Better as I go... the weekend of CAKE

Happy 31 to me. And I love it. I don't know, I just think I get better as I go. Really truly. I'm growing into my looks (holy cow did I have some CHEEKS on my face in high school!), I even like how the little wrinkles are looking around my eyes. (The gray hairs I continue to pull. Still only three of them. Whew.) My personality gets more well rounded, I'm discovering to a better extent who I am and expanding on it. My life situation keeps getting better. Bring on a new year, I don't mind one bit.
West and the circus spoiled me with presents. Among them was this perfume. I wanted to update my perfume to something new and something that he would like, so he took the circus perfume shopping. I love it, and was completely surprised by it.
We had a yummy potluck at work and they got me this cake (the first of many for the next two days!): And I just so happened to win a birthday cake give away from 4 the love of cake.
She gives one away every month, so check her out :)

After I picked up my cake (I felt so bad going to her house and just taking a cake ha ha), I headed to my friend's, Sara, house for some nails. Her daughter Hannah and Cali were super cute pretending to mimic us after we stood up:

After that I rushed home because West had dinner plans for me with Nick and Sara (who was also rushing since I'd just left her house ha ha). West took me to my favorite restaurant, Johnny Carino's and SURPRISE, it wasn't dinner for just the four of us. My man had secretly invited family and friends to join us.

I'm at a good place in life. I feel secure. I feel confident. I feel loved. Thank you everyone, for showing my so much love and support on my birthday.

Of course, the birthday fun wasn't over. Saturday I spent the ENTIRE day up to my elbows in fondant. Four of us in our group of friends had birthdays and I wanted to practice my new skill. I made a cake pop cake for me:

Melissa wanted tiger lilies (which made me not only practice with fondant, but try out a new aspect, gumpaste):

I did a skull cake for Dustin

And this is right after someone shoved it in his face:

And cute Linda wanted a "Joe Boxer" smiley face cake:

There was obvious improvement between the first and second cakes (smiley face and tiger lily) and my third and fourth cakes (cake pop and skull). I think I'm finally getting the hang of fondant, and making it look super smooth on the cake. I can't wait to try it out again. And overall, I don't think any of the cakes looked too bad. We all had fun with them at any rate.

My BABY turned FIVE!!!!

All Cali wanted for her birthday was a diamond crown. Hopefully she likes cubic zarconium. Or, you know, sparkly plastic. We got her a few other things too :).
I got free circus tickets from my work and it just so happened to be on Friday, the day after Cali's birthday. So we gathered cousins, neighbors from the Centerville neighborhood, and a few of her daycare friends for circus cake and circus fun. Yes, we took the circus to the circus.

My first attempt ever with using fondant. I loved it and I'm ready to try it again! I found a super yummy marshmallow fondant recipe.

My favorite Cali-isms as of lately: "Mom, is this "the" nickelback?" and "Mom, are we going in the new-kon (Yukon)?"

Life in a circus

Sadly, these are the socks with out matches...

more room pics

I realized I never put up a good shot of Casidee and Brynn's polka dot room when it was finished, so ta-da! Here they are:

And new detail on Tayler and Cali's room:

You can see the other pics of them here and here.

I'm way excited for what West and I are doing with the rooms in his "our" house. I'm sure you're on pins and needles about it, but frankly, you SHOULD be. With his building ideas, and my painting ideas... oh yeah! These are going to be good!

Surprise!

We decided to drive down to St. George for the weekend and surprise my mom for her birthday. I gave a heads up to my dad via email and we hopped in our car Friday after work and headed down. To hear the experience from here is best from my mom's point of view:
She was sitting watching TV with my dad, and actually a little surprised he wasn't getting ready for bed yet as it was almost ten, when she heard a deeper rumbling of an engine in their neighborhood that she'd never heard before. She peeked out the window to see brake lights reflecting off the house across the street. My parent's garage extends out from their house, so it blocked her view from her front window, and she couldn't see the actual vehicle, but knew it had stopped in front of their driveway. My dad got up, opened the door, and their dog ran out and around the front of the garage and out of view. Now, as their dog is very protective, he barks, and has an extremely loud bark at that, but he wasn't barking when he went around the garage, and it frightened my mom. That wasn't normal, something was up. My dad started to go out the door and my mom whispered "don't go out there!" She watched as he too disappeared around the garage, and she made her way from the window to the door. At that point Brynn ran around the corner into her view and it took her a few seconds to register who it was. The other kids were soon behind Brynn yelling "surprise!" Needless to say operation Birthday Surprise was a success.
The next day, being Grandma's actual birthday, we made Swedish pancakes,
took a stop at the St. George temple to cross it off our temple visit list:
and hiked and played above Dixie rock.
We took the circus to McDonald's for lunch and then headed back to Grandma and Grandpa's where the circus threw on their suits and "swam" in the hot tub while we adults crashed on the couch.
After that, Grandma decided on Applebee's for dinner. Where of course we made them sing to her, despite her asking for it not to be done :).

He IS smiling:

Poor West was attacked by the worst allergies when we got down there.

Tayler really got into the dessert (sadly, this picture wasn't staged): Happy Birthday Grandma KC!

The five girls went to the park in the neighborhood and decorated these pine cones for Grandma. Thanks for letting the circus come crash for a weekend Grandma and Grandpa! We had a lot of fun, and hope that we helped make Grandma's birthday a good one.

What's up with a new year

OH MY GOSH. Can life get any more crazy??? Here's what's up for the kick off of the new year:Moving, which results in

trying to sell my house in a terrible market (but someone wants to look at it tomorrow, YAY!).
Changing schools for the circus and trying to locate a new daycare for when Cali starts Kindergarten (she can stay in the current one and just commute with me for now as it's by my work) and for the 6 of them during summer.Planning a wedding.

Painting/building on the kids' rooms in our "new" house... which is actually West's house. School started for me. I'm going 3/4 time, all online, but still LOTS of homework, and simply add all that to my plain ol' working full time and that about sums it up. (As if that weren't enough ha ha).

Resolutions... I guess *sigh*

I've never really been one for making resolutions. I understand the talk and the idea of a new year, so perfect a time to determine to make a new start. I really do understand all the significance of this, I do. It's just that, for me, when I get the itch to change (or rather the shove by life :)) I do it. Whenever it comes. I don't wait for the timing of a new start, I just do it. I make rash decisions and changes in my life, and they seem to work for me. Though there was one year I made the resolution not to miss a single birthday on my calendar. And I did it too. For that ONE year, every brother, sister, parent, niece and nephew got a card. And I haven't done it since. I actually have resolutions this year.
Resolution number one: I'm going to introduce my children to flylady. They will have their very own fly routines. AND, thanks to my friend Aislinn telling me about this (via her blog), I'm going to set them up online with www.myjobchart.com with interactive job charts. West thinks I'm crazy for wanting to try it, but I think it adds a level that the kids are going to love.
And my second resolution (I know, amazing that I have TWO resolutions when generally I don't have any at all!): West and I finally broke down and got a vehicle that will fit all eight of us. I found a super sweet deal (you know, the kind that you brag about) on ksl. This lovely Yukon Denali is now mine. And West's. I guess I have to share now and then :). What does this have to do with my resolution? Well... on the occasion that people say to me, "I don't know how you do it all", I squirm. Because I DON'T do it all. I have a mountain of laundry, a sink full of dishes, and a very dirty car to prove it. The laundry and dishes I just hate so I procrastinate it until I can't anymore. But my car... it truly is one of the things in my life that just falls through the cracks. Papers, toys, blankets, shoes, jackets, books, all these things collect and pile up, and I simply do not have the time, I'll even give the concession that I don't make the time, to clean my car out. So we search high and low for things we need, and are probably getting trampled on in the car. I blame it on my circus, and rightfully so. When I do finally get around to shoveling it out, 97% of the crap in it is theirs. Taken out to the car for whatever reason, despite my telling them not to, and then it gets left there. My car absolutely is something that falls between the cracks for me. Not this year. With this new car, and now that I have cleaned the Camry out, I will, every Friday, clean out my cars, vacuum them, and run them through the car wash. It's a simple common courtesy that I need to give to West, as he's sold his truck, and we're sharing these two cars. He'll get his truck in time for summer, but in the mean time... just for him, I make the resolution to better myself in this area, and keep these suckers clean and nice to be in.