Anticipation

I've been baking like a fool over here. I'm making cakes for my sister's wedding and I documented the very last batch of almond, lemon, and red velvet. I have boxes of chocolate cakes in my freezer, but sadly no pictures.

For Tenille's wedding, we are putting bundt cakes on cake towers. Here are the cake dummies I've wrapped in ribbon. Still not complete, but a good portion of the job is finished.

Living on the edge

Westy must have some kind of guardian angel. These two have recently discovered a new little game. Westy sits in his dump truck and Neeley careens him all over the house. He's had more face plants on the hard slate and enough bruises to raise eyebrows, but he LOVES this game.

Gearing up for the launch.
Oh how I wish his face wasn't blurry.

Waiting for her to come repeat.

Tolerating her shenanigans.

Waiting for her to return from wherever she ran off. Waiting, waiting, waiting.

Neeley Turns 5!!

Neeley turned 5 yesterday and did we ever celebrate! We had planned a party at the park and all was looking well until dark rainclouds threatened our plans. We did a lot of serious praying and voila! Everything dried out well enough to continue.

Neeley is our bright spark. She is constantly keeping us on our toes. We love her very big personality and love her ability to hold her own.

I wish I could zoom in. Take a look at Jasey's face in the background. David whacked the heck out of that pinata.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NEELEY!

SNOW!

I know I have been very delinquent in posting recently. No excuses, but I'm just trying to manage the crazies here at our house. I have quite a few pictures to post, but until I get around to uploading them onto my camera, I thought I would just post these most recent pictures of our weekend up north.
Jared and Melissa are good friends of ours from college days and they were so kind to host us for the weekend. About two weeks ago, they had a record amount of snowfall so we thought we would take advantage of it before it melted. It has been years since we went sledding but we loaded up all the borrowed winter gear (thanks Sally and Kristin!) and packed up the sleds that haven't been used in 2 1/2 years.
We had so much fun!!! Neeley was the kamikaze sledder. She was wild!

Hattie REFUSED to wear gloves. URGGGGG.

I know this picture is redundant, but I just can't stop giggling at Westy's little hat.

We still all have some sore bottoms, but it was worth every minute. Thanks Jared and Pyper!

Need a good laugh?

I know Christmas is long over, but this still gave me a good chuckle.

January in Arizona

I love Arizona winters. (who doesn't??) Yesterday was one of the coldest we've seen in a while topping out at a freezing 64 degrees. BURRR. So, to combat the winter blues, Diana heated up the hot tub and all the cousins went swimming. The hot tub looked like kid soup. Kids everywhere!!! Some even braved it and jumped in the freezing pool. For some reason, I didn't get any pictures of the kids in the hot tub. I think managing Westy had something to do with it.

Hattie mid-jump
David telling everyone how things are done.

Hattie in the big pool.

Hattie with Westy in hot tub. He just thought it was a big party in the bathtub!

I think Tristen said it best on her recent post. I love it when my kids love the people I have always loved. Here is a great example. Westy ADORES grandpa. A true love affair. Very circle of life-ish.

(Tris, can you edit this picture for me? It turned out terribly, but I still love it anyway.)

The boss

My conversation with Neeley in the car this morning:

Me: Neeley, what do you want to be when you grow up?
Neeley: I want to be the boss. (pause) I get to be the boss if I'm a mom. I want to be a mom.

We like to raise strong, bossy women over here.