Morgie's Birthday or Adventures in Fondant part 2

Morgan's birthday came along and I realized that we had no plans and no school, so I got Leanna to bring her kids up for the day. We baked them cupcakes and let them decorate them.

There must be something on the TV...

KaiKai and my 5th daughter/neighbor had a cupcake eating contest. It was hard to watch.
The Komps couldn't make it over for the day, so they came later and celebrated with us and my second attempt at a cake.

It was better than the Cowmel, but still baby stepping

Here's Morgan with her cake, talking to Grandma McCumber on the phone...

Ashlynn and Avery waiting for cake after they put on some dress ups and "did their hair". I think it was water. I hope it was water.

Morgan blowing out the only candle I could round up. Sorry, little nugget, at least you got candles on the cake we had at Grandma's house!

The Tradition Continues

This year we chose to buy all the cousins matching jammies again, like last year. We've always done matching, but for ALL of them to match is only a 2 year tradition. I like it and I like the ones we chose this year. Thanks to Leanna for getting them in all of the children's sizes in one trip, that was awesome.

The only kid who wasn't pleased was Grant. He screamed PAJAMAS AREN'T A PRESENT and threw his across the room. Luckily, Aunt Leanna saved the day by teaching the kids to lift their tops and scream SPRING BREAK!!! This broke him out of his funk and we were able to get pictures. Yet another glimpse into the genius of Leanna.

Church Christmas Party

Grant was the cutest shepherd EVER

Avery was a terrorist, running amock and crying alot.

Morgan was the most beautiful angel EVER

And KaiKai sang a beautiful duet about our Savior's birth. Kenzie accompanied the duet on the piano.

Chris's Contribution

After Kenzie got done with her attempt at being relieved of every taking photos again, Chris took a turn. Here is his big contribution to the only photographic record of Christmas Eve 2009...

He lovingly showed Jenny the shot and said "Look. You're showing." I'm sure she appreciated that.

You know what I do NOT appreciate? The size of that belly. Too small. Way too small.

Chris and I talked about it later, and agreed that Jenny looks amazing. Her face is only swollen enough to give her perfect lips and the rest of her is still not big at all. I hate her for that. If I had time I would put this next to one of my horrible pregnancy pictures, but I don't. Maybe tomorrow.

Their Favorite Present

This was all the kids really wanted. I'll remember that when I contemplate staying awake all night for Black Friday next year.

Christmas "Eve"

We headed out to my parent's house for our Christmas Eve with the family. I put Kenzie in charge of the camera and here is what I saw when I checked her progress...

She was sent to the car to bring in some forgotten items. She documented every step.

Her struggle with the door lock.
Her success with the door lock.

Her retrieval of the forgotten items.

I have no idea.

The forgotten onion and raisins.

Shutting the door. Her and KaiKai

KaiKaia loooovvveesss presents?

Kenzie loves presents

VeeVee and Kenzie

Kenzie and Mommy

Kenzie and her aunt Jenny

Mom's favorite socialization method

Cheeseburgers

And, finally, Kenzie and grandma together.

Civil War

We always love the Oregon v Oregon State (Go Beavers!) football game, but this year was extra exciting because the winner would go to the Rose Bowl! We talked Towers into watching with us, a mistake he'll never make again because of all the screaming. It was a good time. Too bad the Ducks won, but at least it was a fun game.

Adventures in Fondant

I have this friend who makes cakes. She has a website Prettycoolcakes.com. Her cakes are way more than "pretty cool". They're amazing. For real. Click the link. Click it! See, amazing.

This gal asked if I'd like a lesson in how to make the amazing Christmas cookies that she had shown me. She even offered to come do it at my house. I was so very excited. Excited and nervous, since I didn't believe that I'd be able to make anything presentable.

She proved me wrong. After many hours, with her three little children trying to stay patient, of painstakingly putting up with my lack of attention to detail, I had all the skills to make cookies so cute that it made me want to cry.

As I finished my little Mr and Mrs Clause, I lovingly stroked their round cheeks and told them that I loved them more than any of my children and that the fact that they tasted delicious made them even better still.



Here are our creations...




**Sigh**....my babies.... Kenzie decided she wanted to take some to school so I whipped up a bunch more. Here are some of those...With my new found knowledge of all things fondant I decided to go ahead and make VeeVee's birthday cake. Here's how that conversation went...
Avery, how old are you?

Gooood.

You're 2, honey, you're two years old. How old will you be on your birthday?

Chocolate chip.

Ugh. What do you want your birthday cake to look like?

A GIRAFFE!!!

Giraffe? Okay. No problem. Here's what I found on the internets and I used as my pattern. Easy schmeezy.

And, here is what I ended up with...










Striking resemblance, no?

Nobody was quite sure what to say.

Or what it was.

It ended up with the nickname Cowmel (is it a cow? is it a camel? no, it's a cowmel). The saddest part is that you can't even see the bad parts in these pictures. I purposely angled the cowmel to capture his BEST side. It's true. Stop laughing at my cake. I love him. Okay, I don't really, but I do feel like he was a learning experience and he tasted really good.

Next time I'll stick with cookies.

A Little Diddy By Duh-Duh (that's 3)

My little man lined these Nativity people up and asked me to take a picture of him with them, but first he wrote a little song about his family that I'd like to share with you today. You're welcome, I hope you enjoy it, and don't try to make any sense of it.

I Shall Start With Christmas...

We kicked off our celebration of the Savior's birth by decorating our house and our tree...

I loved our tree this year. I didn't go with the multi colored lights, but I do think that it will be something that will be alternated. We had lot's of red ornaments, as usual, and a new fake tree that had no ROUS nests in it and was waaaay smaller. I was kind of worried about the size until we got it up and I loved it! It takes up so much less of the room and it just fits better.

Another change was the lack of a place for my village. Somehow, with changes in furnishings and whatnot, we ended up with nowhere to put those cute little houses. The big girls had the brilliant idea to put them up on top of the kitchen cupboards. It was ADORABLE! and I was able to run extension cords down behind the curtains so they stayed lit up 24/7, the way I would leave every light in the house if it wouldn't get me killed.

Blogs never die

Becky says she's wrapping up her blog. I think that's a horrible idea. In protest I am going to blog 10 times today. That's right. You heard me. Ten times. Sure, that does cover my entire number of posts for last year, but, hey, it might just jump start something amazing. It may be the ultimate cure for my writer's block. I am SO doing this.

That's one!