A new spring look

For my blog, that is. Sometimes I like to change up the look of my blog. I think that's pretty typical. I mean, sometimes as women we get a little tired of our surroundings. And I'd say a lot of us are on a budget so we can't run out and buy new furniture. So sometimes I just move the furniture around to make it feel like a new space. James helped me with said change in January.

Before
Notice all the crap behind the couch. Yuck.


The process...




After! So much room!

A couple of birthday projects I'm proud of

I saw a picture of this cake at the store and thought "I could make that!" so I did. The birthday banner was also inspired by a picture I saw. I like mine better than the picture.

The Cake

I started with two round cakes.
I cut ears and a nose out of one.

James helped me frost the whole thing with white
so there wouldn't be crumbs in the yellow frosting.
The food network was our inspiration, Ace of Cakes, to be exact.

Then we added ears and frosted it all.

This is the finished product. I used pretzels for the antler things,
jelly beans for the eyes,and black licorice for the nose and mouth.This is a picture of my inspiration. I'm not a real cake decorator so I decided to skip the piping.

This is a picture of my inspiration. I'm not a real cake decorator so I decided to skip the piping. It was a lot of fun to make and I was grateful for James' help and vote of confidence.



The Banner

Here's some pictures of the birthday sign I made. My friend Ashley has a Cricut and helped me cut out the flowers and letters and then I used ribbon to tie the letters in different ways to fun yarn.

I really love how it turned out, however I NEVER want to do this again. It took me way too long to put it all together. Not very many people saw it because it was inside. James I finally went to bed at 1 am. Dumb of us, I know.

Again, here's a picture of what I copy-catted. I love the cricut machine and I love knowing someone who has one so I don't have to buy one myself, considering I don't really scrap book so I would just be cutting out random letters and animals. It's the truth.

Lizzie's Party

I know I wrote about Lizzie's birthday already but I wanted to take a second and write about her party. Because everyone one year old needs a party!

James wasn't able to be there for most of Lizzie's party and that stressed me out. He's such a good decision maker. He knows that's my weak point and jumps in to help. So the night before her party James realized people would probably be expecting food since our invitation did say there might be a BBQ. When James said he wasn't going to be at the party because he was going to a Marriage seminar thingy training I decided not to do a BBQ by myself. But then, people would want food at noon on a Saturday in the sun.

I've already said I'm a horrible decision maker and I was supposed to pick what to have for lunch the next day. What would be the easiest? I don't know!! I finally decided on little sandwiches. I was crossing my fingers Costco would have a deli tray.

Saturday morning I got up, got ready, cleaned up again, and scrambled to the store while my mom watched the kids. I got back in time to start setting up. Luckily, Lauren came to help me. Lauren is in James' cohort at school and we've become quite good friends. Anyway, she helped me get everything downstairs. At the last minute I decided to have everyone come behind our building where there were a couple of picnic tables. If James had been there it wouldn't have been so confusing for me or everyone else.


I thought for sure Lizzie would cling to me the entire party and be sad if anyone else held her. I was gratefully mistaken. She ate lunch with Krystal and loved it.


Some of James' friends (from the cohort) stopped by for lunch while they were on a break. Glad they did. (left to right James, Carly, Lauren, Lindsey, Benton, James...again.)


The spread, thank you everyone who contributed.


Some guests at the party. If you went and don't see yourself here, I probably didn't get a good picture and don't want to humiliate you by posting it on my blog.


Before the cake mehem

Inspecting. Look closely and you'll notice she's stolen an antler

I only let her have an ear of the giraffe.

And for good reason. Look at this girl!

Then we opened presents. Everything she got was dang cute! Including this tutu, a hooded towel, a pink sundress, some onesies and outfits.




She did spend a little time with me. I liked it.

Lizzie turns one!!!

I'm so happy to celebrate my sweet little girl's birthday. Every day I have her here on Earth I thank Heavenly Father I do. Someone once told me "Once you have kids, you'll wonder what life was like without them." I never want to go back. The joy my children bring to me doesn't have words.

I've had some rough days lately with Edin struggling to control his little boy temptations, James being so busy with school and clients, and being home by myself with the kids so much. I guess I just feel like my life is out of balance somewhere but I can't quite put my finger on it.

That's not the point of this blog. I don't really know how to make a one year old feel special but I wanted to try. Lizzie isn't quite walking yet so I decided to spend the day holding her hands and walking around with her. Edin decided to spend the day squishing, poking, body slamming, and annoying poor Lizzie. Probably just his way of saying "Happy Birthday Lizzie." What a big brother! James was able to make it home for a few hours and spend some time with us. It was wonderful. We kept the day pretty low-key. We went to Costco and a ward party. It doesn't get much more low-key than that...

The party is Saturday so I'm going to use most of that day making Lizzie feel special and birthday ish. For Edin's birthday I made pinatas. Oh man, talk about time consuming. But it make me happy to do something special for his first birthday. So for Lizzie I've made this really cute Happy Birthday sign with a cricut and I'm making her a giraffe cake.

I just wanted to say first birthdays are so special. Sometimes birthdays get treated as just another year passing. But for a baby, a year is a long time! So much changes and progresses. Not to mention all the physical things they have to overcome to even survive that long. How many babies died while crossing the plains or how many young children did Joseph Smith lose? I never want to take for granted a single day I get to be with and take care of my angels. How lucky am I to be the mother of some of Heavenly Father's most valiant spirits? I can testify that Edin and Elizabeth were SO anxious to come to Earth. I know the wait must have been hard. They have a good work to do here though. There is much to do.

Lizzie, I love you. You are beautiful, and clever, and loving and kind. Your siblings are lucky to have you. The world is lucky to have you in it. Never forget that you are the Daughter of a King. Your worth is immeasurable. Someday you will inherit the Earth. I'm so blessed to get to see you through it.

Sweet Family Together time; the best way to spend a birthday.


I guess Lizzie can pick up a plate and smash it on her face to get a banana.


Sometimes they do cute things together.


It snowed on her birthday. Sad.