Where to start...

SO much has happened this week, so heres a quick review to catch everyone up with us.

• Easter weekend was soo much fun. Sher and DJ came and stayed overnight--we loved having them, thanks for coming guys!! And Aarons parents got to come for a few hours friday too. It was fun to have them for a little longer than usual and we look forward to the day when they have more time on their hands and can come and stay for a few days.
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• We all got sick again, whats new there. Aaron had bronchitis, KCs had croup, Parker and I just have colds and a little bit of sick tummies. Not very fun, but hopefully on its way out soon!
  


• The kitties lost their manhood friday and got neutered and got their first set of shots. They also had ear mites and had to have that treated, but now they have nice clean ears.
  


• Last weekend we discovered that the toilet in our half bath downstairs was leaking. The tank had a crack. After getting the toilet fixed a restoration crew came to dry the carpet and discovered black mold. They thought at first that it was pretty bad and that they would have to gut the bathroom, but luckily it wasn't. We did have to leave for a few days while they worked on it and got the mold out. We went and stayed with my parents and it was lots of fun. Thanks for taking us in Mom and Dad!

• Our new table finally came. It was supposed to be here a week ago, but better late than never right? It seems a lot bigger than it did in the big open store and it will take some getting used too. What do you think? I love the height, it will be great for doing cakes since I didn't have a big space on the counters.
  
  

• We also got a new shelving unit and desk for upstairs. We've decided to make more of an office area in the loft. This way Aaron has room for all his family history documents that he is compiling, and I have a place to store all my cake order info. We got the unit at Ikea in the as-is department and got a great deal on it.

• Last weekend I did a wedding cake for a cousins sis-in-law. I didn't love the way it turned out, nothing really I can specifically say I didn't like about it, I just wanted it to be a little prettier. But the bride loved it and sent me the nicest email about it after the wedding. And thats what matters. I'm glad I don't have anymore wedding cake till the end of May. It'll be good to have a little break before the summer wedding madness hits. I am doing a few other little cakes though that will be fun.

I'm sure theres a little that I'm forgetting about, but oh well. Today I'm glad to just be home again and get to sit and relax a little.

Enrichment Cake

So its relief society birthday celebration time again and I volunteered to do a cake for enrichment night. Some of you may remember that I did one last year too, it was one of my first cakes. It's a little stressful for me because I know I'll be there, and it adds pressure to please everyone. Fear of being judged I guess, it kinda of makes me feel like I'm back in high school. I've decided I like the cakes the best that I can just make and drop off. And then I can just imagine that everyone loves it, and not have to know if they didn't. And of course then I'm not stuck serving the cake all night. So anyways the theme for our night is Hearts Knit together so I made a heart themed cake.

The bottom layer is a cake I like to call chocolate sundae. Its chocolate cakes filled with marshmallow creme, hot fudge, and crushed up candy bars, I can't wait to eat it :)

The second tier is chocolate with a cream cheese swirl,

the 3rd is white with a strawberry swirl, the fourth is just white, and the top just chocolate.

I have to serve 120 people so I also made a large round cake that is a raspberry lemonade cake. Its a lemon cake swirled with raspberry filling throughout the cake. Its my new favorite.

I'm glad the cake is done, I've been having a lot of anxiety about it. Now I can rest until I do the wedding cake I have scheduled for this weekend. And I'm excited for that one. I'm also excited because Sher and DJ and their girls are coming to visit us this weekend and will be our first over night guests! We can't wait to see you guys! We love visitors so everyone else is invited to come and visit us sometime too :)

Sunday

KC went to nursery and stayed by himself for the first time on sunday!! Its been 2 months going with him and staying every week, while he cries and clings to us almost the whole time. Even the mention of going to nursery brought tears. So it was wonderful to have him go. Of course there were lots of tears, and we ket him take his blanket and his binkie. But he eventually calmed down and I think may have even had fun. After church I asked him if he liked nursery and he replied, "Bubbles!!" I guess they were blowing bubbles, and he liked that. Even today if I asked him about it he told me about the bubbles. I guess we know how to please him.

Another tricky part of it was that I've just been called to be the new Nursery song leader. We have 3 nurserys so it takes most the first hour, but its so fun! I was worried KC wouldn't let me leave again when I had to go sing with his class, but he did alright! I think this is going to really be a fun calling, The little kids are so cute.

Childrens Museum

Last friday I took the boys to the Discovery Gateway Childrens Museum. Its a pretty fun place. The kids love it, and its nice to have a place made just for them. Everything is hands on and they can run all over and touch everything. Here are a few pictures from our visit. We bought a membership the first time we went so its nice to go and know we can go back anytime so there's no rush to see everything. And we can just stay till the kids get tired and then head home. Parkers favorite is the construction zone where he can build things. KC just loves to run all over. For a kid that is so clingy is pretty fun to see how excited he gets there. He could care less if I'm even near him, he just takes off. Its a little exhausting trying to keep track of him.

Cake Room

Mom, look at the rug

I now have a living room/cake consultation room :) Our front room is so big, it was a hard space to fill. And I really wanted a separate area where I could hold appointments, and not feel like my whole downstairs had to be completely spotless every time. So I found this fabulous floor screen on the ksl classifieds. Its so beautiful, I love it, and even Aaron likes it now. It really helps separate the space nicely and makes the family room cozier. So here are the recent changes. I found some nice wing back chairs for a great price on craigslist that may be joining the family soon also, they'll go in the front area with my cakes. We are also getting new kitchen table on saturday!! Its counter height and has some beautiful highback stools with it that have black leather seats. I can't hardly wait for it to get here. The old table, will replace the small one in the living room so I have space for books and stuff at appointments.

I just have to say that I love my house. I love everything about it. I love the neighborhood, the new friends I'm making. I love having space for my kids to run around and be boys, and not having to be stepping on all their toys all day long. And I love feeling like a "grown up" with a real house of our very own. That's beautiful and bright. Since its started to warm up we've been taking lots of bike rides. And its so fun! We have a fabulous walking trail that leads to a great park. As I was walking down it the other day pushing Kc in the stroller with Parker riding his bike, I was looking around at our new neighborhood, with the sun shining and the trees starting to blossom. And it was such a nice peaceful feeling. I feel so incredibly blessed. I keep waiting for the bubble to pop. But until it does I'm going to enjoy every second of it. :)

Mom made me this wonderful quilt and pillows for our family room. I love the colors and its nice to have a warm snuggly blanket on the cold leather couches.

Cakes

Here are a few practice cakes I did. They are done in buttercream. I usually like to just do fondant, I think its easier and it's so pretty, but I can't always convince everyone that it really does taste alright. I make my own now and it makes such a big difference, I actually like eating on a cake now. So I decided I should practice a little with the buttercream and see what I could come up with. I've started using high ratio shortening instead of crisco and it is amazing. Evelyn took these amazing pictures of them for me. What a difference a real photographer makes! And aren't those fake roses beautiful?! Walmart, who knew you could get such pretty silk flowers. I'm working on a bunch of practice cakes so I can improve the look of my website. Although I may not have to do too many with all the orders I'm getting right now! I already have 4 wedding cakes in June! That makes 6 wedding cakes coming up, plus a few misc other ones. I'm really excited.

KC's new best friend

KC loves Elmo. Last night I tucked him into bed and he asked for Elmo. When I gave it to him he said "Oh Elmo!!" and then a big kiss on his head. It was adorable. He also likes to pat the tv and ask for elmo. Since we have comcast we have sesame street on demand. I think he thinks that elmo is just on all the time since we can always turn to it. This little guy is just so darn cute I can't stand it. I love this age, even though we definatly have our share of the "I think I'm 2 years old already" fits. Those I don't love.
But the rest is so fun. This morning I took his binkie away so I could hear all that he has to say. And while I was getting ready he came running up to me with arms streched wide "Hugs! Hugs! Momma Hugs!" and gave me the biggest hug ever. Like I said, adorable.

We never have many pictures of Aaron and I together so while we were on our trip we had Parker takes some pics for us.

Idaho was so much fun. The kids were great during the drive there and back. Probably the best they've ever been in the car on a trip. It made the 6 hr drive actually fun. We stayed in a hotel with a fun pool. They had a small kids pool that was just right for the boys. Even KC could walk around in it without help.

The blessing was really nice and it was fun to be able to visit with most of Aarons family. We don't see many of them very often so it was great for the boys to get to know them better. We'll definatly have to try to make it up that way more often. We really enjoyed it.