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 :)

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is here!! This year I have so many things to be thankful for...for me the thing that I am most thankful for is my wonderful husband. He has endless faith in me. So when I told him my crazy plan to stay at home with the boys, instead of saying your crazy!!! NO WAY!! He went with it! And even when our plan didn't quite work out like I had planned, he didn't even complain he just said we will figure it out... and then he did! Staying home with the boys is probably the best gift he has ever given me, I am loving it! Even thou we don't get to see him as much as we would like, staying home is working out really well for us. The boys are happier, and so are Wes and I, it was the best decision we have ever made.
Our house is smelling so wonderful tonight! I have lots of sweet treats baking tonight for our dinner with my mom's side of the family tomorrow! This year we will be going to my Granny Ree's house and to Wesley's mom's house on Sunday for another Thanksgiving celebration. So that means lots, and LOTS of great food to eat!! We are very blessed in our family with some very wonderful cooks, over eating is a huge problem when we get together! Which can be a good thing sometimes.
So in honor of Thanksgiving what are you most thankful for this year??? Here is my top 10 list....
1. Wesley~his love, support, endless faith, strength, & kindness

2. Brody & Marak~ their love for us and each other, sweetness, stubborn, onry, & kindness. For their timing, they came when I needed them most and didn't even know it.

3. My family~immediate, distant, and even in-laws!

4. My courageous mother~ her strength, faith, wisdom, dependability, love, & her ability to move mountains with her prayers.

5. Blessings~ For all of the unexpected ones we have received.

6. Acceptance~ The ability to accept things I have no control over and the strength to move past.

7. 25 years~ The time I had getting to know one of the most wonderful men on the planet...my grandfather.

8. 2 in 2~ having 2 boys in 2 years

9. Chocolate- It's just a daily necessity

10.Timeouts!~ Like Chocolate it is a daily necessity with a 2 year old and a 1 year old. :)

Hope you all have a safe and wonderful Thanksgiving!

Potty Training

We have hit a milestone here at the Seymour house. Our oldest little boy has begun an adventure of a life time, well at least his biggest adventure so far....Potty training. I was not so sure what to expect going into it, or really the do's or don'ts of training someone to potty. And since I stay home with them, and Wes is working a lot, I knew it would be mostly up to me to get him trained. My biggest fear of the potty training was what to do when we go in public?? Since 75% of the time it would just be me with the boys, and Marak is SO hard to keep still or even to get him to listen. Marak is what I like to call a runner, as soon as he gets the chance to be out of the shopping basket or stroller, he runs for dear life to get away and explore. So after several weeks of pottying at home and having him be able to tell me when he needs to go, and not having any accidents, I decided to test it out in public. I decided my best shot of this would be late morning when everyone is at work. So we went to walmart.....as soon as we got there I asked Brody if he had to go and he said yes. So off to the bathroom we went! And as I guessed, as soon as Marak was down and in the bathroom he tried to make a run for it. But after a stern talking to and giving him the stink eye he complied and watched his big brother go potty! It was a success!! So now going out in public with a potty trainer isn't so bad. Brody has really done very well, and we have had only 1 accident in 2 weeks! He is even taking naps in underwear. I am so proud of my little pottier!

Cakes Cakes and more Cakes!

My second week off work, has been a very busy one. I have had more cakes due this week than I ever have had before. Which is really exciting, because I started off the month not having any due.

For some reason I just love this photo, it pretty much sums up how my week went. In case you are wondering in the buckets is frosting and fondant. In the walmart sacks is cake mix, and all of the rest of the stuff on the table would be cake boards, cake sketches, and other misc. cake things.

The week started off with my little brother's 16th Birthday. And what else would a 16 year old want for a cake?? Monster Energy drink cake!! When I asked my little brother what kind of a cake he wanted he said, "Monster!" So I immediately think of the big blue/green monster from Monster's Inc.....Sully! And I thought, he is SO weird!!! Why in the world would he want a Monster's Inc cake? That is SO un-cool! So as I prepared to make him a Sully cake, my mom called and I was talking to her about it, and she clarified he wanted the "Monster Energy Drink" as a cake. Could you imagine me showing up with a huge Sully cake in front of all of his friends, he probably would have never talked to me again!! In my world of Dora and wonderpets, if you tell me you want a Monster cake, I am just going to think of that big blue/green monster! Sorry! That's just how it goes around here!

This is a close up view of the wedding cake I made for Wesley's sister Danielle. I must admit I wasn't too excited about this one, I just could not envision it. But it turned out so pretty.

This was Wendall's grooms cake. He is a hunter if you couldn't guess. My boys loved this one! They stole the deer off the cake when we were cutting into it. Hee hee! This cake was by far one of my favorites because I actually got to eat this one and it was so delish! It was chocolate cake with a chocolate mocha maple frosting. And it was so moist it just melted in your mouth....Divine!




This is the full view of Danielle's cake. Turned out pretty good, it even survived the way down from the house. The wedding was about an hour away from our house at a Lake. This cake was Vanilla with Buttercream frosting. Classic Wedding cake!

And for those of you not on the Twilight Saga bandwagon. This cake is a Twilight cake, it is based off the four book covers. I made this cake for my dear sweet cousin Jadynn, she turned 8 this year and loves Twilight. So I was really excited to make this one, because I too love Twilight. This cake turned out better than I thought, I had no idea how I was going to make the chess piece or the apple.

And last but not least.....this lovely little cake is one I made for a baby shower. This one kind of grew on me, I would have loved it more had it been in fondant. I am getting so used to making cakes in fondant, that I really don't like just the plain buttercream ones anymore. But this one turned out just beautiful and simple. I love the colors in this one. Very classy!

Sooner Nation

If you do not live in Oklahoma and you are waking up this morning hearing a faint roar in the distance, do not be alarmed! That sound you are hearing would be the chanting of the Sooner Nation yelling out BOOMER..SOONER...BOOMER..SOONER over our TEXAS victory!!! If you do not live in Oklahoma you may not understand why this game is so important. But if you do, then you are as excited as I am for the victory!! This year was my first time ever to go to the game. And up until now, every Sooner fan I know has told me that before I die it is a must do on your bucket list! And I would have to say that I would agree! It was by far such an amazing experience. The whole day was fun, there is nothing like taunting the other team with Texas SUCKS!!! I went this year with my 7? year old grandmother (the "?" is becuase I am not allowed to discuss her true age, she knows she is old but no one is supposed to know...not even I) You are probably wondering what an 7? year old grandma is doing at such an event, but you have never met my grandmother. She has had season tickets to OU since the sixties. And since then she has only missed two games. Both because of my grandfather being sick, which she was not and I repeat NOT happy about!!! If you are in our family you know NOT to plan anything on a home game or she will not be there. And if its an away game, you better not think about it either! She once came to my cousin Johnny's wedding with a radio headset so she could listen to OU vs. Nebraska while the wedding was going on. I am pretty sure she even yelled out a big YES when they said I DO because OU scored!! She has been known to leave the birth of her great-grandchildren to go to OU vs. Texas!! She is the meaning of die hard fan. So going to the games with her is a lot of fun! She does the wave, the OOOOOOOOUUUUU!!!, the BOOMER SOONER, high fives when we score, and chants " hey ref you suck!! She can name off any football stat, or any information on the players and their family! She has amazing football knowledge!
So going with her made the game even better. The game is held at the cotton bowl while the Texas state fair is going on. So when you get there you can ride the rides, eat the fair food, and enjoy the great game. The game was awesome we stayed ahead the whole game which is always nice. We almost gave it up in the end with the two fumbles, but then our SOONER magic came into play and we recovered it. Thank goodness!! All in all it was a great day!

Staying Home

It is official....I am now a stay at home mom!!! I finally made the leap to leave the corporate world for the potty training world. Monday was my first official day at home, and we celebrated with a trip to the zoo! We had so much fun. My grandmother, mom and little brother came with us. The boys were so good, they hardly made a peep! They were so excited about seeing all of the animals. It was such a wonderful way to celebrate being a stay at home mom. The rest of the week has been pretty busy, much more than I thought it would be. It is so relaxing to not have to plan anything and not worry about the silly things like, pricing hose kits and planning productions schedules. My days used to filled with such stress, if I couldn't make things happen then a major oil company would have a unit down and be out tons of money. Now may days are filled with potty training, the wonder pets, baking cakes, and two precious little boys. SO MUCH BETTER!

The cakes have picked up so much. Next week I have a baby shower cake, wedding cake, grooms cake, and a birthday cake...oops make that two birthday cakes. So it will be busy and the little boys will be excited to taste test the cake batter and the frosting. And I will get to anxiously await hearing Brody say... "Mom this is really good birthday party!" As he is licking cake batter off of the whippers. He says it every time I make cake, and I just love hearing it! I have started a website for the cake business, if you would like to check it out you can go to http://www.katycakes.org/. I am also thinking about opening an account on etsy.com and selling fondant cupcake toppers. Does any of you use etsy to sell anything on it? Or have even heard of etsy?

Well now that I am staying home be looking forward to much more smelly boy stories, and some baking too!!

The cake business is getting busier and busier! My latest project is for a very special man. He is not only the pastor of First Baptist Church of Dale, the principle of Harrah Middle School, but he is the father of a very good friend of mine. He is by far one of the nicest people I have ever met. This year is a very important birthday for Big Doug because, he is turning the big 5-0!! I hope you enjoy!!

Some of the cake projects

So here is one of the cakes I made recently. This is a very special cake for me because this was my first cake for a lady I didn't know!! Up until this point all of the cakes I have been made have been for someone I know either a family member or a friend so that means either for my cousin Edye or my friend Amber. So this was HUGE for me because I would actually be making money on this cake, so it was HUGE for me. This was for a Hannah Montana birthday party, I forgot to take a picture of it once it was all set up, but the finished cake was spectacular!! It had a bunch of stars coming out of the top of the cake, and it had the girls name spelled out in fondant and attached to wire. It was way cool. The lady I made it for e-mailed me a pic. I will have to get it saved and uploaded :) But until then here is the cake, and you will have to visualize the stars.

These are the stars that were on top of the cake, I had this pink color and some in a maroon color, they looked fantastic on top of the cake.

More Cake Projects

Here are a few more cakes I have made lately....
This one is probably one of my favorites, mostly because I just LOVE the little girl I made this for. This was for my little cousin Jaycie, she is by far one of the cutest little girls I have ever seen, and so are her two sisters. This also was one of the easier cakes I have made which is really nice. I actually got to eat this one, and it was so yummy!! I made it out of one of my favorite cakes for kids parties. It was party chip cake, and in the middle I spread a layer of icing, a layer of sprinkles, then another layer of icing. It was YUMMY!!! Wish you all could have tried it.

This next one is some cupcakes I made for a friend who was having a pool party. She had about 7 different birthdays she was celebrating at the pool party so I thought the flowers and fish made for a good pool party that was celebrating both girls and boys.

Hope you have enjoyed the cakes, I am sure there will be more to come!

Bad Little Blogger

I have been such a bad blogger lately...as in not blogging at all!! So Sorry!! I have been missing it but have been so super busy!! The cake business is picking up, which is very exciting! I have an order every weekend this month and have had to turn down two because I just didn't have the time to commit to them. I have made some really cute cakes recently and need to post some pics. I have started a fan page on facebook for my cake business. It is Katycakes. I also need to post some pictures to it as well, but just haven't had the time. You are probably wondering what has been taking up so much time that it has taken me away from my love of blogging...well lots of stuff. Besides kids and cakes, there has been work, family, new career, and kids, kids, kids, oh and some cake.
In March I started a new journey, one day while sitting at my desk at work, feeling very upset with situations at work and missing my kids. I was having that daily tug of war with work and kids. I noticed I had this huge feeling in my heart that I was not doing what I was supposed to be doing with my life. I just felt that my place in the world was much needed somewhere else, like at home with my boys. So I started to think of ways that I could make this happen, the most obvious was to just ask my work I if could work from home, I thought it would be possible since another lady at work does the same thing.....but when I asked they turned it down. I was so bummed out. I really love what I do at work, which I NEVER thought those words would ever come out of my mouth when I started there. When I started I was into fashion and marketing not the oil field. But as time went on and I grew up I realized that I do love it. I love getting to help people, and I love that my opinion is valued by some of the most important men in one of the largest oil companies in the world, and that those men who I normally do not help on a daily business see me and think I have no clue what I am talking about because I look too prissy, but after a few min they realize that I can run circles around them. It is a great feeling, when you have their trust an confidence in an industry that not too long ago women were not allowed to work in. Okay so back to the journey.... I started looking into ways that we could afford for me to stay home, and I came up with doing medical billing from home. So I started taking a class and trained on how to do it. Now that I have passed the class and have started to look for work... I am realizing that it is VERY hard to get work, because most doctor's offices want to hire someone who has been in the field for over 2 years. And to make it more stressful, my last day of work is September 24th, which is crazy because I am not one of those irresponsible people who quit a job without something lined out, and the events of how that happened would take forever to explain, but that is how the cards were delt. So that leaves me very soon to be without a job, and nothing lined out. So it has got me to thinking again....I know....it is very dangerous when that happens. But I was thinking, what am I doing? Am I really going to enjoy this as much as what I do now? Staying home with the boys would be amazing, but I still have that feeling deep down that I am not doing what I am supposed to do...then it came to me. My calling is food. It is my passion. Whether it is cakes, making outstanding dinners, or some pioneer woman cinnamon rolls, I love it...all of it, no matter how many dirty dishes are piled up in the sink when I am done. So after Sept. 24 you will find me at home with my crazy little boys making some wonderful food for anyone who wants to buy it. So Katycakes is in full force, along with some other cooking adventures maybe some catering? Maybe a lunch service for large offices?? I will keep you all posted. Pray this goes well, and my husband doesn't divorce me for putting us through financial ruin, if this doesn't work out!

Toy Story 3 Cake

Sorry there hasn't been much postings lately. I have been extremely busy lately, just so many projects and no time to do them all in. I have been trying to finish my class, which I am very excited to say that I am almost done with. I have recently put in my notice at work!!! My last day will be September 3, and then I will be staying home with the boys! Lets just pray I can find a job doing medical coding from home!
I don't have much time, but I just wanted to share one of the projects I have been working on. This was a birthday cake for a friends little boy's birthday. He like most kids between the ages of 2 and 5 Love Toy Story. This cake is similar to the cake I made for my son Brody's birthday back in January, see here. I think this one turned out way better. I love the little wooden fence at the bottom and the moon on top that Buzz is standing on. SO CUTE! This one was easier to make too, maybe because I am getting better with fondant, or maybe because I have kind of already made this one before...not sure why...but I am okay with easier!
The birthday party was held at the Omniplex, and what a neat place to have a party. So much to see and do there. Brody would have loved it there, had he gone. He was at the lake with his dad. So Marak and I went, Marak had a blast, but I think he would have liked it a lot more if he was a bit older.
Hope you enjoy my latest creation!

On CNN....again!!

It is that time of year again...the time again where my neighborhood makes an appearance on CNN. This past Monday our town had 11" of rain! The majority of it fell in just a few short hours. As I left for work at 7:00 it wasn't raining at all so I hopped in my car with no rain jacket or umbrella. By the time I hit the highway it was pouring down in buckets! And by the time I got to work 40 min later, it took an extra 20 due to the buckets falling down, it was still raining. So we here in Oklahoma keep up with the weather because you never know what it is going to do. One minute it is sunny, and the next its hailing. So I pulled up our local news station's web site to check out the radar, and I see on their blog that the dam in my neighbor hood is about to go out!! And they were evacuating my neighborhood!!! I can not even begin to tell you the panic that set in, my children were at my neighbors house and I was 20 min away!! My husband met me at home, and we packed up our stuff and got the kids and got out of there ASAP! When we left we already had some water coming in our house :(

This is part of our little island. I love how pretty and calm it looks here. It really wasn't the water was up a LOT higher than normal.

We tried to get close to the dam, but they had the road blocked off from people like us who want to take a picture. :)

We finally came back home and we didn't have a lot of damage...luckily! We will be replacing some wood flooring and part of a wall. It could have been a lot worse, and we are just thankful that everyone is okay.

A funny thing happened

It has been awhile since my last post. We have been so busy lately. Any free time I have had, I have been studying, trying to hurry up with my class so I can start staying home with the kiddo's. Wes has been working out of town a lot too lately, he just got back from Washington. Then came Memorial weekend...which was SO busy for us. Wesley's dad came down to visit, and we had our niece's birthday party. She turned 13, I remember when I turned 13 seems like forever ago!

I just have to share a funny story about the kids.....Last night we had to do our grocery shopping, and I didn't want to wait on Wes so the boys and I went after work. We stopped off at Mc Donalds for a treat for the boys (which was the first time ever to take them there.....I am not a fan of McDonalds and hate for the kids to eat it) but Brody saw the big M in the sky and asked for french fries. Then it was off to Sams, then to Target. While at Target the boys were starting to get tired and we were just about threw with our shopping when we had to get the bread. So I hand Brody the loaf and tell him to hold on to it, and DON"T squish it! So he says, "okay momma" in his super cute little voice. We ran into the nicest man in the bread aisle who commented on the boys and how it looked like I have my hands full with them (they were going bonkers by this point) so then we finished our shopping and headed off to the check out lanes. We saw the man again at the check out lane, he ended up behind us in line. So we chit chatted some more as I unloaded the groceries out of the cart with the help of Brody who was standing in the basket. That is when I saw our loaf of bread.... I guess Brody had gotten tired of sitting on the hard cart bottom, and decided to use the loaf of bread as a cushion! When I saw it I started laughing so hard, that poor man looked at me like I was crazy! So I lifted up the bread so he could see that it was flatter than a pancake. The nice man sprinted back to the bread aisle and exchanged it for us... but I could not stop laughing.... I laughed, and laughed all the way home. And even when I think about how flat that bread was today, I can't stop chuckling!!!

Family Night!!

Tonight we did one of my favorite things...Family Night. Now that the boys are a bit older I like to do something together as a family. Usually Family night occurs right before Wes has to work out of town. It's a good way to send him off, and it gives the boys something fun to do with their dad. So tonight we decided to take the boys out for pizza. It is hard to go out to eat with the boys, there are limited places we can go because Brody is such a picky eater. So we usually have to go somewhere where we can get pizza (and that has to look just so so or he won't eat it) or somewhere where he can get chicky fries (chicken & french fries). We have LOTS of issues with Brody and food so you never know if or what he will eat. So he normally determines where we go.

This is Wes and Brody before we ate.

This is Wes helping Brody eat, his pizza was too hot so he made Wes hold it for him while he ate. Even after it cooled down, he still made Wes hold it. I was cracking up, it was too cute!

Brody saw his dad putting the "fake" Parmesan cheese on his pizza, and he had to do it too. He liked it so much that he had to sprinkle it on every time he went to take a bite. He even started to pour it on his hand and lick it off. Which really surprised me because the kid likes his food very bland, or it has to have sugar poured all over it before he will eat it. I am afraid he gets the sugar thing from me. He was just born to be that way, while I was pregnant with him, I kid you not the only things I wanted to eat were chocolate, sugar, french fries, and cheeseburgers. I had to have chocolate every day!!

This is what Marak was doing while we were eating. Don't let this picture fool you, he scarfed down his pizza. But while he was doing so he was turned around in his chair watching football on the big screen. Which is really funny because we can't get him to sit down and watch anything at home. I guess he really likes football, he should, he is built like a line backer.

After we got done eating we had to do some grocery shopping. Out of everything in the store Marak latched onto this bottle of coke and wouldn't let it down. He even had to have it with him in the car, and play with it before he went to bed. Nothing like cheap entertainment :) It was a great night, great way to spend it before Wes is out of town. Now the kids are passed out and Wes is packing...that's right I said packing. He is even doing some last minute laundry so that he can pack it too!!! Men! When will they ever be prepared??

Bad Bad Boy!

For the fist time ever, but certainly not the last time...my little boy broke my heart. As I have come to find out parenting is not always rainbows and kittens. The other night we decided to have a family movie night with the boys, Wes was about to leave on a golf trip. So we thought we had better do something fun with the boys before he left and they wouldn't see him for awhile. We popped our popcorn and put in a new movie we bought just for the occasion. My little boys love animals (they must get that from their dad) so we thought we would get them Brother Bear. Our thinking was bear movie + their love of animals = great movie night. Which it did turn out to be fun, the boys liked it, and it was a good way to send their dad off. However, after watching the movie my 2 yr. old picked up on a new word....SHUT UP! A couple of the characters in the movie get into a play fight and start telling each other to SHUT UP. My son thought it was funny. Well he decided to start using the word.

Here he is looking all sweet and innocent in his favorite tie.

Don't let the picture fool you, on this night he was no angel. He got in trouble for pushing his brother down for the millionth time. So I took away his toy (buzz light year), which made him start to scream and cry like a crazy man. So I told him to go lay down on the couch until he could contain himself. So he decided to march himself to the couch, lay down and yell SHUT UP!! SHUT UP!!.

Did you hear that, that sound was my heart breaking. So I very calmly went over to him and marched him to his room where he had to lay down in bed for about 10 min (when he stopped crying), then had a long, very LONG talk with him on why we can't say mean things like shut up. So in my long speech, I told him that he hurt mommy's feelings. His response was " I kiss, it!! Sorry momma!!"

So needless to say I am very irritated with kids movies, why do they put material in it that isn't appropriate for children to say or do?? If they are going to put adult material in it, then they need to say that it is for adults and not for children.

Oklahoma Tornado Season

It is that time of year again. The time for spring flowers, the Wizard of OZ to be played on t.v. (my favorite movie of all time), and tornado's. This past Monday our state had over a dozen different tornado's touch down. One of them destroyed my friends church in Little Axe, he is the preacher there. At the very same time another tornado almost got his house. Luckily his house was fine. The little axe tornado came very close to hitting my parents house, which scared me to death. They have a cellar, but I was still so worried. Some of their friends had damage to their barns, and or homes but they are all safe. We still have people with out power in some areas.

I was on my way home and stuck in traffic, when another tornado decided to start forming over my car! You always know when there is a tornado is about to happen because, it is a hard feeling to describe but the air is so funky and creepy. Kind of a thick, heavy, still feeling. As I left work, the air had that feeling in it. When I got about half way home it started raining and hailing, then all of the sudden it stopped and the wind came to a halt. That is when you know you are in trouble. Then all of the sudden the tree's on one side were blowing in one direction and the tree's on the other side of the car were blowing the opposite way, so I looked up and saw the clouds above me starting to circle. The tornado, even thou it had not touched down yet was pulling water from the lake and dumping it on the highway. I can not even begin to tell you how creepy and scary it was. Finally traffic started to move and by the time I got to the corner by my house it had landed on the ground (about 2 mi. from where I live) Thankfully it was headed in the opposite direction and the kiddo's were already in the neighbor's cellar. When I got home I realized that another tornado was headed straight for my parents house and the worry set in. It was a long night, some people were not so lucky as we were, please keep them in your thoughts and prayers.

This is a photo of the tornado that landed between Yukon and Mustang. You can't tell from the photo but it was about a mile or more in length. There is something so scary but so beautiful about these.

Purse Cake

So this past weekend I had to make a cake for one of my bosses at work! EEEEEAKKKK!!! I can't tell you how nervous I was about this project. 1. Because it was for my boss so it HAD to be good. and 2. Because I had no idea how I was going to do this when I agreed to make a purse cake. And 3. She was coming to my house to pick it up! Which means that I had to not only make the cake but I also had to really clean my house. Luckily Wes took the boys to my mother's house so I could create and clean in the peace and quiet. So my boss got to view my half remodled, pink garage door but cleaned house! So here is how it turned out.

When I got to work on Monday AT said that the cake was a HUGE hit!! The cake was for her mother-in-law, who loved it. I was so thrilled to hear it was a success. She also ordered the cupcakes below with the pink flowers on them (see here)
The cupcakes were one of my favorites. They were sugar cookie cake with cream cheese frosting, they are absolutely divine!!

Momma's Pasta bake

This is one of my favorite go to meals for when we have a busy week. I love things that I can make it and we can eat on it for a few days. It just seems to make the evenings so much easier when you are not stuck in the kitchen all night long. Plus that means less kids in the kitchen with their toys to step on!
My mother gave me this quick fix meal a few years ago and ever since then, we have been eating it for dinner quite a bit.

The ingredient list is short and simple (which is another thing I love)
1 box pasta noodles (any type of small noodle works)
2 Cans diced tomatoes
2 lbs. ground beef
1/4 c. chopped onion
2 cloves garlic
mozzarella cheese

Cook noodles according to box directions. Cook the meat with the onion and the garlic till browned. Once browned added to cooked noodles, add in tomatoes.

Mix all together and put in baking dish. Slice up the cheese and put on top.

Put in oven at 350° for about 20 min. Just long enough to melt the cheese. (I also added some fresh Parm. you can't go wrong with cheese at our house)

And then enjoy!! It is so yummy, I hope you can enjoy it too!

Sneak Peak

Just thought I would share a sneak peak of what I am doing today. I have to make a purse cake and 30 cupcakes for a lady at work. I am on a time crunch and still have to finish the cake, so here is a bit of a preview! Hope you enjoy!

My Little Helpers

This past week I had to make a cake for a lady at work. So on the evening I had to bake my cake, my little helpers heard me in the kitchen pulling out the mixer. They know what that sound means. When they hear the mixer being pulled out on the counter they know that good things are to follow! Brody my oldest LOVES to help me cook, it doesn't matter if it is something sweet and delicious or something he hates like meatballs. Either way he is in the kitchen with me watching and helping. His favorite thing to do is to stir the mixing bowl or anything else as long as he can stir something.

This is a photo of my little helpers in action. Marak is to small still to sit on the counter, and if he wasn't able to see what was going on he would stand at my feet holding onto my legs and cry until he was held up so he could see. And since he weighs a TON, he gets in the high chair.

And in case you were wondering this is what happens when your 2 year old loves helping and decides to help crack an egg! It was funny we all smiled and laughed. After that Brody didn't want to crack anymore eggs, the slimy egg creeped him out!

Weekend Part II

Last weekend we were really busy, and one thing we did was go and see my dear sweet friend Shelley and her new little baby Audrey. Shelley also has a little girl named Olivia who I believe is about to turn 2. So like us, she will have her hands full. After we had Marak, one thing that was really nice was all of the people who brought us food. It was really nice to not have to worry about cooking when we were just so desperately trying to survive with two kids and no sleep! So my friends and I got together and have been planning on making Shelley some food, we have been patiently waiting for her to have the baby. Shelley is a very remarkable lady, she was only in labor 3 hours, and didn't make it to the hospital in time to get the epidural. She had to do it all without any drugs!! She is a stronger woman than me, I don't know if I could have done it. But now her and the baby are doing fine, little Olivia seems to be liking her new sister too which is always nice.
My friends and I got together and planned out our meal for Shelley, with the help of her little sister Kelsey. Kristen made some very yummy brownies for desert, Amber made a yummy looking pasta salad, and I made calzones.
I used the Jiffy pizza crust mix because I was short on time, I usually try to make my own. With the boys being so small and needy I have been having to make some short cuts when cooking. I like the jiffy mix because it taste pretty close to being homemade. I decided to make her a supreme and a pepperoni & sausage. For the cheese I used fresh mozzarella, parmesan, asiago, provolone, & romano.

This is a trick I learned when I was selling pampered chef. If you have whole olives you can slice them quickly & easily by putting them in an egg slicer.

Here is what they look like when they are all chopped up. Doesn't that look easy? I love things that save some time. (and things you can do one handed, I am usually holding a kiddo while cooking)

This is what all of the veggies looked like when they were all chopped up and ready. I had green & red bell peppers, black olives, red onion, green onions, and garlic. I made WAY to much so for the rest of the week we used it in sandwiches, and omlets, it was SO good!

Here is all of the filling on the dough. After I made these I was watching Giada at home on the food network and she made some too, but on hers she used egg wash to seal them. I wish I would have thought of that while I was making mine, it would have made sealing them much easier, and nothing would have leaked out. Guess I will have to do it next time.

They are looking a little messy here, and not quite as cute as Giada's but they were still good.

And here they are all finished. I wrapped them in foil, and put them in a cute large bowl to take them to Shelley. Later she said that they really enjoyed their food from all of us. I know that she was probably relived that she didn't have to cook. Wouldn't it be nice if people brought you dinner every night once you had kids. That would be so much easier. But then your kiddo's would never get to experience your yummy home cooking.

This morning

This morning like most week day mornings started off with a bang! My oh so sweet little angels decided it would be a good idea to reset our alarm clock, so I ended up waking up an hour late!! I guess last night while my husband was putting up laundry they were conspiring against us. So as I wake up in a panic I frantically hop in the shower and get around. As I was finishing up Marak woke up crying, saying "momma, momma, mommma, mommma!" So I take Marak from Wes, just as Brody wakes up too! So Wes helps me take the kiddo's to the couch so that they can watch t.v. while I start on breakfast and making our lunches. When I tell Wes the time, his panic sets in and he too starts frantically getting ready too! In the mean time, I am starting breakfast, and starting our lunches. Marak finds the remote and turns off Dora, which make Brody mad. So I turn it back on, but instead of Dora I put on Diego (they are all the same, and I couldn't remember in my panic state which one he was watching) So as I am going back to the kitchen, I hear in a whine "NO, I not want it, I not want diego!!!!" So we compromised with a movie...UP" So as I once again try to get lunches made and some breakfast ate. Marak starts crying and wants to be held. So I ended up holding him all morning as I ran around frantically getting ready. Brody decided he wanted to eat my breakfast, then after I gave it to him he spit it all out back in my bowl with a "YUCK! Gross mommma, this is YUCKIE!!!) he didn't care for the nuts in my oatmeal, go figure! So then our neighbor came over and grinded us some coffee beans, and we made coffee....then she took the kids next door for daycare. Phew we made it I thought to myself! The kids left with kisses for momma, and some LUV U's too. Then I ran to the back of the house threw on some clothes (I have a rule to NEVER get dressed until you are walking out the door....too many mis-haps with the kids) ran to the kitchen, started looking for my ear ring in the fridge (ment to open up the junk drawer in the kitchen, but my panicked state made me open the fridge) couldn't find it. So I made my coffee in my to go cup, grabbed my lunch. Then got a kiss, hug, slap on the rear, and an I LOVE YOU from my hubby. And I was off to work, which by the way when I got here I found some oatmeal in my hair! Guess Brody felt bad for eating mine then spitting it back out in my bowl so he left me some for later! Couldn't imagine a better way to start off the day!

Weekend Part I

This past weekend was a busy one. My husband and Brody went down to the farm. He had to help his mom with some plumbing, and Brody had to see all of the cows. So they left friday night and left Marak and I to spend the weekend together. Marak passed out early Friday night so I started baking some calazones for my sweet friend Shelley, she just had her second child, a girl named Audrey. I will elaborate more in another post because I have pictures for it. So I stayed up late baking on Friday evening. Saturday Marak and I got up and had breakfast then rushed around the house to be at one of our favorite little cousins soccer games.

This is Jaycie she is on the 4 & 5 year old team. I think her whole team is all 4 years old. The game was 20 - 1 and our sweet little Jaycie made the only goal for her team!! We were so proud of her! She did such an amazing job. The other team had to have a 5 year old on their team because this one little girl (the one who scored all 20 points) towered over all of the kids and anytime she got the ball it was going in. It really wasn't fair! But our little Jaycie stepped up and put us on the board and we could have been happier about the game!

While the game was going on Marak sat in the wagon and played with Jaycies big sis Jadynn and her little sis Jenna. I love it when the boys play with the girls, they are all so cute. It reminds me of when I was little and I played with their dad Johnny. Johnny is about 10 years older than me, but when I was little I just loved playing with him, and he always took time out to play with me. He was so sweet, just like his girls are.

This is a photo of the gang! Too bad Brody wasn't there, he LOVES the little girls. What a great day at the soccer field such nice weather. What a beautiful day. After the game we went to see the new baby. I will continue on about it in the next post.

Slinky Dog

This is Brody and this little dog is his Slinky Dog.

Brody LOVES Toy Story and so for his birthday he got lots of toy story stuff...including this cute little dog from the movie!

This is by far Brody's favorite toy. He got it for his birthday this year from his Nana. At the party he wouldn't put it down, he had to hold it while blowing out his candles and even when he ate his cake. Since his birthday back in January he has to take it everywhere and even has to sleep with it. We play with slinky dog and he goes everywhere with us.

Hopefully this little dog will be the only dog he will ever want....but I doubt it. I am sure like most kids he will come home one day and beg for a dog, but I hope not. It is really hard to say no to that cute little face.

Crock Pot Rotel Chicken

We had one of our favorite dinners tonight. Crock Pot Rotel Chicken. It is one of my favorite things to make because it is SO easy and you can put it on anything!! Here is how you make it:

5-6 Frozen chicken breast
1 pkg. taco seasoning
1 can rotel

Mix the rotel and the taco seasoning, pour over frozen chicken (while in the crock pot) turn crock pot on low, and walk away.

My low setting is 10 hrs. so I normally set and and leave for work, then when I come home I take a fork and stir it together, then you have the best chicken fajita mixture. You can put it on chips, tortillas, pitas, or anything else you can think of. My friend Deana from work gave me this recipe about a 3 months ago and I think we have had it about 4 maybe 5 times since. My husband loves it. Tonight I had mine on a pita with pinto beans, black olives, sour cream, cheese, rotel cheese dip (because you can't have enough cheese), and mango salsa. You talk about yummy! Wes had pretty much the same thing but he put his on chips, and so did my neighbor Zoeanne. She came over to drop off the boys and smelt the yummy goodness so she had dinner with us.

Here is what it looked like in the crock pot, after I stirred it with a fork. It looks kind of icky here, but I promise it isn't.

This is everything we used to make our yummy mexi-goodness. This cheese is my favorite, it is made by Tillamook (it is actual real cheese, not the processed kind in the stores) I highly suggest the real cheese in anything you make, it makes a huge difference. The salsa is also one of my favorites, Newmans he just makes the best stuff.

And here is what my plate looked like, I poured the rotel cheese dip on top with the mango salsa. As Rachael Ray would say "yummo"

Hope you try it, if so let me know I would love to hear how you liked it.