24 Weeks Down

I completely admit to being a terrible blogger, but I actually have some down time tonight (when I'm not practicing balancing things on my belly :)So I thought I'd post a few pictures of the babies room:

So here's the finished product (well, the paint at least, and please excuse the not-so-great iPhone photos):

And here's how I did it (in case you want to try to do some stripes in your house):

First, I painted the entire bottom section the white color I wanted to use for the stripes and the top part of the wall (above the chair rail).

Then I measured and marked where I wanted each of my lines. I made the white stripes 2 inches and the green stripes 5 inches. Then I had to use the laser level (my best friend in so many of my projects) to tape down all the sections. I started out using Frog Tape, but I wanted 2 inch white striped sections and Frog Tape doesn't come in a 2 inch width so I used delicate blue painters tape for the rest (which I thought worked just as well for these purposes).

The I painted over the tape with the white color to seal the tape--this is really important if your walls are textured.
Next, I painted the sections between the tape with the 2 shades of green I selected.

Finally, I carefully pulled off the tape , and voila!, The stripes were just about perfect! Only a few little flaws I was able to fix free hand with the white paint.

I wished I had taken pictures of the room before, but the walls were a basic tan shade. We used Sherwin Williams Superpaint, and I really loved it. I've used Behr before and liked it, but the Superpaint seemed to go on smoother & covered beautifully. We were really lucky and just happened to buy all the paint the one weekend a year when all of their paint was on sale for 40% off. So it didn't cost us more than it would have if we'd bought it at Lowe's or Home Depot. ALSO, we decided to use their paint samples to be sure I liked the greens--only about $5 for an entire quart of paint. I ended up loving the colors and we were able to paint all the stripes with just the samples. Perfect!

My parents came into town and finished the painting (above the chair rail & all the wood work). My mom convinced me that we needed to change out the wood blinds to white blinds and the knobs on the doors to white also. I really loved the way it turned out!

We don't have the furniture yet, but here's our bedding:
(Photo courtesy of Pottery Barn Kids)

I'll post more pictures when we have more of the room ready (or when I learn to balance something really cool).

xoxo, Shel & Bert

Everyone says, "there must be something in the water," but I know for a fact it was the champagne...

That's right, no water about it, drinking champagne will make you pregnant. At least that's apparently what it does in the Alonzo household. We were slightly shocked to find out about our little miracle...THRILLED but a little surprised. So just about 30 weeks from now, around Christmas day, our little bundle should be joining our home and blessing us with our greatest adventure.

I needed 2 tests just to be sure I hadn't read the first one wrong (which I had done 2 days prior--I know...I'm blonde, forgive me). In fact, I took one on a Friday morning, thought it was negative, and threw it away. Later that day at work I told my friend Jill about it who informed me I had read it wrong (she's brunette--she gets these things quicker than me). The worst part about it was that I still wasn't sure, but I had to leave straight from work to go down to Austin for my friend Tara's bachelorette party weekend. That left me in a state of anxiety all weekend. UGH! Luckily, I enjoyed one glass of wine each night while we were there and attempted to stay "under the radar" while hoping that no one would notice Tiffany and Carolina drinking everything else that was handed to me.

I've felt great, better than I could have imagined. It's just the constant feeling of being tired that is obnoxious and the "boobs of doom." I honestly don't know how you busty women do it day in and day out. I will be a happy camper returning to my comfortable B cup when all of this is over.

Luckily, I'm not going this alone. Trey has been incredible as always, but it is impossible for him to completely understand what/how I am feeling. I'm so blessed that my cousin Erin, my sweet friend, Krystal, and a few other women at work are going through this at the same time as me. Here's me and sweet Krystal out for dinner for her birthday (she's about 8 weeks ahead of me).

And here's the first belly shot. I'm almost 10 weeks at this point, so I just look like I'm really bloated--no "real" bump yet. I'm looking forward to the point where people hopefully say, "aww look at her sweet belly," and not, "did you notice Shel's put on a few pounds?" (for the record, I've only gained 3). Ugh...we'll get there. School is out is 6 days! Whoo-hoo! So I'm hoping that will mean I will be blogging a little more regularly. I make no guarantees. :)

Until next time, say a prayer for me, Trey, and Baby Zo and know that we're praying for you, too.

xoxo, Shel & Bert

The Truth about Cake Balls

Happy New Year everyone! I can't believe my last post was in October! I feel like such a slacker--hopefully in the new year I'll keep up more with my blogging.
Many people have been asking me about how to make cake balls so I thought I'd post my "recipe" and all of my tips and tricks to hopefully make the process as painless as possible.
Supplies:

• 1 box of cake mix (& all it calls for to make the cake--typically just eggs and vegetable oil
  
• 1 can of icing


• 1 brick of almond bark


• shortening
  
• toothpicks
• wax paper
  

Process:

• Bake the cake according to the instructions on the box(I use a cake mix to help with the time, but if you have a wonderful homemake cake recipe you want to use-knock yourself out)


• Let the cake cool for about 15 minutes


• Cut the edges off the cake and discard (feed to the dog, husband, etc.)


• Dump the cake into a big bowl and crumble it up (I typically use 2 forks and all of my pent up aggression)


• Mix the cake with the full can of icing--be prepared for the gooey/delicious mess that this will create


• Stick the bowl with the mixture in the freezer for a while (I usually wait at least an hour)


• Roll the mixture into balls and place on a wax paper lined cookie sheet (you can do this by just grabbing some of the mix and rolling it with your hand, or you can use a cookie scoop and press the mixture firmly into the scoop. I prefer using the cookie scoop because it is easier to create more uniform balls, and I like the balls to have a flat bottom so they don't roll around). 1 box of cake and 1 can of icing usually makes a little more than 7 dozen balls.


• Freeze the balls at least 3 hours. (I typically let them stay in the freezer over night.)


• Melt 1/2 of the brick of almond bark and add 1 tablespoon of shortening. If you melt the whole thing it gets hard too quickly and the shortening is important to thin the chocolate a little bit.


• Stick a toothpick in the bottom of the cake ball and dip into the chocolate. Be sure to only pull a few cake balls out of the freezer at a time or they will become soft and more difficult to dip.


• After you dip the ball you need to twirl the chocolate around to let it set before you put it down onto wax paper. OR if you have a piece of styrofoam you can stick the toothpick into it, but you still need to let to chocolate set before your put it in the styrofoam or your cake balls will end up looking like the ghosts on pac-man.


• After the cake balls are dry you can decorate them however you want. For a friends wedding shower I drew pink hearts on the cake balls. For Trey's birthday we drizzled milk chocolate over the white chocolate. For Christmas I dipped them in crushed peppermint before the chocolate was completely dry.
  

The combination possibilities are endless! We've made:

• Strawberry cake, cream cheese icing, white almond bark with chocolate drizzle


• Yellow cake, cream cheese icing, chocolate almond bark


• Red Velvet cake, cream cheese icing, white chocolate almond bark with red drizzle


• Triple chocolate fudge cake, chocolate icing, chocolate almond bark coated in crushed peppermint.
  

ALL were delicious! If you're making them for the first time be prepared because the process if very time consuming, but the results are worth it!

Happy Baking! xoxo, Shel & Bert