Dylan is Three!

My baby turned three last week but we didn't celebrate until Sunday. (I was still making his cake "preps" and it wasn't done.) Yes, it is now a joke that you're not allowed to have a brithday until the cake is ready, in my house.

Bonnie and Randy came over and this year we were surprised by Uncle Coley as he was passing through on his way to Germany. I had made a yummy lasagna dinner because that's exactly what Dylan.....didn't want. (He ended up eating a bowl of cereal. I didn't care. It WAS his birthday after all.) 

Dylan got a "couple of trucks/cars" (I use that term loosely)! A scooter, that his siblings have put to use more than he has. And a couple shirts/sweaters.

As for his cake...I wanted to do a jungle theme with lots of different animals but the few that I did make took WAY too long so I just kept it at that. It still turned out, so I'm not complaining. AND because it did take so long, I did not attatch them to the cake because they'll look great on a shelf somewhere. *and yes, they are made out of fondant too.

I guess the zebra is the only one I took pics of in the process. Oh well. The others were roughly built the same way. Just different colors. And shapes. And well, Ok, they weren't the same. But you know what I mean.

I estimated the zebra has over 120 tiny little stripes on. TOOK. F.O.R.E.V.E.R!!!!! But totally worth it! I wish this little fat guy was real.

The lion, was the easiest. For the mane, all I used was a mini 5 petal flower cutter. Holed out the middle and sliced it between two petals. Stretching it out to make a scalloped strip. Then glued it on. *When I say "glue", it's a mixture of pieces of gum paste (similar to fondant, just more stretchy) and water. Swirl around till disolved. Use a paint brush to apply. Little bit goes A LONG way. It's SUPER sticky and perfect for attaching "props" to your cakes and arms to fat little bodies, like this.

Butt shot! ahahahaha Actually It's the tails. Turned out cute as well.

To lay fondant over rice crispies, You need a generous amount of frosting to help hide the bumpyness of the crispies. And something for the fondant to stick to.

For the Griaff "spots", I rolled out the brown fondant and then took my knife and cut a squiggly line down and then across to make the misshaped squares. The zebra stripes.... alternating squiggly triangles. And pointy strips. All different thicknesses. Just make sure they don't touch. There is a little bit of white between each black piece.

The making of my palm tree. I wrapped wire with fondant and cut and shaped and dried leaves. Used royal icing to stick together.I did have to hold it for a minute till I was sure it wouldn't drop. I would apply a leaf, go work on something else, come back, stick another leaf on, go back to something else....and so on. I didn't want the weight of all the leaves to make it fall. So patience is neccessary!!!

I wanted to incorporate water in some way, but didn't have the creativity (my mind was pretty fried at this point after the chaotic week I just had). So I just rolled little blue balls and randomly placed them around the middle. I like the accent color it adds to the cake.

Removal of the animals for the demolition of the cake. I have a picture of the lights out and the candles lit, and the yellow cirlcles with his name, were glowing with the flames behind it. Cool effect that I didn't plan.

Fist bumps and elbow bumps sealing the deal wish.

Our cake hater was even FINALLY able to have some because of the rice crispies. Now I know what to make for Randy's birthday! As for the others, they had to have a little of both!

Happy Birthday to my Baby!

It's ALL About the Details.

*I just comentated this whole post and something weird happened. SOOOOO HATIN on Blogger right now!!!!!! *Insert angry eyebrows here* I guess I should be glad that it didn't delete the pictures!!

OK....back to redoing the words.

It really is about the details, I've since discovered. And details this cake had! Originally I was going to do a "tea party" themed cake and it wasn't until I was online "cheating" for ideas that I found this cake. I've tried to locate that link to post here, but it was good enough to change my mind instantly and go with this instead. I spent A LOT of time coloring, rolling, shaping, rolling, coloring some more, molding, and drying.

It took me TWO DAYS of preping for this cake till late hours, but I'm not complaining! I had quiet time at night and LOVED it!

More prepping....

The top layer of this cake was chocolat filled with buttercream and mini chocolate chips.  I didn't get pictures of that (i really don't know why! Maybe because my camera BROKE!) and I was having to use Mykael's lower resolution pics. Which explains the yellow coloring and burry shots.

For the bottom cake, I used rice crispy treats molded in a spring form pan. X2. If you notice the middle...there's a line. It was too squatty for my likes so I made another and mashed them together. Looks good, huh? I thought so too!

At this point, I was not liking the colors or how it was turning out. It looked too cartoony to me. (as weird as that sounds). But it was now like 9pm the night before the "delivery" and I just didn't have the time to change my mind.

Did I mention I had to roll? A LOT!? So much so that it just became a blur. *No blurry running pics for me, Lish. But I've got blurring rolling pics.

I didn't get anymore pics of the "putting together" phase. Maybe because it was so late. I was tired. My camera was broken. Borrowing someone elses. Or maybe I fell asleep at this point and the fondant fairies came to my rescue and finished it for me. I'm going with the latter cause I never would've thought I could make a cake that looked like this!.......

*The rest of the pics were taken by the recipient herself with her awesome camera and incredible picture taking skills!

The cartoony-ness had evaporated at this point and I absolutely LOVED it!

The roses turned out well. But the big one here is cracky because the fondant dried too fast as I was "gathering" it. Oh well, can't be perfect.

There's so much to look at on which adds to the awesomeness! Like I said, it's all about the details.

Oh! Those fondant fairies. So Silly! HOppy Birthday! Get it? HAHAHAHAHA

It wasn't until I put my floating flower wires in that I felt it was complete! (I had to take them out so it would fit in my fridge!) There's just something about small pretty things floating in the air that make things so magical . If we all had floating things around our head we would be a happier people (in my opinion). Make mine sparkly please. Thanks!

Thank you to Lindsay for the endless knowledge and massive collection of cake making tools. This cake would NOT exist if it weren't for you. YOU ROCK!!!!!

Blessed

I was doing some reflecting the other day in the shower. (Hey it's a uninterupted place). Or you could say that it was one of those moments that I realized how lucky I've been in my life with the influences that I had surrounded myself with. I have come to find that I have unknowingly collected one ore two older/wiser-than-me women that have mentored me throughout my life and even continue to do so, in the many different places I've lived, during the awkward, confusing, depressing, ignorant times of my life. And I can say that each and everyone has helped me to better understand this life experience I continue to go through.

So here's the time line.
The earliest I can remember is Elementary. Probably 4th grade. And her name was Nan (pronounced Nayne). That wasn't her real name, but that's what her grandkids called her. So I did to. I would walk home and stop at her house to eat grilled cheese sandwiches, drink red punch out of honey bears and eat sugar cubes, then go home. This one I've held onto even to this day and visit her in the care center every opportunity I have.

5th grade. Margaret. She lived across the street from us. Had 2 super cute kids. Chase and Taylor (baby girl). And I would just spend as much time as I could there. A great family that still occupies my thoughts every once in a while.

6th to 7th grade. Back in SLC and back to Nan. did the same thing as before.

After that we moved up to Idaho I "collected" Tiffany. A young women's leader. So beautiful. Kind heart. I wanted to be like her. Thanks to facebook, I've found her again. *During high school I brought her back to help me with the silly "Junior Miss Pagent". She was my backstage mom and was the first person I met backstage after the let down of not winning. Not a big deal anymore, but young teenage me...devistating.

The second move in Idaho has two different people. Nikki (high school teacher), and Debbie (best friends mom). Nikki accepted all of the high school drama I filled her in on. Debbie wrote the notes to excuse our sluffs. My second mom.

Once I left home, Concetta took my hand and guided me during my Ct. years. Advising me of what to say to the guys I was now dating so I didn't sound like some immature, emotional, desparate girl. I'm glad I listened to her. She really took me under her wing, and I didn't fight it. There were others in this section, but Concetta was the main one.

Once I came "home" I didn't really attach to anyone. But after getting married and moving again, Shiloh was added to the list. Then Taya. My sounding board for the stresses of newlywed life.

Which brings me to where I am now. The "active" one. I'm not going to name her, because she already knows who she is (I think) and I'd rather keep it that way. Maybe if I move, I'll divulge. But until then, just know that I've got one now and am relishing in all that she does for me. As little as she may think it is.

I still have contact with all but two and I have been searching and will continue to do so until I find them. They're that important to me.

Thank You Fine Women of my life.

Jared and the Giant Pumpkin

Sometimes when my husband gets an idea, the best thought I can describe to you, that pops up into my mind is "here we go again." Because I have a dreamer of a husband. And sometimes they don't really pan out the way he originally plans. But thinking back now, I could say the same for myself as well as a few others. Some might say, "That's life".

So when my husband decided to plant 3 small "giant pumpkin" seeds in the rocks in front of my house I "pa-shawed" him and went on with my business planting sunflowers. Those little seeds did NOTHING all summer long, and was starting to think that they were duds. Then one by one a single little sprout popped up in its own individual spot. So cute. So pathetic. To tell people it was going to be a "giant" was kind of a joke.


But a joke it no longer is. Those little seedlings have made their presence known. And my sunflowers too!!! :o)

It's already over 100lbs. We're going to weigh it tonight to see how much for sure. So stayed tuned.

*ok, so he weighed it and it's only 70lbs. But Still! 70lbs! I look at it like a pregnancy. You gain the most the last trimester. Since we have a good two months left, bring on the weight!

And it IS a pretty color huh? I hope it doesn't fade as it "stretches" to larger porportions.

#58

*It's not the best point of view of the play, but hopefully you can see which one is him. #58 He's REALLY good at breaking through the offensive line and messing the plays up for the other team. He almost made it to the handoff to intercept, but was able to quickly pull the boy down with the help of his teammates.

I was so excited for this game. Awake a lot in the night thinking about it and hoping I wasn't going to be too tired to get up with the alarm clock and oversleep and miss the game. Dylan's impeccable timing (5 mins before alarm went off) prevented that. I wanted to get as much footage as possible but my eyes were not in sync with the camera and it floated up A LOT! Although here's a good play I DID catch. It goes kind of fast so you may have to watch it over again to find him. *I'm thinking a tripod in the future would be a GREAT investment.

I always thought it was annoying when my mom would cheer for my brothers at their soccer games. She was always SO loud. It was embarrassing to the young girl I used to be. But the table has turned and I'm now that obnoxious screaming mother cheering for her boy! I'm also the mother with urges to get up in coach's face insisting my boy be put in immediately! But, No worries, I have more self control than that, but that urge is p r e t t y powerful! There's still a full season ahead....we'll see how I behave.

When we got there, the opposing team was already warming up in a rather military-like formation. Quite the intimidation tactic. And I was conviced that we weren't playing them. They were much too big for our little team. (There were 3 different games going on at once so I found another team that sized up more equally. Then they left to a different field and the military "giants" were still at the other end of OUR field. I prayed that we wouldn't loose THAT bad but expected a loss nonetheless. We had good players but have struggled to get the plays down.

I walked over to Ash and some other boys and gave them some "words of encouragment" (or maybe it was permission to hit REALLY hard, act like animals....something like that, I don't remember.) And wished them good luck.

The coaches have pretty much decided to put Ash on the defensive line. Although he does play a little on the offensive. So when it was their time to send the defense out, Ash didn't start and I was sad about that. He was SO excited to play today. He was right on the white line waiting for coach to put him in. And he waited. And waited. And mom was getting mad. And he waited some more. He would frequently ask the coach when his turn will come and continually was told to wait. At this point, I'm thinking of ways to "nicely" request my son be put in, which turned to more aggressive requests the longer he waited. (Of course it was all in my mind. Nothing vocal)! FINALLY I hear "Ashton" and I grab the camera. He ran one play and they pulled him out. I was like, WHAT!? ARE YOU SERIOUS! He just got out there!!! Jared showed up just then and I had some frustrating words to share with him. During half time when coach was talking to the team I suggested to Jared to "just stand over there". Maybe if the coaches saw that his dad was there, they'd let him play more for that reason, since mom's presence wasn't doing any good.

Luckily we had some fabulous friends come to support Ashton and Ray educated me a little on what the coach was dealing with: More players than positions-someones going to sit out. Making parents AND players happy by making sure each kid played. AND win the game. SO I simmered down. Sat down. And took a deep breath. And trusted the coaches know what they're doing.

The outcome: Ash played A LOT in the second half. He was on fire! And it was awesome. I do know that he has a lot to work on and now that he's had a small taste of what this season will be like, he can focus on what needs working on. And me too. The mom. I have to remember that it's his first year playing. And there are boys out there with this being their second. Seniority does have a hand in there and that sucks for Ash. But such is life. And that's how we grow. Fight to the top, right?

We ended up winning 14-0. But to give that other team credit, they came so close, so many times. Our little guys were just faster. One play, their boy was running and 'we' caught up to him and tackled him 2 yards from the goal line. Pretty exciting.

I'll probably post a lot on his games, so bare with me for the duration of this season. I hear they play rain or shine, snow or sleet. So I'll have lots to talk about.

Now that summer is officially over (for the kids) I can do sort of a re-cap, So here goes.


Garden is doing fantastic!!! Cucumbers are endless. They're the "skinless" kind. But taste just as good.


Beans are doing the best! Every week I'm getting a bigger bowl full than this one. So I have blanched and frozen till they are all done, and then I'm going to go crazy with making dilly beans. I'm still looking for a good recipie if any of you out there have one.





We've had some unusual rain storms this summer and the gutters have flooded PLENTY. On this particular day, Dylan ventured out to play in the water. The other two quickly followed suit.

You can't tell, but for some reason they only wanted to wear jackets and underwear. Whatever works, I suppose.

Mykael started Junior High! And for Gym class she needed clothes. SO I took her to D.I. (equivalent to a second hand store) to find something that would work. Requirements were white t-shirt with name on it and shorts. We found two white shirts for $2.00, the running skirt for $3.00 and the pants for $2.00. I wanted to do something cute with her name but didn't want to go overboard, but didn't want to go with the traditional magic marker. Walmart had these iron-on letters for $1.00. She didn't know if it had to be first and last name so I put both. First name on the front. Last name on the back butt area. I thought it was cute. And she even went along with the sparkles on the gray set.

Jade and Ash had thier first day yesterday and looked mighty fine I must say.

Pictures that Mykael took. I like what she sees through the lens.

This is my favorite. I like the focus on the yellow flowers in the background. But I doubt thats what she was going for, it just happened.

This is Aspen. And this is how she sleeps at night.

I found this chrysalis a little over two weeks ago. I've researched to find out what it's going to be but I'm still unsure. I thought it was a moth but moths have "cacoons" that look like white wrapped sacs, and this looks a like butterfly "chrysalis". BUT...moths take up to 8 weeks to change where as butterflys only 2. This little guy is still wrapped all up nice and cozy. Or maybe it's dead. I don't know.

An elderly lady in my ward had a birthday recently and it was suggested that a cake be made for her. I of course jumped on that and this is what I came up with. I REALLY wanted to play with the flowers, so I borrowed a friends fondant tools and had a blast. Cute stuff.

I'm my own biggest fan....

I logged onto this lovely blog of mine and noticed that I'm visitor number 8000. So to remember that, I'm immortalizing this knowledge in the web of worlds. AND, the computer is down so I can't blog about my OWN forming chrysalis, or Ashton's football. So for now....until I figure out what the heck is up with the computer, this is my post from my phone.

Hope you are all having a lovely (mosquito-less) day.