Kenzie's bday!

Kenzie, my firstborn child turned 14 years old on November 21. I just can't believe how quickly the years seem to whiz by. It seems like just yesterday they placed her in my arms for the first time and now in one year she'll have a learners permit and be learning to drive a car! she's a great kid and she's been having a great year this year. She has a 4.0 GPA and a much better attitude this year than last and I thank God for that. Not that she's ever been a bad kid, because she hasn't. She had a few friends over (allison isn't pictured because she had to leave a little early) but anyway they went to walmart separated into 2 teams and did a scavenger hunt based on the letters in Kenzie's name like K: Is blue. Scented. smaller than a soda can. Then they had 10 dollars to buy the most things they could and only 5 could be food. It was fun and she also choseto not do cake, only ice cream. She's such a beautiful young woman I don't know wher she gets it!!!! hapy Birthday Kenzie!

Night Out...

Also for Celia's bday she got to go out to dinner with her dad and me and her grandparents to Mimi's Cafe. It was very fun for her. I did her hair all pretty and then tried to take a picture of us but in like 5 tries she just kept looking off! It was funny. I would take the picture show it to her and then tell her, "Look at the camera!!" "I will, I will!!" she'd say. Then well, you can see. My attempts never quite worked out! After dinner I took her to see Michael Jackson's, This Is It, which she was also thrilled about. She love MJ and Kenzie had gone to a sneak peak with a friend and her family and then Shad and I went to see it teh next weekend and she figured she wouldn't get to see it. She loved it, she loves music and dancing!

Celia 11 part 2

I'm so bad! These are pictures from Celia's birthday treat. She decided after doing all the cakes the day before she just wanted brownie sundaes for the family party. They were yummy and she was thrilled! It was a fun weekend with Celia! :) I still can't belive she's 11!

Doing alot with a little...

Becca, our little inventor, after her shower the other day was combing her hair in the bathroom while I helped Jillian get dressed. She came out in teh above fashion. "Look Mom, I'm a bunny!" LOL So freaking cute! She's got an imagination on her and can often make so much out of something so dumb or little. I love that about her! Those are two combs, in case you couldn't tell! Cute girl!!! :D

PS...sorry I suck at blogging lately. With all I'm doing it's crazy!!! I'll try to be better!

Ace of Cake's!

I spent all day yesterday baking cakes. I made 8 - 3 tiered mini cakes for Celia's birthday party today. She loves to watch Food Network and TLC and loves Cake Challenge, Ace of Cakes, and Cake Boss so we put our heads together and decided on an Ace of Cakes party. We bought mini cake pans in three sizes and 8 cake mixes to fill them. She chose milk chocolate cake after much debate in the cake aisle. I thought the debate time was a little excessive but I was informed that it was an important decision and there were many decisions, ie; Lemon, German chocolate (which I was told she'd never tried - NOT TRUE) Carrot Cake (Nasty), and 4 or 5 different flavors of chocolate. Well anyway, you get the stress level involved here, right?

So anyway I baked lovingly and then leveled, wrapped in aluminum foil and froze 24 cake layers. Each cake had to be cooked individually (all 3 layers at once) because we only bought one set of pans. They weren't that pricey but when you're looking at buying 8 - well....

This morning I took Celia to get her hair done and her nails done and then when we got home around noon I began making buttercream frosting. 8 pounds of confectioners sugar 8 cups of butter/crisco and 24 ounces of heavy whipping cream plus vanilla and salt and VOILA! A kitchen full of frosting. And would it be too terribly vain to say that my frosting was absolutely delicious? Cuz it was...OMG! Sooooo goood! The girls (who wanted to just skip the knives and eat it by the spoonfull lol) gave it rave reviews and I've had parents ask for the recipe. So anyway - yeah, apparently I make good buttercream frosting! Yippee! I was kinda proud - bet you can't tell...I'm the mistress of subtlety.

My friend Sharon came and taught the girls how to make flowers and borders and smooth their layers etc and it was a super fun day that I think Celia enjoyed completely which was the plan! All 8 of her invitee's attended and they were too cute!

BTW - I'd like to point out that the OMG above is OMGosh...not the other. It's mormon abbrevation. Just FYI

Oh - and one more thing, Celia got to have an 11th bday party because we just didn't give her her 10th last year. There wasn't any reason except we just didn't so she got hers this year! Generaly we only do 10 and 12.

Alll the love in the world

Right here in this photograph. I was looking at pictures and thought how very blessed I am. Seriously, what an amazing family I've been gifted with. I'm living my dreams now more than ever and I couldn't be happier. My awesome hubby is supportive and wonderful and my girls, well, they're so fun to have. This picture was taken at Shad's awesome Omniture Halloween party. And Awesome is an enormous understatement for that party. It was 2 buildings full of living in the movies and TV...just soooo much fun! Man how I love these treasures... <3

Paige

It came to my attention that I never posted a picture of our gorgeous Paige with her requested spider birthday cake that I made. So here's are little sunshine! Not bad...it's only days away from Celia's bday. She's come so far this year and we're so proud of her. She's doing great in school and at home. Love you Paigey!