Disney Land Part 1!

In the essence of time, and due to the huge number of pictures, I'm going to split our trip into a couple of posts.

This was Reese's first trip on a plane, she did really good. In case you noticed we're missing a member of the family, you're right. We left Rylee at home with family. And apparently didn't miss us at all. Underneath is a pic of us on the Jungle cruise.

Got to get one in front of the big Mickey.

On the 2nd day we were there, we met up with the Kuchenmeisters (who live in CA) Reese loved to ride on every ride with Ryan. Although I felt bad because Ethan wanted to play with Reese so bad, and she just wouldn't give him the time of day.
There's a lot of pictures of us with the stylin' glasses. This is the new Toy Story ride.


This is Sulley, from Monsters Inc. for those of you who don't watch kid's shows.
You have to get a pic of the letter that your name starts with.
This is the first day, Reese had been up since 6:00 am. She just crashed, and there was no waking her no matter what we did. She slept through the fireworks, and all the way back to the hotel, and even getting her into her pajamas. Apparently it had been a long day.

This is waiting for the old Michael Jackson movie, she doesn't look like it but she's about to pass out from having so much fun.
We were nervous she was going to be too afraid to go on any rides, but she did so good. We took her on everything. She loved splash mt. This was her first time, look at her face. She looks a little worried. But she thought it was so funny that we got wet!
The first day, we paid extra to stay in the park and trick or treat. It was so worth it, because we were able to walk right on the everything.



They had little trick or treat stations, Reese loved it.
The longest line we waited in the first two days was definitely Pixie hollow. But at least she got a pic with Tinker Bell. I think we wouldn't have been able to come home without one.

That covers about the first day and a half, there's more to come :)

Just a few random things.

A few of you noticed, I hadn't thought to blog about it but, yes I did cut my hair. Probably a couple of feet shorter too. (Yes I know that's a bad picture, but oh well.) It's definitely been easy, and fun. But to tell the truth I'm ready to have more hair back, too bad that will take a year or two.

I made these cute fabric flowers, and put them on clippies, they were super easy. (Just thought I'd show-and-tell.)

For conference my family all gets together at my aunt's house. So of course I had to use the opportunity to practice/make another cake. (For some reason Reese wanted her pic taken by it.)

So far, I think I've been doing ok. But I feel like there were a lot of mistakes on this cake. You can't tell in the picture. I always laugh at Challise when she says that, and I'm looking at the picture thinking there's no mistakes at all. Well now I understand Challise, and this one has a lot of problems. Which is fine for just a family dinner, so it's ok, and that's why I'm practicing.

Just a few pictures of my girls, they're both so big all of a sudden!
Reese is always putting things on Rylee's head, and saying "Now she looks like a lady."

Fun with food

Here's a few pictures of the fun food I've been making lately.

Saw this in the food network mag. Squash soup with an edible acorn squash bowl, yummy, but cute, too. A little more fun than the average dinner.

Jeremy went to Alaska, and brought home lots of good fish. So we had ourselves a fish fry.

We even bought some beer and beer battered the fish. It was so good, and fun to cook with my honey in the kitchen.
This is something Jeremy always likes, it's just the baby green onions, with cream cheese and shredded cheese. They look cool, and taste good, they do give you some pretty bad breath though.
Home made fries that were incredible.

Fondant cake trial #2. Not to bad huh? I wanted to learn how to do a bow, I kind of cheated, but it still worked out ok.

Fondant cake trial #3. First time ever doing square, or anything not shaped normal. There were a few of "iffy" spots on this cake. My client's farewell was yesterday, so I'm always looking for a reason to make a cake and practice, I think they liked it. It was fun to make.

Rylee's scrunchy face has come back in full force lately.

Here's a pic of tooth #1.

My mom bought me an immersion blender. (It's like a little hand held wand blender.) It's been so nice to have because I've been making Rylee's baby food with it. You can just put whatever you want in a bowl, and there you go - instant baby food. I think she loves it too because I've just been giving her the stuff we eat, blended up beef stew, hobo dinners, and homemade squash soup are a little better than gerber mushed peas. Happy eating.

Help!

I've lost my motivation! I need some serious help. I'm hoping some of you have gone through this same problem.

As you know I've been on a quest to get myself healthier. And I think I have accomplished that goal. But my determination has been wavering, if not completely lacking.

Just a few weeks ago, I found myself 1 lb. from my goal. And now I'm up about 5 ish. I have still been exercising, which is prob why I'm not up 10 lbs. But I have missed a few workouts here and there, and I feel myself doing the workouts halfheartedly. I keep trying to remind myself that I'm up at 6:30 I should make it worth it, but I don't quite.

So my question is how to get my determination back, have any of you done this? It's been almost two months that I have been half bad, half good. I could have been to my goal and past it for sure. I think part of why the motivation is gone is because, the motivation was staring at me through the mirror, and the extra lbs. And now that I'm at a healthier weight, the situation is not as important so I let myself eat bad.

If any of you have advise let me know, but I know the answer is, Katie quit whining and get your butt in gear. Thanks for listening anyway.

A whole lot of little things, all rolled into one post :)

Reese is always saying she wants a friend, so a few weeks ago we invited little Josey Stowers over to play. It was so funny to me that Reese is old enough to ask a friend over. I was slightly disappointed in how it was more like babysitting, then her and a friend playing, so I could have a second to get something done.

In the end I think they had fun. But seriously when did she get old enough for this? When did I get old enough that my kids are having friends over?! Weird.
Have you ever been up to Hunstville park? This is the same tree and slide I used to play on when I was little. Oh memories! Btw this park is super cool! They've added on and it has a bunch of different play things, a rock wall, and all the old stuff too. You should check it out, Reese loves it, (of course it is in Hunstville, which is the down side if you're lazy like me when it comes to driving.)

Some people in our ward set up a weekly park date. Each week a different park. It mostly ended up being us and the Rich's (who we love). It was such a fun thing this summer, Reese liked having the friends, and I liked talking with mine.
We got Rylee in the Johnny Jump up for the first time, she needs to get a little older. But look at Reese in this picture, it's like she's 16 or something, the way she's posed like she's trying to be all cute, cracks me up!

Jeremy went to Alaska for a week and a half, for a fishing trip. The night before, he and Reese decided to practice fishing in the grass, I thought it was cute and had to get the camera.

Looks like they caught themselves a chunky baby.
Have you ever seen these things? They're pretty cool, you can put anything in them. It's kind of a mesh pocket. I use any fruit, because it's juicier than veggies. The babies just gum and suck away, they get all the juice they want, but no choking. Rylee loves it, as you can see.

Thank you Challise!!

So one of my biggest goals has been to learn how to decorate cakes. Thanks to Jeremy's sis Ashley I got started with a basics Wilton class last winter. I have been trying since last year to get a fondant recipe and learn how to do it. Well Challise Tatton came to the rescue. She not only gave me her recipe, (which is yummy by the way,) but she gave me lots of tips. So I made my first try, and I'd have to say it turned out pretty dang good.

Thank you so much Challise! I still have a lot to learn, but thanks to Challise, and Ashley I'm on my way. If anyone wants cake let me know I'm hoping to have lots of practice cakes.

Randomly I took these cute pics of Reese and thought I'd put them on here.