Rainy Morning Breakfast

This morning we woke up to rain pouring down on the windows. I did not want to get out of bed!  It was so nice hearing the rain fall. I made us a nice warm breakfast. Eggs, seasoned oven cooked potatoes and vanilla french toast. I watched Nigella Lawson's video "French Toast Doughnuts". It sure got me in the mood to make breakfast! I don't know if it is a good thing, but I love being in a certain environment while Im cooking. I love burning candles in the kitchen and everything in order and then to have rain falling outside! It was a perfect Saturday morning and the just what I needed as I started our taxes! I am happy to say we are all done with out taxes for this year! Yaaaayyyy I always dread doing the taxes not knowing what to expect! And I put it off until the last! I had meant to have them done a couple of weeks ago! Thankfully they were very easy! Not like last years :P

I hope everyone has a wonderful Easter! 

Sweets........

These two are our little sweet hearts. They love each other so much. I always find them giving each other baths. Here is a glimpse of their love. :D 

(and I especially love it when they want to get cozy with me!)

Enjoying....

San Diego visiting Benjamin's brother. I can never get a good picture of Benjamin! He is always pulling a funny face on me!

Hello everyone! This is a really late post. Benjamin and I just returned from San Diego. Clearly it has been a really busy couple of weeks! I feel so behind with my blogging world! I haven't caught up with any of my beloved blogging buddies.

To start off with Marie and John were here a week and half ago, which flew by! And in the midst of them being here, working and preparing three baby shower cakes I got sick on the day I scheduled to make the cakes! I am so thankful I had Marie with me :) I think I would have been up for 24 hours if she hadn't helped me like she did. I felt bad having her help with her own baby cake, but Marie and I are sisters =P

We had so much fun with her and John. They bought us their favorite game, Monopoly and we played several times together in the evening. They are both pros and so of course you can guess who one!

Marie, Himicle and Katheryn's baby shower was lovely! The guests, food, dessert and games were a lot of fun. It was quite interesting having a threesome baby shower. I hope they loved it as much as I did :P I loved making their cakes (thankfully with Marie's help) and except for being sick! I made the cakes a week ahead of time (luckily) and froze them in the freezer. Marie helped me with the crumb coat and making and frosting the cakes. Then I did all the detail and designing. I did a color flow image on each cake and then made royal icing pearls around the top. Using pearl dusting powder. Everything was edible. The nice thing about the images, I put the image on a flat round fondant plaque. So the (Mom's) can take the image home. It made me feel better too, because after all that work I couldn't bear to eat into it! :)

Thankfully I feel rested, and most of the laundry done! I shall get back into the routine of things :)

                          ~  My Baby and Me

Today I cleaned out our office and walk-in closet before I went to work. Because next week Marie and John will be visiting for Marie's baby shower! And they will be sleeping in our spare bedroom which we use as an office. I am getting more and more excited about it. The first thing Marie and I are going to do is each other's hair! We both need high lights so badly :P The rest of my family will be coming down as well :) It will be so nice to see my parents and the rest of my siblings. Its going to be a really busy week. I am making the cakes for the baby shower. Its a three girl baby shower. Marie, Himilce and Katheryn. So next week I am going to be busy baking away! :) I will be sure to take some pictures of the cakes and of our company! :)

Spring In The Air.......

Musings - by Eliza M on Polyvore.com

Books..

I have been reading this book by Charlotte Bronte called The Professor. It has been a great read especially after I finished Wives & Daughters which was wonderful. I always find it hard to start another book after I just read a really good one. :)

Fondant Making....

Well, I was able to make the fondant. It was so much fun to make! I was laughing when I put my hands in the warm melted marshmallows! Once you melt the marshmallows, you dump it on a greased countertop add 3/4 a bag of powdered sugar, grease your hands really well and start kneading! :) It was a mess!!!! But it turned out really well I think. Here is the recipe I used from Peggy's Baking Corner

16 ounces white mini-marshmallows (use a good quality brand)

2 to 5 tablespoons water

2 pounds icing sugar (please use C&H Cane Powdered Sugar for the best results)

½ cup Crisco shortening (you will be digging into it so place in a very easily accessed bowl)

If you go to to her page, click on Baking Corner, then scroll down and on the far right is Fondant and Icing 101. I have never tried making Fondant before, but I had heard that it can be difficult. This recipe was so easy and a lot of fun! :)

I had fun this morning garage sailing with newmom. She had heard that there were two neighborhood sails, where the whole neighborhood participates in garage sails. Both of them in really nice areas. She was in search of baby clothes and I was in search of candles. I did okay, but other then that it was dud after dud!!! Two huge neighborhoods and not a good garage sail among them! :) We had a lot of fun anyways. And since we hadn't caught up with each other lately, it served us well :)

Todays Happenings...

My verse today is 1 Thessalonians 5:16

"Be Joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances for this is God's will for you!"

I didn't have to work today which is nice because I have Fridays to clean and catch up. Also my class usually falls on Friday and I need the WHOLE day to bake and decorate my cake for the evening class. But I am taking a break this month from it, not because I want to! We are just too busy and we will be celebrating three baby showers at then end of the month and I am attempting to make all three baby cakes! My last class for Wilton 3 would fall on the same week of the baby showers and I don't think I could do a three tiered wedding cake and three baby cakes all in the same week! WHEW! We are also going away the last week of March and I need to get our taxes done before we leave. So that is my long explanation of why I am not taking Wilton 3 this month :)

Today I am going to attempt to make homemade fondant! Its really expensive in the store to purchase. But its only a couple of dollars to make! I am determined to conquer this recipe :) I will update and let ya know how it turns out and if it does I will post the recipe! :)

Bay Episodes..

Here he is again. He loves to sleep with something over him! I find him like this all the time! He must have his blankets :)

After....

The roses on the top and left are mine, Benjamin did the one on the right! :) He loves to make me laugh! Not to bad for his first try! :)

Here is my cake with all that sugar on top! This was my last class for Wilton 1. I still need to practice all that I learned. Its pretty time consuming after you make the cake, figure the color sequence and then actually make the cake look pretty!

It was pretty hard at first working on my roses. But I realized that my frosting was just way to thick. I spent most of my time at class struggling with the frosting stiffness. I had to use the roses that I made for my cake even if they looked terrible! I managed to squeeze out some, but I was not pleased and I did not want to use them for my cake! All in all I received my certificate of completion, but I went home and took off the ugly ones and worked my frosting until it was the right consistency. And sure enough I popped out some really pretty roses! :)

Before...

Here is my cake before I decorated it. It looked so good at first! I put it in a nice carrying cake holder, but that didn't stop it from slipping and smashing into the side of the tupperware on my way to class! It was my fault, thinking that it was secure enough in the holder. I don't have any pictures of the damage. I was able to fix a lot of it. But I wasn't able to push the cake back onto the cake board! Ha oh well :)

The cake is chocolate with chocolate pudding as the filling. The pudding kept the cake really moist! I have been learning so much and I am very glad I took this class! Its all about learning! And learning from our MISTAKES! :)

Mornings in the Sun

               ~Breakfast with the sunrise 

I had a lovely couple O mornings this week. I have been getting up before the sun comes out and after making Benjamin's lunch and breakfast for the day and sending him on his way, I make myself a little breakfast and grab my books, blanket and head outside to our little patio. The first of the sun feels so good on my face while I am getting into God's word. It is one of the happiest parts of my day I think! 

I have been reading about our covenant with God, Jesus and marriage. It has been so interesting and has grabbed my attention in so many areas, my relationship with the Lord and with Benjamin. I am getting addicted to this little routine! 

(I noticed my cheeks were pretty red yesterday:) 

I don't want any Ol farmer tan, I better be careful!

Memory Verse For The Week

¹²My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. ¹³Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. ¹⁴You are my friends if you do what I command. ¹⁵I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. ¹⁶You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. ¹⁷This is my command: Love each other.

John 15:12-17 NIV

Bay Episodes..

This is how I find Bay sleeping 70 % of the time. He happens to fall asleep with that tongue sticking out! :)

Wilton 1 Class 3

               These are my first ones

            My first rose :)

                  My favorites!

Here are some pictures of my cupcakes from last night. They smell so good I want to eat one right now! The first ones were experimental. As I get going I can't stop and I run out of cupcakes! The final ones are my favorite. I love the violet with the chocolate cake. You cant tell to well, but in the middle of the flower there are black dots. So anyhow there they are! :)

Wilton Class 2

Here  are some pictures of my cake I made last week. We had to make the cake in our class book. Which as you can see, was a rainbow! I kinda changed my cake to my preference, because Valentines Day was the  next day and I wanted a Valentine cake and not a birthday one :) This week we are doing cupcakes. I am loving that I am learning all the ins and outs of this fun hobby! 

Anniversary #2

Yesterday we celebrated our 2nd anniversary. It kind of took us by surprise! Literally! We had remembered the day before, but somehow we awoke and completely spaced it!!! We usually celebrate Valentines and our anniversary together, so that is part of the reason. But to forget until the mid afternoon that it is your anniversary!! Ha! I ran downstairs calling Benjamin and asked him what today was? We both started laughing!!! We couldn't believe it! I went to the store really fast and got us some firewood, bread, brie cheese and some chocolate eclairs. We roasted our bread and cheese over the fire and it was quite a success! :) 

Afterwards we read Corinthians 13:1 and prayed for our marriage. I am so thankful for Benjamin and for who he is. We both are in pursuit of the first commandment and of righteousness in our marriage. I am excited for this year and what God has already been doing in us. 

Chocolate Larder

Since Valentines is over, now is the time to go and buy all the clearance Valentine chocolate! Most of it is 50 to 90 % off. I love to go and stock up on my chocolate after a holiday. I keep it in what I call my Chocolate Larder!  

Valentine

Valentines Day is one of my favorite holidays. I love the season of it and the fun of doing special things for my family and friends. But this year Benjamin quite outdid me! I came home from my class, and walked into our place and found balloons everywhere! Music was playing, a fire in the fireplace and Benjamin cooking a lobster dinner! It was wonderful. I followed the balloons upstairs and into my bathroom where the last one remained, "I Love You" was printed on it. I am such a blessed girl and boy was that lobster dinner delicious! I tried taking some pictures, they didn't come out very good because of the low lighting and flash was horrible. But at least we have some to remember :). Happy Valentines Day everybody :)

Updates

Well, its been about a month and  a half and Benjamin has been fully supporting us. He recently started up his own business building websites for people. There is already a waiting list a month out! I am so thankful to the Lord. There is nothing more satisfying than being able to work for yourself.

 I am  no longer working for the family that I have been employed with. Two years I was blessed to be with those precious kids. =( I miss them terribly, but I think it is best the way it is now. It was beginning to take over our life! And that is not what I have in mind when it comes to jobs. The greatest part for me is, that the kids come over frequently and I am welcome to visit whenever I like. They may be coming over on Saturday for a Valentines Party. That is one thing that I loved to celebrate with them and I think they have some of the fondest memories was during Valentines. :) So now I am happily working part time for a lady and her husband watching their new born baby. And Benjamin is enjoying the excitement of our new little company! 

His shipping date is scheduled for the end of June. He wont be leaving early it sounds like. They have been offering him other jobs, but not the one he wants. So there is not too much of a worry that he would be leaving us earlier then the specified date! :) 

Sorry it has taken me so long to update on all of that!! Life seems busy, but oh so good and blessed :)

Happy Birthday Mom!!!

You are such a blessing to all of us thank you for your love . We love you so much.

What I was up to today.....

   Don't look to close! You can see

 the leaky butter. =)

                

               

        Chocolate pudding filling

          I squirted this in before I filled the hole with pudding

Today was a busy baking day. All this baking was due to a birthday, Naval meeting, and recently arrived neighbors across from us. I messed up on the cookie frosting due to me being really rushed with all that I had to do! When I was whipping the butter cream, I added the warm milk and flour before it had fully cooled. So you can see the runny butter in the frosting. Oh well, at least they taste good! The cup cakes were a lot of fun. They look a little odd I'd say, but good enough. I used a yellow cake mix, with chocolate pudding and chocolate syrup for the filling. And tomorrow I get to go to my class! Yeah! :)

Bay

~Here he is completely at ease

~Obviously not afraid of anything!

~I was doing the laundry and found him here :)

Here are a few pictures I captured when I happened to find our cat laying lazily about. He has such a funny personality. Benjamin and I are constantly laughing at something he is up to! He doesn't know what fear is. He loves dogs and people, especially when they take their shoes off at our door. He love to look and play with their laces :) So here are a few pictures of him, I am sure there will be more. I will post some time when he is lounging in the shower. That is his favorite spot!