Past Cakes part 1

February 2007: This is the first time Shane and I took on the cake project. It was my fault really. My nephew Dante was doing his school fundraiser and my sister Danna sent me the link to buy things online. I fell in love with this Birthday Cakes for Kids ideas cookbook. I bought this totally awesome cake idea book and silly me said Eli could pick out whichever cake he wanted. Of course the kid has to pick the hardest cake in the book! I even tried to get him to change his mind. Oh No! Shane and I stayed up late the night before Eli's party baking, frosting, decorating, and trying to keep those four corners together. It really turned out well considering we didn't have the right materials. Also, as a note I used the cheap dye you can buy at the grocery store with four little cone topped squeeze bottles. We used every drop of two greens to get the towers that green. It was so fun to do this with Shane, but it was hard for our first time.

March 2007: Seth's birthday came around and I was having a hard time with classes at school, so I hid that cookbook and told Seth and Eli that I was making Seth a blue mini ninja cake. It was fun and easy. Seth loved it! Once again I used those cheaper dyes from the cone topped bottles. 2 bottles later and I wanted a dark ocean blue, but instead we got a bright blue cake. It was still fun, don't get me wrong! Seth really thought his cake was the best, and Eli loved it too.

Primary Program

This Sunday the boys had their primary program. They both had their lines and were very excited. As they were going up on stage after taking the sacrament Jacob just was so upset. He insisted that we had to go too. He finally calmed down but I kept repeating, "Elijah and Seth and going to sing songs to us. Look! Do you see brothers?" Thank goodness Eli was in view from our seat. Seth was one of the early speakers and he was ready and in a good mood. He got up there and loud and clear we heard, "I am thankful for my family because they play games with me." He was so good and brave. Eli's part was in the middle and he got up there with a huge smile on his face. He just stared at everyone smiling until the primary leader helped him out then he said, "My dad provides for my family by working far from home." It's funny how those eleven words got me choked up even though I had heard him say it about thirty times. I miss you Shane. Eli was so sweet. He told me later that he was so shy when he got up there. They sang all the songs and were very obedient on stage. The program was all about appreciating our families. It was such a nice program. Jacob has been having the hardest time going to nursery the past several months. He would scream hysterically and cry until he came back to me. He even had a hard time going with Shane. So the last two weeks I came in for the first hour and after sneaking out to go to Relief Society, he would scream for the rest of the time. So I decided a new approach this Sunday. I told Jacob we were going to nursery, went in with him, then I looked him in the eye and asked if I could go to class right now or if he wanted me to stay for a little while. He frowned and said 'stay a little while'. I fully explained that I would be there a short while sitting by the wall, but I was going to leave soon. He said okay and fifteen minutes later I went to him and told him to have fun and I would be back after going to my class. He said 'okay mommy' and went on playing. No crying today! Hopefully this same routine will work next Sunday.

Sand in the City

Back in the end of August, Olympia had its most recent Sand in the City extravaganza. I love Sand in the City because they bring in sand on the sidewalks where amatuer and professional sand sculpting is presented and in compitition for first prize. They have food, games, and all sorts of fun things to do. This was my favorite statue this year beacause it made me laugh so much. It wasn't as difficult as others that we saw, but it was soo funny!

Several people and groups danced from the Dance Direction, my mother-in-laws studio. Shelbi, my sis-in-law was supposed to dance, but she was recently in a freak hot/cold pack accident. Okay okay, you know those hot/cold packs that can be frozen or heated in the microwave? Yeah? Well, Shelbi grabbed one of those out of the microwave just as she felt the flesh burning off her thigh and down her calf. The pack had popped in the microwave without her knowing and the scalding hot insides gave her second degree burns. Needless to say, she was unable to dance for a few weeks until it healed entirely.

Just as the Dance Direction were finishing their last group, I noticed this kids walking around with a Burmese Python wrapped around his neck and arm. He was with him mom who had an African Grey (exotic bird) perched on her shoulder. Apparently they owned a pet store. If I owned a pet store, I still wouldn't go as far as walking aroud with a scary snake on any of my children, but that's just me.

The highlight of my day was seeing the photographer in the kilt taking pictures of the belly dancers. I was taking a couple pictures of the belly dancers myself until I found a better target, the dude in the kilt! You gotta love Olympia!

The Pumpkin Patch & Wolf Haven

The Pumpkin Patch was so much fun this year. The boys had baseball games back to back on the 10th, but while Jessica Byers stayed with Elijah for his game Seth, Jacob, and I picked up Shane from the airport. It was so nice to see him after a seven week break. As we pulled up into the terminal and saw him I just felt so overjoyed. I just couldn't stop holding his hand on our drive to the Byers house to pick up Elijah. When we got there we found out they were going to the pumpkin patch. Shane is such a trooper because he was up around 4am after having four hours of sleep and he said lets go too. We went over to Hunter's Farm and just loved picking out our pumpkins. The only part I do not like about going to the pumpkin patch is all the things that cost extra. Now when Eli went to the same pumpkin patch with his school last year, they were able to have free range on the slides, the hay maze, and they got a ride to the pumpkin patch and back. When we went as a family it was $1 per ticket and everything cost tickets. One ticket for the ride to the pumpkin patch, one ticket for the small corn maze, three tickets for the hay maze, one ticket for the small slide, two tickets for the bigger slide, and three tickets for the jumbo slide. They were charging a dollar to go down a slide once and the slide was like the one at the playground. I just had a really rough time because we are trying to stick to the basics these next two months. So we had to say no.....a lot. Then it turned a really great experience into a let down for Seth and Eli. Seth asked about the slide and when I told him it cost extra money he looked at me like I was crazy. I am glad Jessica convinced us to get our picture taken together at the end. I love it! The day ended with Heavenly Donuts and homemade hot apple cider.

Just last Sunday we took a trip to the Wolf Haven. It normally costs $9 per adult and $7 per child, so never go because we are looking at $30 just to go in and see about ten wolves and two coyotes. This was wolf week, so they made it free for one day. Thank goodness because Eli and Seth had heard about it from their uncle Jason and have been wanting to go for about a year. They were mostly taken from people who had them as pets illegally. There was one that was recruited as a Hollywood star, but it didn't work out so the wolf haven took him in. I think most interesting parts were to find that they had a roadkill license to feed the coyotes and they have a pair of Mexican Gray wolves that are part of a wolf recovery program. They are two out of 54 left as endangered species. All of the wolves are unable to reproduce except the Mexican Grays.

It was so fun to go with Grandnan and Grandaddy, cousin Rosie, cousin Mary, and uncle Jason.

First Day of school, Baseball, and Daddy

Elijah's first day of school and every day there after has been great. His school, McKenny Elementary is so wonderful. He has just excelled in reading and all his subjects throughout these last few months. He just started reading Harry Potter, knows every word except 3 every two pages, and actually understands what he's reading. He's fun to listen to because he's so expressive when he reads. He just started more complicated addition and subtraction, and basic MULTIPLICATION. I just can't believe this kid. It really is a blast.

Seth has been in preschool and that has been fun. He is at a high school preschool where he always has a high school age buddy work with him. He loves it, but sometimes gets in trouble for his elaborate and expressive storytelling. The story's wouldn't be so bad, except he insists that he's in charge and he knows 'the truth of everything'. He went into class today and started yelling at a student because, 'You're mom locked the school down and won't even let me see our class scarecrow!' The true story follows. We showed up, the school doors were locked, a fellow mom let me know that they are doing a surprise lock-down drill and they will open up in 5 minutes. Seth asked if I wanted to see his class scarecrow and I said I would love to once the doors are opened. He's so great! The boys did play baseball this fall with the YMCA program. It is just fun to see Seth actually focus and have fun with a sport.

Eli takes things quite a bit more serious, but he also insists on learning how to throw and hit with proper form. He is in action throwing to first base in this picture. It has been fun.

Shane has been working in Texas since last December. He's been gone a lot. His schedule is six weeks on location then eight days home. The company covers the flights there and back and all expenses paid for him while he's gone. He got a job with Vestas, American Wind Technology last October. He had training in November 2008 in Portland, OR, then went off to test and repair wind turbines in Corpus Christi, TX. We have been working it out, but it is hard not seeing daddy. Shane's site just finished their setting up of a new site down there in Corpus, and he was told his next location is Okoboji, IA. he moved from a condo on the beach in hot Corpus Christi to a resort on a lake with an indoor water play area and lazy river in freezing Okoboji. He just got there on Monday, and we won't see him until Thanksgiving. He works long hours, and he's far from home, and his boys love him and miss him dearly. I am the one who's a big baby....so lonely. Well, this is us right now in a nutshell, oh right also I am expecting a new baby March 24th, 2010.