Katie's Krazy Klan

Randoms of April 2011

2011-04-19T19:09:00.000-07:00

Arizona Sunset

Whit dressed up at a party

Hailey in a Dance dress up

costume

All dressed up!

(Lanie, Noelle, Whit, and Hailey)

At a birthday party

Parker & Uncle Bret

My cute Kids!!!

Stephanie and Allegra and Me at

Allegra's blessing

Styled Hair differently

AND IT'S BROWN!!!

Whitney's thoughts (april 2011)

2011-04-19T18:57:00.000-07:00

Whitney is such a funny little lady. I have posted these on Facebook but have not blogged about them to remember.

Whit was going throught the colors of the rainbow; red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and VIOLENT. I was laughing so hard. She meant Violet....but said Violent. So funny!

My in-laws had a dog years ago named Jordie. He died when Hailey was little...so none of the granbabies were ever really around him. My in-laws have pictures of this dog....and so all the kids know who he is. The other night at bedtime whitney said, "Mom, Jordie died." "Yes, he did die," I replied "he was old." She then stated, "Jordie went to Kevin." In which my response was, "It's not called Kevin sweetie....it's called HEAVEN."

She says the funniest things!

Feb 2011 cakes

2011-02-27T14:51:00.001-08:00

Another couple of cakes that I have done recently.

This one was for my cousin Brandie who came into town from San Diego to celebrate her Birthday. Her husband was just sent out to sea for the next 6-9 months, and she didn't want to be alone. Her and her daughter Isabel (almost 3) came into town for a week to play and have fun. Brandie requested a chocolate cake w/ Marshmallow frosting. She kept changing her mind from day to day, she's pregnant and is having a lot of cravings! This was the end result though, Chocolate cake with marshmallow frosting and chocolate shavings on top.

This cake was for the daughter of a friend. She is 6 yrs old and was very specific in what she wanted. She asked for a red cake, with chocolate filling, blue frosting, a white moon on top, with yellow stars. She also wanted some pajama sets on the sides, one of which had to be red....and 1 other one had to have purple on it. She had a pajama party with pizza and goodies and games....all the guests had to wear their pj's to the party. Hailey was invited and had a blast! They played games with flashlights and watched a Scooby Doo Camp movie. Needless to say, Nyah loved her cake and gasped with a smile when she saw it.

FINISHED PRODUCT

Update

2011-02-03T21:55:00.000-08:00

I don't even know where to start!

Since the beginning of December....someone in our family has been sick! We had the whole stomach bug thing (minus Dan and Whit), we all had colds over Christmas, and between December 1st and February 1st we had all had pink eye! I don't think I have ever missed so many Sundays of church in a row!! Having sick kids is the worst! On top of that, being sick while taking care of sick kids is even worse. It wasn't like we all had it at the same time either...NO, that would make things easy for the mom. Each person got the bug or whatever it was about 5 days after the other person...it was just an ongoing sick house. Things have cleared up...I was the last to get pink eye and just finished with the drops today. My whole pink eye experience was made worse by the fact that the pharmacy gave me drops that I was allergic to. REAL FUN, putting something you're allergic to in your eyes 4 times a day. Great week. Last night Whit started fevering up....no other symptoms to date yet...but she feels yucky and has a fever. Today was mainly spent on trying to entertain Parker while holding Whitney. Good thing Parker likes to play with any kind of ball. He would throw it to me while I was sitting on the couch with whit....then I would throw it to the other side of the room and he would "fetch" it. Like a dog. He liked it, and that way I was pleasing both of my kids! SERIOUSLY.....can't we all just be healthy for longer than a week! GEEZ!

On a happier note: Dan starts his LAST set of classes this coming week. Each class is 6 weeks....so he is almost done!!! Can't wait to have him home more often.

Tonight Hailey had a school Father/Daughter dance. She was so excited to go. She wanted to dress-up in a nice dress and everything. They had a good time, and Daddy even got her a flower and a balloon to help celebrate their special date. I am so happy they could have some special time together. That's important.

That's about it for now.

Christmas 2010

2011-01-09T08:24:00.000-08:00

Not much to say... the word Christmas explains it all! We had a great holiday with both families!! I forgot to take pictures at the Andersons house...I was so busy helping all the kids open their presents. I will have to do a second post with pictures from my moms camera. Lots of pictures!!

Thanksgiving 2010

2011-01-07T07:55:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving 2010

Things didn't go as planned this year, but in the end....we had an enjoyable holiday. We were going to go up to SLC for the holiday this year. Both sides of the family were going to be up there...so dinner with the Roberts family in Midway-and Dessert with the Anderson family in Bountiful.

First thing...there was a blizzard warning that weekend. YES...a BLIZZARD warning! We were a bit nervous to drive in such awful conditions, plus it was going to be super cold. Do we have REALLY warm clothes for that kind of weather? Not really, but we would make it work. We watched the weather and made family aware of our concerns of driving in bad weather with a van full of kids. We were not looking forward to the drive possibly taking longer than it already is either! The weather looked as if it was not going to change.

Secondly...I made the mistake (not really a mistake...but if I didn't look we probably would have still gone up there) of going through our finances a few days before we were scheduled to leave. LOOK HERE...we don't even have the money to afford to go! Hmmmm....that was a much bigger problem than the blizzard.

Long story-short, our garage door was broken, we had a few other surprises happen with the house, a blizzard was on the way, news of a possibility of 1 less pay check that month due to school costs, and me having a complete breakdown, we made the decision NOT to go up to SLC. We were bummed. My brother Beau had recently gotten married and was having an open house/2nd reception up there. I was excited to see family and friends and old neighbors that I hadn't seen in awhile.

What to do for Thanksgiving dinner?

Roberts ended up cancelling their flight to SLC and changing plans last minute too.

We went over there on Thanksgiving Day and ate Mexican food. It was really good! We then went to the movie theater and saw "Mega Mind." The girls were a little bored and so Lala and the 2 girls went to the theater next door and saw "Tangled" instead. They loved it! We met them back at the Roberts house for pie. Full bellies, good entertainment, good company. We had an enjoyable holiday.

Geary "surprised" by the picture being taken

Whit playing with the kitchen
Me and Krissy

Hailey in front of Movie Theater

Grandma Char and Lala before dinner

Mr. Parker!

Krissy & Dan outside the Theaters

Things didn't go as planned....but we had a great time!

Kid Pictures 2010

2011-01-04T21:08:00.001-08:00

Just some random pictures of the kids. They all grow so fast! These are from November and December of 2010.

Parker and his juice box on the hungry hippo

peek-a-boo!
"Thankful" for my sister

I LOVE my juice box!

Playing at Nannie's house

December Cakes 2010

2011-01-04T20:50:00.000-08:00

Only 2 cakes this month. So busy....but December usually is a busy month! Bret and Beau celebrated thier birthdays on the 15th of this month. I wanted to do something individual for each of them...but couldn't think of what to do. My brother Beau got married the previous month before, and there was a 1/2 sheet cake left over from his wedding. I had my mom freeze it so it didn't go to waste and had planned on using it for thier cakes. Much easier having the cake part already made and shaped in the right shape. I decided to do a "Harry Potter" book for Beau. He has read all the books and has been a fan since day 1. Bret was more difficult. You can't go wrong with tv or video games...so he got an x-box. It doesn't look like the "REAL" x-box, but you can tell what it is.

Hope you boys had a Happy Birthday!

I love you!

Not an "authentic" X-box.....but you get the point.

A Harry Potter Book....with writing from the actual book

The Boys with thier cakes.

Birthdays and babies

2010-12-19T07:35:00.000-08:00

No fun pictures to go with this posting-bummer I know!

What are the chances of having 2 best friends throughout middle school and High school?

What are the chances that the 3 of you are still friends and talk regularly today?

What are the chances that your 2 friends are pregnant at the same time-and due within weeks of each other?

What are the chances that they both have their babies on the same day- with both going into labor early?

What are the chances that they are born on one of those friends birthdays?

Well it happened to me...so I'd say the chances are pretty good!

Congrats to my friend Stephanie who had a little girl on her birthday! Allegra was 5lbs, 14 oz born on December 7th.

Congrats to my friend Brynn for delivering a healthy baby boy on the same day!!! Tru was born on December 7th and weighed 6 lbs, 8 oz.

Congrats to both of you! I am glad that I'm still around to be a part of it. Love you guys!

Simple Prayers

2010-12-18T07:00:00.000-08:00

Hailey has been quite funny with her prayers this Christmas season. We just had our nightly family prayer a few minutes ago, and it was Hailey's turn to say it. Most of the normal things were said, such as "bless us to sleep well," and "help us to be happy tomorrow." Lately though, she has been adding things about Santa Clause and "help us to not be put on the naughty list," which I think is a crack up!!! She just added in this prayer tonight to "not break any toys" and to "bless her to not wake up on Christmas eve so she won't see Santa." This girl is seriously worried about the whole Christmas thing!! What a funny girl....she's definitely on the NICE list!

Now that's a thought!

2010-12-17T19:17:00.000-08:00

Here's the story. Whitney was upset one night at dinner because she couldn't find her sippy cup. She left the table and looked for it everywhere. She came back to the table disappointed after having no success at finding it. She then began to whine about not being able to find it. Dan & I ran down a checklist of spots in the house and asked her if she had looked there, and she had answered yes to all of them. As I started to get up from the table, Dan asked her about one more place-one I had never heard him ask before.

"Whit, did you sit on your sippy and it got stuck in your bumble-crack?"

Dan was just being funny...but a 3 year old doesn't understand that kind of humor. Bumble-crack....where did THAT come from? Whit then reacted as any child would.....she thought she'd check and see!! She whirled around a few times trying to look at her bum to see if her sippy was actually there! We were laughing so hard!!! She then said, "Nope daddy, it's not there" as to reassure us that she didn't sit on it and that it wasn't actually stuck there. We all had a good laugh.

Halloween 2010

2010-11-21T09:00:00.000-08:00

Halloween was super busy-so many fun things to do! We started a few days early with a school Halloween party. We went to Hailey's school and ate dinner and danced to the DJ. The kids loved it! The next night was our ward trunk-or-treat at the church. We had the traditional Chili cook off for dinner and this time DAN was one of the judges! Papa & Lala met us there and spent the evening playing games and trunk or treating with the kids. Then "actual" Halloween was on a Sunday...so off to my parents house for dinner and our own little party. We LOVE Halloween-can't wait for next year!!!

Kids in costume for school party

Papa & Parker the pumpkin

Cutest pumpkin ever!

Pretty Pirate

Lala the witch

Cute!

Here comes the bride!

Arrrrggghhhhhh!

Me & Dan dressed up for church party

We did a little family party on Halloween at my parents house. We had dinner and then played a few games...then passed out candy. The game was fun and hard to do-eating a powdered sugar doughnut as fast as you can with it suspended in the air, dangling from a string! It sure made for some "good" pictures of everybody!
My Dad in drag-not a pretty sight!!

Beau and Tabitha as Care Bears

Mom in costume-retro!

Mandie catching the doughnut in her mouth

Kids playing game

Me and mom catching doughnuts in our mouths

Cakes-Sep-Nov 2010

2010-11-20T09:04:00.000-08:00

It has been a busy baking time of year! Lots of cakes recently; birthdays, Halloween, baby showers...you name it-and a cake suits each occasion perfectly!

My 1st chocolate ganache cake. My mom loves chocolate-so a chocolate cake, with a mint filling, and covered in chocolate ganache! I tried some decorations on top of it...but was having bag problems. My bag broke while piping....luckily I caught a handful of icing before it ruined the cake completely.

I LOVE Halloween! I made a whole bunch of these cupcakes for doctor offices, neighbors, and some of Dan's home teaching families. They were so fun to make. New recipe too-a light pumpkin flavored cupcake with buttercream. I added a little bit of pumpkin to the frosting too to add more pumpkin flavor...but it turned out not as pumpkin flavored as I had hoped. Everyone seemed to enjoy them though.

My sister-in-law Mandie had her birthday, and since I make cakes....that's usually the gift I give them for the event. I tried something new with her cake too. New frosting and a new cake recipe. Mandie loves Snickerdoodle cookies-so I tried a Snickerdoodle cake with a cinnamon buttercream. The actual cake DID taste like a Snickerdoodle cookie. The buttercream was quite sweet-and a little difficult to work with. I don't know if I will use that recipe again or not. I added some sugar pearls on the sides of the cake, and a small decoration on top of the cake too. I wish the icing was smoother, and my edges were cleaner....but like I said-the icing was difficult to work with.

This cake I made for my brother's rehearsal dinner. We had dinner at a restaurant and I was in charge of dessert! Beau's fiance, (now wife) love zebra print. The table cloths at the restaurant were black, and my mom did a zebra-print runner lined with candles. It turned out beautiful. The colors of the wedding were black, white, and purple...so the cake matched those as well! Top tier was white cake w/ cream cheese buttercream, and bottom tier was chocolate w/cream cheese buttercream. Beau likes chocolate, and Tabitha likes white-so I incorporated both. Bow on top is made with a mix of fondant and gumpaste.

A baby shower cake! The mommy to be chose chocolate cake with peanut butter buttercream. Yummy! I covered the cake in a marshmallow fondant and added decorations made from fondant/gumpaste. I had an idea in my head of what I wanted to do decoration-wise, even though the actual party didn't need that much cake. Oh well, it was my gift and I wanted it to look good-so they just had to take leftovers home with them!

Baby toy made from fondant/gumpaste

Baby rattle

Top of cake

Final product

This cake is an ice cream cake that I made for a boy in my ward. He wanted Breyer's peanut butter cup ice cream-with cake, and covered in a peanut butter buttercream. Made cake, layered it with discs of ice cream, smoothed, and covered in icing. You have to do it in steps because the ice cream starts melting. I made a border at both the top and bottom of the cake with chocolate chunks. Used brown buttercream to add message and decorations.

(yes....I do realize that I left out the "D" in birthday)

Our Family Pictures 2010

2010-11-19T15:36:00.001-08:00

These family pictures were so fun to take. My friend Annaka always does such a great job. We had these pictures taken in an orchard that's owned by someone in our stake, so it was close by even though it doesn't even look like Az! We brought my parents along to help get the kids attention to look at the camera and to make them smile. Beau and Tabitha came along as well, and good thing they did-we needed all the help we could get! We were told that there were cows in the orchard, but that they were friendly-YEAH...too friendly! They ALL came over to see what was going on, and we needed Beau to chase them out of our shots. Not only that...but we had to watch where we stepped now that the cows were nearby. The kids LOVED being so close to the cows-and feeding them grapefruits off the trees. Who knew cows ate grapefruits?! My Dad bent over to pick up a grapefruit he had dropped and got a whole face-full of cow tongue!! The cow licked him up his face....like I said...friendly cows! You would have never guessed by these pictures that all of that was going on behind the scenes...we all had a good time.

Whitney's Thoughts

2010-09-30T15:41:00.000-07:00

We were driving home from our weekly ice cream run to McDonalds, when we smelled something awful. There was some type of sewer smell outside, it smelled gross. The first thing Whitney said was, "Mommy, your toot is so stinky!" I told her that it wasn't mommy's toot, that it was something outside that was so stinky. Whitney came to her own conclusion. "Mommy, the car let a stinky toot outside!"
Kids. Funny. Creative.

Recent cakes-Aug. & Sept 2010

2010-09-23T14:26:00.000-07:00

Cake for a church "Empty Nesters" party. Chocolate cake with cream cheese buttercream and then covered in fondant. Decorations are colored fondant, and nest is made from pretzels.

Whitney's 3rd birthday cake! She asked me for a "rainbow cinderella" cake. This is what I came up with. Cinderella barbie doll wearing a rainbow dress! Cake was chocolate with cream cheese buttercream. Cake covered layer-by-layer in different colors of fondant ruffles. Took awhile, but she loved it!

We devoured it!!!

Happy birthday girl!

My Aunt Mel was in town for her birthday this year. She turned the big 55! Her request was my peanut butter buttercream. I paired the PB frosting with chocolate (you can never go wrong with those 2 things together) cake and then decorated top of cake with chocolate chips, and peanut butter chips. The sides of the cake were something new I wanted to try. They are those pirouette cookies that you can buy at the store-they are chocolate hazelnut. I have seen them on some other cakes....although it looks much better done in chocolate scrolls instead. At least I tried it. It gave each bite a nice crunch!

1st Family Camping trip

2010-09-23T14:00:00.000-07:00

We are not really the camping type. Dan and I have never been camping together in our married ore dating life-never been camping together at all. Neither one of our families were big campers either, but we thought we'd try out our camping skills at the Ward Campout. It was kind of a no brainer-dinner that night, and breakfast the next day was provided. That cuts out most of the hard part right there! All we had to worry about was where we were sleeping, getting there, and clothes to wear. Hailey and Whitney were so excited to go camping. We asked my parents to take Parker for the night (it was going to be really cold...in the 30's), borrowed their tent and sleeping bags, packed up the car with our stuff, and headed out on our adventure. We went up North just outside of Flagstaff. It was very beautiful and MUCH cooler! We mingled w/the other ward members, set up our camp and got ourselves situated. Dinner was soon to follow-hot dogs and hamburgers w/all the fixing. Got the kids settled with dinner on their laps in their camping chairs and then got my own. Hailey wasn't quite herself, tired, is what I thought. I was wrong. Sick was what she really was. She barfed all over the front of her jacket. She just kept asking if she could go to bed. That's exactly what we let her do. Luckily for us, no more vomiting that night. Turns out she had the flu....and had symptoms off and on over the next few days. Whitney wanted to stay with Hailey, so we left the lantern in the tent and let them be-it was now 7:30 pm and both of our kids were down for the night. What a joy-to only take care of ourselves now!! We finished dinner and stayed up until around 11, then went to bed. It was cold that night. Some of the water bottles that were left out froze! It wasn't the best night's sleep, but alright. We got up at 6:30 and headed over to the fire. It was so cold out! The morning was simple, visiting and breakfast, then we were one of the firsts to pack up and leave. I think our babysitters were tired. Hailey was feeling better....but still not very well. We had our first camping experience together. We might try it again, but I think we will wait until all the kids are a little older....and potty-trained.

Dan enjoying his dinner

Hailey NOT eating

Whit finished her dinner

Our wonderfully warm fire

Look how dirty whit is!!!

Me and the Hubby

Eating a GIANT marshmallow on the drive home

yum

yummy too!

Happy to go home and shower!!

Visit from Brandie!

2010-09-23T13:44:00.000-07:00

Girls night out-dinner and a movie, such a blast!

So, it has been awhile since I have seen one of these girls....Brandie, (my cousin) and I are going on almost 3 years without seeing each other in person!! That's way too long! Brandie lives on the East Coast...therefor limiting our time together.....such a long distance between us!! We laughed, stayed up late, attempted to color brandie's hair, went swimming, played with the kids, had a picnic, went out to dinner w/out kids, and to a movie, and ate...and ate....and ate! It was so fun to spend some time with her and see her daughter. Thanks for the visit, and I look forward for more of them!

Brandie and Me

Handsome boy!!

Uncle Bret and Parker

Love how Whit's finger is up her nose for this one!! Aunt Mel and Issie

Issie and Whit on the pool waterfall

Coloring Brandie's hair...forgot to take an "after" shot, but here's the "before"

Issie, my Mom, Whitney, and Aunt Mel playing with puzzles

Getting ready for swimming time!

It was a fun time and great to spend some time with these people. Here's hoping for a move to the West Coast for my cousin, so we can do it more often!

Conversation with Hailey

2010-09-03T15:16:00.000-07:00

Whitney says, "There's a fly in here", (Dan swats at fly)...then Hailey comments, "There's flies at my school and they drive me Peanuts!" Dan and I laughed and then corrected her and told her the phrase is.....drive me NUTS! Silly Girl!

Hailey came home from school one day not quite herself. I asked her what what wrong...she replied that nothing was wrong. I asked her why she was sad. She said that some of her friends were saying bad words at school and that she did too. I then asked her to tell me what words. She told me she couldn't tell me. After we got home I sat her down and asked her again what she had said. She told me that her teacher got a little bit mad and that it made her sad. She then said that she had said, "Poopyhead". WHAT A RELIEF!!! I was expecting the worst...maybe some adult-style profanity coming out of my sweet angels mouth-but NO!!! Poopyhead is not a nice word. Hailey said she will not say bad words anymore.

Kindergarten

2010-08-26T09:55:00.000-07:00

I know I'm running a little late on this post, we are already in the 3rd week of school and I haven't even mentioned that Hailey started Kindergarten! We are so excited for her! She is loving going to school, so much in fact that she is disappointed on the weekends when she has to stay home!!! Hailey is attending the local school we are zoned for, she loves her teacher and is so excited to have complete structure! What a funny girl. When I asked her what her favorite thing at school was...she replied, " Lunch, P.E. and recess!" Socializing and eating...her favorites.....hmmm, who does that sound like?! She's a girl of my kind for sure! Whit was sad the first few days not to have Hailey around, but whit and Parker are learning to play with each other better now. Whitney enjoys having mommy to herself when Parker is sleeping. We are looking forward to the rest of the year and seeing Hailey grow and learn. We love you and are so proud of you!

2010-08-18T12:47:00.000-07:00

Summers are HOT here in Arizona! Thank goodness for Free splashpads to cool you off on a hot summers day! We went to the Peoria splashpad to test it out and cool off. All the kids loved it. Parker fell asleep and slept for most of the time in the car. My Dad stayed in the car with him to keep him cool and listen for him. The other kids played and made friends and cooled off in the spraying water. We will definitely go back to play again!

Random photo's summer 2010

2010-08-17T20:06:00.001-07:00

A few random pictures from this summer.

Me and my mom

Aunt Mel and Whit eating popcorn

Hailey and Whitney in matching dresses

Grandma, Grandpa, Hailey, Whitney and Parker at the Water Park

Me and Hailey in Ut

Me and Whit in Ut

Playing at burger King on our long drive to Slc

Typical guy: Couch, drink, remote.

Sisters and Best Friends

Uncle Beau, Tabitha, Whitney, and Noelle being silly

Whitney and friend Crew showing off their favorite funny face

Say Cheese!!!

I just love these kids! Can't ever have too many pictures to document life's precious moments!

Summer Cakes 2010

2010-08-13T17:19:00.001-07:00

A few cakes I've done recently. All 3 cakes are white funfetti cake, with cream cheese buttercream icing.

The 1st one was for my brother Jason's 31st birthday. 2 mini-cakes covered in sprinkles. Never mind that one of them melted on the way over to my parents house. Here's proof that they were BOTH perfect when I left my house! Sorry Jason, it IS like 112 here!

Quinn wanted a bike cake-I had to improvise. He has a bike on top of the cake with some dots on the rest of the cake. He still liked it.

look at pic above, and then pic below. Do you see my melting problems during travel?!

Tabitha is all girl, so I decided to do a purse cake for her.
Covered in black fondant, with black fondant strap, and purse flap is bordered with sugar pearls.

All edible

They were all fun to make, still learning and having fun!

June 30th 2010

2010-08-13T17:02:00.000-07:00

Yes we did!!! We went to the Midnight showing of "Eclipse" the 3rd movie in the Twilight Saga. It was crazy! I've never seen so many people at a movie theater! Some people had been waiting outside (in the Az heat) for tickets all day! I didn't do that, but I did go that night, had good seats, good company, and saw a GREAT movie! I thought so at least.

Me and mom in matching shirts.

(for clarification-the shirt is implying to swinging towards BOTH vampires and werewolves)

Mom, Me, Tabitha, Ashley

Ashley, Tabitha (Beau's fiance) Mom and me

We had SO Much fun!! Hoping to do the same with the next installment of this series!

Utah summer trip 2010

2010-08-13T13:48:00.001-07:00

For our main summer vacation this year we took a trip up to SLC, Utah. We went up to celebrate my grandma's 75th birthday. We had a big party for her with food and 2 different cakes. There was about 65-ish people there! I wish I would have taken more pictures of family members, but things were crazy with trying to get food to everyone and kids running around, and an open pond in the yard. It turned out great and "Honey" as my grandma is called had a great birthday. We did a special little ceremony thing where we told honey something special about her or a special memory or attribute, then lit a candle and put it in the pond to float. This way at the end of everyone doing it, she could see how many lives she has touched. The idea was a great one, the candles however did NOT want to stay lit! It's the thought that counts!

The 75 year old Birthday Girl

Cake 1

Cake 2

Aunt Julie, Lance (cousin) Jason (brother) mandie (s-i-l), and niece Noelle
Dad and Parker eating dinner

We also had a chance to meet some other family members for dinner. My kids were horrible that night! Hailey was crying and laying down on the bench, and Whit was underneath the table next to us screaming as loud as she could. They had fallen asleep on the way to the restaurant and woke up super grumpy! At least we tried!!

Aunt Krissy and cousin Izze

Parker and cousin Zoie

Hailey crying

Another thing we had the opportunity to do was go to a water park! We went to Raging Waters in Salt Lake, thanks to my friend Brynn (her grandparents own the park and let us in free), THANKS BRYNN! It was me, my parents, and my kids. The girls were more scared of the water than I thought-they hate getting water in their eyes. I forced Hailey to go down a slide, although she cried afterwards and said she's NEVER doing that again....I think deep down somewhere she actually enjoyed it.

Whit's favorite funny face

Mommy, parker and whit. Using the kids as a body shield from the camera!

Another adventure we had was going to the zoo. We got to go with a bunch of people, and even met some family members from the other side of the family there. The kids got to ride the carousal and loved it! We saw lots of animals, and our favorite was the new baby elephant. The girls especially enjoyed the fake elephant statue that made noises and spit air out of his trunk!

Looking at the giraffes

Grandpa and Parker

A whole lot of girls! They were trying to spit like the llama.

Izze, Sydney, Carys, whit, rickey, Hailey.

My kiddo's in front of the penguins

Grandma and Parker looking at the Elephants

We also went over to Nannie's (dan's grandma) house to visit. She has this HUGE playroom in the basement that the kids LOVE!!! Every toy imaginable too! The weather was perfect too-lots of time spent outside playing. Nannie's yard was GORGEOUS while we were there. I could have sat outside forever...oh wait, no...I have kids to watch! It was so fun to go and visit and play.

Nannie, parker and La-la
me and bud

The backyard

Beautiful fountain

Gazebo and bridge

We went to Aunt Krissy's new apartment to have dinner, celebrate Izze's birthday, and play. We went to the park in the complex to have some fun. The kids had a great time playing together and playing on all the park equipment....can you guess what day it is base on the colors of all the clothing? The 4th of July! We had a lot of fun, ate some yummy food, and enjoyed seeing them again.

Whit and Zoie on the tire swing

All the girls eating cupcakes

Parker making messes at Aunt Krissy's house

The 4th of July on Honey's backyard deck.

What cute girls!

(Hailey, Noelle, whitney)

Funny little note: We stopped for dinner before going to my grandparents house, after being in the car ALL DAY LONG and of coarse-I have to meet someone! We ran into one of Dan's mission companions at Bajio. It was so crazy-what are the chances? Last time they saw each other was in Brazil like 10 years ago!!!

Parker turns 1 part 2!

2010-08-13T13:32:00.000-07:00

I'm so behind in my "journaling."

Parker turned 1 a couple of months ago, and I haven't posted anything about his actual birthday party! We had family over for cake and ice cream-not fancy....but it's all we usually do to celebrate. He got a lot of gifts and is spoiled every bit as much as our other kids. The best part was his own mini cake. He had a blast trying to eat it! We all got a kick out of watching him devour that thing! He's SO funny!

First seeing his mini-cake

Tasting his cake

Sharing a bite of his cake

Eating his cake

REALLY eating his cake

Hands aren't fast enough

All 3 kids on Parkers new bus

Happy 1st Birthday!

Random Thoughts of a 5 year old

2010-07-27T16:06:00.000-07:00

We were all sitting around together on the master bed enjoying our Saturday morning. We had nowhere to rush off to, the kids were playing nicely, all conversing harmoniously, it was truly the perfect Saturday morning. There was however, the slightest bit of a "not so pleasant" smell in the air. The kids plugged their noses and asked what was so stinky. I decided to make them figure out what it was. I asked Hailey and Whitney, "What makes the air stinky?" I was expecting a few normal answers; trash, the bathroom, a stinky diaper....the normal. I was quite surprised when Hailey answered with a big smile on her face, "I know......your breath!"

I was NOT expecting that answer! What a funny answer. We all got a good laugh and continued enjoying our Saturday.

***For the record, it was not my breath (although it was morning-I'm sure it wasn't the most pleasant) that they were smelling. Somebody had let a toot...and THAT is what made the room stink!***

Miss Whit

2010-07-20T13:44:00.000-07:00

Little Miss Whit. Where do I start with this fireball? Today I caught her in the bathroom playing with my lipstick. A definite "no....no!" I cleaned her face, hands, and the counter and proceeded on with my day. Why is it that kids can make the biggest mess without even a blink of an eye? About 30 minute later I came into my bedroom to get a few things done. I noticed all of the pillows stacked up on top of each other-which was a little odd. I went over to re-position the pillows so I could lay down and write my "To Do" list, and there it was! I whole bunch of scribbles on my bed sheet and pillow cases done in dark purple lipstick!! I could strangle her!! I removed the pillow cases and continued to salvage what I could. Whitney came into the room and looked at me. She asked, "Mommy, what you doing?" I replied, "What does it look like I'm doing?" Her response was priceless! She said, "Ummmmm, mommy so mad at me?"

How do you NOT smile or laugh at that!!!!

Needless to say, that comment lightened my mood.

Little Surprises

2010-07-16T10:13:00.000-07:00

Here's the deal with Whitney. Whitney loves to be around her parents, even in the middle of the night. She loves to come into our bedroom, wake us up, just to walk her back into her bedroom to tuck her in again. Then it's back to sleep. Although this is harmless, and kind of cute, it takes away from the parents precious sleeping time. May I also add that when I say "parents" what I really mean is "mommy".

A couple of nights ago I made a big deal about STAYING IN YOUR OWN BED ALL NIGHT LONG! I told whitney that if she needed anything, to just wake up Hailey to help her. The next morning I woke up and realized that Whitney had not come into my bedroom during the night. I made a point to thank her and clapped my hands while telling her how proud I was of her.

If I would have realized how easy that would be, I would have done it a long time ago! All I had to do was raise my voice a little and point my finger while saying it-and TA-DA! Magic! It worked!

I was feeling proud, more rested, accomplished. I had told my child to do something, and she did. Obedience. Life was great. I had finally figured out this whole parenting thing. I felt great......UNTIL........I found the vomit in her bed.

Yes, vomit....all over! The poor little thing had been sick during the night. I wouldn't know anything about it either, because I told her to stay in her bed! Poor little Whit was probably too scared to come and wake me up! I felt horrible!

I had to have the whole "staying in your own bed" talk again, but with a few adjustments. If you are sick you CAN come and get me. Just when you think you have everything figured out-life throws you a new issue to tackle! Being a parent means that you are FOREVER learning!

Sorry Whit!

Parker turns 1!!!!

2010-07-14T09:48:00.000-07:00

PArker is 1! This year has gone by so fast. I can't believe that my little boy is already a year old. Now if I could only get him to sleep through the night!! His actual birthday was uneventful. The normal tradition of taking the birthday kid to McDonalds for lunch failed this year. Things were just too busy, it was so dang hot, and we just didn't get around to it. We were celebrating his birthday with family over the coming weekend, but I still wanted to set the day apart from the rest and do something special. We went to a nearby yogurt shop to celebrate! Happy Birthday Parky!

Whit posing for the camera at the yogurt shop

Parker waiting for his treat

Hailey waiting in her "boat"

Sisters picture

The cool birthday boy!!!!

Hailey turns 5!

2010-06-26T15:12:00.001-07:00

Hailey turned 5! This was the big one for her. We haven't done any "friend" parties until this year. She wanted a "Princess" party-no surprise there! We had 7 little princess at this party- 4 of them were 5 years old, 2 of them were 4 yrs old, and then Whit is still 2. It was crazy! We played, opened gifts, played a game, had cake and ice cream, and then all got little gift bags to take home with treats inside! I think Hailey had a great time. Happy Birthday Peanut!

Whitney and Hailey

Pin the crown on the princess game

Blowing out birthday candles and making a wish
Cousin Noelle

The Royal guests (minus 1...she was late)

Mountain Ridge High School 10 year Reunion

2010-06-26T14:38:00.000-07:00

10 years! 10 years since I graduated high school. That makes me feel so old! May I just say that I was super excited to go to this event. Excited to see some of my close "school" friends from high school and to see some of my good friends too! Did any of them go? Amber (Olofson) Mortensen did....but that was the only 1 of my good friends that went. Unfortunately Stephanie (Shankula) Hamberlin had to bail a few hours before-what a bummer! Most of the people I wanted to see were out of town for one reason or another, or lived out of state. It definitely would have been MORE fun with them there, but I still enjoyed myself. I did get to see some good school acquaintances...and it was so fun to see them. I didn't take as many pics as I thought I did....double bummer. The actual party was....ok, but not that great. The music was way to loud to hear the person in front of you talking. That's annoying! Anthony Mrgudich, Jackie Gallagher, Autumn Baker, Justin Brummer, Mac Gifford, Justin Beck, Amber Pedigo, Julie Steele, Amber Olofson, Destony Tidwell, Colby Harris, Katie Christian, David Fantin, Kristin Compton, Brad Webber, Mike Crimp, Kim Ferris, Kevin Denz, the Nordeen twins, Chris Wall, Ryan Knack, Chuck Rhoe, Amber Austin, Krista Tankersly, Megan Cole, Tasha (can't even spell her last name), Ericka Martin, are to list some of the people who showed up. Everyone left early because nothing was happening. Most of the people went over to a bar nearby called Blue Martini. Both Amber and I ended up going for a little bit-not much better there as far as the whole party thing goes. At least the music was better! Hope the next one has more people attend, and a cheaper cost!

Me and Amber

Jackie, Kevin, and Me

we all went to Elementary School together!

Justin, Me, and Tom

Anthony, Me, and Justin

Anthony, ?, Jackie, ?, Autumn, Kevin

Hailey's 1st Dance Recital

2010-06-26T14:12:00.000-07:00

What an exciting day. Hailey's 1st dance recital! She did a ballet-style dance to the song, "I won't grow up" from peter pan. Her little costume looked similar to tinker bell...and even though not pictured in the single shot....you'll notice her wings in the other pictures. It was a fun afternoon. All of the dances were cute, the smaller and more clumsy the little girl was-the better the dance seemed to be. I was quite frustrated at the fact that we had to pay...yes, pay to see our own child in her recital. 10 bucks!!! Yikes! The stupid theater didn't even have good air conditioning either! It was so miserably hot in there-we were all just sweating to death! Hailey did well in her dance, but I could tell she was nervous. The best part of the whole night was the curtain call at the end. All the classes took their own turn bowing for the audience and then lined up to let the next group go. At the very end, the owner of the dance company got up and said a few words. During this little speech of hers , Hailey managed to find her way out of line and wandered up to the front so that she could be seen. She was standing near the owner on stage. The owner wanted to recognize the special competition team of the studio, so she asked them all to come up to the front to take a bow and be recognized and then began to talk about how hard they had been working for their positions on this team. Hailey decided that she must have been on the team, and went up with them to take her special bow! I was laughing so hard!! She didn't belong up there! She had no cares or worries....just wanted a special applause from the audience. It was so funny to see how sure of herself she was, and she honestly thought she was supposed to be up there! Hilarious! We were sure proud of her. She did a great job and we are looking forward to more fun things in the future. WE love you peanut!

(Hailey is 2nd one in)

June cakes 2010

2010-06-26T13:11:00.000-07:00

Things have been super busy lately. June is the craziest month for us. We have my Dad's birthday on the 11th, a cousin's(niece) birthday on the 12th, Hailey's birthday on the 13th, and our Anniversary on the 14th. To top it off, Father's Day is the Sunday afterwards! Busy month! I had the opportunity to make some cakes this month. Not only did I get to do 2 of my kids birthday cakes, but I had someone order a cake in between! Unfortunately for my Dad this year things were too crazy for his own special cake. I made a stacked cake for Hailey's birthday party and used the top portion for her party, and the bottom portion to celebrate both my Dad's and Hailey's birthday with family the next day. I might have to blackmail my Dad with those pink cake pictures sometime!

Hailey's cake was funfetti cake with buttercream on the top portion, and chocolate cake with a whipped cherry filling for the bottom portion. Both were covered in pink fondant, and decorated with white sugar pearls. Yep....edible pearls. They were good...and really crunchy. The kids all wanted more and more pearls to eat.

This cake was ordered by my friend Rachelle. Her Mother in law was celebrating her 60th birthday and the party was a casino theme. This cake was a blast to make. The new thing for me was the cards. I wasn't sure how I was going to do them...but started looking around and found some card edible images. Edible images are so easy to work with. They are just like stickers...and they look so good! It was easy and a new and fun thing to try! Cake was chocolate with a whipped strawberry filling, covered in vanilla buttercream and wrapped in white fondant. The cake was then decorated in black and red fondant with playing cards and poker chips (made from fondant as well). Thanks Rachelle for giving me this opportunity!

Parker's 1st birthday cake. Where do I start with this one? Whatever could go wrong DID! The cake didn't bake the way I wanted it too, and my frosting kept melting! Believe it or not the frosting was going to be stars all over in white, and then large dots with the colored frosting and number 1 in the middle. The frosting was NOT working with me. No matter what I did I couldn't get it to stiffen up! The stars ended up looking like melted ruffles-SO not boy looking! The large polka-dots turned into big melted blobs of goo. My "red" frosting ended up more pink looking but I didn't notice until after it was already too late. All in all I was disappointed in my melty blob of mess I was supposed to call a cake. It ended up tasting good and I guess that's the whole point. Frustrating to say the least. Oh well. Happy Birthday anyway!

San Diego 2010

2010-06-24T23:19:00.000-07:00

Over Memorial Day we took a trip to San Diego. My sister-in-law and family are there just for the summer....and we thought it would be fun to go and visit. The cousins had so much fun playing together, papa and lala came along to enjoy the festivities too. We ate a bunch of yummy food, had a picnic, got to stay at a beautiful hotel, play with family...and the highlight of the trip was going to the beach. The kids loved playing in the sand, and the weather was perfect that day. The girls helped Daddy build a sand castle and Hailey collected seashells along the beach to decorate the castle. Parker enjoyed playing in sand for the first time. The whole eating sand thing grossed me out-but I couldn't stop him from doing it. We had so much fun over our short visit to San Diego and can't wait to go back there someday.

(I was able to go to the San Diego Temple for a sealing while there, didn't take pics because temple was under construction....but it was beautiful!)

Hailey and whit in the sand

The car ride to San Diego
Mommy and Whit enjoying Mexican food

Parker and Papa (his legs) at the beach

Mommy and Hailey

All smiles!

Daddy and girls building sand castle

Parker and cousin Josie playing together

Having a dinner picnic

Papa, Lala, and Parker at lunch

Dan, Merritt, and Stacie enjoying the picnic

Stacie and Josie- 2 cute girls!

Boys will be boys!

Family picture at the beach

We had so much fun and the weather was so wonderful!!

Recent cakes

2010-05-26T15:28:00.001-07:00

Here are a few cakes I've recently made. All are buttercream-no fondant. I've really needed to practice my buttercream smoothing...all cakes are chocolate cakes. My favorite! The first 2 were for friends birthdays, and the last one to welcome a baby boy into this world. I had fun with each of them and am forever learning new things with each cake!For Nicole: chocolate cake with vanilla flavored buttercream in layers and to frost cake. Used some luster dust (edible glitter) to brush a little color on top. Piped lines going up and down on side of cake from top to bottom to add some texture.

For Kinslee: Chocolate cake with peanut butter buttercream in layers and to frost cake, also peanut butter cups in layers for extra crunch!

For Allisons new baby boy Maxim: Chocolate cake with cream cheese buttercream in layers and vanilla buttercream to frost cake. Used a textured towel to smooth cake...and create a cool design if you look closely. Blue dots and stars and writing done in same buttercream. I made this cake in 2 hours flat! That's mixing, baking, cooling, cutting, layering, frosting, and decorating-I was kind of proud!

Kay's bridal shower

2010-05-26T15:13:00.000-07:00

Back in April my mom and I threw a bridal shower for a good family friend. She is getting married on May 29th in San Diego, and then having a reception here in Arizona in June. We played games, got to know each other, chatted, and ate lots of yummy food. I couldn't wait to make a cake! I wanted to try my skills at smoothing buttercream. I haven't done a tiered cake since Dan's birthday...so I thought I'd try the 2 together. Dan gave me a gumpaste flower set for my birthday a few weeks prior to the shower....I had to try something new. The bride-to-be wanted Red Velvet with cream cheese frosting. I thought chocolate sounded good too-so I did both! The bottom tier was red velvet with cream cheese buttercream in the layers, and the top was chocolate cake with cream cheese buttercream in the layers.....both covered in a vanilla flavored buttercream. Decorated with royal icing swags and gumpaste flowers. The topper was also made out of gumpaste and has both the initials of the bride and groom. It was challenging to get the buttercream smooth-but that's something I wanted to practice. The flowers were a new learning experience too-but fun! All in all everything turned out well!

Parker 9 month pictures

2010-05-19T21:56:00.000-07:00

This is late. Parker is almost 11 months now, and growing so fast! He has already changed since these pictures were taken! I haven't been uploading pictures since my computer crashed, so I finally decided to use Dan's laptop so I could catch up on blogging. I'm so excited to show off these pictures, we just love this little guy!

What a pain!

2010-04-29T21:55:00.000-07:00

My computer isn't working. What a pain. I'm on my hubby's laptop to update my blog. All my pictures are on my computer...which means that until it's fixed....NO fun pics to post and blog about. More than anything I wish I knew how to hack into a computer and fix things. I think I need a Geek Squad crash coarse. I just payed $70 to have best buy diagnose what's wrong with it! That doesn't include ANY kind of repair either. It's ridiculous! It really makes me mad. On top of that, the minimum repair cost starts at $100. Again, I say RIDICULOUS!! I can't wait to get my computer fixed so I can show off the new pics of my little boy! Annaka did a great job as usual. I have also made a few cakes in the last little while, it will be fun to post those pictures too. Been super busy with sick kids, shots, bridal shower, church activities, and all the normal day to day things too. Here's hoping I hear some good, inexpensive news about my computer tomorrow.

Katie's Birthday 2010

2010-04-18T18:48:00.000-07:00

Am I happy that I'm a year older....no. Am I happy I had a good birthday...yes. I don't know what it is about the whole age thing this year, but for some reason 28 was a little harder than I thought it would be. My birthday was GREAT! The idea of turning 28 made me feel old in some ways-I know that's weird....but I automatically thought "30"!
On my special day, my parents took me and the kids out to lunch. We went to Babbo, my choice. We then walked down to the party store and got the kids a balloon, and then took the kids to my parents house to play with their cousins for a bit. The festivities don't end there! We then met my in-laws and sister-in-law, along with her kids at one of my favorite Mexican restaurants-PEDRO'S. They have the BEST green corn tamales ever! Dinner was wonderful....and then off to home to put the kids in bed. I then spent the rest of the night enjoying the Cake book that Dan gave me-such great ideas in this book. I actually received a LOT of gifts, most of which are cake things....but some other things I wanted as well. I also got some gift cards to Old Navy, Kohls and Spa Finder!!! Can't wait to treat myself to a day of relaxation and shopping! I finally OWN the Twilight books too-I've been borrowing everyone else's books...and now I can read them anytime I like! What a wonderful birthday! We celebrated with my parents and brothers the Sunday after my birthday, and my brother Jason made a cake so I wouldn't have to. Thanks to everyone for a very happy birthday!!!

My camera died right after lunch ON my birthday-I'm bummed I don't have any pics of dinner that day!

Noelle's 4th birthday cake

2010-04-14T08:00:00.000-07:00

This little girl is so silly! My niece Noelle turned 4 recently. I asked her in advance what kind of cake she wanted me to make her for her birthday. She said that she wanted a blue cake, with pink frosting. Ok. Noelle kept changing her mind about what she wanted on the cake. First it was Dora, then a ballerina, then a pony, and so on.....and then she said a penguin. I waited until her birthday was closer and asked her again, she replied "a penguin!" That's what she got! A blue cake, with pink icing, and penguins! Thanks for the new challenge Noelle-it was fun!

Dan's 30th Birthday (part 1)

2010-04-12T21:45:00.000-07:00

This post is 2 parts because I took pictures of Dan's surprise party with my Mother-in-law's camera, and don't have the pictures yet. We celebrated Dan's birthday (again) with my side of the family. We kept it simple, just gifts and dessert. Dan already had his cake at his party, so he decided on Chocolate Bread Pudding for his birthday dessert. I ended up making 2 pans of it, knowing that 1 would not be enough! Yum! Dan openend his gifts from us, a guitar, a trimmer, some cookies, and a coupon book from me. This was a fun little something that didn't cost much, but is a great gift! I made some little tags out of scrapbooking material and then wrote some special "coupon" on it. I always fill the trash up and above the top-then wait for Dan to take it out......so 1 of the coupons was "take out trash" coupon. I'm not the craftiest when it comes to scrapping, but I think the coupon thing turned out cute. I think Dan ended up having a good birthday. We also met his parents at a restaurant for lunch to celebrate with them as well, Dan recieved some much-needed gift cards to the Nike store. He needed some new things to work-out in-and this enabled him to purchase exactly what he wanted!

Hailey's BIG Ouch!

2010-03-29T18:38:00.000-07:00

I didn't take any pictures of this event, I guess I was a little busy taking care of business. We had a big injury happen this weekend to Hailey. I hope I never have to see my kids go through something worse, this just broke my heart! Have you ever physically gotten sick over seeing someone else's injury? I have. Here's the basics to break it down:

Hailey

pencil

mouth

running

back of chair

Can you guess what happened?

Yep.

Screaming, crying, blood, mouth injury, urgent care, a whole night of crying, no eating, no drinking.

HORRIBLE!

This is why we don't run with things in our mouth!

She is doing a lot better now, her mouth is healing quickly and she's eating almost regularly now.

Unfortunately, some lessons have to be learned the hard way.

We love you Hailey...and don't you EVER scare us like that again!!!

Parker 9 months

2010-03-29T18:29:00.001-07:00

Parker is now 9 months old! He is full of energy, and is ALL boy! He has been army crawling for a couple of weeks, but started crawling on his knees a few days ago! He is much faster on his belly...but with more practice he will soon get around just as fast on his knees! His front teeth are starting to come in, and he has had 2 bottom teeth for over a month now. He loves to eat, clap, wave, and smile. He is so much fun!

weight- 21.5 pounds (75%)

height-30 inches (90-95%)

and his head hasn't changed!

He is getting bigger everyday, and is already wearing at least a size bigger for length!! He's gonna be a big boy!!!

Happy St. Patricks Day!

2010-03-20T08:00:00.000-07:00

St. Patricks Day. I actually had success in finding some green for all of us to wear. All in all it wasn't much of a celebration, but I did want to do something different to make the holiday stand out. I'm not the craftiest person on the planet, but I do try to be crafty! I thought I had a shamrock cookie cutter, but to my surprise I found out I didn't when I pulled the WHOLE cookie cutter out of the box. Did you know that 1/2 of a flower looks like a shamrock? Well it does. So check your cutters before you go to use them! I made some Martha Stewart Buttermilk pancakes for dinner. I dyed the batter green for the whole St. Patty's day look and then continued my "plan" for making green shamrock pancakes. Again, the cookie cutter wasn't what I thought it was-and I wasn't going to cut one out by hand. We had green "Flower" pancakes instead. Can I please have an A for effort? Please?! It seems like the harder you try-the harder it is to succeed without a whole bunch of things going wrong. That's how it always works out. I tried. Despite the way they looked, they sure tasted yummy-that Martha knows what she's doing!

February & March Cakes

2010-03-19T13:42:00.000-07:00

I managed to squeeze out a few cakes in the last couple of months. Learning every time I do a cake....what NOT to do next time around. It's fun, and I enjoy doing it. I'm always looking forward to the next project. The first cake pictured was for a 1-year old boy's birthday. My friend Rachelle asked me to make him a little cake he could smash into-so Monster Truck theme was the perfect route to go! It's a chocolate cake with a whipped strawberry filling, vanilla buttercream and vanilla fondant. The pics are kind of dark....oh well. There's a fondant fence holding up the "dirt" (oreo crumbs) on top...and then a toy truck to finish off the look. The tire tracks were challenging-and FAR from perfect-I had to hand draw them on the fondant with and edible marker. There's something I haven't done before! It turned out cute, but had some structural problems once I inserted the fence on top-the fence was a little to thick, so next time it has to be a lot thinner to not damage the structure of the cake. It was fun to see some old friends when I dropped off the cake. They seemed to like it.

The next picture is just cupcakes. I had some leftover frosting that I didn't want to waste, and also some gumpaste I thought I'd use up. Dan wanted to take a few people some cupcakes, and then we used the rest for dessert for our Sunday dinner. They were fun to make, chocolate and white cake, vanilla buttercream tinted yellow-gumpaste flower. Very Springy!

Lastly, the motherload! This cake was a whole new experience for me. I have never done a 3-tiered cake before. The things you have to do to support the weight of a cake!! There was a wood rod down the center to keep them all from toppling over, and then also some plastic supports throughout the cakes to support the weight of the cake above it. The cakes were all baked, layered, frosted, and covered in fondant before you could stack them. Then I decorated it to match the party decor. I will hopefully have some more pics of the cake soon-the cake was chocolate with peanut butter buttercream in the layers and also frosted underneath the fondant. I can definitely pick out all of my "oops's" on the cake, but everyone thought it looked good-and it DID taste good...so that's all that matters! It took forever to do, especially since I had to do it in secret. There's no way you can bake/make a cake without smelling it in the house. Thanks to my parents for letting me use their house to make the cake and help out with the kids!

I've got a nieces birthday coming up soon, we'll see what she wants to do for her cake.....

March madness 2010

2010-03-18T18:29:00.001-07:00

March is only 1/2 way over...but I thought I'd catch up with my blog posts while I had a chance! We have been busy-as usual. We had my gradparents come and visit for a week at the beginning of the month, they were surprised at how much the kids had grown-especially Parker. We have also been to the park a few times with Grandma and Grandpa and cousins Quinn and Noelle. We love to play outside! Hailey and Whitney got a "playhouse" for the backyard to play in-they sure love pretending to play house. I don't have a picture of it yet-but it's super cute.....white with a pink roof and purple door and windows. It has a little sink inside and a little dining table connected to the back of the house. There are 2 chairs that fold out of the house for the girls to sit at the table. They love it! The weather has been beautiful, mainly staying in the upper 70's, but we did hit 84 yesterday-I forgot how hot 84 can feel!! We had to turn on our air conditioner for a few hours to cool the house down. I threw a "surprise" 30th birthday party for my hubby-and he WAS surprised-but that's a whole post in itself-soon! Other than all of that....we are doing our normal things and having a good time and enjoying the nice weather. We have to enjoy it while we can before it gets too hot!

Picnic at the park in Wickenburg

Whit on slide

Parker loves to swing

Having fun at the park together

Doing an edible craft

Yummy craft

Mr. Blue Eyes!

Baby whit

Papa and Parker

They are 75 years and one day apart

Hailey thinks.....

2010-03-10T11:59:00.000-08:00

The other day we went to Costco to get a few things, and as most of you know.....you always have a lot more in your cart than you want to when checking out. One of these "extra" purchases was a new dress-up dress. It's a formal dress 1 size bigger than Hailey wears.....but $12 for a little wedding dress....come on-you can't even buy material for that price!! I had to get it. She wore the dress over her clothes throughout the store. They didn't have one close to Whitney's size, but if Hailey had a dress on....then Whit had to have one on too! We found a lime green dress that's really cute for the same price-something she could wear as dress-up or to church. My girls LOVED all the attention they received while walking through the store in their beautiful dresses. Many people stopped us to "Oooooh" and "Awwwww" over them. We bought the dresses and then went over to my parents house to play and show off the dresses. Whitney chose to substitute the green "Tianna" dress for her normal BATGIRL outfit-no surprise there. The girls wanted to go outside in their dress-up clothes to swing and pick flowers-but I said "no". The dress Hailey had on was new, white, floor-length, and it had rained earlier that day. I didn't want it getting ruined the first time she wore it. Hailey threw a little fit and asked me "Why" a billion times-but in the end I stood firm on my decision. Hailey was mad at me. She started pouting and went and sat down on her grandma's lap. I was just a few feet away when I heard her conversation with grandma. Hailey thinks that I'm her "Evil Stepmother" who doesn't love her. She continued to say that I don't love her and I don't do ANYTHING for her. This was all said in a dramatic tone....followed by the poor me whine..... of coarse. I couldn't believe what I was hearing! I was an evil stepmother who didn't love her and did nothing for her! I spoke my mind and reminded Hailey that I had just bought her a new dress, and then got ice cream afterwards, I made her lunch a few hours ago, I bathed her the night before, I did her hair, and drove her to grandma and grandpa's house to play, but it's true: I don't do ANYTHING for her! She got over it in about and hour and wasn't mad at me anymore. I was "Mommy" after that...not the "Stepmom" anymore. I couldn't help but laugh at this whole experience. It was even funnier when I had the chance to tell Dan about it-we both laughed and laughed! I wanted to make sure I wrote this down so I could blackmail her with it someday. What a funny kid!

2010 Extended Family Pictures

2010-02-23T15:31:00.000-08:00

For Christmas we gave my parents a family photo session. We all had such a fun time...and at the same time worried about how the pictures would turn out-especially with 5 kids! They turned out cute. Annaka did it again....she's got some magic. This is my (katie's) side of the family: parents, brothers, sister in law, niece and nephew, and my little family. This was the PERFECT gift for them. There are TONS of pictures too-I just love them!

Me and my Mom

Love this one of my girls...we told them to give each other a kiss...and they BOTH actually listened to me the 1st time and ended up kissing on the lips! They thought it was so funny!

The kids just decided to look in the window...so Annaka snapped a shot-so cute!

Baby Whit is such a Ham for the camera....

Parker lovin' on Uncle Bret

Hilarious! I never knew my Dad could jump so high!

My Dad and Brothers

I LOVE this one of all of us walking

Just being silly!

This one reminds me of that saying, "All because two people fell in love..."

Dad and Mom

Valentine's Day 2010

2010-02-15T15:19:00.000-08:00

The Friday before Valentine's Day the girls and I made some sugar cookies. We pulled our hair back, rolled out the dough, used the cookie-cutters, baked the cookies, frosted them, and then decorated them with sprinkles! We had a good time..and delivered the cookies to Grandma and Grandpa. Cousin Noelle and uncle Jason came over to help us decorate some cookies, then took a plate home as their Valentine gift from us. Papa and Lala were out of town for Valentine's Day...so we sent them a picture of the cookies we made them. We then spent the next few days eating whatever cookies were left!

Hair pulled back to cut cookies

Dough

Cookie Cutters

Ready to bake!

Yum....yum..

YUMMY!

I'm sorry I have to brag....but how could I NOT brag about these beautiful flowers?!

Dan and I celebrated our Valentine's Day on the Friday before the holiday. He first came home from work with these beautiful flowers....red roses are my favorite. We went to see Avatar in the theater...and enjoyed the whole 3D experience. After the movie we went to PF Changs for dinner. We then headed home for a full-nights sleep.

That's right...my parents were brave enough to offer to take all 3 kids for the night!

Thanks!

WE HAD A GREAT VALENTINE'S DAY!

Disneystore Princess Party

2010-02-15T14:43:00.001-08:00

The Disney Store occasionally does a Princess Party. The girls wear their favorite princess costume, get some free snacks, and then get a paper crown with a chance to earn some jewel stickers to put on it. The jewels are earned by learning how to be a princess...and a member of the staff teaches all the girls how to curtsy, wave, good posture, how to daintily hold a tea cup, and how to walk gracefully. Needless to say, everyone passes the test. The store then gives you 20% off of any item that has to do with a princess. Yep, that's the gimmick. What's great though is when you find some dresses on the clearance rack that have princesses on them...and then get an additional 20% off of the clearance item!! Free cookies, crackers, juice...and the girls get to get all dressed up. It sure beat staying at home. I packed a sack lunch for the girls and myself and after the party we went to the food court to eat our lunch. The only one that wasn't completely in heaven was Parker. He was looking around at everything going on...and had a look on his face like, "I'm stuck with all of these girls again?" He did enjoy lunch. All in all, it was a fun trip doing something different and fun...without spending a lot of money!

Parker at lunch

This picture's so funny...it looks like they're mad at each other! Looking at all of the princesses in the store.

Crazy!!!

My 2 princesses and thier prince

A couple of cakes for Kinslee

2010-02-15T14:26:00.000-08:00

I have had some fun making cakes recently. Practice, practice, practice....that is what makes you better-right?! My friend Kinslee was having some complications and was put on bed rest...so I took her family a meal and made them cake for dessert. It was a good opportunity to practice my buttercream techniques....which need MUCH more practice. Kinslee also had a surprise shower...and I made the cake for her gift. I hadn't done a tiered cake in awhile..so I gave it a try-again....trying the whole buttercream thing. It didn't turn out how I had envisioned...but it was alright. It tasted good...I guess that's the most important thing. You learn something else each time you make a cake-that's for sure!

Kinslee

Shower cake

Dessert for family

Parker's 6 month pictures

2010-01-31T12:22:00.000-08:00

Need I say more? Parker is growing so fast-he's such a fun little boy and we are so glad to have him as a part of our family! We love you Parky!

Thanks to my friend Annaka who took these photo's-you always do and amazing job!

Christmas 2009

2010-01-19T09:43:00.001-08:00

Finally updating my post. Christmas came and went so fast, I'm lucky I even got a tree up this year. Between baking goodies, wrapping gifts, and all of my normal hustle and bustle, I feel like it all happened to fast and I wasn't able to enjoy it to its fullest. We had all of Dan's sisters and their kids in town for the holidays...it was so fun to see all the kids play together. Looking back, and looking through my camera card, I didn't take any pictures of any family-except for my kids. I feel horrible. We had all the cousins together on both sides of the family-dressed up, looking cute-and I didn't take a single picture! What was I thinking? Not even an all girls picture of me and the sister in laws, or one of me and my mom even-I must have been really out of it. There's always next year I guess. Lots of goodies, good food, family, fun. We had a great Christmas. My kids made a haul as usual. Where am I going to put all of this stuff? I need a bigger house. Hailey received a total of 12 barbies this year-12! Whit got the bike she wanted, and Parker was most excited about the wrapping paper. Grandparents spoiled my kids with love and gifts. Dan and I enjoyed ourselves as well, getting a much needed food processor, and lots of gift cards to use, plus a Costco membership-wahoo! We had a great year and are looking forward to a great year to come.

Busy Baking Month

2009-12-31T17:43:00.000-08:00

This month was really busy when it came to baking. I guess it is the season when goodies are made and given...I unfortunaltely don't know how to cut my list short. Every year I think, "Why did I do that....not next year" and then I do it again and again. I also had my brothers (twins) birthday cake, a nephews birthday cake, and some cupcakes I made for a little boy's 2nd birthday party. It was a lot of fun...but I had to take some shortcuts on my brothers cake due to time-and it showed. Instead of coloring my fondant...I decided to paint it-and it was just ok. I now know to always color my fondant if I want vibrant colors and an even coating. Maybe I just need to get an airbrush-that would be MUCH easier. Hmmmm....there's an idea for next christmas I guess. I also made some holiday truffles to give to grandparents for a gift. They were Oreo truffles in white chocolate, and then PB in the milk chocolate. I packaged them in cups and boxes and they turned out looking really cute. I was proud. Ok, enough of me talking...now for some pictures of all of my treats! Hope you all had a Merry Christmas. Happy New Year!!

Oh yeah....I made a New Years cake for me and Dan to eat too! Can't wait!

Our New Years cake. Chocolate cake, caramel frosting, pecans in layers and all around. Chocolate pecan turtle was my inspiration. Poured some caramel on top of cake to look more tasty!

Chocolate Truffles for the holidays-yummy!

Cars cupcakes for 2 yr old b-day party. 72 cupcakes total!

My Nephew Mj's Birthday cake. He wanted a tractor cake-this is what I came up with.

Bret & Beau's Birthday cake. They like TMNT and 1 likes vanilla, and the other chocolate.

Where's Parker?

2009-12-16T08:08:00.000-08:00

I was making popcorn yesterday while the girls were playing and Parker was chilling on my bed. The girls were scaring each other and also added slamming my bedroom door into the mix. Yes, as usual...things were crazy. I've got popcorn popping, the microwave going, 2 girls screaming and laughing, a door slamming and opening, and then a baby fussing. Parker was SUPER fussy yesterday...he has been sick for 3 weeks now, and the cold has led to an ear infection. We are treating him to the best of our ability-but 3 weeks is such a long time! I'm done with being up all night. (like I have a choice?!!) All this chaos is going on...and I could hear Parker fussing. He wasn't crying....so I just continued making the popcorn and threw out a few " your ok", "Parker, your fine" comments. Just then I realized that slamming my door could be a very bad thing....my thought of cut off fingers and ER's popped into my head. I had to stop them. I went over to my bedroom door and told the girls to stop with the door-and to go play in their bedroom. I then looked up to the middle of my bed to comfort sweet parker-but he wasn't there! Where could he be-it's not like he can walk, crawl, or even roll for that matter. PANIC set in. I could hear him fussing though. Where was he?

I spotted him! He was between my bed and the pack'n play laying on the floor. Both legs underneath my bed, and half of his head underneath the pack'n play. How did he get there? I picked him up and he stopped fussing immediately-then he gave me a big smile. What a relief-he wasn't hurt! I then turned to the girls who were completely unaffected by what had just gone on-and asked them how Parker ended up on the floor. The response was short and innocent. Hailey said, "Whitney put him there." My response was..."How?" Hailey then replied, "She pulled him off the bed and put him on the floor." I just stood there like a dear caught in the headlights-shocked. We then had a serious talk about NOT picking up or moving Parker EVER! I then added a few threats if they ever did anything like that again....just to scare them. Has anything like this every happened to you? Talk about scary. I hope this never happens again. I'm so thankful that Parker didn't get hurt and that he wasn't scared or anything. Thank Goodness!

Parker and his crib mobile

2009-12-09T11:33:00.001-08:00

Parker is growing bigger and bigger everyday. He now needs to be entertained during his awake time. We put him in his crib and turned on the mobile-and he seems to like it. It gives me a few minutes to make me and the girls some lunch, or get a few things done. Whatever works right?!

Glad he's taking an interest in toys and in his surroundings. It's so fun to watch them develop their personalities. I just love our little guy!

View from underneath

Parker watching the mobile move
Isn't he a cutie?!

I think he likes it!!

Thanksgiving 2009

2009-11-30T10:07:00.001-08:00

Thanksgiving was wonderful as usual. There's nothing like preparing some of your favorite foods for hours and hours....just to gobble it all up in 20 minutes! What a great holiday-it's all about being grateful, being with family, and stuffing your face! I love Thanksgiving! This year my in-laws were in Hawaii, and all of Dan's sisters were in Utah....so we celebrated with my family. We had dinner at my parents house, ( all the yummy stuff: Turkey, sweet potatoes, broccoli, rolls, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffed celery, stuffing, pie, the works) and then we let the kids play outside in the grass for awhile. My cousin Becky and her little family were in town and came over for pie. We finished off the night with pie, and we watched the movie"Up". We had a nice day and very full bellies!

The Table
Our decorations

Whit got into the costumes after dinner

Grandma and Quinn

Grandpa and Parker

What a mess!

Cute little Whitney

Me and my Mom

Mandie and Noelle

Bret and Beau

My cousin Becky and Mia

Grandma bouncing the girls on the Yoga ball

Thanksgiving was a success! On a side note....I have to mention that I made the sweet potatoes. For future reference....crispy marshmallows are only good when roasted over the camp fire. That's what I get for taking my eyes of of them for 30 seconds! They were still good-just not perfect. Oh well.

Lizzie & Adam's wedding

2009-11-21T10:03:00.000-08:00

Lizzie and Adam are now married!

We went up to Utah for the wedding last week, and we had so much fun! Things were super busy: preparing, planning, a bridal shower, the wedding, and squeezing in a few family things in between. We played a lot, and even got to enjoy some snow-yep-it snowed the day of the wedding. Hailey and I both enjoyed our new winter wardrobe-nothing fit us...so we bought new clothes for the trip! I didn't take as many pictures as I would have liked to, I guess I already had my hands full. That's what happens when you stay in a house full of things you could never afford to get fixed if your kids broke them. Thankfully-no disasters! Hailey got a stomach bug the day before we left-poor thing, I hate when kids barf. Whitney had a high fever and felt awful all the way home-and a few days later...she's just starting to act like herself again. It was great to see family members and to show off our latest addition-Parker. We are looking forward to the next time we can go and visit.

A BUSY CAKE WEEK

2009-11-10T08:40:00.000-08:00

The week before Halloween was a busy baking week. I made a cake for my S-I-L Mandie. It was her birthday and she asked for a cake that I had already made before...a repeat cake I guess. I totally forgot to take pictures, but here's the one I made for Dan's b-day...and I made the same one for Mandie.A PB&J cake...and that's exactly what it tasted like...only sweeter. White cake as bread, PB buttercream and then I did Strawberry preserves for Mandie.

Another cake I did was for a boy in my ward. I'm friends with his mom and I offered to make him his B-day cake. Any chance I get to try something new is a good opportunity for practice. It was chocolate cake with caramel buttercream. Covered in fondant and decorated with little footballs made of fondant.

My mom is the Stake Primary president. They were having a leadership meeting and needed some sweets, so I made some cupcakes. I made chocolate cupcakes w/ PB buttercream, and also carrot cake cupcakes w/ a cream cheese buttercream. I uses some brown fondant to cut out leaves for the topper. I wanted the leaves to look more "fall" like, so I painted them with some bronze luster dust-they turned out really cute. I guess they were a hit. Thank goodness. It's always nice to hear that someone likes your work. Dan wanted some for his hometeaching families and also for his team at work. I made 74 cupcakes!!. Busy...busy...busy. I loved making and creating all of these things. My next project is mini cupcakes for Lizzie's (my sister-in-law) bridal shower. Nothing fancy, they're too little to decorate all fancy-it would overdue it. Some sprinkles, or colored sugar and a nice swirl of frosting will look just great! Can't wait!

Cupcakes for Dans work

Fondant Fall leaves

Cupcakes

Displayed on Table

Halloween 2009

2009-11-07T15:53:00.000-08:00

We had a Happy Halloween this year. Lots of candy, fun costumes, pumpkins, and even a Halloween-themed meal! There are tons of pictures below of our great holiday-I LOVE HALLOWEEN!

CARVING PUMPKINS

HALLOWEEN MEAL: hOT DOGS

BREADSTICKS

WRAPPED UP & BAKED

MUMMY DOGS!!

MY 3 KIDDOS

WHITNEY AS DOROTHY

NICE "RED"SLIPPERS HUH?

OUR FRIENDS JAYMIE & JESSE ALWAYS HAVE FABULOUS COSTUMES!

DAN & PARKER

THE WITCH OF THE HOUSE

THE ONLY TIME HE'S EVER BEEN "SKIN & BONES"

SCOOBY-DOO

DOROTHY AND A BLUE PRINCESS

SO CUTE!

Parker's 3 month pictures

2009-11-03T18:30:00.000-08:00

There are so many cute pictures to choose from-they all turned out so cute! Thanks to Annaka for doing such a great job-thanks! We are so excited to share Parker's 3 month old pictures....there are a lot of them.....enjoy!

WE LOVE YOU PARKER!

October 21st 2009

2009-10-21T10:59:00.001-07:00

I didn't even know what to call this post. Things have been busy around here as usual, but more like...I have to get all of these done around my house-busy. My poor kids haven't left the house other than to go for a walk w/ grandpa. I have accomplished quite a bit though-and feel good that I FINALLY got some of those things done. I went through all the girls clothes and pulled out all that didn't fit them. I then bagged the items, and then labeled the bags, and then put them away. I moved on to their shoes-same thing. Then I started with Parker's stuff and did the same thing too. It took me forever to get it all done-but it's done! I also went through the other bagged items in the closet and pulled out all the "winter" 2T clothes for whitney to wear soon. We are going up to Utah for a wedding in a few weeks, and I know we're all going to freeze! Here's hoping I can find some WARM clothes that actually fit me! I've got to get Hailey a few shirts to get her by while we're up there too. Usually the kids get some warmer clothes for X-mas....because it's really not too cold before then here in Az. Let's just say it's still in the mid-80's all week-so we're still wearing capri's and short-sleeves! I haven't taken any fun pictures lately either. Just forgot to. I'll have to take some Halloween one's here shortly-so I'll get around to it. Just moving along, looking forward to Halloween and all the fun festivities. Also looking forward to visiting family in Utah, it will be fun to get away for a minute. Many of them haven't seen Parker yet-so I'm really excited to show him off. That's about it here. I know this post was a little boring-no pictures-nothing, sorry....but at least I'll have something to look back on and read about years down the road. I guess that's all that matters.

Princess's Don't......

2009-10-12T10:53:00.000-07:00

The kids and I were hanging out at my parents house playing dress-up. Hailey was dressed as a beautiful princess. She was dancing around and while she was dancing I thought I heard a little noise come out of her. I said, "Hailey...did you toot?" Hailey stopped dancing and turned around to face me. She said, "Mom, I'm a princess and princess's DON'T toot!" We all got a good laugh out of this. Apparently princess's don't toot.

I must be a Queen then.

My ewwwwwww story

2009-10-09T10:29:00.000-07:00

Here's my story of the week.

I threw in a load of Parker's laundry the other night-forgot to switch them to the dryer...so that's the first thing I did when I got up that next morning. I was tossing the clothes from the washer to the dryer and noticed that they didn't smell clean. Parker's only 3 months old, so we still have the occasional diaper leak....so yes, his clothes get pee on them. That's what the clothes smelled like....pee. Maybe I forgot to put soap in? I DID run them...right? I stood there trying to figure out why they weren't clean. That's when I saw it. The over-sized, over-absorbed, wet, USED diaper. How the heck did that get in there?! Ewwww....gross! No wonder all the clothes smelled like pee. Yuck! Luckily it was only a WET diaper and nothing beyond that. I took the diaper out and re-washed all of Parker's clothes. They smelled clean when they came out this time.

My question to all of you: Has anyone ever washed a diaper? What DUMB thing have you done that have given you an "Ewwww Story". Let me know, I'm curious to find out-entertain me!

So that's my story of the week.

Mom's 52nd Birthday

2009-10-02T13:19:00.000-07:00

We recently celebrated my mom's 52nd Birthday. Sorry mom...I DID mention your age. Can you believe that this young-looking, thin, pretty woman is really 52? I pray I get those genes from her! We all went over and had cake and ice cream and opened gifts. It wasn't much...but we all had a good time....then my parents and brothers left for Six Flags the next day. How fun...wish I could have gone-although my kids wouldn't have been able to go on ANYTHING there!! Hope you had a nice B-day mom. I love you!

This was the aftermath of the celebration.Mom sneaking a bite before blowing out her candle

Say CHeese!

We couldn't find a candle...plus the top of the cake was a hard chocolate shell....so we used a tea-lite candle-whatever works-right?!

Chocolate shell cake

2009-09-29T12:52:00.000-07:00

My latest cake was for my moms B-day. Chocolate cake w/ whipped chocolate filling, iced in Peanut butter buttercream and then covered in a milk-chocolate shell. You know the dipped cones you can get at DQ....same idea-but it's a cake. I used a chocolate transfer sheet to get the design...purple's my mom's favorite color. Trying something new-it wasn't perfect, but it was something different and fun. It tasted really good too!

Chocolate fillingPeanut Butter Buttercream

Cake covered in buttercream

Chocolate Chocolate Transfer sheetFinished Product

Parker's 2 month stats

2009-09-20T09:00:00.000-07:00

Parker had his 2 month check-up this past week (even though he's actually 2 1/2 months old) and I wanted to post his stats. He's a BIG BOY.....so the Doctor says, but my shoulders and arms already knew that! He's right on track with all of the normal things- head control, grasping objects, cooing, smiling, ect. All in all things went well. I hate the whole SHOT thing though, it's so horrible having to hold down your little one while someone's hurting them. I know it's for the greater good though. 5 shots and 1 oral vaccine. No fun. He's starting to feel better know, just fussy for a few days, and bruised legs-poor guy! Anyway, here's his stats:

Height-25 inches.....>95%

Weight-14 lbs. 95%

Head-16.25 cm......75%

I've never had such a big baby at such and early age! Hailey didn't even reach 10lbs until she was over 5 months old! Whitney ended up being my chunky baby, but not right away-it took her a little while. He's gonna be a chunky one! I love it!

Hailey's Story

2009-09-16T09:00:00.000-07:00

I took these pictures a couple of weeks ago when Hailey decided to tell me one of her stories. I thought it was so cute-even though it was weird, so I ran and grabbed my camera so I could blog the story later. The following story was all made up by Hailey.

"Once upon a time, there was a Pig, some Panties, and Princess Cinderella. The evil pig stole the panties and put them in the firewater. Who's gonna save the panties? Along came Princess Cinderella and got the panties out of the firewater-yeah! And they lived happily ever after. The End."The Evil Pig, Cinderella, and the Panties
She acted out the whole thing like a puppet show for me, Whitney, and Parker. She was so proud of herself. Weird story huh? The things kids come up with!

Parkers Blessing

2009-09-13T08:00:00.000-07:00

On Sunday the 6th of September we blessed our little boy, Parker Daniel Roberts. Everything went really well, a lot of family and friends came and then we ate at my parents house afterwards. Parker was really good and didn't make a sound while being blessed, plus he was well behaved the rest of church. Overall it was a really good day-I'm just glad it's over! These types of things always seem to stress me out!

FOOD

More Goodies

Parker's Great Grandparents Papa & Honey

4 Generations!

Handsome little man in his cute vest and tie

Cake buddies!

2009-09-11T08:00:00.000-07:00

My friend Jaymie is a cake creator-she's amazing. Whenever I need something or have questions, I usually call her first. She has ALL of the fun cake/cupcake decorating stuff, and is always doing something new. She's SO talanted!! I recently went to a friends baby shower at her house that she helped host, and everything was perfect. She made all these little bottle cookies...individually wrapped, some fun goodies to munch on, and of coarse-a cake! This cake was so neat! The baby's name is going to be Kolton, so she did a giant K on top of the cake, and the sides were patterned with a green polka-dot-which is actually chocolate. I loved it and had to take some pics. She has totally inspired me to try a chocolate transfer cake for my mom's b-day later this month. Thanks for all of your help and inspiration Jaymie! Keep up the good work! Here are some pics for all of you to drool over!

Whit's cake

2009-09-09T08:00:00.000-07:00

Chocolate Cake with Cream Cheese Buttercream Layers

Covered in Cream Cheese Buttercream

Covered in MM Fondant

Colored Fondant for Polka-Dots

The final product!

Whitney's Birthday-2!

2009-09-07T14:03:00.000-07:00

I managed to get around to blogging Whitney's party sooner than I thought I would be able to. Everything went well, we had a lot of people show up, she got lots of gifts, and everyone had a great time. I took a bunch of pics for everyone to see, so enjoy!

Whitney's 2!

2009-09-03T13:05:00.000-07:00

Whitney turns 2 today! We are so excited to celebrate her 2nd birthday! We are having a little family party for her tomorrow, so I'll post some pics from that when I get a chance.

We love you Whitney, Happy Birthday!

Spiderman cake

2009-08-23T11:10:00.001-07:00

What do you get with an overworked mixer,

A pastry bag with icing in it

Some nasty-looking, but yummy tasting BLACK icing,

and a sink FULL of dirty dishes?

A new cake creation!

My Spiderman Cake.

The cake was for a little boy named Quinn who's turning 4. He has a bunch of food allergies, but with help from his mom...we were able to make this cake that he could eat.

Vanilla cake, vanilla frosting, fondant covering cake, fondant balls, fondant stripes. He can't eat where the spiderwebs are placed because they are made of buttercream icing.

I learned what to do differently next time....and it was my first experience with floral wire and spiderwebs.

To those of you wondering...spiderman topper is a candle that I bought.

Top view

Front view

Another cake I did recently:

This is a cake I did for my brother Jason, it's not the prettiest cake to look at, but it sure tasted good!

Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Buttercream and chopped up Snickers Candy Bars in the layers.

Belated Baby Shower for Parker

2009-08-20T09:41:00.000-07:00

This post is SO late! That's what happens when you have a handful of kids, a house to take care of, church, family in town, ect...ect...ect.....! On August 2nd Parker had a shower in his honor. He got lots of cute clothes, (thank goodness...otherwise he'd just be in a diaper all the time) and he had the chance to meet a lot of mommy's friends. The food was yummy, the company was good, and we had a great time! Thank you Annaka and Amy for everything! I appreciate all the time and detail that went into this. I appreciate your friendships and look forward to some more fun times with you guys! Thanks Again!!! Here are a few pics from the shower. My camera was being weird, so I didn't get very many good ones.

Labels on the water bottles with Parkers name!

Dance Class

2009-08-16T21:12:00.000-07:00

Hailey just started dance class a few weeks ago.

She's learning Ballet, Tap, and Tumbling. She likes to get out of the house to do something fun, and she's making some new friends too!

I (as the mom) love to watch her during her class. All the girls are so uncoordinated and look like they are having seizures-it's so cute and funny! It makes me think back to my dancing days as a child, and how "good" I thought I was in my leotard and tights; when in fact I was probably just as spastic as these little girls are! Coordination will come to Hailey as she grows-I HOPE, otherwise we will have to try a different outlet for her! Little sister Whit is looking forward to joining dance class someday too. She can't wait to do everything that Hailey does. Aren't they cute little girls? I just love them!

Forgotten Belly Picture

2009-08-05T22:44:00.000-07:00

Here it is, the last "Belly" Picture of Parker's pregnancy. This picture was taken

5 days before I had him. It's so crazy to look at that sweet baby boy and try to understand how he fit in my stomach! Now that I look at this picture....I know how!

BIG BELLY!

Binky Girl

2009-08-01T14:00:00.000-07:00

STUDY THESE PICTURES

ARE YOU REALLY LOOKING?

DO YOU NOTICE SOMETHING ALL OF THESE PICTURES HAVE IN COMMON?

A BINKY.

YEP, HER VERY BEST FRIEND IN THE WHOLE WORLD.

DADDY & MOMMY WANT TO GET RID OF IT, BUT ARE SCARED OF BEDTIME, AND NAPTIME, & WHENEVER SHE GET'S HURT.

ANY SUGGESTIONS ON HOW TO GET RID OF IT WITHOUT RUINING HER LIFE?

I'M ALL EARS!

I'D LOVE TO KNOW IF ANY OF YOU HAVE HAD A SIMILAR PROBLEM AND WHAT YOU DID TO HELP YOUR LITTLE ONE ADJUST TO THE CHANGE.

WE LOVE YOU WHIT!

Got Pee?

2009-07-31T08:00:00.000-07:00

Got Peed on again today. Three times today to be exact, and it's not even dinner time yet! The joys of little full-bladdered Boys!

News to me....

2009-07-29T16:54:00.001-07:00

Another thing I'd like to remember....

The other day I was sitting in my bed feeding Parker, when Hailey came into my room and said that she wanted to get dressed for the day. I told her that I needed to finish with Parker and then I would come and get her some clothes to wear. She said that she could get them, but I interupted her and told her that I would do it in a minute and that she just needed to wait. This is the exact reply I got back from her; "Mommy... it's ok, I'm a big girl. I can get my own clothes."

Another funny moment was earlier this week when we were hanging out with my parents. My mom was walking into the kitchen talking to all the kids, and she mentioned to Hailey that she should be an "Artist" (pronounced... R-teest). All of the kids were playing in a big blow-up ball pit..to which Hailey replied, " No grandma, maybe I'll be a ball-teest." We all just laughed. It didn't make any sense, and we didn't even think the kids were listening to us at all!

Parker's Birth Announcement

2009-07-23T14:04:00.000-07:00

Funny Story

2009-07-22T16:02:00.000-07:00

A quick funny story. I just left Whitney alone in her room to go down for her nap. She was mad and crying. I left her abruptly because Parker was crying. Lovely. I changed Parkers diaper to help him stop crying, and Hailey was right there helping me. I have 2 kids screaming...could it get any worse? YEP! Parker peed while I was changing him. It shot straight into Hailey's face. Hailey started yelling, "He peeped on me...he peeped on me, I can't see!" She then began to cry. Now all 3 of my kids were crying at the same time. Oh the JOYS of motherhood!

HE'S HERE!!!!

2009-07-04T10:56:00.001-07:00

PARKER DANIEL ROBERTS

was born on June 24th 2009 at 1:05 am.

He was 19 1/2 inches long, and weighed 6lbs. 13oz-our biggest baby yet!

He had a few little issues with breathing and being jaundice, but other than that, a healthy

baby boy.

Delivery was quick (like my other kids deliveries), but poor little parker got so beat up on the way out. The crown of his head was all bruised...along with his nose, lips, and eyeballs. They are almost all healed up now. Parker only had to stay at the hospital for 1 night without me there, which was so nice. I'm so glad he could come home so soon and that everything looks good.

We are so excited to have him home with us. The girls are so good with him. They love being mommy's helpers and love their baby brother even more! No jealousy, no tantrums...just a little too interested in giving him hugs and kisses.

All is well, mommy and baby are doing well. Recovering faster with each baby born, and other than the normal "tired" feeling..we're doing great!

(one thing to note for myself to remember: Epidurals are GREAT...but not always effective on both sides. With Parker the epidural only worked on 1 side of my body...literally split me from the spine right in half. My right side was numb, and I felt every little thing on my left side. The primary song "Head, Shoulders, knees and toes" has a whole new meaning to me now-because I felt every bit of him coming out on my left side! I wasn't made for natural birth. Thank heavens my right side was numb!)

The "sayings" of Hailey

2009-06-30T17:30:00.000-07:00

This blog won't be very interesting for anyone else to read, it's more for me-to remember all the crazy and funny things that Hailey says. Hailey had been saying some funny things lately. She was watching her little brother move inside of my belly, and said, " Mommy, I think he's coming out now!" She then continued her curiousity by making her belly move so it looked like mine. I asked her if she had a baby in her belly too....she replied, " No, it's just food in my belly going down to make poop." How can you not laugh at something like that!
When my kids go to my parents house, they always ask grandma to make a craft. They get paper plates and my mom spreads some canned frosting to cover the plate. She then gives them all sorts of stuff to decorate it to look like a face. Sprinkles, cheerios, marshmallows, fruit snacks...whatever she has. They love doing this. The other day my mom said to Hailey, " Let's make a different kind of craft (refferring to a father's day craft)." ( FOR THE RECORD WE MAKE CRAFT PROJECTS IN OUR HOUSE TOO) Hailey said, "My mom makes Crap." My parents got a real kick out of this. Later that night I asked Hailey if she made crafts with grandma today....and her response was, "Yes, grandma makes crap in a smiley face." She was refferring to the frosting/paper plate craft that she usually does at grandmas house. It was so funny!
Another favorite word of Hailey's right now is "MISTAPPEARED." Like, I can't find my shoe mommy, it just mistappeared! Hilarious-right?
I asked Hailey if she had a very best friend.....she said, "Yes mommy, it's Whitney." What a priceless moment for a mother!
Hailey fell and hurt her bum. She then explained how she couldn't go pee-pee or poop because she broke her bum! Poor thing...she is so funny!
That's all I can really think of right now. She says funny things all the time...so I'm sure I'll be posting something similar to this post in a few months or so.

Quick Pregnancy Update

2009-06-19T17:55:00.000-07:00

I'll have to take a picture of my belly within the next few days to document how big it is. As far as the pregnancy goes...I'm still pregnant! Today I'm 35 weeks and 6 days....the day I had Whitney in my last pregnancy. As of tomorrow I'll be 36 weeks pregnant, and that's the farthest I've ever gone! We are hoping to be able to bring this little guy home with us, and have him in our hospital room...you know, a normal experience. We've always had to leave the babies in the NICU and go to visit them...for at least a week or so. Making it farther in a pregnancy brings us closer to the chance of our normal experience-we're very excited. I had my last shot today, so we'll see what that does for me. As of 36 weeks it's not recommended to take Terbutaline to stop contractions...so basically, whatever happens-happens! Any day now! I'm already effaced 60% and dilated to a 3 as of yesterday, so we'll see how much longer we can keep him in. I keep joking around with Dan about having our baby on Father's Day. I guess anything's possible-so we'll keep you all posted about the arrival of our little boy!
Any guesses on the date, weight, time, whatever.....go ahead and let us know your predictions! It will be fun to see what you all think!

Our 7th Wedding Aniversary

2009-06-17T21:18:00.000-07:00

What can I say....it's been fun, and I think we'll keep on having fun together forever! Sunday June 14th was our 7th anniversary. I feel bad that it's always shadowed by Hailey's birthday...but eventually we go out and celebrate. With baby boy on the way...and me on a modified bedrest, it made it harder to celebrate this year. On Monday night we dropped the kids off at my parents house and went to Flemmings for dinner. We have always wanted to try the food there, and now we can cross that off of our list! Our food was good, we ordered appetizers, and different sides and main dishes so we could try a whole bunch of stuff there. We had a good time. I couldn't even go out to the store to buy Dan a card or anything...he bought me a sweet card and gave me a coupon for a pedicure. He knows me so well! I'm always complaining before giving birth that I will have to be looking at how ugly my toes look, so he gave me a pedicure to use so my toes can look pretty. That's such a stupid and selfish thing-I know, but I figured it's not that bad considering the fact that I've been making a human for the last 8 months! We had a short...but good time going out together, it was nice to eat a warm meal and not have to get high-chairs and sippy cups to enjoy the meal. It was nice. I'm glad that I'm married to Dan and that we are still laughing together after 7 years. It's great. I love you Dan!

Hailey turns 4!

2009-06-13T15:00:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday to my little Peanut! Today June 13th is Haileys birthday. I can't believe that I have a 4 year old! Hope you have a great birthday Hailey! We love you!

(celebration pictures to come in a later post)

June 2005

June 2006

June 2007
June 2008

June 2009

Baby shower!

2009-06-13T08:00:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday I had my first BOY baby shower. It was so much fun. We had lots of yummy desserts, lots of cute gifts, great company, and the decorations were so cute! My S-I-L Stacie and M-I-L Laurie worked so hard to throw such a great shower. Thanks to both of you for all of your preparation and hard work to make it such a good day. I really appreciate it and had a good time. It was wonderful. Thanks again both of you!

Here are some random pictures of the shower. Baby Boy Roberts got a lot of cute clothes and blankets, so at least he'll have some nice threads to wear once he's born!

Happy Birthday Dad!

2009-06-11T18:46:00.001-07:00

A quick shout out to my dad-today is his birthday. We will be celebrating this weekend, so I'll post some pictures of this celebration in a different post! Have a great on DAD!! WE love you!