Happy Valentine's Day!

My friend Jen took pictures of my kids for Valentine's Day yesterday and I am so pleased with how they turned out! If you want to check out her other pictures you can go to her blog here. These are some of my favorites....

Thanks Jen! You are wonderful!

15 Months!

Well Miss Jolie pie-peanut butter cookie-cutie face- is going to be 15 months on Friday! Her favorite things to say right now are MOM (repeatedly and really loud), Bubba (for Colby), NO, and ball. She also calls Meatloaf "OOF" and she gives him kisses every day. She loves gold fish crackers, raisins, playing with Colby, taking baths and balls of all sizes.

She is also starting to toddle around! Yes, she is finally walking. Our cautious little princess is getting so brave. I discovered a molar in her mouth today as well. I think it must have just broken through so that makes tooth number 7. She is a delight now more than ever and I am so happy that she is finally taking good naps in her crib every day!

Tonight I gave Jolie a bath and then I was trying to diaper her and get her ready for bed. Well she didn't want a diaper on her bottom so I put it on her head! She thought it was so funny that she laughed out loud when I showed her what she looked like in the mirror. She left it on her head until I took it off about 30 minutes later. It was hilarious--she even showed dad and Bubba.


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Inauguration Inspiration

Today after school I asked Colby if he was able to watch the Presidential Inauguration. He said that they got to watch the whole thing, which really impressed me. Anyway, I asked him what he thought about it and he said it was really "cool." Then he stopped for a second and he said, "Mom did your eyes get watery when you were watching President Obama speak?" I said, "yeah" and he said--"me too." I thought that was so neat. I am really happy that he had that experience and shared it with me. We were both really touched. President Obama's words were inspiring and it was incredible to be able to share in that historic moment even if I was in my living room and not on the National Mall! I hope that Obama does well even though I didn't vote for him and that we can be proud and supportive of him as our President. I know I already am because he was willing to take upon himself the most stressful and prominent position in our nation. He's got a big job ahead of him! I'm proud to be an American and grateful that our country is moving forward. Congratulations Mr. President!

The Doors

For those of you who have visited, you know that the doors on my front two bedrooms have been off for TWO YEARS. This started because of a remodeling project back in 2007. It turned into a standing joke with some of my friends. "Adrienne are the doors on yet?," was a common question that was asked repeatedly and "NO" was always the answer!

Well my parents came up for the weekend, and my dad came along with the sole purpose of getting the doors put on. Brett has obviously had no desire to do it, and my dad thought he would be nice and come help out. Brett said he "wasn't ready to hang the doors," and he was a jerk about it but luckily we got it done anyway. What's up with husbands sometimes! I was wrong in thinking that he would be happy about the help. I felt bad for my parents.

Colby is getting old enough that he needs a little privacy, and a door is necessary to keep Jolie out of his stuff! Jolie really needed a door too so that she could nap in her room, and let's just say it out loud, bedrooms should have doors and two years was too long. Thanks family for your help!

Easy Does It--a BORING weekend!

Well it's been kind of a boring weekend! Brett started school a week and a half ago and so in order to encourage some studying we just stayed home! It didn't work very well. Brett's having a hard time getting back into the reading. I don't blame him, it's hard to read page after page when you're not really interested. I really want him to do well so I hope the school mode comes.

Things picked up today when Jolie started throwing up. Throw up is the worst. I heard her make a noise at about 5 a.m. so Brett went to check on her and he said she was fine. Well I found her in a mess of vomit this morning. I felt really bad! We got that cleaned up and stayed home from church because Brett didn't feel very good either. She didn't throw up again until about three. That was awesome--all over herself and the carseat. It was probably Brett's fault. We had been bouncing around at "the D" for like 2 hours. I almost wanted to puke myself! Ha!

My parents also came up this afternoon with my sister and her kids, Hayley and Jaxsen. We had dinner, watched some T.V., and played some rock band. I am really excited to go to the gym with Andy tomorrow! I hope Jamie kills us so Andy can see how hard I've been working! Hopefully I'll have something fun to report from tomorrow. Brett is taking the day off and we're going to try to do something fun with my family.... AND MAYBE EVEN GET THE DOORS UP-- YAY!

Boise

Last weekend we went to Boise to pick up Colby from Christmas vacation! It was a fun road trip with highlights that included eating at Smokin' Cowboys Barbecue in Jerome and visiting Brett's sister and her family.

Here we are at the Boise temple. The Shaner's gave us a great tour of Boise and some of the surrounding suburbs.

This was at a wildlife sanctuary--I can't remember what it was called but it was by the greenbelt. I think it would be awesome to live close to such a great place to run! There are miles and miles of paved trail.

Walking around--it was freezing.

This is in Twin Falls on the way home. We stopped at Shoshone Falls to check it out. It was beautiful, but I bet it's even more spectacular when the water is high. Colby graciously posed for this shot, but the sun was so bright in his eyes that it was painful! He lived.

Anyway, it was a very fun weekend. Thanks again Kim for hosting us. We love you!

Colby's Vacation

Colby had a great time in Spokane visiting his family. They went sledding, skiing, to the movies, and he played played played with his brother Isaac. He had a lot of fun and the time always seems to go by too fast for him. I was very glad to see him, but glad that he had a good time.

Here are some of the pictures that Nikkei (Colby's other mom) sent me of the boys sledding and playing on the computer.

Thanks Meline's!

The Wedding!

On Friday I catered my first big event here in Blackfoot. It was my friend Alysia's sisters wedding and I was really pleased with how everything turned out. I had so much fun doing it! I want to tell Brett, my mom and my friend Dara THANK YOU for helping out. Brett was really good about keeping the baby occupied. My mom drove up Friday to help with the baby and to lend general moral support. I was so glad that she got to see all of the things I made in person. Dara helped me keep the buffet going the whole night at the wedding. She was a trooper even though she had some bad flashbacks to her waitressing days. Dara you are the best! I can't wait for the next one!
Does anyone need a caterer?

This was my favorite thing at the wedding...the mini cupcakes. I made three kinds: lemon berry, chocolate truffle and carrot cake. I didn't snap a close up of the chocolate truffle ones, but there is a picture of them below on the buffet table. They were so cute and delicious. Altogether, I made about 620 of them!
These are the mini carrot cake cupcakes with cream cheese frosting and a tiny little carrot piped on top!

Here are the four kinds of cookies that I made. We had snickerdoodles, white chocolate macadamia nut, cowboy, and a molasses type cookie with chocolate chips. I think all together there were about 700 cookies!



Here's a buffet shot. I loved the red platters that she had for the table.

I made cheesecakes too! The four kinds were New York cheesecake with fresh strawberries, peanut butter with chocolate ganache, chocolate chocolate, and pumpkin. It was going fast, but there was plenty left over. I made 9 sheet pans which was about 300 pieces.


All the cheesecakes lined up for service! From left to right: Peanut butter, chocolate chocolate, pumpkin, and New York style.

Here I am with a tray of cheesecake. This was at the beginning of the night before my feet started to hurt ;)

For this wedding the M.O.B. wanted the cheesecake pieces on doilies. I was worried that the guests wouldn't pick up the doily with the cheesecake but they did! Way to go everyone! This is the chocolate chocolate--It was chocolate cheesecake with a chocolate ganache glaze and chocolate shavings. It was rich and delicious.

Here are the mini cupcakes. I'm serious--I loved making these. The chocolate truffle cupcakes are on the rear platter.


Here I am again, getting ready to start. Thank you Alysia for introducing me to your family. Thank you Chelsea for getting married and thank you Julene for trusting me with this event. I love you guys!