The Cakes of our Lives

I've been having so much  fun today reading party blogs!  If you know me, you know how much I love to throw parties and plan parties!  We love celebrations around this house!  :)  We have been asked in the last month to help two of our friends plan their children's upcoming birthday parties!  What a priveledge! 

I thought it would be fun to post a blog of all of the cakes we have had in our celebrations over the years since my grandson's first birthday, when we first started in the beginning stages of party planning!!  Every party we have thrown since has grown more elaborate year after year, along with the cakes!! 

Now don't get me wrong, while we love the awesome cakes, there is nothing wrong with a homemade birthday cake made with lots of love, or one ordered from the grocery store!  What matters the most is the people you love and creating a wonderful day for them to enjoy!!

A simple celebration, a gathering of friends; here is wishing you great happiness, a joy that never ends.
Uknown


Jessica's 24th  Birthday ~ Surprise Party!!



Adleigh's 2nd Birthday Cake ~ Mad Hatters Tea Party

Jackie and Cody's Wedding Cake

The Groom's Cake

Jackie's Tiffany Bridal Shower Cake

Payton's 4th Birthday Cake ~ Pirate Themed..soooo cute!!

Cody's cake for his 23rd B'day..he looooves UT

Jackie's 21st Birthday Cake

Adleigh's 1st Birthday Cake

Jessica's Baby Shower Cake (geeze that's been what over five years ago now??)

Jackie's Baby Shower Cake

Payton's 1st Birthday Cake

Payton eating his smash cake at his 1st Birthday!! <3

Adleigh eating her smash cake at her 1st Birthday <3 her

And there are just a few of the "Cakes of our Lives"!!  There are a few more cakes I can't find photos of!!   I love to bake cakes, I love to eat cake, and I love to search to find just the right cake to fit the occasion!!  Hope you have enjoyed this blog!!  Hope you have your cake and eat it too!!



Peace, Love, and Party 1st Birthday Party

For those of you who know me in person, you know that I LOVEEE to plan parties!  It's fun to get creative to make a special day just that more special!

Since I haven't posted any of Adleigh's 2nd Birthday photos yet, I thought I would at least write a blog and share some of her 1st Birthday photos, in case someone out there needs some inspiration!  Also, please understand, that when we did this party, we just didn't take photos of all of the details, because in our wildest dreams we would have never imagined that we would be sharing our party ideas with so many others!!  We have learned to really start documenting all of the tiniest details now!!  At the bottom of the page are photos that I have found online that represent what we had at this party, and are not my photos, but it should give some idea as to what all we did!!

My daughter Jackie decided that she wanted the theme to be Peace, Love, and Party.  We thought we would go with a hippie, retro kind of look!

This was her cake! 

The invitation "proof"

Miss Adleigh with her "Smash Cake"

One of the party tables, we alternated chair tie colors and table cloths

The Birthday Girl

We had many different types of retro colored things...from balloons to table centerpieces...somehow, I got NOOO pictures of the table centerpieces!  We had silver metal buckets with candy sticks and twirl lollipops!

The punch and Fruit

The place we had her party at gave us the option of ordering our food from there as well, since there would be sooo many adults we went ahead and went with a fruit display, cheese and crackers, and gourmet cookies.  All of those are easily doable yourself as well!!

Some of the kids and the birthday girl :)

These were some of the party favors, and were on every table... they were HIPPIE DUCKS

Everyone got a necklace

and some tattoos

We had pails in the center of every table

They were filled with candy sticks

and GIANT SUCKERS

We also had giant daisies on the back of each chair, but for the life of me I can't find a picture to represent what they looked like!!  We also had TONS of retro wall stuff, which I also can't find any photos of, but you can see some of them in the photos above. 

Now that you have seen her party from last year, stay tuned for the pics from her party this last weekend!  It was soooo cute!!  Here's a sneak peek of the cake!

The cake was from Chez Bazaan Bakery in Tyler, Tx

The tablecloths and chair ties were from efavormart.com

The candy treats and centerpieces were from OrientalTrading.com

Adleigh's outfit & hairbow was from thegirlybaby.com

Ham and Cheese Crusties

This is a real favorite around my house!  EVERYONE loves it!

2 eggs, well beaten
2 cups ham cubes (I buy mine pre cut in a little bag at Wal Mart, it's by the sandwich meat)
1/2 c. chopped onion (some of my family doesn't like onion, so I only put onion in half of them..lol then trying to remember which half is sometimes a problem but it works for us)
2 c. shredded Monterey Jack cheese
1/2 tsp. pepper
2 cans crescent rolls

Combine all ingredients except crescent rolls.  Unroll crescent roll dough.  Cut each triangle in half for regular muffin tins, and in 1/3's for small tins.  Take the pieces and fit them into tins until the rounds are covered in dough.  It's like making mini little pie crusts out of crescent roll dough basically.  Spoon ham and cheese mixture into shells.  Cook at 400  degrees until you can see the cheese is melting and you can see that the crusts are browning up, and the egg mixture looks "solid"  .  It's about 15 to 20  minutes....just keep an eye on them!  I know this is not exact science, but believe me, once you try them, you will thank me and so will your family!!

Happy eating!!

"Just Do It"....lol or umm DON'T?!?!

There are going to be those days where I just have to blog about the random thoughts in my mind!!

 It will probably be at least Wednesday, maybe Friday before I post a blog with all of Adleigh's party pics!  Luckily we had our good friend Beth come and take pictures for us.   I walked out of the house, thinking the camera was in the car, completely left ours at home!  I had to stop and buy two disposable cameras and now I have to take them in to get developed.   Beth will be sending a CD with all of the pics she took for us!   Ohhh how I don't really miss those days of disposable cameras,  that is all we used for years!!  :) I am very much spoiled by having a digital camera now with instant access to the photos!

So the title of my blog occurred to me while I have been pondering a few lingering thoughts.  Several months ago Jackie and Cody had an opportunity to travel to Mexico on a mission trip with their church.  I was vehemently against it, after all, who wouldn't be?  Who wants to get shot in the street by the drug cartel there, and it's pretty darn likely it could happen.  It was in one of the border towns, and they ended up taking a group of about ten.  Jackie and Cody decided that basically, because of Adleigh and their responsibilites towards her, that they would not go, that the danger level is just too high.  The lingering thought I keep having is, if not us though, who will?  If we don't step out and feel the fear, and trust our faith and that our God will see us through, then are we really serving like we should?  Sometimes I think we just REALLY need to trust that the Lord will protect us and guide us through all dangers.  You just might be that one person that was meant to make a huge difference in someone else's life!

That reminds me of a wonderful story I read not too long ago, it's amazing!! 

I will retell it to the best of my abilities.  I cannot find it anywhere to save my life LOL!! 
There was this family from the United States.  They packed a shoebox of gifts for a child in another country, not having any idea where it was going to.  This family had an opportunity to go on a mission trip with their church overseas to share the gospel, help build churches,  and to have vacation bible school.  They had a great time, and one little girl invited one of the mothers and her daughter over to her house to visit with her mother.  They sat in this little girls living room, and talked about what they did, and how they had enjoyed giving through the Operation Shoebox.  The little girl squealed and said that she had just that year gotten a box from Operation Shoebox and had wanted to show them everything!  She ran to her room, and brought out the box.  It was THE EXACT BOX THEY HAD SENT.  They were sitting in the living room, in another country,  of the little girl who had received their box and had been tremendously blessed.  Neither of them had known where it had gone or who had sent it, up until that point!!  You just never know what kind of impact something small you are able to do for someone else will have.  If you don't do it, well then someone will most definitely be missing out. 

The other random thought I had, doesn't exactly go with those, but kind of.  The recent earthquake and following tsunami tends to strike a little bit of fear in all of us.  It seems like every place that would be fun to visit has had some huge natural disaster lately.   I live nowhere near a quake zone, nor near an ocean, but we were planning on traveling this summer for our 25th wedding anniversary.  I watched a documentary over the last few days, called MEGA TSUNAMI, about the tsunami and earthquake that hit Thailand and the surrounding areas several years ago.  If you want to be broken hearted, just watch that.  I had to watch it over several days, it was just too much for one sitting.  It is actual video footage that travelers took, of what happened, and what happened to them.  It is more than any feeling human can bear to see.  I cannot imagine how frightening that must have been for those in Thailand, and those in Japan.  I have never been a fearful person, as a matter of fact, there is really not too much that scares me.  Once you see things like this though, that occur without any prior warning, it really makes you start wondering about the safety of places you might want to visit.  LOL especially anywhere near an ocean!!  However, in all likelihood, the chances of you being somewhere where this happens, is probably pretty small.  Thank God.  It will still play in the back of my mind though whenever I start planning where we are going......should I "Just do it"  and go somewhere with an ocean....or maybe just stay safe and stay in the United States!! 

I guess I will have to stick to the motto of  "Feel the fear and do it anyway".

Hope y'all are all having a great Monday, and I promise I will post party pics as quick as I have them!

{Inspiration} Cake Pop Recipe

  The author of this blog is soooo talented!! I thought I would share this recipe for Cake Pops,  they are so cute!! May have to attempt to bake some this weekend!!   Lots of love,
Me

{Inspiration} Cake Pop Recipe

The Easter Parade

I love parades, and I love Easter. 
I don't know what reminded me of this last night, but if it's one of those things that makes me smile, you know I will have to write a blog about it!!  My daughter and I ended up  having a whole conversation about it last night, and she thinks I am crazy for wanting to do this of course!!  I told her it was on my bucket list for sure!

Every year in New York City, they have this parade called the Easter Bonnet Parade.  I think it would just be a blast to make up an outrageous Easter Bonnet and go participate. It's a good idea to remember the light hearted side of life from time to time, and take time to just be kind of silly!!  Apparently it's not an organized parade, like all the rest that go through New York.  They just close down an area on 5th Avenue,  and let the people wander around admiring all of the Easter Bonnets!!  This parade has been an annual event since the early 1900's.    It's just one of those things that sounds like it would be fun to do!  Below are some photos I have found of the Easter Bonnets you might find along the route!!  Now I just need someone to go with me, and I need to figure out just how doooooo you make one of those!!

The days of my life :) :)

I love my life, and I am most definitely blessed to be able to stay home with my grandchildren so they don't have to go to daycare, and my girls don't have to pay the enormous day care fees.  When Jessica was living in San Antonio, Payton's day care ran $660 a month.  That is as much as some peoples rent around here!!  I really feel sorry for people who barely make minimum wage or just above it, I don't know how they pay for things like day care. 

Wednesday is our day "off".  Jackie and her husband Cody have the day off from work, and they keep Adleigh with them of course on that day.  When Payton was so sick last week, we promised him that if he would take his medicine, we would take him somewhere fun.  Every day for the last week, he woke up and asked, can we go somewhere fun today??  He woke up yesterday morning and asked me if I had money, which was a funny question coming from a 4 year old.  I told him yes, and then he said, do you have A LOT of money?  I was really wondering where he was going with these questions by that point!! I told him I guess I did, and then he said GOOD...LET'S GO TO CHUCK E CHEESE!!  I knew why he was asking those questions, his mom had told him that it costs a lot of money to go to Chuck E Cheese!!  :)

I was so proud of myself, I didn't fall for the "trap" at Chuck E's where they have you buy one of their "specials"....I figured it up myself and ordered each thing individually, and still got him tokens, and only spent $23!!  I was so proud of myself  LOL.  We ordered and sat down, and there were a few games right behind where we were sitting.  He ran over to one, slapped the ball thing on it, and out came about 15 tickets.  He never even put any money in it.  He is still young enough that he didn't realize what had happened, all he knew is that he got tickets and he was sooooo excited!!  He was jumping up and down and yelling and so happy!!  He kept hitting it, and the tickets kept coming out.  I was starting to feel a little self conscious about it, he wasn't putting any tokens in, and he was getting TONS of free tickets!  It was crazy!!  We ate our pizza and he went to the game right next to the first, and I'll be darned if it didn't just shoot out free tickets at him too.  Literally, he had about five games do that to him while we were there.  I have never ever seen that happen before.  He had some machines just spit out gobs and gobs of tickets.  By the time we were ready to go I was feeling like maybe I should have him go pick out a lottery ticket or something, he was so lucky!! 

Today while we were driving down the road, Payton saw a pawn shop with a kids drum set inside.  He yelled MIMI and told me he wanted me to stop and buy him that drum set.  He even pointed out that we were in the pickup and the drum set would fit!!  He's so cute!!   I always want to humor him, and especially what he is interested in.  But geeze, a drum set??  I would hate for him to be the next drumming prodigy though, and us never know it because we never let  him try!!  I just don't know how I could keep from going insane from having to listen to constant drumming!! We need an extra room built on the house or a storage shed converted into a drum room!!

Adleigh is going to be two next Monday.  I believe she has set out on a mission to make me crazy by then.  She is so funny, yet so aggravating at the same time.  Her new favorite thing to do with me is to change her mind every two seconds.  For example

She wll say "Bed" and point to the direction of my bedroom like she wants a nap.
I will pick her up and start walking with her towards the bedroom.
She will then say..."That Bed" and point the other way towards Jessica's room, like she doesn't want to sleep in my bed..  The bedrooms are on two totally different ends of the house. 
I start walking back the other way and she says 'NOOOO THAT BED"  and of course points back to my bedroom again.  arrrrggghhhh

After I changed her diaper this morning, I was putting her little pants back on and she started play screaming and kicking her feet and saying NOOOOO
I stopped, and didn't put her pants on....then she screamed PANTS...PANTS....
I started putting them on again and she started screaming again...NO...NO PANTS.....
I then walked away and she layed down in the floor and cried because I didnt' put her pants on. 
I am going to be CRAZY by weeks end. 

The kids are on a roll this morning.  I called my husband to ask him a question about something.  He started laughing and said it sounded like I was at a Circus, because both of the kids were hollering about something at the same time!!

I then had another phone call, and Payton and Adleigh decided to play tug of war over a box of sidewalk chalk.  We don't even have a sidewalk.  They were fighting over that box like mad.  They were also so loud and so horrible that I couldn't get a word in edgewise to the person on the other end of the line.  It also never fails, that if you walk to another room, while on the phone with screaming children in the background, those children will follow you to that room and continue their fussing and feuding.  Adleigh is at the age, where if Payton has something, she has to have it.  If he sits somewhere, she has to sit riiiiggght next to him, or on him, which annoys him to the nth degree.  He can't escape her, and she ADORES him...she also knocks over all of his buildings he builds with his stackable blocks and legos haha....

We're having Adleigh's 2nd birthday party Sunday.  I've been sworn to secrecy about the theme, but be looking for photos coming soon! I haven't even had time to shop for a present for her yet!!  What a bad Mimi I am LOL!!  I'm thinking about getting her this.....both she and Payton could play with it outside here at my house and as much as both of them like to splash in water it seems like it would be perfect!!



Have a great Thursday everyone!  I am going to work hard on not losing my mind today!!  :) :) It's a very distinct possibility!!

Unusual Thanksgiving/Holiday Traditions

I have been suffering from a major case of writer's block, or actually extreme "busyness" with my little granddaughter being sick with the flu!  I was having fun searching the web for blogging ideas when I came across this website of blogging prompts!  This one struck me, because of course, wouldn't you know, we have one crazy tradition and one more normal one!!

A few years ago, we were all gathered here at my home for a wonderful Christmas celebration.  I truly enjoy having my whole family here for the holidays!!  We always serve a big meal, open presents, visit, and then sing Christmas Carols!!  We are also very mindful of  "The Reason for the Season"

One particular year I think we sang every Christmas Carol we could think of.  As we sat around in silence for a moment, my stepmother started singing...Ohhhhh say can you seeeee, by the dawns early light....and we all joined in and sang the whole Star Spangled Banner.  Yes, we sang the National Anthem at Christmas.  It has now become a yearly tradition, where we don't feel complete unless we sing the National Anthem.  We have also started singing it at other family gatherings.  We threatened to sing it at my daughter's wedding in November, but somehow in the excitement completely forgot.  I am sure she is grateful for that. :)



It never fails that we have a guest home for the holidays who is wondering WHY we do that....we just laugh and say it's a Dison tradition now!

The other tradition we have, is to have "Christmas Crackers" next to each plate at Christmas Dinner.  They are so much fun!  They are brightly colored foil wrappers filled with tiny little toys etc....you pull both ends and out pops your toy!!  It's a fun way to end dinner!!  There you go, our two traditions :) :)


This is a photo of my daughter Jackie and son in law Cody, Christmas '08 haha wearing the paper hats that came in their "Christmas Cracker" :)



THE IMPORTANCE OF A SECOND OPINION

I am sharing this story in hopes that it will help at least one person!!  I was reminded of this yesterday when my daughter came home from the dermatologist, and told me what the PCA (patient care associate), who has no medical training, had told her. 

The PCA was taking her medical history, and she told them that her dad had been diagnosed with skin cancer on his lip.  The PCA told her, well, it must have only been "pre cancer" or they would have removed his whole lip.  Unfortunately, for those who haven't researched it locally and gotten a second opinion, this is the case. 


Some time in the middle of last year, my husband had a small raised brown spot on his lower lip.  He really didn't think much of it, and ignored it, thinking it would go away.
It grew larger and larger, and he finally made a call to our local family physician.  He told him that he thought maybe it was skin cancer, and referred him to a local dermatologist.  This dermatologist is  "in our network", and all of the local dermatologists work under this umbrella of dermatologists and opinions in the local region (within about a 40 mile radius or so).

The dermatologist examined him and decided that it was indeed skin cancer of some kind and that he would need to have it removed.

He went to visit a plastic surgeon, who told him that he would "remove his lower lip and then turn it outward to where it resembled a normal lip, and that eventually it would look like a normal lip".  This DID NOT APPEAL to my husband of course.

As he was checking out that day, the business office told him that we would be required to pay all of our deductible before he could be treated.  Our deductible at that time was about $3000.  Not only were we facing drastic surgery, we were also facing paying out a huge chunk of money as well.

I decided that surely he could get a second opinion from someone.  I had to really search to find a dermatologist not affiliated with this network, and finally found one about 60 miles from our home, but still within our medical network.  We called and told them our situation, and they were able to make him an appointment within a weeks time frame.  We went to the appointment, they were able to confirm that it was skin cancer, and he would need surgery. 

This time, however, this office uses an advanced method of working with skin cancers.  They were going to use a method called MOHS Micrographic Surgery.  This is a method where with the use of a laser, the physician cuts of a miniscule layer of skin, one at a time, until the skin cancer is removed, leaving the area looking basically like normal. 

Here is the link to the surgeons office where we went
http://www.longviewdermatology.com/cancer.asp

The wonderful thing about this office as well, is they only required us to pay our co-pay. 

Had we only visited and listened to the first office, we would have been out of $3000 and my husband would have been traumatized unnecessarily. 

The physician prayed with my husband before he ever even started the procedure.  He ended up having to cut off many, many layers of skin on his lip to make sure he got it all.  We had to return a week later for a check of his lip.  He had huge bandages on his lip, which required lots of manipulation and changing by yours truly LOL.  They told him they had never seen such a fine job of bandaging by anyone!! :) 

It was a very scary time for us both.  My husbands dad died of Malignant Melanoma when my hubby was just a young boy.  We were both worried that they might find that it had already spread into his blood stream.  It's somewhat of a frightening thought when you are there wondering if your world is going to turn upside down and you are going to be the sole person responsible for everything and also lose your spouse! 

He had his six month checkup not too long ago, and got the all clear for now. 

He now makes sure to tell everyone, if you are out in the sun, which he was for years, working, please put on sunscreen of some sort, even on your lips! 

Also, research the treatments available, and be willing to travel and GET THE SECOND OPINION ALWAYS!! 

Feel free to comment or leave a message if you have any questions!!