My Humps- Alanis

The Zickgraffs showed us this a couple of months ago and I think it's so awesome. If you haven't seen the original video by Fergy, you should check it out first.

Abby's Hippo Cake

Ashley asked me to help her make a fondant cake for Abby's birthday. I was so excited, but I have only made one, and that was with a lot of help from an amazing teacher, Karen P. So I decided to practice and I made a bunch of flowers on a circle platter and frosted them in purple, orange and pink fondant. It turned out SO cute, and of course, I lost the photos somehow when downloading them to my comp. So, I have requested any my family has, but we will see if they ever make it here onto this post. Sufficeth to say, it was SO CUTE and I was so proud of it so I felt very confident to help Ashley with her pink hippo with a tu-tu. I thought, "Yeah, no problem." And then we started. It turned out to be a bit more challenging than I expected. First off, we didn't have the right sized pans to make the pieces of cake that we wanted, so we really had to sculpt. So it was hilarious from the start. When we had almost finished, we called our husbands in to take a look at our work and, well, let's just say, they had a "little" constructive criticism for us, meaning we were enticed to do MAJOR reconstructive hippo surgery on the poor guys face. And anyone who knows anything about fondant knows reconstructive surgery is likely to backfire. We cut and sliced and felt like surgeons and stretched the "skin" over the lips once the nose was enhanced, and let's just say that fondant isn't the most forgiving and he ended up looking a little bit more like a stuffed bubblegum pig on a spit than a cute little hippo. Maybe the ears are too big, nose still too small, eyes too big, mouth too black... I don't know, but well, it was a rolling fun time to make it and it tasted great and all of our friends were super supportive and said that it "looks just like a hippo", but we know deep down, that the next time we want to make a hippo cake, we are going to both think again.

Cooking club

I had a great time at cooking club this week. These women made some amazing food! I probably shouldn't mention any specifically because it was all so good, I would have to mention it all. Oh well, I can't resist. Brenda made this drink that was to die for. Thanks Brenda, I will never be the same again.

At the Park

A funny thing happened at the park today. As we pulled up we noticed huge black rainclouds rolling in from the north. I knew we wouldn't have much time, but we got out anyway. There is a small fenced in area at Jaycee Park for the daycare kids to play. No one else is allowed in this area. Of course we had to park right in front of it so when we got out Eirik walked to the fence and stood there watching the kids. I felt bad that he was the little outsider when I could tell he wanted to go play so badly. After a minute or two a couple of the little kids came over to Eirik and held his hands through the fence and talked to him. Then about 8 more kids all came over and stood by Eirik. He looked up at me with this, "What in the world is going on mom?" expression. I was sort of thinking the same thing myself. All of these kids were staring and cooing at Eirik. A few minutes later the teachers opened the gates and the kids all came out. The teachers were trying to get the kids to line up, but all of these kids surrounded Eirik and patted his hair, his shoulders, his back, talked to him, kissed his head. I think there were like 11 kids that came over and touched him. It was sweet and pretty strange too. Eirik looked at me like, "let's get out of here mom" so we went over to the swings were we met Erin and Benjamin for like two minutes before giant raindrops started to fall. By the time we had grabbed the kids and the bags and RAN to the car, we were both DRENCHED. It was such a downpour.
So overall the park experience today was completely different than I expected, and overall, quite strange.

The House Hunting Saga

Just like so many of our K-ville friends, we are counting down the days until we pick up our moving van and drive out of town. Everything was moving along at a normal, anticipation of a big event, pace, until yesterday when we found out that the apartment that we have been counting on renting is not going to be available like we expected. We turned in our (2) 26 page notarized applications, a $70 application fee, copies of our drivers licenses, birth certificates, SS cards, our taxes from last year, a self employment affidavit and copies of our loan papers and our budget created by the school, and these people are still waiting to tell us if we are approved after a month!! We finally emailed them and asked them if we needed to send some blood samples or genetics screenings or anything. I mean, "COME ON!!". Anyway, after all of this trouble and waiting to find out for over a month, we finally got the distinct impression from an email from them that we were not going to get approved, so we have begun a frantic search to find a great place to live in the next 2 weeks. We are moving to a town that is completely depressed by Ford layoffs and everyone is trying to sell their house, but everyone wants to get so out of town that they don't want to rent. At least, if they do, it's a last resort. So, we are calling people who are selling and asking them if they would be willing to rent to us. What a pain! It would be so much better to just drive up there. Maybe I still will. That's 24 hours in the car, plus the time driving around town looking and that just doesn't sound like any fun with a baby that hates to be tied to a carseat.
Anyway, the point is, the first place just wasn't meant to be and we are sure that something great is going to land in our lap. We're just hoping we've said enough prayers and been good enough. Please oh please.

Spring Fairy Frolicks

The delinquent blogger finally shows her face...

Well, after a long three week vacation I have a slew of wonderful things to share.
But first, I must say Ashley was a pro at spotting fairies in the woods and Tasheena and I had a blast getting "caught in the act". I will have a slide show of the rest of the fairy sightings for your viewing pleasure and laughs shortly. I have been surprised at how few people have said, "you guys are so weird" which I appreciate, but I would not be a bit surprised at that type of response, and to those of you who think there is something strange about us, I say, "Please just love us and our weird selves anyway."

And with that said, on to the matter of the vacation. Paul was in the deepest of med school trenches studying night and day for the boards exams. I felt like I was about to be tied over the spit and roasted. Paul later told me that my escaping to Utah to be with the family was like me swimming to shore while he took the raft over the rapids right when he needed me. So, I showed me weakness and caved in and for that I do feel terrible and I hope he will forgive me. On the other hand, the trip was great for Eirik and my spirits were lifted so that I have so much more to give, so hopefully it all evens out. To Paul's credit the raft did very well over the rapids and he made it through the boards without any scrapes or bruises. He's amazing.
It doesn't seem right now to tell how much fun we had in Utah, but here goes anyway. WE LOVE YOU PAUL.

Eirik LOVED the airplane. He got so excited about every plane he saw and had so much fun taking off and landing. What a fun travel buddy.
We got to Springville during Art City Days, a great week-long town party. We got to see a parade, a carnival, a craft fair, ride in a hot air balloon, see the art exhibit at the museum and lots of other fun events.








We also got to go to the zoo and camping with Amy, Adam and their kids, and Grandma and Grandpa.







Being with family was AWESOME and made me love and admire them even more. They were so fabulous with Eirik and it was so fun to have Aunts and Uncles to play with him and give him so many experiences. My parents are a delight and such an inspiration. My sisters and brothers and brother in law are just plain cool. They are fun to be with and doing great things. I love them all so much. Big props to my brothers for growing up to be such cool guys. Super big props to Daniel who got ordained to be an Elder while I was there. It was probably the highlight of my trip. He was beaming like he was lit from the inside. It was awesome. Love you man! I can't wait to hear where he gets to go on his mission!

Many of you don't know that I am a kung fu fairy when no one is looking.

My beautiful friend Ashley and I went to Truman to take some pics of the kids. Eirik and Abby love each other. We tried to get them hugging, but there was more malling and ear pulling happening than hugging... We think that will come with age. Paul says that their little relationship makes sense politically. I agree. :)

Mommy, Am I in trouble for this??

This morning Eirik decided it was the absolute end of the world when I wouldn't let him play with the eggs while I was making breakfast. He threw an enormous tantrum, and then of course, every subsequent thing we tried to do turned into an unbearable tragedy for him, until I left him crying in the kitchen while I went to my bedroom to grab some jeans and everything was suddenly eerily quiet in the kitchen. My clever 14 month old saw me put the egg carton in the trash can and since nothing gets by him, he had to explore this intriguing option.

Luckily, he had unrolled about a whole roll of toilet paper just a few minutes before breakfast, so we had plenty of paper to clean up the egg shell mess with. :) What a sweetheart!