My House is a Zoo....

A month or so ago, our local paper asked people to write in (in 250 words or less) why they felt like their house was a zoo.  A winning write up would win 6 tickets to the NC zoo.  We've been wanting to go to the zoo, so I sort of figured, why not!?  This past week, one of the editors emailed me in reply to my submission asking us for a family photo.  It got me excited and had me wondering if we might be winners....  Today, I discovered that those submissions were published to the FRONT PAGE of the Life section of the newspaper.  Sadly we were not chosen as the winning submission, but it's still pretty cool that we were published!

It's hard to read, so here's what I wrote in....

"My house is a zoo because we have two wild boys who are close in age. (They are 22 months apart, age 3 and 1.)

I often feel more like a shepherd herding her sheep than a Mom.

My 1-year-old is my wild child. He is into everything, and I’m constantly chasing him as he runs all over the house, leaving a path of destruction and climbing all over furniture and up and down the stairs.

Though my 3-year-old is a little more calm, he demands lots of attention and is a bit of a drama king at times. I like to refer to him as my “threenager.” You never really know what mood he’s going to be in, and he asks “why” at least 100 times in a day.

In the midst of this craziness raising our boys, my husband is a Greensboro police officer and has an odd schedule. He works nights and makes us so proud as he protects and serves the city of Greensboro, but his schedule and sleep habits make it difficult and a bit crazy to have quality family time.

It feels a bit like a zoo many days, but being the zookeeper of this family is exactly what I was born to do!"

If you're curious about the winning submission or want to read some more submissions, they can currently be found online here.

Lemony Sweet Mother's Day

I decided a few weeks ago that I wanted to make a lemon pound cake.  I've been wanting to try out some new cake recipes so that I have a few more options to offer when people order cakes.  I LOVE lemon pound cake, but just needed a reason to make it.  So with my family getting together for Mother's Day, that seemed like an appropriate time-- they could be my taste testers and for the most part, my family will tell me like it is.

It wasn't until Mother's Day came though, that I really got to thinking about the symbolism reflected in a lemon pound cake for Mother's Day.

On Mother's Day I have SO many things to celebrate-- I have two handsome little blessings from the Lord, I have a wonderful and supportive Step Mother, and I absolutely adore my Mother-In-Law, but amongst all of those wonderful things, Mother's day is still bittersweet missing my Mom.  A lot like a lemon pound cake.

(Clearly I've been having some more fun with the ombre effect.) 

I will say that this Mother's Day weekend was most definitely a good one-- It started out Saturday night when we surprised my Mother-In-Law with dinner.  My Brother-In-Laws and their wives, (and all the kiddos) we all showed up with baked spaghetti, salad and garlic bread.  It was yummy yummy, and it was a nice treat to all get together and catch up.

Then Sunday we went to church as a family and headed over to my Sister's house to have lunch with my family.  Grilled chicken, salad, baked beans, lemon pound cake and homemade Oreo ice cream. 

And my wonderful husband and little boys showered me with a couple gifts and a super sweet card too.  I got a plate and 2 charms for my Origami Owl necklace and a navy blue maxi dress.

Have you seen Origami Owl?  It's so adorable and so personal.  My plate says "Blessed" and then I have the large locket with 6 charms in it-- both boys' birthstones, an "I Love You" sign language hand, a vintage cross, a coffee cup, and a police badge.  I LOVE it!  If you are interested in Origami Owl, check out my friend Kendra's page, she'll help you order and answer your questions.  There's SO many charms to pick from, it's kind of addicting.

And here's some photos of the two little reasons that I even get to celebrate Mother's day as a Mother.

Hope you all had a fantastic Mother's Day!  Happy Mother's Day to all of my Momma readers! 

Nest Egg Cake

Some photos of a cake order from today for a baby shower.  The cake is white by request with a nest made of chocolate covered chow mein noodles and the eggs are blue hard boiled eggs.  I originally made blue candy coated chocolate truffles to act as eggs, but there was a little bit of a melting issue and "real" eggs became the back up.  I was a little sad that the truffles didn't work out, but sometimes you gotta think on your feet.

What I love right now--

It's been since January since I've done a "what I love" post.  I like to do these periodically, just to remind myself and list out all the things that bring a smile to my face.  Here's the last one from January in case you're curious, but here goes my list in random order...

-I love the smile on Hayden's face every time he climbs the stairs and that when he reaches the top, he shouts "Ta da!"

-I love that Leeland is VERY into gardening and praying over our garden.

-I love that Hayden asks for Leeland when he wakes up, and if Leeland wakes up first, he asks for Hayden.

-I love to hear Hayden try to say Leeland's name, he says "eee-yen."

-I love that Leeland drags his "star blankie" everywhere.

-I love that Leeland can quote most of the movie "The Lorax", maybe not necessarily a parenting win, but cute regardless.

-I love that Daniel has the magic baby voodoo and can get Hayden down for a nap in less than 5 minutes most days.

-I love that I'm about to celebrate my third Mother's Day!

-I love that Leeland's first reaction to his superhero cape shirt was a deep concern that even though he was wearing a cape, he still couldn't fly. (I told him to keep practicing.)

-I love that 4 years and 2 kids into our marriage, I still get giddy like a little school girl when it's time to pick Daniel up from work.

-I love peanut butter fudge milkshakes with Oreos mixed in from Cook Out!

-I love that Leeland LOVES to play outside, and even more than that loves to picnic for lunch outside.

-I love that I told Leeland ONE TIME that "sucks" is a bad word, and now if me or Daniel happens to accidentally say it in conversation, he calls us out for it and tells us over and over that it's a bad word.

-I love that both Hayden and Leeland love to go to church and have so much fun playing in their classrooms.

-I love Hayden's fluffy red hair.

-I love the sound of the rain on the roof at night when I go to sleep in our bedroom.

-I love our house!

-I love that the boys think Lilly (the dog) is like the funniest 'person' ever.

-I love drinking coffee in the morning (or afternoon) with Daniel.

-I love baking and all the challenges that go along with cake decorating.

-I love my Shark steam mop.

-I love that Hayden wants to talk so bad but doesn't quite have the words yet and just banters on and on and on.

-I love to hear Leeland sing in the car.

-I love that both Hayden and Leeland are incredibly ticklish and have the most infectious laughs!

........ We have a lot to be thankful for!

Our Superheroes

I feel like I should preface this by saying that it's incredibly difficult to capture a photo of a superhero, much less two superheroes.  I mean, how many reporters and journalists tried to set up batman to be exposed? (I'm gonna be honest, I haven't watched Batman in YEARS, I have no idea what I'm talking about, I'm just trying to sound like I know what I'm talking about.)

But for your viewing pleasure-- here's our wild at heart, little superheroes.