Napping

After a very long afternoon my baby girl finally fell asleep on my stomach while I was reading my book and miraculously went back to sleep after I transferred her to the bed. Gotta love 'em!

More Pictures and Another Cake

We have another birthday coming up but with family coming in to town for a reunion, we decided to celebrate today, so here are a couple pics of my latest, but definitely not greatest, cake. The little gal wanted a chocolate cake, so we did a chocolate fudge cake and frosting with fresh chopped raspberries for filling.

I wanted to do a bow again and try some of the funky edged cutters, so I let Karalie pick her favorite color (I know it looks wierd, but it is really red) and went at it. I also tried the quilted look this time, but due to lack of preparation, time and forethought this cake just didn't turn out like I had imagined. But that is how we learn and get better and hopefully I will get another chance to make a fantastic cake for this little lady.

Both kiddos ready for church - such cute kids!

Big brother posing with little sister - I have to post this story somewhere so I won't forget when this happened so here goes: yesterday was a long day. Good, but very long and Mommy was REALLY tired by the end and had little patience. Well, Sam was getting ready for bed and decided to wipe his poopy bum on the carpet instead of with a wet wipe and so frustrated, tired Mommy yelled. Of course he went in running to Daddy and as I was trying to calm down, I hear from the kitchen in a teary voice "Mommy doesn't love me anymore" Isn't that so sad? I think Sam has been having a harder time adjusting to Amy than I have realized because he has relapsed on staying dry both during the day and at night and now this. So I am now resolved to have greater patience for my son and make a greater effort to give him extra time and attention from Mommy.

Amy looked so beautiful in this dress for church today! But the silky fabric sure does make them hard to hold on to!

My angel girl sleeping the day away after an afternoon of shopping. Amy had a blowout so intense that we had to buy her a new outfit (I'm a little rusty at being prepared for such events) but it was fun to have an excuse to buy her a new very pretty sundress.

I had to post a pic of Amy in her rainbow dress after doing the rainbow cake. Robert's mom got this for Amy for Christmas and it is just so adorable!!

The Big Reveal

I think she liked it, what do you think? :) I think she was just mostly excited that it was HER cake, but I like to think that when she looks back at these pictures years later she will be reminded of the awesome cake her aunt made for her because she is so loved! Happy 3rd birthday, Camilla!

The Rainbow Cake

My little niece who is turning three this year loves Rainbow Brite, so when I offered to decorate a cake for her, my sister and I decided rainbow should be the theme. So here is a glimpse of the stuff I did on Monday. My sister made the cake and the frosting underneath. She has this awesome book of stuff you can add to cake mixes to jig things up a bit, so this is a three layer strawberry cake with coconut and peacans and strawberry cream cheese icing, I think.

And here are several pictures of the finished product. I know it is busy - super busy. But first off, I had alot of mistakes to cover up. Second of all I had made alot of things to use and lastly, I thought the more I put on the cake the more excited the little gal will be.

Some new things I tried with this cake were the curly Q's. To do these you wrap the fondant/gumpaste strips around dowels and let them dry. It was pretty fun, but I didn't realize that two days wouldn't be enough drying time, so they were a little tough to work with. Something to remember for next time. The other thing I tried was pearl dust. It's difficult to see in the pictures, but basically it adds a shimmer. I did it on the blue fondant and on the rainbows and I think it really added that last little punch.

I sure hope she likes her cake, but most likely she will. Another niece has her birthday next week, but with two family reunions and Amy's blessing coming right up I think we are planning on keeping it a little simpler. My thoughts were to do a square cake and try the quilted look with little pearls and maybe a big bow on top in her favorite color. We'll have to see!

Random Pic's

Here's just a few pictures from the last week or so. The local library is doing a summer reading program. Sam and I read for 20 mins a day (or at least try for every day) and today was the first prize day. He was pretty excited about the hat as you can see!

And two sleeping pictures of Amy. She still does alot of this - which Mommy loves! (see how much we use the blanket you made, Andrea? I love it!!)

Finally one with her eyes open. She was so serious this day, but we love the smiles she gives freely. Sam gets so excited when he is playing with her and she smiles at him.

And just a silly picture of Sam - don't really remember why I had the camera out

Home Decorating

Yesterday we had a fun day here with the Potter gals since the Daddys were in Utah having a guys weekend. We were able to get some great stuff done here that I have been dying to get around to like putting up the vinyl sayings my MIL cut out for us when she was visiting a while back. The top picture is the saying in the hallway down to the bedrooms.

Next is my family wall which I am SOOO excited about finally getting around to putting together!! This is what you see when you walk in the front door. This vinyl has been waiting for over a year to make its appearance on the wall, but I have been so scared to do it alone and have it get messed up and that is what everyone sees when they come to our home. When Robert gets back we will put up the 11X14 family picture below the saying and then below that will be 5X7's of our children, including Kaylie. I have some vinyl that says "Our Angel in Heaven" to put around Kaylie's picture but I can't decide if I want to put it on the wall or try and get a frame wide enough to have it on the frame. I think I want to go with on the frame because I think the best idea for spacing the kids' pictures is to mark 5 nail spaces and right now we can put the current three kids in the center and then move them over as we add more kiddos to the clan.

Also eventually I would like to have two black shelves on either side of the family picture to put my Willow Tree figurines on one and our molds from Kaylie's hands and feet on the other and then have the top of the piano cleared off.

And finally we have my laundry room. I love the color this adds and the saying has always made me smile because as moms we really do spend alot of time doing the chores like laundry, cooking, and cleaning and this helps me to remember it is a part of life and I need to do my best to enjoy it.

We were also able to do a ton of laminating with my sister's machine and we also worked on the baby quilt I am making for a friend trying to figure out the placement of the pieces within the quilt. Thanks so much to Auntie Corinne and the girls for joining us yesterday - it was a blast ending with personal pizzas and homemade butterscotch ice cream!!

Not Much Happening

So not much has been going on lately. Just trudging on through one day at a time. Little Amster is doing well, she is six weeks old today. We are now free of the nipple shield and I have figured out that my children's unique isuue is they don't know how to stop eating. I am thinking this is why Sam spit up so much, but it is just a theory. I started limiting Amy to only 10 minutes on each side and things are going swell. She doesn't spit up hardly at all if we stick to the 10 minute rule and she is on a fairly regular schedule of eating every 3 hours with a longer stretch at night of 4 to 6 hours. Sometimes we even get a long stretch during the day, too, which is so nice for when we are trying to run errands! She has her periods of wakefulness, but still sleeps alot and we are starting to see smiles both when she is awake and when she is sleeping - the best part of being a mommy!
Sam still loves his baby sister so much and both of us are adjusting to how to keep him entertained while Mommy takes care of baby Amy. Robert is really excited for this weekend of fishing/other guy stuff with my dad and the other brothers-in-law in the family. I'm going to be making two cakes here shortly. First off I am making the Almost Too Much Chocolate Cake for Robert and Ben on Father's Day and then I am plotting out how to decorate the cake for my niece's birthday. Her mommy is making the cake and I will be decorating it going along the lines of Rainbow Brite. I have the fondant made and colored so far and I think Saturday I will start working on the rainbows and stars. The thing I want to try with this cake is wrapping strips of fondant around dowels to try, making super cute curly Q's. Pictures will come once it all comes together! Hope you all have an enjoyable weekend appreciating our Daddios!

Pictures of Amy

We got Amy all dolled up on Friday and decided to take a few pictures! This is actually not an outfit, the dress came with little green leggings, but she pooped on them and so we added the cute brown pants and headband - so cute!!

This is during one of her awake times and she was making all sorts of funny faces, but they can be hard to capture with the camera if you aren't ready! Hope you enjoy the faces of Amy!

Gotta love how silly babies look when they get cross-eyed - which is alot!!

She loves to hold her arms out like this when she isn't swaddled - go cheerleader!

Bathy time! She still hates it, but Mommy loves a clean-smelling baby!

My sweet angel sleeping the day away. I had laid her in the boppy on her back and during her snooze she worked her way a quarter turn over to where she was on her side (not rolled over, but moved her upper body from 12 o'clock position to 3 o'clock position) she obviously likes sleeping like her momma!