Decorating walls and cakes

We have lived in this house for six years.  I can hardly believe it has been that long.  But now, after six years, I finally decorated my kicthen wall.  About two years ago, we painted the walls red and now I finally have things hanging there.  For a long time, I just didn't know how to decorate it.  Then, after we painted, I knew what I wanted to do, but didn't (and still don't) have the money to do it.  I wanted a very large, nicely framed, black and white picture of the temple.  Anyway, this is what I have come up with, and I love it!  My kitchen is black and red, so I think this black and white arrangement looks good.  I got the metal sign at a craft fair, I made the magnetic picture frames, and the temple picture is on a stretched canvas.  And taking pictures of pictures is pretty hard--the flash washed out the temple picture a bit and the pictures aren't that crooked.

On Friday night I did a baby shower for someone in my ward.  She is actually my brother's wife's brother's wife.  Haha... confused??  :)  Her husband's sister is my sister-in-law (married to my brother).  Got it?  It's not really that complicated but I guess it is easy enought to just say that we aren't really related but we share some of the same neices and nephews.  Anyway, it was a lot of fun.  It rained like crazy--even for here during monsoon season.  It gave some added meaning to the term "baby shower."  Some people actually called and said they turned around and went home because they thought they were going to get washed away or killed by all the lightning strikes.  I made a cake for the shower that matched the invitation.  Sadly, I forgot my sister-in-law's advice (yes, the same one as mentioned above) about doing frozen buttercream transfers and words.  Since you flip the finished image over, you have to make the transfer in mirror image.  Since I didn't do that, my finished cake looked like this...

Oops.

Luckily, I discovered my mistake with enough time left to redo the letters (correctly this time) and put them over the top of the backwards ones.

30 on the 30th!

We celebrated Nate's 30th birthday on August 30th.  Since 30 is kind of a monumental birthday and it just happened to be on the 30th, I wanted to make the day extra special for Nate.  Per tradition, the kids and I woke him up (at 6:00 a.m.) singing "Happy Birthday" and had him open his presents.  I gave him Bucky Balls (those little magnetic balls that you make shapes and stuff with--intriguingly frustrating little boogers if you ask me) and new pillows and nice sheets for our bed.  I had Natalie, with a little help from Kelton, draw 30 pictures and I laminated them and made them into a book. 

Nate had to go to work, but I still wanted him to have a good birthday.  So I made 30 cinnamon rolls and took them to him at work to share with everyone.  Then we went to Chick-fil-A for lunch.  Then I gave him a book I put together that had 30 birthday wishes from 30 different people.  It turned out really good and I think he really liked it.  Later that night we took the whole family to Chilis for Nate's birthday dinner.  When we got home we put candles on Nate's birthday banana cream pie and sang "Happy Birthday" again.  I think Nate would agree that it turned out to be a pretty good 30th birthday.

Cantaloupe

I got a cantaloupe out of our garden!  Well, actually, three.  But two of them were hardly big enough to count.  And the "big" one was smaller than anything you would ever find in a store.  It was maybe a bit bigger than a large softball.  But still.  I am pretty excited about this.  My garden has not done wonderfully... I didn't get a single cucumber.  I had two start to grow, but then they withered away when they were about and inch long.  The plants are now dead.  I got a few strawberries and a few potatoes.  And a bunch of tiny, skinny carrots.  (the kids thought they were pretty awesome and loved eating them)  My normal tomato plants (Celebrities) yeilded about 20 golf ball sized tomatoes, which Nate said were pretty tasteless.  The cherry tomatoes did pretty good.  But, I have been in the midst of a tomato worm war.  I think I have finally won...  But recently, even my cherry tomatoes have been about the size of pinto beans.  I guess I wasn't expecting my small square foot garden to produce mini produce.  SO...I was pretty happy with a cantaloupe that was maybe 2/3 the size of a store bought one.  Maybe next year I will double the size of my garden and get fruits and vegetables that are twice as big.

Have you ever seen cantaloupe that golden yellow in the store before?  I haven't.

I have also never bought a cantaloupe in the store that has such a little amount of green rind around the outside.  Which is why, I'm sure, it was so golden looking on the outside.

This is the cut up cantaloupe from the big one.  Kelton is holding one of the small cantaloupes.  Each of those small ones cut up into eight little pieces.

More from the mouth of Natalie

Last night during dinner we had a typical monsoon storm roll through.  It caused a couple of 10 second brown-outs.  We all thought we were going to lose power.  So Natalie asked me:

"Who makes the power go out?"

Me:  "Ummmm, well... the lightning and the storm."

Natalie: "Oh.  I thought it was Jesus."

I absolutely love that that was the most logical answer to her.  Because if anyone has the power to make everyone's lights not work at the same time, He would be it.  And I guess if you go beyond my answer, her answer is utlimately right.

Have you ever done this?

I have a question.  I took Damon in for a checkup yesterday.  When we were finished, the doctor handed me a lab slip and told me to take Damon in for some routine bloodwork.  I don't think I have ever done this with my other two kids.  So now I am thinking, is this something that is necessary?  Because taking a 16 month old in to have blood drawn for no particular reason is not high on my do to list.  Have any of you done this with your kids?

Sunday morning

Kelton's church clothes are ridiculous and have been for quite some time.  He has these size 2T pants with a waistband that has always been way too big.  A year or so ago, we had to have a safety pin on both sides to hold them up.  Now we only need a pin on one side.  However, he is taller now and so when the pants are pulled up on his waist where they should be, they are a bit on the geeky short side.  As if that is not bad enough, when he outgrew his size 2T shirt, we opened up a 3T shirt from the same brand.  It was wider than the 2T, but not any longer.  So, for some time he has been wearing this short dress shirt that barely covers his safety-pinned-up highwater pants.  The only reason he could pull it off was because he is... well... three.

It was time for Kelton to get a new church outfit.  Isn't he handsome?

It's nice to have him in clothes with some growing room, but actually fit.

And because we can't leave anyone out when the camera is on...

How I love each and every one of those three little faces!

First day of School

Natalie has been back in school for a full week.  She is in first grade this year and her teacher is Ms. Salazar.  She seems very nice and Natalie really likes her.  Here she is right before going out to catch the bus.

Kelton had to have his turn in front of the camera too.  Just look at that face...it deserves a picture too.

Natalie came home from school toward the end of the week and started talking to me about Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber.  I know that she has absolutely no idea who these people are.  But she told me that she doesn't like Lady Gaga (good thing) and that she likes Justin Bieber because he rocks.  It made me laugh to hear my 6 year old say that.  I asked her if she even knew who those people are.  She looked at me and said, "no."  Silly girl.  Sometimes I wish there was a way to shut out the influence of other kids...  Luckily she is only six, and will still listen to her mother.

Proof our kids are smarter than we were at their age

Remember when you were a kid and you used to use blankets, sofa cushions, and whatever else you could find to make one of these...?

And what did you call this thing?

Well, Natalie (and now Kelton) has a different name for it.  She came running to tell me that I had to come see her.... habitat.  Huh?  I went to look and found this.  I had to smile.  And she actually knows what a habitat is and could tell you about them.  Thank you kindergarten.  I think I learned a few letters when I was in kindergarten.

Which is why, to me, that is just a fort.

Pictures that make me smile...every time

Really, no explanation needed.  This is just Kelton and his crazy eyes.

 

 You could chalk this one up to Damon's awesome fashion sense, but actually, it's just chalk. Sidewalk chalk. He loves to eat it. And I actually mean, eat.

I was trying to take a picture of Natalie.  She is on the floor behind Kelton.

Hermit crabs

We got the kids hermit crabs last month.  Nate and I had gone on a date and were at the mall and saw them there.  Nate wanted to get them... I ended up agreeing... and we brought two hermit crabs home with us.  Natalie likes them.  Kelton likes them, but won't hold them.  Natalie has been pinched by both of them (one time was completely her fault) and doesn't hold them a whole lot anymore.

 Above: Wall.E   Below: Rapunzel 

You can probably figure out which crab belongs to which child based on the names.



Another new toy

I guess since I mentioned my new toy in the last post, I should mention Nate's too.

He got an iphone this past week.  He could really use it for work, and when he found out that the firm would pay for the monthly data package, he headed over to the Apple Store to get his phone--as an early birthday present.  But then the phone was going to cost twice as much as we thought because neither of our phones were due for an upgrade.  So, then what happens?  The firm says they will just buy the phone for him.  Well, I guess we know for sure that the people at work like Nate or they wouldn't be buying him a $500 phone. (Yes, that's what that thing cost them.  Insane.  Completely insane.)

A clean floor

So I finally figured out how to keep my floors from being so messy all the time.  (despite the three tornados that are constantly blowing through)  Want to know the secret?  All you have to do is buy a super expensive vacuum.

We've had about the cheapest vacuum you can buy since we've been married.  It worked okay.  Then after a few years it broke and we replaced it with the same vacuum.  It worked okay too.  Then one day I realized that is smelled aweful when I vacuumed and that more dirt was probaby coming back out of it into the air than was being vacuumed up.  True, the bag was full and needed replacing, but I was officially sick of having a crappy vacuum.  Nate had been wanting me to get a Dyson since way back when he was working at Circuit City (they sold them there).  So, we've been saving a little each month since January to buy this...

I love this thing.  It's actually fun to vacuum with.  It picks up so much stuff.  And... you can't vacuum if the floor is covered in toys.  So I've been a lot more on top of picking things up.  Because my $400 is not going to sit unused in the closet.  If you spend that much on a vacuum, you are somewhat obligated to use it.  So, messy floor problem solved.

On another note, I had what was probably my first conversation with Damon.  You know how you talk to babies, even though they don't talk back, and then one day they actually answer you?  Today I was playing with Damon and I asked him, "Do you want to eat some lunch?"  Damon came over to me and answered "Cracker.  Mmmm."  (he says cracker like "ka-kuh")  It was short and simple, but I think its the first time he's reponded with words to something I've said to him.  It was really cute.  But he aparently thinks anything you eat is a cracker because I gave him green beans and he called them crackers the whole time he ate.

Birds, Dancing, Movies, and Natalie says

Here are some random things from our month of June.  We've had a nest right above our front door the whole month.  We had some birds build a nest a few months ago, but aparently, they weren't very talented nest builders because both their eggs ended up falling out and breaking.  Kind of sad.  But our most recent bird build a very nice nest and sat there day and night until her babies hatched.  I first noticed the babies on the 28th, but I think they had probably been there (under the mother) for longer than that because they weren't very small babies.

This cute little guy...

really is the most awesome dancer in the world.  I was going to take a video with my phone to post on here so you could see for yourself, but I discovered that my newer phone doesn't do videos!  So you will just have to believe me.  All babies are cute when they dance.  But I have to laugh out loud every time I see Damon dance.  He moves just his hips back and forth from side to side.  Usually, his hands will be on something and he will stick his little bum out and then his hips will go all the way to one side then bump all the way over to the other side.  Back and forth.  It is so funny.  And it never gets old.  His vocabulary is also expanding.  He says "cracker" very well.  He annunciates "no" so well that sometimes I can't tell if one of the other kids said it.  Oh, and "stop!"  is one of his new favorites.  He usually says this-- not when something is being done to him, but when Natalie and Kelton are doing something to each other, or if they are fighting.  Hmmm, do you think he hears me say that to them several (hundred) times a day?  He even has the intonation down.  It makes me laugh.

Last Saturday (which I guess was technically in July) I took Natalie and Kelton to see Cars 2 in the theater.  It was the first time any of us had seen a movie in 3D.  Nate stayed home with Damon.  He wasn't too sure about watching a 3D movie because he was afraid it might trigger a migraine.  I have to say, I wasn't all that impressed with the 3D.  It was okay, but I think the technology still has a ways to go.  And the glasses are a little more than annoying.  Natalie liked the movie--she's easy to impress.  I saw her checking over the top of her glasses a few times to make sure things weren't really coming out of the screen toward her.  Kelton was not so sure.  I can't tell if he likes seeing movies in the theater.  Or maybe this movie was a little too intense, or maybe he just wasn't too happy to miss his nap.  He was really good during the whole movie, but this is him shortly after we got home...

Then yesterday (hmm...also not in June) Natalie and I had some funny conversations.  We were playing Uno and I looked over at her and it just hit me how pretty she is.  So I said,

"Natalie, you are so beautiful."
N: "Yeah, and I'm so tan too."
Me: (I laughed) "Yes, you are so tan."  (she tans very quickly playing outside in the sun)
N: "Except I wish that I was peach like you, and not tan."

If only the rest of the world felt that way... :)  Actually, I really stopped caring a long time ago about having tan skin.  I will just have to start pointing out to people that my legs aren't white.  They're peach.  Sounds better.

Then, when I took Natalie in to her room at bedtime, I said,

"Guess what we are going to do tomorrow?"
N: "What?"  (real excited)
Me: (motioning with my arm to her messy floor that was cleaned the day before) "This."
N: (somewhat jokingly) "But I didn't do it.  Damon did."
Me: "Damon didn't do this."
N:  "Yes he did.  He's out of control!"

Family Reunion

We recently got back from a family vacation to Utah.  We left on June 13 and got back on June 19th.  We went to Salt Lake City to have a family reunion with my parents and all of their children and grandchildren.  We made the drive in two days (both ways) and the kids did really well in the car.  No one threw up (carsickness, or the flu which hit some families on the way home) and we didn't have any prolonged bouts of crying, and we only made minimal (yet still annoying) stops for road construction.  Kelton didn't quite understand what "Utah" was, but he has determined that the Holiday Inn Express we stayed in was "Utah," probably because that's where we first ended up after telling him we were going to Utah.  For the rest of the trip and anytime since, when he sees a Holiday Inn or even just their logo, he gets excited and exclaims, "Look! There's Noo-tah!"  (Kelton speaks really well, so I don't know why he thinks there is an "N" at the beginning of Utah.  But I think it's cute.)

We arrived on Tuesday afternoon.  My parents rented a giant house for all of us to stay in.  The kids loved having all the room to run around in.  Natalie and Kelton loved being able to sleep in a room (actually the giant walk in closet of our room) with their cousins Maddison and Callie.  On Wedneday morning we all went and took a tour of the Sweet's Candy factory.  Natalie was very excited to see inside a candy factory.  She's watched Charlie and the Chocolate Factory quite a bit.  The tour was very fun.  I was a little disappointed because two of the places where you can see them making stuff were being cleaned so we watched a video instead of how they make jelly beans and how orange sticks get covered in chocolate.  At the end we all bought candy from their shop.  Our purchases included salt water taffy, cherry sours, and chocolate covered caramel peanut clusters.

Later that afternoon, we went to Cowabunga Bay water park with Christy and Chad's families.  Melanie and Rob's families went to Seven Peaks water park earlier in the day.  It wasn't an overly warm day (although it was the warmest of all the days we were in Utah) and the water on the slides was a bit on the cold side.  But, some of us still had fun on the slides.  Natalie went down a few of the smaller slides a few times.  I convinced Kelton to go down a slide sitting on my lap.  Unfortunately, the extra mass and weight (namely, me) caused a deluge of water at the end of the slide to come up over Kelton and plaster him in the face.  Kelton hates water in the face.  He was officially done with any of the slides, which is too bad, because he liked it up until the end.  If I would have known, I would have just lifted him up at the end.  They had a nice beach entry pool that had really warm water, which was nice to discover after the coldness of the waterslides.  Erica, Trevor and I braved leaving the warm water to go and ride all the water slides.  The bigger slides that had drops were actually pretty fun.

On Thursday morning we all went to Temple Square.  We went inside the Tabernacle, up to the top of the Church Office Building to see the city from above, to the visitor's center to see the Christus, and then we took a super quick trip to see the inside of the Conference Center and a bit of the roof.

 Mom and Dad and their children

Mom and Dad and all their grandchildren.

Natalie loved being in the room with the Christus.  The room has chairs back away from the Christus, but Natalie walked right up and stood at the base and looked up at the Christus for a while.  Later she came and sat by us.  When Nate told her it was time to go, she whispered to him, "Can we stay for just a little bit longer?  I like it in here."  Kids have such amazingly pure love and faith.  It's not hard to see why the scriptures tell us to become as little children.

Later that afternoon, Natalie's front tooth was bothering her while she was trying to eat.  Recently it had been getting looser and looser.  (On Monday night at the hotel, she fell out of bed probably five times during the night.  We heard the "thud" every time.  In the morning she was excited because one of the times she fell out, she hit her tooth and it started bleeding and now it was a lot looser.)  So she decided that she wanted us to try to get it out for her.  Uncle Chad, who is a dentist, wrapped some floss around it and popped it out for her.  I think she was a little scared, but she was really brave about it and was excited to be visited by the tooth fairy while on vacation.

That night my Grandma and Grandpa Burgess came up to the house to have a BBQ with us.  We got to see Aunt Deonne and my cousins Kevin and his wife Nikki, Jennifer, and Paige.  It was very fun to see my grandparents because it had been a while since I had seen them last.  Natalie was only two the last time we went to Utah.  Kelton and Damon were not born yet and my grandparents had never met them.  My Grandpa and Grandma are 92 and 90 years old--so I feel so lucky to still have both of them here with our family.

We all had matching shirts that we wore for the BBQ.  Here is a picture of the whole family in our shirts.

On Friday morning we all headed out for an "easy" hike up Ensign Peak.  People who hike all the time must have dubbed it "easy."  For all of us non-hikers with kids in tow, it was quite a climb.  But it was fun to be up at the top and see the Salt Lake Valley.  There was even a man dressed as Brigham Young at the top.  At first I thought, wow, what a job to be stationed up here all day long for the tourist who hike up.  But after talking to him, we found out that he was up there as part of a Stake Youth Conference.  He was even nice enough to offer to tell all the kids his story.  Then, on the way back down, Damon had his first real adventure of the day.  I had him up on my shoulders and I slipped and fell.  I was able to keep him from falling off but I got some bruises on my left side and I later found a little scuff on Damon's back.  Falling did make him cry, but I think it scared him more than anything.  But apparently it wasn't scary enough because later in the day, Aunt Melanie fell down the stairs while carrying both him and Jade.  (Damon had already fallen down the stairs twice on his own.)  The babies were okay, but Melanie was hurting a bit.

On top of Ensign Peak.  The corner of Nate's right sleeve is pointing at the temple.

Friday afternoon, I took Natalie and Kelton to the Discovery Gateway Children's Museum.  Tina went too with all of her kids except Denae and Christian.  It was fun but definitely not worth the money.  They didn't have as much there as I was expecting.

On Saturday we started the long trek back home and got back home on Sunday at about 1:00 in the afternoon.  On our way out of town, we stopped by my grandparents' house and visited for a bit.  I am still not quite recovered from all the lost sleep.  I was up every night until about 2:00 a.m. talking--which was a lot of fun.  Not so fun when my kids still wake up at 6:00 or 7:00.  But we really enjoyed seeing everyone and spending time together and look forward to doing it again!

Cake and potatoes. But not together cause that would be gross.

I had a friend call me the other day and ask me if she could pay me to make a cake for a baby shower she was doing.  I've never done that before.  I agreed--mostly because she is a good friend and not because of the money.  (I don't think many people would be willing to actually pay for what a specialty cake like that costs.  I know I wouldn't!)  Compared to Natalie's cake, this one was a bit faster to do.  Once the cake was actually made, which took about an hour, it only took maybe 3-4 hours to finish it.  (combine that with three hours of volleyball and two hours of visiting teaching and it equals Dominos for dinner and a house that looks like a tornado zone.)

My friend told me that the girl having the baby was doing the baby's room in purple and green butterflies.  So this is the cake I came up with.  I was pretty happy with the way it turned out. (you can see it better if you click on it to make it bigger.)

It's only a two tiered cake.  The bottom white part is my cake turntable.  I bought it when I made Natalie's cake.  I had absolutely no idea how necessary a turntable is to making a cake.  I still shake my head when I think about how many cakes I made without one.  Never again...


And here are some potatoes that I got from my garden about a week ago.  They weren't real big (see the baby spoon for reference), but I had enough to make stir fry with.  These are all the potatoes that came from one of my two plants.  To be precise, these are the one from the plant that I uprooted a while back.  :)

And tragically, I went out several days later to harvest the potatoes from my other plant and there were about the same amount of potatoes, but they were all the size of the bigger ones in the picture above.  But... I must have left them in the ground too long because they were all starting to rot.  Except for two.