My first wedding cake!

I made my first wedding cake today! I am so exctied and thrilled at how well the cake turned out! The bride loved it too! (phew!)

Here it is!

Now I have a day off and then I'm making a birthday cake on Thursday. I also had another lady ask me today about making her a wedding cake. So fun! ☺

Missing my brother...

Today has been a difficult one for me, actually, all week has been. Today is the 1 year anniversary of my brother Chris' death. I'm just sad today... I wish he was still here.

This is Chris, Jenn, Kaity & Ryan (I think in 2009)

I like this picture, it's my sister Lindsay & Chris working together. They completely renovated Chris's yard and had a good time doing it together! Wish I could have been there (we are living in Manitoba & they are in Alberta)... I'm glad they were able to spend time togetber.

Chris & Jenn (2009, I think) I miss his smile... it's a good picture of both of them.

I love you & miss you Chris, till we meet again...

What Shall We Give To The Babe In The Manger - Mormon Tabernacle Choir H...

I just can't get enough of this song! It is one of my favorites! Merry Christmas!

***To hear it, remember to scroll down to the right and turn off/pause the music in my blog!***

Another funny Madi-ism...

To follow up with my last post on Madi-isms, I have another one to share. Tonight Madi & the kids were watching that old movie "Babes in Toyland" (I think that's what it's called??)... anyways, she turned to me and pointed out, "Mommy, her has brown eyes." then she looks at me and says, "You have the other one." (referring to my blue eyes) She cracks me up... and I really wish her grammar would improve, lol.

Yesterday was Adam's 7th birthday. Things went well and he had a great day... in his words, "It was the best day of his life!" Funny how kids have so many best days of their lives! Good to see my children happy. ☺

Here's the birthday cake I made for Adam. He started out only wanting a chocolate cake with chocolate icing with Happy Birthday. That's what he started out wanting. Then, a few days before his birthday, he decided he wanted penguins and Santa on his cake. I never did get Santa made (sorry Adam!) but I did get the penguins done.

I'm so glad I took that cake decorating course! What a fun hobby... I just wish that making and eating cake could possibly be as good for me as running and working out. Hmmm. Not going to happen, is it? Here's to wishing!

Oh, and no, I don't have any bday pictures yet to post. Bryce's dad took all the pictures last night, I'm just waiting for him to email them to me. I'll ge them up when I have them. (hopefully!)

So Noah finishes up at the CATC (Child and Adolescent Treatment Center) in another couple days. Noah was diagnosed with Aspergers Syndrome and also ADHD this past summer. He was enrolled in the day program at the CATC to help him learn social skills, etc and we have been very grateful for the help the teachers and nurses have given Noah. They have been a great support! I'm really proud of Noah, he's trying hard to apply what he has learned. I'm excited (& a little anxious) for him to go back to regular school next week. June & Noah are both in the same class this year and June has been telling Noah regularly that she misses him. (I should really get that written in stone, lol!) I'm looking forward to having Noah home at lunch again too. It really makes a difference having him home. I sure enjoy his company and I miss his hugs!!! Noah hugs me the most... and when I say most, I mean it. One day I decided to count how many times Noah hugged me and I stopped counting at 26 hugs. Keep in mind he was at school all day long and I stopped counting around 7:30pm! Seriously, I get alot of hugs from him! I love it! He's a good kid! ☺

Here are a couple sites to go to if you don't know anything about Aspergers.

http://www.mydoctor.ca/user/ASP/healthInfo.asp?id=3933&subSectionId=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbgUjmeC-4o

Dallin is finally sitting up these days. He figured it out about 2 weeks ago. Dallin is my laid back, in no rush to do anything baby. I'm not complaining, it's kinda nice to have him feel like a baby a little longer than usual. He's my last baby, so I'm just enjoying every last second of it. He's even crawling backwards, my favorite! It really is nice to have a baby in the house again.

And Miss June Bug, last but not least, is doing well, as always! She has been helping out tons, which I appreciate sooo much. I'm not sure she realizes how much I appreciate all she does to help me. Lately in the mornings, she has been getting Dallin out of the crib in the morning and has brought him to me. It's been nice that she is aware of what Dallin wants/needs... she often just goes and does what needs to be done, before I even has half a chance to do it! Back to June getting Dallin in the morning, usually in the morning I am feeding children, getting Noah out the door so he doesn't miss the bus, etc and she gets to Dallin before I even hear him crying. I honestly think Dallin hasn't even begun to cry, I think she just likes to get him out of his crib. And I don't mind, it's one less trip I have to run up the stairs to get Dallin! Thank you June! Good kid... I'll keep her! I'd keep her, even if she didn't get Dallin!

Bryce has gone back to work, he was on parental leave for about 7 months. Those were wonderful months. It was so great to have him home and not somewhere else in the country, literally. Bryce has been back to work since mid Oct and has already been gone for 2 weeks to New Brunswick. Sigh. It will always be this way. He's home again for a bit and then will be gone for a good chunk of January. Sigh. I'm on my own again with all 5 kids, in the middle of fridgid, freezing cold Manitoba winter. Sigh. It makes me tired just thinking about it. I can do it, I have many times before, I just don't feel like doing it. Oh well, I'm glad Bryce has a good job and good job security. Wars and rumors of wars will keep Bryce employed, lol!

Bryce is a good sport. He returned home this past Saturday and within an hour of being home, he agreed to put the Chrstimas tree up. Good man, he knew I wanted it up and even though he had been gone for 2 weeks, and had been travelling since 4:30am, he put the tree up. Thank you Bryce! It was nice to do it together, and not on my own! Love him! I'm so easily pleased these days, lol!

OK, that's it for now! I'm getting tired... time for bed. ☺

Madi-isms

Oh, my little Miss Madi has had some funny comments lately. I'm calling them Madi-isms.

Madi (November 2010)

Last week I was helping her put her winter boots on and we were looking eye to eye... Madi says to me, in her cute little 3 1/2 yr old voice, "Mommy, I love your eyes, they're so pink!". She was so sincere and her super, crazy blues eye twinkled as she said it! I just laughed... I guess my lack of sleep is showing these days, in more ways than one. I'm glad she told me that though, I wasn't insulted at all... now when I see my "pretty pink eyes" in the mirror, I laugh!

Another good Madi-ism happened about a week ago. Madi was playing in the other room and I heard her sneeze. Immediately following her sneeze, she said, "Bless you!" and she kept playing. She cracks me up!

My little Madi, love that little girl. She is an independent, lively, funny and sweet little girl. Every once in a while, I look at her and realize she won't always be my little toddler, toddling around the house with her Madi-isms... I will try to remember to enjoy each and every moment. Love you so much Madi! ☺

Me & Madi (November 2010)

Rollins Christmas Card 2010

Bold Bright Wishes Christmas

Shop Shutterfly.com for elegant Christmas photo cards.

View the entire collection of cards.

Christmas Food Court Flash Mob, Hallelujah Chorus - Must See!

Seriously one of my favorite songs... so great to hear it, even in a food court! :)
** scroll down and turn off/pause the music on my blog so you can hear**

A few more cakes

Here are the cakes & cupcakes I have done recently...

I made this cake when we had some friends over for dinner. Johanna's husband, Rus, had his birthday the day before, so we decided to continue his bday celebration by eating more cake! This one was SO fun to make! (and it was yummy too!) Waiting to eat the cake just about killed the kids... there was ALOT of begging in my house...

I made this cake & cupcakes for Janet's baby shower.

This next cake was special to me. I printed off a picture of my Nana & Papa on their wedding day. When they passed away, my Dad asked me if I wanted anything from their apartment. The only thing I wanted were the pictures of them when they were young & newly married. Prized possession to me! Anyways, this cake was fro Bryce's birthday. He's cuch a good sport (love that man!!)... I asked him what he wanted to have for a birthday cake & he told me to make whatever I want to practice. Initially, I was going to make a wedding cake (he thought it was a good idea) but I was awake @ 5:30 one very early morning, and I'm not sure if it was b/c I was so tired, but I really didn't have it in me to 'whip up' a 3 tiered wedding cake. I decided to do an anniversary style cake instead. Funny thing is, Bryce didn't find it strange at all to have a 3 tiered wedding cake for a birthday cake, but he thought I was strange to have an anniversary cake with my grandparents on it. I guess it is a little strange... next year I'll make him a really cool, masculine cake! ;)

I had some cupcakes laying around & decided to play around. Here's what I came up with! They were for our weekly Fun Friday treat. They were SOOO good! Mmmmm... wish I had some right now!

This is the first cake I have made for 'profit'. (Don;t know why it's loading up sideways, I'm not going to bothering fixing it though... I have more things to do tonight!) My friend Joanne hates to bake & she asked me to make up a bday cake for her daughter Rachael. So I did! It was fun. (I know, I say that about all the cakes I make... but really, it is fun!)

And that's it for now! I am off, little Dallin just woke up. Time to spend some time with my little man. LOVE HIM! Here's a picture I took of him a week or so ago. (Yes, believe it or not, I do take pictures of my kids and not just cakes!)

He is cute if I say so myself!

My cakes this past month

This past month has been busy, but I think I did it to myself. I have been making cakes for class & also to practice my new found skills. It has been really fun though... I am SO glad I took this cake decorating class, it has been tons of fun to get out every week and also to decorate has been really fun. I don't consider myself to be a creative person, but for once in my life, I think I may actually have a little bit of creative juices in me. It has become my hobby, I love it! Good thing my other hobby is running... or I would truly be showing my cake hobby on my waistline. Hahaha. ☺ Anyways, here is what I have done this past month.

This cake I made when I was bored one night while Bryce was studying. I felt like practicing making flowers. It took my a while to do this one. I love doing the basket weave... I could do this all day! I didn't eat any of this cake, we brought it to the Ward Potluck the next day. I'm sure whoever ate this one ended up with Diabetes, there was SO much icing on this one!

This cake I made up to try out a new lettering thingy (they're called 'tappits') I brought this one to the Ward Picnic/BBQ. (I had only a bite of this one... I think I stole a bite from Noah)

This one was for Father's Day. I hadn't learned how to put fondant on a cake yet & I had never done a tiered cake before either. So I gave it a shot and here's what I came up with!

This was my final cake for my final class. I had a great time making these flowers. Madi was my little helper while I made them. I use the word helper very loosely, she was sneaking & picking at everything everytime I turned my head! Silly girl...

I made these cupcakes up for a Fun Friday Night treat for the family. I also wanted to try out a new piping tip to see how it worked. I also tried out a new recipe, it was Italian Meringue Buttercream. It was good to pipe with, and it tastes quite a bit different than regular buttercream. I think I still like regular buttercream better.

This next cake I made was for my friend Janet who just had a baby at the end of June. I had some extra fondant so I decided to whip up a cake for her. It says 'Congrats' on the side of the cake. (Congratulations was just too long!)

This one was yesterdays activity. The kids helped me make the cake. Then I iced it & couldn't decide if I wanted to use up my fondant or decorate it some other way. I decided to try out my new printer & frosting sheets. I received birthday money from family & decided that I wanted to spend it on a printer, edible ink & frosting sheets. I think I may try to see them, it would be an easy way to make some quick $$. We'll see though, things are always crazy busy around here! Anyways, back to the cake. I printed off a picture of Dallin when he was just a few days old and put it on the cake. We are eating this cake for dessert tonight. ☺ The kids are happy! ☺ It may feel a bit weird cutting into baby Dallin though, lol!

Finally, these are 3 flowers (the rose, calla lily and carnation) I learned to make with Gum Paste. Very cool, a little time consuming, but I have some neat ideas brewing, now that I know how to make these flowers. Once again , we'll see what time allows...

And that's it for now. Time to go, 2 kids are crying, my time is up!

Another cake ☺

So I finished another cake today. It's my birthday cake... yes, I did my own, but I wanted to do it, it's good practice! I'm just really happy that Bryce will be here for my birthday. He has been away the past 4 birthdays... sob, sob, sob... so I am just happy that he'll be home for this one! Yay for parental leave!

This cake I made last week... I had SO much fun making this one! I could do the basket weave all day!!

Next week I start the fondant & gum paste class. I have some great ideas of what I want to do with fondant... but first I should learn what to do! ;)

I'm taking a cake decorating class!

I am taking a cake decorating course! I'm just about done course 2... tomorrow is my last class. It has been SO much fun & I just love it! I can't wait to take the next course next month! We have eaten ALOT of cake lately, so I think I may need to get myself on the treadmill or I may never loose my baby weight! hehe! Anyways, here are some of the cakes I have decorated...

This is my first cake ever! It wasn't really for Madi's birthday... but her birthday was the closest & I figured the kids wouldn't argue if I put her name on it... which they didn't. Thank heavens!

This is the 3rd cake I made. Notice there are no pictures of cake number 2... it was eaten too quickly!

This is a cake I made for my friend Janet. It had a TON of icing... very sweet! It was a little
too sweet for my taste, but it was cute to look at!

Here are some cute cupcakes I made for the kids! They were the perfect combination of cake & icing... wish I had one to eat right now!

This was Madi's 3rd birthday cake. When I asked her what she wanted on her cake, she told me she wanted to have a pinecone cake. I asked her what else she would like and she told me a puppy. So I thought a puppy would be easier to make, so that's what I did. Bryce thought I should put pinecones on the grass, but I thought they would look like little dog poops so I didn't do it!! Lady bugs were much better!

This cake was yummy! It was a good combination of cake & icing. I think I am getting the hand of how much icing to put on the cake. It's one thing for it to look good, but if it's too sweet to eat, then it's not really worth making, in my opinion. I am hunting down & trying out new recipes to see if I can find the perfect icing. I know it's out there... I will find it! Actually, I tried a new one a couple days ago & it was super, super good! It had whipping cream in it, so of course it was good! Once again, I need to get on the treadmill before this cake decorating catches up to me! On that note, I am going to bed... I will be on the treadmill tomorrow morning after the kids get off to school!

I'll post more pictures later this week. I am making another cake tomorrow for my last class. I am excited about it, we are learning the basket weave tomorrow. We'll see how that goes!

Baby Dallin is here!

OK, it's been way too long since I have blogged. We've had some changes since last August. We have a new member of our family! Dallin Bentley Rollins was born at 8:27pm on 4 March 2010 and weighed 7 pounds, 7 ounces. I can't quite remember off hand how long he was (I have never been good at remembering the length of my babies... my brain just can't seem to keep those details filed!) Anyways, he was born and that's what counts! We love him tons... he's such a sweet little boy! We had some cute pictures taken just 4 days after he was born... here are a few of my favorite pictures. (SO glad we were able to have these done, and I WISH we could have done these with our other children!!)





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It was an exciting day to bring Dallin home. The kids were thrilled to meet their new baby brother. See!

Madi holding Dallin for the first time at home.

Noah holding Dallin for the first time at home.

June & Dallin together for the first time at home. June actually tried to have a sleep over that night and had left before we came home from the hospital. She didn't make it too long though... we had a phone call from her saying she wanted to come home & see baby Dallin. So Bryce picked her up & brought her home. She was happy to hold him and the other kids were in bed, so she felt like she had him all to herself. I was happy she came home, I had felt a little sad that she was missing this important time. So glad she came home!

Here's Adam holding Dallin for the first time. He was pretty good at holding Dallin. We have a few more years until we can let Adam babysit! haha! My boys are growing up though. I look at this picture and see my 3 boys together for the first time. I remember when Noah & Adam were just little babies... sob, sob, sob... where has the time gone?!

And of course Daddy & I were both thrilled to meet Dallin too!

This is my favorite picture of Bryce holding Dallin. I can see how much he loves his little baby boy & all his fatherly pride. It warms my heart every time I look at it!

And here are my first moments with Dallin. I just love this little man. He's so sweet and it felt so good to hold my boy. You can't see my face here, but I was very happy! (tired, but happy! And no, I'm not posting any pictures of my face... I looked as tired as I felt... I'd rather remember something other than how tired I looked!!)

Bryce should be happy that I finally blogged this. He is SO good about journal writing. He often teases me about my lack of writing... which often leads into the question, "Have you even written about ANY of the kids births??!!??" Funny man... SEE BRYCE, I did write about Dallin's birth... AND mine has PICTURES! Does yours?!? hahaha! Love you honey! ☺