Kite Festival

This past weekend, we went down to Hurricane/St. George to play. I've been wanting to go down for a while since the last time we went was for Halloween. So when I heard the kite festival was coming up, I decided that would be perfect! I picked Alex up from school 30 mins early on Friday and we headed down. The boys were amazing on the trip down! Ryan was working, so we had to leave him here. It's always hard for all of us (especially him) when he has to miss out on fun stuff like this. We got down there in record time... only 4 hours and 15 mins!! I think that's pretty good with only 1 parent and 2 kids. We went right to Beth's house in Hurricane and unloaded our stuff. My other sister Hayley, came over with her family that evening for pizza and play time. We did some crafty stuff while the guys played Mario Kart. The kids were on a huge high being around each other. We finally ended the evening and went to bed. Saturday we went out to the kite festival around 11:00 in the morning. I guess we had the worst timing. There was no wind. None. If we ran really fast, we could get a kite up in the air for a few seconds. But we had a great picnic lunch there and enjoyed??? some of the music that was performed. We went from there to Jumpin Jacks. We had so much fun there! We played for a few hours there and were exhausted! We all decided to go back to rest for a while. Around 7:30, Hayley and her family came back out and we played outside as long as we could. We had a big bouncy ball and had at least an hour of entertainment with just that ball... until it popped! :) We all came in and had some ice cream and just hung out. Honestly, that evening was my favorite. No stress, no where to be. Just having fun. We said goodbye to Hayley's family. We stayed up as long as we could manage. I slept really well that night. The next morning we just hung out and packed our stuff up. Right before we left, we went over to a home for sale in La Verkin that is an amazing deal. We were all talking about how cool it would be to have a home like that. Especially at the price. It's a 7 bedroom, 3 bathroom home on a really good sized lot with all new carpet, roof, tile, etc. We never really got to go in it, but were able to see a tour online and look around the outside. It's been priced down to $169,900! If I had any desire to live in Southern Utah, I would consider it. But the desire is just not there. After looking at the house, it was time to leave. Alex had a really tough time saying goodbye. He had a huge breakdown. Total hysterics! I don't know that I've ever seen him like that. He just really did not want to leave. He ended up crying himself to sleep and slept for 2 hours on the way home. Other than his breakdown, we had a great ride home and made it back in 4 hours, 30 mins. We were very happy to see Ryan for an hour before he had to leave for work.

So even though we didn't get our kite up in the air, I'm so glad we went down. It was a great weekend, but of course... way too short! I love my family and spending time with them. It's hard being far away from each other. I hope once we're all settled, that we'll be a little closer. Not necessarily around the block from each other, but an hour or two away wouldn't be too bad. :)

Name Blocks

I have wanted to do name blocks for each of my boys since we got the twins. But I've just never really gotten around to it. So yesterday while I was looking for chipboard at Heartland, I came across these letters. I don't know what possessed me to do it, but I bought them for all my boys and got to work. I think they came out really cute and I can't wait to find a place to put them.

Alex is my fun and laid-back kid. I thought this color and paper would fit him well.

Darek has that fire personality and is always moving, so this fit him perfectly.

And Ian, my sweet, beautiful baby boy. I love these colors for him.

I'm planning for these to go in the boys bedroom, but I still have no idea where. I'll figure it out soon.

Killer Deals!!!

Sometimes I look through my weekly ads... sometimes I don't. After getting the mail yesterday, I decided to look through the grocery store ads for the week. I love the whole idea of couponing... but I'm just not organized enough to keep track of all the different coupons and such. So the deals usually have to be pretty easy for me to take advantage of. I looked through the Smiths ad and saw that they had a 5 for $10.00 deal going on with some of their Quaker products. If you used your Fresh Values card, that deal went to 5 for $5.00. Definitely going to take advantage of that one! But then I went through Winegars and Fresh Market and saw that they had coupons for $3.00 off when you buy 5 Quaker products! Really??? Doesn't that seem a bit too good to be true? So I turned to my couponing blogs to see if others had picked up on this, and of course they had. Plus they had an additional coupon to use specifically to Quaker oatmeal. Last night I was so excited about this great deal, that I actually woke up early to make sure I was ready to go after taking Alex to school. After a few trips (and taking a few Winegars ads for the extra coupons), here is what I scored today!







Here's how it all priced out...

I had to do this in a few different transactions to make it all work, since you could only get the $5.00 fresh value discount once in a transaction.

3 transactions I did were just of the 5 products:

1 cereal 2.00
1 cereal 2.00
1 cereal 2.00
1 cereal 2.00
1 cereal 2.00

sub-total 10.00
- 5.00 fresh values
- 3.00 coupon

TOTAL 2.15 (with tax)

So had I just bought the 18 boxes of cereal and 12 boxes of oatmeal, my total would have been $12.90!!! That's .43 per item!!! But I wanted to buy a few other things. Here are the other good deals I found.

Mountain Dew 4 for $11.00 (Not the best deal, but it's the new flavors of Mtn Dew, and I just couldn't pass that up.)

Club crackers $1.88

Cheez-It crackers $2.39 a box, but on one of the boxes it had a coupon for $2.00 off when you buy 2 boxes. So it ended up being $1.39 per box.

Large box of Huggies Diapers - On sale for 18.99, but I had a coupon for 3.00 off the box. Again, not a massive savings, but anything is good!

Smith's also has some great case lot deals.
24 count case of mandarin oranges $7.99
24 count case of fruit bowls $8.34
12 count case of Hunts Meat Sauce $8.99

So altogether for my purchases today, I spent $74.34!! I'm not smart enough to figure out the percentage saved, but I think it's right around 60%. Anyway, I'm on a total high right now with my savings. I just hope my family is okay eating Life, Oatmeal and Cap'n Crunch for the next little while! :)

Another Baby....

But it's not mine. We found out about a month ago that my sister Bethany is pregnant! This is her first baby and we are so happy for her and my brother-in-law Chad! They waited a little while to tell everyone they were pregnant, so we didn't have to wait long to find out what the gender of the baby is. They have come up here the past 3 weekends. The first two were hard because we wanted to shop for the baby, but couldn't do much yet. Even though they were only 17 weeks when they came up this past weekend, they found out she was far enough along to find out the gender. They booked a session at Fetal Fotos and invited us to come with them to see the baby. We all kept it a surprise for my Mom and Dad. We all watched with amazement as this tiny little baby moved and kicked up on the tv screen. This was the first ultrasound Alex had ever been to in person and he loved every minute of it. When it came time to see the baby "parts", we were told to turn our heads.... even Beth and Chad. After the tech got the shots she needed, she put the "parts" pictures in an envelope that Beth and Chad would open while we all went out to eat. On our way to the restaurant, we took .50 bets on whether it was a boy or girl. I think we've all secretly hoped for a girl just because boys dominate our family. There are 8 boys and only 2 girl grandkids. The youngest girl is now 3 years old. But there was a definite split with the votes. Beth said boy, Chad said girl. Ryan and I both voted boy, but Alex said girl. Finally at the restaurant, Beth opened the envelope, looked at the picture and laughed. She handed it off to Chad who also laughed. He handed it to me and my Mom and it read, "I'm a boy!" There was a little shock, but we were all thrilled. Another boy will fit perfectly into our crowd. A girl would have also... but we'll just have to wait a little while longer for her. Who knows, maybe she'll come from us! :) One can hope!

We can't wait for little Gryn(n) (they aren't positive on the spelling yet) Titus Baker to join our family around mid September. I have already bought him a little shirt that says, "My Aunt Rocks." So at least we know he'll have some stylish clothing. :) Love you Beth and Chad and we are so happy for you guys!

Alex is 7!!!

I just saw that it has been 3 weeks since I've blogged. I've gotta stop this. Gotta get back in the groove of things. And it's not even that I haven't had anything to blog about. There has been plenty going on. I'm totally a loser. Well let's get to it then!

On March 25th, my "little" Alex turned 7 years old. I'm still trying to figure out where the time went, because when I add it up, the numbers just don't match. :) As usual for our kids birthdays, we had a few parties. The first one was on his birthday. That night happened to be the 1st soccer game of the season. So we headed over to the field to practice and then play our game. Our team has not been great at winning. Of all approx. 10 games last season, we only won 2 of them. Not that it really matters. They all have a great time. But I was suspecting that since we hadn't had any practices in 4 months and winter keeps you from really playing outside, that we were really going to bomb this 1st game. Well, the boys all proved me wrong. We won! It was a great start to the season and a great thing to happen on his birthday. My parents, Ryan's parents and one of our nephews were able to watch Alex play. After the game we all went back to the house. Ryan's sister and other nephew met us there. We watched Alex open his presents and then we had cake and ice cream. It was a fun, yet laid back evening.

Two of our nephews - Dylan and Marc

Grandpa and Grandma Wood

Alex with his presents

These little creatures are puffles. They are from Club Penguin and are currently Alex's favorite thing. I must admit, they are adorable!

Alex holding one of his Club Penguin's. This is the Ninja Penguin.

We didn't do too much for Alex's birthday on Friday, but we were gearing up for Saturday. Saturday morning I went and picked up Alex's puffle cupcakes (more of an explanation on what puffles are in a bit). Soon after, we headed down to Draper for his birthday party at Boondocks. I let him invite 6 friends, although 1 was a no show. So the party included Ryan, me, Alex, Darek, my Mom, my Dad, my sister Bethany, brother in law Chad, and friends Reilly, Aaron, Jaxon, Ben and Cade. I'm not sure why I didn't think the crowds wouldn't be bad... but I really wasn't expecting the madhouse of people that were there. We had our table time first. We ate pizza, the hostess tried and failed to entertain the boys with really lame magic tricks, opened more presents and ate more cake and ice cream. (And I wonder why I'm not losing any weight.) After table time, we had a total time of 3 hours to go on rides, laser tag, arcade games, etc. I thought we would get bored way before that time was up. The boys headed over to the race cars first. A few were a little nervous, but they all went on them. The line didn't look too long, but I didn't realize that the track was shared with another line as well. So 45 mins of our time was spent standing in line for the race cars. The boys were adorable on the cars and had HUGE smiles on their faces as they came off the ride. Luckily we were smart and had Ryan and Chad stand in line for us for laser tag while the boys were in line for the race cars. The boys only had to wait about 15 mins to get into laser tag. I was lucky enough to get to join them for this. Our team consisted of all 6 boys, myself and two teenagers. Yeah.... we didn't win. :) Although I was the high scorer out of both teams! Even though we didn't win, the boys had a blast. Of course they are little boys, and they had guns that they could shoot people with. What's better than that??? After laser tag, we went to the arcade. I used all my helpers to keep track of all the boys. We combined all the tickets won and split it evenly for prizes. They all loved picking out their prizes. We had just enough time to take the boys to the XD theater and watch a short 3-D movie. Again, they all loved it. I wish we had more time, but our time was up. I couldn't believe we had stayed the whole time. Two of the boys went home with a Mom that had come. We took Reilly, Aaron and Ben home. After taking them all home, we rushed back over to The Gateway to see How To Train Your Dragon. Although I was exhausted and ready for bed, the movie was really cute and kept me awake. :) After the movie we came home and took it easy the rest of the evening.

While we sang Happy Birthday to Alex, he spun as fast as he could to get 200 tickets around him. He was able to get them all!

Lame card trick

Going around the table from left - Aaron, Darek, Ryan, Jaxon, Cade, Reilly and the back of Alex.

Aaron, Alex, Ben and Darek

Reilly and Cade in the race cars

Ben

Aaron

Jaxon

Cade

Alex

Alex and Reilly

Darek

I don't know how many times throughout the weekend the comment was made, "boy is this kid spoiled!" I know we spoil both our kids to death. But honestly I never regret any of it. These are experiences they will always have.... hopefully. I adore my boys and always want to give them everything I can.

Alex had an excellent birthday. He got everything that he wanted (and more). I truly cannot believe that he is 7 years old. He is excelling in school. His math skills are amazing. He can do addition and subtraction easily and you can give him multiplication and division problems and he can usually figure them out (within reason of course). He reads between a 2nd and 3rd grade reading level. He amazes me with how quickly and easily he figures things out. Sometimes he's a little too good. :) Alex continues to be an amazing big brother. He loves being a big brother and continues to ask for more siblings. If only it were that simple! We love our big kid and love watching him grow and learn new things. Happy Birthday Alex!

Already a Busy Month

March really has started out with a bang! We have been to the instacare with Alex and Darek and then had a first when Darek was transported by ambulance up to Primary Children's. It wasn't life threatening, and I wasn't even terribly worried. Whenever Darek gets a cold, it turns severe. He may start out with a cough, but before too long it transforms into throwing up, shallow/trouble breathing and all sorts of fun stuff. So when we took him in, his oxygen level was really low and his breathing was way off. They suctioned him and gave him a breathing treatment. Usually that works just fine, but this time his oxygen didn't come back up. So they put him on oxygen, called an ambulance and had him transferred. We were at Primary Children's for a few hours when they reluctantly decided to release him. But only with strict instructions that we take him to our pediatrician the following day. During that follow up appt with our doctor we were told that Darek probably has asthma due to his prematurity. Something we kinda figured. The doctor said we will see what happens IF this happens again. We know it will happen again, because we've already been through this 5-6 times. Anyway.... for now, all is good. We are mostly healthy (Ryan and I are still getting over our month long colds) and ready for the good weather to come.

Alex's birthday is coming up next week. I can't believe he'll be turning 7. After our crazy, huge party last year, we decided to keep it low key this year. I asked Alex what he would like to do this year. He came up with several options (Disneyland, Chuck-E-Cheese, Fat Cats, another huge party), but finally settled on Boondocks. I told him because it's more expensive that he can have 6 friends come with us. We're still working on invitations, but he is so excited and can hardly wait for his party. And I'm excited too, cause I'll get to play with the kids instead of just trying to keep control over 20 kids.

We keep trying to do family pictures and I apologize to all those waiting. I did manage to take some cute ones of the boys yesterday in their new church/easter outfits. So I will post those. But we're hoping we can get a few pictures today while Ryan is home. I'm not holding my breath.

Already Been A Month???

It really is crazy how fast time flies! I have been so terribly lazy regarding my blogging. I have been busy, but that really is a lame excuse. So here is the update for this last month.

Ryan is as busy as ever. This is his last semester of his Rad Tech program. His grades have been incredible throughout the whole program which totally amazes me. All semesters of his program he has received a 3.90 or higher. He is ready for graduation in May and taking the summer totally off! He has applied and been accepted to Weber State, but we are waiting to hear whether he has been accepted into the MRI program for fall or if he will need to wait another year to start that one. If he has to wait, he thinks he may continue to go to school to get a degree in Hospital Administration. So many unknowns right now. We should find out about the MRI program at the end of March or early April. It's been hard having him gone for such a long time. Many times I have felt like a single parent and I know there have been many times that Ryan has felt so sad not being able to be here. It will be nice when school is done and it's just work.

I have been doing several different things. I continue to do daycare. Right now I have 5 part time kids that I watch. 2 of them I only watch one day a week and the rest are just a few times a week. It works nicely that I'm usually done with daycare by 1:30 in the afternoon so I have my evenings available. I have also had several successful stamping classes with my friend Tammy. We also have 2 shelves down at a local boutique that we keep very updated. Between those two things, we stay very busy and stay in our craft rooms a lot trying to come up with new inventive ideas. It's quite tiring, but very fulfilling at the same time. For some reason I guess I thought I wasn't busy enough, so I decided to accept the roll of President elect in the PTA at Alex's school. That means I will be following the President around next year at all the PTA activities learning everything that I will be doing as President for the 2011-2012 school year. I am excited and very overwhelmed with this new responsibility. At least I do have some time to get used to the idea and really learn what I will be doing. I also have my two callings at church and will soon be coaching soccer again in the Spring. I am really looking forward to the summer. We already have 3-4 camping trips in the works, a trip or two to Park City, a trip to Nampa, Idaho to visit my Grandparents, hopefully a trip or two to St. George and hopefully a trip to Island Park, Idaho. We are getting our passes to Lagoon again this year because we had so much fun with them last year. We're just very excited to have some fun family time together.

Alex has been doing excellent in school. He excels in pretty much every subject. His favorite subject in school right now is art. But he is extremely good at math and reading. They haven't really done the level testing, so I'm not sure at what level he reads. But he's definitely in the top 2 or 3 in his class. The one thing I was so happy to see on his report card was that he is kind and tries to be a friend to everyone. He is a good listener (most of the time) and really truly loves his friends. His best friend right now is Reilly. He lives 2 houses away from us, so they spent every possible moment they can together. Alex continues to love playing with his friends, video games, computer programs and especially his little brother. He insists now that he only wants brothers and no sisters... EVER! It cracks me up. I know he'll love any child we have, but he sure has a special bond with his little brother.

Which brings me to that special little brother, Darek. Oh Darek. There is not one word that could ever describe this little guy. Darek is so full of energy right now. He learns so much on a daily basis. His language is incredible for a child his age. He can say well over a hundred words now and can probably recognize word to object for about 50-60 things. He loves giving kisses now. If he does anything wrong, he will immediately come up to you and kiss you on the lips. I think he knows that it will melt that person instantly and all will be forgiven. :) Darek has a very strong opinion and really likes to share that opinion. He recently has begun with temper tantrums. I think part of that is related to a really bad flu/cold that he had for over a week. I'm hoping it dissipates in the next few weeks, but I probably shouldn't hold out too much hope since he is approaching that 2nd birthday. Besides the kisses, one of my favorite things Darek does is singing to rock/pop songs. He has been singing little bits to Bon Jovi's "Livin on a Prayer" for a while now. But he recently has started singing little bits to Lady Gaga's "Paparazzi". I am not as proud of this one, but it still cracks me up. When he recognizes a song on my ipod, he'll start dancing and try to sing to it. I love how musical this little guy is.

Alright, well that brings us up to date for the most part. I'm going to start trying to take pictures more often again so I have some to post. We are still working on getting some family pictures taken. I'm hoping that will take place in the next 2 weeks (depending on weather). And hopefully my blog updates will come a little more frequently. But thanks for stopping by and waiting patiently for updates!

Very Humbled

Today (well officially yesterday since it's Sunday morning) has been a wonderful day. It's one of those days that helps you put things in perspective and reminds you of what life is all about.

We started out our day today at a PBS function. My Dad invited us to this read-a-thon activity last year and we had a great time! So when he asked if we'd like to go again this year, our answer was a definite YES! Alex was thrilled since he could remember the activities from last year. It was held inside a building on the Utah State Fairgrounds. I packed Alex and Darek up in the van and we got there shortly after 10:30 and stayed until almost 2:00. Daddy needed a little downtime, so he stayed home. Many of the activities involved science and learning, but of course in a fun way. The boys started off coloring their own face mask, then went and made some dinosaur claws, dug for gems, went on an I Spy mission, got face painted, picked out a new book and watched an amazing Japanese drum show. We had so much fun! My Dad was there taking pictures (and showing his grandsons off to his co-workers) and got to come over and play with us every once in a while. It was a wonderful way to spend some quality time with the boys. For some reason though, one moment stuck out in my mind. We were sitting on the floor watching the drum show. I had Darek on my lap and he was mesmerized by the huge drums and the loud boom that they made. Alex was sitting next to me, but climbed onto my lap as well. Although this was slightly uncomfortable for me, I didn't protest. About a minute later, without either of them thinking about it, they rested their heads on each other. I don't know why, but it was such a beautiful moment for me. They cuddle all the time at home, play, rough house, dance, sing, etc. But this was such a pure, beautiful moment between these two brothers and I couldn't help but just stare at them. It was one of those moments that you don't want to pass. I could have sat there with my sweet little boys forever.

Shortly after we came home from that fun activity, my parents were wonderful enough to agree to watch our boys for the evening so Ryan and I could go on a date. I know I'm not the only who knows how rare a date with a spouse is. We decided to go see The Lovely Bones at the theater and then go to Texas Roadhouse for dinner. I had read The Lovely Bones and fell in love with the book. It's a sad, yet beautiful story and I really wanted to see the movie. The book was definitely better than the movie, but the movie was still extremely thought provoking. For those who don't know, the story is about a girl who is murdered and watches and tries to help her family cope through the sadness. While we were eating dinner, Ryan and I had a really spiritual and emotional conversation. I think our waitress thought I was an emotional wreck. We talked about all 3 of our boys and what miracles each one has brought to our lives.
Ian. We unfortunately have experienced losing a child. But one thing this movie reminded me of was that his little body decided it couldn't take this life anymore. His life wasn't taken in a horrible way. Both Ian's life and death were a miracle. He shared his beautiful little spirit with us, even for a short while. One thing that I think of often with Ian is what would have happened if he had passed away before they contacted us. Would we have even found out about him? They probably would have mentioned his birth and death, but not even suggested that he still be adopted. I remember the questions that came when we mentioned having the adoption still go through after he died. They thought we were crazy. It has made me wonder how many other babies have had that same circumstance. Placed for adoption at birth, but not placed with a family until it was known whether they would live. The thought of a baby dying without a family is incomprehensible to me. I have my own beliefs as to what might happen in those cases. But I get emotional thinking about a baby being alone... without a family. I am so grateful that Ian hung on to life long enough that he could have his eternal family.
Darek. Our walking, talking, bubbly little miracle. I can't help but smile whenever I talk about Darek. The fact that this little guy is walking, talking and driving us crazy is a miracle! I don't know why or how Darek has come out seemingly untouched from being so premature. But I will say over and over again how grateful and lucky we are. Although he can throw a temper tantrum as good as the next kid, he also has this really sweet personality. He will give hugs and kisses to everyone and is so good at saying thank you. (We're still working on please) He loves his family, especially his awesome big brother. And man is he smart! He can say almost any word now and recognizes the word to the object a lot of the time. It's amazing how he fits in our family so perfectly. It just goes to show that it doesn't matter how you get your kids. If they are meant to be yours, then the way will be found.
Alex. What a little man our Alex is. Yes, we have plenty of 6 year old days. But over his 6 years he has shown amazing insight way beyond his age. This kid was born to be a big brother. I don't think there was anyone better prepared. From about the time he turned 3, maybe even a little before, he was begging for a sibling. When it didn't happen and still didn't happen, he was the one who had the faith. Not only the faith, but the insight. He told me again and again that we were going to have two babies. I remember a specific walk we were on. I was introducing him to the idea of adoption. He knew what it was since Nathan and Mallory are adopted. But I asked him what he thought about us adopting a baby. He looked at me and said with total assurance, "Mommy, there is a lady that is going to have two babies and she won't be able to take care of them and they are going to be our babies." I, with my lack of faith said, "Well, that would be really neat, but I don't know if that will ever happen." But he always stuck to it and reminded me several times. When Ian died, Alex didn't quite know what to do. He was so happy to be a big brother and actually have two babies. Here was one of his brothers that he had never met, yet loved so much, gone. He asked us so many questions about Ian and about death. I thought he would have so much trouble when we went in to dress Ian for burial. But instead, he touched his little face and stayed so calm and collected. There have been many times he has cried and wondered why, but has always been unwavering in his faith. What a miracle Alex has been for us.

I'm sorry this has been so long and drawn out. But I really felt the need to write all these feelings down. The last conversation Ryan and I had on our way home was about our family. I was talking about why a big family is so important to me. I believe that from this life we won't take our jobs, our homes, cars, or other possessions. I believe we will take our memories, our knowledge and we will have our family. So while it is important to have a home and a good job here, I don't ever want that to be the focus of my life. I want family to always come first. When I die, I want to be surrounded by our children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, etc. So I am hoping that somewhere down the road (hopefully sooner rather than later) we have a few more little ones waiting to join our crazy, but wonderful little family.

I am so grateful for days like today that help me focus on the great things of life. I hope these feelings will last so that I remember them when Darek is throwing a tantrum during church or when Alex interrupts me during an important telephone call. :) Life is never perfect, but there are moments throughout life that sure come close.

I Take It Back

Ha ha... so ya know how I mentioned in my last post about a new job. Yeah, I quit. For those who haven't read through facebook, let me explain a little bit more.

When I accepted this awesome job at the bakery, I was told I'd get to do a little of everything. Decorating, cookies, cakes, bread, cleaning, etc. Well it turned out that all I would be doing was the cleaning part, with a little bit of slicing bread thrown in there. I really wasn't happy about leaving my boys to be paid minimum wage to be a janitor. I know that eventually things may have gotten better but I'd rather do some learning on my own from home where I can be with my boys. So after 2 weeks there, I told them that this wasn't going to work out and that it wasn't what they had described to me that I'd be doing.

I've already been having fun from home. I've made some cupcakes and just today did 5 caramel apples. I'm excited to learn new things and get better at what I love to do. I will continue to do daycare and am looking for 1-3 full-time or part-time kids. Please let me know if you or anyone you know is interested.

So there is the update for now. I'm just happy again being at home!

New Years cake

I don't have much desire to blog right now, so I'm gonna make this semi short. I wanted to get some pictures up of the New Years cake we made. My brother in law, Chad and I have wanted to make a cake together for quite some time. So we decided New Years would be a great opportunity. We talked about what we wanted to do and had my sister, Hayley, draw out a sketch of what we wanted. Chad, Bethany and I went shopping for the materials and went to work. On Wednesday we baked the cake, filled it and covered it with fondant. We refrigerated it overnight and went to work decorating all day Thursday. We had a blast making the cake and working together. I didn't get pictures of the whole process, but I do have some pictures of taking the cake to Buca di Beppo for dinner on New Years Eve. It was quite the tasty cake too. Although I'm not a fan of fondant and took most of that off, the red velvet cake with chocolate ganache filling was quite excellent!

Anna, Tyson and Alex

Beth and Chad

Dad and Mom

Cute little Darek

The Cake

Beth, Chad and myself holding our masterpiece

Taking the pin out so the ball can drop. We wanted something with more mechanics, but didn't have the time. Maybe next time we can try something a little cooler.

Tasty cake

The whole family (minus my brother and his family who couldn't make it out this year) From left: Hayley, Ryan, Darek, Dad, Mom, Anna, Tyson, Alex, Bethany, Chad, Mike and Brayden