more cupcakes

I have been working on my frosting and I am finally getting the hang of it. For awhile my frosting would just kind of melt - I wasn't getting a thick enough consistency. I made some thicker frosting and everytime I tried to frost the cupcakes I would bust holes into my piping bags because I couldn't get the frosting to come out because it was so thick. I think I have finally figured out the secret so now I can frost the cupcakes with no troubles.I made the cupcakes with the red candies for a friends birthday and the cupcake with the camera I made for a friend that I am taking a photography class with. I love finding little trinkets to use on the top of cupcakes (like the camera) I also love the cupcake boxes that I found at Michael's. The boxes are great for delivering and they make a little cupcake look more like a special little gift.

card class

I taught my card class at the end of March and it went well. The only mishap was Nate getting a horrible ear infection again and Derek was out of town so I had to juggle. It was one of those times that as a mother you wish had a few more hands and a more patient personality. It all worked out however, so no worries.

A few women in the card class wanted to start meeting monthly to work on cards. I think it sounds like fun and it will make me commit to working on cards more frequently.

For my birthday I got a a few homemade cards from friends of mine that had taken the card class. I was so pleased to see that they had gone home and made cards and I felt lucky to be the recipient of their handmade creations

I made the pictured card a few weeks ago for a friends birthday. I love making them but find it hard to find the time to make them for everyones birthday. Meeting monthly would be great for this very reason.

completely out of order- just go with it

I'm going through pictures to see what I have missed posting during all the computer problems. I realize that these posts won't exactly be in chronological order so if it bugs you, my apologies.

The kids celebrated St Patty's Day by wearing green to school and eating their surprise green lunch. The lunch really isn't a surprise anymore, they know that I do it every year. Maybe I should skip next year just to throw them off. I made turkey wraps with cilantro tortillas, green cream cheese and turkey. I added green grapes, celery sticks with green cream cheese and any other food items that came packaged in green.

For dinner we had our traditional corned beef and cabbage. It is such a yummy meal, that we all love, I don't know why we don't eat it more often.

The kids set up some leprechaun traps in the backyard but we got no visitors this year. The kids have plans to improve on the trap designs and see how well they do next year.

nick and mandi

So I better do some catching up with posts. Friday, March 30th Nick and Mandi were married in the Newport Beach Temple. It was a beautiful day and it was so fun to see lots of family. Ron and Ann and family were here. Darryl, Lisa and the kids (minus Meredith) came and so did Dena.

We were all busy during the day getting ready for the reception but all went well. Even though we pretty much kept to the kitchen during the reception it was fun to work side by side with family we don't see as often as we'd like

Congrats to the new couple!

special request

I had a request to post this picture of the boys in their Easter garb. I realized that I did not get a picture of all the kids together - what was I thinking?

happy easter

We had a very nice Easter. Derek had no church meetings before church so we were able to enjoy the morning together as a family. Here are a few shots we took before church.
Derek was asked to sub for the 16 and 17 year old Sunday School class. I made some Easter cupcakes on Saturday night for Derek to take to his class - I think the cupcakes got some of the kids out of the hall and into class :)
After church we spent the rest of the evening at my parents house. Ryan and Katie were there as well. We had a nice dinner and a lot of fun together after dinner. We had an impromptu photography session and this picture for whatever reason makes me smile. I realize it is not a great photo but I think it's kinda funny

birthday thanks

I guess I should start posting about the family again. I had been waiting on the return of the computer but since we have no idea how that will end up I guess I'll just start posting using Megan's laptop.

Thanks to everyone that helped to make my birthday so nice. I received lots of birthday wishes and a very special gift from Derek. He compiled a book of letters, written to me from friends and family. It was touching to read all the thoughts - thank you to everyone that contributed and a big thanks to Derek for coming up with such a thoughtful gift.

I delivered cupcakes to thank everyone for thinking of me on my birthday. For those of you that live out of town just imagine I had dropped off a cupcake at your doorstep :)

The note read "thank you for helping to make all my birthday wishes come true" How blessed I am to have such wonderful family and friends - thank you again to everyone.

find a "best buy" somewhere else

So the computer was picked up on Friday - happy day! (at least for a moment) Derek spent countless hours trying to get it to work properly when he got it home but no such luck. The good folks at Best Buy gave us back a computer that had more problems then when we took it in. We have had a horrible experience with them through all of this and even though we have purchased nearly all of our big ticket electronics and appliances from them we are done shopping there.

Our computer is now being repaired again and we are going on a month without it. Customer service doesn't seem to mind that we paid for a service protection plan, that they have had our computer for 3 weeks and returned it in worse shape, that we spent hours of our own time trying to get it to work when we brought it home thinking the problem was on our end, that they now have it again for who knows how long and we have no confidence at this point in their ability to repair it. We are not bitter though :)

:(

3 weeks today and no computer

stop the insanity

Well, we were supposed to be without our computer for ONE week but that has now turned into 2 to 3 weeks. 2-3 weeks!?!?! You have got to be kidding. We are trying to adjust but it's really the pits. We have 4 email addresses but for whatever reason we can only get to one of them on Megan's laptop. So if you have emailed us and haven't gotten an answer please don't feel ignored - we just haven't seen it. The one email that works is the bakerfam one.

Other then the computer fiasco we are doing well. I will update more when the computer is back and I have pictures to share.

i'm not sure i'll survive

So our computer is now resting comfortably at Best Buy under the watchful care of the Geek Squad. How will we survive for 5 days with no computer? Seriously, I think it is going to be impossible. We have Megan's laptop and our wireless connection so that is at least something but all my graphic programs and projects are not available to me. My whole address book for emails is not available. I started my photography class last week and on Thursday downloaded all my homework photos to the computer and then erased them from my camera - now I won't have them for class.

I don't know that I realized exactly how much I need my computer. The kids feel the same way. We don't have access to homework assignments and such. We'll manage I'm sure but it's going to be a long, long 5 days.

break a leg

It's opening night for "Good Times" our Stake Musical. Good luck to Derek, Megan, Emily and Nathan. I'm working the the ticket table tonight so I am hoping I get to see some of the show.

enrichment night and thank yous

Last night was our quarterly enrichment activity (that's when the women of our church get together for some type of activity) I am the enrichment leader so I have been busy with all the planning and stuff (along with the counselor over enrichment) We started the evening with dinner (a big thanks to my sister in law Gail for loaning us her mugs - we used them to serve soup) We also had salad, homemade rolls and a yummy blueberry, peach cobbler with vanilla ice cream - mmmm!We based the program that followed dinner on this song, My Sister's Hands and had some women sing it. They were followed by my friend Kelly, who has definitely been touched by "her sister's hands" this past year. Kelly spoke of her experience with her girls Emma, Maddie and Abby It was a touching talk and stressed how much a kind word, a hug, or a meal can mean to someone who is in need physically or emotionally.

The enrichment counselor also spoke and she did a really great job. She shared the kind acts of service that are happening everyday in our ward that most of us are not aware of. (she didn't share names but it was nice to hear what sisters were doing to lift one another)

We ended the meeting having each sister (all 60 of them) make a simple card - we had put packets together ahead of time with all the paper cut and with adhesive, etc. We included a stamped envelope and encouraged all of them to send their card to another sister this week to say thanks for something or just to say thinking of you.

Our enrichment committee did a ton of work to help pull the night off so here is the thank you that the counselor and I are giving them. I know, I know, stop it already with the take out boxes - but I love them!

The label reads "it's our good fortune to work with you" and the inside is filled with soap fortune cookiesIt has been trial and error today as I have made the soap. It is a little tricky figuring out when to start molding the soap into cookies - it has to be firm enough to handle but still soft to not break. I got most of them done today but have a few more to make tomorrow. On the inside of each "cookie" we put a fortune. The 3 fortunes said one of the following Rona, Denise and Confucius say (followed by ...many blessings come from service...thank you for all your help...we love you _________) The we love you fortune is personalized for each sister with her name.

Dr Frankenstein

We had so much fun with Nathan in the emergency room a few weeks ago we thought we'd go ahead and try it again but to avoid suspicion we used Luke as the medical emergency this time.

Actually we didn't head to the ER this time since our doctor's office was open but we did have an emergency. Luke was sitting on the kitchen table (don't even ask how many times a day I have to tell him to not to sit on the table. If anything good has come from this it's that he has finally learned the lesson) He fell off backwards hit his head on a wooden bench and ended up with 2 staples.

This is his second time with staples in his head and they really do creep me out - they are so Frankenstein. I can't even stand to look at them. In fact the picture I posted gives me the heebies.

I think Luke was a little bit disappointed this go around because the last time he needed staples it was because he had fallen at Disneyland. If you ever want to be the center of attention get hurt at Disneyland. The minute Luke fell we were surrounded by workers all very concerned about us. I wasn't even hurt and I was asked numerous times if I would be more comfortable sitting in a wheelchair while heading towards the first aid clinic. Of course with all the niceties comes the request to sign official papers that I'm sure read somewhere in the fine print "I swear on Mickey Mouse's grave that we are the idiots who got hurt at Disneyland and it is all our fault and in no way would we ever try to milk millions of dollars from the kind people at Disney" They have to do it or people would be falling all over the place.

But back to my story...Luke was rushed to a local hospital but was thrilled to come back to the park, after getting staples, where he then had the opportunity to go to any store and get a new Disneyland shirt to replace his bloody one. I'm guessing kids running around the park with bloody shirts is not anyones idea of the happiest place on earth - it's probably not good for business. Luke still loves that shirt even now, a few years later. I really believe he was expecting to leave our doctors office on Monday with a sticker and a shirt but the office doesn't seem to have the same level of customer service as Disneyland has - go figure. So no nice new shirt for Luke.

He is doing well and we are glad. It is always scary to have a child get hurt, especially when blood is involved. We hope we have hit our injury/sickness quota now, at least for awhile.

Visiting Teaching

I visit the greatest ladies for VT and I have an amazing companion. I love getting together each month and sharing gospel conversation with them as well as a lot of tears and laughter. I wanted to show my appreciation for them so I put together these little gifts. It's a box filled with a cute candle that says "lucky" and then some chocolate coins.I made a happy st. patty's day paper wrap to wrap around the box and then added a tag and ribbon. It was a simple, inexpensive project - I love the computer, you can do so much with it and a stack of paper. I may try to do something similar for the kids teachers at school and at church if I can recover from enrichment night last night (more on that later)

Thanks for stopping by

Davis and Savannah dropped by for a visit. It is always nice to see family that we haven't seen in awhile. The kids love when they get a chance to play and visit with cousins. Luke loved having Savannah over to share cupcakes with and to play outside.

Congrats Emily or good thing mom is taking a photography class

We now have our 3rd Commendable Cub in the family - congrats to Emily! She received her award for kindness. Emily's teacher says she is one of the kindest kids and we agree.

At the award ceremony I took a bunch of great pictures you should see them. Unfortunately you can't because I somehow deleted them from my new camera along with about 65 other pictures. I deleted about 35 pictures of our family Wii playing session with my extended family- sorry Ryan, there were some great pictures of you killing all of us at boxing. I have no idea how I deleted them which is a huge problem because I'm very likely to do it again. Good thing I started my photography class Tuesday night.

Nate & The President are BFF's

So Nathan and George Dubbya are buds. Nathan sent a Flat Stanley to the White House and got back a letter and a couple of pictures. Nathan is way excited and feeling very proud that he has a letter signed by the President of the United States that is addressed to him.

killing 'em with cupcakes

We have eaten so many cupcakes and given quite a few away the last few days it's crazy. I am on a cupcake baking spree. I have purchased a few cupcake recipe books as well as cute cupcake boxes for packaging when delivering goodies to friends and neighbors.

Here are my latest cupcake creations...rootbeer cupcakes!

These were easy and were a big hit. Take a yellow cake mix and follow the directions on the box but replace the water with the same amount of rootbeer. Add 1/3 of a cup of smashed up rootbeer barrel candies to the mix and then put in muffin tins and bake as usual. For the frosting I used a basic frosting - powder sugar, butter and milk. I thought about using rootbeer instead of the milk but I was worried about an overpowering rootbeer flavor. Now that we've had them though I think I would try rootbeer in the frosting as well. On the top of the cupcake I added more crushed rootbeer barrels - Yummy!

My next cupcake creation was lemonade cupcakes. These were made by scratch and I don't have time to grab the recipe but I will add it to another post. These were yummy as well and I thought adding the lemon candy stick made them look cute - because you know all cupcakes should look cute.

a Snizzard?

I really shouldn't be taking time out of my day to post to the blog but my stress level is rising and I need to take a break from my long to do list for the day. So here are the latest happenings for the past few days.

The boys were out playing in the backyard the other day trying to catch lizards (that is a favorite activity at the moment) I went out to take a look at the little guy they were trying to catch and realized the thing wasn't so small and didn't look like the lizards we normally find in our yard. I ran inside got the camera and then stood on the wall in the backyard so the monster wouldn't charge me and swallow me whole.

Megan named our evil looking friend snizzard since he looks like a snake and a lizard. Derek googled "ugly, gross reptile that scares kids and wimpy moms" and we now think the little guy is an alligator lizard. All I know is that I hope he finds someone elses yard to take up residence in.

Good Times

Derek and the kids are getting close to performance time for our stake musical so Luke and I don't see them very much right now. They had rehearsals last night from 6-10:30. They headed back to the stake center this morning at 8am and are there until 6pm. Next week they have rehearsals or performances the whole week from 6pm until 10pm and then performances the following week as well.

Here are some rehearsal shots. I seem to miss the girls numbers every time I visit rehearsals so I have no shots of them. These aren't the best shots but you get the idea.Derek can totally out sing Sanjia (spelling?) Too bad he's too old to be the next American Idol Nate playing the part of the annoying little brother. How'd he get that part?

For those of you that are interested you can check out the website for the stake musical at http://missionviejostakegoodtimes.com/

For Denise's little sis

I love the website www.stupid.com it is exactly what it's name implies...stupid stuff you can buy over the internet. You never know when you might need bacon band aids or a bacon wallet. Or how about glowing rubber ducks? It's a great place to get the white elephant gift you've been looking for.

Anyway, my sister Lauren just recently got a job at a library - she is a huge book lover. I found these librarian tattoos at stupid.com and instantly thought of my sister. So here you go Lauren...tats for your wild days at the library.

Step away from the phone

Who is voting for him?

A few more cards

Here are a few more cards that I made. I love the elephant paper - who am I kidding, I just love paper. I was going to teach one or both of these cards at the class I'm doing but decided against it because of time restraints. I think these cards are a bit too involved for a class with a lot of people and not much time.

Since I'm not going to teach these at the class I have been trying to figure out who to send them to but am having a difficult time giving them up. I don't know why these two cards are hard to part with but for some reason they are.

If any of you should end up with this card in your mailbox please know that you are loved and that it was a huge sacrifice on my part :)

Oh Luke

Thought I'd update with some pictures of Luke. When this kid is happy he is the funniest little guy. He has got some dance moves that would put professionals to shame. He says things that are funny but are even more hilarious because they are being spoken by a 5 year old.

As I was looking for pictures of Luke to download I ran across this 2nd one and realized that although it doesn't show his face it sums him up well.

Luke can be full of drama, as evidenced by the multitude of band aids on his foot. His injury was not a 3+ band aid injury mind you but to him death was near. Last Friday night when we were dealing with Nathan and the ER Luke's comment was "I don't get any attention, everyone is concerned about Nate not me" He yelled this fact loudly because it was the only way for him to be heard over his excessive high volume crying. It's tough to be the baby in the family and not have all the attention directed towards you - poor little guy :)

I love that in this picture he is standing on a huge pile of crumbs. Luke makes a mess when he eats - always. This picture captures his eating habits so well. This is one of those things that when Megan and Emily were younger moms would say "enjoy the messes, they grow up too fast" I would roll my eyes, think that they don't understand and proceed to clean up the mess feeling tired and a bit angry. I still don't like the messes but I have learned to calm down and recognize that part of being a kid is making a mess while you eat.

The other thing one notices in the picture is the pull-up. I won't go into this with much detail but let's just say that Luke is the kid that is teaching mom and dad patience. We'll thank him one day for teaching us this lesson, right?

He's a good boy and we're glad that he's the little caboose in our family.

Wish we owned stock in styrofoam

It's time to play everyones favorite game...NAME THAT ELEMENT! Here is your picture clue...
Emily has been hard at work on her Atom model and presentation for science. She has had a lot on her plate with school and stake musical rehearsals (she has a few more projects due at school this month too) She is balancing it all really well but I'm sure she'll be thrilled when the her schedule eases up.

Economy Day Again?!?!

Nathan had another economy day at school. If you are unfamiliar with economy day you can check out our previous post regarding the big event. For those that read our blog you'll remember that Denise and Nate had the cinnamon roll fiasco preparing for the last economy day.

This time we decided to steer clear of homemade food and went for cheap plastic toys and suckers - what kid doesn't go for that? We created Nate Baker's amazing bag o' fun. Each bag had a sucker and one of the following games...mini (and we do mean mini) uno, rock 'em, sock 'em rings, or a wolly willy magnetic face thing-a-ma-jiggy. The bags nearly sold out and Nate only came home with 2 out of the 20 he went to school with.

The Birthday Celebration & Target Rocks

I love Target! I was shopping yesterday for some party goods for Derek's birthday dinner and I found this 4 foot birthday cake on sale for $10. It's one of those fan inflated things and it is now becoming one of our family traditions - to be used for everyone's birthday. I found these paper plates at Target and if I'm being completely honest they make me way happy, really they do! I love the graphic on them with all the bright colors. They make me smile. I wish I could figure out a way to use the few extras that we have. Maybe I can scan the plate and use the design for paper.
This picture cracks me up. I realize that it is not the best photograph but look at Derek's face - it's too funny. Too bad the cake doesn't look better. I blew it on the frosting but Derek being the good husband that he is didn't seem to mind.
We had a great time celebrating Derek's birthday last night. We're thankful for him!

Birthday Wishes!

Happy Birthday Derek

Happy 37th birthday to the best husband and daddy. We hope you have a great day and that all your birthday wishes come true.

Is there such a thing as ER lag?

So we spent Friday night in the ER and we seem to still be recovering from the endless hours spent sitting in the super sanitized, soothing green colored room. Why does it take so long to catch up on lost sleep?

Nate was home sick for 3 days last week but ended up back at school on Friday feeling much better. That night he and Derek went to stake musical rehearsals. I took Megan, Emily and Luke to the stake center to meet up with the boys with plans to go out to dinner after rehearsals.

To make a long story short Nate's ear started hurting and within a matter of minutes he was screaming - you know the type of screaming that makes it sound like you are ripping every limb off your child's body. I drove Nate home while Derek ran to the pharmacy for some ear drops. By the time Derek got home Nate was asleep and we thought for a brief, very brief, second all might be well. Nate woke up screaming again and we decided that from the noise he was making children's Tylenol wasn't going to cut it so we headed to the ER.

We spent 3 fun filled hours from 11pm-2am at the hospital only to spend 4 minutes with the doctor finding out that Nathan has pus blister/bubble thingies in his ears. After a dose of antibiotics and Tylenol with codeine we were on our way.

Nathan is doing much better and got a clean bill of health from his doctor yesterday at his follow-up visit. Now if we could just get caught up with sleep all would be right with the world.

Yes, I did take my camera into the emergency room - doesn't everyone?!?!

Hallmark

I (Denise) have been on a card making spree. Here are just a few of the cards I've done. I'm teaching a card making class for enrichment at the end of this month so I have been making a ton of cards trying to decide which ones to use for the class.

It has been nice to spend time creating. Before these cards I hadn't been spending much time being creative. I have enjoyed sitting down at my work area and playing with paper and colors. It's also been nice designing cards, creating them and then giving them to people. Giving them is the best part. I'll be glad when the class is over so that I can share the example cards with people.

Also on a creative note...my photography class starts next week. I am so excited. It will be nice to have all these creative outlets to pursue.

Tear Jerker

Denise and Emily spent the early part of Friday night at the movies. All the 5th graders from Em's school just finished reading Bridge to Terabithia so the teachers arranged an outing to see the movie. The theatre was full of way more kids then parents and Denise thought they might never quiet down for the movie (but they did) The movie was great and both Denise and Emily enjoyed it. Denise hadn't read the book since elementary school so she was not prepared for the story line and cried her fair share of tears. Em didn't cry but that might have been different had so many classmates not been there. If you haven't seen the movie yet it's worth the trip.