Cake Decorating

I've always wanted to learn to decorate cakes. I've been making chocolate covered candy for years but wanted to expand my skills. Knowing that I have a love for candy making, cake decorating, etc, for the last couple of years Ricky has told me on several occasions that I should go take classes. I don't know why I never did but a couple months ago I saw that Wilton was offering classes. I mentioned it to Ricky and him being such a supportive husband said that I should go take the classes and that he would stay with the boys. He encouraged me to go get all my supplies and sign up immediately. So I did. I've learned so much and have so much fun doing it! Some of the cakes didn't turn out exactly how I wanted them to because we decorate them in class and sometimes we would run out of time. You can definitely see how each one gets a little better. I still have a long way to go but I'm learning with each one. I'm thankful that Ricky is supportive and let's me pursue this for fun.

First Cake

Ricky's Birthday

First Time doing roses.

First cake using royal icing flowers - I really like using royal icing. The basket weave was easier than I thought it would be. This is my favorite one!

Cali Trip - Disneyland and Our Drive Home

Tuesday we spent the day at Disneyland with Grammy. It rained off and on but we chose things that would keep us out of the rain. We managed to have a great time and go on a lot of rides. Lincoln's favorite is still the carousel and Playhouse Disney. We also were able to get a lot of time with the characters since the attendance at the park was low. Lincoln was really looking forward to a trip to the Lego store so we couldn't pass that up (mostly since Daddy likes it as much, if not more, than Lincoln.) We ended up staying until the park closed.

We decided that Logan had probably had enough of Disneyland and the cold weather. With the threat of rain on Wednesday we decided that I would just take Lincoln back to the park for a few hours. It was really fun for me to take him alone...just the two of us. I let him pick which rides he wanted to go on. There was hardly anyone in the park and we were able to walk onto every ride. We went on the carousel first, then Dumbo twice, followed by KC Junior, the Monorail (we got to ride in the front!), Buzz Lightyear and Playhouse Disney.

The best part of the day is when we saw that they had cancelled the Star Wars show because of rain but they were letting a few people meet the characters. Lucky for us we got there just in time and they closed the line about 30 seconds after we got in it. I was a bit concerned that he would be afraid of the characters and that he wouldn't want to meet them. WRONG! He has no fear. When it was his turn he walked right up to Darth Vader and gave him a hug. Maybe he is from the dark side?!!? Some days I wonder. =) Next he met he Jedi's which he didn't seem to impressed by. It took a lot for me to get him to focus on them. He kept trying to run back to Darth Vader and the Storm Troopers. Lastly he got to meet Darth Maul. Again, not afraid at all. At one point Lincoln tried to take Darth Maul's light saber from his belt. Darth Maul thought that was pretty funny so he took it out and let Lincoln play with it. He got to spend about five minutes with him and Lincoln just played with him the whole time. He gave his high fives, knuckles. It's like they were best buds.

After lunch the rain started to come down pretty hard so we decided it was time to head back tot he hotel to take a nap. Even though I was really bummed that it was raining, we actually had a great time in Disneyland.

The drive back was scary and stressful. Again, luckily the boys were good. Logan slept most of the time and Lincoln was distracted watching movies. We drove home on Thursday, which was also the day the storm was the worst. It was so windy and the rain was pouring. Even Lincoln told me the rain was too loud. We drove through Blythe within about 20 minutes of a tornado going through there. We saw three flipped over semi-trucks, huge trees that had been uprooted and landed on the freeway. Massive 6x6 road signs had fallen from the polls they were on and smaller street signs had been snapped in half and were all over the road. It was like seeing a movie set of Twister. Unfortunately it took us a long time to get home. Just when we thought we were safe, about 20 minutes from home in a dark stretch of road, we drove through a huge deep flooded area that shook our truck and sent water splashing over our windshield and windows. It spooked us all. Ricky saw it just seconds before so he was able to slow down a little but it definitely was not fun. I'm just really glad that Ricky is a good defensive and safe driver and that we were able to get home safely. All in all it was a fun trip. We regret that we weren't able to stop in and visit with friends but hopefully we will make a trip just for that in the near future.

I know there's a lot of pictures. Sorry. I had to put so many Star Wars ones up for Lincoln's Uncles. (Don't be jealous Roo!. =) j/k)

Logan's First Trip to Disneyland

Lincoln like Donald and make the quack noise when he saw him.

Lincoln has always liked Pluto. He touched his nose and and had a huge smile. Logan could really care less about meeting the characters.

Grammy was great to take Lincoln on a lot of the rides while we stayed off with Logan and to take pictures.

Logan was a trooper in the rain. Luckily we have a plastic rain cover for his stroller. We got great use out of it!

We got to see a lot of characters in the animation building because of the rain they all hid out in there with us. Poor Lincoln was sleeping through most of the time they were in there but all of the characters were great and still took pictures with him.

When Lincoln woke up some of the characters were still in the animation building. He loves the Toy Story movies. He was so excited to see Woody. He ran right up to him and gave him a big hug. It was so precious. After working there for all of years, and being an adult, you would think I would be over the characters but I'm not. I still love them as much now as when I was a kid. It's even sweeter though to see your own children have those special moments with the characters.

Mickey stopped his line of people to come over and jump in this picture with Logan, Rick and Cinderella...so sweet!

Lincoln got a streamer in Playhouse Disney so when we got our he ran all over Sun Plaza dragging his streamer. Unfortunately because of the wet pavement the streamer wasn't cooperating with him.

Darth Maul

Lincoln was pretty excited to hold Darth Maul's light saber.

Knuckles.

I think Lincoln is teaching Darth Maul a few things about the Dark Side.

He did give one of the female Jedi's a hug but he wasn't too thrilled to hang out with them.

It was hard to get Lincoln to face me for a picture because he just kept turning around to talk to Darth Vader and the Storm Troopers. Way too comfortable with them.

Lincoln decided to be a tour guide during our Monorail ride. There were three Japanese guests in the front with us and he was telling them that we were on the Monorail and kept point out the picture to them. Then he would say "look guys, Disneyland. Look guys palm tree. Look guys, choo choo." He was pretty cute!

He loved flying high, high, high in the sky on Dumbo. I would ask him, "are we going down yet?" His reply..."nope!"

Quick Trip to Cali - Tacos and The Beach

Last week we decided to take a quick trip to California. I go back to work next week so we wanted to just have some family time away from home to create fun memories. The boys were great during the seven hour car ride. We stopped a couple times for diaper changes and food but pretty much drove straight through. Unfortunately we didn't have time to make many stops for visits along the way. We managed to make it to Grammy's house Sunday night when we first got to town to join everyone for Taco dinner. I didn't know it but they were celebrating my birthday with a fabulous cake that Calee made. It was really fun for Lincoln to play with his cousins and for them to meet Logan. After tacos, we headed over to the Double Tree Hotel in Anaheim where we stayed for the next several days.

We had been telling Lincoln for a long time that we would take him to the beach. He loves to play with sand and what a blast he would have in the sands of the beach. Well...he never got to play in the sand. The biggest winter storm was going to hit California the week that we were there. We decided to go to the beach on Monday...rain or shine. Needless to say, it was raining. We parked next to the Huntington Pier and Rick took Lincoln to see the water and run in the sand. It was freezing cold and the wind was blowing like crazy. I stayed in the car with Logan because I was afraid the wind would blow sand in his eyes. Despite the wind and the cold temperatures, Lincoln ran all over the beach. He even wanted to go in the water so Ricky let him put his feet in. After about 30 minutes out in those conditions they returned to the truck. Lincoln was shivering but would have gone back if we'd let him. He immediately started telling me about his experience in the sand and the water. I was glad that we decided to take the morning and go even if the weather was terrible. I was even happier that Rick decided to take him so that I could stay in the car! He's a good daddy!

This is what Logan looked like during most of our drive to CA.

The most peaceful moment of the car ride is when both boys were napping and Rick and I could actually talk. So nice!

Some of the family...cousins and siblings.

My brother, Tevye, snapped this picture of Logan's adorable smile.

Notice there is nobody on the beach...

Notice the only two people now on the beach are my crazy/brave boys!

Logan hanging out in the car with Mom while brother and Daddy brave the elements.

I would say they've had enough.

I think this big brother gig is growing on Lincoln. Now he likes to lay by him, give Logan his binky and more impressive...he shares his Teddies with Logan. Now that says a lot about how he feels about Logan.

He is getting so big. He is still such a cool little guy.

Logan's Two Month Stats

On January 11h we took Logan in for his two month check-up and vaccines. The poor little guy got five shots and an oral vaccine. He was a trooper. He cried or just a few seconds and then got over it pretty quickly. The nurse practitioner who saw him was amazed at Logan's stats...here they are...

Weight: 13.9 pounds

Height: 26 1/2 inches tall

Can you believe that!?!?! We thought Lincoln was off the charts but at the same age, Logan is exactly 1 pound heavier and 1 inch longer than Lincoln was. I'm sure I'm in for some tall boys. I'm thinking basketball games are in our future!?!

So calm.

He's definitely found his hands. He will pull out his pacifier so that he can suck on his hands.

He's been able to hold his head up for a long time but he's still not fond of tummy time.

I think he learned early on to cove his ears because his brother makes so much noise!

I Would Say They Look Alike

As I was going through Logan's blessing pictures I was realizing exactly how similar Lincoln and Logan look. Up until this point I thought that Logan looked quite different from Lincoln. I was wrong...they definitely look alike. Also, the verdict is in....Logan has blue eyes too. I think I'm a pretty lucky girl. I'm surrounded by three super cute boys that all have blue eyes. I guess I did something right somewhere along the way!

Logan at 2 months old.

Lincoln just shy of 2 months old.

Off to a Rough Start

The year hasn't started the best for Logan. The day of his blessing he woke up with a fever and was very irritable. We knew something was wrong because he is normally such an easy, happy go-lucky baby. We gave him some gas medicine, thinking that might help relieve some pain, and that didn't seem to help calm him. We moved on to baby Tylenol, hoping that it would help to reduce his temperature. It did a little bit but later Sunday night a rash started to break out on his face. At about 9:00 pm I noticed that his hands were swollen. Then the swelling started to move up to his arms and in his feet. It was the weirdest thing. Ricky and I spent a couple hours researching online to find out if Logan's symptoms matched a specific diagnosis. Of course, there were a couple things that we thought it could be but nothing matched it exactly. I was pretty sure that we were going to end up in the ER that night with him. We called his pediatrician who said to just watch his temperature and the swelling in his neck. If Logan showed any signs of trouble breathing, he said we were to take him to the ER. Well, duh! I thought that was pretty obvious but I guess that's what he had to tell us. Logan's temperature hovered around the high 99's so we decided to just take him to the doctor's office Monday morning. Ricky was such a good dad and set his alarm to go off every hour so that he could check on Logan.

First thing Monday morning Ricky had him in to see the pediatrician. She of course didn't have many answers for us. She said it was likely viral and just monitor it. Well duh, I could have guessed that much by what I read online. I was a bit frustrated with the two doctors. Ricky has been telling me for years that doctors don't have real answers to anything. They have standard answers like, just wait, we'll monitor it, or here is a general prescription that could help. That's what we were dealing with here too. Just wait.

It's now Wednesday and the swelling is gone, about 95% of his rash has cleared up, but he's still fighting a fever. So, we're not out of the woods yet but we're getting there. The thing I don't like is that we still don't have answers as to why this happened or what caused it. Logan is definitely a trooper though. I think the fact that he is 13.9 pounds has helped him beat whatever he has. I hope it will be done with by tomorrow. It's hard to see your baby in pain and having such a tough time. Poor little guy.

These aren't the best pictures because we took them with our phones.

It stared with a few dime size, light red circles on his face.

Then it spread to his legs...

and arms.

I first noticed the swelling in his hands. You couldn't see his knuckles. When I pushed on them he would start to cry so I knew it hurt him.

Then his poor little feet were swollen. They weren't as bad as his hands and arms but they were really red too.

Logan's Baby Blessing

We blessed Logan at our home last Sunday. He was exactly two months old. Rick blessed him and Uncle Jared and Brother Slade from our Bishopric participated as well. Surprisingly, Lincoln sat quietly on the couch - because I learned to bribe him with a dum dum sucker to keep him quiet. It was one of the hardest days that we've had since Logan was born because both boys were running a fever and Ricky was sick with a soar throat and sinus issues. Despite all of that, it was a beautiful blessing.

He has such a cute smile - and two super cute dimples!

We finally gave up on trying to get Lincoln to look at the camera. My poor boys just weren't feeling the best.

Oh so cute!

Merry Christmas

We had a great Christmas this year. It was special for us because it was the first Christmas in our home and we had Logan with us! It was so fun to wrap presents and to get everything set out. Lincoln actually went to bed early and without a fight because we told him Santa wouldn't come if he didn't. Christmas morning he woke up about 8:00 am and came into our room as he usually does. We watched a couple cartoons, from our bed, and then got Logan up and headed downstairs. Lincoln was really excited. He could see his pile of presents as we came down the stairs. As we got to the bottom of the stairs I put him down and he immediately ran to his new tricycle. He was just adorable. It was so cute watching him try to express his excitement and trying to understand how this whole Christmas thing works. He got everything that he asked Santa for (Legos and trains) except for the big vroom vroom like Daddy's. He had to be content with a Lego motorcycle instead.

After opening presents we just lounged around, played with our new toys and enjoyed the beautiful day. The white Christmas that we had last year was beautiful but I have to admit that I am more of the sunny Christmas type. It was about 65 degrees and sunny...you can't ask for much better weather than that. We did miss being with family but it was nice to celebrate with just our little family.

Logan got to be Santa's elf this year.

Logan was our greatest present this year.

It was worth it all to see the excitement in Lincoln's face every time he opened a new present.

He loves his bike. Now we just need to teach him to ride it properly.