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!

Drummer Boy

We have a couch with recliners on both ends. Andrew tends to pull one of the recliner bottoms out and use it as a drum set. Whenever he hears music on TV, he runs over and drums his little heart out. Sometimes he uses wooden spoons for drum sticks, sometimes his hands, and sometimes random screwdrivers he finds in the junk drawer. If you know me well, you'll know that I'm a sucker for American Idol. I LOVE to watch it and RARELY miss an episode. Technically, I got into it for the first time last year when David Cook won. Well, a couple of weeks ago, Daughtery performed a song on the show. Andrew ran over and this is what happened during the song. It's a little long, but it surprises me how much he was on beat during the song... and his bouncing was downright adorable! haha

Enjoy!

Going for a Stroll

Here's the latest video of the boys. Andrew was taking Mason for a quick "spin" around the kitchen. haha. Enjoy!

Today is gonna be the day...

Well, we're playing catch up again today!

JJ got a new toy. He and I searched for a used dual sport motorcycle for a few weeks until we found a really good one a few miles from here. He LOVES it! We had to get a new speedometer new mirrors, and a new flasher relay (to fix the blinkers), but the bike is now up and running and road worthy! He rode it up into the hills yesterday while I was at church and got a good look at the valley from WAY up! If I had been home, I could have seen him up on the mountain directly across the Columbia River from us. It's a rough road and not a good one for his truck (the last time he took his truck up the hill he experienced brake fade for the first time!). Anyway, next time he goes up I'll have him take pictures with the camera. His phone doesn't take great photos.

JJ's ATK 605 DSES

We're enjoying the weather. Yesterday we had 90* and Sunny. DEFINITELY Sunny. I love the heat, but I feel for the kids because they play so hard that their faces get all red and we have to take breaks inside the house to cool down. They go through a gallon of water a day! They love being outside and playing in the yard. We even broke out the swimming pool! I'm so thankful for a fence! I can just put them outside and watch them run without worrying if they'll get in the street!

Mason on his truck
Andrew playing in the pool

Mason goes down the slide by himself now, just like Big Brother, but he still needs help climbing up the ladder, so I'm not completely obsolete yet! :) He still needs me now and then. Andrew will climb up and slide down a million times, go on the teeter-totter swing, then get on the regular swing and then run up and down the hill and across the yard with his brother right on his heels! Mason wants to do everything Andrew can do. He has learned to push and hit a lot earlier than Andrew did. He's also learned how to climb on TOP of things a lot earlier than Andrew. Just today I decided that we're going to have to take away his high chair because he'd rather sit in a big boy chair. It's fun! They are such balls of energy! Sometimes I have trouble keeping up!

Yes, that's Mason on top of my piano...

A funny story, JJ and I have been brushing up on our X-Men due to the Origins: Wolverine movie hitting the box office. One night after watching one of the movies (I believe it was the 2nd one, not that it matters..) JJ slept on the couch (I hog the bed) and woke up the next morning with his shirt all torn up. I guess he was having a dream that he was Wolverine in a straight jacket. This is what ensued:

my husband, Wolverine

"Balloons of Fury!"

Here is our latest video from Cross Productions -- "Balloons of Fury"

Enjoy!

Spring Fever

Here we are in February, almost into March. I am starting to really crave the Springtime and a couple of recent days have made me want the warm even more! A couple of days this week we have had sunshine and beautiful weather, but the other days have been rain, and sometimes a mix of snow. I wish Mother Nature would make up Her mind! I can't wait to get out of the house and let the kids run all day, blowing bubbles, sliding down the slide, and running up and down our little hill while I'm out cutting back roses and other greenery getting ready for the new buds to come. Spring is a beautiful thing in most places, but nothing like here in Washington. Especially Wenatchee. I love to see the orchard trees get their leaves and the perennials out in our yard start to peep through the brown, cold dirt. I can't wait to see the green around the river and the trees across our street blooming and showing signs of life. I suppose I can wait, since it is still February, but that doesn't mean that I want to.

We are enjoying life so much! Mason and Andrew are getting along so much better lately and they rarely fight. Mason is such a sweet boy that he will answer to "Please" and "Thank you" just about every time. Even if he takes something from his brother, all Andrew has to do is ask nicely and Mason will (usually) hand it right back over without any fuss at all. What a blessing for me! I am constantly reminded how grateful I am that they are so close in age.

John has been working like a dog. He is still in school and working full time, so he is gone 14 hours a day and is very tired when he gets home. Poor thing still has to do homework when he's done eating dinner, and then it's off to bed to start it all over again. Early this month the P.U.D. opened a full-time, permanent position in the Fleet Services Department (where he currently works under a temporary student position) and he applied right away. He put in his resume and was promptly called for an interview. They set it up for the 20th of February, but they canceled it just a couple of days later, informing him that they needed to "re-evaluate the budget." It was a bit of a downer for us. We have been hoping and praying that something would work out for us in this regard. We've been told over and over that if he just gets his foot in the door there, they'll make a space for him. They did give him an extension on his student position, which is a positive thing, so we know they like him. It's just a matter of them giving him better pay and benefits. Now his main Foreman at the shop has put in his notice and that will open up a second very important position, not to mention that they are short-handed as it is. We are just waiting. And waiting and waiting...Andrew is getting so big and so smart. He's talking so well and knows so much. It's amazing how I don't have to tell him about something more than once before he can recognize it the next time. He really knocks my socks off sometimes! Mason doesn't talk much, but he will. He says things like "juice" and "dada" and "car" and "cracker" but he's working on most of his vocabulary. He understands simple instructions and he DEFINITELY knows what lunch is. :) He's such an angel. I just love having him in our family (it sounds like he was adopted from the way I wrote that!). JJ has really taken to him, too, which is hard for JJ when the kids are at such a small age and when he's gone all the time. We are just very lucky to be so happy in our family.JJ spoils me. He gave me the greatest gift EVER! He let me buy a piano! So, this is the first piano I have ever owned for myself. I found a used one on Craigslist and it had come out of a church. The brethren from the Elder's Quorum Presidency came and moved it for me. It's amazing how fast they can organize a moving team! I love the piano, and I LOVE that I can play and someday teach the boys how to play. And the boys, needless to say, love to bang on it and see how much noise they can make. :) This is such a blessing to me, too, because I was called as the Primary Pianist a couple of weeks ago. How fun! I love the Primary and I love those little kids with all of their attitudes! I love feeling needed and I love that I can contribute something to the ward, especially in a place that they needed someone so badly. The boys are BOTH going to nursery, too, so it gives me a little time to myself. :) It's GREAT!

Mason Is One!

I know it's been a few months since I posted. I'll catch up on all of that stuff later. But...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MASON!!!!

Well... here it is! Mason's First Birthday!

To be honest, I'm a big sap and cried. I know, I know. But all of those emotions of knowing that he's our last baby chokes me up a bit! I feel like the last year went by so quickly that I didn't even see it go. I'm glad that I wrote down a few of the firsts for him. It's so different with two. I was able to follow EVERYTHING with Andrew, and even scrapbook a bit of it, but Mason's scrapbook sits in the cupboard untouched. I am going to have to crack down on myself and get it put together before I forget all the wonderful things that have happened in the last 365 days!

He's walking. He's been walking since 11 months. December 14th was the official day. He took 7 steps from me to Daddy and then back. Of course, there were a few face-plants during it all, but he is quite a champ and never gave up! We are just so proud of him! He is so interested in the world around him -- he loves being outside, cars, trucks, balls, mirrors, lights, remotes, and of couse, beating up on Big Brother Andrew! :) He's such a ball of energy! I'm so excited to take on this next year and see just how different he is from Andrew. It's always an adventure and it's always 100% worth it!

Anyway, so here are a bunch of pictures from the party last weekend and I'll fill you all in on what has happened since the last post!

Present time!

"what's this about?"

first to touch the cake

shoveling it in

after a bite of ice cream

Mason's fake smile