Random Daniel Moments

I cant believe our little Montana Boy is turning 3 very shortly. It is amazing how fast time flies around here. These are just some randome moments caught on by my phone camera.

Daniel wearing cousin Zach's shades. Too cool!
Uncle Kevin teaching Daniel how to drive!

If he is in the car around 3 p.m. for any length of time, this is what we get.

A day at Ocean Shores Summer 2008

Sleeping with Elmo! His second best friend.

2 of the best things in the world. A box and toys.

A candid shot on the Apple ride at Toys R Us.

Again with the shades. He is my lil heart throb

Guitar Hero Nut. Taking after brother Tyler.

Elmo garb to go out in the snow.

A lunch out with Grammy and Poppy. Love the chocolate face.

Clawing for me under the bathroom door. Such a sad lil man.

Optimus Sunshine!

Daniel is such an amazing little guy. He has a wonderful imagination and is often found playing animatedly with a few toys, talking back and forth to each other, rescuing one another, and going on different adventures. He has always been the little boy with 1,000 different facial expressions. Since he was very small, he just gets the kookiest little expressions on his face. So much emotion, so much passion, so much Sunshine. He is a great addition to this family and always keeps us laughing. WE LOVE YOU DANIEL!!!!!

Abby's haircut better views

For family back home... This is a better view of Abby's new haircut. it is nice how the back is all one length and it even flips out like that on its own. It has been fun to do her hair every day now. We still have "Medusa" head quite often, but the hair cut has helped tame that a bit.

Sibling Love

Just have to cherish these precious moments in life. Showing love. Our little Sunshine and Abby in the middle of Costco.

Calm Abby

Abby had to use the restroom, so she decided to use the "boys bathroom" (the one downstairs that the boys use all the time). This bathroom has a very tall handle (above her 4 year old head) and a lock. I realized she had been in there for a while, so I went over to the door and knocked and asked if she was okay.

She said, "Yes Mom."

I asked why she was still in there and she said "Cause I cant get out."

I tried the handle and sure enough she was able to reach up and lock the door, but because it is such a tall handle, she was not able to get it unlocked. Now proceeds us trying to unlock the door so she can get out. It is the kind of handle that has a hole on the outside, so we try sticking stuff in to get the lock to pop with no luck. I keep reassuring her that we will get her out soon and she just stays calm and says "Okay Mom."

Enters dad, trying to stick all kinds of tools into the knob to unlock it with no luck. I again ask her in maybe an anxious voice (she is 4 afterall, trapped in a bathroom and cant get out) if she could try and turn the button on the knob.

Very calming she replies, "Mom, don't panic!" :0)

What a trooper. It took about 5 minutes total. We ended up having to take the handle out of the door, which will be switched with another door handle tomorrow. No reason to lock another child in the bathroom. I cant believe she stayed so calm and was reassuring us all was okay and "not to panic." She surprises us every day with her thoughts, feelings, dancing, and singing. What an angel.

Abby's first haircut

Abby and I had the chance to go on a Mommy-Daughter date. We went up to get haircuts and then go out to dinner. She was so excited to get her haircut and had been telling grammy for the last week or 2 that she was going to get a haircut. When the time finally came to actually get in the chair though.....She was so scared, but with the promise of getting a balloon afterwards, she was caoxed onto the chair. You can also see in these 2 pictures how long it has gotten. Except for a few trims of the bangs out of her eyes, she has never had a haircut in her 4 years of life. You can imagine her trepidation. Big chair, scary place, etc.

She finally decided that she would stick around and get it done. She really was looking forward to getting the haircut. She has such funky hair that can be very madusa-like in the mornings. With never having a haircut before, it had grown from original baby hair in various different lengths. I was afraid to get it all cut even we would have to go very short. I was therefore worried about what kind of outcome we would have.

The picture below is the actual very first cut. I am taking it from my chair as my hair is being cut as well. Our stylists were very nice and let us sit next to each other, talk to each other, and allowed me to watch her and take pictures throughout. It was a very fun time. She kept looking over at me and giggling. We will have to try an actual spa day next with pedicures and all. It was pretty fun.

Abby's stylist got done first, so while I was getting finished up, she played with her hair and styled it a bit. She put some french braids on each side, letting the back hang. It seems to flip out on its own, which is cute most days.

After the haircuts, we headed over to a little diner just down the way. Abby had a great time there as well. We ordered a milkshake to share, which Abby got most of, as you can imagine.
And she ordered a pancake, but had to have it with eyes, nose, and mouth. The waitress and cook were very accomodating.
We had a great time and will be planning many nights out like this in the future. I can see many spa days and shopping weekends in our future.

Blue and Gold Banquet

With 2 boys in Cub Scouts, this year we had the chance to make 2 cakes for the Blue and Gold Banquet. The theme was the United States, so the boys decided on what they wanted to do.Jacob wanted to do a flag. He chose the Betsy Ross Flag.

Here he is learning how to use the star tip and putting stars on the flag. As you can see it is just a basic rectangle cake pan decorated with red, white, and blue frosting. We got the can of red and blue, I thought that would be easier with the lines and such. Before we put the stars on, we marked on the blue with a toothpick the position for each star, so we would not end up with a lopsided circle.

Tyler really wanted to do a boat cake. He wanted the Mayflower. I was hesitant to do the cake at first, but then I remembered that for his birthday we got a SD car cake pan. I figured that we could use that and turn the car on its top giving a basic boat shape and then cut/shave it into an actual boat shape. It turned out pretty good, I think.

We had fun decorating it and cutting it up. The first cut to put the back and deck into the boat, it actually fell apart. I was afraid that we were done for right there. Luckily I brought home a lot of chopsticks from a party at work, so we used 3 chopsticks from back to front that held the whole thing together. Covered in icing you never even see them. LOL.

The front chopstick that angles out is actually holding the front of the boat together as well. Towards the end of putting it together, the front end started to crumble and fall apart. I was afraid we were going to loose it before the night actaully came. Tyler said if it did then we would just have a crashed Mayflower and explain how thankful we should be that this did not really happen. He had a great spirit about it. I was afraid he would be upset if it fell apart, but he really proved that he understood how hard of a task it was. he did a great job decorating it.

Here he is piping Mayflower onto the back of it with black icing. He also put the sails together and figured out how to do the crowsnest. We were tempted to put a few lego guys on deck and in the crowsnest, but did not want to tempt fate in holding the boat together.

Finished Mayflower


Finished Betsy Ross Flag

Both finished cakes together.

It was a pretty fun night. I was a bit overwhelmed at the thought of putting together 2 cakes with working full time and all, but it got done with happy boys in the end. I could not ask for anything more. They had a great time, learned a few things about cake decorating, and of course had fun eating it all as well.

Tyler's cake won Most Original and Jacob's cake won Most All American.