Hair Challenge 2016 Link Up #2

Week 2 of the Hair Challenge! Lots to go over, so let's get to it! 

Last week started off fairly strong, can't say as much for this week, but I'll get back at it...I hope, I just need to figure out one hair style I want to do this week...I can do this! It's only week 3 and I'm already struggling, yikes! Get to it!

Last Tuesday, I curled my hair the night before so I got these pretty curls. I just threw back my hair and called it a day.

Wednesday I had the same curls and tried to do a crisscross half up do, I think it worked out pretty well with this outfit.

I was wearing a cute bow belt, I should have gotten a close up of it.

Last Thursday I did these travel braids, they worked out so well, they will definitely be on repeat and I hope that it just gets easier and quicker to do as I get better at this whole doing my hair thing.

I took the scarf off so you could see the braid better.

Friday was a bit of a fail, but at least I got my hair a little up...haha. I just really liked my outfit that day.

Saturday I was able to sit down and put together a video for you! I did the pull through braid, She did more sections, which I think would look better, next time I'll do more sections, but I was short on time and couldn't really go back and do it over. Oh well next time! I was even able to do an outfit post too! I absolutely LOVE this poncho...so comfy and stylish. There are some front pockets on it, which you can't really see very well in the photos.

I think having an up hairdo really works with shirts that come up high on your neck. 

Oh and in case you were wondering yep, Mr. took his usual picture as I was going through them.

Too bad the poncho is covering the part that Mr. really likes, haha.

I hope you're looking at this and thinking, yep, I'm going to link up and do my hair next week! Come join me on this journey!

An InLinkz Link-up

Also linking up with Let's Be Friends Blog Hop, Tucker Up, On Trend Tuesday, Cappuccino and Fashion, Sydney Fashion Hunter, Pampers and Pearls, Happiness at Mid Life, The Pleated Poppy, Shopping My Closet,  Let It Shine, More Pieces of Me,  Pumps and Push-Ups,  A Lovely Little Wardrobe, Grace,  Leanne and Lisa 

How To Make A Rainbow Checkered Cake

As promised here is my tutorial on how I made Baby Fox's Birthday Rainbow Cake. As you know I followed this tutorial, but really it's not as hard as it may seem, really. I'm going to show you how easy it is.

First, I bought the supplies:

You will need these* pans

These* circular cutters

And I bought two sets of colors, this one*and this one*for the specific colors I was looking for (more on this later)

Directions:

I made a cake...from scratch. Last year I made a box cake and it was just too soft and moist (I know such a problem right?) but it was too soft and it just cracked immediately when I tried to cut it. I learned from my mistakes and made one from scratch. I made the white cake from my America's Test Kitchen* cookbook.

I then divided the cake into 6 parts (using my kids plastic bowls*). Of course the cake pan set only came in a set of 5, so I colored 5 of them right away and then waited to color the last one until I was ready to bake it.

For coloring the cake mix, learn from my mistake...I tried to use Wilton coloring* one year for a rainbow cake and the colors were not nearly as vibrant. I was so happy that I bought the AmeriColor*, the colors were vibrant and so much easier to mix than the Wilton color.

This is what 5 of them looked like going into the oven, I made the red one after these came out of the oven and cooled.

After they were all cooled I cut the top and bottoms off (to get rid of the little bits of brown), and then stacked them and trimmed off all of the sides, so that there were no brown parts, I just want all of the vibrant colors to come through when cut.

Once that was all done, I laid them out and used the cookie cutters to cut the circles, obviously I did this with all of the colors.

I made some frosting, I used the Wilton recipe for frosting (My Cupcake Addiction also has a recipe, but her's uses milk and I don't have room in the fridge to store a cake).

I used a little bit of frosting in between each circle and mixed and matched all of the circles. How cool does that look?

I then stacked them with a bit of frosting in between each layer, and then crumb coated it and put it in the freezer for about an hour (mostly because I got busy and was doing something else).

I was then able to put the last layer of frosting on and add a batman symbol that I made. For that I printed out a batman symbol, then bought some store bought black frosting in a tube and melted some Black Wilton Chocolate* and filled it in.

I did try My Cupcake Addictions method to get the smooth sides but it didn't work. I think maybe if you were using her icing it might have worked, mine was a little too soft. The best part was when we cut into the cake and Baby Fox was so excited and surprised to see what was inside.

For minimal effort, you get a big bang for your buck, go ahead and try it for your next cake.

Linking up with That DIY Party, Tweek it Tuesday, Mad Skills Party,  Fabulous Party, Weekend Retreat , Tuesday Talk,  Wake Up Wednesday Linky Party, Let's Be Friends Blog Hop, Wildly Original,

Weekend Recap and How We Store Our Christmas Decorations

Mr. got his Christmas gift in the mail and had to put it together right away. He's so excited to get a little cardio in the morning before he leaves for work.

Saturday was a stay at home type of day. My dad dropped of some donuts for the kids.

I wanted to get the Christmas decorations down. So while they ate breakfast/donuts and watched Star Wars, I started taking stuff down.

I thought I'm always curious about how people store things, so this is how we store our stuff, in bins, and lots of them.

A side view to get the depth of the bins. I have to admit that there is one more large bin that was in the garage that houses one of our Christmas trees and a few odds and ends.

In our garage we have lots of cabinets, on this top shelf we store all of the decorations for the Red/Black/White Christmas Tree.

A little closer up, the thing on the middles shelf on the right is a scarecrow that I forgot I had for Thanksgiving.

To the right of the cabinet we keep some of our Halloween/Thanksgiving and Christmas decorations. Plus some camping stuff and that big box on the far right is left over carpet from our carpet installation...6 years ago.

In our third car garage we have these bins. One of them is old clothes and things from my childhood, two of them are extra toys that we rotate and the other four are for Christmas decorations.

Oh and one last spot, Remember how the one of the large bins hold a Christmas tree? Well the very bottom of the tree doesn't fit in the bin, so it goes there on the top left shelf. There's also some climbing gear (that jug in the middle of the two bins is climbing chalk.)

After we got most of the Christmas stuff put away we took the kids over to the park, the kids like taking this "secret" passage to the park, yes she's wearing her Pj's, we couldn't get her out of them, and why fight it? It's a lazy Saturday.

She was so excited to ride on her scooter. She was running to me to retrieve her scooter.

She is still trying to get used to the scooter, so her brother was helping out, my heart was bursting with pride and love.

and this is the reason it's best if Daddy takes the kids to the park by himself...I had quite a few heart attacks! Yes he seemed as high as this picture...I was sure he was going to go flying off.

Speaking of flying, he does like to jump off the swing, at least he has enough reason to jump off when he's a little lower.

Sunday Mr. took Baby Fox to the movies to see Star Wars.

Mini Fox and I went to my favorite store...we sent this back as a reply.

She's saying, "[I'm In a] Basket Full of Stuff"

We were at Target, then went grocery shopping and came back ate lunch and she took a nap while I did some blog stuff. Pretty low key weekend if you ask me. Just what we all needed actually.

How was all of your weekend? 

Linking up with  Erin for Weekend Snapshot4, B Loved Boston and Champagne & Suburbs  for Weekending

Friday Favorites #52

First Friday Favorites of the year. This year

This week on the blog I wrote quickly recapped the best Christmas break

Recapped my December in Numbers

Shared my first week of hair styles from my Hair Challenge.

and last but not least finally shared our family photos we took last year, and our Christmas card!

Remember my hair post from Wednesday? When I got home, Mini Fox saw me and immediately wanted hair like me...I tried to get a picture, but she wasn't in a picture mood. But I did it the same exact way and she was so excited. I can't wait for her hair to get a bit longer so I can do it everyday.

Oh my gosh...this lady, crazy town.

#WorkoutGoals, much?! Watch this sprinter's insane stair jumps! https://t.co/4Ehtr3fCgR

— Kathie Lee and Hoda (@klgandhoda) January 7, 2016

This video, hilarious...totally the opposite of the video above. 

New Year's Resolutions
Realistic as hell
Posted by Funniest Videos Online on Friday, January 1, 2016

Caught these two snuggling and playing the iPad, which when we asked Baby Fox what he wanted to name his iPad he said "Smarty Pants", he's so funny. The first couple of times he asked for Smarty Pants I stared at him blankly, until he told me with a huge disapproving sigh, like Mom how could you forget.

I love this family of mine. I just wish the shadow from my arm wasn't across Baby Fox's face, but I'll take it :) You can't see this, but both kids decided to wear their Batman Jams.

Linking up with Erika, Andrea, and Narci for Friday Favorites, September Farm and The Farmer's Wife for Oh Hey, Friday! April and the girls for Five on Friday, and Jennie for Friday Favorites