Cakes

I just made my very own, homemade fondant!
I'm (obviously) very proud. :-)
Thanks little sis - cake maker extraordinaire! - for the recipe and the courage.

Yep! It's that time of year again. Birthday time. If you read this blog, you know I love making a cool bday cake for my kid. Well, as of yesterday, I now have two to make each year. Fun, fun. So my angel baby's first birthday was yesterday (post to come) and tomorrow's her party, which means cake (and mini cupcake) making today. Again, fun, fun! I'll (of course - cause I like the comments - just being honest.:-) post pics, but in the mean time, imagine gorgeous, white, smooth, silky, delicious HOMEMADE fondant!!! Wow!

First cake - I taught myself how to pipe stars


Second cake - I piped stars, experimented w/a little store bought fondant and tried cake shaping (my dino looked a lot more like a dragon - oh well.)


Third cake - I tested myself on cake shaping and went to town w/ store bought fondant!
Fourth cake - (photos to come - and while it won't be as impressive as Yoda, I'm not sure how to top that - it will be perfect for our sweet little Clarabelle.)

Copy Cat

Auntie Anne's. Aka, the best pretzels in the entire universe! (Pretzelmakers and Wetzels don't even compare.) And you can now have them at home -if like me, your closest Auntie Anne's is at grandma's mall in Detroit. (Ok, there's probably one closer, but that's the only one I know of!)

So anyway, when my first issue of Food Network Magazine (and that's a whole separate post. Oh my heck - it's awesome!) contained the Auntie Anne's copycat recipe I was thrilled!

Can I just say....
YUM!
All 6 were gone in about 20 minutes. Sorry neighbors, you were meant to get a few, but now I know that next time I'll need to double, or triple the recipe. :-)
*Disclaimer, as this is neither a food nor photography blog I feel just fine posting these crappy photos - :-)
Seriously, these were amazing! If the recipe's not on the Food Network's website, let me know and I'll post it. Yum, yum, yum~

And there was much rejoicing...

Tiggeriffic has been found!!! All is right in the universe.

Hail the conquering hero:
This is one happy kid!!!
(and one happy momma, and daddy!)

No seriously, we are so happy. And the good news: Tiggeriffic and Teddyriffic love each other and are already the best of friends!!! (whew!)

A new best friend??

We're not sure it's possible - but we were willing to try ANYTHING to get our sweet, happy Shea back. So while we've been praying that we'll find Tiggeriffic and we've assured Shea that Heavenly Father answers prayers, we've also had to explain that he doesn't always answer prayers in the way that we'd choose. (Who would've thought that our deepest doctrinal discussions to date w/ Shea would be in response to a lost Tiggeriffic?) Anyway - so, while we have faith - we really need something to cuddle at bedtime!!!!!

Welcome to the family Teddyriffic!!!! :-)

We chose him (the softest cuddliest one there:

We kissed and hugged his little heart and then warmed it and started it beating:

We showered and brushed him (and decided he'd be more cuddly clothes-less) and then we named him!:
And honestly? Shea was so happy this afternoon. The Teddy didn't leave his arms ONCE! He made sure to still pray for Tiggeriffic's safe return tonight, but he is sleeping soundly right now, cuddled as close as possible to Teddyriffic. Saints be praised! And thank you Build-A-Bear!

The love of his life...

was lost this weekend. The tears that have been shed over this. (Me and Chris included!!) My baby is beside himself. He honestly doesn't know how to be without his Tigger. Let me explain...

Someone gave me this little Tigger at my baby shower for Shea. We thought it was cute and stuck it in his crib when he was a few months old. He latched onto it immediately. We thought it was adorable (until we realized that our lives would be over if we ever lost it) so Chris got two identical ones on Ebay - long story short - he found those and for the past 2 years has had 3 Tiggers. Happy happy joy joy. Although only one is "Tiggeriffic!" And this is the one he loves. And this is the one we lost this weekend. And this is why my son is inconsolable. He is seriously not himself and asks where his Tigger is at least 20 times a day. And bedtime.... u.g.h! He is so sad, we can not stand it!

Tigger & Shea at 3 months:



at 7 months:

Almost a year:

At their first birthday party w/ Aunt Jaimee:

Tigger and Shea learning to walk
Shea has had one or more of his Tiggers with him for every big, little and in between moment of his life:








A highlight was introducing Tiggeriffic to the real Tigger. (A very big moment!!)

He even thought (very, very briefly) about sharing him with his new little sister.

And now he's gone. And while we realize that he's not a sentient being he feels like the 5th member of our family and he will be sorely (and I mean sorely) missed by all!!

Brainwashed!

Shea thoroughly enjoyed his box of conversation hearts this Valentine's Day. Every one that he pulled out of the box, he wanted me to read to him. "What does this one say mom?" "What about this one?" And so on (and on, and on, and on.)
So after a while, we come to the YOU ROCK one. So I say, "Hey, this one says, You Rock!" He looks at me and says, "Well you don't rock mom, only daddy rocks. He told me!"

Happy Valentine's Day!

We had the best weekend.
It started with Shea and I making Valentines for all our family far away. We had so much fun making these sparkly, feathery, little love notes.
In fact...
Shea loved the feathers soooo much that he decided he needed to wear a pair.

(In defense of my little fairy :-) - he wanted to wear them so badly because he was sure that when we went outside the wind would pick him up and he'd be able to FLY! (Come on! We've ALL had that dream right??!!)
Then on Saturday we had the nicest day. We all went to lunch at my fav, fav, favorite restaurant - PF Chang and then we spent the afternoon walking down 3rd street promenade in Santa Monica. We had so much fun watching the street performers and checking out the cool fountains!


It was the MOST beautiful day!!! It got a little chilly in the shade - but it was so beautiful. After the promenade, we walked down to the Santa Monica pier and enjoyed the beach! - On Valentines Day people!! :-) :-) :-) :-)
(Have I mentioned lately how much I LOVE living in SoCal?)
Hope your Valentines Day was as nice as ours was!