Sneaky Cook

A good friend of mine told me about a cookbook that I just had to buy. She was having problems getting her kids to eat their veggies until she stumbled upon this amazing cookbook called "Deceptively Delicious". It is full of sneaky ways to mix veggies into normal meals that kids love. They don't even know they are eating healthy. I decided this is going to be a new way of cooking in our house. Addison is still so little she eats anything I give her but my loving husband is not so willing. Wait till he comes home tonight and tries the brownies I made. Little does he know they are packed full of spinach and carrots!

Birthday Cake

I'm experimenting with how to make Addison's birthday cake. I want to make a ladybug cake so I practiced making a cake today. I have never made black or red frosting so I was worried it wouldn't turn out tasting very good. I made the black frosting from homemade chocolate frosting by adding black food coloring and letting it sit for a few hours in the refrigerator. I make the red frosting from homemade vanilla frosting and adding red food coloring. I also let the red sit for a few hours. It seemed to help darken up the colors by sitting. When I put the black in the frig it was a dark gray and a few hours later it was really black. I was surprised. The red however turned more of a dark pink. I'm going to have to try again on the red. I may use strawberries to start and then add red food coloring. I was worried the cake wouldn't taste very good but I was pleasantly surprised. It was so good!!! I made a small version of my idea of her cake today. The actual cake I am planning on making for her birthday will be much larger. I also think I am going to make the ladybug have a head instead of just a big circle that looks like a ladybug. I have some more experimenting to do. Joe is very excited about all the cakes I will be making. Looks like I will be sending cake to work with him!

Pee Wee Pillow Pet

Joe, Addison and I went to Frys today to look at TV's and all the fun gadgets we needed to get for our road trip to Alaska coming up. I came across a Pee Wee Pillow Pet in one of the big baskets in between the isles. I picked up a ladybug one because I thought it was so cute and handed it to Addison. She seemed very excited about it and placed it next to her in the cart. It was official! We were taking it home to add to her stuffed animal collection. We continued our shopping then headed home for lunch and Addison's afternoon nap. After her nap I took her in the living room and handed her the Pee Wee Pillow Pet. She immediately threw it as far away as she could and started crying. What had come over her? It was so strange. She wanted nothing to do with it. I picked it up and handed it to her again. Just like before she threw it and started crying. I took the poor little pillow pet and hugged it and kissed it to show her it was nice. Still she had no interest and kept trying to push it away. I have no idea what has come over her. Maybe she will love it tomorrow. Silly girl.

Independent Baby

Addison has decided she wants to do everything herself. She has started to refuse the bottle, which is probably a good thing. Maybe this means she is ready to be done with the bottle. However, she doesn't like drinking her formula from a sippy cup. She will drink water or juice all day long from her sippy but not formula. Maybe I will have better luck with milk. Only a little over a month and she can switch to milk. She is such a stubborn child and will only do something when she wants to. She is not one of those babies who will take a bottle whenever offered. She will only drink her bottle or sippy at the exact moment  that she is ready. It's actually kind of funny. I often sit holding it and just wait for her to take it. If she doesn't want something she has no problem throwing it or slapping it away. She has also started to protest being fed. She will only eat if she can feed herself which doesn't really work since she can't use a spoon yet. She doesn't really understand how to feed herself with a spoon and everything often ends up on the floor, wall or me. I have better luck finding food I can cut up and serve her. If its a small piece of food she will eat it, no matter what it is. She will also eat anything small off the floor even if it isn't food. This kid cracks me up sometimes!

So much to do!

Well it's pretty much official! We will be moving to Kodiak, Alaska this June. I don't see this changing so we are starting to get ready. The lists seem like miles long of all the things there is to do and buy before we start our journey. I'm not really sure how I am going to make it through the next couple of months. Plus we have Addison's big first birthday party coming up and I need to try and get caught up with work since I will be traveling most of June. We decided we are going to have a garage sale before we go. I didn't realize just how much stuff we have and don't need. How on earth did we accumulate so much crap? We were going to have a joint garage sale with some friends but now it seems we have too much stuff to take to someones house and sell. We are going to try and downsize our stuff since we will be moving into a two bedroom house from a three bedroom house. This should be interesting! I'm not looking forward to a smaller house but I think we will manage.

Mommy needs a break!

Something has got to give! I am beyond tired and overworked. I love what I do but I wish I didn't have to work sometimes. Everyone says how lucky I am to be able to stay at home with Addison and work from home but I don't think people realize just how hard it is. It is the ultimate balancing act. I never get down time. I never get to just relax. My day starts at about 7am with Addison waking up. I grab her, change her, plop her down in the living room with some toys and cartoons, feed the dog, make a cup of coffee, get Addison's breakfast ready, feed Addison, play with Addison, get dressed, fix my face and hair, check my email for work, make Addison a bottle, put Addison down for a nap, start work, get Addison up from nap, make lunch, feed Addison, play with Addison, hang out with Joe for a second, back to work while Joe watches Addison, Joe leaves for work, play with Addison, afternoon bottle and nap for Addison, clean or laundry, more work, Addison wakes from nap, play with Addison, feed Addison Dinner, more play time, bath time, read stories, bedtime bottle, put Addison to bed, do the dishes, clean house, back to work, work, work, work, shower and finally bed for me!!! That is the longest sentence ever and pretty much how my day goes. Sometimes I squeeze a trip to the store in there. It would be nice to be able to just spend the day with my family and not always look for a moment of time when I can sit down and work. It's very stressful and clients want to give me more and more work and I am just out of time and energy. It is good that I am in demand but when will I have time for myself? Okay enough complaining from me. I am very blessed and I truly appreciate everything that I have in life.

Rain Rain Go Away!!!

Yesterday was the most beautiful day. The sun was shining and not a cloud in site. So why is it that today when we planned on taking a trip to the farmers market it started pouring down rain? Addison was just as upset about this nasty weather as her daddy and I were. I need all the sunshine and rain free days I can get now since we are moving to Alaska in June. I can kiss my warm beautiful weather goodbye! I was hoping to get out of the house today and walk around in the fresh, warm air. No luck here! Not only was it nasty outside but it made us all lazy today. I tried to be productive and get some stuff done around the house but Addison was super fussy, must be getting another tooth, and Joe just wanted to watch TV all day. We did manage to make a trip to Walmart which was the highlight of our Sunday. My little munchkin was drooling like a mad woman and crying for no obvious reason all day. Hopefully that nasty tooth will pop through and the sun will come out and we can have a wonderful day tomorrow!