Fudge Pudding Cake

My sister made the best chocolate I've ever had! It's called Fudge Pudding Cake. I thought I'd share the recipe.
1 (18.25 oz) package devil's food cake mix
1 (3.9 oz) package instant chocolate pudding mix
1 cup sour cream
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup water
4 eggs
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
6 tablespoons butter
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 10 inch Bundt pan.
In a large bowl, combine cake mix, pudding mix, sour cream, milk, oil, water and eggs.
Beat for 4 minutes, then mix in 2 cups chocolate chips.

Pour batter into prepared pan. bake in the preheated oven for 40 to 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. cool 10 minutes in the pan, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely.
to make the glaze: Melt the butter and 1 cup chocolate chips in a double boiler or microwave oven. Stir until smooth and drizzle over cake.

Merry Christmas

Christmas 2009. Let me first tell you that we were so excited to hear that Alicia had little Lane on Christmas day at 1am-ish!! I can't wait to see pictures of him! I bet he's really cute!

Anyways, our Christmas was a lot of fun. We all slept in until around 10-11, had home made donuts (made by my dad & they are super yummy!), then opened up gifts. We all got a lot of cool things but I got what I've wanted to get foreverrr! It's just a little book called "I Am America & So Can You" by Stephen Colbert!!! =) I love it! After gifts we, well, started making drinks..lol. We had dinner around 4 then spent the rest of the evening playing games. It was a lot of fun!

Here are a couple random pictures.. Notice that nobody is wearing anything that is Christmas-y.. We're all wearing bright colors ;)

Grandpa & Grand baby

Me & my love!
Me & my sis

America's next top model? ;)

Silly girls

Our ornament :)

Mommy & Addie

That's the face she does now whenever we say "smile" :)

Addie's First Birthday!!

Addison's first birthday was a success! Her party was in the evening so we spent most of the day cleaning the house and making the food/cakes. A lot of our/her close friends and family were there! It was really strange to see how many babies we have now.. There was Trenten, Addie, Austin, Peyton, Jayden & little Brooklyn (who is still in V's belly) ;) Anyways, it was a lot of fun! Here are some pics! Addison looking silly during breakfast! :)

Addison's boyfriend, Austin ;)

The birthday cake!

Addison's personal cupcake :)

Messy girl ;)

She loved the frosting..

Opening gifts.

First Weekend In Oregon

We're in OREGON! :)

We left Friday around 5pm and got to my parent's house at 7am. It was actually a really easy trip. Loren drove from our house to Sac and I drove the other half. There was no snow or ice over the pass and not really any traffic in the cities. Addison & Sadie slept most of the way. :)

Anyways, we got to my parents house in the morning, hung out with them, took showers & naps, then went to Loren's mom's house for Christmas dinner with his family. It was a lot of fun & the food was sooo good! Addison got a couple of really cute Oregon Ducks' outfits and toys. It was nice seeing all his family that we don't normally get to see :) After we left there, we went to my brother's house and got to hang out with all our friends! So, all together, it was a really fun day! Today we are going over to Rachel's parents house for a BBQ with her family & then Taco Night at the Hulla's! Another busy/fun day!

2009

I can't believe its already December! I feel like I just got used to writing '09 on our checks & soon I'll have to get used to writing '10 (weird). But this year has been a pretty good one. We got to spend a lot of time in Oregon.. Lived there for the first 4 months, visited in June, October, November, & soon December. And so much has changed since this time last year. Addison is a toddler, Rachel had Austin, Kristy had Peyton, V is pregnant, Robby & Jackie got married, Alicia will have Lane any day now, Loren & I celebrated our 2 year wedding anniversary, and Addison will have her first birthday :)

Its crazy how a couple years ago, us & all of our friends were just dating each other & now we all have families & are married. We've all grown up so much. Even though we still act like teenagers when we have our parties ;) I can't wait to get back up to Oregon & see everyone.

We should be leaving for Oregon on Friday, get there Saturday morning & go to a Christmas party for the kids at Vonna's that evening. I'll probably be drinking a lot of coffee that day.. Monday is Taco Night with the Hullas, Wednesday is Addison's 1st birthday & Friday is Christmas! This trip is going to be a lot of fun!

Hopefully I'll be feeling better by this weekend.. I have a really bad head cold/sinuses. It sucks. The only good thing is that Addison doesn't seem to be sick or getting sick. So that's good. And Loren says he's too cool to get sick.. yeah whatever. ;)

Addison has a bunch of teeth now. She has her 4 front teeth, 3 on the bottom and 2 molars on the bottom & 2 on the top. I'm not sure but I thought that babies get their teeth in order (front to back) But Addison got her "vampire" teeth first on top and now she has molars coming in before the ones in front of them do. I don't know, she's a strange girl ;). She's also a really speedy crawler! And she can stand and walk while holding onto something. I'm sure she will be walking within a couple weeks. She says "hi" or "hey", "mom", "dad-dad", random baby talk, and she can almost say "Sadie". The first year of her life has been a real joy. She's such a good baby and she has the funniest personality.

Ok, enough with the random stuff, here are some pictures from last weekend. :)

Addison, me & that crazy Christmas hat!

Addie & Nana Jana
Addison wants whats on the tree ;)

This is a picture from the Thanksgiving at my uncle's house. Addie is apparently emo ;)

Dear John

I just finished reading this book. It was really good. Not my favorite, but good. I love the way Nicholas Sparks writes. Its never boring. & it only took me one day to read it. I read it every chance I got today.
The movie doesn't come out until Feb. 5th. I can't wait to go see it.

Book Store Archway

Really creative archway for a book store :)

Just thought this picture was pretty cool.

Before & After

Sadie at 8 weeks old & her at 6 months old :)

Sadie Mae is 6 months old! I can't believe how much she's grown since we got her! I forgot how small she was until I looked at her old pictures..lol. She's still doing good with being house trained. Just a couple problems here & there.. My favorite part about her is how good with Addie she is. She'll let Addison do anything to her. She's going to be a great family dog.

Early B-Day Gift

For Addison's birthday gift, Bill & Jana wanted to get her ears pierced! She only cried while they were doing it but afterwards she was fine. And they look great! Her ears aren't even red or anything.

Poor baby :(

Big smile!

You can sort of see the earring in her left ear (above) and then the earring in her right ear (below) :)

I took these today after her bath :)

This is her new favorite sleeping position..lol

And sleeping like that, causes hair like this ;)

I'll hopefully have more pictures up tomorrow. Loren, Addie & I are going to a friends house tonight to watch the Civil War game! They are Beaver fans.. So it should be fun! :)

Two Thanksgivings

This year we had 2 thanksgivings! The first one was with Loren's dad & Janice & they're friends, and the second was on Saturday with all of my uncles, cousins & grandparents in L.A.! They were both really nice but I really enjoyed the one with my family. We haven't seen them in about 2 years :( And this was the first time most of them have seen Addie. It was a blast! I don't have pictures yet because my aunt took all the pictures and will send them to everyone by email. But I do have pictures of Addison at our first Thanksgiving..

Her hair was all messy because she just woke up from a 4 hour nap..lol.

Another Girl!

Tim & Veronica just found out the other day that they are also having a girl :) She is only about 14 weeks along but they were able to see girly parts in the ultrasound ;) So congrats to them! For the longest time, Addison was the only baby girl we knew.. Now we'll have Addie, Peyton & Brooke :)

Congrats Kristy & Jerm!

Little Peyton Marie was born on 11.17.09 around 10am. She was 7lbs 8oz & 18ins tall :). I got to visit her a couple days after she was born. She's so cute! I can't believe that Addie was once that small :( lol

Miscarriage

Well, I had a miscarriage last night. :(

It started with a little bit of cramping and spotting yesterday afternoon and then around 11pm, it was bad enough for me to go to the ER. My mom watched Addie (who was sleeping..) while Jen took me to the hospital. We were there until about 3am and after an ultrasound and a couple of other tests, they told me that I had had a miscarriage. I was really upset and it didn't help that Loren wasn't answering his phone all night.

I'm feeling a lot better today. And I've reminded myself that God is in control and that everything happens for a reason.

I'd also like to thank everyone who prayed for me last night/today. I feel like prayer has really helped me. I was a mess last night when I was in the hospital and when they finally told me that I miscarried, I was heart broken. But I feel fine now. I love my friends and family. They are such an awesome support system :)

Getting Ahead Of Myself

So.. I've, of course, been thinking about baby names.. ;)

I've had a girl name picked out for a while.. I used to have this dream over & over around the time when Addison was born.. In the dream I could see Addison as a little kid about to walk into school and she had her little sister standing next to her. Addison had blond hair and the smaller girl had dark brown hair in a pony tail. Both girls had backpacks on with their names. Addison's said "Addison" and the other girl's said "Haylee".. I had this dream about 5 or 6 times. So, since then I've decided that if we have another girl, her names would be Haylee Joy :)

I've told Loren about the name Haylee before and I'm not sure if he really likes it. But he says it doesn't matter because this second baby is going to be a boy. Loren said that Addie was going to be a girl from the beginning of that pregnancy too. So he's probably right. :)

When it comes to boy names, I tend to like older names. I really like Lucas, Nathan, Brandon, Brayden & Landen.. I'm not sure how Loren feels about Brayden or Landen but he likes the other ones. Hopefully we can just pick one and get it over with. ;)

Out of all those boy names, I think Brayden & Lucas are my favorite. Loren's family calls him Lu and it would be cute if our son had the same nickname..lol :)

And speaking of getting ahead of ourselves.. Loren & I love this crib set if we have a boy! Its so Loren. I love the blanket! So cute. It's the Little Bedding by NoJo - Lil Champ 4-Piece Crib Bedding Set from Walmart. :)

FamousBirthdays.com

Something fun to do when you're bored is to go on Famousbirthdays.com and look up your birthday. :)

Celebrities that share their birthdays with..

Me: Tom Brady, Martha Stewart, Martin Sheen & Tony Bennett.

Loren: James Brown & Bing Crosby

Andi: Wayne Gretzky & Ellen DeGeneres

Ryan: Axl Rose, Bob Marley, Tom Brokaw, Rip Torn, Ronald Reagan & Babe Ruth (It's really neat that Ryan & Babe Ruth have the same b-day)

My mom: Felicity Huffman, Donny Osmond, Kirk Douglas & Margaret Hamilton (The witch from The Wizard Of Oz)

My dad: Kevin Eubanks (From Jay Leno's show) & Sam Waterston (From Law & Order)

Jenny: Zach Braff, Paul Rudd & John Ratzenberger (From Cheers & he does the Piggy Bank's voice on Toy Story)

Twins: Sarah Jessica Parker & Elton John

Addison: The celebrities that share her b-day are ones that I've never heard of..

Baby #2 due date (July 3rd): Tom Cruise & Montel Williams


There were more then just these celebs in each birthday but I only wrote down the ones I knew :)

Say Cheese!..Or Not.

So I took little miss Addie outside to take some pictures the other day. I got some really cute ones but she was so serious. I think she knows when I'm feeling photographer-y and decides to keep a straight face..lol. But she's cute anyways and I wanted to share. Enjoy!

Addison is about a week from being 11 months old. I can't believe she's almost 1 :(

Fall In Oregon

Addie & I came back up to Oregon for another visit :) This time we are staying for about 3 weeks. My friend, Kristy, is going to get induced today so hopefully we'll get to see little Peyton before we leave. It's so nice up here during the fall! I cannot wait to move back! I miss everything about it!

I am supposedly 7 weeks and 3 days along but I wont have my first appointment until I am 10 & 1/2 weeks. And I don't even get an ultrasound then.. They make my first ultrasound appointment at that point. So who knows when I'll actually get an ultrasound because about 9 days after that appointment, we are coming back to Oregon for 3 weeks for the holidays.. I'm so impatient when it comes to ultrasounds and this is driving me crazy.

Ohhh! Most important news: Andi & I are going to go see New Moon on Sunday!! I'm soooo excited! :):) And Saturday Andi, my mom, Addie, maybe Jen & I are going to a ginger bread house competition! It sounds really neat. We get to walk around and look at everyone's neat houses. I'm actually pretty excited about that..But not as much as New Moon ;)

I can't wait for Thanksgiving. Even though we'll be spending it in Cali.. But at least we'll be with Loren and have a good family Thanksgiving. This will also be Addison's last 'first' holiday.. Unless you count her first birthday as a holiday ;). We got her an outfit that says "baby's first Thanksgiving". Its really cute.

Baby #2

Loren & I are expecting baby #2! We just found out yesterday and we're pretty excited!

The last time we got pregnant, it took us about 8 months. So we decided to get off birth control about a month ago and start trying. Well, apparently it's a lot easier to get pregnant a second time because it only took us a month ;). We were shocked that it happened so fast but we couldn't be happier! Our kids will be a year & 1/2 apart which is just like my brother & I.

I am about 5 weeks & 4ish days along. And according to my last menstrual cycle, the baby should be due July 3rd. Which is really funny because all of our b-days are on a 3rd. Loren's is May 3rd, mine is August 3rd, Addie's is Dec 23rd, our wedding anniversary is July 3rd (the due date), and even Sadie was born on May 23rd. Crazy!

I will give you more updates after our first appt! :)

Addie's First Halloween

Addie had a good Halloween! First we went to a "Family Day" BBQ on base for Loren's company. It was pretty fun. There was a bull riding machine and Addie was laughing every time anyone would ride it. Lol! But once that was over, we headed over to Bill & Jana's for the weekend.

Addie's hair looks funny in this one..Lol.

Later that night we went Trick-Or-Treating with all the Pickards, their friends and their friends' kids. It was pretty fun but as you can see, Addison got bored ;)

But once we got back to the house, she woke back up and played with the kitty :)

Neuschwanstein Castle

Speaking of traveling Europe.. If we ever get to go to Germany, I really really want to take a tour of the Neuschwanstein Castle!!! This is the castle that inspired the creators at Disney for the Disney Castle.

Neuschwanstein Castle is one of the world's most fanciful, recognizable and controversial buildings.

Neuschwanstein Castle is a bizarre castle conceived by the "Mad King" Ludwig II of Bavaria, Germany. It was built in the 19th century but was designed as a fanciful recreation of medieval castles dating back to the 12th century.