It's Christmastime!!

Another year has gone by....the years seem to go faster the older I get! Today is already December 12th and I still haven't put up my tree. I've been so busy with life...that I can't manage to get everything done when I want to do it! Between birthdays, parties, church callings, last minute christmas shopping, birthday shopping, kids schedules, family celebrations, and everything else-I just haven't had a minute! We are excited to put our lights on our house and get our tree up and decorated, we hope to do it this weekend. All of our other Christmas decorations are out-just not the most important thing, the tree. We recieved a "Secret Santa" gift on our doorstep last week...or maybe 2 weeks ago now ( I don't remember for sure), and had to put it up right away. Thanks Linda, it's the highlight of Hailey's christmas this year! It's a blow-up for our yard, and it's SO cute! Hailey loves to plug it in every night and watch it blow up. Hopefully we'll be able to get the rest of our fun Christmas decorations up this weekend so we have time to enjoy them. I'll keep you posted. Happy Shopping!

Thanksgiving

Ok, I'm way behind in my blogging. Thanksgiving was a lot of fun. I somehow managed to get out of making anything for the special day....don't know how that happened-but it made my job alot easier! I also left my camera in my bag the whole day too-stupid thing to do on a holiday. We went to Nannie's house (dan's grandma) for dinner and spent the rest of the evening playing with and chasing the kids. We had a good time and enjoyed seeing all of the family. The only picture both me and my sister-in-law managed to get that day was one of all the grandkids. I actually didn't even take it-I just asked her to email it to me-yep, I'm lazy! These are all of the grandkids on Dan's side of the family. The 2 girls on the left are mine, the other 2 girls belong to dan's sister Krissy, and Mj (the only boy) is stacie's. There are also 2 more on the way. It's crazy how fast the family grows and grows. Hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving-we did.

Whitney, Hailey, Izze, Mj, and Zoie

Stacie's Baby Shower

The Saturday after Dan and I got back from our cruise was Stacie 's (sister-in law) baby shower. We had it in my in-laws backyard, and luckily it was a beautiful day. We didn't have as many people come as I had hoped, but we still had a good turnout. Everything turned out great; the food, the decorations, the company, the cake...everything went really well. Stacie got a lot of fun clothes and cute girly blankets and hairbows-I think it helped her get even MORE excited to have a girl. All in all, everything went well. I'm glad I could help plan and be a part of it!

A special THANKS to my friend Jaymie for doing the cake for me-she did a great job and it tasted yummy! Thanks again Jaymie for saving me!

Our Cruise

We had a great time on our cruise! Things have been a little crazy since we got back, so this is the first chance I have had to blog about it! WE left out of San Diego, were at sea for a day, andthen ported in Cabo San Lucas. The weather was really warm, and the water was just as warm too-I actually got into the ocean! We walked around and looked for gifts to bring home to the girls, we ate a lot and topped everything off with dessert. We borded the ship and spent the rest of the day hanging out on the ship. The next day we were at sea all day and just spent time hanging around the ship. The next day we ported in Ensenada, Mexico. There wasn't much to do but look around and shop, so that's what we did! We then had a night at sea and then ported in San Diego to get off the ship. We drove home from San Diego and were excited to see our girls again. We had a great time and loved having some time together alone.

Leaving on a cruise

I won't be updating my blog anytime soon, my hubby and I leave this Saturday to go on a 5 day cruise to Mexico. We are very excited and will miss our kids....but mainly we're excited to be KID FREE for a few days!! We'll post some pictures of our vacation when we get back.
I'm also throwing a baby shower for my sister-in-law Stacie, it's 2 days after we get back from Mexico, I will also be posting something about that. There's the update, I'll post as soon as I can! Have a great week everyone!

More Cakes

I made 2 different cakes this weekend. I had a lot of fun making them, and I learn something new each time I make a cake. This time I learned to make sure you cut the cake EVENLY the 1st time-or else you have to go back and fix it later. This was my first time using fruit in a cake, so there are some minor things that make it more difficult verses using a frosting type filling. I also used a flavored buttercream this time, this was my first time flavoring a buttercream icing, and a new icing recipe too! I also had to take note to make sure the icing is as smooth as you can get it....before you lay the fondant over it, or else you have a bumpy fondant. Oh, well...the one I got to try tasted good, and overall looked alright, thanks Stacie for sharing your cake with us. I had fun and look forward to December when I have some more family birthdays to practice cakes for!

Kari's Cake: Chocolate cake, raspberry preserve filling, fresh raspberries, raspberry buttercream icing, and fondant. This one iced really smooth and was easy to lay the fondant over. I got a little carried away with the icing when I was decorating, it actually looked better without the little flower of icing on the fondant polk-a-dots. You live, you learn. I hope Kare's cake tasted good.

Stacie's Birthday Cake: White cake, raspberry preserve filling, fresh raspberries. and raspberry buttercream covered in fondant. YES, it's leaning....I fixed that later on, it turned out looking alright. Hope you liked your cake Stacie!!

Tornado Hailey

This is something I just didn't want to forget. Most of the time you want others to remember your house as "clean" or "spotless", but nope, not me. This is a picture of Hailey's room. This isn't just a one time mess either, this is how it looks EVERY night! My parents have given her a great nickname when talking about her, it's TORNADO HAILEY. It does look like a tornado hit this room! I've also heard Dan's parents refer to her once or twice as Hurricane Hailey -so we all agree! Yep, her favorite thing to do is pull things out, play with them for a minute...and then move on to the next item-as you can see, she has mastered this talent. Like I said, this is something I didn't want to forget, becuase when she's a little older....I'll expect her room to be clean before she ever leaves the house!

More Halloween

I told you there would be more Halloween to come. Here are some pictures of our fun weekend. We carved pumpkins, went to our ward Trunk-or-Treat, went Trick-or-Treating in the neighborhood, and had SO much fun dressing up in our costumes. Whitney was our little Witch, and Hailey dressed up as the beautiful Snow White. Hope you all had a happy Halloween!!!

Halloween Costume Party-Adults Only!

Last weekend we had the opportunity to attend an Adult-only Halloween party, what a blast! Dan and I have only ever been to 1 other Halloween party, but we had such a good time. Thanks you two, it was a blast!

Dave and Becca were the hosts of the evening, she was a witch and he was a proctologist....Dr. Ben Dover (notice the dark splotches on his scrubs....it's not blood...it's, ummm, you know-he's a proctologist). We at lots of yummy treat, snacks, cider, and candy-and them topped it all of with a ton of karaoke. I actually got up and sang! Here are some of the other couples from our ward that attended the party.

Travis was a 1 eyed monster and his wife Tamara was a nun,

Then there was our stage-themed couple who dressed as Christine and the Phantom, what a cute couple. Glad you were able to make it Brigham and Carla! The Binghams came as a Full- Deck of cards...and a Deck-short of a few cards....aren't they clever? Lincoln was...hmmmm, I'm not sure...I think a hunter-he had a flannel shirt and a gun, so I think a hunter. His wife Anna was dressed as a doctor, they're both finishing up nursing school and are expecting their first baby. Bill and Diane Ritman came dressed as a UPS delivery man, and she dressed up as a girl in the 50's, aren't they cute? Ben and Cammie get my award for the most creative costumes. Ben dressed as Dwight from The Office, and his wife (she's got a cute prego belly) was a deviled-egg-clever huh? Last but not least was us. Dan was a Biker...mullet, tattoo's, bandanna...he had it all. I wasn't so clever....just a witch, but I had some great hair for the evening. We had a great time and look forward to many more Halloweens together. We are anxious to see our girls in their costumes and to celebrate the holiday through their eyes.

I thought I'd get this post done before Halloween, I know that I'll want to post a ton of pictures of the girls in their costumes, I hope none of you get to Halloween-ed out on my blog, there's going to be a lot of it!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!!!!