This About Sums it Up!

The First Time I Saw Your Face...

Yesterday at the doctor I had an ultrasound to make sure all was well with "The Tadpole". While they had me on the examining table with the lovely goo smeared all over my belly, the technician decided to try for a 3D image.

Boy, am I glad she did! All together now:

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!

I for one was floored at how clear the images were. We didn't get this opportunity with Olivia since we were living in a tiny little Iowa town that had a tiny little hospital that didn't have access to cool ultrasound gadgets. I'm sure I was lying there with a great big goofy smile on my face--it was a very surreal moment.

The baby looks a lot like Olivia did when she was born, but not completely identical. They are definitely siblings!

Only 6 weeks (or less) to go...

Back in the Baking Saddle

After what has seemed like an eternity for a lot of you I'm sure, I'm proud to say that I've been keeping busy with a few sugary projects this past month. As you will soon see, this has been a time for cookies & other mini creations!

First up, I baked these leaf cookies for Richard's monthly district manager meeting:

These are sugar cookies decorated with yellow, orange, & red fondant, and brushed with a touch of bronze luster dust to give them a bit more life. The verdict: Everyone loved them, but Richard said they were a tad too sweet. (Mind you, the man doesn't care for cake because the frosting is too sweet...he's sort of weird, what can I say?)

Next up, I had a blast creating this mini cake "wreckplica" for the extra-special occasion of Jen Yates of Cake Wrecks fame making an appearance in Dallas for her book signing:

I didn't win the contest, but I did manage an honorable mention on Jen's Facebook page. I also got my picture taken with her while she was signing my book!

(As it turns out I was extremely lucky to get to meet her, as her book tour came to a screeching halt mere hours after this photo was taken. Check out Cake Wrecks for the full story...)

A couple of weeks later my parents & Drew came down to Dallas for a quick visit, so I whipped up some candy corn cookies for refreshments:

Again, sugar cookies with fondant, but this time I used food coloring to paint the orange & yellow stripes on. This method works pretty well, as long as you allow plenty of drying time.

And last but certainly not least, I made these house cookies:

Stephanie had sent me the cookie cutter and sprinkles as a housewarming gift, and asked me to do a poll of what our family thinks the gender of the baby will be.

Olivia VERY quickly sprinkled lots of pink on her cookie (and really, is anyone that surprised?), I did mine in blue after listening to my motherly instincts (and for anyone who doesn't know, I was more than certain I was having a boy the last time, and, well, you can see how accurate I was!), and Richard couldn't be swayed one way or another. Only time will tell, and that time is coming up fast!

It Takes a Lot of Little Nuts to Make a Jar of Peanut Butter...

I have been eating a LOT of peanut butter sandwiches these days. I blame this on the baby, who apparently loves the stuff and makes me crave it every day around lunchtime. For as long as I can remember, every single time I make a peanut butter sandwich (or anything else with peanut butter for that matter), I get the classic song from Sesame Street in my head.

I'm sure any of you who are at least 25 or older will remember this and start singing along. Enjoy!

Because Regular-Sized Cupcakes Apparently Suck!

I saw this commercial on TV today and just had to share:




I think this ad is hilarious for a few reasons:

- It has your typical "cheesy infomercial" feel to it. The announcer's voice, the acting, the sub-par product...it's all awesomely bad! I also love how they make up a problem that really doesn't exist in the real world. I mean, how many of us lie awake and night and think, "Man, cupcakes just aren't BIG enough. If only someone would make a giant cupcake to feed my face better!"

- Contrary to it's name, the "Big Top Cupcake" is not technically a cupcake at all. To be a true cupcake, it has to be baked in one piece (Poor Duff Goldman learned that the hard way when he was stripped of his world record for baking the world's largest cupcake when it was revealed that he had baked his cupcake in several pieces. Oops!). You'll notice that they have to bake their "cupcake" in two separate pans, and then stack them together. There is a reason why cupcakes are not that big--if you really tried to bake a cupcake that huge, you would have a mass that was burnt on the outside and still raw on the inside.

- You would think that they could have maybe hired better decorators for the finished product...the first thing that popped into my mind while watching was "Wow, I think these people watch & worship Sandra Lee".


P.S. No, I haven't given up making cakes myself. I plan on getting a few creations completed before Tadpole 2 makes his/her debut into the world. Stay tuned!

Dancing Queen

I had always said that when I grew up and had a family of my own, I wanted to have at least one little girl so that I could put pretty bows in her hair and watch her in dance recitals. Well, the hairbow thing is still pretty hit and miss, but today my other wish is starting to come true: Olivia had her first ballet class!

After taking several years of dance myself back in the day, I was more than willing to sign Olivia up after she told me she wanted to take ballet. "But NOT tap, JUST ballet!" she specified. So okie dokie, I registered her for JUST ballet class on Monday afternoons.

Today was the big day. Just the smell of her new little ballet shoes took me right back to my dancing days. Olivia was so stinkin' cute! But don't take my word for it:



She couldn't wait to practice her new moves:


And after class was over, she was beaming ear to ear, and wanted to do it all again right then and there!


I'm so glad she loved it, and I'm hoping this means many years of dance recitals complete with cute little costumes!

It's the Little Things That Make Life Grand.

If you read my blog regularly you already know I'm a Craig Ferguson uber-fan. And after 3 long weeks of reruns I was giddy when he was finally back last night.

Not only is he now in HD, but he has new opening credits!



Welcome back Craigers! My life is complete once again.