maternity pictures

I'm only 35 weeks pregnant, but I've been on bed rest the last couple of weeks (long story, I won't explain it all now) and I've been told to come with packed bags to all of my future midwife appointments - so Jason and I thought it would be wise to get some maternity pictures done now, rather than wait since baby could come earlier than expected.

I pulled up a few web sites that had poses I liked and we did our best to mimic them.  My only original ideas were to take some pictures on our bed and they sort of turned out.  It's hard to get 3 kids to look natural and relaxed when you're taking pictures with a timer.  It was a lot of setting things up and moving furniture around and I'm sooo looking forward to having someone else take newborn pictures!  My good friend Brandie takes fabulous pics and we've already "reserved" her services once baby arrives!  You can check out her site here- Busy B Photography

Here are some of the best shots of the day....

I like how these family shots came out, except for the angle of my body... 'cause it looks like my belly is huge and hangs over my legs kinda funny....

We wanted Liam to do this, but he refused, so Evie happily took his place!

Liam did however want to compare belly buttons!

I need to re-edit this one eventually. I wanted to erase a few of the stretch marks that were unsightly and it came out looking a little too smooth!

My favorite!

cupcakes

I LOVE cupcakes. They are just the right size for fulfilling a sweet craving without feeling too guilty and they look so pretty!  That's probably what I like best about them.  You can use a simple wrapper and decorate the cake itself or use a fancy wrapper to dress up a simple cake.  I am addicted to buying cupcake wrappers.  If I see a cute one, I get it.  It has caused the drawer I house all my cake decorating items in to become rather full.

Back in November when we went to Phoenix for Thanksgiving, we made our usual trip to IKEA and what did I find there but some awesome cupcake wrappers!  They are actually for popovers, but after looking for the pan that was supposed to be in the rack with the wrappers and not finding it, I figured I'd just make them work.

I decided to use them for Valentine's Day cupcakes for Katie's class party at school.  They wouldn't be as large as regular cupcakes and I could get 30 of them in one pan for her to carry.

One problem.  Since I didn't have the fancy pan that helped them keep their shape, they flared out at the top and would tip over.

Here's the difference in size of how they fit in a muffin pan compared to a regular liner

And this is what the difference in size after the baking process

So I decided to get creative.  I didn't want 30 cupcakes falling over again and again.  I had a bunch of silicone "muffin liners" that don't have to be in a tin, they can just sit on a cookie sheet.  Great it you want to make muffins and not have them in wrappers when you serve them.  You just bake them in there and then pop them out.

Anyway, I doubled up the silicone liners and put them in a pan and THEN put the popover paper liners in.  They fit perfectly, were just the right size and didn't tip over anymore.

The only downside to this method is I can only bake 6 cupcakes at a time and they take a little longer to cook than usual therefore it takes forever to make a lot.  So I think that I will send someone who lives near an IKEA to look for the popover pan one of these days.  :)

Finished product! (Red velvet cupcakes w/ cream cheese frosting)

Just for fun... another set of cupcakes that I made last weekend for a baby shower!

 (Chocolate and coffee (mocha) cupcakes w/ buttercream icing and sour cream cupcakes topped w/ a white chocolate liqueur icing & a raspberry)