Valentine's

I wanted to try something creative this year for valentines for Natalie's friends at PDO. So I made these cake pops from http://www.bakerella.com/.



I also wanted to make these valentines from http://www.skiptomylou.org/.



So, this is what I did...

I made the cake pops and used them instead of tootsie roll pops in the middle of the flowers. I love the way they turned out! It took me a few trys to get the hang of dipping the cake pops. I ended up making the balls and then putting them in the freezer for about 15 minutes. This really helped!




Here are the cake pops waiting to be wrapped. The ones in the background are my first attempts.



Waiting to be put into flower valentines.



Finished!



Now, if I could just figure out how to take really good pictures of my projects. I don't have good lighting in my house so it's kinda difficult. If anyone has any suggestions, please send them my way!

Big Mamaw

Last week we said goodbye to Michael's great grandmother, aka Big Mamaw. She was a wonderful, godly woman. I've only known her for 7 years. My first memories of her were eating lunch at her duplex on Sunday afternoons. She always made enough food to feed a small army and boy was it good! Michael's uncle and I always fought over who got the last piece of her cornbread. When she got to where she couldn't get around really well, we would tell her we were bringing food over to spend time and eat with her. It didn't matter, she still made food. She was always worried we wouldn't bring enough. She was a very independent woman. I loved to listen to her stories about growing up. After she went to live in the nursing home, we visited her whenever we came into town. She loved both of my girls dearly. We loved to listen to her stories about her latest boyfriends. She said they would chase her down the hals. One time, we asked her about them and this was her response, "Another one died. They just keep dropping like flies." She was always making us laugh. I will miss her. I'm glad she was able to see so many of her great great grandkids. She has 12. Big Mamaw was a wonderful woman who will be greatly missed! I know that we will see her again someday. Until then, we will pass down her stories and legacy to our kids.

We took these when Natalie was about 6 weeks old. This was the first time Mamaw met her.

This was the first time she met Laney back in October. Laney loved her!

This was the last time we went to visit Mamaw. We were all in for Thanksgiving. (We weren't able to visit her at Christmas because Laney was sick.)