Happy Birthday, Tiffany!

Today is my sister-in-law's birthday.  (Here's a picture of her and her precious family)

Pre-cious.  As you can see, she has her hands full!!

She is a wonderful friend, and a graceful mother.  I know graceful is an interesting way to describe motherhood, but I know that raising 3 boys 3 and under is not an easy thing.  She does such a great job with them, and makes it look like a piece of cake! 

Speaking of cake...



I made her one...



It was a tiramisu cake, so I made it into a giant coffee cup:)

I had an absolute blast making it.  It had been so long since I have had the opportunity to make a cake, and I really missed it.  I seriously smiled the whole time I was decorating it, despite the fact that I started it at midnight!  Ha!  I got the recipe here.  I was trying to make it semi-healthy/low-cal, so I made the sponge cake with splenda (with fiber.woot!), and bought low fat and fat free cream cheese (I doubled the recipe).  However, on my iphone, the measurements and the ingredients didn't line up.  I thought there were only 4 tablespoons of heavy whipping cream.  When I started making it, I realized I needed 2 cups!  Ahhhhh!  There goes any hope of being healthy!  Oh well, I guess it was better than it could have been!  The whipped, creamy filling was to die for!  I would totally make this cake again (it turned out fine with all of the lower fat/calorie changes I made).    If I were to do it again, I would make a change.  In case you want to make it, here it is;  the recipe says not to soak the cake in the coffee mixture.  It says to brush it.  I was afraid the cake would fall apart when I decorated it, so I did just brush it.  Next time, I will use the most possible without drowning it, or use a more moist cake. Also, for the coffee liqueur, I used really, really strong instant coffee.  It worked great!

Because the cake had caffiene in it, Wes and I bought some non-caffienated cupcakes for the boys, so they would actually fall asleep at nap time:)  (You're welcome, Tif!)  It was great because they thought I made them, and they loved me for it!  I know I'm totally taking credit for Price Cutter's creations, but it makes me feel special, so I don't really care:). 

Jaxon, the cutie pie middle child, LOVES cupcakes!

He melted me today.  I don't have pictures of everything that happened because I couldn't get my camera ready fast enough, but it was so adorable.  We looked over, and he had stuffed his mouth with a whole lot of cupcake.  It was on his hands and face and all over the floor.  BaBa (grandpa) rushed to fix the messy situation, created by his abandoned love for cupcakes.  It drew too much attention to the poor little guy.

 He got SOOOO embarrassed to be caught in that situation.  And everyone was laughing because of his absolute cuteness.  He kept squeezing his eyes shut...because kiddos that young think the world can't see them when they can't see the world.

 Look at him!  (I'm dying inside with compassion and love for this precious kid!)  He's like, "I can't believe this is happening..."

 Poor, sweet child couldn't handle it anymore.  The second he was clean enough, he fell into BaBa's arms...

He needed a huuuuug!

I talked about that little incident all afternoon.  My fabulous husband listens to me when I share my re-occurring thoughts to him over and over and over again.  :)  He's great.

I know I write about my nephews all of the time, but I'm in love, I'm in love, and I don't care who knows it!!  They are CUUUUUTE!  :) 

And for the birthday gal:

Tiffany,

I hope you had a fabulous Birthday!  You are a great friend, and I'm so glad I've gotten to know you!  Your family is precious to Wes and I, and I am inspired by the way you mother your babies!  (As you know, mothering babies is intimidating to me right now...and you, my friend, impress me!)  I hope someday to be as compassionate and loving to my kiddos!  :)

Love Ya!!

P.S.  If you know Tiffany, she has a blog too!  It can be found here.  Eric, her husband (my husband's brother) writes some entries.  They have a crazy full life, as you could  imagine with 3 boys, so they have lots of entertaining things to write about.  AND if you read it, you might fall in love with my little nephews too!  I am NOT a partial aunt.  At least, I don't think I am...  :)

Have a great week!!