Lots of Cake

There has been a lot of cake-making going on around here lately.  Here are just a few examples of what we've been up to:

cupcakes for the ward Christmas party

Cakes for the Christmas Piano Recital

Another Lightning McQueen request.  This was BY FAR the most stressful cake I've ever done, mostly because of the lack of time.  Good thing the lady picked him up an hour late.  Even still, I never got the Rusteze symbol on his nose, something I still feel bad about.

A darling cake for a four-year-old birthday tea party.  I love the little tea cups on the middle layer.

Whew.  I'm ready for a little break from cake.

Christmas Recital!

As mentioned, last night was my annual Christmas Piano Recital.

The kids did a GREAT job.  They exceeded my expectations.

I loved the Recital Hall - it was affordable, convenient, and they did all the set up.  The spot lights were fun, and the grand piano we played on was AMAZING.

We ate yummy cake for dessert.

And it was all over in about an hour.

My kind of recital.  Awesome!

Here's a picture at the end with me and my students, minus Brynley (who had to leave early) and Katelee (who was running down the aisle to see what dad was up to.)

The cakes I made for the recital.

What a fun night!

KATELEE'S 1ST PIANO RECITAL!

Katelee performed tonight in her

VERY FIRST PIANO RECITAL EVER!

We are so proud of her!

She begged and begged to be allowed to play in the recital this time; she has always wanted to, but this is the first time she was actually interested in sitting to learn a song and in practicing. We made a chart. The deal was that every time she practiced her song, she got to put a sticker on the chart. If the chart was full by the recital date, Katelee could be in the recital! If it wasn't, she couldn't be in the recital. I refused to nag or fight with her over practicing - it had to be up to her. In the end, I did encourage her practicing a little more than I would have like to, but she did finish her chart, and she did an AWESOME job in the recital tonight! She wasn't shy at all, just so excited, and she did such a wonderful job!  She was supposed to repeat the pattern of notes twice, but she was having so much fun that she played it six or eight times, instead!  It was great.

You gotta see this video of her performance.  I especially love the bow at the end!

Just Ten More Songs

"Just sing me TEN more songs, Mom, please?  Then I'll go to sleep."

I hear this request from Katelee often, lately.  Just ten more stories?  Just ten more songs?  Just ten more shows?  Just ten more...  I've never given her ten.  I make her choose between two or three, because (as we all know, right?) ten is too many and will take too long.

It's been a particularly hectic week in a hectic month in a hectic year.  My Christmas piano recital is Thursday night, we are leaving town for 17 days very early Friday morning, I had to get my visiting teaching done, and I've been trying to finalize Christmas preparations.  Poor Katelee has dealt with a very busy mom.

So, for some reason tonight, when she asked me to sing her just ten more songs, I said yes.  For the first time ever.  It didn't matter that it was already late.  It didn't matter that I hadn't had dinner yet.  It didn't matter that my to-do list for the day still had several items on it.  I felt the spirit tell me I needed to sing ten songs.  And so I did.  

It was wonderful.  We curled up together on her bed underneath her jean blanket and I sang songs.  Christmas songs, primary songs, love songs to my baby.  She grinned and sighed with contentment and got warm and sleepy.  I was enjoying it so much that after ten songs I started on number eleven.  Katelee stopped me with, "Mom!  I don't need twenty songs!"  I guess she was keeping track.

"How about just one more?"  This statement didn't come from Katelee, as it usually does, but from me instead.

As I sang and cuddled with my girl tonight, I was remembering this conference talk by Elder Ballard.  I love this particular story:

Author Anna Quindlen reminds us not to rush past the fleeting moments. She said: “The biggest mistake I made [as a parent] is the one that most of us make. … I did not live in the moment enough. This is particularly clear now that the moment is gone, captured only in photographs. There is one picture of [my three children] sitting in the grass on a quilt in the shadow of the swing set on a summer day, ages six, four, and one. And I wish I could remember what we ate, and what we talked about, and how they sounded, and how they looked when they slept that night. I wish I had not been in such a hurry to get on to the next thing: dinner, bath, book, bed. I wish I had treasured the doing a little more and the getting it done a little less” (Loud and Clear [2004], 10–11).

Oh, if only I could remember this advice!  Tonight the desire of my heart is to have more 'in-the-moment' moments with those I love and to stop being in such a hurry.    

Pictures with Santa

Last Friday night was our ward Christmas party at the church.  It was a wonderful evening, complete with an re-enactment of the Christmas story by primary children, dinner in an 'old Jerusalem' style, carol singing, Christmas crafts for the kids, and (of course!) Santa Claus!  Katelee had a love/fear relationship with Santa this year.  She LOVED him and REALLY wanted see him, but when we first got up to him, she ran away.  Ha ha ha ha!  But she came right back, she really wanted to see him so badly despite her fear.  So I sat next to her while she sat on Santa's lap, and when it was over, she was sad she didn't get to talk to him more. 

We did get to remind Santa that Katelee will be at Grandma and Grandpa's house for Christmas this year.  :0)  Thank you, Santa!

Darling Pics of my Darling

Just some cute pictures we've recently taken of Katelee.

Oh, how I love my Katie-girl!

More dress-ups

I have had so much fun this year getting together some dress-ups for Katelee for Christmas. Craigslist has been my friend here in Denver and I have been able to purchase gently used princess dresses (Belle, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Barbie Princess, and Tinkerbell) at a fraction of a cost.  Best deal: Sleeping Beauty for $2.50!  I spent the most on Belle for $7.  Gotta love Craigslist!  Many of them are the Disney store version, so I am thrilled about that!   I bought them from clean, pet-free/smoke-free homes, brought them home and washed them well, mended a small tear in one of them, and ta-da!  

They look great and Katelee will never know they were used.  

And I made a few things, including this wedding veil headband: 

(Sorry if this picture is hard to see)

and another ballerina tu-tu.

I tried using the ribbon differently with this tu-tu, and am happy with the way it turned out.

I am excited for Katelee to open her gift Christmas morning; she is such a dress-up girl that I hope these things keep her busy for a long time!

COLD

Signs that it is simply too cold outside...

• Gerald's car has refused to start since Monday.  At all.  The poor thing is freezing.
• Whenever I open the front door, the skin on my face hurts.
• Our apartment complex sent out notices that we have to keep all our faucets dripping and the cabinet doors underneath sinks open or else we run the risk of having pipes freeze and water being turned off to entire buildings.  Lovely.
• Whenever I get within 6 feet of a window, I feel an icy blast.  We will have to cover our drafty apartment windows with plastic.
• Our heater never kicks off.  And we don't have it set that high.
• Schools have been delayed in the mornings because it's too cold to go outside.
• Even walking to the mailbox is a huge, bundling up ordeal!

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!  

So I'll sit here in my sweatshirt, eat my oatmeal, drink my hot cocoa, and dream about July.  :)

What Could It Be?

I recently wrapped up Katelee's big box of dress-ups from Gerald and me put it under the Christmas tree.  Katelee loves having it there, and says daily, "I can't wait to see what my present is!"  The first day it was there, she asked me if she could guess what her present is.  Sure, why not?  She concentrated on the question for a minute while humming and tapping her finger on the side of her mouth (her 'thinking' pose) and then shouted, "It's a box of crayons."  I couldn't help it.  I laughed aloud.  Hard.  Wow, girl, that is one gigantic box of crayons! 

Hope she's not disappointed when there are no crayons in there on Christmas morning!

Mint Brownies

Last Sunday was our annual Visiting Teaching Conference in Relief Society.  It was kind of a big deal, but turned out so nicely.  As part of the conference, we passed out a small Christmas gift to each of the sisters: a nice brownie spatula and a wrapped mint brownie, made from a recipe my Relief Society president had.

I was lucky enough to be able to help make these brownies, and they are the best mint brownies I have ever tasted.  I am going to have to rip out my old 'favorite' mint brownie recipe and replace it with these.  They are even better than BYU mint brownies, which is something I never thought I would say!!  (Is that sacrilegious?)  ;)  I am having a hard time even describing these brownies.  Here are a few words that come to mind:

rich

luscious

fattening

delicious

soft

sinful

amazing

flavorful

moist

wonderful

festive

awesome...

The list could go on and on. 

CHOCOLATE MINT BROWNIES

Brownie layer:

1 cup butter
5 Tbsp cocoa
4 eggs
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp peppermint flavoring

Melt the butter and cocoa together.  Sir in eggs and sugar.  Add flour, salt, and peppermint.  Bake in a greased 9x13" pan at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes.  Cool completely.

Mint Frosting:

2 cups powdered sugar
2 Tbsp evaporated milk
6 Tbsp butter
1/2 tsp peppermint
4 drops green food coloring

Mix all frosting ingredients until creamy and spread onto brownies.  Refrigerate for one hour.

Glaze topping:

6 Tbsp butter
1 cup chocolate chips

Melt together and then pour gently over green frosting.
Refrigerate again.

One thing I love about these brownies is how easy they are to cut; don't they look pretty in these little bags?  They didn't crumble like some other brownie recipes I have tried.

So, if you are trying to decide what to give your neighbors this year, need a dessert to take to the ward Christmas party, or simply want to make a delicious treat for your family, you know what recipe I would recommend!

Finding Christmas

I've had a bit of a problem finding the Christmas spirit this year.  I haven't been grumpy about Christmas, and we have enjoyed the traditions we have experienced so far.  It's just more like something has been missing, and we aren't experiencing the real, full Christmas spirit.  And I wasn't sure why.

Until my bishop spoke to our ward recently, and one of his passing comments struck deep within me and I realized what was missing.

We didn't have plans to really give or sacrifice anything this year to make someone else happy.

In past years, we have always found a way to give at Christmas.  Sometimes we bought gifts for a family in our ward, sometimes we donated money, sometimes we offered free services . . . it was never much, but it was enough to make us sacrifice something ourselves to give it.  One of my happiest Christmas' was a year before Gerald and I had Katelee.  We took the money we would have spent on each other, saved only a very small amount of it, and gave the rest to a family in need.  We only had one simple gift to give to each other on Christmas, but it is one of my happiest Christmas memories.

This year we made no plans to donate money or give something to someone else.  We are students, and on a tight budget . . . our life circumstances have changed, and we can no longer help provide Christmas for another family...

But that doesn't mean we can't give.

Now that I know what I need to do in order to make this a better, more meaningful Christmas, I just need to figure out how to do it.  I've thought of a dozen ideas, but none of them seem like the right idea.  And I know that all of you have brilliant ideas.  So, what do you think?  What meaningful Christmas service/gift have you been given or been part of giving in the past that you would recommend to us?  We would love to hear your ideas!

Fabric Flowers

I am really loving these fabric flowers!

They are so easy to make, and since I learned how to do it I have had fun making new ones out of fabric scraps I already had.

Don't they look cute in her hair?

UCreate (the link is on my blog) has a decent tutorial on how to make these.  If anyone finds a clearer online tutorial, let me know and I'll post the link.

Like Mother, Like Daughter

If you know me at all, you probably know that I love to read.  It is a rare night when I fall asleep without reading for awhile first.  Lately Katelee has been 'reading' herself to sleep, too, and I think it is adorable!  She'll sit and look at her books in bed until she falls asleep.  More than once lately I have found her asleep like this:

Gotta love it!

AWESOME WEBSITE!

Do you know about this website?

www.sparkpeople.com

It is my new favorite website, and I highly recommend it to everyone!

My doctor told me about it last week, when we were discussing my futile, frustrating attempts to lose weight.  I told her that the only thing that worked for me in the past was Weight Watchers, but that I couldn't afford it any longer.  She said that as a doctor, she agrees that WW is one of the most effective programs, for two reasons.  The first reason is that WW helps you track exactly what you've eaten every day.  Then she told me about this FREE website, that does the same things as WW.  I've checked it out, and it's true!  My WW website helped me track my 'points' and my exercising and helped me make better food choices and 'budget' my calories.  This website does exactly the same thing, in almost the same format, except that is uses calories instead of points, which I actually find significantly more helpful.  I love it!

The second reason WW is generally effective is the support group.  I've never been to a WW support group (I only did the online program), but there is truth to the fact that there is more motivation when you have to report to someone.  This website offers you email support groups if you want to use them (you can opt not to), but I also decided that I will post here on my blog general updates on my progress every couple of weeks.  I think this will help motivate me to do better!  

Anyone want to lose weight with me?

Anyway, check out the website if you're interested.  Did I mention it's free?  And very easy to use.  It has programs for helping you lose weight, or programs if you just want to exercise more or eat better and live a healthier lifestyle.

Traditions

I love holiday traditions!  We have a couple of traditions that happen early in December.  

One tradition we have, and one of my very favorites, was started by my librarian mother when I was growing up, and we have continued it in our own family.  The first night that the Christmas tree is up in our home, we have asked a Christmas elf to visit and leave a new Christmas book under the tree.  The Christmas elf has visited every year since Gerald and I were married, and even before that.  Add his visits to Christmas books we've received as gifts or found on sale, and we have a very nice collection of Christmas books to enjoy during December.  We pack them away with the decorations, and get them out again the next year, and it is one of the things I am most excited to see again each year!  It just wouldn't be Christmas without these wonderful books.  This year the Christmas elf brought us a pop-up book version of 'The Night Before Christmas.'  

The second tradition we have (also started by my mom) is that each year we make/buy a new Christmas tree ornament for each person in the family, and put each name and the year on the new ornaments.  When I moved out of the house, my mom gave me a box with my 20 years of ornaments inside.  These ornaments are now on my tree here, as well as an ornament for most of the eight years we have been married.  (Apparently we have missed a couple of years!) This lends to a slightly 'Charlie Brown' looking tree, but I love it!  There is a lot of history and a lot of memories tied up in this tree!  We usually try to make the ornaments to keep them cheap, and Gerald volunteered this year to make some in the wood shop at school.  Look what he brought home!

He made these from leftover plastic from the scrap pile at school and we tied ribbon in them that I had here at home - in other words, they were absolutely free.  And I love them!  Aren't they cool?

Here are some questions I have for you. 

What is your favorite Christmas book?  

What are your favorite holiday traditions?

I'm always looking for new ideas!

T.H.A.N.K.S.G.I.V.I.N.G.

We had a nice past Thanksgiving week, and as I hardly touched my computer all week, I have a lot to blog about!  

T is for Turkey Dinner!  We were blessed to have some other families in our ward without family plans for Thanksgiving dinner, and so we all got together for a fun meal.  We missed being with family (this is our first time experiencing Thanksgiving without family) but we were glad to be with friends that we like so much!  I got to make my favorite Thanksgiving foods for the potluck dinner - pomegranate salad, The Pioneer Woman's yams, Grandma Klingler's rolls, and of course, banana cream and lemon meringue pie.  Katelee talked all morning about going to the "feast," but once we got there, she was so excited to play with the other kids outside in the 65 degree sunny weather that we had a hard time getting her to eat at all!  It was a delicious feast, though, and we are grateful we had such a fun people to share it with!

H is for Hammond's Candy Factory!  We were looking for something special to do as a family on Saturday that was free, and since the mint was closed we ended up visiting Hammond's Candy Factory.  They give a free tour where you can watch the candy being made, free samples, and free hats to the kids.  And if you are a candy fan, their shop is tons of fun!

A is for a.m.  As in 4:00 a.m.  As in the time I got up to go shopping on Black Friday.  I've never done this before.  In fact, I really don't think I've ever gone to a store at all on Black Friday before.  But I went with my friend, Laurie, and we had a lot of fun!  I got a good deal on a few things at Wal-Mart, but I'm really excited for the flannel we bought at JoAnne's.  $1.49 a yard equals $3 homemade blankets for baby gifts for this upcoming year - awesome!

N is for NO SCHOOL!  Gerald didn't have any classes all last week, and although he had to go to campus a couple of days to work on projects, it was AWESOME to have him around so much and to have his schedule be so flexible.  This was by far the best part of last week.  And we only have 2 weeks left of school and he will be officially done with his first semester!  Happy day! There are definitely some perks to be being a student - such as the month (yes, month!) Gerald gets off for Christmas break.  I can't wait!

K is for Katelee (of course!) and the silly, funny girl she is.  We had so much fun hanging out this past week!  Here she is sporting her stylish 'lamp hat.' 

S is for Sewing Projects.  I've been doing a lot of sewing with my few days off.  My pride and joy is the Christmas dress and matching headband I made for Katelee.  This is by far the most elaborate sewing project I've done yet, because it has both sleeves and a zipper!  (Special thanks to Laurie for helping me understand how to do a zipper!)  I know all my sewing friends are probably laughing so hard at the fact that I am calling this very basic dress elaborate, but for my simple skills this is huge.  Katelee chose the fabric and was excited about every step of the process.  She loves to twirl around in her new 'sparkly' dress, as she calls it.  I figure I made the whole thing for about $12, so not an amazing deal, but not bad, and I'm glad I'm learning more sewing skills in the process.

G is for Gratitude Journals.  We made these gratitude journals at a Relief Society activity a couple of weeks ago.  This is the first Relief Society activity I've been in charge of since I got my new calling, and I think it went well.  I've been keeping a gratitude journal for a few months now, and I have to say that I really think it is making a difference in my life.  I love it.  I have been so much more aware of the hand of the Lord in my life than I usually am.  I think everyone should keep some sort of journal where they write down how the Lord has blessed their lives on a regular basis.  The results for me have been enormous.  Anyway, we want every sister in the ward to have one, so I spent a great deal of time over Thanksgiving break making dozens of extras of these journals to give out next Sunday.  The most popular scrapbook papers were already taken, but still I think they are cute.  This is such a fun and easy project, if you are trying to think of inexpensive gifts or a fun project night idea!

I is for Infinite Blessings.  We truly are so blessed.  It was wonderful to take some time this past week to count and reflect on our many, many, many blessings.

V is for Very Fun!  We had some friends over for a game night last week, and we had a lot of fun!  We love to play games and really need to do it more often.  Our friends have a little girl almost exactly Katelee's age, and they are so cute together!  We dressed them both in their matching P.J.'s for the game night, and they had a 'pajama party' together!  What cute friends!

I  is for Incredible Decorations!  Okay, so maybe they're not exactly 'incredible,' but I had to make this work for 'I' somehow!  ;)  We did decorate our house for Christmas this past week.  It makes our home feel so cozy and festive, and I love having the decorations up!

N is for Nativity.  We found a children's plastic nativity this year for a decent price at Deseret Book, and couldn't resist buying it.  We introduced it last week as part of our Family Home Evening, and Katelee loves playing with it.  She calls it "an activity" (instead of nativity) and plays with it every day.  I love hearing her act out the story of Jesus' birth with the characters, even if her imagination sometimes leads to unexpected twists in the Biblical events . . . :)  My favorite is when she's done playing, she always sets up all the characters like this.  When I asked why she did that, she said, "Because they are all looking at Baby Jesus, Mom." 

G is for Garage!  When we moved in our house, we were here for 3 days before Gerald started school and we traveled back to Utah that first week for a wedding.  To make a long story short, we never were able to get around to cleaning out and organizing the garage.  Gerald hasn't really been home for a weekend since school started, so Thanksgiving break offered the first opportunity to get this job done.  Gerald did most of it, and he did a great job!  It is great to have everything organized and best of all to be able to actually park the car in the garage!  Hooray!

Well, that about sums up our last week.  If you're still reading this, I have to say:  Wow!  You are either a very loyal friend or you don't have much else to do right now.  :)  Thanks for sticking with me, even though this post was about the length of a novel!  We hope your Thanksgiving was a wonderful one!

Preparing for Primary

I realized today that I can count on one hand the number of weeks that Katelee has left in nursery.  And my heart sank.  Literally.

Katelee loves nursery.  Always has.  She talks about it during the week.  It's the most effective bribery tool for good behavior in sacrament meeting.  She looks forward to Sundays, because it's the day she gets to go to nursery.

And I'm scared she isn't going to feel that way in primary; when suddenly the toys, free time, and snacks are gone.

I may be wrong.  She will probably have an amazing teacher and lots of friends and she'll think primary is the greatest thing in the world.  I'm hoping.  But, just in case she isn't instantly in love with primary, I'm asking for advice.

What did you do to help your child(ren) prepare for primary?

Gerald and I have been talking about it with Katelee, and she knows the change is coming, but I don't think she understands what it really means.  So, we're trying to make the change seem like an exciting rite of passage.  For instance, for Christmas this year we are giving her her own scripture bag and her own Book of Mormon, which I embellished to look like this:

Isn't it cute?  Wish I could say this was my idea, but yeah, right.  I don't ever think of things like this on my own, I just copy other people's ideas.  :) (If you are interested in seeing the original tutorial that I used to make this, click here.)

But beyond this, I'm unsure what to do.

What other ideas, tips or advice do you have to help us prepare Katelee for this big change?

A Recommended Purchase

Today I finally made a purchase that I have thought about making forEVER.  

It was inexpensive, useful, and helped solve a very real problem in my life.

Here is the problem:

No matter how I try, I can NOT keep up with the overflowing grocery sack problem in my house.  I use them for bathroom and office trash cans, Gerald uses them to take his lunch to school in, etc.  But we always have grocery sacks coming out of our ears!!!  I feel a lot of guilt about throwing them away; I used to recycle them when I lived in Lehi, but the recycling program here in my apartment complex leaves a lot to be desired.  So, to make a long story short, I FINALLY got around to buying some of these:

And, after using them once, I am officially in love.  I bought 5 bags for $4, and (packed carefully) my entire week's groceries fit nicely in the five bags.  And guess what else?  I could literally carry twice the amount of groceries into my house in one trip with these!  I also feel that my groceries arrived home in better shape than usual - no cans rolled around my trunk, my bread wasn't crushed, my produce wasn't bruised, and no plastic bags split in half and dumped my cereal boxes onto the sidewalk (a recent experience I had).  Not to mention the positive effects for the environment.  

All that for only $4 - I only wonder why I didn't buy them sooner.

If you are like me and have been sitting on the fence for a long time about buying some of these bags, I totally recommend that you take the plunge!

Blanket

I like to crochet, but I don't do it very often these days.  A close friend of mine, however, was expecting her third baby, and I really wanted to crochet her a blanket.  She has always had crocheted blankets for her other boys and attached them to these special blankets, so it seemed like the perfect baby gift for her.  

I really like how this blanket turned out.  I didn't follow a pattern, just did the 'mountain-valley' stitch that I do often and that is so easy ... Only this time I added stripes of a different color.  I did this on a whim, but I'm really happy with how it turned out.  I think the stripes add a lot of character to the blanket.

I recently had a friend ask to learn how to crochet.  It is soooo easy.  Seriously, if you are interested in learning (anyone) I would be more than happy to teach you!

Elmo Cake

Happy Birthday, Lucy!

Don't you just want to bite Elmo's nose off?