Cake class

As some of you know, my mom and I took a cake decorating class from JoAnn's. Well the last class was last night and it was a blast. It was four weeks long and we decorated three cakes. The rainbow cake was the first week and I didn't have enough time to do all the colors I would have liked or to make the writing or border to look good.

The next cake we did had clowns on it. This was by far the most fun. The clowns looked terrible until we put the heads on and suddenly it looked cute. I think we disrupted the whole store with our laughing. In the end, I think it turned out decent and I think it brought a smile to my brother-in-laws face (he had surgery the day before Thanksgiving - he is doing fine).

The last cake was a little challenging, but once I got the consistency of the frosting right it went smoothly. I think it turned out pretty good. It isn't professional level, but what an improvement. If anyone wants to learn some of these techniques for a cake, I would be happy to help you. It is easier than it looks!!! The hardest part is frosting the cake to begin with!

Boy, am I in trouble now!!!

My world has just changed forever and it has gotten way more difficult. I also couldn't be more excited. That's right everybody, Kasey is mobile! He has started the crawling process and I am in trouble now. He seems to want to be around Cameron all the time which may mean that he will be happy out of my arms. However, I think it will mean having to watch him every second to make sure that Kasey isn't eating some small toy of Cameron's. I also think that Cameron will have issues with Kasey touching his toys. I think Kasey may end up with a couple of bumps from this. :( If anyone has any advice how to deal with it I would be very grateful. Below are a couple pictures of the crawling & falling. Luckily he isn't very consistent yet, but that won't take long. He mainly goes backward!

100 things about me

Alright, I have had a couple of people ask me if I am going to do this so I finally decided to.

1. I was born and raised in Sherwood, Tigard & Tualatin, Oregon (in about a five mile radius)
2. I went to Catholic School for a year, then it was too expensive.
3. I did the rest of my schooling in public schools.
   I got to meet the Marc Brown who is the author of the Arthur books (I have a book that he signed)
4. I have one older brother who lives in Washington DC, whose name is Jer.
5. I played soccer for 6 years when I was little.
6. My mom was my coach for part of it and it is still one of my best memories.
7. I used to have a really bad perm when I was in 3rd grade it looked like a cross between a mullet and an afro.
8. I did gymnastics for a year or so, but my wrists couldn't handle it.
9. I was student body president my junior year of high school (I wasn't popular only eight people ran for 8 student body spots) Between the 8 of us, they decided that I was the president.
10. Because of this I planned all the homecoming activities & the prom for my junior year.
11. I did not like high school (I always related better to people who are older than me & it was way too cliquish for me)
12. This year will be my ten year reunion & I have no plans to attend.
13. I played volleyball all four years of high school & was on an all-state team my senior year.
14. I ran track for 2 years (lettered both years) and hated it (100m, 4x100m & 200m)
15. I had hoped to play volleyball in college, but half way through my senior year I tore my ACL in my left knee. I was devastated.
16. It ended up being the best thing that ever happened to me (up to that point) Instead of going away to play volleyball I stayed at home and went to Portland State.
17. I met Chris my freshman year at PSU. It was a Tuesday, we went to lunch on Thursday & snowboarding on Saturday. We have been together ever since.
18. Chris was my first kiss.
19. Chris's pinky finger is the same size as my ring finger (it made it easy to pick out the ring)
20. We have been together for 8 and a half years and married just over 6 years.
21. We went to Mazatlan for our honeymoon.
22. We have had three kids, most of you know Cameron & Kasey.
23. Laura was my first and she was born at 23 weeks & 5 days and lived for two hours.
24. My heart still aches for her everyday.
25. I got to tell Chris I was pregnant with her on Valentines Day it was our best Valentines day ever. We were on vacation in Vancouver BC.
26. Chris & I went back to Mazatlan after Laura passed to recover. We layed around the pool for a week.
27. I will probably have another child someday. (this thought completely terrifies me even though I have now had two successful pregnancies)
28. I graduated with my bachelors degree from Oregon Health & Sciences University with my degree in Dental Hygiene.
29. I was the only one in my class to graduate with both clinical and academic honors.
30. I will get my Masters degree someday.
31. I just started to take a cake decorating class.
32. I have a sewing machine, but no time to learn how to properly use it.
33. I do make pillows & simple curtains.
34. I also love to do counted cross stitch. This has come in handy with all the bed rest of pregnancies.
35. I have also learned how to crochet.
36. I have tried to knit, but I need someone to actually teach me.
37. I like to take pictures.
38. Someday I want to go across the US taking pictures.
39. Chris would go with me in a heartbeat and fight me for the camera every step of the way (he loves photography too.)
40. While I have lots of little hobbies I am a not great at any of them.
41. My two boys and my husband are my world.
42. I can't imagine having better kids or a husband.
43. I get intimidated in crowds until i have met the people a lot of times.
44. Even then I don't typically talk a lot (I am working on this)
45. I am worried nobody will care about anything I say and other people are so much more interesting.
46. I do much better in conversations when its one or two other people
47. I almost always feel completely stressed out.
48. Lately I have been taking my stress out on my Wii
49. Because of it I have bowled 2 300 games in bowling.
50. I love movies (Anne of Green Gables & Anne of Avonlea are my favorites)
51. I also like romantic comedies like Runaway Bride.
52. I like reading but never have time to get to it.
53. Once I consider you a friend I would do almost anything for you.
54. My closest friend just moved to Utah (any guesses who this could be?) I miss her a lot.
55. I love butterflies.
56. I got to see thousands of them in Costa Rica a couple of years ago.
57. I have a great recipe for apple pancakes.
58. I love to experiment with cooking (recipes are guides for me to play with).
59. My favorite dessert is Cheesecake (just plain old cheesecake no topping)
60. My favorite meal is anything with marinara, cheese, garlic & pasta.
61. Favorite restaurant is Papa Hydens on NW 23rd but I only go for the desserts.
62. Flowers in spring are the best.
63. Someday I will own some acreage (at least a 1/4 acre will all be bulbs)
64. I love roses, but when I grew up we had 80+ rose bushes and I got sick of taking care of them.
65. Now I have five rose bushes and that is all I will ever have.
66. I like art and my favorite artists are Ansel Adams, Thomas Kinkade & Monet.
67. I saw the Monet exhibit when it was hear a long time ago.
68. One of my favorite gifts I ever got was when I was in the hospital with pre-term labor with Laura and my Father-in-law, Tom brought me a little stuffed pink cat. (If you know him he is a really thoughtful guy, but this is not a normal thing for him to buy and that's why it means so much too me)
69. I have seen every episode of Matlock, Murder She Wrote & Perry Mason while I was pregnant.
70. I play golf, I'm not very good, but I still have fun with it.
71. I have a cat who I named Alley cat (called him Alley) we later found out she was a he and now we call him Al.
72. I like to sing, but I have a bad voice.
73. My favorite color is purple.
74. My feet are so sensitive that I rarely go without socks to protect them.
75. Despite that I love pedicures
76. My maiden name is Galvin
77. I am extremely competitive, except at Bunco (yeah right!)
78. I have two birthmarks on my right leg.
79. I want to have my own business someday.
80. I can't decide what that business would be (florist, photo studio, B&B and about 10 other ideas)
81. At this point I am going back and rereading everyone's 100 things for ideas.
82. I love to go to the Portland Winterhawks Hockey games, but hate watching hockey on TV.
83. I attended some classes at PSU with some of the players. One of them is now the Captain of the Dallas Stars (Brendan Morrow).
84. I really want to go to a Broadway show.
85. I am already trying to figure out where to go on Chris's next sabbatical.
86. It's hard to plan when you aren't sure how many kids you will have or what there ages will be.
87. I love the outdoors.
88. I once went on a backpacking trip & it was great.
89. Right now I am fighting off a bad cough.
90. Because my kids have also gotten this same cold I haven't gotten more than a three hour stretch of sleep since Halloween.
91. Luckily, Kasey is better, I am on the mend and Cameron's ear infection has gone away, but his cough remains.
92. I have decided to get rid of my gym membership (i only go about once a month so its a waste of money)
93. Maybe in a couple more months I will re-join and actually have time to go, or not.
94. I am excited for the holidays this year since Cameron is actually old enough to get the whole Santa Claus thing.
95. I plan on letting him decorate some cookies himself (I think I will have to hose my son & kitchen down when we are done).
96. I envy my brother's family for being able to travel so much, but with two kids and pregnancies that stop any travel we don't get to do much traveling. Maybe after we are done with kids.
97. All of our kids are named after Chris & I in some way. Camerons middle name is Christian (a combo of Chris & how we felt like he was a gift from god). Laura Kay (Kay is a nickname of mine) and Kasey Dean (Kasey is a spelled out version of my and Chris's initials K & C) We didn't set out to do it this way it just happened.
98. Some people think Kasey is named after my favorite Nascar driver, Kasey Kahne. This is so not true, but I think its a funny story.
99. We let Cameron pick out Kasey's name (we gave him a choice between Kasey & Kaleb). It made him feel so involved in a very stressed out time for him.
100. The fact that I am talking about my kids names should tell you that I am completely out of ideas, but luckily this is the last one.
     

OK, so that is a little about me. I will follow with Chris's list soon.

Halloween Fun

Our Halloween fun began with a trip to the Pumpkin Patch. We had a lot of fun going on a tractor ride and Cameron had to pick out pumpkins that were at the end of the field. Cameron didn't know what to think of cleaning out the pumpkins, but once he got his hands covered he thought it was funny for a minute then he wanted them cleaned up. He did think it was "really cool" when they were all carved and lit up.

For Halloween Cameron decided to be a cowboy and Kasey was a lion. We had so much fun at the trunk or treat. Kasey fell asleep in the front carrier by the end (it's hard to see in the last picture).