Catching Up: Liberty Bowl

Rick, my dad, and my brothers-in-law Mike and Tony all went to the Liberty Bowl the 1st weekend in January this year. It was in Memphis, Tennessee.Below: The famous Rendezvous restaurant.....only a few purple shirts in a sea of red (Arkansas Razorbacks fans).

Below: At the game.....it was a WEE bit cold.

They had a great time, even though ECU lost in overtime.

Catching Up: Christmas

Christmas seemed to come and go so fast this time. Here are some photos from our Christmas celebrations.

Below: Cousins at Papa and Nana's house.Below: We got a Clearplay for Christmas!!

Below: Is this kid cute or what?

Below: Henry got a car for Christmas....he's checking it out.

Below: I got the kids boxes of sugared cereal as kind of a gag gift, but they loved it. (We don't buy these cereals so it's a real treat for them to get them.) I think this will have to be a new tradition for us.

Below: They are growing up so fast.

Below: They're playing Kung Fu on WiiFit Plus. Only one can play at a time, but Austin and Emma were doing the movements anyway.

Catching Up: Yosemite, November 2009

In November, we took a trip out to California over the holiday. Here are some pictures of our short exploration of Yosemite.

This picture looks totally fake. Looks like I photoshopped the kids in, but I promise it's real, and we really were there.

Here we are FINALLY to our hiking destination. I think this hike was described as "easy" and "short"......yeah, right. We were dying! Let's blame it on elevation, shall we?

Catching Up: Cakes and such

Okay, so it's been three months since I've blogged anything, but who's counting? Things have piled up in blogland so here's an attempt at catching up some. Theme: cakes and such.

Below: Audrey made a cake for a baby shower and got paid for it. Mom helped a little, but here's the final product.Below: Austin chose an unconventional birthday cake for his 11th birthday.....a GIANT Kris Kringle. For those who are unlucky enough NOT to be acquainted with these delectable treats, they are Rice Krispie treat-like but with peanut butter instead of marshmallow, and are topped with a mouth-watering combination of butterscotch and semisweet chocolate chips. The confetti sprinkles are mimicked on this one by some leftover fondant.

MMMMMMmmmmmmmmmmmmm..........

One of our Christmas traditions is to make a cookie train. This came from the time as a Young Woman when I made a cookie train at one of my leader's homes. I have fond memories of that, so now I do it with my kids.

You probably can't see too well, but if you look closely there are tiny footprints in the icing snow. We used a Barbie boot to do that. I think that was my favorite part.

Below: My Cake Wreck birthday cake
Rick threw a surprise 40th birthday party for me. He did such a great job with all of it. The cake was carrot cake, my favorite, and was decorated in true Cake Wreck style (don't know what that is? Check out the blog). You'd probably have to get familiar with that blog before you "get" the cake. But trust me....it's PERFECT!!! Best birthday cake I've ever gotten.

Below: Audrey chose a cheesecake for her 14th birthday. Here she is blowing out her candles with Henry.

Below: My dad "commissioned" me to do a Barbershopper of the Year cake for the 2009 recipient of the award. It was presented this past week at his chorus' Valentine dinner. Bartow is the recipient's first name.

It's mostly fondant, with a tad bit of buttercream decor. The heads are all made from fondant.

Below: While I was making the barbershop cake, Audrey worked on this smaller cake. We gave it to my parents since they just got back from their umpteenth cruise.

I love the little orange lifeboats!

Okay, working on more posts............