Fireworks

Double lemon cake with lemon curd filling and lemon cream cheese frosting - oh, and decorated with fireworks! :)

This creation was partly inspired by the recipient's tastes (she likes lemon) and by Sophia - who wanted to decorate it with fireworks. I, of course, had to figure out how to put fireworks on a cake, and this is what we came up with... We simply put a drop of food coloring on the top in the desired spot then used a wooden skewer to drag it through the frosting to bring some color along with creating the look of a firework.

The cake ended up tasting really great! It was my first attempt at this type of cake. I usually don't favor lemon flavored desserts - but, I think the cream cheese frosting really pulled it together and made the cake. Seriously, I could eat my way out of a swimming pool filled with that stuff - so good!

Wednesday was Shirmy's birthday, thus the festive cake. Oh, what? You thought we were having some sort of early 4th of July party?? No, no. When you let a five-year-old run free with design inspirations, you never know what ideas she'll come up with, that's all!

Shirmy has been living with us since December of 2007. She is an MBA student at our local university and will be graduating next weekend! Anyways, Happy Birthday Shirmy!

Toast done right!!!

Have you ever heard of The Pioneer Woman? Her real name is Ree Drummond and she writes a really successful blog - which didn't start out that way, she is just a hilarious woman, an excellent writer, an inspiring photographer, has an uncanny knack for story-telling, and to top it all off, is a great cook! She recently finished her first cookbook and is currently promo-ing it, so you may have seen her on certain morning talk shows. At any rate, I enjoy reading her blog. Her recipes always look really good - but until this past Monday I've never tried one. But, this particular recipe was super simple, I had all the ingredients and I knew I would love it!

What was it you may be wondering?? Why, cinnamon toast! That's right, something that simple. Click HERE to read Ree's post and instructions on how to make the best cinnamon toast ever, and let me tell you, she is right!

Simply gather five ingredients: bread, butter (softened), cinnamon, sugar and vanilla.

Combine all the ingredients (I used about 1/2 - 3/4c. butter [well, in our house it's fake butter since Riley can't have dairy], 8tbs of sugar, 4 tsp cinnamon and 2 tsp vanilla for 8 pieces of bread) and spread on to the bread. I put a heaping tablespoon of the good stuff on each piece of bread and made sure to spread it all the way to the edges.

Pop the goodness into a 350 degree oven for 10 min. Then, turn on broiler and broil for about 2 minutes - watch carefully so it doesn't burn!

The topping becomes a bit carmelized and tastes just like monkey bread - Sophia even mentioned it tasted like a cinnamon crunch bagel from a certain popular restaurant! The texture is a bit of crunch and the bottom of the bread is still a bit soft. Simply divine! You must try some right now!!!

Kiddo Update

So, Riley tends to get a little upset when I sit down to nurse Haddie. He will try to climb in my lap and will pull my shirt down. I know he's still struggling a bit with the adjustment of having a baby sister, but this is the time that it is most evident. So... the other day I had Jamie get Riley a little doll and a bottle so he could sit next to me and feed his baby. First, he held his baby like you'll see below... doesn't it look like he's trying to nurse the baby?? :) We got a kick out of that!

With a little guidance from me though, he got the hang of bottle feeding...

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We have had Sophia's kid-sized tent set up in her room for a couple of days now. She and Riley have fun playing in it during the day, and Soph is loving getting to sleep in it at night! Last Friday we had some friends over for dinner. Sophia got to play in her tent with Feibi and Alice. Aren't they cute?! Alice knows NO English yet, but that didn't hinder the playing at all! Reminded me of how my sister and I could play with the local kids when we lived in Africa, even if we couldn't speak each other's language.

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Hadassah is exactly one month old today! I cannot believe she is that old, and yet it feels like she's always been with us. Monday we put this outfit on her, and Jamie thought she looked like Piglet - hence the photo with Pooh Bear. :) Haddie is growing like a weed and is probably nine pounds by now. She is also starting to get too long for the newborn sized clothing and is slowly starting to wear size 0-3mos. She continues to be a really easy, content baby. She hardly ever cries, so when she does, it always surprises me and breaks my heart. She likes to sleep, which frustrates me at eating time, but we're working on it. :) Her biggest struggle is how much she spits up. Both Soph and Riley struggled with this too. We have to do a lot of burping and keeping her upright after feedings. She tends to gag and choke a few times a day too when she's spitting up, so that is always yucky! Thankfully as she gets older this will improve. She suffers from heartburn with all the spitting up, but Mylant@ seems to do the trick to relieve the pain. We love our Haddie girl and are so thankful for her!

A Day at the Park

This past Friday was a really beautiful spring day- sunny, warm, and breezy. Our friend, and housemate, Shirmy, organized a little outing to the park with some of our mutual friends, Riley and Soph, and me. It was so fun to not only see the kiddos playing and watching the ducks - but the girls seemed to be having an awful lot of fun too!

Our first stop was the merry-go-round. The girls never did recover from being dizzy... :)

I never will tire of his grin.

Bubble Boy

Nothing cuter than the hind view of a toddler.

Gleeful because Shirmy was pushing him really high!

Riley loves ducks. He says duck and likes to quack, so seeing the real thing just about did him in!

Sophia liked to chase the ducks, and they liked to high-tail it into the water! :)

Sophia knew just the spot for a group picture and led us to this swing.

The whole group: Karen, Soph, Eva, Jodi, Riley and Shirmy.

How Do I Know?

How do I know how to be a Mama?

You are looking at the reason!

Mommy, on this day, your birthday, be blessed with the knowledge that all I know (and Jeni would agree, I am sure!) of being a good Mama is because of you. Not convinced? Take a look... and know.

Carol Ann, they are your legacy, and they have the Mommies they have because of the Mommy we have!

I love you. Happy Birthday!

Holding Haddie

In recent days Riley has taken to loving holding Haddie. With the assistance, guidance and supervision of Mommy or Daddy, he will sit and sit and hold and pat and kiss. It is SO cute! If he's not done holding her yet, but one tries to take her away, he quickly holds on to her and basically says, nonverbally mind you, "Not yet Mommy! I'm not done!" Eventually he will be done and he'll sort of attempt to throw her off of his lap - hence the watchful supervision of Mommy or Daddy to catch Haddie when big brother has had enough! :) I captured this sweet event the other day...

I just love the tilt of Riley's head in this shot.

Too little to be sick

This past weekend Hadassah came down with what seemed like a common cold. By Monday evening Jamie and I felt like the cold might be moving down into her chest/lungs. She had developed a cough, sounded very hoarse when crying and was gagging/choking on all the mucus that she kept trying to work out. Her eyes and nose were both draining green too. So... off to see the doctor yesterday.

I really thought the doc would listen to her and send us home with a "it's just a cold, wait it out." But, nope! She sent us over to our local hospital to get some further testing. Haddie had to get her little nose swabbed 5 times to test for various viruses and whooping cough. She also got a chest x-ray to see if there was any pneumonia. Some of the results came back last night - no pneumonia, flu or RSV. We're still waiting on the whooping cough test and some other viral tests.

I had to take Haddie back to see her Ped today. She is really doing pretty good. Her eye and nose drainage has pretty much gone away. She still has a stuffy nose and a lot of mucous that she tries to work out - resulting in a lot of gagging/choking. She is still coughing and sneezing a lot. But, she is eating decently and sleeping well. We just can't leave her alone and she must remain upright so that she doesn't legitimately choke when coughing.

If her whooping cough test comes back positive she'll be treated with antibiotics. Otherwise, as long as she's not getting dehydrated and as long as her breathing is not compromised, we will just wait out whatever virus she has at home.

Thankful she's not sicker than she is, but it is hard to see your little 3 week old baby sick at all.

Today's doctor visit was long. Well, not the actual visit - just the waiting... Hadassah wasn't see until an hour past her scheduled appointment time. I got bored. I took pictures. Enjoy. :)

Transitions

These sweet little hands pictured above, one of a certain little man that resides in our home, and one of a little lady that is new to our nest... the sweet faced darling below...

These children of mine, they are my world. They are my job, my responsibility, my life work and my joy. I love them more than can be described. When I am not with them I miss them, I worry for their well-being and life is so much more dull. When they are with me I am more at peace, for I can see with my own eyes they are well, and life is anything but dull!

I have a lot of thoughts to share on how we are transitioning to having three children in our home now. I will try to get those written out later today. For now, I'm going to go try to have some fun with my kiddos.

The Blanket of Miracles

Have you ever heard of The Miracle Blanket?

I heard of this fabulous blanket sometime when Riley was a baby. But... I wasn't sold - so I didn't bite. Well, I decided that I definitely wanted to give it a try with Hadassah. I love it!

The Miracle Blanket is a special swaddling blanket for babies, ages newborn to 4 months old. If you've ever cared for a newborn you know that when they are put to nap or bed they often startle themselves awake with their natural jerk reflex. You might have noticed that the baby also seemed really happy when swaddled snuggly in a blanket - but what blanket is big enough to accomplish a good swaddle, and don't most babies figure a way to wriggle out anyways? That was our experience!

Well, this Miracle Blanket is expertly designed and so easy to use. Our babies all have struggled with pretty bad acid reflux/excessive spitting up/heartburn, etc... Hadassah is no exception. Being swaddled up nice and snug seems to calm her and her tummy right down!

Jamie's Mom was gracious enough to get this blanket for us for a baby gift, and we just got it yesterday! Haddie seems to really like being in it and I have found it very simple to use. I highly recommend giving it a try (it's really not a huge investment - only $30 full-price, but ours was on sale!) if you have a newborn, or are expecting one. I may make this my future go-to baby shower gift for all my friends!

Jamie, cheesing it up for the photo.

Looking like he's not aware that his picture is being taken... :) he is.

Snug as a bug...

... and sleeping so soundly!

*** I have not been compensated for this post and my MIL purchased our blanket for us. I just really love this product and wanted to share!***