Calling ALL chocolate lovers!!!!

I need your help! My birthday is coming up and all I want is the most delicious chocolate cake/dessert that I have ever tasted. AND, I want to make it myself. I really like baking and I would enjoy the dessert even more if I knew I made it. Anyway, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE leave me comment with a recipe or a link to the most delicious chocolate dessert you have ever had or made. You have three days, give your best shot!!!!!

Family Photos!

Here are a few shots of our Dobbertin Family Photo Session. The pictures were taken by Trisha Priebe.

Our pretty little girl who will not smile.

My niece, Jayne. I love this little girl - tears and all!

Jayne and her mama, Kate

The Ryan Dobbertin Family

The WHOLE crew

Ryan's mom and dad, his three brothers, their wives and all 11 (soon to be 12) grandchildren

I loved this pic. Not a great smile of Gav, but it captures him perfectly!

My adorable Nephew Liam - Love this picture!

Will - what a cutie!

Baby Wipes!

I am seriously considering making my own baby wipes and was curious to see if any of you have ventured into this before. A friend of mine gave me this "recipe":

1 T baby wash/shampoo
1 T baby oil
1 T baby lotion
2 cups water
Bounty paper towel roll, cut in half
Round tupperware container

Have you tried this or something similar that worked well for you? What are your thoughts?

Whirlwind

The last two weeks have been quite the whirlwind! We . . .

Had Ryan's brother, wife and two kids here for the weekend

Headed to Michigan for a week - went to two different pools, had a fish fry, celebrated my mom's birthday and Father's Day, visited the Detroit Zoo, took lot's of naps

Dealt with Charlotte being sick throing up for the first time

Measured Gavin, who grew almost TWO inches in the last two months

(Ryan) got an award at work - because he's AWESOME

Had a Dobbertin family photo session (pics to come later)

(I) Have not had any time (okay, energy) to crochet lately

Have watched my belly doubled in size!

Have been couponing like crazy - Ryan is even into it

Are reading Dave Ramsey's book "Total Money Makeover"

whew! I feel like that is only half of it, but you get the idea. We've been having a blast, but are now catching up on our sleep! Hope your summer is shaping up to be as fun as ours is!

Fun Day!

We had such a fun day today! Ryan took the day off of work and we headed to our big ultrasound! When I was pregnant with Charlotte, I didn't have any caffeine or sugar on the day of my ultrasound. She was sound asleep with her legs closed shut when they were trying to determine her gender. This time around, I made sure to drink a little caffeinated beverage before we left! BOY did it work! This babe was dancing all around and showing us HIS stuff. That's right. It's a BOY! We are thrilled, especially Gavin. He got his brother! Now, we are busy playing the name game. Boy names are SO HARD for us to pick out. We can hardly agree on anything. Got any suggestions for us?

Coupon Adventures

Just came back from a few couponing adventures! This stuff can get pretty addicting! I'll spare you the details since most of you already know how to score great deals. Long story short, I walked out of CVS with six Dove deodorants and paid $.86 out of my pocket. Then I headed across the street to Target and scored a scrubbing bubbles power sprayer kit and refill for FREE. The cashier had to adjust the coupon so I wasn't making money off of the deal. It was great! I found these two deals listed at moneysavingmom.com and hip2save.com (thanks, Kelly!).

So, what are your favorite coupon websites? I would love to get some more input. I am keeping close track of everything I spend this month to compare it to what I used to spend on various products. I can't wait to see the savings add up!

Deal!

I snagged these crocs for Gavin at a garage sale the past weekend. They were a little dirty so I ran them through the dish washer. They still had a few spots on them when they came out, but Ryan cleaned them up with the magic eraser. They look good to me (especially since I know they will be dirty again in about two days!)! I'd say it was $1 well spent!

K.I.S.S.

One of Ryan's most commonly used phrases over the last several years has been, "Keep It Simple, Stupid!" I assure you, this is not directed at me. He is not calling me stupid. We just look at some families around us and see how over scheduled they are, how much "stuff" they have, how many sports their kids are involved in and so on. I realized that some families just work well that way, but we are not one of them. We strongly feel that the simpler you life it, the better and happier you will be. We always try to keep our "things" down to a minimum and our schedules at an appropriate (for us!) level. As we've been reevaluation several aspects of our lives, we came to to conclusion that we have somehow lost our minimalist attitude when it comes to the kids toys. Admittedly, buying toys for our kids is our biggest weakness. Combine that with out of control grandparents (you know who you are!) and we've landed ourselves in what looks like a day care center on some days! I went on a rampage this weekend clearing out toys we don't use and/or don't need. Gavin was so awesome during the whole process. He was willing to give up so much with little to no complaining about it. This mama was proud! I feel like the decluttering felt so good that I am moving to other areas of our house this week to see what else I can pare down! So, that's what we've been up to. We're tryin' to "keep it simple" over here!

I emptied out this entire bin full of toys - Charlotte isn't quite sure what is going on!

Here's a load of stuff that I am going to either sell on Craigslist or in a garage sale

I don't feel even the least bit bad for getting rid of toys because this is what my kids end up doing all day anyway!

That's almost 9 feet up!

Brother or Sister?

Gavin really wants a brother. He says, "I already have a sister, so now I need a brother." We find out this Friday what the gender of babe 3 is, so I have been trying to prepare Gavin just in case it is a girl. Today I said, "So, are you going to be upset if we get a sister instead of a brother?" He replied, ever so sweetly, "No, I will love a sister just as much!" How sweet is my boy! I told him I hope it is a girl so that I can always say he's my favorite boy in the whole world!

Coupons!!

My brother and sister were here over Memorial weekend (we had a blast) and my sis gave me a short tutorial in coupons and how to get her oh so fabulous grocery deals. I know I'm probably a little late jumping in on the coupon thing. But the other day, I went to CVS and purchased a pack of clearanced diapers for $2.12 and then got $2.00 in cvs extra care bucks. So, after the $2 ECB, I pretty much paid .12 for a pack of diapers. I will be using them when we go to Michigan in a few weeks. Normally, I would have just bought a back of diapers at target for $7.99. I'd say I got a pretty good deal! Yay! for coupons and yay! for sister in laws!

I Can't Believe . . .

I can't believe . . .

Gavin is now training wheel free!

I have to pee five minutes after I just peed.

I am still getting sick if I don't take my med's.

How good I feel at 18 weeks pregnant (when I'm not throwing up, that is). I never knew pregnancy could be anything but miserable!

How grown up I felt after attending a Parent's meeting at Gavin's school for next year.

The great deal I got on cloth diapers! I am now equipped to cloth not one, but TWO kids! Yay!

We get to find out the gender of babe #3 in a week and a half (hopefully, that is!)

How tough Charlotte is - she'll smack her head on something, flash a dirty look and just say "OWWWW!" and then get on with life.

Gavin can count to 100 (with a few helps)