The Morris Family

μαραθώνιο

2011-09-20T19:42:00.000-07:00

There she is folks, my HAWT wife ran an entire marathon this last weekend. Despite waking up at 3 AM, driving for an hour and a half to reach the starting line, waiting in line for 30 minutes to used the port-a-potty on the top of the mountain, getting rained (a lot) & hailed on, having a hurt knee before she even started, she still did it. 26.2 ridiculous miles.

I'm really proud of her. Watching someone prepare for a marathon is a pretty inspiring thing to witness.

I love you hot wife!

Treasure Hunting and Farmland

2011-07-31T21:25:00.000-07:00

Since the snow all melted in April, I've really come to enjoy the quaint and run-down places that are everywhere in Idaho. I find it all very charming. Just in my little 30 minute drive from here to Rexburg, there are all kinds of deteriorating barns, adorable white farmhouses, tons of rolled up hay bales, ginormous tractors rolling around on the street like it's nothing out of the norm, and even some cute antique shops. I've been taking a few pictures, but it would be so very fun to get a nice camera and take a day to photograph it all.

When we moved to my grandma's old house, I decided to go through the pasture (picture above) and the sheds to see if I could find any hidden treasures. I started at this shed...

and I ripped off the door... which, if turned sideways (and cleaned up a bit), I think would be a really fun headboard.

I also just really like the wood on the shed...

It would be fun to cover a wall in a house with it, just to add some character, similar to this...

photo via The Lettered Cottage

Then I went and looked through this old shed...

and found my mom's old saddle and stirrups, fun! It made me wish I had a horse.

I like chestnuts, like this one.

She's beautiful. Being in Idaho has always made me want to have a horse. I've never really wanted one anywhere else I've lived. Maybe that's because I grew up associating Idaho with my grandma's horses.

Anyway, I digress. I looked a little deeper in the shed, and I found some vintage skis.

Cleaned and stained, I think they could be fun.

I finished up looking through some other old sheds and places I used to play as a little girl. I didn't find much else, just lots of fun memories.

It's been fun to re-visit some of my fondest childhood memories. We like living here, although we're aching to feel settled again (we'll only be in this house until January). We're trying to decide whether to build or buy, stay in a neighborhood or go a little more rural. Save for a nice house, or buy a fixer-upper and go all DIY on it. Any suggestions??

I'll be back soon-ish with family pictures, we've been doing so much that it's hard to get it all in one post :)

Potato is to Idaho as Summer is to Sunshine

2011-06-12T06:38:00.000-07:00

Ok, so obviously, a little time has past since my last posting. But the blog is still looking better than the time gaps between my journal entries, so I'm feeling pretty good about things.
In the past couple of months, we've moved, put together a huge dessert table for a wedding, finished a tax season, adopted a cat, watched a ton of basketball, started marathon training, taught the kids how to swim, and celebrated a birthday.
First up, my family's cat decided to start a family, and in early April, the little rat-like looking things were born.

Fortunately, it only took a couple of weeks for them to start looking like cats, and the kids loved every second of it.

If you want to see the most hilarious video ever about cats go here... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTTwcCVajAc&feature=player_embedded
Hilarious... and pathetic. I truly hope she finds her soul mate.

Over Easter we went down to Vegas. The weather was great and the people were better. We had a blast. So did our bank account.

Ashton's favorite part was the ride home.

The whole thing just wore Hallie out (sweet keyboard, yeah?).

At the end of May, we made the move to Idaho Falls. I miss being so close to my sisters, but it's reeeeaally nice to be able to be any place I want to be in about 5 minutes (as opposed to 40). We took one of the kitties with us, and she loves the new pad. She sleeps with Hallie at night and likes to snuggle right in.

Then in June we decided to go up to my grandpa's cabin with Stu's family. The weather was surprisingly good up there. We fed the fish, tried to catch the fish, played games, shot some soda cans, rode the four wheelers and ate a lot of food. And we slept in a warm room on a bed... my kinda camping.

Since then, we've just been trying to get settled in, figuring out what we want to do with the rest of our summer, and just enjoying Adam being home (this is the first time in our six years that he's come home and hasn't had to study for something).

We hope everyone else is enjoying their summer! We miss all of you that are far away. Hopefully you'll hear from us again sooner than later next time around :)

Since January

2011-03-10T21:09:00.000-08:00

Ok I got all my pictures!
So in January, I got to make a cake for my cousin's wedding...

Everything was pink at the wedding, super feminine and therefore super fun. I like girly :)

Then it was Hallie's 4th birthday. Grandma, Grandpa and Uncle Jake came into town and we had a great day together. Hallie was definitely princess for the day.

Oh yes... and Ashton knocked out his front tooth. He looks a little homeless, but I find it kind of endearing too. Here he is on his first tie-wearing Sunday ever.

Then in February, my brother turned 12, so for his birthday present, I made him a basketball cake and jerseys with all his teammates name and numbers. It was a big hit with the boys :)

And Hallie and Tate hammed it up at the party.

I haven't really taken any pictures since then, but we're doing well. We joined a gym and the kids ask to go swim there like 12 times a day. I've started running again and plan on running either the St. George or Santa Barbara marathon this year (I would prefer the SB marathon, although the timing isn't superb... but a marathon along the coast?? How amazing would that be?!).The weather is kinda sorta starting to warm up, so maybe the snow will be gone by the end of April :)

Adam keeps working like crazy, we miss him, but I'm just grateful I have lots of family to keep me company. And a job. Definitely grateful for a job.

We'll be moving to Idaho Falls next month, which is warmer and not so windy. Better for us thin-skinned folk :)

A post is coming!

2011-03-07T21:13:00.000-08:00

I promise to get a real post up this week.
I've been trying, but every time I sit down to do it, I realize I need Adam's computer, it has all the pictures.
But Adam isn't here much, so I have very small windows of opportunity to get it done.
I thought a few times about just writing up a post without pictures, but those aren't much fun.
I thought about boring you with my unusually-strong-for-a-female-feelings about Brandon Davies or the Heat's failure to win any big game (which I'm actually glad for, those boys need some humbling) and just loaf around when they have huge leads to end up LOSING again. lame.
But most of you don't care about what I think about basketball (I get my unusual female obsession from my dad).
So instead, I'll just promise you a good ol' post with pictures and no ranting in a few days.
And remind all my Vegas friends that I am only 6 weeks away from being with you...
and I'm sooooooooooooooooooo excited :)

As I type this, my fingers are falling off

2011-02-06T21:31:00.000-08:00

Lately we've been seeing a lot of this....

And you may be thinking, oh, it's so pretty!!
But then you get more, and it looks like this...

Not so pretty, or fun.
Then you get more. So much, in fact, that you could build this...

if your hands didn't fall off in the process of making it.
Not to mention, we've been seeing a lot of these...

This is Adam, standing next to the hill behind our house.
ok not really, but basically.

And this is what really happened just last week.

yes, that's a -21 on there. That's the temperature it was when I woke up. So cold that your breath freezes while it's still in your nostrils. So if you're out for more than 30 seconds, you're basically dead.

And this is what I've been doing with my husband a lot lately... (I'm the one in the white hat, he's on the boat).

Thank you tax season and CPA tests.

So I'm ready for a vacation.

But I don't foresee one anytime soon, so I guess in the meantime, I'll consider building my next house like this...

It IS completely made of snow.

Until it starts to warm up and we can feel our extremities once again :)

We're Alive!

2011-01-21T21:09:00.000-08:00

I know it's been a loooooooooooooong time since I last updated. We've had quite a lot happen in the past couple of months. We put our house up for rent in Vegas and found great renters fairly quickly. Then we packed up and headed to Idaho at the beginning of December, just in time for it to turn freezing cold!
We had a very busy but wonderful Christmas. We unpacked, I was able to help create a hot chocolate bar for the business my dad helps manage, and then we built a kitchen for the kids for Christmas.
Then in January I made a wedding cake for my cute cousin. I also put together a fun little dessert table for Hallie's birthday (she turned 4!). Now I'm just trying to catch up on everything... like the blog :)
It's been fun to live by my family. The kids love having cousins to constantly play with, and I like having the company while Adam works late hours and studies. My sister and I have been taking watercolor classes together, too. It's been wonderful, so besides the weather and missing some great friends, I really can't complain about living here.
We're really looking forward to coming down to Vegas in April to thaw out. We can't wait to see our friends and visit the ward again. We miss it!

first snowman of the season

the famous blank-stare

little mary...

smiling... or grimacing??? at her baby

christmas eve par-tay

the christmas day princess

ashton getting ready for the snowmobiles at the cabin

Friends and random pictures

2010-11-14T21:36:00.000-08:00

Please excuse the puffy hair... I hope my hair doesn't always look like that :)

We've been crazy busy lately. Trying to get ready for the move, tying up loose ends, fixing up the house a little, making sure it's ALWAYS clean for potential walk-throughs, Adam's test (which has become a four letter word in this household) and trying to hang out with friends as much as possible before we go.
I prefer to accentuate the positive where I can, so I'll talk a little about hanging out with the friends :) On Thursday my friend Staci and I kissed the kids goodbye (except her baby) and went to Primm for a shopping spree of sorts. We had mega discount coupons, so we did some pretty good damage there. There's just something about shopping... it's liberating, isn't it?
Friday a bunch of us girlies took the kids to a mega-inflatable mecca. They loved it. Why didn't these places exist when I was a kid??
Saturday we went out to dinner as a last hoo-rah. Chelsea is probably leaving us this week for St. George :( Chrissy and I will move right around the same time. It's crazy how 3 of us are just leaving... boom... like that.
I plan on visiting often. As often as I can. I'm sure we'll be real sick of Idaho's weather come April, so we may make the journey right after tax season.

P.S. Sorry I don't have pictures of any of these events, our camera is slowly slipping away from us and will soon be in a better place. We hope to be getting a replacement at Christmas. Since no post is complete without a few pictures, here are a few random ones from the last few years that may put a smile on your face (or say what the heck?! Ashton was HUGE). Because it's good to walk down memory lane every once in a while.

Humungo Ashton

Baby Ashton... I love all his blonde hair... he was such a cutie!

Hallie around 18 months or so, love the piggies.

Hallie and Tate... about 18 mos

Hallie's Blessing

Hallie got a little cold, so Daddy let her borrow his sweatshirt.

And then the crazy couple. Shortly after the wedding. It looks like I married Barney Fife.

Big Things

2010-10-27T16:51:00.000-07:00

Big things have been happening around our house. First off, WhipperBerry has become quite the success and has taken up quite a bit of my time these past few months, although I will say, it has been put on the back-burner a bit recently because I've had so many cakes (of which I plan on updating... sometime). Hallie LOVES preschool more than life and Ashton is talking quite a bit more now and loves his dad more than life. Adam and I just love the kids more than life, so we're happy to see them happy.

Last week we got a life-changing phone call. My uncle, a CPA in Idaho Falls, asked Adam to move up to Idaho and start working with him this December. We knew this would be a prospect for us, we just weren't expecting it for a couple more years. So we talked... a lot. Weighed pros and cons. Shifted back and forth. Prayed a TON. We finally decided that it would be a good move for us, even if we did have to somehow sell the house in this terrible economy and quit a great job with amazing people.

But it's true. We're moving to Idaho. And I'm kind of excited. I wasn't, a few days ago. I've come to like Vegas a little, and the unknown scares me. But I love Idaho. I always have. I mean, just look at it...

(i may just have to buy this cutting board)

How can you not? There is so much to love about Idaho. I can be a real cowgirl there, if I really wanted. Life is a little more laid back, and there are so many beautiful outdoorsy things to do. When I went to school there, we would go bridge jumping and crawl through ice caves. When we were there for the 4th, we went up to the Grand Tetons and saw the most amazing views I've ever seen. Jackson Hole is nearby, and it's nothing shy of amazing. And my family is there, at least for now. That will perhaps be my most favorite thing.

I'm looking forward to Idaho. Looking forward to white Christmases and beautiful summers. And looking forward to the many wonderful memories that will be made.

Silhouette

2010-09-26T20:52:00.000-07:00

Twig and Thistle is giving away the Silhouette this week. Ahh! I want one very very much. It's kinda like a Cricut, but you can cut any kind of font without buying an insane amount of cartridges. It's all done through your computer via their software. For more info, go check out Twig and Thistle's or Silhouette's site!

My Salsa (booty-shaking required)

2010-09-23T20:24:00.000-07:00

Well, I've had a bit of interest in a salsa I've been experimenting with for 2 or 3 years now. It all started long ago when my wife took me to Chili's and insisted that we get the chips and salsa, so we did, and that started a long-lasting love affair...with a delicious salsa! =D

Below, you will find the recipe and some instructions for the salsa that I have somewhat acquired from others, altered, and created all at once (well, not really, over the years more like it). I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. This is not a chunky salsa, nor is it a fresh garden veggie salsa. I've tried it with fresh jalapeno, but it didn't have as much flavor. You could try with fresh tomatoes, but it would be entirely different. Here it goes:

Servings: Party Size
Skill Level: Easy

Prep Time: 15 mins
Ready In: 4 Hours - 2 Days

Ingredients:
1 - 14 1/2 oz can tomatoes and green chilies (Del Monte has produced two of the best batches ever)
1 - 28 oz can whole canned tomatoes (plus the juice, no brand preference here...generic is fine)
3 TBSP jalapenos (canned, diced, not pickled; you can add more or less to spice it up, a little more gives it a really good flavor)
1/2 C cup yellow onions (diced) (I've tried sweet, vidalia, and spanish, and I like yellow best)
1/2-3/4 tsp teaspoon garlic salt
3/4 tsp teaspoon Cumin
1/4 tsp teaspoon sugar
1 1/2 TBSP white vinegar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp Fresh Lime Juice (sometimes I'm generous here!)

Directions:
1. In food processor (I just use my blender) place jalapenos and onions, and a little bit of the tomato juice from one of the cans.
2. Blend for a few seconds
3. Add everything else & blend it up until it reaches the consistency you want (try not to over-blend)
4. Shake your booty-thang
5. Place in covered container and chill (I always give myself a MINIMUM of 4-6 hours. It is best after a day, and sometimes better after 2 days)

Comments:
This recipe is VERY easy to make, the only cutting/chopping you do is to the onion and the lime (my latest addition), unless you have lime juice hanging around.

Now, every time I make it, it's a bit different. I can honestly say that my last batch, was my favorite EV-AR! Concidentally enough, I had a batch of Chili's for lunch, and then went home and tasted mine, and like it better. Granted, that Chili's batch was way too salty that day. When you make it right, this salsa will have a really good blend of sweet, spicy, salty, and tinge of citrus. Mmmm, if I had any chips left I'd go finish off the last batch I made!

Hit me up in the comments if you have any questions.

Enjoy!

-ADAM

It's been a while

2010-09-12T20:56:00.000-07:00

We've been crazy busy this past month. Adam and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary in Cancun (away from the kids!!), Hallie started school, I've been working on cakes and WhipperBerry, and Adam finished his third CPA exam and started another busy season (poor guy has been working all day... and it's SUNDAY... sad face).
Here's some photos of our happenings...


Cancun was awesome. I wish I could live there forever. The kids would love to live by the beach.

Hallie's first and second days of school. Hallie LOVES school. She talks about it all day, every day, probably even dreams about it. I love it, too. It's really helped me maintain my sanity while Adam and I have been working like crazy.

Here's a time continuum of Adam... if he were a pear. The first was right before his CPA test, the second right after, and the third was after Cancun.

We decided to chop the pre-test Adam up to see what his insides held, and it was pretty rad.

Sadly, he tasted like crap.

(and we don't even say that word in our house)

More updates to come! Stay tuned.

Fashion Show

2010-08-08T20:46:00.000-07:00

Hallie was accepted into pre-school last month. This was very exciting news to all members of the household, but I think Hallie and I are most excited (and for very different reasons). I'm just happy to see that Hallie will have a chance to have daily interaction with other kids her age. Heaven knows she needs it. To celebrate our building anticipation, we went school shopping this past week. Hallie obliged in putting on a fashion show, and I thought I would share the final product of her photo shoot.

Here we have Hallie sporting the ever-feminine butterfly-print dress. Simple, but flirty.

Next we have our Back-to-School staple, the denim dress. The belt is a purple floral and the shoes a white Mary Jane. Hallie wears it with attitude and style, just how her momma raised her.

Next in the line-up is the fantastic T-shirt dress. This dress says comfy, casual, and oh-so-trendy. Hallie's ready to hit the books... while the boys take a look.

Finally, we give you the black ruffle tank with sequins. Hallie wears this with white laced leggings. Not every 3-year-old can pull this off, but Hallie's definitely got the legs for it.

*This fashion show was brought to you by H&M Las Vegas, where the majority of these clothes were purchased.

GRIPE SESSION - $120 for parking at church = sad face

2010-08-03T10:40:00.000-07:00

So, we often go to my parents after church for a lovely Sunday meal. And I often go to church separately and when we go to my folks, we just leave my car there.

Well, upon retrieving my car a month ago, I got a lovely little pink slip with a nasty orange sticker (uber-sticky...we're talking goo-gone) attaching it to my windshield (what ever happened to using the wipers?).

Any who, sure, I broke the law, it's a misdemeanor [criminal!], I can't say that I had ever seen the parking sign, in fact, I had to go back and look to see where it was, and especially since people have parked on that road since the beginning of time.

In my mind, 'No parking zones' are placed to increase public safety...in my case, I think the parking sign was placed for public annoyance. I'll let you be the judge, but unless we are allowing lizards and katydids to be U.S. citizens, I doubt any of our citizens safety has been blessed by the fortuitous placement of this no parking zone which happens to be essentially in the middle of the desert far from any type of residential property or narrow roads with limited visibility (not bitter).

WhipperWhat?

2010-07-25T20:36:00.000-07:00

All right, I've posted it all over Facebook and now I'm doing a shout-out on my personal blog about my newest adventure. I have partnered up with my friend Heather to be a part of WhipperBerry! Basically, the site is for all things creative. We go a little into design, photography, cooking, dessert tables, weddings, fashion, DIY and who knows where else. We've got Heather, who makes GREAT car seat canopies and other baby basics. She's also an amazing photographer and put the whole site together herself. Then there's me, the dessert table girl. Heather is my main partner in crime on this, and things are going well in that area. After October, I'll be done making cakes (although Adam thinks I should just keep it and jack up the prices, what do you think??) and I will just do the dessert tables. There's also Erin, who owns a wedding/reception center and has had a pretty exciting life running that business. She's a crack-up, and definitely adds a lot of spunk to our group. We hope to be adding another WhipperChick or two in the near future, so stay tuned. If you haven't already, become a fan on facebook (by clicking Like on the Left hand side) or follow our blog. We post 5-6 times a week, and like I said before, the photography is amazing, so you won't want to miss the posts!

www.whipperberry.com

Vacate

2010-07-17T12:23:00.000-07:00

We're back from our trip to Idaho! We had such a wonderful time. Between going to Jackson, going boating at Whiptail, watching fireworks from the curb while snuggling in a blanket in 40 degree weather, I started feeling a little jealous Idaho. I came home to the HOT, brown, dirt laden land of Nevada and wished for the green fields of wheat that I had just left. Oh well, I suppose I'm never too jealous of Idaho in the winter (although a little snow around Christmas would be nice).

I am happy to be home though. My sister came home with me and we did what we love to do. We went shopping at J.Crew, admired the Jean Phillipe Bakery at the Bellagio, and planned her wedding while listening to Jazz at Borders (no, Kelsey isn't even engaged, but she WILL have an amazing wedding).

We've been having fun all summer long

2010-06-27T20:47:00.000-07:00

Here in Vegas, summer ends with June. Then our own personal season, HOT AS HADES (all caps required) hits in July and August. So here's to summer, we shall miss you. We're really not looking forward to outrageous electric bills and frying eggs on our sidewalk, but I still think I'll take the heat over the cold... even if my winter clothes are cuter.
We've been swimming at least 3 times every week, going hiking and watching plays, playing with friends and watching basketball. Hallie just loves to GO all the time ("Where are we going today, Mommy?" are frequently the first words I hear in the morning) and Ashton just wants to eat... always.
Here's some photos of our latest happenings.

1. Hanging out in mom's "get ready for vacation" tanning chair 2. Dressing up at Sydney's house 3. Running at the park 4. Getting the face painted before Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Basically, we've been pretty spoiled with fun :)
I've been taking a break from cake decorating and won't start up again until September so that I can update and totally re-vamp my website and just have a great time with the kiddos. I'd really LOVE to do a party inspired by these shoes...

I can just see the whole butterfly, summer colors party now. Anyone need a birthday party planned for their little girl?? :) It would be so amazingly CUTE.
Have a fabulous summer and drink lots of lemonade! I'll be back after we get home from Idaho.
In the meantime, check out the new things I've added to my website, give me any input, and vote on my poll there. Thanks!
www.whitneyscakes.com

Dessert Table for Baby-to-be!

2010-06-13T22:19:00.000-07:00

The baby shower I mentioned in my last post happened just this past Wednesday! We had a wonderful time, and I loved putting it all together. I totally felt like I was in my element the whole time. Even when we had a slight catastrophe right before the shower started, I really felt like I handled it okay and thanks to some wonderful friends who totally saved the day, we pulled it off! Here's some pictures of the event...

My dear friend Kristin introduced me to Amy Atlas about 9 months ago, and ever since the day she introduced me, I knew I just HAD to try a dessert table. I would tell you to go visit Amy's site, but her tables make mine look pitiful, but if you must visit, I understand :)
I was so glad that I got to do this table for such an awesome person, and I'm really really grateful for EVERYONE that helped out. Thanks so much!!

For Your Viewing Pleasure

2010-06-01T21:49:00.000-07:00

I know I haven't blogged in a little while, and I really don't have time to blog now, as I've been busy getting ready for my friend's baby shower. There will be plenty of pictures of the event though, so tune in later next week!
As for now, enjoy this AMAZING time lapse video of artist James Mylne. He does his most famous artwork in ballpoint pen alone. I've always loved art, and it's even more amazing to me when I see people use such common household mediums to create masterpieces.

All Done!

2010-05-16T21:16:00.000-07:00

I know I promised this post last week, but we didn't have this all finished until yesterday... which was mostly my fault. I got lazy about painting and so it basically took all week to get me motivated enough to finish it. But it's done!

Now I just need a little storage thing for that bare spot by the sink, kind of like this one...

They have one at Home Goods here, and the baskets are actually closed instead of open, an absolute must for anyone who has 2 small children and doesn't want to see the clutter. Of course, the majority of our budget is still governed by necessity instead of desires, so it may be a while.

If you have the decorating bug BAD like I do, here's some fun sites:

theletteredcottage.net

hookedonhouses.net

smallplacestyle.blogspot.com

brilliantyasylum.blogspot.com

and some of my most favoritest stores (well, besides PB)

Another year of heartbreak (at least I'm used to it by being a BYU fan!)

2010-05-13T20:27:00.000-07:00

(Disclaimer: I am a huge Cleveland Cavaliers/LeBron James fan. If you don't care for basketball or sports in general, don't bother reading on :) I understand that many don't understand my passion for the God-given sport of basketball.)

It's time for my annual post on the Cavaliers. I really don't know WHAT to say. I'm confused, sad, mad, and mostly just confused. LeBron just FELL apart these last 2 games. Adam and I have been talking about it quite a bit. Was he hurt with the elbow or his leg and just trying not to say anything and make a scene? That's what I thought at first, but now I'm not so sure. LeBron just kind of sauntered around tonight, not driving like he usually does or running in from nowhere for the block. Now, I know he had a triple double, but he almost had a quadruple double with 9 turnovers, and that's not the kind of quadruple double you want. He almost acted like he was trying to prove a point, just like a few years ago in our good friend Kobe...... (or not. I have quite a lot of Sports Hate for Kobe). Maybe he was trying to say, "why would I stay here? I get a TRIPLE DOUBLE, and the rest of my team still can't win." And I can't blame him too much, he shouldn't have to carry such a load.
Whatever the reason, I would be surprised at this point if LeBron returns to the Cavs next year. At the beginning of the season, I would have said there was NO WAY he was leaving. The Cavs were looking so good, I know LeBron loves being the hometown boy, all his friends are there in the A-K-rowdy (aka Akron) so I thought he was there to stay. But like he's said over and over this year, he's in the NBA to win games, and unless some major changes are made, I think LeBron's going elsewhere. Perhaps you think I'm wrong? I hope so. Let me know if you do. I love any words of encouragement :)
If LeBron does leave, will I change "favorite teams"? Adam thinks he'll be loyal to wherever LeBron is. I think I'll always love the Cavs, they're just my team. I'll always support LeBron and I'll probably even like his new team second best, but I think my heart will ultimately lie with the Cleveland Cavaliers.
At any rate, I will always love the game of basketball.

And now... GO SUNS
:)

Busy Busy

2010-05-09T21:46:00.000-07:00

I didn't die of pneumonia, don't worry. I know I haven't blogged in a while (for me, anyway), but that's just because I've been CRAZY busy. After I had my bout of sickness, the kids and I packed up and went to the wintery land of Rexburg to visit my family so that Adam could study for his next CPA test. It was nice to see the family, the weather was freezing, and Ashton was bullied to death by Hallie, but we had a good time :) The kids were actually great on the plane, the part I was most nervous about. We got home on the 29th and I had 3 cakes to make by May 1. So I had roughly 36-40 hours to get 3 cakes done. One was a BabyCake, not too stressful, so I got it out of the way first. Then I made this beauty...

And finally, I made a book cake. I was given this picture...

and was asked to do the top 3 books. Now, I was in a HUGE rush to get this delivered on time for a surprise birthday, and I only got 3 hours of sleep in a 30 hour time span, so I wasn't mentally all together. Anyway, I FORGOT to take a picture of the cake!! I've tried contacting the people I did it for, but I still haven't heard from them. I think the cake ended up looking REALLY close to the picture above, so I'll just have to let you look at this one.
The 30th was my birthday, and I just worked on cake all day long. Adam and I celebrated on Saturday evening by going to one of my favorite restaurants in town (Grimaldi's) and watching the Cavs beat the Celtics (yaaaay)!
Adam studied like crazy the next week while I tried to do some deep cleaning. He took his test on Friday and then we decided to do the paneling in the bathroom on Saturday after my friend's shower. It started out looking really boring when we moved into it. Kind of like this bathroom...

Same mirror, same sink, different floor though... but ya know, just boring. So I painted it, until it looked like this...

Replaced the mirror with a MUCH better one from Home Goods, painted it blue, and switched out the lights. All that was done a while ago. Then last week, I ripped out the baseboard...

And Adam and I went to work! It's not all done, we still have to caulk, spackle, put in some corner pieces, and paint it (obviously), but I think it's looking good!

I wanted something that looked more custom than just a sheet of beadboard. So I copied the paneling in my mom's house :) It actually looks exactly like this in her bathroom, so I'm WAY excited for how it will turn out once it's all painted. I'll post the big reveal later on this week!

P.S. Happy Mother's Day to all moms out there. I would post more on the subject, but I think I've gone on long enough :)

Four weeks and counting

2010-04-13T09:26:00.000-07:00

For the past month (ever since my parents left town on the 13th of March), I've been sick. The first bout of sickness came from lack of sleep, and after about a week, I started feeling better. So instead of trying to take it easy until I fully recovered, I took on more than I could handle with my cakes, all while Adam has been working super late during tax season. So I started getting more sick... and more sick... and so sick that finally yesterday I caved and went to see a doctor. Why didn't I go in earlier? Because our health insurance isn't very good, and I'm the budgeter of the family :) But it was starting to become apparent that I was NOT getting any better. So after 4 hours in Quick Care, followed by another 4 in the ER, I found out I have PNEUMONIA in my lower left lung (right side of the x-ray). Lovely. So I'll be sitting in bed for the next few days, trying to finally fully recover. Thank goodness for a wonderful mother-and-father-in-law that completely took care of me and my kids yesterday and who is still taking care of the kids today (thanks, Julie!). I'd probably just be getting worse without them (or Adam would have had to have worked for 72 hours straight and then we would both have pneumonia). I'm also soooo grateful that Adam and the kids haven't gotten it. The doctor said some forms can be contagious, so either I got the good non-contagious kind, or I've just been really lucky :) Either way, the doctor gave me some of his cool masks to wear around the kids and hubby.

I did it (almost) ALL by myself!

2010-04-06T11:56:00.000-07:00

Adam introduced me to this fabulous blog last week and I decided if Ana could do it, I could do it. So I thought it would be fun to make a picnic bench for the kids for Easter. I went and bought some wood, screws, a little paint and glue... borrowed a saw from a friend and took on my first carpentry job! It took a little while, but I finished it and I learned A LOT. Adam only helped with the top of the picnic table, and I did all the cuts for the whole table, and the screwing and painting for the rest of the table. The kids LOVE it, and I'm definitely going to be making our bed frame from one of Ana's other plans.

The Great Debate

2010-03-28T20:50:00.000-07:00

Ok, everyone. I need your vote. Are my cakes art or craft? Adam's giving me a hard time about it, and I definitely have my own opinion on the subject. So I'm leaving it up to you. What's it gonna be, ART or CRAFT?

Family!

2010-03-28T20:35:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, my dear family came out for a visit. My dad went to the MWC tournament and we girls basically just shopped like crazy for 3 days. It was a blast. I haven't been shopping like that since before my kids were born :) Saturday night we went to go see Phantom at the Venetian and were lucky enough to be sitting right under the chandalier. Hallie made great friends with Grandpa that weekend and is super excited to go visit them again in April.

Here's a nice poor-quality picture of all of us (except Greg).

Sunday Afternoons and Static

2010-03-21T22:45:00.000-07:00

Most Sundays, after church, we head over to Adam's parents and enjoy a delicious dinner (that we never get at home because I still don't buy expensive meat) and good company. The past couple of times we've gone, the weather has been lovely. The kids are so excited to jump on the trampoline and play basketball with their dad. Ashton is starting to really like the sport and we hope his enthusiasm will only multiply (preferably exponentially, although we would never push him to do what WE want, unless it's what HE wants :)).

Hallie likes to play, too... but she pretty much likes to do anything physical. She's so energetic she makes me tired just watching her.
Adam also decided to give the kids their first lesson on electrons and static electricity. The kids thought it was great. Now he just needs to think of ways to make calculus interesting and our children will be geniuses.

New Blog

2010-03-15T11:58:00.000-07:00

Ok, everyone... I just put up my first post on my cake blog! It still needs quite a bit of editing... we're going to change the banner so that it doesn't look exactly like my website, I don't want it to be too confusing. Do you have a button for your etsy shop or other business? I'd love to add it to the blog! Feel free to add the blog to your blog lists, I hope to update it at least a couple times a week with new cake ideas or tips. If you have any suggestions or questions on cake decorating, let me know! I'd love to put a post up about it.

whitscakes.blogspot.com

Rube Goldberg

2010-03-12T07:57:00.000-08:00

For your enjoyment or amazement =]

ihatemyspacebar

2010-03-08T18:25:00.000-08:00

So, a couple weeks ago, one of the kids knocked Whitney's lappy off the counter and onto the floor...much to the chagrin of my wife, and to her 250GB harddrive, and to her excel Budget file that was corrupted. So, geekery to the rescue (almost). I had an extra laptop harddrive, so I copied everything over (the old harddrive still worked, just at 1/20th of the speed...not exaggerating), and reinstalled her operating system.

Well, not even a day later, Ashton got his paws on Whitney's laptop, and thought it would be a barrel-full-of-monkeys amount of fun to ~~take~~ rip off some of the keys off her keyboard...I couldn't completely come to the rescue there. With one exception, you can still use every key on her keyboard (with the key off), you just have to depress the little rubber nub on the circuit board. But, for the spacebar, you actually have to press the little metal square (where the rubber nub used to be), it is quite the exercise, and takes much mastery.

Haha, this is where the fun begins, at least for me it was. I'm at work today and Whitney started to chat with me [excerpt]:

(17:16:25) LOVEY hallie's eaten about 1 full cup of sour cream in the past 5 minutes
(17:17:32) meetloaf13@hotmail.com hahaha
(17:17:39) meetloaf13@hotmail.com you are what you eat right?
(17:21:13) meetloaf13@hotmail.com did your keyboard come?
(17:27:06) LOVEY notatthedoor
(17:27:16) LOVEY sorryihatemyspacebar:)
(17:27:20) LOVEY ha
(17:27:25) meetloaf13@hotmail.com lolz
(17:27:27) meetloaf13@hotmail.com hahahaha
(17:27:34) LOVEY itmightbeinthemailbox

(18:06:44) LOVEY sometimebeforethursday,willyoupickupsomemoreshampooatcostco?
(18:06:50) LOVEY ha
(18:06:55) meetloaf13@hotmail.com lolololol
(18:07:08) LOVEY awwww
(18:07:13) LOVEY poorme:)

I got a pretty good kick out of it. But don't think that Whitney is a lemonsucker...ihatemyspacebar.blogspot.com is now taken, and may have it's debut post very very soon.

=D

Y a y f o r s p a c e b a r s !

Hallie

2010-03-07T22:33:00.000-08:00

Hallie's been super cute this past week. She's on this kick of telling stories that ramble on and on, but they're so cute in her little voice. She's also hit the "why?" stage, where everything i tell her is followed up by asking "why?" at least 12 times. I'm trying not to be that mom that just ignores their child after the first 3 whys? but it can get a little exasperating at times :) If we could just get her to get along with Ashton and not be so possessive, she'd be near angelic! I can't really complain too much though, you've gotta have something to work on, right?
Also, in the next week or two I'll be adding a blog link to my website where I'll post different places where I've found inspiration or just tips on cake decorating. Unfortunately, this also means that I'll probably be posting a little less here and a little more there, but I'll still be around, whether here or there.

Hope everyone has a fabulous week!

Ooooo

2010-02-25T13:08:00.000-08:00

I LOVE this website.... http://www.onkamal.com/. I think it stems from taking like 32 art classes in high school, or maybe it's because I'm constantly looking with my "would that look good on a cake?" eye. Whatever the reason, these prints caught my eye instantly. I'm thinking the mini wraps would look good for a cake background :)

The Kids

2010-02-21T22:00:00.000-08:00

I decided that I need to post a little more regularly about the kids. Some day, I'll get old, they'll get old, and I'll forget all the cute things they do. So here we go...

Hallie

(with her beautiful aunt Kelsey)

Hallie amazes me at how smart she is. She'll start quoting episodes of shows when we're out shopping after only seeing it once or twice. She loves Star Wars (thanks to her dad). She loves dressing up like a princess and giving me long kisses (I wonder where she learned that?). She's just barely starting to get along with Ashton, poor kid has taken quite a beating ever since birth. Hallie loves to go places and do new things. She loves doing "projects" with me. Be it a cake, painting, putting on make-up, basically just about anything but cleaning :) She has a very curious mind and wants to know everything, but will only play with any new toy for about 10 minutes and never play with it again. She's definitely ready for preschool or a gymnastics class or something, which I hope will happen here in the next couple of months.

Ashton

Ashton is my sweet, sensitive child. He doesn't respond well to discipline though, so it's a good thing he doesn't need a ton of it. He greets me every morning with a slobbery, open mouthed kiss, and he wants to hold my hand everywhere I go. He adores Hallie, but he's starting to fight back occasionally too (I guess we don't want him to be a pansy, so maybe it's a good thing Hallie roughs him up a little). He loves to give other girls kisses, especially his little friend Madison. His favorite place in the house is the fridge... he likes to sit right inside the door and snack on anything that might be available for eating. He breaks at least one thing a week, so I guess we need to baby-proof a little better with him than we had to with Hal :) Ashton is the happiest when all of us are home together, it's amazing the difference in his attitude when just one of us leaves. He wants his family together at all times (so do I, but there are bills to be paid, unfortunately).

So there you have it. Our two little adorable half-pints and some of their cuteness. They're a lot of fun to have around. I know my life would be pretty lonely without them. There's just something very fulfilling about raising children and always being able to have them around!

Quick check-in

2010-02-14T22:49:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone! I know a post is overdue, but I've been bombarded with cake orders this week and need a few days to get all my affairs in order. I'll be back to post as soon as I can :)

Inspiration makes me tired

2010-02-02T21:09:00.000-08:00

I've been blog stalking a LOT lately for cake inspiration/vendors/decorating ideas. I don't know if I would really classify it as "stalking" though, since they're pretty popular blogs. With all the browsing I've done, I've started to feel a small twinge of jealousy towards these women who have such distinct taste and style. I feel like I'm kind of wishy-washy, some days I like one style, some days another. These women exude their personal tastes through their blogs, and even though I don't love all their styles, I love their perfect sense of what they personally love.

Beautiful Flowers from A Cup of Jo

http://joannagoddard.blogspot.com/

I love the little nook at the bottom from decor8

http://decor8blog.com/

A fun bookshelf from Design Mom

http://www.designmom.com/

This girl has some seriously bright color palette issues

But you know... it works, if that's what you like. Perhaps I'm too safe?

http://jubella.com/

A beautiful room on Jennifer Ramos' blog

Ahh, now this is more me. Don't laugh, I know I'm probably boring.

http://madebygirl.blogspot.com/

Some fun craziness

http://thoughtfulday.blogspot.com/

A Pretty Picture

http://elseachelsea.typepad.com/

I've also found some fabulous wedding blogs.

http://www.blushevents.blogspot.com/

I'm kind of in love with this paper garland

http://bklynbrideonline.com/

Whoa, nice tux man.

http://www.oncewed.com/

Beautiful Spread

I just sigh with happiness when I see this color palette. These are the colors I chose for my wedding, though I didn't get to use them as much as I would have liked. I Love.

http://www.snippetandink.blogspot.com/

Kind of loving these turquoise shoes :)

Although I would have been too chicken to wear them myself.

http://www.swsmag.net/

Pretty Favor Boxes

http://www.weddingsnystate.com/blog

I want MY reception here! Oh wait... already had mine.

Isn't it just beautiful??

http://www.wileyvalentine.com/blog/

Ok, I'm finally through showing off the things I DO know I love and the people I admire for being so unique, quirky, and confident through all of it. What do you like? Where do you get your inspiration from? I'd love to know... I do have lots more cakes to do in the future and an entire upstairs to decorate :)

A birthday and a night out

2010-01-31T22:07:00.000-08:00

Hallie turned 3 about 2 weeks ago! I didn't get many pictures of the event but her cake is on my cake blog. I do have a video, which I'll just cross my fingers it works here:

...and it doesn't work. It's really long anyway, so maybe I'll upload it later... maybe.

We went to Chuck E. Cheese, which I thought Hallie would love. Unfortunately, she couldn't climb up the slide so she found the event more frustrating than exciting. She did love her cake though, and ate the whole thing almost single-handedly. A girl after my own heart.

Adam finished his first CPA test 2 weeks ago! We're still waiting to hear back, but I forced him to take a 2 week break from studying so that he could get re-acquainted with his wife :) We went to the strip last week and ate at the Bellagio Buffet (a perk from work). They had quite the spread! Afterward, we decided to check out the new and AMAZING City Center. It was nothing shy of impressive. Adam and I both appreciate art, in all of it's forms, so we decided to go to Dale Chihuly's art museum.

Then, I BEGGED Adam to go to the Bellagio Bakery with me. He was pretty easy to convince and we saw some AMAZING cakes. We actually found a bakery in City Center too, so we got lots of eye candy. I didn't get a picture of the one cake I loved most, but I'll be back :) They even had some mini cakes there (if any of you have been following my cake blog lately, you'll see my new love for the little minis)! There's were smaller than mine though, by a lot, and they were charging $20 a piece for them! Mine are like 3 times as big and not even $20. I guess that's what you get when you shop on the Strip.

The $20 Minis (no bigger than your palm)

Minis that are more like the size I do. Not for sale, though, so I didn't get to compare :( I don't know, I kind of think mine are cuter anyway (although theirs are more elaborate). Maybe I'm just biased!

Just a crazy insane-o cake. I don't even know how you could do a real cake of this without it toppling over. Mind boggling.

New Blog!!

2010-01-25T22:12:00.000-08:00

The past couple of days Adam and I have spent quite a bit of time giving my cake blog a much needed face lift. I'm feeling pretty good about it, but I would LOVE love some feedback. Is there something else I could do to improve it? Something that doesn't read or look quite right? PLEASE let me know!! You all are my best feedback :) Thanks!

whitneyscakes.blogspot.com

Christmas!

2010-01-23T15:47:00.000-08:00

This year we went up to Idaho for Christmas. It was wonderful. The weather was a perfect wintery wonderland without being scary. We caroled to an old lady who risked her life to answer the door for us, caroled to the girl at the drive-thru window at dairy queen (who didn't think we were very funny), went swimming at an indoor pool, made lindsey come to New Moon with me, went to the temple, saw a really fun cowboy show/sleigh ride/dinner, had an adorable nativity with Hallie, Tate, and Sydney, had a nice, relaxing Christmas, and Adam even got to watch a little Star Wars on Christmas day. Two days before Christmas, Lindsey had the awesome idea to get some family pictures taken (none of us are planning on having any more children anytime in the too near future, no one is pregnant... so it was good timing). She called up her friend who had just moved into the area and was a photographer, and she agreed to show up the next day, on Christmas Eve even! So we got all our outfits planned in just one day, and got everyone ready for the shoot. I thought the pictures turned out FABULOUS.

Free Giveaway!

2010-01-22T15:24:00.001-08:00

We are offering a free night in the fabulous Las Vegas Nevada for the first person who can guess the meaning of our blog title :) The beds are only suitable for a person up to 5'9" tall and breakfast (aka cereal) is included in your stay. Transportation to this fabulous vacation is not included. However, I would be happy to play taxi driver once you've arrived. Additional nights are a low $1000 per day.
Adam would also like to add... BYOBT... unless you can figure that one out too.

More Cake

2010-01-10T20:29:00.000-08:00

I've had some new cake creations as of late and I'm also starting a new line of cakes called BabyCakes. I've only got one that I made for a friend's birthday so far, but I should have 2 more by the end of the week. I'm really excited for these new little cakes because they don't take nearly as long to make and I think they're pretty stinkin' cute.

Go here if you want to see it:
BabycakesLV.blogspot.com

I also have this cake that's been sitting in my kitchen for quite a while...

(They're styrofoam dummy tiers. I don't let cake rot in my kitchen just so I can have a pretty cake to look at :) Also, it was made in a rush, so please don't judge any imperfections too harshly!)

And finally, I'll be making 2 BabyCakes and one more regular sized cake for Hallie's birthday this Friday. I've got the smaller cakes all figured out but I still don't know what I'm doing for the bigger cake. If any of you find some pictures of a cute feminine cake, send it my way, I just might make it!

The Real Meaning of Christmas

2009-12-21T22:32:00.000-08:00

I loved this video, especially told from the viewpoint of a child. Please watch it!

Happy 27!!

2009-12-18T21:46:00.000-08:00

Adam turns 27 tomorrow. That's right, he can no longer claim mid 20s, he is now in his late 20s... old man :) I met Adam when he was just barely 22. Five years might not seem very long, but sometimes it's hard for me to remember life before Adam. My life is definitely much better with him in it. I consider myself very lucky to be married to such a wonderful person. I'm grateful for his VERY young heart (sometimes I tell people that he's my third child), it helps me keep things in perspective. He doesn't have to make himself play with the kids, he just does it because he likes to :) He works very hard for us and he rarely complains about anything. Sure, I like to poke fun at him and call him nerdy and laugh about his love for video games, but he takes it well. Thanks for the past 5 years, love.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

p.s. a little better shot of the cake... adam was nice enough to let me make him a charlie brown cake for him this year

A Few of my Favorite Things

2009-11-29T21:06:00.000-08:00

In tribute to the holiday season and my love for all things Christmas, I thought I would take a moment to tell you all "A Few of my Favorite Things". Perhaps it's also in tribute to my old friend Oprah (we broke up a few years ago due to a difference in morals and beliefs) who does her annual My Favorite Things episode... even though I can never afford any of the products.
So here we go, in no particular order.

The Pilot

I was worried that making this purchase was a little extravagant when we first bought it. We could afford it, but it still felt a little too luxurious :) However, I don't know that there's a single day that goes by that I don't think about how grateful I am for this car. Sure, we've only got 2 kids, we could squeeze them into a sedan, but it sure makes grocery trips, vacations, and large item maneuvering a breeze. I love it. And it has leather heated seats. Every mess wipes right off and I love heated seats when I'm pregnant. Weird? Yes. All pregnant women have weird things like that.

My Foundation

I love this foundation. It's water based, so it feels weightless and it moisturizes well. And it's only $7 (at Walgreen's, anyway)!

Satin Ice Fondant

I've sworn to never ever ever ever use homemade marshmallow fondant EVER again. This stuff is about 5 billion times better. I used to get so frustrated trying to figure out why my cakes wouldn't have that flawless smooth look like professional cakes do. Turns out they use this stuff, although I've heard Massa Grischuna is the best, but their smallest fondant order would cost me close to $100. Little pricey for me (or a lot pricey), even if it is 13 pounds of fondant... I'm just not sure how well it would store. I have yet to use Fondx, ChocoPan, or Fondarific, all of which I've heard are even better than Satin Ice, but I really do love this stuff. I can find it here in Vegas too, so I don't have to pay my life savings on shipping.

Water/Ice Dispenser

Ok, so this thing has been a blessing and a curse. It's wonderful to have because we all drink a little more water in our house because it's just so convenient. However, Hallie also likes to fill numerous cups and bowls up with it to slurp out of like a cat, only to dump it all over the floor. Oh well, at least my kitchen floor gets mopped on a regular basis.

2 car garage
I don't have a picture of our garage and I'm too lazy to go take one right now, but I love having a 2 car garage, or just a garage at all. We've become so used to going outside when it's raining or snowing and scraping off ice and snow. We live in Vegas now, so we don't really have to worry about the snow, but we do get nasty gusts of wind... and we live in the desert, so we get a lot of dust. It's just nice to have a little extra storage space too. I think that might have been our most favorite thing about getting a house :) (We have yet to put in a yard, but I'm sure that will be the new favorite once it's in)

The CHI

What an inspired product. This thing has saved me hours of time over the one year time span I've had it. Love it. It's a little more expensive, but I promise, it's well worth the money. My mom has the GVP brand which is cheaper, and she says she likes it just as much, so it's definitely something to look into if you're interested.

Mint.com

I'm the budgeter of the family. I feel like I'm a pretty serious budgeter too. I check it 2-3 times a week to make sure we're on track and I always know where all our money is going at all times. We've got our money in 5 different places, 3 different credit cards that we use regularly, the mortgage, and some student loans. All this can become really overwhelming if it's all with different companies and banks. However, mint.com will bring it all together for you, for free!! It takes a little to set it all up, but you'll never regret it once you do. It sends you emails reminding you to pay off credit cards, you can set up a budget for every category, it gives money saving tips, it shows ALL your transactions from all your different accounts on one page, it's a very secure and safe way to keep track of your money, and the list goes on. In short, it's marvelous. Do it. Now.

Christmas

I'm in love with Christmas. I love the lights, the music, the parties, the food, the gingerbread houses, the shopping, the cold weather (only until Christmas though, after that I want it to hurry up and get warm), the hot chocolate, the bell ringers, the magic, everything. I love it all. It makes me sad when people complain about the decorating or the hussle and bustle. To me, you do it all because you're celebrating the birth of Christ and to show other people you love them. I still wake up early on Christmas morning, it's still super exciting to me to see all the presents and stockings stuffed to the brim. I'm really really excited to go up to Idaho this year. I love my family, and I miss them.

My Hubby

There he is. The man that keeps me sane. He's my anchor in life. When the kids are driving me insane and the house is a disaster and I just want to run away, he helps me pick myself back up and gives me the courage to keep going, even if I don't want to. He wakes up with the kids every morning at 6:30 (or earlier) so I can get some extra sleep, and he always does his best to be home as much as he possibly can. He works hard for us, and he puts up with me, which is saying something :)

The Kids

I love my kids. Sure, they cause most of the stress in my life, especially the older one there, but I still love them. My life centers around them. I do what I do because I have kids. I love all the cute things Hallie says, and despite all the frustration she causes me, she has a good little heart. Ashton is impossible not to love. He loves all people. He's my little snuggle-kissy-food-eating-fat boy. I have great kids :)

the kidlets

2009-11-15T21:00:00.000-08:00

I was putting up a photo frame collage on one of the walls in our house and needed some extra candid shots of the kids. So we packed them up and headed over to the Morris' to use their uber camera. Here's some of the goodness.

Roller Toasters and Hiccups

2009-11-01T21:38:00.000-08:00

We had a very fun week! On Wednesday we made the trek down to Disneyland with Adam's family. The kids (especially Hallie) had a GREAT time. Hallie was always asking to go see Mickey or Minnie, ride on a "roller toaster" or the "hiccups" (aka teacups). The girl takes after her dad for sure. Adam and Hallie like to go crazy and do lots of things all the time while my favorite parts of any vacation is the relaxing, sitting in the hot tub, drinking hot chocolate, not having to cook or clean parts. Let's face it, I'm just the lazy terd while they're the go-and-doers. I have a feeling Ashton might be more like me. His favorite part of Disneyland was eating. I had never met a child that loves to eat more than Ashton until I saw this picture at the Anne Geddes store in Downtown Disney...

This kid takes the cake... and eats it too. He truly is fatter than Ashton, which is quite a feat in and of itself.

Anyway, here's some pictures of the kids at Disneyland!

Who thought that Hallie would be afraid of Mickey? Not I!

Naturally Ashton's first stop at Minnie's house was the fridge. He was a little upset when he found out that the food wasn't real.

Hangin' out with "Grampy"

I actually got part of my inspiration for Ashton's Cars cake from some other person's blog standing by this exact same Mater.

And of course, what would Disneyland be without Goofy?

We got back into town Saturday night just in time to hurry and change into costume and go Trick or Treating. I still need to get pictures from the actual Halloween night from the Morris' but here's one from our Trunk or Treat night with the ward earlier in the week.

We bummed our costumes off Adam's family. Hallie was pretty excited to be a kitty after becoming obsessed with my Mom's cat when we visited earlier in the month. Ashton was rather indecisive about his costume so he was a lion for Trunk or Treat and Superman for Halloween.
All in all, it's been a pretty fun week for everyone! We all just have some catching up on sleep to do and hopefully Adam won't be too far behind on his studying :)
(....right)

It's OK to eat the cake!

2009-10-18T20:42:00.000-07:00

Many people have told me that they would feel guilty eating one of my cakes. It's true, a lot of time and love goes into my cakes, but if you DON'T eat them, they will rot, disintegrate, and just be nasty in a month or two. So PLEASE, EAT THE CAKE. After all, it's meant to be eaten. If you are still finding yourself a little nervous about taking the initial plunge, may I provide a brief visual tutorial.

Part 1. Seeing the cake for the first time, and feeling a sense of guilt knowing that it will soon be destroyed.

Part 2. The Birthday Boy

Part 3. Deciding what to eat first... (Mater or McQueen?!? It's so hard to choose, Mom!!)

Part 4. THE PLUNGE, YUM!

Part 5. Basking in the Deliciousness (No, he's not hemorrhaging from the mouth, it's food coloring)

Part 6. The casualty

The End.
Hopefully this little tutorial has settled some of your nerves about eating these cakes. I promise, they really are very good, and as long as you get a lot of fabulous pictures, you won't feel guilty for eating the cake.

Despite Ashton's grumpiness and refusal to smile for any of the pictures, his birthday was a success. I can't believe my little boy is already one! Happy Birthday, Buddy!! Mommy and Daddy love you tons!

Trip to IDAHO

2009-10-16T13:38:00.000-07:00

Last week the kids and I went up to Idaho for a much needed love-cation. Since the move to Vegas, I have been a bit upset about my new surroundings and have really been missing my family. I knew Adam could use the time to work in some overtime or study, so we took off to the cold but oh-so-wholesome land of Rexburg. We had a fantastic time while we were there. Hallie and Tate got along great and rarely fought, Ashton eventually warmed up to the place and Hallie found her new best friend, the "kitty" (apparently my family doesn't wish to become too emotionally connected to the cat, which is why she doesn't have a name). We also got to meet our new cousin/niece, Sydney! What a CUTIE! (and such a nice baby)
It was just wonderful to be with my family and to know that they're always there for me, even if I am far away.

Sydney... love that expression, looks like she's trying to embrace her inner Elvis.

You can never get them to all look at once, so this is about as good as it gets. GO TRIBE

Hallie and Tate doing their favorite exercise... jumping off the fireplace. However, this exercise appears to be a gateway to other, more dangerous practices, such as jumping off the table, jumping off the couch ONTO the table, and so on, so close attention is required.

We had such a wonderful time! Thanks family, for such a great trip (hopefully the kids didn't destroy the house too much)! Can't wait to see you at Christmas!

BYU v UNLV 2009

2009-10-11T18:44:00.000-07:00

So, I was able to go to the BYU/UNLV game this w/e. I had a pretty good time and awesome seats. My dad was able to secure 2 row seats on the 35 yd line! ...not too shabby.

Anywho, I brought along my parents uber-camera, unfortunately, I failed to bring the uber-lens. I got a couple decent snaps here and there, but being a night game, the lighting wasn't ideal enough to get some good action shots.

ENJOY!

Game ON! CHALLLLLANGE!
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaBTaok3qG0 )

Here’s some ACTION FOR YOU! This was the best, non-blurriest action shot of the night for me…what a budding photographer am I!

UNLV’s coaching staff has recently decided that recruiting high-school students wasn’t nearly as effective as recruiting Wild BEASTS! Yeah…and this one is lickin’ his chops. He must be hungry, like Julius PEPPERS!

Another recruiting strategy UNLV adopted, Mr. T! I got no time for the jibba-jabba!

Who needs Mr. T, when you can have KISS!

[meow]

Jake and Matty...Matty is pretty much a celebrity at the football games. He frequents the scoreboard with his wicked sick dancing movezzz.

-ADAM

50th Birthday!

2009-10-05T19:57:00.000-07:00

My dear father-in-law just turned 50! My mother-in-law asked me to make a cake for his birthday in exchange for watching the kids all day for me. That was a fantastic trade-off for me, so how could I say no (I LOVE my kids, but it's just nice to have a break occasionally, ya know)? Anyway, he's quite the runner, he just ran St. George last week, so I made a cake to show off his talent.

A new 'do?

2009-09-21T14:50:00.000-07:00

I need a haircut, BAD. Haircut time is always exciting for me, I like to try new things. However, I still don't know of a good stylist in Vegas and I don't want to pay more than $30 for a cut. So the first obstacle will be finding a good stylist (I prefer people that specialize in shorter hair) that fits my budget.
So until I figure that out, I need to find a cut!

Should I go with the trim and keep the cut I have?

Go back to the Victoria Beckham asymmetrical cut?

Try out this cute cut?

Or grow it out? (Not likely, I have no patience)

The Chaos Continues

2009-09-11T13:18:00.001-07:00

I told myself I wouldn't post until my life settled down a little bit. Then I realized today that that will probably never happen, so I post now as I have just cleaned the entire house (it's still not perfect, but it's "clean"), haven't showered, and have a to-do list 8 miles long.

The move went well! Thanks so my awesome uncle and aunt who were divinely inspired to call us to see if we needed help moving, the process went quite smoothly. We left apartment living on Tuesday, August 5, and moved into our house on Thursday, August 7. It's so different having 2.5 times more living space than we're used to, and our own yard. The house is never clean (I'm so glad we opted for a smaller home) but I love the extra space. We've become quite the DIY-ers by painting the front living area... twice (didn't look so good the first time around), painting the banister and front door, finishing our kitchen table, putting in under cabinet lighting (still in progress) and painting our new entertainment center (also still in progress). I've been shopping like a crazy woman trying to make the house look more like a home and things are starting to come together nicely. Here's some before and after shots for ya.

BEFORE

AFTER

The stuff on the end table in the corner still needs a home and I need some drapery on the windows, but otherwise, it's lookin good!

BEFORE

The whole table was finished in this light color (not my favorite) and had a lot of dings and chunks scraped out, but after our little staining escapade...

AFTER

BANGARANG! Love the darker stain. We still have to do the chairs, but I'm saving that for when I have more patience (this project takes A LOT of work)

The Banister and Door
BEFORE
White and colorless (sorry, I don't really have a good before picture, you can see a little bit of the railing in one of the above "before" pictures)

AFTER

Beautiful chocolate brown railing and green door. Yes, we're missing a white banister piece, and no, I can't seem to find them anywhere.

And finally, just some other pictures...

The color I'm painting my new TV stand and hutch. I'll also be putting a brown glaze on the edges to give it more depth.
P.S. if you're ever shopping for an entertainment center, buying a TV stand and hutch separately will save you some major money. If they don't match, like mine, just repaint or refinish it yourself.

I LOVE that the fridge came with a water/ice dispenser. Divine.

My refinished coffee table that I found at DI. Love the old antique look it has.

Next, we had our friends Kristin and Cameron visit us last weekend! We had a blast with them, they're the greatest. Since I'm a terrible picture taker, I didn't get any pictures with them, but I did get some of the kids at the Town Center playground/water park.

We went to an outlet mall on the border of Nevada and California which had some AWESOME outlet stores... Gap, Old Navy, Children's Place, Banana Republic, Hollister, Williams Sonoma, and there were more, we just had to please the kids. Anyway, best outlet mall I've ever been to (even better than Patomac Mills in VA, which is supposedly THE OUTLET... sorry Patomac Mills, you've been demoted). Anyway, I saw a really cute cake mold at Williams Sonoma that would be perfect for Ashton's birthday, but my inner budgeter told me not to buy it. The last morning Kristin and Cameron were here, Cameron disappeared (telling me he was going to get something to surprise Kristin) and came home with the mold!!! I couldn't believe it. Not only was it super nice of them to get it for me, but the outlet was 40 minutes away!!! ONE WAY!! That's almost an hour and a half of driving! That's love. You guys are too awesome for words.

Finally, Monday night Adam asked me if I would make his 15 yr old brother a birthday cake since his mom was out of town. Problem was, his birthday was the NEXT DAY. But I never turn down a decent opportunity to make cake. So I thought and looked around for ideas. For those of you who are blog stalkers, you may know where I got this cake idea, and since I was in a pinch, I felt no remorse for copying someone else's creativity. The kids were pretty neglected on Tuesday as I tried to finish the cake, but they put up with me pretty well. You should see the mess I made though. It was IMPRESSIVE. I'm not the cleanest person by nature (I like to blame it on a creative mind) so if I think something's messy, it must be pretty bad, and it was just about the worst. Ashton found an "empty" can of frosting (yes, I cheated and bought the boxed stuff, I only had 20 hours to put together an entire cake, get 8 hours of sleep and take care of 2 demanding children), but he seemed to clean out the dregs pretty well. Here's what I found after 10 minutes...

After cleaning him up and putting on some finishing touches, I ended up with this beauty...

Yay! It was fun to make. Anyway, that's been our last 6 weeks in a nutshell. Now I need to go prepare my talk for Sunday, ahh!
Ciao

Angels & Spray Cans

2009-08-03T21:21:00.000-07:00

Well, you might think this is the third installation of Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code...sorry, not quite that suspenseful.

But, after a fun afternoon in Park City we had a trusty nail or two place itself in our back tire, and it was cause for celebration!...or not, b/c our tires still have acorn wheel locks on them (at least until tomorrow morning), and we are without key (a special keyed lug-nut puller). Add that to the fact that we were in Heber, UT on a Monday evening at 8 PM =]

...actually, I'm rather grateful we made it to Heber, about halfway between Park City & Heber, our little tire pressure indicator went off, so I pulled over and sure enough our back tire was hissing out air at a pretty decent rate. We still had decent tire pressure so I figured we ought to try and get down the hill. And with a prayer or two, we did. AFter seeing that there was ZERO chance of finding any auto-shop open, or at least still occupied by workers...I was able to procure one of these bad boys at Smith's.

Long story short it worked! I just don't want to be the guy that has to fix the flat in my tire tomorrow, I'm going to bet it will be a nasty job. I don't recommend these little cans if you can avoid it...but since I couldn't take my tire off to put on the spare, and there was ZERO chance of getting a mechanic to look at it, this worked very well.

So thank goodness for Angels & Spray Cans!

Family Pictures!!

2009-08-02T20:42:00.001-07:00

My awesome cousin Breanne just took some pictures of the fam. They turned out great! If anyone comes to visit us in Vegas, these pictures will DEFINITELY be up around the house.

Look at that cute husband I have!

Haha, I love this picture of Hallie.

Happy Life

2009-07-29T12:17:00.000-07:00

We've been having a lot of fun the past few weeks. We went to Vegas end of June/beginning of July, then the kids and I went to Idaho for a few days right after that, then Lindsey, Stu and Tate came to hang out with us for a weekend and we got to go up to see the Amazing Alec. Then we partied all day for Pioneer Day. Sadly, we only got pictures in Vegas (already posted) and on Pioneer Day (below).
We're getting all ready to move now! Our front room is growing with boxes by the day and I'm right on schedule to get everything done as stress free as possible. Adam's been doing an amazing job of getting up with the kids in the morning, studying, working, getting all the paperwork done on the house, fixing up the scooter to sell it, and finding the best deals on insurance for us once we move to Vegas. He's super amazing. The big day is next Thursday and Adam starts work the following Monday. Real world... here we come!!

Hallie and I getting ready to play the Joseph Smith Tug of War game (I'm sure it has a more official name, but I think Joseph Smith would appreciate this game being named after him, he was the best at it, after all)

Hallie desperately trying to beat Mommy.

Mommy wins this time! Maybe next time, babe.
(look at that tricep!! ow ow! all thanks to a 25 pound 9 month old!)

What would a post be without this handsome blondie? Especially with a piece of grass hanging off his chin :)

Sugar and spice and everything nice?

2009-07-19T20:10:00.000-07:00

I challenge that little nursery rhyme...

I have scientific proof that Children are not made of sugar, nor spice, nor everything nice. They are made of love and crumbs.

Thursday, Whitney had a haircut appointment, and I had some errands to run, so I took the kiddos with me for a few hours. I transferred the car seats from Whit's car to mine, and we commenced our car-fixing, scooter-fixing, car-washing, Hallie-inhaling-a-McDonald's-cone-watching, once-there-was-a-snow-man-listening, afternoon. It was grand. And the best part, the kids were great, I didn't have to bribe the kids with anything while we were driving around (not one piece of food...especially nothing that produces crumbs).

[sidenote] Since we got the second car, it is amazing to me how clean my car has remained. I don't ever have to vacuum it, unless something crazy happens, like having to take Cookie Monster to the store, because he wanted some Oreo Cakesters[/sidenote]

So, the day was over. We unloaded, went home, saw our beautiful mommy/wifey and had some scrumptious dinner. The next morning, I unsuspectingly went out to put the car seats back in Whitney's car. To my surprise, after returning the car seats, I went back to close the doors and lock up the car, only to find that my ever-immaculate back seat was now full of CRUMBS! Tens and hundreds of little specimens! Yeah, I know what you're probably thinking...well, you're wrong. My kids really ARE made of crumbs. Ashton is always trying to gnaw on Hallie's delectable little fingers, not to mention his constant efforts to afford himself a few strands of her hair. Who needs the scientific method?

So, Hypothesis: Children are made of crumbs. Proof: my kids shed crumbs like dandruff, and yours do too...and dogs like to lick little kids' faces, because they are delicious.

Insane

2009-07-19T19:45:00.000-07:00

Last Monday night we had a couple over after FHE. We got to talking about homes and they told us that the average home price in Detroit (where they are from) is $10,000! That's right, my friends, I did NOT forget a zero... ten thousand bucks, that's it. I didn't believe them at first, but I googled it, and it's true!! Now, with the Federal Tax Credit of $8,000 for first time home buyers, that puts a person at $2,000 that they would owe of their own hard earned money for the house. Most people could pay off their house in a month!! So then I decided that I needed to check out these houses. So I went to the old trusty realtor.com and looked them up. Sure enough, the cheapest house I found in Detroit was going for $25... and the REALLY funny part is that they wanted a $1000 earnest money deposit!!!!!! I found that ridiculously hilarious (for those of you who don't know what EMD is... it's a check you sign over to the bank that indicates you're really serious about buying the house, even though the check is never cashed... it's their way of not letting you back out after the bank works with you on the whole closing process. If you do back out last second though, they can and will cash the check).
Then I decided it would be fun to look at houses there in our price range. Now, my absolute favorite houses in the world are really, really, really old houses. They have so much character and history, I just love them. So when I stumbled across this house, I almost died. Take a look...

I think the decorating could have been done better... in an old house, you HAVE to go all antique with the furniture, but I LOVE the house!! Even BETTER, it's actually a 2 unit house, and you get BOTH units, all for less than $730 a month! Too bad we're not moving to Detroit!

Addage:
....eh, yeah, too bad...

-Hubby

Living the Dream

2009-07-15T19:29:00.000-07:00

It's official!! One of the homes we made an offer on a bazillion years ago (or 3 weeks ago that feels like a bazillion years) was accepted!! We paid a little more than we originally anticipated, but the home was first purchased for $279,000 and we're paying less than half that! We now have 2 kids... a girl and a boy, an SUV and a home (pending inspection pass). All we need is a dog and we'll be living the American Dream to its fullest! Below are some pictures of the cute little thing we're moving into. I'm sure there will be plenty of before and after pictures once I let my decorative capacities explode all over the place, but for those itching to see what we got, here she is.

We're not real sure what this rock river is in the back yard, but it has SO much more back yard than most of the houses we've seen, so we'll take it... and take OUT the rock.

A Trip to Vegas

2009-07-05T22:37:00.000-07:00

Sorry for such a delay in posting... I'm actually leaving to go up to Idaho this week, so I knew I had to squeeze something in before I left again. We were in Vegas the past 10 days looking for a house and visiting family! The house hunting was insane and basically, we still don't know if we have a house yet, but we should be finding out this week. Basically it's a bidding war housing market, so after the first two days of looking around, we had to look for cheaper houses so that we could bid them up 10-20 thousand. Insanity. Then we decided to stick around for the fourth since Taylor and Stasi were coming down. Hallie loved all the swimming and jumping and hanging out with her aunt and uncles and grandparents.

Then yesterday (the 4th) Hallie was super excited about these fireworks that everyone was telling her about. We put a blanket down and watched them together, and Hallie laid down right next to me, putting her hands behind her head just like I was. We talked about what colors the fireworks were and ooo-ed and ahh-ed over the big ones. It was a great mother-daughter moment :)

Here's some pictures we took while down in Vegas... they're growing up!

Hallie picked about 82 of grandma's flowers this past week... and here's what happened almost every time...

Hallie picking her flower

Hallie admiring her flower

Hallie "picking" her flowers

Hallie suffering the consequences and looking for more flowers

-Whit

A few last minute additions to the Vegas-trip blogness. I must say, the older I get, the more cherished my family becomes. I've never disliked my family, or been bothered by them, but it's like each time we visit, I experience a new level of joy and a greater appreciation for the wonderful family that I've been blessed with. That includes Whit's family as well. I could not ask for a better bunch to be related to. My family is one of the spiritual constants that God has given me in life. One of the guiding stars, if you will. I know that I can always count on them to support me and help motivate me to become more Christ-like. Let's face it, I love my family!

While we were down, the extended family that was in town came over for Zach's ordination to the Melchizedek priesthood, it was a wonderful occassion. Here we are, minus Jessica of course (...she's playing broom hockey with tumble weeds, in the big TX):

From July 2009

Last but not least, Whitney and I were able to immortalize our little hippo man, the Tank, the Hungry Hippo, Porky-Boy...the list goes on. This picture sort of reminds me of Han Solo, when he was solidified in Carbon Freeze. It's a humorous little snapshot of the Ashtonat0r (if you can't quite make it out, shrink the image, or stand back a few feet):

From July 2009

That's all for now, just going to spend the next month or so admiring my beautiful wife and re-learning financial accounting for the CPA exam.

Oh yes, and sadly I must part with the little Harley, if anyone wants a scooter that goes 60 mph, gets ~85+ MPG, and pops wheelies, let me know. =]

-Adam

Me and my two cuties

2009-06-11T14:22:00.000-07:00

I just realized I have very few (like, MAYBE 2) pictures of me with my kids. It's always me with one or the other or usually, just the kids. So after a few attempts, we got a good one.

The FANTASTIC news!

2009-06-07T20:12:00.001-07:00

We got a JOB!!! Wahooooo! Adam was offered a job this last Monday at Swarts and Swarts in Las Vegas. We were so excited! The economy in Las Vegas is NOT good (it's really not good much of anywhere, is it though?) and we had been turned down by a few other places that Adam had extremely good connections to. I was a little nervous, to say the least. But now, we can breathe a sigh of relief and soon, we can move on to the fun stuff... house hunting!! The good part about a bad economy is that houses are dang cheap and the government will even pay you to buy a house, fantastic! Las Vegas boasts one of the cheapest places in the nation to buy a home right now... about the price of a VCR (see Cleveland video, below) :) I'm WAY excited to move into a house, where I can let my creativity EXPLODE!! In due time, at least. Anyway, just wanted to let ya'll know the good news and to buoy up your sagging economic spirits. Viva Las Vegas!

Silly Girl

2009-06-06T13:01:00.000-07:00

So, today we were at the Seven Peaks getting our swim on, just enjoying our time. Our little Hallie was bouncing around the kiddie pool minding her own business, when out of the blue she came up and gave Whit a hug and a kiss. She hopped up and down and made her way over to me and gave me a little smooch and a hug as well. I asked her to give Ashton a hug and a kiss to, she took one look at his boogery little face and proceed to jump around the pool...that's our cute little Hallie-bean.

So, we kept playing for a while, when Hallie went back up to Whit and gave her another kiss. A few seconds later, she came back up to with to give her yet ANOTHER smooch, hah, Whit was excited with her mouth wide open as Hallie went in for the kill. Whit was about to pucker up, when instead a cute little kiss from her daughter, Hallie attacked spit a mouthful of water into Whitney's mouth! muwahahaha...the little schemester (she IS related to her Grandpa Morris after all) was successful in her plot to squirt her mama! What's better, and lest you think this was a mere coincidence (for surely such a cute little one could not be capable A few minutes later she tried to dupe her daddy with the same bag of tricks: first, with the cute little smoochie, and then, seconds later, with the feign-smooch-face-full-of-squirt maneuver.

And that's our cute, dainty little Hallie girl, who is still isn't heavy enough for gravity to push her down the water slides (haha, she has to scoot her way down). That's OK Hal, one of these days you'll be heavy enough to slide on down the slide without having to schooch down the entire way...unless you figure out how to trick gravity into pushing you down first. =]

-Daddio

New and Improved Cake Blog

2009-06-01T21:12:00.001-07:00

So I've been reconstructing my cake blog to make it more instructional instead of just a place to put the pictures of my cakes once they're done. Let me know how you like it! If there are enough of you that want me to keep the blog this way, I'd be glad to keep it this way and let you know the how-to's of my adventures in cake decorating. However, if I don't hear from any of you, there's really not much point in me going to the extra work. Your comments are much appreciated!

whitneyscakes.blogspot.com

P.S. I still have have a couple more posts to put up and I need to update my side bars, but you'll still get the feel.

A Moment to Mourn

2009-06-01T19:23:00.000-07:00

Firstly, let me take a minute to mourn the loss of the Cleveland Cavaliers....

I don't think Adam and I missed a single game that was on TV this year, we were die hard fans. Now, for all of you boo-hooing over how we just jumped on the bandwagon for LeBron, this is NOT true. I've loved the Cavs since I was 14 and my dad got me front row tickets to the game vs. the Wizards. They were 32-50 that year. MISERABLE. But I've always loved basketball, and I was living in Ohio, so I was a Cavs fan. By the time I was a sophomore in high school, I had heard of this human phenom about 20 minutes down the road named LeBron James. There was word that his games were becoming so popular, they were going to move all the high school games to the local University stadium. When I was a junior, this LeBron fellow showed up at one of our own school basketball games (we didn't play St. V... which is what it was called by the locals... because it was a private school). And finally, my senior year (and LeBron's too), the whole city of Akron was abuzz over what team LeBron would play for in the NBA and how his mom took out a loan before they even had any money to buy him a yellow Hummer for his 18th birthday. If you lived in the Akron area, you felt like you knew him, even if you only may have seen him once with his 3 horsemen at the local Outback Steakhouse (more commonly known now as the 4 horsemen, LeBron included). I only married Adam because he promised to become a Cavs fan... ok, jj. But as soon as I introduced him to the wonderful world of the Cleveland Cavaliers, he was hooked. For the past 10 years, I have watched the Cavs go from nothing to amazing. Two years ago when they beat the Pistons in the Eastern Conference Finals, I think I cried I was so happy. Last year when Boston BARELY beat the Cavs (7 game series), I cried because I was so sad. And this year, this year I wept. This was supposed to be THE YEAR. Cleveland was the team to beat. I guess Cleveland is cursed. If you watched my video on Cleveland... it is in fact true that their main export is crippling depression :) I will always be a Cavs fan in my heart. Even if LeBron decides to move on to another team, I will still love the Cleveland Cavaliers (I might cheer for LeBron's team occasionally too... hey, he's my home town hero!). So until October... I'll be waiting with a hopeful heart.

hahaha, SO TRUE

2009-05-24T20:19:00.000-07:00

I found this on my friend Darbie's blog. I laughed and laughed until it hurt. I remember going up to Cleveland with friends in high school every so often and thinking... there is something seriously wrong with this place. Thanks, LeBron, for giving Cleveland something to live for.

A little Morris family update (enjoy):

2009-05-24T20:11:00.000-07:00

In addition to my latest post...

2009-05-20T21:15:00.000-07:00

I just realized that you can't see the links to the houses we're looking at!! So for the "dream home" and the "runner up" links, you'll have to enter a username and ID. If you want to look at the houses, type in Username: Anonymous1 and Password: Anonymous1. That should get you in to the houses. Let me know if it doesn't work!

Looking for a House

2009-05-20T13:16:00.001-07:00

We've been looking around the Las Vegas Valley for a house to buy!!! It's very exciting, and very tiresome at the same time. I'm pretty picky, I have to admit. If I'm going to be staying in this place for the next 5-10 years and spending all sorts of money, I better like it! I really prefer hardwood flooring with as little carpet as possible (just the bedrooms, ideally). I don't want to have to worry as much about spills, cleanings, etc. and I just like the look. I HATE the style of Las Vegas homes, the majority of them all have a very southwestern facade. No thanks. In a perfect world, I would be moving to a community where homes looked like these.
We found a beautiful home in Sun City Anthem (go figure, it's one of the nicest areas in the whole valley, yet this house is listed at just $160,000). Then we looked to see how far of a commute it would be for Adam. Too far. I was disappointed, but there's only like 5 million homes for sale in Las Vegas, so I kept looking. Last night, Adam showed me a house I liked even better!! It really doesn't top this thing. Nearly 1700 square feet, hardwood floors, fun cabinets, beautiful appliances, I LOVE the island in the kitchen, it's my dream home (at least, from the few pictures I've seen), and best of all, it's listed at $119,900!!! Holy cow! That's so affordable it's ridiculous. Then I went to go see what area it was in (holding my breath that it wasn't in the NE area) and how far of a commute it would be for Adam. Turns out, it's just 20 minutes away from his work, which really isn't bad! However, it's in Lone Mountain, the very NW edge of the Valley... not ideal. I looked up the school ratings and they were fine, I talked to a realtor (who we're not working with, so no strings attached) and he said it's an area we would enjoy. I've looked through probably about 1,000 (no kidding) homes in our price range and haven't found anything quite as good (or as inexpensive). So what do we do?? It's kind of out there... though the land around it has been developed with retail and restaurants, but we're definitely nowhere close to any of the main attractions. Perhaps it's a good thing?? I don't really know that I want my kids being raised in the hussle and bussle of the busy city... but it might be nice to be a little more inland for eventual resale.
Any thoughts?

P.S. Another runner up (but a little further to work)

To Alec

2009-05-16T21:21:00.000-07:00

P.S. If you want to see more pictures, clicky:
http://picasaweb.google.com/ajmorris13/HarryPotterCake

Happy Mother's Day and My Children's Amazing Abilities

2009-05-10T13:48:00.000-07:00

First off, I want to say happy mother's day to all mothers out there!! You deserve a day to just enjoy yourself. Being a mom is DANG hard sometimes. I remember when Hallie was little and so fussy all of the time, I really thought I would have to be institutionalized. I've never been through something so hard as raising that child those first 6 months. Then came Ashton, he's so much better than Hallie was, but it's still 2 kids. In mother math, that's

2 kids ages 2 and under = HARD

Not only are they constantly demanding, they're even demanding when they're asleep because you spend all of that time cleaning up all the messes they made when they were awake. They spit up on everything, a neglected diaper will make itself known QUITE quickly, they find your bath salts and dump them all over the living room, and the list goes on. So here's to you, Mom, for putting up with all of it and remaining completely and totally so in love with your children you can hardly stand it.

That said... I was noticing this morning that many of my friend's/family's children have amazing capabilities. Our friends Jake and Kat's daughter isn't even 2 and is already potty trained. My sister's friend has a little boy Hallie's age that can recognize every letter in the alphabet. My sister's little boy has amazing aim and can shoot (with his all-powerful finger gun) anything moving with impecable precision. I was feeling a little distraught that perhaps I wasn't being proactive enough in my children's development, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized just how talented my children really are.

Hallie

1. Hallie has the ability to desroy all things in her path unlike any other child I have ever seen. She can open ANY type of makeup and apply it directly in every spot of the house that it should not be. She has mastered the chair and it's ability to help her get to things out of reach, and she is even willing to climb to get to her desired weapon of destruction.

2. She can count to ten. Not in order or with every numeral present, but she always arrives at ten eventually.

3. She can make out. This, albeit amazing, is a little concerning. Occasionally, Hallie will walk up to one of us, take our face in her hands, and kiss like she was never going to kiss again. Watch out, boys!

4. Hallie is a natural born fish. Last summer, she had no problems with jumping into the pool without supervision or floatation device. She is truly a woman without fear.

5. She still sucks on a binki! Amazing, I know. I'm pretty sure our friend Jake will have to work on her mouth someday.

Ashton

1. Ashton holds the fabulous talent of puking. He manages to spit up on everything within view at least 10 times a day. This not only makes for extra laundry but for a lovely stench that demands prompt attention.

2. He also has managed to become extremely fat. At 7 months, he weighs roughly 22 pounds, a weight Hallie managed at one year. He seems to be quite content with his size, however, as you'll see in #3.

3. Ashton is probably one of the happiest babies I've ever seen. He's got a smile for everyone in the world and has no problems with being held by anyone. He can bring a smile to anyone's face, no matter what kind of day they've had.

So even though Hallie isn't reading and Ashton isn't even sitting up yet, my children are still quite talented in their own way. Don't be jealous, but maybe someday you'll have kids as talented as ours.

P.S. Thanks, Adam, for making my Mother's Day so wonderful!

I love you!!!!!

The MOTHER of all posts

2009-05-06T20:21:00.001-07:00

This post is going to be an eternity long, just to warn all those who prefer short snipits of information. This post will be more like a novel, so brace yourselves. To start, we moved... again. This time, we went from this...

To this... (or what felt like this)

I miss the family, but I DO NOT miss the weather. Provo is beautiful, I'll take it any day, even in the winter.

Not even 72 hours from when we moved into our new apartment were we on the road again. This time to sunny Las Vegas for job interviews and to visit Grandma and Grandpa. Adam interviewed/visited with 4 different firms and liked just about all of them.

(These were Adam's top picks, now we'll just play the waiting game!)

Hallie and Ashton had a lot of fun, too. The Morris' bought a new camera for their trip to Africa this summer, and it's AMAZING. Zach was running around taking pictures of Hallie and Ashton. Here's some of the goodness...

Pretty fun stuff. Last Thursday was my birthday. Adam took me to dinner at one of my most favorite restaurants!

After some delicious food, we went to a park and just enjoyed being together, alone (this is a RARE treat as we have kids and homework to tend to). Then we went back to the house for presents and cake. Julie got me some beautiful jewelry (which I've worn just about every day since) and my parents got me some adorable shoes, an awesome purse, a WAY cute watch and some fake potted calla lilies for my kitchen! Then came Adam's gift. I really had NO idea what he was getting me, so I was pretty dang excited when I opened up this...

What is it, you ask? This, my friends, is an airbrush for cake decorating!!!!! Ahh, I'm SOOOOO excited to use it!! I just ordered some special airbrush food colorings and I'm itching to give it a go. It also came with a humungously awesome air compressor, so I feel pretty cool.

We drove back home on Monday and we've just been trying to get situated ever since. Hallie is doing marvelously with her potty training (we had to postpone her training due to an accident on one of my mom's kitchen chairs) and she has officially moved on to a big girl bed. We figured since this apartment came with the beds, we might as well use them. Tonight is her first night in it, and she didn't even try to get out! However, it may take some time to get her from rolling all over the place...

Anyway, that's been our last month in a very compact nutshell. Until next time, Ciao!

The Refiner's Fire

2009-05-03T21:29:00.000-07:00

I have a few things to post about (our trip to Vegas, my birthday, our move back to Provo, job interviewing, etc.) but I found out just yesterday that my little cousin has a tumor just below his brain. So instead of writing about me, I thought I would write something for him... and for another friend who just recently dealt with cancer. (I had some issues with the formatting of the first 2 stanzas, sorry about that!)

A new mother holds her son with eternal love in her eyes,

She holds him close, and while she pleads with the Lord, the mother cries.

What will the future hold for her babe, she can only wonder,

As she feels her perfect world has been completely torn asunder.

Four months before mother was to bring home her first child,

the doctor said there was cancer in her neck, not knowing whether it was fierce or mild.

The piercing words of chemo and radiation stung in her heart,

Feelings of fear , anger and despair began to start.

The mother prays fiercely that the cancer will somehow be lifted from her body,

As she feels that her baby is forced to grow in a body broken and shoddy.

Days after baby is born, the chemo treats mother so harsh,

But she knows it is the only way to give her body a new start.

The pain is unbearable, the fatigue never ends,

But daily she feels the love of her family and friends.

The mother, so faithful and true,

Asks how could this happen, what more can I go through?

The refiner's fire seems too hot to bear,

But deep down she knows that the Lord will sustain her in every moment of despair.

A boy, no more than eleven,

full of life and love for all, who knows his Father in Heaven,

Suddenly struck with nausea and headaches,

Is told he has a tumor by his brain, there is no mistake.

The family, so faithful and true,

Asks how could this happen, what more can we go through?

The Lord's ways are not always our own,

But we will one day look back to see how we've grown.

If we can hold on tight to the iron rod,

We will not be forsaken by our creator, our God.

When tragedy comes to your life, will you hold fast or waver?

Remember then, all things are possible through Christ, our Savior.

One PHAT dude...

2009-04-16T19:44:00.000-07:00

Father Morris reporting in. Just wanted to give y'all an update. Tax season is over, I came out unscathed. However, there have been some strange side effects that have plagued my family. As some of you may know, our daughter Hallie was a dainty little string bean of a child. Last time we had her in, she was 93rd percentile for height and 30-something for weight.

Well, with Ashton, we've been witnessing something quite the opposite. Fairly quickly, Whitney and I knew that we had a little porker on our hands, but we had no idea he was such a tubby dude. I weighed him today and he's definitely 21+ lbs of sheer MANLINESS (yeah that's right, can you say 95th percentile? Not too shabby for a dude that's run of the mill for height. I've been looking into local chapters of martial arts, AKA Sumo...unfortunately, Rexburg is fresh out of Sumo dojos. Provo?

So for now, we'll keep feeding his face...hey, he's happy as a clam. He's getting little snapper teeth, 2 in front on the bottom and 2 more on the way (the meat-ripper teeth...I told you he was MANLY).

As for that, we're packing/cleaning again, 4th time in 12 months, yeah! Fortunately this time we're not packing a truck or a storage unit, just a couple cars...but then again, now that I think about it, we have to unpack a storage unit and consequently cars, and then unpack it into an apartment...

On another note, the week school starts we'll be heading to Las Vegas to see if I can find employment. We have DEFINITELY been blessed already in this department. With the Las Vegas economy in shambles, we were quite worried about finding a decent job. But with the help of both of my F(f)athers, we have a few excellent leads/opportunities that hopefully will turn out for the best.

Oh, on another note again, since I've been commuting to Idaho Falls from Rexburg every day, I've had quite a bit of road time. Well, I found this SWEET website called librivox.org (www.librivox.org). Essentially it consists of volunteers who take titles from the Gutenberg Project (royalty-free books/novels) and read them into FREE audiobooks. Some books have one reader, but most have multiple readers. I have LOVED listening books every day. The first book I listened to was The Count of Monte Cristo (thanks Jacob!)...what an AWESOME/FUN/AMAZING/etc story. Unabridged, to be sure. I loved it. I have also listened to Treasure Island (the reader for this one is AWESOME), Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (depressingly "wretched"...if I can steal one of the most used words from that book), and currently about to finish the Three Musketeers (another AWESOME story!). Gotta love the classics, at least I do.

That's all for now. Ciao-time!

P.S. Lest you think I was lying about the progress of Ashton's growth, I have included the latest photo:

Hannah Montana!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2009-04-13T14:16:00.000-07:00

Kelsey and I were WAY excited for the new Hannah Montana movie to come out this past weekend. We went to see it on Saturday night, squealed like little girls when it started, and squealed in our heads the rest of the movie. It was SO much fun!! I just love being able to let go of the side of me that has to be the practical, hard working (but loving, of course!) mom every once in a while and just feel like a carefree teenage girl again. For those who don't care much for the Hannah Montana show, don't bother seeing it... but for anyone that likes the show, it was FABULOUS. I'll be so sad if Miley doesn't do more shows on the Disney Channel, I'm hoping she'll still have some popularity over the next 2-3 years so that Hallie can start to like her... she does occasionally ask me if she can watch Hannah Montana already, and she's just 2!

Ok, maybe not...

2009-04-12T19:57:00.000-07:00

So I took about a two day hiatus from cake making, but that doesn't mean I wasn't sketching and looking online for ideas. Then my mom tells me that I need to make a dessert for dinner on Easter Sunday with all my mom's kinfolk, so OF COURSE I had to make one! This was actually a pretty simple, straightforward cake. The flower took some doing, but it wasn't all that time consuming. Stay tuned for more pictures of the kids!

P.S. I know the ping-pong table wasn't exactly great staging for the cake, but until things take off, this is how I'm gonna have to roll.

P.P.S. We're moving back to Provo in less than two weeks for those who may be curious!

A break from cake

2009-04-03T15:40:00.000-07:00

Here she is! The cake that caused me SO much grief. I had more problems when I delivered the cake, but you'll just have to ask for details if you want them :) I would have recommended larger tiers if i would have known how huge the floral arrangement on top was going to be, but I think she was still happy with the finished look. Even though I love every opportunity to make a new cake and learn new things, I'm glad I can take a break for a while. I need it, BADLY. Visit my cake blog for my other 2 recent cake developments!

P.S. Here's some Morris kid cuteness, just in case you're feeling a lack thereof.

Buttercream FIASCO

2009-03-29T20:41:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I've been conversing with fellow cake decorators on forums and such, trying to find the perfect buttercream frosting for a wedding cake I'm doing this weekend. I was hesitant to tell the girl I would do a buttercream cake (since most of my experience is working with fondant), but I was up for the challenge. I started my experimenting by fixing a cake for Carla, who wanted a dummy cake to take to bridal shows and for display in her shop and whatnot. The first 2 batches would NOT smooth out at all. It was a kind of cool texture, but it wasn't what Madison (the girl I'm doing the wedding cake for) wanted, she wants SMOOTH... like silk... like fondant... except not fondant, ha. So then I just decided to cover the "trial" cake with fondant because I knew Carla was waiting for the cake. So I get it all done, lookin'good (after covering the top about 4 times)... I drive down to Rigby, open the back of the pilot, and what do you know... the top edge TORE from the bumpy ride. I wanted to cry. Because I was feeling rather emotional, I didn't even go into the store to tell Carla what had happened because I was afraid of bursting water works. So I went and bought a big ol' tub of Wilton buttercream. Not the tastiest, but no one was going to be eating it, so it was ok. After re-doing the cake about 3 times to get it just right, I was forced to settle for decent, not perfect. I went back down to Rigby, thinking the shop closed at 4... and then finding out it closed at 3:30. RAAAAAARRRR!!!! I was one maaaad mama. So with all this experience, I have asked, begged, pleaded with instructors on a really NICE, smooth buttercream. A dear lady from New Orleans showed me her blog and youtube video and I was so excited to try it out. I ordered her special flavoring and started mixing away. When I was done though, the stuff was soooooooooo grainy, it was like white sand. I figured my shortening was wrong, but I didn't have time to order the right stuff. So Adam went to a cake store in IF and asked the owner what I should do. She pointed me to a different type of shortening I could find in town, so I went to work again. Again, grainy. I'm pretty sure I was in tears at this point. Fortunately, my dear, sweet husband went to work trying to find a new recipe for me to use that didn't call for crazy baker's ingredients. We found one that looked decent, so I started following the recipe. AGAIN, it turned out WAY grainy. I was so mad, I just went to bed and figured I was cursed. The next day, I really watched her video online and followed it as EXACTLY as I possibly could. FINALLY, I got a decent frosting. I'm not saying it's perfect, hers turned out better than mine... I still have some air bubbles and slight graininess (if that's a word), but it still crusts (forms a crust and looses it's stickiness after a few minutes so you can smooth it out) and the slight graininess actually adds a bit of a shimmer to the frosting. Anyway, keep your fingers crossed for me that everything else goes smoothly this week. I'm definitely taking a break from buttercream after this!!

Cuteness

2009-03-17T12:25:00.001-07:00

It's a little fuzzy, but don't they look so much alike??

Bracketology

2009-03-17T12:15:00.001-07:00

It's that time of year again!!! Time to fill out your March Madness brackets! I've used CBSsports.com in the past, but this year I went for espn.com. Fill out your brackets, create a group with your families or friends, and let the madness begin!! I made a group with my family... winner gets to hang out with our adorable kids for 5 whole hours, free of charge :) Ok, we're not THAT mean. We're pretty excited for the games, we Webbs (including Adam) are basketball freaks of nature. Have fun!!

Potty Training

2009-03-04T11:23:00.000-08:00

I decided on Monday to go out and make the ol' potty purchase. I wasn't really all that sure that Hallie was ready to be potty trained, but I thought it would be good to have around, just so she could start to understand that it was for her, whenever she was ready.
Hallie was so excited about her new potty once I put it together, she would just sit on it while she watched TV (fully clothed). I thought this was a good first step. Then today, I figured I would try letting her run around clothes-less and encourage her to use the potty when she needed to go. I was fully prepared for accidents and many failed attempts. I went about cleaning and later on asked Hallie if she needed to "go". I looked in her little potty and bless my soul, I never knew I could get so excited over urine. She had gone all by herself without any help, or any accidents!! She is now down for her nap (and I'm not expecting the impossible, I did put her in a diaper for her nap) and she's gone to the bathroom 3 times already, no accidents at all.
I know I'm extremely fortunate to have things go so easily, we'll just keep taking things one step at a time. Hopefully, she'll be completely trained before you know it!

P.S. I posted my latest cake for anyone interested.

A little this and that

2009-02-24T12:04:00.000-08:00

So I've been running again, and I'm starting to get to the point where I like it. When I first start, I HATE IT, pretty much more than anything else. It's like a self-inflicted trial, and I try to avoid such things like the plague, so it's basically torturous those first few weeks. Then finally, after about a month of consistent running where I'm up to about 5-ish miles, I start to actually like it! This is where I am now... I have to admit, I'm pretty excited for about another month from now when I'll start getting my runner's high. A marathon is on my list of goals before I have another baby (which gives me A LOT of time, since I always tell Adam that I'm waiting until Hallie can babysit to have another one, ha).
Ashton and Hallie are doing quite well, I realize I haven't posted many pictures of Hallie lately, it seems as though Ashton's getting all the love, so I will try to do better about not picking favorites. Our camera has been sapping the life out of all of our batteries though, so pictures may have to wait.
Finally, Adam continues to enjoy his internship and hate the commute. We're (or maybe just I'm) getting a little nervous for our prospects for work after we graduate, as Vegas has seen a major hit in the downfall of the economy and it's getting really hard for recent college graduates to get jobs anywhere. I know that the Lord has helped us out so much in every trial we have faced together so far though, and I know that He will lead us to where we are supposed to go. What a blessing it is to have the gospel! I would be a nervous wreck without the anchor of the Savior in my life. I'm grateful to be able to feel of His love for me and my little family daily. I know He's watching out for us!

A little bit of Ashtonian

2009-02-15T20:29:00.000-08:00

Well well well,

I've finally sat down to throw Ashton love on the blog. He's a pretty cute little dude, and I figured he needed a little representation on the Blogosphere.

So here we go:

First, little Ashton, watching some Bron Bron:

Here's a few videos of the little guy, he's starting to coo, and gurgle, and smile quite a bit. It's pretty fun/fascinating/amazing to watch as these little ones progress. Seeing a young child smile for the first few times is nothing short of priceless...and then when he/she starts to giggle AND laugh, well that's just a little bit of heaven.

Well, unfortunately, the uploading of videos is not going so successfully up here Iceberg, ID...must be the polar winds or something =]

Linkies:

Here is the little guy, just hanging out:
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/xFMmLF9m4Z0GzpUjwLZzvg?feat=directlink

Haha, so we got Hallie this little toy stroller...this is almost priceless, enjoy:
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/roMwDj84IWFCy7XfwazG-Q?feat=directlink

And last but not least, a little bit more of the wiggly little dude:
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/uoKydOdEJ1DoY3jjSm6a7g?feat=directlink

If this doesn't make you smile, you have little life left in you!

As for me, just doing taxes and listening to the Count of Monte Cristo during my commute (I'm enjoying the tax season thusfar and LOVING Monte Cristo...you can get audiobooks for free at librivox.org). Better yet, I get to spend the majority of my free time with my family, instead of with my books...so even though my time is pretty well used up, it still feels like a vacation.

Quick Update

2009-02-08T11:53:00.000-08:00

I've been a little slow on posting lately... life just seems to get crazier all of the time! We still love living here in Rexburg. The winter has been pretty nice to us and it's wonderful to be with family for a little while. Ashton and Hallie are doing awesome. Hallie asks to play with cousin Tate every day and Ashton is happy as long as he is well fed and rested. Adam's only complaint is the 35 minute commute to work every day, but otherwise, he's loving the experience. We just found out that Adam gets to graduate in June instead of August, which we're really grateful for (hopefully he can get the studying he needs to do for his CPA test done sooner)! We also got to make a trip down to Utah to see the Cavs annihilate (or win by 5) the Jazz and get really frustrated with our car inspection... which we will NEVER do at Jiffy Lube EVER again. Finally, I made a baseball field cake for Nathan for his 10th birthday. You can look at those pictures on my cake blog.

Almost 4 months old! And definitely the cutest boy I'VE ever seen :)

Somehow Ashton ended up in Hallie's doll stroller...

Adam and I at the Cavs game.

Ashton snoozin' while I'm getting ready for the day... I used to do this with Hallie, but she NEVER fell asleep. What a good guy.

Hangin' out with Kels, Nate and Tate and Blast-Off in Idaho Falls.

And we're back!

2009-01-23T13:57:00.001-08:00

It's been quite some time since I last posted. We moved up to Rexburg at the beginning of the month only to find that we were internet-less. I really thought Adam might die. There was no way that he could fix it either, since was a problem with the company. Three weeks later, we finally have the internet back and Adam is regaining his sanity (fortunately he did have the internet at work, so he didn't completely lose his mind). We love it here so far. My parent's basement has proven to be quite comfortable living quarters and Hallie loves having 10 times the amount of toys she's used to. She also LOVES playing with her cousin, Tate. They have become good little buddies despite their occasional knock-out sessions. Adam is really enjoying his internship and is getting some great experience. Ashton is just content with life, no matter where he is (what a champ). And finally, I am really enjoying being close to family and I even got to make my first wedding cake a couple of weeks ago (and I actually felt like it was a success)! I am hoping for some more business and remain a very busy mother! Here's some recent pictures of our happenings...

Another Move

2008-12-30T11:43:00.000-08:00

We had a wonderful Christmas down in Las Vegas visiting Adam's family. The kids did much better than I anticipated, and Hallie LOVED opening her presents. She didn't quite understand the whole Santa thing, but she knew that she was supposed to wait until Christmas to open all of her presents. The toys Santa brought her were a success, she loves them! Santa also treated Adam well with a new iPod touch and Whitney got lots of new clothes :) We got back into town on Saturday and have been packing and cleaning ever since. It feels like all we do is move anymore... and we still have a couple more moves to go (back to Utah in April, then to Vegas in August... we hope). We'll be moving up to Rexburg in the next few days, which we're excited for (minus the wind and snow). Adam has a great internship lined up with my uncle's accounting firm in Idaho Falls, which should give Adam a decent feel for what it's like to run a tax practice. Hallie's excited to play with Tate every day and Ashton is excited to have his own room. We are going to be quite spoiled with our living quarters seeing as it's at least twice the size of our apartment, has a playroom for Hallie, we will be getting meals 3 times a week, and it's all free99 (as Adam calls it)! Anyway, back to cleaning for now.

Mario Cake!

2008-12-18T19:53:00.000-08:00

So I'm on a posting palooza this week... but I HAD to show ya'll my latest and greatest creation for my dear husband's birthday (yes, Hannah Montana is bringing out my inner southerner). The pictures uploaded in the exact reverse order that I meant for them to upload in, but I'm feeling a little too lazy to fix that :)

New Car!

2008-12-15T18:44:00.000-08:00

So Adam and I just made our first car purchase in our married lives. We will be heading up to Rexburg this winter and wanted something that would drive better than Ola (a CAR named OLA, get it? Car-olla... hehe) [Disclaimer: Contrary to some popular belief, the Toyota's true name is Yota...as in To Yota or NOT To Yota...others have called it "The Maggot" -Adam]. We'll also be done with school for good in August and will be needing a second car anyway. Since our family is growing, we thought it wise to get a bigger car so we could keep it longer. After much research, we settled on the Honda Pilot. She's a beauty. Thanks to Adam for finding us such a great car for an amazing price!

The Holiday Hussle

2008-12-14T12:22:00.000-08:00

So this past week has been insane. Adam has had so much to do with school, and I've been at home with the kids trying to pack, get into doctors before we're off our awesome insurance, make a sweet birthday cake for Adam and finish up Christmas presents for parents and other family members. I feel rather frazzled, and I'm really not cut out for the part of motherhood that involves lack of sleep. Normally, I would just sigh and hope that the next week would be better (after a bout of tears). However, it really bothered me this week because as I've been doing all of these things for Christmas, I haven't felt much of the usual Christmas Spirit. Today at church I realized that I haven't enjoyed the holiday season much this year... it just feels like I'm always running on empty, scurrying to get things done. This coming week isn't looking much more promising, but I'm hoping the week of Christmas will be glorious and make up for all my recent "scrooge-ness". As for now, I will try to be more like Tiny Tim and count my blessings, even when they're the ones that demand all of my care and attention :)

Cookie Cutters

2008-12-06T13:58:00.001-08:00

Around the Christmas season Whit likes to bust out the cookie cutters. Well, I've come to the realization that this sort of behavior extends beyond baked yum-yums. Apparently she uses a cookie cutter in other aspects of her life.

Below are pictures of our two little cookies, can you guess of whom each picture is?

Make your guesses on pictures 1-7, Hallie or Ashton?

Adam got 74663D

2008-11-19T19:16:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the Adam Morris edition of "TAGGED"...electronically known as "74663d"

8 TV shows I love to watch:
1. Cleveland Cavaliers Basketball
1a. NBA Playoffs
2. Cosby Show
3. Ace of Cakes
4. Everybody loves Raymond
5. BYU Football (when they're not under-performing)
6. This is a lot of TV
7. My computer
7a. Mickey Mouse ClubHouse
8. I love my Lappy

8 favorite restaurants:
1. Lucilles
2. P.F. Changs
3. Buffalo Wild Wings
4. Tucanos
5. King's Fish House
6. Outback Steakhouse
7. Cheesecake Factory
8. Chilis

8 things that happened yesterday:
1. I breathed
2. Went to lunch with my Dad to Ottavio's
3. Went to Den meeting with 3 little hellions, they're parents should be proud =)
4. Went to the park with Hallie and my Dad
5. Played Settlers:Cities and Knights online at 1AM with Ashton
6. Went to bed before 10pm!!!!!
7. Talked with my wife for quite some time
8. Watched segments of Fishies, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, and Monsers with Hallie

8 things I'm looking forward to:
1. Christmas at home with my entire family
2. Ashton's blessing on Sunday
3. Playing Basketball
4. Preparing taxes full-time this winter
5. Not having to do homework at 2AM
6. When Ashton can smile and starts to laugh
7. Even better, when Ashton starts to interact with us (especially Hallie)
8. Seeing a picture of my face when I get my birthday present next month [clueless] S^)

8 things on my wish list:
1. A motorcyle (a nice Honda Shadow or maybe a couple rides on a bullet bike)
2. A sweet Mario Cake for my birthday
3. Making millions of dollars with my fleet of Oompah Loompahs
4. A decked out, $1,000,000 computer rig...all I want is to play on it for a couple hours, no need to purchase
5. Passing the CPA Exam on my first Attempt
6. An old-school Smash Bro.'s session with Thomas, Jake, and another worthy oppoenent [le sigh]
7. More time
8. A Googleplex of children of happy, healthy children

I hereby Taggeth Thomas, Jake, & Roy...if you so choose to accept this quest.

Tagged

2008-11-19T18:34:00.000-08:00

I've been tagged by Kari! I've been tagged before, but this is my first time actually following through. So here goes nothin':

8 TV shows I love to watch
1. Cosby
2. The Cavs dominating any team in the NBA
3. Ace of Cakes
4. Food Network Challenge
5. Good Eats
6. Oprah
7. Everybody Loves Raymond
8. Hannah Montana (as of late)

8 favorite restaurants
1. Cheesecake Factory
2. P.F. Changs
3. Buffalo Wild Wings
4. Outback Steakhouse
5. Chilis
6. Olive Garden
7. Cafe Rio
8. Baja Fresh

8 things that happened yesterday
1. Got up at 2 to feed Ashton
2. Got up at 5 to feed Ashton
3. Got up at 8 to feed Ashton
4. Actually got up for the day
5. Fed Ashton at 10
6. Fed Ashton at 1
7. Cried because I feel like a cow being milked all day
8. Went to bed and actually got 4 1/2 straight hours of sleep thanks to a fantastic husband who... got up to feed Ashton!

8 things I'm looking forward to
1. Not feeding Ashton so much
2. Ashton's blessing on Sunday
3. Thanksgiving in Rexburg!
4. The holidays... although I have already started celebrating :)
5. Grandpa Morris heating up the pool over Christmas so Hallie and I can go swimming
6. Moving up to Rexburg next semester
7. Ashton sleeping through the night
8. Seeing Adam's look on his face when he gets his birthday present next month

8 things on my wish list
1. That Ashton will start sleeping through the night... NOW
2. Skinny jeans
3. Getting back in shape so i can fit into those skinny jeans :)
4. A haircut
5. Graduating and getting a real job
6. Moving close to my family
7. A cute house
8. No more kids (if Adam would ever fall for it!)

People I'm tagging... hmmm, I'll go with... Shiloh, Breanne and ADAM :D

Artsy what?

2008-11-11T20:03:00.000-08:00

Confession time...
I took every art class offered back in high school. I loved all of them. I loved my teacher and a couple of my best buds were in all the classes with me (yay Julz and Ahdom!). Then I went to college. I knew I had some natural talent, but I didn't feel like I had enough to go into an art major. Julie and Ahdom were both voted artist of the year (and rightfully so, they are quite amazing) and I think I just felt like I could never be as good as they were and I didn't want to feel inferior in every college class I walked into. I was also "encouraged" (ha) to find something that might be a little more promising financially, in case I ever needed to support myself. So I forgot about art. I went on with my life and majored in Exercise Science (which I really do love). Then about a year ago my grandpa and grandma Linda asked if I had done any artwork recently. I told them I had not done anything in quite a while, that life just got too crazy, but I would like to pick it up again someday. From that day forward, I missed it. I wanted to do something, but I wasn't sure what. My dear husband bought me some really nice paintbrushes for mother's day, but I was scared to use them... I didn't know if I was ready to jump into painting after a 5 year break from it! So I've started at the most basic level... drawing. I did this picture for my brother in law for Christmas. I know it's nothing crazy outrageous, but I was happy with it for how long I've been out of practice.

Who knows? Maybe I'll go out on a limb and do COLORED pencil next time :)

Tricks or Treats

2008-11-06T12:42:00.000-08:00

We had a fantastic Halloween! We started off the week by carving pumpkins. Adam and I like to go a little crazy and opt for designs a little out of the ordinary...

Adam's beloved John Wayne only lasted about a day... but he was still pretty cool! Tigger lasted through Halloween, but then started to shrivel and die.

Hallie made an adorable Minnie this year, compliments of her grandmother. She LOVED trick or treating, and Adam even got her to say trick or treat at a few of the houses before she started looking for the suckers in every bowl. Ashton was a champ, he guzzled a bottle and stayed nice and warm in his blanket in his momma's arms as we all walked from house to house.

Adam and I have decided that we're officially a family... and officially old. Not only do we have 2 car seats in the car, a house and a car that looks like it's constantly being bombarded by children, but we also have a child that is old enough to appreciate Halloween. Pretty soon our teeth are going to start falling out.

Finally, no post would be complete without a picture of Ashton, so here he is :)

What a handsome little guy!

Answered Prayers

2008-10-29T11:26:00.000-07:00

I have to admit, I was pretty nervous before Ashton came along that life would become impossible. Hallie was a pretty hard baby and demanded LOTS of attention. I thought Hallie might beat up on little Ashton and try to pick him up (only to drop him) when I wasn't looking. I was planning for the worst and hoping for the best. Thus far, Ashton has been a gem compared to Hallie at this age. He's awake for almost 3 hours each morning and night, sometimes a little bit in the afternoon, and he just sleeps the rest of the time, unless he's hungry :) He's a fantastic nurser and Hallie is so nice to him. She shares Minnie, her blankie, her binkis and even her bottles with him. Our only troubles come when she wants to give him fives, sometimes she misses his hand and lands on his face, but he's been a good sport about it.
We've really appreciated the meals from our ward, Adam's mom for coming out last week, and I'm really excited for my mom to come in today! I've never been a passionate dinner-maker, and I think having my second baby has completely extinguished any small flame of desire to cook anything anymore. I've been watching the food network every day to hopefully rekindle some desire to make dinner for my family again, and I'm just grateful for the service of others so that we're not eating frozen pizza every night! We're hoping things continue to go as smoothly as they have our first 2 weeks... so far, so good!

More Ashton

2008-10-26T20:29:00.000-07:00

More recent Ashton pictures! Sorry we haven't posted much info lately... I'll put something up soon.

World's cutest baby!

2008-10-16T13:11:00.000-07:00

Ashton James Morris

2008-10-15T10:20:00.000-07:00

Well well well...a bunch of contractions and a few hours later, and Ashton (Lebron) James Morris was born into the world. I'd save this entry for Whitney, b/c she is a little more eloquent than I, but she's all shacked up in the birthing suite (it's actually REALLY nice) at Orem Community Hospital, and wireless isn't working for some reason. So, you're stuck with me =)

I'll jump to the details, Whitney started contracting regularly around 9 o'clock while I was playing some basketball down the road. She called me home a little over an hour later and we rushed to the hospital after Jessica & Brad so graciously came over to spend the night with Hallie. We arrived, and some what disappointingly, we found out that Whitney hadn't dilated any more since our last visit (she was a 4+ then). So, we had to wait an hour while she continued to contract so they could check her again. 60 minutes and several prayers, from ourselves and many of you (thanks!), later, she was dilated to almost a 6!

So, they made her official and relocated us to one of the nice rooms. Luckily the anesthetist was already there, so Whit didn't have to wait too much longer for the epidural (for which we were both grateful). A couple hours and a few naps later and she was ready to push! It was easy-cheesy from there. Whitney only had to push for about ten minutes! 3-4 sets of pushes and the little guy was born. He had quite a bit to say in the whole matter. We were a bit worried about his lung development because he's almost 4 weeks premature, but he let us know that his lungs are juuuust fine.

Ashton was born at 4:15 AM of Oct. 15. Coincidentally enough, he measured identically to Hallie (perhaps except his head). He is 6lb 7Oz & 19in long, and he has the cutest full head of blond hair...the CUTEST!

Well, enough of my jabber, here are a few snapshots of the little guy, enjoy!

Awwww, look at the little guy...he's a little upset because mom told him he was 'cute'...not a very manly thing to say to your son.

You can't really tell from the picture, but he was going to town on his fingers!

LOOK AT THE CUTE LITTLE DUDE!

Juuuuuust snoozin' =) ...so far, this is what he likes best.

Check out that blond hair!!!

A little sweet and sour

2008-10-14T12:11:00.000-07:00

So we'll start with the sweet... our favorite word Hallie says is "porcupine". See for yourself (the one at the end is a little better).

Also, I'm off bed rest! Wahoooooo!! It's been wonderful... but the "sour" part of the whole deal is that I HURT like crazy. This baby is putting so much pressure on me that it makes it miserable to move much anyway. I'm getting really close to being full term though (37 weeks), so hopefully this baby won't stay in too much longer, we'll keep you posted!

Oh Baby

2008-10-07T14:45:00.000-07:00

I went back into the doctor both yesterday and today to get things checked out. I told him about my hospital visit and he wanted to do a different test to find out for sure if I was leaking amniotic fluid-- turns out I'm not, whew! However, I am having a lot of discharge that contains a ton of white blood cells. This translates to an inflammatory response which in turn means that there's some sort of infection going on inside of me. The doctor doesn't feel comfortable with delivering the baby now (and neither do we), but I'm going to be watched closely over the next week or so. I just worry about possible birth defects that can be caused by the infection. Keep us in your prayers, we're just a little anxious.

Update

2008-10-03T19:13:00.000-07:00

So today I thought I had a reaaaally slow leak, and especially since I'm so dilated, I figured I'd go in to check it out real quick. I really didn't think it would be any problem, it was so slow and it seems like all sorts of funky goop comes out at this point of pregnancy, but I thought I might be a neglectful mother if I didn't at least find out for sure. So I go in, they ask me about 5,483 questions and then they finally swab me. Well.... the nurse couldn't tell if it was positive or negative. So she calls the doctor to ask him what to do, and he tells her to wait an hour and do it again. So I hang out and then 2 nurses come in to check me the second time. Same results... it was just too hard to tell. So they call the doctor again and just decided to send me home. Before I left, they checked my cervix again and I'm still at a 4, but my sac is bulging out... so basically i could explode any second. So I'm resolving to do better about my bed rest for the next week. I haven't been terrible, but it's just hard with Hallie. I'd really prefer this baby to stay in a little while longer, but it's a pain in the neck to have to stay down all day long. I still need to get this baby something to sleep in too, so it would be nice if he would give us some more time :) Anyway, we'll keep you all updated as things progress. Happy Conference weekend!

Bed Rest

2008-09-29T18:03:00.000-07:00

So I went to the doctor's office today for my 34 week ultrasound. The technician was telling me that the baby was sitting surprisingly low and asked if I had been having any contractions. I told her that I've had more with this baby than with Hallie, but that they weren't painful, just uncomfortable. She thought it might be a good idea for me to meet with the doctor just to get his opinion on the matter. I explained to him what had been going on and he asked if I wanted him to check to see if I was dilated at all, but he didn't seem too worried. I told him that I would be interested in knowing, just for fun :) It turns out that I'm nearly 4 cm dilated!! That's almost half a labor! Fortunately, I'm 34 weeks along so I don't have to sit in the hospital for days, but he did put me on bed rest for the next two weeks (too bad my bed isn't as cool as the one in the picture). I'm sure I'll survive just fine, I just don't think Hallie will be too happy. If any of you have any fantastic self-entertaining ideas for children, PLEASE let me know!