Cake Update

With the help of my wonderful oldest child we actually produced this:

 

 I'm not ready for Food Network Challenge or anything, but it's definitely our best production yet.  It's passable!

A couple things I learned:

1.  When freezing a cake, do not put it on top of your recently frozen tubs of chicken broth.  It will leave a ROUND imprint in the bottom of your cake, causing you to have to cut off the wrong end.

2.  A butter knife is really NOT the proper tool for spreading icing.  Invest in an icing spatula.  

3.  If you choose to eat the chocolate frosting while you are icing it you will run into a few problems.  First, you may run out of icing for the cake, second you will get it all over your fingers and in turn get it on your cute little flowers.

4.  The words "extra cake" yelled in a house will bring six kids running into the kitchen faster than you have ever seen in your life.  You may want to try that if you ever have a fire in your home.

The WORST cake decorator ever

I consider myself to be pretty crafty and artsy, but there are two things I think I may just need to give up on. The first is sewing. I just have no patience for it. It's kinda like trying to learn to ride a bike when your sixty, with a lot of hard work and patience you could probably do it, but why would you want to?

The second is cake decorating. I go through 4 kids birthdays a year in my house, and you think after several failed attempts that I would just give up, but no, a few months pass, and I forget just how positively awful my last cake looked. I think that I've learned from my past mistakes and that I can actually make a cake look somewhat presentable.

I can't.

I'm awful.

Don't believe me? Take a look at the following:

 My first attempt.  Just pitiful.

 This one actually was not THAT bad.  Still, not great.

 Just sad....

I think Lucy could have done a better job at it.  Just sayin...

 Give me a little slack on this one, it was a flippin cookie cake.

 This years was so bad I didn't even get a photo of it.  This is the best shot I have of it. 

So, you would think after YEARS of miserably failed attempts, that I would give up.

Nope.  I went ahead and baked the cake.  One layer is all ready falling apart on me.  Somehow I'm going to have to take the frosting to "glue" it back together.  My plan this year is to freeze it so it ices easier.  My oldest daughter is supposed to be decorating it herself, but with her control freak of a mom, I can see myself quickly taking over the project.

I went to hobby lobby, picked out a sheet of stuff that you are able to "cut out".  I have little flower cookie cutters.  My goal is to have pink flowers on brown icing.  We will see how it turns out...

I almost attempted fondant.  It's laughable actually to think I could even pull that off...

Wish me luck.  I need it.

Happy Birthday Myah

May 3, 1999 there was a tornado going on in Oklahoma, but I was far away in Arizona giving birth to my oldest child.  I was young, only twenty one and I was scared to death.  I didn't know what to expect, and I sure as heck had no clue about how to be a mother, but nevertheless it was happening.

I was scheduled to be induced into labor that night at 9pm.  The previous night I started having contractions around 11pm.  They lasted off and on all night but never became regular.  I went into the hospital around noon the next day, but they sent me home saying I wasn't in active labor.  I went back to my mother in law's house and waited there.  Contractions got stronger and stronger, and by around 7pm they were getting closer and closer.  Finally we went into the hospital when my contractions were two minutes apart.  They admitted me and my first baby was born at 11:57pm that night.

She was so beautiful I just held her and cried.  She was simply amazing.

Today she is still just as beautiful and more amazing then I ever could of imagined.  God has given this child such a tender heart and sweet spirit.  She loves to help others, and when she loves, she loves deeply.  She wears her heart on her sleeve.

She is funny and smart and has a great sense of humor.  She loves clothes and make up and doing her nails, but she still loves to climb trees and go fishing with daddy.  She is so talented.  She loves to sing and she loves art.  She can write too.  She has written some of the most amazing stories for her age.  I can't believe how creative she is.

She loves converse shoes and skinny jeans. She knows how to sew more than mommy and she is a force to be reckoned with in the kitchen.  She recently just perfected her own recipe for home made brownies.

She loves Taylor Swift, but she still is so cool that she knows and loves the classics.  She can name ANY one of The Beatles songs.

She loves soccer and volleyball and said she wouldn't mind being a stunt woman when she grows up.  She is so totally cool it blows my mind.

She loves her family and is always willing to lend a hand a help.  She is a giver in the truest sense of the word.  She constantly makes me little gifts, cards and drawings and gives them to me just to brighten my day.  I love that God gave her the spirit of a giver.

God has granted me with an amazing relationship with my oldest daughter, and I love watching her become a woman.  As the teenage years are quickly approaching I'm still a lot like that twenty one year old woman, a bit naive  and a bit frightened.  I still don't know what to expect, but I do know one thing.  If the past eleven years have been any indication on how things will be, I look forward hopeful at what the upcoming years hold for her, and for me as her mother.  She is a joy to have and raise and I am truly blessed to be her mother.

Happy Birthday Evie

Wasn't it just yesterday I was packing your bag for the hospital, holding those little white and purple booties in my hand?  I sat there lovingly packing your bags, stroking my belly and feeling you move inside me and my eyes welled up with tears with just how much I all ready loved you.  I knew you then, and I hadn't even seen your face yet.

You came out of my tummy and they put you on my chest.  You didn't cry at all.  You just lay there, content staring up at me happy to finally be in my arms.  I will never forget that moment.

Ever since that moment you have brought so much laughter, and joy into this home.  You are a bright light in what can sometimes be a dark world.  This world NEEDED you, and God knew that.  Your name fits you "Bringer of good news"(Evangeline) and "life"(Zoey).

I love the way the sunlight bounces off your white blonde hair, and your big blue eyes sparkle with laughter and joy.  You are so smart, and kind.  You make me laugh like no other.

You love to be outside just like your daddy.  You have the biggest imagination that I've ever seen.  You love food, especially fruit.  When given the choice between candy and cantaloupe, you will choose the cantaloupe.

You love your brother and sisters.  You have a strong sense of family even though you are very young.  That is something that God instilled in you.  You also have this knack for being sensitive to peoples feelings and emotions, something you must have inherited from your Grandmother.

You love tea parties and want to be a doctor when you grow up.  You tell everyone, "When I grow up I'm gonna be a doctor.  A happy doctor."

You have the cutest little sing song voice.  You talk to me like you are an adult and it is really funny, even though some may consider it being precocious...I love it.  It's just further proof of just how smart you really are.

You love Max and Ruby, fruit snacks and your favorite color is pink.  You can't sleep without your purple blanket, and that's ok.   You love princesses but you have yet to sit through an entire princess movie.

You can sometimes be a bit high maintenance, but that is ok.  I wouldn't have it any other way.  You are my Evie and I love you so very much.  I can't believe that you are three today.  I am so privileged to be your mother, and thank God for letting me raise you.  I pray that you grow in His grace and beauty and above all learn to love Him.