100 Followers!

I was so excited today when I signed into blogger and saw that I have 100 followers! Thanks to everyone who come and visit and leave such sweet comments!

Nearly Wordless Wednesday: The odd sock pile!

For some reason I always have odd socks and very little pairs when I do laundry, I pile them on my dresser and NORMALLY go through them after each load to check for new matches, but lately with moving and the baby I haven't been doing that....

Well after about an hour later and 63 pairs of socks I was left with a few odd socks and lots of room on my dresser

Creative Bloggers' Party & Hop

This week we are going to skip  Sharing Monday because I am co-hosting the Creative Bloggers' Party & Hop with Home Maker on a Dime.

SJ is the writer of Home Maker on a Dime, she has lots of fun linky parties that I love to join in, but you will find much more than parties on Home Maker on a Dime, her blog name says it all, she is all about finding a deal and making something beautiful and useful out of her inexpensive finds!

<center><a href="http://www.homemakeronadime.com/"><img border="0" src="http://i971.photobucket.com/albums/ae194/homemakeronadime/creativeblogbuttonjpg.jpg" /></a></center>

All you have to do is 1) link up whatever creative post you'd like to

share - can be a DIY project, decor, photography, crafts, recipes, link party,

poem, thrift finds, or that informative syndicated post that can make

us laugh, or cry - in short, whatever you're proud of! (No links to

businesses or giveaways. We have another party for these exclusively

this Tuesday called Market Your Biz & Giveaways at 5 pm, PST.) 2) Then

follow as many blogs as your heart desires, preferably starting first with

the one before you and after you, before branching out. (Following the

host and co-host, too, will be very much appreciated, and we'll

definitely follow back if you leave a comment letting us know you are a new follower.)

You’re not  required to include the party button, but if you’re so

inclined to display it in your blog or your post, you’re very much

welcome to do so :)

This is a combination of linky party (where we can show off our

creations) and of blog hop (where we can follow as many excellent

bloggers as we like), hence the name Creative Bloggers' Party & Hop.

Link opens up every Sunday at 5:00 pm, PST.

Because we like something different, we're using the reverse

entry for inlinkz - so the most recent participant will show up as

number 1, hence giving everybody a chance to get the #1 spot.

So link up, we will be having the Creative Bloggers' Party & Hop in place of our Sharing Monday Party.

Let Them Eat Cake!

Last week I taught the sisters in my ward how to work with fondant for our weekly meeting. It turned out to be a really fun class with a good turn out.

I showed them how to trim the cake, make a dam to keep the filling from spilling out, and how to do a crumb coat. I have taught a class like this before and somehow I made the same mistake of not taking my frosting out of the refrigerator early enough to let it warm up so it was a little hard to use at first but once I got it going it worked out great.

Here are the ladies, more showed up as the demonstration went on, I didn't get a count but I felt like it was a good group of ladies.

My mom was a great help, you can see her sitting with Colten to my left, Sam was in the nursery playing with the big kids, it was nice to know I didn't need to worry about the boys while I worked.

Here I am showing them how to roll out the fondant and cover the cake, I was working fast and talking as I went so it didn't turn out as smooth as normal but it was good enough for a quick cake.

After I finished my presentation the sisters were given the chance to ask questions, taste the fondant, and decorate a cupcake how ever they wanted using my icing, fondant and tools.

Even some of the kids got in on the fun, we had lots of beautiful cupcakes and lots of fun!

Below is the handout I made with my Fondant recipe and butter cream recipe.

Marshmallow Fondant

Sharing Monday 13

So many wonderful submissions! Here are my top three:

A Heart Full of Love shared her Patriotic Trifle, that I am really tempted to make for our 4th of July bash this year!

I love the Pirate Themed Party shared by The Outlaw Mom, I am currently planning Sam's birthday party and love her fun ideas!

Clutterholic shared her great tip for organizing her sheets, I so need to follow her advice and tackle my messy linen closet!

Cant wait to see what you have in store for me this week!

Family Friday: Happy Birthday Hubby!

We celebrated my sweet husbands birthday a couple weeks ago. I told him we were taking the boys to my parents so we could go out on a date, and surprised him with a yummy dinner, birthday pie (he is a pie guy) and games with family. He loved the surprise!

I made him key lime pie, lemon meringue pie, and chocolate cream pie, they all turned out really yummy!

Sam loved all the pies!

My dad resting after making a yummy dinner holding Colten

Playing cards

Colten playing on the table

I love when Sam sings you can just barely hear him singing happy birthday!

Crafty Thursday: Busy Week!

This week I have been very busy, my friend let me borrow her serger and I went to work getting all my serging projects done.

Here is what I ended up with...

4 T-shirt blankets

10 cloth towels

12 cloth napkins

 and 33 prefold diapers

Now I am getting ready for my fondant class I am teaching at church! Busy week!

Tasty Treat Tuesday: What To Do With Extra Hot Dog Buns....

In our house we always have extra hot dog buns that don't get used. I don't really like hot dogs but my husband loves them, so when he buys them he gets WAY to many and the buns always go bad. A friend of mine showed me how she uses the leftovers she has, and I had to try it out!

Take your extras and lay them out on a pan (I covered mine with foil for easy clean up) butter, add garlic and salt to taste, you could probably add Italian seasoning for extra flavor..

Broil in oven, I check mine every 2-4 min to make sure they don't burn.

Serve with yummy pasta and enjoy!

These have been a big hit with Sam! Next time I think I will try adding Parmesan cheese or some other cheese.

Sharing Monday 12

Another great week, lots of fun new projects, recipes and storage ideas!

Domestic Deadline shared her great idea for storing her thread, I just love the color she chose!

The Golden Means showed her amazing artistic skills with the garage shelves she transformed into beautiful pantry shelving.

Lastly I tried to get away from the sweet treats but couldn't resist this one! Fresh Plate shared how she made her yummy Shirley Temple Popsicles

Family Friday: Rose Festival

My sister and her husband took Sam and I to the Portland Rose Festival a couple weekends ago. This was the first time Sam was old enough to go on rides, and he had a blast. The rainy weather we have been having made the grounds a muddy swamp land, I didn't get any pictures of the ground and the three different pants Sam went through because he kept slipping in the mud!

This was Sam's favorite ride, he is still talking about it, its a little boat that floats in a small current with music playing.

He also really enjoyed the dump truck ride

I don't have pictures but he went on a few rides he didn't like, they were a little to fast for him, one was a kiddy roller coaster and the other one was a flying plane ride, it didn't help that it was cold and he was very tired.

The last ride he went on was the merry go round with his uncle, he was still a little timid after the other rides so he didn't want to ride on a horse, but had fun sitting in the chair. It was a fun muddy trip, and I still have to wash our shoes from this adventure!

Sharing Monday 11

I had the hardest time this week picking my top four, I know I always say that but there was so much yummy food and great ideas shared last week! I have lots of new inspiration, thanks everyone!

I really want to make the Sand Table that Keeping it Simple made Sam loves the sand, and I love the fact you can just put a lid on it when your done!

Lori at Moms by Heart shared how she is planning her Summer Staycation for this year, not only did I love her ideas but I fell so much in love with her blog I spent half my day looking at her posts!

Over at Art For Little Hands you can see the adorable play kitchen they made.

Lastly this post left me wanting chocolate so bad I had to go steal some chocolate chips out of the kitchen, the Chocolate Pecan Bars by Jam Hands just look so yummy and amazing and chocolaty! Ok I need to pick up some pecans at the store tomorrow!!! 

You guys know what to do, but really check out others posts I can't believe all the fun stuff that gets linked up. So check them out leave a comment (everyone loves comments!) and have fun!

Black Cloud

 After having Sam my first son I had horrible depression from the get go, everyone said it was the baby blues or that I was just lonely from being in another state and having a husband who was working and going to school. The problem is I wasn't just lonely, when my black cloud would visit, I would feel so dark and alone, but I also felt like everything inside me just wanted to burst out. My bed felt like my only haven, but I couldn't even sleep I just laid there, not really present, just dead to the world around me.

Source

When Sam was around 8-9 months I went on medication and it helped really well, but I didn't like the side effects. I just hoped and prayed that what everyone said was right, I was just lonely, being around family would help, having a job would get me out, having a two year old would keep me so busy I couldn't be sad. When we decided to have another baby I wanted to go off my medication to make sure there were no bad effects on the baby, everything went well going off the meds, I got pregnant, I felt great, I had the baby and I still felt great. I had won my black cloud wasn't there, everyone was right, I was just lonely before.

Well Colten is 4 months old now, and slowly my white fluffy cloud has gotten darker, and darker and darker....and I realized last week my black ominous cloud is in full force over me again, its so frustrating, I tend to feel like I failed, like I had all the tools around me to be happy and I still have to fight to get out of bed, to not curl in a ball with this pain, not really physical but kind of, its so hard to describe. This time my cloud is effecting me in different ways, Sam gets the worst of it, and I feel so bad about it. I get so angry with him, so frustrated. And when I am not angry I am either manic, taking on more than I can handle and saying yes to everything! Or like before, I am so deeply depressed I find it hard to function, move and even breath.

Now I am not writing this to get sympathy to make you run away from this depressing girls blog, but my cloud is here, and I know other moms out there have the same issue. I feel like just getting it out there has already helped a little. I am trying to come up with a game plan for battling my depression this time around, I really don't want to go on medication again, its kind of my last resort. I am hoping exercise and vitamin D will help, I have heard of some herbal pills you can take and I may give it a go. I truly just pray that I can continue to fight this battle which seems to be one I will have to face over and over again. Wish me luck with my battle, and let me know if there is anything you have found to help you through your fight against depression.

Stamping Fun

Sam and I had fun the other night when we got our little collection of stamps out.

I remember doing this as a kid and how much fun it was. It took some practice but Sam got pretty good at stamping.

He was very proud of his work.