We are having Neil’s family over for dinner tonight. I am cooking dinner, so I figured I would try a new dessert item while I was at it. So this morning I made GFCF Orange Creme cupcakes. They are so yummy! They taste like something you’d get at Starbucks… or maybe I’m just cupcake/starbucks deprived. LOL! In addition to being GFCF they are also Soy Free, Corn Free, Rice Free, Peanut Free, and very easily could be Egg Free, hower I used eggs. If you used Ener-G egg replacer they would also be Vegan. Not too shabby! You would never know.

Here’s the recipe.

When we go to the store and even when we are at home, we find Chase in the most random places. During Alex’s birthday party we set Chase’s matress up on is side to clear floor space in his bedroom. He broke his bed so he’s just on a plain mattress on the floor. Well Neil went to Check on him and he was in between the mattress and the wall, inside the fitted sheet. The fitted sheet was still on the bed. If he had not heard him he might have not found him for a while.  The picture here was at Target. We were all standing looking at a toy on a endcap when we looked over at Chase and he was inside the ball cage. It was really pretty funny so we had to take a picture. I am sure people in Target thought we were nuts but who cares, right!?!?! LOL!!

Neil just emailed me photos he took off his phone… thought I would share the fun! These are from the park earlier this week!

My mom saw my post on facebook about liking this really cool ring. It’s called a “string ring” the strings, string through a silver band and mean different things. They are really cool. You can see them here. So anyway my Mom ordered me one for my birthday and it got here!! IT”S SO SO SO COOL!!  THANKS MOM AND MIKE!!

Here’s a pic of the ring with a red string…

We celebrated my birthday this weekend with Neil’s side of the family. It was nice.

Dan grilled chicken, Mindy made scalloped potatoes, and peas. YUM! I have missed both. Chase is allergic to peas so we don’t eat them in the house. Scalloped potatoes are off limits too. She made the boys gfcf mac and cheese with their meal. Aiden and Alex were SUPER EXCITED about the peas. Aiden ended up with 2 helpings and then finished off the bowl. Pretty funny that they were so excited about a vegetable.  Frankly I was too. I –LOVE– Birds Eye sweet peas in the steam bags. YUM! They have the right pop without being mushy and are super sweet – I add some pepper and they are yummy.  ANYWAY…. Mindy also made a very pretty cake as well.

The funniest part is when Alex ran out of the kitchen BAWLING. They apparently lit the candles and Chase blew them all out before they could bring out to to me!! He was beside himself. Neil took lots of pictures with Dan’s camera. It was really funny!! The cake was good too!! :0)

Dan and Mindy gave me a frog lawn ornament, and then everyone gave me money which I just ordered some new clothes with. YAAAY for new clothes. Seriously Old Navy had tanks on sale for $5, and jeans on sale, as well as sweaters. I got 18 items for CHEAP!! I am super excited for it to all come in the mail.

It was a great birthday! Thanks everyone!

The boys woke me up on Mother’s Day with breakfast and cards. They were pretty cute! They got me a really funny card which Chase has now memorized already. He doesn’t want to put it down. It’s one of the talking ones from Hallmark. It starts out “Oooooh my Queen” it’s hilarious to hear Chase immitate it.

My older brother Joe came into town as well. It’s been quite a while since I have seen him so it was a nice suprise when he called a few weeks ago saying he would be in town.

Joe took us out to lunch and went and got the boys a toy at Target. He put himself solidly in the place of favorite Uncle. I accidentally forgot to tell him that when the boys ride with him, he could invoke mandatory quiet time in the car. I think he was a little overwhelmed with the boys ability to talk talk talk talk talk and talk over each other. Of course it was kind of funny to see his reaction to what I deal with on a daily basis. LOL is that mean? They are good kiddos they just were super excited at the prospect of a fresh person to listen to them…. Alex and Aiden are in constant competition for attention it seems. Alex gets alot just from the sheer volume of his voice.

Anyway it was GREAT to see my brother and his wife!!! The boys can’t wait for thier next visit!! LOL!!

Alex is 4! It is hard to believe our youngest boy is now 4! Crazy! Alex has been into Wizard of Oz for almost a year now…  he LOVES the show and the Tin Man. So naturally he wanted a Wizard of Oz birthday.  I had a ton of fun planning the party. I joked that it was the closest I would EVER get to having a girl party, even though we did a boyish take on it. LOL!! The party turned out to be alot of CHAOTIC fun! We made tornadoes in a bottle, played pin the heart on the tin man, and lots more. I made the cake as usual. It took hours. I made each little flower, cut it out, shaped it, iced the centers, etc… I made my own candy and molded it into rubies and emeralds. Lollipops for the babies.  There were all kinds of fun treats and details. Alex loved it.  Here are pictures….

This has been a CrAzY week!!! (or week and a half). Aiden got sick Wednesday of last week. He missed school on Wed, Thurs, and Friday. Friday-ish the other boys started acting sick. Saturday night I was feeling a little off. Sunday I was DEFINITELY off, I finally just sat down about 4pm and completely crashed. My body went into chills, spiked a fever, it was B-A-D. The little boys were just sneezing with fevers. Nothing too crazy. Monday I spent the entire day in bed. Tuesday I did too much, Wednesday I felt cruddy again. Today I am fine. The entire time Chase has been running a fever. Wednesday he spiked up to 104 underarm. His asthma flared up big time, the other boys had pretty much kicked it. Alex has been warm but nothing crazy. So today I took Chase in to see the doctor. He did a chest X-ray and what do you know… HE HAS PNEUMONIA!!! –F-A-B-U-L-O-U-S–!!!! Thankfully he is okay to be at home, and it’s of a viral nature so we just have to let it pass as long as it doesn’t get worse. The Dr. gave us some codine cough syrup for nightime use so we can all maybe get some sleep. Needless to say with us all sick and not knowing what was going on Graysen hasn’t been with us all week. We all miss her. To Alex it’s like not seeing his brothers all week. He’s been very upset to not see her…  We joke that he’s the brother she never asked for. Haha!!

So other than that we are in full party mode. Alex, my little Alex, is going to be 4 in two days!!!! I CANNOT BELIEVE IT!!! My baby will be 4. It just doesn’t seem like 4 years ago that I had him. Time goes by waaaaay too fast. He is such a fun little boy, a handful, but a fun handful!!! In fact today he belched the ABC’s – A thru F for his doctor…  Later in the day we took them to Burger King. I said we could all go in and eat and I open the door to him launching himself out of the van telling me how pretty I am… (did I mention he’s my favorite – J/K).

So yeah, we are having a WIZARD OF OZ party!! He is VERY VERY excited!!! Pictures will be posted this weekend I am sure. Hope you all are well!! Pray for Chase if you think about it.

I was tagged by Emily. You are supposed to open the 4th picture folder on your computer, and attach the 4th photo. No cropping or editing allowed.  Here’s our pic….

I am so excited! I have to go try it!

“Hello, Chris here.  I’m the lead product developer for the new Gluten-free Orange Valencia Cake.  Today, I’d like to share a behind the scenes look into the development of a delicious and gluten-free cake.  We start with just seven simple ingredients (eggs, Valencia orange pulp, almonds, sugar, orange peel, gluten-free baking powder, and orange oil) and carefully blend them together in small batches at our partner bakery.  Because gluten can easily contaminate through pans, tools and even in the air, the bakery has a special gluten-free zone with dedicated equipment, pans and washing stations.

After the cake batter is made, it’s transferred to the batter depositor that pushes batter into baking cups (think of a hose nozzle, but instead of water, batter comes out).  The cakes are then hand-sprinkled with slivered almonds baked. Just 35 minutes later, little golden orange cakes emerge.  When the cakes are cooled, they are put through a machine called a “doughboy” wrapper. This machine individually wraps the cakes to prevent gluten contamination during transit and handling.  We ensure the product is gluten-free by lab testing the cakes every day (less than 20 parts per million) before they are shipped to our stores. Our partners have been trained to serve the cake in their wrappers to protect our gluten-sensitive customers.

As you can see, a lot of care and attention goes into each and every cake we make. I hope you enjoy this moist and delicious Valencia Orange Cake as much as I do (and I am not even gluten-sensitive)!”