Boot- Scootin Boogie!

I love that song, square danced to it for a performance in 6th grade.

Anywho, Daniel was on the floor this morning trying to reach his toy, and he managed to scootch forward a little. Enough that his fingers pushed the toy out of the way. So he scooted up a little more. Before we knew it he had army crawled halfway across the carpet!

He did it several more times today too. My baby is growing up too fast! He just learned how to sit up well by himself last week, and now he's starting to get around a little more? Where is the time going?

As bittersweet as it is, it's always exciting to see them learn and grow.

It was the awesomest!

I took the kids to the Taco Bell on base earlier this week, for some nachos I was craving. They had a little display that said "Take one", with some red-lettered papers. After closer inspection I realized that they said "Free child's ticket with this coupon!" A circus was coming to town this weekend and they said I could have 3 of them. Hurray!

Even better, upon looking at their website, they were having an adult ticket discount per ticket if you brought a can of food. Circus tickets are still pricey, but since we didn't have to pay for the kids and got our discount, we spent $38 instead of $100! Score!

No cameras allowed, so unfortunately there were no pictures taken.

Daniel bounced on my lap through most of it. William squirmed on Daddy's lap. Nathan sat quietly enjoying all the lights and loud music beats, people flying around. He was thrilled, just had a quieter way of expressing himself. Oren was full of loud approval for all the acts. Too funny.

From the magician whose assistant had, no kidding, 5 different wardrobe changes that each took about 5 seconds ( that was the act, not sure how she did it ) to the motorcycles (2 of them) in the big steel ball driving around in circles... it was a fun 2 hours. This wasn't a huge, Ringling Brothers production, just a small circus. But to the boys it was something they'd never seen, and something they'll remember for a long time. And it may have been small, but even I gasped when the guy almost fell off the big rotating wheel 15 feet in the air because it was moving and the thing it was on was moving and he was blindfolded. And the ladies that dance in the air wrapped in those big silk scarves that they twist around and everything, always beautiful to watch.

They did ask for treats, but no way am I paying $4 for cotton candy. So we told the boys we'd go get treats afterwards. Thank heavens for Sonic, $1.00 jr. candy sundaes on the value menu. Ice cream, candy, hot fudge, oreos, and a cherry on top for just $1.00! Plus, their strawberry limeades are AMAZING! (can you guess what treat I got?)

A late night, but it was so much fun to sit back and watch their little faces light up with each new wonder. These things we've seen bigger, better... we're used to them, we know how they work. But my boys didn't. To them everything was magic. And wonder. Everything a circus should be.

I'm official!

After much hard work, bleary eyes, and double checking, I finally have come up with enough info on my cakes to have a website! Prices, cake/filling/frosting flavors, all sorts of good stuff.

www.michellescakecreations.webs.com

Let me know what you think! This way I don't have to go "uh...." when people ask me my prices. I can just hand them my card with the site on it, or carry around my price list now that I have it finalized. (except for wedding cakes, which are all custom and tricky to price.) Mark is glad I have set prices that are fair. So am I, since it's my official price list, I won't feel so bad telling people what stuff costs.

And now, off to bed since it is after midnight and I have an 8:30 appointment.

trying but not really succeding...

Silly me, I sat down and made up sort of a chore chart/schedule/daily plan. type. thing. And I got up this morning, started laundry, checked cat food and water, scooped the litter box like my list said. I was supposed to then prep stuff for dinner, like chop veggies and stuff. But I didn't know what to cook tonight.

So instead I unloaded the dishwasher and loaded it back up, and switched laundry over to the dryer.

So far, so good.

Then I decided to take down the busted up swingset we got for free that the swings are no good anymore. Boy, did that feel good. And weeded a flower bed by my tree. Neither were on my list though. Like, I didn't go pick up 10 random things and put them away.

I swept the living room, into the dining room, only because I had piano lessons this afternoon. On my list, but the junk never made it into the trash can. I never got the laundry folded. I didn't vacumm.

I grilled homemade pizzas for dinner. I did dishes a second time. I gave kids baths. None of which were on my list. So I got a ton done today, why do I still feel like a total failure at this whole housecleaning thing? Just because half the stuff wasn't on my list...

6 months!

I can't believe that 6 months have flown by already! Pardon the cruddy photos, I'm too tired to edit any.


He's sat in the highchair before for his little meals, but this is the first time I've tossed some of those Gerber puffs and let him have at. He actually got a couple in his mouth! He gets very excited about the packaging though. Like those bags of freeze-dried fruits, he goes nuts and screams when I take it away. Paper too....

He also learned how to sit up! All by his cute little self! The camera moved just before I snapped the picture, but I was trying to get him to smile for me. Such a happy little guy. He doesn't really laugh often, at all, but he smiles all the time. When he's on the floor and I sit there talking to him, he starts kicking and swinging arms like crazy, he's so excited!

He's also very curious about everything. Nursing has been fun lately, because a noise will distract him easily. The boys have a lot of fun with him now that he's so interested in his enviroment.

Tonight was the elementary school's annual fundraising carnival. The kids and I ventured out into the crowd and crazy screaming kids everywhere. Just booths really, set up in the classrooms. You buy little tickets and then play the games to win little prizes, but the kids love it. Being 6:00 and dinnertime, we headed to the cafeteria for some food. Hot dogs and nachos and stuff... A friend was there who we were meeting to hang out with mentioned that Mark was working the serving line. How funny! He never mentioned he was working there tonight. Turns out work was dead at the moment and so they got sent out to volunteer for a while. The kids thought that was pretty neat, getting to tell Daddy what they wanted and Daddy dished it up for them.

And I got to see my sweetie.

They did really well until Oren's meltdown about wanting an animal balloon, from the balloon shaper guy. But the line was horrendous and I was out of tickets. Got him calmed down eventually - he was very tired and his meds had worn off and he was wound up from the bouncy castle. I did get them little balloons on sticks, because they did follow the rules to stay by me and no whining (other than the little meltdown). Poor Nathan's blew away right after we got outside. They chased halfway down the parking lot, while I watched nervously, but gave up when I called them back because the balloon was blowing faster than they were running. He was so upset!

Needless to say, we were all pretty tired when we got home, and they went to bed great for me. Phew! And now I think I'm off to bed as well.

Back to Normal - whatever that is...

Another cake done, and I am ready to take a break! It's been a whirlwind week for sure, and my poor house has suffered.

And whoever decided that rice krispy layers would be easier than cake was loony. It's no cheaper and no easier. The layer still needs frosted people!

Now I can focus on practicing something for our spring recital, which is in a couple weeks suprisingly. It's sneaking up on me, and I'm just hoping the kids are ready by then. It'd be nice if they would practice everyday like they are supposed to.

The boys had loads of fun with cousins this weekend, a full house as usual. It's wonderful when the family is so big that you have to eat in shifts and standing up becuase the table isn't big enough. And there are lots of adults to help with kids, so they all stayed pretty quiet at church. And while in the waiting room at the temple, I was so proud of all the kids. There were plenty of children there that the attendant had to shush several times, but all our bunch hardly made a peep. They were the best behaved, all the Willford cousins, and just sat quietly reading the
Friend magazines and watching the church videos. We did lose William a couple times while waiting for the happy couple to come out for pictures, he dashed in the door while other people were going in and went straight to the waiting room where he flirted with the attendants until we tracked him down. Then later he escaped after the huge group picture and Mark found him on the other side of the temple grounds! Crazy kid, he's super fast and tiny enough to be quite hard to see.

We have also decided that if his family wants to see us, they'll have to come here until Daniel is older. He cried for 3 of the 5 hours we were on the road last night. It's a 4 hour trip, but we had to keep stopping to feed him and then he'd refuse to eat, just to cry when we gave him up and got back on the road. He was constipated and had a tough morning today trying to clear that up. Which explains some of the fussy yesterday. But mostly he just isn't a fan of car seats and long drives.

All in all, it's just nice to be back, and just dealing with the normal chaos we're used to!

Hurray!

There's a new cake posted on my cake blog. The flowers alone took me 2 days, plus the leaves and bases, assembling the flowers on wires, wiring the bouquets together, took another 2 days. Then there was the baking, filling, crumb coating, and frosting... another day. Finally today was the actual decorating with the ribbon and string work...

The kicker was that the bottom layers I did in advance and froze. When I went to stack them with the filling, they literally crumbled! I had to go get more mix and bake them all over again!!!

This is why I will never charge less than $125-$150 for a tiered wedding cake. Never again. I'll have another cake to post after this weekend, for my sister-in-law's wedding!

Easter Eggstravaganza!

Okay, I didn't really know what to put for a title. We had a busy weekend, full of chaos and powdered sugar. Mark's sister and her 4 boys came for a visit this weekend. 8 boys, age 8 and under. Yeah, crazy is an understatement. 8, 7, 5, 5, 3, 2, 5 months, and 5 months. But we had a lot of fun, and the kids loved playing with their cousins. On Saturday afternoon, we filled some plastic eggs and Mark hid them during lunch. Then we released the kiddos.



And away they go!


Nathan got a hold of one that had split open and the candy had fallen out. He's in the process of dropping the half he was holding and was about to throw himself backwards onto the lawn. After which I informed him that the candy was just under the trampoline and since it was wrapped, it was just fine to stick in his basket.





"Where are those eggs?!?"

Oren spied one in the crook of a tree in the corner. That boy was quick!

It was a bit chilly, so we threw a blanket on Daniel and toted him around the backyard. Stephanie actually made this blanket for me as a suprise, and we use it all the time. So snuggly! And it's hilarious when his little toesies stick up through the holes... Cutsie tootsies!

As for the powdered sugar, I have been working on 2 wedding cakes, both due this weekend. One for a sister in a different ward, and one for Mark's baby sister. I spent all Saturday and Sunday listening to conference from the dining room making royal icing bluebells, bases, and leaves. Then putting the flowers on the bases on wires. Then wiring them all together into bouquets to place on the cake after assembly. Next came making gum paste (like fondant but dries much harder) daisies and blue apple blossoms. Put on bases on wires. Shaping leaves. Painting the center of the flowers silver. And assembling/wiring into swag/sprays that will cascade down the layers.

From Saturday to today (tuesday) I've spent a good 24 hours total on these flowers. I have one spray halfway done, and have to make a few more apple blossoms to do the top spray and then all the flowers are done. I start prepping and filling layers tomorrow, and will frost and decorate the first one for delivery Thursday. Then we'll head out to Rigby Friday and I'll do the other cake there. Phew! I think I'm going to need a nice massage at the spa when I get back.