good morning beautiful

The Man didn't have work today.  Usually he's up before me and already downstairs doing whatever it is he does in the wee morning hours before I roll out of bed.

Mornings, to me, are not pretty.

It's not that I'm ornery or grumpy, because I'm not.  You can talk to me and I'm not going to bite your head off.  I'll even most likely give you a smile.  But I'm slow.  I don't get things.  My brain doesn't work.  And often times West will find me back in bed after my long shower when I should be putting clothes on and blow drying my hair.

But this morning it was me who was getting up before him.  Slowly.  Agonizingly.  It doesn't matter what time I go to bed, or how much sleep I get, it's the same ol' I can't get this brain to function routine for me.  I usually stand in a glazed over daze in the shower for a really long time.

Since West was still in bed, that meant that I couldn't get back in it because the lights were off, and that would mean that I would be out cold in a matter of seconds.  Usually when I crawl back in bed the lights are on.  That keeps me coherent enough to get back up again.

I stepped out of the shower, got dressed in the clothes I had put in the bathroom the night before, and blow dried my hair.  By then the circus was stirring. 

I stepped out of our bathroom into the dark bedroom and made my way around the bed to go downstairs and make the circus eggs.  We had 1/4 of a gallon of milk.  Cereal wasn't going to happen today.

As I groped through the dark I hear, "I hear my beautiful woman."

Does he know just what to say first thing in the morning or what.  Instead of finding the door, I found him.  Then he whispers to me, "what are your lunch plans today? Oh yeah, you have lunch plans with me."  Like he's the luckiest man in the world to eat lunch with me.

I'm the luckiest woman in the world to be having lunch plans with him.

West's cousin (but I'm claiming him too!) Got married to a cute girl yesterday.

{I totally stole this off of his facebook.  Aren't they reeking of fun personality?}

I love their family.  They are down right the nicest people on this earth.  I don't usually do wedding cakes.  I prefer to do character cakes and birthday cakes.  I usually pass the wedding cakes on to my friend Aislinn, who is Amazing with a capital "A", and actually in business where I am not.  I just have a hobby.  But when this family of ours asked me to help with the wedding cake I wasn't going to tell them no.

Like I said, I'm no professional.  And it shows.  But what it lacks in pristine perfectness it makes up for in taste and flavor. 

I think I'll stick to "fun cakes".

Happy wedding to our cousins.  Their wedding lunch is today and I get to meet my man there to celebrate the union of a cute couple and the fact that we are a part of a great family.

spreading the love in hot pink leggings and neon orange Vans

Valentine's Day at our house was perfect. 

West loved the blanket that I sewed for him on my new sewing machine. 

Cas wore a sparkly black dress, hot pink leggings, and neon orange vans to her 6th grade Valentine's dance.

Her favorite dance? The very last one where she didn't have to have a partner.  Sorry boys, you're on your own for Valentine's.

Cali gave me a sweet valentine this morning.

I got to have a last minute lunch with my man at my favorite Mexican restaurant.

I started assembling a three layer, three tier wedding cake.  Red velvet cheesecake.

When I make a cake I like to make sure that the mess explodes all over the entire kitchen.

Cas helped me with dinner by "dehydrating the chicken."  Translation: Cas   defrosted the chicken.

We had some extra red velvet cake batter so we made some cupcakes and spread the love to some of our neighbors.

Don't forget our family dinner by candle light.

new beginnings and other things

I've been stalking a "new" blog lately.  She's wonderful and I love to read the things that she writes.  If you haven't heard of her blog, 71 Toes, you've heard of it now.  What an amazing woman (I want to be like her when I grow up).  She's written a book and Blossom on the Vine is giving it away. 

I want to win.

Given, I never win give aways, except that one time when a whole box of gum ended up on my door step, but other than that I never win give aways.  This one is worth trying for. 

If I don't win I'll just have to buy the book on my own.  I love reading her that much. And her story is incredible.

Over the weekend I learned that I need to be a better budgeter.  I hate budgets.  Loathe them.  Mostly because I'm sporadic and spur of the moment, and when I want to do something nice for someone, or buy something cute for my circus or my man, or if I want to start a project, I want to do it now, and not when I have a minute to sit down and fit it in to my budget.

How do you survive budgeting?  I need to figure out a way that this can work for me.

I've decided I'm not going to survive my girls being in Young Women's.  I have watched all four of my girls go to kindergarten with out a single tear, but our first New Beginnings and it's all I can do to hold myself together during Casidee's spotlight.  And all they did was give her flowers and a YW pendant...

I'm so proud of my circus and the choices they make daily, and the people they are becoming. 

The theme for Young Women's this year is Arise and Shine Forth.  I love it.  It's so full of action.  Check out this music video.

Disco cupcakes for New Beginnings:

They literally shimmered, it was the neatest thing.  The young women loved them.

Cali Turns 7

Cali.

Favorite color: Blue
Favorite food: Spaghetti
Best Friend: Anistyn
Favorite thing to do in school: Learn
Favorite thing to do: Play with my sisters.
Favorite movie: Mr. Popper's Penguins
What's something you want to learn how to do this year? Read better.
I made a master list of birthday activities for the circus to choose from for their parties.  All ranging with in the same budget, but bigger, or more expensive activities involved less friends, or family only, while cheaper or smaller activities where able to involve more friends.
Cali chose to go to Airborne, a trampoline arena.  She was able to invite 2 friends.
And in true Circus style, we took a lot of pictures, a few videos, and created quite the chaos which ended up being the time of our lives.  We jumped off the floor, the walls, played dodge ball, jumped off cliffs, tried our best to make it across the rope ladder (West failed, I conquered!), and did a lot of flipping in the air.  Even me :).

Cake blog face lift

If you don't already follow my cake blog, you should :). I've been giving it a facelift. I've been adding recipes and pictures of how I created them. I figure, it's not a money making business for me, so I might as well sure what I'm learning. So check it out. www.circusprojects.blogspot.com.

My baby brother is dirty 30

well, he's not turning 30 for two more days, but his cute wife Jessica threw him a surprise party today. Though not everyone listened to the wise council of my cousin when she tried to tell everyone to park up the street, so when Bill pulled up from a tip to Cabela's with his friend he noticed a lot of cars, and even noticed that he recognized half of them.

I love how the cake turned out, and I'll post more about it on my cake blog. For this blog I'll explain the we love our Irish roots, and being as Bill's birthday also falls in March, well, that's a pretty fitting theme, no? We're trying to decide if Bill's favorite beer is Guinness simply because it's Irish. I vote yes. I couldn't decide in my limerick whether I should make Bill "flirty" or "dirty".

My new favorite picture. Check it out, I have the male traited nose of my family. Nice.