Beach Birthday Bash

Today Carrie had a birthday party to attend. The theme was "Fun in the Sun". In my recent post about wanting to cater cupcakes, my friend (Carrie's friend's mom) asked if I would do the cupcakes for her girls' parties. Here is the finished result!

It was quite a process making the flip flops since I don't have a teeny tiny foot shaped cookie cutter. I improvised. I used my letter "H" cookie cutter and cut out fondant.

I used a knife to cut out and throw away the middle section
Then I cut them in half and used the edge of the cookie cutter again to make all the edges round (I think they kind of look like lima beans in this picture)
Then with a little thumb squishing and some very fine tipped frosting decorations..... TahDah! Haven't you always wondered what thirty pairs of tiny flip flops looked like?

I know this next picture is a little random, but I was so proud of how perfectly round and beautiful the cupcakes baked!

Onto party time! First the kids got some foam stickers and decorated their visors.

Awesome hat, interesting smile ;)

Then it was time for the water games! Carrie just fished out a rubber duckie from the pool!

She was almost the only kid who even touched the sprinklers

She loved to just stick her hand in though. She never actually ran through.

Playing in the pool

Getting out to play on the swingset

"Mom what are you doing way up there?!"

Drying off getting ready for cake and presents

Yummy! She'd been anxious all morning as I was baking them. Finally it's time to eat them!

Can't get enough!

Wash it down with Capri Sun.... Life is good

Almost the whole gang. I couldn't get high enough to get them all in the picture

Sienna opening Carrie's present, two huge flower bows!

One last swing before we headed home

Wheeee!

Sick: The Revenge

Carrie was mostly nice, happy, and not sick all day Sunday. Apparently it was just a short-lived Easter mini-miracle though. She threw up at midnight that night and by the morning, we both felt awful. We slugged around all day again, though she didn't throw up again and I, luckily, never threw up.

By the evening I was feeling a little better, but Justin was feeling yucky. He threw up all through the night and called in to work this morning. All he's eaten today is a half a piece of toast and half a can of chicken noodle soup.

On the up side, Carrie and I are both feeling much better! Which is good considering tonight is Cub Scout Pack Meeting. I usually help out Justin with his calling as Cubmaster, but it looks like tonight I'll be taking over completely. Being sick is no fun at all!

Happy Easter!

Cute girl in her Easter dress! (Sorry for the closed eyes and funny faces, it was really sunny and windy outside)


What a wonderful holiday! I don't think I've ever appreciated Easter and its meaning as much as I have this year! Because of the miracle of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, we will all live again and someday we can be reunited with our sweet Brigham.

I know I wrote a post recently about the Atonement, but it's amazing to me the amount my testimony has grown the past few weeks. As I think about all the things the Atonement covers I am comforted. Christ not only took our sins upon himself, but also our pains, weaknesses, hardships, and joys.

Carrie doesn't quite have a grasp on the meaning of Easter, but she has a start. She knows who Jesus is and will point out pictures of him through the house. She has a little "Sacrament Meeting quiet book" that she likes to look at in church. It has several pictures of Christ, Latter Day Prophets, and family pictures. She repeats from memory some of the pictures like "Jesus was baptized", "Jesus says his prayers", Jesus was resurrected" (which usually comes out more like "Jesus was rested"), and "Jesus will come again". Even if she doesn't realize now what she's saying, hopefully it's a start and she'll learn as we try our best to teach her.


In the interest of being on time to 9am church, the Easter Bunny decided not to visit us until after naptime.

He brought a mini golf set! Carrie has asked for this set every time we've been to Walmart for the last month!

Getting a golf swing lesson from Grandma Lori

He also brought a super cute halter top swimming suit and a cozy coverup to go with it! Bring on the summer fun!
We hope everyone had a fantastic Easter!

Skunked, Literally and Metaphorically

Friday morning started out with Justin and a friend going"keg hunting". Every year a local radio station hides empty kegs all over the valley and if you find one, you get a prize. Some are smaller gift card type prizes, and usually the grand prize is $1000. This year was the 10 year anniversary though and therefore the grand prize was $10,000.... So Justin left the house at 3am to spend a couple of hours searching before work.

While they were out searching the washes by our Walmart in the middle of nowhere, Justin heard a rustling noise behind him. He turned around and was startled to see a skunk walking toward him. He took a few steps trying to figure out what to do when the skunk started to charge him! The only way to get back to the car was to go where the skunk had just come from. He ran!!! Unfortunately the skunk had apparently just sprayed and Justin walked through the cloud. He didn't get sprayed directly, but oh boy..... it still smelled.

Since he only had a half day at work he (and his coworkers) just stuck it out. By the time he got home at 10:30 the smell had multiplied. After two showers with a baking soda and peroxide mixture, it was better. We've had to scrub his keys, wallet, & rings especially. The stink really sticks to metal.

The day got better though. After Carrie went down for her nap, I got ready and went into town by myself to go to Target. It was awesome. I wanted to find a cute cardigan for Easter for myself and had a couple of last minute Easter basket things to get for Carrie too. The best part was, the cardigan I ended up liking the best (out of 7 I took into the dressing room) was the one that was on clearance for 50% off! Yeah for bargain shopping!

We got to enjoy a fun evening with friends at a neighbor's BBQ and went home happy.

Until 2:30 this morning.... Carrie woke up crying pretty loudly so I went in to check on her; Just as she started to throw up. Over the next three hours she threw up 6 times. And I got maybe 30 minutes of sleep. Every noise she made sounded like she was about to throw up. It was awful. At 5:45 she wanted to be up for the day and requested we watch Sleeping Beauty.
The second that was over she requested to watch Cars (which I'm pretty sure we've watched every single day this week, it's crazy!!). Half way through I looked over to see that she had fallen asleep on the couch. I turned the movie off and followed suit. Justin caught this cute picture of us when he came down the stairs later. She threw up a couple more times, but has been ok since about 10:30 (knock on wood). My parents came down for a few hours to visit, per Carrie's request (who can resist her cute little sick voice saying, "I want Grandma to come to my house...."). We've spent all day in our jammies and ordered pizza for dinner. We're exhausted. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day!

Hockey, The Finale

Well, the Coyotes season is over.... But they went out with a bang! We went to the game last night where the Red Wings swept the series for this round of the playoffs. I will now be cheering for the Red Wings to win the Stanley Cup (only because if they win it all, that means it was legitimate that they beat the Coyotes).

We got to have another fun night out with the Paynes.

The boys being grumpy at me for tearing their attention away from the game for a few seconds to get a picture

The four of us. We're smiling because at this point the game was still tied. In the last period everything tanked, but we had fun anyways! Here's hoping the Coyotes will still be in Arizona next year and we can go again!

Easter Preview

Quickly, a picture of Carrie's GORGEOUS eyes!

Now onto the Easter preview! This afternoon we got to have an Easter Egg Hunt Party at the park with our friends. My friend Jessica frequently puts together awesome things like this for all our friends. She made cupcakes and sugar cookies for the kids to decorate, and had the park table decorated super cute.

All the kids hung out in the backyard of another friend who lives next door to the park while the moms set up. We were all supposed to make our eggs specifically identifiable to our own kids either with a sticker, design, or their name. The point was in case of allergies etc, the kids would only end up with the candy their own mom packed for them. I thought it was a little silly at first, but it ended up being very fun! The kids actually had to hunt. It wasn't just the first 8 eggs you found, you had to search for your own eggs. Instead of being over in 30 seconds, it took 6 or 7 minutes.

"Look, I found a swirly one!" (her decoration)


"Easter Egg Hunts are fun!!"

Then we got to decorate and eat our delicious sugar cookies! Spreading the frosting.

Licking the knife, yummy!

The finished product. I helped a little with the frosting, but Carrie did the sprinkles all by herself!

Oh so delicious!



She finished off the afternoon by playing on the slide

Wheeee!!!

That was awesome!

Goobie

Carrie has reached another "that age" thing. She made a new friend this week. But not just any friend.... an imaginary one :)

Yesterday Carrie was checking herself out in the mirror, with her hands on her hips and Justin asked, "Who taught you how to do that?!"

Carrie turned to look at him and said, "Her name is Goobie"

We tested it out a little further last night and asked Carrie where Goobie was. Pointing across the room, she said, "She's right there!" Then we told her to come sit next to Goobie so we could say family prayer last night. It worked like a charm; She ran right over, sat down and folded her arms.

I've included a picture of Goobie below
She's pretty cute right?.... What? You don't see her? (OK fine, I know I'm not that funny)

Anyways, I've just learned that Goobie went to work with Daddy today and then she has to go to the store before she can come over to play with Carrie.... I guess that means I should go play with Carrie instead. I love that girl!