Crazy for Cupcakes!

For our February date, Noé and I went to a cupcake decorating class at Michael's. 

(Aren't our aprons cute?)

Frosting in funky colors is just fabulous!

Here are some of the new techniques we learned.

Ta da!  Here is where we put our newly learned skills to work.  I think our cupcakes turned out pretty darn cute too.  Care to guess which ones I decorated and which ones Noé did?

We had a great time together!

LITESBR

It was time for the annual Kub Kar Rally (AKA Pinewood Derby).  This beauty wore the license plate "LITESBR" and was designed by:

Jedi Gavin.  I can't believe my Gavin is a Cub Scout already!  I think he did a great job designing, sanding (his leaders cut it for him), painting, and assembling the wheels on his lightsaber racecar.  I was thrilled that his leaders had the boys work on these at Cubs each week, with not much "homework".

 

I found this pic on facebook of Gavin with some boys from another ward in our stake.

Go Gavin!  May the 4CEBWTU!!

FabEWElous SHEEP thrills!

We celebrated the year of the Sheep with our traditional Chinese take-out dinner.  We splurged on Egg rolls, Pot stickers, Shanghai-style chow mein, Young-chow fried rice, Crispy Spicy Beef,

Mo-shu pork + pancakes, Sweet & sour chicken balls, and Almond cookies.  Since we ordered so much the restaurant threw in some chicken fried rice, crispy chicken wings, and of course lots of fortune cookies!

 

I saved all of our fun fortunes, but now I can't find where I put them.  Once I find them I will share.

 

Found them!

 

Leonard-

A secret adventure is in store for you.

(He's off to the Netherlands next week, then Mongolia after that- lucky duck!)

 

Jennifer-

Keep an eye open for an opportunity.

(I'm trying to look for every opportunity to adopt 2 little girls.)

 

Kaleb-

It is easier to resist at the beginning than at the end.

 

Noé-

Very little is needed to make a happy life.

 

Gavin-

A job well begun is half done.

 

Teague-

Keep a balance between your goals and your gentle nature.

 

Hiram-

You are going to have a very comfortable retirement.

 

Ali-

You are the master of every situation.

 

I hope you all have a fortune-filled Happy Sheep Year!

My Lovies

For Valentine's Day I dipped some strawberries in white and milk chocolate for my family.  They're not as pretty as the ones with the leaves still on, but this way we could just eat them whole, ha!

I don't know how I lucked out in getting this man to marry me.  He is such a wonderful husband and father.  He sets the bar high, but I try to be the wife and mother to match him.

Be Mine

I'm Yours

Let's Kiss

Just Say Yes

True Love

You're Sweet

I also don't know how I got so lucky to have 6 amazing kiddos!  After 3 years of fertility treatments for my PCOD we were so thrilled to have Kaleb and Noé join our family.  I never would have thought then that we'd have 4 more little sweeties join us (without the aid of fertility treatments either, woo hoo!).

Love notes from the kids.  Teague made the heart frame and drew a stick figure of himself saying, "I love you."  Noé found an old Poochie card of mine and wrote me a sweet little note.  Gavin's letters are just classic- "Dear Dad, I love you because you are the greatest dad forever.  You help my train stuff.  Love, Gavin" and "Dear Mom, I love you because you are the greatest mom forever.  You help me with my math.  Love, Gavin".

All 4 of my school kids go to the same school (Grades JK-8).  Kaleb and Noé decided they were too old to write out Valentine cards, but they did decide they wanted to take in some regular and golden Oreo's to share with their classmates.  Gavin and Teague wrote out cards and decided they wanted to take cookies in to their classmates too.  I happily obliged them (store-bought is just so easy!).  All the kids came back with cards from their friends.  These ones of yummy treats are my favorites.

 

I think it is wonderful that there is a day set aside just for LOVE!

One Zero Zero

Gavin and Teague both had a great day at school celebrating the 100th day, but Gavin got to make this super cool poster too.  I love this silly boy!

Choice & Accountability

For Noé's New Beginnings in Young Women's she gave a talk on the value Choice & Accountability.  I think she did a great job explaining that we are free to choose between good and bad things, but we are not able to choose the consequences for our choices.  She also spoke how it's important for us to choose between things that are good, better, and best. 

All the girls looked so pretty in their rainbow of flowers.  There are 8 values the young women learn about during their teen years. 

They are:

Faith- white

Divine Nature- blue

Individual Worth- red

Knowledge- green

Choice & Accountability- orange

Good Works- yellow

Integrity- purple

Virtue- gold

I was so grateful to have participated in the Young Women's program when I was growing up and I'm even more grateful now that my daughter can learn from wonderful leaders and peers about the type of woman she wants to be when she grows up!

Museum of History

For our January date, Leonard took Kaleb to The Canadian Museum of History.

They had a great evening together followed up by visiting a French Pastry shop.  I love my brilliant boys!

Ali @ 8 months

January was a pretty uneventful month.

 

Except this little doll turned 8 months old.

 

She is such a fun friend.

 

So happy,

and always smiling.

 

Let's dance!

 

 

Everybody scream!

Louder now!

 

At 8 months old, Ali is crawling everywhere.  She can also stand if she is holding on to something or is supported.  She has 2 bottom teeth and says "Mama" and "Dada".  She kisses our cheeks (probably when she wants to nurse), but then she squeals in delight afterwards.

We love you Ali!!

Inspiring Words

With Christmas over, I wanted to change the Relief Society bulletin boards.  I just made up two simple posters and had them printed at Staples in the 16x20 size, highlighted some key words, and strung up some snowflakes.

The great TEST of life is OBEDIENCE to God.

The great TASK of life is to LEARN the will of the Lord and then DO it.

The great COMMANDMENT of life is, "Thou shalt LOVE the Lord thy GOD with all thy HEART, and with all thy SOUL, and with all thy MIND, and with all thy STRENGTH.

~Ezra Taft Benson (He is the prophet whose words we are studying this year).

HAPPY 2015!!

We celebrated New Year's Day with another day in the Magic Kingdom!

We even wore fun Mickey & Minnie shirts (thanks to the local Walmart).

We're so glad Grampa & Gramma got to take this trip with us!

(I wish man in green shoes wasn't with us though, ha!)

I hope we get to have many more magical days like this throughout our lives!

The Magic Kingdom is across a lake at Disney World.  There are 2 ways to get there- the monorail or the ferry.  After we said goodbye to Gramma & Grampa and our 4 little ones for the day, the rest of us decided to take the ferry back from the parking lot.  We passed by one of the Disney resorts (makes me think of Coronado Island in California).

This seagull was racing us.  I was pleased I was able to capture such a nice picture of him in flight!

There it is!!

I love the trees in Florida- the palm trees that make me think of home, the topiary shaped like mice,

and the oak trees covered in Spanish moss.

Photo op.

I missed the rest of our gang, but these 2 were troopers!  We rode every ride we wanted to (18 in total and some of those a few times), except for one (Seven Dwarfs Mine Train).  Since we didn't get a chance to ride the 7DMT, we'll have to go back some day!

Some of Disney's eye candy.

This is at the Under the Sea~ Journey of the Little Mermaid ride.

 

This is the Beast's castle atop his restaurant.

This is Rapunzel's tower atop a restroom.

This is Pinocchio's Village Haus restaurant, where we ate one of our meals at.

Side view.  Len said if we can't live in a castle we could live in a little house like this.  Sold!

 

I'm now at the end of this blog post, the end of our vacation, and the end of blogging 2014.  We had originally planned on visiting Universal Studios, so we could go visit the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.  However, we were exhausted; Gramma & Grampa left a day before us; and we wanted to wait until all the kids were big enough to enjoy the day there.  Again, this will give us something to go back for.  Now I'm ready to get caught up on 2015!