What's a Diorama?

23 Mar 2009

Tyler had to make a desert diorama for school. He was hesitant to let me help him but after we got started he was really excited. We made salt dough for the ground, cacti and animals. Tyler did all the painting and sand gathering. After he was done painting the desert wolf he said, "This wolf doesn't look as good as it did in my mind." Oh man! I thought it looked okay. A friend of mine helped Tyler take his project into the school this morning. She told me that today when she asked him about the diorama he said, "Yeah, my dad usually helps me with these things, but he's in Washington D.C. right now so my mom had to help me. All I have is a phone dad."

Cook Out

23 Mar 2009

Jared's friends from work invited us to their apartment for a cookout (which was really nice because Jared is still in Washington DC until Saturday). The kids said that they didn't want to go swimming, but after they saw the pool they changed their minds.

Holly's Outfits

22 Mar 2009

Jared noticed that our blog only has pictures of Holly wearing her pink "cutie" sleeper. She really does have more clothes than that. Here are two of her cute outfits. Watch for more coming soon!

Happy Birthday Tyler

21 Mar 2009

Today was Tyler's birthday!!! Yay, the big #7. He's been wanting to go to Chuck E. Cheese's ever since they started playing Chuck E. Cheese commercials at every commercial break on Nickelodeon last summer. So I told him to invite 3 three friends and we would go. Unfortunately, two of his friends couldn't come so it was just us and Addison White, his friend from church. The upside is that Derek and I got to use the other kids' tokens. It's a little expensive if you have a lot of kids ($10.99 per) but Chuck E. Cheese's is a really great place for a birthday party. They do everything for the party plus give every kid 40 tokens (usually $.25 each). All I had to do was show up with a cake and a present. It was really nice for me. Here are our pictures.

This is the cake I made. I got the idea from a cake that I saw at the grocery store. It's a little woggley because it's all buttercream frosting...oh, yeah...and I made it at 2:00 in the morning.

Here are the kids eating pizza - well, mostly goofing off - but eating a little pizza.

This is a game where your friend points the camera at you and your body is superimposed into the video playing on the big screen. You can see Tyler in the TV on the top left. This was by far their favorite thing to do.

Here is Chuck giving Tyler the traditional birthday gold medal. Tyler loved it but I'm not so sure about Chuck. He didn't talk but his body language gave me the impression that he might really hate his job.

Tyler got lots of presents but to save time I put them all in one big box. I think he kind of liked seeing everything all together like that. He got a ninja weapon set, a new Wimpy Kid book, a light saber, bakugan (don't ask) and a Batman action figure.

Here Tyler is using the force to...um...do something awesome I'm sure. (What do I know about it, I'm just a girl.)

Tyler's first experience with air hockey - he loves it.

Derek couldn't find a Thomas train so he settled on the Barney train (which suspiciously looks A LOT like Thomas...hmmmm)

We Miss You Dad!!!

20 March 2009

Jared's been gone now for almost a week and we really miss him...

Holly misses him the most...

Derek misses his handyman skills (Derek "fixed" his broken rake with scotch tape)...

Dad misses Mom and sent these beautiful flowers...

Dad probably misses Tyler's birthday cupcakes (or "pupcakes" as Derek says)...

Dad probably doesn't miss the bird nest collection...

We love you Dad!!!

Hooray for Holly

13 Mar 2009

Nothing much happens to us anymore so I've resorted to just taking pictures of Holly. She's pretty cute though. We all lover her so much. I feed her and hold her. Jared feeds her and holds her. Tyler babysits her while I do dishes. Derek keeps her binkies away from Ralphie and is "soft" (that's his word for stroking - he is "soft" to Ralphie too.)

More Cake

8 Mar 2009

Here is my third cake. This time I tried coloring the fondant and making fondant decorations. It worked out really well! I also got a new buttercream recipe that makes more round shaped balls (as opposed to "kiss" shaped).

Holly really likes the cake so she is smiling her approval.

New Addition to Our Ford Family

3 Mar 2009

Here is the latest (and 5th if you're counting) addition to our Ford family. The tungsten metallic grey 2006 Ford Mustang GT. We love him. The suspension is tight and the leather luxurious. And oooooohhh....so fast. The downside? Jared will NEVER be able to find his car in the hospital parking lot ever again.

Ode (in picture form) to the yellow 2002 Ford Focus ZX3 purchased brand new for $14,000 in November 2002, now gone, traded in at the dealership in March 2009, cast aside...like an old glove!

Take note of the bike racks on the ZX3. They are the same as the ones on the Taurus Wagon (below). Good old bike racks, we'll miss you the most!

Here are our other Fords - with us in spirit, but rusted in body.

The white 2005 Freestyle, not rusted, just terribly pitted with Dallas, Texas-size hail dents. Purchased in June 2008 for $10,000 and still going strong. We love your 7 seats and CD player. We will drive you every day!

The 2000 Ford Focus Wagon SE at Yellowstone. Purchased in July 2003 for $7200 and sold in April 2006 for $5500. You served us well.

And the ever popular 1994 Ford Taurus Wagon LX in Provo Canyon. Purchased in August 2000 for $3,500 and sold in February 2004 for $600. You sure had nice LX features! Ahhh, the days of the automatic headlights. This one had the distinctive feature of stickers on the rear window from every college or university we had either attended or instructed at (Utah Valley State College, University of Utah, Brigham Young University, Utah State University, LDS Business College, and Provo College). We couldn't see out that window very well.

More Cakes

Tyler's Potty Quote

Jared: Tyler! That's way too much toothpaste! Only use as much as pea.

Tyler: [squirts a tablespoon of toothpaste on his toothbrush]

Jared: Tyler! No! That's like the size of three peas.

Tyler: But Dad, I pee a lot.

Derek's Potty Quote
Jared: [using the bathroom with the door open]
Derek: Dad, what are you doing?
Jared: I'm going to the bathroom.
Derek: [looking into the toilet] Oh no Dad! There's soap! (because of the bubbles)
Jared: No, it's pee.
Derek: Oh....soda?

Okay so here's my second cake. This one is chocolate with chocolate buttercream and was considerably more difficult to make than the first one which was orange with orange flavored buttercream. First of all, the chocolate cake came out really really fragile and I broke pieces off all over the place. Second, I had a hard time getting the fondant to stick to the chocolate buttercream for some reason. Third, the little chocolate "dots" kept coming out looking like chocolate kisses (or dog poops - whichever). I really need to do more research into frosting consistency and it's effect on piping decorations. Lastly, the chocolate icing kept getting onto the white fontant and making little marks on it. I need more practice.

Dinner and Cake

2 Mar 2009

We had a pretty crappy weekend - well more snotty than crappy. Jared got a really bad cold, which is rare but awful. The rest of us are fine, but because Jared was sick we couldn't go to Austin to see Joseph and Amanda's new baby. He was born yesterday (Mar 1st) which is Joseph's birthday and he weighed almost 9 lbs. I think they are naming him Caleb.

I made dinner on Saturday. This is how it turned out (he's asleep).

I tried to thaw out some milk for Holly in the fridge. This is how it turned out (the milk froze the water).
I tried to make a beautiful cake. This is how it turned out (Kevin wants me to make one for his wedding).

Yummy yummy yum yum yum.....