Four weeks

I can hardly believe that four weeks ago today I was sitting in a hospital bed with my brand new baby Graham. It seems like with each additional kid I've had that the time speeds up a little more. I swear I was just going through this all for the first time with Hyrum. Now he's 6 years old and I am amazed at how much he is learning on a daily basis. I am really trying to treasure every moment with Graham as I know that he is already growing and changing faster than I can tell. I already can't imagine life without the little man. He is definitely a part of our family.

When Maddy looks at him or holds him she has started saying, "He's so cute! He's so darn, darn cute!" Hyrum and Maddy still ask to hold him all the time and I love that they are so interested and caring. Miles will pucker up his lips when he sees him passing by in my arms to give him a kiss on the head. I am still pleasantly surprised with how well Miles is doing and how gentle he is with him. And I am finally feeling like I can handle this whole four kids thing. Not that I'm going to be taking them all to the grocery store by myself anytime soon or anything, but I don't feel overwhelmed constantly anymore.

Today I went on a walk with my mom with all the kids (2 double strollers so all the kids are sitting and we are both pushing) and then let the kids play at the park for a while. It was a great mommy day! I just feel so happy and content and that days like today are the reason why I've wanted to be a mom my entire life. I've also decided that I need to start taking the kids out to do something fun once a week. My mom offered to come help whenever I wanted her to, so that will be nice so I don't feel like I can't do it by myself. I'm thinking anything around that's free (I'm open to suggestions) like a duck pond, BYU Art Museum, picnic, library, etc. And some not so free things too, of course like swimming at the pool, dollar theater movies, zoo, etc. I'm excited and think the kids will love getting out of the house and, heck, so will I! It's going to be a great summer!

Pajamas

So, yesterday was one of my best friend's son's first birthday and I decided on Sunday that I was going to sew some pajamas for him for his present. I had everything besides the ribbing for the neck on hand (which was a grand total of $.54), so it was just my time that I needed to put into it. I am very happy with the end result (and they looked so cute on him). Even if it was attempt number two (never ever again will I try sewing with stretch knit!). I got these cut and completely sewn in one day. I was pretty impressed with myself. I do have to admit that I asked my mom to do the neck band since I was not ready to try to attempt anything with stretchy fabric again quite yet. She was so nice and did a great job and saved me lots of time, I'm sure. Anyway, here's the finished product...

I think I have enough of the fabric to make Miles a shirt, which I might do if I can get up the motivation next week.

Baking blog?

So, it's no secret, I am not the best at updating my blog. I was talking with a friend and she suggested posting about my baking. So, I thought I'd give it a whirl. I'd love to hear what you (all 2 of my readers) think. I'm sure I'll still post the occassional picture of my cute kids (because, really, how can I resist?), but maybe this will give me the motivation to post more often. I absolutely love to bake and sharing recipes is a big part of that too.

So, I'm going to start this off with red velvet cupcakes (minus the red since I didn't have any food coloring on hand).

I thought they were pretty good, but next time I'm definitely going to make sure I have cream cheese on hand to make cream cheese frosting instead of butter cream which seemed a little too sweet for the mildness of the chocolate cake.

The cake itself was moist and a good texture though. I wish my kids would've appreciated that fact a little more as they would lick the frosting off and maaaaybe take one bite of the cake part. And the hubby didn't really care for the frosting with it, so ate a grand total of one.

Leaving me with the task of eating most of them myself. Not that I'm complaining TOO much, but it certainly doesn't help with getting back into my regular pants. Ah well... always another day to start dieting right? I can't remember where I got the recipe from... somewhere online, but I looked at too many different places to remember. This made 24 regular sized cupcakes.

Red Velvet Cupcakes
Ingredients -
2-1/2 cups All-Purpose Flour2 tablespoons Cocoa Powder

1 1/2 teaspoon Baking Powder1 teaspoon Salt

1/2 cup Butter, softened

1-1/2 cups Granulated Sugar

2 Eggs

1-1/2 teaspoon Red Food Coloring

1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract

1 cup Buttermilk

2 tablespoons Water

1-1/2 teaspoons White Vinegar

1 teaspoon Baking Soda

Preparation:
1. Preheat oven to 350 F.

2. Place cupcake baking cups into muffin tin.

3. Combine all-purpose flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt in a medium-mixing bowl.

4. In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar with electric mixer. Butter mixture should be light and fluffy. Continue mixing and add in eggs, red food coloring, and vanilla extract until well blended.

5. Alternately add buttermilk and flour mixture to creamed butter mixture.

6. Mix water into cupcake mixture

7. Combine vinegar and baking soda, in a small bowl. Gradually stir vinegar mixture into cupcake batter.

8. Spoon cupcake batter into cupcake baking cups.

9. Bake 20 minutes, or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.

10. Remove cupcakes from muffin tin and cool completely before icing.