Larry's Birthday & Family Get-together

On July 12th we had a big family get together!

My son Ryan came home for a long visit on the 9th and on the 12th we had a party for Larry's birthday, so it was the perfect excuse for all of us to party!!

This is a picture of Larry that I swiped from Kami's blog. He was relaxing at the Atomic Days Parade.

We had all of my kids there, (JoMax, Liz, Alec, Mark, Kami, Eric, Collin, Carlee, Ryan) and a lot of Tina and Larry's family (Tina, Larry, Grandma Brewer, Steven, Tauna, Matt, Kaitlyn, Dee)

Kami and I of course made mexican food for the meal. And of course it was yummy!! Tina made her taco soup, which is really delicious too!!

Larry is not to fond of my buttercream cakes, so we decided to make an ice cream cake. It also turned out to be a learning cake for Kami. She's been wanting to know how to do them.

You can see the flavors and how it was put together on Kami's food blog here!! Check it out!

Before, during and after the meal, Colin and Alec spent almost the whole time playing on the Wii!


My own kids love playing card games.

Here is Liz, Kami, JoMax, Ryan and Mark. Couldn't believe that they were all home at the same time!!!!

Below is a scene of the meal and sugar aftermath!! Whew! We all ate a lot of food!

Later we tried to take a family picture. Ha ha!! Yeah right! Wish we would have gone outside to do it. Joe and I are too slumped down in the couch! Oh well...!

My children!!! Kami, Mark, JoMax and Ryan!

And this is my grandchildren. Collin, Carlee and Alec. The loves of my life!!

JoMax's family. Liz, Alec and JoMax.

Kami's family. Collin, Eric, Carlee and Kami.

Mark and Ryan don't have families yet, but they will someday!!

This is Collin, Carlee, Kaitlyn and Mark going out for a walk. Later is started to get dark and I had to drive out to look for them. They ended up walking over to the park and were on their way back when I found them.

I love our family times and wish we could do it every weekend!! But then sometimes it's nice to just stay home and have a quiet weekend once in a while. But then I think I need to be over at Kami's since she is the closest to me!! What's wrong with me!! I can't leave them alone!!

Shanell and Kenny's Wedding

Here's a wedding cake that I did for Shanell and Kenny. They live in Hailey but had the wedding up at Wild Horse Creek Ranch. It's very beautiful up there!

This was a yellow cheesecake-flavored butter cake with raspberry filling, vanilla cheesecake flavored icing and fondant. This picture was taken when I arrived. The cake was going to be displayed outside later, but I wasn't there to get pictures of it.

Cake Story

I made this video for my Technology in the Library class this spring and I thought I would share.

Kaitlyn's 4th of July Cake

July has been such a busy month!! It's now time to play catch-up and I am so far behind in my blogging!! I will try to post a new blog every day until I'm caught up, so I hope you don't mind all the posts!!

First up is Kaitlyn's birthday. She is a friend of my family and is a cousin to Collin and Carlee on their dad's side. They have become part of my family also.

So here is the birthday cake I did for Kaitlyn. I had no time and wasn't very creative with this one. All those that were there at the party loved it and how it tasted! I even made it eggless so that Carlee can have some, but she didn't even want to taste it!! go figure!! Joe even had the nerve to say that this cake was "ugly"!!!! Well maybe he should have been around to give me his expert advice on decorating!!

Here is Kaitlyn with her cake. She is such a cutie!! The cake was a vanilla cake with cookies and cream filling and vanilla buttercream.

Next year I will have to make her a spectacular girly cake! It will be her 13th birthday!!

Twilight Cake

My oldest daughter, Alexis, had a Twilight Birthday Party this weekend. She wanted the different images from the 4 Twilight books on the cake. I made an apple (okay, I covered a plastic one - the party planning required me to cheat a little), a white flower that I painted with red dye, a broken ribbon that went around the cake, and the cake was topped like a chess board and had a queen piece all made of Marshmallow fondant. The cake was white with strawberry filling - she wanted it to look like blood inside! It was a fun party and the cake was perfect for it.

A Little Brownie Help Please

So I need some advice from a brownie guru/expert about baking brownies. For some reason whenever I make them, the center seems to never bake. The out edges are baked through, but if I try to keep it in the oven longer then need be, the center is still gooey and the edges are hard as bricks. Anyone out there that could possibly tell me what may I be doing wrong. I don't remember having this problem at all before, but now it it's just a mess for me.

I'm thinking that maybe I should just follow the directions next time to make cake like brownies and see if they may solve my problem. It just if I just want to make regular brownies, they don't bake right.

Help Please =)

Truck Cake

My brother asked me to make this cake for a co-worker, with only 2 days notice. I had to back the truck in cardboard because there wasn't time for it to dry. I thought the truck ended up looking pretty cool,considering I don't know anything about trucks. I also liked the little road signs I put around the cake. The tiny details were tough to do, but really brought the cake together.

Fishy Shower Cake

I made this cake for a baby shower that I was attending. The decorations match the crib set the parents picked out for their baby boy. It was a lemon cake with lemon filling.

Camp Rock Cake

A mom had seen my daughter's Camp Rock cake online and called to see if I could make one for her little girl. She wanted it to be more Rock 'n Roll and less Camp. I went with making the logo and a guitar out of marshmallow fondant, along with music notes and a bow. The birthday girl called me after her party to tell me how much she loved it.

Beach Ball Cake

I made this cake for my neighbor's son. He was having a pool party and the invitations were beach balls with the party info written on them. I made the little figurine to look like the birthday boy.

Fire in the Sky!

Tonight as I was getting ready to wash some dishes, I glanced out my kitchen window to see this wondrous sight. With the sun setting and some rain and thunder clouds lingering in the area, it made a spectacular image.

These pictures were taken from my backyard looking towards my neighbors backyard.

Grilled Chili Turkey Burgers

Summer and burgers...they just go together! This burger is lower in fat and loaded with flavor.

1 recipe Chimichurri Topping (below)

1 1/2 lbs. ground turkey burger

1 tablespoon chili powder

1/2 teaspoon onion powder

1/4 teaspoon ground cumin

3 whole wheat pita bread rounds, quartered and toasted

grilled red peppers

Prepare Chimichurri topping. Set aside. In a large bowl, combine ground turkey, chili powder, onion powder, cumin and 1/8 teaspoon salt. Shape into 6 patties

Grill patties on the rack of an uncovered grill 10 to 13 minutes. Place each patty on top of two of the pita quarters. Top with Chimichurri Topping.

Chimichurri Topping: In a small bowl, combine 1/2 cup finely snipped fresh flat-leaf parsley, 1/2 cup finely snipped fresh cilantro, 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar (could do without or use regular vinegar), 1 tablespoon olive oil, 2 cloves minced garlic, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon ground pepper, and 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper.

OH DEER!!!

Isn't this little guy so adorable!!




He had the misfortune of meeting a swather last week. This is just a stock photo of a swather. Anyway, since there has been so much rain here, the grain was very high and so are the river beds where the deer usually have their babies. The swather found 2 of the sweet little things, one was not so lucky and this one had part of his leg cut and it's broken.

As you can see, it's just a newborn and there was no way it could have survived if not taken care of. Some friends have him at their house, so we decided to take the kids over to see the baby. It's not often you can see wildlife up close like this! He is nickname is Pepper.

Feeding time!!

He wasn't scared of the kids at all.

Kami, Collin and Carlee having fun petting the deer.

He really does get around pretty well for having a bum leg. We'll have to go over there and visit it again once in a while!!