SURPRISE!!

We go to celebrate my Dad's 70th birthday with a surprise party for him. Thanks to my sister Julie for organizing it, we pulled it off and it was a huge surprise. My dad didn't even know we were in town.
My brother James and his wife Shelley made a great video of my dad's life with the good ol' country western music to top it off.
Emma and my niece Sophie had birthdays with in a few days of my dad so they got cakes too.


Since we had most of our family together we got pictures takes. We were missing Josh (away at school), his brother Ben (on a mission in Australia), and Justin and Michelle, but we got a cute picture with all the cousins, including Whitney's baby, Mason, the first great-grandchild. (He is so cute)


Emma's birthday was the day after my dad's party and was on a Sunday so we had a low-key family birthday!! We love you Emma and you are a great big sister.

Things we want to remember about Emma:

~ She is a great soccer player and did a great job in softball her first time playing ever

~ I love watching her do gymnastics all over the house and yard. It reminds me of me when I was young and would do cartwheels through the grocery store, much to my mom's dismay

~Her paintings and drawings are excellent and look so real.

~ She loves to organize school or church games for the younger kids

~ She is a great achiever at school and outdoor activities.

~ While going swimming all summer long she learned to do back dives, and the touch the bottom of the deep end of the pool with her hand.

~ Panda Express is her favorite place to eat, but my imitation of it comes in second.

We love you Emma, and hope being 9 is as great as you are!!

projects

I love reading blogs to get ideas for fun projects or decorating ideas. I was inspired by so many of what these ladies do and I decided to attempt something. I found an old, big, jersey t-shirt and cute off the sleeves and trimmed the top to make a cute summery skirt for Emma. I shirred around the top to give it the puckered look and also to make it stretchy to fit her. I think it turned out pretty cute. Not bad for a first attempt!

I bought this bad boy at the DI a while back and had a perfect idea for it. It's an old paper towel holder without the paper towel holder part.

I cut a dowel to fit in the hole and had to drill out one side of the edge to be able to slide it in and out.

Next, came the paint job. I decided to go bold and find a great color. Then I hooked all my ribbon spools on and WALAH! I no longer have to sort through my box of ribbons to find what I need. Organization is great!

Shay-Shay's Birthday

Since we were going to be up North for Shay's birthday we had a cousin birthday! This is so special for us because we don't get to celebrate birthday's with cousins very much. We invited both sides of our family and we are so grateful for everyone who came. We had both grandmas there and lots of girl cousins and even some of the more grown-up cousins on my side of the family came. It was Shay's first big birthday party and even though she was a little shy, she felt so special. Thanks everyone who came! (Shay is loving her strawberry shortcake stuff. She even used her birthday money to buy more)

Baseball at a wedding...

My beautiful and amazing friend Melanie got married last week in Salt Lake so we all took a trip up there to be there for her. I loved her dress and the whole vintage theme. It was outside, decorated with old suitcases and picture frames. They had some fun oldies music playing and for dessert there were old fashioned candies and taffy. For entertainment for the guests they had lawn games, croquet and baseball. So where do you think Steve and the girls end up? Playing baseball in their cute dresses while Maddux ran around. It was so cute and they had a blast.

One of My favorite parts of the wedding was seeing so many of my good friends that I haven't seen in years. Unfortunately, I didn't get picture with them, but I did get this picture below. I have told Emma about my friend Jenny who was so short that Emma is almost as tall as her. When we were at the wedding I took this picture to show how true it is and Jenny is even standing on a bit of a hill. We always gave her a hard time in high school because all of us were 5'8" or taller and she is 4'11". Good Times!

And last but not least a picture of Mel! Her Dress was Ivory lace and beading. I haven't ever seen one like it and it was so her.

It's a splash!

Hooray for birthday's! We got to celebrate this cute little girl's 6th birthday by going swimming with a few of her friends. Kiana got to choose what her cake would look and she liked a picture of a cake I had that I always wanted to make.

Since we have moved Kiana has made a few new friends and has been lucky enough to keep some from our other neighborhood. She had a great time.

Kiana, You are so special to us! I love the way you like to take care of your siblings and the way you cuddle up to Dad and me. You are thoughtful and generous. Everyone always says how sweet you are and it is so true! We love you!

The time of our life...

Tuesday was our 10 anniversary, but we celebrated with a cruise a few weeks earlier!! Steve had to go to Florida for work and we figured since he would already be there we might as well take me along and head to Grand Cayman and Cozumel! We had the best time ever and can't wait to go on another cruise!

Our day in Cozumel was a bit windy and cloudy, but still warm and humid.

We went swimming with Dolphins at Chankanaab Park and loved the snorkeling. The fish would swarm around and I even touched a few of them when they got close. I bought an inexpensive under water camera, but I can't get it to rewind to get the film out (old school, I know) but when I figure it out I will have to post those pictures.



Cayman Islands was gorgeous!!! The water was that beautiful carribean blue with white sand beaches. The water was so much more salty than I remember ocean water being, but it was clear and perfect for seeing corals and fish.



We went to a turtle farm where we saw turtles that were as small as the ones we are holding, up to ones that were 600 lbs.


These little guys were cute! We got to kiss them and hold them.




Happy 10 years babe!! I love you!

My crazy life...

We have had spring break all week and even though we stuck around the house we did some fun things. Do you think I remembered to take my camera though, NO! But here we are late on a Friday night and I am documenting what has happened tonight!

• I had Emma take the sheets off her bed to wash...
  
• but they never made it on the bed before I sent the kids to bed (They of course were devasted. "how do I sleep on the bed with no sheets?")
• I had a power point presentation due for school (BTW I went back to school since I have so much free time and my kids are perfect and the house cleans itself) and I had procrastinated it to the last minute since I have only used ppt a handful of times. Shay was wanting to be with me, but I sent her to bed. When I finished my project I went up the stairs and found this.

• She hid on the step around the corner from where I was sitting on the computer so I couldn't see her there until I went part way up the stairs. Do I leave her here?

• The one who is usually the trouble at bed time curled up in his bed and went right to sleep like a little angel.

So mean while, instead of doing this...

Here I sit with no desire to finish.

Is that flour? No, it's corn starch

So, some people know I like to make cakes. I am still learning and experimenting and am far from professional, but the more I learn the more I enjoy it... at least after the experimenting part is over and it just looks pretty. (The cake, not me, because I usually look like this when I get done)

No, it's not flour, it's cornstarch. It keeps the fondant from sticking to counter but brushes off easily from the fondant.

So the story is that my dear friend Kendra called me and asked if I could do a wedding cake for her sister. I have feared this call from anyone because I just am not experienced enough to do it, but her sister was looking to save some money and I felt like if Kendra was asking me to do it she felt I did an ok enough job or she wouldn't have asked (Thanks Kendra!!)

My cake making experience has been a love/ hate relationship. I love doing it at first, then part way through I have to improvise or something isn't as easy as I had hoped and I hate it. At this point I usually call Steve and tell him to never let me make a cake again. Then I take a couple of breaths, fix whatever is wrong, roll out the fondant and decorate. Then I love it again.

This is what my counter looks likes when I am rolling out the fondant. Emma wanted me to show how messy it gets.

Once the cakes are covered they are so pretty, and I impressed with myself that I actually did it. The bride just wanted a three tier cake, plain white fondant and then they put their own ribbon around it. So here are the tiers...

And here is the cake all put together. My camera is the pits so sorry it's not a better picture.

New house

Here is a glimpse of our new house! I will post some more pictures when the inside is decorated a little more. We are loving that it isn't like the usual St. George look. We love that look too, but it is fun to have something different. It reminds us an English cottage with the ivy growing up the house and trees. Now we just need everyone to come visit and celebrate with us.

What's the point...

... of having a blog if I don't use it for helping someone else. I love sharing pictures of my kids and letting family and friends know what we are up to, but it's things like what I am going to share with you that makes me grateful for those moments I get with my kids and happy times I have with them.

A couple days before Christmas we got news that one of the sweetest families we know had found out their 4 year daughter had just been diagnosed with stage 4 kidney cancer. They were on a flight up to Primary Childrens that night. This family is adored and loved in this community and it is very apparent by the way so many have pulled together to help them out. Last weekend some friends of theirs put together a fundraiser garage/bake sale. So many items were donated that it took up 5 yards and driveways to display all the items. It was difficult to even find a place to park to get to the garage sale. I still get emotional when I think of how much people have helped out.

They are a regular family just like you and me, except they are not like anyone I have ever met. The Schmitts are an exceptional family who touch your heart from the moment you meet them and I am not just saying that because they are going through this trial. It's people like them that I think they are such a good family why would something like this happen to them. (As if only bad people have bad things happen to them.) Though you may not know them check out their blog jessicasmiracle.blogspot.com. You will be touched by the sweet pictures of Jessica and her family and the strength they have. Also, my friend Deborah Ouzts of funny face photography, who has done our incredible family pictures ever since we moved to St. George, is doing a fundraiser with some cute art that she is selling. Check out both of these. I can only do so much to them out myself, but I figured one thing I can do is spread the word to whoever I know and maybe there is someone else who has a few extra nickels to spare.