Going Private

With our upcoming cross-country move approaching, EVERYONE keeps asking, "Are you going to blog more when you move?" Closely followed by the comment, "You need to blog more, so we can see what you are doing."

Answer, I fully intend to blog more. I want to keep a detailed blog about our family, where we live, and what we are doing for the next for four years. I want our family and friends to SEE everything. However, I am concerned with privacy.  So, I have created a new PRIVATE BLOG.

I have wanted to go private for a long time now, but I feared that I would loose followers. However,  if I'm going to post pictures of our new home and our adventures in the East, I need to have a private blog without random blog stalkers.

If you are a family member or close personal friend, you can receive an email invitation to our new blog. Please, let me know if you want an invitation.

In order to stay on Blog Lists, I will keep this blog and update it each time I create a new post on the private blog, and I will try provide a link you can follow to new posts. But again, you won't have access without being invited. 

Here's to new adventures: http://followthewalls.blogspot.com

Making Cakes

As a child, my Mom often made me beautiful birthday cakes from scratch. Although I may not have fully appreciated them then, I definitely appreciate them now. I know she put a lot of time, energy and love into those cakes, and I cherish the pictures of my spectacular cakes from childhood.

So, when Carson wanted a "Tommy Train" cake for his 2nd birthday, I decided to give cake making and decorating a chance. I don't think of myself as artistic by any means. I sometimes think I'm creatively challenged when it comes to arts and crafts. However, thanks to many episodes of the Cake Boss on TLC and Google images, I came up with a Tommy Train cake that I thought I could make.

My mother and I slaved over his birthday cake for many hours, but it was definitely worth it. Everyone, including Carson, loved his very special birthday cake.
As Maylee's 1st birthday approached, I knew it would only be fair if I made her a special birthday cake too. Her theme was flowers and ladybugs. My Mom and I set off to Hobby Lobby to see what we could find. We found a Wilton flower-shaped cake pan and eagerly awaited the change to make and decorate Maylee's very first cake.

Pictured below is the practice cake I made for Maylee's actual birthday and her very own eat-and-play birthday cake. It was so much fun to make.
Now for the big.....must be as good as Tommy Train......cake for the family party!

Step 1: Bake Three Cakes- Strawberry, Funfetti, and Chocolate

Step 2: Mom and I decorate the cakes- with 6 tubes of frosting, 5 tubes of food coloring, two packages of Oreos, one batch of rice crispy treats, and one package of gummy worms.

Step 3: Perfect the presentation

Step 4: Take pictures

Step 5: Eat and Enjoy

Now my children will have birthday cakes and pictures to cherish all their lives, and I have a cake making hobby!

Snow boots

Carson got snow boots for Christmas last year, and we were all excited to use them. However, thanks to semi-permanent illness and erratic snow fall for the past two months, aforementioned snow boots had sadly been stowed in a closet with the tags still on.

When I awoke to at least 3 inches of snow on the ground last Friday, I was raring to go outside! Jeff had the day off, the kids were both well, and I was determined to use those snow boots. We went to a near by park, and we played hard. Here are some photos of our family fun!

We went raced down the hill on sleds and in boxes,

We played at the park,

Maylee posed for some pictures,

and we rolled some giant snow balls.

Carson's boot fell off and it was time to go home.

Maylee fell asleep on the two minute drive home.

Carson didn't last much longer.

It was a really fun day, and we finally use those snow boots!!!