my cake adventure!

For each granddaughters 12th Birthday we have a girls dinner party to celebrate them becoming "women" Its a fun and special tradition in our family and one I know I'll love to have around for my daughters. Anyway tonight we celebrated my niece Lexi's 12th Birthday and I decided to make her a special cake...it ended up being quite the adventure! First...I took a picture of the cake all done except for the candles and flowers, which I had planned on adding when we got to the restaraunt...

I placed this almost finished cake on the table and took a quick picture cause I was soo excited about how my 3+ hrs of hard work had payed off! Luckily Taya is an amazing napper and napped the whole time I was creating this...Anyway I went into the kitchen/salon to style my moms hair before we went to the party and when I finished I came out into the dining room to find this...

This picture is missing its key ingredient Taya who had woken up from her nap right as I had finished the cake! She climbed right up sat on the table and had at the cake, while I was doing my moms hair! I of course had a little mental meltdown and after Grandma rescued Taya and took her and Rylee outside, I worked on saving my masterpiece....

You can see a few imperfections but after touching up the cake, along with my smeard eyeliner from being a baby and crying about it, I reminded myself it was going to be eaten in an hr anyway and decided it looked good.

Its so fun to see Lexi becoming a young woman. I cant believe how fast time has gone, I still remember welcoming her home from hawaii when she was 2 and she was so shy! Now she is a fun loud and happy 12 yr old, CRAZY!

Its so fun to get together with my family. Dad would've gotten so mad at our table manners though :)

so my tears were pointless to shed afterall...It was fun to look at for the few hrs it lived though, and it was TONS of fun to make! The End :)

New Job

(this is a little entry for my own "family history" feel free to read :) FINALLY the days of Derek being a Wal-Mart employee are done! I know I know, during these times just having a job is something to be grateful for, so we were, and 2 1/2 years after working there its now time for a change. The plans when we moved here were to transfer to Wal-mart until derek could find a CNA job, but when school got so busy it was hard for Derek to go through the application process so he just stayed at wal-mart. Having the summer off school was one of those little "blessings in disguise" and Derek was able to get a job at a little care center in Orem. Having this job, thats in his actual career field will be the perfect stepping stone up. We're so thankful he was able to get hired, the hours have been better, they are willing to work around his class schedule, and the people he takes care of love him. I take the girls in at least once a week to visit the people there. I have always had a soft spot for elderly people, and they light up when the girls come to say hi. I think a little child just brings a brighter spirit into the room. I tell Derek every night when he comes home that his job is SO important. The actual work he has to preform for these people may not be exactly glamorous but I know after esperiencing it first hand with my own Dad, that having someone care for your loved one, professionally and with sensitivity is something you cant put a price on. I'll forever be thankful for those nurses who cared for my Dad in his final months, and I know there are sons and daughters out there who are so thankful for Derek right now too.

Happy 3 years!

I loved looking back at how much we've changed in the 3 years we've been married...I've mostely changed based on baby weight :) 1st year I was 3 months preg and was nice and skinny from puking my guts out, 2nd I was nice and chubby from having that baby who at first made me so skinny and now I'm back to myself finally! :) Derek still looks like a little kid to me and I absolutly LOVE that! He honestly is my ideal man looks and personality. I honestly couldn't have found a better fit for me. I'm so thankful to him for all the hard work he does each day to provide for me and the girls. I'm so proud of him for going to school and sticking with it even though its been so frustrating for him. I love the times he leaves little notes, or the times I come home and see he's done dishes in the middle of his busy busy day, I love how delicious he looks in his scrubs, and how even after a 12-15 hr day he comes home and lets me talk and talk his ear off. Marriage is give and take and I'm so thankful for the balance we learn to find each day. I think it's all about learning how to walk together each wearing one leg of the pants :) I'm thankful he's always willing to work harder with me on the little and big things. I'm especially thankful I had him as my rock through my Dads passing. Going through that trial in my life without him, would've felt impossible! Basically I'm just a little thankful for him! :) Happy Anniversary Der, I freakin love you!

Thanks to Dereks sister who watched the girls. We went out in the middle of the day and ran around like little kids for like 4 hours! It was AWESOME! ha we went to the batting cages at dirty trafalga, yes I asked the guy to spray my helmet again with lysol cause it was nasty! Then we went to a new little place to eat called the italian bistro or something like that, and then we went around and window shopped. It was so fun just having a day to hang out, no kids allowed!

growin up...a little too fast :)

I just got to thinking and its been a little while since I've wrote anything about the girls and how they're changing and growing...so heres a little post dedicated especially to them and all the reasons we love them to pieces!

Well Rylee Kate is now 3 1/2. She has some of the funniest things to say. The other day she came in while I was getting ready and had a big conversation with me and said how she's going to get married when she's big, and then shes going to have kids, and then how when she has kids, that I'll get to be a grandma! ha then she finished off her story with, does that sound like a good plan?! When she wants to argue with something we're telling her, she'll usually start with, "mom I have a little problem," and then proceed to tell us her problem, either its she doesn't really want to do what we asked, or she doesn't really like veggies, or whatever. She loves playing with friends, She's super smart, picks up on EVERYTHING, sensitive as can be, and the best cuddler in the world. Shes decided for halloween she wants to be...a princess, and she can describe EXACTLY how she wants her pink costume to look, a long big pink dress, with a crown with a sleeping beauty button and shoes with a matching sleeping beauty button!. I don't know how I got such a girly girl but I love every bit of her!

Now for Taya Boog who at the end of this month will be 1 1/2! She has such a funny personality! She's head strong as can be, and usually is the driving force between her and rylee fighting. She's been a pretty dang good little girl. She's very perticular about little things like doors being closed all the way and things being put in the garbage. She loves when I ask her to put something in the garbage. The other day we were at the park and she cleaned off the wood chips from each step before she climbed up it...ha thats so me :) She talks a bunch now, knows most animal sounds, loves to sing and do action songs, and she LOVES her little tiger (in the picture she's giving him a hair cut with my clippers) and her pink blanky. I love when I give it to her to go to sleep, she'll turn the blanky to find a corner and then rubs the corner to fall asleep. She loves shoes, and her onsie jammies...and hats, and of course any ball she can find. She loves to talk on the phone and we end up calling Derek at work at least once a day so she can talk to him. She insists on feeding herself now and actually has it down pretty good. She loves coloring and reading books. She's the extra little spice we need in our lives...and we love every marshmallowy piece of her! :)

Now the girls together have become way better friends! They still fight but more often then not they play and have fun together. When Taya wakes up she calls for Rylee, she LOVES her big sister. Rylee has become way more concerned with Taya and doesn't like going places without her now. I'm so glad we had the girls close together. They're a lot of work, especially with Derek gone so much, but I wouldn't have it anyother way!

Family vacation 2010...to the FUQUAS!

At least once a week me and Derek make some kind of comment about how we miss Keith and Stacy. Its not fun having a long distance relationship with your favorite couple in the world, its especially hard on Derek and Keith trying to keep their "guy love" kindled :) (watch scrubs, and you'll know where thats from) But in all seriousness our trip out to Idaho was LONG over due and after Keith and Stacy had made the long drive a million times out to Utah to visit we knew it was our turn! It was worth every second of the 11 hr drive and we have never crammed so much food, or fun into 5 days, ever! So as usual, here is a million pictures to sum up our trip....Thank you to the Fuquas for making it such a perfect get away!

Thanks to the "swagga wagon" we all fit into one vehical and rolled everywhere together, all 4 kids and all 4 adults! please check out how awesome Ryder is...thats his funny face :) oh and stacy got the job of playing ref between jory and rylee, man those two argued about EVERYTHING...they're already preparing for married life ;)

Stacys parents have an awesome house with an awesome yard and a million of awesome things to do! i say awesome because seriously it was awesome! we made smores, played some game i cannot remember the name of it, the kids ran wild, we chilled in the hot tub and thought about watching a movie in their theater but we're old now and were too tired! Oh and her parents even took us all to Hairspray the musical! It was both  mine and Dereks first "real" musical and although we were sceptical we both left completely surprised at how much we liked it, it was awesome :)

between their arguing they still managed to be the cutest couple ever :)

Miss Taya boog found her favorite spot in the house the first day we were there, our girls love uncle keith!

And now for one of the funnest parts of the trip...boating! i swear theres nothing like being out on a boat or on a dock relaxing getting a tan! it was HEAVEN! ps check out the scenery! its amazing in every picture!

This tube was so fun, the kids loved it!

who am i kidding, so did the big kids :)

This was one of the other best parts of boating, it was like a lullaby for taya and ryder. They both just konked right out and stayed asleep while we hung out on the dock.

Stacys family are all pros on the wakeboards and skis...so Derek was the only reason we didn't look like complete losers! Ha I tried probably over 50 times seriously to get up on the stupid wakeboard and never got up! I can honestly say my upper body has NEVER been so sore!

I absolutely love this picture of the kids. Theres nothing better then when your kids are completely content...it doesn't happen often but when it does, its easy to soak it up!

I love that left pic of ry, juice box and toes in the water...its perfect, until you have to pick a wedgie! ha poor girl the life jacket did it to her everytime, and i couldnt' resist taking the picture!

Look at the background in all of the pictures, Coeurdalene is one of the most beautiful places we've ever been, it was amazing!

This was from our day at the amusement park silverwood. We spent all day there and had TONS of fun. Thats where we noticed Tayas obsession for Jory! She loved riding with him in the stroller and beamed everytime he'd look at her. Ha who knows maybe she'll be the one to win his heart :)

Taya getting a little aunt stacy time, at the end of our long day at silverwood.

Our family at the end of our vacation. We wish we could snap our fingers and go back everyday! We're super lucky to have friends as amazing as the Fuquas!...the end :)