My new hobby...

So I had been wanting to take cake decorating classes for a while. I thought it seemed like fun and something that if I practiced enough, I could possibly teach or make in the future for some extra cash. They teach classes at the craft store on BYU's campus...so I signed up for Course 1.

The first day was just an introduction. Then we had to go home, come up with an idea for frosting our cake the next week, bake and do the base frosting layer and come to class ready to practice and then finish our first cake.

Since I'm not much of a cake eater myself, I decided to make the first one for Rand.
He is a die-hard New York Mets fan.
This was my mediocre attempt at creating the logo.

After rushing in class to get this one done, I realized a few things I would do differently to make this cake better looking (like thicker orange frosting that would make for better 'stars' to fill in the logo with!) Maybe I'll do this one again sometime just so I can see the difference.

I torted (cut in half) the cake and added a fresh raspberry filling.
The cake is chocolate with a buttercream frosting.



The next week we were learning how to create flowers. I think I pulled off a few 'picture perfect' flowers, and the rest atleast still resemble a flower. I also learned that in the future I need to have a little better idea of how I'm going to create the vines.

This one is a french vanilla cake, torted with chocolate pudding in the middle,
and chocolate buttercream frosting.



I had leftover frosting from this last class and needed to use it so I could reuse my icing bags for this week. I decided to make some cupcakes for the fun of it.


My new favorite frosting tip is the 'grass' one (as you can see). It's a quick, fun 'filler'.

With all the sports and trashtalking I do,
occasionally I pull something like this out to prove I am still a girl! :o)

The girl who teaches the class is due next month with twins, so course two won't be until April. I think I'm going to get the books and teach myself...I don't want to wait that long.

Oh, and Rand loves me doing this class as well.

He gets lots of cake every week!

A new nephew!

On January 2nd we got a new nephew (the first on Rand's side of the family).

Here are some pictures of J. Nash (he'll go by Nash).

I can't help but call him Steve Nash (I'm sure I'll grow out of it though!)

He's too adorable!

Good job Jason and Marisa!

Being the first grandchild, this will be one spoiled kid!

We are super excited for when we are finally able to see Nash in person and hold him!

What else have we been up to?

Here's the first 'update':

Remember my earlier post about how my finger was just 'jammed really bad'. Well, after a week I took the splint off and for the next 3 weeks my finger just didn't feel right. As evidenced in this picture with my disfigured middle finger (the top of the front knuckle), I've broken a finger before (two actually). It really seemed to feel the same. So after Christmas (and playing basketball in Cali, getting my finger stepped on by my nephew, etc,) I decided I needed to go back and see my actual doctor (he was out delivering a baby the first time).

They didn't take new x-rays. My doctor looked at the same set of x-rays from a month before.

My finger was broken! (I knew it!)

After a new and improved splint was applied (below), and three weeks of being more careful knowing it was actually broken and not just jammed, I think I'm good.

I guess we'll find out for sure in my basketball game on Thursday! :o)

We also visited one of my good friends Kim, her husband Dan, and their new baby.

Meet Jaxon Daniel!

He just wanted to sleep the whole time...but Kim finally got him to wake up and say 'hello'.

He was so tiny and so adorable!

I also was able to briefly attend my old roommate Katie's baby shower.
I miss laughing and joking around with Katie all the time. The fun we had with our other roommates was an ab workout in itself!


Soon little Christopher (aka: Therald, haha) will join she and Kurt's little fam.
Don't worry Katie...he won't be invisible (despite what Steve says!)


Now for a random picture.

I always have my camera with me and I take pictures of things I like. I have a folder on my computer of scrapbooking ideas I like, decorations, furniture, etc. Then I can just go back to the pics to remember those things. I'm sure I look like a nerd taking pictures of these things in stores and other random places, but oh well.

Below is the table I saw at Costco the other day. This is the style of kitchen table I'd eventually like to have. It's not quite bar height, but not as low as a normal table (though I wouldn't mind a table height version.) I love that it has a leaf I can take out or put in whenever I want.
Perhaps when I have a spare $950 lying around we'll have this in our home. haha.


We attended a men's volleyball game with a few of our friends. We haven't gotten out to sporting events as much as we have wanted to. I don't have a sports pass (I was in the MBA program at the time and was in class for half the football games, so it wasn't worth buying.) And Rand is always swamped with homework. It was fun to go to the game...especially since BYU won!

Here's Jordan and Becca (lower row) and Krista and Bryce (with their little girl, Amy).


Another fun adventure: Ward Babysitting Night!

Our ward holds two ward babysitting nights a month so that those who have kids can enjoy a date night out without having to worry about finding a babysitter, or paying for one, on a student budget. We volunteered for one night with two other couples and it was a blast.
2 1/2 hours flew by!


Here is little Blake trying his hardest to blow some bubbles! Check out those lips!

The bubbles were a hit for all the kids. They just wanted to pop them forever!

The other big hit was the 'wagon'. All the kids wanted to be pulled through the halls (and some even wanted to do the pulling.) These two little girls are sisters (aren't they just so beautiful?)

Here's Tyson entertaining the troops all on his own.

I just love this picture! Look at the faces of both of them...too adorable!

Here's Ainslie getting ready to head back into the bubbles!
(okay, I don't really know what she was doing...but there were so many bubbles I wouldn't be surprised if she was getting a little wet.)

And lastly: MORE SNOW!

Yep...the snow has still been coming.

This was during the break, right after Christmas. This is what it looked like in our parking lot when I got up to get ready for work.

Ugh!
Can we atleast have a covered parking spot...is this too much to ask?!

I cry the day that I take the tree down...

Actually, that isn't true. I don't cry when I take the decorations down at all. I enjoy the Christmas season and I do love the added decor and 'warmth' it seems to bring into our apartment. But come New Year's Day for this OCD person, taking it all down is just another thing to check off my to-do list.

But, just for the fond memories and those who care, here's a look back at our little Christmas world:

These snowflakes were one of my favorite decorations. They are actually tree ornaments, but I only bought three of them and decided to make a little corner decoration. When we would chill and watch a movie at night, we'd just turn this corner light on and it would look pretty cool with the snowflakes 'falling down into it'. And yes, it is still snowing outside so these haven't been put away with all the other decorations quite yet!
I also thought I'd add in our finished bathroom (because I'm glad it is FINALLY done!)
When we were first married all Rand wanted was a tropical themed bathroom. I was a little hesitant because I didn't want pinapple soap dispensers, palmtree toothbrush holders (basically anything that screamed 'hi, I'm totally a tourist'). So he was patient while I slowly collected things that seemed a little more authentic.

Luckily Rand already had a couple things (the shell and the little island wood statues). We picked up the surf sign on our honeymoon while in San Diego from a little surf shop. With some fake greenery from the craftstore, a shelf that was 50% off, a tropical plate on clearance for $1, the cool metal palm trees (I was struggling to find a picture I liked to hang there) that was 70% at Mervyn's going out of business sale, a sweet surf-board rug his mom got for us while in Hawaii (not shown, sorry...couldn't get it all!), another little hawaiian figurine Rand picked up while in Hawaii (from Walmart of all places,) bamboo shower curtain rings, and of course, some nice pineapple/mango room scents from Bath and Body works...and we were set!

Hopefully we pulled off the more authentic tropical feel, and not a touristy over-done kind of get-up. If you think we pulled it off, you can let us know. If not...don't tell me and I'll continue to live in this "I'm pleased and DONE" world I'm living in!

California Christmas

Okay, my apologies...but this is a longer post. Mainly because there are a lot of pictures!

After a nice long drive to Sacramento (though a very clear drive despite the first hour out of Utah), we finally arrived at my parents house. Brian, Em and their fam drove the same day as us and beat us by about an hour.

First things first, Ellie and I did some Christmas Tree decorating (of the edible kind).

We also had plenty of play time with the niece and nephews. I love these kids. I just wish Hyrum was closer to us so we could see him more often!

And they loved Uncle Rand!


Ellie loves to 'fight' Rand. She's in this phase lately where he walks in the door and she is attacking him. She's one sassy little girl, that's for sure.


The little cousins having fun together in the back yard
(we all just watched from inside, we didn't want to get cold or dirty.)

One night when Bri, Em and their family were gone the rest of us were just hanging out. We realized that it had gotten pretty quiet and we couldn't hear Hyrum. After a quick search Rand found him here:

This kid knows how to be sneaky. He had the lights off and was being pretty quiet. He was using the plunger and the toilet brush to 'clean' the bath tub. Unfortunately, we had to clean it again after he was done.


One day we took a family trip down to Oakland and San Francisco (minus the kids). We first did a session at the Oakland temple. While there we took a tour of an art display that was temporarily there. It was amazing! An artist by the name of Angela Johnson decided one day, after years of opera singing, that she wanted to take up clay sculpting. She created many statues depicting the life of the Savior. Originally they were in their original form of clay, but were then covered in bronze to protect them. If you want to see these statues, you can click here

For those wondering, no Kevin is not married. This was a girl he was dating at the time who is now serving her mission at Temple Square. She was brave to come with us!


For some reason my sister-in-law loves this picture (something about not knowing I could be goofy.) They had me strike a pose because Rand thinks my bangs make me look more 'model-ish'. I think the combination of my bangs and braces makes me look more...junior high-ish!

After our day at the temple we headed to lunch and then to catch a play, A Christmas Carol, in San Francisco. It was a fun time, though I will always prefer my dad's direction of Scrooge far more than any other version (call me biased I guess).

We also took a walk down to Union Square while waiting for the show to start.
I really liked the Macy's building with all the wreaths in the windows.

Christmas Eve is always crazy. We get together with my Dad's side of the family and try to cram as many people as possible into one house. We even were missing about half the fam this year.

We had the traditional re-enactment of the nativity story by the younger cousins. Ellie was the angel and Hyrum was a sheep. (Trevor wasn't up for playing a part.)

We were passing kids all over the place because there just wasn't room for everyone during gift exchanges and the nativity.

We had our traditional white elephant exchange game. My cousin Chad got a little something that may come in handy for his return to BYU (he recently returned from his mission).
Seriously...those Axe commercials are out of control!

Kevin just had too much excitement for one night!

Here's a pic of most of the older boy cousins who were in attendance
(Kevin, Alex, Chad, David and Logan)

and of course a girl picture to match

(Sharsten, Whitney, Carlie, Lauren, me, Ashley and Courtney)

Sharsten and her 'mini-me', Eden.

I wish I could have seen everyone, but the fam is getting too big to pull that off at Christmas anymore. We'll have to wait for the next big family reunion.

And then it was Christmas day!

We woke up early to Ellie and Trevor excited over what Santa brought them. They were really good at being patient and waiting for the Grandparents to wake up (my mom needs more rest these days. I'll save that story for another post.) I didn't mind, it meant I got more sleep too.

Once everyone was up and Shaun, Lacey and Hyrum came over, the craziness began.

Here is Hyrum playing with his basketball hoop he got from Great Grandma Triano (and wearing his sweet new adidas sneakers from uncle Kevin.)

Uncle Shaun made Ellie the sweetest gift (he's handy like that!) He made her an art easle from the random wood he had at his house (cut, constructed, painted...the whole thing).

She LOVED it and spent some good time everyday after like this:

Here is Trevor with his gift from Santa. He loved watching all the marbles go through this contraption (as did his dad!)

For a few years now we have been aware of this picture that my dad just loved. After a long time searching (buying it already matted and framed is pretty steep), I was able to find the print on-line. All the kids pitched in and we got it put all together for him. For those wondering, it is a picture of Peter and John running to the sepulchre on the morning of the resurrection.
The artist is Eugene Burnand.

We think he liked it...he immediately removed a picture on the wall and hung it up.

For my mom we did a picture calendar. It took some time to make (in fact, it didn't get sent to her until recently because it didn't make the December 25th cut-off.) But it's taylored just for her with all the family birthdays, anniversaries, etc.

Following all the gift opening, the boys decided to cook some breakfast. The missionaries came over to join us, and it was pretty entertaining! In the end, we had a pretty good breakfast and only one casualty (my dad burned two of his fingers pretty good!)

The next morning they tried again and it all went much better!

Christmas evening we spend with my mom's side of the family. Unforntunately most the pictures were taken on my mom's camera, so I don't have them. I did catch this little gem!

My cousin Nicole's oldest boy, Anthony, was playing hungry hungry hippo with my dad. It was hilarious! Every time he would push the lever down he would stick his tongue out. So his hands were moving like crazy and so was his tongue. As you can see he was in major concentration mode here while my dad was cracking up as his tongue!

I love going home and seeing my mom's side of the family. It is always nice and chill, not to mention entertaining. It usually consists of us all laughing at my uncles for one reason or another. It was also Rand's first real experience on that side of the family. He's lucky...my uncles and FAR more tame than they used to be (they made heckling boyfriends of any of the nieces a favorite pasttime of theirs.)


Before heading back to Utah we made a trip out to my cousin Erins. She married one of my best friends growing up and I love spending time with them. They didn't make it to the family get-together so we got together on our own.

Erin and I had to get a picture together with our matching brace-faces!

Here is their youngest, Eli. He is too cute and such a little flirt.
He looks just like his mom (and nothing like his dad!)

Then there was Noah who refused to have his picture taken!
This kid looks just like his dad (and nothing like his mom!)

I suggested that on their third child they try going 50/50!

We had a GREAT time in California! We don't get out there nearly enough (usually just once a year). We hope to make at least two trips this year!

The drive back wasn't too bad. Luckily, again, the weather was really good. We hit the perfect days for travelling that stretch. After getting back last and having to work the next three days, I was beat. So much so that I was sick and in bed before midnight on New Year's Eve (no fun for Rand!) He did wake me up at midnight and give me a kiss...but I was only half coherent. :o)

It was a great 2008!

(this was a long post. So long I didn't go back and check for grammatical errors! Sorry!)