Hello Old Friend

It has been over a year since my last post.  In my last post I was getting ready for Brody birthday party...which was a huge success! I will post some pics and some tutorials on how I made it all in the weeks to come. 

So much has happened in the last year....I started back to work in January, Brody turned 4, Marak turned 3, our lives became completely nuts with putting our house up for sale in August (which it's STILL up for sale!), the kids started school an hour away from our current house, to the town we will be moving to (we thought we'd be there by now!), my mother's cancer made a turn for the worst, she passed away in November, and then we had the saddest Christmas of my existence. 

I guess with all of that said, the best place to start is the beginning.  Work is fantastic, I didn't think I would like it this much.  It's a huge difference in place/people from where I used to work.  It's nice when you can actually enjoy working, as opposed to how it used to be.  I've been here a little over a year now and I am still loving it.  I knew that if I was going to go back to work, it would have to be for something great, leaving the kids and putting them in school was really hard.  Marak cried and cried for the first few months, it was torture.  I would cry all the way to work those first few months feeling like the worst mother ever for leaving her babies at school.

Trying to sell the house has been an exhausting nightmare! Keeping a house remotely clean with a 4 year old and 3 year old in the house....yeah right! Since August we have had to stop keeping it perfectly clean, it's too much work with working full time. We've had a handful of lookers come by, but none seriously into it.  I asked the boys to clean up their toy room this past weekend and Brody asked me if they had to keep it clean so we could sell our house.  When I replied,"Yes" he then said, "that's okay we can just stay here, we don't need to move!" I'm starting to think he may be onto something! We are all getting tired of the move that will never happen. 

Now onto the most horrible part of our year...my mom.  I won't say a lot on the subject right now for many of reasons.  Most importantly I'm not sure if I'm ready to put it all out there exactly how horrific it was to watch her pass away so painfully.  By the time she passed she was basically a big ball of cancer.  I have seen, smelled, and been through more horrific things last year than I ever thought humanly possible.  My mother has taught me a lot over the years, her last lesson for me was how to have strength and grace in the hardest moments of your life.  How to survive those tragedies you don't think you can live though.  She was strong, courageous, loving, giving, selfless, and so strong in faith.  I'm thankful for her, and the life she gave me every day!

Welcome the new year!

Well the Christmas season is over, and the new year is officially here.  For most people the day after Christmas means shopping all day for discounted wrapping paper, Christmas ornaments, and holiday decorations.  But here at the Seymour house the day after Christmas means party planning! Brody's birthday is the last weekend of January, so that means only a month to plan a fantastic party! This year I started way WAY early (yeah for being organized!) I started back in November.  I originally wanted to do a LEGO party, or a Batman party because Brody loves both.  But as I started searching on line for cute party ideas, I ran across this really cute party idea from Bliss Bloom Blog I immediately fell in love with this party idea, mostly because Brody always says he's a man not a little boy, and because he loves wearing ties (he has to even wear one to the grocery store).  So the party planning began! I used her templates for the super cute glasses, mustaches, and lips. I made my own tie template for the tie banner, and found a cute font online and printed out my Happy Birthday Brody letters, then traced them and cut them out of card stock.  I also searched online for more cute party ideas and found these cute websites Event Lucky I loved this site....the little boy with the hat is so adorable, and I loved the tie cookies, 'stache suckers, and the hanging frame for taking pictures.  All such great ideas!! Courtney at Pizzazzerie posted this really cute version of the lil' man theme from Cakes like a Party, I love the houndstooth theme, the ties for invitations, and Annika's cute tie skirt all so cute! Our party will be pretty big, we have a huge family and Brody has quite a few friends.  Our normal party turn out is 40, 18 of which are kids! So back in November I bought the tie and 'stache cookie cutters, 'stache & lips chocolate sucker molds, and even some fake stick on mustaches from Amazon.  Then went to Hobby Lobby and found some very cute tie and dress shirt looking paper for the invitations, tie banner, ties on the goodie bags, cupcake wrappers, and food tags.  So now I have been a very busy lady crafting my invitations and other party decorations.  As I get finished with my projects I'll post some pics and maybe even a few tutorials!

Christmas joy!

The crazy shopping season has started. Black Friday was a huge success at our house! I ended up getting all of my Christmas shopping done and even got all of my gifts wrapped and under the tree. My wonderful husband stayed home with the kids while I shopped, then took them to the fair grounds for a horse show so I could rest and wrap presents. He's truely the best!! I really enjoy Black Friday shopping, which probably makes me a tad crazy, but it's the ultimate shop-a-ton! My shopping began at 10 p.m. Thursday night and then came home around 1:00 a.m. for a little rest and then back out at 5:00 a.m. for some more hot deals. We have a ton of kids to buy for so the awesome deals on kids toys really save a lot of money! So not only did I do shopping in the stores, but also online. I made the cutest Christmas cards at www.shutterfly.com

Photo Card

View the entire collection of cards.

Aren't these adorable!! I love this picture of the boys. I normally make all of dress in coordinating outfits on Thanksgiving so we can take a family photo for the Holiday cards. I made my poor husband and boys do it again this year, and we even took a photo. But after I saw this one of the boys I just couldn't help it, I had to use it.

I was really hoping this would have turned out better, but the sun was just too bright, and we just couldn't take it! The poor kids are making the worst faces...and Wes too! Ha ha!

Try photo number two: you can see how well this turned out! Wait Marak where are you going? And how come nobody is looking?? Ha ha!

Now onto photo number three: Much better with some editing and croping out of the house, this would have worked.  The sun was still crazy bright, but not as bad.  But I just couldn't justify putting squinty eyes on a Christmas card!

So the boys won hands down! Oh well at least we all looked cute on Thanksgiving!

So my other online shopping was from an awesome website that turns your instagram photos into magnets! I found the coolest gifts at http://www.stickygram.com/. I think that was my favorite gift that I bought, I even got one for myself because I loved it so much! :) I firmly believe in getting yourself something when out Black Friday shopping....it's only fair!haha!

Now that all of the shopping and present wrapping is done, it's time to start one of my favorite things...the holiday baking!

Weekend get-away!!

This past weekend was our 6th wedding anniversary!! And for the first time in 6 years, Wes and I went on a trip! It was a much needed and way long overdue trip! I'm not really sure why we waited so long to get away, I guess somewhere between I do and the present time, life happened along with kids and work....making it next to impossible to get away. I have been lucky enough to know Wes for the last 9 years. We had a lot of common friends in high school, but we didn't meet until college. We are both from small towns, and I worked at the local mall in high school with almost all of the kids in his high school, but we didn't meet then. Wes and I met through a friend of mine, who just so happened to be his cousin Carrie, she set us up on a kind of blind date. She brought him in one day to the Gap where I was working at the time so we could meet. When we met it was like the universe came to a complete stop, and our future lives flashed before our eyes. And after our first date, I knew with all of my heart that I couldn't spend the rest of my life without him. Of course I had to wait awhile before I clued him into how I felt (I didn't want him to think I was nuts!) So after two years of dating, and a year of engagement we were married! And now we have our two beautiful little boys. These past 6 years have been wonderful, I am so blessed to be his wife. He's walked beside me in the good times and carried me through on the bad times. The last three years have been the hardest for me by far, with loosing three grandparents, having two boys in two years, and watching my mom battle cancer twice...he's been my rock, carrying me through it all. So with the last three years being so crazy, I decided that this year was going to be better! I was going to be better, no more grieving, no more crying every time someone died on TV, no more crazy emotions. So this year I suggested that we go to our family cabin in the mountains and go four wheeler riding! Which he LOVED the idea, Wes is a huge hunter, camper, hiking woodsmen. I swear he should have his own survival show out in the woods! I am not much of a camper, or hunter. I definitely wouldn't survive out in the woods, I am more of a glamper than a camper...but our place in the mountains is one of the most beautiful, magical places I have ever been to. I spent a lot of my childhood there riding four wheelers with my family. The last time I was there I was pregnant with Brody, Wes and I went for the day to look at some hunting land, and he too fell in love with it. I haven't been back since, mainly because it reminds me so much of my grandpa, he died when I was pregnant with Brody. I just haven't been able to bear it. But this is a new year, and I can handle anything with Wes by my side. So off we went...we had the best time, we rode four wheelers all day long, and I got to show Wes all of the fun trails, and how to get to the lake, and show him the big foot sightings! We had such a blast, and it was so much needed. We decided to take the scenic route down there and back, I love going that way, and driving through all of the cute small towns along the way, and eating that good southern home cooking along the way.

This is Wes as we were driving the long way up the mountain! He looks so serious here! haha

This is the view as you are entering the cabin, isn't it amazing. I remember the first time I saw it when I was a little girl, I thought it was so magical. And of course you have to have one cheesin it! This is the cabin my parents built. This isn't the original cabin here, it burned down when I was in high school. Right before my grandpa died my parents built this, I am so glad they did. I am glad we can go back and have a nice place to stay and remember all of the good times we had there.



This is the home of Big Foot!! BEWARE!! There are lots of really good Big foot stories told in this area, lots of weird sightings! I used to be terrified to ride alone in the woods in fear big foot would snatch me!!haha!



Here Wes and I are riding around lake Pappy Kirk!

It was an awesome get away, and hopefully we won't wait another 6 years to do it again!

Wonder Pets PAR-tay!!!

This past weekend we had my little baby's birthday party! He will be turning two on Wednesday, so we had all of our family and our friends out to celebrate. The party went great, the food was awesome, and everyone had a great time. We are lucky that Wesley's family and mine all get along so great and all really like each other. It makes family get togethers much easier.

I am also so very blessed to have such an awesome mother! She came out on Friday and helped me clean the house and make food for the party. I couldn't have done it all with out her. I had so much to do, and the little boys don't make it very easy! They were running around the house crazy, while we were trying to clean and bake.

So here are some of the pics from the party!

This was the dessert bar, it was filled with all kind of yummy goodness! Everyone loved it, and as the guest were leaving I had empty sacks ready for them so they could fill them up with their favorite treats! I should have taken down the mirror and iron scroll above the table but it is so heavy I didn't want to mess with it.

This was Marak's birthday cake, made to look like the Wonder pet symbol. The bottom layer is chocolate cake with honey buttercream filling and chocolate frosting. The top layer is one of my favorites bananna cake with the same filling and frosting combination. I made the same thing for Brody's Birthday cake too, it was so good I was wanting more!

These were one of the desserts on the dessert bar. This is what I call Boomer Sooner Whoopie Pies. They are so delish! It is red velvet cookies with cream cheese frosting.....YUM!

And of course it's not a party with out cake balls. These were a mix of strawberry cake and red velvet cake. Everyone loved them, they were gone pretty fast!

And what's a party with out jelly beans and gummy bears? I bought way too much candy, but it filled up the jars and it looked really pretty....and that's all that really matters at a birthday party! The little wonder pet symbols on the ribbon, I made myself out of punch dots and then I free handed the W.

This is just peeps on a stick. It was so easy and so fast to make. I got the idea online, luckily Marak's birthday is right around Easter...otherwise it would have been impossible to find peeps!

So glad the dessert bar was a hit, and we didn't end up with too much food!

Marak had a great time at the party, he loved all of his toys! He even started to cry when it was time to sing happy birthday because he didn't want to stop playing with his toys! And after the party Wesley's mom was sweet enough to take the boys for the night. So Wes and I cleaned up the house (it took me 4 hours to clean up just the toy room!), and then went out for dinner, and picked up a bottle of wine and came home and watched our shows in the wonderful peace and quiet! It was fantastic!

Snow

It's snowing here in Oklahoma!! And for me it came just at the right time. Right in between Brody's birthday and mine. However the snow isn't stopping so my birthday may be ruined a bit, but that's okay because Brody's was awesome!! We had all of our family over and some of Brody's nearest and dearest friends over. Okay so maybe it was my nearest and dearest friends and their sweet little children. But it's only inevitable that our kids will become best friends too. The party was great! I made and designed my first dessert bar for the party and it turned out so cute! I was really wanting to take a lot a good pictures of it so I could post them but I ended up getting so busy with the party that I didn't take one darn picture of it. Luckily my Aunt Nancy was the only one to get a pic of it.

Its taken from kind of far away, I wish I would have gotten some up close. But it turned out so good, and it was such a hit!! We had sour apple gumballs, strawberry cake pops, birthday cake, ice cream, rice crispy pops, orange slices, and some candied trail mix. It was all so good!! Brody loved it, he is such a sugaroholic that it was perfect for him.

This is Wes and I with our sweet little Birthday Boy!! Not sure if you can tell from the pictures but we had a dinosaur Birthday party!!

This is the Birthday cake I made for my sweet Brody. The bottom layer was German chocolate cake with marshmallow cream filling, and chocolate frosting. And the top layer was a little more riskier, I really wasn't sure if anyone would like it or not, but I loved it so wanted to make it. It was Banana Cake with the same frosting and filling! It was so delicious. It is kind of like Banana bread, but with a cake consistency......it was so yummy!!! The party was so much fun, I love being around our friends and family. It was a good day, the kids ended up falling asleep from a sugar induced coma...it was lovely!

Christmas time is here!

Tis the season to be jolly!!! This is one of my favorite times of the year! Pretty lights, Christmas decorations, stockings, and lets not forget all of the wonderful Christmas FOOD!! Really I love any holiday or any other day when I get to bake. I love to try new things and bake something absolutely delicious for any gathering. This year I have become obsessed with red velvet, and all things made red velvet style. Anything from red velvet cake, red velvet cake balls, and something I am especially excited to try out red velvet brownies. I will be making them for one of the holiday gatherings this year!!! This week (I know I have been a slacker in the posing department, but really I am going to do this) I am going to post a recipe that I am excited about making .....and who knows if your really lucky.....I will even post two in one day!! Today it is Red Velvet Brownies!! I will let you know how they turn out as soon as I make them, but for now here is the recipe...it was featured in this months Southern Living magazine (one of my favorite magazines...since I'm a southern belle!)

Red Velvet Brownies
1 4oz. bittersweet chocolate baking bar, chopped
3/4 c. butter
2 c. sugar
4 large eggs
1 1/2 c. all purpose flour
1 1oz. bottle red liquid food coloring
1 1/2 t. baking powder
1 t. vanilla
small batch cream cheese frosting
white chocolate curls to garnish

Preheat oven to 350°. Line bottom and sides of 9" square pan with foil, allowing 2-3 inches to extend over sides. Grease foil.
Microwave chocolate and butter in a large microwave safe bowl at high 1 1/2 - 2 minutes or until melted and smooth, stirring at 30 second intervals. Whisk in sugar. Add eggs, 1 at a time, whisking just until blended after each addition. Stir in flour, and next 4 ingredients. Pour mixture into prepared pan.
Bake at 350° for 44 to 48 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out with a few moist crumbs. Cool completely on a wire rack. (about 2 hours)
Lift brownies from pan, using foil sides as handles; gently remove foil. Spread small batch cream cheese frosting on top of Brownies, and cut into 16 squares. Garnish with chocolate curls.

Small-Batch Cream Cheese Frosting
1 8oz. package cream cheese frosting
3 T. butter softened
1 1/2 c. powdered sugar
1/8 t. salt
1 t. vanilla extract

Beat cream cheese and butter together until creamy, gradually add powdered sugar and salt, beating until blended , stir in vanilla.

Hope you enjoy them...I know I will :)