Another Race

Nope, no pictures of the race this time, sorry! But I did want to post about it because I am quite proud of myself. This morning I ran my second 5K race ever (by myself, which was sad but not terrible. I had my Rascal Flatts to keep me running :) I was able to beat my old time by 8 minutes even though I did stop to walk a few times. So my time to beat for my next race is 35 minutes 9 seconds. I know I can do better next time because #1: I stopped to walk way too many times and #2: I didn't train very well the last couple of weeks and it kinda snuck up on me. So, I will be looking around for another race to run in the next month or so, so I can continue to improve and maybe, just maybe, I can build up this summer so I can reach my goal of running a 10K by the end of the year - we'll have to see! I'm hoping to get training harder since it will soon be possible for me to run outside (which is always easier than on the treadmill) and I just bought my first ever pair of real running shoes (don't ask how much they were, though, I'm still gasping for air!) and I hope they will help me to improve my running significantly!
The picture above is of the strawberries I got from Bountiful Baskets this week. They were $11 for a flat (which is 8 one pound boxes, making each $1.37) and I decided to get two flats to wash, hull, and put in the freezer - so excited for smoothie season!! Hope you all enjoy your weekend, I'm going to go read a book and take it easy for the rest of the day :)

Gumpaste Flowers Class Complete

 So my last Wilton cake decorating class has come to an end. But what a beautiful end it is! Here are some pictures to show the completed flowers we learned how to make. These first two are different angles of the same stargazer lily.

 Sweetbriar roses

 A sweet pea with some ivy leaves bunched with it.

 Small blossom flowers in a bunch.

And a picture of the second lily I did, but did not have time to finish taping the leaves on to. We also did stephanotis flowers and buds, but I forgot to take pictures of those. They are just a small, simple white flower. I was so excited to take this class that they just came out with this year! Thanks to my friend, Julie for getting me hooked on cake decorating (but to be honest, we both had really wanted to do the classes and thought it would be fun) and also a HUGE, HUGE thank-you to Tenika and Heidi who drove down from Rexburg to babysit my kids so I could go learn some more skills!

A Long, Long Day

 It has been a long day in many ways, but has also been a good day, too. Let me share with you the reasons why. First off, Robert decided to take Sam with him to work to give me a break today. For those of you who don't know, this is a huge deal and rarely ever happens. Sam was ecstatic!! It was great for him to get out, spend time with Daddy and be away from Mommy for a while.

 Then, thanks to ever so sweet and thoughtful friends and family for the beautiful flowers that were brought over. The top are from my friend in the ward who just had a baby, meaning her life is just crazy right now. It meant so much to me (yes, I did start to cry) to know that she had taken the time out of her busy day to reach out to us. The bottom ones are from my sister, Candace and are simply gorgeous!

 And who's day wouldn't be brightened with seeing this sweet little one start to stand on her own? (No, not in this picture, but she did stand all by herself today for almost a minute, twice!) And then laugh and giggle?

 And if that isn't enough, how about the itty-bitty ponytail Mommy tried out? Or the pretty spring outfit given to her by a friend for Easter? If you really look, there really are many reasons to see why it has been a good day, too.

Side of the cake

But the reasons why it was a long day were #1 - today is the 3rd anniversary of our little Kaylie passing away and #2 I spent almost the entire day working on this birthday cake. It was so fun to try, but I also spent WAY too much time on things I probably should have just let go. But it was all worth it when I heard that little six-almost-seven-year-old's squeal of excitement when she saw her birthday cake for tomorrow. I am really pleased with how it came out and I learned alot of things NOT to do (like rolling white fondant after rolling black and not washing your hands in between).

It May Not Be the Best Day When....

You find this.....

And the best part? It's not even my baby and happened within 30 minutes of her arriving at our house for the day - great :) Hope yours is a better one!

More Cakes

I am so excited! I have been asked to do two cakes this week for different people in my ward! The first is for a girl turning 9 who had asked her mom for a surfboard cake. Originally her mom told her no and then when I approached her and asked if she would like me to make a cake, she told me to just do something simple but yummy. As I looked online at other people's ideas I found myself thinking "Hey, that wouldn't be too hard to do". I still had some Hawaiian flowers and blue piping gel and candy rocks left over from the waterfall cake I did last August, so it came together really nicely. I really hope she likes it! The cake is a cream cheese pound cake with cream cheese frosting and seedless raspberry freezer jam filling - so yum!
Happy Amy in her new crocks and shorts. It's been fairly warm here lately, but not quite summer yet.
Sam with his scraped up knees from falling off the scooter Uncle Jake let him borrow for the summer.
And one last one of Amy in those adorable shorts that just compliment her chubby little legs. She stands up to everything but is still too chicken to walk as of yet.

Cake, Easter, and Seats

Cute little Amy in one of her many dresses.
Robert's sister-in-law, Stacey graduated from BYU-Idaho this last week - hooray! I was honored to make this surprise cake in her honor. It is red velvet with cream cheese icing. The blossom flowers and Gerbera Daisies are the flowers we learned to make in my first class of the Wilton Advanced Gumpaste Flowers course.

And because we had Grandma here to visit, we decided to try out the Rigby easter egg hunt. It wasn't too terrible. There was mainly candy and Sam just kind of stood there watching all the other kids pick up stuff, but I think he had a good time and I was glad to do something together and away from home.
Amy dressed appropriately for the hunt :) I did the ressurection cookies with Sam on Saturday night even though I knew he wouldn't understand most of it. He seemed to like it and we were able to have a nice family dinner with yummy food and good chatting that evening. Grandma left Monday to finish her trip visiting other family and doing a wedding cake but we were so glad to have her visit for a few days.

The rest of the week has been spent getting used to having a new friend in our home. I am babysitting a 5/6 month old baby girl because her regular babysitter is having her baby this week. Thankfully it will only be through the end of May, maybe a week or two into June (her Mommy is a school teacher). It has been a real challenge having two babies so close, yet so far apart. And somehow in all the mayhem of two babies competing for my arms and attention I have finally finished the seats for Robert's sand rail. I will have to get a final pic once he puts them in so you can see the finished rail, but the seats turned out ok I think. Definitely not professional, but functional and I think they will last pretty well. I'm just glad to have this project done so I can move on to easier and more enjoyable projects!! Tomorrow is my day off from babysitting, so we are going to make the most of it with a trip to Rexburg to show some college friends how to make jam, a quick trip to the salon for me to get my hair highlighted for summer and maybe a trip to the eye doctor for new contacts if all goes well. Wish us luck!!

Sick Week

Sorry for no posts, we have been sick at our house. First Robert, then Sam, then me and thankfully Amy barely got anything at all. I think I was hit the hardest, although Sam did end up with an ear infection right after being sick - poor kid! So now we are back to the usual. This week is Spring Break for the schools in our area, which means Sam hasn't had preschool. We have tried to make the most of the beautiful weather by playing at parks with friends, trying our hand at kickball, and practicing for soccer with his new red soccer ball.
And little miss Amy has just sprouted into the bumps and bruises stage. In one day she fell five times! Thankfully there was no major damage and with a little Arnica those bruises went right away. So we are now keeping an extremely close eye on our little princess. She has gotten very verbal lately and loves to chat with whoever will chat back.
This week I started another cake decorating class. This class is a new one offered by Wilton and is learning advanced gumpaste flowers. It is really fun to be doing some cake decorating again and I'm looking forward to putting my new skills to work for the state fair in September.

This weekend Robert's sister-in-law, Stacey, is graduating with her bachelor's degree from BYU-I - yay Stacey!! We are so excited for her and graduation plus a wedding next week (one of his cousins) means a visit from Grandma! She is supposed to arrive tonight and we are all really excited to have her come! Have an enjoyable weekend and Easter!