The Maxfield Family Blog

Yarn Geek

2012-01-12T11:27:00.000-08:00

For the past few weeks I find that every time I go into Wal-Mart or a craft store, I'm drawn to the yarn aisle. I have become a yarn geek! I just love to go look at all the colors and textures and I want to buy them all! I've switched from knitting to crochet for the last few projects and I think it is a little less easier for me. The only downside is that I must have terrible crocheting posture because I've had a stiff neck for the past two weeks straight. Drat!

Someone else has been busy around our house lately. I went to get little Miss Brooke out of bed the other afternoon from a nap and this is what I found:
She is standing! And I also included the next photo because I just love her expression. She's probably thinking, "Why are you taking a picture of me instead of getting me out of here Mom?"

We also did a cake last week for Drew's niece Katie, who turned 8 this year. She wanted a grand piano and yes...it played music! Drew rigged up the base of the cake to hold his phone hidden underneath playing piano music. I have to admit...it was pretty awesome! Thanks Drew!

And lastly, I wanted to let everyone know that I have added a new service on my Etsy shop to restore old photos. I think this is so fun and hopefully something a service that people are in need of. So if you know anyone who has some photos that need fixin', send them my way please! You can find it here!

The End is Near...

2011-12-29T14:29:00.000-08:00

...of the year of course! I can't believe it's almost 2012. Crazy how time flies. And with the year at its end that means Thanksgiving and Christmas have come and gone in a whirlwind as usual. I took special note of a line for A Christmas Story this year when he says something about how Christmas is the point in which the entire kid year revolves. Isn't that so true? I had exactly that feeling when I was a little kid. Once Christmas was over it was pretty much time to start counting down the days till the next one. I hope my own girls have that same magical feeling about Christmas.

But let's not forget about Thanksgiving. This year we had a quiet dinner with Drew's parents. It was really nice and we appreciated Linda going to so much work just for us. Abbie and Savannah both had pilgrim hats from school and Brooke was decked out in a turkey onesie I made for her so I made them all pose for a photo.

Now onto Christmas! This year we got to visit with Santa not once, but twice! This is an event which we usually sk because it just seemed to scare the girls so we figured why bother. But Santa was at Savannah's preschool party and at a family party this year. And much to my surprise, there were no nears shed!
Amidst all the hustle and bustle, Brooke has been mastering the art of sitting up unassisted as well as crawling. She gets up on her hands and knees and rocks but then kind of gives up and resorts to an army crawl. Still very mobile! I'm afraid she has reached the next-to-impossible-to-change/dress phase, which means any time you lay her on her back she is instantly trying to roll over and crawl away. It's quite a battle around here at times.Christmas morning started at 5:30 at our house. We were planning on getting up at 6 but Drew and I were both too excited to wait any longer. Technically, Carly had woken up at 3:30 when one of the younger two were crying and wanted to get up then, so I guess 5:30 wasn't too bad. The girls were excited about all their gifts except Abbie was almost certain that Santa had gotten confused because he brought a 3D DS to Carly and not her. Hopefully she will learn to be happy with her bike. :)
We spent the rest of the day at church and then visiting family. A day well spent indeed!
And of course there have been a few little crafties in the works. I made a winter carseat cover for Brooke that is out of a little thicker fabric than the other one so as to keep out those nasty winter drafts.And I knit washcloths and crocheted dish scrubbies for my visiting teaching ladies. Complete with a little note (idea courtesy of Marge...thanks Marge!)

I made little felt owl ornaments to tie on the girl's teacher gifts (homemade caramels and Big Hunk candies).
And I made little ruffle tree skirts for all the girls. This one is Savannah's.

And what post is complete without a cake? My nephew's request this year was a zombie head. He wanted it to have a knife stuck in the head too, but we figured that when we cut the cake that knife would do. And so I give you the Christmas Eve Zombie cake...(He's supposed to look like he is emerging from the grave)

Exposed slimy brains? ... check!

Worms crawling in and/or out? ... check!

Eyeball hanging on by the optic nerve? ... check!

Bony fingers and brittle nails clawing through the dirt? ... check!

I've opened an Etsy shop!

2011-11-21T06:49:00.000-08:00

I've decided that since Drew and I both enjoy digital design, we ought to try to make a little money at it. I've opened a shop on Etsy where we are currently selling custom Christmas cards. We'll be adding party invitations, party decorations like cupcake toppers and things, and also home decor. All things printable!

So if you get the chance, check it out! And be sure to spread the word!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/PattycakePrintables

Holidays & Handicrafts

2011-11-13T12:51:00.000-08:00

Halloween has come and gone and now the hustle and bustle of the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays is in full swing. Something about this time of year just makes me want to make something crafty. While in line at JoAnn's I saw a free flyer for a baby poncho knitting pattern. It was too cute to not take home with me and originally I had the thought that perhaps I could commission my sweet mother-in-law to make it for me. But then I decided what the heck? I'll try and make one myself. So five days later and numerous phone calls and personal visits to my mother-in-law's for instructions and corrections, I ended up with this:
Pretty cute. Brooke is not yet modeling it because I still need to get a little lesson on how to weave the back together. So now I'm making washcloths. I probably should have started with these because they are a little easier. However, you'll notice that it is not even close to square. I obviously need to work on my tension a bit. Hopefully that will come with time.Just before Halloween we went up and spent the afternoon at my brother and sister-in-law's in Idaho. It is such a fun place, especially for the kids. They have two little piggies, a very playful dog, a stream to throw rocks in (see Savannah's picture and notice all the rocks above her head), and a mini truck that made for a great ride up the mountain.

We also went to Drew's parents and carved our pumpkins. Nothing short of masterpieces!As for Halloween itself, it was a lot of fun. Scott and Kelley came over again this year to trick-or-treat in our neighborhood. It's become our tradition and the kids love it!
We also got our family pictures taken at Fotofly. Love!She's six months already. Can you believe it?!?

And we can't forget the latest cake! This was for a baby shower. I made it to coordinate with the decorations, plates, etc. they were using.

A little spare time

2011-10-19T12:00:00.000-07:00

Work is kind of slow today and I find myself with a little spare time. Sure...I could clean the house because heaven knows it needs it, but instead I am choosing to add a quick little blog post.

There hasn't been too much going on around here other than a weekend of sickness that plagued everyone but myself. Don't know how I dodged the bullet on that one but I'm sure glad I did! It was also my birthday a couple of days ago and it was really nice. Saturday we went to a pumpkin patch/hayride and then out to dinner, but my actual birthday was on Sunday. Sunday birthdays aren't usually too exciting, but then again neither are any adult birthdays. Man, I miss those childhood birthdays! But Drew and the girls did make my birthday nice. After church I came home and changed into comfy pj's and just got to lounge around and work on a few scrapbook pages while Drew tried to keep the girls from fighting and made my favorite dinner of rigatoni. Delish! I don't have any pictures of my actual birthday so I'll attach a couple of scrapbook pages instead.

I have made a few cakes this month. The first was for a YW activity of wedding planning. I made a mini wedding cake for the girls to have as a treat. Don't have a picture of that one, but it was a pretty simple two-tier ivory ruffle cake with buttercream roses on top. I forgot how heavy buttercream is and a couple of the roses on the top slid down and pulled the ruffles off. Whoops!

Another cake we did was for Drew's coworker who had a little girl turning 1. She requested a pink elephant on a two-tier and an individual smash cake for the baby. They turned out really cute. I also had some extra cake and make a little individual cake for one of the lady's I visit teach.
Just as a little side note on cakes...if there is anyone out there who wants to order a cake from me but is afraid to ask because I am not "officially" in the business any more, don't hesitate to call! I am still happy to do cakes from time to time, I just don't want to go through the licensing hassle and advertising, etc. It should be known, however, thatI am upping prices a little. A two-tier fully decorated cake (like the elephant cake) is now $50. Setting prices is so hard for me. I know that it seems like a lot to pay for a cake, but I'm usually putting in 5-7 hours on these babies and the supplies and ingredients can run anywhere from $15-20 for a cake this size. I'm just trying to make a little money people.

Speaking of money, we have taken on a night job cleaning an office building to make a little extra. I clean M-W nights, Drew does Thurdays, and we trade off Saturdays. It's not too bad, but it is kind of hard to get used to the late schedule. I usually don't get home until around 11:30 PM. And public bathrooms are not the most pleasant thing in the world! Sometimes I think it is kind of sad and ridiculous that I have a college degree and here I am working as a janitor. But it is just one more way for me to try and contribute to our family's finances and still be able to be home all day with the girls. So it is totally worth it!

Once again, I leave you with this parting shot of my little sweetheart! Brooke is growing like crazy. I think she is only a few weeks away from crawling and she eats anything she can get. Love her to pieces!

We have a 9-year-old!?!

2011-09-25T15:05:00.000-07:00

Is it really possible? Can Carly really be 9 already? She's only one short year from the double digits...talk about feeling old! Carly's birthday was on Thursday and we celebrated by having family over for cake and ice cream. She had a few ideas for her cake this year and finally settled on Wall-E, which I was very happy about because it meant I had to do very little. Drew had already made most of the parts for a donation box he made for work last year, so all I really had to do was the yellow part. Yeah! The flavor was devil's food cake with cookies and cream filling...delish!Another monumentous occasion this past month was Savannah starting preschool. I hadn't planned on putting her in preschool until next year but when we found out that our friend Cambria teaches the 3-year-old class I went ahead and signed her up! The first couple of days were a little rough for her, but now she loves it. I get a kick out of dropping her off and picking her up because she is so excited and skipping around with her little book bag. Adorable!

The beginning of fall also signifies canning season and this year was no exception. My sis-in-law Kelley and I started off with a bang by making 43 quarts of dill pickles. Phew! Hopefully that will be enough to get us through the year. I also tried my hand at apple pie filling, chocolate raspberry sundae sauce, and black peachberry jam (a special blend of my own invention).

Our little Brooke sure is growing fast! She learned to roll over from her tummy to her back and then a few days later rolled from her back to her tummy. She still gets stuck on her stomach sometimes though and that makes her a little cranky. Not quite as cranky as having ear infections on both sides this week though. The poor little thing was pretty miserable! Now that she is on antibiotics I am glad to have my sweet, happy baby back again.We also made one other cake this month for our friend's little boy. He had a Hungry Caterpillar party.Happy fall everyone!

Abbie in Wonderland

2011-08-26T21:39:00.001-07:00

A very merry birthday to Abbie! She turned 7 today and was so excited. She has been asking for weeks "how many days until my birthday?" We whipped up some decorations for the house to make it a little more "wonderland"ish. Fortunately our guests did not have to produce a key or cry a river in order to get through the door.

Now you know it's all about the cake at our house these days. In order to make the Alice in Wonderland cake I had to take the majority of the day off from working. It took about 6-1/2 hours to do by myself (the downside of Drew working in SLC is that he can't get off early to help with cakes any more). It is a little crowded because I wanted all of the elements to show from the front and placement is not really my forte, but all in all I'm happy with the results.

The Rabbit's pocket watch and the club painting the roses
The Mad Hatter's hat, the Cheshire Cat and the "eat me" cookies (note: the "drink me bottle is down at the bottom on the cake board)

The doorknob

Another big day this past week was the first day of school. Cary is in 3rd grade now and Abbie is in 2nd. We are all very excited to be starting a new year!

New Rooms!

2011-08-14T18:34:00.000-07:00

Oh, where to start? We've been pretty busy around here. Drew has been working on remodeling the basement for the past couple of months and the project is now complete! We switched around everyone's bedrooms to try and give us all a little more space. Carly moved out of the room that she used to share with Abbie and into Savannah's old room. Savannah moved in with Brooke to our old bedroom, and Drew and I moved down to the basement. I have to apologize for the pictures. It's hard to get a shot of the whole room with my dinky little point-and-shoot.

First on the list is Brooke and Savannah's room. We searched high and low for a big girl bed for Savannah and lucked out with a find on KSL. We painted the room green (used to be blue when it was our bedroom) and hung wallpaper along one wall. I sewed some simple curtains out of the old bedskirt that went to the crib set and then made some pillows for Savannah's room so that her bedding would match the baby's.

Next up is Abbie's room. We didn't make too many changes here, just moved her bed to the other side of the room and moved her Barbie house in. I also got a dresser for both her and Carly because we were tired of hanging up all the pants, skirts, etc. and now that there was room for more furniture, why not?

Here's Abbie's dresser that I got at a yard sale for $15. It needed a little work.
Here it is after. I cleaned it up ( it had been stored outside for who knows how long and was pretty nasty), painted it, and glazed it. Total cost: $45.

Now onto Carly's room. We didn't repaint in here either, just bought her a new quilt set that matched the walls and got her a dresser too.

This dresser set me back $20 from a yard sale.

Here's the after with a fresh coat of paint and stripped hardware. Total cost for this one was around $45 too.

And last but not least, our room. I'm so excited with how this has turned out. Drew put in a lot hours and did it all himself since I was very pregnant or taking care of the new baby during the process. So a big thank you to my sweetie for working so hard.

These projects have sucked us dry as far as money goes, so I was pretty mad when I couldn't find decorative pillows for our bed for less than $20 a pop. I was able to find the white one for $10, which I was willing to pay, but the other two I made for about $2 a piece. The black one has some ruffles on it that you can't really see but I'm happy with how they turned out.

One of my favorite parts of the room is the walk-in closet that Drew built. He had to tear down the existing wall, move it over a few feet and then build all the shelving in the closet by himself. He did a great job and the pictures really don't do it justice (sorry that they're sideways too).
We also made a cake for a friend of Drew's a couple of weekends ago. It is from the movie "Firefly." I guess the birthday boy is a big fan of the show and one of the characters wears this hat. We hand piped all the knit detail so it took quite a while.I also made another pillowcase dress. This time it was for our friends who just had their 4th baby too. I had a little extra fabric so I made a matching burp cloth.

And the parting shot this time around is of our little cuties. I found this super SWEET hot pink crushed velvet chair at a yard sale this summer for a whopping $4. I bought it for the sole purpose of taking the girl's photo in it. We took a whole bunch of pictures but for the sake of time I'll just post one for now. Enjoy!

Summer in Full Swing

2011-07-06T08:12:00.001-07:00

Although it seemed to take its sweet time, summer has finally arrived! It's kind of a love/hate relationship for me. I love doing fun things with our family during the summer but I also go a little crazy with the kids home from school all day. I love being able to take walks in the warm evenings but hate the heat of midday.

Here are a few of the ways we have been celebrating the summer:

Just hangin' out

Lovin' Daddy on Father's Day

Painting our own nails (can you tell? Notice the legs)

Eatin' popsicles

Goin' to the zoo

Headin' to the splash pad at Liberty Park

Makin' cakes for wonderful friends

Livin' it up on the beach of Bear Lake

and havin' an awesome 4th!

We hope you all are enjoying your summer so far as well and had a great 4th of July!

Brooke's Blessing

2011-06-06T21:02:00.000-07:00

We had Brooke's baby blessing this Sunday and it was really nice. Having so many family members and friends gathered was wonderful. A new little life is certainly worth the celebration! We couldn't help but notice that the circle of priesthood holders was a little smaller this time around though and we truly missed having Grandpa Mackelprang with us. Brooke and her daddy

Our family...complete!

These are the shoes I made to go with the dress. I had to cut the pattern way down and they were still just a little roomy. Love those tiny toes!

Other big news around our house includes the fact that Abbie lost her first tooth! I think that she was a little disappointed that it didn't happen while she was at school because apparently they give you a special envelope to put your tooth in or something, but oh well. She was very excited to hit the dollar store once she received her reward from the tooth fairy.

School also came to an end this last week. I've kind of been dreading this for a while because now I have all four girls home all day. I'm not sure I'll survive, but the girls are pretty happy to be out for the summer. Carly had a big end-of-year project for the Wild Animal Fair. The kids were all assigned an animal to research and write reports on. They made big display boards at school and had to bring a 3D representation of their animal for the display. Carly wanted to do a cake so I had her mix up the cakes and do all of the frosting. She also helped with sculpting the cakes, coloring the fondant, and decorating the finished product. She was happy with the results and said she drew a pretty big crowd during the fair with kids asking, "Is that really made out of cake?!"
Once again I have to part with a few more beauty shots of the babe. It's just too much fun to take her picture! Notice the peach fuzz on her shoulders in this first shot...that is so my favorite! In fact, I better go give her a kiss and a snuggle right now.

Savannah Turns 3!

2011-05-20T16:30:00.001-07:00

We officially have a 3-year-old at our house! Yesterday was Savannah's birthday and we celebrated "Purple Rapunzel" style. Unfortunately I am still not running on all cylinders (perhaps I never really am) and felt way behind on getting things ready for her party. I spent the day putting together a few decorations, wrapping her gifts & of course making the cake. But somehow time got away from me and I wasn't able to really start on the actual cake decorating until 5:00. Since her party started at 6:30 this was not nearly enough time. So needless to say the cake was mediocre at best. But to be honest, she didn't really care. She was just happy to have her cousins, aunts & uncles, and grandparents all there to celebrate with her.

I realized that with my time off from blogging before Brooke arrived, I didn't get the chance to post pictures of Easter. I wanted to be sure and get them up because my mom deserves a shout out. I had intentions to make all three of the girls coordinating dresses this year, but I found one for Savannah that was really cute and went with the fabric I had already bought. So I saved myself a little time by buying her dress. I made Carly and Abbie's dresses and then turned them over to my mom for the finishing details. That is what really made the dresses. She did all the pleating on the bottom of the dresses by hand and I know it was very time consuming, so thanks Mom! They turned out great!
I can't end this post without a couple of pictures of our sweet baby. They just don't come any cuter!

First Photo Shoot

2011-05-05T14:05:00.000-07:00

We had an appointment scheduled for the 14th at Fotofly but they say the earlier the better when it comes to newborn pictures so I was able to get in early this week. And guess what? Brooke was awake the entire time and crying the majority of it. What can you do, right? Luckily they still got some amazingly cute pictures!

She's Here!

2011-05-02T16:12:00.000-07:00

The Maxfield's are pleased to announce the arrival of:

Brooke Erin Maxfield
born April 29, 2011 at 2:36 PM
7 lbs, 9 oz 19-1/2 inches

I was scheduled to be induced at Davis Hospital on Friday morning at 6:45. This is my usual routine so I figured with this being our 4th and all, we'd have a baby around 11:30. But Brooke kept us all in suspense (some of us a little less patiently than others) and didn't make her arrival for a few more hours. She had the cord around her neck pretty tightly but Dr. Bitner just slipped that right over her head and all was well.

Another Daddy's girl, I'm sure. People always ask me how Drew how feels about having all girls. All I can say is that it takes a special man to be so patient and loving. He is an incredible father and we are all so lucky to have him!

Savannah getting a close-up look of "Baby Bwook." I think it's love!Abbie is also very excited. She wants to hold the baby every chance she gets.

Carly is very mature about it all. She loves the baby but isn't all that interested in holding her. She was, however, very excited to have free access to a Coke machine at the hospital.I'll leave this as the parting shot. Isn't she just so dang cute!?! I am absolutely in love with her little ears!

And another bit of exciting news for our family...Drew got a new job! He will still be working for the state but will be down in Salt Lake and getting a pretty good raise. Way to go Drew!

A couple more cakes

2011-03-26T11:25:00.000-07:00

On Thursday my sister-in-law Andrea married Mike (yeah!) It was a very nice wedding except there was a certain 2-year-old that decided to start screaming uncontrollably just as the ceremony was starting, causing me to have to dash out of the room as quickly as possible and miss the whole dang thing!

Anyhoo-- Andrea asked me to make the cake. I decided that it would be less stressful if I spread it out over the course of a few days so on Monday I made gumpaste roses. Tuesday I baked 7 cakes (one of which went straight to the trash as it failed miserably). Wednesday I made 6 batches of fondant and 4 batches of frosting and stacked and frosted each tier. Thursday Drew had the day off (thank goodness) and helped me cover each layer and decorate. The end result was as follows:

The gorgeous bride and groom

The next day was my nephew Ben's birthday party so Thursday night after the wedding we stopped by the store and bought cake supplies and then came home and baked cakes until 11:30 or so. On Friday Drew was also home and absolutely saved my life by doing a good 50% of the cake. I made the frosting first thing in the morning and he got to work coloring fondant and making gumpaste decorations. Ben loves Toy Story and seemed to like his cake as much as any other 4-year-old boy likes a cake.(note that the little figures are toys purchased from the store instead of hand sculpted in an effort to maintain a little sanity)

St. Patty's and More Projects

2011-03-22T18:39:00.000-07:00

We decided to be "extra" festive by having a theme dinner for St. Patrick's Day, so Drew whipped up some shamrock pancakes and we finished off the meal with green grapes, green apples, and not-green sausage (thank goodness).
Abbie seems excited, don't you think? Notice the coat she is wearing. I have to ask her to take that coat off or she would be wearing it at all times. She is such a creature of habit.

Sweet Savannah

Our own little leprechaun

I have to take a moment to brag about my wonderful husband. After going to the grocery store on Saturday (Yes...he will volunteer to do the grocery shopping), he and Abbie surprised me with a bouquet of flowers. So sweet. And they are my favorite colors. I love that peachy-pink! Beautiful!
This is a cake that Drew and I made last weekend for one of Carly's awesome teachers. It was for her two teenage daughters and she wanted something fun and vibrant.
Onto the sewing projects for the week. I decided to make Carly a skirt with some fabric I had left over from aprons last year. It didn't turn out quite like I had envisioned and it caused MUCH stress. My sewing machine was doing so well for a while there that I was actually enjoying sewing, but alas! I'm afraid it is back to it's old evil ways of crappy sewing quality. I know that it is a tension problem but I just cannot seem to remedy the situation. Instead I sew, unpick, sew, unpick, sew, and then give up in frustration. But oh well...Carly is adorable as usual! I found a shirt to match at Kohl's (that place is dangerously close to my house and my bank account shows it) and I made a little matching flower pin to complete the ensemble.
And lastly is a car seat cover for the babe. I originally was planning on trying to match the fabric on the inside of the seat but that proved much too difficult. And after all...the blanket covers the seat anyway so who really cares?
Here's a close up of the flowers I made to put on the straps. Gotta glam it up a little, right?

Nesting

2011-03-14T16:37:00.001-07:00

I guess I'd say I've hit the send phase of nesting. I got all of the closets organized a couple of months back and now I've moved on to sewing. I just can't seem to get it out of my mind lately. I've been working on making Easter dresses for the girls. They aren't quite finished yet but I'll be sure to post a picture when they are. I think that most of my drive comes from the blogs that I've been looking at lately. I found a super easy pattern for a baby dress on http://www.polkadotchair.com/that I just had to try. It only took me a couple of hours one afternoon, which is saying a lot for me because I am not the fastest or most efficient seamstress. Then once the dress was done I made some little shoes and a hair clip to match. Won't this little girl be a cutie in her summer garb?

I'm excited to say that we got a new camera this weekend. We've been considering this for a while because while we liked our other digital SLR, there were some things we wanted to improve upon. So we bought this Sony something-or-other and a portrait lens to go with it. Hopefully this means that I will stop being so lazy and using my point-and-shoot camera all the time and my pictures will be at least a little bit better. It's sad how my brain doesn't seem to retain much information when it comes to photography. I took classes in high school and in college and I'm afraid I always just revert to using "auto" mode all the time nowadays. I just can't remember what all the functions do and half the time I'm trying to take pictures of impatient little girls anyway. So my goal for the year is to brush up on my photography skills and start taking real photos again. If anyone is interested in buying a Pentax digital SLR camera complete with a couple of different lenses, hood, flash, remote, etc. let us know!

And now on the new cakes. The first was a cake I made for my friend's little girl a couple of weeks back. She was having a birthday party with a unicorn theme, so my friend sent me pictures of the plates, etc. and I made the cake to match. I thought I'd "girly it up" a bit by putting toule around the cake base. It looked pretty cute.
And here is a close up of the little unicorn. She's a bit on the chubby side because I used fondant to sculpt it, which I really shouldn't do. But I did invest in an extruder this time for making the hair so that I wouldn't have to roll out a million little "snakes"...lifesaver!
This next one turned into a true cake disaster. I knew it was just a matter of time. It was for Drew's nephew Logan who was turning 1. His mom requested a teddy bear cake and so I tried to make a tattered, well-loved looking bear but it went a little too far. I thought that using Rice Krispy treats for the head would make it easier to sculpt and more sturdy but boy was I wrong. I guess I didn't use enough marshmallows and his head started to crack in half just as we were finishing up. I also neglected to put in a cake board between layers because I thought the buttercream was light enough but again...wrong! His body pretty much collapsed. So in a desperate attempt to save the little guy we had to remove his head and reposition some things on two different occasions. He made it just long enough to arrive at the party and have his picture taken before he bit the dust. I wish I would have had my camera with me. His head literally crumbled to pieces. Whoops! Luckily the recipient is only 1 and was not bothered by his cake being headless. And my sweet sister-in-law is far too kind to be upset by the ordeal either. I think I handled the catastrophe better than might be expected. I just wanted my five hours of the day back!
Notice that countdown in the corner? You might be saying "Oh, only 50-something days left." I'm afraid I don't share that opinion. I'm ready to have this baby already!

Valentine's Day

2011-02-14T13:30:00.001-08:00

Oh the day of love...what a wonder holiday! To prep for the big school parties, we spent Saturday afternoon filling out valentines and attaching candy for all of the girls' classmates. Then we put together these little bouquets for their teachers. They are Hershey's Kiss roses which looked simple enough but caused me a little stress when the floral tape kept coming off the stems. I was glad when they were done and they turned out pretty cute. I just hope they made the trip to school safe and sound in their backpacks. Guess I'll find that out later this afternoon.

I've been thinking about what to do for Drew for Valentine's day for a while now. When Carly and Abbie were young (before they started school) I used to dress them up and take them into Drew's office to take him a Valentine's surprise. For some reason or another I haven't done it for a few years so I figured it was time to get my rear in gear. My mom gave me the idea to dress Savannah up as a Hershey Kiss this year. (I know... it kinda turned out to be the theme for today) So this morning around 8:30 I spent a good solid 20 minutes sewing this little beauty of a costume together. It didn't have to be high quality...just enough to last for 15 minutes or so. Savannah was not all that happy to wear it so there was a little bribery with cookies involved, but it all turned out in the end. Drew got to show off his little cutie to his coworkers and Savannah finally got in the Valentine's Day action.

This past weekend I was asked to make a Gru cake topper for a friend. She was going to make the cake and the minions, but just needed help with Gru. So we decided we would make him standing on a little moon and go from there. I of course recruited Drew's help on this one. We spent our Friday night sculpting him and after starting over a couple of times, I think he turned out great. Can I just say that sculpting with gumpaste is next to impossible? It dries so darn fast that it borders ridiculous. I think I'm going to have to see if I can find modeling chocolate for sale somewhere around here.

Despicable, Xanadu & Peachy Keen

2011-01-30T16:49:00.000-08:00

I've decided it's a little funner if I give each cake an actual name, hence the title of this blog post.

The first cake I did was actually last weekend. It was by request of the birthday girls, Chloe and Mimi. They are Carly and Abbie's best little buds that live across the street. They come over to the house all the time and see me making cakes so I think they were excited when their birthdays finally rolled around. They wanted a minion from the movie "Despicable Me" and luckily chose a one-eyed guy rather than two (a little less work for me). This was the first cake that I attempted to actually raise up off the the cake stand. We made supports out of PVC pipe that we covered to look like feet and then hot-glued the bottom cake board to them. It worked out so-so. He was leaning backwards a bit but made it through the party, which is really all that matters in the grand scheme of things.
The next cake was this last Friday for another friend of my girls that lives just a few houses up the street. She wasn't sure exactly what she wanted so I took some creative liberties on this one. Her party invitation was "Wizards of Waverly" place but I wasn't really sure how to capture that in a cake. Her party was at Classic Skating so I decided to make a rollerskate cake and then added a little magic wand. And therefore I give you the Xanadu cake! How could you combine magic and rollerskates and not come up with Xanadu?! (By the way...hope you all are enjoying the music update).

And finally on Saturday we went to a party for Drew's wonderful grandma Jackie. I won't tell you how old she is, only that she is amazing and we love her very much! :) For this cake we went pretty basic. Drew quilted the sides for me and I tried my hand and making some gumpaste roses and carnations. I've only ever made daisies out of gumpaste before so I figured it was about time.
Here is the close up of the flowers from above. I could use a little more practice, especially since I'm going to be making my sister-in-law's wedding cake in March.
So that's what my last two weekends have looked like. I suppose one of the good things about staying home and making cakes on the weekends means I'm not out shopping! The weekdays, on the other hand....

Two new cakes

2011-01-12T09:53:00.000-08:00

Since I'm no longer doing my "official" cake blog, I thought I would just post the pictures here on the family one to keep you all up-to-date. I have also added the cake slide show over on the right for your viewing pleasure.

The first cake was for our nephew Sean's 8th birthday. It is Heimlich from the movie "A Bug's Life." It was a chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting. The word "Sean" is supposed to look like it is spelled out with watermelon seeds but I'm not sure it worked out quite like the vision in my mind. That always seems to happen to me!

The next cake was for our niece Katie. She loves the Disney Fairies and I found a picture of a super cute cake online that I wanted to try. I cut down the size and had to cut out a lot of the detail that the original cake had, but I think it turned out pretty cute anyway. This cake was yellow with raspberry and lemon cream filling. Yummy!
I hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas and New Years. I wish I had some good pictures to post but unfortunately I got lazy (imagine that?) and used our little point and shoot camera instead of the SLR and the pictures were horrible. Just know that we had a great time and the girls have especially loved all the new video games we got for the Wii and DSi.

Baby #4 has yet to be named. It may be surprising since this is our fourth girl, but we actually seem to be having a harder time narrowing down a name this time. I thought I wanted something one syllable but now I'm not so sure. So far we like Brooke, Emma, Reese, Sloane (is that with an e or without? Don't know), and Kennedy. But the list seems to keep growing instead of getting shorter. Luckily? I have another 16 weeks left to decide. My pants are all getting a bit tight and I'm afraid I might have to give in soon and start wearing maternity clothes. Boo.

Tis' the Season!

2010-12-09T14:27:00.000-08:00

Before I can even start on Christmas I have to rewind a bit because there's some serious catching up to do! So let's go back to October when we took another trip to Disneyland. This time it was just Drew and me and the girls. While it was nice to spend time with just our little family, it proved much more difficult to actually ride things because we have two whimpies amongst us. Carly and Abbie refused to ride Tower of Terror, Splash Mountain, Thunder Mountain Railroad...and the list goes on! Hopefully when we go again in a couple of years they will have a more "adventurous" attitude.
Drew and the girls on our first day at the park. It rained in the morning but cleared up after the first hour or so. The Halloween decorations are so fun!
Mr. Toad's Wild Ride is my daddy's favorite so I had to get a picture there for him. (Here you go, Daddy-O!)
Don't you just love this one? Could that little face hold any more joy? Savannah had a great time on the rides. She loved this one in Bug's Life and also the Casey, Jr. train. In fact, we had a hard time convincing her to get off when the ride was over.

So next up is Halloween itself. I was a bit of a slacker and didn't actually make a single piece of the girls' costumes this year. However, we did have a family night carving pumpkins. Here are the results:

Baby #4 is doing great. We have received confirmation that it is indeed another girl. No too much of a surprise, right? I suppose our house is just meant to be full of drama. I just hope Drew can hold out! This ultrasound was actually done at 13 weeks and I am now 18 weeks, but I thought it was a good one. Isn't it amazing how far technology has come? Just look at those little arms and legs!

And that brings us up to the present...ah Christmastime! How I love it! I love everything about it...the music, the smells, the food, the shopping, and of course the spirit. This year has been the year of the advent. I have always loved advent calendars and wanted one for a long time. This year I bought this little premade one and we have filled all the drawers with either candy or an activity to do together as a family.
This next one I saw on a blog and had to make one. Each of the pockets has a different ornament to take out and hang on the tree to decorate it. It's been a lot of fun to sew all the little ornaments, although I am not quite done yet. I only have four more to go and I figure as long as they are in there by the time the date comes up I'll be fine. The girls have been trading off who gets to open which advent each day and Savannah just empties them all out and eats whatever candy she can find when no one is looking! We are super excited for Christmas and spending time with our families and friends. We hope you all have a happy holiday season too!

It's official!

2010-10-06T14:54:00.000-07:00

We are expecting baby #4 on May 5th. I'm feeling pretty much the same as last time, so my bets are on another girl. But to be honest that is fine with us. What on earth would we do with a boy?

It's Great to be Eight!

2010-09-29T13:34:00.001-07:00

Our little Carly has officially turned 8! Hard to believe how quickly time goes by. It was her year to have a friend birthday party (we try to ration those out at our house to spare my sanity) and she has had a plan in the works since last October! That's right, October of 2009. That is when we went to Disneyland for the second time and she was tall enough to ride "Indiana Jones." She loved it and soon thereafter started planning an Indiana Jones birthday party.

When everyone arrived we decked them out in an Indy hat, messenger bag for collecting various treasures, and a licorice whip. Aren't they cute? Too bad my girls have such a difficult time keeping their eyes fully open for photos!

Hidden in one of their bags was the first clue for the treasure hunt. It said something about splitting into teams and making mummies. So we split them into three different groups, gave them each a roll of toilet paper and had them race to see who could create their mummy fastest and find the clue. It turns out that buying the cheapest toilet paper you can find is not the best idea for this game because it kept tearing. Whoops!Next they did a holy grail relay where they had to take turns dipping the grail into the snake pit to fill it with water and then run the water over to a bucket. The idea was that they had to fill the bucket so full that the bad guy (Drew) would drop it and release their next clue. This clue was cut into a puzzle so they had to put that together first and then move on.

They had to go to the archaeology dig to search for the next clue and also some treasure rocks! We made them by wrapping little prizes in tissue paper, then in tin foil, dipping it in plaster of Paris, and then spraying them gold. The kids had to hit the rock on the ground to crack them open and find out what prize was inside!
The last clue sent them back inside the house where they had to search through three dishes at the banquet (monkey brains, snake guts & eyeball soup) to find the golden idols.
It all wrapped up with presents and cupcakes. Drew made little snakes, whips, and Indy hats as toppers and they turned out really cute. After all the kids went home we pretty much headed straight out the door to go have dinner at the Mayan with grandma, grandpa, great-grandma & cousin Mekenzie. It fit the theme quite nicely and was a great way to end the day!We're so proud of Carly. She is such a kind, responsible, and mature little girl! She will be getting baptized on the October 9th and we can't wait for that day!

Farewell to summer!

2010-08-23T14:21:00.000-07:00

Summer really flew by this year. We've kept pretty busy. We've gone on a few trips, attended several funerals, gone on lots of fun activity days with cousins, done a remodel of sorts, started a new business, and now are starting a new school year. Phew! So I thought I would post a few pictures of said events.
In July we went to Jackson Hole and Yellowstone for a quick trip. We stayed at the Lake Yellowstone Hotel which was really nice and had a beautiful lake view but the girls much preferred the Motel 6 in Jackson because it had a TV and a pool. This was a historic trip to Yellowstone for me because after going there at least 6 or 7 times this was the first time I saw a bear! Yeah! It was a young grizzly grazing just to the side of the road. So awesome!During the summer we always have activity days with the cousins and Grandma on Drew's side. This picture was when we toured the Sweet's Candy factory. I couldn't resist getting a shot of everyone in those stylish hair nets!
This was our last activity day for the summer and it was a trip to the Treehouse Museum in Ogden. Abbie and her cousin Katie were very convincing as doctors while they sorted through and studied various x-rays.

This summer we also "remodeled" our kitchen. Most of it was just with paint and color changes but the biggest change was the floor. It all started with this antique buffet I bought off KSL.And if you're going to paint a buffet, you might as well paint your whole kitchen, right? So here are some before and after pictures of the kitchen. This is what it looked like when we first moved in:Here it is after our first paint job:
And here is what it looks like now!So clean (or at least from far away) and bright! And as for the buffet, we spruced it up with a new coat of paint, bead board on the sides, fabric decoupaged on top and new hardware!And that brings us to this morning when it was time to head back to school. Carly is starting 2nd grade and Abbie 1st grade. It's hard to believe they are getting so big!Happy back to school and farewell to summer everyone!

Rodents of Unusual Size

2010-06-21T09:17:00.001-07:00

The other night after the girls had gone to sleep I opened the refrigerator to quite a surprise. Apparently we have an infestation of Rodents of Unusual Size in our house and they found the block of cheese! I think this particular ROUS' name might rhyme with fabbie. I could have died laughing because it wasn't just one little nibble, there was a whole corner of the block missing! Yes....I really do feed my children!

Abbie's dance recital was a few weeks ago. Unfortunately we got there a little late for a good seat. It was packed! So I was watching the wrong little girl for a while because I am blind. Luckily Drew recorded it with the zoom so I was able to actually watch Abbie perform the dance later when we got home. She did a wonderful job and now we are glad dance class is over and I don't have to drive back and forth any more!

This is Abbie with her cousin Katie who was in the same class. I told them to strike a dance pose and this is what I got.

Last week we had a picnic dinner in the park followed by the second tennis lesson for the girls courtesy of their dad. So fun to watch! They are both actually doing a really good job. They might have lucked out and not inherited their mother's complete lack of coordination and athletic skill after all.

We have a little panty snatcher in our house. Savannah likes to raid the girls' closet and put on as many pairs as she possibly can at once. This girl is crazy. She keeps us laughing for sure!
And finally, we went on a trip to the zoo with the Maxfield cousins. It was a perfect day for it (only in the 60s) and the girls had a lot of fun. Savannah especially liked the tigers. She would watch them walking along the fence and point and say "Yook! A tiga!" and then growl at it. We also loved seeing the baby elephant eating strawberries and playing with a tree branch.
The first weeks of summer have been treating us well. I quit my job at IHC (not long-lived I know) but I am happier and much less stressed now that I'm back to 20 hours a week instead of 40. Drew is still plugging along at work. He is turning the big 33 on Tuesday so wish him a happy birthday if you get the chance. The girls seem to fight all the time and might drive me insane before the summer is over but I'm going to try to hang in there!

A cake blog

2010-05-30T16:28:00.001-07:00

I have started a new blog to display my cakes and for "business" purposes. Check it out at :
http://acakegirl.blogspot.com/

My Baby is Two!

2010-05-20T07:48:00.000-07:00

Savannah's birthday was yesterday. I can't believe my baby is 2! She is so much fun right now. Her little voice just melts my heart and she says the cutest things. Some of my favorites include "ah peem" for ice cream, "wub you" for love you and "danna" for Savannah.

We had a little party with family. For some reason, when my girls turn 2 they do not enjoy having "Happy Birthday" sung to them and Savannah proved to be no different. She had a little pout on her face and looked like she might cry. But she thoroughly enjoyed the rest of her party, especially getting to be outside!

Here she is riding her new tricycle from Grandma and Grandpa Maxfield. I'm hoping she'll get the pedaling concept down one day as well as steering. Right now she just sits and enjoys a good coast down the gentle slope of the driveway.

Here she is actually smiling (a fairly major accomplishment when it comes to picture taking) with her birthday balloons.

Here is her birthday cake. She loves monkeys and Nemo so I opted to make the monkey cake. It was Neapolitan with layers of white and chocolate cake and a strawberry mousse filling. I nearly lost it when party attendees started saying they didn't want any cake. WARNING: If you come to a birthday party at my house and I've spent 6 hours making the cake, you will be having a piece! ;)

Another event these past couple of weeks was Savannah's hernia repair. She had a ventral hernia just above her belly button. It was very small and didn't really bother her so the surgery was elective. But the surgeon told me that if it was his daughter he would have it repaired now in case it became a problem when she got older and young children heal so much faster. We decided to go ahead and have it done now before it would be too traumatic for her. Things went really well. We had it done at the new Primary Children's wing of Riverton Hospital. They were so good with her. She got to play with lots of new toys and they gave her a mild sedative before they even took her back in the wagon to the operating room. I had envisioned something much more dramatic like her screaming and crying and reaching for me as they walked away down the hall. I'm so glad things went well. The nurses were amazed at how well she came out of the anesthesia. She as actually pretty happy when she woke up, which is more than I can say for her waking up from her nap every day!

Here she is in her hospital jammies with Daddy. They were a little big for her and she looked so stinkin' cute!

And finally, I thought I would post a picture of another cake I did last week. This was for my friend Lindsay's little boy who was also turning 2. It turned out okay, although a little crooked and bumpy for my liking. If you know anyone in the market for a cake I'm trying to start up a little biz so spread the word. I'm doing two-tiers like this for $40 or shaped cakes for $50. (Sorry for the shameless self-promotion. I've got to get started somehow, right?)

My First Wedding Cake

2010-05-06T10:50:00.000-07:00

After days of stressing out and 12 hours of standing on my feet (not all at once mind you), I present to you my first wedding cake!Ta Da! I'm really happy with how it turned out. I was pretty worried for a while there. I've never made gumpaste flowers before and it's probably not a good idea to try something for the first time on a wedding cake, but oh well! The bottom layer is french vanilla cake with raspberry filling, the middle layer is chocolate with still more chocolate filling, and the top layer is lemon cake with a lemon pudding and cream filling. I hope it tastes good. It weighs probably 35 pounds or so. But the best part about it in my opinion is that it is done! YEAH!!!

Dropped off the face of the Earth?

2010-04-13T15:30:00.000-07:00

It's been quite a while since I've done a post. I'm going to blame it on being ridiculously busy as of late! I decided to apply for another transcription job with IHC and was kind of surprised when I got the job. It was quite a process. I had to go to training in Salt Lake the first week and then had to work up at McKay-Dee Hospital until I achieved their required level of speed and accuracy. They told me to plan on at least 2-4 months. This stressed me out to all extremes because it meant I had to find babysitters, and the fact that I have a todder, a morning kindergarten, and an all-day 1st grader only complicated the matter. I eventually was able to line up multiple babysitters every day for my various little ones and I must give an enormous THANK YOU to all of you that were able to help out! I so appreciate it! I had sitters lined up for all of March and April hoping that I could get the training done in 2 months instead of 4. Luckily, I was able to go home after just 1 month! Yeah! So now I am trying to get used to a set schedule working 24 hours for IHC each week, 20 hours or so for MDSI, and and hour or two for the Department of Health. Balancing 3 jobs, 3 kids, and 1 hubby has not been easy and I'm hoping to get the hang of it soon. As far as the fam, we are all doing well.

Savannah is talking like crazy which we all love. She is quite possibly the most polite toddler I know, always saying "deet do" (thank you) for everything and anything.

Abbie is gearing up for her big dance recital in May. I think she will be mostly excited to not have to go to dance class anymore and I'll be glad to not have to drive her!

Carly is busy doing extra chores to earn a "build a bear," so if anyone needs anything done, give her a call! Both she and Abbie have become quite efficient at scooping dog poop!

Triumph & Tragedy

2010-01-11T11:21:00.001-08:00

DISCLAIMER: Please do not be alarmed by the title of this blog post. No physical harm or injury has befallen any members of our household.

So it's been a crazy week! Drew's sister Kelley asked me to make cakes for her cutie kids because they were going to have a combined birthday party. She let me have free reign with the design of the cakes, only specifying that they should go along with the carnival theme. So the first dilemma was deciding on what they should look like. We had already done a carousel cake for Abbie's birthday carnival, so that was out. So after much searching and about 9 hours of baking and decorating here's what I came up with:
Sean got a chocolate "hotdog" cake with peanut butter filling (quite delicious if I do say so myself)

And Katie got a berries and cream "hamburger" cake.

So the cakes were the triumph of the week (mostly because I finished them on time and don't have to stress about them anymore) and now for the tragedy.

While make the cakes on Friday I had taken off my wedding ring and placed it on the paper towel holder because I didn't want to get sticky fondant and nasty food coloring all over it. I didn't think about it until that night at the party and made a mental note to self that I should put it on when I got home. Well my brain really is not working right lately and I can't seem to retain thoughts and/or information for more than about 45-60 seconds, so needless to say when I got home I forgot all about my ring.

The next morning was Saturday and so we all got to work cleaning the house. I had cleaned the kitchen and hadn't even thought to look for my ring. One of the last things to clean was the kitchen table and there was a vase of old roses that needed to be dumped out. So Drew threw away the roses and I dumped the nasty water and the few remaining leaves down the drain. I flipped on the disposal and

GGGRAAGHHROARAAAAARAUGGGGRRRH!

"That sure doesn't sound right," I said as I flipped off the switched. I figured it must be some cooking utensil or something because this is not the first time we have heard that sound in our house, but as I reached down into the drain and closed my fingers around the mostly round object, my heart sunk. I lifted it out and glimpsed at it for only half a second before I couldn't look any more. It was my wedding ring. And it was not in good shape. I held it my hand and instantly started to cry. "It's my ring!" I gasped as Drew came over, asking to see it. It took a minute but I was finally able to open up my hand and closely inspect the damage. Sweet Drew just gave me a big hug and let me cry into his shoulder. He is so wonderful! I LOVE THAT MAN! He was very understanding. I honestly have no idea how it got down the drain. Although the paper towel holder is next to the sink, it is still a good 11 or 12 inches from the edge so it must have gotten knocked into the sink by something. Guess I'll never know. So here's the damage:

These pictures really don't do it justice. The ring isn't even round any more. The gold is completely chewed up and five of the small inlaid diamonds from one side are gone. I just thank my lucky stars that the center diamond is still there!

We went to the store Drew bought the ring from but unfortunately they do not have the same setting. It's been over 10 years since he bought it and it seems as though things in the jewelry biz have gone up in price (if you can imagine). To get a setting similar to mine will cost us about $850. Holy crap. That one's going to have to wait a while. In the meantime I have purchased a $7 fake ring from Kohl's to fill the gap on my left hand.

Well there you have it....my triumph and tragedy...at least for this week anyway.

A Very Merry Christmas

2009-12-31T10:46:00.001-08:00

We had a fabulous Christmas this year and hope that everyone else did too. I will apologize in advance about the pictures in this post. I got a new point and shoot camera for my birthday and while it takes pictures much more quickly than my old one (which is why I wanted a new one in the first place) I can't seem to take a single picture without blurring it. I'll have to work on that or stop being so lazy and just pull out the SLR camera instead.

Here are the girls making the annual batch of sugar cookies. This is usually only an annual event because it is such a hassle! So many things have to be done at the same time and it stresses me out. But the girls loved it and I loved the results (trust me...I ate more than my fair share!)

We bought a gingerbread house kit for the first time this year and the girls had a lot of fun putting it together. I thought it would make a lovely display for the holiday season but it only lasted one day before Abbie couldn't take it any longer and started eating it.

Christmas morning highlights included a Nintendo DS for Carly and Abbie, an over the range microwave for Drew and Wendy and a water baby for Savannah.
Savannah with her baby. She is a very good Mommy. She has also started saying "baby" very clearly in the last couple of weeks and it is so cute. We love her sweet little voice!The girls also each got a Zhu Zhu pet. Santa must have gotten caught up in the frenzy of the retail world this year...after all, those little babies were hard to find!

And in parting I leave you with a snipet of the Maxfield family Christmas Eve celebration of playing Lego Rock Band. What a talented group!

Disneyland & Halloween

2009-11-03T11:27:00.001-08:00

We've been planning a trip to Disneyland with Drew's entire family for several months now but we kept it as a secret from the girls until the morning we left. They thought we were loading them into the van at 6 AM to go get pumpkins but then when we got to grandma's we told them where we were really going. They were as excited as my children get (no squealing and jumping up and down like I'd hoped for) but excited nonetheless.

Carly, Savannah & Abbie in their ears

The cousins waiting in line to meet Minnie Mouse

Our family in the must-have photo location for Halloween time. One of my favorite parts was that you could go and meet the Disney villains in addition to the usual characters and princesses. We saw Jafar, the Queen of Hearts, the hag from Snow White, the Queen from Snow White and Captain Hook.

We spent a total of five days in California and were at Disneyland most of the time. We were with Scott and Kelley who are pro Disneyland attendees and they taught us a few good tricks like staying at a hotel across the street and going to grocery store to stock up on Lunchables, snacks and drinks to save some money in the park. While there were opportunities to rest and wait while others went on rides, during meals and shows, etc. We still did a lot of walking around and as you can see from the picture below it wore us out!

Thank goodness for double strollers!

We had a great time with Drew's family. I'm hoping it does not spoil the girls too much that we went two years in a row. I've told them several times that we will not be going again next year and that we are very lucky to have been able to go with the Maxfield family this year.

As for Halloween we had a great one this year. We went to a couple of parties on Friday night so Drew and I dressed up as Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf. I'm not really one for making costumes so I let the girls pick theirs out early in the month and told them that there could be no changing of minds. Luckily they were still happy about their choices by the time Halloween rolled around.

Carly the devil

Abbie the angel

As for Savannah's costume, I did put this one together and I'm not sure that was such a good idea. It caused more stress than it was worth. She is supposed to be a peacock in case you can't tell. She had a little tail which does not really show in the picture. But she did look very cute. Too bad that feathers were flying everywhere as the costume slowly fell apart that night!
I love this picture! Drew had been testing out his mask with Savannah for a couple of days and she would never go to him when he was wearing it. She did get to the point, however, that she would push his nose in. I guess that was her way of tell that Big Bad Wolf that he wasn't so tough!

We have a 7-year-old!

2009-10-12T12:25:00.000-07:00

Time certainly seems to be flying by these days. I remember the first time I held Carly in the hospital and thinking "It's a little me." Now she is 7! She was very excited for her birthday. All the family came over to open gifts and have cake and ice cream. Since Carly is very much into all things girly, we decided to do a purse cake this year (thanks to inspiration from my amazing cousin Becky). I think it turned out pretty well. At least it wasn't falling over...that's an accomplishment. With each cake I make I learn something new and hopefully I'll have the process down one day and it won't take me an entire afternoon to put one together.
With this cake I also decided that I ought to try and make it tasty too. Usually it is just a store cake mix and I focus all my attention on the outward appearance. So Carly's cake was chocolate pudding cake with cream cheese and raspberry filling covered with a THICK layer of yummy chocolate buttercream. Delicious if I do say so myself!

Something's missing and television debut

2009-09-16T10:16:00.001-07:00

Wow! Three posts in the month of September? I'm on fire! So much to tell....

After weeks, possibly months, of wiggling and wriggling Carly finally lost her first tooth! She was so excited. She kept asking how it was going to fall out and Drew would tell her that she needed to push and pull on it until she heard snapping and it hurt. I always quickly jumped in and told her that that was not necessary and the tooth would come out when it was ready. By the end of last week it was getting ridiculously loose (wasn't even sitting straight in her mouth anymore) so I recommended that she eat an apple. Sure enough, a couple of bites into it she exclaimed "My tooth just came out!" She proudly displayed her bloody little fingertip but there was no tooth. "Where is the tooth?" I asked. "Oh it fell out on the carpet somewhere," she responded rather nonchalantly. Luckily Drew found the tooth. So we were going to tuck the tooth into a little pouch to put under her pillow that night but got too busy and forgot. Fortunately she had put the tooth in an empty mason jar on the kitchen table for safe keeping so Drew suggested that the "Tooth Fairy" just leave the money there. The next morning Carly was pleased and surprised to find a dollar in the jar instead of her tooth. She later told us "I think I heard a jar opening last night" which of course was not true because she was sound asleep but I thought it was kind of funny anyway.

And now on to GTU, which for those of you who are not avid watchers stands for a local show called "Good Things Utah." I record this show every day and have for at least the last six and half years. I never miss it. Last week they did a call out for anyone who needed help finding jeans that fit to go shopping with Alicia Richmond from Chic on a Shoestring. So I sent her an email complaining about my flat butt/small gut problems. Much to my surprise I was one of the ladies picked for the segment. I met with Alicia at Fashion Place mall for a rather rushed and not quite as informative as I had hoped shopping trip. She basically just picked out a few pairs of jeans for me to try on for her and then went out and pick a top to go with it. I did get to help a little with the selection of shoes because I had to make sure she did not choose peep toes. That would have had viewers flipping channels for sure! My toes are HIDEOUS! So it was a semi-fun shopping trip. Unfortunately she picked out $178 jeans, an $80 cardigan, a $20 tank top, $38 earrings, and I don't even know how much the shoes were. So needless to say, I did not purchase the outfit. It was just on loan.

Alicia was going out of town and so we filmed the segment on Tuesday even though it will not air until tomorrow (Thursday the 17th 10-11 AM on channel 4 for those of you anxious to watch). Being on the set was a lot of fun. After watching the show for so many years it was crazy to see how small it actually is. Things definitely look bigger on camera...including people. The hostesses are all stick skinny! So I can't wait to see how big I look...probably cow or buffalo sized! They did not give us much direction on what to do like whether we should smile, hold still, keep our hands down, etc. I was wearing pretty high heels (which I do not do very often) and so my legs were shaking a little when I tried to hold still for the camera. I could see them panning down on my legs and I just hope that you can't see them shaking!

All in all it was a really fun experience. It was something I have never done before and will probably never do again.

Music!

2009-09-08T13:57:00.000-07:00

I'm trying to distance myself as far away from my kitchen table as possible right now. My sweet little Abbie thought it might be a good idea to carve a picture into our kitchen table using metal scissors. These marks aren't coming out folks. SERENITY NOW!

As per usual, I am about two years behind when it comes to technology and have just gotten around to creating a playlist. This means (for any of you further behind than me) that you get to listen to some fab tunes whenever you read this blog. So enjoy!

And here's a quick tip for any of you struggling with storage space as we do around here. I just went to Wal-Mart this weekend and bought a few low-profile boxes to put toys in and store under the girls' beds. I know that some of you may already be utilizing this often overlooked space but if not than I highly recommend it. Now the shelves in the toy room are only moderately crowded. (sigh of relief)

The Big 5 and Back to School

2009-09-01T08:34:00.000-07:00

The last few weeks have been quite busy at our house. Abbie turned 5 and she got to have a friend party this year. Since I didn't really want to make two separate cakes or plan two separate parties, we combined friends and family with a birthday carnival. It was a lot of fun but unfortunately it was also a scorching 100 degrees! I don't think the kinds minded too much but I have to give a big shout out to all the adults that helped with the "booths." I know it was way too hot to be outside so we appreciate you! My dad did the bean bag toss, Scott did Spill the Milk, Hailey did Plinko, Linda and Kelley did face painting, Cindy did popcorn and the fish pond, Mike and Andrea did sno cones, and my sweet Drew made balloon animals (most of which popped a few minutes after due to the heat...poor guy!) Thank you everyone!

Abbie embracing her new number!

The carnival in full swing. Abbie is in line for her balloon animal.

Face painting

Mekenzie playing "Spill the Milk". Knock 'em down Kenz!

The Birthday cake. Cake by me, horses by Drew.

And for those of you who have anxiously been awaiting the results of the Barbie house remodel.....

Ta dah!

I put this vinyl on the back so it wouldn't be quite so plain. The house used to be bright yellow and we changed it to a more subtle green. You can't see in any of these pictures but we also recovered the roof with soft black shingles, added black shutters and window boxes complete with pink roses.

The living room complete with sectional seating so that Barbie and Ken can entertain friends and family.

The kitchen. Everybody wants stainless steel appliances and wood floors right?

The master bedroom. The delux bed coverings are courtesy of my mother the seamstress...thanks Mom! You can't really tell but the "artwork" on the walls are actually pictures that Drew and I took on our trip to Europe a couple of years ago.

And finally, the bathroom. Take note of the wainscoting and moulding detail. Every room has crown and baseboard but this room got a little extra.

It is also back to school time. This year I sent both girls off to Parkside Elementary...home of the Panthers!

Carly at her big first grader desk. No more tables! Poor Carly doesn't have the best of luck on her first day of school though. Last year she got lost trying to find her classroom (luckily a cute little girl from our ward found her and helped her). This year it was the bus that caused problems. Her teacher told her what bus number she was on but she forgot and didn't not know which bus to get on. The principle tried to help her out but her old bus driver ended up bringing her home on a different bus. Poor Carly! She told me later that she got pretty scared and almost cried. I bet she won't forget the number 87 anymore!

Abbie has had absolutely no reservations about going to kindergarten. She has been excited from the start. I'm glad that she has Carly to ride the bus with her in the mornings. It's nice to have a big sister to look out for you....I speak from experience! :) (Thanks Rachelle for letting me sit on your lap on the bus ride home so many days. I know my "butt was bony." That's love.) Since Abbie's birthday was the first week of school she gets to be the student of the week this week. We made a poster with all her favorites that she got to present to her class and she gets to do all sorts of other fun activities this week.

That's about it for our family. Three of us have been fighting off the plague of a nasty cough and even bronchitis for poor Drew. I'm just counting down the days until Carly and I get it. I also spent a day in the kitchen doing some canning. I did pickles this year, which is a first for me. I also did peaches. We just love those peaches!

And for any of you keeping tabs on my driving record you'll love this. After nearly 14 years of driving I finally got pulled over for the first time last week. But don't worry...I only got a fix it ticket for my brake lights. No points...no fees...nice! Unfortunately I can't brag about my spotless driving record any more...or can I? It doesn't really count right?

Giving up!

2009-07-20T16:28:00.000-07:00

So today I have decided to give up two things. The first is my terrible cola habit. I am truly addicted at this point and Drew and I have both decided to give it up. Perhaps in the process we can lose a few unwanted pounds and save a little money too! I just think it is silly that I am drinking a minimum of one a day (usually more like three) and that my kids seem to think they need if with every meal now. Growing up I only drank soda on special occasions like holidays, eating out and of course vacations! One of the greatest things about vacations was that the fridge was always packed with soda and we could drink it whenever we liked. Fond memories! And so today I bid my farewell to Coke, Diet Coke, Coke Zero and countless others. I'd like to say a few words in their honor if I may:

"Sweet, sweet Coca Cola...you have been such a dear friend to my taste buds over these past years. Our parting is a bitter sweet sorrow for me. I will always look back on our time together as joyous and carefree . When I drank in your rich, dark refreshment I was filled with not only a cool beverage but also a sense of familiarity and belonging. You never judged me. You never betrayed me. You have always been there for me. But now our time together must end. I have to think of my waistline now. It's not you Coca Cola, it's me. Don't ever change...not ever."

Thank you for indulging me.

And secondly I am giving up shopping. At least shopping with this little monster:

Sure, she looks sweet enough. But in the recent weeks Savannah has taken up the habit of impersonating a screech owl. She makes the most ear-splitting, blood-curdling screams you have ever heard from a creature as small as she. She seems to be at the top of her game in a shopping and/or church situation. Today I went to three stores and found myself cupping my hand over her mouth so many times that we had to eventually just give up and leave them all. So Savannah my love, I hope you have enjoyed your time out of hte house to this point because I'm not sure how much more of the outside world you will get to see until we can break you of this habit!

And my parting shot today is of little Abbie. This picture was taken just a few minutes ago after we discussed the fact that she is far too old to be throwing one major tantrum every day and it has to stop or she will back on a daily napping schedule. What do you think? Will she hold up her end of the bargain?

Weddings, birthdays & other assorted celebrations

2009-06-09T15:12:00.000-07:00

So a lot can happen when you don't blog for two months! A big congratulations go out to my brother Ryan for getting married on May 30th! We love Lara and are so glad she is a part of the family!

The Bride & Groom (obviously!)

Our little family...yes, the dresses got put to use again.

The Olsen's: My mom, sister Rachelle, brother Ryan, moi & Daddy-O

Another big milestone to come and go was the last day of kindergarten for Carly. She is now an official first grader on summer break. We attended her program the last week of school and it was really cute. They sang several songs including one about a donkey, one about friendship, the alphabet backwards, and "Start Spreading the News" (with chorus "I want to be a part of it...first grade! first grade!) Carly has done an awesome job in school this year and we are very proud of her.

Last, but certainly not least, my baby turned ONE! The poor little thing was slightly sick and spent most of the day in bed napping but was very happy for the party. She was actually quite good at opening presents, especially the bagged ones. Her cake was an over-six-hours-of-working-on-the-dumb-thing disaster so it will be not be pictured here. Mostly because my hand was too busy holding it up from falling over rather than taking pictures. But it seemed to taste okay and Savannah enjoyed it one little pinchful at a time. She is so sweet. Happy Birthday baby!

Isn't she beautiful?

And for my parting shot, I leave you with the image of a Barbie house that I picked up at a yard sale this weekend for a mere $15. I realize that it doesn't look like much now and it is a terrible picture (I am as we speak brushing off the insullation all over my back from leaning against the laundry room wall in an effort to obtain this picture poor as it may be), this is my new project that I can't wait to get started on! Hopefully it will be ultra fabulous in time for Abbie's birthday (please don't show this blog to Abbie as it is a surprise) and I will post the new and improved photos when that comes to pass. Unit then...au revoir!

Easter Dresses

2009-04-08T12:57:00.001-07:00

I love to have the girls be matchy for big holidays like Christmas and Easter, but this year was a little more tricky. This year I have one in girl's sizes, one in toddler sizes, and one in infant sizes so it complicated things a bit. It is not entirely impossible to find matching dresses in these sizes but it can get very expensive. So I decided to sew their Easter dresses this year and here are the results:

They are each a little different pattern but made of the same fabrics. I think they turned out pretty good (don't look too closely please). Be sure to take note of the flowers too. I have started selling these flower clips for a company down in Utah County but unfortunately they did not have any that were quite the right colors so I had to make those too. And the final touch is their little pearl bracelets. All together they are pretty stinkin' cute little girls doncha think?!?

Another Quotable Quote

2009-02-10T17:46:00.000-08:00

The other night the girls were asking Drew if they could do something (I can't remember exactly what) but he told them no. This was Abbie's reply:

"I think the word you're searching for is yes."

We got a pretty good laugh out of that one. I also couldn't help but chuckle when I asked Abbie to put a few little toys away tonight and as I was walking back to the bedroom I caught a glimpse of her shoving them under the couch. I had to quickly clarify "not under the couch Abbie!"

The nose doesn't lie, she really is a little piggy!

A new year...A new look!

2009-01-15T14:14:00.000-08:00

I tried to "fancy up" the blog a bit by creating a new background. Sure, it took a few attempts and an hour or so to get the job done but I think it turned out okay. One of these days I'll have to get around to making a header that matches but I've obviously spent too much time on this thing for one day!

Not much is happening around our house. Carly and Abbie are glad to be back in school and Savannah has discovered a new favorite toy...the wipe package. It just makes such fascinating crackling noises!

Savannah and Bullseye intently watching the latest episode of "Man vs. Wild" with Mommy and Daddy. Did he really just eat that spider? Ugh!

Carly reading "It is Ann." These may not be the most well-written books but they seem to be doing the trick. Carly has learned to read so many words now and is doing really well.

Happy Holidays!

2009-01-01T09:46:00.000-08:00

We hope that everyone had as nice a Christmas and New Years as we did. The girls were very excited that Christmas had finally come. We let Savannah sleep in for a little while and Carly and Abbie took turns opening their gifts and finding packages under the tree for Mommy and Daddy to open. When we got Savannah up she was actually not too bad at opening her presents. She would grab onto a piece of paper and give it a nice tug. I think she liked the sound of the ripping paper more than actually opening the present.

We spent Christmas day visiting all of our family. It is really nice to have everyone close so that we can do that but it also makes for a full day of driving from one place to the next. The girls were definitely ready to get home and start playing with their new toys!

Here are a few pictures from Christmas morning:

Santa brought Carly and Abble "American Girl" style dolls.

Savannah got some new binkies in her stocking.

These hats were from Grandma and were complete with blinking lights.

Quotes of the Week

2008-12-17T09:31:00.001-08:00

I thought these were too funny and didn't want to forget them.

Carly: "Look at the bright side...we've got a van."

Abbie (while decorating gingerbread cookies): "Daddy, can you help me with the colorful arms?"

Thanksgiving...Yes I know it is December!

2008-12-15T12:40:00.000-08:00

So perhaps I shouldn't even bother to post these pics because I am so incredibly behind but what the heck? I really do have good intentions people. My world has been filled with shopping and late nights of gift preparation, which is all I can say at this point as the readers of this blog may very well be the recipients of said gifts.

So here's a little "taste" of our Turkey Day. We enjoyed a fabulous dinner and my parents and then stopped by Drew's parents for pie. We love having family so close!

The girls made these cute headdresses in school and the turkey became our centerpiece after I made him for Primary music time one week. His name is Quirky P. Turkey in case anyone was wondering.

Abbie and Daddy

My mom and aunt Virginia

My poppa. Isn't that goatee just so sauve and debonair?

Savannah and Carly

Pumpkin pie and Black Friday ads. Does it get any better?

Hopefully I can get Christmas posted before Valentine's Day rolls around but I make no promises.

The Maxfield Family wishes you all a very Merry Christmas!

Disneyland

2008-11-18T13:45:00.000-08:00

So our highly anticipated trip to SoCal has come and gone and it could not have gone any better. We all had so much fun! We hit the road on Tuesday and stayed the first night in Primm, Nevada. This was not such a magical place but it was good to stay and rest a while. The girls got up bright and early (still on Utah time) and so we decided to just be on our way. Since we knew we had some time on our hands we made a stop in Calico; a ghost town in the desert. The girls were a little nervous about actually seeing a ghost but had fun climbing up the hillside and learning how to duel in a showdown from their Daddy. Carly is just upset that she always has to be the one to play dead at the end!

The next day was Disneyland at last! The weather was perfect and actually a little hot at times. We did not have to wait in too many lines with the exception of getting princess and fairy signatures. (see below)

The girls were remarkably well behaved. I figured we would have to rent a stroller or wagon midday because they would get tired of walking but they just kept on going. By the time we would head back to the parking lot on the tram though, little Abbie was barely able to keep her eyes open. Abbie also impressed me because she was too short to ride a lot of things (especially at California Adventures) and she took it very well. It made Drew and I sad that we had to keep telling her she could not ride, especially since Carly and her cousin Mekenzie were big enough, but she would just say things like, "I know...if I was six I would like it."

We got to see the Pixar Play parade the first night and Fantasmic the next night. This was by far the highlight of the trip for Carly. She absolutely loved the show and was so cute and excited about it. It was wonderful to see her all lit up like that because she seems to be growing up so fast and it really showed me that she is just a sweet little kid who still believes in magic and fairytales. It was truly the best possible way we could have ended our time at Disneyland.

Savannah was nothing short of an angel for the trip. She hardly cried at all in the car (even the 13+ hours on the way home) and did great just riding along in her stroller at Disneyland. We took her on as many of the rides that allows babies as possible since this meant that no one had to wait and we all got to ride together. In hindsight I wish I would have taken her out of the stroller and introduced her to one of the characters and at least gotten her picture with one. I guess it was all I could do when we spotted a character to get out the girls' autograph books, pens, and cameras before they closed the lines. Silly mom!

Saturday was spent driving down to San Diego. We took a little side trip to the beach so that the girls could see the ocean. I figured we could just do a quick 10-minute stop and let them get their feet wet but I should have known better. They loved to jump the waves and of course ended up with wet pants. But Abbie took it a step further by falling over and getting completely drenched in sand and water from head to toe. Needless to say this required a quick wardrobe change before we headed to Sea World.

After spending two days in the Magic Kingdom, I'm afraid Sea World seemed a little plain. But the shows were fun and the girls all enjoyed seeing the animals so close. I must have been burned out on taking pictures because I have a total of two photos and they're both pretty bad. The photo below was taken at the dolphin show. Yes...it is just a splash of water because I was too slow to capture the actual dolphin itself. Whoops!

So we can't wait to go on such a vacation as this again. Thanks to Rachelle and Mekenzie for coming with us or letting us come with them, whichever the case. It was a lot of fun and something the girls will remember and talk about for a long time to come!

Goodbye Yellow Brick Road...

2008-11-04T14:54:00.000-08:00

I'm sure you're singing the title just like I am right now. If you haven't heard the version by Keane, I high recommend it!

Halloween was pretty fun this year. Unfortunately we were not able to host a party this year (so don't hate us because you thought we forgot to invite you) because our house is too small and we are too poor. But Drew and Carly had the day off and so we had plenty of time to get ready, take some fabulous pictures, show off our costumes to Drew's mom, get dinner, and then hit the streets for some serious trick-or-treating. Drew and I switched off who was at home giving out candy and who took the girls out. It was nice. Not so rushed as years past since we didn't try to visit every relative or get lost trying to find a trunk-or-treat in West Point (last year...don't ask!)

We also got into the spirit of things by making a "haunted house" to decorate our house with. Carly took it in to her class for show and tell since the letter of the week was H and the theme was Halloween. It couldn't fit much better right? Unfortunately they ran out of time in her class due to other festivities and she didn't get to do her show and tell. Oh well...we tried. At least I remembered to send something with her this week. We're kind of hit and miss with the show and tell items I'm afraid.

Another development this month has been my discovery of digital scrapbooking. Where has this been all my life? It is fantastic! It takes every bit as long to create a page (at least for me) but you can download all sorts of paper, embellishments, stamps, etc. for free online and the best part...you can change your pages as many times as you like if you're not happy with the results. I also can't wait to print them off in a nicely bound book rather than finding room to store yet another 3-inch binder. So I don't answer the door or the phone when you try to contact me, you can bet that I'm parked in front of the computer and too engrossed to break free!

Suzie Homemaker...

2008-09-15T11:38:00.000-07:00

...or just Wendy whacked out on domestication?

My friend Cindy told me to take a picture and add it to my blog, so I'm taking her advice! The above photograph is the result of a week long surge of domestic energy. You see Cindy and I had the fabulous idea to can some peaches and the snowball got a rollin'! On Monday we did the peaches, Tuesday I canned tomatoes, Wednesday I canned salsa, Thursday I took a hiatus, Friday I made raspberry jam, Saturday another break, and then Sunday I made bread. It is lucky that this picture is taken somewhat from above so that it is not so obvious how flat the bread came out. But hey! This feels like an accomplishment to me so I'm going to run with it. We even picked the tomatoes ourselves and if you can believe it Abbie said (and I quote), "I love to pick tomatoes!" They had a great time.

This has not only been a time of harvest, it is also off to school for the girls! Carly has loved kindergarten. Every day she brings home a worksheet or artwork that she has done that day and proudly shows me. For the first few days we got detailed descriptions of what she had done such as "I got to school. I hung up my backpack..." you get the picture. Now that school is such an old hat we usually get a few less details. This week she is the "Star Student" so she got to take in a poster all about herself and do fun/special things all throughout the week. She is really excited about it!

I wasn't planning on enrolling Abbie in preschool because basically I'm too cheap and didn't think she really needed it, but someone in my neighborhood invited me to join in a kind of joy school that they were doing and I'm really glad I did. Abbie is super excited about going to school (she goes on Tuesday and Thursday mornings) and she can't wait to compare with Carly what they did that day in school. Although the girls are 23 months apart, their birthdays are such that Abbie will only be one year behind Carly in school so she can't wait for next year to come so that she can ride the bus too!

Well that's about all the fun we can stand around here aside from the fact that our AC/heater is broken and the repair man is here now to fix it. Gotta run!

Not-so-hostile Takeover

2008-09-01T07:46:00.001-07:00

So it's me, Wendy, and I'm afraid I've got to take this blog thing into my own hands so that it can be updated! March?!? What was that five or six months ago? Hopefully we can get this going a little better now that we have remembered the password to your blog account!

We've all been doing well and our family has change JUST A LITTLE since the last blog. In case you didn't already know, our little Savannah was born on May 19th and is absolutely beautiful! It is so fun to have a baby in the house again. The girls love her (a little too much sometimes). They have not shown an ounce of jealousy, which I am really happy about. They just think that their little sister is the cutest thing ever and love to show her off to everyone who comes around.

Abbie just had her 4th birthday last week. She was very excited about it and so being the cruel mother that I am I would use it as punishment. If she was throwing a fit or acting up or something I would treaten that I was going to cancel her birthday and not let her turn 4. It actually worked a few times to quiet the storm but now that her birthday has come and gone I'm going to have to come up with something new! Abbie is going to start attending a neighborhood preschool and a dance class next week. She is super excited about both and I think it will be nice for her to have something of own to do.

Carly is going to "officially" start kindergarten on Tuesday. We have a preview day last week but it was only for a couple of hours and I was there most of the time so I don't think it really counts. When we went back to the school for her assessment it really hit me. No, not the tears of sadness that everyone talks about shedding when their first child goes to school. I was actually really, really excited for her. I started thinking back to my days in kindergarten and elementary school (not that I can remember much) and I was kind of overwhelmed by happiness. In fact, I'm a little jealous of Carly. I know she is going to have so much fun and she will soak up everything like a sponge. She is very smart. Maybe I had these feelings so strong because I'm the exact opposite lately. I honestly feel like I'm losing my mind. I can't remember a dang thing let alone learn new things! I'll have to live vicariously through little Carly I guess.

And here he is...my hottie of a husband! This is so very GQ isn't it? Drew is doing great as far as family and personal life go. Unfortunately work has not been so fun for him lately. He was assigned to be on a committee that is taking a lot of his time so he feels like he just gets behind on his regular tasks and is wasting most of his time with this committee. I can tell that it is really stressing him out so I hope that it will be over soon. He did make the switch to working four 10s recently though and we are loving that. It is so awesome to have him home for three-day weekends! It's like having a Saturday to get the necessary things done and then another Saturday to do fun stuff. The girls really love it too. They are always happy to spend time with their Daddy. He is truly their hero and can do no wrong in their eyes. He's such a fun dad too. I need to take lessons from him on spending time to actually PLAY with the girls and not just tell them to GO PLAY somewhere else. Drew...you're my hero too!

And last and least, there's me. You all should be shocked and amazed that I included a photo of myself and didn't even photoshop it. Feel free to marvel over the fact that at the tender age of 28 I actually do have an AGE SPOT on my face. Yikes! Don't think I don't notice it and promptly frown every time I look in the mirror. Other than feeling like I have little to no brain capacity these days, I'm doing well. I dislike to strongly dislike my job most days. I always think I could get so many fabulous things done around the house and with my kids if I didn't have to work but in all actuality I would probably just spend more time on my butt in front of the TV so I guess it's a good thing I have a couple of jobs to keep me "productive." I've been thinking about possibly going back to school one day when the kids are older to get a nursing degree. What?!? I know, I'm crazy. I don't tolerate bodily functions very well so this may not be the right choice for me. But I just love having babies so much that I thought instead of popping out a bunch more maybe I should just help other people have their own babies. I don't know...just a thought.

So there you have it! An update on the Maxfield familia. I'll try to post again before another six months have gone by.

Baby #3

2008-03-03T08:20:00.000-08:00

So here she is; baby #3. You can tell she's a Maxfield, can't you? She's got the same cute pouty lips as her sisters and I think she's got Carly's nose too. This ultrasound was actually done a month ago so I'm sure she's changed even more since. We can't wait for her to get here! Any suggestions for a name?

Just Some Of The Things I Like About You

2008-01-25T13:14:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I feel like I'm the luckiest guy in the world. I'm married to a fun, beautiful, wonderful girl who loves me. I have two great daughters, and one on the way. so I was thinking I could post a little blog dedicated to my sweet girls.

Wendy:

Wendy is a wonderful mother and wife. She is very concerned about the upbringing of her girls their safety, well-being, and learning. She also makes sure her husband (me) is doing what's right.

She's kind, gentle, and thoughtful.

She's very smart. I can't play Jeapordy or Wheel of Fortune with her without getting put in my place. She's good at most everything. She keeps a beautiful home.

Within just a little while of being in our new home we've gotten new carpet, painted, new light fixtures, new tile, and it's always clean-ish.

Wendy's got a great sense of humor.

We have fun together, and she let's me be me. She doesn't judge me harshly for my mistakes.

And just look at her.... wow!!! She's beautiful.

Carly:

Carly is a fun smart girl. She likes to hang out with her "daddy", and that makes me feel special to her.

She is a kind girl who loves her family and sister (even though they bicker sometimes).

Carly is funny, I love it when she tells jokes or dances funny.

She keeps me in line. Just yesterday she was telling me I shouldn't listen to the type of music I was on Sunday.

I love it when she draws pictures and writes "daddy" and "carly" on them.

Abbie:

Abbie has a great sense of humor.
She always, I mean always tells us that she loves us.
She can be a good snuggly kid.
She doesn't take no @#%@ from anybody.
She's also very social, likes to be out playing, or hanging out with her best friend Carly.
I love Abbie's voice, it's cute. Some people make fun and say she sounds like she's been smoking.
Sometimes she just looks at you and grins. I like it.

Anyways, I love my girls. I'm quite lucky.

The Maxfields Decide To Try Out A Blog

2008-01-14T11:50:00.000-08:00

Well, what can I say, we need to get with the times. We've finally purchased cell phones for ourselves, thought the next step would be to do this blog thing. So here we are.

We've moved into our new home in Clinton, and things are going great. We've recarpeted, painted, got new furniture, put new lighting in, and last Saturday we retiled the bathroom. Still a number of things that we'd like to do, but a little at a time right.

The Holidays were great, despite the fact that none of our new furniture had arrived and to my (Drew's) dismay the TV had to sit on the floor. Shows you where my priorities are. He he.... But things were fun. We spoiled our girls, and didn't do too bad for ourselves either. Now that our furniture is here we also bought ourselves a new big screen TV.... so I can sit and enjoy my couch potato ways. Needless to say we had a great Christmas.

The snow here in Utah right now has been falling like mad. It's pretty fun having so much. The girls and I made a snowman, but still haven't gone sledding. I guess that's next. Wendy's still not showing at all with her pregnancy. I'm very excited to be a dad again. I love my girls... and still haven't given up hope for a boy someday. At least if the 3rd one treats us okay. I know this is a short blog, but I have to start out small with this confounded technology. So someday soon expect to hear more.

-Drew