An Onslaught of Cute!

Yesterday was sweet Mariah's birthday party! We had so much fun with our wonderful friends, and Benjamin loved sharing all of Mariah's new toys! It was a really cute party! I just wanted to share a few photographs from the party, since I can't upload onto Facebook for some reason. Speaking of Facebook... my friend Peyton showed me how to create a Facebook Page for my blog. So, if you have a Facebook and you'd like to become a Fan of Bringing up Benjamin, just head on over to the Bringing Up Benjamin Fan Page!

Anyway, on with the pictures!


Mariah and her beautiful mommy!


Mariah was sooo funny eating her cake at first. She picked little bits of icing and sprinkles off and ate it just a nibble at a time! SO cute!


She is so adorable!


Benjamin, on the other hand...


He already had some practice in...


So he knew how to attack that cake, which was by the way egg-free for Benjamin, and milk-free for Mariah!

After we all had cake and chips and fruit and ice cream, it was time to open presents! As Steve said on Blues Clues: Present Time! Present Time! Open a present and see what's inside! (am I a mommy or what?! haha!)




I was sooo glad to see that Mariah loved the doll we gave her!




One word: Ham!

I can tell Mariah is going to have fun exploring all her fun new toys! We had a really good time, and I had a great time talking to Dawn and seeing her precious girl Allyson. Benjamin liked playing with Andrew and all the other little kids. The ball that Mariah got was the hot item! Not to mention the baby doll...







After the party, we met up with our youth group and went bowling. Let's not talk about my game, kay? Ha! It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be... but I didn't bowl the second game. Instead, I chased Benjamin around the bowling alley before strapping him into his stroller and attempting to stroll him to sleep. Did not work. We came home and I took a sleep aid before going to bed. Apparently Benjamin woke up at 2am screaming when hubby came to bed, but I didn't notice. Apparently I didn't even flinch.

And right now I'm eating pistachios, drinking Mountain Dew Voltage (I can still feel the sleep aid), and listening to the Avett Brothers on my iPod. Later tonight we're going to worship in Warner Robins and then have dinner at our friends' and let Benjamin play with Mariah! Whew! Today is her official birthday! Happy Birthday, sweet girl!

I hope you're all having a fabulous Lord's Day! Praise God, from whom all blessings flow!

I have ...

a very talented husband,

Don't you think?

It's Paw-ty Time!

Today is Mariah's birthday party, and we are so excited to go and celebrate her turning One with her! Tomorrow is her actual birthday, but we are going to celebrate it today at her birthday "Paw-ty", as the invitation said! If you can't tell, it has a puppy theme!

I also wanted to make mention of my new button over there on the right side of the page. Feel free to update the one you took, if you have taken one, or to take it if you haven't! Check out my Links page, and please if you have a button and I don't have it up, let me know so I can add it!

So, I hope you all have a fantastic weekend! It's quite possible that I will be bowling tonight. Hopefully I won't embarrass myself (though, I don't see how I couldn't... I am the world's worst bowler.)!

Perfect Chocolate Cupcakes, without the eggs!

When we found out that Benjamin had egg allergies, I was very concerned about how I was going to let him have a typical birthday party and allow him to have his own cake (cupcake) to enjoy. I knew that people did have recipes without eggs in them and with substitutes such as applesauce or bananas. But I really didn't want to use those ingredients, and I didn't know where to start. That is, until a good friend sent me a cookbook for my birthday: Bakin' Without Eggs. The perfect cupcake recipe was therein, and now I am going to share it with you! Aren't you excited?!



Perfect Chocolate Cupcakes

Cake Batter Ingredients
1 2/3 Cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 tablespoon baking soda
1 cup sour cream or no-fat sour cream (I just used regular)
1/2 cup oil or apple juice (I used oil)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup club soda

Frosting Ingredients
3 cups confectioners' sugar
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup margarine, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup milk



1. Preheat oven to 350*F. Lightly butter 12-cup (4-ounce) muffin pan. (I used cupcake cups)
2. To prepare cake: In a large bowl, with a handheld electric mixer set on medium speed, beat flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, sour cream, oil or apple juice, vanilla, and club soda for 3 minutes or until completely mixed.
3. In prepared pan, fill 12 muffin cups 3/4 full. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes. Cool on wire rack approximately 20 minutes before removing from pan.
4. To prepare frosting: Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, beat together confectioners' sugar, cocoa, margarine, vanilla, and milk with a handheld electric mixer set on medium speed for 3 minutes or until creamy. Frost cupcakes.



Notes: Extra frosting will keep in refrigerator up to 2 weeks; This cupcake will also freeze well, and the frosting is perfect!

The book says that it will make up to 12 cupcakes, but we were able to get 23 out of this recipe! And they were very, very good!



Enjoy!

Give Me Your Best Shot - I take too many pictures...

It is really hard for me to choose favorites from this week. I took so many pictures - really, I can't even believe how many I ended up taking! - and so many of them were good! But I am going to try to narrow it down! Here are the highlights:

1. Benjamin Ate Bananas
And I mean, a lot of Bananas!





2. We were goofy with Mariah





3. I didn't edit pictures.






4. Ben almost ate a leaf.





5. Benjamin and Mariah drank juice together, and it was cute.




6. Ben wore his sunnies.






And I'm going to stop there. I think it is safe to say I have some sort of camera obsession. Is there a 12-step program for that?

Praying Just to Pray

Every day it seems that someone new is requesting prayers for some difficulty a friend or family member is having in their life, or maybe even for themselves. I love to pray for other people. I know God has commanded us in His word to pray for the sick (James 5:24) and to pray for God's people (Philippians 1:9-11) by Paul's example. I like to remember to pray to God for our daily needs (Matthew 6:11), and especially for forgiveness when it's needed (Acts 8:22-24). I pray for strength and to resist temptation when I'm faced with one (Matthew 6:13, 26:41). I even try to remember to pray for my enemies (Matthew 5:44), even though I really don't like to call anyone my enemy. We always pray when we sit down to eat, too!

But I was just thinking today... when do I ever pray just to pray?

I have reasons to pray every day. There are so many hurting people out there. And there are also so many reasons to be thankful and to rejoice! But when do I ever just sit down and pray just to pray to my God? Just to talk? Just to let Him know what's on my mind? Sometimes I just feel like venting and sometimes I go to my husband and let him know what's on my mind and what's got me so riled up. Why don't I go to God like that? When something's upset me, how come I don't just sit down and talk through it with the Father?

I think about Daniel, who three times daily knelt down in his home (while in captivity!), to pray to God. Three times daily! Daniel made time to talk to God, and I just pray when we're about to eat or when I get to thinking about those who have asked for and need prayers. I sing the song to Benjamin in Bible Class "Read Your Bible, Pray Every Day" - Listen to God and Talk to God every day - yet I find that I don't do that half the time! Isn't that awful?

It's something I need to work on. It's something I am going to work on. It's something so crucial to my walk with God, and it needs my attention! God needs my attention just as those I pray for need His.

So, the question for you is, how often do you pray just to pray?

Dear Mariah,

Thank you for coming to play with me. We have so much fun together and I love having a playmate during the day. Mommy and Daddy are fun too, but I like having someone my size to run around all day with. I really like when we play Follow The Leader or Peek-A-Boo. I like making you laugh because it makes me laugh, too. I know I steal your lovey a lot, and I hope you don't mind. But you seem to really like it and I just wondered if would like it too. How about we share it next time, okay?



You are my best friend in the whole wide world and I love to play with you! I hope that we are friends forever, no matter where we are! You are very special to me and I think I would be very sad if our mommies and daddies hadn't become friends. You are so much fun! I can't wait to see you tomorrow when you come back to play, and I can't wait to go to your birthday party on Saturday! I hope you like the gift that we got you!



Thank you for being my friend, Mariah! Let's be friends forever, okay?

Love,
Benjamin

Wordless Wednesday: Cart Cars

For more WW, visit 5 Minutes for Mom.

Party Details

A week ago today our baby boy turned one, and this past Saturday was his birthday party. As promised, I will now give detail about the party, now that things around here have finally calmed down.



The theme, as I said before, was "Cute as a Button". I couldn't find any manufactured decorations matching the theme, so everything was hand-made. It was actually pretty fun and I think it made everything all the more special. One of my favorite things about the party was the birthday banner(s) that I made.







I used my endless supply of scrapbooking paper, some wrapping ribbon, and of course some buttons. Thankfully I have a tall husband who pinned them up for me, else I'd have had to move out all of Benjamin's toys and stand on a chair.

Another thing I made for the party was a decoration for the light fixture above the table. I don't know if I got a good shot of it, but you can see it hanging down. I strung some buttons onto the same wrapping ribbon and draped it around the fixture.



And I did put some pictures of Benjamin on the same scrapbooking paper I used on the banners and put them up around the walls, and in the frame we already had up in our dining room. I still haven't taken those down, but when I do, I'm going to put them in a scrapbook for Benjamin, along with his birthday cards and other birthday memorabilia.

You may have also noticed the cupcake toppers. Yes, I did do those by hand as well. I used felt, buttons, sandwich picks, sharpie, and good old tacky glue. 25 probably took near half an hour. Not too bad!





The plates and napkins I got at Target a loooong time ago, when they were on clearance. They weren't button-printed, though, so on the plates I used a sharpie and put four dots... I had about 5 packs of plates and did that on them all, and really didn't even use up one! Bah! Oh well!



My dad helped me hang this basket above the favor table. It held party hats, which nobody took. Ho hum. At least it looked cute!



The favor table, which got no attention that I know of, held one of my favorite pictures of Benjamin.



The guys on my husband's side of the family blew up balloons while Benjamin sat on the floor and drank juice.



While my parents finished up putting stuff on the table. The fantastic cake was provided by my Mother-in-Law!



And that table turned into the drink table, complete with my green box, this time sans the baby - holding ice instead!



Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures during the party. We had a lot of friends come over, including three of Benjamin's baby friends. The babies had fun playing on the floor with the balloons and some of Benjamin's toys. Then came Benjamin's big moment where we sang happy birthday to him and brought him his cupcake:



Which he devoured slowly (he was tired), but surely.







The smash cake was adorable, but it had eggs in it so Benjamin was unable to eat it. He did, however, take a few nips at the icing.



The only other photos I got from the party were a few from him opening up his gifts. He got a lot of fantastic things, and we are so appreciative of everyone's thoughfulness! A HUGE THANK YOU to all you who gave Benjamin a gift, even if you weren't there! We love you all so much!







And there you have it! Probably in a later post I will give you the eggless cupcake recipe if you wanted to see how it tasted! And yes we are still doing cleanup on the minor things, mainly because Benjamin has had a rough couple of days. His new freedom has come with a lot more boundaries, which he is finding out fast. And needless to say, he hasn't been so happy about it.

But, if you will excuse me, I need to do some pilates (yes, for real!). And after that, I'll be updating my photo blog.