Happy Spanksgiving!

Thanksgiving this year was surprisingly less stressful than previous years. The Ybarras rented out Dan's apartment building's clubhouse this time and what a HUGE difference it made. There was so much space for everyone to eat and play and it really did make a big difference in my anxiety levels.  Not sure who provided the activities, but there were some fun things for the boys to do when we got there like making a turkey out of a pinecone and coloring pages. Such a cute idea! We brought the usual green bean casserole and some bubbly. All the food was amazing and I was a huge fan of the stuffing (stuffing is amazing). I brought a 1000 piece puzzle that Katie and Mom helped with, but apparently puzzles aren't a huge hit with the Ybarra family like it is with the Greer clan. But it was still a relaxing activity...at least for me. Lol! The kids ran around the clubhouse. They had some fun areas that the kids got to play in with their cousins. 

After dinner with the Ybarras, the five of us headed to Abby's house with 2 pies in tow. We ate pie and hung out for awhile until they were sick of us. I wish I would've gotten pictures.

The next day, we met the Wilsons at the Megaplex in Orem to see Coco. It was such a great movie and the kids loved it as well. It always feels good to see a kids movie that you don't instantly regret paying that much money for. 

That afternoon, we went home and decorated for Christmas! 

We got a couple of those light projectors for the front of the house which saved us both money and time. Not as pretty as house lights, but honestly, no one but the 5 houses next to us see our house so we just don't care. 

Jett's Birthday

Well, I'm finally getting around to blogging about Jett's birthday! Only a whole month later. Go me!

For his birthday, Jett wanted a bird like Cruise's, but blue. So we set off to find one and since we had all the supplies already, getting another bird was not that big of a deal. Parakeets are only around $20, so it wasn't a problem. He picked a pretty blue one from Animal Ark and decided he didn't want its wings clipped. (Of course, once we tried to get him out of his cage, we learned quickly that you need to clip them, otherwise you can't hand train them. So I did the honors.) He chose to name him Blueberry. His personality is so different from Cupcake's. Cupcake is a little wary of humans, she doesn't like to be held very much and bites a lot. Blueberry is very laid back, he actually doesn't mind being held and handled, and he doesn't bite. We kept him in his cage for about week before taking him out, and then transferred him to the large cage with Cupcake after 3 weeks. Immediately Cupcake took to him and her behavior changed for the better. She is more willing to be handled (still not her favorite thing) and definitely doesn't bite much anymore. They always want to be together now. It's kind of cute actually. 

This year, Jett wanted a chef themed birthday party. The thought of that sounded exhausting, so I dug around and found that Harmons will do parties...for $300. So...that wasn't an option. I decided I just needed to suck it up and make it a great home party. 

Jett designed the general idea for his cake. He wanted an apron on top and cooking utensils around it. I did a white cake with chocolate in between layers and covered in blue dyed buttercream frosting. The apron was easy since all I had to do was make the fondant and cut it out. I thought I'd cut corners and not make royal icing for the writing, instead I melted chocolate chips and used that. Chocolate is definitely not as easy to write with than actual icing. Now I know. But Jett didn't seem to mind that it was messy. The rolling pin was a bunch of mini cakes put together with frosting and a wood dowel down the middle, which also helped with the handles. That was covered in brown fondant. The spatula I used black and white fondant, and covered in melted chocolate chips. The measuring cup was a mini cake covered in fondant and topped with brown sugar to make it look like it was filled. It was actually kind of fun making all the little cooking tools, even though that rolling pin was a pain. Jett really liked how it turned out.

We had his party on the 17th after school. Dave helped me decorate and get it all ready. I couldn't have done that party without him. There were so many moving parts and SO. MANY. BOYS. I had them all decorate their own aprons with fabric markers when they arrived. Then they came into the kitchen and rolled out their dough and made their pizzas. I used Rhodes dough and it was seriously perfect. There was a recipe on the website for mini pizzas and I had never tried it before. They were surprisingly amazing and everyone loved making their own. 

While they waited for their pizzas to cook, we had a little tasting game where we had them close their eyes and we'd hand them something to eat and they had to guess what it was. We had things like cauliflower (pretty much everyone hated that one), dried mangoes, shrimp, tortilla chips, etc. Once the pizzas were done, they all got to eat them and I tried my hardest to get them to eat a salad. I think only 4 kids ate salads and 3 of those were mine. 

After they ate, they got to decorate cookies. This was probably the biggest failure of the entire party. I had made the frostings to thick and should've put them in bowls instead of bags, so we were having a lot of issues and the kids had that frosting piled high. So, not the biggest win of the night, but they still enjoyed it.

Then we ate the cake and opened presents. Jett got some great gifts, but props to the awesome mom who gifted him dessert mixes, frosting, and sprinkles. 

Saturday was the 18th, Jett's actual birthday. We went out for lunch to Noodles & Co. and then stopped by the Ybarras where they gave him his birthday presents: a quesadilla maker and an apron with "Chef Jett" stitched into it that Mom had done herself. He absolutely loved the quesadilla maker, but that apron was probably one of his most favorite gifts he had received. He actually chose to wear it to his next cooking class instead of wearing their aprons. 

 So that evening, we had quesadillas and burritos for dinner. We put a candle in the middle of Jett's quesadilla and sang "Happy Birthday" to him.

We were supposed to have a family party on Sunday, the 19th, but Miles got a fever overnight and we had to cancel. Jett was pretty sad about it and requested Dave take him up to the mountains to hike around. So Dave took he and Cruise up to the canyon while I stayed home with poor sick Miles. But I think Jett got plenty of birthday and got pretty spoiled. 

Still can't believe he's 8.

Abby's Baby Girl Shower

On November 4th, we had Abby's baby shower! This was an especially exciting shower because Abby is having the first baby girl since Charlotte's girls. There have been 10 boys in a row since then and now we're really excited to have a little baby girl again! I'm not going to lie, I have been buying this little girl a lot of outfits. The only better thing than being the Mom to a baby girl, is being the Aunt.

Abby wanted a woodland theme for this shower, so she, Ruth and I searched Pinterest for all the good ideas. Luckily, I have a friend who had done this same theme for her brother's wedding reception, so she let me borrow a ton of the wood and other decor. The rest I was able to find at Michael's with coupons! (Yay for coupons!) Ruth planned the games and favors, I was in charge of the invitations, decorations, serving stuff, and making the cakes. Abby planned out what food she wanted and the two of us hit up Costco and Sprouts to get all the food. Ruthie decided to come up from California for the shower and bring the twins, so my mom flew out with her to help her on the plane since you can't have two babies on one lap. I'm pretty sure Ruth is Super Woman.

I had spent the day before making these tiny cakes using vegan substitutions and they turned out pretty good! The cakes kept falling and the frosting kept melting, so eventually I had to put them in a dish in the fridge to keep them up while they were each assembled.

On the table, we had paper bags filled with goodies and snacks, hummus for the pretzels, cucumber sandwiches (that were both vegan and delicious...I couldn't stop eating them!), and two different salads. To drink, we had water with sliced oranges and a cold apple cider that Abby whipped it that turned out really delicious.

The games Ruth planned were really cute and fun. One of my favorites was to sculpt a baby out of Play-doh in 10 minutes, and Abby had to judge them. Mine looked like Benjamin Button (on the left in orange). I did win a prize though.

We had a pretty good turn out, which I was really happy about. Abby seemed to really be happy with how it all turned out, which was the most important. It was fun to see Ruth's babies and hang out again, even if it was only for a couple days. I completely forgot to get a picture of the cute favors Ruth put together. They were little muslin bags with a stamp of a pinecone on them, filled with spiced nuts.