New Baby Arrives

Well, the new baby couldn’t wait for the renovations to be done. My due date was March 10th, but I was scheduled for an induction on March 3rd. (which I was having second thoughts about, because of risk factors) You see number 11 was 10 pounds and 2 ounces. My first child was only 5 pounds. Each one of my children seemed to be getting bigger and bigger, and my hopes were to keep the size of the baby down. The doctors say, that the baby at the end of the pregnancy puts on one ounce every day, which start adding up fast.

I woke up on Saturday (2/26/11) at 5:30 and my water bag was leaking. (But I didn’t realize it just then)

I got to the hospital at around 9:00 a.m. and I wasn’t having any contractions yet. Dad was calling the family to let them know we were staying.

At around 10:00 a.m., I was put on pitocin to get the contractions going, which did get them going after about a half an hour.

At 11:00 a.m., I was given an epidural.

and our beautiful little girl was born at 1:18 p.m. She was 8 pounds 2 ounces, which is a big baby considering she was 12 days early.

This was, by far, the best delivery yet. Even though I have been through it several times, I was still very nervous and prayed the whole pregnancy for a good delivery.

Here are the proud Parents of a Dozen.

Our new addition now shares a birthday with her 4 year old brother.  What are the odds of that happening?

This is a diaper cake gift from our daughter that she made for us. Click here to see how she made it.  Isn't this cute and clever gift idea?

Our Main Floor Renovation: Part 1

We Installed hardwood floors, not too long ago, in a house that we upgraded (another post someday). The price that we received for the wood was such a deal, that my husband thought we should put some in our house. This is not our house. :(
 

How we Organize our Laundry/Mud Room

Here is our laundry room, which we have a hard time trying to keep clean.

How to Frame a Bathroom Mirror

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I showed you how we organize our bathroom here. Below is one of the pictures I showed, and got some requests to show how we framed our mirror. We have framed several mirrors, shown below. Some of the frames we used mitered corners, and some of the frames we used straight side cuts with square corner pieces. The second way, is WAY EASIER.

The BEST Cheese Cake

I thought since Valentines Day is coming up I would post about the best cheese cake ever and extremely easy to make. This recipe is from my Mom who is an excellent cook. One of her hobbies is collecting recipes. She has binders and binders full of recipes she has collected from everywhere (magazines, newspapers and other people). I have tried a lot of cheese cakes and I don’t like any of them but this one. (Maybe it is because it is my Mom’s recipe.) Really though, I will serve it to guest and most of the time I will get a few people who will take a very small piece, just to be polite, but they ALWAYS come back for more. This would be great for Valentines Day, special occasions or just a special treat.
  

Cheese Cake

There are three layers.
Crust (1st layer)
1 1/2 Cups Graham Cracker Crumbs (I use my food processor to crumble 1 package of crackers)
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup melted butter
Combined and press into a 10 inch Spring form pan. Then chill. Sometimes I save a little to sprinkle on the top at the end.
2nd layer
3 8 ounce packages of cream cheese (softened)
1 1/2 cups sugar
4 eggs (lightly beaten)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Combined and pour over crust. Bake at 350 degrees, for 40 minutes. Every oven is different, it should not be totally giggly in the middle, but if it is over cooked it will be dried out
3rd layer
1 pint sour cream
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Combined and pour over 2nd layer after the 40 min. and bake for 5 more minutes.
Cool and then chill before serving.

Do you like cheese cake? If not, try this recipe.

I am linking up to:

My Parent’s Kitchen Renovation

During the summer we took some time to renovate my parent’s (Who also had 12 children) house, and one of the rooms that needed some updating was the kitchen. They had replaced the cabinets, about 20 years ago, which we did not change. Some of the changes we did was to remove the wallpaper, replace the tile that was there for 46 years, replace the hardware, took down the paneling, replaced the sink and faucet and painted the trim and walls. Our goal was to try and update the house so they could hopefully sell (my Mom is having a harder time getting around) and move out by us into a ranch.

After