It's time to DANCE

I cannot believe it's been a year!  What an awesome year it was.  I knew I was going to go BIG for my little guys BIG day, but it was quite time consuming!  Here are the fun pics of Jaden's Dancy Dance party...  Enjoy.

 My sister Trisha made the cake

 There's a party in my tummy

 The birthday Brobee

 gift boxes

P.S. Having a December baby is CRAZY!  Christmas and birthday party planning was nuts and the house is BLOWN up...  But we had a blast!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

It is so cool to have a child during the holidays... it just brings back all of the magic you experienced as a kid!  This month has been soooo fun and it's only the 3rd!

New holiday tradition: The Polar Express in Williams, AZ.  So worth the money, and I totally got teary eyed when the train pulled into the station... just knowing that I was about to see Santa.  Here's a picture of Jaden meeting Santa for the first time!

That was last weekend...
This past week we got crafty and made our own ornaments...
So easy...

Salt Dough Ornaments

(makes 12 small hand prints)

4 cups flour

1 cup salt

1 1/2 cup water

• Combine ingredients and knead dough for 15 to 20 minutes
• Roll dough out and cut around hand or cut circles out for making hand imprints
• Use a toothpick to etch in names/dates, and use a straw to make a hole for ribbon to hang on the tree.
• 
• Bake in the oven at 300 for 30 minutes
• Allow to cool
• Pant with a varnish to make the ornament last longer
• allow to dry
• decorate with any type of paint or glitter
• 

waking up happy

Today is the first day in MOTHS that Jaden woke up this morning Happy!  I am soooo... HAPPY!  He is the best, sweetest baby, but he is always crabby when he wakes up.  Today is a good day!
Jaden is 11 months old
Favorite food: lo mien
Favorite TV show: Blues Clues

 Here are a few crafts I've created lately...

Memory Shadow Box:

so easy and a great way to display all of your wedding items as opposed to them sitting in a box somewhere!

And here is my new baby food making secret...

Bamboo Steamer... it's a life changer!!

there are 2 levels, so I have the sweet potatoes steaming on the bottom (they take longer) and the apples steaming on top!

A new Day

Today has been a new day for Baby Jaden.  For the first time, he played by himself!  Wow... I can actually get something done?
AWESOME!  So I made him some healthy baby pancakes.  To my surprise I loved them as well and had a fantastic breakfast!

Wheat Banana Pancakes

1 cup whole wheat flower

3 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

3/4 cup of 2% milk

1/2 a banana

• Combine all ingredients in a blender
• Puree until you have the proper smoothness
• Spray skillet with Olive Oil and cook half dollar sized pancakes over at 325 (medium heat in a frying pan) until golden brown.
• 
   After breakfast Baby Jaden even watched a TV program on Baby First TV and actually sat and watched it for the first time.  AND possibly the most impressive, here's a picture of him brushing his teeth!  Such a little genius baby (10 months old)
• 
  and he has his home-made Kazoo.... This is a proud Mommy Day! 11-11-11

Creamy Sweet Corn

I started feeding Jaden solids at 6 months, but he is a very good eater, even now at 10 months old.  I have also made ALL of his food at home with my baby bullet.  For the first 3 months of solids I fed him single veggies only.  I tried a few fruits, but he wasn't too thrilled.  Now I am trying to find more interesting recipes.  You don't need a baby bullet, just any type of blender.

1 tbsp butter

2 cups frozen corn kernels

1/2 cup water

1/4 cup sour cream

• In a skillet, melt butter over medium-high heat
• add corn and stir to coat. 
• Add water. Cover, reduce heat to medium and cook until very soft about... 10 minutes
• let cool
• Transfer to blender, add sour cream and puree on high speed until smooth.

Jaden loved it!

babies, birthday, and hummus

update...

• I've been hitting the gym (almost) all week
• Jaden lasted a record 30 minutes today
• I've been making tons of new baby food... Jaden hates it all!
• It was my wonderful Mommy's birthday yesterday
• AND I made a tasty, healthy snack that I saw on Pinterest... check it out!

Hummus Melts:

• First saute a little baby spinach in some olive oil and garlic. 2 handfuls of spinach will do. Just remember, it'll cook down dramatically.
• Meanwhile, toast 2 whole wheat English muffins (this recipe makes enough for one open faced melt)
• Spread both halves with Garlic hummus

• Top each muffin with spinach, then a heap of shredded Mozzarella and place on a cookie sheet
• Broil on high until brown and bubbly

YUM

Kanye's Work Out Plan

So this week is Work out week for Jaden and Me... I joined a little over a month ago, but haven't gone consistently enough for Jaden to get used to the kids club, so every time I go to workout I get called back to the kids club after about 15 minutes because he is too upset.  It makes me sad, so  decide not to go the next day, and he never gets used to tit. 

SO, the goal is to go everyday for 2 weeks straight.  Also I need to lose 20 lbs before I get pregnant again (which I want to do within the year)  So I need to get motivated.... Here's a cool pin I found on Pinterest to get me started

these exercises are to help flatten out the tummy.

Now I need to find some healthy, tasty things to eat as well.

Check this out:

So that's MY workout plan... for those of you who want Kanye's, click here:



Dark chocolate candy corn bark

My friend is having a Halloween party tomorrow night... perfect time to try out a new dessert.  I got this idea from Pinterest, but changed it up to make it my own.

18 oreos (broken up)  I tried to find Halloween Oreos, but couldn't, then I went with generic brand instead
1 cup of pretzel sticks  (broken into pieces)
1 cup of Candy Corn
4 Large bars of Hershey's Special dark chocolate
1 TBS of butter
Halloween sprinkles

Cover a large cookie sheet with wax paper or parchment paper. Spread broken cookies, pretzels and about 3/4 cup of the candy corn onto the prepared cookie sheet.

Melt the chocolate bars in the microwave with the butter... 30 seconds, then stir, 30 seconds, then stir, 30 seconds, then stir. until melted and smooth.

Drizzle the melted chocolate over the cookie mixture, spreading with spatula if needed to coat evenly.  Sprinkle remaining candy corn and colored sprinkles over the chocolate while it is still wet. Do not let it harden. Place cookie tray into refrigerator until set and firm. Remove and gently break bark into small pieces - it's really rich. Makes around 20-24 pieces. Store in air tight container.

lame halloween parties

Baby Jaden and I had a fun filled Halloween event-type of day.  We went to a party at our Gym (LAME)... went Trick-or-Treating at Bashas (LAME) then went to a Halloween carnival at a party mansion (LAME) So here is to hoping that the upcoming Halloween events are better.

On a more exciting note, Jaden gave me a REAL kiss today for the first time... Maybe one of the BEST things that has ever happened to me.  I love that little guy!!!

7 steps

Baby Jaden took 7 steps today... I can't believe it!  He is sooooo cute!  He also LOVES to sit in the dishwasher... my future little chore baby!

Caramel Apples

I love anything dipped in chocolate... bananas, apples, fruit, fingers... whatever!  I also LOVE anything with sprinkles, So today's craft is caramel, chocolate, sprinkle apples.  Keep in mind that I am a rookie at this type of stuff, and they don't look THAT great, but they were delicious!  I was pretty proud of myself because I made the caramel from scratch... the old me would have just bought some caramel apple kit.  The caramel was easier than I'd expected...

caramel
2 ½ cups packed brown sugar
1 cup corn syrup
½ cup butter
1 can sweetened condensed milk
A few drops of vanilla
In a saucepan bring brown sugar and corn syrup to a boil, stirring constantly. Add butter, cooking until completely melted. Add sweetened condensed milk and vanilla, bring to a boil. Boil for at least 3 ½ minutes stirring constantly.
When it’s ready, immediately take the caramel off direct heat, and pour into a separate bowl. Allow to cool, stirring occasionally. When cool enough, dip cold apples into the caramel, allow to drip for a few seconds to allow excess caramel to drip off, set on wax paper (I made the mistake of using foil... rookie remember) in a refrigerator until completely set.

Next I put one bag of the darkest chocolate chips I could find: Ghirardeli

in a squeeze bottle with a Tablespoon of vegetable oil and microwaved it for one minute... stir, then another minute, stir, and then 30 more seconds, stir.

I held the apples over a bowl as a squirted the chocolate all over the caramel covered apples, then immediately sprinkled the apple... I don't know about where you live, but here in AZ, I can't find Halloween sprinkles to save my life... the bakery's all have them for their donuts, cookies, etc, but they don't sell them...hmmm, so rainbow will do

Then I placed them all in the fridge to set.  DON'T put them in the freezer (not that you would, but I did on my first try and it ruined them all!)

Slice and enjoy!

First Day

I am soooo excited to be starting a Blog.  At first I was like, "When am I going to have the time?  I have a 10 month old baby boy - who by the way took 7 steps in a row today-  and I don't even have time to shower, let alone blog."  But once I really committed, I decided that I do have time, and will only need about 30 minutes a day for this blog and I will delete 30 minutes of Facebook time, which I normally do after Baby Ting goes to bed.

So after a few days of thoughts about how I want to become more creative, and cook home made meals for my family, and after really being inspired by Pinterest... Baby Ting fell asleep early tonight (6:30) so I knew tonight was the night to START!  I am PUMPED! 

So today is Wednesday, so My weeks of fun will always begin on Wednesdays and end on Tuesdays.  P.S. Wednesday is also my cleaning day... Today, per my hubby's request, I did the bathrooms = )

Week 1: Crafty Week
Since it is the week of Halloween, I thought this would be perfect.  A year from now when I AM Super Mom, I will be posting about making Baby Ting's costume, but since this is just day one (literally) I tried something much simpler.

Home Made Puffy Paint:
I had to start simple, and it doesn't get much simpler than this:
1/4 cup salt
1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup water
10 drops of food coloring

I wanted to do this so I could Puffy Paint a pumpkin -instead of carving-
I will carve when the baby is older, plus this will be fun to put in the scene for all of the fun pictures I want to take of my little Halloween sweetie.
FYI: Halloween is my FAVORITE holiday!