Happy Birthday Leonella!

Oh my goodness, I cannot believe 1 year has already gone by since the amazing and incredible Leonella Ann came into the world!  This has truly been the best and most rewarding year of my life, and of course the most exciting and interesting!

Once you become pregnant and have a baby, you find yourself talking about the strangest things, but it's all good!  So many hilarious and embarrassing things happen so I have become even better at laughing at myself and just going with the flow!  More pictures coming soon; enjoy!

Mommy and Daddy with the birthday girl!! (after cake)

Thanks Rutheah for helping with these pics!

Thanks Rutheah for helping with these pics!

Thanks Rutheah for helping with these pics!

Dear little baby Leonella Ann,

We love you so much!  You will always be extra special because you are our first baby and a sweet baby girl!  Your personality has blossomed into a silly and loving little lady.  Thank you for bringing so much joy and purpose into our lives!

Love,
Mommy and Daddy

Leonella Milestones:

• Turned head during tummy time: 10 days
• Rolled over tummy to back: 2 months 3 weeks
• Rolled over back to tummy: 3 months 3 days
• Sat up: 4.5 - 5 months
• Crawling: 7 months
• First steps: 8 months 3 weeks
• Walking like a pro: 9 months 2 weeks
• First sounds: baba; dada
• First real words: nana (banana) 10.5 months; toe 11.5 months

Cakes are yummy until you want to puke...

I recently took a cake decorating class with my sister, Taff, and bestie, Ru.  It has really been a lot of fun to do together, but I know that after Leonella's birthday party this weekend, we will not be eating cake for quite a while...

I do really enjoy the baking and decorating though, it can be kind of therapeutic (if I don't have to watch my child at the same time... don't even think about judging me...)  So maybe any activity could be therapeutic if you can do it alone in peace and quiet or with Dancing with the Stars in the background. :)

I must say I learned some things, but I'm not so sure I could not have learned it on my own by reading the book.  The class was with Wilton, which is pretty old school in decorating style, so it is fun to take what you learn and apply it with a more modern touch!

One of the best tips from cake class:
When you take your cake out of the oven, flip it onto the cooling racks immediately!  As long as you butter and flour your pans really well before baking, the cake just comes right out!!  And ALWAYS make sure you use an oven mitt on both hands!!

Things I learned on my own that I love:
This cake recipe is AMAZING!!
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/heavenly-white-cake/Detail.aspx

If you want a cake and frosting that is much "healthier" (not in calories but in the stuff you are putting in your body), always use butter or lard, NEVER use shortening!  For the cake, you use the same measurements as the recipe calls for.  For the frosting, you actually don't need to use as much butter as you would shortening, so it does cut out some calories. :)

It's ok if there are a few crumbs in your frosting!  Don't sweat it if it doesn't look absolutely perfect!  It takes a long time to reach perfection (trust me, I know because I'm so perfect - it took me 2 days, haha just kidding).  People won't even notice anything because they will be high on the thought of eating so much sugar.

Last lesson that EVERYONE can benefit from:
Calories don't count when you're with your girlfriends!!  Ok, that's a lie, but the whole point is that this was amazingly fun because I got to do it with people I love!!  I think the other ladies in the class thought we were a little nuts, and the were right! :)

Blogging World: Here I Am!

(Hello. This is my blog, thanks for looking at it!)

So getting into this blogging thing has been quite the process for me.  (First of all, I'm about 10 years behind, right?  Anyways...)  My husband, Kent, (into music, recording, and other cool "underground mainstream" things) started a new blog on Tumblr so I thought I would too!  I was so impressed by how easy it was to get on and hit a button and post, post, post!!  Unfortunately, I found that I am not quite cool or perhaps young (could that be, at 26?!?) enough for Tumblr.  It seems that people do not blog about marriage and parenting and domestic life (whatever that means) on Tumblr.  So here I am on Blogger.

I am excited to have started a blog, and I hope to put lots of interesting stuff on here.  Updates from the Lutt household of course, but beyond that, thoughts about topics that interest me as a woman, wife, daughter, mommy and all the other roles I play.  All of this for the price of nothing (except your invaluable time) served up on a cute little doily with a side of sarcasm, humor and sincerity.