Happy Birthday Sydnie

She had a birthday shout hooray!
You should be very grateful this isn't a video blog entry. haha
Nevertheless...Sydnie had a birthday last week and it was great.  Todd has school ALL DAY on Monday (as in his last class doesn't get out until 9:30 p.m.) so I was able to spend the entire day with her.  She was thrilled I'm sure!  

I made her this headband.

She LOVES strawberry cake so I made her three!

Okay, Okay so it was really just one cake mix divided into three pans.

Do you know how long it would take us to eat three whole cakes?

Probably not at long as it should...but still.

Anyway...strawberry cake with strawberry icing.  The icing was my favorite.

 1 pound butter

2 pounds powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla

8 oz strawberry syrup (the kind you use on pancakes)

I've also made this frosting with raspberry syrup on a chocolate cake

and the combination was divine. 

Please be smarter than me and realize that a frosting recipe that requires an entire pound of butter will make way more frosting than you will need for 1 cake mix (even with 3 layers!).

I maybe used HALF.

Back to the cake...

There is something I should tell you about me and frosting cakes.

I don't do so hot with the sides I'm horrible at frosting the sides.

Notice how there are no pictures of this cake from the side?

This cake had not 1 but three sides, I was destined to fail.  I really should have just left them bare.

I didn't, they looked ridiculous, and Rachelle and I were left with the awkward task of trying to cover them up some how.

Sprinkles.  When in doubt add sprinkles.

Somehow they make everything look prettier.

And candles, 19 haphazardly positioned candles.

Finally, why not throw a butterfly cookie you happened to decorate that day on top?

Ah, who cares?  We're getting ready to eat it in 10 minutes anyway right?

Right!

Happy Birthday Sydnie!  We sure LOVE YOU and are glad you're part of our family forever!

Christmas

You know when Christmas is all done and over and you don't think you have anymore presents coming and then BAM someone totally random gives you a gift that you weren't expecting?

 Ya, that's kind of like this blog post.

I know Christmas was forever ago, but I've been lazy we've been busy hanging out with family so I just haven't gotten around to it.  SOO Merry Christmas!  I hope yours was as awesome as ours!

Check out this SWEET banner that Todd's Grandma made us!  I LOVE IT.  She sewed all of those teeny tiny sequence and seed beads on by hand.  It had to have taken forever and I think it rocks.

Every year on Christmas Eve we make sugar cookies.  I guess technically you could say that they are for Santa, but really I just like to make them because I think they're fun.  This year it was extra fun because Wes was able to help!  He had a blast, and it was fun to watch him.  After they were all cooked I was running around trying to get everything ready so we could leave ... so Todd frosted and decorated the cookies!

I've got to say he did a pretty awesome job too.  The snowmen had faces made out of sprinkles and everything :) 

This is what Santa Clause brought Wes.  A bunch of random things I got on clearance throughout the year, a color set handed down from Mike and Joe, and a set of building blocks Todd picked up, a stocking full of fruit snacks, and some new toothpaste and a toothbrush!

Wes walking in to see his presents in his new pajamas he got from Grandma Hart.  Aren't they adorable?

Wes with his stocking.

Check out how little he was last year...

...and how teeny tiny he was the year before that.  Aww.

Alright back to his year.  Here we all are (huh I'm not sure what that ladder is doing there).

Hey I got some dental floss! Wahoo.  No, seriously, I am obsessed with flossing my teeth.

Of course you'd never know that by how horrible my teeth are.

I'll blame my mom for that, she has horrible teeth too.

Wait, I thought this post was about Christmas, not my dental records.

And finally, Wes opening a present, with his mouth full of candy of course.

OH...maybe that's why my teeth are horrible.

We really did get spoiled this year.

I LOVE CHRISTMAS and usually start thinking about what I want to give everyone in the middle of summer.  Somehow I always seem to forget that we GET presents too, and then suddenly one day right before Christmas I remember and get really excited all over again.

BUT...and I know this is cliche...the best part of Christmas was probably watching Wes get soo excited.  It was great, and I can't wait for Christmas this year!

Happy New Year!

Just a quick update to let you all know we're still alive!  We made it home before Christmas with enough time to set up a tree, wrap all the presents I'd been working on since June, and make lots of Christmas goodies. 

Christmas with Wes was a blast and he even stayed up all the way until midnight on new year's eve! 

Things have been pretty CRAZY since we got home, but hopefully this week things will settle down and I'll be able to give you some pictures from Christmas, a recap on our 2009 and a few goals I have for 2010.