Cupcakes for my Baby

We have one big event in December that we never forget. Violet's Birthday! This year she turned 2. It is always a little hectic since it is so close to Christmas, but I decided to make her cupcakes again this year. I got them ready the day before her big party. I didn't make them as amazing as the cupcakes last year. Remember those sunflowers with little ladybugs? This year they were simpler but still yummy. I have learned that boxed cake mixes are better than any scratch recipe that I have found yet. They always turn out so moist from the box, especially if you add a little vanilla pudding powder to the mix. I made vanilla cupcakes and cream cheese frosting. Last year I bought some really cute flower liners and used them with these cupcakes. I wanted to make them look like flowers.

In the end though they look more like deviled eggs...sigh. Violet didn't seem to mind though :)

Long Lost Family Fun

When I was a kid we would always get together around Christmas with my mom's family. We would be surrounded by oodles of aunts, uncles, cousins, and of course my wonderful dutch grandma. Over these past 10 years we lost my Grandma, my Mom, an aunt and an uncle. The family parties disappeared, but we decided this year to change that. My wonderful aunt Anna organized a wonderful party! We brought soups, salads, sides, and desserts, including a wonderful dutch dessert that I had several helpings off. My aunt also organized games and crafts.

It was great to see so many of my relatives again. I think Lydia was a little nervous.

It is amazing how much everyone has grown up!

Violet enjoyed all the different food.

After eating we all sat down for a white elephant game. One of my cousin's presents went awry before we even began. He and his wife thought it would be fun to surprise some unknowing soul with a real mouse. It started chewing itself out of it's present and had to be whisked away to their car. My girls would have LOVED a mouse but there was NO WAY that was coming to our house.

Everyone really got into the game. Poor Adelle got a remote control caddy that she wasn't so thrilled about. I ended up opening a Battleship game that I gave to her. Lydia got one of the hottest items of the game, a Grinch Hat. She wears it to school even. We also picked up an Ants in the Pants Game for when Violet is older.

After the white elephant game, we all gathered around for a wonderfully, fun game. There is a present wrapped up in several layers of wrapping paper. A dice is passed around and each person rolls. If you get a 6 you put on gloves and a Santa hat and you try your very best to unwrap the present layer by layer. When somebody else gets a 6 you get pushed out of the way and it is that person's turn to unwrap. It was the funniest thing ever! Everyone really got into it, especially my uncle Dave.

In the end my cousin's daughter ended up winning. It was a cocoa set. I was very surprised that will all the roughness the mugs were still in good shape.

After the last game we all sat down at tables to make our ornaments. It was a tradition at each Christmas party to make a new ornament each year. My aunt decided to have us make elf ornaments with our own pictures. They are so cute! Wes had to keep Violet entertained so I made my ornament and Violet's. Lydia and Adelle worked on their own and I helped them out. I still need to make Wes' ornament. I'll have to do it before next Christmas for sure.

My aunt puts so much work into the ornament kits. She is so amazingly sweet! We all had a really fun time and it was wonderful to see everyone again!

Finding the Perfect Tree

A week or so into December we all packed in the car so we could find the perfect Christmas tree. We didn't go too far, just to our local hardware store.

We walked up and down the rows and rows of trees, until we found the right tree just for us.

It was a cold night, but we all bundled up as best we could.

Violet by the end was pretty crabby, but Wes did his best to keep her spirts high. He held her close while our tree was trimmed and wrapped up tight.

We loaded the tree on top of the car and headed home. We set up the tree, decorated it, and gave it plenty of water.


There is something about a real Chirstmas tree that just can't be matched. The smell is amazing and the full green branches are so beautiful. It finally began to feel like Christmas once we had our tree. Suprisingly Violet did a really good job not playing with the ornaments. She would ask each of us to pick her up so she could look at the different ornaments. She particularly liked the crab ornaments that we picked up in Oregon on our trips. Lydia and Adelle were great decorators this year and were so helpful! I couldn't have done it without them.

Pizzaz and Orchestra for Lydia

Lydia had a couple of concerts in December. The first one was Pizzaz. Every Monday and Wednesday Lydia goes to school at 6:30 AM so she can practice. I of course get to drive her there. She really seems to enjoy it. Adelle was sick the night of concert and we knew Violet wouldn't sit still so I attended out on my own to watch my beautiful girl.

Pizzaz did a pretty good job! The last song was especially sweet when they came out with their candles and sang White Christmas. The audience got to sing along.

The next week Lydia had her orchestra concert. She has been practicing a lot and has been working hard. She even made it to second chair! I had to watch Violet so Wes and Adelle attended. Lydia sat away from Wes so most of the pictures are of the back of Lydia's head.

He did manage to catch one shot of her standing up with her Violin. She is getting so tall and she really has come a long way with her Violin. Years ago I bought a Violin for myself thinking I would learn. It has never happened so I'm very glad it is getting some use now.

Thanksgiving in our Own Way

Thanksgiving didn't go entirely as planned this year. On Thanksgiving Day we were supposed to go to Wes' parents house. Violet came down with a fever the day before and we thought for sure that we were going to miss out on the occasion. Lydia was already out of town. We ended up giving Violet some tylenol and her fever went down and we thought she would be good to go. We headed over to Ellen's and while we waited for dinner to cook Violet began to melt down. It was pretty clear she wasn't feeling well. So back home Violet and I went. Wes was sweet and brought me a plate of food once everything was done and he headed back to eat with Adelle and his family. I put Violet down to bed and watched various movies on Netflix until Adelle and Wes made it back home.

The Sunday after Thanksgiving we headed to Julie's house. Lydia's natural grandparents dropped her off while we were eating. She'd had a long drive from California. Violet, though better, was not in a festive mood. She refused to eat and had fit after fit. I think she was overwhelmed. I felt awful for the rest of the people attending the dinner. We eventually gave up and headed home. Funny enough when we got home Violet was very happy and hungry. We all sat down, gave Violet some dinner and visited with Lydia after her absence. We had a wonderful time and it ended up being our favorite part of the holiday.

I caught Lydia at an akward moment. He he he! Maybe it was the long drive!

I Did What?

Back earlier in the summer when I was at Erin's Slumber Party I ran into an amazing group of women at the Twilight Mom's Booth. Funny enough I had just finished watching the second and third movie in the Twilight Series (thanks to my down time with my wisdom teeth removal) and we had a fun time talking about the Twilight Series.



Some of my blog followers might be perplexed and quite confused at this point. I know what you are thinking "But Liz you don't like Twilight. Remember...you posted all about it." Yes...I know, but you see I started reading the books again and they just sort of grew on me. They became a sort of guilty pleasure. I couldn't admit to anyone that I liked them. That would just be too embarrassing. Don't judge me too harshly readers. I know Stephanie Meyer is just an okay writer, I know the story is silly, and I know vampires aren't really sparkly, but somehow the whole combination has hooked me. I will show you some horrible proof of how badly it held me. This is how many Twilight related things I had in my possession at one time, granted most of it was thanks to our local library. You should have seen my slink in and out of the library each time I got something Twilight related.




Back to what I was saying though. The Twilight Mom's were so welcoming and warm and their enthusiasm was contagious. They even mentioned that they were going to have a grand Breaking Dawn Movie Premier Party. There was a little voice in my head that said "Ooooh...that sounds fun! You should do that". I quickly suppressed this evil little voice for several months until one night sitting in front of my computer screen I purchased a single ticket for myself. Thinking how silly and insane I was there was a part of me that embraced the weirdness.



In fact while I was reading about all of the events that were going to take place, including a costume contest, another evil voice popped up. "Look-A-Like Costume Contest! You should do that!". Now I knew I had gone crazy but in my defense if you know our family at all you know how much we love costumes and costume contests. Saying the word costume contest is like holding candy in front of Violet. There is no turning back once it has been presented.


I pondered for several weeks what I should dress up as. Twilight doesn't have any hugely defined characters. Everyone pretty much dresses in normal clothing, but then one character came to mind; someone in fact who has some pretty unique costume pieces. Victoria! I mean if you've seen the movie who can forget the sheepskin cape. I went on a crusade to put together the perfect costume. DI and Savers were wonderful in fueling my strange new obsession and I was able to put together a good costume. I was still missing a fur cape though so I went to Joanne's and found some great faux fur. I even took some time to cut out the cape and attach some leather straps. I even found a perfect red wig (brand new of course) to top off the ensemble.


As the night approached I was all ready to go out on my own to the madness. Wes would have come with me, but we weren't going to leave the girls overnight on a school night. I had a co-worker who would have come with me, but she had already won tickets to another Breaking Dawn Premier. At least I had gotten to know some Salt Lake City Twilight Fans on Facebook and we planned to meet up together.


I walked somewhat nervously into the pre-movie party/reception. I should have never been afraid. I had SO MUCH FUN! My costume was a hit. Right away people knew who I was. In fact I was frequently asked by complete strangers if they could get their picture taken with me.


Here is a picture of the real Victoria:





And here is what I looked like. Okay, maybe I shouldn't have had such a serious face.




I wasn't the only one to dress up though. There was another SLC Twi-Fan that convinced her husband to dress up as Edward and she dressed up as Bella. They had the movie poster pose down.

Another girl in our group dressed up like Alice. The gal dressed as Bella above actually made the Alice dress.

The party at the hotel was pretty busy, but really fun. There were booths, games, treats, and you could even get a hair and makeup makeover if you wanted. I passed on that one of course since I was already in costume and a wig.

The SLC Twi-Fans then headed to a nearby restaurant where we ate before the very late movie. Kandi, the head of SLC Twi-Fans also had a trivia game where we could win prizes. I picked up a few fun things! There was the cutest girl with down syndrome who was attending the event and she was quite taken with all of us that were dressed up. She made sure to take time to talk to each of us.

After we ate we headed over to the theater. There was a pretty big line to get in, which we found really funny since it was reserved seating. We waited till there wasn't a line and headed into the theater.

It was one of the biggest theatres I'd ever seen! We were pretty far up, but the screen was HUGE so I wasn't worried about not being able to see the movie.

Here is most the of the SLC TWI group.

There were even more games over at the theater. This girl in our group won a fun box full of Cullen goodies.

There were a lot of people participating in the look-a-like costume contest. One of the women in the theater dressed up as a pregnant Bella. She was really pregnant and her stomach was huge and she had painted it to look all bruised. It was a little gross. She did win one of the prizes, but I won as well!

We all had settled in and watched the movie. I had a very large coke which is very much out of the ordinary for me, but it kept me awake. I actually enjoyed the movie and afterwards we snapped a group picture.

I came back tired but content. The next day was a little odd since I didn't get a lot of sleep, but I think I would consider doing it again. I had to snap a few pictures of my goodies from the event.

I won some Twilight Journals at the SLC Twi-Fans Dinner.

I bought this personalized necklace at the pre-movie party. It is stamped with Wes' name.

We got quite the goodies from the Twilight Moms at the movie. A Breaking Dawn metal book nook, a syringe pen, and a cottage key bracelet.

I won a lot of Team Jacob items for the look-a-like contest. A lot of it went into a white elephant gift for work.

And last, but not least, the photo booth picture from the party. It was quite the event!