Here's to future dreams

So for those of you that know me, you know that I love baking. More recently I've really wanted to get into cake decorating. My sister has also decided to get into cake decorating. We both would like to take the Wilton classes at Michaels and hope to do so soon. Once we perfect it we would love to open up our own little wedding business. Cindy and I would do cakes, our sister in law Kate would do Photography and I think Trevor would learn about flowers and do arrangements, or he can handle the financial aspect of it. There would be more involved, I think we would offer chair covers, table cloths, etc. Anyway, back to the baking. I only have 1 pastry bag and 3 tips right now but I do what I can with it. My husband I think is starting to hate my desire to learn cake decorating because it means that I make cake a lot, which if you know us, you know we don't need it at all.

Today instead of cleaning like I should have done I decided to make cookies. I made oatmeal banana chocolate chip cookies and sugar cookies. The sugar cookies were in the shape of footballs, or at least what was supposed to be a football. Some of them turned out more circular that I would have liked but they were tasty. I'm trying to perfect buttercream and decorating with buttercream. My sister tends to like working with fondant more so I figure it's probably good that each of us likes working with a different medium. This is the plate I'll send with my husband to work tomorrow. Since we don't all this food sitting around in our house, sending it to work with him is the perfect solution! I just hope the people he works with don't get tired of the baked goods. A girl's gotta practice!!!

To add or not to add

So a couple of months ago I logged onto facebook one day and noticed I had a friend request. My interest was piqued as it always is when there is a friend request. I open up the notification to see that the request has come from someone that I am none too happy with. OK, lets back up a bit. We will call this person Miss X. 

A few years ago one of my brothers met a girl online. They chatted back and forth for I don't know how long. She had questions about the church and my brother answered whenever she did. Eventually he flew out to where she lived and they met, he baptized her once she decided she wanted to become a member. I thought she was a nice girl, my brother seemed to like her and all seemed well. This particular brother of mine is very smart and picks things up quickly. An opportunity arose for him to go to work with one of my great uncles doing surveying for cell sites in the south and it eventually took him up and down the east coast. This provided him the opportunity to spend a lot of time with Miss X. Along the way I think they started dating and I do believe they started falling in love with each other. Now, I'm not so sure what happened but Miss X decided to go back to her husband. My reaction??? WAIT!!! HOLD THE PHONE!!! SHE'S MARRIED!?!?!?!? Ya, I was shocked to say the least. So Miss X captured my brothers heart and then threw it on the ground and did the Mexican Hat Dance on it. If there is one thing you don't do, it's mess with my brothers! You will forever be on my bad side. 

My brother finishes working for this particular company and comes back home only to say that he's decided he's not going on a mission. Which is fine but then he takes a turn down a path I didn't see coming. Now, I understand that my brother is a big boy and he's responsible for his decisions but part of me blames Miss X for screwing with his heart and head and ultimately sending him to the lifestyle that he led for awhile. He knows how I feel about her, I've told him as much. 

OK, so fast forward to me opening the notification. I think to myself, OH HELL NO!!! I denied that request faster than I could read her whole name. Why on earth was she trying to add me as a friend? About a month later I was at my sister's house (where this particular brother happens to live as well) and she mentions she got a request from Miss X to be a friend on facebook as well. She denied her. Now this brother of mine said she had started texting him and he wasn't replying and she tried to request him as friend and ultimately he added her. So now, she has again requested to by my friend. I don't understand why. Why is she trying to come back into our lives? My brother pretty much wants nothing to do with her yet he added her so here I am, do I deny her because of my dislike or do I "add" her because my brother did and if he can add her then why can't I? The request has been sitting there as I'm not sure what to do. It wasn't my life she screwed with but like I said, DON'T MESS WITH MY BROTHERS!!!!

Palisade Trip

My sister and brother in law live in Ephraim, UT. It's about 2 hours give or take from my husband and I but close to a nice state park. Alex, my husband, grew up fishing and LOVES it. He in turn got my brother in law James hooked (no pun intended). Last weekend Alex and I went down to visit Cindy, James, my 2 nieces and my brother Erik. James and Alex were going to go fishing at a place called 9 Mile and Cindy, myself and the kids were going to join them a little later. They called and asked us to bring a few things but also mentioned how bad the insects were. I wasn't about to take my 4 month old son out to get eaten alive. So Cindy and I decided it would be best if we stayed home, it was also a perfect excuse to work on our mad cake decorating skills. :) Well, as we're heading to drop off the stuff to the guys, they call again and tell us they're just going to go to Palisade. They were tired of the bugs and nothing was biting. So, Cindy and I, after a few hiccups, go with them and decide to rent a canoe. Erik had gone golfing that morning at Palisade so I called him to let him know we were all there and we had a canoe. It was a little comical because he said he wanted to go out in a canoe so bad. We spent the day out there and I burned but we had such a great time. It was such a beautiful day. I will truly miss my sister and her family when they move to Las Vegas in a couple of months.

And the 1st pick of the 1st round of the 1st primetime is.......

Sam Bradford!!!! Lets hope the Rams do better this year than they did last year. Unfortunately for my husband, he loves the Rams so the past SEVERAL of years have been rather disappointing for him. Lucky for me when they do loose, it's not a big deal, he expects it. I don't know much about the NFL draft or how it works so it was interesting to watch it tonight. Well, I kind of watched it. So for those of you that know me, I have this passion for making cakes and learning to decorate. I'm a newby to all of the decorating side of things but it's become a hobby. So, I spent my night making and decorating a cake in honor of the draft.

Now like I said, I am new to the whole decorating thing and I don't have a lot of tools but I had fun. So with that being said, here is my final product, don't laugh....

I was pretty impressed with myself. I think I'm most proud of the NFL logo. It took the most time (obviously). I love football season and can't wait for the fall! I told my husband the next time we move we need to move to a city where there is a professional football team. I would love to take our son to a game!

4 Months

My sweet boy is 4 months old today. He had his doctor appointment this afternoon and we learned that he is 16 lbs, 4 oz (85th percentile), his head is 43.1 cm (75 percentile...a jump from the 45 we were at 2 months ago) , and he is 26.3 in long (95th percentile).  What it boils down to is my little man is the average size of a 6 1/2 month old. But, the dr. said that he's doing well, everything looks great he's just going to be tall. No surprise there. My dad, all 3 brothers and my husband are all over 6 feet tall. I'm hoping for a football player out of this one but we'll see what he wants to do as he gets older. Along with his appointment he received another round of immunization shots. Luckily it was only 2 shots and an oral one that they give. He doesn't ever cry the first time but it's the second shot that gets him every time. Once they're done I just pick him up and within a minute or so he calms down. I love that my dr lets me stay in the room as long as I need to feed him after the shots, it's nice not having to rush and deal with a crying baby.

I tried giving him apples the other day and well, Little Man isn't quite sure what to make of solids yet. I think I'll hold off for a couple of weeks and try it again. In the mean time, breast feeding it is! I am looking forward to solids though for many reasons. I'm going to try and make my own baby food, we'll see how that goes.

Easter

This year it was Erick's first Easter. I figured with him being all of only 3 months old we wouldn't do anything special for him and I don't really regret it. I would have eaten all of the candy and he's not quite into playing with toys yet. Next year, I will definitely be all over the Easter thing and I'm really excited!

Alex and I went down to James and Cindy's place for Easter/Conference weekend. We got there Friday night and waited up for Trevor and Kate to get in. It was so nice to have all my siblings together, minus Paul. He was greatly missed! But what can you do when you're serving the Lord in Mexico!? Saturday Justin and Susan came down with baby Cooper and they guys all went paint balling. It seems to become a monthly thing. We go down and they paint ball then we have an awesome BBQ. Nothing like slow cooked ribs, hamburgers, hot dogs, potatoes and of course it wouldn't be complete without rice for James. After a quick bite to eat on the guys end, they rushed off to the priesthood session of conference while the girls watched "The Blind Side". I'm still receiving grief for watching that without my husband. Good movie though. I think I will buy it. Oh and on a side note, I also just watched "All About Steve" and thought it was hilarious! I will also buy that movie. I love Sandra Bullock! Stupid Jesse James...

Ok, so back to Easter weekend. We've always had a tradition of making waffles the Sunday morning of Conference but since James isn't a huge fan Cindy decided to make baked oatmeal. I say she should have stuck with waffles because James didn't even eat the baked oatmeal! He ate the BBQ from the night before because he didn't get to enjoy it. However, the baked oatmeal was awesome as always. It's a nice twist on a breakfast dish. I was in charge of Easter lunch (since Kate and Trevor had to hit the road to go back to Vegas) and thus I missed most of the first session of conference Sunday morning. It paid off though. Lunch was good! We had twice baked potatoes, ham, oatmeal rolls and green beans. Cindy made a shortcake and I brought down strawberries for strawberry shortcake. What a perfect end to a great weekend.

I love when we all get together. There is nothing better than family. The first weekend in May is my niece, Emjae's birthday. Everyone will be back for that and I can't wait!

Temple

Tomorrow Alex and I are going to the temple. I am really excited since we haven't been for awhile. In all honesty I really hate to admit that because I never thought I would be one of those people who lived in Utah and didn't utilize the fact that there are temples everywhere you turn. I mean come on, from where I live you can see 3 temples from the freeway. I really want to try harder to at least attend once a month with my husband and I'm working on the whole going by myself thing. I haven't done it yet for a few reasons but mainly, I don't exactly have anyone to watch Erick while I go so there is the biggest problem. I do have a sitter for him tomorrow evening and it will be good, I'm determined to make it good!