00.000-07:00

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!!

2009-10-18T20:17:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-10-12T20:16:00.001-07:00

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!

2009-10-02T07:33:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-10-02T06:35:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-10-02T06:18:00.000-07:00

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!!!

Sometimes peer pressure is a good thing.

2009-09-30T19:29:00.000-07:00

So after hearing from everyone about how great blogging is and a convincing argument for blogging from my beautiful cousin, I decided to give it a try. So here are some warnings for my blog site: expect spelling and grammar errors, expect me to go overboard with pics of the kids, and don't expect any poetry. I read some people's blogs and are blown away by their poetry but, yeah, I'm not that elegant with those things called words. So please be patient with me cuz I have no idea what I am doing but hey I'll try and have fun doing it.