The Ertmann Family

Kara's Party Ideas Giveaway!

2011-02-23T15:04:00.000-08:00

I'm blogging about this giveaway so I can win it! Its a cute set of carnival party stuff. Perfect for say, a certain boy turning 2 in August. What's the best part? Popcorn. Can't have a carnival party without popcorn, now can you? Click HERE to see the post.

Wow.

2010-11-26T17:50:00.000-08:00

I think this is a new low. I'm not going to go through my posts and check, but the last time I posted was May. And now I'm putting up my Christmas tree. So that's a long time.

Anyhow. I don't even know where to start. Soooooooo much has happened since May. I don't even recognize my life. Its just bizarre.

My family started a bakery. The bakery responsible for the upturn of my life. And everyone else's involved. Absolute insanity. So in July, for some crazy reason, I went on KSL to see if there were any bakery related businesses for sale. There weren't, but there were two restaurants. And in a moment of what I can only explain as a total lack of sense, we started calling these places and setting up times to see them. You know, just to feel out the market. For the future.

Turns out the future was the next week. We went to this absurdly nestled restaurant to meet up with the nice man trying to get out of his money pit. He practically shoved the thing at us. He dropped the price to nearly nothing, he just really needed someone to take over his lease. And we signed right up.

So we went from our blissfully calm lives (I didn't think so at the time, but now I see) to painting, shopping, experimenting, fighting, yelling and definitely not sleeping. We got the place at the end of July and we opened for business August 16th. The sheer madness of it all is that we had absolutely no plan. Or we thought we did, but we didn't. We planned on selling to caterers and grocery stores. Teaching Gluten free classes and whatnot. We ended up with a sandwich shop that just happens to also have delicious gluten free baked goods, not selling to anyone but the public. No one gets paid. We go to the shop everyday, work our butts off, go home and crash, get up and do it again.

And I've never been more satisfied with a job. I've never worked without dreading it every single day. And I wake up happy to go in every morning. I like seeing the same people come in every day because they like my food. I like seeing new people come in, so excited to find something gluten free. I like working with my husband every day and my family. I like bringing my kids with me. And I like having a place to cook my dinner when my power goes out. :)

There've been alot of trials going into this thing. A ton of injuries, lots of tears and crazy moments. But I know if we make it through the storm, its going to be sweet.

And with that said, I'm going to list above mentioned injuries.
Blackened butter steam burn to my mother.
Deep cut from sharp knife to Josh.
Deep cut/gouge from stubborn picture frame to me.
Minor cut from sharp knife to me.
Minor cut from crappy slicer to me.
Assorted heads bouncing off the concrete floor to my kids.
Assorted burns to everyone from everything hot.
Severe (in my opinion) burn to my poor baby's whole hand from a hot pan with delicious cinnamon rolls on it.
Bloody nose from face plant on concrete floor to my baby.
And a million more that I can't think of.
Pictures!!

Still Slacking.

2010-05-02T13:32:00.000-07:00

I've come to this conclusion. I will probably never be a consistent blogger. Every time I post, I like to think I will be. Even this time. You notice how I squished in a "probably"? That's because I still think there's a chance. It shouldn't be that hard to post at least once a week, should it? Well it apparently is. You people who post every day....seriously....props (does anyone even say that anymore?). Don't know how you do it.

So, I'm really only posting now because Josh noticed that my last post was in March and started to complain.

What's new? Josh got a temporary part time job with the census, so I won't be seeing much of him for a while. Sad! The kids will really miss him. Yes, I will too. But they're just never going to get a break from me. And even I need a break from me. So, yeah.

The cake thing is still going strong. I want a bakery!!! I want more room and more stuff and more clients. I want! So if anyone wants to give me a bakery, or even just a sheeter, or a cricut cake, just let me know. You can write it off on your taxes!

Clara has started dance class. She's very confident and outgoing in class. Which is good. I think she does pretty well for having just started.

Nolan is still terrorizing the family. Oliver cries every time he sees him. Clara is constantly tattling on him. I am always telling him to stop climbing or eating or mauling. The usual.

Oliver will be 9 months on the 5th. I cannot believe it. I can't. He's crawling around everywhere, pulling himself up on furniture, climbing up things. He has 4 teeth, and he uses them. Its just insane.

So I don't take many pictures, and I should. I know. But I'm going to post our pics that Tina took, even though I already put them on facebook, for lack of any other pictures. They're so cute, they should be everywhere anyway!

Okay, so I'm not. Blogger is being stupid and won't let me upload anything. Boo. Well, I guess that's it then.

Just Like Dad

2010-03-27T08:52:00.000-07:00

Nolan has picked up a few habits from his dad, namely lounging and munching. His favorite spot is the lovesac in front of the TV. He usually puts his hands behind his head (like dad) and locks his fingers together. It looks like he's going to do situps, but he never makes the move. If there's food, even better. Its cute, to some extent.

Fortunately, couch potato isn't the only thing he's got going for himself. He has inherited another of his father's traits. And that is to injure himself repeatedly. He is 2 years old. Besides all the black eyes, bruises and cuts he keeps popping up with, he's had a broken arm, a broken face, and now, stitches. I've never had stitches, outside of an operating room. I've never broken a bone. On the other hand, I believe Josh has broken both arms, wrists, a collar bone, had the tip of his finger torn off, and he has a huge scar on his shoulder, not sure what from. He's also broken his nose, I think with a peanut butter jar.

This most recent damage came from stacking plastic storage containers on top of eachother, (empty storage containers, he dumped all the clothes out of them first, after I slaved over their organization for hours) and climbing them. He fell, hit his head on a jagged edge, cried and came to me. I freaked out. It wasn't bleeding, but there was a hole in his head that I could see right through. I swear I saw his brain. Josh says it was just a layer of fat, but I don't know. In any case, it was gross, so I yelled for Josh to come get him. Josh laid him down, changed his diaper and took him to the docs. I'm glad I didn't have to watch him get the stitches. I really pray that nothing involving blood, or gaping holes happens when I'm home alone with the kids.

All stitched up. Sorry about the soiled bandage part. He wouldn't let me take it all the way off. Its Spiderman.

March? Really?

2010-03-21T13:17:00.000-07:00

I seriously can't believe its even March. Let alone that its almost over. Didn't I just post?? In December? It can't have been 3 and half months already. I'm not that bad.

And so much has happened in that too short amount of time. Nolan turned 2, Clara turned 6, I turned *cough-cough-cough27cough-cough*, Oliver started sitting, got his first teeth, finally rolls over, eats normal food, Josh um...got a haircut? Anway, the point is, I'm a big slacker for not documenting the milestones in my family more diligently.

This is another attempt to ease my guilt and acknowledge, in a more permanent form than my memory, the things that I want remembered.

This is Oliver back in December when he was still a limp noodle. This outfit still fits him because he's still puny. He's just more physically capable.

This is Nolan when he still had beautiful blonde locks. Now they're kind of dingy brown. He looks a little high here, but I assure you he's not.

This cake was not for Clara. She has this thing where she insists on getting her picture taken with every cake that I remember to take a picture of. Kind of cute, but mostly just stressful. I don't want her to ruin the cake. She could cough on it, accidentally bump it, trip and smash her face into it...that kind of thing.

And whatever big sissy does, Nolan has to do too. That's even worse. He wouldn't accidentally bump it. He'd intentionally dig out a big chunk and shove it down his throat.

This is Nolan's quick birthday cake. He insisted on Diego after seeing the other Diego cake. I wanted to try out the topsy turvy style, so we compromised. I did the topsy turvy cake and he got a Diego candle thrown on top. :) Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of Nolan on his birthday. Josh just took video. I haven't figured out how to add those yet.

The aftermath.

Christmas Eve was a couple days later and Nolan was Joseph. Unfortunately, he had just received a toy gun as a gift. Wouldn't put the thing down. So instead of a Joseph vibe, he kind of sent out the pasty white terrorist vibe.

That candy filled cane looks menacing too.

Clara was an angel. Without a gun.

The whole holy group awaiting certain destruction from Joseph the Terrible.

Seriously. Look at that face. Does he look like he's joking?

We came home and put the kids to bed. This was the pile of crap under the tree that would soon be an even bigger pile of garbage and toys the next morning.

This is the kids opening their presents. There aren't a lot of pictures, because Josh likes the camcorder thing, but ain't they cute?

Moving on from Christmas...a couple of months ago, this was the morning tradition for Nolan and Ollie, after we sent Clara off to school. Nolan would squish himself into Oliver's blanket and they'd watch morning cartoons together.

Next comes Clara's sixth birthday. She had a cupcake themed party, they played musical chairs, smashed a pinata, and decorated cupcakes. Fun was had by all, reflected in the giant mess afterwards.

This was the top of her cupcake tower. Fancy.

Pin the cherry on the cupcake. I painted it. That's right.

An example of the delicate treatment my children get when in the hands of a loving uncle.

President's Day! I love it.

This is the first picture I have of Oliver sitting by himself. He still flops over occassionally, but he's so strong!

Nolan being innovative with the jumpy thing.

See? Look how dingy brownish blonde his hair is now. Oh, and the nose picking thing. That's new too.

How handsome.

This is their new ritual. Oliver won't lay down now that he knows how to sit up, so they just sit together on the love sac and watch morning cartoons.

And that is all, my friends. All I had the time or patience for anyway. Until next time...

Mom Brain

2009-12-02T08:30:00.000-08:00

I've got it bad. Real bad. Its a curious thing, mom brain. The anti nausea portion of the brain seems to deplete the common sense sector. I have been puked on peed on, pooped on and slobbered on, all without blinking. I wipe the offending fluid off and continue on with life. Second nature.

BUT I can't think anymore. Its a big problem considering I have three kids. As of yet, I haven't forgotten any of them. Not when it mattered anyway. I did once leave the baby in the car, but my sweet husband was there to gently remind me "ARE YOU CRAZY? THE BABY COULD DIE OUT THERE! WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?" Case in point. I wasn't thinking. I just can't, its too hard.

Example 1: I walk in to the house with the baby, the diaper bag and a bowl of egg salad. I hang the diaper bag up, take the baby upstairs and put the highly perishable egg salad away. Everything looks good. Until the next day when I go to the cupboard to grab my kids a healthy fruit leather snack. A cupboard in which lies my highly perishable egg salad. All nice and perished.

Example 2: Cash. Josh went to the bank and took out some money for me to go shopping on Black Friday so I wouldn't spend too much. I tend not to keep track (mostly because I know if I do, it just won't be as much fun). So I have that stash of cash. I also babysit my niece, she paid me in cash also. I remember putting the babysitting money on the kitchen counter downstairs. So its not the best place to put money, but I knew where I put it, which is one step ahead of the norm. The BF money I recall placing on the microwave. Vividly. I get ready to go shopping and I think I know where all this cash is. I go to the microwave, nothing. I go downstairs to the kitchen counter, nothing. I ransack the house, dig through hampers, shuffle through junk drawers and non junk drawers, look under, in and over the couch, double check everything, stick my hand in my pocket and pull out the babysitting money. Celebrate quietly, grab my purse to ensure its safety, put my hand in and pull out the BF money. Celebrate much more quietly as to not tip off my husband of my insanity and unify the money in one big safe wad.

Such is my life. Always.

Which brings me to my latest excuse for the large expanse of time between blog posts. I forgot I had a blog. Can't post in a blog you don't have now can you? Okay, I jest, I'm not that crazy yet. Just a little slower than usual.

Pictures!

Pics by Tina, Oliver at three months. Adorable.

Oliver passed out on the boppy. Those things DO look comfy.Cozy baby.Nolan and his little bro. Look at that color difference!All my sweeties.Happy boy!The boys.Ollie at the computer, his favorite spot.Nolan's black eye. It got so much worse, sad I didn't get a picture. I searched high and low for a picture of Clara without messy hair. This was the closest I came. I really do do her hair every morning. Super cute. She just destroys it in a matter of minutes. She's cute anyway.

I have a new kid!

2009-09-06T10:31:00.000-07:00

His name is Oliver James. He was born on August 5th (during the day sometime). He was three weeks early, 6lbs even, 19 3/4 inches long. Such a pretty little baby! Although he's one month now and not quite as little as before. He's getting so chubby. I love it when they're chubby.

We've been adjusting to the new change pretty well. He sleeps on my lap all day while I do my data entry. Besides the fact that he's a little human heater and I sweat like a pig the whole time, it works pretty well. I just keep telling myself the cooler weather is coming. The weatherman says otherwise, but I dare to dream. It can't be that far off.

Clara has started kindergarten. I was sad at first, but I really like only having two kids at home for a couple hours a day. It reminds me of the good old days. We all get up and ready to walk her to school in the morning. Its the only excercise I've been getting lately, and its really nice in the morning. Best part of the day.

Other than that, things have kind of been business as usual. Oh, besides the introduction of cake balls into my life. They're fabulous. My most recent experiment was mint brownie cake balls. Um, delicious. I want to try making a caramel apple kind and key lime pie, and maybe even a cheesecake. I'm making myself hungry. AND the best part is that they're gluten free and still delightful. Josh can actually eat them. And when he's happy, I'm happy. Sometimes. Anyway, they're good, trust me.

Tina Miera took these beautiful pictures of Oliver when he was 9 days old.

Oliver's first bath at home. He was so chill!Clara's first day of school. She was so excited! So was Nolan. I had to drag him out of the classroom when we dropped her off. He was pretty miffed.Soccer cake in buttercream. Do you have any idea how hard it is to frost a circle smooth? Pretty hard.And this is Nolan showing off his knowledge of sounds

Found it!

2009-07-21T10:42:00.000-07:00

I know, its been a while again, but my camera is in working order now, so I'm a photo snapping fool at the moment. I'm sure my new found appreciation for my camera will spark my blogging urges for at least a week or so. Its been a crazy ride getting here though.

We went to the zoo the week of the 4th for the free military day thing. Josh loves the zoo. You might categorize it as a bit obsessive even. Its really not for the kids that he goes. Part of his obsession is taking pictures of EVERYTHING there. That's a problem when you're camera's not functioning. We were missing our battery charger. We looked everywhere a million times each and nothin. Finally the day we went to the zoo, we really tore the house apart and found the charger. Don't remember where we found it, but it was recovered. Only to realize the battery wasn't in the camera.

Looked everywhere for that too. Now, I have two kids. They like to relocate things. Clara puts everything in her purses, Nolan puts things in the toybox (except toys) and the garbage. I've found my phone in the garbage can and the recycling bin. Luckily it rings, unlike a battery. So we couldn't find it and we ended up going without a camera. We decided to go again the next day with Papa, Jessica and Laura. We looked everywhere again and we couldn't find it. It was a good zoo day, but there's no proof. It will be forgotten in a year or two and there's nothing I can do about it. I guess I'm writing about it now, but its not photographic proof. I could be lying.

Anyway, I assume its been trashed and its sitting in a pile of things kids throw away that they shouldn't at the dump. I break down and decide to just buy a new one. We go to the store, locate the battery for our camera, turn around and walk right back out without the battery. It was 50something bucks. I don't think so. I'm finding that battery or buying a crappy new camera. So we go home and look again. At this point I've found all the lids to my lipgloss that have mysteriously disappeared, my gymbucks (hadn't expired yet!), every insurance card I've misplaced, my wedding ring, Nolan's missing pajamas, and an old apple. Helpful, but not what I was looking for.

So since the store was ridiculous, I go to ebay. We got a phone battery on there a while back for $1. I find our battery for ten, including shipping. Halleluia. I can handle ten. I buy it, we get it in the mail and I'm free to take any old picture I want. A couple days later, what should show up but our battery. In the drawer Josh swore he put it in, but couldn't find it in. It was there. The whole time. So now we have two batteries, should one elude us again.

And now for pictures.

I would have awesome zoo pictures, had my dreams been realized. Since they weren't these are pretty random.

Instead, this is Clara with awesome braids in her hair. I did them yesterday, she played, went to bed, took a bath and they look the same. I love them very much and will make her keep them in until her hair starts looking crusty.

Here's Nolan getting his camera time. Just being cheesy and bald as always.

Here's a little addition to that, he's being cheesy bald and princessy here.Again, when I take a picture of one, I must take a similarly themed picture of the other.And I can finally take pictures of my cakes. I don't even know how many I've missed out on. Luckily I can't remember or the regret might keep me up at night.

I would post a picture of myself at 36ish weeks along, but quite frankly, its not a pretty picture, this is my third child and I really don't want to remember being massively bloated and swollen in 100 degree weather. And there are none. I'm going to keep it that way. The proof will be in the child, who's name we haven't agreed upon yet.

Oh, and anyone who has tried to look up my website and has been depressed for the two months its been down, I'm here to ease your pain. I put up a little blog with my cake pics on it until I get my new website up and running. Its justeatitcakes.blogspot.com. You're welcome!

Wassup!?

2009-05-21T22:02:00.000-07:00

Yeh, we're still alive.

I'd apologize, but then I'd just sound redundant, so I'll skip that part.

Many goins' on have been goin on in our household and I've been too busy/lazy/crazy to post about them. But here, I'll try to sum up the last few months in a somewhat normal sized nutshell.

Where did I end off? Like March or something. So there've been a lot of new people in my kid's lives. Well, really only brand new in Nolan's life, but like new in Clara's. My sister and brother both returned from their missions. Laura, the sis, came back from California, Sacramento, ASL speaking, and Daniel from Madrid, Spain, Finnish speaking. Ha, just kidding, Spanish speaking. They've both jumped right back into real life rather quickly and the kids hit it off with them both like they'd never been gone. Only Clara likes Laura now. See, she used to hate her. Now Nolan hates her. At least she has the affection of one of em.

And the birth of my cousin's son adds to the new people. His name is Ethan and he lives in my basement (with his mom, she didn't just leave him down there to fend for himself). Nolan finally touched him willingly for the first time yesterday. We've tried to get him to pat him softly many times before. Want him to be well practiced for his new brother, and why not work through the bumps with a kid that's not mine? He would just ball up his fist and pull his hand away so we'd end up forcing him to rub his head with the back of his unusually large 17 month old hands. But yesterday he was rubbing his head (with is palm) and then possessively grabbing him away from Clara. That's when we had to take a little break to talk about being soft.

We're in for it with this one, I tell you. He's so incredibly sweet and conniving that he gets away with just about everything. He has the prettiest eyes and he opens them up so wide and sincerely and hugs so tight and pats my cheeks that I forget why I was mad at all. Its not a good thing. Especially with this new one coming. He's going to be J-E-A-L-O-U-S. Guess he'll just have to get used to it.

And Clara, we've finally enrolled her in kindergarten and its killing me. I'm so scared for her. She's so innocent and genuinely good that I think it'll all be ruined or she'll get bullied for it. I hope for neither and that all the kindergarten kids believe that Santa is real, no matter what their parents tell them, and that cops are there just to find you when you're lost, and Jesus is watching you from Heaven. Oh, and that Dora is the most awesome television show ever. AAAAAAAHHHH!!!

Anyway, like I said, I've been a little busy, hence the blog neglect. I finally got a job from home that I THOUGHT would make my life a little less hectic, but nay. I'm probly busier than ever. And I still need to find time to excercise and do extracurricular activties for the cultivating of my children's social skills (and mine). No such luck yet. Although I do start off everyday with the putting off of an early morning shower reflecting my intention to work out. That's how I show my committment. Unfortunately, the only thing it results in is not getting decent until about 1 oclock. Anyone who comes to the door before then gets an eyeful of my bathrobe, bed head and smudged mascarra. Nah, I'm not a frumpy mom. Not a chance.

Yup, that's my exciting life in a nutshell. Hopefully pics will come soon, when I find the time and energy to find the time and energy to find my camera's battery charger.

Holy Cake!

2009-03-18T12:58:00.000-07:00

I asked for it. I knew what was coming. I saw it happening, and yet, I still agreed to it.

I was on the committee planning the stake women's conference. That's all. It was going so well. Then they found out I did cakes. I had to miss a couple of meetings to teach my cake decorating classes. They wanted wedding cakes for decoration. It all fit together so perfectly. They asked me to make 4 wedding cake centerpieces (styrofoam decorated like a cake) a few weeks before the event. If I was an organized person, it would have been (pardon the pun) cake. Since they're styrofoam, I could have started the next day. I could have spread out the work.

Could have, didn't. I had a REAL wedding cake order for the day before too. So in short, I decorated 5 wedding cakes within one week. I worked 20 hours, ran to the store about a hundred times for supplies I ran out of or forgot, I taught a cake decorating class, took my daughter to the dentist, cleaned the kitchen 5 times a day (didn't do any good) and babysat my niece. It was insane.

They turned out nicely though. Look! I'm happy they asked me to do it, really. I had so much fun. If only I had 5 paying wedding cakes a week. I could quit my job and actually have time to do them. I needed some more cakes for my wedding portfolio. Most of the cakes I do are birthday or other special occasions. Not usually wedding cakes. People just don't get married as much as they get birthdays. Shame. So anyway, here they are. They're pretty boring colorwise. They wanted them to all be white, and I agreed. They're nice though.

The first one is the "real" wedding cake and the rest are the displays.

This is a Godzilla birthday cake I made last month for a baby's first birthday. I guess his nickname was Godzilla.The nastiness that is my son. Every time we eat. Every time. No joke. He takes whatever he has and wipes it all over his head. In this case, oatmeal. Terrible photo though. But you can still see the nastiness through the blurriness.This is him all cleaned up. A heartbreaker, I tell you.My darling daughter, getting her share of camera time.And this last bunch is from sledding on President's day. Every year, we have a little family reunion in Logan. We go to the cheese factory and fill up on the cheese and ice cream. Then we illogically go picnicking in 20 degree weather. We chatter and freeze and then go sledding. Clara, Nolan and I slept all the way home. Poor Josh had to suffer awake to keep us all alive. I think it was worth it.

We didn't even start sledding until an hour after Nolan's naptime. He was sooooo tired! We would send him down the hill and he would just sit there. Exactly like that. Not moving a muscle. It was so funny.

Clara had the best time of all. She even carried the sled up by herself a couple of times.

Strawberry Kiwi Lobster

2009-02-15T11:50:00.000-08:00

That's right. Strawberry kiwi lobster. Problem? Yeah, its gross. Let me tell you how it happened.

We didn't have anything planned for Valentine's Day. I had to work, Josh had to work (liar), it was just going to be another day. We already talked about gifts and such. We weren't going to get each other anything, we were going to go to Hale Centre Theatre in March when the Phantom of the Opera is playing. That would be our Valentine Date.

Apparently I was the only one who got the message. I went out to my car to go to work and the whole thing was turned into a giant Valentine. There were window stickers all over, balloons, chocolates, flowers, a big gaudy card. It was really sweet. I told him I almost cried and that the one thing that would have put me over the edge would have been if he had actually written in the card. Guys.

So I go to work, planning to stop somewhere on my way home and grab him something. I'd already got him a card, but it was looking pretty cheap comparatively. I was scheduled to get off at 9, but they made me stay later. So late that Josh was calling me, telling me to come home. I didn't get out of work until 11, and I THOUGHT Josh had to go to work at 2:30, so I decided he'd rather spend a little time with me on Valentine's Day than have me go searching for something befitting such a wonderful husband.

I drive home, hoping to get a few precious moments with my family. When I get there, he surprises me by announcing that he has the day off. I was happy, but feeling bad that I didn't get him anything, so I go in the kitchen and grab a piece of jerky, left over from Clara's snack the other day, and a reese's. That was my gift to him. Economically savvy, I like to call it.

We still didn't do much of anything the whole day, just kind of cleaned and hung out. Oh yeah. The nap. We took a family nap. It was the greatest gift anyone has ever given me. Nolan went to bed, CLARA went to bed (never happens), Josh slept on the couch and I had a peaceful siesta in my own bed. 2 hours. Nice. Then we went to my Grandma's house for her birthday. She gave us her delicious caramel apple cake. I don't know why she feels the need to make her own birthday cake, but I'm glad she did. It was delicious.

Then more sugar at my mom's house where she had a bunch of gluten free sugar cookies for us to eat and the kids to decorate. They were good and reminded me of the old days when I used to decorate Valentine cookies for my friends.

We toyed around with the idea of going out to eat as a family, but decided it was too risky with sick kids and the potentially massive lines. Home cooked meal it was. We went to Harmons to get some ingredients, but I forgot my recipes at home. I'd wanted shrimp scampi, but Josh wanted lobster and we've never made lobster before so I said we could just use that in place of the shrimp. $28! That stuff is expensive and it was on SALE! It would have normally been $40.

It was fun figuring out how to cook it. We ended up steaming it and then shredding it up for the spaghetti. The only bad part was the (I assume) lobster poop. That stuff was nasty. I got it all out though, I think. Then I made the sauce. It was a moment of complete moronism. The recipe called for white wine. When something calls for white wine, I usually just put in apple juice (for a sweeter recipe) or chicken broth ( for something more savory). Don't ask me why I didn't have chicken broth pop into my head. Lobster spaghetti isn't exactly a sweet dish. But for some reason, I was stuck on subbing in apple juice. Only I didn't have any. All I had was orange juice and kiwi strawberry juice. The first ingredient in kiwi strawberry juice is apple juice. So I figured it would be okay. So I dumped it in. 3 minutes later, the lobster was bright pink and all fruity smelling. Not so good with butter, garlic and lemon. No. Not so good.

Josh was sweet and choked it down, I gobbled mine right up and am eating the leftovers as I type. Its still gross. Clara would only eat the noodles and Nolan wasn't having any of it. Ah well. Now I know that strawberry kiwi lobster spaghetti is not something I want to make again. The salad was good though. New ingredients there too. It had fennel, which smells fabulously like black licorice, and pancetta (Italian bacon). It all worked together really well, so I'm glad something turned out.

After the whole dinner mess, we decided to dip strawberries in chocolate as a family. Clara had a ton of fun and they were to die for. I ate almost a whole pan myself. So good! And then we watched our DVR'd episodes of Monk and Psych. Funny stuff. We put Clara to bed, Josh flipped to the travel channel, and I spent the rest of the night decorating a Wall-E cake. It was a good day.

And now for some random pictures. These are pictures of Clara by Tina. She decided to redo Clara's pics after we had our family pictures taken. They turned out cute!

Cakes I made this weekend. The first one is R2D2, made out of fondant and the second is a Wall-E cake, also molded out of fondant. They were fun!

And finally, my first scrapbook page in literally at least a year and a half. This is the debut of Nolan into my scrapbook. First page with him ever. Not my favorite page, it has my ugly handwriting on it and its too florally, but I'm glad I finally did one. Hopefully I can keep it up.

Bitter Sweet Symphony

2009-02-12T07:34:00.000-08:00

1. Put your music library on shuffle.
2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
3. YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG TITLE DOWN NO MATTER HOW SILLY IT SOUNDS!
4. Tag 10 friends who might enjoy doing this. Post a comment on their blog that says "You've been tagged! See my blog for details."
1) IF SOMEONE SAYS, "IS THIS OKAY," YOU SAY?
When Sould Meets Body
2) WHAT WOULD BEST DESCRIBE YOUR PERSONALITY?
Bite My Tongue
3) WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GUY/GIRL?
Moondance
4)HOW DO YOU FEEL TODAY?
Sugar We're Goin Down
5) WHAT IS YOUR LIFE'S PURPOSE?
Another One Bites The Dust
6) WHAT IS YOUR MOTTO?
American Woman
7) WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR PARENTS?
Tight Wad Hill
8) WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT VERY OFTEN?
Have You Ever
9) WHAT IS 2+2?
High Voltage
10) WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR BEST FRIEND?
Thriller
11) WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
Independent Woman
12) WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY?
Do You Really Want To Hurt Me?
13) WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?
Earth to Bella
14) WHAT DO YOU THINK WHEN YOU SEE THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
Livin' On a Prayer
15) WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU?
Under Pressure
16) WHAT WILL YOU DANCE TO AT YOUR WEDDING?
Wish You Were Here.
17) WHAT WILL THEY PLAY AT YOUR FUNERAL?
Frosty The Snowman
18) WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY/INTEREST?
Exploder
19) WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST SECRET?
The Last Song
20) WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS?
If
21) WHAT WILL YOU POST THIS AS?
Bitter Sweet Symphony

I tag Ashlee.

Cute Lil Fig!

2009-02-09T15:51:00.000-08:00

I've been having some minor complications with my pregnancy so I've been really anxious to see if everything was going smoothly. I had my first doctor's appointment today. Normally I would go earlier but nobody's schedules matched up so 11 weeks it is.

So we woke the kids up, got them all ready and took them to my mom's (thank heaven for her) and then took off to the doc's. I'm so glad Josh comes with me to my appointments. I've had so many of them in my pregnancy history and personally, I'm sick of them, so I can't imagine what he's going through. But he's my health advocate. If he didn't come, I wouldn't know or remember what questions to ask. I probably wouldn't even know my due date. So thankfully, he's willing to suffer through them. Actually, he generally sleeps through them until the important parts. But that's good enough for me.

We got there a little late, because everytime I have any sort of appointment at the U, it snows. Literally every time. Its gotta stop soon. Traffic was horrible, the roads were slick, but we made it within ten minutes of the appointment and went right in to the ultrasound room. That's when I saw the cute little wiggly fig. It was moving all around, bouncing, floating, rolling. Aww. The tech made sure to point out the little healthy heartbeat and measurements. They were right on at 11 weeks, 3 days. They did diagnose me with a bicornuate uterus. Finally.

I've been told that they think I might have one by every single person that's ever had the high honor of looking upon my uterus. Finally they saw enough evidence in this ultrasound to diagnose it. The doctor's have told me that they can't figure out why I have miscarriages. No reason, just fate. Well, bicornuate fate. Here's a little anatomy lesson. My uterus looks like a sweet little heart. There are two sides. One is a little bigger than the other. If the baby is implanted into the smaller half, miscarriage will likely ensue, because it doesn't expand as well as a "normal" uterus. Luckily, this time, and apparently with my other two children, I managed to squeeze them into the larger half. And there you have it. Mystery solved.

I'm just relieved to know that the baby's doing well and everything's right on track for my horrible summer pregnancy. I will never stop complaining about that. Yes, I know, its my fault, but still. I'm going to die.

So on the way home, Josh and I witnessed a car accident. We stopped and Josh went over and made a statement to the police. We were in the far left lane, there was a dump truck in the center lane, just ahead of us and a silver SUV pulled out of the 7-11, onto the street and went to far. She clipped the dump truck and her light went flying off. It was kind of funny because she called the police and reported a hit and run. The dump truck had pulled off just a little further down and had his hazards on and everything. I don't know how she didn't see him. She was probably just trying to get her insurance to think it wasn't her fault. But as soon as she realized he had stayed, she decided not to file a report. The dump truck guy did though. Haha.

Family Pictures

2009-01-31T13:57:00.000-08:00

Dang. Its been another month. Well at least it hasn't been a year. Yet. So we've had a crazy month.

It was my birthday and then Clara's birthday (I'll post pics later), then we got family pictures taken and Nolan had surgery. We're poor. S'all good though, cuz we have luv. Right?

I'm going to be a little random, my kids won't play with eachother. Its really annoying. Okay, that's probably not true, CLARA won't play with Nolan and he's terrible to entertain without her. She's been going to her room like a hermit and shutting the door. Insisting on playing ALONE. She will not let her pesty little brother in. She won't come out and play with him. I just yelled "Clara, open your door! I didn't have two kids so that they could play alone."

So I'm kind of forcing her to play with him. She'll end up resenting me for it. Until she has kids of her own. Or maybe I'm just mean and she'll let her kids play by themselves.

But I gotta post, and how am I supposed to do that when I have a bored little 13 month old grabbing at the keyboard? Exactly.

So, back to the family pictures. Tina took them. She's amazing. I'm really happy with how they turned out and I can't wait till I get my taxes back so I can fix up my family room and hang them all "cute-like".

We made her take them in her studio because we just HAD to get them done in January when its frigid out. Um, because I'm PREGGO and I wanted to get family pictures with Nolan, AND before I got all fat. er.

I'm about 9ish weeks along, I think. I have my first appointment on the 9th, so we'll find out for sure then. So this shall be an August/September baby. Generally I would be appalled at that, seeing as I'll be most pregnant in the wretched summer days. Blah summer. BUT as long as its not a December/January baby, I AM HAPPY! I already can't do up my pants. I'm walking around with my pants unbuttoned because I refuse to wear maternity clothes this early. I haven't gained any weight either, so I know its not just because I'm eating too much. Which I am, but I'm pregnant and breastfeeding, give me a break! I'm like a bottomless pit. Anywho, enjoy our pictures. I did! Oh, and HERE's a slideshow of our pics too.

Random Act of Kindness

2008-12-30T16:38:00.000-08:00

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!

2008-12-22T13:23:00.000-08:00

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

2008-10-31T10:15:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-10-30T11:21:00.000-07:00

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.

2008-10-29T21:21:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-10-06T16:19:00.000-07:00

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

2008-09-22T15:36:00.000-07:00

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.

2008-09-05T11:37:00.000-07:00

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

2008-09-02T21:26:00.000-07:00

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

2008-08-27T18:04:00.001-07:00

**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.

Mama's Going to Knock You Out, HUH!

2008-08-16T15:03:00.000-07:00

Josh always says that I had a deprived childhood. I'm thinking, "I had food, clothes, toys, all that stuff, I didn't feel deprived. I think you're the one who had the deprived childhood." But he insists because I don't know one New Kids on the Block Song, or because I never got to enjoy Guns n Roses in their prime, that I was deprived.

He sings this LL Cool J song all the time. "Mama said knock you out, I'm gonna knock you out." Something like that. Clara has picked up on it, only she says "Mama's going to knock you out, huh". Its pretty funny.

Anyway, I have a really busy week as far as cakes go. FIVE! I barely have time to think. My poor kids are going to think back on THEIR deprived childhood if this keeps up. It wouldn't be so bad if I wasn't working too. So two down, three to go. Here's some pics!

I donated a gift certificate worth $50 of cake to Salt Lake City Mommies for their annual auction a few months ago and the winner cashed it in with this cute Luau cake for her daughter's first birthday. It was so fun to make! I love the kind of "scene" cakes.

This one was for my favorite photographer, Tina. Well, for her daughter. She's getting married in Vegas and Tina wanted to get a cake for her. She's driving it all the way out there in a cooler! I really hope it makes it!!! We traded for this one. She gave me some more images from our last photo session. SO CUTE!

Image Overload

2008-08-11T19:38:00.000-07:00

Weeeeellll, I finally uploaded all of my pictures from the camera and I'm afraid what we have here is an image overload. I apologize if this is all too much to take in but I must post!

First thing's first! The 24th of July. Yes, I know that was almost a month ago but better late than never. We camped out! It was the first time we've ever done anything so crazy stupid and now we can't stop. We made camp at 2nd and 2nd, with my aunt and other random family members. It was really fun. Didn't get much sleep though. Two or three hours. We were up till two trying to put up a canopy that my grandpa was so kind to offer to us. No instructions and you would think the numbers would go chronologically. No. It was like 1, 4, 7, 2...... All screwed up. Josh finally got it up and we all flopped down on our air mattress. Cushy. I really think it would have been okay had a streetlamp not been directly above us. That messed Nolan up and when he thinks it's morning, there's no quieting him.

A couple of weeks later or so, Josh finally had a weekendd off and I was about to start my little summer job, so we decided to take advantage of our precious time together and go camping. I think it was Little Cottonwood at this really cute camp site. There was this bubbling tiny little safe stream that went by and we saw the skinniest deer ever.

Clara and Josh played swords with their roasting sticks.

We packed up our tent and went to the lake afterwards to meet my parents with their little rowboats. Nolan loved his floaty plane my parents bought.

Nolan's poor eye! I guess I got some sun screen in it. Oops.

Time for the first big family reunion of the month. This was my mom's side of the family. I don't have a picture of the whole group because everyone was at different camp sites and it was hard to get all the people together. It was really fun though. We were there Thursday, Friday and Saturday. It was at Wasatch State Park and it was a little crazy for me because Josh didn't get the time off so he was there during the day, but had to leave at night for work. Lots of driving for him but I'm glad he made the effort!

And finally, Clara and I got our hair cut today! Mine looks pretty much the same and cost twice as much as hers, but she LOVES her new hair. Josh, this is the surprise I was referring to. Isn't it cute? She's so grown up. :( & :)

Stupid Blog!

2008-08-04T07:05:00.000-07:00

I typed out this big ole story about the answer to the question in the last entry and it got deleted right about as I was to publish it. Stupid blog!
Anyway, to sum it all up, I went to carriescakes.com and saw that she was looking for a master decorator. It was a month ago that she posted that so I wasn't sure if she'd filled the position or not. I emailed her to see if she was still looking and she said no, but she wanted some help during the busy summer weeks. I took it! That's way better than a permanent job. I just want to learn some more stuff. She teaches classes for $650 for 3 days and this way, I'm learning it all and she's paying me! I don't know how much she's paying me, but its got to be something.
I don't care though, I'd do it for free. She's the best cake decorator in Utah. I started on Saturday and it was awesome. I learned so much more than I could dream of and that was in one day. Woohoo!

To Take the Edge Off

2008-08-02T04:53:00.000-07:00

This post is to take the edge off of Stephanie's boredom. I'm afraid I don't have time to ease it completely, so this will have to do!
I'm sitting at the computer at 5:53am. This should tell you something about me. I am NOT a morning person, so clearly, I'm going somewhere.
I'm also very excited as I sit and I'm up much earlier than is absolutely necessary so its got to be somewhere cool.
I'm bringin a lunch with me and I pumped so Nolan would have milk, so it has to be a significant amount of time that I'll be away.
I'm both sad and happy that this will be pretty much an everyday thing for the next two months.
I'm VERY nervous. I'm going to learn a lot but I don't want to screw anything up. This is important stuff.
Any guesses as to where I'm going this morning?

She's Good

2008-07-26T16:22:00.001-07:00

I have found the photographer of my dreams. I'm addicted. When Nolan was two months old, Tina Miera was advertising a special for babies. I got a really good deal on pics so I decided to try it out. The pictures turned out soooo cute! Then I went again three months later. Same thing! Sooo cute! She keeps getting me with these really good deals and I can't stay away. Two months later I did it again, except we got Clara in them too. They are amazing. This is what I see in my kids everyday and she just captures it so perfectly and presents it so everyone else can see it. They're adorable!

That One Parade

2008-07-23T18:06:00.000-07:00

Its been too long again and everything is all jumbled together in my head and I don't know what came first and what I'm forgetting so I have to rely on my few and far between pictures! I really want my brain back.

So we went up to Millcreek Canyon with some friends for dinner and mallows. Josh was at work so I brought the kids up my self. It was really fun! Perfect weather too. Clara was loving and was really mad that we had to go.

I think it was the next day that Clara was in that one parade. Saturday. I didn't go because I double booked myself AGAIN. I had to teach a cookie bouquet class. I made several bouquets and then sold them all that day. None if which I took a picture of. They were pretty cute but they kept falling off the sticks. Dumb cookies. Anyway, back to that one parade. So Clara was in the parade and she had her name on the float and everything. I don't know why she's freaking out in this picture where she found her name, but she is. She also tired out really quickly and bummed a ride off of someone who had a stroller. She's very convincing.

We were invited to a birthday party at the Herriman Splash Pad and I made the cake for it. It was fun to do. I got to use my airbrush again to paint the water and the rock. Its so cool! I'm so glad Josh bought it for me.

Stay tuned!!

Transformation!

2008-07-16T13:59:00.000-07:00

I have a problem with yard work. My problem is that its really hot outside, there's ants and spiders and stuff, you have to get up early in the morning, it makes you all sweaty and stinky. The usual. This year was different though. I was really excited about my yard and garden and I thought, for some reason, that all that aforementioned stuff wouldn't bother me. So we planted our beautiful garden. It wasn't long before our lovely source of nourishment looked like this:

I ruined it! I just couldn't get out there often enough. I tried a few times but the mass of weeds was so overwhelming that it didn't make a dent. I'd pretty much given into the thought that I'd never be able to grow a decent garden. Here comes my mom and sister to the rescue! I normally wouldn't accept that kind of help because that's just the way I am, but they presented it to me so nicely.

Josh wants a beautiful garden just as much as I do, if not more. His birthday is coming up in a week or so and he can never decide what he wants. Its like pulling teeth to get him to pick something for his birthday. So my mom says that they want to revive our garden as a birthday present to Josh. How can I say no to a present? So I accept. We helped of course, but they really did the vast majority of the work. I'm so relieved! It looks beautiful! There were a few casualties and its a little bare but I think we'll actually be able to get some food out of it.

Moving on, I desperately needed a shower the other day and Nolan was sleeping. Perfect timing. Right as I was about to jump in, he inevitably wakes up. So I put Clara in the crib with him to "babysit" while I quickly got clean. It was cute!
Nolan decided that he's a big boy. I can't put him in his hamper next to the pool anymore. Too dangerous. I put him there while I weed so he feels like he's playing in the water with Clara. It works really well. Until the other day. He pulled himself up and tried to jump into the pool with Clara. I can't wait till the day that he breaks his first bone. I really hope Josh is around or I'll completely freak out, I'm sure.

He's so dang cute! I just wish I could get him to smile for the camera.
And finally, we have a cat. Sort of. It actually belongs to the neighbors but that cat loves our yard for some reason. Maybe its because he thinks he's a tiger and our yard is more "jungly" than our neighbors! Clara loves it! They chase eachother around and play fight constantly. Its really cute.

Cake and Boating

2008-07-11T22:09:00.000-07:00

Its been too long! I have had so many things going on and I can't remember what I wanted to post. So I'm going to have to go by my pictures.

We had a fun Fourth, but no pics. Sorry. I'm bad. The day before, however, we went boating. We have a family reunion at the beginning of August and my parents bought these blow up row boats for it. Of course we had to try them out first to make sure they were sea, or at least reservoir, worthy.

They were! It was tons of fun. I put a tiny little life vest on Nolan and he just sucked on that thing like it was a binky. Better than a binky though because he's never taken one of those. So this was neato. We went to Jordanelle and rowed out to a little island thing. He slept on the bottom of the boat all the way there and then woke up for the way back. That boy was SLATHERED in sunscreen. He's so white I'm afraid he'll burn to a crisp if I don't load him up.

Clara loved it too. She kept trying to lean out of the boat and nearly fell several times. She was a little weird about that. Not scared at all about falling out of the boat but she wouldn't take her feet off the bottom for a second when she was playing close to shore.

Ferrin! What a crazy kid! As you can see (he's the one in the back of the van) he has a sling on. He went to youth conference and the first day he was there (Monday,his BIRTHDAY!) he was playing basketball and two members of the stake presidency, who shall remain nameless, clotheslined him. He passed out, broke his collarbone and had a seizure! They called an ambulance and sent him to the hospital. They called my mom from the Logan hospital and explained everything. He then insisted on going back to youth conference after he got released. My mom agreed and he came back on Wednesday. Nutso.

And for my final picture...CAKE! My cousin, Angela, got married this week and I made the cake for her reception. It was beautiful. I'm not bragging. I just think the flowers were gorgeous. I didn't do those. Yay for weddings!

Finally!

2008-07-02T14:19:00.000-07:00

I mean that in several ways:

Finally! We're done being sick. Everyone is healthy. Well, Clara did end up getting the flu and puking all over the house first. BUT we're done. I'm so relieved.

Finally! Both kids are asleep AT THE SAME TIME! Its so nice to be able to just sit at the computer and not worry about the boy grabbing the keyboard or Clara bugging me to get off so she can play her ABC game.

FINALLY!!! We finished Nolan's room. Yes, he's six months old. But its done. And super cute, I might add. I got his bedding off of ebay ages ago at a really good price. Adorable. So we went with the nautical theme. It just so happens that Michael's has this really cute nautical home decor line that they're, I guess, sick of. Its all on clearance. I got some really cute stuff for hardly anything. I'm so happy. He doesn't really like it all that much but we'll just have to give it some time. He kind of bangs his head viciously against the bars of his new crib when he's upset. He's too tall for the bumper pads to do anything. He'll learn soon. (Oh, the yellow isn't really THAT yellow. I just can't figure out my camera. Its a nice buttery yellow.)

When will it end?

2008-06-29T09:20:00.001-07:00

I am sick of everyone being sick! Yes, Clara has the chicken pox. I can deal with that. She doesn't even care. Then Josh gets sick on Tuesday I think. I just assumed he was being lazy. He never said he was actually sick. He really was though because he so graciously gave it to me. AT THE WORST POSSIBLE TIME!
I'm a cake decorating instructor and I have a meeting every year. They motivate, inspire, inform and just give me a TON of free stuff. I love them!!! It was on Friday. The night before I stayed up late getting everything ready. I packed it all up in the car. The next morning I woke up to go and I was soooooo sick. I'll spare you the gruesome details but I was out of comission for the day. I laid on the couch while the kids watched movie after movie. Four in a row. They were so good. We hardly ever watch TV so they just soaked it up. The only saving grace of the day.
I was completely better on Saturday. Like nothing ever touched me. But Nolan. He now has a fever. Poor little baby. Its so sad. He's extra cute though. His lips are extra red, his skin extra white and his cheeks especially pink. And he's so cuddly. But he just lays there. He's the most active baby ever and he just lays there.
Worst Possible Scenario: He has the fever for a couple more days, gives it to Clara and then gets the chicken pox.
I think that's as bad as it can get. I hope it doesn't go that far though. Best scenario: He gets rid of the fever today and Clara's chicken pox clear up by Wednesday. That would be lovely. In the mean time I'm just going to try to enjoy my baby's cuddliness and have fun with Clara at home.

Randomness

2008-06-24T13:27:00.000-07:00

I really need to post more. This is going to be really random.

Clara has the chicken pox. Again. She got them when she was 11 months old, right before she was supposed to receive the vaccine. The doctor said that having them was the same as getting the vaccine so she didn't get it. Lo and behold, she has them again. I found them on Sunday. Wanna know why? We had a family party. EVERYONE was there. There haven't been that many people since Christmas. Clara was running around playing with my younger cousins, not paying much attention to whether or not she needed to pee. So she finally realized it, ran to the bathroom and managed to make it NEARLY to the toilet. She peed all over the floor, her dress, her shoes, everything. The part was at my mom's house so I ran her home really quick and threw her in the shower. That's when a noticed a big red spot on her bum. I looked closer and realized there were alot of little red spots. Fabulous. At a family party. So we went back to the party since she'd already infected everyone to have my mom check them out. Yup. That's what they are. So hopefully no one gets them but if they do, I'M SO SORRY!!!

I guess you're contagious about a week before you break out. The day before I noticed anything we went to another party. It was the salt lake city mommies 3rd anniversary and there were TONS of kids there. I entered the cake decorating contest and, for the second year, didn't win. Its all good. I really hope they do it again next year but there weren't a lot of entries. Just three. I still didn't win. Still, all good. I forgot to take a picture of it too, of course. I think someone posted it on the SLCM site though, so maybe I'll try to get it from there. Anyway, lots of kids to infect there. Josh went. It was the first mom's activity that he's been too and all the ladies thought he was hot. I guess I got to raise my game!

Okay, you can't really see it all that well, but mine is the one with the sun on the top and the balloons on the side. The winner is the tray of mini cakes. They're cute. And in case you were trying to figure out what that first one was, its a pregnancy test.

Here's where the randomness comes in. I took a bunch of pictures because I was feeling like a bum, always forgetting so I have a lot that don't have any relevance to eachother. Just fun pictures.

Nolan was sick earlier this week. He had a yucky nose and red eyes. Sad but cute.

BUT he started feeling much better. Today he attacked this bunch of hanging bananas. Ripped them to shreds. No mercy.

Clara got this sweet doctor kit a few weeks ago but I wouldn't let her play with it because I didn't want her to lose the pieces. Anyway, I finally gave in.

This is a pic of my weedy mess of a garden. I took it with the intention of taking an after pic. Hasn't happened yet but hopefully this weekend.

And finally, the only pictures of my two weekend cakes that I remembered to take. Now you see why I'm so good.

Clara was tagged!

2008-06-18T15:35:00.000-07:00

Man this is hard! 11 things about Clara.
1. She's got gorgeously tan skin. Jealous!
2. She's a fashionista. She loves clothes, she just has a hard time putting the right stuff together sometimes.
3. She must be accecssorized! Shoes, glasses, bags, jewelry, you name it.
4. She gets destructive when she's mad. She got in trouble at the library once and then came home and ripped up one of the library books while she was in time out. $30!
5. She's one of the nicest little kids.
6. She won't fight back. Big, little, painful or not, she's a wuss. Its good though, I guess.
7. If its not pink, its not for her. She's a girl through and through.
8. She loves to be outside!! Hence her fabulous tan.
9. She LOVES her friends. She has to do something with them everyday or she drives me nuts asking about them.
10. She loves flowers. Even evil weed ones. She's always picking me dandelions and morning glories.
11. She loves baby Nolan. She loves to be eaten, slobbered on, hugged, attacked, the whole nine yards.
Clara tags Gavin, Matthias and Anna.

Nolan Was Tagged!

2008-06-18T15:21:00.000-07:00

I need to write 11 things about my strappingly handsome boy!
1. He loves sugar! The kid will eat anything sweet and spits out anything that hits below "potentially diabetic" on his sugar scale.
2. He's got huge hands and feet! They're enormous. Paws really. His feet just don't stop growing. Right now he's wearing 12-24 month socks and they're not big at all.
3. Happy, happy boy! He's always so good spirited EXCEPT
4. He loves to be held and when he's not being held when he wants to be, he's a force to be reckoned with.
5. He loves his big sister. He loves to hug her, eat her, slobber on her, rip out her hair, jump on her, spit up on her and countless other adjectives.
6. He doesn't like to sleep at all! He doesn't like missing out on all the action so his naps hardly ever last more than 20 minutes. Give me a break!
7. He is the whitest little kid ever.
8. He's always on the move, when I'm not holding him. Most of the time he goes backwards but he never stays in one place.
9.He's grabby. If anything approaches his grab zone, it ain't comin' back.
10. He's an angelic sleeper, but aren't they all?
11. He loves water! Bathing in it, playing in it, drinking it, you name it!
Nolan tags Morgan and that's about it!

Oh the fun!

2008-06-18T14:54:00.000-07:00

So, we had a busy little weekend. Saturday was spent doing the four s's. Yes, you guessed it. Singing, shopping, smacking (I'll elaborate) and sitting.
Marilyn Dymond. A sweet, more mature lady in our ward with a bit of an attitude. She's fun. She entered this Mormon Battalion song writing competition. She wrote a really cute song and needed someone to sing it so she could submit a tape. Of course she asked me, Treasa and Jamie to sing it. We're fine with going to the studio and recording. It was kind of fun. Then she has to go and make the finals. So we're forced to perform at Gardner Village. We had to dress up in pioneer garb. Just kidding. We wore jeans and black shirts. Didn't want to stick out too much. It worked too. One of the other competitors came up and asked if we were the stage hands. Jerk.
Anyway we were all nervous. We didn't want to ruin it for her, you know? I'm sorry, but even if yours is the most amazing song of all time, if William Hung sings it, its never the same. We didn't want to do that to her. It actually went really well. Unfortunately for her, everyone else's went better. We didn't win a thing. 'cept maybe a sunburn. That's okay though because it brings me to my second s.
Shopping! Josh did come watch us sing but he works day shift so he took off shortly after we were done. I had the two kids still and wanted to look around. Emily came with and we browsed the little shops for hours. We even got the kid's pictures done in the old clothes and everything. I'll probably never get around to scanning them so trust me when I say they're cute. I got a pair of super cute shoes for half off too. Hard to beat that! It was scorching hot though so we decided to call it quits and run home for a bit before the third s....
Smacking. The tennis ball around. I, with kids in tow, met up with Emily at the Hunter tennis courts. Nolan fell asleep after a while and Clara had a fun time running around with her own little racket. What a cute photo op! Too bad I didn't take any pictures, eh? By that time I was completely drained of anything even resembling energy, so we spent the rest of the evening...
Sitting. In front of the television watching Indiana Jones. Got to review before seeing the new movie! Fun day!
Father's day was okay too. Again, Josh had to work but he was home long enough to open his presents and write his talk. Thank goodness, for once, for 1 o'clock church.
Last week, the first or second councelor, came up to Josh and asked if we were going to be at church on Sunday. Josh said yes and of course they asked us to speak. I really had neither the time or motivation to write my talk during the week so it fell into place Sunday morning. I kept timing myself and it was like five minutes. I guess I just want to be a youth speaker forever. I finally got it to 13 minutes if I was really slow and rambly. Making it go that long AT church was a different story. I got it to 10 minutes. Josh was very thankful for the primary. They came up and sang a few songs in the middle of the meeting so he was only left with about 15 minutes. Its always a nerve-wracking experience. I though it went rather well though. I didn't die of a heart attack so it was good.
So that was the weekend.
I'm so horrible! Clara had a swim party today with a bunch of friends and I didn't even take pictures. SHAME on me! I'm now tying my camera to my ankle so I don't miss anything else.

Haute Couture

2008-06-11T13:18:00.000-07:00

My girl! Sometimes she amazes me with her eye for style and other times I just don't know what I've done to make her so blind to color. This lovely ensemble was picked out exclusively by her. I told her to get dressed. It was kind of cold so when she came out in shorts and a tank I told her it would be a little chilly so she needed to dress warmer. Soooo....she put on purple socks up to her knees, a purple jacket to match and a vest for who knows what. Have you seen Juno? When she was wearing just her shorts, tank, socks and head band, she really reminded me of that kid. I guess it will be a little while longer before I set her completely free to wear what she wants.

Currently she's grounded to her room until she cleans it. Its my fault really. I've been slacking off on her chore regimen the past week or two and I'm trying to get back into it. Today I'm pulling out all the stops and she's doing them, so help me. She's been in there for 2 hours and its slowly getting messier and messier. No worries. Her cousin is coming over and when she realizes that she doesn't get to play with her until her room is clean, she'll get her butt moving. I hope. Aaaah! Kids!

A Gazillion Pictures

2008-06-08T16:41:00.000-07:00

I just uploaded all the pics from the last two weeks and it looks like I'll be here a while! First things first, we went to the Church History Museum the other day. Josh and I were planning on going to the temple for the first time since the baby. He's finally able to stand not eating for a few hours. So we were all excited. I remember getting a temple interview recently so I'm not worried about the expiration date at all. I am very paranoid though, so I checked just to make sure I had it and it had expired the month before. It turns out that when I had the interview to switch over to the barcode system, they didn't change the expiration date. Our plans were foiled!

We decided the second best thing would be to spend time with the fam so we went downtown to temple square and the church buildings. We had a lot of fun! Josh works downtown so he knows all the vagrants. I got to meet one of his favorite. Her name is ....um I can't remember her name but it starts with an E. Anyway, she didn't recognize him without his suit so she asked if he had any change to spare. Then she realized who it was and started chatting. Josh says she's a nice person, just a fake and a liar. She seemed nice.

Clara loved the children's section of the church history museum. Josh knows the place well so he made a great tour guide. This is a picture of the most valuable collection in the museum. Its mints for making money. He said its worth millions.

I've also had a very busy cake week. I forgot to take a pic of my sister's graduation cake, but the other two are here. One is a wedding cake and the other is a birthday cake for a friend. They turned out pretty cute, I think!

Wowza!

2008-06-01T21:34:00.000-07:00

What a weekend! We've had all sorts of crazy things going on. Friday was spent moving Treasa and Devan out of our basement. They got an apartment in Taylorsville. I'm sure they won't miss the hobo spiders! We also moved Ashlee up into Nolan's soon to be bedroom. Oh what a mess! I'll try to explain.
Sooo....Treasa got married to Devan last April. Poor, courageous, selfless Devan was called to serve a tour of duty in Iraq for a year. Poor, courageous, selfless Treasa was left all alone. My cousin Ashlee decided she wanted a bit of a change and asked if she could move in with Treasa while Devan was gone. Perfect! So Devan comes back. They've been apart for a year and Ashlee really doesn't want to be around for that, so she's floating around for a few days before Treasa and Devan move out.
Normally Ashlee would just go back downstairs after they move out, but it just so happens that my uncle is homeless for a month. He just sold his house and bought one in Centerville but the closing dates are a month apart. Perfect timing. So my Uncle Ray and his family move into our basement with the hobos. Meanwhile Ashlee moved up to Nolan's room for the month. Nolan is still sleeping in my room.
So, as I said Friday was spent moving Treasa and Devan out and Ashlee up and Saturday was spent digging a clog out of the irrigation ditch and moving Raymond in. I guess we have about a month's break until we have to move them back out and Ashlee back down. All the while coordinating showers and laundry and dishes so as to please everyone.
OH, and our dryer broke. We have 9 people living in this house right now and our dryer's broken. Fabulous. Josh has been looking for an excuse to buy a new one anyway. He wants it to match our washer. Whatever. I would have preferred it to continue working.
And my little girl is difficult. Today she had a talk in church. I admit, I completely spaced it until this morning. But since church starts at one, we had plenty of time to prepare. It was on temples. So I helped her write a talk on temples. She had the whole thing memorized. I just had to say the first word of each phrase. So we practice before church. Perfect. We practice during sacrament meeting, before primary. Perfect. Then we go to primary. She runs in and tries to go right to the pulpit, she's so excited. Cute, right? They tell her, "no Clara, not yet honey. You need to wait until its your turn." Okay. She sits down. Then they say her name and she walks up to the microphone, I stand by her. I give her the cue, "this". Nothing. I prompt her a little more. "This is a picture...". Nothing. I look at her and she's just standing there with a decided expression on her face. Not embarassment or fear or anything of that nature. Just a look that says she's not going to say anything. We were up there so long that the primary president came up and said, "Okay Clara, you just hold the picture and your mommy will do the talk for you." So I gave her talk.
I was very irritated. She did the whole thing on purpose. After church I asked her why she wouldn't say her talk. Papa is her teacher in primary. "Papa said I was scared." "Were you?" "No, I think he forgot." "Well then, why didn't you say anything" "I didn't want to." AAAAH! Come on! Its not like she's never done it before. She was really good last time. She just didn't feel like it today. Anyway, she wasn't allowed to have her cookie ice cream. I can't wait to see what happens next time!

Finally, some time!

2008-05-28T11:37:00.000-07:00

Not much though! I had to take a trip out to Payson to get milk for everyone this morning. A few of us (my sis, mom, grandma and I) get our milk from a little dairy in Payson. It was my turn today. Lucky me. So I left at 8 and got back at 11. I had to make a little stop in Provo to pick up pictures from the baby expo too, which I will try and post soon. So my kids were more than annoyed with the car after spending three hours in it. BUT I wasn't done. I had to run to the store (because I didn't have time to show off my domestic skills) to pick up some food for a family who's mom is currently in the hospital pushing out their newest addition. Then I had to deliver it, another 40 minutes in the car. I just walked in and I'm chilling for a few minutes before the mess that is my house starts driving me totally nuts. Anyway, I have a couple cake pictures from the last week or so that I'm posting. One is a Transformer cake for Clara's little friend, Gavin, and the other is a fish cake for Baby Corben's first birthday. They were both fun to make. I love using fondant. While neither cake is covered in fondant, I used accents on both of them. The transformer cake's autobot face is a fondant cutout, as are the fish on the other cake. The top fish is also made of fondant. I have a wedding cake in just over a week that I'm really excited for too. Anyway, I can't sit here all day! I gotta get to work!

Nothin' Better To Do

2008-05-18T20:58:00.001-07:00

Haven't posted in a few days and I figured this was a slightly more productive thing to do online than browse cake websites. That's seriously one of my favorite things to do. Well, we've had a decent week. Alot going on! I almost have Nolan's bedroom finished. I'll post pictures as soon as I get it all set up. We worked so hard painting stripes on the bottom half of his wall, so when I took the tape off, I was horrified. The paint had seeped through every single piece of tape. After several weeks of opening his door and seeing that junky paint job, I've decided it looks antiqued. Really, it would take way too much effort to fix it. I like antiques. They're supposed to look messed up. Right?
We're also getting our garden going. SLOWLY. Its really hard to do alot when you have a baby and your husband's at work constantly. He is doing most of it. We have it all cleared off. Well mostly. Its much better than before. Then we still have to till (sp?) and plant. Its going to take forever! Oh, and then I have to weed it everyday and irrigate it and pick stuff and can stuff and freeze stuff and dry stuff and eat stuff (my personal favorite). Gardens are hard! Especially ones the size of an olympic swimming pool. Okay, its not that big, but its close.
I did another cake over the weekend for Gavin's birthday. One of Clara's little friends. It was Transformers. If I ever download my pictures, I'll post one. If I have a good one.
Dang. I put Nolan to bed and I have his little monitor sitting right here. He's crying. He decided he could talk today. During church, of course. He's been making these really loud noises all day long. Not crying, just this screechy noise. Just to do it. I hope its a really short phase. Josh or I took him out of potentially quiet, spiritual meetings four or five times today. Cute though.

The Zoo

2008-05-12T14:27:00.000-07:00

We went to the zoo today for Clara's friend's birthday. Josh was so excited to go even though he only got an hour of sleep. I knew the weather reports weren't warm, but I wasn't expecting the mess we ran into. It was like 38 degrees and snowing/hailing/raining when we left. We were so close to going somewhere else, but decided to wait it out. Glad we did! By the time everyone got there, the sun was shining and we could put away our umbrellas. Including the little one we bought in the gift shop for $12. Ridiculous.

We had a great time!

Busy Day!

2008-05-10T21:49:00.000-07:00

We all had such a busy day today. All doing different things. The morning started off slow for the kids and me but Josh had to get up early and go to a republican convention in Orem. He happened to stop by my parents house for a visit one day during a caucus meeting. Of course, he was nominated and is now a delegate. So he was doing his civic duty, voting in those that he thinks would be the best leaders. He got very into it. Its good to get into stuff like that. He even went up to David Leavitt and told him he was deplorable and gave his t-shirt back. Ouch. He was trying to sway the votes by supporting Cannon when he himself didn't have a chance. Anyhow, I don't reallly know a lot about that stuff, and I'd like to keep it that way. I'm just glad Josh has found something that gets him going.

So I kind of slept in a little so we ate a late breakfast. I'm posting pictures of it. Nolan just sucked this fruit dip off his hand the whole time. Kept him busy! What a mess though. I'm already noticing Josh and I are a lot more relaxed with our second child. I don't think I would have let Clara do that. I just need to make sure it doesn't get too relaxed. After breakfast Nolan and I went to a friend's wedding shower and Clara went to the dump with my dad. I hardly saw her all day! They took two trips out to the dump and she went both times. Then her cousins were visiting so I let her play while I took Nolan home for a bit. Then Josh got home and we had reservations at a nice restaurant so Jessie watched the kids. We got home at around 9:30 and put the kids right to bed. I'm pooped! Josh has to work all night and he's SUPER pooped! Tomorrow is Mother's Day and I have nothing ready. I need to make cards for my mom and grandmas. Josh will probably be sleeping all day. Clara got me a pie for Mother's Day and Josh paid for me to get a haircut and a mini pedicure. Oh, and the dinner. I actually took HIM out to dinner, but who's keeping track? Anyway, I had a good day and tomorrow will be great too. I'm so happy I'm a mom!! Its, by far, the most fulfilling thing I've done. I'm so blessed to have the opportunity.

I'm It!

2008-05-07T14:59:00.000-07:00

A: The rules of the game are posted at the beginning.
B: Each player answers the questions about themselves
C: At the end of the post, the player then tags 3 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.
1. What was I doing 10 years ago? I was 15. I was probably beating the junk out of one of my younger siblings (sorry about that!). I was in 9th grade, not the happiest time of my life.
2. What was on my to-do list for today? Plan out the front yard, sew a bedskirt, attend a playdate, clean the house, clean the yard, babysit, make many meals, work out, blah, blah, blah. I might get half of them done.
3. What would I do if I suddenly became a billionaire? I'd probably get a nice new house, I'd pay my tithing, start my business, put alot in savings or investments, donate to charities, and then I'd throw hundred dollar bills into the air and jump around in them.
4. 3 Bad habits... I'm probably on the computer too much, I still bite my nails, and I like to sing with gum in my mouth.
5. Places I have lived..... Utah, England, Mississippi.
6. Places I have worked... Allgrunn Insurance (file clerk), Tommy's Donuts (decorating donuts), CAO Group (receptionist and everything no one else wanted to do), Beehive Title (office assistant).
7. 3 Things people don't know about me....I've eaten haggis, I've been bitten by a shetland pony, I can't make a decision to save my life.
I'm going to tag Treasa, Ahlee and Stephanie!

Blech!

2008-05-04T21:13:00.000-07:00

We had a big family party today. A BIG family party. My uncle turned 50 and everyone was there. Clara was having a blast, playing with all the thousands of little kids. She wouldn't even eat her food. That's pretty normal for her. She's just too busy to be bothered. So I wasn't worried. Within 15 minutes of arriving home, I heard a "blech-ing" noise. So I walked into the front room, where she was at, to see. Puke all over my couch. Fabulous. I felt bad for her. Her little face was all green. I felt bad for me too. My green couch was all sorts of colors. So I cleaned it up and sent Josh to the store to get her some soda and crackers. Always the best part of being sick. You have to have a little happiness, right? She's sleeping next to my mopping bucket right now, just in case. I really hope it was just a little bit of an upset stomach and not a bug. Then I have to worry about cancelling playdates and babysitting, not to mention the baby. I really hate it when babies are sick.

Anyway, I made two cakes this weekend. One for a friend's mom, the other for my aforementioned uncle (50) and his son (25), combined. It was hard to find time to do it since Josh was at drill the whole time. I had some pretty late nights. I guess that's best though. No kids running around the kitchen puking on stuff. Pretty fun. I took some cute pictures of the kids today in their Sunday clothes too. Look!

My Smart Giant Boy!

2008-04-30T07:11:00.001-07:00

We had Nolan's 4 month check up yesterday. I know my kid is super smart and super cute, but I didn't think that anyone else thought that. First off, he's pretty big. He was 75 percentile in his weight and 88 on his height. His head's tiny at 30-something. Anyway, so he's a large boy for his age. He's also very coordinated. So Dr. Peter comes in and starts playing with the baby. Nolan's just grabbing his hair and laughing. Then he sits him up. I've never seen Nolan really sit, but he was sitting. He sat for a good 30 seconds perfectly balanced before he started to lean. I was impressed but the doctor said, well he's really strong. He's sitting up well but his balance could be improved. I was like, he's 4 months old. Give him a break. Really. So we're talking and he says something about Nolan passing all the six month markers, so Josh said, isn't that pretty good for a 4 month old? The Dr.'s mouth just dropped open. He totally thought Nolan was six months. He was really flabbergasted. Then he kept going on and on about how well developed his fine motor skills are and that he's never seen a 4 month old sit up so well. It was really funny. So my child is amazing. That's about it! Oh, and it all ended with the nurse stabbing him with three needles and my child, understandably, freaking out.

The Great Outdoors

2008-04-28T16:26:00.000-07:00

We finally ventured outside to do yardwork today. I walked out back and realized the grass was nearly up to my knees. So I had Josh mow it. Is that really how you spell mow? It looks really weird to me for some reason. Anyway, I couldn't help because the baby was on one. Every time I put him down he starts screaming. Normally I'm okay with that. He does it all the time. These were special screams though. The kind that make you think he's dying. So I watched Josh mow the lawn. The yard is a total mess. I don't even want to think about it really, so on to better things.
Clara will not clean her room for anything. I just don't know what to do. I beg and plead and scream and cry and threaten and punish and bribe. Nothing works. I'm so sick of it. This time, she doesn't get to participate in FHE or dinner. She's still playing. She just doesn't care. I was going to introduce a new system during family night too. I hope she cleans up in time. I made all these little chore cards for her. Its kind of like Accountable Kids. She has chore cards and then she has reward cards. If she does her chores, she gets a reward card. I can take those away if she does something like she's doing now. The reward cards go towards fun time, like TV, crafts, playtime, etc. Then there's paid chore cards that I give her little fake bucks for. She can work to earn toys and things that she wants to buy. Then there's the good behavior cards. I give those to her when I see her doing something especially nice. Those go toward earning dates with mom or dad. I spent several days preparing for this. She better get to work! This better be effective or I'm having a card burning bonfire in my back yard.
BUT...I'm very blessed to have this wonderful family. My kids are the sweetest things in the world and my husband is so happy and helpful. I've got the life!

Modeling Class

2008-04-24T20:32:00.000-07:00

I went to a modeling class today. No, not for my beautiful self, for modeling fondant figures. I made a cute little baby cake. It was taught by a lady named Doree. Clara kept asking, "from Nemo?" She was really nice and very insightful. She came up with the most obvious things that I would never dream of. Anyway, the coolest part is that the class was taught in Carri's Cakes kitchen. She's only the greatest cake decorator in the state! She works out of her basement too. I met her and she was really nice. Just a little sick. Anyway, that was my little brush with fame.

I'm not feeling too hot myself today. I've had a headache and sore throat since I woke up. I hope it goes away soon! I REALLY hope I don't pass it to anyone else. There's one thing worse than being sick. That is, of course, having sick kids. You can't do anything because you're taking care of a sick kid, so you might as well be sick. Then you just feel bad for the poor little critters. AND they're like ten times more gross than a sick adult. They just ooze and you have to clean it all up. I'm gonna go before I jinx myself.

2008-04-23T12:44:00.000-07:00

So its been a week and we're still "not quite" finished with Clara's room. We need to touch up some paint, put on some outlet covers, and I need to make her a bedskirt. I have all the materials, I just need my mom to help me figure out the sewing machine. Oh yeah, and time. That would be nice to have too. Anyway, I'm posting a picture of it anyway.

I feel like I've been going crazy lately. I always forget stuff and I have horrible time management skills. So I bought me a planner, to streamline my life. I guess you have to use it for it to work cause I've had it for almost a week now and nothing's happening. I've got to add "write in planner" on my list of things to do.

So today I've been thinking hard about my list of things to do. Its huge! I really don't know if I'm ever going to be able to check them all off. So far, I've worked out, taken a shower and done a little school work with Clara. I've been really focusing on not yelling. That's something I jump into rapidly when I get upset. So I'm trying to give and take priviledges. She's lost half an hour of Dora, a gumball, a piece of cheese, and she's been sent to her room 3 times, earning nothing. We'll see how long I keep this up.

Nolan's been good. I mean, he cries when I put him down or go to put him down or even think of putting him down but other than that, he's an angel. He's napping on me right now. So cute when you want to be napped on, not so much when you don't. Today, I don't mind.

He's Done!

2008-04-16T21:47:00.000-07:00

Josh is finally done with Clara's room. Well mostly. He still has to do the outlet and switch covers and put up some curtains and a little touch up painting, but she's sleeping in there tonight. I'll post pictures as soon as its completely done.
Its soooo cute! Clara picked the paint color. I thought it would be a little sickening. Pretty bright pink. But we put paneling halfway up the wall and it really contrasts well. Josh is so proud of himself too. He did have a little help from some friends, but he did alot by himself. He's going to regret that he learned so much. I'll be expecting more now!
Nolan was so happy today. Just smiley all the time. He's rolling over constantly now. Every time I put him down he turns right onto his little tummy and starts screaming. He tries to crawl but he doesn't really know how to use his arms yet so he just kicks himself onto his face. Kinda funny and sad at the same time.
We went to Discovery Gateway today. We got in free with some friends. We have the hookups! Clara had so much fun running around and (hopefully) learning. Fun stuff. We'll have to go back there more often.
Tired! Goodnight!

Been a While

2008-04-10T15:50:00.000-07:00

Whoa. Its been a while since I updated this blog. I'm not doing a very good job. I need to get a system down or something. So, all is well anyway. Not much to update. Nolan is still huge. Clara is still huge. Both really cute. Oh, I'm a little closer to getting my business license. I just have to take a trip to Logan. Just. At least they have a cheese factory out there so my trip won't be completely junky. Gotta love that cheese. Josh is working on Clara's room this very second. He's really close to being done. I'm hoping its finished today or tomorrow so we can move her upstairs and move Nolan out of my room. I really don't think he's going to transition well. He's used to sleeping with me. He was ready to move to his crib when he was two months old. Now, he's liking my room. As long as I'm in it. Its going to be a pain! Oh, I also wrote an article on how to decorate your baby's first birthday cake for the utah baby guide May issue. So that's about it. I'm going to post a cute picture or two of our trip to Tracy Aviary. We went to feed the pelicans. Clara loved holding the dead fish. I was happy just watching. Nolan slept alot. Fun stuff!

Lazy Morning

2008-03-03T07:50:00.000-08:00

I had big plans for today. Big plans. I was going to go to the gym, get the kids lookin cute, clean up the house, go shopping and a million other things. Um, didn't happen. I woke up at 7 cause the kid wanted to eat, fed him, got out of bed, threw on some workout clothes and Josh walked in. I'm not saying he screwed me up. I'm just saying that was the turning point. I had some stuff I wanted to show him on the puter so we spent a few minutes doing that. Then he went to bed and the baby woke up. Can't excercise with a screaming baby, can you? So I sat down at the computer and started setting up our blog page. If I was technically savy, I think I might be done by now, but you know how long it took me to figure out how to get the tunes on here? Way too long. So my accomplishments for the day thus far are getting my workout clothes on (if you're not actually working out, I think the term is frumpy), and making my first blog post. At least that's something. We'll call it family history work. The house is still a mess, the kids look like orphans at best, Josh is passed out, and the fridge is empty. Its all good. It'll get done someday.We've had fun though. The baby's been sleeping soundly almost the whole time. Of course he won't let me put him down. Every time I try to sneak onto the treadmill he freaks. Clara's been looking through one of my cake magazines. She thinks I'm going to make her the castle cake for her next birthday. I guess we'll see about that. Quality time. Anyway, hopefully I get more productive as the day goes on. Hey, if I don't at least I won't have to get the kids in their pajamas by bed time. They'll already be wearing them!