cupcake of the month - butterflies

for mother's day, my parents got me this really neat cupcake cookbook full of different and fun ways to make cupcakes. molly was very excited about it as well and has been asking to "do them". her favorite is the butterfly so last night we got everything we needed to make the butterfly cupcakes. they were very time consuming so we only made 9 butterflies. we turned it into a bit of a science lesson and molly learned that butterfly wings look the same on both sides. so, in decorating, we made sure the butterflies had the same design on both wings. here's how they turned out.

a click of the tongue

sophie discovered how to click her tongue today!

molly, molly...how does your garden grow?

last week molly went to a little gardening class and had lots of fun.

filling her cup with dirt

planting pumpkin seeds

listening carefully about where to put the pumpkin seeds. she made sure when we got home they went right into a sunny window!

pretty purple flowers - 3 have now opened up!

since then we've also started some marigolds and sunflowers in our kitchen window. molly has so much fun looking at them and noticing how they are growing each day! oh, and we planted flowers in pots for our front porch and added tomatoes and peppers to the garden out back.

at the gardening class, molly was also given gourds to use a bird houses. she had fun decorating them and now we just need to get some bird seed.

i caught the bird!

sophie grasped for her bird today on her gym and caught him. hooked it with her middle finger! was in intentional? i'm not sure - she may have just been moving her arms around - but she did it! (oh, and anna - she's wearing leggings. thought you might enjoy that!)

he's a sucker!

matt is a sucker when it comes to molly. basically she's got him wrapped around his finger and he just melts when she asks him something or does something cute. i love that they have a close relationship - i think it's important for a father to have a close relationship with his children. matt took molly to wal-mart several weeks ago to get a few things and whenever they go together they make sure to stop off at the toy aisles and look around. molly loves trains and thomas the tank engine and matt had been eyeing the little thomas train set that runs on batteries. so he surprised her and bought it. when they got home, he had me set it all up while he kept molly outside and when she walked in, thomas was chugging around the living room!

a couple weeks ago, matt decided (at 8:30 at night) that molly needed more cars and tracks to add to her train set. so, off we went to get more things to add to thomas. when we got home and it was set up, i then realized that this train set is not just for molly but for matt. he's fascinated with the train going around in a circle and loves making the track go different directions. such a kid at heart - i love it! molly does enjoy the larger track as well, and the fact that thomas is now pulling cargo. we got the farm set and she has fun putting her animals out around the track and then periodically stopping the train to give them hay to eat or milk to drink. she sets all her people up around the train to watch also.

2 months already!

i can't believe it's already been two months! sophie has grown up and changed so much. it's almost sad how quickly time goes by but fun at the same time. sophie went from a little baby who slept all the time and never cried, nursed great, and took comfort in the arms of someone to a baby who still sleeps a lot, but cries often (which is due to reflux) and doesn't nurse the greatest (also a reflux thing, i think), and still takes great comfort in the arms of someone. added to the list,

sophie is very animated and loves to kick her legs and move her arms at the excitement of her play gym and mobile. she coos at the toys and loves looking at the picture of winnie the pooh hanging above her changing pad. sophie smiles whenever you talk to her or smile at her. she likes to have her nose touched quickly - this is almost a sure smile-getter! it is so much fun to see how she interacts and how alert she is. sophie's super strong too and holds her head up really well.

she's growing nice and long too (either that or her feet are just really big!) because i can't find a sleeper to fit her around and in length. the feet are too little in the 0-3 mo. sleepers but 3-6 months is just too big! hurry up warm weather and we can be done with sleepers and on to shorts and onesies!

as i said, sophie still takes great comfort in someones arms. this is her preferred sleeping arrangement. often times she'll wake up in the middle of the night and i'll never make it back to bed because i fall asleep with her. she'll sleep for hours in my arms. if only i had the time to just sit and let her! if she can't have someones arms, she likes the corner of the couch. it's soft and cozy and gives her that secure feeling. at night, she sleeps in her carseat in our room so that she's elevated due to acid reflux. i'm trying to make the transition to sleeping in her crib. today we made progress. i swaddled her, something she normally doesn't like-but she was really tired, and then laid her down when she was asleep. it worked! she took a 4 1/2 hour nap. it's a day-by-day process but my goal is by 3 months she'll be in her bed for naps and hopefully at night.

reflux is another thing we've been dealing with. i wasn't surprised when i started noticing the symptoms since molly suffered from reflux as well. we called the doc and he called in a prescription for liquid zantac. sophie takes it three times a day. and while it certainly hasn't cured her, i do think it's helping some. she has her moments late at night when it's really bad and you can hear the acid coming up and her gulping it back down. those are the nights i pace the floor in hopes of soothing her as much as possible.

sophie brings so much joy to our lives. it's fun to have a baby again. how quickly you forget all the little changes that can happen so quickly as they move from stage to stage. i'm excited that i'll be home to see sophie go through all of them. i feel as though i missed a lot with molly while i was working and am looking forward to just enjoying my baby!

you sound just like your mom!

matt tells me this quite often! and, well, it's true! i find myself becoming more like my mom now that i'm a mom. i find myself doing things that she does such as grabbing a billion napkins when we're eating out (you can never have too many), taking a jacket with me, worrying that my kids are going to be too cold and therefore dressing them in pants instead of shorts, etc. all this is not a bad thing though because my mom was and still is the best. she went above and beyond to do things with us as kids and made sure we were content and healthy. my mom fostered the creative side in us by doing various projects with us, she took us to the park to play, read countless numbers of books, made three meals a day and always took care to see that we had homemade cookies each week! as we got older, she made sure to be at every sporting event, music concert, awards ceremony, picked us up dropped us off at friends' houses, practice, and church events. oh, and we still got three meals a day and she added in helping with homework and school projects, volunteering in our classrooms and with pto, and during the gap between aaron and alex, she worked! super mom, i think so! :)



with all that i said above, my mom did so much more also (but i won't name it all for the sake of making this into a book!). rarely did my mom go to bed before midnight. i never understood why she stayed up so late after we went to bed until i became i mom myself. she had too - it was the only time she could wash the dishes or finish the laundry, read a magazine, or whatever else she needed to do. her day was consumed with her family and for that i am ever grateful!

most importantly though, my mom, is a godly mom. she always makes time for number one in her life, her Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. she spends time in His word daily, prays for us, and taught us many truths about God growing up. she leads her life as an example. i have very fond memories of my mom tucking me in bed at night and praying with me before i went to sleep. it was on one of these nights that i accepted Christ as my Savior.


i truly do aspire to be a mom much like my mom. i can't remember my mom ever raising her voice (though i'm sure she did) and well, i've already failed in that department. my mom always seemed to have an abundance of energy even though she may have only slept 3-4 hours. how? i don't know because i have yet to figure that out. but it's true - she managed to be in a good mood everyday and provide a positive environment for all of us. she was caring, kind, and always supportive. she loved us unconditionally and always looked out for our well-being. she trusted God in everything and was a testimony to us. i love you mom! happy mother's day! :)

yummy grilled pizza recipe

we made grilled chicken pizza for lunch today and it was delicious. here's the recipe:

one pre-baked pizza crust
2 cups grilled chicken chopped
1/3 c. mayo or miracle whip
1 T. ranch dressing seasoning packet
1/4 c. diced tomato
1/4 c. red pepper
moz. cheese

mix mayo and dressing mix together and spread on pizza crust. top with chicken, peppers, tomatoes, and cheese. grill over med-low heat until cheese is melted. super quick and easy!

this recipe is is courtesy of family.go.com

now that i think about it, i'm glad i'm not june cleaver

june cleaver, noted as t.v.'s model housewife, is not all that she's cracked up to be in my book. i was thinking about this as i was mopping my long-overdue kitchen floor. you ask why i was thinking about june cleaver? i'm not really quite sure except it might have something to do with the fact that i couldn't remember the last time i mopped my kitchen floor and she mopped daily, i think! well, as i was mopping, i thought to myself, she may have had a perfectly clean house and meals were always right on schedule but she spent zero time with her kids, unless it was at the table. i came to the conclusion that while june cleaver may have been the ideal wife, she was not the ideal mother. a good mother spends time with her children and forgoes other activities to be with them. think back to the show - wally and the beaver were always in their room or out and about. never really interacting or spending time with their parents. is this my justification for a not-so-clean house? for now, yes! i choose to spend time with my kids rather than obsess over whether the dusting's been done for the day or i've folded all the laundry.