Jack recently had a birthday, and as I told him when he was born that I would do every year, I made his birthday cake. I was pretty proud of that cake; it took me WAY TOO long to do something so simple. I am not a baker!!!! But Jack loved it. It reminded me of his 1st birthday, when I made the same cake for him (hey, no judgments - he WANTED Winnie again). It took me three days or something like that when I did it the first time. When he turned one, though, we brought out the cake, sang to him, and while he was sitting in his hi-chair, we proceed to cut the cake. Well, he was one, and Winnie was his hero. He did not take kindly to the idea back then that we were "cutting up" his hero. Since that fateful day, we've tried to avoid that same situation by discussing in the weeks before his birthday that cake is SUPPOSED to be cut up.

I am not a big fan of this "my baby is growing up" thing. On his birthday, I woke him up and asked him, "Jack, do you know what happened 4 years ago today?' In a tired and somewhat exasperated voice, he said, "Mom, you birthed me."

With a big smile on my face, I told him, "You better believe I did, Bubba."

....And this is when you know you are back in a place that values the cheapness of their movie prices. We tried to think of what $1.50 actually gets you where we live now....and we came up with NOTHING. Our area supports the entire movie industry single-handedly.....hey, someone has to make sure Robert Pattinson gets paid $15 million for his appearance in the next installment of the Twilight franchise, and we'll do our part by paying $11 for a movie ticket. My message? You owe us, Robert, you owe us.

Christmas in Utah 2009

Our Christmas this year was more than a little special - it was A LOT special!!! We got to go to Utah, and to make it even better, both Brice's and my ENTIRE families were there. We got to see everyone...including Chelsey and her family from Colorado. It was GREAT. Jack got some serious cousin time, and he always asks us when we are going back. He loves being with his "friends," as he calls them.
We made Brice's mom's Swedish tea rings - and LOTS of them. Brice's sister Shannon taught me how to make them, and we spent the whole day making them to give away to his dad's neighbors. I think we made about 50 in total!!!

BYU/UTAH game 2009

So...the annual rivalry game. Being in the east has not diminished the animosity that Brice and I feel every November as game time rolls around! We always have a party....and people show up just to watch us. Let's just say...it gets a little dicey (especially when Brice loses). These are the red and blue cupcakes we made this year for the game.