Just one of those days!!

So, I just need to vent!!! It's been one of those days. I had a wedding cake to work on today and because Rindy, who is usually my helper had to work, I was pretty much almost on my own. Which isn't a big deal, doing the cake by myself is just fine, where I need the help is watching the kiddos while I'm doing it, and then transportation. My mom called and said she would be able to come out with my little sister after her practice, I was relieved. Up until then, I was fighting with Elam because he just wanted to be held and I was fighting the heat. You see, I decided to do the cake down at the church because I would have more counter room and I would have more room in the fridge as well. Well, the a/c just hasn't been working very well in the gym/kitchen so it was HOT! Anyhow, my mom got there and relieved me of the kids so I could do the cake. When I finished we drove, very slowly, to the location of the reception. Well my amateur sister, who I can't blame because she has never done this before, palmed one side of the cake while she was trying to keep it from moving. EEEEEEKKKKK! I was freaking out!! I took a few breathes, more like a billion, and kept driving to the place. We got it there, set it up, tried to cover the hand print, put the ribbon and feathers on, and finished it. It turned out well!! Everybody really liked it!! They were asking me for some business cards so they could give them to their friends (I know, I know Cameron, I'm going to make some). I took some pictures and then returned to the car to apologize to my sister for freaking out on her. Sorry Morg!! I thought my long day was over, until I erased the pictures on my camera as I was downloading them to the computer!! What can I say, It's just been one of those days! I will post pics of the cake as soon as the bride & groom email me some! Just glad this day is over!

Aiden and his dad's shoe horn

Aiden loves to play swords with his dad's shoe horn. I don't really even get the whole purpose of the shoe horn. Willbert has had one since we have been married, it makes it easier to put your shoe on??? Or people are just lazy and don't want to untie their shoe, so they keep them tied, hence the shoe horn. I don't know, either way, to Aiden its a perfect sword. He was looking for it in his dad's closet when he got distracted and started trying on dad's shoes. I ran and got the camera, cute photo opportunity. Here are a few. Deciding what to wear of Dad's

I strongly dislike these sandals, but his little feet are too cute!

Makutus Island

Last Friday it was my nieces birthday, so to celebrate she wanted to go to Makutus Island. I had never heard of the place until my sister-n-law told me about it a little while back. (Incidentally that's where my niece broke her nose, she still wanted to go back, that's a whole other story) Anyway this place is pretty cool, even for adults. It's this gigantic play area with slides, rope climb, bridges, zip line, and arcade games. The kids had a really good time, and I will have to admit, I enjoyed crawling through some extra tiny dark, almost claustrophobic, places(thanks Mary Ann). The kids really enjoyed themselves, and a nice bonus, it wiped them out enough to take a long nap before the actual party! Aiden exaggerating for the camera!

Davin right before he went down the big slide!

Brylie not so sure she wants to go down!

Sorry Annabelle, he's mine!

Elam coming across the long bridge!

Annabelle coming down from the zip line.

The birthday girl and Davin

The Slam Dunk

Once again it's been awhile since I have posted last so now I have to play catch up. Aiden is really starting to get his imagination going and loves to play with his batman toys or crash his cars by himself. The other day while I was messing on the computer he decided to jump off his bed and slam dunk basketballs into his miniature hoop. (we have a normal size basketball hoop, but he never likes to play with it, he's always shooting hoops on this one, I don't get it) Anyway, he started to really get the hang of it, so I snapped some action pictures. (these are unedited, I love how you can see the blur from him moving)
Future Basketball Star!!! Just Kidding, I don't know yet if he got my height or Willbert's, its still to early to tell. And he can't seem to decide what sport he likes. He's really into soccer, has a mean baseball swing, and as you can tell from the pictures, has a a pretty rocking slam dunk!!!

www.merzeta.com

I know what you're thinking! Trystan, we have all seen this picture before, why are you posting it again. Well, this is why. My sister-n-law posted it on a photography website in a photo contest, pretending it was me, and it WON photo of the day! Isn't that cool! I thought it was, especially after you see all of the other pictures that have won every other day, they're pretty cool. These people on this website really know what they are doing. So if you want to check it out, go to http://www.merzeta.com/ and click on the winners gallery. And there I'll be on July 6th.
Thanks to Mary Ann for thinking of me! I'm sure she could of posted any of the pictures of Annabelle and it would of won, she was is so cute and photogenic. All 3 of the kids did so well, there were so many cute ones, I still can't narrow it down to just one favorite. Can't wait to take some more!

Dave and Busters

Every Wednesday at Dave and Busters they have 1/2 price games. The kids really seem to like to play, and you can never get bored because there are so many. So we like to get out of the heat every now and then and let the kids go wild at Dave and Busters. We met up with Mary Ann and her kids and just monitored the kids as they ran from game to game. Aiden like usual, ran to all of the games that are equipped with guns. It must come from his dad, but he just flocks to the shooting games, I told him this time 1 shooting game and that was it. (those games are just too violent) Anyway, here are a few shots of the kids getting competitive.

The Cousins

This past Monday we decided to change it up a little bit and go to the park for family home evening. The kids had fun feeding the duck, fishing, running in the sprinklers and playing on the playground. If you haven't noticed, I'm always taking pictures (I take my camera everywhere). Here are a few pictures of the boys and their cousins.

Family Pictures

I have been bugging my husband for months, maybe years now, to get family pictures taken. He always gives me some sore excuse why he doesn't want to get them done. He doesn't mind getting the boys pictures taken, but doesn't want any of him taken. He keeps telling me as soon as he loses this extra weight, we will get pics taken. Well this extra weight has been a part of us for about 4 years now, so you can imagine what I am thinking. (this is never going to happen!!!!) Well, guess what, we took some! We took them ourselves, and didn't get very many because it was 110 degrees outside, but I like them. And come on, you can't be picky when they are the only ones you've got RIGHT?! By the way, in case you are wondering, he still hasn't lost the weight, I had to do a little bribing. You see my husband had been wanting to go to the movies for a few weeks now to see Transformers 2. He wanted to take Aiden because he liked the first one but also wanted me to go. That only left us with what to do with Elam. Well, I told him we would all go, if we just stopped and took a few pictures on the way to the theaters. He concurred!!! Here are some of the pictures that were taken, I'm hoping we can get some more when this weather cools down. Oh and Elam, he went, I just kept him up most of the morning/early afternoon so he would be tired and ready to take his nap during the movie. It worked, both kids did really well.

Elam has teeth

ELAM HAS TEETH!!! If you hadn't noticed, Elam turned 1 a few weeks ago and had no teeth and is not walking. It took him a while to crawl and hes now attempting to walk, but crawling just seems to be his thing. Back to the teeth, he's had swollen gums for months now and we have just been waiting for them to come in. Well they are finally here! YAY!!! I will have to post a pic soon of his little teeth.

Elams 1st Birthday contin...

The Party Continued.....See post below

Elams 1st Birthday

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ELAM

Elams 1st Birthday Party. I wanted to do a Dr. Seuss themed birthday party, once again I love Dr. Seuss. This is a pic of the birthday boy and his cake right befor his big brother helped him blow out the candles. The top part of the cake is edible and the bottom two tiers were made with fondant and styrafoam, just for show. All of the cupcakes were chocolate with buttercream frosting, and each were adorned with a cutout piece of fondant, coordinated with the books. Red fish Blue fish, ABC and 123, Cat in the Hat, Green Eggs and HAm, Sneetches (Star), Thing1 and Thing 2....etc... The party went well, I think, minus the heat and the lack of space. The kids ran down the slip and slide, threw water balloons, jumped in the pool, hit the Cat in the Hat pinata, and went home with Dr. Seuss book bags, loaded with a couple of books. I hope everyone enjoyed themselves, becaue I know we did! (well I don't know about the bday boy, he really didn't know or seem to care what was going on)

Camerons Birthday Dinner

This is a picture from Camerons birthday dinner. It's hardly often when we are able to get all of the siblings together. (my brother and his wife are faded out, they don't like their pictures posted)
So, from left to right it goes me holding Elam, Willbert holding Aiden, mom, Kai holding Nates daughter Brylie, Rindy, Tanner, Dad, Morgan, Schuyler, Julie, Cameron, Melissa holding Easton, and Nate. There we are, all of us!

Re-Lieved

Wow! I now feel a little relieved. There has been so much going on this past week, I just never felt like I got a break. I was going and going and going...you get the drift. Anyway, a lot went on! Most of the week I was preparing for Elams birthday party which we had on Saturday, and then we did a few other things in between. Friday, we met my whole family for a surprise birthday dinner for my oldest brother Cameron. It was really nice! All of my brothers and sisters and mom and dad met up, and we all had dinner at Carlos O' Brians. It was the first time in a while that all of our schedules clicked and we were able to get together. After dinner we drove over to Cameron and his wife's to see their house. It was nice, a great evening with family.
The night continued when I got home, as I stayed up until about 2 a.m. working on my talk for church on Sunday. I had to get it done in time for Willbert to translate it into Spanish. Saturday continued to be crazy, as we got up early to prepare for Elams party. But before we could finish that I had to leave for a baby shower at 12.(tell me about it, I don't know what kept me going) Ooh, for the gifts for the baby shower, it was a double shower, a friend and I made nursing covers. My sister-n-law gave me one right before Elam was born, and it has been the thing I have used the most with him. It is now my official baby shower gift. They are pretty easy to make, and don't end up to expensive(all you need is 1 yard of fabric and those little metal things). I also like to make diaper cakes to go with the cover up, they always turn out so cute! I meant to take a picture, but with everything going on, of course I forgot. So, we were just super busy this weekend, and I am so glad it is over! We've got lots going on for the rest of the month, with birthdays and weddings and more birthdays. Who knew July was such a exciting month?!!

www.Cups-n-Cakes.blogspot.com

I finally did it! Yea, I'm excited! Willbert has been trying to get me to set up a page just for my cakes, and now my pictures. So today I did it. It was a good idea, something I had thought about a while ago, I just wasn't sure it was something I wanted to do. Don't get me wrong, I love to make cakes and is always looking to learn new techniques or do different designs, I think I just get intimidated. Especially if you search the web and you see how many people out there who are really good, and I just look at their stuff and think WOW! I just tell myself that I have only been doing it for 5 years and was never officially trained, kind of just learned by show and practice. Anyhow, here's the blog if any of you want to check it out. www.Cups-N-Cakes.blogspot.com I am going to post some pictures of stuff that I have done in the past year or so, and then I will continue to post pictures of stuff I/We(my sister Rindy), do in the future. Check it out!!

Dads Birthday

This past week or two, it seems, have been just keeping us crazy busy. Between Willbert helping my brother with his house and moving, baby showers, baby's being born, family in town, 4th of July, and lots of other little things, I feel like I need a really long uninterrupted nap. (yes Elam I am talking to you) Things should finally slow down, just in time to get things ready for Elams birthday party on Saturday. I decided I wanted to do a Dr. Seuss themed birthday party for him, even though its only going to be family and close friends. I LOVE Dr. Seuss. I don't know what it is, well maybe I do, I just think he is genius. I'm probably exagerating a little bit, but his stuff is entertaining for both kids and adults. Come on, have you ever tried to read Fox in Socks? On the front cover it dares you to read it aloud, as fast as you can, but also tells you that the fox is a tricky fox, and he will try to get your tongue in trouble. And the beginning pages warn you to "take it slow, this book is dangerous". I will have to say from experience that they are right, your first couple of times you need to read it slow and pronounce everything because it is so easy to mess up. Try to read this fast:

"When beetles fight these battles in a bottle with their paddles and the bottle's on a poodle and the poodle's eating noodles....they call this a muddle puddle tweetle poodle beetle noodle bottle paddle battle...." (it goes on)

Fun! I just have to say I love Dr. Seuss and especially love the idea of throwing a birthday party themed around his books! Sorry, I get excited pretty easily!

One other thing we did this weekend was we celebrated my Dad's birthday. We went over to his house after church today for dinner, cake, and some ice cream. Here are a few pics of the cake.(I wonder who made it:)

Pics of the Boys

So I've continued to take pictures, this time I did my boys. My husband has been really giving me a hard time. Don't get me wrong, he really likes all the pictures I have been taking, but asks why I haven't taken any of our own kids. Today I did. I just have to say, it is easier to take pictures of someone elses kids than it is your own. I can tell other people to do something and they just do it, my kids either don't listen, or have had enough after about 10 minutes. We got a few shots in today, Aiden is really easy, he hams it up every time. But I want to take some more of Elam, especially for his first birthday(I know I'm a little behind). I am not done with all of them, but I got really excited after I saw these ones. Here are a few of the ones I have done.