Cake Wars 2008

Hello all. A little over a week ago Jon (my little brother) & I celebrated our birthdays together with a little get-together at my house. During the planning I asked Jon if he was making me a cake and he said "Sure. Are you making mine?" Of course I agreed and soon the cake wars were born. It's just more exciting to make it a competition. We figured that everyone at the party could vote on the best cake... using the categories of taste, appearance, technique, and adherence to the theme. The theme, by the way, was to embody the birthday boys (or girls) personality in cake form. Unbeknown to each other, we both started doing research on techniques on the internet and I even checked out all the books on cake decorating from the library.

Here is what we ended up with:

CAKE A: "SPOONS"

Jon made me a cake with a 3-D spoon on top of a rectangular sheet cake with playing cards & chocolate on it. He made homemade pound cake & fondant to carve & then cover the spoon. The cake was a traditional yellow cake with white frosting & chocolate bits everywhere. The spoon, by the way, comes from a story from my youth where I nearly killed my father during a game of "spoons" after leaping through a circle of bystanders, tackling my dad to the ground, and wrenching the last spoon out of his rather strong grip. Apparently this reminds Jon of my competitive nature!

Here are the detail shots:

Birds eye view of my cake.
(Notice the detail on the handle? Nice!)

The Amazing 3-D spoon.
(Excellent carving technique)

CAKE B: "MARLEY & ME"

For Jon's cake I went with a music/Bob Marley theme since he is musical AND since he is very, um, supportive of the Rastafarian movement (he's even WEARING a Rasta bracelet in the photo above). I did a 2 layer cake (both made of chocolate with cookies & cream filling) and iced it in homemade Italian buttercream dyed in the traditional Rastafarian colors. I made a portrait of Marley out of colored chocolate and covered the rest of the cake in chocolate music notes and chocolate guitars.

Here are the detail shots:

My Marley Masterpiece.
(It turned out even better than I expected)

Guitars & Music Notes
(Check out that craftsmanship)

P.S. I won.

Attack of the GIANT baby!!!

For those of you who know our niece Cada, tiny is an understatement. She's always been a petite little girl, but nothing illustrates it quite like this picture. Lincoln & I went to stay with Mel & Ry after the baby was born and Cada couldn't just get enough of her cousin. She loves to hold him, but judging from this photo pretty soon he'll be holding her .

Attack of the GIANT baby
Cada (3 years, 25 lbs) & Lincoln (7 months, 20 lbs)

The Hair Wars

Hello all! August has been a surprisingly busy month for us. The big news is that my sister
Melanie had her baby on the 11th. She endured 36 hours of labor (as did those of us lucky enough to be there with her) before the grand arrival of a nearly 9 lb. baby! Trace is adorable, of course. He has long fingers, long feet, and a whole head of black hair. I'd have to say that he has way more hair than Lincoln & Grandpa T. combined.

The Hair Wars
Trace, day 1 vs. Lincoln, day 215

Poor Lincoln! He takes after the wrong parent... his momma was practically bald until age 2. Anyway, the whole new family is doing fine (not counting the sleep deprivation of course) and Cada seems to be the ideal big sister.

Nate finished his summer school classes and is currently enjoying a short lived break before the fall semester starts. I just got called to the Young Women's organization, so Lincoln is enjoying his Sunday status as a ladies man. Honestly, he disappears during that whole hour as he's passed from girl to girl. I was really excited about the calling, though with Nate in the Elder's Quorum Presidency some Sunday's will require a bit of juggling.

In addition to Mom & Dad Douglas moving here in May, we are thrilled to announce that Spencer & Liz just moved in last weekend. We are excited to have them here for however long we get to keep them. It will be just like the good ole' days in Northfield...

Leaping Lincoln!

With the new school year starting I feel incredibly lucky to be home with the little man. I keep getting asked if I'll miss teaching (which I will) but I'm mostly delighted to just be mommy. Lincoln is growing like gangbusters! As you can see from the video, childproofing our home is imminent! Lincoln may not realize he's got knees, but he can sure get around to wherever he wants to go. Enjoy!

Jenny

I blog, you blog, we all blog for...

I blog, you blog, we all blog for... well we don't really know, but we're doing it anyway. We hope it will help us keep in touch with those of you who are far away... and maybe even those who live up the street.

Summer is full swing for Jenny & Lincoln... not so much for Nate, who is attending summer school at the moment. He's attempting to finish his master's degree in the next year while Jenny takes a much needed break from teaching to be home with Lincoln.

Lincoln just had his half-birthday and he's having fun blowing spit bubbles, scooting around on his tummy, and swimming at Grandma & Grandpa Douglas'. He is just the joy in our lives and we can't believe how much he's changed in the past 6 months. We hope you enjoy the slideshow of our favorite memories.

Until later...

Nate & Jenny

P.S. We've included a link at the bottom of our blog just for you, Spencer. Gleaming the Cube, anyone?? (The sequence is out of order; Watch part 2 then part 1)