Edible Art

Gabe's youngest sister Arien is an amazing artist! She just graduated from High School and is going to BYU in the fall to study Graphic Design. Here is one of my favorite pictures she drew. Look at that detail! I wish this picture did it justice. For Arien's senior project she decided to learn a new type of art. She made these beautiful gum paste flowers... to practice before she made the flowers to decorate her "wedding" cake. Look at her in action! Next she had to actually had to bake the cakes and level them off to make a nice smooth surface for decorating. Next put two cakes together and then piped the frosting around the edges and used a hot steamed spreader to smooth it out. The next part, which I think was the hardest physically, was rolling out the fondant, lifting it onto the cake, and smoothing it out. Next she put straws in as a support. Next a dowel went right in the middle, this particular one is actually an old chopstick. (ignore Gabe in the background, he wasn't actually helping) after the first and second layers were finished it was time to lift one on top of the other, and make sure it stayed straight. I'm glad I was able to help in some way! Finally all three layers were assembled, let me tell you that thing was HEAVY! Finally for the decorating and artistic part. Arien put the ribbons on, and began piping around the edges. Then she added her other works of art. Gorgeous already, but still not done. She put the finishing touches on. Even the back was breathtaking.I think anyone would feel lucky to have this as a wedding cake, all that hard work was worth it!

Take Me Out To The Ball Game

This is Gabe's third summer playing in the Boeing Softball League playing for "Tater Salad." The first season we were newlyweds, the second season I was pregnant with Preston, (trust me those benches aren't comfortable) and now the little guy is able to enjoy the games as well (when the weather is good) despite the fact that they go past his bedtime.

After we pass the port-a-potty we get to the field... where I try to get Preston to sit on the bench with me to cheer daddy on... to make sure he hits the ball far. Once he's hit the ball and run fast around the bases daddy comes to get Preston... and lets him play with his hat... which is his absolute favorite part about the ball game...

besides the rocks he hoards ...

when Daddy's in the outfield.

He LOVES the softball games!

Cincinnati in Review: Part 1

We had a great time hanging around the house, and taking advantage of the beautiful sunny weather while we were in Cincinnati for our yearly visit with Gabe's parents.

Preston was able to hang out in the beautiful backyard,play with blocks and other toys inside the house with the help of Daddy, Grandpa, Great-Grandpa, and Aunt Arien. examine and eat rocks, on top of that he had time to relax in the pool, he was in heaven!

Weather

I've been taking a religion course online called "Teachings of the Living Prophets." The assignment I'm working on right now consists of writing a biography for each member of the Quorum of the Twelve and the First Presidency. It's interesting for me to learn about each of these men and realize that I have something in common with all of them. I'm really enjoying that I can connect myself personally with each of them. When I was reading through information about Elder Packer of the Quorum of the Twelve I found this quote and realized that this was exactly what I needed to hear today.

He said: "I had built a barn at our home in Lindon, Utah. I wanted to paint it, but because I traveled a lot for the seminaries I was seldom home on a Saturday. When the first free Saturday did come so I could paint, it rained. I declared my independence from the weather that day and painted the barn in the rain. I decided that I was not going to let the weather dictate what I was going to do that day or any day. I took the philosophy, let it rain, I got here first. I used to tell the missionaries in the New England States Mission that if they had nothing more than the weather to which to attach their dispositions, they were a yo-yo, going up and down all the time. I have been a lot happier since I declared my independence from the weather."

Isn't that amazing? That's exactly what I need to do, but then I looked at weather.com today. It's hard to keep a positive attitude with a ten-day forecast like this... in June! They don't have this problem in Utah very often... or at least me thinking that makes me feel better.

Forecast for Lake Stevens, WA

10-Day Forecast Day Forecast

High /Low (°F) Precip. %

Today Jun 03 Rain 55°/48° 90 %

Wed Jun 04 Showers 58°/46° 40 %

Thu Jun 05 Few Showers 59°/49° 30 %

Fri Jun 06 Showers 55°/49° 40 %

Sat Jun 07 Showers 56°/49° 50 %

Sun Jun 08 Mostly Cloudy 56°/48° 20 %

Mon Jun 09 Few Showers 60°/50° 30 %

Tue Jun 10 Few Showers 61°/49° 30 %

Wed Jun 11 Showers 59°/48° 30 %

Thu Jun 12 Showers 62°/51° 60 %

What's with all of the different words for rain anyway? They say rain, showers, and few showers on some days trying to get our hopes up that it might be nice for at least a little while. Of course they throw in one day that's supposedly going to be mostly cloudy but it still has a 20% chance of precipitation so it's quite possible we'll have rain that day too. Really I don't mind the rain most of the time but this is getting ridiculous. I just want to be able to go out and enjoy the sunshine. The saddest thing to me is when Preston goes over to the door or the window and cries because he wants to go play in the grass. Too bad it's freezing cold and not to mention SOAKING WET outside! My poor baby, deprived from a decent summer his first year of life. :(

At least one good thing is coming out of this my Cala Lily suddenly came back to life and sprouted (is that the word?) a new flower! See I'm being positive. :)I thought for sure it was a goner, wouldn't you if you saw this?

So I guess what Elder Packer is trying to tell us is that the good and the bad can live in harmony, if we choose to do so, just like my Cala Lily.

I guess I just need to try harder to be as simple as a plant.

A Night Out With The Girls

Some good friends of mine I've known since I've been married decided to have a girls night in honor of Amy's soon to be born baby boy instead of having a baby shower. It was so much fun! We all left our husbands at home to feed the kids dinner and put them to bed and we all carpooled to Macaroni Grill. I don't remember the last time I went out to eat with friends and no kids, and I'm glad we did. :)

Their bread is amazing! We kept asking the waiter to bring more... I'm glad they don't have limits on that kind of thing.

The food was all beautiful and very yummy!

Here I am with the proud mama...

and here are all the girls together, Kati, Amy, Alycia, and Melissa. The weather was absolutely beautiful so we were excited to be able to sit outside while we ate.

When we first got to the restaurant I embarrassed everyone by trying to take of picture of one of the employees without him noticing.

Obviously I didn't do a very good job because he eventually started smiling for the camera. Why did I want a picture of a random bus boy at Macaroni Grill in the first place do you ask? Because he's famous of course.

Didn't you watch American Idol season 6? He did try out you know, and even made a good friend who tried out as well.

Kenneth Briggs didn't make it into the top 12, or even to Hollywood week for that matter, but he was compared to a bush baby by Simon Cowell. Do you see the similarity?

Although he didn't become the next American Idol, Kenneth did get to go on a lot of talk shows thanks to Simon's comment along with his good friend Jonathan Jayne. They even got to make a stop at the Idol Finale where they won an award and had it presented to them by none other than Ryan Seacrest himself.

Now do you see why I wanted my picture taken with this guy? Luckily (or unluckily for Kati) we passed right by him on the way to the restroom after we finished our meal. All of my friends tried to run away but I called Kati back and she unwillingly took this picture for me. Thanks a lot Kati, you're the best!

Now, I don't know if my face is red because it got sunburned that day, or because I was embarrassed that he put his arm around me when my husband wasn't around. :) I just figured it would be good to ask him for a picture because he was going outside and passing our table about every five minutes while we were there hoping to draw out his fifteen minutes of fame. When I finally asked him he responded promptly (almost before I could finish my question) "OF COURSE!" I guess I would be that enthusiastic too if some random person wanted to get their picture taken with me... maybe.

Overall, it was an fun night, thanks again girls, I hope I didn't embarrass you too much!

Is This The Circus?

One of the few days we had sunshine this last month Gabe and I decided to go outside in our backyard and introduce our son to the game of croquet.

Of course he enjoyed playing with the balls, pulling the wooden pegs out of the ground, and even holding the mallet. But he didn't quite grasp the game as a whole. We had finally finished our game (after a great deal of intereference from the little guy) and all of a sudden Gabe started doing this:

I guess you learn something new every day. I had no idea! He said he learned in his P.E. class in Japan. That's one reason why you should go to school in a foreign country. The circus is his back up career plan if his job now, as an engineer doesn't work out. I'm glad to know he's thinking about these kinds of things. :)

Where?

A long time ago I wrote a blog entry about my incredible little (but bigger) brother Royce and I'm long overdue for an update. He sent in his mission papers and we foung out that he'll be leaving on July 30th for Buenos Aires, Argentina!

Congratulations Royce, you'll be a great missionary!