Another Wedding!

Our family was blessed to attend another beautiful fall wedding this year on October 8th.  This young couple is part of our church and it was such a privilege to watch them go through the process of friendship to courtship to engagement and then to begin their life as a married couple.  You see, these 2 have been going to church together since they were about 11 years old but they never really talked much.  The groom had an innocent crush on the bride since the age of 12 but because of his upbringing it just wasn’t something he acted upon at such a young age.  Instead, he grew up and focused on education and building his career; working towards getting to the point of being able to support a wife.  During this time he began to pray for the young lady that God was preparing for him and as time went on he was still aware of his crush on this sweet young lady in his church.  Rather then jump in and ask her on a date he felt it wiser to talk to her dad about building a friendship with Rachel and see if their 2 personalities were even compatible for a life long relationship.  After a couple of months talking on the phone and visiting at church they decided that yes, indeed, they liked each other and desired to see if their relationship was the Lord’s will.  They prayed together, they asked their families to pray for them and entered into a courtship.

I realize to you romantics out there this all seems rather unromantic but really as I was able to watch it all unfold it was quite enduring how it all worked out.  It wasn’t long after they started courting and spending more time together that the young man knew he wanted to spend his life with Rachel but he didn’t want to rush her into marriage.  So they courted for about 7 months before he asked for her hand in marriage and they were married about 5 weeks later.

It’s so refreshing to watch a young couple go about building a relationship in a honorable, pure and Godly way and not get hung up on things the ‘world’ calls important to a relationship.  Their wedding took place in the groom’s large family backyard filled with beautiful trees with stunning fall colors and changing leaves.  The weather was absolutely perfect and the couple were surrounded by friends and families who loved them, prayed for them and celebrated with them.  When it was time to announce to the groom that he may kiss is bride (and yes this was for the 1st time) he took off his cowboy hat (all the guys in the wedding party wore cowboy hats) and with charm and grace, held up his hat so that he and Rachel could have their first kiss behind the hat.  It was classy and made all of the guests say AWWWW!

Once again, I was blessed to be able to make the wedding cake.  It was a 4 tiered cake with 2 of the tiers being chocolate and 2 being vanilla with a raspberry filling my mom made (thank you mom!) and covered in vanilla bean buttercream.  The cake topper was absolutely adorable with a girl on a horse leaning down to kiss her groom.  So creative!  Just like the topper from the wedding in September with the pine cones!

As a side note… this wedding and the one a couple of weeks earlier are just proof of how creative you can be with a wedding and that you don’t need to spend $10,000 to have a beautiful, meaningful wedding.  Kudos to these 2 sets of bride and grooms for making their special day special without breaking the bank!

I’m thankful that my kids are able to see that there is another way to go about dating and marriage then the way the world presents!

Enjoy a couple pictures!

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Our son is 6!

It’s hard to believe it’s been 6 years since our only son entered this world.  I remember waking up very early (like 3am) with a tummy ache and sitting on the couch so I wouldn’t wake Phil.  Eventually he was up and getting ready for work as was his brother Andy.  As Andy was leaving he looked at Phil and said “Well, it looks like you’ll be a dad again today!”  And by mid morning Jonathan was born.  Is it terrible that I cannot remember exactly what time?  I do remember trying to get off the bed at the hospital as in my mind I figured if I got off the bed the pain would go away.  I also remember telling my doctor that I had to get this ‘thing’ out!

Fast forward 6 years and Jonathan is growing and just started kindergarten.  He enjoys school…. as long as I keep his sitting time down to less then an hour and he gets lot of activity in-between his studies.  Which… isn’t much for kindergarten… it really only takes about an hour and a half for his school work.

Anyway, we are so blessed by having Jonathan in our family!  He is fun, loves to laugh and loves one on one time with me and daddy.  He’s growing fast and is only 2 inches shorter then Alex!  Here are some pictures from his recent birthday party and some older pictures I found.

Jonathan with his Uncle Andy and his cousin Jake.

Jonathan with his Uncle Andy and his cousin Jake.

Jonathan about 3 months old I think.

Jonathan about 3 months old I think.

Great grandpa and Jonathan.

Great grandpa and Jonathan.

Jonathan and his favorite cousin... Jake!

Jonathan and his favorite cousin… Jake!

Our sweet Belle and Jonathan.  Love those faces!

Our sweet Belle and Jonathan. Love those faces!

Coming in from the playing out in the cold in Breckenridge.

Coming in from the playing out in the cold in Breckenridge.

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Birthday dinner with mom and dad.

Birthday dinner with mom and dad.

Birthday dinner with mom and dad.

A Wedding!

Wow, it’s been over a month since I’ve posted.  Life has been busy…. crazy busy and I wouldn’t change a thing!

This is just a short post about a wedding we went to in September.  It was a beautiful outdoor wedding tucked away in a quiet valley northwest of Denver.  The weather was sunny, although a bit chilly.  After the ceremony they built a huge fire to stay warm along with lots of good food, good company and I hear there was dancing although we headed back to Denver by the time all that fun started!

I was blessed to be asked to do the wedding cake (thank you Jared and Alyssa!) and it was so much fun!  Vanilla bean cake with vanilla bean buttercream was requested.  The cake topper was super fun with 2 pine cones dressed as bride and groom.  A couple pictures below are of me and my girls and the cake.  I had a picture of the alter set up for the wedding ceremony but I must have deleted it… darn it!  For those wondering, I didn’t include pictures of the handsome groom and beautiful bride as I did not ask for their permission ahead of time!  I try to honor other people’s privacy!

Congratulations to the bride and groom!   I pray for a lifelong beautiful, fun and strong marriage.

Me and the girls getting ready for the wedding.

Me and the girls getting ready for the wedding.

Wedding Cake with Burlap decorations.

Wedding Cake with Burlap decorations.

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We Have An 8 Year Old Again!

We celebrated Alex’s 8th birthday this month with lots of food, family and friends.  For her birthday party dinner Alex requested chicken cordon blue, butter noodles with garlic and parmesan and salad… well Grandma Joanne added the salad!  Thanks Grandma! It was such a fun day.

Alex is a smart, funny and beautiful girl.  We love having her as part of our family!  She’s really enjoying American Heritage Girls (more on that later!) and having lots of fun this summer.  She choose The Rock again for her birthday dinner; I think it’s the 3rd year in a row!  For her cake she said I could surprise her with any cake I wanted so after doing lots of research I settled on an Elsa and Anna birthday cake.  Below are just a few pictures.

Mommy and Alex at her birthday dinner.

Mommy and Alex at her birthday dinner.

Elsa and Anna doll cake

Elsa and Anna doll cake

Daddy and Alex on her birthday dinner.

Daddy and Alex on her birthday dinner.

Now She is 11!

I can’t believe it has been so long since I’ve posted.  There are so many things that I want to write about but I just haven’t had the time!

Our sweet 2nd born turned 11 a couple of weeks ago.  She is such a creative, intelligent and beautiful young lady.  We are so blessed to have her in our family and I’m certainly blessed to be her mom!

A couple of days before her birthday she decided she wanted to donate her hair to Wigs 4 Kids again.  So, I took her to a salon and got her a super cute short do and mailed 14 inches of her hair to the organization.  What a blessing to be able to help other children with something many of us take for granted!

Happy Birthday Mikayla – we love you so much!  Thanks to family and friends for celebrating with us!

Before!

Before!

After!

After!

Daddy and Belle on our birthday dinner.

Daddy and Belle on our birthday dinner.

Belle's 11th Birthday Cake

Belle’s 11th Birthday Cake

14 Inches!

14 Inches!

13 and 2

Earlier in March we celebrated 2 of our children’s birthdays!  Pooh Bear turned 13 (can you believe we have a young adult in the house?) and Chewy turned 2.  It’s hard to believe that our youngest child was born 2 years ago!

Pooh did not have a specific cake theme in mind so she let me surprise her with my own idea and it was a hit!  I’ve always wanted to do a topsy turvy cake and this was my first attempt.  It was a lot of work but a lot of fun to make as well.   Thanks to all that joined us to celebrate these 2 wonderful daughters of ours!

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Birthday dinner at Chili's.

Birthday dinner at Chili’s.

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Happy 7th Birthday Alex!

Yes, our sweet Alex turned 7…..  over 3 weeks ago and I’m just now sharing the pictures!  We’ve been busy!

Anyway, she actually turned 7 while we were in Nebraska at the most wonderful family camp.  While we were there we had a small cake and celebrated after dinner.  Once we got home from camp we had a family from our church over for dinner and dessert to celebrate Alex’s birthday.  Grandma Joanne, Grandpa Mark, Magaw, Uncle Andy and Miss Renee also joined us.  We had lots of fun, good food and yummy dessert.  She wanted a Candyland cake so I set to work.  It wasn’t hard to do but there was enough sugar on this cake to give us all instant cavities.

For her birthday dinner she choose The Rock for the 2nd year in a row.  She loves that place!

Happy Birthday Alex!  We love you to the moon and back!

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Alex our 1st grader.

Alex

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Alex and I on our way to a wedding shower.

Alex and I on our way to a wedding shower.

2010 ish

2010 ish

Birthday dinner at Alex's favorite pizza restaurant The Rock.

Birthday dinner at Alex’s favorite pizza restaurant The Rock.

10 Things I Learned About Cake Pops

So…. Belle wanted cake pops for her latest birthday gathering and being the cake making person I am I attempted them for the 2nd time.  For the record, I’m not a fan of making cake pops!  Here is what I learned:

  1. Whoa… time consuming!!!
  2. It is messy getting the batter into the decorating bag to squeeze the appropriate amount into the spot in the cake pop baker.
  3. It’s rather boring cooking 50+ cake pops at 12 at a time.
  4. Bake, cool, chill, repeat….. over and over and over.
  5. If the pops aren’t chilled properly and the covering melted just so the pops fall off the sticks or stay on crooked.
  6. What a nightmare to decorate 50+ pops.  After the first 12 I handed the rest to the girls and said go for it!
  7. I would rather bake, decorate and assemble a 3 tier wedding cake (like I did last month) then do cake pops again!
  8. Did I mention they are boring, time consuming and messy?
  9. Too much work for 1 little bite!
  10. It’s easier to snack on cake pops as you are making them then a wedding cake!

I’m hoping little miss Alex won’t want cake pops for her birthday in August!

Our sweet Belle is 10!

WAY back on May 22nd our sweet Belle turned 10 years old!  Our tradition is to take the birthday girl to dinner for her birthday but this year she wanted to wait until the following morning so that the 3 of us could go to breakfast together.  We were out the door by 7:30 and were in our seats at Sunrise Sunset by 8am.

Her birthday party was supposed to be the day after her birthday on the 23rd.  However, 2 of our kids got sick with high fevers so we postponed until the following Saturday.  However, 3 of us ended up with strep throat and we had to cancel again.  Not entirely sure everyone would be healthy we didn’t set a definite date for the party.  However, we ended up having a small party for her yesterday, June 6th.  Many of the usual people that join us for these celebrations were not able to make it.  However, 3 sweet girls from church were able to join us and all the kids had much fun playing.  Then we ate and of course had cake!  Belle decorated her own cake and cake pops….  I see a business in our future!

Stay tuned for another post about what I learned about making caking pops!

Happy 10th Birthday to our sweet Belle!

Mommy and Belle at breakfast May 2015

Mommy and Belle at breakfast May 2015

Daddy and Belle at breakfast May 2015

Daddy and Belle at breakfast May 2015

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Cakes

These are just pictures of cakes I’ve done over the last several years.  I’ve done more but will add them once I find the pictures.

Belle's 9 year birthday cake.

Belle’s 9 year birthday cake.

Belle's  9 year birthday cake.

Belle’s 9 year birthday cake.

Gymnastics cake

Gymnastics cake

Gymnastics cake for family friend.

Gymnastics cake for family friend.

Natasha's 10 year cake.

Natasha’s 10 year cake.

Baby Shower Cake

Baby Shower Cake

Natasha's 9 year cake.

Natasha’s 9 year cake.

Natasha's 9 year cake.

Natasha’s 9 year cake.

Alex First

Alex's First Birthday Cake

Alex’s First Birthday Cake

Fishing Halloween Harley 2 Harley

Fondant bows

Fondant bows

Practicing Roses

Practicing Roses

Mickey Mouse Cake for Alex

Mickey Mouse Cake for Alex

Baby Shower Cake

Baby Shower Cake

Baby Shower Cake

Baby Shower Cake

My first cake

My first cake

My First Tiered cake

My First Tiered cake