I don't think we're in Bend anymore!

It's about time I posted something else on this blog, don't ya think. But really there has been very little out of the ordinary happening at our house the last few months. Having four kids is so busy that I hardly remember to take pics anymore. I know with the first two I was making up reasons to take pics and setting up photo shoots constantly. I would buy new scrapbook stuff and then coordinate a photo shoot to match. My older two children have more than twice the pics in their photo boxes. So Sad:( Now it really is my oldest daughter that reminds me to bring the camera and half the time she is the one taking the pictures. Love her for that. I don't seem to have a problem remembering to take pics of my cakes, they are my new baby I guess. Anyways, I do have a couple of occasions to post now.

A couple of months ago we made a trip to Portland for family Temple day. All the kids got to go inside (the 3 youngest only in the atrium). Sariah did her first Baptism session. We stayed at a hotel less than a mile away from the Temple. The night before we went out to eat at the Olive Garden and then swam in the pool till 11pm. Such a simple little getaway but so much fun. I love Portland. Everything was gorgeous and blooming. The Temple grounds were breathtaking. It was probably the most gorgeous place I've been to on this planet (I don't travel much). Definitely Eons prettier than any place in Bend, especially in the Spring. I just love the temple, I always have such a peaceful and relaxing experience. There is nothing that tops it. Except maybe watching your kids enjoy it as much as you do.


Aubrey collected these blooms off the ground so she could press them and frame them. She so wanted to remember how beautiful it was. Unfortunately, her dad threw them away when we stopped for take out on the way home. He was just throwing away trash and she had put them in a cup for safe keeping. I felt so bad. She cried the whole way home. She wants to go again and get more blossoms...I don't have the heart to tell her that trees don't bloom year round.
Ellie was really into the flowers too. She went around to all the tulips, looking inside for little tiny fairy babies. It was pretty cute.

Isaac was just so excited to touch the temple," Now I will always have the spirit with me," he said. So that's the trick huh?
I didn't get pics of Sariah :( She was inside doing baptisms and by the time she was done it was pouring rain. Her dad took a really cute one with his phone right before they both went in. I'm going to have to figure out how to download it on here.
I Can't wait to go back again, probably this month. I know it won't be quite as fun. Robert and Jodie live up there now (Andy's brother and his wife), So we will most likely stay at their house. Things will be different...all the blossoms will be gone, there won't be any grand tour of the atrium with the entire primary, but I know the spirit will be there... this will always be my favorite place to take my family.

A splash of Color in a very gray world!

I don't know about you, but my kids are the things that bring color to my world.
They are so sweet and adorable, if I do say so myself. I might be biased but I don't care.
We went to Kathy and John's( in-laws) house for an Easter Egg Hunt and Easter dinner after church. They just moved to this House with an Amazing 2.5 acre yard. It was Pretty fun ( it would have been perfect if it hadn't been for unexpected guests, but that's another story I'm not telling).
It was a very cold and gray day but all the kids looked so adorable in their Easter duds. Not only did my kids coordinate with each other but they coordinated with all their cousins too. It really was too cute. My girls were a little upset with having to match each other. And at first I bought Aubrey a different dress but then I took it back and got a matching one for one reason and one reason only... This will be the last time Sariah will be in the little girl size so no more Matchy Matchy. I know people like me that want all their kids to match drive some people crazy ( Jena) but I Like it. It soothes the OCD in me. And can you believe they actually had turquoise clothes for boys? I don't know if I will ever get the grass stains out of Isaac's white pants but... Oh Well??? They all looked great for pics.

Aubrey Anne (10)

Sariah Brynne (12)

Isaac Andrew (6)

Ellie Kate (3)
(As I'm posting this she is watching and just said
"Not pictures of meeeee!" It starts young I guess)

Confections of a Sugarholic!

So I started another blog because I have too much time on my hands ;)
Anyways, I wanted to tell Y'all to check it out!
Its there to the right in my blog list.
Bet you can't guess what it's about???

Plenty of Courage Here!

So, I got my courage on and threw Aubrey her first slumber party to celebrate her birthday coming up on the 22nd. Last night we had 8 little girls spend the night in addition to Aubrey and Sariah for a total of 10 girls. I feel like I just gave birth. What a wild bunch!
We had cake and presents and afterward decoupaged Masquerade Masks. At midnight when we were finally done with that, the girls watched "Horton Hears a Who" and I went to Bed. I could hear them up until about 2am. I finally got into a deep sleep only to be awakened by some little girl singing at the top of her lungs. I ran down stairs to shut her up before she could wake up the whole house, thinking no one had slept at all, and discovered it was 6 am. They had slept... A total of 4 hours. For breakfast we broke out some strawberries, grapes, and the chocolate fountain. I'm sure the parents will love me for that one. But what fun is it going to a party if you can't break the rules just a little?

Anyways, before I take my nap to recover, I thought I'd post these cake pics...

Pay no Attention to the Cake on My Face!

So at the risk of becoming a blog exclusively about cake I am posting a story about... cake. But oh well, right?... it is so much a part of what goes on around here lately. And this story is a classic...

I'm in the kitchen, humming away, completely surrounded by cupcakes. Isaac and Ellie are in the living room watching Cartoons. Being a mom and completely aware of all things going on in the house, I notice that the kids are helping themselves to the unfrosted cupcakes I've left by the oven. The cupcakes I've decided I'm not going to use. Needless to say, I don't care... Hey, they aren't whining to me to make them any food so, I'm good. After a considerable amount of time passes and many, if not all the cupcakes are consumed, Isaac decides he is going to tattle on his sister. It went something like this...

Isaac: "Mom, Ellie has been eating the cupcakes."

Me: "Oh, really? You haven't had any?"(At which point I actually have enough sense to grab the camera that is right next to me on the cupboard, Lucky me!)

Isaac: "No, I didn't have any. Ellie ate them all."

Me: "Are you sure about that?"

Isaac: "I didn't have any. Ellie has been eating tons of them"

Me: "Not even one?"

(This is the point when it suddenly dawns on him that there might be
something on his face giving him away)

Isaac:
"Well, I might of had a bite of Ellie's"

He then runs out of the Kitchen and straight to the bathroom mirror.
Me trailing behind with the camera.
(I'm so mean!)

Upon seeing the reflection of the red velvet cake covering his face, he finally notices it all over his hands, and realizes he has been caught "Red Handed". What he does not realize is that I don't care about the cupcakes anyway. He instantly breaks down into a crying fit. It's such a horrible feeling to get caught lying! (yes, I'm speaking from experience...I told a few in my day)

I'm sure he was really confused as to why his dad and I were standing at the door taking pictures and laughing our rears off. He finally confesses to eating the cupcakes. And confesses that he was worried his nose was growing. Something Andy told him was happening. We then had to have the little talk about how important it is to tell the truth and how your mom can always tell if you are lying, even if it isn't written all over your face. If I had only had the video camera on hand, this was hilarious!

The tornado that takes the house...

So February 21st to March 22nd is our Birthday Blitz. 3 Out of 4 of my kids have their Birthdays. Some years we even get to do Easter, too. It's quite the whirl wind... Parties, Cake, Presents, Parties, Cake, Presents. Heck, it's an F5 twister around here.

As you know I allow the kids to choose which Birthday Cake they want me to make and then I spend a couple of DAYS making it and doing practically nothing else. So needless to say, since I've blogged about it before, there are not Words to describe the mess. Especially this year since I've done two cakes this week. I can't work in a messy Kitchen so that's about the extent of my cleaning. But you should see my kids rooms:(:(:( I shouldn't have to clean those anyways, right? Riiigghht!

Well, even though it can be a little difficult to deal with all the carnage after the tornado, at least we have memories of this...


































and this...










































Aubrey's birthday is still yet to come. I'm going to try to take advantage of the break in the "weather" to regroup for her BIG 10th birthday party. It's her year to have the whole shebang(which at our house just means friends instead of family, but with a family as big as ours, I'm beginning to think we've got it kind of backwards.)

This will soon all be over and I'll have the rest of the year to recover...until the F4 twister comes at Christmas...but you know how unpredictable the weather can be!

Another Notch on the Rolling Pin!

I DID IT!
I MADE MY FIRST WEDDING CAKE!
And it was SOOO EASY (wink wink)

Well, it was a learning experience and I really had fun. I won't elaborate on what went on behind the scenes but I will say that this cake had a good 27 hours of labor put into it between my Sis-in-Law Jodie and I. She baked the middle layer (white velvet with Lemon Curd and Raspberry fillings) and cut, frosted, and assembled all the layers (The other two were carrot cake with Italian Buttercream frosting with homemade Praline crushed in it, which Jodie also made). She also packed them in dry ice and hauled them to St. George all ready for me to decorate. What an Angel!
I am totally going to freeze all my cakes before I decorate them from now on. They are so easy to work with that way. I am still not converted to Scratch Cake yet, I love my doctored cake mix recipes too much.

It might be a tad ironic but I really don't like to eat cake at all! So not worth the calories!

Jodie also made the Cake stand which we originally planned to be all green flowers but on account that it was the day after Valentines we had to approach the flower situation a bit differently. She did get a great discount on what she could find. I ended up using tulips, lilies, and green carnations for the flowers even though I had intended on using roses and hydrangeas. I decided the tulips rocked. Not a huge fan of Red Roses (Thanks Bachelor). Unfortunately, I'm not the best flower arranger and in hind sight realize I totally needed to make the flowers on the middle layer only as big as the layer above it or the flowers on the bottom bigger or a little of both. But The flowers were done in such a hurry, I'm just going to have to forgive myself.

Oh Well, on to the next cake, or should I say cakes... I'm doing two in the next 10 days. I could do this everyday, I'm so excited!

These are my cupcakes with Chocolate Clay hearts and flowers...They were super Yummy! White Chocolate Almond cake made from a mix!
Thanx, Katherine and Lauren for helping with the decor. This pic Sucks so you can't see how pretty they were with their green shimmer dust.


This middle layer practically gave me a coronary! I am so not good at random. I painted it with shimmer dust and lemon extract. Not my fave layer but I learned a ton (like Royal Icing is stupid no matter what the cake book says).

I won't tell you how many times it took me to get this bottom layer right...Okay 5, but next time it will only be once.

The top layer was the easiest but I was originally going to put clusters of three pearls together instead of the little flowers. Anyways, I didn't have enough edible pearls but I still needed to use them to tie the bottom and the top together so I used them in the center of the flowers. And the little flowers helped tie the cupcakes to the cake too.

Time for another Recipe, A Healthy One!

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

INGREDIENTS

Filling

• 1 (4 ounce) package cream cheese
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 tablespoons brown sugar

Topping

• 4 1/2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
  (I use organic wheat pastry flour)
  
• 5 tablespoons white sugar
  (I use half splenda and half organic cane sugar)
  
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 3 tablespoons butter (I use unsweetened applesauce)
  
• 3 tbls chopped pecans ( or 1/2 cup oats)
  

Muffin Mix

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 cups white sugar (half splenda/ half cane sugar)
  
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/3 cups canned pumpkin (just use the whole can, single or double batch)
  
• 1/3 cup olive oil (or applesauce)
  
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract (use the good stuff)
  

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease and flour 18 muffin cups, or use paper liners.
• To make the filling: In a medium bowl, beat cream cheese until soft. Add egg, vanilla and brown sugar. Beat until smooth, then set aside.
• For the streusel topping: In a medium bowl, mix flour, sugar, cinnamon and pecans. Add butter and cut it in with a fork until crumbly. Set aside.
• For the muffin batter: In a large bowl, sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Make a well in the center of flour mixture and add eggs, pumpkin, olive oil and vanilla. Beat together until smooth.
• Place pumpkin mixture in muffin cups about 1/2 full. Then add one tablespoon of the cream cheese mixture right in the middle of the batter. Try to keep cream cheese from touching the paper cup. Sprinkle on the streusel topping.
• Bake at 375 degrees F (195 degrees C) for 20 to 25 minutes.

These are so addicting and worth making. I used jumbo tins last time and for the record they are better regular sized.

Enjoy!

Look Cool and Keep Your Noggin Warm!

So Here's my Shameless plug for a product that I really love

because it happens to be
MADE
by someone I Love, too.
My lovable, hunk of a nephew

BROCK BUTLER!

Such a cutie and he makes Beanies, too.
If you want one just leave me a comment and I'll hook you up.

He also has a facebook group

"Beanies By Brock".

They're custom made in all different shapes, styles, and colors.

Order one before he's too booked!

Brock with his mom, Wendy (Andy's sister),
and G-ma and G-pa Moss (Andy's Parents)

New Year's Eve, At least the munchkins had fun!

So we all went to the Robert Moss house for a "New Years Eve Party". The food was good, and so was the company, but boy did we lack entertainment. So I was a little hard up for some and ended up styling the hair of all these American Girl Dolls without anyone even asking me to. Weird, I know, but dolls are just one of those things I've never grown out of, Lucky for me I have 3 daughters and plenty of nieces that make for plenty of dolls around to dress and play hair salon with. Sariah, our resident photographer, was sure to get pics so I thought I'd better blog about it so our "Awesome" start to 2009 would be documented. No lie...this was it.

That's how I play a day away in the merry old land of Moss!

So let me start this by saying THANKS HONEY, for putting up with all the mess and chaos that ensue when your wife decides she going to make A CAKE. I know you didn't really mean it when you said that this is the last cake I can ever make. Thanks for letting me play!

Well, necessary brown nosing aside...

I did it! Ellie's princess cake is now a memory, documented only by my crappy camera and probably my hips (when I make a cake the only thing I get around to eating is cake, rice krispie treats, and to a lesser degree frosting). I decorated this cake in record time and it didn't turn out half bad. The base fondant turned out horribly, so don't look too close at the pics. Ellie was such a good helper and covered the first layer with fingernail marks and fingerprints. And for some reason, maybe the sun???, the under layer that was originally light pink turned white everywhere that it wasn't covered. The only real problem I had was deciding if I would follow the picture of the princess cake I was using for inspiration or follow my own ideas. In the end I only used the concept from the contest cake, it just wasn't "Disney" enough for me. So this is what I came up with...




It was definitely Princess approved!