OH....SWEETBUTTER CREAM HOW I LOVE THEE!!!!

I am buttercream decorating kind of girl. I love everything about it. I have tried, time and time again my hand at royal icing and it just doesn't work for me. We (royal icing) are not friends. Not like I am friends with buttercream. I don't like the texture, how hard it gets and the taste. My family refuses to eat it. So....I have had to tweak how I decorate my cookies. BUTTERCREAM all the way.

 Yes, you are correct when you say that I can't get the detail with buttercream that you can with royal. BUT....I can come close, and I can make my cookies taste so much better. AND....that is good enough for me.

 Here is a link to a wonderful blog called LilaLoa. She is decorating cookies with guess what???? Yep, BUTTERCREAM!

 I told you that you could have adorable, wonderful tasting cookies with buttercream!

https://youtu.be/P9kC3vHGIC0

Have a wonderful holiday weekend!

Missy

Love these adorable cupcakes for summer!

I am sharing this really awesome link for adorable summer cupcakes from Your Cup of Cake. BEACH THEME! Just click on the link below. :)

http://www.yourcupofcake.com/2016/05/palm-tree-cupcakes.html

 I didn't have any time for baking this weekend........(sad face)..... My son plays on a spring football team and we travel a couple hours to each game. They are a great bunch of boys having fun. I have to say it is just as fun for us parents to go and watch them play. They won their game yesterday (Yay! GO BOSS WARRIORS!) which means they will be playing again this week for the championship! My son, Cody, turned 14 this week and we had all of the kids over for a Sunday lunch to celebrate. I did manage to actually whip up a cookie cake for it. This is my daughter Abbie's funny personality (I have no idea where she gets this from). Bryan and Emily were unable to make it, so she just drew them in. LOL

Happy Sunday! Have a great week.

Missy

I can't believe it has been FOUR YEARS......

I can't believe that it has been four long years since my last post......Where did the time go? As I sat here this morning and tried to figure out what happened in my life four years ago that made me stop blogging, I then remembered my beautiful granddaughter Sawyer. She will be 4 in November. Here is the story of Emily (my daughter) and Sawyer (my granddaughter).

 Let me just say that life is a journey. It's a series of roads, some that we get to choose and some that are chosen for us. Her road was chosen for her. I would have to say one of the hardest she will ever journey down. What I am about to tell you is about that journey.

 I remember the day (like it was yesterday) when my 22-year-old, 105 pound, beautiful full of life daughter showed up with a pregnancy test and said: "Mom, I think I might be pregnant." She had this uneasy scared look in her eyes, so I kind of laughed and reassured her that it would be fine. Women have been doing this since the beginning of time. Boy, how those words would haunt me as we headed down the scariest road of our life's. I have to tell you at this point about Bryan. He is her love, at the time a beautiful single father of two beautiful kids that I am now Mimi to. They are mine, one hundred and ten percent mine. That stupid thing called biological does not exist in our lives, we have something much bigger and better...it's called LOVE. Sorry, had a squirrel moment. So, back to telling you about Bryan. I don't know what any of us would have done or would do without him. He was there every step of the way (with a few minor bumps). I was there when she told Bryan that she was going to have a baby. She was terrified, he laughed and picked her up in his arms and hugged her. A beautiful support system that would be so critical in her journey.

 It didn't take long be for she started feeling sick. She was sick before she knew she was pregnant. We talked about how it was good ole morning sickness (yeah right!) We (Emily, Bryan and I) went to her first doctor's appointment. She weighed in at 110 pounds. Yay, I thought that is great she is gaining weight and baby is healthy! I was so excited to be a grandma! They went through all of the paperwork and gave her medication for her morning sickness, and we left excited.

 It was just a few short days later that I get a phone call at work that she was really sick, Zofran isn't working. She was vomiting uncontrollably. She showed up at my work and looked like death. We called the doctor, and they wanted to see her. She was placed in the hospital for dehydration. They gave her IV Zofran and Phenergan, and She was released a few days later, and things just got worse from there. She continued to vomit and to lose weight. She was placed in the hospital again and diagnosed with a severe form of hyperemesis. (If you have never heard of it, it's like morning sickness on steroids. It's like morning sickness x 1000. There are not enough crackers or ginger rail in this world that could touch it. In my daughter's experience, there were no medications that could stop it.) She would go on to spend the entire month of May in the hospital. She was feed through iv fluids and TPN. Even though she was in the hospital, she continued to vomit 20-30 times a day. They tried to insert a feeding tube, which she couldn't keep down because she vomited so many times a day. It was horrible, she was miserable, but never once did she give up. Don't get me wrong; she had moments when it all seemed to be to much, but somehow from somewhere she found what she needed to keep going.

This is pretty much how the rest of her pregnancy went. She had her gallbladder removed at 14 weeks to see if that would help. Nope, still sick. The doctors then tried experimental steroid treatment at 18 to 20 weeks, and that did help some. She spent more time in the hospital than at home. I would work all day and then drive to the hospital and stay until 11:00 or 12:00 pm. Drive home (usually cry and pray all the way home) get up and do it again the next day. When she wasn't in the hospital, she was at my house with an IV that had to be maintained. I would take a long lunch every day and drive home to give her what medications she needed through her IV. And this was our life for eight long months. I could go into more detail, but it would be a book when I finished. Someday, maybe we will write that book and maybe we can help someone else who is struggling with hyperemesis.

 There are some stories of hyperemesis that don't have a happy ending. We were blessed. We were told on many occasions that the girls might not make it. We were also told if Sawyer made it there would be complications due to all of the medications and lack of nutrition. THEY (yes, the doctors)WERE WRONG. Sawyer was born at 33 weeks and weighed 4 pounds. She came out screaming, (which was the most beautiful music I have ever heard). Emily weighed 89 pounds when she gave birth to Sawyer. She is a rock star momma! Sawyer had no complications and came home from the hospital one week later. As soon as Emily gave birth, her hyperemesis stopped. I cried for two weeks straight. My husband thought I had lost my mind. I cried tears of relief, joy, exhaustion, and love.
 Sawyer is now a busy full of life three year old. We kind of spoiled her just a little......fine, A LOT. There are some days that we pay for it, but I am confident that we would all spoil her just as much if we had to do it all over again.

 A couple of years later, my daughter gave birth to another beautiful baby girl. Her name is SKYE, and we LOVE her just as much as all of the other beautiful people that call me Mimi. She is super amazing as well. Beautiful blue eyes and blond curly hair. Mommy wasn't as sick when she was pregnant with her.

 So, where have I been......I have been blessed. Blessed with a beautiful life full of beautiful people I get to call mine. My husband who is my amazing rock, my sweet, handsome son Joe and his beautiful wife Robin, My funny, handsome son Jordan. (Who moved to Michigan on me, but that is a story for another time.) My strong, beautiful daughter Emily, her husband Bryan, (her rock, my son.) My funny, smart, beautiful daughter Abbie (who is finishing her last year of college this year.) My youngest son Cody. He is smart and kind. He is a mix of his brothers. Loves to hunt, loves to build things. Then there are my little people.....the ones that call me Mimi. They are the cherry on the top of my ice cream sundae that I call life. Kylie, Tristan, Sawyer and Skye.

 I am back, and I have missed writing in this blog. There is a very good chance that things will change as I blog. I have changed in the last four years. I still love baking, photography, and crafts. I now have my little people to help me make this a little more interesting.

 Thank you for reading, I will be back soon.

 Missy