AMAZING GIVEAWAY!

Lucky you!The first five people to respond to this post will get something made by me! My choice. For you.This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:

1- I make no guarantees that you will like what I make!

2- What I create will be just for you.

3- It'll be done this year. (might be a little while)

4- You have no clue what it's going to be. It may be a story. It may be poetry or an article on properly cleaning your face before a masque. I may draw or paint something. I may bake you something and mail it to you. Who knows? Not you, that's for sure!

5- I reserve the right to do something extremely strange.

The catch? Oh, the catch is that you must repost this on your blog and offer the same to the first 5 people who do the same on your blog.

The first 5 people to do so and leave a comment telling me they did win a FAB-U-LOUS homemade gift by me!

Oh, and be sure to post a picture of what you win when you get it!

Good luck!

cookie kit

For Christmas I needed to not spend too much on gifts but I like to give each of my neices and nephews a gift. I decided to make them each a sugar cookie kit. These can be kept in the freezer to be used at a later date.




they each had 3 pre-rolled sugar cookie sheets and 3 frosting bags. Just use their own cookie cutters and 7 to 8 min later you have cookies!


I think these came out really cute and were as much a gift to the moms as the kids... no work!
Again I found the boxes at Gygi. (I love that store)

gumball anyone?

Our family has a talent show every year at our christmas party and after years of trying to sing and play an instrument I decided it was futile. My talent lay elsewhere.... the first year felt like a disaster I was going for peti fours (how ever you spell them) and ended up with mini cupcakes. They still ended up being a big hit and a tradition was born. Since then I have made eclairs, sugar cookie houses, peti fours (the right way) and even sucker characters (knid of like the gumballs below) This year was the year to do gumball creatures. The base they are on is homemade marshmallow covered in chocolate and I found the boxes at my favorite store of all time, Orson Gygi. I thought they really finished off the over all look.

snowflake wedding

So far this has to be one of my favorite cakes to make and thankfully the most uneventful (not to many bad surprises)



I got a phone call from some one who used to be in my ward (we were split in august) asking me if I would be interested in making her sister in law's wedding cake. Of course I said yes!!! I never actually met the bride, I worked through her sister and email, I eventually was given two pics to merge together.



I was so exited to make the snowflakes!!! They are royal frosting and quite fragile and I made like... a hundred :) a lot anyway. All the ones on the table were extras I decided would look nice as decoration.
The scariest part was the delivery, it needed to get to Ogden 40 miles away. Every bump made my heart skip! Almost all the snow flakes made it and the few that broke we were able to fix.



I got some amazing compliments from the family and still never got to see the bride. :) One of those compliments was that I did a better job on that cake than one the mother of the bride bought from Mikes Amazing Cakes. His cakes are... well, amazing. :)



I want to give a huge thank you to Megan who is my sidekick on a lot of the cakes I make and I will look forward to her coming home from her mission ready to take up that job again!
Also to Audrey who more often than not is the one left with the kids so I can make those deliveries.

Happy Birthday Dad

Today is my Fathers birthday. What can I say about him? He is an amazing man, his work ethic is awesome, accept when you are a teenager and think holidays are for fun not yard work. I have always been my Dads "favorite"! Hey I am just kidding!!! I do have a connection with my Dad, He teases me unmercifully and I take it, although I have been known to dish it out to him too. I have memories of Christina trying to get us to stop teasing each other because I guess it sounds mean.
When we moved back to Utah, Dad wanted something to do with his kids so he bought season tickets to BYU football. Those are some of the most fun memories I have. He also took us backpacking, hiking and fishing for many vacations. Other things I most associate with my Dad are Bar J Wranglers, scrabble and Knighton (probably because his middle name is the same as my Dads) Dad I hope you know how much I love you and I hope your day is good.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

draping fondant

These pictures are a bit grainy because they were scanned in to the comp from photos. It also doesn't help that they were stained before scanning.




Lindsay's and Brooke's wedding cakes

Extra! Extra! read all about it!

Mom gets lost in a perilous thing called the Internet!

We all know about all the dangers out there on the Internet, those sites that you want to protect from your children at all costs, and if you find they have found such sites you want to throw the computer out and then lock them in their rooms till they have reached the ripe ole age of 50. I am here to let people know about the less talked about worries of the Internet.

The main issue... Facebook. Such an average word for a black hole of apps and chats. Those who have been there will understand, with such a wide variety of things to do, from farming to being part of a mob, from owning a puppy that needs to be fed every day to owning a lollipop that only your friends can suck on. One can even kidnap to their hearts content (or till you max out on how many you can kidnap) Each application or game has its own set of rules and point/money system.

The status updates so everyone can know what you are doing or how you feel: Linda is addicted to Facebook. Those who are like me can never seem to get enough. Oh we might change the app of choice from time but there is so much to do and more every day there will never be a lack of something.

Then the chatting. you can email those who are not logged on or directly chat with those who are. I watch the bottom corner of the screen religiously waiting for someone to chat with. Did you know you can max out on those too?! A friend of mine was chatting with 6 people at the same time and was cut off for a day. Maybe it is like cutting someone off at a bar when they have too much do drink. He had had to much chat and the Facebook administrators decided that he could hurt himself if they let him keep chatting at that rate. Just like a bar they don't care if he goes to another forum and continues they did their duty.

Hey, its wonderful for finding all the friends you have lost touch with. I have reconnected with good friends, young loves and met friends friends. What a fun way to catch up on friends lives all at once and to get to know new ones.

So if you couldn't guess the times I go days or weeks with out a blog I am probably lost in the wonderful world that is Facebook. My name is Linda and I am an addict, please don't hate me just come join me on the dark side.
(now I gotta get back and check on my crops)

Happy Birthday Mom!

Happy Birthday, Mom!!!

You are a wonderful mother and I have always loved making you smile, even when it hurt. Some of my favorite memories end with the words "Don't make me smile/laugh, it hurts"

I have been so thankful for you in the last 10 years especially, I don't know what my life would be like if I couldn't call you to find out what temp you bake potatoes and meat loaf at. I just never had to remember because I knew that I could always call you.

All the days I have been able to call you with something fun or cute the kids did and all the times the kids have gotten to stay overnight with you are wonderful memories. I love watching you with your grandkids, thank you for being such a loving Grandmother.

I wish I could make your day as special as you made mine. You managed to ruin all the birthdays since I moved out by making my birthday all about me!!! :) I dont get that as a mom and have come to appreciate those days even more.

Thank you for all the good times and I hope you know how much I love you.

Crusts anyone?

Daily I am reminded of how my kids have spoiled me as a Mother. They slept through the night at an early age, Knighton and his patience with his brother and sisters, Jessica and her desire to help everyone, Elijah and not being a picky eater and Allyson and her overall calming spirit. To name a few.

I could apply all of these these things (and more) to each of my kids, but today I want to focus on the not picky eaters in my family. Both of the older kids have developed less easy to please palates and that's to be expected. As young children I never had a problem with food left on the table because it wasn't good. I watch or hear about my sister-in-law fight on a daily basis to have her kids eat something besides fruit and chocolate milk and I am thankful all over again.

So the thing that made me thankful today... crusts. I watch my niece (different than those previously mentioned) on the week days. About 90 percent of the time she brings a PB&J sandwich. She nibbles right to the edge of the crust and leaves the rest because she doesn't like crusts. In the process she becomes one sticky mess and I have a hard time figuring out what goes on inside her head. The crusts are so thin by the time she is done with them she has to have eaten some of it.

It really isnt a big deal, just one of my pet peeves. (I dont have all that many, haha) I just let her do what she wants with her bread and make sure at lunch that she knows if she wants more sandwich she needs to finish ALL of her first one. Would you know, if she wants more, there are no crusts on the table.

Halloween

I know I am way over due for blogging about Halloween but I need to thank the family for making it a fun night! I am so glad that all could come' although we missed you Christina. I want to post all the fun pics we got... but the weren't on my camera so I need to get them from my mom and sisters. We decorated pumpkins and had chili in bread bowls. Thanks Andrea and Robert for bringing the cutest pumpkin shaped bread!!! Thanks to Mom and Dad for letting us use their beautiful home. I hope all was left the way it was found. :) Also thanks to all the kids who made the pumpkins so cute! I look forward to the Halloweens in the future with my awesome family.