Cake for Daddy

According to Brandon, the estrogen in our house these days is completely "out of control." With me being 30 weeks pregnant, and Abby being quite the little sass that she is, I would have to agree that there is some drama. Not all the time, but definitely more than usual. So as a peace offering, Abby and I made Daddy one of his favorite cakes. It is so easy and so good, and you will hate yourself the next day because you ate way more than you should. Finally, after a few days of a bite here and a bite there, it hit the trash...Brandon said that was a sad day for him.

Chef in training...

Here is the recipe:

Make 1 box of a yellow cake mix- preferably something that has the words "golden" or "buttery" to describe the cake.

Mix and bake according to box

When the cake first comes out of the oven and is still hot, poke small holes in the top, and pour one stick of melted butter over the hot cake.

Sprinkle generously with Cinnamon and Sugar.

So easy and so good!

Abby and Friends

Abby, Giuliana, and Jake are becoming really good friends. All of the parents went to college together and have know each other for over 10 years- several of us were roommates together at school, and even after we graduated from CBU. I love that we are still so close, and now our children are close too. We had everyone over the other night to play and eat dinner. After a while we let the kiddos watch a movie to calm down and get ready for bed...even that turned into a party!

Sweet friends!

Painting fun

Abby loves to paint and I found out recently that it really doesn't matter what it is. She had more fun painting this toy truck and making "tracks" on the paper. I gave her some pasta noodles and shells to paint for fun and she had a blast making a complete mess.

Sugar Rush

If there is one thing that Abby really likes to eat it's something sweet. She loves anything that is sticky, sugary, and probably not super healthy! But hey, everyone deserves a treat every once in a while! Here she is enjoying all things yummy...

Suckers

Rice crispy treats (No, she did not eat this by herself- Daddy helped a lot!)

Cupcakes

Ice cream

Doughnuts

Cookies

Hmm...I wonder where she gets this sweet tooth from...

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!!! Hope everyone enjoys a little something sweet today :)

Party Time!

We wanted to keep Abby's birthday small this year so we just invited a few friends and family over for a pajama and doughnut party. It started at 9:30 am and went for most of the morning. All of her little friends were there and everyone had such a fun time. The kids favorite toy to play with was of course, all of the balloons! Here are some pictures from her fun birthday party!

We asked everyone to sign the book, "If you give a dog a doughnut" as a keepsake from her birthday.

Abby's cake this year was an enormous "Texas" sized doughnut.

Abby and all of her friends chowing down on some Gibson's doughnuts and chocolate milk

Singing to the birthday girl

Taking a bite of her huge doughnut.

Abby with all of her friends. L-R: Giuliana, Jake, Abby, Harrison, Kate and Hollis

Everyone from college- We all went to school together and have still remained close friends after all of these years. Our kids are now good friends, too.

Abby and her bestie, Giuliana.

Time for presents...

and a nap!

And just for fun, here is a flash back from a year ago and the first time Abby had cake!

Abby turns 2!

We celebrated Abby's birthday last Friday and Saturday with lots of balloons, presents, sweets, and friends. The festivities started on the morning of her actual birthday with balloons covering her bedroom floor, and a pancake breakfast complete with her new favorite snack- marshmallows. Brandon had a really good idea to give her a few presents at a time throughout the day instead of bombarding her with all of them at once. Her first round of presents were princess themed and she could have absolutely cared less about them. She was so excited about all of her balloons that the presents were really just getting in the way of her play time. Nice, huh? Finally we coaxed her to the table where she chowed down and thoroughly enjoyed opening her presents.

A little confused as to why we were in her room singing, clapping and taking pictures.

Birthday pancakes

A box of princess clothes, princess tea set, princess night gown...

Right after breakfast she changed into her new princess nightgown, played around the house for a bit, went to the Children's Museum and out to lunch with Grandma and Grandad, came back home and put her princess night gown on again, took a nap, and woke up to find this...

A balloon bouquet from Grams and Gramps.

She LOVED it!

Daddy came home from work early with MORE balloons for her party. She also got to open another gift which was a new tricycle.

Unfortunately, from here, I don't have anymore pictures from the day. Brandon and I had both been sick the week leading up to the birthday, and by Friday night, I was not feeling 100%. Her last round of toys was all bath themed, complete with a matching robe for her and her baby, which she has worn every night since her birthday!

It's hard to believe that Abby is already 2!

Bath Tub Fun

I found this idea off Pinterest (the most amazing website ever!) and it was a hit with Abby. I bought shaving cream, dyed it with food coloring, put it in a silicone muffin pan, and let her "paint" in the bath tub. She had a blast! If you have a silicone muffin pan it will float on top of the water--even better!

Excuse the dirty pan- If you have any tricks to cleaning it I would love to know!