January Takes the Cake...

As the month of January is coming to a close, I decided a quick blog is definitely in order!

This weekend was pretty busy. We spent Saturday celebrating the 1st Anniversary of my friend, Nicole’s, 29th Birthday. Another friend and I took Nicole to what she thought was going to be shopping and dinner, but there was a group of friends waiting for her at Outback when we arrived. For once, I think she was surprised!! I made a coffee mug cake (she loves coffee), and some Rocky Road cupcakes. I am not by any means an expert in cake decorating, but I do have a lot of fun with it! This was my second time using rolled fondant, and it took me three tries to get it right. Unfortunately, since there is actually icing on the cake (under the fondant), if you mess the fondant up, you have to peel it off and throw the fondant away. I mean, I suppose you could scrape all of the icing off the fondant to reuse it, but that would be a lengthy, tedious task for sure!

{Coffee, anyone?!}

My brother’s Birthday was earlier this month, and I made him this cake:

{B calls this the Wonder Bread Cake}

We celebrated his Birthday with immediate family at Red Lobster. It was SO good!!

I’m not a huge fan of January…it means a lot of tax prep for Brad’s business, and typically frigid weather. It has also snowed a TON this month. I don’t necessarily mind the snow, until it freezes and makes it painful to drive in. This morning I drove to work on this:

Yes, folks, that's a solid sheet of ice! Last night we were supposed to get something like 12.5" of snow...instead it all (okay, maybe not the full 12.5", but STILL!) came down as sleet. FUN!

And no post is complete without some pictures of the boys! Here's a pic of our littlest cutie helping Mommy make brownies. This was his first time licking a beater! Needless to say, he enjoyed it immensely!! =)

Aunt EE watched the boys for us on Thursday so that B and I could get some B&S billing done. She took a few pictures of the boys, and shared them with me:

{Levi feeding Luke}

{The boys playing so well together!}

I hope everyone is keeping toasty warm! The Groundhog says that Spring is near. I sure hope he is right!! =)

Etsy Love... =)

So, I have a new-found love for Etsy. Etsy is basically a website that allows you to purchase hand-made items directly from Artists from all over!

I made my first purchase off of Etsy from MyBabyBearsBoutique for Levi’s first birthday:

Through a blog that I frequent, I was introduced to JulietheFishDesigns, who makes beautiful hand-stamped custom keepsakes. I purchased this Mother’s necklace, as well as a necklace for my mother-in-law:

{This picture makes Luke and Levi look a bit brassy. They're not...they're really silver.}

Julie was incredibly easy to work with, and was very helpful in making my custom order perfect! I will definitely be ordering from her again! =) The necklaces each came in a cute little box, complete with very helpful cleaning instructions. B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L job, Julie!

My most recent purchase was from PurpleLemonDesigns, and it was this address stamp:

{I modified the pic of our stamp so the entire world can't see our address! An example of our design is directly below.}

{Image from PurpleLemonDesigns}

Purple Lemon Designs is a graphic design company that "specializes in custom stamps and stationery". I was very impressed with the packaging that my stamp came in (can you say, A-dorable?!), and the stamp itself has beautiful clarity in its imprint (again, the picture above was blurred intentionally for security purposes!)! Kelly's communication with me was excellent, and I knew what status my order was in every step of the way! L-O-V-E that! =)

I have also become a HUGE fan of Chubby Cheeks Boutique. I ordered several sets of PJ's as Christmas gifts, and was incredibly happy with how they turned out! The pictures don't even do them complete justice:

{My adorable nephews, Weston and Jacob in top left, and my beautiful niece, Kayleigh bottom right}

Lauren is very crafty and creative, and she does an excellent job with custom items! I'll be posting more of her products here, soon!! =) Her Etsy shop isn't up, yet, but you can "like" her FB page (linked above), and view/order product that way.

Each of these shops provided excellent product, and excellent service. The shop names are hyperlinked, so each of you can go check their sites out! So go on, go take a gander…you won’t be disappointed, but your wallet may be a bit lighter!! =)

Christmas and New Year's

Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a safe and happy Holiday Season! =)

This year, we celebrated Christmas with my parents on Christmas Eve evening. We had dinner and exchanged gifts. Luke liked to open one gift at a time, and then play with the gift! Levi enjoyed ripping the wrapping paper off of the gifts, but didn't so much pay mind to what was "in" the package!

{The boys LOVED this snowman! It danced and sang!}

On Christmas Day, we went to Brad's Mom's house for lunch, and then to Brad's Dad's for dinner. It was a busy day, but we had a lot of good food and enjoyed our family's company! Luke and Levi really enjoyed playing with Remy and Akai, Aunt Kelley's fur-babies. =)

{Playing in Grandma's Toy Closet!}

{Luke, playing with his "cousins"}

After Christmas, we were able to meet with Aunt Audria (one of my sisters) and Uncle Anthony at Beef O'Brady's to exchange gifts and visit for a bit. We had a nice visit...I wish we could have these "visits" more often!

Brad and I rang in the New Year with a handful of friends. First, we went to David and Amanda's for the earlier part of the evening. Then, we took the boys home and my Grandma came over and sat with them while we celebrated the ball drop with the Lowe's & Crew! It's always nice to visit with friends. So often we get wrapped up in the monotony of every day life that we forget to stop and enjoy the people who are in it!

For the start of the New Year, I have a handful of Resolutions that I've made. Of course, I'd like to finish losing *all* of my baby weight! I'm also learning to delegate this year, so that I can be a better Mother, Wife, Friend, etc. Right now I feel like I have so many things on my plate, that I am not truly enjoying the things in my life that I should be enjoying.

So, what are your Resolutions?! I'd like to hear them! In the meantime, I hope everyone's New Year is off to a good start, and continues to head in a positive direction!