4th of July Fun and Other July Randomness

We had such a fun 4th of July this year despite not having any fireworks.  We have some friends from our ward that live on Buckley Air Force Base that invited us over for a swim and barbeque.  It was so much fun.  We started the day of with a new breakfast that I tried out.  We had these AMAZING crepes!  they were filled with a cream cheese and lemon cream and then we had strawberry compote and blueberry compote over them.  They were SO good!  Although next time I think I will make bacon to go with them.  :)

After a pure American lunch, PB&J, we went to our friends house on base.  They have a pool there so we started with a nice swim.  This was the second time we had taken Reed swimming and he enjoyed it SO much more the second time around.  We had issues keeping our hands on him because he wanted to go and swim on his own.  Boys.  The girls were so excited to get back into a pool.  They haven't been swimming for about 6 months now because of some issues with their swim school.  CJ was ESPECIALLY happy because she doesn't enjoy running through sprinklers as much as Avary does.  This was the first time CJ has gotten drenched this summer.  Sad. 

 

Anyway, after swimming we headed back to our friends house where we had hamburgers, potato salad, and fresh veggies.  Afterward, we dug into the dessert that I had made.  This dessert was something I hadn't had for years.  I kinda grew up on it.  It is something kinda like cheesecake, but it is made in a 9x13 and it bakes quicker.  It was so good.  We enjoyed some great talk and laughter.  It was really nice to just relax with some great people.

I made a cake for our piano teacher/friends baby shower this month.  This is her second baby and she is having another boy.  With her first baby I was going to make her shower cake and I got SUPER sick the day before her shower and I couldn't make it.  This time I was determined to make her baby shower cake.  About a week before her shower I sprained my right pinky really bad.  CJ was practicing piano and I lifted my hand to point to something on her page and the keys of the piano went between my ring finger and pinky and bent the pinky back and off to the side.  It hurts....bad, but I worked through it and with a TON of help from Spencer and my mom, I was able to get the cake done.



The top tier of this cake is pina colada and the bottom tier is applesauce spice cake with cream cheese icing,  She was SO happy with it.  I was SO happy that I was able to do this for her.  Spencer did the cute little fondant baby on top.  I have a GREAT husband.

For Family Home Evening this week Avary had the treat.  We had a lot of fruit that we needed to use so I kinda forced her to do a fruit pizza.  She did such an amazing job that we had to take a picture of it.



I think I might have some competition soon.  ;)  We found out not too soon after we ate it that CJ is allergic to raw kiwi.  After she ate her slice, her tongue started to itch.  I gave her some Benadryl and that helped her.  She feels pretty special right now because she is allergic to two things, penicillin and kiwi.  Avary was so funny.  After we determined that CJ was allergic to raw kiwi, Avary started complaining that her "neck was hot" and that she thinks she is allergic too.  I laughed and told her that the reason her neck was hot was because her hair was down and it was a hot day.  I told her to get a scrunchie so I could put her hair up and that fixed it.  She is such a silly little girl.  It tasted really good though!  Reed ESPECIALLY liked it.



Speaking of Reed, we have been trying this new thing with his naps.  He was starting to fight us when we would try to put him down for a nap and our pediatrician told us to just let him go until he crashes, so we have.  He has fallen asleep in the CUTEST ways!  He had slid off the Luv Sac in this one.



I LOVE how his arms and legs are in this one.



This next one is my favorite so far.



He had put his head on the pillow and was out in about a minute and had "crashed" on the sofa.  He is so stinkin' cute, sometimes I can't even stand it.  He is becoming our comic relief.  When we put the girls in time out we have them stand against a wall with their noses to the wall.  Reed has now started to go over to the wall when they are in time out and put his hands and nose on the wall standing next to them.  It is SO hard to stay serious when he whips around with a cheesy grin on his face to make us ALL laugh.  What a cutie.  We are going to have to find a different way of punishing him when the time comes because now he thinks it is funny.

June Randomness

June went by SO fast! I can't believe how fast this year is going. Reed got his first fat lip this month. He fell face first onto the floor from the couch. It didn't last very long. It was gone the next day, but it was sure sad to see him with a fat lip.



The girls had their ballet recital in June. This year, CJ was in two dances because she's taking ballet and beginning lyrical. They did such a good job. We're so proud of them both. As busy as I was with CJ in two dance classes, I can't imagine what the parents of all the others who are in the company go through. I'm glad she only has two classes.



I'm the Mia Maid advisor for our young women, and our Beehive advisor just had a baby girl. I was able to do the cake for her baby shower. It was really fun and refreshing to finally be doing a girl cake. So many boys are coming into the world in our ward! I was super happy about how it turned out.



CJ was in summer school until the end of June, and for the last day they had a field trip to the water park by our house. My mom, Avary, Reed, and I decided to meet her there, especially since it was such a hot day. This was the first time Reed has gone to the water park. It was really cute to see him explore the different water spouts. He sure had a lot of fun, and it was fun watching him have fun. CJ, on the other hand, refused to go into the water, so naturally, as her mother, I would grab her and carry her into the wettest part of the park. She laughed and seemed like she was having fun, but I couldn't get her to go by herself. Avary was completely opposite. I couldn't get her out of the water. Crazy kids. The water was blasted cold, but it felt really good.



I'm glad that we have this water park so close. It is such a relief on these blistering hot days.

May Madness

Boy, May was a busy month for us and it just hasn't slowed down yet.   I guess first things first.  Mother's Day.  I had such a great Mother's Day this year. Spencer and the girls made breakfast for me. We had eggs, bacon, muffins, and they even made their own edible arrangement for me. Better than store bought! It was really yummy. Then, after church, Spencer made cornbread, that I requested, and tried to surprise me with a strawberry cheese cake. I say "tried" because I found it in the refrigerator thinking it was the leftover fruit from the edible arrangement. Oh, well. Maybe next year he can surprise me.



Later that week, before we left for Utah for our niece Myriah's wedding, Avary lost her very first tooth! She was really excited for the tooth fairy to visit. Of course, being the first tooth, the tooth fairy left five dollars. Since then she's lost another tooth. She loves losing her teeth!



I was asked to do the cake for Myriah's wedding, which became an honor. It was such a beautiful wedding, and the bride was beautiful beyond words. I was really happy how the cake turned out.





She asked for Red Velvet cake. The top tier is all cake, because she wanted to save it for their first anniversary. Then the rest was fake except for a 4x4 inch corner on the bottom tier that they could cut into. This cake has become one of my very favorites. She also had me do 6 sheet cakes for serving at the reception.

Aside from a little dispute with an unnamed person it was perfect. Special thanks to my Aunt Reida for letting me take over her kitchen. It was fun. And, special thanks to her for letting us stay there.

When we got home, we only had a couple of days before we had the opportunity to have the Schumanns over. It was Memorial day weekend and they drove all night to get here. It was a special request by Aunt Addie to go to the zoo. This was Reed's first zoo trip. It was really fun, despite the heat. But luckily, there was a slight cool breeze to help things. The kids really had a lot of fun. It was fun to spend the time with the Schumanns. They hadn't seen Reed since last August.



May was a lot of fun!