Cake, Cake and More Cake!

Confession: I decorate cakes!

It all started when I was a kid and my Mom made all the cakes for us kids' birthdays. Next, as an adult when Paul and I lived in Utah I worked at Kencraft Candy, Inc and I decorated Lollipals. Then after Lane came along I made his first little cake and now I make one for him on each birthday. I have also made a cake for my neighbor's son for his last two birthdays and Chloe is next! I even had another neighbor ask me to make her cake for her birthday. I am by no means, a professional, but everyone seems to love the cakes and I get LOTS of compliments. I've been thinking about taking a cake decorating class for a while, so maybe I just need to do that. For now, I just wanted to share some pics of the cakes I have made.

**Lane's 1st Cake(s)...a little rough!



**Eli's Madagascar cake...Mom Frosted it, I decorated it.


**Cameron and William's Caterpillar Cakes...this idea came from their mom, Liz, who baked the cakes and frosted them. I just decorated them.



**Lane's 2nd Cake...this one was ALL my idea! (I made this one standing on one foot...literally. 7 days before Lane's party, I broke my foot!)


**Lane's 3rd Cake-Nemo...Lane wanted Nemo, so I did a little digging online and found a coloring page that I printed and traced to come up with this one. (I did this one while 3 months pregnant and nauseous!)


**Zach's (neighbor) Ratatouille Cake...That's what he wanted! I'm thinking, "A Rat on a Cake, this should be interesting!" This one I also searched online and came up with my own design. I was pretty proud of this one! If you look closely, I forgot to give him a tail. By the time I figured it out, I was too tired to care! (I did this one while 8 months pregnant!)


**Lane's 4th Cake-Bob the Builder...Found a bunch of ideas online and used a couple of them. This is a pull-apart cake, using cupcakes...very neat idea! The only problem I had was finding the Bob the Builder characters!


**Zach's Indiana Jones Cake...Found this idea online, as well. This was my first "stacked" cake and it turned out well. Next time, I will probably wait til the very last minute to decorate, though. I decorated the night before (the party was at 12:30pm) and by the time we cut into the cake, the layers were kind of sagging. I think the weight just became a little too much. It was great and everyone at the party was impressed!


That's it for now...next is Chloe's 1st Cake. I'm thinking I will make her a flower cake with pink and purple icing. And our neighbor Lexie (11) asked if I'd make her an iCarly cake for her birthday on April 26th. I will post those cakes when they are made!

Gated Community!

Well, I've been dragging my feet on this one, I just keep thinking there isn't much going on, that's why. By far, the biggest news in our little world is that Chloe is pulling up! She started doing this on Paul's birthday right after he got home from work and he was the first one to see her do it! He thought that was the perfect birthday present.
She hasn't really started to "cruise" yet, but I think it will be soon. So, now we have the living room gated off so that she can't get into the kitchen. Funny thing is, that Lane is gated in, too!
Another big development is that Lane is FINALLY riding his bike! We got his little bike for him for his 3rd birthday and he hasn't shown much interest in it until lately. Even when he would get on it he wouldn't try to pedal and just sit there and then get off after a few minutes. All of a sudden one day, he was riding! Now we are trying to talk him into taking off the training wheels. And we are thinking he may need a bigger bike soon, too! Now, if we can just convince him that he needs to wear his helmet EVERY time!

And now, for a few more pics of just everyday silliness:
**Smiling AND Crying

**Getting in trouble

**Goofy kids!

Check-up

This will be a quick one seeing how there isn't much to tell. Chloe had her 9 month check up on Thursday (2/5). She weighed in at 18 lbs 3.5 oz and she was 27 1/4 inches tall placing her in the 50% percentile across the board. So our "average" baby is growing well and is happy. She was happy that day, too until she had to have a shot...just one this time, though so it was over quickly.

She is still nursing 4 or 5 times a day and dare I say, sleeping through the night! She is starting to eat some table food and really seems to like it. She has eaten chicken, ham, eggs, bacon, pancakes, bread, cheese, carrots, potatoes, corn and peas. Oh and of course, cheerios. We tried bananas one day, but cut up in little pieces they are a little slimy, so she wasn't into it. She had a hard time picking them up.

**Poor table manners**

Seals on the beach...

There is a place nearby in La Jolla, CA called the Children's Pool. It is a little inlet that the city originally meant for kids to swim because the water is fairly shallow and it is protected by a natural barrier that keeps the surf away. Come to find out, the seals seem to like it quite a bit, too. So now people aren't allowed to swim. In fact, the water in that little spot is full of yuckies that would be unsafe to us "hoo-mans," as Lane would say. Anyway, we went to visit yesterday and it was pretty neat! It was free, too. You can't beat Free Fun. We overheard a bike tour guide saying that March is their mating season, so there would be more and more seals between now and then, so I think we might go back to see them again soon!

**I was surprised how close you could get to them...kind of scary.**

**We called this one Lane's brother. We also told him he could stay and the mama seal would bring him fish to eat. He didn't think that would be good food.**

**Walking back to the car. Lane had to climb up on this little wall...he's getting SO big!**

Another Lane-ism...

This one is just too good (and long) that I have to devote a whole post. This just happened, too so I'm trying to get it all on here before I forget.

The scene: Lane is eating his lunch and biting his cheese and crackers into funny shapes and telling me what they are.

Lane: Mommy, this is a stop sign.
Mommy: Yes, it is.
Lane: A stop sign is red.
Mommy: You're right.
Lane: Like your shirt.
Mommy: Okay, bud keep eating.

Lane eats for a while and then starts talking again...but Mommy can't really make out what he's saying.

Lane: Mommy this one is a buh-tay-o.
Mommy: A potato?
Lane: No, a buh-tay-o. A buh-tay-o, Mommy with hot water in it!

Bewhildered; Mommy stares at Lane wondering what the heck he is saying.

Lane: Mommy, you know, a buh-tay-o? With hot water?
Mommy: Bud, I don't know what you're saying.
Lane: A buh-tay-o!
Mommy: A tornado?
Lane: (sighs) A buh-tay-o with hot water.
Mommy: It has hot water in it?
Lane: Yeah, I have to show you on my cartoon.
Mommy: It's on your show? What show?
Lane: Brother Bear.
Mommy: It has hot water?
Lane: Yeah, a buh-tay-o and you can't touch it, (motioning with his hands) it has hot water going up.
Mommy: A Volcano?!
Lane: Yeah. It has hot water and bubbles. Pop pop pop.

The things this kid thinks about! I'm still laughing!

**A stop sign cracker**

Tagged by Erin...

I got tagged by my friend Erin: Post the 4th photo in your 4th album; or, if you are like some and don’t have an album, post the 4th photo from your downloads on the 4th.

This picture is from my 4th digital album and it was the 4th picture in that album. It is a picture of Paul in the back of his LAV somewhere in Iraq. The picture was taken in 2003 when he was stationed at Camp Williams, UT and the reserve unit was deployed to Iraq for OIF1. This is one of my favorite pics of Paul, so I'm glad that it was the 4th one in the 4th album.


Now, I tag Jeralyn, Kim, Liz and Tarah!

9 Months!

WOW! Time is really flying...I can't believe that in 3 months, Chloe will be the big birthday girl. She is growing too fast!

Where to begin...so much is happening in Chloe's little world that I don't know where to start. She is crawling very well these days and will follow you if you walk away. We have sectioned off the living room so that she can't get into the kitchen and I am trying to keep her area as clean as possible. I call it the "free zone" because it is shoe free, food free, drink free, dirt free. It's a work in progress, and she is still able to get herself into sticky situations.
**Chloe's Free Zone**

**In a tight spot**

Teeth are of constant concern these days. Chloe has 5 that you can see very well. Three on top and two on the bottom. Today number 3 on the bottom was poking through making a total of 6, but number 7 (which is on the top) will be poking through tomorrow or the next day. She has been cranky and not sleeping very well at night, but soon those little teeth will be here and we can use them for really important things like crunching Cheerios! She is learning to self-feed thanks to the old stand by: the Cheerio! She literally picks them up with her little pincher fingers and bites them in half and them gums them until they are soft. And don't give her too many at once or she'll put them all in her mouth! We've tried other foods, too. Just today she was eating tiny little pieces of chicken nugget and mac and cheese.
**Yum! Cheerios!**

I have been playing with her hair a lot lately. We have tried piggy tails a couple of times and they are very cute, but they do make her look very grown up. She just has so much hair that I don't know what to do with all of it. I even trimmed her bangs because they were in her eyes. The problem with that is that I trimmed them when she had the piggies in and when the piggies are out, the rest of her hair falls down into her eyes anyway. She has a ton of hair and I think it is getting thicker!
**Little Piggies - So Cute!**

**Ton of Hair**

In the past few days Chloe has been pulling herself up onto her knees. Today I was watching her and trying to get a picture, and she was trying to get one foot out to stand. No luck with that yet, but I am sure it is coming soon!
**Pulling up to knees**

Sorry, I know this one was long, so thanks for sticking with us. Chloe is just growing and learning by leaps and bounds these days and there is so much to tell. She remains a very sweet baby and her and Lane get along GREAT! We are looking forward to Spring and Summer with our two wonderful kids! In a couple of days, I will enter a post solely dedicated to Lane.

Crawling!

Chloe is finally mobile! Well, she was mobile by rolling around, but now she is crawling! She started about five days ago moving those little knees, but she couldn't quite get the arms to cooperate. Now she has figured it out and she is on the move! She is very proud of herself



Did you notice the screaming...this is new too. Chloe and Lane like to scream at each other, and sometimes its hard to tell which one is doing the screaming. Fun times!

Lane wanted a video of himself crawling, too...so here it is!
(my camera had a problem focusing)