Cake Decorating?

My friend, Jana, and I had this great idea of learning about cake decorating. I took all the Wilton classes before Taneal was born, so I know a little. Since Jana wanted to learn some things and she has three children and I have four and doing anything this summer includes all of them, we decided to bake them all little cakes and let them do some decorating as well.

Good idea? NOT!!!!!!

It was chaos at my house! The kids were having so much fun decorating, or shall I say eating the frosting.The kids were all oblivious to the chaos, and were having a terrific time. Somehow I managed to forget that small children can't sit and watch instruction and then do it on their on. They ALL need hands-on help. However, they quickly adjusted to the fact that there were only two very pregnant and tired moms and seven children and they were just going to have to experiment on their own. Between the plops of greasy frosting on the floor and the cake decorating tips being licked and sucked and then squirted onto the cake and the vast sharing of germs, all was well. Jana and I finally sat back and just starting giggling wondering "what were we thinking?" It was worth the mess because the kids had so much fun, but I don't think I would be willing to do a repeat.

The kiddos seriously had a great time and were so proud of their finished cakes. Josh, Jana's oldest, decorated his cake for his mom. He wrote on it, "happy labor." Jana had to ask him if that was really what he wrote and he confirmed that it was. He couldn't understand why we were laughing. We tried not to, but, well . . . I don't know. We were so caught off guard it was funny. He is such a thoughtful boy.

Danielle proud of her cake!

I made templates and then put them in a Ziploc bag for the kids to practice on. It was easy to wipe off and practice again.

Camie practicing and then showing off her finished cake.

Taneal hard at work.

Spencer was even interested. He didn't decorate his own cake but enjoyed squeezing the frosting out and tasting.

Josh with his "happy labor" cake.

New pictures

It's all done! I like to get my children's pictures made around their birthdays. Well, Spencer just had his, Danielle's is at the end of the month, and I didn't really have Camie's pictures made other then her school pictures and they could have been better. I usually wait and do all different settings so I can use the $9.99 coupons. Well, I'm tired. I found this place that I could do all the pictures at once, no coupons or sitting fees, and I ended up spending about what I do when I break up all the visits. Only I got it all done in one visit (I had Taneal's made for her baptism so she was already done). It is so nice to have their pictures done for a while, at least for two months until the baby comes. I hope you enjoy. I really liked how the pictures turned out.

A Pioneer Park

No, we aren't in Utah at their Pioneer Park, but there is a park around this area that has a remake of when the pioneers settled this area. There was a Pioneer house with the chicken coop, out house, outdoor oven, smoke house, barn, ice house, etc and right around the corner an Indian village. My friend has been there before and invited us. The kids had so much fun. They loved looking at the "Mary and Laura" house with the loft and everything and then pumping the water and checking out the wagons in the barn. They had a lot of fun even in the blistering heat. I did not bring enough water even though I thought I had way over-shot on it.

My favorite comment from Camie. I asked her if the pioneer house was large. It had the loft in it, but on the main floor, it was one room with a fire place and barely fit a bed and some chairs. It was small, but I wanted to hear her opinion. Camie said, "Mom, your closet is bigger then the whole house!" I don't think that my closet is, but boy we have come along way since the time of the pioneers!

Taneal and Camie's bedroom

I have always wanted to decorate my girl's bedroom but have never really had the chance, we've always rented. Until now. I've never even really had the opportunity. Until now. So, over the last almost year since we bought our home, I've been thinking through things, gathering ideas, etc. and I finally decided to take the plunge and decorate their room. Evan said "NO" to any paint, what was wrong with the new paint on the walls already? I tried and tried to convince him, but he wouldn't budge on the idea. So, I pulled color into their room in other ways. Hopefully it wasn't overdone, the girls love it, and I had fun doing it.


I started out with Camie's blanket shown in the picture on the bottom bunk. I hand drew picture of bugs and flowers. They are definitely hand-drawn and very imperfect. I appliqued them onto the quilt. My mom helped me finish it. Then came Taneal's quilt. I wanted it to match, but Taneal wanted it different. So, we brainstormed together, she free-handed some items such as the lipstick and the perfume bottle and we designed her quilt. My job was to transfer the hand-drawings onto fabric, applique them and then make the quilt. That is what I have been doing over the last two months. I had fun and I am pleased with the results as is Taneal. Then came the curtains. They were fun and simple to make. Jana, my neighbor, helped me with the ideas on them. Of course after I got them hung I realized they need to be lined. That will be my next project. And finally, I modged-podged the magnetic boards with scrapbook paper. It was so much fun. They turned out a little too bright, but the girls absolutely love them and they add quite a splash of color to the room. So, besides lining the curtains and somehow decorating the lamp shade (if you have any ideas on how to do a lamp shade, please share), I should be done. Their room took a lot of time but it was so much fun doing it. Of course maybe it wouldn't have taken quite so much time if I had a little more energy and could stay up past the kiddos at night, but what can I say? Even a tired momma can get the job done, just quite a bit slower.

The magnetic boards are different to match the different fabric appliqued on their quilts.

The girls were really insistent on the pillows. They wanted their names on them with a letter designed to match the applique on their quilts. They insisted on a roll pillow and absolutely HAD to have an envelope pillow. Funny kids!

A Day at the Beach

All of my family living somewhat close came into town for Taneal's baptism a day early so we could go to the beach. Well, it was super windy and the beach was at a level red, which meant you could not go in the water higher then your knees. For a child, that is pretty shallow. Evan was ready to turn around and head home, but the rest of us convinced him that even if we couldn't get into the water, it would still be fun to play in the sand.

I think it must have calmed down pretty soon after we arrived because the waves didn't seem so strong and as long as my girls were wearing life vests, I felt comfortable with them going out a little further and the life guards were letting them. I ventured out deeper, but the waves were crashing up against me pretty hard and I started to have more contractions then what I was comfortable having. I ended up sitting in the shallow area for hours while Danielle and Spencer played around me. They had a lot of fun splashing and picking up sand and throwing it at my brother, Rob. They were a lot of fun to play with. We ended up staying about 5 hours and had a great time.
Of course it seems like every time we go to the beach, regardless of how much sun screen we use, we always end up getting burnt. My children fared very well, I don't think any of them got sun burned. Camie's cheeks got a little pink and my legs got burnt (I think Danielle and Spencer rubbing sand on my legs must have worn the sunscreen off). Because of my history with skin cancer, I bought all my children swim shirts which helped tremendously.

I can't say the same for the rest of the family. My niece Rebecca ended up at the doctor because of the blisters and swelling on her face and back. She didn't use sunscreen at all.

I guess we all learn the hard way.

We had a great time and hopefully we can go again together next summer.


Spencer
Stephenie sitting in the shallow area with my Dad while Danielle and Spencer play around us.















Danielle


















Camie playing in the ocean.


















Taneal enjoying her lunch.



Evan building a sand castle with Taneal

School is OUT!

School got out a little later this year then we are used to, although we didn't have plans to go anywhere so it didn't make much difference. We ended on June 7th. The girls were excited although I think Camie is going to miss her kindergarden teacher a lot. SHe had the best teacher ever. Taneal may miss her teachers, but I don't think she will miss the homework. She stressed out a lot when she had too much homework.

Camie and her teacher.

Taneal and her teachers. She had a morning teacher for reading and an afternoon teacher for Math and Science

Although school is out which means I don't have to remind the girls every five minutes every morning that they better hurry so they don't miss the bus, I still think we will try to keep some kind of schedule. Becky (my sister-in-law that lives a few miles away) and I are going to plan to twice a week doing something with the older girls. I think Becky is going to take next week and go berry picking with Taneal, Camie, and Audrey one day and then the other day teach them how to make jam. I have in the works to teach the girls a little cake decorating and a maybe some painting or sewing. I still need to come up with a 4th idea to do with the girls, but I have some time to come up with it. It should be a lot of fun and give the girls something to look forward to and also to break up the monotony of each week.

As for Danielle and Spencer, I see the move Cars in the forecast. Just kidding. I will do things with them, little crafts and simple things that keep their attention. We all plan to spend every morning at the pool and wrap it up with a picnic lunch. I'm only seven months pregnant in the middle of a summer, so we will see how all this actually goes as the summer progresses.

Swim Team

This spring I signed Taneal and Camie up for the local swim team. We haven't done anything like this before, but I've heard great things about it. It started the last week of April and goes through the end of June. Practice is Tuesday -Friday in the evenings and now that school is out it will be Tues- Friday in the mornings . Each Saturday is a meet that begins around 6:30am and usually end around 2pm. Taneal and Camie are in different age categories so their practices are at different pools with the time overlapping. Danielle and Spencer don't seem to mind because during practices they get to play at the park next to the pools. And thanks to friends who also have their children on the team, we have been able to rotate who goes to which pool minimizing all the running back and forth between pools.

The girls have done so well! I was sure Camie was going to get kicked off the team within the first week because she forgot how to swim from last year. But, she surprised me and remembered and has done really well. Taneal is a very fast swimmer and really likes the practices. I'm just so impressed with how well my girls know how to swim. They both swim better then I do! And, we joined a team that has won every meet!








Camie after finishing up her relay.

Taneal diving in!

Camie getting ready to dive (she has good arm position but still jumps in feet first! It is very cute!)


















Taneal swimming the breast stroke.


















I think Camie asctually posed for this picture during her relay!











Taneal climbing out of the pool after her swim competition.

Any suggestion?

I was looking through my own blog and was thinking that I had documented the last year better on my blog then anywhere else. With the move and then pregnancy, I haven't done any scrapbooking in the last year and I haven't been a very faithful journal writer, but I've been fairly good at keeping my blog updated, even with pictures. Someone mentioned that they were having their blog entries made into a book. I thought as long as it wasn't too pricey, that would be a great idea, a great way to have a written document of this last year. So, last night I went on-line and google searched how to do this. I found a website that looked pretty good, http://www.blurb.com. Has anyone heard of this? Or has anyone done this? If you have any knowledge on the subject, please let me know. Thanks!

Really cool!

I was logging onto my blog and noticed that google bloger had some new features. Of course I am not that updated on cool computer techniques, but I thought I would try to read it and see if the computer jargon made any sense. What I found was so cool! I now have a very cool list of my favorite blogs on the right side of my blog page. I already had a list, but what google has done for me is they put them in order of most recent posts! The ones at the very bottom google couldn't find, but I think there are only two that fit that category. So, now when I log onto my blog, I can quickly see who has updated their blog and click away. If you are interested, read about "snippets" on the blogger home page. It is very cool!

Taneal and Audrey are Baptized

Taneal was baptized on Saturday with her cousin, Audrey. Taneal turned 8 in February but decided to wait to be baptized until Audrey turned 8 in May so they could be baptized together. Audrey lives about 2 miles from us, is in a different ward, but in the same stake.

We took Taneal and Audrey to a studio to have their baptismal pictures made in the beautiful dresses Becky (Audrey's mom) found for the girls. I think they felt like princesses. They sure looked it.

It is hard to believe Taneal is 8 and old enough to make such special covenants. She knows right from wrong and was so excited to be baptized. She felt the spirit during her baptismal service. On the way home, she told Evan "that was fun! I like being baptized." I'm glad it was a special experience for her. She is such a wonderful daughter. She is always making such great choices. She is very mindful of how people feel and shows compassion even when that is not the popular thing to do. I have been so blessed to have Taneal in my home and as the oldest because she is such a special spirit and is a great example to her younger siblings.

Taneal was excited to have many come to her baptism. With my family only living a few hours away, My parents, Dorias and Mark and their 4 children, Rob and Beth and their 4 children, Charles, and my Aunt Cookie (from Utah) were able to come. Evan's parents and three of his brothers flew in for the occasion. It was so wonderful for everyone to come and show support. When the Bishop was welcoming Taneal and Audrey into the ward following their baptism and confirmation, he asked Taneal and Audrey to stand up and turn around and look at everyone that was in the room. The room was packed. Taneal really took in just how many people were there because of her.

And to show just how special Taneal is, she already on the ball and wrote of the experience in her journal.

Taneal and Audrey sang "I am a Child of God" after their baptism and Becky played the violin and I played the piano.

Spencer's 2nd Birthday

My little boy turned 2! He had such a fun birthday. He is into Cars right now, so I thought I would decorate a Lightening McQueen birthday cake. He knew what it was! He got some Cars toys and loved them. The only problem is he got too many. He needed to only get 1. He didn't want to open any more presents for a while because he had what he wanted. After a little while we convinced him to open more of his gifts and he was pretty happy. He held onto those toys because he wanted them and didn't want anyone to take them away. After we got home he was trying to pick up all his toys and his hands just weren't big enough to hold them all. As he would pick up another car he would drop one and get so mad. He was sure one of his sisters were going to take the toys from him. Maybe that has to do with the birth order, being the littlest and always having older siblings take things from you? It was so sad to watch him so afraid to put any toy down. After about a half hour being home and realizing nobody would take his toys, he finally lined them up on the group and played with them.

Back to Spencer's cake. He was able to blow out his own candles! How cute is that! My little boy is growing up and just in time because soon Spencer will be a big brother!

This is a picture if Spencer on the way home holding onto the some of the cars he got. It was hard to get him buckled into his car seat because he wouldn't alternate hands to get the straps around him.

Happy birthday, Spencer!

This is a video of Spencer blowing out his candles.

If you want to see Spencer opening up some of his presents, watch this video.

Brutally Honest

Children are known for being very honest, right? I think my Danielle is included in that.

This last weekend I was patiently waiting for Danielle to finish up her business in the bathroom so I could help her finish up, and I was leaning up against the counter. Of course my belly is getting very large these days. I pointed out to Danielle to "check out how big my belly was getting." She looked at it and then said, "Yeah, and your bum is getting pretty big, too."

Don't you just love the brutal honesty of a three-year-old?