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.

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.

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!

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

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'?

" Princesss Lil' "

Princess Lil'

I grew up a "tom boy". You know bikes, race cars, hunting, fishing, even played boys baseball. I did have a few barbies and took dance lessons, but I don't remember playing dress up or pretending I was a princess. Now I could be wrong but I've never seen any pictures of me parading around as though I was on my way to the big ball at the palace. Having said that, in the past our family trips to Disneyland were the farthest you could get from being centered around the "Princess Magic."

Then came Lil'. While Daddy spent 4 hours or longer entertaining the brothers, Lil' and I experienced the magic of the Princess Fanfare. Remember I am a tom boy, add never going to Disneyland as a child, this was new to me. I thought you waited in the long lines to go on cool rides. Well... you also wait in long lines to see your favorite princess.

The first princess we saw was Bell at Goofy's Kitchen. Shy at first but this prepared Lil for the rest of our princess experience. Bell told us that later that day she was going to wear her YELLOW dress and dance with the Beast in the parade. Lil' was throughly in awe just thinking about Bell in her gown and dancing with the Beast.

Okay at the Princess Fanfare Lil' patiently waited to visit the princesses. "Who do you think we'll see first?" Ahhh.... Ariel just left. A little broken hearted but still eager to have the princesses sign her book and give her a hug. Here we go around the corner. Oh my gosh it is Sleeping Beauty ( Briar Rose or Aurora).




























Can you believe how " beautiful" she is? Her gown is such a pretty pink. Somebody is in heaven. Now from pink to the next princess color.





















" WOW! These princesses can actually talk. Amazing." Around our house Lil' is often heard using her princess voice as she plays with her princess dolls or is pretending to be the said favorite princess for that particular moment.

Uhmm I guess you could call the next princess a " classic modern " princess. The accient history that the movie Mulan is set in definetly deems is it a classic, but the movie isn't that old really.




Just soaking it all in.

Every hour a corination ceremony is presented. This is where My Lord and My Lady teach all the princesses and princes how to bow, wave and dance. Once we mastered the princess skills. We got to wave, bow and dance with the princesses.

"MOM, stop taking pictures and dance around the may pole with me." You're not going to believe this but Cinderella danced with us at our may pole.

After decorating a crown, Lil sits upon the royal princess throne.



Then waiting line again to see the next set of princesses. I was begining to think that it would be just horrible if we didn't get to see different princesses. Ahhh..... again we see Ariel leaving. Lil's heart sunk, but then she saw Princess Jasmine coming in to view. I felt the magic as I watched my little princess shiver with excitment and jump for joy. She definitely loves Jasmine.

You cannot pass up Princess Minnie. Truthfully I don't think Lil' had ever seen Princess Minnie so this was awesome.

Last but not least, Cinderella!!! She is a favorite. This made our princess experience the best. Cinderella gave Lil' the biggest hug. Cinderella talked and talked with Lil'. She noticed Lil' was wearing tinkerbell shoes and ask Lil' if she would give Tinkerbell a message if she saw her. WOW to be asked to deliver a message for a princess and to Tinkerbell to boot. Well I must say that princess Lil' was honored.

Can't you just feel the princess magic. This was an experience Lil' will never forget nor will I. So, if you have a little princess and you get to go to Disneyland please don't pass up the opportunity to " go princess".

BIGGEST HUG EVER!!

(by a disney princess)

I love our little princess and cherish every "biggest hug ever" that I get.

How many times was the word princess or princesses use in the above blog? 36 times I think.

"Some of My Favorite Things" ( MOST FAVORITE THINGS!)

I love my family.

We just recently went on a long needed family trip

One of our stops was in San Deigo.

As you can see, Riley and Tommy felt that after spending four days in Disneyland and never once get to ride in the rental strollers they were gonna have their turn and make the most of it.

I could care less about all the pictures of the castles and whales, princesses, mickey mouse. etc...., the pictures of our children playing and actually have fun instead of fighting will be the most cherished.

Can you say, " Got DADDY wrapped around my finger!"













This photo brings me,
"JOY"





Gotta love them.