Steelers Cookie Package

I had 3 baking orders this weekend. So, I woke up this morning at 5am in order to get started on the cookies. I finished at 5pm!! I had a lot of fun doing the cookies though. I had extra circle cookies so I made them yellow and black in honor of the Steelers.

I made these for a three year old's birthday party favors.

What a Day...

(and it's only 3:00!)

Well, here it is...the monster truck cake that I have been thinking about for almost a month now. One of our friends at church asked me to do this for her son's 7th birthday. I think the wheels could be larger and the truck body could be smaller but that's what happens when you draw out a template and don't buy a mold for it!

This is what the kitchen looks like after I am done baking a cake or cookies. It's always worse with cakes since there are so many different steps and stages involved. The kitchen will look like this again tomorrow because I have to make some Steeler and helicopter cookies (two different orders!). Now you can see why I chose to blog instead of clean up my mess!!

Special Delivery!

Bernie sent these Eat 'N Park Steeler smiley face cookies as a little treat. They were wrapped in two Super Bowl XLIII version Terrible Towels. I was getting a little nervous that Bernie had forgotten about us. Yesterday my sister sent an email with a picture attachment of her "Steelers Wall" in her office. It had a nice new Super Bowl terrible towel. I asked her were she got it. Then I got another email from her with a picture of smiley face cookies. In the email she thanked mom and Bernie for the cookies and terrible towels. I was thinking, "What the heck!" But then I thought about the fact that Pittsburgh is closer to Michigan than Georgia. So, our cookies would just come today. Then Bernie called and was talking to Jeremy about it and I heard Jeremy say, "Oh, so Johnny got his cookies too!?" At that point I really did think that Bern forgot about us-I AM the middle child after all....the forgotten one. I reassured myself that we do live in Georgia and things are always a little slower down here. Thanks Bern-it was worth the wait!!

Jumper

Today Hayden decided to bring her potty into Layne's room. I thought that she was going to go to the bathroom on the potty instead of the floor this time. Then she climbed on top of it and jumped off. This went on for about 30 minutes!

So I had plenty of time to get some action shots.

She is wearing her big girl undies because we really are working hard on potty training this week. I want her to be ready, but I just don't think she is yet. We will keep plugging though.

Layne was just laying in her favorite position reading a book while her sis acted all crazy.

Check out her crossed legs in this one!

6 Month Doctor's Appointment

Layne went to the doctors yesterday. She got 4 shots and an oral vaccine! Poor girl was so worked up about it. It was another 2 hour doctors visit too. So, needless to say I was a little worked up about everything too. Here are her stats-she weighs 13 pounds and 10 ounces which is in the 10th percentile and her height is 26 1/4 inches which is in the 75th percentile. So, she is tall and skinny....not such a bad thing! Here is a picture on her FOUR band aides!!

Here she is just hanging out playing on her tummy.

She loves to be on her tummy-even when I am changing her diaper! She thinks it's so funny when she tries to roll over as I am trying to get a clean diaper on her. What a goof!

She can "crawl" all around her crib and on the floor. She just kind of moves around like an inch worm-no real crawling yet.

Good Bye Friends....

Friday was Abrahm and Ezra's last day with us since the new Learning Center at our church is opening up on Monday. It was a bitter sweet day. It will be nice to have some freedom back, but we sure will miss those two. Here is Ezie giving Layne a kiss.

We spent the afternoon outside just swinging, sliding, blowing bubbles, and playing. It was a great day for being outside!

Little Layner all smiles. This was taken before her constipation problems began. The poor girl has been "stopped up" for about 2 days now. We are feeding her prunes, giving her laxative medicine, and today I gave her a warm apple juice/prune juice mixture. We shall see!

Abrahm and Hayden had more of a brother sister relationship. They would love each other one minute and then be fussing at each other the next. I think that they mostly loved each other though!

Miss Hayden on the big girl swing. What an independent little one. She is growing up too fast!

Mr Smiley.

It's just too bad that the weather wasn't this nice for all three weeks because all of them just loved to be outside.

Abrahm taught Hayden a lot of things while he was here. Such as: chairs aren't just for sitting-if you turn them upside down they can be a mountain to climb on, there are many ways to go down a slide-but all of them aren't safe and fearless, objects other than balls can fly-you aren't supposed to throw everything....but it CAN be done, and just because you are bigger doesn't mean that you are stronger or faster!

Jerm was sitting on one of the huge logs in our backyard while he talked on the phone. Abrahm just went over and sat right next to him and of course Hayden followed his lead. They are just so cute together, don't you think!?

It was a long day outside and both Jerm and Hayden have a cold so they were pooped!

Project Roof Repair and Tree Termination

We woke up this morning to rain! What a bummer because everyone was supposed to come over around 7:30am in order to get to work! But because of the rain we had to delay it until about 11:00. No breakfast for the guys....just lunch.

Here is Jeremy sporting his double layer fleece "oven mitt" that I made him. The cold weather really hurts his arm so he asked me to whip this up for him.

I'd tell you all about what they are doing, but I don't have a clue. All I know is that they made a big mess and a lot of noise. But it was all worth it! Dennis McClendon (far left), Paul McKay (in attic), and Alan McClendon (bottom) worked on the roof all day.

Jonathan Cipolla and Scott Comptois worked on the tree termination. They cut the tree up and hauled it up to our burn pit.

The new shingles match pretty well! They all worked so hard all day long, but they got the job done.

Jeremy Ross: Supervisor!

Once the rain cleared out it turned out to be a very nice day!

Jonathan split some of the wood up so that Scott could use it in his outdoor burn pit.

Here is Scott using his chainsaw to cut up the tree. He has been talking about using his chainsaw to cut up that tree ever since it fell on the house. I guess it's a man thing!

They worked until the sun went down and the temperature dropped. God continues to amaze us! Who would have ever thought that a tree falling on our roof would bring so many blessings! We have been so blessed- beginning with helpers that came to get the tree off of our roof the day it fell, then the roofer that talked the adjuster into giving us money to replace the whole backside of our roof, next the large check that we got in order to make the repairs, and lastly the men who came to fix the roof today! We don't always understand what God's plan is, but we know that He has one and it's even greater than we can ever imagine. When the tree fell on the house we would have never in a million years thought that we would be blessed by it! God turned a bad situation into a great one. We have an amazing God and some amazing friends!!

I bet the guys are all going to sleep well tonight-well maybe not the one who has an 8 week old at home! All I know is that it's 8:20pm right now and Jerm is sound asleep on the couch.....and he was the supervisor for the project!!!

Here We Go Steelers!

I really wanted to try making some Steeler cookies. Since we are having people over to help fix the roof today (if it ever stops raining) I decided that that was the perfect opportunity to make these cookies! They didn't turn out like I wanted them to, but you get the gist. The top row says "Steeler" because I couldn't fit the "s" in! The writing tip kept clogging and it was really messing me up! The top right one actually said "Steerer" but I fixed it after Jerm pointed it out to me ever so gently.

Here are the cookies that the guys will take home with them when they are done helping out today.

Ready for some Football!!

Here are the paper Steeler helmets that I made last night. I wanted the girls to have something to wear for the big game next weekend. I had to take Layne's face mask off because she kept trying to eat it! Jeremy said that Layne is the kicker and that's why she doesn't have a face mask. See her trying to get her sisters in the above picture!

This project was a little challenging just because there was a lot of guess work involved and I was working with a 6 month old and a 2 year old! I just searched homemade football helmet or kids football helmet and I found some instructions! No pictures though.

Looks like Layne has her game face on!

We are ready for the Super Bowl!!

Steeler Nation RISE

The kids normally have a dance party towards the end of the day, but yesterday we got an email with a link to a new Steeler fight song. So, we had our dance party a little early! Here is link to the song if you'd like to hear the whole song.

The Terrible Towel thing was just foreign to Hayden and Abrahm. The couldn't understand why you would wave a towel around in the air and not try to hit anyone with it! Not sure where the socks on the hands thing came from.

Hooray For Sisters!

I decided to take a shot of the girls together since I don't have many of those now a days. Abrahm tried his hardest to squeeze in the picture!

The other day we decided to do some finger painting. They colored little cut out fruits with faces on them, but the fruit didn't have any place to go. So, we decided to make a little brown fruit bowl for the fruit. That's where the finger painting came into play.

Abrahm was not too sure about it at first.

They were both very messy by the time the project was done!

Today is Abrahm and Ezra's last day here with us. We have had a great three weeks playing with them, but it's been rough stuff for mommy! Four little ones all under the age of 2 1/2 is a lot to keep up with on a daily basis!! I have enjoyed the challenge though.

Today's Art Project

I try to do some sort of craft or project with the older two every day. Today it was painting with water colors. I was right there the entire time because I was so nervous about where the paints would end up. They both did a very good job.

I cut their little frogs out while they were napping. For some reason Hayden doesn't look too happy in this picture. I guess she's just trying to play it cool...

Cup Cake Toppers

Someone asked me to do an Indiana Jones cake and cupcakes for their son's upcoming birthday. This little hat and whip are going to go on top of each cupcake. I tried to make one of each for the first time today. I think it turned out pretty well. The party isn't until the end of February, so I have plenty of time to practice!

Baby Food

Well, here it is....the homemade baby food I was telling you about. It really was pretty simple and not as time consuming as I thought. I did it last night as I watched the Steelers kick some booty.....Oh yeah!! Now is the time that I really wish that I still lived in the burgh. I just keep telling Jerm that I can't even imagine how nuts it is up there right now. After the game I just had to turn on ESPN so that I could hear them talk about it all over again. I walked into the family room this morning singing, "Here we go Steelers, Here we go, Pittsburgh's goin' to the Super Bowl!" Hayden is trying to learn the words. 

Ok, back to the baby food. the orange is carrots, brown is apples and pears with cinnamon, yellow is butternut squash, and the yellow with green specks is sweet potato with broccoli. For the veggies all you have to do is steam them and then puree and the fruits you just boil and then puree. Simple as that!! 

Same Outfit, Same Girl, Different Year!

This is what Hayden wore to church today. This was also Hayden's Halloween costume when she was 1 year old! So, I decided to do a split screen of Hayden wearing the outfit at a year old and Hayden wearing the outfit today. 

Grandma & Pap's Road Trip

Grandma and Pap bought the girls some gifts that we couldn't bring home with us due to their size. So, they decided to take a 12 hour road trip in order to deliver them and visit with the girls of course! This Smart Cycle is one of the gifts. Hayden is in love with it already!! 

Here are Hayden and Pap on Saturday morning. They decided to snuggle on the couch for a little while. Hayden is such a cuddler. 

Once she was done snuggling with Pap she went over to cuddle with Grandma. As you can see everyone wanted to snuggle with Grandma! 

Little Layner all bundled up in a blanket. 

Grandma, Pap, Hayden, Mazie, and Grady all went on a walk on Saturday morning. It was about 25 degrees outside, but we bundled Hayden up. They had a good time walking the neighborhood even though it was a brisk morning. Of course 25 degrees isn't that cold to the northerners!! 

Layne tried baby food for the first time on Saturday afternoon. I fed her carrots and she LOVED them. She ate half the jar!! 

She has been eyeing food since she was about 3 months old, so I thought that she would be a good eater. I am going to try making baby food for Layne. I think that I will just make it on the weekend and freeze it in ice cube trays. I'm going to try my first batch this afternoon. 

What a mess!! 

Full tummy, clean, and happy! 

Saturday night was date night for me and Jeremy!! Grandma and Pap watched the girls while we went out. We went to Jim & Nicks and then to a movie-Grand Torino. It was a great night out. Thanks mom and Bern!! 

While we were out Hayden and Pap played and played on the Smart Cycle. I guess they got a little tired out! 

Here is Layne just talking away. She is very eager to get moving and talking in order to keep up with the big sister that she adores. 

She had to say some things to Miss Mazie too!

I know it was a long drive for mom and Bern...just for one weekend, but we really loved having them. Along with hanging out with the girls they cleaned, shopped, and organized stuff! Nothing against Jeremy, but he just hasn't been able to be much help around the house due to his arm injury so it was nice to have a few extra hands and some relief for the weekend. We love you guys-thanks for everything!!