Cake Company

I am looking for suggestions for a cake company I am starting up.  I really like frosted but it is already taken.  Any suggestions?

My Most Recent Wedding Cake

Gingerbread houses

So these aren't really gingerbread houses, but graham crackers are so much more convenient.  This first one is Hailey's house.  She wanted a big one.

Here are the girls eating the candy rather than using it for decoration.

This one is Emma's house.  The roof collapsed and so they made it into a dog house for Digby.  Sad I know, especially since we don't have Digby anymore! :(

Then the piece de resistance . . . My Dad's.  We were lucky to have him visit for a couple of days.  He had some work near us so he stayed at our house.  Here he is admiring his work.

This is his masterpiece.  His inspiration was the Frank Lloyd Wright House in Wisconsin.  He said that he didn't want his design to conform to "The Man" and so he followed nature and came up with this.  

For all you moms out there!

This post is dedicated to all you moms out there.  Does anyone else hate it when there husbands come home and ask what you did during the day?  For some reason it really irritates me.  I am usually so incredibly brain fried that I can't remember what it is that I did.  Plus whenever I DO remember what it is that I did it just doesn't seem like I have done that much.   So when I found this song on a friends blog I just had to share with the rest of my fellow moms out there.  Share it with your husbands if you feel like me.  For the mom that can't quite remember what she has done during the day, this song reminds you! http://deseretbook.com/video/view/61

Idols In Concert!

Last night I got to go to the Idols In Concert!  It was awesome!  They performed a ton of Christmas music and each of them did one of their own songs.  My favorite was Diana Degarmo.  She just came out with a country album.  Now I am not normally a huge country fan but she did a song called Thanks about the men and women currently serving in the military and it is absolutely amazing.  The only place you can buy her new album is at this concert series so you better believe I picked one up.  And had it signed!!!!  Plus, I got to have my picture taken with each and every one of them!  It doesn't get much better than that!  My friend and I felt like we were in high school again, especially when David and Chikezie came up right next to our faces and put their arms around us to take a picture.  We were smiling from ear to ear!  It was so much fun!!!

Christmas Outfits

Every year we buy the kids Christmas outfits.  I was so excited to find a little suit for Carson!  But he didn't really want to have his picture taken to these were the best I could do.  

Home School Ice Skating Party

Today we got to go ice skating.  This was the kids first time ice skating and they loved it.  It took Emma a while to warm up to the idea, but eventually trusted me enough to really enjoy herself.  But let me tell you, it was not easy trying to hold up three kids who are learning to skate.  Add to that, myself being on skates, which I am not that good at.  But we had a lot of fun! Then we went to pizza hut and used our free pizza coupons for the Book It program.  It amazes me that this program is still around.  They had this when I was a kid.  You read a certain amount each month and then you get a free pizza!  Pretty awesome if you ask me.  Hailey kept saying over and over again, "Mom, this was the best day!  We got to go ice skating and eat pizza!"  Oh, bringing joy to the hearts of children, one heart at a time ;)!

From the mouth of Hailey!

Last night Hailey came downstairs after having been put to bed and informed Robb that she and Emma were no longer friends.  This is a big deal in our house because I strongly emphasize that they are sisters and will always be best friends and will be best friends forever (whether they like it or not ;) ).  So Hailey knows better to not say something like this.  But she quickly elaborated on her statement.  "Emma and I aren't friends anymore, we're pals!"  Too cute!

MMMMM . . . Cookies!

So I have been massively baking trying to get things in the freezer to hand out later for Christmas.  I started with mini lemon poppyseed bread, then yesterday made some of the most delicious chocolate chip cookies ever!  I also tried a new recipe for dinner.  Orange chicken served over a bed of couscous.  Sooooo good!!!!  Today I am going to attempt to make chocolate petit four cakes with a chocolate peppermint glaze.  I can hardly wait!  I will try to put the recipes on Our Family's Favorite Recipes blog later.  Keep checking it and I will try and get them on there later today.

Christmas Tree #2

So I know I have already posted about a Christmas tree, but we actually have two.  One is the kids tree that is in the family room and this one is our nicer tree in the living room.  It was fun to decorate this one because Carson was awake.  As you can tell from the pics he was a big helper.  It was a lot of fun and it looks beautiful at night all lit up.  I love that it is in the bay window so you can see it outside.  I love Christmas!

New Best Friends

Emma has a new best friend.  My parents cat Whiskers loved cuddling up next to Emma.  She loved it too.  I honestly don't know how that cat is still alive.  I had this cat when I was a kid and we got him as a stray.  Yesterday I was watching Rachel Ray and they were talking about this cat that was 21 years old.  That is like 200 years old for a cat!  I think Whiskers is catching up to that cat!  

Flip Flops and Applesauce Giveaway

One of my favorite blogs Flip Flops and Applesauce is having a giveaway.  I have a button for her site on our blog side bar and I check it everyday.  She always has the cutest little crafts to do with your kids.  I have used quite a few of them for homeschool (see our homeschool blog).  Well one of the requirements of the giveaway is to post one of the projects you used off of her blog.  So here are the clothespin and dryer sheet butterflies we made.  It was super easy and the girls loved it!  

Come What May, and Love It

Elder Wirthlin passed away last night at the age of 91.  He was the oldest living apostle of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  He led a wonderful life and spent it being an example of his beliefs.  His wife passed away in 2006 and I can only imagine the sweet reunion he has now had with his sweet wife.  He will be missed, but I am happy that he is now reunited with his wife.  This last October conference he gave a wonderful talk titled Come What May, and Love It.  It was an amazing message and I remember the feeling of comfort it left me.  For those that didn't get a chance to hear or read it or for those of you that are not members of the church I attend and are interested, here is the link . . .  http://lds.org/conference/talk/display/0,5232,23-1-947-9,00.html

Nothing But Tears' Shampoo

I saw this and thought it was blog worthy!  Tell me what you think!  I have to forewarn you that there is one bad word in the article.  I don't want to desensitize anyone, but the article was just to funny not to mention.  So for your reading pleasure I present an article titled Nothing But Tears' Shampoo . . .

http://www.theonion.com/content/news/johnson_johnson_introduces_nothing?utm_source=onion_rss_daily

Tithing Blessings

So some of you might be aware of the painful passing of our dryer that I posted about earlier this week.  Well, we have been in search of a dryer and had found one on Craigslist, but really didn't want to spend the money being so close to Christmas.  We however realized it was an unfortunate necessity!  So on the day we were supposed to pick up the dryer I received an email from someone at church saying that they knew of someone getting rid of a dryer.  HOORAY!!!!  We then called only to find out it was some friends of ours that live across town!  Even better!!!  So we are getting a new dryer (well, new to us) for FREE!!  If you are not a member of the church that my family attends, we believe in paying 10% of our income to our church.  This money goes towards building our church's temples, buildings, and church education system just to name a few.  In return, we feel that we will receive blessings for paying our, what is called, tithing.  I truly feel like our family has been blessed time and time again for paying our tithing.  I know that receiving this dryer is just one example of such a blessing.  I know that if we continue to pay our tithing, even in hard times, we will continue to see those blessings.  So many times my husband and I talk about how unworthy we feel to receive such blessings, but we are grateful for the evidence of our Heavenly Fathers love for us in our lives. 

Do you want to form an alliance?

So both of the girls have discovered that if they both blame Carson he can't say otherwise and then I won't know who did it!  This has happened a couple of times in the past couple of days.  Example :  Someone took up a bunch of granola and dumped it all over Mommy and Daddy's bed.  When asked who did it Hailey and Emma answered in unison, "Carson did it!"  That is very curious to me seeing as Carson can't get on the bed and can't reach the granola in the pantry.  Another example: The girls have a pink purse and someone drew all over it.  Again when asked who did it the reply in unison was "Carson did it!"  Again, curious as the drawing was done in perfect strait lines following the design of the purse and Carson can't reach the pens.  Hmmm.... at least I know they are smart enough to form an alliance, but what's a mom to do?  

A Swimsuit Kind of Day

I promise I didn't let them go outside like this, seeing as it is the middle of November, but they insisted on pretending to go swimming.  So they wore their swimsuits pretty much all day long.  This is evident from the picture I got of Hailey doing homeschool while wearing her swimsuit! :)  Oh well, they had fun and I have to admit it was pretty cute to watch them pretend swim through blankets.  They even put a blanket over one of the vents on the floor so it would puff up and they would make waves with the air in the blanket.  I thought that was pretty creative!  Carson thought it was pretty funny too!  So I had to get a picture of him! :)

Carson's Laugh

I LOVE Carson's laugh!!  He thinks everything is soooo funny, even if it's not, which in turn makes me laugh!  Here I am trying to get some video of him saying words, but he thought it was just funny so here he is just laughing! :)

A sad day!

Our dryer is officially dead! :(  It has been in and out of consciousness for a while, but finally left us after 6 and a half years of faithful service.  We are not sure of it's exact age at the time of departure due to having received it secondhand, but we do know it is no longer able to perform its duties any longer.  We are very aware of its passing having three small children and no where to dry clothes except air drying them in various areas of our home.  We will miss you dryer and will never forget the convenience you provided us for so many years!  

Bicycle built for two!

Emma loves to sing!  Sometimes it makes sense, other times it doesn't.  This is a mixture of both!  Here is her rendition of Bicycle Built for Two!

Missing In Action

I know I have been MIA for a while, but I just can't seem to catch up.  From having family visit, to church projects, and then with the upcoming holidays there never seems to be enough hours in my day.  But thank you Mom for reminding me to update my blog!  These next few posts are just for you.  I will also try and update our homeschool blog.  Don't worry!  We still have been doing school each and every day.  I just haven't been as faithful with the blog entries.  Sorry!!  Anyways, here you go and enjoy!

For lack of a better idea!

Usually we wait until the Monday before Thanksgiving to decorate so that our house will be decorated when we get back from Thanksgiving vacation, but this year I couldn't figure out what to do for FHE so we decorated one of our trees!  The kids were bouncing off the walls they were so excited.  They all had fun and Carson kept grabbing branches and trying to walk off with the tree so it is now on top our coffee table.  We had a lot of fun and for the closing prayer Hailey prayed for Santa and the elves to be kept safe.  I thought it was cute! :)

Wanting to be in on the fun!

While Robb's family was visiting we would stay up and play the Wii, watch a movie, or whatever.  Well, Hailey must have known she would get in trouble if she got out of bed, but still wanted to be in on the fun.  On a trip to go upstairs I just about stepped on her.  It was dark and I couldn't see a thing.  Luckily I didn't wake her and Robb picked her up and took her right back to bed without her even waking up.  

Go Green!

This is not what you think!  I have titled this post "go green" not for the environment, but for organ donation.  Green is the national color for organ donation!  My sister in law is really good friends of a family whose little baby was born with a defective heart.  They have been waiting and waiting for a heart for four months and the day finally came!  This little baby was given what they call an angel heart! :)  It has been amazing to watch their journey and all of the trials that they have overcome.  They are not out of the woods yet, but the blessing of a new heart is HUGE!!!!  If not for the selfless act of another this would not have happened!  If you haven't already signed up for organ donation you should think about it!  I mean, really, what do we need with our organs after we pass on!  :)  Anyhow . . .  if you want to see a little of there story check it out here  http://helpbabymia.blogspot.com/

Newest cupcakes!

These are my most recent cupcake creations!  I made them for the church Halloween party.  The top ones are pretty basic.  Just a vanilla cake with chocolate frosting and chocolate sprinkles, but the bottom ones are probably my favorite cupcake I have ever make so far!  They are a pumpkin spice chocolate chip cupcake with cream cheese frosting!  Oh my stars . . .  they were a little taste of heaven!  

Costumes

This year we went for the homemade costumes!  It was actually pretty fun and the kids had fun getting creative in how to make their costumes.  Hailey wanted to be Abbycadabby from Sesame Street, Emma wanted to be Minnie Mouse, and Carson was a spider.  I really liked Carson's because his long spider legs would drag behind him when he walked.  He was the hit of the church Halloween party.  

We got a lot of candy this year, but got creative with how to get rid of it.  First, we let the girls pick out the candies they wanted to save for gingerbread houses for Christmas.  Then we still had a good amount left over.  Well, we happen to have a basket on top of the fridge that we put toys into for time-out whenever the kids fight over them.  They usually have to do a pretty big chore in order to earn them back, but today we decide to open a "Ma and Pop" store and they could use their candy to buy back the toys.  So after a price tag of 4 candies per toy the kids were left with two candies and a lot of fun toys that they haven't seen in awhile.  I am one happy mommy!  

Painting pumpkins

So the girls this year didn't want to carve their pumpkins because they didn't want to hurt them! :)  So we painted them instead.  Little do they know that Robb and I will be cutting them up later to make pumpkin puree, but we will have to do that after they go to bed.  Here are the kids with their pumpkins.  Emma wanted a scary pumpkin and Hailey named her pumpkin Polly the Fairy Pumpkin so she painted hers to look like a fairy!  It was really fun and I actually liked painting them because the kids got to do a lot more rather than just watching mom and dad carve.