Home {Sweet} Home

Day 30

Letting Go

 Today, I am filled with excitement, nerves and sadness. It is the last day in our home. This is why I haven't been blogging the last few weeks. Between packing, potty training and a 2 month old I have had next to no time for anything extra.

 

 

 

 

When we put our home up for sale, it was a quick and easy decision. We knew we wanted more open space and a bigger backyard now that our family was growing. What I didn't expect were the emotions that would come with selling our home and that it was possible to sell so fast we barely got a chance to realize what selling this house meant to us.

 

 

 

This was our first house that over the last 3 years we built into a home. We had our first child here and watched him learn to walk and talk. We got married here and grew our family for four here. We put a lot of time and love into updating this home making it ours. There were many laughs shared and many tears shed. SO many memories were made in this home that will never be forgotten.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now it is time to let go. It is time for us to move onto a new chapter in our family's life, time for us to grow and enjoy what will come in the future. It is time for us to build a new house into our home. Into a place where we find comfort in at the end of a long day and into a place to make many new memories in. As my husband says: It's time to move onto bigger and better things.

 

 

I will always love and cherish our first home and I will embrace every moment we have left in it. I will say goodbye, shed a tear {or 2}, let go, and look toward a new life...in our new home.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



My Summer List [Link Up]

Today i'm {Linking up} with Whitney @BlackLittleButton and made a summer list. My list isn't all that long even though there are so many things I would love to do. When you have a 10 week old and a 2 1/2 year old it makes a lot of things difficult! So I made my list of things that we HAVE to do this summer and who knows, I may be able to do a few extra things that I didn't include on the list!


~ Head to the Chicago area to celebrate our 1st anniversary!! (Hhhheelllllooooo Ikea!!!!!)

~ Attend a Brewer's game & tailgate (it's a summer must in WI)

~ Go on a winery tour.  Earlier this year we attended a benefit for an adorable little baby boy and ended up winning a winery tour in a raffle! I'm excited to go because I have never been to a winery! {link}

~ Visit the Milwaukee Zoo with my boys {link}

~ Go golfing for the first time with the Hubby

~ Paint our front door turquoise!!!!!

~ Start running and do a 5K

Recipes: Caramel Macchiato Angel Food Cake

 

 

Who doesn't love a quick and easy recipe?! I know I do! 

 

 

One of my absolute all time favorite cakes is angel food. The light and airy texture of the sweet cake is to die for. There is nothing better on a warm day then angel food cake so when my friend Jane mentioned she wanted to make something with angel food cake I immediately started looking for a quick easy recipe for a spruced up version. Unfortunately, my search for a quick & easy recipe only lead me to only homemade recipes. As much as I love cakes that are made from scratch, angel food required more work then what I was searching for.

 

 

My inspiration was from one recipe I found for a homemade Caramel Macchiato cake. I decided to make, what I like to call, a "semi"-homemade version. It has the perfect amount of coffee flavor and sweetness and the light whipped topping and caramel drizzle is the perfect pairing.

 

 

 

Caramel Macchiato Angel Food Cake

 

 

 

1 Box Angel Food Cake Mix

1 1/4 cup STRONGLY brewed caramel(optional) coffee, chilled

Whipped Topping

Caramel Sauce (We used store bought)

 

 

 

1. Make the cake as directed on the box except instead of using water use 1 1/4 cup strongly brewed coffee.

 

2. After cake has cooled, slice and top with whipped topping and caramel sauce.

 

3. Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Favorite Photo

Jenni at Story Of My Life created a challenge to blog everyday this month. I haven't been doing it because I have been so crazy busy with everything going on in my life that I barely have time to blog at all!! At the end of the month you will find out what has been going on to make everything so crazy around here.

 

 

 

Today is Day 17- Choose a favorite photo of yourself.

These photos are both from my bump shoot and they are my absolute favorites!! Shannon at PeoplePaperPrints does amazing work; She did our wedding, my bump shoot and a family shoot with just me and my mom on our birthday. I adore her and I adore her photography.

 

 

 

Being pregnant can be hard and I know for me I never felt very pretty with either of my pregnancies. I just felt huge and awkward. Looking at these photos made me realize just how beautiful ALL women are when they're pregnant, no matter what shape or size they are.

 

 

Little C: Birth Day

One subject I have been wanting to write about is pregnancy and labor. Being prego was always something I looked forward to and I knew I definitely wanted at least 2 children. My mom always told me how much she loved being pregnant and how easy her pregnancies and labors were.  My pregnancies were both very similar to each other yet very different from my mother's. I had been told that just because you have family that has it easy doesn't mean your's will be. Each pregnancy and each person are different...it has nothing to do with genetics. I do agree with this to a point and after my first pregnancy & delivery I totally agreed. However, while my second pregnancy was pretty much the same as my first, my labor was completely different.


My labor with Little A was what I would call a normal "first" child labor, 16 hours long; Little C was one that I had only heard of in stories I read on blogs and pregnancy forums. It was one to be envious of and I never in a million years thought I would ever have an experience like it. I, of course, was in denial. I was in labor for just a litte over 1 hour, thats it...1 HOUR! I still can't believe it.

Here is my story.

Our (Little A & me) monday started as usual. We woke up, turned on Monsters Inc. cartoons, and made breakfast. I was feeling a little sick, which was normal for me at this point and I was so excited to get my 37 week notification on my phone because that meant I was officially full term and baby could come anytime. The weekend before I had started trying a few things to help encourage labor, things like sitting on a big excersize ball and walking the mall. I, by no means, was trying to enduce labor, I was far from ready. I had big plans for the week; I needed to get my hospital bag packed, things still had to be organized around the house, I needed a pedicure and I had planned a date with my Little A before his brother came. After breakfast we cuddled on the couch because instead of feeling better like I usually do, I started feeling worse. Then the thought popped into my head: I have the FLU.

This last year has been horrible for colds & flu's. I had already had 2 colds, my little A had 2, and everyone I knew either had a horrible cold (or 3) or the flu or both. So of course I was upset, I'm 37 weeks prego & miserable, I have a very energetic 2 year old and I have things to do!! There was no time for this. I had texted my mom to tell her what was going on and she told me that maybe I was going into labor (she had heard from a few customers that they had been sick the day they had their kids). I thought she was crazy, there is no way I was in labor, I hadn't even had any braxton-hicks contractions. Unfortunately I just continued to get worse even though I tried everything  I could to feel better.

 

 

At 4, I called my husband asking him to please come home early. By 7, all I wanted to do was feel better. I was tired and sick and crabby. It was also at this point that I all of a sudden felt the urge to pack my hospital bag, I ignored it because, like I said before, was NOT in labor...still no BH contractions or anything.

Bedtime rolled around so I got my son ready for bed and I tried to lay with him which wasn't too successful. I kept him awake because I couldn't get comfortable. Around 11:20pm, I had to get up and get to the bathroom. Half way into our bedroom, I felt a gush...Oh crap...got into the bathroom and sure enough, my water broke!!! I yelled to my hubby that I thought it broke, but I wasn't sure, ok yes I was.

Still NO CONTRACTIONS. I told hubby to call my mom first and if she doesn't answer call my friend, Jane (she lives the closest) to get her here and I was going to shower and pack our hospital bag. Got into the shower and BOOM, contractions hit. They didn't slowly start, they were powerful and right on top of each other. About 15 min after we called Jane, she arrived and we rushed out of the house. We live about 4 blocks from the hospital so it was a quick trip there. By the time we got into our room, they got an IV in and all hooked up to the monitors I was 7 cm dilated. There was no time for anesthesia to get there, the nurses said how fast I was progressing pain medicine wasn't an option! I guess if anyone had to do it all natural FAST was they way to do it!

Around 12:15am, my doctor arrived and 3 contractions later, our newest little man was here.

 

 

 

I told my hubby that if we decide to have a 3rd, he may want to learn how to deliver a baby. It was the craziest and best experience and 2 months later i'm still in denial that those stories I read actually happened to ME.   

Little A: Q&A

Little A is my 2 1/2 year old. He is a little ball of energy and drives momma crazy but I still think he is the cutest thing ever. He is starting to say some of the funniest things so I decided to start a series of the funny things he says.

The other day we went out for lunch at Red Robin (one of our favorites!!) and there was a Q&A on the kids menu. Here are the questions and answers:


Q: If you could go anywhere in the world where would it be?
Little A: Home Depot

Q: How would you get there?
Little A: A Vroom-Vroom cart

Q: Who would you go with?
Little A: Uncle Juan(JP)

Q: What would you do there?
Little A: Boop the buttons

Q:Who would you send a postcard to?
Little A: My water (not so sure about this one)


The first Q&A is my favorite and will make Daddy proud too!!!!

Blog Update!!

 

 

 

 

There were a few things added to the blog last night and i'm super excited for you to see them:

 

 

 

 

 

1. The lovely Whitney from BlackLittleButton finished designing my About Me page, so check it out!

 

 

 

 

 

2. I added the Blog Lovin' icon. Click and follow me :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kids Lunch: Healthy, Delicious, & FUN!!

As some of you may know, lunch time with a toddler doesn't always go well. I am on a mission to find fun, easy and healthy recipes that I can get my little one involved with and share them with you all to try out with your kids.

 

 

Anyone with a toddler might already know about the show Caillou. It's the daily happenings of a little boy and his family. On one episode they got to make their own pizzas and my Little A wouldn't stop talking about it so I decided to let him make his own pizza! We love Papa Murphy's pizza and I knew they had a cheap option for children. 

 

 

 

 

It's called a Mini Murph Make n' Take Pizza Kit and it really was a lot of fun! Its $3 (plus 50cents for any additional topping) for: pizza dough, pizza pan, sauce, cheese, pepperoni or sausage, and a temporary tattoo. We added black olives to the kit because Little A loves them.

 

 

 

 

 

Little A loved putting on the sauce, cheese and toppings and surprisingly most of it made it onto the pizza!

 

 

 

 

 

The finished product!! I ended up eating half of it because it was more then what Little A would eat. I of course was completely fine with that, it was delicious!

 

 

 

 

 

 

After we finished eating and cleaned up, I tried putting the temporary tattoo on Little A. He, of course, liked it for about .2 seconds and then wanted it off. He doesn't like being messy totally my fault. I thought it was cute!!

 

 

 

 

This may not be the healthiest option for lunch but it was fun. You could easily make this at home without the help of a pizza place, it was a quick stop on the way home for us which is one reason why I love it. You could also add more veggies to make it healthier and omit the meat for a vegetarian option!!

What I Wore

My first What I Wore post!!

I LOVE shopping and finding good deals. I actually rarely ever pay full price for anything simply because there is no reason to anymore when so many stores and companies offer coupons. So one of the things I will be sharing on here are some of my outfits and what I paid for each item. It is kind of a challenge for me because it will make me look for the best deals out there to share with you!

Sorry for the horrible photo! Im hoping to get a nice new large mirror soon!

Navy Dress: Old Navy $15 (sale)

Belt: Forever 21 $3.50

Turqoise Sweater Tights: Target $3.50 (Clearance)

MIA boots: Younkers $7 (Clearance)

Just Because

Love this saying so I had to share it with everyone. These are words I try to live by everyday: Life is short (so live every day to its fullest) and believe everything happens for a reason.

Friday Letters

Dear Wisconsin: It's MAY, which means it should be at least in the low 60's every day with lots and lots of sunshine. What's with the snow and cold?! I think your drunk....

Dear May: Can you go by a little faster please? It would be greatly appreciated. In about 2 weeks I will probably ask you to slow down, ignore that. I'm just so super excited for what the end of May and June will bring!!

Dear Weekend: Please be nice and sunny with no wind. We need really good weather for my family's rummage sale this weekend so lots of people stop and buy everything! We want it all gone.

Dear Little A: You are adorable and I love you to the moon and back. However, Momma really doesn't like this stage you're in. The terrible 2's are exactly what they say they are, TERRIBLE! Please go back to my sweet little boy who listens. :)

Dear Little C: STOP GROWING SO FAST!!!!!!! I had to exchange 2 summer outfits yesterday because when summer actually comes hopefully soon you'll be too big for the ones I had already purchased. So seriously, stop getting so big, Momma doesn't like it.

Dear Hubby: I. LOVE. YOU.

Pinned It. Tried It. Loved It.

I LOVE Pinterest. It's the first site I turn to when i'm looking for recipes whether it's for a meal or for a dessert. This recipe was my most recent pinterest recipe.

Every tuesday night, one of my besties comes over to just hang out and we usually end up making something we found on pinterest. This was one recipe we agreed that we HAD to try: Gooey Cookies and Cream Double Chocolate bars.

Just the title of the recipe makes you drool!! They were so super gooey, unbelievably easy to make and very very chocolatey. I thought they were best enjoyed warm with a scoop or 2 of chocolate ice cream. Give them a try, I guarantee you'll love them!

Gooey Cookies and Cream Double Chocolate Bars

Recipe from Picky-palate.com

1 Devils Food Cake Mix
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1 large egg
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips
14 ounce can sweetened condensed milk
14 Oreo Cookies, broken into bite size pieces


1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. and line a 9×13 inch baking pan with tin foil sprayed with non-stick cooking spray.
2. Place cake mix, butter and egg into a large bowl, mixing to combine. Use your hands, it works much quicker Press into prepared baking pan. Top with broken pieces of cookies.
3. Pour sweetened condensed milk over cookies and top with chocolate chips. Bake for 23-25 minutes, until cooked through. Remove from oven.
4.  After 5 minutes of cooling, run a plastic knife around edges to loosen, this makes it much easier to remove from foil.  Let cool completely, remove foil from pan, then cut into squares.  I cut off all of the edges before cutting into squares (makes for neater squares), but do whatever you’d like!!

Makes 12 bars

Questions

A few days ago, Stormy from Life's A Dance did a questionnaire and because I am new to the blog world I thought I would answer the same questions so you all can get to know me a little bit.

1. If you could do one thing differently in your life, what would it be?
     I really try to live with no regrets simply because I believe everything happens for a reason. There are a few things I wish I could go back and change, like being on the dance team all 4 years of high school. It's something so small but it made a big impact on my HS experience. I also wish I would have really applied myself in college and wouldn't have gotten so caught up on other things in life. However, if these things were changed there is a very good chance I wouldn't be where I am today. I probably never would have met my husband and I wouldn't have my boys. 

2. Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
     In 5 years I hope to be doing something that I really love, hopefully embracing my creative side in some way.  I see myself in our new home playing with my family in the backyard. I see myself so very happy and having everything I ever wanted!

3. Do you honestly want kids?
     Well, considering I already have 2, I would say definitely yes. I have always wanted kids. I dreamed of having four (yes, four) kids running around and playing...probably because I have a lot of siblings and I have loved every minute of growing up with them. Now I have 2 and am only considering a 3rd. I was crazy for wanting 4!!

4. What has been the best moment of your life so far?
     I have a few "best moments". My wedding day is definitely one of the best. It was so much fun and went perfectly and  I wish I could do it over and over again. The days I had each of my boys are ones i'll never forget. They are both such different stories (more on them later) but i'll never change those experiences for the world.

5. What would be your life theme song?
     This one is tough, there are so many songs out there that could be my life theme song but this one was the first to pop into my head. "Taking Chances" by Celine Dion. I love the line "not knowing if theres solid ground below, or a hand to hold, or hell to pay". I've always followed my heart and have taken a lot of chances in life. Some i've had to do alone, some have turned out to be the best decision for me, and some haven't but  I always kept going no matter what. 

6. What is one thing you have yet to accomplish that you want to do before you die? 
     There are 2 big things I want to accomplish before I die: travel around Europe and find what I truly love to do. This kind of goes back to me wishing I would have tried harder in college. Part of the problem was that I really didn't know what I wanted to do, I needed to find myself in a way. Now that i'm 25,  I think I may have finally figured out what I really love but it needs some testing first ;). Traveling to/around Europe has always been a goal in life and once I finally get there I will definitely consider it as an accomplishment. 

7. If there is one thing you  could choose to be known for, what would it be?
     I would want to be known for being an amazing mom. I grew up in a family full of great moms. My own mom, aunt and grandma are 3 of the best moms I know and I look up to them in that way. I will do anything to give my boys the world and I strive to raise them to be loving, kind, strong and successful men.

8. If you could do anything you wanted right in this very moment (no consequences, no fear, etc.), what would it be?
     I would talk to a few specific people and tell them how I honestly feel.

9. What has been the most challenging moment in your life?
     Truthfully, I haven't had anything really challenging in my life. I haven't suffered any huge loss and my family is healthy. The only thing I can think of is right now i'm trying to decide if we should have a 3rd child (hubby is leaving the decision up to me). It's a lot harder then I thought it was going to be! 

10. Summarize yourself in one word.
     Blessed. I feel like I have been extra lucky in life and I am truly blessed. I haven't had anything difficult happen, I have a healthy, large, loving and crazy fun family, I have the greatest friends a girl could ask for, 2 beautiful boys and a wonderful husband who completely spoils loves me. What else could I ask for?