Taegyn's family birthday party

Cooking is a must

Cooking and baking are really big things in our household. My kids just love to either sit and watch, or "help" (when I let them.) It's been hard this pregnancy cause I haven't actually wanted to cook or bake much, but I have been able to squeeze in a few cakes and of course cookies, brownies and such with the kids.
Here are a few pictures that I have taken recently of my kids helping with baking.
One night I thought it would be fun to make sugar cookies with the kids and have them decorate them themselves. Well, as I was making the dough, deKyn said that he wanted rainbow dough. So, I got out some of my gels for cake decorating and let each kid pick their own color and mix it with the cookie dough.
I then rolled the dough together and cut them out in circular chunks and placed them on a cookie sheet.

When they were cooled enough, the kids frosted their own and put sprinkles on them.
Of course they went a little crazy with the sprinkles, but they had a blast.







When I do cook or bake something, my kids sit around like vultures waiting to lick the bowls or the beaters! :) I need to do this type of stuff with them more often!

Friend Birthday Party Monkey Island

This is the first year that we have done a friend birthday party for Taegyn. I decided that it would be fun to just let Taegyn invite a few friends and take them to Monkey Island. They all had such a blast. Taegyn invited her cousin Sammie, her good friend Josie, and another friend Paige. Of course we brought big brother deKyn along to join in the fun too. He had no problem being the only boy with all of the girls!









After we played for a while, we went back to our house where they opened presents and decorated their own cupcakes.




We picked up Papa Murphey's Pizza and had dinner and then we let the kids sing to Taegyn and eat their creatively sprinkled cupcakes.

This was such a low key fun party that I think I could probably do it again sometime. :)

Taegyn turns 4!

Taegyn just turned 4. I can't believe it. She is growing up way too fast.
We had a great day with her for her birthday though. First we started the morning with our family tradition of donuts and strawberry or chocolate milk.

Then we opened presents before dad had to go to work.

She got some good stuff and I think was the most excited about a Tinkerbell art kit that came with pens, colored pencils, markers, erasers, paper, and rulers. Taegyn is a big crafter. (she just might take after me) :)
dekyn got her a bug house so that she could find her own bugs this summer and put them in her very own house. (I think he was more excited about it then she was, but it was still a great idea).


When Cory got home we took all our kids to Build a Bear to pick out their own stuffed animals and outfits. If you have never been there, it is more expensive than I would have thought, but Taegyn was in Heaven. She made a dog and named her Ashley. (she is very proud of her).
We then came home and did cake and Ice cream. Since we are doing a family party on Sunday, I decided to save her Rapunzel cake for then. So for this party, I did a small girly cake for her. She loved it!
It was a good day, and an exhausting day. Happy Birthday Tazy-Mae, we love you bunches!

6 Weeks?!?!

I have just under 6 weeks left until baby Addalyn joins our family and I have to be honest, I am not ready! I have had some serious anxiety about #4 joining our family. I know that she is supposed to be here with us, and I know that she has waited patiently for her chance to finally join us. I am just not sure how I am going to adjust to 4 kids.
I admit I feel a little guilty about adding a new one to our family. I struggle with patience already for the three I already have, and I know that my patience will be stretched even thinner with a newborn. Another part of my guilt comes from my life beening so busy with school and everything else. I feel I don't give my kids everything they need right now attention wise, and it seems a little neglectful to add another that will take up more of my time and attention that the other three need. I don't want my other 3 to feel pushed aside just because Addalyn will be here.
Part of this realization on my part has helped to contribute to the decision that I need to put schooling on hold for a bit to give my kids more of my time and hopefully help me not to be so stressed and on edge.
I think that the child I worry about most with another baby in the house is deKyn. He starts Kindergarten next year and as many of you know has his own struggles that we are trying to help him through. deKyn needs more of his own "type" of attention and I worry that I won't have the time to give it to him. I don't want deKyn to fail at anything and more than anything I want to see him succeed academically and socially. I just don't want Addalyn to be one more reason that I can't give him that extra attention and help that he needs.
Davyn is such a mamma's boy that I wonder how that adjustment will go for him when he's not the baby of the family anymore. He has always been really good with other babies that he sees, but he gets jealous if I show anyone extra attention and not him. Especially if that someone else is Taegyn. He gets down-right mean when I am giving Taegyn loves or cuddling her.
Taegyn on the other hand is one that I am not too worried about when it comes to adjusting to a new little one in our household. It's true she is more of a Daddy's girl so maybe it might be hard if she doesn't get as much daddy time, but Cory is pretty good about giving her lots of attention.
It all just comes back down to me. I am not quite prepared and ready for another one. I stress all the time about how much I yell at my kids and ask myself everyday why I can't just let the little stuff go and "enjoy" them more. That is the biggest thing for me. I Love my kids more than anything but forget to just enjoy them and the stages of life that they are in right now. I don't want to look back and have a bunch of regrets that I didn't enjoy them enough because I let the little things of everyday life keep me from doing so.
So I guess that's sort of where I am at, denial. Cory keeps telling me we need to bring up all the baby stuff and get it put together and cleaned and rearrange things so that it is all set up for when she comes. I keep telling him we will do it later and that we still have plenty of time before she comes. Truth is, it is going by way too fast and she is going to be here before we know it. I need to start preparing myself as best as I can now so it's not such a shock to our home front when she does arrive. I need to snap out of my denial and make a plan as to how to prepare myself better for whats ahead.

More cakes

This isn't quite done. I didn't have time to finish this one due to the fact of Davyn's stuff. I had a cowboy and bull made out of fondant to go on top of this cake and I was in the process of making horse shoes to go around it too.
This girl wanted a scrapbook birthday cake for her sister-in-law. It was actually a lot of fun making the details for this cake, but it did take awhile.


My friend I used to work with wanted a Mater cake for her son's birthday. This is what I came up with.
I made this cake for Cory's aunt's birthday. It was simple and easy and I thought it turned out super cute.