May 7th, 2011
My pastor and his wife recently celebrated their anniversary and their children had ordered a cake from me. At first I was going to copy their original design but it took a while for the kids to get a picture for me of the cake. They had to sneak around when the parents were not home and they were always home when they had time to sneak around. So we went with the colors that were on the cake and turned it into a modern design. So to go with the baby blue theme I made this cake for them.
It was a nice surprise for them and it brought back memories of their big day. Minus the blue tuxedo. 
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May 4th, 2011
Even though Rob has been out of the military for a while now he still keeps in touch with those he was close to. Having the technology like we do these days helps out a lot.
Dan was on a business trip here in the Austin area and decided to pay us a visit. It was short notice so I had to work but before I left I made Rob and him some crab enchiladas and other favorites. Rob and Dan spent a few hours catching up and Dan did mention plans on bringing the rest of the family to visit the next time he is in town. So Dan, make any plans yet??
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April 24th, 2011
Rob has been calling it a pillow skirt. He is pretty close, I used a vintage bed sheet. I had the sheet for a while wondering what I was going to do with it. Hmm, I think a skirt would look great. So I got the pattern, cut the pattern and fabric out and started to sew the layers together. The thing is, the skirt I was making was meant for me to wear. Some how when I was sewing it shrunk? I didn’t keep my seam allowance the same? When I tried the top part to the skirt it wouldn’t go over my hips. NO COMMENTS! Now what??
Emily started to ask for something for Easter to wear and I thought my skirt would be perfect! I made a few adjustments and added some elastic on top and it turned out. Emily loves it, so much that she has been wearing it non stop since Friday!
I know I shared one picture of the skirt in the Easter post but here are some more. These were taken before I fixed up her white shirt.
Emily you call that a smile, you could do better than that!!! Your eyes are closed!
Well how is this mom? Better??
Fine I will just take a picture of your skirt, so there!
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April 24th, 2011
The Easter bunny left his jelly bean trail once again. He likes to go from the kids bedrooms and he trails jelly beans to their baskets. He gets trickier as the kids get older and hides those baskets in areas where they are hard to find. Doesn’t help when it seems like he has a few different trails leading in different directions.
He placed the baskets UNDER the dining room table, crazy Easter Bunny. Wonder where you are going to put them next year. Since they are older I suggest hiding them in a spot where they take a while to find!
After the kids found their baskets and we had breakfast, Em put on her new skirt I made her 
we headed off to church to watch an Easter play, it was great!
Since another shift who isn’t a parent was able to work for me today I was able to spend it with the family. I was unsure if I was going the day off or not so we didn’t make any big plans. So we had a very relaxing stress free day. Hope you all enjoyed your Easter!
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April 23rd, 2011
Ever since we lived in Washington we have been making these bunny biscuits, Rob’s sisters also grew up making these. Maybe in a few years my new nephew will start making his own biscuit bunnies too.
When we were ready to assemble our bunnies Emily commented on how much she has grown. She remembered having to use our step ladder/stool to be able to make her bunny in years past. Now she is big enough to do it without the step stool. Growing up way too fast it seems at times.
For each bunny you will need two Pillsbury biscuits. One for its head the other cut in half for its ears. 
You will also need a cherry for it’s nose, sliced almonds for it’s whiskers and we use chocolate chips for its eyes. My step mother in law Debbie uses raisins, either or works fine. We just don’t like the taste of raisins, if Andrew had his way he would turn his bunny into a spider bunny so it would have a lot of chocolate chip eyes.
Rob let the kids decorate his bunny, so its eyes are on its ear and it has some almond hair and teeth as well.
Time to go in the oven to cook! We cant wait..
You will also need a tub of white frosting. Once you remove the bunny from the oven put a little bit of frosting on the bunny and let it melt.
Once cooled, enjoy!
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April 21st, 2011
I got up early to help out with Em’s class Easter Egg hunt at a local park. Since I had to go back to the school later on for the Kindergarten Egg Hunt I offered to drive the lunches, water and ect. while the kids walked to the park. This is a public park and the eggs were hidden in the grassy areas, what tease for families with little kids who had to walk by the eggs to get to the playground.
and they are off…..
Nice hair Em but the bubbles are cool.
With her good friend Amy
Time to hurry back to the school for the Kindergarten Easter egg hunt!
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April 18th, 2011
Since there was a need for volunteers to go on the Kindergarten Field trip I offered to tag along. It was a bit too hot and at times hot enough for the kids to ask if they could go back to the school. You know it is hot when the kids ask that!
Now if I could get rid of that big tree in the middle it would have been a better picture of downtown Austin. I need to go back and take another picture, in front of the tree.
The field trip was to Zilker Park, it is a wonderful park in Austin. It has a big playground, a natural spring swimming pool, a nature center, botanical garden and this is where we go for our yearly musical in the park each summer.
At the nature center they have a few wild animals that have been injured and may not have survived in the wild.
Some random pictures of the kids:
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April 17th, 2011
Emily decided that she was ready to ride her bike without the training wheels. So off to the school we went so she would have a open field to practice in.
O.k. Emily this here is your bike.
This is the seat on your bike. You sit here.
This is me pushing you helping you balance and steer straight.
This is you not going straight.
This is you smiling trying to ride your bike.
This is you screaming that you want your training wheels back on.
Oh well, maybe next time.
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April 16th, 2011
Just two of my cakes I have made recently.
This smaller one was made for a coworker Jessica for her birthday. It was about 10 inches or so high, just enough for her family of four to enjoy.
This cake was made for Amanda, the youth pastor’s wife who is due with her second boy very soon! Cant wait to meet little Gabe.
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March 27th, 2011
I have had a few people ask me how to make these. I found out how to make them on the website Bakerella this site has tons of cake pops, cake balls and other amazing creations in so many different shapes, themes and ect. I took a different route and just kept on testing different flavors for the cake bites, I use cake sprinkles if I want to do a theme.
I use a regular cake mix, Betty Crocker in fact. The flavor depends on what I am making at the time. Today we are making some plain chocolate ones.
Just look in the back of the box and follow the directions. Sometimes if I am making say for example Key Lime Pie I use a white cake mix and instead of the water I just use key lime juice. The cake doesn’t rise as much as it would if you used water but that doesn’t matter. Want to know why?
You are going to tear that baked cake into a bowl and then you add some frosting from a tub. I use about half a tub for each batch of cake. Mix the frosting in really well until it turns into play dough consistency.
You don’t want to put too much frosting you could always add more if your mixture is too dry. You will then grab a little bit of the mixture at a time and roll the mixture into a little ball. I could get at least fifty or so cake balls from one cake mix. Enough for you to eat as you make the cake bites, enough for family to eat as you make cake bites and have a little bit left over to share with friends. Once you got the mixture all rolled up place them in the freezer to harden up. If you don’t freeze them they tend to fall apart when you dip them later in chocolate.
Now you need some chocolate coating to dip the cake bites in to. Here are three examples and I have used all three and the best one to use is either the melts and the candiquik. The almond bark works in a pinch but it doesn’t set up the same every time. With the other two I know the cake bites will turn out with a thin coating and little to no lumps.
Melt the chocolate into a bowl and grab a fork. Put a cake ball into the chocolate and take it out with the fork. Tap the fork against the top of the bowl to get the excess chocolate off the cake bite. Place the cake bite on wax paper to set up, I ran out of wax paper and used plastic wrap.
Ta Da…. you now have your cake bites in the mini cupcake liners with a few sprinkles all ready to be eaten. 
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