Gavin Made Valentines

Gavin wanted to make Valentines for his Mimi and Grandma because they take such good care of him while Momma is at work. 

First we got some plain white canvases. I used the Cricut to cut out letters on contact paper. Once the letters were cut out I placed them on the canvases. Luckily Gavin took a nap while I did this. 

Once Gavin got up I got out the finger paints and let him go to town. He love painting the pictures and squeezing the paint in between his fingers. 

I wanted to take a picture of Gavin but every time I stood up he stood up and tried to follow me which wasn't good since he was covered in paint. I decided to just take a picture of him in the tubby but that didn't work either since he screamed the whole time. So, I have yet to actually get a picture of Gavin with his artwork.

All painted and in the process of drying.

Once the paint dried we peeled off the letters.

The pictures were then moved into the garage on some newspaper and spray painted with a topcoat to keep the paint from smearing and to make it shiny and pretty. (Make sure you do this in a well ventilated area whew that stuff is strong.)

We let the pictures dry over night. AND VOILA! FINITO! 

I think they turned out beautiful. I only wish I had him make one more for me.

Love LOVE Day

I love my boys. I am so blessed to have them in my life. 

I got beautiful flowers for Love Day from my Honey.

 This has definitely been an interesting week. Gavin got shots last week at his doctor appointment which turned into a huge bruise on his leg and he was sick but his cold seemed to get worse this week and he has had more of a cough. Wednesday after I picked him up from Grandma's house I needed to run some errands. The first stop was hobby lobby.... Gavin screamed bloody murder from the time we entered the store until we were half way home and then picked it up again when we got home until I put him down for a 3+ hour nap. It's definitely been a week full of fits but it's also been full of snuggles too. I'll take snuggles whenever I can get them. 

Chris and I got engaged on Valentines day 4 whole years ago. It seem so long ago and short all at the same time. I told Chris I didn't care if we did something ON Valentines day or before or after but I wanted to do something so he made reservations for PF Chang's. It was delicious! I love going to PF Chang's because they have a delicious gluten free menu... makes my life so much easier. Grandma and Grandpa Draudt were so nice to watch Gavin while we went out. We haven't been on many dates since Gavin was born and it's nice sometimes to just spend some time alone. It was a great Love Day.

Yogurt is Yummy.

Friday night Chris and Brooklyn had a dance at her school. It sounds like they both had a great time. Brooklyn ditched Chris a few times to go dance with her friends and Chris swears he wasn't the worst dancer... he even came home and showed me some of the dance moves he learned. (I'm still trying to get him to let me take a video of it.... hilarious!) Chris said they played a lot of the songs more than once and Brooklyn made sure to tell him she has a crush on Justin Bieber.

Anyway, back to Me... I mean back to the yogurt.

Gavin loves yogurt. It's one of his favorite foods. If we're not careful when the fridge is open he will get a yogurt cup out of the fridge and bite a hole through the lid. Usually when Gavin has yogurt I just feed him or help him feed himself so he doesn't get so messy. Friday night was a different story. I decided to let him feed himself. He did so well for a while and then decided hands are much easier than spoons and that his hair needed some yogurt too. This sweet boy is so funny.

Sunday we went to Mimi and Grandpa's house for dinner and Gavin got to try out his new travel high chair. It is so much easier to feed him when he can't run around. We also got to play with Gavin's new puppy cousin Maximus Dsdlkfjsldkf Melksjfd.... some really long name of some character from some movie that I don't remember so we just call him Max. Max is Amanda and David's new puppy. He is such a cute sweet puppy and Gavin loves him. I wish I would have had my camera because the two of them together were so cute. (picture courtesy of Amanda)

One last random tidbit. I don't think I ever realized how expensive phones are until I learned that I'm going to have to pay full price for a phone because of the cell phone plane we've switched to. It just seem ridiculous that a cell phone costs more than an ipad. I tell you what, I'll be a lot more careful with this new phone then I've been with my phones in the past.

Post Doctor Appointment

I love Gavin's doctor, I really do.

Buuuttttt.... going to the doctor is starting to get stressful. I get super antsy before his appointments and start thinking what is going to be next????

This time we found out Gavin has only grown .2 inches (take note of the point) since his last appointment and is now so short he isn't even on the chart.... the chart defaulted to the 1% for height because it can't go any lower. He also only gained one pound and is in the 9% weight (I think).  If he doesn't grow by his next appointment we'll be doing extensive blood work to see if we can figure out what the problem is.

I've been told of a few people who their kids wouldn't grow and they were allergic to milk and when they took them off milk they grew. The allergist said Gavin is allergic to milk but that if it doesn't seem to bother him to keep giving it to him.... but maybe he's wrong and maybe that's why he isn't growing. I guess we'll find out.

Cooking may become interesting at my house. (No Eggs, Gluten, Dairy, or Peanuts.)

At the end of Gavin's doctor appointment he got his shots. Shots are the worst. He was not happy after that and was a grump pretty much until bedtime.

Chris had band practice last night and this is what we did...

He is not just the cutest boy? He kept trying to open the door to the basement to go play with the band.

Snuggles never last very long and then they turn in to this ---------------------------------------------^

Of course the night wouldn't have been complete without playing with the Bat-mobile :)

Brooklyn's Birthday Cake

I've been wanting to make a fondant cake for quite some time. Remember this?......


I was going to make Chris a batman cake using fondant and after some issues I just ended up with a fondant bat on a chocolate cake with sprinkles.

It's the thought that counts right? haha

My sweet neighbor makes some amazing cakes and has a great blog with tips and she gave me extra tips too.

I made the cakes a couple days in advance and kept them in the freezer. I never new how much easier frosting a frozen cake was... I will never frost a not frozen cake again! I also made the fondant a day in advance. My neighbor recommends making it a day in advance but I also figured if I messed it up it would be best to give myself a day to figure something out if the fondant didn't turn out lol. I got my fondant recipe from my neighbors blog here.

Saturday day morning I got up early before everyone was up. I was excited and nervous and it was nice to have time to work without someone needing me for something else.

First I took the cakes out of the freezer and frosted them and set them aside. I took the fondant out at the same time. By the time I was done frosting the cakes the fondant was still too cold to work with so I stuck in in the microwave for a few seconds to warm it up a little bit which did the trick.

I then rolled out the fondant and probably used a little more powdered sugar than I needed... I was a little worried about the fondant sticking. Once I rolled the fondant out I put it on the cake. This was my first time and it definitely wasn't perfect but it wasn't quite as bad as I was expecting either. I can see how working with fondant can take practice.

 After the cakes were covered I got to work on decorating the cakes. For the bottom half I cut the zebra stripes with a pizza cutter and used water to adhere the fondant to the cake. I forgot to take pictures but I used cookie cutters to make the circles that covered the top half of the cake. I also rolled up little balls of fondant to go around the cake. 

Once everything was done and the cake was put together we steamed it a little bit and it looked great! After sitting out all day the fondant looked a little dry. I've already been doing some research on how to keep that from happening the next time I make a cake.

Brooklyn's Birthday!

Somehow Brooklyn's birthday always seems to come so fast after Christmas and I find myself scrambling to plan a party. This year was no different. We (Chris and I) had come up with a few different ideas for a birthday party but then decided to go with a mix of stuff. We took Brooklyn and some of her friends to see Wreck it Ralph at the movie theater. Brooklyn loves going to the movie theater and we didn't tell her that some of her friends were coming so she could have a little surprise. 

After the movie we came back home for Pizza, Cake and Ice cream with a pink and zebra theme. She got some great gifts and had so much fun with everyone that came. Thank you everyone for coming!

At the Movie.

Dressed to impress!

Watching Hotel Transylvania.

Make a wish!