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. :-)

Life is what you make of it.

That about sums it up.

I could be down about a lot of things. But I'm choosing not to be. I could be frustrated with the destruction and mayhem my children like to cause, but I am choosing to find a bright side. It's like constant spring cleaning here lately!

I could get sick of Daniel wanting to sleep with Mommy and Daddy. But I choose to focus on the smile he has when he wakes up next to me. And remember that he will slowly do better and better.

I could be upset at the amount of time Mark has to spend at work, and at school, and at his mom's doing homework. But I am choosing to remember that he is doing this for our family's future. And I am choosing to be glad he has such a great place to go study that is so close. He is also choosing to study elsewhere so he isn't here yelling at the kids to be quiet because in such small quarters it really isn't possible.

I could be disappointed in myself for sliding back up to my heavy weight again. I am choosing instead to accept the fact that until we are insured and I have access to the medications that keep my mood stable, sticking to a weight loss plan will be extremely difficult. I am choosing to dress myself in clothes that I feel good in for the meantime and learn how to use accessories to define the bits of myself that I like.

I choose to be happy about the 3 things I managed to get put away, and not angry about the 4 messes the kids made. I choose to pat myself on the back for using the can of soup Daniel opened with his teeth even though it wasn't what I wanted for lunch.

Life is what you make of it.

Just taking off!

All of a sudden I blink, and Daniel is growing up.

He says "Please." "I want it!" "A drink." "In." (referring to putting clothes in the dryer, forks in the drawer, and lego's in the bucket.) Today brought "I want out." (He was in his chair.)

He is better about staying out of the trash can. Thankfully. But discovered how to climb up onto his brother's bunk bed. If we had enough space to un-bunk the beds, we would. It's so cute how proud of himself he is getting up there, just the biggest smile! Saturday night we were cleaning, and a toy hit me on the head. I looked up and he's bouncing up there waving at me!

My little baby is in a big boy bed! It's been going well, although the bigger boys have been jumping on it and guess what. Yep. They've broken a couple of the slats holding up the mattress... I'm about to pull my hair out, and it's thinner after having babies anyway. Grrr! We're just going to see if the lumber yard can cut a piece of plywood or MDF and lay that over the slats. I wonder if they could break a slab an inch thick? (Something tells me I don't want to find out.)

Nursery starts next month, and we can't wait. This is the age where things get progressively harder during 2nd and 3rd blocks to keep him entertained and semi-quiet. Until his nap anyway. That should make nursery fun for the leaders. :-)

At least I can laugh!

The boys got up on their own this morning, plenty early to get dressed and even eat breakfast at home! They were ready to go about 10 minutes before it was time to head to the bus stop, so I told them they could watch a little tv.

15 minutes later, I look up at the clock and realize they will miss the bus if they don't leave RIGHT NOW! They grabbed their coats, and we opened the door. Nobody was at the bus stop. Ooops! I guessed it had come earlier than usual. I had been planning on going into Rexburg anyway, Oren's prescription was out and I needed to see his doctor for a refill. So I hurried and got the 2 younger boys dressed, and we ran out the door to take the older boys to school.

When we pulled into the parking lot, there were only 3 cars there! What on earth? Then I see the sign that says there is no school today. Oh. (I'm fairly certain I never saw anything about no school today, or I would have remembered.) Is it funny that they were both really bummed about not having school? :-)

So I ended up taking all 4 kids with me to the doctor's office for Oren's prescription; then to the pharmacy in Rigby (who only took about 2 minutes, bless them!) ; then all the way to Idaho Falls to Winco; Joann's to see what I could find a good deal on (since they are closing the old store and moving across town and every thing is 50% off or more... and I wanted to see what sort of fabric I could find for some new skirts and dresses for me.) ; and then to a place I had heard about called Prepared Pantry, that was supposed to have good quality cocoa and a sale on good gel food colors.

All these places were on my list of errands that needed run, I didn't downsize just because all the kids were with me. But it certainly made for a longer day! They did great, plied with promises of Smarties candy.


And a little update for anyone who read my facebook posts about our crib and playpen mishaps! Just for kicks, and just in case it worked, I took down the crib and through it and the playpen out. Then we got out our toddler bed and set it up. He enjoyed crawling around on it, and jumping a little. But we knew bedtime was going to be an issue. William had a lot of trouble when we moved him to a bed but we let him cry it out and he did great, and we are frankly tired of catering to Daniel and his "high maintenance" sleeping. So we tucked Daniel into his new big boy bed, gave him kisses, and shut the door. Every 15 minutes we'd go back in and re-tuck him in. After an hour of screaming and banging on the door, he finally got quiet. We carefully opened the door to find him asleep on the floor behind the door, which we expected, and moved him. He slept on his own bed all night, suprisingly.

Tonight, I made sure he was tired. Tucked him in with a "friend", a little stuffed animal since he is used to touching something when he sleeps. And in a flash of inspiration, we (I) said a little bedtime prayer. Gave kisses and shut the door. He fussed, not screamed, for a minute or two, and now it's quiet. I haven't checked to see if he's on his bed or on the floor, but it didn't take an hour! We may be able to bypass the crib! Which would save us quite a bit of money.

Sugar!!!!!!!

There's about 10 pounds of powdered sugar on my counter, just waiting to be turned into frosting and fondant. Another 3 pounds of marshmallows waiting for the same thing. And a big batch of fondant waiting to be formed into pineapples, palm trees, and flowers!

Yesterday and this morning I crafted a royal icing tiara, and painted it silver. I'll be putting on teal/blue isomalt gems tomorrow morning before delivering the princess cake. And yes, I'll be taking pictures!

I've also finalized my idea for our Blue and Gold banquet cake. We're wanting it to feed 50-60 people, so I'm doing tiers. I'm thinking the bottom tier will have a fondant grass skirt. A "lei" of blue and gold fondant flowers will go around the top of the grass skirt. Chocolate fondant coconuts will sit between the two tiers, like they dropped off the palm trees that will be around the sides of the top tier. A big "29" will be sort of a topper, for our pack number, and I'll have some pineapples formed from rice krispy treats and covered in fondant and buttercream sitting around the numbers.

Mark and I talked about it, and decided to hold off on the gum paste class. This isn't the only series she'll be doing this year, and there are other things right now that need the money that class would cost. But it's definitely on the list of things I want to do at some point, and until then I will just teach myself what I can!