Random Act of Kindness

There is still good in this world! It ain't comin' from me, but there's good out there.

Clara got a kitty from Build A Bear and a $10 gift card, to buy accessories, from Santa this year. She was so excited to use her own "credit card" to buy something she picked out, so we headed off to Fashion Place.

First of all, the mall was crazy! I think it was the day after Christmas and I had NO idea that it would be such a madhouse. Clara put her card in her back pocket and we trudged through the crouds to the Build A Bear store. The line there was HUGE but she had fun picking out some pajamas and slippers for her kitty. (we would supplement Santa's meager givings)

We got in line and Josh, being the chatty cathy he is, started talking to the lady behind us about how Clara was so excited about her gift card and yada yada. We get up to the counter and I tell her to take out her card. She looked like she was about to die when she reached into her back pocket and nothing was there. I scolded her for losing it. I feel bad. Especially now. We had talked about making sure she didn't lose it. I made her put the slippers back. I said I'd SUPPLEMENT, not pay for it all.

The lady behind us must have overheard the fiasco and she reached into her wallet and pulled out a $20 bill. She leaned down to Clara and said "Here Honey. Now you can get whatever you want. And I bet you'll have a little leftover to go buy some cookies after."

Clara gave her a big hug and I stood there feeling mean and thankful at the same time. I thanked her many times. I felt like I should have given it back but I know how it feels when I try to give someone something and they reject it, so I let it happen.

I'm going to pay it forward, as soon as I get the 20 bucks to do it. What a sweet lady.

On a completely different note, I made another cake. This one was for a friend of a friend of a friend. An artist cake. It was loads of fun to do.

I Feel So Cheated!

Okay, its been a while. I know, I know. I promised I would post once a week. Clearly I have a problem with commitment. But I'm trying! Give me SOME credit here.

On to explain my blog title. I feel so cheated! Nolan is one already! His birthday is today and I'm trying to figure out where the past year went. I swear it didn't go by this fast with Clara. I mean, people say that the older you get, the faster time seems to pass. So I'm 25. What's it going to be like when I'm 103? Cause I AM going to reach 103. Seriously though. I understand now. Its cliche, but time flies.

He's so big and smart. He's developing quite the personality too. I'm really dreading the terrible twos, because he's thrown more temper tantrums than Nolan Ryan's thrown baseballs. (eh, eh, you like my analogy...and how I linked the names?) Josh says the kids are mirrors of us. Clara is sweet and passive, like him, and Nolan is tempermental and vocal like me. Whatever. I don't throw temper tantrums. I do try to get my way as often as possible, but I don't usually resort to throwing myself to the floor and contorting my body. It HAS worked a couple of times though.

In any case, whether he's a !@#&^*()_+ like me, or just a free spirit (which side I tend to lean to) he's one. He's all grown up. His poop didn't used to be that bad. I'd think "Hmm, I haven't changed his diaper in an hour or two, I should check it real quick." Now I don't need to check. I'd be able to smell that stuff with a can of air freshner shoved up my nose. And the puke. It used to just smell like baby. Not bad! Now it smells like big people puke. I gagged the last time I had to clean it up.

I know it sounds like I'm bashing my one year old, but I'm not. I'm just missing my one month old. I did get a pretty good trade in though. He's the funniest little kiddo ever. He's a baby genius too. Just ask his dad. He can say "apple beer". Or something like it. He's created his own version of sign language. We call it NSL (Nolan sign language.) He knows exactly what he wants, and how to get it. He has an awesome glass shattering soprano voice. Everyone at church can attest to that. Yet he's the most boyish boy I've ever met. For instance, at church last sunday he belched right in the middle of the meeting (it was a pretty good one too, the belch that is) and afterwards he just looked so proud. And he loves anything that bounces or has wheels.

What a fun little boy he is! The last year has been a joy. I just wish it lasted longer!

I just thought this was a cute picture. Apparently he's inherited the love-of-shoes trait from his mama and big sissy.

If you look closely, you will see an "ouchie" above his left eye. My child has a death wish, or he's an adrenaline junkie. He hurts himself all the time. This one was from crawling a little too fast and running into a door hinge. His eye was purple for a while.

Nolan's birthday cake! I copied it from pinkcakebox.com. Such a cute design. I'm glad I was able to pull it off!

Clara really wanted to eat his little smash cupcake. It was so much better than a whole little cake, I think. Minimal mess, although he did a good job of smashing and smooshing it to the fullest extent.

I haven't figured out how to take pictures when its dark outside and the horrible inside lights are on, so the picture's junky, but this is the most awesome present ever. Carly, my cousin-in-law, if there is such a thing, made Nolan this sweet little superhero cape and cuffs (not shown) for Christmas. She sells them online I think. Her website is palmegranateandco.etsy.com He loves it and since he already thinks he's a superhero, it fits perfectly.

Gluten Free

I'm finally starting to get a little gluten free business. A month or so ago, I had an order for some gluten free cupcakes and a lady, who was at the party where my cupcakes made their grand appearance, has a daughter who was just diagnosed with celiacs. Poor little girl! She's only eight. Anyway, so she called me because its the little girl's birthday and she was determined to get something cute, delicious and gluten free (three things that don't often go together.) I made them some cupcakes and here they are!

Costume Pictures!

We went to a Trunk or Treat last Saturday and Tina was there taking pictures. She snapped a few shots of my kids in their costumes and they turned out great! I told you Clara's was hilarious and Nolan's was adorable. I was super busy that day so I didn't have time to put the lights on the Christmas tree. I'll take pics on Halloween with the lights in.


**Edit for those that wonder: Nolan is an alley cat and I made Clara's costume.

Hello There.

So, its been a while! I've been a blogging bum lately. No time or desire. I do have a few pictures, but everytime I sit down at the computer to upload them, I find something more interesting to do and then, look at the time!

I'm repenting now, if you're interested. I solemnly vow to blog at least once a week from now on, unless there's a family emergency or I decide not to.

Its been hectic! I'm spinning around trying to figure out where the month went. I swear it just started, but Halloween's in two days and I'm pretty sure that's the end of the month. The ball is rolling and its not going to stop until January. Not that I don't like the holidays. I DO! But I'm not prepared. I finally understand what my mom was talking about when she said Christmas is stressful.

Anywho, back to the hectic stuff. I've had a lot of cakes, 1 of which I managed to take a picture of. You'll see though, that its two different pictures of the same cake. Intrigued? You should be. We've just been running around, taking the kids places and trying to get things done. We went to Gardner Village twice. The first time was to just walk around and see the witches and the second was for Wee Witches Weekend, which was a MADHOUSE of little witchy girls and a multitude of girl scouts with pink badges. It was loads of fun though. Got Pics!

So here's a cool cake story. My sister called me a few weeks ago and ordered a cake for someone who was having a baby at her work. She said it was a boy and I could just pick a cute baby boy cake to do. I've done this cake three times already, so why not one more? Its cute, its boyish, its perfect. So I get the cake done the night before because she has to pick it up early in the morning. She comes to my door that Friday to pick it up and says something like, "Oh, I forgot to tell you, the baby's a girl." Um, fabulous. The cake says oh boy. Its about as un-girly as you can get. So she calls in to work and says she'll be a little late because I have to make the cake girly. I scraped off the oh boy, added a little purple and wrote oh baby instead. Still, not the girliest cake you'll come across, but I tried. Its like a very confused baby cake.

Before:

After:

The biggest stress of the month was the Salt Lake City Mommies Trunk or Treat. They offered a few mommies booths this time and I decided (out of pure insanity) to take them up on it. I was planning on selling delectably spooky goodies and hot chocolate. Who doesn't want hot chocolate while they trick or treat? I found out a couple days before the event that I needed a temporary booth permit and an inspection on the booth to sell food. It cost money and I was a little late, so I ended up scrapping that idea. I did set up a booth with some cookie bouquets on display and a fantastic 3 tier halloweeny cake, which I neglected to take a picture of, in true-to-myself-style. Josh was the salesman and gave people his spiel while shoving a business card into their hands. We got rid of about 100 business cards, so hopefully one or two people make an order eventually.

I decorated about 150 cookies before I found out I couldn't sell food at the booth so I'm giving them out for Halloween. I hope I don't get attacked by nervous parents for handing out something homemade. I think I'll bring a bowl of candy just in case anyone freaks out. Sad you have to worry about that!

But that's all over! Now I'm just waiting for Halloween to come and go and I can rest for a few days. At least that's the plan. I'll try and take lots of pictures on Halloween. Clara's costume is HILARIOUS and Nolan's is super cute. I'll post again soon!

Free at Last!

Nolan is free at last. Well, he has been for almost a week. That's how it goes. But he loves it. He's like a little tornado now with two working arms. Okay, he was like that with only one, but this is a bigger tornado. He's soooo close to walking. He can stand up by himself and he's taken a few steps, but he freaks out when he realizes nothing was holding him up and he plops down on his squishy little butt.

We took him to the doctor's for his nine month appointment last Wednesday and he's still growing. He was 64percentile in weight and 84 in height. He had the flu shot and he just sat there the whole time giving me fives. Didn't even care. Pretty impressive for a nine month old, I think.

Even more impressive though was Clara. I remember going to get my kindergarten shots when I was five. If I recall correctly, five was the magic number that day because that's how many nurses it took to pin down my wriggling, probably 40 pound body.

I told her, prior to going into the office, that she would probably be getting a flu shot like Nolan. She was very prepared for it, and strangely, wouldn't stop talking about it. I'm starting to see that she's very much like her father. Anyway, she was all psyched up for the needle but the nurse informed her that she was now old enough to get the flu mist. She was a little disappointed but it smelled like strawberries so it was all good.

Her hopes were brought back up when we decided to get a celiac sprue blood test on her. Not one moment's hesitation. She walked back to the lab with Josh and let them draw her blood. No tears, no whining. She did say she said "ouch" and "mom! they took ALOT of blood!" That's all she talked about all day. Cute.

Last Thursday or Friday or Wednesday or something, we went for a hike. The weather is FANTASTIC right now. I wish it could be like this all the time. The air is cool, it smells nice, I'm not sweating (not sweating just like a pig, because pigs don't sweat), its beautiful, I feel cozy, I could go on and on. I do realize if it were to stay like this, the world would have to stop spinning, therefore resulting in the loss of all humankind, but I can dream, right?

This is Clara's silly dance. I wish I had it on video for all to see, but you'll just have to imagine how she got into this pose.

My poor girl fell down and then she threw a fit because she didn't want me to take her picture.

This is about a minute later. She forgets quickly.

These are Nolan's awesome socks and shoes. He's not wearing shorts, those are pants that are, apparently, ridden up.

Clara climbing precariously on a cliff. No worries, we all made it up alive.

Nolan on a rock, I'm holding onto his foot, just so you know.

Lost and Found

I haven't posted for a while (1) because I'm super duper busy and (2) because I promised pictures of Nolan's cast and I didn't want to post until I had something. I knew where my camera was BUT the battery died and I couldn't find the charger. I looked EVERYWHERE for it.

Finally after a week or two of looking under rocks and whatnot, I decided to look in the camera bag. Yup. That's where it was. Don't know why and I wish I'd thought of that sooner. I've made three cakes and 50 cupcakes and was horrified when I found out my battery was dead. They were all so cute!

LUCKILY I'll get to take a picture of one of the cakes I made because I have to make it again. For some weird and mysterious reason, I thought the baby shower was a month before it actually was so when I contacte Ashlee to pick up the cake, she was like "um, that's next month." Lovely. So I gave it to the lady that was picking up the conveniently themed and colored baby shower cupcakes on the same day. They matched perfectly and she was pretty happy. So I practice. Big deal.

Anyway, I really don't have a picture of Nolan after all that, but my sis posted a picture of him on her blog with her fantastic new camera. I'm going to see if I can figure out how to get it on here. Wish me luck!

I did it! His cast smells like gym shoes and it has smooshed food all over it. I can't WAIT until he gets it off in a week and a day! Wreckless little kid!

Broken.

The last few days I've been a little annoyed with Nolan. He's been kind of whiny and really clingy. He just didn't want to crawl around anymore. He'd make me pick him up and carry him everywhere. Not very convenient.
Then two days ago, he was crawling around and I thought it was so cute! He would get on his arms and knees instead of his hands and knees. He looked like a little lion, getting ready to pounce. I even mentioned to Josh how cute it was.
That night, I went to a card class and I had my mom watch the kids for me. When I stopped by her house to pick them up afterwards, she said that she thought Nolan might have hurt his arm. He'd been crawling funny and any time he put pressure on his hand, he'd cry. He couldn't pull himself up very well either. Ding, ding! I'm an idiot.
He'd been doing that for like four days and I just thought it was either cute or annoying. What kind of a mom am I? It took, max, two hours for my mom to figure it out. So I was feeling really bad and I decided if it was still bothering him in the morning, I'd take him to the doctor's.
Of course it still bothered him. He'd been crying about it, unbeknownst to me, for four or five days. What's one night gonna do? So we made an appointment and got him in there. The doctor didn't think anything was wrong with him and only let us take him to x-ray to appease us. He said he didn't have any symptoms of a broken bone, but he didn't want to blow us off. So we went down to x-ray and had that done, went back upstairs to the doc's office, waited, waited and waited and finally he came in and had us look at the x-rays. Lo and behold, it was broken. We have to take him in to get a cast on Monday. Poor boy.
What is wrong with my children? Clara broke her leg when she was 13 months old. Nolan is 8 months old. Aren't babies supposed to have rubber bones? It takes a lot to break a baby's bone. Clara fell down like six stairs, and landed on carpet and her leg broke. I can't even figure out what Nolan did to break his arm. He was throwing a fit in the bathtub the other day, but he doesn't like water that much. Or it could have been when he rolled down three stairs, but he didn't even cry. My kid falls so much, it could have been anything. I hope it doesn't happen again!
I'll post pics on Monday, after he has his cute tiny cast.

Fall Open House

Robert's had their fall open house this past weekend and I was lucky enough to be able to do a cookie blossom demo. It really wasn't that bad. I brought my kids with me, along with a babysitter and they kind of meandered, while I demonstrated how to make this cute fall cookie bouquet. I didn't get a picture of the actual bouquet, but I had some leftover cookies for it that I took pics of.

I hear tell that the store manager was very pleased with my display. It is now enshrined in a glass case back by the classroom at the Robert's at Jordan Landing, if any one is interested in worshipping it in all its fall cookie glory. I wonder if they coated it in varnish or if its just going to slowly rot. It will be fun to find out!

Viewer Discretion is Advised

**Just a note-There is puke in some of the following pictures. Beware!

Okay, so here are a couple of cakes that I did before I went on vacation. It was Sunday, Monday and Wednesday that I made them and I left at 5:00 in the morning on Thursday, so I was working till the end.

Since you may not be able to tell, this is Yoda. I made him for my brother in law's birthday. I think he looks more like a ninja turtle/yoda hybrid.
This one is for Floyd. He's a convert that my grandparents taught.
This is for a charity baby shower for SaltLakeCityMommies.

The trip begins! The Turley family (my dad's parents) have been planning this family reunion for about forever. I don't remember exactly when but its been years in the making. I'd been really excited to go and see all my family that I never get to see. Just not excited to travel all the way to Missouri. I didn't even think flying was an option and driving with two young children does NOT float my boat. Turns out Josh was only able to take off enough time to fly to the reunion, so our hand was forced. Boohoo.

I was kind of nervous about the flight. I hadn't been on an airplane since I was ten and Clara's never been on one but she was really looking forward to it. I remember my last flight. It was from England to Texas. Pretty long flight. The food wasn't good, except breakfast. I loved looking out the window and seeing the tiny mountains below. The plane was HUGE! I felt very safe flying.

We make it to the airport and start boarding our plane. I look in and my stomach just ties itself in knots. This plane was sooooo tiny. It looked like the littlest breeze would just toss it out of the sky. I sucked it up and sat down. The take off was nerve-wracking. The flight and landing were worse. I was freaking out. Clara loved it, only it screwed her up pretty bad. She didn't puke on the flight but once we got our rental car, it was partially digested food showers for everyone.

Our rental car and Clara BEFORE

The aftermath.

She puked in the happy meal box, she puked out the window, into the wind and, consequently, back into the car, she puked in the hotel, the parking lot, the restaurant, the Vocal Point performance. I was swearing up and down that she had the flu but Josh won when we bought her motion sickness pills and all was well. That was fun. That was our first and part of the second day of our vacation. When we arrived in Missouri, we got our car and headed towards Nauvoo. It was a 4 1/2 hour drive. We got there late on Thursday night, just in time to watch Vocal Point. It was a great performance. A very funny and talented group. The next day we went to old Nauvoo and saw all the historic sites and houses. We got to play pioneer games and try to walk on stilts. It was really fun. My parents were there with us until we split up at about noon. They headed to the reunion at Crowder State Park and we went to Carthage Jail.

That place is so sad. I just wanted to cry the whole time I was there. Its very interesting to know all the facts about the day of the prophet's martyrdom. Several wonderful, powerful men died that day, but the Lord's restored gospel continued.

After that we finally headed to the reunion, another long drive. It was soooo much fun to see everyone though! We ate and played games and ate and visited and ate and slept and ate. The kitchen was going 24/7! That's what happens when you have to make three meals a day for 106 people! It was so cool seeing everyone grown up and hearing what they've been up to and their testimonies and talents. I can't wait until the next one, although I'm sure I'll have to.