100th Christmas

Yesterday we went to my Grandma's house to help decorate her house a little bit more.   We spent some time painting Christmas pictures on her window.   So much fun.  My kids loved it and they even shared and cooperated so nicely (if only they always were like that!!)

So, as we were painting the window we were talking to Grandma and saying how exciting.... it will be her 100th Christmas this year!!  She wasn't believing us.  But, it's true.  100 Christmases!!

Anyways, here's some photos....

Outside looking in at the kids painting

Grandma coming to check out the painting.

LOVE my Grandma

Finished window

So, as we're painting the window, Grandma is telling the kids how much she used to love to draw, sketch, paint.  She told them how she would always have a pen with her and she would find herself sketching anything and everything.  Sometimes she would draw on a scrap piece of paper, sometimes she would draw on a napkin.  It didn't matter.   Then she said she had a scrapbook with some of her pictures.  We got it out and we looked through it and the kids pointed out and told Grandma which of her pictures they liked.
It was a nice quiet moment that I thoroughly enjoyed and I hope my kids never forget it.

Here's a few pictures....

I love how happy Grandma looks in this photo.

Oops.  How can you rotate this photo?  I guess you're stuck looking at it like this...

A sketch of a dog

Grandma drew this in 1978, when my Grandpa was in the hospital.  An example of her sketching everywhere she went.

Well, this coming Sunday, Grandma will be having the entire family over to her house for her annual Christmas get-together.  Can you believe that at her age, she's still inviting everyone over and hosting a party?!  There's always some fun times to be had at these.  I'll try to remember to take some photos and tell you about some of them.

2 Missionary Suit Cakes

So, I've been getting some slack about not posting anything recently.  Who's been bugging me?   My kids!  Apparently they love to look at this blog and are always coming on here. 
So, here I am playing catch-up.

A few weeks ago I made some more missionary cakes.
It was actually quite a special weekend for one family in my ward....   two cousins.... one returning from a mission and one preparing to leave.  The Sunday Sacrament meeting was both a homecoming and farewell.   How special.   It really was quite a fantastic Sacrament meeting.

Afterwards they had an Open House and I was asked to make them some cakes.
I've made similar ones before (though, apparently it's been quite a while and it took me a while to figure out how I made them last time).   These missionary suit cakes are fun because I can decorate the tie to look like any flag from any country.  So, in this case, I made one tie to represent Guam and the other to represent Canada.

I will apologize for not having better photos of these two cakes.  It was a crazy weekend and just after I finished the cakes, some of my kids were driving me crazy by bouncing bouncy balls all over the kitchen and living room (talk about stress for me!  Could you imagine if the ball hit it?!)
Anyways, the sooner those cakes left my house, the sooner I could breathe easier with my kids being around.

 I thought it was a good idea to do two similar cakes..... until Cam said "you better not make one better than the other!!"   Nice.  Then I had a whole lot of pressure.   So glad they both turned out equally good.

Guam picture on tie is hand painted.

A special day for two cousins

 Thank you Julie and Liana for letting me be a part of this special weekend, by making you two cakes.   

Welcome home Dan!  We wish you luck Jesse!

Halloween Night 2012

This year the kids had fun dressing up for Halloween.  As usual, the kids were changing their minds about what they wanted to be, up until the very end.  Emily and Elora even dressed up in two different costumes in one day, one costume for school (I didn't get photos of them in these costumes) and another for the evening.
Here's photos (just for you David and Rosalie!)

Abigail as Princess Leah from Star Wars

One of the benefits of long hair....  No wig needed here!

Matthew as Harry Potter.  I managed to buy this Hogwarts robe for only $2.

Since I bought the robe from Goodwill, it had no glasses.  Matthew had the great idea of just using 3D glasses.

Elora as an old woman

Emily as an old man

Before heading out Trick or Treating

So much candy!  The kids were having a hard time carrying it all.

Matthew and his stash of candy.  Wow, that's a lot!

Winter Wonderland Wedding cake

I was asked to make a wedding cake recently.  Love the theme.... Winter Wonderland.
They showed me a picture of an example wedding cake that they liked, blue with pinecones on it.  I don't usually like to copy cakes (cause let's face it, it's next to impossible to duplicate a cake exactly), but it gave me something to start with.

Anyways, I thought it turned out great.  Here's some pictures....

All finished.  I like how it came together in the end.

Snowflakes are hand piped in royal icing

A mixture of regular and mini cupcakes.  Chocolate, vanilla and some carrot

The reception area.  Decorated so pretty.

A donation of love

So, some of you already know this.... but last week I finally cut my hair.
My hair was starting to get pretty long a while ago, and so I decided that maybe it was time to try donating it again.  I've done it before.  Last time I donated my hair was almost 6 years ago.

I love long hair.  I love braiding it and doing fun stuff with it.  I will miss it for a while.  But change is good.  And more than anything, I'm happy I can help some little child somewhere who could benefit from my nice long hair.

Just how much did I get cut off??   14"!!
I honestly think that sometimes when hairdressers hear you plan to donate it, they get a little crazy and carried away.  Just like last time (which surprisingly was 14" that time too!), my hair is shorter than I originally planned.   But, it's still long, which is good.

You're probably tired of reading this.  You're probably wanting some pictures.   No?
If you're friends with me, you know I've teased you with pictures like this....

But, I know some of you would like other pictures...  so here you are.  (gosh, I sure hate taking pictures of myself as such)

Before.  Boy was it getting long!!

See, still long.

With my hair being long still, I didn't bother to take photos and post them sooner.  It's more impressive to just say that I cut 14" off.  Right?

So, where am I donating to?  I like to donate to a foundation called Locks of Love.   They specifically make wigs for children.  I like that.   I couldn't imagine being a little girl and not having any hair.
This is the same foundation I donated to last time and they sent me this nice postcard (I still have it!)

Halloween Witch Cake

It seems I can't ever pull out my fondant without my kids asking to play with some too.   Not that I blame them, it's just like playdough, except better and you can eat it too.
The last several times that they've asked, I've said no.   So, when I finished the baptism cake I was working on, I decided to let the kids.  They were happy.

So, while they were making stuff, I decided I'd make some more stuff too.  After all, I had a Halloween Party to go to in the evening and I had nothing to take.   Plus, I had a small cake in my freezer than I put in there just a few days ago.
It seems that I rarely make cakes for myself and my family, so I decided I'd make a cake that I've thought about before.  A Halloween cake.   And I knew exactly what I wanted to make.

A long time ago, I bought a book by Debbie Brown called "Enchanted Cakes for Children".  I love the book.  And in it, there's a cake with a witch.   Debbie's cake was a witch flying around a big cake moon.  I didn't have time to do a moon like that, so I decided to put my own little spin  on it and do a "simpler" cake that doesn't require carving.   The idea of my cake is to portray the witch flying in the night sky.   I could have put more details on it, but I'm happy with how it turned out.  It was fun to make.

LDS Baptism cake

I got a phone call this week, asking if I would make a baptism cake.

I had an idea of what I'd like to do and I prayed that I could pull it off.   In the end, I couldn't have been happier with how it turned out.

Chocolate cake.  Buttercream icing.  Handmade fondant people.

The words are from a baptism song called "When I am Baptised"

Water is made from piping gel with a little bit of blue food coloring

I hope Will has a great baptism today!