67/365

Cake Competition is in 2 days. This was in some magazine that went to all the homes in SLC.

Today was spent making cakes, making 20 pounds of fondant, preparing for my practice run tomorrow.
Went to bed at 3:30.

I'm so glad Brian is home to be with the kids... because I'm not getting the Worlds Best Mom Award this week.

66/365

Just a whole lot of baking and decorating today.
2 American Flag Sheet Cakes
1 Mario Galaxy Birthday Cake
A whole lot of kitchen cleaning

Now tomorrow the fun begins.  I'm only 3 days away from my competition.  I really need to start working on the details.
6 Detailed sketches. A whole page of "to do's" and loads of details to get done.  My imagination is much larger than my time frame I have to make this cake. Ahhhhhh!!!!

65/365

This little guy LOVES to play with his hands.

and my oh my!!  look at these eyelashes?
 One of my MANY favorite things about him.

64/365

What happens when Kaden and Avery have a sleepover in Avery's room?

They have a "Checkers Champinhsip"!

(Can't you see the sign?)

And of course there will be trophies.  

1st and 2nd place.... I know it looks like 2nd place is *@!    (I love 1st grade spelling)

Then for the dress code.
Avery had to get earrings, rings, bracelets, hat, lip gloss and high heels. When I asked why, Kaden said, "Girls just do that mom. They have to look pretty"

Let the Championship Begin!!!
(This was about the time I got kicked out of the room)

And the winners are???????

Kaden 1st.  Avery "S ht" (2nd place)  

Now go to bed. It's Late.

63/365

Brian took one for the team today.

1 Dad  1 Mom  3 Boys  1 Girl  

       Final Score

I couldn't help but take a pic.... the placement of the ice pack cracks me up.

62/365

I gotta take advantage of admitting that I love homework time with this dude.

1st grade homework is great.  I'm sure 6th grade homework won't be as fun.

Gotta love the fruit punch mustache too!

61/365

It was one of those days.... 

Didn't have a chance to get to making this cake till 10pm and it had to be done by 9:30 in the morning.  Needless to say, I didn't go to bed till about 3.

When I woke up, Brian's first words to me were.... "You've never had braces before have you?"

In my oh so groggy state, all I could do is hope scream.  Why did I put the braces in the wrong spot??

Seriously?? This cake was for a dentist from an orthodontist...... of course they would notice the braces were on the wrong spot. DUH! I'm such a dork.

(I told them to tell the dentist that the intern put on these braces)

60/365

Big Day for Avery...   Kindergarten Shots are over and done with!! 

Today was the day that has caused much anxiety for the past several months... but when the moment actually came (and with a little bribing), Avery did AWESOME!!!!! Didn't even flinch with her shots. She was so brave.
She is so excited to go to kindergarten she was worried that the doctor would tell her she wasn't allowed to go if she didn't "pass" her check-up.

Luckily, she passed.
So cute.

59/365

Connor has an eye infection today.



So sad.

58/365

Another relaxing Sunday. Well,  once 2:00 hit.  The morning is a bit crazy trying to get myself and 4 kids ready and out the door by 8:30 (it's still not happening).  But then the chaos is over and we have the rest of the day to be together.

We spent it playing games, making cookies, coloring pictures, writing Thank you notes, had FHE and everyone even pitched in to help get the house clean. With half the kids asleep and the others playing quietly upstairs, I got a little quiet time just with little ol me.  It was wonderful.  

57/365

I love my two little dancing princesses....

Yes... that is Brighton in the Snow White costume.

At least he's got his trains.

56/365

My kids are hanging out with grandma and grandpa Sohm tonight for their infamous "Cousins Camp".  This is something my parents do every 3 months.....

NO PARENTS ALLOWED (#1 Rule)
I literally got yelled at from the kids to leave because I was taking too long.
10 Grandkids under the age of 8 sleeping over at Grandma's
Grandpa sleeping on the couch downstairs with all the kids
Movies. Popcorn. Crafts. Pizza. Pancakes in the morning... and some of the greatest memories they will have of their childhoods.
(all this with my mom still recovering from a foot surgery just two days ago!)
She's Super Grandma.

55/365

I'm not one of these moms who keeps every paper and picture that comes home from school, but this one was too cute.

Today was 100th day of 1st grade.  This is the picture Kaden drew.

Ok... so I have a couple questions/comments

1) Apparently he's celebrating he's 100 because he's got a balloon attached to his arm

2)  He must need a cane for his extra long arm

3)  I guess he'll have glasses when he's old.   (pretty clever to think about dude!)

4) ummmmm.... did he turn into a caterpillar with two long legs? I'm not quite getting his body here.

54/365

Cakes. Cakes. Cakes and more cakes today.

But I did get to take a super fun break from it to go with Avery to the Fire Station preschool today.

She asked the fireman, "How does the fire trucks go so fast?"

I was proud of her. She was really shy about asking and wanted me to to it, but I told her if she wanted to know the answer, then she had to ask herself. Pretty soon, her little hand was raised in the air and she spoke out.

Cute little thing had the biggest grin on her face after she asked her question.

Way to go Aves.

53/365

I gotta say that one of my favorite things right now is that Brighton is turning into a bit of a mamas boy. He loves to cuddle after naps, he loves to give me kisses, and he loves to come crawl in bed with me early in the morning and fall back to sleep. The cutest thing is that anytime he hears the garage door open (even if I'm not going anywhere), he runs down from playing with his trains and says, "Mom... don't leeeeeve me!" Then rushes over to me so I can pick him up.

Just a few minutes ago, I opened the door to take stuff to the freezer... he ran downstairs and when he saw I wasn't going anywhere, he turned right back around and went upstairs again.

I love this kid.

52/365

Every year we go to Crystal Hot Springs on Presidents Day..

It's something the kids look forward to for months.

This year I decided to stay home with the baby, but everyone else had a really great time.

This is a typical scene at the hot springs.... all the kids hangin out with grandma.  I think it's their favorite part of the day.

Of course the day wouldn't be complete without a little geo caching.  Oh, look at the cute couple! Brian and his brother are geo caching junkies.  (But we love them anyway) :)

51/365

Sunday Family Night at my moms house.

Grandma and Grandpa always find ways to help us be better people. Tonight we got to work on a humanitarian project for FHE. She told the kids about all these children in Africa who don't get very many toys. Then she told them we were able to help these children by making stuffed animals for them. All the kids got to stuff these homemade bears that my mom had spent HOURS on just to get them ready for us to stuff... then the adults sewed them all together. I'm so grateful for their constant effort to make meaningful memories for me and my family.

50/365

What a beautiful day in finishing our basement land.

Grandpa letting the kids "help" and earning a work hat..... check
All the can lights in .... check
Almost all the framing done in the family room.... check
Cabinets in..... check
Door hung to go into storage room..... check
Two trips to a dumpster down the street...... check. check
2 1/2 hours at IKEA with 4 kids to get basement stuff...... check (glad this one's over)
More walls knocked down.... check
Most wonderful dad and hubby in the world...... double, triple, quadrouple check!!!!

49/365

Today was the BIG Birthday Bash!!!

The day started with Avery getting to have a special day just with daddy since he had to work on her "real" birthday.  All she wanted to do was go to the "Big Toys R Us".  She told us earlier that it wasn't fair that she had never been to Toys R Us before.  So that is where she got to go. 

Brian was planning on getting her the "light up yo-yo" she seemed to want yesterday..... but a daddy can do a little better than that.

All it took was a sparkle in a little girls eyes when she saw this bike and that was that.

 (aren't daddies the greatest?  they work a lot like grandma's come to think of it)

Then the party.  

My oh my did we have fun.

The party would not have been as awesome if it weren't for one of our favorite friends Ellory.  She came over and painted all the girls fingernails AND was the brave soul who taught 11 little girls a dance that would be "performance" ready for their moms in under an hour.  

Ellory.... you are amazing!

All the cute little dancers dancing to Hoedown Throwdown from Hannah Montana.
I was too busy to take picture of the other events... but the girls got make-overs which included sparkles in their hair, sparkle lip gloss, fingernail painting, sparkly rings and tu-tu's for the girls dolls.  All the girls go their own mix CD with some of the coolest tween music ever!
Then we had dance practice, made body glitter, played games, and opened up presents.  This was so cute! The girls were all so polite and we had so much fun taking pictures of all the girls with Avery.

And of course there was cake.   (my kids get jipped... I know it's ugly.. but the barbie skirt did match Avery's skirt... so it was a sortof personalized)

One of the best parts of having your birthday over is the "tearing down the sign"

This was my idea so we didn't have these dang signs up for weeks on end because they didn't want to get rid of them.  Now the kids look forward to getting to crash it down at the end of the night,

Love ya Aves... I'm glad you had a wonderful Birthday Weekend! You are the BEST!!

48/365

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AVERY!!!
I can't believe my little girl is 5 years old.

If I could say 5 things I love most about Avery, it would be.....
    1) Her contagious giggle and her strong personality
    2) Her motherly instincts when it comes to her baby brother
    3) That her best friend is her big brother
    4) That she loves to cook with me and she's my very best helper
    5) She is the GREATEST daughter a mom could have

 The morning started early with Kaden, Brighton and Connor making the final touches on the infamous "birthday sign"

And then (as per request from the birthday girl), Breakfast in Bed!!

Now, Avery is not much for being patient when there are surprises... so she insisted on opening all of her presents before 8:30 am when Kade and Brian had to leave for school and work.
As you can see... this girl LOVES her shoes!

and her princess barbie dolls....

The difficulty of being five years old and having your birthday done by 8:30 in the morning is that you have all day long to realize all the fun is over. Avery told me that she wished she would have gotten more presents that she REALLY wanted.  When I asked her what she wanted, she had to think and think and think and think... then she said,  "uhhhhhh... a light up yo-yo"  WHAT??? A YO-YO??? That girl just wanted more presents.  Luckily she's having a birthday party with her friends tomorrow. 

The day wasn't all that boring though... she had plenty of other great birthday events. 

She got extra special attention at school as well as got to go out to each with just mom and Kaden at the Spaghetti Factory for dinner.  It was a pretty cool day.