Merry Christmas from the Schumanns!

What a great Christmas we had here in Colorado. It was cold and WHITE!! It was fabulous!!! We hope everyone had a great Christmas! Santa treated us right this year.

The girls wanted a Barbie Vet Table this year for Christmas. CJ even said the blessing on our Christmas Eve finger food dinner and prayed that they would be able to have fun with the Vet Table on Christmas, it was really sweet. Well, Santa couldn't resist:

They really loved it. They didn't react quite as big as I thought they would, but they were really happy. Jersey was really happy too because she got a bunch of new chew toys for Christmas.

We started off by having our traditional hot chocolate, cardamom bread, and fruit salad breakfast. Then we divvied up the presents and started to open them:


The girls were really cute about opening their presents. They helped each other open each others presents:
And then by the end they were opening ALL our presents. I didn't open my last two or three, the girls did it for me. It was really fun. They got some new clothes, Barbie movies, some toys, books, the Barbie Vet Table, and new leg warmers (a lady in our ward that I visit teach makes these for a business and makes hats and hair things to go with):

The girls were so excited about their new leg warmers. They put them on and started dancing around like the little ballerinas they are. Spencer had fun opening his gifts too. He got a laser remote control car that drives on the walls and drives me nuts (from the girls), a remote controlled helicopter, a transformer, ginger ale, and socks. Lots and lots and LOTS of socks (he's been using mine and now I don't have any):


So he wouldn't know that the gift he was opening was socks, I put a little something in the bottom of the box that made it a little heavier:

Our George Forman Grill. He thought it was pretty funny. Among other things, I got a new stereo for our bedroom and a baguette pan so I can make baguettes and not burn towels. Also among other things, my mom got curtains for her room with a curtain rod and a light for her closet. Santa gave the family a Wii and a Wii Fitness Plus. I can't believe we have missed out on all this fun! We wish Anthony and Rachel were still here because we think they would really love it, especially the Tennis (of which I am terribly sore!). We really had a lot of fun for Christmas:

After their bath the girls wanted to go outside and play in the snow. Spencer and I had got them some long johns, snow boots, and hats for Christmas and GeeWah had got them some nice warm gloves so they got all ready:
And headed outside. Jersey had fun playing with them too:


Spencer went outside with the girls while I tried out the Wii, tee hee!! He later told me that Avary would try to do Snow Angels in the snow, but then Jersey would come and start licking her face. She didn't get a Snow Angel done, but maybe today since it is snowing again, WOO HOO!!

We fed the Missionaries last night for Christmas dinner. We had prime rib, mashed sweet potatoes, pomegranate salad (courtesy of my mother-in-law), asparagus, fresh rolls, and Spencer made a Sticky Toffee Pudding for dessert. It was so yummy! I think prime rib is going to be our traditional Christmas dinner.

Merry Christmas and lots of love!!

Anniversary, Cute Hair, Decorations, and Cake

Today is our 8 year Anniversary. It has been a great first 8 years and I hope it will be a great 88 more.

The weekend before Spencer's cousin moved away, Avary had a sleepover with their daughter, Sabrina. When I went to pick Avary up, Rachel had done her hair up really cute and matched it with Sabrina's. She told me how to do it and when I got home I did CJ's the same way. It was really fun and ever since then, I have been doing their hair that way.

Today for church, I did CJ's hair this way, but I weaved gold ribbon in with it. It was really pretty and everybody at church asked me how I did it, it was pretty funny. I meant to take a picture of it, but I will do it later.

This year we had the girls decorate the Christmas tree. Last year I vowed I would let them make all the decorations and decorate it the way they wanted to.

They have really had a lot of fun doing this. We FINALLY got it finished this last week and we put the star on Saturday night. I think it is quite possibly the cutest Christmas tree I have ever seen, they really did a good job:

The pictures really don't do it justice. You have to see it in its full glory. Anyway, they are quite pleased with themselves and I am very proud of them. I think I will have them do it again next year, we will see.

Avary had her first Birthday party invite for a friend of hers in primary. She had the party Saturday the 19th. It was a princess party and how I wished I had taken my camera. I offered to do the cake for her and her mom was very happy to hear it. She is becoming a good friend of mine, we have WAY too much in common. Anyway, since it was a princess party, the first thing I saw for a cake was this:

I was really happy with the way it turned out. I expected a silver crown, but it worked out really nice. When I took it to the party the mom and little girls were just beside themselves. I love making people happy through food!

All Is Well

About a year ago, my doctor had found a lump in my right breast. He didn't feel like it was anything to be worried about, but he wanted me to get a mammogram to be safe. I couldn't get the mammogram last year because of funds. When I went to my physical this year, he still felt the lump and still wanted me to get the mammogram. Well, after talking to Spencer, we decided I should get it done. I had my very first mammogram today. I am sure all you women who have had a mammogram can agree with me when I say it was a different and STRANGE position to be in.

Anyway, after the scan, the doctor said that the pictures look normal and not to worry, but they wanted to do an ultra sound as well to make double sure everything was OK. It is. There was nothing there. She called it, "globular tissue". Good to know I have globs in my breasts. Anyway, I thought I would let everyone know I was fine, just in case it got out that I had a mammogram. Now, you have heard it from the horses mouth. I knew I was fine, I have been promised a healthy body, and Spencer gave me a blessing last night. I never felt nervous, I knew everything was going to be fine. I am so blessed to have the blessings and faith to know if something is wrong.

Catch Up

It has been such a busy time with recovering from all the trips this last month and getting back into our routines, but it finally has happened.

My Grandma's funeral was beautiful. I love Idaho! They gave us a police escort from the freeway exit all the way to the cemetery. We were second in line from the limo and when I looked in the rear view mirror, it was such an awesome sight seeing the line of cars on their way to the cemetery. My Grandma has a big and wonderful family. Before we left, we ordered flowers to put by her casket from the girls and from Spencer and I. When we got to Idaho, I went to the florist to see the flowers. When they brought them out, tears overcame me because they were so much more beautiful than I had imagined.

This one was from Spencer and I. I wanted Calla Lilies so bad, and when we went into the viewing they were placed right by her head, it was perfect.
This one was from the girls. The ribbon on it said, "Gee Wah Great". That is what they called her. It was really special and we are so glad that we got these flowers.

They were such an awesome florist, I wanted to put them in my pocket and bring them back to Colorado with me because all the florists here suck.

Thanksgiving was good for us here. It was just us 5 here at home to cook for and even though there was only 5 of us and not as much food, it still took all day to cook! Amazing how that happens. Avary came home from preschool with a pilgrim hat. When she showed us she said that she was a "pildrum". It was really funny trying to correct her because she was absolutely sure it was "pildrum" and not "pilgrim". Anyway, here is a picture of her in her cute little hat:

She sure likes to pose, too.

Last year I made the promise to the girls that they get to decorate the tree this year. So, we are making all the ornaments for the tree. It has been a great walk through memory lane. The girls are having a lot of fun.

So is Spencer:

We are making things that I used to make as a child for our Christmas tree. We have a long way yet to go, but I think we will make it before Christmas.

In Memorium

My beautiful Grandma, Cynthia Nebeker Johnson passed away this morning around 2:30, returning to our Heavenly Father and her eternal companion. This slideshow is in memory of her.

My Grandma was the BEST Grandma anyone could ever ask for. She was the sweetest , most loving woman. She was so fun to be around. She always made us laugh, especially playing word games like Scrabble and Quiddler. She had a way of warming your heart even on the coldest of days. Words can't describe my Grandma, she is too special. I'm so blessed that she was in my life and that my girls had the opportunity to know her.

We love you and we will miss you, Gee-Wah Great!

Tyler and Shelly Olsen

We had the opportunity to go to Spencer's sister's wedding this last week in Logan. We were so happy that she found a wonderful guy to spend her life and all eternity with. He is a great guy, we met him in July I think. Anyway, she asked me to do her cake, of course I said yes, but I also offered to do 300 verrine desserts of the Ginger Pumpkin Torte that I made for my graduation. It was a lot of work, but it all turned out great.

Shelly had a beautiful wedding. The weather was absolutely perfect! It was such a beautiful day and the ceremony was even more beautiful. I found out that the sealer is the second cousin of my Uncle Gordon, which was pretty cool. Anyway, Shelly glowed! She was absolutely RADIANT! It was obvious that these two were matched in heaven. This is a picture one of my favorite bridal pictures of Shelly.

I love the whole standing on a road idea. The pictures of her dress don't bring it justice!! She looked amazing! After the ceremony at the temple we had a luncheon at his home ward near Logan. It was so yummy, though I could have done with more salad! They had us go around the room telling stories about either one of them. CJ wanted to get up and share something, so I let her. It was really sweet. She said that she loved Shelly and that she loves to read and wants to give Shelly a big hug. It was really cute. I ended up getting up to help her put the microphone down and when we were walking back to our seats, everybody started clapping. CJ then stopped and started to bow, it was really funny and cute! I think she stole the show!

They had the reception at the new Athletic Center at Utah State. It over looks the football field which was awesome because he used to play football for the Aggies. Here is a picture of the cake, you can kind of see the football field in the background.

She had seen the cake that I did in school with the chocolate drape and chocolate roses and she fell in love with it. When she told me that she was going to get married, I knew it would have a drape. Her colors were so pretty. The cake turned out really pretty. I is 98% Styrofoam. I only put in a 4 x 4 cake in the corner in the back for them to cut into.



Shelly later told me that it turned out better than she had imagined. I'm so glad that I didn't disappoint her! I really wanted to make it perfect for her. Here is a picture of them enjoying the lemon cake with almond buttercream and white chocolate fondant:

It was a really long day and by the end we were all so tired! One of us didn't quite make it back to the house though:

I couldn't resist taking a picture! She looked so sweet and cute asleep in the car holding onto her flowers. The girls really had fun and loved seeing Shelly in her "beautiful princess dress". They love their new Uncle too. Tyler is really great with the kids. He kind of reminds me of my brother Connin, I think it is the bic-ed head! Anyway, it was great and fun. Welcome to the family, Tyler!! We love ya!

Halloween and other stuff

So, I was importing pictures off our camera and it fell and bent the connectors, or something like that, and we weren't able to import pictures for a while, but know we have something so I apologize for the "catch up" on stuff.

Here is a picture of my latest cake. I did a first birthday cake for our cousin's, Oliver, birthday.

I did this the end of September. Avary had gotten really sick right before we had to go to the party so she and my mom missed the party. It was really fun, but we missed them.

Then, kind of like my other post, the weather here has been nuts! We had some pretty thick fog come in one morning.

This was taken from our front porch. I was really impressed how thick it was and how fast it rolled in. I love the fog, despite the scary movies my brothers watched around me.

We took a little trip to one of the grocery stores after dinner one day to see the new state record for largest pumpkin.

It looked so fake! It was really weird to see a pumpkin that big and pale. I expected it to be more orange. They said it was real. I wanted to touch it just in case, but it was out in the open. The girls sure loved seeing it. It weighed 1283 pounds. Pretty big!

Then the snow came in. It started Tuesday night and literally didn't stop until Thursday night. We got 12+ inches at our house. It was hard to tell because the wind blew too, but it was pretty cold and wet for a couple days. This is a drift that the wind made in our backyard.

It went all the way up over our tomato plants, or at least what was left of them. The snow even covered the flowers in the flower beds in our front yard and they are big, tall flowers! It was funny to watch Jersey go out and try to explore because she would start and then chicken out. She is happy now to have the yard back to herself.

Now to Halloween. CJ wanted to be a Dragon and wouldn't you know, just our luck that they don't have Dragon costumes for kids, toddlers and babies yes but not kids. Anyway, I searched online for costumes and I found a template to make your own Dragon costume. I emailed it to Spencer and asked him if he thought he could do it and he said he could so Spencer made CJ's costume this year and she helped. She was so excited! Every morning she would want to try it on just to make sure she didn't grow out of it over night, she is so funny!. Avary wanted to be a Fairy Princess. I found her wings and wand on sale and I made her crown. I was very impressed with out everything turned out this year. We went Trick-or-Treating at Spencer's work again this year. The girls really love going and doing that. We met up with Rachel and Anthony and their kids and went around together. We had a lot of fun.

We had missed our Trunk-or-Treat this year because we were all sick, so Rachel and Anthony invited us to theirs. It was so crowded, but the girls again had fun. It wasn't too cold.


The girls wanted to go do more so we started at a friends house that doesn't live too far from us and walked home. It didn't get too cold until we had made it home. When we got home the Trick-or-Treaters were in abundance! CJ even helped give out candy!

She had a lot of fun, they both did. The costumes were great and everybody thought so. Funny thing is, we got a lot of comments on how cool CJ's alligator, no, crocodile, no, dinosaur costume was. In what world does ANY of those have wings!!!???!!!??? It was annoying, but she loved it. At the end she even started to store her candy in the mouth, thanks to Spencer suggesting it.

Tonight we had Rachel and Anthony over for our Halloween dinner since we weren't able to do it last night. It turned out really yummy, I should have taken pictures but I didn't. We had baked bones (manicotti), garbage greens with moldy dressing (salad with blue cheese dressing), snake sticks (garlic bread sticks), blood (pasta sauce and also Hawaiian Punch), and dirt dessert (chocolate pudding with Oreo crumbs and gummy worms). It was really fun. They broke the news to us last week that they are going to be moving to Salt Lake in December. We are so sad that they are leaving. We have really grown close and we are going to miss them, TERRIBLY!

4 Seasons in a Week

So, the weather here in Colorado is always "interesting". The last 6 days, every season has been represented here in Colorado. Every morning it is cool enough to be Spring mornings. Saturday and ESPECIALLY Sunday it was summer. I think the temperature actually reached high 80's on Sunday. Monday it was a little cooler, so that would be fall as well as yesterday. Today, it has been winter. We woke up this morning to a ground covered in snow and it didn't stop ONCE the whole day. I don't think I have ever seen it snow ALL day here in Denver since we moved. Crazy weather we are having here! The girls absolutely love it though, which makes it all worth while.

Graduation

Well, I did it. I made it through college. Now, I have all the time in the world.

Graduation went really well. I was so pleased with the way things turned out for my table that I decorated. I accomplished everything I wanted to do for the table and my design worked perfectly for the size of table we were given, 6' x 3'.

So, for graduation, it is required of all the students to do what they call "Portfolio Review". It is where potential employers come and look at things that we can do, want to do, and have learned while we were in school. The school has awards for the best tables. They give one in the Bachelor's program, the baking and pastries, and the culinary program as well as all the other programs in the entire school, but I only really care and know about the culinary awards. It was my goal to get this award, I worked really hard.

Anyway, Friday the 25th was the day. Spencer went and helped me set up and my mom and cousin, Rachel, came a little later. Rachel took pictures for me. She did such a wonderful job, I am so grateful to her for doing that.

Well, here are some pictures of the stuff I did. I decorated 3 dummy cakes, had my physical portfolio there, a framed resume, the laptop showing pictures with music put to the slideshow, and two samples of some desserts that I do, a ginger pumpkin torte and my lime cake.

These are my desserts, the pumpkin ginger torte and the lime cake.


These are gumpaste Mango Calla Lillis that I made. I had a vase of 5 real ones sitting next to it to compare the likeness of them. A LOT of people approached me saying that they thought they were actually real, it made me VERY happy.


My loving and wonderful mother spent all day Thursday stringing these beads for me on wires. Thanks mom!!! Unfortunately you can't really see the beads in the pictures because of the dark background so, I will post another picture of it where you can see the beads later, we haven't gotten around to it yet. And, yes, it is supposed to be lopsided, it is called a Topsy Turvy Cake.

These are two of my good friends that I met during my last year in school. Karen is in the middle and Jennifer is on the end. They are both amazing and talented ladies, and it was an honor to have met them and to call them my friends.

Before we walked for graduation, we were told who won the awards for the three categories in the culinary area. The first time ever there was a tie in the baking and pastries. Two other friends of mine received the awards for the bachelors and the culinary.

I graduated with honors, Magna Cum Laude, and received the "Award of Achievement in Excellence in Baking and Pastries". I was one of the ones that tied! I am very happy and lucky with all the talent that surrounded me.

I am so glad that it is all done and over! I can't wait to spend the holidays with my family instead of doing homework and stressing about the next quarter of school, I am FREE!