Rylee, Lately

Pajama Day:







Before Sofia's Princess Party:





Pre-Snowboarding/ski vacation fitting:



WHY does my baby look soooooo grown up all of the sudden?!?!

When it Rains it Pours

Crazy times around here, as usual.

In the last 4 or 5 days the following has happened:

I tore a ligament in my shoulder
Rodney's dad went into the hospital
Rodney's dad had surgery on his heart
Rodney nearly broke his toe

Oh. And I switched classrooms with another teacher and had to completely move and redo everything.

I totally missed Rylee's last swim class of this session today. I feel really badly about it too. I was at the school for close to 5 hours today - by the time I left I was so tired, Rylee hadn't had a nap and I had about 15 minutes to get home, get her changed and get her back to the swim school. Including the 10 minutes it would take to get home. I just couldn't do it. My shoulder was killing me at that point and all I wanted to do was lay on the couch. So, that's what I did.

The medication they gave me for my shoulder knocks me completely out too. I can really only take it when Rodney is home.

What else...

We've been totally nerding out on the show Las Vegas right now. We started with Season 1 and we're on the last disc (of Season 1) so far. I don't know why I like this show. It's not the most spectacular show in the world but ever since we came back from Vegas, I've been totally obsessed with it. I want to live there. Or, I at least want to go back very soon.

We leave for Colorado in 11 days. Yay! Hopefully my shoulder will be healed by then. I keep imagining myself landing on it how badly that will feel. Really, even if I fell and my head was knocked back a little --- well, it would hurt.

We're going to the FS show at HOB, which should be fun-ish. I'm pretty excited about hanging with the girls. It will definitely be entertaining!

Got a referral for a PT for Rylee. Just waiting to hear back from them on what to do next. (sigh)

Lost is back next week...The Office is back today! Yes!

PS - still working on my next class, details soon!

I said I would update...

And I am!

Hooray me.

Today Rylee and I went to Target with no real agenda. I mean, I had to pick a few things up from the green side but I had some time to walk around and look at some stuff too.

If anyone out there has a small baby girl that likes to dress up like a princess, the dollar spot has some good stuff right now. I got Rylee a pair of princess shoes FOR A DOLLAR. They also have crowns, wands, tutu's, skirts and big tall hats to chose from. She's worn the shoes the entire day. I might have thought about how the clickclicketyclick was going to sound as she runs all over the hardwoods, but I suppose my mommy-sense (similar to spidey-sense but without the whole sensing evil thing) escaped me for the hour that we were there.

Anyway, yay for cheap toys that entertain your child while driving you mad!

Also at Target - Globar Bazaar. Some of it anyway. I noticed that they were bringing some of the stuff out over last week and today it looked like they might be putting out the rest. Seems like a lot more than usual. There's all sorts of new bathroom stuff, including shampoo/conditioner and other various hygiene products. There's sooooo much that I love this year. Here's to waiting it out until it all goes on clearance!

(not everything is up on the website just yet which is why there are no pictures. pictures soon!)

Charming

Wow.

2008 flew by me. I mean, seriously. I think 2008 is the year that I will never remember because it went by so quickly. Some good stuff happened in 2008, some bad stuff too but all in all, I'm glad that it's 2009. I seem to do better in odd years.

Some notable moments for me in 2008:

* annual snowboarding trip in January
* making over 100 cakes!
* making new friends
* figuring out that some people in my life, will always be in my life (Jess xoxo)
* making my first, second, third and fourth wedding cakes for actual people!
* driving Amy and Tyler's wedding cake to Las Vegas, finishing their cake in our hotel room and spending 4 days in Sin City!
* giving my first cake decorating series out of my house
* celebrating Rylee's 3rd birthday and our 3rd anniversary
* getting a little internet recognition for some of my cakes
* the Presidential election

Now I'm looking forward to this year's snowboarding trip. Rylee's first trip with us to Colorado. Crazy!

I'm also looking forward to updating this blog on a more often basis. I used to update regularly but the need for cake in the last 4 months of the year was crazy for us! It's been great, we have learned so much from all of the new projects and tasks we've taken on, but we've definitely had to sacrifice some things. Sleep and time together being two of the biggest I can think of.

Anyway, I've resolved to condense things in our life in the new year. Of course, I'm not talking about cakes. We happily take on all that come our way but in order for us to do that, we really have to let go of some other things. I think I've begun that process. I've decided to not renew Rylee in swimming for the spring. She go through January and then we'll take a break. We might come back in the summer, but I need to see if we can focus on one thing at a time. She's got ballet and with school, I think that's enough for now.

I'm also starting to come up with the outline/curriculum for my next class. I'm trying to decide if I should do a continuation of the last class with a focus on specific techniques (the last class was a brief overview of basic cake decorating) or if I should focus on one technique and make each specific technique into a class itself. Or, maybe I should do a basic dessert class. A class that teaches people how to make elegant pieces or passed desserts. I don't know. Is there anyone out there that has an opinion?

As for any other New Years Resolutions (I suppose the condensing of things in our lives counts as a resolutions, right?), I imagine losing the last 15 pounds to get to my goal weight would be it. I've lost 45 pounds (I started losing in July) and since the last two weeks of November, I haven't lost any. Holidays are hard and my grandmothers house is like my kryptonite. Anyway, 15 more pounds and Rodney says I'm due for a tummy tuck. Remember when you promised that husband? A tummy tuck sounds extreme, I know, but no matter what you do and unless you have a staff of people to make you beautiful, you just aren't losing that little pouch after a c-section.

In closing, please enjoy some pictures from our trip to ICE! at The Gaylord.





















And Rylee.

Thank you for these, Mr. Santa

(some of my favorite items:)

























Plus so very, very much more. Our family was truly blessed this season.

We must have been good this year!

Viva Las Vegas

If you don't want to see about nine million pictures, totally ignore this post.

If you DO want to see nine million pictures...well, then I ask you to read on internet!

I tried to document our trip with as many pictures as I could take. All in all I think I came home with 350. I had to erase about 25, too. I, in all my packing and baking glory, only managed to get one memory card in the camera case. I've edited them down though. Don't worry, you won't have to scroll through 350. Half that, maybe.

I thought about condensing this into several posts, driving to Nevada, Las Vegas, the cake and wedding, and the Hoover Dam but then I decided that it's much more effective in one post. Because this is how we experienced it. It was a total whirlwind of a trip.

Outside of Amarillo:

I really loved the big grain plants and windmills. Something about it defined "road trip" to me. I've driven this route before, but when I was 11 and in the back of my parents Jeep Cherokee. It felt familiar but different at the same time.





New Mexico welcomed us.



I remember this from when I was a kid - almost every piece of scenery we saw in New Mexico, I remembered.



The painted desert.







Arizona welcomes us!



Sun setting in Arizona



This is what we did on the trip! (we also talked and listened to a lot of tunes - but watching seasons 2 and 3 of The Office definitely provided for some comic relief!)



We ate Salsa Brava in Flagstaff (just off of historic Route 66) for dinner Friday evening. It was delicious! They had a huge salsa bar! You are served empty bowls and chips when first seated - then it's up to you to get up and choose from several different kinds of salsa. Hot to Super HOT, pico, pineapple habanero...just to name a few! Those of you who know me know that this is my kind of place. I eat salsa EVERY SINGLE DAY OF MY LIFE.



We could have gone a little more west had we chosen.



At this point it got a little more difficult to take pictures in the dark, in a moving car. We passed through the Hoover Dam around 11 at night - we stopped on the side and took a look down. It was breathtaking. Even at night. And I have to say, the stars in Arizona and Nevada are AMAZING. We spent a lot of time just looking up at the sky on our long stretch down Highway 93.

We arrived in Las Vegas around 11:30 and drove down the ENTIRE strip until we finally reached our hotel, The Mandalay Bay.





(We actually took these pictures the last night of our trip. The Mandalay Bay is at the very south part of the strip and we drove in from the other direction. I thought I'd post them here anyway, for dramatic effect)



They were working on turning the famous sign into a tourist stop/attraction with some astroturf and a fence around it - we happened to be there pretty late at night after they had been working on it. I thought I'd leave my mark on Vegas the best way I knew how.



Our room







The morning after we arrived, I worked on the cake like a mad woman. If you want to read about that, please head over to Frosted Garden. I've included pictures of the mess that our room was and many other pictures of the cake!



Some interiors of the hotel







Outside



The wedding + cake party in the sweetest suite







Inside New York New York





On the strip







Yes, I really did. May not have been the NY Fao, but it will do!



And yes, I took a picture of Pure (inside Caesars)



Eating at Gonzales y Gonzales on the "streets" of New York New York. It was actually pretty good! (what is it with Texans and Mexican food??)













Rodney insisted that I take a picture of Circus Circus, which is pretty much on death watch now. It's in the older part of the strip and their pretty much tearing everything on that side down and making room for the bigger hotels.



Inside Ivan Kane's Forty Deuce (which was inside of our hotel).



In the lobby (at the Mirage) of Beatles Love.









Beatles Revolution Cafe/night club



Love was the last thing we did while we were in Vegas. We did visit The Palms the second night we were there - but I didn't get any good pictures. I didn't bring the camera and I did take some on my iphone but they didn't turn out that great.

We had such a good time while we were there. We won, we lost, we laughed and had a really good time together. We got 3 meals comped and a $50 breakfast in our room, we ate at Del Taco (try the el scorcho sauce!) and I even ate at IN-N-OUT BURGER. That's right, I did. I ate a few bites of Rodney's dub dub and was completely sick the next day (this is why I don't eat meat). It was totally worth it.

We actually ate their twice. Once the second night we were there (when I had only a few bites) and once on our way out of town, in Arizona. The second time, I did a little more research and found some things on the famous "secret menu" that I had to try. I told Rodney to order a double double animal style, fries light, a veggie burger, a grilled cheese and fries animal style. For those of you unfamiliar with In-N-Out - they have like 4 things on the menu but what makes them famous (besides the fact that they are CRAZY cheap and the burgers are DELICIOUS) is the secret, word of mouth menu. I looked up some terms before our second visit.

Some iphone pictures:



Rodney's dub dub animal style



My VEGGIE BURGER (which was basically a burger with no patty)



Oh, I already miss you.

The Hoover Dam.

This was a really exciting portion of the trip for me. We decided at the last minute to stop and spend TWO HOURS touring the dam. We are awesome.















That was it! Thanks for reading/looking through this entire post, I know it was really long!