Busy!

Sorry for the lack of posts! We've been so busy, you'd think I would've been excited for all the things I could've written about:).

To get back in the swing of things, I'll post some pictures... My friend Heather is having a baby girl in May, and her church shower is this Thursday. Here are some things I've been working on:

Last night, I made an army of candy pacifiers. We'll use them to scatter as a decoration on the tables at the shower. You take 2 Lifesavers and glue them together and then take a jelly bean and glue it in the center. The instructions on-line said to use a hot-glue gun and to remind your guests that they aren't edible. But I thought, what's the fun in that? So, I "glued" them together with white chocolate. (And while the flavors of the 3 components don't exactly go hand-in-hand, the guests CAN eat them if they want to:). )

We had leftover chocolate, so I decided to have a little more fun... These are chocolate covered chips and NutterButters:). Wilton (cake decorating, candy, etc.) sells this little bottle that looks like a ketchup/mustared bottle you'd find in a diner, only clear. I totally recommend it! It made the task of glueing the pacifiers together so easy, and then the purple "drizzle" on the below picture was also a breeze!!

Last weekend, Ben's parents and brother Daniel came to visit. The boys worked on the deck and Jayne and I went shopping. She was such a trooper as I had lots of stuff to get for the shower. We also made this lovely baby-sock-rose-bouquet:). She was WAY better at the sock rolling than I was!

Here's an up-close picture of a "rose".

A Valuable Lesson

Ben and I learned a very valuable lesson this morning. Always have a couple of 9-volt batteries on hand.

We had a very a late night.... probably didn't get to bed until about 2o till 1. Then, around a quarter till 5, I awoke to a high-pitched chirping. I was a bit disoriented, so it took me a while to understand it was an alarm. And I originally thought it was the carbon monoxide detector next to my bed. I couldn't figure out how to open it to get rid of the battery, so I had to wake Ben up from a very deep sleep, and he was able to dislodge the battery, after a bit of effort. So, we laid back down.... but the chirping continued. It was the fire alarm that was out of battery (and I was positive I couldn't sleep through the sound.... I mean it's so loud and piercing!).

Unfortunately, we have vaulted ceilings in our bedroom (which is normally a nice feature.... just not this morning:) ), so Ben had to go out to the cold garage and get our big ladder, so that he could take out the batteries of the fire alarm. The cover of the alarm was really tricky, and it took a bit of effort to dislodge. And then, come to find out, the fire alarm keeps chirping when the battery's out. I guess it's a great safety feature:). We were desperate. Thankfully, we've been trying to organize our office (and just haven't finished yet), so we had numerous things strewn across the floor.... including a couple of 9-volt batteries.

And, just in case we'd have a carbon monoxide issue in the few hours of sleep remaining, we reinstalled the carbon monoxide batteries, too:) .

Wow!

The wisdom in this post is incredible! Such a tough situation for a little girl, but wow!, if she (and I, and all of us) can get ahold of the truth that the author describes!

Another Must-Try Recipe

Holy cow! These Crispy Mozzarella Sticks are yummy:)!

"I feel like a tub of lard..."

That was what I said as we pulled into Wendy's. Please allow me to explain.

We instituted a new "eating rule". We're trying to only have 1 order of fries per week in an effort to promote better health. And after church tonight I wasn't in the mood to be creative, cook, or clean-up, so I suggested dining out. We pulled through Burger King's drive-through and ordered just sandwiches, not a combo. However, before I even finished, I knew that wasn't going to be enough. So, on our way home, we stopped by Wendy's and grabbed some more food.

I can really tell how not eating fries has helped us to cut back :).

Getting the House Back to "Normal"

We started to take the Christmas decorations down this weekend. Bummer! I have to say that's probably my least favorite time of the year (the taking down of the decorations part). The house always looks so sad or boring or something:).

Our parents wanted us to post some pictures of our Christmas decor since they weren't able to see everything decorated.

Here's the "Crafty Tree":




And the "Big Tree":

And here is our Christmas Village.

New (Second) Cousins!

My cousins Scott and Michelle had a little girl (Bethany Savannah) on Dec. 17th. And my cousins Shane and Monica had a little boy (Beckett Matthew) on Dec. 27th. Both babies are adorable! I was so glad I got to meet them while we were home during the holidays! We didn't get any pictures of Beckett yet, but here are some pics of Bethany my mom took at the Molter Christmas (when she was only 3 days old!).



Here's Grandma Molter holding Bethany!

Here's Grandpa Molter holding Bethany!

Here's Mallory and Autumn holding Bethany! They were such good little "mothers" :) .