Cooking Adventures

I love to cook. I really love to bake things. Here are a few of the things that I have been able to make and experiment with.

These cupcakes and cake were made for Zach's 30th Birthday. It isn't a very good picture to see the decorating on the cupcakes, but oh well.

This cake was made for a 4th of July party. It was so much fun to make. Connor liked to lick all of the frosting bowls and cake bowls.

These cupcakes were for Ethan's first birthday. The colors were made by painting a pastry bag with different food colorings and then putting white frosting in it. The first cupcake I made I think was more food coloring that it was frosting. Oops.

Zach and I saw on some show where they were talking about some great sandwiches. One of the sandwiches that they talked about was chicken breast, mozzarella sticks, and marinara sauce. We decided that we wanted to try it. We took some extra breaded chicken breasts and toasted them until they were pretty crispy. Then we made the mozzarella sticks and put marinara on it. We got some nice bread to put them on. I think that was one of the best sandwiches that I have ever made. May not be the best for you, but it sure it good for the taste buds. Looking at the picture makes me want to make it again, right now.
Zach's Grandma, Nana, wanted a special treat for a get together she was having at her house. She asked me if I would make this cupcake bouquet. I think that is one of my favorite cupcake creations to make. It turned out good and I hope that everyone liked it at the party.

I made this cake for my Father-in-laws birthday. It was a chocolate cake with apricot and cherry on the top and chocolate pieces on the side. It was a good first try, but I can't wait to make it again and I am sure it will be better.

New Tree

We had a tree in our front yard that died about 2 years ago, well it died soon after we put it in. We had to have one because of the HOA requirements and so we left it there until we got a new tree. I think that it started to become a fire hazard. It was so dry and so completely dead. We pulled out the old tree with the Jeep. We were both kind of surprised by how easily it came out. It really had no roots.

Zach then dug a bigger hole for the tree.

Here is the new tree going in. Connor helped put the dirt in it and some of the neighborhood boys came and helped. It is still alive and has nice leaves on it. Hopefully it will grow really fast so that it can catch up with the other trees around.

Projects

We have been doing some projects around the house. Here are a few of the things that we have done recently.

Zach built a retaining wall around our flower beds in the front of our house. He did a great job and I am really excited about it.

Here it is almost finished. We needed a little more glue, but it is all done now.

Our bathroom was just plain white and so we decided to make it a dark blue.

Here it is in the process of being painted. We wrapped everything in tinfoil that we couldn't get off the wall.

It took many coats to finally get it done. Here was the first coat being put on.

Here it is finished. We love the dark blue with the white and silver.

We love this picture. It is one that we took when we were in Zions when we were first married.

We hope that there will be many more projects to come.

Connor's Eyes

A while ago we found out that Connor was going to need surgery on his eyes. His left eye would turn in slightly. We got a call that the surgery would be on March 17th. They went in and removed the muscles from both of his eyes and then reattached them. The doctor said that there was little risk in the surgery. He told us that Connor's eyes would feel like he had dirt in his eyes until the stitches got soft.


Connor had a hard time waking up from the surgery so Zach was there to try and keep him calm and not rub his eyes.


We all had to have name tags on so that they knew we were with Connor. They even put a name tag on Ethan. It says Zach's brother because Connor's first name is actually Zachary.
Here we were trying to get a picture of his eyes after he woke up, but it wasn't quite working. The surgery went really well. Hopefully we won't have to go see the eye doctor for much longer.

Disney on Ice

Zach's Mom got tickets for some of the grand kids to go to Disney on Ice on March 13th. Connor was very excited. He kept calling it Disneyland on Ice. We kept talking about how fun it was going to be and watched Cars so that he would know some about it before we got there.
Here is the group of everyone that went. It was very cold that day and was even snowing when we came out of the show.
Connor's got into it from the beginning. He was clapping and dancing along.
We had great seats and were able to see everything so well.
Cars was Connor's favorite part. He loved watching the cars drive around on the ice.
Ethan was able to go too. He was amazed at the lights and music. He fell asleep on Zach's lap about half way through the second half. It was a great time to be out with family. Thanks Gramuzzy!!

First Fort

We built our first for the other night. You are probably thinking why it has taken so long for us to make one, but to be honest, I just hadn't thought of it. Connor and I built a little one and then expanded on it when Zach got home. We told him that we could sleep in it when it was bed time. He was very excited. We really didn't expect to last until he actually fell asleep. We were right. We lasted about an hour and then he wanted to sleep in his bed. But it was a fun time in there together. Here is the inside of it with Zach and Connor.

Here it is from the outside. It is not that much to look at, but a good first try.

Dish Time

I really don't like doing dishes. Actually I hate doing dishes. When we got married, we decided to make a rule about dishes. Whoever makes dinner doesn't have to do the dishes. It works out really well. Connor now likes to do the dishes with Zach and Ethan usually gets in on it also. Here they are doing the dishes together.

Valentine's Day

For Valentine's Day this year we decided to do something together as a family. We decided that we would go to the Aquarium because Connor really likes it. We got the boys ready and headed out.
Here Connor is sitting as captain of the ship they have there.
They also have a Stingray pond that you can pet the stingrays. Connor doesn't like touching the stingrays, but he likes to play in the water. One Stingray came up and startled Connor. I am surprised that he wanted to put his hands back in.
Connor's favorite animal to see is the blue dart frog. We like to see who can find it the fastest.
This is a picture to show that Ethan was actually there with us. He had a fun time sitting and watching everything go by. He also like to suck on anything that was handed to him. Overall it was a great Valentine's outing.
For Valentine's Day we had some family over for dinner. It was fun to have a low key Valentine's day and to spend it with family. I hope that you all had a good Valentine's Day!!!

Trip To Arizona

A couple of weeks ago we decided to take a trip to Arizona. Zach has some family that lives there and I have some friends that moved there. We decided to take a little trip and see all of them. The last time that we flew was when Connor was not quite 2. So it had been a while. He didn't remember flying that time, so this was kind of like his first time. We left pretty early in the morning. Connor was very excited to go on a large plane.

Here he is sitting on the plane waiting for it to take off. When we left it was snowing and we had to wait for the plane to be deiced. It took quite a while to do that, but Connor loved watching the truck spray the plane.

For the flight, Connor got to watch Thomas the Train. He loved wearing his "I phones." That is what he calls his earphones. I think that he hardly even noticed that we were on a plane.

After we landed, we rented a car and headed to Sun City West where Great Grandma Jean lives. When we got there she was wondering if we could get something out of the pool that had blown in there from the last rain storm.

Connor was fascinated with the pool and that it was so close to her house. I wish that it would have been warmer so that he could have gone swimming.

Connor enjoyed dragging the tools that Zach had used to get the things from out of the pool.

He really liked to stick them in the water and see how they looked different.

I think that Connor would have stayed there forever if we would have let him. There were so many new things to see.

Great Grandma Jean has a few trees in her back yard. She let Connor pick some oranges and lemons. He really enjoyed picking things out of the trees.

Zach's Mom, Gramuzzy, was also there. We went out to lunch with them. Connor thought he was in heaven with all of the attention.

Great Grandma Jean is showing Connor how to find the right lemon.

It seems like I am always posting pictures that are turned the wrong way, but that is how it goes when this blogging service won't let you turn pictures (or I haven't found out how to do that yet). I realized that this is really the only picture of Ethan that we have, but he really wasn't picking oranges or playing in the pool, as much as he wanted to.

After we went to Sun City West we headed to Mesa to find our hotel. We checked in and then headed to Zach's Uncle's house. We went and had dinner with Uncle Tommy, Aunt Kathy, and Chaylee, their daughter. It was fun visiting them.

The next day we met up with Anne and Miles her son. We headed over to a place called Jeepers so that Connor would have a place to let his energy out.

This place was great. There was rides like this one and there was also a "soft play" area that had slides and places to climb in. It was like a really big play place like they have at a fast food restaurant. We found out that "soft" play is a very loose term. The day after we were there and climbed all around the "soft" play area, my knees had bruises and I couldn't kneel on anything.

Another sideways picture of us . This is outside of Jeepers. It was a really fun time and I wished that we lived closer so that we could go more often.

That night we headed over to Anne's house for dinner. There was a couple people from high school there with their families. It was fun seeing old friends and watching our kids play together.

Jasmine made really good brownies for dessert and they were really being enjoyed. Here is her two boys and Connor getting the full experience of the brownies.

It was a really great trip. We were able to see a lot of people and have a really fun time.

Christmas of No Pictures

I wanted to post some pictures of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Then I realized what our Christmas holiday events were. Christmas Eve Connor and Zach went sledding in the morning and then around noon Connor started throwing up. We were suppose to have dinner that night with family, but we didn't end up going to that. Zach took care of Connor and I took care of Ethan so that hopefully he wouldn't get sick. For dinner that night we ended up having McDonald's. I had been craving it for a while.

Christmas Morning was Connor opening a few gifts and then eating a little dry cereal. He would then open a few more gifts and then eat a little more cereal. We just kept it low key that day. The day after Christmas Connor got sick again in the morning. Then on the next Monday Zach got sick. Out Christmas break wasn't really what we thought it was going to be, but luckily I don't think that Connor really knew what was suppose to happen and what he was missing. So, because that is how our holiday was, we really didn't take any pictures. But I am sure that we will remember it.

More Christmas

Jason came out for Christmas this year. I think that he said that it was the first time in 8 years that he has been here for Christmas. He came and spent some time with us. Connor and him colored on Connor's new easel.

Connor had such a fun time with Uncle Jason. He keeps asking me when he is going to come and see us again. For some reason he thinks that Jason is in Africa with Grandma and Grandpa.

Grandma Downs always has a big Christmas party. I don't think that Connor really understood what you do with a Pinta, but he had a fun time swinging the bat. He also got to sit on Santa's lap, but I can't seem to find that picture.

Granmuzzy came to visit also. Connor loved to wear her hat and scarf.

It is always fun when Granmuzzy comes.