frequent updates

If any of you would like more frequent updates, check out the new blog... crossabilities.blogspot.com

I have been much more consistent over there, and I think it's cuter. :) haha Alright, have fun! happy reading!

Playing Catch...up.

Hey there everyone!

IF anyone is actually reading this, then I commend you for your patience. I realized I haven't posted anything on here since October, so thanks for sticking by me even though I wasn't updating anything!

In a quick wrap-up, I went to Utah in November for Doug's wedding. I made his wedding cake and decorated his wedding cupcakes. It was nice to see so many family and friends and we had a wonderful time!

December came and went in what seems like a whirlwind! We had a lovely Christmas with JJ's parents and rang in 2010 with them, as well. You'd think we were a bunch of old people just saying hello to another day! JJ fell asleep around 9 pm while trying to calm down the kids that were scared of the fireworks outside. JJ's dad said "Happy New Year" and went to bed, and JJ's mom and I sat back and realized how pitiful we are! So, Here's to 2010!

January was nearly uneventful. Mason turned 2 and we were able to celebrate at the Cabin with JJ's parents. I made the most adorable cake EVER and everyone was fed, fat and happy!

February was a bit more exciting. Our friend, KC, came up from Arizona again and we were able to have him around for about a week. He always makes our days interesting. While he was here, we went to Seattle and bought a new computer, as ours was shutting down without reason and completely out of the blue. We wanted to lose as little information as possible so we got something that is a little better than the "dinosaur" we bought 5 years ago.

March moved so fast I don't really know where it went.! JJ's dad had a birthday and I made him a leaf blower cake... don't ask, it's an inside joke. It turned out alright, but I learned quite a bit about working with stand-up cakes!

At the end of the month I was able to go to Utah again to see my family and go through the temple for the first time. I went to the Oquirrh Mountain temple and was so blessed to have most of my family there. (A big thanks to Greg and Ilene for being able to come!) The boys got to spend a little extra time with Grandma and Grandpa (much to their delight) and we got to celebrate Ben's and my birthday. (boy, the grammar on that last sentence doesn't seem quite right....) I made another cake (yep) for Benny, the Mario Brothers cake, and it turned out alright, although I did make a few mistakes. But hey, it got devoured (ish) and it was a lot of fun seeing everyone together again!

Now it's April, and the middle of April at that! I'm watching Paxton full-time again, about 45 hours a week, and also working at Target about 2 or 3 nights a week. JJ found a job at a dealership here in town, and while it's not completely ideal, we are glad that we have a job at all! He's able to put in a lot of overtime, as much as he wants, and that is helpful for finances, though we still have to sacrifice seeing him very much. He is home enough to see kids at night and even gets to sleep in in the mornings, so it's not all bad. :)

Well, other than that, not a whole lot is going on out here! I'm looking forward to what this Spring will bring (aside from unwanted snow) and can't wait to get the kids out and about in the sunshine! Tootles!

Padded Walls

This is what our kids would do if they were ever put in a facility with padded walls.

To Bed Or Not To Bed... That Is The Question...

I'll spare you the apology...

Well, it's Fall already. It has been quite a couple of months!

JJ has started back at school again and is back to 14 hour weekdays. That's right... he leaves the house at 7:30, school from 8 - noon, work from 12:30 - 9:00 and home around 9:30. Thank goodness that on Tuesday and Thursday he gets a break from so much work and gets to go to a welding class from 6:15 - 8:45. This schedule makes for long days, but he is really enjoying his welding class. He's become a "teacher's pet" in a way because he and one other person in the class are competent enough to do whatever the instructor asks them to do. So far he hasn't done as much basic work as the rest of the class. He likes a good challenge, so being the odd-man out isn't bad at all!

I'm still at home. My calling as Primary Pianist has kept me quite busy. I keep volunteering to do things that will help the Presidency out. I ended up making activity day reminders and invitations for the Bishopric and the Stake Primary leaders for our Primary Program this coming Sunday. They turned out REALLY cute (if I do say so myself!)!! JJ will be attending church with us this coming Sunday, which will be a huge blessing to me because he can watch the kids. I could just imagine them banging on the piano between songs or while I play. THAT would be funny! (Honestly, I could have asked someone else to watch them, but I think that they'd do better with him.) As a side note, when I showed JJ the invitations I made, he said to me (and I quote) "Cindy, I know this is Primary, but not EVERYTHING has to be a craft project!" He's so funny. He OBVIOUSLY doesn't know me at all!!

Andrew and Mason are still up to no good. They are balls of fire and always say funny things. Andrew's latest catch phrase is "boots on." There is a song that we like to listen to on the radio that says "I'm going out with my boots on" so when he is told to put his shoes on, he says "Mom, how about put on my boots? Just like 'boots on!'" he makes me laugh because he sings the last two words every time!

Mason is a climber. He is not afraid of ANYTHING. The other day JJ and I were working on putting shingles on the roof of JJ's new shed out back. Mason and Andrew were down for naps, but when they woke up I helped them put their shoes on. Mason got his on and went outside and I stayed in to help Andrew. In a matter of minutes, I was out the back door and where was Mason? The kid climbed up daddy's ladder and got on top of the shed with JJ! Luckily, JJ was on the roof to make sure he didn't fall. JJ said he turned around and there was this little blonde head popping up above the roof line. Talk about making him nervous... and you should have seen the expression on my face when I walked out the back door! Mason just waved and flashed us a peace sign. Life is NEVER boring!
We're getting ready for all the Holidays coming up. We have decided to be "The Incredibles" for Halloween, and it promises to be a lot of fun! Andrew asks me every day if his Incredibles costume came in the mail yet. Unfortunately, they're coming from Hong Kong (that's another story) and it will be a few more days! Shortly thereafter I will be packing up the kids (okay, it's like 3 weeks later) and we'll be making the trip down to Utah. JJ has to stay here for work and school, but I'll be able to take the kiddos and enjoy Thanksgiving with my family and make it to Doug's wedding and make his cake. I just hope I can make it as pretty as I think I can! It'll be nice to see the family. It's been way too long! The weather outside is getting more and more chilly and I dread the cold, but I really love the holidays, so I'll manage. :)

Mason's new bed

Okay, so this isn't ACTUALLY Mason's new bed. Yesterday he woke up around 7 a.m. and came into our room. He was obviously still tired, but kept asking for juice, so when I got up to get him a cup, he ran over and jumped on the dog. The dog left her bed and Mason took over. I brought him the juice and he drank a little and went to sleep. I had to get a photo!

My First Custom Cake...

As many of you know, I am attempting to make custom cakes, and since Doug and Sarah asked me to make their wedding cake, I can use all the practice I can get!

Last week a friend of mine asked me to make a cake for a Baby Shower. I did a bunch of browsing to find cakes that I thought I could feasibly do and got to planning. I planned and planned and got it all ready. I made fondant baby clothes to go on the side of the cake, I made fondant buttons to line the layers, fondant flowers to go on the sides, and I bought little baby shoes to go on top. Here is the saga of the first attempt!
I made a practice cake on Wednesday to make sure that the cake was a good sturdy recipe for the cake I planned to make. It was a delicious cake and it was PERFECT! Easy to make, easy to stack, easy to frost. A cake decorator's DREAM! I made a few sketches and decided on my design and I made all of the fondant on that Wednesday. My friend, Cassie, who has made a million cakes like this in the past, told me I should make the cakes on Thursday and keep them refrigerated so that all I had to do on Friday was decorate them. Well... I thought about it and decided to make them on Friday instead. It doesn't take that long to make a cake, right? Well, that's true... in theory!

I had originally decided on a 7" two-layer cake on the top tier and a 9" two-layer cake on the bottom tier. My first batch of cake (Friday morning, 1 day until pickup) looked a little speckled after I added the melted chocolate. Confused, I called Cassie. How did I screw up her recipe!? She said it would probably be fine and the shards of chocolate would melt when it cooks, but I just threw out the recipe and started over. The second, third and 4th batches all went well. That's right.

You see, the 7 and 9 inch cakes look funny proportionately so I decided on a 12" round bottom and a 9" round top (despite Cassie's insistence that the two other sizes would be more than enough to feed 15 people). I had to make 2 extra cake recipes to accommodate the 12" layers. The first cake, didn't come out of the pan right, so it was a mountain of a mess and it would have taken SURGERY to fix it. I just made another one. The next two 12" layers came out fine. Then it was time to frost the cakes, stack them and decorate them.
I was going to put in a strawberry cream cheese filling, but it didn't set up, so it was just like soup. I decided on buttercream frosting instead. grr. I frosted the cakes (dirty coat) and put them in the freezer, took them out, frosted them again (final coat), put them BACK in the freezer and then added the fondant and icing decorations. In the middle of this frosting I had to attend a baby shower, so the cakes were in the freezer for a couple of hours. :) It only took me 30 minutes to decorate the cakes.In the middle of all of this, Andrea called me and asked me to make just one more cake by the next day... a sheet cake for a birthday party. No problem. It was about a 45 minute job, including baking the cake. Thank goodness for left over cake that could be made into truffles!

After 11 LONG hours and 3 trips to the store to replenish a supply of something I ran out of, I finished the cake at 11:00 pm. Andrea came to pick up the cake the next morning. It was SO fun, but I wish that I had baked the cakes on Thursday like Cassie had said! I have to admit, the cake was MUCH bigger than it needed to be, and they had WAY too much left over (The entire bottom tier, too much)! But it was fun and quite a learning experience! I'll definitely bake the cakes BEFORE decorating day! Total time for decorating day could have been as little as 3 hours! Now I know for next time!