Sunday, January 25, 2009

CAKES


Our tradition. These pictures are almost 2yrs old.









When Riley was about 4yrs old I made my first crafty birthday cake. My cousin had been doing it for her kids so I thought I'd give it a try. Try it I did and I succeeded. It has become a fun tradition in our family to have creative birthday cakes.

I must admit I love making them. It often takes hours even days to create and make the cakes. I only have a few years archived on digital media, I hope to scan pictures of previous cakes and share them as well.

So for almost 14yrs I've been making cakes. As you can see when Lil' came along I had to scramble to make 2 cakes. Riley and Lil' are 14yrs and 3days apart.



Happy 16th Riley and a happy 2nd to Lil'. Riley has been great about sharing his birthday celebrations with his little sis.


I got the idea for Lil's birthday cake from an Elmo book that was previously given to her.

Thursday, January 22, 2009

GRATEFUL FOR GIFT CARDS



My youngest recieved a great gift for Christmas.
Begining in October it starts, can't watch TV , go shopping without the little ones saying," I want that TOY". Now we, as many others, make several trips to the local shopping center for groceries and what not, as the Holiday approached the stores became plagued with displays of TOYS. Well, DUH you say. Well I say, can't take my littlest anywhere with out leaving the store with her in tears. This makes the whole holiday shopping thing a challenge. Eventually had to shop in shifts not taking her with us or avoiding certain isles( the pink ones) if she was with us. All the toys, heart broken not being able to leave the store with a new doll. All the while I try to comfort her. "Its okay, maybe for Christmas". Lil saying as we turn to the next isle in the store, " It's Christmas now, can I have it?" It wasn't Christmas, we hadn't even gone trick-or-treating yet. My sweet little child in her innocence thought because all the displays were chuck full of Christmas decorations that upon turning an isle it was now Christmas. It does seem to come that quick though.
Christmas came. Love, joy and gifts were shared. Yeah, Lil' recieved lots of fun dolls, pixies etc. Yet shopping trips were still difficult, until one day. Uncle Dale and Bryan had given Lil' a gift card to Walmart for Christmas, $10. We had to go shopping for groceries and for some insane reason we thought we should let Lil' choose a TOY . Daddy and I were apprehensive to say the least. I even told him to take her to the TOY section of the store and I'd meet them in a few minutes. Thinking I find her in tears and Daddy already packing her out to the car, I went to the the dreaded TOY section. Wow, it was going great Daddy wrapped around her finger was happily following her around( in the Pink isles) looking for a TOY. I met them in front of the Disney barbie dolls section, "The Princesses". To our amazement she quickly choose a Snow White barbie. Even better it was in the price range of the gift card. Thank goodness, I really couldn't deal with more heart break. We put Lil in the shopping cart and she quitely held and admired her new doll while we shopped. Whewww, thank you Uncle Dale and Bryan. It wasn't just a toy, it was a GIFT! Lil' was finally able to go to the store and leave with TOY of her choice.


Just a side note, I once ran into a fellow co-worker at the above said Walmart. He, his wife and their 3 year old girl were shopping. I was amazed at how well she was behaving. What was their trick? I discovered it while we were chatting. They explained that they go directly to the toy section pick out a small meaningless toy let the child hold, admire and play with toy while they shopped, all the while never intending to buy it. They even had a phrase for it, "shopping toy". The things we do to get the shopping done.

Sunday, January 11, 2009

MY WORD FOR 2009

So,I see others are posting their word for the year. Well, here is mine, RINSE! For starters it means rinse your dishes before leaving them in the sink, rinse the toothpaste that you spit in the sink, then just go from there. Rinse your mind of guilt, it is a new day and a new year, basically you can rinse any thing if you put you mind to it. Of course there are a tons of religious implications.

The dictionary says rinse means to scrub lightly. Maybe I better change my word to scour. Look that one up!

Saturday, January 10, 2009


To all the wonderful women I have friendships with. I love you.

"What a remarkable thing it is to witness the love of good women one for another. They mingle together in the bonds of love with friendship and respect for each other." Hinckley

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Want to go sleddin'?








We got SNOW.....







do you want to go sleddin"?













Lily does. Does DADDY?











Yeah, I'll go sleddin'








Milo wants to go, who else is coming?










Our friends Benny and Miah.











.











Chris and Madison .





















Don't forget Tommy and Grandma Helen.

Watch out for that tree. Oops, they crashed.





























Oh, I see Dylan and Lexie too.














Here comes Milo and Daddy.















Now I see Mommy, Milo and Lily.


Boy that looks crowded.




Mommy and Daddy at the same time, scary. Looks like Daddy is hogging the tube. What do you think? Will they make it? Lets see.


WEE...... that was fun!
















Just look at all that snow. Want to go sleddin'?