Happy St. Patty's Day!

I remember my mom doing fun things for the holidays when we were young. It was something that was fun for us. I enjoyed looking forward to each holiday and have good memories of them with my mom. I want my children to have the same thing, so I planned this "green theme" for St. Patrick's day, only Brian was going to be out of town for the actual day, so we celebrated it early...

We got Dr. Seuss's "Green Eggs and Ham" book (Jackson loves books) and we've been reading this one in preparation for our meal. For breakfast, we ate green eggs and "ham" (Brian picked up bacon at the store instead of ham, saying it was more or less the same thing...),

You do not like them.

So you say.

Try them! Try them!

And you may.

Try them and you may, I say.

Say!

I like green eggs and ham!

I do! I like them, Sam-I-am!

And of course we dressed in green. It wasn't anything outlandish, and maybe he'll never remember eating green eggs for breakfast, but we had fun doing it. Maybe on the real holiday we'll frost some sugar cookies with green frosting or something.....

Zoey

Zoey is almost 4 months old now. Time flies! She's the cutest little chunk. I just love her baby soft skin and chubsy rolls. She has had a lot of "firsts" already-- which makes me both excited for the things to come AND sad to see her grow up at the same time.

She has found her hands and tries to fit both of them in her mouth at once! Drool slides down everywhere...in her neck rolls, in between her fingers, the front of her shirt....only moms think this stuff is cute!

She had her first laugh this week! This is one of my favorite milestones! It's the cutest little belly shaker! I've only been able to get her to do it a couple of times though. I caught one on those episodes on film, but I was working so hard to entertain her, that I missed most of her face in the shot!

She is starting to roll too! Her first roll from her tummy to her back startled her and made her cry! Jackson likes to "help" her more than she likes getting the help, but it's fun seeing him interact with her (now that she's big enough to handle a little roughness that is).

If you've been keeping up with us, you also know she had her first bad cold. We are so glad that she is better. Although she lost a little weight and has been playing catch-up ever since, she is now growing and thriving as ever. I can't wait for Spring!

I know that all moms think their children are cute, but I just can't get enough of mine! Albeit they have their moments that can drive me crazy, I'll be honest! Zoey's cheeks beg for kisses and Jackson keeps me laughing and a smile in my heart. I'm so lucky to be a mom. It's the best!

Thanks to my wonderful friend Trina who took these shots! She has such a talent I wish I possessed (check out her other work on her website, trina nelson photography). I love how pictures capture moments in time, and these will be cherished forever!

Wedding Cake

I have never made a tiered cake before and decided to give it a try. Well- actually I was more or less "assigned" to give it a try. I am on the enrichment committee for my ward. Since we are celebrating the Relief Society's Birthday this month, our ward put together a program centered around the wedding feast from the 10 virgins parable (BTW- it was fabulously uplifting).

Now, we all know that women can outdo themselves, but what would a Relief Society function be without a wedding cake as a center piece on each table? I am one who usually votes for simplicity... and trust me...this was easier than what was originally planned!

I have to admit I was excited to give it a try. I took a few pictures of the process, because it took a day to make, and because I was a little impressed with the outcome.

I baked an Italian pineapple wedding cake. It was dense which made the layering aspect easier to work with, yet moist and tasty too. Brian hates cake (along with pineapple and coconut) and he loved this one! The recipe can be found here: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Italian-Wedding-Cake/Detail.aspx

I used the frosting from this recipe as the filling in between the layers by adding 1 cup of crushed pineapple to the batter. For the rest of the cake, I frosted it with a typical vanilla cool whip frosting.

I have to give a big THANKS to my husband, who did all the leveling and cutting the layers for me! He is a perfectionist, and did a meticulously good job. Much better than I would have done!
After the cake was leveled and layered, I placed a simple syrup coat over the cake to keep it moist, covered it with Saran wrap and refrigerated it over night. Then I iced the cake with a crumb coat, let that set in the fridge, and then iced it again with the final coat. I sprinkled toasted coconut over the top, and added a few flowers for decoration (with help from my mom- she came over to watch the kiddos while I attended Enrichment becuase Brian was gone- THANK YOU mom)!

I won't be starting up a cake bakery soon, but I think it turned out fairly decent for my first try! A little rustic, but good. And the most important part is that it tastes good.