time off from work (NOT!)

{ warning: this is a picture-filled entry. it may bore you or it may not. but thanks for looking anyway. :) }


who takes time off from work just to work? yours truly. heehee. i have neglected housework (unintentionally) for quite a while and i owe it to my family to come home to a very polished and fresh-smelling house. :-D so after accomplishing my other domestic chores, i moved on to my 'favorite' one.

i was looking forward to my days off cuz i have been planning [it's been a long time since i saw the challenge over at the daring baker's and promised myself that i'd one day try it] to make cinnamon rolls.

i so love cinnamon. i like it in my toast. in my coffee. and i love apple pie overloaded with cinnamon [is there such a thing?].

i found this illustrated recipe of cinnamon rolls from pioneerwoman (very very witty and talented woman)

i have a very cute helper which made the process merrier and messy-er. hihi. JP and i made the dough the night before we were to bake our goodies. he was so excited (as you can see in his expression, hihi). he can't wait to use the rolling pin. note: he offered to help me because he wanted to see the dough rise and i promised he'll use the rolling pin to roll the dough.

so, we started by adding our yeast to the warm milk, oil and butter mixture.

we waited a while before adding the flour and below is my helper (while waiting)
and then my little helper continued by adding the flour and mixing our would be doughnoticed that my little baker doesn't have an apron? as little as he is, he managed to destroy my apron when he was acting so grown up and tried wearing it without help. so there goes a messy shirt (for sure) after the dough making.

left the dough to sit in the fridge to knead the next morning after i energized (after playing SIMS2 until midnight - heehee - this is my latest addiction).

the next day, i didn't wait for my little helper to wake up (which was a very,very bad idea cuz i had a bout with a crying boy for more than 10 minutes when he woke up and learned that i made the rolls while he was asleep) i decided to go ahead and make the rolls.you gotta have to be generous with butter and cinnamon. yum-o!

while waiting for them to rise (and as what pioneerwoman suggested), you can do the laundry, fold clothes, play SIMS2. heehee.

modified it a little. since hubby likes his food well done, i decided to glaze some of the rolls before baking them. this will give me caramelized rolls which i am just oh so sure hubby will love. :-D

and while the rolls were in the oven, i also made chocolate muffins and chocohip-oatmeal-peanutbutter cookies.

so my babies will have muffins (with a surprise). JP will have his stuffed with chocolate chips and for daddy, a small scoop of his favorite chunky peanut butter.

whenever i bake, i do it so most members of my family will have goodies. i make sure that everyone will have their small bag of cookies and a muffin to go. :-)

but most especially, i just love making these babies happy.

lots'a birthdays!

what a happy month this is :-D ... why?

plenty of birthdays and birthdays are happiness, presents, joy, parties and a lot more happy adjectives. :-)

happy birthday to these wonderful people: diane (technically, august), michelle, gracie, joanne, sheryl (of bookoto), yoyin (technically, october)

he is now 6

our little boy is not so little anymore. :-D

he is now 6 years old. :-D

hubby and i have [long] planned a mini vacation [at least that's what we call it when we take a leave of absence from work] to celebrate our son's birthday. we were not able to get away [an out of town] but we partied [with special people in our lives] and for me, that was a blast.

we started it with a get together with the gang on the eve of his birthday. we are rarely complete and so it was an opportunity to spend some time with friends. [JP took this photo himself. :-D ]

and on his birthday, we had him choose his gift. we went to Toy Kingdom and bought him a remote control race car that he had been eyeing for a long time already and a small metal race car that daddy bought as a bonus. [such a fan of cars, especially race cars] we [with my apo - yes, JP's great grandma] had a simple dinner at Rumpa. JP has been wanting to dine here ever since he saw the place and so we made it a point to fulfill that wish. isn't that a happy boy (waiting to devour his dinner)?
[tired afterwards and won't even give me a smile]

and how else would you wrap the day up but with a birthday cake (especially made by mommy) and a picture of the three of us (and his birthday presents - to remind us how lucky we are for life's blessings)
and that was not the end of it. the next day, he received another gift. this time it was from isa. a hotwheels starter set [to add to his collection of cars].

[picture of isa's present to be inserted here]

and on monday, it was a celebration with my family.

it was as if the celebration does not end but we were glad to have taken time off work to make sure that JP was happy on his 6th birthday.

[ daddy: mission accomplished :-D ]

a mother's fear

because i only have one child, it doesn't mean that when i have another one the love i have for my first born will lessen. it doesn't mean that i'll be torn. but it has always been at the back of my mind. how will i be able to love my children with different personalities, equally? i have only one child, so i don't know how (yet).

will i be able to learn how? i believe so. the same way my instincts guided me when i'd first known that i will soon be a mom.

i worry, but i am confident that i will overcome it. i will learn.

award winning [hihi]

Flattering indeed. Thank you, Jo for sharing this award.

here are the rules for passing on the award:
1. Put the logo on your blog
2. Add a link to the person who awarded you.
3. Nominate at least seven other blogs
4. Add links to those blogs on your blog
5. Leave a message for your nominee on their blog.

i would like to share this award to Gracie, Romely, Yoyin, Aidisan, Marisa K, CH and Jeanie

[i wanted to award more fellow scrappers but most of them were already awarded with this]

and got this one from Gracie. [thank you :-D ]

rules:
(1) The winner can put the logo on their blog.
(2) Link the person you received your award from.
(3) Nominate at least 7 other blogs.
(4) Put links of those on yours.
(5) Leave a message on the blogs of the girls or boys you’ve nominated.

and i wanted to share with you the blogs i love [i included others who may already have received this award]: yoyin's, romel's, marisa k's, bjay's, cabbie's, joan's, aidisan's, cel's, ch's, jeanie's, marix's , michelle's [still a lot in my list but got to stop here, i already exceeded my 7, hihi]

buttons, buttons, buttons

i made this layout last summer and i think it applies to method playground's challenge. i just love buttons and i just have to use buttons in an already button-filled paper. :-D


i remember doing this layout to document how i felt [my body felt] when hubby and i helped a friend look for wedding rings in Manila [an hour drive from our city]. the exhausting part is that my friend and i came from a night shift, left work at 6:00 am and went straight to where we were going to look for nice rings [and i still laugh at that picture everytime cause i can just feel the exhaustion in it]. :-)

joaquin express

i enjoyed doing this layout because of the straight simple lines. [as you don't know, i am a geometric person - i cannot {for the love of God} draw] but that is all right. i guess this hobby does not really call for that talent and i am grateful for that because i can simply express myself even if my people drawings are all in sticks. ;-)





journaling: before cars, your fascination was with trains ... you fell in love with locomotives when you first saw Thomas ... and your ultimate dream is to ride a real life train ... someday my son ... in the meantime, i have for you - your own little train ... mommy sept 4, 2008 ... joaquin express

oh my! oh my rachael ray

i can't wait til i can play in the kitchen with these. :-D

and i thank a very, very kind person for helping me get this set [in GREEN - i can't thank you enough for this favor].

the above is the same grin and happiness painted on my face when i learned that i will soon own these.

anyway, can't blame the guys for the silly grins [those will probably be the same smiles i will see, once i cook their favorites with my new pots and pans] . :-)