Hey there...

Life has been a bit crazy lately!! And the entire month of April flew by quicker than a guy in a wheelchair going down hill. We are doing well and staying pretty busy!! We are heading to Utah soon for Natalie's wedding and some work for Ryan in Logan {get to see Nan!!}. Then coming home to start packing! We sold our house....after three years of being on the market. Ryan still has a year and half with the Ag Center out here, so we will be renting for the rest of our time here in Burns.

Crazy what life will throw at you!

For your updating pleasure we have: Brigham's first birthday, Easter & Mother's Day.

So scroll down and have some fun! and hopefully my next post will be a little more timely.

Motherhood

If you asked me 13 years ago if I wanted to be a Mom I would have told you "No". I was planning on being a criminal prosecuting attorney for the state of Utah. There wasn't any time to have/raise kids. If you had asked me 6 years ago {when Ryan & I had just married} I would have told you, "maybe in five years". The thought of Motherhood scared me. To have a little human being 100% completely reliant on YOU. I felt that it would suck my life away. I felt that Motherhood was a career choice. Something that you gave your whole life up for....little did I know, I was very wrong.


August 2007. Changed my perspective. Changed my priorities. Changed my life. I am honored to be Emma's mother. I'm grateful for the lessons that she taught me. Motherhood wasn't a "career" it is a calling. The scripture "many are called, but few are chosen" came to be pretty personal to me. There were good days. There were bad days. There were days that I could hold a baby. There were days that seriously considered setting the baby section at Target aflame. If Motherhood is such a nobel calling why couldn't I have it? What was wrong with me? Why is it so easy for everyone else in this world get pregnant? {pictured above me & Ryan with our Emma}

Time

Patience

Prayer

Study

Patience

Time

Prayer

Pleading

Knowledge

Patience

Time

Faith

Patience

Time

Our first meeting. To say the sound of crying is the most beautiful sound in the world may sound wrong/strange. In this instance {the birth of Brigham} it was the sound I most wanted to hear. Once I heard it, I think I started to breathe for the first time. I was a mother. I knew that I was a Mother, but now I was a Mother to a child that needed to be on earth. I was instantly smitted. Who wouldn't be with that squashy little face?

I am a Mother. It's a calling. It's a characteristic. It's not the ball-and-chain nieve notion that I thought it was when I was young. To say that I am grateful is an understatement, but I can't think of another phrase, so...I'm grateful.

Two talks that I have heard recently that have touched my heart so much on the subject of motherhood:

A "Mother Heart" by Julie B. Beck

and

" Are We Not All Mother's?" by Sheri Dew

{that one had me crying before I could choke out an Amen}

I could really go on and on about this subject, but it's late...so I won't. All I will say is that

- you don't have to have a child to be a Mother.

Easter or The Second Day of Celebrating

That's riiiight...it's Easter! Start pulling out the sugar-coated marshmellow goodness!! {Another onesie that I knocked-off from esty} Personally I don't really like Peeps...if I MUST eat one I prefer them frozen, they kind of explode in your mouth as they thaw.

The annual Burns/Hines Easter Egg hunt (was acutally held on Brigs birthday). They have a little baby section that the eggs are just scattered all over the lawn and the babies just go for it. I really like this section. Everyone is nice. Everyone is calm. Everyone just wants their baby to pick up one egg so they can take a picture. Brigs got his hands on four...we are so proud.

Getting this little man to sit still for his "Easter Suit Picture" was quite a feat. Doesn't he look all grown up. His second day as a one year old and already I see him getting married in a tux....time is going by too fast!

The Easter Bunny brought Brigham: a toothbrush (for his two teeth) a Munchkins Snack Catcher (never leave home without it) & a Sunday ABC's book

Here is a picture of a baby shaking an easter egg. Or so you think. You are being decieved. Look carefully. He wants you to look at the shaking easter egg. What he doesn't want you to see is the half opened Reeses cup in the other hand....

He waited until we were looking in our baskets and then popped the egg open, put a reeses egg into his mouth and then started unwrapping the cup. I applaud him for his good taste in candy, he just didn't think of my super-mom reflexes that grabbed the cup & popped the reeses egg out of his mouth in one second flat. The quivering lip afterwards will always be remembered. Better luck next year!!

It's blurry, but I think the cutness sure shines through!!

A 1 Year old!?!

How can it be a year already??

Oh my little man!! How I love him. He amazes me every day & I feel so honored to be Brigham's mommy. THis onesie started me thinking about his first birthday. I saw a onesie that was like this on esty or somewhere like that & I had two thoughts: 1. I MUST make that onesie 2. Birthday party theme!!

It was a beautiful day that day! The sun was out and it was a whopping 55 degrees {here in Burns that is flip flop weather}.

The cupcakes. I have, in my possession, a family recipe for Oatmeal Cake. When I first heard of it I thought, "wow cardboard with frosting on it," but then I tasted it and it is just like an oatmeal cookie, but in cake form. I then made some lovely little staches with my Silhouette and viola! I was so happy with these cupcakes, they turned out just as I imagined them.

Our little "Thank You" cookies ended up being on the dessert table with the cupcakes. These cookies were quite the project. I thought of these late in the game so I had no time to order a $12 mustache cookie cutter (yeah, $12...whatever) so I got a 80 cent lips cookie cutter that I shaped a bit and began the process. At first I went for - cookie pops - and then it turned into -chocolate covered mustaches- that then morphed into a suggested peanutbutter layer and they turned into: mustaches with a peanutbutter layer and chocolate ganache. I tried to be simple in all of my party planning details :)

I found an idea of doing a little "photo booth" with some staches on a stick. They were so much fun and I think our attendies liked them too, especially the kids...

Brigham's first bite of frosting...then his first bite of cupcake...only to be out done by his first bite of ice cream. Each bite was better than the next. Each flavor was savored.....this kid liked his cupcake and LOVED his ice cream!

It's hard to believe, but it's oh so true. Brigham is one. It doesn't feel that long ago that I could hold his whole body in the crook of my arm. That he needed me completely for his nurishment. That he would wake up every hour (I really don't miss that at all!) . That he was a baby. Now he's considered a toddler? Crazy.

Service is Now Available in Your Area

Featuring Brigham Mobile with unlimited minutes of crawling, rolling & picking up after him. He is super portable and is something the whole family will enjoy!


Brigham Mobile now features Two Teeth for a (mommy's) hands-free dining experience. He loves feeding himself!

Brigham Mobile has an easily recharable battery as long as you feed him at the proper speed. He is loving : Bananas (I have figured out how to serve him this without having to touch it), Kiwi, Mangos, Strawberries, Applesauce, Peas, Carrots (I did a homemade blend of beans & carrots that Brigs gave me a high five for!), whole grain pancakes, Yogurt, Cheese,French Toast and Bread...he is a bread basket boy!

Brigham Mobile has coverage in even the remotest of areas!!

Brigham Mobile, he's getting everywhere I don't want him to be! (I need to start baby proofing)

We are excited for all of these new developments and he surprises us each day with the things he can do. Can't believe that in a few weeks we'll be celebrating his 1st Birthday....so amazing how fast a year has gone by!

{The Cake}

Ooh the cake! The bitter sweet (well very sweet actually) cake. My last cullinary collaboration creation with Candace has arrived *sniff *sniff*. It was fun, it was daunting, it was exciting, it was YUMMY!

I didn't even intend to help with the design of the cake. That is usually Candaces job, but just from looking at facebook & surfing my usual blogs "Cakes" seemed to be a theme that I coudln't excape. I saw many posts on cakes or pictures of cakes...beautiful cakes (shout out to TomKat Studios) and after a few forwards to Candace, her stamp of approval on the design & standing in the baking aisle at Safeway discussing cake mixes & fillings, the Relief Society Birthday Cake was born.



{Baked & Frosted} Candace baked all the cakes and we started to "Crumb Icing" or "Dirty Frost" the cakes. This is when you frost the cakes in butter cream to cover up all the crumbs before you put on the fondant.


{The Rolled Rosette Layer} After Tamra piped these lovelies on we put the layer into the freezer so the rosettes could withstand the dusting. I got to be the first duster. Using pearl powders I did yellow centers and saphairre blue rosettes. I think if I ever did a layer like this again I would either A) Leave it white. The pearl powders will highlight imperfections or B) Color the frostings.


{The Ruffle Layer} After covering the chocolate mint cake with a layer of yellow fondant. I started to cut strips and roll them out really thin. Then, using water as glue, attached the ribbon ruffling it as I went along. It took time. I started and Candace finished. This technique would be really cute for a Barbie cake I think.



{The Quilted Layer} After covering the French Vanilla layer in fondant* (normally fondant is made with glycerin and people don't like to eat it. Candace makes her fondant out of marshmellow, it's yummy, and as we found out needs to be made with high quality marshmellows or it will get crumbly). We used a clear ruler & a "quilting tool" of some sort - I don't remember what it's called exactly, but it makes the little "stitch" indents & then Tamra (the gal in the green) hand placed each pearl in each intersection. Tamra is awesome, if God promised me that if I had six kids and would look like her at the end of it I would take him up on it! And Candace, the look of contentment & joy, she mentioned that she really liked the fact that she got to direct and oversee this project - she did a TON of work (baking, fondant making and fondant re-making & making Brigs happy)



{The Flourish} We knew we were going to put an extra flourish on the cake. A ruffled flower, but I got an idea....Candace grabbed onto it and created it....and Tamara shared her crafty expertice to make it really work out!



{Attaching the Flourish}



{The Flourish} It is the Relief Society party after all!! Candace printed out the RS emblem and attached it to the center with pearls all around it. Ryan got a Gold Star when he saw a picture of this and said, "It really brings the cake together and makes it really cute" (he's been well trained after asking him to critique many a flourished project). Everyone couldn't believe that it was edible, but it was!



{The Cake}



{The Hotties that made it happen!} It was a really fun cake to create & make and it was really fun to work with Tamra & of course, my partner in crime, Candace....a lump forms in my throat when I think of what will happen in a few months. The minute I think about it I just scurry back into my cave of denial & there I will stay until Christmas or so...maybe longer. But the one thing I can say without too many tears is that I'm SO HAPPY the Camo Cake wasn't our last!! :)



Whodunnit?

I walked into the kitchen & I found this......

 Ryan was at work. I was in another room. Who would be capable of doing something like this?
 I took a closer look...

                                          Hmmm, a mystery....