Vee is a Sunbeam for Jesus

Her teacher made them these crowns and tshirts and lot's more stuff too.

We Shall Name Her Amy

Chris: Hey, babe, are you gonna get in the bath?

...an hour later... Amy? Were you taking a bath tonight?

... a half hour later... I thought you wanted to take a bath?

Kenzie: WHAT is UP with you wanting mom to take a bath so bad? What is your DEAL???

Chris: Well, Mackenzie...your mother is a beautiful women and there's something that you need to understand...

Kenzie: Ew! You're DISGUSTING!

Chris: No, no, no...hear me out. Your mother is a beautiful woman. A beautiful woman, who at this moment, looks like she's recently been birthed. Not like she's recently given birth. But like she's recently been squeezed through the birthing canal and is still covered with that greazzzzy coating of stuff. Even her hair resembles a freshly birthed infant, not yet cleaned up.

He was so right. I laughed until I cried..really cried...at how amazingly spot-on his comparison was.

In my defense, I am SO stressed out about making this cake right now. I have nothing else, even my own hygiene, anywhere near my radar. Cake is my life. Cake is my universe.

Come to think of it, it's kinda funny that the cake is for a baby SHOWER. Hahaha! I make me laugh. My kids make me laugh more though. Grant keeps asking when I'm gonna be done with the cake for Jenny's baby washing. Took me a while to figure out that he meant Baby Shower. I love how their little brains work!

Let's talk more about ME

Many years ago, the Prophet sat aside Monday nights as Family Home Evening. The one night each week that we've been asked to set aside to spend with our families. We generally have an opening song, prayer, lesson, game, prayer again, and desert. Sometimes, if time is short or we're just plain unprepared, we'll just gather around the table, eat some ice cream, and talk about a scripture or experiences that help us learn more about Heavenly Father.

I love Family Home Evening. I love that it's something we've been instructed to do. Otherwise, it would SO not get done. As it is, we have FHE almost every week. We don't answer the phone, nobody has other engagements, no play-dates, just us.

Tonight, Chris read us the parables of the Ten Virgins and of the Talents. The kids paid attention, they added input. It was great. Then he went around the room and had each child share one of their talents and how they can share that talent with others. Here's what they shared...

Kenzie is an actress (said dramatically while throwing her arms in the air) and she is able to get to know how different people view life and appreciates her own life more because of the characters she portrays. She also gets to touch people's lives.

Kaila is a singer. Songs can be a form of worship and sharing a Gospel message with others and just generally touching people's hearts.

Morgan had good manners. Through using her good manners she has made more friends and people like her.

Grant is a builder. He said that maybe someday he could build a house for a man who doesn't have anywhere to live. Why does he have to make mommy cry?

Avery is a dancer. Then she danced and shook her little bum off while we all laughed and we realized that her talent makes us all happy. It's really quite awesome to watch, too.

When it was my turn I took a second to think and before I could answer my kids had thrown in GREAT thoughts about what my talents are. I had no idea that they thought that I'm a great baker, or a great writer, or anything else. That was the best part of the lesson for me. Very sweet.

Chris said that through his sense of humor he has been able to make people comfortable and make friends. He has been able to share the gospel and be a good example of our beliefs.

Morgan's 4th 7th Birthday Party

For her fourth and final 7 year old birthday party we headed out to my parent's house for her choice of birthday dinner. She, as you'll see all over Avery's face, choose spaghetti. And I choose to make a very simple cake with store bought frosting and sprinkles. It was a lovely, low stress, experience.

We started our day off at the zoo. There was no school because it was MLK day. We took AshAsh with us.

You might think that Avery is shirtless because we had spaghetti. You would be wrong. You is shirtless because she dressed herself and I didn't realize that all day long there was shirt under her jacket. I guess I'm just glad that it wasn't a hot day at the zoo, or we'd be Girls Gone Wild all over again.

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.