Happy Birthday Logan!

Happy Birthday Logan!!
(Well, tomorrow officially.)

My crazy, energetic little boy is turning 3!! Even though his birthday is tomorrow, we semi-celebrated it yesterday with Kristi and Kathryn and their families with cake and ice cream. Logan has been waiting for this day for like the last 6 months and so we decided to try and make it special for him. How do we try and do that? Well, by making a cool tractor cake of course!! But the thing we neglected to remember, if we wanted a super cool tractor cake, we should have bought one from the store. This cake was a great deal of stress to me. I don't know why, but it was. All that matters is that Logan liked it and that I learned a lot from this experience. I have never made a themed cake like this before or anything so it was an adventure. It didn't turn out quite how I wanted it, but not too bad for a first attempt and Logan thought it was a big success. He gave me a huge hug and dramatically told me that he loved me, so it was totally worth it (even the trip to WalMart on a Sunday to get the needed supplies that I didn't think about the night before!)!!!

I love you you crazy kid!!! We have our moments where we butt heads, but I love playing and talking with you. You are a great big brother and I look forward to the many years of teaching you and seeing you grow! I love you!

Cat Food

Ray does not know that I am posting this and may or may not appreciate it, but I think it's pretty funny.

So, Ray went on his mission to the Philippines and would eat some pretty interesting things. Since we've been married he's made a few things for me to try and most of the time it's pretty tasty. But well, last night he decided to try something a little "different". I don't think this is actual authentic Filipino food, but more or less something the missionaries created on their own. The meal consists of: rice, corned beef, and banana ketchup (this is exactly what it sounds like). He starts the process by opening the corned beef and he starts to get grossed out just by that. He was very gracious to warn me that if my gag reflex was sensitive to not come near it, as he put it, it reminded him of cat food. He proceeds to cook it and put it on the rice and then puts the banana ketchup on it and says that that even smells not so great to him. But the trooper that he is, he still wanted to try it and I decided that this might be worth something to capture and remember. Here is the result!!

The Three Giants

So we have three HUGE pine trees on the corner of our property that I HATE HATE HATE (did I mention that I hate them!)!!!! Well, they put down a plethora of pine needles that cover everything in the front yard, they blow over the house and cover everything in the back yard, and cover our poor neighbor's yard also. This morning I got ambitious and decided, with Logan's help, to clean up the layers of needles on the corner under the trees. It was quite the project and still is not perfect, but it looks ten times better than before. Ideally, we want to take down the giants, but we'll have to see how that happens.

Ready or Not! Here He Comes!!

Chase is finally walking!!! He started walking before his birthday, but it was just a couple of steps here and there and with bribery. But tonight we were just sitting on the couch and he came walking out of the kitchen clear over to us!!! I didn't have the camera nearby to capture it the first time, but we got a shot of him walking a while. It's so fun!! But if I thought him and Logan got into trouble before, well, I think they will give me a run for my money now!

Vampire Maybe?

What do you do with a biter?? Chase is nonstop biting everything!! He crawls around with his mouth open and ready to attach to anything and everything he can. It can be the couch, blankets, remotes, toys, Logan, or me. We don't know how to deal with this because Logan never bit. Yesterday Chase bit Logan on the arm that left teeth marks all day (and bless Logan, he didn't retaliate at all!!). But today, I put Chase down for his nap and I could hear him making some odd noises so I went to see what he was doing and he chewing on his crib!!! He's leaving teeth marks behind and everything!! What do you do??



I don't know if you can really see the bite marks on the bed. I don't claim to be a photographer.




What do you do with a kid this cute?? Especially one that will go put his own diapers in the garbage! Love him to death!!

Life Right Now.....?

Well, so lately things have been kind of "off". It seems like that no matter how hard I hard try, things just will not work our right now. I'm sorry that my posts lately have just been about me complaining, but I want to keep things "real". I don't want to sugar coat my life. This is considered my journal, so I want to write things as they are, so..sorry that you have to deal with it.

Anyways, I'm tired of not feeling good. Things seem to only be getting worse, the further along I'm getting, well, the less I want to eat and the more tired I am. I just have to remind myself that it's nothing permanent, and the kids are worth it. I feel like such a pansy complaining about some nausea and tiredness. I have some friends that throw up nonstop or they are literally on their death bed just trying to survive through the day, but yet I can't seem to help feeling sorry for myself.

The other struggle, my baking. Or should I say the lack thereof. I have no desire to have any treats around my house, which is extremely unusual. The other day I attempted to actually make something, and I couldn't make it work. I tried 3 times!!! Talk about frustration and a blow to the self esteem. I consider myself a fairly good baker, so when I fail like that, it doesn't make me feel too great. So, if anyone has any recipes for Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls, I'm open to any new recipes. And yes, this is a very trivial thing to bother me, but well, it doesn't take much to get to me right now.

The next BIG struggle right now is that we can't seem to get our car fixed!!! It squirts antifreeze like you can't imagine. We took it to a mechanic and was supposedly fixed, but this morning it decided to overheat again and lose all of its antifreeze. Not happy. Not one bit. The problem is, we don't want to put too much money in this car because we need to get a bigger car that we can all fit in once the baby is born. What to do, what to do.

And the last thing I'll vent about is my kids. Not something I should probably complain about, but they are so difficult right now!! Don't get me wrong, I love them to death, but the complete lack of respect and obedience on Logan's part is no longer acceptable. The yelling, tantrums, ignorance....it is just out of control and I'm not quite sure how to go about handling it. Chase is also at the age where he is just into everything and not wanting to take naps like he should. It just feels like I've lost complete control of everything at the moment. I'm hoping for a better week and get a better hold of things.

Something that I wanted to do with this pregnancy is to take monthly pictures. My sis-in-law, Kristi, did this with her baby and it was fun to look at the growth. So, I'm starting my pictures at 3 months. There's just not much need to take any earlier, not a whole lot there. It was fun to see the pic though, I'm not as big as I feel!!! I looked at the picture and realized I don't too big. Whew, kind of a relief.




Well, all done here. Sorry again for the vent out, just feels good to get things out. I know it's nothing too major or big, but it's what's going on right now in our lives so it seems big. We'll survive, just need to remember to rely on my Heavenly Father and keep the faith that everything will work the way it i supposed to.

Chase's Birthday, and Mmmm...Cake!!

Chase had his first birthday this last week!! Wahoo!! He is now officially a big boy! It wasn't anything eventful or spectacular, but we had presents and some birthday cake a few days later.


But the cake!!! Oh my, it is quite the cake. My mother-in-law sent me an email with some recipes from a friend and there was this one for a Fudgy Raspberry Torte. I haven't been baking much (can't stomach much sweets lately) but I decided to give it a try. It's very good, but very rich and it makes a BIG, heavy cake!! Here's the recipe for it:

1 pkg. chocolate fudge or Devils food camke mix

1 1/3 C. water

3 eggs

1/3 c. vegetable oil

3/4 c. chocolate chips, divided

3/4 c. ground pecans (I left them out, not a nut fan)

1 1/2 c. cold milk

1 pkg. (3.9 oz) instant chocolate fudge or chocolate pudding mix

1/2 c. seedless raspberry jam (I just used the jam I already had with seeds and it was fine)

1 1/2 c. whipped topping

1/4 c. powder sugar

1/2 tsp almond flavoring

1/4 c. finely chopped pecans

Fresh raspberries

In mixing bowl, combine dry cake mix, water, eggs and oil; mix well. Add 1/4 c. chocolate chips and ground pecans; stir until combined. Pour into 3 greased and floured 9 in. round baking pans. Sprinkle remaining chocolate chips on top. Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks to cool completely. In a mixing bowl, beat milk and pudding mix on low speed for 2 minutes or until thickened. In a sauce pan melt jam. Brush over the top of each cake. Place one cake on a serving plate, spread with half of the pudding. Repeat layers. Top with third cake layer; spread top with whipped topping mixed with powdered sugar and almond flavoring. Sprinkle with chopped pecans. Garnish with raspberries. Store in the refrigerator. Yield: 12 servings.

*The recipes doesn't call for Oreos, but I add some crushed Oreos between the layers when you spread the pudding and then also all over the top and sides. I thought it added some good texture.

(The cake looks crooked here, and it very well could be crooked, but I'm pretty sure I had the camera at an angle. =) )