golf cake

My father in law turned 49 yesterday.  I was in charge of the cake.  He's a golfer, so I chose that as the theme.  It's more of a cupcake pull-apart cake.  I had a lot of fun doing it and I like how it turned out.

But first, we had lunch at the office with him and the staff.

Addie was the fill-in receptionist while the rest of us partied.

Then we had dinner and presents and more cake later on.  Here's the one I made.

Complete with a leather golf bag, a sand trap, and a water hazard.  I used gum balls for the golf balls, gold fish crackers, and all the other golf stuff was from Decor Party Supply.

Garrett was really happy that it had gold fish crackers on it.

But apparently he wasn't too crazy about the cake part.

But everyone else enjoyed it!

Also, my kids had well baby check ups a couple of days ago.  Addie for 9 months, and Garrett for 2 years (a little early).  They're both looking good.  Addie's head is only 2 cm's smaller than Garrett's!  Still in the 97%ile.  You can see all the numbers and more updates on both of their blogs.

Solvang, California

We spent last weekend with Paul's parents in Solvang.  We rented a beautiful home on a huge property.  Lots of animals, a garden we could pick from, a pond to fish in, a pool, a huge patio... It was so nice and relaxing.

The kids relaxed a lot, too.

We went in to the little town one morning for breakfast.  After breakfast, Bekah and I stayed in town to shop while the rest went back to nap.  And we did a lot of shopping.  A lot.

We spent some time in the pool.  Garrett learned to balance himself on a pool noodle.

We fished.  Didn't have much luck, but still had fun.

We hung out outside.  Addie tried some steak.

It was a nice vacation, and was over all too soon.

Thanks, Mom and Dad White, for a great trip!

earthquakes, baby food, toe pain, and babies needing to stay babies

I experienced my first (real) earthquake(s).  We've had a couple little ones that we hardly noticed, or heard about later and never felt.  But I felt these ones.  They were 'moderate'. The first one was 4.4. And I'm good with nothing more than that.  The first one was at about 11:30 at night.  Everyone was asleep and I was on the couch half asleep watching the Olympics.  And the building started shaking.  I watched for a second as 2 decorative pots chattered against each other, and I saw a sign on top of our fridge tip back and forth and almost fall off.  Then I unfroze and ran down the hall because I suddenly couldn't remember if I'd hung anything heavy near either crib.  Paul was already up to check Addie, and I checked Garrett.  Everything and everyone was fine. I checked the big closet off the kitchen afterwards and a package of steak knives and our rice cooker had fallen off the shelf. Other than that, everything stayed in its place.  In the big one in '87 the original building was completely destroyed, and although this new building is a sound structure, we're not interested in being in it if there was another big one.  The next morning Paul was at work and me and Addie were playing while Garrett still slept.  And we started to shake again.  It was a 4.5 but didn't last long.  I grabbed sis and ran down the hall to a very tired Garrett who was standing up and pointing at different things on his walls, and making a 'huh' sound as he pointed.  I'm guessing everything was rattling and it woke him up.

We're teaching Addie to self feed at a much earlier age than Garrett.  My kids don't love purees, and I decided I didn't want to feed her rice cereal.  So she eats what we eat (for the most part).  And most the time she feeds herself. At this age, quantity isn't as important as what they get from the milk so I'm just focused on flavor and texture and it's going great!  She eats cucumbers, bananas, cantaloupe, watermelon, peaches, green beans.  She's also had potatoes, pinto beans, spanish rice... all self fed.  Messy? Yes.  Time saver? Yes.  Better for Addie? Yes.  She eats little crawler stage puffs too, and I usually dip those in pureed vegis first and put them on her tray and she loves them.  I always got so discouraged with Garrett because he was so picky and it took forever and was so stressful.  With Addie, it's so much easier.  Oh and she also chews the bits and pieces off of chicken bones, and on our trip last weekend she gnawed on sesame teriyaki steak for a while.  If we have more kids, this will be the way we introduce food, with real food!

Something happened to my toe on our trip to Solvang.  A bite maybe?  It hurt, bad.  It's been several days and is just now getting better.

My boy is going to be 2 years old in a little over a month.  And Addie is 9 months old today!  Time just seems to go faster and faster. I was looking for a picture of Addie right after she was born and I got caught up in looking at pictures of Garrett when Addie was a newborn, and he was so little.  It made me so sad to see that little baby face and to see how grown up he looks now.  He's such a good big brother, and he became one so young, he still looked like a baby when she was born!  I don't know why this gets to me like it does, and I love each phase my kids enter into, but right now I'm feeling like life would be just fine if they both just stayed how they are right now.

Here's a few pictures that got me all choked up.