Today we shall CELEBRATE!

Today is a great day for so many reason!  It's Sunday, my house is clean, it's cool and rainy outside, and today is my mamma's birthday!  This lady is a great lady!  Great doesn't even begin to do her justice.  She the best mom I know!  If I can be half as good a mommy to my girls as she was to me, I will be happy!  I wasn't always the nicest to her!  I think back to some of the things I said and thought about her getting all up in my business and it makes me sad.  Being a mom now I wish I had listened to her.  It would have saved me some time, some heartache, and some mistakes!  Today we celebrated her birth.  We celebrated who she is and all she sacrificed through the years to be the mom she was and still is.  I love you so much Mom!  Your not only the best mom in the world, but your the best NanAnn in the world.  We love you so much!

In honor of Mom's birthday we ate cake after dinner!  It doesn't take much for us to have an excuse to eat cake!  I made an Apricot Nectar Cake.  This recipe came from our family cookbook that my Nana made for all of us a few year ago.  I love this cookbook!  She put so much time and effort into it and I will cherish it forever.  This is one of Gonzo's favorites!  In fact tonight he said that he likes it so much it could be his birthday cake!  Usually he asked for a coconut cake, but I guess he changed his mind after eating it tonight.  

 My Nana made copies of the recipes and put them all together in the book.  I love that they have her handwriting on them and are dirty and torn.  

 The ingredients are: lemon cake mix, lemon pugging, apricot nectar, eggs, and oil.  This is a super easy cake and takes no time at all.  You don't even have to use an electric mixer. 

 While its baking you make a glaze with powdered sugar, the extra apricot nectar, and fresh lemon juice.

While its still hot you pour some of the glaze on it.

It was delish!  Gonzo already got into it again before bed.  He will snack on it all week (so will Adda and I)!

Happy Birthday Mom!  Wish you were here to eat Apricot Nectar Cake with us!  Miss you and love you so much!  Hope your birthday was a great day!

Apricot Nectar Cake

Duncan Hines Lemon Supreme Cake Mix

Small box of lemon jello (I like to use lemon pudding)

3/4 cups oil

1 cup apricot nectar

4 eggs

Apricot Nectar Glaze

2 cups powdered sugar

the remaining apricot nectar

juice of 1 lemon

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl and add eggs one at a time.  Pour into a bunt pan and bake at 325 for 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.  Allow to cool in pan for 10 minutes.  Invert onto a cake plate and pour the glaze over the cake while its hot (I like to put half of the glaze on the cake right away, and then let it cool another 10 minutes and put the rest of the glaze over it.  It creates a crust when you do this rather than it all soaking in.)  

 

Puke, Poop, and Bleach!

These three words totally make you want to keep reading, right?!  Well, this was my morning!  When Ella wakes up in the morning, she is sssttttaaarrrvvviiinnngg!  Not always, but some mornings she pretends that she will never eat again.  Usually I am pretty aware of this while she is nursing and will try to stop her at some point.  This morning I was totally distracted and let her eat and eat!  My mistake!  As soon as she was finished and I sat her up she spit up all over both of us.  Probably half of what she just ate.  So...she and I went straight to the bath.  Gonzo was just about to leave to head up to the field house and of course Adda wanted to get in the bath with us.  So, he left all three of us in the tub with all the toys!  I was just about to get out and let the girls stay in and play a bit and realized Ella had pooped in the tube.  If you know breast fed baby poop, you know it is not poop that can be fished out!  LOVELY!  So I (very quickly) gathered toys.  and drained the tube.  We all three got soaped down again and headed to Kroger for BLEACH!  The toys are sanitized and so is the tub!

Here's the culprit!  You can't possibly be mad at this little monkey!  Sweet Ella! 

   
I also finished everything for the cake I decorated yesterday.  Susan (a friend from college) and her family just moved back to Texas.  She is from Texas and most of her family lives here, but moved to Georgia after she got married.  Yesterday was her first birthday back in Texas.  Her husband wanted the cake to have a birthday/Texas theme.  I know she is glad to be back in Texas, but I think her friends and family are even happier to have her back!  Happy Birthday Susan!  I hope you guys enjoy the cake!  Love you!

The drawing is tonight for the 2nd giveaway.  Don't forget to comment, join the blog, or share my link! 

Great Weather, Busy Day!

The high today was 82, I think!  Right now it's 68!  AHHHHHH!!!  That is amazing!  I had to laugh outloud when I read all the comments on facebook about the amazing weather.  I guess everyone was needing a break from all the sweating!  I sure was!  I was determined to get outside for more than a little while, if the weather was going to be so amazing!

Our day started with the girls both sleeping until 10:00!  AHHHHHH!!! That is also amazing!  I don't really know what we did to deserve two really good sleepers.  I don't know that life of waking up early with children.  We are super spoiled!  One day when the girls are having to wake up early to go to school, it will be a war getting them up.  Oh well, we will cross that bridge when we get there!  For now I will sleep in as much as I can!

After the girls were up, feed, and dressed we went to JoAnns for a bead set for Adda.  She is now obsessed with making necklaces after she got the bead set from my Nana last weekend.  I had a coupon and they were also on sale.  On our way home I zipped into Sonic to get popcorn chicken for Adda and I to share for lunch.  As I pulled into the garage the bag of chicken flew to the floor board and spilled everywhere.  So wonderful!  I love when that happens!  I didn't waste any of it.  We went by the 5 second rule, of course!  We're all working on our immune systems here!  After lunch Adda worked on her necklaces and I put Ella down for her nap.

 One of my best friends had a birthday today.  Upon her request, I am making her birthday cake.  She wanted chocolate cake with marshmallow buttercream.  Actually, she mentioned the 7 minute frosting, but you have to beat egg whites over the stove for that frosting and I STILL DON'T HAVE AN OVEN OR STOVE!  (Don't even get me started on the topic of Sears and their extended warranty policies!!!!)  So I baked the cakes across the street, and made marshmallow buttercream instead.  This icing was a new experience for me.  I found a few different recipes online and changed them up a bit to my liking.  It's pretty darn good, if I do say so myself.  So, while the girls were sleeping I decorated the cake.  It turned out pretty good!

 I put marshmallow fluff in with the butter and powdered sugar.  I had never tried marshmallow fluff until today.  I remember one time that my mom had it in the pantry and I thought it looked disgusting.  It seemed like it would be a cross between marshmallows, and miracle whip (because the container looked the same as miracle whip).  I wasn't willing to try it.  How sad that I didn't!  It's delicious, and in icing, it's even better!

 This is the spoon I used to get it out of the jar, and into the bowl.  It's stiff and STICKY!  I had to clean the spoon.  After one lick it didn't budge!

 After two or three licks!  It became a game...how many licks does it take to clean the spoon of marshmallow fluff?

 And it's clean!  I think this was 10 licks. 

 Crumb coat done

 When I was looking online for recipes I read some reviews.  One of the things that is frustrating about the 7 minute frosting is that it doesn't decorate or travel well.  It has a marshmallow flavor so, putting the fluff into a regular buttercream is like the best of both worlds.  I did read in the reviews that even though it was sturdier than the 7 minute frosting it still needed to be chilled well and kept cold until serving.  I chilled the cake, and icing before I decorated it. 

This is the how to on the petal decorating.  I saw this on the blog i am baker. 

 Put dots of icing in a straight line up and down. 

 Use and small offset spatula to smear the dot to one side.  Repeat all the way around the cake. 

 For the top I measured and found the center.

 I wanted to have the petals all go into the center to look like a chrysanthemum when finished. 

 The dot on the edge I smashed down a little more than the others so it would fall over the edge a little more. 

 Turned out pretty cute!  Looks like I wanted it to.  I did find that the longer I was working on it the more difficult the icing was to work with.  It isn't as sturdy as a regular buttercream.  It went straight to the fridge after I finished it.  

Gonzo got home at 6:00 from football and we had our weekly family date night.  During football we always try to make our Saturday night a fun date night for everyone.  If we don't go out to eat I try to cook a really nice meal,  Then we either go do something or rent a movie and play games at home.  It's pretty much the only night of the week we get to do that!  Tonight, we went to eat at Babe's and then went to the concert at Levitt Pavilion.  We all ate WAY to much and waddled out to the grass with our folding chair.  It was Johnny Rodriquez who sang.  I didn't recognize his name but Gonzo said he sang a few songs from the movie Urban Cowboy.  We love the movie Urban Cowboy!  We quote lines from the movie at each other all the time.  We like the movie so much that we named our first cat together, Sissy!  Gonzo always said we needed to get a dog and name it Bud!  No thanks!  I am a cat kinda girl!  They take care of themselves.  The concert didn't blow my socks off, but it was cool outside and the music was nice.  There is something about sitting in the grass listening to country music with a beer in a koozie.  It helps when the temp is in the 80's.  We didn't stay long but the girls enjoyed it and so did we.

 Waiting at Babes! 

 Ella's first time to sit at the table with us!  She was pretty fired up about it!

 Adda was telling us to look over there at all that foooood!  Hungry girl!

 At the concert!  It felt soooo goood outsideeeee!

AHHHHHH!!!  Now the girls are both asleep and I'm relaxing in bed.  I hope we are done with the hot temperatures.  I am ready for cooler temperature everyday, leaves changing colors, and the smell of Fall!  I bet you are too!  

Don't forget about the next giveaway!  Join the blog, comment to the post, or share my link on your social media page to be entered.  I will draw tomorrow night at midnight!  

Marshmallow Buttercream

2 cups butter softened

1 bag of powdered sugar (can also use 3/4 of the bag if you choose)

1 tsp. vanilla

1 16oz. jar of marshmallow fluff

2 tbsp. heavy cream or half and half

Beat the butter in an electric mixer until light and fluffy.  Add the powdered sugar a little at a time.  Add the vanilla and mix well.  Add the marshmallow fluff and cream and beat until combined.  Add more or less cream based on the consistency you choose.  Chill before and after decorating.  Can also be used to fill a cake or cupcake.  Made enough to crumb coat and decorate an eight inch, two layer cake.  I had about 3/4 a cup left over.