I'm a REAL Cook....I can throw stuff together....but then again...maybe I should just follow a recipe

Ever Get a Little Overconfident in the Kitchen?

I sometimes do and sometimes it turns out great (see the chocolate covered peanut butter chocolate chip balls) and other times...not so great.  Tonight I made a vinaigrette for the salad and thought I could whip it up all awesomely without a recipe or measuring anything.  My husband was the first to dig in and I was confused when I saw him throw his head forward and do some weird coughing thing...what was his problem...did he inhale a spinach leaf and need help?  Hmmm....not really...apparently my dressing was VERY strong...in an eating pure apple cider vinegar and black pepper kind of way.  I teased him and said "What?  That's how all vinaigrettes are made, plus apple cider vinegar is really healthy for you so it's basically a yummy health potion on your salad that I whipped up with no recipe!" and his reply...while choking on his food still was "Potion!!! That's exactly what it is! not salad dressing!" lol.  So then I was secretly scared to try it after his reaction but took a bite...I was like "Oh my gosh you are such a baby, I think it tastes fine..." followed by a sudden, uncontrollable head pulling back and jerking slightly from side to side as I tried to eat it as my whipped up salad potion had quite the zing...or something like that!  I am not even quite sure how to describe it...but I was reminded that...no. I'm still not a real cook...I do need references from cookbooks and online recipes so I don't wind up causing myself or family members to start choking on their food.

Sorry Son, You Gave me No Other Choice

Does your toddler get undressed in bed, remove their diaper and get poop everywhere?

Well....mine has started to, and today was by far the worst...the other days it was just a little smeared up and down his legs as he pulled his diaper off but today it was $%#^ EVERYWHERE!!! Not the best way to start a Monday.....or any day for that matter!  He is like a little Houdini, I even put him to bed recently in a onesie shirt and osh kosh overalls but he's such a string bean, he shimmied his way right out the top.  I was so confused at first, the shirt and overalls were perfectly intact, nothing undone, the shirt, with it's long sleeves were still inside the overalls as if on display on a hanger.  So after complaining on facebook this morning I got some ideas I hadn't tried yet...putting a one piece sleeper on backwards.  The weather has dramatically changed here so his sleepers that fit are too hot, so I dug through his older sister's baby clothes and found this 12-18 month sleeper. It's good it was a little small for him, hopefully he won't be able to shimmy out the neck hole on these!  And I put em on backwards so as of now I'm hoping this works....I'll find out in the morning!  IT BETTER!  I am NOT interesting in cleaning up poop smeared bedding, bumper pads and crib rails...not to mention kid totally covered. BLEGH!

baby getting poop all over himself baby taking diaper off at night

Infinite P the Leprechaun

St. Patrick's Day Leprechaun Craft

and his name is "Infinite P!"

My friend saw some cute Leprechaun crafts online, but I have no idea where she saw this so no link, sorry!  But I love how my daughter glued his hat on kind of tilted to the side and gave him creepy teeth! cracks me up....and then she randomly named him Infinite P!  I never get tired of the things she comes up with! My friend and I were laughing because of the way his hat was off to the side she said "He looks like a pimp" when the girls weren't around and then when she came back and named him Infinite P, we just thought it was too funny.  

She also made up a character named Racoona, who has a braid on top of her ponytail and a sponge on top of her head... and we have started jotting down her adventures.  

Love is in the Air....

Love is in the Air...

at the zoo at least

We went to the zoo yesterday with the grandparents and as we were leaving the butterfly exhibit, saw the most amazing, double winged butterfly!!!  Until we looked a little closer and realized it was TWO butterflies which were mating...huh....never really thought about butterflies mating before...or ginormous grasshopper like insects...which were going at it in the insect exhibit right up on the glass....or the huge "sea" turtles (They were in the water with alligators so I don't know if they were actually sea turtles or have some other name) and there were a couple other exhibits that had some "wild things" going on as well...lol.  Every time my preschooler saw this action going on she said "AWWW! Look mommy the baby is riding on it's mommy's back!" Yup....that's EXACTLY what is going on...yeah...that's it.....

Awesome First Christmas Card

Soooo....is this not an awesome postcard or what? lol!  That is my adorable niece with her hottie mom and dad and don't you think that headband just makes the photo?  I mean look at it! It just adds to her cuteness!  ok ok...she's cute enough on her own but I was excited to see her wearing one of the headbands I made for her!  After making the satin burnt edge flowers (i don't know if there is an actual name for them but Crystal Escobar from wannabe told me how to do 'em) I encrusted the edges with matching glitter so make it a lil sparkly :)  

Speaking of Crystal, (I blog stalk) she just had her baby girl and if you haven't yet, you should check out her shop it is full of the cutest things!

Baby Belly Dancing Video

I just wanted to give out some thank yous today

1. Thanks Crystal @ wannabebalanced for having me as a guest contributor this past week, check back for more guest appearances from me over there in the future :)

2. Thank you to Tiaras and Tantrums and Costume Express for their recent giveaway!  I'm so excited about winning the $65 shopping spree over there.  Since repunzle was sold out I got my daughter the Cinderella getup and I know she will LOVE it!

3. Thank you to the Stuff of Success and My Memories for their recent giveaway...I was having a lucky week I guess! I also won $50 to get the My Memories digital scrapbook software and one of the kits.  So excited to try it out!

And now for the youngest belly dancer you have ever seen....only 3 weeks old...

Check out my new little niece!  The youngest dancer I've seen, not surprising since her momma is the best dance teacher and choreographer! I can't wait to  meet her in a few more weeks!

My Hooter Hiders and Suspenders

Nursing Cover (tutorial here)

I have barely been able to get on the computer since the baby was born 3 weeks ago, I've been too busy with kids, company, taking lots of pictures and sleeping. Anyways, things have been going great and we just adore this little guy so much! I can't believe we've only had him for 3 weeks while at the same time I can't believe he's already 3 weeks old!



My mom has been staying with us for the past 8 days which has been awesome! My hubby had to do some traveling for work and I was SO glad to not be totally on my own yet with the 2 kiddos! Plus, living so far from my family it's just really nice to get to have some girl time with my own mommy. She been helping me get everything done....including LOADS AND LOADS od laundry! But one fun thing she helped me get done during her stay was make Hooter Hiders aka Nursing Covers. I really wanted to make one before I had the baby but didn't get around to doing it. So we ran to the Hobby Lobby around the corner and found some really pretty fabrics and made 2 nursing covers for about $6.00 each at most! If you want to buy a nursing cover at a maternity store or target, they run close to $35 each. We found a good tutorial at Tada Creations and my mom did most the work on these while I took care of the baby...I did some of the ironing and cutting but she did all the sewing this time around! Anyways, I LOVE them! They were easy too! I'm so happy with how they turned out, the only thing that could be better is...well...make sure you don't accidentally buy upholstry thread like I did...we went ahead and used it and it's not a HUGE deal...but they would have turned out better with regular thread.


So I'm thinking I might start wearing some suspenders! I've been wearing a lot of gym shorts and yoga pants as I'm at that inbetween stage of not fitting my maternity clothes but not fitting my pre-pregnancy clothes either...so it seems a lot of times when I'm holding the baby, my 3 year old will try to climb up me and end up pulling my pants down. Not that big of a deal when we're just hanging out in the house by ourselves...however...yesterday I took her out to the swimming pool just outside our front door for a bit. As we were walking back up to our door to go home, my 50-60ish year old neighbor (a man) walked out with his little dog...JJ used to love dogs but apparently now she is terrified because she started screaming and trying to climb up my legs but instead....was pulling my shorts down. I was holding onto the front of my shorts the best I could but she was going nuts...I couldn't pick her up and the shorts completely came down halfway....At least my underwear stayed up! When I told my husband later...he joked "No fair, now Bill has seen you more naked than I have in weeks!" lol. (he exagerates).

Anyways, so I'm thinking until I can fit into some normal jeans...I might have to start wearing some suspenders or tying a rope around the top of everything (not really) before I leave my apartment...because I don't want people seeing my butt/underwear everytime JJ sees a little dog walk by or decides she wants me to hold her too while I'm already carrying the baby.

Family Fitness

So among all the parenting literature and advice you have read, I'm sure you've come across the statement (as I have numerous times) that it's important to exercise with your kids and to let them see YOU exercising. Well, today my back was killing me and I REALLY needed to do my prenatal yoga DVD to get the blood flowing and loosen up and lighten up before I ran to the hospital begging to be induced running over anyone who might get in my way!. I normally try to do my Prenatal Yoga when my daughter is sleeping...it's just easier that way. But hey, I needed a change of pace ASAP and it's supposed to be so good to exercise with your kids.

As you can see, my little girl (almost 3) was very into doing yoga with me. I kept thinking, "aw this is so adorable! She's actually trying to do it all with me!" and grabbed my camera to snap some pictures....

Well, this is AFTER I didn't have the camera turned on anymore.....

Monkey Swinging from a Tree Pose

After we were all done our circus show yoga, my sweet pea wanted to color so I decided to sit down with her and illustrate what yoga really looks like when you are a mom. These were just 2 of our modified poses.

Child's (Climbing on Me) Pose