Monster Birthday

I am so excited and sad at the same time, my baby is one year old.  The past year has been crazy, four kids sure do keep me busy.  I admire those of you that have more kids and are doing a great job, like two of my older sibling's, (one has 8 kids and the other 9).  We have decided that Cash, will be our last baby, assuming the decision is ours.

After seeing One Charming Party's monster party post I thought it would be fun to make a monster birthday cake.  We just had a family party so I didn't take advantage of all the other ideas from the monster party posts.  It was also to night before the birthday.  I picked two of the monsters from this coloring page.

I did one cake just for Cash and one for everyone else.  I think they turned out pretty well.  I was learning as I went.  I used Wilton's web site to learn how to make the fur or grass as they called.  I haven't used fondant very much, but each time I do, I get more comfortable.

 I had left over cake batter, so I made cupcakes for fun.  My kids loved the cupcakes more than the big cake.

 Cash really enjoyed the cake.

  It is always fun to watch a child on their first birthday eat cake.

Cash was green from head to toe by the time he was done.  We did have to do a quick rise in the tub to get all the frosting off, then drain the tub and refill for the real bath.  Cash loves the water so it was great for him.  

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

On our honeymoon almost 13 years ago Bruce and I stayed at a cute bed and breakfast in Utah, The Castle Creek Inn.  Our first morning we were presented with a delicious breakfast which included pumpkin chocolate chip muffins.  Those muffins were so moist and yummy.

 One of my favorite memories from our honeymoon  is still those muffins.  We have stayed at The Castle Creek Inn twice since our honeymoon, but pumpkin chocolate chip muffins weren't on the menu.  A few weeks ago I was looking for a recipe to try to recreate those muffins.  I found a few different recipes and tried one of them,  the muffins were good, but not same.  So I decided to call up the Inn and ask if I could have their recipe for Pumpkin chocolate chip muffins, to my surprise they gave it to me.   Tomorrow morning guess what my family is having for breakfast?  You guessed it, pumpkin chocolate chip muffin.

Here is the recipe for you to try and enjoy.

Castle Creek Inn’s Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

3 cups of sugar

5 ½ cups flours

2 tsp salt

1 tsp cloves

1 tsp allspice

1 tsp nutmeg

1Tbsp baking powder

1Tbsp baking soda

1 Tbsp cinnamon

1Tbsp vanilla

6 eggs

1 cup butter

1-29 oz.  Can of pumpkin

3 cups chocolate chips

Mix all dry ingredients in a large bowl.

Add vanilla, eggs, butter, pumpkin, and chocolate chips.

Mix till well blended

Scoop mix into muffin pan, fill cups full (muffins only rise slightly)

Bake @ 350 degrees for 20 minutes

Yeilds about 40 regular size muffins

For 2 loafs bake for 1 hour

Leave me a peep and let me know how your muffins turn out.

Since I last Posted

WOW!! So much has happened since my last post. Hailey and Hannah started and ended a new school year. I also found out that a new baby was coming to our family. This fourth pregnancy was not a good one. Morning sickness turned into all day sickness and lasted for 20 weeks. Then Gestational diabetes started at week 28, insuline shoots and all.


We potty trained luke, this was not fun. With the new baby on it's way we turned the play room into the girls room. Painted, bought new beds and bedding. unfortunatley the beds took 5 weeks to be delivered instead of 2. Because of this luke is stuck with purple walls and mix matched bedding. It's a good thing he is only 4 and doesn't really care.


Cash, my baby boy, arrived a few weeks early in April. This girls and Luke adore him, and so do I.

In June we our yorkie past away after being part of our family for 10 years. I never thought lossing a pet would be as hard as it was. We buried Cody in our back yard under my flowers.

The Last month of summer has been tons of fun. Our street has many great families, and the kids would play around the clock if we let them. I have loved having all the kids in the house.

Cash is starting to get on somewhat of a schedule and I am getting ansy to start crafting. I have a great craft room that full of supplies, the only problem is that it is a disaster. I can't find anything let alone walk in the room with out stepping on things. My craft room needs to be my next project. So I will post pictures so you can see my progress.

My yard

My Front yard looks great. I have been working on the flower beds for about two week and I think they are done. I have received lot and lots of comments. That's not the important part.

Bruce, my sweet huddy, made this comment to me, after talking about how great our yard looks, "You do a great job at everything that you WANT to do."

HA, HA. While I was working in the yard the house got pretty bad. The dishes didn't get done, the laundry piled up, the kids had free reign. I'm not so good at multi tasking.

Landscaping

These are Pictures of my home from 2007. We had just moved it and were so happy to have more room for the family.

After 2 years I am so pleased with the new landscaping. It was lots of work but as you can see, well worth the time.

More Fun Hair Styles

Kat is one of my neighbors, she often comes over to play with Princess and asks me to do her hair. I'm not sure if she likes the snacks she gets to eat or the cartoons that she get to watch more. For Kat, this time I did a zig zag part, then three ponies on each side in the front.

I then divided the middle pony and placed two more ponies in. Then I combined from two ponies into one. I then pulled each side into one pony tail.

This is my neice, Jules. She way cute. She has really fine hair. I Parted her hair in a zig zag front to back. Then I put in pony tail around her head starting in the front and going around each side.

When I reached the back I wnet up into two pony tails.

Fancy updo

I really love this look on Monkey.

I did 10 flippie/pull throughs, all around the head (5 on each side). Then I split each flippie into another row of flippies (9 flippies) Then I pulled all of the hair into one pony tail.

After all of the hair in the final pony. Seperate 4 small section of hair on the top and clip them up. (More Photos to come of that.) Then add curls as desired.

Let me know if you would like more instructions on this hair style.

Fourth of July

For the Fourth of July I borrowed the star idea from Its a girl Thing. Instead if using ribbon I tried the red, white and blue ponies. I made the hairbow acouple of months ago, not thinking about how I would do the girls hair. I think it all came together pretty well. I should have taken more pictures. Monkey

Princess

Ice plants

I planted these ice plants in my front yard last spring. They are so pretty. The ice plant is a drought resistant ground cover. It spreads quickly and is very hardy. I have also seen them in yellow.

New conrainer for ponytails

I have found the greatest container to hold the girls ponytail holders. I have been looking for a while now and finally I have it. I tried using an embrordery thead holder, it works pretty well until it would gets knocked off the counter. Then all of the colors mixed together again. Also little hand think that it is so fun to play with all the pretty colors.

Now I have a Craft Mates Locking Caddy. It has seperates, each with a locking lid, so that I can open only the color that I need. If the container falls off the counter everything stays sorted.

I love it.

I also found these Lock-ups container for my extra ponytail holders

Easter Bows

I used to sew the girls Easter dresses but right no I have no sewing Machine. I found these cute dresses a Costco, Laura Ashley dresses. I made bows to match the dresses and I think they turned out pretty cute.

Monkey and Princess are adorable in their Easter outfits. Little Man got his first tie and Dad got a matching one.

Home Decor

Bruce and I have lived in this home for almost two years. Two months ago we put our first picture on the wall. I know, silly huh? We should have decorated along time ago, the problem is that I'm not very good at decorating. This is why I'm so excited about what I have worked on the last few days. I found theses frames at Target. Then I printed photos from my computer, using black ink only, onto photo paper. I cut out vinyl letters using Robins cricut, that say Families can be together forever. Hurray for me!!

I am so motivated right now that Bruce better watch out. I have already looked at paint chips, and started a new project.

Braids

This was Princess's hair do for church last Sunday.

She is such a cutie.

I sectioned the hair into six sections, then french braided each section.

I continued braiding to the ends of the hair and put ponytails in each one. So what I had was six braids. I took the three braids on each side and braided them together. Then I pulled the two braid together and put in a clear ponytail. After the ponytail was secure I removed the other six. Then I curled the rest of the hair with my hair straightener.

You can then add a bow or pretty clips.