Adventures in Living...

I've been neglecting this poor blog for some time now.  It's not that I haven't been in the kitchen as much as it's because I haven't really made anything original lately.  After Chase's baptism two weeks ago and hubby's birthday last week, I'm all party-planning-baking-fun-timed out.  It's been a whirlwind here over the past four months (four months!!!  Say whaaaat?), what with all the having a baby, celebrating the holidays, hosting a christening, two birthdays (mine and his), and oh yeah, going back to work.  (And fitting my Pinterest addiction in there somewhere.)  Now that all of that is complete, I've been enjoying just Living.  Living in the moment, day to day, not planning or getting caught up in anything else.  Just Living as a mama, wife, nurse.  Life.  It's a wonderful thing.

I wanted to post some pictures of what we've done around our house lately.  Every night, when I'm rocking and nursing the kiddo before bed, I sit in his bedroom and marvel at how different things are from a year ago.  Mostly because I was laying in that same room, with different furniture and pictures on the walls, in a different bed, and throwing up everything I even considered putting in my mouth.  We've come a long way, that baby and I.  Honestly, though, everyone morning, noon and night I thank God for my wonderful husband.  I give single moms mad props - there is no way I could do this alone and keep my sanity.  Kudos to the single ladies out there raising their own little ones!!

We also repainted and redecorated the upstairs bathroom for the kiddo.  Points in the "Husband Patience" category for that, too.  Four days before we were hosting my parents, grandmother, aunt and cousin for the weekend of Chase's baptism, not to mention putting together a luncheon for friends and family on the big day, I had the bright idea of repainting the room to better match the new bath things (I <3 elephants!) I had fallen in love with.  And we made matching curtains and towel racks out of an extra shower curtain.  Never underestimate the power of a sewing machine and a staple gun.  :-)

And then there was Chase's baptism.  I was so touched at the love and support from our family and friends on that special occasion!  The mass was beautiful, just full of happiness and fellowship.  We had some cute decorations (thanks, Pinterest!) and yummy food at the luncheon afterewards.  I'm not going to post recipes, just the links, since all the food was either things I've made before or from another blog with the original recipe.  (Plus, I didn't get as much pictures of the food as I would have liked - everyone ate it all before I could get to the camera!)

The menu:

Slow Cooker Sandwiches - marinated turkey breast and slow cooker ham from Espresso and Cream

Crock Pot Macaroni and Cheese from Stephanie O'Dea

Hummus and veggies

Oreo Brownies (my brownie recipe with Oreo pieces)

Vanilla Bean Cupcakes with cream cheese icing

The cupcakes were my favorite - I left half the cream cheese icing white and tinted the other half blue.  I put each half into it's own Ziploc bag, snipped one of the corners of each bag, and put them both into my larger pastry bag.  When I piped the icing on, it came out swirled, like soft serve ice cream.  So cute!

So that's what we've been up to lately.  Don't worry, I promise to be a better blogger and post some fun stuff coming up...after all, my sister's birthday is on Saturday, and I think she might need something sweet to help her celebrate!!

Love to all,

D