Amy is 1 year old!

 The yummy, delicious cake! It was sooo good! I haven't been feeling well lately, so there was no super duper decorating going on, but Amy didn't really care. It was a two layer cake and each layer was a brownie bottom with strawberry cake on top. The filling and frosting was a cream cheese icing with Cool Whip mixed in and fresh sliced strawberries in the filling and on top. As I said, YUM!

 Getting started with opening her presents. We had some of Robert's cousins who are up at college over for dinner and some family friends join us for presents and cake/ice cream - really low-key.

 And big brother was happy to help her open each present and then quickly move on to the next, even if Amy wasn't ready.

 I know this top one is dorky of me, but if you look at Amy in the top and then the bottom, you can see how happy she is with that ball! I thought it was a pretty sweet find for only $2.50 at Target and it was shiny and a somewhat girly ball (we have loads of boy balls, but this is the first girly ball)

 More books - we love reading!

 And a bag of new summer clothes

 Wondering what is next

 Opening her birthday card from Oma and Opa (my parents)

 Checking out the $2 bill and reading the inside

And I don't know why/how, but this is the only picture we got of her getting ready to eat the cake. (which is exactly why I am usually the one behind the camera - now you understand!) But as you can see by the look on her face, she was quite excited and she had a great time remembering how yummy cake is!

Birthday Buddies

 So I have a friend from high school who had her baby three days before I had Amy and now they live in Rexburg. Since their birthdays are so close together, we decided to get together for dinner and to do smash cakes together. Both Amy and I woke up this morning sick and have had a rough day, so there was no super cute decorating going on and a LOT of screaming this afternoon. But I was able to get them ready to go and Jamison's mommy brought dinner, which was so nice!

 Here they are getting ready to dig in. The cake was brownie on the bottom and strawberry cake on top with Cool Whip frosting and mini M&M's for the decor. It turned out really well because the recipe for this cake was for three 9 inch layers, so I took the third layer and split it into two 6 inch pans for the smash cake and we still have the other two layers for when we have other friends/family come over on Sunday for cake/ice cream and presents.

 Jamison was a little more seasoned, since his birthday was the day before, but Sam was happy to help get Amy going :)

 Amy has figured out that this is something yummy!

 Diggin in with more enthusiasm now

 Checking on each other's progress

 We must have been getting too loud for Amy, because suddenly she stuck her fingers in her ears

 I think she enjoyed her first experience with cake. We'll have to see how long it takes her to remember when we go at it again in a few days :)

Tagged

So, since I obviously have nothing better to do, I am going to do this "tagged" thing my sister did so maybe a few of you can get to know me a bit better. Especially since most of the time my blogging is all about my kids.

1. Post these rules. 
2. Post a photo of yourself and a few random facts.
3. Answer the questions set for you by me.

Ok, I can't believe it, but this is the last picture I have of myself. You want to know when this was taken? November 17th of last year! I guess I'm kinda camera shy. That and add in the fact that I am the one taking the pictures 99% of the time and it just ends up being very few pictures. So don't laugh! (Sam was terrified of this "Little" Critter character BTW)

Random Facts

• I like to watch "Prison Break" and "Numb3rs" on Netflix right now, but some other shows I have enjoyed are "Bones", "Grey's Anatomy", "Psych", "Cake Boss", and "Monk"
• I am quite shy when it comes to meeting new people. Robert always gets after me when I complain about no one talking to me or sitting next to me at events such as RS and ward activities because I don't sit next to anyone or talk to anyone and just expect them to come to me. But once I get to know you, LOOK OUT!!
• My plan for college was to do nursing school, but if I didn't get in right away I was going to do cosmetology and then try again to get in to nursing after I finished. I would still really like to do this someday, but time and money aren't in great supply these days to do it.
• I was really glad to get married before I turned 21 because then I didn't have to face the decision about going on a mission. (Weird thing to be grateful about, I know!)
• I love to read and can be crazy about it (like spending all day reading a book I am really into and ignoring everything else around me), but there are some books that I simply cannot read and probably never will. Titles in this category (ok, please don't stone me!) would include self-help books, works by Jane Austen, autobiographies, inspirational books, etc. (it has to have a PLOT!)

And the person who tagged me (Candace) didn't give me a list of questions from her to me, so I will just answer the questions she answered on her tag:

• If you had to pick 1 thing to eat for the rest of your life, what'd it be?

This one is truly tough. I think strawberries would definitely be in the top ten.

• If you could be any celebrity, who would you be?

I don't know very many celebrities, so this is kinda stupid for me. But I would like to be a classy actress who's done a ton of cool movies like Sandra Bullock or Julia Roberts. 

• What would you do with $5000, if you had to spend it all in 1 day?

I'm sure I could find SOMEWHERE to spend all that dough. It would be fun to go on a major shopping trip and buy all the things I have ever wanted (and sadly enough it would probably just about cover it)  BUT being the Mommy I am, it would probably go towards something for the family like a yard or toys we could enjoy together like 4-wheelers or a boat or something.

• What is your favorite scent? (perfume)

The one perfume I have is Eternity by Calvin Klein and I love it; I also really like Pure Seduction & Love Spell from Victoria's Secret. (I know, not perfume, but it is a scent!) 

• If you could change your name, what would you change it to?

I would love to have a name that has a cute, fun, short nickname OR I would change it to a name I love that my husband won't let me name one of my children, like Olivia.

• Chocolate or Fruit Candy?

Depends on the kind, but I usually go for fruity when it comes to ice cream and such.

• What is your favorite day of the week?

Sunday is the only day I can count on my husband being home and spending time together as a family. Couple that with shared cooking/child-tending responsibilities and it leads me to vote Sunday as my favorite.

• What is your favorite restaurant?

It depends on my mood, but almost every single time you can expect me to say "Yes! Yes! Yes!" to Johnny Carino's or Red Robin.


Now it's time for me to tag some other peeps to do this little get-to-know-you-thingy:
Carli A. & Tenika D. & Andrea B. & Julie P. & Julie B. & Eleanor R. 


Answer the questions above plus these two:

• Where did you meet/tell us the story of you and your hubby?
• Book you last read or are reading now and what you thought/think of it?

Getting Closer

Our little Amy is getting closer to walking every day. Here is a little video of her using the walking toy we found when Sam was her age for $2 at DI. She hasn't really been thrilled with this toy since she dumped it over on herself the first time she tried it out, but yesterday I finally got her to start walking around with it a little more and she is starting to realize that she just may enjoy using it to get around :)

 The other day Sam was down for a nap and I was just letting Amy do her thing, but then I realized it was really quiet and all moms know that if it is quiet, that means there's trouble about. And that day was no exception. Someone (which would me) had left a box of cereal within reach and Amy thought she would take advantage of the situation.

 Scenes like this are not uncommon in our house these days, whether it is books, clothes, or food, Amy is usually surrounded in something. Gotta love this stage! One of her favorite things to do is to head over to the laundry room where Daddy takes off his muddy boots and she eats the dirt clods. Truly eats them! Her mud mouth reminds me so much of our first trip to Mexico and my then-baby brother, Daniel, would eat the sand on the beach by the mouthful.

It's hard to believe that this little Miss is going to be turning 1 year this weekend! We are excited for the milestone, but passes so quickly! Robert groaned when we were talking about birthday gifts last night and he realized that we are going to start doing "princess" everything :) Oh how things change!

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!!