A Sweet New Skill

When Dawson was born, I started watching TV during his middle of the night feedings. This made them much more tolerable for me since I was up for a full hour with nursing and pumping. Obviously there aren't a lot of choices on TV at 4 or 5am but there were a lot of cake decorating shows on, like Cake Wars or Amazing Wedding Cakes. I started thinking how fun it would be to do this- I love to bake. I'm also extremely meticulous and detail oriented and have a pretty steady hand. (I love cutting in the ceiling without tape when I'm painting and getting a perfect edge :) I'm not hugely creative but figured I could easily copy other people's designs.

So anyway, my mom read an article in the paper about a lady who offered classes out of her home in Ankeny- a 3 hour class for $35. I jumped at the chance and a few of my friends were excited to do it too. We had so much fun. I loved learning the techniques and even dreamt all night last night about making cakes! :) I seriously can't wait to do more and have thought of fun ideas in my head. I think my mom's even going to get me a few of the supplies for Christmas so I can get started perfecting my new skill!

Ready to begin!:

I forget what this step was called- we put a border of frosting on to keep the filling from seeping out:

The raspberry and whipped cream filling:

Putting on the "crumb coat":

Lots and lots of frosting!:


Rolling and cutting out our fondant pieces:

Decorating (we were restricted to the colors and shapes the teacher had pre-selected):

Manda's cute acorns:

The finished products (double click to see larger pictures):

I think Katie won the prize for the best design. Turns out my friend had experience we knew nothing about! I love finding out surprising things about people :) :

Got Soy?

So this is Day 1 of the No Dairy Experiment. I took Bennett to our chiropractor yesterday. He's had a runny nose for at least 2 months straight and it turned into a bad cold again. He's had a runny nose almost all the time for the last year. It'll go away for a few days or a week or two at most and then come back again. He also has eczema patches around his mouth and got it really bad behind the knees last winter. I've been putting the Arbonne baby oil and lotion on him religiously but it won't clear up. Dr. Hassel said he may have a dairy allergy and all of those symptoms are signs his body has been trying to fight something off. He said to try no dairy for three weeks and it should be obvious by then if that's what it is or not. I'd read before that eczema is usually a sign of a food allergy but I just kind of ignored it and accredited it to the dry skin a lot of the Colyer side has.
At first I thought, oh, no big deal. He can have soy or rice milk with his cereal and we'll find some soy yogurt. But then I thought about how much that boy eats cheese! Okay, so no quesadillas for a while...and then today I kept thinking of all the other things with milk or butter in it. Oh my. This may be harder than I thought! But man, if that's the answer to the eczema and runny noses, I'll be thrilled!

my guilty pleasure

Probably #1 on my list of guilty pleasures is Reality TV. Thankfully Jon loves it just as much as I do and we have so much fun watching certain shows together. One of the shows I watch religiously is Jon and Kate + 8 (No...Jon does NOT watch this one with me!!). I've watched it for years and have seen the ugly demise of their marriage. Seriously, every single episode since their separation, I'm left contemplating my own marriage and feeling SO very thankful for my husband and our relationship. I haven't had any very close friends or family go through a divorce (thank the Lord my parents broke the cycles their own parents left for them and have a wonderful marriage) so I've been hooked on seeing the ramifications their decisions have had on them and their family- specifically how lonely Kate has expressed she is now and having to do all kinds of things on her own.
Marriage is hard work. You can't just worry about your own needs and expect your spouse to feel loved or even liked. Getting caught up in self pity or comparing your spouse to anyone else's does absolutely no good! You constantly have to think about your spouse's needs and try to fulfill those and usually, you end up feeling much more fulfilled yourself. I'm so in love with Jon and he's my best friend. I'd rather spend a day with him than anyone else in the world. I love when he's home and hate when he has to leave. My heart just swells when he's playing with Bennett or holding Dawson. He's such a great dad and we keep growing and learning in our marriage. I can say with all the confidence in the world that we will NEVER have to go through what Jon and Kate brought upon themselves.

Sweet babies

Oh those sweet days when they just lay around and coo and only require a ceiling fan or light for entertainment! (Okay, there's the lack of sleep, the spit-up, nursing every 3 hours, nasty blow-outs and more spit-up but somehow this doesn't seem like much compared to the woes of toddlerhood!)

While it lasts...

Today we tried to make the most of the fall weather and went to the park. I'm not at all one of those people who look forward to the leaves changing. Its just a foreshadowing of the worst that's yet to come. I'm mourning the loss of my flip flops already. To me this is already freezing and I'd prefer to hang out indoors, but 50 degrees is a heck of a lot more tolerable than the 15 degrees that's right around the corner. Plus, 2 year olds don't notice their noses and fingers getting cold like moms do; they're just beyond thrilled to be outside, so we bundled up and went out to play.

Oh summertime, I miss you dearly.

Bennett with his pinecone, dubbed, "ice cream cone". (See?? He's dreaming of hot weather too!)

Dawson quite content sitting on the sidelines:

I had to include this one I took of my niece, Quinn, because she looked so cozy and adorable:

Trick-or-treat

We had such a fun time with Bennett on Halloween. It was just hilarious watching him experience trick-or-treating for the first time. I drove along the road in the van with Dawson while Jon took him door to door. (We tried Valley West Mall first due to the frigid weather but it was so packed, we left right away). The first house they rang the doorbell, Bennett tried to go inside. Makes sense right? I love the mind of a two year old. Why would you ring the bell and not go inside? :) Jon asked him what to say and he would say, "trick-or-treating!". And then when they gave him candy, he'd turn around and yell, "Next!" One house left their bowl of candy on the step and Bennett didn't hesitate- he grabbed the whole thing and dumped it in his bucket. (Don't worry, Jon didn't let him keep it all!) He also grabbed anyone's decorations that were small enough to fit in his bucket too.

Our little monsters:

Jon and I dressed up for a dinner party we went to the next night. My costume made a very brief appearance since it wasn't technically a costume party:) Jon was an FBI agent (our friend, Grant, hosting the party is an agent) and I was his prisoner convicted of mortgage fraud.

All the babies at the party:

Once Upon a Time...

Bennett's really into storytelling these days and its hilarious to hear his little imagination. Every story goes something like this:
"Once upon a time, there was a name named, ________. (Insert a creative sentence or two here). And every night he goes back to sleep. (Insert snoring here). The End."
Last night in the tub every story was about Jesus or God looking for monsters in a cave. I guess I haven't read that Bible story yet.

Here's another example from today: