Happy Birthday Emma!

Emma is 6 today. It doesn't seem possible! We went to her party last Saturday. It was fun to see everyone. She starts the first grade tomorrow.

I have decided that I need to do simpler, single layer cakes. Here is what it looked like when I finished it at home.

Yes, it is very crooked. More like the leaning tower of birthday cake. The problem is that it was four full squares of cake with a fifth square cut into quarters on top of that. I placed a dowel down the center of it to stabilize it. But here is what it looked like four hours or so later when we brought it out.

It had kind of started to collapse on itself. When I removed the top cone it had sunk about 3 - 4 inches. It was awful. Emma just smiled and said, it's okay. She blew out the candles and we ate about 1/16th of it. There was so much cake there. It was kind of gross.

I hope that Emma has a great birthday and a great upcoming school year. Love ya Em!

Happy Birthday Kassidy

We got to help Kassidy celebrate her 8th birthday on Saturday, Jan. 10. As usual, I did the cake. This year I didn't ask what she would like. (Those kids are getting way too creative and my cake skills are very limited.) So I came up with a house looking cake, which fell apart on the way to Moroni. After I got it put back together kind of Jessi said that if it was blue it would look like a Smurf house. (Maybe next time I will do it blue.)

I don't think that anyone cares what they look like as long as it is chocolate cake with buttercream frosting. (Although I am often reminded of Kassidy's 3rd birthday when she wanted Strawberry Shortcake and I didn't leave myself enough time to decorate one and so I just did a sheet cake with pink frosting and a Strawberry Shortcake candle.) She was not happy about that cake!

She got lots of presents and yes, more American Girl books with mini dolls. I am not sure how she really felt about them. Later in the day, she had me help her put them chronological order. We hope that she will enjoy them.

Here is how Frank spent part of his day, rocking Nate because Nate likes to be held.

I hope that Kassidy had a nice birthday. Next is a baptism and a blessing. Woo Hoo!!

Halloween and birthdays

Wow, it is amazing how time flies... A week ago Sunday, October 26 we got to go to the annual bloody brains and eyeballs dinner in celebration of Harley's birthday!! It was a fun event and for once I didn't freeze in the basement of the garage. (We have had incredibly beautiful weather.)

Here is Harley amid the stringers and stuff that Sunday. Besides our wonderful serving of bloody brains and eyeballs we got to have kitty litter cake and homemade ice cream. The ice cream was great, but I am not too sure about that cake. Here it is before anyone cut into it.

Then for Harley's birthday shopping trip we picked her up on Saturday. We went and found the Clearfield train station and took Front Runner into Salt Lake, then Traxx to the Gateway shopping center. We were all told that she could not get another Build-A-Bear. (I think she said that she has 13 of them, as well as all of the rest of her animals.) So we went to lunch at Applebee's and then went to Barnes and Noble. I don't think that Grandpa knew you could spend so much at a bookstore. Oh well. Here is Harley with her birthday present as we wait for the train.

For this year we have a shopping trip with Rachel in November and a shopping trip with Jacob in December, then we get to start all over again. Too much fun.

Birthdays, Birthdays, Birthdays!

Well, yes it has been a while since I have updated this. Sorry for the two or three people who might look at it occasionally.

We have had a slug of birthdays during the end of August. And I didn't have my camera for most of the occasions. Jessi turned the BIG 30 on the 21st. We drove to Orem to have dinner with her family and extended family at the Spaghetti Factory. It was a lot of fun and good food. (We also bought a new bedroom set while in Orem.)

Here are the little girls at dinner.

Then the next day, the 22nd was Bret's birthday. He turned 40! Marci had a surprise party for him at the waterslide in South Ogden. We were only able to stop by as it was wrapping up, but it looked like everyone had a great time. Happy Birthday to both of you.

Aury turned 8 on the 24th. On August 29th Grandpa and I picked her up after school and we rode the new Front Runner train into Salt Lake and then we took Traxx to the Gateway and had ice cream and then went to Build-A-Bear. Aury chose a leopard and dressed her in pink. It was a fun day. Aury, we love your new short hair cut.

Emma turned 5 on August 26. They had a party for her on August 30. Here is her cake.

It was a fun one to do. Emma got some great presents that day. The family also got new 4 wheelers, here is Em ready to go.

She has no fear on this or of most anything else. Here she is opening some of her gifts.

Then I found this picture from 4 years ago. My how fast they grow.

Wasn't she cute? She still is and continues to be a princess in our family.

Enough for now. There has been some small progress on our remodel. But supposedly they are starting tile today in the bathroom. I will update tonight if the progess warrants pictures. They did finally pull up the old carpet in the family room, ewwwwwwwww gross. It had literally rotted to the floor in some spots.