DeQueen Trip

My bestfriend, Kimberly, lives in the big town of DeQueen, Arkansas and she had her 2nd baby 2 weeks ago. I couldn't find a free weekend this month to go visit, so I got brave and loaded Lynlee (2 1/2) and Owen (9 weeks) into the car for a 3 1/2 hour drive by MYSELF! I don't know if that's bravery or insanity! But we had a great time! I'm sure Aunt Kim and Mic-dog (A.K.A. Micah) are glad that we are back in Springdale, but we already miss them. Here is a visual of what Kimberly and I did the past 2 days. We both sat nursing our newborns talking for hours while our 2 1/2 year old and 18 month old DESTROYED the house! It was fun though, at least for me!

Here's Lynlee and Emme! I know Lynlee has a mouth full of banana Laffy Taffy (yeah I know I'm a great mom for giving my child candy on a regular basis...no need to tell me!) and Emme almost has a toy covering her face, but this is the ONLY picture I got of the both of them looking at me at the same time and believe me I tried more than once!

Here's Lynlee reading a book to Emme. SO CUTE. Emme was actually looking at the book too, but I distracted her!

Now Lynlee is looking but not Emme! See I was telling the truth!

Once again...only one girl looking at me!! I have several bath shots and it is crazy how those two stinkers would not look at the same time. Oh and I promise Lynlee is not drinking that nasty bath water! She's just about to poor it on her head!

OKAY...now prepare yourself for some of the cutest pictures you will ever see in your life!!!

OWEN IS SMITTEN OVER A GIRL!!!

Is that not the cutest? Just wait they keep getting better! Owen has his arm around Lila and Lila is resting her sweet head on his shoulder! As you will see Owen LOVED it and couldn't stop smiling! Kimberly and I were cracking up too! Kimberly and I put them in the bouncy chair together to make fun of Mic-dog b/c he has already laid strict rules in the Martin house! No boys can sleep in the girls bed!

He is loving it! Another funny note, they both kept hitting each other in the head with their uncontrollable arms!

This was the reaction after we discussed the arranged marriage!

How cute will this be on the slide-show during rehearsal dinner the night before their wedding day! Ha, so I'm totally joking, but it would be funny! Doesn't Lila look so safe and sound in the arms of a real man??? (that's a one liner courtesy of one of my grandpas...EVERY time you give him a huge he says "I'm glad you now know what it feels like to be hugged by a REAL man!" It still makes me laugh even though he has said it a billion times!)

Hope you all enjoyed! Sorry for the abundance of pictures! We miss you Aunt Kim, Mic-dog, Emme, and Lila! Thanks for letting us crash at your place for a couple of nights!

Easter Baking Challenge

My sister-in-law, Angela, put a baking challenge on her blog earlier this week. She was really encouraging us to cook an Easter treat with our kids. Lynlee loves to cook with me so I thought this was a great opportunity to get in the kitchen with her. So with my competitive spirit, I searched for the best, most unique recipe. As I was making it yesterday (all day event with a baby that needs to be fed in between), I decided to look and see if anyone has posted their baking pictures yet. Low and behold, there was a family who was making the same thing I was :(. Oh well, the prize is a cookbook that I already have anyway!!

So here's our adventure yesterday. Be prepared...there are a lot of pictures!

We made something called cakepops. You will have to check the blog that I stole them from, Bakerella. She is extremely talented and her cakepops look amazing so don't judge mine. Basically, a cakepop is crumbled caked mixed with frosting, rolled into a ball, placed on a stick, and then dipped in chocolate/vanilla coating.

Lynlee mixing the frosting into the crumbled cake.

Posing for a picture as we prepare to dip our cakepops in pink vanilla coating. And yes she is wearing her princess PJs with her peacock tutu! We like to keep things interesting at our house!

Lynlee helped dip the cakepops. This was a tricky task because the cake would start falling off the stick, but I did learn a neat trick if you are ever dipping things in chocolate. Slowly turn the object in one hand while tapping your wrist with the other hand. It made the excess chocolate fall off while not putting too much pressure on the cake. I will definitely be using that trick again.

Lynlee starting to decorate her cakepop. We put a small amount of light corn syrup on a paint brush to use as a glue for our sprinkles.

Still decorating...look at that set up she had! I used to make sugar cookies for everything when I was in high school, so I had an abundant supply of sprinkles. So it was easy to give her free-reign...I needed to weed through those sprinkles anyway!

Another big helper! This was Owen's position most of the day, because those cakepops took Lynlee and I most of the day.

Just precious, right? And yes I kiss his cheeks a zillion times a day!

This was his reaction after Lynlee fed him a bite of a cakepop. Totally just kidding, the boy was so deprived yesterday that if you just looked at him this was the face he would make!

Lynlee's beautiful finished product! I was so proud of myself for not intervening with her creativity! I'm a perfectionist when it comes to baking, so I usually try to make her creations look a little prettier, but these babies were all Lynlee!

Notice the bite out of the top left one! She's such a sneak!

Here's my finished product! I know I wasn't too adventurous, but I did try a few other designs and they totally failed. I figured I would stick with what worked!

Another view!

So I got tired of glueing every single sprinkle on! I resorted to my old standby...just squiggle coating all over the place!

Finished product! I guess not too bad for our first try! Now for the taste verdict. Kind of weird if I was going to be honest. It taste like soggy/wet cake covered in a hard chocolate/vanilla coating. I'm thinking I added too much frosting, I would not recommend adding the whole can if you try it.

R.I.P. fallen cakepops!

THE MESS!!! Can you tell which sprinkle plate was mine and which one was Lynlee's? I promise I gave her FREE-REIGN with the sprinkles. I think her only goal was to empty all the sprinkle containers. I would keep telling her that she would use all the sprinkles and we wouldn't have anymore. Here's her response "it's okay mommy, we just go to tore (store) and buy new ones!" I guess I have trained her well! Sorry Pat :(.

The sprinkle bottles that Lynlee single-handedly emptied! Like I said, most of these I had in high school so I promise I am not throwing money down the drain here! I'm sure sprinkles probably expire anyway!