Never Alone...

Life honestly hasn't been as bad as I thought it would be with just the younger 3 at home! Seattle is still a handful...but atleast she absolutely LOVES her little sister. If I ever put Berlin down...even for a second...the other 2 are glued to her side! You can see that Seattle was in the middle of putting yet another shirt on...and was willing to put that on hold to be near Berlin!

Some times she wants to help a little TOO much:)

There's never a dull moment...

Boston Turns 8!

I can't believe Boston is already 8! We asked him what he wanted to do for his BIG birthday...and he said he wanted to invite his friend Jake over. So we started celebrating on Friday, when Jake came over. They had a fun time swimming and playing Wii most of the night...before crashing. (They told me they could stay up ALL night...but lasted only until around 11. Whew!)

Then on Saturday morning Phil went and grabbed the greatest donuts in Arizona, (RAINBOW DONUTS) for breakfast before taking the boys to the movie theater to see "Shorts"...an animated movie that they both REALLY wanted to see.

Then the REAL birthday fun began this morning, when he woke up to homemade waffles from his momma! (He usually wakes up between 5:30-6am so this was not a very easy surprise to pull off!) As you can see...he's still a little sleepy!

I asked Boston what he wanted for dinner...and he requested homemade chicken noodle soup. (Phil thought that was an odd choice for such a hot day and tried to convince him to change his mind...but Chicken Noodle Soup it was!) We just cranked up the A/C...so it felt a little chilly!

I wish I had taken more pictures! I'm not sure what I was busy doing??? Ha Ha!
I wanted to try my new chocolate truffle cake recipe with a "Mad-Hatter Cake" style (looks like it's going to fall over). As you can see...I did it with just a 1/4 of the amount of cake you're supposed to use...and Boston REALLY wanted me to include whipped cream on top...When you add all that up...it comes out looking like THIS! Not the prettiest cake in the window...but it tasted pretty AMAZING! Yum Yum! He was EXCITED about it...so I guess that's what counts the most, right?!

He got some sweet new pool toys, including a "sub skate" which all the adults had fun with too! Poor guy, I think he was taking turns with US on HIS new b-day toy! We're such jerks! Note to self...we need to get a few more of those things!

After the swim fun, we took the party out front for him to try out his new "Rip Stik" scooter thing. It looked sweet, so we thought he might like it. He seemed to love it and it looked pretty easy, so again, all of us adults HAD to try it too! We all looked like THE biggest bunch of nerds...riding down the sidewalk shaking our hips back and forth to get the thing to go! Ohhh, it was soo much fun. Sorry there isn't any video footage! IT was the PERFECT ending to a PERFECT birthday weekend!

Day of the Party...

Even though it was a lot of work...we had a ton of fun!!

Here's my "Betty Crocker" pose while I'm "ganaching" this cake...
Dark chocolate ganache over chocolate cake with a light chocolate whipped filling.... Here's where our flames came into use! They turned out pretty cool looking on the cake!
Shavonne turned Walmart's $0.98 birthday numbers into "Harley Numbers"! Ha Ha!
We made a sweet cupcake carrier out of a box...
Here's our finished cupcake! Picture 21 of these beauties on leveled stands below our cake! (Shavonne has the "finished" look...at the party on her camera.) I'll add them when she sends them to me:)

So after a ton of fun...And a few mistakes...It was time to celebrate...because WE were DONE!!!

Busy in the kitchen...

Shavonne's brother-in-law is turning 35 on Saturday and his wife asked Shavonne if she would be able to make some cakes. Originally she was just supposed to BAKE the cakes and bring them to the party to be frosted...but plans changed when the host thought she'd be too busy to worry about the cakes and was going to order professional cakes to be delivered instead. Shavonne was at my house at the time and happen to drop in "casual conversation" that we'd be happy to make the desserts and do our best to fit the "Harley Davidson" theme of the party. We both knew pretty much immediately that we had our work cut out for us...

So we started brainstorming and came up with the idea that we would bake 1 cake and 21 cupcakes. The HARD part was coming up with how we wanted to decorate them...

We started early because we knew that with 8 kids between the two of us...we'd have a LOT of interruptions! (Luckily, I have a few great helpers!)

We bounced ideas off of each other and within minutes had our vision...

Here's Thursday where we put our idea of "flames" into motion...we weren't sure if they would actually work or not, but they DID! (Lot's of things look great in your head...then fail miserably when put into action!)

Then on Friday...we started baking, filling, and roughly decorating the cup cakes!

We first made a bunch of these "hotties" to wrap around the cake and top the cup cakes...Then we created our chocolate "Harley's" to also go on top of the cupcakes...(Greg was a HUGE help with this task!)

Shavonne re-created this logo for the top of the cake! Doesn't it look sweet!?!
Here's our Rough...Rough draft of how the cupcakes might look. The patient husbands were begging to taste test...:)

Hospital Gown

My sister Shavonne is soo talented! She has this gift of being able to create something sweet...from just a vision! Her friend Stacy is pregnant with her second girl...and Shavonne wanted to send her something cute for the hospital. So she made this hospital gown for her! Isn't it cute? She made sure to make the back accessible for the epidural and the front available for nursing!! I think it's flipping adorable...and am a little upset that she didn't have this vision sooner!


It went longer in the back...diva style!

One Last Goodbye...

Our good friends Sandy and Spencer and their 3 sweet kids are leaving Phoenix:( They've been really great friends and our kids all got along perfectly!! We are sad that they had to leave...but are REALLY HAPPY that Spencer's done with school!

Sandy had to drop some stuff off on their way out of town...so I snapped a quick shot of Maddy, Talan, and Madison. For some reason Madison was in a bad mood and refused to look at the camera:( Phil took the older 3 over to their house in the morning before school and I heard Boston was really concerned about being late to school...so he asked if he could just say "Hi and Bye" really fast! What a kid...they have no concept of goodbye...I kind of wish I didn't either:)

Having Fun!

It's been so much fun to have Shavonne close! Madison, Haven, and Seattle are all 1 year apart from each other...in that order! It's so nice to have the cousins play together!!! I wish there was one place we could ALL agree on being the perfect place! For now I'm happy that I have a sister close!!

The best thing about sisters...is you can say ANYTHING...and it doesn't matter how random it is...because we know in the end we won't be judged! That being said...we were all at "Fajitas" (a restaurant in Phoenix) eating dinner when Shavonne so calmly says, "If I ever have to have a cane, I think I would do something like that." WTF? I look up and she's staring at a woman behind me...who let's just say has tried to make her "cane" cool?! I was laughing sooo freaking hard, partly because I can actually picture her doing something like that someday...but way cooler!(no offense nice lady.)

Don't worry we snapped a picture so you could see too! LOVE YOU SHAVONNE!!!! But I really am NOT looking forward to us getting old!!!

Back to School!

I can't believe summer's all ready over! It really does fly by! As sad as it will be to have my oldest helpers back in school, I'm looking forward to it! Phil took them to school today, so I gave him the camera! I'm just glad he used it:)

Brooklyn is in 4th grade this year! I can't believe I have a 4th grader!!! Yikes! I'm excited that her teacher is Ms. Ulmer and she seems like such a sweet teacher to have! She has really cute hair, cute clothes, and seemed really down to earth when talking to the kids! (I guess she reminds me a lot of myself LOL!) They also have a class pet hamster, named Zoey, that Brooklyn is pretty excited about!


Boston is in 3rd grade! His teacher is a little more on the shy side, but seems really nice! I hope this year goes good! He still needs a lot of motivation in school...he's easily distracted:) It seems like his teachers always start off being questionable...and end up totally surprising, in a good way later on! So let's hope she will too!
Paris is in 1st grade and has Ms. Sindle this year! She seems like a total sweetheart! She told me that she used to go into Brooklyn's class when she was in 1st grade and just loved her! I think she'll be great! Paris is so excited to start 1st grade:)


While these guys are at school learning something creative...Madison and Seattle are home being destructive! It's a good thing that was ONLY my ESTEE LAUDER MASCARA!!!! Not my NICE Cover Girl HA!!! GRRRRR...Mommy's fault for not putting it completely OUT OF SIGHT!!
Notice the small clean area directly around her mouth....

There we go...now you can see the complete picture! Shavonne reminded me that it's better than permanent marker...so I guess there is a bright side to this story:)

Kids Vacation...Part 2 (Lake Don Pedro, CA)

One of Nana's FAMOUS breakfasts on the front of the boat! Anyone who's ever been to visit on the lake...knows that you will NEVER leave hungry...and it STARTS with breakfast! (See the whipping cream and orange juice?! Sooo yummy!!!)

Yay my mom and dad just sent me their pictures from the week the kids were down there! So I thought I would add the pictures so you can see how much fun they had!

I was told that Boston and Paris LOVED riding over the "double ups" on the tubes! (Not the tube shown...) I'm not sure where the camera was on those shots! We call it "Tube Wars". My dad circles around and makes these huge "double up" waves and then takes (usually all the big boys) over them (there's usually 2-3 tubes out there at a time) and you see who can hold on for the longest. I've done it...but I'm not really a fan. My dad said that Paris got about 4 ft above her tube at one time! Then I heard that Boston's tube flipped over somehow and my dad was worried that he would be freaked out under the tube...but as soon as my dad killed the engine...Boston came out to report that he could still breath because there's an air pocket in the tube! Ha Ha! I can't believe how old he's getting! I would have freaked at his age...heck I still freak! If a tube starts to flip...I bail!!! There's no way I would actually hold on underneath! I think it's a guy thing?! (sorry if any of you girls are hard core "tubers"!)

This is more my style of riding! My mom has the right idea too...you take small kids for insurance! MY dad gets a kick out of making what is supposed to be a nice straight ride into a curvy and bouncy one...so this is one ride we actually want kids to come with!

Madison LOVED Barkley! (I heard they all did, but this is BIG for Madison)

(Shavonne and Greg's dog, Barkley. He's on vacation too!)

Boston getting a feel for the wakeboard...unfortunately there was a knee-boarding trial...that went wrong and spooked him into being afraid to try wakeboard this year...maybe next year.

Gotta LOVE the paddle boat!
Papa taking Boston down the slide off the back of the boat!

The best thing about having their houseboat on the Marina...no mud, goo, slush, weeds, or rocks to wade through when you want to go for a swim! You just jump right in!

Follow the Leader

Brooklyn brave enough to be towed VERY slow! She's our cautious one:)

Nice rope wrapped around you guys! This is one of the "classic" middle of the lake swims you HAVE to take when it starts to get hot! Madison just told me, "Mommy I didn't like that water. I'm scared of the fishies kissing me." I'm with her! I don't think my legs EVER stop moving when I'm in the lake!!!

I think this says it ALL it was a FUN, EXCITING, and EXHAUSTING week for EVERYBODY!!

Thanks Mom and Dad for having them! They had a blast! I loved getting to hear ALL their versions and stories! It's so cute:) They'll have THE BEST MEMORIES!!!