Pictures!

As usual, Blogger posted the photos backwards from how I uploaded them. Oh well.

Oren is highly attached to this jacket, not sure why. Once he puts it on it just stays on, hood and all! So he was very handsome in his tie and gray sweater vest, but you can't see it. He's got his glasses on too. :-)




Nathan likes his jacket too, but is willing to take it off. He had a lot of fun walking up and down the ledge here.




I just loved the springy bounciness he was running with. Just a carefree kid having fun! Again with the jacket though, he loves his bright orange one that is still a bit too big. But at least it makes him easier to see.



Mark had Daniel down on a bench, and it was just too adorable of a picture. Danny-boy was all over this bench, and was pointing and yelling at cars passing by. Little character!

Whew!

And Sunday is a day of rest! I have been busy this week. Which is hardly anything new for me, but I don't usually bake cupcakes en masse like I just did. :-)

Mark's little brother got married today, and I was glad I had baked and frozen the cupcakes in advance, because even with all the advance prep I managed to get done, I finished the main cake just in time to throw on some Sunday clothes, find shoes for boys, and got to the temple with about 5 minutes to spare going into the sealing room. Mark was able to find someone to cover for him thankfully, and he got there the same time I did. :-)

I just had to laugh though. I got the fondant on the cake and set it on some containers on my back patio. Then I loaded the boys up to go grab some lunch and it started sprinkling, which I didn't think anything of. Until I got home and went to go get the cake to put the flowers on it. It had rained into my patio! The wind blew it all over the cake!

Fondant and water is a really bad mix, it gets the fondant quite sticky. So I blotted it all dry and crossed my fingers, put the flowers and leaves on, and let it sit. Once it dried, the parts that had been wet were shiny, but the back wasn't. Ugh! Then I remembered I had some white pearl dust, an edible shimmery powder stuff. So I brushed that all over the cake and it evened everything out so it looked like shiny fabric. Pretty neat actually!

Why the back patio you ask? Because with the butter-based frosting I didn't want it in my warm kitchen. Also, Daniel is a very fast toddler when cake is involved. My fridge was full and can cause condensation, which is bad for fondant. My patio was cool and out of the way. Funny that it got rained on...


Anyway, we had a good time at the temple. I got some really cute pictures of the boys, which I was going to post but blogger isn't liking me right now I guess. So when it's cooperating, I will get those up. Because they are too cute!

1 down....

1 room down, 2 more bedrooms to go.

1 semester nearly down, probably 7 more to go.

1 pair of brand new glasses broken, 3 more children who will need glasses too, to go.


Life has just been busy. I have so many projects on my list: to finally get the boys' toys organized; to make a model of their bedrooms and find out if we can fit 3 boys in one room and Daniel in the other so we can sleep train him out of our bed; measure a spot to possibly hold a corner cabinet; make said corner cabinet; build a new dining room table and benches since ours aren't so sturdy anymore and crack when I sit down; to finally see my bedroom floor for longer than 2 days; to clean out and detail the van...

I have done 1 of them. My room has been cleaned, but we'll see how long it lasts.

However, with the weather slightly warming up lately, some of the other projects may be in the works sooner rather than later.

And Mark has been working hard this week with finals literally right around the corner. He turns in his last landscape design tomorrow morning and has confessed to being very sad this class is ending. Fortunately it's just the Introduction to Design, there are a couple more classes in higher levels that are available. That's going to be his emphasis: Horticulture major with an emphasis on landscape design and building. It's been really neat to see his talent unfold and his joy in his work. We didn't realize how oppressive the enviroment in the Air Force had been, and how it was tearing at his self esteem. As scary as the change has been for me, I can honestly say that we have never been happier. Both individually and as a couple. It's hard. There is no denying that civilian life has it's challenges and Mark doing school and work at the same time hasn't been a piece of cake. But he is finally being appreciated and praised for his efforts in creativity. He is working hard and his grades are a reflection of that work.

And the glasses? Oren broke his the other day. Insurance will only pay for the cheapest ones, but will replace them as often as necessary. Problem is that it takes about 3 weeks to get them approved and done! So he'll be without glasses for a little while. Bummer...


On a nice note, the kids and I survived the 6 hour drive to see my family last weekend. And the long drive home. (Man, that was a LONG drive home.) We had a blast kidnapping my mom for a girl's lunch. (Is it still considered kidnapping if she's the one that drove all of us there?) The boys got to hang out with aunts and uncles, even Daniel did well with everyone even though he hadn't seen them in over 6 months. I made whopper cupcakes that turned out even better than the first time I did them. Steph and Jeff had a really fun and good-natured cook-off. We got the head's up on some possible really great news that ended up being what we all were hoping for! (See Janelle's facebook status. :-) ) Steph and I got loaded up with some really fun fabric from my mom's stash. And I showed Marie how to make one of those sugar jeweled tiaras.

Life has just been good this week. :-)