My First Decorated Cake

My good friend Shauni Snow is a cake decorator and makes such beautiful cakes. Shauni has been so kind to make birthday cakes for Abe and myself so because her birthday was coming up I decided to venture out of my comfort zone and try and decorate a cake for her. I picked a cake from the Wilton Cake Decorating Course 1 book and went for it. There were a ton of little flowers to make for this cake and Elijah and Abe enjoyed helping me make the icing and then eating it too of course. I still have so much to learn but it was a fun project and most of all fun to make it for Shauni.

Orme Family Visit

Last weekend we were delighted to have my sister Jenn and her family come for a couple day visit. They arrived last Friday night so Saturday all the kids were excited to see each other and start playing. Jenn took the girls running (Jenn is training for a race) and Chancey, Lilah and Olivia were able to go almost a mile with her. GREAT job girls. Jayd and Jenn then continued and did a total of 4 1/2 miles. Jayd has joined the schools track team so the run was good for her. Later that day Bruno and his kids came for a visit. Drostan and Bruno then took all the kids to the Dinosaur Park in Ogden. They had a great time there. We were sure glad that the Orme family stayed with us and can't wait for them to come visit again. (It's too bad all the kids were not outside when I grabbed my camera.)

Jayd Playing Basketball

Jayd was on her church girls basketball team this year. She really enjoyed playing but we think it was the scoring of the boys basketball game after hers that she was really there for. :) Jayd's team got to the first round of regionals but unfortunately they lost. She did great at that game and I got a couple pictures of her as she played. Unfortunately my flash did not work very well but you can get the idea of how cute she was while she was playing.

Sharing A Swing

The children are really enjoying the new outside play sets that we put in the backyard. One of their favorite is definitely the swing set. With only 3 swings this means the kids need to share. Yes, mom said share. :) Jayd found a great way that she could swing at the same time as Elijah. She hooked the baby seat in higher so that she could still sit on the regular seat at the same time. Elijah now loves to swing with Jayd. Yes, Elijah is also eating "fishy crackers" at the same time as enjoying his ride.

Imaginary Friends Shirt

Thank you Mariah for reading about Elijah's imaginary friends and then sending him a shirt about imaginary friends. One of the pictures below looks like he is drugged...but we thought it was so funny that we had to include it. :-)

Our New Backyard Toys

Now that we know we are staying in our home here in Layton we have decided to get some fun things for the kids in the backyard. We already had the trampoline so we decided to get a swing set and a playground set. They installed them about a week ago and the kids are having so much fun with it. The playground has 2 towers with a 10' bridge connecting them. One tower has a ladder up to it and then a great slide coming down. The other tower has a rock wall up to it, a fireman pole and monkey bars. Under the play set was a planting area that we are taking the rocks, dirt and plants out of and filling it with sand. We are still working on that area. The swing set has 3 swings and is metal so that it will be strong enough for even the big kids. I took the pictures below yesterday. I took so many pictures that I had to make 2 slide shows. The kids were having such a great time together playing.

The Adventures of Abe & Elijah

Abe was sick last week with the stomach flu. I set up a little "bed" for Abe so he could watch TV and have his "bucket" next to him. Elijah of course wanted his own bed...so here is a picture of them together as they are watching TV.

Our sweet neighbor brought in dinner one night last week after 3 of us had the flu in just 24 hrs (Lilah, Justin and Cayr). Elijah loved the dessert so much that he kept asking for more and more. I had told him no but that was not the right answer to him. Once I left the kitchen, Elijah pulled a chair up to the cabinet and snuck the dessert. I found him hiding it from me as he was trying to eat it. See that innocent face.

Abe's pre-school is doing a month about farms. They have had eggs in an incubator for the past 3 weeks and yesterday the eggs started to hatch. I took Elijah into the pre-school and we were able to see 2 chicks that had hatched within the past 2 hours. Today we went back and there were 5 more hatched. We got there just in time to see egg number 6 hatch. It was so fun for the two boys to see it happening. The teacher took pictures of the boys holding one of the chicks that had hatched yesterday and I will post it as soon as I get a copy of it. Here is a picture of Abe and Elijah sitting in front of the "chick house" with the warmer keeping the new chicks safe and happy. It was so fun to watch the boys be so excited about this process.

Justin Factoring Elijah

It's Justin's turn to factor Elijah. He mixed the factor and did absolutely perfect on putting the needle into Elijah's port. We were so impressed with how well he did. Justin was a little nervous at first but he once he did it he realized it was something he could do again without a problem. Again, we are so very grateful for Justin and Jayd for wanting to learn how to give the infusions of factor to Elijah. We will continue to have Justin and Jayd trade off on Saturdays doing this so that they keep this skill up.

Crazy Hair Day

On Friday it was Crazy Hair Day and Olivia wanted to join in on the fun with her class. Doesn't she look beautiful!!!

Swimming Lessons

Chancey, Lilah, Olivia and Abraham have been taking swimming lessons the past 4 weeks at our city pool. They have really enjoyed it and are anxious to show everyone what they have learned. We hope to start the next classes for them soon. Here are some pictures from the last day of class. Some of the kids have life vests on due to the deepness of the area they were in and the activities they were doing.