Ruh-Roh...

A little too much indulgence over the festive season for this little fatty. I didn't think I had gone too overboard as far as how much I ate, but all those meals followed by desert have caught up with me. I had already gained a couple of kilos after weaning my daughter and now I have gained a couple more. 

It is time to stop indulging and start making better choices, I will need to start actively trying to lose some weight now. My first little mini goal will be to lose those extra kilos that I have acquired. I would love to be able to hit the gym but it's not in the budget, will have to start going for walks around the neighbourhood. Plus I told my husband that I would work out with him in his home gym set up. Time to hit up Pinterest for some healthy nutritious meals that don't taste like cardboard. 

Apart from the jelly belly, Christmas was good. It has been a hectic few days of late, long days and the kids have been knackered but reasonably well behaved all things considered. I need to clear out some old toys to make way for the new, toy central here. The main present Santa got them was a trampoline, my daughter is still a little unsure of it but her big brother is a fan (to be fair she is too little for it just yet but she'll get the hang of it in time). 

Today is meant to be a scorcher (38 degrees or about 100F), it is days like this that I wish we had a pool (next door does, it will be torture to here them splashing about...ha). I think the air con is going to get a workout today!

I think it is just going to be a lazy home day today, the hubby is unwell. There is probably plenty of things I could be doing around the house but nothing that appeals to me in this heat. Anyways I best be off, my son has just informed me he has done a wee in the potty...happy days ;)

Have a good one,

Crack Cupcakes

Ok I have been meaning to share this recipe with you all for ages, I finally got around to taking all the pics the last batch I just made. They are just your basic vanilla cupcakes but they are super tasty and oh so more'ish. 

You will need -

Ingredients*:

125g unsalted butter (slightly more than 1 stick of butter)
1 cup of caster sugar (I used white sugar and it was fine)
3 eggs
1 tsp of vanilla essence (or vanilla extract)
1 1/2 cups of plain (all purpose) flour
1 tsp of baking powder
3/4 cup of milk (185mL)

*This is supposed to do 12 muffin size or 24 cupcake size, I find when I fill the cupcake patties 3/4 as required, I only get 12-14 out of this. 

(Plus icing & what have you to decorate, I made a cream cheese icing that is super easy and delicious. 1 packet of cream cheese (250g), 1 cup of icing sugar and 1 tsp of vanilla essence mixed together. That will be more than enough for 12 cupcakes, double for a batch of 24 but there may be leftovers.)

Utensils:

Muffin Tray (or in this instance, cupcakes) ;)
Electric Beater
Measuring Spoons
Measuring Cup
Mixing Bowl
Sifter
Wooden Spoon
regular ol' spoon for putting mixture in to patties

Method:

Pre-heat oven to 180C (approx 350F), place cupcake patties in tray/s.

Using an electric mixer, beat the butter until creamy. Add sugar one third at a time, beating well between each addition. Add the eggs one at a time, beat well between additions, add vanilla essence and beat until combined.

Sift flour and baking powder and add half to the butter mixture, mix to combine. Add half of the milk, mix to combine. Repeat with remaining flour and milk.

Fill cupcake patties 3/4 full, Bake for 15-20 mins or until a skewer comes out clean. Allow to cool completely before decorating.

Enjoy the fruits of your labour, try not to eat too many...ha. Tis' the season for over indulging so why the hell not ;)

Here is a photo of my little 'cheat' Christmas Puddings, they were yummy. If there is any interest I will share the recipe, I won't do a tute for it though as if I make them again I will gain 5lbs!

Only 5 more sleeps till old Saint Nick visits, I hope you've all been good boys and girls. I will settle for getting a full nights sleep, ha.

Happy Holidays to you and yours.

Dun Dun Dahhh

It is the dreaded needles this morning, I hate this part...it makes me a little upset watching them get upset. I was told early on in the piece with my son that it actually gets harder the older they get because they are more aware. I am not looking to the 4 year old shots for that reason, I almost feel worse now though because my daughter has no idea what's coming. Fingers crossed it doesn't make her too out of sorts, it usually has a mild impact on my kids that doesn't hang around too long. 

I also need to bake some Christmas Tree sugar cookies for my son's kindy class today. I will take a pic to post next time if they turn out ok. 

Let's not forget the constant that is cleaning the house, that is also on the agenda...it doesn't help that my son (with a bit of help from his sister of course) trashed the place before I dropped him off at kindy today,

Speaking of my son, we had a adrenalin filled start to the week. He fell over on to the TV cabinet yesterday morning and got a nasty cut right near his eye, he came screaming out to me in the other room and I think my heart skipped a beat when I saw the blood streaming down his face. I was worried that it might be stitch worthy but I managed to stop the bleeding and put a band-aid on. My sisters visited a little later in the day and one of them thought it was borderline needing to be glued so she came with me to take him to the Dr. Because it was so close to his eye they wouldn't risk gluing it for fear of the glue going in his eye, so they put steri strips on it to hold it tighter together. He is going to have a little scar there but would have had one regardless of how they treated it, he was such a trooper at the Dr's and very well behaved. As the saying goes, chicks dig scars...right?! ha

Well I best be off to get a couple of things done before we head to the Dr's for our appointment, wish me luck.

Ok that's enough playing for tonight...

As you may have noticed, I have been playing around with the look of the blog again. I can't help myself, I'm never 100% happy with it. Eventually I will bite the bullet and pay for a designer template :) It's late and I'm tired, this was just a short one to test my new 'signature'. Also I am aiming to make those cupcakes this Thursday so stay tuned for that recipe.

Night all! (well to those of you in Oz anyways)

A proud moment

My husband was sent a 'delightful' text this morning...a picture of our son's first ever poo on the potty! As disgusting as it is taking a picture of poop it was a pretty tremendous occasion in our household that I thought he should share in it.

I don't know what it was that finally 'clicked' for my son but for the last couple of weeks he has started doing wees on the potty, this week more then ever. I was getting concerned as he had previously been resistant and shown little to no interest in potty training. Today all wees and said poo has been on the potty, huzzah! Phase 1 is pretty much complete, now to start instigating the next step. At the moment he prefers to run around at home with no pants on and just plonks himself down on the potty whenever he needs to go. I need to start dressing him in undies and shorts and see if he is still able to get on there in time. My sisters think I should have him in undies when we are out, I still put him in a nappy when we go out as I don't think we are quite there yet. They think that would be confusing to him, I will aim for that soon if we keep going the way we are going though.

Can I just say, I had no idea just how often he wee'd throughout the day until I had to clean it up afterwards...this potty training is hard work, ha. I'm glad that we have finally turned a corner though and fingers crossed he will be completely toilet trained in the early New Year.

Hooray for the weekend, hope everyone has a good one.

K xo

A Smashing Success

It was a relief to hear this morning from my sister upon picking up the kids that it went really well, no problem no fuss...they were well behaved and had a good time. I'm so glad that they were good for her and enjoyed themselves, it makes me feel confident to do it again in the future and not feel guilty about it...they are in good hands. I was worried that my daughter might all of a sudden wake up every hour or something ridiculous overnight and keep my sister up. Apparently she went down at 7.30, woke a couple of hours later and took about 30 mins to go back down but then she slept through till 6am...phew.

The concert was really good, we were in General Admission so standing the whole time...this old duck was feeling it, man my feet and back were killing me, ha. By the time it was over and we drove back to the coast and got home it was midnight, I was knackered. I got up at 7am this morning, that is considered a sleep in at this house ;)

Also I finally submitted an assignment (my first, long overdue) for my online course a couple of weeks ago and I got the result back today...I passed, what a load off. I was packing it that I was going to fail, I think getting the pass has helped get my confidence up to keep going and try and get another one submitted sooner rather than later.

I just realised it is 2 weeks today until Christmas, oh my gosh where has the time gone? I am definitely going to be a last minute shopper out amongst the hordes of other disorganised souls. Maybe I should resolve to be more in charge next year and try and shop through the year when I see things, it's hard to know what everyone wants/likes though...it probably won't happen.

I'm planning on hitting the shops tomorrow to tick another couple off the list, wish me luck!

Take care,

K xo

Party done and dusted

Well, it's official...I now have a big one year old. She is still my baby though, I said to my husband last night that it felt like it wasn't that long ago that we brought her home from the hospital. Time flies when you're having fun, ha...it has its moments but it's hard to imagine what life was like before her.

My sisters took the kids for the day for me on Friday so I could get my bake on, I made cupcakes, rice bubble slice, the cake, and mini quiches. I also made fruit salad cups and my sisters helped make assorted sandwiches on the day (plus all the store bought food), I think I made more for my son's first birthday and it was exhausting (it still was this time but instead of rolling in to bed at midnight the night before it was 10pm so I'm making progress). I was too swamped running errands and cooking to do a post on the cupcakes, but believe you me...they will be made again, so I will get to that at some stage. Here are a few pics of the finished product and the cake.

It was a good day but my poor poppet was out of sorts and not her usual active self, I think she may be coming down with something. It comes and goes though, she perked up later in the afternoon (once the party had finished of course). It was a good day celebrating with family and close friends, she is lucky and loved.

Now the count down is on till Christmas, just over 2 weeks to go and I'm still yet to shop for the extended family...our kids are sorted but I still keep thinking they need more, can't help it. Hubby reigns me in and reminds me that we are also getting them a trampoline, which I keep forgetting about. I really need to pull finger and start buying everyone else's gifts, every time I go looking I always end up looking at stuff for our family...ha, shocker.

So what is everyone doing for the big day? We have breakfast with my sister's and family and then a late lunch/dinner with hubby's family. It is a long day for the kids so I'm not sure what time we will end up coming home. Then we have a boxing day BBQ over at our friends place the next day, I love the silly season. I am a social person by nature so I really enjoy all the catching up with friends and family at this time of year.

Speaking of being social, hubby and I are off to the Muse concert this week with a couple of friends. I am looking forward to it but I'm also a little nervous as it will be the first time my kids have had a sleepover at anyone's house ever. My sister will be having them, I'm sure she'll cope just fine (she has 5 of her own, mostly grown...not little ones like mine, ha...could you imagine!) I just hope my kids behave and don't get upset and want to go home. It is just going to be too late by the time we get back from Brissy to be able to collect them, I'm sure they will have lots of fun...I should stress less.

Also after reviewing photos of the party I am starting to think the new year can't come soon enough...getting a little bit of pud on. Not that it has stopped me from eating all the leftover party food, sigh...I am a shocker. It's crazy trying to be good  at this time of year though, right? I will just have to work extra hard to undo the extra damage I am doing this month.

Anyway I am so incredibly tired, I might retire to bed early tonight.

Hope everyone had a cracking weekend :)

K xo

December you sly dog...where did you come from?!

Can you believe it...this year has just flown by. I swear time speeds up the more kids you have, there are less chances to slow down and take it easy...I wouldn't have it any other way though, however I could do without the abundance of grey hairs that have come with it.

And so begins the official start to the silly season, it's only going to get busier from here. I'm looking forward to some quality time with the family once hubby is on annual leave for the holidays.

This week I am in full party mode for my daughter's first birthday, Friday will be spent baking for her party the next day. My lovely sisters have offered to take the kids off my hands so I can get stuck in.

It doesn't quite feel real that my daughter is almost one, I swear it wasn't that long ago that we brought her home from the hospital. My baby is getting big, naww...

The Christmas tree went up yesterday, I already forsee putting the ornaments back on the tree a million times a day for the next month ;) Regardless though, I think it needs more...my husband disagrees but we'll see about that. I guess he's thinking that this month is going to be expensive enough as it is without me buying things we don't necessarily need...but I do NEED them, ha. Love you honey x

I need to get off here and start writing up a lists of all the things I need to do this week, busy busy.

I hope everyone is having a great start to the month...it's the most wonderful time of the year, as the song goes.

Take care,

K xx