Yeah Me!

Yeah me! It's almost my birthday! It’s almost spring. It's almost full on sandal weather. I feel so good. It's like a drug to me. The euphoria of spring always makes me happy, practically giddy! Time for a pedicure, time to get my hair done and wear a smile plastered to my face every day!! Ahh! Plans in the works with co-workers for Wed night, family on Thursday, and girlfriends this Friday, next Friday and again the week after and The Sisters somewherre in there....


Good things always happen on my birthday. My 1st kiss with my adoring hubby three years before we got married: on my birthday! Proposed to: on my birthday! And my birthday during Spring Break is like a constant vacation in honor of my birthday. So in case you can not tell I am only slightly narcissistic enough to truly believe it is all about me! So here is to guilt-free cupcakes, a bottle of wine and a great day!  I love March!

gotta do it!

This month was way to short.  I have not blogged in 18 days.  I have celebrated a girlfriend's birthday, a husbands birthday twice, helped with a pre-school Valentine party, raced out of town ahead of a snowstorm as big as Texas, created an impromptu Valentine in the mountains for my boys, enjoyed a relaxing ski trip with the family, in bed with the flu, worked my real job, had my blog posted on Destiny In Bloom, and helped my cupcake girl Heather prepare for Baby Alexa coming in 3 days...So Maybe March will be slower--Who am I kidding?  Nanny's birthday is in 2 days, Alexa will be born the next day, Arts Council Board Meeting, then the Oscar Red Carpet Party to celebrate my other cupcake girlfriend's belated b-day, new client to start working on(YEAH!), M-I-L's bday, Spring Break, MY BIRTHDAY, TMR with friends, emcee for Nana Pudding and on and on....Oh please do not think I am complaining because far be it.  I am LOVIN' it. So here's to another Funtastic Month!  Celebrate life and friends...Love ya,

 

Welcome to motherhood

4th Birthday

3rd Birthday


2nd Birthday

1st Birthday

Birthday!

Bradford, Brandon's grandmother's maiden name.

Max, my Father-in-law's middle name.

Bradford Max, my first born son.

He amazes me everyday!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-i8aJ2Jhyw

Everyone gave us a hard time for not finding out what we were having. Then we kept our baby names a secret. The whole pregnancy was all about me. Brandon doted over me, took such wonderful care of me. It was the best pregnancy ever. He was the perfect husband and daddy-to-be. I LOVE surprises. We both do. And I also wanted Brandon to have that one moment where he could be the one to announce to everyone what we had. After 9 months, it was all about Brandon and what he was announcing. He was so excited about that! Watching this video makes me smile every time! As far as the baby's name, I think pregnant women should reserve the right to change their mind all the way to the last second! So don't monogram anything for me until the baby is here, in case I change my mind on the name. Like I did with Berkeley....while pushing, I switched to my beloved Berkeley...but that is a post for another time...HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRADFORD MAX ARNOLD! You have made me a mommy!

Cooking out of the BOX

So for the first time in my adult life I am actually making a cake from a box! No, not from scratch with organic, whole wheat flour. I see you rolling your eyes at me. I hear your moaning and groaning from Bradford's first birthday party!
But remember I made up for it with the Celebrity jumbo petifores with fondant icing that next year. And last year we did Cupcake Cottage.
This year I decided to go back to making them myself!
After much blog-reading, web-searching and asking an older lady lots of questions on the cake aisle of Target, I did it! I made a damn boxed cake! It was not without much doctoring!
1. I used milk instead of water
2. I added an extra egg for a total of 4
3. I added a packet of vanilla instant pudding mix and 1t of pure vanilla extract
4. Real melted butter in place of the oil!
5. But I did make real butter cream frosting. I added some sour cream to it to cut the overly sweetness.

So all in all, my "Semi-Homemade" style cupcakes turned out pretty good! Of course the mess is worth just going back to Cupcake Cottage next year!