Instead of a trip to the mall I should declare this errand a pregnant women’s cravings fulfilled. I first took my kids to this nearby bakery that makes amazing bread. The smell alone is worth the trip and everyone received a generous sample of a delicious cinnamon roll.  We then ventured into the mall where we went to buy chocolates. Of course I bribe my girls to stand quietly in line telling them if they do they will each get a sample of a delectable chocolate. We ended the triple threat with frozen yogurt. My girls were in heaven.

I loved explaining the art of window shopping to Shriek. How satisfying it can be to look but not buy.  (Well thats what I tell myself atleast )

I could not help but notice how amazing everyone looked at the mall. Hair done, tall sleek boots over perfectly worn skinny jeans. coordinating purses. It all looked a little too perfect.

perhaps it is more than this 5 month pregnant mother can handle. I can’t remember the last time I felt truly put together in wardrobe and in mind.

This pregnancy has made me more tired than anything. Naps are a must which of course brings on the guilt of my children watching countless hours of tv. Guilt is an interesting feeling that I know bears its ugly head in most of our daily lives.

The thing I do know is that my girls are resilient and happy in their life and the positive definitely outweighs the negative. At the end of this  pregnancy I will be holding a little bundle of cute girl and will find my new normal. whatever that may be.

Today I am Simply Stacie’s Saturday Featured blog!  I answered some fun questions about this here blog. Go check it out here!

Can you blame me?

What’s your favorite Super Bowl food?

I recently got to share my point of view on the subject in an article on www.sheknows.com It is a great read with a lot of good advice about not worrying if other people like the name you have chosen or not.

Would love it if you would check it out!

I have been waiting for the new City Creek Center to be finished for a very long time! It has made me so excited every time I go downtown and see all the progress that has been made.

Well the time is almost here! You can actually get a chance to shop the 80 stores the mall has and walk through the center before it opens to the public!

The City Creek Center Preview Gala will be held on March 21st from 6:30-9:30 pm the event  includes:

Complimentary parking

Continuous Entertainment

Food and refreshments

Hospitality Suite

Shopping! (My favorite)

The price per ticket is fifty Dollars and each ticket includes a twenty dollar VISA gift card. Also 100% of the ticket sales goes directly to 4 wonderful Utah charities.

I think it’s really neat they let you choose the charity when purchasing the tickets. Here are the choices.

The Road Home

Ballet West

Junior League of Salt Lake City

and Utah’s Hogle Zoo

Tickets are limited so this is not something you want to wait on. To buy your tickets go to www.shopcitycreekcenter.com

I can’t wait! I am most excited for Tiffany & Co! I know I won’t be able to actually afford to purchase anything there, but just going in and window shopping will be enough for me!

*I received 2 event tickets to help spread the word about this amazing evening! So if you see me there please say hi!

So yes this will be our fourth Girl! I thought I would answer the most common question I have received since finding out.

Are you disappointed it is not a boy?

NO, I really am not at all. I was pretty sure this was another girl and as most women would agree with me, it felt good to be right! I am really happy about another girl. They are sweet and cute and oh my the clothes! I have already had fun buying a few adorable girl clothes.

I have always pictured our family being full of girls and while my husband and I get plenty sick of all the drama the good definitely outweighs the bad.

My girls loved finding out the gender by looking at these adorable creations Smart Cookie made for me. They are seriously so good. If you live in Utah you have got to try them!

It was really nice to see our little baby and to find out that she is healthy and doing well. She is a mover and a shaker thats for sure. Which will help her fit in with our other Screamette’s perfectly.

Brandon and I really debated whether to find out the gender early or to wait. I am glad we decided to find out and I am getting super excited for this little girly girl to join our family. June cannot come soon enough!

*I did not receive free cookies for mentioning Smart Cookie and am a paying customer. They seriously are delicious cookies, and cream cheese frosting on a perfectly cooked giant sugar cookie is amazing and completely life changing in my opinion!

For Christmas I got a cake pop maker. I was pretty excited. I am not crafty whatsoever, but that does not stop me from trying every once in awhile. I usually wait for about the time it takes to make me forget how awful I was at the last craft I tried. Kind of like how we all forget how painful childbirth is and have more kids.

So when I unwrapped this cake pop maker I envisioned beautiful delectable master pieces. Ones that people would ooh and awe at and think I am marvelous and amazing. What actually happened was the complete opposite which was definitely to be expected with me being in charge.

I wanted to make these with my girls for New Years. Shout and I went to the store to get the supplies at about 6:00 pm. There was no way I was going to go to that huge grocery store that we all know the name of on New Years Eve so we went to a tiny local one. The options were pretty slim and we ended up with chocolate chips to melt, some crushed almonds, one can of white frosting, flower sprinkles and two different flavored cake mixes. I knew at home that I had some old oreos that perhaps were still edible that we could crush, then I later found in the cupboard some even older reeses  pieces. Is anyones mouth watering yet? Also sucker sticks were no where in site at the small store. No problem we would cut shish kebab sticks in half. Perfect! I read that to do this properly you needed styrofoam to stick the completed pops in. luckily I found some in a package we received in the mail. Again totally perfect.

I set up all the toppings up and thought I was pretty gosh darn clever for using food coloring to make 2 additional colors, orange and pink. It looked all pretty and my kids were bursting with excitement. I have got to say. I loved doing this with them. It was the best way to ring in the new year. It really did not matter that they did not turn out picture perfect and that they did not stay at the top of the sticks and were a pretty gooey mess. They were unique just like each one of my kids, who had a fantastic time making them.

We will be doing this again and again and not changing a thing, well maybe leaving out the stale oreos and old reeses peeses. Here is a picture of our completed white trash cake pops in all of there imperfect glory.

I may not be Martha Stewart or Bakerella but sometimes I think it is better to be Living The Scream.

Here are a few snapshots of our Christmas.

Squeal on Christmas day immediately after opening all of her presents.

Shout and her Dad playing Giant Chess.  I love that the pieces are about the same size as a thermos. I doubt they will ever play with regular sized pieces again.

One of my favorite gifts A Cake pop maker! You better believe I will blog about how these turn out. So fun!

How I have spent most of the holiday. Laying back in polkadot jammies, nothing could be better!

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday!! I would love to hear about yours. If you want too, let me know how yours went in the comments.

After dinner we got up and walked to the other side of the mall to see glorious Santa. The line was pretty long but we really did not mind and stood in it right away. It was about 5:00 and it was moving slowly but steady. About a minute later one of Santa’s helpers walked around the line to tell everyone some info. First of all Santa would be taking a 30 minute break in exactly 30 minutes. My oldest promptly looked at her brand new cow watch and started counting down the minutes in a worried state knowing we were cutting it very close. The second bit of news the employee told us was that there was absolutely no outside photo’s to be taken, phone cameras included. I was a little shocked. I had always been able to take a photo here before.  The Employee then handed us a price list for photo’s. The cheapest option was 22 dollars!!! For that you received a 5 x 7 and two 3 x 5′s There was no way I would ever pay that much for photo’s that were printed off of a printer using a camera exactly like the one I had around my neck!

I am usually a rule follower I really am but seriously? With the way they were acting about it they were begging for people to break the rules. My mind started turning. How can I get a picture? My plan ended up consisting of putting my daughters coat strategically over the button and the light without covering the  lens of the camera as it lay around my neck.

I began practicing. This was pretty scandalous of me, don’t you think? The line was still moving slowly and Shriek our time monitor was yelling out every minute that the time was getting closer to Santa’s break. No way did we want to wait an extra 30 minutes for Santa to use the restroom.

I had shown Brandon my test shots and asked him if he thought my devious plan would work. He admitted I was getting pretty good at it. I was going to go through with it.

It was 5:28 we were second to next in line. The high school age employee fake smiled at us and said “it’s a maybe, don’t get your hopes up too high.” She also reminded us again and again of the no photo rule.

As the little gate opened for our turn to meet Santa I saw him start to slowly get up. NO! I yelled Surprised at the volume of my voice. I had heard the girl employee refer to her manager as *Brian. I immediately used that to my advantage.

“Brian!” I said like he was my long lost cousin. “Please let us see Santa. We don’t need pictures taken. We will be one moment. Please Brian please!”

(Who was I turning into? I was losing it for sure. Santa noticed me and motioned for my girls to come forward)

Santa was sweet and kind and understood that we did not want to wait for his potty break to be over to see him and that we would be super quick. My girls all got on his lap so cute and no tears. Shriek was in the middle of telling Santa she wanted a skateboard when I got up the nerve to push the button on my camera under Shout’s coat. I only dared to click once and could not wait to see what I had captured. You would of thought I was doing something a lot worse. Like I said I really am a rule follower and this was very nerve wracking for me!

A few steps outside of Santa’s quarters I smiled at Brandon and grabbed my camera to look at the photo. Here it is.

Serves me right huh? Completely blurry.

Who knows what kind of therapy my kids will have to go through when I am done with them. All because of a mothers love, and unwillingness to pay for over priced photo’s.

Have you ever done something scandalous and silly like this? I would Love to know!

*Name has been changed to protect the innocent.

I was so happy when Jelly Bean Apparel replied to my request to review a shirt. They have so many options. Here are a few I loved.

I love the idea having your month due on your shirt so everyone does not have to ask.

Good advice for all those strangers that want to rub your belly!

This one needs no explanation! Love

They also have ones for the Dad to be as well.

I had such a hard time deciding, there was so many I loved! I finally went with this hilarious one.

         So fun right? I know my tummy is not too big right now but I figured if people are wondering if I am pregnant or not, they will not have to guess.  The shirt is a really comfy material and plenty stretchy for the months to come. It has a cute fit as well. It also feels so good on. I also like to add a white long sleeve shirt under it for the winter. I seriously could wear this shirt everyday. I might just do that!

Go check out Jelly Bean Apparel for their fun shirts for the whole family. They also have an Etsy and Twitter.

*I received a free shirt for review purposes. All opinions are my own.