Summertime CrAzYness!!!!

Summertime is in full swing! With that being said my family and I have been working hard to complete our bucket list.

...and this is how it's looking

Whoo Hoo! Almost finished!!! 

Unfortunately, our time in St Louis went by faster than we wanted it to, so we weren't able to do a couple of things.

...but no worries! 

We'll be going back soon.

Till then, we can work on the second part of our summer bucket list. 

How's your summer going?

I hope your having as much fun as my family and I are. 

Our (not so) MAD, Tea Party!!!

One day my kids came down stairs, all dressed up but had no place to go.

...and since I know, one does not simply get dressed up and sit around all day. I decided to let them have their very own 

tea party. 

Lol, no worries! It looked nothing like this (although I know they probably would of loved splashing and pouring willy nilly!),

I must say our party was a little more reserved but just as awesome. 

Complete with...

Host/Hostesses/Guest:

Mikey with his guest Bear Bear

Izzy with her guest Patty Rabbit

Gabby with her guest Froggie 

and myself (the last minute invite. Lol)

Food and drinks:

Iced Tea

LOTS of Sugar

Pizza Rolls

and Skittles

Music:

Classical

This was the perfect opportunity to sit, chit chat and play with them, without the interruptions of TV, internet or video games. 

...and by doing this, it reminded me that it's ok to unplug and be a kid again!

What a great lesson! 

~Although the tea didn't go over well with anybody but me, we all enjoyed ourselves. I mean, who wouldn't want to dress nice, be fancy and down a bunch of pizza rolls and skittles?!?!? 

 ;D

Our Family Bucket List

About a week ago, during dinner, I asked my family what we should add to our summer bucket list.

Here's what the list consisted of:

Building a rocket 

Or fighting a mummy

Or climbing up the Eiffel Tower

Discovering something that doesn't exist (Hey!)

Or giving a monkey a shower

Surfing tidal waves

Creating nano bots

Or locating Frankenstein's brain (Over here!)

Finding a Dodo bird

Painting a continent

Or driving your sister insane (Phineas!)

As you can see there's a whole lot of stuff to do before school starts this fall (Come on Perry!)

So stick with us cause Phineas and Ferb are gonna do it all

So stick with us cause Phineas and Ferb are gonna do it all

(Mom, Phineas and Ferb are making a title sequence!!!)

Lol oh, you soooo just sang that and did "air guitar" didn't you?!?!? 

 Ok, so, that wasn't our bucket list, but it was fun to sing and rock out to it. 

...alright, back on track...

My family's Summer Bucket List

It's easy enough to add things on later, but my focus was to make a list that was short, sweet, and definitely do able. That way the kids can see all the things on the list get checked off.
Nothing better than a summer that you do EVERYTHING you wanted to do!

Whoo Hoo! Bring it on summer!!! 

What are your summer plans this year? Be sure to comment below. I would love to hear about them! 

Kiddos and Cupcakes (Sprinkle Me Pretty)

If you haven't had a chance to stop by my cupcake blog, Sprinkle Me Pretty well let's just say today is your lucky day.

I decided to share my favorite post with you. 

*Background story* 

In 2011 I started my own cupcake business from home. I temperately hung my apron up and turned the oven off to move our family to South Korea to be with my husband. Though I couldn't easily find all my staple supplies (such as sprinkles and edible glitter) I occasionally  whipped up a batch for my family and I. 

           This is a post I did in Korea about making cupcakes with my babies. I hope you enjoy it!

Kiddos and Cupcakes

Whenever I work on a cupcake order I tend to kick my family out of the kitchen while I'm baking.

So to keep my kids from having a love/hate relationship with cupcakes, I try to give them those sweet moments every once in a while.

This time I decided to assist them with their own batch.

As much as it goes against what I do, I bought a simple boxed cake and canned frosting, I pre measured all the ingredients and let my kids do all the "work" from there.

Next to add a little pizzazz to our cakes we added sprinkles. A whole bunch of sprinkles!!! 

Next was my time to shine. I filled the cupcake liners then off into the oven they went!!!

(...but not before they stole some batter from the bowl!)

 After what seemed like a million "Are they done yet???" and "Mommy go check the cupcakes!!!!", we were able to take them out to let them cool.

Before long we were moving on to the best part, DECORATING!!!!!

I gave both of my little ones a Dixie cup full of frosting and a small spoon to do as they pleased.

To no surprise most of the frosting ended up in their tummies instead of on the cupcakes. No worries, MOMMY TO THE RESCUE!!!!!!!

With piping bag and tip in hand, I finished frosting the cakes and decorated them with sprinkles and chocolate chips.

Sweet!!!

What a great day!

Leaving on a jet plane

The school year is coming to an end and the weather is getting warmer. For many families this means
...vacation time!!!!!

Whether you're road tripping or hopping on a flight, keeping your little ones entertained and calm during the trip is just as important as packing sunblock and clean undies! 

Here are some things I did on our flight to Korea that made the multiple flights a little more bearable. 

______________________________________

Before you go, I highly suggest you know what the weather will be at your destination. When we arrived in Korea it was snowy and as cold as ...snowballs. Before we left the states I purchased a snowsuit for both of our little ones. (Pretty obvious, right?) Well, when you're crazy busy making sure bags are packed with everything you need, plus trying to keep your sanity, simple things like this get over looked. 

Not only did I buy the snowsuits, I also invested in a somewhat cheap double umbrella stroller. It wasn't the prettiest or most high tech, but it was lightweight, easy to fold and got us from point A to point B. 

 Imagine, if you will, being on multiple planes for 20(+) hours, with a 4 month old, a 2 year old, and a 4 year old. Yeah I must be CrAzY, right? 

Well, I am!

But the real question is, how do I keep an infant, toddler and a preschooler that love to always be on the move or doing something, anything, calm for the whole trip? Well, me being the wiz kid I am and by the grace of God, I found a way. 

I can't explain the wonders of God, but I can tell you what I did. 

I made sure our carry on bags were ready for it all. I had a total of three carry-ons. Mikey's (4 years old at the time), Izzy (2 years old at the time) and my own (age not included), which had more stuff for them in it than for myself. 

In the kid's carry on, I packed: 

• 1 Magna Doodle per chid
• 1 coloring book, per child ~Mickey & Minnie (familiar faces are nice when things are chaotic)  
• 1 dry erase activity book (Crayola)
• 2 packs of dry erase crayons (Crayola as well, in Primary and Bright colors) *I put the crayons in a travel baby wipe container, so I didn't have to deal with the boxes or trying to find a place to put them. 
• Stickers and a book for them to put them in
• Sparkly pipe cleaners (to keep those little hands busy)
• Headphones for both kids, way better than using the ones supplies by the airline
• Travel pillows
• Snacks

The snack bag consisted of:

• Graham crackers (or as my kids call them, "Sweet Crackers")
•  Packs of apple sauce and bananas (such as these)
• Chedder & cheese crackers
• Gum 
• Suckers

It doesn't sound like much, but it made a world of difference!

In my bag, I had:

• Travel sized Clorox wipes
• Individually wrapped hand sanitizer wipes
• Baby wipes
• Diaper bags- to put dirty diapers, trash or soiled clothes in
• LOTS and LOTS of diapers for both kids. (Mikey was already potty trained but for the trip and only the trip, he wore pull ups. That way we didn't have to deal with the stress of accidents.)
• Tray liners- like these. (I cleaned the trays off first, then put these bad boys on. They stuck on perfectly and helped keep messes to a minimum. Parents and flight attendants were very impressed by it. *Proud Mommy moment for me!!!* Yay!)
• A book for me
• Nintendo DS with a Sudoku game 
• A journal
• Ear buds
• Colgate Wisp (after those in flight meals)
• A change of clothes for the kids and I (footie pj's for the kids + extra pants and shirt for all of us)
• Cash
• Our family binder, with passports and whatever other important papers we needed

As for the 4 month old (my nephew), his mommy took care of his bag. I don't know much about what she packed but I do know you need: 

• Lots of diapers and baby wipes 
• Bottles with water (buy extra bottled water once you get past security.)
• Formula 

*I am a huge advocate of breastfeeding and I strongly suggest doing it if you can (for so many reasons, to include ease on a flight), but if your baby takes formula, look into buying the individually wrapped packets. You'll be glad you did. 

OK, so in hind sight, I may have over packed, but I was and still am happy with everything I had and how smooth things went. 

I hope this post will help you or someone you know on your future travels. 

Do you have something special you use to entertain your little ones on trips?

Feel free to comment below or ask questions. 

Bon Voage!!

April is the month of...

Call me crazy, but I can make a "favorites" list for just about anything.

Favorite:

Cupcake- Oreo Truffle

Colors- Tiffany Blue & Pink

Animal- Donkey

Sports team- St Louis Cardinals

Month- April
...and so on...

Even crazier than making a list of favorites is picking my favorite of favorites. (Stick with me, there's a method to my madness!) 

...so of my favorites, my top pick is:

The Month of April

*baseball season

*my birthday

*spring time 

*flowers

and most important

So don't mind me, I am going to share some of my favorite photos of some of my favorite Army babies!

Military kids are, simple put, amazing. They deal with situations most people try to avoid.

-leaving behind family and friends to move to different cities, states or even countries.
-watching a parent on go away for deployments, months at a time.
-switching schools in the middle of a school year and being the dreaded "new kid" yet again.
-being disciplined "military style" (yes ALL of our kids know how to do push ups!!)

So raise your root beer mugs and yell out a big "HOOAH" for the amazingly awesome military child!

Curse of the mommy blogger?!?!?

So as I sit here bundled up in my blanket on this 40 degree spring day, I find myself browsing different blogs. You know just to see how the "pros" do it, when I run into a couple of blogs actually dissing "mommy bloggers"!!!!

WHAAAA???

They say mommy bloggers post over the top things such as, "How teach your child to do things they would obviously learn on their own", "to homeschool or not to homeschool", they even attack the adorable Bento box lunches. (Pictured on the left)

Now wait a minute, somebody please tell me, what is wrong with making a lunch for your child or loved one, making it as pleasing to the eye as it is on their tummy and sharing what you did online? I can do the same designs on cupcakes (and post them on my cupcake blog) and it be all the rage, but if I do it on this blog for my kids, its annoying and over the top! 

Hmmm, interesting!

They say, reading mommy blogs make them feel like their family could never be as good as the blogger's.

Wow, there's the problem right there, and no the problem isn't with the mommy blogger! 

Whether you are looking at a mommy blog, on Facebook or any other  social media outlet, you shouldn't compare yourself or your family to any body else's! I know God blessed me with my husband when he walked into my life. Granted me the chance to have BONUS babies and He knew exactly what He was doing when He entrusted me to love, care and raise my Belly babies. I couldn't be happier with my family, (even though we are FAR from perfect),

 and there is no blog out there that will make me feel otherwise!

I didn't start this blog to try to make my family look perfect or to make anybody else's feel less than mine or to convince anybody that homeschooling is better than any other option and "how to's" are fun crafts that I want to share with you ...just because! 

"Hello, my name is Mommy" is strictly about fun things I do with my family, recipes and pretty much whatever else. 

With that being said, I hope you enjoy my blog!! I have so much more I want to share with you. 

...Oh & don't forget to comment and share!

Confessions of an Army Wife

Kay, so I know it's been a while since I last posted, but my family and I have been unpacking boxes and reassembling furniture like crazy since late last month.

 ~Oh the joys of PCSing!!!!! (Relocating, in Army terms.)

Anyway, PCSing my not be what I call "fun" (that is unless you're moving to a different country)

 ...but I digress!

... and neither are staff duty days (24 hr shifts) or the dreaded, DEPLOYMENT.

But no worries here!!! (<-- wow, I really started my sentence off with "But"?!?!) There's always a brighter side.

• PCSing gives you the chance to meet new people, live where you never would of gone otherwise and sometimes give you the chance of experiencing a new culture. 

• 24 hr duty gives you a chance to blog (wink wink) or hang out on Pinterest, be in control of the remote and even sprawl out on the bed and hog the blanket to yourself.

• Deployments stink, plain and simple. (Two days after my husband left for deployment, I had our son) I didn't think I could make it through it, but I did! I learned so much about myself and got to hang out with my baby boy for, two weeks shy of, a year. Not to mention I redecorated, and hogged the bed to myself! LOL 

       Eventually my "brighter side" rolled around,  prepping

 for my best friends return!!!

There is NOTHING like military life (I know from both sides), but everything is what you make of it! ツ

Have a beautiful day!

Caught Ya!!!

Doing simple everyday task, such as running to the store, post office or library can be a chore when you have little ones.

(...speaking from experience!!!!)

So to ease the stress and add a little incentive for good behavior I made a "Caught you being good" chart.

(Click here for your own wallet size charts!!!)


**How we use it**
After running errands we come home and put a sticker on the appropriate spot (if they behaved) and talk about our day. This is a perfect time for us to talk about things we did well or things that were done ...not so well.
Once we finally make it to 20 we can celebrate with a special toy, lunch at our favorite burger place, or whatever they decide on. (Within reason, of course.)

Do you have any awesome methods do you use to praise good behavior and to keep tantrums at bay while you are out?
I would love to hear them!!!

Turkey Pot Pie Crepes

My husband and I came up with this recipe when we lived in Texas. It has traveled to Korea with us (as a perfect low carb meal) and is still going strong here in Kansas.

When I have a good thing, I just can't keep it to myself. With that being said, here is my Turkey Pot Pie Crepe recipe.

I hope your family loves it just as much as mine. 

Crepes:
3 eggs 
2/3 cup milk 
2 tablespoons unsalted butter or 2 tablespoons margarine, melted 
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup whole wheat flour

*I used skim milk, 2 Tbsp of salted butter and no salt*

Directions:
Note: If you want to make regular crepes, not using whole wheat flour, use 3/4 cup milk, 2 tbs cold water, and substitute 3/4 cup white flour.

In a small bowl, beat the eggs, milk, melted butter, and salt until well combined-about 20 seconds.

Sift the flour into a medium size bowl or a 2 quart measuring cup, then add the liquid mixture, beating until well combined-about 1 minute.

Or blend the eggs, milk, butter, and salt in an electric blender or food processor for 15 seconds; sprinkle in the flour and blend until smooth-about 30 second

Brush butter on the bottom of a crepe pan or heavy 7-inch skillet.

Set over moderate heat for about 30 seconds or until a drop of batter sizzles.

Stir the batter well, pour 2 tablespoons into the skillet, and quickly tip it back and forth so that the batter evenly coats the bottom.
*I used a 1/3 cup*

Cook until the crepe edges are golden brown-about 1 minute.
Slide a spatula under the crepe, flip it over, and cook for about 30 seconds.

Transfer to a warm plate.

Repeat with the remaining batter, rebuttering the skillet when necessary.

~At this point the crepes can be cooled to room temperature, separated by sheets of wax paper, and stored.

Refrigerate, wrapped tightly with plastic wrap, for up to 24 hours.

Turkey Pot Pie filling:
1/2 cup carrots
1/2 cup celery
1/2 cup frozen corn
1/2 cup frozen green beans
1/2 cup frozen lima beans or green soy beans
1/2 cup frozen peas
1/2 cup diced onions
6oz diced chicken or turkey (We use Turkey Spam)
3 cups chicken broth
1 cup water w/ 1/2 all purpose flour (dissolved)
1 tsp ground thyme
3 Tbsp butter

Directions:
Use butter to sauté onions, carrots and celery until the onions are clear.

Add broth, thyme, and the remaining vegetables and turkey, bring to boil, reduce to simmer until vegetables are tender.

Add water/flour mixture, stir until thickened.

Turn off heat and set aside.

Filling the crepes:
Use a 1/2 cup of pot pie mixture to fill your crepe. 

Roll crepe around mixture and a extra pot pie on top. 

Bon Appetite!!!

...that looks like this -->