Guess Who I Met + a Giveaway

I can't believe I am just getting around to posting this, but

guess who graced Dallas with her presence last Thursday?

Yes, that's right. I met the very lovely & talented Bakerella!

Yet another reason why I love living in the big city.

Bakerella is currently on tour for her recently published Cake Pops Book. And out

of all the cities she could have visited, she came to Dallas! Not sure how it is decided

where she goes for her book signings, but whoever put Dallas down for the tour,

I thank you!

Anyway, as soon as I found out she was coming, I put on our family

calender BAKERELLA, so Josh could stay home with Noah.

And of course, I also gave him verbal warning not to make any plans that day.

I was not about to take a toddler to the book signing with me. I can't

even imagine. In fact, I don't want to imagine what that would be like. Ha.

And guess what? Maybe a week before the signing, I found out

Josh had signed up to work a shift that he could not cancel. What?!

To make a long story short, we "miscommunicated"... somehow.

And, he got in big trouble.

So, it looked like I was, in fact, taking Mr. Noah with me to the book

signing... until my sweet friend, Laura, found out he was going with me.

She graciously offered to watch Noah while I went to Dallas that morning,

which meant, she had t-w-o toddlers to keep up with. Bless her heart.

So, anyway, it all worked out.

I drove to Dallas {with my wonderful friend Mr. Garmin leading the way}...

only making three wrong turns before I finally found Williams-Sonoma.

Must have been the nerves, because I never get lost with the GPS.

I was like, "What is wrong with me... is it that hard to follow "turn right?"

But I made it,

and I was number 12 in line!!

I went into Williams-Sonoma to buy my books...

one for me

one for Laura

and one for you!

Bakeralla gave a short demonstration, answered

a bunch of our questions, and then signed all of our books.

It was so fun having the chance to meet Bakerella after following

her blog for so long. She was so sweet and had such a bubbly personality.

I recently made my first batch of cake pops, and they

were delicious and so easy to make.

The book is filled with easy step-by-step instructions for how

to recreate Bakerella's amazing cake pops right from your own kitchen. The book

gives lots of tips on decorating, dipping, coloring and melting the chocolate, and

ideas for presentation. It really is a fun book to have; I can't wait to use it again!

So, I have an extra signed book lying around the house

waiting to be used. Who wants it?

Enter for a chance to win this book

and unleash your inner Bakerella!

1. Leave me a comment. Simple as that.

For extra entries:

2. Become a follower of my blog through Google Friend Connect

on the right side of my blog {it's an easy click of a couple of buttons,

and yes, anyone can do it.} Leave a comment telling me you are a new

follower. If you are already a follower, just comment letting me know.

3. Tweet and/or Facebook this:

Win Bakerella's signed Cake Pops Book from The Bonjour's!

http://goo.gl/CYwYt

Come back and comment letting me know you linked this giveaway.

4. Click here and tell me which Cake Pop is your favorite?

So, you have four chances to win.

Please leave a separate comment for each entry. Thank you!

Random.org will select a winner at 10 p.m. (CST)
Thursday, Nov. 18th, 2010.

Good luck to all!

Homemade Playdough!

Have you ever made playdough before?

I came across this recipe for homemade playdough and

thought it would be fun to make Noah a batch to play with.

The recipe is so simple, and it calls for ingredients

you probably already have in your pantry. So, it's fun and free!

Today was Noah's first time to play with playdough; he loved it!

We were talking about rolling the playdough into balls,

and shortly after out came the word, "ro." It was so, so cute!

Here is a short video of Noah saying "roll."

So sweet!

I have to admit...

I think I had just as much fun playing

with the playdough as Noah did. :)

p.s. The recipe calls for cream of tarter

but since I didn't have any, I substituted

six teaspoons of lemon juice.

Weird, huh? But it works!

Tired.

Oh, wow. I'm tirrrred!

I just edited a bunch of pictures from a recent

senior session I did with the beautiful Melissa.

Here are some of my favorites!

It was so hard picking out just a few

to show you-- she's a natural!

p.s. Thank you so much for all of your

sweet comments about the new blog layout!

what do you think?

Remember this post?

I finally made up my mind!

What do you think of the new blog layout?

I love it! Josh worked his magic and I could

not be more happy with the way it turned out.

Ahhhh! Finally!

And did you notice? I also have a new blog button!

Isn't it pretty?!

If you have an old one, would you

mind replacing it with the new one?

I hope you enjoy the changes as much

as I am. I think this one's a keeper!

Have a lovely Sunday.

p.s. I'm sooo excited for the upcoming giveaway!

I'll be posting it soon!

diy chalkboard baskets

I love me a good do-it-yourself project.

So today when I came across these chalkboard baskets

from Little Yellow Treehouse I had to bookmark them!

I'm thinking they would be perfect for Noah's new big

boy room-- once I figure out the theme I want to go with.

Decisions, decisions.

Totally love this idea!

Tutorial & images found here.

Trick-or-Treat

Noah had the best time trick-or-treating
on Sunday evening. He was the cutest
little Buzz Lightyear I think I've ever seen.

And his PJ's-turned-costume set us back
a mere $7 bucks {including the shoes}.

We decided to go cheap and easy this year.
Might as well do it when they don't care, right?



Of course, before we actually started going door
to door, I had to get a few pictures of my sweet little Buzz.
I knew once he figured out he was getting candy,
there would be no posing for the camera.

Such a sweet smile.

It wasn't long before Buzz found

himself some grass & leaves to play with.

We weren't sure what Noah would think of
trick-or-treating, since this was his very first time,
but we were quite surprised how well he did. He LOVED it.
And he quickly got the hang of it after watching some of the
older kids grab some candy and put it in their candy bag.

Of course, Noah didn't stop at just taking the candy.
He wanted to go in the houses; every time a door was opened,
Noah invited himself in. It was hilarious!

Noah was adamant that he put the candy in his bag.

If they put it in his bag for him, he would look at them with

the funniest expression like, "Why did you do that?"

And every time he got a piece of candy, he would put it in his bag,
turn around and sign "thank you" as he walked off. He was ready to
move on to the next house!

Noah only ate one piece of candy the whole time we were

out trick-or-treating! He really didn't care so much about eating

the candy as much as collecting it and putting it in his bag.

We had such a great time together as a family.

As we were walking down the street, Josh said,

"I love this. It is so much fun."

It's true, I think Josh and I were having just
as much fun as Noah was that evening.

We are already looking forward to next year!