Tractor Cake

Okay, so technically this is the 1st cake I frosted....but I didn't have any of the cool cake decorating stuff : )

November 21, 2009

This was Hunter's 1st birthday cake. He was always fascinated by tractors so this was a no brainer for me. A tractor cake sounded easier on paper. As for the creation of it... not so much. This cake proved itself to be very frustrating. For whatever reason, I completely forgot about chocolate frosting and instead started mixing a bunch of colors together. This was also before I knew about the tons of different colors you could buy in the cake isle.

I didn't really have a plan when I made this, I just sort of winged it. I baked 2 cakes in loaf pans. One is the body, one I cut in half for the cab. I made the small tires out of mini pie pans, the individual servings kind. The larger tires are frosted Rice Krispy Treats. I connected the trailer to the cab with pretzels and added a Rice Krispy Treat for the hay. I wrap a couple small items in foil to place under the tractor and trailer so they would sit up higher.

My 1st Frosting Expedition

I had to start somewhere, so on April 16, 2010 I began...This was the 1st cake I've EVER frosted. I can't say I made the cake its self, as it was sitting in my co-worker's (Alicia) freezer for half a year waiting for me to frost it. She is quite the cake-maker herself, learning alot of her skills from her mom. I am fortunate to know her (and share an office with her!) because she taught me a lot of VERY handy techniques. Kudos to Alicia for being willing to teach me! Thanks for a late night of frosting!

The Sound of Silence...

It's a little after 6:00pm and I am one happy momma! Both my boys are sound asleep in their beds. JP was out as soon as he laid down (almost!) and Hunter and I fought a little bit, but was to be expected. Silly Aunt Kim didn't lay them down for naps today so now I have the night off : ) Nothing but relaxing now....I think I may open that bottle of wine on my fridge!

Christmas is nearly here already! 5 more days! The boys and I ran out to see Grandma today really quick. When backing out of the driveway, Hunter yelled "STOP THE CAR MOMMY! STOP IT NOW!" He's never said anything like this before, much less yelled it. So I stopped backing out and turned around and asked him what was wrong. In a calm, "I don't give a $%!#" voice, he responded "Jimmy forgot his blanket and he wants it." Did JP want his blanket? No. Did he know he didn't have his blanket? No. He was too busy playing with the wipe in his hand to care about anything else. Thanks for the alarm Hunter.

Anyways I digressed! Back to Christmas. On the way back from seeing Grandma, guess who pulls up and parks right next to us at a stop light? Could have been anyone in the world, and it had to be SANTA. Yup. Some old guy in his Santa suit was driving his other old posies around in a big white van, that according to Hunter, was full of presents, when clearly it was just full of old men. So now Santa is real. And he, also according to Hunter, was chasing us down the road and then went the wrong way. The actual story? He was in the other lane and then turned, because clearly he was not chasing us. Now poor Hunter thinks Santa got lost. Even more so because when we got home, our neighbor was putting his big red X on the roof of his house...so Santa could find where to land. As soon as I got him out of the car, Hunter asked me what he [Dan] was doing. I simply told him that he was putting an X on his roof so Santa knew where to land when he comes in a few days to give him presents. Confusing? For a 3-year old, yes. He just saw him driving a van, and now he's supposed to land it on the neighbors house? Hunter's response to all this? "No mom! I just saw him! He was chasing us with presents!" Needless to say, Dan looked at us a little stange...  Oh and I forgot the most important part. Santa waved to Hunter. Ugh. Thank you old man in your van! Now all Hunter wants to do is go find Santa at Wal-Mart... Not that he's seen him there or anything but because that where he lives....or something?

Make-up and Such

Nothing terribly new at our residence. But we've been staying busy like always. 

The boys and I did arts and crafts last week. (Pictures to come soon under the My Creations tab) Where we made 3 yarn wreaths and 2 hand print wreaths. Hunter really enjoyed me tracing his fingers : )

Whatever we were doing the other day was clearly not entertaining enough for Hunter as he disappeared for a short time. He ran up to me looking like this and said "Mommy I'm pretty now!" Jimmy was obviously feeling left out so he did the same thing the next day. I have handsome boys!

This past week, Hunter was moved into a twin sized bed. Not because he out grew his toddler bed (he's only 34'' tall!) but because we're thinking about moving Jim out of his crib! I think Jimmy will take the move a lot easier than Hunter did. Hunter left his crib at 15 months. Kinda too early. We're still fighting with him to stay in his bed at night. But Jimmy overall has just been a good kid, other than his crying fits when he was 0-4months old. He's also showed much more interest in potty training. He's gone potty on the little potty a couple times (and on me once). We're still working on getting Hunter consistent. He has really good days, and days where he doesn't even try. Frustrating!


In other news, Hunter can sing his ABC's with out mistakes. We are very proud! At the end of the song, he sometimes changes the words from "and next time won't you sing with me?" to "and next time Jim can't sing with me." He's a little stinker! Jim can sing ABC before he gets distracted but has been doing very well singing his version of Twinkle Little Star. 


Right now they are at the cabin with Grandma and Grandpa Dustin. They have been anxiously awaiting their trip to the cabin and were excited to hear that Grandpa John would be there. All week they spoke on their make-shift phones (apples, blocks, crayons...) to Grandpa John. It always made me giggle a bit, especially with Jimmy it sounds more like "Papa Don". We'll be headed out that way soon to pick them up and have a mini Christmas with Gma & Gpa Dustin.

Elf on the Shelf

The past few years the holidays have been somewhat stressful for me. I've never had to worry about family traditions until I met Perry. For the past three Christmas's we have been trying to merge his family tradition and my family traditions together. Open presents on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day? My family or your family this year? Anyways, in trying to merge the two, I've been trying to find things that we can start in our family to create OUR traditions.

I've been seeing this Elf on the Shelf business fairly frequently. Its rather a cute idea. Here's the story behind the Elf on the Shelf:


   "Have you ever wondered how Santa knows who is naughty and who is nice? The Elf on the Shelf – A Christmas Tradition is the very special tool that helps Santa knows who to put on the Naughty and Nice list. This interactive holiday hide-and-seek tradition is perfect for children and families of all ages.
   "The tradition begins when Santa sends his scout elves out to Elf Adoption Centers. Waiting for their families to bring them home, these patient elves hibernate until their family reads The Elf on the Shelf, gives their elf a very special name, and registers their adoption online. Once named, each scout elf will receive its Christmas magic and become a part of the family’s Christmas each and every year.
   "Excellent listeners and even better observers, these scout elves are the eyes and ears of Santa Claus. Although they cannot be touched, or else they may lose their magic, the elf will always listen and relay messages back to Santa. Taking in all the day-to-day activities around the house, no good deed goes unnoticed; these scout elves take their job seriously.
   "Each night, after the family goes to bed, the scout elf uses his magical Christmas powers to fly back to the North Pole. Once there, the elf will make his or her daily report to Santa and visit with elf friends where they will tell stories about their beloved families, play with the reindeer, and of course, sneak some of Mrs. Claus’ cookies!
   "Before the family awakes each morning, their special scout elf will fly back to their home from the North Pole. However, since these elves like to play games, don’t expect to find them in the same spot! While some like to hide in the freezer (probably because it reminds them of the North Pole) and others prefer to sit on the fireplace mantle or hang from the chandelier, these elves love to play hide-and-seek with their families.
   "On Christmas Eve, the scout elf will listen for Santa’s bell and then fly back to the North Pole until the next season, wishing every girl and each boy a Christmas of peace and a year full of joy."


I thought this would be a fun and new tradition to start with the boys. I think I might go get one this year and introduce them to the idea, and they're still too young to fully understand anyways. And then we'll be ready to go next year!

Christmas is near!

I can't believe Christmas is almost here! Seems like we just celebrated... We took our "annual" trip to Spokane beginning of November where we shopped at Toys R Us for Christmas gifts. With the boys in tow. Also with the hopes that Hunter would forget what we purchased. He hasn't. He is quick to remind us that his guitar is in the garage. 

Yesterday I successfully raked and mowed our front and backyards (in December!?). In the meantime, Hunter snuck into the garage. By the time I retrieved him, he was standing in front of the BIG Home Depot tool bench box, nearly shaking with excitement. "Its gonna be really pretty fun mom!" This prompted me to take all the gifts inside during naptime to get them wrapped. However it didn't happen until after they went to bed. Of course, I color coded all the gifts. Hunter has the red paper with the HO HO HO all over it, simply because he'll most likely go for those ones anyways as they have large "H's" all over them. Jimmy has the green "No Peeking" wrapping. Typical because he's the most likely to peek. 

We set up our Christmas tree the other day. So far we've only had one broken ornament. I think we're doing pretty good, especially since Hunter played his version of bumper cars with the tree last night. Last year the boys received a teddy bear that reads the whole story of The Night Before Christmas. I think I've heard it about 15 times in the last 3 days. UGH. Hunter took him off the shelf the other and put him down for his nap in his room the other day. Tucked him in and everything - also instructed me to stay out cuz he was sleeping. 

This year for Christmas we are meeting up with my family at the Fairmont Hot Springs Resort for Christmas Eve. Perry and I both have to work on the 26th, so we'll be headed back on Christmas day to celebrate a few traditions on Perry's side. And to open the presents Santa left at home for the boys. They are getting the tool bench, primarily a Hunter gift, and an art easel, mostly a Jimmy gift, knowing that they will both use each. Jimmy loves to color. I think he would color all day if you let him. I actually found the tip of a crayon when he sneezed it out of his nose the other day... Hunter is also getting a twin sized bed. I bought bed on craigslist the other day. Now we just need to get a mattress for it. 

Santa made an appearance in our house 2 years ago, right after Hunter turned one. He was terrified. Luckily, I think he's gotten over his fear as he really wants to go see Santa. We're hoping to make a trip to Walmart on Saturday when Santa is there. Hopefully it goes well. Jimmy might not enjoy it so much...

Potty Time

We had lots of excitement in the bathroom today, by both boys. We're not potty training Jimmy yet, but we'll let him sit and "go potty" whenever Hunter does. This evening though he actually went! He got up and ran over to me and yelled WENT! I checked it out and it didn't look like he did so I sat him back down and proceeded to tend to Hunter. He promptly got right back in my face yelled NO! WENT! And sure enough he did....like 6 drops. It counts though, right? He was super excited! 


As for Hunter, he's pretty much mastered going potty. He occasionally still has accidents every now and again, but mostly when he's busy doing something. Otherwise he's been good about excusing himself to go to the bathroom, and staying dry at nap time. 


The first time Hunter pooped in his potty, we had Grandma over for her birthday dinner. Hunter excused himself to go potty and then came back to dinner. 10 minutes later he excused himself again to go potty. Once he's done he's sure to yell "I just went potty!" And this time was no different. Perry went to help him clean up. As soon as Perry open the door, Hunter announced again that he went potty. However, Perry was quick to correct him when he stood up, so he then VERY proudly announced, with very big eyes, "I went poop!" 


The second time was fairly similar, as was the 3rd except he went on the big potty. Today however he told me he had to go poop so he let himself in the bathroom and shooed me out. I went back in to check on him a little while later, and he announced to Jim and me that "I just went poop!" He stood up to show me and then with a huge smile and big eyes looked at the potty and then looked at me and said "a really big one!! Now I get oreos!" Jimmy meanwhile was in the hall yelling "High-five, high-five! Knuckles! Knuckles!" So as soon as we left the bathroom Jimmy was handing out high-fives and knuckles (the exploding kind!) to Hunter. They were both super excited about the dump Hunter had. : )