The View Outside is Pretty

Okay so last night we finally got around to rearranging the pantry. If you read my post yesterday you understand that baking stuff is everywhere…my pantry was no exception. Yes I did have 4 bags of chocolate chips (2 opened) and 4 bags of caramels (okay so 2 unopened bags and 2 sandwich baggies with “leftovers”) and not to mention the various colors of candy melts, cinnamon chips, white chocolate chips, and much more.  Anyhow here are the pics…yeah I’m ashamed that its not better but yeah with baby girl around…it makes things a little difficult. She kept eating everything.

Before:

After:

Now if you have anything to donate that is real food…apparently my pantry would appreciate it!

Ahh…so over the last week I spent my time making these

Now you know I love dessert…however I wasn’t tempted to eat these because I don’t like red velvet cake. It’s cake “balls”. Bakerella makes them…I’ve been a blog stalker for a while and finally found the appropriate function to bring them to. Oh yeah first time…not so easy and a lollipop stick would really help. I was going to be more elaborate but hubby just has lasiks the afternoon I was dipping. I was originally going to make ornaments but my gold sugar didn’t come in the mail until today. It’s beatiful and I can’t wait to use it. So the ornaments will hopefully be on the way soon…

Oh yeah my daughter LOVES them.

She also made a great mommy moment with me tonight. She made some of my favorite Christmas cookies. Why don’t I make them more often?! But she was a great finger poker for an 18 month old….I love her and she already has my love of baking. Oh yeah and I did inventory of baking stuff….I have stuff EVERYWHERE…seriously…it’s taking over my kitchen so much so that I’ve moved other kitchen items to the laundry. Like the bread machine stays in the laundry room until needed! The toaster over is about to find a new home too!

Here’s baby girl making my favorite cookies

Silly girl…last night I was making red velvet cake and silly girl just sat on the counter and grabbed a bit of cake. I didn’t stop her and she determined she liked it. Later I had asked Jas to taste it because I don’t like red velvet and he gave her a little bite. Well after she swallowed it she ran back to him mouth wide open.

Who says my daughter is hard to feed? Monday- chocolate cake, tuesday- butter recipe (daddy’s fav), wed- red velvet…the list can go on and on because she hasn’t met a sweet she doesn’t like.

Oh if feeding her really was that easy. Almost time to go home and see baby girl!

I continued the song my husband started his blog with. He beat me to the punch today! All about our crazy week upcoming. But I think being female I tend to look further ahead. The youth have a christmas party next wed and I have to make cookies for them to hand out to the nursing home residents. I love baking but I don’t have much time this year. Plus I need to find time to make my stuff for the party saturday. I’m super excited about that idea…I just have to wait to see if it pans out nicely. So King Arthur has free shipping today and I was SUPER excited. I got lots of decorating supplies like sprinkles and jimmies and I got more potato and special dry milk for my bread. Oh I wish I lived in Vermont…I would so work for them! Seriously I would. I wish they would let me work in their test kitchen…that would be my ultimate job! 

I can’t believe it’s only the second week in Dec and I’m already booked…goodness. Luckily mom got a snow suit for baby girl so she can play in the snow! I’m dreaming of a white Christmas…

Okay so baby girl slept all night in her bed…that counts as a silent night even if I did wake up to the TV and hubby snoring 100 times!

A friend blogged about how she should never have said Oh my kid will never do that. Over the last 18months we have SOOOOO said this.  Unfortunately my kid is still on a bottle. Gasp I know right?! I know you are thinking her poor teeth and everything else. Well we’ve chosen to look at what we have done right!

We’re still working on the sleeping thing (obviously…it comes and goes) but there are areas we’ve succeeded in (we think…not to be prideful but to help us focus on positives).  We would like to think she has some discipline…okay so she doesn’t always sit in a grocery buggy but a good pop on the thigh works wonders! So much so that the other night she spanked herself when we said she would get a spanking for running away. It was too cute…I had to hide my laughter.

But she can also clean up…throw things away and feed herself oh yeah and brush her teeth! In my opinion we will continue to work on the bottle but she has made strides. I saw her push a little girl which I had never seen before so we will work on that…but the whole oh my kid won’t do that. Yeah we might not ever say that again. Although we figured that out early on when she slept with us. Some cultures it’s normal…so don’t judge us!

So hopefully we aren’t the only parents who feel this way! Tell me your experience so I’m not alone!

Well minus the rain!

I know Dec has already started but I wanted to share our Christmas traditions. First off my wonderful mother gave me this book the first year Jas and I were married. It’s even signed by the authors.

Yeah thanks…that’s a profound statement.

Okay it has nothing to do with my blog but this does:

Psalm 37:21 states

The wicked borrows and does not pay back, but the righteous is gracious and gives.

Why do I post this well because we have just a couple of weeks left in FPU and granted we took FPU 2 years ago and have since gotten into debt. I think it was a highly calculated move on our part and much needed. I’m sorry Dave it’s probably not what you wanted to hear but with an infant and renting…in this economy…you never know when something might happen. I think we got in while the getting was good and we’re so blessed. Okay and maybe the new car (cheaper than used and cheaper on insurance) wasn’t the wisest but we are working to pay it off…hence all my $$$ from working FPU childcare.

Anyhow thats a little off the beaten path but I did print out my budget sheet and fill it in for December. I’ve already had to do some adjusting because Jas’ tuition was 45$ higher than I anticipated but thats okay…I’ll cut back in other areas.

I so wish I could be more giving…but with Jason taking 26 hours next semester that doesn’t lend itself to be very giving…I feel bad. Hopefully next year

Yep…ours is up and has been for a week. Now why have I been such a blogging slacker? Well partly because I didn’t want to slip up and tell the world (all 2.3 people who read my blog) that we were going to have another baby. But now that we are FINALLY past the 12 week mark I feel a little more confident. I hope I’m not jinxing myself.

So anyhow here are things I want done around the house if anyone has free time and wants to help out…because here’s the deal Jas is taking 26 credit hours next semester and that’s ridiculous. Therefore he will be very busy and we need to:

-put shelves up in the laundry

-shelves in the dining room

-clean out office so we can…

-move baby girl to toddler bed (purchase)

-organize the pantry better

-scotchguard the couches

-hmmm maybe sell some stuff that we don’t need

-oh yeah clean out gutters

That’s all in addition to things like preparing for Christmas, working, weaning baby from bottle, potty-training?!, hmmm what else…. either buy baby boy clothes or unpack girl clothes…I’m praying girl clothes to save our budget in hopes of me staying home…but we find out late Jan could be sooner but nooooo someone has to go to New Orleans. One guess and a hint is it’s not me!

So I’m thankful for lots. But I’m praying for lots too! Strength, patience, time, productivity! If my house is messy (I say wreck but Jas doesn’t like that term)…I am very sorry!