Such a Joy

Trevor is such a joy to me. He is smart and lovable and I couldn't imagine my life without him.

But he isn't perfect. He likes to scream and throw things and sometimes he drives me crazy. Here are some pictures of our adventuresome little boy.

Here is Trevor on the back deck with his helmet on (he insisted upon wearing it) shaking the car to rev it up.

There are few things that make me happier right now then to walk in a room and see Trevor sitting down reading a book. *sigh* It makes me feel like a good mom.

I love it that Trevor likes to feed himself a cup of yogurt or a bowl of cereal or oatmeal...so long as he uses his signs to tell me he is all done instead of throwing it on the floor.

Trevor loves water and I love this picture of him trying to drink from the sprinkler. Seconds after this picture was taken he ran off giggling because the water got up his nose. (Also, check out that cute little bum crack...Love it!)

Trevor hates it when I am on the computer and will do just about anything to get my attention, good or bad. Fortunately, this day he did something very cute and then held still long enough for me to capture his proud moment and handsome face.

I love you Baby Trev!

Happy Birthday Laura!!!!

Today is Laura's birthday and yesterday my sister-in-law Deborah and I surprised her with an amazing birthday cake! Are you ready to see it?!? Here it is!!

It's a Chanel purse complete with a tube of lipstick and a compact. Deborah and I had so much fun making this cake and I was so happy that we made it for Laura. She is one of my very best friends and she deserved an awesome cake.

Here are some pictures of the detail on the cake. It really did look just like a purse and makeup. I really couldn't have done it without Deborah's help. She is so innovative and pushes me to make everything bigger and better than I otherwise would have.
So here's to Laura. 1. because she is an amazing friend. 2. because she loves to play cards and talk trash until the wee hours of the morning and 3. because she is just sassy enough to appreciate a bright pink and leather purse birthday cake.

Happy Birthday Laura!

4th of July Weekend!

We had so much fun this last weekend. Lots of Darren's family was in town, so we stayed up way too late each night playing cards and just enjoying time together.

The morning of the 4th we took a trip to Snoqualmie Falls. It has been a long time since I was there and I have never hiked down to the water, so that is what we did. I revived my Moby wrap so that Deborah could use the Ergo carrier and off we went. As you can see in the picture, Trevor was not so sure about the water spray we were getting as we got closer to the falls. He kept burying his head every time the wind would blow.














That night we were party poopers and decided not to go anywhere to watch fireworks. We put Trevor to bed at a semi-decent hour and then sat on our front lawn playing a card game and watching our neighbors blow up hundreds of dollars in really good (probably really illegal) fireworks. The booming across the street stopped around 1 am. It was pretty awesome!

On Monday we made a cake. Stay tuned for more info about that....

Then yesterday Darren's sister Deborah and I drove into Seattle to go to the best cake decorating store ever, Home Cake Decorating. She needed to pick up a few things for a wedding cake she was doing. On the way home we stopped by Dick's and Trevor had his first ever Dick's cheeseburger. It is a right of passage and so I took some pictures. He couldn't be bothered to look at the camera.

This morning everyone left to go back to Utah and I miss them already.

Operation Game Cake!

My father-in-law was recently diagnosed with cancer and since his birthday is coming up (on 7-11) and since we were going to have family in town this weekend from Utah my sister-in-law Dawna and I decided to make a cake for him. We knew it had to be something special, something he would always remember, and something that would help lighten the mood. We decided that no other cake would do except a cake that looked like the classic game Operation. So having never worked with fondant or gum paste before I set out to make a stellar cake that would be forever ingrained in John's memory. This is what I ended up with.

It turned out amazing not only on the outside, but on the inside as well!!! My sister-in-law made a chocolate cake with a hot fudge filling and chocolate brownie batter icing. Then we covered it in homemade fondant which tastes WAY better (in my humble opinion) than store bought fondant. When chased with a bite of vanilla ice cream, this cake was heaven on earth.

The second best part, besides eating the cake, was the look on dad's face when we came out with the cake singing "Happy Birthday to you". The cake and the early birthday party were a total surprise for him.
So Happy Early Birthday Dad! We really do love you lots and we are praying for you to make a quick recovery.

I'm So Vain...I Probably Think This Blog Is About Me

Because it is.

I have finally decided to follow the lead behind the amazing Misty and post pictures of myself. I didn't get dolled up on purpose; today is just one of those days where I feel good and that makes me look good.

So I grabbed my camera and I invited myself to a private photo shoot.
Because I think I am beautiful and I deserve to feel good about myself!

And now at 26 years old I am finally learning to love myself.

And it makes me happy. Really happy!! And I know that it makes my husband happy too.
Because he knows I am beautiful and it makes him happy when I smile.

So the next time the stars align and you just look good. Take some pictures of yourself and post them on your blog so we can all see your beauty.

Yep, I think this blog is about me. Who is your blog about?

18 Months

Trevor turned 18 months yesterday and what a difference a year makes!

Last year for his 6 month milestone we were celebrating him eating solid foods, discovering his toes and learning to scream.

A year later he is running around all over the place and saying little words and using signs to express himself. He loves to be outside getting dirty or inside playing with cars or reading books.


Yesterday he had a doctor's appointment and so on the way home I stopped and bought him some Play-doh for being such a good boy during his shots. And as he was sitting at the kitchen table pulling the Play-doh out of the container and then putting it back in over and over again I thought to myself that I need to slow down and worry less about the small things and focus on making sure that my family knows I love them and that I am interested in what they are doing.

Here is a video of Trevor enjoying the simple things in life like a small plastic pool in the backyard on a hot day and cool water running down your back. I sometimes wish I could go back to the time when I didn't care whether or not I had snot on my face because I was having too much fun to care.

Before & After: Front Porch

Our front porch badly needed to be repainted, so last night after we put Trevor to bed we got to work and it now looks much better. Here are the pictures.

Before:
And After:
It is much improved! Now all I need is a cute something to put in the corner in front of the tall, skinny window.