hello cupcake.

For you Paige.
Here are my cooleo cupcakes that you missed out on.
I finally got the book Hello Cupcake from the library. All of the cupcakes looked like quite a bit of work, but some were pretty cute. It had some interesting stuff in it too. Like these cupcakes that I made for Sunday dinner at my parents house a month or so ago.

Spaghetti and meatballs
TV dinner - complete with a chicken drumstick, peas and carrots, mashed potatoes and a cupcake for desert.
Corn on the cob. The perfect side for the tv dinner.

romanisms

Of course everyone thinks their kid is hilarious, and I am no exception. But do other people find the same things funny? Here are some of the funny things Roman has said recently. You be the judge.

Brad - (after Rome was running around all crazy like) - you are all sweaty!
Roman - I'm not sweaty dad, I'm handsome.

Don't say no dad, say yes!

me - (while he is banging on his drum with all he's got) - why are you being so loud?
Roman - it's my job.

While laying on the floor coloring - Hey dad, what's breast milk? I'm drawing breast milk.

For about a month when we asked him to do something he would say "no problemo", pronounced prob-lee-mo
Or he would say "I betcha" (instead of you betcha)

That same month he said "um" before absolutely everything. Um mom... Um dad... Um I need milk... Um where is my monkey... You get the picture. Funny thing is that when he did this we noticed I say it all the time too!

While watching Diego
Diego - can you help us?
Roman - No, I'm drinking my milk.

Daddy you go to bed, I stay up.

While shopping one day
Roman - mommy that lady's bum is big.
Me - Roman shhh!
Roman - in his super loud whisper - but mom it is big.
At least he listened when I said shhh.

After Halloween - can I please have a treat, the candy people gave me.

Me - Roman get back here so I can put your sock on.
Roman - Sorry mama, I need to do some hard work, I don't want to be late for hard work.

Roman was at my parent's house when my mom was decorating for Christmas.
Roman - grandmas having a party
me - what?
Roman - grandma is having a party with Christmas.

Brad - Roman are you being goofy?
Roman - No dad, I'm Roman Henry Davis.

He found my stethoscope the other day so I let him play with it. He walked over to Finn and said, let's have a listen shall we.

Here is my funny little guy. We found an old film camera. He loves it. Walks around the house asking everyone to say cheese.

we have a winner

Thanks for all the donations to Mia and her family!

According to random.org we have a winner in the baby Mia quilt giveaway...

The winner of the quilt is the Eggett family. (Her blog is private, so I can't link you there). But I am happy to say that she - unlike me - actually knows baby Mia. So hopefully she can think of Mia whenever she looks at her new quilt!

The winner of the Baby Bjorn cover is Hannah.

The winner of the crayon roll is Nicole.

175 comments on the post. Hopefully we were able to do some good for little Mia - who is finally at home with her family! Hoping they have a great Christmas together!

quilt giveaway

Stephanie's good friend and his wife had their 3rd baby almost 4 months ago. Mia. She was born with a severe heart defect and waited for months on the heart transplant list. I used to work as a nurse in a Pediatric Cardiology unit. I helped care for babies like Mia and their families. Each new day and every little change in the baby's condition brings a roller coaster of emotions. The physical and emotional tole it takes on families is overwhelming.

When my own children are sick I feel so helpless and lost when I can't make them feel better. But they do get better. The are healthy kids. I can't even begin to imagine the emotions Mia's family is going through at this time with her heart struggles. My heart aches for her mom. And on top of all this their insurance will not cover all the expensive surgeries and needed health care.

But baby Mia finally got her heart! Here is cute Mia when her mom finally got to hold her after the transplant surgery. Imagine not being able to hold your little baby for so long.
So it's a happy quilt giveaway! But she still has a long road of recovery ahead of her. And the medical bills and medication costs will keep piling up. So if you can we would love you to help her family.

A recent quilt giveaway got 2100 entries. Could you imagine if everyone who entered donated a dollar? It could be such a blessing for little Mia. I don't know that we will be able to get those kind of numbers but anything will help.

So here it is, my quilt to help baby Mia. The quilt measures 38x45 inches. Perfect to cuddle up with as a lap quilt or if you can stand to give it up, use as a crib quilt.

How to enter:
Leave a comment after this post to be entered in the quilt giveaway. Make sure you leave a contact email if your comment does not link to your blog.
Post the baby Mia quilt give away button on your blog or facebook account to get 5 more entries. (html code for button at bottom of post)
Email all your friends and tell them about the giveaway and get 5 more entries.
Donate to the help baby Mia fund and get 15 more entries.
(Don't forget to tell what you have done when you comment so you will get all your entries!)

Click here to go to the Help Baby Mia blog. You can then click on the sidebar at the top right to donate through paypal.

And because we love you and your help in donating and spreading the word we have two more items to give away to a lucky second and third place winner!

Baby Bjorn cover. Made and donated by my friend Melissa. (she sells them here!) Opposite side is brown, shows when top of cover is flipped over to carry forward facing baby.
Crayon roll. (If you need one for a boy I can do that instead)

The give away ends at midnight on December 9th.

One more thing - thanks for hanging in for the long post! I will have the quilt pattern ready to sell after the contest closes. Email me at bwrdavis@telus.net if you are interested in purchasing a pattern.

Code for quilt give away button - copy and paste html code to your sidebar in the layout section of blogger.

<a href="http://whitneyjdavis.blogspot.com/" target="_new"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v412/tickled2bmum/miasbutton4-3.jpg" border="0" alt="stephhhead@yahoo.com" width="175" height="350" /></a>

crafty christmas

Whipped this up the other day.
Just kinda made up the pattern based on how much material I had.
Found the pattern for the little tied pocket here.
Now I am all ready to start the Christmas goodies!

And because I think I have a cute little guy, here is a picture of Finn all dressed up for church last week. Just try to tell me he isn't adorable!

simple finds

Love the blog Simple Finds.
I actually know two people who have won give aways.
Here are two more great giveaways to check out.
Wall Candy
Layers dress

Check em out!

another one! check it out for the chance to win a sleepy wrap baby carrier.
I could so use this - Finn is too long to fit comfortably in my other type of wrap!

kiddos

Took a few pictures of the kiddos today. I have been feeling guilty that we have ten times more pictures of Roman as a baby than Finn. Happens with every second child I am told.

necessity is the mother of invention

I am on the enrichment committee at church. We are having super Saturday tomorrow and I am supposed to bring a Christmas treat.
So candy cane kisses and leftover cookie dough
became this
And they actually taste really good!

The left over cookie dough came from this.
Roman's I finally stayed in nursery the whole time all by myself celebration cookies! It only took a year, but he finally stayed. He wasn't excited about going, and it took a great deal of talking into, and he took Monkey with him, but he did it. I asked him what he wanted to do to celebrate and he said make cookies. So make cookies we did. Good way to get rid of Halloween candy too. We'll soon see if he can make it two in a row...
And in other cooking news, I made stuffing from the crock pot blog for dinner last night. It was so good! I'm eating leftovers for lunch as we speak. Cooked a ham in my other crock pot. You just may have to put up with my love of this blog and her recipes for awhile. And if you haven't checked it out you seriously need to!

I heart my crock pot

Or should I say pots, I have three. Three different sizes of course.
I came across an interesting blog awhile ago but have never explored it much. This girl decided to cook with her crock pot every day in 2008. 365 days of using a crock pot.
After telling some friends about the blog yesterday I was intrigued to check it out. I couldn't stop looking back at all her recipes. I now have a huge word document of recipes to try!
And the best part, her last post was about cooking a turkey breast in the crock pot!
Turkey breast has go to be my favorite food. Well turkey buns actaully. Warmed up with cheese. Cheese you say, I know it sounds ridiculous. But don't knock it till you try it! I love turkey buns so much I have given up all together on eating turkey on my plate. I go straight for the turkey buns. I even go so far as to bring my own buns and cheese to family events where turkey will be served. I think it drives my family and Brad's family crazy.
So check out the awesome crock pot blog! And if you have any awesome crock pot recipes send em my way!

Oh my!

It's an Amy Butler Christmas!
Usually I am a stickler for the rules - the American rules that is. Christmas does not take center stage until Thanksgiving is over. We will be celebrating American Thanksgiving, but I think I am all about Christmas after seeing Amy Butler's new free patterns! Check em out. I love the felt pillow, although white would never last around my house. And the felt stockings and tree skirt. Looks like I am in the market for some felt to combine with my love of Amy Butler and polka dots! She also has those red polka dots that would look just as great as the green!
Kid in a candy store moment for me, just go with it!
In other news, my quilt for the help baby Mia give away is well on it's way. Amy Butler fabric of course! And there will be some other cool stuff we are giving away too. Keep checking back!

I'm too tired to think of a title. That is why I am blogging instead of cleaning my house.

Make sure you check out the link on my sidebar, for Stephanie's quilt give away. And check back soon, I am working on my quilt for a give away.

In the meantime, here are some pictures of a few things I made recently.
I actually made this black apple doll before Finn was born, but never got around to taking a picture of it. Silly I know, two boys and I am making a doll. She is all for me. Get the pattern here. I added shoes, pigtails, sleeves, and a collar. My mom did the face for me. If I made another one I would make the limbs a bit bigger. The seam allowance is so tiny. I am afraid the limbs would fall apart if a little girl played with it much. I think I would try tracing the pattern onto my fabric, sewing on the line I traced, and then cutting out so I could leave a big seam allowance. Make sense?

I had the pieces for this pillow cut way before Finn was born, but couldn't finish it until we named him. Brad was kind enough to take him for a bit a few days after we came home from the hospital so I could finish it. It was silly, but it was nagging at me, I just had to finish it and couldn't wait any longer!
The front.
The back.
Got the pattern and idea here. Just drew my own letter cause the ones they had were much to frilly and girly for little Finn.

I am dying to attempt this cute Molly Monkey pattern. Sadly it will have to wait until after Christmas at least. Too many thing on the list to sew for Christmas.

halloween fun

Here is my little monkey. He REALLY didn't want to hold still for pictures. So I did what any good mom would do, told him no trick or treating if he didn't let me take a few pictures.
He had a lot of fun. He kept saying "happy tal-ween" to everyone we passed. And he did a sweet monkey dance complete with sound effects for anyone who asked.
And little Finn was a polar bear - a polar bear because his bunting suit has ears. He actually fell asleep just as we were leaving, so my mom came out with me and Roman and Brad and Finn stayed home. But he did have a cute little pumpkin hat he wore around all day. Here he is with it on for a Halloween party we went to a few weeks ago.
After going all out as the incredibles for our Halloween party I didn't get around to getting cool costumes for me and Brad to wear tick or treating. This is how creative I was - a nurse and a finishing carpenter. Not at all lifelike or anything!
There were tons of parents dressed up this year. Must have been because the weather was so nice. Lins and Derek had some good costumes, and Ali and James were adorable. I loved James' costume because my mom made a skeleton costume for us when we were little - just painted bones onto black clothes. I am sure Lins will put up pictures soon if she hasn't already.
And I LOVED the Williams family's costumes! Scroll to the bottom to see the whole family.

Instead of costumes I made the cupcake pops I talked about in an earlier post. Here is the link to make them. They were fun to make, but I don't love how they taste. They are okay but I would rather waste the calories on something else! But a few of the people around town that I took some to loved them. So at least I know it was just me and that they turned out good this time. If you going to make them try styrofoam to poke the sticks into while they dry, it worked like a dream. And it would be a cute way to display them at a party or something.

One last picture. Here is what Roman tricked his dad into letting him have for breakfast the day after Halloween. Maybe that's why it is trick or treat!

I caught martha disease.

We had a little Halloween party on the weekend. And I caught Martha Stewart disease. I went a little overboard with the decorating of my tables and food, complete with little tags for each food item with silly Halloween style names. But I love Halloween! Here are some pictures so you can see what a big dork I am. Some of the food we had: witches brew soup (taco soup), bones (bread sticks with knots in the ends), mummy fingers (pigs in a blanket), and bat wings ( BBQ chicken wings).

Eye balls, compliments of the Martha Stewart Halloween spectacular I happened to see one night while switching through channels. Radishes and olives. They looked cooler in real life.
Severed hand punch, also looked cooler in read life.
Roman caught a little of the Martha disease too - he wanted to help decorate and put the little pumpkins up on the canisters all by himself. He was so proud of himself and kept admiring them all night.
The good stuff! Halloween popcorn from Kernels. Love this stuff. Mini chocolate cupcakes and spider cupcakes. Sugar cookies. Caramel apples. And tiger ice cream.
Here is a closeup of the caramel apples.
And the sugar cookies. I love the Wilton color flow icing mix. Fun to decorate with, but it doesn't taste as good as butter cream icing.
See, I told you I caught Martha Stewart disease. Don't worry it was short lived, I am back to living in my pajamas in a messy house and eating leftovers for dinner.

And because I love Halloween I guess I can add one more picture. I can't believe I am going to put up a picture of my seven week post baby haven't gotten on the treadmill yet can't stop eating Halloween candy legs in tight red spandex. But here you go. Our family Halloween costume. Roman had the pjs - they are a few sizes too small now, but we squished him in them anyway. My husband is the best husband in the whole entire world for getting into red tights and stuffing his belly for me! Thanks Brad!

bake to baking

I was about to say earlier this month, but it was actually last month - where does time go? I made a new york key cheesecake with key lime sour cream topping for my sisters birthday. I love any excuse to use my shinny red springform pan! I know the whipped cream little dots look a bit silly, I was in a hurry. But it was very yummy if I do say so myself.
And speaking of cheesecake, here is a recipe I would love to try. Strawberry cheesecake.

For Canadian Thanksgiving I made 2 pumpkin cheesecakes. One for each family dinner. I have to thank my aunt Shannon for this recipe. In our family it is known as pumpkin dessert - but for those who have no idea what pumpkin desert is, pumpkin cheesecake is the best way to describe it. Brad hates pumpkin anything so I made him his favorite, banana cream pie. I don't absolutely love pumpkin, but fall isn't fall without pumpkin dessert.
The other day I mixed up a big batch of sugar cookies and today I cut them out and baked them. Sugar cookies are my all time favorite. They are waiting in the freezer until Halloween gets closer and they can get decorated. So no pictures yet, but I will share the recipe. Got this one from Lindsay and it has become my number one sugar cookies recipe. It is very yummy. And it makes a pretty small batch - but you can easily double it too. Just make sure you don't cook them too long. Nothing is worse than a burnt sugar cookie!

Bake @350 F for 6-8 minutes. I do 6 min in my oven.
2/3 cup shortening
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
4 tsp milk
1 3/4 cups flour

Cream shortening and sugar. Add egg, beat until light and fluffy. Add vanilla. Mix dry ingredients and add along with milk.
Chill one hour. Roll and cut. Bake. Enjoy.

I just add everything but flour in my kitchen aid and mix it. Then when Roman hears it and comes running to help there is only the flour left to add. He still gets to help, but less mess for me. And the cookies turn out just fine.

Way back in the spring a friend of mine was watching Martha Stewart and was introduced to this little gem of a blog. Bakerella. Gem. Does anyone remember watching Jem and her Hologram band? Okay, back to the topic at hand... Bakerella and her super cool cupcake pops.
So Jen and I made some. With vanilla cake and icing. Turned out not too bad. But I would seriously love to learn how Bakerella gets hers to look so good and so smooth. Then I tried to make some myself with the only cake mix I had on hand. Cherry chip. Disgusting. So I gave up and just coveted that Bakerella coud make hers taste so good. But then October came around. And I thought little orange pumpkin pops would be so cute. Then I saw Bakerella's Halloween pops. And I was exctied. Then I remebered my huge failure. And I said no way. But then my sis in law Rhonda and her sis in law Lindsay made some. Chocolate with cream cheese icing. And apparently they were pretty dang good. So perphaps I can be tempted to try again. We will see. In the meantime check Bakerella out, make your own cupcake pops and tell me what you think, and what worked and what didn't! She has some dang good cupcake recipes on her blog too.

I'll leave you with one last cake.
Here is the diaper cake I made for my cousin's wife's shower and their cute little girl Brihanna. I think that is how they spell it. She was born the same day as Finn. Who by the way is 6 weeks tomorrow!
He was weighed and measured today. 23 1/2 inches long and 11 lbs 10 oz. So basically he grew 2 1/2 inches and gained 4 lbs. Which doesn't seem like a lot to me. But I have retired all his 0-3 month pjs. We think he is longer than Roman was at the same age. Yippie for me and my gigantic children. If I walk with a hunch back when I am old it will be from lugging my children around. But they are so cute so Iguess it will be worth it!

thankful for...

Thankful for a healthy baby boy. Thankful his cold is finally gone. Thankful he is taking a great nap right now!
Thankful these little brothers love each other so much already. Roman likes to share his toys with Finn while I am not looking.
Thankful for the priesthood in my home. For an amazing husband who honors me, his kids, and his priesthood. And for being able to have my amazing husband bless this cute baby boy.
We blessed Finn a little over a week ago. (I'm a little slow at getting a post up!)
Thankful for fun family times at the zoo. And fun times shopping with Val and Kate instead of Brad and Roman - much more fun to go with the girls!
Of course I wasn't thinking and didn't get pictures of Roman with his cousins at the zoo. The cousins he is so excited to see all the time. We are thankful for them too. And great aunts and uncles for out kids. Here is Brad and Finn and uncle Bryan and Jonas. Jonas was born 2 weeks before Finn. Their sister Rhonda had Eli about 2 months before. And brother Bob will add the fourth boy this year around Christmas time. I am sure these 4 little guys will be driving us crazy in a few years when the family is all together!
Thankful my great husband didn't get mad at me when I dropped the camera at the zoo and broke the lens. Thankful he is buying me a new lens.

Thankful for great friends. Friends who even though we don't see each other hardly at all anymore are still great friends. Like Andrea. She is one of the most generous, genuine, happy people I know. And I am not just saying that because she sent me the most adorable baby gift for Finn! But that brings me to my next thankful, thankful that if you look hard you can find adorable clothes for little boys among the piles and piles of cute girl clothes out there. Like these cute boots and hat, with matching pants and shirt that I got in the mail yesterday from Andrea.
(Silly to add a thankful for baby clothes I know, but I just love baby clothes!)

Thankful for General Conference. To hear such inspired men teach us. Thankful for our prophet. Thankful the talks can be found on the internet and in the Ensign - a must have with Roman running around the house yelling and banging toys during every session.

Thankful that I am finally doing one thing right! There have been a few talks over the last few conferences about focusing on your children, leaving the housework and just enjoying them. I am glad to say this has always been the way I do things. But my mom may say it is because I am lazy! Still at least I am on the right track somewhere.

Thankful that blogger lets me save posts so I can come back to them since I started this post on Monday and am finally done it on Thursday!