Catching Up: March and April 2011

Thomas won the Pinewood Derby in our pack this year.  He got to go to the regionals.  He got Second Place in his group.  He got a cool trophy but I don't have a pic of it.

More cake.  Audrey and I made this one together for a Young Women activity at church.  I had been wanting to try hydrangeas and I am in love with this frosting flower!

Another cake.....inspired by the cake above, I made a belated birthday cake for my mom.  This time in white flowers on a beautiful blue.

Our family, along with some extended family and friends, ran/walked/hobbled in a 5k in April.

Rick

Thomas

Amy and Spenser

Audrey, Madison, and their friends...

....getting serious and doing some stretching.

The whole gang!

Emma turned 9 this year in April.  She requested a cake with her 3 favorite stuffed animals on it having a tea party.

Radar the Bear (he was mine when I was a little girl), Kika the Otter, and Sheepy the Sheep.

Emma, Spenser, Thomas

Tangled?  Oh yeah!

Some pictures from Easter....

At Papa and Nana's.

Austin

Henry

Henry...our little action figure.

Emma

Thomas

I threw a baby shower for my niece at the end of April.  Hard to believe she was having a baby because I remember when she was born!  She had an owl-theme for her nursery, so I went with that....plus the colors of green and brown.

Another cake....No fondant this time.  I just wanted to do all frosting.  Had a lot of fun doing the branches.

It was in the morning so we had a kind of brunch-y spread.

The diaper cake, made by my sister, Anna.

That's my niece, Raechel, behind the table.

Hanging around at the shower with family and friends.

Okay, I'm on a roll.  This is going faster than I remember in the past.  Hot dog!

Catching Up: January and February 2011

I guess starting a new recipe blog has inspired me to get caught up on our family blog.  Designing that blog was fun, so I thought I'd try my hand at it with the family blog to breathe some new life into it.  I kind of like this blog-designing thing!  Anyway, off to catch up.

Audrey turned 15 in January.  For those of you doing the math, yes my days as a mom of a non-dating child are numbered.  Give me strength.

Audrey requested a black, red, and white cake.

At the party.

Another cake for earlier this year was one I made for our Cub Scout Blue & Gold Banquet.  The theme was "Tailgating".  It was so much fun to make!

A picnic cloth with cooler, plates of food, and a grill.

Had fun making the potato salad, onion slices, cheese, hot dog....I do love me some miniatures.

The plate of hostess cupcakes.....all the kids wanted that plate!

Blue and gold pom poms to go with the theme.

Thomas won the Pinewood Derby in our pack this year.  He was so happy.

Thomas and Spenser with their cars.

Thomas with his awards.

Wow.  And that's it for the first two months of the year?

Catching Up: November and December 2010

Okay.....starting off with just some random, fun pics and progressing on to other things.  Ready?  Here we go.

Just cute, people.  I mean, come on.

I don't know what it is with all my kids and "shirt-wigs".  But it's dang cute.

Here's Rick opening his very cool shirt from Think Geek.  Get it?  If you know Rick, you know he loves bacon.  So this is a bacon shirt where bacon is spelled out with elements from the periodic table....Ba Co N....get it?  Cuz see the Ba is for....you know what, if I have to explain it you're not geeky enough to get it.  Moving on.

The week of Thanksgiving we decided to go stay in a cabin at Hanging Rock State Park.  We had a GREAT time, and can't wait to go back.

Ahhhh....reliving Girls' Camp days.....bacon and eggs on Buddy Burners.

No trip to the mountains is complete without a hike.

Maybe.

Hey, wait!  They're hugging, sort of....I have witnesses!!!

...and you gotta have s'mores.

...and oversized BYU sweatshirts, apparently

....and a cute toddler taking a bath in the kitchen sink.

Hmmm.....I take it Henry didn't like me sharing that last shot.  TOO BAD!!!  HA!!

Thanksgiving Spread in Mocksville

Emma is excited!

Okay, this is Orrin, my grand-nephew who is an absolute CUTIE-PATOOTIE!!!!!!  

Seriously, I could eat him up.

Austin and I took a post stuff-yourself, er, dinner walk on Anna and Mike's property.

December.....making Cookie Trains with friends

Austin turned 12 in November.  Here's him in his first suit, all ready for church.  His actual party had to wait until December.  He had it at Bladez on Ice and requested a Zelda cake (video game).  

It was kind of a Zelda-ish-esque-like village.

Christmas Eve at Papa's and Nana's

I have no idea how long she had her sweater opened before Amy screamed and pointed out the BABY SHIRT!!!!!!!  AAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!

Audrey models her new Christmas Eve jammies, one of our Christmas traditions (the jammies, not the modeling).

...jammified!

Christmas morning....Henry likes his tent!!

.....and his Jeep (well, technically we've had the Jeep for a long time, but he got the battery for Christmas).

Austin got a tent for Christmas.  We let the boys sleep in it on Christmas Day night.....Lucky likes it!

New Year's Eve

Check out all that food!

Thomas, looking so dapper.

A Finlayson favorite:  Chopped at home!!

Look at these two.....so focused, so determined.  Audrey assembling a napoleon and Rick making a blackberry, cotton candy reduction.  That's right people...I said REDUCTION!!! 

 (Yes, we are Chopped geeks.  We are geeks in so, so many ways.)

Time's up!!

Chopped judges

Uh, she's petite and cute, but this judge is WAY harsh!!!!

This was a Chopped night from sometime (don't remember when) between Emma and Thomas.

Okay, folks.  All caught up.  Well, for 2010 anyway.  I'll work on 2011 soon.  Don't pressure me.