Ward Camp Out...

Our ward had a campout up Millcreek canyon recently. We wanted to stay the night, but due to already made plans for the next morning, we weren't able to. We did however, get to go up for dinner and entertainment. We weren't dissapointed! What a GREAT ward we have!!!

Our neighbor, Patty...what a crack up!

Eli looks SO BIG!!

Estin LOVES throwing rocks in the river!

A member of the Bishopric, Brother Huber, doing some AMAZING magic tricks!!! He even got the Bishop involved!

'Nuff said

Toy Story 3 Theater Experience...

We promised Estin we'd take him to the Dinosaur "Nuseum" at Thanksgiving Point on $2 Tuesday. What we failed to realize at the time was, everyone and their DOG thought of the same thing! The line wrapped around the building! After driving past about 200 screaming, impatient children and their frustrated parents, we decided to go another Tuesday after school had started. To cheer up a very dissapointed boy, we decided we'd try taking he and Eli both for their first theater experience: Toy Story 3. Overall, it was GREAT! Eli even fell asleep half way through... a definite must do again!!

Haircut Day!

As you can see all 3 of my men need hair cuts! The BEFORE and AFTER'S....

See What You've Missed!!!

I know it's been awhile... A LOT has been going on, as you can see from all the new posts (and LOTS of pictures)! Keep scrolling down (and be sure to check older posts - they won't all fit on one page (sad I know)) to see some of the fun things we've been up to, such as....

Oh Happy Sunday!!!

Tonight, we had company for dinner and Estin helped by setting the table all by himself!Isn't this AMAZING!!! I know Heavenly Father loves me!!!

Cupcake Wedding Cake

My neighbor and friend needed a wedding cake, and although I had never made one before, I volunteered to help her out. She decided on a cupcake wedding cake and I got to work!

Here is the topper I made

We chose 3 flavors: (Orange) Lemon with key lime buttercream (Pink) Strawberry with fresh strawberries and cream buttercream (White) Dark chocolate with vanilla bean buttercreamJustin and I designed the stand. It held about 100 cupcakes. Overall, I made 200+, as well as the 6" square. I ran out of time and had to frost the top cake in 3 minutes flat! I wish I would've had more time to do A LOT better detail work. Friday afternoon (the day of the wedding) I had made over 50 chocolate cupcakes and both 6" squares before I decided to taste one. Once I did, I realized that I had been on autopilot for so long that I failed to measure the baking soda correctly. All in the garbage they went! I had 2 hours to bake 75 more cupcakes and two 6" squares (the recipe I used said NOT to double the recipe, so I had to make 6 dozen SEPERATE batches). I sent Justin to SLC to the ONLY place that sold black cupcake liners, and rolled up my sleeves. What a week!!! Overall, it got done and the bride and groom were VERY happy with it... that's all that matters.

Eli's Invites...

Happy Birthday Eli!!!

I can't believe my baby is ONE!!! What a ray of golden sunshine he has been to our little family. I feel SO blessed to be his mom and look forward to MANY more years to come!!! Happy Birthday my little man!!!

The boys and I (while Justin was at school), had a day out at Wheeler Farms to celebrate the big day!

I couldn't resist this picture! True love!

Our neighbor Patty (who's in LOVE with Eli) brought over presents!

After Justin got home, we went to the playland at Chick Fillet

We ended the day with ice cream at Maceys

Eli's Family Party...

My niece, Rachel, showing me her googley eyes It's not very often I get to hang out with my sibs...and with my sister, Staci, moving to AZ. (sniff, sniff), this was a great opportunity! I'm not sure why the mug shot!!!

The birthday boy himself...

Present time!

Some of the decorations I made for the little monkey!

Cupcakes were chocolate with banana filling and banana cream cheese frosting.

It was a lot of work, but I LOVE doing stuff like this! I'll take every opportunity!

Poor mangled monkey!!!

So after trying DOZENS of chocolate cupcakes to find the right ones to fill, my kitchen looked like this...

It was pretty awful! I made a HUGE pot of meat/beans for enough navajo tacos to feed 60 people the night before to save on time. While warming them up, an hour before the party, I got side tracked and scalded them COMPLETELY!! I had a breakdown!!! Justin and I put our heads together and started over. He ran to the store for more ingredients, including canned beans (there was NO time to simmer more) and we got to work...however, when it was all said and done, the rest of my downstairs looked like this...

On our way to the park, it started to downpour! I've NEVER had my children's bdays that wasn't cancelled or postponed due to weather (and they were born in April and July!) Luckily, the Bishop agreed to let us into the church building. It was a little chaotic at first, but overall, a fun time! I know it sounds like a lot of work for a one year old's bday (and it was!)... but I enjoyed the process (for the most part) and wanted my little monkey to look back one day and know just how much I LOVE HIM!!!

Ahhh...the end of the day!!!