I was robbed!

There is just no other way to explain it. I was robbed!

Wednesday I received a phone call from a company that wanted to verify some information on a package they were sending me. Knowing the world is full of scams, I told them nothing! They then informed me they were just doing a courtesy call and then we ended the phone call. I went to check my bank statement to be sure. Sure enough my worst fears came true, someone was using my credit card to make purchases I didn't want. GREAT!

There were two unauthorized purchases: one from Shake Weight totalling $125.55 and one from Beach Body totalling 150.29. They were made the following day. I first called DJ to check if he made the online purchases without telling me. He didn't. Then I decided to call the company's myself and see what information I could get about the purchases. I knew from my previous phone call with Shake Weight, the purchase was made in my name and phone number. Why else would they call me for confirmation. So after verifying that information they allowed me access to the account. I found out the account was set up under my name, phone number, home address and credit card information. And they were sending the item to my house. They even gave me a FedEx tracking number! The only thing that wasn't mine was an email address from Hotmail. I thanked the man and proceeded to call the next company. I was on hold for 15 minutes and not once was able to talk to a real person (or machine for that matter) when I decided to give up and let the bank handle that one.

I then went to the bank and canceled the card. I also found out about another purchase that was still pending to Forever Lazy for $537. Glad that one didn't go through! The bank was very helpful and told me I would not be responsible for the fraudulent charges. They also advised me to go to the police station and file a report. So I did. I gave them everything I found out on the phone with the first company and everything I found out at the bank. They advised me to go and get some security software from Best Buy (to replace my free online version) and some tips (that I already knew) about online safety.

I am now in the process of fixing all our accounts that have our old credit card information and securing our side of things the best I can. I do shop online and pay our bills online. But know I am a little scare to pass over my debit card to even the Kroger checker for my groceries. This just stinks! The last couple of days have been so mentally exhausting. I just pray this doesn't continue much longer and that nothing else comes up. And I hope the police can track this person(s) down and hold them accountable for the crimes they committed. I'm not holding my breath for the later.

Moral of the story: Be careful! You are NEVER safe online.

Petite Fours and Chocolate Pops

I helped co-host a baby shower for my friend Angie. I signed up to bring the cake/cupcakes and paper goods and a snack food. I really wanted to try my hand at petite fours instead of the traditional cupcake. They are so pretty and personal. Since I have never made them before I did a test run. It was a lot harder than I thought it would be. I had to go through several methods of icing them before I found the one that worked for me, poured fondant. To keep them simple but fun I dyed the fondant a light green and place chocolate molded candies on top. Her theme was safari and so the candies took the shapes of safari animals. I didn't get any pictures of my own, too busy getting them ready in time. So I took the pictures below from a friends website. Thankfully they got some of my creations. (Thanks Shelly!)

 Shelly was another host and she made this adorable motorcycle diaper cake! You can see it in the back ground of the above picture. If you would like to see it better she has more pictures on her blog. A link is to the left under Shelly.

Again another picture she took of the chocolate pops I made. Angie has been craving anything sweet during her pregnancy and so I decided I would make these chocolate pops for her too. And again, they were safari animals. These took some time doing, but overall were easy to make. I just used melted colored candy and "painted" the molds and then let them set up. Hope she likes them!

Happy Birthday Hannah

Six years ago God blessed us with the best valentine gift ever! Hannah's delivery was 2 1/2 weeks earlier than expected and quite the experience, full of excitement. I'm not going to go into details since I have already done that, but I wanted to share a few memories of her.

Her daddy almost missed the delivery since it was so unexpected. He was umpiring a baseball game in a college in Conway. We couldn't get a hold of him since he wasn't allowed to carry a phone on the field. But he made it.

She weighed 6 lbs. 14 oz. and was 20 inches long.

From the first night she decided she was in charge and kept crying every hour to be fed. And ever since she thinks she runs the show! I love her to death, but sometimes it is exhausting trying to stay in the parent roll! :)

She has the sweetest smile. She is strong-willed, but still sensitive. All around a bunch of fun!

 1st birthday. She was not too happy when it cake time came!

2nd birthday. Very excited about the presents!

3rd birthday. Doodlebops were her favorite thing at the time. So my step-mom, brother and brother's friend dressed up in homemade costumes of the Doodlebops. Hannah loved it!

4th birthday. Minnie Mouse. This was just after she cut her hair by herself. But she was still cute!

 5th birthday. Tinkerbell was the theme this time. She actually was dressed up as Tinkerbell complete with wings. But they didn't make it to this picture. (Sorry picture is blurry)

For her 6th birthday we had a kid party for all her friends and a dinner party with Grandma and Aunt Betsy. I chose Applebee's because Hannah doesn't really have a favorite place to eat. She just wanted mac n' cheese and unfortunately they were out of kids mac n' cheese. Hannah didn't like the grown up version they served. :(

 Grandma, Hannah and Iva

Trey, Daddy, and Aunt Betsy

Since her birthday is on Valentine's day, her class had a valentine party. I decided to send snacks for the next day so she could still have her birthday celebrated, just a day late! I sent rice krispy treats and even wrote on each one "Happy Birthday Hannah". Hope she was able to feel special.

First Snow of 2012

I decided to keep Hannah home today due to the inclement weather. It looked like the weather would get really bad while she was in school and I really didn't want to get out in the snow. However, it really didn't do enough to cause problems and she could have gone to school after all. By the time she would have gotten out though, all the snow had melted or turned to slush. So I was glad she was able to play in it after all.

 Watching it snow, wanting to know when she can go outside and play. (Reminds me of the dog!) I let her play early on so she would actually get to play in the "snow" and not the "sleet/rain". Gotta love Arkansas weather!

 All geared up for wet, cold weather.

 At this point the snow hadn't covered much. I was too cold to go out side and get anything more than this! She stayed out and played for about an hour until she got too cold and come inside to sit beside the fire.

I got nice treat after the weather turned to rain and the road were clear, my brother and his wife came to visit and brought their newborn son, Hunter. I just love snuggling with him!

Loving on Daddy

The kids love spending time with their daddy!

Hannah's Birthday Party

We decided this year to have Hannah's birthday party some where other than our house. She loved attending one at River City Gymnastics and so that is where we ended up going. And as always, she had an idea of what she wanted for her cake! A Hello Kitty cake with flowers and colors pink, purple and white. So this is what I came up with:

Gum paste daisies.

And because I am such a wonderful mom, I decided to leave the camera at home instead of taking it to the party! My sister-in-law had hers and so I will try to get some pictures from her of the actual party. Hannah did have a wonderful time playing with her friends! And she got a good amount of loot too! :)

Sunday School's Kids Valentine Party

My Sunday School has a lot of stay-at-home-moms. So we had a little Valentine get together for the kids who are too young for school. Everyone pitched in to organized a part of the party. Some brought crafts, some brought games and other brought food items. I did sugar cookies in the shape of hearts for the kids (and moms) to ice. We started out by decorating bags to hold our valentines. Then we had a few games, including a heart hunt and pin the heart on the heart! :) Trey really had a good time.

 Hunting for hearts. Each heart had a number on it. When finished, you count up the numbers on your heart and who ever has the highest number wins. There were some other prizes too, but I cant remember.

 Hunting for hearts

 The table after decorating our bags. Lots of stickers!

Ready to count up our hearts!

 We were going to try and blind fold the kids like with pin the tail on the donkey, but they weren't going for it! So we just let them pace the hearts where ever!

 Closest to the middle wins! Go Trey!

 At one point he decided to take a break and found Ms. Amber's lap to rest in!

 Avery and Alexis, two of the girls that came. (I had a hard time telling them apart!)

SUGAR, SUGAR, SUGAR!!!

 MUST HAVE SUGAR COOKIE!

Yup, it was good!

Cakes and More...

The week following the Super Bowl was a very busy week for me! I needed to practice some cake decorating techniques for Hannah's birthday cake and petite fours for a baby shower. For Hannah's cake I wanted to do gum paste flowers. The easiest of these seemed to be daisy's. Since her cake theme is Hello Kitty, I thought daisy's would be a perfect match. I loved working with gum paste! It was like working with play-dough but dried harder than fondant.

I made a multi-tone daisy to match the colors Hannah wanted on her cake, pink, purple and white. I thought they turned out cute. I had to let them dry for few days. I was going to put a purple middle on them, but decided it was too much work and just left them like this! I'm lazy sometimes! :)

I also worked on different ways to cover/ice petite fours for a baby shower I am co-hosting in a couple of weeks. I have my general idea of the completed look but getting there was somewhat frustrating! I finally managed a way to get them to work. As the week started to end, my kitchen looked like a bakery had thrown up on it! DJ came home one night after I cleaned it and stated that we do have a real kitchen instead of a bakery! I will post pictures of the petite fours in a couple of weeks when they are finished. Stay tuned!

We found out Trey had an ear infection this last Saturday, just in the beginning stages. With all his cold symptom and off and on fever he was exhausted. Most days he would sleep in a late as possible and take a very extended nap. This was after removing him from the car without him stirring once!

Now I know what your thinking! Here's the scoop: He has an older sister and older female cousin who love to play dress up when I watch Iva. It was inevitable that I would find him like this at some point. So when it finally happened I had to take a picture. The girls finally let him in Hannah's room to play with them. This was the result! I now will need to invest in some boy dress up costumes so he can play with them but without the wings and skirts!



Super Bowl Sunday & Happy Birthday Taylor

Our Super Bowl Sunday (an unofficial holiday at our house) turned out to be another great fellowship night. Every year we host our Sunday School class for he big game. This year was once again a success! Here are a few pictures:

 

 While cleaning that morning, I noticed Lexi sitting by the window. I just love to catch her like this, wanting so bad to go out and play with the neighborhood kids and sometimes other dogs.

We like to cater with Whole Hog Cafe for the night. We just love their BBQ and it is so easy to grab and serve. Stress Free! Everyone brought either a yummy appetizer or dessert. I love food!

As usual, we had an great turnout. I think the layout of our new house was just perfect. There were only a few times I felt claustrophobic but the openness really helped.

Trey and Hannah really had a great time playing with all the other kids. For the most part, they stayed in their rooms so the guys could enjoy the game kid-free. Towards the end though they started to dance around in the living room too. Not sure why Trey had the pillow with him!

In addition to the game, my youngest brother Taylor turned 19. Since we had already planned the fellowship with our SS, we didn't go to my dad's for the birthday/Super Bowl party. But I did make him a red velvet cake (from scratch) and take it over there before our party. I was able to spend some time with the family and nibble on some good BBQ my dad and Taylor made.

Happy 19th Birthday Taylor ~ Love ya!

Hunter Coltelee Dobbs

Hunter Coltelee Dobbs

January 28, 2012 

6 lbs. 15 oz. ~ 20 inches

My brother Matt and his wife, Elizabeth, welcomed their first child Saturday, Jan. 28th. They went in to be induced Friday morning at 5:30am. She slowly dilated all day and through the evening. Around midnight she stopped dilating at a 9. Elizabeth is a tiny woman and Hunter was a big boy for her size. So the doctors recommended a c-section. Elizabeth really didn't want to go this route without trying to push first. So, about an hour later she started to push. I was lucky enough to be a part of this along with my sister-in-law Shawna and my mother Pam. We were the only ones, besides Matt that was allowed to be in the delivery room while she was pushing. It was really neat to help Elizabeth and to be on the "other" side of delivering a baby. I mostly got to help with holding a leg. Anyway, for two hours, Elizabeth pushed with all her might. In the end, Hunter's heart rate started to get high and Elizabeth started to run a fever. The doctors were getting worried about their health and insisted on a c-section. Elizabeth and Matt agreed and just after 4 am Hunter was delivered.

Mom and Hunter are both doing great now. Hunter had to stay in the NICU for 3 days while the doctors monitored him for a possible infection from the delivery and he needed antibiotics. Elizabeth has started to recover from the surgery. At first there was a lot of pain, but it seems to be getting better. All three of them are staying at her foster parent's house for about a week. So I haven't really seen them since the 30th. I spent all day Saturday (after leaving the hospital at 5 am) sleeping! I was exhausted! But I can only imagine how the new parents feel!

His middle name is a combination of my brothers middle name, Colte, and a family name from Elizabeth's family, Lee. They both wanted it in his name and instead of having four names, I suggested they combine the name into one. I really like it, it's unique! Sorry the above pictures are a little dark, Hunter didn't like the flash very much! I will post some more pictures of them when I see them again. Hopefully that will be soon!