Bun in the Perkins Oven!

Aye aye aye! These past couple months have been insane! In November we found out we are expecting another Perkins! It's very exciting, but MAN I forgot how much pregnancy hates the crap out of me! Anyway, now that I am starting to kinda feel a teensy bit better I'm going to try to be better about keeping everyone updated on our lives.

We went to the doctor today and in the first couple months there is no fun news to share (I guess, other than the fact that there is a person living inside of me!). Anyway, so here's the update from the doctor : You've gained 8 lbs since you got pregnant. Well that's great! Considering the baby weighs an ounce and a half right now, I'd say I'm right on track.... to weigh 300 pounds when I give birth!

I don't have a 'bump' picture yet, but you can totally see it here, so enjoy! Yum!

I don't care that much, but what I do care about is that this pregnancy has ruined food for me. I have to eat so much so often to keep from getting sick that I am sick of every food on the planet. When you eat two of every meal every day there's not much left that you haven't eaten.

My majorly notable craving in the beginning was pastrami sandwiches. Mmmmmm....I could still go for a reeaaally good pastrami sandwich. Since the only quick and cheapish place we have around here as far as pastrami goes is Wienerschnitzel, I was cured of that craving pretty quick. (No offense Wienerschnitzel, but you don't understand pastrami)

Now my favorite thing ever that I could drink a million times a day is Naked Juice, specifically the Green Machine flavor. Mmmmm. Why do my cravings have to be so inaccessible/expensive?

Anyway, moral of the story, we're having a baby in July and we are really happy about it! Stay tuned!

EB Awareness Week

This isn't a fun craft or a cute story, but I hope you will continue reading.

About two years ago I came to learn of a sweet baby boy with a very rare disease. It is called Epidermolysis Bullosa, or EB for short. It is a genetic skin disease that causes the skin to be so fragile that the slightest touch causes severe blistering inside and outside the body. 


You have probably never heard of EB because most babies who are born with it die in early infancy. For two years I have been following the life of a Mr. Baby Daylon. He was born with EB and has had a bone marrow transplant to try to cure it. He has been through some rough stuff for such a little man, but some of the worst that he goes through just comes from a lack of awareness of the disease. 


I beg, beg, beg you to go to little Daylon's blog and just read the past few entries. It will help you understand why it is so important to raise awareness about EB. Then if you want to learn more you can go to this site. It is so important to these sweet families who have to cope with this heart breaking disease that people understand or at least know about what they are going through. 


That's a lot to ask, but if you do learn a little more about EB from your readings then share some of what you know with someone so the awareness spreads. Thanks!

My First Cake Pops!

      I have been wanting to make cake pops for a long time. I'm sure you've heard of cake pops, but if not check out this site and let your mind be BLOWN!

      I think everything Bakerella makes is adorable! But when I saw the cute owl cake pops I knew that I wanted these to be my first attempt. If you want to know how to make a cake pop you can find out all about it here. 

      Okay, in all honesty, these things were a LOT of work! I don't think I will ever make them again unless I really have a totally free Saturday with absolutely nothing to do (which never happens of course) but they were mighty delicious. And I will totally make them again just round and dipped in chocolate, because that would be easy, delicious and still pretty cute. 

       

      I wrapped these babies up and tied them with a bow to give to some of the young women at church. Another great thing about cake pops is that they can really easily be made gluten-free. I have 2 young women with Celiac disease and it was nice to have something to bake for them that didn't taste horrible. (No offense to all the rest of the gluten-free baked goods out there, but you are terrible tasting!)

    
     Luke really liked them too, which makes the hard work *almost* worth it. Also, he refused to bite them. Maybe he felt like he was really biting into a cute innocent owl. Who knows, but he didn't get very far licking it!!!

P.S. Because I could not find ANYWHERE what the candies were that were used as the facial features here's what I did:

The eyes: White chocolate chips with chocolate dots.
The beak: a mini M&M inserted sideways
The wings: Regular M&Ms
The feet: Flower shaped sprinkles
The ears: Chocolate chips put upside down before dipping in the chocolate

Potty Training Log: Day 6

Ugggghhhhhh.........






Before I start complaining I guess I should point out the good part. Luke (when he is awake) is totally pee potty trained!!! He hasn't had a pee accident for 3 days straight! Yay!!!

That being said, he is totally NOT poop potty trained and I am getting sick of cleaning up poopy undies. He is also wetting the bed every nap time and every night.

I'm reeeeeaaaallly feeling like giving up on the whole thing right about now. Ugh.

Potty Training Log (pardon the pun) Day 1

          I have been dreading potty training. I mean DREADING it. Even now that I have experienced it for a day, I am not looking forward to waking up tomorrow. But I wanted to put the stats out there of how Luke has been doing today. Here's what our day looked like:

Put undies on Luke

10am peed on the treadmill (Thank you Luke for making it a wipeable surface!!!)

10:30 peed on the treadmill again (Thanks again, seriously)

11:00 peed on the carpet (WHAT??? I thought we had an understanding!)

11:30 said "mommy I have to poop" and peed IN THE POTTY-YAY!!! (doesn't quite understand the difference between pee and poop yet)

For the rest of the day he did not pee in his underwear. He told me 5 more times and went in the potty 5 more times!!!

Oh wait, there's naptime. That's where you mommies come in. He peed during naptime. I don't know how to train him not to because he is asleep!!! Does anyone know how to help him wake up if he has to go during his (3 hour) nap? 

Anyway, I will let you know how tomorrow goes. Sorry, I know there are A LOT of people who don't give a crap (ha ha) about my child's bodily functions. But once this is over it will be my greatest achievement of the year. So I have to brag/vent!

Oh, also I am using this system called 3 day potty training. I am loving it so far! I'll let you know after the 3 days is over how I feel about it. But as of right now I would recommend it.

Count your many blessings

My friends, it has been waaaaay too long. I have been timid to blog because of how much has gone on in the past few months, and my inability to put into words how I feel about it all. I want to just skip over it and move on, but at the same time the things that happened were so important in shaping me and my love for my Heavenly Father that I feel like if I don't share my story in some small way I am being selfish.

So, in early July we found out we were expecting our second baby. We were super excited! It was a busy time with two different week-long family vacations and a cold that started before I even got pregnant and lasted for a month and a half. Life was busy, and although we were beyond excited about our upcoming addition, we really didn't have much time to think about it or process it. 

Then in early August we had a long trip to the ER that ended in us being told that we were losing our baby. It was sad and disappointing. But there was so little time to be sad about it because immediately we were aware of countless reasons why we were so blessed, why this experience could be seen as a blessing in disguise, and reminded that Heavenly Father is watching over everything.

 I know know know that He had his hand in everything that happened. I could list every reason why I was overwhelmed with faith during this time, but there are literally dozens of them and they are personal and special to me. But I just need to say that I have absolutely no doubt that our Father has his hand in every aspect of our lives and even in our times of sadness He is making little miracles happen to help ease our pain and remind us how much He loves us. 

We were also so loved by our friends and family. We had friends bring us dinner all week and I would get calls and messages from people begging me to let them bring me ice cream, or a soda or anything that could help in any way. We are so blessed to have the people we have in our lives. 

Life is good!

Guest Blogging at Radmegan

Hey friends! Today I got asked to write a guest post for my friend Megan's awesome blog. Check it out here:

http://radmegan.blogspot.com/2011/06/guest-blogger-thursday-coconut-candy.html

I'm teaching how to make this tasty coconut treat from Hawaii!

Check out the rest of the blog too! It's amazing!