[Another] Wedding Cake, a Gorgeous Bride, and Some Cute Boys.

So.  As I can’t seem to post regularly, let’s just get to the point and say…  I cannot post regularly.  It seems an impossibility.  And that’s alright.  I was thinking today, one of the main reasons I started this blog, was to feel like I still had something to do and say other than babies.  It was right after Cael was born, I had just finished university, and my life had made a drastic change from university and work… to everything baby.  This blog kept me sane.  And while I still love it, and it might become a sanity-thing for me again in the future, right now it’s just a thing I do when I feel like it.  No pressure.  Anyhow.  That was my HUGE realization of the day, after feeling bad (once again), for not posting.  Ever.

But here’s how I make it up to you.  With wedding cakes, wedding pictures, and the cutest boys ever!

Oh.  And some wonderful news!

Baby numero three will be joining us early November!  That was worth waiting for, eh?

On to the cake.  This was for one of my best friends ever.  And she had free-reign over what kind of cake she could have.  Obviously.  She was the bride.  But this was epic.  For me anyway.  Three-tiered goodness.  Chocolate cake sandwiched with peanut butter cream cheese frosting.  Followed by white cake with a lemon curd filling.  And topped with white on white.  All completely covered in white and daisies.  Super cute, super yummy.  What more could you want?  Really.

Another cool this about this wedding was that I got to travel to a warmer place.  All the way to North Carolina.  Which was pretty cool.  Actually, it was wonderfully warm.  Especially since it hasn’t gone over 10C here in weeks (except for that one random day).

Sarah was a beautiful bride in her lovely lace dress.  So gorgeous.  Got to meet up with another best friend that I hadn’t seen in quite awhile (you’ll remember her from this wedding cake).  Which was super great.  Super duper great.

Since then, we’ve had my birthday, a trip to the zoo, and rain.

Cael found the 3D glasses from a movie. Bug eyes.

Jude eating breakfast like a champion.

And that’s that!  Maybe next time I’ll have some belly pictures and a recipe for ya!  That’d be nice, eh?  Maybe.  Here’s to hoping.

Happy Birthday To MEEE!

So, it was my birthday yesterday, and I had a request for a birthday post.  I do realize that it’s not my birthday today, so technically, this is the day-after-my-birthday post.  But I warned her that I would probably be late in doing this…  I enjoyed every second of my birthday doing other things.  🙂

{I think Cael had a good day too.}

I’m getting on in my journey towards 30, which is pretty crazy.  I had decided a long time ago, that I really wanted to reach 20, but after that, I would just stay 20 forever.  So let’s just say I’m 20.  And I’ll say that forever.  Sounds pretty good to me.  What do you think?  Will it work?  Will it have staying power?

Aging is not actually something that bothers me.  I love getting older.  And I think I always will.  It means that I’ve made it through another year.  And this past year was pretty exciting.  I had my first baby [EVER!], and we bought our first house.  I’d say that’s a fairly productive year (if you were going to ask me what I thought…).

So to my birthday!  It was awesome!  I always feel let-down by birthday (well, not always, but sometimes).  Because you wait for them all year, and then they’re not entirely awesome, and then it’s a day gone and you have to wait 365 more days until the next one.  But yesterday when I woke up, I decided that I was going to make it a good day.  It’s all about how you think, and how your heart is.  Wake up with a prayer and sunshine outside your window, and I’d say it’s going to be a pretty good day.  I got an awesome hug from my hubby first thing, and then went to my mother’s house for a shower!  For those who don’t know, we don’t have a shower at our new house, so this was a really great thing.

Then, I made the frosting and filling for my birthday cake!  Mom had already made the chocolate cake.  I made myself a hot chocolate, and helped myself to lots of the chocolate cream cheese frosting.  Then I had my dad’s amazing chili for lunch, and Cael, Mom, and I walked back to my house, stopping to visit my grandparents along the way.

Keep reading, the awesome continues.

{Don’t you love the scarf?!  It was a gift from an amazing family.}

After I put Cael down for a nap, I was going to go outside to clean up a garbage mess that some rambunctious raccoons had made through the night.  BUT, on my way down the driveway, an amazing family came barreling up in their minivan. With tidings of the best coffee ever, homemade birthday cards and origami, a present AND cookies.  Like, the best day ever, right?

Over coffee and cookies, we hung out and talked for quite awhile.  Eventually, I lost track of a few of the boys in the family, and they came in my door bearing a bag with all of the garbage!  They picked it up for me!  Yay!  So happy at this point.

Soon came suppertime at my parent’s house, with all my family, and a friend.  Do you know what the best dinner ever is (in my books)?  It consists of BBQ chicken, BBQ potato slices, vegetables, Greek salad, corn bread, and butternut squash.

{Dad makes these – my Grampie’s recipe.  Don’t they look awesome?  And my crazy little bro… haha}

Followed by my favourite cake EVER.  Let me describe this cake to you.  This chocolate cake recipe, made into three layers.  The layers are filled with whipped cream, and then the whole cake is iced with chocolate cream cheese icing.  Pretty close to perfect.  Mind you, the cake never stands up quite straight, but that does nothing to how wonderful it tastes.

Then, there were presents.  Enough said.

Around 9 o’clock, I convinced my hubby to watch a chick flick with me.  Flicked through Netflix, and chose Vanity Fair.  I must say, it was pretty good.  He was bored, but oh well.  My birthday, right?  😉  (Thanks babe for watching it with me.)

So there you have it.  That is most of my birthday summed up in, well…  I guess it wasn’t really summed up.  Quite detailed actually.  Oh well.

Here’s the recipe for the cake!

Cream Cheese Trifle Cake

One chocolate cake, made into three layers

Chocolate Cream Cheese Icing (recipe follows)

Whipped Cream Filling (recipe follows)

Place first cake layer on a plate, top with whipped cream.  Repeat for next layer.  After you’ve placed your third layer on, coat the entire cake with the chocolate cream cheese icing.  The more you can slap on, the better.

Chocolate Cream Cheese Icing

1 pkg cream cheese, softened

1/4 cup margarine, softened

2 tsp vanilla extract

3 heaping Tbsp cocoa

3 cups icing sugar

Cream the cream cheese, margarine, and vanilla together.  Add cocoa and sugar, and beat until smooth.  Frost that cake!

Whipped Cream Filling

1 1/2 cups whipping cream

1/2 cup icing sugar

Whip together until firm peaks appear.  Fill that cake!  Do it.

Enjoy.  It’s really the best thing since sliced toast bread.  (That actually went through my brain, I had to write it.  Toast is completely different from bread, right?)

30 Day Challenge

Day 4 – Your views on religion

Religion, as such, is not something I believe in.  Religion is performing acts to achieve a purpose, normally eternal peace, life, etc.  Works does not get you these things.  Obedience does not get you these things.  The sole way to salvation is through Christ Jesus; believing in Him, that He died for you, that you’re a sinner and he can reconcile that.

“I am the way the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me”  John 14:6

He is the only way.  You can never work your way into heaven.  There is no possible way we can be good enough on our own.  Only through Christ’s death and His covering of our sins, can we come to God.

Berry Trifle – A Brothers Kitchen Expeditions

This post is going to be a smorgasbord of many things.  Just to warn you.

The last 24 hours have been pretty great.  It started out last night with an apple crisp.  We got home from our Bible study, and I needed something to eat.  Something half sweet and half healthy.  Apple crisp was my answer.  It was pretty darn good.  And cute too.

I’ll share this recipe with you some other time.

Then today, we (as in me and Mom) made a blueberry streusel coffee cake (minus the steusel, adding cream cheese icing).

She made the cake, I made the icing and iced it.  Combined effort.  It happens a lot around here.

I thought it looked really pretty, so I just couldn’t resist the urge to photograph it.  🙂

I forgot to mention that it was an absolutely beautiful day today.  The most excellent first day of spring.  23 degrees, sunshine, clear skies – wow.  I just wanted to find as many chores outside as possible, so that I could spend as much time soaking up the sunshine as I could.  And soaking in the good mood it puts me in.  I love what a good, pretty, day-in-the-sun kinda day can do.  It really lightens my spirit.  I am always so thankful for the beauty around me on sunshiny days.  So pretty…  that we went for a walk.  Or two.  The second walk took my little family downtown.  Such a pretty little town, with cute, obnoxious ducks, and friendly people.

We started with the ducks.  Cael loves to watch them.

Then we walked.  And visited the store.

It was really just a great all-around day.  I enjoyed it.  I hope tomorrow is just as great.  I pray that I would just really appreciate every day, more and more.  Each one is special.

To the recipe.

Caleb.  He’s my biggest little brother.  He has finally gotten taller than me, he’s blonde, and he’s REALLY good at making a mess. …. .  Especially in the kitchen.  He’s actually quite notorious for it.  He never follows a recipe (he tries, it just never happens), and always makes the biggest mess physically possible ever time…  And leaves the mess for someone else to clean up.  I must say though, he’s gotten better.  I’ll give him that much.

Just a disclaimer before I start…  Caleb has informed me that the next time he makes this, I am to take better pictures as this one ‘is not pretty’.  (He kind of tried to squish too much into a little bowl…)  So, I’ll give you better pictures sometime in the future.

Berry Trifle (Recipe by Caleb)

1 angel food cake (a cake mix works, but if you really want to make your own, that’s cool)

500 ml whipping cream

2 pkg cream cheese, softened

2 Tbsp sour cream

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup icing sugar

1 pkg vanilla pudding mix (optional)

Mixed berries (a mix of strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, etc – whatever you like, however much you like)

Prepare angel food cake.  Cut into cubes (about 1-inch cubes)

Blend cream cheese, sour cream, and vanilla together.  Add icing sugar and pudding mix.  [The pudding makes it more of a mousse, but it works fine without it if you don’t have it on hand or if you just don’t want to use it.]  Whip the whipping cream.  Fold into cream mixture.

Stir cake cubes into the cream mixture.  Put half of mixture into a trifle dish.  Top with berries.  Add the rest of the cake/cream mixture, and top with remaining berries.

This is delicious.  I can never help but take at least two servings.  Even when my belly feels like it might just explode.  I have GOT to eat more.  Mmmmm…  If you are on a diet, sorry, but you need to try this.  Please.  It’s just so good!

He enjoys it….  🙂

Do you have fun in the kitchen?  Do you make a mess? 

{I know I do!}