Andrews 6th Birthday

Andrews 6th birthday is in a few days, and our friends the Warrens are moving on Tuesday, so we decided to have a combined b-day/goodbye party. We are really going to miss the Warrens, but we wish them luck in Utah. Now Dave will get to go to all the BYU games. This would be the only reason Tobi would ever consider moving to Utah.

I can't believe Andrew is turning 6! I am getting so old. Andrew is really into Star Wars right now, so of course we had to have the Star Wars party. We made a Millenium Falcon cake and the kids fought with plastic blow up light sabers. Andrew thought it was great. We made all the kids little shirts with Star Wars pictures on them. Tobi was going to make me and him shirts but we didn't get to it, so I did my hair in a princess Leah like fashion.

Here is Andrew and Josh with Weston Henrie. You can kind of see the shirts, Weston hadn't put his on quite yet.

This is all of them. From the left, Luke Henrie, Andrew, Austin Shelton, Ava Kenitzer, Belle Warren, Josh, and Weston Henrie. JT and Nolan Thomas were also there, but we didn't take the picture until after they left.

Isn't Lauren Warren cute! She has about 6 weeks left to go I think. They are having another little girl, so fun!

This is Ashley Henrie and her cute boys Weston and Luke.

We took turns in the bouncer so that the big kids didn't smash the little ones.

Here is Andrew and Weston trying to take down the offensive lineman (Bryan Kenitzer.)

Recipes of the Week

Since I had Bailey, I have really been in the mood to bake. So I thought I would share a few of the yummy recipes I have made this week.

The picture above is Deep Dark Chocolate Cake. It is our families favorite chocolate cake that we make for everyones b-day.

2 cups sugar
1 3/4 cups flour
3/4 cup cocoa
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup boiling water

Heat oven to 350. Grease and flour 2 9" round pans, or a 9 by 13. In large mixing bowl combine dry ingredients. Add eggs, milk, oil, and vanilla. Beat on medium speed for 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water. Pour into prepared pan. Bake 25-30 minutes for round pans, 30 to 35 minutes for 9 by 13. Cool rounds 10 minutes, then remove from pans. Cool completely.

Buttercream Frosting

6 tbsp butter softened
1/2 cup cocoa
2 2/3 cup powdered sugar
1/3 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla

Cream butter, add cocoa and powdered sugar alternately with milk. Blend in vanilla.

The picture above is the Deep Dark Chocolate Cake with Oreo Filling and Chocolate Glaze. It is soooo good! We finished the whole cake, and Tobi even kept going back for more pieces, which he never does. He usually eats one piece of something, and then doesn't feel the need for more. You really need to try this.

Oreo Filling
8 oz cream cheese softened
3/4 cup shortening
3 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
2 eggs whites
12 oreo cookies crushed

Beat all ingredients till smooth. You may need to add more powdered sugar.

Once you have filled the cake make the glaze.

Glaze
4 oz. semisweet baking chocolate chopped
4 tbsp butter

Melt these two together, the microwave is fine.
Pour the glaze on top of cake and smooth.


I made theses cupcakes around St. Patrick's Day. The cupcake part was okay, but I really loved the mint icing. So I decided next time I am going to make my above chocolate cake recipe, or cupcakes, and put the mint icing on them. Here is the mint icing recipe.

4 tbsp butter softened

2 cups powdered sugar

2 tbsp milk

1 tsp peppermint extract.

Mix ingredients until smooth.

Okay, one more dessert recipe. They are caramel brownies, I don't have a picture today.

1 box german chocolate cake mix
1/3 cup milk
6 tbsp butter melted
1 cup pecans if you wish
14 caramels
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 cup choc chips

Mix the first 4 ingredients. Press half into 9 by 13, or 7 by 11. Bake at 350 for 6-8 minutes. Melt the caramels and sweetened condensed milk together in a double boiler. When brownies come out of oven, pour caramel mixture over, then press other half of cake batter onto caramel. Bake 12-15 minutes more. When it comes out of oven, sprinkle 1 cup choc chips. Once they have become soft, use spatula and spread them around.

Happy Easter!

Of course I had to post a couple of recent pictures of Bailey. The one below is on Easter Sunday. Can I just say again how fun it is to have a girl to dress up? Then there is a picture of my sister Maren holding Bailey. She came to visit a few weeks ago. We had a great time, it is always fun when Maren is here. We shopped till we dropped! She brought her son Brigham who just turned one, and he is the cutest kid. My boys loved playing with him.

On Friday night we went over to my parents to color easter eggs. It's nice to live by family for times like these.

My Grandma is here visiting for a few weeks. She lives in Southern Utah and doesn't come very often. The last time she was here was when Josh was born (3 years ago).

This is Andrew and Josh on Easter morning. Josh picked up his new football and didn't want to look at anything else in his basket. Andrew was clearly excited about a hot wheels car.

After church on Sunday, we went down to my Aunt Gayle's house in Fremont to have dinner and a big Easter egg hunt. Several of my cousins were there with all their kids, so it was pretty crazy, but fun. Emily, nice Aunt that she is, helped Josh open and sort his Easter eggs.

If you can see Andrew in the background, this is classic Andrew. He is running around sweaty and with a red face.

Did you wear your green today?

Andrew has been really excited about St. Patricks Day. It's funny the things they start learning about once they are in school. He has been reminding me for weeks that he needed to wear green on St. Patricks Day. So I decided to try to make an Irish dinner. I had never made any special meal before, so I thought I would go for it. I made corned beef and cabbage of course. I was expecting it to be pretty terrible. I will not say that I loved it, but it wasn't awful. It was edible. We also had green kool-aid. That was Tobi's contribution. He loves kool-aid.

Then the boys and I made a green cake using pistachio pudding. Andrew loves to help me cook. He is my sous chef. Andrew and Josh mostly love frosting, they usually eat off all the frosting and leave the cake.

This is Bailey and I in our green clothes. Andrew kept telling me this morning that I was not wearing green and that the leprechauns were going to pinch me or bite me. I guess he got that from school.

Josh Turns 3!

Saturday March 15th was Josh's birthday. Tobi was still on his man trip in Las Vegas with Scott and Joey, so we waited till Sunday to celebrate. My parents came over and we had a great dinner, and then of course cake and ice cream and presents. We made this Diego cake. Diego is Josh's favorite right now. I made my favorite chocolate cake, and put Lindas fudge icing on it. It was so yummy!

I decided we should take a family picture, since we haven't taken any since the hospital 5 weeks ago. So Andrew will be 6 in 2 weeks, Josh is 3, and Bailey is 5 weeks. I have decided that the more children you have, the smaller the chance is that you will get a single good picture. This is the best picture we could get!

I had a pretty bad week last week, with Tobi being away. Bailey, who had previously been a good sleeper, decided to stop sleeping while her Dad was gone. My mom was so helpful. She took the boys to her house so I could sleep. And one night she even came down just to help me get all the kids to bed. My mom is the best! I am so lucky to have her nearby.

Bailey's Room

If you know me, you know I am a shopper. So you can imagine that I can't wait for her to fit into some of her shoes! So far she can't wear a single pair. And yes, I realize that I am out of control with the shoe buying, but it is so fun! I am so happy to have a girl! And I guess the timing was perfect . Lucky for me, Juicy started making binkies and blankets just in time for my new girl. So cute.

Baileys room is finally finished!

So my mom made the three floral pillows, and the bedskirt. She is also going to make one more pillow. I am so lucky that my mom sews and is always willing to help me with crafty things, since I am not crafty at all.