Last Minute Wedding Cake

With all of the cakes I have made in the last week for friends and for Trevor I was planning on taking a break from cake decorating for a while, but it always seems like Heavenly Father's plans are different from mine.  I got a phone call at 7:30 last night asking if I would make a small wedding cake for a couple planning on getting married today at 6:00 pm.

This couple has been investigating the church for a couple years now, but have been unable to be baptized because they are not married, so after several wedding dates come and gone they decided that today was the day and some sisters in the ward wanted them to have a wedding cake to remember their special day.  How could I say no?  I couldn't and I was excited to make something beautiful for them.

The picture isn't the greatest since my flash didn't go off, but hopefully soon I'll get a picture of the cake with the happy couple.

More Birthday Festivities

On Tuesday, Trevor's actual birthday, we took him to the Rainforest Cafe for lunch.  They sat us by the gorillas and every 10 minutes they would do their thing and Trevor was kind of scared of them.  He kept saying, "monkeys" with a concerned look on his face.  I ended up switching seats with him so that I was between him and the gorillas and then he was OK.

Later in the day we met up with some friends at the Cheesecake Factory who were in from out of town.  Our server heard that it was Trevor's birthday and they brought him a little sundae with a candle in it and sang "Happy Birthday" to him.  Maybe it was just the pregnancy hormones, but I thought he looked so happy and it made me all teary-eyed.


On Wednesday we had a some of Trevor's friends over for a birthday party.  It was chaos, but Trevor loved having his friends over to play with his toys and show off his new big boy room (pictures of the new room are coming later).  He loved all of his presents, but he especially loved the puppets he got from Quinae and her kids.  He has named them "Guy" (the green one) and "Croc" (the brown one).

Another favorite was the puzzle train he got from Kristi and her son.  He loved it so much he had to employ a defensive maneuver when another kid wanted to play with it.

When I told Trevor that his friends were coming over he got concerned that there was no more "neeer-ohm" truck cake left over from Sunday, but then he saw the Elmo and Cookie Monster cupcakes that I made for him and he was really excited.

Again, he loved the attention of everyone singing "Happy Birthday" to him and blowing out the candle, which he reminded me was very hot and not something we should touch.

 

As usual, the cupcakes tasted just as yummy as they looked.

Trevor's 2nd Birthday Party

Today we got together with family to celebrate Trevor's 2nd birthday.  Trevor loved having everyone over at our house and all the attention (and pop and chips and treats) he got from family members.  **Notice the red mustache from all the drinks of fruit punch pop he conned out of Aunt Cheryll.**

Opening presents with Mommy was fun too.

 

He especially loved all the trucks he got as gifts, but I think his favorite was the yellow truck Grandma Kay bought him.  It plays music and drives forward and backwards on it's own!

For his birthday cake I made a replica of his favorite truck, his "neeer-ohm" (that's the best way I know how to spell the onomatopoeia that he uses) truck.  He kept looking at the cake and saying, "cool cake!" and it made the 10 hours I spent working on it worth it.

So here's the original truck followed by a picture of the cake.

Blowing, or rather spitting out the candles was another highlight of the night.  If you listen close at the end you can hear him call his truck by it's name.

But not only did the cake look good...it tasted yummy too!!  Trevor kept asking Aunt Cheryll for more cake, but what he really wanted was more fondant and frosting.

Happy Birthday Trevor!  We are so glad that you are a part of our family.

A Hales Family Christmas

If you have a spare minute you are welcome to view the video montage I made of our Christmas festivities.

And here is my favorite picture taken on Christmas morning...

We hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!

Crazy Pregnant Dream

Last night I had a dream.  I dreamt that I gave birth to Austin.  It was an easy labor and happened so fast that my doula (who lives 10 minutes away) couldn't get there in time.  He was perfect and so beautifully handsome it made me want to cry.

I woke up briefly and mumbled something about him being perfect and fell back into my dream.  This time my perfect baby boy had turned into a baby goat.  Not long after I fell back asleep I gave birth to another baby...goat.  And then a third baby goat.  I remember them all walking around my bedroom and I told Darren, "They are beautiful and I love them a lot, but I was really hoping for a baby".

Pretty soon we decided that the nursery wouldn't be a good place to raise 3 goats and our backyard was too small, so we would have to give the goats up for adoption.

Before I woke up I told Darren that as soon as I had recovered we'd try again and hopefully this time we'd get a baby.

Finally Forward Facing

Trevor is turning two soon and we finally decided to turn his car seat forward facing.  We didn't turn him at one because he was still under 20 lbs and shortly after his first birthday I read that a child under one is 5 times more likely to be injured in a car crash if they are facing forward, so rear facing he stayed and happily I might add.

Sunday night before bed we got in the truck, put Trevor in his "new big boy car seat" (which is the same car seat he has had for a year now, it just faces the other way now) and went to look at Christmas lights.  The first thing Trevor noticed was the stop lights.  He kept hollering out "green" and "red".  He thought they were so cool.

Driving around this week has been an exciting experience for Trevor.  He loves it when we go through a puddle and make a splash on the sidewalk and loves to tell me that the light has turned green and I should "GO!"  Trips in the car are much more fun when you can see where you are going.

2009 Christmas Letter

Merry Christmas from Darren,
Mindy, Trevor, and baby Austin

In one word, 2009 was turbulent, but we had a lot of fun amidst the chaos and change.  We made a trip to Utah in May for a baby blessing, Mother’s Day and the NCAA Men’s Volleyball Championships at BYU.  We spent Memorial Day weekend on a bike trip on Orcas Island.  We enjoyed biking into camp with Dawna’s family and took Trevor hiking and canoeing.

Throughout the summer, and even once in the winter, Darren and Mindy spent several weekends out on the river enjoying the scenery and the rapids.  In August we traveled to Spokane so that Darren could compete in the annual Spike and Dig volleyball tournament.

In October we purchased a F150 truck that Darren and Trevor are in love with.  For Halloween we went with a garden theme where Darren was a fern, Mindy a toadstool, and Trevor was a garden gnome.

Darren

Darren has a new calling in church and he is back in the Young Men’s program, this time working with the 14-15 year old scouts.  This year Darren was able to go on enough river rafting trips, including the White Salmon River which has a 10ft waterfall, to earn his status as a guide.  In August, Darren was reassigned to work on the 787 program in Everett and has been working a lot to prepare for the first flight by the end of the year.  In December, he finished his first class in the Engineering Technology Master’s Program through Central Washington University.

Mindy

Mindy has spent the majority of this last year nurturing and teaching Trevor and growing a new baby.  She joined Darren on several river rafting trips earlier in the year on rivers like the Skagit, the Wenatchee, and the White Salmon.  Mindy was excited to have a yard with a dedicated garden space and after lots of hard work this spring and summer our family had a bountiful harvest.  In July, she marched with her former drill team, the Ballard Eagles, in the Torchlight parade.  Mindy has also had lots of practice this year making cakes for family and friends including a cake based on the game Operation for her father-in-law and a rafting cake for Darren’s surprise 30^th birthday party.

Trevor

Trevor will turn two in the next couple weeks and he is learning new things every day.  He is talking a whole lot more now and cracks us up all the time with his quick wit.  He loves to play with cars and trucks and has names for many of them, dada-truck (the one that looks like our truck), papa-truck (the one he got from Darren’s dad), green-truck (the green one, duh), etc.  He also loves to push a chair up to the sink, put on his apron, and help with the dishes.  His list of words continues to grow and we are consistently amazed at how quickly he absorbs new things.

Austin

We are so excited to announce that our son, due in mid-April 2010, will be named Austin John.  When we were trying to pick out a name we finally decided on either Derek or Austin.  Having no idea how we were going to decide between the two, Mindy asked Trevor if he could say Derek, to which he replied an emphatic, “no”.  Then she asked if he could say Austin and he broke out in a big smile before saying, “Aww-ss-teen” and that settled it.  Already Austin has been such a delight to our family.  Trevor will frequently address Mindy’s belly as Austin and give him a quick hug or kiss.

 

**Family Picture Blooper Reel**