Just as my nausea kicked in, I kicked my husband and son out of the house for a 24 hour period in order to host the MOPS steering retreat. This year, I get the fun job of being the coordinator of our church's MOPS group. I am really looking forward to the upcoming year. Plus, I am so blessed to have such an awesome group of talented and committed ladies on my steering team. It makes my job so much easier!

Well, this year, I had a difficult time finding a location to host it. . . I was hoping for a beach retreat or a mountain get-a-way, but no doors were opened. But, it worked out great since some of the ladies had to go out of town during the retreat and 2 of us were dealing with nauseousness.

Since everyone was coming to my house, I really wanted to make sure that these ladies were blessed. So, I got to work (thankfully, most everything was done when I was feeling energetic!).

I wanted everything to be colorful and pleasing to the eye (and tummy). I also didn't want my Steering team to starve, but I also had to stick to a budget. So, I bought Izze driks in all different colors and cokes and lined them up on the table, like a rainbow. I also had waters that I wrapped in coordinating papers so they looked nice. I made 2 different kids of cupcakes. . . cookies and cream (I'll post later) and my chocolate ganache cupcakes. To hold the utensils and napkins, I used an old rootbeer bottle holder and covered in in coordinating scrapbook paper. I also bought tons of Panera muffins and cut up lots of fruit. There was also a plethora of other foods, too. But I just wanted to show you a few things.

Finally!

After week after week of no oven, I would like to take the opportunity to introduce you to the newest member of the Klassen household.

Meet our new member, the oven.

Thanks to my husband and dad for installing it and making a beautiful frame around it so it didn't look too small. It fits perfect and works wonderfully! We are so thankful!
This is the inside. Apparently in new ovens the bottom element is covered. It definitely makes clean up easier (haven't experienced it yet, but I am hoping!)

Welcome to the family, Oven. You will be loved and appreciated as long as you don't leave, break, or take a vacation.

4th of July

Good evening all! I hope that everyone is having a fantabulous summer. . . I am still looking forward to hearing all the things you have been working on.

First of all, thanks to my amazing husband for uploading the pictures while I spent some time in my Bible Study. . . something else that I really slacked on during the season of incredible nauseousness.

So, here I am. . . blogging. Yeah, I can't begin to describe how thrilled I am to back in blogland. So thrilled! Stoked. . . overjoyed. . . okay, well you get the point. So my first blog of my return (besides yesterday's announcement of baby #2) is going to pick up where I left off.

4th of July! Happy Independence Day everyone!!!! (a little late, but all the merry!)

Every year, my husband's family gathers for a nice 4th of July celebration/barbecue. The past 2 years, we have not been able to make it due to traveling, so we really wanted to make it. Plus, I was only slightly nauseous at this point, since we found out only a few days before.

I saw cupcakes similar to these on Skip To my Lou several months ago and knew that I wanted to make something similar. . . I just didn't think it would be that hard (honestly . . . these are the easiest cupcakes to make. . . seriously!). The hard part was finding patriotic sprinkles in our lovely metropolis a week before the holiday! Also, our oven was still sitting on my living room floor when I started these.

Okay, so first things first. . .

Ingredients - White Cake Mix (I make the egg white version on the back of the box)

Coloring - I used Wilton frosting colors of red and blue

Buttercream frosting. . . I found a yummy one, but don't have any clue where I got it from.

Now for the directions:

1. Make cake mix

2. Divide into 3 bowls.

3. Color one red, one blue, and leave one white

4. Spoon your batter in the order you want them layered

5. Bake according to directions

6. Let cool

7. Frost with your favorite frosting.

I had a hard time finding patriotic sprinkles so, I made pinwheels out of some scraps of 4th of July cardstock and some red sanding sugar.
I also made red stars out of a candy mold and red melting candy from JoAnns (gotta love coupons. . . made it super cheap!)
This is what they all looked like. I think that they went over well. The kids all loved them! Jon's work ate the rest the next day.

I must note that I made the batter at home, and ran over to my friend Steph's house to bake them in her oven (she was at the beach and so graciously allowed me to break in with her house key). She was a lifesaver! (THANKS SO MUCH, STEPH!!!!). My oven was being installed that day by my amazing dad and husband! We gave up on the insurance people.

Happy Baking!

I am here. . . really, I am. . .

Hello All. . .

I must apologize to my faithful readers. . . I know you are out there. . . somewhere. I seemed to have dissapeared from the world of my blog and craftiness. . . with a good reason. . . I promise. The past 6 weeks (or so) have not been my favorite. . . I have not felt like doing anything. My poor little guy has watched more T.V. then ever and is probably getting close to "dying of boredom."

Now, don't get too worried and let me explain that it is a GOOD thing that I have been completely unmotivated and blah. . . (drum roll, please). . . . Next February, we will be expecting another addition to our family (Yeah!!!!). So, despite the fact, that I have been laying around neglecting chores, hobbies. . . basically everything, it is all been because I have been taking care of a sweet little developing baby.

We are super excited. So now that we are into the second trimester, I am now playing major catchup. I have several baby gifts and birthday gifts to make, plus some things for Ethan. Not to mention, I am in the process of planning a really cool train birthday for my soon-to-be 2 year old!

I can't believe that in less than a month, my little boy will be 2. He's done a lot of growing up this summer (besides growing out of most of his summer shoes), including climbing out of his crib and moving into a big boy bed. We are very proud of our little guy! He is such a blessing and can't wait to add another blessing into our family.

I promise to blog more faithfully now that I am feeling better. I have a ton of pictures to blog that are just sitting on my camera, with stories and recipes calling out to you. . . including the cookies I made yesterday. . . mmm. . . good!

I hope you are all having a great summer! What have you been working on?

Prize Winner

Every year, my husband's department has this symposium day, where they go all out with a theme, play some games, eat yummy catered food, have a guest speaker, and indulge on various desserts and choose whose is the best. This year, Jon had to get creative when picking the recipe because it wasn't a guarantee that our oven would be fixed in time. . . and sure enough, it wasn't.

A few years ago, Jon's aunt brought this yummy éclair dessert to a family gathering that was made with graham crackers and pudding. . . we had no idea that graham crackers were the choice ingredient until we saw the recipe. . . we thought it was cake! I have since made it for a MOPS dessert once and for something else, but it had been awhile since I had made it.

So, we decided on this recipe. Unfortunately, I had lost the recipe that his aunt sent me, but found it easy enough online (allrecipes.com is awesome!).

Jon took the finished dessert to work and came home with a completely empty pan and a gift card to Starbucks. Apparently, the dessert tied for first place! Yeah for the simplicity of this dessert and the fact that I was not expecting to win anything.

Needless to say, if you are looking for a quick and easy dessert that will NOT heat up your house during these hot summer months. . . this is the dessert for you!

Chocolate Éclair Dessert

(Jon's aunt/allrecipes.com)

Ingredients:

• 2 individual packages graham crackers
• 2 (3 ounce) packages instant vanilla pudding mix
• 3 cups milk
• 1 (8 ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed
• 1 (16 ounce) package prepared chocolate frosting

Directions:

Line the bottom of a 9x13-inch pan with graham crackers. In a large bowl, combine pudding mix and milk. Stir well. Stir in whipped topping to pudding mixture. Spread half of mixture over graham cracker layer. Top with another layer of graham crackers and the remaining pudding. Top all with a final layer of graham crackers and frost with chocolate frosting. Refrigerate until serving.

Something new

I learned something new a few weeks ago. I learned how to can and make BBQ sauce at the same time. Although, I think canning is the greater accomplishment. I wanted to do something that was nice for the dad's in our family and found this BBQ sauce recipe that looked and sounded super good. I also wanted it to last more than 2 weeks in the refrigerator and I didn't want to give them a frozen gift.

My mom is on vacation and came up and helped me with the canning process. She brought her pressure cooker and we canned with great enthusiasm (at least I did, anyway!). It excited me to learn something new, however, it made me incredibly nervous sticking glass in boiling hot water.

For the BBQ sauce, I used this recipe from Annie's Eats. It was quite tasty, but I probably should have simmered it for the full 3 hours, but was in a hurry to go shopping before it got too hot and nap time came. I look forward to using it on some chicken in the near future!

Oven update: All hopes of having my oven fixed have been thrown in the trash since a 27inch oven is too small for the space provided. It appears that nobody knows what they are doing and it is incredibly frustrating. We'll see if this gets resolved by Christmas.

Happy Father's Day

I always find myself in a dilema when it comes to cards for men. . . especially on Father's Day. Most of my stamps are just a tad to feminine for the men in our lives, so usually Jon goes to the nearest Target or Halmark store and picks out a gross/funny, more "manly" card to meet those needs. This year, we didn't have time to go buy one. . . it has been a zoo around here!

I found an idea for a card at mmm.crafts and it led me to the printable here. Between that website and mmmcrafts, I was able to get creative with what I had and came up with card you see above. It ended up being a lot of fun, and I am sure that you can adapt it to any card for a man, just cutting off the happy necktie day at the bottom.

Happy Crafting

p.s. for those of you wondering, I am still without an oven, BUT, hope comes tomorrow, when they come to install the new oven (delivered this morning). So, if you are wondering what I am going to be doing. . . there will be fresh baked goodies at my house tomorrow (If all goes well).