Hayden sliding into home (unfortunately, he got tagged just before his feet touched the plate)

Hayden just before hitting the ball (that pitcher was striking out our best players and Hayden managed to hit it)

Big E at the bat

Emerson throwing the bat down to run (and yes, they were playing the Marlins but that isn't Hayden's team)

The Boys

Hayden (9) & Emerson (7)-I wish I had fixed their collars but oh well.

I hadn't taken a photo of the boys together in forever so I decided to yesterday.  They had just gotten haircuts.  They were impossible!  If one was looking at me, the other wasn't.  It was like dealing with toddlers.  Anyway, I managed to get a couple okay ones.  Notice how they are starting to look about the same age?  They are practically the same height now.  Emerson is a little wider than Hayden (who is skinny as a broom) and has a bigger head.  You would think that he was the older one just by looking at their physical appearances.  

Emerson just lost one of his top teeth last week.  We were at the dentist for a cleaning and the hygienist barely tugged on it.  It fell out without him even knowing, lol.  So far, he is yet to pull any of his own teeth.  The dentist has removed his first 3 for him.    

Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day

I have a serious love for baking breads.  It took me a long time to figure out how to be a decent baker.  Well, if I had started with this method, I would have been a master baker from the age of 14.  The amazing book is Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoë François.  If you google it, you can find a ton of blogs out there referring to it because everyone is amazed at how easy the method is.  I made the above bread using the master boule recipe.  It yields a sourdough-like bread with a crispy crust.  It is so good! 

Here's the link to the tutorial that will blow your mind: Master Boule Recipe

Hot Cross Buns

For Easter, I decided to make traditional Hot Cross Buns.  I had never had one before.  I can't believe how good they are!!  They are spicy, orange-y goodness.  One thing I will do different next time is to add a thicker "cross" of icing across the top.  I didn't have the correct tip size so I used a smaller one than the one called for in the recipe.  Believe me, the more icing, the better!  Also, I didn't use currants because I couldn't find any at Super Target.  Try this awesome recipe. I promise that is great.  I will be making these every year for Easter from now on.

Recipe from Brown Eyed Baker: Hot Cross Buns

Monster High Cake

I made this cake for friend's daughter a few weeks ago.  I spent hours making the colorflow decoration on top. I thought it would be easy to make, but I was wrong, lol.  The image was transferred to a piece of wax paper, outlined with thick colorflow icing, and then filled in with thin colorflow icing.  Because I worried about the black background icing bleeding through the decoration, I used mini marshmallows to prop it up.  One big lesson I learned, you CANNOT use hot water to smooth colored icing for the background of a cake.  It streaks the color and gives it a marbleized look.  That's a good thing to know for future reference.

A Flour Tortilla Tip

I saw this idea on Pinterest so I cannot take credit for this tip of sheer genius.  It is so good that I thought it was worthy of posting on my blog.  

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Lay out 6 flour tortillas and brush a thin layer of oil (your choice) on both sides of each tortilla.  I have read that you can use spray oil to do this if you are particularly lazy.  Take tortillas and lay in between the wire racks in your oven.  Bake 7-10 minutes, or until crispy.

I used 2 different sizes of tortillas

Junior's Original Cheesecake

I added cherry pie filling on top.  Yum!

I haven't made a homemade cheesecake in forever.  I picked up a 6 pack of cream cheese from BJ's and decided to give it a go.  This endeavor meant that I had to go buy a spring-form pan so off to AC Moore I went.  I ended up with a 10" pan but most recipes are for 8" or 9" pans.  It took me a while, but I figured out how to convert the recipe for a larger pan.  My mom bought me the Junior's Cheesecake cookbook a while back so I figured it was time to try it out.  I made their original basic cheesecake.  What's different about Junior's cheesecake is that bottom layer of spongecake.  It has a lemony taste and is oh-so-good!  It was way better than graham crackers.  This cake was seriously to die for so try it if you feel inclined.  I found the recipe online for your guys.  It is labor intensive but well worth it!

Juniors Famous Cheesecake

Naked cheesecake, lol

Wilton Advanced Gumpaste Flowers-Class 4

Stargazer Lily

Sweet Pea 

I forgot to post these on here.  Better late than never, right?  The sweet pea was posted to my blog earlier but I didn't do the shading/coloring to it until the last class.  Aren't these flowers cool?  The flowers are completely edible but I would never recommend eating gumpaste.  It's rather blah.

Conflicted

My boys gave me a Wolfpack tag for the front of my car for Mother's Day.  In NC, we do not have license tags on the front so we can have vanity tags.  I don't want them to know it, but I am a bit distraught over their gift.  Yes, it was super sweet but I am not quite ready to remove my Colorado plate from the front of my car.  It's the only piece of my life that is still connected to our previous home and I am not ready to remove it just yet.  I am a sentimentalist, I can't help it.  It was sweet of my boys to think of me though.

Speaking of Mother's Day, I was thoroughly disappointed.  No plans were made.  I got a $200 gift card to an awesome spa (albeit it is 45 away) and a pricey dress that I made Clayton send back.  All I wanted was to be taken to breakfast/brunch and for us to do something fun together.  Was that too much to ask?  Gifts are great, but I choose experiences over gifts from him.  Sigh...  Sorry to sound like a complainer but dang.  I know I have addressed this before to my husband.  I treated him to an awesome Father's Day a couple of years ago with a surprise weekend that involved a hotel, golf at a prestigious course, great meals and beer.  It turned out that he enjoyed it but he would have preferred actual gifts.  Ugh...  After all that planning and fun we had, he would have been happier if I had bought him crap to open.  This past year, I bought him "stuff" instead.  We are totally different on this and we had acknowledged that, or so I had thought.  

I am getting ready to chop all this hair off.  It is so long now!

A Pain In My Butt (Literally!)

4 different types of syringes (from top to bottom):

1) Lupron-injected subcutaneously in the tummy area to shut down ovary production so that my body doesn't ovulate (my eggs are unneeded) 

2) Progesterone in oil-injected intramuscularly in the rear to make my body think it is pregnant as progesterone is the pregnancy hormone

3) Delestrogen-injected intramuscularly in the rear to boost estrogen, which makes the uterine lining nice and fluffy for the embryo

4) Lovenox-injected subcutaneously in the tummy to prevent blood clots by thinning the blood

In addition to all those injections, I have to take a bunch of other oral meds.  It's crazy how many meds it takes to trick my body into thinking that it pregnant.  Without these meds, my body would reject the embryo as a foreign object.  Regardless of what an ordeal all the medications are, it is well worth it to help bring a child into the world for my awesome IPs.  We are transferring their last two embryos (both are girls) on 6/23 in San Francisco.  They are frozen so this will be referred to as a FET which stands for "frozen embryo transfer".  Wish us luck!!

My meds arrived this past Saturday-5/19/12

My Marlin Man

Hayden's team is currently undefeated in the 9/10 kid-pitch league.  He is one of their least experienced players.  The other kids have been doing this forever and they are really good.  He has learned a lot over the past couple of the months and is finally getting over his fear of the ball.  I am thankful that he is on a team with several wonderful coaches.  Without them, I think he would have gave up after the first couple of practices.  We have had to keep telling him that it takes time to learn how to play.  When he would get frustrated, it was hard to build his confidence.  He is now getting better and loves the game.  I am going to be as sad as the kids are when baseball season ends in early June.

Hayden has hit a couple of balls over the past few games and scored some runs.  Due to his recent improvement, he has earned 2 game balls.  We couldn't be prouder!!    

Listening to one of his coaches

BTW, I didn't get good pics of Hayden on this day but I will try again.

My "Little" Giant

Emerson earned the game ball 5/12/12

Baseball season is in full swing here and I love being a baseball mama.  Emerson plays for the Giants in the 7-8 division (coach pitch) and Hayden plays for the Marlins in the 9-10 division (kid pitch).  Both teams are doing fabulous.  E's team is 7-1 and H's is 8-0.  This post is for Emerson but I will post one about Hayden next. 

E started off rather slow thanks to never having played real baseball.  He played tee ball 2 years ago in a joke of a league back in Colorado but he gained nothing from that experience.  Clayton has never thrown a ball at him so he was clueless when the practices started back in March.  It took him a while, but now he can hit the ball and catch it.  He made doubles in the past two games and helped bring in several runners.  He's scored a couple of runs himself too.  I am so proud!  Last weekend, he earned the game ball by helping lead his team to victory.  I fortunately had my camera with me (it was the first time I took it with me to the ball fields) so I was able to capture his sweet moment.

If you look closely, you can see his surprised face when he was presented with the game ball.  How cute is that?!

I know, I know...

Life has been moving so quickly lately.  I  haven't felt like blogging at all lately.  I have been working on tons of projects around the house.  Between that, Spring break, baseball practices and games x 2, and Easter, I just haven't been able to keep up with anything.  Thankfully, things are slowly getting more organized and I find myself being less stressed out.

Surrogate journey #3 is officially in full swing.  We signed the contracts last week and now the lawyer crap is over.  I fly out to San Francisco on 5/9 for my consult appointment with the RE (reproductive endocrinologist). I will leave early that morning and come back on a red eye flight.  My awesome IPs (intended parents) bought me a first class ticket for the return flight so hopefully I will be comfortable enough to sleep.  Aren't they great?!  As long as everything goes smoothly at the appt., we will likely schedule the tentative transfer date.  My guess is that it will be in late June, which happens to be around the same time we transferred their first baby (7/6/08). Their birthdays will be really close.  Anyway, I can't wait to start injections and get this party started!

Kitchen Backsplash

I have been going crazy trying to find the perfect tile for our kitchen.  So far, this is the closest that I have gotten.  I love how the colors blend with the granite.  The cracked glass tiles are really pretty too.  I would love to have a little more shine though.  I tend to lean toward iridescent tiles but I can't find anything that I love.  I may just be ordering these tiles soon and be done with this.  I am sick of getting grease and food spatters on my wall, lol.  

You can see how it ties the stainless appliances with the granite and the black cabinets in this photo.

Advanced Gumpaste Class with Wilton

Briar Rose

Over the past 3 weeks, I have been learning how to make numerous flowers out of gumpaste (sort of like fondant but dries quickly). I am glad that I have had this experience but I don't really see me doing these kinds of flowers all too often.  They are a little tedious and it would take a million to decorate an entire cake.  I prefer piping icing to molding fondant/gumpaste but I can at least do it for a client now if it is requested.  Next up is to finish a big Stargazer Lily in class.  It's going to be so pretty.  I will post it here when I finish it. :)

Gerbera Daisy

Sweet Pea

Gumpaste Flowers-Part 2

Stephanotis 

Ivy Leaves/Lily Leaf

Aunt Judy's Apple Pie

Apple pie doesn't get any better than this.  My Aunt Judy has been using this same recipe for as long as I can remember.  It is super easy and doesn't require a lot of spices.  If you make this, do yourself a favor and make your own pie crust.  Store-bought is not of the same caliber as homemade.  I have a really good recipe for pie crust that I posted on my blog a while back.  If you want simple step-by-step instruction on how to achieve this buttery, flaky, out-of-this-world pie crust, go check out Joy the Baker's blog post about it at: Pie Crust Tutorial

Recipe for the apple pie can be found here: Aunt Judy's Apple Pie

Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting

These cupcakes are ridiculously good.  Seriously, I kid you not.  The chocolate cake is perfect and the peanut butter frosting is oh-my-gosh.  It's the best stuff on the face of the planet.  I could eat a bowl of the frosting all by itself and be happy.  Trust me on this one.  Make these today.  You're welcome. ;)

Recipe can be found: http://allrecipes.com/personalrecipe/62417099/chocolate-peanut-butter-cupcakes/detail.aspx

Baked Doughnuts

These turned out pretty but they weren't the best recipe.  I am now going to scour the web to find a better way to make them.  The stupid thing is that I bought one of those special Wilton pans that shapes the doughnuts and yet I ended up cutting them out instead.  Oh well, live and learn.  

Valentine's Day-2/14/12

 

I was too lazy to do a fondue dinner this year so we opted for heart-shaped pizzas from Papa John's.

Hayden being silly (age 9)

Emerson being silly too (age 7)

Valentine's Day-Part 2

Fondue Dessert-We do this every year.  It is a Valentine's Day tradition.

 

The boys brought home lots of valentines and candy from their classmates.  They were getting sugared up in this pic, lol.

Emerson's valentine box that I helped make for school

Hayden's Birthday from 1/29/12

Silly boys

Making a wish

Hayden wanted to go to Red Robin for his birthday dinner.  He didn't want cake so he got a birthday sundae instead.  Considering that I am a cake decorator, that is just pathetic on my part, huh?

For lunch, we went to Hayden's choice of Afton Tavern with my parents.  He opened his gifts while we were there.

BTW-He already has Skylanders for Wii so getting it for his 3DS is a bit redundant, right?  He asked for it though!

Easy Crescent Rolls

I made these rolls recently and received rave reviews so I thought that I would post the recipe here for you guys.  They are super easy to make with a bread machine or mixer but they could easily be kneaded by hand also.  When they come out of the oven, they have a soft center that stretches in large strands of doughy goodness.  When they are completely cool, the texture isn't as impressive but they still taste really good.  Heck, I ate one that was 3 days old and it was still yummy.  I discovered that you can get the original texture back by putting them in a hot oven for a few minutes.  

Crescent Rolls

• 1/2 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
• 1/2 cup warm milk
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup butter, softened
• 1/3 cup white sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 
  

Directions

1. Place water, milk, egg, 1/3 cup butter, sugar, salt, flour and yeast in the pan of the bread machine in the order recommended by the manufacturer. Select Dough/Knead and First Rise Cycle; press Start.
2. When cycle finishes, turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Divide dough in half. Roll each half into a 12 inch circle. Spread 1/4 cup softened butter over entire round. Cut each circle into 8 wedges. Roll wedges starting at wide end; roll gently but tightly. Place point side down on ungreased cookie sheet. Cover with clean kitchen towel and put in a warm place, let rise 1 hour. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 10-15 minutes, until golden.  Brush additional melted butter all over rolls while still warm.

Our Dining Room

I faux painted the inset of the tray ceiling.  I used the wall color for the base and then rag rolled the light ceiling color (the one around the tray) over top.  This picture does it no justice.  It looks really cool in person.

Looking into the dining room from the bottom of the stairs (love the wainscoting!)

Sorry, I know that all of these photos suck.  I couldn't get get enough lighting and then it was impossible to get the whole room into a shot because of the way that the room is closed off.  I couldn't get far enough away to get a decent shot with my big camera so I had to use my little point-and-shoot.  The colors aren't right but at least you can get any idea of what I have been working on.

I swear that those curtains aren't that bright.  They match the rug better than that, I promise.  I think that they captured my flash too much because they are a shiny fabric.  

I still need to get some artwork up on the walls but I just haven't gotten around to that yet.