☺Spring Cleaning ☺

Yep another one of those MISH MASH posts with lots of THIS & THAT and even more of HERE & THERE. I would love to blog about each of these separately but that is not going to happen and so I am doing a little spring cleaning of photos and calling it a post!

I LOVE these women!!!!













I have been spending a lot of time with some of the people I love the most on this planet. My American Mother's Board! This picture is actually of the National Convention Planning Board of which I am a part. Our AMI National Convention is going to be held right here in UTAH this year and I am enjoying my time on the board making BIG plans for the awesome event to be held in April! It is going to be great!

I have also been spending a LOTof time at this place.













Taylor is on the high school Varsity (and JV) basketball team and so we go and cheer at FOUR games a week all over our region. His team has done awesome and is currently in 2nd place in region! There are only 3 games left until the state playoffs and I am going to miss them! I LOVE watching him play! I am pretty sure I will be diagnosed soon with an ulcer because EVERY single game with the exception of maybe 3 or 4 have been neck in neck and down to the wire the entire game! INTENSE!



















Taylor has great friends that come and support him. This is CJ with Taylor's nickname written on his arm (T-Train). I asked his friend why they called him that and he just said it's been his name since they were freshman because he is like a powerful train. They also call him Wild-Thing. I like T-Train better...☺




















Super Bowl sandwich. I ordered the bread to be FOUR feet and they only made it TWO feet. I told them they messed up and so they gave me another two-footer. Not exactly the effect I was hoping for.




















McKay is playing basketball as well. He has two games a week. He plays for the city league and with the church ball team. Here he is with some of his best buds at a church game.



Taylor getting asked to the Sweathearts dance. (yes I spelled that correctly...Sweat not Sweet) He was not happy I took this picture. Oh well, that's my job! ☺

Taylor's new favorite face for the camera.

~Sweathearts Dance~

Speaking of dances....

Taylor almost waited too long (five weeks in advance!) to ask the one he really wanted to go with to Junior Prom. She was on MANY boys list to ask. Luckily his mother saved the day and made him ask her the very night he mentioned something about it even though he planned on doing it the next night. Ten minutes after he asked her, she also got asked by someone else. He owes me BIG time for this one!

Me eating my favorite breakfast - Pumpkin Chocolate Chip cookies ~ right before the AMI State Convention and MOY Luncheon. I am going to do a full post on this and so stayed tuned! (The convention NOT the cookie!)





























Bonnie, me, and Mona. We love Mona so much. We visit teach her and enjoy the time we spend with her. She has the greatest personality and we always leave feeling much better about our lives after spending time with her. We love to go out to lunch or breakfast together (we have been to some interesting places) and just talk. What a great lady she is. She has taught me a lot about life and enduring to the end.
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We like to have these kids over for dinner when their parents are out of town. They are fun to spend time with and the boys all get along so well, and I like having another female around!






























Taylor and his favorite face again. Notice McKay in the background.



















I got him to actually smile in this one! He did not want me to take this photo but I insisted. His darling friend Allie gave him these for Valentine's Day. I have plans to do a post on Valentine's Day too! Wish me luck!♥

Spring Fever

It has been one LONG winter and today we were teased by some spring-like weather! It was in the mid 50's and felt WONDERFUL!!!
Dave was off and so we hopped on the four wheeler and headed for the hills (er-mountain) for a picnic out in the heavenly weather! Ahh......... It was great!
This is what we see (and HEAR) all day long on our mountain. They finished putting in the enormous power lines and now they are working on adding gas pipe lines all across the mountain. Seems like such an intelligent idea considering we live on a fault line! Yep... highly intelligent! But I don't make the rules. I just pay taxes.☺




























It is a breath taking view from the trail (I mean two lane ROAD now that all their trucks have destroyed the natural small path that used to be there for years and years).

We also saw this view. ☺




























The higher up we got, the muddier it got. Mud was flying everywhere from the spinning wheels. Everywhere meaning on our shoes, pants, jackets, and faces! I should have worn different shoes!












We picnicked on this little spot surrounded by snow but a warm breeze and the hot sun beating down on us. It was perfect.
















The mad mud woman!












The view coming down. (Click to enlarge)

I know Mother Nature was just teasing us today, but I'll even be happy with a tease because it gives me hope that SPRING is coming....REALLY coming! I just wish it would hurry up!

SIDENOTE:
Because we sat here↓



















HE ↓ caught a ride on ME!














Yep, we found THAT ↑ disgusting thing on my back as we were getting ready for bed!!!
So much for my excitement for spring!
Nah, I'll take the warmth even if it does come with all those dang creepy crawly critters!
JUST HURRY MOTHER NATURE!

Fondant First

Dave's brother Brian got remarried between Christmas and New Year's and when he told us that they were going to just have a very small wedding and luncheon with no reception and no wedding cake, I decided that I wanted to make them a wedding cake as our gift to them. You MUST have a wedding cake!

I have done numerous wedding cakes but mostly in the traditional way using buttercream icing and piping on fancy decorations with either buttercream or royal icing. I have never done a wedding cake using fondant before. I haven't really done much with fondant since I was an instructor for Wilton and we learned it in one of the teacher's workshops I attended years ago. I personally don't like the taste of it and I like my cakes to not only look good, but to taste good as well, and not too many people are big fans of the taste of fondant. So, I have just stuck with the traditional ways. But there is so much more you can do with fondant and it is definitely the most popular method right now, so I decided to attempt my first wedding cake using it for Brian and Becki's cake.

Since it was going to be a very small wedding, I did a small cake as well. I have to say I really enjoyed working with the fondant and learning mostly by trial and error (and Cake Central's website) many tricks and methods that made it really fun. I do have to say that I do NOT enjoy rolling the stuff out. That part was tougher than I thought it would be. Of course, I should probably attribute that to the fact that I haven't been to the gym in months and months and the muscles have probably atrophied! It also brought out the carpal tunnel pain. But once that was done, I just had fun with the rest.

At the luncheon





















Mackenzie told Taylor he could now be in the PURPLE CLUB!













The finished product
























The happy couple cutting their cake. It would have been so sad if they hadn't had a wedding cake - even it is small!













These cousins sure do love each other!






















OOPS! Ending the day on a happy note.... that's what I call a slam dunk!

SCORE!!!!!!