Tennis Cake-- Ace! :)

Ha ha! I am so funny! I am also very late in getting pictures/explanations of my latest cake logged. Oh well, life has been too busy lately.
It all started with the racquet. My friend, Jill, asked me to make a cake for her son, Taylor's, 15th birthday. He is #1 on the Varsity tennis team so she asked for a chocolate cake with a tennis theme. It was a challenge for me, I've never made a "boy" cake before! So I turned to CakeCentral and searched the gallery for tennis cakes. Pretty slim pickings!! I did find one rectangular cake with the court on top and a 3D tennis racquet and balls on top. I liked it, so I found out he plays with a Prince Diablo racquet and decided to make a miniature racquet for his cake. I made two racquets out of fondant 2 weeks prior to the birthday, but the never dried!! So I made two more out of gumpaste and they wouldn't dry either!! I was panicking big time! The night before they still weren't dry, so I had a fan blowing on them and I used the cool setting on my blow dryer and desperately tried to get them to dry. They didn't!
I painted it and left it to dry as long as possible. I ended up piping royal icing on the back of the racquet to give it support. Here it is all finished. Can you see that I broke part of the handle and had to glue it back on in this photo? Well I did! :)


While things were drying I made the cake, torted, crumb coated, frosted and covered in chocolate fondant. I then cut different size circles etc out of different shades of chocolate fondant to go on the sides and the top of the cake. I also made the gumpaste tennis balls and bent the wires into spiral shapes. Here is a picture of the cake with the fondant details:
I then piped "Happy Birthday Taylor" on the side of the cake with black royal icing. I think it turned out nicely. I have a little trick for getting "nice" writing. I find a font and size I want on the computer, print it up and then transfer it to the cake by holding the print out up to the cake and poking through the letters with a pin. Clever huh?

The next step was to put on the racquet and the balls. I warmed the wire with a candle before putting a ball on, worked like a dream! I just poked the racquet in the cake with the wire I had inserted before it had dried. I used a little glob of royal icing to keep the ball in place.
I couldn't decide if I should put everything on before or after delivery, but went with before because I knew I was just driving down the street and I HAD to get pictures! So here is the totally finished product:

They really liked it and they also thought it tasted as good as it looked. That always means a lot to me, it has to taste good!

I thought I would also include a picture of what happened to one of the last racquets I was trying to dry on a drying rack on the table. I should know better than to leave anything below a 10' height!!


For easter we made Bunny Cakes. We made on larger bunny (6" cake cut in half) and then we made mini bunnies that we gave to Grandma and Grandpa and our Bishop. I unfortunately did not get pictures of those, but they turned out really cute. Didn't Julia do a great job? She gave him green eyes like her mommy! :)

Running Again

I'm not sure if I mentioned it or not, but 2 weeks ago I injured myself running. I am a creature of the night and absolutely love running under the stars and moon. There is a small stretch of the path I run that is completely dark. I am usually pretty good about avoiding the cracks in the side walk, but this particular night I was tired and really forced myself to go running in the first place and when I got to that stretch the sidewalk got me. I was able to catch myself, I didn't get scraped up, but I almost wonder if I would have been better off if I had just fallen. I hurt my entire upper leg, front to back. It was nearly impossible to walk at all the next day. But with some rest and a lot of icing and a good chiropractor, one week later I was running again. I was completely shocked that I was actually running, not just walking, running! I was so worried I was going to have to start the program over again at week one, but I didn't. I stuck with the week 2 workout and will be starting week 3 tonight. I am still taking it pretty easy on myself. I am just doing the 3 workouts a week, even though for motivation's sake I really need to do something daily. I am hoping blogging about running tonight will make me more accountable. I love my Honey, but he is more than happy to tell me to sit on the couch and eat junk food with him. :) All my attempts at getting one of my friends to go with me have completely failed. They are all "morning" people. Can I just say how bizarre I find it that this entire neighborhood is filled with morning people. I have yet to find a single night owl. How did that happen????

Finished Project

Wow! Am I glad that is over!! It was pretty stressful for me, but I think it turned out well. This is only the second cake I've done for a "client" and I am still learning how things work. I really should take a class, I'd probably save myself a lot of grief. Maybe someday...

Here is a picture of the cakes with their fondant coverings and the bottom layer wrapped in its gumpaste "ribbon." That ended up being trickier than I thought it would be. I had this super long piece of ribbon to wind around the cake and I didn't think to coil it up initially, so I just brought the cake to the ribbon and spun the cake around and tried to lift the ribbon, there were a few small tears, but it was covered up by the bow later so it all worked out! As you can see, I still struggle getting everything level and I had more trouble with my fondant this time around. I think I rolled it too thin. You could see the chocolate icing a bit and it's bubbly. I'll do better next time!

Here is a picture of one of the bows. I followed the How To Make a Gumpaste Bow tutorial off the Cakecentral website with a few minor adjustments. I ended up needing to roll my gumpaste out on shortening, not powdered sugar, and then lightly dusting them with powdered sugar before adding their Luster Dust shine. I love luster dust! It's my new favorite product!!

After I made the bows I stacked my cakes. Always a bit nerve-wracking but it went pretty smoothly. The top layer I made 7up cake and used a Lemon Cream Cheese icing. Both were super tasty, just not very good for layer cakes. The cake was too spongy and the icing was just the wrong consistency and didn't firm up enough for me. I'd use it as a filling though. I used bubble tea straws for my supports and foam board covered in foil for the cake bases.


Next came the frozen buttercream transfers (FBCT). I had a picture of the FBCTs in my last post, but I didn't take pictures of the actual transfer. It went fairly smoothly on the emblem, but it needed a good amount of touch up. The writing didn't go well at all, I ended up freehanding it, but it was kind of nice to have a bit of a guide. You can see the emblem well in the picture above.


This is a picture of one of the things I was dreading the most-- the center dowel! I read numerous posts on CakeCentral about transporting cakes and all said you needed the center dowel. The process for those of you who don't know, is to take a wooden craft dowel, sharpen one end of it with a pencil sharpener and then drive it through all the tiers of your cake. Sounds insane doesn't it? Sounds like there is no way a cake can survive that. Drive it through the foam board? And not demolish the layer underneath??? And can you really sharpen a dowel with a mere pencil sharpener? Alright you may be wiser than I am, but this whole process seemed impossible to me. It all worked just like they said though. I sharpened the dowel, drove it down as far as a I could, used a hammer to drive it down through the foam board and tuh duh! You can kind of see the dowel sticking out the top. Not the best photo sorry...
With that done it was time to figure out how to cover up the snipped dowel. Flowers ofcourse! I used some left over gumpaste to form little roses and dyed some leftover fondant green for the leaves, mounded up some royal icing on top and went to work. The picture above shows the cake nearly complete. I had to wait until I got to the church to put the bows on though. Here is a close up shot of the flowers and the mysterious "165."

Now we come to the second thing I was terrified of- the transport. I folded my rear seat down in my van and lined the back with that rubbery shelf liner. No I didn't come up with this on my own, I read it on CakeCentral ofcourse! I placed the cake and all my little boxes with my bow pieces and numbers and had a friend drive while I sat in back ready to catch anything that might fall over. To my utter amazement, nothing moved whatsoever. I can now confidently deliver my cakes alone. So here it is delivered and decked out in it's bows. I would do a few things differently with the bows in the future, but everyone loved the cake and were amazed that it tasted as good as it looked. Even one of the guys that worked in the nursery came in to tell me how fabulous it tasted. Made my night! He said, "My birthday is October 1st, the cake was amazing!" He may just get himself a cake for that!

What a tease

I will give you a few more hints. I should have some sort of contest for this! Hmmm... I will make your birthday cake if you can figure out what the 165 is for. One trick, you have to come to Utah to get it! :)


This one may not be very helpful. I already said it was for a 165th birthday.


This one really should give it away though. Yes, I know the words and images are backwards. They hopefully will not be once I transfer them to the cake.




One last image of where I am currently in the cake making process.




In response to Shayla, I would love to make an Ariel cake for Natalie! And any kind of cake Kenzie could dream up! I have seen some very cute ones online. I hear you about buying all the pans. It is pricey. But fun!! Just move here and you can have all the cakes you want! :) Good for you for joining Weight Watchers, you are going to do awesome and be teensy weensy next time I see you! Also the bow is not actually "tied" although I kind of think it would be easier... I think that was everything, better get back to baking I still have the 7up cake to make. And all the icing! Yiiiiiikkkkkkeeeessssss!!!

Sneak Peek

I know I am terrible at blogging, but I decided to share a sneak peak of my latest endeavor. I also could not resist sharing some pictures of the girls. They are really enjoying Mommy's new hobby.

A lot! "Arr! It's nummy Mommy!" I love my little pirate!


I have decided I can't really call myself a "business" just yet. It's just three cake orders and for I know the whole thing will shrivel up and die after that. Hopefully not, I really do love it, but it is entirely possible when you consider you can run down to Costco and buy a gynormous cake for at least half the price of what I need to charge. Enough about that though, here comes your peek...

One down two more to go. This bow is entirely edible, although I wouldn't recommend it. I made it out of gumpaste and may I just say, if you thought fondant was bad, well it is creme brulee compared to this stuff!!! Blech!!!!!


This is the cake topper. Also completely edible and possibly a bit more palatable. I did paint the gold luster dust with lemon extract... You be my guest. I will stick to the hopefully delectable cakes inside. Tomorrow I will be baking the lemon cake for the top layer, the white cakes for the center and the chocolate cakes for the bottom. Not to mention, finishing the other two bows, mixing the frosting, and cleaning out my fridge so I have room for the assembly! Fun stuff! Oh how I wish I had a dedicated freezer fridge... maybe some day. Wish me luck!

Oh in case you read this Shayla, I am making your Light and Fluffy Chocolate Frosting. I got the recipe from your Mom. Yummy!!!! If anyone is interested I will post it here.

Feelin' buggy!

Yesterday was the big cake delivery day. Everything went much better than I was anticipating, which is always nice. I did have a few bumps along the road, but it all turned out great in the end. I really had a great time planning and executing these cakes. It did get pretty stressful I must admit. When I have made cakes for my kids or my sister's kids, I've always known if things totally flopped I could just run to Walmart or something and pick a bakery cake up, but this time I would ruin poor little Camrie's 1st Birthday! I just kept reminding myself to relax and enjoy the process, this is something I love doing.
There has been a lot of preparation beforehand, mostly because I wanted to try some new recipes. I thought it was cheesy that I just use a cake mix, so I attempted to make a Perfect White Cake. I have never used a filling in a cake before and I also wanted to try some new frosting recipes. I made three cakes, a white with strawberry cream cheese filling, a chocolate with chocolate cream cheese filling, and a small white cake for the baby. I tried a Swiss Meringue Buttercream, a Crusting Buttercream Frosting, a Creamy Chocolate Frosting, a Cheesecake Mousse Filling, a Chocolate Filling from another cake recipe, and then I invented my own fillings! :)
First off, the Swiss Meringue was too buttery for me, and I had read that because they are so buttery, they will get super soft when left at room temp. I knew I wanted this frosting for the cake on the bottom, so not a good match. It had a very smooth velvety texture, but it really had a strong butter flavor that I am not sure I enjoy.
The Crusting Buttercream is awesome!! I love the texture and the flavor is mild and wonderful. I will be using this recipe for all my future cakes!
The Creamy Chocolate Frosting is also exactly what it says, creamy and absolutely delicious. I seriously could have sat down with a spoon and eaten the entire batch without cake, but I love frosting.
The Cheesecake Mousse is just what it says, a mousse. It tasted delicious and I will use it for crepe filling in the future, but it was just too soft for the bottom of my cake and the cheesecake flavor wasn't quite strong enough for me. It really is delicious though.
The Chocolate filling is awesome on the cake it belongs to, but was not quite firm enough for my layer cake.
So Saturday I worked on the chocolate frosting, the cheesecake filling and the cake from scratch. I made a little 8 in round and discovered the cake tasted delicious fresh from the oven, but after being chilled it was a bit dry and crumbly. Still good, but not that good. Sydni enjoyed the frosting! I also made the Easy Marshmallow Fondant and kneaded in the red coloring in one half batch. I made two other batches and left them white to cover the cakes. I also made the foam board stands for the cakes. I cut out a leaf shape and covered it with green craft paper for the baby's cake. The other two were round, but the big one was also edged in green paper and I purchased a white doily for the cake to rest on.
Monday afternoon I started baking the cakes from the box and mixing up the fillings and frostings. I cleaned my Kitchenaid mixer more times than I ever want to again!!! Monday night I tweaked some recipes to get my filling recipes, unfortunately the strawberry cheese cake was still too soft. But all the cakes assembled easily.
Here is a picture of the cakes all torted, filled and iced waiting for their fondant covers. I used the Viva paper towel method to smooth the icing. Love it!!!


Later that night I covered the cakes and started working on the lady bugs. That's when I discovered the fondant completely changed texture because of the red coloring. I had also read about this problem online and had used more powdered sugar and some corn syrup to compensate, but it still didn't work. So Plan B- make the bugs out of white fondant and paint them. I stayed up until 2:30 forming all my little buggies. I gave them overnight, or actually a few hours to dry. I got up at 8 and started painting. Here they are all painted and drying by an open window.

The white swirly thing was going to be the antanae of the little lady bug cake, but the fondant didn't dry so I ended up making them out of royal icing. Then came the really fun part, decorating! I had a lot of fun. I don't think I'm very good at writing with icing, but I really like Camrie's name. I also like the lady bug's "trails." Here are a few pictures- one when they are in the fridge right after they were finished and a few I snapped right before I delivered them. I didn't have time to take any more.
I really hope my friend took more pictures! She is a scrapbooker, so I'm sure she did. Transporting the cakes was really scary! I thought I'd be taking them to her house which is right around the corner, but then found out she was having the party at her MIL's house about 5 min away. Doesn't seem that far right? They are doing construction on the road I thought I'd need to turn on and we live in the foot hills. I was scared! Luckily my neighbor came over and knew some back roads I could take and even offered to come with me to help make the delivery. Julia came with us to hold the third cake. My friend had the big cake on her lap and held the little lady bug above it. Poor thing! She's so sweet to help!! Would you believe we got there incident free. Yeah!! So how do you like my lady bug cakes?

I've been hired!!

Someone hired me to make their daughter's first birthday cake! I am soooo excited. And honored to be able to make someone's cake! She wants a ladybug theme and I had a million ideas, but I did narrow it down to a final design. It will be another fondant cake at the client's request and my delight! No other details for you though, you will have to wait for pictures the night before the big day, March 6th. I'm planning on making a couple smaller test cakes this week just because I am so new at this and I really don't want to ruin someone else's daughter's cake. I think the design I'm chosen should be fairly simple and not totally new to me. I really just want to try out a few new frosting and filling recipes I found.
Well time to put the gremlin down for her nap. Had to share my news.

In a daze

Well just when I was so excited to start some socks I could wear, wouldn't you know the toddler gets very sick. I still have not finished off my Asherton hat, my new needles from big sis are sitting on the desk behind me, and I know any second now Sydni will find me and in her pathetically sweet sick voice she will say "issue" (tissue) for the millionth time today.
I think I have decided to try the Cowboy Slipper Socks from Interweave Knit's Winter catalog. I was soooo happy they sent me that one as well. I absolutely LOVE it! There are so many patterns I don't know which to buy yarn for first.
Oh that's my cue. I hear a tantrum. Let's just hope she hasn't found my stash again!!

Still Running

I went running again Sunday evening. I know, it's only my second run, why am I posting about it? This is how I'm going to keep myself accountable. You will be my "running buddy" since I have been completely unable to talk any of my friends into running with me. Anyway, I was soooo sore from running Saturday night, that I took things much slower to keep from injuring myself any more than I already have. If you really are a couch potato like I became over the winter, DO NOT RUN TO THE BEAT!!! or walk to the beat really. Maybe in a couple weeks I will be able to. I'm going to see how my run goes tonight, and if I'm still really sore, I will most likely repeat week one. I'm going to be running every other day and doing pilates on the alternate days. I have to work out daily or I will just stop altogether. Also I eat like a pig! :)

On a knitting note, I have been meaning to post pictures of my Twirl Hat for ages! Here it is:


It was knit for Julia, not Sydni, but I somehow never took a picture of Julia in it. Since she has lost it for the second time, I probably will never get the chance. Oh well, it was like a $2 hat. Don't you love knitpicks yarn?? I would not use the Totem yarn for this project again though. Well I guess what I would really need is a size smaller needle (this is not a plea to buy me more!! I really don't need them right now) I used a heavier yarn for my Asherton hat and like how that turned out much better. I still have some finishing to do on that one before I can take photos.

My Big Sister Is Better Than Yours

Neener neener neener! I'm really just kidding, I'm sure your big sister is a fine person. I just really love mine and I will tell you why.
1. Did you read her comment in my last post? How sweet is that?? By the time I'd called to talk her out of it, she'd already placed the order.
2. She taught me how to knit and is my first resource when I run in to trouble.
3. She lets me call her any time I want day or night. I haven't actually called her in the middle of the night, but it's nice to know I could! :)
4. She helps keep me motivated to reach my goals. For example, she sent me a link to a Couch to 5k podcast. I tried it out Friday night and absolutely LOVE it. I'm totally going to run again.
5. She helped me figure out how to budget. For the first time in my life, I actually feel like I'm in control of my money, not the other way around.
6. She spent Christmas with me.
7. She loves my kids as much as I do and enjoys hearing me talk about them.
8. She understands motherhood better than most people I know.
9. She's my soft place to land. She's always taken care of me.
10. She taught me how to curl my hair and put on my make up.
11. She helped me gain a testimony of prayer.
12. She taught me about boys and how to deal with their stupidity. ;)
13. She shares her recipes.
14. She gave me Fearless Fiber sock yarn.
15. She shares my love of chocolate and baked goods.
16. She wrote that beautiful post on my birthday that really made a difficult day much brighter!
17. She reads my blog! :) I'm pretty sure she's my only reader!

I wish I were as eloquent as she is, but this is the best my feeble mind can manage. I know if I'd just had more sleep I could think of a million more reasons. It's been one of those nights. I am NEVER up this early (5 a.m.). Sydni is getting her molars and I feel like we have a newborn again. Three more to go and then we are done!! Hallelujah! Well I love you Kristie! I can't imagine my life without you. Growing up would be a million times more difficult. Thank you for always being there.

Socks

Well I did it! I knit my first pair of socks and here they are in all their glory? ? ? Bear in mind, they are my first pair. The first sock is on the left and I was actually very pleased by how it turned out. It wasn't as difficult as I had feared either. I did not have trouble with the gusset or the heel turn. I did have trouble with my sizing, the heel, and the bind off.
I ended up making a sock that fits my husband. I really need size 0 or maybe 1's to make socks for myself, I think... We'll see when I get new needles!
On the heel I kept my yarn forward when I slipped my stitches purlwise which I think was wrong to do. (don't laugh, I'm new at all this! ;) I kept the yarn back on the second sock and like how that looks better. Here are the pictures of both heels as well.
I did run into trouble again when it came time to bind off. I still need things spelled out for me, so to just tell me to "bind off" didn't cut it. The first time I bound off, it was so tight Ja couldn't get it on his foot. So I searched the internet and tried a few more instructions I found and finally decided that I just needed to use a larger size needle and the Russian bind off. One small problem though, I started doing the finances and buying new needles, yarn, etc just does not fit in the budget right now. Everything came to a stand still, but I really wanted to finish my second sock. What's a girl to do? I bound off sloppily(seen on the right) and figured I'd fix it later. So here are pictures of my first bind off on sock one and the improved correct bind off on sock 2 (pictured on the left). I discovered I really don't need a larger needle, I can be loose!
I keep debating on whether or not to felt these socks. I think I could get them to fit my daughter and then all my little flaws will be gone. Ja can wear them around the house until I decide.
In the meantime, I started smariek's Asherton Hat. I am knitting it in Lion Brand Wool-ease in the Heather colorway. Yup the same yarn I made the Braided Hat out of. I have tons of it left.

Good News

Yesterday was a good day that I would have really really enjoyed if I were feeling better. I had my appointment with the dentist and found out all is not as dire as he initially thought, I most likely will not need surgery although he was reluctant to guarantee I wouldn't, but I will happily delude myself into thinking it's a sure thing! The absolute best part of the visit was hearing him say as long as I wear the appliance as instructed, he has a 100% success rate. And if I for some reason do not get results he will not charge me. Wow! That never happens and I feel much better about getting treated now.
I also had Bunco last night, and would you believe I won again?? Not the whole thing, but I did get high score so I got to pick second. I chose these lovely candlesticks that I will not be returning! :)
Aren't they lovely? And the candles smell like Mulberry, yum yum!! I came home and just crashed. My head cold has taken over and today I am useless.
The other great thing about yesterday was I finally relocated a blog I've been searching for, it's Maia's blog and she makes beautiful socks. I'm so excited for her to post her lace sock pattern. I'm definitely going to give them a try.
Well Sydni found me and wants her "Einstein computer" so I guess that's all for me.

Too much pain!

I am so confused about what to do that I thought maybe if I write about it, I'll be able to sort everything out.
I've had TMJ disorder pain for a while now. Two years ago I went to an orthodontist who claimed to treat TMJ problems. I felt reassured that they knew what they were doing and was very pleased that I wouldn't need surgery, which I'd been told by other doctors I would. Fast forward two years, braces are now off and my TMJ pain is now ten times worse than it was before. The orthodontist who treated me did try different things that were supposed to help, but nothing did. He finally kept telling me to go to a chiropractor and that the problem was in my neck, not my jaw. I did try the chiropractor, but going to the chiropractor every week for the rest of my life just isn't a solution. The pain starts in my jaw and facial muscles, not my neck. I really don't have much neck pain unless I've been knitting or looking down for long periods of time. So I see a dentist who is trained in Bioesthetic Dentistry. I have been through the initial work up and tomorrow will discover what he thinks needs to happen.
This morning I get a call from a neighbor who heard what has been going on ans she tells me she has been to the dentist I am currently seeing and had a horrible experience. So now I'm left wondering if I am doing the right thing or not. She recommended getting a NTI appliance or at the very least getting a second opinion. The NTI looked pretty lame to me, but what do I know? I had a similar device about 4 years ago and it was completely useless. I'm just so tired of my face feeling like it is on fire and having pretty severe headaches that may be migraines every single day. It's hard to talk myself into moving at all. I really would rather stay in bed all day and that is so not like me. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy a good night's sleep, but I hate just laying around all day. I have to do something or I go nuts. Lately I could care less. It hurts to do everything. Even laying in bed all day isn't really an option. I cannot stand to lay on my side because of the pressure on my jaw, so I end up on my back which eventually kills my back. I was doing well before my braces came off, I'd been exercising, eating somewhat decent, I did more around the house and now I do nothing. I like to eat when I am in pain. Especially when I have a headache, I keep thinking that food will make it better, maybe a little shot of sugar will be just what I need. Nope, it doesn't. I just watch the numbers on the scale get higher and higher and my clothes get tighter and tighter.
Well I am just as confused as I was when I started this post. Now you know why I have no finished projects to show or anything else for that matter. I am making painfully slow progress on my second sock though. Maybe next week it will be finished.

Bunco madness!

I hosted Bunco at my house last night. It was my first time hosting and I was so nervous. I don't entertain on a regular basis, other than my 8-yr-old daughter's friends which doesn't really count. They are happy with a pizza from Little Caesars and a 2-liter of root beer. I got all stressed out after talking to my sister-in-law(SIL) who has been doing Bunco for years. She told me I absolutely should not buy food from Costco- that makes for a terrible night.
So I fretted and worried about what on earth I would make and what gifts would be "good enough." I took a friend from our group shopping with me, and we got some really great prizes from a cute local store called "Rod Works." I felt much better. Then we did go to Costco to buy food, I found out my group isn't as snobby as my SIL. I ended up getting a big ol' chocolate cake and some lettuce, they just didn't have anything that looked all that yummy, I was shocked. I ended up making Lemon Rosemary Chicken, Garlic Smashed Potatoes, homemade rolls, spinach dip, Little smokies and caramel pecans, and a caesar salad. I also made some Lemon Water to drink and we had various sodas as well. I REALLY did not intend on actually cooking so much of the food, I honestly don't know what happened. I spent almost the entire day yesterday in the kitchen, but it was really worth it in the end.
Once people started coming I just relaxed and really just enjoyed myself. The food turned out great, everyone kept going back for more which never really happens. I was really expecting to have tons of leftovers, I didn't expect others to have abandoned their New Year's Resolutions as quickly as I did too!
It was the loudest night of Bunco I think we have ever had, definitely the loudest I have ever been to. I was laughing so hard! And the very best part, I WON!! I never win. Ever. I'm lucky to get one Bunco all night long, and usually am 20 pts off getting the low score prize. I rolled 6 Buncos. Two of them back to back in the very last two games. Here's my prize:

It's cute, but I am going to return it to get a couple items at the store that I liked better. Shhh, don't tell! That's the really nice thing about hosting, you have the receipts and you know which gift cost the most money!! :)

December Recap II

Ahhh, the rest of the month. I couldn't possibly leave out Christmas!

Here we are assmebling the tree. Julia had been begging all month long to set it up, and finally on December 14th we did. It seems we always get sick the first few weeks in December, so we promised ourselves next year the tree is going up the day after Thanksgiving. After throwing things together so late in the game this year, I think we really will... I hope...



Here it is folks, the Bob Vila gingerbread house. We had a blast decorating it. We have a tradition of doing this on Julia's birthday. I assembled the house before we went to Winger's so it could really set up and then over the next day or so we put all the candy on it. I love the little "rocks" I found for the chimney, front walk, and front of the house. I'm told they tasted delicious as well.



Bob and Kristie came Dec 23rd and Kristie and I immediately went out to go last minute shopping. I hadn't bought myself a single gift yet. Oh, my husband and I have a somewhat unorthodox gift-giving tradition. To avoid being disappointed by what you got and feeling guilty about returning it and/or feeling like a shmuck for getting the wrong gift, and to retain that "oh wow!" surprise feeling, we purchase our own gifts. That way we always get exactly what we want and we get to be surprised by what the other person bought for themself. It works great for us. Anyway, we ran to Kohls. After a mad dash through the store and a joyous time in the dressing room (imagine this last part laced with sarcasm) the hubbies call to tell us to come make their dinner. So we dashed to the check out line only to get the slowest checker on the face of the earth made even worse by a lady demanding price checks, but we make it through run out the door and then, "hey, where did we park? Wasn't the car right here? We got a good spot didn't we? I swear we parked right here? Where is my van???" We walk up and down every aisle looking for my green Mazda and all I can say is, "Why when we are surrounded by Honda Odyssey's and Chryslers would a stupid car thief choose my MPV???" We're getting pretty paranoid by this point, imagining what our husbands will say (hers is a SHERRIFF!!) when suddenly a light goes on, "was there more than one entrance?" We head back inside and remember we came in by the shoes, so we go over that way through the doors and guess what? There's my van right out front like it should have been. We were laughing so hard with relief and were so mortified by our experience, that we vowed not to tell our hubbies the real reason we were soooooooo late.

I have been waiting for big sis to put this on her blog, but she hasn't so here it is, her Ric Rack Purse. I think it is absolutely adoreable and I really want one for myself. Hopefully I will be able to knit it myself before too long. Julia absolutely loves it, it is perfect!!








Christmas Eve -- another tradition we have is opening jammies on
Christmas Eve. So here are Daddy and his girls in their coordinating jammies. Sydni looks thrilled, doesn't she? Daddy didn't buy himself any jammies, shame on him!! I had pink ones to match the girls but we didn't get any photos of us... We also wathed a video of the Christmas story called "Joy to the World" and sang songs and took a moment to remember the Savior and the true reason we all gather together this time of year. It was a nice break from the hustle and bustle. After the kids went to bed it was a mad dash to get presents wrapped and orange rolls baked. Big sis and I were up until 4 am!


It was all worth it Christmas morning though. The kids had a great time, Sydni was more interested in passing out all the red presents than actually opening any, but she did like the toys inside. We had a great time!! We had Christmas dinner at my in-laws. Ja's little sister that is my age came with her hubby and 2 girls and it was wonderful to see them! Gotta love the holidays.

December Recap


First up, Julia's Christmas Dance Recital on the 19th of December. They danced to the Dance of the Chinese Something Or Other song from the "Nutcracker" and they were so cute. Julia is the second girl on the right. The girl standing on her right looking at the camera is Bailey, our neighbor and friend. Her mom usually takes the girls to ballet. It is so much fun to listen to their conversations. Bailey has RA and consequently undergoes a lot of medical testing every month. When Julia had to get her flu shot, Bailey gave her advice about how to handle the "dreaded needle!!" Their latest conversation was about the age of their mothers. Julia was telling Bailey about my upcoming birthday and how I would be "30 (pause) years (pause) old!!!" Then Bailey said her Mom just turned 37 (??) and at her next birthday "I think she's going to turn 90 or something." I love kids!


Next up, the snow storm. We had about a foot of snow fall just in time for Christmas. We love the snow! No one more than Sydni. She and Julia played in the snow even after the sun went down. I literally had to drag them back in the house. Sydni was shrieking and kicking and actually I'm surprised none of the neighbors called the police or rushed out to see what happened. I guess they are used to her screaming since she does it every time I bring her inside.

We were so happy the snow lasted through Christmas so Uncle Bob and Aunt Krisite could have a white Christmas. Right after they left for Idaho, we had a few warm days and it melted. Now it's only a memory, but we're hoping to get a t least one more good storm in before the spring.

Happy Birthday! Julia turned 8 on the 20th of December. She looked all grown up in her outfit that really looked like something I would wear. The 20th was also the last day of school before winter break, so she got to sing in her Christmas program and have a party at school. We took her to one of her favorite resteraunts for dinner, Wingers. Her sister was a little terror and kept wanting to strip and they took the Jell-o off the kids menu, but they still had popcorn and Asphalt Pie so all was right with the world. She had her friend party in the summer (see my first post), so she was stuck with her family that night. Luckily she still likes us! I'll end this post with pictures of her opening some of her presents. Sydni is calling...







From Grandma and Grandpa Her new scriptures from Mom and Dad









From Aunt Angie & Family

To gusset or not to gusset...

When big sis came for Christmas, she started to teach me to knit socks. Unfortunately, we did not make it to the heel gusset. So here are some photos of what I have knit so far, but is it far enough???

I'm really excited about my first pair! I'm hoping it is the first of many, especially since big sis also gave me another hank of beautiful Fearless Fibers sock yarn. I figured I'd be ripping this first pair back so much that green would be a much more appropriate color.

This is all for now, Syds is demanding to have Einsteins on the "uhputer" right this second!