I'm back to school!

Well, cake decorating school that is!  Ha!  My Grandparents signed me up for a cake decorating class, and I'm so excited!  I had my first class last week and learned the basic information.  No decorating at that class, just learning how to do things, the recipe, what we will need, etc....  However, last night was the first class that we actually decorated our cakes!  I had issues with my frosting being too thick when I initially frosted the cake, so I have learned to thin it out.  But the consistency was perfect for frosting.  So we actually practiced, and practiced, and practiced on our practice boards.  Then, we were told, "Ok. Now decorate your cake!"  So I did!  Here is my wonderful work of art! Ha!  I will be practicing like crazy, so I should have many cakes to pass around and you just may get one dropped off at your place of employment or your home!  We shall see!  I brought this one to work with me today and it was devoured in under 15 minutes!  Everyone said it was very good and said I did a great job!  And nobody has become sick yet, so that is a bonus!  Ha!  It was a Cherry Chip cake mix with vanilla pudding in the center, and basic cake frosting! 

And today is Wednesday and I haven't seen my kids since Sunday night!  I can't believe it!  And I am missing them very much right now!  With my in-laws out of town, my parents have been watching the kids every day while Bry and I are at work.  Well, we dropped them off on Sunday night to stay the night (so we don't have to drop them off at 5:30am).  On Monday, my parents said they would keep them again for the night, and Bryan and I ran errands after work, and then hurried home to get the lights up on the house before it got dark out.  Then yesterday, I had my cake class, and my folks said they would keep them overnight again.  Now I assumed I'd be picking up the kids tonight, but they want to keep them overnight again tonight!  So that way they sleep in the next morning.  But since I miss them so much, Bryan and I are going over there for dinner and we'll spend some time with them before we go home!  How weird to not have them at all this week, and even weirder that I haven't seen them since Sunday!  As a bonus, my parents have been WONDERUL about consistently working on the boys potty training!  So maybe this means that they will be potty trained before we bring them home!  (I could only wish!)

Have a good day everyone!  Stay warm out there!  It was 14 degrees outside this morning!  Brrrrrrr!!!!!

My Angel Cake!

 

Side view of my cake! (not perfectly even)

Little visitors!

I know it may be kind of hard to see, but check out a pic of our little visitor we found in our yard this morning!  While Bryan and I were getting ready for work, he went to open the front curtains, and hollered for me to come look at something!  We have decorative deer in the front yard for Christmas, and they had a little friend visiting them!  A very large, white goose!  She was checking them out and was pretty close to them!  We got some pictures at home on the camera, but this was my cell phone pic as we were leaving, and we aimed the head lights at her.  She just looked at us, and went back to checking out the deer!

This comes right after another little visitor we encountered last night, while Bryan was hanging up Christmas lights outside!  He heard rustling in the brush at the abandoned house next door.  He took his flashlight to check it out.  He hollered for me to come look, and it was a HUGE skunk bedding down in the brush and leaves!  Now, if you are from this area and grew up around here, many of you know that the area we live in is called Skunk Hollow.  Well, that would be exactly why!  I have only seen one once, since moving here, but it was at a distance.  This sucker was about 50 feet away.  Hopefully he stays that far away! 

And here are a few pics that my folks sent me of the boys at their house! Enjoy and have a good day!

Daniel popping his head out of the awesome fort!!!

 

Snack time in the Awesome fort with flashlights and lanterns!

 

Well, who needs a bed when you got comfy stairs to sleep on!

 Grammy was all tuckered out, so she took a nap on the couch with her

two favorite Grandsons!

Multiples & More - Question of the week! Holiday Traditions!

Well, our family tradition started when I was a little girl by my parents! Every Christmas Eve, my sister and I were given a new pair of pajamas that we would wear to bed and wake up on Christmas morning with! And also a new ornament for the Christmas tree! It would have our name on it and the year it was given to us! And it usually tied into something we were into at that time of year.  Like the year we went to Disneyland, we got Disney ornaments.  And the year I started playing the Clarinet in band, I received a Clarinet ornament!  When my sister and I grew up and moved out, my Mom gave us our box of ornaments we received over the years! Then we had them for our tree as adults!  I still have my ornaments and use them on my tree every year!  I love the memories that come back as I hang my old ornaments!

And we have continued the tradition with my boys! Every year, they get a new pair of pajamas and an ornament!  I hope to continue the tradition as they grow up, and then give them their ornaments when they are grown and move out on their own! 

Merry Christmas everyone!
Jen

Fun at Disney On Ice!

We had a fun family outing on Sunday at the Rose Garden seeing Disney On Ice!  So this was the first time that we have ever taken the boys to something like this! A big huge event and it was a last minute offer to us! A friend of a friend wasn't going to be able to go, so we got her discounted tickets! Only $8.00 per ticket and we were only 12 rows up from the ice! The boys were watching in amazement at all of the things going on around them and were so cute! I usually talk about things we are going to do a few days in advance so that I'm not springing something on them.  We talked about getting to see "Lion King" since that was one of the mini shows of characters that were coming out that they were familiar with.  That is all Cameron kept talking about! "We going to see Simba"!  Yep! We were going to see Simba and all of his Lion King friends, as well as characters from Little Mermaid, Cars, Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Goofy! And they were doing a new presentation of fairy characters from a new movie called Pixie Hollow!

So out comes Mickey, Minnie and the other characters and the boys were doing fine! Daniel was on Daddy's lap, and Cameron was sitting like such a big boy on the edge of his seat!  We found that if they sat back in their seats, the seat would start to fold up on them, or they would come close to kicking the person in front of them in the head! So sitting on the edge of the seat or on our laps was the best way to sit!  Then out comes "Cars" and along with that came a really loud "BOOM", which scared the bajeezies out of Daniel and made him cry! Poor little guy! I thought that was the end of the show for us.  But Daddy did a great job of calming him down and distracting him with what was going on in the show.  Cameron was so adorable to watch just sitting so intently watching the show! He clapped when everybody else clapped (always with a HUGE grin on his face) , and turned to me to tell me (in such an excited voice) what was going on and who just came out!  AAAHHH!!!  I have to admit, I don't know why, but I started to get a little teary when we were first sitting there and the show started!  I didn't actually cry or anything, but felt like I was about to.  I was enjoying watching my boys experience something new and amazing! Part of me thought about how I always wanted these things in my life. To take my children to events and out for new experiences and watch them enjoy themselves and have fun!  And for a fair amount of time in my life, I didn't think these days would ever come.  So I treasure each and every special moment along the way because it is a miracle that we were blessed with such amazing little boys in our lives and I couldn't be happier to be there Mommy!  So one more special moment down, a zillion more to go!

So question for all you mommies out there.....Do any of you get emotional or teary at new and special times you spend with your kids?  Or those "firsts" that are pretty special too?

Have a great day everyone!
Jen ;-)

Please go to sleep!

Yes, it is 11:22pm and Cameron is still awake! I tucked the boys in at 9:00pm, and they were noisy until 10:00, and then pretty quiet.  Bryan came home from work about 10:30, and found Cameron standing at the doorway. I didn't even hear him get up! I do not know why he is still awake, but knowing him, he will still be up by 8:00am and be Mr. Cranky Pants tomorrow and will need an extra long nap!  Good thing I have a massage scheduled for 10:00am and Daddy gets to deal with it!  Then hopefully I'm off to meet my Mom and sister for lunch and then we have a surprise for Mom!  She has been spending tons of time helping take care of Grandma and we felt that she needs a little R&R and time to herself for an afternoon! I can't say what the surprise is because she reads this blog and I don't want her to know what it is!  I'll tell you about it tomorrow!  Hopefully Grandma will be moved back to the facility tomorrow where they can get back to working on the Physical Therapy with her!

I'm looking forward to a special last minute plan for on Sunday afternoon!  We were offered the opportunity to purchase discounted tickets to see Disney On Ice!  We agreed to get the tickets! We have never taken the boys to something like that before, so I'm looking forward to it!  It is featuring the Little Mermaid, Lion King, Cars & Fairies!  Our seats are pretty good and I'm just hoping the boys will sit still long enough to enjoy it!

Well, I'm to bed!  Sleep tight everyone! And have a wonderful weekend!

Jen

"Mommy! You're my best friend!"

The most wonderful words to ever leave my child's lips, other than "I Love You"!  "Mommy, you're my best friend!".  Oh how I wish that they would always feel that way, but alas, I know those moments are limited.  So I will enjoy these little things they say as long as possible!  This one was so dearly shared with me by Daniel while I was laying on the couch yesterday.  I stayed home sick and wasn't feeling well.  And when I could, I would lay on the couch while the kids played around me.  Daniel climbed over the side of the couch behind my head and grinned down at me with his huge blue eyes and big childish grin and said "Mommy, you're my best friend!".  I grinned the biggest grin I've grinned in a while and said "You're my best friend too!".  What a sweet little boy!  Then he just became a little goofball and said really funny things like,  "You're Cammy?".  I said nope!  Then he said, "You're Daniel?".  I said, "Nope! You're Daniel!".  Then he said, "You're Caillou?".  I said "Nope! I'm Mommy!"  What a silly little boy!  Then I hear the newest little thing he says to me a lot.  "Mommy!  You're a princess!"  What a sweet, adorable, playful, silly and loving little boy I have!  Cameron in the mean time, was laying at my feet on the couch.  Even though they were loud and noisy and fighting at times while I was home, this is my favorite time I will remember with them!  Curled up with Cameron at my feet and Daniel looking over the back of the couch and saying I'm his best friend!  Do you think I can get that in writing?  I'd love it to be that way forever!  Made my sick day at home just a bit better!

Ready! Set! Aim and Pee!

Yes, we have begun trying to use the potty....while standing up!  Well, I'm not trying since my aim isn't very good! But the boys are trying and think it is funny!  It seems they are more willing to go potty since they get to stand and "aim"!  Hopefully this will get the potty training going in the right direction!  They still won't tell us they have to go potty!  I have stopped buying diapers and we are only using pull-ups now.  I have bought new "nummy" treats for using the potty in hopes to entice them to go more.  Now we'll try the standing and peeing thing and see if this helps them go more often!  However, it is much messier now! 

And have you ever thought about what you sound like and what you say to your kids?  Well, my boys have recently decided to start talking to us, the way we talk to them and acting like the Mommy & Daddy!  Such as, "You go night night now.  Don't get out of bed!"  or  "You be quiet Mommy!"  It is actually quite hilarious when they start telling us what to do!  Makes me think that maybe I say that too much!  Either way, I didn't think they could talk more than they have been talking, but they are proving me wrong!  It is pretty much non-stop talk from both of them!  It is pretty much never quiet in this house!  Unless they are sleeping! 

Daniel is quite the little ladies man!  We were at the mall yesterday and the boys were playing in the kids play area, and Daniel kept following this little girl around!  Now I'm not kidding when I say that Daniel is usually chasing the girls that are older by 2-4 years!  This little girl was about half his age!  He was totally robbing the cradle!!!  She was only about 18 months old!  Most of the little girls have ignored him or ran from him.  Not this little flirt!  She tried to KISS him!!!  Her Mom told me that she had been learning how to give kisses and this was the first time she ever tried to kiss someone other than family!  It was hilarious because Daniel actually shyed away from her and shook his head!  It was hilarious to watch!  Boy oh boy will we have our hands full when these handsome little men are older!

Well, I better get to bed!  Sleep tight all!
Jen