Down to our nothings, trampoline, sprinkler!

The kids have been jumping on the trampoline (or trampolampine as Kizzy says it) with the sprinkler on. It seems that any time we are out side jumping we have to strip down to barely anything or nothing. Quite the show at our house. Normally we have the trampoline hidden behind the house where there is a lilac hedge, and a big tree to kind of hide them if they strip. But when we have the sprinkler on we have to move the trampoline to where there is more grass so we don't have a mud puddle. Anyway here is our pictures for the month.

Kizzy's Preschool Graduation

Kizzy graduated from preschool! Brigham went and tooks such great pictures. The kids made their caps and gowns. They sang some songs (I've been working on the Railroad, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, The days of the week), said the Pledge of Allegance (which she has memorized), recited their ABC's, and recived little certificates. I guess it was quite cute. I had to work but Zeke and Brigham were there.

Wedding Cake for 5-22-09

I made this wedding cake for a couple in our ward. In fact Brigham took over her sunday school class after she was married!! I've done this cake before so I wasn't really worried about making it. The problem occured when I tried to buy strawberries. I couldn't find them in 2 stores. Then I bought 8 containers of strawberries and didn't buy enough! Half hour before I was suppose to deliver it I had to run to the store to buy 2 more containers!! They loved it!!

Happy but Sad.

My Grandma Lois died Friday May 15, 2009; she lost the battle fighting liver cancer. She was a Strong independent woman who loved the Lord and who loved her family. Her death has been hard for me. I wasn't able to financially go to her funeral which is today. So I'm going to celebrate her life through my blog.

I have been told by several people that Grandma stood up for me. She saw some hard things I was going through and stood up for me, defending me and doing what was right for me. She came to my wedding even though things were rough between my family and me.

As a kid I remember her being the first one awake and she would go outside and sit on her dad's swing. (My mom owned it) We would wake up and run outside to sit with her and rock. She always said that she was a farm girl and her alarm clock told her she should be up early.

I know that things haven't always been easy for Grandma. She went through a divorce, a death of a husband, cancer 3 times. Yet through it all she still was a compassionate and loving woman. She radiated with the light of the Gospel. She loved to teach primary and gospel doctrine. I only got to go to one of her gospel doctrine classes and I was surprised with the amount of time and energy that she put into her lessons. She taught not only with her knowledge but with the power of the spirit. She was a temple worker as well and really enjoyed the temple. She told me it was the safest and easiest place to be. She said she could feel her Heavenly Father's love surround her when she was there.

I hope and I pray that she will know of my love for her. I truly am grateful she stood up for me, and supported me. I didn't learn about alot of things till I was older. I'm not sure she knew fully that I appreciated that.

I am truly blessed to have had her in my life. She was a wonderful woman who I hope to one day emulate. I am going to strive to be as compassionate and caring as she was. I want to have the gospel strong in my life as she did. I hope that my kids will remember how wonderful she was.

Even though her death is a sad event, I am happy that she gets to go see her Heavenly Father who she loved so much. This is something to rejoice, she gets to be reunited to people that she loved and lost.

Garden!

The garden is mostly in!!! We spent the weekend digging, measuring, building, running through the sprinklers, planting, has been so much fun and we are extremely tired, sore, burnt and excited.

Measuring- This may sound extremely funny but we measured out things for our garden to keep it straight and even. We ran our rows north to south, and the measured the rows and path ways, it really was quite funny. We would measure where we were going to put the rows for the corn, and mark it with a stick and then mark the other end of the row. Then take a string and tie it from stick to stick. I kept telling Brig that we didn't need to measure so much but I tell you that it looks amazing now! The rows are neatly spaced and are straight.

Digging- We had tilled the garden once with a tiller that was rented. But we really felt that in needed done some more. Part of the garden had been tilled before but the other part had never been done before. So we had borrowed Wayne's tiller. It hadn't been working so we decided we would just wait. Well after measuring the garden out Brig noticed that the tiller's carburetor was fixed so he started it up and it worked!! So we left the sticks in but removed all the yarn and tilled up the ground some more. Boy did that make a huge difference.

Building- We had bought fencing and borrowed posts from Wayne, and made a fence for our tomatoes and then another fence for the peas and cucumbers. Brigham also made me a box roughly 8'x 4'. It's going to be the herb garden. I've started some by seed and so far they don't look too bad. I'll let you know how it goes. I also got some Egyptian onions (like green onions), some garlic, and tarragon from my mom and they all seem to have made the transplanting journey from Kuna, Idaho.

Planting- This was the fun part for me. I have always loved putting my hands in the dirt and planting plants. We planted the squash, zucchini, pumpkin, watermelon, marigolds, herbs, tomatoes and cucumbers. I forgot about soaking the peas, corn and beans so I got those started soaking yesterday and will plant them tonight after work. I can't wait to see how things go!!

Running through sprinklers- I have the funniest kids. Neither one would actually run through the sprinklers but once the sprinkler was put under the trampoline the kids would jump and play. It was a bit of a struggle to get Zeke to stay dressed. He must have thought that clothes were such a bother wet. How do you explain modesty to someone who prefers to be naked? LOL!

Burnt- I think that Zeke and Brigham were the only smart ones. Even though Zeke kept stripping he didn't get burned. He kept going inside for a while then back out all day. So he just is nicely tanned. Brigham wore a hat and long pants. His arms are a bit brown/red but more brown than red. Kizzy spent more time outside than Zeke but still stayed in more than me. She is red in the face and slightly on the arms. I have extremely red arms and pink forehead. Well we all learned that sunscreen is an amazing gift and creation and we should have used it!!

All in all, it was a wonderful weekend. It was extremely fun and wonderful to work together to create the wonderful garden. We talked about it and we both realized that there was a bit of his ideas and a bit of mine. It was nice not to fight or complain that we weren't being listened to or heard. We just stepped back and realized that we work together well.

Weekend at Grandpa George's

We went to Caldwell, Idaho again this weekend. But this time for a completely different reason. We watched my dad graduate from his Masters Program at Northwest Nazarene College. We are super proud of him!!

We left later than we normally do on Friday and didn't get in till almost midnight.


As you can see from the pictures it sure doesn't take long before my kids stripped and then fell asleep. Brig and I listened to Harry Potter all the way there and back. I'm extremely lucky to have good kids who aren't to bad in the car.

As usual we had a ton of fun with my Dad and Marsha. They are such sweet spirited people who love to make you feel loved and cherished. You leave with no doubt in your mind that you are loved and cared for. Zeke and Kizzy both felt this and loved to play with them.

We went and saw my mom for a few minutes. Grandma Lois is dying and mom was rushing to leave but we had a good few minutes with her before they needed to leave. My heart goes out to my mom and hopes that she can accept whatever happens.

The graduation was a bit rough at first. Zeke did not want to go into the stadium where the graduation was. I think the speakers were too loud and there was too many people. I'm grateful that he fell asleep though so we didn't miss seeing my dad walk and gett hooded. He was one of the first people to graduate so we had to wait for almost everyone else. Brig and I had left early at Dad's Bachlor graduation and opened the door to let everyone in for the party afterward so we volenteered to do it again. The kids appreciated that. Again we left my dad's alot later than we normally do and didn't get home until midnight. But we had a wonderful time!!

A small window into 50 years!

I just saw a wonderful picture into 50 years from now. Brigham is out mowing the lawn using a riding lawnmower that was given to us. (Thanks Sarah you are wonderful) Kizzy and Zeke are jumping on the trampoline while making sure no kiddo decides to run away. It just made me smile to think that in 50 years, we could be doing the same thing. Brigham out mowing the lawn, me standing their making sure our grandchildren, or great grandchildren don't run away. It just seemed so peaceful and nice to see that something as simple as mowing the lawn and watching the kids could invoke such a wonderful feelings for the future.

Garden!!

We tilled the garden Saturday.(I'll post pictures when I get batteries for the camera!) Our Garden is about 25' x 30' and I'm not sure if we will use it all or not. It was quite funny Kizzy and Zeke where "helping" by playing in the dirt near the garden spot, and Brigham and I took turns using the rototiller. This one was different than one's I've used before. I'm use to the ones with the blades in the back and you just kinda walk behind it. Well this one had the blades in the front and you had to pull it. I found muscles that I'm sure I didn't even know I had! I could only do one row to every 2-3 of Brigham's! Why are men so much stronger? I always tease Brigham that he's a big baby when he's sore, and I tell you what, I was the big baby. I have whined and complained about being sore, and Brigham hasn't even commented! So not fair. Darn strong people anyway!!

We got the garden tilled right in time for it to rain! So all of the weeds and things that got tilled under we haven't had a chance to pull out. Hopefully we will do that tonight. I'm so excited to get things planted!!

CAKES!!!

I am so excited!! I have the chance to do 2 wedding cakes within the next few months. I'm super excited! This next week I am planning to make 3 cakes for my dad's graduation. A Choclate with Chocolate Fudge filling, a Lemon Poppyseed with Lemon Curd filling, and a Vanilla cake with Strawberry filling with Strawberries and chocolate ganache on top. I also have planned to make a "dummy" cake and enter it into the fair. There are 3 different catagories, Wedding cake, All-occasion, and sugar art flower. I'm going to enter into the wedding cake and the all-occasion this year. I'm going to take tons of pictures of everyones cakes and what I did so you all can see!! It's not until Labor Day but I'm planning like crazy so I can have it be perfect. The wedding cake theme this year is "Like a Wedding Dress" so I'm looking at the techniques I want to accomplish and finding a dress to match. The all-occassion cake theme is "Holiday" so I'm planning on making an earth day cake. Here are some of the pictures of dresses and cake ideas that I love.



Do realize that the cakes on here are just some of the techniques I want to use.