Gender Reveal Party

About 2.5 months ago, we announced that we are expecting our THIRD child! (See post HERE) Well, we hit 18.5 weeks and found out the gender of the baby! I knew that I wanted to do something fun with this one. Recently, I have seen a lot of people not find out at the ultrasound, but have a friend plan a party to surprise them or have the doctor's office call into a bakery. One of my best friend's asked if she could do the party & surprise us all. I jumped on it and said OK! Then a week later, I changed my mind. I thought of how fun & exciting the ultrasound is, watching them show you everything, and then finding out the gender. I didn't want to miss out on the whole experience. (Sorry, Jen! lol!)
My husband and I decided to find out, then have a party for our girls. We invited family & friends. Had a couple treats. Nothing too fancy. But it was oh so fun for us!

I've seen a post on Pinterest about how they open a box and all blue or pink balloons come out to reveal the gender, but I wanted to do something different. So we put 6 blue balloons in the box, but also included 5 pink. One of the blue ones we duct taped to the inside and pushed it all the way to the bottom. We then put all the other balloons on top & put a lid on it. It was a blast! My 3 year old was more worried about where the other balloons were going instead of the one that stayed. It was hilarious! Another good thing about having both colors in there is the reaction of everyone. We had multiple people say to us, "Our first thought was TWINS!!" or "Well played!!". It was so fun!!

Anyways. Here are just a couple pictures from our fun evening!

 

White cupcakes, frosting, with pink & blue sprinkles! 

Little cups with pacifier candy

 Blue & Pink punch

 The quick set up, under the white/pink tablecloth was a teal one.

 The cake I made. Inside is a fun checkerboard pattern.

 See! First time doing this. So fun!

 

Anyways. The party was fun! Now I get to search Pinterest for a ton of baby boy ideas!! This whole boy thing will be totally new for me. New & exciting!



Make Your Own "Tan in a Can"- FAIL

I don't know about you, but a couple of my friends have pinned ways to make your own Tan in a Can. It could go by other names, but that's what I call it.

Well, with Springtime here, I thought it would be a good time to try it. I honestly knew it wouldn't work going into it- cocoa powder & lotion. Seriously? Hmm. Ok, I'll try it. Haha.

How'd it work? For me... It was AWFUL!! Hello streak city. It was a mess from the beginning. I will give it this, it smelled yummy. I think the worst part was that I used up my Vanilla Lace lotion from VS. Boo. Pregnant brain decided to use yummy lotion instead of plain lotion. I'm super smart.

Mmmmm, streaky leg cracks!

Bam!

So not hot....

 

Here is the original pin:

Anyways. Didn't work for me. Wish it did, because her legs look fab! But hey, it might work for others, but I will stick to my usual tan in a can.

I use Jergens Natural Glow. Yummm. However, I know a couple of my friends tried it, and it turned them orange. So. Good luck! :)

This was the day my husband came home from his deployment in 2010. See the legs- hard to tell- but they're not too crazy tan. This is the only picture I could find that I know I was for sure wearing the tan in a can.

 

 

 

 

Oatmeal Bake

I'm baaaaaaack! Have you missed me??

I know, I know... I have been a big time SLACKER at posting lately. How come no one told me that being pregnant with baby 3 would be so exhausting the first trimester?? Ha. Hit 12 weeks, and my energy is coming back! YAY!

Now onto this beauty....

Oh so yummy, Oatmeal Bake!!

I got this recipe from one of my best friends, Jen! It is fabulous. Not going to lie.

Oatmeal Bake
Ingredients:
3 C Rolled Oats
1 C Brown Sugar
2 tsp Cinnamon
2 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Salt
1 C Milk
2 Eggs
1/2 C Melted Butter
2 tsp Vanilla
3/4 C Blueberries **I cut mine in half because they were HUGE and I am not a blueberry fan to begin with**
3/4 C Peaches (diced)
1/2 C Apple (diced) optional **I didn't use apples. I actually used Strawberries this time**

Preheat oven to 350*.
Mix all dry ingredients together. Set aside.
Mix milk, eggs, butter, and vanilla. Add to the dry ingredients.
Stir in the fruit.
Spread into a sprayed 9x13 pan.
Bake for 40 minutes.

I put the ingredients into the MyFitnessPal to figure out the calories per serving-
If I serve 18 people- 114 Calories.
15 people- 136 Calories
12 people- 171 Calories.
So... Not too bad!

I actually put a little drop of Whipped Cream, it was soooooo good! It's great with or without. My kids LOVED it. My 3 year old kept going into the fridge and making plates of it for herself. It was adorable. She actually even brought a plate to my mom when she visited, and my mom loved it as well. It is a fantastic recipe. I change up the fruits with whatever I have on had.

Jello Slime

I love this stuff. That's all.
Ha.
We always have Slime at family functions- bbq's, thanksgiving, baby blessings, potlucks, etc. the fabulous thing is that is can be changed up super easy. We usually have Lemon-Lime, it is bright green, hence the name "Slime". For Valentines Day, I made Strawberry-Banana.
Super easy to make. Super yummy.

Ingredients:
1 Large Box Cook & Serve Pudding (make sure it's COOK, not Instant) I used Banana for this one, we usually use Lemon for Lemon-Lime
1 Large Box Gelatin - I used Strawberry, use Lime for Lemon-Lime
Cool Whip

Make both following the directions on the boxes. When both boxes are made, whisk together, pour into a 9x13 pan, chill in refrigerator. I personally think it tastes better when it sets overnight. After it is set, top with cool whip. *In the picture I took, there is just cool whip plopped on top, I wasn't in the mood to cover the whole pan at the time, lol*

Cupcake Baby Announcement

 I know, I know... I've been MIA for a while now... I have spent the last couple weeks focusing on our "soon to be" addition and how we were going to announce it to our families.

I LOVE fun baby announcements!! I really wanted this one to be fabulous. I searched ALLLLLLLLLLLL over Pinterest for some ideas. I couldn't find anything that stuck out to me... So, I made this up as I went.

My husband's birthday was on Friday, Feb 15th, so we decided that it would be the perfect opportunity to have everyone together. (We announced our 1st babe on his birthday as well, lol) I decided that a Cafe Rio dinner would be FABULOUS. We {heart} Cafe Rio. Then I thought it would be fun to play 2 games, just so people wouldn't catch onto the 2nd game~ aka "The Announcement".

I started off the day by making the super cute cupcakes.

Food coloring? Check!

Cupcake liners? Check!

 

Babies? Check!

Cake mix split and colored? Check!

I put a little pink in the bottom of each liner first.

Then added the babies, which was kind of disturbing....

After the pink, I did a layer of white and then blue.

I finished off with white on the top.

Baked the cupcakes.

When they first came out, I was kind of sad that some of the pink made it's way to the top. But then quickly realized that frosting would be covering the goodies. Duh.

Frosted all pretty like.
I made sure all the pink wasn't visible...
Another thing I was bummed about, the pink showing through the cupcake on the bottom layer.
Annnnnd then, I realized that people would be focusing too much on the "game". Ha.

At the party, we all ate our SUPER YUMMY homemade Cafe Rio. Sooo good. Then we all moved upstairs to play "Pin the Heart on the Giraffe". Yes. I hearts & giraffe. We went to Target, couldn't find the Donkey, but they had the giraffe for Valentine's Day. It worked out just fine. We handed a goody bag to the winner of that game, then moved onto the next.

"Find the Quarter in your Cupcake". Ha.

We told all our guests that we had hidden a quarter in ONE cupcake, and the winner would get the next goody bag....

One by one, they all started finding babies, and then it was revealed.

WE'RE HAVING A BABY!!

Hello, baby.

I made these for the last goody bag, so everyone got something at the end. I filled the bags with Skittles, then on the front just put a little card saying "Coming this fall. Lutz. Party of 5"
These were totally last minute, and I'm not super proud of the way they turned out, but they worked. 

Anyways! We are SUPER EXCITED!!
So... Don't be surprised if you see random posts on here... Like Fried Pickles... Yummmm

Taco Soup

Winter is in full force!
Hello Snow!
Hello SOUP!

Sooooooo easy to make!!

I know there are a bunch of different versions of Taco Soup floating around, but this is the one my family uses.

Ingredients:
1 pound hamburger
1 medium onion chopped
1 15 ounce can of chili
8 ounces water
1 8 ounce tomato sauce
1 28 ounce stewed tomatoes (I use the petite diced ones)
1 15 ounce kidney beans (we were out, used black beans instead. Mmmmmmm)
1 4 ounce diced green chilies (didn't have any, totally fine to leave it out)
1 can corn
1 package taco season mix (Again, was out. So I used THIS recipe to make my own.)

Brown hamburger & onion together and drain the fat. In a large pan, add hamburger and all the other ingredients. Heat through and serve warm with shredded cheese, fritos, and sour cream on top. (We were out of fritos, they're my weakness, so we used tortilla chips.) You can also add guacamole on top, but I don't do "rottonmole". Lol.

Enjoy!

Chocolate Eclair Dessert

I made this for dessert for our family, as well as the Orange Fluff, on Sunday. Again- 10 people, 20 thumbs up!
Soooooo easy.
Super good.

Chocolate Eclair Dessert

Ingredients:
3 packages of graham crackers, unbroken (as much as possible)
2 small instant French Vanilla puddings
3.5 cups cold milk 8-12oz cool whip
Chocolate frosting

Mix the pudding, milk, & cool whip.

Layer in a 9x13 pan-
Crackers (might have to break some to cover the bottom of the pan)
1/2 pudding mixture.
Crackers.
Rest of pudding mixture.
Crackers.
Top with chocolate frosting.

It's not the prettiest dessert, but it tastes fantastic.