Wednesday, September 10, 2014

Daxsen's 3rd Birthday

The card I mailed to Daxsen for his birthday.


There ended up being a problem with my brother getting it out of the box the day before his birthday and then the key was lost so they couldn't go put it back. So he actually got it the day of his party.







Since his cake was construction themed, I decided to find clothes to match. I found 2 sets of pj's, an outfit that came with shorts and 2 shirts, and 2 more shirts.

I also decided to get him a stuffed toy since Valex had gotten one for his birthday. I was thrilled to find a stuffed backhoe toy.
Daxsen loved his cake.


And the toys that came with the cake.
Most of the time, the boys share pretty good.


He loved his yellow shirts. (Its one of his favorite colors.)









This little more is so much like his aunt Savannah. After he would open one present, he would set the paper in a pile to be thrown away. I do the same thing!


He also had his toys lined up in a straight line.

I can't believe this little boy is already three. I miss cuddling on him as a baby, but he is growing into a mini me and I couldn't be more proud!

Daxsen's Birthday Cake

Once again, I was asked to make a construction cake. I always enjoy making them, but each time, I want to try something a little different from the last time and I seem to be running out of ideas. I also try to buy different toys each time and that is getting hard also. But I love the freedom to create with this kind of cake.

This time I did a round cake. The toys were slightly bigger, so only one would fit on the cake.


I love how it turned out. I also realized, that I'm out of nephew's birthday's for the year. Preston's birthday is in January and then the other four nephews all in between June and August! I just need to remind myself that any excuse is good enough for cake and continue to make them, even if there isn't a birthday to celebrate.

Tuesday, September 9, 2014

Colt's Baby Blessing

Last weekend, we got to go to Colt's baby blessing. He was such a stud in his outfit. 

We were only able to spend a few minutes at the luncheon afterwards, so instead of eating, I spent my time cuddling with him.

I also had to steal this adorable picture from Natalie to show what a happy baby he is. 


Thursday, September 4, 2014

Camping at YellowPine...Again

The other day I was thinking and I thought, darn, we haven't gone anywhere fun this summer. But then I realized..it has been a summer of camping. Which to us, makes it near perfect. I like to see new places, but I also really enjoy the relaxation that comes with camping.

Over Labor Day weekend, we decided to go camping once again. I took Thursday off so I could head up early and get us a good spot. It worked perfectly because I was able to get the same spot we had last time. It has become our new favorite location. 

We were a little nervous because it had been rainy ALL WEEK LONG, but it slowed down for the weekend. We still got some rain, but by the time we packed up on Sunday, everything was dry. 

This time, my favorite thing was all the squirrels and chipmunks. They must be getting ready for winter. Sometimes, I felt like we were surrounded by an army of squirrels, there were so many.


In this picture, there is a squirrel sitting on the top rail of the fence.

This picture is a deer behind the fence.

Once again, we tried a few new dutch oven recipes. We always try to make the first night something simple, since its dark by the time we get the tent set up and dinner cooked. This time we made Stuffed Potato Boats. It was dark, so I didn't get a picture. They were ok, but I think I'd rather just do roasted hotdogs.  

The second night we made Southwestern Chicken.


We also decided to make a new dessert in the dutch oven the 2nd night. Part of the recipe calls for the butter to be melted. I wasn't quite sure how to best do that, but then I remember the accessories pack that came with our Kelly Kettle. It worked perfectly!
I could have chopped the pretzels smaller, but found it easier to just break them in thirds. Josh's only complaint was that it needed an 8th layer, of ice cream.

More chipmunk and squirrel pictures. I only took like a tenth of what we actually saw. They really were everywhere.



On Friday, it rained off and on a little through the day. As it got close to bed time, I started to feel bad for Sage. We didn't want her in the tent with us because she would ruin the air mattress, but I felt like I was leaving her out in the cold. The trees were big enough to keep her dry, but I still wished I had thought to bring her blanket from home. Just before bed, I remembered I had picnic throw blanket in my car. I've never used it, so I decided it would be the perfect camping blanket for her.

If the weather will cooperate, we plan to go camping one last time this summer. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!