More Holly and More Cake

26 Mar 2009

I just can't get enough of Holly or cake. So here are some more pictures of both.

My friend Ashley and I made this cake for our ward's Relief Society Birthday Party. The theme was purses (I'm not totally sure why) so we thought this cake would be fitting. I actually baked the cake on Tuesday night, it took 5 cake mixes (only the two bottom layers are made of cake - the purse on top is styrofoam). We did the decorating yesterday. It took 7 hours - we had six kids running around. We got lots of compliments at the party. (Also, I don't know why the cupcakes look so weird in the picure - it looks like I added them later with photoshop.)

To make the cake rounds, I cut some cardboard out of a diaper box. Derek took the box and kept trying to get inside it and play with it. It looked pretty sad because it had big holes cut in it. I decided to take a break and make this fort for him. Except that he said that he didn't want a fort so it became a "transformer house".

Mom, I'm Hot

24 Mar 2009

Yesterday Tyler was playing Wii and for those of you who don't know, when Tyler plays Wii, he really plays Wii. Really. I mean that when he's playing Lego Star Wars he doesn't just move his thumbs around on the controller. When his character jumps, he jumps. When his character swings a light saber, he swings his arm like a light saber. When his character is deep in battle with the dark side, he is deep in battle with the dark side. So anyway, Tyler had been playing for half an hour when his timer rang and he turned it off. He came into the kitchen dripping in sweat and said, "Mom, I'm hot. Not hot like girls that are hot, hot like I'm really hot."

Here is a cute picture of Holly hugging her blanket. She did this all on her own - I didn't put the blanket in her arms.

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.