ZzZz says . . .

Caden makes up games for us to play while we're driving in the car. One of his current games goes like this . . .mom says a letter sound (or letter noise as Caden calls it) and then Caden says a word that begins with that sound. [*side note*: All teachers who read this, I PROMISE he made up the game! He has no idea it' actually good for him!] I gave him the tricky Zz sound and he right away said zebra. I challenged him to come up with one more Z word. He was getting stumped and finally I gave him the clue, "Where do zebras live?" Caden, "in Heaven!" Precious answer and true of course, but not exactly the Z word I was thinking about. I continued to try to clue him in. Next guess, "I know, in Wichita, in the ZOO!!" Yes, exactly!

slip of the tongue

WARNING: This post is not for those who are easily embarrassed or who are sensitive to the "unmentionables" of life. If this is you, you've been warned. Stop reading now. If you are a parent, or not at all fazed by what children say regardless of how shocking, then by all means, keeping reading. This little vignette had Doug and rolling on Christmas morning and our family cracking up as we retold it later.

On Christmas morning, just the 3 of us opened our stockings and gifts at home. Caden got very excited about a remote controlled car labeled "some assembly required". As Doug was assembling, Caden was waiting quite impatiently, and finally blurted out, "Daddy, Daddy, do you need the erections?" Doug got it right away, but I had to ask my parenting partner if my brain had understood correctly what my ears had just heard. Doug confirmed that indeed our delightful son had just Freudianly mispronounced the word "directions". I love this little man and wonder what his teachers might think of him (and us) one day! :)

blog makeover

I had these grand ideas to give the blog a wonderful facelift and makeover during Christmas Break. I had an idea of how I wanted it to look. I love reading other people's blogs and seeing how their blog reflects their personality. I wanted that! I searched for blog backgrounds, but didn't find one that captured exactly what I wanted. I found a program called Artisteer that lets you design your own blog backgrounds and banners without having to know HTML code. I created a design I really liked and it worked wonderfully, until I went to export it to blogspot, then it displayed with the word "TRIAL" all over it because I had used the trial version. I even considered switching blogging sites to see if that gave me more options. In the end, I've only ended up really frustrated and with a blog that works, but is so far from what I want it to be. If anyone has ideas, suggestions, comments, I'd really appreciate it.

holiday goodies

This week I've been making lots of holiday treats . . .3 batches of Oreo truffles, 2 batches of sugar cookies, and candy cane pie this week. Lots more to come the next week and the week after that too, including a cake for a wedding rehearsal dinner shaped like a Jayhawk head (I'm a bridesmaid in the wedding, so it's part of my gift).

Someone asked me for the candy cane pie recipe, so Sarah F. here it is. It's SUPER easy, only 4 ingredients!

1 graham cracker crust (store bought or make your own; this time I bought to save time)
8 oz. carton of whipped topping (Cool-Whip) thawed
1/2 of small bag of miniature marshmallows
6 regular caned canes crushed (4 for the pie; 2 for garnish)

Mix whipped topping, marshmallows, and 4crushed candy canes (I used my food chopper to get them pretty small) and then spread in the graham cracker crust. Sprinkle remaining 2 crushed candy canes on top for garnish. Refrigerate for at least 6 hours before serving.

*NOTE: I added a few drops of peppermint extract to mine tonight to give the peppermint flavor a boost, but you wouldn't have to, especially if you prefer a milder mint taste.

candy cane pie

tonight's batch of Oreo truffles, aren't they pretty?

sweet gobble gobble

Here are the turkey cookies Doug and I made for a co-worker. Aren't they cute? We're giving some serious thought to hiring out for custom pastry orders. I think it would be so much fun. We really enjoyed making (and tasting) the cookies with homemade butter cream frosting and fruit slices for feathers. Probably the sweetest turkeys around this Thanksgiving!

The things we do.....

It's late......1:30 am to be exact. Caden is asleep in his bed, all bundled up tight. Sarah is asleep downstairs in the recliner. I'm not exactly sure why I am still awake except I had to make Caden's birthday cake for his party tomorrow. It probably could have been done tomorrow but as far as he knows he's getting a plain chocolate cake. I've never tried my hand at piping the icing on a cake so I borrowed a race car cake pan from a friend and I am surprising Caden (and myself) with this cake. It's not perfect but in my eyes it's not too bad first a first try.

ouch! updated

UPDATE: We saw the dentist this afternoon to make sure Caden's little mishap last night didn't cause any permanent damage. Thankfully, his teeth are all fine. One of the top front ones is pushed back a tiny bit, but not enough to worry about. Caden's gums look fine and Dr. Davidson told us this should have no effect on Caden's permanent teeth. We do have to check his gums every few days for the next few weeks to make sure he doesn't develop an abscess which could cause the tooth to die. This is very unlikely, but we don't want to take any chances with his teeth, so we'll be checking diligently. I had a similar accident when I was about Caden's age. I bit through my lip, lost a tooth, and had stitches put in my lower lip from a swing set incident with a cranky neighbor girl. On a related note, Caden got brave and took a shower tonight. Doug and I fully expected him to be too traumatized to try a shower again for awhile.

Caden survived his first big accident. He was taking a shower tonight when he slipped, fell, did the splits, and knocked his face against the side of the bathtub. Blood everywhere!! He bit through his bottom lip, but the hole on the outside is very small. We avoided the ER tonight, but we'll be making an unscheduled trip to the dentist tomorrow! We were just there last week for his regular check-up. Hopefully, his fat lip will go down before his birthday on Wednesday or at least in time for his party on Saturday! Needless to say, once we got him cleaned up and calmed down, he wanted nothing do to with finishing his shower. He did let us give him a sit down bath, though.

the damage

the look
so sad!