I suck at New Years Resolutions.... :

So, considering it's almost a year since my last post....I suck at New Years Resolutions. I had said that I was going to keep up on my blog. Yeah right. I can barely keep up on showering. (That's a slight exaggeration) So instead of doing a month in review....I'll do a quick "almost year in review"

April

My baby girl turned 2 years old. 

She had a Minnie Mouse themed birthday party. Normally, I'm meticulous about my cakes but my "precious angel" decided it would be a great idea to "help" me put the icing on / eat it off the cake. So this was all the effort I was putting into a 1/2 eaten cake. How did she jump into her terrible 2's so quickly?

Here's the birthday girl!

She enjoyed opening her presents, it's quicker if you use your teeth.

May
Our first REAL family vacation. The kids first time seeing the ocean. It was amazing! We Love Fort Walton Beach and Destin Florida!!!

Their first look at the beach and the ocean.

Playing in the sand the first day. 

He loved everything about Florida. 

The sand was her favorite thing.

Best Friends Forever!

Daddy and Malakai racing go carts!

My loves!

Hysterical children

The Gulfarium. Josie loved the "bobbies". 

Could they be any more perfect?

My princess snuggled up for the trip home.

My little boy, tired from his first trip to the ocean.

June

We found out we were expecting again. 

July
We had a pig roast at mom's. I made home made BBQ sauces. Recipes will be posted in a later post.


August

My baby is all grown up. Starting Kindergarten. :(

September

Malakai started taking Karate. He's pretty awesome.

My little cougar. 

Josie, Parker, Sarah and Malakai at the Homecoming Parade.

October

My Darth Vader.

My little Elephant.

"I got candy"

Me passing out candy.

(Top to bottom) Brian's, mine, and Malakai's...Josie's is at the bottom. Not carved. She just got to scribble with markers.....I can't imagine her with a weapon of any sort at this age.

November

My little princess getting ready for Thanksgiving.

They love each other so much.

December

Malakai on Christmas morning. I thought he was praying. But he got up and hugged us and said "this is everything I ever wanted" This was before he got a single present. I have the sweetest son ever.

Josie's present from Santa Claus.

Malakai's present from Santa Claus.

I love his faces he makes while opening gifts.

Josie opening presents Christmas morning.

January


I loved our relaxing New Years Eve. No parties, no craziness. Just me (8 months pregnant) my wonderful husband and our beautiful children. We stayed in Newport and had a pizza party and watched cartoons.  

Oh, and stood in the window watching boats go down the river and cars cross the bridge.

And the kids jumped on the bed.

SO MUCH FUN!

Vegetable Soup

This is a dish you're going to want to start fairly early in the day. Also, if you're not a huge vegetble fan, give this a try....you may like it.

1. First off you want to get a large pot ( I use a 6 quart pot but sometimes I use the 6 quart and the 4 quart ).
2. Wash your Rump Roast 
3. Fill the pot with water so it's about an inch to inch and a half over the roast
4. Cook the roast completely adding water when necessary (20 minutes per pound if thawed or 30 minutes per pound if frozen)
5. Remove roast onto carving platter to cool
6. Leave water in pot and add to it a 46 ounce bottle of tomato juice. 
7. Slice the cabbage any way you choose (I do mine in strips) 
8. Add the cabbage to the pot of tomato juice/ roast water mixture
9. Cook cabbage for about 15 minutes 
10. Then add any other vegetables you like in any amount you like ( I add corn, green beans and carrots)
11. Herbs and Seasonings I like to use (not necessarily all together but with the vegetable soup on different occasion) are : Flat Leaf Parsley, Garlic, Basil, Oregano, Salt and Pepper. 

Ingredient List

Rump Roast

Tomato Juice

Cabbage

Corn

Green Beans 

Carrots
Garlic
Salt 

Pepper

Kendra's Vegetable Soup

Hope you enjoy it!

Simple Cream of Wheat

This isn't necessarily a fantastic recipe from scratch but my husband has pointed out to me on multiple occasions that it's the best cream of wheat he's ever had and he's never heard of anyone eating it this way. So, as I post how my family has always eaten it, please leave a comment and let me know how you eat yours? Is this really as unique as he makes it seem?

Make Cream of Wheat per directions on box (the recipe will begin with cooked Cream of Wheat)

1. "Plop" hot Cream of Wheat into bowl you intend to eat out of
2. Add 1 tablespoon of butter or margarine 
3. Add 1 tablespoon of sugar or sugar substitute 
4. Add 1/4 cup of milk
5. Stir until not clumpy

And for your personal preference you may want to microwave it a little to warm it back up. But if you're feeding it to kids, it's the perfect temperature.

Please let me know how you eat your Cream of Wheat!

Happy Eating and Drinking!

Where does the time go?

Seriously? Where does it go?

My little boy turned 5 years old yesterday and I'm heartbroken and sick to my stomach all at the same time over it. I don't want him to get older. I just want it to be today forever.

On top of everything else, I have to finish up last minute shopping for his party. STRESSFUL! When people ask "What should I get him?" I just want to answer, "How about you just host the party and that'll do?!?

I'm going to try doing a lego cake in FONDANT. Not just yucky store bought fondant but homemade fondant. Am I crazy? I need this cake. I need this cake to be perfect. Maybe no one else will care about the cake, but it's becoming a personal mission to make it perfect. Josie's cake last year turned out pretty good but I just used regular old buttercream. Fondant is scary. (Sidenote: I'm so tired I just mistyped "scary" 5 times and each time I retyped it I spelled it the same way)

I should be up cleaning right now. Or at least attempt to brush my sweet child's hair, speaking of hair , Malakai needs a haircut before Saturday. Jeez, my to do list never seems to lessen. Every time I get something accomplished I add two on.

Oh the joys of Mommyhood!

PS: Anyone have any tips for a fondant virgin? Send em my way.....PUH-LEASE!


Edited to add photo of actual birthday cake.

testing, testing....1,2,3

Helicopter Mommies

So, I've been labeled. I'm a "Helicopter" Mom. On the Dr. Phil show yesterday it was all about parenting styles, and thus how I got my label.

Apparently, there are lots of different "labels", and I'll go over them later but what bothered me about the whole thing was how because Dr. Phil was a "Free Range" parent he kind of laughed at the "Helicopter" parents. I was, until yesterday, a HUGE fan of the Dr. Phil show. But to be honest, it was  kind of like one of my really good friends making fun of me. So I'm still a little bitter. So here are the style/ labels.

"Helicopter" - Parents that are extremely involved in their children's lives. Drive them to and from places. Don't generally let children go unsupervised.

Quiz - Are you a Helicopter Parent?

"Free-Range" - Parents that let their children make decisions. Parents that trust their children to be alone or go places alone.

I think this is total BS. I don't need to be analyzed and laughed at. I'm a good mom. My kids are happy and healthy. They make decisions. I mean, they may not be "huge" decisions, but they're decisions none the less. My son is 4 years old and he knows that strangers are not his friends. Don't talk to strangers (other than kids his age) unless mommy says it's okay. He knows what to do if someone asks him to get in the car. He knows what he should do if someone grabs him. When we go to heavily populated places I make sure he has my phone number on him somewhere.

I don't really care what anyone else things about me and my parenting style. They didn't get me knocked up and as for my husband, who did get me knocked up.....he knows not to mess with me when it comes to the safety of my children. The way I look at it is, the parents who's children have been kidnapped, molested, murdered or all three, probably wish they would have done things differently. If I always assume it can happen to us and I'm always prepared for it to happen and my kids are always prepared for it to happen, don't we have a better chance of surviving it if it were to happen to us?

My kids are my life and I love them more than my own. I would do anything to make sure they are safe and this includes breaking off my relationship/addiction with the Dr. Phil show.

Wrapped?

So Malakai desperately wanted to play Lego Batman on the XBOX 360. I told him no because we (me, him and Josie) were all watching cartoons and only he would be able to play so it wouldn't be fair to everyone else. We were sitting in the recliner facing the TV and the window. A flock of birds flew by in a perfect "V" formation and I said "Malakai look at those birds" he promptly followed up with "Aww, they're so cute, just like you mommy and you look like a princess. Can I play the game now?" 


Does this mean my son has me wrapped around his little finger? Because it certainly felt that way while Josie and I had to watch him play Lego Batman!