Birthdays + Homecomings

Last week was a big week for our family. My husband returned from a three-month TDY to Virginia. It was a long, hot summer with three boys home from school. After two long days of driving, he finally made it home on August 31st. Which also happens to be my youngest son's birthday. What a birthday present seeing Daddy was for him!

All three boys were so excited to see him. He actually made it home one day before we expected. They were all pretty surprised, especially Nathan when Mike picked him up from school. So we got to celebrate Brendan's 2nd birthday together as a family. All five of us :)

Homemade pizza and chocolate cake were on the menu that night. I have to admit though, even though the cake was homemade, it wasn't exactly "healthy" per se (hello, 1 cup of butter!). I do know, however, that there wasn't a single artificial ingredient or preservative in it. It was really easy to make, too...

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Homemade Chocolate Icing

2/3 cups granulated sugar (I used raw sugar)
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
3 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup milk (I used almond milk)
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips, melted

Melt your chocolate chips, then set aside to cool a bit. In a small saucepan whisk together the sugar, flour, cocoa, and milk; bring to a boil, whisking frequently. Boil 1- 3 minutes until slightly thickened. Remove from heat and transfer to a small bowl. Coop completely in the fridge.

Beat the butter until creamy, about 1 minute. Beat in the cooled chocolate mixture until well combined and fluffy, about another minute. Finally, add in the melted chocolate and beat again until well combined and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add more cocoa powder to taste if you'd like.

Spread on your cake or cupcakes. Makes enough for 24 cupcakes, or a double layer 8 inch round cake. Store any extras in covered in your fridge.

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I'm happy the single parenting is over. It's nice to have our family complete again. We went for a really nice, fifteen mile bike ride this weekend as a family. It's been a while since I had a chance to ride my bike.

While I rode solo, Mike pulled all three boys -- about 115 pounds :) Two boys in the back, Brendan in the front. What a workout! Welcome home, Dad :)

My day in a few pictures...

{are you on Instagram? if so, follow me! i'm @jkyamzon :)}

So, this is what was supposed to happen today... run at least a 5K on the track while the two older boys did their tennis lesson.  What really happened today... cuddled with sick baby on the couch for two hours while the boys did their tennis lesson.  Once the poor little guy went down for his nap I ran downstairs on the DREADmill while the big boys make blanket tents upstairs.  At about mile two, I started to get blisters. However, I was determined to get the 5K done so I took of my shoes and ran barefoot the rest of the way. I know not everyday will go as planned. Today was one of them.

Side note: Blisters, huh?! That's nice, since the triathlon is in less than two weeks. I don't foresee myself taking off my shoes during the race, so now I'm considering socks.

Aaaanyway, that was my day.  How was yours? :)

Here we go again!

OK, I'm gonna switch gears a little on this blog for now. For the last few months I've been writing a little about my half marathon training. I could not have run that race a better time in my life. I trained hard. But now, it seems I won't be running anywhere for the next 7 months or so. Only two weeks after running the race, guess what I found out??

I'm P R E G N A N T !

Let me tell you, I am very excited. Now that the shock of it all has worn off. Mike and I had decided after the birth of our second son, Ryan, that we are done having kids. Our family is complete. Deep down, I always wanted to have more, but was also more than content with my two beautiful boys.

So, needless to say, this pregnancy was very unplanned! In fact, I was even on the pill. How's that for meant to be? At the moment, and presumably for the next 7 months or so, I've got pregnancy on the brain. Which is to say that Nathan and Ryan are going to be big brothers and I'm about 12 weeks pregnant and I can't stand not talking about it anymore!

Morning sickness (all day sickness, really) is in full effect. I'm hoping it's at its peak and will start to subside soon. It's still relatively early in the pregnancy, I know. But I feel so blessed, I can't NOT share. And if anything, God forbid, did go wrong with this pregnancy, I'd want to talk about that too.

So here we go again!