A Quiet January

I still can't believe that we are almost through January already!  Boy, this year is already flying and I can't even wrap my head around the fact that it's 2012 already!  January has been a pretty quiet month.  We enjoyed having Steve at home for the first week of it before he headed back to work.  Zoe is definitely a Daddy's girl and loves to follow him around wherever he goes.  Currently, her favorite things to do around the house are dressing up, mostly with hats, and romping with Mommy and Daddy.  As you can see, however, she has a pretty lame excuse for a "horse" at home.  Guess Daddy will have to buy her a pony...haha.  She also LOVES to be outside and we have had the great fortune of having a very mild January which has helped in making trips to the park and lots of walks possible this month!  It's been great and we are sure glad that we made the decision to come down south...sure beats those crazy Chicago winters!  Zoe loves to help us rake the leaves up.  We have a ton of oak trees on our property so there are plenty of piles to jump in at our house.  She never seems to grow tired of sitting in them and crunching them with her feet.

We were able to have my great Aunt Marie come and stay with us this past week and Zoe absolutely ADORES her.  I think she didn't know what to do with herself today when she discovered that Aunt Marie had left!  Other than that, we've just continued to enjoy or normal every day activities.  So far, 2012 has treated us well.  Here are a few more pictures from our month...hope everyone is doing great!

New Beginnings...2012

Well, we are nearly a week into 2012 and I'm already feeling better:-)  Steve and I have decided to revamp our eating habits and we already have an appointment set up with the Reproductive Endocrinologist with the hope that baby #2 is in the near future for us.  Our friends recommended reading the book "In Defense of Food" by Micheal Pollan and we are trying to follow his food guidlines, eating mostly organic, whole foods and staying away from processed foods.  I'm already feeling more energetic!  I eat less because the food I am eating is better quality.  I liked his ideas because it still allows you to eat yummy food.  You don't have to go weeks on nasty fat free products or items resembling food that taste more like sand paper.  Anyway, so far so good.  I will keep updating as the year goes on to see how it goes for the long hull.  I honestly feel like we'll be able to stick to this one, permanently...as long as we can afford it cause it is a bit pricey switching to all organic.  You just have to keep telling yourself that your health is worth the extra premium you pay for better products.
On an entirely different note, Zoe has officially reached her "terrible twos" stage...5 months early.  Yay for me!!! :-/  She is a bundle of ENERGY and is constantly go go go.  This isn't a problem in and of itself.  It's just that she's become increasingly whiny on top of it.  Whither I am with her playing or trying to clean or taking her out somewhere, she spends about 3/4 of our day whining.  It's those sweet little moments in between when she curls up in my lap for stories or gives me a hug unexpectedly that keeps me from going batty.  I'm convinced that this was the way God intended it to be...pushing mothers to the brink of insanity before throwing them a glimmer of hope.  I love my baby to pieces but I certainly do not enjoy this stage.  I'm hoping this means she's going through the stage early and she'll be done with it by the time she's actually 2....I know, I know....but ya gotta have dreams, don't ya??? :-)  I'm just lucky that the weather has been nice enough that we've been able to enjoy being outside.  She LOVES running around outside exploring.  Her favorite thing at the park are the slides but, even more than that, she just loves running around in the grass picking up sticks and acorns and whatever else she can find.  She'll fill her fists full of them and than get upset when there's no room for some new treasure she's found.  I love watching her enjoy being outside in nature.  It gives a Mom a sense of calm and peace to see her child explore the simple pleasures of life.  Makes all those crazy moments of whining all worth it in the end.  It's also nice to get away from all the technology that bombards us every day.  One of my personal goals I've decided to focus on is to limit my use of the computer and cell phones, etc., etc.  I've noticed, just in these last few months, just how much time I waist sitting on my phone waiting for updates on Facebook or e-mail and I realized that I was loosing that precious time that I have with my daughter during these early years of her life.  Don't get me wrong, I'm a fan of technology and I'm so grateful that we have the means to communicate so speedily.  I just want to spend more of my time interacting with REAL people in REAL conversation.  It's sad to me that we can go an entire day without actually speaking face to face with another human being, even if we are "talking" to them through computers or phones or whatever.  Anyway, I know that I need to make an effort to get off my phone or computer or TV and start living.  After all, life is pretty good and I've been blessed.  I want to take advantage of those blessings:-)  

Merry Christmas from Our Home to Yours!!!

OK, so I'm not a blogger...eventually I DO actually get around to updating this site, just not often:-)  So, here we are, December 2011!  We want to wish you all a very Happy Holidays and hope that you are happy and doing well.  Zoe continues to grow like a weed.  When we broke out the Christmas decor, we had a picture of her with Santa from last year among our things.  At first, I just looked at it stunned that she had grown that much in just one year.  She is no longer my baby but my sweet little girl!  Zoe is VERY excited about Christmas this year.  We went to the library to pick out stories last week and got a few Christmas ones.  All she wants to do is read them over and over.  Of course, being a toddler, the tree and decorations are also irresistible to her.  Our tree is now surrounded by baby gate.  It doesn't help that our 9 month old Yorkie, Monty, also likes to take things off the tree and chew them to pieces.  Looks like we'll be getting some new decorations after the distructo phase of our family journey is over with.  Until then, we accept the fact that our house is just going to be in constant upheaval....and, yes, I am crazy cause I want another one:-)  As some of you may know, I was diagnosed with a condition called Poly cystic Ovarian Syndrome back when we were trying to get pregnant with Zoe.  This made it very difficult to get pregnant and I was also "high risk" during my pregnancy.  Now that Zoe is hurtling toward age 2, Steve and I have decided it's time for us to try for another.  It's always an emotional topic for me because it took SO much out of me the first time around.  Our lives have been so blessed by Zoe and we love her so much.  We feel very strongly that there's another little person waiting to join our family so, despite the emotional and physical stress, we are going to begin fertility treatments again in January with the hopes that we will be successful again.  Unfortunately, there is no guarantee that it will be but we will leave the details up to God and do what we can from where we're standing:-)  As part of this whole process, I am going to start a diet program that will help minimize the symptoms of the syndrome and, hopefully, also aid in helping us get pregnant.  I'm a little skeptical about the whole thing.  I've tried SO many diets and exercise programs throughout my lifetime that I've lost count.  This one is specifically geared toward people who have insulane resistance, which is one of the major symptoms of PCOS.  It's also more of a lifestyle change and less of a diet so I'm hoping that I find more success with this one.  Women who have PCOS have a very difficult time loosing weight so I'm hoping that following a program that's designed toward my issues will help me with this.  I am most concerned with staying and being healthy.  SO...here is to a very HAPPY and SUCCESSFUL 2012 for all of us!

Family Update and Other Random Stuff

Feliz Cinco de Mayo!  Well, we've had our new puppy, Monty, for a few weeks now and he seems to be settling in nicely.  Hope isn't so sure about him but occasionally she will dean to play with him.  Zoe absolutely adores him and I think he likes her too.  We are trying to teach her to be gentle with him and for the most part, she is doing well.
The house breaking, while trying at times, is going pretty good.  We've pretty much decided to keep him in the kitchen or a playpen we bought him.  We are hoping that we won't have to replace carpets before we move out of our rental...let's cross our fingers!
We are getting excited about buying our home (hopefully) by the end of the lease in November.  Hopefully mortgage rates and the housing market don't get too crazy before that time.

OK, enough of the family update.  I have been thinking a lot about things that I can do to feel more fulfilled while I am in the middle of raising a family.  It's funny that I thought I would have absolutely no problems transitioning into the role of motherhood.  While I think that I have had it easier than some, I still find that I sometimes get a little overwhelmed, or maybe underwhelmed, with the life that I am currently leading.  I LOVE being a mom and I know that home with my baby is where I am supposed to be.  I do, however, sometimes feel that my mind goes numb from the monotony of my life as a SAHM.  I need brain stimulation which, let's face it, does NOT come from changing diapers and making sure my kid doesn't pull the lamp on top of her in the living room all day long.  Anyway, you get my point.
I'd really like to take some art and cooking classes once my kids are in school.  Until than, I'm just not sure what would help me.  Any suggestions?

Zoe's First Birthday Party

My sweet Zoe turned one year old on Saturday and we threw a family party for her!  She has been the light of our lives since her arrival just one year ago...I can't believe how fast that year has come and gone!  We decided to do a "Wild about 1" theme.  Of course, there were a MILLION decoration options for the princess theme but I figured that we'd have PLENTY of those parties in the future, if she's anything like I was when I was little.  I made the flag banner for her and we pretty much just bought a few balloons and some streamers and called it a day for decorations.  I found very quickly how crazy you can get with the decorations but we weren't really budgeting for hundreds of dollars.  After all, it's not like she's going to remember most of it anyway.

My sister has been begging me to make Zoe a tutu so I decided to make her a birthday tutu with the theme colors.  I must admit, she looked darn cute in it although the poor thing couldn't really crawl around much in it so we put it on for pictures and then let her free.  We'll use it for professional pictures once she is walking anyway.  They are pretty easy to make it turns out!

Here it is.....the completed cake!  All in it's fondant glory:-)  My sister in law, Erin, is AMAZING and has taught herself how to put these puppies together.  She helped me with the decorating of the cake.  We almost had a disaster on our hands when we were trying to get the Zebra stripes to stick onto the white part.  It was making the fondant weaker and kept tearing apart every time we attempted to pick it up.  Erin managed to save it however and I think it turned out great, all things considered.  I think that next year, I'd like to learn how to use icing tips and decorate that way.  Fondant is a bit tricky.  It looks amazing but it doesn't taste all that great.  It was a fun experiment though and I enjoyed trying something new.

 

Here is Miss Zoe trying her cake out.  It's the first time she's had chocolate and I think she likes it.  After all, she's my daughter:-)  Steve grilled super YUMMY kebabs and we kind of had a Middle Eastern themed lunch with yellow rice, lamb, beef, chicken, and veggie kebabs and homemade Persian flat bread.

Zoe got way spoiled with presents this year.  Of course, her favorite things were tearing the wrapping paper and playing with the bows.  All in all, I think she had fun!  I know the adults certainly did:-)

HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY TO OUR SWEET ZOE!

It's been a joy having her in our lives and we love her SO much!

The Birthday Cake Experiment

Today began my the first day of the birthday cake assembly.  You may think that I am crazy, and you may be right, but there are people that start this WEEKS in advance!  That seems a little too over the top for me, plus I can't imagine that the cake would taste any good after sitting around for a week or two, just saying.  Anyway, since it's Zoe's first birthday and she's my first baby, I HAD to go a little crazy for her birthday, right?!  Anyway, I decided to keep it a basic yellow cake with a whipped chocolate ganache middle and chocolate buttercream icing on the outside.  I'm going to decorate and cover it with marshmallow fondant tomorrow with my sister in law, Erin, so I will post the completed pictures tomorrow.  I have to say, the cake turned out really good.  I was a bit over exuberant with my ingredients so I ended up with enough to make a small sheet cake to taste.  Steve was very disappointed in having to taste test...lol.  I got all my recipes online at various recipe websites.  I just chose them based on the reviews they had.  I really liked how the yellow cake turned out.  I must admit, I have never actually made a yellow cake from scratch before!  After making this, however, I've decided it is SO much yummier.  Here's the website I found it at if you're interested:

http://smittenkitchen.com/2009/07/best-birthday-cake/

I didn't use the frosting recipe she recommended just because I was "dirty" icing the cake for fondant and I wasn't sure if her frosting would work well with it but it looks good too.  I will have to try it another time.  Instead, I just used a basic chocolate buttercream icing recipe.

Believe it or not, I took this picture AFTER I had iced the cake.  Yes, I went a little overboard on the icing.  I was just nervous about not having enough since I was making a double decker cake.  For the center of the cake I made a whipped chocolate ganache frosting.  Here's a picture of it before I whipped it:

If you like dark chocolate, holy hannah...is this the icing for you!!!  Yumm-O!  I just got the recipe for this from the Food Network website.  It's an Alton Brown recipe although it's pretty darn basic and you can find similar recipes all over the internet:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/ganache-frosting-recipe/index.html

When I started putting the parts of the cake together, I was a little afraid that the ganache would be too soft and cause the cake to slip and slide off but it held together.  I'm hoping a night in the refrigerator will help it solidify.  Here's the semi-finished product (tomorrow is decorating day!):

I thought I did a pretty darn good job for this being my first time for a huge cake.  I really enjoyed myself today too.  Maybe this is a hobby that I can start getting into.  We'll see:-)  Anyway, I will post pictures of the finished product soon and, of course, pictures of the birthday party too.  We are doing a "Wild about 1" theme for Miss Zoe.  Zebra print, hot pink and lime green!  Should be fun:-)

Introducing the Newest Member of the Arnold Family....Monty!

Well, at least being sick forces me to stay inside catching up on things like my blog, right?!?!  Anyway, I just wanted to share the news that we have decided to get another dog.  Yes, I already know that we are crazy but, hey, if ya have one dog already, it's not like having a second one is going to add too much to the craziness, right?!  Anyway, my friend and visiting teacher, Helen, breads her yorkshire terriers and Monty is from their most recent litter.  We couldn't resist!  His Mommy and Daddy are sweet and very social little dogs who love kids and we had been talking about getting second dog soon so we figured, what the hay!  Plus, this is a great time for me to train a dog now that Zoe is getting older and before we are thinking about having a second baby.  It will give me plenty of time to get him all trained and ready to go before another human baby hits the scene:-)  He is, of course, still with his Mommy and will be until the end of next month but we will keep you posted...isn't he just the cutest thing ever?!?!